Moving out

Alright, whether you knew it or not, we plan to move this summer. One of our old mission buddies - kind of like old army buddies - has given us a call and asked us to come and be a part of a new ministry team forming near St. Louis in a little place called Wildwood. I said, "You're crazy!" His wife said, "God has predestined it to be so!" I told The Babe and we have talked and prayed about it, and now we are going. You can click on this - The Show Me State - to see a map. So our house is now on the market and someone is coming to look at it on Friday - which is my wonderful sister's - Tha Gooz - birthday. Also, I had to strip the wonderful marketing off of my truck so that I can sell it and as of tomorrow, it is in the thrifty nickel. I did find out yesterday that my neighbor is interested in a truck exactly like mine, so I'll talk to him about it today. So, here is a set of before and after shots of the front of our home. Do you see that beautiful bug on the right? I miss it. I've decided that after the truck is sold and if I ever need another vehicle, I'll be getting an old bug 63-66 model.

Mess O' Blues

Mess O' Blues - or should I say Mezz-uh-Blues is a song that I like that was done by Elvis Presley. It was released on the B side of Its Now or Never in 1960, but I feel like it is definitely an A side song. You can hear a clip from amazon - click on the link here: Mess O' Blues
We've pretty much finished our front porch and I was trying to do a few finishing touches today - and - it started raining. I kept working and the rain kept getting harder. Now in the Seattle area, it may rain a bunch, but it never really rains hard. In the year that I lived there, there was 1(one) rain storm. It didn't last long and up until then, I hadn't noticed that there was no lightning in any of the storms. Mostly, it is like a mist that keeps things cool. As a matter of fact, most of the time you can see the rain and you can feel it hit you, but it doesn't make anything wet. Anyway, I was working on the deck and the rain caused me to stop my progress. I sat under the new covered porch and watched it rain for a while, hoping that it would slow down enough that I could work. Hasn't happened. So, now I've got a Mess O' Blues. Once it stops raining in the next few days, I'll post a photo of our new front porch.

Gloria Dump

A while back, a movie came out called "Because of Winn Dixie" I've seen a lot of movies, and this is one of my favorites. One of the characters is named Gloria Dump, but that's not what I'm really writing about ...

A while back, I rode with my dad to the dump. It was a large place, lots of garbage, and you just drove up to the side of the mountain of garbage and unloaded. It smelled bad and I'm guessing that it wasn't real safe. Then we moved to the big city of Carthage (5,000). In Carthage, they had an incinerator. The place still smelled horribly, but instead of a countryside view of Mt. Trash, it was a building that you could drive into and they would bulldoze the trash into the fire after you unloaded it. Today, I'll be headed to the dump near here and unload a bunch of old rotten wood. It's interesting because it has a covered place that you back up under. Once you are under it, you unload the trash down a small concrete cliff into a giant trash container that can be moved once it is full.
Also today, I'm in charge of packing and moving some stuff out of our house so that it won't look so cluttered as we sell it. Over the years, I've learned how to keep things in view, but also keep them completely hidden. So, all of the nooks and crannies in my home are full.

Sandlot Baseball

As I was driving my family to school this morning I noticed something about myself. I didn't say anything, but as I pondered what I had noticed, more and more things about this theory seemed to fit - I'm an 'old-ish' kid. Some of you already know it - some of you refuse to accept it - some of you love me for who I am. Let me set up a short list to get started:

1. I don't wear a watch except when required
2. I don't drink coffee -yuck
3. I always get a 'suicide' drink after the games at the baseball park
4. I try to give nicknames because I think it is fun/cool
5. I love my tube socks - pulled knee high with horizontal stripes

1. If you look at that list - Hammer, Old Seventy-Seven, Waffle, Babe, Punisher, Iceman (his front teeth finally came out), Miss Chopsticks, Dust-in-Joy, Butch, Sundance, Biote, and everyone else, I want you to answer the question, why would a kid need to wear a watch - except to look older, do math, or play a video game?

2. On the Sandlot 3 : great film (Sandlot 2 : yuck), Tommy 'Santa' Santorelli asks for a cup of coffee as a kid, but is denied with, "A coffee at your age? You crack me up kid."
3. The adults in the concession stand look at me in disbelief when I ask for a suicide drink. Last night one of them said, "You're just like one of those 12 year old kids that you are standing in line with. That's is so gross." The Babe also dislikes the taste of a suicide drink. I don't know what is wrong with adults these days - I love to get the suicide!
4. Let's continue with the Sandlot theme. Did you notice that it seems like most of the kids have nicknames? Squints, Yeah-Yeah, Ham, Smalls, Mac, Fingers, Two ton, DP, Q, Wok and Roll, Pork Chop, Timber, and Wings - to name a few. I seem to have done that in my blog.

