We had our draft for my work league tonight.
 I picked 6th out of 12 teams.

STARTERS:
Eli Manning NYG QB

Tiki Barber NYG RB 
Clinton Portis WAS RB 

Santana Moss WAS WR 
Donald Driver GNB WR 
Keenan McCardell SDG WR 

Jerramy Stevens SEA TE 
John Kasay CAR K  
Denver Broncos DEN D/ST

BENCH:
Byron Leftwich JAC  QB
Michael Bennett KAN RB
Joseph Addai IND RB
Eric Moulds HOU WR
Brandon Lloyd WAS WR
Ben Watson  NWE TE
St. Louis Rams D/ST

And for my last pick of the night…
Jeff George

Jeff George was just signed by the Oakland Raiders.

No joke! Click the link.

I have had a lot on my mind.  We are facing a huge decision about our life right now.  I step back and reflect on how different people have impacted me and I them.

Grace is now pastorless. Grant’s last ’sermon’ was yesterday. It was probably one of the best one’s I have heard, ever.  (why did you save the best til last?) ok, don’t take that the wrong way! One thing you have to understand about Grant is that he is REAL. I know that can be a catch word, but it is true. What you see is what you get. I appreciate that in people.  You know when someone is like that, they are not hiding anything.  Thanks, Grant, for the impact you have had on me.

That reminds me….  Every month we send out prayer letters to our, very much appreciated, financial and prayer partners. I have been writing these for 3 years.  The most recent we sent for August has produced the most responses from any of them.  Most of them were encouraging, one was out of concern (and still encouraging) and one was extremely negative ( which in a weird way I still found encouraging).

I went back to re-read the prayer letter.  I can see how some of what I wrote could be misunderstood so I will include a “disclaimer” next month.  I was merely trying to point out that people should not be put on pedestals.  It is easy to do, I have done it myself.  I was trying to point out that we (FamilyLife staff, missionaries, evangelists such as Billy Graham, well know speakers, and ministry leaders such as Bright, Rainey, Dobson etc) should not be elevated. All we do is for God and the abilities that we use are God-given.  The people I quoted have done just that, put FamilyLife on a pedestal.  With that in mind, I was pointing out my and my families own flaws. 

Please be praying for wisdom for us.  Tomorrow is like the “deadline” of the decision we need to make.

I just love Holly. She can crack me up just by speaking.  I mean that in every way possible. She has certain words she uses: chomp…that word is just funny anyway. She will be talking about her dog named Mac and say something like, “he chomped right down on the shoe.” It just cracks me up. 

I had my first fantasy draft of the season last night. Its a 10 team Yahoo! league and I picked last. All the top RBs were long gone by the time it got to me but I got two picks in a row each time. Edge was the only top back left but he is viewed as “damaged goods” since he is with Arizona this year. I’m hoping his skills will win the day there. Reggie Wayne was available when I got to wide receiver, that’s a no brainer. With the Colts running game in limbo, Manning and crew are going to open up an aerial attack. With Harrison double and triple teamed, Wayne is going to get plenty of catches.
Joseph Addai (the Colts first round pick) was available late so I grabbed him too on the off chance that the good things Manning and Dungy have been saying about him are true. There is talk that he could be the starter early in the season.

QB Daunte Culpepper
WR Reggie Wayne
RB Edgerrin James
TE Heath Miller
WR Santana Moss
RB Ronnie Brown
RB Chester Taylor
QB Ben Roethlisberger
RB Joseph Addai
WR Reggie Brown
WR Matt Jones
QB Mark Brunell
K Shane Graham

Tuesday night is the FamilyLife IS Department Fantasy Football draft.

 I’ve read several news stories and blogs about Pluto being downgraded from “planet” to “dwarf planet” which has outraged many people. I say good riddance. I’ve always hated Pluto, thinking its better than the rest of the solar system, being all “stand-offish.” It got was was coming to it, you don’t want to join the rest of us? Fine! We won’t let you in our club.

OK, seriously, what I really wanted to say about it is this:
I think this is a good lesson in the nature of truth. Just because a group of astronomers change how we classify Pluto does not change what Pluto is. Pluto is what it is.
I can think Pluto is a large ball of twine floating at the edge of our solar system but that does not change the true nature of Pluto. Pluto remains what it is despite what anyone thinks it is.

And what is the deal with every news story ending with the astrology angle? Do enough people really take that stuff serious enough to warrent the international news agnecies commenting on it? And even if astrology wasn’t a load of “Barbara Streisand” how would no longer calling Pluto a planet change how it interacts with my aura or whatever that new age garbage is?

The 24 hour news media gets ahold of a story and they all sound the exact same, reporting the same thing from the same angle. I guess they work off the same press releases or something. It gets quite tiresome.
What do you think?

I don’t want to go into much detail right now, here on our blog but we are going through some rocky waters right now (not marriage-wise, just life in general.) That is part of the reason we have not been posting much here. If you are so inclined, would you please pray for wisdom, joy and peace for Karen and me?

Thanks.

Luke cracks me up sometimes. I am thankful for those times because his sweetness can often be overshadowed by his irritability that stems from his ADHD. We are sitting here watching Shrek and out of the blue he jumps up and starts this funny dance in which he bobbs his head front and back like a chicken. He also does this slinky thing with his body. It is pretty funny. That’s my Bober Head.  That is my nickname for him….Actually, he probably has the most nicknames: Chobers, Chobie Bobie, Bubby, Bubbers.  It was Bobo until we got a dog already named that.

He is also the most sharing out of our kiddos. If we ask the kids to share he is almost always the first one to do so. He has a sweet, kind heart. It will be fun to see how he turns out when he is older. He loves to snuggle too. Many mornings I wake up to the little freckled face sweetie snuggled up next to me.

Lukie Dukie is ready to repeat kindergarten this year with Mrs. Shelton. He is excited about getting to “show the ropes” to others in his class. Mrs. Shelton is excited too.  She could already see a change in him from last year.  We went last Sunday to the kindergarten ice cream social.  I will miss the little guy when school starts.  He is often my comedy relief throughout the day.

We send out a monthly letter to our supporters to let them know what we are up to and how they can be praying for us. I’ve been negligent in getting them posted to our website in a timely manner but am getting back in the habit of doing it.

The August letter is up if you are interested in reading it. I will be posting here each time I put a new one up.

Yes, we are still alive. Just not blogging much the past few weeks. I’ll post some witty thought provoking prose on bodily functions soon. Stay posted!