The date has been set

ok, so let me catch up. the texas children's hospital called this morning to recommend tyler for his next surgery and we set the date for march 29th. we are still unclear as to how involved this will be or how long the hospital stay will be or how to even discuss it with tyler. he knows that this is likely to happen, but up until now has always had a hope that it wouldn't be needed. pray for him that he will not stress out over this one - leave that to us.

yesterday i was informed that i have a new boss (again for the 4th time in 10 months) - bill stacy. he is currently the director of marketing for us which means that he likes to spend money. our hope is that he will allow us to spend our way back to success. i know it sounds like a republicanesque type of idea, but when it comes to technology, the biggest spender is usually the winner.

at clay street we have had an electrician there for about a week running new lines and re-wiring switches and what not. i am excited to finally have a ton of this done. of course while verifying that the new electrical does in deed work, i discovered that the sacred mirrored ball has indeed experienced some sort of abuse. with the spot light burnt out and the tiny little carabiner that holds the ball to the rotor missing, my stress level has reached an all time high (not really). i am certainly convinced that the longer you are involved in christian ministry, the longer the list of names of people you need to kill, if you could ever find the time. i guess with such little time, it would be better to spend time teaching the passion of christ instead of anything else of such a destructive nature.

what else? oh yeah. my friend jeremiah has redone his blog page and of course it looks great. it is becoming more evident each day that i am going to have to break down and learn some code so i don't have such a chump blog site anymore, but there again, so little time.

have a great week.

ad campaign for clay street

ok, so let me know what you think and yes i know, my feedback option still doesn't work, sorry. by the way, it is still being worked on so you have to endure the layout guides, they obviously won't appear in production. the logo is nathan's handiwork, i can't take credit for that.

i'm in (not really sunny) long beach, california for the rest of the week visiting with my dad and going to a telecom conference in san diego. we visited probably the hippest library i have ever seen, complete with electronic everything as long as it had the word mac on it - really i don't think there was a pc in the whole complex - note to self.

we crossed a picket line to buy some groceries, visited the most excellent video production system of any ministry i have ever seen (i tried to get out the door with a new sony dv cam, but got caught), and ate some great sea food. we have had a really good time.

today we are on our way to san diego, one of my favorite places on the earth. i am so looking forward to it

doesn't play well with others

ok, so i klepto'd the title from a bumper sticker, but it fits.

all my life i have wanted to play keyboard in a band or by myself or whatever. i haven't really worked hard at that goal, it's just something i've wanted to do. kinda like watching the olympics and saying "i wish i could be an olympic skater" but reality says you have two left feet and you live 250 miles from the nearest patch of artificial ice.

well i've been given to opportunity to play keyboard at clay street and i so want to do it. long story short is that 35 years of playing my own thing translates into the fact that i can't follow rhythms and beats of normal everyday musicians - which is pretty important. it's a real hard pill to swallow 'cause deep inside i can play, but i play to my own metronome. part of me says that the music is so good already that i don't want to take a chance of messing it up, and part of me says to quit making excuses and dodging a chance to learn something. anyway, hopefully the father can use me in this area somehow.

we don't have a verdict just yet but you can certainly tell from the photos that something is amiss. we should hear from the doctor later in the week concerning what they want to do.

the picture on the left is tyler's bad side, the picture on the right is his good side and how a normal shoulder should look.

reggie asked me to fill in on bass this next week and i am so excited to be able to play matt redman's song "blessed be your name" - one of my new favorites. yippee.

we had a cat scan of tyler's shoulder and upper torso this morning. lemme tell you - there's nothing like doing an internal fly-by of all the major organs of your son. i was certainly impressed as i watched on the monitor. unfortunately the scan seemed to show exactly what we thought...his right shoulder is messed up...the term FUBAR comes to mind, but then i'm not a doctor so i shouldn't use technical terms like this, huh?

the 5th time's a charm

we made it to houston and back safely - ptl - it was nasty weather for most of the trip.

the surgery that we thought we would have to have in a few months has been changed to another one. because we are literally on the edge of the medical science in this area, the protocol changes periodically. apparently since our last appointment, the childrens hospital's 3D rendering software for cat scans has changed dramatically and now they can see what the root cause of the problem is and not just a symptom. the doc felt certain that he knew what the problem was, but just to be sure he has ordered one of these new scans. after this surgery (a removal of part of the shoulder bone) tyler should have much more range of motion with his arm. we are certainly pleased with the new discovery, but at the same time dismayed that we have to go through this again. it never gets easier, the pain just grows deeper.

fate awaits

we return to the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston on Thursday of next week to determine if Tyler needs more surgery. please pray that he doesn't need this next one (his 5th surgery).

i think i am comforted more by the questions than i am the answers. or maybe it is just that i don't really trust those giving the answers, dunno.

by the way, i am working on the feedback part of my blog, i just haven't placed the tags in the right area. don't give up hope.

Happy New Year!

I thought i'd start the new year with a bang and write on my blog - so here it is.

