Cat in the Hat

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

camping at GiGi's

Friday we went camping (all of us, even Lucy) behind my grandmother's house. That may sound a little too tame, and I wish it'd been a little more. At least I wished at the time. Now it makes for a good blog.

So we get the camp set up. Everybody's sitting around the fire when I walk over to the woods (we were in the grass). I'm standing at the edge looking in with my headlamp when I hear this snorting sound followed by a splash.

I'm thinking, alligator!

I turned to Amy and the kids and said, stay by the fire. I walk over to the lake and try and shine my light out into the water. But the smoke from the fire keeps me from any distance on my light. The splashes keep coming and I start thinking beaver. But the doubt remains.

Finally, after an hour or so of "on edge" I spot the two culprits. Beavers, sure enough. I guess they wanted me off their land.

the 33rd

As I celebrate 33 years today I just wanted to thank everyone for the emails, phone calls, and all the general well-wishers I saw today. Thirty-three, hmmmm. It just strikes me as an odd age, an in-between, gapish age. Who's thirty-three? What have they done? I don't feel old; I just feel... thirty-three. Yet to be decided, I guess.

dairy farm

life... in rescue

We saw Life In Rescue live last night at Big Jim's. Funny clash of worlds. Brian and Candace were in town so we decided to take them on the Dowdy Redneck Tour. Brian (and this is Brian talking) said it was the most redneck place he'd ever been. That's saying a lot from a guy who drove a jacked up truck with a confederate flag in the back window in college.
Anyway, Life In Rescue is made up of three guys from the San Antonio area. From what I can tell they are just driving around doing little shows here and there (maybe some big ones, don't know). This was their first show in Georgia. And of all places...
Right before their first song they said they were Christians and that they lived for Christ and that their songs were about Christ. They are rockers but had to go acoustic to blend with the Big Jim environment.
Again, the grilled grouper is incredible.

Bald Point

We woke up yesterday and decided to go to the beach. Looking at the map Bald Point was the closest coast by our estimation, so we set out. The kids had a blast. There was just enough soft, white sand for them to bury themselves in and all kinds of interesting things along the beach. We found a multitude of horseshoe crabs (dead ones), a few still intact. We saw the dorsal fin of a quite large shark swim by awfully close to shore. Another couple told us they saw bear tracks just down from where we were and we saw four deer on the way out. It was a wild beach and the stumps that lined the sand gave it just that feel.

Dowdy Redneck Tour

After our experience this past weekend I'm adding Big Jim's to my redneck tour. Get the grilled grouper. It was fantastic. We should have gone at night though. I hear that the Christmas lights in the rafters make it hard to see the cobwebs. And, we missed Ken's Elvis Show.

front nine

Braden and I played golf yesterday at Pines Golf Course with Collin Woodrum and his dad John. It was Collin's birthday. Collin and Braden are in second grade together and big buddies. It was Braden's first time to play and he did great. He really enjoyed it and wanted to go back out today. Unfortunately we lost our best-ball match on the last hole, last putt.

the LOST coffin

Many of you know Amy and I follow LOST avidly. So, this is for you all LOST on the island, per se, with us. Who is in that coffin? I'm intrigued by the theory that it was a youth or child, but it seems like a lot of speculation. And it not being friend or family... what's that about? Definitely not Ben. That would be too... too much. Anyway, maybe we'll learn more tonight.
Is it Claire's baby? It is the future.

Missions Weekend

Starting tomorrow Grace Church will be hosting its annual Missions Weekend. Interestingly enough Brazil will be the focus this year since Amy and I are speaking along with Andre and Kristi Jennings who serve in Rio Verde, Goias. I wanted to invite anyone who can to come out. If you have other commitments there are different time slots to pick from, but each session will have a different focus.

The schedule for this weekend is as follows:
* Saturday 6 PM
Intros from the missionaries, followed by a catered BBQ supper in the Dining Hall (adults $6; children 10 and under $3)

* Sunday 9:30 AM
Missionary presentation to MS/HS in the gymnasium (we will meet with this group)
Missionary presentation to the Adults in the old auditorium

* Sunday 10:30 AM
Missionary presentations during morning worship

* Sunday 5 PM
Informal Q & A with the missionaries followed by a soup & sandwich supper

Map to Grace Church.