I've Caught the Bug

This is a motorcycle I found while browsing online yesterday. Really, I have no good reason for looking at bikes, I've just got the bug. One of my friends got a bike this year and just traded what he had for a different one. Another friend has completed the motorcycle class and got his license...he will buy soon. And then there was the whole thing about riding a couple bikes at the Men's Retreat this year. I used to have a bike, I've kept my license current, my wife is saying "go for it" and I've got the bug bad.

So I went and looked at the bike today. It was nice. I paid bills before I went, so I knew now was not a good time to be looking at motorcycles. But oh, what a good deal, and the bike was in great shape. So I asked about financing in a moment of weakness. Fortunately for me (although it certainly did not feel 'fortunate'), nobody will finance a bike that old.

So I've thought about it all day. I will have one again...someday. I'm still trying to convince myself "a motorcyce will not make you any happier." Thinking about it all day certainly hasn't!

A Rewarding Day

I got to spend the day doing something to help someone else, and it was very rewarding. Pictured here are Roger and Linda West, missionaries Brooke and I support in Mexico. They are veteran missionaries, and Roger is the founder and head of Missionary Revival Crusade (MRC...a missions sending organization).

I maintain the web site for MRC, and I have been talking to Bro. Roger about other online options for his ministry. Since he is in the country for his home church's missions conference, he gave me a call and asked me if we could get together to discuss some of the things we had been talking about online.

MRC is the missions sending organization that Bro. Roger oversees, so we have the web page for that. And then he was trying to maintain a web page for his/Mrs. Linda's personal mission work through MRC, he blogged from time to time and I had also started a blog for him to post his weekly email updates. The goal was to determine the purpose of each of these, to eliminate any overlap and make it easier for Bro. Roger to maintain the information he wanted to maintain.

I got some much needed clarity of the ministry of MRC, so I can change up that site a bit and help it better serve it's purpose. We combined the two blogs and the other web page at PowerPlantingInternational.com I still have a number of updates to that site/blog, but I think it will serve a much more useful purpose.

Things took a bit longer than planned today, but we accomplished more than I first imagined, I got a free lunch out if it, I got to spend some time with a wise-yet-down-to-earth missionary and I got to operate in what Max Lucado terms your "sweet spot" in his book Cure for the Common Life (sweet spot = where my everyday life intersects with using my strengths for God's glory).

It was a rewarding day.

How NOT to Help With Homework

It was homework time tonight, and it was my turn to help Amanda. She had some math to do, and it was mostly learning how to round numbers up or down to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000. It seems to me, once you understand the concept, it should not matter how many numbers there are. I guess it's not that simple to a third grader.

So I tried to help, but Amanda got stuck at one point. Made no sense to me...she had just worked all of these problems, tried something new, and then when we came back to the first kind of problems, she could not do it. I grew frustrated. She grew frustrated. I yelled. She cried. We finished that part and stopped for supper.

And then I had time to think.

Let's see...if I were a third grader and had homework to do, would I want to do it if I got yelled at for not understanding? NO.

Would I want to spend time with my Daddy doing homework if I got yelled at? NO.

Was this making school/math/homework a positive experience? NO.

Would I leave Amanda in a class if I heard the teacher yelling at her like I had done earlier? NO.

Was I proud of myself? NO

After supper, I encouraged Amanda's small steps in the right direction instead of getting frustrated with the ones in the wrong direction. Somehow we got through it, and we were both much happier than before supper.

Did Amanda forgive her Daddy? YES. (whew)

So tonight I learned how NOT to do homework. Hopefully it is a lesson I will remember.

They Love Me...They Love Me Not

Yup, I'm talking about Sprint again. Brooke said my last Sprint tirade was too long, so I'll be brief.

Last year I was told I could do a $30 mail-in rebate with my new phone. I sent it in and got a postcard saying my rebate was rejected. I was upset but did not want to spend the time on the phone to get it "fixed", so I let it go.

Fast forward to this year. Added a new line of service with Sprint. New phone, promised a $30 mail-in rebate. Sent it and got a postcard today saying it was rejected, and the reason given did not even match the circumstances for which it was offered. Too much...I called Sprint.

45 minutes and three phone calls later, Sprint told me the process had messed up (the "process", not a person!) and she fixed it. My $30 rebate would be expedited. This same representative also saw my rebate from last year and mentioned it. I told her it was also wrongfully denied, but I did not want to spend the time on the phone to argue about it and so I let it go. The representative told me because of my hassle tonight (I told her how long I had been on the phone) that she would re-instate the old rebate as well, so I should now be getting that one, too.

So that's why it's a love/hate relationship. Sprint seems to mess up quite a bit, but when I call and am polite by explain why I am not a happy customer, 9 times out of 10 they take good care of me.

Funky Town!

I didn't get to go to our church's Fall Festival (a.k.a. Funky Town) this year because I was sick...bummer! But here's a picture of my two funky women as they were on their way. You can view a slideshow of the other funky people here.

Boo and Sully wanted to get a little funky, too.

Sully almost makes it look good!

Boo always has that "wild woman" look in her eyes.

What is That Black Spot in the Bed?

See the cute little stuffed animals at the foot of the bed?

What's that one animal right by Amanda's feet?

Oh, look! It's Boo!!

December 25, 2001

Some things change and some don't. Amanda Kay still loves to put on sunglasses and be the center of attention and she still does not wear socks or shoes unless she has to. Me, on the other hand. My hair has now moved from my head to my face!

Although he does not look too excited in this picture, that is my very cool father-in-law to my left (pay no attention to the socks!)

Challenging Myself

I consider myself a very patriotic person. I LOVE America, and I thank God for the freedoms we have here. I believe they are God-given, and reading about the history of the founding of our nation, I believe God's hand was in it. I have always thought of America as a Christian nation, and I have had "issues" those who want to make it otherwise. I have even told people I believe we, American Christians, have a responsibility to be good stewards of the blessing God has given us in this Christian nation.

