It's finally here

It's game day for North Texas. We take on Florida International University in Miami. They won the Sunbelt Conference championship last year so it's a tough task for our first game. Dan McCarney is going to be great. can't wait for kick off.

The yard sign is in the ground (yes, i need to mow)

Facing the Giants

This morning's faith share meeting was very good. Today's Mass reading was about how Jacob and Caleb wanted to take the Isrealites into the Promised Land. Caleb was a part of 12 'investigators' that went to scout out the land across the river. All but Caleb said that the land was too dangerous and that it was invested with giants. The Lord had delivered his people from Egypt, split a Sea, leveled mountains and still they doubted that He would deliver them to safety. So, God made all of that generation wander in the desert and die.

The discussion in this morning's meeting was about how we face our own giants. Do we run away scared, looking to the negative all of the time, play the blame game, etc. Or, do we face them and ask for the Lord to deliver us? I for one tend to do the former much more than the latter. I have to work on that daily.

Being a father of 6 kids is not easy. There is tremendous stress financially and emotionally. I am commissioned only and have the only household income. It's tough...a man should not have as much grey hair as I do at age 33.

But here's the thing...I'm married to a wonderful woman who believes in me, and most importantly, believes in our Lord and that he will provide for us. I believe in Him too but it's such a blessing to have a partner for me to fall back on. We have to face our giant together every day.

1987 Rules with RBI Baseball

Back in the 4th grade (1987), Nintendo came out with one of the greatest games ever invented...RBI Baseball. My brother, friends and I used to play for hours and hours. We knew every lineup of every team...who to substitute for, and all the intricate details of the quirks of the game. There were many 100 degree summer days where we had games played and tournaments held.
Even in college my roommates and I kept a win/loss tally of games played. I think we did the math once to figure out how many hours we played that year...in all, it was about 2 weeks worth.

Last night, we reunited with several other friends and had a RBI tournament again. This time, some of our kids actually played (that was really weird). We had 17 in the bracket and it took over 7 hours on 2 game systems. One room had a large flat screen TV and the other was a 100+ inch projector screen with surround sound. It was a sweet set-up for some 8 bit graphics.

I finished in 2nd place to my old roommate, Jeremy. It was fitting that he and I would be in the final series. We played a best of 3 series and he beat me two of the three by one run each game. It was a blast. Below is my trophy...

Camping with 6 kids

Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves...camping is a loose term. We actually roughed it in a 2 story lake house with plasma TVs, fully stocked kitchen, 2 grills, a hot tub, and a media room. To the kids, we were camping because we were at a lake. Don't get me wrong, I love tent camping but with little kids, in 100 degree weather, I'll take cabin camping any day. In all, there were 19 of us and we had a blast. We swam in the lake for several hours (I floated on some noodles), hiked a mountain (small hill), and relaxed. The kids played with their cousins and had a blast. Here are some pics...

Way overdue

I finally remembered my password and log in stuff so I could post. I know that my one reader has been dying to find out what's up.

Well, being a father of 6 in the summer is fun and hard at the same time. You can imagine that our house is a little crowded with everyone inside most of the time. It's still over 100 degrees every day so the kids can't stay out for too long.

Not a lot has changed in my world...I'm shaving my head even shorter now than before so that's good.

We are headed out for a family camping (in a luxurious cabin...not roughing it) next week. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories when we get back. Peace.

Growing stuff is cool

Our little garden is actually growing this year. So far, only one pepper but the plants aren't dead...so that's good. The sunflowers took off...over 7 feet tall now.

gotta love the backyard pool

It's been a couple of years since we had a back yard pool. The kids are loving it!