HOLY COW is the only words I could think of to describe how my body feels all over this morning after putting tile down. My great friend Lenny, who happens to be blogging here now, has done tile work before so he is helping me do it in our bathroom. It looks so much better and it will be so worth it, but HOLY COW it is hard work.
I worked out at the gym yesterday pretty hard, and I did some lifts that I haven’t been doing in a while. Then I put my body to even more strain last night putting that tile down. This morning I’m feeling it big time. It’s worth it to have such a nice bathroom floor – especially compared to the previous crap that Regal Homes put on the floor. Don’t ever build a Regal Home. I don’t know anyone who has been satisfied well enough to recommend them to anybody.
Anyway, I have a whole new level of understanding just exactly what an old high school friend of mine, Shaun Kiniry, goes through on a daily basis doing tile work. I’m sure he is much more efficient at it than Lenny and I, but dang! That’s a tough job to do every day.
A couple more random thoughts I had yesterday but I’m sharing today:
-NewSpring could be charging a premium for their premarital counselling service (but it’s a ministry). Here’s why I believe they could charge. If you don’t get good counselling before marriage you’re going to face one of two situations later – post marriage counselling possibly with an expensive professional or the dirty d-word that an expensive lawyer will handle (this is not to mention all the pain). Would you rather pay now or pay later? You’re going to pay. NewSpring is only charging enough to probably barely cover the cost of class materials.
-Sanjaya – unbelievable. I’m glad they went ahead and got rid of the girl who is taking the dress and move like a slut approach (repeat of that McPhee girl) because I think our culture edifies that poor behavior enough – especially in music. But dang Sanjaya… I can see it now. He’s gonna get signed and somehow end up with a hit in the top 40 and we’re all gonna eat our words of how awful he is. Ok, well maybe not all that. But if he does make an album I bet Joe Sangl will buy it…hahahaha Read his blog – he listens to Clay Aiken and everyone gives him a hard time.
- Big O that I mentioned in this post is going to be playing with a band at Wild Wings next Friday 4/20. I’m going to be there.
- This weekend I’m spending a lot of time at home with the kids and I hope to get started on a tile project in our bathroom.
My family came to town. We spent some good time together. Dad helped me fix the dryer. We ate, went to church, etc… Lenny hung out w/ my family Friday night. That was fun. Tathie, his wife, should have been there.
Our church had 10,700 in attendance this weekend – www.newspring.cc. Amazing. I think my family is amazed all over again each time they come.
We had an Easter egg hunt and cook-out with Chris & Elizabeth Cashion’s family. It was a blast. Randy took us through some trails on their land. We were on a trailer behind his jeep and there was mud. Key word being “behind”, “jeep, and “mud”. Yeah, we got filthy. Shawna thought she would be real cool and duck her head under a blanket. Well she had to bend over to get her head under there which put her butt in the line of fire. When the ride was over it looked like she had pooped her pants – really bad.
It’s been a very busy week folks. I haven’t had a spare minute to write anything and it’s really bugging me. So a quick list of highlights since my last post:
Birthday party for Joshua, Mark & Michelle. I’ll post photos and a story about this probably tomorrow when I have some time early in the morning.
Work
Travel to and from Dalton for work
Got my dad to look at a car problem I’m having – a/c isn’t cold.
Work
1st Wednesday service @ NewSpring, the greatest church ever. The service was awesome. Matthew Barnett from LA spoke (founder of the DreamCenter if you’ve heard of it). Wow!! Reminded me of my pentacostal roots and proved to me that there are some cool pentacostals out there – just not in the Bible belt.
Work
Got a belt for our dryer – it’s making an awful noise. I’m going to try and fix it myself so cross your fingers.
Work
We’re dealing with insurance companies right now (Health & Life) so I’ve been getting phone calls and working on paperwork and scheduling a physical for bright and early tomorrow morning.
Work
Helping Shawna w/ kids while she goes through the chiropractor treatment.
Did I mention work? I have a lot of pressure to work harder which typically means longer hours. I REFUSE to neglect my wife and kids or my health and sanity, and I pray that I keep proper balance in my life. My family is coming to town for Easter…going to church with us Saturday for Easter…NewSpring is doing the first of a new series titled “America‘s Idol”. It’s going to be great. We get to vote on which songs our band plays – and they rock. Also, at church Saturday the upstate’s most popular SECULAR radio station will be AT OUR CHURCH. That’s cool. I’ll post some more tomorrow hopefully.
When Shawna and I first met I was working for Delta Airlines at one of the largest airports in the world – HartsfieldInternationalAirport in Atlanta. And since I had the employee flight benefits I would take Shawna on some really cool trips (such as Disney World, Miami – South Beach, Colorodo – skiing…) Since we spent a lot of time in the airport we made almost a game out of watching people, but not just watching them – we would observe them and make up our own story about them. It was a great way to pass the time because I of course made up funny stuff, but I think we were able to learn a lot too.
