A Busy Week!

We had an eventful week! For our 17th anniversary we went camping over at Kaibab Lake in Williams, AZ. the first part of the week. Then we went to an absolutely wonderful Robin Mark concert in Phoenix on Friday. I posted some pictures over on my Revelife site,  and a blog is to come a little later this week when I have a few minutes back to back to sit down and type.

To be continued…

Day 17

Lots of things go on in day to day life.  We go through seasons of change even in the most mundane of circumstances.  Some days you look in the mirror and you think you look okay, so you drag a comb through your hair and go.  The next day, same mirror, same face, yet in your own eyes, no amount of make up can make you look good enough to go out in public.

We do that with our jobs, our friends, our surroundings, our spouses.  One day everything is fine on the job, and the next day you are so tired of the routine that you wonder how much longer you can stand it.  One day you happily talk on the phone to friends, the next day you don’t answer when they call.

It’s the same with our spouses.  Don’t get me wrong.  I always love my husband, but let’s face it, some days are better than others in our relationship.  If you are in a relationship of any kind, you know that it’s true.  Not every day is full of romance and bliss in a marriage any more than it is always a great day with parents or siblings or bosses or friends.  That’s just life.  That’s the way it is.

When my husband and I were newly married we used to have terrible arguments.  All the adjustments two people have to make when they start sharing a life together will really bring out their selfishness.  Through all the anger, hurt feelings, and misunderstandings, we never left the house because of a fight.  We never walked out.  Other than the very the first few big blow ups, we never even  threatened to.  Not that we didn’t feel like it sometimes, but we just recognized that it was a bad president to set.  In the wake of one of those tense situation, we rarely left each other’s company without informing one another of where we were going.  What’s more, I’d say ninetey-nine point nine percent of the time, we’d kiss goodbye and say I love you.  It was sort of an unspoken rule.  Looking back, there are few things in my life that have meant more to me.

Years have passed and seasons have changed.  We rarely fight anymore.  We’ve grown up, and we’ve grown together.  Still, there are days where we are in a bad mood, or we just get on one another’s nerves.  But we remain together.  Sometimes it’s in different parts of the house, sometimes because of his job, it’s in different places entirely, but we are together.  This is a good thing we’ve done.  Whatever it may be called, I love it.

Where’d You Hear That?

People get some really funny ideas in their little ol’ heads.  Then most of us just listen to what they say and just nod our little ol’ heads back at them, never really questioning what they say.  We just assume they have their reasons and we either dismiss them, or we receive what they say, and sort of file it away and assimilate it into our own opinion making processes to use at a later date.

The problem with that is that we have no idea where these folks got their information, or even if they have any valid information at all.  If you don’t think that’s true, just look at how many bogus emails are passed along as fact by ignorant or gullible people who just believe whatever someone tells them, and then go check it at Snopes or some place like that, and find out it’s not true.  It’s sad, but you just can’t Snope people,  Wow!  Wouldn’t that be fun!  That would solve a whole lot of problems.  Now, there’s a blog for another day!

I’m sure there are a few people out there who think things through, study them out, and do their research before they run their mouths, but I think it’s safe to say they are in the minority.  For everyone else, when are we going to start checking out our sources?

People will talk about almost anything as if they knew what they were talking about.  Radical politics is good example.  There are some who have understanding, but for the most part the ones who are out front making the most noise about it, are the ill informed and unaware.  It’s totally emotionally driven.  Smarts go right out the window.  The ones with a reasonable amount of understanding just have to shake their heads at it all.