I was shocked when a friend (Stephen, you probably know who you are) suggested that Jesus might not hold this same view. I used some of the above arguments with him. And then I read The Jesus I Never Knew by Phillip Yancey and I was again challenged. Yancey pointed out Jesus never put up "us/them" barriers (a gross over-simplification of what he said, but it's what really hit me). And in my frequent visits to and discussions at Rant and Reason (the Humanist blog), sometimes I find it difficult to maintain some of the "Christian nation" assertions and not put up an "us/them" wall.

So I saw this book, The Myth of a Christian Nation, on sale at Mardel the other day. Here's what I read on the back of the book:

When the kingdom of God is manifested, it will wear the face of Jesus Christ. And that, says author Gregory Boyd, has never been true of any earthly government or power. Through close examination of Scripture and lessons drawn from history, Dr. Boyd argues that evangelical Christians who align themselves too closely with political causes or declare that they want to bring America "back to God" are actually doing harm - both to the body of Christ and society in general.

Boyd shows how Jesus taught us to seek a "power-under" kingdom, where greatness is measured by sacrifice and service. There are no sides or enemies because we are meant to embrace and accept everyone. In The Myth of a Christian nation, Dr. Boyd challenges readers to return to the true love of Calvary and the message of the cross - setting the "power over" politics of worldly government aside.

Wow. These thoughts raise a lot of questions in my mind, but I find it interesting that God seems to keep bringing me back to this issue. So I'm letting myself be challenged and reading the book. I'm pretty sure the book is going to raise more questions for me, but I'm kinda excited because I feel I have begun a journey.

Don't I Wish

I love motorcycles. I got my first motorcycle when I was 16. It was actually my Mom's bike, and it was an automatic at that! It was a little better than a hyped up moped! After Brooke and I got married, I got a Kawasaki 500 (I don't remember the model). It was a shaft-driven bike and I was happy with it. About the time we found out Brooke was pregnant, it was also time to have some work done on the bike. Selling the bike and using the money for the new baby seemed like a better idea than spending money to work on the bike, so I sold it. I've kept my motorcycle license current just in case...one day.

Well, this is not the day and no, this is not my bike. A number of guys rode their bikes to the men's retreat last week and they were kind enough to let me take them for a spin. This is my friend Randy's Katana. Quite a nice bike. Made me realize how much I miss having a motorcycle of my own.

Say Cheese!

No Discernible Difference

This is a new phrase I came up with today. It describes too much of what I did today.

My ToDo list was already depressing. There was no way I was going to get it all done, not to mention that the even length of my list did not begin to represent the time that was needed to complete a couple big projects I have to do.

You've heard of the tyranny of the urgent? You know...you get stuck doing the "urgent" things instead of the "important" things. Supposedly we have a choice. Sometimes it's poor choices on my part, but most of the time, I don't have a choice. The number one item on my job description is "Help everyone else get their job done". Rewarding, but frustrating at times.

Case in point. Today. Checking off quite a few things on the unbelievably long ToDo list when 4pm comes around. One hour left to get stuff done. Go to restroom and leaky "fixture" is having problems again. It's been having problems and the boss mentioned it to me last week. I've tried to fix it before to no avail, but it's there, it's leaking..it's urgent! Thirty minutes later I have loosened and taken apart everything I can find to loosen and taken apart. I put it back together. No discernible difference.

Now it's 4:30 PM. The secretary is gone for the day and I have had "reinstall secretary's print driver" on my ToDo list for 3-4 weeks now. Her computer will not print in color, so I have to reinstall the print driver. Since she's gone and it's "urgent", I head into her office and do what needs to be done. Get it done and print, telling the copier I want color. It comes out in black and white. Again...no discernible difference.

Tomorrow, when I update my ToDo list, these two items will still be there although I dedicated an hour to them today. So in regards to these two items, even my ToDo list will have no discernible difference.

My #1 Love/Hate Relationship

Short version: My Sprint cell phone bill arrived, and I knew it was too much. It took me about 30 minutes to get online, log into Sprint.com, access my bill, find where I was wrongly charged and print the pages I would need for my phone call to Sprint.

My phone call lasted for 47 minutes. During this time, I was told that I added Vision service to two lines (not true), that I had Sprint TV on my phone (my phone is not capable of this) and I could not get credit for their $55 mistake. I argued politely and asked for a supervisor. I never got the supervisor, but my issues were supposedly fixed and I was issued at $55 credit, but it would not take effect until my next billing cycle. In other words, Sprint said, "We over charged you $55 which we will reimburse you next month. If you do not go ahead and pay the extra $55 this month, you will be charge a late fee for not paying all of your bill."

Happy to have my refund by not happy that I had wasted all of this time and that my refund was not immediate, I emailed Sprint. Here is the dialog.

ME:
Question: I would like a call from a supervisor at the wireless number listed below. I was over-charged on my bill by $54.99. It took me 30 minutes of going through my bill to find where I was over-charged and then another47 minutes on the phone to get the issue resolved. The customer service rep. was very polite and did fix the problems, including issuing me a credit
for the amount I was wrongly charged. I appreciate this help, but I am still frustrated that I was charged for services I never requested nor authorized. It not only wasted an hour and a half of my time, but I still have to pay the $54.99 this month because the credits will not be applied until my next bill. I would like to know why these problems happened and how I can be assured this will not happen again. Thank you. {Note to blog reader: I had to enter my Sprint cell phone number, my name, address and email address in the form when I sent this email.}

Sprint Reply #1
Dear Rob Hurt,

Thank you for contacting Sprint. I will be glad to assist you.

Sprint is committed to protecting customer privacy and security. Therefore, in order to provide account information, we need you to confirm the following:

a. The Account holder PCS Phone Number
b. The Account Holder email address of record
c. The Account Holder Mailing Address

Please reply to this email with the requested information and we will be happy to provide you the requested information.

Thank you for contacting us, and we look forward to serving you.

