m e a d o w l a r k

Today we went to a really cool tour at the Carnton House which is the burial ground of many confederate soldiers who were killed in the civil war battle of Franklin. One of the bloodiest in Civil War history. I love civil war stuff, so to say the least I enjoyed it… except the docent who was boarder-line creepy. She was a bit obsessed with the amount of amputations and blood stains that apparently occurred at the Carnton house which was used as a field hospital for many of the wounded soldiers. She kind of freaked me out. I would not want to be alone with her at any time. I got the sense that she would love to show you her own personal collection of hack saws.

The moral of this blog is don’t ever be alone with a civil war docent who is obsessed with amputations.

- Bill (still have all 4 limbs)

Although I have tried to stay as current as possible with new technology; especially the human element of new technology, I have not yet been able to get my mind wrapped around why or how web sites such as myspace, u-tube, or any other site that allows us commoners to post anything and everything about ourselves becomes popular. Even the idea of blogging seems strange to me. I honestly don’t consider my thoughts and daily goings-on to be interesting enough to be worth publishing. So with my lack of understanding of this phenomenon, here is my first ever blog for the world (or probably just my family) to read. Please try to overlook any protocol that I violate, or any boredom that you may feel as a result of slogging your way through my ramblings.

Today was a typical Sunday in the Pedley kingdom. Some of the higher and lower points, in no particular order-

We woke up too late for church, then squeezed ourselves, and stressed each other out by trying to get ready on time. This is something that we are not used to. Renee’ and I have been going to church on Saturday nights for the last few months, then sleeping in with the rest of the non-church going community on Sunday mornings. After this A.M. I am reminded of why it was such a brilliant plan. With our master bathroom out, we have been reduced to 1 1/2 bathrooms for the 4 of us. I am trying to think of a relevent analogy to sharing a bathroom with a 14-year old boy and a 13 -year old girl (mostly a 13-year old girl), but I can’t come up with one; maybe getting pecked to death by a duck comes close- slow and torturous. Funny that the Pastor included a bit about getting in the proper frame of mind on Sunday mornings before going to church, and how stressing each other out is probably not the best way to get there. Lesson learned- It’s back to Saturday nights for the Pedley’s, starting…umm..NEXT Saturday!

Today was the nicest weather that we have had for quite some time- Sunny and 50 degrees; time for one last bike ride with Renee’. For some reason, though I was having a hard time getting excited about it. I shouldn’t have. In terms of all of the things in this life that do not matter, biking is probably the thing that I enjoy most. Travis and Elaine both think that I’m a tad over-focused, bordering on obsessive when it comes to a bicycle.

whatever.

So today when my emotions were flat, it was my lovely bride who helped me to realize that I was lamenting the change of season. I am not ready to don sweatshirts, eat comfort food and then try to lose all of the winter weight next March, as if we were some species of hibernating bear that needs to pack it on for the long winter. We agreed to be intentional about staying active, even when there is less than 8 hours of sunlight per day, and to resist the urge to gorge on meatloaf. To seal the deal, we agreed to march up and down the hill on our street (not a small one) once every day for the next 21 days. I love renee’. Dumb little events like this help keep 16 years of marriage seem like we are still dating.

I am having my live tutorial on how to use this website. Wil has changed my server so that my computer shows all the tabs and such that I was missing before. Wil (and Kristen) are pretty darn knowledgeable on computers.

So I am ghoing to attempt to post a couple of pictures from Friday night at the game. It was Senior presentation night, Homecoming procession type thing and a picture of Laura during the game. She was a beautiful princess and I was thankful that she was nominated since her sisters was also, way back when…

We are having a great time in Nashville. It is so beautiful, it must be 70 degrees outside (A real treat for us). We are enjoying all the wonderful dining out options, are planning on visiting a plantation today that served as a civil war hospital. Apparently there are MANY ghost stories around Wil & Kristen’s town (Franklin). There were major civil war battles that took place right here on this ground… spooky!

O.K. so I will try and post now. We will get some pictures of our trip here up in a day or two.

Renee, sorry you’ve been so sick, I hope you are feeling better. Drink lots of liquids!

lgc

It has just been a week and it is only Wednesday. I feel like the week should be over and done with, it has just been so event filled.
All of you know by now we had laura’s senior pictures shot on Monday. We used the same photgrapher Wil & Kristen chose for their wedding, he is a very cool young guy who does great work. If you haven’t seen the pics yet take a minute to look, they are really nice.

images are on-line @:
www.collages.net
Left hand side:
Username: laura
Password: 8533

Anyway… Monday morning I pulled my back out (REALLY BAD) this is the second time that has happened in the last few months. It causes me to be almost completely immobile )o: We had canceled our photo appointment 3 times previous and I just could not do it again (the weather IS turning here). So we did the pictures in my somewhat invilaid state.

I tried to taking somewhat easy yesterday after finishing at work. Basically moving as little as poissible and getting as comfy as I could and just staying put. It really helped a lot so I tried to do as much as the same as I could today… But there is laundry and dinner and…..ya know. I just keep thinking I have to spend several hours on a plane on Saturday (which I find very uncmfortable already) how on earth am i going to handle that with such a messed up back and legs! When you are healthy you really take these things for granted, it is a good wake up call and i hope I will be more sensitive of others who have pain!

