Rats, Part 6...The return.

So several weeks go by and not one rat. I actually by this time have somewhat developed a phobia about this whole thing. Finally, I have started to get a good nights sleep. Well I get up one night about 3am having to go take a whiz. I go to the bathroom next to our new bedroom, open the door turn on the light, and standing right there in the middle of the floor, on two legs with arms out, seeming to say come and give me a hug I missed you, is one of the biggest freakin rats I have ever seen. I FREAKED OUT to say the least. Immediately I shut the door to keep him in, and called to Tracy ever so softly, "Hey baby, can you go get my boots?" She rubbed her eyes and questioned me with a "HUH?!?" I said "Can you go get my boots?" "Why?" she asked. I told her about the rat, she got up, headed down the hall to get my boots. Here is where I got stupid. I opened the door. I am still not sure why I did it, but Mr. Rat took advantage of this opportunity, and ran for it. I jumped up, he ran under my feet, and was closing in on my wife FAST!!! I yelled, "HERE HE COMES!!!" At this point I like to reflect on something I used to do as a kid. I flippin loved to watch wrestling as a kid, and my favorite wrestler was Sting. He had 2 finishing moves, #1 the scorpion deathlock, #2 the Stinger Splash. We will be referring to the later. My wife, all 100lbs of her, launched herself into the air, flew across the living room, and Stinger Splashed the living room chair!!! BAMM!!!! The whole house shook, and Mr. Rat, he dove for cover under the love seat we have in the office. I immediately ran into the living room, to first check on Tracy, and then to get my boots. I was prepared for battle now, and all I can say is this rat was numero uno on my list of America's Most Wanted. "Let's Get Ready To Rumble".......TO BE CONTINUED.

Some youth ministry stuff...

Well we had our second united service, and it was awesome. Adam changed some things up, and I felt like the small group sessions went very well. Because of our numbers, we put high school and middle school together, and things went great. I truly feel as though our middle schoolers, for the most part, are maturing and growing in their faith as a result of small groups, and our high schoolers are helping to generate a lot of chatter. I love it when you sit down and have a discussion time, and it isn't just myself, Chris, or one of the other adult volunteers having to do all the talking. I know God is fixing to do big things in this ministry, and I can't wait to see it.

On a different note, Adam and myself are going to Cherokee High School on Friday to speak at the FCA meeting. It will be Adam's first go at speaking to FCA members, and I am praying, and asking for your prayers too, that all will go well. Also the whole two or three of you who actually humor me by reading this, pray for TPU, and that God will rock the lives of all the students who darken our door. Well that's all for now LOVE GOD and ROCK'N ROLL.

Hell? No!

Well the new shirts are a dud. My daughter wore hers to school, and said several youth had theirs on too, and NONE of them got kicked out. I am very disappointed to say the least. You would think that with the reputation our church has that something would come of it, but it hasn't yet. I'll just keep waiting I guess, but wouldn't it be cool if all our students got kicked out, and then we could have like an emergency youth outing or something. We might even make the news again....hum I wonder.....

Rats, Part 5!!! Will it ever end?

So I have killed the rat, and I am thinking not a problem, until. I get up the next morning flip on the kitchen light, and hear the pitter patter of little feet running across the floor. Normally this wouldn't have even phased me cause we have this little mini poo, but on this particular morning she was in her kennel, and I thought crap another rat. I looked high and low, but couldn't find it. I finally pulled out my stove, and Kabamm, RAT CRAP EVERYWHERE!!!!! So I remembered a funny smell from behind the washer too, so I pulled it out, and rat crap there too. Not only rat crap, but they had pushed the vent hose off my dryer, so they had easy access to come and go as they pleased. Well I spent the morning cleaning up the mess, and getting the dryer hose back on and clamped down tight. Then I went and bought a trap, and set it. Well that night right before I went to bed, SNAP, YAP YAP YAP, the dog got into the trap. After attending to the dog and getting her calmed down, I reset the trap. I got up the next morning, and had caught the biggest freakin rat I had ever seen. I set the trap again and for several nights never caught anything, so I think, rats gone right? Wrong!!......TO BE CONTINUED..AGAIN.

Rats, Part 4!!!

So here he is, hurt limping, and seemingly a little out of his mind. He has retreated to the opposite corner of Adriana's room, and now is simply walking out about 2 feet and going back into the corner. This continued for several seconds and then, light bulb. When he moved back into the corner, I took a step towards him. He moved out to the same spot, and back in, and another step closer for me. Eventually, he was walking right between my legs. Crane stance, drop the hammer, scream and struggle, twist of the foot, snap of the neck, DEAD RAT!!!! I had done it!! I, the great white hunter, had killed the rat. In my triumph, I turned on the light, picked him up by the tail, and displayed him to my daughter like a trophy. I proceeded to take him outside and dispose of him. I chunked him in the backyard for the buzzards. Well my rat killin days were over..........or were they......TO BE CONTINUED.

TPU

Well, in a word. AWESOME. I think Preston summed it all up when he said this. I had never been so freakin stressed in all my life. I was in charge of the media and sound. I got there at 2pm to get the lyrics and videos onto Media Shout. After about an hour and a half, Media Shout decides all on it's own I'm taking a nap. It literally just shut off by itself. I lost it all. It was then I went into panic mode. Now it normally takes alot to stress me out, but I knew how important this was, and how important it was for TPU to go off without a hitch. Long story short, with a little help from Preston, and alot of copy and paste, I got done, and for the most part, pulled it off. I NEVER want to do that again. Whew. Aside from that, everything was great, and for the record TP (toilet paper) is great for throwing at bands during a song. I wonder if we should try it in our main service one Sunday? PEACE!!!!

