Tonight the Lady Millers Lacrosse Team took the field at Covenant Christian High School for our season opener. It begins my third year as the Head Coach, and it is looking to be an exciting year. We played very well from beginning to end, and every single player was able to take part in a 17 – 2 victory!

Of course there are a ton of games to go, and I learned a long time ago, first as an athlete and now as a coach, that you take one game at a time. Tonight was a Varsity game only, but by the end of Saturday night we will have played 4 additional games, 2 Varsity and 2 JV. And from there it will be a constant blur of games until the State Finals on May 23rd. We, like every team in the state, hope to be there.

But it was great to finally get here. The last time we were scheduled on the Covenant Field I was our season opener in 2008. I was in the hospital following my stroke, and one of our assistants and two of our men’s team coaches guided the team to a victory. I thought about that a lot tonight…..how thankful I have been and am for the support of many friends, and how thankful I am to the Lord for the opportunity to walk out onto that field myself.

Everyday is indeed a gift, and I am blessed with each one of them. Win or lose, it is a privilege to live this life. I thank God for today, and if it is His Will to let me see tomorrow, I will thank Him for that as well!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

It is good to be a dog…..at least it is good to be Viper. Though all of us were scrambling to keep up with the day, Viper spent the day at the “spa” so they say. He got a bath, a grooming, lots of attention, and then some treats. To make matters even more pathetic, Amanda made sure he got a new dog bed to boot. I guess being all gussied up in no good if you have to sleep on the clean carpet in the house.

The sad reality is that Viper couldn’t care or not whether he was in a dog bed or not. If it were a bed of nails, he would be on his back with all four feet in the air snoring. He is a smart boy though. He has been on this new bed a lot, particularly when Amanda has been walking by. He knows which side his biscuits are buttered on, (to force a cheesy expression into the dog world) and he has been exploiting it all night long. I am thinking he likes the days she emerges from migraines…..she is a little loopy and much easier to deal with if you are a shedder…..not a problem I have with my military style haircuts.

So it is off to bed for us both. Me on my old well worn mattress and Viper on the Royal Pillow. I hold no grudges against him though. I would not mind be spoiled a bit myself.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I was scheduled to be out of town today, in Fort Wayne in fact, to join the Bishop with two of our congregations up there and to visit with a few candidates for ordination. Sadly, it was a day with an agenda that just wasn’t meant to be.

At 5am, as I was getting ready to leave, Amanda shared with me that she was getting a migraine and that she had already had the lower does of the medicines we keep here to stave them off, but that she wanted me to get the rest. She told me she thought I should still go to Fort Wayne, but this was not my first rodeo. She rarely takes the full home dose, and these times often turn into trips to the ER for shots. PLUS, we live in a house with a 2 YEAR OLD. She was already complaining about the light and the noise (when neither were that bad) so I made the decision right then to stay home. I still had to wait a few hours before notifying anyone in Fort Wayne because they were still sleeping, but the blessing was that I was already scheduled up north so there wouldn’t need to be any reshuffling down here. All our churches were already covered.

So the day has been quite odd. Ben and I have spent the entire day together and his energy would have done his mom in, (and had I left me, via homicide when I got home) but we have had a good day. There was no milk here, so I was able to take him on a late morning trip to the Kroger. I learned a few things too, such as everyone shops on Sunday morning at Kroger…..so I may be planting a church there. But we did get what we need and Ben has eaten and worn a LOT of sugar free pudding and other things to keep his mind off his mom sleeping upstairs.

And Amanda never did need the shot, and she did come down for maybe 15 minutes and ate before disappearing upstairs. Being awake 15 minutes in 24+ hours may seem a bit worrisome to most, but to people in the families of migraine sufferers, we all know that is means she will probably be back among the living tomorrow! She will be slow, but moving.

The good part is that we have all survived the day. Praise God, it is almost over too!

Goodnight to you all my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+

Although I did not have a chance to see either of the first two games, I was able to see and hear just part of this afternoon’s 2nd round game where my beloved Butler Bulldogs beat the Murray State Murrays…..or is it Murrae? I was never any good at languages. (Actually I was an athlete, so I was able to test out of Greek and Hebrew by mowing the coach’s lawn….but I digress.)

What bothers me VERY MUCH is the fact that I tuned into the game with 2:21 left and down by 3! I used to get all juiced up by the close ones, but you know now at 48 I can do without them. All the ads for men my age are about Viagra and Rogaine. “Make sure your heart is healthy enough for sex or can hold a comb over your head without fainting.” But they ought to add, just sit on the porch and a few hours after it is over we’ll come tell you how they did. In truth, though I may think my heart is healthy enough to handle it, I could feel it in my chest. Why when I coach close games I never get chest pain or anxiety, but put a team of guys I have never met on the floor playing for my Alma Mater and I apparently can turn it into a cardiac event.

