mom's retirement party

A few Sunday’s ago my sneaky sister and I put together a surprise retirement party for my mom, who retired back in January. Mom had worked for Sysco foods for about 29 years...that's a long time. She was the payroll manager there so of course everyone loved her!

As Hannibal from The "A" Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together!"...well that's what happened...and what a plan we had. We cooped up about 50+ people in mom's house (of course we both still have keys!). Lisa gave her a story about needing her to come home from a friends house...she did and whala! SURPRISE!

It was great time! We had folks from her work, church and of course family. My mom is something else...she is one of the most humble and loving mom's I know. She is still to this day one of my hero's for life...she has taught me so much about life and still does to this day. I'm glad she's retired now...I hope to see her more often!

Check out some of these great pics of her...doesn't she look surprised!

Gearing up for a b-day celebration

Tomorrow is Bryan's unofficial birthday...he's birthday is on Leap Day which of course occurs once every four years. So in all actuality...he'll be 2 3/4 tomorrow! We've got a big weekend in store for him and dang if doesn't deserve it...Friday we are letting him invite one buddy to Miyako for his b-day dinner (great food and a great show!), then we are going to the Fayette Mall to let him shop around a bit. He's become quite fashionable in the past several months. On Saturday we have family and friends coming over for a party to celebrate the "B". I'll have some pictures up afterwards of all the action.

Here's a pic of him from the Believe conference this past weekend...I love my boy!

a weekend spent with 4,000

This past weekend I took 37 of our middle school yutes and leaders to the Believe Conference in Cincy, OH. This was like the 4th year that we've been...and what a weekend!! Dang...4,000 middle schoolers!! Craziness, but a real blast.

C.I.Y. (Christ In Youth)is the ministry that puts this on and let me tell you, they do an incredible job. Great worship...great speaker...great weekend.

A highlight for me...my son Bryan went; it was his first conference since with us. I told him before we left that I would do my best to be his youth minister this weekend and not a dad (unless I deemed it necessary). We jumped around together as we worship in the "mosh pit"...at one point during a slower set he came up and leaned against me and grabbed my arms from behind...what a moment that I tried to really savor. I love my son...and that moment was just one of those "I'll never forget this time" experiences.

When we got home last night I crashed and was out. What a way to spend a weekend...4,000 yutes!

More surgery...

My son Bryan had some out patient surgery today at UK Hospital. They had to replace the tube that he has in his side...seems there was a leak in the old one. Everything went very well, Bryan is such a brave little guy. He really amazes me at how he has undergone five surgeries since July 2006. Most of those surgeries had been because of infections that would develop due to the nature of the colon and all the bacteria. Once his colon has been retrained, they'll take this tube out (prayefully by summertime!) So please continue to pray for Bryan...

UPDATE on a much, much less important injury:
My butt still hurts from the sledding acident!

A GREAT week for Cardinal Basketball

Lots of folks have written off the Cards this year in basketball...some even saying that Ricky P. has lost some of his 'umphh.' BUT this week alone the Cards went to Pittburgh (ranked #2) and beat the them from start to finish. Then tonight they went to Marquette (ranked #13) and beat them with a last second three.

Go Cards...I'm smelling the NCAA tournament already!

Snow Daze...

Got some snow today...finally! It seemed like all we ever got around here was a threat of snow, but not today. I think about 2 inches fell! So Bryan and I took advantage of the snow and our new backyard that has a serious snow hill. I took my first run down on the plastic sled...going pretty fast...hit a rock and I think I've bruised my tail bone! Dang, it hurt...still does. Kinda hard to sit down. Oh yea, the sled sorta got a crack in it as well!

Of course after hitting the rock and spending a little time moaning in pain at the bottom of the hill...rolling around in the snow...my son, my boy, my legacy, who was obviously concerned for his dad's well being asked the question..."Is the sled okay?" Love ya buddy!

