Remember these shows?

Yeah, I was bored today...and made this list. Enjoy, and add to it if you like...I'm sure there are plenty I've forgotten about...especially shows more for girls. I stuck with the non-cartoons that 80s kids were known to watch...on their own or forced to watch with parents since most of us only had one TV in the house. (in Random Order):

Double Trouble
Small Wonder
Just the Ten of Us
The Hogan Family
I Married Dora
Perfect Strangers
Alf
Mr. Belvedere
Out of This World
Diff’rent Strokes
Facts of Life
Family Ties
Growing Pains
Head of the Class
My Two Dads
Who’s the Boss?
The Wonder Years
21 Jump Street
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Cosby Show
Family Matters
Punky Brewster
The A Team
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Charles in Charge
Knight Rider
My Secret Identity
Gimme a Break
227
Silver Spoons
Kate & Allie
My Sister Sam
Learning the Ropes
Newhart
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Riptide
Magnum P.I.

My Day at the Pool

Well, unlike most days where I just send the kids to the pool, I had to go with them yesterday. You have to be 8 to go by yourself, and their cousins were with them...one of which is 6. I was reminded right away what I was getting into as Alisha says, "You're going? I thought you said it was only for moms?" Exactly...

And, yes, I was the only dad there...everyone else was a mom or teenage girl babysitter...ugh! So, I found a private corner in the shade away from everyone (most lay out and take in the sun). I had a couple of diet drinks in the cooler, an NFL magazine, a pen to take fantasy football notes, and a book I was given some time back and had never read. I began my four hours of nothingness with my magazine, and then started in on the book.

The book is "Life Wide Open" by David Jeremiah. Although not really deep, it is just the thing to get you headin' in the right direction, excited about what you do in life, and ready to seek exactly what God has for you...and it lends itself to plenty of discussion on families, marriage, work, etc. It may get deeper...I'm only a third of the way through it. I was looking for a book to do a study on for a men's Bible study on Sunday nights at my house. Call it self-serving if you will, but most men skip Sunday night studies because of football. The Cowboys play a lot of late afternoon games that don't end until 6:15 or 6:30. I would love to have this study where they can show up at my house at the start of the 4th quarter (or earlier if they want...not like I'm gonna be doing anything else but watching it anyway), and we start our study as soon as the game is over. This gives us an automatic "ice-breaker" every week and allows people to invite other Cowboy fans to join us. Also, the regular football season is exactly 17 weeks, and this book is...17 chapters. If the Cowboys play earlier, we'll just catch another late game. If they play at 7:30, then we'll do the study and move into our normal practice of watchin' the Cowboy primetime games as a group anyway.

So, my time at the pool wasn't totally worthless, but it didn't get the house cleaned, laundry done, or dinner fixed. Maybe it was God's way of sitting me down for a little while though just to do some reading. Also, I did get to visit with several kids about church and had a couple of new ones sign up for camp this summer. ...and maybe God has rewarded me with my list of 6 possible sleepers to pick in my upcoming fantasy football draft.

The Random TV Show Game

Last night Isha and I found ourselves layin' on the bed, and like we sometimes do, we broke into a spontaneous game...this time of TV trivia. It consisted of giving a word or short phrases of description of TV shows while the other tried to guess the show. It was just funny how little info the other one needed sometimes and how much we needed other times. For example, Isha got these right off:

"Cousin"

"Housekeeper"

Then, she looks at me and says, "Huh?" after I gave all these clues before finally guessing:

"Family...Yellow...Fat...Ageless..."

"Alien...Furry...Likes Cats..."

I think I should get bonus points for guessing the ones that she gave wrong clues on though, like:

"2 brothers...a cousin...a uncle...a farm"

"a family...2 uncles"

But, I must say the highlight was winning the debate as to whether Max Headroom did Coke or Pepsi commercials...the look on her face as she googled it and the prize I got for winning..."YOW BAYBEE!"

Random Things That Pop in My Head

I'm quite the thinker and I can't really just veg out often because I'm always thinking about something I need to be doing or planning or whatever. But from time to time these random things just pop in my head and I don't know why (in random order):

How a memory has been blocked in my mind from 6th grade...I was accused of taking a dollar, and I honestly can't remember if I did or not...then, I think I replaced it, but I can't remember that for sure either...just bugs me because I usually remember everything

Isha's blond fro she had when I met her that bobbed around when she laughed

The song, "Islands in the Stream"

A girl's phone number I liked in 3rd grade...592-9896...I never even called it

Picturing myself randomly punching someone in the face

Plays from a Kansas City Chiefs-Houston Oilers playoff game in 1994 including a touchdown pass Joe Montana threw to Tamarick Vanover in the win over Buddy Ryan's defense. Vanover spiked the ball in a huge realistic drawing of Buddy Ryan's face on a banner a fan had hanging on the sideline...the Chiefs came back from a 7-13 defecit in the 4th quarter to win 28-20...Montana's second consecutive comeback in as many weeks during those playoffs. This was my favorite non-Super Bowl game. He got a concussion and lost to the Bills in the next game, but then the Cowboys took care of them in the Super Bowl.

Picturing myself eating a small moist loaf of bread...and then my mouth begins to water

Car jumping scenes from the original series, "The Dukes of Hazzard" as I'm driving and picturing myself doing it


Another random thought not related to this list: That I used to think about soft serve ice cream when I saw something gross or smelled something really bad to keep me from gaggin'. I mean soft white creamy cold ice cream is the opposite of warm yellow-brown chunky stinky puke, right? Well, that all got ruined on a ski trip a few years ago when a kid had a soft serve ice cream cone and then chucked it on the floor right beside my driver's seat.

