Headaches

My wife currently has a very severe headache. What steps do you take to relieve yourself of a headache? Do you swallow pills, lie on your bed, or drink a cup of coffee? What is the cause of your headache? Are most headaches related to stress, lack of sleep, or lack of food?

Home Again

Well, we rolled in our drive about 4:00 this afternoon. I must say the trip went fairly well. Some of you are wondering how we managed to keep the children occupied and happy. They were happy because we have done such a grand job of parenting. The children did very well..... part of the time. My wife knew it was going to be a struggle so she put together this Treasure Chest. This chest was full of interesting things to do along the way. Books to read, games to play, pictures to color and other assorted activities. Every three or four hours she would pull another treasure out of the chest. I would say this worked fairly well for the girls. The boys were mostly entertained by sleeping and eating. What a life.....
They did get sick of sitting in the car seat so much........
I must say it is very good to be home......

Vanity Tags

I have seen several interesting vanity tags in my time. Here are some samples.
1. UOIBL8
2. O2BTHR
3. URABLR
What is the funniest or best vanity tag you have seen?

Life On The Road

Where to start??? Let's see, the highlights of the trip so far in chronological order.
1. Jayden running a fever on Monday of 104.9.
2. Waking up at 11:30 Monday night and my body told me it was at least 4 or 5 in the morning. It was then I realized I was facing a very long night.
3. Tues. we had lunch with Jayden's birth mother. Had a lovely visit.
4. On the way to Great Grandpa Zooks the luggage carrier on the roof of the van came loose and went bouncing down the road into the ditch. We stopped and put the whole thing into the van. This made for a very crowded van. I am sure I looked like a little old woman peering over the steering wheel. My seat was so far forward. I was very uncomfortable, UGH....
5. I have fought sleep many times while driving and have usually resorted to smacking myself in the face to wake myself back up. I am sure there are plenty of people who would like take on this job. Well, I fell asleep and ran out of the road. The van was completely off of the road. This woke me up rather quickly and I eased back onto the road. I told Rachel I was just taking a very short detour.....
6. Arrived at the great grandpa's place.
7. Slept very good last night.
8. Jayden has not had a fever since Monday.
9. Today we are heading to Fort Myers to see Aleya's Grandma Dorothy.
10. Then we are going down to Naples to see the lady who has helped us with all three of our adopted children.
In closing I am slowly realizing that adopting can be alot of fun. I hope these little bits of time spent with blood relatives will be of value to our children in later years. I also hope/pray that these times will help the blood relatives know they made the correct choice......
God Bless

And We're Off

I am one of a strange breed, I assume. I woke up at 2:22 AM this morning feeling wide awake. So I slipped out of bed, if that's possible, and went wandering around the house. I looked out the living room window and what do I see? Snow. Beautiful white fluffy flakes falling gently out of the night sky. I slide back in bed wondering what it will be like this morning. Well, at 5:39 it was still snowing.
Oh man, I got side tracked. Do you get so excited you find it very hard to sleep the night before you leave? (I always have trouble sleeping the night before we go record.) What excites you so much you find it hard to sleep?
Well, snow or no, we will be leaving within the hour for the land of balmy sunshine!!!!

News & Notes

First, for those of you who remember, our ordination is tonight. My first thought on this is Thank you Jesus! It's not me...... I have total confidence in the two men who are in the lot. I look forward to seeing the Lord work.
Second, we, my family, are leaving for FL for 8 days. We will be visiting Rachel's Grandparents and an Aunt and Uncle as well as several of our children's birth mothers. We are looking forward to this trip. We are praying that the children will be able to survive the trip down without to much fussing in the van. I will try to update as I have access to a computer.

