12 of 12 - March 2009

7:27am - Oops, I forgot March's 12 of 12 of the 12th, so I had to cheat and do it on the 13th this month.


7:28am - Brooke, Boo, Sully and I all join in waking Amanda up for school.


7:39am - Today's lunch napkin poem for Amanda.


7:54am - Spent most of the day trying to get Carbonite set up and running smoothly on my laptop.


3:33pm - Working on "Upside Down Leadership" for iGrow, Track 3.


3:36pm - Brooke brought home Sonic drinks. Happy Hour at Sonic is one of our favorite times of the day.


5:20pm - Working on a little English homework. Look at Amanda's GIANT pencil!


6:49pm - School patches are always coming off in the wash, so here I am apply clothing glue and ironing them on again.


6:57pm - Amanda coming in (with Boo) to show off her latest fashion design.


7:52pm - Every time I paint, Boo comes into my office to offer moral support. More than once, she has even "worn paint" in support of my efforts (she has rubbed against a freshly-painted wall).

7:54pm - Applying paint to the last wall!


8:24pm - Brooke, Boo and Sully all came to my office to keep my company while I painted. They thought it was cold. I offered Brooke a roller to get the blood flowing, but she politely passed.

Watch Yourself

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Israeli Sense of Humor at the UN

A representative from Israel began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses. When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath!'

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them.'

The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then.'

The Israeli representative smiled and said, 'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech....'

(From my friend, Ken)

Email Virus Warning

I thought you would want to know about this e-mail virus. Even the most advanced programs from Norton or McAfee cannot take care of this one. It appears to affect those who were born prior to 1965.

Symptoms:

1. Causes you to send the same e-mail twice
2. Causes you to send a blank e-mail
3. Causes you to send e-mail to the wrong person
4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent it to you
5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment
6. Causes you to hit 'SEND' before you've finished
7. Causes you to hit 'DELETE' instead of 'SEND'
8. Causes you to hit 'SEND' when you should 'DELETE'
9. Causes you to hit 'DELETE' instead of forward

IT IS CALLED THE
'C-NILE VIRUS'

(Emailed to me from my friend, Ken)

I'm Leavin' on a Jet (and prop) Plane

This is the company and type of plane I will be flying from Detroit Metro Airport to Chippewa Country International Airport ("the only commercial service airport in the Eastern Upper Peninsula"). I will be flying a "real" plane from DFW to Detroit. I am going to visit my best friend and roommate from college, Craig, in May. My final destination is the thriving metropolis of Pickford, MI. Craig tells me there are approx. 700 people in Pickford, but from what I can find on the Internet (and there is precious little), it looks like there may be closer to 1,800 people! There is some talk of "townships" and the like, so the actual town may have just 700 people...guess I'll find out.

When I bought my ticket at Hotwire.com today, it said the temperature was 8 degrees with a wind chill of -4. That's why I'm not going until May. I tried to find out what one does for excitement in Pickford. Craig pointed out it is only 20 miles or so from the Canadian border, but now you have to have a passport to get into Canada, so guess we won't be visiting there, eh? I also checked Geocaching.com. The town has ONE geocache.

So, in May, I'm leavin' on a jet (and prop) plane and I'm excited to see my friend again. As long as there's junk food, a ping pong table and a chance to hang out together, we'll have a blast!

An Incomplete Breakfast

Well, this is two Saturdays in a row that I have cooked an incomplete breakfast. Last week it was the pancakes, this week it's the gravy.

Last week I cooked the bacon in a pan and then cooked has browns in the grease. On our new griddle, I cooked eggs and tried to cook pancakes. The pancakes didn't turn out. Brooke said it was because the batter was too old. I guess that's what it was, I mean, how do you ruin pancakes made from a mix?

