Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This is the most wonderful time of any year. This is when I saw the best commercial ever made. It showed a mom and dad pushing a buggy (shopping cart) down the aisle, dancing and smiling while the song "most wonderful time of the year" was playing in the background After the parents moved out of view 2 kids about 10 with a sad looks on their faces and arms folded walked slowly behind. The point was it was a "Back to School sale" and the kids would be out of the house going back to school. What a wonderful time!

As our boys get older it loses some of drama. They are gone most of the time any way. Brandon starts back on 9/10 and told us last week, that if goes through next summer, he could graduate in 12 months!! (Angela started tearing up right then). We kid Corey about always being at home, but I know he will be moving to main campus in 12 months. So this time next year we may be truly almost empty nesters! Life moves so fast!

But I am rambling, it is still the most wonderful time of the year because FOOTBALL STARTS TONIGHT! College football starts tonight and I cannot wait. Taking Pastor Noel to the OSU game on Saturday so he can see some yankee style football in person. It will be fun with a packed house.

Next week PRO FOOTBALL starts and the Browns are going to the Super Bowl, this is their year, I can feel it.

Finally, baseball is getting exciting. The Indians have won 10 of 12 and are making a late run at the wild card (now I am dreaming) but there is always next year for tribe fans. Hope the Reds make the playoffs, at least that would give me something to do between football games.

Boys are back in town!

Did not realize it had been so long since I posted some news, here is the latest on my mind.

• Well the boys (Brandon, Corey and Blake) survived another fishing trip to Lake Erie with Memi and JR. Every year they take the boys fishing before school starts and usually come back with interesting stories. Last year they caught almost 800 fish, which was way over the limit, so this year I think God got them back since they caught less than 200. Brandon also takes all the video and produces a video highlighting the trip and forever burning it into our memory. The best part of the video recap was Memi wearing a baseball cap backwards and giving some kind of a gang sign! That and the scene of JR pulling his chair close to the TV while everyone else was playing a game, will make this trip memorable.
• Car update: Ended up spending the money and getting the head gasket fixed professionally, what a waste waited 6 weeks without the car and still ended up spending the money. THEN, the Jimmy went into the shop and we found out that it was only running on 4 of 6 cylinders! Fuel injector problem which always equals a lot of money! Corey spent all the money from working this summer to get it fixed. He is now in "work mode" to refill his piggybank.
• CONNECT group is amazing. God is really working! We had over 20 again and are now moving to the biggest room in the basement! Keep praying that we can be an outreach to those in the church who need Christian friends and to the unchurched that we can reach them. The monthly fellowship is at our house this Friday, Tailgate Time, is the theme as we celebrate the beginning of football season.
• Got my 2 tickets to the OSU opening game on 9/2, taking Pastor Noel, going to show him what real football looks like, not that wimpy SEC stuff. He is a big Auburn fan, so he might have something good to brag about this year. I think it would be cool if OSU played Auburn in the Championship game, watch for lots of trash talking both ways then!
• Work going very well, doing a lot of training classes recently, Crucial Conversations and teaching managers how to coach their employees.
• "The Office" is coming on, that's all for now!

How to soften your heart.

Well guess what? The Neon is back in the shop! It was overheating driving down the road and now needs to be fixed again! Wish I had the money to get a new car, maybe a Chrysler 300!

Great day at church, set new record attendance with CONNECT group with 20! Had 6 new people! Told Pastor Noel we needed a bigger room and more tables! God is good.

Our class motto is: "Where the teaching may be mediocre, but the snacks are great!" guess who teaches and guess who provides the food? Angela, my queen, makes the food. I am sure people are coming to see what she makes next!

Helped out at VBS last week. Had between 125 and 150 kids every night. Really softened my heart up to talk to some of the bus kids and hear what kind of life they have. The lesson one night was about being scared and how if you have Jesus in your heart you do not have to afraid. One little boy in Angela's group told her that he gets scared when his mommy goes to jail. We both teared up thinking about what kind of life that little 4 year old was faced with. Really makes you appreciate what you have and really makes my problems seem trivial.

At VBS you hear more of those kind of stories and that should remind us that God has been very good to all of us. If you are reading this you must have a computer and a nice home with family that loves you. There are many, many people out there who are much less fortunate than we are. Working at VBS makes that much more real and keeps my heart soft.

Lord, help us all to find ways to reach out and minister to those less fortunate than ourselves. Let us never get too busy to forget to help out those who need some of your grace and mercy.

I think having a soft heart is a good thing.

Milestones

Today is a big day in the salyer household with several milestones being passed:

1. I hit the 15 pound loss mark today! The combination of calorie counting, food substitution, and exercise helped me overcome a potential disaster this weekend. We had people over to eat and Angela made 4 wonderful desserts!! They all looked good, but I (for the most part) stuck to the fresh fruit and avoided a big weight gain.
2. Tyler started his 1st real job today! He called this AM and was very excited, we are so proud of him, he has been through a lot but he made it and I know he will be successful. I would give anything to be a fly on the wall in his classroom today.
3. The Neon made it to Columbus this AM with no problems! no overheating, oil leaking, or other problems( THANK YOU JESUS!) This is only the 2nd time in 6 weeks I was able to drive this 35 MPG gas sipping car to work, so pray for it to keep running.

Renewing Vows

We went to a ceremony last night for family friends who renewed their wedding vows. They had been married 10 years, have 4 beautiful daughters and I am sure they felt it was something they needed to do. It was nice, to publicly declare their love for each other and renew their commitments to their marriage.

But you know, if that was the only time they showed their love for each other, their marriage would not be based on much. Anybody could tell their spouse they love once then every 10 years! What counts is what happens the rest of the time. How do they treat each other, how do they show love, do they forgive each other when they make mistakes or hold grudges?

It dawned on me later, we as Christians should be renewing ours vows to Jesus daily. We should thank God everyday for the sacrifice he made to send Jesus to die on the cross for us.

I wonder if Christians had to publicly "renew their vows" would they do it? I know Jesus would do His part, and wait for us at the altar, to see if we would be as interested and committed to Him, 5, 10, 20 years later, as we were when we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.

Would you?