12 of 12 - March 2010

12 of 12 Basic Idea - 12 pictures from your life on the 12th of every month. This month, the 12th was on a Friday.

#1 - 9:08 AM - Uploading the day's lesson to the classroom blog.

#2 - 11:24 PM - 2nd grade Technology Application class

#3 - 11:24 AM - Teaching 2nd grade

#4 - 11:42 AM - 2nd grade computer class

#5 - 2:53 PM - 3rd-4th grade traced their hands on a piece of paper. I took a picture to be used in a Power Point game later.

#6 - 2:53 PM - After I took a picture of the students hands, they used the tracing to label which keys each finger pressed on the computer keyboard Home Row.

#7 - 5:29 PM - Mommy was gone for the evening so it was Daddy/Daughter date night! Here we are at Red Robin, Amanda having her favorite spaghetti and me, my favorite burger.

#8 - 6:39 PM - Amanda and I took the motorcycle out for a couple evenng errands.

#9 - 6:58 PM - Here is Amanda in front of Academy. We went there to get a fishing pole for her to use on Spring Break.

#10 - 8:21 PM - We ended Daddy/Daughter date night at Marble Slab. Amanda got so cold she was shivering and we had to turn the heat on in the car.

#11 - 9:05 PM - Amanda assembling her fishing pole for Spring Break

#12 - 9:33 PM - Sully and I doing our 10 List Bible reading for the night. He likes to sit in my lap while I read the Bible.

12 of 12 - February 2010

12 of 12 Basic Idea - 12 pictures from your life on the 12th of every month. This month, the 12th was on a Friday.

#1 - 9:31 AM - School cancelled. Up to 12 inches of snow in the DFW area! We had 9 inches at the Hurt house.

#2 - 9:39 PM - True beauty (yes, the snow is pretty, too)

#3 - 10:15 AM - The weight of the snow on the tree in our front yard was eventually too much for it. The lowest branch here broke off.

#4 - 10:14 AM - Brooke, the artist.

#5 - 10:30 AM - The doggies after playing in the snow for a shore while. They got even more of these mini-snowballs in their coats later.

#6 - 10:38 AM - Drying off Sully after pulling the mini-snowballs out of his coat.

#7 - 10:57 AM - Family brunch after playing in the snow.

#8 - 3:16 PM - Using the sister's-in-law recipe for snow ice cream. Snow, Eagle Brand and vanilla. YUM!

#9 - 6:56 PM - We moved our usual Saturday night hamburger night to Friday. Yup, we "grill" in the living room and watch a movie when it's too cold to grill outside.

#10 - 9:31 PM - 21st Winter Olympics opening ceremony

#11 - 9:03 PM - Sully and I doing our 10 Lists reading for the day

#12 - 9:51 PM - Amanda built her fort and slept in it for the night.

12 of 12 - January 2010

12 of 12 Basic Idea - 12 pictures from your life on the 12th of every month. This month, the 12th was on a Tuesday.

#1 - 7:21 AM - In the office early on a Tuesday morning. I go in early on Tuedays so I can take off early and work in the computer lab at Amanda's school. Amanda's artwork reminds me of how loved I am AND helps decorate my office.

#2 - 8:13 AM - Having network issues...can't connect my WinXP computer to Tammy's Vista computer.

#3 - 9:40 AM - Tuesday morning staff meeting. Nobody really liked posing for the picture.

#4 - 1:00 PM - Brooke took a picture of herself to help me with my 12 of 12 for the month

#5 - 1:00 PM - I was trying to take a picture of myself in the passenger's side visor mirror.

#6 - 1:27 PM - Cleaning out the attic at church. Giving away this rocking chair to a good home.

#7 - 2:34 PM - Like every other day of the week, Pastor received a package. In the office, we are convinced he must order even his toothpaste online.

#8 - 2:35 PM - Pastor David orders from Amazon.com so often that they send him Christmas cards now.

