Dad in Vietnam!

I've been scanning my dad's old 35mm slides. This is one of my favorites thus far. It was taken of him while he was in Vietnam.

Iowa in Spring!

Busy!

Since we got back from my parent's 50th anniversary, we have been extrememly busy without a lot of time to breathe!

The day after we returned, Stephenie had our annual "Mother/Daughter Banquet." She had everything "planned" before we left but they had to put it all together the day of the banquet. They had a great time.

The following week I drove the bus so that our Academy students could go on a field trip to Dan Nicholas Park. (That event was key to what has put me behind up to this point. I have yet to "recover" from that field trip.)

Jeremiah & Mollie had their piano recital last Thursday night.

This week, I have gone to two different band/orchestra concerts that some of my youth group teenagers were performing in.

This week I also had to unexpectedly spend time trying to repair one of the office computers at church. Things like that always happen whenever I really don't have the extra time to deal with it.

The video projector in our main auditorium finally "died" a couple weeks ago. We were hoping that it would last until at least July. That's when our new church budget goes into effect. We had planned for a replacement in the new budget. Well, it didn't make it. The new projector arrived last Wednesday. We are waiting for a few more items that are needed to connect it to the computer and the DVD/VCR. We have an electrician in our church that is going to wire the new unit. We are mounting this new projector in a new place. That is why we need the the electrician's help. Hopefully we can have it put in place by the end of next week.

Neighborhood Bible Time is fast approaching. We had our first training meeting last Sunday night. We are still in need of one missionary teacher. We have additional training on June 15th.

This Sunday is our family's 8th anniversary at South Charlotte Baptist Church. It is also the 1 year anniversary for Pastor and Mrs. Waller. Pastor Waller came on staff last year as our new school administrator.

Right now I am at home, on my "day off." I'm sitting at the dining room table working on this Sunday's order of service and my Sunday school lesson. This Sunday is "Promotion Sunday." The 6th graders will be promoted into the youth group. There are quite a few 6th graders "moving up." We will be having a "Welcome Lunch" for them after the morning service.

Stephenie coordinated a "Teddy Bear Picnic" for the Kindergarten & 1st grade students today. She's right now resting on the coach.

Next Friday is Kindergarten graduation. Titus is graduating!!!! Stephenie's folks are planning to come down for the ceremony. It will be a busy week. Stephenie is going bowling with the video school students on Monday. We will be having our annual Field Day on Thursday.

Everyone keep in touch! I posted my "face" on Facebook this week. It's an interesting site and an interesting way to keep in touch with friends. I have caught up with a few old college friends on Facebook. I found out that one of them is a pastor in Iowa not "too far" from my parents.

Until next time...

Iowa is Green!

On our way to celebrate my parent's 50th anniversary, we spent a couple of days in Kansas City. While we were there we visited Cabella's. It's similar to Bass Pro Shop but much bigger. Jeremiah, Mollie & I spent 2 hours in Cabella's. It was awesome! The above picture was taken there. We also visited the KC Speedway. Richard Petty's Driving Experience was there. We were able to go down to pit row and watch them drive the race cars. Even though we didn't ride, it was still quite an experience.

My parents were definetely suprised to see us on Saturday night. They understand how difficult it is for us to get away but they were sure glad to see us. We went back to my parent's home after dinner and spent some time looking at old photos. My brother and one sister left Saturday evening and my oldest sister left Sunday morning.

On Sunday, we attended Fellowship Baptist Church, which is were I spent a lot of time growing up. They had a group from West Coast Baptist College sing in the evening service. The leader of the group know "Mr. Cody." (Many of the teens in my youth group know who he is!) After church on Sunday night, we went to visit my Grandma Lounsberry. She enjoyed our visit.

On Monday, we drove to Newton, IA to visit my Grandpa Campbell and Grandma Myrtle (my grandpa's second wife). They enjoyed our visit but the kids got a little stir crazy.

