So here it is Christmas, I mean holiday time! This morning I was listening to a presidential nominee and as usual I tend to tune them out. The same was the case this morning except I heard him exclaim, "I am so tired of everyone trying to hide behind the word Holiday, it is Christmas time, we celebrate Christmas time! Even the federal government is taking off for the christmas break!"
Well of course this got my attention and immediately I began to think about how even in my own life I have slowly began to say, "have a happy holiday!" What is this? Have we really reached this point of supersensitivity?
I recently had a friend come by and instead of saying Happy Holiday I broke with the norm and said MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I am not sure if the friend was going to have a heart attack but this friend stepped back and said, "happy holiday" and quickly left. Ooops my bad... Hope that friend is not going to fall over.
In another example I had a vendor call me recently and in the process of talking about our plans for this Holiday year, he suddenly stopped and whispered, "if it is okay I would like to wish you a merry christmas!" I whispered quietly back, "its okay I am sure the government is now marking us down as some sort of crazy people! Merry Christmas!" I shouted.
I think back on my childhood memories of Christmas and how sacred that time was. I can remember all the christmas cantanas and candlelight services and how Santa always seemed to allude my younger brother. Now I look to this Christmas time and I realize how much stress and constant running around we do to buy christmas gifts, put up a tree, sign christmas cards, get the cars checked for the journey home, fight crowds in shopping lines, argue about who gets what and whom we are going to stay with, and I realize that is not what the christmas time is about. We have lost the simplicity of it all!
Christmas time is not a time of giving! It is a time of reflecting! A time when we realize that God's plan for man was fulfilled in the most simple way ever! A gift? No a savior who one day would pay a high price that would allow us to one day buy christmas gifts, put up a tree, sign christmas cards, get the cars checked for the journey home, fight crowds in shopping lines, argue about who gets what and whom we are going to stay with.
It is not about that huge gift that is given or who came and who didnt get a christmas card, It is a time of love. I think of the song Glorious Impossible by the Gaither Vocal Band, yeah it is true I do listen to Souther Gospel every now and then, but I think about how the song talks about Mary holding an impossible yet possible baby. How simple a little one could save us all.
So this christmas time, it is not about the gifts, people or family, it is about the wonder of how a little baby could so love the world that who so ever believed in him would be saved! Take the time now to think on the simplicity of that, Oh and HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! and a very BLESSED NEW YEAR!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Tucker dog and one night of fun!
The past weekend my wife told me she had an exciting meal for us. Chipotle chicken done in a crock pot and it would be good!! So as usual, being the typical man, I nodded my head, grunted and stared at the T.V. as another touchdown was scored. Anyways she worked very hard! Went to the store bought 10 chicken legs and wings with the bones still intact. She put all this in the crock pot and off it went.
Of course, the smell was amazing and when we returned from church on Sunday it was all we could do to not tear into the meat immediately. But the chicken had to be de-boned so I waited patiently in the living room as my dear wife "pulled" the chicken. Of course unknown to us a plot was being formed!
A plot of extraordinary proportions! And it came in the form of a 20 pound Boston terrier by the name of Tucker. Oh yes our little baby was plotting on us. From the minute he began to smell the chicken to the minute my wife put the chicken bones in the trash, he had finalized his attack and now it was a matter of time!
Tucker waited only a few minutes after mom and dad left and then it was on. First it was locate the chicken bones because they just smelled so good! Secondly the foam packaging which was just fun to chew on! Third a dessert was needed so of course the half eaten chocolate cake was a added bonus. But none of this was a fun as dragging it all out into the living room, sitting down and watching T.V. that daddy had left on for his personal enjoyment.
I mean think about it, if someone left you a whole bag of food and the TV on wouldn't you go to town and just have a night to remember? Of course what would make it even better, is if you could run up and down the stairs, jump on mom and daddies bed and then throw up all over of the place! Now that would make it even better!
Of course what didn't make it better were the 9 chicken bones the young lad had and all of sudden the world didn't look like a big party, in fact it began to look like chicken and oh dear I am going to throw up....................................
Meanwhile, Mom and Dad arrived home. When we arrived there in the living room was huge circle of trash in all around the T.V.. The house smelled of dead things and then we saw Tucker. His belly was twice the size of a normal dogs. And so an immediate trip to ER.
So your next question, how much did a night of fun cost daddy? A cool and easy grand....... So having kids wont get any better???????
Of course, the smell was amazing and when we returned from church on Sunday it was all we could do to not tear into the meat immediately. But the chicken had to be de-boned so I waited patiently in the living room as my dear wife "pulled" the chicken. Of course unknown to us a plot was being formed!
A plot of extraordinary proportions! And it came in the form of a 20 pound Boston terrier by the name of Tucker. Oh yes our little baby was plotting on us. From the minute he began to smell the chicken to the minute my wife put the chicken bones in the trash, he had finalized his attack and now it was a matter of time!
