frisbee golf

i went and played frisbee golf today with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law. there are some sports that i am really good at and some that i am really bad at. if you can call frisbee golf a sport, then i would say that is one that i am REALLY bad at. who would have ever thought that throwing a frisbee 300 yards and making it in a basket in 3 shots could be hard? it's dang near impossible for me!!! we had a lot of fun, but i was definitely reminded why i never played any positions in sports in which i had to throw anything.

training

i've been in training since monday and it has been ALOT of learning. it's really been a lot of fun and i feel that i've been doing very well. the people in my class are a lot of fun and the trainer, Gary Westmoreland, is an AMAZING teacher! it's been a lot of fun learning all of the stuff that goes into helping someone buy a car and seeing the steps play out one by one. i hit the sales floor saturday and I AM SO EXCITED!!!

lazy sunday

okay, i already know that some of you may judge me after reading this next sentence but, who cares. i slept until about 12:30pm today and it felt WONDERFUL! we have been running so much since we got moved and i really haven't had one day that i have slept in until today. heck, i wouldn't have had today to sleep in if my buddies hadn't canceled our round of golf on me last night. anyways, i think i ended up sleeping for about 12hrs or so. it was the kind of sleep that was totally unforced. i didn't wake up and make myself go back to bed. i just slept pretty much straight through. the rest of the day, i just kind of hung out with jeanette and watched tiger woods dominate the PGA Championship and then we went to look at some houses. all in all, i got a whole lot of nothing accomplished today and it felt great!

learning the business

today i went up to the dealership to hang out and kind of see how things run. i got to spend the day up in the booth with the owner and the sales manager to kind of see how the whole process of a car sale works. it was very interesting.

i have to say, i know that car salesmen and dealers get a pretty bad wrap from people who don't do the business honestly. i've been in the car business once before and the people were very crooked and very shady, therefore i did not stay but about a week to find it all out and i was gone from that place. that was many moons ago. working for the ORR Auto Group, i can already tell is going to be totally different from what ANYONE has ever expected from a car dealership. don't get me wrong, these people are in business to make money just like anyone else but there is nothing shady about what goes on at the dealership that i work at.

the first thing i heard out of the sales manager's mouth today as we were talking was, "don't ever tell a lie, always be upfront about everything with everyone." i was immediately impressed with his character and the way that both he and the owner run this dealership. all day long, they gave some of the best customer service that i have seen and were very upfront on every sale. i can already tell that i am going to like working for this company.

crazy week

wow, this has been a crazy week for us. we have had a ton of stuff going on since we got here late sunday night. it's nuts how much stuff you have to do when you move. change bank accounts, insurance, etc. we're finally starting to get somewhat settled in though. my boss invited me to come hang out with him tomorrow and kind of see how things work behind the scenes in the car business. i'm real excited to be starting this new job. i start my training next monday and will hit the sales floor the week after that. i can't wait!

we're here

well, we got in last night and got the truck unloaded and all ended up eating dominoe's pizza and hanging out until about 1:30am. thanks to everyone who helped us move and to all the wonderful people at the journey church that threw us an amazing baby shower before we left yesterday. we were very blessed. well, i gotta run, my awesome mother-in-law is making chicken enchilada casserole and daddy is hungry!

moving tomorrow

well, i'm sitting up at my office eating a sonic reese's peanut butter cup blast and checking my email. we have pretty much finished packing and cleaning everything except for what we're going to need in the morning. this is a very torn moment in my life. i am partly sad to be leaving this little town and all of the wonderful friendships that i have made here, but i am also excited about the future that God has for us. we have a baby boy, Carson Matthew, on the way and a very bright future ahead of us. i can't say how excited i am about getting to be a daddy. i've not even gotten to see him or hold him in my arms, but at the same time, just knowing that he is on the way is one of the most fulfilling feelings that i have ever had. so, although i am sad about moving out of this era of my life, i am totally fulfilled in knowing that i am doing exactly what i am supposed to be doing as i enter a new era. as it has been said before, our best days truly are ahead...

turn the page

for those of you who live in a cave somewhere, jeanette and i are moving back home to texarkana this weekend. this is one of the hardest decisions that we have ever had to make. we are TOTALLY in love with this church and our youth group. we have the most amazing group of teenagers that ANYONE could ever ask for.

