Amazing Grace my Chains are Gone!

I stumbled across this you tube video recently. It is such a beautiful rendition of this song. It also incorporates one of my other loves (sign language). To the best of my ability I have translated her signs:

"Hello my name is Jodi. I will try to sign the song 'Amazing Grace my Chains are Gone.' The Song is performed by Chris Rice (Tomlin). The song is about Jesus Christ. I have three dogs and apologize if they come and go. This is my first attempt at the song."



She signs at the end "sorry about the mistake." In her post she recognizes that she signed Chris Rice instead of Chris Tomlin who is the true performer of this particular rendition. I thought she did a great job for her first attempt. It makes me want to practice and learn more sign so I could do something like this.

Rat Poison

I was recently reminded of a talk I had heard a few months back explaining that rat poison is coated with an agent that tastes good. Causing the rats to engorge themselves on the poison unknowingly filling their stomachs with a toxin that would kill them from the inside out. It got me to thinking. What poisons do we consume unwittingly leading us to fill our bodies with toxic substances. Perhaps it is the lack of integrity that allowed us to keep the extra dollar in change we received. Maybe we told a lie to save face. Did we say an unkind word to a colleague. Do we sensor the media we allow into our minds? What shows are we watching that are lowering our expectations of marriage and our own morals. Is the music we listen to sending us the right message or are we allowing to what we listen the ability to warp our souls. Every time we compromise on doing the right thing verses doing the easy thing we swallow a little more poison. We allow ourselves to consume so much poison on a daily basis that we unknowingly are killing ourselves from the inside out. Perhaps we know that it is poison that we ingest, but we just cannot get over the lure of the taste of what looks so good. Does this mean we are doomed to be poison filled vessels? Not at all! I believe that through God's grace we are set free... By His Wounds we are Healed. God calls us to live a life of integrity. He warns that it will not be easy and that we will be persecuted, but great is the reward of those who follow after God's heart. We are not perfect nor could we ever get it right all the time, but oh to strive for it and to attain it on occasion. I want to be a person of integrity and filled with the Character that God would say "Well done Good and Faithful servant." How about you what poisons can you eliminate from your diet that would help detoxify your relationships on earth and with Christ. What toxins need to be eliminated so that you can live a life of integrity and Character?

Up North!

Over the fourth of July weekend we went up to the cabin. It was a lot of fun. We all drove together in the Impala. Some how we managed to fit Karie's and my luggage into the trunk with both of our golf clubs, a cooler a couple of small bags of moms and a couple of boat seats for dad. I was starting to think dad was Houdini with the "master" packing.

We spent the weekend just hanging out. We were able to head out onto the Lake to do some early morning fishing, some late afternoon fishing and for some relaxation time.

On Saturday we went to Uncle Ed and Aunt Michelle's for a great BBQ. It was nice to spend time with Denise as we do not get to see her much anymore now that she lives in Alabama. Mom and dad also cooked up a great grilled meal of steak and Norm potatoes for my B-day dinner. It was great. Dad also took Karie and I out to golf 9 holes on Sunday. Like I said it was a great weekend. I love spending time with the folks.

(Here is dad during our early morning fishing expedition).

Here is Karie staying protected from early morning winds.
Yep, that would be me... Mom spent this afternoon on the boat, reading talking on the phone and (don't miss this one) she also put bait on Karie's hook for her.
Here is Karie without any bait on her hook. I am not so sure, but I think if you are going to fish you should at least put your own bait on the hook. : )
Don't worry if you didn't believe me here is the photographic proof that Pooky put a leech on Karie's hook for her.
Here is dad showing us how it's done. He has a great Erie Deere method for catching Walleye and Northern Pike.Me again trying to jig a fish onto my line.
Here is Karie trying to catch the big one. She did pretty good job I think she caught two out of the three keepers on Friday morning. Sunday she also caught a few. We noticed though that a lot of the Walleye were just under the 15 inch requirement. That's okay we had fun catching them!

The waves and wind were pretty bad Sunday afternoon. Here is Karie trying to pull out the anchor. It was kind of cruel of me to stand by trying to take a picture when she was struggling, but the picture turned out pretty good and we eventually got the anchor in... I would call that win-win. : )
Here is mom reading, don't worry Karie and I sunscreened her really good this time... no burning allowed.
Here is dad enjoying some rest and relaxation!
I think we should go up north every weekend. I hope you all had a great fourth of July weekend as well.

LHWL Golf Outing

Well, here we are the 9 over par team of Pooky, Karie, Robin and myself.

Lots of fun was had by all. We had our shirts made to say "Tee Pardi."

Here is Pooky (mom) and Karie in their golf cart. They had some serious silly moments. I think Karie's driving was a bit frightening for mom.
Here is Robin and I in our cart. We were not as wild as the other two. Although we certainly were entertained by the antics of the other cart in our foursome.
If you know Pooky, like we do, you know that the hot dog at the turn was the best part of the day...
Here's Karie! She looks like a pro with her cool hat and golf shirt, right!
Robin was the muscle and the pro that kept us to the nine over. If left to our own skills we may well still be on the course. Thanks, Rico!
Sorry, folks this is why make up should be worn at all times by some of us. I hadn't slept well in a few nights and this is the look you get when facing exhaustion. I am almost as pale as my hat... how crazy. Oh, well I had fun anyway.
Isn't Pooky so cute. I love that she went out there and gave it her all. I know, now that she has a new bag, we are going to go out and practice more. Yeah!
Here is our power house hitter who won longest drive for the women. We were an awe at how far she could send the ball.

