Hello!

Aren't they a cute couple of kids? They got their good looks from their father, of course. Some of you may take offense at that, but I say it in truth. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they got them from their father as their mother still has all of hers. (Rimshot)

Hello and Happy Easter! It has been a busy weekend here. We had our community Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and it was a hoot. We think we had at least 300 kids this year. The church auditorium was standing room only. I would estimate that there were at least 500 here in total. We did not get an accurate count with all those bodies moving around.

Today was a beautiful Easter day. Sunrise service went very well, and all the other services went without any major hitches either. Spent the afternoon at the in-laws watching The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Then we went back home to let the dog out before running back into church. Like I said, busy. At least the weather was nice. Well, gotta run. I'll try to drop inlater this week.

Zach's Room

I don't have time to talk right now, but here are a few pics of the new room!

Played Hooky

Well, we had a good weekend. We were supposed to go down to the Palace to see the Gaither concert, but things changed. We decided that with the price of gas and the meals we would have to buy we would end up spending about $90 to make this trip to a "free" concert. So, we decided to skip it and go to TC instead. I had a couple of free movie tickets, so we could go see a flick fur nuthin'! It was also too good to pass up since I had the kids taken care of for the night with my parents and Pastor was teaching Sunday School for me. Sooooo, we went to TC letting everyone think we were out of town and played hooky Sunday morning for Sunday school. I know I need to repent and ask forgiveness. Had a good time though!

Other than that it was not a very productive weekend. Changed the oil in the van Saturday morning and that was about the only thing I accomplished. Church Sunday morning was good, and then my parents took us out for lunch at the Home of the Whopper. After that we went home and did nuthin' until it was time to go over to the in-laws for my nephew's birthday party. Then back to church and home again. I know, I need to slow down!

Work today was fair. I need to see the big W get things in gear as sales are OK everywhere else, but without some displays at the W I am not getting very much action. Spartan is limping along and they are still a decent business, but we all must bow to the selling power of Wallyworld!

The kids are doing well. Zach went to a lamb farm today. I decided to ask him about the trip and the conversation went a little like this:

"How was the lamb farm?"

"It was alright."

"Did you have fun?"

"Yeah. I petted one lamb and another one kept sniffing my leg."

"Anything else neat happen?"

"Oh Yeah! We saw a great big daddy sheep going to the bathroom! It came out like a bunch of little round balls! That was really cool, but kinda gross too."

I pay tuition for him to see something as educational as that! Of course as a kid I would have probably thought the same thing. This kid scares me sometimes beaus he is already thinking at a more advanced level of mischief than I did at his age. Makes a father proud!

Anyway, I guess I will sign off for now. I pulled this little picture off the net and photoshopped in the vanity plate. Someday the dream will be mine! Take care everyone!

Here we are again

Well, life here at Hide Manor is still puttering along. We are recovering from some major redecorating in Zach's room. One word for the color scheme - VIVID. It is white, a fairly bright blue, and Wal-mart sticker green. Yeah, that's right it is that bright neon green. It looks really nice though. Hats off to Zach for picking his own colors. They really look good together.

Anyway, lots going on otherwise. Somebody broke into the church and wreaked all kinds of holy havoc (get the pun) on the media computer upstairs. It is packed full of virus programs, adware, spyware, worms, and parasites. Hang on I need an inoculation! I got a lot of it fixed before church this past Sunday, but there is a hard drive wipe in my future. I am not looking forward to doing that again.

Work has been slow the last couple of weeks with Spring break going on. Things are looking up a bit this week, but Wal-mart is really giving me fits. I've somehow got to figure out a way to get the people there to look at reality. They have a hard time with that. Once I get Wally World running smooth again I should be on easy street.

We are still working on getting our finances going in the right direction. Kinda decided to go back and start from scratch on the budgeting (Spending Plan). Hoping that a "reboot" will clean up the gunk and get us rolling better. God will bless, I have no doubt of that. It's hard when you realize that if you had just done it right in the first place you wouldn't have to struggle so much to learn the lesson later. Things would be a lot easier if you got smacked immediately for screwing up with money and then received instant relief when turning it around. Not complaining, just thinking out loud.

I was kinda cheesed today when I realized that once again Broke Butt Mountain was going to steal the thunder from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It happened at the Oscars, and now they are released on DVD on the same day. How can people way that Hollywood is not pushing a homo agenda when the biggest publicity during the Oscars went to Broke Butt instead of TLTW&TW? Broke Butt didn't even begin to compete with TLTW&TW at the box office, but the media regurgitates whatever Hollywood tells them to. Anyway, that just cheesed me off.

Well, I am going to run our and put the dogs in for the night. Say a prayer for old Clyde. He is having some problems with his back legs. He has a neurological disorder that is causing all the feeling to slip away in his back legs. Eventually he won't be able to walk. He has been such a good dog, and I am going to really miss him when he's gone. Best dog I have ever owned. Okay I'm gonna go have a cry now.

Take care you all and drop me a line! It has been nice to hear from all of you lately!
In HIS Grip
Tom