I suppose I shouldn’t worry. In just a few weeks we will be National Champions and I will probably be on a LOT of Prozac and in rehab. But if March Madness wasn’t maddening, then it wouldn’t be March in Indiana.

Keep me in your prayers, as well as all Butler fans (including Jesus and all the angels, Archangels and such….Butler is BIG in heaven). We are going to need it.

Off to take my pulse!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

With lacrosse season kicking off, I get to see all of Stephanie’s games since I am the coach, but very few of Scott’s. I was able to see him play last night, but I will miss tomorrow and many of his others because of my schedule. It makes me sad sometimes. Ideally you would love to be at everything for all your kids, but I can only do my best. At just three months shy of 49 today, I can say without hesitation, it will be easier with Ben. Someone will just come up to me at the nursing home and tell me over my pureed dinner how I enjoyed the game, to which I will probably reply, “Ben who?” No no no….I will be there for games even then, and by that time games of grandchildren as well.

But today is really a day for celebration as well. This afternoon we were able to tour a church in downtown Indianapolis that I think we may be able to plant a new congregation in! It was a pretty exciting time today! The people we spoke to were so very wonderful, and we just pray that it will all work out. We have yet to plant a church inside Indianapolis proper, just all around it. This would be a major thing for us all!

But as for us tonight, I think I will sing a few upbeat songs to the dog and move him away from the dump truck. It was a great photo op, but Goldens are supposed to be happy, and he needs to be. I will sing his favorite song which is a remake of “How much is that doggy in the window?” It is called, “How much is that kitty in the window? Oh wait, who cares!” It was recorded my Shaggy and the Milkbones in the late 1970’s. He loves it, and who am I to deny him? So it’s off to sing!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Wow…..it was the best of days, it was the worst of days. I was upset with a bit of binge eating and since I was not at home today ALL DAY I continued to eat out of convenience rather than being able to get to what I needed to eat. It upsets me, but you cannot cry over spilled milk as they say. I can only control what I am doing now and in the future. I will have a good few days.

After practice this afternoon Ben and I headed down to Heritage Christian where our boy’s team was playing tonight. We won both games and Scott had a goal and a couple of assists in his, and it was a good time.

Of course I was there with a 2 year old, and that’s why we say apart and really had one full set of bleachers to ourselves. (The others were full of fans.) The players of mine that were there all said hi to Ben and I, yet I noticed none of them stayed with us, nor did any offer to entertain either Ben or I……smart girls, very smart. It is pretty awesome to see our boy’s and girl’s teams out supporting each other. Sure, some of them have to because they are dating, but generally they like to come to each others’ games.

But we were off by ourselves (in the next set of bleachers) drinking (Diet Soda) in isolation. People could watch the game without all the screaming and running, and we were able to see the game and play like maniacs. It was a lot of fun.

So the boy’s are into the games that count and we open on Tuesday, like them, away. We will take the same field on Friday night against Heritage and hope to fare as well. It is a great program, and what I like about many of our schools, we coaches are friends and actually, our girls are friends too. It will be an exciting evening.

So it is off to bed for me before I turn into whatever something this old turns into when it has done too much in a day. Ben has just had a bath and is talking a mile a minute……I hope he gives it up. I am clearly not too long for this night!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+

I really had a great day with my diet and was looking forward to weighing myself in the morning. I had anticipated breaking the 220 mark, which is huge for me, but instead I let the stress of the day call me down a bad path. It is an awful thing too. You know that you are doing it, but you have very little self-control. I will both weigh in AND post tomorrow. I just hope the damage is not too severe. I took this picture of myself in an attempt to share with others just how hard it is….obviously I look like hell.

I just need to get a grip I suppose. When I was an athlete, I worked through every problem. Now I seem to just make excuses and it is frustrating……I have seen the enemy and it is me! I have three weeks to go and clearly I will not make it unless I eat NOTHING ELSE and exercise the entire time. But the battle is not a time line, it is larger than that. I need to win the war and for good!

Anyway, I appreciate your prayers and support. I would like to be close to 200 by Easter. It would still be a big thing. But to get there I need to readjust…..and I am trying that now. Time will tell how I do, but despite my mistakes, I keep at it. I really do want to succeed.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+

Yep, it happened…..I finally missed a post after a long and healthy steak. I hadn’t intended to skip one, and as a matter of fact had worked a full day with every intent to post. But after an early dinner I laid down for what I intended to be a little rest (just after 6pm) and didn’t get up until the next morning. It is not a new thing to me, and happens occasionally. I just wish it would make an appointment to do so, because though my brain needs rest and sleep, the rest of me often has plans.

