Sooners to play Missouri!

The Sooners are now scheduled to play the Missouri Tigers December 6 at 7 pm in KC, MO, for the Big 12 Championship!

Way to go, Sooners!

Sooners = BCS #2

According to the Week 14 BCS poll, Oklahoma is now rated number two. That would be just behind Alabama and just ahead of Texas.

I haven't seen the announcement, but it would appear we are going to be playing Missouri next week for the Big 12 Championship.

For some reason, Oklahoma dropped to number 4 behind AL, FL, & TX in the AP Top 25. What's up with that?

Boomer Sooner!

SNOW!

That's right! This morning, it was spitting snow. Albeit, very few flakes, but IT WAS DEFINITELY snow!

Oklahoma 61 - Oklahoma State 41

Does anyone know who the OU Special Teams coach is? They sure need some work!

Did our defense even bother to show up?

Brent Mussberger did better last night, but he stilled showed a bias against the Sooners. Why can't ABC hire a non-partisan commentator? I blame the Democrats.

Now, we wait to see if we get to play in the conference championship. Now THERE'S a strange way of determination!

Boomer Sooner, Baby!

More family

The group in the living room.

Emily and her cousin, Kaylee in the game room.

Audrey and her cousins, Nick, James, and one of the twins. (I can't tell from this picture which one.)

Brent needed a little nap with Barney. Awwww.

Good Food and Good Fun!

A "creative" picture with half of the table in the picture, the other half in the mirror!


My nephew, Brent, enjoying.


My sister, Pam, showing off her pies.

Dad carving the smoked ham.

Saturday Thanksgiving

Mom and Dad.


Me and my Meme.


Aunt Patsy, Sally, Mom & Meme

Christmas Decorating Time

Emily and Audrey removing the cultural trinkets and replacing them with a Nativity collection and a Christmas village.

We bought a new tree last year in an after Christmas sale. We didn't realize HOW BIG this tree was going to be!


The house all decked out in lights.

Fun at Grandma's

Sally's Aunt Jeannie spent Thanksgiving with us this year.


Sally and her sister, Mary, enjoyed a game of Scrabble.

Audrey and Emily put up Grandma's Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving Day at the In-Laws'

We spent Thursday with my wife's family in Vinita.


Sally cooked the turkey this year. It was GOO-OOOOD!


Sally's mom made her famous "Parker House Rolls" - my favorite bread!

Thank You, Lord

Thank you, Lord for:

• My family: Sally & the girls, my parents, my sister, my grandmother.
• My church: from the tiniest baby in the nursery to Mabel, the oldest member.
• My friends: Martin, Randy, Bill, Todd, Tim, Becky and too many others to name.
• My blog buddies: Steve, Kevin, Art, Quinn, Michael, Camey, Dorcas, Neil, Debbie, Terry, Les and others.
  
• My former colleagues whose names I cannot mention because of their security status in foreign lands.

But most of all, thank you for Jesus Who gave His life that I might live.

May God truly bless you who read my blog! Happy Thanksgiving!

$19.00 Fill Up

That's right. Gas is $1.54 here in Wagoner, OK! This is the cheapest I have filled up God's Cadillac since I've had it!

Please Fell Free to Contact

I received this in my email box today:

Dear Sir/Madam:

We are one of the leading Public Relation agency working in Central India.

We will be delighted to render our services to you, as we are well connected with almost all leading Print and Other media.

More over we have a good alliance in several states to execute the sensible PR work on your behalf.

Would you require any assistance from our side please fell free to contact.

--

Regards.

Amreysh Dubey

099701 66747

Pune - 01.

Oh yes! I want this company to represent my public relations needs! (Red lettering for emphasis)

A Life of Significance

What will your life count for?

Lottie Moon 2008

Won't you consider what you'll give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to support International Missions?

(The boy in the boat (@ 0:25) with Rankin is his grandson, Zachary. My older daughter was in the same class with him in Thailand.)

Pain is Relative

(and you should see some of my relatives...)

Have you ever heard someone say, "It hurt so bad I thought I was going to die!"? Everyone has a different threshold for pain; that is obvious.

