October 7 – “Subway flatbread”

Today ranks up there with the long days I've had.  The first time I woke up was 2:30 a.m.  The, 3:15. Then 4:30.  I finally gave up at 5 and got up.  That usually happens a lot when Chris is gone.  She was in Bay City to take her Mom to a doctor's appointment this morning.    The first part of the day was actually rather typical.  Except that I spent most of it in my office working on the sermon.  The plumber did come in.  After his inspection he told us one of the tankless hot water heaters was completely out.  And the company was out of business.  We could get another one, but he recommended a regular one in the kitchen near the sink.  Sounded good to me, especially when he recommended we call the same contractor who worked on out house.  He said he would make the call.   After lunch the Bible teacher called to say he would be about twenty minutes late.  Fortunately they are watching a video, so all I had to do was start it.  Then the PE teacher called to say she wouldn't be in at all because she was headed to the doctor.  It actually worked out OK, though.  We used that time to set up for the memorial service to be held at the church at 5:00.  It was good to have the help.  They got the pews set up and I did most of the sweeping.    The Memorial service was great.  Very upbeat.  The guy was a Christian and had lots of friends and family.  His widow even asked what time services were Sunday.  Maybe we'll see her.   I talked to Chris after everybody left.  She talked me into getting something to eat before the service.  So I went over to Subway and tried one of their flatbread sandwiches.  It was pretty good.  Made the sandwich totally different.   After youth group the students helped reset for school.   One of the SCA students was so excited.  He wanted me to arrange for all of them to show up Friday to help set up for church.  He's usually the one who ends up unstacking all the pews.   Colossians 3:1 says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."   Father, make my heart match yours.  Amen.

October 6 – “Not much”

There's really not much to talk about today.  At school I worked on the sermon for awhile until I got so sleepy I had to get up and walk around.  Come to find out it had been almost two hours.  Chris would kill me if she found out I sat still for that long without stretching.  I confess, I was extremely stiff when I stood up.  The kids were in pretty good spirits.  They told me Tuesdays were better than Mondays.  I guess they are more into the swing of things.    The highlight of my day by far was when I went and played with the kindergarten class.  Actually it was more the two four year old boys.  We crawled around on the floor playing with the blocks and those big-sized legos.  One time a little guy put together some legos and I showed him how they made the letter L.  He said, "No, Pastor Kelley.  It's not Letter L.  It's a gun.  Pow."  Well, OK.  They were great at their colors and counting, though.    I guess the only other highlights of the day were first, when Chris called on her way to Bay City.  She asked if I could hear what was happening.   Sounded like wind or waves to me.  Finally she said, "There it is!  There it is!  All zeroes.  We have one hundred thousand miles."  I can think of other things to get excited about, especially since Firestone refused to do an alignment because of some obscure swine flu for cars or something.  They wanted us to spend $1600.  Chris said she would never spend that much on that car ever.   Second, was my trip to Wal Mart.  I got four tubs of Blue Bell.  It's on sale at Kroger's.  I was supposed to get milk too.  But they were out.  Wal Mart was out of milk.  Out of all milk.  Well, except for one half gallon that was covered with some kind of nasty stuff.  Seems that they are replacing their coolers tonight.  I had to go to Randalls.   Colossians 2:6-7 says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."   Father, Thank you.  I know I'm not overflowing, but I do mean it.  Amen.

October 5 – "Decorating a cake"   This morning I spent writing letters to churches and friends who helped us after the storm.  We wanted to give them an idea of where we were and what we still had to do.  Maybe some of them will want to come back and help us finish the job.  I also applied for a grant that I found out about from the Baptist General Convention of Texas.  I found out that they are changing their name to Texas Baptists.  Simplify.    A couple came to the church to ask if they could let some horses eat the grass at our Galveston property.  They would take care of everything.  They plan to set up a temporary electric fence so they can move them around the area and make sure they eat the grass down evenly.  They even plan to pick up the horse poop.  That's what she said.  Apparently landscapers are paying a premium price for horse poop right now.  Their ultimate plan is to have a horse riding place where you can take more than a slow stroll down the beach for two blocks.  They want to have bay ride to watch the sunset, and longer rides.  Sounded great to me.  I'll run it by the elders and get their feel for it.    Tonight was kind of fun.  Nathan and April and Cailyn came over.  April wanted a lesson on cake decorating for the master.  Chris used to work in a bakery, so she is great at this.  In fact she decorated our wedding cake (with a little help from her grandmother).  And it was beautiful.  Of course not as beautiful as she was … and is.    Anyway, April did really well.  All of us were standing over her watching and "helping" with suggestions.  Some made sense (whenever Chris said anything).  Others were just goofy (anytime Nathan or I spoke).  But she kept on going and created a sunflower bedecked bed of chocolate icing over a plump and moist chocolate cake.  Nathan and I were begging them to leave it here.  They were on their way to a friend's house for supper and – obviously – dessert.  Today was the girl's birthday.  She'll love it.   Colossians 1:17 says, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."   Father, thank you for holding me together when I get stressed out.  Amen.

