Sunday, June 29, 2008

Couple's Get-together

We had a couples night out at our church and six couples were able to make it. We had a perfect evening after the storms had passed. The food was great and the games were fun. Of course the ladies had to have a little party since it was my birthday.

Corn hole Queens!


Enjoying the games!


Ice Cream Cake, MMMMM Good!

















Thanks for the great evening and hope we can do it again,

Unrelated to this, but the answer to last week's poll question was 1923.

Sunday Musings

Another birthday has come and gone, June 28th. My mom tells me I was born that day and a piece of paper she has confirms it, I don't remember a thing. Isn't it so gracious of God to keep that particular moment of our life from our memory. Wow, 38 years. It is hard to imagine that - really, and I am not even old.

I do remember a lot of things though. I remember my first new bike at Mowersville. I remember wrecking more than once on that bike and have the scars to prove it. I remember Bible School and sending off balloons and the big tent and all the kids. I remember when Dad brought home the new "rabbit" for the family. I remember cutting trails on the hillside as a young boy and receiving stern correction for that one.

I remember moving to Roseglen and setting up in a new house. I remember the tornado that came through. I remember being scared to go to the church at night because I was certain someone was hiding out in the basement. I remember going hunting for the first time and eventually shooting my first buck. I remember walking in the footsteps of my Dad. I remember the green mustang. I remember the long journey to school. I remember going to camp.

I remember Pleasant Valley and another new house. The big yard. Getting my first dog. Getting my driver's license. Driving. Wrecking again! Thankfully no scars. Going on my first date. Graduation. Going to college. Tears. Decisions. Confusion. Tears. Finally another graduation!

Ah, then marriage! What a day! She was sick I was scared. What a time. Honeymoon!!
Living with your best friend and learning together. Jobs. I remember all those things, not like my wife does, but I remember. Children, notice that is plural! All of thirteen minutes we had a child. And then more children. Their births were beautiful and I was there for all five! What a great memory!

Mistakes!! Mistakes!! Mistakes!! Yeah, I remember them as well. In living color with all too many instant replays! But isn't it wonderful, that just like I don't remember my birth, at the time of my new birth, God graciously forgets as well. All those mistakes that I still remember, He can't remember!

And so 38 years have now passed plus one day. I hope to live another 38 plus more. I hope to have a lot more memories. I hope to forget my mistakes. I hope that I never lose my memory and always have a clear mind. I hope to meet on heaven's shore where God forgets my sin but always remembers His child. And as the songwriter stated, "Life is great, and getting better!" And that my friend is "Just another typical day in the life of a child of God."


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Jam Up!

Not to be outdone by fellow bloggers, Marsha's extremely competive "I must Win at any cost" attitude came out, and her strawberry-picking hands went crazy. If I am not
mistaken, she did all this in under 4 hours, give or take about 3 hours either way. This was all done over an open fire in the backyard after cutting down the neighbor's tree to make the fire.


See how exciting this is! Notice the fire.


Brittany faithfully helping.


Pouring out the sticky red hot stuff!


Watching intently.


Counting the final tally. (What does the Bible say
about storing up treasure on earth?)


Just flat worn out because of their hard labor!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Sunday Musings

My wife and I were scheduled to sing Sunday morning for Worship service at our church, and as usual, we were having our typical Saturday night fight over what we should sing. It goes something like this:

Marsha says, "Do you have a song you would like to sing?"
"No, why?"
"Because we are supposed to sing tomorrow!"
"Oh really? You had a week to pick out a song, what is your problem."
"Well I thought you should pick the song this time."
"Well I don't, so go pick one!"
"What do think God would want us to sing?"
"I don't know, He seems to be talking to you at this moment."
"You always make me pick the song."
"I know because you never like my suggestions and you play the piano."
"Honey, go pick a song! NOW!"
"Yes Ma'am!"

(It is always best to fight before you sing rather than while singing, it is more spiritual.)

Anyway, I went over to the table to begin looking for a song. She had brought home a bunch of song books from church so I could find one. Thus began my search for a song as she spiritually began to view blogs and pray for all the families. (Blogs are now our prayer lists!)

We had old songs and new songs and songs I had never heard before in my life. It was interesting going through and seeing how many of the songs I knew. I would start singing the first few lines of the song until I came across another song I knew, then I would begin on that one. (You would have to be here.) Songs like, "Sweet Beulah Land," "When He was on the Cross," "I Dreamed of a City called Glory," "Blessed Assurance," and many others. After about thirty minutes of this, my kids were tired of hearing me and begged mom to stop praying over blogs and start practicing!

You are not going to believe this, after all my searching, she got up, walked to the piano, and said, "Why don't we try this, "One Scarred Hand." You have got to be kidding me! I had just spent over thirty minutes looking for a song and sure enough, she already had one picked out! She even had the music out ready to go. See if I ever look for a song again.

Well, we sang this morning and it went well, except for the one place where she tried to change keys in the middle of the verse. I believe she was praying for a blogger there and forgot what she was doing. I did find out some interesting trivia while looking for songs but for readers like Janella, you will have to come to the blog to view the poll question.

So there you have it, the family battle that is waged every time we are asked to sing. Please pray for us when you read our blog (its the spiritual thing to do) so that it does not get any uglier for us in the future.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Saturday Evening at the Columbus Clippers

Several families from the church went down to Columbus
to enjoy the Clippers baseball game Saturday evening. It was
a beautiful night to sit in the stands and just enjoy the action.





Sunday, June 15, 2008

Sunday Musings

Happy Father's Day! Fathers, they come a dime a dozen. They are everywhere! You can't go out and not see one - at the mall, the ballpark, the restaurant. They come in all shapes and sizes, in all colors and creeds. We are all here because of a father. Unfortunately on this great day, there are so many children, or for that matter, grown adults, who have no idea who their father is or where he may be. They were conceived in a moment of "passion" and later brought in to this wonderful world, but from that point on, there has been no father. There has been an empty place in their life that has never been filled. What a sad commentary it is, and yet this story is repeated over and over and Father's Day only brings sadness and empty memories. Father's Day is special, but Father's are so much more than a moment in time or a day of the year, for any man can be a Father, but it takes someone special to become a DAD every day of the year!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Marion Mayhem

Stanley Jackson is the Quarterback for the Marion Mayhem Indoor Football team. He was a quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes and also played professionally in the Canadian Football League. He stops in at the dealership where I work occasionally and it just so happened he stopped by Saturday afternoon which happened to be the final home game for the Mayhem. I asked him if he could get me some tickets and he said he could for which I was grateful. So that evening I took the five kids to the game while Marsha stayed home and was able to relax. (I hope I got huge brownie points for that one.) So here are some pictures of our evening together:


The mascot coming in.


A fourwheeler Parade.






Here is the T-shirt I caught from somebody.