Here some family fun for Black Friday! Christmas will be here before you know it!!
Well it’s that busy time of the year for me, long days and week long trips with students. This Saturday we will leave Grace Community Church for a week long mission trip to Galveston TX. However, my wife and boys are leaving for MO tomorrow. As I put Josiah down for bed tonight he said in his sad voice that he was going to miss me. I tried to encourage him with all the fun stuff they were going to do while they were in MO, but he said it didn’t matter because he was still going to miss me. It makes me feel good, but sad at the same time. Josiah is getting old enough where he really wants to be with Daddy. It will definitely be a quiet lonely house for the next three days. But I know that they will have fun and that God is going to use our team in a special way next week in Galveston. I will be posting daily happenings and testimonies from our students.
We had some warm weather yesterday and the family tried to take advantage of it the best we could. While grilling some steaks the boys and I played in the back yard One of their new favorite things to do is ride in the wagon. So, I strapped Jackson in, he like to bail mid ride and the seat belts keep him safe and contained, and pulled them around the yard. Even though the scenery never changed we had a lot of fun. The highlight for me was seeing Josiah pull Jackson around the yard and hearing Jackson say cheese every time he went past me! Here are some pic of our wagon ride.
Last night the family made a trip to Dallas to hang out with Tyler and Jenn. Tyler serves as our Student Worship Coordinator and Jenn is a first year teacher. It has been fun getting to know them. Tyler is doing such a good job at Fusion.
After the long drive, (I respect what Tyler does even more knowing how far he drives to invest in our students) we had dinner at Royal Thai. I must say, that the food was amazing! Probably the best Chicken Fried Rice I have ever eaten. The place reminded us of our favorite restaurant in Warrensburg called Siam. I ordered the Pad Thai Chicken and Stephanie had the Mongolian Beef. The food was great, the company was awesome, the boys behaved, and it was fun just to get away and have dinner with family and friends!
Now we just have to find a Thai food place this good closer to us, any suggestions?
Jackson has been working on his dance skilz. We happened to catch a short clip on video of it this weekend. Here is his debut, enjoy!!!
Yesterday started as any normal Friday does, everyone sleeping in a little, before the day get off to a start. Stephanie had the pleasure of having lunch with Kristy who has been a huge encouragement and blessing to our family, while I had the pleasure of hanging out with the boys at Chick-fil-A FOREVER. No it wasn’t that bad. The boys had so much fun!
From there we went to visit one of our students in the hospital. If you will join us in praying for Brittany Stene, that would be awesome. Brittany for the last year has been battling cancer and now has to battle a blood clot in/near her heart. Praying with and hearing their story made Jackson seem very healthy. Just reemphasizes that everyday is a gift from God, and one that should be cherished, enjoyed, and put to good use making the most of the opportunities presented. I don’t know all that is in store for Brittany, but i do know that God is growing her faith and using her to grow the faith of her mother as well.
Since we were in North Dallas, we decided to make our 2nd visit to North-park Mall. This time was much different than the first visit in the fact that you could park, and walk through the mall peacefully. We ate at PF Changs which has become one of our families favorite restaurant. The boys love the chicken fried rice. As we walked the mall, we did hit up some stores. I found a good deal on some sweat pants that I wanted to try on before I bought them. I take Josiah to the dressing room with me and as we are talking I am trying on the sweat pants, without missing a beat Josiah looks at my sweat pants and says, “Dad, you can’t buy those they are to f****** long!” . . . . . . . . yeah, that’s what I did also. I thought maybe I had not heard him correctly so I asked him to repeat what he said! Yep, he said exactly what I thought he said. I know what you’re thinking, Yes, I am a pastor, and yes, he is a pastors kid. I told him that’s a bad word and we don’t talk like that. I tried to get him to tell me where he heard that but he couldn’t answer. So, we are in the process of evaluating how and where he could be picking up language like this!
