January 20 – “Out of the blue”

We are heading off to Waco for a flying trip to help Caleb celebrate his birthday party.  The plan is to return tomorrow night after Zakary’s basketball game that starts at 5 p.m.  At this point we are taking Cailyn along with us as soon as she finishes all of her Friday tests at school.  And speaking of Cailyn, here are a few quick anecdotes from her last stay with us.

Out of the blue she made this proclamation:

Cailyn: “DadDad, you know you can ground my Daddy any time you want to.”

Me (typically stunned and more than a bit taken aback): “Wait.  What?  But he’s a grown man now.”

Cailyn (more assured than ever): “Yes, but you are his Daddy and you are old and you are alive.  So you can do it.”

So … I get the “his Daddy” part.  It’s the other two parts of the grounding trifecta that cause me pause.  I’m old.  No real argument there.  And I’m alive.  Glad to hear that one.  When I mentioned this to Nathan, he said he was going to file it away and spring it on her when she hits her twenties or thirties and wants to start dating.  No, really.  He assures me – and Cailyn – that her dating days are a considerably longer way off than she could ever imagine.

A second little interchange happened as she and I were enjoying a robust breakfast of cinnamon frosted pop tarts (Hey, she was offered more, but apparently it was pancake day at the school breakfast line.  We never had a school breakfast line when I went to school).  Again, there was no particular lead-up to the question.  Out of the blue is her specialty …

Cailyn: “How many times do you and Nani go to WalMart?”

Me (No idea where this came from or where it was headed, but it sounded innocent enough): “I don’t know.  Every so often.”

Cailyn (Guardedly pensive): “Do you go about once a week?”

Me (Also guarded now.  Where is she going with this?): “That’s about right.”

Cailyn (Explosively excited in an instant): “I knew it!  I told my Daddy that I want to move in with Nani and DadDad because he and Mommy go to WalMart every single day and you and Nani only go one time a week.”

Um.  Hope I didn’t say the wrong thing.  Maybe we need to spend more days at WalMart?

Colossians 1:3-4 says, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints”

Father, thank you for surprises.  Gotta love ‘em.  Amen.

January 19 – “A suitable helpmeet, and … BOOM!”

Happy birthday to me … well, sort of.  Today is the anniversary of the day 46 years ago when I made a decision to love Jesus back.  I prayed and gave my life over to his control, and have never looked back.  Oh, believe me, I have messed up.  At least twice.  Maybe more.  OK.  That’s a joke.  I realize there have been more than a few times over the years that I have messed up … royally.  But that’s the awesome thing about a relationship with Jesus.  He keeps on forgiving.  Amazing.  Just amazing.

We went up to the church yesterday.  I had staff meeting and Chris went to undecorated the last of the Christmas trees in the retreat center.  I joined her when Jim and I got finished, and we now have a special pronouncement to make: A suitable helpmeet hath been found for the Beast.  A Bride of Frankenstein, if you will.  A Beautiful Belle to his frightening Beast.  That’s right.  While up there I put together the new vacuum cleaner we bought, and the thing … well, the thing just … works.  It sucked up the tiniest pine needles from those trees.  Made me want to vacuum the whole center.  Almost.  But congratulations to the Beast on his new companion.  Things are looking up for the Retreat Center.  A happy Beast makes for a clean (and dry) facility.  (For those late-comers among you … the annals of the Beast and his antics are sprinkled throughout this journal.  He is the monstrosity of a wet-dry vac who cleans up water spills and leaks). 

We picked up Cailyn after school yesterday.  Mom and Dad were both at work, so she got to spend the night with us.  One of her requirements is to read or have read to her for about twenty minutes each night.  Then she has to write out an answer to a question or two about the reading so the school can be assured that she is actually doing it.  Now the book she chose was the one we gave her for Christmas, the children’s illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book.  We started out with Nana reading a page.  Then Cailyn read a page.  And then it became my turn.  Two chapters and a little over an hour of my own “personal interpretation reading approach” later we finally stopped to get ready for bed.  Oh, I tried to stop at the end of that first chapter I was reading, but for some reason, when the chapter ends with a mysterious and extremely loud “BOOM,” it’s just difficult to say, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”  I closed the book, and Cailyn immediately protested, “NO!  We have to read some more.”  Now that’s what reading is all about.

