Highlight of my Week

Here in Jersey tonite we are getting a lot of wind...it is probably the outskirts of Katrina. It makes for a pleasant evening here but sometimes what appears to be good is really dangerous.

The highlight of my week was Katherine's baptism tonight. What an encouragement! Words are not made to describe my feelings. Thanks to Kat for her step she has uplifted my faith to a new level!

But seriously folks...

The people who resided along the Gulf coast need your prayers. Events like this pull people together....they also make people search for the truth

and it makes people question God which is good.
We know many people who live in New Orleans and so far it appears everyone is safe. Apparently one of my good friends wife's father who vacated to Houston may have lost his house.
I do have a request....One of my peers who operates our stores in New Orleans (she is currently in Houston) cannot find her mother. The fellow employee's name is "Z". Pray that her mom is ok.
I have heard the National Guard is going door to door and marking homes with big red x's that have bodies in them.
I also know that several of our retail employees that lived and worked in New Orleans and vacated to Al, Tn, Tx and so on and so forth... they are not going back. They are relocating.
Water is essential.
Food is essential.
Shelter is essential.
Clothes are essential.
Give what you can...be it time, money, prayers or encouragement...

Questions People Ask

She was a well dressed mature woman visiting Philadelphia and shopping in our shop. She picked up the pop-gun and looked at me with a straight face and said...
"what is the purpose of a pop-gun?"

Now....is it me??? Is this question something that needs to be answered by another human being?
The best answer to her question receives 12 points.

Incidently she did "pop" out the 3 bucks and make the purchase...

Katrina & the Waves

As a Christian, who am I going to tell of the "hurricane" coming known as Jesus? Will I tell my neighbor...will I warn them to get to a better place? Why wouldn't I?
Will I tell my sisters and parents....will I not call them and warn them @ least once?

I have read everything I can get my hands on and come to one, solid conclusion. Jesus Christ is the son of God and He came to this earth to save us. We didn't evolve from monkeys and yes, I believe in dinosaurs and the earth DID NOT come from a big bang....nope, God made each of us in His image, just like Him....He is powerful and loving!

So my fellow bloggers....like the weatherman, my time here has given me wisdom....I have read the "charts" and I know of a time that will come when Jesus will return here....after he has visited us for a second time CNN will not be on saying: "here is what is left from hurricane Jesus"

Lastly, I have a joy in my life that is second to none. My friends if you want peace, love, kindness, patience and joy pick up the word of God and let Him live in you.

Music Question

What song "turned you on" to music?

The first songs I remember hearing were:
Up, up and Away-5th Dimension
Can't Get it Out of My Head-ELO

But the song that made me pursue music above all other songs...the song that made me "stop" in my tracks and say....what was that???
Uncle Albert-Sir Paul McCartney
I was about 9 years old

I want to include China Grove by the Doobie Brothers in this 'cause I saw a garage band perform this song live at a small firehouse type party for the marching band (think parades) I was in ( I played the cymbals and bass drum) when I was about 11....the intro to the song (GUITAR) blew me away....and that is when I 1st danced to music (think David Byrne).
BTW the name of the marching band was the Royalettes and we wore white puffy shirts with purple stripped pants, 70's guys, with white furry marching band hats.

Weddings

Well peeps it is an interesting life we lead. The keyword being "lead". I watch so many people sit thru life and not involve themselves....isn't it time for us to truly encourage each other to be the best to give that positive feedback?

Marriage is an incredible commitment. I knew when I got married that it would be for life. What a joyous celebration of life weddings are. Receptions are awesome. It's a party. I figure within the next 5 years I will probably celebrate a marriage of one of my two oldest children and my excitement can hardly contain itself. Now I am certainly not suggesting that my children run out and get married...my point being that this celebration within my family will be a highlight of my life. My children taking another step in life.

To those who are married....may the good Lord bless you with happiness and contentment with each other. A few highlights of my evening at Andre and Aurora's wedding:

1. Watching Clarence and Vivian dance together.

2. Aurora's genuine happiness at our presence there.

3. Finding out that the DJ was a believer and him then playing praise songs that really jammed and watching so many people give their praises to Him during these songs.

4. Watching Steve, the best under 7 year old dancer perform and challenge me to a dance off (he won)

5. Seeing Andre's smile.

6. Seeing my Margaret's smile.

7. Watching so many people get out of their comfort zone and put it on the dance floor.

8. Carrying Elizabeth.

9. Meeting Vivian's dad....what a wonderful daughter he raised!!

10. being with people who, like me believe, and going to a wedding that 70% of the people there are some of my closest friends and celebrating life with Christ in tandem with them.

and the church said.....Amen!

