Darker and Earlier

The other supervisor on the shipping dock with me has a great saying. Instead of saying we'll see each other bright and early the next morning, he says, "dark and early." That's about right. As supervisors we have to come in at 3:30 am. We rotate, so there are days when I go in at 6:30, which isn't too bad. That's sleeping in for this job.
Well, do to recent changes to managment on our shift, and the supervisor in receiving being terminated, I will now be moving to a new department - Meat and Produce Receiving. I will still work Tuesday - Friday, but instead of being at work at 3:30, I will now have to be at work at 2:30. YIKES! So when I see David, I'll say, see you "darker and earlier."
This will be very interesting. I feel confident I'll be able to run the department with relative ease since I started out on receiving and remained there for well over two years. The only difficulty will certainly be the time.
Well, here goes nothing! I start this Tuesday! Pray for us!

One of my only complaints about Little House

Okay, so Ashley and I began our Little House on the Prairie craze a couple of years ago. We've made it all the way to season 9 now - the final season. And I must say I am utterly disappointed. For those of you who grew up when this series was one of the evening favorites during the week, were you disappointed in season nine as well? Little House on the Prairie makes one mistake over and over again that gets to be a little frustrating at times. While they try to continue the overall Ingalls story with each episode, there is very little connection from one episode to the next. And sometimes, main characters simply disappear never to return. I believe it was season four or five when Mr. Edwards just disappeared and the Garvey's entered the scene. Now the Garvey's have disappeared. Mr. Edwards is back, though. That was really frustrating to start a season with no Mr. Edwards, and everyone acting like life is normal.
Well, if that wasn't bad enough, you may have guessed why I'm frustrated with season 9. The very first episode in season 9 is all about the Ingalls moving away and now every episode is about Laura and Almonzo. HELLO! The entire show is about the Ingalls family and they are not even in it anymore! I guaruntee this is why season 9 was the last season. I don't know because I haven't researched it, but I'm willing to bet that the ratings dropped after the first episode of season nine.
Why am I so dramatic about it? Because the show was built upon Charles Ingalls and his family making the most of life regardless of what came their way. And now Charles just randomly moves away with Carolyn, Albert, Kerry, Grace, James, and Cassandra. Season 8 finished with a hugely dramatic episode about Charles having faith in God to heal James. And that is the last we see of them. You can't build a show on such major players and then take them out and hope to continue the same momentum.
Oh well, I guess life just goes on. Maybe I've been wasting my time on this anyway. There was probably something way more important to write about than this, but I'm glad got that off my shoulders.

Dollars and Sense!

I must confess that while I learned a lot of my financial know-how from my parents, I have learned most of it from my incredible wife. I'm so grateful that I wasn't the desperado who picked the queen of diamonds...the queen of hearts is always your best bet (thanks to the Eagles for that poetic wisdom). I just want to take the time to share what we have been experience in our the financial side of our lives. People don't talk about their personal money habits in public avenues very often. But money is a very important part of life. So much so that Jesus taught about money and its relationship with our hearts quite often. This Sunday, in fact, we will be continuing a series on the Sermon on the Mount by discussing how no one can serve both God and money. Check it out at northwake.com. I'm looking forward to it. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So for some this may be nothing new. Maybe you have heard principles like these and are bored by the idea. But for others, maybe you are excited like me when you hear great stories of how to make your money (however much or little it is) work for you rather than the opposite.

Let me begin by saying that we are not yet 30 years old, we have three kids, two cars, and one house and are debt free (except for our mortgage). We own both cars (which are both fairly new with the oldest on being a 2003 model). Both vehicles both have less than 80,000 miles. The only outstanding debt we have at this point is our mortgage, and we are currently taking steps to beat that down as quickly as possible.

I say all this to introduce the fact that you would be surprised at how much money we don't make! BUT because we are very conscious of our spending and saving habits, we have found ourselves in a very safe position in the midst of economic hardship. And let me add that we also do not have a budget. Scarey? Maybe, but the bottom line is that we have habits in place that have enabled us to stretch every penny and make our money work for us rather than the other way around.

DEBT -

I already mentioned this above, but one of the things that everyone would do well to remember is that debt should be avoided if at all possible. Now, there are some times when it is necessary for large expenses, like homes, cars, or maybe even school. But there are other times when debt may be uneccessary, like for entertainment, needless shopping, or other conveniences. Our policy is this...we distinguish between the necessary and the convenient. If something is necessary, then we evaluate the costs and try to avoid debt if at all possible. If a purchase may add convenience, then we evaluate the need vs. want factor. We do not underestimate the value of elbow grease and hard work and the money we save by applying both.

