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I've had a turtle for quite few years now, 5, I believe.

Here's why I'd suggest a turtle as your next pet.

• He's pretty low maintenance.  If you buy the right filter and lighting, then there isn't too much you have to do to keep the habitat up right.  I'd say I may clean the aquarium once every couple of months.  Not too shabby in my opinion.  Especially when you consider that stank that is Bucky's litter box in one weeks' time.
• He's a great talking piece.  People love to ask questions about him.  What do you feed him?  How often does he eat?  Why does he swim constantly?  Is he going to get bigger?  Can I touch him?  Will he bite me?  Is it a boy or a girl?  How do you know? etc. (Answers: pellets, every other day, yes, hopefully not, sure, hopefully so, boy, you should ask your mother that question)
• He doesn't eat much...just a sufficient amount of pellets that he is fed every other day.  And the best part is that the pellets aren't that expensive.  Which brings me to my main point...

Over the years, I've always fed Zo this ReptoMin pellets because:
1) He appears to enjoy eating them
2) They are easy to handle and cheap enough to keep 'em coming

However, I did just learn a lesson in quantity.

This is the usual can that I buy from Wal-Mart for something in the range of $3.00 to $4.00 (1.94 oz)

Then I found some on Amazon...thanks to my buddy Matt and my new Amazon Prime membership, with free shipping, I just bought this next one off of Amazon for $8.99. (10.59 oz)

Now that's what you call quantity.

Guess where I'm buying next time?  (In 2016, when these finally run out, that is)

World Travels

My sister Anna left for a 5 month mission adventure today.  I say adventure, because I don't think the word "trip" really qualifies in what she's doing.  As part of the World Race organization, her team is travelling in Cambodia, Thailand, India, and then back to Atlanta all while focusing on the growing issue of Human Trafficking.

What's that, you ask?  Hopefully you are kidding.  Surely you know what Sex Trafficking is and surely you've heard that it has been a mounting concern over the past few years and surely you haven't overlooked the statistics about this grotesque injustice not just overseas, but in our own country/State/CITY.  Surely.

Here are some sobering statistics.

 

That's unreal.

If you are interested in keeping up with what she's doing, check out her blog(s) with her updates --> 

http://apennyforannasthoughts.blogspot.com/  or

http://annabearden.theworldrace.org/

In the meantime, maybe the question is what am I doing about it?

What are you doing about it?

There's a film recently made on the subject, an allegorical look, and it's definitely worth a look too.  

It's called "The Candy Shop" and you can watch it over at http://www.thedoorpost.com/

William and Melanie Wedding Highlight

William and Melanie were married on the shores of Lake Oconee at Reynolds Plantation. The two of them met at Prince Avenue Hispanic Mission in Athens and their relationship blossomed from there. It is a beautiful exposition of merging cultures. In fact, that whole wedding weekend was a mixture of these cultures: from the delicious mexican food (my favorite) at the rehearsal dinner to the catered cucumber fish thingy at the reception, everything about this special day was two becoming one. Check it out.

Thanks for letting us be a part of your day. It was incredible. And I'll never be able to look at Oreos and not think of you two.

Impersonations

Here's a great impersonation...

It's Chuck Dowdle...

impersonating Will Ferrell..

.

impersonating Harry Carey...

talking about picking up trash when you tailgate.

My Funny Story of the Day

Here's a guest post for you...Trisha's wanted to write a blog for quite some time. I've tried to get her to start her own thing, but to no avail, so I'm giving her a chance on here...so here it goes.

I have this comment that I make to Brody from time to time asking him if he wants to hear “My Funny Story of the Day”. I often mention that I should blog about some the stories, so tonight I decided to do so.

So, here is My Funny Story of the Day:

I work with this awesome lady named Gwen. Super cool lady, outgoing, personable, LOVES the Lord,..and works in prison ministry…yes, I said prison ministry. Today over our awesome convo, she shared a few amazing stories from her time in the prison ministry. Stories that gave me chill bumps, that made me tear up a bit, and one story in particular that made me laugh…out loud.

One evening she was at a prison in Lousianna just hanging out and speaking with the women there. A shorter, much older, stern looking woman came up to her with a pondering look on her face. Gwen said, “hello” and from there the woman responded with, “I hear you know a lot about the Bible. Well, I got a question for you.” Gwen replied with, “let’s hear what you’ve got.” The lady proceeds to ask this question: “So when I get outta this place…and I get out there and get me a man…what kinda sin am I gonna be committin? Is it adultery? Or fornication? What’s the difference between the two?”

Gwen, pausing, slightly giggling to her herself due to not expecting that blunt or specific of a question, responded with, “It depends. Are you married?”

The woman leaned back, gained her thoughts and said, “Well, I’m a home-made widow, so I guess not.”

Yes, folks…HOME-MADE WIDOW. I laughed. Yes, this woman was in prison for first degree murder of her husband and she called herself a ‘home-made widow’. Too funny.

But it doesn’t stop there.

After Gwen realized the implication behind her statement (and holding back her humor she found in the statement), she then asked, “ma'am, how much longer do you have of your sentence here in prison?”

The woman responded by saying that she received a one hundred year sentence and had a good bit of time left. Gwen’s final response and wisdom to share with the woman was she didn’t think she needed to worry about the difference J

That, my friends (or Brody’s friends) is my ‘funny story of the day’

Thanks and come again.

Youth Minister

I've been a youth minister for 6 1/2 years now. It's crazy to think it's been that long.

When people ask me what I do, and how I spend most of my time, I've come to realize that its kind of like the Utility Man in baseball...you play all the positions on the field.

I came across this video the other day that pretty much sums it all up. So here it is:

The life of a Youth Minister

That's my job.

Housage

We bought a house.

(note the new address)

Our grand entrance (don't worry, we've trimmed the hedges)

Our garage

Our vaulted living room

Our screened in porch

Our kitchen

The Master Bedroom...

where the magic happens...and by magic, I mean sleeping

The Master Bath

There are two other bedrooms and a bath that I didn't quite capture with film. If you are really curious, you'll just have to come by and see it.

Our first project is removing the horrendous wallpaper. That part is done. It was a bit of a pain, but we are on our way. We'll be painting soon so I'll give you before and after pictures in another update.

Also...there is a huge yard that you may or may not be able to make out in the pictures. If you have any yard tools you want to rid yourself of, let me know.

So...all this to say that if you are ever in the Athens Area and you need a place to crash, give me a call. We'd love to share with you.