Home news, Grandma, Cori and Nate and Mama, my boss

Mama and Victoria made it home safe last night. I think they got in a little after 7 p.m. I got a text from Victoria about 7:15 telling me they had arrived in Amarillo. I did not immediately respond because I had fallen asleep while I was waiting to go to church. I did not make it to church.


Mama said everything went well on their drive home and they even spent an hour or so at the farm so Victoria could take some more pictures. I emailed the realtor that has been working with us to update her on the progress we are making and that we hope to see her next week when I have business there. Hopefully we get to make the offer soon.

Cori and Nate were able to close on their house yesterday. They are pretty excited. Cori is ordering countertops and Nate is buying paint. They will take the month of July to make the home improvements before they finally move in and Maggie is there to help in the work and the transition. I am excited for them. I am proud of the way they have gone about the purchase and the thousands of small financial decisions leading up to the purchase. Mama and I both wish we were closer so we could help, but that is not going to happen.

Grandma made it home safely on the 28th. She was a couple hours late from her original arrival time but eventually got back to Grandpa, who has been studying all the literature we have given him about farm-related items and ideas. I am sure they will have some catching up to do – as we will also when we get back together.

Today is the final day of work I have here in Houston. I will fly home tomorrow in the late morning and arrive in Amarillo only a couple of hours later. I am anxious to get home. While I am here I will go to see Grandma and Grandpa Kline in Chappell Hill. I scheduled my visit with them for tonight since I had a suspicion I would be out early. That would give me more time there than any other night of the working week. I am looking forward to the visit and I suspect they are also since I got a call last Thursday asking where I was. I guess I had not been clear on the date when I called to tell them I was coming over.

I spent one evening visiting with my old boss since he is here in Houston. He will not close on his house in Tomball until the middle of the month, so he is staying in his travel trailer near where his new home is. He has the same philosophy Mama and I have about preparing for hard times to come and has bought the place with the idea of raising chickens, fruit trees and a large garden.

Maybe our outlook is not that far off the mark.

Eating right, Shipley’s, Mama’s travel plans, differing levels of understanding

I have decided that it is impossible to lose weight when I am away from home if I eat regular meals. We do eat a little differently when we are out of the house but I think we give ourselves too much license when we are traveling. Almost all fast food is off the “healthy” menu although some have relatively healthy salads or chicken sandwiches, but it does not work out the same for our bodies to eat prepared foods.


Wendy’s has been our go to place in transit and lately we have added McDonald’s since they have added several salads we like. There is almost nothing else out there we can eat with any hope of maintaining our weight and at our age (Mama and me) it is getting more difficult to lose any extra pounds. A doctor told me years ago that the average weight gain is two pounds per year for a married couple. Since Mama and I have been married twenty nine years, we are under the average, but not far enough to have bragging rights.

Enter Shipley’s Doughnuts, which tauntingly placed a shop on the way back to the motel where I am staying here in Houston. In Victoria, TX I would often try to get there early in the mornings while supplies were fresh and high. I was interested in getting my favorite donut – a cream filled chocolate donut. I was more often than not disappointed because they were almost always sold out. On the off chance that this shop had one of those particular donuts, I stopped last night. They did not have one, they had a tray of forty. I got two, planning on eating one last night and one this morning. Both donuts were gone by 8p.m. – which sort of proves my point above.

Mama and Victoria are on the road today. Maggie stayed behind to help and hopefully get a job while she is there since there were no open positions at Wal-Mart for her to transfer into. Mama told me she felt awkward leaving with just her and Victoria but they got a late start and may not get to Shreveport earlier than 8 or 9 p.m. That has become our halfway point in coming from Amarillo.

I got to say goodbye on Sunday evening but I know the grandchildren did not fully understand although Blake was upset at my leaving. I am sure they had some discussion after Mama and Victoria left, but leaving Maggie behind could become really confusing. Mykenzie has adapted to the coming and going and Grant seems to be acclimating, but Blake will not be there for some months yet. At their different levels of understanding, we can hope that Blake will remember us – me especially – when we go back in September.

I’m worried that Maggie will become his favorite. I’ve never been a favorite before.