Tucker waited only a few minutes after mom and dad left and then it was on. First it was locate the chicken bones because they just smelled so good! Secondly the foam packaging which was just fun to chew on! Third a dessert was needed so of course the half eaten chocolate cake was a added bonus. But none of this was a fun as dragging it all out into the living room, sitting down and watching T.V. that daddy had left on for his personal enjoyment.
I mean think about it, if someone left you a whole bag of food and the TV on wouldn't you go to town and just have a night to remember? Of course what would make it even better, is if you could run up and down the stairs, jump on mom and daddies bed and then throw up all over of the place! Now that would make it even better!
Of course what didn't make it better were the 9 chicken bones the young lad had and all of sudden the world didn't look like a big party, in fact it began to look like chicken and oh dear I am going to throw up....................................
Meanwhile, Mom and Dad arrived home. When we arrived there in the living room was huge circle of trash in all around the T.V.. The house smelled of dead things and then we saw Tucker. His belly was twice the size of a normal dogs. And so an immediate trip to ER.
So your next question, how much did a night of fun cost daddy? A cool and easy grand....... So having kids wont get any better???????
Friday, October 26, 2007
My Talk with the Afgan Man
You know it is alway surprising how things work out. The other day I was working in my office and I recieved a phone call informing me that our copier company was on its way. Now normally this in not a big deal but I hadnt place a service call and I was quite upset that someone had placed the call without my knowledge. Anyways the service man never showed up and I went home not thinking two things about it.
Well the next morning, guess who showed up? Yep the service man. He was short, with dark hair, dark tanned skinned very middleastern looking individual. Of course I was curious. So upstairs we went to the copier room, oh by the way I was the one who placed the service call....
As usual I decided to spark up conversation by asking where he was from. Turns out he was from Afghanstan. Wow, well being in the Navy and the military I was then very curious to see how he felt about life there and what we were doing.
I should have prepared myself for a long, long conversation but instead I dealt the question, "So what do you think of the US in your country?" Well, it opened a can of worms that I am still reeling from. However, I am not going to dwell in this blog about that but instead I am going to state what I saw.
For the first time ever I heard a nation that is lost. They have such a one sided view point of alot of things but it is not their culture, it is their religion. I found myself admiring this barely english speaking man not because he had been a through alot but because he was so committed to his faith.
I thought about this later on and simply thought that we, Americans, do not get it. We have finally become that nation that is more concerned about immediate satisfication that we dont care about anything else. It is generally sad to me that we are know as the melting pot of the world and yet we know nothing of our forefathers.
Take a minute today and think how fast you read this blog or how fast you needed to get to work... Or why did it take so long to get your coffee this morning..... I propose that we all need to take sometime and slow down and remember the God that created us.....
Well the next morning, guess who showed up? Yep the service man. He was short, with dark hair, dark tanned skinned very middleastern looking individual. Of course I was curious. So upstairs we went to the copier room, oh by the way I was the one who placed the service call....
As usual I decided to spark up conversation by asking where he was from. Turns out he was from Afghanstan. Wow, well being in the Navy and the military I was then very curious to see how he felt about life there and what we were doing.
I should have prepared myself for a long, long conversation but instead I dealt the question, "So what do you think of the US in your country?" Well, it opened a can of worms that I am still reeling from. However, I am not going to dwell in this blog about that but instead I am going to state what I saw.
For the first time ever I heard a nation that is lost. They have such a one sided view point of alot of things but it is not their culture, it is their religion. I found myself admiring this barely english speaking man not because he had been a through alot but because he was so committed to his faith.
I thought about this later on and simply thought that we, Americans, do not get it. We have finally become that nation that is more concerned about immediate satisfication that we dont care about anything else. It is generally sad to me that we are know as the melting pot of the world and yet we know nothing of our forefathers.
Take a minute today and think how fast you read this blog or how fast you needed to get to work... Or why did it take so long to get your coffee this morning..... I propose that we all need to take sometime and slow down and remember the God that created us.....
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Driver License
Driver License---
Now here is a interesting institute: The other day my wife and I went down to the local DMV. We need to get our new state license seeing I am now out of the military. Of course that is always a dreaded event and so we spent the night before running around finding all the correct informational paper work and laid out our best clothes.
That morning we awoke with butterflies in the stomach and pure dread of having to sit in a line with alot of strangers all of whom do not speak a lick of english.
So there we were, we made it past the registration and took our number. Now how exactly does that work? We were second in line and forty five minutes we finally get called up. C405... What? So we are now standing in front of a nice asian lady who by the way does not speak english very well. Again I say interesting.
She looks at my military ID and goes "this is not a valid ID.." WHAT? Excuse me I just spent four years of my life in the middle east fighting with good men and women, just to hear you say my military ID is not valid. Okay so now the blood pressure is up.
She then turns to my wife and says do you have a passport? A PASSPORT??? Uhm, this is America right? We are not leaving the country as far as I know. My wife says, No I dont have a passport. Of couse this confuses the nice lady and she spends the next five minutes trying to understand why we dont have a passport. My question was did she have a passport?