Saturday in the Park....think it was the 4th of July

well it certainly is not the 4th of July but it is 11:00 and I have been sitting at the window bordering on Shangri-La for about an hour and I just saw my 1st car drive by....it's a s l o w day out there....slightly overcast. Opps there goes the 2nd car. I am supposed to be installing Taylor's b-day present a mini blue ipod. "Snap"!

I just realized the Los Lonely Boys are pretty good....hey that overcast just turned to sweet, sweet rain.....ahhhhh the sound of rain in Shangri-La...so steady and mesmerizing.

Just bought an 160 gig internal harddrive to supplement my 111 gig harddrive of which I am using 66 gig! The supplemental drive will be to safeguard music and photos. Total cost for this security----40 bucks...after two separate mail-in rebates.


if you got this far name the band who wrote the lyrics in the header...s/b ez

I have named the Rock Garden

Here-by after my garden shall be known as Shangri-La

google defines Shangri-la as: A fictional paradise where people live without care and never age. Used to describe any especially beautiful vacation destination.

And yes, my garden is a vacation spot.

Thanks to James for unbeknownst assistance in this matter.

Today's Question----Bonus Points To Be Awarded

What is your favorite season?


Floridians are not permitted to vote for two reasons
1. They don't have seasons
2. They don't know how to vote

bonus points will be randomly distrubuted based on extra credit and our own emotions at the time....

everyday is....

Ahhhhhh Thursday......a cup 'o joe and an afternoon of pleasant weather....life is good

Rock Garden Continued

I figured out if you click on the images you can get a "bigger pic" of the garden. For all of you Intermediate II people....in the preceeding post you can get a glimpse of the "toothpaste" bottle!
Also for all of you camp folks you should check into the guestbook @ http://www.manatawny.org/ camp's website.....people are giving some mighty fine encouragement over there.

The Rock Garden

Well here are some pics of my rock garden. I like it and enjoy weeding it and looking at it. The last pic is the expansion I am looking to do.
BTW my wonderful sister Paige wins the contest for "choosing a new name" she received 250 points for coming close to mentioning my name.
I really need to do some background planting around the window. I have a pretty clear idea of how I will proceed in the new section. It takes some time cause plants are not cheap. Rocks are free if you know where to look and ask all of your friends to bring you home rocks from their vacations. The rock closest to the truck hitch is the one Taylor and I did not almost get into the truck due to it's sheer weight. I have rocks from Mt Rainer, Alaska, a lot of southern states, Honduras, Spain, England, Mexico, France and Portugal....most of these are small since people are not willing to cart large rocks on airplanes....I figure that 1,000 years from now I will have the archaeologists baffled.

questions/comments

Well for the 2nd time in my 15, 000 plus days of existence I have met someone with my first name. He was 5. The 1st time I met someone was 2 yrs ago @ the Academy of Natural Sciences and she was 4....she could have cared less cause she was to interested in the donosaurs...can you blame her?
So heres the "q". If you could have any other 1st name......what would it be?
Anyone who picks my first name (Tate) gets an automatic 500 bonus points.
Winners to be announced tomorrow....

there is no tomorrow.............

was it ben that said "do not put off for tomorrow what you can do today?". good advice, today is today, tonite is tonite, take advantage of it all as if there was no tomorrow...say what you want to say today, do what you want to do today and live the precious minutes you have just as they are....precious minutes.

Well we did not get our pepperoni bread, but we did fill the truck with rocks albeit no smooth ones and we were outside for the majority of today. We are going to watch M.Night's first movie...WIDE AWAKE complete w/heavily buttered popcorn (we figure there might not be a tomorrow)....we did have a pretty awesome late lunch early dinner at a place called
Philly's Phatties http://www.phillysphatties.com/ a very unassuming place that I had read had a very good cheesesteak and I have to agree it was EXCELLENT despite the not so friendly service and typical pizza place grime. I would highly recommend them for steaks and I DO NOT recommend too many places.
Time to shower....and recharge the ipod. One of my favorite pleasures in life is crankin' the ipod up whilst cutting the grass and gardening...I did destroy two wasps nests today...I hated to do it but they were not located in natural settings so they had to go.