I have, for the past 20-25 years, judged my own wellness on a scale of 0-100% On any given day, I am at 100%. I don't use this scale for emotional or spiritual well-being; only for the physical elements. One a very few occasions, I have rated my physical condition (which includes pain, strength, etc) at 25%. Most common sicknesses get a 60-70%.

This past weekend, I encountered a new kind of pain that I had to judge down around the 35-40% range. To me, that's pretty bad.

The worst pain I have ever had is that of a kidney stone. That was definitely the 25% time! The first time I had them was when I was 21 years old. I ended up passing 10 stones and it took ten days to do it. For half of those days, I prayed, "God: heal me or kill me; I can't take any more of this!" My next door neighbor called me to "encourage" me. She said, "I've had 3 kids and 4 kidney stones. Given the amount of pain, I'd rather have a kid any day!". Thanks so much for your encouragement! In my life, I have now passed over 35 kidney stones. I know, I know: TMI.

Another bad pain was when I had malaria and Hepatitis A at the same time. I got Hep A from a meal in China and malaria from a short vacation to the Philippines. Their incubation time, unfortunately for me, happen to coincide. That was back in 1990.

Other severe pains have been when I fell on the ice and sprained my back or when, overseas, I ate something bad and it felt like you are trying to "digest broken glass". Giardia is bad, but the cure was worse.

This weekend, I ended up with stomach flu of some sort. No "bathroom troubles"; only a severe stomach cramp. I'm not one to complain about things, too much (I hope). But this weekend, my stomach REALLY hurt!

It started hurting last week sometime, but it felt like I had done too many setups or something (trust me; that wasn't the case). I had put up Christmas lights on the house and I thought perhaps that climbing up and down the ladder had made me sore. Sunday morning was bad, but it was a big Sunday at church and we had our Church Thanksgiving Dinner and I needed to be there. As the afternoon went on, however, the soreness got worse. As time for the evening service came, I thought to myself, "surely I can last an hour". But I was wrong.

At 15 minutes til time to start, I came to the realization that if I couldn't even stand up straight, there was no way that I could bring the evening message. Several around me perceived that something was wrong and everyone told me to go home, that they would take care of the evening service. Finally, I agreed and made the longest 100 yard walk of my life! About 2/3 of the way home, I didn't think I was going to make it. I hurt so bad that I had to hold on to the electric pole. That 100 yard walk to me about 10 minutes!

I found that I could sit in my recliner without too much pain, but anytime I moved, breathed deep, or coughed, the pain was incredible. Monday was spent in my recliner. I improved slightly as the day went on.

Today, I am at 85%. My stomach is sore and I am kind of weak. At least I don't have a headache and fever like yesterday!

I sure hope you don't get this stomach flu; it really hurts. But, then again, pain is relative.

Missions in Eastern Europe!

Come, Join us in Europe from CEE Admin on Vimeo.


[HT: Trey Atkins]

Oklahoma 65 - Texas Tech 21

All I can say is "Wow!" The last touchdown by Tech came after a very bad call. Even OU Hater, Brent Musburger said it was a bad call.

Looks like we earned some BCS "style" points.

TT - "Guns Down!"

Boomer Sooner, Baby!

ROFL

[HT: Monday Morning Insight]

Happy Birthday, Brent

No longer the little boy, but now a father yourself, may God grant to you His wisdom and protection. May He give you grace and show you mercy.

Happy Birthday, Brent.

OK - this is freaky...

I saw this ad on Facebook today. "Obama Holiday Gift Tees?" How freaky is that?

Speaking of Scams...

I just got this email today:



The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma

Contact: For Immediate Release
Taprina Milburn
Director of Communications
405.949.9500, tmilburn@bfok.org



Fundraising Solicitation a Phone Scam

The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma has learned that someone is calling individuals claiming to be the Baptist Foundation. The caller asks for monetary donations and requests credit card information.
“We would like to alert our Baptist constituents as well as the Oklahoma community in general to this phone scam,” said Taprina Milburn, Foundation director of communications. “The Foundation does not conduct telephone fundraising campaigns.”
John Rinehart, an investigator with The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said, “Fraudulent fundraising is on the rise—especially during the holidays. If you do receive one of these phone calls write down the number that appears on the caller ID—even if the number appears as the Foundation’s number (scammers have the ability to use organizations’ telephone numbers)—notify the Foundation, and report the incident to The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office at 405.521.2029.

