May 19-25

Monday - After being at the conference Thurs-Sat, I got up feeling pressured to do some church work on my day off. Spent a couple hours sending out announcement information about a Singles Sunday School class that starts June 1st and a Men's Ministry opportunity on Wednesday nights in June.

Holly and Austin went into town to do some shopping and run errands and Tyler and I spent a couple of hours going through camping equipment to make sure we were ready for our trip to Lake Somerville.

Tuesday - At lunch time I went to MCA (school for Holly & boys). They had several drama sketches that were very impressive because the kids actually wrote the scripts; and all three (or four) of the sketches tied together to talk about life with/without Christ. Then they handed out awards. Tyler won the Drama Award (gets it from his mother) and Austin won the leadership award (don't know if I've mentioned, but Austin has been the Student Body president all year!) Austin had youth band practice at 7pm, so I didn't go home until about 9pm.

Wednesday - We had our usual Staff meeting and then ate Chinese for lunch. I worked on Sunday's service a bit among other things. Holly brought the boys up to the church around 5pm and because I didn't have any major responsibilities she and I went to dinner at Chili's. We haven't had much alone time lately, so it was a nice "mini-date." Then I went to the Student Service (called "6th Street") and I stood up in the balcony with Tyler and watched kids "texting" on their phones during the service. I couldn't believe how many of them had their phones out and so I found a laser pointer and started pointing it at them when they would pull their phones out. Most of them would hide it quickly and didn't know where the laser was coming from, but one kid absolutely didn't care and just kept texting away while our youth minister spoke.

Thursday - I worked on a few loose ends at the office in the morning and then MCA had their end of school party (talent show, slideshows) at lunch time . I went back to the office to tie up those loose ends and then headed home to pack up for our camping trip. We finally left for Lake Somerville about 7pm, arrived at 8:30pm. 

Friday - We spent the day sailing, swimming, eating and enjoying our friends. Oh yeah...and getting sunburned.

Saturday - We started packing things up shortly after breakfast and left before lunch. Somerville is barely an hour away from home so that was nice to be home quickly. Holly went to stay with her sister because her parents were in Alaska and her grandmother needed some help. The boys and I went up to the church a little later to set our stage back up after a wedding. I'm glad we don't have many weddings because EVERYTHING has to come off of the stage. But the boys are a great help to me and we usually get paid by the wedding party, so the boys like that little extra cash flow!

Sunday - Our services went really well. We started with a Memorial Day video and later had a short emphasis on the Gideons ministry and showed a powerful video testimony of a Muslim man who came to Christ after being given a Gideon Bible in prison. You can see the video here. Oh yeah...Austin played drums for me in our worship services! He was amazing! I'm excited about both of our boys and the musical talent they are showing.

Austin went fishing with a friend's family after church, so Tyler and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie by ourselves. It was entertaining, but a little over the top. Because it was Memorial Day weekend there were no activities at the church, so we got to go home and relax after the movie.

May 12-18

Monday - Today was clean up day (insert Barney song "Clean up, clean up. Everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up. Everybody do your share"). Holly had done some serious reorganizing the Saturday before and so we had a lot of "stuff" that had to go up in the attic.

Tuesday - Today I got the go ahead from the powers-that-be to order a new computer from HP for our sound booth. We do most of our video and media projection for our services from a computer and the one we have is "glitching" so I ordered a new high tech/high speed beast.

Wednesday - We had our usual staff meeting at 9am which lasted until about 11am and then we all went to lunch at Hart's Chicken Buffet in Tomball. After returning to the church I spent 45 min on the phone trying to change one little thing on the computer I ordered on Tuesday, but had to cancel the order and start over with a new order.

Left at 2pm to head to Fort Worth for belated Mother's Day activities. Arrived at Mom's about 6:30pm and we headed off to Dickey's BBQ.  While there we heard the Emergency Broadcast thingy over the radio. Tornadoes were in the area. We drove to John & Marci's expecting to run into really bad weather, but didn't until the trip back to Mom's house later.  I got on her computer and finished up my preparations for the Sunday service.

Thursday - Had breakfast with Mom at Mimi's Cafe (French toast stuffed with cream cheese and Orange Marmelade - wow!) and then headed over to Plano to visit with Meme.  Had a great visit (thanks Meme!) and then headed about 15 min. north into Frisco to register for the Dynamic Church Conference.  Met the rest of the staff at the tail end of their lunch at Cheesecake Factory and got to sample some sort of banana cheesecake and chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

The conference started at 1:00pm with a pretty boring keynote speech by the CEO of Fellowship One (church software and organizer of the conference). Then I followed that up with 2 hours of 2 sessions that were over my head, so I felt very frustrated by the first day of the conference. We had dinner in the conference center and then headed off to check-in to our rooms. We were all pretty tired and just hung out in our rooms for awhile.  I was rooming with staff buddy Larry Edwards. He can't sleep on a bed because of back problems (sleeps in his recliner every night at home) and he had brought an air mattress and had it rigged up like a recliner in his part of the suite. There was a door between the "bedroom" and the "living room", so it was like having my own room. I slept pretty good although I must have had too much to drink because I had to make 3 trips to the bathroom during the night.

Friday - Another boring keynote speech at 9am, but the sessions in the morning and afternoon were much more practical and interesting for me on this day.  It's amazing what is happening in world of technology...even for the church!