For cars, we know these are always expenses and never investments because of the rapid deterioration of the value. So when we need to purchase a vehicle, we set a limit, shop around a lot, then work something out. We also are not afraid to push hard bargains with dealers. We pay cash, and because of that we are not strapped by financing. The only downfall to this is if you want a really new vehicle you have to save up quite a bit. BUT the key is to buy before it's too late to get a lot of money out of your current vehicle. For example, we bought a van for $5100 and sold a car for $5100. So there was no other expense other than taxes (gotta love em). In most cases, we start looking when we feel it is neccesary. But before we buy we evaluate how much we can get for one of our existing vehicles and add that to what we are willing to pay.

CREDIT CARDS -

We avoid them, but we do use them. We are definitely not anit-credit cards. The difference is we make them work for us and not the other way around. The ONLY time we will ever apply for a credit card is if they have a promotion that benefits us. Some examples include gas cards with rebates (I mean if you're going to pay for gas, at least get some money back) and cards with rewards programs. We signed up for a Citi Master Card some years ago and got an instant $100 value bonus in rewards. We ended up using that to purchase a new home entertainment system. Neat, huh!

COUPONS -

This is probably one of the newest and most rewarding areas of money that we have discovered. It takes time, but the return on that invested time is well worth it! Find coupons anywhere you can - online, newspapers, other papers or magazines. Then look for the sales that the stores are having around you. Use a coupon on a sale item and save BIG TIME! In some cases, we have gotten things not just for free, but we have actually gotten money back! Just recently Ashley purchases some Purell hand soap with a coupon, and the soap was on clearance, so Target paid her about 60 cents to purchase it. That's cool! It takes some time and organization, but it is well worth it.

ATTITUDE-

We just value every single penny. We think before we spend. We factor everything into the equation - even the amount of gas, wear, and tear on the vehicle to go shop for something. For example, if I find a good deal on Craigslist, but the person selling it is far away, I'll factor in the cost of driving a long distance. In some cases it's not a good deal just because after paying the gas to get to it, I may as well buy it from a retailer. Catch my drift? We just think before we spend. On anything! Believe me this is not always easy! Ashley can tell you how many times I complain because I didn't get a nicer razor or tool because there was a better deal on another one that works just fine. Attitude is the key. Even when it comes to eating out, which we have not done too often. When we do eat out, it's at a place where we can get the most for our buck. Dollar menus are awesome things! Our entire family can eat out for less than 10 dollars easily. But we just don't eat out much.

My brother Ben will probably have the opportunity to play in the NFL pretty soon. We were talking about what would making an NFL salary do to us? How would we handle that kind of money? I can honestly say that I don't believe it would change a thing. We would still push hard bargains. We would still keep our attitudes in check. Here's why...because having a ton of money is not our goal. Our goal is to make the most of what we've been given, be it $29 or $29 million! We make our money work for us and not the other way around.

MY GOAL -

My goal at this point is to be completely debt free, mortgage and all. If things work out as planned, we can have our entire mortgage paid off in 3 years. That would mean that by the time I am 30 I will own my home, my cars, and have absolutely no debt. At that point we will do one of two things...either invest the money we make (which at this point may see small returns, but returns none the less), or sell our home and use every last penny as a down payment on another home a little nicer and repeat the process until we own that one.

We shall see what happens. I get excited talking about all this. Our money serves us, not the other way around. We also let is serve the purposes of God as well. Even though things are tight for us, we still give to our church and to others. That's the whole point! An excellent resource on this that will blow you away on giving is Randy Alcorn's, The Treasure Principle. A must read.

Thanks for humoring me. I feel better now that I got all that money talk out of my system. I hope it helps! It sure made "cents" to me!

What I Love About My Wife

It would be virtually impossible for me to sit down and make a list of all the things I love about Ashley. All the gigabytes in cyberspace couldn't handle the size of that file. It would simply be too large of a list. Okay, a bit hyperbolic I suppose, but you get the picture. I know she isn't perfect, but she adds so much to my life that I could not imagine life without her.