Exclusive rare photo

Last Saturday night something rare happened...not just rare, but odd even. My good friend Greg Powell gave me his UK vs. Florida tickets (he couldn't go), but the only stipulation was I had to wear this blue piece of clothing.

Now understand I grew up in Louisville and have ALWAYS been a Cardinal fan. I like the Cats, but not to the point that I have UK apparel...that would be too overboard. But for my friend Greg, I wore this blue UK pullover...it was cold outside so at least it kept me warm.

My other buddy Jon Barron went with me to the game, and what a game it was...and yes I did cheer for the Cats. But it was sorta hot in Rupp Arena, I mean there were like 24,000+ fans there...so the UK pullover came off from the get go.

It was a great night of basketball...experienced some very passionate UK fans...or should I say scary passionate fans! The Cats fell short because they couldn't hit the three or shoot free throws...but what a good time...except for this strange rash that I got all over my upper body...had to be that pullover.

Thanks Greg for the tickets!

Surprise for Holly

Finally! After 13 years of marriage to my best friend...I finally surprised her with something. Now, let me make this clear...Holly does not like surprises in any form or fashion. But last night for a Valentines Date I got her good.

Holly has always wanted to ride in a limousine...didn't matter where to, she just wanted to ride in one. So yesterday I told her we needed to leave around 6pm to go to dinner...as we left and got to exit 95, I pulled over at the Shell station to go in and buy some gum (I was stalling!) About 5 minutes later up pulls the big ole' white stretch limo that I had arranged. She was a hoot as she saw it drive up...we got in and then we went to dinner at Malone's in Lexington (mmmmm-gooooood!).

It was a great night together, lots of fun riding in the limo...after dinner we went over to Barnes and Noble to browse for awhile. Kinda odd getting out of a limo in front of a book store, or for that matter at a restaurant. People are starring thinking, 'who are they.' In which my reply would have been NOBODY!

We then headed back home...David Kelley (our driver and good friend) dropped us off at the Shell station where the car was parked. I'm sure the Shell station doesn't see that sort of thing too often!

I love my wife! I mean I'm really crazy about her! She has blessed my life so much...here's to many more years together Bird!

Old Crow Medicine Show

Something maybe you didn't know about me...I'm a fan of bluegrass music. No really, I am...I've always enjoyed this very unique genre of music. Maybe because I’m a guitar player and one of the first songs I ever learned was ‘Rocky Top.’

Tonight after I dropped Bryan off for aikido, I figured I had about an hour and a half to kill…I had heard that a bluegrass concert was going on at EKU (now I’m thinking bluegrass and college students? No way!) Way! Soooo I headed over to Brock auditorium and scored me a ticket (it was a sell out!). The band…Old Crow Medicine Show…WHO? Never heard of them, but they had a huge following…I guess sorta like one of those underground cult followings.

ANYhow…got to listen in on about 6 or 7 songs and wow! Very talented musicians, very versatile musicians…I found myself tapping my toes a bit…the crowd was rowdy and pumped…and all the while I’m thinking, ‘Who are these guys?’ You can go here to check out them out…I enjoyed my hour of bluegrass tonight. It was kinda nice to mix things up a bit in my schedule…doing something a little out of the ordinary.

Oh yea…it was THE first BLUEGRASS concert that I went to where they were frisking people before you went in! That was kinda odd…wasn’t sure what I was getting into at first.

Super Bowl

Watched the Super Bowl last night...our youth ministry had a "Super Bowl Bash", great turnout, lots of food (20 pizzas were GONE in 15 minutes!!), and lots of football. I was pulling for da Bears, but really didn't care who won...I thought Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith were two class acts. Did you see the USA Today on Friday? Sports page? Very back? An entire add was taken out by both coaches to share what was really important to them, other than football...very cool! I'll try to find and post it sometime this week.

If you missed any of the commercials, you can go here and check them out. Let me know what your favorite one was!

Until next year! Go Steelers!

Finally some snow!

