So. Have you ever tried to tackle a project, but instead of everything going nice and smooth you run into problem after problem? Well, then you know how my past week has gone.

It was a simple project - cut, weld and finish a steel cart for the school drum set so we can pull it onto and off of the football field for our halftime show.

In fact, I was pretty excited when Dawn's dad gave me an oxyacetylene set up. He hadn't used it for a while but it was all there and only needed to have the tanks refilled. That was going to make the project all the easier.

Haha! Looks like the Lord has some other ideas for me.

Long story shorter... It took a while to find a business to fill the tanks. The acetylene regulator blew out. My dad had one I could borrow but when I tried to hook it up tonight, the fittings are the wrong size. Besides, it ended up being the oxygen regulator that blew! Actually, I knew that! So, I didn't even grab the right regulator from my dad! Grrrr... "That's okay," I thought, "I'll just weld the parts that are ready and finish the cutting tomorrow after I buy a new regulator." About 20 minutes into the welding I ran out of wire in my mig welder! Unbelievable!

"Time to go inside and blog!" I thought.

Of course, that all seems (and quite honestly, is) frustrating and tends to get under my skin. But when stacked up against the real problems in life, my little bumps are nothing! Tornadoes strike (like the one that took out half of this railroad bridge!), people are losing their homes due to finances, fires are destroying entire communities and even worse, my heart goes out to those who are forced to deal with life threatening diseases, etc.

Yeah, my problems are not so bad after all. God has been very good to me and I will remain focused on that. Tomorrow is another day and the project will come together in due time.

PS On a totally unrelated note... I finally jumped ship and bought a Mac. My PC has given me WAY to many headaches when trying to make videos. I should have it in 5-8 days. Any advice?

Up and Down

Went to my family doctor for a follow up appointment yesterday and found out all is well. That was good news. Sugar is good. Blood pressure was very good. Cholesterol was excellent. Bad cholesterol was fantastic. To top it off, he even mentioned that it was good that I had trimmed 5 pounds off since my visit to him last month. It came off in a good way, according to my doctor, through activity and portion control. Oh yeah - I was feeling pretty good.

Today we went to the Crawford County Fair. It just happens to be the largest agricultural fair in the state. Cool. The demolition derby was a lot of fun to watch (congratulations Tim on your first place finish! I heard that you determined you are getting too old for the demo though. If that is true, than we are glad to have seen your grand finale!). After the demo derby, we looked through some of the exhibits - nice, very nice.

Then came the "fair food" (which we have waited for all year!). So much for portion control, low cholesterol and good blood pressure! Not to mention adding the five pounds right back on!

By the way, Dawn, what's for dinner?! NOT!

Temptation

As I prepare for my Sunday School lesson (I teach an adult class in my church, the Linesville First Baptist Church), once again I am reminded how easily we can fall into a hole, ditch or even a crater of a situation. We are simply walking along, seemingly minding our own business and - BAM! - we fall into problem. Probably because we weren't watching where we were going in the first place. After all, we have a whole bucket full of distractions (some of us have an entire dump truck full of them!) and it isn't our fault that we couldn't see the hole in our pathway! Or is it our fault after all? Is, "But, I was distracted!", a legitimate excuse? Check out how that reasoning turned out for Judas Iscariot!

We need to be on guard at all times against temptation and avoid giving Satan any foothold in our lives. One thing is for sure, if we give him even the smallest of opportunity, he will weasel his way in. In order to avoid sin, we must recognize temptation and resist it well before it gains momentum and becomes an overwhelming force to big to handle!

But how? How can we recognize it and keep the problem small? Preparation is the key.

I was asked yesterday, "What do you think is wrong with kids today?"

In my humble opinion, as a society, we have been surgically removing Christ and Godly instruction from our households. There is no longer the truth being instilled in this generation that when no one else is watching, God is. Or that we are instructed in the bible, "In whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23) Or how about this? " 'Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " (Matthew 22:37-40)

Look at our society today and ask yourself, "Where has the respect gone?" Do people have any level of respect left for each other? Why not? Do married couples truly respect each other? Do children still respect their parents? Why should they? If there is no God and all this has happened by some freak chance of nature, who says that my lack of respect for human life is wrong?

