It is Saturday afternoon and Kim and I just returned home after attending a parenting conference with Paul Tripp, a well known author and speaker, at our church. The conference was two hours last night and three hours this morning. Our church had been advertising this conference in the community for months and very honestly i was not planning to attend. Kim was signed up to go and she wanted me to go with her but because I don't like going anywhere I kept putting it off. Kim was wonderful and didn't nag me and just last week I decided I was going to attend but my motive honestly was to please her, which is not a bad thing but God used it in my life. When I told Kim I was going to attend she didn't ask me why or say "that's alright I know you don't really want to go", or something like that; she just got up went to her computer and with great joy signed me up. Does this woman know me or what!

Well Friday was another difficult tiring day and when I got home the last thing I wanted to do was go to a parenting conference. Let's face it, my children are over forty years old and all the parenting conferences in the world aren't going to undo the parenting mistakes I made during their informative years. My grandchildren, ranging in age from twenties to early teens are even past the informative years and beside that, no one really asks for my opinions because they don't really want to hear what Godly wisdom I have acquired over the years. My great grandchildren are young enough to start being taught Godly parenting but their parents, my grandchildren, have to believe in those Godly principles. Therefore I thought, why should I disrupt my quiet Friday evening and go to a parenting conference? Read on.

I decided to go because I said I would and that is the right thing to do and I believe it was God's prompting. I am so thankful that I followed His prompting. I could write about my parenting failures, but I have already confessed that to my children and God. My girls are great adults and we have a wonderful relationship and both have professed Jesus as their Savior but they are lacking the Godly fatherly input they should have gotten from me during their early years. What I learned this weekend was not necessarily new to me but it was a reminder of how important the job of parenting really is. We invited our daughter and two grandchildren who are parents of young ones to come to the conference but they did not attend. They missed out on a huge blessing.

One of my biggest disappointments is not seeing my children or grandchildren show any desire for the things of God. Instead they think the worlds ways are the right ways or at least OK ways. One of the things we were reminded of by Dr. Tripp, again nothing new but a great reminder, is that the world is upside down. We are moving farther and farther away from God's wonderful plan for us. The world says sex at almost anytime with anyone is fine. God says it is a gift reserved for marriage. The world says you need to do face lifts, tummy tucks and breast enhancements to be beautiful. God says it is your character that makes you beautiful. The world says you have to strive to get all the world has to offer and then you will be happy. God says happiness truly comes from knowing Him. I am not writing this to preach God's ways, although it is true, but to confess that these are some of the things I did not build into my childrens lives when they were young. They know that this is my stand now on these issues but they just think mom and dad are a couple of prudes. All I can do now is go forward and for anyone who wants to know I will tell them these principles.

Am I bummed out about this? No, I am just saddened when I see parents of young children following the same path I did and not using God's guidelines for raising their children. You have to start building into your children's lives from the moment they are born. One of the things Paul Tripp told us is that we are not try to make our children into clones of ourselves because we are also broken. We need to recognize that a lot of what our children do is just a reflection of what we do. We need to stop looking to retain our comfort and look to building Godly character into our children at a very early age. If we use the worlds standards as a guideline for building character into our children then our standards are based on a moving target. Just look at how things have changed in just the last 40 to 50 years. On the other hand, God's standards never change. Personally I am not real good with a moving target.

I know this is not one of my normal kind of newsy sometime funny blogs but I was so impressed with this conference and how God prompted me to go and put everything in place I just had to write it down. For the couple of people who might read this I pray you will take heart and think about some of these things in your own life. Please don't wait until it is to late and then only have regrets as I do. It is never to late to start following God's principles but the sooner we start the better the impact on our lives. I can say from personal experience that when I focus on God there is a peace in my life. The problems don't go away but God helps me through the problems. I admit I fail at this many times, trying to do it on my own and I usually wind up miserable and even depressed. God used this conference as a tool to help me build that relationship with Him. I am truly glad that I went.

