and then there's me

did you ever play the game on sesame street about which item doesn't belong? well here is one for you. take a look at me sandwiched between the president of syniverse technologies and john major, former prime minister of great britain. oh, and then there's the olympic guy. now you tell me the Father doesn't have a sense of humor. i can almost hear the sesame street music playing in the background.

'cause i'm big now

do you remember when you were little and you wanted ice cream for breakfast and you were told no for whatever reason and you said to yourself that when you were big you would eat whatever you wanted? well today is my day to celebrate being big, not fat mind you - i celebrate that every day- just big.

i started the morning off with chocolate cake. the kind with big chocolate chips and some sort of gooey icing. then i went to the grocery store to purchase one of my favorite drinks, Stewart's Original Cherries 'n Cream Fountain Classics (with a 6 word name you know it must be good). I then purchased a coffeecake for the office of which i ate too much for everyone to be able to partake. I shouldn't leave out that i rode the basket from the store to my car. that always makes folks look. usually you don't see people in business dress riding a shopping cart, but today is my "I'm big day" so i can do whatever i want.

hang on a minute...i think i'm feeling a little ooey... gotta run!!!

tiny tyler's tavern

i came home from lunch the other day and tyler had a sign on the front door that said "Ty's BBQ" and he met me there with a menu that he had created. inside the house he had a table set up with food, drinks, and more of his created signs like kitchen, do not enter, closed, and so on. of course he didn't cook or anything like that, he just took the food and figured out a way to market it. before i get any child abuse emails...no, i didn't make him watch the apprentice with me and i don't take him to tony robbins seminars, he just did this on his own.

anyway it is fun to see a barely 7 year old be creative in this way. it makes me wonder in big ways what he may be when he gets older. i sometimes see him as a televangelist except that his preacher hair is real and his ethical code too high. then i see him as a lawyer, but i come back to the hair and ethical thing again. how about the circus? maybe he could replace barnum and bailey's greatest show on earth with a whole new version. yep, that's it. i'd better start teaching him to play the accordion and pipe organ. hmmm.

i walked into tyler's room last night and he was reading his new bible given to him by the gideons. it was neat to see him thumbing through it. of course when he said "daddy, it has too many johns in it, did i get a messed up one?" i just had to laugh. at least he was observant enough to notice.

my dad is down here visiting for a few days and whenever i speak with him i am reminded how young he seems to be. it's kinda funny because he has been pastoring and youth pastoring a chinese church in CA for almost 15 years and he has always connected with multiple age groups. i laugh when i see pastors my age that talk and act like 75 year old preachers. is that supposed to be more God-like? it just bores me silly and just plain seems fake. someone please straighten me up if i ever get like that.

i haven't spoken much of my wife's new job, but it really is somewhat of a miracle, except that she is not getting paid, that part sucks. long story short...she is the interim principal at a lutheran school. that sounds well and good, but the irony is that the school is part of a church of controlling, elderly german lutherans. i mean, you don't wash the windows without permission, really. for us we just don't do that. i mean one of the reasons we quit going to a local baptist church was because of the politics and rules and they are 10 times as progressive as this lutheran community (actually progressive is not a word to describe either place). well 2 weeks into the job i must admit that the folks at this church are amazing. they have showed complete support for dianna and what she is doing. they have come into the church and found me with a drill in my hand and a deer-in-the-headlights look and have asked to help. we have routinely refused to ask the committees or follow the "rules" (sorry, i know i use quotes a lot and that probably bugs some of you) of the board or whatever in order to expedite the desperate needed change and God has blessed it. i don't mean to say that he has blessed our breaking of the rules, just that he has covered the whole process in such a way that it works for both parties. dianna has done an amazing amount of work in a very short time and so far the congregation just wants to know how to help. i've never experienced this in any religious organization anywhere.

