Wedding pictures

salyer - benton band

Wedding Bells are ringing!

The Happy Couple! Tyler and Rachel Salyer!

We had a great time and made it home last night. It was a very eventful trip:

• I got sick for over a day
• Our car had a flat tire with a screw in it which caused a flat tire
• Mom and Dad's car overheated and had to be towed. it took a day for them to get a replacement.
• Brandon did not get a shirt for his tux (it was the wrong size when we picked it up and must have been left it there)
• Angela got her hair done by a an ex-oil change technician because it had a 2 quarts of oil in it. Thanks Kim for the rescue.
• The Wedding cake was delivered to the Chapel instead of the reception hall.
• It was very hot, but no rain!
• Tyler and his brothers and Rachel and her sisters surprised us at the reception with a new band see next posting

Angela and I are so glad to welcome Rachel to our family!

Now, this is someone to vote for!

Things I do not get.

1. I don't get why we are using corn for ethanol and people are starving all over the world.
2. I don't get why we rely on people who could care less about us for oil when we have enough right here if we could only drill for it.
3. I don't get why people value animals over real people.
4. I don't get why people think tax cuts are a bad thing, it's my money to start with.
5. I don't get why people didn't call their dad today on Father's Day, I did and my boys called me.
6. I don't get why people who are trying to adopt a baby can have someone change their mind and destroy dreams of people who will love that baby more than anybody else ever could.
7. I don't get why people believe in global warming, GOD is in control, not us. (the temperatures are going down right now not up, tornadoes are caused by cold fronts not rising temperatures, also follow the money and see how people who are scaring us have set themselves up to benefit financially from it, and some of the most famous people who are trying to scare us are making the problem much more worse than I ever could, with their private jets and huge homes).
8. I don't get why people are to full pride to say they are sorry, go rent the Bucket List today!
9. I don't get why people think they can't make a difference in a situation so they just don't try.
10. I don't get why Jesus Christ died for you and me, but I am glad he did.

What week!

It all started last Sunday with Brandon's graduation from The Ohio State University! We are so proud of him, he has a job already at Nationwide financial services!

We had a party to celebrate and a good time was had by all!

• Monday, I left for Chicago for work and it was so cold! Really it only in the 60s at night 70s in the day, but it seemed worse after leaving the 90s. Brandon also hurt his foot at softball and is on crutches! Angela had to take him for an MRI to make sure nothing was torn.
• Thursday, I came home and Brandon left for a wedding in TN, he flew down and Corey is driving down today, so Angela and I are home alone, at least for a few more days.
• I am working from home today, Angela and Tammy went shopping, Pam called and said that Jordan got a concussion at the party! During the football game, at the party see above, she ran into Jeremiah and he gave her a black eye, well she was not feeling well all week, so the doctor confirmed that it was more than a shiner!
• Tyler and Rachel getting house ready to sell and move after the wedding, so that is the next BIG thing during June, then maybe things will slow down?

Character and Integrity

Boys and their toys

Well it's been a while since I updated the life of my 3 sons, so here is the latest.

• Tyler - got his Master's degree, finished teaching his 2nd year of school, getting married to a great women, Rachel (we gain a new daughter-in-law!) at the end of June, is selling his house and buying a new one. And found time to also buy a new car. He is flying up this weekend for Brandon's graduation.




• Brandon - Went canoeing again last weekend, same results, capsized lost the canoe and the oars, but since it was during the daylight, he made it out alive, but very wet. He graduates from OSU this weekend, working for Nationwide Financial, and he bought a motorcycle for the gas mileage.

• Corey - Finished his 3rd year at OSU and is moving back home for the summer, working for Grass Roots landscaping, and he also bought a new to him used car, a Toyota Camry, very nice. Sold the old Jimmy to Jim, sad to see it go, but it was time.

Lord, forgive me if I ever complain again!

Quality conversations

I was reading the blog of Dr. Albert Mohler today and wanted to share the last 2 paragraphs:

..."Join the revolution and refuse the seductions of the mind-numbing allure of all things digital -- at least long enough to think a great thought, hear a great lecture, enjoy a quality conversation (with a real, live face-to-face human being), listen to a great sermon, visit a museum, read a good book, or take in a beautiful sunset.


People who cannot maintain mental attention cannot know the intimacy of prayer, and God does not maintain a Facebook page. Our ability to focus attention is not just about the mind, for it is also a reflection of the soul. Our Christian discipleship demands that we give attention to our attention."