You may contact The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma at 800.949.9988, 405.949.9500 or visit our website at www.bfok.org.

A Buck Sixty-Five

$1.65. That's what we are now paying for gas in Wagoner!

What are you paying where YOU live?

[HT: Sally]

A little light heartedness for the day

Now here's something funny:



[HT: Monday Morning Insight]

20 degrees this morning!

That's right! My indoor-outdoor high-low memory digital thermometer registered 20.0 degrees this morning! The sun is shining! The birds were rather quiet. AND ONLY A LITTLE BREEZE was blowing!

What a morning!

Well, maybe just one more....

They flew there in their private jets to ask for bailout money. "It's like showing up to a soup kitchen in your top hat and tuxedo".

Well said.

One more thing, then I'll be done for the night

OK, just one more thing.

What is it with guys and pony tails? Especially the old dudes. Do you know how ridiculous you look? Cut if off and send it to "Locks of Love"; we'll all be better off for it!

/rant

Cruise Control is there for a reason!

If you bought your car new, you paid anywhere from $200 to $500 extra for your cruise control. Why don't you use it in moving traffic?

Today, on the way home from Tulsa, there was a Jeep Wrangler come roaring up behind me. I had my cruise set on 65 and I was in the middle lane of the three lane highway. I was passing slower cars and faster cars were passing me. It was an arrangement that seemed to be working.

That is, until Mr. Jeep showed up!

He rode my tail for about 4 miles. There was plenty of room to pass me in the fast lane. Finally, the three lanes went down to two and I was in the "slow" lane. He finally roared his engine and passed me, then zoomed right in front of me to get off at the next exit!

Hmmmm. As my mom would say, "God love 'em".

$1.69 gasoline in Wagoner!

That's right, friends. Every station in Wagoner is now selling regular unleaded for $1.69. I saw it for $1.67 in Tulsa a few minutes ago.

Remember back in the '70's when it was REGULAR or UNLEADED? Now it's regular unleaded, unleaded PLUS, or premium unleaded. Some places even have more of a choice than that!

I remember driving our family 1972 Ford LTD to Southern California in 1975. Our car took regular, but they were out. I remember there being quite a discussion whether or not we could put unleaded in our car. And my goodness! It was $.72! Why was gasoline so expensive? We thought that the White Bros. $.42 was outrageous in the dessert along I-40! (And it was!)

Pull up your pants!

I just returned from a flying trip Tulsa to pick up some jewelry being repaired. I had to go to Woodland Hills Mall.

As I'm walking to the store, there is a very large, young black man walking ahead of me. No big deal. I just happen to look down and the crotch of his pants is right at his knees!

For pity sakes! Pull up your pants! Use a belt! You look ridiculous!

I don't get that one at all!

Where are the pink flamingos?

(click for larger image)

I received this picture by email yesterday with the following note:

Passed this house this morning on the way to work in Hollywood, FL. Hard to see are the life-size marlin over the garage door, and the large snowman in the fishing boat next to SUV in driveway. Somehow, this just doesn't cut it without pink flamingos, after all, this is Ft. Lauderdale!!!!

I can't imagine having a lawn that cluttered with Christmas junk.

Making a little progress

The temperature turned out to be a wonderful 78 degrees yesterday, albeit the wind was a little strong. Nevertheless, I got out all the Christmas lights and successfully attached them to my roof. It took most of the afternoon and a quick trip to Wal-Mart to buy a new timer, some more extension cords, and some more clips.

Last year, I had all red lights on the roof, but only 4 strings of them. After Christmas, I found four boxes of green lights for 75% off, so, I spent the time to alternate between red and green to make our home a festive holiday place!

Since it gets dark so early, they were on when the girls got home last night from Muskogee. Audrey and Sally liked them; Emily was upset that I put them up without her. I told her that I had ONLY got the lights on the roof and next Saturday, we'd have plenty to do, putting up the lights around the windows and in the bushes. She was OK with that.

Once I get it all together, I'll take a picture and post it here for all to enjoy. I just hope we can have the status of "Christmas House" this year!