After several promises of snow coming into the Madison Co. area we finally got some today. Bryan even got the day off of school, which meant we both got to sleep in a bit (except for Holly, she still had to be up at 5:45am to go to work...bummer!).

Anyhow, here's another sunset pic with some snow...I'm lovin' the view here!

The Karate Kid strikes again...

Last Saturday my son did it...he became an official BLUE BELT in his Aikido class. He's been taking aikido for sometime now and has really stuck with it, really faithful and really good.

So here are a few pics of the testing...along with a group shot at all of those who recieved their blue belts. The guy in the middle is my good friend Ron Boyd. You can go here to check out his website...and believe me, this guy is the real deal, I mean like Steven Segal stuff!

I'm very proud of my son for this accomplishment, just as long as he doesn't try to put the "mojo" on me! Remember buddy, dad will always be able to take you! Love ya!

Next up...Green Belt!

God speaks

This past weekend our church had what was called, an "Experiencing God" weekend. If you are not aware Henry Blackaby wrote a study called Experiencing God years ago...really great stuff, real life changing. I went through this study when it first came out back in the early 90's.

Anyhow, our "EGW" (Experiencing God Weekend) was well publicized, promoted, prayed over, I mean all the right things to do were done. The talk was how the weekend would be life changing, uplifting, amazing stuff going on, etc.

Well I was pumped, primed and ready...I didn't have any leadership responsibilities cause a youth team were leading our youth, so it was nice to be able to be with the adults. Again, pumped and primed for a great experience...but it didn't happen. I mean I left Friday night thinking, "hmmm...God are you speaking? are you there?" cause everybody else seemed to be having this incredible experience, but me. Maybe Saturday will be different...nope, same result, same feelings.

So now I'm evaluating my spiritual life, thinking I'm really missing the boat somewhere...everyone seemed to have this new revelation of God in their life, a real experience was taking place...but I wasn't getting or feeling it (and no I'm not saying that God is a "feeling"...I hope you know what I mean)...I just wasn't having this incredible EXPERIENCE that was talked about. I really struggled with everything...

BUT...Sunday night...God spoke through countless numbers of people as they were giving testimony of the weekend. People I didn't know real well, people I'd been friends with for a long time, you name it , they were sharing and it finally hit me...God was speaking through these people to me. And the one word that kept on running around in my head was COMMUNITY.

I've used that word before in sermons and in conversations, but last night that word came alive to me. We, as a church, are a community of believers trying to become like Christ Jesus together...and to hear person after person standing up and talking about their experience, caused me to have that experience with God. I felt connected with folks that I never really knew...and the common denominator of that connection is Jesus, plain and simple. COMMUNITY! I like that word even more now, because I saw and heard it lived out last night, and really I was watching it lived out on Friday and Saturday...and didn't even realize it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to our body here at FBC after this weekend. I suspect others felt the same way I did about Friday and Saturday...maybe I'm wrong, but God speaks even when we think He's not. Anybody else relate to this idea? Anybody else have a similar experience?

What's on my iPod?

I'm loving my iPod...I got it back in November and I've downloaded a plethora of music and a few videos. Sometimes I find it hard in making a decision on what to listen to...I mean you have all this music, like having too many choices. I kinda go through different moods of music at different times.

In case you didn't know what kind of music that I like...here's a sample of my top albums on my iPod:
1 - U2 (all of their stuff) Lately I've been jamming out to their "Elevation: Live from Boston." I've been a fan for many years, even saw them in 87' at Rupp.

2 - O.C. Supertones - Their greatest hits...too bad they've called it quits.

3 - David Crowder Band - "A Collision" A GREAT piece of work...the dude can write some great lyrics.

4 - Collective Soul - Greatest Hits...good, late night driving band

5 - Mute Math - Their second disc...great sound, kinda reminds me of Beck a little bit, with all those funky 80's sounding loops.

6 - Paul Colman - "Let it Go" Paul is a down under guy who has a great sound, you may remember him from the Paul Colman Trio. Paul is now the lead guitar player for the Newsboys.


