I’ve never been the smartest guy in the class, but I’m smart enough.  I’ve never been the strongest guy in the class, but I’m strong enough.  I’ve never been the most handsome guy in the class, but I’m handsome enough.  I’ve always had "enough".  Some days though, enough isn’t enough.  I’m not one to ever like the limelight.  I’m perfectly happy being the "behind-the-scenes" guy, both at work and in life in general.  But, like everyone on earth, I just want to make a difference.  But how do you know if you’ve made a difference?  How do you know that if you died tonight someone’s life is better because you did "enough" (other than your wife and kids… you hope)?  I could quote TONS of scripture to show how everyone is special and has something to offer, but sadly, most do not offer that something special.  It’s in these quiet moments that you begin to ponder on the events that have led up to where you are right now.  Where are you?  Where am I?  Am I doing enough?  Have I tried enough? 

It’s funny.  I can look back on my life and see exactly how God has led me in and out of the moments of life to get me right here, right now.  I can see all the moves we made as a kid.  I can see all the friends I have made all over the world.  I can see how I made an "on-the-spot" decision and I ended up moving to Grand Junction where I met the most amazing woman in the world… and got lucky enough for her to marry me.  Then, managing Wendy’s restaurants, selling furniture, buying a business, losing the business, losing a house because of the loss of the business, becoming a Minister of Missions at a church, then moving to Texas to go to school, or so we thought, starting a church-planting school only to have it turn into a job, and the list just keeps going.  I will say one thing though.  I finally am in a place in my life where I can honestly say that whatever happens next, I’m good with it.  Whether that means Texas, Glocalnet, and NorthWood, or planting a church somewhere else.  

Whatever the "next" brings, the song says it best… "it is well with my soul." 

Trying to fit 4 girls, 3 car seats, two bikes, an antique sign, 6 suitcases, and a truck-load of "schtuff" into one 2002 Ford Explorer is not very easy.  So, while we were in Colorado we bought a car.  It was a pretty good deal so we could not pass it up.  Plus, it has A/C (something I have been living without in the Texas heat for almost two years now).  We bought (well, technically we haven’t bought it yet… we still have to go get the cash).  Anyway, I have been digging in my heels in not buying a car because I like not having car payments, but the two or three freeway heat strokes I have had last year have started to take their toll on me.  Ren convinced me that I need a car with A/C (because she would not drive my car because of the heat and it stalls in the heat). 

Here’s the new addition to "the fam":

1997 Honda Accord 2.2 Litre 4 Cylinder.  143 Raw Horsepower!   

Here’s what it’ll look like when I’m done:

We made it home!  God was good, we never had any "real" issues and the kids did very well all things considered.  We loaded our bikes on the back of one of the two cars we brought back with us and it did well on the first day.  On the second day I decided that the Explorer would be better suited for carrying bikes than a 4 cylinder Honda.  Well, we drove out of our hotel parking lot, over to a gas station, filled up, was pulling out of the station when the straps came off the car and the bikes ended up on the road!  Luckily, we were about 150 ft. from getting on the interstate!  So, I put them back on the Honda where they rode all the way home.  Other than that, the trip home was pretty uneventful.  We met our friends Donnie and Meredith in Salina, Kansas which was awesome (I don’t think Donnie and Meredith will make that mistake again).

To all our friends in Colorado, we LOVED seeing each and every one of you!  We are so sorry that we were unable to spend more time with each of you.  But a 4th of July blow-out like what we did was fun… even in the HOT, HOT, HOT Colorado weather (I don’t think the temp ever dropped below 100 degrees the whole time we were there).  It’s so good to be back in Texas where the humidity and the temp is just right (about 87 degrees and 70% humidity).  It was so dry in Colorado that my throat and nose dried out.  My throat is killing me now!  I think I have a summer-time cold.  But that could be from being around a million people huggin’ and shakin’ hands too.   But I’d rather blame the dry weather if that’s ok.

I’m writing this post while I’m waiting for my camera to load our pics so I can put them up here.  Be looking soon for a new album in the family photo section! 

I’m going to bite my tongue on this one, but you have to read this article.

And this one. 

Ok, I’ll say one thing, Darrin Patrick is a great man and an awesome pastor/leader.  That’s all I’ll say until someone asks for my commentary. 

There are new pictures of our Colorado Trip for your viewing enjoyment in the family photo section.  I have TONS of pictures so far, but my internet connection is so slow it takes to long to upload all of them so I’m going to have to do just little bits at a time.  Please be patient with me.

We’ve had a great trip so far.  We have reconnected with friends we have not seen in almost 2 years and it has been awesome to see how our kids have grown up so far!  I’m going to try to get some trip pics up in the "Family Pics" section tonight… I hope.  We’re in a house with 6 little girls… bedtime is absolutely the most challenging thing right now!  I hope the tweebs will not get too far off their schedule so that when we get home we can rest from our vacation.  Sad, isn’t it?  We need a vacation from our vacation?  That should tell us something about the way we spend our off time, I guess.  Anyway, be looking for a pic post later tonight.  For our Texas friends, sorry, you may have to check back in the morning unless you’re up pretty late tonight.

Just a quick update (Ren and I are watching our neices… yep, 6 GIRLS!).  We made it to Grand Junction.  All went well.  The girls are ready to never see a car again.  I’ll post our pics so far once I find some WiFi for my laptop.

I thought today would NEVER get here!  We leave for Colorado as soon as I get off of work tonight.  Please pray that we make it there and back safely.  I’m usually not to concerned with these long trips, but at Christmas, our normal 12 hour trip took over 19 hours (because of weather).  Now, our Exloder… sorry… Explorer’s tranny is acting up.  We’ve taken it to two different shops to have it serviced, but Ford, being the stingy company that it is, is the only one who can service the transmissions on their vehicles because it is a sealed system and only Ford has the tools to service them!  Ford wants almost $500 to service JUST THE TRANNY!  I remember the good ole’ days when you could just drop the pan, replace the filter, fill ‘er up, and go, all from the comfort of your own garage.  But I must say, these new transmissions shift a whole lot nicer than the old Turbo 400’s!  Anyway, Just pray that we make it safely and our transmission holds out until we can get back. 

"What does it mean?"  That’s the question I keep getting since getting my latest addition to the body art.  It is the girls’ names written in Hebrew.

The two names you can see here are Bryce (Amira in Hebrew), and Kyla (Kyla in Hebrew).

Ren got an itty-bitty, teensy-weensy tattoo on her toe.  It’s "cute" in female jargon.  I think any tattoo on a toe, regardless of how girlie it is, is too manly to be called "cute."  After much convincing that she had 4 girls, a little tattoo wouldn’t hurt (comparitively speaking).  When we were done, the artist, Flex, said, "If you can get a tattoo on you toe, you can get one anywhere!"  Rennee would agree.

It’s "cute" isn’t it?

Bryce has blue hair (see previous post), Kyla pierced her naval, and the tweebs are goth’s now.  Ok, we’re not to that point yet, but someday… someday.  ; )