Monday

Well Sunday turned out to be a busy day and we received some much needed rain. During the early morning hours Nancy said it poured rain but I didn't know it until after awakening. Today was our travel day to Tampa for worship with our Element family and then we decided to stay over in the area for the first kids choir at 6 PM. Dan and Carol stayed away due to other commitments so it was just Nancy and I on the drive over.

The morning started much the usual for a Sunday morning as we did our own breakfasts, quiet times and then got ready to head out around 9 AM. It was sure nice to see some rain water in the streets as it has been a long dry spell. I'm sure my garden and yards are drinking in every drop that fell during the night time hours. We made the trip with plenty of time to spare. I happened to see an old friend who I first met while working an off duty job at Sports Unlimited. Doug Garner and his fiancé  Laurie Fingers were there to speak about their mission in Costa Rica. He started an adventure ministry titled Going The Distance and that has become quite successful. Many of Element have been on his adventure trips including Bobby and Jill. I met Doug way back before our kids were even born and its such a small world to think our friendship has developed in opportunities to serve mankind while indulging oneself into the wild. I just wish he would marry Laurie as she is just a beautiful person inside and out.

We had a nice visit with them and Bobby had a great message once again about our expectations in between the down times of our life. The music was awesome as well and despite it being a home game Sunday for the Bucs we still had a good crowd. Speaking of the Bucs they played a good team the 49 Niners well until the 4th quarter when once again they fell apart with mistakes and miscues. The final score was not indicative of the play for most of the game. We were on a drive that would have put up by a point and the possibility to win the game until everything went down hill, oh well!!

We took off after the service to find a Cracker Barrel as we had a gift card so we found one outside of Tampa on I-4 that was packed. After a 30 minute wait we got in and had a fine meal along several hundred other people. I wish I had invested in that restaurant as they do a great business. I had the fried chicken breasts with steak fries and turnip greens while Nancy had the broiled trout fillet, hash brown casserole and green beans. Everything tasted down home and the rolls and cornbread was awesome as well.

We then headed back to the Brandon mall with several thousand other shoppers only to find we could not purchase a gift card on Sunday because the customer service for the mall was only open during the week. So it looks as if we will have to give cash instead of the gift card for one of the family members who live in that area, oh well!!! We then headed down to Riverview for a couple hours visit with Bobby and family as we had to be at the church for the 6 PM kids choir program. We got in a few minutes of the Bucs game and watched a little of the Cowboys blow out the Packers in the first half only to find out they lost the game in the second half after some great play from the boys from Green Bay, unbelievable. I think the Bucs and the Cowboys have been drinking the same stuff, oh well!!!

The kids choir was awesome and this program is our first ever at Element and it was done in wonderful fashion. There were lots of first time grand parents there as well as some old familiar faces that have moved away. It was great to see and hug their necks. Our Annsley was the first to sing solo and she did a great job on Away in the Manger as did all of the kiddos. There were 23 kids on the stage and some as young as 3 participated. Kudos to the directors and the kids for an awesome evening. Afterwards we had an ice cream social with a birthday cake for JESUS.

Well we got back home to Seminole somewhere around 8 and it seemed like we had been gone all day which we had. I tuned into the late game where the Steelers were ripping apart the Bengals on a cold windy night in Pittsburg. I shut the lights off around 10'ish and called it a day. It was a fun day seeing our son and his family, old friends and of course worshipping with a great group of believers especially this time of the year. There were many unwrapped gifts brought for the foster kids to be delivered this week by Element, LATER