Happy 13th Anniversary, Jenny!

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Today is our 13th wedding anniversary!! Feels like it was just yesterday when we got married and came down here to Florida for our honeymoon. Jenny has really been everything to me over the last 17 or so years!! I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have her to share my life with!! She understands me when others don’t seem to get me at all. She is able to “translate” for me all of the time.

We are going to have a romantic evening out for dinner somewhere with the boys tomorrow night! Ha! I hope we will be able to have many, many more years together as we start this new adventure in Carthage together!

I love you Jenny! Happy Anniversary!!

Taylor’s Travelogue–June 23

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We got a well needed night’s rest last night, but not near enough as the boys were up WAY TOO EARLY for vacation time!! But, who can blame them as they were so excited to go to the beach and “see the fish.” We slowly got ourselves around and ate breakfast in the condo and ventured out to see about a boat tour to Shell Island. We took the Capt. Anderson III to look at the dolphins and go to a beautiful beach on Shell Island. There was an alligator at the dock on Shell Island called “George.” He was right next to the dock when we pulled in and stayed right by the boat the whole time! Pretty amazing. The captain said that we needed to stay on the boardwalks to the other side of the island where the beach was because of the alligators and such. He said, “alligators can travel up to 35 MPH on land and the only way you can get away from him is to outrun your friend!” That’s probably in the Florida tour guide’s Jokebook, 3rd Edition! Absolutely beautiful beach there on shell island. We also saw several dolphins on the way to and from the island. We also saw some people feeding the dolphins from their boats. That is a $10K fine . . . obviously not enough to deter these folks!

Got back to the condo and the three boys went to the pool while mom got the dinner started. I switched off with her and grilled out steaks! We had a really good meal . . . and we didn’t have to fight the crowds at a restaurant and it only cost us a fraction of what it would somewhere around here. There was a guy on the boat tour that said, “I think everything here in Panama City Beach costs $40.” No doubt. Everything costs much more than normal . . . including eating out.

Here is Taylor’s Travelogue for today . . .

Today I went to a dock and rode a boat ride. It was fun! I found seashells. We found an alligator in the bay by the dock. His name was George and he was ten feet long. I saw a baby fish in the ocean. I was sea sick on the the trip to Shell Island. I also saw a jellyfish on the side of the boat.

After that, we went to the pool. It was fun!

Will try to get some pictures up soon . . . left the camera at the condo!!

Taylor’s Travelogue–Sunday Morning, June 22nd

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We made our second and final leg of our trip to Panama City Beach, FL on Saturday. It was a LONG day in the van riding across the country. We had to have a couple of “unplanned pit stops” for Taylor on the side of the road!! (Gary and Fran, do you remember those on our trip to Montreal??) Actually, the boys did really well for how long of a trip it was! We got in to Panama City Beach just after dark, so we didn’t get to see the ocean until this morning when we woke up!

Here is Taylor’s Travelogue entry from his journal . . .

We are in Florida!! It took 10 hours. It was no fun, but it was worth it! It is our first day in Florida! We are having fun already! We went to the ocean! It was fun!

Here are some pics of our trip down through Birmingham to Panama City.

We ate at a McDonald’s in Birmingham that was decorated for Miles Davis. Don’t know if he was from there or what, but there was a modern art deal at our table. Tucker called the trumpets, “TUBAS!” He wasn’t taking trumpet for an answer at ALL!! So to keep the peace, they are tubas buddy!

There is also an Ozark, Alabama. The kids thought that was really funny!

We got up to a wonderful view of the ocean from our condo (thanks to Katie’s parents!!) We ventured down to the ocean for a bit before heading to one of the largest Wal-Mart’s I have ever seen in my life. Talk about turning some merchandise over–wow! They were all OUT of vanilla ice cream!! All brands except Blue Bell (expensive) and fat free, sugar free (are you kidding me . . . this is vacation man!!) The beach road is like Hwy 76 in Branson, except much less “family friendly” in places. You’ve got to get good at changing the subjects when some places come by!!

We prayed for Finley Crossings today as one of my mentors, Dr. States Skipper spoke today at CFC about change. I am looking forward to the podcast on that for sure!!

Better go, the Panera Bread Co. people are wondering why Taylor and I haven’t ordered anything!!

Taylor’s Travelogue–Friday, June 20

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We left for our trip to Florida on Friday, June 20th after the routine old change before the trip, running to the bank, etc., etc., etc.

Here is Taylor’s journal entry for our first leg of the trip to Memphis, TN. . .

We saw Elvis’s and B.B. King’s statue. It was fun! We saw the front of the Peabody Hotel, where the ducks walk through the lobby. We didn’t get to see any ducks though, bummer!

I saw a crane. It was big!

We ate at Neely’s Bar-B-Que and a lady tripped and fell and probably sued them. The BBQ was really good because we had a long trip and were VERY tired and HUNGRY! We got back to the hotel and it was 11:00 p.m. and we went to sleep.

Here is a gallery of the photos from Day 1 of our journey to Florida ? including some B.B. King worship action and serious BBQ eating!!

Crazy week of Realtors and Tornado Warnings

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We had a really interesting week of lots of storms in Ozark. We met with our Realtor on Tuesday morning and therefore I had a LOT of work to do to get our house ready to be put on the market. We really like our realtor . . . she is a real go-getter and is going to do a good job for us!

