My Son, My Brother

This weekend will be exciting on a number of fronts for the Graber household. We have friends coming in from Indiana to spend a week with us. Did I mention that they have 5 children or maybe it's 6 now? Once they hit 4 I lost count. I'm looking forward to the week and some time with Tim and maybe even some golf. As if that wasn't enough, it's Father's Day on Sunday. Among all of the worldly titles that I have, I cherish the titles of Husband and Father above all of them. They are second only to "Child of God" which leads me to the most exciting thing that is happening this weekend. My son, Caleb, is getting baptized this Sunday morning. Two Sundays ago on June 14, Caleb came to Samantha and I and said that "we needed to talk." He said that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart and be baptized. We spent some time asking him what that all meant and why he wanted to do this. Through the time we were talking it was very clear that God was working in Caleb's heart and that he understood that he was a sinner and that he needed a relationship with Jesus who died as a sacrifice for his sins. At that moment, my Son became my brother in Christ. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will see my son in heaven for an eternity. Caleb wanted to be baptized that night, instead he walked down front to talk to one of the pastors to join the church and schedule a time to be baptized. So that leads us to this week. I serve on the Baptism Committee as a deacon and have helped out with many baptisms. This week will be the first time that I'm going to need a towel for the new believer and one to wipe my own eyes and I witness my son follow through in obedience to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Welcome to the family, little brother.

Psalm 78:1-7

¹ O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter hidden things, things from of old-

³ what we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.

⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

⁶ so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.

⁷ Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

Monthly post

Well by blogging has fallen to merely once per month. It's not that I don't have much to say, it's just putting my thoughts into one pithy little article isn't as easy as it should be. I really think my ADD is catching up to....oooo what's that? See? Anyway when I sit down to write this I start to let the random thoughts just roll. What to write about? Politics, the economy, California's budget shortfall and how the progressives have tanked the larges economy in the US, Nancy Palosi, Psuedo- Republicans in congress, or more endearing things like the kids, Samantha, family dynamics, or whatever. I'm not really sure where to go with this, so I guess it will just have to end here.

Sorry, I'm having a brain freeze (bloggers block)

The Rules of the Game

I always like watching This Week In Baseball while growing up. I especially liked the "You Make the Call" and "Rules of the Game" portions where I could test how well I knew the game. Not really surprising since my dad was an ASA ump and I grew up watching him call games. I started umping Little league games in the field and behind the plate before the age of 14.

So now that I'm older, I've gone back to umping Little League locally here in Texas. I'm surprised by the number of coaches, players, and parents that don't know the rules of the game. Some of the rules are just things that the kids are learning, like balks, which I still don't like to call. Other rules are just plain and simple in the book. Here are few that I've had to cover with coaches over the last couple of weeks:

• Pitchers must have their foot in contact with the pitching rubber when beginning their motion.
• The ball is in play and live during a walk.
• Pitchers can't wear white sleeves under their uniform.
• Jewelry is not permitted until it's for medical purposes.
• It is against National Little League rules to have a cell phone in the dugout.
• The limitations on bat size apply to everyone, not just everyone else.
  

On top of teaching coaches, some long time umpires have surprised me with their own interpretation of the rules. One ump thought that Texas must have an exemption from the no tobacco on the field rule since he was dippin' like a donut. The same guy tried to explain fair and fowl balls to me in between innings. Needless to say, his interpretation wasn't even close to what the rule book says.

Finally, if you happen to be in the stands and the ump and scorekeeper both have only 2 outs but you think there are three, you're probably wrong. Even if you're not, you aren't likely to change things and it definitely won't help your team in the long run. Overall, even the bad umps I've met, all umpires go out and try to do their best for the kids, coaches, and fans. Try giving them a break sometime, or better yet, read the book and come on out and ump a base for us. You might just find that you like it, or that it's not as easy as you think.

Dribbling Drill

So Caleb had soccer practice last night and I found one of the best drills that I've seen for teaching the kids to dribble and keep the ball away from others.

With the U6 age kids the site I got it from (http://www.coachingsoccer101.com) recommended playing games instead of drills that aren't fun.

The game was called Killer Whale. We actually practiced with a U4 girls team and all the kids played well together. Everyone dribbles around in a set area (we used half the micro soccer field) and the Killer Whale (or Whales) ran around and tried to kick their balls out of bounds to get everyone out. We gave everyone a chance to be the killer whale at least once. We played this for about 20 minutes and no one got bored with it.

For all those soccer dads out there, I thought I'd share. Check out the site too, it has more great little games.

I have some questions....

I thought I would just bore you with some of the questions that have crossed my mind lately (I promise they are not all about politics)...

• Why is it ok for Congress to hand out $9M in bonuses to their staffs while they are running a huge deficit and not ok for AIG to do it with a somewhat smaller deficit?
• Why do we keep electing some of these guys?
• What is wrong with term limits?
• If the auto industry is now offering payments on your new car if you lose your job, isn't that more of my money going to people who aren't working?
• Why can't poorly run automakers go out of business? Do they think that demand won't still be there and that another automaker won't fill the void?
  
