Scattered Post

I wear a suit for very few occasions. Funerals, Weddings & Live Fantasy Drafts. What's the common denominator of all these events? Major loss is involved! And for the record, I couldn't have drafted as well as I did without my secretary. Marinda snapped this photo before we left.


Dancing with the Stars:

We commit to very few things on TV...Lost, American Idol, Disney Channel (for the girls, but I can handle some Waverly Place), ESPN (the greatest channel in the world) and HGTV (go Marinda!). However, one show we watch as a family is Dancing with the Stars. I must admit though, I became disinterested last season because we all knew Kristi YamaSuzuki was gonna win. This year, the new lineup has been posted so I'll mention a couple favorites. First, Toni Braxton, is gonna be one of my favorites. Why? Because she is one of the all-time greatest female singers on the planet. I bought Toni's album back in the early 90's but have no idea what happened to it. But, I do have 3 of her songs on my Ipod..."Another Sad Love Song, Breathe Again & You Mean the World to Me. You can have Whitni Houston, Celine Dion...give me some Braxton. You know how you have a singer you really like to hear and you think...man I wish they would get saved and sing at my church? Ok, maybe you don't think like that, but I do. Well, Braxton is one for me. Can she dance? Probably not. Second, Lance Bass. I never liked "In the Sink" couldn't name one song but I'm sure this guy can move. He's also an astronaut...so, gravity should not be a problem. Warren Sapp. What's this guy doing? He'll last 1 maybe 2 weeks and hopefully he won't fall on his partner and make a pancake out of her. Let me mention one more...Cody Linley. He plays Jake Ryan on Hannah Montana...which I'm forced to watch. His character Jake is really conceited...so it will be interesting to see him as himself.

Going to the Redbirds game Monday at 1:05 to make up for the Back to School Bash that got cut short...ready for that.

Here's a quick thought...have you ever heard anyone say this? "We've tried everything; now all we can do is pray." Huh? Why do we use prayer as a last result, rather than the 1st option?

Oh yeah, got out of the aircast yesterday. The ankle is healing nicely and I've been doing stretching and flexibility exercises all week (Doctor's orders). That 12" vertical will be back before you know it.

Ear Piercing

A couple of days ago I met Marinda and the girls at the Mall to get Maddie's ears pierced. She's been wanting to get it done, but the thought of going thru pain is not really Maddie's forte. However, when her "BFF" Cailey got it done a couple of weeks ago...she knew it was go time. As you can see, all is well at Claire's (my least favorite store in the mall) for now.



I've always noticed that when life brings more than you can handle...it's always good to have someone that's there for you. You need a helpful hand to get thru certain difficulties in life. Someone who's strong and courageous, but also comforting. So, you would think the person in need would cling to that type of person...fittingly, a father? No! Reaching for the hand of your Mother? No! Possibly the hand of an older sibling? Sorry! In times of desperation my 9 yr. old daughter reaches for the hand of a 10 yr. old girl...Cailey Hillis. Man, what's up with that?

Perhaps, it's because during those times of need your older sibling is too busy trying on every pair of shades in Claire's and putting on a modeling show that you don't reach for her support.


You've been there many times in life. You're getting a shot to overcome a sickness, you're about to hit another vehicle and you see it coming, you tell your wife she looks phat in that dress and she thought you meant fat so the backhand is on it's way...and what do you do? You brace yourself for the pain.


One thing about the employees of Claire's...in the words of P. Weese..."this was not there 1st rodeo." They do both ears at the same time and tell Maddie it will happen on the count of 3. Of course, they never make it to 3...it's 1, boom...the trigger is pulled, a quick sharp pain that lingers for about a second and Maddie says...is that it? No big deal!


Are you into piercing? Well, if you are, bring someone with you to church this Sunday as we close out the "Believe it, Or Not" series. We're going to look at a story about a woman that puts a tent peg where no tent peg should be put. Come check it out!

Back to School Bash

We had our annual "Back to School Bash" Friday & Saturday of this past week to give the girls one last shabang (it's a word) before they had to return as Bearcats at Brookland School. When I say girls...I'm including Marinda because she teaches 6th. They all ride to school together now...it's awesome...I don't take anyone to school or pick anybody up...it rocks! I felt the need for a motorcycle until I received a phone call today from Chris Castleman's workout partner regarding "an accident" by our beloved Chris Moix. He's ok, but you need to call and check on him. Anyway, back to subject. We kicked off Friday evening by going to downtown Memphis and eating a good meal. You can see the girls excited about the ribs that will soon be delivered in the picture below. Our next item of interest was the Memphis Redbirds. The picture above shows our experience. We arrived at 7:00. Gametime was 7:05. We looked at a huge wet tarp for 1 hour and 37 minutes. Finally a voice came over the loudspeaker..."the game tonight has been cancelled...exchange your tickets at the ticket booth." So, we will be going back to Memphis on Labor Day to watch the last game of the season...it better not rain. Oh yeah, we stayed at a Holiday Inn, so we have been on our A game all week.