I would like to pinpoint one specific thing about her that I am so astounded by. One thing that she does so well, that others would benefit to hear it. Of course there is always her selflessness, although she would deny it (of course). She constantly gives and gives and gives for me and the kids and others before she thinks of herself. I see this lived out in her life on a daily basis, but that is not what I want to highlight in this posting. No, that fits under the auspices of a larger umbrella. An umbrella that covers so much of what I love about my wife of six years - my Ashley.

Ashley does something that any woman would do well to emulate, and it is something I only hope that our Abigail will follow and it is this... simply put- Ashley can make anything beautiful.

Why is this so important you may ask? Well, let me clarify that it is not the ability to make something beautiful that is what is so important. What is important is her DESIRE to make something that may seem so simple and undignified, well, beautiful. For this, in my estimation, is exactly what God does as he works on our hearts and in our lives. He has taken these hardened lumps of clay and is turning them into works of art which display His glory for all the world to see and honor Him.

For Ashley, it can be a meal, or housework, or designing a resume (hers has flowers on it)! But what she does most often is tries to make every day beautiful. Regardless if it is raining, sunny, cold, or warm, each day without some kind of good family time is a day wasted. She busies herself to maintain a nice home so that she can enjoy the opportunity to relax from doing housework and invest the time in things that really matter. When folks come over to visit or share a meal, they often compliment her on the cleanliness and loveliness of the house. What they sense from the condition of the house, I personally believe, is not cleanliness and neatness, but care and love. Everyone loves a good display of that sort of warmth. Ashley does not do anything without doing it well. Her philosophy has always been that a job worth doing is a job worth doing well. And why not? That just makes sense! Any other way and your going to have to do the job all over again.

The bottom line is this - Ashley unselfishly and beautifully displays her love for us in every single task she does, be it nursing a wound or making a peanut butter and jelly lunch, or just entering a room. Yesterday I got a heart-shaped caramel corn rice cake in my lunch. Now if she can make a rice cake delightful, that is quite a feat beyond all measure!!! Oh my heart is laughing right now because my cup overflows!!!!

Now let me clarify one thing, lest I lead you astray. Ashley is not made of steel. Her heart is one of flesh just like yours and mine. It is fragile and can be hurt. Believe me - I know! Unfortunately I have caused enormous amounts of pain for her in our first 6 years of marriage. Yet - here she is today folding my socks, snuggling with me on the couch as we veg out on popcorn and a Little House, packing my lunch for me day in and day out. It is another beautiful expression of hers and this one is called GRACE. For apart from grace, nothing can be made beautiful. One must look on a lump of clay with compassion, forgiveness, and a desire for a better end in order for the reforming of that clay into a masterpiece to begin. For so she does with life. Don't misunderstand me, she is not divine, but only human and frail. But she displays on a consistent basis the godly discipline of making all things beautiful.

Ashley Dawn, I love you with all my heart. I can never thank you enough, love you enough, or say I'm sorry enough for all that I have done or haven't done! I thank GOD for so blessing me with such an incredible woman as you for these 8 years of life and 6 years of marriage. I am truly blessed. No matter what comes our way, I want us to walk through it together, side-by-side as long as we both shall live. I never want to live without you. I love you. Thank you for making life all around us so beautiful. As we approach our 6th Anniversary I can't wait to look into your deep, beautiful blue eyes, stroke your beautiful brown hair and kiss your soft lips and say - Happy Anniversary once again. It gives me great joy and pleasure and satisfaction to say it. I love you, my Ashley, my wife. Thank you for being who you are. Happy Anniversary

