day 2 in lexington
i got up at 9 again and went through the morning routine with mom
about 10:15 headed over to aunt libby's
we had a very nice visit
max was bumbling around a lot
his hind legs have trouble carrying their share of the load occasionally
he kept pacing and pacing
anxious for nickie to get there and feed him and take him for his walk
libby and i had lunch together
a tuna stuffed tomato for her and a blt and onion rings for me
i think i've probably put on about 5 or 6 pounds on this trip so far
sally just called
she and bruce are going to stop for dinner after work then come over here to visit some more
nice
tomorrow i plan on getting up at 8 and leaving for home by 9
i'm not looking forward to the solo drive home
it was okay coming down because the driving was split (about equally) over 2 days
and i had company on the first day
well
i'd better get back an visit with mom some more
God bless

signing off
bye for now

ok
so i didn't blog last night like i said i would
but here i am today
the service our men's ministry held on friday night at the hotel was awesome
the dinner beforehand was very good too
our speaker was excellent
chris h gave his testimony and it was great even though he was so nervous that his voice quavered
but the highlight was when we each wrote a one word struggle on a three by five card and then went up front to the cross
first we folded the card in half then we dipped our fingers into some red paint symbolizing Christ's blood
we smeared some of the paint on the card then thumbtacked it to cross
i had a lot of trouble with the thumb tack
i dropped two of them
the line behind me was getting longer and longer
finally someone gave me a hand and i got it tacked up
there was a white cloth draped over one arm of the cross for us to wipe our fingers on
when everyone was finished the cross looked ...
i don't even know how to describe it
the next day at iron sharpens iron was also awesome
the keynote speakers were wonderful and very inspiring and the two workshops i went to were very interesting
the worship services were very moving and the music was magnificent
the church where it was held - 91st street christian church - was awe inspiring as well
the church was an order of magnitude greater than our church
not that i don't think pcc is just fine
i would feel lost in a facility that large
the first workshop i went to was on the kairos prison ministry
i asked the presenter to email a local contact to me
i'm thinking about getting involved in either kairos or emmaus again
i'm not totally sure that i would want to make the necessary time commitment though
maybe i should just be happy with celebrate recovery being my ministry for now
we'll see
it would be great to bring the walk to emmaus to pcc though
well
i'm at mom's now
i got here about 8:45 last night
i should've stopped to pee first
i had an accident on the way to the bathroom
sally and bruce came over and we visited till about midnight
great fellowship
i got up this morning at 9 and took mom her thyroid pill and her first glass of water
after i fixed breakfast for mom and put out her am meds and got something to eat myself i settled down in the recliner and read the newspaper till sally and bruce came over again
right now bruce is back home finishing up some weekend tasks but sally is still here
they're going to go to kabob and chipotle for dinner stuff in a little while then they'll come back here and once robin gets through at the knit shop she and philip will join us for a birthday celebration for mom
91!
her actual birthday is tomorrow but it was more convenient for us to all get together tonight
well
now you're up to date
God bless

signing off
bye for now

lunch with chloe at taste of china
yum - spicy orange chicken
ah - good conversation
more like a monolog by chloe
now i'm updated on all the grandkids
got a message froom randy today
that was nice
it was an out of the blue kind of thing
got the hotel's address from chris m today
i yahoo-mapped it and it's already in the car
so is the list of workshops i want to go to on saturday
i'm really looking forward to this
i'll pack tomorrow morning after i shower
i won't be able to blog tomorrow but i'll blog as soon as i get to mom's saturday night

signing off
bye for now

so not much has happened
i went to the va clinic in aurora this morning for a blood draw in preparation for a regular doctor's visit on the 5th
and that's about it
i work tonight and tomorrow night then i leave for indianapolis friday at 11:15am

signing off
bye for now

so here i am at panera after meeting with my tuesday morning men's small (very small this morning - just three) group from church
asked for prayers for travel safety for this weekend
faith works all day today so more cuddle time with skippy
my battery is very low - just an hour left
i forgot to charge it last night
i'll be going home soon
i need to stop being a "double minded" person
i should learn to pray with faith
i should also pray more with faith
just a couple of thoughts
i think i'll go home and make some phone calls
i think i'll stop at mickey d's for a breakfast burrito first
oh - there was no step study last night
old jack had to work overtime

