Smoke on the Mountain

Well the time has come once again. I am once again getting ready to hit the stage for Quitman Community Theater. We are once again in the preparing stages of Smoke on the Mountain 2: A Sanders Family Christmas. In fact last night was our first night with the read through for the cast. We had a great time and it seems like this show might be even funnier than the original that we did two years ago. One of the greatest things is that we have pretty much the whole cast back from the original production of Smoke on the Mountain.

If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about let me tell you. Two years ago, after I had been in Quitman for four months, I had the opportunity to be in the play Smoke on the Mountain. It was (is) a musical, which scares me more than just a little bit. But I got the chance to step in and play the role of Reverend Mervin Oglethorpe, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. I was pretty psyched to get this chance because up to that point (2008) I had not been in a full fledged production since about 1995. To be honest it was something that I was ready to have a chance to do again. The story of the play centers around the Sanders Family Singers, a family Gospel group, coming to Mt. Pleasant Baptist for their first Gospel sing in five years. It deals with the issues that they are having as well what Reverend Oglethorpe if dealing with being the pastor of a small church in a small town in the late 1930s. Overall it was a fantastically funny and fun show to get to be a part of. Now I get to be a part of the second Smoke on the Mountain, this time set on Christmas Eve 1941 just over two weeks after Pearl Harbor. It is once again going to be a fantastically fun and funny show to be a part of.

I am excited to get to once again be in a play. It is one of the things that I enjoy getting to do. I will miss The Wild Things on the nights that I'm gone, but it will be fun and Boo and Puck will get to see the show in the end I believe. All in all it is something that will be well worth the time and effort that is put in. If you are in a place where you can check it out, I would love for you to see it. Our performance dates will be October 29-30, November 5-6 at 7:30pm at the Carroll Green Civic Center and on October 31 and November 7 at 2:30pm (I believe that is the time for both Sunday shows) also at the civic center.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Rock the Desert, Bath Time, Competitions and The Haircut

It's been a while I realize, but I have been out of town and had no internet to be able to update this. I will do so now however.

Wild Things in Nature

A couple of weeks ago as I'm sure most of you know, The Momma and I spent a week in Amarillo with 17 of our youth doing a mission/mystery trip. While we were gone The Wild Things stayed with Gramaw and Daddy Bill. While they were there, Gramaw was able to get a couple of pictures of our Wild Things in their almost natural habitat. Here are a couple of those pictures for you.

A Wild Thing at Rest

Wild Things in Nature

More Wild Things in Nature

Those were all while spending a week with Gramaw. Here are a couple more that I just wanted to share (even if you have seen these on the Momma's Facebook I'm gonna share anyway).

A Shy Wild Thing

A Wild Thing in the aftermath of "The Hunt"

A Wild Thing all wet

The Wild Thing taking flight

One of the Wild Things using camouflage

A Wild Thing attempting to walk on water

OK, that's it for the pictures. I know this is more than usual, but I love getting to show off my Wild Things. It has been a great summer.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Bubbles, Jesus in Our Hearts and Crutches

We have decided that it is time to start working on the potty training with Brother. He is 2 1/2 and we're tired of paying for diapers to be honest. So far though it isn't really anything that he is digging. We have never tried to potty train a boy before so if any of you who have done this have any tips, well now would be a GREAT time to share them with us. I will say this about the experience: The Momma thinks that perhaps he would learn best visually. I'm not real big on this method to be honest, but we gave it a quick try just to give the boy a general idea of how it's supposed to go. I think all he really took from the experience was that when you pee like that it makes bubbles in the toilet. So now when we try to get him to sit on the potty, he tells us "Bubbles. Make bubbles." Great.

Boo and Puck both entered hand drawn cards into a contest at the church for our new birthday card to send to members. I am proud to say that Boo got both 1st and 4th (she entered two cards) and Puck also got a 4th place nod. Chances are all the cards will be used at some point for the sake of variety. But since they were winners they got special prizes. So today they went to the office to claim those prizes. The prizes were: a bookmark, a $5 Sonic gift card and a pen with Jesus on it. This is the pen:

When Puck saw her pen she informed Momma that she was sad about Jesus being on the pen. When asked why that was, she replied that it was because he was supposed to be in her heart.

Finally Boo informed me tonight that she needed $26. Seeing as that is a very specific (and seemingly random) amount for an 8 year old to be in need of I asked her what it was for, even though I thought I had a pretty good idea on my own. She told me that it was so she could get the emergency kit or the feel better kit for her American Girl doll. She needs it, I was informed, because it has bandages and even crutches in it. That's right, crutches for a doll. In fact an entire first aid kit that you can purchase...for a doll. At least she hasn't decided that we need to take the doll to the hospital to see if she is paralyzed since she doesn't seem to have any movement in her extremities and never moves on her own. If Boo thought about this she would probably be trying to figure out how would could get her a remote controlled wheel chair. What will they come up with next for these dolls? Drivers licenses? Concealed hand gun licenses? 

I think that's it. Brother is working his way toward sleep and I should too.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Party Time

Last night (Friday) was Boo's swim party for the end of the softball season. We had hotdogs and chips and cake with crazy blue icing, which Brother enjoyed a great deal as you can see.

