Just a little something

OK, first of all. There is currently NO CONTEST associated with Song Lyric Sunday. I know I had posted previously that there would be a contest in July but that hasn't worked out. I still plan to do one and when it happens, trust me you will know!

So over the past week I have been asked for my input on a couple of conflict situations that involve some very good friends. For some reason I seem to be one of those people that both sides of argument come to for advice. I really don't understand it either, because I'm not the type of person that's going to tell you that you're right just cause you're my friend and you want to hear it. In fact I tend to be blunt and will tell you if I think you're wrong. Both situations recently involved long term friendships that were being affected by miscommunication and/or things that had been left unsaid. I'm not gonna share details, because if you weren't involved, it's not any of your business. I will say that feelings have been aired, tears have been shed and both situations seem to be on their way to a resolution.

I posted a poem a while back about someone that had really disappointed me. Again I'm not gonna post the sordid details but I will say that God has been faithful and He has done an incredible work to restore a relationship that seemed very close to being irreparable.

So tomorrow I'm flying to Nashville so I can do promise keepers this weekend with my brother. I am very excited and looking forward to a weekend away and some guy time with my bro and other Christian brothers

Song Lyric Sunday, etc.

So it's been an eventful weekend to say the least. When we got home Thursday night, Dana called and said that Kyle and his team had won their game that night and they would playing on Friday night, with Kyle pitching. If they won Friday night, they would play for the state championship at 10 am on Saturday. When I got off the phone Muffin says, "we should go." Well after some emails and phone calls to make sure I could work 1/2 a day Friday we pulled out about 12:15 Friday afternoon, headed for Johnson City, TN. The game was at 7 and most mapping sites listed the drive at just over 6 hours. Well we made 2 quick stops, hit no traffic and had great weather the whole way down. We pulled into the parking lot at 6:30 and hadn't taken 10 steps when my brother and his family pulled into the lot. After lots of hugs, we headed over and watched the game. Kyle really is a very gifted athlete and he pitched a phenomonal game on Friday night and his team won 6-3. He also hit a double that scored 3 of his teams runs. Little League rules won't allow pitchers to pitch in back to back games so he couldn't pitch the final Saturday and Jimmy "Digger" Hollandsworth pitched a great game but they lost 5-1. They finished 2nd for their age group in the entire state and I am extremely proud not only of my nephew but the whole team, they played well, never gave up and did their town, families and friends extremely proud.

I took this pic from behind the backstop, right after I took it the umpire turned around and started walking toward me. It took me bout 3 seconds to realize I was probably not supposed to be there. I muttered a quick "sorry, blue" and beat a quick path to my seat beside Muffin.



Even though we only saw them for a few hours, it was great to spend some time with my family. My niece Cassie and my nephew Kullin even got to come back and spend the night in our hotel room. Cassie had a great time and even got to share some Fun Dip with Aunt Shasta. She was quick to show off her green tongue afterwards to:



We hadn't seen Dana's family since they were up for Mom's funeral and it was nice to be able to see everyone doing so well. The trip down was filled with a lot of very happy, simple memories of our previous drives down to visit Dana and his family and while it would have been nice to have Mom with us I know she had the best seat in the house and was cheering right along with the rest of us.

Here's this weeks lyric:

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch ’em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) it’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!
Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;
Look at me

Couple Quick Things

2 great news items happened in the past couple of days.

1. Muffin and I have another godson. William Joseph Petretta arrived at 6:15 pm on Weds. July 16. He is just as cute as a button and as soon as his photographer Father has pics on line I will let y'all know :D

2. My nephew Kyle's little league all star team started the Tennessee state 10-11 year old playoffs on Saturday and Kyle had quite the game. He pitched a complete game no-hit shutout and struck out 16. The pic below is from the story in his hometown newspaper. Go check it out for all the details.

What a week

Well this week has been eventful to say the least. Shasta and I helped our friend Pastor Billy from Fellowship Bible Church out at their Summer Break this year. Summer Break is a week long event that is essentially a vacation bible school for teens. There was games, food, music and great teaching every evening. Shasta and I served as team leads for what I think was the smallest team there. It was a real challenge for our team to compete and score points in the games challenges but they more than made up for it by memorizing their verses and just gutting it out all. Props to Melissa who was one of only 3 attendees who memorized every verse (15 total) this week. For the first 4 days our team was either 7th or 8th of the 8 teams there and it was an inspiration to me to watch them continue to go full steam even against teams that in some case had twice as many members. Well when the final points were totalled, we were suprised to find that it was based on the average per team member and not total points. Our team ended up third overall but more importantly we had a great time and grew in the word!!!

Thursday night we decided to go catch the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight with several of the teens from our youth group. First of all, the movie very much deserves it's PG-13 rating. It is however an incredible movie, Heath Ledger's performance as Joker will be talked about for years to come. In my opinion his performance was a actually a bit tame compared to previous versions of the Joker, which is exactly what it needed. It would have been very easy for him to carbon copy Caesar Romero or Jack Nicholson's performances but he takes the character to a new place and pulls it off spectacularly. Christian Bale is just about perfect as Bruce Wayne/Batman. His understated performance as a conflicted, reluctant superhero will be overshadowed by Ledger's but is no less dynamic and the film would not have been nearly as good with out it. We got home at 3:30 am and I was up and working by 8:50. Lunch brought a 90 minute nap and with the help of 5 hour energy I made it through the last night of Summer Break.

Fish On!!!

Well check out my nephew Kullin, he caught this fish recently and to quote his dad "He about crapped his pants." with excitement. Congrats Kullin!!!



And I know it's not Sunday, but here's a Song Lyric Anyway...

Now there's a chance that if I hurry
I could beg her to stay
But that water's right
And the weather's perfect
No tellin' what I might catch today

Tuesday, Tuesday

Congrats to Dana for getting this weeks Song Lyric. Shasta was right as well in that Vince Gill sang with Sara Evans on No Place That Far. I picked that song because it was 4 years ago this month that Shasta and I went down to Annapolis, got engaged and I surprised her with a Sara Evans show.

If you happened to be watching Raw last night you saw my sister-in-law Angela and her husband Matt in one of the crowd shots (although it was so quick we almost missed it). When my nephew Jonathon called this morning to tell me all about it he was quick to inform that he could "take" JBL with the 619. LOL. I know that if you don't watch rasslin that really means nothing to you. I will admit that there was a time when I didn't miss a show, but it has been several years since I've watched with any regularity and it doesn't hold nearly the fascination that it once did. My suspicion is there are a few of you out there that have been or currently are fans.

Speaking of my nephews, my nephew Kyle had an awesome outing for his little league all star team. With the exception of the last out, he pitched the whole game. He struck out 13, only gave up 2 runs and his team won 10-7. Way to go Kyle!