Breathing easy

I am very proud of my wife and you all should be too.

As many of you know Jules has smoked for the past couple of years. She stopped when pregnant (thankfully) but has been a slow burning chimney none the less for quite some time.

Recently I had to play nursemaid to a sick wife who was too wiped out to do much of anything including smoke. After just over a week the illness passed and Jules was already most of the way through her de-toxing without having put too much thought into the whole process.

The next week was pretty tough because her routine at work was shaped by her need to smoke: lunch, breaks, trip in and back home all with smokes in place.

On a weekend shopping excursion Jules asked if she could buy one pack, smoke one and let me hold the rest for her. I told her if she bought a pack she would have to give the rest to me and I would instantly throw them away.

She continued to be smoke free for another day. To date my wife has continued to be smoke free. What that really (selfishly) means is that Isaac, Caleb and I don’t have to be unwilling second-hand smokers anymore and for that I’m very thankful.

I don’t know that you guys really know what it is to quit one of the most addictive and socially accepted drugs in history so please take a moment and let her know how happy you are for her determination, strength and courage to fight this addiction.

Julie, I love you and am very proud, thank you.

Grove Park Inn

The Mulls and The Brals had a grand ole time in Asheville, NC.

Sometimes I forget how much I can laugh, and sometimes I forget how much I can make other people laugh, but apparently I had because we all laughed alot... likewise, we rested alot.

I won't go into how good the food was, and how nice the spa was, nor about how nice it was to stay up late in the grand hall by a fireplace that 15 men could fit in while I tried to convince Mullins to use some of my material in his standup routine. I will also pass over the part about getting a box of chocolate (And the box was made of chocolate) delivered to our room by a guy Mullins had befriended that worked there...

But, I will leave you with a few pics... I have some awesome ones of all 4 of us, of the Mulls, and of just me and my wife, (another one) but this is all I had at work. The rest are at home.

I am really relaxed in this first picture...

Sat on their park bench like bookends...

Everyone has friends. What seperates folks is the quality of those friends and the bond of that friendship.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Jamboree was last weekend and I did the stage managing duties, as always. This year, John Gordon brought in a few old school Jamboree hosts and hostesses from years past. One of those was a one Jennifer Puryear (Now Jen Duncan).

Jen was one of my first friends at Faulkner. Yes, before Brew, and before Sip. Maybe not before Ryan though. Jen and I have seen little of each other since she graduated F.U. She came to my wedding, I went to hers, and other than that, it has been virtual radio silence. Sure, the occational email will be tossed in there, but not much else.

Were we mad at each other? No. Did we have a falling out? No. Was our friendship put on hold? No. But relationships do this from time to time... they don't fizzle out, they just slow down for a period of time I guess. Life takes over and life changes, and friendships adjust accordingly.

Joining MySpace may have been one of the best things I have ever done to push out any remaining depression I may have had in my life. Reconnecting with so many old friends has been glorious. Jen being one of those friends. We were able to reconnect, catch up, and appreciate our friendship again! I then learned she would be coming to town for Jamboree and I was as happy as you could imagine.

When Jen came into town, we went to lunch that day. Let me tell you folks, it was like she never left. We laughed at everything. Just like the old times. Back in the day we would just look at each other in chorus practice and laughter would ensue. I have way too many memories to share so I won't even start. But after lunch last week we grabbed my camera and shot at least 15 pics of ourselves with as many expressions as we could come up with. The top picture is "Melancholy".

A test of a true friendship is going a long period of time without seeing or talking to one another, and seeing how strong the relationship is after that "time out"... and not freaking out or losing your mind when you realize that the relationship is in a time out . I'm happy to say the friendship I share with Jen is as strong as ever, and ever will continue to be.

Of course the obvious question people used to ask is "She is beautiful! Why didn't you ever go out with her?" All I can say is that I never looked at Jen based on her looks. She became my friend when I honestly had few if any friends at Faulkner and from that day forward, that's what she was to me. I wouldn't even call it a brother-sister thing, we were pure and simple friends! I am sure I considered it once or twice in the many years I knew her, but 2 minutes later she would call and ask if I wanted to play hide and seek or go climb a tree and those thoughts just went away for what ever reason.