Pockets

I am slowly beginning to realize that in my line of work a man needs to make lists. In the last month I have begun to carry slips of paper in my pockets. These are no ordinary slips. These pieces of paper are recycled. They are my old NAPA receipts. I make a trip to the local NAPA store for parts and these yellow bits of paper are stuffed into my pockets. I have also begun to carry a knife. This is a knife that I purchased at my friendly NAPA store. This knife is very sharp and has two unique features. It has a lock blade, fairly common, but it is really a razor blade. So when the blade gets to dull to cut you can swap ends. When the blade is shot you throw it away and put in another. One other thing I try to carry in my pockets is a big crayon. This crayon is used to mark the tail head of a cow after breeding her. We do this to try to keep track of who has been bred and who hasn't and it is also a tool for catching cows in heat. By the end of the day I will probably have a pair pliars, two-three wrenches, and an assortment of bolts, nuts, and washers all residing in my pockets. This can be hazardous to ones health. It makes it difficult to walk with such heavy pants. They may fall off..... Sometimes my pants get home an hour or so later then I do........
Do you carry things in your pockets?

In My Defense

Okay, so I had not mentioned the fact that our (VOP) latest cd is now available. The reason for this is quite simple. VOP's website has not been updated yet and I did not want to mention it without a simple way for you to order this album. The simplest thing to do is go to our website and print off the order form. Write in somewhere that you want to order the album Deliverance and mail to VOP. Or you can email the webmaster and he will send the order to me. It is my duty to fill these orders as they come in. If you email please include your mailing address so we know where to send it. We will send you a nice bill along with the product. So, Mr. ITF, this is the best way for you to get your hands on an album and this is also the reason I had not mentioned that it is available. Let the orders roll in.....

Farm Life

The vet was here this morning for the monthly herd check. I had noticed one dry cow with some swelling just in front of the udder. So we got her in the parlor to check it out. It was an abcess. The vet was standing down in the pit were we stand to milk and I was up with the cow. He wanted me to look at something so I got down on my knees beside the cow and inched up towards her head trying to see. Suddenly she jerked around and tried to kick me. When her hoof came down it was smack on my head/neck. In the process of trying to get out of the way I twisted my knee or something because I could hardly stand up and it sure hurt to walk. Sometimes it is hard to treat animals in a christian manner. Oh, I wanted to beat her with a stick and use other forms and instruments to prove my displeasure. I also wanted to release a stream of epithets but I held my toungue, not to mention my head and my knee......

Chiropractors

1. Do you use them?
2. Why not?
3. Why?
Do you think they are quacks?

Valentine's Day

Well the day has come. The day in which people in general say sappy things to eachother. I love valentine's day. It is fun to surprise my wife with different things. This year I found a card, hooray for me, that said this. True love is willing to share the rain while waiting for the sun to shine. Our marriage was on the rocks several years ago. Funny how this happens and you don't realize it is happening until it's over. Maybe this isn't totally true.....
Anyway, the statement above is very accurate. I hope your true love is willing to wait for the sunshine with you.
On a different note Adrian Rogers noted last night that every man needs to have 4 things that he has dates with.
1. With God
2. With his children
3. With himself
4. With his wife.
I like this list.....

Discipline

Okay......
No one wants to stick out the skinny neck?
I know people have a view of discipline. Does your view include spanking or do you use timeout only? Maybe you use both. If so, how do you decide which one to use?

Raising Children

It appears that one of our boys has a very intense anger problem. How do you deal with this? I realize he is very young yet something needs to happen. He went into a rage this afternoon because we could not hold him when he wanted to be held. I know it sounds terrible and maybe I am all wrong. No, I did not give him a spanking/smack or anything of that nature. However, I wonder if that was what was needed. How do you decide what sort of discipline to use? I know that in todays world spanking can be viewed as abuse. I am also afraid that in a lot of cases it is abuse. What are your thoughts?

Snowy Weather

I will now show my extreme wickedness to those of you read my random thoughts. It is snowing. It has been snowing all day. The amount of accumulation has been adequate. The amount that has landed and stayed on the road has been very small. I am hoping this changes overnight. I would love to skip church tomorrow morning......
Am I the only one who feels this way?

Cotton Candy Enterprise

Here they are learning how to make cotton candy for the school sale. Sierra is in the process of helping herslef to the rejected samples.
How many of you like cotton candy?

