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!

strangely theraputic

no this is not my child, mine has greater finger dexterity

no surgery next week. that's the message we received from the children's hospital about an hour ago. we don't know why or when it might be rescheduled, just that it won't be next week.

more later

ok, i've made a small change to my template on the right - i've added a link to family pictures. if you happen to venture there you can see various things like tyler's earlier surgeries (not complete yet) and the latest CT scans. i put these out there not so everyone would feel sad but because i can give the link to parents that we will meet next week in houston. these pics will help them to understand what they may be in for down the road. it's a weird type of club to belong to, but when your kids are screwed up in the same way you can instantly connect regardless of any race, religion, nationality or whatever. hmmm, what an idea.

some of you have asked so here is our plan for next week:

Sat 3/27 - go to Houston
Sun 3/28 - have a real slow relaxing day (this always helps going into the surgery)
Mon 3/29 - surgery (in morning)
Mon & Tues - be in hospital
Wed 3/31 - check out of hospital if we didn't escape on Tues
Thurs 4/1 - head back to Kerrville

before i write any more about surgery, know that i am so thankful for those that have loved on us in incredible ways. many of you have treated us as your own family (the good part of being family that is) and have really encouraged us along the way. one of my favorite things to remember was being given a blank signed church check to pay for our motel stay. now i don't necessarily recommend ever giving someone a blank check, but it certainly made things easier. i will remember the love that was shown to us long after any bad experiences of a hospital stay. thanks for being the hands of the Father to us. PAX!

HI BJ!

we are having a garage sale tomorrow and for me that is about as lovely as showing up to church in your dirty underwear - that's right, not just underwear, but dirty ones! while i was digging through my closet i found some of my college notebooks that i had been holding on to. not sure why, as i never really felt that i fit in (at Baylor U.), but somehow i didn't want to let them go. anyway off to the dump they go and in a weird way it is really a cleansing of some sort. ok enough of that stuff.

while i was digging through one notebook i found this - not sure who wrote it.

i am only one
i cannot do everything
but i can do something.
what i should do
and can do
by the grace of God
i will do.

i kinda liked it.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 20 success is . . . having sex.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 60 success is . . . having sex.
At age 70 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.

spent some time today listening to some folks talking about raising daughters and the struggles they are or have experienced. truth is, i was upset when i found out that we would be having a Tyler instead of a Rebecca. certainly this was no surprise to the Father as he knew that i was better suited to raise a boy than a girl. i certainly hope to have the chance to have a baby girl in the family, i just guess it will have to be with a grandchild. WOW - i just referrenced being a grandparent. i feel really old now. sob.

the big 7

today is a big day for tyler - it's his birthday and he thinks he has earned the right to run the planet or at least a small household. this afternoon his class at school will be having a pirate party; yes i know he has watched one too many johnny depp movies, but who hasn't. it should be a lot of fun and i don't have to clean up the backyard for the party, so YEAH! one of the games they will play is pin the patch on the pirate. this is a new game for our household so we had to make the game pieces up. tyler was all too willing to pose as our pirate.

what a day -

my sister's baby Macy has just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. to learn more about CF, go here.

my bride is back in the blogger game again. yippee, she is certainly more of a writer than i'll ever be.

"If we are to lead a life that is open to change, we will most likely find ourselves traveling down paths that we never expected, but that lead us to places we have always wanted to be."
-- William C. Hammond

what a weekend - already we have watched our last basketball game of the season, pulled a bunch of cat5 cable for a network at the my son's school, mounted a big hook through the rock of the school for the cable drop (those lutherans are going to be mad when they see what we did to their 80 year old building), mowed the lawn, that's right, my front yard was already close to a foot high, and spent some quality time with my buddy nick. today i don't think i'll be as productive, however we started the morn off with some music downloads from itunes and some t-shirt research, so who knows. by the way, here is our latest find. PAX!

the passion of the Christ

thanks to my friend kerri and fbc for giving us tickets to go see the passion movie last night, here are some of my thoughts..

i guess growing up southern baptist we never really talked about what crucifixion really is, as was evidenced once again by the traditionals that filled the theater last night. many still dressed in their "sunday best" (do they sleep in those clothes?). the congregation looked and acted like your basic 11am sun morning crowd. the packages of kleenex being opened could be heard as soon as the opening music score started - these guys have watched too much tv - probably the same crowd that gives over their life savings to folks like benny hinn.

