I have been having a blast with a web project this past year, and it is almost ready to launch.

A few years ago, I put a rather simple site together for church, and it met their needs. Their needs, however, have grown. Additionally, the amount of time I can commit to keeping their site up to date has decreased.

This week, we launch a brand new site with a more robust navigation structure. In addition, I am running the site out of a MySql database, with a PHP written Content Management System (CMS). That will allow the church staff to keep the site up to date, and create and edit content, without having to call me and wait 3 weeks for me to get to it!

The CMS I am using is a rather well put together one available at http://scripts.dbmasters.net/

Eliminating the “flat-file” system also allows us to propogate content in multiple locations on the site, without having to rewrite it every time.

It launches October 4th, but (as a special offer for my blog visitors), you can see it early at: http://www.hopechurchoakdale.com/index.php

My oldest daugter is an early riser. No fail, between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning, we see her. On many days, she just shoves her mother over a bit and crawls in next to her. If I am still at home, that usually forces me out of the bed and on with my day.

My favorite mornings, however, are the mornings where she follows me around as I get ready. This morning was one of those mornings. As I shaved and prepped for the day, she and I were trying to come up with things she has that begin with the letter “b” (she has to bring a “b” thing for show-and-tell next week). Yesteday was “a” day, and she decided (entirely on her own) to bring “Alabama”! Because “Alabama starts with an “A”!

She found her puzzle of the U.S. and brought the Alabama piece.

OK… That was yesterday… back to today…

I try to make an effort to tell all three of my ladies that I love them, on a daily basis. I did so to “number 1″ as I made my breakfast. She looked at me, with a serious glare and said, “Dad, I love you and Mom as high as the numbers can go… (pause) with Jesus on top!”

That meant a lot to me. Not that she loves me that much, because I know that, to a 4 year old, I am still pretty much at the center of the universe. What really meant a lot is that Jesus is also placed in the center of her universe, as something that she percieves as being great.

I became a true geek this morning.

I got my own GMail account!

cebliss@gmail.com