Boo got a trophy and then the coaches rented the city pool for the girls and their families to swim for a couple of hours. Boo even did the diving board at the ten foot end of the pool.

In the end, even though Puck and Brother didn't go off the diving board, they did their own jumping and playing. Brother even did his version of a cannonball a couple of times. If you listen closely, you can also hear the lifeguard telling him to walk rather than run.

As I hope you can see the Wild Things all had a great time last night swimming, eating and just playing.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

A Family Tradition and Princesses

Tonight was the night that I attempted to begin passing on a tradition from myself to The Brother. I would pass it on to the girls as well, but to be honest they have never really seemed interested in this particular tradition. That's too bad, because I would gladly share this with them.

What is this tradition you say? Is it a ritual, a right of passage in the family? Is it something sacred and guarded? Something that is secreted away in Durham family lore, passed from father to son generation after generation? The answer to these many questions is...no. It's about the way I eat my ice cream. As far as I know, I am the only one in my family that eats ice cream this way...until tonight. Brother saw what I did and requested the same be done for him.

For some reason that I honestly can't explain I began stirring up my ice cream somewhere between the ages of 4 and 6. I remember being with Brad Robinson at the time at his grandparent's house and his grandmother giving us ice cream with chocolate syrup on it and I recall Brad stirring his and encouraging me to do the same. I remember his grandmother having to do it for me. But it was so good that way and I have done it ever since. When I have store bought vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on it, I find myself stirring it in to a milkshake like consistency and eating that way. And tonight Brother joined me in this strange tradition. For whatever reason it made me smile to have him want to do the same with his ice cream.

Later in the evening, Puck got a hold of my chap stick and wanted to put some on Brother. He at first refused. Then she put some on me. After that he decided that he could use a bit as well, so he let her put some on his lips. At this point he stood up and declared "I a princess!!" Such a proud moment for this Daddy, for my son to call out that he is a princess, and then dance around with Puck while she chants "We're princesses! We're princesses!" Boo tried to make it seem better by pretending that Princess actually just meant prince, but I know the truth about that word. Thankfully, he is only two and has no real concept of being a boy or a girl, so it truly doesn't mean anything, I just found it humorous.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Amarillo by Morning and American Girls

It has been nearly 10 days since my last update on here. That feels like it is too long. Of course I was out of town for most of those 10 days.

Oh What A Night...

So far it has been one of those kinds of nights. Roni and I leave tomorrow morning for our mission/mystery trip and The Wild Things are heading out with Gran'maw to spend the week with she and Daddy Bill. They should all be asleep now, preparing for the early morning and big week ahead.

Right now though, there is a very pronounced lack of sleeping going on. Brother has Gran'maw laying by him, yet he is still jabbering away. Puck has been even gigglier (spell check didn't even show up on that word...wow) than on a normal night and is now with Brother and Gran'maw. Boo is at least trying to go to sleep, but since she and Puck share a room I know it has been hard for her. Plus, she has been talking and laughing with Puck.

Roni and I talked about the chaos that is bedtime tonight. She pointed out that they always say that your children pay you back for what you were like as a child. Call it penance for past sins she says. What did I do as a child she asks? Nothing that I can think of to deserve this kind of repayment. Maybe it's from my college and early camp years when I wanted to stay up all night for no good reason. Regardless it's enough to make me want to cry out to God "Why God Why?!?! Why have you forsaken me in my hour of great need?!?!"

But wait, it seems to be quiet now. The Wild Things seem subdued and all in a matter of minutes. God has not forsaken us after all. He has shown us his Mercy and His Grace now in this last few minutes. As Jesus once calmed the storm raging around the boat on the Sea of Galilee, he has now calmed The Wild Things. Why did I doubt? Why was my faith so small?

I love my Wild Things, and I will miss them like crazy this week. Keep us all in your prayers. We will all appreciate that.

Peace, Love & Grace y'all.

Spilled Beans, Black Sheep, Cheese, and a Big Bite

It has been a week. Last time I updated on here UM Army had just arrived in Quitman and taken over the church. It's been a good week with them here, even though it seems a bit strange going into the office and there being so many people there that I don't know and all our space being taken up. The office is really the only space that I actually have to do anything in. It has also been a week of preparing for the mission/mystery trip that we are headed on starting Sunday. Everything is ready except for the fact that I need to write two final devotions and make copies of all of them. It will get there by the time we are ready to go though, this I know.

Those however are not the reason that I am updating tonight. None of that has a thing to do with the things listed in the title above. Those are of course things that have to do with The Wild Things.

Today I had a mom and youth come by to get a packing list for the trip and as I was giving the mom some important information about the trip, I accidentally mentioned the name of one of the towns we will be going through. After I realized this I was afraid that the youth may have heard me so I called the Momma Wild Thing to tell her. She told Boo that "Daddy spilled the beans." Boo then asked her "What beans did Daddy spill?" thinking that I had literally spilled beans. It's so easy to forget that they don't know all the same phrases that we do. It is also at times hard to remember that she is still just a little girl. Also this evening Momma heard Boo crying in her room so she went to check on her. Come to find out, her heart was broken because she had asked Puck to play with her, but Puck chose to play with Brother instead. Like I said, it is so easy to forget that she is still little.

