Unscripted: Life Through My Viewfinder

"That Meant Everything"

2011-07-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody! Look- I'm back again before six months ;) But anyways, I just wanted to share with you all a song that I wrote for my sister Rachel who graduated on Saturday [Yay!:) She and I were the first two kids in our family and we've always been great friends and buddies throughout life. I love her very much and she is a huge blessing in my life and the life of our whole family. I wrote this song as I was reflecting back on the years of life that we've traveled through as brother and sister- from the silly things we used to do as kids, to the adventures we've had as we've gotten older, to the joys and the sorrows of life, and how The Lord has been the One who's been there in the hard times and the times of celebration, in the valley and on the mountaintop, and how He has indescribably exciting and fulfilling and beautiful plans for our futures. I hope you all enjoy this song, and that it's a blessing, and I love you Rachel :)

R.I.P.?

2011-07-08T23:54:00.000-04:00

Woah! Working in Blogger again is like re-uniting with an old friend... it's been a long time.
But no, I'm not dead, and I do want to try and keep this blog around... if possible. I've been having a really crazy-full summer and have been doing some real cool stuff, and I hope to put some of that on here -for those who haven't given up on me in my absence- to see. All this to say, hope you all are doing well, and we'll see what comes on here. Good evening!

Happy New Year! [And a song]

2011-01-07T22:11:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas and a blessed start of 2011. I hope you will all pardon me for not posting many Advent posts :( I know it sounds excusey, but this was probably one of my personal busiest Christmas seasons. However, my prayer was that God [who is never too busy] would remind each and every one of you [and me] of His great and wonderful love for us demonstrated through Jesus Christ. And guess what!? Just because we pack up Christmas decorations and manger scenes, that blessed sense of security and worth as a result of God's love doesn't go anywhere! It's there every single day of this year and for all eternity. I pray that I would remember this as my first year goal. It changes everything.

So anyways, I didn't have a whole lot more to say here, but I wanted to share something with you all that I've been working on recently: I've done a little bit of song-writing over the years and now I've been messing around with filling them out musically and learning about recording them. I thought I'd show you guys an acoustic version of a song called "He's Alive". Hope you enjoy it!

So that's that :) Hope to see you all sometime in the not-too-far future!

Joy to the World

2010-12-15T23:24:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! Sorry about recent lack of Advent posts- I’ve been quite busy and was out of town last weekend.

Anyways, this has been an interesting Advent season for me. I started out wanting to make sure and share the heart of Advent and Christmas with you all, and it turns out that I’ve needed to be reminded of the Joy of Christmas myself.

When we are young, the Christmas season is a time of unexplainable excitement and wonder. December takes about a year and a half to pass by, everyone you meet seems full of the Christmas spirit, you could pass a whole day just talking about what might be under the Christmas tree, and every time you hear the Christmas story or look at a manger scene, you get the feeling that you were old friends with Mary and Joseph and played an important part in that story. And in the blessing of that season, you are fully aware of the fact that God loves you.

So what happened?

Just when and where and how did we lose that childhood view of Christmas [or the world for that matter]? Why are we just a little more reserved in our excitement? Why are our hopes a just a little less wild? Where did the childhood wonder and joy go? Am I the only one who feels like my heart is two sizes too small once in a while? What’s the deal?

Some people call it growing up, some people call it real life, some call it experience, the way things are, a dose of reality, or site any number of other reasons for things “just not being the same”.

God calls it a fallen world.

You and I and every other human being on this planet are born into and grow up in a world that is full of sin, and heartache, and hopelessness, and strife, and tears, and lies, and pain. Childhood innocence is quickly replaced by grown-up “reality”. At some point we have all had our bodies, our trusts, and our hearts broken. It is a part of life in a broken place. Our mistake though is not realizing that there is evil and hurt in the world, but that as we mentally adjust to the people, places, and circumstances around us, we sometimes re-think our perspective of God [or His perspective of us].

It’s the “What-does-God-think-about-when-He-thinks-about-me?”question. If this life isn’t exactly what we’d hoped and thought it to be, is God maybe not everything we hoped and thought Him to be? Satan wants to put a little wedge of doubt in our hearts about God’s heart toward us; and he tries to get us to look at God in light of our fallen world- instead of looking at our fallen world in light of God. Satan has used the tactic of calling God’s heart into question ever since the garden of Eden.

Part of what led Charles Darwin to look for a worldview that left out God, was his idea that all the pain and suffering in the world proved that God wasn’t loving. Charles Darwin was a man- and no stranger to heartache. His mistake was using his pain and sorrow as his lens when he looked at God, not letting the Comforter be the lens with which he viewed his world.

So how can we really know God’s heart toward us?

I’ve heard it said that a lot of the time our perception of God’s heart toward us is subconsciously based on our own heart toward ourselves. If we are having a good day and pleased to see that we are doing the right thing, then it’s easy to believe that God loves us. If, however, we are struggling on a given day and falling short and feel worn down etc., then it’s a lot harder to believe that God loves us.

Thankfully though, God’s heart doesn’t change. Our moods, minds, hearts, and circumstances change, but God is constant- the one being who will never let us down, never be in a bad mood, never be too busy for us, and never stop loving us.

I love to remember God’s message to us on the birthday of His Son:

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel of the Lord said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’ So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”

What incredible and healing words for a broken world to hear. If we can get past the Bible-eese of these verses that we sped through as kids, we will find a treasury of blessing in the major statements of God’s heart toward us on that night in Bethlehem.

God sent his message not to the priests- not to the king- not to somebody the son of somebody the son of somebody- but to some shepherds out in a field. I don’t guess these guys were on the Pharisee’s top 10 best Jews list either- they were regular guys. They were broken, they were disenchanted with themselves and with the world, and they desperately needed a Savior.

God loves us enough to be that Savior.

He didn’t resign Himself to have to put on His boots and help us [again], His whole world plan ever since man was first broken, was making ready the coming of our Redeemer.

Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us.

In case you’ve forgotten, in case you never heard, in case you just need to be blessed by the realization once again, allow me to remind you [and me] that God desperately, madly, wonderfully, fully, securely, strongly, foreverly, unchangingly, unstoppably, unexplainably, undeservedly, completely, and amazingly,

Loves us.

That’s why He came. That’s why He still comes. That’s why He gave and still gives. And that’s why we have

Christmas.

Thanksgiving, 20, and on to Advent

2010-11-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! Good to be back on the bloggy screen again! I must apologize for my inconsistency with posts, but I have been quite busy in several areas this fall. The last time I posted was in October at when I was going to Illinois for the SAT. [Which went very well by the way; God blessed and our candidate, as well as many other GenJ candidates won! :) It was an altogether pretty encouraging election as far as I'm concerned. As we continued into November, I don't know about the rest of you but we had one of the prettiest Falls I've ever seen. It's been very beautiful and long-lasting around here. You all may know this already, but November-February is one of my all-time favorite parts of the year. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is the holiday we celebrated last Thursday called Thanksgiving. In a day and age where our country as a whole has all but forgotten God's blessing and amazing Providence in and on our nation, it was a privilege to take some time last week with a group of our extended family to gather and focus on the true story of the Pilgrims in the 1600s who's example we follow today with our national Thanksgiving.

Has anyone ever read George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation? It's very inspiring and boldly claims the fact that we are a Christian nation. The writings of William Bradford and Mr. [John?] Carver do the same. In the attempt to "secularize" our country today, humanists have launched an all-out assault on our country's yesterdays. If they can write books that neutralize and leave God out of His own story, than the next generation of Americans will grow up at best very befuddled about what really happened. The revisions of history that happen today are complete nonsense of course, but if there's no one who knows the true story, than how will we expose the nonsense for what it really is? Anyways, that's why I love reading the writings of the great men and women of God who's lives make up the glorious fabric of God's work in

America's history.

After Thanksgiving, I had the honor of taking my sisters and cousins out to do some Black Friday shopping with some friends and our N.Y. Uncle and Aunt. Very fun :) The next day [Saturday] was a special day to me as it was my 20th birthday! :) So I had a real good time, and was blessed by the support of my family and friends. Thanks guys!

But with all that other fun stuff last week, yesterday marked the start of a time of year that is incredibly special to me and our family. It's the time during the last days of November, and the first 3 or so weeks of December, that we look forward to, prepare for, and remember the coming of our Savior who was born a little over 2,000 years ago as the final piece of God's plan of redemption that had spanned the whole of world history after the Garden of Eden. It's a time when we re-open and re-look at and rejoice in the glorious, wonderful gift of the first Christmas. It is hard for me to put into words the joy and excitement of this season that has been called

Advent.

Last year around this time, I did some posts related to this season of Advent, and it is my desire to do the same sort of thing this year. With God's blessing we will all be blessed as we look once again at His plan and sacrifice and heart toward us- His creation that has rejected and sinned against Him, but who He loved enough to come down from Heaven to walk this earth as one of us- though fully God at the same time. It's the story of Christmas.

Student Action Teams

2010-10-27T18:08:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! How's the fall? I hope everyone's enjoying it so far and doing well.

I'm going to make this a short post, as I have some packing to take care of. As some of you may remember, I'm involved with a group called Generation Joshua that's part of HSLDA. GenJ is a Christian youth civics organization that trains young people in worldview, campaigning, government, politics, etc. Each election cycle, they send out Student Action Teams [or SATs] This year they have SATs all around the country and they've asked me to help lead the one in Chicago area. [Originally I was supposed to go to New Mexico, but at the last minute plans changed]. Anyways, I'm scheduled to leave tomorrow morning and meet the rest of the team at O'Hare airport. I would appreciate it if you all would keep these SATs in your prayers [as well as the elections in general] I pray that God would use His people to elect Godly candidates to lead our nation. Please also pray for safety as we travel and walk around talking to people, and stay in host homes. I will probably be in charge of a group of kids that will go around and campaign, sign wave, phone bank, etc. I'd also love prayer for my work with the kids and for the kids themselves during this week. I should get back on the 3rd of November, and if I'm not dead maybe I'll post a recap of our time :) [I mean dead tired......don't get all excited yet...I hope to live a good long time more ;) In other news, I finally got my laptop that I bought a few weeks ago.... :D it's pretty great! I'm thankful to have it, and now I have to pay case money [fiddlesticks] oh well, I found a case at Wal-mart that I think will be good. In even other news, please pray for "The Child" documentary. We hope to have it wrapped up and ready to be sent to the replicator by tonight!! I've been over at the office several nights this past week working on behind the scenes, but Grace and Daniel and Elissa have been pretty full time for a long time now. Please pray for everyone involved and the impact that God wants this movie to have. Incidentally, we are in the midst of scheduling showings all around the country [hopefully 5 in every congressional district I think!] The point is, we hope to have one near you! If you want to find out where it is, go to parentalrights.org and look to see if they have the showing list up yet. If there's not one near you, how about hosting you own showing? [Pretty fancy to tell people, "yeah me and my family like to premiere movies every now and then.. we know some filmmakers and they always give us the inside scoop" ;-) [or something like that] Well hey, I'd better go pack so I hope everyone's doing well, and to see some of you guys soon somehow! Ciao.

The Newest "Child" Trailer

2010-10-08T08:40:00.001-04:00

Hey Everyone! Here's the link to our most recent "The Child" trailer: "The Child" It's really cool and it shows alot more of the interviews that we did on our trip.

Also, last night I got to work the Parental Rights.org booth at the Peanut Festival. I had the late shift [8-10:30pm], but I still got some great responses from people...it was cool ;) We also have a TV that loops our main two trailers for the documentary...[so you have something to watch if no one comes by ;) But yeah, I think that every person I talked to [except maybe one person] had a favorable reaction to the PRA. So we'll keep praying and spreading the word. Also, as I've said before, feel free to stop by ParentalRights.org to find out more! Okay, well I've gotta run, so you all have a great day!

Happy Fall!

2010-10-04T21:17:00.003-04:00

Hey Bloggers and Blogesses!

This is me, the long-lost blogger boy who has been doing alot, but not posting it on his blog. I hope you all will still look over here and not just give me up as a cob-webby corner on the internet ;)

Well to start off, what does everybody think of the Fall so far? Personally, I consider the Fall through the holidays to be my absolute favorite time of year. I told someone today that Fall and Winter weather seems to have a dignity and depth of character that is different from the rest of the year. Even tonight I heard we're supposed to get down in the 40s! I love it. So last time I posted, I was in the middle of the filmmaking trip for "The Child" and somewhere on the road. Alot of things have happened since then on many different fronts and "The Child" is in the process of full-bore post-production. The target premiere date is November 20th and there is still a ton to do. [All of your prayers would be greatly appreciated]. Director Grace T. is doing the brunt of that right now, and she recently put together a new trailer that was shown at the National Homeschool conference a couple weeks ago. I don't have the link right now, but I'll try to grab it and post it on here soon. [It's cool ;)

Changing subjects a little, who's excited about election season?! I know I am. I think it's really cool to see what I believe is a wave of "involvement" spreading across the nation. Some big things have gone down in the past couple of years, and alot of people have been shaken awake to the fact that we cannot just put the well-being of our country in the hands of "the other guy". The kind of government that our founders started is not one whose people can be flippant and apathetic about their role if they desire to keep it. Now this "wave" could be an excellent thing, but it could also just be a flash that quickly fizzles out. The key factor will be whether or not our hearts are turned to the Lord. "Conservatism" is well and good [usually], but that's not the real answer. I pray that God will turn the hearts and minds of our people back to Him. That would make for an amazing election season :)

Well hey, I've gotta run here, but I do plan to try and post alot more, so keep your eyes out. Good evening everyone!

p.s. Please pray for a campaign event that our Generation Joshua club is hosting tomorrow. From what I know about the candidate he seems real good, and if it's God's will, he could replace a pretty not-so-good guy. Thanks!

Quick Travel Update

2010-08-19T02:33:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! This me from Tennessee. [Cheesy I know, but it does the job] So anyways, as you know I'm on the filming tour for 'The Child' documentary and we are about half way through. Thanks for your prayers, and please keep them up! God is really blessing us, but of course Satan doesn't like that. I'm glad I'm on the right side :) I know I haven't really done anything on here since I left, but I am one of the trip bloggers for the film crew. If you go to www.thechilddocumentary.wordpress.com, you can see some on-the-road pictures and hear a few of our thoughts. If you are a Facebooker, you can find us under "watchmen cinema" I believe. I hope everyone is doing well, and having a blessed August. Thanks again for your prayers!

So long for now!

"Hi! I'm From Whirlwind Tours....."

2010-08-06T09:02:00.007-04:00

"Hey there! I'm your friendly local Whirlwind Tours representative. We are here to assist you in all your traveling plans and preparations. Shoot, we'll take care of everything for you while you just try to keep up with our pace. So strap yourself in [keeping all arms and legs inside the vehicle] and get ready for adventure!"

Okay, so much for the tour guide bit, but it does feel good to be writing an update about my after iGovern life :) The fact is, is that I am getting ready to leave tomorrow morning on a 3-week tour around the eastern half of the nation to do the principle shooting for "The Child". [The movie that the Tate family is producing]. Earlier this week,we were in D.C. for a few days getting to do some really cool interviews with some high-profile people [Mike Farris, Wendy Wright, Heritage Foundation, congressmen, etc.] =) That went great, but not without its fair share of adventure [sideswipings in D.C. traffic, technical difficulties, over-chlorinated pools etc.] However, the Lord blessed it and we had a great time. Now comes the long haul. Ms. Gina is the travel coordinator, Mr. Larry is the producer, Grace is the director and Daniel Tate, Justin Wright, Alaina Wright, a new friend Ray Ma, and myself are the crew [with embroidered Polo's to prove it ;) We are excited as well as wondering what it will all be like. All of your prayers would be greatly appreciated as we are on this journey and I hope to be able to update this blog a good bit while I'm on the road. It looks like I might be the bloggy guy for the production, so I will post links or whatever as I figure all that out. We also have a Facebook page, but I am not completely up on that as of yet. Well hey, I have packing to do, so I'd better run, but I hope you are all doing well, and look out to hear from me soon! Hi-yo Silver.........

I'm at iGovern

2010-06-30T18:51:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! Really busy, but I want to tell you that I'm having a great time, and we went to D.C. today, and heard part of the Elaina Keagen hearings. Great fun! Capture the flag is tonight, way too many things to tell right now, made alot of friends! Miss you all!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2010-06-14T17:16:00.004-04:00

Hello all my friends and relations! I have missed you all profoundly, and I'm sorry I haven't posted recently. There are reasons though, and good ones. It all started back at the beginning of this year, right before I got elected as the president of our GenJ club. I was giving a campaign speech at the Tate's house and afterward we were talking about the Parental Rights Amendment, and how the word really needed to get out to the citizens of our nation who haven't heard about it, or haven't heard enough to care. The Tates had been thinking it would be very cool to make a documentary about the whole issue and the implications and consequences it could have on our culture. Another family that was there [the Kruses for all you Daughters of Destiny-ers], also really liked the idea and in fact, the dad had some background in news/media stuff. Anyways, it was all very interesting to talk about, but still, and idea. We did, however, pray about it as a group before we all left, and were still interested in the idea. Fast forward to the last couple of months. The Tates had done some research on the movie idea, and in fact, felt like they were supposed to pursue it. [As did the rest of us]. With that in mind, Grace contacted the heads of Parental Rights.Org, and asked them if she and Mr. Larry could come up and have a meeting with them to ask them some questions about the history and story of the Parental Rights Amendment. They did have that meeting, and the result was that the PRO guys were extremely excited about the whole documentary idea. They said they'd actually been wishing someone would get that thought and make one. On top of that, they agreed to let our production be official affiliated with Parental Rights.Org! And that they'd help us make contacts with cases of people who they'd worked with for interview bits! It was very exciting and marked the place that it looked like some kind of movie was going to be made. Okay, so research and other pre-production started, and then Grace, Elissa, and Mr. Larry went up to Patrick Henry College a few weeks ago to see a seminar by filmmaker George Escobar [a film executive who was called to start his own independent film company a few years ago called "Advent Film Group". One of their projects was "Come What May". This seminar was a great opportunity, and I waited expectantly to hear the pearls of filmmaking wisdom that would be brought back ;) In an amazing God-event, the Tates came back telling me that not only was the seminar great, but that George Escobar had offered us the use of his professional filmmaking equipment!!! It was truly an amazing [and slightly unbelievable] turn of events. Nevertheless, last Tuesday found me and Daniel T., Steven T., Grace T., and Elissa K., going up to Purcellville, VA to meet with an Advent intern to pick up and train on the equipment! It was a 10 hour round trip, but it was an amazing time. We didn't really know what they were going to give us, but we figured maybe a camera and a couple of accessories. It turns out that they were giving us a ton more than that. We were amazed as Miss Intern showed us a stack of flight cases containing a great camera, lighting fixtures, mics, audio, and the list just went on! In all, it was like a text book setup. We were so excited as we put it in the car and I drove back home with Steven and Elissa. This week is the start of shooting for a teaser trailer that is scheduled to be done soon. Very, Very, cool. Please pray, and I'll send you all to our film website once we get it up and running =) Another cool development in my personal life, was that I've been working on my application for the GenJ Leadership Corps. When we went to Purcellville, I had finally gotten it ready, and was able to deliver it to the head GenJ office. [very handy ;) I didn't expect to hear back too soon because the website said they'd get back in no less than 10 days. To my surprise, I got a call the next afternoon saying that I had been accepted and would I be available to be a counselor at the iGovern camp at Patrick Henry at the end of the month. This was one of the big reasons I wanted to get my application in quickly, so I was very blessed to see the Lord work in that way. With both of these subjects it has been very cool to see God confirm and propel these desires that I had been feeling were from Him, but had not really been given a clear go-ahead on. Needless to say, it was a great reminder of the fact that the plan that God has for me and my life is the absolute A #1 best way it could ever go. Sometimes I [and maybe you too] get afraid and worried when we don't see how our hopes and dreams will [or even could] play into the "hum-drum" of our immediate circumstances. I know that I don't really want to set my jaw and plunge down my own path of life, but it can be very disconcerting in our limited mindset to just do the next thing the Lord places in front of us and not calculate the probabilities or percentages of how everything could, or might, or should work out. I believe that God wants us to hope and imagine and dream, and the answer to this question is not to just nip our hopes in the bud and bury our dreams in the sand of impossibilities, but to ask the Lord for the hope and faith to trust that the plan is incredible and the desires that He gives us will not just be washed down the drain. Also, God has been reminding me that His plan will never leave me with regrets or feeling like I missed out on something better. His plan was custom made for me before time began. It is the most fulfilling, most moving, most inspiring story that could ever work out in my life. Pretty hopeful ;) So anyways, this is why I've been [and will be] busy, but I will endeavor to keep you all up to date on your post shots and I hope you've all enjoyed this one :)

