Yes, I know, it's been ages since my last blog entry. I don't have an excuse... and come to think of it, I don't really need one.
But before I get into my runaway train of thought - first things first: Today is the annual
Iron Bowl game between Auburn and that other team across the state. We are playing in AUBURN, and we are playing for the highest stakes ever in the history of arguably the greatest rivalry in all of college football: to clinch the SEC West championship, then play for the SEC championship and possibly the National Championship. Auburn came roaring out of nowhere this year, just like we did in 2010, and now we're knocking on the door to kick Alabama OUT of the race and ruin their chances for another national title. It doesn't get any sweeter than this folks. The stars have aligned to bring us to this momentous day. To all my dear Bama friends: we're gonna run smash-mouth football all over you today and there ain't nothing you can do about it. Prediction: Auburn 28, Bama 24. Thus sayeth the Lord. I'm going down to Denver to the Irish Snug pub to watch the game with my sister Cathi, her husband Gary and my fellow Auburn grad nephew Nate... and about 300 insane fans from the Rocky Mountain Auburn Club.
WAR EAGLE!!
PS: sure hope I won't be eating crow pie this evening!
OK, where was I? Oh yeah - Since I last wrote, we made a decision to leave the staff of the Journey Church and Daphne and I have taken over the lease of the Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost. I could write volumes on all that transpired to bring us to that decision, but suffice it to say that it was the right move and we're grateful that God has given us a ministry in the lives of Bailey folks through this awesome little grocery store and mercantile. Much more to write on that later.
Praise God that we closed on our house in Conifer three days ago (We had the house on the market since the beginning of August), and we're now (sort of) comfortably installed in the apartment above the country store. We could no longer afford the mortgage on our five bedroom home, and I'm GREATLY relieved that we can take our time to find a smaller home. The store is doing well and paying its own bills - but not much beyond
that. The folks in Bailey are slowly but surely getting the idea that
the store is open and that we're a lot closer to drive to than Conifer
if they just need a few groceries. We're now getting calls every day like,
"Do you have any vanilla?", or "Do you carry that stuff to hold your
dentures in?". Because it was closed for four years it will take time for the locals to realize that it's back in business again. Since the store won't earn enough for a long time to
come to actually support us, I've gotten back into the snow plow
business, and I'm trying to ramp up my Storm Guides consulting
business. I Just added Denver Seminary as a new client, and I'm very
excited about that. AND, God has provided a job for Daphne doing part-time data entry, which
will really help our bottom line in the short term. So we just keep
pressing on, taking it one day at a time. I had a funny thought the other day: all the years we were overseas as full-time missionaries we thought we were living by faith. But we really didn't even begin to learn what that means until we moved back to the States and we're now having to trust God to provide for our needs literally day by day. I never imagined that was one of the life lessons that He brought us back here to learn!
And now, just to brighten your day and for no other particular reason, I took a bunch of pictures with my computer this morning using the various special effects with the Photo Booth App. Enjoy:)
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| Cuckoo! Cuckoo! |
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| Chipmunk |
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| Blockhead |
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| Alien among us |
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| Bug Eyes |
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| ???? |
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| There's a little frog in all of us |