#9 - 2:43 PM - Assembling iGrow books with the binding machine.

#10 - 4:30 PM - Working in the computer lab on Tuesdays after school.

#11 - 6:15 PM - Working in the computer lab at school, joining a new computer to the ECIA domain.

#12 - 8:06 PM - Amanda and I are doing our daily Bible reading. I am sitting in Sully's chair, so he is reading with me, as usual.

A New Philosophy In Plant Management

As you can see from the first picture on the right, the hedges along the side of my house are totally out of control. And let the record show, I do NOT take responsibility for this. I have lived in this house for 12 years this month and EVERY time the hedges grow up like this (or even taller!), I cut them down to a manageable size. This is not an easy nor enjoyable task, mind you. You can't tell me, after 12 years, that these hedges do not know I don't want them all grown up like this.

So after years of no success cutting the hedges down to size and telling them how nice they look in their "smaller" size, I took a different approach today. I do NOT enjoy cutting these things and I have very little, if any natural skill. Looking at the rebellious bushes today, I said "OK, if that's the way you want to be, we can play it your way."

I started cutting and decided not to worry about how the bushes looked. I figured, if they are going to be rebellious and keep growing back even after they know I don't want them to, I am going to SHAME them into cooperation! It's not like I could help it much, but I pretty much just butchered them today. I figured, "Hey, if you're gonna be that way, I'm just gonna make you look UGLY whenever I have to cut you down".

I don't know if they could tell the difference this time over any other, but I felt better anyway. It's my new philosophy in plant management.

It Wasn't The Spark Plug

The hedges along the side of my house needed trimming today. Actually, they needed trimming several months ago, by today, they needed a major chopping.

I headed to the church mower shed to get the hedge trimmer (I maintain the church property beside and behind my house and I get to use the church equipment...one of the "perks" of living on property"). First thing I noticed was the electric trimmer was not there. Could have sworn I'd seen it recently.

OK, no electric trimmer...where's that gas powered thing? There it is! So I filled it with gas (the gas oil mix), primed it, choked it and yanked on the pull cord. Then I pulled again. And again. And I repeated this until my arm hurt all the while the thing never even began to fire.

I know NOTHING about fixing this kind of equipment, but it seemed to me that there were only a couple things that could go wrong. I primed it again to make sure it was getting gas since the tank had been empty. Gas started shooting out, so I figured it was getting enough gas. Only other thing I could think of was the spark plug. Called my Dad, got some advice and headed to Auto Zone to get a new spark plug.

I got the spark plug installed and started yanking the pull cord again. NOTHING. Primed it again and thought it odd that gas seemed to be shooting out. Checked it out and had a "Oh, duh" moment. The little plastic tubing taking fuel from the tank to the motor was disconnected. Tried to reconnect it and discovered that the tubing had broken. I pulled the broken piece off the fitting and shoved what was left onto the fitting. It immediately split! I then pulled on it a bit to see how much extra I had to work with. After that little maneuver, I had 3 pieces of tubing...it broke in 2 places.

I took the thing apart and, if I can find the manual, I'm fairly confident I can order replacement tubing and fix the problem. Made a quick phone call, found the electric hedge clippers and chopped down the hedges at home.

Stay tuned for part two. Whenever I'm "fairly confident" that I can fix something like this, things NEVER turn out like I pictured them in my mind.

Back To Blogging?

I have been looking through my blog lately and I don't like what I see. I used to blog about what was going on in my life. Not so much because it would be interesting to anybody else (I live a plain vanilla life), but because I liked it and because I liked to look back several months or a year later and see what was going on in my life at that time. So I'm gonna to give a little time to blogging again and return to my "roots".

We'll see how it goes.

Cowboy churches offer relaxed, come-as-you-are setting and rodeo-style outreach ministries

At a recent Sunday morning service, a small church congregation nodded in agreement to the message on fear their pastor delivered.

