April 28 - May 4

Monday - We had a very easy Monday morning after a very busy Sunday. I got up to drink coffee on the porch in the rocker and had to get a jacket because of the cool weather. I told Holly that I wanted the family to go do something fun and we started weighing our options for a day trip somewhere. A couple of museums and places in Houston were closed on Monday, so we decided to go to the Prison Museum in Huntsville. We took the scenic route up through the country (through Dobbin, Dacus, Blue Bonnet Hill and San Jacinto) and drove through some really nice National Forest land. We really do live in a beautiful area of Texas. We drove straight to the Prison Museum and spent about an hour looking around and reading about the Texas Department of Criminal Justice over it's short history. After a while Holly said "We need to go to church now that we've seen all this depravity." Of course they had "Old Sparky" the electric chair on display and that kind of disturbed Tyler...so much so that he slept in our room the next two nights.

Then we drove to the downtown square, ate at the Cafe Texan, walked around the square and ended up in King's Candies where we had ice cream and a chocolate malt. After looking through a couple of Antique stores we headed back to Magnolia where Holly took her car to meet a friend for dinner and the boys and I went fishing at our good friend and fellow-staffer Larry Edwards. Austin got some really good bites and caught 2 sardine-looking bass and one medium-sized bass, but not much else. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we stayed until dark.

Tuesday - We finished up the final lesson in Acts/Philippians at the Coaches Bible Study. This has been a neat study, because we would read what Paul was saying in Philippians one week and then look at various passages in Acts the next week to see if he lived out what he preached. I have never looked at those passages in that way and it was a new look at Paul and the scriptures for me. The coaches want to keep meeting through the end of May and so now I have to find a 4-5 week study to carry us through. We're supposed to take a break for the summer, but last year they wanted to keep meeting, so we'll see what this summer holds for us.

I had a dentist appointment at 10am to get one filling replaced and a cavity filled and I had been dreading it for several weeks. The last time I had to do this in the fall my dentist and good friend Jonathan Sanderson went to deaden my lower jaw and hit my "lingual nerve" (which was like being shocked) and both arms involuntarily shot up and knocked his hand out of my mouth. This time he recommended laughing gas and so I tried that for the first time in my life. I thought I would feel really loopy, but it just kind of relaxed me. I don't think I was getting the full effect because I couldn't breathe well through my nose (which is where the gas was flowing), so after he finished drilling I asked him to remove it. I was beginning to feel very claustrophobic with this "thing" on my nose, his hands in my mouth and the back of my throat filling up with water as he drilled. Try swallowing with your mouth open because you can't breathe well through your nose! I think I was traumatized because when I went to bed that night I kept replaying all of that. Shouldn't this stuff get easier the older we get?

I spent the rest of the day doing administrative stuff (check requests, credit card receipt reconciliations, etc.) until it was time to go to soccer practice with the boys. After practice we headed over to The Woodlands for a birthday dinner with The Elms family (Hope was the birthday girl and is the one who did the testimony video from the Oklahoma City Bombing that I talked about last week and her husband David is my good buddy who does the Coaches Bible Study with me). We ate at a family-style Italian restaurant called Bucca di Beppo and sat in the "Pope Room" which is a big round table that seats 18 and has pictures of a lot of Popes! We had a blast laughing and eating wonderful Italian food.

Wednesday - Had to be at the church at 8am to get ready for a 10am funeral. I had to run sound/video stuff and I wanted to make sure it was all working. A funeral is one thing where you don't need technical issues to rear their ugly head. Everything went smoothly.  Fellow staffer Larry Edwards invited me to lunch with a friend of his at a Chinese restaurant (yummy General Tso's Chicken!). After returning to the church I took Tyler to his guitar lesson and had a technician look at Holly's laptop while he was "strummin'".  His guitar teacher always talks about how good he is and how he needs to be in a band.  I'm so grateful we found this guy. He not only knows how to teach guitar, he really loves the Lord and loves worship music.

After we returned to the church Holly took Tyler home and I went to the youth meeting which was held at the home of the boy who fell out of the tree a few weeks ago. He came home from rehab Weds morning and they decided to have the service at his house. He was really surprised when they wheeled him outside to see 150 students sitting on his lawn. He still has a long way to go (very little movement in fingers and toes). They sent him home because both arms are in casts and he can't really do any rehab work until the casts and neck brace are off. I think he'll go back to rehab in July to start some really hard work.

Thursday - After a long day and late night on Weds, I stayed home Thursday morning and did a little house cleaning.  When I got to the office I worked on the Sunday service and a few other things and then had to hang around for a 6:30pm counseling appointment and then Deacon's Meeting after that.

Friday - I had a breakfast meeting with a fairly new church member who I would like to audition for the worship team. He has been on staff at a few churches as the music minister and then did some intinerant music ministry on his own. I haven't heard him sing, but others have told me he's very good. We had a really good time talking about life on church staff and life in general.

After breakfast I had to run over to one of the Elementary schools to be a judge for their talent show.  It started at 8:30am and wasn't over until after 2pm. It was fun and I wished I could have video taped some of it and played the clips here for you. Especially one little 5 year old who sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" (or as he sang it "Tinkle, Tinkle wittle star) and another boy who apparently experienced absolute stage fright and just stood in front of the microphone speechless while his song track played over the speakers. But the kids in the audience sang it for him after they realized he wasn't going to sing.

I ran to one of the hospitals to make a visit later and then picked up some groceries and stuff and headed home. Holly had tacos waiting for dinner and then the boys and I went to see the new "Iron Man" movie.

Saturday - we had a soccer game at noon and then Tyler had a few friends over to play paintball for the afternoon.  Austin went to Fiesta Texas in San Antonio with a friend and got home about 2:00 a.m. I didn't really go to sleep until he was in bed.

Sunday - Got up at 5:30 a.m. (after just a few hours sleep) because I had to meet a singing group from Houston Baptist Univ. at 6:30 for sound check.  They did a great job in all three services and then I took them to lunch after the last service. Holly went to a "High Tea" in Navasota with a few of her friends. Had worship team rehearsal at 4:30pm and then hung around for our last class for "The Truth Project." That was one of the most well attended courses that we have had on Sunday evenings. I think we'll do it again in the fall.