Trader Joe's/ The Landing at Isle De Foray

2010-05-18T09:43:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone! It feels good to do another post here. Sorry about the lack thereof, but I've been on my toes thereof. There are alot of things going on right now, and I am torn between several internet accounts, etc. when I sit down to the computer. [I know, I know, no excuse for neglecting my blog, but still.] So anyways, I though I'd do a lighter post than my last one, [though I enjoyed the conversation], so I think I will tell you about some humorous/adventurous things I have done by myself and with the entourage during the past few days. Okay, starting with last night, I will relate to you all the tale of my shopping trip to Trader Joe's. Some of you may know that I am a guitar player. Some of you may also know that I have recently been blessed to be able to start lessons again with my former teacher. [For those of you who don't know that, now you do]. So yesterday afternoon found me setting out from our house in the middle of a rain storm to drive the hour to Va Beach where my lesson is. Dad had arranged for me to borrow my grandma's car since I have yet to get mine back from a friend who's been working on it. I got to my lesson [and had a very good time with that] and then I was thirsty. As I was driving away, I suddenly had a bright idea. I was coming to a shopping center that had the only Trader Joe's for miles around. That store is not such a hot topic for me, but Grandma June loves it. [I also noticed that the same shopping center had a Sonic and that Sonic was sure to have cherry limeades!] With those two good ideas, I pulled in and went to Trader Joe's first. So here enters the funny [to me] part (:=3 [that's a chef] Anyways, I walked in the store and the first thing that hit me was, "Man, what am I going to get for Grandma June that is not outrageously priced here?" Then, because I was still thirsty, I got distracted by some really good looking drinks in glass bottles. Now I knew that this store has a pretty good selection of 'drinks that I would never drink'. So even though I was pretty sure these drinks were not alcoholic, I still didn't want to be looking all interested in the display and come to find out that it wasn't something I wanted. So I kind of pretended to be really interested in what was behind the display, until I could look at the bottle out of the corner of my eye and ascertain that it was safe, and then pick it up for closer inspection ;) After that ordeal, I decided not to get it, and then I started to notice that that store really seemed to be the young, uppity, beachy, high-tech, trendy, place to be. Really kind of shwi-shwi if you know what I mean. I started to feel slightly out of place as I roamed the isles of the store but I tried not to come of as a hick that had only been to this place once before. [though I had only been once before ;) [but hopefully not as a hick] So I was still searching for something when I saw The Samples. I love samples almost as much as free lunch. Now if you are a refined sample sampler, then you will know the tricks of the trade. By these I mean your approach. You don't want to appear over-eager or they will feel like you're trying to bum a free snack. My approach was to take the "food critic" persona. I politely asked if I could try one and then acted like I frequently tasted chicken whatever-whatever. I nodded my head to show that I was moderately pleased, but not to raise their hopes of selling me one too high. [That really works when you want them to quit bugging you about buying one]. Satisfied, I moved on to continue with my search. Finally, it hit me: Grandma June loves to get green olives from that store. The only problem was that I couldn't find olives. I tend to be a sign shopper, and I didn't see any sign that said "olives". Not even "canned pickled things". I felt pretty silly about asking a worker for one little jar of olives, but push came to shove and I did. He showed me where they were, and I went through the check-out with one item. I kind of felt beachy, like, "yeah, I only get one item from any given store. My pugs can't wait in the Prius to long so I like to make alot of short stops. Olives here, yogurt cups here, bottled water for the pugs here, etc., etc." ;) After I left the store and got back to the car, it was nice to be out of ritzy land. My escapade ended with a happy ending- a large cherry limeade. [In all fairness Trader Joe's is a perfectly good store with some cool stuff. I just had fun playing it up in my head. The girls or Matthew weren't there so I had to come up with my own adventure :)

Now let me tell you about last Sunday. If you've read Rachel and Sarah's blog, you will know about the hike at the park. What you may not know is that Matthew and I went back the very next day. It happened like this: Matthew and I were sitting around on Sunday afternoon after some family worship time and no fun Sunday afternoon stuff to do. Now ever since Saturday, I had been formulating a plan to get my boat from the Solomon's campsite and go on a water exploration at the park. That was simmering in the back of my ideas and it suddenly jumped up. After a conference with Matthew and our respective parents, he and I headed out to see what we could do. We knew beforehand that I probably had only one oar [Which doesn't taste very nice preciouss]. Nevertheless, we left with hopes that God would bring us an oar one way or the other. [Or we'd just get my boat and come home]. We got the boat and strapped it on top of the truck. Next, we stopped to get some lunch at Pizza Hut in Suffolk. We completely baffled the waitress with our order but in the end had a great time. Our oar hopes weren't so high, but we ventured into Wal-mart to see what they had. We found a 5-foot canoe paddle for only $12.79 or something. That led us to hope that we could treat my john-boat like a large canoe and just use 1 oar each. We uneventfully got to the lake and launched the boat successfully. It's really amazing how a clunky boat can suddenly become so graceful and smooth once you put it on the water. Thankfully, it had no fresh leaks [though every john-boat has slight ones] so after praying we set out keeping to the edge of the lake and feeling like Frodo and Sam. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful out there. There were nooks and coves of water and rocky bluffs all around the edges. I could have spent hours and hours out there and never gotten tired of it. We came up to one of these coves that looked particularly inviting and we rowed up to the bank and tied on to a tree. Then we set foot on our newly-discovered island for the very first time. [Okay, it wasn't really an island, but we got to it by water, so that counts for something]. We knew right off the bat that this island needed a name. I suggested "Isle De Foray" [hence the post title] and we kind of left it like that. We got into a pretty good rhythm with the rowing. I gave the main power and Matthew the skipper steered from the back ;) We safely got back from our maiden voyage. and left with fervent vows to return soon. Hopefully with the girls. All in all, it was great fun and thanks for letting me tell you all about it. Oh, would anyone like to see a play we did on Mother's day called "Don Coolio's Package"? Let me know. See you all soon!

A Darwinistic Antithesis to God's Sovriegnity and Providence Over Life and Death

2010-04-29T08:18:00.005-04:00

Taken From the Virginian Pilot Editorials on Wednesday, April 28th, 20210

Abortion Option

"With outrage I just read the following in The Pilot:'Gov. Bob McDonnell's effort to restrict government funds from being from being used for abortions.... was sustained by state lawmakers.' My husband and I tutor elementary school children who struggle with reading. My student happens to be one of eight born to an alcoholic mother and suffers from alcohol syndrome. It breaks my heart to look at his physical and mental disfigurement. Shouldn't this woman have been able to obtain an abortion? What are the prospects for this child, and what is /will the state and our illustrious male legislator do for him?"

[I am not disclosing the author's name at this point]

Dear friends and readers, is it really necessary for me to say anything? However, taking the risk of officiousness, I will lay out a few of the many errors that struck me as I read this sad peek into the worldview of a fellow American. Now, I understand that this mindset is common enough, and is a "natural" response of sinful man. Knowing those things though, only spurs me on to push the point farther. Okay, to start here, let me list some of the big errors in this argument coming from this twisted worldview:

1. This viewpoint shows a basic contempt for the sanctity and holiness of life.

2. It rejects the sovereignty of God's Providence that let this child be born into this world [i.e."Shouldn't this mother have been able to obtain an abortion?"].

3. It suggests that a person's worth or value [maybe even right to live] comes from their "potential", or achievements, or physical or mental capabilities. [Instead of a "certain inalienable right" that was directly given by the Jesus Christ to this child.

4. In the repeated cuts on Bob McDonnell and "our illustrious male legislators", the author shows an adherence to feminism and a very socialistic view of government that would elevate the state to the level of Almighty God and would "give" the state the power to determine who should live and who should die. Also, the author basically takes the lawmakers to task for letting a "incompetent drain on society" ever come to life in their state. [Further implying a trust in the State as high priest of this sought-after "utopia".]

So there you have it, an example of the thinking that a nation without the Lord will quickly slide into. This lady was basically saying,"It breaks my heart that this mother let this disgusting child ever be born". She wishes her student was dead! I seem to recall Jesus saying something about the thought of murder being as wrong as the real thing. Once a culture heads down the slippery slope of pride that would allow them to be deceived into thinking that they should be the ones who determine who has the right to live, where will they stop? I shudder to think of who would be next on the "compassionate hit list". Maybe the sick and elderly, maybe "anti-social and reclusive families who refuse to entrust their children to the state". You know, this mindset is not at all new. Hitler would love this article. The truth is, God is the only one who has legitimate authority to decide who lives, and who dies, and when. It it wrong and despicable to attempt to take over His role. I pray that God will turn our nation's heart back to Himself, and that our culture will realize that abortion is murder and murder has always been the easy way out. It's just that in the past, murder is not what Americans have aspired to for their nation.

Big Moment

2010-04-23T09:33:00.004-04:00

Hey guyses! I [sniff], I just want to [sniff], I just want to let you all know that this [sniff], is a very emotional time for me because I just got my first ever blog award. I just need to stop a minute and take this all in.

:) But seriously folks, this is cool. And very gracious of Ms. Ozee the younger [the benefactor]. In essence, my Lady Catherine De Bourgh. [yeah, yeah, I watched it with my sisters. And actually, I enjoyed it pretty well.] So anyways, here it is for your admiration. I have to think for awhile about who I'll award it to. See you all later!

Catch-up

2010-04-21T10:06:00.002-04:00

Hey guys! How's it going? Sorry about not posting for quite some time, but we've been quite busy. Work has started to pick up, and on top of that, we've been working on the Walker's mobile home project. I've had some great ideas for posts [and I'm not discarding them], but I just haven't had the opportunity of time+energy to write them out. So, here's a question I've been wondering about: Would any of you followers be interested to see any video blog posts on here? [You know, instead of a written post, a video of me talking.] I love writing posts and I'm going to keep doing that, but I didn't know if it might be a fun variation. Let me know. Hey, another thing is that Matthew and I have had time for some pretty great volleyball practice! We've been working on the "bump, set, spike" routine with just the two of us. We had alot of fun. On the other hand, I have been feeling really old! My knees have been killing me for the past week or two. [I think it's the sliding to a stop and twisting around from volleyball. I have evidence too because my shoes that I just bought in Feb. have holes worn through the soles ;) So, I guess you all heard that this past weekend we hosted a percussion ensemble party for my Uncle David's students. That was really cool. I'd met several of them on different occasions, so it wasn't real awkward or anything. This one guy is a guitar player, so we had some fun with that :) We also played speed volleyball and that was pretty hilarious. See, alot of them kind of came with the "ODU Norfolk kid" attitude. Not anything mean, but just a "cool kid" thing. When we got into speed vb though, these guys went crazy! Some were real good, but at least as many were chasing the ball all over the field and yelling and waving their arms etc., etc. [We did some of that too ;) There was this one guy who was on a team with one of our friends who would stand there and say, "oh yeah! I'm feelin' it!" We wondered what exactly he was feeling because it wasn't really the ball. ;) [Please note that I'm not trying to pick on these guys, because I do the same kind of stuff, and it's just really funny!] So that was a great time, and that's my recap of it! Well hey, it's been fun blogging here, but I've got to run, so hope everyone has a great day!

Music Tag

2010-04-05T19:36:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody! To Miss Butler: Very sorry about the length of time it's taken to get this tag done! Please accept our deepest apologies and condolences. Also, please accept this video as the answer to the problem. Matthew and I made this thing [along with Sarah the techie girl], and we had alot of fun. [At least I did, you'll have to ask him if he did ;) So anyways, here it is for the blogging world to see. Also, let me set down a few pre-requisites: this is our first music video, and as such, you may notice a few "bobbles". [such as the tape squeal toward the end]. We could say that's artistic license, but that would be dishonest. One last thing, bear in mind that I am no Mac Powell, and my voice was kind of worn out after all the takes we did. [Though Rachel says that should make me sound just like him ;) Now, on the other hand, I certainly don't mean to demean our fine music video- in fact, we are pretty pleased. It was definitely fun, and we would love to do some more! [Also, be on the lookout for another one from the Daniel Matthew's Band featuring the talents of renowned rhythm guitarist Katie Wilson...........

So, what'd you all think? Please leave comments!! See you all later.

P.S. Mr. Oldest of Many is co-poster on this here post.

Wow! Just...Wow!

2010-04-01T15:33:00.003-04:00

Hello to Everyone out there! I know I haven't posted for awhile-I was leaving that last post up there to catch some more comments. Commenting has been kinda slow! Do I hear an echo? Now I'm sounding like Matthew! ;) I thought I'd let you all know two very exciting things that I am about to step into: First off, I am under contract to make a film for Malaprop Studios. They are a rising film company run by a few families. They have asked me to direct, and co-star in a film based in World War Two. But I can't tell you many details, because I am under strict silence. Check out their webpage here. This is really exciting for me. They contacted me after seeing the PRA commercial I worked on, and really loved the technical filming, and also my acting.
The second exciting thing, is that I have found the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with! My sister Rachel describes her this way: 'She has soulful brown eyes, and sleek black hair. She is very thin, weighing only 60 pounds. Her family ancestry is Germanic.'
I can't tell you how much I love her. I found her hanging around the V.B. animal shelter, and she is such a tenderhearted thing. But she has arthritis in her hip, even though she is only 7 years old. For several years we have officially "adopted" her, but now I think it's time to move onto something more serious.

APRIL FOOLS!!! This is Rachel hijacking Daniel's blog, and by the way, the woman I speak of is none other than our dog, Licorice who is part German Shephard and Black Lab. Oh. And the movie thing is fake too. But the link does really work! :)

So the Healthcare Bill passed. Now What?

2010-03-26T08:54:00.005-04:00

Hey guys, this is an email that I sent out to our Generation Joshua club regarding this recent healthcare bill. I hope you all enjoy it, and please consider signing Cuccinelli's petition online.
Thanks for reading, and I'll post again soon!

From the office of the President:

Hey everyone, how's it going? If you have been following the recent developments related to the health care bill, you know that the House of Representatives voted to pass this highly controversial bill last Sunday, March 21st. You know, right about now is when we can become very discouraged as conservative Christians in the United States of America. We've protested, we've written letters to newspapers and civic leaders, we've prayed for this bill not to pass, some of us have been full-out front line fighters on this issue, and yet, the votes were cast, and the results were in favor of the health care bill. Was all our prayer and work and energy for nothing? Is this just one more example of how useless it is to resist because the Federal government will do and get away with whatever it wants despite what many of us believe is unconstitutional legislation? Is it one more reason to avoid speaking out or being involved in the politics of our nation? Is this one more nail in the coffin of the voice of Truth and Justice? Have we simply wasted our breath? Well ladies and gentleman, I'm here to say that by no means is any of this true. I firmly believe that this is the Lord's nation no matter what our people or leaders may say or do to the contrary. There is still a remnant [and not a small one either] of true Americans who acknowledge the rightful authority of the King of Kings. If we tuck our tails and go home because of a parliamentary defeat, then that means that our hope and confidence was not where it should have been. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not saying, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal, worse stuff has happened, just chill out". No, that's not at all what I'm saying. What I am saying though, is that as Christians, our Hope, our confidence, and our initiative, should come from the fact that no matter what setbacks or "defeats" we may experience as ambassadors for Christ, we are on the side that ultimately wins. The Lord's sovereign plan is in no way changed by the vote of a congress, and we can have peace in that fact. In His word, Jesus tells us, "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." [John 16:33] You see, we are the salt and the light to a world without peace. A world without hope. We all know there is trouble in this world, we experience it every day. The difference is, we have a Lord who cares and who has completely overcome this world and all of its troubles. Jesus Christ has overcome the world, not Obama, not Nancy Pelosi, not the TEA Party, not the PRA, not any anti-healthcare bill, and most certainly not this health care bill. This should leave us with a huge amount of hope and passion to not settle for this in our nation, which is the Lord's nation. It should spur us on in our efforts to proclaim the crown rights of Jesus in our country. That's one of the reasons I'm writing this email. If you haven't heard yet, our recently-elected attorney general Mr. Ken Cuccinelli, has, with about 10 or so other AGs from around the nation, decided to contest the legality of this move by the federal government. This is a huge undertaking, and there are those who would tell Mr. Cuccinelli that he's just wasting his time, he'll never win, etc., etc. Thankfully though, our attorney general is taking the line of John Quincey Adams who said, "Duty is ours, results are God's". If the people of this nation listened the nay-sayers every time we had a tough decision to make, I doubt that this nation would have ever come into existence. We must boldly execute what duties have been entrusted to us, and not step into the snares of probabilities and percentages. Okay, so here's where we come in: Mr. Cuccinelli can't do this alone, and he shouldn't have to. We need to do what we can to help stand up for our rights and the rights of our state. So how do we do that? Well to start with, you can go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopthemandate/ and sign Ken's petition that deals with this whole subject. Also, please email your friends and family and ask them to consider signing this petition also. Please pray for our leaders and ask the Lord to give them His heart and wisdom as they make decisions in and for our nation. All of us here at TACT GenJ, would love to hear from any of you all in relation to this subject, in relation to starting you own GenJ club, in relation to doing a GenJ presentation at your church or school, or if you just want to say hey that's fine too! Well hey, thank you so much for taking the time to read this message, and for your continued support and effort for Christ in your communities and this nation as a whole!
May God bless you all, and may God bless America!