Identifying the common difficulties faced by area families, Stan King, pastor of Impact Cowboy Church, voiced the importance in overcoming one's fear and "keeping the faith" in every situation during an out-of-the-ordinary sermon that was given not from the church pulpit, but rather from a light brown stallion named Grasshopper.

The fact that King's outdoor sermon was given on horseback was not only unique to the morning service, but also because it provided a visual example of the context of his message.

Two years ago, King, an avid horseman, agreed to ride a horse his brother-in-law was looking to buy. He got off to adjust the stirrups and then got back on, and while he was trying to get set in the saddle the horse started to buck. He said he thinks at some point when he was getting back on, his spur touched the horse.

The accident caused eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung. It took King six months to recover, and when the time came to get back in the saddle, he explained he was a little more than reluctant.

"I had to overcome a fear of horses," he said.

King eventually did get back in the saddle, but it wasn't until Grasshopper, a neglected stallion, came into his life, that his fears were finally put to rest.

He worked with the stallion for about a year, and soon he became an intricate part of both King's family and ministry.

"We both had to work through some trust issues, and we both came out better on the other end," he said.

"We recovered together," King informed his congregation during his Sunday sermon.

In all of his sermons, King said he tries to keep the message simple, providing his congregation something that they can apply to their everyday lives. He also encourages church members to ask questions during sermons and comment on any part.

"What I've found is that if a person speaks up, it encourages the others; they get uplifted," he said. "The holy spirit may be speaking through them as much as me, and if so, I want to hear it."

In addition to the regular Sunday service, King and his wife, Kaye, the praise and worship leader (who sang backup for the famous Tejano singer, Selena) offer a number of outreach ministries geared toward both family and country lifestyles.

"We have a chuck wagon ministry where we come up here once a month and serve breakfast," Kaye said, adding they also have a trail riding ministry and rotate out with other area churches to minister to the Nacogdoches Boys Ranch.

King said the church, which is currently located at Carrizo Creek Ranch, off CR 302, is looking to move to a larger location with an arena where they will be able to expand their outreach ministries to include a youth rodeo series.

(read the rest of the article by clicking the link below)

Cowboy churches offer relaxed, come-as-you-are setting and rodeo-style outreach ministries

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Sometimes Miracles Hide - by Bruce Carroll

They were so excited it was coming to be, two people so in love

and now soon there would be three, for many years they planned it.

Now soon it would be true, She was picking out the pink clothes, he was

looking at the blue.

The call came unexpected the doctor had bad news, Some tests came back

and things weren't right, said you're gonna have to choose,

"I'll wait a week for your decision" and then the words cut like a knife ,

"I'm sure everyone will understand if you want to end its life".

Though they were badly shaken they just had no choice,

Because they knew God creates no accidents and they were sure they

heard His voice Sayin'.

(chorus)

Sometimes miracles hide, and God will wrap some blessings in disguise

and you may have to wait this lifetime

to see the reasons with your eyes, cause sometimes miracles hide

It seemed before they knew it the appointed day arrived,

with eager apprehension they could barely hold inside,

The first time they laid eyes on her confirmed the doctors fears

but they held onto God promise they were sure they both could hear.

(chorus)

Though she was not like the other girls they thought she was the best,

and through all the years of struggle neither whispered one regret.

And the first day that she started school and took her first bus ride,

they'd remembered the words that God had spoke and they both broke down and cried.

You see to them it did not matter why some things in life take place,

cause they just knew the joy they felt when they'd look into her face.

They learned that sometimes miracles hide,

they said God Has wrapped our blessing in disguise and

we may have to wait this lifetime to see the reasons with our eyes,

we know sometimes miracles hide. We've learned sometimes miracles hide.

Food for Thought

For decades pundits have been saying that the New Orleans Saints were so bad at playing football that hell would freeze over before the Saints would ever win The Super Bowl.