There are people like that everywhere, and the subjects they bloviate about are certainly not limited to politics.  They can get out there and act like idiots concerning absolutely anything.  Maybe they just don’t want to appear ignorant, and so they chime in and think no one can tell. Maybe they think they have enough information to be able to speak on a subject.  They typically think they sound okay, maybe even good.  They surely wouldn’t carry on so if they didn’t.  When people with a bit more understanding are listening to them, it’s obvious to them, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Samuel Clemens and Abraham Lincoln have both been attributed with this quote: “Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”  We’d be wise to take a lesson from this, and from all the people we have listened to and thought they sounded childish, and all the blogs we have read and seen the ignorance in.  What’s the lesson?  Shhh.  Hush.  Quiet. Silence. Don’t talk.  Sometimes just because you are quiet, you are not thought a fool at all, but maybe you are thought contemplative, or mysterious.  Whatever they think, fool or not, save yourself some future embarrassment.  Wiser people are probably looking in, thinking, “Bunch of babies.  They don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Day 16

Here’s a weird one for the challenge…  I love my husband’s feet!  LOL!  Ever since we first got married, when we get in bed at night and start to fall asleep, we always, always, touch each other somewhere.  If we wake up in the night and we’re apart, we’ll scoot over closer to each other again and make sure we’re touching.  Always have, always will.

Used to, we always “spooned.” That’s what we called it.  That’s where we’d lay one front to the other’s back, and sort of fit together like a couple of spoons.  We’re both pretty hot natured, so unless it’s a particularly cold night, which is rare where we live, we don’t sleep right up against each other anymore, but we still always touch.  Usually, we touch feet.  In the night, sometimes not even fully awake, we feel for each other’s feet.  It’s goofy, I know, but I like it.  I miss his feet when he’s not here.

Do the ‘In Love’ Things

“If you do the ‘in love things’, you’ll be in love.” A guy said that in a comment on somebody’s blog , and it hit me really hard. What a statement! That’s so true! Those are the works of faith, friends. Say and do those things that go along with what you believe God for, and as long as they are Biblically supported, they shall come to pass.

I took a challenge to say something that I love about my husband for thirty days. It has absolutely changed my life. I have a solid relationship with him anyway, but actually sitting down and making myself write something positive about him has been really eye-opening. I knew I loved him, but, you know what? I really love him! It’s a matter of adjusting your focus.

It’s amazing how quickly we can come up with a huge list of little things that annoy the daylights out of us! That’s what we tend to do, too, isn’t it? We find ourselves griping about the things that are bothering us to anyone who will listen, and to ourselves when no one else is around. All it does is keep us agitated. On the other hand, if we could run our mouths that liberally about what we like, we’d quickly see that thing grow stronger and better in our lives.

The things you pay attention to, you create a desire for. If you pay attention to their faults, they will grow in your eyes, and be magnified. You’ll be sick of them, angry and likely begin to feel sorry for yourself over the whole thing. That’s just what we need! A little more “it’s all about me” in our lives!

If, on the other hand you begin to focus on their good qualities, the things you like, the things that attracted you to them in the first place, WOW! It’s amazing how fast it happens. The changes in your attitude and in your perception about everything are almost immediate. Life is so much better when the focus is on something besides ourselves.
This would work with any situation in your life. My only ‘rule”, if you will, is to use the Bible as your guide. Don’t spend your time focusing on, and magnifying ungodly things no matter how much you like them. I probably didn’t need to say that. You get the idea.

Do it! It will change so many things!

Shoot the Wounded. Kill the Children. They’re Stupid.

Are you about weary of the media searching out the Christians with the craziest ideas and then putting them on the news? I am. It’s Jerry Springer with a somewhat more socially acceptable face. You can count on the media to play it up big, and the immature Christians can’t see that they are hurting the cause of Christ and making all of the Christians look bad in the eyes of the rest of the country and the world. The media preys on them at every opportunity, and then what? The “brother’s and sisters in Christ” finish the job for them. That should really make us look better!

People are all at different levels. You don’t go get others to join you and gang up on a crawling baby because you think they should be walking now, since you are able to. You don’t let an infant starve because it can’t feed itself, and that doesn’t make it stupid, either. They are not stupid because they are not where you are. Ignorant or uneducated, pitiable, embarrassing, okay maybe, but not stupid. We should be helping them! If it was actually one of our “real”, physical, siblings, if we were any kind of decent people at all, we’d run to help. We’d be helping them and covering! Doesn’t love cover? 1Cor:13

I’ve read numerous blogs on “Christian” blog sites about what stupid people other Christians are! These are Christians who think they have a bit more maturity, but they have no love or patience for the “babies”. They judge them so harshly! They chime right in with the enemies of the faith. Even a small amount of maturity in your Christian walk should tell you that this behavior is just not right. It’s just not! Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up fights, but love covers all sins.” That’s just basic Christianity 101.