 

Golf

Lowell is in/up/home from the south for a few days. I think he has been here almost a week, give or take a few days/weeks/months. He told me soon after he arrived that he wanted to see if we could improve our technique of swatting little white balls into the woods. So, today we went. We guaged our success on whether we found more balls in the woods then we hit into the woods. Today was an exceptionally good day for me. I pulled two balls out of the murky pond and only put one in its belly. My round started very poorly and I was expecting I would hit my normal round of 70 on nine holes played. (I know, I know, that is really pathetic) When it was all said and done I was in the clubhouse with 60. Not bad for a chap who had not hit a golf ball since the end of June. How often do you get to play a round of golf and what is your average score?

Davy Crockett

I am finishing a book on Davy Crocket. He was an interesting man. What do you know about him? How did he die? Was he involved in politics? How many wives did he have? You do know he existed, don't you? Maybe he is only a figment of American History's imagination......

Moans Groans and Sighs

Chronologically this is how my day/night went.
3:00 AM I hear a wail from the girls bedroom.
3:05 AM Still wailing: Papa trudges across house....
3:06 AM Sierra says "My back hurts"
Papa says "I can't help your back, I'm sorry..... try to sleep.....
3:10 AM She appears to be asleep..... Thank you Jesus and help her sleep all night
6:30 AM Alarm rings......
7:00 AM Devotions had and coffee brewing
7:30 AM I go to milk.
8:30 AM Cell phone vibrates
"Hello"
"Hello, Honey, Sierra is still running a high fever and won't come down her back still aches..... what do we do????
8:31 AM Cell phone cuts off.....
8:32 AM I call her at the house and tell her to call the Dr.
8:45 AM I tell Lyndon I have to take Sierra to the Dr. I also get into a theological discussion with the neighbor.
8:55 AM While in this discussion I notice calves are out..... We chase calves......
9:15 AM Go to the Dr.
11:00 AM Go to Social Services to get the boys SS #'s
11:30 AM Stop at the accountant's office.....
12:00 PM Stop at wal-mart for Amoxicillion
12:45 PM Stop at Mcdonalds
1:30 PM arrive at home
1:35 PM go to work
6:00 PM Come home
So there it is......
I knew you were wondering what I do all day.......

Prayer Part II

John McArthur has this to say about praying in Jesus name....
1. It means the believer's prayer should be for His purposes and kingdom and not selfish reasons.
2. The believer's prayer should be on the basis of His merits and not any personal merit or worthiness.
3. The believer's prayer should be in pursuit of His glory alone.

Do you agree?

Snacks

What do you consider the perfect snack?

Relating

How do you relate to people when you are in the middle of a heated discussion? Is their a proper way to have a heated discussion? Is it okay to fight?

Prayer

What does it mean to pray in Jesus name? I have tacked this on my prayers for years and I am wondering why we do it. Is it a nice tidy way to finish our prayers off? We pray these tattered prayers and then wrap them neatly in bow using the afore mentioned phrase. Is there significance in the phrase? What is it?

Obstetrics

This afternoon I noticed an older cow was in the early stages of calving. She was losing some fluid. However, I could not see any hooves. (In case you are a novice, calves are born front feet first with the head lying neatly between the front legs.) I decided to let her alone for an hour and then check on her. I put her in the calving pen and went to do some other things. When I returned the calves feet were still absent. I decided to have an exploratory feel. I shoved my sleeve up over my elbow and inserted my hand into the cow. At first I was a little bewildered. I could feel the calves head but could not find any feet. I thought I had a leg but it turned out to be the calves lower jaw. Where were the feet? Groaning I forced my arm gently further into the murky darkness of the cows uterus. Finally, with my arm in the cow to the shoulder, I found leg #1. I wrapped my fingers around the knee joint and was able to bring it around to the proper position. Now back for leg #2. This leg seemed to be a little further away and I could barely get my fingers around it. When I did I was able to bring this one around also. Knowing everything was at the right spot I left her alone. About an hour or so later I checked on her again. I saw the calf was out except for its hips. Before I could get there mamma cow stood up and began to walk in a circle. Thus the calf fell in a heap in the sawdust. A lovely heifer calf. She should be a good one. By the way, when a calf isn't lying correctly the cow will not dilate right. This causes a lot of stress for the cow and the farmer......

Aleya Nicole Zehr

Very Studious.....