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My 6 Wedding Dresses

My 6 Wedding Dresses

How many other men have bought 6 Wedding Dresses

I bought my first wedding dress in 1978. It is the most beautiful wedding dress I have ever seen. It was far more beautiful because my bride was wearing it for my first wedding. I still have this dress in my closet and periodically I open the case it’s in just to see it.
 
I bought my next wedding dress in 2000. This dress was just as beautiful as my first one. I don’t remember the conversations about this dress, just that we bought it. I shed a small tear or two and was a little choked up standing beside my oldest daughter who wore this dress as she married my first son-in-law. I love this dress as much as I love my first one.
 
Six years later I bought my next wedding dress. This dress took quite some time for us to find. I’ll never forget the text message. A picture of a dress with these words, “I love this one Dad.” I had been waiting for what seemed like forever at a bookstore while the women searched for dresses. As my daughter walked towards me my wife said, “She has to have this one.” As requested, I didn’t.  Later on, as I walked my third oldest daughter, in our wedding dress, down the aisle towards her fiancé, I again choked back a few tears, especially as I pulled up her vale and hugged her before I handed her off to her husband. That was a gorgeous wedding dress.
 
Three years later we again searched for the perfect wedding dress. This search was a little more difficult. I’m not sure why, but we ended up buying two wedding dresses. I was about to ask “Why?”, when fortunately before the words jumped out of my mouth, my wife counseled me, “Don’t ask. Just smile and say OK.” Again, I did as she asked. It made sense during my youngest daughter’s wedding. She was happy and looked beautiful in our wedding dress. My baby had grown up and I was one proud daddy. If it took two wedding dresses to make her happy, so be it.
 
I bought my last wedding dress in 2012. I expected this purchase to be a tedious task of searching, fittings and more searching. However, after searching Pinterest, online stores and one shopping trip, we found the perfect dress. I was not invited to go on this trip, but I got to see lots of pictures. I remember once or twice being asked my opinion. I’m a very smart man, from my previous wedding dress purchase experiences I knew what to say, “That dress is gorgeous honey. If you like it, I love it.” As I walked with my second oldest daughter, in our wedding dress down the aisle to her soon to be husband, I found it hard to hold back the tear (or two), especially as I handed her off to the new man in her life.
 
I’m not sure how much money I spent on My 6 Wedding Dresses. It’s irrelevant.  My life has been immensely blessed from the changes buying these dresses has created in my life.
 
I got to marry the woman of my dreams and 35 years later she claims to still love me. This is great because I love her just as much today as I did the day she wore our first wedding dress.
 
I got to be a part of raising 4 beautiful daughters. They were beautiful in our wedding dresses, and even more beautiful women, wives, mothers, and people.
 
I’ve collected a stable full of stallions who are now great friends and caretakers of both my daughters and 4 or 5 of my wedding dresses.
 
And, today, I’m the proud Grandfather to seven Grandchildren. I’ll drop what I am doing at any time to go help or play with these youngsters.
 
I probably won’t buy any more wedding dresses, but I’m blessed to have bought

My 6 Wedding Dresses.

I first published this as a guest post on Moms on Triad 

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What would David Michael be doing now?

I was three years old in 1961. My family lived in Barnesville Maryland in a small farmhouse at the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain.

My little brother, David Michael was born on August 22, 1961.

David Michael died in October of the same year. Just a little more than one month old.

I don’t remember my little brother, however, I often wonder, if he were alive today, what would he be doing.

Here is a good guess as to what David Michael would be doing today.

He is 52 years old today (August 2013). He is living in a nice house in the suburbs of Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

David Michael’s wife is Samantha. They have 3 children who are now between 24 and 29 years old. All of the children have moved out of their parent’s home and now live with their respective partners in the Philadelphia area. Samantha and David Michael often cajole their kids for grandkids.

Samantha is a successful real estate broker, who loves her business. David Michael has his own business management consulting business. He is very successful and enjoys his work.

David Michael loves spending time with his wife, children, and their partners. Regularly all of them gather at one of the family members homes. Each gathering is a party because they enjoy each other’s company, laughing, cooking, dining, telling stories, discussing current societal topics, watching movies and playing card games together.

David Michael is a community leader and active civic volunteer. He loves to help others and enjoys seeing good people succeed when they try harder than they thought they could and by accepting a compassionate tug up from someone with a caring heart.