BTW....I am filthy right now and am figuring this could be the best shower of my life...after all I might not to get to take another one...enjoy what you do when you do it.
Peace, love & understanding and a good dose of wisdom from heaven!

Tate

PS one of the rocks that Tails and I loaded into the truck was extremely heavy....we almost did not get it in the truck but sweat and determination paid off and we have one, huge, heavy Manatawny rock to roll of that truck tomorrow.....thanks Tails...I could not have done it w/o you!
Lastly...(sorry) it was great to see the Howers, Kim Keller & Ben, Jocelyn, Amanda and a coupla girls from Aryn's cabin at camp today ( not to mention a bunch of other awesome folks) ....It wasn't just "like" family....IT WAS FAMILY! Three of those that I saw had been baptized just last week. Amen, amen, amen...for He is great!

Weekend

It's Sat AM after a full moon....Today and tomorrow are days meant to be filled with wonder. Get off the 'puter and go OUTSIDE...

Tails and I will be doing some thinking today and visiting camp to wrap up some minor biz after which we will loading my daddy's truck full of rocks for the infamous rock garden expansion. I also hope to get some smooth rocks from the creek. We are going to buy some pepperoni breads since I was too tired to make them last nite and hit the road....we will be outside all day.
Hope you can be too!!

question of the moment.....

name the best song ever written about friends?
Ms Warwick & friends excluded.

It's FRIDAY!!!!

I have been waiting and waiting for FRIDAY and it is here! Look out rock garden here I come!!!

Quite actually it is early morning Friday and I am getting ready for bed so I can get up-n-enjoy FRIDAY!

Hope you all enjoyed that Thursday and had a chance to look at the moon....slightly overcast here in the Garden State but after much debate it was determined that the moon was full.

What can I say about friends that hasn't already been sung in cheesy songs??

A promise is a promise

A handshake will seal it

No amount of discussion

Can ever repeat it

Commitment forever

To borrow or lend

Deliver your future Into the hands of your friend

Be friendly, befriend me now

Pete Townshend

I just said good-bye to my travelin' wife....she is off to Ok. for a few days....the tater will miss her dearly.

I know I tend to get all inspirational on my blog.....let me just say this....despite myself...my kids are incredible. I don't know how it happened.....the word true comes to mind so that's it kiddos

be true

The Most beautiful Thursday ever made

Today is a beautiful day....it has to be the most beautiful Thursday ever made----enjoy it and don't forget to look at the moon tonite and tomorrow it should be fully round and oh so brite!

I am finally back and fully recovered from camp....look out world it is time to turn you upside down!

I am listening to U2 all day today....they might be the most consistent band of the last two decades....any takers?

Let's see....on another note---have you hugged anyone today? Go and pick a random person, a person that does not expect a hug and turn their world upside down by hugging them.

I hope you all are smiling cause you make me smile

Love-Thunder-Full Moons-Peace-Anger-
Joy----see it where you are!

Tate

Life after camp OR this american life

i just played the crap out of my guitar....i had not really played for a week (camp) and boy did it feel good!
Sooo campers i had some other stuff to post but my mental stupor is in the way. whadda ya know...work has really been work for the past few days which really stinks....i don't usually feel this way 'bout work but this week i do.
health....when you have it....you take it for granted when you don't...it's not any fun.

I really need to hit the guitar store but first i have to buy the most beautiful woman in the world her b-day present. if i hit the guitar store 1st then i will have my priorities mixed up.

hope you folks are enjoying yourselves....my mental block finally opened up and i have clarity again...i am going to be doing a mass change of my my email name over the course of the next few days...i have pondered this for quite some time....i really like gmail but they wouldn't let me do less then 6 characters and it did not make me a happy camper 'cause i have been wanting to just use tate@gmail.com but I need two more characters and of course tate@ yahoo.com has been taken over the course of the past 5 years or so.
it looks like i am going with "njtate" @ gmail....I really like gmail.
so campers.....look for a big public announcement over the course of the next few days....till then
peace & love and power to the people! weeeeeeeee!

