Like a rock

And not as in "Chevy tough" but in "falling like a".

The Sooner fell (rightfully so) down to 19 in the AP, 21 in USA Today, and 20 in the Harris polls.

Oklahoma State is 15, 13, and 14 respectively.

So much for any chance at all at the National Title this year....

Boomer Sooner.

How to Write Good

Avoid run-on sentences that are hard to read.

No sentence fragments.

It behooves us to avoid archaisms.

Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.

Don't use no double negatives.

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, "Resist hyperbole."

Avoid commas, that are not necessary.

Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

Writing carefully, dangling participles should not be used.

Kill all exclamation points!!!

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Take the bull by the hand and don't mix metaphors.

Don't verb nouns.

Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.

WILLIAM SAFIRE

[HT: Advice to Writers]

The Gamaliel Foundation

The post below resulted in my interest in a previously unknown to me socio-political organization called the Gamaliel Foundation. Here are a few talking points of what I found out about it.

• It is a Left-Wing activist group.
• It is multi-faith, meaning it includes Muslims, Buddhists any anyone else in its governing leadership.
• It was formed in Chicago in the 60's to assist an African-American organization fighting to "protect homeowners on Chicago's West Side who had been discriminated against by banks and lending institutions."
• They desire to make the government provide civil rights and healthcare to our nation's illegal immigrants.
• They assembled a large number of left-wing religious leaders in 2003 to organize a voter drive to oust the incumbent Pres. Bush from the White House.
• Their "Yahoo Group" describes themselves as "... an affiliate of The Gamaliel Foundation, a power organization, which has affiliates in 22 different states and South Africa."

To me, it looks as if this is just another liberal pseudo-religious organization out to undermine the foundation of the government of the United States of America.

Am I against immigrants having healthcare? No. Am I against ILLEGAL immigrants having healthcare? Most definitely YES! I was a legal resident of 5 different countries. I had a million hoops to jump through to remain a legal resident of those countries. Was I afforded any of the benefits provided to citizens of those countries? NO! Why should we foot the bill for folks who are unwilling to go through our legal system to live legally in our country? I surely can't answer that one.

The Gamaliel Foundation just made my personal "watch list". I think it is bad for America.

From the "Are You Kidding Me?" File

I really don't know what to say about this. This is scary!

Praying to Obama? It reminds me of this picture I posted previously.

This ain't right at all!

[HT: Mark Kelly, via Facebook]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Addendum:

One commenter pointed out that this video is influenced by the text written across the screen. He included in his comment a response by the Gamaliel Foundation, who sponsored the event:

As a faith-based organization, it is customary for Gamaliel Foundation affiliates to begin and end every action with prayer. At no time, however, have we prayed to President Barack Obama. In the form of call and response, those who took part in the UnitedHealthcare action can be heard saying, “Hear our cry oh God,” “Deliver us oh God,” etc.

You can read the full text of the response here. You can also see the original video posted by the Gamaliel Foundation here.

You can read more about the Gamaliel Foundation here.

I will leave it up to the viewer to decide; if you close your eyes, there are two separate occasions in which you may hear "Hear our cry, Oh God"; however, it, in my opinion, is very unclear.

Moving on up

My beloved Sooners are now back up to number 8 in both the AP and USA Today polls for week 5.

Boomer Sooner!

Emily's Party

Emily had her kid party last Friday night at Honor Heights Park in Muskogee. We had such a great time! The weather was absolutely perfect and everything was wonderful!

Jumping rope

The obligatory Silly String Fiasco

Emily wanted a birthday cookie

While she invited several girls, some of them couldn't come because of extenuating circumstances...
But we all had a great time with those who made it!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Very first photo, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

As of today, I no longer have any kids with only a single digit in their ages. That's right! Emily turned 10 years old today!

Helping Daddy on the computer in Dakar, Senegal

It seems as though we've dragged her all around the world. But instead of making her weird, it has made her a well rounded mature young lady!

Enjoying the pool in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Learning to ride the bike in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Posing on the rickshaw in Hong Kong

Riding a camel in Mongolia

Posing at Tienanmen Square in Beijing, China

I am most proud of Emily for her maturity in her relationship with God. She understands the principles of grace and love better than many adults I know.

Happy Birthday, Emily! Your Daddy loves you!

Now it's getting personal...

I honestly have only been paying a little attention to all of the health care hullabaloo, but now it's getting personal. According to the OS Hawkins, the president of Guidestone, if Obama's plan passes, it will spell the end of denominational health care providers.

Read about it here.

[HT: Jackie Bell]

Pneumonia Update

Just to keep you up to date on my recovery process....

