Adventures in Blood-Letting

During my last physical, the bloodwork came back with a high hematocrit, which was a repeat of the previous levels. My doc was only slightly concerned, but he wanted to make sure that there wasn't an underlying cause. He sent me to a blood specialist who wanted me to get a plasma volume/RBC mass screen.

Now, I've given blood many times before. In fact, in the last four months I've donated blood once and had blood drawn at least four other times, so it's no big deal.

Except today it was.

Luis had told me what the procedure was like and so he started taking 20cc of blood from my right arm. He did it from a different vein than normal, but I wasn't worried. And even when my lips got a little tingly, I still wasn't that worried. Just my spidey senses. But I started to feel light-headed and told him "I think I'm going to pass out." He called somebody in from the hallway and the next thing I know there's a nurse asking me how I feel and I'm looking up into a bright ceiling light.

She said I was out for two minutes. I mean OUT out. Gone. She said I wasn't even talking. I woke up in a sweat on a stretcher. Over the course of a minute I could feel my color returning and getting back to normal. Luis said this is fairly normal for guys. I got some yummy apple juice to spruce me back up.

They kept me on the stretcher until the procedure was finished. All the while I kept watching the clock.

10:45
11:00
11:20
Twenty-ish minutes to go.
11:35

Luis does the last thing he needs to do and asks me if I want some more juice. I say yes initially, but since it's 11:40, I tell him no on second thought.

He tells me he'll get a wheel-chair. I ask him if I can try to walk. With the okay, I swing my legs off the stretcher and onto the floor. Not too wobbly. I tell him I think I can walk and so we take off slowly around the corner and a few paces when he reaches for a chair. I tell him I'm fine. All I can think about is that I have a spades game at noon and I'm probably going to be late as it is. I don't need one of the volunteers (all those under 65 need not apply) to wheel me out to the car. He asks me where my car is parked. Near the South Entrance. He tells me that's a long way away. I know, but I'm fine. I'm screaming inside my head "I'VE GOT A SPADES GAME TO GET TO!!!"

I make it out fine and get to work at five after. D$ still hasn't made it yet.

So thankfully I was able to cram 8 hours of work into 5.5 hours.

I told my boss and mentioned that it was a little scary and that I need to get my will taken care of. He groused that he hadn't gotten his will taken care of either. He retold a story of his boss that dropped dead at 44 of a heart attack. He was on his way out to the car to meet his family that was already at their vacation destination. I made a pact with him that we'll get those things taken care of by the end of October.

If you haven't gotten your death stuff taken care of, there's no time like the present.

I'm just glad I didn't have to go the barbershop and let them use leeches. Can you believe they used to do that?

Mommy Scorecard

I've been dragging my heels for over a year on this project, but I have some time tonight to put it together.
For all you full-time mothers out there, I would like you to have a healthy view of what being "successful" and "productive" really is.

Please note this is not an indictment on my lovely bride. She is the best and I have no complaints whatsoever with regard to her efforts.

Without further ado, the Stay-at-home-Mom Scorecard.

Each load of laundry done	+1
Each load of laundry folded	+1
Each load of laundry not done	-1
I'll fold it tomorrow	-1
Do you need that tomorrow?	-3
Each item ironed	+2
Each item sent to the dry cleaners	+1
I don't like to iron	0
It's been two weeks already?	-2
Dishwasher ran	+1
Dishes put away	+1
Dishes stacked on the counter	-1
...for two days	-2
...for more than two days	-5
Vacuumed	+1
Dusted	+1
Mopped	+2
Picked up the toys	+1
Why try? It won't last 5 minutes.	-5
Dinner ready when hubby gets home	+2
Dinner ready after hubby gets home	0
Leftovers	0
Takeout	-1
Hubby's favorite meal	+5
60 minutes of yardwork done	+2
30 minutes of yardwork done	+1
The kids helped	0
What happened here?	-2
Trip to the emergency room	-5
Getting a nap in	+10
You're alive	+10,000
Each child alive	+10,000

Score

-23 to -10:
You're no Susie Homemaker are you? With a little work, you can make your man proud.

-9 to 0:
Having kids is brutal when it comes to keeping your home maintained, ain't it?

+1 to +10:
Hello Mrs. Cleaver.

+100 and above:
You are a great mom and wife. Don't worry about the things that didn't get done. If your husband is any kind of man he'll help you out.

