I'm Back, Home and Online

I am back home, and for at least two weeks! I am very excited. Well, very tired at the moment, but very excited about the coming two weeks. I can actually plan stuff ahead for the first time in 4 months.

To do list:
Pay off last credit card.
Pay off truck.
Celebrate!

Buy an "out of debt" celebratory toy.
Have fun with it.
Visit with friends.
Update blog more often.

Catch up errands and household projects.

Lastly, but most importantly seek God for His will for the future. Prayer much appreciated.

Catch Up

Another two weeks gone. It is absolutely amazing how fast time flies. All it seems I do is work and drive. The paychecks are nice, but no consistent time home is a bit tiresome. I haven’t been to my church in the past 6 weeks!

Speaking of church, here are a couple of thoughts… I have had the opportunity to visit a couple of new churches. I am always frustrated at trying to find a new church in the area. I am beginning to think that if they have the adjective “life”, “living”, or “alive” in the name, try those first. I guess they have to have something going on, or they would automatically be hypocritical.

I was able to attend a normal Baptist church, and it seems quite the same across the country. Polite men in suits handing out bulletins at the door. Groups, families, or cliques, sitting from the middle to the back of the church, choir with mostly older people, one song and then the greeting when everybody is friendly for the 30 second greeting time, (primarily with the people they are friends with), hymns, one “contemporary” song (two if they are really progressive), offering, sermon, invitation, baptism of a kid or two, closing prayer, and everybody is off to lunch. Going in as a first time visitor, it is very noticeable how friendly or not people are. It really is no wonder how people get out of church, or are never in, how difficult it is for people to get back in.

It is probably needless to say, but I went to a different church the next week. Now this church blew me away. I was greeted by at least 12 people going into the beginning of the service. Two men gave me their phone numbers, and invited me to their houses anytime I needed a place to get away from the rig. One of the two pastors invited me to lunch afterwards. I needed sleep, so didn’t go, but met with him for lunch during the week. It is amazing what a difference seeing people who really want to be at church and enjoy it is from people who are just doing it for whatever reason.

On other notes: I was able to make a trip to Jonesboro again for the second time. I was able to get a copy of my great-great grandparents marriage certificate. Pretty cool that they let me back into the vault and go through the big binders. I actually got to handle the very same paper they signed! That was pretty cool. To think that they were actually there in that town, walking the same streets over 100 years ago.

Work has been the same, a lot, and a lot of driving. The paychecks have allowed me to pay off two credit cards in the last two pay periods though. That is exciting! I have one credit card left! That will be paid off by August 2. I cannot wait. Next step is a party, a fairly expensive toy (haven’t decided what that will be yet) and on to the final step, of getting my house paid off.

I have been so blessed to meet several people in the last month or so that are out or getting out of debt. Two couples at church at home, and one at church here in Arkansas. I have had several people in the past tell me that it is impossible for people to live without debt in this modern American culture. I beg to differ. Not only am I on my way to doing it, I know people who are doing it! And that is exciting.

Well, I better get some sleep for today. Hopefully I will get off this weekend.

Time

Time is going way to fast. I had 7 days off this last week and it felt like 3. I have been here on location in Arkansas for 4 days and it feels like 2. This is getting ridiculous.

Right now, I get a break here. It is not good, but I don’t have to worry about anything. Our tool is out of the hole, but we are stuck. Right now they are trying to jar the pipe loose, without much luck. We could be waiting another couple of days. What a job.

I am currently on a new rig here in Arkansas, in the east part. A new group of guys to work with as well. I think it is going to be good. I think I needed a change of scenery. I hope this works out, so we can follow this rig. Bad start for this hole unfortunately, but not a lot we can do about it.

Let’s see, not a whole lot new going on. I so enjoy my time in B/CS. No work to worry about, plenty of friends to hang out with. Now if I could just be there for longer periods of time, and still maintain the income, that would be great. We must work to eat I have read somewhere though.

There are some ideas going through my head right now, I will let out sometime in the future. Part of that problem though is they stay in my head, and rarely come to fruition. Please be praying that God will reveal His will for what is next. I have some ideas of what I would like, and hope that goes along with what He wants, but I need to know for sure. I need it to be clear like the no-debt thing.

Well, so much for now. It is morning, so I get to go to bed. I also get to try and find a new church this morning.

