Hodge Podge From a Crazy Week

It's been a crazy week and I haven't posted anything since last week, so I thought I'd throw a few random thoughts, pictures and links online before I sit down and try to relax and do a little reading.

Right now, I'm reading The Jericho Sanction, a novel by Oliver North. It is the second in a trilogy. I enjoyed the first book, Mission Compromised, but I think I like this one a little better.

I am enjoying some good worship music from AllWorship.com while sitting here.

Here's a link to a great commercial in the Ameriquest "Don't judge too quickly...we won't" series. A friend sent me this clip this week and I've watched it (and laughed) several times.

The youth group had a family night Mud Bowl this past Wednesday night. Pastor Shaun rented a tractor to till up the ground in preparation for the fire department coming to flood the area, but he got stuck in traffic on the way to the church. I helped out with the tractor and this is my best Farmer John impression.

Amanda could not wait for the pit to be created. She wanted to watch the youth group kids get all muddy, and after she saw it, she wanted to be a part. So, Wednesday night after youth group, I took her out and let her have at it.

I kept trying to get Amanda to waller in the mud a bit for a picture. She refused...until I offered her a dollar for it. Here she is earning her dollar.

So did I mention it's been a crazy week? Bless her heart, Brooke has been having back problems again this week. She has a history of back problems and had a flair up before we went to Alabama on vacation. It got bad enough she went to the doctor. He gave her a steroid prescription, and after a couple days, she was feeling better. After returning from Nicaragua, she started having problems again, and it got bad enough this week that I had to take her to the doctor again. He gave her another prescription for steroids and a referral to a physical therapist for two visits to learn how to do some exercises to help this not happen anymore. The steroids are not working so well this time and she has been pretty much on her back all week. Besides being in a lot of pain, she is getting frustrated that it is taking so long to get better and list of "things I've got to do" continues to grow. We would appreciate your praying with us for a total healing.

So this has made for an interesting week as I've been trying to get ready to preach today while being Daddy, husband and housekeeper while Brooke is down on her back. I went grocery shopping on Friday...the three week grocery shopping trip. I didn't know one could spend that much money on groceries! Brooke made out a very detailed list. I did have to make several phone calls to make sure I was buying the correct brand and to ask where one or two items were located, but I thought I did pretty well. Somehow, all of that stuff fit in just one basket, and I only had to go back for 4 items that I did not catch on my first pass through the store!

So all of this taking care of Brooke and taking care of Amanda threw my sermon preparation schedule off a bit, but we had a great service today. I absolutely love teaching and am thankful that my pastor give me the opportunity to preach when he is away. Should have the sermon online this week at the church web page (www.theVineFellowship.com) if you would want to check it out. I taught on Two Lessons From the Two-Talent Servant. Just one teaser from the sermon. Did you know "talent" in the parable does not mean "talent" as we typically think of it today? I've taught that we should use our talents, gifts and abilities for the Lord from this parable and believe that is an acceptable application of this story, but Jesus had something specific in mind when he taught about the talents. That's all I'll tell you...you'll have to check out the sermon to see what specific thing Jesus had in mind when he talked about "talents" in this story.

My parents usually visit the church on the Sundays I preach (which I think is cool), and we usually go out to eat with them afterwards. It was just Amanda and I with my parents today because of Brooke's back (we brought her back something). After that, I slept from 2:30-6:00pm! Guess that's why it's almost midnight and I'm still awake.

And then, to top off the crazy week, I went to take care of my pastor's pool one last time before they come home tomorrow sometime. I don't know exactly what happened, but when I got there tonight it was green and stuff was growing on the sides of the pool! I am not much of a pool expert, but I've taken care of his pool when he's out of town enough to know this is NOT how it's supposed to look. I desperately started scrubbing the "yuck" off the sides of the pool making it even greener. And then the brush broke! I found something else to use, but it did not work near as well. I checked the chemical levels in the pool and (obviously) the chlorine level was almost nill. I treated it, according to the instructions I was given, on Wednesday. Check the chemical levels on Thursday and they seemed ok. On Friday, I took Amanda swimming and cleaned the pool and added water to fill it to the level it was supposed to be. Since the chlorine was running a little low (I was trying to conserve for today's scheduled shock) and the levels looked good the day before, I did not test the water. Saturday got totally out of hand taking care of Brooke, Amanda and other home stuff while trying to prepare to preach, so I did not make it to the pool on yesterday. Well, obviously the combination of all these things was a DISASTER! Tonight I turned on the pump, scraped the "yuck" from the sides, shocked the pool and am praying DESPERATELY that things clear up by tomorrow, but I'm not real hopeful. I don't think Pastor will read this before he gets home, but after I check it in the morning, I'm probably gonna have to call and prepare him for coming home to a green pool (not something I am looking forward to). I'm still trying to figure out if it is ethical to erase this blog posting and not say a word if I get up tomorrow and by some miracle the pool is more blue than green!

One last funny story about the pool (Pastor, if you are reading this, I understand you are finding nothing humorous in this..sorry). I was stressing out in a major way when I saw the pool tonight, and after getting onto Amanda for jumping into this green mess, I was telling her what a poor job I had done (apparently) of taking care of pastor's pool. She suggested I just call him and ask him what to do, then after thinking about that, she said, "unless it means you will lose your job". Well, I didn't call in hopes that it will look at least a little better tomorrow when I probably will have to call, but I did appreciate my daughter's concern.

One last picture...Little George trying to escape the heat. I don't know if turtles are often described as "friendly", but George is. Even when he's buried like this, he always sticks his neck out to greet you when you get into his pen.

- Rob