I was going to post a video tonight of Ben and Steph at the wedding of her friend Jamie last night, but the video was taken on my wife’s phone and although we can watch it on her phone, we cannot figure out how to post it.  So sadly tonight you will not be watching Ben dancing with a bunch of girls, and showing his moves……including “brake” dancing, and yes I use “brake” because it is something I desperately want to stop.  He however, is clearly a hit.

But Stephy was here for just a blink of an eye, and it was hard to not have the time to do anything with her.  When they returned from the wedding I was already asleep.  I left early and had just a few minutes with her at St. Patrick’s before I headed to the service at St. Anne’s and she headed back to Missouri.  It was a hard drive away for me, but in all honesty it was better than not being able to see her at all.  I miss her, and any time I have with her is important to me.

But at least she was able to come home and dance the night away with her 4 year old brother.  I know it was good for both of them.  And Steph can learn a lot about dancing from him……because we all know that 4 year olds know everything about everything.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Well I am not nearly as far along today as I had hoped, and part of that is that I am pretty distracted.  Sure, I have the usual sermon and stuff to do surrounding that, but I am also hindered by the fact that my daughter is home, and I may not get to see her other than in passing.

You see, today I was scheduled pretty full, but she was as well.  She is in town for a wedding of the first of her friends to get hitched!!!  So I am home finishing up my sermon, not knowing what time she, and Amanda, and Ben will return…..but as I am typing this in bed figuring I can finish up my sermon in the morning, chances of “catching up” with her do not look good.  And of course she is heading back tomorrow and I am booked till about 3 or 4.  DANG DANG DANG

So I shall rejoice in the fact that I had about 20-30 minutes with her total today in person.  It was great too.   As for the sermon, I will figure that out, but not till the morning.

But who knows, I am not yet asleep and maybe, just maybe, they will all have had enough of the dinner, the band, the dancing and all by 7ish……  You never know.  After all, I have been a priest for well over 20 years…..and no one expected that either.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Tonight Amanda and Ben went to meet their friends to see “The Lorax.”  As for me, I stayed home.  In all honesty, I hated the Dr. Suess stories…….okay, that was perhaps a bit watered down.  But The Lorax appears to be the next big thing, yet I am sure it will be yet another movie that will attempt to indoctrinate kids into something I disagree with.  If I am wrong, I will retract it tomorrow….but don’t be holding your breath.

I personally have stopped seeing movies for that very reason, and I do not watch television or support those who feel their position as an actor makes them more suited to teach my children about values than me.  I may be but one man, but from that one man they do not reap many benefits.

So I am here at home alone, but the good news is that when that movie gets political, or worse yet all PC on the screen, I will not be there wondering why I paid $35 dollars a person for admission and why I paid $63.50 for popcorn and a diet coke.  Don’t get me wrong, Netflix shows a lot to trash, but at least I decide what to watch (not the trash).  And no one is talking on their cellphone in the row in front of me either.

Hollywood, here’s a news flash.  I do not agree with your politics.  No that you care.  But if I do head to the movies at all, I’ll go watch those Navy Seals.   Let’s look up to some real heroes, or just head to the airport and shake their hands as they return home.

Reality is important………at least I think so.  But what do I know?  After all, I hate green eggs and ham.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I do not have to admit, but I want to admit that I was both shocked and saddened by the sudden death of conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart today.  In this age of compromised integrity and the lack of truth, he stood out as a refreshing crusader for all that as right.   I appreciated his uncompromising commitment to the truth and his pride in the criticism levied at him by those who disagreed with him.  His work was important, and his dedication to his principles was steadfast.

His death at 43 was far too soon, yet many who despised him disagreed.  I was disappointed at the hatred spewed at a man and his family today via the Internet, but I choose to pray for those with such poison in their souls.  God calls us all to stand for our beliefs, as I believe Andrew Breitbart did, but I do not believe under any circumstances he calls us to be vicious.  I have been there and have had that done to me, but I am able to defend myself.  It is lower than low to say such things about someone who is departed….it only harms his family.

Of course Andrew Breitbart loved the criticism.  Such things to him were a badge of honor, and I could not agree more.  The hatred shows their character, or better their lack thereof.  And it is but a barometer of, not how far we have deteriorated, but of how far we have to go.  You see it is always about restoring, not about destroying.  And clearly society has a long way to go.

Rest in Peace Andrew.  May we continue the good fight without you!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

My new doctor is delightful, and he is an opthalmologic plastic surgeon, which of course means he does “surgery,” which also means today was a “consult” in order for he and I to get together again when I am asleep.  The name of the whole thing sounds a lot worse than it is, but after a year and some months dealing with this, I will be having it fixed on March 29th, if not sooner (I offered myself up for any cancellation spots).

Apparently my right eye does not drain anything, and that not only looks bad, but it feels bad as well.  He will install some sort of stent in the canal that is supposed to be open and if that does not work he will create a new canal by apparently drilling a passage through the bone in my nose over to my eye.  I did ask if they had to take my eye out to do all this, for which the answer was “no, that is only on TV,” but I did share how “uncool”now this surgery would seem to my kids.

I of course also now will be able to say that I have had “plastic surgery.” And, as a side note, I did on more than one occasion during my appointment think about asking if they wanted to do any other work on me while I was there.  I decided against it, as I became convinced that any joke like that might seem pretty funny to me, but to Dr. Welsh one that he has probably heard from every other patient for the last 10 years.

