Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

Woohoo!

When I was exploring the move to Oxford, I asked Pat, “Is there a Chick-Fil-A in Oxford?” It was that important of a factor. But I guess not ultimately important because I came anyway. But early in the spring it was announced that Oxford would be getting a Chick-Fil-A. I was ecstatic. Well, last Thursday it opened. I wasn’t one of the ones to camp out all day/night Wednesday in order to get free chicken for a year.

BUT I did take the kids to eat supper there Thursday evening. Me and half of Lafayette County. But it turned out to be  the best customer service I’ve ever experienced!

We pull up and we’re in line. A nice lady came to my window to ask if we were dining in or driving through. She assured me that our wait would not be long inside. So we parked and walked in (after further assurances that she would help us exit our parking space which could be blocked by the drive thru line.)

It’s just me and my three kids. Somehow my wife missed this trip. But we walk up to the restaurant and a lady opens the door for us greets us by giving the children each a little Chick-Fil-A cow toy. I start dropping some “Thank You’s” so they all say “My Pleasure.” We walk in and things seem crazy but organized. We find a spot in line and we’re only two deep. Then a lady comes up and asks me if I’d like for her to reserve a table close to the play area. Huh? Are you serious? Sure, why not. So she goes and gets a high chair and all for Rowan and gets a placemat that sticks to the table for him too.

I order my food. She reappears and tells me where my table is. I start to let Addie hold Rowan and send her and Ella to the table. The lady asks if I want her to walk my kids to their table. Sure! Then she tells me I can go ahead to the table if I want, and she’ll bring my food to me. Wow. Ok. Why not?

So then as we start to eat a trey gets pushed on the table and Ella’s bottle of chocolate milk falls off the table, down my leg, and then onto the floor. So someone appears out of no where and cleans it up with a towel. And brings us a new bottle of chocolate milk. Then people bring us balloons, ranch dipping sauce, and ketchup. And napkins.

So we eat our chicken and enjoy things. But as we’re finishing up the girls want to go into the play area. So I send them on their way and then scarf down a bit more chicken while my son finishes his fruit cup. As we’re cleaning up and all, a man comes to help. So I’m thinking, this is awesome! These folks are really wanting me to come back. Everyone was so helpful.

Well I go to get the girls from the playroom Ella is distressed. I see that a small scab from a previous booboo got hit and was bleeding on her leg. So I’m holding Rowan trying to find some napkins. I worker sees me and tells me to sit tight while she goes to get something for her foot. She comes back w/ an antiseptic wipe and a band-aid. I thank her and was about to clean up Ella. But she says, “Sit her here and I’ll fix her up.” She then proceeds to clean all the blood off of Ella’s ankle and foot, and then puts the band-aid on gently and asks Ella if everything is okay.

So this was far and beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. Now I know that Chick-Fil-A brought in some “professional restaurant openers” for the first week or so. But I was in awe. I’ll be back. A lot.

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We have an eight year old girl and a four year old girl at our house. That combination makes for some exciting times at our home. Some really fun times and funny times. But that combination can also produce whining, aggravation, frustration, crying, mean looks, and sometimes tears…and that’s just how I sometimes feel!

Just kidding.

But at times my two girls get along perfectly. You’d think they were custom made for each other. But more and more lately I’ve seen the two of them starting to act rude, mean, quite disrespectful toward each other. And amazingly often times it’s either perpetrated or perpetuated by the oldest. She seems to purposefully try to stir up and aggravate her younger sister. And my four year old usually is happy to comply and will answer with a snarl, shriek, whine, cry or other sound that I don’t like.

So I have had a talk with them. Actually multiple talks, but the last one was my most serious. I think I realized I need to not let my own emotions get stirred up when a fight breaks out. Usually I get frustrated by the sounds my younger one is making, frustrated by what the oldest is doing to make the youngest make those sounds, and frustrated why the oldest thinks it’s necessary for her to intentionally create this chaos. Why can’t she just act in a nice, loving, humble, kind, self controlled manner?

