Family Hiking

The last two Saturdays, Cheryl, Nathanael and I have gone hiking.  It has been a blast!

Last week, we went up to Clarksville, GA and climbed to the top of Pine Mountain to the David G. Archer overlook.  It was incredibly beautiful. (See my previous post for details.)

This weekend we went to Sweetwater Creek State Park.  It was also very cool.  There's some Civil War era mill ruins right on the creek.  The "red" trail, a nice walk to the ruins, is rated "easy".  After the ruins, the trail ramps up to "difficult" as it runs parallel to the creek.  There's quite a bit of rough terrain on this part of the trail as it leads to a small waterfall.  From there we took the "blue" trail back.  Of course, Nathanael thought it would be good to run again.

We're finding it's a great way to get outside, have family time, AND exercise.  We're loving it.

Let Us Pray

This afternoon, I called my almost-four-year-old over and said, "Grab my hand...now grab momma's.  We're gonna pray..."

I closed my eyes and started to pray, and he said, "Wait, Daddy!  I want to pray!"  Then he closed his eyes, and said, "Lord Jesus..."

"Nathanael, if you want to pray first, you should just ask, not interrupt."

He opened his eyes and looked at me for a second, then closed them again, "Lord Jesus..."

"Nathanael..."

He just plowed ahead, "Lord Jesus..."

"Nathanael.  Listen to me.  We've talked about interrupting before.  Just ask if you want to pray."

"Okay.  Lord Jesus"  Pause.  "What are we praying about?"

Irrevocable

Last week a friend of mine was in a minor fender bender. He's fine - just sore and embarrassed. You see, he rear-ended someone today because he was trying to look at an email on his cell phone. I'm just glad no one was hurt more.

It got me thinking about the irreversible decisions we make in life. Most decisions don't fall into this category. "Should I wear this shirt or that?" probably won't affect your future. But other decisions do.

Some are obvious big decisions:

"Should I go to this college or that?", "Should I marry this person?" or even: "Should I go out with this person?"

But some don't seem too big on the surface:

"Should I go to so-and-so's house tonight?", "Should I try to pull out now, or wait a little longer?"

For my friend, "I can glance at this email" turned into "My car is totaled and I got a ticket" in a split second.

I remember when I totaled my parent's car. I just looked at it and thought, "There's no going back. No sweeping it under the rug. No apology will repair it. It's just gone."

Other times the only action involved in an irrevocable decision is saying something. There are no take-backs in real life. And even though we can usually get forgiveness for something we shouldn't have said, we can't always expect the person to FORGET what we said. Some times a decision to say something can "total" our lives or the lives of those around us.

I guess this is just a reminder to us all (including myself) to be intentional in what we say and what we do. Let's happen to life, instead of life happening to us.

A New Post

I haven't really written anything (original) since November 16th. That's a long time. I did a bunch of re-runs through the holidays, and my last two posts were about my sister Teresa passing away.

I said in my last post that I might share my thoughts about her. You know what? I've changed my mind. I think I'll just say this: She was loved, and even though she's gone from this earth, I still love her, miss her, and I expect to see her again someday. My other thoughts I'll just treasure and keep close to my heart.

Superbowl Sunday....go Cowboys!!

A Promised Post

I promised a couple of weeks ago that I would post some more of the things that were shared at my sister's funeral. Don't worry! This isn't going to be a "downer". Hopefully the words will encourage you.

The following are excerpts from what my sister's friend Nancy shared.

----------

Life is about two things: relationships and memories.

Relationships:

• Teresa was the master craftsman of relationships & handy as a shirt pocket!
• She never met a stranger. At F.O.R. (Friends of the River), Teresa was the "meeter & greeter". For example, she would walk in to our breakfasts, look around and head directly to the new faces. She had the ability to make everyone feel special.
  
• In order to get to know someone, you have to spend time with them - Teresa loved people - All people and she loved spending time with them. She transcended circles and was comfortable with folks from all walks of life.
• You always knew exactly where you stood with her, because she would tell you!
• With her big smile, bright eyes and bubbly spirit, she would light up a room and make you feel right at home.