Making Happy Happen

This last Wednesday night I was sharing with the kids how God wants us to be happy. We were looking at specifically how we as Christians can be happy. We begin to "live our Christian life," and then look for something else to make us happy. We treat Christianity like it's our 'job' and then we find other things to fill our leisure time. I'm guilty of that all the time, but the truth is that if we are truly living our lives the right way, we find that satisfaction and happiness living right and building the kingdom.

I looked up the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) and read them from The Message. Not that they mean anything differently there, but I saw them in a new light. I always read them like they were blessings given to those that worked their 'job' properly or suffered. That there were separate from their leisure time...their happy time. But as I read them in The Message and even reread in my Bible, I see that it isn't just a blessing to suffering martyrs, but a blessing to those that found happiness in their Christian lives.

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule."
"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embrace by the One most dear to you."
"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."
"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. he's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat."
"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourself cared for."
"You're blessed when you get your inside world--your mind and heart--put right. Then you can see God in the outside world."
"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family."
"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom."
"Not only that--count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens--give a cheer, even!--for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."

This isn't a 'blessed are the hurting' message, it's a 'this is what Making Happy Happen looks like' message. It's about getting yourself taken perfectly care of when you quit trying to take care of yourself and instead focus on others and the work of the Holy Spirit through you. It's about finding happiness in all areas of life--your job, your marriage, your kids, your passions--because you let God own it all. It's not about suffering now so you can be blessed or rewarded in heaven. It's about the reward of happiness that you will find even now here on this earth. It's about becoming a better friend, husband, wife, parent, co-worker, etc. It's about knowing God in a way that you know you don't and know you should.

This message, the 'Sermon on the Mount' (Matthew 5-7), began with those words and ended with these:
"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."

Brag Time

It was awards day for the last day of school. Here's the kids with their awards.
Drew received awards for both VIP citizenship and for making the 'A' Honor Roll for the entire year. I did always make the 'A' honor roll in elementary, but school isn't like it was when I was a kid. They learn so much so fast and have to prepare for so many state tests. He kind of got jipped on an AR Award. Last year, he got an award for getting the most AR points in his grade based on the number of books read x your score on tests on those books. This year, they gave them based on the number of words read, so some kids read longer books and beat him out. Believe me, if he'd known what it took, he'd have won because he was through all the levels that a 2nd grader can get to by Christmas.
Alisha received both the VIP citizenship award and the 'A' honor roll as well. She also got an AR award...aggrevating her brother even more as she read only long books, but didn't accumulate near the points he did. She also got an award for finishing 5th place in her grade in an Oregon Trail tournament (one of only 11 that got them there alive). I must confess, even in high school, I don't think I ever got those folks there alive.

I must say that I am very proud of them. They did this on their own because I know I haven't been giving them the kind of support they need. I watched as many very smart kids only made the A-B honor roll, and I looked and knew that nearly every kid that made the A honor outside of them had more parental support and attention than we have been giving them. They are God's gift to me, and I thank him for watching over them and protecting them...even excelling them through all of our hard times. To borrow from Shelly T's blog, they managed to "dance in rain in the midst of our storm."

Is God in Control?

Sometimes you think you see the light at the end of tunnel, but you can always get to the end of the tunnel and find that light to be a hole too small to fit thru...

We always like to say that God is in control. But hasn't he chosen to not be in control? I mean, we talk about how we have to give him control for everything to get better, so if we don't, he isn't in control, right? Of course, I mean he isn't in control by his choice because he can take control at any time. I know he can take it any time, but we know for the most part he wants us to give it to him before he will really step in and have that control and take care of us and our messy lives. What about the complication of other people involved? If other people directly affect you, and you give God control but they don't, how can he really have that control in your life when their actions affect you and he won't normally 'take' control of them if it isn't given to him? What if people we affect give God control and we don't? Isn't our controlling ourselves going to affect part of their life in spite of them giving God control?

The Scream...The Cry

Ok, we did a GTIME on this last Sunday morning to show everyone what we do on Wednesday nights with the kids. Everything started out fine. I had planned to do the normal 30 minutes that we do. With our other normal stuff and a few other special things, that would take up the entire service.

We started out with a piano special, our semi-annual baby dedication, a scripture reciting, and recognizing our graduation seniors. We had the welcome, announcements, and I took over. The first thing I had planned was a skit/game. I had 3 "contestants". They left the room while I quickly set up the stage. I put different kids of balls under cloths. The catch is that the 4th of the 5 cloths actual sat over a hole in the table with a guy's head sticking up through it. It looked just like one of the other balls. The contestants are told that they are being timed to see how long it takes to go by one at a time, yank the cloth off, and yell out what kind of ball it is. When they get to the head, they, of course, jump and get scared. Well, the first contestant goes through calling out the balls and then she gets to the guy's head. Ya, she screamed a really long time...and then started crying really bad...in front of the whole church! I felt like crap, but what can you do at that point? I've seen this trick done 4 or 5 times, and no one has ever cried, and everyone afterwards said she was just the type they would have picked as well. Dang, though... And that was my first game to ever go bad, and it was in front of the whole freakin' church...

Well, the next one was an adult lady (that was funny), and then the last one came in. Well, the last one was the head guy's daughter. He was already to scare her bad, but what he didn't know was that we had already told her what the trip was. We had als placed in her hand a whipped cream pie, so you can guess the rest.

Then, we did about three songs and had the lesson, and concluded with a pizza party in the fellowship hall and a drawing for prizes that included a webkinz, an mp3 player, and a $50 gift card to Toys-R-Us. Pretty good otherwise...