Orlando

Here's some snapshots of our trip to Orlando. Our hotel was about 2.5 miles from Downtown Disney and we walked there everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Not only is Downtown Disney filled with countless Disney images and memorabilia but there is also Legoland

Lori was "Princess" for a day.....

My favorite ice cream place was closed for renovations....we're going back in June...I hope its open then

We got to meet Josh's new girlfriend......



....and spent the day with him at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. The ski lift takes you up to a water slide that you go in excess of 60mph.....families seem to migrate to the ginormous wave pool....

I prefer the lazy river.......

One of favorite things is coffee and we found the best coffee place on International Drive......the coffee comed from Hawaii.....however, the name may not be so appealing!

It was a awesome week!

Naked pool guy

Ok, it's the morning of our last day on vacation in Orlando. We did some packing the night before but hadn't finished. We got up early to finish cramming stuff into the suitcases, but had actually done better at packing the night before than we'd thought and it didn't take much time at all to finish up.

I'm not a big fan of hotel coffee and made trip down to Dunkin Donuts to get my morning cup of java every day. With extra time on my hands on this last vacation morning, I decided to go get a cup of the liquid gold.

Our room was on the 3rd floor and just around the corner from one of the pools at the hotel. As I rounded the corner to the stairwell I noticed a couple of guys at the pool. The pool opened at 9am every morning and was always cleaned prior to its opening, so seeing the guys at the pool wasn't unusual and I just assumed it was being cleaned.

Upon my return from Dunkin Donuts, as I walked by the pool, I just naturally looked down at it. The guys were still there, but there was someone in the pool too. What? The pool didn't open for another 90 minutes. I stopped and looked again. There was a man in the pool and it looked like he was naked. He was making his way toward the end of the pool where the steps were so I waited. I was certain it must have just been white swim trunk. WRONG! As he came out of the water it was very apparent that he was indeed, NAKED. The thing I couldn't understand was the pool cleaning guys weren't doing anything to stop him. Or were they the pool guys? Were they the look outs?

I bee-lined back to the room, not believing what I just witnessed.

I looked at Lori and said, 'you're not going to believe what I just saw!' I told her what had happened and she was just as stunned as me. A few minutes later I decided to walk back towards the pool to see if they were still there as I wanted to report it to the front desk. I rounded the corner and the pool guys, if that's who they were, were gone. Naked guy was still there but getting dressed. His attire was very strange. It appeared that he had a yarmulke on and some kind of robe with tassles. Was some kind of ceremony going on in the hotel pool? I retreated back to the room.

As we hauled our luggage down to the car I saw yet another guy at the pool and the pool still wasn't open. This guy was wearing shorts and shirtless. It appeared he had some kind of light in a cone shaped aparatus.

Okay this was getting too freaky. Let me say that I'm just glad we weren't swimming in the pool that day! Definitely made our departure interesting.

Yes No Grow?

When You pray, assuming you do pray, do pray with expectation? I do. But what does that expectation look like? What kind of answer do you expect? And furthermore, what if that answer never comes to fruition? What then? But what if you get the answer you want, how different is your response? Does it drive you to pray more than you would if your prayer wasn’t answered? Or does unanswered prayer cause you to dig deeper?

Another category of response to prayer is prayer that is answered, but not answered as you’d hoped it would be. This isn’t unanswered prayer. It is answered prayer. It’s just not the response you wanted. What do you do with that? Does it make you pray more? Pray Less? Give up?

This week I heard a comment from Dave Ramsey on answers to prayers. He said that prayer can be answered as ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘grow’. It made a huge impact on me.

I’ve always felt it was awesome to get a ‘yes’ answer to prayer. I felt confirmed. I felt God was listening. Maybe even a little self-absorbed ‘cause I got my own way. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, ‘no’ answers were very disengaging. How could God possibly not want this to happen! I prayed and prayed for it….what’s up with the ‘no’ answer.

I have recently witnessed both sides of this prayer ‘coin.’ A close relative of ours was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. As a family, we have all been prayer warriors, seeking the optimum results of this wicked disease. A few weeks ago the onslaught of chemo therapy treatments began. Going into it, we knew there was a distinct possibility of extreme nausea that can follow a treatment. I saw this with my own father who endured this several years ago. But, there are also those who have minimal discomfort throughout the entire chemo process. We prayed and prayed for the resulting illness not to happen, but much to our dismay horrible nausea came about 30 minutes after the treatment and it lasted for days. Never the less we continued to pray that they would be spared from severe nausea after the next treatment. Treatment #2 came and went. Although the sickness still came, it’s my understanding that it was far less severe. Prayer was answered. We continue to pray for deliverance from the nausea every day.

Another side affect of this treatment is hair loss. Knowing this was a very real possibility a ‘SPARE THE HAIR” mantra was created and included in each prayer we prayed for them. Despite our pleas, the hair loss became inevitable. Prayer wasn’t answered. At least at our level of expectation.

But in reality it was. I received an email early this week from our family member who’d been stricken with the disease. It read

….doing better today, going back for more fluids and talking to the , still believing my God will turn it around. Alas, he is not sparing my hair, had a break down early this morning, but you put your one foot in front of the other and go on believing still.

And later in the week

…..will probably be shearing me this evening, to keep hair out of drains.

I had emailed back with this response after seeing Dave Ramsey’s video…

At one point in the video Dave was talking about answer to prayer. He said answer to prayer is usually “yes” “no” or “grow!” I thought that was an awesome outlook. Of course I thought of you immediately as I’m sure you’ve had many yes, no, and grow moments in the past few weeks. I know I have. But whatever your answer has been you have continued to trust and forge ahead. I know this is because You love our God and You are confident He loves You and is taking care of your needs.

So even though they weren’t spared from hair loss, something much more valuable was maintained, a sense of trust in God, a positive outlook and a sense of humor. It wasn’t what was specifically being asked for but what God wanted. Prayer was answered. It wasn’t with a ‘yes.’ It wasn’t with a ‘no.’ It was with a ‘grow.’

We really have to be conscious of the opportunity for answered prayer ‘grow’ moments or they can pass us by. It’s easy to write off a ‘grow’ moment as a ‘no’ response that can take our response to the prayer in a totally different direction. Not only take us in a different direction, but also may make us miss a blessing that could have made a huge impact on our lives.

In Jeremiah 45, God tells Baruch that bad times are ahead. But he also tells him that he is going to keep him alive. It’s our choice. We can dwell on the negative….’oh things are so horrible, whatever will we do’or we can find the nugget of goodness that God wants to give us….’I’m keeping you alive!”

Jeremiah 45 1 This is what Jeremiah told Baruch one day in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign as he was taking dictation from the prophet: 2-3"These are the words of God, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch. You say, 'These are bad times for me! It's one thing after another. God is piling on the pain. I'm worn out and there's no end in sight.' 4-5"But God says, 'Look around. What I've built I'm about to wreck, and what I've planted I'm about to rip up. And I'm doing it everywhere—all over the whole earth! So forget about making any big plans for yourself. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But don't worry. I'll keep you alive through the whole business.'"

This morning when I was at the gym a song entitled “Gotta get through this “ by Daniel Bedingfield came on my IPOD. Whatever we’re facing, lean in on God. He may not always answer the way you want him to, but find the nugget of truth in his response. Interestingly, the chorus begins with in self-dependance....but by the end the dependance is shifted.....

