think about this.

I read this today and it rocked my world; "...in the context of God's strength, our problems are small indeed." -Francis Chan

I forget sometimes that no matter what is going on in my life that God is SO much bigger/stronger than anything I will ever face. Chan also said that, "worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives."

Of course we have to take care of our responsibilites, but what it all boils down to is that we just need to TRUST Him more. Proverbs 3:5-6 So, if you're in a rut look to Him for strength, and if all is going well give Him the credit!

Love the rain!

It was sooooooo hard to get out of bed this morning!!!!

coming to an end!!!

Well, there are about 10 days left of my Physical Education teaching career! I can remember when I first found out that I was going to be removed from PE and placed in the classroom.....I was terrified.

The one thing that I didn't realize until these past few days is how much I am going to miss my old school and the people that I worked with for the past three and a half years. They are the ones that took me in straight from college, and they accepted me as one of their own, treating me just like family.

I will NEVER forget my friends from CEC! They have taught me so much, and everyone of them are just incredible people...even down to the custodians. In the past three years there has never been a time when I was down and someone didn't lift me up here at school, and that's just the kind of people they are.

I'm telling you these ladies are like my sisters and second moms to me...I LOVE them to death....and I don't know what I'm going to without them next year. I've poured my heart and soul into this school ever since I walked through the door on that first day, and I was met with the same love and compassion everyday.

I will miss being a PE teacher, but most of all I will miss my CEC family.

I love you guys!

The Worst kind of pain!

If you're a parent you will know exactly what I mean when I say this. There is nothing that hurts more than seeing you child in pain!

It's the worst kind of pain.......seeing your child in a pathetic state, not their joyful self, and there is really nothing you can do about it. Of course you can take them to the doctor, I know that, but when they are only a year and a half old they can't really verbalize what's hurting them. All they can do is cry that gut wrenching cry and stare at you with tears flowing down their precious little cheeks as if saying HELP ME!

If you haven't guessed by now my daughter, Gray, is sick. She had a fever for most of the day yesterday, and then last night she threw up on me in bed. Throw up used to bother me, but after teaching 4 year olds for four years I got used to seeing it.

I HATE when she's sick!!!!!!

Truck Day!

So, today was truck day at my school and I got the opportunity to dress up like a tiger and walk around making the kids laugh.....it was actually pretty fun. There were the occasional ones that did notice it was me, but I didn't let them know for sure.

It's not every day that you can dress up in a tiger suit and act like a fool in front of all your coworkers...I had a blast that is until the stupid head piece started to give me a headache! After the pain set in I went inside and changed. After changing I ventured back outside to enjoy the day with the kids. The only thing they kept saying was, "Coach, was that you in that tiger costume??".......to which I quickly responded "noooooo, I don't know what you're talking about!"

It was all in all a great day, plus God blessed me with a cool day so I wouldn't fry in that old Tiger suit!

Thanks Han!

Props to my wonderful wife for revamping my blog...I love you babe....you're WAY more than I deserve!

it goes like this

This past Sunday my pa-in-law spoke about, brace yourselves women, submission. I believe that one of the main points that the ladies need to remember is that "being submissive does not mean being inferior to your husband". However, this post is NOT directed towards you ladies.

Dudes always like bringing up the submit card to their wife after hearing a message like the one this past Sunday, but what we dudes need to remember is that if we are not submitting to God and to his authority, it makes it a lot harder for our wives to submit to us!

As the man of the house it is our responsibility to BE the spiritual leader.........If we stay in touch with God, our wives are a lot more likely to stay 'in touch' with us.

I don't expect my wife to submit to my authority unless I am submitting to my Father in heaven....it just works better that way! We are told, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to also to love their wives as their own bodies." Ephesians 5:25-28

Dudes, we need to lift up our wives in prayer every chance we get, and love em to death!

Done with it!

