the prodigal returns

i suppose there comes a time in every blogger's life when it seems there's nothing worth blogging about. this has been one of those times. but now i'm getting calls and emails, and we wouldn't want you to actually have to pick up the phone, so i'll try to get you up-to-date. let's see spring break came and went and everyone had loads of fun. baseball and softball practices have been in full swing; in fact, between the two of them, someone has a practice every night of the school week, except wednesdays. and that's good, b/c we're at church on wednesdays. saturday is opening day for spring ball. brandon will ride in the parade in the early morning and abby kicks off her season with a 10:00 game. They changed the age cut-off for the boys, so Brandon is, for the first time ever, one of the oldest in his league. he's playing with mostly 4th graders, which we think he likes b/c it makes him the MAN. he'll be pitching, playing short and first base. who knows? maybe i'll even post a pic this weekend for ya'.

had our annual ladies' retreat last weekend and fun was had by all. and i had the special treat of spending the weekend with my buddy ALG. i have this weekend at home...err...i mean at the ball fields, and then next weekend i'm retreating again at the Texas Minister's Wives thingy in Granbury. i think i'm going to need a retreat from all these retreats after it's over. :-)

you probably noticed a few posts ago (now that you've had nothing else to read but old posts and the comments they elicited) that my london friends have chosen to boycott the blog due to my careless throwing around of 24 happenings. they wish for me to make public apology and promise to focus blog-topics elsewhere. sadly, they must wait weeks to find out the incredible things that we already know from said program. so here's my apology and promise, not because I think I should and not because I want to, but because i can.

p.s. everyone else - can you believe how that last one ended?

Maybe I should've tried to exchange cell numbers or something?

how many churches have had 2 American Idol contestants sing there prior to their stints on the show? Not many, I'm thinking. I just found out (b/c I haven't been watching this season) that one of the remaining contestants is Mandisa. Well somebody shoulda told me sooner, b/c Mandisa sang at Crestview before Jeff Johnson did. She sings in Travis Cottrell's praise team, who sang at Crestview after Beth Moore's Living Proof Event in Midland/Odessa a few years back. (The Hopkins' fam even ate dinner at Logan's with her, Travis, and the rest of the team, but this isn't about me...)

So GO MANDISA!

i'm just saying

publicly reprimanded again, i'll not say anything about 24 except this: everybody try to hold your breath until you finish reading this post.

hey there claydough. we miss you. don't break anything. call me tomorrow from the lift or something fun like that.

somebody call a doctor, cuz i've got SPRING fever!!!

two ladies' retreats in the next 4 weekends - one for FBC (with my good buddy ALG speaking and rooming with me) and one for minister's wives. yes, i think so too. that IS a lot of retreating. however, i shall force myself to thoroughly enjoy them both :-)

currently writing: unit for all youth on the church from Acts and week of devotions about love. feel free to send all brilliant thoughts my way.

if you had a bunch of free travel vouchers from southwest, where would you go? (you must take your 2 children, ages 7 and 11, in the month of August.)

go ahead and exhale now - I'm done.

Due to some graphic violence, viewer discretion is advised

The following takes place between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. right before C takes A to the dr. for the umpteenth case of strep throat in the past 12 months.

Well, that was somewhat horrifying. I even forgot to look for C. Thomas Howell who I saw from the opening credits was on the show last night. Missed him...did anyone else pick him out? Although I did call it from the beginning of last night's show...."it's time for a 'regular' character to die". But my first guess was Curtis until he saved the day and then I saw Edgar lumbering down to the basement...

*who's still rotten in the President's cabinet? the vp or mike novak are my guesses. but you know it has to be someone b/c Lynn was just put at CTU TODAY, and the bad guys already set him up.

* don't you think that a place like CTU would have metal detectors that everyone who entered would have to pass through? that bad guy and his briefcase just strolled right in with simple key-card trickery.

* it was nice to see Kim again, but I fear that her new boyfriend is going to be the "someone must make the ultimate sacrifice" we heard about in the previews.

* I think that a whole lot of problems could be taken care of early if Jack would just teach a class on "Sneaking Up on the Bad Guys" to everyone at CTU

"If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward." - JH

editor's note: c just researched the question and discovered that C. Thomas Howell is the guy playing Kim's boyfriend/psychiatrist!!! shocking. he's not nearly as, um...poster-worthy as he was back in the day when he was Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders. Man, we're getting old.

we could, so we did.

so c and i were on our way sunday when opportunity knocked. i was flying free because c had given up his seat on an overbooked flight sometime this last year. and lo and behold, it happened again in st. louis. they needed people to give up their seats. so BECAUSE WE CAN, we did. got $600 in travel vouchers to use within the year and had to wait a whole hour eating at chilis too for the next flight, which we made going standby. very nice.

the david crowder band played at the willowcreek conference. good stuff. but my favorite part of the actual conference itself was listening to greg stier, who is the CEO and founder of dare 2 share ministries. if you ever get the chance to hear him speak, don't miss it. his message was excellent. plus, he made me laugh out loud a lot and like i always say: funny teaches. gordon macdonald was really good, too. he was my other favorite speaker. then i'd have to say that darren whitehead came in a close third out of the 7 speakers i heard. but i'm not sure if what he said was all that great or if it was just engaging because he has that cool australian accent. like listening to crocodile dundee for an hour---who couldn't do that? aside from the conference, we ate chicago pizza pies and hot dogs and walked around the navy pier and the magnificent mile. it was much fun and a coveted rest from routine.

got my first crown today...the tooth kind, that is---a result of 3 cracks in a molar. as i blog, the whole left side of my face is numb, including my left nostril. and might i add, this is a very unique and interesting sensation. i just tried to smile at myself in the mirror and it looked like this :-/

and I'll leave you with this JH deep thought, in honor of Chicago: If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.