PURE 2007

PURE 2007

January 12th-13th 2007

Loveland Christian Church

PIANO

I know that God has blessed us all with different talents. Things that we are all obviously gifted at doing. Some people can juggle, some can walk on their hands, some people can write poetry, some people can fart on command (yes, I know someone that can do it and yes it is a talent), some people can memorize entire books in just a few seconds, and still others can...play the piano. That last one is the one that really bothers me. You see, I would consider myself moderately musically talented. I really enjoy music of all kinds. I play a little guitar, I can tell when people are off key, and I can sing the first line of literally hundreds (if not thousands) of songs. Wierd huh? But I would gladly trade any of that talent or any other talent that I have, to be able to play the piano. It has always been a dream of mine to sit down at a piano and just start playing or to go into a music store at the mall and just amaze everyone around at my piano playing ability. The fact of the matter remains, however, that I just am not made to play piano. I guess my first problem is that I can't even read music (not even every good boy does fine). All those...notes are just are too confusing. I do have friends that play the piano and I ask them what the secret is, they simply say, "I have taken piano lessons since I was six". Well guess what, I'm not six and I would hate to spend the next 20 or 30 years taking lessons just to be able to play Mary Had a Little Lamb. So here I am. Waiting for some kind of miracle cure to come along that can make me play the piano (without lessons or practice of course). I only write this because I believe that there is someone out there that can tell me how to play the piano but without all of the work. There has to be some "secret weapon" that very few people know about. I want to play the piano. Someone...please show me the way.

Fall...STINKS

Fall...STINKS! Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for the cool clear weather, trick or treating, footbal games, hay rides, and trips to the apple farm (Rouster's Cider on 132 is the best). Those things are cool to me. But the fact of the matter remains that fall (also known as autumn), is the time of the year from late september to late December in which deciduous plants in the northern hemisphere drop their leaves. You see, I hate raking leaves. It may not seem like a big deal to you but you must understand where I live. I live in a subdivision known as "Paxton Woods" (if someone reading this is stalking me and is happy to now know where I live, that's ok, just bring a rake when you come). They didn't name it "Paxton Woods" for no reason. At last count I have about 32 deciduous trees in my relatively small back yard. What it boils down to is that for the next few weeks my life will revolve around removing those leaves. Again, you might say" just leave them there". If only it were that easy. Leaves left unremoved will clog gutters, destroy my pool cover, kill the grass (that might not be a bad thing), and rot our wooden deck. In other words, cause big problems. While some may look at fall with fondness over warm and fuzzy past fall memories, I think...FALL STINKS!!!

A Morning At The Pole

The morning started early for me today. I got up at 5:50am to start this awesome day. Why so awesome? It's because today was national "See you at the Pole" day. It is the day of the year where students around the United States join together before classes and pray (often around the flag pole) for their school, their friends, and each other. It is truly an awesome sight to see so many students circled up and praying even through the hustle and bustle of the arrival of others and even some rude comments. I started this morning at home praying for all of our students at LCC that would be participating in this student led event. Then, I hit the road. My first stop was Loveland High School and then it was off to Kings. I have tried to be around a couple of schools each year to simply support them in my own prayer while they are in prayer. I must say that it is very emotional time. To see all of these students (without any adult guidance) just....praying. It fills me with a sense of encouragement to whitness this event. It doesn't seem to matter the type of church that they come from or even it they attend a church at all, everyone is welcome to join the group and unite in prayer. But today, I also was filled with a sense of...guilt. You see, being an adult, I am supposed to have it all together, to lead the way spiritually to those who will come after me. Today, I had to ask myself, Would I have the guts to participate in such a public display of my faith at... Meijers, or Home Depot, or even a Reds game? Adults are often very comfortable displaying our faith...on Sundays (if in the right building) but are we living our faith out for all the world to see? This morning, instead of being a person that tries to help lead students to a relationship with Jesus Christ...I was the one being led.