Tyler V.
Business E-Care
Sprint
"Where our customers come first!"

My Reply #1
a. (I gave them my cell number, again)
b. (I gave them my email address again)
c. (I gave them my address again)

I had to fill out all of this information when I sent the original email you are responding to here, but I appreciate your initiating follow-up.

Sprint Reply #2
Dear Rob Hurt,

Thank you for providing me the details.

Rob, I would like to suggest you to write back to this email with the page number of your invoice, on which the charges are incorrect so that I can assist you in the best possible way.

We value your business and always look forward to the opportunity to provide you excellent service now and in the future. Thank you and have a great day!

Albert J.
Business E-Care
Sprint
"Where our customers come first!"

My Reply #2
This is why I asked for a CALL from a supervisor. Two emails from two different people. I was hoping there was a PERSON would be willing to speak with me instead of a DEPARTMENT. If somebody had simply called, as I had asked, it would not take 5 emails back and forth to get to my issue.

I already called, a representative credited back what I was wrongfully charged. I asked to speak to a supervisor when I was on the phone and was told one was not available. So I emailed and asked for a supervisor to call.

Frustrated,
Rob Hurt

Sprint Reply #3
Dear Rob Hurt,

Thank you for your reply.

Rob, I understand that it has been really inconveniencing for you due to all these. Let me inform you that if you write back to this email with the invoice period so that I can resolve the issue in the single interaction. However, if you do not wish to resolve the issue with email interaction, I can arrange the callback for you.

Thank you for contacting Sprint, we were happy to assist you. Please feel free to write back if you have any other questions. Have a great day!

Albert J.
Business E-Care
Sprint
"Where our customers come first!"

Geesh! How many times do I have to ask for the call back?

Welcome Home Daddy

I didn't get in from our church men's retreat until 11pm or so last night, but this is what was waiting for me on the table when I walked in. It doesn't get much better than this!

I've Got My Eye on You

Amanda and Thumper in the Blue Bonnets

April 29, 2001

Another Archive Photo

This is another one of my favorite archive photos. This one was dated January 4, 2001. Amanda is wearing PaPa D's boots.

From the Archives

I was uploading pictures to my Flickr account tonight and ran across this picture. The picture info says it was taken December 15, 2000. It's good to see that at a young age my daughter enjoyed sharing in one of my favorite pastimes.

Cast Day

We went to see Dr. Quatro today to let her remove Amanda's splint, remove her stitches and put her in a cast.


This is the first time we've seen Amanda's incision. Dr. Quatro left the tape on under the new cast. She did one little snip on the stitches, and just as Amanda was beginning to cry she pulled one string and they all came out (under the tape).


Next, Dr. Quatro put a giant "sock" on Amanda's arm in preparation for the cast. What is not shown next is where Dr. Quatro and the nurse had to help Amanda increase the angle in the bend of her elbow before putting on the cast. Amanda's elbow has stiffened up from not being used, so there was a bit of yelling and crying, but she was a big girl and got through it.


Amanda chose a lime green cast. Dr. Quatro said today's x-rays showed Amanda's elbow has set well and everything looks good. The cast will be on for two weeks, then we go back, take the cast off and begin using the elbow again.

Another Visit to Rant and Reason

If you follow this blog, you know that I like to visit the blog of the American Humanist Association, Rant and Reason. I love the new name they have given their blog...it is so fitting.

I think I originally went there because I like to debate, but I believe God is changing my heart. My honest desire now is to two-fold:
1) try to understand how non-Christians view Christians and the world, and
2) to show these people who, for the most part, have considered their lives of non-belief in much more detail than most Christians I know have considered their faith, that Christianity is reasonable (I question their arguments and explain the Christian world view when I can) and compassionate (they hear from a lot of "Christian" people who tell them God hates them and they are going to hell...or some similar variation).

And I have noticed that as the tone of my comments to their blog postings have changed, the bloggers have been more open to discussion with me. Jesus talked to a lot of people who did not believe in Him. Although they did not yet believe, they wanted to hang out with Him and talk. That's kinda what I'm trying to do online...meet non-believers and talk with them about their world in their terms. I'm certainly not very natural at it yet, but I'm working on it. And I hope what I'm learning online I will be able to apply with people in the real world (even less 'natural' for me!).

And so I'd like to close with a copy/paste to my comment and the blogger's response to their posting Ousting Nuns for Clergy Settlement. Obviously my comment and her response will make more sense if you read the posting linked to here.

MY COMMENT
If I understand your post correctly, I share your moral outrage. But your closing comment was a bit disappointing, when you throw in “if this is representative of the values that the religious right says we atheists can’t have without God, well then thank goodness we don’t.” Who, in the ‘religious right’ is touting this particular case as an example of ‘morality’? I would fall into the group you categorize as the religious right, and I, too, am outraged at the cover up and the lack of severe consequences for those who committed AND covered up these crimes against children.

If there is someone in particular in the religious right that you know of who is defending this as ‘moral’, then say who it is so we can denounce it as wrong. If not, please don’t put words in our mouths and then attack us as if we said it ourselves.

On a side note, the more I have read (I did read “I Sold My Soul on Ebay” thanks to the review here) and conversed with atheists here and other places online, I have changed my opinion about atheists and morals. I have met a number of atheists who I have to say have definite moral/ethical standards, and sadly to me, a number of them have higher standards that many Christians. Obviously, it is the standard by which we establish or measure those values that we still disagree about.

BLOGGER'S REPLY
You’re right Rob it was a cheap shot and I apologize. I was very angry when I was writing but that’s no excuse. I’m sure the majority of people of all creeds or no creed we’re outraged by that particular action. Thank you for calling me on it.

I’m glad you got to read “I Sold My Soul on Ebay” and that you either enjoyed it or it had an impact on you. I’ve read some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich been moved by there writings and even some of your comments here. I know that I’m never right when I over generalize. I’m glad we keep moving the discussion along.