Thanks Babe for all you do for me and the girls.

R

RC Index Week 5

What a wild week it was for the Top 25, especially the Top 10. ESPN dubbed it "Insanity Saturday".
Here's a look at this week's RC Index:

1	Kentucky	5	0	0.970
2	LSU	5	0	0.951
3	Missouri	4	0	0.946
4	South Florida	4	0	0.944
5	Ohio State	5	0	0.937
6	Arizona State	5	0	0.935
7	USC	4	0	0.923
8	Wisconsin	5	0	0.914
9	California	5	0	0.912
10	Connecticut	5	0	0.910
11	Cincinnati	5	0	0.899
12	Kansas	4	0	0.893
13	Purdue	5	0	0.873
14	Hawaii	5	0	0.850
15	Boston College	5	0	0.843
16	Nebraska	4	1	0.950
16	Florida	4	1	0.950
18	Texas A&M	4	1	0.921
19	Georgia	4	1	0.912
20	Oregon	4	1	0.910
21	Michigan State	4	1	0.906
22	Texas	4	1	0.899
23	West Virginia	4	1	0.897
24	South Carolina	4	1	0.893
25	Oklahoma	4	1	0.887
25	Illinois	4	1	0.887

What a jump for Mizzou! From tied for 15th to number 3 in one week.

If you look closely, you can see a little trending, besides the obvious unbeatens at the top.
Those conferences with multiple unbeatens have teams ranked higher than those with only one unbeaten (Hawaii [WAC] & BC [ACC]).

Of the 15 unbeatens, only a few of them are one-man shows:
1. Kentucky QB Andre Woodson
2. Missouri QB Chase Daniel
3. Hawaii QB Colt Brennan (get rid of the 'do man)
4. BC QB Matt Ryan
This shows you really how much a good overall team is needed to be at the top of the heap.

My personal Heisman Ballot:
1. Kentucky QB Andre Woodson
Woodson has established himself as the best QB in the nation so far this year. He was kinda destined to throw a pick against that ball-hawking FAU defense. He leads a very balanced Wildcat attack that's 5th in the nation in point-per-game.
2. Arkansas RB Darren McFadden
Poor Darren plays for the Hogs, who can't seem to win games. He's done his part. It's time for the other Razorbacks to step it up.
3. Everyone else
There's nobody even close to these two. I'd say Matt Ryan and DeSean Jackson would round out the top four, but they're on a lower tier than Woodson & McFadden.

The Big East:
If you polled the entire habitation of the Earth, I'm sure exactly zero persons would have guessed that USF, UConn & Cincy would be the three unbeatens at this point in the season.

The Big XII:
Oops. So much for the Red River Rivalry this coming weekend. As an alumnus, I'm afeard we're going to have our rears handed to us by Stoops' Troops. Mack Brown is a soothsayer. He said before the season started that this North was going to rise this year.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll see you again this time next week after "Separation Saturday". Why do they have to get everything these inane nicknames.

The in-season playoffs continue.

Mine!

The word that every parent of a 2-year-old dreads to hear, yet hears it in spades.

We were driving home from the HEB (heb, not heeb) the other night.
As is customary, M got a balloon upon entering the store, and we had it in the car to bring home.
Halfway home C and I hear the dunk-dunk-dunk of the balloon tapping the ceiling.
We look back and see that S has grasped it with her left hand and is playing with it with her right. Of course we laugh because it's fun to see her interacting with the balloon.
Well, big sister had a beef with that and whined "That's MOIN! I want iiiit!"
We tell M that she wasn't playing with it and that S can have a turn.

Being the little stinker that she is (the nut doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?) S kinda snidely looks over at M and keeps doing her dunk-dunk-dunk routine.
At one point she lets the balloon drift over toward M before yanking it back.
She really had this kind of look that said "III've got your balloo-oon. Neener Neener Neener!"

Needless to say, we spent the second half of our trip home alternating between laughing and telling M she could have the balloon back when we got back home.

We really wish we could've gotten a video of it, but we'll have the memories.

By the way...S turns 9 months tomorrow. I know. It goes by too fast.

NCAA Ratings - RC Index

Since I'm such a college football junkie, I decided to make my own computer rankings.
Each week I will give my rankings, with a super-secret formula known only to me.
I will also include some personal asides with regard to the rankings.
These are not where I would personally rank them, just how my formula does.

