Well Tiffany is doing good after the infertility surgery!!!

Thi sis Tiffany right after they gave her the drugs!! ha ha ha..... she is going to kill me for putting it up here, but if you woke up @ 4:00 am, haven't had anything to drink or eat...not even gum, and you just got a lots of drugs, I don't think you or me could look as beautiful!
(man I love my wife!)

Here is what the Dr. found out while fishing around in Tiffany:


1) little bit of Endometriosis on the Ovaries
2) Decent mount of gelatinous scar tissue behind the uterus (caused by reverse menstrual bleeding....it is the place that the eggs drop after the bleeding times)
3) possibly a little blockage in the fallopian tubes

The Dr. said that everything looked good now, and that he is hopeful and looking forward to the results that the next round of shots will provide. he was glad to know everything with what he is dealing with, and the results after this surgery are even better for most people than before it.. he seemed hopeful.

Thank you for your prayers and please keep them up!

(I will try to see if I can post the photos of the surgery just like last time, but until then please just pray for us and Tifany is heal up and take it easy for a few days!

my dad is doing well!!!

thanks for your prayers!!! The dr. Did a second colonscopy and found the bleeding had stopped and that the origional bleeding (2 liters worth) was caused by diverticultis and that he just needed to eat red meat to get his blood counts higher, and to just eat a high fiber diet!!! So, a very happy new year to everyone!!! Thanks yall for your prayers and thoughts!!!

problems for my daddy! He needs your prayers!!

please pray for my father!!!

Last night we all went out to eat and on the way back we stopped at a Kroger. My dad went to use the bathroom, came back to the car, and told me he had a lot if blood in his stool. He then told me he probably needed to go to the emergency room. He told me to drive to the house and then maybe go to the emergency room. Well, on our way to the house he blacked out for 5-6 seconds, came to, and then started to sweat like crazy! We immediatly went to the emergency room, and he was admitted to the hospital last night @ 1:30 am.

So, now they are saying he will have a second colonoscopy (the first one was 12 days ago and they took two small polyps, (they did not think anything of them) today if the medican will fast enough you clean him out, and if not, then they will do it tomorrow very late.....

So, we as not sure exactly what is going on, but they want to go in there and find out where the bleeding is coming from.....

So yeah..... Please pray!!!! Love yall!

oh, and I baptized my little cousin this morning! It went well, except that my dad could not be there.

Merry Christmas! and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I miss birthday parties @ my Nanaw's house! Because every time anyone had a Birthday at my Nanaw's house, the birthday person always got money under their dinner plate, under their water glass, or even rolled up in the napkin! But the cool thing was that EVERYONE @ the table got money, not only the birthday person!!! So, I loved it when ANYONE had a birthday! ha ha ha...

but you know, it is like that with Christ. Here we all come to celebrate his birthday, and yet, when we show up, it is he that has these amazing gifts of love, acceptance, peace, joy, and grace! Everyone @ the party who knows him well enough to come (or even if you were just invited by a friend, he still gives you a gift! Everyone is blessed at this party!

So, welcome to the party! Happy birthday Jesus! And hey what did you get @ Jesus' Birthday party? I think this year I got a huge lump of love and grace!

Hey! Let me see what you got! Oh, and as you would guess, Jesus desires for you to not just keep the gift he gives, but to give it away to all those who decided not to come to his party!

Love yall! Merry Christmas!

round 2..... & no baby

well, no luck or joy in the second round of attempted baby making with shots!!! @$:/-@$$"&$"&?!!@"&;;!!!!

it is very difficult! For me & tiffany, but I will live a life of thanks in the midst of live or death! It just makes it a little mire difficult to celebate God as a baby this time of year, heh. My heart breaks, & it kills me to see my wife's heart ache just as deep as mine.

Next step is to have Tiffany go through a second round of surgery to clear anything that might be causing the lack of fertility, I am sure that will come after Christmas, so thank you for your prayers and thoughts! Please keep them coming! Please.

Just a few photos from my iPhone for your enjoyment....

