I am a confirmed basketball junkie, especially college basketball, and especially in March. However, I was witness to one of the most exciting and unbelieveable games I have ever seen last night. It wasn't a college game. It was a 6th and 7th grade boys city league game at Goodlettsville Middle School. My son, Marshall's, team was the 3rd seed playing the 6th seeded team for the right to face the 2nd seed in the semifinals. Marshall's team trailed the entire game. With 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, they were down by 4. The other team worked the ball around, took an ill-advised shot, and we got the rebound. Our center made a shot in the lane and was fouled. He hit the free throw, cutting the lead to one. With 20 seconds left in the game, the other team inbounds the ball and we foul them with 10.5 seconds left. They are in the bonus, so he shoots one-and-one. He makes the first and we call timeout. He misses the second. We rebound and dribble past halfcourt and call timeout with 6.5 seconds left, down by 2. The inbounds pass goes into the corner. The smallest player on our team throws up a hook shot over his shoulder (I'm not even sure he was looking at the basket). Nothing but net. It was a three point shot, so we won by one at the buzzer. I've seen a lot of basketball, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a more unlikely ending to a game than that! Let's hear it for March Madness!!

Apparently Jimmy has forgotten how to update his blog....So I his mom will do it for him.




Their appointments went well today for my "dad" Barry. He got the final OK to have his surgery from the anesthesia department. They also met with Dr. Krauss again and continue to feel great about his ability to do Barry's surgery. OF COURSE, they know that God is really the one in control and in charge and we turn it all over to Him!


We are suppose to report to the hospital at 6 a.m. We have not been given an exact time for the start of the surgery, but Dr. Krauss' nurse estimates the start time to be around 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. He says his part in this surgery will take approximately 3 hours....then the time to open and close, holding area before surgery, recovery room after surgery....that makes it a 4-6 hour long ordeal.


A couple of prayer requests to add to our already long list.....St. Mary's Hospital has only a few private rooms...mostly semi-private. We can request a private room, but they tell us there is a very good chance he will not get it. If he has to stay in a semi-private room, they will not allow mom to stay with him. Please, please bring this before God....it is very important to her to be able to stay with Barry following his surgery. There is still the chance that he will go to the intensive care unit for one night following surgery....this prayer is for whenever a room assignment is made.

Also....they just called home to let Sarah's mom know when they were going to the hospital and found out that Sandlyn is running a 101+ fever. She NEVER runs fever. She has been very sick in the past with urinary issues and she simply does not run fever. Her side/back is hurting....and she has been having some chills.


For those of you who may not have checked the website in a while, check back to the last entry (wwww.caringbridge.com/visit/nathanandsandlyn ) for the details of the next few days. Joel and Ellen, Barry's mom and dad and I have all arrived safely and we are waiting on Denise to arrive around 10 p.m. tonight. Please, please continue to pray!!! Check for more info on their website tomorrow.

I haven't posted in forever and I figured it was time. I was out jogging the other day on an unfamiliar stretch of road when I heard dogs barking in one of the yards up ahead. Being unfamiliar with this particular section of road (and the dogs that lived there), I decided to turn around and head back home rather than risk an encounter with the dogs. After I had turned around, while still concerned about (and distracted by) the barking dogs, I heard a car approaching behind me. At my age, apparently barking dogs, unfamiliar road, and approaching cars are more than my feeble brain can handle at one time. For whatever reason, I decided that I needed to cross the road to get out of the way of the car. As I was crossing the street I quickly glanced behind me to see, you guessed it, that I was crossing right into the path of the oncoming car. The car was still several hundred feet from me, but now I felt like I had to get out of the way rather quickly, so instead of crossing back to the correct side of the road, I decided to go into the ditch. That was a BIG mistake. Almost immediately I slipped in the weed-overgrown ditch and went down hard, hitting my left leg just below the knee on what I assume was a big stone. This left a deep hole in my leg, which would take 4 stitches to close. The car that I had been trying to avoid slowed down, but when they saw me hop up quickly and pretend to be OK (like us men always do), they drove on, leaving me to limp about a half mile back to the house, bleeding rather steadily. On the run out to the spot where I fell, I saw at least 5 cars. On the limp back home, not a single car went by. That's the way it goes I guess. You try to stay in shape and look what happens. This happened a week ago Thursday. The stitches are out and I'm on the road to recovery, but no more jogging for awhile. It's much too hazardous!

I've had two great weekends doing things I've never done before. Last weekend was the Mt. LeConte hike with several of the Broadmoor group and others. That was fun but quite a physical challenge. This weekend my wife, my youngest son and I went to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. That was really fun. Lots of funny stories and beautiful scenery as well. Now it's back to the more mundane things of life, but that's OK. Both weekends were a nice change and a chance to do some new things. Hopefully I'll get to do both again next year.

It's Labor Day but I'm staying inside due to a bad sunburn I got this weekend at the UT-UAB game in Knoxville on Saturday. I was going to take a hat, but I forgot it. Sunscreen would have been good, but real men (real stupid men apparently) don't wear sunscreen. There's nothing like the glow of sunburn on your face and balding head to spark all kinds of comments about being embarrassed or well done or cooked, etc., etc. The lines from squinting all afternoon look very good too. So my advice...wear sunscreen. Hope all have a great Labor Day weekend.