David Michael and Samantha travel frequently and enjoy the vineyards of California, the lakes of Minnesota and Blue Ridge mountains.

David Michael and I don’t talk very often, we are both busy with our own respective families, communities, and businesses. When we do talk, we pick right up where we left off.

Often when I imagine what my little brother is doing now I can clearly see that he is in love with his wife and kids, happy in life and knows that he lives a blessed life.

I compensate for never knowing my little brother by imagining him as a happy, successful, imaginative, passionate, giving and loving person.

I am comforted for the death of my little brother by my imagination and my belief that God is caring for David Michael as his child in heaven.

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Dear Daughters – It may be time to leave North Carolina

 North Carolina Education System Failures

 

Hello girls. It’s Dad.

I apologize for what I’ve got your family into.

When we move to North Carolina in late 1996, we were excited about the possibilities.

The cost of living was reasonable, the lifestyle was calm and relaxed, the school systems appeared to be in a mode of improvement. All of this while businesses were growing and changing as Tobacco, Furniture and Textiles were on the way out. Everything seemed positive to us.

However, I failed to notice that one of the most important aspects of living here is quickly going to pot.

I am afraid of the North Carolina Education System Failures

The North Carolina Public Schools are failing your children, my grandchildren.

I am embarrassed to tell people that I live in Davie County NC. The bickering, drama, personal attacks and narrow-minded opinions regarding building a new Davie County High School is pathetic. I quietly weep when I hear parents in this county say, “we can’t have two football teams” or “It’s not fair to build a new high school in the northern part of the county where all the ‘rich’ people moved” or “I don’t have any kids in school, I’m not agreeing to a new school.”

I am embarrassed at how Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools administration treats their Pre-K programs. I am appalled at the way WSFCS treats these teachers, assistants and the development programs of these students. Forcing these Pre-K and Kindergarten students to learn in ways that they are not developmentally ready to learn, (i.e. not being allowed to play, explore, experiment naturally) is unacceptable to me. Trying to bring in math & reading programs into Pre-K classes is setting up our youngsters for educational failure.

There are many North Carolina Education System Failures I see setup to negatively affect your children, my grandkids, including:

  • rapidly increasing and even unaffordable insurance benefits for our educators
  • requiring our educators to pay the school system when you use an earned personal day.
  • no raises in six years and the expectation that there will be no raises in 2014. As I understand it NC is now the 48 lowest teacher pay state in the nation.
  • increasing class size with no limits while reducing the number of assistants
  • the elimination of the teaching fellows, a great program for attracting new highly trained teachers.
  • the continuation of the three years probation period with no licensure renewal benefits and other limits that career educators do not have.
  • Merit pay programs tied to unproven and disparate measurements

Is anyone else worried about the North Carolina Education System Failure?

Regularly I hear our government civil servants tell us they are working hard to build our economy by encouraging businesses to move their operations to North Carolina. I can’t help but believe this economic development work is like a house of cards. How do they entice any great businesses to join us in North Carolina while at the same time ignoring the pressing needs of the school systems?

The most recent failure is when our Governor Pat McCrory gave his staff pay raises in a time when every other civil servant is asked to do more for less. I applaud Aldona Wos, of Health and Human Services of declining the pay raise and pledging to work for $1.

Girls all of these issues and the lack of belief that anyone has a good plan to correct what I refer to as a failing education system worries me. I am afraid of what will happen to your children, my grandchildren.

I have started doing research to find a state that has a better vision than North Carolina. Yes, other states are facing the same budget constraints, however, I’m sure there are smarter people in our Nation who have found a way to keep education as one of the top priorities in their state.

I’d rather not move or have you move out of North Carolina, there are lots of great reasons for living here. However, the future of your children and my grandchildren is my priority.

Dad

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My evening with a cockroach

 

 My evening with a cockroach

I will never forget this night.

I checked into the Select Inn of Tulia Texas after a long day of air travel and driving. After getting my room key I headed off to my room. I was looking forward to a quiet night and a good night’s sleep, in a truck stop motel. Yeah, maybe my expectations were too high.

When I got into my room I rushed thru my nightly ritual, pulled back the covers and jumped into the bed.

Within a few minutes, I started to doze off. Despite the periodic truck lights peering through the gaps in the curtains as they pulled into and out of the truck stop, sleep was imminent.

Right before I fell into a deep sleep I realized that I was not alone in the room. I opened one eye just enough to see what appeared to be the biggest cockroach I have ever seen, and he was crawling up the bedspread towards me.