Well after watching American Idol last night I decided that I'm done with the show for the rest of this season. The best one got voted off! If you're one of those Adam Lambert fans you must just like the way he looks, bc home boy has nothing else in his bag but SCREAMS! In my opinion his voice gets really old really quick, and when he makes a cd I think it will be very hard for him to make every song not sound the same. He belongs on broadway screaming/singing with his boy Clay Aiken.

I do however believe that Danny will do just fine on his own, even without the title.

Stressed

Pray for me. I'll be all gravy after tomorrow, but until then it's all stress............I have Field Day....it's going to be a long day tomorrow!

anniversary debrief

So I made it through the entire weekend without screwing up anything that I had planned....it was a total success! For those of you that didn't know this weekend was our celebration for our 4 year anniversary. I must say that I did a pretty good job this year, and I'll describe a bit for ya.

Last week while my wife was out of town on business I met up with a buddy of mine and recorded myself singing a song that I used to sing to Hannah while we were in college. The song's called "nothing fancy", look it up, it's a good one! Anyways, after recording the song I even had a label made for the cd with a picture of us looking at each other. The plan was to take her out to eat and have the restaurant plan the song through their system for everyone to hear. The only problem was that when I went to the restaurant to set it up they told me that they only had radio...no way to play the song....so I improvised. I went and borrowed a small sound system from a buddy of mine and took it back up to the place. The lady told me that she would set it up before we got there, they were really nice about helping me! The second part of the plan was for the waitress to bring out Hannah's gift after we finished our meal. The gift was a shootsac (bag for Hannah to keep camera junk in while shooting) and she has been wanting one for a LONG time! The last part of the plan was to spend the night at a resort at the beach....just the two of us ;-)

Here's how it all went down: We arrived at the restaurant. As we were walking up to our seat everyone was looking at us, mainly bc they wanted to know who was going to sit at the table with the music playing next to it. Some of the women we passed were just amazed at how sweet I was....thanks ladies! Hannah was taken back by the whole thing, and couldn't believe that I put myself out there like that.....it was a bold move I must say, but she deserved it! I will have to admit that it was a little weird sitting at the table with my song playing for everyone to hear while we just looked at each other smiling...Hannah said I turned red, but I didn't care. After the meal I actually had to go and remind the waitress to bring out Han's gift, but I acted like I had to used the restroom, and played it cool. She LOVED the gift! Then we left, caught a movie, and went to our extravagant room.....that place was CRAZY nice.....and did I mention that was free?

We woke up the next morning and went to eat a nice breakfast together. After that we headed off the the pool, and chilled out there until it was time to leave for dinner. The pool was nice, but the sunburn is still kicking my butt!!! Overall a GREAT weekend retreat!

The only bad thing about the whole thing is that now I have to do it up even bigger next year!!!!!!!!

Han (the proposal)

I told y'all that I would inform you on how slick I was when asking my wife to marry me, so here we go. Hannah and I had been dating since we were freshmen, and loving every minute of it. We were approaching our graduation and I decided that it was time. Life wasn't going to get any better, and I for dang sure knew I wasn't going to find a better girl to ask to be with me forever, so I made some calls.

A buddy of mine had just recently been engaged, so I asked him where he got the ring.....mainly bc he got such a good deal ;-) He explain to me where he got it and off I went. I took my Pops along with me for moral support, and my sister jumped aboard for ring approval. I met with the ring guy, picked out the perfect stone, paid him, and was off. I don't think that I've ever been more excited to give something to someone before.

Now, before I made the ring purchase I did the good ole boy deed and talked to her dad to ask for his daughter's hand. I know that you're really supposed to talk to the father face to face, but to tell you the truth I was terrified of him at the time, and the phone seemed like a better option! He understood, and he said of course! Ok, now I had to plan my move. If you're a single dude listen up.....you do NOT want to mess up your proposal, bc if you do she will remind you for the rest of your life...not to mention you want to look like a stud when all her friends ask, "how'd he do it?". So, take the time to think it out!