Ok, on to my review.
First, i would say that this movie is probably more for christians than it is a catch all evangelistic piece. and praise God for that. it is about time that those that follow Christ clue into what the sacrifice actually was. the truth of the matter is that i was relatively clueless as the next person until i joined clay street (AKA The Soul Cafe.) i am so thankful to those that had gone before us like nathan, stacy, and shannon for opening up my eyes and making it all become new and alive all over again. strangely enough, people routinely share their frustration with us (the clay street night folks) that our worship is too dark and dealing with too much of Jesus' suffering and not enough of the "feel good" type of happy Jesus stuff. well this gibson movie may be the best thing for us since our purchase of the Mackie 32 channel board. did i say something about a review????

back to the movie.
one of the things that i am most thankful for is that mel gibson is catholic - using the stations of the cross the catholics really seem to have a handle on the whole process of the suffering where most protestants, from my experience, usually want to get away from the idea of the cross and talk only about the idea that he was raised from the grave. certainly a great point, but don't leave the suffering out - i identify with that much more easily than that of raising from the dead. the other thing that catholics have on us is their respect (not deification, mind you) for mary, the mother of Jesus. most of the tear jerking moments came from their interaction and flash backs and for me it completely worked. it was a great reminder that Jesus was all man as well as all God and it made for a good escape from the violence, albeit a more emotional road at times.

the movie is mostly likely everything you hear about on tv. all the good, all the bad. both critics are somewhat correct. keep in mind that without the holy spirit, the movie just simply looks like a crazy man being killed by crazed church people. with that understanding, the anti-semitism critique is somewhat accurate as is the gratuitous violence. being a believer is different of course because you know more of the story. like i mentioned earlier, there is a lot that the movie doesn't tell about Jesus, so don't expect unbelievers to beat a path to your congregation just because they saw this movie. certainly folks will come to know Christ, but don't rely on this movie to do all of the work for you.

at the end of the movie it was clear to many of the tormenters that Jesus was who he said he was and that was what stirred me. To see God move (the earthquake, the dark sky, the temple veil ripped) even on screen, was a big deal to me. I wanted to yell the famous drew barrymore line from charlies angel's "Now that's kicking your ass!" but didn't think the ladies around me could handle any more trauma for one night. When it was over we quickly made our way out. i didn't want to stick around and listen to any folks' opinion, i wanted to process it all with my own family. Of course being that we did get free tickets, we did have to stay at the end for a few comments from the local clergy, kinda like having to take the time-share compound tour just to receive your free steak knives.

overall i think this is a great movie released at a great time. i am certainly glad i saw it and i think everyone (above the age of about 15) should see it, but i don't know that i ever want to watch it again. who knows. i am sure i'll be one of the first to purchase the dvd, i just may never open it.

a room at the inn

we had a big answer to prayer this morning when some friends of ours in houston said we could stay with them during the surgery. we actually stayed with them for the last one and it worked out perfectly. this will save us a ton of money that we will most likely need for other things. PTL.

well today is the opening day of the passion movie and looks like i have to wait til april to go see it. here in kerrville all the churches have bought out the theaters for the next several weeks. i guess not being part of any organized religious institution may at times have its drawbacks. oh well, i can still go to the ash wednesday service at the local catholic compound, i certainly am looking forward to that.

have a happy wednesday.

i am back at home finally...because the day was so nice, we decided to take a drive. here are some of the pics we shot during the day. have a great weekend.

i'm in sunny florida today where it is supposed to be warm and sunny. well, it's sunny, but not warm. oh, well. i had the opportunity to attend a hockey game last night where i was able to watch the tampa lightning win a great victory over (some other team). At the last minute i was invited to a box section with all the vittles a guy could want - i must say it is the only way to watch a sport, oh did i mention that i got to sit in a leather chair...

i'm supposed to be paying attention in this training class so i'd better cut this short before i get busted (i type too loudly, everyone is looking at me).

have a great week.