Just finished up my email.

Colder day today, but still fantastic. Kathy and I climbed Stone Mountain this morning. It was incredible.

Yesterday K and I went to Fernbank to see the World of Frog exhibit there. I’d been wanting to see it for months. It was a rainy day for it!

We also enjoyed eating at Cafe Istanbul, which is one of my food faves. K doesn’t like it that much.

Getting ready for 2008 and our big outreach with Campus Crusade in the morning.

Peace.

Rainy day today!  PTL!

Went through my phone log and caught up on the folks I’d missed.  I had kept up with most of the calls while I was in Texas so I really wasn’t too behind.

Knocked out my email.

Started this morning with the electricity going off.  I sleep with a fan, so when it stops, I wake up.  Stayed off for about an hour.

Really massive thunder this afternoon.  Close to the house.

Took the vacuum cleaner to Orecks to get repaired.  Needs a new cord.

Bought a new hoody.  My old when had bike chain grease all over it.  I don’t care what Tide says, that stuff ain’t coming out of a bright yellow jacket.

Didn’t get to run today.  Wonderfully mild, though wet.

Peace.

My sweet family got back to Atlanta today!  It was a great trip to Texas for Christmas.  We spent a lot of quality time with my parents and my brother and his family.

It’s a long trip, about 1,000 miles from here to Georgetown, Texas.  We normally take three days.  We usually start out later on the first day, around 4 pm, then drive about 5 hours or so.  The second day we usually go about 7 hours and then 3-4 the last.  Not too bad!

Highlight of the trip was my parent’s 50th anniversary party!  That was great!  I had spent hours transferring my parent’s old pictures to our photo gallery, then Ashley took the best of the photos and put them into a slide show.  My brother Jim borrowed his company’s video projector and we showed them on a screen that the restaurant provided.  We ate at Stagecoach Inn in Salado, Texas.  It’s a famous place that has housed Jesse James and George Armstrong Custer to name a couple.

I also preached at my Dad’s church, the Worship Place.  I gave a 10 minute talk as if I was telling the Christmas story to kids at the mission. The congregation seemed to like it!

Peace.

We’ve been at my parent’s house in Georgetown, Texas for the last three days.  We’re just north of Austin by about 30 miles.

K and I are staying at La Quinta and the kids are at my folk’s house.  That’s cool.

Had a good physical day today.  Ran 4 miles, walked 1.8 miles and biked 3.6 miles.

Just finished up going through my email.  Caught up with most of my phone calls yesterday afternoon.  I’ll go through them again tomorrow.

My sister in law Kathy was in a wreck this evening.  She seems to be ok but may have neck injuries.  Please pray for her.

Peace.

Can’t get the van to start this morning.  Worked perfectly yesterday when I got the chairs. I have AAA coming to tow it to my mechanic.  Bahd luck.

Picked up our checks from our treasurer and deposited money in the bank.

I’ll be working on the latest financial report. I have to add some data that was on my old computer.

Kathy’s cleaning out the car in preparation for our drive tomorrow.  Weather is supposed to turn cold and rainy Sunday.  That’s not good for driving, but we’ll deal with it.

Peace.

Spent over 5 hours today hauling around over 300 chairs from Perimeter Church.  Jouvens came and helped me load them into the van.  We took them to Azalea and the other young men there helped us unload them.  They’re the really good kind of plastic/mental chairs that stack in place perfectly.

On our way back from Perimeter for the last load we dropped off abougt 60 for Paul Reynolds at Northchase.  They’re having a big Christmas party with food and gifts and needed the extra ones.  I sure was glad I could oblige!

The other chairs we’ll store at Azalea and start spreading them out around the other 30 missions in Metro Atlanta.  They won’t last long.  People always need chairs.  Whirlwind has provided the majority of chairs for two church plants in the last year.  Glad to be a part of that!