Well, life has been going along wonderfully as of late! Tons of stuff going on, but nothing is new there. heh.... Well, I thought that I would send yall some photos of what has been going on , and even though it kills me to not use my Nikon D40 camera to take them...the iPhone does OK in a pinch...but I tell ya once you go digital SLR you don't go back.....anyway... here is a picture of Sushi! Wow...talk about flexible...and VERY funny!OK this next photo is of a friend of mine, but is what what is around him that makes my wife AMAZING!!!! let me explain, a friend of mine Scott, whom I shoot pictures with once a month in Cinci, was asked (or maybe he requested...not sure, but) has lots of his photos up on display @ his local Starbucks! I went yesterday and saw them...and Dang it was awesome!...anyway, I told the friend's of mine @ Starbucks, that I would love that someday, and Tiffany heard me say it...so Tiffany contacts the lady that allows them to be up and all, and while I went to go watch Beowolf!! (yeah it was awesome!) Tiffany and Kelly went and printed several of their favorite photos and framed them and put them up @ Starbucks in Crestview Hills!!!! And then we went to go eat and then Court and Kelly went with us there to go play Munchkin (and I did not think anything of it until I looked over to the wall, past a great singing guy with a guitar, and noticed one of my photos hanging on the wall where they put local artists' work up. And my first thought was, "I can't believe that someone stole my photo off of Flickr and had the guts to print it up and frame it and call it their own!", and then I noticed the picture next to that one was mine as well, and then the one next to that one, and I looked @ Tiffany, and she smiled and gave me a hug, and that is when I noticed that Tiffany for my Birthday (tomorrow) she printed off and framed several of her and others' favorite photos and put them up in the store. She contacted the store artist relations, etc...and got the permission! Unbelievable! I just could not believe it... I never thought anyone would ever think that my photos would be good enough to put up somewhere, and it was all my AMAZING WONDERFUL wife's idea! Man I love her!!! Dang... so here is the surprise friend Thor modeling in front of my photos!! (Man, I can't believe you were there Thor!! Crazy!)

And for those of you who don't know Tiffany and I are trying the fertility shots to try to have a baby, and after three rounds of this we will just adopt, but we (well she took them...I administered them) and Tiffany was inseminated last Wednesday! So, now we wait, if she does not have a "menstrual cycle" in two weeks then we go back into the Dr. and they take a blood sample pregnancy test. So far everything has gone wonderfully, and Tiffany has been have tons of pregnancy systems, but we both think that it is just the shots/meds....but it sure is hard not to get your hopes up!!!!! All I could ever do is ask for all of yall to be praying for us!

if you want to read Tiffany's thoughts...then go to her blog here!

--------------------
So, for all of this to work, I have to go make a deposit, and then they take "my boys" (my deposit) and put it into the bank of Tiffany....well, I have to say that the room that I make my deposit in is sure a little weird. Here is the photo of the room, with a couch, TV, and you can even see my (empty) deposit cup on the table in the back there...but the next photo is what is funny.....
This next framed picture was the only picture in the room, and look at what it was.... an arial photo of an Ohio State football game... I guess some guys just get excited about looking at a football game... ha ha ha ha ha ha.....

Well, here is my open book life! I hope to have a WONDERFUL birthday tomorrow, and I hope that yall are so blessed this week with family, food, and maybe even shopping! Love yall, and God bless ya!

Way to go microsoft winning over parents everywhere....

But forcing husbands of non-child couples to pray that their wifes do not find this...ha ha ha......

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/15037/Xbox-360-Parental-Timer-Officially-Announced/

so next week life should look a litle more normal....maybe...

(photo by B Tal)
Well for those of you who don't know, My parents have been visiting us for a month!!! It has been awesome getting to see them and be with them, and I would not have traded there visit for the world, but it has messed up our schedules a little bit here and there, but it is so worth it. And last week we went with them to Washington D.C., and Tiffany and my Mom had never been there before, so that was an awesome experience too!


(I promise pictures are coming, I just need to find some time)

And, so this weekend I will be traveling to Nashville to attend the EmergingUMC: a Gathering. Gary and I will be speaking, and the entire gathering will provide a bunch of presenters that are doing "Emerging/missional" Kingdom work. Taylor intentionally desired to bring in people who are doing and being the work and not so much those that stay in the ideology realm. So, I am looking forward to getting to know and meet fellow co-servants in the Kingdom and hopefully sharing a little bit about what God is doing in Th3 Waters and I believe in the UMC, and the Kingdom as a whole. I hope to blog a little bit more often while I am down there.



