Tuesdays

So, what is so special about a Tuesday?  Nothing really, right?  It's just kind of "stuck" there in the middle of the week.  If you follow me on Facebook, you know a month or so ago, I decided to start doing some special, unexpected things for my wife on random Tuesdays.  Your spouse may expect that you might do something special for them on a Friday or a Saturday, right?  So the whole idea was just to be thoughtful, be romantic at a completely unexpected time.  I've been a romantic guy since early on in our dating years and continued on that way for many years of the first part of our marriage.  As time went on, kids came, life grew increasingly stressful, my romantic side, my creativity became less and less.  Fewer poems written, fewer date nights, fewer spontaneous acts of love and fun.  I am thankful, that through God's changes in me, that romantic and fun side is back in full force.  A few weeks ago on a Tuesday morning, I strode into Bailey Jr. High (my wife's school) with a dozen roses for Susan. You should have seen the other teachers, office personnel in the school.  You'd think they would have never seen a guy carrying roses before!  So, they started telling Susan "Happy Birthday"!  We had to tell them, "it's not her birthday".  They said, "oh, well Happy Anniversary".  We told them it was not that either.  They asked, "well, what is it?".  As I left the school, I told them, "it's Tuesday".  I'm assuming they got it.
Message being:  ANY AND EVERY DAY IS A GREAT DAY TO LOVE YOUR SPOUSE!

How much is too much?

Okay, I will admit going in, I may lose a few male followers for writing this post.  If you would have written this and suggested I read it, until recently, I might have "unfollowed" you too!
My issue is sports.  I've loved it with a PASSION all my life!  The love of it was instilled in me very early by my grandfather and my father.  If there was ever a good game on (most any sport!), we were watching it.  I have carried this habit through most of my adult life.  Through some major re-arrangement of priorities and a healthy submission to God and his ways for me and my family, for the FIRST TIME in my life, I am experiencing the "freedom" to watch a game or not watch a game.
I just lost most men reading this.
Let me make my point.  My wife, for most of our marriage, has had the theory that every day of the world, there is some game on that I just can't miss!  While that theory has not proved 100% true, I am ashamed to admit that it has a lot of truth (or has).  We are passionate about the teams we love.  We are "afraid" to miss anything good that might happen when they play, so we make sure to push everything else away so as not to miss a moment.  Think about it.  What did you "push away" the last time you really wanted to watch a game?  Was there something you really should have been addressing with your family?  A kid that needed help with homework?  A wife that was feeling a little neglected?  A friend that could have used a kind word from you?
Guys, if you're still with me, I have been the guiltiest of any of you of doing this.  Is it bad to watch a game?  Absolutely not!  Do we need to watch EVERY game to the detriment of other important things in our lives?  Absolutely not!  This is all a very new emotion in me, so if I sound a crazy man, well, maybe I am. I am not telling anyone, you should change too...you may not have this "issue" in your life.  But it is HUGE to me right now and to my wife, that I have made time for her and for my boys where before I refused to miss an inning of baseball or a snap of a football game.
Am I still going to enjoy watching sometimes?  By all means, yes.  But only when it is not taking away from what is more important.

A passage in Matthew spells out well where my heart is on this matter.  Matthew 6:21 says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also".

Open for Business...

Wow, almost two years to the day since I last posted to this blog.  I can sadly but also happily say that that is rather symbolic.  I suppose I haven't had a whole lot good to share, or at least at the time, I did not feel it worthy of sharing.  Glad to say that I will try to post to this blog regularly going forward.  I have been writing like mad for weeks now.  It is ALL just kind of coming pouring out of me now after keeping so much bottled up for so long.  God is good!  He brings us through these seasons of life in order to make us stronger.  I/we (Susan and I) had a "breaking point" a few weeks ago where it became VERY apparent that some changes were in order.  I won't go into any gory detail, but God really starting working on me and convicting me on some things I was doing (and not doing) with my life and my marriage.  He has EXTRAVAGANTLY answered prayers since then.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, beyond ALL that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. Ephesians 3:20

Obviously, I am not going to share a lot of what I have written.  Most of it has been written for Susan and "to God". I have much to share...  I will start with simply, I AM RICHLY BLESSED!

Death of Tradition

So the college football landscape is getting turned on its head again. Mass chaos among the conference alignments (the Big 12 in particular). Very sad to see all of the traditional rivalries that we have grown up with going away. My entire life, I've known the Texas-OU game would be about the 2nd week of October, Texas-A&M would be played at Thanksgiving, and there would be other entertaining matchups to look forward to with our other in-state rivals. If everything goes down as it is expected to now, what rivalries will we have to look forward to? Want Texas-OU? Sorry, you get OU-Arizona. Want Texas A&M-Texas Tech? Sorry, you get A&M-Vanderbilt. You get the picture. This may mean more money for some schools, but it is certainly the death of tradition.