Because I was still awake enough to control the situation I was in, I did just that.

Slowly I slipped my right hand out from under the covers. Moving my hand towards my bed partner, I flexed and cocked my middle finger in preparation to flick my guest off the bed. He continued heading my way.

At the right moment, I let go my middle finger and sent the cockroach soaring through the air. He smashed into the mirror and fell backward onto the dresser with a loud thud.

This may be hard to believe, but, what I saw next was absolutely bizarre.  He rolled off his back, onto his 6 legs, stood up straight, stared at me and shook his head as if to say, “That’s the best you got?” He commenced heading towards me again.

I wanted to get a good night’s sleep and had to end my relationship with this cockroach quickly. I got out of bed, walked over to the dresser, reached down to the floor, picked up my shoe and smashed it down on the creature’s head. Our date night was over.

The rest of the night was uneventful.

In the morning, as I checked out the front desk clerk asked, “how was your evening sir?”

“I slept well, despite the demise of my room guest. Please offer my apologies to housekeeping.”

My evening with a cockroach was short lived.

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Clemmons NC Black Bear – HIT & RUN

The Clemmons NC black bear – Hit & Run Death

The Clemmons NC Black bear got hit by a car this morning.

This bear had wandered into town, likely searching for good food and/or meeting someone new.

However, as he traveled around the city he decided to attempt crossing I-40. Unfortunately, he did not navigate the speeding cars.

Here is a video of the crime scene related to the Clemmons NC Black bear

Here is a picture of the local police at the scene of the hit & run

 

 

This story of the Clemmons NC Black Bear got picked up by WFMY News2, WXII 12, Journal Now, Fox WGHP, WBTV, News&Observer, DailyAdvance and ABCNew11

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It’s over, we’re finished and I don’t love you any more

How do I say these words to her?

This question had been weighing heavily on his mind for weeks now.

He had finally given up on the relationship but did not know how to tell her.

In the beginning, he felt special.

The conversations, messages, and phone calls were all alluring, often personal and seductive in many different ways. She often shared tantalizing videos with him.

He felt that she could be the one.

He had been tempted to try another for his new relationship.

Some seemed interesting to him, but he felt they were just a little too tawdry, maybe a little bit fake. He steered clear of them.

There were others that were interested in him as well. He found some to be too glamorous, too full of life and zest for him. He thought they might only be interested in his money.

He soon discounted all of these and turned his attention back to her.

She always treated him well. She always met all of his expectations. She even offered him gifts regularly. She never seemed interested in money. She seemed to care for him because of who he was and how he treated her. She regularly told him that their relationship was built on trust and respect. This made him happy.

She was always pleasant when he saw her. Her smile lit up the room and her soft voice was always pleasant to his ears. The other guys were jealous of his relationship with her. “Wow man, you got lucky,” they would say.

Every time they talked, she was eager to hear from him. She wanted to listen to him share his dreams and his plans for the future. She was delighted, often giggling when he talked about “taking their relationship to another level.” He enjoyed making her feel special.

Early in the relationship, he was ecstatic. He was overjoyed that he had found the one for him.

However, relationships don’t always last. In the fifth year of their relationship, the happiness began to deteriorate.

She began treating him with less respect and compassion. She nearly stopped caring about his needs and desires altogether. When he asked her to help him with something, she acted as if he was being unreasonable and pushy.

Yet, her expectations of him never changed. She expected him to spend money on her, just as always. Regardless of how she treated him, she expected him to fulfill all of her needs.

Over time the divide between them grew deeper and wider.

When they talked, she acted as if she pretended there was no problem. However, he could feel the passion was no longer there.

“Our relationship is important to me, I’ll do anything to keep us together,” she would say. Sometimes with emotion, often as if from a script. This hurt him.

She said, “I care for you and want our relationship to grow.” He had heard these words from her so many times. Eventually, he no longer valued them.

Each time she failed to deliver on her promise to do better, they talked. He wanted her to do better in the relationship. It was as important to him, but he could tell it was not important to her.

“Please, trust me. I will do better. I need you,” she would say. These pleadings stung him deeply each time she uttered them.

The conversations slowly turned into only email messages. He no longer wanted to talk with her, yet he still did not know how to tell her it was over.

At times he felt that despite the trouble, he should stay with her. Their relationship had gone on for nearly five years now. This was a long time for him.

He asked some of his friends what to do. Some suggested that he keep trying. Some friends tried to introduce him to others.

