A Great Idea!

I know what your thinking. I didn't invent anything and I'm not going to make a million, YET. It's not even my idea.

Our church or pastor has decided to make hundreds of t-shirts that say "The church has left the building", the shirt looks pretty cool too. Instead of selling them to the members, he is going to give them to whoever wants one; under one condition. You have to do random good deeds to people you don't know or you have to give away a total of $20 to random people in the community as a gift from God.

We are to tell them it is our way of showing how much God loves them and the free money is kinda like the free gift of eternal life, you simple have to accept it. Or you can simply buy the guy's coffee standing behind you in the gas station, (20 times). Or buy the guy's food in front of you at McDonald's (4 times).

I think this is very cool. The pastor is not only getting the members involved in witnessing, but he is trusting God with the expense of those shirts. That's what I call a good ministry. A lot of prayer, and faith, a simple plan, a good motivator, trusting God with the money, and it is totally up to the Holy Spirit to bring glory to God.

I'm very excited about it, yet also scared. I don't enjoy being looked at like a freak giving away money or having people think I'm behind some big plot to swindle thousands from their checking account. But that's my problem.

Other than that Christine and I have had a great week, and we are planning on going to the symphony Saturday night in Key West. I'm in the middle of inviting people to our Super Bowl party, which I just had to have. If a man has a 7 ft x 5 ft TV screen with TIVO capabilities and loves the NFL, it's about as close to a sin as you can get, if he doesn't invite folks over to enjoy what God has blessed him with.

time to write

I would like to publicly thank my wife for taking over the blog site, while I was just not in the mood to type anything. I would like to think of it as a plot to get her to join me in this blogging thing, but I'm not that crafty.

We had to take a General knowledge test saturday, which lasted about 5 hours. I was jumping out of my skin. The lady giving the test even noticed my figiting around and came over and told me that she can see that I can relate well with my kids. I told her they have all my sympathy.

I remember all too well how horrible it is to sit in class ALL DAY. That is one of the things that I hate about this job. I feel like a person that tortures kids for a living.

School is actually getting better for me, but it seems to be getting worse for Christine. She has had 2 bad weeks and the week ends have not been enjoyable for one reason or another. AND we have about a month before our next long weekend, so it's going to be tough.

As far as stuff around the house. I planted 3 palm trees last weekend, which is a great deal more effort than just saying it. The proverb that talks about a wise man builds his house on rock, and a fool builds his house on sand, never thought about planting trees. We are on rock and coral! I had to use a heavy bar with a sharp point to break it up and then shovel it out. ALL DAY! 3 holes. We were going to plant pineapples, but that hole ain't worth no stupid $3 pineapple. If it's not going to provide shade or privacy, it's not getting a hole.

Last weekend we also got TIVO for our direct TV. It's very nice. All I got to say is don't get it, if you don't want it the rest of your life. I usually don't watch alot of TV other than couple of shows, football, and news, but now I can scope out the good stuff and watch it when ever I want. So in a way it's giving me freedom to do what I want when I want, but it also gives me more that I want to do that is not productive. blah, blah, blah, blah.

Today I'm going to change the oil in the "lower end" of my motor and hopefully finish the shelves and start new ones. The wind has been too bad for the boat, and hopefully I'll start my sailing lessons next week. AND hopefully start doing some stuff worth writing about.

it looks like sailing days ahead...

today we had a chance to talk to two members of the Key West Sailing club. Adam has been waiting for this for a month now. We took a fellow teacher upstate for Christmas and during the ride, he told us of this club, where you pay a yearly fee, and can use any of their boats! So, of course Adam writes this in his PDA (if any of you out there know him, it ONLY gets remembered if it is in this thing - and not all items get this priveledge) and thus the trip this morning to the sailing club. Now, it just dawns on me while we are talking to these "old salts", that now i will also be learning to sail. Marriage is kinda like that, i guess. His desire will now become something I, too, will embark upon. So, with this new thought in my head - that i will be learning to sail - I am looking forward to an interesting adventure ahead. And also things like, will i like sailing?, is it easy to learn?, will i have to get wet?, you get my drift...

So, with an additional trip to Home Depot for some supplies (thank you Whites), we are going to be building some shelves. And what I mean by that is, I will tell Adam what I want it to look like, and he will show back upstairs with it. And that is what he is up to today. Downstairs, using a saw, listening to the radio, getting really dirty and walking in and out of the house (my favorite), and generally having a good time.

so - no fanfare of any proportion today. Just working around the house. it is very windy and somewhat cold today, so no water for us.

but as we were driving home, i was so thankful for all that God has blessed us with. I mean, we somehow got down here, and now we find this sailing club...we seem to move closer and closer to what Adam would love to do...and we didn't even try to do anything about it. if we hadn't helped out that teacher and given him a lift upstate, we wouldn't have heard about this club....weird, and cool. it's so nice to have Him looking out for us...

new year's eve??

well - this is the other Ray half speaking to all you avid blog readers out there. As I write, my husband is sleeping on the couch - a result of numerous hours of late night football watching....

so - here i am to say happy new year and may we all be blessed in this new gift we call "2006". I have been doing some thinking about this past year, as we all seem to do in the wake of a fast, tumultuous year-end, and have decided that we had a very action-packed time. We are both looking forward to a calmer year - whether it actually happens or not. But we know that God is with us and has been blessing us every harrowing step of the way. As have been so many others that we love. We are very thankful for such great friends and family that have prayed for us through our various moves and adjustments.

Well - speaking of adjustments, we are on the eve of school starting back up. So we have been at school planning and getting things ready. We feel a lot better going into this semester...but the nervousness and tension have returned.

We are praying for God to remind us that He is with us in all this stuff, and that He will be responsible for carrying us through this, so we don't have to worry about that.

We also plan to take some cool pics to show you....there are so many cool and interesting things here...

today at lunch we ate on the beach, watching a cruise ship come to port, parasailers playing way out in the Atlantic, and lots of vacationers taking advantage of the warm weather. so weird! wish i was on vacation....


well - time to sign off...