Thursday, December 30, 2010

...And A Happy New Year

Last post of 2010!

2010 has gone by fairly quick.  It's been a wild one, but in so many ways, it's been a pivotal one for DeAnne and I.

We marked our fifth wedding anniversary. We had an amazing vacation (thanks, Mom!).  We watched Auburn march to an undefeated season.  We got to see the first eight or nine months of Liam's life.  We entered the world of Mac and iPhone.  We started working with the youth at church.  I fell back in love with two of the major driving forces of my teenage years, playing guitar and playing the game Magic: the Gathering, and found them little changed from when I left them.  I found myself in a band again for the first time in eight years.  We saw some awesome concerts with awesome friends.  Went on a date to a Broadway show.  DeAnne found a school and a grade level and coworkers that she loves.  We spent time with our friends and our families.  We prayed for so many who were told they had cancer and we saw the Lord heal many of them in miraculous ways.  We let go of things we couldn't change and because we gave them up the Lord has blessed in ways we can't even comprehend.

It's been a great year.  We had struggles too, but in the end we've been more blessed than ever.  I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2011.  It's going to be mind-boggeling.

--Paul

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A Merry Christmas, Indeed

We had another wonderful Christmas.  We ate, swapped gifts, ate and then did it all over again for two days after the first one.  We had a good time though and all in all we couldn't have asked for a better Christmas.

I even got away with the cardinal sin of gift-giving.  I gave my wife a vacuum cleaner.  Not only did I give her one, but I gave her two!  And she loved them!  Okay, so maybe they're not the traditional vacuum cleaners, they're Roombas, the robotic vacuums, but still, I gave my wife a vacuum cleaner for a gift and got away with it.  That's a pretty impressive feat if you ask me.

DeAnne got me a really nice new coat.  I've never really had a nice jacket that I could wear to church.  I've just always used pull-over fleeces and things like that, so I'm pretty excited about it.  It was really nice to have on Sunday when we went to Tallassee and it was like 25 degrees the whole day.  It snowed lightly the whole time we were up there.  It wasn't sticking, but still, I guess we got to see a white day-after-Christmas.

So like I said, all in all, an excellent Christmas.  I hope yours was too.

--Paul

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Tale As Old As Time...

For as long as I've known DeAnne, I've known that she loves Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".  So when it finally came out on DVD/Blu-ray a month or two ago, I had to buy it for her.  About that same time, I found out that the Broadway in Birmingham series was bringing the Broadway show of "Beauty and the Beast" to Birmingham.  I was going to wait as long as I could to tell her we were going, but I ended up telling her pretty much the day I ordered the tickets which was about a month ago.

So Saturday, we're going to have a "date day".  We're going to dress up nice, drive up to Birmingham, watch the show and then go out to eat.  We haven't really been out on a "date" in a while and  we're both pretty excited about it.  Of course, DeAnne's pretty excited just for the show.  I'm not sure that we've ever been to a play or musical like this before.  We've been together for over 8 years and I can't recall ever going to one.  I honestly wasn't sure if she would like the idea, but she was pretty excited when I told her about it.

That's about all we have planned.  It's the last week before Christmas.  It's hard to believe that it's already here.  It seems like we just finished eating Thanksgiving dinner.  Here we are though.  I haven't decided what my blog schedule is going to be like next week.  At the moment, I'm thinking I'll write on Tuesday and that'll be it.  We'll see though.  Have a good weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

--Paul

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Topic-less

We had another good weekend.

Friday night the girls in the youth group had a get together so while our wives were at that, Bryan, Garrett and I got together and watched "The Expendables".  Other than some rough language, it was pretty good.  It was cool to see all those old action stars in a movie together.

Saturday we went up to Montgomery to see Mom and Sid.  Sid's doing a little better since his stroke but he's still got a long road ahead of him.  The good news is that the repairs to the house are finished and Mom is back living in it.  She's still got a lot of little things to do like hanging pictures, but all the furniture is in place and everything's functional again.