If only I could get through this
I get through this

I gotta get through this
I gotta get through this
I gotta make it, gonna make, gonna make it through
I'm gotta get through this
I gotta get through this....

Give me just a second and I'll be all right
Surely one more moment couldn't break my heart
Give me 'til tomorrow then I'll be okay...

If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this God, God gotta help me get through this

If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this...

Yes, No GROW !

The "Eyes" have it

Our dog is pretty old, 13 or 14 I think. His eye sight is very poor. He either has some pretty severe cataracts or he's pretty much blind. It's amazing to watch him get around. When he's outside he follows the edge of the side walk to keep his bearings. When he comes in he follows the permiters of the rooms until he get to where he is going. His hearing isn't too good either but he knows the sound of his food being dumped into his dish. If he isn't near the laundry room where his food bowl is located he'll run across the kitchen until he hits the carpet in the living room. Then he turns around and can find his way to the laundry room which was is opposite side of the kitchen from the living room.

However there are a number of times when following a familiar path for the dog doesn't always work out so well. He's been known to get off track on edge of the side walk and end up in the neighbors yard outside. He misjudges how close he is to the step coming into the house and fall of the side of the stoop. And more often than not, runs into walls or furniture when trying to navigate his way through the house. Although it's not really funny, I can't help but chuckle sometimes when he endures one of his mishaps.

I've noticed that I've become very dependant upon my contacts or my glasses to see anything that is small. Often when I get home from work, after wearing my contacts all day I'm ready to get them off my eyeballs. Problem is I don't always put my glasses on, as a matter of fact I rarely put them on. I can see distance ok so I don't think about it until I try to read something. I get so irritated then becuase I can't see it. My arm is only so long and even stretching my arm out as far as it will go doesn't help. Arrrggggghhhhhhh!!!

Last night I decided to watch a free On Demand movie on our cable system. I went upstairs to our bedroom and turned on the tv and climbed into bed to watch a comedy remake of the 60 series "I Spy." The movie got started and I couldn't hear it so I picked up the remote to turn the volume up. I don't like remotes in the first place and this new remote that came with our HD digital cable package has 10,000 buttons on it. Of course I couldn't see any of the buttons. My glasses were downstairs. So I got out of bed and ran down to get my glasses, went back upstairs, turned the volume up and settled in.

Not long after that Lori came home. She got into bed and we chatted a little and went back to watching the movie. Before she got home I had the lamp in our room turned on but it had gotten turned off when she got into bed. It wasn't long after she came to bed that she dozed off. The tv seemed a little loud for someone who was trying sleep so I thought I should turn it down.

I picked up the remote. I could see even less on the remote now because there was no light on in the room. I was too lazy to get up and go get my glasses off the dresser. So I thougth I could just remember which button I pushed before to turn the volume down. Not so much. I changed channels and and displayed a few other random things before I finally felt my way to the volume. Later when the movie ended and I wanted to go back to regular tv, I had another round of volume increases and a variety of other displays before I finally found my way back to regular tv.

Although I'm often amazed at how the dog does find his way around, I do feel bad for him when he falls off the landing or plows into a wall inside the house. I wonder if he was feeling sorry for me last night when I couldn't navigate the remote on the tv? Or was he just laughing at me too?

100 % cotton

I’m pretty picky about what goes in the dryer when it comes to my clothes. Just ask my wife what a fanatic I can be. A lot of my clothing is 100% cotton. As a rule, unless it’s been washed about 50 times then it’s not dryer worthy as I don’t want risk any shrinkage. We did laundry last night and one of my newer t-shirts found its way into the dryer. This morning as I was folding clothes I found it. You know that music in horror movies when something bad is about to happen that goes “eeeeeek eeeeeek eeeeeek,” well that was went through my head when I saw the shirt in the pile to fold. I pulled it out and held it up. I can’t say for sure that it shrunk but the length of it did look shorter. Yes, I was bummed.

So I’m thinking about this shirt shrinkage while I’m working out this morning. I think about God a lot when I’m working out too. Today I was thinking about my level of faith and it hit me how that tied in with the laundry. I was pretty bummed about the shirt that appears to have shrunk. How does God feel when my faith appears to shrink? Is He bummed too?
How am I affected when my faith shrinks? What changes? I think first and foremost, it opens the door for selfishness. It can lead me to believe more in myself than I do God. I’ve found that when I rely on myself for things in my life the results are rarely (ok never) as positive as when I take them to God. What can be confusing though is just because I tell God about whatever it is, it doesn’t always mean that I’ll get the answer I want. But, I get the best answer.
When I rely upon myself to resolve challenges in my life, I might get the answer I want, but there always seems to be a hole in the plan somewhere. There have been numerous times where I’ve felt I had the best solution; it was ‘my way or the highway’ only to be humbled later by digging deeper to see what God really wanted to happen. What if I had sought God first?
I recalled a verse that reminds me that even the smallest amount of faith call produce the most ‘ginormous’ results:

Luke 13:19
19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."

I have to be conscious of growing my faith. I have to take steps to increase my faith. There is a worship song we sing at church and the chorus says “You must increase, I must decrease” The issue is clear. When I let my faith ‘shrink’ I become the increasing one.

No matter how much I seem I can put my faith in the dryer I’m so grateful that it never shrinks beyond God reach.

What causes your faith to shrink?

an "A HA" moment

I’m stepping out into a new area of serving at GCC, financial ministry. I closely follow the principles Dave Ramsey outlines in his Financial Peace program and since we teach this at GCC I thought this ministry would be a good fit for me. This past Tuesday we started Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace class and had an all time record of 400+ people start the 13 week course.

The week prior, I was approached with the following question “what does Dave Ramsey say about tithing?” Unfortunately I couldn’t quote Dave on this one but had a pretty good idea that Dave would say the tithe comes off the top of your income regardless of your financial situation. I did some digging and found this on Dave’s website:

If you cannot live off 90% of your income, then you cannot live off 100%. It does not require a miracle for you to get through the month. I think that if you sit down and look at your budget, you will see that you can make it while giving at least 10%. Read the Bible and take from it what you will, and if you tithe, do it out of love for God, not guilt.

I was elliptical-ing away this morning when an old ‘80s tune from the one hit wonder group “AHA” came on my IPOD. I don’t know why, but I was thinking about tithing at that very time. When the chorus of the song came on I thought to myself “hey, that really applies to the tithing concept in the book of Malachi”

Chapter 3, verse 10 says
Malachi 3:10 Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.

The song’s chorus says “Take on me, Take me on, I’ll be gone in a day or two” Let me break down my thoughts on this. “Take on me” We should emulate Christ in our lives. I think God calls us to take on His persona the best we can by serving and loving others just as He would. Our tithe not only helps the church to operate, but it helps it to go out and show the world who God is.

“Take me on” God says, verbatim, in verse 10 …..bring your full tithe……test me in this. It’s like God is saying I double dare you to do this and see what I’ll do in return. However, I think there is potential for misinterpretation here. I’m not saying that God wouldn’t bless you monetarily, but there are some many other ways that we get blessed that get taken for granted. We need to be alert and aware of all the ways that God abundantly blesses us. Is your house warm in the winter, does your car get you back and forth to work? Just some thoughts.