Pictures Mentioned In Previous Blog

Left: Sign that made Brad Mad
Below: Candy Factory
Lower Left: Brad's Great Timing
Lower Left: The Windy City
Bottom Left: Brad's New Home

Chicago

Well I guess I should saya a few words about "Brad and Dan's Excellent Chicago Adventure". I think that you all can imagine what being in a little car with Brad for about seven hours (yes we took the scenic route)was like. Mostly it was one studid comment after another followed by laughter folled by flatulets (I'm not quite sure the spelling is right on that word but I can't say fart's here because I think that my mother reads this) followed by video followed by side trips followed by eating followed by laughter followed by...I think that you get the picture. Brad also likes to take pictures of bill boards although most of the pictures that I have are of the mirror of the car, his seatbelt or his shoes (his timing isn't that great). One bill board actually made him kind of angry. He saw one for "Dollar INN" and the price per night was $26.95. He feels like he has a good court case to sue for misrepresentation in advertising (you know, is it one dollar or 26.95?). We also took a side trip to "The Candy Factory". It was pretty cool. They had a 30 foot tall chocolate waterfall and all kinds of wierd candy like a plastic nose that you wear on your face and candy comes out of the nostrils (I bought one of course)and even a 4 inch jaw breaker (I bought on of them as well). All in all the trip lived up to our high standards. Chicago was...huge! I didn't realize how dinky Cincinnati is. I think that Brad is adjusting well. I will try to keep you all posted on his activities. I have included some pictues from our trip as well as well as one picture of Brad's new "home away from home". Please be sure to keep him in you prayers as well as the people that have to live with him for a year.

I thought that he was gone.

It has been a roller coaster weekend for me emotionally. You see, I have a great family and I love everyone that resides in our home dearly...except one. The story of my relationship with this particular family member is very...complicated. It started out great. I can still remember my wife and I bringing him home in the car. He was so tiny, so innocent, so...cute. It was probably against the law but my wife even held him in her arms all of the way home. As he grew, I would take him everywhere with me. People always stopped and talked to us while we were out and ALWAYS commented on how cute he was. We went on like that for several years but soon after things started to to go terribly wrong. I don't know if it was him or me but things started to change. His behavior became inexcusable. He stopped listening to me, he would be out playing and wouldn't come in for dinner, and his personal hygene problems became an issue. So I decided that drastic measures needed to be taken. I needed to find someone to adopt him before I lost it, before I became violent. We had several different people express interest in him from time to time but no takers. This past weekend, however, I had the perfect candidate who was very interested. I thought I had a deal. I would offer this person $100.00 to take this "problem child" off of my hands. It may seem wrong to you but I felt so excited to get rid of this "thorn" in the side of my family. Things were going well with the negotiations and the candidate left me with a feeling that this deal would be done. I was running around like a crazy man. I bought some toys for his car ride to his new home, gave him a bath, and even brushed his teeth. I gathered his belongings in a bag and had him ready to go and then I waited....and waited....and waited. That is when the roller coaster headed down hill. I soon began to realize that my candidate was not coming back. That I would be forever stuck with this...problem. So after the up's and down's of this weekend, I am left with thoughts of what could have been and I'm still left with this... problem "child". Of course I am talking about my pain in the butt dog, Toby. Although he now smells much better, I thought that he was gone.

It's Always Me

+ DAN'S HEAD = OUCH!

My Boss....Kaitlin

If you would ask me if I would consider myself the "head" of my household, I would say...yes(along with my wife of course). Most of the time I try to be the one that has the final say in family matters, that uses the authority that God has given me to help our family in the best way possible. That is all fine and dandy but there is one person who is moving in on my territory...Kaitlin. I have this daughter (who is only two years old) that has thrown the whole chain of command into disarray. The girl has this power over me that leaves me wondering exactly who's the boss. I have come to the conclusion that it is not me, it's her. I have two other children (both boys), that understand their place in our family. They know the rules and follow them... most ot the time. Kaitlin on the other hand, lives to a different set of rules... her rules. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how she does it. This tiny, cute, innocent little girl simply makes me do whatever she wants. If she wants to read a book fifty times in a row, I do it. If she wants me to hold ten of her dolls at once, I do it. If she wants me to get her five different snacks at once (only to eat a single bite of one of them), no problem. Why is she so different? What is this power that she has? I just don't understand it. Where have I gone wrong? A TWO YEAR OLD IS RUNNING MY LIFE! Maybe there is some kind of support group for this kind of problem. Maybe there is still hope that I can regain my position in our family...probably not... at least for about sixteen more years.

