Category: random thoughts

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just a normal day

nothing very exciting happen today and i don’t really have anything very unusal to discuss in the blog.

i did take hero, my dog, with me to church today to help me do a chapel for the preschool at church. you just can’t go wrong with bringing a dog to a lesson for a bunch of 3 to 5 year olds. i’m not sure if they will remember much of what i said a week from now but they will remember hero. it’s kind of funny, even the adults who saw him started smiling and talking to him. i think it’s the fact that people just don’t expect to see a dog inside a church that gets them smiling. it’s kind of like bringing them a surprise. everybody likes surprises – well except for the surprise of a policeman turning on his lights behind you – but other surprises people like. i did try to encourage hero to go and “mark” jim wallce’s desk (our minister ofeducation) but he didn’t seem to want to do it. i thought it would have been funny….”hey, what’s this wet stuff on my desk? and why does it smell like amonia in here?” alas, it is not to be.

i spent the evening setting up for “the view” tomorrow. we try to do something slightly different each week or so. tomorrow we are doing “worship in the round”. this means that we sit everyone in a circle with the band in the center, rather than a traditional band in front set up. it involves alot of video and powerpoint, which takes a while to set-up, thus the late night for me. of course, we’re changing the “wroship in the round” concept up a little by going full band LOUD rather than the soft contemplative music that most people think of with “worship in the round”. i do wonder why we call it “worship in the round”. why not call regular worship “worship in the rectangle?” or set up a “worship in the trinagle?” maybe i could get heor involved andwe could have “worship around the dog.”

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the taste of the south

i’m boiling peanuts tonight. 🙂

here’s how you can join in the fun.

ALABAMA BOILED PEANUTS RECIPE – FROM WWW.COOKS.COM

2 lbs. fresh raw peanuts in shells (available in many supermarkets in the fall)
3 tbsp. salt or to taste (robert here – i actually use more salt and i’m making 3 lbs not 2 – i’m placing in a little over a 1/3 of a cup of salt)

Wash peanuts well. Place them in a huge cast iron pot or the biggest pot you have. Pour in enough water to almost fill the pot. Add salt and stir.

Cover and cook over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat only enough to prevent water from boiling over. Add water as needed to keep peanuts under water. When adding water, increase heat to high until peanuts are boiling again.

Boil for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Test to see if they are done by spooning out a peanut, cooling briefly, opening the shell and biting into one. Boiled peanuts should be soft, not crunchy or hard.

Drain, rinse well and cool slightly before serving. Store in plastic bags in refrigerator or freezer.

now go and do likewise. 🙂 real men boil peanuts.

on a different note, i found out today that mike yaconelli died thursday, october 30 due to injuries received during a automobile accident. though i only had the opportunity to meet him twice his writing and thought had a huge influence upon the manner in which i view ministry. yaconelli is truly a man after GOD’s own heart. his zeal for GOD was sometimes scrary for people (myself included in that), but always challenging. though i know he is presently having a blast in the presence of his CREATOR, he will still be missed around here.

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the battle for gettysburg

thursday had a grey, somber sky which foretold a day of carnage and pain. this was the day that either the terrells or the bush/yellow jacket axis would win the war. i approached the battle with a slight amount of fear. after all , i had twice suffered the pain of stings for broaching on the bush’s territory. yet, this was land that must be reclaimed for the terrell household. i decided i would start my attack slowly and hold back on some of my ammunition of raid. i hit the bush with a pole trying to confuse it and then immediately start an insecticide carpet bombing to generally soak the area with anti-yellow jacket poison. alas, my enemies were to smart for this tactic and stayed in their cover. i knew i would have to take a more aggressive approach and therefore i went and stepped all around the enemy azalea bush. immediately, the stinging fighters flew out for the bush’s defense. i ran in fear and then turned to spray the onslaught of insects. they fell quickly as the poison entered their systems.

it was at this point that i felt a good taunting was in order. i insulted the insect’s mothers. i made fun of the bush. i referred to them as the rejects and losers of the natural world. it was an impressive display of ridicule. sadly it did not achieve it’s desired result. instead of breaking the spirit of the insect tormentors, it merely egged them on and they began their second attack. this time their anger had been stirred and they came at me with a vengeance. it was at this point that i ran tail tucked between my legs inside my house.