The Surgery - Live Blog

A new trend I have been picking up on is "Live Blogging". I did not have a live Internet connection this morning as Amanda went into surgery, but I 'blogged' on my Pocket PC so I could post it this evening.

6:00am
Good morning. The dogs are the only ones happy to be awake at this time of day. Our goal is to leave for North Richland Hills by 6:30am to allow for traffic and arrive there by 7:30am.

6:20am
Picture of Mommy and Amanda before we headed out.


6:25am
Mrs. Debi in driveway. Going to follow us to the hospital and stay with us to pray and offer moral support.

6:55am
Arrived early. Traffic not as bad as expected.

7:05am
Paperwork filled out. Watching Disney Channel. Took a picture with Mrs. Debi and with Daddy.




7:30am
Back to pre-op. Amanda got the official hospital gown and we had to wait. Amanda was very brave. A few tears and a few fears here and there, but she was a brave little girl. Amanda played games on the Pocket PC to pass the time and to keep her mind off what lay ahead.


8:15am
Dr. Quatro paid us a visit to let us know she was finished with her previous surgery and would soon be ready for Amanda. She explained that we should prepare for Amanda to be in surgery somewhere between and hour and an hour-and-a-half. Look at the brave girl smile!


8:30am
Nurse brought the 'giggle juice' to help Amanda relax. Another nurse, one who would be helping with the procedure also stopped by to say hello, check some notes, meet Amanda and assure here that they were going to take real good care of her. Everybody there was EXCELLENT with children. Just a little crying

8:42am
They took Amanda back for surgery. She teared up a little bit but was being brave. Mommy was trying to be brave, but she teared up more than just a little bit as Amanda disappeared around the corner.

8:45am
In the waiting room with Mrs. Debi and Mrs. Pat from church. We prayed, waited, called our parents and waited some more.

9:50am
A nurse came out and called for us. We are in a separate waiting room now. Nurse said Dr. Quatro would be in to discuss how the surgery went and then we could see Amanda in recovery soon.

10:00am
Dr. Quatro came in and said all went well and explained what all she did. After Amanda was asleep, she moved her arm all around trying to reduce the elbow (get it back in socket). It would not go. She then made an incision and checked the socket for debris that was keeping the elbow from going back in socket. Nothing was there, but the tissue around the joint had obviously moved into the vacancy previously (and rightly) occupied by her elbow! Once this tissue was gently moved back, the elbow went back into place easily. Dr. Quatro said she then worked the elbow 'quite hard' to see if it was going to pop out of place again and was pleased that it stayed as it should Amanda's arm was moved all around. Amanda was closed up, stitched up and put in a sling.

10:10am
We were allowed to go to recovery and see Amanda. Mrs. Debi and Mrs. Pat came with us. Wow, this was not fun. Amanda was crying and in distress. The nurse explained that Amanda had kicked and removed the IV from her foot before all of the 'coming out' medicine had been administered. She then explained that the very 'giggle juice' that made her so happy before surgery would make Amanda very emotional, and probably angry, coming out of the anesthesia. Since there was no IV, it was either let it work it's way out of her system or stick her again (which nobody wanted to do). For quite a while Amanda did not respond to our presence in the room. The first couple times she looked at us it was almost scary. Due to the drugs, she did not really recognize us and she looked...well, she just looked mean. I cannot describe the way her eyes looked other than to say it was definitely drug induced, and if I ever see a grown up holding a weapon in their hands with that same look in their eyes...I expect that to be the last thing I ever see! Mommy cried and loved on Amanda as only Mommies can. Eventually she could recognize and speak to us (telling us how badly her arm hurt).

11:00am
Going home. They sat Amanda up, got her in a wheel chair and we headed to the car. Mrs. Debi drive the car around while Mrs. Pat and Mrs. Barbara helped carry all of our stuff (clothes, pillow, backpack, new stuffed animals and a barf bowl) to the car. Thankfully the barf bowl was not needed on the way home and Amanda drifted off to sleep.

12:00 noon
We got Amanda home and situated on the couch in my office. Her arm hurt, so we just prayed and let her rest. All of the sudden she started whimpering and we wondered what caused her to hurt so badly all of the sudden. Then we found out...we found out why she whimpered suddenly and why they sent the barf bowl home! After a bit of clean up, we opened up the hide-away bed and got Amanda set up on that.

2:00pm
Both Amanda and Mommy were sleeping so Daddy went to work.

6:00pm
Mommy and Daddy ate dinner prepared by Mrs. Debi and Amanda had a Popsicle and some ice cream. Daddy and Boo came into the office to support and encourage Amanda (see picture).


8:00pm
Amanda went to bed. Thank you Jesus the day has gotten better! Amanda made it through the afternoon with no pain medicine, although we did give her some at bed time to help her sleep. It seems we are getting a little more accurate reading on the 'Amanda pain scale' now, too. Daddy felt really bad about telling Amanda to 'suck it up' (not in those exact terms) last week when we thought she had a sprain but her elbow was really dislocated, but Amanda also learned the lesson about being a hypochrondiac and saying every pain was excruciating. She is sleeping now and we are all feeing much better.

That Explains A Lot

We went to see the pediatric orthopedist today...Dr. Quatro (pictured right), about Amanda's elbow. She examined Amanda and took a ton of x-rays. She concurred that Amanda's elbow was indeed out of socket. Due to the fact that it came out of socket a second time, she said she thought there might be some cartilage or a bone fragment in the socket that kept it from going back into place properly. This would account for its tendency to pop out of socket so easily the second time. She wanted to line up surgery for Wednesday with the game plan being: put Amanda out with anesthesia at the outpatient clinic, try to reduce the elbow (put it back in place), try to pop it back out of place (to see if it was too easy), cut into the elbow if necessary, clean out the joint and reduce the elbow. Treatment would include a split or a hard cast.

