Myself When I Am Real

Jesus Loves us Snow Much :-D

2007-02-01T03:23:00.000-08:00

Wow there's like a half inch of snow on the ground. It's still coming down a little, so we could get more accumulation. We haven't seen any that actually stuck this year so it's cool except for the transportation problems. The road by my house doesn't seem to be slippery, but I'm leaving early for work just in case. Yesterday at work was kind of a bummer, frustrating because I had to bend a kind of complex run of pipe and it took me way too long. Hopefully I can get back in the zone today, stuff like that really puts a hitch in my get up and go, especially when the guy I'm working with gets all belligerent and condescending about it. He think he has to make fun of me and stuff as if I hadn't already beat myself up about it enough. I'm giving it my best shot regardless. I'm gonna try to start a live journal account tonight, I like Rachel's and I want one too. I'm going to hang out with the church kids Saturday, we're being allowed to use the school gym down the street. They'll play all kinds of sports I stink at, but I'll go and have fun anyway. Well I'm outta here, everybody have a good day.

Speedy Gonzalez

2007-01-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

I had a really good day today, I got up and got to work early for a change! I really tackled the work, it's so nice to finally feel like I'm able to do my job! I surprised myself(and everybody else I think) in being all assertive this morning, Me:"so are we gonna pull wire in the lighting circuits?", My Boss: "ok, do you like pulling wire?", Me: "no, but it's part of the job, so let's do it.
I just feel like working some days and getting it done, today was one of those days, it's hard to slow me down once I get wound up, if things slow down I'll find something to do elsewhere, where I can be faster. It's a good feeling. I'm trying to take advantage of the energy now that I'm home and get stuff done around here. If I sit here long I'll be "down for the count" as Zay says, so I'm gonna go run more junk to the storage shed, I already took a load to goodwill, aren't we so proud?

New Chapter

2007-01-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

We had an awesome band service last night at Crystal and Emily's apartment. We talked about how we need to gain strength from the Lord and from each other so we can not only make it to heaven ourselves but help other to make it as well. We had finger foods and a birthday cake for crystal. Everybody crowded around Sara of course, and loved on her. The doves in the dining room in a cage were carrying on for awhile and everybody was saying they sounded like a rooster. I called them albino roosters. I've always liked the call of the dove, but outside in the desert and such, I don't think I could get used to it inside like that all the time, I dunno.

Today we went to eat at Cozumel's with Emily and Megan, I really enjoyed it, because we haven't done it in awhile, and you don't realize how much you miss fellowship until you have it again. I thank the Lord for these young people, and the newness I feel in our friendship. The Lord is blessing, and answering prayer. We went to see Brad Moore after we ate, it was only the second time I've been to see him since his car accident last spring. We held Sara close so he could see, and I thought he really responded well, we watched Emily talk to him and play thumb wars with him. It's so sweet how Emily is with him, definately a deep unconditional love there that's refreshing to see, especially in a young person. You expect to see it in older people, but not as much in youth, so it's extra special when you do.

Sister Peggy brought us Bar Be Cue from Bar Be Cutie, which is a blessing because we were saying this morning that we wanted Bar Be Que, guess the Lord told her what to get. We're getting food provided for us every week right now because we had a baby and it's customary for the cradle roll coordinator to organize this. It's fine with me, we can use all the help we can get.

We had communion and feet washing tonight and it was refreshing to participate in being obedient to Jesus' commands to recognize His sacrifice and humble ourselves in washing the saints feet. I'm thankful for a church that recognizes every aspect of the word not only the more convenient ones. I'm very thankful for my local church tonight, I know that it isn't perfect but I feel the love every time I'm around the people there and I know that spirit will prevail over the contrary ones. All we have to do is keep striving for perfection, and keeping our faith intact by personal prayer, fasting, and study. This is the answer for anyone who has any doubts or questions. He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek Him.

Much Better

2007-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

This is much better, I went to the Mac Authority today and got screen cleaner for my imac, so I finally have a smudge free screen! In other news we've had an incredible weekend. Wednesday I found out my sister had her baby, her name is Silver Destiny and she said she only had to push one good time and she was out, but she paid for it afterward with pain from the after contractions(the ones that put everything back in place.) I'm happy to be an uncle once again, all of a sudden my parents have three grandkids in just two years time.

Thursday evening two of my best friends(who happen to be married to each other) came to visit us. There names are Joe and Karen Hill, they Pastor at Hillsboro, NC and we've asked them to be the God parents of our little girl, so they came out for the dedication service this Sunday. They brought a van full of baby stuff with them, the Bogoni's (our former pastor at Hickory, NC) contributed a good portion of it, but Karen went way overboard herself. We have like 6 more bags of clothes, a high chair, a play pen, a swing and a bottle warmer. Karen bought diapers and wipes, and baby food and brand new clothes. When we got talking about what Sara was to wear to the dedication ceremony, she went to Carters and bought Another dress for her to wear. She has really good taste and our little girl is going to be very well dressed. Lance and Erika already contributed so many clothes, this little girl is very blessed to have so many people who love her.

Friday night Micah's flight didn't get in till 11 PM, because of snow and technical glitches in Denver so we weren't able to go out to eat with Meg and Micah like we had planned. Joe and I went to Wal-Mart so Rach could make spaghetti. We watched a feature film for families movie about horses on the imac and just hung out and had a good time.

Saturday we went to the brand new state of the art Mcdonalds that just opened in Lebanon, they have touch screen games at the booths, and flat screen TV's at the counters, an awesome play place, although Hunter (Karen's youngest boy of 2) wasn't able to climb up one part without someone "pushing his boot boot" but a little girl came to his rescue before His 3 year old brother Jordan could.

After Mickey D's we headed to the adventure science center in Nashville, where they were having a free admission day in honor of some past governor. We enjoyed ourselves there, trying out all the interactive exhibits and climbing all over the play tower together. The tower goes up into a glass dome where you can see the nashville skyline, they even have binoculars for the kids to look through(very cool).

A highlight was the slide in the "bodyquest" room where you slid out onto a huge woopie coushin in the floor that made flatulent noises. (it was symbolizing that special part of the body all kids love) Oh and over the rest rooms nearby was a sign that said "excretory system" aka restrooms.

Sunday we had a wonderful morning service Bro. Shaw teaching on Types and Shadows and Brother Campbell preaching a good message as always. We ate at applebees with Meg and Micah, the Hills and the Broyles. Good food and good fellowship, me and Micah had the Quesadilla Burger, haha. Micah only ate half of his because he was holding Sara so much, he just fell in love I could tell, I know how he feels! We got to the dedication service and found out we didn't have the adapter for the video projector so we had to just play it on the imac sitting on the communion table and then somehow the order of the slides got reversed, so I was really upset by that, but it still turned out really well, when Joe started admonishing me I think everybody pretty much forgot about the glitches. Karen also gave some awesome words of encouragement and we played Find your Wings by Mark Harris for the Father song, and I do not know how to pray for this child by Sara Groves for the Mother song. Sister Campbell gave a nice presentation of a ceramic cross and Sara's first Bible(a little pink new testament)
Joe preached an awesome message that couldn't have been more timely talking about how we need to keep it in the middle of the road and not dwell on the negative, but not fail to work toward perfection, and a reminder that God has to send the fire before He can send the rain. Micah and I had an awesome prayer at the Altar and we could feel the Holy Ghost so very rich. I love Micah's heart so much, I love these times when I'm reminded why he's been so special to me. Because although he's not perfect and he makes mistakes, it's hard to find a more tender hearted sincere guy, and that's such a rare thing in this day and time, I thank the Lord that he's my friend. It kills me that he has to live so far away, but technology helps to bridge the distance.

I can't put into words how awesome it was to have these people I love so much all sitting around me yesterday, but it was special and I'm very thankful to all of them.

Today was crazy, we had breakfast with the Hills this morning and said goodbye, and then we set about getting our will together so the Hill's would legally be the guardians of Sara if we both die. It took the better part of the day to compile and when we got to the notary at the bank they said we had to bring our own two witnesses because they weren't allowed to use the bank employees. So after working a couple hours a couple of the guys from work came and served as the two witnesses, even though they were joking that I had to sign my nickname "muscles" or else they would say they didn't know me :-p I was glad to get it over with. Rachel and Sara took me to school after we stopped by the Mac authority and brought me dinner on my break, we took the first part of the Math test for next Monday, I'm just glad we're allowed to use calculators, I bought a new scientific one the other day so I'm good to go.

Home Again

2007-01-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well we're finally out of the hospital again. We had to go back in because Sara was Jaundiced and loosing too much weight. We went in Thursday Morning after a pediatrician appointment, because of her weight. I'm glad we made that decision because we would've had to go anyway when the jaundice test results came back later in the day. Her Biliruben (jaundice reading) is down to 11 today and she gained weight yesterday, so they let us go home, we just have to keep supplementing, (sore subject:-p). I thank the Lord that He's taking care of my little girl and for all He did for us today!

Sara Elizabeth Riddell

2007-01-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well My little girl is finally here, she was born on the 28th at 2:42 PM, she was 6 pounds and 6 ounces, 19 and a half inches long. She was born by scheduled C-section(which was scheduled the night before at 5:30)We named her Sara Elizabeth Riddell :-) She is the prettiest little girl I've ever seen and I couldn't be more proud to be her daddy. We were originally scheduled to be in the hospital for three nights, but we had to stay an extra night because Sara was jaundiced. Her biliruben count came down substantially over night and we were able to go home. Life has been crazy, I'm back at work (since Tuesday) and Rachel is staying at the Suburban Lodge with her mom during the day. My blog wouldn't let me sign in till just now.(I'm at the suburban lodge on wireless internet). Call our house and listen to the answering machine to get the number for Rachel's Mom's room if you want to talk to her or come by and see the baby. I'm trying to work it out so we can go to church tonight, dunno if it'll work or not. It's crazy but we're having a blast with our little "squeaker" as I call her. I'll try to blog more later when I'm not so tired. Thank you for all your prayers!

