From the "out of the mouths of babes" Department

A funny thing happened in one of my 2nd grade music classes the other day; but the more I thought about it, the more profound it became. I was teaching this particular class the song He is Exalted. You know the one:

"He is exalted, the King is exalted on high, I will praise Him.
He is exalted, forever exalted, and I will praise His name. . ."

Well, after the first time through, I asked the class if anyone knew what the word "exalted" meant. One little girl responded without missing a beat, "it means He's tired!" I quickly explained that the song says "exalted" not "exhausted". After explaining the difference, we had a little laugh and went on. Later that day I began pondering what that child had so innocently said. We tire so easily sometimes --- in fact, there are days when we just don't know if we can go another minute without resting. But, our God NEVER gets tired. The Bible says in Isaiah 40:28:

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.

Our Creator God loves us and holds us up when we feel we can't go on. We are commanded to exalt HIM because HE is to be highly exalted and greatly to be praised.
So, the next time you feel a little bit tired just remember that we serve a mighty God who is not exhausted but EXALTED!

"I gotta go home now and eat breakfast"

I was raised in a small town called Thomaston, Georgia, about 70 miles south of Atlanta. If you know anything about small towns you know that everyone knows your business and you know everyone's business. Well, for me and my family it was magnified because my uncle (my mother's brother) was the editor of the local newspaper and he wrote a column every day called "Not Responsible". My uncle Leon would write about anything and everything that happened in this sleepy little textile mill town in the '60's. The following story (not in this form) appeared one day in the Thomaston Times:

I was probably 8 or 9 years old at the time and my 'cross the street neighbor's dad had built a brand new treehouse and Jack invited me over to "spend the night" in it. Now this was no ordinary treehouse because it was fully enclosed. We actually did spend the night out there. Morning came and Jack's mom invited me in for breakfast. She set before me a bowl of cold cereal and a glass of juice. Now you need to understand that where I come from breakfast consists of bacon or sausage (or both), biscuits, eggs, grits and gravy (our neighbors were from the north). I politely proceeded to eat the cold cereal and drink the juice. Then without skipping a beat, I excused myself by saying, "I gotta go home now and eat breakfast". I was not kidding and I was not trying to be funny. I really had no idea that what my neighbor's mom had so graciously offered was somehow supposed to be breakfast! I know now that my mother was mortified (her word) and my dad, well, he just laughed. The next day this little episode appeared in the Thomaston Times for everyone in town to read.

I will forever be known in Thomaston as the boy who had to go home and eat breakfast after EATING BREAKFAST!

The Blog About Nothing

I have been struggling with something to write about. My wife (show-me-state-of-mind) has become a prolific blogger and always comes up with pithy well-written paragraphs of witty commentary. I, on the other hand, sit and wonder what to write about. She says, just write something! So, I think instead of trying to "come up" with witty or deep stuff I'm just going to write what is on my mind at the time. . .wait a minute! I think I just discovered the problem ~ I have nothing on my mind . . . my brain is empty!
Here's what's up:

• I always prefer savory over sweet for breakfast. Breakfast is NOT sweet rolls and orange juice. Breakfast is bacon, sausage, grits and biscuits.

• Business lunches are for business, not eating. I absolutely hate it when someone says that we'll meet over lunch. I cannot enjoy a meal and talk business at the same time. Lunch is LUNCH, not work.

• The left lane on the interstate is not for people to just "ride". It is a passing lane. Tracey says that the left lane has become "the new right lane".

• The "big 3" sports in America are football, baseball and basketball. Soccer belongs in third world countries.

• NASCAR is definitely a sport and the drivers ARE athletes.

• It is impossible to turn the TV on or off without the remote. The remote was invented so that men do not have to watch commercials and can watch two sporting events at one time.

• I HATE mayonaise! I LOATHE mayonaise! By the way: I hate it when someone is providing sandwiches for a large group and they assume that everyone loves mayonaise and puts it on ALL the sandwiches.
  

• Rap is NOT music.

• They should put recliners and tv's in doctor's exam rooms. That table with the strip of paper on it really gets uncomfortable after a while.

Okay, I told you I had nothing on my mind. . . stay tuned for more nothing.

...the rest of the story...

