Like I was saying....
I’ve never had the flu before.
I’ve never had a flu shot.
Do I need one? I protest that I don’t. But they were giving free ones Monday at the office. They convinced me to get one. Now my arm is every so slightly sore.
But if I end up getting the flu this year, I’m going to be very upset.
Yesterday was a really patriotic day. But at some point in the day I watched a slide show with the song “God Bless America” behind it. The pictures were all of our soldiers and military. It was a tribute to them for Veterans Day.
But I was torn as I watched. I knew I was supposed to be proud and supporting them and saying, “Go USA!” But I listened to the song asking God to Bless our country and to stand beside her and guide her and all that. But the images were of M1-Abrams tanks and AH-64 Apache helicopters and guys in full desert armor carrying M16 machine guns. And then the song is asking God to bless that.
And inside I’m torn and not sure exactly what to think or feel.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think…
So…tonight is the last Junior High Dance. How fitting that the last time I posted it was about the dances. But tonight is the last one. Will I miss them, not really. Now don’t get me wrong, I will miss the gathering of the students and being able to hang around w/ them and all. But I won’t miss the constant bass thump with TI and Kanye and Fitty and all the rest filling the gym.
Tomorrow is a HUGE day for MSU football. Biggest game at Scott Field since 2000 when we hosted Alabama. I could have gone to that game but watched it home alone in my one bedroom apartment yelling at the tv and celebrating (not sure where The Wife was.) But Rick Cleveland puts it all in perspective. But to beat them would be huge. MSU hasn’t turned the corner, but they’re starting to turn the wheel. We’d be bowl eligible with two more games to go.
Addie’s last soccer game of the season is in the morning. So we’ll go play soccer then I’ll be on the couch for the next few hours. Should make for a great Saturday.
The weather has turned. And things are changing. Tonight Clinton plays to see who gets to travel to South Panola next week to be the Tiger’s next victim. They have won 70 game straight so far. Amazing. But football will soon be over. Then the holidays and school breaks.
It’s time to get back on the horse and write and write and write…
I must admit, at first you get sorta excited when the first Junior High Dance happens. But then they start to get old.
Our church has a dance for all the junior high students in our community each Friday night after a home football game for Clinton High School. There’s a little hype and excitement at first. But we had three in a row. Then a week off. Then another one tonight.
The new has worn off. Especially for Stevie and me. So then I come home and have all these songs stuck in my head and I’m not sleepy. So now I’ll go to bed, read a book or listen to something, and then fall asleep. But the morning comes early.
Soccer at 8am. Fun stuff.
I have a problem with books. I like to get them and read the covers and buy them and then get another before finishing the first one. So I have scores of good books that I’ve read some or most of, but not all of.
The other day The Wife needed me to order her some books for her small group she leads. Of course if you use Amazon.com you get free shipping if your order is over $25.00. Her order was $24 and some change. So I, being the frugal husband that I am, wanted to save on shipping. So I bought myself (another) book to get free shipping.
When the lovely Amazon.com box came in, The Wife saw my book in there as well. “You need another book?” I promptly explained the issue of shipping costs, free books, and my frugality. With a furrowed brow she mumbled something like “Okay…”
That night, as we were reading in bed, I had my new book in hand. There are not many things like a crisp new book to look down upon. It’s so different from the ones that your kids have jumped on, broken the spine, spilled milk on, and gotten stuffed in backpacks and gotten all scuffed. The Wife looked at it and said, “Read only that one.” “Huh?” I said. She challenged me to read this one and this one alone until I finished it.
Always looking for a challenge, I said, “And what will I get?”
“What do you want?” she asked. Without needing a lot of time to think I answered, “The new camera I’ve been talking about!” “Okay,” she says. “If you finish the book in a reasonable amount of time, you can can get your camera.”
I wanted her to define a reasonable amount of time. She said two weeks. HA! I said I could have it finished before she woke up with that carrot hanging in front of me. I didn’t finish it by morning. But easily w/in the week. [btw, it’s a good book. I’ll describe it later.]
So I said to The Wife, “Wifey, I guess it’s time to cash in on my reward.” Then she tries to play the surprised look. “What do you mean?” So I go through the whole recap of our conversation. And she acted like she’d never heard that conversation before. Can you believe it?
So now I guess I have to read another book before I get to get my paws on a new camera. Right, honey? (I know she’s gonna read this…)
I know it’s just a game. And I know it’s just first and second graders. But we had a close game today. We sat two of our best players first quarter (six girls on a team, four on the field at a time). At the end of the quarter we were losing 2-0. At the end of the 3rd quarter we are up 6-2. So two of our best were on the bench again for the 4th qtr. And the other team makes a rally.