The last part of the chorus says “I’ll be gone in a day or two” There was a time when budget wasn’t part of my vocabulary. At that time of my life money was here today and gone tomorrow. Let your money control you and you not controlling it is a hard habit to break (but that’s a whole ‘nother 80’s song to evaluate!)

Feedback

One definition of feedback says: a rumbling, whining, or whistling sound resulting from an amplified or broadcast signal (as music or speech) that has been returned as input and retransmitted.

Sometimes during our band rehearsals at church, while mic's are being tweaked and the sound adjusted for optimum output, there can be loud noise that comes from the speakers. Feedback. It's not pleasant and often offensive and deafing. Believe me it's not something you want to experience if you can avoid it.

Another definition of feedback says: the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source


Sometimes you don't want to acknowledge this second definition of feedback as it can also be unpleasant as well. But just like the improvements the sound guy will make to eliminate the unpleasant feedback from sound equipment, you can also take action with the verbal feedback you get from others around you to make improvements to yourself.


I get feedback regularily. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. More often than not, when I get feedback that I don't like it means an area of "me" has been identified that may need some improvement. I have a choice in my response to feedback. I can be proactive, diving deeper into improving that unpleasant 'sound' in my life, or I can selfishly reject and dismiss it. When I reject legitimate feedback I'm only doing a disservice to myself.


Over the past couple of months I've received a lot of feedback. It's given me much to think and evaluate about myself. Just this morning, while working out, I was pondering some feedback I had gotten yesterday and the new song "Feedback" came on my IPOD. Freaky huh! The chorus says:


When you hear some feedback keep going take it higher
Crank it up, give it to me, come on
Crank it up, give it to me, come on


As I listened to the words it occurred to me that this is the choice I face. I can 'take it higher' and make adjustments and improvments accordingly. I can build on the feedback I receive. Or, I can reject it.

The chorus goes on to say 'crank it up, give it to me, come on'. You need to be able to discern the feedback you receive and identify what is helpful. This is not always the easiest task to accomplish. It's easy to become offended or deny that what you've been told isn't true. You have to take the wall down that blocks you from seeing where you can improve and welcome feedback so that it can 'take me higher.' Oh I know, easy to say when you just typing it in a blog, but if it's something you want to do you have to make the effort to follow through.


What do you do with feedback in your life? Is it just unbearable noise or is it a tool that takes you higher?

Discovered

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends and I paid with my Discover card. The next morning after our work out we went to Panera for a bagle and I got my wallet out and couldn't find my Discover card. I had the receipt for dinner in my wallet so I called the restaurant. They advised I had to call back later when the manager would be in for the day. I wasn't panicking just yet as I thought I probably just left it at home.
When we got home later that morning I searched all the usual places that I would have put it and couldn't find it anywhere. Panic was starting to settle in. I called the restaurant again and spoke to the manager. He advised that nothing had been turned in but I could call back in about an hour when the waitress who waited on us would be in for the day and perhaps she may have some information.
The anxiety of not finding the card began to mount. I continued to search in the house but still found nothing. An hour had passed so I called the restaurant again. The manager advised that the waitress said that I didn't leave anything on the table and there was nothing on the floor after we left.
After I hung up from the restaurant I immediately called Discover to report the card missing. The people at Discover were extremely helpful. They asked the typical questions to confirm my identity and then asked if I knew where I'd mad my last charge. I told them that it was at a restaurant the previous evening. The Discover rep asked me if I'd gotten gas after dinner (in my car, not from the dinner!) I said "no." She said "well someone did!" Apparently I'd dropped the card somewhere and a dishonest person had apparently found it and decided it was theirs to use. Discover advised they would close the account immediately and to instructed me on how things would be handled from there forward.
I want to give kudos to Discover for their very professional and helpful attitude they had with and towards me when I was the irresponsible one. Thanks Discover for calming me in a anxiety filled incident!

Where are his pants?

It occurred to me at lunch today the my neighbors, well those who are up at 5am anyway, must be wondering about me. Here's why.

I get up a 4:15am -ish every day so that I can be to the gym by, with any luck, 5:15am. I get up that early so I can wake up, have a little coffee and mentally prepare myself for a workout. I always check out side to see if it's snowed over night so that I can clean the walk off for the dog. He's a dachshund, short legs and all, so I like to give him a little clearance for the underbelly. Anyway, two days this week we've been dumped on with snow and I've had to shovel before I left for the gym.

I take my work clothes for the day in my gym bag and on hangers in the car. So when I leave the house its usually in shorts, a t-shirt and my Nikes. This morning when I saw the snow I grabbed my parka and gloves and went to work on the snow. Keep in mind that the parka is long, like about to my knees. As I was shoveling away 3 or 4 cars went down the street. It occurred to me at lunch today that it must have appeared that I had no pants on cuz my parka went below my gym shorts but my legs were showing. I had to wonder if what the people who drove past me this morning, and the people that drove past me earlier in the week must have thought....is he not wearing pants?

Well just for the record, for those of you in my neighborhood who might have seen me shoveling and anyone else....YES, I HAD PANTS ON!

I'm thinking that if it snows again tonite I'd better just put some sweats on over the shorts!

You think you've got baggage.....

Waiting for baggage is the absolute worst part of traveling. Without a doubt, it seems like the longest, most drawn out part of your journey. You want nothing more when you reach your destination to get your suitcase and move on, but you stand and wait and wait and wait.

Our flight from Orlando was do to arrive at Midway around 10:30 Friday night but do to unforseen thunderstorm in Ft Myers we were delayed and didn't arrive until near midnite. After deplaining we made our way to baggage claim to begin our predestined baggage waiting period. In an attempt to make our departure quicker, Adam went to get the car from the parking garage so that when we had collected all the suitcases we could make a swift departure.

It was late and everyone was tired and wanted to get home. Some of the people waiting for their bags were very aggressive in getting up to the carousel to retrieve them. One particular gentleman was so intent on being the first to get his bags that he kicked the emergencey shut off button at the bottom of the carousel and it came to a screeching halt. Not exactly sure why this shut of button encased in plastic so that it just couldn't be bumped, but it wasn't and now no one was getting their bags.

So about 10 minutes later maintenance finally got the carousel running again. We had managed to retrieve 3 of the 4 bags we needed when disaster struck again. The bags came up from a lower level on a conveyer belt and then toppled onto the carousel that went round and round. A car seat came to the top of the conveyer belt, however a strap and buckle that was sticking out from it got caught where the conveyer belt wrapped back under and the carousel came to a screeching halt again. A maintenance man showed up a few minutes later but couldn't get the buckle unwedged from the conveyer. After a few attempts he gave up. One of the passengers who was waiting for his bag jumped up on the carosel and pulled and tugged until he finally dislodged the belt and buckle.

People started hollaring at the maintenance man that the problem was fixed. He then got on his radio and cell phone trying to get someone from the depths of the the baggage department to get the carousel going again. We waited and waited but nothing happened. People started to get irrated and the comments began to fly. One guy jumped up on the carousel and was trying to look into the hole from where the conveyer belt hurled the bags up to the top to see if he could see his bag I guess. The maintenance man didn't like that and very loudly told him to get off the carousel. The guy yelled back that he had to get somewhere. It was midnite, who has to get anywhere at midnight. Or it was midnite, didn't we all have somewhere to be!

