Dad took the job preaching for the Cleveland church of Christ in Bankston, AL. It's pretty close to camp. It's about half-way between Jasper and Tuscaloosa. It's in the country so I'm excited about going hunting and fishing up there. He is extremely excited about this new opportunity.
He was bragging on the singing there.
He moved what he could this past week. They're still working out the living arrangements so he'll be staying in their fifth-wheel for a while. Judy has a little less than two years left before she can retire comfortably so she'll be staying in Georgia for a while. This is a great move for them. We're all very happy.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
I caught him
After years of fishing, I finally caught a big one! I estimate him to be about 8 pounds. He was a skinny joker or he would have weighed more. Fun, fun, fun!
For those interested, I caught him on a black spinnerbait using a Pflueger baitcaster rod and reel combo with 8-pound test line (I think).
For those interested, I caught him on a black spinnerbait using a Pflueger baitcaster rod and reel combo with 8-pound test line (I think).Our pond is about 2 acres and I have worked hard over the last ten years to create more and better habitat for the fish in it. Obviously it's paying off. I know there are at least 3 fish this size in it. The water is so clear you can occasionally see the big 'uns swim by. There have always been alot of fish in the pond, but these fish have only gotten this big over the last couple of years. I would like for the pond to be less crystal clear, but I am unsure how to accomplish that. The size of an average bass is getting bigger, but they are still very skinny fish. That might not be the pond though, it may be due to the species of bass. The bream on the other hand are worth coming to visit me for. Very large, very tasty, and very fun to catch!
Oh, btw, we got a new camera Saturday. How fortunate. So expect more blogging now. :)
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
My dad
Dad called me this afternoon and informed me that he is no longer the preacher at Hartley Bridge Road in Macon, GA. He had only just found this information out about an hour and a half before he told me, so I purposely didn't stay on the phone with him very long. I didn't want him explaining the situation without having had the opportunity to cool down somewhat. So for those of you who can, contact me or him if you know of any churches looking for a preacher. I will try to update the details of this situation as soon as I get them. Be praying for him and Judy.
ICYC
We're home for a week between camps. We got back from Indian Creek on Friday and we leave for Backwoods on Sunday. Big Red (Michael James) and his wife, Patti, are coming to town tomorrow to spend a couple of days with us. On top of that, all three of us have been fighting some sort of congestion since we got back from camp. We think it was from the air conditioners in the cabins and the dust being stirred up. Whatever the reason, we are running ragged right now. Then consider that after we get back from Backwoods, it's basically time to go back to school. Also, I'm pretty sure I was very close to heat stroke at camp last week. I think I'm still recovering from that. Whew! Busy, busy, busy....
Next year at Indian Creek we will be celebrating 20 years of Teen Week. In actuality, it will be the twenty-first Teen Week, but that's unimportant (if anyone wants an explanation of how that works, I'll be happy to provide one). For the people who have ever attended Teen Week and have pictures please let me know. I'm gonna start collecting them for a montage/slideshow. Or if you remember someone who may have pictures, give me names. Or if you just want to comment about some of your memories from Teen Week, feel free to do that as well. It's gonna be a sort of reunion. I think Jerry (Martin, the director) is planning on having a lot of the men who used to be regulars at Teen Week come speak during the week even if they aren't staying all week as counsellors. I'm really looking forward to it already. Just help spread the word.
Next year at Indian Creek we will be celebrating 20 years of Teen Week. In actuality, it will be the twenty-first Teen Week, but that's unimportant (if anyone wants an explanation of how that works, I'll be happy to provide one). For the people who have ever attended Teen Week and have pictures please let me know. I'm gonna start collecting them for a montage/slideshow. Or if you remember someone who may have pictures, give me names. Or if you just want to comment about some of your memories from Teen Week, feel free to do that as well. It's gonna be a sort of reunion. I think Jerry (Martin, the director) is planning on having a lot of the men who used to be regulars at Teen Week come speak during the week even if they aren't staying all week as counsellors. I'm really looking forward to it already. Just help spread the word.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
3 blogs this year?!
I have been a terrible blogger so far this year. Maybe I'll do better in the future - who can tell?
Thinking of things to post......
How about this? -
Don't know if everyone knows (how can they since I never post anymore) but I have been the deacon to the youth at the Fairhope c.o.c. since January. Summer is rapidly approaching which means it's passed time to start thinking about camp. So this post will be about camp.
