5 years

Jennifer and I celebrate our 5th anniversary today. Last night we went to a nice place to eat and then we played pool at Fox and Hound. It was fun, I enjoy being with her. It is hard to believe it has already been five years. They have been the best five of my life. I appreciate the fact that my wife is intellegent and open minded. She is also deeply spiritual, I admire the practice of her faith. I could not imagine being married to anyone else. I can talk to her. I cringe when I think of my life with anyone else. Through the changes that have come in our marriage she is always been a steadying force. I naturally want to be retaliatory, but Jennifer reminds me that the truth always prevails so who cares. When I see the selfishness of our times and the shallowness of the religious landscape I thank God that I am married to a selfless and spiritual woman.
On a different note things continue to go well. I am going to begin the apologetics class in October, I will try to get links to the website so anyone that wants to can watch and follow along. Apologetics, basically, is a study of the Catholic faith. I am really excited about it. Business seems to be going well. Jennifer is plugging away at school, seems like she will be there forever.

Life in Lubbock

It has been a while since I last blogged. I have been very busy with work. I love the work I get to do. I like the way a lawn looks after it has been cared for properly. Jennifer has been busy as well with school and teaching. She also has a full time job taking care of me. I appreciate her more than I can say.
Much has happened in the last several months. I have spoke a couple of times at different functions. The response has been good. I speak again in September here in Lubbock and then in October in Dallas. It is what I truly love to do. I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful people since we moved to Lubbock. I have recently come to realize that we can say whatever we wish but in the end people will believe what they are able to believe. God truly provides the increase. I have wanted so many times to address some of the things that were said about me after our move. I don't see the point anymore. So many dishonest things were said. I continue to go through RCIA and love every minute of it. I was timid about converting but the further I get into it the more I realize the true beauty of the holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. Sure, there have been some things that have been difficult but in the end I can trust that Christ works through His church.
Life in Lubbock is nice. We are having some friends over tonight to grill out. We have started to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a prayer book that leads you. I have never seen a deeper respect for prayer the presence of Christ than I see now. Well I hear Jennifer rattling dishes so I better go help. Email me or respond I would love to hear from you.
I hope that you are all doing well.

What I appreciate, what I don't!

I appreciate that I am part of a church that has existed since Christ and honors His presence. I appreciate all those who have given such great examples of Christian charity. I appreciate my wife who is the best person I have ever known. I appreciate all those who helped me come into a body of people who stand for the real truth of God's word and not proof-texted renditions of the Word. I appreciate that I have fallen very short of the glory of God. I appreciate those who know the same. I appreciate that I am a part of a church that will never succumb to the pressures of society to accept the modern sins of the world. I appreciate the work that was done to make it possible for someone like me to work and make a living. I appreciate that so many, on both sides, have helped re-affirm that I made the right decision.
I don't appreciate laziness. I don't appreciate liars. I don't appreciate my own sinfulness and addcitions. I don't appreciate a watered down gospel and history of Christianity.
This was a quick post but I wanted to write something.

It has been a while.

I am a horrible blogger. I don't really post that often. I have been too busy to sit down at the computer for any amount of time so no blogging. The last couple of weeks have brought much needed rainfall which was an answer to many prayers. I am still in the RCIA (Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults) program, had class tonight. Loving every minute of it. Jennifer is still working on her degree. It seems as if we will be in school for the rest of our lives, but that is cool. We just painted the bathroom and got a check for a new roof, taking bids is so much fun. lol. Business is going very well for me and I am very thankful for that. Currently I am working on some lessons from the Psalms for a Bible conference at the Cathedral. I am very nervous. So many of my own weaknesses and inabilities have been laid bare and I don't feel a worthy spokesman for Christ. I trust it will all go well though. The past 5 months have gone by so quickly. It seems just yesterday I was calling to find carpet for the house and now summer is already upon us. I started reading a new book "Christ is His fullness," by Bruce Sullivan. Bruce was a Church of Christ minister and graduate of Sunset who converted to Catholicism. He has encouraged me in his book. I laughed many times because his experience was so similar to ours.
I have met many people through this experience that I feel very blessed to get to know.
I got to talk to a true servant of Christ tonight, though the conversation was short it was nice to hear his voice. I have so many wonderful people that have been in my past that it gives me a such a satisfaction that I thank God.
Well what does the future hold? I am not sure. I am going to test for a commercial applicators license in the winter so that I can spray lawn and pest chemicals as part of my business. I will finish RCIA and have my first communion. Jennifer will continue with her school. We hope to reconnect with some old friends that we miss dearly. We will try to draw closer to Jesus.
That is a bunch of rambling.
May the grace of our Lord be with you all.

