Random Thoughts of a Unique Mind

Sort of a dose of reality

2010-06-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Not a lot has really changed in the past couple of weeks. I am staying extremely busy at work, most weeks working six days a week and usually no less than eleven or twelve hours a day. I am excited about this new project though. Be it good, or bad, this is a job that I will most definiely see the fruits of my labors on a nightly basis. There is no way around the fact that when it first starts up, there are going to be mistakes. Lots of them. My job is to (a) minimize them and (b) make sure that the mistakes made by the package handlers are once and only once types of mistakes. I can seriously say that if this goes off the ground successfully, then it could potentially open up some big doors for me in the company.

I am one of the few managers in the company who could have some opportunity to move around soon if the desire strikes me. There is a whole lot of "restructuring" and "reorganizing" going on, and unfortunatly some people had to take demotions to keep a job. My position is so new within the company, that fewer than ten percent of the stations company-wide have it, so getting it up and running smoothly in a station the size of Tampa would go a long way for me.

On a more serious note, I went to the doctor on Wednesday. For those of you who don't know, I have a genetic disorder that causes benign tumors to grow throughout my body. I am supposed to have MRIs and scans done every couple of years (minimum) but hadn't had any done in about ten years. I had the scans done in early May and last week, went to have the results read.

The doctors aren't worried about the tumors on my brain or chest wall. Judging from the scans ten years ago, there hasn't been any growth in them. The one in my chest wall causes me some major discomfort/pain semi-regularly, but not to the point that surgery would be required. (It would be a major major surgery) However, they did find a new mass along the right side of my throat that they are concerned about. I have been feeling it (it's not visible, but I knew something was there) for about six to eight months now. I had even mentioned it to Amber a time or two. Anyway, long story short, the doctor wants to wait about six months and do some more scans to see if there is anything unusual about that mass. So, it is possible that I could have to have surgery on or around my throat in December or January.

Luckily, my doctor here is one of the specialists in the area concerning my genetic disorder. She has done research on it and is very familiar with it, and its symptoms/side effects. Right now, she isn't too worried about it. She says as long as it isn't causing me any problems, then we should wait and see what happens over the next six months. I tend to agree with her on that. There is no need to get worked up and worried over it.

So anyway, that's all that's going on here. I hope to hear from y'all soon!

Greg :-)

Has it really been a year??

2010-05-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

Wow...seems hard to believe that it has been over a year since I last posted on this thing. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it.

Man, a lot has changed over the past year. I am now living and working in Tampa, Florida. I have taken a new position with FedEx Ground in which I am overseeing the implementation of a new map based system that helps the package handlers load the delivery vans in a more effective and efficient manner. It's a lot of work, and creates a lot of stress and very long hours, but once the program is up and running, I will start to see the fruits of my labor. I'm very excited about it and am at the point that I truly love my job again. There was a stretch in which it was just a job and I was going through the grind, but now...I am loving it once again.

Things with Amber just seem to get better and better every day. I am completely and totally in love with her. She is currently taking her final two classes in order to obtain her degree in finance. She finishes in July. Moving here for the job and to be closer to her seems to have been the best decision I ever made (next to becoming a Christian of course). I really do fall more and more in love with her each and every day. She's the most wonderful Christian lady that I know and I am so grateful for knowing her and being a part of her life.

Since my last posting I have also gotten a new niece! Molly June was born in March of this year. I was fortunate enough to be on vacation and in town when she was born. Amber and I had gone to Austin and got to be at the hospital when she was born. The one thing that I hate about being so far away from Texas is being so far away from my family. I get to see them three or four times a year, but that isn't enough. I now have nine nephews and nieces and seven of them I haven't ever had the opportunity to get to really know well. Of course they know me, but I miss getting to see them grow up and do things (like tee ball games, etc).

I am loving being in Florida. That may change in the next couple of months as hurricane season starts next week LOL. I have been through my share of tornados, but never a hurricane. I have already told Amber and her mom that if a hurricane comes, and I get nervous, I am hunkering down in their spare bedroom for a few days :-) Seriously, I think I'll be fine. Tampa generally doesn't get any direct hits from hurricanes, only moderate winds and good rainfall. Thankfully I am on a 2nd story apartment, and that is part of the reason that I requested that. Don't want any floodwaters in my apartment. However, we do deliver all along the Gulf of Mexico, so if a hurricane does come, there are parts of our service area that do get the brunt of the damage...time will tell what happens.

I really don't know what else to talk about. So much has happened that I could type forever and ever. If there is anything that you want me to talk about, just let me know. If anyone is headed to the Tampa area, or Orlando for vacation, let me know. I'm usually available to take a break and have lunch/dinner, and once this new project is up and running at work, I should have my weekends back!

Hope to hear from you soon! I hope and pray that everyone is doing well and in good health.

~God Bless~

B-O-R-I-N-G

2009-05-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all. I hope and pray that y'all are doing well. There really isn't a whole lot going on here that is too newsworthy. Work is going well. Winding down the fiscal year, which means that come first part of June, I am going to get really really busy starting the annual projects that have to be done. Most of June I am going to be putting in some crazy hours. I will be doing ride alongs with the Contractors and their drivers. Also Roy and his wife are expecting a baby in mid-June so that will keep me in the building for some longer hours for at least one week.

After that, who knows? I have been exchanging emails with two facility managers in Florida about transferring down there. One is actually in Tampa, which by the way, is our 2nd largest delivery facility in the company. Another is in Bradenton, which is going to be a brand new facility opening in late June. I was told by the manager there that she would like for me to apply when the jobs there post to our internal board. I will definitely apply.

Before you go thinking it...no, Amber is NOT the ONLY reason I would want to go to Florida. Is she a HUGE reason I would? Yes, of course, but at the same time, I feel bored here. I've felt that way before and gotten myself out of the funk within a couple of weeks, but this one has lasted a while. Everything here is going well and I no longer feel challenged. Yes I have my challenging days, but as a whole...no challenge. I truly feel as if I have accomplished what I need to here and that God is opening new doors, avenues, and possibilities to me for a reason.

If I went to Bradenton, the new facility, it would be a HUGE challenge. Opening new buildings are always a chore. Probably moreso than I can even imagine. It would be a very difficult task. Am I up for it? I think so...but even if I'm not, at least I'll know. I've learned to never let pride get in the way of asking for help. If I could get the job there, open it successfully, then the sky's the limit. That looks good on a resume!

If I go to Tampa, then the old "tried and true" methods are in place in a building that is already running pretty smoothly. So...if I go in there and bomb...then that looks bad...but if I go in and do great..then it looks like I can "keep up". There are a lot of pros and cons to each facility, and I will definitely keep praying about it and seeing how things go and where God seems to lead me.

Either way, I am closer to Amber :) I think that it will be great for our relationship to have more of the day to day, face to face interaction. I truly feel as if it will bring us closer together on many levels and that it will be a great thing for our relationship. She is the most wonderful blessing I have ever received and I love her very much. I am excited about where I feel this is headed and can't wait to see where we end up :)

See? Pretty boring! Please keep my *possible* move in your prayers. If I do get a transfer, please pray that the right facility offers me a job.

~God Bless~
Greg

Meet the Parents.....

2009-03-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Well, last week Amber and I went to Texarkana so that she could meet my family. I hadn't been home since October, so it was a much needed trip for me as well. The trip went well. My family really likes her. So much that my dad told me to tell her that she is welcome back anytime, provided that she doesn't bring me haha

She got to meet two of my three sisters, along with two nephews and two nieces. Sarah really seemed to warm up to her. She even colored Amber a picture and gave her one of her toys to keep. She's such a sweet little girl. Brett was a bit nervous, but by the end of the trip, he had given Amber some hugs :) Amber did get to see my competitive side as we played numerous games of Skip-Bo. Singles and partners. I'll just say that she is gracious in defeat...especially when the defeats come one after another :-)

We drove around Texarkana, and she got to meet some of my old co-workers, friends and the church family. Amber is a hit. She didn't run screaming after (or during) the trip, so she's a keeper hehe. Seriously, there is something really really special about this girl. She is completely wonderful and I really love her very very much. The next trip is in a few weeks when I will go to Tampa to spend more time around her family. After that it gets sorta iffy because of work and school schedules. I am certain that we'll work something out and even if we go a while without seeing one another, it will just make the time we have together all the more special.

We are currently debating ideas for a vacation in late July or early August. We're considering going to New York City or Colorado. No decisions have been made yet. I have friends in both areas so naturally proper sleeping arrangments won't be a problem, even if as my friends in Connecticut said, "you have to sleep on the deck outside...we'll throw you a blanket. Amber gets the spare bedroom." hehe And who says chivalry is dead??

Life is going great right now. I have ZERO complaints. Work is going very well. Made it through Spring Break without any catastrophies. Break weeks are always iffy when half your crew is college students. Again, as I have said in the past, I have a WONDERFUL crew that works for me. They make my job SO much easier.

We did just pass five hundred days without an injury on the dock. We're going to celebrate with a cookout next week. You really have no idea how good hot dogs can be at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning until you've worked this kind of job. I bet we'll go through about fifty to seventy-five hot dogs minimum between the package handlers, drivers and contractors.

This coming week, my boss is on vacation, so I'll have a lot more stuff to do, but it's nothing that I can't handle and haven't handled in the past. It'll just mean a couple of longer days...no big deal. I'll manage.

Until next time, I bid you all a fond farewell. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well!

~God Bless~

Time is flying.....