Of course the answer is that she’s a person. And all of us people have times we’re thinking wrong thoughts and sometimes we act out on them. But last night as I was lying in the still of the bedroom after the whole house was asleep I was asking God to shape their hearts to be more and more like His. And for him to pour into their lives the fruit of His spirit (love,  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control). But as I prayed I realized that He was asking me to help pour those things into their lives. That my wife and I are to be the primary shapers of who they become. And for me to pour anything into their lives (their buckets), it’s got to be in my life (bucket) to begin with. That’s humbling.

Joe Paslay told me that a long time ago as I was interviewing to work at Camp Lake Stephens. His talk was from the angle of being a counselor and pouring into campers as they are under your watch for the week. But the concept is the same. I can’t give, teach, show my kids anything into my kids that I am not already understanding and living out myself first. It’s a concept I have known for years! But as the kids grow up, parenting gets more challenging. I thought I was a smart and awesome dad when I had just one child. But it’s getting more challenging as they grow, mature (and sometimes seemingly decrease in maturity).  And I am going to want them to rely on Jesus more and more. And He is showing me that I have to rely on Him just as much or more in order to show Him to them effectively.

Now…add to the mix a boy who just turned 15 months old…and the next couple of decades of my life will be an exciting adventure!

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I watched with anticipation when the iPhone came out two years ago. A few people I knew got one. They even let me hold it now and then. I witnessed the price drop, the backlash, then the giftcard response by Apple. Then last summer I saw the 3G release and friends left and right were buying it. Only $199, right? That’s not cheap, but it’s not unreasonable in the smart phone market. But I still watched from a far. But now I even got to fiddle with an application now and then over the last year.

But then the 3Gs was announced: more features and still low(?) price. Could it get any better? Turns out Pat was somehow eligible for the upgrade even though he was the first in line for the 3G at the Oxford AT&T Store last summer. So though we didn’t make a “released date purchase” last Friday, we scoured the local AT&T stores after the release weekend for an iphone. There were none w/in 75 miles it seemed.

But yesterday The Wife and I went to the Apple Store in Memphis to grab one. [Pat had succumbed to ordering from the Apple.com store and having it shipped to his house.] I’ve always liked going into an Apple Store, but this was my first purchase in one. It was a good experience.

I was worried at first because I was wondering if they would have any in or not. I’d called a few times since they’d opened and it was only a recording saying they were closed. But as I walked up there were lots of others walking up too. And I walk in and the place was crowded. I tell the guy in the orange shirt what I’m here for and he (I’ll call him Mr. Soul Patch) instructed me where to wait after I told him I had checked my eligibility and was good to go.

I only waited about 8 minutes (give or take) until a Specialist in a blue shirt came to assist me (I’ll call him Mr. Weekend Worker). We didn’t go to a desk or to a chair, we just stood in the software aisle as he took my info, put it in a handheld device, checked my stuff, swiped my card, and then said, “Let’s go activate your phone.” Wow, simple procedure.

The first thing that happened after my phone was activated was to receive a text from Pat: “I just canceled my order.” He knew I was at the Apple Store. So I was going to try to get him a phone as well. Turned out it worked after some initial hesitation. So I left the Apple Store with two 16gig 3Gs iphones (one black, one white).

So I’m pumped. So we celebrate by going for a visit to Target (wouldn’t you?) So The Wife looks as things wives look at. I look at the books and electronics. I make a call or two. And decide the phone sounds “muffled“. But maybe it’s just me. So as we leave I hand it to my wife and call it with her phone. She agrees. So….I take it back not knowing how long this will take.