Today, we had no fresh pancake mix, so I determined to fix biscuits and gravy with our eggs and bacon. Near as I can tell, I used too much grease. I mean, when the gravy was done, it looked a little bit like melted brains...it was lumpy and oh so very greasy! As you can tell from the picture, I am not exactly a "health nut", but there was so much grease in that gravy even I was afraid to eat it! I dumped the gravy and we substituted butter and jelly. It was pretty good, but I still want to learn how to make gravy. If you can help me out on how much grease, milk and flour to use, please leave a comment. Thanks!

It Just Keeps Getting Better

This office "painting" project just keeps getting better. I'll see one little thing and think, "I'll do that while I'm here", in my mind, allowing 10 minutes for the job. Today's "10 minute job" turned into two plus hours!

I have wall plugs in my office that are so loose, when I plug something into them, the cord literally falls out. An electrician replaced one of them and I decided to do the other two. (First stupid thought.)

At lunch time today, I decided to replace the one plug that I looked at last night. Nobody else was home and my office was light enough to see with the lights off, so I flipped the breaker off and took the plug apart. I was expecting to see two white wires and two black wires. I as I pulled the plug out, I saw two white wires on one side and two black wires on the other. It's all good.

I loosened the four screws and...DOH! The plug came out and I noticed two wires had been shoved into the back of the plugs, thus making six wires instead of four. I was not able to shove the two wires into the back of my new plug, so 30 minutes later it was time to get back to work and I still was not done. I put wire plugs and electrical tape on the wires to make it "safe", flipped the breaker back on so everybody would have power when they came home, and I left.

When I came home from work, the kitchen light over the stove was on, but the one over the table was not. Amanda was doing homework in the living room. I knew something was not right. It seems the wires that were shoved into the back of that plug I took out were "hot" and the wires going out of the plug passed along that power to most of my office, the kitchen light over the table and all the electricity in Amanda's room. Now I had to get the plug fixed!

A brief call to an electrician friend helped me get the plug back in the wall, all wired correctly. Then I shut off ALL brain function and made the decision to change out the combination switch/plug in my bathroom while I had the electricty turned off. Rather than tell the story in real time (which would take an hour and a half, no exaggeration), let me give you the highlights:

• There were no brown switch/plug combinations at the hardware store so I got a white one knowing it would not look as good, but it would be ok. DUH! Look at the picture above. I forgot there was another brown switch on the same wall. Talk about looking stupid!!
• I took the switch/plug out of the wall and made a careful mental note how it was wired. It was not possible to wire the new one the same way.
• Wired the switch/plug and turned the breaker on. It IMMEDIATELY flipped back off. "Something must not be right".
• Rewired the switch/plug and turned the breaker on. The plug worked great. Turned the switch on to turn on the light and CLICK...threw the breaker again.
• Called electrician friend...not home. Left message.
• Short time later, Dad calls (had left message for him earlier).
• In just one hour and ten minutes he walked me through wiring the switch/plug over the phone. I had to get another piece of wire and connect two screws on opposite sides of the switch/plug thingy. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING intuitive about that. Who would know to do that?

So another "painting" night has been shot doing a ten minute job. It just keeps getting better. I could laugh, cry or cuss. Thought I'd blog about it so I could do the former...thanks for reading!

12 of 12 - February 2009

7:23am - I wrote Valentine Countdown Poems for Amanda. I got started a little late, so she got to open a couple of them this morning.


9:41am - One of the many exciting jobs I do! I am hosing off the sidewalk where mud collected after our last heavy rain.


11:58am - I couldn't fix anything this time...had to call Konica Minolta to come replace their worn out part. (They diagnosed the problem, not me).


12:01pm - Stacking chairs in preparation for a reception on Friday night.


12:35pm - Break time! It was a nice day and Brooke was up for it, so we took a short break at lunch and went for a motorcycle ride.


12:48pm - Only in Texas! Just outside the city limits we saw these Texas Long Horns while on our motorcycle ride.


2:22pm - Another one of my everyday jobs...changing light bulbs.


5:42pm - Painting trim in the garage...still working on my home office.


6:03pm - One of our favorite evening activities...Daddy/Daughter wrestling!


6:04pm - Brooke wrestling with Boo while Punkin and I wrestled.