as you all know, jeanette and i have been blessed with a miracle baby after trying for 6 years. we have always known that whenever we were able to have a baby that jeanette would stay home to take care of it. this is something that we have planned from day one and were willing to make whatever sacrifice that we had to make to see this happen. unfortunately, you can't get rich doing youth ministry. heck, you can barely afford to feed a family of squirrels doing youth ministry.

in light of this situation, God has opened a door, like he always does, and we will be moving back to texarkana to start a new chapter in our lives. once again, this is one of the hardest decisions that we have ever had to make because we love our church and our youth group so much. we just have to trust that God is always in control and that he directs our paths. i just thank Him for the inventions of MySpace, Instant Messaging and BLOGing that will help us to keep in touch with all of the close friends that we have made through out this Journey in our life. for those of you in sallisaw, we love you very much and will miss seeing you all of the time. please keep in touch with us and know that we will NEVER let go of you in our hearts, minds, and prayers. we love you dearly.
Your Friend,
Matt

Carson Matthew

we went to the doctor today to get a diagnosis of a screening test that jeanette had done last week for the baby. they were checking to see if the baby had down sendrome and some other stuff. after confirming that everything was okay, the nurse kept looking around at stuff. i was thinking, "what is she doing?" we are only in week 16 right now, so we're not SUPPOSED to find out the sex of the baby for another 4 WEEKS! she finally gets the position that she wants and then she just sits there for what seems like forever. the whole time i'm still trying to figure out why she's still playing around when she's supposed to be finished. she finally says, "move that foot baby" and shortly after that, it did. she took 2 quick pictures and said, "well, i'm not telling you 100% or not, BUT that's a BOY!!!" we were totally freaked out! we didn't think we were going to get to find out for another month and BAM! this lady has been doing this for over 20 years and the doctor said that she's NEVER been wrong. that's a pretty good percentage if you ask me. it's a shame she couldn't be a weather person. so, for those of you wanting to know what we're going to name him just look above. this is one of the happiest days of my life.

praise you in the storm

i don't know if you've heard the song "praise you in the storm" by casting crowns or not, but this has become my life song over the past few months. i don't know what God holds for our future, but i do know that i will not stop praising him regardless of what happens. He is my strength, my hope, my deliverer, and my security. He is the one in whom i place my trust and my future. if you've not heard this song, i encourage you to listen to it and let it minister to you. God knows that i have over the past few months.

140bpm

we went this morning to the doctor to hear the baby's heartbeat. it took a minute before we could actually hear it over jeanette's heartbeat. i have to admit, it truly was amazing. we are so excited about getting the opportunity to be parents. this is something that we have been waiting for for almost 7 years.

faith

faith is walking when you can't see exactly where you're going. faith is believing when everyone else says that there is nothing to support what you believe. faith is taking that step off of what looks like a ledge and just knowing that God's hands will be there to support you. i get questioned about things that i do from time to time and sometimes i just don't have a logical answer that pleases their minds. i just have faith that in EVERY situation, my heavenly father is always there by my side, as a good friend said, "holding my hand". i am not able to explain everything to everyone. i just know that it is in times that i can't see exactly where i'm going, no one believes that i am right and i am stepping off of what looks like a ledge...i have faith that God is holding my hand...

i can't swim

being that it is summer time right now, alot of people talk about going to the lake and going swimming and fun stuff of that nature. well, i have an embarrassing secret to tell you all, i can't swim. those of you who know me really well already knew that as well as the reason why. for those of you who don't, here it goes.

i was born with holes in both of my ear drums and they will never close up. it affects my hearing as well as other things. i can't get water in my ears or i will get a really bad ear infection that hurts like all get out. i know what some of you are thinking, "how do you take a shower?" well, trust me, after the first couple of ear infections you learn real quick how to take a shower without getting water in your ears. however, there was never any way of getting around learning how to swim without getting water in my ears. because, ear plugs work for normal people but, what they don't realize is they still get a little bit of water in their ears. and just that little bit would cause me a lot of pain for a long time. so, i never learned to swim. there you go, that's my dirty little secret. what's yours?