Oh and Did I mention that Halo3 came out and I beat it last night! I did not get to play it at all the week it came out due to the trip, and so Brad (a GREAT FRIEND) decided that he would play it through with me online and let me experience the main game, before I started to get too deep into multiplayer. So anyway... if you are a halo3 fan...be sure to beat it on Legendary, there is a different

Happy Father's Day!!!

No that is not my baby in the picture...but it sure is a cute picture of my Dad!

I love you Daddy! Your the best in the world!

Wow I have been busy..and there is no end in sight.....

OK, so thank you for everyone that has contacted me giving me a hard time about not blogging as of late. Well, I went to Sheila and Steven's wedding (for those who do know know her, she is my brother's widow) (is that still true now that you got married Sheila?...not sure oh well anyway) If yall would like to see what I have been up to, then just go to my Flickr page, there are pictures of the wedding, Jay's headstone, Jay's old church, and even one picture from the butterfly exhibit that I went to yesterday during lunch with Scott! Here is a photo re-cap:













OK... so there is a little bit and much more can be found on my Flickr page:

My Flickr

Oh, and I will be gone all next week @ the always fun, famous, sometimes boring, never duplicated, Annual Conference of the KY Conference of the UMC!!!!! Oh and BIG news and I need you help! What is it you ask? read the next post.......coming soon.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Well, Tiffany and I made it though this special day again.... it is usually very hard for us, because we want Babies so bad, and yet no luck in the 7 years of trying, but every now and then God just gives you a blessing and lets you know that even though life might not look like or feel like the way you desire it to be, he still loves you like a mother and lets you know everything is OK, and The Kingdom is in working order. Thank you God, and we love you too, Happy Mother's Day everyone!



The front door of our church has fake flower wreaths hung on them with suction cups. And the main office door one bird decided to build her nest on the top of that wreath, no matter how many times a day people open and close the door. Well, today we noticed at least three baby birds in that nest all trying to sty warm and begging for food, I had to try to get a blind picture of it. So this was the best shot I got... Happy Mother's Day!

BTW: there are several pictures I have posted as of late...go check them out @ D.G.'s Flickr photos.

What is that you did not know that I put up new photos? Well, get on my Jaiku lifefeed and find out what is going on in my life.

Rutree.com......is now live!!!

Well, I got a beautiful gift today...and it is my Dad's birthday! heh... but anyway... Sheila my brother's widow just finished the final touches of a website that she created to honor the life of my brother Jay. So, do yourself a favor and read some of the funny stories and see the pictures of a life well lived.

Rutree.com

Thank yall for your love and support and please know that I pray for anyone who reads this blog everyday... so seriously you are blessed (to be a blessing to others) KUTPs!!!

The new Abigail Elizabeth Dorn!!!!

Well, this afternoon Tiffany and I spent in the waiting room for Kim and Steve to have their little baby girl!!! And what a blessing it was for Tiffany and I to be there! Here are a few pictures of the awesome event!!!


Very happy Daddy telling the good news....to the waiting family and friends....


Grandmother and Great Grandmother loving the news!!!


The sweet breath of life! Abigail Elizabeth Dorn Two hours old and beautiful!!!


Now that is me and as soon as she laid in my arms she fell asleep...man I love that, heh!


Here is a happy Aunt(Surrogate) Tiffany


The brand new parents!!!

MLK Jr. and Jay's B-Day, Birthday's in Heaven?....And Christmas Videos...

Well, Today is my brother Jay's Birthday. For those of you who don't know he passed away a few years ago, and in honor of my brother I am going to go eat Indian food today with Tiffany, heh... We really should not be eating out and be good about our money and just eat at home..but I am sure we will do it anyway, heh... But it got me thinking.... are we going to celebrate birthday's in Heaven? I know someone asked Jesus if there was marriage in heaven...and the answer was "no" (fine by me I guess. I love my wife, but I love my God more...and she loves me even more because of that fact, heh).... but what about Birthdays? They do seem a little selfish...being alabout us.....but it in reality should be able our praise for God allowing us to have this life....well, I guess I will just find out when I get there, heh.... what do yall think? Oh and Happy birthday Jay....if yall celebrate it there, heh heh.....