7:25pm - Sully was the first to get a haircut tonight.


9:25pm - Putting the finishing touches on Boo's haircut.

As My Daddy Always Said...

..."If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!" And that IS how it goes every home improvement project I start, and my office painting is no exception.

One night in January, I got this wild hare idea to repaint the office. That first night, I had one whole wall painted with Kilz. That was the only thing that has has gone according to plan since I started. There was also the issue of the trim...it was that coated Styrofoam-type stuff that broke easily. I can't replace broken pieces because the trim was bought 20 years ago and at Payless Cashways and it is not made any more. That means I get to buy and paint more trim. And then there was the whole ceiling thing that held me up a week.

But now it's the bookshelf. I have a white book shelf that is not the fanciest, but it looked OK...until I put a fresh coat of white paint on the walls. Now my "white" bookshelf looks yellow! I knew better than to try and paint it with a brush since the paint would be way too thick (based on how the trim is looking that I'm painting with a brush). So I had the brilliant idea to spray paint the bookshelf...white bookshelf with black doors. Nobody told me that there is some kind of secret skill needed for spray painting. I don't know, perhaps every other guy on the planet is born with this skill, but if that's the case, I missed that line when it was being handed out. I took just the four shelves out and started with those. When I was "done", I could tell the paint had not dried evenly. No biggie...it takes a while for paint to dry. I figured out something was wrong when, two days later, the paint still had not "dried evenly". No matter how many coats of paint I spray, it never looks finished. It still looks like parts of it are wet and other parts need more paint. This leaves me with one other option...disassemble the bookshelf and roll each piece then reassemble it. There's at least another week added to my project (at the speed at which I work).

Since the bookshelf thing wasn't working out, I painted some trim tonight. I think the paint is about half an inch thick on that stuff, but because it's glossy black it still looks good (lucky me). After I had painted all the trim I had room for on my trim-painting shelf (which is now painted black, just like my trim), I decided I would change out the electrical sockets that need to be replaced (you plug something into it them the cord just falls out). I am no electrician (I know that comes as a SHOCK to many of my readers), but I know you gotta turn off the power to the plug before you go messing with it. What I did not know was that the breaker which turns off the sockets in my office also turns off all the lights AND THE TV in the living room. One little switch eliminated the lights AND eliminated the happy wife (who was watching TV).

So in an hour's time tonight, I have unsuccessfully sprayed four book shelves, painted four pieces of trim and NOT changed out the sockets in my office. I suppose I'll begin disassembling the book shelf so I can roll it tomorrow night.

What's not to love about home improvement projects?

My Moral Support

Since I have begun my "Three Month Office Remodeling Project" (aka "painting my home office"), I have had all of my family members come in and offer words of encouragement. But I have had just one faithful companion who offers moral support just by being there every time...Boo. The same day I brushed up against the freshly painted door frame and got paint on my comfy red t-shirt (which I did not notice until the paint had dried), Boo tried to make me feel better by brushing up against it too and getting white paint on her little black ear. Wasn't that sweet of her!

PC Guy, YES. Vista Fan, NO!

When I first began hearing the negative reports about Vista, I chalked most of up to "Mac Smack"... you know, the guys who run the expensive machines. I am a PC guy plain and simple. I will admit that I have not spent much time at all on a Mac, but that's because the software I need to run is Windows software. I understand Windows can be run on a Mac, but there is the cost factor as well. Enough about that debate, I use a PC and I'm happy. I'd like to give Linux a spin (thinking Ubuntu), but I can't figure out how to add hardware!

Anyway, I began hearing people complain about how terrible Vista was, but most of the people I heard complaining were people who were mostly "users"...not even "power users", let alone what I would consider real "computer people". Most of them were complaining just because they had to learn a new operating system and things were not the same. That's called a "new" operating system, not a "bad" operating system. My wife got a new Vista laptop a year ago. I set it up and had no problems with it. I ended up turning off User Account Control because I got tired of having to give myself permission three times to do everything, but that was my only real annoyance.