On Sunday, February 7, 2010 The Saints won the Super Bowl.

On that same Sunday Washington D.C. was paralyzed under several feet of snow and the Government was shut down.

Letter to T-Mobile Customer Service

T-Mobile Wireless

P.O. Box 37380

Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380

RE: Phone number 817. 962.xxxx

Dear T-Mobile Customer Service,

I recently cut off our home phone and went cellular only. Since I could not add any more lines to my current (non T-Mobile) plan, I purchased a pre-paid phone to keep at home for my daughter to call my wife or myself if need be. We work in the building next to our house, a 30 second walk, so this is not a phone that gets used much.

Last month, I noticed that the money ran out on the phone despite the fact that we had not used the 30 minutes that I paid for a month previously. I thought perhaps my daughter had made calls without my knowledge/permission, so I watched the call logs this month. I was quite surprised when the minutes ran out on the phone in less than a month with just 2 answered calls and 2 outgoing calls.

I am enclosing the transcript from my discussion online with Customer Support. I discovered that, despite the fact that voice mail had never been set up for this phone, I was being charged for every call that went through to voice mail. To make it even worse, the calls that made it through to voice mail could not even leave a message and I never checked voicemail (since it was not set up), yet I was charged for these calls! And on top of that, the calls must have been wrong number calls because nobody has this number and the call log shows numbers from outside our area code. I questioned my daughter’s integrity (she said she did not make any calls other than the ones to my wife and me), and come to find out, it was T-mobile who has integrity issues.

I am not sure what I hope to gain from this letter. You did take my money and charged me for “services” I never wanted, but I guess I am hoping to find somebody who would say, “I cannot believe our company has a policy like this. This is wrong and we will change it.”

I would appreciate a response to this letter stating whether it is a known policy of T-Mobile to charge customers for wrong number calls, going through to a voicemail where a message cannot be left, cannot be checked and has never been set up.

Thank you for your time listening to my frustrations. I certainly hope to hear back from you. I have included my address, email and phone number at the top of this page.

Rob Hurt

(letter mailed 3/5/10)

God Is Busy

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min.' The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.

The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'

The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot.. So He sent me.'

The classroom erupted in cheers!

If Guns Kill People...

Mayo Clinic Piano Playing Couple

Lazy Dog

Americans For Prosperity

Where's Al?

Terrorists Have Rights, Too, Ya Know

Job's Final Protest of Innocence

I read Job 31 tonight. The title for this chapter, in the New Living Translation, is "Job's Final Protest of Innocence." As I read Job, I get upset with Job's so-called friends and their "advice" to Job. Why is it that we as humans (or worse yet, as Christians) are so quick to assume God's judgement on somebody else?

What caught my attention as I was reading this chapter and thinking back on Job's defense was his confidence before the Lord in the midst of this attack. If stuff like that was happening to me, the first thing I would do is ask God what I was doing wrong! But Job lived a life of integrity before the Lord. Job 1:1 - "There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless--a man of complete integrity." (New Living Translation)

Now I know later in the book God calls Job on the carpet and gives him the "Look here buddy. Exactly who do you think you are to expect me to justify myself to you?" speech, but even that does not impugn Job's integrity.

And that brings me back to the most perplexing or disturbing aspect of this story (at least for me). Job was such a man of integrity that God bragged on him to the devil knowing what the devil's response would be and knowing what He was going to say in turn.

After reading about what a man of integrity Job was and pondering all that happened to him, my prayer is, "God, I want to make you proud of me like you were proud of Job...but maybe not so proud that you want to brag on me!"

Patrick Henry Hughes

Help Stop Fox Hunting in Colorado

While I always agree that hunting is an ethical God given right, I think that I would have to agree with the author on this one.... fox hunting in Colorado should be banned!

Please help ban fox hunting in Colorado ~
THIS MADNESS MUST STOP!!


Signed,
Peter Cottontail