7 - The 77's - This is one of my "jamming out, play it as loud as you can" kind of bands. Great to listen to after a long day!









There you go...a little of my musical likes...rock on!

Deal...or No Deal?

Man, I love this show. It's one of those "no brainer" game shows...all you have to do is call out numbers / eliminate suitcases, win lots of money (sometimes!). I saw this on Marko's blog this week...very addicting, so far the biggest amount that I've won is $500,000! Try it out here.

What my "day" off was like...

Alright, officially Friday's are "off" days for me at the church...all of us on staff have at least one day in the week, and we try to make sure and do just that, don't work at church...here's my day off broken down for you...like anyone really cares!

6:30am - wake up...(snooze button)
6:34am - wake up again...(snooze button)
6:38am - woke up, for real
7:40am - took son to school
8:05am - went to Starbucks (or four-bucks!) enjoyed some coffee and a newspaper
8:40am - went to the office (I had several things that had to be done)
12:00pm - went to the grocery to get my sick wife some ginger ale...
12:30pm - arrived at home, fixed some chicken noodle soup for sick wife...
1:00pm - lounged around
1:30pm - played Scrabble with sick wife...this has been our new game that we've been really addicted to lately...she's won BIG time
2:30pm - played some Ghost Recon on the xbox360
3:30pm - son comes home from school and together play xbox360
5:00pm - took son to friends house to spend the night
6:30pm - got more soup for sick wife from Tsing Tao ( i had orange chicken)
7:00pm - watched movie, "Lady in the Water" kinda weird, but intriguing, thumbs up
9:00pm - watched Trading Spouses on TV...crazy lady was on there, interesting show
10:00pm - watched weather station telling us that we'll get snow...I bet we get nothing but RAIN.
10:30pm - blogged about my day off...

**approximate time that I may go to bed tonight?? 12:30am...tomorrow I'll be sleeping in a bit!

The Edge Conference

This past weekend I took my high school students to The Edge conference in Gatlinburg, TN. A great weekend...good times we had...crazy weather (70's and mild). The conference was put on by a ministry called "Inlightened Ministries" you can go here to check them out. Very quality stuff! Great worship music, hyper-jacked up on RED BULL youth communicator...Craig Tackett (I've known Craig for years...incredible communicator, loves God and students) A way cool illusionist from Washington...Drew Worsham (go here). This guy was pretty amazing with up close card illusions, I was very impressed!

Highlights from the weekend for me...
1. Spending time with our high schoolers. It's really a challenge sometimes when you have a large group of yutes and it's difficult to spend quality time with all of them, so weekends like this were good. It's amazing the conversations that come up and questions that are asked...

2. Seeing a former yute, Chris Barger, who is a part of the Inlightened Ministries staff. He plays bass guitar in the worship band and does a host of other things. Chris was in our youth ministry since he was in 7th grade...to watch him grow over the years has been a highlight for me. It's really incredible to see how God is working and growing in him...kinda makes me proud! And I am!
**For those who are in youth ministry and your reading this...I can't tell you how important longevity is in a ministry. We've been here at FBC for almost 8 years now...and the benefits/rewards of being able to watch youth go from 6th grade to graduating is really priceless.**

3. And the number ONE highlight of the weekend (drum roll)...one of our youth Cole accepted / invited Christ to be Lord of his life. You talk about awesome...that's awesome! Seeing someone's life changed...to go from darkness into light is a very amazing experience.

Say it ain't so Bobby!

What has happened to "LOYALTY"? If you didn't know or haven't heard, maybe you don't even care...Louisville Football Coach Bobby Petrino is now the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. This is of course after he has said numerous times, "I'm not going anywhere...Louisville is home...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH." (I added the BLAH's)

But I guess I can't blame him or the 25 million reasons why he's going. Really, I mean how much money does one person need? And I know it may not be about money...it's the challenge, right? WHAT HAPPENED TO LOYALTY?