But this year, particularly in the last month, I've had a bit more experience truly "working" with Vista, and I DON'T LIKE IT! One of our office computers started having odd, bad error messages. I knew it was time to get a new computer before this one died. (Jump to end of the story..the computer died the same day I had the new one ready to go). Since I'm the "computer guy" at our church (unless it's the media guy's Mac, of course), I began pricing new systems. Pastor said go with a system that will carry us into the future, so that meant 4 gigs of RAM, and 4 gigs of RAM meant the 64-bit version of Vista.

I had read about incompatibility issues with 64-bit systems, but I did not understand them. I did some Googling and it seemed all of what I read was over a year old and one article I read said 64-bit systems would be backwards compatible. So, with an incomplete understanding, I purchased the 64-bit system.

This post will never end if I continue at this pace, so let me give you an overview of my "Vista issues" with this new machine:

• "Backwards compatible" did NOT apply to the two most expensive programs on our computer (Membership Plus and Quick Books Pro). Add $400 (would have been $550 had I not been a good online shopper!)
• User Account Control would not allow Membership Plus to run properly. After much Googling, I figured this out, turned it off and the program began to work properly.
• Had to call in tech support for the copier so it could be installed as a printer. Short version... it took the guy so long he did not charge us. Vista has been out two years and he had never installed a copier onto a Vista system (yes, it's that popular!). Sharing what I had learned after two hours of trying to install the copier myself and learning some of the Vista quirks, the copier tech and I got the thing installed. He came back the next day to set up scanning. His 8 page manual for setting the copier up as a scanner for Windows XP had become a 24 page manual for Vista (no joke).
• Just this week, our secretary said nothing was happening when she tried to open Windows Media Player. I thought perhaps it was going to be a simple fix (like "click this icon and not that one"). Wrong. More Googling. Get this... WINDOWS Media Player 11 has severe issues and just quits working in WINDOWS Vista. Microsoft knows about this problem, yet there is no fix!!! Say what? No wonder Mac gets away with their "I'm a Mac" commercials. My "fix" was to install WinAmp.

And then, our sound room computer started acting up (after MAJOR power surges last week). I checked our main software on that computer (Easy Worship) and found that the newest version was Vista compatible, 32-bit or 64-bit. But, the little control program that turns on our projector from the computer is Vista 32-bit compatible only, so that's what I set out to buy. Everything I read, and the "computer people" I know all strongly suggested an Intel processor for Vista. I tell ya what, finding a 32-bit, Intel processor system was a bit challenging. Finally bought a Lenovo and brought it to the sound room.

We have always run two video cards in our sound room computer; one for the monitor and one for the projector. I checked and the video card we had in the old computer had Vista drivers, so I downloaded those and tried to install the video card. As soon as I plugged in this second card and fired up the comptuer, Vista disabled my on-board video card. An hour later (after much Googling), I discovered Vista will not allow two differnt video cards (ie two different architectural structrues) to run on the same system! Add $60 for a new, dual output video card.

Next, I installed Easy Worship, only to have quirky problems. They have excellent tech support, so I gave them a call and found out they are not Vista fans, either. After downloading and installing the Vista debug file, Easy Worship was working.

And now THIS computer needed to have the copier hooked up to it. After spending a couple hours with the copier tech guy, I was confident I could install the copier on this computer myself. Short version, I did, but it took longer than expected. All in all, it took a complete day-and-a-half to install the computer and get it ready for church today. I am not Microsoft Certificed or anything like that, but I have had plenty of experience getting new computers up and running and doing so while learning a new OS. Am I still a PC guy? YES. Am I a Vista fan? NO!!!

Amazing Talent

She's Growing Up TOO FAST

My friend Craig called me today while he was on the road. "Have you heard that song, Cinderella, by Steven Curtis Chapman?" he asked.

"Yes", I replied.

"Have you really listed to it? Do you get it?"

"Yes, I know. It's a Daddy/daughter song, " I said.

"Well, I've heard it three or four times before, but I never really listened," Craig said. "I get it now. I listened...and just started bawling."