Memories:

• We met Teresa and Neal when Vanessa brought them to one of the F.O.R. Organizing Committee meetings in early 2006. She was a handpicked "worker-bee". Teresa had a passion for the river and was F.O.R.'s most devoted volunteer with her "can-do" positive attitude. Teresa was "Friends of the River".
• Travis (Teresa's son) purchased a new car on-line from Iraq and it was delivered to Teresa and Neal's house. Teresa drove it at least once a week to keep the battery charged. We typically rode together to yoga and one Tuesday she picked me up in Travis' car... This car is a HOT, good-looking car, a real "Man's Machine" ---RUMMMMM, RUMMMM! I jumped in and away we went...it felt like we were really moving and she looked at me and said, "and we're only going 35!" We laughed! Well, we pulled up for class and our yoga teacher ran out of the building because she heard the RUMMMM, RUMMMM. Teresa said, "Hop in, let's go for a ride" and away we went. We headed down 521 and you would have thought we were teenagers..."young and dumb" all over again. We laughed till our sides hurt with tears streaming down our faces! What a great memory!
• Teresa would occasionally call me when we were both driving to work and she would always start the conversation singing one of her songs; depending on the day it was either "Marvelous Monday", "Terrific Tuesday"...or her "Fabulous Friday" song.
• Every morning she prayed for Travis' safety, peace for F.O.R., and for her family. Among other things, she asked God to help her be a blessing to someone that day.
• Teresa was the ultimate peace-maker. she tried to make everything okay!
• We've lost a mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend, but we've gained a guardian angel.

----------

Here's a link to a nice tribute that F.O.R. did for Teresa.

Well, now that you've read what others had to say about my sister, maybe next time I'll share my thoughts.

My Sister

Most of you know that my sister Teresa was diagnosed with lung cancer about a year and a half ago. In fact, I posted several updates on my blog about her status, including some letters from her.

After her first round of chemo, things looked pretty good, and it seemed that she might have beaten the odds. Sadly, the cancer came back with a vengeance, and on December 20th, she passed away quietly in the early hours of the morning with her loved ones by her side.

She was much loved by everyone who knew her. My mom asked if I wanted to speak at the

funeral, but I knew that I couldn't do it. It turns out, I didn't need to. Two of her friends shared their reflections on Teresa and her life. They did a fantastic job. I couldn't have added one thing.

Below is what the owner of the company that she worked at for 15+ years had to say. I'll try to post the other one in the future. If you have a couple of minutes, whether you knew Teresa or not, read the transcript below and get just a glimpse of who my wonderful sister was.

----------

My name is Anthony Alexander and if I were to be introduced to you by Teresa, she would introduce me as her Boss. But if you ever spent any time at my office you would quickly figure out that Teresa was really the Boss at Brazos Fasteners. The rest of us just got out of the way and did what we were told.

When Susan called the other day and told me that the family wanted someone from the office to speak here to today my immediate response was NO WAY. You see I am the guy who can't make it through an episode of Biggest Loser without crying. But then I got to thinking about what Teresa would do if I were asked to speak at someone else's funeral. I would walk into my office like I have done for the past 17 years and say Teresa I need your help and like million times before she would stop what she was doing and immediately come to my rescue. She would pull up a chair to my desk and Say in her Teresa way “Here I am boss what can do to help?” I would explain what I needed and she would, without even a breath of thought, convince me that I could do it, and she would help me make it be the best speech ever. We would spend the next however long helping me write the perfect words on paper all the while she would be convincing me that I would be able to get up and deliver those words like the most eloquent orator of all Time! And when it came time to deliver she would be while standing in the back

of the audience gleaming with pride and cheering every me on with her smile.

When Teresa and I first meet I was a Skinny little 19yr old kid with a wife and and kid, scared out of my mind as to how I was going to make ends meet. After 17yrs with her by my side giving me every ounce of energy she could give. She helped create a thriving business, not to mention put a little weight on me. I would like to share with you a piece of Teresa through my eyes. You see, Teresa’s desk and mine were about five feet apart so as you can imagine I got to see a lot.

The one thing that I saw everyday from Teresa and the one thing that stood out the most was LOVE. No one I have ever met in my life knew how to Love more than Teresa. And to be honest, it scared me to death. I am much more reserved when it comes to all of the lovey-dovey stuff and when this fireball from Sweeny Texas came into my life, boy was I in for a real live roller coaster ride. I watched her love every customer, every vendor, every employee, the mailman, the ups man, and she not only genuinely loved them, she Hugged Them TOO!!! And it did not take her long to start huggin me! That took me a long time to get used to. But when

I got used to all the ickyness of huggin, I realized that is what made her so special. When you hugged Teresa it was like no other. She had a way of holding on just long enough, where you could almost feel her heart.

The four people that I enjoyed watching her hug the most were her son Travis and my three children. Every time the four of them came into our office I watched Teresa wrap them up in her octopus arms and deposit a little piece of her heart into their soul.

