May Greetings 2014

Woohoo its already May!

RRCmdrBennett wrote:Woohoo its already May!

And for the first time since the Soviet Union broke up, there were May Day celebrations in Moscow. The sleeping bear is awake and hungry. Obama is still enjoying life by the campfire, singing kum-ba-ya, and cooking smores.

Half inch of snow earlier this morning, but it's mostly gone now. Went to the Law Enforcement Academy to do a little first time role-playing. I was a Burger King manager getting interviewed after a robbery. Very enjoyable. They only do this a few times a year, but I'd like to do it whenever it comes up. Anything to help out the thin blue line.

Claymore, this is your cue to tell a story from your days in training.

joecool wrote:Half inch of snow earlier this morning, but it's mostly gone now. Went to the Law Enforcement Academy to do a little first time role-playing. I was a Burger King manager getting interviewed after a robbery. Very enjoyable. They only do this a few times a year, but I'd like to do it whenever it comes up. Anything to help out the thin blue line.

Claymore, this is your cue to tell a story from your days in training.

Hey what about my story?  I was an Asst Mgr for Royal Farms a chain of convenient stores with gas. I was robbed a few times. Once robbed with a Molotov cocktail!  I wasn't too impressed with one policeman's responses was they'd stop in more often if we gave'm free sandwiches. We gave them free soda and coffee. 

I hada close call at Speedway last night. I stopped in there with my mother inlaw to get gas. A guy walks between the dispenser and the support column bumming a ride. Instinctively I slid my right hand into my pocket and held my 9mm firm. When I said no-go on a ride he bummed .88 cents. Why that amount I don't know. He was within arms reach of my mother inlaw. He left peacefully. After we went inside and got back inside my car we discussed it and I mentioned put my hand inside my pocket from the beginning of the incident. She was surprised I was armed cause she didn't know. It was funny though when she reached over and felt the pistol from outside my pocket. She's never shot one before.

22 degrees this morning. The rule in Montana is that it's safe to start your gardens and flowers after Mother's Day. But once in a while you get (freezer) burned.

83 Degrees here in Mississippi........

(..........but it DID get down to 61 at night, Brrrrrrr)    

Had a busy 2 weeks. 47 hours one week & 46 last week.

Had a nice weekend, 78 degrees yesterday   

 but today is a different story  

Snow flurries on Mother's Day. Still waiting for globull warming.

I've got a charity that raises money to provide Chain Saws to Poor Rain-Forest Natives who cannot afford them.

Nice Rain here. Going fishing tonight after work. Fishing along a small creek with pools.

Got my new lience got my fishing gear out and I am READY!
Mark Jones

Mothers day sunday morning just before we left for morning church. I could hear a bunch of baby birds squawking like crazy and it was close. I soon located them on top of my pull trailer that I had just retrieved from my Mom's house in the airconditioner up top and center.

I told my wife about them as we headed out to church. In service as we recognized our moms my thoughts kept going to those little birds that have had nothing for 2 days and that their momma was probably having the worst mothers day ever. God called to my rememberence this verse and I knew as soon as I got home from the Mothers day activites I would get those little birds back to their momma.

Matthew 6:26 - Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

God cares deeply for us and more than once He has used me to rescue his little creations. So I climbed up ontop of the camper and pulled off the aircondition cowl pulling 4 bolts and one I had to drill out as the head was stripped. Soon I found 4 little birds with feathers but not able to fly yet and barely able to walk. We dug them some worms and several drinks with a mcdonalds straw dipped in glass of water with your finger over the end of it to let them have a drink. They starvingly ate all we gave them and water and calmed down.

We put them and their nest in a Dr. Pepper 24 pack box and I headed back up to my Mom's house 25 miles one way to throw a line over a tree near where my camper was parked and put some DUCK TAPE around the box and hung it back up in the air. Oh what a site!!!!

I had coffee with my Mom this morning asking about the birds. We had 1" of rain last night and she said the box had warped but was still hanging. Funny thing after my 1st job I had another job close to my mom's house. I stopped in for break and could hear the little birds alive in the box. After a short visit with my Mom. I was watching out the window and to the Glory of God that Momma bird flew in with a BIG ole Bug and dropped it into that box and flew off for another meal for her babies. I shouted Glory to God and told my own Momma what I had just seen.

Our God and Creators love flows in so many ways. His Blessings are above anything we can amagine or achieve. He just made my day and I know that Momma bird got the best Mothers day present ever, her babies back.

Mark Jones

God Bless ya, Mark.

You have the Lord's Heart!

Well done. I remember an LTC class back in the day when the homework assignment was to write a devotion. Man, was that ever hard. Nowadays, give me any object and I can write something up for the boys. Did one for the Green Hornet last week. God seasons us with experiences, adds a dash of wisdom, and garnishes with grace.

joecool wrote:Well done. I remember an LTC class back in the day when the homework assignment was to write a devotion. Man, was that ever hard. Nowadays, give me any object and I can write something up for the boys. Did one for the Green Hornet last week. God seasons us with experiences, adds a dash of wisdom, and garnishes with grace.

Nowadays you could google devotions for boys and have it instantly.

Took the smartphone plunge last week. Not much of a transition for me since my ipod touch 4th gen is essentially an iphone without txt messaging or phone. The ipod touch could have phone and txt messaging apps added but would be wifi dependent. Definitely an easier transition than going to Windows 8!

I've lost 32 lbs in 14 weeks!

Good job Dan! I am loosing it as well...both physically and ... well I won't go there..ha!

Mark Jones

The heart must have come out in that article. I have had more than a handful ask if they could tell it tonight in Rangers. GRIN! God's good for sure!