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Heffington, TACT President
--
http://www.tidewatersactiveconservativeteens.blogspot.com/
Faith. Duty. Courage.
http://www.generationjoshua.org/

A Story

2010-03-18T22:28:00.003-04:00

Good evening everybody, how's it going? Whew, I don't know about the rest of you, but things are pretty busy, full, action-packed, speedy, etc., etc., in a "hang-on-let-me-grab-my-thesaurus" kind of way. In light of all this, I decided to do what some might call an "irritatingly irrelevant and superfluous kind of post". Not that I mean it to be boring or lacking in enjoyablility, but that it's a story about something that happened to me [and one of my sisters] a few weeks ago. So it's nothing earth-shattering, or incredibly fresh, or new, or cutting-edge. Though, it was quite interesting, even suspenseful, dare I say, downright dangerous. I think we did however, manage to live through it. I'm pretty sure. So without further ado, here's my story:

"It was another rainy day at the Heffingtons' house. After spending the morning doing various chores, jobs, tasks, etc., Daniel felt that it was time for some lunch. His parents were out, his other siblings had eaten, and there didn't seem to be any of that left. He didn't mind this though. You see, he remembered that a certain Burger King that had been closed down for the better part of a year or even longer, had recently re-opened. As you may know, when this particular character is deciding what to eat, he is always on the look-out for some sort of meat. So, putting two and two together, [along with some money from his wallet], he set out to eat his lunch at said restaurant. As he was leaving though, his dear sister Leah begged and begged him to let her accompany him. [And though we would never mention it to her dear reader, I do believe she may have had a hope that her philanthropic brother would take pity on a young girl and by her a drink]. Whether or not these suspicions were validated matters little because that's just what he did. After he had finished his wonderful lunch of a Whopper Junior combo with small fries and a drink, and she had finished her drink and some of his small fries, they set off in the Subaru to go home to the rest of their brothers and sisters. As they got in the car and started toward the first stop light, Leah found an abandoned lock-blade pocket knife on the floor of her brother's car. Knowing him to be the suspicious character he was, she whipped out the knife and grinned at him in an unsettling and gloating way. [Okay, okay, maybe it was more like she slowly opened the knife out of pure curiosity. Writer's license and all that stuff.] One way or the other, the knife was opened as they began their drive. Seeing the open knife, and being the conscientious, safe, and aware driver that he was, Daniel calmly and serenely said, "Close that knife! If we were in an accident or something you'd fly forward and that knife would get me right here!" He accompanied this last statement with a violent gesture to somewhere in the region of his neck. Leah quickly saw the truth to that statement and just as quickly realized she didn't know about how to close this particular lock-blade knife. Seeing they were at a stoplight and feeling as he did about open knives being brandished around while he was driving, Daniel took the knife from her and closed it himself. It was a good thing too, because little did either of them know just how prophetic Daniel's dire prediction would turn out to be. As they neared the edge of town, they came to the spot that Daniel likes. He likes this spot because it says 55 instead of 35. As the car accelerated to cruising speed Daniel and Leah kept up a friendly chatter. [Though some say she kept glancing furtively at the knife] [But Daniel and Leah were there and neither of them will agree with that last statement so that means it's false.] Anyways, they continued home with light hearts, neither of them suspecting what was to come. Here's how it happened: At a certain spot in the road, Daniel and Leah were driving in the slow lane as their right turn was 1/2 mile ahead. Along this piece of road there is a severe ditch some 4 or 5 feet deep on the road side. This is partly because the road is built up higher than the surrounding lands though, so the ditch is much shallower on the yard side of the ditch. [Meaning people's yards.] So, as it happened, right at this particular point in the road a purple 18-wheeler decided it would scare the living daylights out of some young travelers and merge into their lane when they were right behind it's cab door. It may have been much less devious, in fact Daniel and Leah suppose they must have been in the truck's blind spot, but either way, it did start to come rather decidedly into their lane. Both Daniel and Leah noticed this movement as it was forcing them off the road. Daniel had to move the right wheel of the car onto the shoulder of the ditch because the truck kept on coming. Daniel was of course blowing his horn the whole time, but to no avail. Suddenly it happened. The truck had caused them to move so much to the right that there was no more shoulder to move on to. They were going into the 5 foot deep ditch!! Suddenly and miraculously though, there was at that certain spot, a narrow driveway crossing the bridging the ditch for about 8 or 10 feet. Somehow, [Daniel says it was no stunt driving skills on his part], the car was able to move onto the driveway in it's leap from the road. This saved them from crashing into a 5 foot ditch on the passenger side [Leah's side]. What did happen however, was that the car hit the driveway and flew into the air. During the mini-flight, the car crossed the ditch line and landed in the yard. They were still traveling quite fast for yard driving though, [they were after all flying off of a highway. Though Daniel had been braking the whole time with skid tracks to prove it] and so they ended up plowing into the ditch on the shallower yard side with Daniel's side of the car. The other point [or more like two points] of this driveway crossing however, was the fact that a mailbox and newspaper box were blocking the car's path. As they flew across the driveway they flew through those two items, breaking them into pieces. After they had landed in the ditch, it was quiet for a tiny while. [They had been yelling during the incident. At least Daniel had. But he maintains that all he said was "Whoa!" and we believe him.] After getting over the initial shock, Daniel and Leah said to each other at the same time, "Are you alright!?". They assured each other they were [thankfully] and climbed out of Leah's door as the car was at a slant with Daniel's door pinned against the ditch bank. Some kind passer-by called a deputy and he arrived quickly at the scene. As did the ambulance, fire truck, etc. After being assured that Leah and Daniel were okay, and checking the car for damage and leaks, the ambulance and fire truck left. The deputy called a tow truck and took report from Daniel and Leah. [The author would like to note here that Leah conducted herself very maturely and bravely during the whole episode. There was no crying, whimpering or anything of that nature. The only time we had a hint of her nervousness was when the deputy was pulling up and she stammered, "Am- am I going to have to testify?"] To the amazement of our heroes, the car was completely unscathed. All that needed to be done was for the tow-truck to hook a cable up and pull the car out of the ditch! The kind officer found no reason to charge Daniel with anything "unsavory", and only left them with the order to see that the mailboxes were repaired. A very thankful Daniel and Leah then got back in the car and drove to the tow-truck shop to pay for the tow. Their parents met them there and after having assured their mother that they were both okay, our two companions drove uneventfully back to their house. But I've heard that to this day [a few weeks later] Daniel still has an unusual suspicion of 18-wheelers."

So that's my story. It really was amazing how God provided that driveway at the exact spot that we left the road. We were very blessed and thankful that it wasn't any worse of a turn-out than it was. So there you have it, another example of the adventures I have with my sisters. [Maybe I shouldn't do something as dangerous and wild as going to Burger King next time :)

P.S. For anyone who was wondering, I did fix both boxes the next day. And they look pretty good. [If I do say so myself ;)

Late Tag

2010-03-13T20:08:00.003-05:00

'Ello to the various and sundries! Oim getting to be an old bird and Oi don't 'ave toim to be settin' down with moi alpha beta grammar book........ Here you are- a man wiv a wooden leg and you can read. And here I am wivout a wooden leg, and I can't read! Hey guys, that was just a few lines that have been rattling around in my head from a movie called "Our Mutual Friend". Some anonymous persons let us borry it a while ago on the terms that I wouldn't let it become as scraped about as some of my other c.d.s [heh-heh] Never fear though! We've kept it safe! So anyways, back to the real point of this post. First off, as promised I will reveal the identity of Mr. "X" after all those very-pleased-to-get comments. Dun-dun-duhhh. It......was......ME!! What I don't get though, is how so many of you seemed to guess that!? ;) ;p Okay, here are the answers to the belated tag of Miss Ozee and Mr. Walker. Book or stories [I think that's what it was] that I'd like to live in:

1. The Scarlet Pimpernel

2. The Pickwick Papers [I think]

3. The Mitford Series

4. Jotham's Journey

5. The Hardy Boys Series [Hey, I know I'm gettin' up there, but it still would be cool :)

6. LOTR

7. Narnia Books

8. Glory, Duty, and the Gold Dome

[I have a few more because I've been tagged at least twice]

9. James Herriot's Books

10. With Wolfe In Canada [G.A. Henty]

11. Kidnapped! [R.L. Stevenson]

12. Sargent York

13. Roy Rogers [Or any good wholesome western where I was sure to not get killed]

14. Treasure Island

15. [Hey, this may make everyone shake their heads in a "how juvenile" fashion, but...] Adventures in Odyssey [the ones full of espionage and intrigue :)

16. I am very grateful/interested/surprised/sometimes scared/thankful/hopeful/expectant/excited/alot of other things, to be in the story that the Lord has written for me.

So there you have it. As far as other tags go, I tag anyone who has not been tagged with this that wants to. [I don't think I know 8 followers who haven't yet:) Alrighty, thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great night!

Okay, Here's a Real Movie.... sort of:

2010-03-04T08:41:00.003-05:00

Okay everyone, as some of you all noticed, I tried a little video test yesterday seemed kind of confusing and troubling. However, the test showed me that it's pretty easy to post movies on Blogger. That's why I'm giving you folks one of the first opportunities to see an interview we captured while in NY. Soooooo, here goes nothing :)

Well, there you have it. In case you missed it in the credits, I said that if you leave comments I might reveal the identity of this Mr. "X" guy. [Nobody pays attention to those privacy releases anymore anyways.]

Okay, I'll tell you the really fast behind the scenes story on this interview. It was one of those late night things that was completely improv, and no rehearsal [obviously]. But hey, I thought you all might enjoy a laugh today! Thanks for watching and see you guys later!!

Here's a test

2010-03-03T19:39:00.002-05:00

Hey, this is just a test video that I'm putting on here to see how posting movies goes. [I've never done it, but if it works, look out for more].

Hey!

2010-02-26T09:02:00.004-05:00

Hey everybody! How's it going? I just wanted to do a quick little post here before I loaded up for work. Well, I'm back from my Northern [Yankee-loving according to some] expedition! We had an absolutely wonderful time doing all of the various and sundry things that we did, but you know, what made the whole time so fun was that we got to do it with our Aunt and Uncle. And for those who were concerned, I must submit to you that I am a Yankee-lover. I would actually be disappointed if I didn't love my Northern relatives. That would make a trip..... awkward. Oh, by the way, the stories you may have heard about our skiing adventures were all true. [Even the one about Rachel and the ski-lift bar]. If you've never been, I highly recommend both kinds of skiing, cross-country for beauty and the "hiking" experience, and downhill for the excitement and exhilaration. [Also for boosting self-image when you realize that you can land a jump!] [Though you may start right back where you were when you realize that it was about the size of a wheelbarrow ;) Well hey, I must apologize for several of us to Ms. Butler for the lateness of our tag results. It's not at all that we don't care, in fact we've been practicing and everything. It's just getting us all together when we aren't needed for other things. Very excited though. Also, I heard rumor that I'd been tagged by one of the Narnian Highnesses, but I never really saw it. [If I have, maybe the tagger could leave a comment telling me where to look:) So listen, I've been thinking over some more ideas for posts, and I hope to put them up here for your readability soon. Well hey, it's been great checking in, hope you all are doing well, and I will be back soon! Th-th-that's all for now folks!

A Solemn Farewell

2010-02-12T09:46:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone! The packing is done, the people are getting ready to leave, and our trip is about to start. Ahhh. Parting is such sweet sorrow. The North is calling us and we go. [Cheesey I know]. Well hey, we are going to miss seeing all of you that we normally see on Sun., but we will try to stay connected from NY. If you watch the Olympics, I love the snowboard half-pipe! [Probably because I'd kill myself if I ever tried it :) But anyway, farewell and have a wonderful week!! Oh, we'll miss you bloggers too by the way.

11:54 PM

2010-02-08T23:54:00.003-05:00

Hey guys! It's me, I have broken the silence of the cobb-webby corridors of this blog. Once again, my sincerest apologies for the lack of postings. I do declare that it is my greatest intention and desire to post so much more frequently. And I do have several post ideas stirring in my mind. Yes, the music tag from Ms. Butler is underway. I have been privileged to have had at least two impromptu rehearsals with the various artists that will be recording with me, and we're working on it. [Still trying to work on the release of our latest album and finish lining up all the tour dates.] Seriously though, if this pulls off well, I will consider doing "concert video" posts every now and then. [If it is desirable] By the way, I use brackets instead of parentheses because I prefer [this], to (this). My reasoning goes two ways. One is that it seems to lend a certain definitiveness and maturity to the type, and the second reason is that you don't have to press shift to get the brackets. [I did not randomly decide to mention that, I was asked why on Abigail's blog] So, most of you all who follow this blog, follow the esteemed "Our Family View From Us Two", and "Step By Step He'll Lead Me" blogs. For that reason, I will not go over the wonderful time we had with Matthew's surprise party and skits in their full detail. Suffice it to say that it was decidedly great. I don't know if this part got mentioned or not, one of the other major highlights was that we had a really nice time of playing and singing all of our favorite songs with Uncle David doing an excellent job with his drum set. [No surprises there:) Okay, you may have heard that we are to set off on a northern expedition on Friday. It is true and I am looking forward to it with much excitement! I absolutely love airports. They make me feel very important and rich :) I even get a little thrill from getting pulled out of the line for a surprise security check and coming off clear. [That's probably a good thing, because I get pulled at almost every opportunity. I must look suspicious or something. Anyway, if I had a security phobia, I would almost certainly not enjoy airports like I do. Ok, one last thing before I go. After leaving Matthew's party on Fri. night, I drove home with my sisters and Daniel Tate. It was the worst driving conditions I'd ever been in. It was a nor'-easter and we were leaving the ocean front. Thankfully we made it home safe and sound [though I might have taken a few years off of DT's life:) and were able to tell everyone about the great time we'd had. The unfortunate thing was that when we got out of the car in the rain-storm, my cell phone fell onto the ground and spent the night in the wetness. When I found him in the morning, I put him into a bag full of rice for 24 hours and then tried him out again. He responded but has no control over the left side of his keypad. All that to say, I have a new phone on the way that should be here by tomorrow or something. Thankfully Dad had thought it a good idea to buy insurance for my phone when we got it. [I'm not that huge of a liability though, I have a mostly good track record:) So, for $50 I can be back in business. The replacement is not the same because my phone had some life on it, but according to them, it's a better phone. [Better for what is my question!] But hey, I'm sure it'll do fine. Alright, I'd better head off to my upstairs. Thanks for reading and see you all later!

Batten Down the 'Atches!!

2010-01-29T10:30:00.004-05:00

Hey guys! I just sat down to do a quick little post to proclaim my excitement and enthusiasm about the 6"-12" of snow forcast for our area!! [For those of you who may not know me as well as others might, I have always loved [and hopefully always will love] a good dumping of snow. We never get much of any snow to speak of, and now we may be in for the biggest storm since 1989!!!!! Please forgive me if this snow-joy is a little too childish or undignified, but I can't do much to help it. Now if I can just find a good sledding hill......
So anyway, that news has sent us into a day of gathering supplies, starting up generators, and generally getting ready for a winter wonderland. By the way, if any of you need snow removal, dad is getting the word out that we'll bring our Kubota over [for those of you who live in Tidewater, and own preferably large shopping centers], and clean up the place. That's another kind of ex$$itement :) So yeah, I hope we get alot, and that we have a good time with it! Alright, I hope the rest of you guys might get a bit of winter weather as well [except for the farm-owners- I hope it falls all around your house and yard, but leaves a nice clear area around the animals and barns:) Ok, see you all later, and have a great day!

Did You Miss Me?

2010-01-21T19:26:00.003-05:00

Hey all of you poor, neglected, readers. How's it going? :) I must say I am very sorry for not having a post for a long time. What with everything else going on, I have been busy going to inaugurations, setting up GenJ officers meetings, practicing guitar, etc. [I know, those are just excuses to you hard-core bloggers]. But hey, I am here, and I have a post. Please understand, this post is more of a conglomeration and catch-up type, but I hope to get some better ones going here soon. Wow, I have been pretty busy recently. As you know from my last post, I am the new president of our Generation Joshua club. I have been doing my best to wrap my head around what that means/ solidifying my personal vision for what that means and what kind of leader I want to be. Like I said before, one of my first "official actions" was setting up a meeting with the other club officers to discuss strategy, vision, and goals for our club for this new year. We had that on Tues. night. [By the way, I can't take all the credit for that, the Tates had the original good idea of an officers meeting :)Last week however, I had the privilege of going with our club to see the inauguration of Gov. Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, and A.G. Ken Cucinnelli! The Tates drove us up to Richmond where I got to experience my first [of hopefully many] inaugurations. I always enjoy the adventure of walking around big important cities where important decisions are made for the governing of our state, country, etc. It gives me a very "National Treasure" feeling. [Don't repeat that to anybody ;) But yes, I do love the parking, the walking tremendous distances through crowds being directed by soldiers, police, etc., successfully getting through security [though believe me, I've had my unsuccessful times], finding the best spot to jam in to see the platform, and all of that kind of stuff. So, all that to say, it was a great time, and I was personally able to talk to Ken Cuccinelli as he unloaded his family from the Suburban and walked into the Capitol :) !!!! :) [He liked my "Don't Tread on Me" sticker ;) One last thing about the inauguration, as we waited for the parade to start afterward, a 13 news reporter came up and interviewed Grace Tate and me. Our interviews were actually shown on the news 2 days in a row [or so I'm told]. If you want to take a look at them click here. Okay, enough of that, let me tell you about a great book I just finished. It's called "Glory, Duty, and the Gold Dome". It's written by Vision Forum's Nathaniel Darnell [the guy who started their video dept.], and it's about a father/son team in Georgia's sate capitol. The dad's a state representative and the 14-year-old son is his legislative aid. [It's fiction, but a great example of Biblical world-view, generational politics]. Thanks to Morgan Wilson who let Rachel borrow the book and to Rachel who let me get my mitts on it :) [One note though, it could probably have a better cover for such a good book]. Okay, I've kinda got to run, so let me bid you all a good night and farewell, with a solemn vow to try to be more regular with the posts Ms. KT. [hey, the music after church last Sun. was great. We really need to get together again. What did you mean by "do this" or something like that Katie?]. Alrighty, Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all later!

A General Catching-up on My New Year, Why I Haven't Posted Since Last Year, and the Tale and Results of My First Political Race

2010-01-06T10:27:00.004-05:00

Hello to one and all! Ahh, it feels good to have the keys clicking under my typing fingers again. From my activity [or lack of it] on Blogger, you all my have assumed that my inheritance finally came and I've been enjoying a week or two in Bermuda since Christmas. Well, the truth is that this has been one of my busier week-after-Christmases. Starting right before Christmas, I was led to run for president of our Generation Joshua club. That sent me into a busy time of preparing a platform and speech, working with my campaign manager [Mr. Daniel Tate is a great one for any of you aspiring candidates:) to set up a website, and doing a photo shoot at the courthouse. I have really wanted to post for a long time, but it never seemed to fit in. I have been really using my computer "skills" alot though, with setting up a gmail account [it was big for me anyway] and editing this campaign website. Okay, mebbe you want to heer reesultz? Yes? Well, our club elections were on Tuesday night, and the Lord allowed the vote to go in my favor. All that to say, I am now the new president of TACT Generation Joshua club. Please pray that I would be a good leader and have strong vision for this new year as we seek to impact our community and spread a Biblical world-view for the areas of politics and government. By the way, thanks to all of you who got wind of this election and prayed for me and our club. Hey! I almost forgot to tell all of you HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I will not sing "Auld lang whatever" for you all because I have previously expressed my feelings for that little ditty. I also want to thank all of my followers who have joined this blog in the past year and have found it worthwhile to stick with it! I'd better get going now, so I will bid you all good day. I look forward to many more posts in a much more regular fashion than the past weeks' postings. See you all later!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T08:32:00.003-05:00

"And it came to pass in those days that a decree

Went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world

Should be registered. This census first took place

While Quirinius was governing Syria.

