Wednesday evening I had the fun of watching Baylor win the Russell Athletic Bowl over North Carolina.

They actually ran more yards than any team EVER in the history of bowl games! And that’s over a team that was ranked #10 in the nation!

Thursday it rained all day.

Really dreary.

I went to see Quinton Tarentino’s new movie the Hateful 8. I’m a big fan of his, but I was disappointed by this movie.

This morning I did one of my favorite things: Record!

I always enjoy putting my thoughts out there. My overwhelming humility keeps me from going on and on about how good they are.

This is a terrific episode for the final day of 2015, “End Zone”

Make sure and score in the new year! Click on the title and groove.

Post Office for stamps.

One lady on duty! Huge line.

Went to the Atlanta Metro Baptist Association to pick up my newsletters. Sadly, I sent the wrong file and one page will have to be redone. Hate that.

Picked up the mail from our office in Doraville at the church. Watered my Ficus while I was there.

Scanned in the checks.

Went to Azalea to have the kids help me with the stickers/stamps.

I would have had it done, but I lacked the correct first page and didn’t have the return labels. I could have sworn I left a roll of them at the mission, but I couldn’t find them. No big deal. I gave Ashley 2 more rolls, so I know we have plenty.

Uploaded “End Zone” to the web and posted the link on Facebook.

Admin duties now.

Over 1 1/2″ of rain yesterday.

This morning I caught up the blog from my Texas Trip.

Added and sorted pictures.

Added material to my Twitter feed.

When I’m on safari, I don’t blog or FB.

I may post something on FB, maybe. When I get back, I catch up the blog.

Enjoyed eating Mexican food with Kathy and Jesse. It’s really nice outside today.

Vacuumed the house.

Moved the couches in front and cleaned behind them.

Swept and blew the deck and driveway.

Raked leaves.

Refilled the hummingbird feeders. Mainly just ants now, but I’ve heard of migrating birds coming through.

Set up my windmills.

Cleaned around St. Francis.


Looking forward to seeing Baylor play in the Russel Athletic bowl.

K said she’d watch some football with me. Whoa. That’s different.

Sunday, Kathy and I enjoyed going to church at Westside Baptist!

Our music director was out of town. John led the music. Pastor Ben got the three other pastors in the crowd (including me) to sing a special.

Pastor Ben talked about less talking and more doing!

Restful day! My plants are doing well!

I couldn’t find my One Year Bible when I got home. Kind of freaked me out. It was on a shelf downstairs in my office under a pair of my binoculars. I was SO happy to find it.

Went to the bank to deposit money to Whirlwind.

Did the shopping.

Monday, I worked on producing my newsletter.

Then picked up Ashley to go to see the Force Awakens in IMAX 3D.

It was even better the second time. GIGANTIC screen!

I still hate Kylo Ren.

K and I watched Sherlock in the evening. She loved taking care of Penelope while I got Ashley out for a break from baby.

I love her tiny toes.

Kathy and I just returned from a great Christmas trip to Texas!

We spent eight nights. Turned out cheaper to fly and to spend a week to get weekly rates. Sure was nice not having to grind out that 1,000 miles to Texas from Atlanta!

Weather was fantastic the whole week. Perfect.

On Friday the 18th, we met up with our friends and supporters in Georgetown, Kathryn Taylor and Nancy Webb.

I love the geology of the area. Lots of limestone and flint rock. That means fossils and stone tools from around 6,000 years ago. The fossils are estimated to be over 100 million years old when Texas was a shallow sea.

Beautiful colors.

I look at ground like this for hours. Pattern matching like “Where’s Waldo?”

I saw Star Wars “The Force Awakens” on Friday. Wow. I loved that movie. And I hate Kylo Ren.

I enjoy looking at antique stores, although I hardly ever buy anything. I found these Catholic medals beautiful.

This is the one I chose.

It is tiny and flat, so it can fit in my wallet with my other tiny treasures: a piece of yarn from Rachel’s grave in Israel, zebra skin from Kenya, Meteorite from Argentina, a denari with Caesar on it and a silver drachma with Alexander the Great on it.

The most interesting part is the back.

It says in French, “I am Catholic. If in danger of death, call a priest.”

