Chloe Elizabeth

This little girl is Lo-Lo. She is goofy, energetic, funny and fun, testing (not in a rebellious way but in a curious way), and joyful. She enjoys the thought of one day being a mommy, just like her mommy. She is a sponge, absorbs everything that overflows from her mommy and daddy's cup. When we get excited about something so does she, when we get worried about something so does she. All children absorb what their parents give them, even though we don't notice it sometimes, but this little girl has no governor for her absorber. That's not always bad and it's not always good. May the LORD use her open heart and enthusiastic spirit to the working of his glory!

Hunter Douglas:

Code Name: HD, Bear, and to those closest to him.... Snuggles.
Vital Stats:
Eyes: Sky Blue
Hair: Blonde, Curly
Height: 3' 6"
Weight: 35lbs
D.O.B.: 11.13.2005
Favorite Color:....Camo
Favorite Food:.... Yes
Blood Type: Mostly Sugar

Operation Spud Launcher!

Our mission: Assemble a class 3, Idaho model, Spud Launcher (model # 0001), to be used in the defense of our HQ from forces invading in from the east.












Phase 1: Acquire materials.

• 1 foot 3" pvc pipe
• 4 feet 1.5" pvc pipe
• 1 reducer. 3" to 1.5"
• 1 slip to female thread transition piece 3"
  
• 1 male thread plug to fit 3"
• pvc pipe cement
• 1 lantern flint
• 1 10# bag of Spuds
• rubbing alcohol or hairspray

Phase 2: Assembly

1. Cut 1' off of the 1.5" pipe, this will be your spud cutter.
2. Join 3" pvc with the 3' of the 1.5" pvc using the reducer.
3. Attach the transition piece to the end of the 3" pipe
4. drill a hole large enough to feed the lantern flint through without it going all the way through. Firmly fasten the flint into position.

Phase 3: Defend the home front
After securely fastening the pvc with pvc cement, and cutting some Spud grenades, remove the three inch plug from the butt of the Spud Launcher, add rubbing alcohol or hairspray, fasten plug back on tightly, aim away from all friendlies (this includes neighbors houses and pets) and activate flint. (Warning: Should only be done under the supervision of a Comanding Officer, Mom & Dad)

Dreary days of fall.

I personally don't like the fall, I always hear the optimists talk about the beautiful changing colors of the trees and migrating birds and talk about how it's just sooo beautiful.... I live in the middle of Illinois, miles and miles of wasteland cornfields, stubble from the crop that once painted the road sides brilliant green and gold. Now I got semi's driving by my house all day and all night, I got the grain elevators with their driers humming all night long, I got a three story grain pile sitting on the roadside, I've got damp piles of leaves, that I don't ever remember them changing colors, piled up in my front yard. By the time I get home from work it's dark out already, it just seems that I miss the day every day. I've always had this kind of disdain for the fall but there is one thing I do like about the fall... and that's the winter that follows. See I like the cold, I love the snow, I love being able to go out side at midnight and it still be bright out from the moon shimmering off the snow. I love shoveling snow, I love helping get peoples cars out of ditches, sometimes if the circumstances are right I even like getting stuck in ditches. I like the slick roads and having to drive carefully, I like scraping ice off my windows in the morning, I even like waking up in the middle of the night freezing because the fire died down. I have no idea why I can enjoy winter so much and loath the fall. Everything just seems to be dieing in the fall, corrupted and decaying. The winter brings snow, clean white snow, it covers the smelly decaying scarlet leaves, the mud ruts from the tractors, and the brown grass and wilted flowers.

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Even so, LORD come quickly....

We may have a new president, but God is still on the throne and whether we understand what is going on or not his will shall be done. Plus, Obama can't be any worse than the rulers of Christ's day, remember what happened with the Church in those days. There are several major issues that Obama is wanting to allow swift approval for that we should be in prayer for. One is a lift on all bans concerning abortion, another is the hate crimes bill that will make witnessing very hard and preaching about sin even harder, and there is also a bill coming up called the fairness doctrine that will mandate opposing views on talk shows and radio shows. So your favorite conservative radio show host will have to share his time with a left winger, or your favorite christian broadcasting station will have to share time with athiests, muslims, or scientologists. We as christians are to be anxious for nothing, and I'd have to say I'm not scared so much as I am excited. In our weakness his strength is made perfect!

Lil' Momma

Chloe made this dish for a cook out last Saturday. This picture doesn't say the half of how excited she was. I'm going to have to start eating twice as much just to keep her and my wife encouraged about their cooking!