Hearing Jen sing last weekend was unreal. We all have known her our who college lives, and we were all friends with her. I grew to "get used" to her singing abilities. I guess you could say I took them for granted. I knew she sang well, but I had heard her sing so many times and I knew her so well that frankly, I stopped getting a thrill out of her amazing singing voice. When she started to sing Friday night at Jamboree I could not move. Ussually I am busy backstage when there is a performance going on. I rarely just stop and watch. But I sat there remembering that "Hey, she is a really good singer" because frankly, I had forgotten. I guess in a way this is just another sign of a true friendship; I wasn't her friend because of her looks or her singing abilities... but man, can she sing!

Anyway, I know many of you know Jen, and thought you may enjoy that story. A quick update, she is in a suburb of Nashville with her VERY good looking husband who runs a recording studio. He must be good at what he does because he has a few Grammy's to prove it. Success and money have not changed the Jen we all know and love. She is as solid as she has ever been.

I leave you iwth a few more pics taken during jamboree, of more "Old Friends" as the title of this blog suggests (Assuming you have heard that song).

Me and the lovely Compton sisters.

You can't talk about old pals without talking about Fred...

Perhaps you remember Jason Gray?

Who can forget Knapp?

Saying something I never thought I'd say

Jamboree has come a long way.
Sure, the hosts and hostesses aren't going to win grammys anytime soon.
Sure, the club shows can be cheesy and repeatative.
But this year, I actually had ... FUN!
And next year, I actually HOPE I can do it!
The students at Faulkner (At least the ones in clubs) were a pleasure to work with. They were all fun, well behaved, and extreemly nice and welcoming. And ALL the shows were actually GOOD!
Gone are the days where you have one club show that is really good, 2 that suck, and one that doesn't even exist. The clubs work VERY hard on their shows, and honestly, few really care if they win or lose, they just have fun and do really great shows!
I did a video. Unfortunately, there are no shots of the new clubs show (cant remember their name... basically they are Mu Beta Sigma with alot of Kappa members in them) who did an awesome Alladin show, complete with the blue and red genie! I also didnt get any shots of the Zeta and AAA show, who did a fun pirate show. The two best shows were Kappas and Epsilons... and guess what? Epsilon didn't win this year, shocker! But both clubs did great shows!

Enjoy the film! If you have MySpace, check out all my photos from Jamboree on my page...

Death Of The Blog. Plus Tags, Part 2

The blogs not really dead, but it is definitely sick. In the last month we’ve seen a lot of Jamison, quite a bit of me, and a smattering of Mullins. No Sipper, no Mrs. Sipper, no Stubbs (Mrs. or otherwise) no anyone else.

I’m not really complaining, just stating the facts. We’ve seen very little action around these parts for some time. I realize there are reasons, Josh can’t blog at work, and would rather spend his home time with his family instead of us (this is a credit to Josh, again not a complaint.) Mullins seems to have landed a job where they actually expect him to work, and likewise spends his home time with family. I’m sure Diana is busy with school and Charles was eaten by a crocodile. We’re all busy. I haven’t posted as much as I used to, and I’m less busy than any of you folks.

The truth is, for whatever reason, we all haven’t been that active. Even the discussions have been bereft of the regular Café-ers. Thank goodness we have some new readers who have greatly added to the discussion.

My point here, is what’s next? I very much don’t want to see this blog die. I know in the past, I have spoke out against inviting other writers, but times are changing. I’m suggesting we grab a couple of other folks and invite them to join our little blog family. Ryan, I’m looking right at you. You’re already a member, and kindly have only kept yourself to the comments, but I see no reason you can’t chime in with posts of your own.

There are others we could invite. In fact, I have secretly made Kellie a member, due to the fact she agreed to help me with the tags. Anybody have a problem with her adding new posts? I would so much rather this blog take on new voices, than fade away due to our busy lives.

What say ye?




Speaking of Kellie and tags, she has spent many long hours helping me tag the 600+ posts we have written over the last two years. This was not an easy task, as the blogger software doesn’t let you mass tag very easily. Our posts are also often rambly, covering multiple topics at once and thus, are not easily tagged.

I am proud to say that we have finally completed this endeavor and every single post we have written is not gloriously tagged and categorized.