After what seemed like an hour (but in reality was probably 10 minutes) the conveyer belt and carousel started up again. Luggage began to pass by us once again and low and behold there was the last piece of luggage we needed. It has actually already gone by once and we all missed it.

It would have been nice to have known that the last piece of luggage we needed was just on the other side of the carousel from us, but hey, had we seen it we would have missed all that drama!

Quit your whinin'

Some dogs whine when they're puppies, some dogs whine they're sick, some dogs whine when they want to go outside. Our dog whines when he wants to go to bed. And quite frankly, HE'S MAKING ME CRAZY!

Round about 7 or 7:30 he starts in with his pathetic wimpering. It's not a long or painful sounding whine. It's almost like a sigh.....that he repeats over and over and over and over. And, when we ignore the whining the pacing begins. He walks from the living room to the bottom of the stairs and back. He then sits down and whines again. After a few minutes, he tries to climb up the side of my chair. When that approach is ignored him as it usually is, he backs down and repeats the cycle. This pattern goes on until we finally give up and go upstairs.

The whining technique also seems to come in handy when he wants his dinner. I have never seen such a neurotic dog in my entire life! The only real reason for this post is because he is driving me nuts tonite.

Florida in 3 days

It's amazing how quickly you can forget what winter is really like when you have the opportunity to go south for, even just a couple of days. I just got back from a trip to Orlando for the annual Willow Creek Leadership Summit National Strategy Event. It didn't take me long at all to settle into no coat, short sleeve shirts and flip flops. Palm trees and sandy beaches surrounded the very large lake at the Disney Coronado resort where we stayed. Definitely a welcomed paradise in the middle of a Michiana winter.

Disney wants your stay to be as easy as possible. When you check in your room key also serves as a charge card for the entire Disney area. You can use at any
Disney park, restaurant or store on the property and the charges will just be billed to your room. It only functioned as a means to open the door to my room for me. Dave Ramsey would be so proud! However I did have to carry the room number around on my wallet. The resort was so huge I was convinced without the room number stuck to my wallet I would never find my room again!

I was hopeful to be able to spend a little time with Josh while I was there but with all the meetings we'd be having I wasn't sure if that would be possible. As it

turns out I did get to see him. We had an awesome visit. He moved to Orlando to attend Full Sail last spring and we'd never seen his apartment as he moved sight unseen. I got to see where he was living this week.

Although we were consumed by activities and meetings I managed to make time for some alone time for myself. Each morning I'd get up early, get some coffee and walk around the lake 2 or 3 times and watch the sun rise. It gave me an opportunity to talk to God and reflect. I was surprized at the number of people who were up and out between 5:30 and 6am. One morning there was even an organized race being run.

My early morning walks also gave me time to think about how much I missed Lori. She loves flowers and they were blooming every where you looked. I had forgotten to bring my digital camera with me and the camera on my phone didn't take the best pictures. I did manage to capture a couple pictures.

The weather on the last day of our Orlando experience was probably the best. Go figure! The sun shone all day and the temps were in the 80's. All of us moaned and groaned about having to return to the frozen tundra awaiting us in Michiana. But as the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." It only makes me look that much more forward to our vacation back to Orlando in April!

A Winter Revelation

As many of you know, we put our house on the market just after Christmas. Ever since we put the "For Sale" sign in the yard we have had some pretty harsh winter weather. From freezing rain, fog thick as pea soup and snow up to our armpits, it doesn't seem to stop.

One of the perks of the villa where we want to move is that all of the snow removal will be done for us, as well as lawn care, etc. It's not that we have a big driveway to shovel now, but just not one of our favorite things to do (but then again, who does love shoveling snow!)

Anyway, after getting dumped on with more snow this morning, Lori took the first shot at shoveling the drive. About 30 minutes later enough snow had fallen that I decided to shovel again before we left for work. Yes we do get up at 5 am!

We've said all along that if God wants us to move then the house will sell in His timing. If He doesn't then it won't. So Lori comes to me with this revelation after we get to work today about the snow shoveling. She said that while she was out in the blowing snow this morning that she figured either God doesn't want us to move so He keeps sending this less than desireable weather to Granger, or its really going to make her appreciate the fact that once we get moved into the villa that we won't have to deal with snow anymore! Isn't she great! I love her!

We went digital today

Our current tv is over 20 years old and dying a slow death. We finally took the plunge and bought a flat screen digital HD television today and will be putting the the old tv out to pasture.

We'd been toying with the idea of going digital for a while but figured as long as "old faithful' still had a picture we might as well put it off until 2009 when going digital would no longer be a choice but a fact of life.

It was a good plan until recently our tv just started changing channels on its own. You be enjoying a program and the tv would switch to channel 2. You'd put it back to the channel you were watching and it would switch to channel 2 again. This could go on for as long as 5+ minutes until it would finally stay on the channel you were watching. This problem just continued to get worse and worse over the last week.

So this weekend we decided to start seriously looking for a replacement. Our son Josh is the family electronic's guru so everytime we'd see a tv we liked we'd call him for his input. He actually called us at one point and said he's seen a good deal online at Circuit City so we decided to go check it out today. I hoping that was to just be helpful and not to get us to quit calling him! (LOL)

What a sweet deal! If you bought a tv from Circuit City and had your cable upgraded to digital HD through Circuit City they'd take $100 off the price of the tv. We were going to upgrade to digital cable anyway so why not do it througt them. To even sweeten the deal even more, they had 90 days same as cash.

Unfortunately they were out of stock on the model we purchased but its on order and we'll have it in a week. I can't wait to watch a picture thats more crisp and clear than we've ever had before and for the tv to stay on the channel I put it on!

94 days and counting

I'm so excited...we made our spring break reservations for Florida this morning. Got a really good $69 on Allegiant and an awesome hotel rate too.

94 days and counting!

SHOES

I found these great, but very worn looking, shoes at Kohl's today but the best part of purchasing them was the reaction that I received from the clerk at the register.

I put them on the counter in the box they came in and proceded to check out. The clerk opened the box, as they do, to check to make sure the sizes of both shoes are the same (and I'm sure to make sure you're not smugglin something else out of the store). When she opened the box you should have seen her face. She saw these shoes, that though brand new, looked like they had seen better days. She looked at me and asked if I had the shoes that belonged in the box. I didn't make the connection but Lori did. Lori started laughing and said 'those are the new shoes.' The clerk looked at them like 'you've got to be kidding me!' We said, seriously, those are the new shoes. She just shook her head in disbelief.

On the way out to the car we laughed about what had just happened and Lori said you gotta put that one on your blog!

A "Bed" time story

It was just a day or so past the Christmas holiday. The man's son was home from college and he and his wife were both on holiday as well. The son had taken advantage of his time away from school to visit the friends and family that he hung out with prior to going away.

On this particular morning the man, the wife and the son were sitting around just having coffee and talking. The man and the wife were going to visit the man's grandmother later that day as it was her 93rd birthday.

During the course of the conversation the son mentioned that mother of a close friend he'd visited during his break was sleeping on the floor with only blankets for comfort.

