Get a Room

55th Birthday Memories

Tons of fun on my birthday yesterday! My wife has a way of expanding everyone's birthday into days. Mine started on Sunday with a special lunch with the family. It was then she revealed that we were having an extended family celebration of my birthday this weekend. i love my wife. She really knows how to spoil the family. She is awesome at that.

Here are some quick reflections from yesterday:

* Walking into my office in the morning and seeing EVERYTHING decorated with FIFTY-FIVE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY banners everywhere. (If they weren't too old, I'd pounch on my girls!) Imagine explaining to everyone you counseled why your office looked like a party!

* Lunch with Pat and Kyle. It was a real birthday treat in that I didn't have to pay for THEIR lunches!

* Having people you didn't recognize coming up to you at the restaurant wishing you a happy birthday. The power of Twitter, the blog and Face Book these days ...

* Being called into the main office area for a surprise party of b'day cupcakes with the staff. (Thanks, Leslie!)

* Teaching some parenting concepts with Chris Hollomon to 200 parents at church last night. Eager audience ready to do what it takes to become better parents to their kids.

Finally, there is no other day that I know of who , along with me, have August 19 as their birthday. Some I'm proud to share my day with, while some ...

Maybe you know as many on your birthday but look at these:

-- Bill Clinton

-- Tipper Gore

-- Amy Goen - yep that's Kyle's wife

-- Kyra Sedgewick (The Closer- one of our fav's!)

-- Matthew Perry

-- Willie Shoemaker famous jockey

-- LeAnn Womack

-- Peter Gallagher

-- Lil' Romeo

-- Adam Arkin (actor - you'd recognize him)

-- Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek creator)

-- Ogden Nash

--  John Stamos (Jessie from Full House)

-- Mary Jo Fernandez (tennis star)

-- Steve Sloan (former Alabama quartback from my home town and former Vandy football head coach.He actually signed me to a football scholarship to Florida State in another life - that's another story though)

-- Steve Clark (good Cleveland, TN friend of mine)

-- Jill St. John (movie star from yesteryear - hey I am 55!)

-- Orville Wright (went to high school with him just before he and his brother took the first flight :-)

-- Coco Chanel (remember Chanel No. 5?)

-- Malcolm Forbes

It's just for fun, but I think it's a pretty impressive list. Take a look and see who was born on your birthday so you can brag about it on your next birthday blog ... or the day after!

A Unique Birthday Present

My wife gave me a most memorable present on my birthday present today. Our Blackberries look just alike and - you guessed it - she took MINE in to work with her today. She works in Nashville while I work here in Smyrna.

I had a great insight (great to me anyway) on John 15:16 today. Will share it with you soon.

Also coming soon ... Comings and goings this summer. We've had a lot of both. It's been another busy travel summer with more ahead this fall.

20,000 Strong!

A fellow blogger told me recently, "I am a binge blogger", i.e. I don't write for a while and then I will write several entries in a row. I gotta confess, that's a lot like me. You are probably a binge reader as well, aren't you?

We are all busy with lots of stuff in our lives. The blog is yet one more thing. It's been fun to do, mind you, but I do get behind on it.

I check the numbers, probably weekly, and you continue to look at "Get a Room". Thank-you. It's good to hear from you sometimes just to know I'm not alone in the blogosphere.

And now for the announcement...

Despite my sporadic postings, "Get a Room" has just completed its second year, and it just went over it's 20,000th hit! How about that?!?

So thanks for reading. I hope there has been something in a post or two that has benefited or at least entertained you. (I'm not sure how helpful it was to now that I actually encountered 30-40 vultures while running one morning, but perhaps it did amuse you.)

So here's to another year and another 10,000 or so hits. I will try not to binge as much. Rather I will attempt to be more consistent in my postings. (The operative word there of course is attempt :-)

Take care and I look forward to encouraging you to make yours a better marriage, a better family, a better and abundant life. That's the spirit behind this blog and why I call it ...

Get a Room.

Just For Fun

Want a good laugh. Take a look at this. You'll need 3-4 minutes but it's good. It's about a man giving a "pretty good reason" why he won't be at work today.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70vcS41tr2A&feature=email

New Scars Over Old Ones and a Book 'Restart'

SHOULDER UPDATE

Got the shoulder done. It was very uneventful from the doctor's perspective. I am grateful but still navigating the one-arm bit for a few days. Hard to Christmas shop - or get into the Christmas spirit with an arm in the sling.

