Stephanie’s birthday is December 5th, and we always waited to put up the Christmas tree until after her birthday.  Of course Stephanie now lives in Missouri, and she will not only be there on her birthday, but I will be in Michigan.  To make matters even more complicated, she was very put off that the tree would be done without her, as Amanda and she commandeer that job every year.  So the tree was done today, and they both appear to be happy.

Well it’s official……we held our first big Thanksgiving dinner here at the house, as we had moved in just after Thanksgiving last year.  It was a wonderful feast too!  And the picture is not only of our table, but of the primary cooks, Amanda and Stephanie.  They did a great job, and at dinner we all were dressed casual except for Ben who wore a tie.  After all, someone needs to be the boss.

Amanda, as most of you know, is from Kansas.  Kansas is actually an Indian word meaning “land of those who over prepare.”  And sure enough, she lived up to her homeland.  Thank God five of us were college students and here till Sunday.  We will not need to leave the house.

But of course all of it means we can relax and enjoy the rest of the day.  My family is great, and I am thankful not just for them, but for the opportunity to spend the day with them.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  May this day, and this next year be full of many wonderful blessings!

God Bless you my friends!

Tommy+

Well the kids are all here and the last minute preparations are being made for a big dinner here tomorrow with all of them.  And of course with all the preparations going on, there was no way to possibly even cook tonight, so Ben and I took all the girls out for dinner!  (I am the old one behind the camera.)  We had a great time, only missing Scotty who was at band practice.

But tomorrow we will all be together and enjoy the day.  I am looking forward to it too.  It has been a great time so far.

Our eyes are all on the voting for the Santaslam too.  As of a few minutes ago Scotty’s band was only 11 votes ahead.  The other band with a lot of votes is a local nightclub band that is pretty popular.  We are just hoping Scotty and the guys can pull this off….. every vote in this clearly counts, so if you can go online and vote for “Cecil.”  They are band #17  Click HERE to vote for Cecil CLICK HERE!

Anyway, there is never a dull moment!  Everyone get some rest tonight and enjoy a day of blessings tomorrow!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Vote early, vote often!Just a note to say that my son SCOTTY is a drummer in a rock band and is in a CONTEST to open up for Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas in Indianapolis on December 5th.  He however NEEDS VOTES and if they win they are the band that opens.  It would be an incredible break for them.

Their band is names “Cecil” but I really do not know why!  I have some of their songs on my iPhone, and they are pretty dang good…..and I confess that as a child of the 70’s (no I was BORN in 61….I was a high schooler in the 70’s) that I love their music.

But Scotty isn’t just a drummer.  He is the musician at one of our churches too.  He plays all sorts of instruments, but has a passion for music and this is a real big chance for him and their band!  Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas are big stars, and to open for them at 18 years old would be remarkable.  Currently they are 50 votes in front of a local (and popular) nightclub band.  Ironically, not one of the members of Cecil can even get into a nightclub.

In one of my favorite movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an entire community comes to the aid of George Bailey, not because of anything other than his character.  Scotty is a good kid, and this is a big chance.  I encourage you to go to the link and vote for them.  The other band actually has the first video and Cecil the last….yet Cecil is ahead.  Let’s keep them there!  I have an out of town meeting that day I am willing to cancel and meet all of you at the Murat!

Give these kids a chance and let’s make Cecil the opening act.  Your vote today, and each day until the contest ends, will be all it takes.  And as for me, I will be eternally grateful!

Here is the link!

Scotty’s Band – Direct link

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Why is it that my weekly weigh-ins for Weight Watchers, as well as my birthdays, come about every 15 minutes, but Stephanie coming home for Thanksgiving seems to take forever?  I just talked with her on the phone and she WILL be home tomorrow before midnight, but I anticipate that going slower than a glacier.  I will wait because I have to, but few things get my goat (no I do not know what that means other than it is appropriate here) more than waiting for my kids.

Of course two of them are already here and all the time.  And it amuses me to see the two brothers anxiously awaiting their sister.  I bet they do not get into it (argue about anything) tomorrow night, but something always goes awry with siblings sooner or later.  Right now they all miss each other a great deal, but when there is just one piece of white meat turkey left, Steph will have seniority, Scott will be the strongest, and who would want to disappoint the little brother?  In truth, none of them will care and we will see it…..although it will be about something else because I am old and I am the one who deserves it.

And Steph is also bringing two of her housemates with her, as they live in Maryland and will not be heading home.  It will be great to have ALL of them here, and I know Amanda is just beside herself about being able to host a big Thanksgiving here.  (we normally go to my dad’s, but he is in prison…..oh wait, I mean he is at his in-laws) (and no, it was just a joke…..they are delightful people and in NO WAY was I comparing them to a Warden and staff……my wife is really the Warden, just ask her!)

So this Thanksgiving will be quite different.  I will be hosting, and not hanging at my dad’s.  I will not head home and make a trip out to see my mom at the nursing home or call my grandma.  But I will celebrate my thankfulness for their genetics by hanging with their grandkids.

I can’t wait…….but of course I will have to.  Time is dragging!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

It is just 8:30 pm, although it feels like midnight, and I am in bed typing unsure if I will ever go to sleep again.  I took a nap this afternoon with the intention of it being a short one…..going down at 2 with the alarm set for 4 so I could watch the Bears’ game.  Apparently you need to take your phone of silent for the alarm to go off.

