Tomorrow's my birthday...

Does this look like the face of a soon-to-be 38 year old?

What will I do tomorrow to celebrate?
-I'm playing golf in the morning with a couple of buds
-I'll take Bryan to the doctor
-Maybe browse Barnes and Noble a bit and suck down a frap
-Recieve a surprise gift from my wife...I have no ideas, but she swears I'll love it.
-I'll hang with my family
-On Friday we are going to Joe's Crab Shack for the birthday dinner...scarf down some snow crab!

Weekend in Chattanooga

Thursday night we all piled in the car to go visit with our best buddies Geron and Lydia Brown. They moved to Chattanooga, TN. a couple of years ago and there have been voids in our hearts since!

We enjoyed catching up with each other, played some X-box (not Holly and Lydia), Geron, Bryan and I went and saw the new X-Man movie...most excellent and two thumbs up...played a great card game called "hand and foot" (Holly and I lost two games to the Browns...rematch!), we even went to Ichiban, a great hibachi grill.

Of course a visit to Chattanooga can't be complete without going to Clumpies Ice Cream (some good stuff...I had "Two scoops of Ice Cream in a Waffle Cone")…Saturday morning we went to IHOP and Geron had “Two scrambled eggs and a cheap T-bone.” We would’ve gone to this great coffee house, where I would have had “Two cups of coffee and a big ole’ scone”, but we ran out of time!

Of course our visit was way too short...we really enjoy our friends company...they are very dear friends to us. We definitely look forward to seeing them again, real soon!

Below are some pics of "DOWNTOWN" Chattanooga, which really is a beautiful city.

My son Bryan...

I have always been a proud papa of my boy Bryan. If you have read any of my past blog post you've seen several of them "showcasing" Bryan for different things.

Last Thursday night Bryan graduated from 5th grade! Man, I was excited for him because of his many accomplishments (Honor Roll, Beta Club, etc.) and then I was saddened because they showed this slide show of all the 5th graders. Pics from the past (their first day of school, field trips from past grades, you get the idea) I found myself tearing up a time or two...

As part of the 5th grade tribute he played the drums as part of the talent show...and as always he rocked the house. He played several different Latino beats (calypso, partino alto, bossa nova) he was great...and I was so proud.

He'll be in sixth grade next year...and he'll be in our youth ministry. Man, I'm getting old! Bryan, I am so proud of you!

The JP Invitational 2006

So this past weekend was the 11th annual JP Invitational at Barren River State Park. What's the JP Invitational? Why it's by far the biggest golfing event of the year...it's 3 days of golf, eating, golf, watching Sports Center, playing cards and oh yea, playing more golf.

We had a great time this year as eight bro's in Christ gathered from Lexington and Richmond. It was a mix of ole' college and church buddies and a great time was had by all! I can't tell you how much these guys mean to me...they have been true comrades to me over the years. For some of the guys we've gone through EKU together, been in each other's weddings, been there for the birth of our children...prayed and worshipped together. Jammed out to many concerts from Ichthus to Bruce Springsteen. Laughed at weird things like, “What’s a Belgium waffle?” Robo and I one time while in Hiltom Head on Spring Break during the college days, walked like 3 miles on the beach to go see John Mellencamp’s beach house (he wasn’t there)…Many other adventures and not enough space to write. Great weekend guys! Let's do number 12 next year!

IT'S OVER!!

The Spring semester is officially over as of Saturday, May 13th at 11:15pm. Say "Hoa"...say "hoa-hoa"...now everybody SCREAM!!! Dang, what a long semester it has been...from Genesis to Malachi...and Acts to Revelation...91 lectures watched on the computer, 5 book reviews, forums and worksheets, etc. etc. It's OVER!

Thanks to my family for allowing me the time to do this...I am looking forward to spending more evenings with you guys and not staying up so late anymore.

Allright...I'll get a few weeks off and then I have ONE more class left. I'll be doing another J-Term class June 5th-8th at Southern Seminary. Cramming a whole semester in four days...that's my kind of class! So now I have three books to read before June 5th, better get crackin'.

Proud Pappa!

Sorry for a delay in blogging...had a full week of stuff, got some kind of stomach virus on Saturday (almost over it!). So here's an update on my karate kid son Bryan!

Bryan of course has been taking Aikido with Master Sensei Ron Boyd of the Bushido Aikido School. He started back in January of this year...every Thursday night he attends an hour-and-a-half class. They work through all kinds of cool moves, etc.

Well this past Thursday night Holly went and picked up Bryan from Aikido...he walks through the front door and he's wearing this way cool YELLOW belt. It was testing night for him and he had no idea. Of course that is the idea, so they can't like prepare in advance. So according to Sensei Ron and the two other black belts...he passed and moved to the yellow belt. See pics!

His goal of course is to one day be a black belt. But today...I can still take him, but not for long. He demonstrated some moves on me...he knows his stuff! I am proud!

Who would of thunk it?

The Cincinnati Reds have THE best record in baseball! I will savor this til at least June...that's when the wheels usually fall off...but who knows, maybe this is the year! Go Redlegs!

One of my favorite things

It's Tuesday morning and it's a SOGGY, RAINY Tuesday morning. Just got back from our weekly Prayer Breakfast with our youth...I had to come home and fix the gutter that I didn't finish last night!

Okay I have many favorite things that make me smile and feel all happy inside. One of those things is our fountain that we have on our front porch. (You may think this to be corny, but that's why it's called "MY" favorite things) We got this fountain last year around the beginning of spring time. It lights up at night and looks and sounds...relaxing. There is something about dripping water that is so tranquil to me and I'm sure many others. But I really dig this fountain...it's nothing fancy, but to me it says, "Spring and Summer Time are Here!"

I like these kinds of rainy days...life seems to slow down a bit! Have a blessed day.