Some days he worried about her, while other days he was so upset he just wanted to call her one last time and yell at her, “It’s over! You have ruined our relationship and I never want to hear from you ever again! Go away!” Yet, he was not an angry man and would never say these words to her.

Even while trying to solve the problems she would send him letters and gifts as if their relationship was still alive. This hurt him even more. She did not seem to see their relationship crumbling.

In time it became clear to him that she no longer cared for him at all. She was just desperate to keep a broken, one-sided, relationship alive. Likely her only concern was that he would find another.

Finally, after weeks of her constant failings, with no new commitment to being a better partner, he decided the time had come. He knew how to tell her.

He sat down on the porch of his beach house, the salty mist sticking to his face, the oncoming storm blowing sand across his bare feet. He opened his laptop computer and clicked on compose a new email.

Dear Danica (aka GoDaddy)

It has become quite clear to me that you do not care about my needs any longer. My site has been down far too often over the past few months. Therefore, I have created a new relationship with BlueHost.

I’m sure this new relationship will be much better for me.

Teddy

I wrote this story as a creative writing contest for Writerweekly.com on 4/14/2013.

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Are you with the Right Partner?

ARE YOU WITH THE RIGHT PARTNER?

During a seminar, a woman asked,” How do I know if I am with the right person?”

The author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, “It depends. Is that your partner?” In all seriousness, she answered, “How do you know?” Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it’s weighing on your mind replied the author.

Here’s the answer.

Every relationship has a cycle… In the beginning; you fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn’t hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn’t have to DO anything. That’s why it’s called “falling” in love.

People in love sometimes say, “I was swept off my feet.”Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU.

Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It’s a natural cycle of EVERY relationship.

Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse’s idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage.

At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, “Am I with the right person?” And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships break down.

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the person you found.

People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes.

Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it.

I’m not saying that you couldn’t fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you’d feel better. But you’d be in the same situation a few years later.

Because (listen carefully to this):

The key to succeeding in a Relationship is not finding the right person; it’s learning to love the Person you found.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it.

Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner), Just as there are physical laws Of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know how to apply these laws, the results are predictable.

Love is, therefore, a “DECISION”. Not just a feeling.

Remember this always: God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let GO! ♥

Author Unknown

Thank you to my daughter for sharing this article with me

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Dear GoDaddy – Your customer service is horrible

Dear GoDaddy

Please do not send me a canned response to my third message about my site(s) not being accessible.

Please do not include “advertisements” for additional products when if you read my message you can obviously see I am unhappy.

Please know that I am on my last nerve and actively looking for a new service provider.

24/7 Sales & Support: (480) 505-8877 – 24/7 Billing Support: (480) 505-8855

Our support staff has responded to your request, details of which are described below:

Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response
Dear Teddy,

Thank you for contacting Online Support.

I understand you have been unable to access the website when you visit teddyburriss.com/blog &burrissconsulting.com/tlburriss. Upon review of the issue, it appears that I am able to successfully resolve the pages when I visit teddyburriss.com/blog & burrissconsulting.com/tlburriss. You may need to clear your browser cache if you are still unable to access the website. Clearing your browser’s cache might help alleviate many problems including:

    • Failing log in attempts to any website
    • Out of date information displaying on a website
    • Slow Web browser performance

Before clearing your cache, log out of any websites you’re currently logged in to.

To Clear Your Cache in Google Chrome™

Open the Tools menu, and select Clear Browsing Data.

Select Empty the cache.

From the Clear data from this period list, select Everything.

Click Clear Browsing Data.

To Clear Your Cache in Internet Explorer® 8

Open the Tools menu, and select Internet Options.

Click on the General tab in the dialog box.

Under Browsing History, click Delete...

Select Temporary Internet Files and History, and Cookies and any other private data you want to delete.

Click Delete.

To Clear Your Cache in Internet Explorer 9 and 10

From the Tools menu, select Safety, and then select Delete Browsing History.

To Clear Your Cache in Mozilla Firefox®

Open the Tools menu, and select Clear Recent History.

In the Details list, select Cache, and any other private data you want to delete.

Click Clear Now.

To Clear Your Cache in Mozilla Firefox 15

From the Firefox menu, click Options.

Go to the Privacy tab.

Click Clear recent history.

Select a Time range to clear, and then click Clear Now.

To Clear Your Cache in Netscape®

Open the Edit menu, and select Preferences.