Responsibility

There is something about waking up today that was different.....see I am going to Camp Manatawny to counsel a cabin full of boys and my wife, the gorgeous one, will be going as well as my three kids....so I woke up this AM, knowing that I was done work for a week, knowing that I was in God's presence and that I didn't have too worry about staffing and cash issues and all of that retail stuff that I know and love. I woke up knowing that for the next 7 days I would be totally concentrating on God and relationships. I have to tell you....I love reality but at the same time despise it....When I see the homeless, the sick and hurting I know that there is something greater then this and I do not want to be a part if this world because I believe in a much bigger place...Heaven. I woke up peacefulth is morning because rather then "escape reality" thru drugs, alcohol or by running away and shrugging responsibility or one of the other 8 million ways to escape reality....rather then do any or all of that.....I will escape reality via camp.....where it is about as close to heaven as a place I have ever been....where everyone smiles and says good morning. Where the TV doesn't even get seen, where you don't hear the weather you just wait for it....where people hug you 'cause they love you and where people do things for you because they know what was done for them (on the cross). Where people forgive one another w/o even thinking about it. You see....I believe in a far greater place, heaven and for the next 7 solid days I am going to get to taste it......

nj life will be away

NJ life will be on a short hiatus whilst enjoying the semi-central Pennsylvania lowlands.
Enjoy yourselves....don't forget to glance @ the nite sky to see Mars.
Don't forget to take out the trash and please don't forget to read God's word....

Till we meet again.....XOXO

today's post

This is two parter....don't click away it's very ez.

1. Where do you/we get confidence from?
2. Do you read my posts?

C'mon.... don't just read but type!

question of the minute

what is the most exciting thing going on in your life??

seriously....can you answer that?

my answer is as follows:
the anticipation of camp which delves into my life's purpose/mission statement which I posted yesterday. the anticipation of "bunking down" and living life with 6-9 young men and spending every moment with them....no internet, no tv, no recorded music, mars @ nite, the moon @ nite, sitting @ a camp fire, watching today's future (youth) learn to live life....watching some of best friends and family do the same....it doesn't get any better and if you think I am out to lunch go talk to someone in their 80's or 90's and see who is right.....'cause while you are thinking about what you are going to do for yourself....the world is whizzing right by you. If you blink you might miss it....leave it all on the floor....take no prisioners!!
the question is.....do you want it?!

question of the minute

what is the most exciting thing going on in your life??

seriously....can you answer that?

my answer is as follows:
the anticipation of camp which delves into my life's purpose/mission statement which I posted yesterday. the anticipation of "bunking down" and living life with 6-9 young men and spending every moment with them....no internet, no tv, no recorded music, mars @ nite, the moon @ nite, sitting @ a camp fire, watching today's future (youth) learn to live life....watching some of best friends and family do the same....it doesn't get any better and if you think I am out to lunch go talk to someone in their 80's or 90's and see who is right.....'cause while you are thinking about what you are going to do for yourself....the world is whizzing right by you. If you blink you might miss it....leave it all on the floor....take no prisioners!!
the question is.....do you want it?!

Open your eyes! Day IIIIII of my blog

lots to post and no time to do it....
Ready, set go!
smile---smile at everyone---smiling cause other people to be happy for no reason. Talk to strangers (as long as you are over 14 years old) and make friends with everyone. Let's all be happy for no reason!!

Mars is coming and is going to be visible very soon....no telescope necessary. Let's look at the nite sky it is amazing.

Work---Yikes! I have had an underlying feel of evil lately at work and for good cause. Can't go into detail here but suffice it to say that God is bigger then us and he resides in us! I can use your prayers in this matter.

My wife---my gosh is she not awesome. I love her soooo much and she is the single most important person in my life---love's like that kiddies---keep it real!

Camp is coming and I will not be posting for an entire week....by the overwhelming amount of comments I am receiving I am sure you folks won't miss me but in case you do keep this in mind---This is my personal mission statement:
To Teach
To Live
To Love
To Give

If I can do that with my 30,000 odd days here...then I have done something!
That's purse unadulterated wisdom from heaven folks---take it to heart!

Mondays are NOT evil....by default they get a bad rap....Sure they can be ruff & tuff but they can also be cool.....Let's all take a step back and take another look at Mondays. Let's be nice to Monday, give it some love maybe even tickle it a little bit.

Today, being a Monday is a true test.....read my bible today just to make sure it got a good start (Monday's need all the help they can get!). Reading Philippians in prep for a class this Wed....good stuff as is LIFE!

Yes, it is August 1st the first day that leads to the end of summertime for so many of our youth. Frankly I can't wait to see snow again.....I love snow (especially on Mondays). I don't mind the heat just the humidity which I am told by the friendly neighborhood weather woman is going to return....as long as it goes away by the time we get to camp.

Enjoy whatever you are doing.....may your monitor screen be filled with love!