Philippians 4:23 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.  Amen.”

Father, thank you for Cailyn’s excitement about reading.   May it continue to grow.  Amen.

January 18 – “Thank you”

We had a quick surprise visit from our long-time Seaside friend Sam yesterday.  She stopped by to give us some books she had accumulated.  Some she had bought way back to donate to the church’s school.  There were some really good books, too.  An entire set of Childcraft.  Numerous Classics titles as well.  Don Quixote.  Huckleberry Finn.  Hardy Boys.  Nancy Drew.  I’m not sure why we are accumulating books all of a sudden.  But we’ll get them to a good home, that’s for sure.  Thank you, Sam.

I got a phone call from Lauren yesterday afternoon to tell me the Jamaica Beach fire department had been toned out for a call to Seaside.  Apparently the fire alarm was sounding at the retreat center.  She is on our list as a contact person and was already almost there.  I started out there as well, but she called before I even got past the airport to let me know the fire department was already on sight, had entered the building (it was unlocked), and reset the alarm.  No idea why the alarm went off, though.  Proud of those fire department guys.  And thank you, Lauren.

I had some alone time last night.  Chris went to the kickoff night of the Spring Ladies Bible study at church.  They are doing a Beth Moore study on the life of David.  Oh, I found some stuff to do.  I worked on my Visual Verses book revisions (read here illustrations, as in pictures).  I watched some Baylor basketball for the first time this year.  They are not half bad.  They blew their number one ranking, but I think they are still number six.  I also scanned through the Netflix listings to watch something different.  I finally found a Bruce Willis movie I had never seen.  Some kind of CIA thriller.  It was a good movie.  Predictable, but enough action to keep me awake.  Lots of bad language, though.  Get with the program, Bruce.  That stuff is not needed if the movie is good.  Let it stand on its own merits.  So my take on the evening alone?  Just not sure if I like that so much.  I guess I’m just an old social gadfly at heart.  Thank you for being there for me, Chris.

Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Father, thank you for the great people you have surrounded me with.  I appreciate them.  Amen.

January 17 – “Alone time”

We had another houseful of Vaughan kids for a few hours yesterday.  Kel and Christina and Ezra went out for lunch, so the rest of their bunch hung out here for a while.  I played a new game with them called Oregon Trail.  It consists of game cards and a single die.  The idea is to work together to get from Missouri to Oregon while facing all sorts of obstacles and hoping the supplies you have accumulated in your covered wagon will help you deal with any issues that may come up.  Dysentery, measles, snakebites, and even drowning in the river are all possible outcomes.  The most interesting part of the game to me was that everyone was on the same trail ride.  There was no individual winner or loser.  If we reached Oregon, everybody won.  If not, everybody lost.  Of course Jachin and Josiah both died on the way, and Micah and I were the only ones still alive, but as far as the game is concerned, we all won.  I like games like that. 

While they were here we were schooled by Micah on the difficulties of being a middle child.  Seems he often finds himself happily playing with younger brother Josiah, when older brother Jachin approaches and asks Micah to play a game with him.  Now he knows Jachin and Josiah don’t play well together, and he doesn’t want to hurt Josiah’s feelings, but he finally has to tell the younger sibling that he has to spend some time playing with Jachin, too.  After all, it’s only fair.  So he finds himself having to juggle all his time like that.  Sadly, it means that he just doesn’t get any personal, alone, “me” time.  But then, in his own words, “I don’t need all that much personal time.  Dad does, though.  He needs his alone time.”  I’m pretty sure there’s another story in there somewhere, but we didn’t get to hear that one.  Maybe next time …

Philippians 4:12-13 says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Father, thank you for Micah’s ability to connect with his older and younger brothers.  Give him - and his Dad - some alone time.  Amen.

