If you were with me over the last 24 hours you would think that lacrosse, (and all things connected to it) were at the center of the universe and the ONLY thing on the Lord’s mind. I have not had this much stress coming into my life in years, yet in the midst of it all it is so important to be focused. We now play tomorrow in the rescheduled Regional Semi-Final and the Wednesday night in the Regional Final, though we have had to move that a few times too, in order to win a trip to the State Semis and Final next weekend in Indianapolis.

As stressful as it has been, it could have been much worse, because I could have been dealing with difficult people. Fortunately however, I have been dealing with friends. All the coaches, as I mentioned I think yesterday, are friends, and that’s who I have been working this all out with. These are very good people, who deserve a lot more credit than they get, and who do a great job in dealing with tons of issues. So without irate parents interjecting themselves, we were actually all able to get this handled like adults…..imagine that!

And with the events, particularly from last night, we were encouraged to allow the club to hire the police department to the remaining games to keep parents from acting irresponsibly and to keep the peace as well as promote safety. We agreed to allow them to be there too. I know it will make me feel better. Where i come from the expression “good fences make for good neighbors.” It applies here too. We need to encourage sportsmanship, adult-behavior, and protect the peace. And nothing says this is important to us more than a uniformed officer. Thanks to our former board president for arranging the security.

But as for me and my team, we will now just focus upon winning tomorrow’s game. I would say “re-win” but in all truth, that is not the case. We waited out the rain and lightening and fell 2:22 short. The game that we played and all that happened in it didn’t count. THOSE are the rules, and without pitching a fit about it (or threatening anyone) let me say that I accept that, and we will abide by it and all the rules like we always do. Our job is to play by the rules and win on the field. That is the mark of a good team and the pedigree of champions.

Four to go….the first tomorrow night. The girls we play are great sports and fine competitors and they and their coach we like very much. We will do all we can to beat them, and settle this by the rules of the game. In the meantime, I thank God for all my friends who stepped up today and have made all of this tolerable!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Tonight we played in the Regional Semi-Final against Hamilton Southeastern High School. We were the second game, and the winner goes to play in the Regional Final against the Carmel Greyhounds on Saturday night. And we had a comfortable lead, 12-6 with 12:22 to go when the lightening came and we had to vacate to the locker rooms. We just needed to go the additional 2:22 to make it a legal game, but we have to wait 30 minutes after each sighting or thunder. Just before 11, the HSE Coach Ashley Grant and I agreed to call the game and reschedule it for tomorrow. Unfortunately, it will have to be played completely from the start.

One of the worst parts of being a coach is dealing with the parents, especially when they are being awful…..and that was the case tonight with some of the HSE parents. As the delay went on, and we were watching radar, I had a few of them in my face and they were not polite at all. It amazes me at what some people will say, and they not only humiliated their coach publicly, but they really put a poor light on their program. I felt so badly for her, and even called her on the way home. She is an outstanding coach and a friend (as most of the coaches are). We will meet up again tomorrow night too.

Anyway, in the world of sports, that is sometimes just how it goes. I am just thankful tonight for a great and honorable team of opponents (including their coach, no ESPECIALLY their coach), great refs, a great team, and wonderful parents. (Mine do not misbehave). When I was in seminary, the seminary chaplain once said, “Life is okay, if it weren’t for the people.” I am beginning to understand him more than I know!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Oh I know, St. Patrick died some 1500+ years ago, but I am talking about moving his church, not him. He is among the Saints of God, singing great hymns, rooting for the Cubs and Bears, and watching Notre Dame football, like all the great Saints. AND, I am sure he is also rooting for the Noblesville Lady Millers as they defend their Regional Title this week and return to the Final Four too.

But I digress….tonight we moved the CONTENTS of his Church from my garage to our new facility in downtown Westfield. It is still a jumbled mess, but we have a bit of time yet. We will immediately go to TWO services there, one at 8am and one at 10am, and by that 8am service it will be a full and functioning Church!!

I will confess however, that my favorite part of the day was the Chinese restaurant that I went to with Deacon Dan at 11 am and then with the moving crew again a little after 6! Yes, the Lord blessed me double today although I am sure the scale will curse me tomorrow. But everyone was working HARD and they deserved the food….I was just along for the ride! Tomorrow there will be no such nonsense.

But tomorrow there will be work. The big things are in and the little things, of which there are many, need to be done. I will be doing most of them too.

So off to bed after a blessed day, and now I am talking about the move and not about the Chinese food. I am so glad things went well, and we will schedule me at this church for the next few weeks at least. It looks nice so far and I will get some pictures in my blog tomorrow.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

It always amazes me at how when things can appear quite dark, if you are faithful, often a blessing comes your way. Such was the case with all the turmoil with the termination of our lease at St. Patrick’s.

