BST's Blog

Great day off today. We went to the completely overwhelming Opry Mills Mall ( or as Sheryl calls it, Shopryland).

Last night we stayed up way too late visiting with Jeff and Anna Berry. Some friends are just so close it's as if no time has passed when you've been away for months at a time. What sweet fellowship we had! What a great night of worship last night! We were blessed by Jeff's leading.

We went to a new little hot spot over in east Nashville tonight where we find ourselves becoming repeat customers. It's called the Rose Pepper Cantina. Any of you Nashvegas types out there would love this place. Live jazz, outdoor seating, amazing Mexican food, and cool surroundings. Thanks to Lea Brown for turning us on to Rose Pepper!

Our 6th wedding anniversary is this weekend (15th). We decided a while back to go somewhere without kids for the weekend and we have been really looking forward to it. As the time grew closer, we grew less and less excited about any kind of road trip and equally depressed at the thought of airfare. So, in keeping with our original agreement to go out of town, we are driving 15 miles down the road to Franklin. HA! We are so excited about it. People keep asking us where we're spending our anniversary. We just reply... "Cool Springs". (or as people in Tennessee say it... "Coo(no L) Sprangs". We can't wait to have just a fun weekend to sleep in, watch movies, swim, and enjoy being together. I'm a blessed man. I remember the very first time I heard the voice of Sheryl Rathbun. I was traveling with a group from ACU and she was traveling with a group from Rochester College (MCC back then). We were in Nashville, of all places. I heard her singing a solo and about dropped my teeth. Unreal. I married that girl. The Lord's hand was definitely in that one. She transferred to ACU as I was leaving. She moved to Nashville before I even lived here. We didn't even live in the same city until 1995. What a plan we see in retrospect. We've been through some really hard things and are stronger for them. I admire my wife. I love my wife. I can't believe how beautiful she is. She is a woman to be honored. She is such an amazing mother to our children. She hurts when people hurt. She laughs with all her might--even when I'm not so funny. She has more creative juice in her pinky finger than I have in my entire being. I am one blessed dude.

I won't blog again till the weekend sometime. I hope you all have a great week. One last thing, Maddie has been cracking me up using this phrase lately-- "When you get little..." She hears us say, "When you get bigger, blah blah blah". So now she's begun saying things like "Daddy, when you get little you can sleep in my bed if you want" or "Mommy, when you get little you can wear my dress". What a great perspective! She's fine with where she is--she's in no hurry. In fact, she's inviting us to stop acting like getting bigger is some great deal.

So, here's what I want when I get little. I want my go cart back and I want to spend every Saturday riding in the neighbors' yards (what was I thinking??!!). I want to crawl back up in my dad's lap and have him scratch my back one last time. I want to sit at my beloved Aunt Dot's bright red player piano singing Rubber Ducky with all my favorite cousins. I want to be in my Christmas pajamas huddled around the fire on Christmas Eve with my father dramatically reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I want to have nothing better to do than to be 3 years old in our front yard with my mom petting our dog and picking flowers. I want to spend the night in the tree house in our back yard out in the country. That's what I'm planning to do "when I get little".