Happy Birthday James

Saturday, we celebrated James' 7th birthday. We had a great time. Each of our children has changed our life in unique ways. James brings life to the house. He bounces down the steps in the mornings (usually before his alarm goes off) and is ready to take on the world. But only after some cuddle time. For James, life is either a musical or a sporting event. It is not uncommon for him to break out in spontaneous song with lyrics he makes up as he goes. Yet, competition drives James. If you can't win, he doesn't really care about playing. We are so glad he is a part of our life.


The biggest milestone of being 6 for James was that he is now a full fledged reader. The switch has flipped and he is taken off. Here is a sweet picture of him reading to us. The challenge for 7 is to be tying his shoes :) .

A-L-D-E-R-M-A-N

With correctly spelling "alderman", Grace won the EastView Elementary spelling bee. Now it is on to the system wide spelling bee on February 8th. There she will compete against the top spellers from grades 4-8 throughout the school system.















Here is Grace & her friend, Mansi, who also qualified for the system wide spelling. Aren't those cool bobble head trophies?

Insurance is a good thing

You never think about some things till you need them. I could not have told you if I had comprehensive coverage on my car until Friday morning. That is why I hit a small deer going down I-40. I am unhurt. My car has just under $3000 worth of damage that should be repaired in about a week. My insurance covers a rental during the interim.

The deer didn't survive. Did you know in Tennessee, if you kill it with your car, it is yours if you so choose? I didn't bring any venison home. But I could have if I had wanted to.

Thoughts on Last Nights Game

Actually it should be the thoughts on the first 3 quarters of the game. I went to bed after the 3rd quarter. I hate eastern time. I love living in East Tennessee but if we still lived in Alabama, the game would have come on an hour earlier. James could have watched more than 5 minutes of the 1st quarter and I could have watched the whole thing.

Congrats to U of Fla. What a win. Their defense was spectacular. In fact, their defense has been good all year. The only loss they suffered this year was to the hands of my Auburn Tigers. How good was the Fla. defense that day? The allowed no offensive touchdowns in a 27 - 17 loss. Auburn scored on 4 field goals, a safety, a blocked punt returned for a touchdown and a fumble recovery for a touchdown on Florida's last play of the game. Everybody was going into the game talking about Florida's offense. The defense has been the strength of this team all year and it was nice to see them get some attention last night.

Auburn finishes the year ranked #8 in the coaches poll and #9 in the AP. We beat the #1 team (Fla.) and the #3 team in LSU this year. The problem was we lost the Arkansas (#15/16) and Georgia (#23/26). Losses that were ugly to boot. Not a bad year all in all.

The Pause That Refreshes

The minister at First Christian, Charles Reese, related a story several weeks ago. He was talking about when he first attended a restoration church with a neighbor friend. When he returned from church, his mom asked how he had enjoyed church. He remembers replying, "it was good, they even served refreshments." He was referring to the Lord's Supper.

It got me thinking about how true it is that the Lord's Supper should be refreshment in the literal sense of the word. Dictionary.com defines Refreshment as "something that refreshes". As I learned it fourth grade, it is poor to use a root of a word to define a word. Therefore, let's see what it says about Refresh. Dictionary.com defines Refresh as: "to provide new vigor and energy by rest, food, etc. (often used reflexively), to stimulate (the memory), to make fresh again; reinvigorate or cheer (a person, the mind, spirits, etc.).

Isn't that what the Lord's Supper is supposed to be about? Giving us renewed vigor? Stimulating our memory of what has been done for us? Reminding us of our fresh start and making us fresh again? What a neat way of looking at the Lord's Supper.

What other perspectives do you have on the Lord's Supper?

This year I resolve....

Happy New Year everyone!

In the past, I have avoided making resolutions. It always appeared to me to akin to saying "Hey everyone, look what I am not going to do this year." The other option I saw was to do things that were obviously things I was going to do, such as "This year I resolve to break my resolutions."

This year, I have decided I am going to sincerely try to do resolutions. I am starting small with just a few. I have shared them with Shannon for accountability sake. One of the ones that I have decided to pursue is to be a better blogger. More timely post with fewer typos.