i was dejected. i knew that i would never be able to defeat this bush/yellow jacket union. i was ready to give up. in fact, i would have given up if it had not been for noah, my youngest son. the boys knew i had been engaged in battle. they had in fact been standing at the window watching as the engagement took place. noah asked why i had come inside. i told noah i had come in for safety. his response, “you have to face your fears, dad. now go outside and face those fears.” (i promise he said this).

well, i couldn’t let my son down. i ran to my closest and wrapped myself from head to toe in clothes. i was now armored and ready to face these psycho insects. i went to the bush and stomped all over it laughing and calling it names the entire time. i turned around and started spraying every flying thing i could see. they went down quick, but for every one i killed another one came out of the hole. i went through one can and reached into my jacket pocket for the second can. by now i had finally discovered where the entrance of the nest was. i began to spray the entrance with the precious poison found within my can of raid. it had it’s desired effect and lowered all the dreaded insects.

with it’s defenses down the bush went quickly. the final stage of the battle was done in less than a minute. 5928 gettysburg is now safe from the dangerous yellow jackets and their benefactor the azalea bush.

viva la gettysburg!

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lazy

sorry to have disappointed my two loyal fans (hey mom, hey dad) and not have written anything in the blog but i’ve been away on a church staff retreat until tonight and therefore i haven’t been able to type anything in the blog. i haven’t forgotten about the yellow jacket situation. it’s just that i haven’t taken care of the problem yet and i feel as though i shouldn’t write about that until i have solved the situation. it will be solved by thursday night because that bush and all it’s small flying friends are going down.

the retreat was very good. i can’t really write about any of the stuff discussed during it but it was still good. two things are worth mentioning. 1) bill pruitt found a tennis racket type electrical device that i believe to be a hand-held electic fly swatter. this proved to be quite enjoyable for me but not for any of the other people around me who for some reason kept getting zapped by the thing. 🙂 2) we went to a resturant monday night that listed on it’s menu a “buttload of wings”. i asked the waitress how big a “buttload of wings” was but she didn’t have a very definate answer. i guess it depends upon who’s butt it’s being measured by. i thought the whole thing was very funny. the waitress apparently didn’t. i think she spat in my food.

now, i will stop avoiding working on my chapel message and get back to work. good night all.

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what did i say

today i filled in for three out of four parkview high school bible teachers. i taught the classes as a group. it was fun but i learned something. i am not meant to be a school teacher. don’t get me wrong i love teaching. i get to do alot of it. i love to study for the lesson, prepared the lesson, and give the lesson. yet doing this within ministry is different. i don’t have to teach the same lesson 6 times in one day. i teach the same lesson twice at most. i might preach the same message three times but that’s very unlikely. today, subbing for the bible teachers i had to teach the same lesson six times. by the end of it i was boring myself on a subject that i like very much. i loved preparing this lesson and it was fun being with all the students but there is no way i could do that every day. if i had to teach the same lesson six times every day i’m afraid i would go absolutely crazy and start slobbering and such. after around the third time of doing the lesson i began to forget which points i had made in which classes and what stories i had told to illustrate what point. it all began to run together and get very confusing. i think i now understand better why my high school teachers shouted all the time…they were stark-raving mad from teaching the same lesson all day long. i’m really surprised more teachers aren’t on very large doses of prozac.

while driving back from the parkview football game tonight (which was boring because they were killing their opponent) i saw a guy cutting his front yard. it was 9:40 p.m. and his riding lawn mower only had one working head light. this seemed really odd to me. i’ll have to drive by the guy’s house tomorrow and see if the yard looks any good. if he was able to do a decent job of mowing his front yard in the pitch black night then i may just have to stop and tell him that i am impressed. i figure if you have to mow your lawn at 9:40 p.m. on a friday night then your life is probably too busy.

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the last drop

i ate the last bowl of pam’s homemade chicken noodle soup today (making a total of 8 bowls in three meals). pretty much the highlight of a day that basically stunk except for the soup. of course, that is the beauty of good soup…it’s good food for stinky days. tomorrow better be a good one because i am out of soup.