Attention Please!

Now that Christmas is only 35 days away, I'd like to announce that I am ALMOST in the Christmas mood.

I'll be hanging Christmas lights on the roof today, as the weatherman says it's the last warm day of November.

That ought to do it!

You may now go back to whatever it was you were doing.

The announcement is over.

THIS Time of Year, (Again)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's "That" Time of Year Again!

Call it what it is: CHRISTMAS!!!

Waiting on the Lord

Have you ever heard that phrase? "I'm just waiting on the Lord".

Presumably, it comes from Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

My wife impressed me the other day with the idea that "to wait" could/should also meant "to serve". When we are waiting for God to answer/work we shouldn't be idle. We should be serving (waiting on) him!

The whole idea of servanthood is not popular in the church nowadays. We want to be waited on, not waiting on others. But Jesus said that if we want to be great in God's kingdom, we must learn to be the servant of all.

Let's not be idle while we wait! Let's wait while we wait!

Good observation, Sally!

Lottie Moon and West Africa

I know many of these folks. May God bless them as they serve in West Africa. May God bless you as you support them through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Click here to give directly to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering or you could send a check to my church and we'll forward it on. (Make checks payable to Immanuel Southern Baptist Church) and send to:

Lottie Moon Offering
c/o Immanuel Southern Baptist Church
611 N. Gertrude Ave
Wagoner, OK 74467

All gifts are tax deductible.

www.immanuelsouthern.com

Christmas is 40 days away

Funny, though, I'm not really in the Christmas "mood" yet. I debated about putting up my Christmas lights on the roof yesterday, but felt it was too early, despite the fair weather. Today is my "day off" (even though I'm in the office), but it is cool and rainy-ish.

Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Walgreens, and even Ace Hardware are all in "FULL CHRISTMAS RETAIL MODE", hoping for a halfway decent shopping season. I was in Bass Pro for lunch the other day at the BGCO Convention and they are all decked out, too.

Sally and I have bought the girls a FEW things for Christmas, but something seems out of whack this year. Maybe I just need to play my Dean Martin Christmas Album to get me in the mood.

I've been a bit disappointed that I can't find a particular decoration. I used to have some blow-mold outdoor Christmas candles with "NOEL" on them. You could ALWAYS find them at Wal-Mart or TG&Y. Wal-Mart has some Santas this year, but no candles. I found some at a second hand junk shop the other day, but they were really faded and the "flames" were cracked. We had some in Thailand, but I left them there, since we moved to Hong Kong and lived in a high-rise apartment house. I went through this same problem last year.

I've got a really great plan for my lights this year. Last year was all red and only went around the front half of the house. After Christmas last year, I found green lights on sale so bought enough to cover the other half of the house. I'll alternate red and green lights on each string then have a "Holly Jolly Christmas House" once again!

BGCO Annual Meeting - A Participant's Observations

This was my first Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Annual Meeting that I have ever attended. It was conducted at The Church at Battle Creek in Broken Arrow, OK. That made it very convenient, as it was only a 30 minute drive each way.

The Church at Battle Creek was an interesting venue, to say the least. It was formerly an Outlet Mall of America, back in the early 80's. It then became Gracemont and finally TCABC. Not your typical Baptist Church. As you walk in, you are greeted by a huge waterfall that as you look at it closer, realize that it is the church's baptistery. Kind of cool, really. Then, there is a coffee shop and book store.

The exhibitors have set up in the aisles of the old mall. Some of the old mall is still recognizable from my visit to shop there 25 years ago. Quite frankly, that part was a very nice set up. There was LOTS of room!

The first part of the meeting was the Pastor's Conference. That was really great! There were three notable speakers: Dr. Bobby Kelly, OBU professor, Dr. Robert Smith, Beeson professor, and Dr. Frank Cox, pastor of N. Metro FBC, Lawrenceville, GA. There were three other speakers as well, who did a fine job. The Pastor's Conference was a great encouragement.

