Memorial Day……

Today we take the time to take pause and remember those brave men and women who have given their lives in the service of our Country.

Remember always, freedom is not free. And the freedoms we enjoy are the gift of those brave souls who have given their all for them.
Today we remember those who gave their lives….known and unknown but to God. Thank God for them all. May He Bless them and may He continue to Bless this great Country of ours!
God Bless America!
Tommy+

Restlessness……

Well it is the end of the day and I feel restless. There is something unsettled in my spirit, and I am not quite sure of what it is. My son has graduated, and my wife’s birthday has come and gone, but there is something that seems to be burning deep within me that is calling me to pay attention. I am not quite sure of what it is, but I will take note of it and take it to heart.

I did attend a wonderful service this morning in Nashville, Indiana where I installed 5 fully trained candidates into the office of Parish Chaplains. It was an exciting time and a real blessing to me. I was in the midst of the “mother of all headaches” at the time, yet something about the day really had me feeling good. On my way to Christ the King in Kokomo I was able to find myself a Nurse Practitioner at a Walgreen’s clinic on my way there who informed me that I had two ear infections (thank God I only have two ears) and a sinus infection and prescribed me some antibiotics. I feel TONS better tonight, although I wish I had seen her two days ago.
But the bottom line is that I am home, in bed, and all I have to do is work for my wife tomorrow. I am well aware of my unsettled spirit, and will ponder that all day. Keep me in your prayers however…….I am paying attention.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless.
Tommy+

Happy 35th Amanda……

Yep, today is my wife’s 35th birthday and we had a small get together for her tonight. The cake was a vintage Dairy Queen ice cream cake, and the presents from the kids and I all revolved around the theme of her new garden. She got the most excited over her new compost bin which explains a lot about why an attractive young woman like her would marry me. And I will leave it at just that.

But now the party is over, the kitchen is again clean, and we can get back to allowing Amanda the opportunity to feel old. 35, to her, is the new 60. 35, to me, is but a distant memory. 35, to most people, is just 35.
So for now we are just thankful for the day. Tomorrow she will be out to test out all that new stuff, and maybe, just maybe I can come to grips that there is a big garden in my backyard which we are apparently supporting.
There just may be a lot of salad in my future…..
Goodnight my friends and God Bless! And Happy Birthday Amanda!
Tommy+

Congratulations graduate…….

Tonight I had the great pleasure of seeing Scotty graduate from high school. Not that I could really see, since he marched in wearing my glasses, but I was thankful for that dark red shirt we bought last night to wear under his robe…..I could identify him from his collar.

After the ceremony I took back my glasses, and got a lot of great pictures in the dark. Graduations last a long time, and this was the largest class in Noblesville High School’s history. But this was not about me, it was about Scotty and the approximately 60000 other students graduating tonight. God bless them all, the world that they enter as adults is far different from the one I entered just 10 short years ago…..okay maybe longer.
But it was great to see him finish this part of his life. Of course it means another one is right around the corner, and he is looking forward to that for sure.
So congratulations to my wonderful son. I am so proud of you! College is just a few months away. It is hard to believe it all went by so quickly. Way to go Scotty….I love you!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

On the cusp of a manic weekend…….

It is going to be a very busy few days coming up, and before it begins I am already behind. I just want to survive until Tuesday!

Tomorrow, God Willing, Scotty will walk across the stage at Noblesville High School and graduate. It is a MASSIVE event with all the kids graduating, the gym is always too hot, and you can barely see your child graduate……but we would not miss it for the world! It is a great accomplishment, and not so much a finish line for him as a starting line.
Then, on Saturday, Amanda has a birthday. She will be 35 and will be depressed about it. I vaguely remember 35, and as I recall there was not too much to be depressed about anyway. But if she had good judgement she would be married to someone else, so I will let her be depressed. It however, is always a weird day.
There is stuff also to do on Sunday and Monday, although for the life of me I cannot remember what it is. I just know I will be a part of it. My life is often not my own, and that will be the case this weekend.
It will however be a weekend to remember, and I will be glad to take part in it all.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

In memory of a giant…….

Who? Mike T (Michael Treinen), that’s who! And today is the day three years ago he entered into eternal life. We of course still celebrate his life as if he were still here with us, and in many ways he still is. He however is most likely tipping one back among the Saints of God watching all of us here.

If you are from Noblesville you know all about orange. My lacrosse team still wears orange practice pinnies. The Michael Treinen Foundation will hold an alumni game on June 18th at Hare Chevrolet Field to raise funds and awareness so that other families will not have to endure that which the Treinens had to.
But even more than that, today my mind turns to a young man who died much too soon, but who in the short time I knew him taught me a lot about living life. He was a lot younger than me, yet his wisdom was beyond his years. And I was blessed to know him.
Words certainly cannot express the pain and sorrow that so many in our community felt during Michael’s illness and his passing. And no one could ever even imagine the pain of the Treinen family. But Michael’s legacy lives on, and lives in us. I think of him every time I see anything orange.
And today, on May 25th, Mr. Ben wears his only orange shirt. I tried to get mine on, but I looked like an obese Fruit of the Loom guy…….Michael would I am sure find that funny……but I decided to not give him that chance. I will wear it next year my brother….when I am buff! God Bless you my friend. We miss you!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

Zoom zoom right outta here………

Well that did not last long. Tonight we were able to sell and say goodbye to Amanda’s Mazda 6s sports car. It is a great car, and we loved it, but the fact that she told me the hybrid was currently getting 48 mpg made the pain less in us both. She is hard to impress, but she has been impressed with the hybrid. I suggested that we replace all our cars with them, and she seemed open to the idea. It would save a TON of money too. I have already driven 20,000 miles this year alone.

