Traditions

tra·di·tion: an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior

Many individuals and families have traditions, both large and small. Recently, it seems that Tim and I have been carrying on old traditions, participating in other families' traditions, and creating some of our own. At the beginning of this month, we had the opportunity to go to Waco to watch a Baylor Bears game with the Brackeens. Robert grew up in Waco and is a huge fan (understatement)! Since we knew this was going to be a day of traditions we decided to kick start the day with a McPherson tradition...Cream of Wheat (Mike McPherson's secret recipe).
Mike's Cream of Wheat recipe is a little different from the box...think less healthy and more sugary. It is really delicious.

After breakfast we headed down to Waco for the game. We took a driving tour of the campus, went to the bear habitat, and saw some of Robert's old stopping grounds. We got to the game in plenty of time to see the opening band, player warmups, helicopter fly-over and of course the Kickoff (ahhhhhhh, sic 'em bears). Here is an example of the sic 'em bears pose:
If we are still in Texas during next year's football season, we may be invited back since we helped inspire the team to a victory over the Texas A&M Aggies. Here are a few more pictures of the day:Yesterday, we got to participate in several traditions that we have started for our own family. For the last couple of years, we have had the wonderful opportunity to serve others on Thanksgiving morning. Through Mission Arlington approximately 1,500 people are able to receive a Thanksgiving meal. It is amazing to drive up to the building at 8:00am and see hundreds of individuals and families willing to give up their morning to help serve others; others who may otherwise not have a Thanksgiving meal.

After arriving back at home we cleaned up and headed to Greg and Chenille Gaumers. This is the last tradition I will blog about today. Being so far away from home, it is not feasible for us to spend the money to go home for Thanksgiving. With flights being so expensive and me having to work at the beginning of the week, it makes sense for us to stay in Texas. The last two years, we have spent the day with other friends at Seminary that also stayed in town (2 years ago with the Gormans and last year with the Moots). We branched out this year and went to an aparment on the other side of the street.

A few words to sum it all up....yum, yum, yum. Needless to say, we did not go without.
And last but not least, we must include some pictures of Ethan (Greg and Chenille's little boy) . I think he is one of the cutiest babies ever and pray to God (seriously) that Tim and I have a baby as low maintanence and happy as him.

Count your blessings name them one by one...

(You were supposed to sing the title to the beat)...

Tim and I are continually blessed by family, friends, and sometimes people who remain purposely anonymous. Our most recent blessing came from our Sunday School teachers Jackie and Debbie (and their daughter and son-in-law). They sent an email to the entire class early this week about a desk that they were wanting to give away. Tim responded that we were interested in looking at the desk. On Friday, we were out in Arlington so we stopped by to see the desk. Oh my goodness!!! It was gorgeous. I kept thinking and possibly even saying out loud, "Are you sure you are giving this away?" Sure enough, they (particularly Jackie) just wanted it out of the garage.

We brought the desk home and rearranged our office last night. We were up until 1:30am working on it and then did a little more work this morning. It is a little oversized for our current office but it will be perfect for Tim down the road. He told Jackie and Debbie that the desk would be the place where many sermons will be completed.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful beyond words desk and our new office arrangement...

Tim's old desk became my desk. My old desk from college is going to be donated to Trinity Habitat for the new AmeriCorps house we are trying to get furnished.

Dum... Dum... Dum-Dum

Well it happened. I was able to officiate a wedding and nothing (or no one) blew up, broke, or fled the scene.

In one of the greatest honors of my life, I was asked to officiate my cousin's wedding. There were a number of moments in the ceremony when I had to fight back tears (I told people I had a bug in my eye), but Andrew and Kimberly are too awesome not to elicit emotion. I recall days of wrestling WWF Wrestling Buddies (Ultimate Warrior) with Andrew in his bedroom, which immediately was followed by an interview (for our many imaginary fans) in front of the bathroom mirror. He and I created flawless football plays to defeat the evil Joel and Nick in a game of touch in Mamaw's front yard. Standing at the altar, all these memories were flooding through my mind. As the ceremony unfolded, there was no doubt my cousin was a man. After pronouncing them as husband and wife, the recessional was quite fitting - "Hallelujah!" Now, Andrew Putters has a beautiful Caddy for life. As if officiating the wedding was not a big enough honor, the hug Uncle Ed gave me afterward was the icing on the cake! I had represented my family well and he let me know it. Life doesn't get much better than this!


. . . or does it?
The very next day, Jill and I were able to see our niece affirm her faith in Christ through Believer's Baptism. We were not in Knoxville at the time of her salvation, and we missed her walking to the front of the church during the invitation, but God granted us the chance to witness this beautiful scene.

(she is the angel standing in the middle of the girls)

The Lord never ceases to amaze us with blessings through our family. Thankfully, our family is still growing. NO, NO, NO!!! This is not a "We're Pregnant" blog. This is a "JOEL AND MARIA & BRIAN AND AUDRA ARE PREGNANT" celebration.