CAT-astrophy

Well, it wasn't exactly an earth shattering event, but our cat, Gracen Mercy disappeared some time Monday afternoon. We have been playing outside a lot these recent weeks since the weather has been so nice. When we play outside we tend to leave the doors open since we often travel in and out of the house a lot when we play outside. Gracen always flirts with the line by sticking his head out of the door. This time he really snuck away from us, though. When I left for work on Tuesday morning, I didn't see him anywhere, but just assumed that he was sleeping in one of his many hiding spots. Then Ashley noticed that he wasn't anywhere to be found all day. When we realized the litter box had been dry and his food untouched, then we realized he was gone.
We looked and looked all over for him. We knocked on all the neighbor's doors to let them know what was going on and have them be on full alert. Every evening after work I would take about an hour or so to trot through the woods looking for any kind of sign of him - dead or alive.
Now, we honestly had mixed feelings about this. I mean, we have talked a lot about giving him away because of his antics. But since he disappeared, we haven't been so ready to give him up. Ashley has been having a really hard time with it. I'm not surprised though. Gracen has been with us longer than the kids. It's strange to think that he would be here one day and just gone the next.
Well, today he finally returned home! Our not-so-bright cat turned out to be somewhat intelligent after all - which was a great shock to me. Our neighbor about three doors up is a real animal lover and a school bus driver (I know the two are connected somehow). Gracen appeared on her porch with their kitty to get out of the rain from last night. She caught him and held him over night for us, and delivered him this morning after she dropped off all of her other animals, I mean, schoolkids.
So we are once again reunited with our long-time friend Gracen. The kids are so glad to have him back. I mean, why wouldn't they be? They won't sleep for three hour naps anymore with Gracen around, of course they're excited.
Me? Yeah, I honestly missed him. As much as I give him a hard time, it was not the same without him. I didn't exactly cry when he was gone, but it was awful quiet. It seemed like something was missing. I guess I've gotten used to the little booger.

My Old Guitar

I haven't seen the guitar in the above picture since 2001. I went on a mission trip to Nan, Thailand with a group from Forest Baptist Church in Virginia. One of our visits included encouraging and helping out a children's dormitory ministry in a small town called Mae Charim in the mountains of the Nan province. The dormitory is set up to allow children who live too far away from the public school in Mae Charim to attend the school. Many children live in the mountains and could not possibly travel that far every day for school. By providing a place for the children to live, they can take advantage of the education at the school and have a chance at entering college after high school graduation. Well, the dormitory is ran by an incredible family who has been leading the ministry for some time. One of the men plays the guitar so well! The only problem was he didn't have a guitar of his own. It was a no-brainer! I brought my guitar with me for the trip and was dubbed the team worship leader. It was a guitar my brother Skip had given me for my birthday. It was tricky getting in to Nan through about 5 airports and plane trips. Fortunately I only had to hold it on my lap for one short flight. The rest of the time it was in a coat closet. I highly doubt I could do that again since 9/11. This was actually the year of 9/11, just about 9 months prior to the event. We actually were in the Bangkok airport on New Year's to watch the sun rise on the New Year......anyway...back on track here....

I haven't heard from these folks since 2001. Well, just the other week I finally made contact with them and others invovled in the ministry to Nan, Thailand. I would love to return there someday. Not just to play my guitar, but to continue to ecourage hearts and reach the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. Someday maybe.

Newest addition to our landscaping

We just recently added a nice touch to our backyard's landscaping. I'm surprised at how much of a difference it really makes. It is our hammock! Oh, it's nice. Hopefully I can get some pictures of it soon. The new grass I planted last fall is a beautiful back drop. And now that the leaves have come out on the trees, we have some beautiful shade. The canopy is high and the breeze that comes through the backyard is just right.
We used hooks instead of rope to hang the hammock. The hooks looked plenty big, but I was still skeptical as to whether or not they would actually hold up. Well, we can thank Tyler Scarlett for being our guinea pig (spelling?). Not that you are a pig, Tyler, but you did help me out. You see the box the hooks came in said in a warning not to exceed the load limit indicated for the hooks. But there was one valuable piece of information missing on the box - the load limit. No where could you find a load limit for those hooks. So, let's give it a shot, I thought. I mean, the hammock isn't that high off the ground. Well, poor Tyler, he was the one to hit the ground on it. He was staying with us with another pastor from Forest Baptist Church in Virginia where Tyler serves as the Pastor. I told Tyler I'd bee sending the bill to the church and that he should lay off the Sunday School picnics for a while. Okay, not really, but I did tell him I'd be sending the bill to the church.
We went to Lowe's yesterday and I purchased what I feel confident in being pretty good replacement hooks. Rather than connecting the hook that it is in the tree directly to the hammock, there will be a D Ring connecting the two. The weight limit on that thing is almost a ton. I think it should hold up quite nicely. I mean, with something like that on it, the tree would fall before the hammock would - well, I hope neither falls.
There is no greater peace of mind than to lay back on that hammock while the kids play in their kiddie pool, Ashley glowing with smiles as she watches her chicks have a blast, the rays of sunshine dancing through the shade trees, a cool breeze brushing across your face, having confidence that your heart is right with the Lord, and being absolutely sure that no work has to be done any time soon.
That's the good stuff in life! Everyone needs their own hammock!