Just when I thought I saw the top

We just paid the last of my student loans. We've paid off our car. We're getting closer on Steph's student loans. Just when all of this was starting to look good, we're going to buy a house. I know that's a good thing but... How great would it be to have no debt? We'll keep working towards that day.

Chippewa Hills Baptist Church

Where do I begin? I love this place. I love these people. But when God calls, I go. I really believe God has called so we head to Kokomo. But more about that later. We had some good times here. Great fishing trips, good times golfing, incredible times with the youth group. I could go on forever. I cried like a little girl as I read my letter of resignation. We'll miss these people. Thank God we get to spend eternity with them. I'll be telling them about the blog so you may see some of them around.

A lighter note

NBA All Star Weekend went great. The dunk contest was better than it has been for years. The All Star Game was close and both teams actually wanted to win. And Stephanie pointed out that the halftime show put any recent Super Bowl halftimes to shame. She was right. The jazz/blues stuff was really impressive. Great job New Orleans and NBA.

The Dark Day

Amazing stuff today. I'm preparing to reuse a series of lessons I did a while ago about light and as I'm going over it I'm watching one of the darkest days sports has ever seen. The main one in everyone's eye is Roger Clemens testifying at a congressional hearing. One of baseballs most famous pitchers has been accussed of cheating. I honestly don't know whether or not to believe him. I want to believe him. I've been a Pettitte fan for a while and I definitely want to believe him. The same day that baseball is on trial; Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, is meeting with Senator Arlen Specter. Specter wants to know if the NFL was all the way honest about the extent of the Patriots cheating scandal. As if that isn't enough, today Indiana University released the letter stating the violations that their basketball coaches committed. Their coaches, including their head coach who was already in trouble for cheating, broke rules in their recruiting of players. I love sports. For me it is sad to watch the darkest sports day that I can remember.

Basketball

Last night I watched Butler and Valpo. I've been rooting for Butler for a few years. I've been to a few games there and Hinkle is a great place to watch a game. Plus their last coach coached at my high school. He's now at Iowa. It was a crazy game. Valpo was ahead until the very end when Butler pulled it out. Go Bulldogs.

In the pros the rumors are that the Suns are going to trade Marion for Shaq. What?!? Why would a team that is built on running trade for Shaq? If I'm the Heat I make this trade in a heartbeat. If I'm any other team in the NBA I'm on the phone with the Suns. I can make an offer that comes close to Shaq. Craziness.

Jalepeno stomach

Man what a great game yesterday. It had everything you want in a game. It was close. I had a couple of comebacks. It had a last minute lead change. The underdog won. Great stuff. Now unfortunately I'm paying for the stuffed jalepenos. I mean really paying. My stomach hates me and is trying to turn itself inside out. Good thing these things only happen once a year. I won't have stuffed Jalepenos again until... Well there is March Madness next month.

More Patriots love

Here's a game for all you football fans.

Give 'em the boot

Alright conspiracy theorists, I've got one for you. Maybe I'm giving the Patriots too much credit but I think the boot was a planned decoy. No I don't think they were trying to fool the Giants because nobody was really fooled. Instead I believe that the Patriots intended to derail the sports media. Whether it was intended or not, it's worked beautifully. How many questions have you heard about Rodney Harrison's suspension for HGH? What about Vince Wolfork's fourth fine for dirty play? Anybody heard a questions recently about spygate? Hmm maybe Randy Moss's restraining order? What better way to deal with all of those questions than to just avoid them altogether by putting the focus on a boot.

Love of Boston week

I figured this week since the patriots were in the Super Bowl again I would show them as much love as I could this week. I'll be giving you some media to help fuel your love as well. The song and video comes from Ryan Parker. He writes all kinds of funny sports songs. His site is ryanparkersongs.com

Vote for anybody else

Here's the best political analysis you'll see around. I couldn't vote for Romney because...

"When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn't necessarily mean you were there."

I know the statement is a little old but my hatred of the Patriots and their fans who believe that Brady could pitch a no hitter in the World Series will most certainly carry over to the ballot box.

