Pastor Fred

Many of you know that my church family lost a beloved pastor, Fred Spivey. He died last Sunday, fittingly on Pentecost Sunday, and he was buried today on his birthday. He was a devoted son, husband, father, uncle, friend and pastor (and I'm sure there are other roles I'm leaving out). Pastor Fred also served his country. He loved the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength, and it showed. Fred was active in missions, but truly, he served wherever he found himself and ministered tirelessly to us all. He truly showed us how to live, and then how to die. The last Sunday School series he taught was on heaven, and when I found out that he had died, I just had to smile at the thought of Fred dancing with joy as he ran into the arms of Jesus. I'm sure Jesus did the same thing as He welcomed Fred with open arms. Fred was just an all-around wonderful man, truly a saint in every sense of the word. His favorite scripture was, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21. I know Fred and his wife and son must've talked many times about his death and all of the emotions they would feel.....I believe he would've done his ever-loving best to help them prepare. He would get excited when he talked about heaven, but he would also acknowledge the sorrow people feel when they lose a loved one. He knew his family would grieve for him, and I believe that's one of the reasons he was able to hang on for so long. But, I'm also certain, that when he knew the hour was nearing, he was at perfect peace. I know his family now feels the peace of God as they mourn the loss of Fred but also rejoice in his home-going. The great news is that we will see him again, and when that time comes, it will seem as though no time has passed. What blessed hope we have ... the blessed assurance that Jesus meant what he said in John 14:1-4. So, goodbye, Pastor Fred. Enjoy your eternal reward!

Modern Day Woes

I had been promising the kids a Wii with my tax refund figuring that it would help us all be a bit more active in the winter and me in the summer, too. They also wanted one really badly. Well, I don't have my tax refund yet but did get my dependent child care reimbursement from my flexible spending account. So, today we went and bought a Wii. I read the box and discovered that only 1 remote comes with it.....with 4 kids I knew that wouldn't be enough. So, I had to buy 3 more. Of course, we also needed to get at least 1 game. I about had a heart attack when I saw the prices of all of those things. Nintendo DS games are bad enough but the Wii stuff just adds insult to injury...especially with all of the "extras" that have to be bought with various games. So, after nearly hyperventilating, we came home with all of the stuff. The next adventure was trying to set this thing up. And, when I say adventure, I mean adventure. Connecting the console was okay....it was the synchronizing the remotes and then trying to get the game we bought to recognize the remotes. I finally had to call a few people for Wii help but no one was there. So, I told Marcie to turn the console off and then back on. That worked -- the console recognized all of the remotes but we still couldn't get more than one remote to work. So, we switched to the sports game disk. After more trouble, the kids finally got it working (or actually Marcie got it working!) and they have played tennis and golf. Needless to say, listening to their interactions from the other room while I was cooking supper and then later working on bath water has been hilarious. Sounds like this, "Kyle, stop it; No, Joanna; Joanna, what are you doing?, Stop moving it; Will you stop?!!; You almost hitted me in the face!", etc. So, now they are playing baseball. I tried my hand at it and thought I was hitting the ball out of the ballpark only to discover that the outfielders can really catch. Oh, well.

Now it is past bedtime and the kids want to keep playing. Celebrity Apprentice has already started and I can't watch it because of the Wii. Guess I better get used to it.

In the meantime, CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE INVENT A GAMING SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T COST AN ARM AND A LEG FOR THE COMPONENTS AND MAKE IT IDIOT-PROOF?!!

Goalie Extraordinaire!

Charlie's and Kyle's soccer games this morning didn't conflict, thank goodness! Charlie played at 9, or shall I say, he showed up, looked really great, had a water bottle, and enjoyed hanging out on the field -- running as little as possible and watching the general direction of the ball. He did get his foot on it once but for the most part, he acted as though running around really wasn't necessary. He was truly relaxed! His team did play really well against some older and taller players. They only lost by 1 point.

Kyle, on the other hand, was really into it. He is so focused on soccer and his intensity is a little scary for one so young. He is all business when it comes to the game. He reminds me of my oldest nephew with his focus and intensity. He played 2 1/2 quarters and was goalie the entire first quarter. He prevented 4 scores by the other team! He was with it the entire time he was goalie. The other team did score on them but not while Kyle was goalie! He ran up and down the field and got his foot on the ball a lot. His team won the game but it's not really about keeping score. :)

A couple of weeks ago while I was bathing Kyle, he looked at me and said, "Mom, thank you for signing me up for soccer." I guess that's one thing I got right!