The Ultimate Adoption

2006-12-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

We played Joseph and Mary tonight at church, The service was set up as a "baby shower" for Jesus, and we played His parents. We spoke from the standpoint of the parents to be, and told of how we were feeling at the time of this wondrous event. The birth of the Savior of the world, the Son of God. I can't begin to imagine what it might have been like. Knowing I'm going to be a daddy of a normal child(as normal as a child of mine can be that is), how absolutely unfathomable would the idea of being the caretaker of God's own son be! The Lord will be with me though, in the same all knowing, all caring way He was with Joseph during that time. That is the only thing that keeps me going, give me the strength to face tomorrow.

I miss my family, I sure don't like the idea of spending Christmas without any of them. Pray that it will work out for some or all of them to come this weekend. We're going to the doctor in the morning, to see what the deal is with the baby. May everything work together for His good, because we love Him.

Monday, Monday La La, La La La

2006-12-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

Man I was sleepy today, good thing we had a fairly easy day at work, It was just me and one other guy because all the other guys were sleeping because they had worked the night before. I was glad I didn't have to work sunday night as well as saturday night. I talked to my sister online for the first time in forever, mom has her online now so that's really cool. We're going to bed early tonight because we're both really sleepy. Rachel called the nurse today because she had strong contractions that hurt. The nurse said that it was normal, probably just the baby positioning lower, and we'll know when it's time because the contractions won't let up. So it could be tomorrow or two weeks from now, no way of knowing at this point. We had a wonderful time at Merry Christmas from the campbells last night, The pastor and his whole family gave a presentation sharing their christmas traditions with the church family, and the kids sang and played instruments. Following was a christmas banquet and gift basket auction to fund TN state youth retreat. There was also a presentation of a christmas gift to Bro. and Sis. Duper(the TN state overseer) and a gift of a christmas tree full of ornaments, one from each family to the campbells. Our ornament was an outhouse with a bear in it, Rachel wrote on the base "this too shall pass, the Riddells 2006" I'm sure they got a good laugh out of that one. We brought the stroller we bought from Erica home from church last night, Galen had to show me how to break it down(no I don't mean dance) so I could put it in the car, I would have figured it out, but he was very helpful with his dadish wisdom. Tomorrow I'm suppose to pick up a dresser off of craigs list, hopfully that will work out. I retire.

Walk Through Bethlehem/ Crazy Weekend

2006-12-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well this is a weird weekend, We went to set up for walk through bethlehem Friday night, and stayed there covering the walls of Megan's classroom with brown craft paper and bed sheets until about 11:30, I was trying to stay up so I could sleep durring the day Saturday because I had to go into work Saturday night at 11. We did walk through bethlehem from 4-6 Saturday, it went really well I thought, Rachel did well with welcoming the people to town and telling them of the expectant couple that had come to town. Brother steve was the pushy soldier, it was funny watching him usher people out of the house and into the marketplace. The market place in the fellowship hall was very extravagant, they had real turtle doves and real (huge) fish(on ice)! Everybody totally out did themselves (I hope Meg, Rachel, and Kasey are feeling better today after finally having all that sewing done!) We had a ton of visitors who had never been there before, if one person got a blessing, it was all worth it. Everybody worked together to clean up, and it went pretty fast, even though it looked like a war zone for about 2 hours. I went to Joe Muggs coffee and got a Chai Latte, trying to stay awake, because I only was able to sleep in to about 10:30 am. I got to work at 10:45, the guys were there waiting at the top of the parking garage at St. Thomas hospital. We had to go into a pharmacy room and cover all of the counters and computer equipment with plastic and put up a plastic partition before we could start drilling holes in the floor above, we eventually got the three holes drilled after having to move one over to miss a steel beam. I was the guy who used the shop vac to suck up water and try to keep it from dripping through the other holes to the floor below (as much as possible). We ran some 3 and a half inch diameter pipe through the holes and across the ceiling below. We ate at the cafeteria at about 1:30 am, because it closes at 2. At about 4:30, Sidney let me go home, because I was looking very tired, and he was worried about me making it home ok, because I had the longest to drive. So, all that for about 5 and a half hours, but oh well, we need all the extra money we can get. I feel crummy because I missed church this morning, I'm gonna try to kick it in high gear this week, and get ready for this baby, spiritually, emotionally, and physically (getting this house ready). Please pray for me, the weight of it all is getting more and more real.

Nomad Show

2006-12-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

We're heading out to set up for "Walk Through Bethlehem" tonight at church. It's going to be fun putting up a bethlehem setting and acting out the parts of the people of bethlehem for the church and the community. I'm a man who sits in a house with his wife, I'm not really sure what it's gonna be like, but I'll find out soon. Had a pretty good couple of days, I love my new DVD of Sara Groves reality video of her trip to Rwanda and Katrina relief, it's very inspiring, and there's a live concert on there as well. Check it out at www.nomadshow.com Sara is one of my favorite Christian artists and people in general. I know it's christ in her that I'm inspired by, and I love that, she encourages me to get closer to Jesus so that His light can be reflected by me. I want to reflect His light tonight and tomorrow in this presentation of His birth.

Oh in other news I found out I'm working all night Saturday night(fun fun) at the hospital. But it will make up for being off toward the end of the week. We have to go to the doctor Thursday because the baby seems to be breached and we have to make sure. She better turn soon, so we don't have to have a C-Section.

Lucky!

2006-12-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

I'm very jealous of my daddy tonight, he got to fly from Dulles International in Washington DC to Denver CO, in a Boeing 777, which is the most state of the art aircraft boeing makes! In the cockpit no less!, It has what they call a glass cockpit, where all of the instruments are on computer screen. What a ride that must have been, he said they were looking DOWN at the tail fin of an md-80 in front of them on the taxi way, good greif those things sit high!

In other news it's one of my good freind's birthday today so Happy Birthday Micah! I got to talk to him tonight, that was awesome.

Pray I don't start glowing in the dark, the room we're working in at st. thomas hospital is a CT Scan room and the drywall is lined with lead, one piece of drywall is 310 pounds! I find it highly amusing for some reason :-p

Oh this was highly amusing as well... We were watching Macgyver tonight, an episode where there is a woman who has a baby, when it was nearing the end and they showed the woman holding the baby, I looked at her and then looked at my overly pregnant wife, and said "I'm Scared!" and curled up in a ball in the recliner under a blanket, when I did the foot rest of the recliner sprang out and knocked over my TV tray and salsa went all over the floor, and Rachel wouldn't stop laughing at me! :-p But enough sillyness, I digress.

I'm out for now, everybody have a good week!

The Close of Autumn

2006-12-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Had a good day today, They finally gave me my raise on my check! So I make 2.50 more than I ever have in my prior work history. I was sick all week since sunday morning(missed work monday) and I feel alot better today. Rachel and I went to Demos' for dinner, very yummy. She told me all about going around town with the nice realtor lady shopping houses for her mom and dad, pray that the move will go ok, they're still kind of up in the air about it. I know I hate that feeling of not knowing what to do, so I feel for them. I'm going to a new job site at St. Thomas Hospital starting monday, I was glad I got to leave on a good note, even though the end of the day went kind of sour, we managed to get it taken care of. My daddy turned 52 wednesday, it stinks being away from family on their birthday, I was glad we got to spend time together over thanksgiving weekend though. Random thought: I saw a sign at mac authority on wedgewood lane(meg will appreciate this) "No More Excuses, Microsoft Windows XP now works on a mac!" Quite an interesting marketing technique on apple's part, now people can buy a superior piece of hardware and corrupt it with inferior software, o boy! I understand the reasoning behind it, but it takes something away from apple's image while making it more marketable to the consumer.

Well I guess we can say fall has fallen, these low temps are insane, you'd think we lived in chicago or the arctic for that matter. I hate to see it go but there's something about the close of autumn that makes the senses tingle, when I get over this cold fully, I'll be able to enjoy it more.

The Way We Mend

2006-11-23T18:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all, I'm at my parents house in NC, we had a really good day today. My sister came over with her boyfriend and son. She's been out of touch with the family for over a year and now she's back and she's just as pregnant as Rachel, in fact she's due three days after we are on January 6! What makes it even crazier is that she's also having a girl. It was really good to spend some family time with the whole family for a change, we've needed it for so long. The food was really good as it usually is when Mom cooks. Krissy was really cool, we had a great time. We watched the movie Milo and Otis with Elijah so he would fall asleep and we all dozed off for awhile I think, must have been the turkey. We had a birthday cake for Krissy, she's turning 22 on Friday, it's hard to believe she's that old already. My mom got a new computer last night so she'll probaly be more active in blogland again once she gets it working. She's behind me trying to get it set up right now. She gave Krissy her old one, she's trying to get us all wired up so she can be in better touch with her grandkids growing up. Mom says it's past my bedtime, so I guess I shall retire :-p Hope all of you have an awesome weekend.