The man and his wife wanted to downsize their living arrangements and had only a week before, put their house up for sale. In the midst of putting the home for sale they were disposing of many things that they wouldn't have room to take with them to a smaller home. Upon hearing that the friends mother needed a bed, the man said that he would be willing to sell the one of the newly purchased beds in one of the spare rooms to the mother of his friend. The son replied that he didn't know if she could afford to buy a bed and perhaps that was why she was sleeping on the floor. The man was adament about only selling it so the conversation ended.

A little while later, as the man and the wife were driving to see the grandmother for her birthday the man and the wife had a brief discussion about the bed situation. The man didn't want to budge on his position of only selling the bed. The wife felt the need may go deeper than that, but agreed to disagree. As he was driving the man was wrestling in his head with what was the right thing to do. He prayed that if giving this bed away was something that God wanted him to do then God would just have to give him a sign.

Not long after praying that they drove past a little white church with a sign out front that said "Share Jesus with someone today." The man's heart melted. It was obvious to him that God has spoken. In the quiet of the drive the man resolved himself to the fact that he had to give the bed to the mother of the friend and expect nothing in return.

The next day the man said to the wife, "We have been blessed abundantly, over and over, time and time again. We have a brand new bed that is sitting in a room that is serving no purpose but for appearance only. A woman we know is having to sleep on a cold hard floor. I think we should give the bed to her."

The man called the son and asked if he had a means to get the bed to the friends mother. Later that night the bed was delivered. The room at the man's house sits empty now but not really. Love fills the room where the bed once sat.
It's not what you have but its what you do with what you have.

Oh yeah...did I mention the man in the story is me.

Matthew 25:14-30

Winding down, not so much

Seems like forever since I've posted a blog. Life had has been a whirlwind since the beginning of December and it feels like there's hardly been time to stop and even just take a breath. Between the regular routine of life and all that the holidays add to one's schedule it gets just plain crazy.

Christmas Eve at GCC was phenominal. I feel so fortunate to have been able to be a part of the behind the scenes work. The hours of planning and comittment paved an incredible program to tell the story of the birth of Jesus. And who'd of thought that it could have been done with music from the Beatles. It was outstanding.

And if all that didn't make things crazy enough, add to that the fact that we decided to put our house on the market as well. You can see the virtual tour at http://sbi.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=134878721&s=SBI&t=SBI . We've been listed since December 28 and todays open house brought our first 'lookers' Hoping now that the holidays are in the past that traffic will begin to pick up and we'll have a buyer soon.

Josh came home from school in Florida for 2 weeks. It was nice to have him home. He was up early the first few days he was home and met us for breakfast. However, sleeping in became more appealing and breakfasts turned into lunches. He hung out at home with us a few evenings. We got caught up on all that he was learning at school and how his life in Orlando was going. I don't mean to make it sound like we don't talk to him when he's at school, but you know that a phone conversation isn't the same as just sitting around and talking about life. I was quite surprized to learn that he doesn't really like Florida and hopes to land a job in Chicago after he graduates in June.

Today was Josh's 2oth birthday. I had to hustle him out of bed this morning as I had to get the house spic and span for the pending afteroon open house. We took him out to eat at Fridays but promised we'd keep his birthday on the down low so that he wouldn't have to endure singing and balloons tied to his hair. After lunch he accompanied us to look at tv's as our is about on its last leg. I think he arrives in Orlando around midnite tonite. With any luck I'll get to see him in February when I go to Orlando for the Leadership Summit meeting.

I was also introduced to Facebook in December. As if I had time for that! But I got hooked immediately. Still not quite sure of everything I can do on it but know how to post on someones wall and have gotten pretty good at that. It's the simple things!

We did have a few days off between the holidays, but of course a majority of that time was spent shopping, the thing, well one of the the things Lori and I do best together. Got some pretty good post Christmas deals.

We also did some major cleaning at home while we were on 'vakay.' The villa we hope to move into has no basement and much less storage space than we have in this home. We're really not packrats by any means but still managed to get rid of an amazing amount of stuff that we'd just been harboring for over the years and will hopefully make the transition into a smaller home easier to do.

Here we are starting the second week of January and there still isn't time to stop and take a breath yet. I'm waist deep in end of the year things to do at work. In addition, 2 major projects that I started last year are nearing completion. At times, well actually a lot of the time, it feels like there is no end in sight.

But odd as it may sound, I'm looking forward to what God has in store for me in '08 and ready to embrace it with all I have to offer.

25 years and counting

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary.

I can still see her walking down the aisle towards me as we prepared to take our vows together. The beautiful white gown she wore paled in comparision to her radiant beauty. Her smile filled the room. As I took her hand and gazed into her eyes, I knew God was creating an inseparable bond.

She's my very best friend. She captured my heart 25 years ago and still hold it captive. There is no one I'd rather spend my time with. The love I have for her is undeniable. God has blessed me more that I could possibly deserve.

Thank You sweetheart for 25 uncomparable years together. You are the sunshine of my life and forever You'll stay in my heart. I love you!

YOU ARE THE SUNSHINE OF MY LIFE (Stevie Wonder)
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life That's Why I'll Always Stay Around
You Are The Apple Of My Eye Forever You'll Stay In My Heart

I Feel Like This Is The Beginning Though I've Loved You For A Million Years
And If I Thought Our Love Was Ending I'd Find Myself Drowning In My Own Tears
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life That's Why I'll Always Stay Around
You Are The Apple Of My Eye Forever You'll Stay In My Heart

You Must Have Known That I Was Lonely Because You Came To My Rescue
And I Know That This Must Be Heaven How Could So Much Love Be Inside Of You
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life That's Why I'll Always Stay Around
You Are The Apple Of My Eye Forever You'll Stay In My Heart
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life That's Why I'll Always Stay Around
You Are The Apple Of My Eye Forever You'll Stay In My Heart

Matthew 8

I'm studying the book of Matthew this week. Today I was reading chapter 8 and below are some reflections from this chapter.

Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, "Master, if you want to, you can heal my body." Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be clean." Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone. Jesus said, "Don't talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done."

“If you want to….” I don’t think there is any question that Jesus wants to heal us, to care for us, to love on us. The problem is us, is me. Do I let him do that or do I get so consumed by the notion that I can take care of ‘Bob’ that I don’t let Jesus have a chance at doing what He does best.

“I want to” Jesus said. I believe this. I believe that Jesus desperately wants to hold us close to Him. I believe that He wants the best for our lives, my life. But I often supercede this by thinking that I know the best choice to make, the and best path to follow. But it’s not. There are pitfalls in my ‘stand alone’ decisions that make the outcome far from the expectations I had intended. When I bring Jesus into my decision making process the road may not always be smooth, but I can overcome the obstacles that sway would sway the outcome in the end.

“Don’t talk about this all over town” When I first read this statement I was very confused. If Jesus healed me from leprosy, how could I not want to shout from the top of my voice what had happened! Why wouldn’t Jesus want me to be overjoyed about what he had done for me? Isn’t this version of ‘humbleness’ just a little extreme? I didn’t understand why He would want this to be kept on the down low. I thought we were suppose to show the world who Jesus was and what was possible with Him. However, as I read the next couple of sentences I understood.

