Walking on Water

   This morning I cooked hash browns and an omelet. Cindy and I normally go to 10:30 Mass so the mornings are quiet and not rushed. Breakfast was served out on the deck...we are having a lovely Fall and I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather. OK it was a little chilly but nothing a bathrobe and hot coffee didn't take care of. While we were outside we heard a loud crack and splintering noise. A large branch had broken and was hanging by a thread...well maybe wood. I had four other branches hanging off this tree that needed to come down. So this afternoon I got out my tool of choice for low hanging (and some not so low) branches. It is my ladder ball (two golf balls connected by a short rope) tied to a cloth rope clothes line. So you get the idea...throw it up and hope to wrap it around the broken branch...then pull it down and get out of the way. It actually works quite well...as long as you get the broken branch and not a live one (or the trunk).

  Now doing this reminded me of a scripture: Mt 14:22-30 - Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Mean while the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified."it is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, "take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said,"Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord save me!" Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

   Now I'm sure y'all were thinking of this very same scripture with the ladder ball tied to the clothes line and all. Let me explain. The week after next I am giving a couple talks for a CFO (Camp Farthest Out) one day retreat and in the afternoon talk I'm wanting people to relate the scriptures to what is happening in their lives here and now. I have a number of examples I'm giving but this scripture is familiar to everyone...sometimes too familiar so that we don't always hear it with new ears.

   We were camping out at the "river" as we always called the Oahe Dam, with the Venners, Johnsons and others. My High School buddy Dave Dutton and cousin Brian and Dan and myself were busy doing what ever guys do. In this case we were digging out several large pieces of driftwood to make a raft. We borrowed Moms' clothes line to tie it all together...then set sail. It was a pretty impressive raft. We used long poles to push ourselves along the shore line until the current took us out to sea. Being guys we didn't think about how we were going to paddle this thing out in the deep...OK...it would be more correct to say being guys we didn't "think"....period. Anyway we were enjoying the ride and saw the adults back at shore waving to us...so we waved back...they thought we had a pretty impressive raft too. Then looking a little closer and hearing a few choice words that made it across the water...we got the distinct idea they wanted us to come back. Yup...my father was calling me out of the boat and to come to him...and like Peter, if I could walk on water I would, but I would head anywhere other than back to shore to that unhappy group. And now the clothes line seemed very important to us...if we loose that we're really going to be in trouble. Amazing how the mind works...or doesn't. I think we threw Dan over board and told him to save himself...and yes head to shore. Needless to say, the wet knotted clothes line was not coming off. So we all abandoned ship and started the slow and dreaded swim to shore.

   When Peter said "Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water", Peter knew it was Jesus and that all things are possible through Him...even walking on water. A ghost would have said the same thing, "come"...but how far do you think Peter would have gotten? And like Peter...ever get that sinking feeling when we take our eyes off the Lord? Speaking for myself, Jesus calls me out of the boat when it is heading to places I do not belong...it's not easy to abandoned ship and trust in the Lord.

   I thank my Dad for calling the four of us off the raft and back to shore. I never got in trouble for loosing the clothes line...but Mom does say with a smile, "remember that time you boys made a raft with a clothes line then drifted out to sea?" 
Yea...that was great!

The Party Animal

Cindy has been gone this last week on a buisness trip to Puerto Rico. She has sent us pictures of sitting by the ocean eating sea food. Ok...enough about her...she can get her own blog. Here's the Party animal.

Sunday- I took Cindy to the airport at 5:30am came home went back to bed (went to Mass Saturday nite...everyone was wearing red...Huskers were playing late game at UCLA...Huskers played terrible-lost-sad-but not part of this blog) got up at noon (still Sunday)  watched football rest of day and late game-stayed up way too late.

Monday- went to work-went to the YMCA after work-came home cooked rice and chicken-watched Monday Nite football double header(can you say that about football?) stayed up way too late.

Tuesday-went to work-went to the Y-came home cooked noodles and chicken-no football-went to bed.

Wensday-went to work-went to the Y-came home cooked rice and chicken-no football-went to bed.

Thursday-went to work-went to the Y-came home cooked noodles and chicken-watched college and pro football..yea-stayed up way too late.

Friday-went to work-went to the Y-came home cooked rice and chicken-no football-went to bed.