(you can read the whole posting by clicking on his name in the right hand column)

As I read this, the line in BOLD letters (emphasis mine) really jumped out at me. Because I think that is a secret to success in any relationship, being able to have a quality conversation.

No screaming, no yelling, no hidden agendas or finding fault all the time, not acting mad when someone says something (who are you really mad at by the way? But that will be another time.)

Just an honest, non-emotional, high caring, high quality conversation! As I look around me personally and professionally, people who know how to do this have a pretty good life. They seem to ride the storms out much better than those who do not know how to talk to someone important in their life.

I reflect back last week when I went and saw Sam in the hospital, no agenda when I showed up, just wanted to be there for him and encourage him. We had some really good conversations about jobs, education and things that we would have not taken the time to discuss if he had not lying in bed.

Having a quality conversation requires a couple of things:

• It requires that I put my self interest aside
• It requires that I genuinely care about the other person
• It requires that I look for a solution not that I am right or I win you lose
• It requires that I hold my emotions in check
• It requires that I assume the other person has good intentions until proven wrong
• It requires that I apologize when needed, sometimes I am the problem
• It requires that I forgive when ask, and not hold grudges

Because as Dr. Mohler says above, (Salyer paraphrase) if we cannot focus on each other and pay attention to the relationships we have with the people in our lives, it has to be hard to turn the "attention" switch on and pay attention to God when he is trying to speak to us.

Angela and I have really improved on this since we got married (27+ wonderful years), but I guess that is one of the things that makes our marriage great, the ability to talk and listen to each other.

Sure we still disagree and make mistakes (mostly on my end), she knows I love her and I know she loves me and that is the result of the best conversation of all. The conversation we have with God about each other, our boys, family members, church members, and friends.

Those conversations are called prayers and they are the best of conversations of all.

Busy Day on Saturday

This is how may day started with Angela and the kids making breakfast

Then we went to their ballgames

Where Angela also got to see little Jacob!

Next we got to see Brandon's latest purchase

Finally we took pictures of Corey and Audrey on their way to the Prom

A great day!

Do not sell your soul on eBay

Tyler sent me a book to read, "I sold my soul on eBay". It is written by an atheist of all things who thought he would prove some kind of point by attending church(s) designated by the person who won an eBay auction for his soul.

So I took Pastor Noel's advice and have actually been turning the TV off (at least turning the sound off if the Indians are playing) and reading.

The book ended up being a review of several church services and how they could be changed to attract people like him. As I read the book, it became clear quickly that this guy was never going to find what he was looking for, proof that God exists. He was looking for the wrong thing! When people come to Christ it is because they are looking to develop a personal relationship with Him through faith, not worldly proof.

Tyler and I agreed this is typical today of too many people who attend church for the wrong reasons. They want to know about God, instead of really knowing Him on a personal level and having faith that He knows how to run your life better than you do.

I continue to be amazed at people who view themselves compared to others instead of against what is right and wrong. They think "well I am better than this person because they did this", or they ask "why are you getting on me about my lifestyle when (insert family member or Church attenders name here) has also done things wrong".

WAKE UP! We are all accountable for what we do. I will have to stand in judgement one day and answer to God about what I did or did not do with my life. Guess what, I cannot use someone elses shortcomings to justify mine. I can only answer for myself and what I have done, not compare myself to others. Our comparision is to Christ and we all come up way short.

Dreary day (revised)

Angela made it to Memphis. She was delayed awhile in Columbus due to the storms between here and Chicago but finally got off the ground around 6:30 PM. Her flight from Chicago to Memphis was right on time. She called about 11:45 PM to let me know she was with Tyler and Tammy. I slept good knowing she was safe.

Headed to Columbus for lunch with Brandon and Corey.

Updated Sunday 5:00 PM

The boys and I ate lunch at On The Border by Easton, food = A+, salsa = C-, Turtle empandas for dessert = A+++++++++++++++

We then went and saw the new movie "Iron Man", very good!!! If you like sci-fi comic book characters made into movies, this was very good. When the movie was over the guy said we should stay and watch the last scene. Apparently, this type of movie has a scene after all of the credits, so of course we stayed. A short scene came on and Nick Fury asked Iron Man to join SHIELD.

Now I like these kind of movies but this guy next to Corey yelled out "YES" and scared me to death. So he was a much bigger nerd than me. Guess I need to add Iron Man comics to my reading list to get caught up on the plot lines.

