Any Mouse Fuzz Lately?

I tried really hard today to have a normal Monday. Monday's are probably my least productive days, only because they follow Sunday, often my busiest day. And my only work day as most people count preachers but that's another story. After yesterdays day, I was whipped. Actually it was not just Sunday but the Friday and Saturday leading up to the Sunday that all piled together made it difficult. Yesterday was all in all a great Lord's day with an excellent worship, open hearts to the Word of God, lunch with friends, almost a nap, umpired an exciting pew ball game, and our Life group really reached out and ministered to a family. All the stuff that has the potential to make Sunday a really, really, fine day.

I was standing in the driveway with the bride following group, getting ready to get in the truck when my cell phone rang, uh oh, Baytown PD. No, its not a "you're in trouble" kind of call but "there's been an incident, are you available to come and minister." That's my calling folks, so I go. From the time the phone rang at 6:45 til almost midnight last night I tried my best to represent God to a bunch of police officers, detectives, friends, family, and neighbors of a young lady whose 2 month old baby had stopped breathing on her own couch. Not the way anyone wants to spend Sunday evening or any other time. Certainly not how that family wanted to spend that evening.

So today, I'm trying to be normal, productive, got a busy weekend in store again this weekend. Then 2/3rds through the day, my mouse all but stops moving to the right. Moving left is grand but not right, nada, nothing. Know what it was? Mouse fuzz, that's right mouse fuzz. After banging on it, blowing on it, and looking at with disgust, I decided to turn it over, open it up and check it out. The mouse ball, I guess its called, came rolling out, along with a big ball of mouse fuzz. Maybe there's a better technical term, I don't know. I banged it on the mouse pad some more and blew on it some more trying to avoid eating or inhaling any aforementioned fuzz. And man, I can't believe all the fuzz that came out of there. You just never know what's going to clog up your days somedays. You never know what may cause your weekend tired to go haywire. For me, today it was mouse fuzz.

If you look back up to the top of my header it says, life in H-town, "not too seriously folks." Gotta go now. It's back to work and then to H-town for MNF, Brett Farve, and Adrian Peterson.

de

Something Pretty Cool, I think

Have you ever heard of micro loans? I had heard of them briefly but for the most part passed it off and didn't pay that much attention, til yesterday. I'm going through my inbox pretty hurriedly and stopped briefly on one describing micro loans through an outfit called Kiva. I clicked on their site and was impressed. Here's what Kiva does.

We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

"The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need."

Anyway, yesterday I loaned $25 to the Solidarias Group, consisting of Antonia Marroquin Tambriz, Francisca Tambriz Tambriz, Ana Ixquiactap Carrillo, Juana Cuc Bac, Jacinta Guachiac Suy, Isabel Tambriz Tambriz by Asociación ASDIR in Guatemala. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 10 months of this loan, Asociación ASDIR will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

$25 bucks right? You're thinking cheapskate right? Well, me too. To me, $25 is a medium range dinner out with my bride. To these folks, $25 may mean the difference in a bunch of families making a better life for themselves. No, its not just $25. They put my 25 together with other folks loans for maybe $900.

I already got an email update from them about the loan. Pretty cool way to spend $25.

Check it out for yourself. They make one loan every 12 seconds. I like it. If you decide to sign up, tell em I sent you.

thanks,

de

Some Good News Today

My last blog was about some school folks who had been taken to court by the ACLU for praying, allegedly at school sponsored events. Here's a report today that one of the court cases has been dismissed. There's always some good news if you keep looking for it.

ACLU's 'rock-solid' anti-prayer case crumbles

One of three Florida school officials accused of violating a court order forbidding prayer in school has been exonerated.

Santa Rosa County School District clerical assistant Michelle Winkler has had her day and court and has come out victorious. Winkler was accused of violating a court order that banned school officials from participating in religious activities on campus before, during, and after school hours when she asked her husband who is not employed by the school district to offer prayer at an event.

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Think Our Nation is in Trouble?

Here's a story you may not see in the headlines too much but it certainly signals the direction our nation is headed. It's not good news folks but it is the reality of where we are living now. Shall we pray!

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Florida Principal, Athletic Director Could Go to Jail for Prayer Before Lunch at School

Saturday, August 15, 2009

A principal and an athletic director in Florida could be charged with crimes and spend six months in jail after they prayed before a meal at a school event, the Washington Times reported.

Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman will go on trial in federal district court Sept. 17. They're accused of violating the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the Times.

Local pastors and some students and teachers are outraged that Lay and Freeman face criminal charges, and they have protested during graduation ceremonies, the newspaper said.

"I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I've never had to defend somebody who has been charged criminally for praying," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Christian-based legal group that is defending the two school officials.