Christians are the worst about shooting their wounded. It’s sickening. I honestly hope there are no non-believers looking on right now! They are on the hunt for the flaws in us to fuel their already raging and out of control fires anyway, and they won’t have to look far. Then again, these self-proclaimed “more mature” Christians are evidently looking for the same thing. Shouldn’t there be a difference? If we are supposed to be known by our love one for another, what are we doing?! There’s no wonder we are ridiculed. What we show them is ridiculous! It’s shameful. Please, please, in the Spirit of Love, as a bit of reproof, or a rebuke if need be, see and receive wisdom from this and repent! Grow up and stop hurting each other!

Nobody Says the “S” Word Any More

Apparently they’ve done it. It looks like the general population, up to, including, and possibly even especially Christians, have bought the whole tolerance/PC package. It’s been poked down our throats in gradual doses for so long now that we barely question any of it. If I suddenly realized that I had allowed the media and the “powers that be” to shape my world view, I would be ashamed to look at myself in a mirror. The problem is, it’s the old “frog in the pot” scenario. “They” have been turning up the heat a little at a time, and we aren’t even aware we’re at the boiling point! I’m challenging you here. Please! Find your Bible, dust it off and read it! Something is going to shape your world view, so if you mean to be a Christian, it aught to be the Bible!

Some of the deepest and most heated debates among Americans used to be about homosexuality, abortion, so called “right to die”, stem cell research, cloning, and many other things of that sort. Remember when they were such hot buttons? Now, it’s not even a debate. It’s “settled in” on us. The only real debate left is how much the laws of our land should support these (yes, I’ll say it) ungodly things. We have pretty much decided that these are personal issues to be dealt with by individuals in their own way, and we as Christians are just supposed to listen and try to understand them. Be tolerant. Forgiveness and acceptance, after all… isn’t that what Jesus preached?

No, actually, it’s not. At least, not in the same way “they” intend for us to practice it. Don’t you just shake your head that non-Christians are so quick to tell Christians what Christians are supposed to be like? If we were a little more studied up, we’d know how absurd some of this stuff is, and we’d have real and ready answers when we need them. What they really meant when they told us to accept and forgive is “accept me and my s…” oops, I don’t think I’m supposed to say “sin.” Nobody wants to say the “s” word any more. It’s a very absolute concept, sin. In a world without absolutes, it’s just not tolerant or or inclusive. How awful!

The other day I was reading a Christian blog, and the author was stating how she didn’t like the pastors anymore who preached about their pet “sin of the week” every Sunday, and that she’d rather go where they preach more on grace and forgiveness, like her new pastor does. How nice! It feels so good to our itching ears. Hey! Let’s all play pretend! God is a great, benevolent Santa in the sky. He accepts everything we do with a wink, never gets angry, and never expects anything in return! That would be great, but I think I’ll go out on a limb here and say “God’s not playing along!”

The Bible, the Word of God, our Savior, Jesus, says He did his part, now you do yours. Yes, YOU have a part. Do you have any idea what your part actually is? He’s been very plain and open about presenting it to you. He’s not being cryptic or sneaky about it. He made it clear and simple because He wants you to know. It’s written in His Word, in His Will for you, in the Bible.

The word “testament” in our modern world is most often associated with the other words “last will and…” It is a legal document. People get all testy and self-righteous when you try to tell them that the Bible a legal document. “Oh, how dare you! It’s a Holy Book!” Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t legal and binding, as well. It is a legal, binding document, the last will and testament of our God, leaving everything to us, all His blessings and promises, upon the death of Jesus Christ. It has very legal sounding, clear, decisive, and very forceful words in it like “shall,” and “shall not.” It clearly says, many times over, “if you will, then I will,” and “if you do not, then I will not.” There are great blessings awaiting us if we will uphold our end of the deal, but very clear and real consequences to be faced if we do not. Check out Deuteronomy 28 for a short list. Do you see any consequences there? That’s only one of the binding covenants God made with us.

