Some Joy in Muddville Again

As a follow up to my last posting I must say that some of the sadness that had been very apparent in our home since the passing of "Corky" has been softened with the new addition of "Layla" a black lab we adopted from the local humane adoption place locally. She has made the girls very happy and we have enjoyed having here become part of our family.

We still miss and long for our "Corky" it is nice to have the joy of a family pet back again.

This is why

I have finally came back. I have just not had time or the desire much to blog but I do think a make over for the page and I little blogging might be a good distraction.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a very sad and emotional day for me and my family. Yes this is BigDave with an tender post but I am not the big grumpy man that some think I am. The is a tender teddy bear in there just waiting to be released at times.

As I said yesterday was a rough one. My longtime friend and companion and our longtime family pet (13years) our Yellow Lab "Corky" had to be put to sleep. She had developed a tumor on her spine and she had lost the use of here back legs a week or so ago and had given up eatting. I literally with my wife were carrying here out to go to the bathroom frequently throughout the day. At 110 pounds this shows you how much she ment to our entire family.

We had to decide to do what was best for her however painful it was for us. The girls took this really hard as this is the only dog they have had as a pet. But we will begin looking and praying about another pet to take away some of the loneliness.

As my wife said last night "who knew how much a dog could mean to you."

So if you see me the next few days and I look down a bit this is why.

White Death From the North, We have Team Coverage!

What a day, inches of ice, inches of snow. But thankfully we do have power. I have talked with several family and friends who are with out basic electricity this morning.

Got up had a cup of coffee and a nice walk out in the winter wonderland. After that it was time to clear the decks. Side walks, drive way the works isn't home ownership grand. Then I did go back in for some wonderful pancakes prepared by my lovely wife. After the breakfast it was time to get the girls out and sledding a bit.

Then the best part of the morning a wonderfully relaxing nap. And it is not even noon when all this has taken place.

Giving it a workout

I have been testing out the Web Browser Mozilla for about a week. I really like it. It is really easy to use and to this user it seems to work a lot faster than the standard IE. It even stops those annoying, and dangerous to your spiritual health pop-ups that you get when you go to a T-Blog website.

Best of yet it is free.

More Ch,Ch,Ch,Ch, Changes

From now on I have decided that all political discussion will take place over at BlogPundit. Granted I may be the first one to break the guideline considering my past track record.

Thoughts

After taking much heat from some selected fellow bloggers I have decided it is time to begin to post some random thoughts and entries.

Event of the day, one fellow blogger who will remain anonymous lost control of a very large chicken wing at Quaker Steak and Lube today. Luckily he did escape without injury to his self or any innocent bystanders. The Lord was definately with us today. The Buffet Boys and fellow Wingmen escaped a scare today.

What have I been doing. Focusing, that would most likely explain it. I have been taking sometime to reflect and to slowdown and listen. In the process I have been reading and listening (trying for the most part) to here God's voice and to stay away from this particular computer and all of the news and information available to fill my mind of mush. I have also been spending more family time.

Youth Ministry:

I have been thinking the last week or so on this question. How can we provide more quality "HangTime" with middle school youth's? How can we schedule these times into our meetings without making our "HangTime" feel structured? How can we "pace" with our teens in an effective way that will create sharing times and not a forced time of instruction, a time of natural teaching that flows out of "Pacing" with them? What does this look like in a youth ministry setting? How do we make it happen without it feeling or looking forced? Those are some of my relevant questions.

Kudos:

Vineyard Church of Delaware County is really blessed to have Brendan Radtke coming on board in the future to lead the Middle School Ministry. He spoke last night at The Rock on "Moral Boundaries" and did an outstanding job. If you are involved in youth ministry and would like to have a good speaker at one of your events he would fill the bill for you. B and his wife will be a great addition to their team.

Also in the Kudos department my friend Carrie LaMay recently moved back to Michigan, but before she left she stopped by and surprised me with a stack of books that she wanted to give me a bunch of really good stuff from the Relevant Network line. Thank you Carrie I will miss you living here amongst us Buckeyes.