Sure, it was a great relief to have that behind us, but of course it opened up a whole other can of worms. We have a garage overflowing with the contents of a church and no place to put them. We have a congregation, now orphaned and looking for space, and our dining and living rooms were far from ideal. Commercial realtors had no options for us where we needed to be, and we certainly are in no position to purchase anything, plus that takes a long time if we were. We have been keeping our eyes open however, never finding a thing.

Oddly enough, mid-last week, Scotty was sick and had a doctor’s appointment. He went alone, as I was in Indianapolis, but by the time he was heading to the pharmacy I was almost there. My instructions were to drop off his prescription and by the time I got there it would be ready. He could take it and I could get him lunch before he headed to BED.

But as it often happens talking to people who are less than themselves, or in his case nowhere near himself, he misunderstood. I arrived at the pharmacy to find him sleeping in his car, RX in his hand. I had compassion on him, although I was running behind, and we went in and dropped off his prescription, went through a drive-thru to get some lunch and then drove around until we could pick up his meds.

It was then that we accidentally (if you really believe it was an accident) stumbled upon it. It had been for rent apparently quite some time, yet I had never seen it or had been told about it. It was a stand alone house, right in the center of downtown Westfield about a mile from the property we were leaving. It was nice, it was vacant, and it was interesting….though it is small.

To make a long story short, we will be signing the lease for this facility tomorrow afternoon and moving our things tomorrow night. It will require us to go to two services there, as the congregation is already larger than the building, but for a year we have all agreed to get by. We may even keep it beyond that year for something else.

But the Lord did more than provide us a building, He helped to provide some healing for us too. Our new landlord had only talked to one of our other landlords before calling me….it was the First United Methodist Church in Anderson. They love us and told her so. And as I was talking to her, our landlord from Kokomo called and shared pretty much the same thing. We really are a good bunch, and we just got caught in a bad place. It was nice to see a little redemption amidst the chaos!

So tomorrow is moving day! It’s not that I didn’t have a lot to do already, but it will be worth it. If this church grows we may have to have 5 services per weekend to accommodate everyone into this smaller sized church. But being a little tight is sure a lot better than being a tomb. Thank God for what He has provided us. We are looking forward to making this move a real success!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, it finally happened. The landlord of St. Patrick’s sent a signed copy of the termination of our lease to us which we signed and promptly sent back. I then went and cleared out what little we had left in the facility, left the keys on the counter and walked out the back door. Eighteen months of life and love there is now in our past, and we turn our sights to the future.

Of course we have been looking all along, and hopefully with this chapter behind us can move ahead swiftly. The alternative is to continue to jam everyone into my house, which is convenient enough, but I am getting the feeling that the congregation is not believing me when I say my pajamas are a new sort of clerical wear. I suppose it doesn’t matter, because we will not be here that long anyway. This congregation has been through enough, and it is time that they had some time and a place to heal.

The good news is that there is nothing in their way now, and for that I am thankful. Life is often full of surprises and one thing I know is that in the ocean of life the waves can often get high. But with some faith and the Good Lord’s help, we get where we need to be regardless of the seas. This afternoon the seas were pretty calm. I thank God for that and am looking forward to sailing ahead in the days to come!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+

Today is Mother’s Day and we have tried to make it special for Amanda. We all got her cards (even the cat and dog did) and a few gifts as well. They were all very thoughtful gifts too, but nothing could beat the unprompted “Happy Muddrs Day Mommy” from Ben as she was opening up her gifts. It clearly melted her heart and made those new vacuum bags and kitchen apron we got her look a lot less offensive to her! (If you know us, you know that this is a joke….doing that would lead to a homicide.) We hope to get her out to eat later today, but it will have to be with just us boys because Stephanie is working.

We will see my mom a little later today too. My mom is in a nursing home here in Noblesville and is an Alzheimer’s patient. She is also a raging diabetic who will expect her usual ice cream and sugar-free candy. She has good days and bad, and we are hoping for a good one today. She is an avid reader, so we will be bringing her some books as well.

After that, I will call her mom, my grandma, on the way to dinner. My grandma is in her mid-90’s and doing great. She told me if it were not for the arthritis she has in her knees, she would be getting around just fine. I always call her on Mother’s Day because she not only wants to know about mom, but she played a big part in raising me into who I am today. (Do not tell my wife that, I do not want my grandma taking the blame!)

Anyway, I hope and pray that this Mother’s Day is an enjoyable one for you. And on this day I gave thanks to God for all mothers and for who they have been to us in our lives!

Tommy+

Tonight was “Senior Night” at Hare Chevrolet Field where our Noblesville Lady Millers took on the Carmel Greyhounds, the winner capturing the top seed in the Regional Tournament that begins next week. It is always a fun time to play Carmel, and the other teams in our region. Many of the girls play on tourney teams together, and some even practice with each other. The nice thing is that the coaches and the girls are competitive, but are all friends.

