Twitter, Thankful, and Triathalon

First, Happy Birthday to my new friend Erin Shehu! The pictures are from her surprise party!

Twitter: For now I've decided not to twitter. There are too many things going on and I'm not able to do them all well. Here's the line in the sand, no twitter for now.
Thankful: Tracy and I feel so blessed right now to have so many friends here in Bastrop. We started going to a small group from church back in March and from that have formed several good friendships with other couples. As Tracy said it's like we're dating other couples. We both have to like both people in order to stay friends. It was more funny at the time! To our newer and older friends, we hope to keep hanging out and getting to know you better.
Triathlon? to participate or not to participate. I'm still majorly on the fence. The race is in Sugar Land in mid October. For now I'm enjoying working out with friends. Melinda Whitfil, Erin Shehu, and Ashley Bushong all started training this week. Monday was swimming and today was running. I really enjoyed swimming b/c they taught me proper technique. The running was not as fun b/c my knee still hurts, but I did okay for having run a handful of times since my soccer days.

J&K+8 Response and Happenings!

A note about the slide show: You can click on the slide show to view the pictures in another window which makes the pictures larger! The current slide show is our Friend's wedding, Michael and Kelley Zeagler.

There was much debate about my last post regarding Jon and Kate. My response is that 1) Yes, they do need out support and prayers at this time, so boycotting is probably not the answer. 2) I still believe that the husband should be the head of the house and the wife the helpmate. This looks different in many families but the principle still remains. 3) The producers show us what they want, not necessarily "both sides" of the story. They may in fact be portraying Kate as an over bearing, rude wife when in fact she isn't. The same with Jon, he may be more assertive then they show. They are in it for the drama and thus the money.
Regarding the exploitation of their children. I'm not so sure. Their children have been exposed to many more opportunities b/c of the show, traveling, clothing, help with money issues. The show may wind up hurting them in the end but as for now I think the show has helped more than hurt the children. Well, there is the marital tension so judge for yourself.

This past week was great: Tracy had 4 days off (pass). We spent it hanging out with friends (the Phifers and Shehu's) playing Settlers. Also, we went to see Aunt Bo and Tiff in Burnet, going swimming and out to eat. We also saw the movie Up in 3D yesterday. This is the 2nd 3D movie I've seen and it seems that they are producing many more. Yea for that!

blog re-do and J&K+8

Do you ever write a long blog then delete while it's highlighted...so frustrating.

Update!
I updated my blog. It should be easier to subscribe and makw comments. Someone besides Randy please comment and let me know if it's easier!


John and Kate Plus 8- Boycott?
Did anyone watch the season 5 premiere? It was gut wrenching and made me consider family roles and family structure. Am I old fashioned or is it more right for the man to be the head of the house and the wife to submit than vice versa? I think the vice versa option is total chaos and the state of the Gosselin home. Jon quit his IT analyst job to stay home with the kids while Kate travels for her book release. There is nothing wrong with women working per say, but men need to have a feeling of accomplishment in life. From my observation, Kate belittles Jon and 'wears the pants.' Jon is not a strong leader and thus Kate pushes him around. Jon should regain his position as head of the house and not allow Kate to speak rudely to him. Kate should respect her husband and take her role as helpmate.
The show has been hard to watch recently with Kate being so rude to her husband. I don't want to be like that. The show has actually been better when Kate is on the road and Jon d0es the interviews by himself. When Kate is around he can hardly get a word in edge wise. All this to say. God created an order for marriage, man as the head and wife as the counterpart. Get it straight people. I'm wondering if we start a boycott of the book and show if they will work on their marriage?

3 month pictures!

The picture is priceless. Mom opening her iPhone on Saturday bfr. Mother's Day!

Addison's 3 month pictures are available for viewing on the internet! Go to Silverlionphotography.com. Click on your portarits and view now. The password is Addison. If you'd like to buy some pictures I'm sure Randy will be happy to sell you some! Hopefully at the end we can have a collage made of the whole year!

We had our last small group for the Spring. We are taking a break for the summer since some of the guys are in the band and they are traveling for 7 weeks in a row then add on peoples vacations and it's to hectic. In the interim we should continue hanging out. I hope to have a few dinners with some couples to get to know them better! So long small group! It was a true blessing to get to know you guys; we hope to hang out this summer too!

Celebration Sunday!

I had a great trip to McKinney though it was short! It's always good to spend time with my family!

I came home early in order to attend Rick McCarthy's baptism. Tracy led him to Christ in February and Rick decided to join the baptism service yesterday. Pastor Cody asked Tracy to baptize Rick. I had never thought about it much, but any believer can baptize another believer. Now that's out of the normal "church" box!

The cool thing about yesterday was that it was the Celebration service for 40 days of Community! We met outside on the soccer field where everyone set up lawn chairs. It was an awesome service. Rick and 4 others were baptized at the beginning of the service. Pastor Cody talked about being strong in your faith and not making excuses to not serve God. He asked if anyone wanted to get saved and be baptized today, like the Ethiopian Eunuch (sp?) in Acts. At first one girl, Brooke from our small group stood up, then a teenage boy, then a little boy. By the end 18 more had been baptized by their friends/family or Pastor Cody (they even let a girl baptize)! These were not all new believers but some had been baptized as babies and now wanted to partake in the biblical believer's baptism. In total 23 were baptized yesterday. It was a church service unlike any other! God was moving and people responded. It was a refreshing experience, no walls just open sky, members were involved not stagnant!

A big thanks to Cody for thinking outside the box and leading the church to think and act that way as well!

Monday Monday Monday!

Today was a busy day! We got in late last night from a very busy weekend. The rehersal dinner and wedding were both great! We really enjoyed hanging out with the wedding party and some other friends that came.
The 3 month baby shoot was okay. Addison didn't really cooperate as well as I had hoped but I think we got some good pictures!
I'm trying to post some pictures via a slideshow! The only drawback here is that it could be really long and you might not want to watch it all!
Today: I went to Wal-mart, tried to deal with insurance companies but made no progress, paid some bills, etc. Now I await the season finale of 24. It will be exciting but I predict that Jack finds a cure to his disease and that Kim gets kidnapped and Jack has to save her. Also, the president's daughter is probably going to get discovered for her dealings. Tony Almada will probably go scotch free then be killed by Jack. Those are my predictions. Any more thoughts? Will 24 be back for another season? Oh also, any one else excited for a new bacholrette?

Pic Today!