The last day of the year and I get to go to work :) not a whole lot going on as there are not many people in the building. I get to hang out until 5pm and then we are going to Spring Lake CC for dinner and live music. Caleb is going to stay home and watch the girls, he may have Logan C over for a while. The party starts at 7:30.
From WCK BB :)

Had to work today and planning to play rball at 5pm. After that will be picking up pizza at Tower. I ordered pizza and it was an hour wait. I had my book with me and was able to finish it. This is the first book I have read in 18 years. Laura picked one out for me when Anna and I went Texas and I started it there. She was very kind and this was a great one to start with. Thank you Dear for the encouragment and support.

Logan, Mack and another couple leave tonight and are driving to Denver for a New Year's Eve concert. Haven't heard from them yet, but will send a text at some point. They will party all night and Logan will fly home on Friday. I may have to go get him in STL. Mack will be flying on to Las Vegas to spend time with her Dad and Deana. Quite the new year bash.
From WCK BB :)

Kori trip with Dad

December 27th, Adam turns 20 years old today. Now we have 3 children in their twenties, WOW. Rainy outside and and all the snow and ice is melting fast. Adam had said that he would like to actually celebrate on his birthday this year so we have planned to go to the new Italian restaurant Talayna's. Didn't do a whole lot thru the day mainly waiting to eat out this evening. Adam needed a ride so Keaton took the truck to pick him up. The boys went by the restaurant and said it was very crowded and people were waiting. They suggested Pops Pizza so I sent them on to that location and I called Kori to let her know wat was going on. Laura wrapped Adam's new hat he had ordered on line and we made our wat to eat. There was an open table for our eight and we got right in. The pizza was very good and we had a nice time with all. After we ate we all scattered and went back to doing our own things... Happy Birthday Adam, I Love You !

The day after Christmas and the phone rang earlier than I wanted. It was Thom with an update on our plumbing situation. He said that Brian V could be available after a few service calls so I had Thom tell Brian to give me a call when he could. After talking to Brian I got cleaned up enough to take a trip in the pickup to Home Depot to shop for our final Christmas present for the season, a new water heater. I brought one home, Caleb helped me get it to the basement and Brian showed up about 5 minutes later to do the install. He was here about an hour and another hour later we had hot water. Very cool to get this done so fast and Brian did a great job.
From WCK BB :)

Christmas Day and Adam and Kori spent the night at home, I think so they could get up easier and just walk upstairs to be ready. The young ones didn't have to wait too long for Logan to arrive either. I was actually the last one out of bed. We prayed as a family, passed out presents and proceeded to open. There was some of money wrapped for the big kids as they had a few pricey items on their list to buy. There were a few online items that either didn't get ordered or didn't arrive yet. We did get a camera lens for Adam that came on Christmas eve, great timing... Laura and Anna played at Salem 9:30 church and Adam and I did some cooking for breakfast. This has became a fun tradition, cooking plenty of food for all to eat. We have a good time cooking and conversing in the kitchen and plenty of great eaters. We saved the good warm carmel rolls for Luara and Anna when they got home. The flute piano gig went real well. After the kitchen was cleaned from breakfast Laura started in on lunch for all at our house. She commented about the lack of hot water and I had a vision of water going every where in the basement. I went down and checked and there was a steady stream coming from the bottom of the hot water heater. I turned the supply off and made a couple of phone calls and was able to get things turned of to the heater and still allow us to have water in the house. We proceeded with our preperations for the day and all bathing was done at Faler's. Laura's side gathered at our house around 2:30pm and we ate together and then opened more presents. Everyone was able to be here off and on for the rest of the day. We played some very fun games and Jan was able to stay for a long time too. We had a great time, Thank You Lord for our Family and health. Especially for allowing Jan to get better and stronger each day...