Monday evening, was the first business session. The music was provided by TCABC praise band. I'll be the first to admit it wasn't my cup of tea. They were given the freedom by conference organizers to "be themselves". That is what they did. Now, don't get me wrong, they were a great praise band. But, I am a 44 year old guy and I thought the music was too loud. I also didn't know ANY of the songs they sang. They did sing two "hymns", but when we actually sange them, the words were the same, but the tune was unfamiliar. I guess I'm just an old "fuddy duddy". Does a praise band really NEED a fog machine? It looked more like a show than a worship time. That's my observation, only.

The business sessions were all unremarkable, for the most part. There was one point where one person objected to the way a resolution was written, but did not offer an amendment. All other points passed without discussion. The only "tense" time (and it wasn't really tense) came for the election of the new president. They called for a hand vote. It was too close to call. Then they called for a counted hand vote. It was too close, so they called for a written ballot vote. Finally, Emerson Falls, pastor from Glorieta Baptist Church in OKC was elected. All other officers were elected by acclamation.

The reports from the various minitries was indeed encouraging. It is a good time to be an Oklahoma Baptist! The only negative aspect of the entire meeting was the report about baptisms for adults 18-30 is down 26% over the past several years. This was alarming and we all prayed for this situation. All of our agencies are in very good financial shape as we enter this period of economic uncertainty. Jerry Rankin reported, by video, that 609,000 baptisms were reported last year by IMB personnel and partners! PTL!! David Whitlock was presented as OBU's new president. His enthusiasm was contagious!

All in all, it was a very good "first" annual meeting for me. I enjoyed the fellowship. I enjoyed seeing old friends. I enjoyed meeting new friends. And I enjoyed meeting "blog" friends for the first time face to face. As an added bonus, I even got to meet KOTV-6 weatherman Alan Crone who was there to play drums in the FBC Tulsa praise band for Tuesday afternoon's session.

God bless Oklahoma Baptists!

Old Friends

I love getting to see old friends. (not that my friends are old!) This week at the BGCO Annual Meeting, I got to see my friends Dwight and Mary. I first met them in Macao back in 1989. They are currently in Oklahoma where Dwight is teaching at Oklahoma Baptist University and Mary is studying for her PhD at OU. Our visit was brief but delightful!

Santa or Satan?

Remember the old Saturday Night Live bit with Dana Carvey doing "The Church Lady"? One of the funny bits was confusing Santa with Satan. He said something about getting the letters wrong.

Well, today on Facebook, I found a "status update" that had something to do with this:

Lottie's Potty

A few years back, I had the opportunity to travel to Shangdong Province, China. This is Lottie Moon country.

I went to the church where she worshiped in Penglai and saw where the original girl's school was located. On the grounds of the church is an outhouse. We unofficially dubbed it, "Lottie's Potty".

Since we are entering the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering time of year, I thought I'd show it to you:



(for my China savvy friends) It is fun to walk in the "footsteps" of the faithful.

Oklahoma 66 - Texas A&M 28

Pretty good game, I guess. Yes, we blew them away, but we had WAY too many mistakes.

We can't make those kinds of mistakes the next two games.

Kudos to TT. I wasn't rooting for you, because I'm an Okie. But good game.

BOOMER SOONER!

Congrats Audrey & Emily!

I attended an awards assembly this afternoon with my wife, parents and two daughters. They both received "character" awards.

Audrey received the character award "Truthfulness" for the month of September. Emily received the character award "Obedience" for the month of October.

I am proud in the Lord for both of my girls!

Hi-Tech Security for a World Gone Mad

[HT: One Man's Blog]

Facebook?

Do you "do" Facebook? Do you read my blog?

If so, let's be Facebook Friends.

Click on THIS link and "request friend". Drop me a message to let me know you read my blog.

Don't have a Facebook account? Sign up here.

Wind Damage

For the past several days, weathermen have been predicting the chance of severe storms ushered in ahead of a cold front. They were right on the money. There were several tornado warnings and we were under a tornado watch for most of last evening. The front finally made it to Wagoner at about 11:40 last night.



I decided to get up and make sure rain wasn't blowing in, as the winds were raging. Gusts were in the 40-50 mph range. I first checked the dining room window and, sure enough, rain was coming in. As I looked in my half-sleep mode, I noticed that rain was splashing in off of my gas grill. That was odd because it is normally on the back porch/stoop and it is a good distance from the dining room window.