2009-02-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

Hey all! I hope and pray that y'all have had a good month. This month has been very good to me. Amber came up to visit over Valentine's Day weekend and we had a very nice time. I made arrangements for her to "look for" sevreal cards once she woke up on Valentine's Day. I also got her a bouquet of her favorite flowers and some candy. She couldn't make up her mind what dress she wanted to wear to the symphony (which by the way was EXCELLENT), so I finally pulled out the silver necklace that I had gotten her and told her to decide which dress went better with the necklace. She loved the necklace. She's even been wearing it to work and church, which for her (being a very private person) says a lot.

For Valentines dinner, we ended up eating at McAllisters. That was not my first choice, but the restaurant I wanted to take her to wasn't taking reservations and there was over an hour wait, three hours before the symphony was starting! Amber was very sweet about it all and she was cool with just having a simple dinner at McAllisters. She's a wonderful lady :)

So as I sit her, we still have two weeks to go before she comes back here. She's coming in on Friday March 13, and we're going to head out to Texas on Saturday morning. I am off for a few days and she is going to meet my family. I may be completely nuts about this, but I am nervous at all. I'm excited about her meeting them, and even more excited about the future. If you can't tell already, I am completely crazy about her and I love where I truly feel that this is headed.

I am (of course) looking forward to seeing my family. I haven't been home since October. A few days away from the hustle and bustle of FedEx will be nice as well. I plan on showing Amber around Texarkana...which may take all of half an hour, and then just relaxing. No pressures from work, no phone calls, nothing. Rest and relaxation abound.

Other than that, not a lot is going on. As you can tell, Amber takes up a great deal of my time, which I will never complain about :) I'm sure I will have more to post at a later date. Until then, I hope and pray that God and His blessings are abundant in your life!

~God Bless~
Greg

Is it February already??

2009-02-01T06:54:00.000-08:00

Wow. Time really does fly. Seems to fly by faster and faster the older I get. It doesn't seem like it's been over a month since I did my last post. Ah well.

A lot has occured since my last post. We've now got a new president in office. I hope and pray that the man makes wise decisions and helps lead the country out of the financial mess that we're in now. Time will tell. I won't go into a political tirade about some things that he's already contradicted himself on. Now's not the time. I'm more than willing to give him time, and see what choices he makes, where he leads us and what the results start proving to be. What we're facing simply can't be fixed in a few months, muchless a few short days. Give him time, and then see how he's performing at his job.

I think people need to get themselves out of the warped frame of mind where everything is political. It's not. Some of us may be Democrats, some Republicans, some Independants and a few of us affiliated with another political party/faction, but first and foremost, we are all AMERICANS. No hyphenations either! AMERICANS! Pure and simple. We should all hope for and (for those among us who do this) pray for his success at his job. Put your country's well being first. I for one am positive that God will lead us out of this mess. It's cyclical. I just hope and pray that it is sooner rather than later.

Ok...now onto the best news :) Things with Amber (the lady that I mentioned in my last post) are still going very very well. She is such a wonderful Christian lady. We've got some pretty neat plans for Valentines Day. I am taking her to see the Alabama Symphony Orchestra Valentines night. After that, we're going to meet up with some friends of mine and go out for a late dinner and or coffee. Amber is really looking forward to going. I'm glad that I thought of it :) I have a few more small surprises up my sleeve, but I can't say what they are because she reads this blog every so often :-) Needless to say, I am going to try to make this a very memorable Valentines Day, and hopefully it will be the first of many that we get to spend together.

In March, she is actually going to go home with me to Texas to meet my family. I hope she doesn't run away screaming! My family can be a bit overwhelming, especially when all of us are together. We're a fun group though, I promise! I am pretty sure that my sister and brother in law and their two kids will be in town from Austin. I have warned Amber that if that is the case, that Jamie can and will talk your ears off til all hours of the night. I swear she'd talk to a fence post if she thought it was actually listening. After that trip....we'll see where things go. I will probably go to Tampa to spend more time with her family, to get to know them better. I have met most of them, and they really seem like a wonderful Christian family. Her Grandpa is a big fan of Bear Bryant and since I live here in Tuscaloosa where "The Bear" walked on water next to Jesus (according to folclore lol) I will have to see if I can find a souvenier for him for the next trip!

Well, other than that, not a lot is going on. Work is going well. After taking the 5% pay cut January 1st, turns out I am getting a 13% raise sometime in February. So basically I guess I am coming out 8% ahead of where I was. Funny how that works. I guess God wanted me to stay here in Alabama for a while longer. All in all, life is grand and I am extremely happy! I hope and pray that you are too!

~God Bless~
Greg

Merry Christmas and a surprising turn of events

2008-12-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hey All! I know it's been a couple of months since I updated this thing. As you can imagine, I have been pretty busy with work. FedEx...Christmas season....yeah. Enough said. Since my last post, there has been A LOT to occur in my life that most of ya don't really know about.

First, concerning the move to Austin. Not gonna happen. Several factors have been taken into consideration here. First and foremost, with the economy the way it is, I took a small (5%) pay cut. FedEx went across the board and cut the pay of all full-time exempt (salary) managers. Yeah it stinks, but at the same time, at least I still have a job with a financially sound company. There are other smaller 'cuts' that we took, (ie: no 401K matching) but all in all, I still consider myself very lucky to have a job in this economy. It just wouldn't make much sense to move to a more expensive city making less than I do now. Yes, I'd still like to be around my family more, but as I have stated before, I am not unhappy here. Not at all. I love the group at church. When it looked like I was leaving, they got me a card and a book. They are an awesome bunch who has helped me grow spiritually in so many ways. I would definitely miss them. I love each of them.

The second major occurance is that I have met someone. I'd been talking to her briefly when my last post was made, but at the time, didn't think it merited mentioning yet. Things with her have really taken off! She is an absolutely fantastic Christian lady. She's sweet, smart, fun and easy to talk to, gorgeous, and most importantly, she's a great and strong Christian. There really is definite potential here and I am anxiously waiting to see where God leads this. I simply am not doing her justice by the nice things that I say about her. Words can't describe it :) I am going to meet her family next month, and then, if time off from each of our jobs allow, I am going to take her to meet my family in March. Timing in life is everything and the way things have seemingly fallen into place is amazing. I'll spare you details, but if you want to know more...write or call!!

Lastly, I just want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and joyous New Year. I hope and pray that the new year brings you all much health and happiness, and that the Lord blesses you in each and every way possible.

God Bless
Greg :)

The only constant in life is change.....

2008-10-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hey All. I hope and pray that this reaches you all in good health and spirits. A decent amount of things have gone on since my last posting. I went on vacation for about ten days to visit family. I ended up driving over 2000 miles round trip, which at my size can be murder on the back and hips, but it was well worth it and I came through relatively unharmed. LOL

I went to Texarkana to pick up my dad before heading to Austin to see the bulk of the family. I had a blast with them! I finally got to meet Olivia, my now seven month old niece. She is a precious little thing! My lil chrome dome :) I held her for a while, played with her and just had a good time. She is starting to crawl and that is always fun to watch. She also absolutely loves her big brother Robbie. Every time he comes into the room she just grins really big!

I also spent a lot of time with Sarah and Brett who are now six and four respectively. It's fun being around them because they finally have really developed their own little personalities and they are so different in so many ways. Brett is ALL BOY let me tell ya. He loves to play soccer, play with his cars and wrestle. I held him over my head and he told me "If you drop me, you're gonna be in trouble with my mama" LOL My dad and I also took my oldest sister Julie and her little girl Addison to the University of Texas campus and went exploring. They had a really good time. Addi is so darn cute. It took her a day or two to warm up to me but once she did, she wanted me at all times. After my dad and I left, my brother in law said that Addison went around the house looking for me :) It's awesome to be loved :) All in all I had a great time and always appreciate the time that I have with my family since I don't see them much anymore.

Which brings me to this: while in Austin I paid a visit to the FedEx facility there, because I know that they are opening a new building up and will have several openings in the early part of next year. I introduced myself to them and kind of got a little information about them and the manager of the new facility. They are extremely interested in having me come down there and work with them on a permanant basis to get their building really up and running efficiently and keep it that way. It'd be a great move if the money were right. Cost of living in Austin is high, so I won't take the job without a decent raise, just to stay even with what I am doing now really. My old facility also has asked me to consider taking a position with them IF they have an opening soon. If you know me well at all, you know that I almost HATE Texarkana itself, but my parents are getting older and with my dad's health and all, it has to be something I would consider. I know I wouldn't be completely happy there, but it's not always about me. It would be a sacrifice that I would make for my parents' sake. On top of those two options, another was dropped in my lap on Friday of this week. My old regional boss from when I was in Texas sent me an email out of the blue saying that the facility he is in now is TERRIBLE and that he wants and needs my help to go in and "kick some....(well you get the idea)" to get it back to where it needs to be. This one really isn't weighing on me a lot. It's just outside of Dallas, which while closer to family, is still three hours away from my closest relative. Add to that the fact that I know maybe one or two people in Dallas and that's it really.

I ask that you please keep that in your prayers. Just pray that God leads me to the right decision and that His will is done, and that I don't do just what makes me happy. I am not UNhappy in Tuscaloosa, but things here just aren't working out like I thought they would be at this point in my personal life. Being single is NOT the only factor, nor the main one. I'm just bored here. My job is, as I have stated before, very very boring sometimes and I finally have it to the point to where when I go on vacation, my crew runs like it would without me here. That tells me that professionally, I have done what I need to do here and that it is probably time for me to move on.

On a positive note, this week I was awarded with the Service Manager of the Year award for the Southeast Region with FedEx Ground. I was chosen as the best in the region out of around seventy managers in this region. It was a great honor to be chosen and I am very appreciative of the recognition. I give all the credit to my crew because it is their hard work which led to the award. God has blessed me with an awesome crew and being their leader is the easiest job in the world more times than not!

