Back from Florida…

Some pics from our trip to Florida…

Finding old music…

Just found a great dance remix version of “Waiting for a Star To Fall” on iTunes – wishing I could breakdance like I used to.

Conference Track meet…

These words (in my post title) make my heart jump.  Years ago, I would have never known just how much joy, fulfillment, excitement, and passion could come out of me in coaching track and specifically coaching at this particular track meet.  I have been blessed in recent years to have coached at two different schools who both compete in one of the strongest athletic conferences in the state of Missouri.

Today was that track meet.  I had only six girls competing (we are a team in a building stage and did not qualify many girls for the event finals today).  However five of those six girls set personal records today.  I cried.  I cried also when, as an official hand-timer, I had  – race after race – girls from my former team finish in the place I was timing, so I got to go out on the track and chat with them as I reported their time to the finish clerk.  I also cried today when one parent came up to me today and thanked me for coaching track.  He said his daughter was having the “thrill of her life” and loving every moment of the track experience.  This could not have been more impacting as I have recently been missing my former team terribly and wondered if my current squad was buying into the program I am trying to establish.  I see a glimmer of hope.

Lastly, find the song “This is Home” by Switchfoot and listen to it, buy it, love it.  Watch “Facing the Giants” a few hundred times.  Consume a vanilla bean frappaccino from Starbucks.  Enjoy life.

Our God is good…

Surprise visit…

My sister and her husband contacted us this morning saying that they were coming through town on their way to Nashville.  We were able to dine with them and had such a fun time!

AWANA Games…

Here are videos of our two boys in their “AWANA Games” competitions – this was a very fun day!

Recent Pics…

Here are some recent pics.  Andrew singing in church, homeschooling books/projects, playing on the trampoline…

Cold day…

Ended up having one flag FB game today before the rest of the games were cancelled.  I’ve been out in the freezing cold for the past 1.5 hours – nasty spring weather.

Spring Break…

I have been enjoying a week of spring break this past week.  St. Louis has had nice weather for the most part, though some strong winds on Tuesday caused me to take down the enclosure on our trampoline as (even with 240-pound sandbags) I felt the thing was susceptible to blowing over.  I had one blow over and across the street last summer – now very paranoid.

We went hiking on Monday at a local state park, shot some BB in our driveway on Tuesday (really everyday this week), did one day of work on Wednesday, and reattached the trampoline enclosure on Thursday for it to get much usage the remainder of the week – which it did.

Today, I am quite happy for the rain as it is likely the boys’ flag FB games will be cancelled (what if they are not??  Ugh!!) – we have a busy day as it is.  The boys are participating in the AWANA Games.  AWANA is a kids ministry we attend on Wednesday nights.  Years ago, I participated in the AWANA Games (used to be called the AWANA Olympics until copyright controversy as I understand it).  If fact, a great friend of mine would tell you he has had a recurring pain in his ankle (or was it knee?) from these activities we did each year up until 8th grade – he calls it the “AWANA injury” and he mentioned it all through his high school sports career and beyond.  He was actually a great athlete – how good would he have been without???

Regardless, I hope our boys do not sustain such an injury today.  I really look forward to the events today – caught a glimpse of the beanbag race at the practice last night.  I’m not sure what is neat about watching a kid try to walk/run around a 30-foot diameter circle while balancing a beanbag on his head, but it was wonderfully cute.

Of course, while on Spring Break, I hoped to read a book – HA, stupid me.  I did get a few pages into a book on the Korean War which looks very good.  I know next to nothing about the Korean War (which is partly the premise of the book).  The book argues that the Korean War POWs have been given an unfair label as wimps or traitors in comparison to the abundant heroic American POW stories from WWII.  Thus, the US climate/populace has given the Korean War very low respect and attention.

More interesting, while examining this misrepresentation of the Korean War POWs, the book appears it will venture into an examination of how our culture changed from WWII to the Korean War, what expectations we had of our young men, and what values we instill in our children.  I will let you know if I think it is a worthwhile read – may take a while.

Lastly, we are supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tonight, but this is much less than areas west of here – slightly bizarre early-spring storm.  Oh well, will just have to hunker down and watch NCAA BB tourney!

Take care.

Just so you know…

(I always have to go back and soften my outbursts…)

Regardless of whether this country swings further toward socialism or back toward capitalism (or someday toward who knows where???)…the story of the world is that it is God’s.  I wish to live in it faithfully as He writes its story.  This is not my journey, but His.

The case for Socialism…

It occurred to me last night as I boiled with frustration over the current policies coming out of Washington that Socialism works when you have a population of citizens who don’t know and/or don’t care…I am quite afraid that is the United States today.

Just so you know (here is a simple analogy): President B.O. has found a pile of money (US tax revenues) and, rather than paying down debt (a proven method to grow wealth), he is loading it all into a long shot penny stock (a stupid risk to grow wealth).  While once in a million times this turns out OK, history has proven the overwhelming amount of time it does not.  The great majority of Americans would never do this with their own finances.  Yet, we are happy to see the proven criminals and failures in Washington go after this on our behalf.  Yippee!!  Go get ‘em guys!

Just so you might care: President B.O. is not only being financially fanatical, his administration is using this crisis to further the reach of government.  Do you really want the government to be able to decide if a business is financially sound enough to do this and do that?  Do you really want the government to decide how much in bonuses CEOs, employees, etc., should be paid?  Do you really want the government to levy a 90% tax rate on executives simply because we are all emotional and angry?  I hate the bailout abuse and greedy CEOs more than anyone, but do I want government to get its grubby, corrupt fingers into these aspects of life and business?  Not at all.

Please wake up America, I have kids that I love dearly…