It was great to be back at First Baptist Church in Georgetown, TX.

I took my Mom and Dad to church. I also spoke to the Sunday School class about Whirlwind Missions.

It’s always great to spend time with my folks. My parent’s dog “Buddy” aka Waldo is very camera shy.

I did some errands for my Mom including getting her external hard drive that Jesse had loaded to my brother to get onto her ipad.

The historic buildings are lovely.

Georgetown, Texas was voted to have the most beautiful square in the state! I liked this old photo I saw in an antique shop.

I always drink from this cup whenever I’m in Georgetown. My grandparents used to have them in Laredo.

I did lots of hiking looking for fossils and stone tools.

Love the geology of the area.

This area we used to swim in. It’s called “Blue Hole.”

I’d never been to this section of the river before.


Wonderful to see the San Gabriel running strong!

On Wednesday the 24th I searched this section of the S. San Gabriel for fossils.

While I was on the river bed, I read some sites on the web about the age of the fossils in the area.

I searched “South San Gabriel River Fossils” and a page came up with “Dinosaur tracks!” WHAT??!!

I hiked back to my car and immediately went the 20 miles to another area of the same river that had 13 tracks from Arcocanthosaurus! Same family as T Rex!


Fantastic day! And beautiful colors. The spot on the river is not protected or in a special park. Suddenly, there’s dinosaur tracks!

I so love the internet for bringing me info that I’d never known of otherwise. Such as when the International Space Station can be spotted.

I showed my Mom the ISS. She liked it too! From dinosaur tracks to space in one day! Extraordinarily great!
I enjoyed visiting with my brother and his family.

I explored the old cemetery. The graves are all from the 1800’s. I never knew it was there until this trip!





One hundred years later, I graduated from Georgetown High School.

This sounds like me.

Hopefully, my podcasts will be on the web forever.

I don’t understand people who do this.

A great area of Texas.

We celebrate our main gift giving on Christmas Eve. That’s from my Mom’s German ancestors.

We always sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!



I treated this Christmas like I was at the mission and piled up a table with stuff from the Dollar Tree and let them choose some goodies. Most were for the little girls.

My Mom had this of our ancestors from her side of the family. My brother blew it up at his job.

My great great grandparents started a town in the hill country of Texas. Knippa!

K and I hiked along the river on our final day in Texas. She had been running a low grade fever for five days. Basically, she stayed in the hotel room all day. She seemed to like it! I was glad to get her out and walk around.

Always something beautiful and unusual to see.

We returned to Atlanta on Saturday after Christmas. We had to be at the airport at 6am.
Sad goodbyes.

When we got home, we had had nearly 5″ of rain.

I saw this sign while shopping at Walmart. I thought it was ironic.

I took this little piece of moss to my Mom. It’s actually a bromeliad, like a pineapple!

Sign language. Shocking.

Lots to C in Texas.

Great sunsets!

Fabulous moon!

Tuesday, Kathy and I enjoyed visiting with Ashley and Penelope.

“Tell me more, Papi!”

Ashley had some friends of hers from 12 Stone come by to visit.

Never too much Ashley!

I liked this. Ash has such a cool house.

I always love to see grand dog.

Later that evening, we had our annual Whirlwind Missions Board Meeting.

Always great to see our friends. Two of our board members couldn’t come at the last minute.

Ate supper with Kathy, Ashley and Jesse at Taco Veloz. Always a blessing.

One of my favorite things this morning: Recording!

I really enjoyed this episode called “Super ME!”

It’s a fun one.

I spent most of Wednesday figuring out the medications that Kathy is taking.

It’s a lot of different medicine and it takes concentration to make sure it’s done right. I’m taking over that job from her. It’s hard enough just for her to take them!

I’m super organized and took pictures of them on our phones so we can keep them straight.

Went to Kroger to talk to the pharmacist there about a couple of the meds.

Went to Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree to find some plastic containers to put one day’s worth of pills in.

I saw this plate on a car near Hobby Lobby. I left him a note in Swahili.

Finally decided on using little containers that had poster paint and clean them out. I think they’re going to work great.

Anything to help Kathy take her meds and be healthy.

Got gas. Cheap.

