Madison was baptized on Sunday...

what a great day.

Amidst the constant hitting and kicking and yelling among the siblings, it makes us feel like we are at least doing something right. She knows Jesus and loves Him and wants to live her life by His word.

It's all good. But not too good. (Right Sam?)

Aside: I know why Jesus was an only child. I just can't see him calling his sister a poopy head. Or kicking her in the nose because she touched his army men.

I wrote a song for the occasion. The chorus came to me about two months ago. In church, I just started to hear these words in my head:

On water He walks
From water to wine
Of water and the Spirit
He saves this sinner's life

Not long after I wrote down these words Madison came to us and asked about Baptism. I finished the song soon thereafter. Jim Henderson and I sat down and knocked out the chords in about 45 minutes. I then went home and created the melody.

I put in some words from a David Wilcox song called "Break in the Cup". I planned on looking at Mike and Steve when I came to that part and smile. I thought I might laugh but I did it anyway.

Much to my surprise, I started to choke up. Not good when you are singing. I had to look away post haste. Which I did and made it through the song. Whew!

The coolest thing happened after the song.

Aside: The whole family was there sans the Phoenix Pfaffenbergers. The church was 1/4 full with just us. Pretty cool.

From my view in the choir, I could see Steve with Tod and Craig sitting right behind him and Mike sitting right behind them. I sat down and looked up at them and as if on cue, they all nodded their heads in perfect unison as if to say, "Well done, sir."

Unscripted, raw emotion. Family.

Everyone came back to the house. The newly painted house because...that's another blog. Simple fare; sandwiches, chips, potato salad, asian coleslaw, fruit, olive tray, cookies and cheesecake. Some swam, some played, all visited.

The words to Madison's song

On water He walked
To reveal Himself to them
The calming sea proved
He is the Son of man

From water to wine
His life forever changed
He set His fate in stone
His promise began that day

Chorus
On water He walks
From water to wine
Of water and the Spirit
He saves this sinner's life

Bridge
There's a break in the cup that holds love
Inside us all
For there's a break in the cup that holds love
We must go to the waterfall

Over time
Water wears the stone
Through the perfect grace of Christ
Water brings us home

Nothing better...

than a long drive to clear the head.

I drove up to Tulsa this week for work. Trust me I wouldn't go if I didn't have to.

Aside:

Everytime I want to type an apostrophe I end up typing a semi-colon instead. I will give you a second to look at your keyboard...As you saw they are right next to one another. I always have to arrow back to the word and replace the semi-colon with the apostrophe. I wish it had auto-correct so it would know I wanted to type can't instead of can;t. On second thought my phone has auto-correct and it, to put it bluntly, sucks. I was sending a text the other day and I wrote "You damn skippy" because that is one of my favorite sayings. Well, it came out "You damn sloppy". So I sent it again making sure I typed in skippy an even explaining that auto-correct changed the word. Auto-correct strikes again. For the second time it changed the word to sloppy. I then added it to my dictionary. I won't be second guessed by my freakin phone. (By the way, when I typed in the word won't just now, I typed in a semi-colon instead of the apostrophe. D'OH!)

Anywho...believe it or not, after that rambling, my head was clear. Actually, it was clear enough to remember that hilarious anecdote so I guess it worked.

I thought about Kelly and Madison and Ian and the little one...what's her name...think Presidents...oh yea Reagan. (Man, I'm a goof)

I thought about how lucky I am. I thought about how if I had the chance to do anything over again I wouldn't change a thing.

And yes, I typed the wouldn't as wouldn;t.

Back again...

Where should I start...

Madison presented herself for Baptism on Sunday. She made her profession of faith and is ready to become an "official" Christian.

She initiated the conversation without any prodding from us. She spoke with our pastor, Sam, and she came down the aisle last Sunday. For those of you not familiar with how the Baptists do things, at the end of the service they have a time where church members can come down the aisle to the pastor and pray or join the church or ask for Baptism. It's a big deal. Coming down that aisle all by yourself is a little scary. Or so I am told.

Needless to say, Kelly and I are very proud. She is an 8 year old wise beyond her years. We know, and Sam agrees, that she understands what she is doing and what it means to be a Christian.

When we talked about it with Ian and Reagan, Reagan asked "When can we get appetized?" Ian when told how a Baptism works, in the Baptist church they are fully submerged, looked a little concerned:

What's the matter son?
They go totally underwater?
Yep.
Can I wear my goggles because I can't go under water without my goggles?

Reagan wasn't too keen on getting appetized after that either. She can't go underwater so she will have none of it.

As a Catholic, this is all new to me. The sacrament that best correlates to the Baptist Baptism is Confirmation. Catholics "seal the covenant" or confirm their infant Baptism at Confirmation. Baptists confirm their belief in Christ through Baptism. I don't want to wax poetic on the dogma but that is my belief in a nutshell.

On the weight front, I don't know how much I weigh. I do know I am still buying smaller pants. 10 sizes so far. I have about 6 sizes to go. If I could make it 8, that would be gravy.

I am still training for a 5K in November. I was going to do the Turkey Trot but it is a Susan G Komen foundation sponsored event and they give to Planned Parenthood. That is something I will not do. So the 5K is still a go; I just need to find a new one to run. There's got to be a million of them.

I just got through reading this post. I don't want to upset anybody. Rest assured any word choice was not pre-conceived to elicit emotional distress. I just wrote what I felt. So please don't read into this. Now I am projecting.

I will shut up now.