A few notes about the tags:

Names were tagged when you wrote a post. “Life Story” is simply a personal post written in long form with some sense of storytelling. “Personal” denotes a more personal post meant to pass along simple details about our lives. Although, somewhere along the way life stories also got tagged with “personal.” So there is overlap.

“Internets” for the most part denotes a post with an external link to various things we felt were worth mentioning. “Literature” denotes any discussion of the written word. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Some fun facts:

Jamison is king of the blog with a whopping 153 posts written, followed closely by BigSip with 143. Rounding out the top four posters with over a hundred posts a piece are me and Mullins. Person with the fewest posts is one Charlie with a mere 4 posts written.

Our favorite topic is “personal” of which we have written about 212 times. Showing how literary we all are, “life story” closely follows with 143.


I beg, nay plead with you to please add tags to your new posts. It took a lot of time adding these things in, and I don’t want to have to go back and do it again, because you all are too lazy. If you don’t understand how to do it, just ask. Please also note that you can click on “show all” while you are writing a post and it will give you a list of all the tags we have thus far used. Though if you feel it merits it, you may add new ones.

Tags are a great way to organize the blog. At a touch you may now read every post by Jamison or tnmommieof2. Want to know if we’ve ever blogged about the evils of instrumental music? Click on the religion tag and find out. Want to create some categories for next years blog awards? With the tags you can easily look through all our posts and find the best of the rest.

Now go forth and write!

Family Secrets

I’m still trying to research this a little, and fill in the details, so there will likely be a longer, follow up story in the weeks to come, but I found some information about my family I wanted to share.

My grandfather fought in the Philippines during World War II. This is a fact that not even my father knew until a few years ago, for grandfather never, ever mentioned it. Last summer I brought it up with him wanting to get some stories out of him before he died, but all he would say is that he had seen action.

Talking with my grandmother, this past weekend she told me that when his active duty was done that he was told to stay in for two extra weeks, doing office work, and he would get a nicer benefits package. He refused outright and wanted to be shipped immediately home.

Once he returned home he boarded up his windows and nailed his door shut, afraid that the Japanese would sneak in and take him.

For a year after he returned he would often cry out to his mother that he could never go to heaven. That he was bound for hell for the things he had seen. The things he had done. For he had killed men. He had bombed buildings, murdered innocents. He had seen little children’s arms and legs flying dismembered from the explosions he had caused.

Eventually, she said, they calmed him down and made him understand he had served his country, and the Greater Good and could indeed go to Heaven. But hearing that story, broke my very heart.

Here was a young man, 17 at the time, I believe, from the hills of Tennessee. Seventh grade education, never seeing much beyond the farm he grew up on. Suddenly he is shipped to the wonders of California where he learns how to be a warrior, a soldier, and killer. Then he is shipped to some exotic island to experience what hells I’ll never understand only to again be shipped back and expected to live a normal life.

I may not agree with the politics of our current wars, but my heart goes out to all the men and woman who quite literally put their lives on the line ever single day. I pray God brings them home safe, healthy and able to adjust to normal life again.

Ban the bridge

The toll bridge near my neighborhood (that turns a 40 minute drive to work into a 22 minute drive) was sold. Sold to a company in Australia. the first thing this new company does is raise the toll from $1.00 to $1.50.

I thought I would be the only person upset about this, but I get a flyer on my mailbox every other day, picketing lines are being formed every weekend, and there is an unoffical boycott of the toll bridge the day that it will first go to $1.50.

I listen to local talk radio alot and people call in all the time about it.

So I did my part...

www.banthebridge.com

it is not done yet, but almost finished, check it out! I certainly will not be able to not use the bridge every day, but I can cut my usage down by 50% easily, saving me money! So it is really a good thing!

TLC

THis will be (plan on it being) a short post... but on a topic that bugs the dickens out of my wife and me.

Anyone ever watch TLC? AKA, The LEARNING Channel?

My wife and I have yet to figure out what there is to LEARN on TLC...

I can guess 9 times out of 10 what will be on it before turning to it. I simply say "something about tattoos or building chopper motocycles." I am ussually right...

Here is abrief glimps of their programming:

"Krazy Kids" First off, I love the witty misspelling. This was a show with home videos of kids acting funny... AFV basically. What can be learned? Babies are funny.