So I walk back into the Apple Store and wait at the front counter where there are orange shirted folks there. I’m not really sure of the color coding, but I figured I’d just wait here first. But a blue shirted girl walks up (I’ll call her Miss Pessimistic/Confusing). I tell her I just bought this like two hours ago and it sounds muffled, so can I swap it? She gets a screwy face and says, “Um, you probably need to make an appointment with a Genius (they’re in the very back. Must be smarter than specialists and orange shirts) and they can determine what to do. She told me we couldn’t do an exchange, but the Genius folks could swap it out.” Wait, huh?

She explained that again, but it still made no sense. So I told her I was from out of town, drove here for the express purpose of buying an iPhone going to Target, but I didn’t have time to make an appointment. So she said to wait on the orange shirt girl next to her. So I finally get to talk to her (I say finally, it’s been 3 minutes). So I tell my new orange shirt friend (I’ll call her Miss Multiple Piercings But In A Cute Way) my issue. She asks for the phone and it’s number. So she dials my number, hands me a desk phone and says, “Talk!” So I say, “Hey, Orange Shirted Friend, it’s hot outside. It’s supposed to be the hottest day of the summer. So swap my phone quickly and we’ll both be happy and then I’ll go sit in my air conditioned minivan. But don’t let it fool you. I’m still a cool guy.”

She acts like she’s still not to sure about it all. Then she says, “The thing is…we’re all out of 16gig Black” I say, okay, I’ll take a white one if I can walk out here with it and get in my cool minivan with my wife and kid.” So she says, “okay”, meet me over by the iMac. So I do, she brings it, we activate it, and I leave happy. But me ending up with a white iphone (and Pat choosing one) makes me laugh because of this.

So, what have I learned in my first 24 hours of iPhone ownership:

• It eats battery like no tomorrow. My SE phone could hold a charge for over 2 days sometimes.
• There are more apps than I know what to do with. But it looks like some cool games for me my kids too.
• It seems there’s an unspoken fraternity of iphone owners.
• Little kids like iphones too. My girls weren’t with us when we got it, but they immediately thought it was their new toy.
• I get nervous when my 4yo plays it. But she’s only played “Memory” so far.
• My 8yo will be a wiz at it soon.
• My goal is to keep it out of my 1yo’s mouth. He’ll slobber in the speaker and ruin it otherwise. Like he did two previous phones.
• I have to get a case soon. I’m too nervous about it getting busted. And it might help me be a little more comfortable w/ the kids holding it.
• The Wife scoffs at it right now, but she’ll be acclimated before long. I have a feeling.

Got any apps to recommend?

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This weekend we had originally planned to go to Clinton for a wedding and spending some time with friends. But then the time of the wedding ended up being later than we thought, so it complicated things. We ended up rethinking the trip. But…our two oldest still “went away” for the weekend. So now we’re just left w/ the 14 month old!

That means things might be on the calm side for various and sundry reasons around the house. I should get a little more sleep, that’s for sure. But it is also a great time for them to be with family a little bit. And it gives us a little space and we start to miss them too. Plus Sunday is Father’s Day, so of course they’ll need to be back around then.

Today I went up to campus at UM. They are having a basketball camp, and one of the guys from my old youth group was here with his team. So I was going to go watch him for a bit. But as I was going in there was a man blocking the stairwell. I had to say, “Excuse me coach,” because it was Houston Nutt. Nice guy though. So I go up the stairs, enter the room with all the basketball courts, and didn’t know which one was court four. So I asked the first person I saw. It was a tall, slim, bald guy.Turns out it was Andy Kennedy. He pointed me in the right direction. As I was saying thanks, someone came in the door behind me and bumped into me. There he was again, Houston Nutt. Oh, well. Both guys seemed nice enough. But they didn’t ask my SEC affiliation.

Turns out Kennedy was watching two of his basketball signees. One a smooth guard from Jackson, MS, and then big guy from south Alabama. Both were impressive. There were TONS of kids in there. Some teams were better than others, of course. And then there were tons of those kids in the cafferteria as well.