How is it that she is, who seems to have just arrived in the U.S., is currently asking me an American born citzen if I have a passport? Okay so maybe I am overacting.
So at this point I am fed up and in typically military fashion, breath a few words under my breath, leave my wife standing there and race back home to get the proper Identification. Of course the story would not be complete if I didnt tell you that after I found the proper identification, I jumped in my car and found that the battery in my car had died..........
To make the story complete, I must tell you that several days later after we found the proper Identification we return. Of course I handed them my Military Id and surprise, surprise, it turns out that it is the proper ID and that the nice little lady didnt know that....I am not bitter though..
Now here is a interesting institute: The other day my wife and I went down to the local DMV. We need to get our new state license seeing I am now out of the military. Of course that is always a dreaded event and so we spent the night before running around finding all the correct informational paper work and laid out our best clothes.
That morning we awoke with butterflies in the stomach and pure dread of having to sit in a line with alot of strangers all of whom do not speak a lick of english.
So there we were, we made it past the registration and took our number. Now how exactly does that work? We were second in line and forty five minutes we finally get called up. C405... What? So we are now standing in front of a nice asian lady who by the way does not speak english very well. Again I say interesting.
She looks at my military ID and goes "this is not a valid ID.." WHAT? Excuse me I just spent four years of my life in the middle east fighting with good men and women, just to hear you say my military ID is not valid. Okay so now the blood pressure is up.
She then turns to my wife and says do you have a passport? A PASSPORT??? Uhm, this is America right? We are not leaving the country as far as I know. My wife says, No I dont have a passport. Of couse this confuses the nice lady and she spends the next five minutes trying to understand why we dont have a passport. My question was did she have a passport?
How is it that she is, who seems to have just arrived in the U.S., is currently asking me an American born citzen if I have a passport? Okay so maybe I am overacting.
So at this point I am fed up and in typically military fashion, breath a few words under my breath, leave my wife standing there and race back home to get the proper Identification. Of course the story would not be complete if I didnt tell you that after I found the proper identification, I jumped in my car and found that the battery in my car had died..........
To make the story complete, I must tell you that several days later after we found the proper Identification we return. Of course I handed them my Military Id and surprise, surprise, it turns out that it is the proper ID and that the nice little lady didnt know that....I am not bitter though..
The day of Mass Transportation
Mass Transportation--
I know from the minute I write this there will be those out there who might be angry but take a minute and think about this. As I was driving home in the wonderful DC traffic, I found myself stuck behind a large bus for transportation. Now normally this is not a big deal seeing I do live in a big Metro city and well hey lets save that atmosphere!! However when one is in a hurry to get home and well lets be honest that is everyday, it amazes me that these buses just stop wherever they feel like it. I know that there are stops but come on, does it really take three minutes to load and offload, I mean get your butt up and off the bus, people....
Did I say save the atmosphere?? How is mass transporation solving that?? I ask this because as I am sitting there the bus moves and great big cloud of fumes roll out the back....Interesting. So lets take our cars and make them eco friendly but those busses that are suppose to provide less cars on the road are puffing out huge amounts of carbon dioxide?
Then there is the whole idea of, well this provides a way around for those who dont have a drives license. GET A FREAKIN drivers license.... Its not that hard...But then sitting in the DMV is like entering fort knox without a clearance... Speaking of which, did you know that you should have a passport for this??? I didnt know that. What country is this??? More on that later....
Anyways, I find it irritating that all the global people, whom just reported today that belching mooses are the reason for the atmosphere being destroyed, can yell and scream about a clean environment and yet when you really look at it, there is no real way of cleaning it. So here is to those that ride on a bus every morning, thank you for the smoke screen! I just wanted to get home to pee.
I know from the minute I write this there will be those out there who might be angry but take a minute and think about this. As I was driving home in the wonderful DC traffic, I found myself stuck behind a large bus for transportation. Now normally this is not a big deal seeing I do live in a big Metro city and well hey lets save that atmosphere!! However when one is in a hurry to get home and well lets be honest that is everyday, it amazes me that these buses just stop wherever they feel like it. I know that there are stops but come on, does it really take three minutes to load and offload, I mean get your butt up and off the bus, people....
Did I say save the atmosphere?? How is mass transporation solving that?? I ask this because as I am sitting there the bus moves and great big cloud of fumes roll out the back....Interesting. So lets take our cars and make them eco friendly but those busses that are suppose to provide less cars on the road are puffing out huge amounts of carbon dioxide?
Then there is the whole idea of, well this provides a way around for those who dont have a drives license. GET A FREAKIN drivers license.... Its not that hard...But then sitting in the DMV is like entering fort knox without a clearance... Speaking of which, did you know that you should have a passport for this??? I didnt know that. What country is this??? More on that later....
Anyways, I find it irritating that all the global people, whom just reported today that belching mooses are the reason for the atmosphere being destroyed, can yell and scream about a clean environment and yet when you really look at it, there is no real way of cleaning it. So here is to those that ride on a bus every morning, thank you for the smoke screen! I just wanted to get home to pee.
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