But the great news is that we have yet another free parking space here in our drive that will no doubt be filled up with some teenager’s car in but a moment. Our driveway is massive, but it always seems to be filled with cars. (We had six up till just a few hours ago.) But now there are just cars for each driver…Amanda, Tom, Steph, Scott, and Cassie. Lord knows however who may show up at anytime.
I am just thankful we were able to make this decision. My mother-in-law has driven a hybrid for years and has always been pleased with them. She is on her second. She walks and recycles and does all that stuff that my wife does….imagine that? So when we got the hybrid and my wife gave up her sports car and seemed to like it, she said she guesses she is kind of a “closet tree-hugger.” Nuts do not fall that far from the tree, but I love them both. They have taught me a lot.
So zoom zoom, bye bye Mazda 6s. You are a great car, and you will make that new family very happy I am sure. But as for me I am going to go put on a pair of earth shoes and eat a granola bar.
Oh, I will only do that in front of them. I am still a rebel……my non-hybrid car is a guzzler at 32 mpg……a real chick-magnet.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

No fly zone……..

Yep, I THOUGHT I was putting my wife on a plane yesterday afternoon for a business trip to Belgium that was supposed to last until Thursday evening, but it was not meant to be. She and parts of her team were flying into Chicago with just a 1 hour layover, but that seemed way too tight considering they had to transfer planes, airlines, and terminals. It however did not matter. Their plane sat on the runway in Indianapolis for that hour before even taking off, and then sat on the tarmac for another hour before arriving at a gate, then another hour at the gate before there were people who could get them off the plane. Needless to say, the weather all but closed down O’Hare, and the trip being cancelled, they had to rent a car to drive back home……I picked her up an hour from home at just before 1 in the morning. Yuck!

But there is a silver lining. Scotty graduates from high school on Friday, and we know she will definitely be here. There is another volcano spewing stuff in Iceland, and the last time that happened people were stuck for weeks. Her birthday is also on Saturday which means that will be a go, so I have to confess I was not too upset about the cancelled flight and trip. It does mean that I will have to be wrong for a lot more days than I have planned, but I have really grown accustomed to the criticism and supervision. I might have gotten into trouble without it.
So all of us are still at home and it is well with my soul. I am tired and a bit frazzled, but am thankful I will not be worried. Tomorrow is another day.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

Oh the humanity…..

Sometimes I just do not understand things…..things like why do I occasionally see seagulls in this part of Indiana, or things like why, oh why, can my son use the very same mower that I do, and the yard looks much better than my mow? I just do not get it, nor am I sure I want to.

Amanda told me that Scott thought I would not let him mow the lawn. I admit, I do love mowing, but it is not just my house and lawn, it is ALL OF OURS. So of course I said “yes,” although the result makes me wonder if it ought to be the last time. I hate it when they make me look bad, but honestly, I love driving up to the house and seeing the yard as he has mowed it. I am just happy that the camera on my phone is a piece of junk so you cannot easily identify him in the victory picture. (Though his dog is doing the victory roll) If Scott were just heavier and A LOT shorter I could just tell everyone it was me.
But soon he will be off to college and the lawn will just be mine, and apparently deteriorate considerably. We will all just have to live with it though. Mowing is a young man’s game and I am within 30 days of hitting 50!
I will next time just sit in a lawn chair with a beer or an iced tea and enjoy my transition to supervisor.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

Apocalypse not…….

It was kind of a wasted opportunity. Some lunatic predicted the world would end (a rolling end through various time zones at 6pm) but I wasn’t doing a sermon tomorrow anyway. You can bet your life on the fact that I would have not started writing one till after six though….just in case.

Of course the world is FILLED with lunatics, and not just the ones who make such crazy predictions, but the people who follow them too. Naive people invested their life savings into the belief that this nut was not one, but in the end, they are the ones that pay the price…..and a great one indeed. Predatory pastors (they are a sorry lot) give the good ones of us a bad name. I am sure this will be played as some sort of “miscalculation” as it was the last time (yep, he has done this twice). But please donate even more of your hard earned cash to get him a better calculator…..after all he just loves Jesus and is working for Him……right.
But it is not just this guy, we see it all around us……there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they are all around us. I is one of the reasons the work we do is so very important, vital in fact.
But there was indeed a smidgen of hope that I wouldn’t have to mow my lawn this week, so I guess that I will just have to buck it up and get at it. The Summer will be filled with sermons and grass…..as they all are. But I am not disappointed. If the world would have ended tonight my beloved Chicago Cubs would not be World Series Champions in the Fall.
And who would have wanted to miss that?
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+