Anyway, after having our church’s VBS site switched again for the 2nd time in a week, going to Tupelo to pick up some tents for VBS, taking down old posters from around The Square, and making fliers, it’s time to go grocery shopping with my wife and son (who started walking last night! I’ll have some video soon)

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Some things on my mind:

• Southern Miss made the College World Series yesterday sweeping the Florida Gators  in Gainsville. How surprising and impressive is that? This is Corky Palmer’s last year as the coach. They’re giving him a great final season.
• On the flip side, Ole Miss lost the last two games of their super regional to Virginia to stay home yet again. This must be getting old for them. I feel sorry for some of my Ole Miss friends. But to some of the vicious smack talkers I have encountered on the internet it makes me smile.
• Yeah, I know…MSU didn’t even make the post season. Better days are ahead, right?
• The newest iPhone was announced today. It makes my lust over electronic equipment. I think the timeframe to my owning one keeps shrinking.
• I started the 100 Pushups challenge again a month or so back. But last weekend I ran out of motivation. Today is the day I decide whether to pick it up again. I made it to week 5.
• I need to run too. A man in his late 60′s told me yesterday that if I run 3 or 4 times a week I can eat whatever I want to and still maintain my weight.
• I had lunch at Camp Lake Stephens recently. I was meeting Darrell for lunch. And I’m continually reminded of how awesome that place is and how it’s shaped me in different ways over my life.
• My old youth group went to BigStuf last week. That is another place/event that’s shaped me in big ways. I know they had a great time, but I wish I could have experienced some of it too.
• Addison turned EIGHT last week. She’s turning into a mature little girl (most of the time!)
• This summer I’m leading a Community Group for our church called Twisting The Truth. It’s an Andy Stanley study. Good stuff.

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It’s time for the bullets:

• I’m currently giving Benjamin Button a second shot. Didn’t finish it the first time. It was a slow starter for sure. But people tell me that if you give it a shot it will be really good.
• The new dog likes to make lots of noise at night. My wife can’t wait out the crying, so she puts the dog in bed with us. That’s just trouble.
• Went back to Amory today for Mother’s Day. It was good to see some family. But couldn’t get a milk shake at Dairy Kreme. Drat!
• It’s rained every day for the last week it seems. Some hate it. I don’t mind it. But I do wish my yard would dry out.
• MSU took two of three from Ole Miss this weekend. That’s right, the HUGE underdog upset the #7 team in the country.  Maybe this means better things are ahead. We’ll see.
• This past Friday my wife and I celebrated our TENTH year anniversary. TEN years is a long time to me. And it makes me look in awe at marriages that are 40 and 50 years strong. I look forward to our 50th year.
• Our church, The Orchard, moved from The Powerhouse to The AMP last week. Today was our 2nd Sunday in there. A near packed house again. Good energy. Good Biblical truths shared. I think we’re going to like it in there.
• Graduation was yesterday at Ole Miss. That means the roads, restaurants, and WalMart will be less crowded starting this week and lasting the summer. Oh, and easier to find parking spaces!

That’s about it. Expect a cool video to be posted tomorrow!

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It’s nearly midnight. And the house is still and quiet.

I’m not always awake during this time, but usually still up reading or watching or listening or just lying still thinking. It’s also a time for reflection and prayer. And it’s times like these that I realise how much God has blessed me. I’ll think through my dad and see the smiles of my children, the goofy things they do. I’ll think of the couch in my living room that I got to sit on while talking with Beverly or watching an episode of Friday Night Lights or The Office. I’ll think of my dog who doesn’t like to come back when called from the neighbor’s yard because they have more things he’s not peed on yet. I’ll think of my son and the way he has a new laugh and a new facial expression and likes to use it a lot. And I could keep going on and on.

I know I have a lot to be thankful for. And a lot I’m responsible for too. And I think with those combined comes great expectations from God.

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So this week I got three free books. Looking forward to each of them.