Craig has two daughters, one in high school and one a year or two behind Amanda. I know why he was crying...I've listened to the words of the song. So we talked about being daddies and then we talked about marrying our daughters. We're both pastors and we've both talked to our daughters about letting us perform the wedding ceremony. Neither one of us have figured out how we're going to do it without crying.

I don't know why, but even after talking about the song making a daddy cry, I listened to it again (3 times) on the way to the airport to pick up some friends tonight. I didn't cry...until the second time through the song. Oh...my little girl is just growing up too fast! I'm trying to dance each and every dance because I know too soon the clock will strike midnight...I already feel the evening is gone and Amanda is just 10 years old. I'm so proud of my little girl, but I just wish she could stay little for a little longer!

So all of this song listening and crying made me think about the memories we are making. Like Sunday when we went for a motorcycle ride. We like to ride slow, out in the country and see how many animals we can see. On Sunday, we saw a really cool goat with a funny "beard" and long, pointy horns. We saw a "dwarf pony" (Amanda's description), another really fuzzy pony, cows, horses, burros, a BIG dog that looked friendly until he started chasing the motorcycle and a Brahma bull. Those were the "normal" animals. We also saw two hawks sitting in a tree, a road runner not 10 feet from us on the side of the road, at least 4 farms with llamas and one that two camels!

Although we were supposedly out for a motorcycle ride (Daddy's agenda), we can never be out too long without having to find a park where we can play (Amanda's agenda). We were riding in Lillian and found an elementary school where we stopped and "borrowed" their playground for a while. After that we came home and then joined Mommy at a friend's house for a Super Bowl party. When I tucked her into bed that night and we prayed, we had a lot of fun things to give thanks for.

My little girls is growing up too fast. I'm just trying to treasure every moment I have.

A Glimpse of the Future

Justification Sermon Illustration.

Sermon audio will be available here.

Freedom is Only For Those That Have the Guts to Defend It

Prayer is...

"The effect of prayer is union with God, and, if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper and rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice and makes amends for sin. Through prayer we obtain physical well-being, a happy home, and a strong, well-ordered society. Prayer is the seal of virginity and a pledge of faithfulness in marriage. It shields the wayfarer, protects the sleeper, and gives courage to those who keep vigil. It will refresh you when you are weary and comfort you when you are sorrowful. Prayer is the delight of the joyful as well as the solace of the afflicted. Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. Prayer is the enjoyment of things present and the substance of things to come."

- Gregory of Nyssa

12 of 12 - January 2009

7:18am - Gluing on a patch to Amanda's school uniform pants.


7:26am - I write a goofy poem/rhyme on Amanda's lunch napkin each morning. Here is today's offering.


7:57am - Amanda playing Nintendo before it's time to leave for school.


8:36am - I oversee the Jr. High character development curriculum program at Amanda's school. A group of three students does a short presentation during Monday morning assemblies. Here is today's group. I spent about 45 minutes with them one-on-one Friday, and today's presentation was a definite improvement.


11:55am - Ran by my Pastor's house to feed their dog Zoey at lunch time today.


3:50pm - Amanda being goofy with a mailing label on her nose. She put mailing labels and stamps on 80+ postcards to help out today.


5:19pm - Dinner with the Fam.


7:49pm - Started rolling the ceiling tonight working on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project. Others call it painting...I call it a three month project!


8:35pm - The mess is getting to be more than I can handle as I paint my office. If I had room someplace else in the house I would move everything out until I finish painting. But there isn't space, so that's not an option.


8:27pm - Can you see the stripes? No, those are not shadows...those are areas I missed when I was painting the ceiling tonight! I'm going to have to get all that mess out again to finish. I found out bright lights pointed at the ceiling don't really help when using bright white paint.


9:29pm - Watching DVR'd 24. Two nights, two hours of 24 each night...why can't every week be like this?


11:54pm - I could not handle the mess in my office, so I had to make more room. I moved the brown book case into the living room until I am done with my painting. Wonder what Brooke is going to say when she wakes up in the morning and sees it?