The new house, the Davis’ farm

Cori and Nate’s house is on a corner lot in a neighborhood that saw the majority of it’s constriction in the early 80’s. Many of the neighbors have lived in their homes since construction. A particular neighbor across the street told Nate and I she was delighted to see families with young children moving in. The husband was more interested in the fact that there will be a Sheriff’s cruiser parked in the driveway. I can only imagine what may be asked of Nate in the years to come. Although the older couple was obviously un-churched, they seemed sincere; enough that they mowed the yard, front and back, for Cori and Nate. It is a large yard and even with a riding mower it took some time.


The house has two rooms that are 12x30 or greater. As loud as her children are, Cori will be able to track them very well in the new home. It is single level, three bedrooms with two baths. It is very open and the kids have made great use of the space in the times we have had them over there. Nate has a 16x20 shop with a 12x20 covered area in front of it; plenty of room for Cori’s projects. More than I have ever had to work with.

The time we spent on the Davis’ farm was more than enough to encourage Cori and Nate to plant as many fruit treed as the yard can handle. They will still have room for a sizable garden and still have more space open for the kids to play than we have had since we moved off the farm in West Virginia.

The Davis’ provide farm eggs for several families in the church. They have only eight or ten hens and a beautiful rooster but they get several dozen eggs per week. Since we were invited out for the evening the nests were reloaded with the eggs gathered over several days. Mykenzie ans Grant loved gathering the eggs from the nest but it looked a little funny to me to see three eggs per nest – two white and one brown. (I thought it was staged or he had the neatest hens I had ever seen.) After several warnings to “Be careful!” all the eggs were safely placed – or softly dropped - into the basket and carried to the house.

Mrs. Davis taught us how to wash the eggs (by soaking them in a mild bleach solution) and prepare them for delivery. (We learned that if an egg floats it is bad. I plan to test that theory in the future.) Then we started gathering fruit from the peach trees. Blake would have eaten them until he was sick. I have to admit they were the best peaches I have eaten in years. Mrs. Davis had made some peach jam recently and we got to taste the results of her work. We also got to taste some spaghetti sauce she was canning when we got there – with heir own beef and tomatoes grown in their garden.

Grant was fascinated with the horses and cattle, especially the calves. There were six horses, but only four cows and a huge gentle bull. Mr. Davis told me the names of the breeds of the cows and the bull, but I could not find tem on the internet. I think I will have to translate from the local vernacular to some other language to look them up properly. There were also two cats and two dogs as well as a fish pond. He was bouncing from one collection of animals to another. He was worn out and still excited as we headed home.

We ended the evening eating watermelon picked fresh from the garden and were sent home with a bag of produce. It was a delightful evening.

On the Road Again

It is Sunday night and Mama and the kids just dropped me off at the airport here in Pensacola. I am bummed at having to miss church tonight but it was the best flight I could work out for the family so they would not have to miss. We have had a great time here, some of it spent at the beach, some of it spent working on the home Cori and Nate have just been told is going to be theirs on the 29th of this month. It had been hot and very humid to the point that I got seriously overheated on Friday as Nate and I worked tearing out some awful kitchen counters.


Maggie is staying with Cori and Nate until the wedding in early September. It will give Cori someone to watch the kids while they are packing, painting and otherwise working on the house and it will give Maggie and Aaron a chance to see each other that would not have been possible if she came back to Amarillo. One by one we are seeing our children off to their new lives. It is a bittersweet privilege we have as parents.

My number 2 grandson really adopted me while we were there this time. It was often a battle for him to decide to come to me or go to his mother. Other than choosing her he never chose anyone over me. More akin to the relationship Mama has with Mykenzie – nobody ranks higher than Grammy. I have no idea if it will remain the same between me and Blake, but I will get to come back in only a few weeks when we come for Maggie’s wedding.

One particular family here at West Florida Baptist is very familiar with the Coast Guard way of life. She told Mama before Sunday School this morning that they married only a few days before he shipped out for seven months. We introduced Maggie to her so they could talk. It is something she will need to be able to deal with as she and Aaron begin their life together. All in all, I think we have made a wise choice to leave her here while wedding plans are finalized. Time spent with Cori and Nate will be good also for Maggie to get into some deep and sensitive discussions with her married sister – discussions her mother is not quite comfortable with.

Mama and Victoria have to drive back to Amarillo by themselves. It is my earnest prayer that in twenty hours of time together in the car that the two of them are able to talk; make that, Victoria is willing to talk to Mama.

