News and Notes

Alright, it has been a while since I have posted anything so let me catch you up on what has been going on:

• Laura Lynn and I celebrated our Sixth Anniversary a few days ago. It is hard to believe it has been six years. The one lesson learned that I would share with someone about to get hitched is that marriage is work. I am not saying that I am not madly in love and that LL is not my best friend, but marriage does take work. For example, with the arrival of Maggie, LL and I have not had as much time to spend with each other and our relationship has suffered. Neither one of us is happy with this situation, so what are we going to do . . . we are going to work on it. Anyway, all the work and effort is worth it because LL IS my best friend and I love her beyond words.

• We have really been enjoying Christmas this year with Maggie. A few years ago one of my friends (K.L. Hauck) referred to it as CHRISTgiving and I have called it that ever since. It truly reflects what this time of year should mean, that Christ was given to us. He was given freely and came to be our sin sacrifice. It is a Bell tradition to read the birth narrative of Jesus before opening gifts. LL and I have added the accounts of His death and His resurrection to our tradition to help remember why He came and that He is coming again!

• Speaking of traditions, I have also come to realize that LL and I do not have enough traditions in our lives. In the past societies based their calendars around the church and the Bible as reminders of what God had done. We don't do that today. Therefore, I am going to make a conscious effort to set up traditional milestones to point my family back to Him. I especially want to do this with Easter, which really gets glossed over in this day and time.

• We have watched a few movies lately, mainly Superman Returns and The Holiday. Both were good, but it really hit me how commonplace premarital sex has become in movies today. The Superman movie upset me the most. Superman is supposed to stand for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. I guess according to Hollywood today, premarital sex is the American Way.

• Well, I am back on a DIET. I know people always laugh at me when I say that because I am not overweight. But just because I am not largo, does not mean that I eat well. My biggest downfall is carbonated beverages, esp. Mountain Dew Code Red. To quote Will Ferrell "it is so good when it touches your lips." So my diet is not to lose weight it is simply to eat better and get in a little better shape. So far I am not doing to well, I had to get a Code Red today because I have had a blinding headache for the past two days. It is a minor setback, but I will prevail. I also plan on starting running again in the near future.

• That's it for now, will write more as I have time. Maggie is in the other room "talking" it up! God bless and have a Merry CHRISTgiving!!