Oh well...life goes on...God is still God (and that's what's really important!) But I'm a little steamed...oh...and the other guy in the pic (Brian Brohm)...you can say your goodbye's to him too, cause I'll make a small wager that he's not coming back for his senior year.

Thanks Bob...Go Cards!

A disgruntled fan of Louisville Cardinal Football

Random Pic of the Week

I'm a real sucker for a sunrise/sunset...I have a collection of them that I've taken over the past several years from all over the place.

One of the cool things about our new home is the fact the sun sets right in front of our house (for now)...and as you can see it's nothing but farm land...a real beautiful sight.

Cardinals & Oranges Do Mix...

Go Cards...a great regular season, capped off with a Orange Bowl victory over Wake Forest last night. The Cards have almost everyone coming back next year. I will predict that Brohm will stay...Michael Bush will go pro...and the Cards will see the BCS Championship game next year.

Holly and I are thinking about getting season tickets next season! Boo-ya!

Happy New Year...almost

Alright...it's less than two hours until 2007! No big parties that we are attending tonight, no hosting any parties to bring in the new year...just the fam and one of Bryan's buddies. We're really exciting people aren't we! But that's just fine with me...it's been an extremely busy month and to have a whole night just being here at the house is cool with me. Can't think of a better way to bring in the new year than being with my family. Happy New Year to everyone!

I'm back...

So like I said...we've got internet today in the new domicile. (You would think we live way out in the country or something) We’ve been enjoying our new home…got a great view of the sun setting each night…I’ll make sure to have some pics of the view soon.

Much has gone on in the Prosser household over the past several weeks...so how about a quick recap and then I'll try to get my butt back in gear blogging a little more consistently.

I've taken some "vacation" days as I always do around the holidays, especially when Bryan is out of school. Kind of makes me feel like a kid reliving those 'Christmas Vacation' moments.

Last weekend my family came down from the 'Ville for our 2nd annual Richmond Christmas gathering. Oh man did my lovely bride fix up a feast! (See pics!) It was a great time to have family here in our home...I love my family. And we had our big rummy game as usual, and of course the winner takes home the coveted mouse. My brother-in-law Jim won the game and keeps the mouse until we play next…he won’t keep it long!

I'm still preaching in place of my pastor since his back surgery. I've been doing a series called, "Challenged by Christmas" as we had been celebrating advent. I've really enjoyed preaching in this role...little bit different from teaching youth, it's been a bit challenging, but it's an amazing experience. So I'll be preaching this Sunday and after that our pastor will be back.

We went to the 'Ville Monday and Tuesday to celebrate Christmas with Holly's parents and family...as always, a great time. Even took in a movie...Rocky Balboa! I love Rocky...and I'm glad he decided to come back for one more after Rocky 5 (STUNK!)

Got back Tuesday...took down all the Christmas stuff...did a little rearranging of the furniture. We had to make room for a NEW item that we got for Christmas. Let me explain first...a great story:

Holly's workplace did a "12 Days of Christmas" give away thing...12 days before Christmas a drawing was done for all Bluegrass Mental Health Employees...12 people won something like honey baked hams. The next day 11 people won another prize...as each day narrowed down the prizes got BIGGER. So guess who won the GRANDPRIZE from 1,000+ people in the drawing? HOLLYBIRD was the GRANDPRIZE WINNER! And what did she win????? A 50 inch PLASMA SCREEN TV!! Holy Cow Jeff did you say 50 inches of Plasma?? Dang...we couldn't believe it! I went and picked it up last Friday...it's now in the great room...it's been pretty enjoyable. DVD's are really incredible looking...we watched Dead's Man's Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean) tonight...stinking awesome. Just in time for all these college bowl games!

That's it for now...I'm tired

We have INTERNET!!

FINALLY!! We've got us some intra-net! I'll post some thoughts and other stuff later on tonight...my son is dying to use his iTunes card right now. Peace!

Whewww...