Teresa is going to be missed . We will never be able to replace her, nor would we begin to try. But she will always be with us. Take it from me, I have a lot of experience, if you were one of the lucky people that got to experience a “Teresa Hug” then she left a piece of her inside of you!

----------

Thanks for everyone's kind words and continued prayer for my family.

Thankfully 2009

Last year, I wrote a little post called "Thankfully...". This year, back by popular demand (not really, I just decided to do it), is this year's "Thankfully" post. Come to think of it, only one section changed. Interesting.

My thankful lists, by category:

Biggees:
My wife
My son
My family
My friends
My church
My job
My home
My health

Random:
Laptops

Pimento Cheese

Gas Grills

MS-SQL

Rebooting

Droid

Good books

Prolific authors

Pickles

Recliners

Elastic

Comic books

Netflix

(last, but not least)
Spiritual:
The Cross
Grace
Mercy
A God Who Loves Me

The Big City

So, for 13+ years, we lived in Tyler, Texas. Tyler is what I call a big town/small city. Last I heard, the population was slightly over 100,000. It's a great place to live, and we still have lots of friends there.

For the past 2.83 years, we've lived in the Marietta area, just northwest of Atlanta. It's actually a lot like Tyler. Similar weather, similar mixture of commercial/residential real estate, both near a large metro area. Like I've already said, Marietta is just northwest of Atlanta, and Tyler is near the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.

In fact, one of the things that I always told people when extolling the virtues of Tyler was that it was just 90 minutes from Dallas. Culture, music, fine dining, all close enough to take in during a day trip. The only problem? We never did.

Okay, not never. We took a mini-vacation one time and hit the Dallas Aquarium and the West End. We went to two Ranger games and I took Cheryl to see some figure skating. But for the 13 years, we probably averaged 1 "cultural experience" every 3 years.

Now, after less than 3 years in Marietta/Atlanta, we've been to a Thrasher's games (pro hockey), to the Georgia Aquarium (twice for me, 3 times for Cheryl), the World of Coke, Underground Atlanta, seen two musicals at the Fox Theater, and a half dozen Braves games.

(We've also made a half dozen trips to Stone Mountain and a trip up to the mountains to go apple picking, but those places aren't in Atlanta, per se.)

So what's the difference? Do we have more disposable income? I don't think so. More time on our hands? That's funny. Maybe it's just a matter of accessibility.

So, to sum up:

Living near the big city is awesome, because there's a lot of cool things to do.

Thanks for reading. I think my next post will be called "Atlanta Traffic or a Root Canal...Which Would You Rather Have?"

An Important Phone Call

A couple of days ago, my wife called me just as I was about to go into a meeting. This is how the call went:

Wife: Do you have a second? Your son needs to talk to you.

Me: Yeah, I've got just a second. Put him on.

(Pause)

Son: Daaaddddyyy!

Me: What's wrong, little buddy?

Son: (Said through sobs) I was in the front yard, and I found a stick, and I picked it up, and then I went to the back yard, and Bonnie grabbed it, and Bonnie ate it.

Me: She did?

Son: Yeah, Bonnie ate it. She ate my stick.

Me: Don't worry. We can find another one.

Son: She ate it.

Me: I know, buddy. I'm sorry.

Taking the Month Off

So I'm taking the month of August off from the Hut. I've been a little under the weather this past week, and I think part of it is just from being tired.

Job #1 has been really busy for the past several months, and when you throw the second job on top of it, sometimes it's just hard to catch your breath. This weekend is my first full weekend off, and I am already loving it.

Had a great time last night! I did some puzzles in a brain teaser book and watched Jeopardy at the same time. Wild night.

Today, we cut my hair. Actually, I should say, shaved my hair. I haven't had it cut in years.

This afternoon, our church is doing a "Back to School Bash" in the parking lot for our community. We're giving away food, going to have some live music, fun stuff for the kids, etc. But the main thing thrust is that we are giving away a bunch of backpacks filled with the necessary school supplies. (That's actually my job, the handing out of the backpacks.)

It's going to be a lot of fun. It's from 4-8 tonight, so hopefully we'll miss most of the heat.

That's it. That's all I have to say. No clever quips or witty anecdotes. Just a little about my life right now.

You Can Count On Me

I think my son is pretty bright. He talks a lot (imagine that) and has a great vocabulary, though he still sounds like a 3 year-old. He learned his numbers, colors and alphabet early. Lately though, he's run into a problem now that he's trying to count to 20. Our conversations go something like this:

Me: Hey, buddy, can you count to 20 for me.

Him: Sure! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20!