Sincerely,
Kaitlin's Personal Assistant

I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart?

As I read back through some of my previous post, I have noticed something. It seems that I tend to go on and on about my troubles. I go on about how crazy things happen in my life and how things sometimes seem to go wrong. I go on and on about going on and on. So today I am taking a day off of complaining and self pity. Today (and hopefully from here on out), I am going to take ten minutes each day to simply be joyful (and thankful) about my life and the things that God has done in my life. I did my first ten minutes this morning and it was awesome.

Here's the deal, too often I (maybe you, maybe not you), spend a ton of time telling everone who is in ear shot about what a mess my life is and about the latest cotastrophe at the Ponchot house. Truth is, bad things do happen but how it affects us is what's important. Does it throw us into some kind of depression, a week of feeling sorry for ourselves, an ice cream eating frenzy, or do we simply see it as part of living this life on earth and that our troubles really pale in comparison to the good things in our life. Where is our joy? Where is my joy?

This morning in my Bible study I looked at a passage in 1 Peter 1:3ish (message)-"What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven-and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The day is coming when you'll have it all, a life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine." Why is it that some christians are so negative about life when christians should in reality be the happiest people on the planet? We have this defeatest attitude like we are always under the gun and that we are these "poor little Christians". We forget who won the battle. Jesus took care of that a long time ago. I think that what it boils down to (at least for me) is that I sometimes misplace my joy . I simply lose it. I put too much thought into my every day, messy, life when I should be jumping for joy at what God has done for me. I am going to make every effort to keep the ten minute thing going. I think I'm going to like being happy more.
d.e.p.

Death of a "Flip Flop"

There are few things in my life that are very valuable to me; my relationship with Jesus Christ, my wife, my kids, my ministry, my guitar, and...my flip flops. My relationship with this particular pair of flip flops began over four years ago. I have had many other pairs of flip flops in my life but never have I felt so close to flip flop type footwear as I have this pair. There was nothing very special about this pair of flip flops; they only cost $3.00, I bought them at a bait shop in Tennessee, they are not a name brand, and they were not even close to a fasion statement but I think that all of those qualities in my dearly departed flip flops is what made them so special to me. I feel like a part of me has died, and in a way, I guess it has. What happened to my flip flops you ask? Well the police are still doing an investigation but based on the tear in the side, they think that it was an act of a...(sorry it's still hard to talk about) "flat tire". They still have some more interviews to do but they have told me that they have a "person of interest" in mind that may have commited this terrible flat tire. Here is the description of the person of interest: female, 15-16 yrs old, right footed, dark hair, possibly with the initials D.A., and probably wearing flip flops at the time of the crime. If anyone has any more information on who could have commited this act, please contact me as soon as possible. Well, I had better go. I am going to go out and bury my flip flops. I have a spot picked out right next to my 1986 Air Jordans.

Toilet Troubles

King Minos of Crete owned the world's first flushing water closet (that's a toilet) over 2800 years ago. The invention did not appear again until 1594, when Sir John Harrington built a "prive in perfection" for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth. Since then, many people have devoted their lives to the perfection of the modern toilet. In 1872, Thomas Crapper, a British plumber, developed a type of flushing toilet that held water for flushing and was much quieter than previous models. The American soldiers stationed in England during World War I who returned to the US used his name as a euphemism for the toilet.
I'm sure that this brief history of the toilet is fascinating to you but the fact remains that toilets are a fantastic inventions. I love toilets...until they break. Which brings me to the subject of this blog. Sunday afternoon, I returned home from church and went into our downstairs bathroom to...I think you get the idea. I look up at the ceiling to find that it is sagging down almost at eye level with water coming down through the middle. What a mess. It turns out that the toilet in the kids bathroom (directly above) had sprung a leak in the tank. I ended up spending all of sunday evening sitting in our kids bathroom repairing a toilet. That is just the beginning of the problems caused by the broken toilet. Now I have to replace the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom. Toilets are great...when they work.

d.e.p.