When I got home I started scanning by parent's old slides into my computer. My mom is on a major house cleaning crusade so I wanted to make a digital copy of the family history so my sons and their kids can get a sense of what the "good old days looked like".

Here is an example: That's me in the yellow shirt several years ago. Mom and Dad and my brother Jim. Do not know what mom ate that made her face look that way!

70+ slides done, 200+ to go.


Finally I added "clustermap" on the right side ------------------->
If you click on it, you can find out where people are located when looking at the blog.
(Click on the map again after the website opens up for more detail.)

It snowed today!

I just wanted a record for my grandchildren (yes, they will read this one day) that on April 22, the year of our Lord 2008 it snowed in Newark, Ohio.

I came down this AM and looked out and could not believe that the ground was covered. Angela said when she came downstairs at 5:30 AM the snow flakes were huge.

The cars had about 0.5" (that's 1/2 inch to my southern friends) of wet heavy snow on them.

Tinker started out, tried to turn around and come back in but I made him go on out. He could not believe it either.

I cannot remember ever having a snow this late before. The temp was around 35 degrees, so I am sure it will not last.

Amazing, where is Spring??????????

Bibles in schools

There is a big problem going on not far from here.

About 30 miles north of Newark there is a town called Mount Vernon. There is a middle school teacher named Freshwater who is in the news for not removing his Bible from his desk after his principal told him to.

This has been going on for about a week and the devil is pulling out all the stops. Since this 1st broke the liberal media in Columbus has said things like (I am paraphrasing):

• He has "branded" kids with a cross on their arms as part of a "healing" service.
• He was really a bad teacher anyway and needed to go
• He is linked with other radical conservatives who pray and protest things that are against the mainstream worldview

While others on christian radio say:

• Freshwater was teacher of the year last year, so how bad could he be?
• He is only being singled out due to his standing up for what is right.
• He has already complied with the schools request to remove scripture verses from his room
• The school board cannot back down due to pressure from outsiders, like the ACLU

What do I think?

I think this is another example of how the devil is using liberal organizations to chip away at the Christian worldview. I don't know all of the details, I am sure there are half truths and exaggerations to make this poor guy look bad. I thank God he is taking a stand for what is right. The news is reporting that several hundred students in that school are bringing their Bibles to school as a show of support. The TV video showed many kids with homemade tee shirts with crosses and slogans of support.

I think we need to pray for strength and support for Freshwater. God knows his heart and his motives. Once again, due to the controversy people have had to take a stand, and it looks like people in small rural town in Ohio have taken a stand for what is right.

We all need to take a stand and pray that God will give us the courage to do what is right if we are ever faced with a situation like this.

1974

I was over at my parents house today, helping them clean out closets and I found my senior year book from 1974 when I graduated from Newark Senior High school (I know I do not look that old).

It must be something I must have bought or got because the book has no pictures of anything from the school, just generic places to record things. Some of the interesting things I wrote down:

• A coke costs $0.20
• A hamburger = $0.28
• Large pizza = $2.90
• movie = $2.25
• Gasoline = $0.45 per gallon!!!!!!!!!!!
• Rock concert = $5
• Record = $4 (who remembers those?)
• Tapes = $5 (Who else remembers these?)
• 4 year goal = have a Bachelor of Science degree = complete, even though it took 5 years
• Long Term goal -= married and get a good job = Success on both counts
• After school hangouts - Gym, Frischs and Lums
• Best half hour program = "Happy Days"
• Best 1 hour program = "Banacek, Kojak, Kung Fu"
• Best new show = "All in the family"
• Best new commentator = Jon Chancellor - NBC news
• Best sports coverage = 1972 Olympics
• Worst commercial= Mrs. Olsen Folgers coffee
• Favorite album = Seals and Crofts - Diamond Girl
• Favorite songs = American band, Diamond Girl, Jesus is just alright with me.
• Pet = Susie, my poodle, who bit Angela the 1st time she came to our house!

Brinner

Angela and I were watching TV last Thursday. The Office was great and we were waiting for ER to come on and didn't want to change the channel. so we started watching the show "Scrubs".

One of the characters used a new word, Brinner, which stands for Breakfast for Dinner. Now most of you may know that word or have already used it, but for me it was new.

Well last night we actually had Brinner and it was great!! Eggs, bacon, biscuits, and Uncle Bob's (Evans) gravy. You cannot go wrong with that.