Early on in my educational career I found out that I was a poet and didn't know it, it just came natural to me, and became a great tool with the ladies. It was nothing for me to whip up something on a girls birthday card and make her plus all the other girls that read it cry! It's a blessing and a curse at the same time. Well, I had written a poem for my wife to be earlier on in our relationship and she really liked it (of course!), so I took the poem, rewrote the ending into a proposal, and had it framed. Then I called all our close friends and told them be at her favorite restaurant waiting on us after I popped the question. Hannah was clueless!

Well the time came. It was Saturday and I was playing in one of my last football games. I LOVE football, but I couldn't wait for the game to be over, bc I knew what was going down afterwards. Prior to the game I told Hannah that we should go out to eat with our families since they were already in town for the game. Well, the game ended and I was off to get ready. I was PUMPED! I went to pick her up and told our other friends to go ahead. On the way to the restaurant I pulled in to the place where I told her that I loved her for the first time. She got a look on her face like what the heck are you doing? I told her that we needed to make a pit stop and that I had a gift for her. I asked her if she remembered the poem that I wrote for her that she loved so much.....she said yes, why? I explained that since you liked it so much I had it framed for you. This is where I got creative with getting her out of the truck so I could get on one knee. I said the only problem is that I need you to get out bc I put it behind your seat to keep it from breaking.....she got out, and I got the poem. I said let me read it to you bc it's been a while since you've heard it.

I started to read the poem, and when i got to the end I started to get down on my knee.....she started to realize what was about to happen! You should have seen the look on her face, it was priceless! Then I asked, "will you marry me?" Every guy expects to hear YES as a first response...so did I....but instead she said, "did you ask my dad?" To which I replied, "does that mean yes?" Then she said of course I'll marry you, with big tears in her eyes. That was one of the best hugs I've ever had in my life!

Now we were off to dinner with her next to me frantically calling everyone she knew, her parents first, and telling them the news. What she didn't know was that all those people were waiting on us at the restaurant. When we walked in she was floored to see and hear them all yelling and cheering for us both. It really was awesome, and it's the best question I've ever asked!

I'll end with this- Single dudes, DON'T drop the ball!!!

Han correction

I would like to clarify that my wife and I did in fact have numerous dates before I laid that first kiss on her. That was brought to my attention that I left that out in yesterday's post by my lovely wife ;-)

I just wanted to clear that up, so you don't think my wife was a skank!

Han part 2

One of the first so called "dates" that Hannah and I went on was a walk around our college campus. It was just the two of us at night strolling around the foothills. As we were walking I noticed that she smelled SO freakin good, so I said, "I love your perfume, it smells so good!" She replied, "thanks, it's lovespell". I quickly shot back with, "so you tryin to put me under a spell?" to which she said, "yes, is it working?".........uh YEAH! To this day I always think back to that moment when I smell lovespell, and I still love that stuff!

After that night it was time to plan our first real date. So, luckily one of the other cheerleaders was a friend of mine from high school. She got together with Hannah and planned a nice dinner at her house. When I pulled up to pick Hannah up I will NEVER forget what I saw walking out of that dorm! I knew right then and there I was in DEEP trouble. I think I even asked myself what in the world are you thinking, you're way out of your league dude! She was wearing a long sleeve shirt with different colored stripes, but mainly all green. I can't say that I noticed what color her shorts were, bc (forgive me Poppi!) I was too caught up with her gorgeous legs! She was SMOKIN HOTT! I don't know how we made it to the dinner, bc I don't recall taking my eyes off of her.

We got there, ate, chilled, and then we were on our way out. As we were walking to the truck I knew it was time for that one special moment....the kiss. I kept telling myself not to screw this up. I'm telling y'all I was so taken back by this girl I did not want to do anything to run her off, or make her think I was a horn dog! Long story short, I chickened out and kissed her softly on her forehead, but I did experience one of the best hugs of my life.