January 16 – “Happy Bat-Birthday”

Yesterday was Cailyn’s 8^th birthday.  Time flew a little more quickly than I expected there.  She had a birthday party yesterday afternoon.  Super hero themed.  Girl superhero, of course.  Cailyn wore her new Batgirl cape that April made under the tutelage of Chris the other day.  She had an entire costume to go along with it.  Long Bat-socks.  A Bat-mask just like the one Batgirl on TV wears that in no way impedes her vision or adequately hides her secret identity from anyone except the folks in TV land.  She wore a shirt emblazoned with the number 8, and even had yellow utility arm bands.  Frighteningly beautiful. 

The party was at a place called Jumping World.  Interesting outfit.  I had actually heard of it before.  I saw an episode of Undercover Boss a while back where the head honcho revealed what it was like to work there.  The entire center of the place is a mass of trampolines shaped like fifty-yard dash straightaways with a trampoline cushion at each end that rises up a good eight or ten feet.  Kids were constantly running back and forth, flipping and twisting and sprinting, trying to reach the top of the end cushions.  Another section was set up with basketball goals and trampolines.  Another, Jachin and Micah and Josiah’s favorite, was a massive game of dodge ball on trampolines.  They also had simpler areas for the little bitty guys, like a ball pit and a bounce house.  Perhaps the oddest area, though was a huge plastic cylinder floating on some water.  A kid could crawl inside and run around like a hamster, trying to get the cylinder to move around.  There were random, you pay extra games all around the edges of the room.  You know, like those games with the claw where you try to pick up a stuffed animal.  And they also had a snack bar.  Oh, and for the adults … there were two separate areas, one with overstuffed chairs, arranged around a television set.  And from what I could tell, both of those areas stayed quite full the entire time.  Not because parents were neglecting their kids, mind you.  It was just that there was a football game on.  The Dallas Cowboys football game.  So sad.  But enough said here.  I’m sure there will be plenty more comments on FaceBook throughout the day today if you want to wallow in the sadness further.

The party part of the festivities was held in a roped off area set aside for just such occasions.  Extra-long picnic-table with a hostess provided by the place.  They apparently have a connection with a pizza place, because part of every party going on was the pizza serving (and there were a lot of parties going on).  After the pizza April and Nathan pulled out birthday cupcakes for everyone, and a special round cake for Cailyn.  It was allegedly so she could have a large enough place to put her number 8 candle and the Batgirl decoration.  And after the rousing song (which I couldn’t sing rousingly myself because I was holding young Ezra at the time.  Three week olds don’t take kindly to loud, off-key bellering by old DadDad’s), Cailyn dug in to her special cake.  No, literally dug in.  Face first.  With only a little help from her Daddy.  She enjoyed her face plant immensely, though, and wore it for a few extra minutes as a badge of honor.  Plenty of time for pictures.  Nana and Aunt Christina came to the rescue with baby wipes to clean it up. 

Cailyn was blessed with a lot of presents from her friends from school and the softball team.  Several of the girls were even coming over for a girls’ night slumber party.  Enjoy that, Nathan.  I heard they were going to paint fingernails and toenails.  He’s a pro at that one.  In the words of the immortal Robin … Happy Bat-Birthday, Cailyn.

Philippians 4:9 says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Father, thank you for the eight special years we have had with Cailyn.  Draw her close to you as she grows.  Amen.

January 15 – “Turn out the lights …”

Well, along with many, many others in Galveston and Harris County we watched the Texans play last night.  I have to confess, though, that we bailed on them at half time to watch an episode of Sleepy Hollow that we taped.  We did check in again in the third quarter, but by then we were headed for a somewhat early bedtime.  Oh, I checked the score on my phone before I turned out the lights.  Kind of reminded me of a certain Dandy Don Meredith song that he would sing as a football announcer when it appeared certain one team was about to lose.  “Turn out the lights, the party’s over …”  Sorry, Texans.  But hey.  The Cowboys still have to play this afternoon.  Maybe they can keep a Texas team in the hunt.