it's one of those things where the Father must just be laughing at me with all the post modern books and websites i like to frequent and then he teaches me a lesson from a 90 year old german lady (really, she is 90!). i am so thankful to be in the place of blessing that we are. true the money could be better, but the return is already excellent. i'm sure you'll be reading more about this over the next few weeks.

breathe!

big, big meeting going on upstairs today...one that may determine if i stay an employee of FSW. hmmm, maybe i should be doing something besides blogging...

hey go look at the holy cross lutheran school site that i put up. it's only a one pager while i work on something better. anyway, i hate sites that suck so hopefully this one has some class (no pun intended). PAX

ok, so here i am at my 2nd little league baseball game and this other coach comes over and says "NO MORE T" (as in T-ball). well, that's fine and all, but that is kinda the point of the league. my kid is barely 7 weighing a little more than the bat and now he's supposed to just grow up and play like the big boys. what the hell. first i want to absolutely injure this coach in some very painful manner and then i want to scream at all the parents for letting this happen - neither of which i did. just for the record, the rules allow for the T to be used.

did i drink too much and mistakenly pray for patience again??

i heard from two good friends of mine today that shared what God was doing in their lives. it was probably the most refreshing thing i have heard in quite some time. i guess for me it seems that the christian "walk" is at times more like the christian hampster wheel. sometimes you walk, sometimes you run, sometimes a little energy is spent, sometimes you give it everything you've got. regardless though it seems as if you you stay in the same place. the question then becomes, is it God or me that is causing me to stay in one place, one situation, one whatever. ok, so that may be a rhetorical question, but then again, is it?

dunno, and i'm sure not going to venture an answer tonight. i will sleep soundly just being comforted that the Father still moves among his people. that's all i need right now.

had to do a little guy stuff yesterday, so my buddy nick and i went out in the country to do some target practice. we took a handful of .22 rifles and pistols, deer rifles, military rifles, and various other weapons of minor destruction. it was a perfect day. well, any day that you go into the sporting goods section and buy ammo buy the 500 count (and of course one box is never enough) you know it's going to be fun. before it was all over we even managed to launch a flaming butane tank about 100 ft into the air - now that's how a country/city boy has fun. and i should add that we had lunch at one of those places where the bathrooms are labeled Bucks and Does. whatta day!!

gee, another week flown by...

i did go to the final 4 championship game on monday nite and had a great time. i took a local clergyman, friend, and major basketball fan, david willingham, with me. we had a great time of talking about our ideas of ministry, truth, faith, and even some sports. it was a sweet time.

on a different note - dianna is now the interim principal at the school tyler attends - holy cross lutheran school - the place where the pastor slapped the kid during a chapel service a few years ago. anyway, the school is trying to re-make itself. they have a new pastor that has a business background and years of ministry in the watts area of LA, they have hired a local PR person to help with the bad press, and we just had roadrunner internet installed, and a new network is going in, and we are going to buy a bunch more Macs (notice that i capitalized this word which means that i hold it in high regard - caps don't show up too often in my blog - never mind the LA one, it just works better that way) and i am even looking at the Mac PowerSchool product - if you are a teacher and you know anything about PS then please let me know.

that's about all. we still don't know anything about tyler's surgery...that's a really weird deal.

have a happy thursday.

final 4 anyone

had an interesting weekend...

i received a call from a friend on friday asking if i would be interested in 4 tickets to the NCAA final 4 playoffs in san antonio. as it turned out, they had 2 tickets to see the playoffs on sat and 2 tickets to the championship on monday. believe it or not, i had to make some calls to find someone who could / would go. dianna and i ended up going on sat and had a really good time. the folks we were with is the president and wife of a company that i work closely with in my wireless adventure and we were able to talk a little business, a little family, and a little of everything else. overall, a really nice time - except that the team we both wanted to win...didn't.

monday should also be a great time as i will be taking a local minister who loves b-ball. i'll enjoy the visit with him more than the game. i'll fill you in on the details of that later on.

now go plant something in your garden. PAX!