If it all goes well I will look like the picture on the right, sans the red eyes (and the pain).  Keep praying…

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Tomorrow is a big day for me.  I am heading to an eye doctor who specializes in the eye lids and duct systems of the eye.  He is a plastic surgeon of the eye, and my hope and prayer is that he can fix that which ails me.

For over a year I have had a lot of pain in my right eye.  In addition to that, my eye always looks like it is a mess.  I know people look at it and think I must have pink eye, or that I am on something, but in truth, it is something that hopefully this doctor tomorrow can fix.  In all honesty, I am tired of the constant pain and the watering.  Lots of people cannot cry, I have an eye that is like a fire hose.  And as a person up in front of people all the time, it is killing me.

Please keep me in your prayers.  My appointment is at 11 am and if he wants to take my eye out and throw it away, I am at the point I would let him.  Let’s just hope he is the answer to my prayer and not yet another desperate jump toward relief.

I will report tomorrow…….with the hope of complete relief and cure!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+ 

Well Lent is well on it’s way, and I have to confess that I have never been more ill prepared as I am this Lent.  Please do not get me wrong…we are up and running with a great Lenten program parish-wide, it is just that I have been so busy copying it, distributing it, and talking about it that by the time I was doing it I was frazzled.  This however is not my first rodeo.  I am approaching it with a deep sense of honesty, as I am encouraging others to do the same.

If you would like to take part I would encourage you to download the program in its entirety at www.StMichaelAnglican.com/Lent-2012/  

Hopefully as the dust settles I will be able to get into the whole thing as I intended.  Sometimes however, my intentions are far less realistic than I had hoped.  This however, it very important.  I intend to stay on it.  I am caught up with all of it tonight other than my night prayers.  I will make sure I do them before bed!

But all and all, I am excited about our Lenten program…..I am just less excited about me.  Ultimately I need to focus upon me and I truly intend to.  You cannot be a good priest unless you are taking care of your own soul first…….and Lord knows, mine needs some work!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!


Tommy+

Pretty cool picture, huh?  Yes, I know it is not the best, but it was 45 tonight and that made Viper’s hanging out the window enjoying himself quite enjoyable for even me.  He will stick his head out the window in the middle of winter, which we do when we are alone.  We always wait till we have Ben dropped off first, as Ben is not fond of temperatures under 20.

But seeing him out the window tonight really warmed my heart.  But it was really different than normal.  Normally he just sticks his head out the window, but I was laughing as I noticed he got himself up onto the armrest and was really out there heading into the wind.  I blindly snapped a few shots for the blog when I noticed it…….there was just ONE paw on the armrest……the other was missing.

Sure enough my moron dog was hanging half his body over the door while the other half was disguised as “just pushing the limits.”  He’s a pretty smart dog, but tonight not smart enough as I slowed down and hauled him in.  Ben and Amanda are on their way home from Missouri visiting Steph, and the last thing I need to confess when they ask “Where’s Viper,” is that I allowed him to fall out of the car somewhere between here and Wal-Mart.

So the adventure is over.  Viper and I are home and Amanda and Ben are not far off.  Good thing too.  All this behaving is exhausting.  I will just be thankful to have them home and go to bed!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

They say that an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop…..so thank God I am not competent enough to have any idle time!  I have spent ALL DAY with our copy machine and my computer getting all sorts of things done to complete our Lenten Program, which incidentally you can find online at www.StMichaelAnglican.com/lent-2012/

But at times, I wish I could get into at least a little trouble.  As a young man I lived there, yet as a middle-aged man I guess I am feeling a bit dull.  Sure, I do important work, and it is work I truly and honestly believe in……but now I find that I am really quite predictable…..slow and steady, always prone to the right thing….yep, boring!    And somehow I wonder how I got here. I suppose I should admit that I know that from here I am not intended to leave. I just am always reminded of the prayer of St. Augustine that I used to have on my door at seminary…..”Lord make me goo, but not yet.”  (Yes, I know the translation here is weak).

But I am now in bed, just before 9pm, and tomorrow will come soon enough.  Yee ha, hang em high as they say.  As my older kids are just heading out, I am calling it a day.

I just might be ripping off a few tags from my mattresses in my dreams.  I know, settle down.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yep, I am at home for the weekend again ALONE, or as much as you can be when your wife and youngest son are away visiting your daughter at college.  Of course Scotty stayed home because he has to work, but “home” for an 18 year old who is also a drummer in a band is a relative thing.  I have not seen him all day and don’t imagine I will for much of the weekend.  The picture is one of Ben’s first Halloweens…..he obviously was a sparrow.

But in all honesty, I kind of like the solitude.  I get a lot done without being given chores or talking to Batman every 10 seconds.  In addition to this, I think they all like it too.  Amanda shared about the game today, dinner, and now how they are at the hotel.  Steph and Ben are watching Spy Kids and having a great time.  And did I mention I am not getting any chores?  Very cool if you ask me.

On a different note, I spoke with Father Dan Conley this morning who in our conversation really was doubtful that it was a wold we hit, but rather a large coyote.  I said it was much much larger that a coyote, bigger in fact than any dog I had seen.  But Danny is a retired State Trooper (capitalized to avoid tickets in the future) and he said something that put a chill in both PT and I……he said, “you guys were lucky that the air bags didn’t deploy.”   And he was right, we were truly blessed.  That would have been a disaster.

But it does not change my mind about what we hit…..it was a big wolf, perhaps even the size of a woolly mammoth.  He was just too big and had too boxy of a head to be a coyote.  Regardless…….we are blessed it was not worse.  And it allowed me to be able to get home and be home……all alone.

No worries though…….it is pretty relaxing.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+