Mark Jones

joecool wrote:Well done. I remember an LTC class back in the day when the homework assignment was to write a devotion. Man, was that ever hard. Nowadays, give me any object and I can write something up for the boys. Did one for the Green Hornet last week. God seasons us with experiences, adds a dash of wisdom, and garnishes with grace.

Speaking of birds, for the last 5 days one has been endlessly ramming my living room window. No amount of scaring it away did any good. Droppings all over the deck and window glass, too. I put it out of its misery (mine, too) today. Daisy competition BB gun from the outpost.

They fined a guy for running over a swan at Grizzly Tools this week. He just ran it over and then went over it again. He was just having fun. Conservation dept said they were going to add to his fun in a different way. $$$$$.

My father inlaw had a woodpecker that was drilling holes in his cedar siding on his house. That bird was smart...it took off as soon as it heard a creek... he borrowed my pellet gun but never could sneak up on it. HA!

When I was in the 6th grade I stepped out of my back porch door and pulled a arrow back and let it fly at this bird. Nailed it out in the middle of the yard. That pore ole bird just squawked and squawked. I too a 410 shot gun and cleared a patch of grass where it was sitting.. couldn't have it suffering.

Mark Jones

Tonight we recognize our Royal Rangers at a GMA COA. Two of the boys come from a CBC Student that came to our Rangers 24 years ago or so. I have taken these boys out on so many outings I can't count them all. Many years of great times on so many hikes and camps and rappels and derby racing.

Seems as soon as we get them a GMA they are gone with getting on with the rest of their life. In all these years I have only had a few stay and work in Rangers.

Our COA tonight we honor 219 certficates and patches some 65 boys or so.

At our Frontier Adventure this weekend we have 44 slated for membership. Up about 9 from our average.

Oh what fun and ACCOMPLISHMENT we have in Rangers!

My son was paid a awesome compliment by one of his new Bosses at Branson Ziplines. He handed out one of the full body harnesses and had my son set it up and said never saw a new person do that so fast and so well ever...GRIN! My son was never a GMA. He was part of that 97% of boys that lived the Ranger life but never went after the medal. I am hoping to go Buckskin with him in FCF in a few years when it mean something to him.

It's cool when your son wants you around with his friends on these many backpacks and floats and such. It's cool to call my son my friend. A few years ago I wanted to bust him in the jaw...grin! IF we can just hold on while their growing up and not ruin it by doing stupid things God has a plan.

Mark Jones

My older son earned his GMA. He had a very good Trailblazer commander who got the boys to compete against each other. Three of them received it at the same ceremony. He and his wife serve the Lord.

My younger son got halfway through Trailblazers and asked to quit at that point. He had other goals in mind, and I gave my blessing to his decision. He later spend two years as a youth pastor intern and helped with a Chi Alpha group. That's where he met his wife. They both serve the Lord and want to do short-term missions trips.

Done right, Royal Rangers really does "Reach, Teach and Keep." I feel so blessed that they never went "prodigal." Though both never got back into Rangers, they still love everything outdoors. We're planning a couple days' backpacking trip next month.

Thx. I was thinking the same thing about myself. Get in physical shape, improve blood flow, and mental acuity follows.

Have had a busy last few weeks with finishing up one of the jobs I've got going on at Boeing. Looks like there might be a short slow down for a couple weeks coming up, but then it's going to be wide open again.

Also have had a lot going on at home too. May 8th was my wife and my 14th anniversary. I love her more now than ever before.

As you may know, I've toyed around with either building or buying another house for some time. We go back and forth between ideas trying to figure out the best thing to do. Lately we've been set on building, even to the point of drafting up a decent set of drawings for the house that we planned on building on some land I bought for my company. We still both regularly checked home listings to see what was available to in the case that something great came up. We've checked out a couple things with the old "drive by", but haven't gotten too excited about anything. My wife sent me a link to a listing Wednesday that just came on the market that actually caught my eye, so we set it up with the realtor to see it Thursday afternoon.

We fell in love with the place and decided to present an offer. Now here's the cool part! We knew there was already one offer on the table with another couple coming to see the property after we left, so I asked the Lord what I should offer and a number came to mind that was actually higher than the asking price. We filled out the paperwork, turned in our earnest money, and took the kids out to eat to celebrate our spur of the moment decision (Our life is full of these. Have I mentioned that we eloped? Makes life fun!)

Turns out the couple that came after us also wanted the property (this property has only been on the market for 3 days) and submitted an offer. Since multiple offers were on the table, the realtors all called their clients to give them a chance to change their offers if they so desired before 2pm today. I thought about it, but decided to stay where I was because I had a peace about the number that I felt in my spirit.

We won. Now I'm getting to the cool part that I referenced earlier... We won by a miniscule margin of less than 1/2% spread!!! Had I not listened to that still small voice when I made the offer, we might not have won it, because my first thought was to just offer asking price. If I'd upped my price to help "ensure" we won (walking by the wisdom of man), I would've had to spend more money needlessly. By listening to the Lord, we hit the nail on the head!!

So that's my praise report.

Hey, congratulations, Phillip.

We have been building for 5 years, now. The Exterior and Main Floor have been finished, and we have been living in it for almost 2 1/2 years now, but the basement (the Wife calls it the "lower story") just got all finished out, drywalled, & painted before last Thanksgiving.

Today, she had a consultant here to draw up plans for landscaping.

I love the House, but if someone told me that I had to go through building it again,

......................I'd drive to Memphis and jump off of a Bluff!

Good job Mark!   

Congrats Philip!

Are you still considering that Ohio trip to buy that bike with the savings you made from listening to the Lord?