They score once. Then again. Then again. So it’s 6-5, and tight. The other team is making free subs. I thought you could only do that at the end of a quarter. But the game ends 6-5. We hang on, even though I know we could have made a few substitutions and it been heavily in our favor.
The girls shake hands. All is well. Then someone asks the ref what the scored ended up being. She says, “5-5.” What! No way. Even the opposing coach is surprised (but pleased.) So…it’s just a game, right? Our girls actually still think they won (and so do I.)
Our team won the weekend tournament last weekend. Here’s a picture of them with their medals.
I remember telling yall a few months back about my new favorite television show. It was a show that I missed the first episode, but caught up quickly with my trusty VCR (what is TiVo?) and NBC.com. I wasn’t sure it’d hold me, but it ended up gripping me very tightly. To the point it rivaled LOST as my favorite show on television.
Friday Night Lights is a show about people who are closely connected to a high school football team. Read that again. It’s about people. Very real people. But it’s not about football. Yes, there’s lots of football in it. But it’s about the people. And I haven’t seen a more “real” portrayal of how people live, act, love, hate, relate, and everything else.
But sadly, it’s not getting good ratings. It gets awesome reviews. If every critic was a Nielson household, it’d be the #1 show around.
Season 2 starts tonight. I’m excited. I just heard a little about the first episode. And already…I’m surprised. Give it a shot. Everyone. Please.
Sometimes after I’m in bed, and maybe I’ve fallen asleep already or I’m up reading or listening to something, I hear my 2 year old crying.
So I go in there and she’s usually just sitting up in bed and giving a sleepy cry. Now it’s sometimes hard to reason with a 2 year old when they’re wide awake. But try to have a conversation with one at 1am after she’s been asleep for a while…and it’s near impossible.
So after asking if she needs to potty or if she’s hurting somewhere and getting “No’s” to each of those questions, I ask “Do you want me to pick you up?” She squeaks out a “yes….” So I pick her up and she nestles into my chest and shoulder. She calms down and her breathing begins to regulate.
I’ll hold her and sway around a bit. Maybe walk through the house a little. But she is soon ready to lay back down. I guess it’s something about resting in you Daddy’s arms that is comforting. Soothing. More than comfortable.
I think I feel that need sometimes. But I’m wanting to just be able to crawl up into the arms of my Heavenly Father, nuzzle in, feel His arms around me and just rest and feel His presence.
That’s a need we all have. And it’s something that God wants us to feel the freedom to do.
It’s nearly 1am and I’m not tired. But I should be. And I will be.
Tonight was another Jr High Dance up at the church. Seems the all the jr high kids want to “crank that soulja boy” over and over. They can do it with attitude too. But after a dance, with the take down and clean up, I come home and catch up on some football scores.
Tomorrow will start early. Addison’s got 2 soccer games, with the first one at 8am. Should be cool and wet at that time, huh? We may head up to Starkville after lunch to watch some Bulldog football. Should be an easy win for us, right? I mean, Gardner-Webb. But the Dogs should be 3-1 after tomorrow. When is the last time we could say that?
So if we go, that means not much sleep tonight. Not much tomorrow night. Then a full day w/ the church stuff. I’ll catch up on Monday!
We got the MacBookPro at the office a while back, but it was just this week that I really dove into playing with iWork (which I had preinstalled when I got it.) I’d used Pages a few times for some simple word processing and hadn’t really looked at Keynote much at all.
We were going to be putting together a new Youth Newsletter. Most of the ones I’d seen done or even done myself were with the trusty ole Microsoft Publisher. Man, how amazing was it when I first cranked out a newsletter with it in 1997? Sad thing is, most of the stuff I’ve seen done with MS Pub 2003 looks like the first version I ever had.
But Pages has blown me away. It’s got so much drag and drop functionality. Once you learn the way something is setup or tweaked, it’s like a simple one-two-three process. Our newsletter is going to look almost professional (based on my limited skills for sure.) Apple’s Pages is sort of a cross between what you know to be MS Word and MS Publisher…but better. And you must know that I’m using iWork 06. Apple just released a newer version that now has a spreadsheet program with it (Numbers) and Pages & Keynote have updated features.
Also, we’re going to be using Keynote a lot too since we just got ProPresenter (buh-bye, MediaShout.) I’ve noticed Granger Community Church using it some and want to use some of their ideas with the announcement slides. Keynote is a program that belly laughs at Powerpoint.
So, my feet are barely wet with iWork right now. But I’m liking how the water feels. And when I end up getting a Mac of my own soon (-er than later I hope), I think I’ll have this installed on it as well.
When the newsletter is complete I’ll post a pdf of it.
© 2026 Blake Thompson daht Net
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