Once we got home, we put the boys down for bed and then Jackson decided to have a seizure. This is the first time that I felt like I knew what to do. Jackson’s seizure only lasted for 3-4 minutes, it’s still 3-4 minutes to long. After his seizure was over we took him to the ER at Centennial where he had another smaller seizure as we were walking in. The doctors were great. They put him on oxygen and gave him some Valium. After 3 hours we were able to go home. We don’t know what the nexts steps are. Jackson has had a seizure every month at the first of the month now the last three months. We thought we were one the up and up, but I guess we now have more questions that still need to be answered. The Good news, Jackson is back to his normal self and already getting in to things he is not supposed to. Please continue to pray for us as we continue the journey of finding out why he is having repeated seizures and/or get his medication under control!
After a rough start we ended up having a great day yesterday as a family. We took Jackson to an allergist to rule out or find out if he was allergic to anything that could be causing him to have pneumonia so often. If you have never taken your child to an allergist be thankful, after the pokes were finally done he did ok! We found out the he has no allergies but the things that were high were dogs and cats. We have both! The doctor said we didn’t have to get rid of them though, that was was good news.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with lunch, a little shopping (very little praise Jesus), a haircut for Stephanie (is that what women call it) and then off to see Santa.
I have to say, the Village at Allen has the best place for Santa, filled with, real reindeer, elves and a large fake Christmas tree! There are several place to take other photos also. Next year we will go here to take Christmas Card pics unless we use the tree at Grace. Lucky for us it was in the 70’s yesterday so it was perfect to be outside and wait in line to have pictures taken with the Jolly old Man. If we were to do it again, we would go a night so you don’t see the cars in the background through the fireplace. You probably don’t notice it but that what happens when you have a perfectionist mentality! We ended the day at Pete Pipers Pizza, which is like Chuck E Cheese and got home to open a package full of Christmas Gifts for the boys from my MOM, Grandma Sheila!
We are getting ready for Christmas, family coming in, and Christmas less than a week away. I have been asked to be Joseph for the Nativity this year so I have been growing out the facial hair, (I hate it). I have my first rehearsal today at 1pm. Hate the beard but excited to do it!
Here are some pics from our adventures.
Last night Josiah and I camped out!!! Yeah, we set a two man tent up in the living room and watched TV and slept in the tent. He was so excited about it all day. This is an easy way to create lasting memories. To see his excitement made it all worth it, even if I didn’t sleep good and my back hurts today! Here are some pics of our Guys Night!
Today started early with a nice appointment to the Chiropractor. While adjusting me the Chiropractor said “You really needed this didn’t you?” I guess was a nice way to say, “Man, you are messed up!” After about 10 minutes she was done and moved on to Stephanie. Visiting the Chiropractor seems to be the family stop when we are in Salem. I have no idea why, that’s just the way it goes.
At noon all the family showed up for another Thanksgiving meal. This time we had ham instead of turkey. The food was so good. I think I have gained 15 pounds just this week! We took tons of pictures! It seemed every time I turned around someone was snapping a picture.
Sadly, Mizzou lost to Kansas today in Football. It was an exciting game and KU played good. Sad day for MU fans but a great way for KU to end the season and hopefully get a bowl game. Yes I said it, that’s for you Mike and the Cunningham’s!
Here are some of the pics from today.
One of the things that has become a tradition for Josiah when we visit Nana and Papa’s house is to go on a tractor ride with Papa. Today, he got to do that; and boy was he excited. Also one of the things that has become a tradition for all of us now has been going to the farm and having Great Papa give us a ride behind his big tractor.
Today we did things a little different! Instead of being pulled behind a tractor, we just piled in the back of Great Papa’s pickup and went for a ride through the farm. Both boys had so much fun and Stephanie’s Grandfather loves to do it. We saw cows, drove through the creek, went past the old barn, and saw more cows. Doesn’t sound like much, but the fact that the family was all together and the boys loved it, made it so worth it!!! To top it off, the weather wasn’t to bad either, it has been colder!!!
Afterward, we all came back to the house for some good ole BBQ Pork Steak!!!! It was so good! The night was capped off with Christmas Gifts for the boys. Nana and Papa said, since this is the only time we will all be together lets do it tonight. However, Nana said something about coming to Texas over Christmas. After the opening of gifts, we celebrated Rachel’s Birthday with an Ice Cream B-Day Cake. It was sooooo good, and I don’t even like ice cream that much!
Today was a lot of fun. Here are some pics of our adventure.
Dan Gould 