by HIS wounds

Friday @ 11:35pm

What an odd title for a post. Friday @ 11:35pm? Weird huh? It's not a title that lends itself to much creative thought. The only thing that I can really say is that 11:35pm is about the time that I usually finish my nightly (or almost nightly)study and prayer. Many thoughts are still floating around in this big ol' head of mine tonight. First of all, it has been a good week. Church stuff is good. Our church has had several events this week dealing with and leading up to Easter. It has been particularly good to attend them and not have an active role in the programs themselves. It has been neat to simply load up the family together and... participate. We have been having good talks on the ride there and home. I really love getting the chance to talk about spiritual things with the kids. My daughter has really been asking a lot of questions about heaven and what happens when we die. It is a lot of fun. The only thing, she really wants to believe that our dearly departed family dog will be in heaven. I have had many conversations (and I mean many) with her about dogs in heaven. I think that she asks me so many times about the dog subject in hopes that I will say something different than I have before. Yes, I have told her that heaven is not for animals. I know that many of you are wondering why I would tell a four year old such a harsh statement. Well, all I can say is that when those questions come up, I try to take the opportunity to lay some groundwork for the future. To me, heaven is not like Santa's workshop at the north pole and I want them to know that.
This was also the week of spring break. Julie is awesome with finding things to do with the kids to make the week special even if we don't have the means to go on a big vacation. Yesterday, I was off so we splurged and spent the day at an indoor waterpark. It was great but I am still water logged. I think we will do that again next winter. We got a great deal by getting tickets online.
Tomorrow is Saturday and we are doing a whole family prayer walk at church. I have to do a landscaping job most of the day tomorrow so we probably will not get there until the evening but I am looking forward to it all the same.
The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy. As always, things kind of come in clumps. Nothing major, just a few things out of the ordinary. Should be fun.

this song makes me hungry.

NUMBERS

Politics aside, I have been amazed at the numbers that have been thrown around lately in the media. Think about this number.
ONE TRILLION: 1,000,000,000,000 (yes, that's twelve zeros)
It's hard to put one trillion into perspective so here are a few examples that might help. If at the birth of Jesus Christ, you began to spend one million dollars each and every day, you would STILL NOT have spent one trillion ($1,000,000,000,000.00) dollars. Hard to imagine? How about this one. With one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000.00), you could buy every every man, woman, and child in the United States a gold season pass to Kings Island......each year... for the next 32 years. With one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000.00), you could buy a 1995, loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee (with only 150,000 miles) for EVERY man, woman, and child in the United States. It really boggles my mind but if that didn't bring this whole one trillion thing into perspective for you, think about this one: With one trillion dollars, you could buy the world a Coke (insert old Coca-Cola commercial song here). In fact, you could buy every single person in the entire word (world population estimated in January 2009) not one, but one hundred and ten, 20 ounce bottles of Coke each. How would you like to have those Coke Reward Points?

Sleeping Disorder

I think that I am suffering from a sleeping disorder. It is currently 1:33am on Saturday morning and I am not sleepy. This has been going on for about eight days now. I stay up until about 2:00am and then get up at about 7:00-7:30am. The strange thing is, I'm not really that tired in the morning and I seem to function fine through the day. I am currently watching an episode 48 Hours. It is about someone who killed someone else for life insurance money. People are nuts. I will say that I have made the most of my "extra" hours. I'm not just sitting up watching infomercials. I am still spending time doing some personal Bible study as well as reading the first of several books for a study I am doing with a group of fellow student ministers. I have tried getting some exercise to help get me back to a normal sleep schedule but it hasn't helped yet. I have taken a run a couple of days in a row. I'm a little sore, but not ready to sleep.
We had D-group tonight. It went OK. Hang on a second....they are doing a forensic reconstruction of a face from a skull......................................................................ok, I'm back. Wow that stuff is crazy. Anyway, I'm not sure what to think about my "sleep disorder". I did look up sleeping disorders on the Internet and from what I gather, I don't have much to worry about. Eventually, I will "correct" and fall back into a normal sleeping schedule. As long as I am not talking goofy or seeing things, I should be ok.
A funny thing happened at dinner tonight. We decided to go out for dinner to celebrate the kids report cards (both the boys received almost all A's...they do not get that from me). Mio's Pizza just opened up by our house so we thought we would give it a try. It was packed. When our pizza came, the waitress informed me that the cooks were still trying to "get some of the kinks out" and went on to say that they made our pizza... without the sauce. They did bring us some sauce on the side so things worked out. It was actually pretty good with the sauce on the side. They also gave us another pizza with sauce actually on it to take home. Good deal. We'll go there again.
Well it's 2:03am, time to hit the hay. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

(Insert clever saying about it being a long time since last post here)

Man. It has been a few days (weeks) since my last post. Christmas was good. The celebration of the new year was good. Between you and me, I'm glad that the holidays are over. It just seems like a lot of "stuff" goes on. Lot's of running around. I will say that it was really cool to have some vacation time to spend with the family between Christmas and New Year's. We had a great time. We played ton's of board games. Kaitin always cheats (she get's it from her mother). We went to see a movie (Bed Time Stories). It was an experience. We went to see it at a theatre in Blanchester. If you don't know, Blanchester is about 14 miles east of Milford. Very small town but it does have it's own theatre. It was only $1.50 each to see the movie. Very cheap. The only drawback is that you have to deal with a screen that is as big as some home televisions are now in a room that only seats about thirty. Good times. We also took a trip to The Beach water park for their "Holiday Fest" thing. That was fun. Riding a sled down a water slide with no water was an experience. Kaitlin loved it. I think that we rode it four times in a row. The petting zoo they had there was a big hit with all of the family. I have a great picture of Julie being attacked by a goat. I need to remember to post that later. I almost peed my paints. We took a carriage ride there as well. That was stupid. People (supposedly in character) got on your wagon thing and tried to convince you that "Black Bart" was going to come and cause trouble (never happened). At one point, there was a poor girl standing at one part of the route dressed in pioneer clothes. Of course this was over top of her sweat pants and tennis shoes. Disney it wasn't.
What else is going on? Oh, Jacob got a part in a children's theatre production of Annie. He is the dog catcher. I know, it doesn't sound like much but he has rehearsals three nights a week. It is a lot of pressure on a ten year old. He is really working hard. We are very proud. Home life is good. Nathan loves watching football and college basketball. I am so proud. Kaitlin...hmmm.....she is nuts. We are so proud. I think that everyone is getting back into the swing of being back in school.
Church life is good. It feels like everything is really cranking up towards some neat things. I'm not sure what they are, but I know that it's good stuff. Student ministry is fun as always. There are good things happening, yet every day, I see more "opportunities" to improve and learn.
Me?.....I'm good. It seems like God is really placing some interesting people and situations in my life right now. For the last couple of months, I have been setting aside some extra time for study. It has really been rich. It feels good to let God "beat you up" on a regular basis. It's kind of like the "good burn" you get from a workout. Not that I have been working out much lately, but from what I remember, it's a similar feeling. Another good thing about me is that I finished (except for a towel rack and T.P. holder) the kids bathroom. What an experience. I guess it turned out OK (man I hate Bob Vila).
Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure that I will have more profound things to say soon.

THE RESULT OF NETWORK NEWS