Surf's up, dude!

You should have seen Garrett on the body board. First wave he rode all the way in. It was awesome! On the way out he would ride the board and I'd make him jump the waves like a jet ski then he'd turn around and ride a big one in. The kid's like a labrador retriever "Can we get in the water, huh, huh, please, can we get in the water, let's go, hurry up, yeah, yeah, let's go!" He loved the beach!

Luke liked the big sandbox at the beach. We had the boy's tonka toys and Luke drove his dump truck all over the beach hauling sand, shells, water, and then daddy hauled Luke around. I think he kept hearing Garrett ask about sharks or something so maybe that's why he stayed on the beach. He liked the waves as long as I held him and jumped over the waves and hollered a bunch. Laughed his little head off then.

We went fishing Saturday night off the T-head at the hotel. Caught a croaker and an eel. Disgusting! Sucker swallowed the hook too. Stepped on him to try and hold him down so maybe I could get the hook. Yeah, he wrapped around my foot. Lady fishing by us asked if he shocked me when he did that. "No ma'am, that species isn't on the Texas coast." Why did I have to catch a freak wanna-be snake 1,000 feet out in the gulf? That's just not right. Garrett and Luke loved seeing it but I was done fishing by then. Dad told me later that Asians love to eat eel. Nope. Sorry. Not even on survivor.

Now this is a scary thought. Amanda, Garrett and Luke in the torpedo room of a WWII submarine. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!! Yes, those are torpedos on either side below the bunks. We toured the last remaining WWII era sub credited with sinking an aircraft carrier and also toured a WWII destroyer escort. If you haven't ever toured a sub, they are tight. No room to move around, really cramped. Luke loaded his diaper in the middle of the tour. My guess is that the people behind us weren't excited that I had to look at every switch, valve, door, nut, bolt, everything on the entire boat.

This was our first real family vacation. Only two days but what a blast! Oh, next time you're in Galveston stop at the Spot. It's on seawall drive. They converted an old house into a restaurant and added on to it a little. Got the pictures in a photo album at the entrance. Great burgers. Lots of meat, homemade buns, seasoned waffle fries. Kids meals come with a cookie from the in-house bakery. Sit on the upstairs patio.

My wife rocks!

" Her children arise and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
Many women do noble things,
But you surpass them all." Pr. 31:28-29

That's my girl! Friday, August 17th, 2001 I caught her and tied her down with a little gold ring. Saturday, August 18th,2001 we arrived at the B&B in the picture above. Today we celebrated Garrett's 5th birthday. Tomorrow we celebrate our 6th anniversary. Am I glad? Yup. I suuuure am.

I told her one of the reasons I wanted to marry her was because she made me "better than I was, more than I am". Yes, it's a line from a Tim McGraw song but it's really true. She makes me grow. She's helped me grow in my career, helped me be a better dad, helped me see what God's love and strength can really do. When I wasn't worthy of being followed, she stepped up and said, no, make that SHOWED that God said her role was to submit and love me. Yes, we talked about it and always have known that's what God said but to see her really do it. Awesome.

My wife is smart (how many people ACE college physics????), she's funny (especially when she's not trying to be!), she is an awesome mom (gave up her job so she could stay home with our boys), she's a cutie (I love that smile!), she's MY girl!

I LOVE YOU GRACIE!

Check out this recipe!!!

I bought this cookbook along with a bunch of others at an auction several years ago. Our nephews are coming to stay with us most of the week this week so Amanda was looking for some good recipes. She opens the book and is looking around and Garrett bumped the book and papers started falling out of the back of the book. I made Garrett go sit at the other side of the table to play and Amanda kept looking. As she turned pages, this cute little red envelope falls out. I saw that envelope and knew immediately what it was. The question was, was there anything still in it??? I picked it up and YES!!! Not only was there something in it but there was a $50 something in it! Crisp. Clean Straight from the bank. Poof, there it was! There should have been a drum roll and smoke and strobe lights! It was awesome!