I have four days of mapping and metrics sessions in Houston. It is preliminary exposure to the training job I am looking at taking over in the next couple years. I have events planned for every evening I am there, so I will not have to spend too much time in the hotel. When I get back I will have a four day weekend to make up the time to Mama, but I will leave the following Sunday for a week in Victoria, TX. I wish I could say things will slow down as I finish these additional training activities, but I do not think that is going to be the case. At least the next away trainings I am aware of are not more that an overnight stay.

I am looking forward to being home – several weeks from now.

Church, Mykenzie’s expectations, the beach

Although I truly love our church in Amarillo, every time we are here in the church Cori and Nate attend, we feel a sense of being at home. Over the years of visiting we have made some very good friends and their welcome is warm and comfortable every time we show up. We have always felt that way, even when we were living in New Jersey, but for some reason the feeling is stronger right now. It may have something to do with the grandkids getting older.

I asked Mykenzie, who will be four tomorrow (the real reason we are here) what special day was coming up this week. She explained she was having a party. I asked what is the party for? She explained matter-of-factly, “It’s for me to marry to Stewart.” Needless to say, her Mom was shocked by the engagement, so for now, we will make it a birthday party and delay the nuptials for about twenty years.

Brittany came from Hot Springs on Saturday night. She drove over with a friend and Andrew, who happened to be stationed nearby, came over Sunday morning to go to church with us; strange how that worked out. I think he got back to base rather late. We talked after church and things were tense – to say the least. He is a jewel. I do not think Brittany could have chosen better.

Cori, Brittany, Maggie and Paige are at the beach right now getting burned. It is the only chance Brittany and Paige will have to spend in the surf and sand. They will be heading back tomorrow evening. It is a rare chance for Cori to get to the beach without her normal troop. I hope they enjoy it. Meanwhile, we are cooking a brisket and fixings for a birthday dinner for Brittany.

We went to the beach on Saturday and had a great time. Victoria got some terrific pictures of the kids and some of Mama and me. Mama was not happy about the pictures but she has not insisted that they be deleted…yet. She did not get in the water because it was full of algae. I thought it looked a particularly beautiful shade of green. She was not impressed.

The Princess Party for our granddaughter is the focus of our full attention for the rest of today and all day tomorrow. My daughter is freaking out – a little - but all things will work out somehow: the money, the venue, the guests, the cake, the meal, etc. I have to admit it is a lot of planning that goes into such a gathering.

I think I would rather plan a wedding, but that will come soon enough.

Last day, travel, Ebay sales

Today will be the last day I get to spend with my current boss. I will be extremely sad to see him go. We will be leaving for Florida tomorrow morning and I will not be back in the office until the 6th of July. He will be leaving ConocoPhillips on the 30th of June. So today will be it. I am sure he knows how all of us that work for him feel, but I will take one final time to express it and say a final goodbye.


Plans are set and we will begin our trip to Milton, FL in the early a.m. We plan on stopping by the farm so Victoria and Maggie can see it but we will have to limit our time there so we can still make it to Shreveport, LA (where we have hotel reservations for the night) at a decent hour. It will only be about nine more hours from there to Cori and Nate’s. I am trying to budget this vacation on a daily basis which is something new. I hope it keeps us from spending too much which is a normal vacation problem.

In order to build our savings accounts I have let our primary checking account drift pretty low – often below $100. That is where it stands right now. We still have to buy a Father’s Day gift for Grandpa and gas up the cars before we leave. I don’t think we will make that without going a little into our savings. It becomes a delicate balancing act to keep on track with a budget; especially when we find a good but on shoes.

We ran into a problem with the sale of Victoria’s phone. It seems the recipient claims that the phone was not in the package when he opened it. We find that very hard to believe, but Mama purchased insurance on the package to cover such a loss. The problem is that Chase is the one who handled the account on Ebay and none of us know how to move forward to correct the situation without being able to access the account. Chase is at summer camp in New Jersey somewhere, out of cell phone range.

Victoria, Mama and I are a little worried because Ebay has demanded we refund the $500 paid for the phone and without the package to play show and tell with the Post Office we are not able to collect the insurance we paid for. Hopefully it will all work out.

Mama and the girls will have to come back to Amarillo from Florida on their own since I will be flying to Houston on the evening of the 26th. She is dreading the trip but Victoria and Maggie are trying to put her mind at ease about it. After all, all three of them can drive. All three of them have AAA in case something does happen –which we all hope is not needed.