I have always loved breakfast, Bob Evans is my favorite place to eat out. Since it is not Angela's we don't eat there often, but when we do I love it.

So I was wondering if you have dinner for breakfast would it be - deckfast? dinfast?

We already know what what you call breakfast for lunch - Brunch. Many places have that, especially on Sundays.

What about lunch for dinner, would that be - linner? lunner?

I have waited my whole life for something to make my millions, maybe I should copyright those words and wait for the checks to roll in.

What do you think?

Religion, Culture and Society

It has been an interesting week all around the world.

• People are protesting the Olympic flame in the name of religious persecution
• 400+ children were taken from a compound where they were subjected to multiple marriages and forced sex on young girls in the name of a perverted religion
• The Bible was named the #1 book in the world.
• Non-evangelical seminary's are being forced to close due to financial pressures due to low enrollment. (click on Albert Mohler link on right)

Too many times people continue to look for answers in themselves or find a religion that matches what they believe so they will not have change anything.

I was reading Romans 12 today preparing for the lesson on Sunday and I cannot get past the first 2 verses (The Message translation).

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. "

How many times are we dragged down by our family, friends and co-workers into a culture we want nothing to do with? Way too many, if you ask me. We need to rise above it, with God's help and be the beacon of hope, to those who would drag us down with them. We need to resist things that society says are OK and stand up for what is right. We need to guard our minds and not let things enter that tempt us to do the wrong thing.

Now the hard part, self examination. Some people have a very hard time really looking at themselves in a critical way. They think they are fine and never want to challenge themselves and even consider the possibility that something in their life may NOT be good for them, their spouse or their kids. They are so focused on their own world, even thinking that the whole world revolves around them. An easy test is to think how many time today did you say the word "I" today?

In my job I teach people on how to change the culture in their organizations. Culture is made up of 3 things:

1. Behaviors
2. Beliefs
3. Rules

Take out a piece of paper and draw 2 lines on it to make 3 columns. Label each column with one of the labels above. Start with the "Beliefs" column, write down everything you believe to be true about your Christan walk, next write down all of the "Rules" you believe in things God had convicted you that you should not do, and finally. fill in the "Behaviors" column, what do I do with my free time, watch on TV, spend my money, etc. and then compare it with the other 2 columns. There may be some "Behaviors = things we do" that do match what we "Believe" or "Rules" we want to follow.

Then pick something on your list, pray for wisdom and guidance on how to change yourself to be more pleasing to God. Then we can be "Salt and Light" in the world, that is the culture we all need to help create.

We may never change the whole world, but we can change our corner of it!

Big Day on Friday 4/4!

This Friday 4/4, will be the happiest day of my life. I will be celebrating 27 wonderful years of being married to Angela. Guess what else happened in 1981?

• First flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
• The first year that the word Internet was mentioned and MS-DOS was released by Microsoft along with the first IBM PC.
• Gas costs $1.25 per gallon
• Iran released the 52 American hostages
• Ronald Reagan became the President
• Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales
• Post-it notes were launched by 3M
• Raiders of the Lost Ark and Nine to Five, movies were released
• Diana Ross and Lionel Richie released "Endless Love"

WOW! A lot has also happened with us since 1981:

• 3 wonderful sons
• Angela's dad, Billy Reid, went home to be with the Lord
• We moved to Tennessee for 10 years
• Moved back to Ohio
• Jeff has worked for 5 different companies
• Angela stayed home and raised the boys, then went back to work
• Tyler graduated college and has been teaching school for 2 years
• Brandon graduates college this year
• Corey was 1 more year of college
• We have had 3 or 4 different dogs
• 20 some cats all at 1 time, and yes I was accidentally responsible for the demise of 1 of them
• Sat through too many soccer, baseball, football, and basketball practices and games to count all over Tennessee and Ohio
• AND ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

People ask, what does it take to stay happily married for such a long time, and all I can say what worked for us.

• Putting God #1, with words and actions
• Unconditional LOVE
• Honest and open communication
• Admitting mistakes
• Having patience
• Learn to say, "yes, Dear, you look great in that dress" helps also.

Thank you, Angela for making the past 27 years wonderful, looking forward to the next 27 and beyond!

Easter photos 2008

Easter Bunny + Brock

Easter cheese ball Angela made.

Easter treats from Angela, Tammy and Pam ->

Getting ready for football season.