Christmas Cards and other Christmas Expectations

(This is our Christmas Card replacement for this Christmas)

Well, I am thinking we are finally getting to the age when it is expected that we send out Christmas cards to those we know. In this age of technology and email, it is still very cool to get Christmas cards from friends and family. I have been plotting our next year's Christmas plan. I am calling it, Assault on Christmas '09. This assault will involve: Baking everything Christmas (sugar cookies, no bakes, rice krispy treats decorated with red and green frosting etc.), sending out Christmas cards, watching all of the classics and hopefully not shoveling 40+ in of snow before the 25th.

Of course I am just kidding and I love to celebrate Christmas in any way that involves hanging out with family. Hopefully this snow fall has forced some families to spend some much needed time together reconnecting and sharing memories and maybe starting new traditions for years to come. Have a Merry Christmas and to all of you kids out there who convince your parents to let you open just one present on Christmas Eve...GOD JOB!!!!

Spreading God's wealth to his children in need

About a year ago now, Whit and I decided we needed to sponsor a little boy named Quy from Vietnam through Christian Children's Fund. No one twisted our arm or guilted us into it, we just thought we should. We have loved every minute of it. I do have to admit, that we thought originally, "Can we afford the $30 a month?" Well, the answer is YES. We have enjoyed it so much, we decided to sponsor a little girl from Africa named Nacha through World Vision. Now, both of these are tremendous Christian organizations and do amazing things for God's people, but I just learned from Cathey that the Free Methodist Church has its own child adoption program. I am going to try and put this as delicate as possible, because it is hard to say exactly what I want to say without offending someone I am sure, if you are concerned about the $30 a month you can always do the International Childcare Ministries children for $21 a month. I am not trying to imply by any means that one child is worth more or less than another, it just happens I guess that they can do the same with less money. They probably have less operating costs, and I guess Pastor Glenn says that more of the money you donate actually goes to the children directly as well. So if you are looking for something to shake up the holidays a little, think about sponsoring a child and changing a life forever (click the link below to go to the website). I know Whit and I cherish the letters and pictures we receive from our kids like they were actually our own. God bless and stay warm through this blizzard we are having. 

International Childcare Ministries

Do we not exsist??

After watching the national news a little the past couple of days, all I have to say is, "Does the West Coast not exist"? All they can talk about is how the East Coast is going to get hit hard and not how much snow we got. Oh well, I just want to tell the East Coast, we are here too, and we get to watch sports before midnight, HA!!

Less than a week to go...

Now that we are officially less than a week away from the best holiday of the year, I think back to all of the amazing Christmas' I have been fortunate to have. My parents did an amazing job making it a special day for our family growing up regardless of what they had to do to make it happen. A couple of the more special Christmas' I can remember, and they usually had to do with our extra bedroom downstairs being transformed into something:

1) My Dad turned our extra bedroom downstairs into a full on slot car racetrack. My brother and I opened the door and found ourselves looking at a gigantic racetrack that we would play with until the next Christmas. I have no idea how long it took him to build it, but it was awesome.

2) Another Christmas my parents got Casey and I a Sega Genesis and turned that same room into a little arcade.

3) The bike Christmas. I know everyone has a Christmas or birthday when you get the bike. But, I would challenge anyone to say they rode their bike more than I did. I used to go out in our yard and just ride in circles for hours on end. I rode it so much, that my knuckles got wind burn and I had to coat them in vaseline for the next two weeks.

4) Every Christmas that I got to spend with both my family and Whitney's family growing up. When you have been with someone for 10 years, you tend to spend a lot of holidays with their family. They always made me feel welcome from the very first Christmas. The very first Christmas present Whit ever got me, 2 weeks after we started dating our Freshman year of High School, was Michael Jordan cologne. I still have the bottle.

5) I look forward to the Christmas' with kids and taking them over to the grandparents house and watching them be spoiled by the people who can now justify doing it.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope that you remember all of the great Christmas' you have had as well. Even though we tend to focus more on the gifts and my stories did a little as well, but what I really remember is the amount of time spent with family each one of those presents brought me. So, when Christmas morning rolls around, take some time to look around the room and just enjoy the fact that it "forces" us to spend time with those we love, what a great holiday!!