I hope that y'all have a wonderful day!!

~God Bless~

Life is full of challenges

2008-09-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

I realize that it's been a while since my last post. Things have gotten even crazier, and this week has been no exception! My boss is out working in Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. That has left me running things on my end of the building pretty much alone. Our evening shift manager has had some struggles, so I have come in and helped him out some. We got things under control, but not before a sixteen hour day or two. All in all, things have gone very well though.

Wednesday was the absolute biggest challenge I have ever faced in my days with FedEx Ground. One of our trailers flipped over on its way from Atlanta. Thank God the driver was okay. Praise Him for that!! The trailer didn't show up here (it was literally reloaded on the Interstate by our crew in Birmingham) until 8:00 and we didn't finish with getting it unloaded until almost 9:00. Keep in mind that we normally get our drivers out of here by 7:00. Well, despite a two hour late dispatch, our drivers pulled together, helped not only me out (by loading their own trucks because my package handlers had to leave because of their class schedules) but helped each other out and trading packages to make each route run easier. I was seriously expecting service to be in the tank, but they pulled off a 99% service!!! I have never been more proud of a group of workers than I was Thursday morning. I bought everyone breakfast and personally thanked everyone in the building. They really came together and made it a hugely successful day despite what easily could have been a throw your hands up and say forget it day! This week has gone very well and bodes well for my ammo for a promotion soon!

The other challenge that I have faced lately has been more important. A few weeks ago at our Single Adults Bible study, the gauntlet was thrown down by one of the girls. She said that in her opinion, the guys in the group needed to step up their leadership roles. She was 100% correct and what she said really hit home. I have taken it to heart. I've been spending a lot more time in study and prayer, and have even helped to start a Single Guy's Bible study that myself, a couple of other guys from the group and a group from another local church are attending. I think that it is going to be a great thing! She said what really needed to be said and I thank her for that.

Other than that, next week I am going to Atlanta for a training class...will work for a week back in Tuscaloosa and then I am on vacation for a week!!!! I am going home to Texas. I am going to pick up my dad and we're going to Austin to see my babies!!! I am FINALLY going to get to meet Olivia, my now six month old niece. I am really excited about that. This will be my last chance to take vacation before the wonderful season known as Christmas makes me a virtual stranger to the normal world. Thank God I love my job! LOL

I hope that everyone is doing well and that this reaches you in good spirits and health.

~God Bless~

Time to Rest

2008-08-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know it's been a couple of months since I actually posted on here. Things were crazy for the better part of a month and a half, and I didn't have time to breathe, muchless write a blog, that quite frankly, I don't know if anyone reads lol

In my last post, I talked about how 'easy' my job usually is. Man did I ever speak too soon! In early July, we had a manager leave us, and his replacement didn't come in until last week. So for a month, my boss and I ran the building a manager short. We both worked some long and crazy hours for that month. Things went relatively smoothly, no real complaints, it was just at the wrong time of year for that to happen. Between drivers taking their vacations and my package handlers wanting days off here and there, things became stressful. We persevered though and made it through. My numbers suffered, which I took some heat for, but all in all, the upper management knew what we were going through and were a little more lenient than they would have been otherwise. I also got behind on a project that I was ahead on before all of this went down. I am now forty percent of the way done, when I had planned on being at least sixty-five to seventy percent done. I had HOPED to be really close to wrapping it up by now, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

The new manager started at the right time though. Typically, August is our second busiest time of year and it has hit us hard. We've been running volume not seen since last year just before Christmas. Again, I give my crew all the credit in the world because they haven't missed a beat, even though I have made them come to work at 4:00 in the morning. I'm proud of the way they've come together in a really busy and rushed time of year. We get hit especially hard because Tuscaloosa has three colleges with a total of about 36,000 students. That is A LOT of back to school stuff, and now that college kids are ordering at least 1/3 of their books online, a lot of school books to deliver!

In my personal life, not a lot of interesting stuff is going on. Things at church should pick up now that school is back in session and people are done with vacations. My class is made up of mostly graduate students and young(er) professionals. We have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the itenerary for the fall. I'm looking forward to it. I'm still enjoying my new car. It needs to be washed though...any volunteers?

I am going to try to go home over Labor Day to see my family. I took an extra day off so that I will have a four day weekend. I try to go home as often as I can to see my folks. Ever since my dad had his stroke and subsequent surgery, I have felt more inclined to go spend as much time as possible with he and my mom. It's scary thinking about how close we came to losing him. I treasure every day that I get to spend with him. Other than that, I really don't have a lot planned. I have a very uninteresting life, but that is really the way I like it. Can't stand too much drama.

Anyway, I hope that all of you are doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

news

2008-06-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I decided a few weeks ago that I am not going to buy a house here in Tuscaloosa afterall. At least not yet. Again, let me reiterate that I am very happy here for the most part. I love my job, get along great with my boss and co-worker(s), and love the church that I am involved with. However, sometimes, despite it being a college town, I get extremely bored. Both personally and professionally. Moreso the latter than the former.

I was talking to my boss that week. We were sort of discussing my bi-annual evaluation. I scored great in everything. So I went and negotiated myself a 13% raise starting in January :-) With that being said, my boss is very happy here too. He's got a wife and two great kids. Neither he nor I think he will be transferring out anywhere else anytime soon. I am content to keep doing what I am doing, and rake in a good raise lol. I just don't know for how long. Probably twenty-four out of twenty-five days, my job is not a challenge. I have the occasional day where I get frustrated, but I have been blessed with an awesome crew of guys, and have them all trained to where the sort pretty well runs itself. Just for fun, every so often, I will put everyone in an area where they haven't worked in a while just to keep them fresh on everything. All in all it's a great situation to be in, no doubt. However there is that little part of me that yearns for a new challenge every now and then. I know...most people would kill to have a (usually) easy job that they are compensated pretty well for. Basically, I don't know how long I will be able to resist the urge and the pulling by the regional staffers to transfer off to a bigger building that is, in FedEx terms, "on fire" (as in, about to burn to the ground). One thing that I am looking forward to is that we are getting an extension on the building this fall which is going to be (a) a new experience for me and (b) going to create a whole new set of problems in and of itself. This extension is going to create new load positions and make packages actually flow backwards in one part of the building. My boss in Atlanta said that the last building they did this in..the manager got so frustrated that he up and quit! It actually excites me because it is going to be a new challenge to tackle. Maybe it'll keep me from getting bored for a while and keep me energized! :) If so, maybe in another year or so I'll get a house...but for now..the timing isn't right. Plus I was going to buy the house for all the wrong reasons too. What it boils down to, I was going to buy a house just so that if/when I transfer, I could sell it and make money. I am not a money driven person, so I don't know what came over me, but thank God, I (with His help of course) realized that doing something selfishly is wrong.

I did however, go make a "lavish" purchase! I went last week and bought a 2009 Toyota Camry. This car is sweet! My Cavalier still runs well, but it is getting up there in milage and I don't trust American cars after 100,000 miles. I am going to sell it to Justin, my nephew. He just graduated high school, and is about to start college. He currently drives an old, huge pick-up truck that averages about twelve miles a gallon. I asked him if he wanted to buy my car, and he jumped at the chance. I will sell it to him cheaper than I should, but hey...he's my boy and I love him. He was also needing a job, so I had him go and apply at the FedEx where I started out. I made some calls and helped him get an interview and he got the job. All in all, things are going great for him right now!

I am now the only family member in Alabama. My sister and niece from Birmingham moved recently. She's found a really good job and is near more family that can help her with Addison. I was sad to see them leave but know that it's for the best. She is already much, much happier where she is and seems to be adjusting well. She is going back to church and has said that moving is what God wanted her to do. I am going to miss being able to drive an hour and see them, but their happiness is ultimately what matters. That and being nearer to family to help with Addi. It takes a village sometimes.

I'll end this with a serious prayer request. My cousin, Amanda, was killed Friday. She had a heart attack while driving and ended up having an accident. She was only twenty-six years old. She had fought weight issues all of her life and was trying to overcome them. Please pray for her immediate family. She was married and had a little boy who is only five years old. Please keep them in your prayers. She also left behind her parents, a sister, her grandmother, and numerous other relatives. Please just say a special prayer for her son, Marshall. He is such a sweet and smart little boy, who will now grow up without his mother. Pray that God takes good care of him.

~Greg~

6,587,650

2008-05-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ok...take a look at that number for a second. Just say it out loud, six million, five hundred eighty seven thousand, six hundred and fifty. What on Earth does it mean you ask?

That my friends, is the number of children who have died from abortion since the start of the Iraq war. Simply staggering. Mind numbing even.

In this age pf politicizing almost each and every thing we do in life, that number somehow has escaped our culture. We hear each and every day about more and more deaths of our soldiers in Iraq and the ever rising death count in this war. Each and every loss of life in a war is tragic, no matter what your opinion of the war is. Every soldier and their family is to be commended and respected for their great sacrifice.

But, just take a look at that number again. That number is all the more staggering when you consider that it has barely been five years since the war began. It equals out to over 1.1 million babies being aborted per year. You can think what you want about abortion and its legalities, but if you can honestly look at that number, actually put with it the fact that each one represents a life lost, it has to sadden you.

I could go on and on about the number and abortion itself, but to me, the number alone...speaks volumes.