The Room by Joshua Harris

2006-10-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is a presentation that has been a big part of mine and Rachel's relationship and spiritual walk over the years. I wanted to share it with you. It speaks to me in very profound ways, if we will just cling to the Lord and do what His word says, His blood will cover our shameful past. He will also empower us to live sin free in the future. Sanctification is the element that Josh doesn't understand yet, without it we will just be doing our best to live sin free, with it, we are without the Adamic(fallen) nature we are all born with. I often think about AJ Tomlinson's account of his experience of sanctification, it was hard and long, he fasted for days and days while working in the fields, yet today we never hear a testimony such as that. Maybe it's because he had a greater fight because of the work he would do for the Lord. I marvel at the fact that He so readily provides our spiritual needs, yet we so often pull away and even outright reject Him. My prayer is to be able to dig into the word, and get my prayer life to a level that God can operate His purposes in my life daily, and not allow my spiritual alertness wane to the point that I'm vulnerable for an attack. We need to look to those over us in the Lord for guidance in this time, we need each other to make it through, but more than anything we need to look to the Lord Himself. Let Him be our every breath, our sanity, our reason for getting up each day. The dream is not dead for a Christian, it should be very much alive, we should not dream about companionship or success or children as much as seeing God's perfect purpose accomplished in our life, the desires we naturally have as humans will be provided or filled by the spirit himself.

Flying High Last Weekend

2006-10-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was AWESOME! We got up and headed over to the Lebanon airport where a B-17 Bomber was to be for the weekend. When we got there it was coming in for a landing, very impressive although smaller than I was expecting, I guess I was picturing the much larger B-29. We looked at the exhibit of world war 2 relics including an ambulance with three stretchers and barely room for the driver. We saw a sign on thewindow of the airport lounge that said "Cessna rides $25 for 30mins " I said "that's awesome" and went in to sign up. They put me down for 3:00, I still had a couple hours until my ride, so we went and took the tour of the B-17, you get to crawl/walk through the length of it, you climb the ladder toward the nose and pop your head up into the nose turret where all the guns are manned facing forward. You proceed up into the cockpit area where you see nothing but sky out the forward windows because it sits on it's tail with the nose in the air. You then go aft into the bomb bay and the bay doors are open and you have to walk across a very narrow bar between them( it would feel even more precarious in flight when the fall would mean a 20,000 foot fall), after this comes the seating for the radio operator and navigator, I sat here for awhile and let people pass. Next is the belly turret where the gunner had to position the ball in a certain position to exit into the fuselage, I asked about this and inquired as to the location of the "lavatory"(bathroom), the guide first said he couldn't tell me(laughing of course) and then said "lets just say this Plexiglas wasn't here" pointing to the window beside the side gunner. From this area you can see down the very narrow tail cavity where the tail gunner had to crawl back to the tail gun, you exit from the side almost at ground level because of the slope. Getting to crawl through one of these is not a chance you get everyday, we were glad we took theopportunity, Rachel was telling everybody there was no way she would fit in a few months.

We went to sonic for lunch and came back and waited for my pilot to come get me, he introduced himself and said we would be taking the Cessna 152 so I went over and stood by it while he got the headset out of the 172, it took forever for him to get it started and then my headset wouldn't work so he killed the engine and got another one from the 172, after finally getting it started again and waiting for three war birds participating in the mini air show took off. We got in line behind a king air for take off. After it took off we taxied onto the runway, I said "we've got war birds up here" (wish I had said "at 2 o'clock") and he said OK we better get down here to the end of the runway, so we got off to the side while three world war two aircraft in a triangular formation buzzed the runway gear up, with smoke on. I said, "lets catch em, he laughed and said yeah we'll catch em" I said "you got any JATO(jet assisted take off) bottles?" he said "yeah that's about what we'd have to have to catch em" We climbed out passing right by an old Russian bi plane that was lazily crossing over the runway at about 100 feet, the pilot didn't like how close we got to him but said "no harm done" we climbed to about 2000 feet and he said "you want to fly a little?" I said "sure" and took the yoke, I gripped it tight because there was a cross wind and it was buffeting quite a bit, I said "it's pretty choppy up here" he said it had been worse earlier in the day. I kept trying to relax my grip and my breathing so I could just enjoy it, he said I could do a few turns and "have fun with it" so I started to turn to the left, we were still climbing over the Cumberland river to the north, at one point I headed east and he said to stay away from the nuclear power plant, so they don't "get mad at us". I asked him to demonstrate a few turns for me, and then I matched him, he asked if I had ever flown before, I said "once when I was 12 and a lot on MS flight simulator growing up" He said he had flown the Sim allot too and that I seemed to know what I was doing. I told him my dad was an FAA inspector, he was intrigued by that. I stayed off the rudder pedals because I always had trouble when I would set the flightSim to "uncoordinated flight" (where the rudder does not automatically follow the ailerons) because it's so sensitive. He said I was right about the rudder being more sensitive than the yoke, I kind of wish I had taken him up on it when he offered me the left seat (because I could see theinstruments better) and I wish I had played with the elevator trim to take the edge off me having to struggle to keep the nose up(and gripping so tight). He said he was going to let me fly the pattern to line up with the runway, I said that was fine. I did a 360 spiral to bleed off altitude and entered a downwind leg west of the runway, I slowly turned base over I-40 and brought it around to line up with the runway. He turned on carb heatfirst and brought the throttle back and put the flaps down. It felt like we came to a stop in mid air 100 feet from the runway, he took over and put us on the ground and I realized how much we were still moving as we got closer to the ground and I was looking sideways at Rachel sitting watching me. I told him it rocked and that if I started making allot more money I might look him up to be my instructor, ha ha. My mom said she was glad I had fun but not to let it "get in my blood" too late for that, I'm very much my Father's son :-)

We had a good Sunday as well, we made it for Sunday school and Bro. Shaw taught a very good class on the difference between good and evil (God and the world). His class reminds me of ABeka video home school because he tapes it and wants the microphone to be passed around to everybody that has a comment. Bro. Hall (a 30 year minister in the Church of God of Prophecy) joined the church at the end of the service with his whole family in attendance, that was refreshing to see a blessing to say the least. I long to see the people I've been close to in years past, bridge that gap as well.

We had packed a picnic lunch and went to the park near the church, and ended up watch radio controlled airplanes at the RC field, I guess it was an aviation packed weekend. We had communion and feet washing Sunday night, I think it's cool that Rachel was alreadyfamiliar with feet washing when she came to The Church because they practice it in the free will baptist church. I didn't know any denomination did so until I met her.

We went to Applebee's after church with Damon, Kasey, and Megan, It was nice because we hadn't been out with them in a long time, and we miss the fellowship when we don't have it. I'm excited about the growth I see in the youth and the Church as a whole.

We're off to church, everybody have a great day.

Work, Assembly, and My Little Girl

2006-09-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at my computer, it's amazing! I havn't had time since assembly to sit down and write. I've been working 10 hours a day since I've been home, at my new job as an electrician's apprentice. I'm going to start attending electrician classes next month, so I'm looking forward to that. We had a wonderful assembly, and I think the Lord was able to accomplish alot to reshape the heart of the church in spite of ourselves. I'm so thankful to the Lord that we now officially have a new General Overseer and I praise the Lord for the releif and assurance I feel in my spirit that it is Steven Smith! I love that man soooo much!

There were many highlights of the assembly for me, Saturday night was awesome, the VLB march was wonderful and the spirit just fell in waves afterward, Isaiah and I went through the prayer line of all the overseers and the spirit hit me toward the end of the line and when Isaiah came out the other end we embraced and prayed together and the spirit fell on him and we had an awesome time in the Lord for about 2 hours backstage where one girl got the Holy Ghost!

Sunday night was another highlight for me, because we went out to eat with the Hills and the Lamms. We asked Joe and Karen Hill to be the God parents of our little girl :-D I'm positive we could not have picked a better couple. I've known them for 4 years now and they've been such a blessing whenever I've been able to be around them, I used to ride up to their mission with them in Clover, VA back in 2002, we had so much fun together.

Rachel had another Ultra Sound today, but I didn't get to go this time, she said the baby had hiccups, hehe, that's my little girl in there! I can't wait till she comes out so I can cuddle and play with her, it'll be worth every dirty diaper :-)

I'm gonna go be with her mommy now, since I don't get much time at home right now, I gotta make the most of it, everybody have a great weekend while I'm working :-p

Tired but Happy

2006-08-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

It's saturday evening, we had a good day today, especially considering how tired I've felt, we had a nice morning catching up on sleep (or trying anyway) and hanging around the house. We decided around lunch time we were going to try to go to an Indian Resturant(from India, not Native americans), I had seen one in Murfreesboro I wanted to try and this Caedmons Call album we have has songs and sounds from India, and it always gets us in the mood to check out the culture(however ill advised on religion they may be:-p) We got on mapquest though and we decided to look for an Indian Resturant near the Mall at Green Hills because we've been wanting to go to the apple(computer) store in that mall for a long time and we've just never gotten one of those "round tuits" so we found one which as it turned out wasn't very close to the mall(that was me not thinking very clearly about where the mall was) but I decided it was reasonable enough to go down to Cool Springs and then back up to nashville to the mall. When we got there though, the Resturant had changed to something called Sahara Cafe since it had been listed and that wasn't even open, so we ended up eating at Macaroni Grill, which was very nice, it's an Italian place as you might expect and very upscale I might add, we had to tell them to take the wine bottle away, lol. They put fresh ground pepper and olive oil(which always sits in a bottle in the center of the table) in a dish and since the waitress then walked away Rachel asked me what that was for, I said thats for the bread, I thought it was kinda cute and funny that she didn't know. The bread was still in the oven a that point so when it came out it was very hot and fresh, it comes in a loaf so you have to cut it with the butter knife, which isn't the easiest, but very worth it. This was a sort of celebration of my new job, such things are so much of a "catch 22" for me, because I don't enjoy it very much knowing I'm not doing my best to save money, still, it's very nice to do every once in awhile, and I think it's healthy for our marraige, sure is romantic, with the old world stone work with arches over every opening and dim lighting, :-D I ordered the twice baked lasagna with meatballs and she ordered the honey basalmic grilled chicken, YUMMY! I ended up eating her last piece of chicken because she was full. Another highlight was the fruit teas, Rachel ordered the blackberry mint sweet tea, and I ordered the mango sweet tea, we each tried the other, and I decided I liked the blackberry mint better, as did Rachel, so when the waitress brought me a refill I got that instead.