My Familia

I have a huge family. Not just my family but my extended family. I have two sisters (one older-one younger) and one brother (older). That may not seen like a lot to some of you until you look at how many nieces and nephews that I have. I currently have nine. They all are really nice and sweet in their own way. I have a very close relationship to some but I am less close to others. Most of them are in the age ranges of four to ten years old. Except for one. He is twenty-one. It cracks me up. At holidays, you should see the picture they always take of all of the grandchildren together. It's all of these cute little kids and then...him. I don't feel much like his uncle but more like his brother. Even though the age difference is still about fifteen years, we are much closer in our level of maturity (or lack there of). He is the one person in my extended family that I feel closest to. I don't know why I am writing about this today. I guess that I just took one of those walks down memory lane and certain people always come towards the front of my mind. He is one of them.

Coke Zero

I have started to realize that I have a big problem. You see, I suffer from an addiction. An addiction to...Coke Zero. It all started while I was yet a young lad. All of my life I have loved Coca Cola Classic. It is the best soda in the world. Even better than regular Coke is the Coca Cola that they bottle in Mexico. It's made with cane sugar instead of the corn syrup like here in the states. It is awesome. But I digress. The problem with regular coke is that it has a million (ok a lot) calories and that is the last thing that I need (if you have ever seen me in person, you know what I am talking about). So the switch to diet soda began all the while I still had a love for Classic Coke. For a while it was Diet Mountain Dew. Then Diet Dr. Pepper. All of these are okay but my yearning for Coca Cola Classic still remained. I tried Diet Coke but found it to be a very poor substitute for Coke. C2 was next and it tasted better but it still had a lot of calories. Then one day it happened. I stopped at the quickie mart to get a diet Dew or something and that's when I saw it...COKE ZERO. The sign above it said "Like Coke Classic, Zero Calories". You know what, they were right (pretty close anyway). Ever since, I have been a fan of Coke Zero. The problem is, it's getting out of control. I slowed down for a while because of the cost. But recently I found that I can get Coke Zero by fountain at the local Meijer's gas station. It's only $1.09 for a huge cup. People say that drinking too much soda can harm you but I don't seem to care. Is it wrong to drink so much soda (I drink a lot)? I guess I'll try to cut down, right after I finish the one I'm drinking at the moment.

d.e.p.

Pink Paint...The Final Chapter

It is finished. It was worse than I had ever imagined. My daughters room is now...PINK. I know what you all are saying, "It was painting a room with pink paint. What was the big deal?" As you all may recall, my fear was not the painting itself but going and asking for Strawberry Shortcake pink paint. Here's how it went. So I go to the paint store and start to check out the paint color choices. My plan of action was to kind of lay low so as not to draw too much attention to myself, buy paint, and go home. That didn't last too long. First problem: There are about sixty different shades of pink paint. I truly had no idea. I stared at them all and started to freak out. They all started to look the same. Time was ticking away. I just knew that sooner or later, someone I knew was going to come along and see me looking at pink paint. It was sooner and it was more than one person. No lie, I had four different people whome I hadn't seen in years choose this day and time to reunite. They could tell that I was uncomfortable. They saw the fear in my eyes. So being the great long lost friends of mine, they did what all my other friends do...ridicule me. These four "friends" gave me encouraging words such as; "Pink paint huh? Getting ready for a tea party" and "Oh pink paint, did you see that shade on the Martha Stewart show?", and the remarks went on and on. So I finally get rid of those "great" friends(former friends after all that) and it was down to the task at hand. The paint guy came over and asked me if I needed help. I couldn't tell you his name or even what he looked like. I couldn't look him in the eye. So he asks me "The" question. "What shade are you looking for"? I reply almost in a whisper..."strawberry shortcake pink". He says, "WHAT??". So I them reply, "pink...for my daughters room". Long story short, he gives a little chuckle and leads me to the Disney Paint Color section. He shows me paint colors called "Princess Pink" and "Fairest of them all" pink and "Pretty in Pink" pink and a whole slew of others. What did I decide on you ask? I wont tell. It's done and that's all that matters. All in all this experience has left a feeling inside of me. A feeling inside like I have made a big step towards maturity, true adulthood...or it could just be gas.