Wow! That really leads down a terrible, destructive road. Unfortunately, we have been watching our nation derail for quite some time. The good news? Some people are trying to get the train back on the right track again. Are you? In order to turn the nation, it all begins in the individual heart, then grows deep into the home, overflowing to the community, region, state and finally fills the nation. It is called a revival.

Ready, set, GO!

Memory Lane

We were looking at some old slides yesterday and I thought it might be interesting to share some of them with you. (Yes, Gail, I have trays and trays of them!)

I still cannot believe how quickly time passes. We were just kids way back then!

Dawn and I have been falling in love for over 35 years (married for 27 - and she quickly pointed out, "a half!") and it simply seems so brief! Jim Croce, in his song Time In A Bottle sang, "There never seems to be enough time to do the things we want to do once we find them." How true! Although, we have had the opportunity to see many of our hopes and dreams come to pass and look forward to seeing and experiencing so much more.

Here is Mom, Dad, Grandma and Cindy at the Kapok Tree Inn. (1979)

I am reminded, once again, that life doesn't always turn out the way we plan it. Sure, we make our plans and go for them (at least, we should 'cause it would be crazy boring to walk away from dreams and aspirations without at least giving them a try- always staying within God's parameters though! Don't go doing something crazy sinful and say I told you to do it! Come on!) - Anyway, I was saying that we set out on life's adventures with dreams and plans that sometimes end up all coming undone, running in circles or sometimes worse - total derailment! And we often wonder, "Why?"

This was Dawn's mom and dad, Mary and Mel, getting some flowers from my mom, Carole. Wow, were they young! They had a plan. In fact, they had many of them.

Truth be told, as a family we have all been extremely blessed! The Lord is faithful to take care of his children as we strive to serve him in all we do. Sure, there will be unexpected turns in the road but if we continue to walk in his way, he will lead us through all we encounter and we will be better because of it.

My pastor talked last Sunday about asking, "why?", and wisely shared with us that our ability to comprehend and be satisfied with God's answer would simply not suffice. Therefore, before beating ourselves to death over the question, simply accept that it has a purpose beyond our understanding and move on in faith. He has proven his faithfulness throughout the ages and will continue to care for us throughout eternity! Wow, what a promise!

I am reminded of the apostle Paul's encouragement to Timothy to keep the faith, even when things seem to go south! He said, "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

It has been a while!

Okay, so where exactly does the time go? It has been almost a month since my last posting! Sorry to those of you who have been following along on our journey, but it seems that life had some other stuff in store for us - some things expected and some that were not.

Dawn's mom is still demonstrating great strength in the face of her deteriorating health. We often ask her how she is feeling and her answer is always the same - in a frail little voice, "Fine." Never a complaint, although she certainly has a great deal to complain about. Her COPD makes her ability to breath kind of like you and me trying to breath all the time through a pillow being pressed to our face. Her PSP has advanced to the point that swallowing is difficult and always risks choking. She has said several times lately that she is ready for the Lord to take her home. She is one tough lady!

Dawn's dad, Mel, is continuing to demonstrate great compassion and strength as he is still the primary caregiver and insists on keeping Mom at home because, "This is where she wants to be." Hospice is coming in regularly to help him with some of the care, but Dad is caring for her from the time she gets up to the time she lays down at night. He never questions, "Why?" Instead, he praises the Lord for all he has been given and all that they have been able to experience in life. Together they have experienced so many blessings that they cannot be measured or counted.

Mel has been a man transformed by his circumstances. We sometimes wonder why people have to go through the storms that life sends their way, but in this case we have seen Mel grow in the Lord in countless ways. Simply amazing.

God is good and always has a plan. I pray many blessings on you both, Mel! Thanks for all you have done and continue to do for Mom along with your great, unwavering devotion to the Lord. Seeing you unselfishly give so much of yourself has been a huge encouragement to all who know you.

