A Great Father's Day

My wife and daughter made me feel very special today and I had a great Father's Day. Amanda got me a card that read, "Dad, it's Father's Day and you deserve the best the world has to offer... (open card) That's why you have me! Happy Father's Day from your daughter." Along with that came a sun catcher car that she made during VBS this week AND the children's church craft from today.

Sometime this week, Brooke and Amanda went shopping and bought me a black t-shirt that says, Born to Ride, Forced to Work with a motorcycle on the front. They also found the sound track to Dan in Real Life which I have been wanting. And then Brooke just happened to find a new Chris Botti CD which she calls romantic music (woo hoo!).

After church, we went to Cedar Hill state park where my parents are camping and wished my Dad a Happy Father's Day. While we were there, Dad took a picture of me with my best friend.



Earlier this week, one of the guys from church said something about going on a motorcycle ride today. I didn't hear back from anybody, so I figured Father's Day nixed those plans. But hey, we're fathers, right? It is our day. The four of us pictured here ended up spending time with our families this afternoon and then went for an evening ride (read "man time"). It was a lot of fun. (By the way, if you're wondering what I would look like if I were totally bald, the shadow cast by the sun here gives you a glimpse!)

I am thankful to have a wife and daughter who take such good care of me, put up with me and work so hard to make me feel special. I had a great day. Thank you Brooke and Amanda!

Prepare Thyself, Amateur

So I turn on my cell phone this morning (true story). I immediately hear the tones that tell me I have two text messages. I open the first one, from one of the youth workers at our church, and it says:

prepare for the worst

Well, one of our church youth has been telling me all week that he is going to "get me" at VBS today (water balloons, hose or something along those lines). I figured he had enlisted this youth worker's help to harass me. I thought the other text was going to be from youth member saying the same thing.

So, I replied appropriately:

Prepare Thyself, Amateur

After sending that text, I opened the other one that came in. Come to find out, this one was from the youth worker, too. This one said:

I know u r sleeping, but please pray for us. Our dog has been sick and is probably going to die. We will probably have to... (and the text cut off there)

It only took a second or two to realize what the ... at the end meant. This text was too long to come in one message, so it was continued as a second message. The entire message would have read:

I know u r sleeping, but please pray for us. Our dog has been sick and is probably going to die. We will probably have to prepare for the worst.

To which, I had already replied, "Prepare Thyself, Amateur"

So of course I had to text her and explain my moronic reply.

Just call me Mr. Sensitive.

I Remember June 12, 1993 Like It Was Yesterday

Solution to the Oil Crisis

OPEC sells oil for $128.00 a barrel.

OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.

Solution: Sell grain for $128.00 a bushel.

Send Your Friends a Post-Rapture Email!

I saw the headline for this as I was browsing through Google Reader tonight. Somehow I'm thinking Jesus expects a little more of us than this. How can we expect the lost not to laugh at us? I did when I read this.

A new Web site is offering a miraculous service — e-mails sent to loved ones left behind on Earth after you've been swept up to heaven in the Rapture...

Final e-mails from vanished subscribers will be triggered when three of the site's five Christian staffers fail to log in for six days in a row.

Brought to you by "YouveBeenLeftBehind.com" (seriously!)

Read the entire Fox News story here.

Not a Sound

Every once-in-a-while I will see a small owl sitting on our back yard fence when I let the dogs out at night. Tonight I saw two of them sitting on the sidewalk/ramp rail at church when I was doing my security walk. When I saw them, I stopped to watch them and they seemed to watch me, too. Finally I walked up for a closer view and one of them let me get within 6 feet before he took off. It wasn't until a few seconds later that I noticed what I had just missed...sound. When they flew, there was absolutely no sound, and one of them flew just 3-4 feet over my head.

I checked another couple doors and then walked back under the tree where I thought one of them had landed. Sure enough, there he was looking at me again. We watched each other for a while, me staring up, him making little triangle movements with his head staring down at me. To my surprise, he jumped/flew to a branch closer to me, and finally made his way to a branch straight over my head. He was definitely a very curious little owl.

Finally he hopped to another branch and looked out toward the playground area where the second owl had flown. When I stepped around to get a better view, he took off for the trees in the playground and was gone. Again, not a sound.

See, I'm Not The Only One

Here's a few quotes from a Yahoo Tech article. See, I'm not the only one who is an unhappy Sprint customer.

"Chatters are growing happier with their overall wireless service, according to a new survey, with Verizon Wireless taking top honors and Sprint slipping into last place among the four big carriers."

"Verizon Wireless scored a 72 in the survey, giving it top marks among the four big wireless carriers. AT&T and T-Mobile both tied at 71, with AT&T gaining the most ground thanks to its four-percent spike since 2007 (thanks, in part, to the iPhone, according to ACSI researchers)."