RC Computer

1	Florida	4	0	1.000
2	Michigan State	4	0	0.973
2	Kentucky	4	0	0.973
4	Ohio State	4	0	0.962
5	LSU	4	0	0.956
6	Oregon	4	0	0.954
7	South Florida	3	0	0.953
8	Wisconsin	4	0	0.939
9	Arizona State	4	0	0.935
9	West Virginia	4	0	0.935
11	USC	3	0	0.931
12	California	4	0	0.924
12	Connecticut	4	0	0.924
12	Rutgers	3	0	0.924
15	Texas	4	0	0.916
15	Oklahoma	4	0	0.916
15	Missouri	4	0	0.916
18	Cincinnati	4	0	0.906
19	Purdue	4	0	0.894
20	Kansas	4	0	0.863
21	Hawaii	4	0	0.842
22	Boston College	4	0	0.796
23	Clemson	4	0	0.778
24	Nebraska	3	1	0.900
25	South Carolina	3	1	0.899

So, my personal top ten is as follows:
1. LSU
2. Oklahoma
3. USC
4. BC
5. Kentucky
6. Cal
7. Oregon
8. West Virginia
9. Texas
10.Ohio State
10.Florida

This is obviously quite different than what my computer formula thinks, but that's the way I set it up. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the course of the season.

I think it's quite possible that the SEC Championship will be Kentucky-LSU.

I really, really needed to see Texas win a game like Rice on Saturday. Now I'm easing off my 66-14 prediction and moving it closer to a 51-27 affair. Who know, maybe that'll change after the K-State game. But Bob Stoops has that gleam in his eye that's been missing the past couple of years. I would love to see an LSU-OU title game.

So, enjoy mulling this over at the water cooler this week.

And give me feedback, but keep it clean.

Work

Well, it finally got a little busy for me this week at work and all I can say is THANK YOU!!! It was nice to actually have to prioritize and manage my time. I like that. Next week should be somewhat busy too, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

We played spades to day. My partner Sause bid first with a nil. D$ bid 7. Well, I had a pretty decent 4 hand. Jefe picked up his cards and bid 3 for a 10-for-2oo. I knew I could get three because I had 3 aces. I was able to protect Sause's nil and cut D$ and Jefe for a nice 340-point swing that turned the game in our favor.

So yesterday I needed laundry done and I thought I'd switch it up for the folks at work since I basically wear the same thing everyday (jeans & t-shirt). Now I didn't look this good...


...but I looked pretty nice. I got a lot of different remarks, which I'll enumerate here:

• Is that you?
• I didn't recognize you. I thought you were a new employee.
• Did we have an audit today I didn't know about?
• I keep looking over at you and wondering who you are.
• Are you taking C to a nice restaurant tonight?
• Do you have a formal spades game today?
• Wow! Look at you.
  

However, the most telling comment came from my 2 & 1/2 year old. As I walked into the kitchen for breakfast she asked perplexedly "Where are you going Daddy? You going to work?" So yes, I'm that predictable. Needless to say I got needled today when I came in wearing my normal togs.

Have a great weekend.

Hook 'em!

Texas-OU

It's coming.

October 6th.

Texas versus Oklahoma at the State Fair.

Those of you that know me, know that I am a realist and at times a fatalist when it comes to UT athletics. So it won't come as a surprise to you that I'm worried about this game.

Sixty-six to fourteen worried. That was just one of the pummelings we took at the hand of Insert-Quarterback-Here U when I was matriculating at The University.

I don't know if you've noticed, but Bob Stoops has that eye of the tiger thing going on this year. He's putting a hurt on you just because he can. He called a timeout before halftime of the UNT game just to officially welcome Todd Dodge to 1-A football (I steadfastly refuse to call 1-A and 1-AA by those stupid new names the NCAA wants people to use). Then he hung half-a-hundred on The U just to humiliate them.