Another First - A 100th Birthday Party

My family and I get to enjoy another first this weekend. We begin traveling today, most of us, to Muskogee to attend a 100th birthday party for one of the sweetest ladies to ever walk the planet, Ruth. I first met Ruth not too long after I first met Kim's family. Although technically she's not a part of Kim's family, in reality she has been for many, many years. Kim's parents first met Ruth when they moved to Muskogee right after they were married. That was more than 60 years ago now. If I have the story right they rented a small place from Ruth and her husband and well the rest is history. Ruth introduced them to the Lord and the church. Kim's dad went on to serve as elder for many years. When my bride was born Ruth was there. When my daughter was born, Ruth was there and we gave her Ruth's middle name. When our first son was born, Ruth was there. She's Kims 3rd grandma but holds a place as dear as any blood family. She's been loving me and sharing with my family from the day we met. She's a person of beauty, wisdom, grace, and love. What a privilege it will be to celebrate such an occasion with her and all who know her. I don't think she thought, nor did we, that she would make 100 years but the Lord keeps her here. She embodies everything I think a "saint" should be. She won't read this I'm sure but thought you might want to know how blessed we have been to have Ruth in our lives. Happy Birthday Ruth. And many more........

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Freeware Update

I did a blogpost almost two months ago about PC health and freeware. In that blog I boasted that I never have any real problems nor have I been hacked. Today's update is to report I was hacked but you already know that if you're a regular reader. I had to add a program to my PC to address malware. So today I report an updated list of popular freeware. As I said before, get it, use it, and update it regular. The link is from PC Pitstop updated the last part of July. I currently used all of the top 7 and recently added Malwarebytes anti malware.

#1 Mozilla Firefox - browser
#2 Ccleaner - system cleaner
#3 AVG antivirus - duh
#4 Real Player - video player
#5 Spybot - anti-malware
#6 Ad-Aware - anti-malware
#7 Skype - VOIP
#8 VLC Media Player
#9 Open Office
#10 Avast Antivirus
#11 Malwarebytes Anti-malware

Sounds like a lot to keep up with and it is regular but many of them are a must, especially if you use freeware.

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Bragging Once in Awhile

In the grand scheme of things my highest priority is trying to become a better disciple of Jesus. It's a day to day work and a life long work as well. Some days are certainly better than others but I wake up every day thankful for the fact that God loves me and is at work in my life. Right behind that relationship comes my family, my lovely bride of almost 30 years (come Dec), yes dear I remember. When she married me my folks were thrilled, (I was getting a terrific upgrade) but her folks...well lets just say they were not quite as thrilled...and probably with good reason. But again, through faith, she believed the Lord still loved me and through Him there was hope...for her, for me, for us. Our journey in trying to follow Him and let Him lead has been nothing short of amazing. I suppose that's why He called us to "have faith," not in what you can see but faith in the One who is leading. Boy is that hard. She works so hard, trying to help so many teachers and students to have a better education. She pays a hard price physically to travel and to do what she does. But deep down she does it because its what she feels she's called to do.

Right there in line on my list of priorities has been my kids. Raising kids is certainly a blessed part of God's adventure in growing, learning, and having faith. Now that they're all grown into adults, the family thing takes on a different light but still another part of the journey of faith, of prayer, and of hope. So today, I'll take a moment to brag once in awhile about my kids.

Our daughter married her ideal life mate, a creative, intelligent, loving, yet sometimes strange, God-fearing man who makes her laugh and helps her learn to not take life so seriously. Why is that important, because she does take life pretty serious, along with the fact that she's a seriously talented, gifted, and compassionate soul, sometimes to her detriment. Thanks J for loving her, making her laugh, and for letting her pursue her passions. For her, her passions lie smack in the middle of her creativity, her photography, her cakes, her friends, her love for children, and family and the Lord as well. If you haven't checked out her stuff online, let me suggest you do. Here's a link to a photo she did recently for a book that's coming out for an singer named Joe Pernice. Pretty cool and worthy checking out.

Our first son married the love of his life too. He says that he fell for her the very first time he saw her and I understand why. She's totally supportive to him in every way that I know of. She stays home and pinches pennies so that she can stay home and raise those two beautiful grandsons of mine that she bore. Thanks Al? What more could you ask? Not to mention that they too continue to look for the Lord's direction for their family as disciples. He's got the vocation and responsibility of someone much older and shoulders it all very well it seems. I know it can't be easy. When I see him as a dad, how good he is with his boys, how much he loves his wife, and how he works for them, I can't help but wonder where it came from? Must've come from his mom, thank goodness.

Our youngest is different yet from his older siblings. Kim's grandma used to say that she had 13 and that they were all completely different personalities. I certainly believe it. J hasn't found the love of his life yet. (He seems to be on a temporary hold). He's not quite through with all the schooling he wants to get, and yet I know I am as proud of him as I am of the other two. He's faced some major obstacles in his life from early on that the other didn't face. School was a struggle for J but with lots of help from his mom and good teachers he learned to forge ahead, work at it, to get through it and succeed. He shares some his sisters bent for always wanting to help folks and doing so, maybe sometimes when he shouldn't. But that's who he is, the people person I am not. He connects with folks in a way that is surely a gift from God and they connect with him almost as quickly. He is a special soul and I can't wait to see what all God has in store for Him. I know he'll find it and am proud of where he's going.

Well, enough bragging for now. I can't recall the last time I did. We ought to all brag once in awhile when the opportunity comes or at least tell those we love how proud we are of them. None of us do that enough. Besides, the whole reason we can be proud is because, God is good.

why not try it on someone today?
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