A great day.

The last 48 hours have brought much needed rainfall to the area. Even though I don't get to work the days that it rains it means more work long-term. It is truly an answer to prayer that we have got so much rain. We are very thankful. As well, we learned yesterday that Jennifer's tuition for both summer session is negative $80. She got a grant and a teaching assistantship that took care of everything. She told me this morning that her balance due at Tech was negative 40 for the first session. Awesome. Since I have been at the house I have preparing a lesson for a conference in June at the Cathedral. I am doing a lesson over the Psalms of Lament and other speakers are doing other types of Psalms. I was told a while ago to quit whaling about being Catholic but I love it. I love being part of a church that seeks the whole of scripture rather than pulling texts out of context. I am so thankful to be alive, married to Jennifer, part of the Catholic church and be a recipient of God's blessings. Well I have to go do some paperwork. I am not thankful for the paperwork associated with owning a business.

Squirrels

When I was a teenager my friends and I used to hunt squirrel. It was always fun but I don't think I realized how hillbilly this practice really was. We would make entire weekends of the sport. For this, and other reasons, many of the stereo-types about people from Arkansas are justified. I didn't know how powerful these stereo-types were until I received a call from a friend of mine one day. This friend of mine told me that her and her husband had trapped a squirrel in the attic and wanted to know if I wanted to come and get it to cook for supper. I laughed at first and then I realized she was serious when she told me that she thought I may have been homesick for some squirrel. I gently told this friend of mine that I would let them keep the squirrel because I was busy with a big batch of white lightning and had to get back to the still.

Recently my affections for the four legged delicatessen has changed. We have a pecan tree in our front yard. The previous owners never picked up the pecans and they are buried all over the lawn. This wasn't a big deal until I landscaped the yard and our squirrel started digging through all my plants to find his buried treasure. I wanted to kill the little thing. Jennifer likes the squirrel and named him John Henry, I don't know why. Well the other day I realized two things. First, my redneck disposition is stronger than I thought. Second, it is illegal to discharge a firearm in the city limits. When the officers arrived I quickly ran inside, kicked off my shoes, found my old Arkansas driver's license and put on my overalls with out an undershirt. I was given and warning because they understood I was just hungry.

(Part of the above story is a complete fabrication but I wont tell which, that's why it's a story.)

"It's just uncle Eben..."

If you know me well at all you know that my twin sisters Erin and Emily have boys. Kain and Coby. You also know that I would cross the world for them in a flash. I love them very much and they love their aunt Jennifer even more.
It used to be really hard to get Coby to talk on the phone. Emily would say that uncle Eben wants to talk and Coby would say no and run into the other room. Kain would talk but usually only for a couple of minutes. I came up with a plan. I started disguising my voice as sponge Bob square pants. It worked like a charm. I simply told Emily tell Coby that sponge Bob wants to talk. He came running. I was elated. It was so much fun. I called daily. The excitement was next to none. In fact one time when we went to Arkansas I looked for a sponge Bob outfit in the airport and was going to put it on as we walked to the baggage claim. After a while I thought it would be a good idea to let them talk to "sponge Bob" and then he would tell them uncle Eben had come to the pineapple and wanted to say hi. They squealed with excitement "you know uncle Eben?!?" I was in heaven. I started to add characters, I was sponge Bob, Patrick and squidward. We were all hangin at the pineapple and thought we would call the boys.
Then they caught on. I called the other day and asked to speak to Kain and Coby. I heard them say in the background, "it's not really sponge Bob it is just uncle Eben." Oh well. I must now come up with another adventure to go on with the boys. Maybe I will dress up like a Sasquatch next time I see them or something.