Dr. Quatro mentioned she would really like to see the x-rays of the previous dislocation and the x-rays the hospital looked at the second time, but she could not read the CD the x-rays were on. The x-ray CDs came from the hospital. When we saw the first orthopedist, he just popped the CD into his computer and the CD loaded a program to view the x-rays. Since they gave us the x-ray CDs to take to Dr. Quatro, I popped them into my laptop last night and looked at them. Pretty cool! That is also where I got the x-ray for yesterday's post.

I told Dr. Quatro I had gotten the CD to open on my laptop, so she invited me to try it on hers. The CD did not auto-open, but I was able to open it by going to My Computer, right-click on the CD, select Explore and then double-click the program that is on the CD. It opened and she could view the CD.

Dr. Quatro said she could not tell anything from the initial x-ray (elbow x-rays are read more easily when the elbow is bent at a 90 degree angle, but when it is dislocated, that cannot happen). Almost as soon as she saw the x-ray of Amanda's elbow after it had been reduced and put in a splint the first time, she said, "Oh yeah, there's the problem. That never reset correctly. There is something in there."

That statement made me feel better. First of all, the doctor's "educated guess" that she had shared with us earlier based on her experience and having never seen the x-ray was proven correct (she was a good doctor). Secondly, I felt better knowing that the doctor had an idea what to expect and game plan to fix the problem. The x-ray also explained a lot as to why Amanda's elbow popped out of joint so easily (it was not my fault for taking her for a bike ride!) and it gave us a little more assurance that is should not be a problem in the future.

The Drama Continues

If you didn't know, this is what the x-ray of a dislocated elbow looks like. This is the x-ray from Amanda's first trip to the hospital. Obviously the doctors could tell it was dislocated, so they told us it was, and they fixed it. That was August 23rd.

Then there was the bike wreck on October 1st. Another trip to the ER, and apparently the x-ray was not as clear this time. The doctor said it was just a sprain, wrapped Amanda's elbow and sent us home.

And there was quite a bit of pain. Unfortunately for Amanda, she is a bit of a hypochondriac, so we did not realize how bad her elbow may have been hurting. Until today that is. We went to see the orthopedist, and he was surprised Amanda could not move her elbow yet. He looked at the x-ray from the hospital and said he could not tell anything from that. He took some more x-rays and determined that Amanda's elbow had indeed popped out of joint again...and it has been out of joint for a week now!

So the drama continues. Tomorrow we go see a pediatric orthopedist and probably schedule Amanda for an operating room on Wednesday. They will knock her out and see if her arm will relax enough to be put back into joint. If not, they will go immediately into surgery to fix it. Of course Amanda is afraid of surgery and Daddy is panicking over skyrocketing medical bills on top of seeing his little girl cry.

Waffles for Breakfast

AISD schools were closed for Columbus Day, so I took the day off so Amanda would not have to hang out a church all day. Amanda woke up around 9:00am and knew what she wanted as soon as her feet hit the floor. "Can we have waffles for breakfast, Daddy?". By the time I got to the kitchen to start making the waffle mix, Amanda had her little yellow chair pulled out as a stool and had her apron on. Amanda fixed the mix and I did the cooking.


And here is Amanda enjoying the fruit of her labor.

365

Daddy's New Medicine

Wednesday morning at 5:00am I was very tired. Brooke and I had both been up with Amanda much of the night Tuesday night, Brooke had been up with her for a couple hours earlier Wednesday night, and then Amanda came to wake me up at 5:00am crying with elbow pain. I brought her back down to the couch in my office, prayed for her and explained that I could not give her any medicine yet. She had already asked for it 3 times.

We had been giving her Ibuprofen rather than the Hydrocodone that she got a prescription for at the hospital because it seemed to be helping more, but we were getting concerned that she was taking it every four hours for almost 2 days. Besides that, as she asked for her medicine a fourth time, I realized the medicine had become a "miracle cure" for her. Five minutes after taking the medicine, Amanda would say she was feeling better. Ibuprofen does not work that quickly.

I'm not sure if it was sleep deprivation or divine revelation, but I told Amanda, "I cannot give you any more of your regular medicine, but let me see if I can find something else. I left her on the couch and went to the kitchen. I found her little medicine cup, grabbed some of Brooke's Fuze vitamin fruit drink, poured it into the cup then tried to figure out some way to make it taste like medicine. The refrigerator door was open and the Pepto Bismol was right there, so I grabbed it and put just a drop or two in the mix. I stirred it up and presented it to Amanda as pain relieving medicine. I say this in all honesty...her pain subsided within 2 minutes and within 10 minutes she was asleep again!

After the second use, Amanda became a bit suspicious (the lack of a medicine bottle and the distinct Pepto taste), but it worked twice and that was enough to get us through the rough spots. We are down to medicine once in the morning and once at night, so 'Daddy's new medicine' did the trick.

It's Like Groundhog Day or Something

Deja vu? You are wondering "What happened?" and I'm wondering "How did that happen?"

You may recall that on Thursday, August 23rd Amanda fell off a skateboard and dislocated her elbow. You can read about it now if you did not already know, but we went to the ER, had it set and then went home. After it was set, there was not much pain. Three weeks later, we saw a specialist who took the splint off, said another six weeks of no limited activity (no monkey bars, skateboards, biking, etc) and we were good to go.

So on Monday, with a week to go on the forbidden activities, I asked Amanda if she would like to go for a bike ride. After all, I reasoned, we've never had a big bike crash.

By this time, anybody reading this post knows what happened. We had been riding a little over 5 miles and were on our way home when Amanda decided to race. I saw the sharp turn coming up in the sidewalk and was about to caution "slow down"...but it was too late. She wiped out and skidded along the sidewalk. I knew she was gonna be scratched up, but my first thought was "at least her elbow will be OK."