Home sweet home

Great idea Adam! As I said yesterday, it was his idea to ride the bikes down to the reunion this weekend and the trip was fantastic! It was really nice to see all of the family and catch up on all that has happened since last summer and of course, the ride down and back was just the icing on the cake.

We woke up this morning to the weather channel calling for 80% chance of rain today and Adam was quick to point out the fact that translated to a 20% chance of sun. How true, how true! WE said our good-byes and turned toward home. All along the way, we once again watched as the clouds moved around us so the darkest ones were to the north or the south, very seldom were they overhead. Bottom line? We only had a couple of sprinkles spit on us a couple times. There were some stretches were the road was wet but we missed all the big rain. Thank you, Lord!!!

Tomorrow it is back to work with the kids - band camp begins which means all my play time has come to a close (at least for the near future). We tend to work hard, but it really pays off for the kids as they consitently put together great shows. This year, they should once again prove to be very entertaining. Of course, they are a bunch of characters so entertaining might be an understatement!

But always in the back of my mind is the Great Adventure. It doesn't help that I set this picture as the desktop on my computer which just happens to be one of the pictures Dawn took from the back seat while we were riding around Crater Lake, Oregon. So many pictures and so little time to show them all! OH WHAT A TRIP! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE BLESSING!!!!

I pray that the Lord will richly bless you as well. Life is not always filled with sunshine, but the promise is that that Son will shine in your life as long as you will let him! (Son-shine! Get it?!) That is when blessings really abound.

Have a great day!

The Reunion

Adam talked us into riding the bikes down to Bellefonte, Pa., for our reunion this year. You know, he really had to twist my arm and convince his mother it was a good idea in order to get me ride - NOT!

The ride down was beautiful! Blue skies and puffy clouds; warm but not too hot! What more could a guy ask for? Thanks Adam for providing the peer pressure! Hopefully, the rain showers will hold off tomorrow for the ride home. The forecast is for 40% chance of thundershowers, but the way I see it, that means that there is a 60% chance of no thundershowers (maybe even sunny skies!). God has been good to us so far this riding season, so we are hopeful that tomorrow will be no different. Bottom line - if you spend enough time on two wheels, you are going to get wet.

Candy wins the big 50/50!

Each of the "older" family members had a gold star posted on the wall. This one was for you, Dad. By the way, everyone asked about you and Mom today and we certainly missed you guys! It is just not the same without you being here to celebrate with us. Maybe next year, eh?

Our theme this year was Hollywood characters. Now I don't know how many characters we had from Hollywood, but we certainly had no shortage of characters! Lots of games for the kids, too.

Aunt Bea and Janet still lookin' great! It was nice to have them out again this year. Janet happens to be our family historian.

GertyAnn won the Emmy for the Best Adult Costume. Congrats GertyAnn! She even had the famous actress walk thing goin' on! Lookin' hot there girl!

I just couldn't help but show off pictures of The Great Adventure to anybody who showed the slightest interest. Here is Adam, Linda and Del checkin' out all the great scenes from the trip.

Finally, the winners of the Trivia Emmy, Dawn, Mike and Linda. In her acceptance speech, Dawn thanked her Dad for getting cable when she was so young so that she could watch all that great TV which prepared her for this very moment in life! Of course, you think that there would be some mention of her husband who has taken her all over the planet, but noooo, there was no mention of him! Don't get me wrong, I can handle the rejection and have actually been down that road before - but, I guess that there is some pain that you never really get used to. (haha. Don't worry, just kiddin'. After all, the therapist has helped immensely!)

Off we go again.

Tomorrow we will be back in the saddle and headed for a family reunion in Bellefonte, Pa. We have finally decided on taking the bike and Adam says he wants to make the ride with us. It takes about 4 hours to get there and we will probably be taking 322 most of the way since it is a nice scenic drive. Spend the night and come home on Sunday (looks like scattered thunderstorms, but we will take a chance and see if we can't dodge the storms again!).

I will let you know how the day turns out.

God Bless!