And I'm pretty sure you've also seen the disaster that our Longhorns have been this first quarter of a season. Granted, I'll take an ugly 3-0 over what the Golden 0-Fers are going through up in South Bend. We beat UCF in spite of ourselves. Four turnovers? Five field goals? Who are we, A&M? But there's lots of good news:
1. We replaced some starters with some practice squad guys on the latest police blotter(1,2).
2. We scored 8 times against a fired-up UCF team coached by George O'Leary, who, although fraudulent at times, is a pretty dang good football coach. Turn 2 or 3 of those figgies into TDs and it's a blowout.
3. Colt can't keep throwing 2 picks a game...or can he?
4. Jammal Charles can't keep putting the rock on the ground.
5. We get to work out the kinks against Rice before getting a good test in a rematch against K-State.
6. That gives our O-line 5 full games together before OU.

As Mr. T one told a reporter in Rocky II, "I predict PAIN!" I don't think it's going to be 66-14, but it very well could be 49-24. After all, Greg Davis & Mack Brown are involved. My A&M buddy Brian at work keeps harping on "Makes you really realize how special of a player Vince Young was to win that championship [sic]."

Just remember, it's just a game. Rivalries are good and all, but there are limits to the trash talking and what-not. Don't go making a eunuch outta somebody, especially if you're a church deacon.

That and OU still "rhymes with shucks"!

Sports Medicine

By now you've probably heard about the football player who had a severe spinal cord injury when he broke his neck covering a punt. You can read about what the doctors did on the field that likely spared him from being a quadriplegic. In this article, Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine is quoted as saying "I don't know if I would call it a miracle. I would call it a spectacular example of what people can do."
Which is it? Or is it both? Too often we hear about stories such as this and don't think it's a miracle. Two years ago, Kevin Everett would be doing his best Stephen Hawking impersonation. Now, he actually might walk again and lead a "normal" life. But it is also a testament to what people can do. It is amazing all the scientific advances that have happened in the last thirty years. But we have to remember Who it is that gives these men and women the ability to think creatively and make new discoveries.

Another interesting article is this one about Dr. Jim Andrews. He has performed knee, shoulder and elbow surgeries (Tommy John's) on a Who's Who list of professional athletes. There's an adjoining article touting his Hall of Fame worthiness.

Our Little Comedienne

M told her first joke this morning:

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Nana.
Nana who?
Nana under the table.

The Week That Was

Gramma and Opa came over on Tuesday to visit. Everyone came to work to eat lunch with me. We had some yummy lasagna and some very tasty brownies that C made for dinner and dessert. Before they left, we went outside and played in the rain a little bit.

That's what woke us up Wednesday morning at 1:45AM. Well, not that lightning exactly, but pretty close to it. It crackled and lit the night sky around our house for a good 3-4 seconds. It killed our power for three hours, but at least it didn't wake up our slumbering tots. There was some pretty good thunder that came with it for the next half hour or so, but after it died down we were able to go back to sleep.

Last night after we ate dinner, S finally went down for her second nap of the day. I thought I'd give C some down time and take M out for a bike ride. After several minutes getting the trailer off C's bike and onto mine, we headed out. And 200 yards later we headed back so M could relieve herself. Back in the saddle again, we headed out. Now, M is quite talkative on these rides and so, when I didn't hear her talking even though I was pointing out doggies and flags and such, my interest was piqued. I turned around to see this:

C told me she didn't think M took a nap in the afternoon. I think I believe her. Poor little thing was just too tired, even though her head was bobbing up and down with the bumps in the road.

Today at work was very busy. We've had some product failures that we've been investigating and we had a meeting this morning to determine the root cause and what we can do to fix these products. That was an hour, and I spent about 3 hours in the afternoon wrapping up the paperwork so we can move forward with reworking them. We had a nice time playing at our neighbor J&K's pool tonight and, after baths, the girls sacked out pretty quick.

Tomorrow is flag football and then hanging out with the T's, which we're very looking forward to. Texas hosts TCU in what should be a close contest. Hook 'em Horns!

En Vogue: Bush Bashing

It seems as though Hollywood has run out of ideas. Kabbalah isn't so hot now, so they have to do something with all that time on their hands.

The popular thing to do is take pot shots at our President. Michael Moore only inflamed the situation with Fahrenheit 9/11, which served as the soap box for the highly-paid pretenders.

Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have been the chief stone-throwers, not unlike a duo named Sanballat and Tobiah. You'd think that maybe they have their sights on the White House in a few years with the vitriol they've been spewing these past few years.

