I LOVE being a father.  My two children are the highlight of my life, but today is a perfect example of taking the good with the bad.

Good:

Going to lunch with them

Hanging out all day with them

Taking them to a movie

Bad:

We’re going to the new Veggie Tales Movie at 1:00 p.m. That almost overrides all the good part of being a father.  They’ll have fun, I’ll be in hell.

How do I know it is New Years Day?  Because DeAnna has collard greens cooking (for money in 2008), black-eyed peas cooking (for luck in 2008), a Honey Baked Ham in the fridge (just because you need some type of meat), Mac and Cheese cooking (just because it tastes good), and the Dawgs are playing tonight in the Sugar  Bowl (where they belong).

That is what I call starting the year off right!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE WHO IS CRAZY ENOUGH TO READ THIS BLOG!!!

I am not a New Year Resolution guy, but I do think the start of the year is a GREAT time to set some goals and evaluate what is working and what is not working in your life.  I’ve been thinking a lot about my life lately and realize I let some things get me off course in 2007.  I’ve been thinking of the areas of my life that I am going to focus on in 2008 and to keep me accountable, I am going to post them for all of you to see.

Spiritual:

• Start EVERY day in the Bible and prayer
• Consistent Family Devotions
• Listen to at least 2 sermons from someone else a week
• Spend more time with my mentors - I did a BAD job of this towards the end of the year
• Lead our staff by example in spiritual matters
• Learn from others more
• Read 2 books a month

Personal:

• Lose 30 pounds
• Ride 100 miles a week on my bike
• Take a day off EVERY week
• Enjoy the adventure of life more
• Get away twice a year for a few days by myself to spend time with God

Family:

• Date my wife
• Spend more time with my children
• STAY off the computer when I get home from work
• Turn off my cell phone when I get home
• Become debt free
• Realize my family is my #1 ministry

Church:

• Lead Revolution without apology
• Pour my life into our staff
• Become MORE dogmatic aboout our vision (I feel I let some people and some things sidetrack that just a little)
• Love and appreciate our volunteers more
• Get back to investing in church planters
• Continue Revolutionary Love year around
• Launch a second campus
• Invest in Haiti Cheri with more than just our finances (not sure what that looks like yet)

This morning I woke up and went to take the dog outside.  Unknown to me, it rained a little last night and it froze on our steps.  I hit the top step and instantly I was headed down the steps on my back.  We have a lot of steps leading to our front door and I stopped two steps from the bottom.  It sucked.

I thought I was alright, but now it has been about 8 hours and I am so stiff I can barely move.  The good that came out of it is it gives me a reason to lay around and watch TV all day.

“Stupid Dog” seems to be my new favorite line.  Dogs are a lot of stinking work!!!  The other night Koy was up all night puking.  Not cool.  Now it is raining and I had to take him outside to do his business in the rain.  Instead he wanted to run around the wet yard.

It also occured to me today that we have to find a place for him to stay while we are skiing.  The person we consider our dog expert stopped by today and I found out they have NEVER left their dogs!!!!  In 11 years they have never been away together.  They will get a sermon coming to them. :)  So while she makes rocking ginger snaps, she was no help in suggesting a place for the dog to shack up.  We did find a place but I have to admit it is freaking me out to leave the big guy for a couple of days.  I guess I am a big softie.

Stupid Dog

I’m about the leave the office to go see my little girl’s dance thingy.  I don’t really know what it is and I don’t really care what it is, I am just excited to go.  I have always loved having my kids, but this last year I have learned to treasure it more than ever.  They are growing up so stinking fast!!!!  Now that I have children, I see how awesome my parents were about being at things we did.  They were always there.  I thought that was what parents did, but sadly it isn’t.  I want to be there for those things like my parents were there for me when I was growing up.

I love my kids because no matter how bad my day has been, no matter how much stress I have, no matter who I am ready to kill, no matter how bad I have blown it, they are there when I get home and just want to be loved and given some attention.  The love no matter what.  I dig that.

It is funny when I go to these things with my kids becaues I don’t really fit in with the typical parent you would find in Canton.  They all seem so stressed, so busy, and so mature. :)  I am a sloppy, flip-flop wearing, energy drink chugging redneck.

BTW, just had pumpkin bread and ginger snaps dropped off at the office.  I love Christmas.

Today, I laid around the house until 1:30 doing nothing but chilling.  I then went and got my fro cut, went shopping with the family, and now I am done for the night.  That is a good day.

God knew what he was doing when he threw that sabbath day thing in the ten commandments.  :)  It truly is amazing the difference I feel when I take a true day off.  I have been doing my best to take Fridays off lately and I can tell the difference in my body, mind, and spirit.

Tomorrow we are up early for the wife to run another 5K and then I think Grandma is taking the kids for the night!!!!!

To top off the weekend, I get to throw down on Sunday morning about a topic that I think is going to connect with a lot of people!!!!

DeAnna and I had a date night last night and it was one of our best ever.  Someone at church gave us tickets to a Alzheimer’s fund raiser at the new Cobb Center.  Cobb County has built a GREAT venue for concerts!!!!

The event was a concert featuring acoustic sets from Monty Powell (songwriter from Nashville who has written TONS of #1 country songs), jazz musician Anna Wilson, and country music star Keith Urban.  All of them came out and played by just sitting on a stool and strumming a guitar.  It was one of the best concerts I have ever attended in my life.   Keith Urban was awesome.  The dude can shred a guitar and he was awesome.  There were only about 1500 people there so it was awesome to that close to the stage and feel like they were singing right to you.

I love spending time with DeAnna and our favorite thing to do it concerts, so last night was perfect!!!!

I will leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow.  I am flying to Buffalo to have Thanksgiving with DeAnna’s family.  This will be the first Thanksgiving ever that I have not done with my family and I am little bummed.  However, I am very excited for DeAnna because it means a lot to her.  She flew up with the kids on Monday and they are having a blast.

I have never even met most of DeAnna’s family so that should be fun.  It is supposed to snow up there on Thursday night and I fly back on Friday so please pray I don’t get stuck in New York.

I wonder if Yankee’s cook the same grub we do on Thanksgiving?

Here is our first pet. We named him Koy because I wanted to name Avery that and DeAnna wouldn’t let me. Sounded like a cowboy name to me so I dug it. He is 10 weeks old and he is BIG and he needs a bath, and he wants to climb on me, and I ain’t down with any of that stuff.

The kids love him and I hope I will grow to at least be able to deal with him. Seriously, I think I am going to do dig him.