Stories and other stuff

I hope that 2013 is a better year for all of us.  I mean that.  It's been a divisive year in our country, in our politics, and I can't help but think that a lot of that spills over into our relationships as well.  I'm hoping that spirit can change.  I'm always hopeful, though, and really want to believe the best in people.  Often, I'm disappointed, though. I'm not heartbroken to see 2012 go.  A lot of bad stuff happened.  My friend lost his wife this year, and that left a bit of a hole in the lives of all who knew her.  My old boss passed away, too.  We'd drifted apart over the years, but it's always sad to know that a person is gone.  My wish for 2013 for these folks' families is that their grief is subsided a little bit.  Sometimes, though, there are wounds that time just can't seem to heal. I have hope for good things because I know Jesus.  As I look back at 2012, I know I only got through it because He lifted me up, and...

Heard this song on the radio today and just felt I had to share it.

I know, you already know how I feel about this.  I don't believe in coincidence.  I got to share that thought with middle son today.  I had lunch today with my two youngest children, a minor miracle in and of itself.  A few months ago, that wouldn't have been possible.  What my children saw today was a different dad than the one they used to know and I saw today a man in my middle boy, and myself about forty years ago in my baby, who is anything but anymore. Middle boy had something happen to him last week that was a perfect example of the argument for providence.  I asked him to look up the topic online and then compare it to his experience and decide for himself.  What he attributed to coincidence, I account for as God's providence. It's nice to have a relationship with my kids again.  I missed out on so much I'll never get back, but I do love them so.  I also understand they don't have time for me at their ages but it's always nice to ...

Do you ever stop to think about the things God does?  I've been thinking about that lately, what with the Christmas story and all being prevalent over the last month or so.  I wrote about this the other day.  God's prophets proclaimed the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  God chose Mary to be Jesus' mother and she lived someplace else.  So, God instead of telling her or Joseph in a vision to just go to Bethlehem, He instead used Caesar Augustus to accomplish His will.   Then He sent them to Egypt.  Then back to Nazareth, so that all the things foretold about Jesus by the prophets would be true.   A had to happen, then B, then C, etc... and just the right thing at the right time, too!   It just amazes how God does what He does!

Well, the world didn't end on the 21st.  Christmas came and went, and the new year is rapidly approaching, where we start the whole thing all over again.  There's always a tinge of optimism and hope that the new year will be better than the old.  We make resolutions we don't keep.  We're finally gonna get around to taking that trip, to call or see this or that person, or whatever that thing is you keep putting off, but the time files and before you know it, you're faced with the whole thing all over again. I had an interesting conversation this morning with a friend of mine.  Over coffee, we had an opportunity to chat about Jesus, more from a historical context than anything, and like I did last year at this time, I'm going to address some remarks to the "keep Christ in Christmas" crowd. I want to start off by reiterating something I've said before.  No matter what your belief system is, when Jesus came to Earth over 2,000 years ago, he changed...

One of the really cool things about my old job was that every now and again, the President of the United States would come to Utah.  Once, I got to shake hands with George Herbert Walker Bush; another time, he gave me and my friend Ed a thumbs up. We were standing on a corner, having a cigarette, with an armed security policeman standing across the street from us, by the way, as the presidential motorcade made its way to the flight line.  The leader of the free world leaned forward, looked out the window, and gave me and my friend a thumbs-up!  I'm sure it was the uniform, but still, I thought it was cool then. I still do. Mr. Bush is in the hospital and not doing well.  I thought it would be a nice day to share that little story with you because it's not every day you get to meet the President.  I passed up on a chance to meet President Clinton; mostly because I was pissed off that I had to leave home for two weeks because Saddam was acting up.  I me...

Stories! You know I have a story for every occasion and on this particular Christmas Eve, I'm going to share this one, for a friend. Last Friday night, one of the guys in the hangar was being funny, and blasting a moldy oldie; Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips.   I looked at my boss and told him sternly, but jokingly, "Fix it.  Make it stop!"  His reply, "you have far worse problems in your life than this". Merry Christmas to me. The snow is falling, the tree is decorated.  There are presents now where there were none before, and thanks to God for the overtime money which provided them.  I found just the right gift for each person on my list.  I found some things I didn't even know I was looking for, too.  And although everything I did was last-minute, the things I bought would have been on my list to begin with. My poor sister, though, is again a victim of her brother who feels like he needs to buy something for her.  My mom won't ac...