We went to the mall at green hills after lunch and found the apple store, it was a little bigger than I was expecting, very impressive with the glowing apple logo on a graphite exterior facing down a corridor it really is a mainstay of the mall rather than just another store as I was picturing. The only thing I was disapointed in(besides the exorbidant price of everything) was that they didn't have one of the new mac pro's on display, I still can't believe they have 2 TERRABYTES of storage! that boggles my mind when I think about how much that is. They have a "genius bar" where they serve knowledge that builds your brain instead of alcohol that destroys it. You can make an appointment online before you go and they have your name on the screen behind the genius bar telling what time you are to speak with the genius, very cool. They have a table with imacs set up where kids can play with childrens software while sitting on little bean bag ball chairs. There was of course a bunch of things we wanted, like lemonade tycoon 2 for mac, which Rachel was playing at her mom's house a bunch and got hooked, I told her she could get it for her birthday if she wanted but she ended up putting it back saying she was just glad it was there for later(she wants me to go out and get her something special :-)

We went to Lowes hardware(as opposed to the grocery chain I used to work for "Lowes Foods") and I bought a tool belt and a bunch of tools I need for my new job, I really feel like an electrician's apprentice now,pretty cool. I got three kinds of pliers, a set of channel locks, a torpedo level and a tape measure, I found a screw driver I really like, but it was too short to be easy to grab out of my tool belt and it was metal(which is a conductor and that could be bad when dealing with electricity, I want rubber handles as much as possible).

Becky and her friends are here visiting so I guess I will stop being anti-social and go visit with them, Becky got me an eagle magnet and a little compass on a stone from yellowstone, isn't she sweet?

Good Monday :-p

2006-08-14T02:38:00.000-07:00

By now most of you know (via Rachel's blog) about my new job. I'm up at 4 AM because I have to be in Bellvue at 6:30, we're helping with the YMCA that's being built there. I was going to trick certain people by saying I had been to the Y today, and then filling them in as to why I was at the Y, but I'll let that one go :-p It's been interesting so far, I've learned a lot in the short time I've been at it. I'm thinking about going to school in the evenings to learn more about electric work, so I can make more money faster, but that will depend on a bunch of things. It's good experience at any rate, I'm glad I have the oppertunity. I'm still working at Menlo (3COM) in the afternoons from 3:30 to 6:45, this has been interesting, especially thursday when Jerry left me there by myself and a pallet truck came in the middle of a bad thunderstorm and I had to unload it and store 200 empty pallets in the back of the warehouse, I didn't get out of there until 8:15 or so, it was kind of creepy being the only person in that place in a thunderstorm, good thing those things don't bother me anymore ;-) We had an awesome weekend last weekend, I left from work Friday night, to go get Rach in AR, I took "power naps" on the way at rest areas and along the road on the two lane road, whenever I would start fighting sleep, One time the news paper lady woke me up and asked if I was working with the workers at this school I was in front of, I said "nope just sleepin", she said ok go back to sleep I just can't get in there to leave the paper because they have it blocked off, so I got back on the road, it was wild to watch the sunset and then rise again while I was still driving, I loved it, the Ozark sunrise was gorgeous, with the fog lifting out of the valleys, I miss that part of the country somtimes(just not the lack of jobs and churches) don't get too excited Mama J, haha. We had a great visit after I got there at 8, Rachel was a sight for sore eyes after three weeks apart, don't plan on doing that again anytime soon, although absense does make the heart grow fonder, :-) We spent time with her parents and younger siblings saturday, and we ended up being able to have lunch with her brother Josh who was on leave from Iraq and his wife at a chinese resturant before we left town sunday, I really enjoied that and Rachel did even more so. I'm off to finish getting ready for work, everybody have a good monday, :-p

Missing My Sweetie

2006-07-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back, have been for a week, just havn't felt like blogging lately. Dad and I had a blast in Colorado, I wish I was still out there, it sure is boring back here in TN without Rach to hang out with, I realize just how much she is my best friend when we are apart like this. I wouldn't be able to make it without her, not because of the whole I need a wife to take care of me thing, I'm not as helpless as I make out(I have to tell myself that somtimes) but rather I just need her to come home to, she's my happiness, my drive, we're both far from perfect, but we're made for each other. She's the only one who trully understands me and loves me not in spite of who I am but because of who I am. I'm so thankful for her and for all the times we share laughing and talking for hours. I've been asking myself, have I forgotten how to have a good time?, what do I really enjoy doing anymore, I'm realizing it's not what most other people my age and younger enjoy. I'm married now(and expecting a child, good grief) it's really no wonder I have different interests, and I'm not ashamed or disapointed because of it, because there really is a fullness of life that comes with just being with that person(and baby) closest to you. It's empty here without her(them) but I get a lot of fullfillment from just talking to her on the phone everyday (which we have been doing alot of). I'm glad her family undertstands:-)

Brad has left the building...

2006-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Rachel here. Just thought I'd update for Brad a bit.

He is on a wonderful trip out west with his Daddy. They are in Colorado now. They've been spending time in Rocky Mountain National Park, camping and hiking. I've heard from him everyday and I miss him but he is having the time of his life.

These are the kinds of views he's been seeing while he's been out there:

Isn't that absolutely gorgeous! He'll have all kinds of real pictures that he and his Dad took when he gets back, and I'm sure he'll be sharing a ton of them on here.

I can't wait to hear ALL of his stories and see all of his pictues when he gets back! But most of all, I can't wait to see HIM! :-)

~Brad's secretary

Not Fair...but I can't complain

2006-07-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

I've posted on my Spritual Blog Not much has gone on today, I hated that my dad was right here in town and Rachel got to see him and I didn't. He drove here from NC so that his car will be here when he gets back from his class in dallas this week. Rachel took him to the airport, but I had to work so I couldn't even so much as have lunch with him. I can't complain too much though, I'll see him this friday and all next week when we're going on a camping vacation out west, way out west... somewhere :-D He's gonna surprise me with where, but I'm not sure even HE knows for sure. I hope everybody has a good tuesday, God Bless!

2006-07-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well I guess Rach has kept ya'll pretty much up to date on all the goings on over the holiday, I want to try to post a video of the fireworks when I get a chance albeit late timing.

Tonight I'm thinking about the baby, and how in the world I'm gonna be a daddy. I started keeping a journal(dear baby) to share with them when they get old enough, I think it will help make things more real for me and it'll be special for our child later on. I'm getting more and more nervous and more and more excited all at the same time.

I'm looking forward to my vacation with my dad, he's going to surprise me with the destination, I'm fairly certain we're headed west, but that's about all I know. He keeps asking if I want him to tell me, and I keep saying only if you want to, this should be interesting.
He's driving here from NC Monday and Rachel is taking him to the Nashville airport where he'll catch a plane for Dallas. He has a class there this week, he'll catch a flight returning to Nashville on Friday and I'll drive his car to work and pick him up at the airport when I get off, we'll leave from there. I don't have to be back at work until the 24th.

We went to the park and grilled bourbon street chicken(without the bourbon) and baked beans,it was very yummy. Rachel even built the fire and lit it herself, she used wendy's advice and stacked two layers of charcoal, let it soak, put on some more, and light. Sure enough, the perfect fire! It gives the fire everything it craves, fuel and air(because the coals are spread out to allow for ventilation). I would like to thank all the little people who made this possible, lol. It was very tasty chicken! You can find the recipie for the marinade on Kasey's recipie blog, if you check before monday you can even read an inadvertant post about Rachel puking on there, so hurry!

I'm off to bed soon, so I say goodnight, everybody have a great Sunday!

Take My Quiz

2006-07-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Take My Quiz
- on -
QuizYourFriends.com!

Ok I've prepared a quiz, it may not be difficult but I think you will learn some new things about me. Have Fun! Oh and no cheating(Kasey :-)

Come Back Down

2006-06-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about my sister Krissy tonight, my mom says she's getting married to the father of her second baby(the one she's pregnant with now), we found out it is His baby after all. I've been missing her alot lately, I don't miss the way it used to be as much as the way it could be if she was saved, or even just less hostile. I've never really dealt with the feelings I have about what has happened with her, so I don't even know myself how I feel about it, I just know Jesus is the only answer, He can make right any wrong situation, and while we don't have a sea of forgetfulness, He lets us use His. These are the lyrics to what I call my "song for Krissy" at this time in our lives, I pray the Lord gives me the strength to be the brother she needs when she comes back in our lives and starts to try to get her life straigtened out.