Then there is of course Puck. She came into our room tonight (as is her bedtime ritual) to ask about a lullaby. She wanted to know how the Rock-a-by Baby, go to sleep song went. When Momma started to sing her rock-a-by baby, Puck corrected her with her own version: "Rock-a-by baby go to sleep, Momma's gonna buy you a big black sheep." The way her four year old mind works...

Then there is Brother. It is currently 11:05pm and he is still going nice and strong, What we really desire is this:

Of course even now he is calling me heartily.

Earlier today he asked Boo for a bite of her Ramon Noodles and when when asked what the magic word was he answered at the top of his little voice: "BIG BITE!!" This is, of course, the wrong magic word. He did eventually say please however and got the bite. Thursday night he was having some nachos from Taco Bell, but he still doesn't grasp the idea of dipping the chips in to his cheese. Instead he eats it all separately, cheese first usually, and ends up looking a bit like this:

All in all it has been a good week with the Wild Things. I will miss them like crazy this next week while I'm on the mystery trip, but they will enjoy being with Gran' Maw and Daddy Bill for the week I'm sure. I feel so blessed every day to call these three my Wild Things:

Peace, Grace & Love y'all.

The (UM) Army, Mystery Trippin' and the Big Boy Bed

Sunday kicked off a week at our church that we have never experienced before here in Quitman, TX. The Army has invaded and taken over our facilities for the week. Starting Sunday afternoon and continuing on through to Saturday morning we are hosting a UM Army work camp in our new J.O.Y. Hall. For those of you who may not be familiar with this, it is the conference youth mission trip. Each summer, from early June through late July/early August various churches throughout the Texas conference (and other conferences as well) host mission trips in their communities for other churches. Our camp this week is I believe a total of 58 students and adults doing various projects throughout Quitman and Wood county. It really is a great ministry opportunity, and I know that our congregation is uber-excited to be hosting this event. It is amazing though just how much they take over when they come into a church for the week. There are people sleeping in The Well (our youth area), in Sunday school rooms, the nursery and there is even one person sleeping in the youth kitchen.

This coming Sunday Roni and I will headed out with a group of 17 youth from our church plus three other adults for our second annual mission/mystery trip. We will be putting on a VBS for inner city kids in the mornings (the mission) and then doing some fun things at night (the mystery). We are very excited about this trip for a few of reasons: 1) We have 17 youth going!! Last year we took a total of 7 youth, all boys. This year we have 7 GIRLS going (Roni is very excited about that part of it). 2) The focus of the trip is on the ministry opportunity and we really feel that this will give many of these kids a chance to put into practice this thing we call faith. 3) We are possibly going to get a chance to spend (at least part of) the week with one of our former students. We are pretty much always excited about spending time with former students. Please pray for us as we travel and minister this next week.

Finally, Little Bull is finally out of the baby bed and into his "big boy" bed. When I say he is in a big boy bed, I mean that at 2 1/2 he is already sleeping in a full size bed. I didn't start sleeping in a full size bed until I moved away to Canyon and even then it wasn't until the end of my first semester...and I was 21 then. There are only a few things that concern me with him being in this new bed: 1) We can no longer contain him in the bed at night when we put him down. He tends to wander around his room and drag out EVERY SINGLE TOY before finally crashing. 2) He has fallen out of bed about 3 times now in the 2 weeks he's been in it, and that is a bit of a rude awakening for both him and his parents. 3) It means that he is getting bigger on me. I will admit that I'm not quite ready for my baby boy to be getting as big as he is. Tonight I was laying by him trying to get him to go to sleep, and he finally told me "You go your bed." I was officially kicked out of the big boy bed and sent to my own room to sleep. That usually is the other way around it seems.

Both of the girls are awesome as always. All three will be spending the week with Gran' maw and Daddy Bill while Roni and I are gone with the youth, so keep Mom and Pops in your thoughts, as well as the Wild Things that they don't eat McDonald's too much while we are gone, and that they get the special attention they need from the grandparents while they are there. It's going to be a good week for us, but as always we will miss our Wild Things.

Thanks for indulging me and reading along.

Peace, Love and Grace y'all.

Rain Dances and The End

Well I'm going to go just a little bit out of order from what the title says, but hey, I'm the one writing this so I can do it how I want really. Tonight was the end of Boo's softball season. We gave it a valiant effort, but just could not over come the Outlaws of Mineola. I'm not sure what the final score was, but I believe it was something close to 8-3, maybe 9-3. Either way, it is over and I'm not sure that is really a bad thing. It was a good season, and Boo for sure had fun with it, but it's July 9th and she has been practicing and playing since late April or early May. It was time for it to end. We are not the parents that feel like our Wild Things need to be involved in something all the time.

The game tonight was good for Boo. She started on the bench, but when she came in she played well. They had her in center field, and she did a good job there. The Mineola team did not seem to be full of heavy hitters, but that was OK. She got a force out at second and chased down one hit that squirted through the infield. Batting was about the same as it had been all tournament for her. She had one plate appearance and was thrown out at first. For the tournament she was 1-6 with a run scored I believe. Overall she had a good year and I think she really enjoyed it. One thing to share from the rain out Wednesday night that she told Momma Wild Thing in the van: On Tuesday night in the game they won, Boo got taken out late in the game. She informed her Momma that the reason they took her out was because she had played so well and they needed to give her a break and let someone else have a turn. I do love the way an 8 year old can view things like that.

