When did the government lower the age for retirement? Bret Favre I can understand...bruised and battered...get out while you can still walk without a walker. Then there is the women's golf pro...Annika Sorenstam who announced she is retiring...at the ripe old age of 37. AND the female tennis pro, Justine Henin who just announced HER retirement...at 25!!!! Of course, there is nothing wrong with taking the money and running...or walking away. I just can't imagine! Must be nice. And to think...I quit playing tennis at the ripe old age of 14. dope...dope...dope. I quit while I was ahead. I made it to the top of the local tennis tournament out of sheer determination. I had one goal and one goal only...take down the smug, swaggering Chris Baker. I ran circles around the dude...and just about put the tennis ball down his throat a few times. After that, I took my trophy and went home...and never picked up a tennis racket again. I was more into marching band and playing instruments not tennis...and the look of utter disbelief on his face was all I needed. He never tried to look down his nose at me again. Oh...did I not mention? I may be only 5 foot nuttin but he was only 5 foot 4.

We have toured 5 more homes. I'm gonna quit. I honestly don't know what ppl think. I won't bore you with the details. Let's say this: 2 leaking basements, lots of way overgrown shrubbery, pools in the middle of the yard with no decks, patios with no way to get to them from the inside of the house, camper sized sinks in bathrooms, and knock-you-down cat pee smell in 2 of them. And I think the word 'spacious' needs to be redefined to some of these realtors.

I stopped at the pet store the other night to get food and bedding for the hamsters. There was a guy with some sort of foreign accent in there with his little dog on a chain. He asked the cashier for help finding something..."I am looking for something like electric dog nail cutters...a pedophile?" She and I BOTH stopped and stared at him. "Or something like...what you call them?"

Took TJ to his doctor for his med check up yesterday. We have been asking the doctor to increase his dosage slightly on his anxiety meds. TJ says they work but not QUITE enuff. Instead the doctor has been throwing additional meds at him and TJ will try them for about a week and then won't take them anymore...becuz of the weird way they make him feel. I don't blame him. Well, yesterday the doctor looked through his chart and came up with a BRILLIANT idea, "I have tried lots of different things with you and you will stop taking them becuz you don't like they way they make you feel. There is only one thing that you take consistently and it is the only thing that works for you. I am thinking that maybe I should just increase the dosage slightly." THEN he asks TJ how he is doing with sleep. TJ says he sleeps through the night. And if he has trouble getting to sleep he has a notebook he keeps by his bed to write in, then he can go to sleep. So the doctor says, "I have just the thing for you to take that will knock you right out." And he writes him another prescription. TJ and I just look at each other. We leave and TJ says, "I'm not taking that." I said, "I don't see anything wrong with what you do to get yourself to sleep. I read books until my eyelids won't stay open anymore." So, needless to say, I didn't fill that prescription. I think I will call him Dr. Mallard. quack.

After the doctor visit I dropped TJ off at the house with orders to drive his car up to the corner gas station. It had gas at $3.64/gallon and everyone else had raised it to $3.95. He met me there and we both filled our tanks up. The gas was pumping slowly and I had lots of time to stand there shivering in the cold air...thinking how pathetic it was that I was in a big hurry to fill my gas tank with $3.64/gal. gasoline. This is not right.

I have come up with a new 'profession' for myself. It would be a voluntary thing...my way of helping out human kind. I am going to be the 'crack' patrol. I will keep a supply of large bumper stickers with the slogan, "Say 'no' to crack...pull up your pants" and whenever I see someone bent over...or otherwise...that seems to be either oblivious to the fact that they are showing too much southern hemisphere or doesn't care...I will slap that bumper sticker over the offending open area. I swear to gawd, if I am driving down the street and see ONE more person bent over changing a tire or doing yard work with their rear section pointed outward to the public and their lower body gear riding a few inches too low...I AM going to slap a bumper sticker on them.

Got my test(s) done with. The Excel test...well, I passed. Barely. The Access test was SO much easier! And to think I have a whole summer of both coming up. yay. I can get Access...I just don't like Data bases...too freakin' time consuming setting them up. Apparently my Prof gets a...um...'excited' working with Access.