2 Years in a row??

Usually when you live in Spokane you expect to not see positive temperatures from the end of December until early February. But not this much snow!! I went out and measured around 10:00 AM and we already had 22 in.! I don't think it is supposed to end anytime soon either. I feel like I will be recreating this scene in my backyard by noon.

Christmas at Shiloh

Buddy the Elf has landed at Shiloh!! Today is a Christmas spirit day, even though the district has told us repeatedly that we can't celebrate Christmas at school, and I chose of course to go all out and wear Charlie's Buddy the Elf costume. I am sure this is no surprise to those of you who know me.

Black Friday

So as you may have read in my Mom-In-Laws blog that we have plans to go out and brave the craziness that is Black Friday. Now, I was talking to my kids today about it and I asked them if anyone of them was planning on going out for Black Friday. One of my kids raised his hand and said, "Mr. Franklin, I thought you said racism was bad." I said, "What do you mean?". This kid said, "Why would you celebrate a day that is called Black Friday?" So I had to explain to him that it was called that because it was the time of the year when businesses get out of the red, meaning owing money, and got in the black, making money. Although this year it may still be red on the ledgers for most stores even after Friday. I love kids and the questions they come up with. You would think it would be the same every year, but they come up with new questions that make me think as well, I love it. Anyway, I think I found a good place to start. Cascade Station in Oregon.

Here are the good points:
1) The stores (Best Buy, Target, Ross and IKEA all in the same place)
2) It's in Oregon, meaning, no sales tax!!!
3) Everything is within walking distance of each other
4) Whitney and her Mom throw good elbows and are aggressive shoppers when pushed to be

Downfalls:
1) Craziness (can't be avoided no matter where we go)
2) With that many high volume stores in one area, the parking situation could get interesting
3) My need to eat every 3 hours, this could really handicap our ability to marathon shop with my blood sugar dropping so easily

Now, let me make it real clear, we have no intention on buying anything when we go to the stores, I just love to watch the people and the way they act. It makes me want to ask them in they have read The Lord of the Flies.Anyway, if you chose to go out on Friday, bring your A game and watch your back. There are people out there who would put a spear through your forehead just for a Tickle Me Elmo and not bat an eyelash doing it.

Polaroid Pics on MAC

So, I am a devoted MAC-Man. I grew up with PCs and played around with MACs a little. But after the school district so graciously purchased me a MacBook Pro, I have converted. Anyways, I am really into getting the most out of my machines with using all of their features and I have found a great little program that is only available on the MAC at this time. It will take any pictures you currently have and turn them into a Polaroid version. Now, I know it doesn't enhance the quality by any means, but it looks really cool and is kind of fun if you want to do some sort of retro invitation or you are putting your older photos on a website. It is really cool too because it actually takes a while for it to "develop", I tried shaking it on my screen, but it didn't make it go any faster. Here are the pics I have done so far for samples:



The website is: http://www.poladroid.net/

Enjoy!!!!

CBS Evening News Last Night

Watch CBS Videos Online

Last Night CBS Evening News ran a story on the factory in Iowa that my Dad would have ran if he didn't go to China. Sounds like they are doing some real good for that community they are in.

Maybe not...

I have followed the Falcons for the past probably 14 years as my NFL team of choice. The reason why, I loved the colors black and red when I was a kid and my parents got me a Falcons winter coat, and back in those days, whatever team was on your winter coat, was your team. So here I am, in the 4th grade, rooting for a team on the exact opposite corner of the US for that simple reason. Anyways, As I grew up I got to know some of the better players, Keith Brooking, Patrick Kerney, etc. and endured some of the more questionable players, Jeff George, Chris Chandler, Deion Sanders. So to me, Atlanta Falcons football has been mediocre, but acceptable, except for a couple years of glory when they went to the Super Bowl in 1998 and lost to the retiring John Elway and when they made the push for the Super Bowl again in 2004 only to lose to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.