More updates on big changes in my life later

~God Bless~
Greg

Been a busy couple of weeks

2008-05-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! It's been a pretty busy past couple of weeks for me. I am finally starting to recover from it all. Two weekends ago, I went to Atlanta to meet up with a friend of mine. We had a really great time, except for my near death experience at Dave and Buster's lol Let's just put it this way..sometimes when a guy my size is choking, a mere slap or two on the back simply isn't enough. I will spare you the details here, but let me tell ya, it wasn't a pleasant experience. I will say that getting lost in Atlanta, (repeatedly) isn't as bad as it sounds lol We went looking for a church that a friend recommended, but alas, could not find it. And to think, I put on my suit basically for nothing LOL I did introduce her to the most awesome restaurant in the world, Houston's! She loved the steak and ribs, as did her sweet puppy. He got the leftover bones and we saved him a little bite or two of steak. We had a really fun weekend and we are working on plans to get together again for another fun filled weekend.

Then, this past weekend, I went to Athens to see my friend Diane graduate from the University of Georgia. She got her Doctorate in Veterenary Medicine. I guess I have to call her Dr. Diane now. We had a really good time! Let me tell ya, games of Taboo with goofy friends who are going on little to no sleep get pretty interesting. I *CAN* take pride in the fact that the boys beat the girls twice out of three games! George and I rock! :) I also had a total blast with Kyle, Diane's almost two year old son. He is really sweet and just plain adorable. He doesn't like indoor swimming pools though. My neck can attest to that one, as he put me in a death grip when I tried to hand him to his mama who was already in the pool. He loves animals (go figure) and for some strange reason, loved it when I put my hands on my head (like antlers) and talked like Bulwinkle LOL He just laughed and laughed! I also found out he has a fascination with flushing the toilet and now loves the automatic hand dryers that are common in public restrooms. All in all it was a great weekend and I hope to get to see Diane and Kyle again soon.

This week, I am off until Friday. Being new to the home buying market, I have no idea what to really expect. I went by a couple of mortgage financing places to see what price range I can start looking at. First of all, it didn't take nearly as long as I expected to get approved for financing. Pretty fast and simple. My credit score is actually really good, and I have been approved for a lot more than I want to spend. So...now I begin the task of looking for a house in the price range that *I* want to spend. I told the financing company that I want them to hold the letter of credit until I find what I am looking for, and then will have them give me the letter for that amount. I don't want a realtor to take me to a house that is more expensive than I am wanting to spend just because I am approved for that amount. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I start to get down to the nitty gritty of looking.

If you could, please keep a couple of my friends in your thoughts and prayers. One of my employee's (Mustafa) sister passed away this past weekend. She was only 27 years old and a few weeks pregnant. They have no idea what happend. She was drawing bath water for her son and they found her slumped over over. They think that she had a heart attack but for 27, that seems very young. Then Mario, another manager, had an uncle pass away. So people here at FedEx have had a rough time here lately. Please keep these guys and their families in your prayers!

Some more good news that I received yesterday: the friend of mine in New York who has seriously distanced himself from his friends and family finally made contact with his dad the other night. I believe it had been about a year or more since they last spoke with one another. I am very happy that he decided to make contact and re-establish contact with his dad. I know that his dad was very very happy to hear from him and I hope that future contact is made and kept open. Maybe he will end up calling or emailing me like he told his dad that he wanted to. Selfishly, I would love to hear from him, but I am more than satisfied that he made contact with his dad. Very glad to hear that! :)

I hope that all of you are doing well and I hope and pray that you have a very safe Memorial Day coming up. Please be safe and careful as there will be a lot of people out and having fun!

~God Bless~
Greg

A Dizzying Time

2008-04-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

Hey All....

It's been a pretty dizzying past couple of weeks, and from the looks of it, it's going to be just as crazy for the next few weeks for me. For starters, the week that I turned the big 3-0, I got pretty sick. I told my friend Lisa that I thought I was going to die, and she said "C'mon Greg, turning 30 isn't going to kill you!", to which I replied, that she was correct, but the 102* fever might LOL. I was coughing like a madman. Several people told me I sounded terrible. My boss liked the fact that I couldn't really talk a lot. He said it was peaceful :-) I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a bad sinus infection, along with a case of strep throat. He put me on medications that after a week, worked. For the most part I am better now, with a lingering sore throat that I may go get looked at again.

Then my dad had to have some surgery for a hernia. He's pretty sore and I can tell that it is bothering him more than he wants to let on. He was in the hospital for a day or so and is now at home, insisting that my sister is a mean slave driver because she is making him get up and walk around so that he doesn't get too sore. He's such a baby, as I admit, most guys are when getting sick.

This week my boss is on vacation, so I am covering a big portion of his duties. That'll extend my days this week by a couple of hours at least, not to mention the fact that I lose a day off. That comes with the territory though, and is a sacrifice that we all make when another manager is on vacation. It's no big deal. Minor inconvenience.

The latter half of next week, Mario is on vacation, so I will cover his area as well. I am hoping to get out of here pretty early next Saturday due to plans that I have. I am going to Atlanta, GA to see a friend of mine. It should be a fun visit.

Then the Saturday following that, I trek back into Georgia to go to Athens to see my friend Diane graduate from vet school. I have written about her several times in this blog, and I really look forward to seeing her and Kyle, her son. It's hard to believe that he is almost two years old. He was born the same week that I moved to Tuscaloosa. Almost two years! Man how time flies. I want to spend some good, quality time with her before she moves back home to West Virginia. She's an awesome young lady who I have been friends with for probably eight or nine years now. I am definitely proud to call her my friend :)

Once I return to Tuscaloosa, I have three more days off, (using the last of my vacation) and will use that time to start looking at houses. At this point, I am not positive I will buy one this year, but the odds are very likely. I have called around to see if anyone offers any first time home buyers classes or seminars, but in podunk Alabama, have had no success as of yet. We'll see what happens and what God has in store for me.

One really cool thing that I got to do was lead the class at church in a devotional/study last night. I put a lot of thought into it, and how I could make the class as interesting as possible. I got a few good comments from it, and I hope that everyone was able to learn something from it or at the very least, got something out of it.

I hope and pray that everyone who reads this is doing well and that your lives have been richly blessed. Keep sending me feedback on topics to write on, etc. I always appreciate comments, whether they be good or bad.

~God Bless~
Greg

Welcome to the World

2008-03-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all. It's been an exciting week for my family. First, my sister Jennifer got engaged on Sunday night. I really like the guy she is engaged to. He is a very nice man and he's good to her and her kids. He's very personable.

Then on Monday morning, my sister in law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Olivia weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds and 13 ounces. She was 21" long. I need to go see her soon :) This makes five nieces and three nephews for me.

I am about to seriously start looking at houses. I have looked at a few online, but nothing too serious yet. It's about to get serious.

That's enough excitement for me for one week LOL I hope that everyone is doing well and that your lives are richly blessed!

~God Bless~
Greg

Exciting times....

2008-02-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone. I hope and pray that all of you are doing well. Things on this end have been going very well lately. Things at work are chuggin right along at a good pace. Staying somewhat busy although the slow down of the economy is somewhat concerning to me. However, FedEx does a superior job at being proactive rather than reactive to things like this. We've been in spending cutbacks for several months now.

I am on vacation this week. The plan was to come to Texarkana to see the folks for a day or two and then head down to Austin. However, my brother in law and nephew had to come up this way for a funeral of a family friend, so I at least go to see them. I wasn't really looking forward to driving another 450 miles after having driven almost 500 to get here. Tall guy...cramped car...trust me...doesn't work out too well LOL So basically I have been in Texarkana all week. I got to see some friends, and of course have enjoyed my time with the family. It's always great to see family. I had an absolute blast with Brett, my 3 year old nephew. We wrestled and played cars and watched movies. It melted me when he gave me a big hug and kiss then told me he loves me. He told me I need to come to his house to play more often. I asked him when, and he said "Next week!!" :-) Kids! So sweet! It is hard at times, living so far from them but hey...God has me in Tuscaloosa for a reason.

Speaking of that..within the next couple of months, I am actually going to be looking to buy a house. I have no plans to leave Tuscaloosa within the next couple of years. I am getting tired of shelling out good money for a roof over my head and at the end of the month, having nothing to show for it. I want something that I can own. Some liquidity if you will. I've already got one guy who wants to room with me and if I can get one more (will be looking for 3 bedroom house naturally), they will make my mortgage payment for me. I am choosing a 3 bedroom for several reasons. First, I can probably find at least one guy to room with and help me make the payments. If I only find one, I can make the 3rd bedroom either a guest bedroom or an exercise room. Second, if I do decide to transfer, or get transfered, then FedEx will buy the house from me. Naturally, they have restrictions and conditions, but I can get help with that. My boss has done the whole thing a couple of times now. Who knows though? I may even keep it as a rental house, depending on how far I transfer if that ever happens. Plus it ultimately leads to this: most people looking to buy a house are going to look for a 3 bedroom because of marriage and kids and all. I will admit, that is in the back of my mind too. If I get married, the extra rooms will probably be beneficial. Especially if kiddos come along.

I can honestly say that at this time, I am the happiest I have been in a long while. Life is great! The church group that I am involved with is awesome! These are some of the most inspirational and loving people I have ever met. The congregation as a whole and the group that I study with on Sunday nights are awesome. I have grown so much as a Christian since moving to Tuscaloosa, that it will be hard to leave, if I ever do. Over the past few years, I may have become more of a 'rock' with my emotions, and much more difficult to read, but trust me, I am so happy right now and am excited to see what chapter is next in my life.

I leave you with this quote that I heard not so long ago. It can be applied to everything you do in life, and it is something that I am getting better at myself:
"Never let the odds prevent you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do."