As the morning light came and I was able to get out and look at it, I found that, not only had it been blown from the porch, but it appears to have some damage, too. All the guts were out of it, which shouldn't be a big deal. The left hand shelf was broken off at the screws. That isn't good. Also, the OU SOONERS grill cover was GONE. We later found it about 100 ft from the grill, around the corner of the house.



It obviously could have been worse. I know that. Someone about 75 miles away had their house completely destroyed by straight winds. I just found it interesting that it messed with my grill so bad.

This morning, the skies are clear. The wind has stopped for now. It is supposed to blow pretty hard again later. The temps are crisp. It was a nice 46 degrees when I left the house at 7:25.

I hope you have a good day!

Comments working again

Someone told me that they couldn't post comments today. I changed it from embedded comments back to the original format.

It works fine now.

State of Confusion

Last night, during the Obama Joe Biden (say it fast) acceptance speech, I witnessed what appeared to me to be a religious service. Or at the very least, a religious experience for the participants. I saw weeping. I saw hands raised in praise. I even saw one woman mouth "Thank you, Jesus".

How is it one person can say, "Thank you, Jesus" when others are saying "Oh! God why?" Many are looking at Obama as being the "savior of America". I don't see it that way.

Let's be clear about this. No man will save America. Our trust should be in God. If McCain would have won, I can't imagine anyone saying that he was the "savior of America". It is rather scary to me that people are calling Obama the "messiah" and Obama isn't denying it.

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24

Am I calling Obama the anti-Christ? No. I am saying to not follow anyone but Jesus.

We need to pray for Obama. Proverb 21:1 says, "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. " Let us pray that God would use Obama for good in this nation. Pray that God would make Obama's heart completely His. Pray that God would heal our land. Pray that our nation would humble itself and call out to God, once again.

Nothing has changed from yesterday. God STILL sits on His throne!

Racing Heart

Yesterday, I was given the honor and privilege of delivering the annual missions sermon at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Muskogee Baptist Association. I have known for many months what I wanted to preach on. I chose II Kings 7:3-9, where the lepers where sitting outside the gates of Samaria which was being besieged by King Ben-hadad of Aram. A desperate situation was inside the city and they were resorting to cannibalism to survive. The lepers were also starving, but hey were outside the gates. They got the idea to go to the camp of the Arameans to see if they would have mercy on them. They didn't know that God had scared them off and the camp had been abandoned.

The lepers found food and ate their fill. Then they carted off silver and other loot and hid it for later. Finally, their consciences got the better of them and they decided that since this was a "day of good news" they better not keep it to themselves. They went back and told the city that salvation could be found in the camp.

I likened this to the Christian's journey: salvation is found in Jesus; the new believer gets his fill of the new blessing (discipleship), then goes and tells others of the blessing (evangelism/missions).

Well, it seemed to go OK. I interspersed stories of our time in Africa in the sermon and tried to make it very personal. Before the meeting started (like a few months ago) I was told that I would have 2o minutes for the sermon. When I looked at the program yesterday afternoon, I found that I had actually been allowed 45.

The sanctuary of the church where the meeting was held didn't have a clock for me to go by. There was one on the pulpit, but the battery was dead. I forgot to take my watch off and lay it there (but we all know it doesn't mean anything when preachers do that!).

Well, I got confused on the time. I kept trying to snatch glimpses of my watch, but mixed up. As I finished, I was proud of myself for finishing 20 minutes early. As I walked away, I began to think about it some more and then realized instead of finishing 20 minutes early, I had actually gone over by 40 minutes!

A wave of humiliation/grief/lament/sorrow/embarassment swept over me. I had been afforded this incredible opportunity and had unabashedly abused it! My heart began to race and I started sweating from all the adrenylan in my system. I was losing my breath! My heart was pounding!

Finally, as I thought more about it, I decided to take another look at a program. Then I looked at my watch again.

I HADN'T gone over 40 minutes! I was only over by 8! And since we were a few minutes late anyway, no one thought a thing about it!

Another funny thing that happened during the sermon was that my phone began to ring. Now, I had it on vibrate, but everyone who knew me (I thought) knew I was going to be preaching at about this time. However, my good friend, Quinn, from South Carolina, wasn't aware of this particular addition to my schedule. He ended up leaving a voice message asking me who the quarterback for Texas Tech was, (as if I knew or cared!).

