Near Death….

Life Insurance, Death, raise 2 girls by yourself, how much money do you need?….. all topics brought up when discussing Life Insurance.

Here’s my wifes thoughts on the subject before I get to mine….Check out her blog here. (its pretty good!)  The blog that is. 

My thoughts today are not on Life Insurance itself or all the things that come with setting up a policy….Today I am talking about after we start paperwork, after we make all our decisions, after we signed our policy forms.

A statement was made, one that almost made me say no to life insurance all together.

“Okay Justin, Now when is a good time for us to set up an appointment for us to draw some blood and do a urine sample?”

I can not explain what was going through my mind.  But the first thing was “what tha heck!?! that should be the first thing they say when they walk in the house!”

So after some deep thought I decided to “man up” and take the needle.  I got a tattoo, i can take shots, I hate giving blood!  I pass out, it makes me weak, yeah I sissify big time! I finally took the needle and survived!  It was tough cause he like moved the needle around a little but man…..I need an award!

Thank goodness the girls weren’t around….they would have thought daddy was kicking the bucket!

But nope…..i am alive and I got Life Insurance!

My Famous Girls….

Watch the video of the 2008 Oklahoma State Fair.  Channel 9 was out at the fair in full force and I had an idea that there was a good chance our girls were going to get on tv……ya know what?  They did……..

Near the end of this video clip you’ll see a clown on a big wheel….there is a 3-4 second shot of my 2 girls in their wagon watching him have a good time.  They were definitely impressed……there faces are totally engulfed in this new “toy” that they are seeing!

Click here to see them!  They come on at about the 1:35 mark.

Messin’ with Sasquatch…..

I literally bout pee’d my pants on all of these.  I cant help but to laugh out loud.  Hope you enjoy them.

“Typical”

In my last post on “Dating”  I spent about 90% on it talking about dating my wife and plans to do that.  The other 10%  talked about being in a “LifeGroup” and me thinking about not being in a typical LifeGroup.

Let me explain……

A typical LifeGroup to me involves a family that gathers together with other friends and they “do life together”  Love, laugh, cry, pray, counsel, and grow together.  I was recently in that group.  We ARE the best of friends.  Recently my wife and I broke from the group so that we can have that same style of fellowship in a group with a new bunch of people to help them grow with each other and get to that point as well.  We will meet sometime….Dunno when but that’s what were working through right now.

Now for the quote “I am first re-inventing a “typical” lifegroup for me.“  I “myself alone” need something in my life that is not quite strong enough in my life currently….someone pushing me to Personal Growth, accountability, and challenges to grow deeper with God.  Well my evenings are busy and that takes away from family time, that kinda defeats that……so I am doing one of these options probably……here’s the re-inventing part….. Instead of doing it on an evening how about me and 3-4 guys meet once every 2 weeks for breakfast and pray and talk in the morning before my days start.  Do some good growing with others,  Or take after Pastor Craig and meet for 4 weeks with some guys and then take 4 weeks off.  I am basically saying break the mold of an evening, and think of your full month schedule…..What works best for your family, which is the best investment of their time and my time?  Instead of one on one accountability how about 4 on 4 accountability.

I know that with the new lifeGroup we are doing it may be people from different towns coming together, or even going through a season of doing some outward ministering to others and then going to our lifegroup every other week?  It’s kinda like how a missionary will go out and do some work then come back to his home church to be with his family…..

Yeah alot of open ideas but thats what is going through my mind…………….

we’ll see where i need to land soon…..

Dating….

Okay there’s one thing I never want to do.

I never want to wake up one day and realize that my girls have grown up, greaduated High School, and moved out and I look around the house and it is empty……and I say “Who is this I am married to?”

I know it sounds bold/harsh/crazy but here’s my challenge to myself and a the challenge from my mentor and my challenge to you…..

Love your spouse with all you have, and date them and be there for them and always put them on a high priority.

15-18 years from now you dont want to be baby sitting partners…You need to be lovers of each other and lovers of Christ….That will pour down into your relationship with your kids.  I know for me it has been a little tough recently because Its almost like we barely see each other and we share baby sitting from Sunday to Thursday afternoon and we are married on Friday and Saturday.

I am going to break that.

I am going to make a point to Date my wife.  Me and her alone without the kiddos.  I am working on my “life” plans and schedule to make sure I am more strategic in what I do with my evenings.  I am first re-inventing a “typical” lifegroup for me….one that holds accountability as well as bonding, and even challenging.  How is that going to look?  I dunno but I feel God pushing me to a place that will include these things at a time that is unusual as well.

Back to the dating….

I have a tendancy to just work with my wife in making sure my kids have the best everything.  Best Mom, Dad, house, comfort, food, clothes, everything…..But I also want to make sure they see Sheena and I love each other and see us together doing things together in stead of Sheena and I passing each other giving report to each other.   I know I have sat and talked to sheena last night for a little while and we just were talking over each other trying to let each other know what we did the past 4 days!  Thats not right at all!

Just dont be mom’s and dad’s.  Be more.

Dont take this wrong or even the wrong angle…..I love my wife and she means more to me than anything.  I just need to be proactive in making sure that we stay strong through and throughout.

Thanks for reading…..

Thoughts?

Tat…

Ya know….I don’t know if i have ever talked on this subject or not.  I know I have thought about it for quite some time and discussed it with Sheena for a long time.  But I am thinking of adding onto the canvas….getting another tattoo. But when it comes to this I am over anal!  I 1000X check to see what exactly I want.  There are tons of things that people have already got but in my mind I have tons of variations to add on to what other people have created in there mind.

I definately want down the road I want tattoos of my girls signatures.  I want them to write there names and have that tattooed on my arm somewhere.  I also wanted something that represented me….Sounds odd I know but something that is me in a ton of words but is only in one image.  I kniw that is very difficult to do so I figure over time I will have more and more tattoos that in an essence tell my story and what has influenced me.  Family, Christ, my wife, my 2 amazing little girls, my heritage, my DOB, all of these things say a little something.

So what do I get?   What images?  Then when do I get all of them…..because I aint lying I’ll cry like a baby when I get my next tattoo!   Hopefully not, but I dont rather enjoy just having pain introduced to my body unless I am 100% ready.

I know what tattoos I want in the future but they have to wait…..You’ll see them when time comes around…..it may be a while so dont hold your breath. 

I am trying to get Sheena to pick something out so we can go together but she is taking her sweet time in deciding what she wants.  Thats cool but I really would like her to hurry.  I am anxious and ready to go!

I thought about telling you what I am going to get….but you’ll just have to wait I guess till I get it and then obviously I’ll show you then.

Man it feels good to blog again!  Hope your all out there!

Question…….

You against Tattoos?  for them?  you got one?  what is it? what do you want for your next one?