I've been encouraged!

I almost called it quits on my air conditioning business. I've had a few jobs go bad, everyone told me I would, and I've lost a bunch of money... well it's a bunch to me anyway. I was going to let a few of my warranty jobs run out then cancel my insurance and call it a day. I get discouraged easy when I make a mistake doing a job, or when it takes longer than I thought, or when I don't make the profit that I thought. Well last week a brother called me up and asked me to do a job that I bid for him... a year ago. I told him I'd really rather not and tried to get out of it the best I could but he insisted that I do it. He really wanted me to do it. We worked out the details and I took it. This time though I decided I wasn't going to let myself get stressed out, I decided I was going to take my time and most important... Take my son along. Gage, age 8, came with me all three days of this job. He helped me and encouraged me through all of it, I also decided to have a friend from church help out. I learned two important things this weekend.
1st remember why I started HVAC in the first place. One day me and my sons may have a business that supports two generations. I want to be able to work along side of my boys! Fully self employed with 2 or 3 or 4 or more employees, how ever many boys we have! With a support staff of a loving wife and daughters back at the office! That's something to stick through the stress for.
2nd don't be afraid to ask for help. My son was a huge help to me, just having him around kept my stress level down, plus I wouldn't work myself too late into the night with him there (know when to call it a day). Also, my helper from church saved me at least two days of labor at the job site. He was a hard worker and very resourceful.

Pride... The barer of anger...

One more quick post for the day. I've posted before on a character quality that I'm trying to improve on in my life. Humility. Well one of the things I have to overcome in order to show humility would be pride and it's products one of which is anger. I never thought of my self of being prideful until I searched for humility in my life. Well for the past several weeks the LORD has been working in me for this goal. For me to be humble though I need to allow myself to be "subdued" to the will of GOD. Well pride doesn't allow you to be subdued, pride resists, pride claims authority. Well I've been doing ok in this, my wife and I are enjoying a more open relationship because of this realization that my wants and will are not meant to be a control over my wifes wants and will. Pride would say "me first" and "who is she to tell me". Humility allows room for her to be what God made her to be, my help meet. Anyway, the guys at the rehab clinic would call this a relapse... There was an incident last week, notice I didn't put this on my blessings post from a couple of hours ago, where pride came rolling back in but in a new way that I wasn't prepared for. It happened Friday afternoon, I got home early and was really tired. I had been working allot of overtime and have been running around trying to get our facility in shape for a semiannual inspection. So when I got home I was really wanting to rest. About every other Friday there is an auction here in town, we like to go usually but I was beat. So I let Jamie go by herself and I was going to "watch" the kids. I say "watch" because I was going to let Gage watch them in his room while I lounged around and rested. Well I never could take a nap but I tried. Chloe, bless her heart, was so excited about taking care of daddy again that she would ask every so often if she could go cook supper. Finally she came out one too many times for this proud man and I got testy with her and she went back to her brothers room, shutting the door behind her... I want to stop here and state that this is where I should have repented but didn't... The door closed with some force but not like she was meaning to. One thing though... It closed soundly on Rissy's finger. The sound of the door closing with the screeching of pain from our lil' one scared me... my first thought was that she lost a finger. PRIDE. I had no control over the situation and it scared me, I was scared angry. I wasn't really mad at Chloe, she didn't know or mean too. I was angry because an authority my pride created in me had been insulted and ignored. Of course I don't have control over that kinda thing, it's not my authority to decide whether or not a child's hand is in a door at that specific time. But my pride said it should be, and it produced an anger in me that scared my children to tears. This isn't all bad though, while I may have failed in how I responded to that situation, I immediately sought forgiveness from my children individually, told them where daddy failed and that it wasn't their fault. A few months ago my pride would have claimed my angry outburst as a victory and moved on. Growing into the Image of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-15

I could do this more often!

I haven't got to do this with the lil' one for months and months. This is me and "Rissy". She's such a prissy momma's girl and rarely wants to snuggle with daddy. She's going to be a girly girl, which is great, but I thank God for flu's and pink eye. Poor Rissy roo got pink eye over the weekend. This is day two. She just wasn't feeling good and wanted rescued.... In comes Daddy The Rescuerer! Some things take a momma's touch and some things take the comfort of a pappa. Praise GOD this took a pappa! We were laying on the couch in front of the fire cozy as can be. Side note, two full days and a night is all it took for her to get over the pink eye. We used an herbal rinse to clean her eyes, and applied warm tea bags to help sooth and cleanse.

Living Witness!

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