"Come Back Down"

By: Lifehouse

Staring right back in the face
A memory can't be erased
I know, because I tried
Start to feel the emptiness
And everything I'm gonna miss
I know, that I can't hide

All this time is passing by
I think it's time to just move on

When you come back down
If you land on your feet
I hope you find a way to make it back to me
When you come around
I'll be there for you
Don't have to be alone with what you're going through

Start to breathe and fake a smile
It's all the same after a while
I know, that you are tired
Carrying the ones you lost
A picture frame with all the thoughts
I know, you hold inside

I hope that you can find your way back
To the place where you belong

When you come back down
If you land on your feet
I hope you find a way to make it back to me
When you come around
I'll be there for you
Don't have to be alone with what you're going through

You're coming back down
You say you feel lost can I help you find it
When you come around
From time to time we all are blinded
You're coming back down
You don't have to tell me what you're feeling
I know what you're going through
I won't be the one that lets go of you

I think it's time to just move on

When you come back down
If you land on your feet
I hope you find a way to make it back to me
When you come around
I'll be there for you
Don't have to be alone with what you're going through

When you come back down
If you land on your feet
I hope you find a way to make it back to me
When you come around
I'll be there for you
Don't have to be alone with what you're going through

The "camping trip"

2006-06-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hmm, lets see, I havn't posted in awhile, friday night I went on a "camping trip" there are quotes there because it wasn't even close to camping by my standards because I slept in a 245,000 dollar RV that Bro. Tommy brought with him to this church fishing trip. It was a gorgeous drive up into the cumberland plateau, some of the best country I've seen in TN besides the smokies. It was a beautiful night, the misty hills with the sun going down, just the right temp with the windows down, and some of my favorite music playing on my ipod over the stereo, it was worth it just for the drive!

Ok that was a sporadic paragraph but I don't care, I've decided I'm going to be unedited on my blog mostly because I don't have time to edit, if I edit I'll never post,lol. Anyway when I got there, all the guys were in Bro. Campbell's truck heading for the cafe to get grub, so I followed them, we got grub and went back to the camp, or as we referred to it, "the taj mahal" Bro. Campbell said I wasn't going to believe what tommy brought, and he was right! We watched a movie in surround sound on one of three plasma TV's, lol. (one of which faces outside from one of the luggage compartments) If I were loaded I would definately have to get me one of those!, but I would never call it camping, it's called living in a bus that's more luxurious than most houses.

The fishing part of the fishing trip was interesting, this was the first time I'd been trout fishing and the guys were sure I'd be sold on it for life. Well it was really good except I'd never used that kind of pole(the kind with the finger trigger) before, so I had to learn how to cast all over again, there ended up being a huge hole in my waders so they filled with water and my legs went numb because it was so cold, I slipped and banged up my shins on a rock, we were using salmon eggs which would not stay on my hooks for anything, I only caught one fish and everybody else caught a whole bunch, lol. Not to be negative or anything, well a friend called so I'm gonna go for now.

A Little Peace of Heaven

2006-06-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

We went to the Doctor again for a checkup on the baby. I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, it was amazing to hear that sound and think about what it means and how it shapes the rest of my life. I want to be the man God wants me to be for this baby. I don't want to do anything that will cause that little person heartache or pain. It really gives a man perspective to know that they'll have a little one watching their every move and depending on them so much. I had my first father's day yesterday, it's funny how people talk about dads to be as if they're not already dads. That baby is in existence now as much as they'll ever be, life begins at conception, and even if they're not born alive, they will be there to meet the parents when they walk into heaven, so it's foolish to downplay the motherhood or fatherhood of a person before birth, but I understand people mean well, they just don't think about it that way. It was funny though, Sis. Teresa said she wanted the daddy to be to come up and she gave me a baby doll that looks pretty lifelike and a pack of diapers for newborns,(I guess they want me to practice changing diapers on the doll,haha)It was definitely weird to be thought of as a daddy, and to think of myself in that way. I'm sure I'll have that feeling a lot, but I'll get used to it. I don't know how well I'll deal with all the teasing that comes with being a new dad, but I'll just be the best dad I can and hopefully that will ease up.

I'm thankful for how the Lord is preparing me for fatherhood. I feel peace that while things will be immensely different from now on, the Lord will continue to give me that peace I'll need to make it through each day, whether I have to work one job or five. I'm sure that I'll have the feeling that it's worth every minute just to have a little family time at the end of a hard day. I'm thankful for how He's been helping my wife, and how it's working out with her at home, I need her help at home so much and I'm glad we've been given this time to grow closer before the baby makes their move without the hectic lifestyle that comes with both working the same place.

Good Times

2006-06-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, we've had a crazy weekend, and it's not even over yet! Thursday was awesome, I found out that morning that one of my major prayer requests was answered, It was the second one this week! The Lord is really moving in the church, I feel His presence like I haven't in ages. We decided to go to the revival at Murfreesboro Thursday night, so after I got off work and Rachel came to get me, we went to La Siesta in the 'boro. It was hilarious, I decided at the last minute to play what I call "mexican food roulette" I get it from my uncle Jim, you just pick a combo meal number from 1 -20, like he says they're all basically the same anyway... Well apparently not at this place because I just randomly picked number 5 and the waiter said "rice?" and I said, "sure"(thinking he meant, do you want rice with that?)when it came out and he set a big plate of rice in front of me, looked at me funny and walked off, we busted up laughing, Rach knew from my expressions that I had no idea what I had ordered. So my game of roulette seemingly backfired on me, but it worked out because neither one of us was very hungry we were just killing time before church, so she gave me two of her tacos and we split up the rice. I regretted the whole thing when it woke me up at 1:30 in the morning, but that's another disgusting story(some of my readers would love to hear the details, but I digress,:-)

Revival was absolutely the best service I can remember, it was all about looking at our motives for doing what we do, do we serve out of any desire for self recognition?, or are we serving with a pure intent to see the Lord's work and perfect will accomplished? We need to get rid of the "clamor" of the spirit of self exaltation, it's just noise the enemy uses to distract God's people from the true goal, seeing the lost saved, and making it to heaven! She also emphasized that we need to look at our walk and see if we're actually being what we claim to be, it's been pointed out by certain that are new to the church that we make big claims, but fail to live what we claim, which is certainly an indictment against us. We need to be ready to back up our every decision with scripture, lest the world think us hypocrites!

Friday night we had a good time at the cook out at the Fox's house which was a joint band meeting, ours(Donnafield band) and the Fox band, Autumn is in town from MinnIsota(said in northern accent) and Sis. Tammy wanted her to have the fellowship of the young people the two bands happen to be comprised of. We ate burgers and hot dogs, and played volley ball(I played even though I DESPISE volley ball more everytime I play, lol) it was fun though, I tried extra hard to be a good sport even though certain people made fun of me, everybody pretty much stunk equally so I didn't feel too bad, haha. Some of the highlights of the game were: 1. The ball bouncing off of Keith's head when he wasn't looking, going over the net and making a point. 2.The fact that the other team was made up of all girls and Bro. Galen(my bandleader)3. Caetie Page serving the ball for the first time in her life and hitting Josh(her teammate) in the head. 4. Chelsei dropping the ball because she was laughing at Keith acting like a monkey.

Tonight(Saturday) we had the benefit spaghetti dinner/ silent auction/singing/signing(blondie) which went very well and we raised over 4 grand for Brad Moore's care fund! Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow morning will come early, so I'm going to bed, pray that our friend Connie will come to church tomorrow. Everybody enjoy the rest of the weekend, God bless.

An Era Passes

2006-06-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

It's Friday Morning and I'm getting ready for work by myself for the first time since Last July. Rachel quit working at Menlo yesterday, we've just had too much trouble with stress and arguments in the morning. Trying to be at work ontime with two people and one shower is harder than people think, at least it is for us. I think it's for the best because I tend to take her for granted too much when she's always around. I'm gonna miss her like crazy when I'm at work now, because I'm used to always looking up and seeing her walking down the aisle. I'll miss the joy and happiness she brings to that place, it seems so empty without her. My life woud be miserable without her to bring cheer to every dark corner. I wish we humans could just enjoy what we have while we have it, instead of taking it for granted and only realizing what we have when it's gone. We've enjoied working together, and for the most part it has worked great, but with the baby on the way, we need to make sure we're careful about the kind of environment we're creating, it needs to be peaceful even now while the baby is "in the tummy" because when Mommy aint happy, the baby aint happy. I believe the Lord wants us to learn now, how to make it work without her working there, and start to create a more healthy atmosphere at home, which we'll be able to do if one of us has time to do anything besides work, eat and sleep. I've thought recently that I'll look back on these days as "the good ole days" because we've been able to work together and I've really enjoied it, but Rachel's right, if these have been the good ole days then the future has issues, because there's a lot of room for improvement. I just pray for strength to cope with the lonliness as it sets in, I know people go to work without their spouse everyday, but when you've been used to having her there all the time, and you're as sensitive as I am, well it isn't going to be easy. I'm just going to have to take this as well as fear about where the money's going to come from to the Lord and I know He'll open up the doors. Praise the Lord for his mercy is everlasting!

You Created Nothing that Gives Me More Pleasure Than You

2006-06-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling better today, I met with the Lord in my prayer closet, I asked Him to work all of this mess together for His good, I know that when there's no pain, there's no growth. Pain is God's megaphone, His way of speaking to us and changing us into what He wants us to be. Even when the pain you feel is brought on by guilt and regret for hurting others, it can be used by Him to mold us.

I'm so glad that the Lord is always there waiting with arms spread whenever we need Him, I need Him all the time, I have nothing apart from Him, nothing that could ever give me real pleasure or joy. I'm wrapping myself up in Him. I'm seeing more than ever that I'm just passing through this life.