Well, it is my birthday again and in just one day i became one year older. I wasn't sure what i wanted to do for my birthday since i don't see birthdays as more than just another day. For the most part i decided to just do nothing so here i am at nearly 5 PM deciding that i wanted to write on my blog. Actually i decided that a half hour ago but i wanted to write while sitting on the screened in porch and write on my laptop. Of course since it has been a while since i have done any writing i couldn't remember how to log in on a machine that didn't have the log in memorized as my PC does. Of course my PC was shut down and gave me some grief about waking up, sort of like i do on weekday mornings. Finally i got the information i needed from the PC and was able to log in on my laptop and here i am typeing as fast as my fingers will let me go, which isn't very fast. One of the things that helped me determine that i actually did want to write about my day was seeing that my lovely daughter Michele and a friend, Debbie from Delaware commented on my last post.
So what does a 64 year old man do on his birthday? Well, most of them probably do something exciting but as for me i am not the exciting type. Although it is Saturday night and i am home alone with a very lovely woman, but i digress. My day started off by waking at 0500 and me refusing to swing my feet over the edge of the bed. After awhile of turning from one side to the other i looked at the clock and realized i must have fallen back to sleep since it was now about 0630. After some more turning from side to side i realized there was no more sleep in store for me this day so this time i did swing my feet over the edge of the bed. I love Saturday mornings as i usually start the coffee pot and sit for awhile by myself sipping coffee and reading the paper; not very exciting but enjoyable to me none the less. After awhile Kim and the Fozz decided to get up. By this time it was only around 0715 and i called Brian to make arrangements to go to Fort Walton to pick up a car with a bad alternator that needed to be repaired. That is another story in itself so i will move on. After getting the car to Brian's house i went home to where my lovely wife had waffles ready for breakfast. We still weren't sure what we wanted to do today so i decided that i had a lot of work to do at my desk, and though not very exciting it was work that had been neglected for far to long. It was time to pay the piper. So i retreated to the mancave and Kim proceeded to clean the house and do some ironing. What excitement!
It was getting near lunch time and as you find out with older people, meals are the high time of our days. Kim made sandwiches and we went to the porch to enjoy some food and time together. After lunch i thought about all the things i could do and decided to play on the laptop while sitting on the porch. Before to long it will be to hot to sit out here during the day so i decided that since it was my birthday and normally i would be out working around the yard, i would just enjoy a beautiful day outside doing nothing. I grabbed my Nook and sat on the swing and did some reading. I love my Nook but that is fodder for another Riting.
As i sit here writing, my lovely wife is inside preparing dinner. I am looking forward to having dinner together and enjoying a movie and well, whatever. I had my oncology check up Thursday and although the numbers are climbing i am truly blessed and probably won't need treatment for at least a little while. Also i have been doing a countdown to retirement and today is kind of a momentous day since the countdown will now be in days instead of years. 365 days and counting; of course that is if that is in the Lord's plan. I don't want to be presumptious but i will continue the countdown never the less. Like i said in the begining, not very exciting but i have enjoyed my 64th birthday very much. Tomorrow i look forward to being with our church family and then with our home group and maybe even a short ride on the Roadie in the afternoon. I am looking forward to having our good friends visit in late June and my lovely daughter and grandchildren visit in July. I am very blessed and God is awesome!!

Well, what can I say except that it has been almost a year since I last posted on this blog and I don't even know why. How do I summarize the last year into a single post? I do know that I need to update my profile. I am still a 60++ year old but along with my age, my great grandchildren have increased. I now have three great grandchildren, two wonderful boys and one little princess. I don't even know where to begin to summarize the last year and won't even try since it actually took awhile to remember how to get on to this blog. Since there is actually only one person who reads this blog, my favorite niece, this is really only going to be a bit of rambling riting. I still need to do the finishing touches on the floor that was on the last blog along with many other things I need to finish but time seems to fly by much to quickly. This session was a very spur of the moment idea so I need to think a little more about what I need to write about. I took a few days off from work the past couple of weeks and I really enjoyed it. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the possibility of retiring. Being off from work and being able to spend time doing other things around the house and working on the Easter program at our church was wonderful.
I am still working and still getting old and it is getting near my bedtime so I will have to end this very short post and hopefully come up with something worth writing in the near future. I am going to take Fozzy out for his walk, do a little reading and go to bed. Till I can figure out something worth writing, hope and pray ya'll are doing well.