If you found out your rich uncle Ned died and left you everything he had, as long as you complied with the terms of the last will and testament, you’d be turning yourself inside out trying to find out exactly what you were responsible for, and breaking your neck trying to accommodate it! How much more precious and valuable to us is the will of God and His Testament to us, but most Christians won’t even bother to find out what their part in the agreement is! That’s a pretty damning indictment, says I!

“Oh, well, I only want to look at the blessings and the grace.” If uncle Ned said no blessings or grace until you paint the top four inches of your bedrooms blue, no matter how strange the rules sounded to you, you’d be on the way to the paint store before I could find you a tape measure! Why? Because it’s real to you and important to you. You are willing to do whatever dead uncle Ned said to do because there are consequences that you are not willing to pay for not doing what was written in the word of Uncle Ned’s testament. Loss of the blessing is a huge motivating factor. Isn’t it sad, and pitiful. We’d believe dead uncle Ned, but we don’t believe the living God. If we did, we’d be acting like it. It’s basically ignorance of the Word. We never knew Him. It’s wrong priorities. It’s general laziness. It’s too much trouble. If we reallyy believed it wouldn’t be.

So, they never complied with any of the stipulations, but still, the very next thing from lips of that same bunch of folks is “Why, God?” Why me? How can a just and merciful God let such things happen? I asked Him, but He didn’t answer my prayers. It must not be God’s will. You just never know what God’s going to do. “

Whoa! Back up the bus right there. We can know what God is going to do! We can know what His will is! It’s the point behind His Word! It’s as plain as day. It’s as simple as building a paper model. You were supposed to put tab “A” into slot “B” but instead you thought slot “B” was just not a very nice slot, so you decided to glue tabs together instead, and just not look at the slots at all anymore. Would you be real surprised when you didn’t get the little airplane like the one in the picture on the package that you were supposed to wind up with? You didn’t have enough faith in the manufacturer to believe you had to follow the all of the confusing instructions, so all you have for your time is a mess. Since when can you expect anything when you don’t follow the instructions? Now which parts of the Bible are you going to tear out and throw away because it hurts your sensitive little feelings, or it just doesn’t feel right or make sense to you? James 1:7 says, “Let not that man think he will receive anything of the Lord.” Not anything. No-thing. Nothing. Harsh words - straight from the Bible.

We all want to inherit the promises without holding up our end of the deal. Guess what. It just wont work. Does that make it God’s fault somehow? Uh… I don’t think so.

It’s funny how people wont acknowledge sin at all, unless they need to use it in an argument. Sometimes they’ll admit that sin exists in order to say that sexual sin is just a sin like any other sin, in order to take the pressure off of the gay issue. The Bible plainly says it’s a different “class” of sin, if you will, because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and sexual sin is a sin against your own body. If He says sin is sin and it will not go unpunished, then guess what? Sin is sin and it will not go unpunished. If the taking of a human life is murder, then if you call it abortion, mercy, or whatever you decide to call it, it doesn’t change the truth. If sexual immorality is a sin, and homosexuality is an abomination, then it is. If lies are little and white, they are still lies. If gossip is masked in a veil of concern and passed along a prayer chain, it is still gossip… still sin. If you have done these things, you are guilty. The end. No excuse you offer will make a dent in the outcome. It’s still sin. But there is still a hope.

The hope isn’t in rationalization, studies, multiple opinions, genetic weaknesses, whatever makes it seem okay in our minds, or any other lame excuses. Once we stop making reasons and excuses for our sin, and actually repent before God for them, then we have Hope. Then we can receive forgiveness and redemption. Real repentance. Not “sorry” or “my mistake” but a full blown acceptance of guilt and responsibility, and a one hundred and eighty degree turn away from it. That doesn’t mean we’ll never sin again, but it does mean we’ll never wink at it or excuse it, or try to explain it away it again.

