The one about being happy.....

Well, yesterday was the best worship service I have ever been to in my life and if I can spend the rest of my ministry having that kind of worship of God then I will have a fun ministry. Only Jay and Jesus could have brought together Christians, Jews, Non-Christians, and a category all by themselves)....D&D Players, heh heh. I know that some of those people experienced God in that moment of worship, and I know that that is what Jay would have wanted. Just like his favorite passage Jay would want to live a life and live a death the whole time pointing to the one who he existed for...Jesus and it was just so amazing to have everyone there for the service!!!! And as soon as I can I will give yall pictures of the grave side...that place is unbelievable beautiful!

Well, yesterday morning we all woke up to Sheila yelling and running to Sears to get them to remove the ink tags they never took off of 2 of the dresses she bought for all of this. I could not believe it and it just so happened that Her alarm clock did not go off and she woke up an hour later than she planned on! Then she got in her SUV and mad dashed drove to Sears to get them to remove the tags and of course they did not open until 10:00 am and we were supposed to be at the church (about an hour away) @ 10:15 am......needless to say she was not the happiest of campers at this time..but she made it through and we got to the church.

On the way to the church for Jay's worship service Tiffany (my wife) kept asking me which song she should sing for the service. I told her that it did not matter and that both of them would do just fine (note to all of you...Tiffany did not practice any songs before this time she was going to get up there and either sing accapella (sp?) or play the Piano and sing at the same time...both options winging it!!!! Can you believe that? Oh man that is crazy..but that is my wife, heh)

Well, we step out of the car and what music was in the air, but Into The West by Annie Lenox (sp?) on the Lord of The Rings movies! It was a perfect song for Jay because he loved anything medieval and then we heard Lorenna McKennet (sp?) another awesome Celtic-esque singer and song and we found out that Keith (the Sr. Pastor) had created this CD just for Jay and wanted it played for him that morning and he played it through the loud speakers of the church so everyone in 2-3 blocks around the church heard the music, heh.....well, Tiffany still not knowing what song to sing heard that song playing from the "church bells"....and immediately knew that that was the perfect song to sing for Jay and for God!!!! So get this.......

Tiffany runs into Keith's office asking for his internet connection so she can find the words to a certain song to sing for Jay's service....Keith asked her what song and Tiffany told him the song she just heard outside.......Keith then said to Tiffany, "You mean thie words to this song?"...and Keith handed Tiffany the words to that very song....Keith had planned on saying those words during the service because they were so perfect.....heh heh.......So then Tiffany asked Keith to put that song on repeat and Tiffany ran outside to listen to the song over and over and over....I think she said that she listened to it about 3 times and then the service started.......Tiffany then in the middle of the service sings the song accapella (sp?)! It was better than the surround sound DVD in my house...and let me tell you that is good! She hit ever note perfect and amazed me! (I am almost certain she amazed everyone and now that they have read this story they made be even more amazed!, ha ha)

My wife is amazing...and man I love her...and her voice.....the second amazing thing was that Sheila even said that her singing of that song was great...and coming from Sheila that is saying something, heh (Sheila is an amazing singer for those who may not know)

Well, then we went out to the grave side and it was such a beautiful day! Just awesome! (a Day not too unlike Jay and Sheila's wedding day in the same church, heh) and then we all went back to eat @ the church and man of man I love potluck dinners! I am part of a larger church right now and pot luck dinners is what I miss most from my home church. When you get to be a large church you tend to have one person or one group of people that fix all the dinners for the entire church and that food that way is great...but there is something about getting to fill your plate with 20 different side dishes and then have 4 different types of desert, heh heh...and I wonder why my figure is not what it should be, heh heh!

I wanted to stand up and tell everyone that if they wondered what Christianity and church was all about that they were experiencing it right there. Here you find a goup of friends that never would have met each other if it were not for their common faith in Christ and they are loving God and respecting the Jesus that lives in Jay. Then you selflessly feed Christians, Jews, D&D players, non-Christians...insert your faith here) and we are all eating in fellowship and community. That is what Christianity is all about relationship with each other and relationship with God! and food is a awesome bonus!!!! woo hoo! Heh heh heh!