Mama is still recovering from the burn she got the last time we were at the beach. Hopefully we learned our lesson.

Retirement party, the venue, worries

Mama and I went to a retirement party for my boss last night. It was a small gathering of his boss and his direct reports; eighteen people in all. Mama got to meet all my peers and we got to meet some of the wives of the people I work with. It was a good time, very relaxed, very casual, a tiny bit somber. Mama and I sat with my boss’s boss and my polar opposite. It would have been less pleasant has we not settled some of our differences a couple weeks ago.


The party was held at a bed and breakfast near Lake Meredith, outside of Fritch, TX. The owners have built a log home with six bedrooms and a detached cabin that will sleep six. It is very tastefully done, very welcoming, beautifully and expensively decorated. It sits above a spring fed lake – very unusual for the area – that is about four acres in size.

Mama and I walked down to the lake and passed the most enormous cottonwood tree I have ever seen. The fish were popping out of the eater to get the flies buzzing around. It was almost dead silent. Across the lake is a cliff colored in the deep red of the area. The moon was out, bright and full. In an area suffering a severe drought, it was an oasis; wet, green and alive. The owners really do have an unusual place and I think they have maximized its potential.

As we make the final preparations for vacation, Mama is beginning to worry. The little ones she watches are not well and she is afraid they will not be properly cared for in her absence. I think that is what the children in her care have always loved about Mama without ever being able to understand it. Even the little ones at church, no more that we get to interact with them, sense the genuineness of the attention they receive.

She is worried that the several months old, who has an ear infection, will not get the proper formula and constant ministration of ear drops necessary for him to recover. She is worried that the oldest one will not get enough sleep, especially his afternoon nap – which he really has come to love. She is worried that the middle child, now walking, will get overlooked and while the other two keep a care giver distracted.

I am sure they will survive, and thoughts of a princess birthday party are providing a strong incentive to make the trip. Sometimes I think Mama forgets that all these children do have a mother and father and, more often than not, they will do just fine with whatever level of care they are able to provide.

It is her nature to care in that way – one of the things I love about her.

Popsicles, coordination, jumping to conclusions

Yesterday, for a treat in Children’s Church, Mama took freeze pops; the popsicles in plastic tubes. The kids really love those, but we had not given them as a treat in this church before. We had the little ones take their chairs outside – no small feat for some of them – and we sat down to enjoy the snack. What we did not know is that it was 102 degrees outside.


I have never seen a popsicle melt so fast. The children kept pace with the thawing and not one of them spilled a drop of the liquid on their church clothes, but it was over very quickly. After only ten or so minutes of play we had to retreat to the air conditioning. It put me in mind of those who may be enduring this heat in other parts of the US due to flooding, fires or tornados; only they may not have anywhere to go. For the sake of our little ones, I’m glad we did.

With this trip to Florida we will take what I hope will be the final load of Maggie’s stuff to be stored at Cori and Nate’s pending her marriage to Aaron. Part of the reason for our last quick trip over to Milton was to take the biggest load of her things since we would not have had sufficient space to do all that was required in this trip. With Chase at camp in New Jersey, only Maggie and Victoria are going with Mama and me so we will load up again to make the transfer of goods for safe keeping until - hopefully – September. It is at times like these that we miss our big van which, by the way, is still going strong in West Virginia.

It turns out we might not be any better rested for this trip than we were for the one we just got back from. Mama and the girls will have to start getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get the boys from their father since he has to be at work at 6 a.m. every morning. That starts tomorrow. It will only be for two days this time – since we leave on Thursday morning – but will be a permanent arrangement when we get back.

The pastor told us yesterday of a famous photographer that was flown into an area to take pictures of the heroic efforts of the fire fighters battling an enormous wildfire. Upon arriving at the scene the photographer realized the thick smoke in the area would hinder any efforts to get good pictures. He suggested to the Incident Commander that he rent a plane and concentrate on aerial photos of the efforts.

Arrangements were made and the photographer was hurried to a small airport nearby where he found a plane idling on the runway, ready for take off. He grabbed his gear and hopped into the planes passenger seat and told the pilot to take off.

Once airborne, he began to give the pilot instructions. “I want you to get me as low as possible to the active fire line. We should make three or four passes so I can get the pictures I need.” With some hesitation the pilot asked, “Why would you want me to do that?” “I am a photographer. Photographer’s take pictures. That’s why I am here.” He answered in a slightly condescending manner.

