Waking the Dead

I just finished reading "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge. If you haven't checked out this book, I would highly recommend it as it has definitely earned a place in my Top 5 books. I don't know if it is mostly a timing thing or what, but the subject matter of our hearts becoming fully alive in God resonates deeply with me. If you've read it, I'd love to hear your comments!

Updates from the Big Gap

As you may have noticed, there has been a rather big gap in time over the past months in my blogging. For your convenience, amusement, bewilderment or whatever else you'd like to call it, I've gone back and used some "Great Stuff" as a 'big gap filler' and blogged about some of the fun and more interesting things I did during those months.

Just to keep things in chronological order, I posted them on the dates they actually happened, so feel free to scroll backwards and catch up with my life. Thanks for looking - both of you!

Communion Joy

I had a wonderful communion experience this morning at church. We do communion quite a bit differently than what I grew up doing. For one, we do it once a month or so and that makes it extra special instead of a routine that is void of meaning. (For me, anyway. I'm not commenting on how it makes anyone else feel doing it every week - just what I always struggled with.) Another difference is that there are different stations around the auditorium and a couple is in charge of serving from each of those. During first service, we had communion during the middle of the service as a bridge between our praise time and the message. I was serving on the altar team, which means I am one of 6-10 people who stand at the front stage and receive anyone who would like prayer. We did our altar time in conjunction with communion and it was so poignant to watch my brothers and sisters take communion together and some receive prayer. I don't know what it was, but God touched me as I watched the church celebrate the Lord's Supper!

During second service, Avery, Jill and I served communion and that was especially meaningful. Jill broke the bread and offered it saying, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you." I held the cup while the members dipped their bread I reminded them, "This is the blood of Jesus that gives you life." Avery held a cloth napkin for anyone who needed to wipe their hands. Sometimes the juice dribbles. :) What a great picture - our little family serving that holy meal and being blessed in return!

Group Life Conference 2008

I had the chance this past weekend to attend a great life group conference that was hosted by the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, but broadcast to us via satellite at the Live Oak Community Church in Lubbock. Jill and I attended along with our great friends Sonny Smart and Brad & Julie Snellgrove and had a great time. The conference started on Friday evening, so we all met in Lubbock for a great dinner at Abuelo's and then to the conference. Avery had a great time staying at her Mam's house.

The conference was a great encouragement as we work with the Life Group ministry at Harvest. This has been one of our passion's for a while and there were some really good training tools offered at the conference.

Off Road Trip to Cloudcroft, NM

While Jill and Avery were in DFW this weekend, I decided to run off to the mountains for one last camping trip before it got too cold. I left Friday afternoon after many unforeseen delays and ended up arriving about 930pm. I met my good friend Jaime Swift there and since he lives in Las Cruces, he had camp selected and set up when I arrived after dark. I hate setting up camp after dark, so this was a great blessing.


We stayed up visiting too late, but woke up Saturday morning and hit the trails after a great breakfast burrito warmed over the fire. (Thanks Ginger!) I brought Moose (my Honda 200 dirt bike) on the back of the Land Rover and Jaime brought his Honda 300 4-wheeler behind the Land Cruiser FJ-80.

Jaime and I had a great day riding trails all around the Sacramento Ranger District, primarily around the Lucas Canyon area. There are some fantastic OHV trails out there and we had a blast riding, resting, enjoying the scenery and catching up on our visiting while stopped.

Moose performed great and I took great pride in my $300 ride as we meandered around the mountain. Jaime's ATV did great as well and we enjoyed comparing the vastly different riding experiences these two very different machines had to offer.


This was also the Land Rover's maiden voyage after receiving an Old Man Emu suspension upgrade and 32" BFG Mud-Terrain tires. It performed great even at altitude and we spent Sunday morning exploring the 4x4 roads of the area on the west side of the wilderness overlooking the spectacular drops down to White Sands Missile Range. I look forward to many more trips in the Rover and figured out several more ways to improve it for future overland travel and camping. This is meant to be a budget off-roader, so those improvements may come slowly.


It was great to be in the mountain wilderness once again and I look forward to next spring when I get to go again!

The 1412 Ebeling House

One of the biggest activities that has consumed most of our extra time lately has been the purchase and renovation of our house in Plainview. It is a great house over looking the draw out west of Plainview, but needed some updating as seen in the 'before' pictures below.

The bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen have a fantastic pink and baby blue square linoleum pattern. Maybe we'll just keep that....don'thinkso!

My favorite feature of the house is the vaulted ceiling in the living room combined with the huge windows on both sides and the skylights. It doesn't feel like being inside at all!

Now the Plainview is officially "wet", I guess we could put the wet bar to use. Or not. It's got to go.

The now INFAMOUS octagonal gazebo kitchen. This is the weirdest kitchen we've ever seen! It's full of odd angles, horrible countertops, useless drawers and dangling cabinets. The upper cabinets have to go immediately - the rest of the kitchen will follow as we can afford it!

Can you say "browngold" ? Avery's bathroom will be lightened by painting all the woodwork white, removing the wallpaper and eventually replacing the countertop.

And finally, the office. Avery got to have a little fun during the repainting process!

Farm Progress Show - Boone, IA

I was able to attend the Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA this year - my third year in a row to have a Trimble meeting to attend that was held in conjuction with one of the nation's premiere farm shows. While I was only there for a day, it was fun to visit some of the booths and see what machinery was on display.

For some reason my camera hardly made it out of my pocket this year, but I did manage to snap a few pictures of these interesting tractors at the Case display.


1976 Case 1570 Spirt of '76 - this tractor celebrated the bicentennial of our country with a special stars and strips paint scheme. This tractor has been restored to impeccable standards and it was very interesting to see one in person.


Case MX180 - similar to the original stars and stripes tractor, this newer version was created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Case company. A much more modern graphic job was fitting for a much more modern tractor!