KFLP Christmas Party

One of the percs of helping with the West Texas Friday Night Scoreboard show is the Christmas party. Tony and Pam open up there house to us. We have lots of good food and really good fellowship. After the meal this year we played Guitar Hero on the Wii. Here are some pictures from that night!

Top is Cory Johnston. Cory is the voice of the Floydada Whirlwinds.

To the right here is Tony St. James. He is the Voice of Agriculture Today on AM 900 All Ag All Day. Below is Ricky Hughes. Ricky is employed by Lighthouse Electric and helps out with the show as well as does color commentary for Floydada Whirwind Football.

2008 Things I'm Thankful Of

These are just a few of the things I'm thankful for this year.

1. My Faith
I have to work on this daily. Putting God first is something I struggle with daily.
2. My kids
Sarah, Lizzie and Jonathan. I gained a daughter-in-law this year, Kirsten, whom I am thankful for also.
3. My Church
I couldn't make it through this life with them.
4. My Job
I have struggled here too this year. My sales have been off. Just part of the life of a fertilizer salesman.
5. My Community
I search for reasons every year why I stay in small town America. It's a way of life, I suppose, that I enjoy. Don't know if I could survive anywhere else.
6. My Home
It's not much, but I like it!
7. My Friends
I have the best group of friends anyone could wish for.
8. Agriculture
I know! It's all I know!

Remembering

So far this year, I have been to 12 funerals. Each one always seems to bring back fond memories. Today, I went to Quanah for the funeral of Sam Breedlove. Sam was the granddad of one of my classmates from high school. Sam was one of those men that, in his actions, demanded respect. He was a leader of the community. I can remember when he was the mayor of Quanah. He was very active in his church. He was active in civic organizations. One of my fondest memories of Sam Breedlove was during my senior year in high school. I was a junior Rotarian and Sam was a life long member of the Quanah Rotary Club. Sam was the song leader. I remember Sam leading us in "God Bless America". He had a voice that stood out. Very strong and praising. You could tell that he was very committed to the American way. Sam was an American. He was a Christian man.

Fox News Channel

As most of you know, I am an avid Fox News Channel Fan. I started out watching Fox News many years ago. I started out watching Fox and Friends in the morning. If it's news I'm looking for, Fox is where I go. Tonight as I was driving in from Stillwater, I was listening to The Factor and O'Reilly was interviewing Brit Hume. At the end of the interview, Bill made a comment that Brit was not going to be on "Special Report" any more. Brit went on to say that he was going to concentrate on the "3 G's". God, Granddaughters and Golf. Did you hear that? A major league news man is going to concentrate on God! He said that he was going to spend a lot of time studying the Bible. WOW!

The more I watch and listen to Fox, the more I'm impressed with the whole crew. Yes, even Alan Colmbs! LOL! He's really a conservative in a liberal body! LOL! More than once daily, I hear at least one person on the network to give praise to God.

I was channel surfing the other day and went by MSNBC. Keith Oberman was spending his time, instead of reporting on news issues, ridiculing and running down Bill O'Reilly and Gretchen Carlson on their views on the Washington state governor's lack of judgement on what kind of holiday scenes could be put out on the state house's lawn. Because Gretchen is a Christian, Keith took his time to run her down.

Keep up the good work Fox News! And Brit, I will miss seeing you on air every day!

More CCOOLLDD!!!!

I'm in Stillwater this morning. It's about 16 degrees here this morning and slick. It is only about 4 blocks to where the conference is this morning. Plus OSU is out for Christmas break so this town is almost empty. I got into to Stillwater about 10:00 last night and I almost didn't find anything to eat! I finally found a Whataburger!

I stayed in the Hampton Inn last night. Really clean and super nice folks! If your ever in Stillwater, I recommend the Hampton Inn.

I'm super excited about this meeting! I hope to learn lots of things about infra-red and near-infra-red technology today. I know, big words for a country boy!

Hopefully, I will be headed home around 6:00 this evening. Haven't really made up my mind which way I am going yet, but headed in the general direction of Lockney.

Thanks for stopping by today!

P

CCOOLLDD!!!!

Can you believe this cold weather we are having? I worked outside most of the day yesterday. I have been working in the girl's bathroom putting in a new toilet and putting tile on the walls of the shower. I looked to see what the high temp was here yesterday. The Texas Tech Mesonet site showed a high of 71 degrees yesterday. This morning we had a low of 13!

I am getting ready to leave town here in a few minutes for Stillwater, Oklahoma. They are having a wheat fertility conference tomorrow. I know it will be cold there. I checked to see if they are having any freezing precipitation there. All looks clear.

I had a good conversation with Carolyn Marble Friday. Carolyn is the keeper of the Floyd County Museum. I have been researching some stuff as to how many cotton gins and other agricultural type businesses there has been in the county.

Tuesday!

Tuesday are special to me. Every Tuesday evening my girls and I go and have pizza on the buffet at Main Street Pizza in Lockney. (YES! We have something besides a Dairy Queen!) Our Tuesday night routine has become somewhat of a tradition for us. After pizza we do a variety of things. Lately, we have gone over to Plainview for hot chocolate and desert at the Broadway Brew. Now that basketball has started, we may try to get up to the gym and catch a few games.

Tuesdays are special to me because the time I get to spend with my girls. It is especially good after the weekends I don't have them. It gives me that "dad" rush.

I can't wait for tonight!!!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!

My Step Family

I talked to my sister yesterday. It's finally happened. My step family has split. One of my step-brothers has gone through a divorce. In order that my girls and my nephew Ronnie has a relationship with their cousins, my sister and I have continued the relationship with our ex-sister in law. Let me explain further. For years, we have gone to mom's for Labor Day. Our family has always enjoyed labor day together. We have always hunted, Joe Gayle (my step-dad) has always cooked this huge meal. I think I have missed one Labor day since 1988. My step brother Jim has missed several always blaming someone else (his ex) or some other excuse. When we would make plans in the weeks leading to Labor Day, and he was always coming only not to show up a majority of the time with out even a phone call to let us know. I have watched my girls be crushed when their cousin's didn't show.

This Thanksgiving it happened again. Still not willing to take responsibility for his own actions, Jim didn't show up again. So, my sister stopped in Wichita Falls and picked up one of my nieces that wanted to go to her grandparents for Thanksgiving.

So now, to protect our kids from all the drama and crap, my sister and I are going to have Christmas here at my house here in Lockney with my mom. It's kinda like my parents are having to pick sides. My step-dad is a grudge holder and somewhat blameless himself. Just a shame that no one wants to make an effort to keep our family together anymore.

I just have one question for me! What did Jesus do?
Pray for us!