As soon as the bike stopped, Amanda jumped up and yelled something that hit me right in the gut, hard..."Daddy, my elbow." I ran over to her and told her it would be OK. I then asked her to move the elbow and she said she couldn't. She cried and held it like she did before. And the flood began..."how are we going to get home?" "why did I suggest bike riding?" "how are we going to pay for another visit to the ER?" (and then again) "why did I suggest bike riding?". Guilt, panic and fear. So I (very UNcalmly) called Brooke and said, "Get in the car and come pick us up by the new library. Amanda crashed on her bike and popped her elbow out of joint again."

When Brooke arrived, I was so worked up I could not get the bikes broken down enough to fit into the car. Amanda was crying, Brooke was upset and I was just freaking out. I don't usually freak out, but I was not handing it all very well.

We came home, dropped off the bikes, let Amanda change clothes (all dirty from wreck) and headed to the ER. We noticed that the elbow did not seem quite as bad as last time, but she was crying and in lots of pain. The wait at the ER was longer this time, and that was VERY hard. They took an x-ray (again, we noticed the pain in moving the arm for this did not seem as bad as last time) and then waited some more. I bet I paced 5 miles waiting for them to come give her something for the pain.

The ER doctor came to see us (same one from last time) and told us the good news that her elbow was sprained and not broken or dislocated. They put her in another splint and sling and sent us home with a prescription for Hydrocodone and orders to make another appointment with the specialist.

Guess what...after getting put into a splint, sprains are MUCH more painful than dislocations. After Amanda's dislocated elbow was set, she needed some Ibuprofen that night and once or twice the next day, but she was good to go. Not so this time. We were up all hours of the night Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night. Amanda did not go to school Tuesday or Wednesday.

Last night, Thursday, Amanda was able to sleep through the night on the couch in my office. She is sleeping there now as I write this, and we are hoping to have another full night of sleep again tonight. Each day gets better. Thankfully.

Why, oh why, did I suggest bike riding?

Minor Vehicle Repair

This is "new to us" truck we just got at the church. It is a 2002 V-6 Ford F150. We will use it for hauling stuff from Home Depot, hauling brush, picking up equipment, etc.


The previous owner installed custom tail lights, one of which was busted. Since we could not find a matching replacement, I bought factory replacements. Amanda was playing with the tools and was fascinated by the socket wrench, so I showed her how to use it to loosen the bolts to take off the tail light.

Next I showed her how to take the old cover off, unscrew the bulbs and how the new ones would screw in.

Amanda watched me do one and then she did the other one all by herself. She could literally change a tail light by herself now.

No Cat In The Hat Here

This is one of three baby bunnies we found in the yard yesterday. I scooped each one of them up in my hat and moved them to the bushes for safety so I could mow.

Baby Come Home!

Right after lunch on Wednesday, I took Brooke to the airport. She left for Kansas City for a children's leader conference Thursday-Saturday. My wife would claim it is because God loves her, but she has a friend who lives in KC that she was able to visit Saturday night through Monday. I say that because her friend was also able to get the tickets to the opening home game of the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. To hear Brooke talk, this was almost a religious experience!

So Brooke is coming home tomorrow. She caught a flight that would bring her home after Amanda gets out of school because she knew Amanda would want to go with me to pick her up. I'm glad Brooke enjoyed the conference and got to visit "heaven", but I am so very glad she is coming home tomorrow. I don't think I could make it much longer.

Whenever Mommy is going to be out of town (or at least gone for a night), it is always time to plan a Daddy/Daughter date night. We had one of those Saturday night, and it was fun. But I think when Mommy is gone, Amanda unwraps that string she has wrapped around her little finger (her Daddy), grabs both ends and gives it a tug just to see how loudly she can make it sing. Amanda hasn't been bad, but this weekend she seems to have been operating under the mistaken impression that the world revolves around her. I've tried to bring a little balance to her world view and I think we have come to an understanding.

Boy, the whole single parent thing is much more complicated than it looks from the outside! Every time I have several days alone with Amanda, I gain a new respect for single parents I know. No matter how well I organize my time, it seems I do not have time for everything that has to be done. Just the cooking alone is killing me! I hate to come right home from work and cook, but if I don't, the time just gets away from me and then it's late. And then today. There was nothing that felt easy to fix for lunch after Church, and I didn't want to take Amanda to McDonalds again. We had to run by the store to get milk anyway, so I grabbed some Chicken Helper to make Chicken Alfredo because Amanda thought that sounded good (if McDonalds was out). By the time we got home and I fixed it, it was after 2pm. I took Amanda over to a friend's at 5pm for dinner.

Between the little bit of cooking I have been doing, the one load of clothes I have done, the little bit of keeping up with Amanda's school work and running Amanda back and forth to spend-the-night parties, birthday shopping, etc, I am spent. OK, I'll admit it, I'm a wimp. It hasn't even been a week and I can't wait for Brooke to get back.

So these past few days have confirmed what I already knew...I need my wife! I'm glad she could get away, go to a good conference and then relax this weekend, but I'm counting the hours until I pick her up tomorrow night.

Baby, come home!

Biking and Geocaching

Brooke is out of town for a children's conference and Amanda went straight from school to a friend's house to spend the night. Could there be any more perfect time for geocaching? I started off biking an 11 cache series (I found 9 of them) along a trail in North Arlington (see map). Since I grabbed one earlier today (one I had not been able to find on two previous attempts), I needed just 5 more to make 15 for the day. It was getting dark by the time I got to the last one, but I found it and ended the day as a happy geocacher.

An Opportunity, an Honor...and Just Plain Fun

There is a couple at our church who has a son who is a Special Forces marine. He is on leave now and will be going back to Iraq (volunteered this time) for his third tour at the end of the month. I was told he was interested in taking his new Springfield XD40 (chambered in .45 ACP) to the range. Rather than just tell him where the range was, I volunteered to go shooting with him, and today was the day we went.