Now for the significance of this. We just started tithing again. Well, Amanda did. She does the check book and she's always been more dedicated than me about that. We had slacked off about it but now that she's home with the boys and we only have one income she felt that, hey, we've trusted God this far, we had better trust him all the way. She has been giving our tithe and last night I also pulled my cash stash out of my wallet and put my secret reserve in the plate. I have auction money sometimes and I wanted to save it for something but I felt God telling me to put it in the plate just like Amanda has been feeling God tell us, "Give Me your tithe." Then today, God shows up and shows out. We both listened and did what God told us and he blesses us.

Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Ryan said blog some more so....

Since Ryan is the only person who has found our blog, we'll use his awesome pictures of the boys from Hope Group this week. Luke was zonked from VBS and Garett was, well Garrett. That boy never stops having fun. Full of energy and a heart of gold. In fact, he said one of the most awesome things this week. Amanda and I were talking about what if there was another rugrat and we asked Garrett "What would you do if you had another little brother?" His answer - "I'd love on him."

He hit it right on the head, didn't he?!?! Nothing more basic than that. I think most of us thought that way when we were his age - back when we were innocent, before we'd been burned. Before we'd seen what the world has to offer us. Garrett is old enough to have started seeing just a tad of what the world has to offer us but, you know what, he still loves everyone and everything. Sure, he gets upset and mad. He's human. When it boils down to it though, his heart shines through. When he's excited to go see his friends, when he's making friends with people he's never met (yeah, you know Garrett, talking to everyone!). He doesn't want to see anyone or anything get hurt. Not even the bugs that make Amanda scream bloody murder. He's got his mamma's heart and the joy of the Lord. Always laughing, always having fun, never met someone that he doesn't like. Makes you want some of what he has, doesn't it.

2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:2-4

1st Aggie Baseball Game

The Aggies beat the defending national champions Friday night and we got to watch it. Live and in person. O.K., we only lasted until the 7th inning stretch but the game was already in the bag. It was cold and I told Amanda we couldn't take a blanket (bad idea!) so we were freezing and Garrett was ready for bed. Not to mention, Luke had loaded his diaper up and we didn't want the people around us to tell us to leave so...

It was a great game. We sat in the cheap seats out in right field so the boys could play. Had a couple of fouls go right over our head, students all around us harassing the first base coach and the right fielder. Hot dogs, a tub of popcorn and a great big Dr. Pepper cost $6 more than our tickets but there's nothing like a fresh hot dog at a baseball game. Luke took the whole night to eat his hot dog. Could've had something to do with the fact that he was bumming peanuts off the guy behind us. Who knows. Garrett just sat in our laps and watched the entire game. Yes, Garrett. High energy never slows down Garrett. Sat still. Sat quiet. Luke on the other hand mimicked everything everyone around us did. Hollering, taunting, whooping! We're definitely going to have to take them to more games! Amanda even enjoyed it. Of course it was kind of hard for her not too, she was out with 3 handsome Garners watching her alma matter BTHO Oregon State! Whoop and Gig 'em!

'Bout time we updated the blog.

So we're redoing the boy's rooms right now. Amanda is hard at work picking out bedding, cleaning, arranging, painting etc. I helped a little but this is my big contribution. I think I had more fun. Garrett's room has a construction theme so I took him to the shop and we played on machines and took pictures to hang up in his room. Spent about an hour up there and operated all kinds of big boys toys and Garrett couldn't get enough. Can you blame him?

Luke's room is going to be the farm. I'm envisoning pictures of working cattle, getting eggs from the chicken coop, driving a tractor, digging a pond with a bulldozer. Gotta get some equipment in there somehow, right?!?!

We also planted our garden this weekend. Garrett and Luke planted everything. Garrett used his special planting tool for setting the depth of the seedhole - his finger. Luke got to plant the canteloupes. Not quite 2 yet but he sure likes to help out. Got some awesome boys!

Short, sweet, to the point. At least we're blogging finally. We've moved from the dark ages of dialup and have DSL now. Hopefully you'll see more since it doesn't take us six years to upload things anymore. Sweet!