"Miami Ink" How far can you take a show about tattoos... not a history of them, a reality show of a parlor. Can you say "Yawn"? What is learned? Someone fill in this blank.

"American Chopper" Okay, the first 2 or 3 times you atch it, it is cool. Nice bikes, nice workmanship, cool rides... okay, then toss in a stupid son who is there only at the producers request for laughs, make the dad get so angry you wonder if his penis is the size of a toothpick and the only way he can feel better is to yell the F word 50 times, get spitting angry at some milimeter mistake, and call it good programming. What is learned? Dont make a 65 year old mane with tattoos mad.

"Little People, Big World". Cool show, but honestly, it has run its course... they are midgets. They are small, they overcome things, awesome... let it end.

The World's Tallest Bridge

That right there, is the highest bridge to ever be built. It is currently still under construction in the mountain range of Massif in France. It is approximately 984 feet high, which is taller then the Eiffel Tower.

Wednesday Nights

What's cool about this blog group is that I can say the most insane thing and it be considered as something intellectual.

Let's talk about Wednesday nights, shall we?

Firstly, let's eleminate all talk of any Wednesday night class from college level on down. I look at college, youth, and child class on Wednesday nights as fine, and worthy.

Adult classes, at least in my opinion at my church, are lacking.

The more I think about the choices I have (A class about Old Testament stories, a ladies class which I dont qualify for, but I hear it is really dull, and ussually an auditorium class that is as exciting as my business calculus class in colelge) the more I am happy I teach 2 and 3 year olds on most Wednesday nights. I am sorry, but talking about Hebrews in a lecture-style way, or David and Goliath does not make me want to go out and start knocking on doors for Jesus.

I thought Wednesday night services were to lift us up, recharge our batteries, get us back on fire for Christ. Instead, we are lead to the auditorium after dull classes like cattle, sing a song WAY flat and slow so we sound like we are SAD, even when singing a happy song, and hear a lesson that sounds like the past 232 Wednesday night devos, always ending with "if you need anything, please come as we stand and sing."

This is out "battery charger" after working 8 to 9 hours in this evil and tempting world.

Here is my idea;
Instead of starting at 7pm (an hour before many children's bedtime) have it at 6pm.
Have your classes for 30 minutes. All ages in their own classrooms. The last 30 minutes of church is int he fellowship hall, or what-have-you, eating a pretty cheap meal, easy to make for large groups (spagettii, some rice dish, etc...). Before eating there is a gathering for QUICK announcements, a thankful prayer, go get your food, and someone speaks for MAYBE 10 minutes tops as we eat. "The Invitation" (which we find no wher ein teh Bible, yet would split churches if we didnt have it) can be optional.

Heck, make classes optional. Make it one big fat happy family meal!

Fellowship. That is the ONLY part of Wednesday night service that recharges my batteries. We are not commanded to worship God in any specific way or time on Wednesdays. So in a way, it IS a selfish day to have any sort of church related event on. WE NEED IT! If fellowshiping with fellow brothers and sisters who need fellowship too is how we can recharge better, so be it.

Of trees

This might be an odd observation but it’s one I’m been holding on to for some time. It has to do with chunks of wood. Recently I noticed a steel safety barrier and in between the anchor posts and the railing I noticed these big blocks of wood.

On the inner stated I noticed rigs hauling steel bridge tresses with large wooden beams placed between the trailer and the raw material.

Standing as a tree there is little thought given to the potential of the mass other than by carpenters and the like. They are wonderful things to climb and memorable to swing from and as a child they are everything from monsters to castles. As adults these towers are ornaments and landscaping devices. As industrious folks can envision these natural phenomenon are virtually anything that can be imagine.

For all of the great innovations people have made over the years I think it’s funny that the one item that is both amazingly strong and durable and still able to flex, collapse and cushion is wood.

This simple and often underestimated thing which can have life spans from a few short years to well over 400 is truly one of the most versatile devices created by a loving God.
Again I’m not sure why I thought of this a week or so ago but it has sort of helped me keep some things in perspective.

Why Montgomery Needs Mullins

Back in the day, me and the Mullins talked about creating a local advertising company. The idea was that local markets continuously have the worst possible commercials. We figured with a little cash we could do so much better.