Well, it is actually coming together. If you compare this picture to the last one you can actually see some improvements. Notice on the left hand side there is a threshold molding between the new floor and the tile. Fortunately that was an easy one so even till this day it is the only one done. You will also notice on the right side of the picture that there is a new addition to the room. I was careful in my photography not to show to much so you will want to come back for the next edition. One thing I have learned about floors or most other home improvement projects for that matter is that it doesn't end there. A new floor is just an excuse to have a place to hold all of the other things needed to fill a room. Remember the sad picture from the last blog! Out with the old faithful and in with the new. I have not been able to complete the finishing touches to this project because I have been helping to locate all the necessary items required to cover up this floor. For example, the chair [remember the sad picture] just was not going to work, so it had to go. The old sofa was just to nineties and it needed to move to the other room. Well looky here there is only a rocker and TV left; what are we going to do? How about some new furniture. In the picture you can see the corner of our new love seat which goes with our new sofa. Now the TV and stand don't go with the new look so they will need to move to the room where the old sofa went. Well, it looks like I have to look into getting a new wide screen LCD HD TV. Oh the sacrifices we sometimes have to make. I did my part and that will be included in the next blog. With the new sofa and love seat we needed to have matching tables so off we went in search of the perfect match. For the new TV we needed to get the right TV stand and that will be ready to pick up this weekend along with the the new recliner to fill that last hole of emptiness next to the rocker. I have to say that I really am enjoying spending my children's inheritance. Bottom line is that I am so happy that Kim loves what we together have put together in this project. She wanted it to look "pretty" which she has achieved and she wanted me to have a recliner. She has also been patient as far as my getting the finishing touches done and if she lets me stay home for awhile [retirement would even be better] I will hopefully be able to finish this job and move on to another. I will update later how it is all coming together but I have to say that the project in this one room is also creating some comfortable areas in other rooms. We are creating comfortable areas for the family to stay when they come to visit but just remember that the recliner was purchased by a very loving wife for ME! I love you all.

The Floor

Well, I shed a few tears this weekend. I am not sure if it is because of the picture on the right or on the left. I took off time from work on Thursday and Friday to put down a new floor in the living room and hallway. We have talked about this for quite some time and finally picked out what we wanted, purchased twenty three boxes, loaded them in the truck put them in the house and started the process of laying the floor at around 0630 on Thursday April 15. By around 1230 I had the first row of floor almost done. I was tired, hungry and frustrated. This is not a job for an old guy like me. Cutting into the doors and trying to make everything fit perfectly is extremely tedious.I decided to stop for lunch and after enjoying a nice meatloaf and cheese sandwich and glass of sweet tea I was beginning to feel a little bit better. After another twenty minutes of being on my knees and going outside and cutting the pieces and back on my knees to fit them in place I remembered why I didn't want to be doing this job. Kim was working and when she came home, her reaction to seeing the partially completely floor was worth all the pain I was feeling. She absolutely loved it. After about ten hours of working on the floor I wasn't much further than what you see in the picture above, but Kim loved it. The rest of the job went much quicker since there were no more doors to have to cut around. Now for the rest of my tearful saga. The picture on the right is VERY SAD. This is a chair that has provided me with many a Sunday afternoon nap for over thirty years. My darling wife has gently suggested for quite some time now that this wonderful part of the family be put out to pasture. Can you imagine? Well, i finally gave in and said OK so the living room can be set up with new stuff. So with tears rolling down my cheeks Kim and I carried my old friend out to the curb where you see it sitting in the picture above. What is even more sad is that no one has come by to give her a new home. Be gentle when you post your thoughts concerning this very sad moment. On the bright side I acquired two new tools that I absolutely had to have to complete this job. My nephew Michael loaned me a table saw and radial arm saw and numerous hand tools that made the job so much more bearable and I am very thankful for that. I also had to make some cuts that required a sabre saw so I made a quick trip to the local K-Mart and purchased a new Sears Craftsman sabre saw. Saturday I purchased the threshold and quarter moldings and realized that I needed a hammer drill to install the molding to the concrete floor. It just happened that I was able to find one on sale at Lowes. So I guess it is out with the old and in with the new. I hope that doesn't apply to husbands and other old guys. More updates to come as we finish the details and furnish the room. My knees, back and other muscles I didn't even know I had are just starting to return to normal. My love to all.