~God Bless~

Need to breathe

2008-02-03T20:22:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

I wanted to give a quick update. My friend Misty is doing better. She's being stubborn and trying to do too much and strained her neck, but she says she's feeling fine. I can't really scold her for doing too much too fast...Lord knows after my surgery I hurt myself a couple of times trying to do too much too soon. Dunno why we do that as humans...I guess we're so accustomed to being busy that when we CAN'T do anything, we refuse to accept it.

The title of this post refers to something that I need to do. Lately things have really been getting to me that shouldn't. Things that I normally wouldn't give a second thought are bugging me and it's really been affecting my mood. So far, it has not affected me spiritually, but I do need to step back and take a break before it does. I know myself well enough to know that if I do too much more..I'm going to completely shut myself off from everyone, and that is not healthy either physically or spiritually. It's just that a couple of things over the past two or three weeks have not really gone as well as I had hoped, on top of the fact that other than the one day off at work for Christmas and one day for New Year, I haven't taken a day off since October. It's weird to say but right now I am burned out on life, and I am "existing" rather than "living". Thankfully, tonight I was able to spend some good quality time with friends from church as we watched the Super Bowl. That really helped a lot.

So....I have asked for the last week of this month off. I still have to burn ten days worth of vacation before the end of May, so I figure now is as good a time as any to use half of it. I dunno what I'll do or where I'll go, but I will probably go home and spend some time with the family..maybe even go to Memphis to see a couple of friends that I haven't seen in a while...or possibly even go to Austin to see my sister and bro in law and the kids...right now I just don't know, but I do know that I just need to "get away" before I snap. lol

I also have decided with almost certainty that I am going to go to Alaska this summer. I think all that needs to be ironed out is when a convenient time for my friend is. I have been friends with this person for years and need to go see her. I've never been to Alaska so she will be bestowed with the honor of being my tour guide :)

I will close this out with another prayer request. You guys receiving this have been amazing with my prayer requests in the past so I throw this one at you...my friend Steve, in Buffalo, NY. His mother was recently diagnosed with an as of yet incurable disease. He is very very close to his family. Please pray for the family, definitely his mother and her doctors. Please ask your friends to pray for her....I have personally never met her, but from what he describes, she is a truly amazing Christian woman.

~God Bless~

Please pray for my friend

2008-01-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

I want to ask all of you to pray for my friend Misty back in Texarkana. She was in an accident early last week and broke her neck. The doctors had to put a screw into her C2 vertabrae and she'll be in a neck brace for a couple of months. She's a really sweet girl and I know she'd appreciate the prayers. She was about ready to start her last semester of nursing school, so this naturally is going to put her behind schedule. Please pray for her recovery and for God's will with her schooling to be fulfilled.

There's really not a lot of interesting stuff going on in my life at the moment. Work has gotten easier naturally since Christmas is over BUT at the same time, that just means the pressures to keep performance high have grown. One great thing that has happened is that I am going to be promoting at least one, if not two of my package handlers into better positions. FedEx seems to think highly of managers who are able to mold and promote their employees and in my nearly three years, I have gotten the priveledge of promoting, five people, and now it may go to six (one of the five is probably getting another promotion, so we'll see). Yes in the short term it hurts, but at the same time, who am I to hold anyone back? I was held back by a back-stabbing ego-maniac for over a year and didn't know it until after the fact. Then, when I got a new boss, I was promoted within four months. It's all worked out well :) I owe a lot to Kile and Kim because they opened a lot of doors for me back in Texarkana.

My small group Bible study reconvenes this week. I am looking forward to it. I made the decision to get more involved with the church this year, and I look forward to the growth that I can experience. We're going to be studying a book called "Celebration of Discipline" which I think deals with different Christian disciplines. Should be an interesting study. I will probably even lead the discussion on a couple of these.

Anyway, I hope that y'all are all doing well. Things here are great.

God Bless,
Greg
'Nothing in life is to be feared; it is simply to be understood'

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2007-12-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

I just want to start out by wishing everyone a safe and happy new year. May 2008 be a wonderful and blessed year for you!

I was able to go home for Christmas and see most of my family. This was a shock to them because, as best as they knew, the six day work weeks included the week of Christmas. However, we worked so far ahead, that my presence really wasn't needed on that Monday (Christmas Eve), so I drove home on Saturday to surprise my parents. My brother happened to be in town too, so I guess more family made my folks happier. I got to spend a good 2.5 days with them before driving home on Christmas Day to get ready for work on the day after.

Not a lot interesting has really gone on since my last post. Work has been incredibly easy since Christmas. I've even managed to leave at around 10:00am a day or two. We had a contest among the 14 facilities in my half of the region that ran from the week of Thanksgiving up until this past Friday. Going into the last week (scores haven't been updated), my facility is ranked as the # 1 facility in the contest. Like I have said before, I am blessed with a great crew of guys. I haven't decided what I am going to do if we win #1. I'll have to reward my guys somehow.

Of course, with a new year upon us, it is a time of reflection. 2007 was a turbulant year for me and my family, but we pulled through! This is the time of year that we all make resolutions to help and improve our lives. Of course, there are numerous ways that we can all better ourselves, whethere we want to admit it or not. I am convinced that the main reason a lot of people fail miserably at their 'New Year's Resolutions' is because they try to do TOO much. A friend of mine last year had 28 different resolutions on her list. Here's my theory. Find one or two major ones that you really do want to improve upon, because generally after that, the rest are quite frankly stupid and petty.

I already know which two resolutions I want to stick with and apply to my life. If I do those, then the other 'smaller' ones should be pretty easy to knock out. If you get rolling with the big ones, once they become routine, then the tinier ones will be a lot easier to start chipping away at. But if you're trying to knock out five big ones at once, if you fail and stumble at one, you are more likely to get frustrated and say "forget it" to all five. I hope that makes sense. It does in my head at least...just not sure about the naked eye LOL

Anyway, I sincerely hope that all of you have a very safe and happy new year. I pray for God's richest blessings upon you, your families, and your friends. 2008 is going to be a great year...say it...believe it...and more importantly LIVE IT!

~God Bless~
Greg

An Update

2007-12-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. First things first. I want to thank all of you who have emailed or called asking how my mom's surgery went. The surgery went well. She was naturally quite sore for a few days, but is making progress. She goes in tomorrow for her first check-up. She seems to be doing a lot better both physically and mentally. She hates being 'tied down' so to speak and unable to just get up and go do whatever she wants. Naturally, this surgery has kind of had her in an immobile position, in that, she can't get up and drive herself to the store or that kind of thing. Lord willing, she will be back to full strength soon.

I am hoping that I will be able to go see the family in Texas early next week. I have made arrangements with our Atlanta Hub driver to send our extra freight on Sunday night rather than early Monday morning. That way, my crew can go see their families for 2 days straight rather than having a day of work in between two days off. Also, selfishly, I am hoping to convince my boss to let me take Wednesday and possibly even Thursday off so that I can see my fam for about three days. We'll see.

I spent yesterday with my sister and (almost) five month old niece in Birmingham. I had a blast with them. I enjoy seeing them. That baby girl is just so sweet. I have already taught her that Uncle Greg is her favorite uncle. She'll be saying it any day now I PROMISE :-)

Work is crazy as you would expect. Christmas season at FedEx is indeed an adventure. Each day gets a little busier and busier. At this point, I have resigned myself to the fact that I just need to survive one more week and my life will be grand LOL It takes a lot of planning, preparation and coordination to get the packages where they need to be. It's a lot more complex than "box A goes on truck B". We just got mostly finished with coordinating the delivery of 1,200 small boxes of chocolates to 1,157 different addresses that a bank ordered for all of their customers. It wouldn't have been so bad if 90% of them weren't going to rural, small town Alabama where most people live on county roads and unmarked highways LOL

Everything else in life is going well. We just started a 23 week series of lessons at church on the Holy Spirit and how our lives are impacted by it. It should be a very interesting experience and hopefully, I will come out of the lessons with a much better idea of this relatively rarely discussed aspect of faith.

I hope and pray that all of you have a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the time with your families and remember that it's never about getting someting, or really even giving anything more than your time and your love to those you care about.

I recently saw something on YouTube that might interest some of you. Look up Derek Redmond and Creed. There is a clip that runs about 2 1/2 minutes that is pretty inspiring. Hope you have time to look it up and enjoy it!

~God Bless~
Greg

*To D. in NY......call me, my friend. You are definitely missed. And Loved. Nothing will EVER change that.*

Does it ever stop??

2007-12-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all...I hope that y'all had a great Thanksgiving and are off to a great Christmas season. I always love Christmas, even though I work at FedEx :-) I really do enjoy this time of year, even though it is one of the most trying times of the year. It's actually not THE most trying time, in part because of somewhat relaxed productivity standards, which allow me to have some flexibility in my scheduling of my employees.

I hope to be able to make it home for Christmas, if not immediately thereafter. It depends on if the six day work weeks extend to the week of Christmas or not. It's up in the air right now. I really NEED to get home truth be told, in part because of the title of this posting....

Now my MOM is in the hospital. She severely hurt her back several weeks ago at the house and it got progressively worse. Friday, she went to the ER and it turns out that she has to have back surgery. I believe it is on her L3 and L4 vertabrae. The area around her spine was too swollen to do surgery last week, so her surgery is tenatively scheduled for this coming Tuesday, the 4th. Please keep her in your prayers, along with the doctor performing the surgery.