The whole time he was coming to pick me up, I kept telling myself, "Don't act like a little kid gawking at a super hero". That may sound silly, but I love to read about guys like this...let alone getting to spend time talking to him. If I wasn't called to ministry, and if I wasn't such a wimp, I would love to do what these guys do (I'm not afraid of what they do, I just know I would never survive the training!). He told me about a book titled No True Glory. He said it was a well-written and accurate book about the fighting he was a part of in Fallujah. You know I will be checking that book out from the library soon or heading over to Amazon if they don't have it!

We talked about a lot of stuff ranging from the false picture the US media gives of what is going on there, the progress being made there and attitudes of the soldiers there, to the kinds of weapons he trains with, to some of the stuff he had trained to do, to hanging upside down from a rope from a helicopter and shooting.

He told me his parents weren't too happy about him volunteering for his third tour in Iraq. He got blown up during his first tour (something about his intestines no longer being on his insides, I think!) and his mother getting the call and thinking that he had been killed. He said this will probably be his last tour, but he explained, "I get to blow up stuff, shoot cool guns and jump out of airplanes. I don't have to pay to do these things...I get paid to do it. It's like every guy's dream." If it didn't come with the possibility of getting your guts blown out (or worse), who could argue with that?

So hopefully I sounded interested in what he did and didn't sound like an idiot. What an awesome opportunity, and what an honor, to spend a couple hours with a guy like this who serves his country with honor, integrity and skill.

Geocaching Chance of a Lifetime?

Got an email from a friend today. Couldn't take advantage of the offer for a number of reasons, but wow, what an opportunity that would have been!

A quick question for you... Are you going to the HIP event in Plano this Sunday? We are coming up Saturday morning and caching along the way but will arrive at the hotel in Plano sometime Saturday afternoon or evening.

Before and after the Sunday event, we will cache as late as possible then the cool part.
We are caching with Team NAB Monday all day. We knew of them before our Nashville run and happened to run into them while going nuts in Nashville, ditched the rent car and went with them, GeoPirat, Cash & Kari and nashpredfan for the remainder of the day. They are very nice and calm people. Since then, we have kept up with them and they have suggested this cache adventure on Monday.

If you are not familiar with their cachemobile, you would not believe me if I told you everything in that van. First it is a Mercedes stand up van that holds probably 11 people. The thing is so awesome it even has a GPS repeater inside of it. Yes, a repeater so nobody will loose satellite lock while in it. This van falls just short of looking like Mission Control inside.

Anyway, they have invited us to cache with them Monday and have told me there are 3 seats open for other people. I guess they don't want too many people in it for this one.

If they have not given away the available seats yet, would you be interested in me checking into you getting a seat for the outing? We will probably get 85-100 finds. We are hoping for that amount anyway. Rhonda and I have a really tough goal before or on our 3rd year of caching and this will help. It should take us from 17th to 15th place in the Texas rankings if we can pull it off.

If you are interested, I will check into it and see if there are any available seats. It would be cool to see you again and to introduce you to one of the best known cachers in the USA.

What About Breakfast?

I woke up this morning at 6am and had to make a brief run to the restroom...which of course made the dogs feel they needed to do the same, so I let them outside. I considered staying up but decided the extra hour of sleep would feel good. The dogs and I crawled back in bed (Brooke left for KC for a conference, so she wasn't there).

It didn't take long to get back to sleep, and boy, that extra hour felt like two...actually, it was two! I woke up, feeling great, and rolled over to see how much time I had until my 7am alarm went off. As Gomer Pyle would have said, "Surprise, surprise, surprise"...it was 2 minutes until 8:00. The bell at Amanda's school rings at 8:20am.

I jumped out of bed, woke up Amanda and told her, "Punkin, it's 8 o'clock. We are supposed to be leaving for school right now. If you hurry, I think we can make it before the bell rings." Her response? "What about breakfast?" She had been awake all of 10 seconds, and that was on her mind already.

So the short version is, Amanda was dressed and had her hair combed and looking pretty by the time I was dressed and ready to leave. She ate a banana, we stopped by church to grab her notebook (we accidentally left it there yesterday), grabbed a granola bar out of my desk and got Amanda to school before the bell rang. I went back home, grabbed a shower, fixed her lunch and got it to her before morning snack time.

All of that excitement and a "funny" story to tell Mommy to boot!

Some Days Your Parents Make You Proud...

...this just isn't one of those days!

It's That Love/Hate Relationship Again

Aaaggghhhhh! If you Google any of the major cell phone companies, you can find unhappy people...and Sprint is no exception. I was searching for this logo to use in my blog post and found out that Sprint has actually canceled contracts because people have spent too much time calling customer service! Who, in their right mind, would call Sprint customer service if it was not absolutely necessary (as in 'a necessary evil')?

After these past two days, I may be on their list. In the last two days, I have spent 2 hours and 45 minutes on the phone with customer service. You see, I just added a fifth line to my account so that my parents could switch from Cingular/AT&T to Sprint. I've got extra Family Plan minutes and they have no more contract with AT&T. They will be paying just $20/month for their two phones and I'll save minutes by being able to call them mobile-to-mobile. Seemed like a good idea for both of us. So the plan was to port their Cingular numbers over to my Sprint account and close their account. Sounds simple enough, right?

Let me make the LONG (2 hour, 45 minute) story short. There is an old saying, "It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know." With Sprint, it's not WHAT you say, it's WHO you talk to. I talked to 2 people for a combined time of 2 hours this week (that does not count 30 minutes of hold time just to start the process!). There was a 'password' problem porting the numbers over to my account. I explained what I was trying to do, explained that AT&T already knew what was going on and explained all we need was for Sprint to 'do their thing'. After repeatedly being transferred to one non-native-English-speaker after another (2 hours, 2 phone calls), I was finally transferred to a nice lady who asked, once again, "How may I help you." When I explained how much time I had spent with customer service over the past two days, she seemed to take a genuine interest in solving my problem...and solve it she did. I am not exaggerating when I say 2 MINUTES after I explained what I was trying to do and what the problem was, she had it fixed! Both lines have been switched (when I call, I get Sprint voice mail), and now all I am waiting for is for the phones to be activated.