THAT WAS SO...

we took our middle school students to Frontier City in oklahoma city on monday. it's kind of like a mini Six Flags. we had a lot of fun. i got on a ride with this one guy named jake thompson; it was one of those bungie rides that catapult you up into the air and then you kind of bounce for a minute or so before they let you down. well, as they're lowering us down jake started to say something that he didn't get to finish. all i heard was "THAT WAS SO...". the "..." was the sound of him projectile vomiting 12 feet out in front of us...which was pretty impressive by the way. right after i saw it, i started to smell it; that's when i freaked out. they finally got me out of the seat and i took off running to get away. then a kid walks up and informs me that i have some on the back of my shirt. i ran to the nearest store that had shirts as i was gagging the whole way. that was where i found a very cool shirt that simply said "Cracker" on the front of it. now, how could i pass that up?

SLIDE!!!

i know that i've been writing alot about softball and golf and sport/summer related stuff here lately, but that's what's been going on in my life so, i hope that i'm not boring you. all that being said, i got to bat in my first ever softball game last night and the adrenaline rush was off the charts! it was so much fun. i kept harassing my team mates everytime they would get a base hit and heckle them to slide even when they didn't have to. so, it was kind of funny when my turn to bat comes up. i hit a line drive right over second base into center field and as i was approaching second base i was surprised to see that the outfielder was just then starting to pick up the ball so, i took off for third and the third baseman caught the ball about 5 feet before i got there so i took my own advice and slid into third base for a photo finish "SAFE!" call. then ms. sammie caldwell batted me in to score.

what was so funny about me sliding is, we were up by about 11-0 in the second inning and there i was sliding in to third base like it was the world series or something. oh, by the way, there is definitely a certain technique to sliding the RIGHT way and evidently i was nowhere close. so, i've got a slight limp in my left leg right now. oh well, it was worth it, i had a blast.

i love summertime

summer is one of the funnest times of year for me. there's so much going on, yet there doesn't seem like there's a lot going on. it's just so much fun. i got to go to the lake last week and drive a boat around with a bunch of friends, i'm playing softball for one of our church teams...well, i'm on the team at least. we're really having a lot of fun. the only bad thing about it is the heat, and the fact that i've not had an air conditioning unit in my office since the last week of june. other than that, this has been one of the best summers ever!

benchwarmer

last night was our first softball game. well, it was our team's first softball game. we were playing the NY Yankees...it seemed like it at least. everyone saw this team warming up and they all said, "Hey, that's the team that wins the Men's Softball League every year. What are they doing out here?" well, evidently they needed some warming up before men's league started so, as some people implied...they just may have started their own church to do so.

after watching derek jeter and a-rod crank balls into the parking lot and setting off car alarms for half an hour i was asked if i wanted to play 2nd base or warm the bench for this one. i guess you know what i chose by now. we eventually had to stop playing because they launched every ball that both of our teams had so far into the woods that not even smoky the bear could find them. but, we had a lot of fun and i learned a new baseball cheer. it goes something like this, "WHO STOLE THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR? CHRIS STOLE THE COOKIE FROM THE COOKIE JAR!"...don't look at me like that, we turned it into a baseball cheer. so, feel free to use it anytime.

softball

well, it's summer and church softball is upon us. journey church has 3 teams this year. 2 of them are in the B bracket and 1 is in the A bracket. I DON'T HAVE A CLUE HOW I ENDED UP ON THE A BRACKET TEAM! we scrimmaged one of our B bracket teams sunday night, and i must say that watching me play softball is quite humorous. i was playing right field and had an inside the park homerun hit on me. it was so funny! i am super competitive...normally. i just really don't think i'm good enough to get upset about doing bad at this like i do other stuff. i think i'll just go out and have some fun with this.

golf

tuesday, on the 4th of july, i went to play golf with dr. bob wells. he's one of our elders and a great guy to be around. i've only played once in the past 11 months. and, it doesn't help that i was never that good even when i was playing twice a week. so, naturally, playing on a new course with a new person, i really stunk it up. i did have a ton of fun though. golf is one of those things that i just really unwind when i'm doing it. it's so peaceful out there and no matter how good or bad i'm doing i'm going to have a good time. i can't wait to get out and play again!

CAMP

well, it's been a while since i last wrote you all. we were at camp all last week and i have been taking a little time to recover since we got back friday afternoon. camp was amazing! we took 26 teenagers (my goal was 25) and we had 12 salvations and 3 recommitments! GOD IS SO GOOD! we all changed tremendously over the week. there is entirely too much to tell on this BLOG. i was just so excited to see God moving in the lives of my youth group at the same place that He moved in my life for the very first time. it was very exciting, and a little surreal.