Hurricane Ike

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " (Matt. 25:35-40)


Jill and I were blessed to see this passage in action at our church, Lake Arlington Baptist, during the Hurricane Ike evacuation. We housed 96 evacuees from Beaumont, TX for 8 nights in our Lifestyle Center at the church. Since my job is my studies (while Jill brings home the bacon) I had the opportunity to be a Cite Manager and help oversee this ministry. Of course, Jill couldn't pass up the chance to serve and came multiple times after she clocked out at Habitat. The process was tiring, at times trying, but my oh my it was a blessing.

The way our church responded reminded me of the hearts at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church. Red Cross called us a five-star shelter in response to our facility and volunteer response; just another reason why Volunteers are better than Longhorns. More than meeting the bare necessities of food (which was scrumptious) and shelter, our residents had a basketball court (which held a bounce house for kids), flat screen TVs with football games (2 Cowboy victories), daily organized rec. activities, BINGO (which was a hit!), and etc.

I'll never forget the Wednesday night and Sunday morning worship services. About a dozen of the residents decided to join us. Tears were shed due to their struggles, but they praised God nonetheless. What a witness! I believe we were blessed more than they were.

Check out this link to see a segment broadcast on the local news. If you look carefully, you will see a very handsome man talking to some evacuees as they were being processed into the building.
http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=32500@ktvt.dayport.com

One of my professors at the start of the semester said that it would be a sin for some of us to get an 'A' in the course. He said this to cause us to question the order of our priorities. His comment rang in my ears as I committed to give up 40+ hours and somewhat neglect my studies. Whether I get an 'A' in his class is still to be determined, but I would certainly have been ashamed had I passed up the opportunity to feed, house, clothe, and love my Lord.

Babies and Bowling

As we have previously posted about, we have tons of friends that are expecting babies. We've had two new additions within the last couple of weeks. Before we left for vacation, we went to visit Samantha Grace. This is the 3rd daughter for Chris and Ainslee Love.


On Thursday, our Sunday School class also welcomed Cadie Ann to the world. Tim and I went to visit on Friday night. Her parents are Texas fans so we are already trying to train her that no orange is good when it is burnt, GO VOLS!
To finish the night off, we went bowling with our small group to Alley Cats. We played three games. I , Jill, came in last all but one of those games. Yeah, bowling is not my best sport. However, Tim put in a great showing coming in second most of the games. Robert, one of our Sunday School teachers, is a bowling ringer! This is Natalie cheesing it up...
Tim, trying to scare off the competition...

And last but certainly not least, Robert, the bowling CHAMP!

Our Texas Vacation

Sorry for the long length of time between our posts. However, we have a reasonably good excuse...vacation. Tim finished his Turbo Hebrew class on Friday, Aug. 8 and we left for vacation the next morning. Last week was the only week we would be able to take a full week's vacation, and we did just that. We decided to stay in Texas and see some of the beauty that is in our backyard. Not literally in our back yard because that is quite dry and ugly at the moment. We had to drive 3 hours South/Southwest. We visited several towns within the Texas Hill Country (Burnet, Buchanan Lake, Enchanted Rock, Fredericksburg, Hunt, Boerne, Canyon Lake, Wimberley), San Antonio, and Austin. Here are some photo highlights of the trip.Hiking alongside Buchanan Lake at Canyon of the Eagles.


Sunset at Canyon of the Eagles


Hiking at Enchanted Rock


Enjoying German food (bratwurst and schnitzel) in Fredericksburg


The massive slide at Mo Ranch in Hunt, TX (enjoy Tim's facial expression; in my picture which is not posted for a reason, it looks like I am about to pop several veins in my neck)


Sunset at the Chapel on the Hill at Mo Ranch


Celebrating our 3rd Anniversary at Boudro's on the Riverwalk in San Antonio


The Alamo!!!


The Texas Capitol in Austin; Texas does everything HUGE


Oasis Restaurant on Lake Travis outside of Austin


It was nice to see Texas sites outside the DFW area. Despite the heat and lack of rain, there are some truly beautiful places. If you ever need a Central Texas travel itinerary, let us know!

A RANGERous Storm is Brewing

Tim and I had the pleasure of attending a Texas Rangers game tonight. The Rangers have been doing very well lately and are in the Wild Card race. One of the things we have enjoyed about the DFW area is all the activities, particularly sporting activities, that are available. We have attended both Mavericks and Rangers games since living in the area. Yeah, no Cowboys games yet. That would cost a small fortune...like any future children we may have.

Here is a picture of us near the start of the game. Special Note: please ignore the profuse amount of sweat because it was a cool 105 degrees when the game started at 7:05pm.

Currently, we are in talks with Rangers management to get free tickets because we are good luck charms. Each of the four games we have attended thus far have ended in a "W."

We sat in the second row of right field (thank you Robert and Tina) with a good view of the entire game and Murphy, the right fielder. Also, if you tune in to ESPN you might catch a few quick shots of us. There were only three homeruns hit near us! Here are some more pics of the game.
Yes, that would be Josh Hamilton (Christian and "real" Home Run Derby Champion)