Okay, what now? Texas-Texas A&M Divorce

Let's face it, Aggies and Longhorns love to hate each other. I have some really good friends that are Aggies so hate may be a bit of a strong word, but it fits in many instances. So every year for the last 100 years or so, this rivalry, this yearlong back and forth has been able to be resolved on the football field and one side of the rivalry has "bragging rights" for the next year. So now A&M is bolting for the SEC and all the traditions, the yearly rivalry, and everything that goes with it will be gone. It is possible that they could schedule games in the future, but I will bet it doesn't happen for a while (it will take a while for wounds/egos to heal). So where does all this "energy" get channeled now? Do Texas and A&M just forget about each other? I doubt it. It is all very unfortunate. I am a traditionalist and I really hate to see the rivalry go away. Although I understand it is big business, so I can direct my "angst" at those in charge (at both schools) and not direct it at my Aggie friends who had no control over it.
So, if we are not to be rivals anymore, do we just try to get along? Settle our differences in a different way? Arm wrestling?
It's strange times in college football right now. I am sad to see big business overlook any sense of tradition and simply look out for number one. But that is the world we live in.

Coaching/Parenting

Just finished up another year of coaching baseball. Truthfully, I was hoping to avoid coaching this year, but since I do it every year, they called me and asked me to do it after I did not initially volunteer. I do usually enjoy it. And, I'm sure I would get really frustrated if I did not do it and someone who knew nothing about baseball ended up coaching my kids. I was reflecting on how I usually coach the kids. I notice that I tend to try and be extra encouraging to some of the kids that may not be very athletic and struggle, and I also tend to be somewhat hard on the kids that I know are capable of playing well. Of course, I am hardest on my own kids. Considering these things, I was reflecting on what things bring out the best in different kids. Am I right to go easy on some of them and be harder on the others? I don't think I am unfair with any of them. It also made me reflect on parenting and how I try to correct my children and the standards I set for them. I know I can be really hard on them sometimes, but it is out of love and out of an expectation that they are capable of behaving a certain way or achieving certain things. It is an ongoing process, and just as I expect them to improve, I have to adapt and try and improve myself. And sticking with the "theme" of my blog, we're working hard at it, but we're certainly not "there yet"!

Where does it end

The cost of communications these days seems to being going up and up and up. Conceivably, you could easily be paying for 3 internet services a month or more (home, phone, and iPad). Now, there are more and more "free" services starting to charge for content. Yes, I realize that each of these is a choice, but how much money are people really willing to shell out each month for all of these services? And does it make sense?

Cruising

We just returned from a wonderful cruise experience. Got kind of used to being able to indulge ourselves with "limitless" amounts of good food. The kids thought they must have been in heaven when they realized they could order 2 pizzas and a cheeseburger for dinner! And I could certainly get used to having prime rib AND lobster tail for dinner. Ah, but reality set in when we returned home and had spaghetti for dinner. It couldn't last forever! My wife's response... "Oh, I once was a queen!".

Vacation

I've been abusing my blog again. I'll blame it on using Facebook for all of life's little updates. Many of you know that Susan and I recently went on a trip to San Francisco. It was so wonderful! Not just for the fact that San Francisco is a beautiful place, but because I was able to just enjoy time with my wife, uninterrupted by kids or just the "stuff" of daily life. Since we don't often get to travel or have time without the children, it made us appreciate the experience that much more. We spent several days touring around the beautiful city of San Francisco (and enjoying the much cooler temperatures!). The highlights of the city had to be the beautiful architecture, neat diversity of cultures, Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf, and the food! After a few days in the city, we moved north of the bridge and aimed to spend a little more time doing outdoor activities. We drove up the seashore, up beautiful windy roads, for hours one afternoon. Every turn seemed to bring a new "ooooh, ahhh" moment. We had no destination in mind, just kept driving and enjoying the scenery. After finally deciding it was time to turn back, we found a cute little obscure restaurant and enjoyed a very nice meal. The following day, we enjoyed time in Sonoma visiting wineries and enjoying the very scenic countryside in that area. The next days were spent enjoying Muir Woods National Monument (seeing the majestic redwoods) and driving up/climbing up Mount Tamalpais. I could essentially finish each sentence with "the view was gorgeous", but I won't, you get the idea.

There is much more to tell, but this at least a snapshot. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy this vacation together.

Very refreshed, Bo

Summertime!

Summer is here! Yes, it will be and already is hot, but I love summertime. Baseball games, cooking out, kids at home, going swimming, etc. I may be yearning for 70 degree weather in another month, but for now I'm happy it's summer.

