19. January 2009 by Bill.

Bush has finally done the right thing.  According to an AP article, linked to below, President Bush, during the last 24 hours of his presidency, has commuted the sentence of Compean and Ramos.  See full article here…
Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents from Associated Press

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19. January 2009 by Bill.

     Show a little respect people.  I am tired of seeing people completely disrespecting, and dishonoring, the American flag.  It is a symbol of our country, and actions toward it, are indicative of attitudes toward our country.  Instead of removing the pledge of allegiance from our schools, along with prayer, we ought to be having some classes on how to properly respect our flag.  I’m not saying that we should make it an idol, as that is obviously un-Biblical.  We should, however, understand what the flag stands for, and why it ought to be respected.  If you asked the average school-age child what the flag stood for, and more specifically, what the stripes, and stars, and colors stood for, how many would have a clue?  I have just recently seen an photo, where Barack Obama supporters had printed his face onto American flags.  Click here for the article

Now, I understand that everyone is excited about the first black president, but doesn’t the fact that we are all making a big deal out of him being black, just prove the point that we are still focusing on color.  It’s great that enough people in this country were willing to overlook the color of his skin.  Unfortunately, it seems like Mr. Obama won because everyone was looking at the color of his skin.  Over and over you hear people talk about how great it is to have a black President, and he’s going to be so great, because he’s the first black President.  Come on people, the color of his skin is not going to make him a great President.  His character, integrityand leadership is what will define his Presidency.  Now, I want him to succeed as President, with one catch.  I define success as doing justice in the eyes of God.  Romans 13:1-5 explains it like this:

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Our leaders are supposed to be there to do the will of God.  So, a successful President will punish the wicked, and be a blessing to the Godly.  So, instead of welfare, which takes more money from the people, through higher taxes, and redistributes in inefficiently, why not cut taxes, and support the church, and the people, in fulfilling their God-ordained responsibility to care for one another.  This is not a difficult concept, in my book.  Yet, for some reason it seems to be an extremely difficult concept for those in leadership.  Not to mention the people who vote in accordance with their own wallets, instead of voting for someone who is most likely to seek the will of God.

Well, that is my rant for the week.  Let me know what you think.  I’m open to hear any questions, comments, rebuttals, and even any snide remarks you might have.  Though, if the remarks are too snide, I’ll most likely delete them.

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18. January 2009 by Bill.

I believe we need to support our elected leaders, but when they insist on promoting their own agendas, as opposed to the will of the people, I get upset.  I believe that “we the people” need to stand up, and be heard.  Call, post, e-mail your Senator.  Your Representative.  Your President.  Let them know how you feel, and make our voices heard.  It is unfortunate that so many politicians vote in accordance with their own agendas and political careers in mind.  But, the reality is, if we ll stand up, and make it clear that we support our constitution, and the foundational doctrines put forth in it.  I’ve been reading over the US Constitution, specifically, the first 10 Amendments, or so.  We have drifted, nay, sprinted, FAR from the original intents of our founding fathers.  And, if I can see this, why can’t our “educated” politicians?  I’m going to start doing some research on this, and sharing some of my thoughts and opinions.  With any luck, I’ll find a few like-minded people who will have something to share.

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18. January 2009 by Bill.

Well, our neighbors just left a little while ago, and we had a great time.  Our neighbors live one floor down from us, and have a young daughter, a little older than Orrin, and one on the way.  I pointed out to Meg, as we were cleaning up, in preparation for their visit, that if we invite people over more often, we’ll never have a problem with the house getting trashed.  You know how it is, people are coming over, so you make the mad dash to clean up, and then apologize for the “mess” when they get there.  I try to be at lest a little honest about it.  I let them know it’s the cleanest our house has been all week, and opening the closet requires an injury release form.  On the upside, we hope to have a number of people over for the LOST Season 5 premier, so our house should stay clean for at lest another week.  Unless of course, our kids are awake during that time.

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6. January 2009 by Bill.

I felt like I needed to go around shouting that as I walked through the office on Friday and today.  I finally came down with whatever it was the rest of my family had.  Unfortunately, it hit me in a mild way, and I figured it would be gone fairly quickly.  I was sorely mistaken.  Last night, I finally thought I was good to go, and I would be ready for work Monday morning.  I was wrong.  I woke up Monday morning and the stomach bug was in full force (I’ll leave the rest to your imagination… sorry).  To top it all of, they were working on some pipes in our building, so the water was off, for the first two hours I was awake.  Yeah!  Then they called up from the office, and asked if i could come in for a bit, to take care of a few packages that HAD to go out today.  No problem, it’s all computer stuff, I can do that.  2.5 hours later I got out of there, completely drained.  So, I’ve been resting since.  I look forward to making it to work tomorrow, and hoping to get on a regular schedule.  I have a lot of projects I want to work on, and being sick is not helpful.

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24. December 2008 by Bill.

Well, I just took the dog out, and it is icy out there.  Extremely.  They salted, here on the hill, so we’re fine here.  In the next hour, or so, I’ll be heading out to do my normal run to Jersey and back.  For those of you who don’t know, every week I make a run to three of the four CLC stores in the PA/NJ area.  So, this morning in about an hour, or so, I’ll be heading to Moorestown, NJ.  Then I go to Center City in Philly to our store there.  I have a few things to drop off, and trash to pick up (it’s a whole LOT cheaper to pick up the trash and bring it back to a dumpster here, than paying for trash removal in the city), there, and then it’s to my last stop in Chestnut Hill.  Once I get back, we’ll be loading up the car with all our stuff, and heading to my sister’s in upstate NY.  Out of the fridge and into the freezer.  On an upside, my son is VERY excited about playing in the snow with Emma (my niece), in his new snowsuit.  So, hopefully they have some snow.  I know it’s upstate NY, but you never know.