5. Last one - when adults see my socks, they laugh and say, "I used to wear those when I was a kid - In The Eighties. That was a long time ago my friend."

Until Then

Hey, I don't know if you know it, but I'm kind of a regular guy. Sure, at times I may possess more charisma than others, like when I umpire and when I photograph people - I like to have fun. But at other times, I can be the biggest fuddy-dud, like when it's time to swim or drive, I don't swim and I don't treat my car/truck like a jet.

When I umpire a game, I make my calls loud and proud - with a touch of flair. One of the coaches told me that he had to tell the players on his team to stop mocking what I was doing. Also, when I photograph a couple or a kid, I love to get to know them and then play on the things they love until we get that perfect set of photos. That is always a lot of fun too.
I'll always have my jet-ski accident to fall back on as to the reason why I don't like to get in the water - even though, I just don't like it. And for all of you doubters, I was in swimming programs until I was about age 13 - so I can swim! As a matter of fact, that year I was in a lifeguard training program.

Today, I hope that I get to finish the front deck that I'm adding to our house. I've been working on it all weekend and then some. Once I get done with it, we are going to sell the house because our family is just too big to live here anymore. We love it and we know that it will be a sad day when we leave the place that we have known as home for almost 10 years. But, God is good and He just might have something for us that's even better than what we have now!

Craz-ee

Check out the place to get your Sixth Day Stuff
- http://www.cafepress.com/sixthdayphoto -
(thanks Old Seventy-Seven)

Alright, from here on out, this post will be point free - I can assure you. I was watching a film last night at home with The Babe, when I heard a slightly humorous joke. This film was mediocrity's finest attempt to win over the unbelieving, but I am still unbelieving that it was anything above a waste of my time. The actors in the show were like a list of "who's who" in American film, but I'm not sure if this show ever made it to the big screen. If you are a pastor reading this, I'm sorry that you won't be able to tell it from the pulpit - though I know you'll be telling all of your friends.

Mike: Hey Ben, did you know that diarrhea is

hereditary?

Ben: No - Really?
Mike: Yes. It runs in your genes.

Well, WHOOP-DEE-DOO

This morning as I washed the clothes, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was mostly kid's stuff, but I had my umpires uniform and coaching shirt in the wash too. Tonight I'm supposed to umpire a game at 6:00, then coach a game at 7:45 - that's why I needed clean clothes. So as I'm pulling the clothes out of the dryer, I notice a Super Bubble gum wrapper. I figure it came out of one of the pockets of my kid's pants/shorts. After I got all of the clothes out of the dryer, I started folding them. I had finished folding everything except this one last shirt - my coaches shirt. As I started to fold it, I noticed that parts of the decal were sticking together - you know how after you wash one of those jerseys, sometimes the heat causes the decal to stick to itself. As I was pulling the decal apart, I noticed that something funny was going on. I turned the shirt inside out and deduced that the Super Bubble wrapper had been full when the clothes were washed. My coaching shirt had been trying to chew the gum :-( and now it was all stuck together. I would just throw the shirt in the trash, but I need it for coaching. Since my Bride - The Babe - is not here, let's see if you guys have any ideas? I've already tried - hop on one leg around the damaged clothing 5 times - that did nothing. Oh yeah, I also boiled an egg spread the shells over the damage and gargled salt water - yeah, that didn't do anything either.

Dust-in-Joy

The Babe safely returned from Vegas yesterday. It was fantastic to see her again. We talked about it last night and we are guessing that the time this week that we spent apart is the longest that we've been apart since I was in the ARMY - 1995. It was four days - that's right we just might be in love. By 'might' I mean -for sure- (converted to the correct grammatical form of course).

Babe -n- Waffle FOR-EV-ER

BTW I did not photograph myself at my wedding

Dust-in-Joy are getting married too - woo-hoo. I photographed their engagement photos and we had fun. The photos turned out great and I set it up so that they could have their announcement posted in a magazine. I've been waiting and the mag has finally been released. It is called The Wedded Bliss. If you keep your eyes open in east Texas, you will be able find a copy at many different locations. It is a free magazine to pick up because all of the announcements and ads pay for the cost of producing the mag. This is my copy of the announcement that I submitted. You can see it on their website if you scroll down to the bottom of the last page (saving the best for last).

http://www.theweddedbliss.com/pdfs/engagements.pdf

The magazine is more than three pages long - it is really interesting to look at and see the photos in it. As a matter of fact, I was surprised when I saw my cousin inside the front cover in the last issue- a photo from his wedding day.If you just happened to live as far away as Seattle (lucky dogs), you could have a copy or two sent directly to your domicile if you contact the magazine and ask them to send a mag or two (cost involved) - or - you might just have your momma pick one up for you.