Mark Prior

I read a good article today about Mark Prior, by Steve Henson of Yahoo.com.  Remember Mark Prior Pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, was supposed to be the next great thing.  He was actually really good for a few years.  He then proceeded to get hurt, and then get hurt again and again.  finally with too many surgeries, he was out of baseball.  He tried out for a few teams, but didn't make it.  He is 30 years old now, still fairly young and is pitching for a minor league team out of their bullpen.  A long way from a starting pitcher for the Cubs.  He's doing fairly well, but really he wants to pitch again in the Majors.  I can't say I blame him.  He wants to do what he loves doing. 

So there he is, started his career off with hype and ballyhoo, even did really well for awhile. Experienced injury, and the downside of the business of baseball.  Now has a changed attitude of desire just to make it back to the majors, with no expectations or presumptions, just desire.  It makes me think of marriage.  I love my wife so much, and when we got married, we thought "This will be great, we are already best friends, we can work through anything."  We experienced pain, and hurt from each other and other influences, we are figuring out that life together isn't always going to be easy or great.  and not that we have lowered our expectations of marriage, but I think, we are learning to not have expectations that since we are best friends that everything will be perfect.  What I do know is that I have that same desire that I had 14 years ago (and earlier while we were dating) to live with and share my life with her, even when it is difficult and doesn't make sense.  Even if I experience pain and hurt, because when I am with Liesl, and we experience life together, it's a little taste of perfect love and redemption - what God wants us to know about Him

Overflowing water?

During the day at work, I try to drink water. Heard so many stories about folks losing weight, feeling less tired, and all that, so I try hard to drink more water especially at work. The free cans of soda in the fridge are mighty tempting, though. I believe Coca Cola is the sweet nectar of life. Anyway, I use a water bottle most of the time. One of those Nalgene (BPA-free) reusable bottles. So I have to make sure that I clean it out every day. I drop a little dish soap in, add hot water, then close it and shake. Then I rinse out the soapy water with a strong stream of water from the faucet. In the fury of soapy water swirling and splashing in then out of the bottle, I allow it to overflow so that it also runs some soap over the rim of the bottle. A curious thing happens at this point. Although it is flowing water, a fairly heavy substance, out the top of the bottle, meaning the bottle is full, If I pull it away quickly, you’d think the bottle would still be full. I am not spilling any extra out when I pull the bottle out of the faucet stream. What is happening is that there are air bubbles in the bottle actually filling in some of the space. Pushing water out of the top. All this got me thinking if there was some metaphor that God was wanting me to see. After just reading Andrew Peterson’s blog about money and being able to support his family with his music and writing, I realized that there is some air in an overflowing bottle. The picture is that it’s ok to be able to breathe and have some level of comfort if I am to have a life overflowing to others. In order to give away what God is filling me with, He also gives me air in my life, margin, space, life in the bottle. It still allows Him to work, still allows the water to overflow, still gives from what he has given me. So I thank God today for the air to breathe and ask Him for more water to overflow.

Just Some Pictures

Thought I'd post a few of the pictures I've taken in the past several months...

Soccer has started and this was Bryce taking good care of his baby sister during Rece's game.


Yes, that is two paci's you see. we like to play that little trick...

There's a french fry in there somewhere, that's why she's soooo happy.

Slideshow

On Saturday we had a party for Keeley's 2nd birthday that was February 8th. I put together a little timeline kinda slideshow of her first 2 years.

Sledding Adventures

This past weekend in Nashville we got about 3-4 inches of snow. I know all you northerners are thinking, "That's nothing!", but for Nashville, that is more than we've had in years. And it didn't melt the next morning, another strange occurrence for the south. So, of course this means we've got to get out and play in it. I grew up where snow like this was somewhat normal, so I wasn't too anxious to get out in it, but the kids just had to be in it - lots. It started Friday, so Liesl took them out and did snow angels and just let the kids slide around some. Friday night the snow turned to sleet and so the top layer was icy. The boys discovered this quickly and started using anything they could find that might work as a sled. Several people around the neighborhood decided to slide down the hill at the top of the street. I say people using napping mats, and laundry baskets, we got out a cookie sheet and a rubbermaid container. All three of them enjoyed this for a while. So Sunday was more of the same, the snow still hadn't melted much so we decided to join some of our friends and sled at a park near their house. But before we made it there, one of their neighbors had hooked up a sled and an inner tube to his Rhino (kind of a heavy duty golf cart) and was pulling kids (and adults) up and down the street.

After making a few runs around the neighborhood, we decided to head over to the park. The park has an amphitheater with a grassy hill all around it, perfect hill for sledding. The boys were into it as fast as they could get up the hill. Liesl made several trips down with Keeley. After the first time, Keeley was so scared she didn't even want to look, so she covered her eyes and snuggled in with momma just to be able to make it down.

Don't they look beautiful?

Gatlinburg Tennessee - post leaf color change

Liesl and I and the kids took a trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee last fall for a little mini-vacation. We stayed in a cabin in the mountains. For those of you who are not familiar with Gatlinburg, it is on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. One of our favorite places to go as a family. It is about a 3-1/2 hour drive from our house.

This is pizza from a small place in Gatlinburg called Best Italian Cafe. It is really good. But the pizza is not even the best thing there. They have the best ever garlic rolls. Yummm.

Here they are making taffy. This machine is really fascinating, but simple.

View from the deck of our cabin in the morning.

The Alpine Slide at Ober Gatlinburg. It's kinda like a bobsled, but not on ice, To get up to the start, you have to take a chair lift. That was extremely scary, Liesl had Keeley with her, and was afraid Keeley would wriggle out, but she loved the sliding down part.

We made it to the 1.7 mark and back. If we had more time, maybe we could have gone longer. Besides, Keeley doesn't like to be in the backpack.

The two most beautiful girls in the world.

This is at Cade's Cove. A valley surrounded by mountains. We've gotten the same picture of the boys at roughly the same age while they were on top of the car with the mountains in the background, so we had to get Keeley's too.

Bryce and Rece became Jr. Rangers at Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Candy Craziness

Halloween Candy. Perhaps an even scarier thought than any other shenanigans that happens around this time of year. It's fine to actually acquire the candy, but the sugar overdoses and the constant, "I want some candy..." "Can I have some candy?" is now compounded with "treat?" "pweese?" from the newest sweets addict. So after doing some impromptu trick or treating at the local outdoor mall while shopping Saturday afternoon, we dressed the kids all the way up. Bryce as Darth Vader, Rece as Optimus Prime (Transformer) and Keeley as the Sparkly Angel.

Keeley is ready to go (looking off camera thinking "Momma, where is that candy bag. I'm ready to go dominate the neighborhood!)

Bryce ended up getting invited to a friend's Halloween Party. I took him there, while Liesl took Rece and Keeley to one of his friend's neighborhood. They all loaded up with candy, with Keeley turning out to be the most hard-core Trick-or-Treater. She would not let go of her bag and with freezing hands and feet wanted to continue to fill her bag with the precious candy.