At the end of the conference we (staff) ate at Macaroni Grill and then the pastor and I went to the conference-sponsored concert with Lincoln Brewster who is one of my favorite worship leaders/songwriters.  Got back to the hotel a little before 10pm and hung out in the room of Children's Minister and Executive Pastor Jesse & Milt. They were watching the AA Baseball Game (Frisco RoughRiders) out their 10th floor window with a fireworks show at the end.

Saturday - We all met for breakfast at 8am and were headed back home by 8:45. Larry rode with me and we got back to Magnolia by about 12:15pm which meant I made it in time for the boys' soccer game. They played a great game and scored about 8 or 9 goals against the other team.  When we got home, I crashed in my recliner and took a little nap. Went up to the church a little later to tie up loose ends for the Sunday service.

Sunday - was a long day. After the services we went to eat lunch and then headed home. We left Austin at the church for youth band practice. I was 5 min. from home when he called me and said they couldn't practice because they didn't have an adult with them. So I got home,. changed clothes and headed back up to the church. Tyler went with me and we all just stayed up at the church until I had worship team rehearsal. After that Holly came up to the church and we headed out to the pastor's house for a New Member's fellowship. We didn't leave his house until about 9pm. Needless to say, I was pooped by the time we got home.

May 5-11

Monday - It rained pretty much all day, but it was very nice to be inside with the family on my day off. I had to run to town to pick up a few things. Holly wants me to build some shelves so she has a place to put all her books, so that's my new project (Hope to work on it this weekend).

Tuesday - We started a new 4-week study at the Coaches Bible Study called "Collisions: My Expectations - God's Character". The first study was "Why Allow Temptation" and generated some good discussion.

After the study I went to the office to get a few things done before leaving town for a funeral. Our Assoc. Music Minister's dad had a heart attack and died late Saturday night near Beaumont. I left with Ed & Cindy (pastor) to drive over for the viewing Tuesday evening and then we stayed overnight for the funeral Wednesday morning. I had a good time visiting with Ed & Cindy, as always and we ate at the Texas Road House and all had really good steak.

Wednesday - After the funeral we got back to Magnolia about 3:30, but I had to drive straight home and pick up Austin to get him back to the church for youth worship team practice. I had to lead part of choir practice because our Assoc. Music minister was still with his mother after the funeral. I don't do very well leading choirs, but luckily we have a man in the choir who was a former choir director, so he took over for the majority of the rehearsal. Then Holly and I sat in on the youth service to watch Austin play drums. He is really getting good!

Thursday - I spent the day playing catch up since I was out of the office most of Tues-Weds. Worked on the service for Sunday, picked up some "congas" for our percussion guy and ordered a new video projector for our sanctuary. Went home and ate and watched "Jurassic Park II" with the boys.

Friday - finished up plans for the Mother's Day service on Sunday and made hospital visits. Tyler went to SplashTown (waterpark) with some friends all day. Austin stayed home and did school work while Holly worked on school!

Saturday - We had a soccer game at 9:00am. I had to fill in for the coach and our kids played a great game! Austin had stumped his toe on the driveway really bad and tried to play, but just couldn't, so we didn't have extra players...which meant there were no breaks for anyone. But they still won the game!

We spent the rest of the day building some shelves for our little office, repairing an outside faucet, and general reorganization of some "stuff" that's been cluttering the guest room.

Sunday - I had a rough morning...I had taken one of my "super allergy pills" the night before because I was miserable and it didn't wear off until late afternoon. Which meant that I was super drowsy all morning for church. They need a new warning on that medication bottle: "Do not attempt to lead worship while under the influence of this medication." I was so sleepy. There were a few times while leading a song that I closed my eyes and thought "I could go to sleep right here, right now."  Holly said I was "glazed over" and "off the bubble." First thing she said to me after I sat down next to her in the service was "What is wrong with you?" We hurried home and I fixed a quick sandwich and crawled into bed for about 2 hours.

When I got up Holly and the boys were throwing the football outside, so I joined them. Then we played a little two-on-two and I think Tyler and I beat Austin and Holly. I had told Holly that we would go anywhere she wanted to go for dinner, so what was her choice? Domino's Pizza in the park at Magnolia. The boys gave her a Mother's Day card with a chicken on the front of it and when you opened it it played the "Chicken Song" and said "Because you rule the roost!" We had a good time playing in the park and then headed home as the sun was going down.

Mother's Day Tribute:

Mom, I love you and have wonderful memories of you. When Holly and the boys were throwing the football yesterday, I remembered playing baseball with you out in front of our house. I was fascinated that you were left-handed in most things, but played baseball right-handed! I thought that was quite a feat! I also remember BIG home-made french fries, deep friend French Toast with sugar on top, Beef Stroganoff and of course Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread.

I also remember making a garden and tending it one summer with you (yummy okra, tomatoes, green onions and yellow squash!). Of course I attribute my reading and writing skills to you reading to me (and teaching me to read) before I started school. And you were so fun! Remember when you let me drive the little VW Bug in England home from "The Gob"?  Driving on the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car and probably too short too! What were you thinking? Probably the same thing when I let Austin drive out here in the country the other day!

Remember when we were in church one Sunday in England and they baptized those people and you could barely contain your laughter because of how the Pastor literally threw them down into knee deep water and caused a tidal wave that splashed out onto the church floor?  And then you got teary-eyed because of the commitment those people were making. I don't think I would have made it through Public School in England if I hadn't had my mom to come home to those first weeks before I made friends. Those were pretty hard times on an impressionable Jr High boy, but you kept me grounded and loved!

I hope your Mother's Day was a good one even though I couldn't be there. You deserve it! Can't wait to celebrate with you in a few days!  I LOVE YOU, MOM!