I as a life-long dirty bird watched as the Falcons wasted a first round draft pick on Michael Vick instead of taking the leading rusher in the nation, anybody remember....?? LaDanian Tomlinson. He hasn't really done anything with his career either though right?
While on my lunch break today, I jumped onto MSNBC to see the most recent news article postings to find out what was happening with the pirates of the Indian Ocean, and came across a news article talking about fans finally getting over Michael Vick leaving Atlanta. Now, I have been alright with him leaving from the beginning, 1) Because he will probably go down as one of the most selfish on-field players of all time but more importantly 2) Because he starved dogs to the point where they would fight each other to the death while his friends gambled and made hundreds of thousands of dollars on their unfortunate deaths. The article disagreed with me however. They claim that many people in the Atlanta community are upset with the way his trial was handled based on his race. They say that the main reason why he was presumed guilty before innocent was the color of his skin. Now, I don't know what wa the bigger smoking gun, the massive amount of dead and badly injured dogs on his property, or that everyone else involved in the case pointed a finger at him as guilty while they were amitting their sins as well, but it seems like race doesn't usually play a factor when all of the bare bone facts are right in front of you. Like I said before, nothing really amazes me these days.

Time Travel Fund

Ok, so about four years ago, when I was still in college, I found this website called timetravelfund.com. I was blown away by the craziness that followed. Not only do these people try to convince you that time travel is possible, but they outdo Dr. Brown by one step and actually expect you to contribute, hence the fund, to their experiment. The upside though is that they help you figure out how much money you will have when your "investment" has had thousands of years to mature in their account. It always amazes me that people like this have found a big enough niche in society to make a group. You know what though, as long as they have found other people to share their dillusions with, what can be the harm? I guess they won't be too disappointed when they die and no one but God comes to get them. Please check out this website to see just how amazing this is: www.timetravelfund.com, and remember, it's your ticket to the future!!

Pirates??

I'm not sure how many people have been watching the news, but off the coast of Somalia, which has been without a national government since 1991, there has been a series of Pirate raids, yes Pirate raids, on Oil tankers. The most recent oil tanker captured is 5 times the size of an aircraft carrier and holds $100 million worth of crude oil. Sometimes I watch the news and with all of this craziness with the economy, stock market and the three major car producers going bankrupt, it feels like I am stuck in a bad dream. But, when they start talking about actual pirates on the news, that is where the dream takes a whole different kind of tangent. What is happening in our world??

The discussion over holidays

For those of us who have been noticing the recent attacks against anything and everything Christian in our world, and especially the nonsense we will have to deal with on tv, the radio and in the schools during CHRISTmas, this is for you. My Mom sent me this and I got a kick out of it.

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY

In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheist had no such recognized day(s).

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, 'Case dismissed.' The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, 'Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays..'

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, 'But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.' The lawyer said, 'Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.' The judge said, 'The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools Day.' Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.

GU Basketball

For some people in Spokane the mere mention of Gonzaga basketball is enough to get their blood pressure spiked to the point where you would think that they were actually playing in the game. I have never been one of these people I guess. I never really jumped on the wagon back in the late 90's early 2000's when they were making their big runs and wasn't really ever going to make it a point in my life to go to a game because of the insane amount of work it is to get tickets. That was until Whit started working at Gonzaga. Now, if you don't know what Whitney does, let me tell you a little first. She is the event specialist for the President of GU. Meaning, she gets to throw parties and plan cool events for everyone who donates considerable amounts of money to the Zags. She loves it, but it sounds like a nightmare sometimes to me. Anyway, back to what I was talking about.


Whit and I now go to the games because she gets free tickets and it has been a blast! I love college basketball waaaaay more than the NBA. Maybe it is because they are still playing for something bigger than themselves and not just a bigger contract, more cars and a bigger house. Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of professional athletes have been excellent stewards of God's money and helped shape a lot of communities for the better across the US. But, the majority are not in the sport for much more than securing their families financial future. Whit and I got to go watch GU destroy Montana State Billings (really) and we are going tonight to watch them take on one of my three alma maters (long story, couldn't decide where I wanted to go to college) the University of Idaho. I am going to bet that GU will probably have a good showing against the Vandals of Moscow, but if you want to see some good GU basketball, don't turn your TV on until the second half. For some reason they don't like to really show up in the first 20 minutes. Maybe they are upholding the long-standing traidtion of their Jesuit founder by being charitable in the first 20??

Finally it hit me

Well, as most of you know, I am a teacher. This means that I am surrounded, in my case, by about 85 different kids in my room throughout the day. Now, 6th graders are not historically the most hygienic group of individuals so you can imagine how sparse our attendance gets this time of the year. My first two years of teaching I maxed out my sick days due to the fact that I wasn't used to being around that many sick kids and that many different kinds of sickness. But today, I have finally fallen victim this year to a bit of a stomach and head bug. I guess I have a couple more years to go before I can boast about my disease immunity. At least I will have a good defense built up by the time we have our own kids!!