So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city

Of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of

The line and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary,

His betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed

For her to be delivered. And she brought forth

Her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths,

And laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them

In the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the

Fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them,

And the glory of the Lord shone around them,

And they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings

Of great joy which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the

City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe

Wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the

Heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them

Into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another,

"Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing

That has come to pass, which the Lord

Has made known to us."

And they came with haste and found Mary

And Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.

Now when they had seen Him, they made

widely known the saying which was told them

Concerning this Child. And all those who heard

It marveled at those things which were told

Them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered

Them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned,

Glorifying and praising God for all the things

That they had heard and seen, as it was told them."

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas! May you and your family have a blessed and joyful day! Let us remember our Lord's heart and love for us during this wonderful time of celebration!

"Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace,

Goodwill toward men!"

Silent Night

2009-12-24T20:22:00.005-05:00

This is our Advent log with all of the candles but the white one lit.

"Silent night, holy night.

All is calm, all is bright.

'Round yon virgin mother and Child.

Holy Infant so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Sleep in heavenly peace."

Silent night, holy night.

Shepherds quake at the sight.

Glories stream from heaven afar.

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia.

Christ the Savior is born!

Christ the Savior is born!"

Hey everybody. Merry Christmas Eve! Wow. I don't know about you all, but this Fall and Advent season seems to have blown right by. Before I get on with tonight's post, I just want to thank all of you for reading, for your comments, and for allowing me to share some of the joy and blessing that we have with Advent. I hope it has been enjoyable for you guys too. Okay, here we go. As I thought about what song to do tonight, I was thinking about doing one that Matthew had requested [no I didn't blow you off- I couldn't find anywhere to listen to it. I'm not saying which one it was in case you decide to do one more :), but I kept coming back to Silent Night. Of all Christmas songs, this has to be one of the absolute best known ones. The simplicity and truth of the words and tune is very beautiful. It almost sounds like a lullaby that Mary might have sung to her new-born baby on that Christmas night over 2,000 years ago. Despite all of the cosmic, earth-shattering, amazing, unfathomable, glorious news and implications wrapped up in the birth and life of this Child; He came on a regular, silent night. It was the night that fulfilled God's promise to Abraham, it was the "on-switch" to the amazing plan of Grace, it was God - coming in person, it was the Ultimate Christmas gift, it was overwhelming, it was Christmas. As I think about the story of Jesus's birth, with all of its facets and implications and glory, I find myself completely overwhelmed and dumbfounded and humbled by the unending love that our Lord has for us. These few weeks of Advent posting [though I obviously didn't make it every day ;), have really been a blessing to me because it has caused me to really think on and about the glory of Christmas, and the time of celebration and eager excitement called Advent. I pray that for each and every one of us these thoughts and truths would not leave our hearts and minds as we clean up the wrapping paper tomorrow morning, but that they would launch us into a year of living and abiding in the Joy and Love and Grace and Peace of our Lord. May God bless you all, and give you a very merry Christmas!

"Silent night, holy night.

Son of God, Love's pure light.

Radiant beams from Thy holy face,

With the dawn of Redeeming Grace.

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth!

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth!"

O Holy Night

2009-12-16T22:10:00.004-05:00

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices!

O night divine,

O night when Christ was born!

O night! O Holy night!

O night divine!

Hey everybody. Sorry it has once more been too long since my last Adventish post. I have been, getting home pretty late this week, and that hasn't been conducive to writing Advent posts. Oh well, so now let's get on with it. You are probably pretty familiar with "O Holy Night", but it, like some of these other songs we've been through, has [to me] a much more mysterious, joyful, and wonderful, message than we might normally realize. The beginning of this song starts out simply enough be describing the "night of our dear Savior's birth". The next sections here are my favorite parts: "long lay the world in sin and error pining", ever since sin entered the world, we live in a place of sin, broken hearts, broken lives, and lost and confused people desperately trying to make sense of it all and find a place of rest and comfort. Too often, we are deceived into looking everywhere and trying everything to feel good about ourselves, or to "get it right", and we miss the Lord's heart for us and our lives; in fact, what we miss is the whole heart of Christmas. Jesus knew all about this world of sin and error, and then some. He knows how distraught and distressed we feel when we are trying to jump through enough spiritual hoops to reach that ever-elusive place of "okay-ness". While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And to do that; while we were yet sinners, Christ was born for us. All of this is because; while we were yet sinners, Christ desperately loved us. That's why we have Christmas. Still, it is a very realistic assessment of us and this world to describe us as, "in sin and error pining". If this song ended right here, it would be more depressing than "Auld lang syne"; and we wouldn't have much to celebrate. We know, however, that this is only setting the scene for the most glorious story ever heard of. Take a look at the at the next part of the song, "'til He appeared and the soul felt its worth". What's that talking about? Well, we were at a Chris Tomlin concert last week, and Louie Giglio was talking about this very line. Basically, he made the very good point that our fallen souls have never felt "worth" anything [if anything, we'll tend toward a dooming sense of worthlessness in our own fears and failures], until we hear of the amazing, incredible, unending love of our Savior Jesus Christ. We certainly want to be worth something, some of us dare to hope we are, but we can have no concept of our true worth to until we come face to face with the wonderful reality of God's love. When you begin to understand even a little glimpse of this astounding truth, what can you do but "fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices!" and know that this was indeed a Holy Night.

What Child Is This?

2009-12-10T18:00:00.005-05:00

"What Child is this

Who, laid to rest

On Mary's lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Hey everybody. How's it goin? Sorry I haven't posted for a good while now, alot of you probably know that we just had my graduation last Sat. [which I'm going to do a post about, I just was thinking I might wait for the pictures that are coming], and we've been real busy getting back into the routine of work, house, etc. Anyways, I'm back and excited to continue with this Advent post series! O.k., the verses that you see above come from the classic hymn, "What Child is This?". Though we can sometimes get caught in the "hymn-sing mode" [where we just kind of rattle off the song without taking in the words], this song has a very powerful and beautiful message. The events surrounding the birth of Jesus were anything but ordinary; pregnant women are not usually visited by angels, fiancees are not usually given divine dreams, old women are not usually told that they are going to have babies who will prepare the way for their Savior, shepherds are not usually visited by the hosts of heaven on otherwise silent nights, enormous stars are not usually used as birth announcements, newlywed taxpayers are not usually housed in stables, eastern kings are not usually prompted to travel miles to bring expensive gifts to small children, but, on the other hand, I guess the Lord and Savior, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor, coming down to live with us in our sin-ridden, hopeless [without Him] world, is anything but usual. What Child is this? This Child is the long-awaited answer to a promise hundreds of years old. What Child is this? This Child is the Son of a carpenter. What Child is this? This Child is the Son of God. What Child is this? This Child is the Creator of all time. What Child is This? This Child is your maker, who loves you enough to die for you so that you could have peace and be with Him forever. What Child is this?

"This, this is Christ the King;

Whom shepherds guard

and angels sing;

Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary."

O Come All Ye Faithful

2009-12-04T08:34:00.004-05:00

"Yea, Lord, we greet Thee

Born this happy morning;

Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;

Word of the Father,

now in flesh appearing.

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord!

Hey everyone. Sorry I didn't get to knock out a post last night; but things are very busy [in a good way:) Anyways here I am now. Okay, the lines above are the words to the second verse of the well-known Christmas hymn, "O Come, All Ye Faithful". After the greeting of the verse, it says, "Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;". So this seems to lay out the idea that Jesus is [of course] worthy of all glory. I think that we all believe that, but what struck me was the next statement in this song. "Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing." Jesus was God's Word that had been promised centuries ago. The fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, the True King of Israel, the "Savior, who is Christ the Lord". This promise had been in the hearts of the nation of Israel for years and now, in the strangest and most wonderful of ways, it had been fulfilled. Who could have ever guessed that the King of Kings would make His "royal debut" in a small-town shed? Jesus is the "Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing"! We call the birth of Jesus the Incarnation- God in human form. It follows that he is also the incarnation or missing piece, or outcome, or whatever you want to call it, of the holy promise of God to send a Savior to His people. Our God is the definition of "Faithful". He never once "re-considered" or "thought better of" His promised plan. No. It was His Joy, His favorite thing to do, to come and rescue us from the pit we had jumped into. This Advent, may we remember this; and just as a Christmas dinner brings together family, as a pile of presents around a tree bring children with eyes full of excitement and expectant wonder, I pray that the manger would irresistibly draw our hearts, minds, and thoughts to the Wonder that it holds.

"O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord!"

Joseph's Lullaby

2009-12-02T21:41:00.002-05:00

"Go to sleep, my Son;

This manger for Your bed.

You have a long road before You.

Rest Your little head.

Can You feel the weight of Your glory?

Do You understand the price?

Or does the Father guard Your heart for now

So You can sleep tonight?"

Hey everybody. I think it was last year that I heard this wonderful song by MercyMe for the first time. During Advent, I love thinking about how the Christmas story would look through a given person's eyes. Just imagine what sort of thoughts and questions were racing around in Joseph's head on that night. Here he was, a newly married man to a young lady who had just had her first baby. The events of his courtship and marriage were filled with angels, miracles, and dreams from Heaven. Could either Mary or Joseph even begin to fathom the meaning of where God's plan would take Jesus? As Jews, this couple had heard from the time they were little of the promised Messiah who would be their Savior. What did that mean? When would that be? Who would that be? These questions probably were about as clear to them as all the details of Jesus's second coming is to us; we've heard and studied and thought and talked about it, but still, there is still a certain air of mystery about the whole thing. This Jewish couple were just your average, everyday, kind of people, who loved God and served Him with their lives. Who could have ever imagined that Gabriel -who Mary had grown up hearing about from back in the story of the prophet Daniel- would visit this young girl to give her the message that she would be the mother of God's Son, the Messiah. This would be mind-blowing! Then think about it from Joseph's side of things. Even after he's assured that he should still go ahead and take Mary for his wife, there were still so many unanswered questions. How in the world could you parent God's Son?! Not only that, but the One who created you?! Was the Messiah sent to drive out the Romans, or was it alot more than that? If Joseph was well versed in Old Testament Prophecy, he may have known more of what kind of Savior the Messiah would be. If so, would he have ever thought that visiting shepherds and wise men would one day be traded for crowds that screamed, "Let Him be crucified!", that those same tiny hands would one day be pierced by nails, that the wood of the manger would one day be replaced by a criminal's cross, that the baby cries would one day be exchanged for, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?", that a borrowed stable would be traded for a borrowed tomb, but then, even if Joseph could have imagined a glimpse of those things, could he have have ever dreamed of the glorious outcome of this mission? When three days later Jesus Christ would walk out of that tomb as the Savior of the world who had conquered the Enemy, and Death, and made a way for our
Forgiveness, and Hope, and Peace, and Safety, and Rest? Amen.

Alot had happened since Bethlehem.

"Go to sleep, my Son;

Baby, close Your eyes.

Soon enough You'll

Save the day,

But for now, dear Child of mine,

Oh, my Jesus,

Sleep tight."

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

2009-12-01T21:51:00.002-05:00

"Christ, by highest heaven adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of the virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Hark! The herald angels sing,

Glory to the newborn king."

Good evening everybody! During our Advent time tonight, we sang this well-known hymn. Once again I was struck by the way it so beautifully encapsulates the heart of the Christmas story. Though all the verses are wonderful, the second verse [above] really stuck out to me. Basically, in about four sentences, it tells us who Jesus is [Christ the everlasting Lord], how He came into this world [offspring of the virgin's womb], Jesus's "secret identity" on this earth; as well as a recognition of His being all God while still being fully human [Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity], and then, [probably my favorite part], this song reminds us of how Jesus felt about this whole plan, [Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel]. Note that it doesn't say, "Tolerates being a man and dwelling with men", or, "Is resigned to coming to the earth", or "Does it because it's the right thing to do" or anything like that. The truth is, even after being fully aware of the cost of being our Savior, Jesus took pleasure in giving us this gift. I suppose we could almost compare it to the pleasure that we get when we buy or make the perfect gift for someone; as we watch them open up the package we aren't usually thinking, "I can't believe I paid $27.95 for that little thing", but rather we experience almost more joy than the receiver of the gift in our excitement to bless them. [Now I know that what Jesus did is way out of comparison, but I'm just noticing a down-the-line parallel]. This Advent, I hope that we will all come more and more to the realization that the gift of Salvation [indeed, the gift of Christmas], is not at all one given begrudgingly, or out of a "I guess I have to" spirit; but it is given out of the heart of a Father who loves His children enough to lay down His life, and the tenderness of a Shepherd who protects His sheep, the security of dad who will fight off the bullies, the mercy of a loving King to His subjects, and yes, the meekness of a Baby born on a silent night.

Welcome to Our World

2009-11-30T20:39:00.004-05:00

"Tears are falling, hearts are breaking;

How we need to hear from God.

You've been promised, we've been waiting,

Welcome holy Child,

Welcome holy Child."

These lines are from one of the most beautiful Christmas songs I've ever heard. It's called "Welcome to Our World", and it's by Chris Rice. As we move through the Advent season, I pray that we all are filled with awe and wonder as we're reminded of what we celebrate during this time. This world is a place full of broken hearts, broken lives, and people who desperately need a Savior. Left to our own sinful nature, our default action is to self-destruct. We grow attached to our bitterness and anger and eventually become afraid to live without it. We try to fill a hole that can only be filled by the love of Christ with any number of things, people, places, etc. The result is a complete "lostness" that wounds us and others. It was into this world that our Lord chose, even desired, to come. He loved us so much- though not because of anything we had done- that He brilliantly crafted the most intricate and selfless rescue operation of all time. This plan would involve the King of Kings being born in an outbuilding, the Creator of the universe living as a carpenter, and the Author of Life being tortured, mocked, and murdered by the beings He breathed into existence. The miracle of Advent is that all of this vast plan that started before the birth of time, was made for.... you. And for me. The heart of a King who loved and cherished His subjects gave us "A Babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger". This is the heart of Advent. This is Christmas.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

2009-11-29T17:27:00.005-05:00

"O come, o come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel.

That mourns in lonely exile here,

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee

O Israel."

Hey everybody. How's it going? For those of you who read yesterday's post, you may have noticed something at the end talking about Advent. I am sure that some of the readers here have heard of Advent before; and may even celebrate it. For those of you who have never heard of Advent, or don't really know what it is, allow me to explain. It started in the year 381 A.D. Back then, it was a three-week time of fasting and prayer before a holiday celebrating the revelation of Jesus to the Wise Men from the east. Around the year 600, Gregory the first refined the time to its present form. Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas [today] and it is not so much a time of fasting now as it is a time of prayer and worship all leading toward the celebration of Jesus's birth. There are many different Advent traditions, but one continuous thread that you usually find is the lighting of candles as a way of counting down to Christmas. Mom and Dad have done "Advent time" with us for as far back as my memory can reach. In our family, we have a time each night of the Advent season [until Christmas day], to read a devotion [there's a enormously wonderful series of books for Advent by a man named Arnold Ytreeide], and sing Christ-centered Christmas carols. At the beginning of each devotion time, we light the next candle on our Advent log. It's a log about 5 feet in length with holes drilled along the top to hold a candle for each night of Advent. On the first night we light a candle on far end of one side, and the next night the far candle on the other side. We keep switching back and forth lighting one more each night as we make our way to the center of the log.[When we light the next candle, we also re-light all of the ones we've been through.] The very center candle is lit on Christmas morning. It is usually a special color to signify Christ's birth. So every night by the light of the candles we have gotten to so far, Mom reads the next chapter of the devotion story, and we sing Christmas songs of worship. Over the years, we have treasured this time more and more. While it might seem to be "just another thing to do during the busy Christmas season", for us it has become a huge blessing to be reminded every night of our Savior's love for us and His masterful and wonderful plan that gave us a Baby in a manger. It is my hope to be able to share with you some of the joy and excitement we have during this season of Advent. I think I'll try to get at least some sort of post off every day, though we'll have to see if I make it every time. By the way, the word "Advent" basically means "coming" or, "the coming of". So when we celebrate Advent, we're really celebrating the Advent [coming of, or birth of], Jesus. Okay, now that I have done my best to explain what Advent is, I will proceed with this series of posts.

"The people who walked in the darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

Upon them a light has shined." (Is. 9:2)

"For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called Wonderful,

Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace." (Is.9:6)

In church this morning, we talked about how Christmas started long before a lowly stable in Bethlehem. The prophet Isaiah spoke about this Coming hundreds of years before the shepherds met the angels. The fact is, the birth of Jesus is the "on switch" of God's masterful and daring rescue plan that He had in place since the beginning of time. Bethlehem was in our Lord's heart even as the first bite was taken out of the forbidden fruit back in the Garden of Eden. Even as His words created space and life, the lives of a certain young girl and her Baby were ever in the mind of our God. The groundwork for the manger included 12 tribes, 10 commandments, the giving of the Law, faithfulness, treason, Divine Love, sinful hatred, righteous kings, wicked tyrants, and the other parts of the saga of the One True King and His love and heart for His people despite their constant rejection. The cries of prophets and the screams of raging hearts, the chants of Baal worshipers, and the songs of a repentant nation, were heard in Israel long before the crying of a newborn broke the stillness of a starry Bethlehem night. It is my prayer that during this Advent season, we will realize more and more the love of our Father as we remember and think about His coming into our world.

"Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel

Shall come to Thee

O Israel."

Thanksgiving, Birthday, Bonus package!