Now come Richard Gere and Charlize Theron. Gere is quoted with the following: "What's interesting to me is how do the bad people among us end up our leaders?" Is that a statement or a question Richard? Worse, he equates President Bush's policies with being bad. He may have his incompetencies, but he is not morally corrupt. Mrs. Theron, who is a native South African fluent in Afrikaans, states "I think the thing that upset me most was the manipulation that our government did towards our people, manipulating them to believe that if they weren't for the war, they weren't patriotic." Sure, some decisions were hastily made with the lingering vendetta of Saddam's supposed assassination attempt on W's father with a war-mongering Cabinet. I don't remember receiving one of those leaflets. The men and women in uniform didn't knock on my door and brow-beat me into acquiescing to the war. I'm guessing they haven't heard all the good that has come of deposing the Saddam regime like more people getting electricity and running water, and more kids being able to go to school and other such atrocities.

Maybe it's that these folks in LA are on the Democratic payroll. It would make sense right? What better way to rock the vote than have your favorite actor or actress talking about how this country is in such a decline and what a poor job our current President is doing?

Or perhaps they're so used to people telling them what to say, it's easier not to think for themselves. They're rich, so why do they need to be fully informed to come to an accurate conclusion on the actual state of the Union.

My thinking is this: these folks are the exact thing they blame Christians and conservatives for--being close-minded. I heard that more times than I care to remember on campus. If I'm so close-minded, how can I believe that there is a God Who created the heavens and earth and all that is in them, and Who has been rather overt about His power? If I'm so close-minded, how can I believe that there is only one Way to Heaven and not just "do good" or whatever is right for me may not be right for you hogwash that gets floated these days. It's not "Hey, I'll do this Christian thing and if that isn't the right way, then I've been a good person and that should work." It's all or nothing with Jesus the Christ.

Okay, I'm done. That sort of politicking gets my ire up because these people aren't informed.

Actually, one last shot.

Hey Tim & Susan. You aren't relevant anymore. There is a reason people aren't asking you to be in their movies. So be quiet and stop trying to invade my life with your hate-speech.

September Already?

Quite odd.

The summer flew past me at warp speed. This was aided by the amazing weather our Creator has given us. In all my 28 years, I do not recall such splendid temperatures during the normally Saharan months. I remember back in '99 when I spent my first summer on campus at The University. I would walk outside and my face would immediately melt away. I distinctly recollect a 114° day and having the misfortune of needing to walk across campus. And although I should not complain about this very mild May-August, I'd prefer the baking heat to the sopping humidity we're faced with nearly every day. If I want to be wet when I step outside, I'll play in a sprinkler thank you very much. I think we've hit triple digits only twice these past 90 days. My buddy Donnie has a bumper sticker on his truck that reads "Pray for rain". I'd say he's been having quite the effective prayer life this year.

Yesterday, Sunday the 2nd, C and I welcomed our 5-and-a-half year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long. When I look back at our wedding photos, I wonder who are those kids staring back at me. The changes are not subtle. I am actually taking the form of a man these days. Although 23 when I was married, the picture suggests I wasn't a day over 18. My face has filled out a little more, but I am still unable to grow the requisite facial hair to officially proclaim my manhood. I'll just have to leave that to the two arrows in my quiver. These additions have only intensified the beauty of my love. I knew when we were dating that she only desired to be a mother and wife, and she has been rewarded bountifully with M and S.

Speaking of those two, it has been my great pleasure--most of the time--to help raise these little souls to Christ-likeness. While M has her rotten moments, she still has plenty to assuage any anger/frustration/disappointment I might have toward her. The other night as I was leaving her room, she very sweetly refused to let me go until we had some cuddle time. S and I have some nice snuggle time, even though it may come in the wee hours of the morn. She likes to say "Da Da Da" a lot lately. She makes a cute face that looks like someone took vice grips to squish her face together. She is very much a Mama's girl, throwing herself at C when the opportunity presents itself. She continues to be content with just sitting in one place. She doesn't care for crawling or rolling around. I think it's God's way of giving C a little rest so that she's not having to run after two girls.

Work has been weird in that I have had to manufacture ways to keep myself busy. The last week-and-a-half have improved. I've had actual work to do. I perform well under pressure and I like having a lot of things hit me at once so I can rock it. Our venerable CEO Ms. P was gracious enough to give us a half-day on Friday, and, since we had our third consecutive record revenue quarter (quite unexpected), she's ordering nachos and beverage for tomorrow afternoon. Things are definitely looking up for our little corporation.