October 4 – “Another chapter”

Ah, Sunday.  Always an interesting day.  Often a tiring day.  Today was no different on either count.  We were debating whether to take the Explorer in to have the front end aligned.  I noticed the tires were wearing very unevenly.  One option was this afternoon.  Another was tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. before school.  A third (Chris came up with this one) was for her to take it in herself after she took Mom to her eye doctor appointment.  Guess which one won?  At this point Chris has that one covered.    Mom slept in this morning.  Chris and I were talking about taking two cars to church when she finally woke up.  It was almost 8:30, and that's when we usually leave the house.  But, hey, she's worth waiting for.  We still arrived in plenty of time to get all our pre-service preparations done.   After church and after lunch with the Boyer crowd at Tortuga's, we faced the daunting task of moving dirt.  Last night one of our neighbors came over and asked if we wanted the rest of the big old pile of dirt in front of his house.  I told him, "Sure, we've been talking about getting some for our front yard, anyway."  He said, "Well, I'm tired of looking at it.  Can you come get it right now?  The weather is cool."  As tempting as that sounded, we had been working in the yard all day and had just returned home after rescuing Fritz and Heidi.  So I asked if we could possibly do it Sunday afternoon.  I figured I could round up a son or two to help.   We called Kel on the way home from the restaurant.  He was at the Dynamo soccer game in Houston.  We had forgotten they were going today.  So much for son number one.  We then called Nathan, but the call went to his voice mail.  There goes son number two.  Son number three was in Arlington.  So Chris and I put on our old Ike work clothes and headed across the street.  Did I mention that it was raining at the time?  Wet dirt that is a large part clay anyway makes for some very heavy mud.  That's what we started out shoveling.  I was throwing it into the bed of the truck.  Chris had our wheelbarrow.  That led to a funny scenario.  When she filled it up she lifted the arms just as I looked over.  The tire was as flat as it could be.  She couldn't budge it.  So I came to the rescue.  I manhandled that thing over to our house and dumped it.  And left it.  That thing was heavy and unwieldy and I was not about to do it again.  So we both set to filling the bed of the truck.  About that time Chris asked if I had texted Nathan.  "No.  You told me to call him."  So she texted him, and he called back almost immediately.  He said he would be right over to help, and wanted to know why we hadn't called him sooner.  I said, "I did call, but I didn't know the rule about texting first.  All I got was voice mail"  He apologized, and the three of us went to shoveling.    It took three or four loads.  That's how much dirt this guy was offering us.  By the time we finished, even Nathan's tongue was dragging. We were beat.  Nathan sat on the ground and said, "All right.  Another chapter finished."  He was talking about the whole Ike experience.  But the yard is going to look great.  Yes.  That's right.  We didn't really finish.  We still need to rake it out, but it was so wet and heavy that we couldn't.  The best thing about the whole ordeal (other than seeing Cailyn, of course) was getting to meet our neighbor.  We see him all the time and wave, but have never met him.  He was always just "the Bug Guy."  He works for Orkin.  Now I know that he likes the Cowboys, his son played soccer, and his daughter has him wrapped around her little finger.  I look forward to getting to Javier.   Colossians 1:16 says, "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."   Father, thanks for introducing me to Javier.  Draw him to yourself, and use me however you want to in the process.  Amen.

October 3 – “Fritz and Heidi”

Well, it's been a long time coming.  For over a year Fritz, our mixed breed, supposed-to-be-a-Boston-Terrier-but doesn't-look-anything-like-one, lovable mutt and Heidi, our shelter-rescued, probably-pure-bred-but-no one-will-ever-know dachshund have been living in exile at Kel and Christina's house with their "cousin" Lucy.  Christina has been a real champ through all this – bathing them and giving them flea and tick meds and feeding them.  Kel took a different approach – teaching them manners and waiting anxiously for the day when our back yard would be safe enough to handle them again.  I'm not sure what the boys will think.    We picked them up while everybody else (except Lucy) was at a birthday party.  When they got home Christina called right away.  She wanted to know if they should jump in the car and start looking for the kidnappers.  She told me that she asked Jachin if something was missing from the back yard, and he never did figure it out.  I guess they'll get by without those extra muttleys hanging around when they go outside to play.   Our day was spent getting ready for their arrival.  We borrowed the lawn mower from Kel and got our lawn and part of the one next door done.  That yard next door is getting creepy.  The grass in back was so tall it knocked the mower for a loop.  It just sputtered and died and wouldn't restart.  I decided that I was supposed to be in our yard anyway, so I pushed it to our garage and left it.  After my tuna fish sandwich at lunch, I went back over to check it out again.  Sure enough, it was something simple.  The spark plug wire had been knocked loose.  I didn't try to restart it, though.  Hope it does OK when Kel mows their yard.   I did do some more cleaning in the back yard, and Chris replanted, or repotted or whatever it is you do with plants.  I threw away some boards that have been taking up space back there.  I also threw away our old barbeque pit.  The wheels fell off as I was pushing it, so I used them to replace the ones that broke off of Nathan's.  Not a perfect fit, but if we don't ever move it, they'll be fine – until they rust off, too.  I also found another tool box.  I don't know where it came from, but it was rusted at the bottom.  There was a piece of carpet in there, so the mold and gunk was having a go of it.  I managed to save a bunch of screwdrivers and they are now doing their time in the last remaining bucket of diesel.    Chris was ready to quit before I was.  I just felt like I should keep working, because this was the only day I could, with church on Sunday and school the rest of the week.  I need to watch what I wish for.  After we brought the dogs home, one of our neighbors came over and offered us a pile of dirt that he was tired of looking at.  It was just what we wanted to use in our front yard to mix with the sand and all the mulch from that huge hackberry tree we chopped down.  Maybe there's a chance that we'll have a lawn with real grass.  We'll see next spring.   Speaking of Spring, Jachin asked me if I would coach his baseball team next spring.  He said he could show them how to hit and throw and I could teach them how to catch.  Sounds like a plan.  Actually, that would be fun – if I'm not still the headmaster and the pastor.   Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation."   Father, I know you have been through it all before, both as Jesus and when us humans complain over and over.  Forgive us.  Amen.

