Friday is for Family . . . and Friends . . . and Fun

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We got the opportunity to get away to Branson for a couple of nights so that we could go to, as Tucker calls it “Dollar City.”? My mom and dad have, since we have been back in the area, have given us season passes to Silver Dollar City for our Christmas gifts.? The boys really love the rides, especially the train.

Plus, our friend Brian works at the Noah show down here in Branson.? He saw my Facebook status the other night about heading to Branson and immediately emailed me and offered us four tickets to see his show tonight!? Stinking cool!? So we are going to have a great day!

We will be heading out to “dollar city” here in a bit, but I wanted to show off some pics of the boys.

Notice a few things: the Cars fleece blanket was made by Grandma Betty last Christmas for Taylor (Tucker has a Thomas the Tank Engine fleece), and especially “Baby, the teddy bear.”? Baby has not been with Tucker since he had a terrible day on Monday and got ALL of his animals taken from him!? I’m sure that you all have some great stories about that kind of thing!? Anyway, we had a reunion of sorts this morning, so Tucker is happy!

So do you all have some stories of being grounded from stuffed animals?

Who’d of thunk it!

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Who would have thought that we would be excited about $2.17 per gallon gas? Must be election time (the synic inside of me thinks that’s the reason anyway!)

I remember my first tank of gas to fill up my first little car. I spent $0.75 per gallon and it cost less than a $20 bill to fill it up.

What did your first tank of gas cost?

Maple Leaf Parade

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Wow, what a day!? We had an awesome time at the Maple Leaf Parade this morning walking in the parade.? All the guys that put up the float did an awesome job building our stage (with trussing) and cafe (with tables and chairs).? Aaron Stockton, Forest Park’s media director (former Carthage tech director) was the brainchild of a float that would give people an idea of our church with a “different” kind of float.? We didn’t want to be just like every other float in the parade.? We were a real hit heading down the road with our live “show.”? We handed out a TON of “experience the difference” cards and expect to have a really good day tomorrow with lots of guests!? Here is a youtube video of the parade on television:

The embedding is turned off on the YouTube, so here is the link to the video.

I am so proud of our team!? They did an awesome job with everything from the construction to the smiles on their faces on the parade route!? It was cool to hear some good props from the hosts on the telecast.? Great job Forest Park Carthage!? You guys rock!

I’m a Believer too!

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Stratton has been talking all about Hackett’s Hot Wings like crazy for the last two weeks, so I decided we needed to check them out as well.? Jenny and I both LOVE hot wings (well not necessarily HOT wings, but you get the point!)

We were definitely not disappointed with the experience!? We loved everything . . . the building, the food, the atmosphere!

What is your favorite party/tailgate food? (Gary Daily will say “smoked wings” from the Filling Station in KC!)

Here are some pics of us hanging out at Hacketts.? Enjoy.

The tooth fairy

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Taylor went to our new dentist this Tuesday and came away with NO cavities! He has been really slow at losing his baby teeth. He had one lose tooth that started coming out this weekend. Then he lost two teeth in one day yesterday!

Here is the note that he had his mom leave fir the tooth fairy. (He made Jenny do it because he lost (literally) the second tooth somewhere between church and home…therefore he needed a credible source to varify that he did indeed lose two teeth!) I think the cost of living has effected the Tooth Fairy’s fee schedule–I think I only got like a quarter per tooth…Taylor got a dollar!

How much did you get per tooth? Any good tooth fairy stories?

PAUSE: Stop. Learn. Live.

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We have started our Generations Campaign last weekend and we are SO excited about what God is going to do over the next 6 weeks in growing our faith!? One of the awesome things about this spiritual growth campaign is a 40 Day Prayer and Devotional Guide.? We actually have started a website that you can go to and comment on each day about what the Lord is teaching you.? We believe this is going to be a very powerful tool for us as a church family.