(Oh and dad check out the 5th paragraph of this http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070423-6.html)

I love the Detroit Lions

The Lions fell apart halfway through this season. They started well and then blew up. So what do you do to fix a mess like that? You fire Mike Martz. I don't really care if you fire Martz or not. I kind of like him but you can make him your scapegoat. Here's what is crazy to me. They promoted Jim Colletto to offensive coordinator. Colletto was the O-line coach this last year. Marinelli said "Jim is an excellent football coach. He knows what it takes to win in this league and I am confident that he will do a tremendous job leading our offense." Jeff Backus says "I'm looking forward to playing in his offense". This is the Jeff Backus who was in the top 5 in sacks allowed this year. Kitna was sacked 51 times. More than any QB this year. This is the new leader of the Lions offense? Man I love that team.

Ok now you're going too far

People that know me well know that I'm incredibly careful on the music sharing ideas. I'm against stealing of any kind and I carry that over to music. So I won't copy music from other people and when I lend out a cd I always tell people not to copy it. I'm annoying on it because I'm trying to set an example to youth group kids. I take some pride in having an iPod full of legal music. Or what I thought was legal music. This article tells me I'm wrong. To tell you the truth it has me a little angry. The RIAA is suing a guy who bought each of his cds and then put them on his computer. So you're telling me I'm supposed to go back over and buy each of the songs I have already paid for on cd from iTunes to put them on my iPod or computer? That's not happening. RIAA I've been on your side in the past. I've defended you to young people. I've encouraged others to buy music. Here is my message to you "Quit being dumb". You're stabbing yourself in the foot on this one. If you win this case I'll be forced to stop buying cds. I listen to most of my music at work off of my computer or from my iPod while running or in the car.

Golf on Christmas Day

Yesterday I wanted to play golf and Steph was going to let me but we forgot to call ahead and find out if I was allowed to walk on a course that was closed for Christmas Day. I was pretty frustrated about that and finally just decided to go running on the beach and to drive by a course on the way there and check it out. I put on my running stuff, grabbed my golf stuff, and headed to Myrtle Beach National. I wanted to play the Kings North course. When I got there I saw about 10 cars in the parking lot but didn't see anybody. I finally saw a guy at the driving range and asked him. He said "grab a bag and go". So I did and yes that means I didn't pay anybody. But first I had to change out of my running clothes. So I drove to a secluded part of the parking lot (if there is such a thing as a secluded part of a parking lot). I changed my clothes there. I wonder how many people have been naked in the parking lot of Myrtle Beach National. I walked the back 9 first. I was worried about time. I shouldn't have been because I flew through the course. I played really well. It's a beautiful course. There is a lot of water and a lot of bunkers. There were a few other people around but for the most part it was very quiet. The greens were awesome. I was making putts all over the place. I forgot my camera on the back 9 so almost all of the pictures are from the front. This island green is on the back 9. My first shot went over the green and I was sure it was in the water so I hit a provisional. I decided to go down a club and it was short of course. When I crossed the bridge to the green I saw my ball sitting on the cart path. It must've hit the rail and come back because the path went all the way to the water.

I duffed my chip and ended up bogeying the hole. If you look closely you can see that the bunkers make an SC. So as I played the back 9 I ended up using 4 mulligans. Not on out of bounds shots just on duffs. I ended up shooting a 44 with those mulligans. On the front 9 there is a par 5 called the gambler. It has an autograph in the cement from Kenny Rogers and his golf cleats in cement. So it's a long par 5 with a short cut for the gamblers. The short cut is an island fairway. So I did what I imagine most golfers do. I started singing to myself and taking aim at the island fairway. I played a slice and ended up perfect. From there I had a shot over water to the green. I was about 165 yards out. I grabbed my 6 iron and hit it over the green and into the water. Took my penalty and drop and saved a bogey. I should've aimed farther safe instead of hitting towards the pin. The bunkers would've saved me farther right. Without any mulligans and counting my penalty stroke I scored a 43 on the front 9. I played great, for me, on a course that's listed among the top 100 in the U.S. I took one of my new sleeves of balls and came back with one of the balls. That's amazing.

Thank you Arnold Palmer for creating a great course and then not being there on Christmas Day.

We wish you a Merry...

These are some beach drawings Steph did.

And this is one Laura did all by herself.

Snow at the beach

This afternoon we took the girls to the beach to make a snowman.

The girls got a little cold so we did my favorite. Put them in pajama pants in public. I hate pajamas in public. But I like warm girls.

Here's some beautiful girls on a beautiful day at a beautiful beach.