Me: Careful! You missed a couple in there. Try it again.

Him: Okay! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20!

Me: Okay, Nathanael, repeat after me. 11...

Him: 11...

Me: 12...

Him: 14...

Me: Let's try it again...repeat me, say what I say...12...

Him: 12...

Me: 13...

Him: 14...

Me: Nathanael, say 13...

Him: 13...

Me: Try this, say 12, 13, 14...

Him: 12, 14, 15...

(Pause)

Me: Okay...what's your phone number?

Him: 770-413-2853...leave your name and number...

Reflections

The title's not talking about looking back to the past. It's referring to how our kids are such reflections of us.

My (almost) three-year-old son brought me one of my videos of the The Tick and asked if we could watch it. I told him that we could watch it as soon as I finished the blog that I was writing for Father's Day. Below is his reply. Verbatim.

"Okay! That would be a perfect plan! Fantastic!!"

Oh, where does he get such a flair for the dramatic? Gee...I don't know.

Father's Day, Part II

It just so happened that I started this blog in May of last year, so one of my earlier posts was on Father's Day about my dad. I've mentioned him a couple of times since then. And, since it is indeed Father's Day, I thought I would throw another little nugget out there.

Okay, two more stories about dad involving his reputation:

First Story:

I grew up in a small town. We had a sod farm, which meant we had several tractors. We not only had our own land, but we also leased land from several people. Often times, to get a tractor from one piece of property to another, we simply drove them. I've spent lots of hours driving tractors, forklifts, and other equipment down the highway.

On one such occasion, I stopped at a gas station and filled up the tractor I was driving with diesel. I topped off the tank, went inside...and realized I didn't have any money. No one was home, and this was WAY before the days of everyone carrying a cell phone.

So what did I do? Simple.

I went up to the counter and said, "I just filled up my tractor and realized I don't have my wallet. Can my dad stop by later and pay?"

"Aren't you Bobby Butler's son?"

"Yes."

"Sure. No problem."

Like I said, simple.

Second Story:

Another time a friend and I were going to go fishing in a little pond on one of the properties that we leased. As we were driving across the property toward the pond, a truck came barreling across the field towards us and pulled up next to my window. The following conversation occurred:

"What do you boys think you are doing?"

"We were gonna go fishing."

"Who told you could go fishing in my pond?"

"My dad said he didn't think you would mind..."

"Who the $%^& is your dad?"

"Bobby Butler."

"Oh...well...you boys go ahead."

And he drove off.

Needless to say, my friend and I were a little concerned from that exchange. We fished for maybe 10 minutes, but we felt so uncomfortable that we headed back to my house. When we arrived, the gentleman was already there, apologizing to my dad for using such colorful metaphors when talking to me.

My dad probably could not have quoted Proverbs 22:1 verbatim:

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

But he knew the truth of it, he believed it, and did his best to live it. He knew the asset and/or liability a man's (or woman's) reputation can be. His reputation around the small town that I grew up in was that he was a tough but fair, honest, hard-working man. His reputation around our home was that he rocked!

To My Mom

If you've read my blog before, you've probably seen some posts about my dad and the influence he has had in my life. But, of course, Dad was only half the equation while I was growing up.

I've mentioned my mom in a few posts, but without further ado, here's some additional thoughts and comments about my mom.

• The last time I was home for Thanksgiving there were 40 people at my Mom's house for lunch. I'm only related to 12 of them.
  
• My Mom once dressed up as a werewolf for my childhood Halloween party.
• My Mom and her friend spent hours creating handmade outfits for my sister's Barbie dolls. My sister found the box before Christmas.
• Mom made me a Ultraman costume out of paper-mache when I was a kid.
• She kept me out of school one day just to take me fishing.
• Likes to listen to Willie Nelson, Freddie Fender, and Metallica.
  
• Still likes to hear me play Greensleeves on the trumpet.
• Has her concealed handgun permit.
  
• She's an award winning cook.
• She has a HUGE Santa Claus collection that takes over the house every year at Christmas.
• She loves her family (and friends that she treats like family).
• Everyone is welcome in her house. My mother has never met a stranger, and really taught me how to love people.

I could go on and on, but for now I'm just going to say Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

A Fun Little Task

My son loves the movie Cars, so the other day when I was at Kroger picking up a few things I bought a Cars book for him. It was a very cool book. It was a pop-up book that had pop-up cars that popped out. AND, more importantly, it had a fold out racetrack in the back.

I knew the pop-up pop-out cars wouldn't last long, but I wasn't too worried. He has Hot Wheels that he prefers to play with anyway. But the racetrack was a different story. I didn't want that to get destroyed because he was having such fun with it.