2009-11-28T10:44:00.002-05:00

Wow! 6 days since I last posted. Sorry chaps and chappesses, but I've been quite on the busy side with preparations-friends-and-family type stuff. Okay, Matthew was not the last blogger ever to post about Thanksgiving. However, because at least 2 blogs are already featuring our own Thanksgiving, I will not do another replay. I will only say that we had a very blessed time with our family and we finished up by looking toward the celebration of our Savior's birth. The next morning [yesterday morning], Dad and the girls and I went black Friday shopping. I had never really done that crazy crowd thing before, and as it turns out, there it was not anywhere near as crazy as it might have been.[must be the economy or something]. I couldn't find anything I wanted in the mall [or at least anything I wanted bad enough to pay that much for it :), so we finished up there and went to Music and Arts to see if they had any sales over there. I walked in with a very innocent unassuming manner, and came out with a new Fender Squire sky-blue electric guitar with a new amp and free gig bag. [No I wasn't hustled, I've been looking at pawn shops, ads, etc, for about 2 years for an electric guitar to expand my guitar playing horizons. Also, my sisters will testify that I'm not going to turn into one of those "electric guitar rocker types" if you know what I mean.] Anyway, the Lord allowed me to get an incredible deal on this thing and I'm really blessed to have it :) By the way, the whole reason we were out doing all that shopping and stuff, was that yesterday was my 19th Birthday!!! Thus, we went over to a bowling alley where we went and bowled and shot pool for a few hours [with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for poooool :) I did okay at bowling and a little better at pool. I was really fun. That evening, we had calzones for dinner and cake, ice cream, and presents. Some friends [of our whole family ;) gave me a book on how Hollywood influences our culture, and one about the Spanish Inquisition. Mom and Dad got me the new Casting Crowns c.d., a Christmas music guitar book, and a new volleyball. Grandma June got me a new bed-spread setup. Leah got me the Glory in the Highest c.d., Anna got me a Chick-fil-a gift card [can I use it 7 times a day?] Benjy got me a jar of my favorite mince meat pie filling [to eat not as a pie, but with a spoon. Yum!] Abby got me a bunch of gourmet hot chocolate mixes, and Rachel and Sarah's present is that they're going to buy the 3 of us tickets to the Chris Tomlin Glory in the Highest concert!!! Thank you every single person who has helped me celebrate my birthday! [and no, I haven't forgotten about Matthew's pool stick he gave me, and Aaron's gift card]. Thanks to you guys too! Okay, if you've made it this far, I have one more thing to tell you. Tomorrow is the first day of Advent time. It is my fondest desire to do a blog post for each day of the Advent season. If you have never heard of Advent, I'll do my best to fill you in with a kick-off post tomorrow. If you and your family already celebrate this time, enjoy, and have a blessed season of looking toward our Lord and Savior's birthday! Thanks everybody and see you all later!

Cheerio

2009-11-22T18:29:00.003-05:00

Good evening to all you bloggers! How's everybody doing? I'm doing pretty well, though mentally kind of tired. Mom and Dad are out w/my uncle and Aunt for her birthday, and we're watching everyone around here. We had church today at our house, and it was announced that we'll continue to use our house for the winter months for church. As the Lord has been growing us, it's getting harder to fit all of our church family into one place. That's kind of a good problem to have :) Alrighty, let's see here. Oh! Thanks to Miss Shaina and the Butler family for signing on as followers. Hope you enjoy it! Well, I was pretty busy this past week with storm clean-up and the Wilson's turkeys. They had a really great day of turkey business yesterday from what I hear. I'm also trying to work on stuff for my graduation. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving [and my day-after birthday:), and the start of the holiday season! Hey, I want to thank everyone once again for the fun with all of the question and answer stuff. You all had some really great questions [as well as some really weird ones ;), and I hope the answers were satisfactory. [As far as slavery goes Oliver, I don't think there's any one verse in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not own slaves", but I think if we look a little deeper, we see our Lord's heart on this issue. I believe that slavery is not of the Lord. Jesus Himself came to this earth to free us from the ultimate level of slavery- the bondage of sin. I can't see how it would rationally follow to feel free to enslave a fellow sinner that Jesus was willing to die for. I'm not talking about criminal justice or anything like that, but the buying and selling of human beings as a matter of course. That's pretty much my world-view on this issue]. Okay, moving right along. I want to let you guys know that I have some [what I think are] pretty cool ideas for blog posts coming up pretty soon. I'm not at liberty to tell you all of what they're about because then they wouldn't be "fresh, new, and exciting!" =) hee hee. Well hey, I'm going to sign off here because Benjamin and I are going to do some nighttime wood chopping outside. [as in we're not going to do it inside ;) I hope that you all have a good evening and I hopefully you shall hear from me in not-to-long-of-a-time! p.s. How's everybody enjoying the fall? I love this time of year and it's looking really beautiful around here!

Answers for the Questions Act III

2009-11-18T19:34:00.002-05:00

Hey there! It's time for the final act of "The Great Question Adventure". I've had alot of fun [and some groaning] as I've been answering all of your queries, and I'd like to thank each and every asker for asking! Alright, here's the moment I know you all have been waiting for! :)

Q: Are you bringing your guitar to the barn dance?

A: I did, but I never pulled it out.

Q: Should I [Matthew] bring a drum?

A: You did, but sadly, we didn't use it either.

Q: You like that little rhyme?

A: It was fine, but if that's all I get for my graduation you won't be! ;)

Q: When you are listening to music, do you find yourself singing and dancing along to it?

A: Ooo. Man. Ya' had to go and ask that didn't you. Honestly, I always find myself singing and dancing along to it. Just ask my sisters, they'll tell you. But hey, I almost figured out how to do that boot dance thing from "Bella" :)

Q: What is your view on our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Should we be there fighting terrorism or pull out?

A: Okay, this is a complicated issue that goes back all the way to Jacob and Esau. Seeing as I don't have time to address all of ancient history, I will talk about this issue in relation to terrorism. We need to be concerned about our nation's security and take steps to protect our country from terrorism on the inside as well as from the outside. Radical Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan do pose a serious threat to our safety as well as the safety of other nations. In that respect, I believe that we should deal with that issue [including war when necessary]. The government systems over there are historically weak and vulnerable to mob rule; thus, I can see that it might prove necessary to move our forces in to provide direction, discipline, man-power, etc. While we should stay away from "taking over their government", we do have proven and helpful advice on how to have a successful nation. I think, though, that our primary concern over there should be about the threat of terrorism as it gets outside of "in-country" terms. [Not to say at all though, that we shouldn't have a great concern that causes us to take action for the liberties and safety of all individuals. God has designed and made each of his human beings with "certain inalienable rights". All I mean is that having a great amount of our national defence energy constantly involved with sorting out "little" issues that could be solved by a nation's own government wouldn't be the wisest choice]. Back to the point however. I think that what we're in right now [starting all the way back at Desert Storm and 911] does warrant military action on our part. I'm not going to nit-pick each and every little decision throughout the whole process, or lay out exactly what I think the master strategy should be [because I haven't thought it through that much]. I do, however, believe that we have at least some responsibility to "finish what we started". If we made the move to become pretty involved over there, it is not a very honorable thing as a nation to "get sick of it and leave". We should be cautious as to how "linked up" we get with any government, but we need to protect ourselves and not be wishy-washy about finishing what we know to be right and just. I don't have all of my thoughts completely shined up, but I think this is a rough idea.

Q: Have you ever picked 200 grubs out of puddles?

A: No. I have picked grubs out of other things though.

Q: When are ya gonna answer thees here questions?

A: Right about now.

Q: Have you read any good books lately?

A: Definitely. I love to read, and do a good bit of it. In the non-fiction category, I've loved reading a book by John Eldridge called, "Epic". In the fiction category, I really liked "The Scarlet Pimpernel". I'd never read it before, but did so on recommendation by my sister and her friends.

Q: Whats your favorite type of clothes to wear(casual, formal, etc.)?

A: It depends of course on the occasion; but I love to be "all dressed up". Almost as much as I love "a pair of jeans that fit just right".

Q: How far away from home have you been in your life?

A: Probably either California or Oregon. [I think Oregon as it's up higher than California.]

Q: How many fingers am I holding up?

A: No more than 10. :)

Q: What was the prettiest sight you ever saw?

A: In the outdoors at least, it would probably be Bash-bish falls or the surrounding area in the Berkshires.

Q: If you were the president, what would be the first thing you would change about the USA?

A: I think that I'd encourage people to be alot bolder about using and developing a Biblical world-view to filter decisions that they might make [in personal life, as well as public and civic arenas].

Q: Are you scared of the dark?

A: Not the dark itself. But I have been scared of things in the dark [or that could be in the dark:)

Q: Are you gonna cry at your graduation?

A: We'll see.

Thanks for all of your reading and asking. I will look forward to more posting! Before I sign off, this is the official thank-you to Miss Leanna and Miss Elizabeth for becoming followers of this blog! :)

Answers for the Questions Act II

2009-11-15T21:02:00.003-05:00

Hey there! It's Sunday evening and Mom and Dad are out with my sister Anna [it's her birthday], while us older kids watch the house. We have had a great [and very busy] weekend. We went to a birthday party on Friday night, we had an early birthday party for Anna on Saturday morning, and after that we went to the highly-anticipated Alexanders' Barn Dance! That was so much fun guys, thanks for having us all out there :) It was very, very, well done and well planned. We left there at about 9:00 pm and made the 2-hour trip back to our to our place. Of course we had to wind down [and have a midnight snack:), so we probably didn't get to sleep til 1 or something. This morning we hosted church at our house, where the pastor from a church in Romania that we support, came with his son and spoke to us all about their work in Romania, their church, their government, etc. He has come several times before, and really makes a huge effort to visit us each time he comes to America. By the way, every time he comes, he's driving all the way from Chicago! He drives all the way to our part of VA just to speak for a relatively short amount of time, and head back! All that to say, I have just gotten a chance to sit back down to the computer and work on answering some more of these questions. So without further ado, here's some more answers:

Q: What's your favorite kind of car?

A: Hmm. Let's see. My dream car would have the ruggedness of a Hummer, the power of a BMW, the comfort of the Plaza, the sleekness and shape of a Chrysler 300, Dodge Avenger/Charger, Mustang combo, and the price of............. a candy bar. Or a '87 Subaru GL

Q: When you eat M&Ms do you sort them and if so which colors do you eat first?

A: Sometimes I sort my M&Ms [or at least pick out which color to eat first], and when I do, I'd probably eat the greens and blues first.

Q: Which is better the Redskins or the Cowboys?

A: I have to say I don't really follow football much, so I don't have much of a reason to say one or the other. But maybe I'll go with the Cowboys because my brother has a Cowboys helmet. Or maybe I'll go with the Redskins because they're closest to me. Probably whichever one is the underdog but still has a hope :)

Q: What do you think is the hardest language to learn?

A: Probably Gaelic or some other dead language. [Though I've never tried of course].

Q: What is the Immaculate Conception?

A: That's what they've called God's allowing Mary to become pregnant with Jesus.

Q: What is the Immaculate Reception?

A: I had fun with this one. a: How Joseph took the news, b: When the Redskins or Cowboys actually catch a hail-Mary pass.

Q: How many sodas do you drink a day?

A: You all must think that I only drink soda or something. I usually drink one 22 or 32oz cup of soda on an average work day.

Q: What is your favorite character in Monsters Inc.?

A: I like Sully, Mike, and of course, Boo. [also Roz and the CDA] [and occasionally Randall :)

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: Oh, that's way too subjective for one answer:) Depending on what I've had recently, it could change. But here's something at least: I have to have protein [mostly meat] or I'll get to feeling all headachey and jittery and stuff. I love meat.

Q: What is your favorite ice cream?

A: Probably cookie dough or cookies and cream.

Q: What would scare you the most, finding a snake on your pillow, getting locked in a dinosaur museum all night or milking all of our cows by yourself?

A: Hmm. Not the museum [I'd just go to office or something][ wait, it would be really scary if it was like "Night at the Museum"]. Milking all of your cows by myself would mostly confuse me.[ Though it should terrify you]. So probably finding my mortal enemy, the snake, on my pillow.

Q: What is your least favorite chore?

A: Well, because I work in the business every day, I don't have many scheduled inside chores. But I think my least favorite chore-related thing is when a chore that sounds [and should be] simple, goes wrong or messes up, or the tool breaks or gets lost, etc. That really irritates me.

Q: Have you ever thrown food under the table that you were supposed to eat, but didn't like?

A: I don't think so. I'd tend toward feeling guilty for not liking it and start thinking I should make myself eat more. [At least when I was little. And believe me, that's no better or easier a problem to have].

Q: What is your favorite school subject?

A: I love science from a Biblical world-view. I also love history. I tend to do pretty well with math, and I love the math when it "clicks" in my head. When I can teach it back to you, that's when I love it. I don't always love what it takes to get there though.

Q: What is your view on Christian rock vs. hymns?

A: Okay, this can tend to be a touchy subject, but I'm going to try to shoot straight. First, I need to know what you mean be "Christian Rock". Some people consider Casting Crowns, Third Day, and Steven Curtis Chapman, to be rock. I get that. [it is rock and roll beats, etc.] I've also known people who define rock only as screamo, yelling, type music. I do not endorse that kind of music. I think though, that you are talking about the first type of rock. [like something on K-love]. I will proceed using that definition. I don't think that there needs to be Christian rock VS hymns. [As if they're in some kind of boxing match]. I have many hymns that are close to my heart as well as many "Christian rock" songs that are close to my heart. I feel in no way called to have a "hymns only" mindset. When I evaluate music, the very first thing I pay attention to are the words. I try to understand the "heart" of the song. That the words speak the Lord's truth is a very key factor. If you think about it, some of the worldliest [is that a word:) songs are slow ballads filled with immorality. I believe that hymns are treasures from God that have been passed down to us by God's people, and I believe that God is still moving in his people [including contemporary Christian artists], to write new songs for us to treasure that minister to our hearts. And also, are really great music! :) I hope this kind of answers your question :)

Q: What is your least favorite food?

A: This should be shorter. I do not like watermelon or butter. [I mean, I like butter in stuff, but not like buttering my bread].

Q: Do you believe in the right to secede from the Union?

A: Well the barn dance is over, so you can't lock me up =) As I mentioned the other day on here, I am not very polished up at all on secession rights. I believe that all of our rights should be protected, and should never be "given" to us by our leaders. Our rights are given to us by God. As far as a right to secede goes, I'd have to look in the books and see what's there. The "rights" issue aside though, I see a whole lot more wisdom in unity than division. Just as a house divided cannot stand, a nation divided isn't much better. [I mean, not some socialist, brain-washed, everyone's forced to believe the same thing idea, but just that I believe that God planted this nation here for His plans, and He has great ones]. Let us be active as citizens who bear His name. Representatives of our state, and more than that; representatives of our Lord!

Q: Do you believe that the federal government has the right to invade a group of former states, brutally kill its citizens, burn down many of its citys, and justify it all on a small group of slaves that were treated like family by their masters?

A: Wow. That's kind of a loaded pair of dice there. If I boil down your question, I get something like this, "Do you believe that the federal government has the right to make war on former states because they owned slaves?". Well, that would tend to suggest that the North's only "excuse" for the Civil War was slaves. If that's the only one, it doesn't line up with what I've heard. In fact, seeing as you seem to tend more toward "unNorth", I would think that you might have a few more "excuses" to tell us about. At any rate, I thought the issue was that for whatever reason [I don't really know if it was good or bad], the U.S. gov. didn't recognize the South's secession. I don't know the particulars very well, but did the South meet the criteria [if there are any] for secession? So, if to the gov., the southern states weren't "former" states [because they'd never left], it wasn't making war on a separate nation, but squelching a group of rebels. I'm not saying I agree with everything there, because I haven't done as much research as you probably have. I was just laying out what I thought the Northern reasoning was. If the situation was truly as you described it, I could see your point. Hopefully, I'll have a better answer for you sometime. :)

Alright, that's it for now. I'll be back soon with Act III :) Thanks for reading and have a great night!

Answers for the Questions Act I

2009-11-12T22:07:00.002-05:00

Whew! What do you all think of this storm?! It's been pretty fierce out there for the past couple of days. Man alive, you all do me quite an honor to ply me with such a varied, tricky, insightful, funny, smart, and sometimes politically loaded array of questions! I thank you all for asking away. Well, to start off I'll keep with my tradition of thanking the new followers....... [drum roll] Thank You Miss Anna for signing up to our growing [though slower than my wonderful sisters] blog! It's my wish that all of the readers enjoy these postings and have as much fun as I do! And now for our answers, right after the break [intro into Coke commercial] =) Ha.Ha. Okay, I have been mulling these little fellers over in my lil' ol' head and I'll give you at least some of the answers. So here goes nothing:

Q: If you had the choice of playing volleyball or playing guitar w/ friends who also played, which would it be?

A: Hmm. If it was volleyball with all of our regular crowd, I might pick that [first at least] because it would include alot more of the people and be really fun! [Not to slight the great fun we have guitar playing:)

Q: Do you like to go to big concerts [like at Scope] or smaller scale concerts [colonial heights church (Tim Hawkins)]

A: I would have to say that for a music concert I'd tend toward the Chrysler Hall, Scope, big area type venue. [Although some guys it's just more fun to see in a smaller setting i.e. Michael Card.]

Q: Who would you have fought for if you lived during the war between the States, and why?

A: Okay, this is one of those politically charged ones. I know that in VA home school circles it seems to be a trend to stick with Dixie Land [and more than that I am known as "The Gentleman From Virginia"], but I'm going to try to give you my true feelings/beliefs on the issue. [I know that sounds like a, how did you put it, "Stompin' right Yankee" Oliver :) Here's the deal. I must confess that I'm not as studied up on the Civil War as much as I'd like to be [hats off to all of you C. war historian types], but as far as who I'd fight for, I'd have to put my locational allegiances aside and chose the side that I believed the Lord wanted me on. That said, I'm not in love with all of the aspects of the South or the North. I absolutely agree that slavery is wrong and needed to be eradicated from our nation [no matter how much like family they were supposedly treated]. However, I also believe in States' sovereignty and protecting their rights in our constitution. I am rusty as I previously admitted and I'm not very up to date on secession rights. [though others seem to think Texas and VA only have them now]. Anyways, I am definitely against a hasty or rash secession no matter what the rights are. I think that our country is safest and has had God's blessing as the United States of America. I would be against secession for petty or short-sighted reasons. [I don't, however, know the particular reasons for each state's desire to secede. I'd appreciate enlightenment:) I do believe though, that there were godly men on either side of the Mason-Dixon and I would have to put much prayer and more thought into official "signing up". One last thing to this long answer: I would not at all make my decision with just the typical "it was about slaves, slavery is wrong, go North, North, North" mindset. I believe there were errors on both sides that are very worth considering.

Q: What's your fav. Christmas arrangement of a song?

A: Ahh. A lighter answer. I love Christmas music and many different Christ. songs, so I'll have to pick just one and give my favorite arrangement. I'll go with Steven Curtis Chapman's version of "Carol of the Bells". It's always a beautiful song and his version is extremely well done with alot of guitar!

Q: What is your favorite style to play on your guitar?

A: It really depends on my mood and sometimes how tired I am. [I hope I don't sound like the moody artist type. Just think of David and the psalms:) If I'm fresh, and not groggily tired, I will often chose a very upbeat song with complicated strum patterns or ornamentation. If I'm at the end of my day [or in a rainy day like these], I might tend towards working on "Carol of the Bells" or "Mary Did You Know" with some really nice finger picking.

Q: Have you ever owned a pair of penny-loafers?

A: Several times when I was younger. [complete of course, with brand-new, shiny, pennies :)

Q: Do you like nuts?

A: I am nuts. Seriously though, I love salted peanuts. You can have those unsalted excuse-for-a-peanut things. As far as other nuts go, it's not that I hate any kind of nut, but I don't typically choose them. [for the record, as far as nuts inside of treats and things- don't even make me go there. If they were supposed to have nuts in them, they would have been born with 'em.

Alright, I'm kind of sleepy so I'll get finish these up later. By the way, feel free to ask any more Qs that you care to. We're still open :)

Any Questions?

