Running for a Great Ministry

On Saturday Allison, Cooper, and I will participate in our 3rd Run 4 Kids, benefiting The Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. This is an event that we look forward to each year, and a ministry that we are big supporters of. The home houses kids that, for various reasons beyond their control, have been removed from their own home. Just like many other not-for-profits, the Children's Home is having a tough year. Because of the economy, donations are down and that makes fundraisers such as this that more important. If you are interested in running or walking in a 5k, please come out and join us. There is a 5k, and 1 mile race for kids ages 4 to 9, and a 100 yard dash for kids under 4. There will also be food, a live band, and other activities the whole family can enjoy. You can sign up on-line here until 11:59 p.m. CST tonight or you can show up and register on race day starting at 6:30 a.m. If you aren't able to make it to the race, but you would like to donate to this ministry, you can do that here.

Please Pray

Please pray for our friends Anna, Jason, and Ian Miller. They found out today that Ian has a brain tumor. The doctors will do an MRI on him in the morning at 8:00 am and he is to have surgery at 8:30 am on Friday. Ian is 17 months old. You can follow his dad on Twitter here and may be able to get updates and know specifically what to pray for. For now, please pray for healing, wisdom for the doctors, and peace & strength for Jason and Anna.

The Principle of the Path - A Book Review

The quotes “Direction—not intention—determines our destination” and “We don’t drift in good directions. We discipline and prioritize ourselves there” are a short summary of Andy Stanley’s book, The Principle of the Path. In my opinion, Andy Stanley is trying to get his readers to realize that it does not matter what we want to happen unless we intentionally attempt to make it happen. We may have the best of intentions, but if we don’t act on those intentions we may never fulfill them.

This was a great book. This is the first book of his that I have read, but I will definitely pay attention as he writes more. This book was very inspiring. It made me consider whether or not I am acting on the things that I feel God is calling me to do or simply hoping those things will happen. I especially liked the way he backed up what he was trying to teach with Biblical stories and/or principles along the way. This book was a quick and easy read. I definitely recommend this book, whether you are seeking a path or not and you can get it here.

Eight Years and Counting...

Eight years ago today a couple of youngsters said "I do," and began what has been the greatest journey I have ever been on. I remember thinking on my wedding day, as I was crying in the room behind the sanctuary in Tusculum Hills Baptist Church, "How in the world am I going to take care of BOTH of us?" I am sure my brother, who was my best man, was freaking out trying to figure out how he was going to 1) get me to stop crying and 2) figure out how to make me feel better. I can remember him telling me "Dude, stop crying, we have to go out there. You're going to be great." I don't know if I've been great, but I know that the partnership Allison and I have has been great. I also know that there is no one I would rather spend my life with. Thank you so much Smalls, for saying yes. These past eight years have been great, and I look forward to spending the rest of my years with you. You are the best wife a guy could ever ask for. Thanks for all you do to keep our family, household, and life in great working order. You're the best!

A Giant Shift

If you read this blog with any regularity, you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Well, Allison has been in a trial that has spanned the last four weeks and she was working a lot the week before that. Because of the trial, she has either had the computer with her at work or she has been working on it at night when I might create a blog post. Over the past four weeks, or so, not much has really happened or changed. Nothing other than a GIANT shift in Cooper's behavior.

Cooper is two and a half as of yesterday and the easy thing to say is "Oh, he's just in the terrible two's." Except for the fact that his behavior has changed so dramatically over a very short amount of time. Over the last few weeks he has been in several incidents in which he has acted very aggressively. Two weeks ago at church we were told that he was being aggressive. I believe he was taking toys from one of the other children in class. One day last week when I picked him up from school, I noticed that he had an accident report in his slot. Before I even looked at the paper I knew what had probably happened, he'd been bitten. I was correct, however, he was bitten in retaliation for waking the other child up by jumping on him. Are you kidding me??? Finally yesterday when Allison picked Cooper up from his class at church she was told that he was aggressive with his friends again. Apparently, he had pushed a child and possibly bit another one. Wow! That's really all I can say right now.

Allison and I have chosen to discipline Cooper using timeout. This has, and still does, work when it comes to Cooper. However, the day care that Cooper attends seems to resist using this. When we started there we were under the impression that, when the child reached the age that it was appropriate, time out would be used as a form of discipline. In our minds this has worked perfectly in terms of consistency. However, because timeout is not being used he is not getting that consistent discipline that we hoped for. Am I blaming Cooper's school for his shift in behavior? Absolutely not. We think there are many contributing factors from inconsistent discipline, to being around other aggressive children to his age.

