Returning to Nashville

Last weekend we traveled up to Nashville to attend Monica and Gabe's wedding. They were high schoolers back when we helped with the church's youth group and Sonshine choir. It was great to see so many former youth all grown up and married and all. The wedding was at our old church. Blythe caught the bouquet.

On the way up we stopped at Chickamauga Battlefield and made our way to the marker where our ancestor, George Schumpert, most likely fell in battle. This was the same spot where we took my grandfather in August 2007.

Our pal, Greg, and his daughter, Noel, were gracious hosts and competitive Wii players. We also got to have dinner with the Linney family and catch up just like old times. Sadly we didn't get to see all our old friends, but it was a busy weekend and perhaps too close to Christmas to see everyone.

Our old house looked terrible, which was sad, but Nashville has grown and changed alot. Nevertheless, within less than a day I was ready to be home, back in good old SC. Not sure when THAT happened, but it was a comforting realization.

Tighty Whitey turns One

I realized this week that I was about to have my anniversary ... of one year of blogging. My first post was on July 31st, 2007. I have to admit that I'm as surprised as anybody that I actually stuck with it. It has made me a little introspective about the whole mess.

Looking back at it I must say that it has been a really great year. I've rekindled many friendships, from high school and beyond. I've been able to keep in touch with many other close friends too. I've also made some great new friends, like Kyle. But the best part is witnessing the co-mingling of these various circles of friends, like Chuck spoofing Paul's video; my sister-in-law, Nikki, obsessing over a "Where in SC" challenge (even if she WAS too shy to post a comment); Charlotte posting comments on Alan's blog; and so on. It makes me smile to see so many people that I dearly love (although separately) crossing paths online and sharing laughs and becoming friends. I am blessed to have so many great friendships and I'm glad I fell into this blogging thing as a way to enjoy them even more.

Thanks everyone, for a great year!

Happy Anniversary Baby! Got you on my Myyyyynd!

Today I celebrated 17 years of marriage to my beautiful bride, Jennifer. I'm the luckiest man alive!

I Got the Blues...

While visiting my grandmother today I went outside with the kids for about an hour and we picked about a gallon of blueberries right off the bush. At one point I excitedly thought I'd go inside and show Papa how much we'd picked. But then reality kicked back in and I continued picking berries through teary eyes. I picked way more than we needed. As weird as it may sound I think I was trying to make myself forget again that he's gone. That momentary lapse of reality sure was nice...even if it was only for a moment. I sure do miss my Papa.

Above: The actual blueberries we picked. (Eat your heart out Charlotte.)

Wild Boars!

When I was in the fifth grade I met this kid named Alan on my soccer team. We were on our way to becoming the best of friends, so I went over to his house for a visit. His family lived way out in South Congaree and house was down a sandy dirt road and surrounded by woods. While I was there I commented on the remoteness of the location and asked Alan if they had any wildlife in the area. With total deadpan Alan stated that they occasionally saw some wild boars. I didn't question this, as I suspect I didn't want to seem like too much of a city slicker from Springdale.

Later that day, Alan's mom asked us to run an errand for her. She needed us to ride Alan's and his brother's bikes over to the neighbor's house to get a couple pieces of poster paper. (I have no recollection why.) Being in the boondocks, the neighbor lived the equivalent of about four blocks away....down a sandy dirt road. This was the kind of sand in which riding a bike is almost impossible. It's like riding in the deep soft beach sand at the edge of the dunes. Plus I was forced to ride Alan's little brother's bike, which was far too small for me.

Anyway, after getting the poster paper we had to try to ride home in the sand with giant paper sails in our hands. They didn't help. Suddenly a HUGE BROWN PIG wandered into the road in front of us. I didn't know that this was simply a hog owned by one of their rural neighbors, Leroy, and it had just accidentally escaped it's pen. Alan seized the opportunity, and yelled "Watch out! It's a wild boar!" I turned that bike around and pedaled like Lance Armstrong while screaming like and banshee all the way back to Alan's house in record time. When Alan eventually caught up with me he was laughing hysterically. He eventually stopped laughing enough to admitted that it wasn't a boar and then he continued laughing at me. I did not find it funny. We went inside to give the poster paper to his mom (I was apparently too scared to think of dropping it) where I was looking forward to her reprimanding Alan for his cruel joke. However, after hearing about the incident she looked sympathetically at me and then laughed too. Then I laughed and fell in love with the Greens. I've loved them ever since.

Funny Paul

My old college room mate and former rocker, Paul made a hilarious YouTube video about shaving his beard. Click here to check it out. Prepare to laugh.