Alright...still no internet at the "new" house...Bell South has to bring out their engineers or something like that to fix things. So, I'm posting here in my office today.

Been a really CRAZY past few weeks, but it's a good kind of a crazy! Last Friday morning was graduation day at SBTS. What a day! What a service...it was an "ultra formal" kind of a service, but I liked it...matter of fact I was really trying to savor every minute of it.

As they began to call out individual names, I was getting pumped...should I let out a big "yee-haw" after receiving the diploma? Or maybe a high-five to Dr. Mohler? Nah...again, it was a really formal service. "Jeffrey Wayne Prosser" was read...I walked towards Dr. Mohler...I gave a glance at a few of my professors who were sitting in the loft. Dr. Mohler said, "Blessings on you Jeff!" And then I walked off. WHEWWWWWWWWWW!!!! FINALLY!!!!!! AFTER 16 YEARS!!!!! HALLELUJAH...HALLELUJAH...

That night my incredibly awesome wife Holly, had an "open house" for me. She said a few family members were coming by...sounded good to me! NOPE...NOT EVEN CLOSE!! It was like "This is your life!" kind of a deal...there were folks I haven't seen in a while or for that matter friends that I didn't expect to see that night. I WAS BLOWN AWAY!

Of all the folks who were there, I gotta mention two guys who are to this day mentors to me. They will never really know how much they have impacted my life and have been incredible examples of what it means to be a Godly man. Kerry Jones, who was my youth minister at Valley View Church in Louisville and Rick Trexler, who was my campus minister at EKU. You guys are such great encouragers to me! I am a blessed man to have you as mentors in my life.

GREAT DAY and GREAT NIGHT of celebration! Thanks Holly-bird for everything...You really surprised me with all of this. Thanks to you and Bryan for allowing me to finish this degree...dang, I'm glad it's finished. You guys are awesome...and you are the love of my life.

Bunch of stuff...

Hey everyone...I realize that there have been no post for several weeks, just way to busy. Bunch of stuff has been going on...here's recap:

-We're moved! The new home has been invaded by the Prosser family. We even have things hanging on the walls and a Christmas tree. The official move was last weekend (Dec.1st - 2nd). Thanks to all of those who lent me your muscles! I'll post some pics when we get some internet out there.

-Friday is graduation! FINALLY!!

-Our pastor has been out the past several weeks due to a bad back. So I've have the privilege to preach for the month of December.

So lots of stuff going on...

Random Stuff...again...

Sorry for the "Random" blogs...we are still in limbo between our temp house and new one. My computer is packed up and in storage, so I'm blogging from my laptop in my office. Our builder is saying next week we should be closing and then moving in! Exciting stuff there!

Well, Thanksgiving is almost here...we'll be going up to Holly's mom and dad's tonight and then tomorrow head to mom's for the rest of the day and night. Thanksgiving with my family is always a pretty big deal...we'll have lots of aunt's and uncles, cousins, etc. and of course loads of food. The day will consist of visiting, eating, watching football, eating, playing cards, eating, a little guitar picking with the picker's, and eating some more! A great day...

Last weekend I took the leap and bought my latest gadget. This is a gadget that I've been talking about for awhile now...just ask Holly. I got me a 30GB video iPod and it is stinking awesome. I've been a downloading fool...cramming this bad boy full of music...and videos! Of course I had to see if the hype of the video was everything they were saying...so I downloaded "Remember the Titans." Cool stuff! My goal is to max this baby out. By the way I got the sleek looking black one.

SOLD

The house is officially sold...we spent our last night on Thursday. Kinda weird...we were all sharing our "favorites" while in the house...it was good to reminisce.

Our new home is about a week away from being complete, so we are in a "temp home" that our builder owns. We have just the bare bones necessities...kinda feels like camping with a roof over your head!

Random stuff...

What a busy week it's been...lots of stuff going on...here's an update...

-We are preparing to close on our old house this coming Thursday...so this weekend we've been doing the packing thing. Good night you don't realize how much STUFF you have until you move.