Had a fun lunch with four of the young men I’ve been working with over the last 11 years:  Jouvens and his brother Ernest, Joe Jones, and Bubba Utin.  I took them over to Golden Corral on Jimmy Carter.  I got a kick out of watching them eat until they could hardly move!  Those guys are like sons to me and I’m glad I got to spoil them a little bit during this holiday season.

We had a fun party at Azalea yesterday.  They provided a good leadership role model for the little kids.  Fun to see them all grown up.

When I get back from Texas, I plan on shooting a movie with those guys. I want to go through the old pictures I have from Azalea with them  A walk down memory lane so to speak.  Sure do love those guys.

And YOU too!

Peace.

We had a good time at the Property Managers Association Christmas luncheon. It was the last meeting for our good friend Bob Speer. I’ve been working with him for nearly 12 years now. I’ll be sorry to see him leave our community. He’s finally getting to retire! Sure doesn’t seem old enough for that.

Been working with Jesse’s Dell laptop. Takes some getting used to.  I have to search around for the end or delete keys.

I got a bunch of toys for the Christmas party at Azalea Mission tomorrow. We’ll decorate cookies, play some games, give out some little gifts and I’ll tell the Christmas story.

Kathy and Ashley will come to help me. Groovy!

I’m looking forward to going to Texas this Sunday.

Peace.

I worked on my laptop yesterday.  Finished my newsletter and printed out all the labels for the letters.  The kids at Azalea helped me label everything.  Backed up all the documents that I need.

Took the laptop to Best Buy last night after I got back from the mission.  Filled out all the paper work so the machine will be listed as a “junk out,” which means they’ll give me a credit towards a new machine.  That should be a nice change! I’m really  looking forward to using a machine that’s not quite so heavy.

We’re getting ready for the manager’s Christmas party at Pung Mie in Chamblee at noon today.  I’m going over there first.  I’d still like to get the Christmas gifts for the party at Azalea before I go over there.

Peace.

Bad news is that yesterday just after I finished writing my blog, the display on my laptop stopped working.  Good news is that since I have the extended warranty and have had the machine worked on three other times I now get a credit towards a new machine!  Right now I’m using another monitor so I can see what I’m typing.

Since I’ll be giving this machine up, I’ve been working on backups and sending the critical documents to Ashley and Jesse’s computers as well as backing them up on an external hard drive.

Great news from Perimeter is that I’ll be able to pick up around 300 chairs on Friday!  Sure do need them for the missions.  I’ll get them Friday and will distribute them to the missions in January.

We’re planning on leaving for Texas on Sunday afternoon after church.  We’ll be back in town on the 27th.  I’ll try and log in on other computers to keep the blog going!

Thanks for all your prayers for us!

I’m working on the newsletter and labels now before I take my machine over to Best Buy for them to send off.

Peace!

Been in contact with my partners at Perimeter this morning.  I’m still trying to get about 300 chairs of theirs that they are replacing.  Pray that I can do that in the next few days.

Went over to Lowes to pick up supplies for the FBC Doraville renovation project for Bill Hickey.

Answered my email.  Coordinating the Christmas teams and the Crusade team on 1/1/08.  Seems like everything is running smoothly.

Stopped at Walmart to check on toys for the mission kids for Christmas.  I think I’ll buy stuff from the Dollar store instead.

The temperature gauge in my  car said 81 degrees on the way to the church.  Can you believe that!?

Trying to set up the date for the Christmas banquet at FBC Mountain Park.  They have one day that we can use–hopefully that will work out with our board.

I’ll go over to check on the kids at Azalea in a few minutes.

Had a good talk with Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church.  She’s the Local Missions coordinator and a great missionary herself!

Bill and I are also trying to figure out what to do with these baby beds at FBC Doraville.  We’d really like to get them to someone who needs them–plus we need the room to store the chairs we’re getting from Perimeter.  If worse comes to worst I’ll store them at the mission at Azalea.