How Awesome Would This Be?

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Living in Chaos

The work on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project continues. This afternoon I painted all of the trim (except what I have not taken off from behind the desks and from behind the big bookshelf). I really like the look of the black glossy trim. I think it will set off the white walls nicely. This evening, I caulked a few cracks where the paneling joins, put spackle on two ceiling spots and used a brush to cut out almost half of my ceiling. Until I get done, my office is in total chaos. I am not one of those people who can do well in chaos!

Sometime between homework and watching the next two hours of 24, I hope to paint the entire ceiling in my office tomorrow night. This week, I would also like to get the final coat of paint on my closet doors and the one wall that has white Kilz on it right now. That's my goal. Would I be surprised if I got nothing more than the ceiling painted this week? No.

No Arks for Me

There are MANY things the Lord does that my little mind cannot understand, but there is one thing I totally understand. I know why God did not arrange for me to be born back in Noah's time and task me with the responsibility of building the ark. The main reason is the time factor. Had I been born back then and given that responsibility, you never would have heard the story of the Flood because it would not be in the Bible...for the simple reason that I'd still be working on the ark today!

If you are wondering where I came up with this interesting take on this old Bible classic, I'll give you a hint...I've been working on my "three month office remodeling project" tonight. You could change the task, but this story is repeated OVER and OVER and OVER again every time I attempt a "home improvement" project.

I already blogged about my venture to repaint my office. Here's how it's going:

• I have ONE wall completely painted...with Kilz (which means I still have a top coat to go)
• All the trim is taken down
• I painted some of the trim only to find out the black paint I had was too flat, so along with the 600 other pieces of trim I have, I get to repaint that first batch
• I have water damage in a couple places on my ceiling. I have no experience (nor desire to gain experience) with taping and bedding. My solution: scrape off the damaged "popcorn" texture and paint from the ceiling thus exposing the UGLY sheet rock and cracks between the sheet rock, caulk the cracks between the sheet rock and spray some of this canned popcorn ceiling texture stuff on the ceiling; paint.
• I tried the above procedure tonight only to find out that the spray texture idea is a ABYSMAL failure! First of all, one can supposedly covers six square feet of ceiling. For some reason, in my mind, that meant six feet by six feet squared. (Thank you, I now realize that would have been 36 square feet so need to comment on that!). This miscalculation was fortunate for me because I would have WASTED so much more money buying enough to cover my bare spots. Anyway, I prepped the area (sorta) and sprayed. When I was done, everything but the ceiling had texture on it....my carpet, the couch, my bean bag chair, the paneling that was supposed to stay brown, my vacuum cleaner and, of course, ME.
• I also tried this procedure in my bathroom which has the worst water damage. Besides the texture being sprayed on everything in there, my ceiling now looks much worse. So, when I finally do get my office finished, I get to repaint the ceiling in my bathroom. How much fun is that?
• Oh yes, I almost forgot the primer coat I put on all the closet doors last week. For some really dumb reason, I thought taking the doors off the hinges would make it easier to paint them. WRONG! I guess if I had a workshop to put them/paint them in, it would have been OK. But it was NOT a good idea to lay them flat across the back of two chairs and try to paint them in my office. The doors took up too much space which made it a real pain to get to the bathroom to wet the washcloth and keep walking back and forth wiping up the paint I kept splattering on the carpet.
  

So, near as I can tell, here is all I have left to do:

• Put primer coat on three more walls
• Put top coat on all four walls
• Paint ceiling
• Paint trim
• Put trim (all 600 pieces) back on the walls
• Top coat on closet doors and put door knobs back on (except for the one door that had the door knob GLUED ON by the previous owner...no joke)
• Buy and hang blinds (to replace the towel now nailed to the window frame)
• Repaint bathroom

At this rate, I'm fairly certain I can be done by the end of March!

When God Says "It's All Good" it Really Is

WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION
Gen 1:4 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 10 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 12 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 18 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 21 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 25 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 31 - Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way.