Well, after watching this Montgomery commercial, I think a blind, retarded squirrel could do better.

Blogger 2.0

Blogger has finally seen fit to allow me to switch this blog to their upgraded version. If it continues to work right, all writers will be asked to switch when you sign in. Don't worry, it is painless, although it may take a minute if you are on a slow connection.

In terms of reading, and writing on the blog, this won't mean all that much to you. There are a few enhancements in what you can do with the look of the blog, and feeds and such like, but since we mostly stick to the basics, most of this stuff will pass right by. Though feel free to play around a little.

One big change is the ability to add tags. For the uninitiated tags are like little categories you can add to each post. The idea being that whenever someone visits the blog they will have all our little posts in nice neat categories. Say you want to read every post by Jamison, blamo, right in a neat little link you can have them all neatly piled up. Or say you are interested in our thoughts on religion, or the Beatles, or various cheeses. Well, with tags you can see everything written on a particular subject.

All of these tags can be added to the side bar for easy access. At least I think they can, but have yet to figure out how.

I will, over the course of the next few days/weeks/months, be going back and adding tags to all of our posts. I do want to create a tag for each person that posts. However, before I do that I want some permission. I know some of you are weary of getting your full name into the world wide web, and so I would like everyone to include the name you would prefer for tags. I can very easily use the names you use in blogger, as they are already attached to the posts created and the comments written, but if you want another name, let me know.

For the future, the ways to create a tag are simple. Simply type in the categories, seperated by a comma, in the little space that is just below the area you normally write a post in. Blogger labels it as "labels" and it is pretty straight forward from there.

It is usually best not to get too terribly specific as then there won't be very many posts in a category. I'll probably add some generally generic ones like: "religion", "work", "life stories", "movies" and such like. I'll let everyone know exactly what I create once I get there. But you are welcome to come up with some of your own too.

A Most Unusual Washing

Over the last few week’s we have had a handful of storms delivering 1-2 inches of snow each time. The temperature has not risen above freezing in that time, and thus we now have a very dirty, collections of nasty slushy, snow conglomeration. Needless to say my automobile looks most miserably disgusting.

This past Saturday, even though it was still well below freezing, I decided to get a car wash. It was a very pretty day, and the weather wasn’t calling for more snow for at least half a week. Wanting to get the nastiness, especially all the corrosive salt off my car I decided it was worth bearing the cold for.

Apparently, this was a common thought, as there was quite the line at the car wash. Three lines extended into three separate automatic washers. I choose the one on the far right. As we nudged closer, we noticed that the walls of each washing stall were covered in ice. We also laughed as we saw large ice sickles hanging off the washing lines.

Finally there was only one car before us and nudged our way up to the pay-machine. Inserting our cashola we watched the car in front of us get a wash.

Interestingly, the pre-wash soak part seemed to not be working. Little soap bubbled sort of dropped from the machine, but the car was certainly not getting a good sudzing. That doesn’t look good, we thought, but what could we do? We were trapped in a stampede of cars.

A knock came upon my window and a fellow stood there telling me the machine was definitely broken.

“Pull through,” he said, and advised me to get into another line. Pull through I did and drove around to wait in line a second time. For my trouble he gave me double the cash I had originally paid.

Waited again, we did and finally got the car washed. While being soaked and washed we laughed as the mirrors and back windshield quickly froze over, before being washed again, thus wiping away the ice. The end came, and I slowly drove through the dryer. Not slow enough, it seems, for when we parked at Kroger, the entire car was caked in a thin layer of ice.

It eventually did melt, and get blown off, but that was definitely the most unusual washing my car has ever seen.

There is a market for pee

Okay, I posted our ACPO message on youtube saturday... and in 24 hours almost 100 people have viewed it.
And this blog post is the FIRST "announcement" i have made for it.
Makes me wonder what people are searching for on YouTube....

Party ANIMALS!

Warning!
Be aware that what you are about to see is a film of 2 college aged GUYS celebrating NEW YEARS!
Having said that, you may watch...

You've seen it before, but I've edited it so it looks cool and stuff... My fave part is the music at the end...

yeah, it's sad but...

...at least the gene pool is a bit thinner.