I have eaten at all the places I look forward to on every visit...Taco Johns, Maid Rites, Zenos, Ev's Ice Cream. When we went to Maid Rites we saw Tow Mater from the Car's Movie. I'll have to post a picture later. It is still on our camera. A tow company here in Marshalltow has put together a very good, real-life version of Tow Mater. Titus was sooooo excited to "meet him." He even had the "ghost light" hanging from his tow cable.

All in all we've had a very good visit but it is too quickly coming to an end. I never would have said this as a teenager but, if the Lord would every allow, I would be more than happy to move back to Iowa. (Stephenie's just not so sure how she would do during the winter months.) This is the first time that Stephenie has ever seen Iowa in the spring. Her comment has been, "It's so green!"

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of me with my siblings...

Good Friday!

It truly was a good Friday! Please allow me to tell you why...

1. The kids were out of school.

2. I cleaned out the gutters around the front porch and then installed "gutter guard." With the number of trees that we have, it only takes a few weeks to fill up with leaves. Since we replaced all the gutters last year, I want to make sure that we take care of them and make maintenance as simple as possible.

3. I trimmed our oak tree out front. I trimmed it a couple of years ago and it has gotten bushy again. After I trimmed the branches, Jeremiah undertook the task of cutting the branches up so that the city would haul them away next week. Jeremiah actually volunteered for the job and he did a wonderful job of cutting the branches up and then stacking them up.

4. For lunch, we went on a picnic. We packed some water and chips, stopped by Burger King for some "burgers," and then headed for the Pineville Park. We had a great time!

5. I cut some grass, put out some "weed & feed," and put out some mulch. Again, Jeremiah jumped in and helped me unload it from my truck and spread it around the front flower bed.

6. I trimmed our Crepe Mrtyle bushes.

7. I could go on but I'll stop there....

It was a good Friday!

Jeremiah's Magical Moment

Jeremiah played organized basketball for the first time this year at the YMCA. He enjoyed himself and I believe he'll probably want to do it again. He is no Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan but in his last game (which I videotaped) he did have one "magical moment" that was pretty exciting.

This video clip will explain what I mean... In this clip he is #13 and he's just rebounded the basketball and is headed toward his basket...

Attack of the Flu

Last Friday morning, Stephenie and I (along with Mollie & Jeremiah) took our youth group on a ski/tubing trip at Winterplace Ski Resort in West Virginia. We take this trip every other year. When I woke up that morning, I had a "minor" sore throat. I didn't think anything of it.

We spent the entire day on the slopes having a great time. We finally got to our hotel and got to bed at 11:00 PM. (I forgot to mention that we left Charlotte at 6:00 AM. It was a long day for me especially since I'm also the bus driver.)

Saturday I woke up with "mild" sore throat and some chest congestion. Again, I didn't think anything of it but I did take a vitamin C drink before we left for Charlotte.

When we arrived in Charlotte, I took my temperature (around 3:00 PM) and it was normal. However, as the afternoon progressed, I began to feel even worse - headache, chills, etc. At 5:00 PM I took my temperature again and this time I had a temp of 99. It was at this point that I decided to visit our neighborhood urgent care.

After about a 2 hour wait, I was finally seen by the doctor. The first thing she told me was that I did not have Strep. Praise the Lord! That's what I thought I had. No, instead I had the flu.

She armed me with a prescription for 3 meds and sent me out the door.

At that hour of the night (7:00 PM), I didn't think that our normal pharmacy at Sam's Club would be open but I figured Wal-Mart's would be. Wrong! Their pharmacy closed 15 minutes before I got there. Next choice? CVS. Their store is opened 24 hours. When I got there I was informed that the phamacies in all the "24 hour" stores close at 6:00 PM. Now where? Ride Aid - Yes, they were open. (Good because I was running out of choices.)

Sunday has been my worse day. My temp reached 103. I was miserable all day. I slept about the same on Saturday and Sunday night - off and on. My fever finally gave way some time Monday morning.

There's not much else to tell. I believe the Tamiflu (antibiotc for the flu) has kicked in and I'm on the mend. The doctor told me that it would take about a week for me to get back to normal. We'll see.

Until next time...