KC is out of the sea

  

Well, for those of you who don't know, my brother has been an onboard biologist for the fishing boats in Alaska on the Bering Sea since late August. We have been praying for his safety, as the Bering Sea is slightly higher on the wavy scale than a bubble bath. We are extremely excited to sit down with him and discuss what he saw and who who talked to while he was on his first two boats. It is awesome to see him so excite about the experiences he is getting to have. 

Still Vickless in Atlanta, and loving it!

The above picture is my reaction to the season the Falcons are currently having. I just have one thing to ask you, does anybody else know that the Falcons are now 6-3 without Vick. Is anyone actually missing him? I think I speak for all Dirty Birds in the Nest when I say we are happy to be Vickless in Atlanta.

Epicurean Delight

Last night Whit and I got a chance to go rub elbows with the elite of Spokane and the amazing fund raiser for the Inland Northwest Blood Center, Epicurean Delight. Now, those of you who know me know that I am an eater. I love food. This event featured the best restaurants in Spokane (Clinkerdaggers, Outback Steakhouse, Europa etc.) along with the best caterers as well slugging it out to see who the best of the best was when it comes to food in the Inland Northwest. We had the daunting task of trying all that they had to offer and the even more imposing task of telling ourselves to stop eating the most delicious food we have had in a long time. We got the tickets from Father Spitzer when he sponsored a table for Gonzaga and asked Whitney to use two of the tickets. I love that she works there. Not only for the fancy dinners and basketball tickets, but that she has genuinely found something she loves to do. We also stayed the night in the Davenport Tower as well, taking advantage of the amazing teacher's discount they have. It is only $120 a night for the tower and $150 for the regular hotel. We are not talking a two twin size bed room, we are talking a Deluxe King Room. If any of you who are reading this are teachers, you need to seriously consider this as an option for a relxing getaway right in your own backyard.

God's Mercy

So if you haven't been coming to Timberview over the past few months, shame on you (just kidding), we have been studying the Beattitudes. The funny thing to me is whoever came up with the name for this amazing set of guidelines to live by. Of all the things to call them, they came up with the most simple, yet completely encompassing description. Be these attitudes. I think Christ would like that. A non-imposing explanation for such an Earth shaking set of clues on how we should live, just like Jesus.

Anyway, we studied Matthew 5:7 which says, "God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy". And the immediate question comes to my mind, does everybody deserve mercy? What about those people who committ such horrid crimes that our only human reaction is anger and contempt for them. When we want to run out and start judging and sentencing them to death, would God want us to show them mercy? Does God expect us to just excuse them for what they have done to us or to others we may or may not know? Of all of the Beattitudes, this is by far the most confusing for me. At what point does our ability to not show mercy to certain individuals become satsifactory to God? I know that we are ultimately not the final judge for those poor, misguided individuals, but we are only human right?

Well, I was reading Romans 9 today and as God always does, he answered my question a little. Romans 9:14-16 which says, "Are we saying then that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, 'I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.' So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it." So, we obvisouly can't show the same level of mercy to those who would receive it, but God tells us that it isn't possible to control the amount of mercy we show others or even the amount of mercy we receive from Him. I think he already gave us a ton of mercy when he died for our sins.

It also goes on to say in Romans 9:18, "So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen." So, again, how do we place ourselves in the path of God's mercy? It says in Romans as well that those who trust in Him, not follow his law, will be called Children of God. So just simply following God's laws does not make Him happy, we need to trust in him fully. Just when I think I have answered my original question about God's mercy and how we show mercy to others, I just open a whole other volume of questions yet to be answered. You know the best part though, I have an entire life to build up all of the questions I want to ask him when I get to Heaven someday. Thank God truly that we have hope and he shows us mercy for the things we do though. What would we do without Him?

Romans 8 (God's Love)

This morning I read Romans ch. 8, and was very inspired. This chapter talks about three different subjects: Living our life in the Spirit, The Future Glory we will receive if we follow God's commands and How nothing can separate us from God's love.