He's a beautiful Mystery, as humans we get caught up in anything that has mystery about it, when we sense there is a labyrinth of things we don't understand, we're somehow attracted to that. There will never be a greater mystery than that of the boundless power of the Lord, and therein lies the wonder of serving Him.

Building the bridge of trust again can only be done through His mercy and grace in and through me. I'll never have the humility it takes to swallow my own guilt and pride(in myself), but tapping into His power at every turn, I can find in Him what I need to carry on. I struggle so with leaving the spiritual growth of other people to the Lord, I seem to think it's suppose to be a hands on task, but only prayer and fasting will do any good to this end.

I just want to be a strength to my brothers and sisters and leave the molding to the Lord, when I'm hurt by another, if the Lord leads, I'll let them know, in a Christlike manner, and just leave the rest to Him.

The enemy would love to see us all at each other's throats, I'm tired of giving him what he wants, if I do it's nobody's fault but my own, for not being prayed up.

Jesus is the answer and the anecdote for every heart problem :-)

Long day, Longer Night

2006-06-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't sleep, I messed up big time and my thoughts (and my allergies) won't let me sleep. That's not good considering I have to work 12 hours again the next two days. I'm just so tired of being who I've been for so long. I want so badly to get out of this rut, it feels like my life is out of control and I can't get a handle on anything, but then I realize it's not me that should be handleing my life, it's God. It's when you hurt those you care about that you really begin to realize how bad things are. I'm running to Jesus, because I don't have any other place to go with the guilt and regret, everybody please pray for me.

Cool weekend Hot week, (or "chile today hot tamale")

2006-05-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a good memorial day weekend, Didn't do much of anything on Saturday, it was a much needed day of rest, Sunday We made it to church in time for worship service, Rachel is taking a break from teaching the 3 to 6 year olds sunday school class, because she's been feeling so poorly lately, hopefully that will get better and we can get to church on time. It was raining felines and canines when we got out of church, we were all taking turns with bro. Steve's umbrella which was sitting by the door, we told him he should charge per use. We went to wendys by ourselves, trying to eat cheap, then we went to the mall to kill time between church. We got a pina colada smoothie at caribean cove, our favorite :-) Friday night Rach slept in the car while bro. Shaw talked about outreach, it looks like we have a good "blueprint for outreach" for the next couple of months, we'll be doing an "extreme home improvement workshp" on tuesday nights from fathers day through the end of july, involving the spiritual improvment of the family, with the theme "real men take their families to church", and of course our being church of the week for the next to last week in july on 94fm the fish will help promote attendance. I'm getting excited about all of that.

So then Monday we just hung around washing dishes and watching little house and enjoying my new favorite pass time, playing nanosaur II :-D until Megan came knocking on our window(first she tried the door but we didn't hear) she came in and played nanosaur with me while Rach got ready and then the three of us went to O'Charleys for lunch, and had ribs. We went to the outlet mall afterwards and Rachel got a knit shawl thing, which I think looks very nice :-) Then it was back to our house, we ended up watching the filming of Napolean Dynamite, along with some of the other bonus features, very funny stuff :-D

Today it was back to work, and even I think it's hot in there, I was sluggish all day. They got us stuff to make slushie/snowcones, so that was cool(literally) and they told us we'll be working until it's done(probably like 12 hours) each day, the rest of the week, yup, it's year end at 3com. Oh yeah, and I managed to mow the grass last night, because I knew I wouldn't be doing it any other day this week. That's all for now, more later if we make it through tomorrow.

Life's Great Utopia, (a trully cashless society)

2006-05-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Another Lazy Saturday afternoon, which still feels like morning because we slept till 11 o 'clock. Rach made us lemon poppy seed muffins and chai tea for breakfast (at lunchtime) We looked online for concerts in the area tonight, but the only thing we came up with was Jars of Clay three hours away, Rach doesn't want to go that far, so I guess we're just gonna sit. I did some dishes this morning (seems like a never ending job, wait that's because it is). We had a nice evening last night, even though we were sooo tired, we went to Shoneys because I felt like a "slim jim" (guess that would be slim brad), no it's not just a piece of jerky, it's a ham hoagie with thousand island dressing. I tuned my guitar so I'm probly gonna practice awhile, and try to make myself figure out the checkbook, :-p Talk about a never ending task. I want to move to a planet that doesn't use money. I was also thinking of becoming a farmer, last night we watched Little House, and I was thinking hey I wonder if I could be a farmer, sure I know you have to have a thousand acres and a billion dollars of equipment to make a go of it these days in the world marketplace, but I was thinking we could just be self contained, just make enough to live off of for ourselves, when reality hits though, this is called having a garden as a hobby. Because you can't afford the house and all the expenses without working a job, a garden would help with food expenditure though which seems like the place most of the money goes, at least the unnecessary money.

It sure is nice having a three day weekend, I didn't think we'd be off today looking at the work volume yesterday, but we managed to get out of there by 7:30ish. The best part is we get our first paid Holiday since we've been hired on, Monday. The only paid time off I've ever had was my Randstad vacation last July, I could get used to this. I'm gonna try to use this time productively, we've got a baby to get ready for, everybody pray for me, I freak out in regular intervals.

Daydreams to Rest

2006-05-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Another Thursday in the books, we had a pretty good day today, it was our friend connie's birthday today, we went out to eat at Jim N' Nicks Bar-B que, woah that place has good cheese rolls, and because Celeka asked if they brought them out for free, the waitress actually did, and she didn't charge us for a second order either, haha. I think they do that because they know they'll get it in their tip instead, :-) Anyway, we had a nice time and Connie had a good birthday, except for the part when we sang happy birthday to the car, in her words we sounded "terrible" lol. I'm thankful for the friends we have at work, we're so spolied right now, it'll make it hard later when things aren't so nice. I'm learning to live life in the moment, without wishing for the future, or wishing you could change the past. The bed calls, so I answer :-)

2006-05-24T04:26:00.000-07:00

" Trying" By Lifehouse

Could you let down your hair be transparent for awhile Just a little while To see if you're human after all Honesty is a hard attribute to find When we all want to seem like We've got it all figured out Well let me be the first to say that i Don't have a clue I don't have all the answers Ain't gonna' pretend like I do Just trying - to find my way Trying - to find my way the best that I know how Well I haven't memorized all of the cute things to say But I'm working on it Maybe I'll master this- art form someday If I quote all the lines off the top of my head Will you believe That I fully un-derstand all these things I've read I'm just trying - to find my way Trying - to find my way Trying - to find my way the best that I know how Well i- haven't got it all figured out quite yet but Even if it takes my whole life To get to where I need to be And if I should fall to the bottom of the end I'll be one step back to you, and Trying - to find my way Trying - to find my way Oh I'm trying - to find my way Trying - to find my way

This is one of my favorite songs right now, it speaks the way I feel about things. It's so hard when those close to you are facing life, and you want to know all the right things to say to help guide them in the right direction. All we know for sure is that God's will is the safest place to be, but at the end of the day each individual has to determine wether they feel they're in God's will. Nobody can tell them wether they are or not, we may think we have the answers, but the Lord is the only one who sees the big picture. If we make a mistake(or those we love do) we just have to pick ourselves up let the Lord dust off the pain and the emotions it has caused, and continue on following after the Lord's leading. There's no cut and dry answer, sure we know certain principles have to be, before things can trully be God's will, but only He can see the future and wether or not the right things will come to pass. Friendship isn't about dictating each other's life, even if we see somebody heading down the wrong road, we shouldn't allow any attitude or spirit to prevail except that of tender compassion and prayerful wisdom. Each person is just trying to find their own way, as friends we just need to be sensitive to that. Lord help me to be the kind of friend I would want to have in times of confusion or uncertainty!

A "Kodiak Moment"

2006-05-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well we didn't do much of anything Saturday, just caught up on much needed rest after being up past 1:oo, two days in a row this week. I had to fight back what started to feel like a quater life crisis all weekend, because I was going crazy that we weren't down at BTI having a blast with everybody, we had to stay home because of work, and any other year we would have been down there at least some. The whole baby thing has me thinking alot more sensibly and responsibly, which is a good thing, but the emotional effects are very strange, like I'm leaving something behind. I think what will be gained will be more dear than whatever it is I'm leaving behind.

I went to church by myself on Sunday for both services because Rach was feeling "day sickness" does't just last the morning I hate to say. I came home between church and we had breaded chicken and pasta salad with baked beans and crissants. We had an interesting discussion in Bro. Campbell's class on Liquor and Strong Drink, He was going over Bro. Smith's study called "Look not upon the wine, When..." that came out in the Evening light, and I asked "when the Bible says 'be ye not drunk with wine, wherein is excess' what does that mean in regards to what this is saying?" This sparked quite a discussion, but in the end Bro. Campbell said that the Bible was not allowing for drink in moderation in this scripture, it doesn't mean don't get drunk too much, it means don't get drunk because that would be an act of excess or exuberance which is unbecoming to a child of God. I had never thought about it that way, that "wherein is excess" is not a "qualifying statement" but is merely reemphasizing the point, that we should not get drunk, ever!