Let me explain. I don’t believe you can ALWAYS judge (or make up a story about) a person by their outer appearance, but you might be surprised how often you can get close especially when you also observe a persons behaviors for just a few moments. How do I know this? I’m sure there are books by experts with supported research, but here’s how I do it. Observe your friends and family and relate their physical cues and appearance to their actual life story and circumstances. Also, know a few statistics about the majority of people (poor and middle class) and a few facts about the outliers (wealthy). Experience (of our own and others close to us) and observation is what helps us form more accurate impressions of people.
Call me crazy, but I’ve even guessed some things about people who I just met and found out later that some of what I guessed is true. All of us do this, but not everybody thinks about it like me – I’m a freak. First impressions often ARE accurate impressions. Like it or not it’s the truth, but some people are better at forming their first impressions.
The key word I used before is observed. You can’t just glance at someones clothes and whether or not they’re smiling to know much about them. You have to observe the look in their eye, their posture, how they walk, how they talk, etc. etc. etc. This is so interesting (and often humorous) to me that I want to share some of my observations and thoughts in future posts, so I’m going to make a category just for People Watching and post to it now and then. Check back… I’m often wrong, but it’ll be interesting to talk about what I think I’ve learned by watching people.
Ok, so I took a couple of weeks off from blogging because I was so busy around the holidays. Hopefully everyone had as good of holidays as I did. For the first time in six years of being married Shawna and I were at our own house on Christmas day. We actually got to play Santa with the kids and they really believe it. We gave up on getting them not to because they argued with Shawna when she tried telling them Santa is pretend. We can probably thank the movie Polar Express for that.
I don’t do new years resolutions anymore cause it’s a waste of time. I just constantly set new goals and strive to do better than before. So far that is working for me. Resolutions have never worked for me.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to a great 07 and hope everyone else is too. I plan on picking up where I left off with the Five Love Languages – or at least highlighting it – just because I think it is good stuff to keep fresh on the mind. In the meantime I’m also gather more ideas of stuff I want to write about. I know there are probably only about 2 people who actually read this – Shawna and my mom. But one day this will probably serve as like a journal for my kids to look back on and try to figure out why their daddy was so weird.
I just need to get something off my chest because I’ve come against some opposition lately that I don’t appreciate whatsoever – from different angles and for different issues. Normally I can take constructive feedback pretty well, but there has been nothing constructive about the things I’m speaking of.
My pastor, Perry Noble, addresses criticism he gets quite often on his website and I can only imagine how much more criticism he gets than I do because he is like a famous celebrity of the ministry world. Nonetheless I’m starting to relate a little better in my own little way. The only difference is that the negativity Perry addresses is from people he seems to have no relationship with. The negativity I experience seems to be coming from people I do have relationships with, people I love. I’m sure there is something I’m supposed to be learning from it all and I’m seeking wisdom diligently. In the meantime I would like to borrow a line from Perry’s blog. I only have a few readers and probably none of them are the ones this applies to, but just in case, here’s what Perry says and I’m right there with him…
“…because we could really care less what you think. Negative, critical people have NEVER came up with a positive solution for anything….there are people in this community that need Jesus…and we can either fight with you or reach them…and so…you lose! It’s really that simple.”
If you’re reading this and that hurts – I’m not sorry – hope you get over it. Perry also says “I’d rather offend you than offend God.” I love you, but I’m on board with Perry regarding your attitude. Look inside yourself and figure out why you have a problem with my vision – dig deep.When there is no argument for the vision I’m living by then you can get on board or shut up – anything else is hindering progress and I don’t have time for it.
Ok, so I was talking to a group of my buddies last night and happened upon a subject where size definitely matters. We were trying to agree on a time when we could all get together to hang out. We’re still not sure exactly what exactly we’re going see, but it sounds like we’re going to have a lot of fun. We did decide on one thing – it can’t be at my house because my stuff is too small. One of the guys has us all beat for the largest home entertainment system, so we’re going to have our movie night at his house….
Ok, this is for all the guys out there who can’t keep the restroom clean. It has been bad enough for 28 years that every time I go to a public restroom I have to stand in someone elses piss while I go because someone before me was either oblivious to the fact that they dripped all over their shoes or they were just too dinky wang to make it hang over the toilet (or urinal). But now I have a 3 year old boy who goes to the big potty and pulls his pants down to his ankles to do so, thus making his pants get piss on them. Some toilets are a little tall for him too, so I either have to hold him up or let him stand on my feet, both of which make my own pants vulnerable to being soiled by foreign piss. To sum it up please piss in the toilet, make sure you drip it in the toilet, and if you’re too dinky to hang it out far enough it’s ok, shrinkage happens to all guys at certain moments (some more permanent than others), but if you can’t keep the piss in the toilet then you need to sit down like a lady.