WHAT GOD WAS SPEAKING TO ME
EVERYTHING God does is good...everything. Even something as simple as separating light from darkness was good (it was part of his bigger plan). EVERYTHING God does is good.

WHAT I NEED TO DO
I want to be a part of the GOOD God is doing in my life, in my family, in my church and in the world. I want to turn God loose in my life and I want to remove anything that would hinder the GOOD he wants to do.

PRAYER FOR SELF/SPIRITUAL LIFE
That I would not hinder the good that God wants to do in my life; that I would be a part of the good God is doing in the lives of those around me.

PRAYER FOR OTHERS
(I listed those God brought to my heart and prayed that the GOOD God has planned for them would be released in their lives and that I would be a part of that)

ANSWERED PRAYER/WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR
Thank you Lord that you are GOOD and everything you want to do in my life is GOOD

(the six parts IN BOLD are the six topics/questions I use in my Bible reading and prayer time each day)

I Have a Vision

This is a picture of the back wall of my office as I began my "three month office remodeling project". That's what I call it now. When I started, I was going to "paint my office".

"So what has changed?" you ask. Nothing. I have no remodeling plans other than painting, but it is just going to take a while. But I have a vision!

Several years ago, while visiting Brooke's paretns, I looked at the white wall, black trim look of Brooke's Dad's office and thought to myself, "I like that". As I was thinking about hanging some new pictures in my office today, I finally decided to go for it, and the painting began.

But my vision is bigger than just white walls and black trim. I am a VERY proud Texan (wasn't born here, but I was one of those who got here as fast as I could), and I have decided my office is going to become a Texas room. Once my paint job is completed, I am going to start with a Texas flag on the wall right where the two homemade posters hang in the picture above. After that, I'm going to add "Texas stuff" to my office as the budget allows.

I'm doing one small section at a time. No moving all the furniture to the middle of the room and painting the whole thing at once. I want to enjoy the project and not stress out over it, plus I'll have to buy the supplies a little here and a little there. I began with the "poster wall" tonight. I'm taking down all of the trim so I can paint without having to tape. I am not a very big painting fan, but I HATE having to tape and paint. Of course, the house was home made (the people who lived here before us literally built the house 40 years ago) and some of the building materials are not exactly up to today's standards. The trim is actually some sort of coated stryofoam! As cheap (quality) as it is, I'm saving all I can. Once it's painted black, it will look good and that's one less item I have to buy.

My goal for tomorrow is painting the trim I have taken down (to see if the leftover black paint I found is going to look OK) and to paint half of the ceiling (with the leftover ceiling paint I found). I have to take down more trim before painting the other half of the ceiling. We'll see how it goes, but I have a vision!

Amanda's 10th Birthday in Alabama

Birthday Boy

This is Sully, and today is his birthday. Actually, today is the day we celebrate his birthday. We rescued him from the pound so we don't know when his birthday is for sure, so we celebrate December 17...the day we brought him home from the pound.

I believe it was in 2002 we were looking for a second dog to keep Boo company. We were leaning toward another Cocker Spaniel (Boo is a Cocker), so when one became available at the pound, I took Boo to meet the new dog. My Mom is the one who saw the Cocker at the pound, so she went with me. The Cocker was not very friendly and did not want to have anything to do with Boo. I was disappointed and ready to go when Mom said, "Did you see that Snauzer over there?" I really was not interested, but she insisted, and so we let him out into the outdoor pen to meet Boo and me. He immediately ran up to Boo and wanted to play, and then he came over to me and wanted to be loved. That is about all the time it took...I was hooked and I took him home.

Brooke and Amanda welcomed Sully (the name we gave him) right away. It took Boo awhile since she was used to being an only dog, but she loves Sully now and I think she would be lost without him.

Happy Birthday, Sully. We love you!

12 of 12 - December 2008

9:26 AM
I was at school (ECIA) helping a teacher learn how to use Engrade, the online grade book selected by the school. Stopped by the front desk and saw Brooke and Brad hard at work!