I feel bad for my sister who is still in Texarkana. With all that happened to my dad, we all pitched in as much as we could, but admittedly she, and my nephew and niece did A LOT. He isn't fully recovered, but he is progressing slowly. Now, with my mom having surgery, my sister just has that much more on her plate. I will again try to get a few days off as soon as I possibly can, to go help. The problem is, naturally the entire month of December is blocked for days off. I *could* go home over a Saturday/Sunday, but then I'd have to be back by 4 a.m. on Monday to work. I dunno. I'll talk to my sister and see if she wants/needs my help.

The good thing is, my brother in law from Austin has a lot of vacation time and can probably go help out if need be. He is an incredible guy and has been such a blessing to our family over the years.

Anyway, that's what's going on around here. Like I said, I hope that y'all are having a wonderful Christmas season! Please keep everything in your prayers. The good thing is that the old adage says that things happen in threes. I was first, dad was second and hopefully mom's is the last health issue we deal with for a while!

~God Bless~

Sorry for the delay

2007-11-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hey All. I hope that things are going well with you. Things here are starting to get busy as you can imagine. Gearing up for our 'peak' time of year. Thus far, it doesn't look like things are going to be so bad. Thanks in part to having extra staff this year, our days are actually going to be manageable.

Man, it doesn't seem like it has already been a year since my medical ordeal. The past year has absolutely flown by. It has been a good year all in all for me. Things at work are going great! I have actually already been offered a promotion to another facility. I told my boss that at this time, I would have to turn it down. I don't feel that I am ready for the position that was offered. Yes, I turned down a pretty decent raise, but my quality of life is far more important to me than climbing the corporate ladder. I told him that I really appreciate his considering me, and that if in another year or so, I am still single and feel that I have accomplished all that I want to here in Tuscaloosa, that I would definitely be up for it. The other two factors in my decision were the that (a) I'd be farther away from home, and (b) I can honestly say that I am truly happy here. I am with an awesome church and an awesome group of young singles at that church. I am honestly happier now, at this point in my life than I ever have been. I am growing both as a person and as a Christian.

I kind of explained these reasons to my boss. Seeing all that my dad has been through recently, he completely understood why I am reluctant to move FURTHER from home. As for the second reason, I think he found the spiritual stuff a bit strange, but said he completely understood. He said that he knew that happiness is essential in life and that he wouldn't want me to be miserable somewhere just because of the dollar amount associated with the job.

This past year has been a challenge. From my health issues to my dads, things in my family have been pretty hectic. However, in this past year, I have made some great new friends. It's always great to know that you have friends that you can count on. That's what I recently told my best friend since high school. No matter what situations life deals you, or what changes that you either make (or are made for you) that your true friends will always love and cherish you regardless. When it's all said and done, physically, here on Earth, all you really have is your friends and your family and you should cherish and value them with every fiber of your being. Also, during this year, I have been blessed with a wonderful new niece. She is such a happy baby and cute as can be! I have yet another niece due in March as well!!

A great friend of mine is getting married in a few weeks. I wish she and her future husband many wonderful years of happiness and blessings from God. Yes, I guess even God loves Oklahoma and Oklahoma State fans....if THAT doesn't prove what loving and forgiving God that He is, than nothing will!!! :-)

With this week being the week that we, as Americans have designated to have a day of thanks, let me implore to you that you count your many wonderful blessings. We have so much to be thankful and grateful for. We take for granted many wonderful gifts and freedoms that others around the world have never known and probably never will know. Sit down, and for only five minutes, write down everything and everyONE that you are grateful for. It'll surprise you at just how much you have been blessed. And if you haven't taken the time to talk to your family, call them. Yes, I completely realize that sometimes families can feel like anything BUT a blessing, but trust me, they indeed are. They are all you've got on Earth, save a few good friends if you're lucky.

With that said, I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your festivities. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

~Greg~

And we're off......

2007-10-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hey All! Sorry it has been a while between postings. Things have been pretty busy as you can imagine. I appreciate the emails, calls, and prayers on my dad's behalf. We got some really good news yesterday. He went in for his first check-up since the surgery and the doctor was very pleased with his progress. He goes back in five weeks, but the doctor said that he can really start to ramp up his activities. In talking with Dad, he seems to be getting more and more like his old self. Thank God :)

As you can imagine, work is begining to get pretty busy. I am however, doing A LOT better at not putting in super long days. This time last year, fifteen hour days were the norm (just before I had surgery) but now, I have decided to make sure that I don't sacrifice my personal time for work. Ten or eleven hour days are about all I am doing now, and even getting out after eight or nine sometimes.

Next week, the bulk of my time at work will be spent in a training class. I will be teaching six students on the safety aspects of driving for FedEx and putting them through the rigors of learing all they can about us and our delivery techniques and systems. It will be fun and still a learning experience for me as well. This will only be the second class that I have taught, and the first under a new set of curriculum that we have to go by.

Man how time flies. Next week, my oldest nephew will be turning 18!! How did this happen?! It seems like only yesterday that I was holding this new baby boy and teaching him all sorts of fun things! I had a blast going to his tee ball games. Time does indeed fly.

There are a lot of things going on in and around my life which I won't expound upon. The best thing that I have recently started doing is participating more in a Bible study with the Young Professionals and Graduate Students at my church. We have a great turn-out and we really do discuss and study some very interesting, not always focused upon topics from the Bible. This church really has been a blessing in my life and has helped me to grow in ways I never imagined.

Hope that everyone is having a great week!

~God Bless~
Greg

Surgery went alright

2007-10-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

My dad had surgery on Wednesday. During the surgery, the doctor found a 2nd anurism, but the new one wasn't nearly as bad as the first. The unfortunate thing is that the stroke he had in July was worse than we'd thought, or the initial doctor had thought as well.

THe surgeon did say that the surgery went as well as it could have. Dad seems to be in good spirits and frame of mind. When I was talking to my mom yesterday, he was chowing down and laughing with my sister...so that is a good sign.

Right now, it appears that he will be able to come home (I am in Texarkana for about a week) on Sunday. Please keep praying that his recovery goes well.

~God Bless~

Pray for my Dad

2007-09-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

I will keep this short. I will just ask that you please, please, please, keep my dad in your prayers. He will be having surgery on Wednsday to work on the anurism on his brain. They will have to go in through the skull to do this. It's a serious surgery, but I know that God will watch over my dad and the doctors working on him.

I am going home toward the end of the week to help out around the house when he gets home. I plan on doing whatever he and my mom need me to do to make it as easy as possible on both of them.

Please, keep him, and the doctors/nurses in your prayers. I appreciate it a lot.

~Greg~

An Amazing Week

2007-09-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I have spent the past five days in one of the most gorgeous and amazing places that I have ever seen. I was on vacation this week and decided to take my dad to Colorado.

We arrived in Denver on Monday afternoon. It was really too late to do much sight-seeing so we went and settled into our hotel room and relaxed for the evening.

Tuesday, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. There are some absolutely breath taking views there. The cool, crisp mountain air hits the lungs like nothing I have ever experienced. It was truly nature at its best. About 2/3 of the way up the main trail, there is a place that you can pull off and take pictures of a lake below. The funny thing is, despite all of the signs that specifically say "Do Not Feed the Wildlife", people do. My dad and I were walking along this little wall and a chipmunk literally walked beside us, not a foot away. He stopped when we stopped. He walked when we walked. I did NOT feed him but I did sit on the ground and get a good close-up picture of him. It was obvious he wanted food, and was used to people feeding him, but I resisted, admittedly because I didn't have any peanuts or 'goodies' to give him LOL

Then on Wednesday, we went to Colorado Springs to the Garden of the Gods. It was neat but not all that interesting. After that, we headed up Pike's Peak. At its summit, Pike's is 14,100 feet high. The temperature went from 74* at the base to 37* at the top, with about 15mph winds. Pretty chilly, especially for September. My dad quickly ran to the back of the Jeep and grabbed my jacket. LOL I got a TON of pictures from Pike's Peak. It is stunning! Words would not do justice to the beauty that God has created. How anyone can see this, and think that it all happened by 'chance' is beyond me. It is definitely proof of a great and powerful Creator!

Some of the turns and twists going down the mountain are trecherous. Ten miles per hour is about all you can safely do. First gear is definitely needed.

Thursday, we went to Royal Gorge in Canon City, Colorado. At the Gorge is the highest suspension bridge in the world. In the middle, it is 1053 feet off of the Arkansas River below. Again, some breath taking views are found here. There are some pretty steep hills around the gorge. My dad was getting pretty tired and winded, so we took an air tram across the gorge to get back to the car. This in and of itself is really neat. In the middle of the ride you are between 1100 and 1200 feet off the river. Just floating along in a metal cart. Pretty exciting.

Friday we really didn't do a lot. My dad was pretty sore and tired from the hiking the previous day and with his recent health problems, I didn't want to push anything. So we drove around and had a really good time.

Thursday night we did go into Downtown Denver and had dinner with a couple of friends of mine there. We ate at a cute little restaurant. The food was ok. Definitely not worth the price, but I had good company so that lessened the harshness of my opinion of the place. LOL We felt bad that my dad really couldn't hear much of what we were saying (it was noisy) but he seemed to really enjoy the friends that came to see us.

I still have a couple of more days before I get back into the swing of things at work. I have truly had a wonderful week. It was well worth it.

I hope that all of you are having a great week and I hope to hear from y'all soon!

~Greg~

Good News Abound

2007-08-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hey all! The past couple of weeks have been really busy and turbulant but so far, all is going well. First, my dad did indeed suffer a minor stroke. The doctors elected not to do any surgery, and are going to run some scans in a couple of months to see how he is progressing. I saw him last week and while you can tell that his reasoning skills have been affected, he is apparently slowly progressing according to my family. Since he isn't having surgery, I am going to go ahead with our planned trip to Colorado the week of Labor Day. The doctor gave him the clear to fly, so he and I are headed there on Labor Day and going to take in its sights. I bought the tickets yesterday.