-We rented one of those PODS (Portable On Demand Storage)...way cool thing that is. I had several guys come yesterday to help move the BIG things into the POD. It was like playing a big game of Tetris...we were piecing furniture together just like the game...I can't believe we got it all in there!

-Our new home is just about finished...looks pretty sharp too! We've been going out almost everyday to see the progression. Only one more major thing to do...place the electric pole in the back...after that the rest is gravy!

-On a sour note! My dear Louisville Cardinals laid a big goose egg in the second half of the Rutgers game Thursday night. They should get a decent bowl game...but it won't be the National Championship game...maybe next year! Go Cards!


-Graduation is almost here! December 8th is the big day at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary...looking forward to the ceremony and seeing things come to a completion. My goal is to savor the whole day...only took me 16 years to get it finished (not 16 cumulative years mind you!)

-Last but not least, but most important...our son Bryan has been doing great! We've had 3 three weeks of no hospital visits, no ER visits, no missed school...and we are so thrilled. He'll have one more surgery to remove this tube...maybe over the Christmas break, but it seems we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Praise God for His faithfulness.

Mi Casa...

Everything with our new home has been going great...they are about 2 weeks or so away from being finished. We've had a ball picking out appliances, floors and ceiling fans, etc. Holly and I go check things out every other day to see what they have finished. We'll walk around talking about where things will go...it really has been an exciting experience.

Here are some recent pics...we should be closing on our house next week and then make "da move!"

Cardinal Football

Woo-hoo! The Cards last night looked pretty stinkin' awesome against an undeafeated West Virginia. A great game all the way around! If the Cards can run the rest of their games with W's...they should be playing in the BCS Championship game...again, they should. Something tells me inside my brain that they might get the shaft!

Oh well...I'll savor this victory for awhile! Go Cards!

God's perfect timing!

Last May we put our house up for sale. After many months of being accused by our son that we are "cleaning Nazis" and after many showings and open houses...we think we have a buyer! We had some folks come by out of the blue last week...saw the house, next day made an offer, after a counter offer...deal!

So it looks like the house is sold! We are waiting to hear the results of the home inspection, finalize some paperwork...come mid next month we'll be closing the deal. Woo-hoo...

Our home that we've been building is almost complete...about 3 more weeks. Finishing touches are being done...Holly and I were out tonight at Loews picking out tile for the tub and new appliances. That's been a lot of fun to do...we picked this cool fridge that has the ice maker on the front (never had one of those!).

Through this process of selling and building our prayer has been perfect timing...not only the sell of the house, but only having to move once. Looks as if our prayer is being answered.

God sure has been good and faithful...and I don't say that just because everything is working out the way we wanted. If our house was still on the market...God is still good and faithful. But I don't want to act surprised when God answers a prayer, as if it were a first or something like that...you follow me? There are plenty of passages in the Bible that speak of laying your request before God...we shouldn't be surprised when that request comes to fruition. I just want to bring glory to God's name for answering our prayer.

I'll keep ya posted on the house...if you are in the Richmond area sometime around Nov. 20th-ish and have bulky muscles and like to lift things...give me a call.

Sinners saved by grace?

Alright, sorry so long with the hiatus...been a busy time of the year. But I wanted to throw my two cents in to my previous blog question. Don't know how many have given it much thought, but here's my response...

Is the following a good description of a Christian:

"We are sinners saved by grace"

My answer would be absolutely NO...it is not a good description...it's an accurate description, but not a good description. Matter of fact, nowhere in scripture is this idea (sinners saved by grace) taught. Yep, I was a sinner, and yes I've been saved by grace...scripture teaches that Christians are now "saints" which means "holy one". We may think of ourselves as sinners saved by grace, but then the emphasis is still on being a sinner, not a "holy one." Peter Lord says that such a mind-set results in a believer being enveloped in feelings of unworthiness.

Just a few thoughts about how we view ourselves as Christians...let me know what you think!