You see, it’s the condition of your heart. The Bible says God looks on the heart. Your fancy, clever web of deceit and reasonings will never convince God of anything. He sees the “real” you; your heart. When you are honest before God, He’ll know it, and so will you. Then you are forgiven and free.

Get your Bible. Read. Know God. Do right. No matter what. If the stars of heaven fall to the earth, do what’s right.

What Did I Do with my Routine?

I’d certainly like to get back into the groove!  I can’t seem to organize my thoughts, let alone my activities.  There has been a lot going on in our mundane little lives, and it seems to have really gotten me off in my basic, overall timing.  I think it’s time I stop and re-sinc things for the sake of every one involved.

A good portion of the activity has been because of some really good and wonderful things!  One of those wonderful things is that my oldest son and his girlfriend have moved back to town, and they are staying with us!  I’m thrilled about that.  Not many parents get the chance to have their kids come back once they’ve gone, but we get to have one more opportunity to spend some time with them.  And, get ready for this… they got married a week ago today!  It was great!  We couldn’t be happier. We all loved her already, and we’re just glad they went ahead and did it.

They’ve been together for about seven years, and have been planning to get married for quite awhile.  They are getting involved in ministry with the youth at their church, and they decided to go ahead and get married now rather than wait any more.  They didn’t want anyone to make a big deal out of it, and we weren’t supposed to tell anyone.  They are still planning to have a wedding soon, and they want to invite all the friends and family to that event.  This event was more or less a formality.  So, for the sake of the wedding to come, and so as not to steal any of it’s thunder,  everything was very low key and quiet. That was hard!  I wanted to tell everyone!  I wanted to blog about it!  I wanted to post some pictures!

I did manage to get a few pictures.  Maybe they’ll let me post one.  I don’t know.  They wouldn’t really look like wedding pictures to anyone else.  No one dressed up, no cake, no gifts, just jeans and t-shirts and the parents, our boys, the bride, the groom, and their pastors.  We’ll take a bunch of pictures when they have their wedding, then I’ll post them and brag it up!

Some people I met on the internet posted pictures of their son’s wedding.  They got married on the SAME DAY as Dan and Sarrah got married, and I wanted to scream and tell them “Ours was just as wonderful!  Our son is more handsome than your son!  Our daughter in law is cuter than your daughter in law!”  I’m sure they think theirs are.  Sorry for them, though.  Only one of us is right.  LOL!  Jes kiddin’!  (Maybe!)

Another thing that’s been great is that I’ve been blessed and honored to be able to preach at my church a couple of times a month or so.  I hope that’s a trend.  I’d preach every Wednesday if they’d let me.  I’d preach any time they asked!  I am loving it!  I have been able to read and study more than I ever could before.  I think  it’s because the kids are older, and I can actually get a few minutes alone with only a few interruptions.  LOL!  My youngest boy is done with school for the summer, so I have a little free time in the mornings to do things, freeing up some study time later on in the day.

I think it’s going well.  I’ve had some positive feedback lately, but then again, I can’t imagine any of the folks at my church walking up and telling me that it was awful, or that I stunk.  I’m not a good judge of my own preaching.  I preach what I’m led to preach.  I am anointed to preach.  I am confident in that.  I guess I just have to get up there and do it in order to get better at it.  I sure appreciate my pastor’s faith in me.  I’m pretty sure he’d say something if I was just terrible, maybe give me pointers on what to do differently.  So far all he’s said to me is that I need to watch the clock.  I can be little bit long winded, and he likes to keep the time down.