Christmas eve 8 o'clock church at St. Peters. Adam joined us in the pugh this evning, very nice to have the three young guys there together. Caleb and Keaton had the same ADM jacket on, Keaton took his off right after he punched his baby bro :) Adam's car is on the fritz so Keaton drove him to and from. We all met back at the house for hot chocolate and cookies after church. Very nice, Thanks to my lovely Laura. Adam stayed the night so he would be ready easier on Christmas morning.
From WCK BB :)

Played rball Tuesday, Christmas eve-eve at lunch time. I took a 2 hour lunch and we played cut throat. Had a blast, didn't win but good time by all.
From WCK BB :)

Today is a travel day back to Quincy. Don't fly out until 6pm and in to STL at about 10:50pm. Anna and I went shopping in downtown Wimberley while N&P went to a Dr. appointment in Austin. We were looking for a t-shirt souvenir for Anna but couldn't find one in the fancy shops. We did get one at the local grocery store... We met back at N&P's house for lunch and then headed to Austin. The temp has changed to quite cold and windy. They dropped us off at the airport and our flight out was actually early because the weather was still changing and they wanted to get in the air before any freezing rain moved in. We got to Atlanta and the temp was 59 degrees, got out of there quickly too and arrived in STL to a 15 degree freeze. We got a shuttle to the van and it was covered in ice but we were able to get one door open and it started right up thank goodness. It took a while for us to get warm but as soon as Anna was there she fell asleep. The drive home was fine with no bad weather. Very lucky and we got home about 1am. Thank You Lord for watching over us on our journey. We had a great time with N&P, very nice to get some time together with them again. Anna had a great time too and was very patient and great manners the whole trip. It was a very special time that we had together. Thank You Laura and Mom and Dad for letting us do this...

Today was the big day to travel to Houston for the party. We left around 8:30am on our 3.5 hour journey. We got to the parking lot to be transfered by bus to the grounds and waited about 30 minutes. Once we got to the grounds we waited another 15 minutes to get into the party area. We walked around, had a funnel cake and some Mexican doughnuts, rode the train and then headed to the ferris wheel. We waited in line there for about 15 minutes and then wandered to the food tent. There were already people in line to get seats for the concert while we ate. The food was real good and Anna and I went to wait in the next line for the concert. I was very concerned that we might not be able to get inside the big tent to see Miley because the line wrapped all the way around the inside of the park. I called Papa's cell phone and asked him to try and get us a spot inside some how and the next thing we new they were letting people in the back door. We found some seats on the second level and waited for the show to begin. There was lots of kids screaming as things got under way. Anna was very excited and ready for the music to start. I took lots of pictures, there were two big screen monitors right and left of the stage and two smaller ones on the light scafolding, quite the show. Towards the end of the concert I walked around and took more pictures closer up before running out of space on my camera. It was a great time and just unbelievable the amount of kids that were there to have fun. The guest list was 7000-8000 and I think most of them showed up.

We spent Saturday messing around. Went to an art gallery and watched a glass blower make a big platter that he will sell for about $600. Took pictures by a very old oak tree, maybe 500+ years old. Found a couple of tree climbers and huggers... Drove around and found the long way home and saw several wild turkeys, even found a garage sale before we were done. Went next door to meet Joseph, he is a very neat 89 year old Scottish gentlemen. We visited for a short time and he showed me some of his family tree info that he has been collecting for several years. Went to 5:30 church and then out to eat at a very neat place in the little town of Gruene, TX. Even got to hear some live Jerry Jeff Walker playing in the oldest dance hall in the US. Very nice evening.

The trip of trips for the year :) Anna and I are traveling to Texas to visit with Nanny & Papa and to go to the Lanier Christmas party to see Miley Cyrus. What a deal... We are driving to STL tonight and will stay overnight to catch an early flight out Friday AM. We will arrive in Austin, TX. just after lunch and be met at the airport by N&P.

Flights went well and everything was on time. About 65 degrees when we got off the plane in Austin. We ate WhataBurger and then drove back to their house. Nanny had guests over that night and we ate and visited. Anna was very good hanging around all the grown ups...

Played rball at QU for the first time. It was just Brian and I. The side wall all glass took some getting used too and the other walls were different too. I seemed to adapt well and my serve was on by the third game. I won two games that night which is my best so far. We had one heck of a workout, great time.
From WCK BB :)

Salt and Light

13"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. --Matthew 5

This was the verse we used on the recent TEC I was on. There were some awesome people on the weekend and I had a great time going back.