• I have been fever free for 9 days!
• My cough has diminished impressively!
• I still get out of breath very easily.
• I still have little stamina.
• Because of all the coughing, I am prone to pretty severe muscle cramps in my sides from time to time.
• I still haven't received an earlier appointment with the pulmonologist.
• I only have one more anti-fungal pill to take, then I won't have any more medicine (at least until I see this next doctor)

Thanks so much for your prayers! Keep praying!

Surprise Visit!

Sunday morning we all received a wonderful surprise blessing! Robert and Sharon Barber showed up in Wagoner! They decided to make a pilgrimage to Oklahoma to visit friends, and we were honored to be the recipients of the Sunday morning visit! They simply showed up at church, then we all went out to eat afterward. They told me that Emily had been emailing them and were concerned whether or not I would be well enough to preach Sunday. Praise God I was!

Our visit was much too short, but what a blessing it is to have such good friends that you can just take up where you left off and it doesn't seem like any time has passed at all.

We worked with Robert and Sharon in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They were surrogate grandparents for Audrey and Emily.

Best Friends

Do you have a best friend? I do. His name is Martin Whipple.

We actually went to kindergarten together. His family moved away for a few years, then we ended up back at Lone Star Elementary School together in 4th grade. We were inseparable through high school and best men at each other's weddings.

A couple of weeks ago, Martin came for a visit; he knew I have been sick. He took my girls fishing in the afternoon (swears they "accidentally" fell in the lake) giving up watching the OSU football season opener to do so. Then, he comes back to the house and watches the OU football season opener with me!



For about three months, we have been planning a fishing weekend together. When I got sick, we were sure I'd be well by that weekend. Not realizing I was going to take a turn for the worse, we still made plans to go fishing. As the time was approaching, we began to realize it wasn't going to be our typical play hard-rest little weekend. He came on to Wagoner anyway, (he lives in Enid, OK) under the condition that I not over-do it and would tell him if I needed to rest or stop all together. I got Dad involved and last Friday, we took Dad's boat out on Ft. Gibson to fish for sand bass.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day; the first sunny day we'd had in two weeks. The lake was out of its banks because of all the rain we've had, but we made it work anyway. While we didn't catch many fish, we all agreed that the time spent was the real fun.



Unfortunately for me, just sitting in the back of a boat (not the boat pictured in the post below, but a nice bass boat) holding my rod was too much for me. By the time we quit (about 4 hours of 'fishing') I was totally exhausted. However, we didn't have anything to eat out at the lake, so we drove into Muskogee for supper. Afterward, we went back to the lake house and watched Lethal Weapon 4 with the surround-sound turned WAY UP!

When I woke up Saturday morning, I was a little anxious because I woke up exhausted. Nevertheless, we decided to go crappie fishing down at the dock. Sally had given strict orders that I wasn't supposed to "accidentally fall in the lake", so I found some waders to get me to the flooded walkway.



Dad caught a little catfish, Martin caught two small perch, and I got skunked! But I had the time of my life!

The Bible says "... there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverb 18:24) For me, this friend is Martin Whipple.

Boat Damage

I posted about Mom and Dad's new boat that they bought back in the Spring here. Above is a picture of it I took over the Fourth of July holiday. It was one of the nicest boats you could ever imagine! Mom had been restoring all of the teak wood accents and flooring. Dad had it completely re-upholstered. It was beautiful!


Over Memorial Day weekend, my brother, Pat, took it out and was having a good time. A friend of his was going to drive by really fast on his Ski-do, turn, and drench Pat and his wife, Debbie. However, at the last moment, he wasn't able to control it and rammed full speed into the boat.


The force of the impact broke completely through the hull of the boat. Pat told everyone to don their life jackets and he drove full speed back into the cove to try to get it in the dock before it sank. Fortunately, the driver of the Ski-do wasn't hurt, but Debbie had her knee right up against the hull and it hurt her knee pretty bad and ended up at the emergency room. Pat was able to make it back to the dock (because of the way the hull broke, as long as he kept moving, water didn't come in) and it didn't sink.

Thankfully, Debbie has pretty well recovered and there was no serious injuries. The man's insurance will pay for the boat, as it is a total loss...

Visitors from Vinita

Sally's Mom, Juanita, Audrey, Emily, Sally, and Sally's sister, Mary

Early Birthday for Emily

While Emily's birthday isn't until Sept 28, Grandma and Aunt Mary made a pre-birthday visit last week or so.

Emily was VERY HAPPY with what she received.

Everyone loves to watch kids open presents!

Sally's Birthday Pic

This was way back in August, but I finally got around to downloading/uploading the picture! It was a small cake because I was sick and we only had a very small party.