“Your cleansed and greatful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” I can’t imagine what the leper was feeling when all of his spots were gone. What must have been going through his mind....what excitement! What joy! What relief! The comparison of the emotion of winning the lottery came to my mind. When a lottery player wins big time the excitement, the joy and the relief must be overwhelming as well. The winner makes the news. Recognition comes at you from all sides.... as do long lost relatives and friends who want to share in the prosperity. However, its not long until the hoopla is over and then its "whatever became of the lottery winner?" is a mystery.

The example to be learned from this statement (“Your cleansed and greatful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done”) is not about the initial reward, but how we live our lives because of the reward. The leper could have disregarded Jesus words. He could have stormed the streets with his good news, but then fallen back into a ‘stand alone’ life that didn’t let Jesus do what he wanted to do in him. But when we follow the humbleness and graciousness that is Jesus, when we let him do what He wants to do in and for us, the impact last longer and spreads further than we can ever imagine.

Living an ongoing life that demonstrates gratefulness through humbleness extends far beyond the temporary limelight that is the result of gratefulness only for what you got out of it for that moment.

Pack that box - a confession

This coming weekend is "Food Drop" weekend at Granger Community Church. For the past several years GCC has purchased several semi loads of food that gets distributed to the community. It's quite the event for our church. The semi's are lined up on one side of the parking lot and on the other are the box trucks that will deliver the food. Lines of people extend from semi to box truck to transfer the boxes of food. When all the food has been transferred, people from GCC go out into designates areas in the community to distribute the food. It's amazing.


Last weekend we learned that the food that had been designated for our food drop has been mistakingly distributed to other people in need already and the only way we'd have our 6 semi loads of food is if we banded together and boxed it up.


I thought it would be a great thing to help with but didn't know if we'd participate or not. After services Lori asked me if we were going to go and I was non-committal.


Monday night Lori and I had a meeting that lasted until after 7pm, which was much later than I'd anticipated. I had bills to pay, the Christmas budget to update and ironing that had been piling up to get done, but my agenda for Monday night had not turned out the way I had planned. I only checked but one thing off on my list, the meeting. My anxiety was mounting because I knew what needed to get done Monday night and it wasn't going to happen.


Tuesday morning I told Lori that I didn't think I was going to be able to go to box food that night because I had too many chores to catch up on from the night before. A friend of ours, Judy, was going to pack food and I suggested that if Lori wanted to go perhaps she could ride with Judy. I had this nagging feeling that I had not made the right decision, but put it aside.


Enter God. I left for Panera to have coffee and my reflection time Tuesday morning and still having this feeling that I probably should just go to Feed the Children that night, but pushing the thought to the back of my mind. I settled in with my coffee at Panera and got ready to read. I'm currently reading the book of Matthew and I got to this passage.....


25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

....and it was if God spoke right to me. Worrying and having anxiety about the things I felt I needed to accomplish for my personal benefit suddenly seemed unimportant. I knew that going to box food that would go to people who really needed it moved to the top of my list.

When we arrived at Feed the Children I was blown away. There were so many people already there and production lines were flowing. It didn't matter if your job was filling a box, taking the plastic wrap off of boxes of canned foods, or simply just breaking down boxes to be recyled, everyone and I mean everyone had a smile on their face and was working so hard to get the goal achieved. If a particular task came to an end people would just move to another area and dig right in. It was absolultely amazing. At one point I heard there were over 800 people working to get the job done.

When the last box was finally filled we all gathered for a prayer led by Mark Beeson. I am so grateful I let God in to speak to me yesterday.... and that I listened! I confess that I could be living with regret today because I thought my list was more important. I'm so glad that I was able to set my selfishness aside and do the "next right thing!"

As we were walking back to our car I said to Lori, "isn't it amazing what can be accomplished when people will just commit to join together for the benefit of someone else..."

Morning workouts....arrrrghhhh!

This morning confirmed why, during the work week, I try to limit my workouts to occuring in the late afternoon after work.

Prepared as I may have tried to be, there always seems to be something that happens in the early morning that throws my best intentions out of whack. The thing that puzzles me is that I'm a morning person.

Last night I chose my clothes for the day and laid out my gym clothes for the morning. I even went so far as to even to hang my clothes in my car and put my gym bag in the trunk

I looked at the clock in our bedroom this morning and it said 4:30am. I hopped out of bed and made my way to the bathroom to shave. After shaving and brushing my teeth made my way downstairs. As I laid down to get my crunches done I looked to my side and realized that I still had to pack up my laptop. Delay number 1. Well that shouldn't take too long. I finished my crunches and got my laptop put in my backpack.

As I was putting my backpack near the back door I realized that I still had to pack my lunch. Delay number 2. Well, I didn't really have to pack it as my wonderful wife does that for me, but I still had to put it all in my lunch bag and put it by the backpack by the back door.

I pulled on my sweat pants over my shorts as I was certain it would be freezing outside at 5am (and it was). I bent over to put my Nikes on and it dawned on me that I hadn't put my contacts in. Delay number 3. I finished tying my shoes and raced upstairs to put my contact in.

It was just my luck that my contacts were going to give me fits today. Delay number 4. First I couldn't get them out of the little container that they're kept in over night. Then I don't know if it was flipped or what but I put the second one in my right eye and the pain was so intense I wanted to yell. I quickly yanked it out and washed it in solution again. Course by now my eye is red and watering so getting it back in my eye is another challenge.

I made my way back downstairs and took my backpack and lunch out to the trunk of my car. I grabbed all of the other paraphanalia that I had to take with me; cell phone, watch, IPOD....etc, oh and of course a cup of coffee and made my way out the door. I had hoped to be at the gym by just a little after 5 am and the clock in my car already said 5:10. Arrrggghhhhh!

Fortunately there isn't much traffic at that time of the morning so I made it to the gym in about 10 minutes. I park the car and open the door and its like being in a wind tunnel. I'm trying to hold the car door open and get into the back seat to get my hanging clothes to take inside. I finally get my clothes out of the car and make my way to the trunk to get my gym back. Then wind is blowing. The clothes I have on hangers are flapping in the wind like a flag. As I grab my gym bag and go to shut my trunk, the t-shirt and boxers I have just flipped over my jeans blow off the hanger. I could just see me having to chase my underwear accross the parking lot. Fortunately when they hit the ground they just stayed put and I was able to snatch them up.

Head down I fought the wind across the parking lot into the gym. I made my way into the locker room only to find that, once again almost all of the lockers had keys missing except those that are the highest to reach. Arrrghhhhh! I found a locker and made my way out to the elliptical machine.

I like to watch the news while I'm working out so I grabbed the remote on the machine next to me and turned on the tv above me. It came right on but everytime I punched in the number for a local station the tv went black. Arrrghhhhhh! So much for the news. I did luck out a few minutes later though when someone got on the machine next to me and turned the tv on above them and put on the news. I had to look to the side but it was better than nothing.

Despite all my challenges my work out was good and I was glad that I got it in for the day. I was still able to get out by a little after 6 and have my reflective time at Panera. I just never thought it would have been this hard to do!

Pumpkin pancakes

Being the fanatic that I am for anything pumpkin, I finally made it to IHOP for their pumpkin pancakes tonite.