It was wonderful and I thank everyone who came, no mater what your faith is I know that Jay and God were so happy that you came and participated in His love for you!

Well, we all got back to the house around 4 pm and then we cleaned it until 6 pm and then every one started to arrive around 7 pm to play D&D. Sheila said that she asked Jay during all of this that if he did not make it through what did he want...and she said he told her, "I want everyone to be happy and I want everyone to play D&D". So we wanted to honor his wishes and we offered D&D to everyone to play. I think we had 2 groups of 5-6 playing at one time and we ever had to get another table from the basement to have enough room...we cooked Sheila's famous hot wings...oh man that will give anyone fire butt...and Chinese food...(dang that was good) and the last group finished around 3:00 am (hence the non-blog post yesterday). It was such a wonderful and happy time.... He had so much fun and I know that everyone there if you did or did not play D&D you enjoyed the laughter and fun that was had by all.....even those who did not play D&D they watched the last movie of the Lord of The Rings (Return of the King)...(I guess the second best thing to do) and everyone had a great night...what a perfect way to end the celebration of a wonderful life!

Today we slept in and then left to go eat @ Aladdins (sp?) in Pittsburgh and to say good by to my cousins Christy and Kevin! They were so sweet to come down and then they got stuck in North or South Carolina due to storms in Florida, heh. I am sure they are fine now though.

(We then came back home to rest from the night of fun and gaming and then we went to eat @ Dingbats for dinner....yeah you heard me a place called Dingbats. Jay loves their Ultimate Cob Salad so almost everyone eat that for Jay and then we went to Barnes & Nobles for Tiffany (my wife is to Barnes and Noble as Jay is To Best Buy, heh) Then we went to my Dads favorite place in the entire world....Wal-Mart to get a few supplies and then we came home and played UN Attack and had lots of fun...

Oh I almost forgot The morning right before the funeral all of our cars (that were unlocked) got broken into and they stole all the changed that was in the font seats....*yeah tell me about it) they left everything else no stolen CDs and they did not still Jay's sunglasses! They broke into all of the cars behind Sheila's house and the cars in the neighbor's drive way. Then this morning guess what....they did it again the glove compartments were all open and nothing else was stolen...it was crazy...so after the second unlawful entry Sheila contacted the police and they actually came to the door and asked Sheila questions and that was kind of funny....Sheila told them it is funny...if they would just have knocked on the door I probably would have given them $20, heh...... Then she clarified....well it would have to had been the eve of Jay's funeral, heh heh....

Sheila tells that she would get into arguments with Jay all the time about picking up hitch hikers from the road or helping street people. Jay was so generous he wanted to stop for everyone and help everyone, heh. And she knew if something like that would have happened then she would have given money, heh.

Well, it is the end of another long day up here,,and still while it is fun,,,,Jay is still missed and more often than not my mind slowly drifts back to Sheila and my parents and how much I want to love them well from this loss,,,but there is only so much I can do and God has to take over in that department. I am trying to keep my focus on God and so far He has never (and I believe will never) let me down.

I hope that we get to go eat at the Cheese Cake Factory tomorrow sometime (Jay every time we were here he wanted to take me there but we never got around to doing it) and maybe even go check out Ikea and Best Buy.....(I have to go to Best Buy and buy something...I kow that Jay would do the same for me, heh heh heh.

"I miss him so much" is all I can say each night as my wife holds me in her arms of comfort. I do and I will live a life now of missing him, but I know it is mutual, and some day the missing will end just like hope and faith,,,because these all will fade away in the presence of our God!

Love yall and miss yall! Take care and please KUTPs!!!!!!!


"You have some sun stuck on your nose" "that is the least of my worries....those aliens made us into one body with two upper torsos!"

(please feel free to post your funny comments to the picture)