too cute

my son came up to me and said " mom, i dont like to lie, and ya know what, if you dont lie, GOD will give you a big smiley face"..... that little guy makes me smile.

1000 marbles

I got this email the other day and it was such a great reminder so i thought i would post it. Enjoy.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital," he continued; "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.
Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.
It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.
There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.
It was nice to meet you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

Dec 6 2009 Yes i think God can even use Dogs.....

its been a while since i have updated so i have lots to share, but i want to first start off with the most recent. yesterday morning as i went to go pick up the kids from grandma Donna's i saw a HUGE German Shepard walking up to my house. i have never seen this dog before and had no idea where he/she came from. ( FYI i get skittish around dogs i don't no, especially big dogs, i blame that on the movie cujo ). so after i got the kids, the dog was still out. my next door neighbor was kind enough to tell the dog to go so the kids and i could get into the garage with out me having an anxiety attack. the dog left, we got in, life is good. after the kids got done with their Saturday chores they wanted to go play out in front, so i decided to be brave and go out to see if the dog was still there. joyfully i saw the dog tied on a leash in our neighbor across the street's garage while his owner was doing yard work. i had not had a chance ( or the guts, i can be pretty shy around new people) to meet our fairly new neighbors at this point, but was glad that this huge monster dog had a home and was not just wondering the street. after seeing that my kids were safe to play outside, out they went . i left the front door open, turned on Christmas music and began to do my chores ( actually i checked my facebook first, but lets not nic-pic) as i was in the middle of enjoying a few minutes of non -fighting kids, all 3 of them rushed in the house slamming the door behind them screaming " awwww huge dog" ( note, my kids loooove dogs, but i have beat it into their heads that if a dog you don't no comes close, get away). i walked out side to see what was going on and the " huge dog's" owner was already out in our front yard leashing his dog. he was sooo apologetic and wanted to make sure the kids where ok. turns out that the dog is a very friendly dog and loves children. ok, so this is where it gets good. so Harry ( my new neighbor i just met and " big dog" owner )and I started chating. i asked him if he had kids, how many, where does he work, stuff like that. apparently his oldest son went to be with the Lord 2 years ago, Harry told me that its still very hard for him but was rejoicing at the fact that 40 people at his son's memorial came to the Lord that day. At this point i realize that he is a Christian ( not just a christian but a true disciple of Christ). we continued to talk about how good our GOD is and then he. started telling me how busy he is during this time of the year. He owns a trucking business and they go up to Oregon to pick up Christmas trees and then bring them to local lots here in town. He asked me and the girls to follow him across the street and showed us a tree that was freshly delivered to his house an hour before. My girls told him that we were going out that night to pick up our tree, but before they could finish Harry told me that he wanted us to have the tree that was in the garage. Carlee and Bridgitte got really excited, but i said thank you for the offer, but we cant take it. Harry then told me that we have to, that he really felt like that is what God wanted him to do. how can you argue with that. so to make a long story short ( well that wasn't really short) we have a beautiful ( free ) Christmas tree and a new friend. what a blessing.


ill post some more updates and pictures soon