Sorry I didn't call you back, Quinn!

I voted today

I registered Democrat when I moved back from overseas, mostly so I could vote in the local races. Here is rural Oklahoma, the Democratic party is generally the conservative party, at least when it comes to county commissioners, mayors, sheriffs, etc. I was number 77 in my precinct to vote. When I went to sign the book, my wife, Sally, had already signed it. She voted this morning on the way to work. She said she was number 26.

I did vote for one or two democrats today. (Not Obama) Most of the folks I happened to have voted for were Republican. I think if everyone in Oklahoma who were Republican at heart would actually register that way, we wouldn't have any Democrat candidates!

I love exercising my right to vote. What a privilege! What a responsibility!

I am excited that all the political ads will be over tomorrow! Actually, I heard that they will start campaigning for 2012 by November 15.

A Great Family Day

Last Saturday, we took a drive to look at the fall foliage here in NE Oklahoma. Ok, so it isn't as great as Maine or New Hampshire, but its all we got.


One of the first things we did was stop at a grocery store and buy some picnic goodies. This was a spontaneous idea, otherwise we would have brought it all from home. We found a nice State Park on Lake Tenkiller. We were all alone and had a great time.


We all enjoyed skipping rocks on the lake.


Yes, there is a little bit of color in those trees!

Better late than never

Well, these pictures are a bit late, but I've been a bit busy...


Emily was the Uni-brow witch from the Far East


Audrey was the poor little hobo


Together they made quite the pair.

They didn't really want to go Trick-or-Treating this year. They wanted to stay home an pass out candy. However, they finally gave in and went to a few houses.

We didn't have many children this year; probably 30 all together...

Audrey carved the pumpkin all by herself this year.

Crazy Phone Call

As I'm sitting here in my church office this morning, I just received a call from the Association of Chief's of Police requesting a contribution.

"Gary" asked to speak with the person who is in charge of making charitable contributions. I informed him that we, as a church, do not make those types of donations, but would be happy to receive them from his organization.

"Gary" made the comment that he thinks that we probably already have too much money, but that is "another thing".

I immediately asked to speak to his supervisor. He said his supervisor was in a meeting. I asked to speak to his supervisor's supervisor. He said that's who he's meeting with.

I told him that I didn't care that they were in a meeting, I wanted to speak to the supervisor immediately. (I am surprised he didn't just hang up on me.)

The supervisor came on the line and told and asked how he could help me. I explained the situation and told him that the comment was inappropriate and and was unappreciated and was offensive. He went on to tell me that they were in a collection campaign for something or other. I interrupted and told him that I didn't care WHAT they were doing that the comment and call was inappropriate. He finally agreed. He said that they weren't supposed to call churches anyway. He said he would take our number off the list and speak with Gary. I asked him to take our home phone number off the list, as they had called us many times at home.

My goodness! What is this world coming to?

Drastic Measures

My friend, Steve, has taken drastic measures to control his son. He had a "special purpose" room built to contain the rambunctiousness of a nine month old. Here, the child is pictured imprisoned in this special room.

Click here to read the whole story.


Love ya, Bro! :-)

2008 Voter Guide

Click for larger image

[HT: Eternity Matters]

A little fun from the next president

Here is John McCain on SNL . Good stuff.

Something isn't right

My family went to the local Chinese buffet for lunch after church today. It is right across the street from our Wal-Mart.

Something I don't understand is why the gasoline was back up to $1.97!?!

I think there is a conspiracy in our town about gas price fixing anyway. I think this may prove it.

Time Change

Well, It appears that I have a little time this morning to do some miscelaneous blogging.

I forgot to set my clock "back" one hour.

The worse thing is, I even got up earlier than normal. Egads!

$1.95 gas

Yep, gas in Wagoner is now $1.95.

As my friend Jacob said, "Come on $1.50!"

Oklahoma 62 - Nebraska 28

I didn't get a chance to watch any football yesterday. Looks like I missed a big day.

Now, it looks like the Cowboys and the Raiders are the teams to beat!

Boomer Sooner!