ICYC Rocks! 'Nuff said.
Even though counsellors have to pay this year, we will still be going to Indian Creek Youth Camp (Teen Week). I probably will not be bringing any kids from church this year though. Gas prices are ridiculous, and Fairhope has traditionally gone to Backwoods. So for this year, it probably will just be me and Rachel and Micah. We may even be the only Dixon's there! GASP! I haven't talked to dad yet, but Tammy just had a baby, Melissa just started a new job, and Tim is navigating airplanes.
Last year we went to Backwoods with the church. It was my first full week at Backwoods in a long time. I had a good time, but for all the reasons it has been true my whole life, I am still an ICYC man. The two are so different that it's hard to find someone who truly fits both places. And most people who read this blog are familiar enough with both to have an opinion already. I will leave reasons out for now, but suffice it to say I still think ICYC is the greatest place on earth. It's funny, but alot of times when I get to know someone pretty well, one of the first things I instinctively do is decide if they're an Indian Creek person or a Backwoods person. We have both at Fairhope, so I'm all for continuing the tradition of going to Backwoods. But I am planning on working Indian Creek into the annual summer ritual since I am the deacon of the youth.
More to come shortly hopefully. Please to enjoy the following picture.
Monday, March 17, 2008
This one is for Rachel
So Saturday was a fun day. Rachel attended a Ladies' Day at church whereat Cindy Colley spoke. Rachel picked up Vol. I of a collection of CDs the Colley family created called Hannah's Hundred. It's Bible verses that the family sings to help kids memorize them. It's very sweet and worth the 10.95 price tag. All you gals with kids should check it out. But that's not the topic of this post. As a matter of fact this may get kind of lengthy.
When Rachel returned home from the aforementioned Ladies' Day, I decided I would jaunt off to one of our ponds and wet a line for a few minutes. If you don't get those references, I mean I went fishing for a little while. We have two ponds on our property, the Big Pond and the Little Pond. The Little Pond rarely gets used and is actaully quite overgrown most of the time. I decided on Saturday though that I would give that fishin' hole a go. I caught a few fish, but still that's not the point here. I drove my truck to the pond which means I had to drive across a cotton field wherein all the cotton has been mowed down. I have a 4-cylinder Chevy Colorado that needs new tires - not ideal for off-roading. On top of this, we haven't exactly been experiencing a draught in our neck of the woods so far this year (yay for our garden though!). And you can probably guess what happened next. The growth around the pond was so tall and close together I decided I would try to drive as close as possible to the pond to create a little room for myself in which to fish. I didn't drive the truck into the pond, if that's what you're thinking at this point. But I did get it stuck in the mud. And really it wasn't exactly mud. It was wet soil and wet grass. The dirt didn't become mud until I started to spin out. And even then only one tire got stuck, so I thought, "No big deal. We'll just get the Blazer down here and give it a little tug and it'll pop right out." WRONG! The Colorado didn't appear to be stuck very bad, but when we hooked it up to the Blazer, you guessed it, the Blazer simply spun out and it too became stuck. At this point the Blazer looked worse off than the Colorado. Well, it was getting late on a Saturday afternoon, both were vehicles were stuck in the mud, and everyone we could think of to call from church who might have a 4x4 to come help us get out was either out of town or their truck wasn't actually a 4x4 and probably would have gotten stuck too. So it fell to us to unstick our vehicles and save the day.
I will now skip the sloppy part of the story and tell you, dear reader, that eventually we did get both vehicles unstuck through sheer determination, brute strength (that's why I call her OX), and some small ingenuity on my part. But this only happened after playing a game of give-and-take with the mudhole. First we worked on the Colorado. To start out with it was probably 10 feet from the edge of the pond. By the time we got it unstuck we actually had to get CLOSER to the pond. We maybe had 3 feet to work with by the time it came free. Then the Blazer was a cinch. We had to dig out around the wheels of both vehicles with a shovel and then place two-by-fours in front of and behind the tires so they could get some traction. The entire process took us about 5 hours. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever exerted so much effort in such a short amount of time. I was physically exhausted. There was a lot of pushing and pulling and heaving and hauling and digging and scraping. It was a MESS! But what a sense of accomplishment when we finally were able to drive both vehicles clear of their entrapments! Lesson I learned: don't take that chance ever again. Drive the 4-wheeler.