I'd already had my share of pumpkin pie over the past couple of days. The "Starbuck's Girls" had spoken highly of these pancakes a couple of weeks ago and when Lori said she was up to going to IHOP I thought I'd better take advantage of it.

A few weeks ago I had discovered the pumpkin mousse at Martins which was incredible. When we were in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago I had pumpkin cheesecake. I bought some pumpkin butter at Amish Acres for bagels not long ago. These pumpkin pancakes would only add to my list of pumpkin delights.

Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. The IHOP pumpkin pancakes did not live up to the hype I had been hearing. They were ok, but they tasted more like regular pancakes with just a slight hint of pumpkin flavor. I was bummed to say the least. I was anticipating the robust pumpkin flavor I'd found in everything else I'd already tasted this fall but it just wasn't there.

We don't go to IHOP often and it's not likely that when we do go back that I'll ever order the pumpkin pancakes again. If I'm going to splurge on fat grams and calories its gotta be worth while and IHOP's pumpkin pancakes weren't worth it.

Changing it up (part 2)

As I anticipated, I was quite stiff and sore today after running on the treadmill yesterday. I was hoping that the pain would decrease as they day went on but I wasn't so lucky. As a matter of fact, it got increasingly more difficult to get out of the chair in my office.

I was dreading going to work out and despite my best intentions to want to run again today that just wasn't going to happen. I was definitely opting for the elliptical machine today.

I knew I had to keep moving and so I made myself go to the gym after work today. I was prepared to not be able to do a full workout and had told myself that 'no pain - no gain' didn't apply today.

Surprisingly my workout went exceptionally well. I was able to go at my normal speed on the elliptical machine and put in the 6 miles I would normally do. I was pretty pleased with myself. I really want to run on the treadmill tomorrow. As I was leaving I thought perhaps I could start out just running every other day.

So I got home and had dinner, still feeling pretty good. After dinner I went upstairs and when I came back down the stairs to the kitchen my legs were killing me. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch....." one for every step I came down. And I think I'm gonna run tomorrow? Well, I guess it could happen....or NOT!

Changing it up

We returned from vacation Tuesday afternoon and I hadn't been to the gym since the previous Thursday. I was expecting the worst when I went after work on Wednesday but it actually wasn't that bad. However, I ended up working late on Thursday and we had plans right after work on Friday so I got one whole day in this week. We did make it to the gym on Saturday morning so I was feeling like I was going to get back on track.

Saturday afternoon we went to METRO WALK & RUN on Grape Road because Lori wanted to get some new work out shoes and she heard that this places would be able to fit her to the shoe that best met her needs. While we were there I had mentioned to the clerk how the elliptical machine was killing the front part of my feet. The store clerk said that the shoe I was wearing probabl didn't have enough support in that part of the shoe and asked what I was wearing. I said they were NIKE SHOX. She said the brunt of the support was in the heal in those shoes as they were designed for running.

A while back we were in a conversation with our friend Reta about workout plans and she mentioned that after a period of doing the same work out your body gets used to doing that type of exercise and your benefits either plateau or even diminish somewhat.

I've been toying around with the idea of running for a while but never had the courage to start doing it. I've been only doing the elliptical maching for months and thinking I needed to change it up. When the clerk at METRO WALK & RUN said my shoes were designed for running it prompted me to think maybe now is the time to make the change. So this morning when Lori and I went to the gym I opted for the treadmill instead of the elliptical machine.

I wondered if I could even stay on the treadmill as it's so different than the elliptical. I can go at a pretty good pace on the elliptical machine, 9-10 miles per hour and usually average 6 or 7 miles in my workout. I got off to a fairly good start on the treadmill but learned by the end of the first mile that this really was way different than the elliptical and I needed to slow it up or I was never going to make it through the entire workout.

After slowing my pace somewhat I found my rhythm. I was able to continuously bump up the speed, but never did get up to that that I can do on the elliptical machine. But I figured, hey it gives me something to work towards. Before I knew it I had made it to the end of the workout time that I always do on the elliptical machine. What do you know, I could do it!

Now if I'm not increadibly sore tomorrow I plan on giving this new running thing another shot..........

Hot Stuff

My wife, the perpetually cold one, felt the heat today!

After a "grueling" workout, we went to Panera for a bagel. Lori was elated when we arrived that not only was the fireplace going, but there was an available table in front of it. Since we always order the same thing (I know that's a big surprise to many of you reading this, NOT!), and not wanting to risk losing the table, she exitedly informed me she was going to snag the table and promptly got out of line.

I placed our usual order and made my way back to the "prime" table location. I often wonder waht the people at my credit card company think when they see the same charge amount every weekend to the same restaurant. Anyway, when I got to the table I saw that Lori had opted to not even sit in a chair, but had pulled the table close to the fireplace so that she could sit on the ledge that surrounded it.

Not long after we had finished our bagels and were enjoying our coffee, Lori leaned forward and realized that she was stuck to the grid that was in front of the fireplace. Startled, she pulled herself off of it and pulled on her jacket to see if had burned. I helped look and sure enough, the hood of her "hoodie" been cooked. It had grill marks singed into it.

Now if this had been me it would have pushed me over the edge. But my wife is far more laid back then I. She said it didn't bother her. You pay good money in stores for clothes with holes in them, so whats a few scorch marks. It's fashion!

The price you pay to be warm.....not so much!

Trick or Treat ......or expired!

Since we've become empty nesters we dine out quite often. How often we don't cook at home became very apparent last night.

About 6pm I noticed a group of girls pulling a wagon and walking up to our front door. Lori answered the door to find out they were "Trick or Treating" for a food pantry, collecting canned good and boxed goods. Of course we wanted to contribute so Lori went to the kitchen to get something we could give.

She was gone for the longest time. I kept hearing things shuffle around and cabinets opening and closing.

Soon she showed back up at the front door with some boxed goods to donate. When she opened the door she apologized for taking so long and explained that we hardly every cook at home anymore. As she was inventorying the cabinets to find some things to donate she discovered that many of the things we had were expired. She had finally gone through enough things to find a couple of boxed goods that weren't. The girls thanked Lori and went on their way.

As Lori was closing the door she turned to me and said that everything she pulled out was expired. There was a can of tomato juice that expired in 2004, some instant pudding that expired in 2006 and the list went on.

We must eat out a lot cuz we certainly aren't using the food we have in our cabinets!

Cheerful

This morning verses 16-18 stuck out for me when I was reading in 1 Thessalonians 5. “Be cheerful no matter what…..” Wow! I’m really not very good at that. Often, what I am good at is letting my environment or my situation dictate my mood. How does one be cheerful no matter what? I think I could be a lot more cheerful than I am.

Webster's defines cheerful as: a: full of good spirits : merry, a cheerful host b; ungrudging, cheerful obedience

It was interesting to me how the definition of cheerful mirrored God and how we are to respond to God. God is ‘full of good...’ God is good. So then if we’re are cheerful we are likely full of the goodness of God. Therefore, uncheerful has the potential of being void of God to some extent.

The second part of the definition impacted me as well, cheerful obedience. As Christians, we’re called to be obedient to God. Jesus was the epitome of obedience. He could have chosen another path but He didn’t. Was Jesus then ‘cheerful’ in the midst of his most grueling moments. I can be un-cheerful in some of the simplest situations.