I dodged the rainstorms and power-washed and stained our deck . . . tell me again why we make our houses look awesome BEFORE we sell them?? We are really bummed that we are having to sell our house! Getting it all shinned up really reminds us why we moved there in the first place! I’m sure someone is going to really love it just like we have over the years!

Back to the Realtors and Tornado Warnings. . .

We had a meeting to finalize the listing and papers on Thursday afternoon. While we were meeting with our realtor, the skies opened up and dumped a TON of rain and hail. Then it started blowing–REALLY HARD . . . and then in a “circular” manner! Needless to say, we turned off the Cardinals/Royals game on cable and turned in on to ol’ Ron “body bag” Hurst and the KY3 weather show. Basically, they said the tornado was right over our heads . . . and looking out the windows, I wouldn’t doubt that information. Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out by the whole situation. I guess we wouldn’t have had to finish this paperwork to SELL our house and begin some other paperwork with our insurance company after our house is hit by a TORNADO!!

Needless to say, we don’t have a storm shelter or basement . . . so David, Jenny, and our realtor are sitting in our bathroom waiting out the storm!! Man, what a sight . . . our realtor and Jenny sitting in the bathtub with big pillows all around!! Man, I wish we had our camera!!

All said and done, we got our house listed and we got all of the painting, scrubbing, and packing for vacation done and left on Friday for vacation! Yeah!

We will blog more this week as we have internet access! Actually, Taylor is going to be starting a new blog category on Stone’s Throw called “Taylor’s Travelogue.” He is keeping a journal of our journeys to Florida and our transition to Forest Park Carthage! We are really proud of our Taylor boy! He is really good at math,science and reading (much like his uncle Tad!!) but can work on his writing–this is a perfect way to do that!! We are going to be uploading some pictures of our journey as well! Enjoy!!

“Oh, people will come. They will most definitely come!”

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I once did a speech at Missouri State on one of the greatest movies of all time–Field of Dreams. If you haven’t seen it, crawl out from under your rock and watch it on TBS or rent it sometime!! The movie is all about family and the great game–BASEBALL. And yes, I totally recited James Earl Jones’ monologue about the greatness of baseball! It was definitely a piece of work indeed!

I say all that to say that Tucker, Taylor and I went by the ol’ alma mater Kickapoo High School on Tuesday night to watch the Ozark Tigers thump my Kickapoo Chiefs in the baseball sectional game. We are planning on going to the quarterfinal game against Holt in Ozark tonight! There is nothing better than being able to watch Taylor enjoy this great game and root hard for his teams! Go Tigers!

Also on the baseball note, my buddy Kurt Simon’s son plays varsity baseball for Rogersville who are also in a quarterfinals against Webb City. Hopefully we will have a great representation of very local teams at the Final Four at Meador Park in Springfield next week!! Good luck Tigers and Wildcats!!

P.S.–Taylor boy won the pop fly contest at the end of practice on Monday!! All that practice in the front yard is paying off buddy!! He won a pack of baseball cards! One of my good friends in high school, Kent Greve, is the coach and my former co-coach, Dan Kennedy, myself and several dads are helping Kent out. It is really fun to get to hang out with high school friends that have kids the same age. We won’t hold it against Dan that he didn’t have the blessing to go to Kickapoo and had to endure being a Glendale Falcon!! Just kidding Dan! Not!!

Relay for Life

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Straight Up!, our student ministry decided to help to raise a ton of money to defeat cancer by walking in the Relay for Life at Hillcrest High School in Springfield on Friday night. Jenny was at the “Scrap ‘n Yap” at church, so the Stone boys decided to come out and support our students and walk with them at the Relay for Life. Here are some pics of the gang:

Friday is for FLYING!!

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Tucker and I were out riding bikes. OK, I was sitting reading while he was riding his bike on the sidewalk and a huge Army helicopter kept circling our neighborhood. (I think it looks like a UH-60 Series Black Hawk combat assault helicopter. John, maybe you and your aircraft expertise could help a brother out on this one!)

Finally, the circle got smaller and smaller and it landed in Taylor’s elementary school field. Tuck and I couldn’t help ourselves, so we drove up to the school to see everything. While we were there watching the Army helicopter, the Cox Health Med-evac Helicopter landed right next to the Army helicopter. Way cool for the kids to get to climb up in and on the helicopters! There was also the Keebler Elf and 18 wheeler, concrete mixer truck, ambulance, fire engine, limousine. Must be a vehicle Field Day, huh? Way cool opportunity for the kiddos.

Here are some pics from Tuck and my “covert ops”:

Friday is for Family

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Here are some pictures of the devastation left from the tornado that came through Racine and Seneca.? My aunt Carolyn’s husband Ed’s family lives down there and one of their houses was totally destroyed. Here are some pictures of their house.

Please be in prayer for those who are picking up the pieces of their lives and especially for those who are having funerals this week. Pray also for those pastors as they help lead those communities to the Lord’s peace through this tragedy.

Grab a tissue on this one!

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Take a look at this video of what Perry Noble’s church, NewSpring did for Mother’s Day. Better get a tissue as well!