Now to the part that is for Rachel. The entire time we were out there working (and Micah actually had to hang out inside one of the vehicles while we slaved away which was not fun for him) I was comparing this situation to the one in which we currently find ourselves financially. We are stuck in a quagmire just like our cars were. Both of them were stuck, both of us are stuck. We had to play give-and-take, getting closer to the peril of the pond with the vehicles, and sometimes we may have to play give-and-take with our debt to finally be able to work it loose. It required patience on our parts to know that eventually we'd get out of there. Same for our finances. We had to get a little dirty, use equal parts brain and brawn, dig out around the tires, and eventually we were successful. All of those are metaphors for what we have to do to get out of the debt we face. It is important to note that those cars never would have come out if we hadn't levelled the ground around the tires. Those two-by-fours had to be level or declining in order for the tires not to spin out on them. That took me several hours to figure out. The same for this fight we're in. We have to think on our feet and make changes when necessary. We can and will overcome this. And for those outside parties reading this, know that the debt we face is not overwhelming, although at times it feels like it is. We meet our obligations monthly, but there is never anything left at the end of the month to put away....yet. We have a plan, we have the ability, and if we stick to it, we will be successful. But we have to be patient and know we are paying for our mistakes. Just like with the mud, we put ourselves in that position and we got ourselves out, we'll do the same with this. We weren't afraid to ask our friends and loved ones for help, and they offered what they could. They couldn't remove us from the mud, and neither will they remove us from debt. But they can support and encourage us, and we must accept that from them. I love you and cherish every moment we spend together, whether it is in joy and laughter or mud, sweat, and tears. Only you and I know the sense of accomplishment we felt when those cars came out of that mud, and it will be our success when we are free and clear of our past mistakes. May the Lord forgive us for even being in this situation. It won't happen again, that's for sure. And for those out there who may be struggling with the same thing, let me suggest listening to or reading Dave Ramsey. He tells you like it is. We may not stick to his plan exactly, but we are using his principles and ideas to help us through this muddy time. It's working.
Love you all.
When Rachel returned home from the aforementioned Ladies' Day, I decided I would jaunt off to one of our ponds and wet a line for a few minutes. If you don't get those references, I mean I went fishing for a little while. We have two ponds on our property, the Big Pond and the Little Pond. The Little Pond rarely gets used and is actaully quite overgrown most of the time. I decided on Saturday though that I would give that fishin' hole a go. I caught a few fish, but still that's not the point here. I drove my truck to the pond which means I had to drive across a cotton field wherein all the cotton has been mowed down. I have a 4-cylinder Chevy Colorado that needs new tires - not ideal for off-roading. On top of this, we haven't exactly been experiencing a draught in our neck of the woods so far this year (yay for our garden though!). And you can probably guess what happened next. The growth around the pond was so tall and close together I decided I would try to drive as close as possible to the pond to create a little room for myself in which to fish. I didn't drive the truck into the pond, if that's what you're thinking at this point. But I did get it stuck in the mud. And really it wasn't exactly mud. It was wet soil and wet grass. The dirt didn't become mud until I started to spin out. And even then only one tire got stuck, so I thought, "No big deal. We'll just get the Blazer down here and give it a little tug and it'll pop right out." WRONG! The Colorado didn't appear to be stuck very bad, but when we hooked it up to the Blazer, you guessed it, the Blazer simply spun out and it too became stuck. At this point the Blazer looked worse off than the Colorado. Well, it was getting late on a Saturday afternoon, both were vehicles were stuck in the mud, and everyone we could think of to call from church who might have a 4x4 to come help us get out was either out of town or their truck wasn't actually a 4x4 and probably would have gotten stuck too. So it fell to us to unstick our vehicles and save the day.
I will now skip the sloppy part of the story and tell you, dear reader, that eventually we did get both vehicles unstuck through sheer determination, brute strength (that's why I call her OX), and some small ingenuity on my part. But this only happened after playing a game of give-and-take with the mudhole. First we worked on the Colorado. To start out with it was probably 10 feet from the edge of the pond. By the time we got it unstuck we actually had to get CLOSER to the pond. We maybe had 3 feet to work with by the time it came free. Then the Blazer was a cinch. We had to dig out around the wheels of both vehicles with a shovel and then place two-by-fours in front of and behind the tires so they could get some traction. The entire process took us about 5 hours. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever exerted so much effort in such a short amount of time. I was physically exhausted. There was a lot of pushing and pulling and heaving and hauling and digging and scraping. It was a MESS! But what a sense of accomplishment when we finally were able to drive both vehicles clear of their entrapments! Lesson I learned: don't take that chance ever again. Drive the 4-wheeler.
