Saturday; Vacation Day

Well; I guess that you can say that this is my last vacation day; however; I have Monday and Tuesday's off, so I will not be returning back to the office until next Wednesday, April 25th.

Went to breakfast this morning with the Senior Pastor and one other gentleman from our church, then went to fix some problems with a laptop computer belonging to the Pastor's wife, with success, I might add (for a change). Now I am hopefully home for the rest of the day working on the computer (what else).

If anything changes; I will post an update.

Blessings:

My Friday Vacation Day:

Today was the day that I decided to sleep in, which resulted in getting up at 7:50 AM this morning. But; that is great compared to getting up at the normal time of 4:30 AM. I figured that I would spend the day just relaxing and doing some light reading.

It did not turn out that way; I spend most of the remainder of the morning on church business. Making calls, e-mailing; texting and doing some planning; but; that is the life of a pastor, it all goes with the turf.

At least, up until now, I have been home all day, but am waiting for the wife to call to figure out what we are doing for dinner; we will see.

More tomorrow:

Thursday; Vacation Day

Woke up at 6:00 AM, to get ready to take my 4 year old grandson to breakfast; after coming out of the shower, he met me and stated that he had a good night sleep. I guess he did, as my wife stated that he was snoring so loud, that she had to leave the living room early and go to her room.

The wife also joined us for breakfast, and then it was off to Andover, Ma. to the "Ballardvale Station" where we arrive about 9:00 AM and stayed until 11:00 AM. Upon arrival, I opened the sun roof, and my grandson commented "Papa; you have an awesome car" because his mom's van does not have a sun roof. he stood in the front seat and watched for the trains to come, and come they did. If I have the count correct they were as follows....
2 Commuter Trains
2 Amtrak Trains
1 Very long Freight Train.
then we headed to his house for lunch.....Here are some pictures from today. Enjoy:

Today's (Wednesday) Vacation Day

Almost forgot to post today's activity while on vacation today.
Got up at 4:30 AM to meet some of the folks from the radio club that I belong to, for breakfast at 6:00 AM. After which I went to Walmart to pick up some things and returned home.

Attended a luncheon at a nursing home to thank the volunteers that come in to help. We go to this one nursing home every week and also on a monthly basis to hold a Service for the residents. The lunch was great and got to meet some of the other volunteers whom I have never met before.

Returned home to chill out until my 4 year old grandson arrived and we had chicken nuggets and fries for dinner, Watched a movie called Mr Popper and his Penguins.

Tomorrow, we go to breakfast then over to watch some trains in Andover, Ma. and then to his house for lunch.
See you tomorrow.

My First Week's Vacation in 2012

Hello Everyone:

I know that it has been way too long since my last posting, but it seems I never have the time or cannot figure what to post about. I really need to work on that or what is the point of having a personal blog.

Seeing that this is only Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and my vacation started yesterday, I will post the events that took place on this my first week's vacation for this year.

It started like any other Monday; doing the laundry chores, which means getting up at 4:30 AM to make sure I am at the laundromat at 6:00 AM when they open; (side note; they will change their hours of operation in two weeks and not open till 7:00 AM; thanks for the extra hour of sleep) I only get up that early, so that I am back home by 8:00 AM and still have the entire day to do whatever.

Monday; (yesterday) I had made plans to meet up with my 17 year old grandson (Oldest Grandson) to go to Andover, Ma. to watch trains; that's right Choo, Choo's. I have loved them since I was a kid. There is just something about taking time out of our busy lives and just sit and relax and wait. This is a great way to learn to have patients. Anyway; we got to the station just after 9:00 AM and we left about 11:00 AM. I found out that sitting there between 9-11 AM, you can see several trains. We saw the following trains in that time frame.
3 Commuter Trains (Running between Boston and Haverhill, Ma.)
2 Amtrak Trains (Running between Boston and Portland, Me.)
1 Freight Train (about 100 cars, 5 engines; Running between Selkerk, NY and Waterville, Me.)