Below is a picture from when we were in college, after Paul shaved off most of his first beard. Actually, we both grew beards and shaved them down to ridiculous Foomanchu 'staches and Mutton chops for at least a day. Somewhere I have a photo of both of us with our horrible beards. I'll post it if I can find it.

Movie Night

Last night we loaded up the family mini-van and drove to Monetta to catch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, at The Big Mo Drive-In. I enjoyed the movie alot, as happy not to be disappointed. However, getting to enjoy it at the drive-in made it all-the-better.

The Big Mo is a nostalgic '50's & '60's era drive in theatre with two screens. Each reasonably priced admission includes a double feature. We paid $18 for our family of four for a double feature of Indiana Jones and Iron Man (but we didn't stick around to see Iron Man, because it was too late and we had to gut up for church Sunday morning.) The weather was perfect so we opted not to watch from our car, but instead to take a a picnic blanket and lawn chairs and sit in from of the rows of cars and listen to it on a boom box. It was Firefighter appreciation weekend and the local firefighters were grilling burgers and hot dogs as a fundraiser, so we had an awesome picnic before the movie.

The kids played on the playground while we waited for it to get dark.

There is a kiddie train ride by the concessions stand/projection building

Here we are enjoying snow cones as the movie is about to start.

20th Waffle House Anniversary

On March 21st, 1988, Jennifer and I went on our very first date...to Waffle House. Actually, our first "planned" date was supposed to be on March 25, at PC's annual Shag-Fest (in case you are from the UK, "shag" is a dance her in the Southern, US). We were taking 2 weeks of shag lessons together in preparation for the big dance/date, when afterwards one night I said, "Hey, wanna' grab something to eat?" Since we went to college in Clinton, SC, in the 1980's the only late night place to eat was Waffle House. As we sat there clogging our arteries we realized that we were actually on our first date. Almost every year since we've gone to Waffle House on March 21st to celebrate the anniversary of our real first date.

Father and Son Project

My son's Cub Scout troop is having their Pine Wood Derby this weekend. This is an event where each scout purchases a "model car kit" that consists of a rectangular block of pine wood, 4 plastic wheels and 4 nails (to hold the wheels on.) The idea is that the scout (with the help of a parent) will work on carving, painting and decorating the block of wood into the shape of a car. The car must meet certain weight requirements and then is raced against other cars on a special track. Big fun.

When I was a child, I actually won a Pine Wood Derby during my first year as a cub scout. However, I recall that my Dad did almost all the work on the car. I watched him work with all the cool power tools and I only got to paint it. So, of course, I started out with the idea that Grant and I would work "together" on his car. After about 10 frustrating minutes with a block of petrified pine, I had already chiseled off to much and I found myself yelling and acting like a madman. I kicked everyone out of the garage, glued the screwed-up block back together and finished the project mostly by myself. It didn't go at all like I wanted it to. I wanted to create a different memory than I had as a kid, but instead of a least being a helpless spectator, I actually may have created a miserable memory for my son. Worse than what I was trying to avoid. Luckily, Jennifer salvaged some of the situation, by letting Grant paint the car and add some racing decals.

Ironically, this all happened last Sunday afternoon only hours after our Small Group discussed Romans 7 and how we often do exactly what we don't want to do. Too bad the hardest block of wood to make a dent in is apparently between my own 2 ears. I'm glad my Heavenly Father is more patient in molding me than I was last weekend.

February 29th, The Craziest Day of the Year

Today is February 29th, Leap Year, "the craziest day of the year". I distinctly remember a leap year moment in college. It was February 29th, 1988 and my room mate, Paul, and I were in Dr. Edward's Educational Psychology class. I was doodling and Paul was diligently taking notes. I doodled a caricature of the professor and showed it to Paul, who was only slight amused. (As a Psych major, Paul took this class more seriously than I.) Also, where I dated the page in my notebook, I wrote somthing like "February 29th, the craziest day of the year."

A week or so later, when studying for the test, I looked through my notes and something about the doodles and the sub-title for the date helped jog my memory of the lecture (my brain just seems to work that way). Ironically, I ended up doing better on the test than Paul. A freak accident, I'm sure, but Paul was not real happy about it (probably because I wasn't a very good sport about it.)

I don't know why, but I can remember that sequence of events quite vividly. I've forgotten much more important things and too many other memories are just fuzzy to me, but for some reason this goofy memory still stands out. In the words of Barenaked Ladies "Memory is a strange thing". Or perhaps it's because of the strange power of Leap Year. After all, it was merely five leap years ago that this happened. I wish I still had that doodle to scan and post here. I'm sure it would jog Paul's memory. Then he would blog about it being another "worm hole".

After all, Leap Year's are crazy. We have presidential elections, olympics, and Psych exams. So, Happy Leap Year, the craziest day of the year!