Fresh Paint

For the last 4 years we have had extra residents in our house, our youngest son for 2 different stints and two different sets of interns from church. About a week ago we finally saw the last of them move out. I feel as if finally I have my own house. Not that the guys didn’t have their own room but there is just something about shared living spaces.

To make the transition complete I have spent the last few days painting some of the rooms in our house. There is no longer an intern room and the guy’s bathroom, but today there is an office, Katelynn’s room and the upstairs bathroom. Not only are these areas being repurposed but they have a whole new look to them.

Painting the different rooms in our house has been something that I have wanted to do since we moved in, but my work schedule and other outside responsibilities have always taken a priority over painting both in time and money. We decided that now that we are taking back our house it was the perfect time.

New paint doesn’t change the shape of the room, but sure did change the atmosphere. Having those rooms done, I am really motivated to complete the rest of them; I just need to work it into the schedule.

Last week I attended a conference and it was as if my soul and my spirit got a fresh coat of paint. I am still the same person but marks and wear and tear have been patched, smoothed, washed and refinished giving me a new outlook. I am again motivated to live my life fresh and new every morning.

Lamentations 3:22-24

I Didn't Call You Daddy

You weren’t there the day I was born; you never had the pleasure of changing one of my diapers. There were so many things that you were there for that those that you missed just aren’t that important.

What is important are all the times you were there. To teach me to play softball, to allow me to play on your summer team as a teenager in the days before there were leagues for girls. You were there to grind off the 1st tooth on my figure skates so I could play hockey on the pond with the boys. You were the one that taught me to shoot pool when I had to stand on a chair to reach the table. If it wasn’t for these bi-focal’s I could probably still be pretty good.

You took me into the garage and taught me how to use each tool and why it was so important to use the right tool for the job. You took me to the shop with you on weekends and holidays and to this day I still know how to pick a tumbler lock. Because of you I have a Mechanical Engineering Degree.

You taught me how to catch fish and had the patience of Job the night you caught that 27” Northern Pike and I got it so tangled up in the net it took almost an hour before you could cast your line again.

You were there when I graduated from high school and college. You didn’t laugh at me the night you came to one of my road trip college basketball games and came out onto the court with an afro.

You were the one that taught me laughter could get you through the really bad times. Some might say I have an interesting sense of humor. Remember the time you were in the hospital and we sent you a dozen long rose ‘stems’. Yes just the stems, we had the florist cut the blooms off. You laughed so hard the nurses came to see if you were ok and you displayed them proudly in a vase the entire time you were in the hospital.

You were there for one of the most difficult times of my life, when Donald died. You probably never knew that I heard you and mom in your bedroom the 1st night after I got home and you were crying and asking why not you. You would have gladly have taken his place in death.

You were there when you should have been in the hospital, refusing to go until after Christmas so you could see me when you gave me the Grandfathers clock you built. You poured your last energy into that clock that is gently ticking next to me right now; you never did come home again.

After I left for college I started to call you Dad, officially you were my step-dad but I regret to this day that I never called you Daddy.

What If?

I make decision every day. I have had to make decisions that had outcomes with the potential for great physical harm. I have had to make decisions in my own life that have had lasting consequences and I may never know if they were the right ones.

I face a decision now where the risk to a personal goal is very high as well as the long term effect on my body. I am weighing all the options, but there is no way to know which way would be the best. I struggle; I don’t want to quit and disappoint myself and others. I don’t want go forward and succeed at a cost that is too high. There is no way to know what the outcome will be ahead of time. If I hold back and fail, I will always wonder; if I go forward as planned and can’t make the final step, I will have failed.

I’m not talking about a job change, a relationship change, a change that really is important in the grand scheme of life. Either way all those things are secure. This is purely about my own personal goal and struggles. And yet; I pray for God’s direction and strategy.

Proverbs 1:5

Congradulations Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins are the 2008-9 Stanley Cup Champions.

As a true fan of NHL I agree that the best team in the series won. Detroit played well but Pitsburg didn't give up and pushed them in the last two game.

I love a good hockey game and Detroit and Pittsburgh provided some of the best I've seen in years.

I will always be a Detroit Redwings fan and I will always be a Hockey Fan.

GO WINGS!!!

Happiness: new grill, steaks and his truck

How Do Others See Me?

Often you go to a fair or street festival and you will find an artist or two set up drawing Caricatures, a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person to create an easily identifiable visual likeness.

In literature one of the key features is the Character Sketch. Here you are introducing the reader to someone. You want your readers to know that person’s characteristic ways of doing things, to know something about their value system. Character sketches only give a snap shot of people.

This is true in life, when we are trying to describe someone to another person we often describe that person using exaggerations of certain characteristics or even oversimplification of others.

So how am I described to someone who hasn’t met me before? Is it by my physical features, my expressions that I use or by my character? Do others see what I am or what I try to be?


Others determine your reputation. You determine your character.
Character is defined by integrity and at the heart of integrity is the idea of wholeness.

Psalm 25:21

Who Has the Best BBQ

Today Kyle and I decided to take the scenic route home from Leavenworth, WA. We left and headed over to Chelan and then to Ellensburg for lunch. At TRC there are a whole lot of folks that rave about a BBQ place in Ellensburg so we decided we needed to check it out.

I have eaten BBQ in at least 47 of the 50 states and at least 3 of the Canadian providences. I really like good BBQ and was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about at Rodeo City BBQ. I usually get my BBQ fix these days from 3 Pigs in Bellevue. Not only is it good BBQ, but it is also less than a mile from where I work.

So after eating a helping of Baby Backs, two sides and a piece of Cornbread here is the result: Rodeo City has really good BBQ, it is smoked a little more than I tend to like it, the top is a little tough from the smoking, but overall the meat was cooked well, tender and flavorful. The Sauce was a sweeter sauce and I was never offered a HOT version so I had to use Tabasco sauce, but that is not unusual. However, I think 3 Pigs is better.

3 Pigs has wonderful sauces that come in mild, medium and Hot, they smoke their meat with a dry rub so there is no toughness on the top layer. The meat is tender and easily peels off the bone.

Rodeo City has much better side dishes then 3 Pigs and the Corn Bread will be enough to bring me back.

I would rank both of these places in the top 10 of the best BBQ I have ever eaten.

The top 5 are:
San Antonio, TX on the River Walk. I was there for 5 days and at BBQ three times.
Memphis TN, Jack Neely’s Intersate BBQ
Oxford, MI – My sister Linda’s
Atlanta, GA – Dreamland BBQ
Chicago,IL – Russell’s BBQ.

So what BBQ is your favorite?