It also sure is a good excuse to go get some good food, heh....

--------------------------

Well, here are the ton of videos from our Christmas that I promised.... They are all on YouTube so you can find them there too....but in no particular order here they are.....(and yes i realize that this is mainly for my family...but they are probably my most active readers so I get to sho them some love too!.....


Here is the Cutter Cam @ Rudy's in Austin TX. Rudy's is a very good BBQ place all over TX and a few in NM, and this is how serious TX is about it's BBQ....they have a live camera showing them cut the BBQ while you wait in line...love it!


Stop Spitting
Here Is Caleb my nephew telling his grandfather (who is pestering him) to stop spitting! Then tiffany tries to pester him by saying the (not allowed words, "shut up") It is funny because he knows "shut up" is not supposed to be said, but instead of telling Tiffany to not say those words...he tells Tiffany that pop (his Granddad) should not say that word, heh.


We Don't Say That Word...Because That Is Naughty
Finally Tiffany got him to tell her not to say that word...and we heard this all the time when we were down there...Tiffany loved it...so so se would purposefully say the "naughty" words to hear him say it, heh.


My Nephew the future rocker...he has great stage presence!


So here is my mother-in-law opening up the gift Tiffany and I (mostly Tiffany) gave her...and then Caleb my nephew gets a little confused as to how he should play with it...it just made me miss my dog Halo. ha ha ha.....


So here is my Father-In-Law opening up a present from my wife. It is a huge home-made bobble head of Tiffany. It was @ her church's bazaar and Tiffany bought it so that no one could get it....so she gave it to her father....and man...every time he looks at it...man those eyes crack me up...I would be doing the same thing....


Now here is my side of the family, and here is my nephew and his Dad attacking me and then fighting each other...kind of scary. But very cute.


And lastly I had to put up one Wii video and this time was my Nephew boxing..and doing a very fine job at it, heh...

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Well, yall have a wonderful MLK Jr. Day...and watch a historic video or two to remember a wonderful man!

Apple iPhone, {apple}TV, and CES, and Christmas pictures....

Well, I must say ever since I got a MacBook Pro laptop...I have been amazed and blown away with the Apple brand. Apple was actually one of my first computers...well it was my brother's computer...but I got to play games on it too, heh.... but then Microsoft came into play and it became THE machine for games and if any of yall know me you know I like video games......so it was an easy choice...to go with Microsoft and the PC.... but ever since I have gotten a taste of Mac OS X and seen some of the simplest, yet amazing things they do with their products (like the two finger scroll on the mouse pad on the power Macs...very easy and cool) I am blown away...and also since my design classes in Undergrad I have had a flavor for good design and there is no one in the consumer market that can beat apple with the class and design of their products. Well, the rumor sites have been hinting at it al along and with Kevin Rose on Diggnaton leaking a few f the specs it seems that the big day @ the Mac World Expo has come and the iPhone is a reality.... And why am I freaking out (along with the rest of the geek nation)????


(click the image for all the info and stuff)

Well that is why! It is a phone (only through Cingular Wireless as of right now) 4G and 8G iPod with widescreen, TOUCHSCREEN, video capabilities (i.e. download TV shows, music videos, and movies from iTunes and watch them on it), Wi-Fi internet browser, can hold your contacts, calendar, a 2Meg digital camera, widgets, clock, calculator, email, runs Mac OS X, bluetooth 2.0,has 2 batteries one for the iPod part and another for the phone so that you will not kill the other one if using the other.....(you get the point....it is an end-all-be-all in your pocket device! I am actually surprised that they did not make a deal with Starbucks and it could make your mocha in the morning and your frap in the evening...(but during Steve's Keynote speech he did order 4,000 cups from Starbucks to go fro the iPhone by using Google Maps on the web browser, heh)
So how much for this little fella??????