On the upside, the 1/2 degree increase in temperature, due to global warming should have all this ice melted off in minutes.   Riiiiight. :::he said sarcastically::::

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21. December 2008 by Bill.

There are times when I really miss the days at Word of Life.  Specifically, my time as a student and/or summer staff.  They were extremely rich times in my life, when i was surrounded by friends (ok, I didn’t necessarily see it that way at the time) and people who were excited about their walk with the Lord.  Maybe I’ve become a little cynical over the years (the military can do that), but I just don’t see that excitement.  So often I find myself nervous to share what is on my mind (many of you are now on the floor, due to shock, get up), at least in anything of depth.  The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, and immeasurably in the little things, not just the big things.  I don’t know why we always get excited over the big things, such as healing of the ill, or financial windfalls, and we make a great big deal of those things.  Yet, we miss all of the everyday blessings.  You know, the things we take for granted.  As Jonathon Edwards said, I think, we are “sinners in the hands of an angry God.”  It is nothing but the grace of God that keeps the earth from opening up, and swallowing us whole, for the offense that we are against God.  Why do we miss the little things like, “Oh good, I do have enough to grab a bite to eat while I’m out.”  Or, “I was able to golf with no distractions, and had almost the whole course to myself.”  (<—  OK, that one was partly due to a bit, ok a lot, of a rainstorm)  Why do we so often look at the negative, and refuse to see the positive.  Or worse, we recognize the positive, but are afraid other people will look down on us, if we be so “immature” as to bring up such a small and minor blessing.  Come on, wake up, people.

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19. December 2008 by Bill.

Well, it’s been a while.  Things have been interesting, to say the least.  We finally got a check from the insurance company.  Not as much as we would have liked, but to be honest, it is probably more than we should have expected.  It’s good to have that part done with, and have the car gone.  Now, we have to find a new one.  I am going to contact a ministry called CMTS (Christian Missionary technical Services, I think), as they have a program to help provide affordable vehicles to those in ministry.  Basically, we’ll tell them what we are looking for, and how much we have to spend on it.  Then they will look around at auctions, and stuff, until they find one.  Then they bring it back to their shops, and do whatever is necessary to get it up to par for inspection and everything.  Then, if there is anything left over from what you originally gave them, they will refund that to you.  So, not a bad deal, all in all.  We did use some of the money to pay off some bills,  but we decided that having those bills paid off, and eliminating some of the stupid little annoying debt was important.  We hope to be completely debt-free (except student loans) by the middle of next year.  A rather lofty goal, seeing as we also need to replace our car, but we feel God will bless.  As I write this, I am recognizing, that my readership is small, in fact it may only be me.  But that is OK, because it helps me to be able to put all this down on paper, er, ink, um, electrons?  Whatever.  LOL.  So, we’ll see what happens.  We also are considering coming on staff with CLC as missionaries, as opposed to staff.  The difference being that as missionaries we would have to raise support, and they could work me longer hours, since I won’t get over-time, LOL.  So, that kind of sums up what’s been happening the last couple of weeks.

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30. November 2008 by Bill.

OK, so I am officially a fan of Craigslist.  We just found a sectional for sale, and the guy was asking $500 for it.  On a long shot, I e-mailed him, and offered $300.  He replied, and told me that would be fine, we could pick it up on Saturday.  So, we went and picked it up today.  This was too good of a deal for us to even fully enjoy.  We got a three piece sectional, and a recliner (which we can’t fit in our apartment, with the sectional).  The sectional has a sleeper sofa on one end, then the corner piece, and the other end has two recliners, the middle has a cushion which pulls out with a tray table and cup holders, and the one arm flips open to display another cup holder and a remote pocket.  Oh, and one of the recliners on the end, and the seperate recliner have a vibration feature.  I know I am sounding a little giddy, but it really is an incredible deal.  I’ve attached pictures below:

Sleeper Sofa Section

Recliner Section

Recliner Section, with Tray Table

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25. November 2008 by Bill.

OK, so, the night started off rough, with the accident, as I mentioned in an earlier post.  But, it ended on a much more pleasant note.  Colin and I took a night to go out, and have Daddy time.  We went over to Dave and Buster’s and had dinner (We had the Miniburger and Buffalo Wing Appetizer platter, ok he had the burgers, I had the wings).  Then we spent about an hour, or so, playing games.  It was a lot of fun, and it took him a little bit to get into it, I think it was a little overwhelming, with all the lights and noises.  Shortly after we started, though, he was saying, “Let’s do another one, let’s do another one.”  So we played some of the simple games that didn’t require much skill, you know, coin drop, water squirters, skeeball, that kind of stuff.  Then we stopped off at Target to get Dog Food, as we had run out a few days ago (fortunately, we had some scraps, and leftovers we could feed Caspian, so he was happy).  After Target, we headed home.  All in all, it was a good night.  And I had an especially good night at the claw game (for those of you who know me, you know that is my weakness, they are such an interesting challenge, I get hooked).  They have a giant claw game, and I got a stuffed bear that is bigger than Orrin.  Colin also wanted me to try one of those claw games that has the cheap jewelry in it.  I’ll try to updte this tomorrow night with a pic of Colin and his “bling.”  LOL

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