Cry Baby

As it turns out, your captain got a last minute preaching gig that helped us hire out the wallpaper and paint job. God is good.

I preached in a little, small, tiny, country church yesterday, where I've preached many times. As a matter of fact, I preached my very first sermon there in 2001- it was horrible! The fact that they ever asked me to come back shows the amount of grace and mercy these people possess. My sermon was called "I Love a Parade" and I preached it at our home church on Palm Sunday of 2004. Although I didn't go "noteless", I did (conciously) just "talk" more than simply read the written words.

Otherwise, it was a strange weekend. On the way to the youngest clergy's ball game on Sat. we stopped at a carpet place to choose what gets laid in the girl's room. I'm just like, "Whatever, blue, pink, purple, plaid, shag, - I don't flippin' care! In the meantime, the littlest clergy decided to turn the extra large rolls of carpet into a logging festival. "Get down, buddy." "Hey, now, get down, I said!" "If you don't get off those rolls right now, I'm going to put you up for adoption (not really). As we moved to the cash register, the littlest is hopping from one roll to the next, prompting the comment from the store owner, "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to get control of your children." OK, granted, the idiot carpet jackass was way out of line, nevertheless, I was livid. I took the little man out to the van (spanked him as we walked) informing him that he was not going to be able to go to his final basketball game that afternoon. All of this took place in the span of eight seconds. Then, Mrs. CC came out with the girls, got in their van (we almost always have to drive two vehicles) and asked me what the plan was. I said in my most authoritative voice, "Why don't you go to the game and pick up his "trophy" because I'm taking him home! After hearing several reasons why we should let him go to the game, we went to the ball game. He and I arrived about twenty minutes early and just sat for a bit- he had fallen asleep (always cute) and I had all but lost my mind. The more I thought about the day's happenings and the all the emotions wrapped up in them, I just lost it. I began to cry a bit then all out water works- I mean sobbing! I climbed into the back seat (not an easy task for an old guy) and woke up the kid saying, "I'm so sorry!" I love you so much, I'm sooo sorry!". He woke up and after seeing the emotional train wreck that I was said, "Daddy you don't have to be a cry baby about it. I feel better now.

Your Captain.