2009-11-10T10:02:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! Happy Tuesday. Alright, here's the deal. I'm starting one of those Question and Answer posts. I will be happy to answer any questions that you are inclined to pose. It is my hope that this does not come off as "more of the same". Although there have been many QA discussions recently, there has not been, to my knowledge, one done from a boy's point of view. All that to say, this might be fun to pay attention to. I will also put this out there- I am not going to do one of those "if I don't get any questions I'll be a failure" type comments. I would love to get some questions and provide some answers; but if you just don't have any I won't scratch you off my list :) I think that I'll let this run until Monday or Tuesday, though if I have a good number of questions I might start my answering much sooner. Well, I guess that's it. Start your asking and have a good day!

What I've Been Meaning To Say

2009-11-07T21:00:00.004-05:00

Hello Everybody! You may [or may not] have noticed that I haven't posted since election night. I guess that's because I've been pretty busy since election night. Wednesday was work [as were Thursday and most of Fri.] On Friday afternoon I got to spend the night at my grandparents in V.B. I don't get to spend very much time with them now that I'm a "country boy", so it was really fun to see them and talk and get kind of spoiled. The reason for all of this was that they were going to take me shopping on Sat. for my birthday/graduation present! What we were shopping for was kept secret from me until Fri. night when they told me that they wanted to go to J.C. Penny and let me pick out a suit coat. [my first "grown up" one :) This morning we got up to a biscuit breakfast and they took me shopping for not only a coat, but a shirt, a tie, and two pairs of dress pants! =) [If any of my friends see me in this stuff, they might not recognize me. It's alot nicer than jeans and a t-shirt]. We had a great time and I'm so thankful for Grandaddy and Grandmomma. Anyways, all of that is just the reason why I haven't posted for a few days. Let's get down to what this post is really about. Thankfully, I've had alot of [what I think] are great post ideas recently, but this one is the idea I briefly referred to at the end of the election night post. I want to just take a minute and fill everybody in on some of what the Lord has been doing in my life this year in relation to the election process and Biblical worldview in relation to politics and patriotism. By the way, the picture is of Mr. [Now Attorney General Elect] Ken Cuccinelli. He's a homeschool dad, a senator, and a guy who I've been supporting for quite a while. O.K. back to the point at hand. During the first part of the year, I started going to the Generation Joshua club that the Tates had started. God had been really putting on my heart and interesting me in politics and our role as Christians and His ambassadors to our nation. Sometime in March or April probably, Mr. Larry [who's been a great advisor/teacher/coach/bus driver:) in this area] told me that a guy named Ken Cuccinelli was coming to Suffolk to speak as he was running for Attorney General. I talked with Mom and Dad, and was able to make it over to hear him talk. I really liked what I heard and came home telling everyone about it. Somewhere along the way, the Tates also told me about the need for delegates to the Republican State Convention where the GOP would nominate their candidates. Dad and Mom and I talked and prayed about it, and felt that it was something we should do. So in May I believe, Dad and I trooped up to the Richmond Convention Center with several friends [including the Tates and the head of FQ Farm, Mr. Scott Wilson]. That was so much fun! It also was a huge opportunity for me. God had been showing me that instead of complaining on election day about terrible choices for candidates and just voting for the guy with the "R" beside his name; we need to be involved much earlier in the process. This primary was just such an occasion. We heard all of the candidates speak and witnessed an overwhelming roar of applause when the "underdog", this Ken Cuccinelli guy, walked out onto the stage to accept his party's nomination. [One thing about that was that he was definitely not the favorite to win that nomination. I believe that one of the reasons he did though, was the presence of the many conservative families that came out to voice their beliefs and convictions. It was great!] After the Convention, I spent the summer doing different things with our GenJ club including, fundraisers, hosting a Restore the Founders' Vision lecture, visiting Congressman Randy Forbes to talk about the Parental Rights Amendment, going to D.C. to meet with other leaders about the same thing, working on two videos that won prizes in the PRA video contest, and then phone-banking for the election and working as a poll-watcher. God has blessed me with many opportunities this year to be involved in our community and nation and the process that we use to elect our leaders. I've had so much fun, learned alot more than that, and was so thankful to see the payoff last Tuesday with a sweep of what I believe to be some pretty good leaders! I feel so privileged to have been placed in a country like ours, and would encourage us all as Christians and Ambassadors to learn about and be involved in our nation's government! Thanks for reading, and I hope to post again soon! Have a great night!

Voting Day

2009-11-03T21:01:00.003-05:00

Hey everybody! This will be pretty quick. Basically I want to give you the quick run-down on how my/our election day went. Earlier this week I was talking to Ms. Gina about how I wished I could have made it to the Student Action Team that GenJ was doing in V.B. [It just wasn't working with our schedule]. Anyway, she told me that Rick Morris, the guy who's basically the head of the Republican party in IOW, was telling her about a need for poll-watchers in our county on voting day. I thought poll-watching was something about holding the rule book and inspecting the way the process was being run. It might be usually [ I don't know], but what this was was that they gave me a BlackBerry device that had a complete list of the registered voters in the precinct. As a voter walked up to the sign-in table and gave their name, I started typing in the first few letters of their last name. The BlackBerry would narrow down the list more and more as I typed more and more letters. Then I would find the person on the list and press the "space" key to mark them as having voted. That info got sent to a database in Richmond where the could custom-tailor the phone-banking lists to call only those who had not voted yet. So last night I went to a quick training session on what to do and how to use the device [I'm not one of those kids who already knows how to use every piece of technology because they already own it], with Matthew. I had to convince them several times that no, he wasn't voter age; and that he wasn't going to be there tomorrow. [ Sometimes political people have the, " You're another body that can move, breathe, and do such and such!? Here! Have a BlackBerry!" :) Anyways the trickiest part of the whole thing was probably getting up at 5:15 this morning after going to bed between probably 11:00 and 11:30 last night. I made it however, and I'm eagerly awaiting the results! I also took my sisters over to the Thompson's for a girls chorus thing. No, I didn't sing Mr. Matthew and Daniel T. I did math on the screen porch while they sang. [and sounded really good might I add :) Okay, we're setting up for our stolen-from- the-Alexanders homemade victory party so I'd better go. I will post sometime with more info about the election [and hopefully celebrating a victory :), as well as with probably a little thing about what this whole election cycle has done in my life and what I've done in it's life. Alright, have a great evening!

Double Birthdays

2009-11-02T11:07:00.002-05:00

Ahhh. It's another rainy, perfectly fallish day. I am staying home today to do school [right after I blog ;) We have had quite a busy weekend with Morgan's graduation [which, I believe, has been thoroughly covered by the various presses out there. I will only say that it was a great time and I hope she enjoyed it! :) On Sun. we had church at our house [Aaron brought an old friend of mine and a new friend of his, Dyland Adams]. That was alot of fun. Mr. John led worship and Dad and I spoke for the teaching time. It was raining for the greater part of the day [and wet for the rest]. What with the inside time and all, I noticed a very singular fact. On the rainiest, most wet days, when they must stay inside, the small children are drawn like nails to a magnet toward the harmonicas, dress-up, swords, sticks, and other things that make the general volume on the loudish side ;) [Has anyone ever witnessed the first practice of "The Children's Harmonica Choir"? You can usually get back to normal once you've finished proper counseling therapy. Anyway, we still had a really good time yesterday, and people could go outside eventually. Now, my title here suggests something of a festive nature does it not? I shall elaborate. Today, November the second of the year two-thousand and nine, is the 44th birthday of my bestest Mom! [I think that my teacher has a birthday somewhere around this time of year too]. I am very pleased to make this announcement and wish Mom a very happy birthday! But wait, the fun isn't over yet. Not only is it Mom's birthday, but it's also the 3rd birthday of Princess Grace Lorraine! She and Mom are both to be honored on this special occasion. I am extremely thankful for the both of them, and I hope that they feel very special and loved [because they are]. So that's the reason for the title. Oh! Here's a thing that should interest you if you have any little bit of adventurous, explorerish, fun-loving, mess-making, spirit in you. Yesterday my brother Benjamin and his entourage of young boys dug a tunnel straight through our big dirt pile in the front field! They spent the whole afternoon mining away. I overheard Benjy telling Will Wilson [he had to call him last night and let him know the final outcome of the expedition as the Wilsons left a little bit earlier than some :), that, "We started digging on either side of the pile, and when we heard the metal clink [of the shovels] we knew that we were through!" :) I'll also say that consistent with their nature, several of the moms had several of the dads "check out that tunnel to make sure that it doesn't collapse on them". [It's really not a long tunnel; when an average sized boy lays full length in it, he almost sticks out of one end or the other]. I have always wanted a good tunnel since I was those boys' ages. Whenever I started any major excavation back at the townhouse though, I was known to bring some not-too-pleased neighbors knocking at the door :) Oh, well, I was almost as excited as the boys to see their work :) So that's the end of that tale. I guess I'd better get going so that I can design my graduation invitation and get some math done. See ya later!

Jokin' Around

2009-10-30T21:48:00.003-04:00

Hey guys! I don't know if anyone caught it last month [maybe because you had never heard of this blog last month if you're new], but I had wondered in one of my posts if anyone had a favorite joke that they'd like to share. I didn't get any responses though. So here's the deal: I think that the problem may have been that I just kind of stuck it in between the rest of my ramblings that day. Miss Kendal suggested on Rachel's blog that a joke request would draw a huge response. I have decided to take her advice for myself and give all you readers a chance to salvage your humor reputation. If ANYONE has any good, clean, hilarious [or even not so hilarious] jokes BRING THEM ON! If we get a really good turn out, I might even pick my favorite and give that person quite a commendation as a joke teller :) I KNOW that between just a few of the readers of this blog I could start a comedy club [mr. greenblog, talkalot, and many of the rest of you]. So for the sake of joke-tellers and enjoyers everywhere, send them on in. [For the moment I'm not going to give you one of my own for fear that it might be the one you were going to do. I'll probably put one as a comment though]. Hope to see lots of :) ;) :) [smiles] !

Oh, by the way, I heard the suits talking about starting a Q&A for "Unscripted". They know that it's been done recently, but they realized it was only girls so far. Keep watching.

Nocturnal Monologue

2009-10-29T20:48:00.002-04:00

That's what "nighttime blog post" turns into if you think about it too much : ) So anyways, I am here at night posting for the first time this week. I have been a little slack in posting for two reasons: the first is that I/we have been extremely busy this week. [though that's no excuse for some of you I know]. This brings me to my second reason: Several of the other bloggers in my blogging community have been keeping tabs on me [or I've been working at their house] and posting those on their blogs. Hence, it's probably old news to tell you all that I was working at all sorts of odd jobs and yard work at the Wilson's for Tuesday and Wednesday. You probably also know that the reason we went over there was to help get ready for Morgan's graduation on Saturday. So what do I post? I guess I'll tell you about some fringe things that I did in the cracks in between. Let's see, on Monday we did a small pruning and mulch job in V.B. We worked pretty late that night in a wonderful Fall mist and generally blustery evening. [ the lady at the 7-eleven afterwords said in reference to my appearance, "you soaki wet!"] Tuesday at the Wilson's for me was all sorts of bush and shrub trimming and pruning. As well as limbing up the crepe myrtles down the drive way. It came out pretty well. Oh- On Tuesday afternoon Mr. Scott sent me down to Capron with the stock trailer to pick up 3,000 lbs. of feed for the animals. That was a good trip. On Wed. I went back to the Wilson's with Dad and Anna and Leah to finish up the yard work and do other little things. Mom came and picked up the little Wilson's to take them back to our house for the afternoon. She also took Anna back and dropped Leah off at the Thompson's house. When I was done that evening, I drove over to the Thompson's to pick her up. I was supposed to time it right so that we could play some volley ball, but I stayed too late doing milking shows for the Wilson's. [much to some people's good natured chagrin : ) Well, the Ts took pity on my muddy and grassy appearance and fed me a turkey sandwich, freshly grown broccoli, and tortilla chips with salsa. They even gave me an homemade apple dumpling for dessert! [here's a little side note: I made Mom and the girls jealous by telling them about the dessert, so they got the recipe today and made them tonight! :) Okay, today was lawns with Matthew, and they went well. He faithfully brought his Ipod, [Thanks lil' music buddy :) and we only got drizzled on a little bit. One last thing, please remember that next Tues. is voting day! Please be active in your role as a representative of Christ in our Nation! Also, I think this weekend is time change time. [that's a little random] Well, I think I'm going to go try one of those apple dumplings! I hope you all have a good night!

In Which The Gentleman From Va. Tells About His Sunday

2009-10-25T22:29:00.003-04:00

Today was Sunday. Yep that's what it was. Suunndaayy. Yup. I'm not talking about Saturday or Friday, but good ol' Sunday. Okay guys, that's a filler if I ever saw one:) Well hey, we have some important business at hand! Ahem, ahem, ahem, I would like to personally thank Mr. Daniel Tate and Miss Abigail for signing on as the most recent followers of this helter-skelter business that we're about here. :) O.K. that's enough with the formalities. Ooh. Look at the nice brace of dueling pistols up there. [but please don't read anything into them-none of you guys get to me that bad]. :) :[] ; ) These little pea-shooters were photographed up in Boston-nice place- when the girls and I were visiting our Aunt and Uncle a couple of years ago. Anyways, back to today. We hosted church at our house because some of the Wrights hadn't been feeling too well. It was quite a crowd because the Thompsons had brought some friends that were visiting them [the H. family] Plus, almost everybody else was there. I love when we have church at our house; and I especially love when alot of people come to church -wherever it's at. We had Bible Boot Camp time and then went out to play volley ball and many other wonderful games for the afternoon. By the way, I feel positively OLD tonight. I'm sore, and tired, and when I sit too long in one position, it hurts so much to get out of it. Man, maybe someone needs to cut up my food for me. Or just blend it all up so I can drink it. [ Or maybe I just did a good bit of sliding and jumping and running today and I stayed up late last night : ) So after everyone had left from church, some of the Thompsons stayed over for dinner. That was fun! [for the record, us kids love impromptu plans]. One other thing about church. Uncle David brought the drum set again! After we wrapped up with the actual "service", some of us gathered around and had a little jam session. That was fun too! O.K. guys, I'm gonna' go see what the commentary on "Nanny McPhee" looks like. Bye!

2009-10-22T21:35:00.002-04:00

So, we meet again. Hey guys, what do you think of our ski picture? This is from our trip to NY last Feb. For all of you Narnia fans out there, this was as close as it gets to Lucy's first visit:) Anyway, you might be getting irritated with the "wintery" feel of these last two posts, but let me explain. I just finished practicing my Christmas music on my guitar. It can get a little frustrating because I really want to learn some cool arrangements this year. Needless to say, I'm no Mac Powell, or SCC, or even some one-album artist; so when it comes to arranging music pieces I don't have much [or any] experience. Nevertheless, I've been intently studying some of my favorite C.d.s, and I hope to come up with at least a few pretty neat things by December. But hey, it's also fun and good practice. So that's the roundabout reason that I have Winter and Christmas on my mind. And that led me to pick this little photo to show you all. [Yeah, that's how my brain works sometimes:) Alrighty, today we went over to the Tate's in the morning and "processed" our chickens. [appearantly process is a very versatile word, because I've been through several different kinds of processes in my life and I'm still alive and well. Unlike the chickens.] After that we had planned to do lawns, but looking at the today and tomorrow, we decided that we'd stay around the house and do equipment repairs and truck work.[That's the other side of a landscape business]. Hey! Lots of thanks to Oliver! He left me this tip about the timezone thing for the blog posts. [He left it as a comment on two posts back]. Anyways, no I hadn't found that out yet, but as soon as I heard I fixed it up. Thanks again! So now if I do one of my late-night postings I can't hide it by 3 hours:) Anyways, that's most of what I've got for now. Oh! One more thing actually. On Saturday it looks like I get to go with the Wrights to a Tim Hawkins concert! He's a really funny guy! Okay, that's it. See yous guys later!

Thurs. Eve

2009-10-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

Do you get it? If Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas, than Thurs. Eve is the day before Thurs. [Today:) Okay, I know, I know, cheesy and complicated. Well, we just finished cleaning up after dinner [which was chicken that we got from the Alexanders- it was delicious guys, thanks again!]. I don't know about the rest of you, but our Fall is in full swing and even coming on towards thinking about the holidays! Our schedule is pretty busy and full. However, if I haven't told you yet, the time from about now through New Year's is one of my absolute Favorite times of the year! It's usually packed with work as well as parties, bonfires, candy corns, pumpkins, scarecrows, hot cider, friends, family, present making, and, well, you get the picture. I love the Fall and I probably love even more as the end of the Fall ushers in the time of early winter and looking expectantly toward the celebration of our Savior's birth. [More on that as we get closer to the end of the Fall]. Hey, sorry if I just about blew the tops off of the people's heads who are still trying to finish up Summer. In many ways we are too. I guess I just got excited looking ahead. Well I know this doesn't have anything to do with the price of tea in China for Wed., Oct. 21st; so I'll move on to some pertinent topics that are at hand. We met the Wilsons over at a place in Norfolk so that they could pick out the cabinets for their kitchen remodeling job. Then we went to work finishing up lawns and picked up the cabinets for the Wilsons on the way home. Tomorrow it looks like we're going to process our broiler chickens in the morning. [Sarah's excited to get rid of them:) In the truck today, I played the William Wallace talk for Rachel because she didn't get to hear it when Dad and I did. Oh! Just for fun I'll tell you all about a dilemma I'm having. I am trying to figure out the deal about the San Antonio Christian Filmmakers Academy. I have heard several different stories about when it is going to be held along with something about another event called the filmmakers boot camp. I'm a little confused and have gotten in contact w/Vision Forum themselves so that they can clear it up for me. If any of you happen to have heard something about it that I haven't heard, please let me know:) So that's what's going on. I think I'm gonna' get going too. See you all later!

Speedy

2009-10-21T10:13:00.000-04:00

Hi guys! I've gotta make this really quick. 2 things- first , last night I went to a Republican H.Q. and phone-banked for the evening with GenJ. They had some cool machines over there, and we felt kinda fancy. Second, when I got home I found out that the Walkers had given Dad the This Moment Steven C. Chapman C.d.! And I had just been talking about wanting more S.C.C. c.d.s! I loaded it to the mp3 and I'm sure we'll enjoy it today! See you guys later and have a great day!

Hooray!

2009-10-19T20:43:00.000-04:00

Hi everybody! I just wanted to give you all some news that I heard yesterday but didn't post on the blog. [drum roll please.] ratta-tatta-ratta-tatta-rat-tat-tat! Here it is: at church I was informed that the results were in for the Parental Rights ProClaim Video Contest! And not only that, but we placed 2 Times!!! We came in first place in the Youth category with the older kid commercial, and second place in the commercial category [all ages if I'm correct]! Here's a big thank-you to everyone who helped out with those projects. They were a ton of fun and I can't wait to do the next one! Thank you God also for allowing our little commercials to do really well in a nation-wide contest! You know, we really had a great time working on the videos and it also was a great chance to have to put into words and shots our beliefs and convictions about this battle in our country. [though it was actually Grace Tate and her friends who planned most of that out:) [But we were like, "yeah that's just what I was thinking" ;) So anyway, it would have been still really fun if it never went any farther than that, but God decided to give us the encouragement of the contest results as well! I pray that this encourages us and spurs us on to proclaim the Lord's Truth even louder than before. So congratulations guys, and I hope to see you soon! Hey, if you haven't seen the finished commercials or you want to see them again, just click here [our videos are " We Too Support the Parental Rights Amendment" and "From the Very Beginning, Mom and Dad" See you all later!