• Why is Obama's aunt who is here illegally still here?
• Why don't Little League coaches know the current Little League baseball rules of the game?
• Who designed Franklin's athletic cups??
• Why do parents think they do know the rules better than those who are responsible for knowing them?
• Why am I more awake at 10pm than at any other time during the day?
• Why does bad food taste good and good food taste bad?
• Why does your car get dirty when it gets rained on in a driveway?
• Where are the dents in the drums coming from?
• What are they thinking? (applies to may different people)
• Why don't Christians go to church every week when they are in town?
• Why is it hard to pray somedays?
• How many times do you have to punish your children before they will learn whatever you are trying to teach them?
• How many times does God have to whack me before I will learn whatever He is trying to teach me?
• What is chucking wood?
• How many stickers can my children possibly have?
• How many legos can a vacuum bag hold?
• How long does it take for temporary window paint to become permanent?
• Why is Facebook so appealing?
• Why do athletes get paid so much for playing a game?
• Why do you need to get mail everyday from the postal service, couldn't we survive with only 3 days a week and save a ton of money?
• Why do new hires make more than long time employees in the same position?
• Why is hitting a golf ball straight such a challenge?
• What are the odds of the Cub's winning the world series this year?
• How can they afford that? (you decide)
• What if we made Congress attend Financial Peace University?
• Why can't politicians get their taxes filed correctly?
• Why does supervising union workers seem a lot like parenting young children?
• Why do friends have to move away?
• Why is it so stinking hot in SE Texas?
• Why on earth did you read this whole list?
  

Reviving a Green Thumb

We're back from our vacation in Florida and I just had an itch to build something. I needed to create with my hands. While in Florida I helped my dad build a deck for two days and it just re-enforced to me how much I enjoy building things.

So this week I had to take an emergency vacation day on Wednesday to take care of the kids. Samantha was ill and sleeping so I tried to keep the kids outside and make the most of the midweek Saturday for me. I had enough pressure treated lumber to build this garden box. We ran to Harbor Freight and picked up a soaker hose (had a coupon of course) that we put in it. Combined with the programmable timer and Miracle Grow garden fertilizer attachment, I figure I should have monster tomatoes in no time.

After spending the night last night in the ER at St. Elizabeth with Samantha, I found myself with another early Saturday on Friday. (Samantha is fine by the way, nasty virus, but she is resting and getting through it) Anyhow, when the Caleb got home from school today, it was time to plant the garden. But what is a garden without nice garden stakes to tell you where your plants are? So today the girls and I made these garden stakes out of 1/4" plywood and ripped pressure treated fence slat leftovers for stakes. Unfortunately the urethane didn't dry before we planted the seeds, but tomorrow we will replace the little stick tags with our new garden markers.

We ended up planting three kinds of tomatoes, carrots, jalapeno peppers, yellow onions, green and red peppers, and broccoli. The only plants I'm hoping really take off are the tomatoes (even though I don't care for raw tomato...go figure) and the hot peppers. The others are more for the kids. My last trick will be to figure out how to get the weeds to pull themselves.

My Mind is else where

Choosing something to blog about sometimes can be frustrating. During the week something will happen and I'll think it would be great to post on here. When the time come that I can post, I don't remember much (blame the Aspartame in the Diet Cokes). So here are a couple of shorties:

My Mind is in Florida already. I'm stuck in a two day meeting, but I'm already at Sara Lake Estates visiting my parents, going to the Red Barn flea market and the Bargain barn, building a sand castle with the kids on Siesta Key, playing cards with my Uncles, and fishing in the pond behind my parents place. I hope they don't ask me any thing complicated this week, my head might just implode since my mind is officially gone on vacation.

So...Bailey and I are driving home from some friends home on Friday night. Up until the time we were leaving she was acting pitiful and whiny. Classic Bailey signs that she's tired. She wanted to ride with me in my car (a special treat for the kids since they are normally in the van). I'm not sure what happened but she got her second wind in the car and wanted to play games all the way home. Here is just a part of the conversation:
Bailey: Hey Daddy
Me: Yes Bailey
Bailey: I wanna play a game
Me: (tired because it is 10pm and I've been up since 5am) Bailey, can we just listen to the radio?
Bailey: I wanna play "I Spy"
Me: Bailey, Daddy's tired
Bailey: OK, I'll just play it by my self.

I'm not really sure how the game went, but I think she won.

Speaking of 5am, I've found that it's a great time to get up, get a cup of coffee (we've dug out the coffee pot and are actually using it for ourselves), and spend an hour with God before the day kicks off. It's refreshing to get back to a more consistent daily quiet time instead of the hit or miss action I was giving God when trying to "fit it in." I know God is pleased with a more deliberate and consistent time and I know my perspective on the day is lifted when I spend time with the Creator of the Universe first.

Finally, I'm blessed to have Samantha as my wife and the mother of my children. Just thought I'd mention that.