On the subject of Living our life in the spirit, the Bible talks about how when we allow Jesus in our life and to control our minds, we are no longer a slave to sin. I think back to how many times I have sinned, it would take to long to actually count so I won't for sake of time, and I know that Jesus was definitely not on the forefront of my mind. A question I have and always will struggle with, why do we sin knowingly? It seems completely counterproductive to our relationship with God, and yet all of us do it. It's like knowing the stove is extremely hot, and then laying your hand on the hottest burner, makes sense to me. I think the most refreshing thing is that we know that if we buy whole-heartedly into God's plan, that he will make us heirs to His glory on Earth. Also, we are basically taking grenades in the trenches for God everyday because we know that he will ultimately protect us and grant us everlasting glory for our faith in his plan.

This was a great reminder to me that even though we are persecuted for the things we believe in, God will take care of us like he always does.

Vickless in Atlanta

Well, needless to say it has been tough to be a Falcons fan the past 5 years or so. Having to deal with the unnecessary hype about Michael Vick, when they could have had LaDanian Tomlinson, has been hard when you are not a supporter of your team's franchise player on or off the field. With Vick's well documented off the field, extra-curricular activities, A.K.A. killing dogs for money, and the Falcon's impossible task lately of finding a coach that will stay for more than one season. Actually, strike that last comment, staying for the whole season would have been nice. Then we come to this year. The Falcon's used their 1st draft pick to take a QB for the first time since Vick when they chose Matt Ryan from Boston College. Ok I thought. Then they got rid of arguably their three best players (Crumpler TE, Dunn RB, and then starting QB candidate Matt Schaub). Wow, I thought, they really have no goals on winning more than 3 games this year. But, after hearing their new coach talk and seeing Matt Ryan's commitment to making this a turn around year, I was finally excited. Gone are the days of watching Vick play 1 on 11 football. Gone are the days of hearing bad things about the team off the field. Here are the days when the Falcons finally have a respectable organization again on and off the field. I can truly say I am a fan again.

Bath Day!!

Well, we had finally had enough of our dirty dogs, so last night I put ona brave face and gave the girls baths. Now, Chloe loves it because A) She gets to hang out with Dad without Allie around and B) She is crazy about water. She hops right in and savors every sweet moment of the experience. Allie on the other hand, doesn't really get the whole bath thing yet, so she tries to escape or shakes her dirty water all over Me, Whit and the walls. They did great, and they smell WAAAAAY better then before let me tell you.

Shiloh Halloween Carnival

Well, Whit, my Mom and I went to the carnival last year and it was a lot of fun because we got to run a booth and hang out with a large group of our community. This year was a little lame. I got to do the dunk tank which was fun, but there were about 1/4 of the people there this year and not many teacher volunteers. The bright side was that Whit and I got to dress up 50's Grease style, but the downside was, we were the only teachers dressed up. It feels to me like the world wants Halloween still, but no one wants to completely embrace the Halloween spirit. You don't have to dress demonic or creepy to have fun on Halloween. I think it is just a great excuse for us to get together as friends and celebrate dressing up silly and being kids for one night a year. Dig deep and find your Halloween spirit and pull it out this year.

Volleyball

Well, after a 1 year hiatus from the hardwood, well in Shiloh's case the carpet, I am back coaching 5th and 6th grade Volleyball for the Fightin' Eagle Boys. When I was at Colbert I had the chance to coach the girls team and it was a piece of cake because all of the girls on my Purple 1 team were either 6 feet tall or could spike a ball harder than I can!! This is going to be a lot of fun, and it is always exciting when kids get to try a sport they have never had access to before. Lots of prayers for patience with this one though!!

October 17th

So I mentioned that I was reading the One Year Bible to get my daily Word and inspiration. I am enjoying it, but I have to say, I am not loving some of the Old Testament parts. I know it is an extremely important section of the Bible, and some times I really get into the stories, but sometimes, it is incredibly dry. I got caught today going between Jeremiah and 1 Thessalonians because I am reading about God bringing justice to Babylon and then all of a sudden I get a reference to Christ Jesus and I thought, wait a minute, I don't remember them mentioning Jesus specifically in the OT. Guess I wasn't being an "active reader" like I would say to my kids. All in all, I think this has been a good way for me to stay in touch with my reading and have really enjoyed this as a new resource for my growth as a Christian.