:) Kerry

had my usual wednesday guys meeting earlier in the week and while there we talked about the christmas service on the 21st. we have been talking about showing pictures of people's childbirth moments (directly after birth, not the Discovery Channel rated R type stuff) and i brought up that we need to remember that for some folks childbirth is not a positive emotional time but a very painful time. no sooner had i said anything, one of the guys there said "i knew you'd bring that up, i was just waiting for it" - like this was my own personal prison and i was all too eager to lock everyone else up in with me. wow, and these are my so-called "christian" friends.

you know, maybe i'm completely wrong and subconsciously am trying to spoil everyone else's perfect birth moment experience, but the way i look at it, the Father gave us our experience for a reason. one of those reasons was to make us (Dianna and I) sensitive to others who have had issues in this area. i don't think it is too much to ask that church service planners remember this and keep in mind that there may be others out there that don't connect the way their perfect little family experience does.

want examples...ok, how about the viola's who had their son die during delivery when the cord wrapped around his neck, about 2 years ago this month. how about the behrends who had their young child die during a swimming accident last summer and now they have to spend their first christmas with only his memory. do i need to go on? christmas can be a time of great joy or great sadness. surely it is wise to understand that and demonstrate what the coming of the christ-child has to offer in that respect. or is that just a bother, like me?

so sick of cheap churchy cliches and sayings, sick that followers of Christ accept them as words from the Master, and even more sick that we think we can win the world by tossing out these cheap stupid sayings that only those on the inside know what the hell they mean anyway.

turn or burn - get right or get left - i've proven the truth to you so now decide your eternal fate - NOW!!!

ENOUGH ALREADY.

new family pics

i'm a sucker for a trial membership to almost anything. the most current one is smugmug. it seems to be one of the best photo sites without having to know much code. go check it out here and let me know what you think.

Pax!

another 23 bite the dust

i was going to say another one bites the dust on thursday when my boss quit but i thought that would have sounded rude, but now that 23 were let go on friday i guess i could have said anything i wanted - anything would have paled in comparison to 23. i must stop my comments at this point...i don't want to be number 24.

well another one of our management team quit today - our executive vp and general manager of kerrville telephone. not real sure what that means for five star or for me personally, but surely it can't be any worse than the way things have been since our vp was fired last april.

christmas tree o' christmas tree

i walked into clay street at lunch today to see the big cross placed aside to make way for the big tree. now don't get me wrong, i most likely will have a tree at my place of worship (my home), i just thought it interesting that this visual really seems to be a metaphor for many things involving the church today. we have processed down our faith to make everything we want to do fit just so nicely within the package. if something doesn't fit, we just do a little adjusting and call it grace.

oh well, maybe one day we will learn to move the tree to put the cross in it's proper place.

christmas in comfort

in case any of you are making a religious (or other significant) trek to the hill country tomorrow, we will be at the christmas in comfort "thing" on saturday. dianna will be making her cakes, deserts, and various crafts along with goods from my in-laws who are equally as talented. of course now that i think about it, maybe that makes sense being that they are all family...hmm...maybe i better go take a nap and sleep on that one.

anyway if you like bubbly bath kinda stuff here is what you might see.

still here!!

ok, just in case some of you are wondering...yes, i am still here.

you ever get in one of those places where so much is going on in your head that you can't stop to write it all out? that's where i am. i have some things i need prayer for. if you'd like to pray then please do. the Father has my requests so just mention me, dianna, or tyler and the Father will know what to do with your prayer. - don't need any calls on this one - really, just some general type of stuff.

on another note - i really want to learn html. i am open to attending classes in san antonio or on-line or whatever. if anyone has any recommendation on where and how to do this please let me know. ok, this one can be prayed for specifically.

breathe deeply! live deeply!

with or without you

ok, so have you ever had one of those dreams where you are sitting in church (or school) in your underwear? you haven't - well, me neither. so let's pretend like we have. anyway imagine if a house could have the same dream. alright unless the dream is a sponge bob cartoon, a house doesn't normally have undergarments, so imagine that the tree is somewhat the metaphorically equivalent item in relation to the house as clothes are to us. ok, this is getting boring - just look at the damn pictures.

house with tree

house without tree

of course i could have also said with or without a lawn, with or without tractor ruts, with or without the $ 500 it took to do this, with or without the broken water lines, with or without the fine from the city for tearing up the street with the backhoe outriggers, with or without the doctor visit to treat a scratched eye from a falling branch. seems like not too long ago i had a similar roofing adventure in which i promised never to do something like this again. where were all of you guys to kick me in the butt to bring that pain back to memory? oh well. i'm about to remodel my kitchen, someone please stop me!

another interesting day in the world of telecommunications as i battle with our HR department in regard to sick pay. it seems that the department of labor rules say you can't not pay salaried (exempt) employees for sick time if in fact you don't pay them OT. imagine that, an employer can't have it both ways. of course do i make an issue of it and get fired in the process or sit and be quiet and take it like a cellmate? hmm, i don't see why the cry for justice has to only involve african AIDS babies that no one cares about. shouldn't justice also include the salaried staff of a company that give their life every day to help someone else achieve their dreams?