Saturday-got groceries-watched Huskers win yea-cleaned house-watched more football-mowed yard-watched more football-blogging now-will watch more football-will pick wife up from airport at 8:20pm-make popcorn-watch more football.

Isn't life great?

7- Not So Quick Takes

 

     So Ashely and Dene' are pretty good about blogging...and the 7 quick takes "thing" seems to work pretty well if you would just sit down do it. Which obviously I haven't gotten the hang of yet. So here are seven quick takes which aren't really quick or timely...and maybe not 7...cheater...cheater!

1. I took Cindy to the airport this morning as she was leaving on a business trip to Puerto Rico. More specifically Humacao...and yes we checked the hurricane status...Leslie tropical storm and Michael hurricane all North and moving North. We bought an Ipad for Cindy to travel with so she can watch movies, listen to music, play games and video chat with her husband...did I say this was a business trip :) To be fair (and truthful) Cindy is the hardest and most conscientious person I know. (and she might read this blog :)



love the hat..love the kid!

2. Speaking of Michael, we enjoyed Ashley and Alex and Michael and Liam (present not yet born) visiting this summer on their way to ND.







 

Woohoo...I just taught dad how to color

 

 

  3. We went to to the Hills in July. There is nothing better than spending time with Family! (and fishing in the hills :)




4. Renovations: we took the last of our wall paper down and pulled the rug up out of our bedroom.

We have been blessed with hardwood floors thru out the house

such an artist

 

 

If you drain a waterbed and let it sit for 2 months plan on getting a new mattress...I'm just saying



on goes a new shine

 

 

5. Our deck has been slowly falling apart and the squiralls have been eating it. This project I hired out. I was tempted to do it myself if I had the next 6 months off and the expierence...I did not have either.



Old deck

 

Old deck going away

new deck

 

 6. We went to Dubuque IA for Labor day weekend. Really enjoyed our time with Dene' and Tyler and yes Frannie. Went for several walks by the great Mississippi. Went to Illinois to a little town called Gelena. A little tourest town with some really fun shops. And what would would a visit to Dubuque be with out a soccer game...go Duhawks! We are so proud of Tyler and Dene' for their work in minisrty with the young people!

7. This wasn't really 7 quick takes...but I do love you Ashley and Dene'...and my Family...and the love of my life Cindy!

 

Seven Frannie Takes

Guest blog by Cindy.  Idea stolen from Ashley (or rather, conversationdiary.com).

1.  Frannie thinks she's a bear.  Or a stallion.  She rears up on her back legs before attacking the spot in the grass where her prey last was.

2.  In bear mode, Frannie can jump up the squirrel's tree where her back paws are two feet off the ground.

3.  More often though, Frannie thinks she is sled dog and that she has to pull us.  Especially when a squirrel or rabbit has reminded her that she likes to hunt.  My shins have finally healed (Mike says gotten in shape) and only occasionally bother me on a walk.

4.  Frannie pretty much has no use for other dogs and would rather ignore them than acknowledge them.  Yesterday she got really excited about one that was not much bigger than a squirrel and wanted to engage.  We thought it best not to see what she had in mind.

5.  Frannie has started pooping every walk, not just twice a day.  (Sorry, D&T, don't know what changed.)

6.  Frannie doesn't like thunder or fire works and crawls under the bench in her bedroom (aka, Frannie jail, aka our entry way with a gate).

7.  There is a limit to how much Frannie wants to cuddle.  Yesterday she left me and went to lie down on her own while I was still in cuddle mode.

Your Not My Real Owners

My best side.

My name is Francis but you can call me Frannie. I'm having a pretty good summer so far...but I've seem to have lost my owners. My real owners that is. We took a road trip to this place and they dropped me off and left...then came back...then left again. I'm told they're coming back to take me to Alabama...I don't know where that is but I do remember Rudy. 

Here are my real owners...don't they look sad?

 

Here I am at Christmas...I'm the short one.

I'm not saying I don't like this new human family I'm with but they're not my real owners and they have alot of rules I'm not use too. They call me their "practice dog" so I just call them my "practice owners".