The first one is Mad Church Disease. It was written by Anne Jackson. She grew up in the home of a pastor and has worked as a staff member of a church for quite a while. And she’s witnessed and experienced first hand the dangers of burnout related to ministry jobs. And in Mad Church Disease she explored those dangers and pitfalls closely. I was able to get this for free because I won the contest on the books Facebook page. I won it back in the fall of ’07. Seemed that it would take forever to get my prize. But it’s here now.

The next two were because of a gift card I’d received for my birthday. But I got Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Crazy Love by Frances Chan. Both came highly recommended.

Mark Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Interesting city. Interesting church. And it’s quite a conservative church when compared to the local culture of the Northwest. Mark Driscoll says somethings sometimes that really have rubbed some people the wrong way. But I usually appreciate the heart from which he communicates from. He can make you crack up now and then too. Vintage Church is his look at the Biblical model for church, how it is structured and effectively in action.

Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, is about what a life that is truly and passionately in love with Jesus would look like. How would that love affect the person and the way they lived their life. Francis is pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA. Great communicator with a heart for the scriptures. I’ve heard him speak a time or two and get his podcast sometimes too. Check him out.

So..those are my new free books. Hopefully I’ll spend some time reading them soon. When I do I’ll give a quick review!

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Do you ever have a handful or projects in your mind that you think could be successful but know it would take a little bit of work to get out? I think I have a handful in my head right now. I think they’re each doable. I think they each possess a good deal of marketability. And each would be fun to embark upon.

Of course they each would take a little bit of time. But though it’s not necessarily the goal of these projects, I think even a little bit of money could be made from them. At least to pay for the effort and time put into them. But I always get caught up in making little decisions about details to actually launch them. Little things that, while they’re “big deals”, really won’t affect the outcome. It’s like if I were trying to build a dog house to go in my back yard, but I’m standing in Home Depot trying to make the decision on the “right hammer” for the job.

In the end, the dog house will probably look and work just the same as long as I have a good plan in place and do good work. The make and model of the hammer probably wouldn’t matter too greatly. But it’s things like this that I stumble over and get caught up in over analysis.

So…that said, I think I’m typing this to give myself a boost. Give myself a public calling out of sorts. Either move forward with the idea(s) or drop them.

There….

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Sunday is the end of the week. End of new thoughts, right? We’ll see. But here are a few things on my mind.

• The last two days the girls have been out of town. This means the family dymanic is much different around the house. I actually slept later yesterday that I have in years: 9:00am!
• Got to go see a movie last night too. I hope it earned me some good “husband points”. Because I took my wife to see Bride Wars.
• We almost saw Rachel Getting Married instead. We’ll see it sometime, if not on DVD. Anne Hathaway seems to play a wide variety of characters these days.
• MSU lost to UM yesterday in basketball. I can’t explain how much that stinks. And I got to go to church with a lot of UM fans today. Lucky me.
• Friends are having babies left and right around us it seems. But I don’t think we’re feeling the itch for a 4th just yet.
• The Super Bowl is less than an hour away. And this might be the first year I am not really into it. But it will be the first time in many, many years I’m able to watch it and not feel I’m “in charge” of anything at all.
• If I ever watch a movie set in a foreign country of even a big domestic city…it makes me want to experience that place. I think I might want to live internationally sometime. Live. Not just visit.
• I think it’d be cool if my wife were from London or Sydney or Johannesburg. I’d like her to talk that way all the time. But maybe we can move to Auckland or something and then our children can talk like that.
• I’m reading a book. I’m just over 1/3 of the way through it. Around 300 pages. A few friends said it was one of the best books they’d read. So I checked it out. Almost bought it for my grandmother for Christmas (before I’d started reading it). My friend seemed to think it might not be a good book to give to a grandmother. Now…he might be right.
• Yesterday I made my first solo hospital visit as a pastor.
• I’ve been tagged about 5 times to write one of those “25 random facts about me” things on facebook. I’ll write one soon.

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