Once we got home from Lindale tonight we encountered some rain. It was nice really since it did help to somewhat cool it off. Our family has a love for the rain and running around in it when we get a chance. Tonight was no exception. As the rain started to come down, we stepped outside to watch it and to do a "rain dance". Well to do said dance, we lined up and held hands so we could all run out into the rain together and then "dance". Great idea...except that Little Bull's legs are still rather shorter than the Momma's and Puck's and so when they took off, each holding a hand, he made it about two steps before crashing belly first onto the ground and being dragged through a puddle. In all fairness, he laughed about it and then began to run on his own around the van splashing in the puddles.

There was a calamity or two in all of this however. Boo started running around the van as well and after a few turns on the wet concrete, in cleats, she had a crash and skinned up one knee. This of course brought about an onslaught of tears and wails. Again, there is something about the innocence of an 8 year old, even in an instance such as this that touches my heart. As we were tending to Boo however, Little Bull continued to run and finally came running back toward the porch where he commenced to immediately slop on the saturated indoor/outdoor carpet and mud and fall right onto his booty, bumping his head on the sidewalk in the process. Through all of this Puck somehow managed to remain unscathed. I am happy to report that all injuries were minor and both injured parties seem to be resting comfortably at this time.

Well I guess that is all I have for now. It's a little longer than usual it seems, so I hope you will forgive my wordiness.

Peace, Grace and Love y'all.

Playoff Squared

Well we finished night #2 of our playoff run. I am proud to say that we are still in it at this point and playing tonight at 6:00 and if we win there we will play again at 7:30. So we have a possible double header going this evening.

Last night was fun really. Moma Wild Thing and I were far more in to it than we were the first night, but I guess that happens when you are on the winning side more easily than it does when you are on the other end of it. Boo moved to center field last night and played that spot pretty good. Of course there were no balls that were hit to center field, but if there had been I have no doubt she would have fielded them without a problem. On top of that she hit decently, 1-3 and scored a run. Her first two at-bats were just the opposite of what they were the night before: the first night she popped out and then got tagged out heading to first; last night she got tagged heading to first and then popped out.


Quick update on tonight: The games have been canceled it seems due to weather. So now I won't have an update until Thursday night at the latest. Regardless, last night (Tuesday) was a good game, and I am so very proud of Boo this year.

Peace, Grace & Love.

Playoff time

So Boo's coach pitch team has made it to the playoffs. Last night was our first game in Lindale and I must say it was an ugly affair. Our team, The Wildcats, lost to the Groovy Chix 15-5 in 3 innings. Like I said, it was ugly. In fact as I write this and reflect back on the game, I'm tempted to break out a chant of "U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi...You UGLY, yeah, You UGLY!!"

For whatever reason, we seemed to be playing a little bit tight. I would guess that it has to do with having a large number of girls who are between 7 and 9 years old and this being the first time that many of them have gotten to play in a situation like this. We had difficulty making our throws after fielding the ball it seemed and when we did make the throw we often had a hard time catching the ball. On top of that, our hitting was sketchy as well. We had a hard time getting the ball out of the infield.

Boo personally played as well as she could. She fielded the ball well and didn't really let anything past her. She got to bat twice, but both times she failed to get on base even though she did make contact each time. The first time was a little pop up right to the girl playing short stop who caught the ball, and the other time she made contact but was tagged out on the way to first.

We play again this evening and if we lose we are done (not an all together bad thing). The upside is that we are playing the other Quitman team, so at least we will know  some of the fans that we will be cheering against. I will let you know how it goes, maybe even tonight. Until then...

Peace, Grace, and Love y'all.

The All-Star, Far, Far Away, and Swimming

So, there is now an all-star in our family of Wild Things. Boo's team has made the all-stars for her age level in coach pitch softball. We are so very excited for her and the team. I'm very proud of her overall as well. I wasn't "that" dad (or parent) that kept detailed stats of all the games and how she did seeing as she is 8 and I would prefer that she just play because she is enjoying it rather than anything that I say or do. But she seemed to have a really good season as far as I could tell from watching her. She was able to get on base it seemed dang near every time she came up to bat, and in the field she did pretty good as well with it being her first time to actually be playing in the field for real. She had a few rough times, but overall she was solid I thought. I look forward to seeing what happens next week once the games start.

On a different note, I am away from home this week. Thankfully this is the first time that I have really been gone this summer. I am at our district church camp and I'm with a few friends from my West Texas days helping to direct the camp. I will be honest here, I enjoy doing camps and things like that, but it's getting harder and harder to get up for it especially when it means leaving my family at home. I know that God is going to show up this week, we have a great speaker and a good worship band as well. More than anything else, we have a group of students here who are excited about what God wants to do and ready and receptive to His Spirit. That doesn't make it any easier though to be away from my Wild Things. I know that Little Bull told his Momma that "Daddy is far, far away." Yesterday he took off to the office as soon as he woke up from his nap to find Daddy. It does cause my heart to break a bit when I hear those things.

