Yesterday was eventful at my house, I had a guy come grind a few stumps and then a guy came with his tractor and finished clearing my backyard. All I really wanted him to do was haul away the stuff that I had already piled up from the time I rented a tractor with my neighbor, but he also worked on leveling the yard out more and he didn't charge me for that part either. I can't believe how nice it looks, way better than I ever imagined. Now it's got me thinking about buying some sod and laying it this Saturday. It'll only take a couple of pallats to finish out my backyard and I've found a place near me that sells it at a great price. I'll have to find some before pics for you and then post the after with the beautiful sod.

Audra and the kids left yesterday to go to her parents house to be there when they got home from Brazil. Last night was only the second night I remember being without my wife in my own home. Sure we've spent the night apart before like when I've been on a trip, but it's rare for me to be home alone. As with the first time, I didn't sleep at all last night and today I just feel crummy all over. My body aches and I'm very tired. I'd love to catch a nap before church tonight but I think I'm going to pass on that so that hopefully I'll be so tired at bedtime tonight that I'll pass out like usual.

My in-laws are in Brazil right now finishing up a mission trip. Part of the team went into the interior and it was quite an excursion. They just got back to the city and Joe emailed me with a bit of the story about the trek.

Count them, eight people in a Toyota truck (crew cab w/bed cover) plus clothing/personal items, road food, 16/8pks of water, Bibles, tracks, projector, DVD player, tools, and the hammer, hoe, and nail. We traveled with 5 persons in the cab and 3 in the bed; rotating all men through turns on the tailgate! Seating consisted of approximately 2ft inside the bed plus tailgate, on a thin piece of foam that got thinner with every mile. Visualize three men, sitting side-by-side facing rearward with a rope tied across the tailgate as a stirrup to keep them from sliding out.

Our trip to Tarauca on Monday took approximately 22 hours along BR 364, which consisted of 400km of asphalt w/serious potholes/bulges, one-lane dirt road/trail w/butt jarring holes, and countless mud pits (approx 150km paved+250km dirt). We crossed three major rivers via ferry, dodged ranging cows/goats, passed out candy to roadside children w/ a "Jesus loves you", helped stranded vehicles, navigated around/through countless mud pits, and received a government tractor escort through the worst stretch late Monday night. The Warn winch on the front of the truck was invaluable because at times the truck was high-centered in the ruts of larger tractor trucks or just buried too deep in the mud to push out. Trees were rarely close enough or strong enough to serve as an anchor. We then resorted to driving the nail in the road ahead to give us the anchor we required. The nail was a 3 inch diameter/3 ft long steel rod with a large gear welded on one end. The hammer was a similar piece of pipe w/gears welded on one end to create a sledge (getting it back out of the ground is another story). I trust this sounds entertaining and it was at times. There were numerous times we just trusted God and pressed ahead, realizing that safe passage was totally in His hands. God was soverign over all we encountered! We arrived around 2am Tuesday in Tarauca, found our hotel, took a cold shower, and got a few hours of sleep before beginning our first day in the city.

So I need to get new razor blades right? Growing tired of the burn, I started using Audra's Venus razor until I got the chance to run to Walmart and get some new blades for mine. I'm not a powerfully hairy man, but that Venus has been making me smooth as a baby's behind for a week now and I'm kind of liking it. Don't know that I'll be switching back.

I doubt I've ever said this on here but I'm a Southern Baptist and am proud to be one because of our missions work. I don't ever write about what's going on in the Convention because others like Micah do it so well, but I just can't resist saying a little something about what just happened yesterday.

The hob-nobs of our convention have had a bad habit of hand-picking the president ever since '79, except for one guy back in 94-95. So when the big guys handed out an endorsement, everyone pretty much figured it would be him who was "elected". Funny thing though, he got beat yesterday, and pretty soundly too.

The difference? Many are attributing it to bloggers like Micah for getting the word out about these guys and how they would affect us on a grassroots level. One of the main things that people were blogging and talking about was how much they gave to the Cooperative Program. People can talk big about missions work, but they don't put their money where their mouth is. The 2 big guys who had the big endorsements sure could talk about missions work, but did they give? To quote an article from ABP News, "Floyd's church gave 0.27 percent of undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program in 2005 and an additional 1.6 percent to other SBC causes. Sutton's church gave nothing to the CP in 2005 but sent 2.7 percent to SBC causes." Yeah, that's sad. The guy who won? His church gave 12.1 percent. Bro put his money where his mouth was and the people knew it, respected it, and elected him.

Here she is, a little before and after shot, or I guess it's after and before. I've got a 2 inch lift to put under it because the tires were a little tighter than I imagined, but you get the idea. I love it, it's so nice to have a Jeep again. Perfect to load the family up in and head to the beach. I'm looking forward to taking JonMichael camping in a year or 2, hunting in 2 or 3. It's a 91, 4.0, automatic, 30x9.5 tires, 82K miles, and a vinyl floor. Pretty much perfect for me. It's got a very small ding on the rear passenger door, but other than that the body is perfect and rust free and the paint is decent. Got it super cheap too.

I'm back online, as you can obviously tell. It was a good break, but it's nice getting back in touch with everyone. So what's new with me? Always something it seems.

Camp was incredible, our kids got a ton out of it. Thanks to Ryan for the advice on that one. Work is going great, but some changes are on the way. I've been asked and have accepted the responsibilities for the 6th graders, as well as my usual 7th-college. No, they don't really belong in our youth department as it is now, but that's where the changes will come into play. We'll be creating a more noticeable division between middle school and high school ministry. There will be challenges, but I think it will be worth it after things settle down.

I have a fence at home now. It's not complete, but if I had horses it would look perfect. More flowers, more this, more that. I love owning a house, I hate paying a water bill, therefore I love tropical storm Alberto. Getting the pump hooked up to the well next week so I can water from that rather than my expensive city water.

The Jetta has been sitting for several weeks now because I haven't had the time to put it up for sale. I'm driving a Jeep Cherokee and I love it so much that I'll give it a post of it's own after I'm done with this one.