Okay, for all you lurkers who read my wife's blog and anyone else who might be interested ~ here is my version of what happened on our trip to Orlando. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very laid back individual, but every once in a while my wife says that I go from 0-60 in a matter of seconds. Well, we were in Orlando to see a couple of Atlanta Braves spring training games and decided that we would take in one of the many theme parks on Saturday. Here's where the fun begins. Zack decided that he would like to go to Sea World and everyone agreed that was a good idea. We arrive early, pay to park, purchase our tickets and away we go to see the Shamu show entitled "Believe". We trek across the park to the Shamu stadium just in time for what we thought would be the world famous show featuring the giant killer whales. Instead we are greeted by a very small sign at the entrance to the stadium stating that a new "calf" (that's whale talk for baby) had been born a few days earlier and we would be treated to a presentation about that. We enter the stadium, find our seats in the "spash zone" where my wife asked the usher if we would get wet there and he tells us that there will not be any spashing today because they would not be doing the regular show. Now, I'm a nice guy but I'm all about getting what I pay for, so I asked the usher to explain what was going on and he tells us that because of the birth of the calf and it's protection there would only be a 10 minute presentation about the birth and a short video. I asked the usher a simple question: "Why can't they put the mother whale and the calf in another tank and proceed with the show?" I didn't think this was an unreasonable request. However, he tells us that this is not possible due to the delicate nature of observing the new calf. Now, I ask you, why does anyone go to Sea World. . .? to see the Shamu show, of course! So, I polled the family and everyone agreed that we needed to ask for our money back and go elsewhere. We hiked back to the main entrance of the park, marched into Guest Relations, I presented my case and they reluctantly refunded our money (which I'm told they never do). Lest you think I'm not an animal lover, you need to know that we have three cats! But, come on, we paid a farely large sum for a one day ticket to see Shamu, not to have the so called privilege of seeing a calf swim around with it's mother for 10 minutes. So we left Sea World and traveled a few miles to Universal where we enjoyed the rest of the day.
As we were leaving, one family member was heard saying: "it's like going to McDonald's and being told they're out of fries!"

"Mrs. Grumpy Lady" Indeed!

I'm a Fox News junkie and I ran across this story today and laughed out loud. It seems this elderly music teacher had enough of bad 10 year old string students (they're all bad, except for the occasional child prodigy) and "whacked", (yes, I said "whacked"), a 10 year old over the head with a viola bow! That is just precious. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've been tempted to do that. Well, this lady probably should have stopped teaching a few years ago (she was a substitute). Anyway, she's actually in a lot of trouble for this, but it just made me laugh.
Just read the story linked above. . .you'll laugh too.

(Disclaimer: The lady in the photo above is NOT the lady named in the story)

Just had to laugh. . .

So we're on our way home from having a little dinner at our favorite "cheap mexican" place and Tracey calls Zack to see if we could pick him up something because he had been out running errands. He says that he would like some of those "buffalo chiks" from Krystal. We pull up to the drive thru and I see pasted over the picture of the Buffalo Chik a little sticker that said, "Due to popular demand, this item no longer available." WHAT???? Okay, I thought if something was in demand, you would want to sell as much of it as possible. (now I know that certain items in the restaurant business are only "for a limited time".) But here's the deal: If you can't pull it off, don't put it on the sign! No, I didn't lose my cool or anything, we just got him some other menu items and headed home. We just thought the whole idea of saying that it's popular, so we don't want to sell it to you was hilarious.
I like McDonalds better anyway.

It's Here!

Friday, February 16th. Atlanta Braves pitchers and catchers report to Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Kissimmee, Florida for spring training. The rest of the team will follow in a few days and games will begin soon. I can't wait. There's new hope in Bravo country this year because we have beefed up the bull pen which was the most glaring problem last year. Yes, that's right; last year. After 14 straight division titles, we couldn't make it to the playoffs. But...that was last year. Hope springs eternal...spring training, that is. Baseball is a great sport. It truly is the Great-American pastime. The worst time of the year is after the Super Bowl and before baseball season begins. It's the "gap" in great sports. No Nascar, no baseball --- just basketball. Well, it's time to gear up because the Daytona 500 is this Sunday and baseball season is just around the corner.

So.........."Gentlemen, start your engines!" and "Play Ball!"