Puck had her end of the year t-ball swimming party on this last Saturday. That was a great success as far as we could tell. They let the siblings swim and play as well, so that made it easier for all of us. Puck went down the slide, and loved it but had to have Daddy there at the bottom to catch her, which was interesting. Boo continues to get bigger and better in the pool as well. She went off the diving board a few times into the 12 foot end. I am amazed by my kids.

The Momma Wild Thing is a trooper. She is able to put up with me being gone and she doesn't complain about it. I'm proud and honored to get to call her my wife.

I guess that's it really. Hope you have a great week. I will try to let you know how our camp is going through out the week if I have a chance.

Until then Peace and Love y'all.

Sonny & Cher @ The Flap Jack and Knack Show

We had our first youth talent/variety show this evening. Two of the Wild Things were in it and both Boo and Puck did great with their songs. There was no stage fright for either one of them, so that was good. We did have one act that was got a great response. As you can see from the title, we had Sonny and Cher join us to perform their hit song from 1965 "I've Got You Babe". In case you need to see it to believe it, here is the video footage of this occurrence.



Overall, it was a great night. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and that was really the point to all of this anyway. Thanks for letting me share with you.

Peace and Love y'all.

Puck's Practice

I told you earlier that I would post a video of Puck practicing her song, "Tomorrow", for The Flapjack & Knack Show. Here she is doing her own rendition of the song. We are hoping that she will actually sing this for the show and we won't have to use this as the actual filler, but with Puck you just never know when the shy factor is going to step it up to 10.





Did you notice the "rock star" face that she made there at about the 1:05 mark? Classic. If she will actually sing this on Wednesday, that would be awesome, so here's hoping.

Peace and Love y'all.

Some Where Over the Rainbow

I know I haven't updated about the adventures of the Wild Things in a while. I will do that soon and let you know about vacation and all that good stuff. But today I wanted to share this video of Boo singing "Some Where Over the Rainbow" practicing for The Flapjack & Knack Show that the youth will be doing on Wednesday.





I thought that she did a pretty good job in this, but that could also be my daddy bias coming out. Also, there will be video coming of Puck practicing her song "Tomorrow" for Flapjack & Knack.

Peace and Love y'all.

Field Days, Memorial Day, Vents and Hide and Seek

So much to write about and update here. Where to start, where to start. I supposed that I will go in the order that things are listed in the title of this here blog.

Boo had her field day last Thursday. It was great to get to go and watch her do the various "events" that were going on. It made me remember what it was like when I was doing field days in school. It seems like our field days were a bit different though. We had more races and events that we could choose to enter, whereas Boo just did everything as a class, and there were fewer races. I remember doing things like the dizzy bat race, the wheelbarrow race, a dress-up race and just regular races such as the 50, 60, 70, and 80 yard dash. Boo had a sack race, a chase and tag relay, some class races, a slip-and-slide and some inflatable slides. Regardless of the differences, though she had a good time doing it all, and I enjoyed watching her.

Here are a few pictures of my fourth grade field day (we couldn't come up with any from second grade like Boo):

And one of Boo and her teacher, Mrs. Rushing, and me and my second grade teacher, Mrs. Jones:

Memorial Day was our next thing. Started it off by going to The Woodlands for a Texas Conference wide youth lock-in. Went pretty well, but could use a little tweaking for the future. We followed that up with a nice family game of baseball after I got home and got to rest a little bit. It was fun to see Puck and Little Bull "playing" baseball like the big kids. Little Bull already knows how to run the bases and even saw a need to slide into home at one point.

Tonight we had a couple of things that went on. As the female Wild Things were cleaning their room, and I was helping the male Wild Thing  pick up balls in his room, I noticed I could hear Puck through the vents in the floor. So I started calling her. Moma Wild Thing told her where I was calling her from, so she got down on the floor to talk to me. The first thing she wanted to know was how I got in the vents. A four year old's concept of how things like that work is so awesome.

And finally we played a little hide and seek tonight in the house. I was once again reminded that my Wild Things don't always really "seek" when it comes to finding things. I was hiding in Little Bull's room in his closet, and heard all three of them come in there a couple of times to look, but since I wasn't right there just standing in the middle of the room waiting to be found, they decided that I wasn't in that room. It wasn't until a little while later that it dawned on them to open the closet. My hope is that one of these days, they will be able to find things that are not in the middle of a barren floor with nothing around them. We shall see.

Well I believe that is enough for now.

Peace and Love y'all.

Working for the Weekend

So I thought that I should update about the weekend that we had. It was crazy busy and therefore felt very short as is the custom in the world of busy weekends. As I mentioned on Friday, we dropped the female Wild Things off at the grandparent Wild Things' house for a nice little over night stay while the youngest Wild Thing went with Roni and I to Camp Butman (West Texas, ahhh, home...) for a wedding.