Expand the Advanced menu by clicking on the plus sign (+).

Select Cache, and click Clear Cache.

Click OK.

To Clear Your Cache using Firefox® on a Macintosh®

Open the Tools menu, and select Clear Recent History.

In the Details list, select Cache, and any other private data you want to delete.

Click Clear Now.

To Clear Your Cache Using Safari® on a Macintosh®

From the Safari menu, select Preferences.

Go to the Privacy tab.

Next to Cookies and other website data, click Details.
NOTE: You can also click Remove All Website Data to completely clear the browser’s cookies.

Select the websites for which you want to remove cookies, and then click Remove.

Click Done.

To Clear Your Cache Using Safari on iOS®

Open the Settings application.

Tap Safari.

Tap Clear Cache.

Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.

Regards,
Gilbert P.
Online Support
Customer Inquiry
FYI – here is the message I get when trying to access my sites (teddyburriss.com/blog or burrissconsulting.com/tlburriss)

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Apache Server at www.teddyburriss.com Port 80
Customer Inquiry
Name : Teddy Burriss
Domain Name : teddyburriss.com
ShopperID : 31052231
Phone : –——-
Shopper Validated : Yes
Browser : Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_2) AppleWebKit/537.22 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/25.0.1364.160 Safari/537.22
Issue :
Repeatedly my site & the blogs that are on it are unaccessible. I called and talked to support a few weeks ago, however, the problem persists. please help me to make my site & the associated blogs on it accessible.

 

If you need further assistance with this matter, please contact customer service at (480) 505-8877 and reference [Incident ID: 18142818].

Please let us know how we are doing by completing the survey located here.

To thank you for your patience, we’d like you to enjoy 20%* off your order of $65 or more at GoDaddy.com. Simply use source code gdbb687 when you order or mention the code when you call (480) 505-8877.

Thanks,
Go Daddy

P.S. As a Go Daddy customer you’re already a member of our affiliate program. Click here to start earning commission instantly.
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The affects of the death of newspapers

As we, as a society, decide that we no longer need newspapers and magazines, there are many areas of our lives that will need to change as well.

Consider what you use newspapers for beyond getting the news. We all use newspapers for lots of daily tasks that we take for granted.

Hopefully, we can find answers to the problems that the lack of newspapers will create for us.

We will need to work together in order to find answers to the problems that this change will create.

Here are 15 areas of our lives that we will need to adjust as we deal with the slow death of newspapers:

  1. Provide news – We can this virtually faster & from more sources than ever
  2. Provide coverage – Another source will need to be discovered quickly to cover up mistakes we make around the house
  3. Offer protection  – We have other sources of material for wrapping our fine china, but as in #2, we need to find other sources as well.
  4. Use in gift wrapping – Men, we may need to consider using real wrapping paper. Then save it for item #2 and/or #3
  5. Bottom of the birdcage – We need to find other sources of material for this. Maybe bright colored tissue paper from our gifts.
  6. Windshield cleaning – We may have to go back to using bath towels and t-shirts for this
  7. Painting & project work – We will need to find another source of material for the small item painting, gluing and staining projects. I don’t want to use tissue paper for this.
  8. Help in writing – We have found our new sources of this. Our blogs, Tweets, Facebook statuses & LinkedIn articles are just a few.
  9. Use in arts and crafts – This could be the biggest challenge. What will we use for Papier-mâché projects? Easter eggs, dinosaur eggs, face masks, etc., etc. This could be a major catastrophe.
  10. Use in paper airplane making – Fortunately, we still get brochures and flyers in the mail (for the time being). If we can do it without being caught, we can always raid the printer paper.
  11. Help in building a fire – This will be another area where we will need to find a replacement source of regular fire starting material. I’ve used tissue paper and love the bright colors of fire. Maybe this is the new source.
  12. To boost friendship – The ability to share articles, blog posts and social media posts has already replaced this task and expanded our ability to make new (ie virtual) friends.
  13. For a moment of peace – We have replaced reading the newspaper in peace with listening to PodCasts with our headphones on.
  14. Coupons – Fortunately our grocery stores and manufacturers are building digital solutions already.
  15. Puppy Training – We are not supposed to be smacking our puppies on the snout anyway.

This is just a short listing of the areas of our lives that will change. Surely, many people have other areas of their lives that will be affected adversely.

Yes, the days of using newspapers for much more than reading news are quickly disappearing.  Change occurs every day, let’s keep working thru this change together.