So my love/hate relationship with Sprint continues. One minute they are giving me two free phones and 600 more minutes for less money that I was paying before, and the next call they are reading from a script with a hard-to-understand accent seemingly not interested in helping me solve a problem.

If I lived in the country where the majority of Sprint customer service representatives appear to be from, I guess I would be happy knowing it is time for my cell phone karma to change for the better once more!

Solomon Says...

When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise. -- Proverbs 10:19

Perhaps a Better Title Would Be...

...I Reasoned Myself Away From God.

I eagerly began reading I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing faith through the eyes of an atheist's eyes about a week ago. You can read here how I found the book and the reviews I read if you did not catch my earlier blog post.

As I read the first part of the book, I thought I would be moving it to the "Good Reads" section along the right hand side of my blog, but then I got into the "critiques" of the churches Mr. Mehta (a.k.a "the Friendly Atheist") visited, and a knot just grew in my stomach.

The first part of the book was quite eye-opening and exactly what I had hoped it would be...an introduction to Hemant Mehta, an explanation of the eBay auction that started this book, a brief history of what led him to be an atheist (a well thought out route) and a glimpse into what it is like to live as an atheist in America. He shared the "challenges" he and other atheists face living in a "Christian nation", the biases he has experienced and a description of how he feels most Christians perceive atheists.

Two thoughts crossed my mind as I read Mr. Mehta's life story (the little bit he shared in the book): 1) he is a person I would enjoy sitting down and talking with and 2) I firmly believe that had he been alive in Jesus' lifetime, he would have sought out Jesus to talk with him. Mr. Mehta seems like the most open-minded atheist I have read or conversed with on the Internet (granted, that is not a huge pool!).

But once he got into the real "purpose" of the book, to share his experiences, insights and thoughts after visiting at least 15 Christian churches, my hopes for the book were crushed. I was pretty sure, based on the fact that this book was touted on the Rant and Reason humanist blog I frequent, that the author was not converted after visiting these churches. But I hoped, obviously against reason, that the author's responses would be different than those of the few atheists/humanists I have chatted with online.

To say I hoped, against reason, is kinda ironic in this case because I believe "reason" or "logic" to be the atheist's "god". And that is what crushed me as I read about Mr. Mehta's visits to various churches. He did make a number of comments that were helpful in understanding the way a non-Christian who has never been in a church would perceive certain things that go on in a church. But much too often, he just missed the point because he funneled everything through the filter of reason and logic.

Please don't get me wrong...I believe my Christian faith to be very reasonable and logical, but the Bible plainly states: Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Those to come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6...and the verse from where I get the root off my email address). The Bible also says in Romans 8:5, For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.

Since I have taken so long to get to this point, I will leave you with just two examples of "missing the point" in this book. The first small example was when he was talking about the different forms or "moves" in Christian worship such as lifting one hand, lifting two hands, holding the hands over the heart, pointing toward heaven, hands raised but elbows to the side, etc. His observation: "were people trying to "out worship" those around them?" I suppose it is possible (I have seen some kooky Christians), but the comment also serves to show he has no understanding of a personal relationship with Christ that would draw one to raise hands in worship or hold one's hand over his/her heart.

The second, and last example I will share was his stressing of the physical to the exclusion of the spiritual (which is only "logical" to an atheist who does not believe in the supernatural). For instance, he stressed many times how he was impressed with churches that met real, physical needs (which we should do). However, he seemed to see no value at all in new churches being planted. His view was that resources should be used to feed people instead of build churches. Obviously the church should meet the physical needs of those we are trying to reach with the Gospel, but Mr. Mehta missed the point...we believe there is value in teaching someone about Christ and saving his/her soul from hell. While we should not preach without meeting needs, he thought the church would be better off meeting needs only. And there is no "logical" way to explain it to him.

I said the latter part of the book left a knot in my stomach. I say that because it was just a repeat of my limited interaction with atheists/humanists. There is no way to "debate somebody into heaven". And yet, those who have thought their way into atheism (that is, who have considered the options and found atheism to be the best answer), seem willing to accept nothing less. Mr. Mehta claims if he saw a miracle in person, that would be enough to cause him to convert to Christianity. Yet I believe everything he says in his book demonstrates that he would find some "natural" way to explain it and would find no need for faith.

And that is what puts a knot in my stomach. I had hoped to better understand people like the author of this book and those who write for Rant and Reason. I think I understand "their world" a little better, but I don't think I gained a thing to help reach them for Christ.

(Almost) Camping This Weekend

We almost went camping this weekend. Well, we sorta went camping this weekend. OK, what I mean is Amanda and I camped with my parents in their new camper on Friday night, Brooke came in the morning and had breakfast with us all, we went home, Sunday night Amanda camped with them again and Monday morning we all had breakfast together. So we camped, we just did a lot of other stuff in between. The picture above is Amanda in her "fort" on the top bunk bed in the camper.


The ultimate camping meal...hamburgers! What's that? Yes, you are correct...I think hamburgers are the best meal any time!!


We went to a nature talk about owls in the park on Friday night. In this picture, Amanda is either holding an invisible, one-legged owl or a display owl foot from the presentation.

Turtle Doctoring?

This is turtle #4, Gina. Before she came to us she had been hit by a car. The back part of her shell that is jointed and can close up her shell had been injured. This part protrudes downward and scrapes on the ground. She was scratched up and starting to bleed last week, so I cleaned the area, put antibiotic ointment on it and taped it for a few days to help keep it clean. Right now she is eating and walking around, so I guess she OK, although I suspect that part of her shell hurts. We are going to continue feeding her and keeping her wound clean. From there, we'll have to see what happens.

50...Say It Ain't So

Our church secretary and good friend Tammy Barch celebrated a "significant milestone birthday" this past weekend and we celebrated with her. Here are a few pictures from the party!

Daddy's Girl