But today has been normal all day, well at least most of it that is. Meetings and then lacrosse. We have A LOT of girls sick or nursing injuries right now so it did not help when Stephanie came across the field towards me clutching her chest. We had he lay down and I had my phone out to call the paramedics, when she mentioned these pains to the doctor last week when she was in having him look at her knee (an x-ray was negative). He had told her something that she hadn’t bothered sharing last week, but she told us there on the field. And that, combined with her suddenly feeling much better, had us making different decisions. She was soon on a cart heading into the training room at the high school where there were people to assess her better, and then heading to the doc for an EKG (she passed) and tomorrow for an x-ray of her chest. She is not to practice till after being cleared next Monday, and she will heed that advice. Fortunately I was well rested or my head would have certainly exploded!

So Stephanie will help coach for the next week, and hopefully next Tuesday she can play in the season opener. Scott’s opener is Tuesday, and as you can see, Ben’s is a long way off. He apparently doesn’t even want to walk.

But I am so very pleased to just have survived the day. All that sleep was helpful to make it through. I used to think that a stroke damages your brain and often makes things harder, but today I was suspicious. Could it be mine knew I needed all that rest in advance? I don’t know. But I certainly like to entertain the thought that it might be secretly brilliant!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yep, today is done, but I feel like a dog, which when you raise Golden Retrievers is not a bad thing at all. They seem to enjoy life all the time, and tonight as I reflect upon my day I have to say I am feeling good….but like good old Viper.

It amazes me to look at him. He is just 6, but his face is all gray. It certainly didn’t get that way by stress or worry. Dear Lord, he sleeps about 23 hours a day, and I couldn’t even get him to stand up in the car to get his picture taken. He knows who he is, what he likes, and he does it. When we play, he plays, he is active and fast in the yard, but more than any of God’s creatures I have met, he knows what he likes and is comfortable just being himself. God sure knew what he was doing when He created the Golden Retriever.

I of course am not nearly as comfortable as he is, but I am learning by sitting at the paws of the master. I probably wouldn’t get as much done adopting his lifestyle, and my wife would probably notice all the sleeping…..BUT, there is much that a Golden can teach us. Here are just a few things from today I thought of…..

1. We can always be happy to see each other. 2. Make time for the tail wag (let others know you are happy with them) 3. We all need treats every now and again. 4.) You can always find a pillow, but you can also be a pillow to someone in need. 5. We can get along with those with whom we disagree, even cats. 6. Take time to go for rides, and be excited about them too. 7. Find you joy in even the small things. And even though I could go on (and on) 8, love your family, because you belong to each other.

Viper, Scott and I just got back from meeting PT at about 9:30, so the day is done and I will head to bed. I hope to just go to sleep…..I have tried that sleeping with all four limbs in the air thing that he does, but it just doesn’t relax me. I can learn a lot from him, but that’s where it stops. I try really hard to keep my wife’s attention, but I really think that would be going about it in the wrong way!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

And so it begins…..our first set of games on the big fields, and for many for their very first times. We played three shortened games today (they were to help certify refs for the league) and we won two and tied one. Not that that means anything at all at this point of the season, because it certainly does not. But it does a lot for building a team. You really cannot be a team without bonding to each other, and today was a good day to do just that.

Sadly, it was freezing cold and it rained all day. And just when you think you couldn’t get any wetter, the rain figured out how to. It was a mess, but thankfully we were on the turf field of our good friends, the Shamrocks of Westfield!

We really stood out in our bright orange pennies. (We are saving the uniforms for our opener on March 23rd). It’s not that we are big fans of Florida, or even citrus…..our pennies are a tribute to our Assistant Coach Mike T, who if you have been reading this some time was the 19 year old who was battling cancer, and who stepped forward to cover for me on the field when I was hospitalized with my stroke 2 years ago. Mike even rearranged his chemo to be at practices and games….not just with us, but with the boy’s team too where he had played through high school. Mike died the morning after being named the Assistant Coach of the Year by the boy’s league and right after we held a Mike T night where he was to take the team with me as his assistant. The pennies will never be enough to express what he means to us, but if you knew him you would say it was an appropriate tribute from perhaps the most aggressive team in the league!

In between the 2nd and 3rd games we headed over to St. Patrick’s to dry out the best we could and eat some lunch. Not all of the girls were there, but the picture gives you a good idea of what we are working with. They are a pretty good bunch.

But soon all the laughs and giggles and orange pennies will be put away and the school colors will be put on and the team will take the field. It is an awesome sight and I cannot wait. God has blessed me with some wonderful people in my life, and these girls are among them.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+