After we left Ballardvale Station, we went to lunch and had a great roast beef sandwich. The grandson headed to the beach, and I headed home.

Later in the afternoon, I met my wife at our youngest daughter's home to see their new puppy, and have dinner, which was pizza and subs. Very Healthy Stuff. LOL.

The pup is very cute and here are some pictures of him.

Today; Tuesday, April 17, 2012, I took my wife to the area of Weymouth and Hull, Ma. where she grew up. We had lunch at Nantasket Beach, drove around a little looking at the ocean. The kids in Mass. have no school this week, so there were a lot of young people on the beach. We returned home, driving right through Boston, (Whew) and are spending a quite night home. The wife goes back to work tomorrow (she only took two days) and I will have the rest of the week. Loving It.

More to come tomorrow.

Tucking in your grandchildren, electronically

It has been far too long since I posted my last blog update, so here I am to try to get back into the swing of things.

Not that I have not been busy; there have been all kinds of things that have been chipping away at the time I have each and every week. There have been funerals, weddings, sermon preparations, Sunday School Class preparation, Nursing Home Ministry, Media Ministry, having dinner (rare occasion) with the wife, lunch with my two daughters and my grandchildren. Well you see; the list goes on.

I think that all of us live lives that are so busy, that the time we have becomes even more precious.

 Many years ago, I remember one of the ads from one of the big phone companies, telling us to “Reach out and touch someone.” This add aired on TV, with a grandparent calling up their grandchild and talking to them as they were getting ready to go to bed for the night. The grandparent, at times, could be seen and heard reading that child a bedtime story over the phone. But; my friend, we have come a long way….

Like most, if not all of you, my life if very busy, and it would be busier still if I would let it. But about a week ago, as a grandparent, I had a great experience. Due to the demands of my ministry (I don’t call it a job) I have had a smart phone for almost two years and it has been a great tool to assist me in keeping track of my sheep (our congregation) and it is a great tool indeed. Well; recently, my oldest daughter bought one and she has been enjoying it, with all the neat features that it has.

I had called her up for whatever the reason was and as I was talking to her, she mentioned that she has just put her three little ones to bed, and asked me if I wanted to say goodnight to them; (insert old commercial from above here). She took her phone upstairs with her as I was watching her climb the stairs. That’s right; she had the Skype Mobile App on her phone. She walked into their bedrooms and I was able to talk to them as well as see them, and in turn, they could speak to me as well as see me. I called my wife in from the other room to join in the fun as well.

The thing that struck me the most was the fact that we have all this technology and we can use it to perform the simplest of tasks, like tucking your grandchildren in electronically. It was a blast, and can’t wait to do it again. I admit that I only live five miles from their house, but it was still a great joy to be able to do that. I believe that the grandchildren got as much of a kick out of it as the wife and I did.

Thank you Smart Phone and thank you Skype:

What do we write about next time? Stay Tuned. 

SO WHAT IS NEW THIS COMING NEW YEAR:

We all hope that something new happens each new year we enter

We have a brand new calendar to start using, filling it with appointments, birthdays, holidays, vacations etc.

We always hear people say that “they hope that things will get better in the new year”

Some people want to forget what they went through the previous year, with hopes that the upcoming New Year will bring the changes that they need in their lives

Besides all the standard new things that we mentioned above, there is one thing that I know for sure can become brand new…….You; that’s right, you can become a brand new person this coming new year, and can even happen before the new year gets here, and that is just a few days away.

Interested? Then I will tell you that there two ways that this can come about. To find out how this can take place, you will have to do one of the following two things.

1.    Attend our Sunday Morning Service at 10:45 AM at the Lowell Assembly of God Church, 995 Andover Street, Tewksbury, Ma. 01876, 978-851-9800

2.    Check out the archives on our home page around January 2, 2012. Here is the link www.lowellag.org scroll down the right side of the page and look for the archives button, then look for Pastor Steve’s message on January 1^st.

See you then: