The Big 2 and New Info about Dental Health

So the Little Man turned 2 today. It is hard to believe that this time two years ago, I had welcomed my son into the world. Time has gone by so fast. There have been such crazy changes in that time it's unbelievable almost. We went from being in a "big" church to no church (or ministry job) to living with parents (hard to do as a family of 5) and working for a scaffolding company, to being in a smaller church that has a big heart and loves us and all our children a great deal. God has blessed us in these last two years.

So they say that this is the age where the child begins to want to assert themselves a bit more and they get to be a bit more of a challenge, thus it is dubbed the "Terrible Twos" (honestly, I'm not sure why it is plural). With the girls, this didn't start really until the year after at 3. With the boy, well lets just say he got the memo early about asserting his independence.

It has been so different having him around. He is just something else. A few weeks ago he got me up about 4:30 in the morning and took me to the living room. Once we were there, he turned on the TV, which happened to be tuned to ESPN, and started watching the replay of Boise State and Tulsa from earlier that evening. About a week ago he took me to the living room about 5:30ish. I tried to get him to lay on the couch with me to go back to sleep, but he wasn't having it. Instead, he directed me to the kitchen, had me get him a Pop Tart and some juice, and then and sat on the couch and turned on SportsCenter. He is quite the little man.

I can't imagine my life without him now at this point. He is a very special little boy to his Moma and I as well as to his sisters. We love him very much, and are so happy to get to celebrate two years of him being a part of this family.

Now onto the new info about dental health. For those of you who don't know, I have a tooth that is discolored. The reason for this is the fact that as a Freshman in high school I had it broken in half one day at basketball practice. It has never really been the same colorwise since that day. I have come to terms with this. It seems however that it is something that stands out to young kids. Puck as of late seems to have noticed this. Tonight, as we lay on the couch trying to get her to go to sleep, she started telling me about teeth a bit. Mainly she informed me that if people drink lemonade, that will turn their teeth yellow...like my tooth that I have. So glad to know that that is the reason that the tooth is discolored, it is simply from all the lemonade that I drink. So remember, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but realize that if you drink that lemonade, it will turn your teeth yellow. I guess that is chance you have to be willing to take. Peace and Love y'all.

The Greatness of Metallica

So I was walking over to the house today around lunch time and the guys at the construction site had the radio going. The song that was playing was "The Memory Remains" by Metallica. Now, I have only owned one CD by Metallica ever in my life, but it was a disc that I really enjoyed. As I was walking and and listening to the song playing, I got to thinking about a few things that I have been informed that Metallica helped to inspire. So this of course got me thinking and wondering what else they may have influenced. So I decided to make a list. Here you go.

1)The Faux-hawk- That's right, believe it or not I have been informed that the fauxhawk was inspired by James Hetfield, the lead singer. I think it was on a day when he had really bad hat hair combined with some serious static electricity. True story.

2) The chin only gotee- Again Mr. James Hetfield is responsible for this look. After being burned in a pyrotechnics accident he grew out only his chin hair to cover the scarring. On a side note, the three little pigs would like to dispute this, claiming they had the look first by the hair of their chinny, chin chin.

3) The Beatles- I know!! It seems that Metallica is so incredible that they once traveled back in time in order to help a little band from Liverpool get their start.

4) The Titanic- Though the great ship was not directly inspired or influenced by the band, had they been aboard on April 15, 1912 they would surely have been able to prevent the great ships sinking by their mere presence.

5) A Cure for cancer, AIDS and the eradication of the H1N1 flu- In the future scientists will discover the cure for these and many other diseases simply by playing all of Metallica's albums backwards. Tipper Gore really was on to something.

6) Mythology- The ancient gods were actually based on the band members of Metallica.

7) The Book of Revelation- It was actually a glimpse of a Metallica show that John saw.

8) Chuck Norris- He had to be inspired somewhere along the line to be as awesome as he is right?

9) The American Revolution- And you thought it was just taxation without Representation...we've already talked about the Metallica time machine.

10) The extinction of the dinosaurs- They just really rock that hard man...and there is that time machine again.

There you have it. My list of things that Metallica is somehow linked to. Peace and Love y'all.

The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield

Have you ever wondered where Guinness got its start? That is the question that author Stephen Mansfield seeks to answer in his "biography of the beer that changed the world." This is not simply the story of a great beer , but of the family behind it that believed it to be their duty and calling to use their wealth to make a radical difference in the world in which they live.

I will admit that for me, the majority of my knowledge of the Guinness brand of beer came from the animated figures the Guinness brew masters dancing and eating hot wings and exclaiming things to be "brilliant!" This year however is the 250th anniversary of what Arthur Guinness began in Dublin, Ireland at the St. James's Gate Brewery. This piqued my interest in where and how this all got started.

For a non-beer person, I found it hard to put this book down as I delved into the story of Arthur and those who followed him. Not only did the family brew a beer that changed their world, they were committed to doing what they could to follow the will of God and to serve him. Mansfield takes his readers through the 250 years of history of a beer company and makes it interesting and intriguing even to those who know very little about the subject. It is inspiring to learn of a family and a business that is committed to more than simply making a profit. Many businesses today could learn from the Guinness business model and do well with it.

This was a book that I found hard to put down as I read and would gladly recommend it to others. For those who know and enjoy Guinness already this is a worthwhile read to expand your knowledge, and for those who, like me, know very little of the beer, it is a great book for learning not just about the beer, but about what a family dedicated to using wealth righteously can do to change the world.

You Decide

I don't really know how I want to start this particular blog. In fact, I'm not even 100% sure that I know what this is really going to be about. I have a couple of thoughts floating around in my brain like drift wood in the gutter after a thunderstorm has swept through. I have been thinking though and that is where this has all started.

I've been thinking about the difference in some of my friends. I have a couple of friends that have made changes to their belief systems. Both were people that, when I was in more regular and constant contact with them, were deeply devoted to following and serving Jesus. Now, I can't say that really about either one. One is now an agnostic and the other is...well I'm not sure. Both however have turned their backs on what they once professed to believe. One is the child of a pastor and one was once a campus ministry intern, youth pastor and missionary.

I have questions for them, and yet at this point they remained unasked. I want to know what it was that brought about the changes in their lives, what made them turn their backs on that which they once professed to believe so strongly. What kind of experience did they have that led them to this place and point in their lives. These are the things that I would like to know, to help me understand.

I mention this because I was thinking about one of my cousins today. He and his wife were supposed to have their first baby this coming February, and yet have found out that there is something wrong, that the baby, a girl, has a rare disorder which will steal life from her and joy from her expectant parents.

I mention this because I have a friend who lost his baby boy only minutes after he was born. He held him in his arms for mere moments before he was gone, back to eternity, back to the arms of Jesus.

I mention this because I have other friends who have gone through multiple attempts to start a family and have just now in the last few months seen this hope of blessing come to pass.

I mention this because through all of these experiences, the faith of these people has been shaken no doubt, but it has remained. They have chosen to lean further into the arms of Jesus for comfort and peace (even when it seemed that they would not find it, even there)...they have not turned away.

In this end I believe that it comes down to a choice that we make. This thing we call faith, it is a choice that we make. And the thing about it is, we must make this choice each and every day, to walk with Jesus, trusting in him and in God, believing that even when there seems to be no obvious evidence of his presence in our surroundings and situations, that he is there. We choose to believe, even when God is silent in our lives.

It is a daily choice that we make. It is a choice that we make not only in the times when things are good and easy. No, we must make the choice even on the days when it seems that all hope is lost, or was never there in the first place.

Joshua 24:15 says to "choose this day whom you will serve." As I have thought about that I see that everyday is "this day" and we must choose whom it is we will serve. There will always be times that are good and there will always be times that are hard or even seem impossible. We must choose each day whom we will serve. Will it be God, even in the times that he seems to be silent? Or will we choose to serve our circumstances and situations and bow before them and let them lead and guide us through the day?

Hebrews 11:1 says that "Faith is be sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we can not see." Will we choose each day that sureness and certainty, or will we choose to fall away into hopelessness and uncertainty? The choice is ours. Peace and Love y'all.

4 Years and Counting

So Wednesday was Puck's 4th birthday. That simply floors me to think about. She is such a wonderful, beautiful, sweet, funny little girl. I really truly honestly can't imagine my life without my Puck. She makes us laugh all the time and she is so sweet. I know this seems to be getting mushy, but dude, it's my baby girl, what do you expect?

Ok so in honor of her birthday, here are a few Puck stories that I thought about.

1) Wednesday afternoon she asked me what it was that I had done with the handle to her Littlest Pet Shop wagon that she had brought into the living room. I told her that I hadn't done anything with it. She then informed me that I had taken off the handle to her wagon-and I am quoting here- "Duh!"

2) Before I started writing this tonight I went in her's and Boo's room and said a prayer over the two of them while they were sleeping. As I turned on the bathroom light so I would be able to avoid tripping over who knows what and walked to the bed I noticed something about Puck. As my baby girl was sleeping there with no blanket and curled into a ball, her hand was once again stuck down the back of her shorts. Even in her sleep she seems to have a fascination with her booty.

3) I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but she has a saying when she toots. When asked what she should say she responds by saying "Excuse me booty" as though she has just done something to offend that area of her anatomy.

4) The girl talks more than any human I have ever met. From the moment she wakes up she begins talking. It is as though she has been storing up all the words through the night and her little brain can no longer contain them and they must burst forth into speech. She continues to talk just about every waking moment that she has, even if she is playing peacefully by herself. She talks right up to the moment she falls asleep, and sometimes even then. I guess that is why she wakes up talking...it is simply a continuation of where she left off when sleep finally overtook her.

5) There is a reason that her nickname is Puck. In the play A Midsummer's Night Dream the character that opens and closes the show is a hobgoblin named Puck. Puck is all about the mischief. This is why I call her Puck. From the time she could crawl, she has been being ornery. I remember the house we lived in in Sweetwater when she was born. The hallway was pretty long and at the end was a bathroom. Once Puck started crawling, that bathroom was one of her favorite places to go. She would head down there and if the lid happened to be up on the toilet she would pull up and splash around in the water. Of course her momma and I didn't want her to do this, so we would return her to the living room. It all became a game for Puck. As soon as we set her down she would head for the hallway again...only this time she would check over her shoulder to be sure you saw her going that way. As soon as you made a move toward her, she would take off crawling just as fast as her little arms and legs would carry her laughing all the way.

OK, I'll stop there. It's late and I'm tired. Again, I'm blown away by the fact that my baby girl is 4 now. The time has flown by me in such a blur. God has blessed me greatly with two beautiful daughters, a handsome son and of course a beautiful wife. Peace and Love y'all.