Bible Reading Oct. 15th

So I bought this book called the One Year Bible about a year ago and read periodically out of it and then put it on the shelf for a while in my classroom. It is a pretty cool book though, it picks a couple of chapters from the Old and New Testament with the goal that if you read out of the book everyday in the year you will read the whole Bible over the course of that year. Well today is my second back reading out of it and it had me reading out of Jeremiah 26:1 - 27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalm 85:1-13 and Proverbs 25:16. It was interesting because Jeremiah was talking about people falsely using God's name to preach their own will and view on things. But, when Jeremiah preached under God's name they were willing to put him to death because he was "blasphemus". It makes me think of what kind of a person Jeremiah was like in his society? I think I always imagined the prophets when I was a little kid or even a new Christian as the popular people in the city. But, why would that be the case. I bet Jeremiah was probably that kid that everyone at school thought was weird, or who we see as "Too Christian" in our eyes. Jeremiah chose a relationship with God over being popular in other people's eyes. That is pretty cool. I also loved the verse out of Proverbs 25:16 when it says, "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit". I think you can replace honey with anything that we desire these days. It could still be food, money, "things", relationships etc. I think what this verse is trying to tell us is that we can only use so much of anything and that we should share with those who may not be as fortunate as we are in our situation. I think wealth is relative to our situation and when we may not consider ourselves as wealthy in our society, we should look around the world and really see the true emensity of our wealth. People always joke about how much teachers make each year and how it isn't much at all. Well, it may not be a ton of money by society's standards, but if you place a new teachers salary against the average income of the rest of the world, it is amazing how high it stacks when looking country's where there people are making around $500 - $1000 a year. I think we all need to do our part to make sure that we don't become consumed by the things we think make us who we are and ask God to fill that place that our things took up in our lives. I think that is all he is asking from us.

The Shack

There are very few books that I have ever read when I thought, "Man, I now view the world in a completely different light", this is one of those books. I had heard from a couple of people at work that this book was fantastic and thought that I should check it out. They also said I was going to cry and being a man, thought, "Okay even if I do, I will read alone so no one sees me." So I picked it up about two weeks ago and sat down to read a couple of chapters while waiting for Whitney to get home. 3 hours later and more than enough tears to make my eyes red, I was hooked.

Without giving any of the book away, which is insanely hard because I want to tell everybody just how amazing this book is so they will buy it and experience it, I will just say, if the author is right on how God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are, then I am looking forward to meeting them more now than ever. In closing, GO BUY THIS BOOK, you will never think of religion, God, and life the same ever again. (Click the picture to the left to view the website)

Back to School

Well, we have officially almost been in school for 4 weeks already!! It is amazing how fast time flies when you are ranglin' 6th graders. I have a pretty good group of kids this year, with the expected yahoos, but it wouldn't be interseting without them. I am back to teaching just Language Arts this year like I did at Colbert. The best part about this time though, is that I get to teach reading and writing instead of just writing. Let me tell you, trying to think of 180 days of writing assignments, projects, and activities just about drained me completely dry.

We also kicked off the 08-09 Youth Group year a couple of weeks ago and it is nice to get back to hanging out with those kids again. It is a lot of fun because about 8 of the kids in our group, I actually had in my class when I taught 6th grade at Colbert. It is so great to be able to connect with them in this capacity and to be able to share my love for the Lord with them, which for osme reason they won't let us do at school. It is a shame because it would be so easy to teach character education if they just let us use the Bible as our main text! Although, I would settle for using it on myself a little more frequently as well.

If you get time, check out my brother's blog, he just started a job as an onboard Fishery Biologist on the fishing boats in Alaska (Yes, just like the ones on Deadliest Catch)!! It sounds like it is going well, but he can always use your prayers because it isn't the safest job or easiest group of people to work with, sometimes. Although, knowing my brother, I don't think it will be hard for him to get to know these people well enough to survive by the end of the 2nd day, he is talented like that.

Well, hopefully I will actually post more frequently as things come up. I have a ton of great teaching stories to tell, but I need to think of clever names for some of my kids (to protect their identities) so I can share the stories. Any good ideas where to take my names from (Old tv shows, athletes, brands of shampoo etc.)??