4 Gig = $499
5 Gig = $599

Yep, for the price of this device that fits in your pocket....you could buy a PS3, or a small HDTV, or a decent computer, etc.... So I am sure that Cingular will give their usual more or less $100 discount when you sign up for a 12 year agreement with them for the phone...and not sure about anything when it comes to warranty, heh.... but pending the FCC allowing it to come to market... Apple has single handedly revolutionized the cell phone and MP3 player market forever! Amazing just amazing....

Steve also just mentioned the
(click the image again for info)
{apple}TV

for your home that costs $299 that will hook up wirelessly to your computer and iTunes and will allow you to watch your downloaded movies, TV shows, Music, etc...from iTunes on your widescreen TV in your living room! This product and others like it may very well kill both the next gen HD-DVD and Blu-ray-DVD High Definition DVDs out of the water! While they are fighting in another format war just like VHS and Beta Max....the download able services found on the Xbox 360 live Market Place and Apple's iTunes may lay them both to rest and the thought of walking around with a hard copy of a movie with be a thing of the past...because it will just reside in your phone...that someday you will just put next to your TV that will play the High Definition movie wirelessly! And seriously I do not think that kind of dreaming is not too far off.

Anyway.... this is the week that a part of me was in the consumer electronics business. The Mac World Expo is going on and so Apple is telling the world what is new in their corner of the world...and the the CES show (Consumer Electronics show is also going on too! CES...is the place that all the consumer electronics manufactures gather to gather to show off their latest technology, from gadgets, to cell phones, to TVs, to surround sound, etc... And man I know that I would just loose bowel control if I had the opportunity to attend one of these events... but until that happens some day and I make friends with Steve Jobs or good old Bill gates...I will just have to get my news from the people I can almost trust (news websites, the companies themselves, bloggers, etc...)

Well, needless to say I am very excited about all the electronic stuff going on especially the HDTVs that are being shown there... (especially since mine is being worked on and I am without my TV for 7-10 days.....aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, just kidding it is not too bad...especially since I have borrowed the church's projector (thanks Gary)...but it is still not in HD...and with someone who just bought for Christmas the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360

(clickable again)
it is all mine...my precious....my love.....(oh wait that would be Jesus and my wife...wel, it sure is fun to enjoy and play around with, heh heh heh....)

...it does kind of suck a little bit, heh....
But, some very cool technologies are out there and coming to TVs....like Sony's new OLED technology that claims to have 100,000:1 contrast ratio...(it means very good ability to show the difference between the darks and lights in a picture which gives it much better clarity and definition no matter how much light is in the room that the viewer is in) this is something that plasma and LCD have been having a hard time with as far as a technology is concerned...but then Mitsubishi has a new technology that uses lasers to give the picture on their TV...and that has the potential of producing "perfect" colors instead of having to use red, blue, and green to produce the other colors, they will use CMYK and Red, Blue, Green...this will allow the yellows, Magentas, etc...to be really vibrant...and I am sure that technology will be amazing...even though I have not heard anything as of yet about it at this years CES, but the show still has a few days to go yet.... And all the news is towards the High Definition Format war...with LG even producing a player that plays both formats...so that it will not matter what movie studio goes with which technology that the consumer will be able to play them both, heh heh... and others (Warner) have gone the route that will allow the movie distributors to put both a HD-DVD movie on one side of the DVD and a Blu-ray HD movie on the other side! Very cool that someone out there cares about the consumers instead of being greedy and having a format war.... these selfish battles killed Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio....but then again downloaded movies might just kill them both off anyway...oh well.............

Well, let me see..... ah yes, Christmas and New Years....Tiffany and I had a great trip to TX (i.e. the promise land) and got back safe and sound with lovely gifts and the best gift of all getting to see family! So, I guess until I can get a few of the videos into youtube I will just have to put up a few pictures for yall to enjoy...so here you go.....


Here is one of my favorite gifts I got from Kevin...who i always have a "gag" gift for...it was just my way a long time ago of welcoming him into the family...and this year my plans were shot...so he got to have all the glory...and yes, that is a jewel encrusted toilet bowl plunger...and why you may ask did he do this...well, for a few of you long time blog reader you might remember this little gem of a post/story that involves Tiffany, poop, a plunger, and a phone call.


my parent's dog Teddy


Teddy sleeping


My Dad and Brady (Kevin's (the Holy Plunger guy) youngest boy)


The Stones and my aunt


Here is Caleb Nephew on tiffany's side that did not want to hold anyone's hand when he crossed the parking lot to the movies, heh... he was a wonderful delightful...handful, heh... But boy do we love him!