Sunday was church.  We did head over to Kinston for lunch.  Sara, Mike and Liam were in town to get some pictures made so we got to see them.

All in all, a good weekend.  Nothing Earth-shattering to report, but we were busy so at least we weren't bored.

See you on Thursday.

--Paul

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Child's Play - 2010

Every year I talk about Child's Play (www.childsplaycharity.org) and this year is no different.  I'm not sure how many years the charity has been running, but counting the first post I made about it on the surgery blog, this is the sixth year I've talked about it.

Just to refresh your memory, Child's Play is a charity that donates toys and games to the various Children's Hospitals around the world.  The very first thing you see on their website is a map with all the different hospitals.  If you click on a logo for a hospital you will be taken to that hospital's Amazon wish list.  You can then buy a toy, game, movie, etc... and it will be shipped directly to that hospital.

You can also donate cash through paypal or this year, they've started a text donation.  You can text "GAMERS" to 50555 and make a $5 donation that way.

You can go back to the old posts and see my thoughts on why this is such a great cause.  Not only am I someone who fits into the "gamer" caste, but through my experiences at hospitals as a kid, something like a video game or a movie can go a long way to distracting from what a sick kid is going through.

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Glenndale Bound

So after Auburn's decisive win over South Carolina in the SEC Championship game, they're heading to Glenndale for the BCS National Championship game.  I'll be there.

A couple of weeks ago, Edwin sent me a message asking if he was able to get tickets to the BCS game would I be in to go with him.  At the time, Auburn was 10-0 going into their off week before the Iron Bowl.  If we got tickets and they fell along the way, we would have to sell them.  I said I was in and the rest is, now, history.

I'm pretty excited.

It's short, but that's really all I've got for today.  I'll see you on Thursday.

--Paul

Thursday, December 02, 2010

One of Those Days

Well, it's one of those days where I'm not really sure what to talk about.  I guess I'll fall back on the "weekend plans" topic.

The only thing about using the "weekend plans" topic is that this is one of those weekends where we don't have a whole lot planned.  Saturday morning I'm going to be helping the kids at church practice for their Christmas musical.  They're performing it on Sunday night.  So really, that amounts to the big plans for the weekend.  Outside of that, the only other thing happening is the SEC Championship game.

Since everyone else with a blog has weighed in on the Cam Newton story, I guess I can too.  I'm excited and relieved that he was declared eligible.  I'm also happy that the NCAA found no evidence to indicate that either he or Auburn knew anything about a pay-to-play scheme.  It's sad that his dad attempted it with Mississippi State and I'm sure it's probably led to some hard times, hurt feelings and damaged relationships in the Newton family.  Really though, the real tragedy is the character assassination that some sports writers carried out on Cam himself.  Now that he's been found innocent of any wrong-doing on his part and seems to have had no knowledge of the actions of his father, you would think there would be some apologies coming from some people.  Don't hold your breath.  Thayer Evans, who has been one of the worst offenders, has a response article out full of anonymous quotes from "coaches" saying that this is the worst thing that could happen and now anytime there's a question, the player, coaches, etc... can just say "He didn't know."  He also quotes an unnamed source saying that Newton shouldn't be given the Heismen after what happened with Reggie Bush.  Evans has probably already forgotten that his beloved Kellen Moore and Boise State got beat by Nevada less than a week ago.  I'm sure if you asked him, he'd say it didn't really happen.

This is just more of the same from writers like Evans.  No facts, no real sources, no real journalism.  It's sad that we live in a time where supposed "journalist" can attack and try to destroy a 20 year old college kid with seemingly no second thought.  From all I've seen and heard from both him and his coaches all the way back to high school, Cam Newton is a great guy.  He's also the most explosive player in college football right now.  If that's not good enough to get the Heismen, then who needs it?

Okay, I'll get off the soap box.  Have a good weekend and War Eagle!