I thought I had done the proper thing that night by taking it slow with the kiss, and holding back.....I was wrong! I later found out that she was really hoping that i would have kissed her. So, I was looking forward to the next time!

I'm going to fly through a lot of details and get to the point. After our next date was over she was taking me back to my dorm. I had a bet with her roommates that I would kiss her that night, so naturally I couldn't let them win........but I backed down again and simply said good night, got out of the car and started walking towards my dorm. Then it hit me, KISS HER, so I called her before she got back to her dorm and told her I forgot something and needed her to come back. As I got back into the car I said I can't let them win.....to my surprise she knew what I was talking about!!!! I leaned in and laid one on her, and that's when she was hooked!

After that night it was all over. I didn't care about any other girl on the planet. I was all about some Hannah! Years past and I ended up asking her Dad if I could have his daughter's hand in marriage. He said he'd be glad to have me as part of the fam.

Tomorrow I'll let you know how slick I was with the proposal.....

Han part 1

This thursday I get to be reminded that I have been way out of my league for 4 years now. My wife and I will celebrate our 4th anniversary, and I couldn't be more proud to be her husband.

Now if you read her blog (hannahgray.net/blog) you will get a little taste of how we got this thing started, but my story is a little different.

It all started out in the fall of 2001 at North Greenville University, college at the time. I was on my way to another football practice when I almost broke my neck checking out a girl. As I was watching her I said to myself, that's the kind of girl I want to marry. So, I set out to find out more about this little hottie that caught my eye. I soon found out that she was a cheerleader, which worked out great considering I was a football player. Now I knew that I would at least get to see her two times a week, once at FCA and second at the games.

I made up my mind that the next time I saw her I was going to introduce myself. One thing that you need to keep in mind is that I was EXTREMELY shy when it came to girls. Don't get me wrong, I never had a problem getting a girl friend, but most of the time I just waited back and let the girl come to me. Well, I decided that this girl was too important to just sit back and wait on. So, it was monday night and we were at FCA. Luckily, my seat was close enough to see her, but far enough for her not to notice me staring.....at least I thought! I know I probably should have been paying attention to the message that night, but I just could not keep my eyes off of her. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen! There were a couple of times when she caught me looking, but that was cool with me, bc now she knew I was interested.....and hopefully she didn't think I was crazy. At the end of the night I hung around in one of the isles slowly walking toward her hoping that she would notice so I wouldn't have to walk all the way up to her. Well, she did, and that's when I found out she was NOT shy! She walked right up and said, "HEY my name is Hannah!".....grab her and don't ever let her go were my thoughts, but I managed to get out my name instead. After that night I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas morning everytime I was away from her. I was completely satisfied with not ever meeting another girl, and that's how I knew she was the one for me.

to be continued...

Monday

Well it's monday again! I had a great time this weekend even though it didn't really last that long!

Friday night my parents came into town to visit and help watch Gray while we attended a wedding on Saturday. I've only enjoyed one wedding in my life, and that was my own.....just being honest. Although, I will say that my bro Matt did his wedding in a very cool way. Just before kissing his bride and sealing the deal, he turned to the crowd and presented the gospel. We even worshipped a lil bit! It was cool to witness. The best part was that two people got saved.....AT A WEDDING!!!

The wedding took up pretty much the my whole Saturday, but that was ok with me. I enjoyed the company. Sunday was full speed as always. Great message, great worship, and great food afterwards! PS- if you haven't tried Kentucky Grilled Chicken you don't know what you're missing.....good alternate to the fried.

The only bad part of the weekend was catching some of crud from Gray, but Hannah got it too so we are just one big happy sick family ;-)..........don't worry it's not swine flu!

Y'all have a good one

4th

To all of you out there that actually care, it looks like I will be teaching 4th grade next year.

We SUCK! (church softball)

and I hate losing!!!!!!!!!!!!