With the latest incident today we are taking an additional approach to discipline. We decided to take a toy away. I had one opinion and Allison had a different one about which toy to take away and why. Ultimately, I agreed with her and we decided to take away a riding toy that Cooper plays with every day. It is a Pooh riding toy, that since Allison brought home a badge from one of the Captains from Metro's police department he has started calling it his "Police truck." We told him that we were taking it and if he is good this week and is not mean to his friends he will get it back. We also told him that if he continues to be mean to his friends we are going to continue to take toys from him. We'll see how it works and I am sure I will blog more about it as time goes by.

Question: Have you experienced similar situations with your children? If so, what type of discipline (other than spanking, which we are choosing not to do) did you use and did it work?

Country Music Half Marathon

If you have read this blog for very long you know that I was scheduled to run the Music City Half Marathon on Saturday. Well, Saturday came and I completed my first half marathon in 2 hours and twenty minutes. My goal was 2 hours, but the heat and the hills of the course proved to be too much for me to finish in that time. With temperatures nearing 70 degrees at the start of the race, I knew that I, along with many others, were in for a tough run. I was able to keep my pace for about 5 miles, but around the halfway point I knew that I was not going to be able to finish in 2 hours. After that my times per mile continued to go down as the temperature went up. At mile eleven, without mentally considering it, I just started walking. For the next mile and a half I walked the hills and ran the parts of the course that were flat or downhill. With about 3/4 of a mile to go I started running and was able to finish the race. I am not disappointed in my time, just disappointed in the fact that I trained for so long and was not able to finish the race without walking. However, I am so thankful to Alli, Cooper, my mom, Jason, Nick, and Kristin for coming out and cheering me on at various places along the way. You guys are the best. As for my next race, I will be running in the Run 4 Kids on May 30 with Allison and Cooper will be participating in the 100 yard dash. If you are interested in running you can go here and run a fun race and support a great ministry.

Me finishing the race

So thankful for my family coming to cheer me on

A Trip Every Boy Should Take...

...especially if he's a fan of Tennessee football. Yesterday Allison and I took Cooper on his first trip to Neyland Stadium. We made the day trip to Knoxville for the annual Orange and White game. We went with a guy Allison works with, Jeff, his wife, Amy, and their son William. We had a great time and the boys actually did much better than we expected.

We left yesterday morning at about 8:30 and arrived in Knoxville at about 12:30 local time. We found a place to park and walked down to see the Vol Walk that started at about 1:30. As we made our way toward the stadium I was amazed at how many people were there to see "practice." After the Vol Walk Jeff, Cooper, and I walked over to get tickets and then met the girls and William back at the Campus Deli where we picked up burgers for lunch. We ate our burgers back at the car before going back to the stadium to watch the game.

We arrived at the game just after it started, and because we waited we had to sit in the upper deck. As it turned out, this was a great place for us to sit. We were in the shade, and if we weren't I don't think the kids would have made it as long as they did. We sat in our seats for the entire first half and Cooper really seemed to have fun. When we first sat down he seem mesmerized by the number of people as well as by what was happening on the field. He asked many times what they were doing as well as pointing out Smokey several times. Just after halftime Cooper started to get a little restless. He and I walked down and stood by the rail. He really seemed to like it there because we were a little closer and he could stand on the rail to watch. After standing there for a while we walked back up the stairs and it appeared that William had had all he could take so we headed back to the car. When we told Cooper we were leaving he said "No, I want to watch the football game." Reluctantly he complied, and we headed back to the car and made the trip back.

While Cooper is definitely too young for a regular season game, I was encouraged by the fact that he seemed to have a goo time. Who knows, maybe we will make it a family tradition to make the journey to Knoxville every year for the Orange and White game.

I don't know if it was the game of how high we were, but Cooper was mesmerized when we first got in the stadium

There were tons of people waiting for the Vol Walk

We were high up, but the shade was great

Me and my boy taking in the game

Allison and I were both delighted to see Cooper's excitement and the fact that he was singing "Rocky Top" on the way to the stadium.

"On the rail" was Cooper's favorite seat

Cooper and Mommy doing a little tailgating before the game

Me and Cooper watching the players and coaches during the Vol Walk