4 Generations

I thought I would share this picture that represents 4 generations of family. My Grandmother, my Mother, my son and myself. I regret not turning Dad to face the camera and actually be in the picture. Sometimes you just gotta say, "Doh!"

The Groundhog is dead meat!

Back on February 2nd, Puxatauny(sp?) Phil stuck his head out of his hole and failed to see his shadow. Last I recall that means an early Spring. Correct?

Since that time we have had tons of snow and I'm looking up recipies for Groundhog stew!

This weekend we got hit fairly hard with a whole bag of winter weather. For the first time in six years I felt that I had to cancel Sunday services for the safety of everyone involved. As an older city Church, we have no parking lot. Even in the best of conditions, we park on the street in the neighborhood and on any given Sunday, people can walk two blocks or more to get to the building. Some of my parishioners live as much as 40+ miles away and they were the ones that really got hit with the blizzard. I hated cancelling service but I felt it was the best choice with the conditions we had.

Oh yes, the snow was so wet and heavy that I broke my trusty snow shovel. Now, if I could only find that groundhog!

A busy but wonderful weekend

This past Saturday was my Grandmothers, Pauline Childers, 90th birthday. To my discredit, it had been about seven years since I had last saw her so Debbie, Sam and I began making the trek south on Friday.

We arrived at Mom and Dad's on Friday afternoon and spent the night with them. Then on early Saturday morning we packed up and I had the privilege of driving Mom and Dad along with my own family to Arkansas to take part in the festivities.

It was truly a great time. I saw relatives that I had not seen in years. I saw relatives that I did not even know. Unfortunatley, there were some that were not able to make the trip that I really had wanted to see. But all in all, it was a great day. A special thanks to my Uncle Don and Aunt Pam for setting the day up. I know it took a lot of work and I want you to publicly know how much I appreciate your efforts. (My Uncle Don is a regular reader of my blog, who reminded me that he hadn't had much to read lately! I'll work on that, Unc!)

My Grandmother looked great for 90! Being in her home again brought back a million memories. It was really neat to see the place full of family and Grandkids running through the house, although I'm fairly sure that some of them could use a dose of Ritalin! :<) (I'm quite certain that no one thought that when I was one of those Grandkids!) LOL

With Dad's needs we were not able to stay for the whole day and late that afternoon we began the trek back to Illinois. But before heading out of town, I stopped to visit my GrandFathers grave. It's been 28 years since his passing but standing at that Headstone I could not help but shed some tears at a loss that seems as fresh as yesterday. I have dearly loved all of my Grandparents but Robert Veto Childers deeply impacted my life. Rest in peace, Grandpa, your family is well!

Longing for Spring

After a near blizzard in the past 48 hours I have come to the conclusion that people who "love snow" are mentally unbalanced. I have piles at the end of my driveway that are 4 to 5 feet high and guess how it got there. That's right, an old fashioned shovel. I've seen all the snow I ever want. Besides the snow, it has been somewhere in the vicinity of a month or more since we saw a temperature above freezing. Somebody call Albert Gore and have him come here and lecture on global warming. I'll hit him with a snowball, right between his beady eyes. LOL

OK, OK, deep breaths, good thoughts. Now, I feel better now.

I'm thinking about Spring and most importantly, Baseball! I have setup a private Fantasy baseball league for my family to take part in. The cost is a one time fee of $9.95 and it is a ton of fun. There is no winning pot, other than bragging rights because, homey don't gamble! So far I have three of the ten needed to complete the league and I have to have the ten before March 16th. I have two more promised so basically I'm looking for 5 more individuals to participate. If you are interested, simply drop me an e-mail to ThePreachersPulpit@hotmail.com If you are not family but consider yourself to be, e-mail me. If you are not family and don't want to be but just want to be in a league with crazy people, e-mail me. I've given family members to March 1st to join but I need to move quickly after that so the first non-family e-mails will be the first to join!

Join up and knock a snowball out of the park!

Thoughts on things

I read a lot from various places and don't always remember where so I can't give the proper credit for this but it sure made me think. It went sort of like this.

I work a job where I am subject to take a urine/drug at any random time. I agreed to this at the beginning of my employment because it was a condition of my employment. I did so in order that I might receive a regular salary to live my life with. Out of that regular salary, I pay taxes. Taxes that are used for a variety of things. Some that I am happy about and some that I don't care so much for.

Out of that tax money that I pay from my job, where I am subject to drug testing at any given time, I help fund the welfare system in this Country. While welfare, in and of itself is a concept that I believe in, I also realize that there are many that regularly abuse that system. I am not so blind as to believe that the abusers are of any one particular race, creed or culture but I am not so naive to think that abuses don't occur either. Many of those that are abusing the system are hooked on drugs or alcohol and those habits are the very reason that they end up in the system.

So, being the deep thinker that I am, (with tongue planted firmly in cheek as I write that) I am wondering why I must subject myself to random drug testing in order to help fund a way of life for someone that may abuse drugs? It makes no sense.

How about this for welfare reform? Let's make the recipients subject to random drug testing. If they pass the test and are in need of help, let's do all we can to help them but should they fail a random drug test, let's make their benefits contingent upon entering a state sponsored Rehab program that focuses on educating and changing lives. If I am subject to it in order to provide it, shouldn't they be subject to it in order to recieve it?

I doubt it will ever be. There's just too much common sense in it.

This, that and the other thing

Did you hear about the Bears Fan that bet that if the Bears lost, he would legally change his name to "Peyton Manning?" Now that guys got it bad!

I got word tonight that some people are expecting me to shave my head since I said, "May I go bald if the Bears lose." For you folks I have just two words. DREAM ON! lol Since I am ALREADY bald you can see that it was rather tongue in cheek.

Did you read about the Female Astronaut that drove from Houston to Florida to kill another Astronaut. Apparently she was on such a tight time schedule that she wore a diaper so that she would only have to stop for gas. Someone asked me if I would travel with a diaper on. Those of you that know me, know that I replied, "Depends?"

It's hard to believe but my son turns nine on Monday. Seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home for the first time. My cousins, Joe and Nancy, recently had their first child. Wait a minute, Joe, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

One last little tidbit. I saw and Ad tonight for an Amish Furniture store. they were having a sale and one of the items was a T.V. stand. Hmmmm

Oh well, Bald it is!

As a life long Cubs fan I have developed a taste for Crow. BTW, did I tell you that the Cubs will win the Series this year? LOL

The SuperBowl was a good game that, except for the outcome, I enjoyed very much. Debbie, Sam and I went to Jeff and Sherle's for the game and had a great time. It was about midway through the game when I realized that this was the first time that I had ever watched the SuperBowl with my Brother. Now I'm not that old but Jeff---he's ancient! :<)

We had always been in Church during the SuperBowl and while that is not a bad thing, I really didn't feel any less holy for it.

It's good to have family around you. No matter who wins a silly game.

Defying the Experts

I've never liked experts. In the Southern Dictionary, Expert is defined in this fashion:

Ex=an unknown factor
Spert=a drip under pressure

Anywho, The so called Football experts are favoring the Colts by 7 in the Big Game tomorrow but we are the Bears and We ain't skeered!

Sorry to all of the experts but you're just flat wrong. The only way the Colts will even see the Teens tomorrow is if a freak weather occurance happens to drop the Miami Temperature.

Here's the Score for those that want to know.

Bears 38

Colts 12

If I'm wrong, may I go bald!