Stammering, the man in the pilot’s seat asked, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?”

Chase, vacation prep, Grandma & Grandpa, Wells Fargo

Chase gets dropped off at the airport at 9 a.m. this morning. The countdown is almost over. I wanted to ask if he was going to count the hours while he is in New Jersey the same way he did while he was here waiting to go there, but I did not. I went to bed early last night so we said a quick goodbye as he was finishing up packing. This morning his luggage was in the living room waiting to go. He does not show excitement very often but he did about this trip.


Meanwhile, Mama and I are getting things ready to go for our vacation. Most of the preparation centers around a birthday party we are planning for Mykenzie. I use “we” loosely since all I am doing is funding the event in part. Cori and Mama are doing all the planning and as far as my grandchildren are concerned, Grammy is the source of all things bought for them. I’m okay with that.

Victoria and Maggie are looking forward to the time in Florida. Maggie is not enamored with the idea of travel but she will be able to catch up on her sleep in the almost twenty hours on the road to get there. Victoria is looking forward to seeing the farm. We are planning a short stop on the way so she can get some pictures, both mental and digital.

Grandpa is staying behind by his lonesome self. Someone has to take care of the plants and the dogs. He really does not mind. He will have to pick up Chase and run him around starting on the day he returns – I don’t remember when that is but is is only a few days after we leave.

Grandma is in West Virginia visiting family. I think she is due home in Amarillo at about the same time Mama and the girls are; late in the month. That part for us has not been fully determined yet. It depends on time off restrictions for the girls and how far we can stretch our money.

I will be flying from Pensacola to Houston to participate in some metrics development for our training department as part of my transitional rollover into the training coordinator spot. After that I will be home for a week before I fly to Victoria for a week of training to finalize my role as Incident Commander. I hope things slow down after that, but if we are able to get the farm in late July or early August, they probable will not.

I called Wells Fargo yesterday to see what their side of the story was and was actually pleased by what I was told. In the middle of this month a letter will be sent out to confirm that our account has been close and should reflect the account as “paid in full.” That should help our credit report. And we need the help since the bank here wanted to keep part of the money I have set aside for the purchase of the farm as collateral in the finance on the truck we were negotiating over.

I thanked the person who was helping us and explained that if I cannot buy the farm I do not need the truck and the portion of the money they proposed to hold back could cost me the ability to buy a log home package to build Mama’s and my retirement home; not a good trade.

All in all, it will eventually work out just fine.

I have good news and bad news, the countdown. Flying lessons

Mama and I decided that it was time to test the financial waters by applying for a loan to buy a truck; used, of course. We used the truck she and Grandpa had found in Amarillo to start the process. After I talked to the bank representative yesterday we found out how rotten Wells Fargo can be. I settled our loan with them on the house in New Jersey and they reported it as a write off, a discharged debt, to the credit reporting agencies. I will try to find out today how long that will remain on our record, but there is little I can do about it for now except find out why the report does not reflect “settled in full” as promised in a letter I received from them.


No word yet from the local bank on the truck purchase, but I told Mama if we cannot get the farm we do not need to buy the truck. So we will sit here debt free for a while and see how things work out. Not a bad position to be in.

Chase is counting the hours now. If you ask, he can recite the minutes and seconds remaining until he flies to New Jersey. With that amount of expectation, I hope he is not disappointed in the least way. Mama has been missing New Jersey badly also, so as Chase mentions the names of people he will be seeing this coming Sunday, she threatens to kick him off the flight and go in his place.

It will be nearly impossible to send Mama to New Jersey this year. With the trip to Florida coming up and another to the same destination for Maggie and Aaron’s wedding later in the year, it will be beyond our financial means to do so. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open just in case.

Last night a man in our church who is a licensed pilot preached the mid-week sermon. He likened our walk with the Lord to flying a small plane. His illustrations were profound but none grabbed me more than when he talked about turning the plane to the right or to the left. He said that the inexperienced or careless pilot will quickly loose altitude in a turn because more throttle (likened to personal devotions and prayer) is required in a turn to maintain altitude.