"Meanwhile, Sprint's ACSI rating fell to just 56, an 8 percent drop from last year. "

"Just for comparison's sake, the spiraling airline industry got an ACSI score of 62 (tumbling almost 14 percent from 1994), the U.S. Postal Service got a 74 (up from a score of 61 in 1994), FedEx scored an 85, and both McDonald's and Microsoft made do with a middling 69."

Geocaching Pictures

Amanda and I did some geocaching last Saturday. Here are some pictures.

This one was hidden the the "Y" between branches of a tree. Amanda knew where to look, but I had to give her a boost to check it out.

Cachers sometimes hide their geocaches in 35mm film canisters. Amanda found a new use for the lid. Ahoy Matey!

Sign here, please.

We didn't know what kind of flower this was, but we thought it was pretty.

These flowers were in front of a park in Richardson.

The only way to make the flowers any more beautiful!

The Bird Lady?

Brooke grabbed a loaf of bread and we hopped on the motorcycle and rode over to Lake Arlington yesterday. There was a duck near the motorcycle, so as I tried to coax him to come eat out of my hand, Brooke went and sat on this park bench. My duck saw she was throwing her food to the ducks, so he flew over to where she was. This picture doesn't really do justice to all of the ducks that swarmed Brooke, but you get the idea.

What's Different?

Do you like those puzzles they put in magazines where you have to identify nine differences between pictures. You know...the ones where you can find 6 of them right off, but the other three take you 20 minutes? I don't like them, but if you do here's one for you. Hint: Don't try to find nine differences...I don't think you will find them.




This is really just a photo I doctored with Photo Impact so I can use it on my Facebook profile later. The touch up was more impressive before the photo was cropped. But now I'm thinking it might be fun to doctor some photos and make some of my own "find the differences" games.

Praying Mantis

I have always thought these things were creepy looking! Amanda saw this thing on one of the picnic tables at church this morning. In real life, he wasn't more than an inch long.

Here's a Question For You

Book I Will Be Reading Next

"It seems as if every week I receive an opportunity by e-mail to boycott this, petition that, sign a covenant, or let a business know my Christian beliefs about its product. Honestly, these types of activities make me sick. Those businesses and organizations we want to boycott are being run and led by people-human beings-with families and kids and lives and choices. We may as well say to them, "Go to hell because I don't give a rip about your eternity. Just stay away from me and my family and out of our picket-fence -protected homes." Our actions are perceived as holier than thou, and they put us in the category of "all Christians are the same."

When did we decide the church should dictate, control, or mandate the direction of our culture? Isn't culture just a reflection of who we are as a society? Why are we focused on the fruit rather than the root? It would be like smashing all the apples from a tree in anger because they aren't big enough or tasty enough rather than considering the soil, sunlight, and environmental conditions; getting mad at the food when we should really be talking to the cook; or blaming the kids when we should talk to the parents."

Pop Goes the Culture: Should The Church Engage Pop Culture
by Tim Stevens

Memorial Day - God Bless America!!

Now THAT'S how you sing our National Anthem!
The Cactus Cuties

So Much For Making Your Point

QUOTE

"If at first you don't succeed... so much for skydiving."

Henry Youngman

QUOTE

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.

Charles Kettering

GUESS-the-GOOGLE

One of the blogs I follow is Download Squad, and one of my favorite posts there is "Today's Time Waster". The time waster for today is a game called "Guess the Google". Twenty pictures are put on the screen and you have to guess word was Googled to get those results. Click on the picture above to give it a try. Feel free to leave your score in the comments section. I only got 168 my first try. If you beat me, I'm gonna stick with the "Well, your words were easier" excuse!

It's Like Golden Corral for Turtles

(click to enlarge)

A New School

Amanda started a new school this week. They wear uniforms which Amanda did not think she was going to like at first, but it looks like she has decided they are not so bad. Here she is in two of the uniform options. The one on the right is not her "peace" uniform...it's the one she wore on her second day at her new school.

We have been pleased with the education Amanda has received at her public school, but some of the things she was starting to bring home (mostly from 'friends') had us praying a lot. We have talked about private schools in the past, but we want Amanda to learn to stand up for what she believes and learn how to do it in the 'real world'. Brooke found out about a charter school opening down the street from us, so we went to check it out. We were originally looking into Amanda starting there next year, but when we went, with Amanda, to check it out, we changed our minds. First of all, Brooke, Amanda and I were impressed with what we saw and had a peace about Amanda attending there. Secondly, like most charter schools, they are filling up fast. If Amanda waited until next year, the school would probably be running at capacity and would have to implement a lottery system for allowing new students. We prayed about it and all three of us felt a peace about Amanda starting this year.

Amanda was blessed with her mother's personality and never meets a stranger. She is already making friends at her new school and loves it.