I’m also pretty busy right now trying to get my home school stuff all done for the end of the school year.  I have finished up with Josiah, and he moves on to fourth grade!  Jonathan still has some literature and algebra left, but if he’ll knuckle down and work it, he aught to be done soon, too.  I’ll be glad.  I think I need the summer break as much as they do.  I’m busy trying to get the next school year’s curriculum ordered and ready.  I have most of it.  I’ll have to get a few more things, and after that it’s mostly the consumables I’ll have to order.  I guess that kind of puts me just a little ahead of the game!  Wow!  I’m ahead on something!  Nice.  I hadn’t even realized…

If Jonathan will work hard and finish up what he has left, and if I can get him to take one class over the summer, he will graduate when he’s sixteen!  That’s great!  He got nine and a half credits this year, and if he can get one over the summer, that will mean he only needs that same nine and a half this coming year to have enough to graduate.  We already have the books for five of his credits, and we’re planning on getting foreign language and Bible.  That leaves only two and a half, and they can be electives.  I’m really excited and happy for him.  He’s really worked hard and applied himself to it so far, and I know he’ll do it again.

Something else I’m supposed to be doing is some scheduling and price checking and stuff for the home school group before the new school year starts, but I have been so disorganized in my head that I haven’t done it yet.  I really need to start keeping a planner, or at the very least I need to start marking some of the main things I’m supposed to be doing on my kitchen calendar.  As I read over what I’ve written, I realize that I’m not doing as bad as I thought, but I think I’d still be doing myself a favor if I’d go back to writing things down.  At least I’d know I’m not as far off the mark as I feel like I am.  I used to keep a sort of a planner.  I don’t know when I stopped or why.  Maybe I’ll grab a small one and try again.

Another thing that keeps things hopping around here is my husband’s weird schedule.  He’s been getting a lot of work lately.  The last few weeks it’s been a job all by itself just keeping up with taking him to and from his truck at all weird hours of the day and night.  I won’t complain about it, though, because at least he’s finally getting the work again.  For the longest time he was only getting three days a week.  I guess It’s just a matter of getting back into that workaday saddle again.  I got kind of accustomed to having him around a little more and now he’s back to being gone a lot.  I’m glad he’s got the work again, but I miss him being around.

I have missed going to the gym for most of the last two weeks.  It’s altogether too easy to let that slide when I’m pressed for time, and it’s probably one of the things I need to keep up on the most.  It seems to keep me more clear headed and I just feel better in general when I go.  I wonder why I let it slip so easily?  I like to go.

This has been a rambling blog tonight.  It’s actually sort of cleared my head a bit.  I guess I’m not as far off the mark as I’d thought.  I just needed to see myself say it to realize that.  If I can square myself away and organize my thoughts a bit better, maybe I can get in here and write a little more.  I think I miss doing that.  Maybe I can even write something fun, or even interesting instead of just rambling on about nothing.

A Quick Trip to the Big City

My church purchased a block of tickets to the Diamondback’s game this past Saturday. I got one for Jonathan. We knew he’d want to go, but we didn’t think any of the rest of us would be going. It just seems like we have been pressed for time and money lately, and I just didn’t give it any real consideration. Josiah really wanted to go to the game, but he couldn’t go without me, so I sat and pondered the cost of gas and the likelihood that we’d actually go to another game anytime this year, and the church had a pretty good deal going, so I decided at the last minute to get up and go with the church. Man, am I glad I did!

Even though I’m a lifelong baseball fan and a HUGE Diamondback fan, I had never been in Chase Field before. I’ve never been in anything like Chase Field before. WOW! It’s almost overwhelming! The place is enormous! As we were walking up, I didn’t think it looked like so much, and I sort of wondered what all the big fuss was about. Yeah, yeah, another big stadium, just another big building in Phoenix. It was relatively attractive as things like that go, I guess, and there were some interesting things to see as we were walking up, like the light pole that looked like a baseball bat. Add to that, Phoenix is just really nice this time of the year. The plants and flowers were looking good, the temperature was good, as Phoenix temperatures go in May, and of course the excitement added to the whole thing.

Then we walked in, and WHAM! Instantly it hits you. I’m not sure what I thought it would be like. I guess I thought I’d walk in, amble around hunting my seat, then walk around and around until I could see the field. The few stadiums I’ve been in, you had to climb a pretty good distance before you started back down toward your seats, and the entry way was big and stark, dingy, and maybe a bit ominous. Not here. It was all right there in front of us as we went in. All of the color and activity and excitement was right there, just inside the doors.

