Later this week we'll pack up the kids and drive to Arkansas. I'm especially looking forward to the long, lonely stretches through Kansas. I hear they have Holiday Inn somewhere in Kansas. We're going to Arkansas to celebrate Tonya's grandmother's 90th birthday. Many of her relatives from her mom's side will be with us at Petit Jean mountain. I've not been there before but have heard about it from Tonya and from friends who went to Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. It should be a great time.
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Hope and I went to our first NFL game last night: Broncos vs. Giants. While I'm not a fully converted Broncos fan (too much sand left between my toes), I'm definitely NOT a New York Giants fan. The atmosphere (sans the drunk guy directly behind Hope) was fun and exciting. We were blessed to have been given free seats by a lady in our church. And they were great seats, too. The atmosphere is definitely different than that of a professional baseball game. Baseball fans are a bit more subdued, perhaps because they pay less money on average to see a single game than football fans do. If you're going to plunk down over $100 a ticket, you might as well as paint your face and wear a horse on your head (or tape them to your shoulders as the "Bronconator" did). Baseball fans have eighty-one games to make a…
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In the spirit of Thanksgiving more than turkey, I thought I'd share a few words of thanks. No particular order, but each is important. Thank you ... to my parents for raising me with good values, good humor, and a good foundation. You may be gone but your memory is alive and well. Thank you ... to my wife for sticking with me for nearly 19 years. I'm glad it's not true that married start looking alike the longer they've been married -- more for your sake than mine. Thank you ... to my two daughters for bringing joy and laughter into our home in their own unique ways. I hope for you more than you'll ever know. Thank you ... to the churches that I have blessed to serve over the last 19 years. It's been a privilege I have never taken for granted. Thank you ... to the…
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A number of years ago I came across an album by Randy Stonehill that had a song called "Turning Thirty." Part of it went like this: Well, now thirty ain't like fifteen And it's not like twenty-five My back's a little stiff And there're some lines around my eyes But I've still got my energy And I've got most of my hair And I'm not too old to rock 'n roll And I'm not really scared of turning thirty It was a live recording and the best part was when he ad libbed, "I wrote this song eight years ago ..." Well, this past Friday I turned forty. Or "40" for those of you who prefer numbers over letters. Now I must admit that I'm not feeling that much different than when I was thirty-nine and three-quarters. With that said, I do have a few reflections ... Life doesn't slow…
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I've been nursing a headache since yesterday morning. Since about 8:35 yesterday morning. No need to speculate what caused this headache; it was self-inflicted. I was nearing the end of my workout routine and decided to try a new machine. It was an arm curl machine, the kind with a handle attached to a cable. I placed the pin at 150lbs (just seeing if you're still reading) and sat down. Expecting the resistance to be similar to the machine I normally do curls on, I gave the handle a healthy tug. Actually, I yanked it up so fast I never saw it coming. The handle, a long piece of solid metal, smacked me right between the eyes -- where the nose and eyebrows and forehead meet. At first, everything hurt and I couldn't tell if I had broken my nose or not. For a few moments my vision went blurry…
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