Rats, Part 3!!!

Well, as I said, it was on. So I eased into the bedroom, and shut the door. I had heard that rats were pretty smart, so I knew that he knew the only way out was through the door, then I had an idea. I thought that if I cracked the door, he would make a brake for it, and on his way out I could stomp him. So I cracked the door, got into the crane stance (for those who have no clue what the crane stance is watch the Karate Kid), and waited. I didn't have to wait long, he made a break for it, I dropped the hammer, he let out the most blood-curdling scream you've ever heard, I jumped up and hit my head on the door frame, Adriana sat straight up in her bed and screamed "Daddy what was that!!!", I said "Nothing go back to bed!!", then the rat went back into the room, and I staggered around a little while trying to get my senses back. Now what in the world just happened. I had no idea rats could scream. But anyhow I had done some damage, now he was walking around with a limp. So I started to watch to see what he would do next so I could plan my next move...........TO BE CONTINUED.

Rats, Part 2!!!

So here I was in my boots, ready to take on the rats of the world, so I headed towards my girl's room, and I saw him. He was in the bathroom. I breathed a sigh of relief, and started towards him, and at that moment he decided to make a run for it. He ran right behind the entertainment center, or so I thought. I ran over shined the light behind the E.C. looked high and low, then it hit me, crap he's in one of the bedrooms. I wasn't worried, but I knew that if he woke one of my girls up it would hit the fan. So as quiet as a mouse, (pun intended) I proceeded to try to track him down. I went to Adriana's room, and shut her door, I mean I couldn't have him getting away, and proceeded to Ashley's room to see if he was there. I opened the door, looked around with the light and listened. No rat. So I shut her door, and went back to Adriana's room, started to look around, listen, and that was when I heard him. It was on.......TO BE CONTINUED.

The Project United!!!!!

Wow!! I am totally excited about what God is fixing to do at the Stone, and in our student ministry. I believe that our new youth guy Adam is gonna be able to do great things with our ministry, and TPU kicks off Sunday April 15th @ 4pm. I can't wait to #1 see what Adam has to say, #2 see what he and Preston have come up with, #3 see how God totally rocks our world in a ministry that has struggled ever since I have been at the Stone. I just found out that we have our own TPU blog here, and that Adam has been posting our videos on YOUTUBE. I love this one, mainly cause I got to shoot Adam with my paintball gun. I LOVE PAINTBALL, and it sucks cause we have a game scheduled on the 5th of May, and I won't be able to play, lucky for them. Also, if you link to the video just curious, but does it look like Adam's fly is open? HA!! PEACE OUT!!

Rats, Part 1!!!

It all happened about 6 years ago in the little place I like to call home. We had just finished remodeling our house, and things were going pretty good. Well one morning I was getting up to go to work, and I am not one of those people that can just jump up, get ready, and go. I need about an hour to get woke up, get motivated, and get going. So this particular morning, I got up, and fixed the usual bowl of cereal, sat down on the couch, and commenced to watching TV while eating my Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. (my fav) While I was in the middle of my breakfast I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look, CRAP A RAT!! Now I am not talking about your run of the mill house mouse. I am talking about your foot and a half long, steroid eating, greasy, good for nothing, spine chilling, warf rat. He was in my house, MY HOUSE!! Well what did I do, I watched him. He was just walking around, checking things out. He even looked in my boots. All was well, and I was just wanting to see where he came from until...he headed for my girl's rooms. Snap, now I have to take action, so I get up, find a flashlight, and start looking for him. I didn't know what I could do as far as killing him, I mean I have a gun, but not in the house. So I looked around for a stick, bat, anything that would work,... ahaha, my boots. Yes I said boots, I could stomp him to death, so here I am in nothing but my underwear, holding a flashlight, wearing my work boots. Yes a horrible sight to say the least, but now I was off to hunt rat.........TO BE CONTINUED.

In honor of GARY AND HIS RATS!!!!!

Ok, for those who haven't figured it out, I attend Ridge Stone Church in Canton, GA, quite possibly the perfect church (in my opinion). I make it a habit to read my pastor's, Gary Lamb, blog. He has on a few occasions read mine, and tells me how bad it sucks. Well hopefully that all changes today. Gary says he has been plagued with these dreams about rats, and it just so happens that one of my favorite sermons to teach teenagers, and as a matter of fact I have taught it in almost every school in the county through the FCA and First Priority programs, is about just that, RATS!!! After Sunday I had a hankerin to include it on my blog as a series, as it is way to long for one post, so here it comes Gary.

What to do, what to do???

I have been thinking about it, and I believe I am wanting to have a central theme for my blog. I am not really sure where I will go with it, but I feel that I need to try to focus on just a few certain things. I want this blog to be more than just simple babblings about my life, and the lives of those around me. I want to try to use this blog as a tool, a tool to maybe reach out and help others with maybe family and ministry issues. I will think about it some more, and keep you posted about what I will do.

Easter Promo, Part 2

If you do read this blog, here is part 2 of our Easter promo....

Hockey Night in Gwinnett.

Well the Ridge Stone youth went to a "Good Ol' Hockey Game" Saturday night. We got to watch the Gladiators whip up on the Pensacola Ice Pilots 3-2. Got to see an awesome fight, and some great hockey action, and our group made it to the big screen numerous times, cause I guess we're all just so freakin' crazy. Well nuff said, next event PAINTBALL!!!!!