October 2 – “a quiet day …”

What a quiet day at Seaside.  Several of the students and one teacher were out for one reason or another.  The other teachers all had either tests scheduled or major reviews for tests on Monday.  That made for quite a somber mood from the start.  Even Subway Friday didn't get them quite as stirred up as usual.  Maybe this was a preview of great things to come.   Chris came up as a community helper and spoke to the kindergarten kids.  She showed them her nurse stethoscope and wrapped some gauze around their arms.  Sounded like great fun.  I'm supposed to go in one Friday this month, too.  I'm not sure I can compete, though. And I don't know if I'm supposed to be a pastor or a headmaster in there.    Come to think of it, I'm not sure of that out here, either.   It took Chris and me two hours after school to get the church cleaned and set up for Sunday.  And that was after the high school students did a really good job of helping out.  I think it was because we knew there wasn't another group scheduled to come in that evening that we had to hurry for.  I know I try to do just a little more when nothing is pressing.  I think Chris tries to do that every week.   We found a pill at school this week.  It had some distinctive marks on it, so Chris and I started looking for it online.  We couldn't find the exact match, and everything that was close pointed to some kind of anti-depressant.  Certainly not something a student should have access to.  To make sure I took it to our pharmacist.  Her first impression was that it was not good.  But she looked it up anyway.  After a few minutes on the computer she chuckled and said, "Well, I'll be.  That's not what I expected."  By her demeanor I gathered that it was not some secret street drug that was going to have me addicted just by touching it.  And then she dropped the bombshell, "It's a cholesterol medication."  Well, that was a relief.  No sudden heart attacks for Seaside students.   Micah and Jachin and their parents came over tonight to just hang out.  We ordered pizza and played a few games.  Nathan and April brought Cailyn over, too.  They were going bowling.  The cousins were pretty funny to watch.  Cailyn was not sure what to do with all the noise, but she was fascinated by the action.  My favorite part of the evening was when the three little ones "played" twister.  Cailyn got right in there with the boys, at least for awhile.  When they left she was asleep within minutes.   Colossians 1:6 says, "All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."   Father, thank you for my kids.  And for their kids.  Amen.

October 1 – “First Steps”

Big news tonight.  Cailyn came over for supper.  She brought her Mommy and Daddy along with her.  It's a good thing, too.  They brought along their video camera.  Yep, we got to see the video of her first steps.  As it was, she was crawling all over the house.  And then she would stand up right where she was.  She never took off running or anything, but she sure was "getting her sea legs under her," as my Dad would surely say.  We can't wait to see her take off.   School went very calmly today.  After lunch I asked the high schoolers to do me a favor.  That's usually the time when they lose control, if they do.  I just gave them specific places to be during that period and asked them to go there.  And they did.  It was the quietest they had been all day.   Before she left for the day our English teacher brought me a little blue pill she found on o bookshelf in her room.  She was worried that one of the kids might be taking something they shouldn't.  I called Chris and we both went online to try to find it.  We finally discovered the same letter, but the number didn't match.  The thing was, though, every one of the drugs with that letter was an anti-depressant.  We decided we would take it to our pharmacist and ask her.  I almost forgot to ask when I went in to pick up my own prescription.  After her first look she said she was worried that it could be something very bad.  She fired up her computer and started typing as fast as she could.  Well, she started typing a lot faster than I could.  And she got a hit.  And she chuckled and said, "Well, that's not what I expected."  She made me a printout and broke the news to me, "It's not at all what I expected, but there is no doubt about it.  Here it is.  It is …"  Yep, she actually paused for dramatic effect.  "It is a cholesterol drug."  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  I finally said, "Well, I guess that's good considering the alternative."    James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly."   Father, I need to hear that verse every so often.  Makes me appreciate the importance of your calling.  If it's not a calling, I don't want to spend too much time there.  Amen.