It gave me a clear picture of my life as well as other’s as I thought back to those times when I deviated a little to the right or to the left and soon came to realize that I had drifted a very long way from where I had been in my walk with God. While I though I was doing all the good, I was falling from a safe altitude and only when the Holy Spirit made me aware (conviction) of how perilously close I was to crashing into the ground, did I realize the desperation of my situation.

In every one of those moments, it took an enormous amount of effort on my part and an unbelievable amount of grace on Gods part to restore my life and my walk.

His message was much more than that thought, but it is the one that struck me.

Guys with babies, good news for Tony, good news on the car, Becky sworn in

Mama did not have the boys yesterday because their father, Tony, did not have any work. He goes to the local State manpower office and gets work day to day. If his name is not called in the early a.m. then he has to go home and try again the next day; not much hope there. Mama has been very concerned and praying for both the parents of these little ones for steady work, but her real worry is that guys cannot properly take care of little ones as well as a woman can – at least not as well as she can.


So whenever the boys are left with their father or his brother –another substitute for Mama – she frets. I cannot argue against her logic. As much as their father or uncle takes very good care of them, it is not the same type of care given by Mama. There is just something about the way she does things for them when they are with her that makes a difference; thinking about diaper changes, having the juice cup full (Knowing which cup goes with what child), bathing them, smothering them with hugs and kisses, reading to them, etc. I do not know about Tony, but I know I cannot compete.

Tony got some very good news yesterday. He has been offered a job with a local concrete manufacturer. He starts on the 13th. It will be a permanent job with benefits; something he has not had for a long time. Maybe the boy’s mother can quit one of her two jobs. My hat is off to her. She starts one job at 2 a.m. She finishes the second at 9 p.m. No one can do that for too long and maybe her time of working instead of mothering is near an end. It would be a huge answer to our prayers.

Our little van got a clean bill of health yesterday. I had Mama take it to have the radiator and cooling system pressure tested and all seems okay. We still have an issue with smelling antifreeze but the more expensive parts of the cooling system appear to be in tact.

Becky called last night to tell us that she was to be sworn into the National Guard tomorrow morning. She will then go to Basic training for four months. I know Becky will know it all in the first couple weeks but she still has to put in her full sixteen weeks. She is both excited and scared about the whole idea. Charles has been encouraging her and may consider enlisting himself. Time will tell.

The thought of my daughter Becky carrying a loaded weapon gives me mixed emotions.

Farm shopping, Chase, Seth

Mama and Grandpa went truck shopping yesterday and found one that met almost all the qualifications Grandpa has outlined for us. I went with the two of them after I got home to see it and I have to admit I was very impressed. Grandpa has one lingering question about the manufacture of the diesel engine in the truck – a 6.0 liter made in 2005. He will do some more research before we make any final considerations, but it is a strong contender.


As we went for a test drive, Mama sat in the back seat of the crew cab. At first she was excited about all the room. She stretched her legs out across the seat to prove her point, but as I started to drive on the freeway she said rather emphatically, “Okay, I can’t ride in this all the way to Florida.” It is a one ton truck and it rides like a one ton truck. I think with all the stuff we normally bring on our trips I could not put enough weight in the truck to smooth out the ride. (A minor technicality.)

They also went to investigate the price of metal siding to recover the 22x70 steel frame that is on the property. It was once a very large shop but the wind had relentlessly stripped it of its corrugated metal skin over the years. Much work is needed to put it back into use, but the pipe frame is in solid shape. I was surprised that the price of covering it once again is about half of what I originally expected.

Chase seems to be enjoying his new job. He worked a grueling two hours yesterday and is faced with enduring double those hours today. Mama and he were talking about the free meals – that subject is of great interest to her – and she wondered if the employees got burned out on the food after a while. To my surprise, Chase had asked and found that in fact that was the case. I am not sure how long it takes to achieve burnout, but he is not there yet and Mama is sure not to get there for several months.

Seth made it home to West Virginia. He left Sunday morning in his car – Grandpa finished the necessary repairs on Saturday – and got in safely Monday afternoon. Mama and I thought he was up for more of a challenge than he proved capable of in studying to get his GED. I am sure we gave the effort our best shot. I am not convinced that he did, but I am sure at some point that he will succeed. He just has to want it more than anything else and he is not there yet.

The drought here is as crippling as the flooding seven hundred miles to the east of us. It is a shame there is no way to share.