At home it's been more of the same: never-ending yard work. I quipped to a neighbor the other day that one way to make an end to it would be an atomic bomb. But then our neighbors wouldn't appreciate that, let alone my dear wife and children. However, we are making steady progress. There is some Turk's Cap that I'm dying to rid ourselves of. (I know you English majors are wincing at the sight of a sentence ending in 'of'. Two in a row probably has you slamming your head in a door. But be careful.) Then there's the issue of our kitchen window shrubbery. I started to go after it this morning, but was deterred by a swarm of yellow jackets and red wasps. Needless to say I opened a can-and-a-half on them critters.

And last, but certainly not least, football season is upon us. It was an exciting opening weekend for the college ranks, with Appalachian State pulling out a thrilling upset over Meeeshigan, as the annoying Tim Brando calls them, at the Big House no less. Thankfully, Texas survived against a very game Arkansas State squad on Saturday. Here is my email to my friend N after he inquired of my thoughts on the 'game':

Unfortunately, or fortunately--I'm not sure which--I didn't watch or listen to the game. It almost looked like after they went up 14-3 in the first quarter they might've put things on cruise control looking forward to TCU. I'm just glad we didn't pull a Michigan. That's the beauty of college football. You don't get scrimmages like the pros do, so anything can happen. It doesn't help that we lost most of our O-Line and secondary to graduation. Neither does losing Orakpo to injury. Just a sloppy game all around. Thankfully they had the penalty on the onside kick or it might've been an even bigger scare.
Again, I didn't watch the game (Pay-per-view. Seriously?), and I only listened to a brief snippet on KVET. I didn't really think we were the 4th-best team in the country. I think 15-20 is about right, especially after all we lost to the draft and then our top receivers being injured. But I'll take an eeked-out W over a Sun Belt foe any day rather than being Michigan and Notre Dame. I watched most of the first half of the Golden Domers contest and I was wondering whether Weis was just going to call runs all day. Hey coach, there's this thing called the forward pass. Some guy named Knute helped introduce it against Army back in the day. You might want to watch some of that game film. But hey, you don't replace basically your entire offense and not have ugly games like that. Give those kids a year of taking lumps and they'll be ready to lose another bowl game next year.

Time to leave you. The grind welcomes me back with open arms tomorrow and I need my rest.

Hook 'Em.

Seriously?!

Says Yankee relief pitcher Sean Henn after giving up the game-winning hit in the 10th inning of their loss to the Angels last night:

"I'm just trying to throw strikes, and I'm not a guy that's going to put it exactly where I want it."

Well, that sounds like a problem, right? I mean, isn't that part of the job description? If I came to work one day after messing something up on my instrument that cost us a job and said "I'm not a guy that's going to know what I'm looking for", wouldn't I get canned faster than you could say Chicken of the Sea?

I can't imagine someone like Greg Maddux saying something like that.

Miss Manners

For all the moans and groans she's induced lately, it's been real refreshing that M has been saying 'yes' instead of 'yeah' and is quite fond of saying 'thank you'.

The Daddy Drudgery

The part I hate about being a dad is when I get home, after the initial embrace to welcome me.

Since M is a terrible two, many nights the first thing she hears from me is "don't do this. don't do that." That galls me. It's not that I want her to like me, which I do, but I don't want her to associate Daddy coming with her being disciplined. But it needs to be done because C is either cooking dinner or having S hanging off her or both. And when S is by herself, she's never really by herself, because M is all up in her grill. So I have to tell her no, give Sadie some space.

But I have to remember that this is just a phase and it will pass in time. It's just no fun coming home and having to put her in time out or other punishment when I just want to snuggle with my beautiful girls.

Tithing

A buddy of mine asked me today what I think about tithing.

There are two traditional points of view:
1. Tithe from the gross
2. Tithe from the net

Which is the right view? Both are, unless you get legalistic (read: self-righteous) about it. My feeling is that it is in the realm of the whole meat sacrificed to idols thing. Whatever you decide, let it be a conviction between you and the Lord, and don't hold it over anybody's head if they're doing differently than you. Let me emphasize that I am not touting a relativistic point of view, which tells us that there is really no universal truth, that what's true for you may not be true for me.

