Hello old friend...

I was thinking about an old friend today. I was also listening to KSBJ online and heard this song "Come to Jesus" that we used to have a video playing during communion at First Colony. It was also played as a memorial to Bob Onstead if I remember correctly, and I was thinking I would love Mark to sing that at mine (anyway, sidetracked). The last line is Dance for Jesus and Live. With your final heartbeat kiss the world goodbye, go in peace and Fly to Jesus.

Which leads me to my original thought. Back in my IT days, I would meet many people on the floors of the hospital. Nurses, physicians, other technicians and seemed to maintain a good rapport with them. One particular lady was a little older, Maureen was her name. Over the span of 7 years we would visit often, mainly over an application running DOS in a Windows world supported by CDC, but would joke and share stories of kids and her grandkids. I was reading an article tonight and came across the name, and it sent my mind thinking back and realizing... she passed away a few years ago. A friend of mine at work. Such an odd statement to scribe, because it was hard for me to consider many 'friends' at that place. But I wonder now how beautiful heaven is with her presence there. And as you read, that comment is probably personally applied to someone who dwells in that special place in your heart and being.
In the short life as an intern at Lifeline Chaplaincy, I think I can count 5 friends who are now saving me a spot on the front row of JESUS in CONCERT!!!!!

Wow. It's amazing how people in our lives affect us. In their presence today. In their departures. In memory. In loss. In Him. We are connected, intertwined, multi-personal supportive environment of one single purpose. What in the world is that purpose? Well, hold your finger in the air and sing with me... this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!

My purpose is to shine and reflect the light of Christ to all. You get that? All. Not those who I think should be saved. Not those who sing my songs. Not those who worship my style. Not those who make my income. Not those who ... what the crap, it's not about me. It's about those who are lost, alone, scared, freaked out and in need of His hand manifested in our lives thru our actions and service. Ah with a humble heart, I write this knowing full-well I have much work to do. So shall we work together?

Ahh my old friend, thank you for sharing some laughs with me, telling me your stories, and making me think.

6weeks Student & Bible Study

Blakely was chosen to receive the Taylor Trojan student of the 6 weeks in her class. So yesterday they had a little ceremony for the kids in each class. We are so proud of her. One of the reasons I think she was chosen with her friend, was a kind act they did. Someone lost a coat or something on the playground. Blakely and her friend went to the teacher with this item, and expressed that someone lost it and they wanted to help give it back. They went to the Principal's office and even got their name announced over the morning announcements. Good job Blakely!!!! This is one of her teachers.
















We have been doing well this year with a new venture on Monday nights ... that of family bible study time. Most of the time this encompasses a devo from a children's bible and singing cradle roll songs for Tate, made up songs from Blakely, and good 'ole spirituals from the song book. This last week Blakely took some pictures of our time together. I'm afraid she's going to want a digital camera for her birthday.

when what to my wondering eyes should appear...

but snow on the ground, and school delayed once again. Well at least today it starts late and not cancelled. So we went out and had some snowball fights and tried to scoop up enough for a snow-child but didn't happen. They say it may snow more today and even this weekend. So who knows. The kids love it. Good thing. We started out with breakfast by the fireplace...

ice ice baby

Well, we are going on 3 Saturdays in a row here. Ice storms and bad road conditions have placed us in the house to relive the days of hurricane katrina evacuations. However, Blakely and Jackson seem to be getting along well with each other. They even had a slumber party sleeping in her room on trundle beds last night. Woke up and read books to each other, before Jack comes in our room and yells "HEY GUYS! I need to use your bathroom!".
So the other night, while trying to get Jack to go to bed, after he was able to stay up playing and reading and such with his light on, he comes in the den and stands in front of us. We said, "go to bed" and he says .... ready... "You wanna piece of me!!"
And I laughed. The laugh you can't stop until you either start crying or have to breath. Funny little guy. Here are some pictures from last few days. The one of Tate at the table is him saying the prayer. And now that the kids take pictures, they'll be more of me and Jen together.

Spring Semester, Goofy & Blakely's dad, poverty

Today marked the new day for school for Blakely, and the boys went yesterday. So here's our picture of todays journey. I think it will be fun to have these way down the road. I'll take mine again next Tuesday.









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The kids, for some odd reason, love to go around taking pictures now with the digital camera. I don't know how many I have of the ceiling and of other pictures. So I was looking at them on the computer, and ran across this one Blakely took of Jack. I laughed for about 5 minutes. She said, I told him to make a funny face...









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Yesterday Blakely and I spent the day together. We had McDonalds breakfast, lunch at chikfila (sorry JoeClyde) and a walk around ACU campus with her baby doll and new carriage stroller. One of the favorite quotes from our walk was, "So dad, tell me, what's been going on with you lately?" Again, I laughed for a few moments, and then continued in our discussion of life.









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Tate loves to climb in the chairs now. It's getting really annoying. He seems to be our sign language genius. Let's list all the words he knows, and can attempt to sign...ready:
dad, mom, church, more, please, milk, juice, nana, papa, puppy, popcorn(he just likes to say this one really), school (new one), Jackson & Blakely. These 2 of course are his favorite. Jacks name is a J followed by a 'party' sign... so when he wakes up in the morning, he looks across the room and shakes his hand saying 'ak ak'. Blakely's sign name is a 'B' forming a smile on your face. He really has a hard time saying her name, but most of the time, it comes out "Luckla".









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One more thing, and it's probably pretty typical of our culture to leave this thought for last, but what do you think our country needs to do about the poverty in the USA? It seems there's a lot of focus, money and attention going towards the countries of poverty as it should be, but there also seems to be a lot of active ignorance towards how many people are in need in this country. The homeless, the lower income, the single-parent families, the no-parent families, the brothers and sisters raising siblings, the minimum wage families. They are all out there. And it seems that most of the time our response is "get a job" or "go back to school". Pretty harsh don't you think. It's not like we chose where and how we live. Maybe you shouldn't comment, but ponder the idea. And maybe our first response should go through the shredder and reconsider Christ's plea for us to shine His light.