Sunday night Megan and Micah drove up to our house from Cleveland after being at BTI all weekend, we had a blast talking and playing with the computer(this was the first Meg has seen it, and we've had it since Thanksgiving :-p), eating appetizers and pizza and just being together. Rachel showed the sonagram picture to Meg, and she was crying when she was looking at it and the little replica of a 10 week old baby's feet we have on a tie pin, and the picture in a magazine of a 8 week old "baby in the tummy" it was sweet. I got a crazy pic of Micah eating and drinking root beer, haha, I said he looked like something off of Adams family, (but enough about those people in Canada, haha). It was alot of fun to hang out with two of our best friends just like old times:-)

Hanging with Insane People and Loving Every Minute of It

2006-05-19T04:24:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome birthday! Thanks to the best wife and friends a guy could ask for :-) We got out of bed at 5:30 and got ready for work, we made it to Smyrna by 7:25 so we had time to eat breakfast at the Rocking Chair Cafe, I had french toast,eggs, and biscuits and gravy, very good and a nice way to start out my birthday. When we got to work, everybody was cutting up with me and wishing me a happy birthday, I have some awesome co-workers. They threatened to sing happy birthday with that stupid cadence like at Ryans steakhouse, but they spared me for the most part. When we got off at 4:45 we went home and took a nap, after I called the Jernigans in AR. I got a little bit of sleep and we were up again at 8:00 Micah's flight was delayed so I called my parents while we waited. We got to the resturant about 10 and Meg and Micah got there about 5 mins later. Micah jumped out of the car and said Bradlee!!

and grabbed me up spinning around in circles till we're both so dizzy the world keeps spinning, as is tradition, haha. We sat down and I opened my presents, I got Caedmons Call "In the company of angels II" and Season 1 and 2 of Northern Exposure on DVD from Rachel :-D The new Napoleon Dynamite Special edition DVD and Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite "Taming a Liger" It's actually a Napolean Dynamite devotional book LOL, from Meg, and Napoleon Dynamite The complete quote book, and a Napoleon "flip book" from Micah. This circle of friends has this crazy thing about Napoleon as you can tell. We had a much needed time of laughing and talking, I thank the Lord for the work He's doing in our friendships. Micah came home with us and spent the night, and Meg went home. We of course stayed up too late talking, but we finally went to bed. Micah and I got up about 5:30 the next morning, when I came out of the bathroom he was standing by the door, when I had turned off the air conditioner over his head, he thought it sounded like a microwave shutting off, so he went in the kitchen to check the microwave, LOL well at least I didn't have to wake him up. We went for a two mile run, awesome way to start the day! We sat and talked back in the house and ate frosted mini wheats :-) It was so good to get to spend some time with him! We took him to where we work so meg could pick him up, we actually clocked in a couple minutes early. Rachel had a sonagram appointment at 11:30 so she was gone a big part of the day, but we had a party for one of our co-workers last day, the boss asked me to bless the food again, I'm glad for the reasons behind that, people can tell a difference in me, enough so that they call on me to pray, that's good to know. So it was and still is an awesome "birthday season" (family joke) I don't feel like I'm 24 but the fact that there's a "bun in the oven" is starting to make it feel that way. Hope everybody has an awesome friday!

What Day is it???

2006-05-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

Does anybody know what day it is??? Is it throw water balloons at your boss day? I wish, but no. Is it walk around with a box on your head looking like a robot at work day? No that was friday :-) Is it.......Ride a purple Hippo down main street while eating melons day? No.... It's my BIRTHDAY :-D And I just got my first birthday present! It was two shirts from Old Navy from my wife, they are very cool, one is green and the other is orange :-) One thing that is very cool about this birthday is that I'm going to get to see Micah tonight, very cool indeed, especially since I havn't seen him since september. As I'm sure all you dedicated readers have already read, we're going out to dinner tonight when his plane gets in at 8:30. I still have some stuff to do, to get ready for that, so I shall close for now, I'll let ya'll know how it goes later. Hmm, I wonder who the first person will be to tell me happy birthday, besides Rachel obviously. Everybody have a good "Brad's Birthday" :-D

Buzzy Me

2006-05-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well hooray for us, we saved the weekend durring quarter end! I didn't think we had a chance when we left for the doctor thursday afternoon, but everybody banded together and we got it all done at about 7 tonight, Rachel and I made it to the bandmeeting at the Donafields just a half hour late, but Meg got held up helping Nitten finish up, so she didn't make it till it was over, but at least she came. It was a really good day overall, I decided this morning that I wasn't going to let myself be in a bad mood no matter what, and it actually worked! Haha, Rachel wasn't feeling well, so I just tried to support her and didn't let it effect how I felt, that's not at all easy, because usually whatever she feels I quickly feel. But if I don't find strength I won't be much help to her. I thought alot about baby names today, I still like Sierra even though I can't think of a good middle name, but now Rachel does't like it anymore :-( I got kind of frusterated when she told me that, but like I told her, I'm just going to pray about it, because I don't want to just name her(them) something because I saw it in a book and I liked it, I want it to have meaning, and the best way to accomplish that is to allow the Lord to direct it. My former pastor Bro. Bogoni was praying and the Lord gave him the name for their latest edition "Benjamin" because it means "gift from God" anybody who knows Bro. Bogoni knows he needed to hear that, haha. He certainly is filling up his quiver.

Something kind of funny that happened today was when our co-worker Amanda went to get Frappachinos from starbucks and she ended up spilling one all over her fiance's truck, it wouldn't have been funny if it was my vehicle, haha, but well you would just have to know the couple. She was trying to hide it from her boyfriend, and I knew about it, so when he went out there I tried to stop him, knowing I couldn't, I said "hey there's something verrry interesting way over on the other side of the warehouse :-p Since interesting is a relative term I figured I didn't fib, :-p Anyway it didn't work and he went out and she of course told him what happened. I had one of the frappachinos , and it gave me a caffiene buzz (which is why I'm still up blogging) and a tummy ache, even though I only drank a little.

We had a really good band meeting, we talked about Brad Moore and how the Lord has been working through his circumstances, and how we need to just pray and wait for God's perfect will to be accomplished. It was very encouraging, and it was nice having Bro. Andy's band there with us.

I'm looking forward to my birthday, Micah just happens to be getting into town that night, so He and Meg are going to eat with us at Hickory Falls in smyrna, I've been wanting to try that place, so this seems like a good oppertunity. I just hope Micah makes his flight, he's notorious for cutting it way too close :-p It'll be good to see him and hear his say "Bradleee!!!!" Haha, it's been too long!

Everybody pray for Rach, she's sick off and on, it could be a lot worse, but it could be better too, just pray that it won't be a rough pregnancy for her( and me :-p) I've only made one "craving run" so far and that was for water, very unusual for her to crave water,(that's how she put it) I told her it's called being thirsty, but she insists it's a craving because she never wants plain water, always has to have it flavored with something.

I watched a really good movie last night! It was called "the Inn of the Sixth happiness" about an english woman who was a missionary to China, she would stop at nothing to get there, and had to take a train all the way across asia through siberia durring war time! The Lord used her greatly there and she became known as "the one who helps people" what a testimony! Rach and I talked about how much of a difference one person can make. It seems like it's so hard in this country because everybody knows the "message" of the gospel, but most people accept "watered down" versions of it, such as the doctrine of once saved always saved. It would be so awesome to take it to a country where almost nobody had ever heard it before. It cuts like a knife when it's that fresh, and the spirit is allowed to work in such a way that is incomparable to any other situation. I don't know if I would go so far as to say I'm feeling a call to be a missionary, but then again we all are, wether we're representing Him rightly or not. But I do feel an increase in my burden for souls. I don't ever want to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Romans 1:16 !

Happy Mothers Day everyone, I'm very thankful for mine, I wish I could be with her this year :-(

Bradley..... you dead? yeah Mon :-p

2006-05-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Craziness, I say! I havn't been online all week, it's just been crazy around here, we're getting into quarter end volume at work again, oh joy. We had a good time monday night though, we decided to go have a spur of the moment cook out at the state park, the sun went down soon after we got there, but that just added to the atmosphere, we had the charcoal grill goin and made some eally good hot dogs and hamburgers. We turned on the headlights to light the picnic table after awhile. Rachel got me an ipod adapter so we can listen to the ipod through the tape deck now, very cool! (when we don't forget to turn it off and it actually has battery power! haha) And last night we got movies from the Library again, We watched "cool runnings" and "mad mad mad mad world" there are funny parts in cool runnings, I had never seen it, one of the lines that are gonna stick with us is "sanka you dead?" "yeah man" They say that like 10 times in the movie, :-p Anyway, I did get some dishes done at one point, so I did something productive at least. We've moved the recliner and another chair out of the living room into the "den" where the computer/entertainment center is, so we can have family togetherness in here. We looked at baby stuff at wally world tonight, we'll take one of everything, haha. Ok well I'm off to try to get tonights sleep quota, hasn't been happening lately. Big day tomorrow, we'll be swamped at work again, and then at noon we're going for our first check up at the doc, since we've known about the youngin a comin! Everybody pray that all systems are go:-) And the countdown continues, T minus 33 weeks and counting! Still can't believe I'm gonna be a daddy :-D

Finally... the BIG NEWS

2006-05-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

Ok so for those who STILL don't know, I'm gonna have a baby! Wait, not me, my wife(I'm not a seahorse) but anyway there's gonna be a youngin a comin, and I can't wait! I've never been too sure about having kids before, I didn't know I wanted this, but now that it's happening, I'm very glad for it. Sure it's gonna be hard, but everything worth having is worth the price. We'll just do what we gotta do, because we're family, and that what families do. Hey that'd be a good start for a song, anyway, that's the big news right now, I've been calling everybody I know, and I still havn't figured out the best way to say it, always seems weird hearing the words come out of my mouth, "I'm gonna be a daddy!" This is certainly a good mothers day present for Rachel who's always wanted to be a mommy! Am I thoughtful or what? We'll be taking donations to the give Brad and Rachel everything you don't use for babies so they don't go into debt fund. We'll either use it or sell it and get money for more stuff, I'll be heading up this project, because my associate will be kind of busy. Jokes aside though, I'm trusting God for all of the answers to the what if's? and how in the world?s, many may not agree but I believe that God doesn't allow things to happen, for those who want His timing, out of His timing, and every new life is a gift, not a burden or a finacial setback. I'm so thankful for Antioch, because you can actually announce you're having a baby and not get what I refer to as the "communist response" the one where they act all nice, but you know inside they're saying "that's nice but they can't afford it, and they're just crowding the planet with another expense to the government" I'm thankful that the Lord has given us Insurance just at the right time, and He will take care of our needs as a family, people have been doing it for a long time now, and with the Lord's help, we can do it too.