I think that it's a test of faith. If you have typically tithed from the net, or you're just starting to tithe, a change to gross can put a strain on an already tight budget. You may think that you might not make ends meet if you start tithing or go from net to gross. But this is where God comes in. Remember that He gave it to you to begin with. He tells us not to worry about clothing and shelter, because Solomon was not dressed in the splendor of the flowers, and we're so much more valuable to Him than those things. There have been numerous examples from friends and family that trusted Him to provide and He did so in unfathomable ways.

You may think about all that money that you're losing. Yes, tithing will be a significant portion of your budget. Sure, you won't be able to do or have as many fun things. You might not have any discretionary funds at the end of the month. But the thing to focus on is that you're not losing any money. You're just investing in eternity rather than only your lifetime. If you have been given more, more is required of you. This means the money God's given you. What better investment strategy allows you to affect peoples' lives now and in the future? You can't go wrong by giving back to God.

Dude, That's Some Sweet Tea

I feel like I'm on a Celine Dion album, because it's all coming back to me now. Bits and pieces from the family reunion keep popping into my head.

I believe it was Wednesday that everybody came over to The Hub for lunch. I asked Aunt Mary if she wanted me to make some sweet tea for her. She asked me how I made it and I told her stepwise how to make it and she said "That isn't how you make Southern tea![sic]" I explained to her there are many variations on Southern tea since Texas, Georgia, Florida, etc are all considered Southern.

I made a gallon of tea and it is gone within 10-15 minutes. Several people asked who'd made the tea. If you know me, then you know I wasn't exactly sheepish about admitting it was I who had made "the tea". After it was gone, it was my duty, nay, my privilege, to make another 1.5 gallons for the thirsty lot. I even got the seal of approval from Aunt Mary herself.

So, I have a special price for you today. For a limited time offer, "the tea" recipe is on sale for 100% off. $Free.99 (Note: Those aren't original. My stepbrother Will learned me.)

Bring 2 cups-ish of water to a boil.
Turn off heat/gas.
Place 4 family-size or 8 regular-size tea bags in water.
Let sit approximately 5 minutes.
Add ice and water to your gallon jug.
Ring the bags out.
Pour the tea into your jug.
Rinse the tea pot with water to get any residual tea and pour into jug.
Here's the important part: Add 1 & 1/4 cups sugar and mix.
Add enough water to fill the gallon.

So, if you've been mired in not-so-sweet or too-sweet tea, here you go. And as the Backyardigans might admit, you'll have the perfect cup of tea. So lift your pinky, pip-pip cheerio.

Enjoy "the tea." And if you're asked how you made it, feel free to disseminate to your charges. The world deserves to have the best sweet tea it can.

Doh!

So, since we became a one-car family, I've driven myself to work only a handful of times, including today.

After a very busy, productive day at work, my brain was fried.

That was obvious when, as a coworker was driving me home, we passed the parking lot and I noticed a familiar car. It was silver and it looked like...hey, that's my car! Yep, I had asked for a ride even though I'd driven myself.

Thankfully I was able to stop him in time and I didn't get home and have C wondering where the car was. Phew! That would've been awkward.

This Post Brought To You By The Letters IRS

God is very unabashed in the ways He provides for us.

A couple of months ago after getting our return back, Uncle Sam sent us a letter telling us that he didn't think he gave us enough money back, instructing us to fill out an Earned Income Credit form and wait 8 weeks.

Well, I had forgotten all about this until we got our mail on Saturday with another check from the IRS!

And of course our minds race to what we can get with this money:
a larger, more cushiony area rug for the play room so kids don't leave with broken teeth or cracked skulls
a better desk unit to reduce clutter
etc.

But what does God want us to do? There are many good things we could do with that money. There are a few better things. But there is only one best thing. And that's the hard part. In our adult life, most of our decisions are between good and evil, because we understand those things. Now it's a struggle between good, better and best.

Thanks Uncle Sam. And thanks be to Jehovah Jireh, who provides in many creative ways.

The Little Things

I know it's a common saying, but it really is the little things that make a difference.

Like coming home to M running full-force into me with all her love.

Finding several books on my side of the bed.

Seeing M's cute pink rainboots strewn about the floor.

M waking me up from my fake slumber with sweet kisses.

S responding to peekaboo with her great smiles and giggle.

Being awake while listening to C sound asleep.