Now to the part that is for Rachel. The entire time we were out there working (and Micah actually had to hang out inside one of the vehicles while we slaved away which was not fun for him) I was comparing this situation to the one in which we currently find ourselves financially. We are stuck in a quagmire just like our cars were. Both of them were stuck, both of us are stuck. We had to play give-and-take, getting closer to the peril of the pond with the vehicles, and sometimes we may have to play give-and-take with our debt to finally be able to work it loose. It required patience on our parts to know that eventually we'd get out of there. Same for our finances. We had to get a little dirty, use equal parts brain and brawn, dig out around the tires, and eventually we were successful. All of those are metaphors for what we have to do to get out of the debt we face. It is important to note that those cars never would have come out if we hadn't levelled the ground around the tires. Those two-by-fours had to be level or declining in order for the tires not to spin out on them. That took me several hours to figure out. The same for this fight we're in. We have to think on our feet and make changes when necessary. We can and will overcome this. And for those outside parties reading this, know that the debt we face is not overwhelming, although at times it feels like it is. We meet our obligations monthly, but there is never anything left at the end of the month to put away....yet. We have a plan, we have the ability, and if we stick to it, we will be successful. But we have to be patient and know we are paying for our mistakes. Just like with the mud, we put ourselves in that position and we got ourselves out, we'll do the same with this. We weren't afraid to ask our friends and loved ones for help, and they offered what they could. They couldn't remove us from the mud, and neither will they remove us from debt. But they can support and encourage us, and we must accept that from them. I love you and cherish every moment we spend together, whether it is in joy and laughter or mud, sweat, and tears. Only you and I know the sense of accomplishment we felt when those cars came out of that mud, and it will be our success when we are free and clear of our past mistakes. May the Lord forgive us for even being in this situation. It won't happen again, that's for sure. And for those out there who may be struggling with the same thing, let me suggest listening to or reading Dave Ramsey. He tells you like it is. We may not stick to his plan exactly, but we are using his principles and ideas to help us through this muddy time. It's working.
Love you all.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Spoiling them
Several of us proud parents have blogs celebrating our beloved children. And we have every right and responsibility to do so. But I have been asking myself this question lately - are we spoiling our kids by making them the center of so much attention? Especially those of us with only one child. As they grow, will they begin to expect to see their own face all over the internet? What kind of effect will it have on them? If it helps them become adjusted and accustomed to the spotlight, thereby reinforcing leadership skills then I am all for this new kind of spoiling. But if it just produces self-centered, spider-eyed (having eyes that are bloodshot and therefore have the appearance of spider webs from staring at a computer screen for hours at a time), kids who never see the light of day then I say we need to use some caution in the amount of coverage we give the tykes. I guess like most things, moderation is the answer to producing healthy kids.
Times two
This was his Halloween outfit - Cowboy/Mechanic.
This is his most recent work. The dark mocha corduroy slacks just set the ensem off. It will be foremost in his portfolio. He needed a new head shot anyway.
I love this picture. He is fascinated with his own lips. They constantly stay chapped because he constantly picks at the peeling skin. It's kind of cute to see, but gross at the same time.
.........what in the world!??! ^.^
At the Halloween Pary he attended, all he wanted to do was slide. He climbed the ladder by himself. That was quite the site to see.
This was a borrowed outfit for a trunk or treat at the local library. Silly boy.A bit of imagination
So it's been two months. Whaddayagonnado?
Here's some pics. Work is great. Love to all.
The picture above is what I like to call, "The cutest picture ever taken."
He can already drive a nail faster than me. I'm not kidding.
He already reads more words per minute than me....just kidding. But seriously, he reads faster than Rachel....seriously.
WAAAAAR EAGLE! Which when he says it sounds like,"Waaa Eda-eda-eda-eda! Hey!"
I titled this one "Sweetness" after my old favorite football player.
Here's some pics. Work is great. Love to all.
The picture above is what I like to call, "The cutest picture ever taken."
He can already drive a nail faster than me. I'm not kidding.
He already reads more words per minute than me....just kidding. But seriously, he reads faster than Rachel....seriously.
WAAAAAR EAGLE! Which when he says it sounds like,"Waaa Eda-eda-eda-eda! Hey!"
I titled this one "Sweetness" after my old favorite football player.
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