Then, last Thursday, I became an uncle to an absolutely gorgeous baby girl :) My sister in Birmingham gave birth to little Miss Addison. She weighed in at a whopping 5 pounds and 11 ounces. SUCH a cutie. I went up on Saturday and spent the weekend with them. I tell ya, there is just something so sweet and comforting about holding a new baby. She is such a doll. I just sat there, holding her and smiling. She LOVES to stretch. Her little legs and arms stretch quite often. It's funny to watch :-)

THEN...I found out the other day that my brother and his wife are expecting their first baby together in March. So far....noone has asked me about getting married and having kids. Ya see, I am the only one of the five kids in the family not to have any children. Someday maybe, gotta find one of those wife thingies first. That seems to be the hard part :-)~

Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well. Please continue to keep my dad in your prayers. Talk to y'all soon!

God Bless
Greg

Quick Update

2007-07-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Just wanted to give you a quick update on my dad. He went to the doctor yesterday. He did suffer a stroke due to an anurism on the frontal lobe of his brain. The good news is that it isn't bleeding at all.

He is going in for more tests tomorrow and then to see the neurosurgeon on Monday. The doctor that saw him yesterday said that it looked like that anurism is relatively small and *SHOULDN'T* need surgery. He thinks that they should be able to treat my dad with medications and that pretty soon, my dad's 'lapses' should subside and he'll be back to normal.

He isn't out of the woods yet but it wasn't the worst news we could have heard. Please continue to keep my dad in your prayers. I really appreciate the prayers and the calls that I have gotten. I will keep you all updated!

~God Bless~

Prayer Request

2007-07-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone I will keep this one short. Things here have been going superbly the last few months. I am happier now than I ever remember being. I have been put into certain situations over the past couple of weeks that a few months ago, I would have crumbled and gotten frustrated or shut myself off from the world. However, in these situations, I stood my ground. I grabbed the bull by the horns and took the lead in the situations. One of them led to me having to tell a good friend that the guy she was talking with was a jerk and totally misleading and lying to her about himself, his past and his probable intentions. Thankfully she listened :) The guy actually got mad and called me. I told him my viewpoint and he admitted his wrongs. I tell ya, we serve an awesome, almighty and awe inspiring God :-)

Now onto my prayer request. Please, please, please keep my dad and our family in your prayers. This past week, my dad has been acting funny in the mornings. Like his mind simply isn't firing on all of its cylinders so to speak. He's seemingly been confused at things that he has routinely done in the past.

My mom took him to the doctor and while the doctor didn't seem too overly concerned, he is going to run a series of tests this week. A lot of his symptoms lie somewhere in between a couple of conclusions: either a small stroke or the begining stages of Alzheimers. The symptoms seemed to come on too strong and too fast for Alzheimers, so we are actually HOPING that between the two it was a small stroke because that can be helped. I have an 'out there' theory that it could be something related to sleep apnea because my dad smoked for years. His breathing isn't very good to start with, and the oxygen could be taking longer to get to his brain. PLUS my parents have been inundated with visitors for the past month, and my dad has not been sleeping in his normal bed. I dunno, maybe I am grasping at straws.

All I can do from here is ask for your prayers. Please remember him. If the tests cause the doctor to put him in the hospital, I have already told my boss that I will be going home. If he's admitted to the hospital I will be there. Not only because he was here for me for several weeks when I was in the hospital and immediately after surgery but because he's my dad and I love him! I almost had to get up and walk out of the auditorium at church today because I almost lost it. Please, keep him in your prayers. Pray that the doctors find out what is wrong and that they can fix whatever problem that it is.

Thanks and God Bless

Greg

Never judege a book by its cover...

2007-06-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in posts. I've been super busy here lately. Last week I took the trip to our corportate offices in Pittsburgh, PA for some training. Going into this trip I was thinking that it was going to be a huge waste of my time and company money. Boy was I ever wrong!

This class was the most interesting and fascinating training course I have ever taken. From start to finish, this class was both motivating and quite the learning experience. I know it sounds nerdy but we took several "self evaluation" tests that diagnosed our personalities and hence, our leadership styles. It was an awesome class and gave me something to look at and determine how to strengthen myself in some areas. (This may come as a surprise to a lot of you but I am actually pretty well balanced! So to all of those of you who thought I was a little "off" I say "HA!" lol)

We actually spent the better part of one day watching and analyzing the movie "Remember the Titans". Looking at it from a leadership standpoint was quite interesting. There is A LOT to learn from that movie when you sit and watch it.

One of the most interesting things we did was pair off into groups and come up with a skit about certain events that occur on an everyday basis at a typical FedEx facility. My group of six was probably the most diverse group there was. There were two of us white guys, one black gentleman and three Hispanic gentlemen from different areas of the world. We all have very dominant personalies, yet we all came together rather quickly, leaned on certain people's strengths in each category, and made a great skit. We all agreed that it was very good and flowed smoothly. The whole purpose of the skit was collaboration. We all had our own ideas on how it should be done, yet we threw all of our inhibitions away and compromised on a few things. Like I said, it may sound nerdy but this class, the whole experience in general was awesome!

While in Pittsburgh I got the opportunity to meet up with a couple of friends in the area. One from West Virginia and another from Ohio. It was great to meet up with them and catch up on some things. I was reminded that three year olds have an abundance of energy that simply doesn't go away. I also was reminded by this three year old that pillow fights are fun :)

I am still working on vacation plans. I *was* going to Colorado in July but right now, I simply don't have the money for it, and, I am sick of travelling. A big part of my family is coming down at the end of July when my new niece is born, so I may take a few days at the end of the month. Probably not an entire week though. I am thinking that I will go to Colorado at the begining of September more than likely. That'll give me a little more time to save some money.

At church, we are doing a fascinating series of lessons on the book of Luke. My church has some amazing teachers and people in the classes. Every week, I look more and more forward to doing more in depth studies. Right now, I am on top of the world :)

Hope that everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from y'all soon!

~God Bless~

Busy Days

2007-05-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hey All! Let me tell ya I have been extraordinarily busy here lately. I mentioned the manager that quit in my last post. We finally have a new guy starting in that position tonite. That's not really what's been keeping me busy though.

Last week, I went to Phoenix, AZ for some training for work. It was basically a paid vacation. I think the longest day I was in class was about six hours. That was fine with me. I lounged by the pool and talked with others in the class a big part of the time. We decided as a group to take in an Arizona Diamondbacks game too. It was a fun game. The Rockies beat the D'backs 2-0. Good pitching matchup. Either that or pathetic offenses. Either case can apply in this case.

The fun part of the trip was getting to hang out with Anna, a friend of mine. She is a good friend of Greg and Lisa, a couple that I know in Connecticut. She worked in CT for a while and then went out to AZ. Somewhere along the way she and I began exchanging emails, calling and just becoming pretty good buddies. She was in the process of moving, so I went over one night and helped her pack up her truck to take some things to Goodwill. We went to dinner a couple of nights and took in a movie (Spiderman 3). I had a really nice time with her. She is a very sweet girl and a very strong Christian. I'm glad that we met and am lucky to consider her a friend :-) She even convinced me that we should try to eat rattlesnake at dinner one night. I was hesitant but thought "why not?". It wasn't bad! Definitely a new experience!

I got back to Alabama late Friday night. I hung out at my apartment washing clothes and cleaning up all day before leaving for Livingston, Tennesee to see the aforementioned Greg and Lisa over the Memorial Day weekend. We had a good time. It was good to see them. I have known Lisa for about seven or eight years now and known her hubby for about four I guess. It was good to spend time with them and see them.

So now here I am back at work and getting back to the grind. Temporarily. In three weeks I am heading to Pittsburgh for more training.

That's about all that is noteworthy going on in my life. Try to contain your excitement!

Hope all is well!

~Greg~

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

I will start off this blog by wishing ALL of the mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day. I hope and pray that today brings you much happiness and joy.

Work lately has been extraordinarily crazy. Two weeks ago my boss was on vacation and in the middle of the week, the part-time manager that was on our night shift got upset and quit. I was the only other one who knew the whole evening shift process so I had to fill in. It wouldn't have been so bad had my boss not been on vacation because we could have split the duties. Nate (the other manager who I work with a lot) and I ended up putting in some seventeen and eighteen hour days before it was all said and done. This coming week will be busy because (a) we haven't hired a replacement on nights, and (b) Nate is on vacation. So it's all up to me and my boss to do the responsibility of four managers. We'll manage just fine. My boss is the one catching the brunt of it actually because when he got back he decided to work nights until the replacement is hired so that he has the process down pat to train someone. Then you throw in the fact that next week, I will be going to Phoenix, Arizona for some training and again, that is going to leave only two managers. I tell ya, life at FedEx is FUN :-)

In church, we have been doing an extensive study of the book of Luke. Today in class we were discussing Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. The question naturally arose as to whether or not it is actually the same sermon as Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount. In reading both of these accounts, I am prone to believe that they are indeed one in the same. Yes, there are some subtle differences in each account, but the basic message is the same. I believe that Matthew and Luke were each writing to a certain segment of the population. Matthew's use of "blessed" would naturally appeal to the whole "glass is half full" personalities while Luke's "woe is he.." approach would 'appeal' to the glass half empty crowd. We all know people who are always looking on the bright side of things, just as we all know those who are more pessimistic about life and it's occurances.