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once again but with teeth

i ate three more bowls of pam’s homemade chicken noodle soup tonight. that’s some good soup. it’s the best chicken noodle soup in the world and i’ll wrestle you to detah if you disagreee with me.

last sunday while “those who shall remain nameless” (the praise band for “the view”) was practicing a guy came by the church looking for a little financial help to fix a fan belt. i was able to help him and he came back today to say “thanks”. that was great but during the week he apparently had his two front teeth pulled and they were missing today. i don’t have anything against people without teeth, in fact i hope one day to have lived to the point that i no longer have teeth and have joined the ranks of the world’s toothless population. with this said, i need to state here that it’s very odd to see a guy with teeth one day and then no teeth the next time you see him. i found myself staring at the gap in the gentleman’s smile. i couldn’t help it and the more i tried to avoid looking at his smile the more my eyes were locked on it. it would have been okay if the guy had not of been so happy and thankful and smiling, but no he had to continue to smile and show his gap proudly. i focused on it so much that i began to lose my thought during the conversation. it was as though the gap had a hypnotic quality. then of course, my mouth starting getting into the action and began to slip out “fruedian” remarks.

“i’m glad we could help, we really like to sink our teeth into people’s problems.”
“yeah, i know. sometimes life gives us more than we can chew.”
“yep, at the end of the month my check book has a big gap in it also.”

i couldn’t take it anymore, i was just standing there staring intently into the guy’s mouth. i finally just reached the point where i had to stare at the ground. of course, that pretty much ended the conversation. too bad to cause the guy was pretty nice, and he had a great smile. 🙂

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dare to be stupid

How To Fly
� by Douglas Adams

There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, [The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy] suggests, and try it.

The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt.

That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.

Clearly, it is the second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It’s no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won’t. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you’re halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss it.

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the test of fire

nothing funny today but a verse of scripture that has been stuck in my head for awhile.

12Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man�s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man�s work. 14If any man�s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man�s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15

have you done anything today that will survive being tested by fire? not sure about you but the have been quite a few days in which i’m not sure that i’ve done anything that would lst and be considered worthwhile. just want to encourage you, while i am also encouraging myself, to try to do something each day that will stand the test of fire.

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it’s chuckie therapy

some of ya’ll know that pam, my wife, is a speech pathologist. this means she has the incredible job of helping children and adults learn and sometimes re-learn how to communicate with the world around them. she does some fascinating stuff. awhile back she was telling me how certain individuals with various communication problems are able to communicate better with animals or puppets (for those who stutter or love someone who stutters you can relate this to the way so many people who stutter have a much more difficult time talking on the phone than they do talking in a one sided conversation face to face). the biggest problems they face are with talking with humans. because of this some therapist have started using animals and puppets with very young individuals to get them focused on learning to communicate. pam read about therapists who did their therapy through puppets and the children would communicate with the puppet and basically forget that what was going on was actually therapy – i know this sounds a little odd but if it helps a child to be able to talk and interact with his/her world then i am all for it.

being the great speech pathologist that she is pam decided to give this whole thing a try. she order a puppet and had two children picked for a trial run with the whole thing. the first test of the therapy was today and it met with less than stellar results. when pam started talking through the puppet it did not help her two subjects to communicatebetter. they did not find it easier to talk with the puppet than with pam. no! the puppets simply scared the crud out of both of her test subjects. instead of opening up to the world around them each child stared wide-eyed, slowly backed away form the puppet, and then hide in the corner of the room whimpering about the crazed little person that was coming after them. so much for puppet therapy. now these two poor kids have to go through psychotherapy to chase away the nightmares of the killer puppets within their speech therapy. chalk one up for modern science.

okay, here’s my disclaimer. pam is amazing at what she does. i can’t tell you the numbers of people who can now talk because of what GOD does through her. she blows me away. she just told me this story today and we both laughed about the humor of the puppets not only not helping but actually scaring the kids. she knows i put the story in the blog, so i’m not talking behind her back. she’s great … even is she does terrify small helpless children.