Finishing Strong

Another one down! I paid off another credit card today. What a great feeling! That leaves two. And I cannot wait until I get those paid. I am putting a firm date of August 1, as to when I will be out of credit card debt. All of this is due to God. And I cannot thank Him enough.

To be honest, I have been lax the last several months. I have gotten fat and lazy. I am on track to get out of debt, so I have just been sitting back letting it happen, instead of being proactive, and staying strong. I have noticed particularly my weight (thus the diets on and off), being out of shape, and spending more than I should on little things.

God has been gently reminding me to finish strong. This is an exciting new period quickly approaching, and I must be ready for it. I have a very strong natural tendency to just sit back and let life happen, but I cannot let that happen. Too much is at stake. So please be praying with me about this next period of time. There are so many options, it is a little overwhelming. Kind of like coming out of prison. The debtor truly is servant to the lender. It is an exciting, and still a little scary time. I am looking forward to it.

To finish strong I need to:

1. Stay in the Bible every day.
2. At least look at my expenses/budget everyday, record, balance checkbook, etc.
3. Get in shape – exercise somehow every day and lose 12-17 lbs to be 175-180.

Thank you all for this kind of accountability. It does help.

I'm Back!!

I am finally back in Bryan. I have been in Arkansas for the past 3 weeks straight, and am so glad to be back home. I have started a few entries over the past several weeks, but just have not gotten around to finishing and posting them.

I just got in late last night, and have spent the last hour just going through my mail. Fun, fun. A few things I have been up to besides work is completing our week long trip to Ohio, further researching genealogy, and taking brief side trip to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where I had some grandparents live in the 1890’s. Now that I look at the list, it has been pretty much all I have done, besides work.

History and genealogy are completely fascinating, and it appears I may have a few other members of the family hooked. I will have to give an update on how that continues to go.

So here are some updates:

Chloe – She still has to have the tube in her nose so she can be drop fed special formula. She has pulled it out twice, so it looks like they will have to surgically input it into her stomach for now. She is maintaining weight and getting bigger, so she is healthy. She just cannot digest food/milk normally right now. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

(Me, Mom, and Dad at Lake Erie in Cleveland)

Ohio trip – We were traveling for right on 7 days. Long drives, but a good time. Dad has not been out of the state for awhile, so it was good for him to get out and away from work. After visiting with my great-aunt Dot, who was wonderful, and so knowledgeable, we left Cleveland and went to the small town of Pomeroy on the Ohio river, where my dad’s dad lived. Very interesting little town. I thought it was cool. And here is the story of our Pomeroy adventure:

(Small town Pomeroy, on the river)

We got there mid-morning and needed to leave by 5:00 or so that evening. We didn’t have any contact with any relatives in the town. Known relatives had already passed away, and we didn’t know if any children were there or not. Dad had an idea of what his Grandmother’s house looked like, and it was a small town, so why not just walk up and down the street looking for it? Our goal was to find the house, and also Dad’s dad’s gravesite.

That morning I had a feeling like something big, or unusual, or miracle was going to take place. But the day started out poorly. Me and dad got out and walked the river front looking for the house, and he just could not remember. There were a couple of possibilities, and we asked neighbors, but didn’t find anything concrete. So we went and had a late lunch. After lunch, I was getting tired, and with no prospects, and a deadline approaching, I was discouraged and expecting nothing to come of this trip. Well, mom had the idea to go to the Veterans office and see if they had anything on dad’s dad, since we knew he had medical help from them. The guy at the office was very helpful, made some calls, and gave us the last listed address he had. We went down on the river and found the address, which was indeed Dad’s Grandmother’s house. It was one of the ones he thought it was, he just wasn’t sure.

This is the fun part: As we went up to the house, dad being dad, saw a couple mowing the neighbor’s yard next door, and went up to talk to them. He mentioned what we were doing and that was his Grandmother’s house, and the guy said that he knew them, and played with the son that lived there, Dad’s cousin Jerry, when they were kids. In fact, he knew Jerry’s son and wife, and knew where she worked! They were just packing up and heading that way, and would take us over there. So they took us by there, and we got to meet with the wife. The crazy thing is, is that they wanted to keep the grandmother’s house in the family, so they bought it, and it was sitting there empty. So she took us inside, and she also knew where the family cemetery was and gave us directions.

Turns out that Jerry had two sons, when dad thought he had only had one. The one that dad knew died, so we got to talk with the one dad didn’t even know about, Mike. And Mike was really close with his uncle, my dad’s dad!