Immediately after we passed through the turnstiles, we were in a wide corridor that was lined with concession stands, giant foam fingers and ball caps, and player posters on big displays on the seating section dividers. Between each of them you could see straight through to the field. It was beautiful. Our seats were back in the thirty-forth row, and down the third base line about as far as the middle of the outfield, but I don’t think there is a “bad” seat in the place.

The gigantic stat board had my attention a good portion of the time. It’s huge. I can’t imagine how they get such crisp, clear images of the players up there THAT BIG! I couldn’t focus on any one thing very long, though. There’s just so much going on. There’s a lighted marquis thing that goes all around the stadium, and every time the team does something cool, a snake slithers all the way around the whole, enormous place in just a few seconds! They had a board that was sort of a play-by play board, I guess. It had the count, pitch speed, things like that. I kept missing the live action because I was gawking around at all the other things.

The noise and activity was really something. You could barely talk to each other it was so loud. I did my part! I screamed at the top of my lungs! I was a bit hoarse the next day in church. It’s not a thing like watching the game on television. There’s no play-by-play and you can’t really see the pitches that well, so it’s easier than I would have guessed to get distracted and confused, if you can imagine that. A couple of times I thought something great had happened and I’d missed it somehow, but it was just the Tiger fans cheering.

That was the worst part of the whole thing. We were sitting in a section with all of the Detroit fans. It might sounds like sour grapes or something, but really, the Tiger fans were rude and nasty! They were constantly saying ugly things to us throughout the game. Thankfully, with all the noise and activity, they were pretty easy to ignore.

My boys were so excited! They had a ball! Jonathan has been to a few D-back’s games before, but Josiah had never seen anything like it in his life. He was struggling just trying to take it all in. He didn’t even care who won, he was just thrilled to be there. We got to see all of our favorite players. All of the ones we like best were starters, and the others came in and pinched in the later innings. It was great! And… we got to see THE Pudge Rodriguez play! He’s one of the best in the game… even if he is a Tiger.

Unfortunately, we wound up losing. Pretty sorry, says I. The best team in the best league getting beat by the worst team in the worst league, in our home field, while we’re there to watch. That’s the most fun I ever had watching my team lose. LOL!

Jonathan was pretty bummed about losing, but Josiah and I were just enjoying everything so much, it barely mattered to us. We would have liked it if we’d won, of course, but we came away with a hat, a shirt, a bobble head of Chris Young, a couple of little bellies full of cotton candy, a jillion pictures, (some of which are over in my albums here) and some great memories.

I want to do it again!

Day 15

It’s been a long time since I got in here and got involved in writing anything.  I can’t seem to get the time to sit at the computer long enough to gather my thoughts well enough to write.  There has been a lot going on here, and Allen’s job has been more stressful than usual lately.  Well, I think that once the activity of the next couple of weeks has past, and we get a nice refreshing campout under our belts, things might look a little better when we get back.

Meanwhile, I’ve really gotten behind on my thirty day challenge, haven’t I?

I love my husbands point of view.  If there were a room full of people, all asked the same question, you’d surely get a number of different answers.  Bring in my husband and he will have something completely different.  He just looks at things differently.  It’s refreshing.  I don’t know how he does it.  He just has unusual perspective.  I try not to make too many decisions or draw too may conclusions without hearing what he has to say first.  It will probably be something I hadn’t thought of.

He makes me look good!  He’s not a public speaker at this point in time, but I am.  I pick his brain when I’m working on a sermon, and he almost always comes up with something really good, a really fresh way of seeing something, or explaining something, and I get to use it!  Hardly seems fair, but hey, strike while the iron is hot!  LOL!

It’s great to be able to be able to talk to him and ask him things.  I’m so thankful to have his perspective so available to me when I need it.  I wonder if he even knows how much I rely on him, how much I lean on him?  I wouldn’t know what to do without him.