Our Children...

Taylor and I finally have decided to have children... Well, not human children, but rather feline children. We adopted a boy (Bourne) and a girl (Bauer) from the Second Chance Animal Shelter in Killeen and we have fallen in love with our two kitties!

These are pics from the first day that we brought them home. They made themselves at home very quick and love they people! We got them declawed and fixed up with shots last week and now they can stay 'out' in the house (rather than being put up in the laundry room at night or when we leave). They love staying out and they roam around all day long ... if they are not sleeping!

They are not brother and sister, but they sure play like it! They have slept in our bed the last two nights and that has been so much fun. Bourne literally sleeps with half of his body on Taylor's pillow and half of his body on top of her head!!! I tell no lies... It may be one of the cutest things you have seen this year!

We would love for you to come and meet our new kids. Luckily they walk on 4 legs rather than 2...

Bourne Chillin'...


This is one of Bourne's favorite spots to lay in the living room


Bauer getting ready to 'wreck shop' on Bourne


Let the games begin!

Have a GREAT DAY today...

Sharptop Cove 2009...

After getting back from Frontier Ranch, we had almost exactly 2 weeks before we took our Central Texas high schoolers to Sharptop Cove in Jasper, Georgia...

You would think that it would taken nothin' to get a high schooler to leave Killeen and go to camp... Noooooooooooooooooooooo, not this year. Not ANY year! I know that this is part of the Spiritual Battle that goes on all around us each and every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The Enemy NEVER stops!

But the busses pulled up, we loaded 40 kids and 9 leaders on 1 bus and some Belton and Marble Falls folks on another and off we went! It was a wonderful bus ride. Not one problem which is unusual. I did think to myself around 1 a.m. as I was trying to doze off and get an hour of sleep before our crazy week of camp starts tomorrow, 'At what age am I told old to be riding this bus each and every year?' I turn 33 years old on September 3, 2009. Taylor told me that I am already too old to ride the bus and that we need to fly next year. I think she was just acting silly and selfish ... wink, wink!

Of the 40 kids that we took to camp, 16 made a decision to follow Jesus!!! Now the Fun begins as we arrive back home, get kids plugged in and start their Spiritual Root System. We met every single day from 10-11:30 a.m. for two weeks and it was STRONG! Probably our best after camp follow up that we have ever done. Such a joy to see kids grow in the Lord!

I sure wish that you could experience a week at a Young Life Resort!

This is a group shot of our CenTex friends. We are all wearing our commemorative Camp Shirt honoring the year of the 'Flying Pig Flu' a.k.a. Swine Flu...


This is Night 3 at the Carnival. One of the kids won some money and chose to take me to 'Pie in the Eye!' I know it's coming, so I might as well make faces and talk trash, right?


This is one of our guy cabins before their ropes course. The Ropes Course is such a Powerful Tool to challenge kids, have them step out in faith and learn how to trust something or someone other than themselves! It's like we have to Deprogram people from the world before they can learn to listen to the still small whisper of our Heavenly Father.


Sharptop Cove...

This is my cabin right before our Volleyball Tournament. They were a great group of guys!

Thanks for supporting Young Life in Central Texas.

Because High Schoolers are WORTH IT...

Frontier Ranch 2009

Wow! I can't believe that it has been over a month since we have returned from our 2nd Session Assignment for Young Life at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, Colorado.

Our time at Frontier was Incredible. We got to see Amazing things happen! We got to see a hundred kids each week step from Death to Life, from Perishable to Imperishable! It doesn't get any better than that.

One thing that made our Assignment very Unique and Different was the dreaded Swine Flu of 2009. So Wild. So Crazy. We experienced the Brunt of the Joke at Frontier Ranch. Kids were infected. Our Assigned Team was infected. Everyone was exposed to it. Our first week, we had to send 160 folks from Houston home on Day 3 of 7 at camp. On Day 5, we sent the rest of camp home. It was SO Bizaar! Never before have I had 2 days 'off' at the end of Week 1 to prepare for Week 2.

Week 2 was less hectic and the Swine Flu surfaced at the end of the week, but it really didn't affect our week. Weeks 3 and 4 were free and clear! Such a blessing. It was excellent to finish strong and know that Jesus moved mountains in spite of all that went on.

Our biggest challenge came at the end of Week 3 during the last night. Our Camp Director's, Lynn Barclay, husband Paul was supposed to come and visit us on Week 2, but he had gotten sich and did not want to travel. In the span of a week, he stayed sick with random symptoms and on the last night of camp of Week 3, Lynn got a phone call from the North Carolina Police saying that her husband had passed away! Totally Insane. I will never forget getting the news. I was on stage celebrating after 'Say-So' when Elise Austell came up to me and told me this tragic news. Here we had just experienced 100 kids step spiritually into eternity and now we are dealing with Paul Barclay physically stepping into Eternity?!? It was a real hard time for everyone on our Assignment. Lynn Barclay is a great mom, wife, Regional Director, lady and Leader! Lord, Bless Her...

Here are some pics for your enjoyment. I know that pictures are worth a thousand words ... or so the saying goes!

On our way home from Colorado, we stopped at the Royal Gorge at BOY, it was awesome! Have you ever been there? I like to stop and random places during a trip and sightsee and this was a Great Treasure. This picture is of the tram that go across the entire valley and is some 2,000 feet in the air or something ludicrous like that. We rode it and it was a blast! We spent 2 hours at the Royal Gorge. What a gift. We then drove 7 hours to Amarillo to eat at the Big Texan (a famous restaurant that offers you a free 72 oounce steak and 'trimmings' if you can eat it all in under an hour! It's the Disney Land for Rednecks! We LOVED it...


These are some girls from Lake Highlands that I really connected with on the very first day of their specific week. They were so great and so precious to me. I told them that the thing I wanted most out of there week (besides them coming to know Jesus) is to stand atop Mount Chrysolite at 12,822 feet with them! They really knew I was crazy then. They hemmed and hawed, but said that they would give it a try. This day was the most draining day in all of our Assignment. I literally pushed one girl up the mountain. After we got about 60% of the way up, a couple of the girls would sit down (which you should never do), cry and say that they were not going any higher. It was TOUGH! God showed up that day. Each and every kids made it to the top of the mountain. We were the last folks to the top and were received by 400 others cheering us on. It was SO Powerful...


Taylor and I snuck away from camp one afternoon and I took her to St. Elmo. This is a really fun old mining town where you can feed the Chipmunks. They would crawl all over you and eat the seeds you had set out. It was really fun. Taylor loves animals and wildlife!


I borrowed a friends 4 wheeler and Taylor and I drove out of Frontier Ranch and up the side of one of the Collegiate Peaks known as Mount Princeton that Frontier Ranch actually sits on the side of. It was a great ride and such B-E-A-UTIFUL scenery. This is TayTay on top of the 4 wheeler at our final stopping point. No more vehicles beyond this point...

Tay and I atop Mount Princeton. It was about 15 degrees cooler at the top than it was in camp.

There ya have it. That is the short version of our time in Colorado at Frontier Ranch...

This is my 10 Year Anniversary this summer with Young Life! It's hard to believe that it has been that long...