Heaven is richer today…

There’s more laughter.

There’s more smiling.

There are more hugs.

I can only imagine what a glorious reception was prepared for Dick Hutton.

I can only imagine what it felt like for Dick to stand before the Lord God Almighty with the arms of his Saviour, Jesus Christ, wrapped around him.  To hear the words “Well done, my son.  My good and faithful servant.”

Heaven is richer today.

I can only imagine what joy he felt when, once again, he was reunited with his mom and dad.  Oh, how long they must have embraced.

It’s said there are no tears in heaven, but how could Dick not cry tears of incredible joy and thanks for all God has done?

Our tears will one day soon turn to smiles as the pain of our loss fades and the most fond memories of an amazing man take their rightful and permanent place in our hearts.  God doesn’t want us to cry.  Dick would not want us to cry.  But for now it seems utterly impossible not to.  We miss Dick.  His love for others knew no limits, and heaven is richer today.

For a photo & musical tribute to Dick, go here…

Mother Teresa said…

“Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.”

Yesterday was a very special day for someone who makes me smile everytime I’m with her.  She’s such a delight.  Just thinking of Emily makes me smile.  Her positive effect on me and everyone around her is infectuous.  Stunning beautiful blue eyes… Caring for others… Energy that adds life to those she touches…

Emily turned 13 years old yesterday, and you’re invited to go have a look at some photos from her birthday celebration.

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
 ~ Juvenal (60-130 A.D., Roman Satiric Poet)

If that’s true, and I believe it probably is (God created nature, after all), then why would you not listen when the beauty of nature calls?

Well, our good friends Al and Mary Taylor found wisdom telling them to come to North Carolina.  And I was fortunate enough to have the honor of building the website for their development.

Lakewood Subdivision is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the historic town of Marion, North Carolina.  It’s a place that will capture your heart.

Click here to see Lakewood and the fabulous country where Al and Mary chose to build.  You’ll find lots of photos and area information.

The day started out much like any other day. Up before the sun rises, coercing children out of bed and off to school.

This is when Mona’s hearing problem started. She’d dropped Emily off at her school bus stop, and the Holy Spirit whispered in her ear, “Mona, you should go to the YMCA this morning. It’s safe there.” “What?”, Mona said, “I didn’t quite catch what you said.”

A few minutes passed and, after having been ignored the first time, the Holy Spirit tried a new approach… “Mona, if you’re going for a run, you should go down this nice smooth paved sidewalk.” “What?”, Mona said, “huh? what?” Mona paid no heed.

So, off Mona goes. Back home. Change into exercise clothes and out the door with the iPod and some favorite tunes.

I don’t know if it was on the outbound trip or the return trip, but there most definitely was a trip. A trip that Mona won’t soon forget. You don’t want to know the details. Not from me.

My phone rang this morning at about 9:30AM and a guy said, “here’s your wife”. Mona said, “I was running and fell on the bridge. Now I have a sliver and I need you to come get me.”

If you’ve had a sliver before, you know how much that can hurt. While the words out of Mona’s mouth said it was a “sliver”, the tone of her voice said it was a S-L-I-V-E-R. After 20 years of being married, one word was all I needed to hear to know that this was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill, “we’ll get the tweezers” sliver.

I dropped everything, jumped in my car and hurried off to help my love. When I pulled up and Mona showed me “the sliver”… oogy. We spent the next 2 hours at the urgent care center.

Mona is home now and recovering nicely. She’s such a trooper.

So, Mona, if you’re reading this, I recruited some friends to put together a “back to the basics” training video for you. Please, please watch this… and take notes.

Take 10 minutes of your time right now to watch this and you will be too…

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. She says she’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Mercedes Benz SL 500. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank. She has the title, and everything checks out.

The bank agrees to accept the car collateral for the loan. The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $110,000 Benz as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Benz into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the blonde returns. She repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.

The loan officer says, “Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?”

The blonde replies, “Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”

You’ve seen our kids, right?  Anna, Ben and Emily?  Well, I found this picture of three manatees swimming together, and tell me if you don’t think there’s a resemblance…

Wierd, huh?

With all the doom and gloom talk over the last few weeks, I just wanted to send a note of encouragement out and let you know that we’re not all effected the same…

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

This post has a two-fold purpose… fun and education.

For the fun part, watch this Japanese marshmallow eating contest video…

For the education part, if you’d like to see how to embed an YouTube video like this one into your WordPress blog, click here to watch a 4:12 video that demonstrates the process.

Happy 18th birthday to Mike and Nick!  I’m not sure who’s older but I think they’re pretty close in age, separated only by minutes.  In case you haven’t been able to follow the lives of these two guys, they’re in college now and both involved in collegiate athletics.  No surprise there, since Mike and Nick both earned numerous city, regional and state-level awards throughout their high school careers in soccer, track and cross country.

Happy 23rd Anniversary to Dave and Dawn!  Actually, their anniversary is tomorrow.  So, this is a day early, but I have a policy of no blogging on Sundays.  Dave and Dawn are “empty nesters” now.  Wow.  With all that free space in the house, they’ll need to get a few more dogs.  My advice would be to get big slobbery ones that knock stuff over, leave their toys laying around and stay out late.  It’ll make the empty nest an easier adjustment.  We love you guys and hope to see you in MN sometime soon.

I didn’t have any good pictures of Dave and Dawn, but I found a handful of pics from one of Mike and Nick’s soccer games.  They’re here…