Check out the “pretty” format that looks like the paperback books on our website here.? You can also check out our new website called “PAUSE:? Stop. Learn. Live.” On that site you will also be able to learn more about a daily reading plan, how to journal, how to fast, etc.? The daily reading portion will be up and in full swing after our 40 days of prayer and devotions are over with the Generations campaign.

We will continue a daily reading program after our 40 days of Generations prayer and devo is completed.

Don’t starve!? Feed yourself!? Grab a Bible, a pen, a journal, and a Generations Devo (or hop online) and join us on this adventure to spiritual maturity!

Tuesday is for Training

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Mark Dinwiddie has been sending us Multisite/Missions Nuggets of Truth each week for a couple of months now and I am starting a new category of them so you can talk about them and comment.

We have really been talking about that dirty word for perfectionists, DELEGATE.? Enjoy.

You have two choices in your work.? When something has been assigned to you, you can either do it yourself or get someone else to do it.? Your ability to get someone else to do it, to delegate it effectively??? —more than anything else— is going to determine your career track, your position and rate of promotion, your pay, your status, prestige, and success in management.? (The Delights of Delegation)
?I owe whatever success I have attained, by and large, to my ability to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am? Andrew Carnegie

I once had one of my dad’s best friends, “work himself out of a job.”? He had worked for this company back before he retired and hired on with another company doing consulting.? Basically, he delegated all of the work to be done by the company employees that he was no longer needed–and he could go back to traveling in his retirement!

Who do you know that is a good delegator?? What makes them good at it?? What prevents you from delegating the way you ought?

Wow, what a weekend!

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We have had a crazy busy and productive weekend so far!? Tucker and Jenny went to Springfield on Friday so Jenny could do an inservice training for the Elementary music teachers in Springfield Public Schools–she’s so stinking talented and smart it’s pretty amazing she hangs out with a schmuck like me!! While they were gone, I took the opportunity to fix the brakes on my car that were about 3 weeks overdue and the rotors showed!? Thanks to my friend Devin Bobbett for helping me change my first set of brakes probably about 7 years ago.? I have always tried to repair them since then after I found out how “easy” it is.? There is always something that goes wrong when I try to do anything it seems.? This time, I stripped out some screws and had to go get some screw extrators from the store to finally get the brakes repaired.? Of course, I had to put the old brakes back on, go to O’Reilly’s and then come back and finish them.? I finally got them fixed at about midnight last night. Henry (our new puggle) and I went to pick up Taylor after school and decided to go to the pet store to get some stuff for the dog.? The pet store has another puggle for sale and the girl was really pushing hard for us to get another to keep Henry company.? Funny thing happens–Henry poops right in the store–while Taylor is supposed to be watching him on the leash!? I told the girl, “see I’ve got one that poops all over the place, I don’t need another!” Jenny and Tucker got home and we went to eat at the Ranch House.? We walked in and saw our good friend Kent Doyle and the Ozark High School varsity girls softball team that was in a tournament here in Carthage.? It was awesome getting to hang out with him for a bit.? Sweet people!? Taylor got to talk to Kaleb on the phone and Morgan got to talk to Jenny.? Pretty cool deal for everyone. Had our first CONVERGE this morning.? It went pretty well.? The next CONVERGE will be in January.? I am really excited about what God is going to do this fall through Forest Park Carthage! Went to Crosswalk tonight to hear John’s message “Dirty Jerseys.”? We are starting a spiritual growth campaign tomorrow called Generations.? It was an awesome message and I am really excited to see the response from our people tomorrow morning.? We have the potential to really reach a TON of people for Christ in the next decade or so through this campaign. The key verse is, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” Psalm 102:18.? Stratton, McBride and I went out on Thursday and shot some videos for our children’s ministry classes.? It was a lot of fun!? The best part is related to this verse. . . we have an opportunity in this campaign to reach people of the future generations by our faithfulness to get involved with God in this generation!? I am excited that we are helping Taylor and Tucker’s generation to have a great facility here in Carthage.? My hope and prayer is that they will in turn, because of our example, build His Church for their future generations!? I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this campaign!? Fasten your seatbelts.