The International

This morning my father-in-law and I headed over to the International down in Murrels Inlet. It was a good time. I beat him for the first time. If I could learn to putt I could score a little better. Maybe tomorrow I'll putt better. Everything was great until the 8th hole. Things backed up and the guys behind us got mad that we had not hit the ball yet. There was a guy on the green and he had had to wait for the foursome in front of him. I actually was able to blow those guys off and not let them ruin my hole. That's probably a first. I forgot my camera and my cell phone so here's a picture I stole from their website.

The picture is from the 9th hole where I just missed my par putt.

Hall of Fame

We stopped at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was great until a school showed up. They were loud and threatened to carry us away. Wait. Whining like this should not be allowed when talking about a collection of tough guys. So this school showed up and we scowled and growled and were tempted to eat their fingers off. There, that's better. The Hall hasn't changed much since the first time I went in 1993. They changed the room with the busts because they had too. It was too full. They've changed some exhibits some as rules have been broken. In 1993 we went to see Walter Payton inducted. Here's a picture of the class from that year. That class included, from top to bottom, Dan Fouts, Walter Payton, Larry Little, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Noll. I took some pictures of the Lions too for my Michigan friends.

And here's the jersey from one of the games that was the most fun to watch.

Peyton was 20 for 25 for 314 yards and 6 touchdowns. He threw more tds than ints. That was a fun game.
It was fun. I'd heard that they changed the gameday video thing to include the Super Bowl from the previous year so I was excited. But it was still the Steeler and Super Bowl XL. The Hall of Fame is worth visiting but it's probably going to need some renovations soon.

Christmas at the Beach

It's been almost two weeks since I've made a post. I know I know. I'll make it up to you by keeping you up to date on vacation. I'll have pictures of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'll give you pictures of the golf course and beach. You think those will help while you suffer through the snow? It'll help me. I'm hoping to golf twice. I'm hoping to see the ocean a couple of times. I really like the ocean for some reason. I even like it when it's way too cold to get in. Well I'll try to keep you updated while we're there.

O Christmas Tree

I finally went out to buy a Christmas tree. I'm a little cheap and was dreading paying $30-50 for a tree. I saw a place where I could buy an already cut one for $25. I still don't like paying $25 for something I'm going to throw away in a month anyways but I went in hopes of having my family still love me. When I got there the old man was helping someone else so I walked through looking at his trees. When he got to me I told him I needed something this high and I raised my hand as far as I could. He led me over to those size trees and said something like "I've had this one here cut for a week and a half and nobody wants it. I'll sell it to you for $10." I didn't need to even look at the tree. He'd said the magic words. He showed it to me and it was pretty ugly. But I didn't care it was $10. I loaded it in the truck and headed home. We decorated that night and it really isn't that ugly anymore. So here's our tree. Merry Christmas.

National Debt

When it comes to voting some things are very important to me. The spiritual beliefs of a candidate are important to me. Abortion is an important issue to me. So this year I find myself with 2 candidates that really fit my criteria. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. I could find myself voting for each of them. I find one big difference though. Paul wants to seriously cut spending and Huckabee talks a good game but spends. I believe that this will keep Paul from ever being a serious candidate. Cutting spending isn't a popular idea among politicians. But who cares if it's popular, it needs to be done. I went over to the Treasury Department home page. They have some cool features that no doubt cost tons of money to put together. But anyways you can look up the national debt and search by day to find out what it was. I looked at the month of November for 2007. November 1st the national debt, according to the Treasury Department, was $9,080,228,573,291.65. It's great they have it to the penny. November 30th the debt was $9,149,341,364,936.71. It's funny how the number doesn't look that different. But it's a growth of 69 billion 112 million 791 thousand 6 hundred 45 and 6 cents. In one month! Not how much we spent but how much farther we went in debt. If you break it down it's only 2 billion 303 million and some change a day. It's only $1,599,883 a minute. Now I'll admit I have no idea how much it costs to run a government. But anytime you are going that far in debt you have a problem. The best way to cut debt is to stop spending more than you are taking in. So our government has four choices. 1. Raise taxes (doesn't sound too appealing to me.) 2. Cut spending (I hate the waste.) 3. A mixture of both (this is probably the most logical but is definitely unelectable.) 4. Keep ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I'll quickly admit I know very little about this stuff. However, a guy who has a plan to fix it sounds appealing to me.