The wedding went very well. There were only a couple of things that I happened to mess up. The first was to make up a new word- matrimonime- (if you can't figure out how to say that word never fear, it's not real anyway) and the second was while I was reading one of the scriptures. In Ephesians 5 Paul writes about the husband and wife relationship and goes on to explain how a husband leaves his mother and father and is joined to his wife. Yeah I misread a small portion of that, yet it is a portion that could really change things. I read that "for this reason a man will leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." That is basically how it should read. What I read was that a man will leave his wife and mother...good times.

Oh and I did learn that you can rent ties for things like this, which is awesome since I'm not good at tying ties. I got to hang out with Brent and Zac and it was a good wedding and a good trip.

Little Bull was supposed to be the ring bearer for this occasion, but on the big day, when his number was called, he chose not to step up and walk that aisle. Thank goodness we were not counting on him to get the actual rings to us. I do have to say that he looked pretty good though, as you can see:

Overall it was a great wedding day and I am glad to have gotten to be a part of it. It did make for a late night getting back into Quitman though. Which wouldn't be a big deal if not for the fact that we had to be up the next morning for church. But it all went well so I was glad. For our MYF time we had an end of the year party out at Chuck and Brenda Davis' house and got to take out their boat and another couple's boat and do some tubing and swimming. The youth all had a blast and that so makes it worth it to do what I do, even on short, packed weekends.

And then once all was said and done with the party, it was time to get home, put the Wild Things in bed and then settle down and watch the series finale of LOST (which both Roni and I enjoyed and is probably worthy of it's very own post at a later date). So there you have it, that was our weekend. I hope you had a good weekend as well.

Peace and Love y'all.

Put Me In Coach and Rings

Boo had a softball game last night. They won 15-3 I believe and she played pretty well. Puck was supposed to have played, but it rained so her game got canceled. That however, did not stop them from playing the t-ball field during Boo's game. The only problem was that when it came time for there to be an actual game on that field, Little Bull didn't want to leave. When we got him off the field, he still insisted on being in the dugout. He was ready to get in the game and contribute if he could.

Despite the fact that he was ready and willing, he was not called upon to do anything. That's OK, it wasn't his team anyway.

This weekend Roni and I are dropping off the two female Wild Things with Mom and Dad while we take the smallest Wild Thing to Camp Butman with us for a wedding. He is going to be the ring bearer...so we will see. I will try to update after the wedding and let you know how everything went. Until then...Peace and Love y'all.

Date Night, Songs and Sticks

This should actually be better as a possible guest post from the Wild Things' babysitters for tonight. After all they are the ones who actually got to deal with them. Because the Moma and I were on a date! That's right we went on a date and it wasn't a birthday or anniversary or any other kind of holiday, it was just Saturday and we decided to go on a date. We went and saw the Quitman Community Theater's production of Moon Over Buffalo. I have to say it was a very funny play, in particular the second scene of the second act. We had a great night though and it was nice to be able to get out of the house and be just the two of us. I love my Wild Things, but there are times you just have to have a date with the wife. To commemorate the experience we even took pictures:

We look like we are getting ready to be part of the cast of The Biggest Loser: Couples Date Night. But the Moma wanted a different pose so we went back-to-back. It works.

Got to have lunch today with the rest of the office staff and meet our soon to be new pastor, Dick White and his wife JoAn. They seem to both be really very excited about moving here and I am ready as well. I think it will be a good, smooth, easy transition from Ken to Dick.

Speaking of Ken, tomorrow is his going away party after the 11:00 service. As part of the party those of us who were in the dinner theater cast for "Murder, Mayhem and Marshmallow Salad" will be roasting Ken after the meal. I'm not gonna lie, this should be a lot of fun. I do hope that Ken appreciates it and knows that it is all done out of love for him.

Finally the girl Wild Things have been working on a couple of songs for our upcoming talent show and pancake dinner fund raiser. Puck is going to sing "Tomorrow" (we hope) and Boo is going to be performing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." For the last couple of days now I have had the song "Tomorrow" lodged in my brain from listening to it online as Puck tries to learn it. Right now she sings the words that she knows and then kind of mumbles through the words that she doesn't know. Boo on the other hand seems to be trying to add her own stylistic twist to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and that seems to throw off her timing. No worries though as I'm sure we will get it all worked out before the actual time for the show.

Well I believe that is all that is really going on as of late. Little Bull is simply being a two year old boy. He has started throwing all the balls over the fence in the backyard and then looking at me like he can't believe what just happened. Other than that he is having a fantastic time tormenting his sisters and hitting them with sticks. So things are pretty normal for him. I hope that all of you have a fantastic day tomorrow (Sunday) and that if you have a place where you worship that you will have a great time of worship there. Peace and Love y'all.

Weights, Aspirin, and T-ball

It hurts to move very much right now.

I started the day in the gym on the treadmill. Honestly it felt good to run this morning. Maybe my brain just wasn't awake yet, I don't know, but the 2 1/2 miles that I was able to run was nice. Granted the scenery doesn't exactly change on a treadmill, but oh well. After that (and this is why it hurts to move now and will probably be worse in the morning) I decided to do some weight training. I did a quick dumb bell work out that included lunges (my knees were not exactly happy with me), push-ups, squat and shrugs, curl and presses, some rows and some dead lift. All combined it took about 10 minutes to do. Now because of that it will take me that long to be able to move out of bed in the morning. Thank goodness there is aspirin in the house.