11:25am
Pastor picking me up to go play some racquetball. He won 2 out of 3 today! :+(


1:35pm
Yesterday I replaced the wood trim around my garage door and caulked it. Today, I filled in a couple areas that needed more caulk.

Caulk, like make up, covers a lot of blemishes!


2:04 PM
Happy Hour at Sonic is 2-4pm where soft drinks and slushes are half price. We stop by at least a couple times a week. Here's our Friday stop.


2:19 PM
Tonight is our church leadership Christmas party and we always have a gift exchange. This year, again, the guys are buying tools. Best place to shop...Foster Hardware.


2:44 PM
Ending up choosing an LED flashlight for my exchange gift.


3:49 PM
Wrapping Christmas presents. Yes, I'm the wrapper at our house. I am wrapping Brooke's present from Amanda and Daddy here.


6:18 PM
Brooke taking a quick rest before the leadership Christmas party tonight. Of course the dogs felt the need to rest with her.


7:16 PM
Church leadership Christmas party. Ed, Rob, Mark, Bill and Mike (left front to back, right back to front).


9:07 PM
Ed ended up with the gift I bought. I heard he was going to give it to his grand daughter.


10:08 PM
Picture of Brooke with full moon in the background. Although the moon does not look too big here, it was a full moon and the largest moon in the past 15 years...tonight.


10:34 PM
This screw driver set is the exchange gift I ended up with at the leadership Christmas banquet tonight. Cool!

Don't talk too much, for it fosters sin.
Be sensible and turn off the flow!

- Proverbs 10:19, NLT

The Heart of Faith

Thoughts from my Bible reading time today.

Daniel 3:16-18, NLT
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Seems to be a number of statements or levels of faith here:

1. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace... - I had not seen this one before. Perhaps they are saying, "God can keep us from being thrown into the furnace in the first place.
2. The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King... - clearest statement, "The God we serve is able..."
3. But even if he does not... - This, to me, seems to be the greatest statement of faith. They were saying, "Even if God does not do what we think he will/should, we will still trust Him and not bow down to the idol."

Some today would say they were not speaking in faith by allowing "even if he does not...". But what is faith? Is it confidence in God or confidence that God will do what we are asking?

I don't know. On the one hand, Jesus had confidence that God would do what He asked. But on the other hand, today we have people telling God what His Word says and tell him that He is obligated to answer their prayer because of it.

I do not feel God is "obligated" to do anything for me. He has done more than enough through Christ. My faith is in a God who is true to His Word, but it is NOT in my ability to understand and apply His Word correctly 100% of the time. That's not an excuse to stop praying and believing according to my understanding of the Word, but it ought to give caution to the notion that I can order or obligate God to do anything.

Lyrics: Snowball Fight

One of my favorite Christmas CDs is one I picked up when I was a youth pastor. It is Ska La-La-La-La by Bunch of Believers. I'll be posting some of the lyrics...because I just love this CD!






Well I'm walkin' in a winder wonderland
With a cold one in my hand
Yeah, I want to be a blessing to someone
God's given me a gift
Like Nola Ryan, if you get my drift
Today the youth group wants to have some fun

The other side is slow like Eyore
But I'm bouncing like Tigger
You've got to pick your hiding place
And I wish this tree was a little bit bigger

Now I know why God made snow
One, two, three let's go, it's a snowball fight
Snowball fight, snowball fight, snowball fight

Well I don't want to miss the mark
But I just hit some bark
It was enough to scare Roberta half to death
And if you look behind that shrub
Boy, they're gonna need some deep heating rub
I know they're back there, I can see their breath

Now if I hit you in the face
Well I mean it all in love
Cold, white flakes of fun
Sent down from above

Though your sins be red like scarlet
They will be made white as snow

Tis the season
To lose all inhibition
At Christmas-time I just praise the Lord
And pass the ammunition

Love, Pt. II

Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.

- Chris, age 6

Love, Pt. 1

You really shouldn't say "I love you" unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.

-Jessica, age 8