Inner City

What I am about to say here may sound pretty pathetic, mean, hateful, and will sound very much like a man who has no faith in the power of God. I reckon it is fair to say that. However, I have to get this out of my head and onto paper...well, er, the screen...

Every Tuesday night, I go to our church and participate in the Montgomery Inner City Outreach. Basically, several churches around the city take a bus load of kids varying in age on different nights (We take 7, 8, and 9 year olds on Tuesdays for example). The night last 40 to 60 minutes. But class only runs for 40 minutes.

Essentially we have 2 to 4 classrooms with 7 to 10 kids in each class... 10 at most, sometimes 6 after you send the bad ones out. We read a story about Jesus, we answer questions, color, do a word search related to the story, etc... We all think of inner city kids as being mean, hateful, and rowdy. Well, in a way this is true. But honestly, they are just kids and there are a handful who are just as sweet as your own child. Then there is the one who has behavioral problems out the yen-yang because she got hit in the neck by a stray bullet and her brother molests her every night.

Here is where my faith in god may sound lacking. Our work seems useless and futile.

First of all, our curriculum is written on a 3rd or 4th grade level. Have you ever heard an inner city public school 8 year old try to read the word "Apostle"? Or even try the name "Daughter"? How about the one kid in every class that looks up at you when he comes to the word "then" because he cant pronounce it? So mistake number one is that these lessons need to be readable on a 1st grade level at BEST because that's how these kids read. Granted, there are the 1 or 2 kids in the class who love to read and read like an ace and my heart goes out to them because they have everything it takes to be successful yet they were dealt different cards in life as you and I and will have to work EXTRA hard to be successful.

Secondly, as these kids read aloud, the remaining 7 or 8 are in la la land either looking around, kicking one another under the table, flipping the other off, or trying to get out of their seat. And you cant really get mad at them. Heck, they are probably fussed at all day or worse, beaten. Best you can do is get the bad ones out of class and the rest are fine.

Okay, best case scenario: They come in, sit like little angels, read like a poet, comprehend every bit of it, and go home only after giving you a big fat hug... They get home, find mom (and maybe a dad) in the house selling dope or weed, repeating the F-bomb over and over, treating the child like an inconvenience, neglecting the child, and subjecting the child to rap music that does anything but lift a child's spirit. 24 hours later, the fact that Jesus died on a cross means nothing to this child. You can't force a mom or dad to be a good mom or dad...

Half these kids don't go to church and the ones that do go with their grandmother to some church OTHER than the one sponsoring this outreach program.

Now, here is where I come in.... I no longer feel like I am doing this work for God or the Church, but rather for the people that do it with me. Let me explain...

Before I did inner city, I was doing VBS. I noted that alot of guys and gals I knew and loved from church stopped coming to help with VBS. Being a sweet and innocent boy, I figured "I have no right to be upset that they aren't coming if I don't help THEM with inner city!" So it started. I started doing the inner city thing. Already for the wrong reasons.

Well, turned out, me being there didn't encourage anyone anymore to come help with VBS the next summer. Yet, I knew the need for inner city workers was great so I kept going. Not for the kids, not for God, not even for me, but so my friends wouldn't be deserted when a big bus load showed up and there are only enough teachers for half those kids. Guilt I guess.

Do I like doing it? No! On Tuesdays I simply stay at work till 6:30pm rather than drive to Wetumpka only to have to turn back around! I miss dinner and wife time in the process. I'd love to never go again? Why? Because I not only don't think I am doing anything worth-while, but I KNOW I am not doing it for God but rather my friends. TOTALLY wrong!

There, that's off my chest. I know God can do ANYTHING, but sometimes, it seems like Tuesday nights are His biggest challenges...

I hate computers.

I used to love them but not I have stopped the fetish and consider them a waste of time. Of course I really like playing Lego Star Wars II with Isaac and I couldn't do my job without using one. I enjoy getting emails from my pals, I hope you guys are all doing good, it's been a while. Still I don't like the dang things and someday when the great economic fall comes they won't even be good for keeping a fire going.

Here's hoping I remember how to get back on to this thing in the morning.

BTW I think I'll have a piece I did at the Grove Park Inn on line some time tomorrow. If I can remember how to post it on the WBIR site I'll let you guys know.

Since I am on a Stubbs-Coke kick....