So the bottom line is that I was up just shy of 6, and in addition to the Bears’ game, I was going to bleach our tile floors on the main floor in preparation for Thanksgiving.  They are nice floors, and we had them professionally done by “Stanley Steamer” in May for $450, but that lasted 15 minutes (I would not recommend it).  So I did it myself tonight after my “more than lengthy nap” and it looks great…..plus it was for free.  AND the added benefit is that my family will collect all that insurance money from my dying from inhaling all that beach.  I am certain they will find the turkey easier to swallow as they are talking about their planned Caribbean “grief-vacation.”

So yes, I am a bit loopy and all I smell is bleach, but I am in bed ready for the coroner.  But sadly for all of them, I will probably live through the morning and even through Thanksgiving.  And although I am certain everyone will make comments about the turkey, no one will mention the floors.  So it is with my life.  But I do not do it for the praise, I do it because I am afraid of my wife!!

Tonight’s picture is of she and Ben reading a bedtime story in HIS BED……where I anticipate, despite my hard work, I will wake her up in the same outfit at 6am tomorrow morning!

My life is screwed up….but at least our floors are clean!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I would like to say that I am completely prepared for tomorrow, but I have to confess I have everything done but my sermon.  I have had a busy day, but a great one…..I just didn’t have time to get everything I wanted to get done finished.

I began the day with breakfast in Kokomo with my former Bishop and good friend Doc Loomis.  It had been a while since we had been together, and it was a real blessing to spend some time with him.  He will be making his Visitation with Christ the King in Kokomo tomorrow (on Christ the King Sunday, imagine that!).  Christ the King is a Church that we planted some years ago, and I pray it is a wonderful celebration!

Unfortunately for me, I will not be a part, meaning mainly that I am going to have to have a sermon for the two services I will be doing tomorrow.  I am not too worried though, as it is just 9pm, and I still have plenty of time.  It however, will have to come in the morning.  Amanda is spent and already in bed. Scott is out with his band, and Ben has been in and out of our room trying to talk his way into our bed.  (There is always some crisis-oriented reason).  The bottom line however is that it is doubtful that I will get any more done tonight.

So it is into temporary “retirement” I go, which is another way of saying I can no longer work and will run interference to make sure he doesn’t wake up his mom.  It will be a disaster if he does, so it is choosing the good portion for sure. He however is plenty of entertainment.  I just want to keep this a comedy and not some sort of tragic ending thriller for me!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Mercy, I am tired, although not as tired as my wife.  We picked her up at 5pm from the airport where she flew in from Belgium. (Yes, I know, and are her arms tired.)  But to her, the time was 11pm as we she had been in the country of Van Damme all week.  (He’s the muscles from Brussels)  so she was beat.

Of course my day had been no picnic.  Ben refused to leave my side as today was Friday and he didn’t want to miss the trip to the airport. (As if I had often left him behind….)  And it had been a hectic day as well, but I seemed to have all my ducks in a row as I left.  And this was a big thing too, as ducks are really not all that compliant.

So we took an hour drive to pick her up at really the worst time to drive through Indy, Friday afternoon at rush hour.  It took us well over an hour, but the good news was we were able to get her on time.  St. Patrick’s was holding a wine and cheese party at 7 in Noblesville, and of course it was still rush hour.  And yes, it took us the rest of the time to drive up there.

Yes, I am whining, but the great part was after we arrived I was then wine-ing, and I had a great time.  I am not sure however about my wife………..I just carried her in and propped her by the door until we left.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

That’s right, today I was a witness to a crime, and I am torn as to what to do about it.  About 3pm I was driving down Park Avenue about two miles from home when I saw it.  It was an amazing feat.  A panicked brown squirrel darted in from of my car from the corn field to my right with a cob of corn as big as he was.

I think he was worried about me as if I were the farmer or predator of some kind, but I was driving my wife’s 2003 Civic Hybrid which in my mind would have made me look like more of some kind of animal activist.  I was not armed, not even hungry, let alone for any type of rodent.

But it was really very funny.  He was running away with his “loot” and although it technically was not his, I decided to let him go as I was not sure whose field it was anyway, nor could I identify him in a line up.  I have about a dozen squirrels who live in my yard that I feed, and if it is not the baby one that lives in the woodpile, I would not know one from another.

So I will turn my head at this one, not out of apathy, but out of sheer respect for his guts and determination.  I have laughed all day about it, and I do hope he enjoys it.  I feed my squirrels peanuts, and will be spreading an entire bag for him to give him some variety in that general location, sometime before the weekend ends.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Today was a pretty good day, but one that in the end was hard to deal with.  I suppose hard is not the right word, but I found myself in a place that I wanted to do something, yet the reality was that I couldn’t. I have been in this same spot before, yet I do not remember how I handled it, so I have come to the conclusion that I just grieve and hand it back to God.

I just have felt the need to pick up the phone and call my grandma, like I have so many times before, but I then remember that she has gone home to heaven.  I guess it was always such a natural thing to do, but I miss the conversations and I miss seeing her.  My mom and I never talked like my grandma and I did, plus my mom’s mind was lost to Alzheimer’s years ago.  There is just always something so assuring about my grandma’s voice.

Oh, I can still hear it, I just miss being able to chat.  I always felt great after talking with her, and I really never had a poor memory of anything with her.  She was a giant to me, as was my grandpa, and I guess I feel a bit untethered without them both.  I always knew this time would come, they even told me, but somehow I feel so poorly prepared.  It’s as if a bit of my foundation has been taken away.

Of course I know that is not true, but it sure does feel that way.  And someday I too will walk with my grandchildren in this life and the whole thing will come full circle.

I just have to live it, but I don’t have to like it.  She was such a blessing to me, and all I want to do is to just talk with her on the phone.

It will have to wait.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+