This newspaper advertisement is attributed to Ernest Shackleton the famous Antarctic explorer.  Some question whether he really posted it or if it was attributed to him later.  Regardless, this is exactly the spirit we’re looking for in core group members for our new church plant.

If you’re interested in a similar adventure please contact me immediately about moving to downtown Oklahoma City

My mother-n-law made a comment about my last post referring to a Seinfeld episode where they deal w/ low flow showerheads.  Behold the genius of youtube – if you love Seinfeld or just appreciate a shower with sufficient water pressure enjoy the next 5 minutes.

The shower in our bathroom has been losing pressure over the last month.  It had gotten to the point where it felt like people were just spitting on me.  I began to detest my time in the shower.  Don’t worry, I continued to take showers:)  But I wasn’t happy about it.

I often thought about looking at the problem myself, but I haven’t had much success with past plumbing problems.  You can read about my last adventure here.

Thankfully our landlord sent a plumber over yesterday afternoon who fixed the problem.  Strong water pressure is a beautiful thing.  My shower this morning was great.  Who knows, I might even take another one today:)

Halloween was a ton of fun.  I have never seen a neighborhood celebrate it to the degree that Mesta Park does.  More than half of the houses were decorated and almost all of them handed out candy.  People and cars lined the sidewalks and streets of our subdivision.

All 4 of our kids enjoyed the trick-or-treating.  Alli couldn’t believe that people were just giving candy away:)  After we walked a few blocks, Payton, Alli and I went back to our front porch to start handing out candy.  They were hysterical to watch.  They would stand on the front porch yelling “Customers, customers, come get some candy.”  I think they were more excited about giving the candy away then they were about getting candy.

After we ran out of candy to give away, we went inside and dumped out the spoils on the living room floor.  One thing about having 4 kids is that you come back with a LOT of candy.  Part of the Carter tradition is to eat as much candy as you want on Halloween night.  We all ate to our hearts content.  When everyone was full, they got to choose a few pieces to keep and then we packed up the rest and took it the next day to send to our soldiers overseas.

If you’re Halloween experience doesn’t sound like that much fun, you are welcome to come join us next year:)

This story is a couple of years old – but if you’ve never seen it, it’s definitely worth the view.

ESPN also did a story on Jason.  You can see it here

Someone gave us a gift card for Chili’s.  We went yesterday afternoon for a lunch date while the kids were in school.  Alli got to tag along.

We ordered our favorite dessert in the world – Molten Chocolate Cake.  Although we had to fight Alli off to get some.  By the time Carey had taken this picture and e-mailed it the cake was half gone.  Alliyah was all business while the dessert lasted.

Carey and I were invited to a prayer retreat last month.  Since we almost never say no to a couple of nights away by ourselves, we agreed to attend.  Debby came up to stay with the kids while we were gone.

When we arrived at the retreat we suddenly felt a little out-of-place.  As we entered the building and scanned the room we realized that we were the only people present under the age of 70 (okay there might have been 2-3 of them that were 65).

It was a weird experience.  They were all very pleased to have us there and made us feel welcome.  But senior citizens just do things differently than 32 yr olds.

We did have a good time laughing at ourselves and the unusual nature of the situation.  The highlight of the weekend was our nightly escape to Wal-mart – our home away from home – for snacks and a Redbox movie

My mom came to town last weekend.  She gave us a free night at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown OKC and she stayed with our kids!

Yes it’s only a few blocks from our house, but anytime someone offers to keep our kids overnight – we’ll stay anywhere – even at the “It’ll Do Motel” (which is a real place near Amarillo, TX).The thing that caught my attention was the soap and shampoo at the hotel.  It had rosemary and tea tree oil in it and the smell reminded me of my childhood.  As a kid we didn’t use Irish Spring and Suave – it was all natural soaps and shampoos.

My mom was 25 years ahead of her time and only now is corporate America catching up.

We just celebrated Emma’s 8th birthday!  She is growing up to be quite the little lady.  Although there are still plenty of moments of little girl silliness.  She loves to entertain her siblings – sometimes going a bit overboard, but always with good intentions.  She loves to go on dates with her daddy and regularly reminds me of how long it’s been since our last one.

She is becoming more responsible by the day and regularly helps Alliyah get dressed or reads her a book before bed.  She is a math genius and loves to work with numbers.  She is passionate about cooking and is becoming quite the capable chef.  Her heart is opening up to Jesus and desiring to please Him with her life and her actions.

I love you Emma bear and am grateful that you are my daughter.

For the first time in my life I understand what “easy like Sunday morning” means.  The last couple of years of college and all of my working life, Sunday mornings have been anything but easy.  I generally arrived at the church by 7am if not before.  It was a morning of rehearsals, ministering to people, and troubleshooting.  Even when I resigned from Noland Road Baptist last November – life at the Bed and Breakfast wasn’t “easy like Sunday morning”.

So, easy Sunday mornings are a novelty for me.  Yesterday I woke up and went walking.  Came home to eat breakfast.  Played with the kids for a while.  Got ready for church.  Had time to check e-mails and read some sports.  And then went to a church service at 11:00.  It was a good morning.