My wild one

Chloe probably is the most energetic of our children. She is going 100mph all the time and constantly into stuff. She is the first child we have actually had to buy a baby gate for. So we knew it would only be a matter of time before we had to go to the ER with her for something.

Yesterday we had the telephone company come to our house to work on an outlet. While there they were going in and out our door. Chloe was excited about them coming in and was running to the door when she fell and busted her lip on the bottom of the door facing. Buffy called me a work and was worried about it. She wanted to know if I thought if she needed to go to the Dr. I already thought she needed to at least call in and ask if everything was OK.

Well Buffy called and they wanted to see her. From there she went down to have it sewed up. I came to the office just in time to see them give her meds to put her to sleep. I must say I did not like that. It is funny when adults get put to sleep but it is scary when babies do. Me and Hannah went out to the waiting room while Buffy waited until the meds completely kicked in. Which I am glad for because during Chloe going out she looked at Buffy and got scared of her. Buffy said she will never forget the look Chloe gave her while she screamed.

Well all is ok and Chloe now has 4 stitches in her lip. I will admit we are spoiling her right now. But I believe that is OK. Wouldn't we all???

Japanese Marshmallow Torture

Last night Buffy told me about a You Tube video. It was promoted on the show Ellen and was suppose to be some funny stuff. Once Buffy explained to me that it was on a Japanese game show I knew that it would be great. For some odd reason the Japanese love to almost kill themsleves on game shows. Anyway let me set the stage for you. There are two teams:

The Blue Team

The Red Team

Each of these teams will take turns trying to reach a marshmallow to eat while having their face strapped to a huge rubber band. Apparently the team that eats all of their marshmallows first wins. Watch as these gentlemen attempt to do this in record time:

Isn't that amazing. I swear I almost wet myself the first time I watched that. Enjoy and remember kids....don't do drugs.

Hillary Clinton Quote Of The Day

Last Sunday during Sunday School we were discussing forgiveness. The base scripture was Ps. 32:5 and it spoke of how we take our sins to God and how he takes the guilt of sin away. What was on the student guide was one of the funniest quotes I have seen in a while. Here is what Hillary Rodham Clinton said:

"In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart."

This quote is all over the internet. Some of it is be used in an political attack and others is just personal attacks. The funny thing I found about this is that her hubby Bill is pretty close to those 490 forgiveness times. So Bill watch out buddy you better cross those T's and dot those I's because I think she means business. LOL!!!!!

Gooey Chips

A few weeks back our youth went to a local high school basketball game. Before the game we all met and had sandwiches at the church. I had purchased some Doritos from Wal-mart in those huge bags full of individual bags. To my surprise we purchased a bag of orange guuuuu. One of my youth notified me of the situation at hand. It appeared that all of the packages were only about a 1/4 of the way full and completely stuck together in their own Doritos mix. One of our youth (Alex) had ate some of them and his stomach began to turn. Luckily I had some stomach medicine for his self proclaimed "Tummy ache". Yeah that is right a High School Junior guy had a tummy ache...lol!!! Anyway those chips were some of the nastiest things on the planet and deserved to be cast into the lake of fire!

Notice the one lighter chip. That is a normal one!

Tears for food

Sunday we were singing "As the deer pants for the water...". After that I began to remember the location of that verse in which it was taken from. In Psalm 42:1 it reads " As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God." This is a great verse and one we should really focus on. But this one is not the one that stuck out to me. I read on further...

In Psalm 42:3 it says, " My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" After some serious thought God revealed something to me. Many times we have people out there that suffer from great Depression. That kind where eating is not something they want to do. Those people feel so horrible that even breathing seems hard. I do believe they know what "tears for food" means. During this time it seems that discouragement comes even more. There are those that say:

"toughen up and keep going"
"You are the only one that can conquer this"
"Where is God in all of this??"
"Awww you will be ok...don't worry"

There are much more but you get the idea. All of this comes at a point where people need lifting up and listening. Instead they get the opposite. How does a person deal with that? I can't personally tell you that because I have never been that low. But the Psalmist says later " Put your hope in God, for I will praise him, my Savior and my God."

That strength can only come from God. God will lift up your head, pat you on the back, wipe your tears, listen to your hurts and guide you out of that depression. I don't know how he does it but he does.

Raccoon Deterent

Since 2006 I have been in a heated battle with a raccoon family. I tried numerous ways to eradicate the vermin which all failed miserably. In July of 2007 I created the one thing they can not figure out. I am going to give it a full year before I give out my complete secrets. As for right now they have not been able to open the trash. You might think they have stopped trying but that is not the case. Every now and then I will hear them trying to take the trash lid of with a powerful Thunk!!! Thunk!!! But they are unsuccessful in their crime attempts. To read my trials from the past with a sneak peak of the contraption used to confuse them. (Click here)

Ha Ha Haaaaaa (Evil Scientist laugh)

Jon and Kate Plus 8, Roloff's and more.

I am addicted to watching shows where families are filmed in their everyday lives. The Learning Channel has found my wants and catered to them. The first Show I became addicted to was Little People Big World. This is a story of a family comprised of little people and their kids. One is a little person while the others are not. Why do I like this show? It is not because they are little ...it is because it is about a family with real life struggles and triumphs. Then a show we have recently fell in love with is John and Kate Plus 8. In this show there is a family comprised of a set of twins, sextuplets and their dad and mom. Why do I like this show? Because it is great to see a large family living a normal life or as normal as one could lead with 8 kids almost the same age. We see a couple actually arguing and having it's own set of problems. On the other hand you see that they love their kids.

I love watching shows like this because I feel I can related to them in SOME ways. We only have 4 kids but we get the same looks Jon and Kate get as they stroll through the streets of their town. I believe we lead a interesting life like that of the Roloffs. Although I don't have a huge farm with numerous play toys we have a wild life. So as we stroll through the mall and see people looking at us like we are crazy I don't care. I take it as a way of saying "Yes we have 4 kids and love it, look at our family booooyaaaah!"

You will never see the Hughes' on TV because we not marketable. Being a pastor isn't something the world wants see. But our life is more interesting and exciting. I love coming home to my wife and kids. I love going on trips that would seem like nothing to small families. I love having to ask for a larger table at a restaurant. Why??? Because I LOVE MY LIFE!

The singing debut.

Sunday night we had our traditional "5th Sunday Singing and Fellowship." A couple of weeks ago Micah expressed interest in singing in front of church. So as we began to practice "Jesus loves me" Hannah wanted to sing along as well. Sunday night they went on stage and sang while I played the guitar. It was a blessing to see my kids sing. I actually felt privileged to be able to play with them.

If you want to know what happened to Abbi in all of this. She sang one time during practice and said "I have been thinking about all those people looking at me....and I am NOT doing This!" If you know Abbi you would have already figured it out.

I have pictures but they are not loaded yet. I will try to post them tomorrow.