This game was a lot of fun too, but probably a little more fun for us, since we were able to win it 14-12. These two teams often go back and forth, and are seeded to meet in a rematch next Saturday for a trip to the Final Four. And though we hope to win, there isn’t a team in our region we wouldn’t cheer for to make it all the way if we don’t. It is a great group of players and coaches. We will do our best to be that top team!

But tonight was “Senior Night,” the night we honor our graduating players after the game. My daughter Stephanie joined Celeste Bremmer, Maddi Corry, Bri Handy, Alyssa Jarvis, Katie Sherrill, and Nikki Tombers in playing in the last regular season game of their high school careers. It was a proud moment for me to walk Stephanie through the gauntlet of younger players and alumni. She is a wonderful daughter, a great player, and along with the others graduating, will leave a vacuum of talent and personalities that will be hard to replace. I asked them to all go an extra year of high school, but they all selfishly said no. It was a fun night that I will always remember……a real blessing.

But for now I need to scramble, I mean get ready for, Mother’s Day. It is a big day for her, and we want to make it special.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Tonight we had a game in Indianapolis against North Central High School. We had this game and then the season finale tomorrow night, the winner of which will be seeded first in the Regional. But we had to get through tonight first. And it was difficult to say the least. We were down almost immediately, and it is the earliest I have ever called for a timeout in our history. But it was clear we were off on the wrong road and needed to regroup.

It was a struggle though. Our team has been riddled with injuries and sickness. We have gone through more athletic tape in one season than I did in a lifetime of ice hockey games. After tomorrow night we will have off till Thursday, but in truth, it would be nice to win the number one seed, especially playing at home. We were last season’s regional champs, and that’s why we are the hosts. We blew a couple of mid season games, so we are not the favorites going into tomorrow, but I am confident that we will make it into the regionals with that first seed.

So tonight’s game was suspended and then cancelled due to lightening, and I was not disappointed at all. We just didn’t have it, and though the game ended after we had regrouped enough to tie the score, and I do think we would have won it handily in the end, sometimes the bigger picture is more important. We needed the extra day to rest up. Tomorrow will be a big one.

So tonight I thank God for the rain, and particularly for the lightening. We want none of it tomorrow, other than that we create out on the field ourselves! So it is off to bed for me and hopefully all our team.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

After re-reading my posts over the past few days I thought what was missing was why sitting out on my porch is so important to me. It then struck me that I might want to sit where I type each evening and take a picture from there. So here it is, my yard, the field, and two corn or soy fields depending upon what they plant.

I suppose you can see why it is so relaxing. My life is often stress-filled, and being able to relax is pretty important to me. The cat, the dog, and I often are out here just vegging out! It does perturb the cat a bit, particularly since this was her spot, but I don’t know why she should worry……Viper may be the only animal in the world who sleeps more than a cat. I often check him just to see if he is breathing. I wish I had that kind of technique. He is the true master!

But tonight I am out here just thinking about the day and winding down. I did talk to our landlord who is in the States now and he has asked me to send him the Termination Agreement that he will get back to me to finish the work of terminating the lease. It was actually a good conversation, and I thanked God for it. I will however, feel better when it is done.

And oddly enough, I was ale to go watch one of Scotty’s games tonight. With him being a goalie and me being the women’s head coach, you can imagine how rare that is. They won 6-5 and he played great….with one exception that really honked him off. Always a Tirman, he will focus on that one thing and work to eliminate it. It is a curse, but it makes for an athlete that will always work to get better. I was thankful for the opportunity!

Okay…..time is a-wasting and I am off to bed…okay, no I am not. I am going to pour myself a drink and sit out here relaxing with my four-legged friends. It is a beautiful night, and it will be a great way to enjoy it!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Things are always better when they are brought into the light, so after mowing this afternoon I thought it might be good to take a picture of the back porch for you during the daytime. I spend a lot of time working out there, although much of the time it is dark.

To update everyone, the landlord is still out of the country until tomorrow. I am hoping to hear from him this morning and meet him this afternoon. In the meantime, most of the contents of St. Patrick’s remain in my garage.

On the upside, the Noblesville Lady Millers won 11-7 this evening against Guerin High School. We play again Friday and Saturday and then the Regionals start. Saturday is actually Senior Night and although I will be quite proud to honor my daughter and the other seniors, many I have known for a long time, it will mark a big transition in life. I have mixed feelings about it, though I am sure it will be fun.

So it is time to leave the back porch and head to bed. It is dark outside now, but tomorrow is another day. It will be an important one, and I want to make certain I am at my best.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+