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!

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!