One strange rule is when it's time to go for a walk they make me "sit" first. I LOVE WALKS and there are these amazing SQUIRRELS and BUNNIES to chase and I've been cooped up all day and I really have to "go" and they want me to SIT...are you crazy...I can hardly stand still let alone sit...I want to jump on you and lick your face...come over here and let me give you a hug!

 And I have my own room with my bed and food and what do they do to keep me in but put up a baby gate! I'm a dog! They call it "dog jail" which they think is pretty funny. What do they think I'm going to do...go sit on the leather couch...:)

I want to speak to my lawyer

.

Finally walk time.

 

These squirrels and bunnies around here look delicious...now if only I didn't have this leash slowing me down. The rabbits are really quick. I sneak up as close as I can then break out into a sprint. OK...this is really dangerous...part of the time I'm afraid of yanking the arm off my practice owners...and then there has been a couple times when I just got up to speed and wham! end of leash...and I'm flying 180 degrees around in the air...that was great! There was this one time that I saw a rabbit on the other side of a tree and I took off after him. The rabbit ran around the tree twice before taking off across the road...I was in close pursuit until twice around the tree and my leash just kept getting shorter and shorter I almost smacked the tree...that was great!

 

Be afraid...be very afraid.

 But last nite we took such a long walk I was pretty beat near the end. I was just kinda day dreaming that I was back home with my real owners not really in hunting mode when all of a sudden there was a squirrel sitting by the sidewalk not even moving. I sprang straight up in the air in surprise then pounced on him before he could get away. Much to my shame it turned out to be a stuffed bear. Man that was embarrassing... I hope no other dogs were watching.

Amazing story I know.

Long walk...zzzzzz

For some reason my practice owners think I like being free in this big backyard. I much prefer taking walks which I am restrained by a leash and can't go as fast or as far as I want or even choose the direction. It doesn't make sense to me either.



Can I come in yet?

Is there anybody home?

So for a dogs life mine is not too bad...sleep eat and walk...and dream of catching a squirrel.

But these are my people.



I miss my real owners...whoa! SQUIRREL!

Bed and Breakfast

                              Announcement to all famly members...the Mike and Cindy bed and breakfast is open and available. Come one..come all!

          If I could do anything all summer long it would be host family here! (And go fishing in the Hills.) Mom and Dad came down this spring and timed it to be here first with Ashley and Michael then Dene' and Tyler. (Disclaimer for Dene' and Tyler...another blog to follow...no we don't love your sister more :)

I confess Cindy and I pray for a cold wet Spring in the Hills to draw Mom and Dad down here for as long as we can get them. And I'm sorry (not really) if any complaints about them being missed back home fall on deaf ears here...you'al have to share. And thankfully the weather was rather nice...70s to 80s and dry while I kept a close watch and reported the rain and 30s-40s in the Hills.

Bird watching was a major activity here and Dad was right in there with the best of us. I found an owl living in a box I didn't even know I had in one of the trees in the back yard.

Here is a picture you don't see everyday. Dad giving us lessons on bird watching.

Even Michael was getting into it. Ok this is really a plane for which Michael has a fascination.

We enjoyed relaxing in the yard. 

We played outside alot.

Drink time 

Bath time

Here Michael is reading me one of his favotite books.

Michael got his first hair cut.

  

 We went to the zoo in Omaha.

Here I think Michael is telling his Mom how he likes to swish the water around when they share the water botttle

 I have to say that after Ashley and Michael left I missed my grandson. Cindy would tell you that I moped about for days after they left...let me tell you the moping hasn't stopped.

Yes...it is still Winter

  We received only the second real measurable snow of the Winter but it was a good one. Official measurement was 11.1 inches but it was more like 13 inches in my yard. It pruned quite a few branches off our trees and alot in town. Our tree on the patio lost 3 pretty big branches. It did blow in some Cedar Waxwings that I have not seen in town before. The snowfall was the 4th largest for a 24hr period here in Lincoln...ever...please no laughing from family up North.






Our house from up the road.

   


Back yard...alot of the branches bent but did not break.




This was across the street.





Looking out the back door.




Our tree nearest the kitchen took the biggest hit but I think it will survive.




Lilac bushes pretty crunched...I did go out and knock what snow I could from the trees and bushes.



Cedar Waxwing



I call this "Going Cold Turkey". Cindy was very happy I kept the turkey outside and did not cook a real one for the Super Bowl.