I returned home, pulled in the garage and noticed my son's car was not in the same place it was when I left. I walked around it and...(BryM...need that drum roll...NO...not drum stick...and it's dripping in grease! never mind)the passenger side mirror was hanging. I walked in the house and started yelling...he comes running out into the kitchen and talking to me with his voice sorta whispering. "Your gf's here, isn't she? I told you NOT tonight...you had schoolwork to finish!" "She just showed up!" (yeah, and I'm brain dead.)

Then I catch my daughter talking on the phone with a boy. sheesh. So, I start singing the Jason Castro/American Idol version of "I Shot the Sheriff" loudly...she quickly gets up and runs to her bedroom. But, first, she HISSES at me! Something about Tyler thinking that I'm a retard!

I told Secret today that I've been off my game. I've been rather 'ornery' and impatient with strangers. I think I will take a few days break from my blogs. I'm feeling restless. I have had my moments of that always. I remember in my 20's feeling restless and my friends would talk me into going to the Flats (in Cleveland) to party but I would get there and fidget in my seat all night becuz it was not really where I wanted to be...even though I wasn't sure where/what I wanted. So...it is another one of those moments. Time to find what it is that I want/need to do.

Maybe I'll try to catch Scrawny and give her a bubble bath. Naw....

Today I shall be doing my last bit of studying of the Access and Excel programs so I can take my final this evening. yippee skippee.

BUT before I do that...

My mother accused me of being a rather unsympathetic mom yesterday (she said it with a chuckle). My daughter has been suffering rather badly from allergies every since helping out at that fairgrounds Friday night with the Cancer Survivor's Dinner. Musta been all the fermenting hay. shrug. I have been shoving her butt out of bed and assuring her she will not die during the day. Yesterday I got a call from the school. She was running track and did something to her knee. She got on the phone and said, "the nurse says if you want to take me home she wants to talk to you first." "I am not bringing you home. I will bring a knee brace. Do you need crutches?" sigh "No mom, the knee brace will be fine." "Are you sure? I have crutches I can bring...no problem." "NO! Just bring the knee brace!" "Crutches will get you sympathy." "NO!" "Well, if you are sure." "No crutches...knee brace." So I picked her up from school and she's doing the limping thing. Gets in the van and starts complaining right away about it. I cut her off and said, "Well, those things happen. You live. If you are going to stay in marching band, too, get used to it. I lost count of all the times I popped my knees or pulled something. That's why I have knee braces. And Ben Gay will be your friend." Didn't hear another word. Yep, I'm unsympathetic. I told my mom, "Ya can't give them an inch or they will drag you down the road before you know."

My son took his gf shopping for her b-day present. She wanted a ring. I winced. BUT she picked out a very sensible, teenage girl kinda ring...on sale, too. She is practical and I like that. FINALLY he finds one with COMMON SENSE! He even took that magnetic 'support farting' ribbon off his car!

And Friday is the tour of homes day. sigh. I know...we have only looked at 5 houses. Seems like 5 million. I want this over with!

There is one house that I am crossing my fingers about. It is difficult to get away from the freeway in this town, since it cuts the town in half AND it has many curves in it. BUT this one house is in a nice QUIET neighborhood...and hopefully not a money pit. As for the rest of the houses...2 of them are in a more country setting. Nothing wrong with it. Just not sure how far out I want to go.


Look who I caught eating the corn that Scrawny dropped on the ground!

That's that. Now back to the ol' grind. Catch y'all later!

(REMEMBER HE WROTE "PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")
This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.

That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Someone told me last week that I needed therapy...or at least medication.

I think my realtor is thinking that too! I have been WAY too nerved up about the house offer. So has Troy. So, I got online and was looking at some more houses, using the calculator, comparing, etc. And I called Troy on the golf course (probably in the middle of a swing!) and asked him if he minded if we pulled our offer...for a few days anyway. I told him there was some other properties we might consider. He laughed and sounded a wee bit relieved, too. THEN I called the realtor and asked her if there was anything we could do about it. She said that she would call and fax and get the offer stalled. Then she asked me what it was that was bothering me...the price, the repairs, or both. I told her it was the combination of the price PLUS the repairs. I told her I would be fine with either one of them just not the both of them together.

So, the hunt is still on. I don't know. Such a dilemna.

I wish I could win the lottery then just go buy ANY house I want and then not have to worry about it.