Little House, Big Heart

2006-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" we picked up season 2 on DVD at the library :-) In the first episode "The Richest Man in Walnut Grove" Pa has just finished a huge order of lumber and he's waiting for the money to come in because they're low on supplies, and he tells the family it'll just be a few more days. He then finds out from the guy who is buying the lumber, that the company who is ordering it from him has gone bankrupt, so it'll be a long time until he sees any of that money, and he won't see much of it ever! So the whole family ends up banding together to get through the "hard times" Mary goes to work sewing for an old lady full time, and Laura does her chores, meanwhile Pa has to clean out the stables and dig a ditch to drain a flooded area and irrigate a field. The whole time Mrs. Olsen is badgering Ma about the huge credit bill they've run up at the merchantile, At the end Nells(Mr. Olsen) tells Pa, that he's the richest man in walnut grove because of how his family banded together like that. The moral of the story, money doesn't equal riches, love does. Good food for thought for hard times. :-)

Back From the Dead

2006-04-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm still alive people, just havn't felt like blogging lately, or havn't had the oppertunity, or both, depending on the occasion. Anyway, we had youth convention last night and today, I got a huge blessing at the altar last night, much needed, I hope ya'll will be able to tell the difference. I'm sorry for anything I've done to hurt anybody, I've been struggleing lately and now I'm ready to be part of the battle, and not just "tread water" as it were. Bro. Scott Hatton preached last night about making each day count and tapping into what the Lord has for you. His wife Amy, who I've said for years is my favorite preacher because her ministry was instrumental in my receiving a vision of The Church of God, back in 2002 at BTI, preached a very good message this morning, her 9 year old daughter Savannah preached right before her, Meg got it on video, I wish she could post it online, it was adorable and a very good message I must say, for an adult, let alone a nine year old. Bro. Scott preached again this afternoon, talking about how Hitler's schemes were "straight out of Satan's playbook" and we can learn alot, by looking at what hitler said and did, about our opponent in spiritual warfare. I was thinking about how Brad Moore always said he liked Bro. Scott's preaching, and how I thought he would especially like this message, hope I can get a recording to take to him when he wakes up :-) Other highlights for me were Dionte's new drumset, the Jackson's friend the keyboard master, the star wars youth camp boost, seeing my friend Bro. Kevin Werkiser and Chad Nabors' song.

I spent the evening catching up with friends, Jason Hill called from NC, and I talked to Frankie Strong for over an hour, he's always such a good sounding board when I want to get my thoughts out. He's helping me come up with Ideas about how to get started in the Information Technology field. I'm thinking about going back to school, hopefully as early as this fall. I'm off to rescue Rachel from burgerland, keep praying for us that we'll be able to get into a healthy flow of things, I know it's anything but ideal with her working like this, and it wasn't my choice, it was just an oppertunity that presented itself and we acted on it, I'm done justifying it to people though, we're just going to do what we need to do, and seek the mind of God about what to do next. Taking it one day at a time, as my Dad always says.

More Pictures

2006-03-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Daddy putting his shoes on

Watching Daddy get ready from a nearby tree

Exploring cool generator thingy

Inverted flight

Burgess Falls

2006-03-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Overlooking the Falls

Burgess Falls

More of Burgess Falls

Weekend With Dad

2006-03-13T05:10:00.000-08:00

My dad came to visit from North Carolina this past weekend, I walked out toward the interstate when I was expecting him to get here and he picked me up and I rode back to the house with him, I always used to do that as a kid when he would come home from work I would "watch for him" at the end of the street. When we got home we talked awhile and then got ready to go eat, we tried going to Demos Steak and Spagetti house, but it was packed, so we went to Gondola, we all had sweet tea and chicken parmasan, very good, even though the air conditioner in the resturant was broken and it was very warm in there. Saturday dad and I got up and after breakfast at Mcdonalds, we went to Burgess Falls St. Park. We got out of the car, and I swang on the swingset, like when I was a kid(I usually act my shoesize instead of my age, especially when I'm remembering camping trips with daddy when I was younger) I climbed a tree while he was paying the day use fee, and when I wistled, he didn't look up at first, he said "be careful not to fall out of the tree" as he always does, haha. We walked along the river down into a deep valley/canyon and saw a series of waterfalls, middle falls was pretty impressive in itself, but when we got to the "big falls" it's breathtaking. We first viewed it from the observation platform at the top and then climbed down to the base of the falls via a stairway in a chain link tunnel(so you don't fall and break your neck). I took several pictures on Rachel's new camera I got her for valentines day, and dad took a bunch on his. We walked around the point of a pennisula down in the canyon and we came upon an old 1920's hydroelectric plant, or the ruins of one at least, we figured out what it was because of the old generator sticking in the dirt nearby. There were bricks scattered everywhere, and we later read that the flood waters had destroyed it a long time ago. We stacked bricks up on a peice of concrete at the water's edge as a "marker" I told him he was being very CPMAish :-) I need to get ready for work, I'll post more later along with the pictures.

Here we go again :-p

2006-02-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Well, we had an awesome district convention, I especially enjoyed Bro. Campbell's Message, and Bro. Shaw's was a very good compliment to it I thought. Very timely preaching for this very unsettled time. I hope the breakthrough at the convention will continue to effect everybody so we all get in our prayer closets like we need to! Another huge highlight of the convention for me, was getting to spend time with my good friend from North Carolina, Frankie Strong. We had a good talk at Cracker Barrel between sessions on Saturday, and then after the evening session we went somewhere to eat and talk, and we were so into our conversation we never went in the restaurant, just talked in the car in the parking lot, haha. I thought that was pretty cool. He told me that his brother(whom I'm also good friends with, because they were both in my first term at BTI) Timothy Strong's latest CD is available to download at itunes

I went to lunch with Jesus(the mexican, not the Lord:-) and Luke(the redneck not the physician) from work, had chinese, I've determined Chinese food gives me energy. almost as much as Mexican food, Nitten at work has this standing joke about me and hot sauce, and how it gives me extra energy when I eat it, you have to be there, but I think there's actually something to it, :-p Anyway, we're getting into the height of quarter end at work again. This is the part where most of the day I stay buried in freight, on the dock, and spend most of my time trying to figure out where in the world I'm gonna put it, because we have like three square feet to work in(slight exaggeration, but only slight).

My Dad is suppose to be coming through on Sunday afternoon, and we're gonna eat with Him while he stops here shortly and then keeps going, because it's a long way to Oklahoma City, and this is no where near halfway. He'll be stopping on the way back through the following weekend for the entire weekend, we'll be able to do something that saturday, and I'm really looking forward to that.

Hope everybody has a good day!

It's finally here

2006-02-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, Bradley has made a blog, that's right, a normal blog where he will just write about whatever is on his mind, It will still be a bit different, because well I'm a different kinda guy, and as inspiration hits me I'll still write on my spiritual blog, but I'm gonna try my hand at this, and we'll see what develops. I just decided to do it, I don't have an earth shattering story for my first post, it's just time. Lets see, what deep, intellectual brain things are in my head right now?(madagascar lemur guy says something to that effect) I actually got up early this morning! That was the start of a very good trend(I hope), we found out we have to work tomorrow(saturday), I just pray it doesn't run into district convention at 1, because I'm looking forward to that. I'm a little bummed that I'm not going to NJ for Micah's graduation, but I think it's for the best. My dad is planning on visiting on the weekend of the 4th, and again on the following weekend. I havn't seen him since thanksgiving, so I'm counting the minutes. I'm also looking forward to revival with Sis. Connie Wilson in Murfreesboro March 5th through the 10th! Everybody who can, should do their best to be there!! We all know the spirit follows with that woman without fail! We need revival in The Church of God!

I've been getting more and more interested in foriegn lands, languages, and international travel and geography lately, I love how the internet makes this planet seem smaller, you can talk to sombody in outer slabobia(need to see if that's a real place) just as easy as you can talk to sombody next door, it's awesome. (I've known this for some time, just saying :-) My friend Jesus (no he's not deity he's a mexican) at work has fueled this interest and we're starting to get serious about learning one another's language, we've had several "classes" this week on lunch break, and we're talking about getting together outside of work to study, I would love to be fluent in spanish someday soon.

I would like to say that I'm married to an amazing woman who is the best fit for me God could have chosen, and I'm so very blessed to have her for my wife. I've heard from people that have been married for awhile that the romantic flame goes out after a couple years, but I'm still determined not to let that happen! I love you Rachel! She's my best friend and so much more.

I'm waiting for it to get warmer so I can go hiking, I need sombody who likes hiking to go with me, because I don't like to hike alone a whole lot, and Rachel's not really into it right now. So feel free to sign up.