Here is Halley our Niece on Tiffany's side...I loved the tongue she gave me for the picture.


Tiffany's Dad with Noelle's dog Sunshine


Me with little Haley


Caleb face


Caleb face 2


Central TX clouds....I just loved this shot


And to top it off a shot of that wonderful state of TX....God bless her!

Yall have a good night and go check out the tech stuff. It really is very cool stuff! KUTPs...and be looking forward to videos of our Christmas soon!

Happy Birthday Tiffany!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tiffany!!!!!!!

Hey everyone today is my wonderful bride's 32nd birthday! So, I will probably be spending the day doing whatever she desires to do!!! It looks like we may be watching The Santa Clause 3 and eating P.F. Changs and Abuelos! (and she actually told me that she would be OK with NOT going to Chick-fil-A heh....) but other than that she has not said anything yet of what else she would like to do..so there might be a surprise in there too! Yall stop on by her blog and leave a comment...I might just go over there to her blog, hack it and leave a message for her telling everyone that it is her Birthday today!

Thank yall God bless...oh and if you live in the area and love Tiffany, then you are more that welcome to come over to our house 6:00 pm on Saturday and eat some cake and play lots of games to celebrate the life of Tiffany! (and bring over something to drink...I am worried that we might not have enough coke, etc... Thanks! (oh and after everyone gets here we will order pizza too!)

Yall take care and God bless yall!

Our Thanksgiving Dinner, the bitter cold night for the Wii, and the victory over it....

Well our Thanksgiving dinner went wonderful1 We did not have as many people as we would have liked to come over...but Sean is VERY welcome company and we had plenty of food for the three of us!



here is a video of the feast:


And of course there was much sleeping ging on afterwards...darn you Turkey and food making us tired...but as you can see Halo was the most tired of all of us....



(and yes that is Sean he is sleeping on)

And of course it is that time of te year for the winter leaves to hang on for dear life....



===============

But here comes the good part. I asked Sean if he would want to join me in waiting in live for a Nintendo Wii? His Uncle is a worker of a gmaing company and with a littl ebit of loving letus know there were only 6 Wii Nintendo machines a this store and that if we wanted one we better get there VERY early! And so @ 11:30 p.m. Thanksgiving night we decided to go by the store and see if anyone was lining up to get a Wii...if there were we would get out and wait with them if there were less than 6 people, and when we drove by no one was there...so we went back to my house plained a little Gears of War, watched (with Tiffany) one episode of Grey's Anatomy and then we were off to go look again... So this time it was 1:45 a.m. the morning of Black Friday and we got there to find 3 people in live ahead of us!!! So we go tout and waited...and waited and waited and waited...and then it just kept getting colder and colder...(26 degrees is what it got down to). Eventually around 3:30 am I had to sit down so I got in the car and went and got chairs for everyone that was standing with us. And so here is the video I took about 2 hours before the store opened @ 7:00 am: (note there were more people by this time that just the original 4.)



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And Yes Here is the De-thaw from the Wii Black Friday Victory! Special thanks to Sean who did not ever buy a Wii, but stood out there all night long in the freezing cold just to give me company..and listen to Podcast together! Here we are at our after party in the car:




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Well, I hope yall's Thanksgiving and Black Friday went well! We have been having a ton of fun with the Wii today and I am sure that the youth group and the Hollums family will be putting it to good use during the next few years...Tons O Fun....sure do love yall, thankful for yall, and God bless yall!....KUTPs!!!

Nanaw is now with Jesus!!!!

Hey everyone:

I wanted to let you know that I just found out from my dad that my Nanaw (Grandmother) just passed away and join the church triumphant tonight! I just go t in to my house from driving from Louisville after flying from Seattle to Houston and then Houston to Louisville...and I am currently looking for flights out of here to go home to TX for the funeral....