In the meantime. Laura was nominated to Senior Court (it is Homecoming this week). So she is an official Princess and they announce Queen on Friday at the game. I am so proud of her, she has come along way in the last 6 months and I am thrilled that she has received this honour. It is a blessing that makes her feel special.

Then tonight……….. we lsot Sophey )o; She is my and Laura’s baby )o; Just 2 days ago some of our best friend had to put their dear sweet dog to rest )o; We have had trouble with her sneaking over to a lot they are building on ( I am sure those guys feed her cuz she hardly eats her food these days). I have to go fetch her a couple times a week. Well with my back and my place on the sofa, I did not realize she had sneaked off. Bill looked all over for her to no avail all we could figure was someone got her because she has tags on with her name and phone number. Last weekend when Laura was coming home she came in and said “Sophey is in a certain neighbors yard”, Bill and I went to fetch her and they had her on a lease like she was theirs. Bill just kept saying tonight “I know they have her”. i kept denying it knowing they know who we are and she is our dogs and she has her ID on!!! He finally (after all my tears and regrets) just deicided to go see. SURE ENOUGH!!!!!! They had her. She was in thier house like she lived there. I am going to have to invest in an electronic fench $$$$$$$ I have no choice.

That said, please leave other peoples dogs alone (Sophey NEVER does not come home) also, please take some time to blog and let us what is up in all of your lifes. It has been A WEEK here.

I look forward to the game on Friday night. Outlaws are still undefeated. Going to see my dear son and his lovely bride on Saturday and sharing thier life. At the same time I am crazy busy with Operation Christmas Child and attemping to pull it all together. I love it, it’s so great to serve.
Sorry about any typos. i need to get to bed, so i am not checking them…sorry….. Love me lgc

hey my mom is making me post something so…here it goes

my name is elaine as you all know

i am an eigth grader at FMSW

i love photography and hanging out with my friends

i cant go a day without checking my myspace

i got about 4 inches cut off of my hair over the summer

i will put a picture soon

and thats about it!

♥

I’m not a big blogger, matter of fact, I would probably be considered a “non-blogger”. I sort of stare at the screen and have no idea what to write about. So I am staring and still nothing is coming to me. So here I go…

I have for many years wanted to live with a greater sense of purpose. I have driven myself in my career, fitness, reading (not very well), and just about anything I throw myself into. Put me in a game of Monopoly and I want to conquer! I am willing to give it my all to win or achieve… and all these things to better myself with hopes that one day I may be someone that achieved something with my life. It used to be dreaming to be a baseball player when I was young. I would play for hours by myself in the backyard as a kid and pretend to pitch to the entire line-up of the SF Giants. I knew everyone of them in the line-up, along with their jersey numbers. Those were the days of BOBBY Bonds, Wilie Mays, Willie McCovey, Tito Fuentes, Jim Davenport, Juan Marichel, etc. I would day-dream of striking everyone of them out as one-man opposing team. I was awesome and always won. Well, obviously those dreams didn’t come true. Years later and many dreams in-between, it turned to being a great designer. Well, I ended up working for one ( a designer that I mentored under in San Francisco), about a year out of college and found myself the co-recipient of a gold award at the San Francisco Art Director’s club annual design show. The strange thing was, it was one of the lowest points in my life. It was no longer the pipe dream of a kid throwing a baseball against a brick wall, it was real and right there before me. Yet I found myself disappointed and wondering why I wasn’t feeling so wonderful. What was the purpose of it all and what did it actually achieve? Thus begun my search for purpose. Many years since, I have discovered that the purpose of my life is not to relish in my own glory—or the pursuit of it, but to reflect the glory and wonder of THE Designer of the Universe—and of my life. I believe God has been so good to me and has blessed me beyond anything I could ever have asked for and imagined. I could not even attempted to design my life better. A beautiful wife of whom I prayer literally 7 years for—along with an instant family growing to 4 wonderful children. I am so proud of all of them and relish the days of them growing up. I still remember the many “theme nights”. The kid’s favorite was always “obstacle night”, where we would actually create an obstacle course in the house and every child even pinned racing numbers on their shirts. It was exhausting but fun. But my favorite was “Movie Night”. We all loved Disney movies—except Laura—she hated anything with scary stuff in it. But I would embrace the chance to hold her and protect her from those wicked characters. She especially did not like Ursula from “The Little Mermaid”. Even though I have managed to screw quite a few things up along the way, God has turned many of my mistakes into his expressions of forgiveness and grace. I now believe that I have been created for a purpose which is simply to honor the ONE who gave me life. Sounds so “un-great”, I know. But really it’s quite incredible. I have this crazy theory about glory… I believe we all desire it because we were actually designed for it. We wear logos, drive nice cars, buy nice clothes, obtain job titles, etc. with the hopes of associating and sharing with the glory they represent. While there is nothing wrong with these, and they can be quite enjoyable, they just don’t seem to satisfy our deepest cravings for significance, identity and pursuit of glory. Haven’t we all dreamed as some moment of fame? Air guitar? Scoring a last second touch-down? Singing in front of a crowd? What’s your dream of glory? Our dreams of glory may vary but they exist for us all. I still dream of glory, but I know that they only glory that will be lasting will be the glory that honors the great God who crafted me for His purposes through His son Jesus Christ.

Well, I told you it was hard for me to blog. - Bill