Other than an ill-advised grocery run to WalMart yesterday (No real problems.  It’s just a bit crazy to go to WalMart on a Saturday when you really have to buy stuff.  Way to crowded with people who have “special” kinds of issues), we spent the day project working.  Chris was back at the old quilting grind.  I spent the day at my desk and on the computer, working on the second, illustrated edition of my Visual Verses book.  I decided the first one was just too boring.  I spruced it up a bit, made a few simple changes, and now I’m working on some illustrative drawings for the devotional pages.  I also plan to redo two of the verses that have distracting bleed-through from the scrap paper they were created on.  Not sure how long all that will take, though.  But maybe the practice will help hone my artistic skills. 

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

Father, thank you for work-filled, quiet Saturday afternoons with my wife.  Amen.

January 14 – “Restaurant Week Review”

It is Restaurant Week in Galveston.  Well, actually it’s Restaurant Two Weeks, but that is a bit harder to market.  The idea is to fill in the traditionally totally dead space in the tourism calendar that covers pretty much the entire month of January.  December is Dickens on the Strand and, well, Christmas.  February is Mardi Gras, and then comes Spring Break in March, which kicks off the beach season.  But there is just nothing going on on the Island in January.  So, inspired by the creative actions of the greeting card companies before them, our board of tourism came up with an idea to spotlight several of the restaurants in town.  They agree to have a cut rate menu for the “week” and the tourism board takes care of advertising the big occasion. 

Chris and I decided to dive in and check out one of the downtown hotspots.  We went for a Mexican food lunch at a place called Taquilo’s.  We found a place to park within a few blocks of the restaurant.  Free for two hours, too.  Free is always a plus, especially in downtown Galveston.  There was no waiting for a table at all.  In fact, we were greeted outside by the hostess.  They did have an outside table option, but we were directed inside to a booth.  The centerpiece of the room was a bar.  A sports bar, actually, with two TV screens playing ESPN.  The guy who asked what we wanted to drink was one of the bartenders.  Then a different guy approached to ask what we wanted to eat.  I told him he had changed a lot since he asked about our drinks.  Without missing a beat he said, “Well, I did grow a beard.  Maybe that’s it.”  Nice reply.  Between the two of them, they embodied what I look for in a waiter.  Not pushy.  Fun personality that seems true to who he is.  And finally – and this is a big one – he doesn’t call you “Hun” or “Sugar” or “Sweetie.”

As we ate I took in the general atmosphere of the place.  My take on it was that they were consciously trying to appeal to the local young yuppies who live and work downtown.  There seemed to be regulars at the bar.  I didn’t get a sense of desperate tourism appeal at all.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Oh, and Chris noticed the city manager was in there for lunch as well.

The food arrived in a reasonable amount of time.  Chris had a summer plate with several typical Mexican food items.  One was supposed to be one of those big round chips with queso on top.  I know there’s a name for that but I can never remember it.  This one was fried to the shape of a bowl, but they turned it upside down and poured the queso on the bottom.  Seems to me that it would be a better idea to just fill it up with queso.  But no one ever asks me.  I was a bit adventurous.  I usually order either cheese or beef enchiladas at a place like that.  Or some combination thereof.  Yesterday, in the spirit of trying new things, I ordered the shrimp enchiladas.  They were just soft flour tortillas filled with crab meat and shrimp.  Lots of crab meat, actually.  Also a plus. It came with rice and beans, and if they hadn’t been on the plate I would have never assigned the dish to be called “Mexican.”  Oh, it wasn’t bad at all.  Just didn’t taste Mexican.  The problem?  There was no cheese anywhere on the plate.  How can it be Mexican food without cheese?  The best part of the meal came when he brought us some churros.  Sweet cinnamon pastry-kind of things with a caramel dip for added tastiness.  Yes.  Yumm.

We are talking about trying one of the other places that we have never been to sometime next week.  It’ll be for lunch for sure.  Probably won’t be Mexican food this time.  My pick is generally seafood, but I may branch out.  After all, it is Restaurant Week.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Father, thank you for all the types of food you have created for us to enjoy.  Amen.