Well we’ve hit the ground and we’re off!

Let me just recount the happenings of Saturday and Sunday…

Saturday

Started off well as I set about to mow the lawn. The lawnmower wouldn’t start though, but being the mechanically minded fellow that I am, I immediately noticed the spark plug was broken so I set about to fix it. In the process a bee, unprovoked, stung my hand. Anyhow, I went and got the parts to fix the mower (a sparkplug and a tension spring for the choke). I came back and fixed it… only it still wouldn’t start!

I contacted a mower repair shop and they said they’d check it out. I set out on the journey… but got lost in the process with consequently made me late, arriving after closing time. I dropped the mower off to be picked up the first part of this week. In the meantime my grass is growing longer… I promise you, my neighbors, that if I don’t soon get it cut, I’ll get a goat! 😉 On the way home, I got lost again.

Finally I arrived at home and began washing the vehicles, only to discover that somewhere in my travels I had run over a large piece of steel which thoroughly trashed (aka flattened) my tire! I called AAA and they sent a man out to find my spare and replace the flattened tire! I swear, we have the ugliest spare tire I’ve ever seen!

While all of this was happening “The Ladies” were visited by two 9 or 10 year old boys in our backyard! Believe me, the hackles on my neck were up as I stood in the basement staring out the window at these mini-predators. I’m not sure how I’m going to do with older boys wanting to play with my girls.

Back to the tires… I limped over to Wal-Mart to get the tire fixed. The Wal-Mart boys broke it to me easy, “Sir, you’re gonna need four new tires.” #%^%^%_)(*(&^&@!@ I didn’t want to make that decision there, because I wanted to do some price checking first, so I limped back home.

When I got home, “The Ladies” ran up to me and said, “Daddy! We’ve got a surprise for you! We have some pet worms!” Now considering the fact that my girls are currently in a “Let’s catch a bug and make him a pet” phase, I wasn’t too worried, until I asked where they’d found them. They told me they’d found their new pets in Sadie’s (our dog) poop! That means two things: 1) my girls were digging in poop, and 2) my dog has worms!

As Sherri was relaying this to her mom, her mother looked in a medical book she has and said, “You realize that it’s quite possible that because they touched these worms, they too may get them!” That means that not only does my dog have worms, but my girls might too!

As you can imagine, I wanted to end this day. So I went to bed.

Sunday

Sunday we made it to Origins Church, a church that meets in a theater and is pastored by Scotty Neal.

After church, we ate at Skyline and then ran over to Krogers to pick up some groceries. After we came out, my run of good luck continued… the ignition on my van locked up and the key would not turn! We spent 15-20 minutes turning on it until FINALLY it turned! I took it home and, again applying my mechanical abilities, removed the ignition barrel from the steering column!

So now I’ve got my van torn apart with a flat tire… my mower in the shop… my dog with worms… my kids may have worms… and a handful of little romeos wanting to play with my princesses…

So here’s what I’m going to do:

I’m going to learn how to fix my van…

I’m going to tell the romeos that my girls have worms…

I’m going to enjoy my new pet… a goat!

OK, one quick lesson and I’m outa here:

Sometimes life sucks. That’s not great for motivational reading, but it’s just the way it is. Here’s what I know though: God loves me. My wife loves me. Lexington, Reagan, Dallas, and Ashton love me. I am called by God to lead people to Himself through Walls Down church. I get to serve in ministry with some great people… Rindy Walton and her guys. Some day I’ll read this post and it’ll provide for a good laugh. I am not discouraged and I am not quitting!

One of my favorite verses puts it like this, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16).

It’s Monday, I’m back on my feet and I’m not discouraged!