Roatan and beyond

Well, the bad news is that we are half way through our vacation but the good news is that we aren't going to think about that and enjoy each moment of this wonderful time we are having together. Day five is Roatan Island and since this is an island we have never been to we are looking forward to going ashore. One of the really great things about this island is that the ship could dock at the island and there was no little bobbing boats involved. For an explanation see my previous blog on Belize. Once again I got up and took the short walk to the dining area to get my coffee and and went back to our room to wait for Kim to get ready. Again the weather wasn't the greatest as it was a bit overcast and there was a light rain. We went to the dining room and enjoyed a nice breakfast once again and then gathered our stuff and proceeded to the gangplank to head out to our scheduled tour of the island. The sun was trying to come out but shortly after we got on the island it started to rain. Why didn't I bring the rolled up raincoat my wife had the foresight to pack? Oh well, tropical rain, how bad could it be. We found someone holding up signs for our tour that we had signed up for and figured that maybe that is where we should go. After many people started gathering in the same area the group led by the sign bearers starting marching away from the typical tourist shopping area toward a bunch of waiting buses and cabs. We got into a small bus with about six other people and headed out to tour the island.

On this tour we had a driver and separate tour guide. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and our driver was rather scary. He was on a mission. The one main road on Roatan that we traveled was very hilly and very curvaceous and our driver appeared to be an ex-Nascar driver. I actually loved it. We made a couple of local stops to see the locals dance, make bread and sell us overpriced goods. Ask Kim about the vanilla; we still get a good laugh about that. Our tour guide gave us a lot of very interesting facts about Roatan and we were able to see a lot of the local culture. After purchasing a few things we certainly didn't need and sampling some of the local food we headed back to the ship. Since it was only shortly after lunch time we returned to the ship and had lunch on board. After all, we are on a cruise. After lunch we returned to the island to check out the local overpriced shopping area. One of the things I enjoy doing is getting a pin for my hat from every island or country we have visited and I hadn't purchased one yet from Roatan, plus the picture I posted here was taken when we went back, since the weather was much improved. After this short excursion we headed back to the ship ready for our nap. Tonight was the second dress up night and we needed to rest up so we could stay up past ten P.M. After our nap it was time to get ready for dinner. As you might have noticed by now, eating is a very big part of cruising. A quick shower ten minutes to get dressed and I was ready. Since I didn't want to go to dinner alone, I turned on the TV and as Brad Paisley's song goes; "waited on a woman". As usual dinner was great, the company was perfect and it was a wonderful evening. We went to the show after dinner and decided to throw some money overboard via the casinos. After checking out some of the nightlife on board we figured it was time to get this old body into bed.

Thursday we docked in Cozumel and since we had been there before we decided that it would be a good day to just relax on board while many others went ashore. The good thing about that is that there are often less people on the ship and therefore more available seating for relaxing. The not so good thing is that it still wasn't the Caribbean weather we were hoping for and working on that vacation tan just wasn't going to happen. After another great breakfast, we walked around the ship and found a great place to park ourselves with a good book and hunkered down for some good old vacation time relaxin'. Oh my it is time for lunch; how time flies when you are having fun. We strolled up to the dining area for lunch and rolled back on deck for a short walk. After the walk and a somewhat sunny place to sit and read we decided it was definitely time for a nap. After the nap guess what we had to do? It was time to get ready for dinner. After dinner we went to the show, enjoyed a little of the nightlife and it was time to end another beautiful cruising day with another beautiful night. Tomorrow was a day at sea when we would head back to port. We tried not to look at it as the last day of the cruise but as another beautiful day together on this wonderful vacation.