My Visit to Avery's Branch Farm

2009-10-18T21:14:00.001-04:00

The sunrise over some of the farm's outbuildings

Hey guys! How's everybody doing? It's Sunday night and I am finally getting a chance to slow down and think about my weekend. I got back last night from spending a few days with the Alexander family at their farm in Amelia. I thought that I'd post a quick run-down of the time that we had; along with a few pictures that I grabbed from my video. So here it goes:) I left my house on Thursday in my trusty old Subaru with map-quested directions in hand and my stuff in the back seat. It was rainy and gray out; but I had a fresh load of songs on my mp3 player and expected to enjoy the drive. After stopping for some lunch on Rt.460, I finished the rest of the drive in one chunk and was blessed to see the full beauty of fall as I got farther and north and west. When I got to the Alexander's, their dog Sammy greeted me as I made my way up to the house. Mrs. Alexander welcomed me into the house and called Elliott and Oliver in from the barn. They toured me all around the place and it is a really nice set-up. [If I'm correct, it was a fairly large dairy operation at one time.] After the tour, it was time for the evening chores. They showed me the ropes [and guys, I hope I didn't come off too, too, naive:), and I got to see the typical drill.

Milking time

We had a great dinner and played a card game until bedtime. We woke up at 5:00 the next morning to what sounded like a orchestral fanfare and scared me half to death:) Elliott took pity on me and gave me some coffee to help me finish waking up:) It was actually really cool to be doing a bunch of stuff outside before there was any hint of light in the sky.[seeing as I hardly ever do that]. I got to help with the chickens a good bit [which was neat because it was kind of like the stuff we do for ours- though on a much larger scale and with many improvements]. Speaking of improvements, I took away some really good ideas for waterers and double-checked a feeder design for our chickens. [Thanks guys!]. Oh! Right here I have to mention the attack turkeys. I'm sure it was quite amusing for my hosts, but every time I went to feed the turkeys, they all surrounded me and pecked and herded me to their feeder. I've never seen The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock, but it seemed like this might be pretty close.

The Attack Turkeys-go on, laugh, they're alot fiercer than they look!

For the rest of Fri. we processed 112 chickens and got really cold. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander left [to go deliver milk I think], and us boys made dinner. It was the ideal meal for workers that are tired and wet and cold: ham steaks, chicken tenders, and pork sausage. Actually, Oliver made dinner while Elliott and I sat out on the porch with him while he grilled it all up. The rest of the family patiently waited for our masterpiece:) and we all had an excellent [though maybe a little late] dinner. That night we played Balderdash once Mr. and Mrs. Alexander had returned. Mr. Alexander won, and we got ready to go upstairs. Right them we had a scare because Elliott had what turned out to be a seizure. He had to go to the hospital and didn't get back until 6:30 in the morning. Thankfully he was feeling much better on Saturday after Oliver and I came in from doing the morning chores.[It was good to see you back to more of yourself Elliott, and you're definatley in our prayers]. For the rest of Sat. we didn't really have any pressing thing to do, so we went upstairs and played our instruments for a little while. For the last bit of the afternoon, we looked at some Ray Comfort and Tim Hawkins videos on the computer. I headed out after saying goodbye to everyone and being sent off with some farm's wares to take home.[Thank you all very much, we made the best hot chocolate today with some of the milk!] I had a great trip home and was reunited with my family and sisters who had just gotten back from camp. All in all, I had a wonderful and blessed time [although there was plenty of excitement]. Thanks to the Alexander family for having me out, and I hope to see you all soon!

O.K., I better get going, but here's some other pictures for you:

Here's the barn and cow stalls,

Here's the cows in the stalls,

Here's Oliver outside of one of the hoop houses,

And last but not least, here's little Miss Sheridan with the pillow that she named after me. She calls it her "children":) Can you see the resemblance to me? :)

Goodbye everyone, and have a good week!

Did You Miss Me?

2009-10-14T18:49:00.000-04:00

Don't worry anybody! It's OK, it's OK! Settle Down, take a deep breath, there you go, that's it. I AM BACK! I'm sure everyone's been wondering where I went since my last post was last Friday. Well, your worries are over............. Yeah, right. This is probably the first time most people have visited this blog since Friday. [go on, raise your hands.] The uh, statement back up there should probably be for me. What I mean is this. Our Internet provider got some things all mixed up back at their office, and that resulted in our not having Internet access since Fri. or Sat. I haven't been able to check my e-mails, post on the blog, or anything. I think I was getting slightly panicked. I made some calls though, and they finally got everything straightened out. That's why It's such a [sniff] big moment for me to sign back on. Okay, let's get back down to earth here. Whew! So much has happened since last weekend. First and foremost, I would like to thank Katie, Morgan, and Oliver for signing on as followers of these rabbit-traily blogs. Secondly, speaking of Mr. Oliver, I found out that the he, using the best of his secret-keeping and espionage skills to start up a blog [for several weeks I'm told] without anybody finding out. Then, his sister, [you know, the one with the famous blog "Striving To Serve At Home"] found him out and blew his cover all over cyberspace! :) All right, if any of you want to know how paintball went- it was great! The Hauseworth family has turned several acres [I'm estimating] of their woods into a real paintball park! [Minus the admission fees] Over the years they have dug and hammered and nailed and thatched and burrowed to build a veritable colony of different forts, fox holes, and trenches. I think that Aaron K. also had a lot to do with it. Anyway, I Map-Quested the address and didn't really have any problem getting there. We split into teams, and started the war! I won't bore you with all of the really cool, brave, and daring things we did, [nor will I bore you with the much more prevalent uncool, nervous, and clumsy things that I did]. Suffice it to say that it was just what I needed. It poured rain for part of the day, I got my boots soaked, we drank Gatorade, and I did end up actually getting some people out. Yay! I met Mom and the girls at Wal-Mart where they were picking up some last minute camp things, and then I drove home. Which brings me to the next bit of info. Aliens have abducted a great portion of the sisters from some of our close friends and family. Or they're all at Daughters of Destiny camp for the week. Well, they got Rachel and Sarah with the rest of them and I've been kind of lonely for the week. [I have been having fun with the rest of the kids though; I took Leah and Anna to breakfast at the cafe and we had a great time eating and talking and goofing around]. O.K. I'm going to get going because I'm scheduled to go out to the Alexander's tomorrow to visit them and help out with chores and projects and stuff for a couple of days. [maybe I'll try to find out all of the "how to make great blogs" information and scribble it down to sell to all of my friends back home. :) Just kidding! Alright, please pray for the girls at camp, and I'll try to post soon!

In Which The Gentleman From Va. Starts his weekend

2009-10-09T19:54:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday evening to the various and sundry! Yours Truly is dirty, dusty, hat-haired, and generally physically tired out.[My mind is just getting going for the night though]. All of the contracted aerating and seeding is done, and the lawns that didn't get seed got mowed today. So that means that our customer work week is over:) Now don't get me wrong with my smiley face there; I believe that work is a very good thing that is enjoyable to do, and we also have some really nice customers; but, there is a distinct "Take-a-big-breath-and-kick-off-your-shoes-after-the-tiring-dusty-day-and-get-ready-to-spend-some-time-taking-care-of-some-things-around-your-own-house-and-spend-some-time-restoring-with-friends-and-family-and-driving-around-with-your-sisters-and-going-to-church-etc.-etc." feeling about a weekend that just is so timely and needed that you can't really beat it. Hence, my smiley face:) Well it looks like I'll get to start off my Sat. by going to a paintball game with some of the church boys that Aaron K. told me about earlier this week. I am slightly nervous though, because as some of you may know, well to put it frankly: I just about can't stand the sight of a snake. "What does this have to do with paint balling?" you might ask. Well, last week the people who's house we're going to found and killed a pretty big rattle snake. Ugh. [not the killing part, but the durn snake itself] So here's what my dilemma is: should I take comfort in the fact that since they've never found one before, the chances should be really slim to see one now that they just killed the only one they ever saw, OR, should I be scared to death because where there's one, there's probably more. Or even a nest of more. Creeps. So, that's my deal. Any thoughts from any of you folks out there? Is there anyone who shares my non-affections for snakes? Oh, well, if I'm here after tomorrow I'll let you know how it went. Or maybe they'd let me use Wi-Fi from Chesapeake General Hospital.

Rainy Day

2009-10-07T09:01:00.000-04:00

Good Morning everybody! Please do not be depressed by the title of this blog- I love rainy days! I'm excited as I see that Fall has definitely moved in. The air is cool and breezy and the "deciduous"[that's a big landscaper word for "trees that lose their leaves in the fall"] trees are really showing their colors. The Fall and most of Winter are some of my absolute favorite seasons. I know that my birthday's in there, but I don't think it's just that:) Well, here's some updates. "The King's Daughter" let our family borrow some DVDs. One featured Little Bear Wheeler and his talk about the life of William Wallace.[I'm finding some neat people in history that have my middle name for a first name.] That was really interesting, but I can't stand to hear about the way he died. The other DVD was Voddie Bauchum's talk on defending the Resurrection of Jesus. That was a great one as well. Okay, last night was GenJ and Cuccinelli's district campaign manager guy came and spoke to us about Ken and what we could do to help him if we were so inclined. If I can come up with some free time, I may be doing some door-to-door or sign waving or phone banking etc. [However, if you've been to my house recently, you've probably noticed my regiment of signs lining the road front]. Our aerating and seeding is coming along pretty well, and if we go to work today, I think we hope to finish. Hey did I mention that I'm reading the Federalist Papers? It's a book of editorials that were sent in to New York newspapers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, during the time that our country was deciding whether or not to ratify our constitution. These were called the Federalist Papers and were in support of the Constitution. Can you guess what the Anti-Federalist Papers were? Hope that you all have a good day, and I'll post again soon!

Hey

2009-10-04T22:15:00.000-04:00

Good Sunday evening to you all. [I guess I should say ya'll if I live in the country:) Hope that everbody had a good time at church or whatever else you did for you heathens[hee!hee!]
Well, as for us, we hosted our home church at our house. The trip to church took forever though, all those stairs to walk down and everything:) So all of that went well. Uncle David brought his drum set over for worship time, and Dad played his bass while Katie, Justin, and I played our guitars. I always love that. After church, we had to eat lunch pretty quickly because I ended up taking Matthew, Rachel and Sarah to the Life Chain.[I explained what that is on yesterday's post] Anyway, we got our signs and ended up having enough people show up to line about two blocks of V.B. blvd. on both sides of the street! It was a really great time to pray for and think about the need for God to change our country's heart in relation to abortion. We got to see the Crane family afterwords, [Mr. David Crane is the local organizer of Life Chain and the president of Life Ministries]. It turns out that one of their daughters is engaged to an old friend of ours that we haven't been in touch with for a long time. That was cool. By the way, I think I got the info I posted yesterday kind of mixed up. Life Ministries did not start Life Chain, David Crane just organizes this chapter of it. But hey. So we had a good time with that, and I ended up switching cars with Mr. Larry to take the Wright boys home. He came over later and re-switched cars. So that's my day. I'll keep you all up to date this week, and I hope you all have a good week yourselves!

How Are We?

2009-10-03T18:39:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, how's everybody out there this afternoon? As for me, I'm doing pretty well. I stayed up late and got up early. Dad and I ate breakfast at the little cafe in our little town. We got there before it opened but they let us in anyway. We left there and had 3 lawns to finish in V.B. Then we went by the Music and Arts store to get strings for Dad's bass guitar and while we were there he bought me a capo. [I'd had one, but over the summer it disappeared] Then Dad wanted to see if a tire place could put some tires on the trailer. I wanted to get home to get my chores and things done[plus maybe have some "weekend" time] but we decided to just go by and "see if they had a waiting line or not". Once we got there [and there was a bit of a line] we walked up to "see how long the wait was". Of course we ended up waiting and getting the tires. I did want to get home sooner than we did, but now we know that we won't have to worry about one of those tires blowing out on the road.[They were really quite bad]. So all in all, it was probably worth it. Once we got back, I did end up getting all of my stuff done. Sarah helped me clean out and wash the Subaru until Mom and Rachel got back from a nutritionist appointment. Right now I'm trying to figure out something fun and "weekendy" to do. Any ideas? Hey, tomorrow is the Life Chain event. I haven't really mentioned it on here, so I'll give a brief run-down. Life Chain is an annual event started by Life Ministries to pray for the end of abbortion= the legalized murder of the children of our country. It's also trying to raise awareness about the issue of abortion in our community. It's held on the sidewalk at the corner of Va. Beach blvd. and Independance blvd. We silently line the sidewalk holding signs that say "abortion kills children". It's not a demonstration or a rally. It's a time to pray about this issue and for our country's repentance and forgiveness in this area. It lasts an hour and then you pretty much head home. I haven't recieved the final word 0n if we're going or who's going, but we've done it in the past and it's really neat. So that's that. By the way, the picture at the top is one I took in D.C. [no foolin':) I just thought that the capitol looked cool in the fog. Well hey, I'm gonna sign out for now. Hope you're having a good weekend!

Ciao

2009-10-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

Does anybody know what that means? If it means goodbye that's not what I meant to say. I meant to say something that would mean "hello" but sound fancier. So, to be safe, if I've welcomed you with a goodbye, I'll fix it by saying hello. Hello. Now that that's settled, let's get back to work. First off, I'd like to thank "The King's Daughter" for becoming a follower of this blog. Here at Unscripted Inc. we want all of our readers to feel welcomed and appreciated, but we try to give actual followers a written recognition on the blog:) Okay, what's next? Well, I guess I'll mention that we got home at 9:30ish tonight, and we still didn't get every lawn done. [Thurs. and Fri. are our lawn days]. But, we'll hopefully be able to finish the last 3 pretty quickly tomorrow. Oh yeah, we got to finally watch "Expelled" [the movie by Ben Stein]. I really enjoyed it. Actually we all did. It's a documentary, but so well done that you end up getting into it at least as much as a drama [script- based] movie. I would say though, that there's a certain level of maturity that's needed to understand all of the information and dialogue. [There's also a few disturbing images from WWII prison camps]. It was very tastefully done though; and does a great job of pointing out the fact that Darwinian science and a great many scientists, are deathly afraid of and angry at any attempt to question the "Great Oz" of Evolution. It is a subject that begs and deserves our attention. By the way, I have a GenJ meeting this Tues. and it looks like the district director of the Cucinelli campaign is going to speak to us! That should be really interesting. We've been asked to bring any and all of our questions and I'm working on my list.[mentally at least] If any of you readers out there haven't heard of Sen. Ken Cucinelli, he's a home school dad that's running for Attorney General in our lovely state of Virginia. I've had the opportunity to hear him speak several times and he's really a genuine, grass-roots, back to the principles our nation was founded on kind of guy. Anyways, if anyone has any questions for Sen. Cucinelli's guy, I'd be happy to ask them if you'll leave them as a comment. Then I can post all of the answers. [For all the hunters etc. out there, I believe he got the highest possible rating from the NRA];) For the record I've been hunting before, but so far I'm not a hunter. I'm a shooter. [i.e. I shoot at things deer, etc, but miss.] I'm a pretty good threat to clay pigeons though:) Have you ever tried field-dressing a clay pigeon? I can tell you it's not as easy as it looks. Can't say that they taste like much either. Got any recipes? Well, I guess there's nothing left to say but "Ciao!"

Here They Are!

2009-09-30T00:20:00.000-04:00

Alright Everybody, here are the promised D.C. pictures. Once again, they are from the trip that our Generation Joshua club took to Washington. We had meetings with the offices of several congressmen related to the Parental Rights Amendment. These are from afterwords when we toured around the capitol. I hope you all enjoy them![This is Library of Congress from across the street].This is the Capitol

This is the Grace and Mrs. Gunther at the Supreme Court Building.

This was from in between the columns up on the "porch" there.

This is most of our club on the steps.

Here's Matt and Andrew.

Here we are in Arlington National Cemetery.

Here are just a few of the many headstones at Arlington.

This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

We got to ride the Metro!

Alright guys, that's it for now. Thanks for looking at 'em! Feel free to leave any comments.[Just don't say that I never should have been trusted with the camera:)

O.K. - I'm Back.

2009-09-28T19:54:00.000-04:00

Hellooo. My last post was Thurs. night and I've been pretty busy for the weekend and everything. But hey, now we're kind of back to normal schedule for the week and I'll get back to business. Alright, updates: I got some great news through my informers the other day. After our trip to D.C. that I keep talking about, we recently got the encouraging news that every single Republican Congressman in the state of Virginia became a co-sponsor of the Parental Rights Amendment. This isn't just that they said they agreed with us or liked what we were doing; but that they actually put their names on the bill. This is a lot more meaningful than just verbal support because this is the equivalent of a line in the sand that they have crossed to say," Yes, I believe that the rights of parents to lead and direct their children are valid, important, and worth protecting from the real threats that we see on the horizon". I commend each one of our congressmen who believes that and is not ashamed to let their standpoint be known. [Now just to make it clear, I know that God is the one who works in the hearts of our leaders but I'm so thankful that He wants to use us as His tools!] Next on the list, our youth gathering was as Mom put it, "a smashing success". Thanks to everyone who came out and joined us! To those who couldn't make it, we missed you all and hope we can do it again soon. We played some volley-ball, Mrs. T jammed her finger and I tried to tape it up right. [thankfully a Dad that was dropping off his kids was a paramedic-type in the military and he showed me how to really do it.] [So now I'm secretly hoping that I play one of you guys in a volley-ball match soon and you jam your finger and I swoop in and save the day by astounding everyone with my super-amazing sports medicine knowledge on how to tape up fingers:) Well, not really, but if I ever am in that situation again, maybe I'll do something better than a duck tape bandage with a splint made of pencils. We also played kickball, some acting games, had ice cream, etc. The last people left at 10:46pm and we stayed up 'til about 12:00 watching the video we had taken. In the morning we went to church and I had been asked to bring something to share during the teaching time. I was thankful for the opportunity and the Lord allowed it to go pretty well [I didn't pass out or anything:) Mr. Scott and Aaron also spoke and the whole time was a blessing. It was all wet and squishy in the yard, so we mainly played some Catchphrase after lunch. All in all, we had a really good weekend. Today we started our yearly aerating and seeding for our lawn customers. The Wilsons let us borrow their Yanmar tractor to pull the tow-behind aerator since our ATV has a serious transmission issue. The tractor is working great though. Thanks guys! I think tomorrow we'll continue all that kind of work so that all the customers get their seed down and growing. Hey! Here's a shout-out to some new followers: Thanks to "Pckldr7" and "Shawn-tisha" for followin' along on this 'umble little blog:) Okay, pictures are in the works [and probably more than just D.C.] Okay, I hope you all have a good night and I'm gonna sign out here!