Pretty in pink,
d.e.p.

Lightning Strikes!

WOW!!! I almost had an accident in my pants. Last night we had a monster thunder storm at our house. It sounded as if lightning was striking right in our yard. Turns out, it did. Jacob came into the family room from the living room and said that there was a big orange flash in our front yard. When I went out to check it out, this is what I found. One of the pictures shows how far the inside of the tree blew down the street. Crazy!

Pink Paint...

It has finally happened. I am finally accepting that I am the father of a female. My first two children being male, I have never come across such a problem as the one I am about to face. I am going to paint something pink... on purpose. Please know that this is a big step for me. I have never painted with pink paint before. I guess that is not all together true. In college, I helped paint a friends car pink as a prank (I wish I still had the pictures), but never before with forethought and care. You see, I am painting my daughter's room pink. Strawberry Shortcake Pink to be exact. Julie is taking the kids to the lake for a couple of days so I have been told that it would be a good time to get some painting done. Now I'm all for home improvement, my favorite place to shop for back to school is Home Depot, but pink paint? What makes it worse is that I actually have to go to the paint store and purchase pink paint. I have been trying to figure out in my mind how to go about this in the most "manly" way possible. Even in my mind, it doesn't look pretty. I imagine me going up to the paint guy and saying "2 Gallons of your best pink paint" and then he says "what shade of pink?" Then I say, "Strawberry Shortcake pink", and then he says, "What is Strawberry Shortcake Pink?". Then I say, "Strawberry Shortcake is a cartoon about a girl who dresses in strawberry laiden attire, that smells like strawberries, that has friends who smell like other fruits, that....". And then, he will give me the look. "The" look. The look that says, "Wow, you're funny", but it won't be funny "ha ha" it will be funny "coo coo". So I'm trying to decide how to avoid that situation all together. Maybe I could get someone else to buy the paint or go to the paint store in disguise. Any suggestions would be helpful. Pink paint...I wonder what will be next...uh oh...Barbie!

d.e.p.

i'm messed up.

I feel weird today. Not that me feeling weird is anything new. Yesterday was pretty good. Brian's sermon was awesome. Then we had some friends over for lunch and to swim. Good times...good times.
Impact was ok. I just feel like I didn't get it done. I know that God said what He needed to say but I still feel like it wasn't my best effort. It makes me ashamed when I don't give people (especially God) my best effort. So today in my Bible study, I read 2 Timothy chapter two. Wow! Just what I needed to hear. You see in chapter two Paul talks about doing your best for God. Paul says around vs 15 (The Message), "Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they're not backed up by a Godly life, they accumlulate as poison in the soul". Man, I should have that engraved on my forehead. How many times to we talk just to talk, sing just to sing, and pray just to mark it off of the daily "to do" list? I guess my thoughts, words, life, and actions better be the same huh? Sermon to self (2nd time this week), over.


d.e.p.

Saturday

Well it's Saturday and VBS is over. I think that it was a good week. My kids really seemed to enjoy it. I STILL smell like vanilla pudding. I was "slimed" last night with vanilla pudding with green food coloring in it. It wasn't that bad except that I got it in my ears and it still feels like it's in there. It was cool to see our teen's from church working with the younger kids all week. They did a great job. One cool thing from last night was that I was able to talk to our missionary for VBS (Chris Irwin) for a while. What a cool guy. I told him that he was one of my hero's. He seemed to not really understand why he would be one of my hero's. Here's the deal. It amazes me when people make such a sacrifice to do what God calls them to do. Here is a guy packing up his whole family and moving to another country, leaving most of the comforts of the good ol' USA to tell others about Jesus. It makes me feel guilty in a way. I have trouble sharing Jesus with my next door neighbor. Now I know that God doesn't call all of us to go to a foreign country to be a missionary but he does call ALL OF US to tell someone what He did for us. Oh well, sermon (to myself) over.

d.e.p.