However, this posting should tell you that I'm learning to use the right arm some again. Thanks for your prayers.

THe last thing I remember my surgeon saying to me was "Okay." That was in response to my two questions:

1") Can I have the staples you remove from my shoulder?"; and

2") If you find any gold in there, it's mine, too, okay?"

Selma got the staples but I guess he kept the gold. Doctors, you just can't trust them. :-)

BOOK LOOK

Our book, The Parent Adventure, is finally ready to be purchased. So tell eeveryone you know - and those who you don't know. In fact, go out into the highways and hedges ... okay, so I'm getting a little carried away.

Actually, amazon.com can send it to you today. Barnes and Noble in a few days. It's also available at LifeWay stores now. You will also find it at the bookstore we call CrossWalk at our church, FBC Smyrna, TN. Bobby Goins, the store manager, along with our entire staff, have been so supportive in wanting to promote the book. That's been humbling. You can look for there to be a more concentrated effort to launch the book in CrossWalk next month. That will be good or for CrossWalk, too, as it has just relocated. It's close to where it was but just across the concourse.

CHRISTMAS BLESSING

May our Lord bless you with His love, peace, and comfort if that's needed (and some of us need it the first time around without a special loved one) - whatever is needed in your life - trust the Great Provider to be there for you.

May He make His presence in your life so clear to you that it is literally undeniable. He is life ... and may He bless yours this Christmas.

For the Statisticians Only

... and for you bean counters, congratulations! You've just gone over 11,000 hits on this blog. In only 13 months!

I am proud of you!

Looking Back on a Year of Blogging

Today begins my second year of blogging. On May 6 of last year, Jason Stewart held my hand as we set up this blog. (He'd been after me to do it for 6 months! Thanks, man. You've really opened up a world that has helped my writing and caused me to think out loud. Most times, that is a good thing.) Stew got me set up on Typepad which I highly recommend for a blog site. It's got all these cool stats you can monitor every day. (And the stats keep you really vain about yourself, too! Sometmes vain, sometimes humbling depending on how often you check this blog!)

Here is a round up of stats for the year:

* I've written 63 posts in the past year. That's a little over one per week.

* You have sent 88 comments in response to what I've written. Who will be the 100th?

* The hits each week on this site are up to about 200 per week.

* Total number of hits for the year (drum roll, please): 9620 (I was hoping to get to 10K before the first year. See! I told you this was making me vain!) Who will be the 10,000th?

I sometimes share these stats with Pat Hood, our senior pastor, and he just laughs. He never looks at his stats. (I am sure he gets several hundred hits per day on his. It's all relative, isn't it?)

Anyway, thank you for looking at my blog for this year. It has been my honor to put some thoughts on the keyboard for you to see.

Coming in future "Get a Rooms":

-- Half Marathon review

-- A lesson in humility from CJ Mahaney and Dr. Luke's gospel

-- A new writing and video project Selma and I are working on

Here's to another year of blogging ... and, of course, counting!

Scramble/Unscramble Fun

It seems I am all one or the other. Last week it was all 'wisdom' from Proverbs and Psalms. This week it appears mostly fun and games. Oh well, here is some more of "the fun part".

This came across my email the other day and I thought you would enjoy it (although I do think it indicates that someone has way too much time on their hands!).

When you unscramble/rearrange words, you can get the funniest things. Check these out:

DORMITORY ----------- (rearranged)------------ DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN -------------------- BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER-------------------- MOON STARER

DESPERATION-------------------------A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES--------------------------- THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH-------------------- HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE------------------------HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES----------------- CASH LOST IN ME

AMIMOSITY------------------------IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS----------------LIES-LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS-----------------ALAS! NO MORE Z'S

A DECIMAL POINT------------------ IM A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES------------------THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO---------------- TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE...

MOTHER-IN-LAW ----------------- WOMAN HITLER

Just for fun. Don't take that too seriously, moms-in-law. Remember, I'm married to one and it ain't necessarily so! 

Chris' Blog Update

This entry is in reference to the March 19 post about Chris Hollomon's blog ...

I just received a comment that noted perhaps Chris' blog might not take comments. If you can't "get through" on his blog via comment, for those of you who go to FBC Smyrna, just tell him that you noticed that Rodney was not listed on his blog, etc. It can still have achieve the desired effect.

Thanks for your patience!