Heads up

2009-09-24T22:17:00.000-04:00

One more thing- Rachel and Sarah posted a blog today with a really great world-view statement about history. You can check it out by going to http://ourfamilyviewfromustwo.blogspot.com It's a really well written thought about a subject that should be very dear to us as Christians. See ya' there!

Thurs. Night

2009-09-24T20:49:00.000-04:00

Good evening to all my readers. Hey- do you want to hear my cheesy joke of the day? Well, seeing as you can't really answer me on that one, here it goes: What do I feel like after listening to Klove's version of " Lord I Lift Your Name on High"? PETRA-fied :) ;) [hey I know it's cheesy, but you can't say I didn't warn you.] Matthew's probably groaning big-time right about now:) Okay, moving right along. If any of you have any favorite jokes or the like, feel free to post them as comments. If a lot of people do, maybe I'll post some of the funniest ones on the actual blog. Hey, some of you may have heard that Rachel, Sarah, and I, worked on some commercials for the Parental Rights Amendment video contest with the Tates and their friends. [some of you all were in them yourselves.] This week is the week that we're supposed to hear about the results from the judges. The biggest prize is $250. Whatever the turn out is, they were a ton of fun to work on and it was my first chance to work from a script. [By the way, we were just helpers, the script, score, and shot layout, etc. were done by Grace and her friends]. Anyway, it was still a great experience. Oh by the way, after the GenJ meeting the other night, we reconvened for about 2 minutes and I got elected to be the media relations kind of guy. [It was neat for me at least:) Speaking of that, I know I said I'd get some D.C. pictures on here. The deal is, I have to get them from video I took up there. I've loaded the video onto my computer, and now I have to grab frames and turn them into Jpegs. Then I can put them on a flash drive and bring to the office computer and load them onto here. But I'll get to work on it. Alright, I'm gonna get going. Looking forward to seeing some of you at least on Sat. for the youth night. Bye!

A Differing World-View

2009-09-22T16:43:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, how's it going? It's Wed. morning and I thought I'd take a minute to post some thoughts I've had recently. I'd been thinking about our trip to D.C. last week [that you can read about in a previous blog], and about some of the meetings we'd had with the different staffers of different congressmen. One guy in particular really did not seem too excited about the idea of the Parental Rights Amendment and what ParentalRights.org is trying to do. After we'd explained to him why we were there and told him all about the PRA and the CRC, he looked kind of confused and slightly irritated and basically said, "So why do you need a constitutional amendment? I mean, this is America, we wouldn't let anything happen that would really be detrimental to our society. And even if we did ratify the CRC; laws and decisions would still have to come past the Senate and we could just stop them then." We did our best to explain to him that for one thing, the CRC is already being cited by some of our judges as international common law and is already affecting our judicial decisions. As well as the fact that the reason we want a constitutional amendment is that we see very real and practical threats to the safety and well-being of parental rights and thus the rights of the family.[uh, sorry about the run-on sentences. Don't tell my teacher:) He heard what we had to say and finished up by telling us that the congressman he represented would probably have a philosophical difference with us on the subject. What I realized afterwords was that he was coming from a completely different world-view than we were. Take, for example, his argument about us not letting something like this happen in America. 50 years ago, you would have been laughed down the street if you had voiced a concern about the definition of marriage. Now, however, we know that sadly it's a real issue. We can see that "stuff like this" does happen in America. Left to our own fallible devices, human nature will never get better, but worse. The opposite world-view is that human nature is basically good. When we come from that standpoint, there is no real concern to be watchmen in our country for things that would be destructive to families. This world-view leaves God out of the equation and leads us to put our trust in the fallen state of humanity. As Christians we must not embrace these lies that would water us down to complacency and render us ineffective as ambassadors of Christ to our nation. Let us put our trust in our Lord and Savior and follow Him to final Victory. I pray that each one of us would be emboldened and encouraged to be lights in every arena of our culture and not shy away from this honor and privilage. Thanks for reading and I hope that you all have a great day:)

Good Morning!

2009-09-21T09:11:00.000-04:00

Good morning to the various and sundry readers! How many of you all have heard of Generation Joshua? It's an organization started by Michael Ferris [as in HSLDA, Patrick Henry College, etc]. Our friends the Tates started one of two clubs in our entire state about one and 1/2 years ago. I got involved back in Februaryish and I have really loved it and learned a lot from it. God has been working in my heart for quite awhile about our role as Christians in the country that God has placed us in. May we not shy away from or avoid carrying His Crown Rights into what are really raging spiritual battles for our nation's heart. For any of you who have felt similar stirrings or really don't know what you think about "Christians in politics", I would strongly recommend a c.d. set by Doug Phillips called, " Biblical Principles of the Ballot Box". It's kind of a wordy title, but an excellent message. Hey, if you see me soon and want to borrow it, feel free. [It's actually being borrowed out right now, but I expect it back real soon] p.s. I won't make you fill out a tape report:) Anyways, GenJ has been a wonderful tool in shaping my worldview related to this topic and giving me practical avenues to live it out. Big thanks to the Tates for all of the energy, rides, scheduling, emails, phone calls, etc. A GenJ club is only as good as you make it, and ours is great! Any questions or anything, feel free to leave a comment or give me a call. [I think most of you have my number so I won't leave it for the creeps that are probably swarming all over this blog;) Oh, the reason I've expounded on the virtues of GenJ this particular morning, is that our next monthly meeting is tomorrow night. I guess I'm excited. If anybody knows anything about the Warne Fellowship by the way, I'd love some more info on that. Hey! We just got word that our Uncle and Aunt in New York want us to come up and see them again this winter! They've been extremely generous in flying us older kids up to spend a vacation week for the past two years. We're really looking forward to it! I also hope to go to the San Antonio Independant Christian Film Festival next October. [I was supposed to go in Feb., but they moved it to Oct. 2010] Oh well, maybe the extra time will give me a chance to enter something in it. Well hey, hope you all have a great first day of the week and say hi to your families for me!

Fall

2009-09-20T20:42:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, hope you all had a good Sunday and/or church gathering this morning! We went over to the Wilson's and had a good time of worship and teaching and Ultimate Frisbee [afterwords]. Mr. Tracy got back safe and sound from his deployment, and it was great to see the whole family all together for the first time in a while. We stopped by the Slurpee place on the way back home, and got some nice cold drinks for our ride home. Later on, I took the girls and Benjaming over to the final hours of the fair to pick up the chickens and pack away the 4H setup. We also got some great deals from the vendors who needed to clear out their stock. Anyway, so ends the fair. It was a fun time. Oh, by the way, today is the week anniversary of this blog! You can send all your cards and felicitations to my mailing address, it's fine if they get there a little late;) Hey here's an announcement for any of our church family that didn't make it out to the Wilson's today: In October we're going to start up a Bible Drill class for a bit of time after lunch on Sundays. Back at our v.b. homechurch, I led the kids in a similar thing that we had a ton of fun with and learned alot from. It's a really great tool for learning about some practical Bible navigation skills as well as memorizing some part's of God's word to have in our hearts. I don't have all of the final details, but will advise through email, etc. as things are firmed up. By the way, the reason that I called this post "Fall", is that I don't know about the rest of you, but I can just feel the change of seasons in the air. I have always loved the Fall and Winter and I look forward to this time with excitement all the year. Hope you all are enjoying it too. Alright, I'm gonna' sign out now. I'm thankful for each and every one of you guys, and hope you're doing well.

Our County Fair

2009-09-19T21:39:00.000-04:00

Howdy ya'll! Ah jest got back from th' rodeo! Ah dun took ma' cuzin Matthew over there seein' as he didn't git ta come any of the other days. Them cowboys was a'ridin and a'fallin and a'gittin trampled all up! Hey guys, there's my country/western accent for you. So here's the deal, our fair started on Thursday night, and is going to run through tomorrow [Sunday] night. I've been there every night so far, and pretty much all day today. The younger kids have chickens in the 4H and if I didn't already mention it, Benjy got a blue ribbon and the rest of the kids combined got 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. That was pretty surprising to us as it was kind of a last minute thing. There is a pretty good midway that Rachel, Sarah, and I used our wrist bands on. [The business had bought us each a wrist band for unlimited rides:) I actually got Grandma June to go on the Ferris Wheel with me! Mom and Leah and Benjamin did too. We checked out the craft tent at the girls request, and I had a beef tenderloin sandwich from the Ruritan club booth. That was really good for my inner carnivore. The Walkers came over this evening with some friends from out of town, and as I said before, the girls and I took Matthew over to see the bull riding. We hadn't really ever seen it before, and it was kind of nerve wracking. I was like, "If the bull already broke your ankle before you even got out of the gate, what makes you think it's going to get better from there? Why don't you go work at Dairy Queen or something?". Needless to say, I don't want to be a bull rider. Maybe sheep or something. Or Alpacas. Have you ever seen alpaca riding? If you have, leave me a comment and I'll come with my chapsticks or whatever you call them;) Hey! I got some Cuccinelli yard signs and his new bumper sticker! I didn't stay 'til closing time tonight because Matthew had to get back and I had to get ready for church tomorrow. [ It's at the Wilson's] Tomorrow I'll probably take the kids to pick up their chickens and I really want to see if the karaoke guy has some Veggie Tales song on his computer! If he does, I'll try to get Sarah and maybe Rachel to join me on the stage for the cheeseburger song or something else by Mr. Lunt. [I love Mr. Lunt's songs:) For the record though, I couldn't bring myself to stay very close to the karaoke the other night. [picture hip-hoppers trying to remember the words to "We Will, We Will Rock You". I mean, there's like six words to the song! How hard is that to remember? But nevertheless, they still were trying to get it out. Run far away. Okay, that's about it. Hope you all are having a good weekend and I hope to see you all soon! Feel free to leave comments by the way. [I love comments and free lunches]

Fair

2009-09-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! Just got back from the fair and I'm about to go upstairs so I'll be quick. I took Rachel and Sarah over there around 8:30 and we stayed 'til closing time[11:00] I had my fried food for the summer and enjoyed it pretty well. [But not those funnel cakes]. The Tates hunted us up and Daniel and I had some fun with the Ferris Wheel! But he wouldn't let me touch the bolts!:) [if you're there Daniel, it was really fun] Anyways, we're supposed to go back tomorrow and I'll post some more about it then. Good night :)

Washington

2009-09-17T23:12:00.000-04:00

Hey Guys [and girls for the politically correct], it's 11:13 pm and I just got back from the County Fair a little while ago. Some of the kids are doing 4-H and I went to scout out the mid-way and tents and helped move the chickens around a little. Sorry I didn't get a chance to update this thing any sooner, but I didn't get back from D.C. 'til 12:45 am last night. Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood for blogging. Okay, here's the run down.[I should have some pretty cool D.C. pictures on here soon enough but not just yet]. I drove to the Tate's house on Wed. morning and got there around 7:15. We picked up Andrew and Caleb and then picked up the Matt, Evan, and Ms. Denise. We drove nice and swiftly to the capitol and only stopped once at WaWa. I had no need to worry about the Metro after all because we were running a little behind for our train. [Actually guys, I've always loved the Metro. It gives you that National Treasure feeling.] So we just drove right in and Mr. Larry let us off at the Longworth House Office Building. The House Offices are where every congressman from every state has an office. This takes up about 3 BIG buildings. Anyway, we had to go to Congressman Peter Hoekstra's office for the PRA briefing. There was a really good show of people who were volunteers for this event and the briefing did include the Free Lunch :) It was catered by Subway:) After the congressman spoke, a professor from Patrick Henry College spoke about some of the legal aspects of the CRC and PRA. To finish up, the director of Parentalrights.org spoke to us as well. After that, our group was teamed up with 3 PHC students and we received our list of meetings for the day. Our specific group didn't actually get to meet face to face with a congressman, [though we were supposed to, the thing was that there are all sorts of bells and buzzers in every room and hallway that call Congress to vote. This guy left to vote right before we got to his office.] However, we met with the staff of three or four congressmen [including Bobby Scott's and Glen Nye's] and dropped off literature at about 19 other offices. I think that with every team added up, we got at least literature to every single office. [But don't quote me too closely :)] After that, we bid our PHC friends farewell and did the quick walking tour of D.C. We walked past and took pictures in front of the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, we saw the Capitol, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, and finished up by taking the metro [yay!] from Union Station to Arlington Cemetery while Mr. Larry drove the van around to meet us. We got there just in time to walk to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and see the changing of the gaurd finish up. That was a really quiet and neat place. There were signs all around telling the visitors to remember that this was hallowed ground. From there we loaded back up and started the trip back home. We left D.C. around 7:30, stopped in Fredricksburg to eat at Chipotle's, and got home at 12:45 like I said before. It was a really excellant trip and I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and support. It was so neat to be going to the capitol of the nation founded on the Lord, and paid for with the blood of countless soldiers, to defend and stand up for the rights of the families of this country. And also to walk boldly and joyfully into the awesome privilage and responsibility that God has given us as citizens of the United States of America, to encourage our leaders as well as hold them acountable to God's Truth. Thanks for your time and God Bless America!

Agent 1- here's your briefing

2009-09-15T21:50:00.000-04:00

Good evening. I'm posting this at around ten o'clock even though the silly little clock thing will say I did it a few hours earlier. Now that that's settled, we just got back from work about 1/2 an hour ago. Big pruning job. Two story hollies that had to be brought down a ton. Tall ladder. Sharp hollies. Good job. Tired boy. Anyway, we were safe thankfully, despite some arial gymnastics on my part. All in all they look pretty good. Please though, if you're going to plant them, do it in a very deep, very dark place in some woods that I've never been to:) But hey, now they're good til next time. I would like to specially thank Mr. Elliot for being the very first follower of this blog! And Mrs. M for leaving the very first comment! I will cherish this moment for evah! :) On the way home from work today[tonight], we stopped by Wal-Mart to get a white shirt for D.C. By the way, I heard through my grapevine of top secret informers that the Parental Rights people are giving us Free Lunch. [I have always loved free lunch!] All this to say, I'm getting pretty excited about tomorrow's trip. My last experience with the metro however, involved a few hours of waiting on an underground platform and Rachel leading Sarah and Mom off at the wrong stop from the other end of the train. Maybe I'll get some reconciliation and healing tomorrow;) By the way, my two previously mentioned sisters have very sweetly volunteered to fill in my place at work tomorrow. It's bush-hogging and weed-whacking 2 big lots that have gotten really out of hand. I should bring them something back. These same two sisters are antsy to post on their wonderful little blog called ourfamilyviewfromustwo.blogspot.com it's worth looking at [and they'd love a comment while you're there.] Oh, the reason I called this post a spyish thing is that my informants also told me that during Free Lunch, we'll be getting briefed on our assignments and tactics for the day. Spyish:) Please pray for the trip and that the Lord would ready the hearts of the leaders for this message. [While you're at it you could throw me in a good word related to the .....metro.]

Quickly

2009-09-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! I just wanted to welcome anyone who came here after reading the e-mail update I sent out. I promise my next post will be more interesting than this but hey. Thank you!

How's it goin?

2009-09-14T20:45:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! I got some good news. I've been cleared by the owner of the company I work for to go to D.C. on Wed. with my Generation Joshua group. This guy has been just like a father to me as I've been with this company:) I had quite a time figuring out how to see other people's blogs on Blogspot without knowing them and having them give you the address. [I was thinking like a search engine or something here.] Anyways, I finally got it straight with some help from my sister Sarah. Every interest in your profile is like a link to other bloggers with those same interests posted! [at least it was a big deal for me:)] Today I stayed home and worked around the house because Dad was just doing business errands and stuff. What I mostly did was worked on chipping up the big brush pile that has accumulated in the past months. We borrowed a 3-point chipper from some friends and put it on our Kubota. This thing works really well and can take stuff up to 6" in diameter. However, it has a little trouble with loose leaves and the like. I had to unjam it quite a few times. I finished up after I fixed the biggest jam ever. Dad and I spent probably an hour+ freeing it up. The girls and Mom had some friends over to bake cookies for a prison ministry and I got to sample their work.[Nice day to stay home] One thing I'm working on is a documentary about the whole process that the Lord used to bring us out to our new house in the country. Our family of 9 were living in a small townhouse in the city and over about 3 years He led us to sell it, move to a rental, and build a homestead house on 24 acres in rural Virginia. It was a very growing and big and exciting process and it deserves to have it's story told. In the middle of everything else though, it's kind of been back burner. I need to shoot interviews and decide who I want to interview and what I want to ask them before that.[for one thing] I want to get back to work on it and get it wrapped up while it's still relatively fresh. My last film project was working on some commercials for the Parental Rights Ammendment with some friends from church. Well I better go, so thanks for reading!

Ahem

2009-09-13T20:20:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody! Thanks for taking the time to look at my lil' ol' blog! I'm excited to start this thing up and see what happens. I hope that over time we'll be able to cover a variety of subjects and musings with this thing and maybe you'll get to know me a little better along the way. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have a soap box to stand on; and I hope you all find this enjoyable and not too, too, boring. Okay, Let's get down to business. As this is new for me I'm not going to start with anything too drastic; so I'll just practice by telling what I did today. I kinda' slept in [after staying up late again], and then I ate 1/2 a bagel and some leftover hot dogs.[I know it sounds a little weird but hey]. After I got ready for church, I took the little kids to the Tate's in my car [that's where church was today.] We had a typical good morning of worship and Bible teaching and stayed around for lunch and playtime. Dad took everybody but me, Rachel, and Sarah back home. We lingered for a while longer and played music and I shot some targets with Mr. Matt's bow. [It's really nice and he got it from a thrift store! I guess I never go at the right times]. We also went inside and talked about how they really should have put "the scourging of the Shire" in the LOTR movies. We eventually left and went to 7-11 for some you-know-whats :) After arriving back at the house, Mom and Dad left for their date night and I barely got the grass cut before dark. [ We had to do our customers' lawns yesterday 'cause we got a ton of rain this week]. Well that's about the whole day more or less. Tomorrow the Thompsons and Alaina are going to come over to make cookies with Mom and the girls for a prison ministry. I hope to be able to go to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to go to the meetings ParentalRights.org has set up with our local congressmen regarding the parental rights amendment. This is a really key issue that is facing our country right now. We are talking about the question of "who do the children of this nation belong to?". There are those in other countries as well as in our own who believe in essence, that children belong to the State and their parents should at best be "partners" with the government to raise these kids. This may seem on the surface to be just a confused group of people with the goal of protecting children- and I hope that that might be the deal for the majority of the supporters of the UNCRC. Having said that however, I must say that I believe that the root of this issue is alot more diabolical. What the heart of this "children's rights" movement is, is the complete socialization and breakdown of the family unit- the building block of every Godly society. It is a dark day when America wishes to strip parents -fathers and mothers-of their God-given and God-designed roles and claim the Inheritance from the Lord for her own plans and devices. But take heart. The Lord has raised up a large army of His families and people who will stand in the gap to say to this CRC bill "You Shall Not Pass!" These people are you and me. Please pray for God's protection for our families and thank Him for the opportunity that this situation provides for us, as Christians, to carry His standard boldy and proclaim His Truth. That is why I want to go to D.C. and ask our leaders to support a constitutional ammendment to protect parental rights. Well hey, I'm gonna' sign off here and I hope you've enjoyed this. See ya soon!