ArcherHill

We have definitely stepped up our game at ArcherHill. This is our 3rd year in a row to garden (I said 2nd year in a previous post and Marinda was quick to correct) and we have ventured into the wonderful world of canning. Yeah, you've heard your Grandparents talk about canning...well it's not just for old people. You'll notice in the above picture that the water is very hot...that's what you want people...boiling water.

In the picture above we have some purple hull peas. This takes a little time but if you have a few extra hands and something good on TV...it goes by pretty quickly. After you "free the peas" (that's good huh?) you need to put them in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook them. Just get a good boil going and simmer for about 45 minutes and they're ready to go. You can't get the same taste from a can of peas at Wal-Mart.

Here is a sample of some of the canning we did the other night. We have cucumbers running out our ears, so we have canned several jars of pickles. I'm not really a pickle guy, but if you're into pickles, these are tough to beat. What's the red stuff? Good question. That's our own special homemade spaghetti sauce. Now, I can throw down on some pasta. In fact, the restaurant of choice for myself and the wife is Olive Garden. So, a chance to can our own spaghetti sauce is one I couldn't pass on. It's got a little kick to it, but I think once we mix in the meat and noodles...mmm, mmm, good!

Pickling takes a little work. The Boss is in the middle of it right here and as you can see...Ty is eating out of the scrap bowl. It takes work to keep a 20.5 inch chest and 20 inch belly...you think I'm kidding?

And of course, we left our camera at the House of Hillis and when we got it back the next day....this is what was on it. So, I thought...that was a pretty good trick. The only way to get them back would be put it on the web for the whole world to see...so I did!

I knew something wasn't right...

I injured my ankle playing softball a couple weeks ago. I thought it was a sprain but after two weeks it didn't show much improvement. So, after church Sunday the Fam and I got a quick bite to eat and headed over to the Urgent Care Center on Windover Drive for an X-Ray. Dr. Maglothin said my ankle is fractured and I need to wear an aircast for the next 2 weeks. This really stinks, but I'm glad I finally know what's wrong.

Weird Stuff

Allow me to share something that happened a couple of nights ago. It may seem dumb to you but it was one of those weird moments. Micah has a friend named Sarah. Sarah came to church with Micah Sunday morning...you might have seen her. Well, they are 4 days apart in age and best friends...nothing weird yet. Sarah's parents came over the other night and hung around for a couple hours while the girls went swimming. We were watching the Olympic Basketball game and talking...ok...I was watching the game...they were acting like they were watching it to amuse me and we were all talking. Anyway, we were talking about school and Christmas break and stuff...Marinda made the comment that it was hard to really do anything on our Anniversary because of school always starting back. Esther (Sarah's mother) said, "when is your Anniversary?" We told her it was on the 2nd of January. Their eyes lit up because they said their anniversary was also on January 2nd. Well, conversation continued and we finally asked them how long they had been married. 15 yrs...it will be 16 January 2nd. That means they were married January 2nd, 1993...the same day we were married. We all talked about how it snowed that day. I thought the freakiness had ended until he said something about the honeymoon. We spent our honeymoon in San Antonio...Marinda just had to schedule our honeymoon the same week Barkley was in town for Spurs versus Suns...that crazy girl! He said they took a honeymoon later (i don't know where they went) when they had money saved, but they did spend the night in Little Rock. Well, we flew out of Little Rock to San Antonio the day after our Wedding, meaning we also spent the 1st night of our honeymoon in Little Rock. When I found out we had stayed in the room next door to them I started feeling weak in the stomach...I almost passed out...well, not really...I made that part up. We didn't really stay at the same place but it was kind of a weird moment when you realize the world is not quite as big as you thought.

Melissa Meeker

I just received a phone call from Heath Funeral Home in Paragould. The visitation will be from 5:00-6:00 Saturday night for immediate family and 6:00-9:00 for everyone else. The funeral will be at East Side Baptist Church in Paragould at 2:00. I will be one of 3 ministers speaking at the funeral...pray that I find the right words.