Prayer for Adah

There are only a handful of people that had much of an impact on me at Purdue. Some in good ways, some in difficult ways, but an impact none the less. Bill Tibbetts was one of those guys that had a good impact. Bill is one of those guys that just never seemed to have a down day. While I may not fully agree with all of this theology, we did share in our devotion to Jesus Christ and our desire for Him to guide our paths.

As many of the Fairway (Men's Christian house) guys did, Bill married one of the Stewart (Women's Christian house) girls. Bill and Natalie have a four year old daughter named Adah. A little while back Adah was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a rare heart disease that effects one in 1 million children. The result is a need for a new heart. For the last several months Adah has been in and out of the Children's Hospital in St. Louis (they actually live in Minnesota, so you can get a feel for the expertise needed for this condition).

Last night Bill got the call. An eleven year old girl had passed and the family wanted as many of her organs harvested as possible. So this morning Adah has a new heart beating inside her body. By Bill's account the surgeon said that the operation when perfectly. Please join me in praying for Adah along with Bill and Natalie. Adah is in recovery right now and the next 24 hours is critical for her body to accept the new heart and that there is no bleeding. The right ventricle is a little week so a little extra prayer is needed there.

I can't imagine what Bill and Natalie are going through right now as their precious only daughter goes through a heart transplant operation and this life and death battle to heal. Your prayers are coveted right now. Thank you.

Tagged!!

Here's how you play!
1. Go to your 4th folder where you store your photos.
2. Select your 4th picture (no exceptions)!
3. Post the picture with an explanation and link it back to your tagger

4. Tag 4 people (or as many as you want) to do the same!!

Since I'm kind of organized with my computer files this is the 4th picture in like the 4th folder in the 4th folder in the 4th folder in the 4th folder where we keep our pictures.
This is Caleb at age 3 at the beach on Siesta Key in Florida. Grandma and Grandpa live a couple of miles north of the beach in Sarasota in the winter. We'll be back on this beach in about 6 weeks during Caleb's spring break. Incidently, the Amish who stay in an area called Pine Craft for the winter also frequent this beach. The really interesting thing is that once they get to the beach you can't tell the Amish girls from the spring breakers since they are all in "normal" swimsuits and even bikinis and they all have great tans (unlike Caleb here).

OK...gotta tag 4, how about...
Jet
The Butler gang
Mrs. Walters
the 'Boda clan

I'm Too Tired to Blog

That is it....just wanted you to know. I'm just too tired to blog.

Big Day

Today was definitely a big day today. The inauguration of Barak Obama wasn't something I was hoping for, but none the less it was historic. I think it's great that an African American has ascended to the office of President. I wish it was someone who held my socially and fiscally conservative views, but we've survived Democratic administrations before. Usually the best thing that comes out of Democrats in control is a wake up call that returns control to the Republicans. I hope with Barak's accomplishment that all people now recognize that America is a land of opportunity and the only thing that truly limits anyone's success is themselves.

The second reason that this was a big day is that I had to present my last three months work to the Global Manufacturing Manager and Americas Zone Manufacturing Manager for our division of ExxonMobil. Needless to say I walked out with a proud sense of accomplishment based on the feedback from both the managers and our local management. I'm always confident in my work, but sometimes it's nice to have that affirmation.

New Beginnings....not just for January 1

Happy New Year. Time to buy a new calendars and put away the Christmas decorations for another 11 months. For me there is little celebration for the new year...really.....the holidays are over, college football is winding down, and pro football is coming to an end as well. We are entering "the stretch" of unrecognized minor holidays. There are exactly 145 days before Memorial day and a scheduled day off (thank God for elective vacation days). On top of that, we are getting ready to inaugurate a new president that is about as opposite in his worldview from my Christian worldview as you can get. Do I have you depressed yet?

Well, GET OVER IT!!! There is nothing to be depressed over!

All the things that I mentioned are merely the external things. How many of those things do I have control over? None! So, it would be insane for me to worry or complain about them. God is in control. That is what I'm excited about. Each year people make resolutions based on something they didn't do the last year or that they want to change for the New Year....why?....because it is a new beginning. Annual resolutions are hard to keep, but there is a trick that makes them easier. Yes, I've figured them out. How else do you think someone who is 50lbs over weight can go a whole year without eating a single donut or any french fries? I made it in 2008. I had done it before with donuts and french fries, each separately, but never both the same year. Here's the trick.....they have to be daily resolutions, not annual. Can you do anything for a day? I can. Is it easy; sometimes yes; sometimes no, but it's a lot easier for a day than a year. Focusing for a day is much easier than focusing on the entire year.

So, Happy New Day!!! Make the right choices today. Focus on getting through today making all the little decisions that give you a win. Maybe it's not stopping to get a Coke, eating those sweets, maybe it's not cursing, or turning off the tv show you should really be watching, or spending some time in the Word....whatever you look at as a win at the end of the day. Make it a law, a rule you just can't break no matter what. Then do it again tomorrow...and the next day... soon you will find that it's just what you do.

Psalm 119:60
I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.