Here is Karie with her picture perfect swing!
Yup, I know... Maybe I am swinging a little too hard! This does not look exactly right! I did however make it just in front of the green with this swing... wrong club selection, but hey if the swing works...
Awe... Karie and I at the putting contest... neither of us were able to make it in the hole this year... we will have to work on our short game for next year.
Here we are on the last hole of the day... We were a bit tired, but we were still in great spirits. We had a lot of fun and I personally look forward to doing it again next year.
All the proceeds of the event, to the best of my knowledge, went to support the Lutheran High School Westland boosters club. Karie and I are both Alumni of LHWL. Pooky was a secretary at the school and Robin is the Coach and recruiter for the Concorida University Softball team where mom is the athletic administrative secretary.

MonaVie...

For our business partners, I decided to throw up some pictures of our first night trying the Active Juice. Who says us High "C" types can't be wild, crazy and a little silly...

Check out Karie's blog for info on her Biloxi trip (note: she is wearing a Biloxi shirt in these photos). http://azzo.blogspot.com/2008/03/biloxi-pictures.htmlWe probably should have started in the morning... we both look so tired.
Sorry, I like my Nascar mug... : )
The Taste is Great!

Brenda & Trevor's Wedding...

Team Stampede took Onaway by storm... to celebrate Brenda and Trevor's Wedding.

The first dance as husband and wife...
What a cute couple.
Hmm, Perhaps I need to work on giving folks some space... this picture got a little close.
Cutting the cake.
Grandma and Cheyenne
Brenda, Trevor and Tyra.
Trevor gives the guys a pep talk after a few failed attempts at catching the garter.
John politely reminds the brother of the bride that his daughter deserves a whole lot of respect.

Here are a few daddy daughter moments caught on film... John and Emily
Jon and Jessica
John and Heather.
Team Stampede had a fabulous time at the party... Here is Jon and Cari.
Celebrating their anniversary... John and Lisa.

John, Lisa, Heather, Johnny and Emily.
Mark and Sandy
Tami, Mark and their daughter
Brenda and Mando.
Dani, Trevor, Brenda and Karie.

Congratulations and God's Blessings to Brenda and Trevor.

Our St. Louis Trip...

It's hard to believe 6 months have come and gone... but they have certainly come and the certainly have passed. Karie and I drove down to St. Louis in late February for a leadership conference. We had fun going and coming as you can see below... We had the opportunity to meet up with our friends and mentors from Onaway. The trip was a blast and the speakers and information was phenomenal.

Here is a picture of Karie driving down, I believe I94. If you look closely you can see the tail lights sailing by on the other side of the highway.

Okay... My turn... Here I am (Fear Not -this was set on a timer)... I don't have three thumbs one was the drivers.
Karie and I discovered new energy drinks thanks to our up line. Here we are promoting them. By the way we are drinking "Rip it" at 9:30 at night since this is when we decided to drive down to St. Louis. We arrived at 6 AM the following day. We were a bit tired, but our excitement outweighed any exhaustion that may have been incurred.
"Mindy to Moses, come in Moses..." We had a blast following our mentors to St. Louis. We had two-way radio's. Our call sign was Mindy and theirs was Moses.
God was with us on our travels. We hit some slick and snow covered roads. Believe it or not about an inch of snow in St. Louis had several planes grounded all over the country. We were happy to be driving down the highway looking for adventure... God was with us and we made it safely to our hotel.
We did have to make a few pit stops for fuel and potty breaks. Here is a nice rest stop serenity picture. Who knew this kind of beauty resided near a rest area!
Not only did we stop at the rest area, but we saw how it got it's name... check out these big rigs... resting.
Here is Team Stampede... (Melissa, Karie and Brenda)
Al, Trevor and Bob.
Rachel, Ruth, Lamont, Wayne, Kent and Brad.
Wayne, Ruth, Lamont and Rachel
Karie, Debbie, Stan, Trevor and Melissa.

John, Trevor, Stan, Debbie, Melissa, Mark and Bob.
Lisa and Al.
Brenda says... "Because I said so!"
Sleep... Who needs sleep when you have excitement, friendship and leadership to learn.
Glowing with excitement!

Here we were ... learning and having fun at the Edward Jones Dome.
Team Stampede hanging out at the arch...
Cross line strategy session... shh, don't tell Jon and Cari...
Karie and I at the Arch...
That ended another great leadership event. We learned a lot. Dr. Rohm had some great information on personality. We love the new DISC model. If you did not know I am of the Cautious type which means I need answers and lots of them... if you can give them to be in a graph or a data sheet that would be preferred. Just kidding. The fun part is that Karie is my opposite, she is of the inspiring type. She of course has to have lots of fun. We make quite the pair. We also learned about commitment and being a person of your word... Thanks to Robert Dickie III. We do not need to worry about obstacles... we now know we can just smash 'em to smithereens with a frying pan. I'll give it a hya and ya ya, karate chop! Mentoring... wow phenomenal insights and information... I could go on and on, but that could take days. Next, time you should just go with us... Columbus here we come!