Ben vs. Food

Ben 0 New York Yankee 1

The boys are getting older and starting to eat us out of house and home. A fairly recent development, they no longer think it is adequate for them to order off of the kids menu when we go out. So, the other day we went to Jason's Deli. For those of you that need explanation of the above "score", the New York Yankee is about a 4 inch think sandwich at Jason's Deli filled with hot corned beef, pastrami, and swiss. I have to admit, it is my favorite and I am usually able to finish one off. So Ben decides that this is what he wants too! Tried to talk him out of it because I was quite sure he couldn't finish it off. I gave in and ordered it for him. He ate a little more than half off it. Still impressive since I was doubtful that he could even fit his mouth around it!

There's nothing like family

For the first time in ten years or so, all of my family is here in Texas. I had the opportunity this weekend to join my dad, brothers, and my dad's cousin at our farm in east Texas. We had a ball! We didn't exactly have a weekend full of activities. I'd say our primary activities were eating, cutting up, and laughing. We reminisced about everything under the sun and laughed about most of it. Good times!

Annual heartbreak

It's time for that annual rite known as getting excited about baseball. That would be Texas Rangers baseball. It tends to typically go like this: season starts, there are a few things about the team to be excited about, it's the beginning of the season, so theoretically anything is possible. You tell yourself, this will finally be the season! We'll call this Rangermania. A few months go by and maybe the team has shown some promise and given you reason to stay excited. So, with a few wins and things to be excited about, they string you along for a while.
Or maybe they are already tanking and way out of first place. Regardless, the outcome seems to always be the same. A period of hope and being excited followed by a realization that it will only end in heartbreak. We'll call the after effect Rangerburn.
Nevertheless, the season is now new, so I am once again hoping for a different result this year!
Go Rangers!

Technology Confusion

What is one to do with all of the technology that is out there today? That is, all the various ways to communicate and keep in touch with people. Do you really have to do ALL of it? I have finally succumbed to the whole Facebook thing and signed up for it. Still trying to figure out exactly where it fits in as to what to do with it. Obviously, I have a blog. I am on LinkedIn. A friend of mine asked me to "join" Plaxo, so I did, but really haven't ever done anything with it. Twitter seems totally pointless to me if I am also doing a blog, Facebook, etc. etc. Seems to me that Twitter would be a way that EVERYONE can see my every "text message worthy" thought. Still a holdout on Twitter. Does there come a point where no one feels the need to pick up the phone and call a friend, send a note/e-mail to someone, send a random text message, just because they are doing it all on the aforementioned websites? I'm not quite ready for that.
Anyone have any insight on this dilemma?

Living well

We shared a very special time with our church family at Pantego last night. We were remembering the life of our dear friend and worship pastor Kevin Walker. Kevin went to be with the Lord a week or so ago after a battle with cancer. It was both a sad time and a happy time to reflect on his life and how he had affected so many of us. Kevin was always a man that lived with joy that came from his relationship with Jesus Christ. This joy was contagious when you were around him. He was always happy, always having fun, always interested in others, sharing God's Word with others, and he truly left his mark on many people.
The main thing that I left with after last night's memorial was how will I be remembered one day and what impression am I making on others. I hope that I can strive to live well as Kevin did and that people could one day remember me for having a positive impact on their lives and a positive impact for God's kingdom. The other side to living well is dying well, and I am confident that that is what Kevin did.

Missy in the snow

Been gone for a while...

I haven't updated the blog in a while, so there are a number of things to tell. The "biggest" family change would be that we have a new family member. Missy, a rotweiller/lab puppy joined our family a few months ago. She is a lot of fun, but she is very much a puppy, so she enjoys making messes and getting into mischief. It is nice to have her around after being without our dog Molly for the last few years.

No pets

For one of the first times in my life, I have no pets. For those of you that remember our turtles, they were getting bigger and we "set them free" into the lake at our farm. They almost looked gleeful to swim out into that big lake after being in a tank in our house for three years. It may be time to get another dog. It has been a long while now since our poor Molly met her death. Susan has been opposed to another dog, but I think she may be coming around!

Oinking!

This is the brilliant medical term ascribed by a friend of ours to our recent condition. We all had the infamous swine flu last week. It made for a week full of having kids home from school. Then, I was unfortunate enough to get it just in time to have to miss our church men's retreat. NOW, the kids school has been closed for the week because so many kids in their small private school have had it.

It's that time of year!

Ahhh...football is starting up, just went hunting this weekend, the weather is cooling off. I love this time of year! I have seen/heard many jokes over the years about the marriage being "on hold" during these months. I don't plan to be gone every weekend hunting, but there is a good chance that a large portion of my attention will be directed towards football season.
Can't say that I was broken-hearted to see Oklahoma lose this weekend. I did feel bad for Sam Bradford, though.