Is this a good description?

Growing up in the church most of my life I've heard many sermons and teachings. Of many of the pastors that I have heard or been under I've heard many use the following phrase:

"We are sinners saved by grace."

Is this a good description of a Christian? Or better yet, is it the most accurate description of a Christian?

Before I give my thoughts, I'd like to know what you think. Let's hear some feedback from ya!

Dad and Lad Night

This weekend Holly took several girls from our youth ministry to Knoxville, TN. for the Girls of Grace conference. Kinda odd this afternoon seeing everyone off and not going.

So since the girls are away...the fellas will play! Bryan and I had one of our famous "Dad and Lad" nights...some serious guy time. Here's the breakdown:

-Dinner at Johnny Carino's
-Went to Circuit City to look at BIG tv's (it's a guy thing!)
-Went to the dollar movies...saw Barnyard...hilarious
-Went to Barnes and Noble and looked at books and drank coffee
-Came home and played video games
-Getting ready to watch a few M*A*S*H videos and then go to sleep

tomorrow's schedule:
-EKU Homecoming Parade
-Brunch at the Baptist Student Union
-Going to BW3's to watch the Louisville / Cincinnati game (sorry EKU!)
-Going to Dick's sporting goods to look at stuff

Holly and the girls will be home around 8pm...I love dad and lad weekends because my "lad" is so cool and rawks the house!

PETA goes way overboard!

I love animals...I even have a cat that I'm very fond of...but this going overboard and crossing the lines of "get a life"...

funky stuff

Life for the past several months has been a bit different for me...I feel like I'm in some kind of a "funk" or something. Now, I don't disclose this info for pity's sake...so don't hear it that way. But trying to describe these past several months...I can only come up with the word "funk."

I have some suspicions why the funk...I think a huge part has been Bryan's medical attention. It's been tough watching him hurting and not being the typical full-of-life kind of a kid. In all of the suffering that he's been through I've been asking God to teach me something's through all of this. I've had several revelations...but the one that hits home more than any other is a question to God. In watching my son Bryan suffer I'm thinking..."God, how did you do it?...How did you watch your Son suffer the way He did?" And then to think...He did that for me. That's been very humbling and makes me very grateful.

Not real sure how long the "funk" will go on...now don't get me wrong, I'm not walking around constantly in a zombie-like trance, feeling really blue. No there's joy in my life...and that totally comes from God. That's life as a Christian...even during the "funky" times...God is still God and His grace definitely is enough.

It's raining, it's pouring...the old man is snoring

This morning I woke up to some serious rain coming down...as if we needed the rain. I think my backyard is still trying to recoup from the "Noah's Ark Type" flood that we had a few weekends ago.

Anyhow...I love a good rain, especially in the morning. I got into the office early today, about 7:20am...usually it's like 8:30am before I come in, but I have a handful of things to get accomplished today.

I began this morning with some personal worship time with God...man, it was some good stuff...the rain was tapping on the window...the thunder was rumbling my whole office...I decided to read some passages out of Psalms and I had one of those connect moments while I was reading and thinking. It was awesome time with God ...I look forward to what's in store the rest of the day.

Random stuff...

-Last week I called Bell South to make a change to our phone service..an hour later I had switched from cable to Direct TV, switched from cable to DSL, and changed my phone plan. We end up saving like $60 a month and we are getting like $300 for making all these changes...can you say Christmas Money? So that's why there hasn't been much blogging for a little while, we just got the "hook up" today.

-Bryan has been doing much better. Last Monday he had another surgery to fix some complications that stemmed from a few weeks ago. Dang I hate to see my son sufferering and in pain...but he's better and we really appreciate all the prayers.

-We are still trying to sell the house...we've had lots of prospective buyers, but no offers, yet. There are a couple of folks we are hoping will come through sometime this week. Talk about a s-l-o-w buying market! Our new home is going up well...see the pic below. They should be finished sometime towards the end of November.