So why then, do I struggle with being cheerful? I think the world has taught me that if things aren’t going my way then I have a right to a pity party for myself. But isn’t there something positive in every situation? Being proactive means finding that 'positive' and holding on to cheerful.

Jesus, You did it. Show me how I can do it.

Pumpkin Mousse & Martins Deli

I have been against going to Martin's Deli / salad bar for dinner. I dunno, its just something about having dinner in a grocery store. But our persistent friends and my wife got me to give in yesterday. Although I still found it a bit 'pricey' for eating in a grocery store, I was quite pleasantly surprised with how good the food actually tasted.

I had a cup of wild rice and mushroom soup and some potato salad. The soup had a really good flavor and the potato salad....it was potato salad. But the "piece de la resistance" (not even sure if I spelled that right and I took 4 years of French in high school.....but then again that was a lifetime ago)...anyway, the pumpkin mousse I had for dessert was outstanding! I could have whaled on the whole container of it! Pumpkin pie is by far my favorite fall dessert. Pumpkin cheesecake comes in a close second. My mom makes a pumpkin roll that is pretty doggone good too. And you can't forget Ritter's frozen pumpkin custard. But this mousse really ranks right up there in my top 5 favorite pumpkin delicacies. I was blown away at how good it was.

If you're going to the Martins Deli in the near future I highly recommend you get some. (but leave some for me!)

A branch visit

I had the privilege of making a visit to the license branch today as I needed to transfer the plates from my old car to my new car. I wanted to get 'in and out' as fast as I could so I decided being there when they opened would be the best option. The last time I had to go to the license branch I decided to do the 'first thing in the morning' thing only to arrive and find a line going a long way down the side walk in front of the branch. So today I got there at 8am thinking I'd be first in line and there was no line! Another person pulled up and went into the vestibule entrance in front of the license branch so I decided I probably should go stand in there too.....yah know, just in case the line started to form.

As we were standing there in the entirely glassed vestibule, several license branch employees started to arrive. They all seemed to gather at the back of the huge room that made up the branch. I noticed there was a huge box of doughnuts in the back of the room. By now a few more people had joined myself and the other lady in the vestibule, otherwise known as todays line.

The doughnuts seemed to be big hit. I wondered if anyone would or could resist getting one. A younger girl entered the office area and walked past the box, hesitated, but kept on going to the other side of the room. She did a few things at her station and walked to the back of the room passing the box of doughnuts again. I thought to myself, someone can resist! But I was wrong. A few minutes later she made another trip past the box, stopped, grabbed a doughnut and made her way back to her station.

More and more of the branch office workers arrived, all stopping at the box of doughnuts. It became a feeding frenzy and what appeard to be the highlight of the morning. They were eating and talking and laughing and eating and talking and laughing. Every once in a while a few of them would look out at the small crowd of us that had gathered in the glassed in vestibule, and then right back to eating and talking and laughing.

They were looking at us. We were looking at them. It felt like I was at the zoo. But I wasn't sure if we were the exhibit in the glassed in vestibule, or there to watch the feeding time at the license branch.

The clock on the wall finally rolled around to 8:30, opeing time. Social hour at the doughnut box had come to an end and each branch worker was at their station. And just then, when the doors were suppose to open, it was time for the staff meeting. Shouldn't this have happened during the feeding frenzy?

The staff meeting didn't last long and the doors were opened. I was directed to one of the clerks and presented my paper work to transfer my plates. The clerk entered and entered data into her computer and then got a puzzled look on her face. She mumbled about something that wasn't working right and when and got a supervisor.

While the supervisor and the clerk were trying to get whatever it was fixed I was observing other people. I was sitting near the place where photo's are taken for drivers licenses. An elderly woman and what I'm presuming was her daughter passed behind me. The daughter was guiding the older woman who was getting her picture taken for her license. You have to sign an electronic signature that transfers to your license after the picture is taken. The elderly woman couldn't find where to sign her electronic signature and her daughter had to come help her with it. I'm sitting ther thinking, this woman can't see the signature machine and she's going to get a drivers license. YIKES!

After two addtional time outs for a supervisor to come over and assist, they finally ended up deleting all of the information that had been entered to transfer my plates and started from scratch. My plates are due to expire in March but for some reason they couldn't get it to register anything but a January expiration. Fortunately the computer still properly credited me through March for the amount still left on my plates. I'm not sure why but the re-entry of all of my information went without a hitch and before I knew it I was on my way out.

I went out in the garage tonite after dinner to put my new plate on the back of my car. I happened to notice that the expiration sticker the clerk put on my new plate said March!

Could it just have been a sugar rush?

I caved.

I caved today. I said I wouldn't give in but I did. I had to. I was weak.

Yesterday was painful and I didn't want to go through it again. I tried to pretend that it didn't bother me but it did. I even lit candles in my office. Yeah like that was gonna help. (Although it did smell good!) I closed my office door thinking it would insulate me, but no such luck.

And leaving for the day only made it worse. It was the longest walk to my car. I thought maybe it would be ok when I left the gym, but sweating only made it worse than the walk from my office to the car.

Yeah I caved today. I said I wouldn't give in but I did. I was weak. Yeah, I wore a coat today and no flip flops ....cuz it was colder than yesterday. Where did summer GO!

It's a hard habit to break

I can't tell you how long it's been going on. I know it's been several years. But I have a habit that I cannot break....its my quiet time in the morning at Panera Bread. Prior to Panera it was Grains and Grinds. I was so very sad when they closed.

I've been a regular customer at 6:15 am at Panera since the day Grains and Grinds closed. Well, thats not exactly true. I did try Victorian Pantry for a while. They walnut coffee there is stellar but they just didn't open early enough so Panera won out. However, lately I've been wondering if it's time for a new location. I keep toying with the new Martin's at Heritage square. Their flavored coffee is pretty good and the upstairs seating might be pretty cool. But today I made my mind up that I'm not changing.

Every morning when I get to Panera Marie is there behind the counter with a smile on her face a good morning to accompany it. Marie is a faithful employee who really steps up to her job. Sometimes I feel sorry for Marie as the line can get pretty long between 6 and 7 am and often Marie is the only one working. Regardless of the stress, she always maintains a pleasantness that you often don't find in a fast food restaurant.

And then there's all the regulars. Some of their names I know and other just their faces. But it doesn't matter. All of us always speak to each other and sometimes try to solve the worlds problems. Though I don't really know many of them well, it would just be weird not seeing them every day. Some have stopped coming in for whatever reason. And some come back after a hiatus. New regulars come and before you know it they're part of the group as well

Course, I do have my favorite place to sit and there was this 'temporary' regular who seemed to always get there before me and nabbed my seat. I got razzed by several of the other regulars for losing my chair to the 'new' guy. Not sure if he was a drifter, in town on a project, or what but he's been gone for a few weeks and I got my chair back!

It was funny a few weeks ago. I had a morning appointment so I didn't get to Panera until around 7am. Randy, one of the regulars was there at 6 and wondered where I was. He came back in a little after 7 to get another cup of coffee and stopped by my chair to 'harass' me about getting there so late.

I get some of my best scripture reading and journaling done when I'm at Panera. Add to that the friendships that have evolved, confirm for me that I don't need a new place. Panera is home.