Yearbook Yourself

This is the coolest website that I have found in a long time. You get to upload any pictures you want and you can turn it into a yearbook picture from 1950-2000. It is a blast. The website is www.yearbookyourself.com

Updated PIcs of our girls

Here are some updated pics for the grandmas especially

Extreme Days

Pictures from Extreme Days, we had a blast!!

My Girls

Well, as you may have heard, there is a new member in the Franklin household. Her name is Alie and she is a pure-breed Australian Shepherd. She and and Chloe are getting along great and it is the best birthday present Chloe could have asked for.

1st Triathlon

Well, yesterday I "competed" in my first Triathlon in Medical Lake. It was the 25th anniversary of their sprint Triathlon called the Trailblazer. I finished in 1:18:00 which was good enough for 88th overall out of 260 or so. I was probably 40th out of the water and didn't do so hot on the bike. I thought this was going to be my strongest event, but just couldn't get my legs as fast as I though I would after the swim. By the time the run rolled around, I had caught my breath and was ready to run. Surprisingly my run was the best of the three events. The moral of the story is the hard work paid off and I completed my first Triathlon. I would highly recommend anyone do at least one triathlon in your life. It will change you not only physically from the training, but mentally when you scrape all your mental energy left at the end of the race to finish strong! The distance of the Sprint Triathlon is 1/4 mile swim, 12.5 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. 

-Travis

Bible Reading May 28th Galatians Ch. 4

Ok, I admit that I need to get better at reading everyday. It is so weird that when I have the most time (the weekends) I don't read, but somehow I can find time to fit it in before school on the weekdays. Why is that? Anyway, I am back and today I read from Galatians chapter 4.

In Paul's 4th chapter of wisdom to the Galatians he draws comparisons of our slavery to the "old law" when Christ brought us our new rule book when he came and died for us. He talks mainly about how our persecution and reliance on "comfortable" ways is like Abraham's two sons. It explains this well in verses 4:23-25,
"The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai where the people received the law that enslaved them. And now Jerusalem is just like Mt. Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother."

It is interesting to think about at this time, but you have to remember what was happening at that time. Christianity was a relatively new idea then and was still being attacked constantly by the people of the Jewish faith because they didn't sanction it at all. So what Paul is trying to do here is a big deal. He is telling the people, "Look, Jesus brought us a new law to follow. People aren't going to necessarily going to love you for following his example and the new law he set out for us." It seems like a struggle reserved just for the people of that time, but think about today. How often do we consciously think about the choices we make and ask ourselves if we are following the new path Christ set out for us?

Paul goes on to sum up this topic in verses 30 and 31 saying, "But what do scriptures say about that? 'Get rid of the salve and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the the free woman's son.' So dear brothers and sisters, we are not the children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman." So, remember, no one goes to Heaven except through him, better hurry up and go through that door and make sure you hold it open for someone else as they try to get through as well!

The truth about food

Bible Reading May 23rd Galatians Ch. 2-3

Today's reading again comes from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. He continues to preach on the importance of decision making but this section focuses mainly on whether or not to follow the Jewish law. Paul argues that the original law given to Moses by God was to, "show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised (Jesus). " (Ch 3:19). He also goes on to talk about the law being a guardian for us until we could be made right with God through faith instead of solely obedience to the laws. 

This is interesting to me because I still see the 10 commandments as pretty important for keeping order not just in the Christian world, but the entire world. I think you can argue that the commandments laid out by God to Moses are pretty universal truths held by just about everyone on the planet. Of course there are always those who chose to do their own mischief, but the majority of people would agree that murder is a bad thing and that you should enjoy what you have instead of lusting after what somebody else has.

I don't think Paul is telling us to not obey the laws at all by any means, I think he is just reaffirming the fact that faith in and love for Jesus Christ is the most important thing that any Christian can hope to have. He did say that no one will get to heaven except through him, and I for one am going to believe him on that.

Bible Reading May 22nd Galatians Ch. 1

Today's read came from Paul's letter to the people of Galatia. I love reading Paul's letters because he has such a great perspective on what it takes to follow Jesus. He states in verses 1:22-24, "And still the Christians in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally. All they knew was that people were saying 'The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!' And they praised God because of me." I think we see examples of this all over the news and in our own lives everyday. Who would you rather give you advice on a topic, someone who has lived and grown through an experience, or someone who has read a book or seen a movie about it?? We constantly look for an "authority" on the subject we are questioning or struggling with. 