Puck had yet another game this of t-ball evening, and once again they "won" the game. In fact if they had counted outs (they don't in case you missed it the first time I wrote about this) we would have done pretty well. Granted we were playing a team that was predominantly 3 year olds, but it's the small things in life like that really. Puck did really well once again and hit the ball very well and even chased down and fielded a couple of grounders. She even avoided running over a couple of little boys from the other team that were in the base path playing with the chalk and picking flowers.

Boo had a long practice tonight: 2 hours. Puck's game ended and we still had to wait an hour for Boo to get done. Pretty boring stuff.

Little Bull spent the day terrorizing his Mama and be a true Wild Thing, and even carried that on into tonight.

But right now, in this moment, it is quiet but for the tapping of the keys on the keyboard. Roni is sleeping behind me, the girls are sound asleep on the bottom bunk and the boy is out like a light in his own bed. So now that I have popped my pill, given you useless information about this day, and turned off all TVs and light, I shall join my family in sleep.

Peace and Love y'all.

Discipline

I was reminded of a story tonight that happened a couple of years ago actually. As I was watching the Spurs and Suns this evening, Little Bull was sitting and watching with me. He loves to watch sports at this point, which I think is great, even if it is at times intended to keep him from having to go to bed. So we were watching tonight and there came a time in the game where one of teams took a time out to stop and slow things down and regain their composure.

During the stoppage Bull asked about the game stopping, so I told him that it was because of a time out. So he repeated that in his 2 1/2 year old voice and way of talking. It was at this point that this story came rushing back to me.

I don't know about anyone else out there, but we use a variety of practices when it comes to discipline with our children. We are not opposed to spanking (it was used on me and I have turned out alright as far as I can tell at this point), but more often than not we use the time out corner. This was brought into focus a couple of years ago just how much we may have used time out as a form of discipline when I was watching a basketball game that went to a time out.

One of the female Wild Things that lives with us asked about the game and I told her that they had called a time out. And she looked at me with all seriousness and asked me "What did they do to get in trouble?"

Peace and Love y'all.

Jesus is Sad

This is what I learned this morning from Puck. And it seems that the reason that He is sad is because of me. That's right, according to Puck I have caused Jesus great sadness this morning...by not giving her a drink of the milk that was left in my bowl after finishing my Reese's Puffs. This is what has made Jesus sad today. No doubt I have caused Him great sorrow and sadness in the past and I will again in the future, yet this is the first that I have heard about Him being sad over cereal milk. Maybe Puck has a more direct line to His feelings than I do.

He is also sad because of Little Bull. I think Puck's exact quote to him was: "You know Jesus, the Jesus in your heart? He's sad for you too, because you pushed me."

So just in case you aren't feeling like your prayers are getting through to Jesus today, well now you know it is because he is doubly sad at the Durham males here where the Wild Things are. So, yeah, sorry about that. Peace and Love y'all.

1-0, 6-6, and All White

Well I guess I should update about Puck and her first ever foray into organized sporting events, as well as a bit about Boo's second softball game.

Puck's team "won" she informed us after the game, which is great I suppose for her to think that. I don't know maybe we should feel bad for letting her think that. I mean after all, it is developmental t-ball. Everyone bats, everyone crosses home plate, there are no outs, and they don't actually keep score. So really, technically the score was like 20-20 and the commissioner decided to let the game end a tie. The main thing though is that Puck had a blast getting to play. I guess one of these days she will know what's really up with it, but for now, well no sense is bursting the 4-year-old "I'm the winner" bubble.

Tonight Boo had her second game. I have to say that it didn't go quite as swimmingly as the one on Monday night. Our team played the team from Raines this evening and I do believe that we tasted defeat for the first time. Boo played pretty well, but we a nervous moment with her in the first inning. We were a player down tonight so she ended up starting the game at first base, which is a place that she has never played before, not even in practice. She was nervous going into the game and then she's in a place where she has never played before and so that added to it.

Well early in the inning a ball was hit to the middle infield and the fielder got it and threw it to Boo. She missed it and it rolled past her and to the fence. Instead of turning and running to get the ball like she normally would, she kind of hung out there at the base like she didn't know it was up to her to go and get the ball. After the play ends though, the first base coach goes and gets the ball for her, and then starts walking toward home and is motioning for one of our coaches to come over. The next thing we know all our coaches are headed that way and are around Boo helping her to walk back across the field to the dugout. Turns out that she got really dizzy and her vision went all white and her stomach was hurting, and she got close to fainting out there.

Her Moma of course hurried out of the stands and into the dugout and they got her a nice cool, wet towel and got her cooled down and calmed down (from the nerves) and she was fine. In fact she went up to bat fairly early on in the inning and got another hit (she had three more hits tonight which brings her total up to 6 and makes her 6-6 batting so far this season). When she went back out in the field she got moved back over to shortstop where she has been playing in practice and did pretty well the rest of the game. It was a little bit of a tense moment though at first. Of course, the Moma has lots of experience with the whole passing out thing, so it's good she was there to sit with her. I'm going to post a couple of pictures here from Boo's first game this past Monday.

Tomorrow will be yet another adventure with The Wild Things I'm sure. Peace and Love y 'all.

Sacred Cows

We were headed out this morning to distribute our bunnies for our fund raiser when we passed a field with a small herd of cows. It just so happened that there was a group of them all standing together as we passed. When we did, Puck informed about what was actually going on with that group.

Puck- "Those cows are having a meeting."

Moma- "Really? What are they talking about?"

Puck- "Jesus."

It made me wonder, would that make those sacred cows?

Peace and Love y'all.

First Game(s)

Tonight was the night. Boo had her first coach pitch softball game in Alba and her team did great. They won the game by virtue of the 10 run rule, 13-3. In the game Boo went 3-3 with a couple of RBIs and scored a couple of runs as well. I was a proud daddy for sure.

Tomorrow will be Puck's first game EVER. She will be playing T-ball and I'm sure that if nothing else it will very interesting. She will be in the developmental league so there are basically no rules for her. There are no outs, and everyone gets a chance to bat every time. When they field the ball, well it's more about running after the person that hit it than it is about trying to throw them out. All I know is that it's going to be very interesting to watch.

I guess that Roni was "told" tonight (though not exactly directly) that it was rather cruel to strap the leash/backpack on Little Bull. This did not sit well with the Wild Momma, and she casually mentioned that perhaps if the person who felt this was so cruel was the one having to chase Little Bull all over the place they might feel differently about the backpack/leash. Have I mentioned how much I love my wife and her good natured sassyness? All in all it was a good day, and I look forward to tomorrow and more time and adventures with The Wild Things. Peace and Love y'all.

A Wild Thing Under (Plexi)Glass

Saw this picture and had to share it of our littlest Wild Thing. I just thought it "fit" with the idea and name of The Wild Things. Peace and Love y'all.

Ultimate Frisbee

My knees are sore tonight.

So is one foot, and I'm sure my back will be a bit that way in the morning. It's like I'm breaking down or something. That's OK though, it's worth it tonight. We played Ultimate Frisbee tonight for our youth time and it was great fun. It had been too long really. It doesn't matter that my team lost the game 10-6 and actually blew a 3-0 lead. We had 9 kids for a Sunday night and we had fun. I'm looking forward to more things like this.

Except for the aches and pains after the fact. I don't look forward to those.

Peace and Love y'all.

Wild Kingdom

Yesterday we went to Dinosaur Valley Park in Glen Rose. Great place to go and take the Wild Things, mainly because it is outside and gives them a chance to be out and about and use up some energy. Also it's pretty cheap, $5 for adults and kids 12 and under are free, so that's what I'm talking about you know?

One of the cool things about the park is the fact that there are actual dinosaur tracks there that you can see and take pictures of...or in.

These prints are cool for sure, but not quite as cool as the prints that are at the water's edge a little further into the park. Then of course there is the Paluxy River that runs through the valley and it is easily crossed to find tracks on the opposite bank. Of course the rocks are a little slick with moss so you have to be careful or else you end up like Boo and Puck:

Millions of years of history to experience here and I'm pretty sure that the thing they enjoyed the most was the playground.

Overall though we had a really good time, and Roni even cound some bluebonnets to make us all sit in and take pictures.

Peace and Love y'all.

Brotherly Love

Sweet. Affectionate. Loving.

There are few things that, as a parent, make our hearts swell more than seeing and hearing your children be this way with each other. These are precious moments and I cherish them when they come along.

Today we had one of those moments on our trip back from Glen Rose. Puck and Little Bull were in their seats in the middle section of the van when Roni saw them being this very loving to each other. She was listening to the sweet words Puck was saying to her baby brother.

Leaning in toward one another, heads together, her hands hugging his head Puck doing the talking.
Puck: "I love you too much...Ughh, stop picking my boogers!"

Yes these are the moments we live for with the Wild Things. Peace and Love y'all.

Long Days and Wild Things at Rest

It has been a long day it seems like. I had a camp curriculum meeting with Virgil in Canton starting at 9:00 this morning. It went well and we were able to get a few things done (or at least get started on the road toward the direction we are going for me). Got home about 2:45 and then had to do more camp stuff. Looks like we are going to have at least 7 campers this year so that's awesome really. Only problem is that to get the early bird rate I have to have things postmarked by tomorrow...or it's an extra $25...and there was no one around that could write a check for me today, and they were both supposed to be gone tomorrow. Tried to call two of the other directors and the registrar to find out what to do and couldn't get anyone. Thankfully our financial guy said he would come cut me a check in the morning. Now I just need to to be sure everyone gets their forms actually in so they can be mailed tomorrow.

Boo had her first scrimmage tonight as well...from 7:30-9:20(ish)...bedtime for the Wild Things is usually between 8:00 and 8:30. Very full day for the Wild Things...but they went down without too much of a fight. Puck maintained her routine and was up and down about 3 times, but what would a night be without that right?

Now it's quiet in the kingdom and there is peace, at least for a few more hours, and then we will begin again with school and Dora in the morning and practice in the evening and a trip to Gra'maw's and Dinosaur Valley Park. And the Wild Things will run wild and will (hopefully) tire themselves out and then there will once again be rest and peace and quiet. Peace and Love y'all.