So we got to go out to the cemetery where my dad’s dad was buried, and there were all the children, all in a row, next to their parents. We had no clue they were all right there, and it just did something for dad to see them all there. Pretty cool stuff.

So from knowing next to nothing going in, we not only got to find the grandmother’s house, we got to go into it, and not only finding one gravesite, we found the whole family’s, and from not knowing anyone there, we made contact with long lost cousins, we didn’t even know existed! Miracles do happen.

Well, that is all I have for now. I have a couple of days off, so I plan on enjoying them.

Road Trip!

I am excited this morning. I just woke up in La Grange, Kentucky. My parents and I are taking a trip to Ohio, to visit my Great-Aunt. After a long driving day yesterday, and trying to get back to a night-day sleeping routine, I feel good.

Traveling with dad has been interesting. He considers vacation as stopping and seeing the sights as we go. Me and mom consider vacationing as getting to where you are going as quickly as possible, and then sightseeing. So we stopped… at Graceland in Memphis.

Now I have never been an Elvis fan. He was before my time, and I have always been more interested in further out history, rather than current history. But to put it in Dads’ words, “This is our era.” The tour of the mansion was done very well, though I never would have paid the $32 entrance fee. Dad would though.

I was impressed though, with the tour and with what I saw of Elvis. I can understand how he was so popular. So anyway, here are a couple of pictures.

Mom and Dad starting the trip.

Me in Elvis' living room.

Elvis' living room.

His plane.

And his gravesite.

Got to go for now, will update later.

Another Start

So I couldn’t go 10 days the first time, so here it goes again. I am in Arkansas starting this time, so I need to get in the habit here. Isn’t there a saying, “if at first you don’t succeed…”?

Some topics of my life... lately… pictures, the future, getting older.

Pictures: I have begun to scan some of my family’s old pictures into the computer. We really are blessed to have so many. I think I mentioned before that we probably have 30,000 plus pictures. I probably have about 500+ with me. It takes some time, and is repetitive, but I love just imagining the lives lived before mine. It is kind of exciting, visually stimulating, and a little depressing. There are so many questions, and answers that were known, that will never be known again. And I had a chance to know some of them before my Grandpa died. For instance, I was going through this bunch of pictures from the 1920’s and four of them came up labeled “Alaska.” It really throws me off, because I don’t remember anything ever being said about Alaska. Then in the next batch, I get some more about a friend from Alaska, who always labeled his pictures in a particular way.

* Note to self and to others: always label pictures. And I need to find a way to label digital pictures. *

So anyway, here a few favorites of mine from what I have been scanning. I have probably scanned about 150 so far.

My great-grandmother and her sister about 1916.

Great-grandparents before marriage about 1919.

Great-grandparents after marriage about 1925

This one caught me off guard a little. Really wasn't expecting it. But I like it. I am not sure if it is my grandparents or some friends of theirs. They went out camping with friends quite a bit.

So fascinating. It just amazes me when people say history is boring.

The future: As I am getting closer to getting out of debt, I have actually been a little overwhelmed with the possibilities this brings. I can see so much potential. As I was driving back to Arkansas yesterday however, I came to a conclusion as to where I believe God wants me. To be completely out of debt, including houses and vehicles.

The possibilities I was considering included focusing on the oilfield both on my career and investing, real estate investing, world wide traveling, or even just earning enough money to quit and not work. (Done that to a degree before, not very well.) I am so blessed to have so many options, but it makes my head hurt sometimes.

It is very humbling to know without a doubt that I don’t deserve my life at all, and yet I have it, and what I currently have, and the potential I have is far, far more than 90% of the rest of the world if not more than that. There are many people out there who would kill to be in the position I am. Very humbling.

Along with thinking about the near future, gets me thinking about my age. I am extremely blessed to be living in a college town, which keeps me younger, but I am 30, and only getting older. And with that are a few funny instances that catch my attention. Such as my right knee. I always used to laugh at “older” people who would play ball or something and stretch and complain how joints and muscles would ache for no reason. Now it is my turn. And I get to laugh at myself. For some reason, my right knee has been bothering me for no good reason.

I am realizing that the things that more experienced people say really are accurate and really do come around to the younger, though we think it never will. Youth really is wasted on the young.

I will be updating on “diet – round two” more often, and thoughts as well. I’ve done it before I can do it again.

Take care.