The other verse from this chapter that caught my attention greatly was 1:10 when Paul is talking about the decisions he has made, and will ultimately continue to make, when he says, "Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." It is amazing to me how often I and people I see go out of our way to please people or even encourage behavior we know is not pleasing to God. I always find myself running things through a filter in my brain trying to equate behaviors to see if one is as bad as the other when I should be comparing it to whether or not it is pleasing to God. I am not saying I am perfect by any means, trust me, I'm not. But, I think the more we start to look at our decisions with the scope of what God thinks of what we are doing, we are making great strides. Like they always say, "The first step to solving a problem, is admitting that you have one". I think we could ALL admit that we have a problem when it comes to what we call acceptable in our society. 

My goal for this upcoming week is to more strictly monitor my actions and make sure that God is always at the center of what I am doing so that I may draw closer to him through it.

Workout Today

Here is the workout I did this morning:

14 miles on the bike (50 min)
20 min of Ab work
2 miles on the treadmill (20 min)

1st Triathlon

Ok, so I took the plunge and signed up for my first triathlon! It is a sprint Triathlon in Medical Lake on June 21st. This means it is a 400yd swim, 12 mile bike and 3.5 mile run. I have been training pretty hard to get into Triathlons so we'll see how I like it I guess. Would love for you to come out and support me in my new adventure. Also, for support for Whit as well as she doesn't understand this new obsession. (Click on picture above to check out the website for more info)

Prince Caspian Review

So last night a group of us went to see Prince Caspian down at the Valley Regal Cinemas. In anticipation the opening of the movie, I read the original C.S. Lewis masterpiece to my 6th graders at Shiloh. I love reading C.S. Lewis' books and have enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia series a lot. I love to read the book before seeing the movie because then I feel like I am glued more to what's going on because the nature of my personality forces me to compare the two while watching the silver screen.

Negatives:

So as the movie begins and the boys are fighting classmates in the subway station, I immediately find myself thinking, "Wait, this wasn't in the book!!" We were only 5 minutes into the book and already the story line was different.

The other thing I was disappointed with was the lack of time in the movie given to the relationship built between the professor and Caspian. This important part of the book is where Caspian, and the rest of us, learn what happened to the "Old Narnians" when the Telemarines came into Narnia. And the fact as well that they summed up the first 100 pages or so in the first 20 minutes of the movie and spent the last 2 hours on the battle scenes.

The last thing I didn't like was the lack of attention paid to the interaction between Lucy and Aslan when the kids are on their way to meet Caspian. Aslan guides the kids to where they need to get to. Also, as they start to believe more and more in the fact that he will help them eventually, they start to see him. It is also interesting from the book that the kids start to see Aslan in reverse chronological order. So Lucy sees him and "knows" him first and Peter is the last.

Positive:

The best thing, and sometimes the worst I guess too, about seeing the movie representation of a book already read, is that you get to put a face to the characters. I think one of the best things that Walden Media did was their casting. They did a great job of making all of the Telemarines of Spanish decent to keep consistency with the fact that they were all from a group of pirates that were marooned on an island and walked through the magic cave and into Narnia.

It is always heart warming to read the Christian under tones within the story, but for some reason when you see it acted out on the screen it tends to drive it home a little more. The best example of this from the movie that I saw was when Lucy and Aslan were interacting in the field. Lucy asked Aslan a question like, "Aslan, how many Narnians would have died if I would have come to you sooner?" Aslan replied, "We can never know now, but what we can change is how many we can save now." It just makes me think of how we constantly run away from God and don't seek out his guidance. How many people could I have "saved" if I came to God sooner in life? How many people do I turn away still because I still refuse to give my life "completely" to God.

Last Word:

I believe that the release of this movie will inspire young kids to imagine a savior to come save the day when they are in need. We don't have a magical horn, but we do have a direct line to our savior through the word of prayer. Although I am usually opposed to spending money on going to the movies because it just ends up supporting people that don't hold the same values I do. But, in this case, I think that it was money well spent. Thank you to the Cones for taking Whit and I, we really enjoyed the trip back to Narnia, even if we didn't go back the same way twice.