I had a great day with my son today! I told him that he’d been elevated to a corollary I say about Ashley: “Never too much Ashley.” I’m adding “Never too much Jesse” now!

This morning Jesse and I went over to Walmart to pick up some supplies for the mission. Some of the older kids didn’t get a gift from the team this weekend, so I went and bought them some soccer balls. They really loved that!

Even got me some new flip flops. Woot!

I wonder what the big rush is?

I also dropped off a DVD to FBC Mountain Park that I’d edited and burned from the outreach event that we hosted at Villa Nueva with Keith Harrell.

Also bought some styrofoam balls for on of our girls who is making a planet project. She was really excited about that too.

We went to Roswell today to have a meeting with Jesse’s audiologist. He made some small adjustments to J’s device. Good report!

I love all the technology related to that!

We spent a little time at the Barnes and Nobel. That’s my treat, because I’ve been a good boy.

I got the War of Art by Stephen Pressman. Good stuff. Recommended by Seth Godin, one of my favorite authors. Jesse is reading it to me in the car while I drive. He got a book on finances based on the teachings of Ben Franklin, one of my heroes.

I like the images that these glass tiles created at BK.

Then to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

I spent almost all my time with Ernest, one of the kids at the mission who’s a grown up now. He’s like a son to me. A real go getter. I always enjoy trying to help those guys either with advice or just encouragement.

Had a meeting with several of the mothers. I’m trying to help them with tables or chairs. There are a lot of big events going on this weekend with the families. Holy Week is a really big deal in the Latino community.

Had almost total comprehension with what was going on and was able to communicate really well. All this work I’ve been doing on Spanish seems to be paying off!

I’m looking forward to massive improvement after my two weeks in Costa Rica where I’ll have nearly total immersion. I usually speak about 4 hours of Spanish a week. I’ll have about 7 months of practice in 2 weeks!

One of my favorite colors is pink. I liked this promotion from Burger King.

This was from the front of a Jag. Suh weet!

This morning I worked on new proverbs for my tweets.

Always a fun exercise in creativity!

Had the construction guys come back to my house to redo the plaster on my car part ceiling. It had started to peel off. I don’t think the priming was done correctly. Sure am glad they stand behind their work!
They had to scrape almost all of it off.

Most of the time I spent on the phone calling managers and partners setting up all the details for the two teams coming into town.

There are always last minute details to iron out, but I’m into really thinking things through and making sure the logistics are as close to perfect as possible.

Things are looking great!

Had a great phone call today from a complex where we had stopped work. They called again and begged us to come back. I figured that would happen eventually.

I’ve had a lady call me several times about working in that area just recently. Now I get that phone call. That’s a Jesus thing!

Jesse and I enjoyed working at Azalea today.

I’ve been feeling kinda sick. Aching in my jaws and in my ears. NO it’s not from me talking so much! At least I don’t think so . . .

The kids were super cute. I especially like the little girls who are learning to read. They are such sweethearts.

Came home and enjoyed watching part of the new Star Trek movie. Great film!

I thought these clouds looked like flames.

Had a fun day today taking a team from Stong Rock Christian School from Locust Grove, GA around the International Village.

I gave the team a briefing on working in our area then showed them around Asian Square.

We also visited Carniceria #1 to see the Spanish side of things.

Then on to Global Mall to visit India.

They even tried Durien, the dreaded “poo poo fruit.” Smells like poop. Brave souls!

Finishing off with Al-Madina to see how the folks from N. Africa and the Middle East worked.

All in all a lot of fun.

Jesse and I went to Clarkston to meet up with Ian North and Aziz. Jesse taught Aziz guitar for about a year. Ian wrote an article on Aziz and his adjustment to life here in the USA.

I went to the mission to shoot pictures of Ian and Aziz for the publication. Had a fun time doing that.

Came on home and watched an episode of Lie to Me with Kathy. Then finish up my usual admin homework.

Fun day!

Great day today!

I had the opportunity to speak to four different classes about our ministry! Awesome!

This is one of the best churches in Georgia. Tim Dowdy is a great preacher and they have a terrific worship band.

Half of them are from Casting Crowns!