When my Daddy told me I immediately smiled! I shed a few tears too, but smiled from my soul. Nanaw is with Jesus! Praise be to God and on ALL SAINTS DAY SUNDAY, TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Also, while I was on the phone with my mother-in-law telling her about my Nanaw...their dog Matelda jumped through their back window shattering it all over their living room and the vet does not know if Matelda will make it because of all the blood loss.

So...needless to say our phone is off the hook, but there is joy in in our missing! And hope is renewed each night and each day with each life and each death! And from a book I am reading let me share part of a poem from Maya Angelou:

And when great souls die,
After a period peace blooms,
Slowly and always
Irregularly. Spaces fill
With a kind of
Soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
To be the same, whisper to us,
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
Better. For they existed.

--from "When Great Trees Fall"

==================================

And now a little from William W. How (1864) (Hebrews 12:1):

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

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And just for god measure to throw a little Charles Wesley (1762) in there too:

If death my friend and me divide,
Thou dost not, Lord, my sorrow chide,
Or frown my tears to see;
Restrained from passionate excess,
Thou bidst me mourn in calm distress
For them that rest in Thee.

I feel a strong immortal hope,
Which bears my mournful spirit up
Beneath its mountain load;
Redeemed from death, and grief, and pain,
I soon shall find my friend again
Within the arms of God.

Pass a few fleeting moments more
And death the blessing shall restore
Which death has snatched away;
For me Thou wilt the summons send,
And give me back my parted friend
In that eternal day.

I love you Jesus, take care of my Nanaw...she is yours and in your hands!

Edwina Emert (Hollums)
Entrance into the church triumphant
Sunday, November 5th, 2006

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and I am sure our family loves you and thanks you for them as well! KUTPs!!! God bless yall!

This morning's run, WISH list, Materialism, and Nanaw update......

So here is the place I love to run @ in Ft. Thomas! I really do miss running here if, 1)I can not have enough discipline to wake up in time, 2)it is raining, or lastly 3) My body needs to recover for the previous morning's run, heh...

There are a few more photos over @ my flickr page if you want to see a few more.

This is my view from the home stretch...but the Nike+ device most of the time is off, and so I get to run a little more...and that is fine I need too anyway.

This is the sign that I was was not up....I would go much more often if I knew that I could bring Halo...but oh well, I am sure that the soccer players appreciate not finding the gifts that halo would leave for them.

And lastly here is a bench that is beside the track...that I thought i would get a fun sot of the soccer scoreboard from. It turned out very nice... At least I liked it.

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Well, I took off the Frapper map thing on the right side of my blog. It was cool seeing where everyone is from, but it sure was taking a long time to load so it is gone now....

I added my wish list to the side though (just click the bottom that says: My wish list...it will send you to a del.icio.us set of book marks that includes my amazon wish list but also things that you can not get through Amazon...like the Salt Cellar from Alton Brown! woo hoo!)....now this wish list is not for you...unless you are family....I only put up a wish list because it saves my family and me the time it takes to ask what I would want and me getting caught up in the whole materialism thing. (i just do it once and it s done) and believe me I took the term WISH list literally! So don't (even family) get too crazy in there!!!)

<--side note-->

Materialism has always been one of my weaknesses. It is hard when your birthday is in the end of November, and then Christmas rolls around right after that. It is almost like I have been trained all my life to get stuff around the end of the year....and even though I am MUCH better about this it still creeps up and scares me a little bit.

<--/side note-->

So I am getting very excited about the conference



that I will be attending this Thursday thru Sunday in Seattle! I just bought some magazines for the flights and a book of poetry...yep that is right a book of poetry. Now I have never been a person of poetry, but seeing all the poetry over @ J.D.'s blog and hearing Fred Craddock speak made me want to try it out (for the first time since 8th grade)... So I bought a book on tape and a small book for the plane and I hope to go from there. For some reason my artistic side has been coming out lately through the camera and now I am wanting to play around a little bit with words. So if I ever get anything on paper I might try to put some of it here. Anyway yall take care God bless ya and have a wonderful evening...and week if I don't blog before I leave. I am sure I will try (if I am not too tired) to blog the conference so maybe yall can be looking for that, as well.

Oh and the last I heard (this afternoon) was that Nanaw was doing better, but it is still a up hill battle from here on...s as always....please KUTPs!!!! Thank yall!