signing off
bye for now

hi
it's been a while since i've had wifi access
friday i went to celebrate recovery with faith
we both had good small group sessions
watched a powerful testimony from saddleback
julie gives her testimony on the 2nd and i give mine on the 16th
i'm not sure how i feel about having to follow hers
i'm sure hers is going to be very good
i don't remember what we did on saturday (damn this short-term memory loss)
yesterday we went to church and faith got baptised!
chloe and jordan were there
afterward we went out for a late breakfast
they all had texas french toast and i had the trucker's skillet with pancakes
after we said goodbye to them we went on a long drive
we went to pau pau and saw all the wind turbines - awesome
so many long arms waving to us as we drove past
when we got home we napped till it was time to go back to church for our small group meeting
i called new jack yesterday
i want to stay in touch with him
i'm excited already about the men's retreat/iron sharpens iron coming up on friday and saturday
not to mention going on to lexington for saturday night till tuesday
it'll be very nice being with mom for her 91st birthday
this morning i got a phone call from jeff g
we talked for quite a while
good for both of us
step study tonight for the three of us still left

ok
signing off
bye for now

nothing much new to talk about since yesterday's post.
i keep using my new rythym touch massager on my back and it does relieve some of my pain but i'm not sure that it's helping me to stand up any straighter
ray s called last night to say that he could look at ray n's car next wednesday but he needs more information first
i called ray n this morning
maybe he's already got it taken care of
i don't know
i think i've finally finished editing my testimony for celebrate recovery
it's going to come in at 22 minutes i think
i've invited my men's small group from church to come for it
that has me a little nervous
i don't know how shocked they might be
i still haven't heard from chris m about the address for the men's church retreat coming up on the 26th
i guess i'll call him today
well
signing off
bye for now

well yesteerday morning our pastor called me to give me the name and phone number of someone he wanted me to talk to
this morning that man and i met for coffee at mcd's
we talked for 1 1/4 hours and areed to stay in touch
it will be nice to have a source of encouragement and support so close to home
this is the sort of thing i had hoped for when i let the pastor read my testimony
it was a great start to another wonderful day
aren't they all wonderful

i've decided that i'm not going to clutter my entries here up with a lot of repetitive stuff so i'm not going to keep repeating spent time in the word today prayed called at least three program guys stuff like that

i am looking forward to celebrate recovery friday night
i am really looking forward to presenting my testimony there on october 16th

coming up sooner than that i'm also really looking forward to our men's retreat and the iron sharpens iron conference on september 25 - 26 in indianapolis
and then heading on down to lexington ky to visit family and tobe with mom on her 91st birthday
i've heard that mike and martha may be there as well - cool

signing off
bye for now

last night was my step study at harvest baptist

there were only four of us there so it went fairly quickly

we did the first lesson from book four

got to bed by 10:00

got up at 5:30

came here to panera for my men's small group from church at 7:30

enjoyed the fellowship both last night and this morning

utilizing panera's free wifi i spent some time on yahoo and facebook and now i'm on blogger

i also checked out somidwestern and dooce the two blogs i read daily

while i was on facebook i uploaded the slut puppy picture of skippy

now i'm going to go home and sit out on the patio with skippy andd wait for the loml to get home from school

life is good

God is good

all the time

it's been awhile again but i'm going to start being more regular
i am making a commitment to my recovery group to at least make a stab at journaling
right now i am at our daughter's house with my netbook accessing their wifi
since we don't have wifi at home i'm going to have to post just whenever i'm somewhere that does have access
today is a good day
it is beautiful out side and in a little bit i'm going to go home and sit out on the patio with skippy
i don't have anything planned for today except for my step study group tonight
there's not much to blog about
oh - i updated my profile on facebook and i requested to be our pastor's friend
i also sent a question to a guy who i think is a friend of mine from high school
ok - now i'm going to go home
bye for now