For the last day at sea we had earlier signed up for a special tour called the "behind the fun tour". We truly enjoyed the island tours but this tour was the best to us. We got to go everywhere on the ship from the laundry which is below the water level to the bridge where we got to talk with the captain. Talk about the best seat in the house! We toured through the kitchen where we were given samples of desserts to the control room where we got to see how all the ships operations were handled. We went behind the scenes of the theater and saw how the performers prepared for the shows. What an amazing tour. The tour took about three hours and we got a whole different perspective on cruising. Of course after the tour there was lunch and another wonderful day at sea to enjoy the limited sunshine and relaxation. This was a much needed and great vacation. I am back to I guess what we would call normal life now but the memories of this week will live on. It reminded me that I still love cruising and God willing I hope to be able to cruise again. God bless you all!

Day 3 Already?

Day three was to be another day at sea. Sea days are my favorite part of cruising as being on the ship is what I really enjoy. Alot of people would probably say, "what is there to do on the ship all day?". My response to y'all is anything or nothing. Let's face it, what would you be doing at home? Working around the yard or in the house, watching TV or something equally exciting? Remember, I am on vacation and I have been doing all of those things and I am here to do nothing. How much more different could it be than to be on a very large ship out in the ocean [alright the Gulf] with no land in sight and no lawn work to worry about. I am not here to do something but to do nothing, and I am excelling at that endeavor. With that said, lets continue with our vacation story. Most of the day consisted of eating, watching, eating, napping, eating, reading, eating and relaxing. Is there any wonder that I gained five pounds during this cruise.

On the fourth day we were scheduled to arrive at Belize. We got up early in the morning, sort of, and again I walked the short distance to get my coffee. The ship was stopped for our departure to the island of Belize. While I was getting coffee I noticed that there was still no land in sight. Why was the ship stopped in the middle of the ocean when we were supposed to be getting off to visit an island? Wait a minute, there were a bunch of little boats coming toward the ship. With a little straining of the old eyes I could see what looked like land way off in the distance. But the little boats seemed to be bouncing up and down quite a bit. Uh-oh, this was not looking good. I went back to our room with the coffee and proceeded to wait once again for Kim to get ready so we could go for breakfast. We were scheduled for a tour on the island so we needed to be ready to board one of the little bouncing boats at a specific time. We enjoyed a nice breakfast, got everything we needed to go to the island and proceeded to the lower level of the ship where we would leave our beautiful home on the water and enter what to me was a glorified rowboat. Now in case you are wondering, I don't like boats unless it is somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand tons in size. It is not about getting seasick which has never bothered me, it is just that putting fifty plus people on a piece of wood or fiberglass in five foot seas with no land in sight is not my idea of a good time. But, we were on our way.

As you can tell because you are reading this blog after the fact, we made it to our destination. We once again stepped on solid ground. For me it is either a VERY large ship or God's green earth, the little bouncing boat just doesn't cut it for me. The first order of business was to find a bathroom. We were getting close to our time to start the tour but some things could not wait. Apparently many others had the same idea so by the time we found our tour group we were on the last bus which was kind of an overflow bus into which ten people were crammed in a space reserved for six, or so it seemed. Our tour guide/driver, Robert, was really great. We went to a couple of different places and learned some of the history of Belize. We saw some of the typical tourist rip offs, some local dancers and culture and had a very enjoyable day. We returned to the pier and after a deep breath boarded another little bouncing boat for the return trip to home base, the Triumph. When we finally got back to the ship it was to late for lunch so we settled for a between meal snack. Now it was time for a nap. Hey, we're on vacation. After a short nap it was time to get ready for dinner. After five minutes I was ready and proceeded to watch some TV while I waited for Kim to get ready. Love that Brad Paisley song; "waiting on a woman". Dinner was once again very good and our waiter, Kelik, and his assistant, Ethel, were the best. After dinner we went to a show and then wandered the ship in search of entertainment. As those of you who know me understand, I am not a night person. Maybe it is my farmer roots, but once the sun goes down and the work is done it is time for bed; but I was determined to overcome those roots and see what actually happens when the sun goes down and the lights come on. We watched some karaoke, held hands, walked around the ship and decided nine o'clock was pushing it and headed for our room. Tomorrow we were going to visit Roatan Island off of Honduras. We scheduled another tour and as much as I enjoy being on the ship, we were looking forward to visiting an island we hadn't seen before. Good night and pleasant dreams.