I really enjoyed getting to know this congregation. I’m looking forward to working with them more closely in the future.

Pretty long day for me. I was on the road by 7:45 am (and you know what a morning person I am!) and didn’t get home till nearly 10pm.

I start out early tomorrow too with a group from Strong Rock Christian School. I look forward to showing them around the International Village.

I’m thinking about getting me a flower to wear on my head. Think I could pull it off?

The kids have been super excited about the team from PCBC coming today! They always do a great job! This year was no exception.

I went to Kroger to pick up all the supplies for the event.

Then over to Azalea to set up and get ready for the team.

They cooked hotdogs, had face paint, balloon animals, jump rope and a huge Easter Egg hunt.

The kids LOVED it!

Before we threw the candy to them, I sat them all down and shared with them the meaning of Easter.

I must admit it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done since I had a couple of Muslim parents looking right over my shoulder!

It’s hard to be straightforward and not hurt people’s feelings. Thanks for praying for me!

After the Gospel presentation we had the Great Candy Throw! Everybody loves that!

The team left and I went over to check on another of our missionaries who was hosting an event, Keith Harrell at Villa Nueva.

He had a terrific team of middle school girls from FBC Mountain Park. The kids loved that too! They gave away clothes as well as having recreation and an egg hunt.

Came home and went to Stone Mountain to rest in the sun for a while. That’s always therapy for me.

Back home knocking out my admin duties.

Tomorrow I hit the ground running. I make four presentations to classes at Eagles Landing Baptist Church. I have to be there around 9am. It’s a long way to their church from Stone Mountain, I estimate about an hour. There’s a break after lunch then back for the evening service. Busy!

What exactly does madness taste like? Not sure this is the best marketing ploy.

This morning I got up and finished working on my newsletter for the month. It’s about the team that came to help us last week from Arlington, TX. What a blessing they were.

I went outside to check on my birds and saw something huge fly up from the ground in our back yard.

Of course I get very excited when I see any really big bird. I figured it would be a sharp shinned hawk. But no! It was a hoot owl!

You may know that I like to do bird calls. I immediately went into my hoot owl call. He flew straight over to the tree I was standing under. Got my binoculars out to check him out up close. Super cool! He was about 1 1/2 feet tall!

From time to time I find dove feathers on the ground near my feeders. I’m pretty sure an owl got them. Part of the circle of life.

It’s beautiful in our back yard!

Our whole family plus Miles and Jason (the young man that Jesse rode up to New Hampshire with) ate out at El Torreros for lunch.

Always good to get together with loved ones!

The guys drove Jason over to Stone Mountain to show him that wonder of nature!

Then we worked on making copies of the newsletters and getting stamps.

J and I went back home to get the labels together and Ashley went to Perimeter Mall.

She had an appointment with the tech guys at Apple. She’s been having a hard time updating her blog. Bottom line, looks like Jesse is going to have to set her up with a new software for her blog rather than the stuff that comes with Mac. I’ve used WordPress for over a year now. I like it. Hope Ashley will too.

We then went to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot more with the parents. I teach them English and then I translate everything I just taught them into Spanish. Good practice for me.

This morning I listened to Telemundo for about three hours. Kind of kept drifting back and forth into sleep. I believe you have to get the music of the language into your head.

We also worked on doing our newsletters. Kids are always great about helping with that!

Ash and J drove back home and I went to Walmart to pick up some supplies for the block party that they’re having at H. Ridge as well as what I’m going to do at Azalea on Saturday.

Got home a little before 8pm. Glad it’s still light!

Admin duties now.

This looked like it was over my house!

Fantastic trees!

This morning I got up early and had the great fun of getting drilled!

It was actually a pretty painless process. Couple of shots and a lot of drilling to repair the cracked tooth. Doctor told me that it was a clean break and shouldn’t cause me any trouble. He had to drill out all the old filling and redo it with a new composite material. I’ll have the new permanent crown put on in a couple of weeks.

Then had a meeting with a partner of mine who is a transitional pastor of a local church.

It’s mainly made up of old white folks who really don’t want to change their ways even though the neighborhood is completely changed. Hard to get folks to change when they’re SURE they’re right! It’s a sad situation really.