Missing church, Brittany again, training report

For the first time in quite a long time I missed church yesterday. It is a despairing feeling to sit at home sick while all the rest of the family goes to services. Mama and Victoria had a great morning with the little ones. There were only ten in the class since graduation took place last Sunday. Sunday was by far my worst day. I hope it will be downhill from here.


Brittany told us on Saturday that she and Andrew have decided that she should move to Colorado Springs so they “can build a relationship without it being long distance.” I called Andrew and told him that I am opposed to the move and I think they will come to regret it – especially spiritually speaking – but that I will not oppose it. Brittany can be a witch to her Mama when she does not get her way and I will not put Mama through that by telling Brittany she has to come home.

Right is still right and wrong is still wrong. The difficulty comes in choosing when wrong does not look very wrong and seems easily justified. The world’s reasoning has always sought to master that area of life choices so we feel vindicated in our poor choices and can blame God when things go wrong. It is one of the foundational tools of the wicked to drive a wedge between an immature soul and God. It wounds me to see my daughter falling for that lie, but pride and selfishness are always the sponsors of bad choices – no matter how it is justified.

The second day of the two day training session was a real blessing. The one verbose naysayer came around to the point that an enemy became a friend and the team grew through the experience. This individual and I are polar opposites in measures used for the evaluation. I offered it to him as a strength. Many times success lies in accepting my weaknesses and making sure there are people around me to caution me when I drift into territory where I do not make the best choices. I am, by nature, optimistic and fairly naïve. It helps me to have relationships with people who see the “dark side” of life. I can learn from their insights without having to learn what they know or how they think. While protecting my happy ignorance, I can have full access to their strengths and avoid the pitfalls they innately see that I either cannot see or choose not to see because of the effect it would have on me personally to begin to think that way. My boss is leaving behind a very strong team – and I get to be a part of it.

Mama is enjoying Chase’s new job. He works at the Chich-fil-A in the mall. Not only does she have to go to the mall twice on every day he works, but she got a free meal out of the deal the other day. It was the second meal of the day offered to Chase who, thankfully for Mama, is not much of an eater.

The talk over lunch yesterday was exactly how many pairs of boots and jeans would be needed to be properly outfitted to work the farm. I did not set up a budget for that expense.

Men and feelings, Chase, Sickness,

Yesterday went about as I expected. I always get a lot out of these types of training because I am looking for it. I am not so sure about the others who were in the session with me. For instance, when asked to complete the question, “One thing I would like the team to know about me is…” one individual answered, “I don’t want the team to know about me.” I thought that was an interesting answer, but I am the only one out of a group of seven, my boss and my peers, that registered on the “feeling” quadrant of the graph.

I guess, Mama, with the Lord’s help has had a profound effect on me. The comment was even made, “Tim is probably the only one in the group that would be comfortable giving or getting hugs.” It was not meant to be a slight, except from one person. But the Lord did use it to expose me to the group – for better or worse. We have another full day to work through today.

Chase is excited about going to New Jersey. He will leave in only a few days. I think he will work a lot of those days in the interim, but he is doing what he can to get money together; including selling his iPod. He says he has not used it in months – since he got his phone. I think it is a good idea. I am proud of his efforts and his diligence in sticking to his convictions – although they are borrowed from the pastor for the moment. Lester Roloff used to advise the young men he worked with,”If you don’t have any convictions about it, borrow mine until God gives you your some of your own.”

I am not feeling well, but like all the previous times I have wrestled with bronchitis, it is more of a general malaise than a specific set of symptoms. I know it will be short lived but not short enough for me to sing on Sunday. I had a suspicion that it was coming on as we drove back from Florida but it has been so long since I have fought this that I was caught a little off guard. The older I get the more care I will have to take to avoid this weakness expressing itself.

Mama has advertized the pup in the local paper. I am wholeheartedly for the sale. As we were driving home I told Mama I thought it was time to cut our losses with the stubborn little imp. We are not in a position to take on a problem dog in our current situation – small house, three small wards to look after and a tiny area for the dogs to use as a bathroom which is also used by the boys as a play area. I realize people deal with those kinds of situations all the time, but with this pup’s refusal to be housebroken, it leaves us vulnerable to the germs their pee and poop bring into a house. I personally am thoroughly against that.

We already had one call, maybe there is hope.