My friend Kenny asked about my view of faith when things like the unspeakable tragedy that happened Friday, or for that matter, the shooting in Aurora happen. I understand why it might be hard to have faith in God when things like this happen, but what you saw afterward was an outpouring of faith, from our President on down.  Churches were filled as people turned to God for comfort, and to join in prayer for those that need God's comfort more than anything right now. Sometimes, when horrific things happen that we can't understand, faith is all we have.  I could go on and on about God's place in our culture and in our own lives, and probably will in the coming days. But for now, all I can say is this: I have faith in God and God's people.  I have an understanding that none of us can understand the slaughter of innocent children.  The thoughts of it make me weep and just want to hold my own kids, and they're grown. My faith isn't in man, and it was a human...

OK, maybe that's not an apt description of what I'm going to recommend today for some reading.  I'm following a "read the Bible in a year" plan which started way back in January.  Yesterday's reading was 2 Timothy.  Today's reading was Titus.  These are short books, but boy, if you want some perspective on things happening in the world today, take a read at what the Apostle Paul said would happen and see if it doesn't ring true today. They're short books and it won't take the average reader long to finish them.

I'm pretty selective about my Facebook friends.  In fact, sometimes I wonder about the whole "friends" thing and if I'm missing the broader point. I know there are people that Facebook thinks I ought to be friends with that, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual, um, thanks, but no thanks.  Then there are the friends I should never have, like my kids.  I don't need to be facebook friends with my kids.  They're grown and I probably don't want to know, you know.  Any more than I would've wanted them to know some of the things I've done in my past.  Sometimes things are just better left unsaid.  Nowadays I wouldn't have a problem, my life is pretty much an open book, but back then, well, I didn't act that way around them too awfully much, let's say. Past that, though, I know every person I'm Facebook friends with.  Some of my friends have unfriended me from Facebook, too.  Hey, that's up to them.  I've unfriended a few mys...

I read about it.  Everything I read about it said not to do it.  Me, being me, had to go ahead and do it.  I did it twice.  Because I'm dumb. All day it's been threatening to snow.  All day it hasn't; until now.  And now it's snowing, albeit lightly.  Still, though, snow is snow and everything I read says don't make candy on stormy days, but I wanted some divinity. The first batch I burned.  The second batch didn't set up.  Inbetween, I destroyed a candy thermometer and ran out of eggs, so I had to go to the store. D'oh! Why do we do that?  What makes us think we're smarter than everybody else?  I blame mine on curiosity, really.  I was kinda bored and I want to get a start on holiday stuff.  I put the tree up and decorated it with what I could find of our decorations.  I put the train up and oiled the wheels of all the cars.  I had to do that... poor thing didn't want to move.  It's working good now...

After I finish writing this, and hopefully before it rains, I gotta get to the store.  I need a few provisions and then I'm getting my cookie on. Y'all know I'm a bit old school and one of my old school treasures is a cookbook my mother had from her high school home economics class.  I don't know what it is about this cookbook but on e-bay this one sells anywhere from $45-$100 depending on condition.  The one I have the cover is gone from; that happened years ago; and a few of the pages are missing, but all in all, it's an awesome cookbook. I bought another copy of this book on e-bay a while back and suggested to my sister that we ought to go in halfsies and buy my mom one.  My sister thought she'd never use it.  Last year, my mom walked out of the house with my complete one and I still have hers.  Fair trade.  My mom has been so good to June and I. Anyway, in this cookbook, there is this great picture of nothing but racks and racks of cookies th...

So, the walls are framed and the drywall is up in the basement.  That's a great thing but the project is at a crossroads and I've got some decisions to make. The biggest one right now is about what to do in the bathroom. There's no way around the fact that the bathroom in the basement is ugly because it's sharing space with a water heater and two furnaces. With the layout of the bathroom, there's really no way to frame these appliances off and keep everything that's crammed into this area.  There's just not enough space, which is fine with me because how much time do you spend in a bathroom anyway?  Granted, from a female perspective, it would be better if it were constructed differently, but sometimes when you're operating on a limited budget, you have to make do. The bathroom downstairs is a busy place, though.  It's where two toilets live side by side.  There is a double sink vanity.  There is also a washer/dryer hookup on the wall opposite ...