I took over a bunch of pictures of people in the neighborhood for him to distribute. Most people are willing to at least pray for their neighbors. Less than half were even willing to do that. Oh, well.

Then back to my office to meet with Eduardo and Sheila Zamora.

They are doing some wonderful work here. They’re having some issues that we talked about relating to their status with the government. It’s always a slippery thing to figure out exactly what to do.

Then to Azalea to help the kids with their homework. I’m trying to teach these guys their times tables. That’s a job for sure!

The best news is that my wingman Jesse got back home safely today! Sure was great to see him back home! Thanks for your prayers for him on his travels.

The trees here are stunning!

Had a fun day today!

Had lunch with Ian and Ruthie North, Bayo Otiti and partners from Briarcliff Baptist Church, Marc Burcham and Debbie Gomez.

We had fun planning for their annual day of outreach in April.

We took them on a tour of the missions at Huntington Creek and Huntington Terraces where they’ll be serving.

Then I had fun taking Ian and Ruthie “shopping” at the Missionary Care Center at First Baptist Atlanta. They have a wonderful selection of clothes for their missionaries. Their volunteers always make us feel so welcome!

Ian and Ruthie are being commissioned this weekend. I’m glad they’ve got some nice dress clothes for the event!

It was a hoot watching Ian go into “Preacher Boy” mode. Amen!

Neither of us are big suit kind of guys!

Picked up the extra supplies from the service projects last week and took them to Home Depot to get my money back.

Then went to Azalea to help the kids at the mission. Johan was sick. So I helped them with their homework outside. Didn’t feel like getting coughed on!

It was fun to feel the sun on us as we worked on spelling words, math and making sentences.

Spring has sprung! What beauty!

Just when I thought I’d seen it all. I just hope they don’t knit us a hangman’s noose.

This morning I worked on my new podcasts: Verbal Surgery. I think these will really help people!

Then over to Staples to pick up a new dry erase board and stand for our new English as Second Language classes in Lawrenceville. I delivered the supplies to the manager at Olde Salem and talked with her about the class.

Stopped in at Barnes and Noble for ten minutes as a treat. Can’t get over how many “brain” books there are these days.

It’s an area I’m fascinated by. My favorites from this group are Brain Rules and A Whole New Mind. Both excellent!

I picked up a new book by Jason Fried called “REwork.” Looks really good.

Shot to Clarkston to meet Charles Houghton at Clarkston Oaks. He’s been a huge help in coordinating the effort of renovating the basement over there. Great ministry opportunity, but I’m not sure how much the owner really wants to get the project done.

I’m definitely not going to do more than what I told him we’d do which is hanging the sheet rock, the dropped ceiling and painting. Even that is a really big job.

Met with Aziz at Willow Branch. I’m teaching him some different strum patterns and chords on the guitar.

Eduardo Zamora came over to Willow Branch to pick up some clothes that someone had dropped off for Bennett. Glad we could put those to good use!

Back at home now for admin duties.

Man! It was sure great to get away from the ATL and rest!

K and I visited with the team from Texas before leaving for Tennessee.

We enjoyed an awesome time of togetherness for the weekend.

We read books, hiked up the mountain and walked around the neighborhood.

I caught up on a lot of sleep. I really had no idea how tired I was until I went to sleep and woke up 11 hours later! YOW!

Raccoon Mountain is just outside of Chattanooga. It is really beautiful over there.

We enjoyed walking around Chatta too!

We stayed at Alpine Lodge, our new favorite place.

It’s run by the Patel family. Definitely not for everybody, but we like it! It’s right on the Trail of Tears. Sad part of our history.

Last month we had snow. This month POLLEN!

I really enjoyed the BBQ at Purple Daisy cafe in St. Elmo, right beside Incline Railway.

We came on home Sunday afternoon. We stopped at the Tellus mineral museum. I enjoy looking through the gift shop for rocks for my collection. Didn’t find anything today, but I got a couple of cool toys. Yep, I’m still a kid.

Great to be home and hang out with my Ashley angel! She just keeps getting more and more beautiful!

I thought this was funny!

Reminded me of driving on 285. Not me, other folks!