I like to build stuff. I think it's fun. So I got the bright idea of making the racetrack into a table. My mom has a little table that's less than a foot high that she always pulls out for kids to play blocks on, etc. I thought that something along those lines would be perfect for this.

So I built a little table, took the map out of the back of the book, and mounted it on the table under plexiglass. Thanks Home Depot. It sits about 6 inches tall and measures about 18" X 30".

Cheryl tells me he played with it all day!

Fun for me and for him.

It's Been A While

Wow! I haven't posted since the other day. My family was gone to Texas for two weeks, and I kept myself pretty busy with "honey-do"s. Since they returned on Saturday we've just been playing catch-up.

So, if you have wondered if I had fallen off the face of the earth, the answer is no. First of all, it has been proven that the world is, in fact, round, and therefore has no face from which to fall. Secondly, I promised the other day to only post if I had something to say. Truthfully, I've been so busy I haven't had time to think about anything to say.

That being said, I have a few things I will probably be posting about in the next little bit.

1) Labels

2) Dreams

3) Other stuff

See you soon.

As You Wish

We interrupt our typically humorous blogcast for this important, somewhat serious, totally heartfelt, private service announcement...

---

You may have seen from a previous post that my wife (and son) were going to Texas for a couple of weeks. They've only been gone for 3 1/2 days, but tonight it got me thinking.

We've been married 15 years, and known each other for almost 18. I've known her longer than I can remember not knowing her, if that makes sense.

And you know, it's true what they say, that you don't always have those initial butterflies, that excitement you have as you begin a new relationship. But it's NOT true that you NEVER have them. I'm already anticipating next weekend when she returns. I admit that when I think about her coming home, I get a few Monarchs in my belly. I can't hardly wait!

How cool is that? After 18 years I'm still in love with a wonderful woman...absolutely, totally smitten!

---

We now return you to our regularly scheduled series of witty anecdotal blogs...

A Little Dancing Never Hurts

This morning, shortly after my 2 year-old received his Easter basket with a toy race car, some candy, and a lot of fake grass...

My son: Dad, I made a mess.

Me: Really? What did you do?

Son: I put da grass all over da floor in da livin room.

Me: You did?

Son: Uh huh. And I danced on it a little bit.

Confession is good for the soul.

Bach(elor)-ing It

Monday morning my wife of 15 years is heading to Texas for two weeks. Her sister just had a little baby girl on Monday. Welcome to the world Ella Grace! (That brings my total to 6 nieces and 3 nephews). Cheryl is going to help her sister out and spend some time with family and friends.

Two weeks!! That's the longest I've been alone since we've gotten married. I hope I can handle it! Apparently my wife is a little concerned for me as well. Check out the picture of our freezer. That's right! Tater tot casserole and meatballs (with green olives and feta cheese) and mashed potatoes.

What a woman. Only one of many reasons that my ringtone for her is the Wonder Woman theme song.

Proverbs 31:28-29
Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise: “Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all!”

My Word Is My Blah

Have you ever seen the movie "The Freshman" starring Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando? If you haven't, you might want to check it out. It's a (sorta) dark comedy about a college freshman named Clark Kellogg (Broderick) who becomes a delivery man for a godfather-like character named Carmine Sabitini (Brando). It's got some funny moments, but there is a particular scene that stands out to me. I actually think about it fairly often.

Near the end of the movie, there's a scene where Clark really, really wants to talk to Carmine. Carmine brushes him off and Clark presses the issue. I couldn't find the actual script, but in my head, this is the way the scene plays out:

Clark: I really have to talk to you.

Carmine: We'll talk after dinner.

Clark: Do you promise?

Carmine: By definition, everything I say is a promise.

Think about Carmine's last line for a minute. I'll wait.

(Whistle, whistle, whistle...toe tap, toe tap, toe tap...checking watch)

Okay!

"By definition, everything I say is a promise." That's something worth striving for. If we find ourselves having to reassure the people in our lives that we'll do what we say we'll do, then that's a problem. I want to live my life in such a way that my family and friends never feel that my words are an empty promise. I have a couple of friends that are great friends, but it's sad to say that if they say they are coming over, I don't count on it until they drive up.

I understand that there are some instances where you just can't do what you've said. It happens. Sometimes circumstances change. Am I living this idea out perfectly? Nope. But I'm trying. This is something my dad stressed when I was growing up.

It also makes me think of this Bible verse:

Matthew 5:37
Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

What do you think? Is this something you think about? Something you struggle with?