Started packing for our trip to Texas. We are flying this year! Actually turned out to be about $100 cheaper than driving, PLUS not having to drive almost 2,000 miles. That’s a long way.

Enjoyed watching the Detectorists with Kathy.

Admin duties now.

Fab flowers.

FRIDAY!

Amethyst and calcite.


Flourite.

I had a rest day on Sunday. I was exhausted after the party at the mission.

K and I ate at Always Fresh.

I enjoyed watching movies and playing games.

Kathy tried starting her truck last night. Wouldn’t start. I went by T&G this morning to get jumper cables that were really heavy duty.

Still wouldn’t jump it off.

Ended up getting it towed. That’s why we have AAA.

This morning I put the finishing touches on the Board Report for Whirlwind Missions and printed them up. Also created an agenda.

Went to the bank to deposit money for Whirlwind.

Also did the financial report and uploaded the numbers to our files online.

Did the grocery shopping.

Kathy and I have decided to make the trek to Texas. Jesse and Ashley will stay here. I checked out Frontier Airlines.

After crunching the numbers, it’s actually a bit cheaper for us to fly. Sure is a lot easier, although we won’t have our car nor our bikes which is a bummer.

Enjoyed working with the kids.

It’ll be the last day for a while. They hardly have anything to do, although I helped two kids with a major project due tomorrow.

K and I watched Jeopardy when I got home. She’s tired. She’s at work by 6:30am.

Admin duties now.

My fine feathered friend.

Beauty.

I uploaded my podcast “ForGIFTness” to my server this morning.

Posted links to FaceBook.

I had a great time with the kids at Azalea today!


We had a family buy the gifts and throw the party!

We had a craft, decorated a cookie, I told the Christmas story and we gave out gifts.

It was great to have Ashley back!

Extra bonus to see Miles and Penelope!

It was fun sharing the baby with the other moms.

I didn’t get too stressed out.

Went to the office to drop off gifts I didn’t give out. Here’s a sample.

I’m going to use those to generate good behavior like learning memory verses and multiplication tables.

Also picked up checks while I was at the office.

Went to Walmart. Had a few things I needed to pick up.

Got home. Admin duties now.

Amethyst!

One of my favorite things to do! RECORD!

My wife is right, I really do live to hear myself talk.

And talk I DO! This episode of Verbal Surgery -349- is especially needed!

It’s time to give yourself the gift of “ForGIFTness!”

Just click on the title and GROOVE!

Enjoyed a Thai lunch with Kathy and the kids.

Had a wonderful afternoon with three of my favorite people: Ashley, Miles and Penelope = AMP me up!

I love the Mammoth Rock Show!

I bought this beautiful example of Amethyst.

Triceratops leg bone.

Ashley and Miles each got a rock to remember our day.

Came home to rest and enjoy the fantastic weather.

Had fun playing Star Wars Battlefront. Less than a week to the movie!

I go to the mission in a little while to do the Christmas party for the kids at Azalea.

I liked this!

ME.

Funny.

The neighbors are getting their septic tank redone. Crappy job.

Had a fun lunch with Ashley, Miles and Penelope! Awesome!

Went to Perimeter to pick up more toys for the children.

It’s so thoughtful, but I’m honestly dreading how to hand these toys out somewhat equally. First World Problem.

Wild group needed lots of help and I was by myself. I especially get frustrated when I’m just about to leave and I have a couple of the slowest working boys come and and need help. Got through it.


Teaching Audriana the vowel sounds.

It’s especially difficult in our part of the country because of vowel sound substitution.

For instance, when you count eight, nine, TEN . . . . does that last number sound like the material you put on a roof? (Tin).

If so, then you can’t use that as an example for a kid to figure out the vowel sound. Crazy language.

Admin duties now.

Whenever I see an old model Land Rover, it reminds me of home in Kenya.

I worked most of the morning on raking leaves. Big job. Hopefully, this will be the last time this year.

K and I ate at Subway together.

Then off to the mission to help the kids.

They are getting excited about Christmas. Two of my Muslim girls drew this.

Ashley, Miles and Penelope stopped by briefly to pick up a couple of checks. Always great to see them.

Admin duties now.