Feeling yuck, training all day, still waiting

I started coming down with something yesterday through the day and today I am nursing the first bout with bronchitis that I have had in more than four years. I did not miss it during that time and I am not enjoying it now. It is an expression of just how exhausted I let myself get over the past week. I hope I am not contagious but there is little I can do to help it at this point. I did steal some medication from Maggie this morning so I could help my body bring this under control.

I will, if I am allowed, be in training all day with my boss and his direct reports; my peers. I am not looking forward to some of it, but it should be interesting for the most part. We are doing a team building exercise using the Myers-Briggs assessment tool; a psychological evaluation tool that defines what makes a person tick. I have been through it several times and I think it will be familiar with most of the group. The problem is that some people do no like what the analysis reveals about them. Although it is not definitive, it is very accurate about the parts of out personality that are “unalterable”.

For instance, I will never be a control freak. It is not in my nature. However, I will always be compassionate to a fault. I can overwrite these character traits but it will never be an expression of my basic personality. I do force myself when necessary to move beyond what is naturally comfortable for me – we all do; as in the need to be outwardly expressive when soul winning.

I discovered many years ago that what I do best is play second fiddle. In the orchestra there can only be one first chair violin. Everyone else sits behind or to the left of that person. The first chair is responsible for leading the section, which is why they sit closest to the conductor. I have always been better in the supporting role; not that I could not lead my section, I just find more expression of my strengths in a supporting role.

Mama and in are deep in the difficult phase of waiting. No reason to talk to the bank. No backing to make an offer on the farm. No way to know if we are on the right track. It is the perfect opportunity to walk by faith. If we are prudent and circumspect, our faith will not shame us because God is faithful. We are still quietly preparing, working in the background, waiting on God. Waiting on God is not as a person would wait in a doctor’s office, rather it as a waiter or waitress would wait on customers in their stations at a restaurant.

There is plenty to do and while we are faithfully doing, God is too.

Extreme travel, running out of gas

By the odometer readings, Mama and I traveled 2,730 miles in the last week. The destinations in our trip added up to 2,230 miles of travel. The other five hundred miles were in side trips to Bowie, to the beach in Navarre, etc. No wonder we are tired. We got home last night at about 7:30 p.m. We would have been several minutes earlier but we ran out of gas.

As we approached Amarillo, we knew we were low and we were waiting for the “Low Fuel” light to come on. I am pretty sure it has worked in the past but last night it decided it would not help us out. We were about two miles from home, and were talking about making sure Mama got gas first thing in the morning, when the car began to sputter. I made the announcement to Mama that we were out of gas. Of course she did not believe me. (I am not sure why the first option for a woman to any statement a man makes is that of debate.) Regardless, the facts were pretty evident.

I put the car in neutral, and we began to coast off the freeway. We were doing so well that I coasted through a stop sign, turned left under the freeway and coasted up the approach to the gas pumps at a Love’s station at that exit. We ran out of momentum about ten feet from the pumps. Mama tried to push but that was a “no go” so she sat in the driver’s seat and I got us to the pump. It took several tries to start the car after we got gas, but it finally fired up.

The way it worked out made it kind of fun, but we probably won’t challenge that last quarter tank again.

Mama is nursing a bad sunburn. She always gets slightly burned her first day at the beach, but this time all of us got a burned – except the little ones, they were lathered up pretty thoroughly. We all lost track of time and Mama forgot to put any sunscreen on her back. That is where the burn is the worst. We backtracked to discover that we had been in the sun for almost three hours – over two hours past my normally allowed time. It made the two days travel toward home uncomfortable. My burn has already faded into a tan, but hers is still several days away.

While we were with Cori and Nate we played around with the two herbal kits I bought at the training I took in Indianapolis. I showed Cori and Nate a very simple way to determine if something was needed by your body or not. They will have fun with that. We also tested the kids for basic herbal and food needs. Some results were surprising, some were not. It’s the little things that always get us; black tea, Milton Bakery doughnuts, processes meats and cheeses, snack foods, etc.

Eating healthy is more expensive and time consuming than going the quick, processed, microwave-it-and-eat-it way. Cori is very good about preparing foods that are healthy, but there are always pet foods and pet tastes that cause us to stray from the path toward totally healthy eating.

Grandma is leaving tomorrow for a month in West Virginia. Chase is leaving on the tenth for about two weeks in New Jersey. We are leaving on the 16^th for two weeks in Florida. For a few days we can settle into our normal routine but only for a few days.