When you compare the two lessons, the message is basically the same, just worded differently. You have to take into account that the Gospels were written by men. Yes, it is the inspired word of God written through these men, but they are still men. They each had their own personalities and probably interpreted Christ's sermon the way they did for good reason.

The teacher in class brought up the fact that one says "mount" and then Luke's account says that Christ came to an level plain. Mountains have level areas, and who is to say that Christ didn't come down the mountain, find the multitude at a level spot and deliver his sermon there? Technically on a plain yet still on the mountain. Who knows? It's really not all that important. What is important is that we get the message that is intended. Both are great writings and can lead to a lot of pondering the message and its application.

There's really not a lot going on. I hope to have some summer vacation plans ironed out within the next month. My dad and I still want to go to Colorado this summer. I am almost certain that we'll be able to manage it in June or July.

I hope that you are all doing well and I welcome feedback from you on this, or any other post.

~God Bless~

What makes people tick?

2007-04-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the tragedy that occured at Virginia Tech this week, even moreso than normal I am left to contemplate, what exactly makes people tick? You have all of these so called "experts" who are trying to diagnose the condition of a dead person now. Naturally, I don't know all of the facts about this guy, but to hear people say it, he has ALWAYS been a loner. To a fault even. It sounds as if people at least TRIED to be friendly and cordial to the guy, but he never accepted any of it.

From best I can tell, the guy was just plain mean and quite frankly narcissistic. Nice, even semi-nice people don't totally shun the world. It's always someone else's fault. Cho and people of his ilk never accept the responsibilities that lay in their lap.

Then within minutes of the tragedy you had your people on the far left and far right spewing their radical opinions on gun control and rights of Universities. Yes, *SOME* control of firearms is needed, and yes, colleges and universities need *SOME* sort of authority when it comes to intervention into the warning signs that were obviously present in this case, but the bottom line is that you can't hold any one person or group of people totally responsible for this except for the killer himself. In his egotism he decided to take 32 other people with him when he decided that his time was here. There is definitely a special place in Hell for people like him.

Enough of that. Next week, I will be on vacation. I am heading to Austin, Texas to see my youngest nephew and niece. I get to see Sarah play tee ball :) That will definitely be exciting. I may even take her to a Round Rock Express baseball game. They are a minor league team for the Houston Astros.

I will complete this particular post with a thought that came into my head on Tuesday as I was thinking about Virginia Tech:

"Earth has no fury which Heaven cannot heal"

God Bless!
Greg

Hmmmmmm

2007-04-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the huge delay in posts. I have been a lot busier than I had anticipated. Have had to cover for three different managers on vacation the past three weeks so blogging time has had to take a backseat to work. Dangit I hate being a responsible adult.

Anyway, back to something in my previous blog. I apologize for the vagueness in this summary, but in talking about the "good" of Christianity, one of the more outspoken aethisits, who's name totally slips my mind, said in an interview in "Aethists Today" (there's a magazine??) that "....obviously there are things to consider in Christianity. There has to be some inate goodness that is instilled in Christians in church. After Hurricane Katrina, the first ones on the scene and the last ones to leave were all associated with churches of some sort. You definitely didn't see any organized groups of Aethiests lining up to help those in need. That says a lot and it makes me ponder many things about the beliefs and lifestyles of Aethists out there."

Wow...what more CAN you say? He may have said more positive about Christianity in that one statement than most any Christian has said in the last hundred years or so. That quote, even if I did have to ab-lib it somewhat, is profound. I mean, Christ's main duty while here on Earth was to serve. And serve He did. Through His example, we know what we need to do and how we need to do it for those who are less fortunate than us.

I have been doing a lot of reading in Luke here lately. Especially a lot on Satan's temptation of Christ. Of course I am no Biblical scholar, but there are things in there that I have questions over. We have in that chapter three examples of Satan tempting Christ. The examples we have are taken when Christ is probably at His physically weakest and most vulnerable point. After forty days in the desert without food. What I wonder is this: if you go by the language used, it seems that Satan tempted Christ probably on a daily basis. My only guess is that these examples are used as encouragement to us. Satan is after us every day. He definitely seems to be breathing down our necks the hardest when we are at our weakest points, either physically or spiritually. Christ was able to fend him off simply by quoting scripture and truth to him. We can do the same because we know the truth.

One question I have though...when Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and told Him to jump off and let the angels save Him..was this literal? By that I mean, did he literally take Jesus to the top of the temple and tell Him to jump? I ask because surely someone would have noticed them up there. Was it literal or some sort of devine (bad choice of verbiage but I can't think of another way to say it) 'vision'? And then, if it was literal, you have to wonder why Christ didn't just do it to show Satan that nothing is too much to ask of God. My only guess is one of these two options: First, Jesus was trying to PROVE that you simply do not test God, or two: by doing so, it would in a way be a mis-use of His powers because He was here to serve and not really 'prove a point' to Satan who already knew His powers anyway.

Interesting tidbit: Someone told me this morning in Bible class that in its original Greek text, the root word for Satan's name actually means advesary. I cannot back this up factually, if any of you can, please leave a comment, but it does make sense.

Until next time, I hope and pray that you keep God centered in your lives!

~Greg~

The Lost

2007-02-25T16:28:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had one of those moments when all of a sudden, reality just comes and slaps you right upside the head? One of those moments where certain things are said or done that make you realize that perhaps your way of thinking, or maybe even your actions have been at best, slightly off course or at worst, simply out of line?

I'm sitting there in church this morning listening to a guest preacher. His lesson topic was about the church in general and its responsibilities to the world. He made several statements that I haven't ever really given much deep thought to, but in retrospect, he is absolutely right.

Now I realize that not everyone who reads this blog on a regular or even a semi-regular basis is a Christian, nor does everyone agree with my views on certain things. So be forewarned that this *may* be somewhat weird to ya.

One of the first things he mentioned was that when people (especially Christians, amongst themselves) start talking about evangelism, one of the most common things said is "People of the world just need to go to church." On the surface this sounds great but when you think about it, it's simply bull. Question: How are people of the world going to get to church if the people of the church don't get to the world? This one in particular hit me sort of hard because I have been talking with a co-worker who has never really ever gone to church. He has mentioned on a couple of occasions that he should really start going, and I have of course, invited him to come along. I have never really pressured him...only invited him a few times. I guess in a way, my actions and the way I live my life has shown him that I am a Christian. Maybe that in and of itself is good, but I simply can't find "the" way to get him to actually go through with what he feels he should do. Obviously SOMETHING is telling him he should go, I just can't decipher what.

The second thing mentioned has to do with the whole "feeling" of church. One of the popular things that more charisthmatic churches tend to say is that people have a "God sized hole" in their heart. Phrase it any way that you want, but when it comes down to it, it is simply touchy feely mumbo jumbo. Again, people are not going to know what voids there are in their lives if Christians aren't out there trying to show them how God can help fill those voids. In a couple of instances where I have actually been able to at least get people to come to church in the past, one of the first things I told them when we discussed Christianity in general is that all Christians are indeed hypocrites. Let me re-type that. We are ALL hypocrites. The term Christian means "Christ-like". Christ was perfect. None of us are perfect. I went on to explain to them that yes, I am a Christian, but yes, I am a sinner and we all fall short of the glory of God. I simply try my very best to keep those sins to a minimum and I try to have a great impact for the positive on the lives of people I encounter.

A popular term in many churches today, as it pertains to the lost in the world is "seekers." Again, this is a bunch of bull. Yes they are seeking something. They may not know it, but they are. But how are they going to walk that path to church if we, as Christians, don't show them the correct path and even walk with them, arm in arm along that path?

The running theme here is obviously that we, as Christians, are to go into the world and preach the Gospel to all living creatures. The "lost", the "seekers", the "wayward", whatever you want to call them are, through their actions and their lives, screaming at us to help them. Again, they may not know it but they are. We all just need to find that niche that will allow us into their lives and give us the opportunity to be heard.

I will continue more on this later this week or early next week when I have a bit more free time. More than likely it will be next week. I am off and heading home, so I will have more time to relax and research some more information. I have found some good studies, surveys and other materials that touch on this subject. I even found one comment that an atheist made in an atheist publication on the "good" of Christianity. If that doesn't get you to come back to read next week, I don't know what will :)

Hope that you are all doing well and I hope that you can give me some feedback on this. I find things of this nature very interesting and hope that you do as well. I would appreciate any honest and sincere feedback that you could give me.

As I said, I will be on vacation next week. I am heading to Texas to see my parents and even going to a Mavericks game in Dallas with a friend that I haven't seen in a while. She and I are pretty good buddies and it will be good to see her. Until then, I hope that you all have a great week and that God continues to bless you richly!!

~Greg~

Some Random Musings

2007-02-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

Man it is hard to believe that my niece is now five years old. Time certainly flies. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting there, looking at my new niece in my arms for the first time and now, here it is, five years later and she will be entering kindergarten in the fall. Of course her growing up is natural and is a fun process to watch. I called Friday to wish her a Happy Birthday and she answered the phone. She talked to me for several minutes....that was fun!

Here is something you don't hear everyday. I was at work talking with one of our drivers the other day. He has a 19 year old son who is very sick with cancer. Naturally he has his good days and bad days, but the recent reports from the doctors don't sound promising. Anyway, his son is apparently a big American Idol fan and last year really liked Chris Daughtrey. I am not a huge fan of Idol but anyway, apparently Daughtrey is on tour right now. His studio/contract people want him to play in smaller venues to start out with. My guess is that this is a business move...building up the anticipation for his BIG tour debut. Well, he is playing in Birmingham pretty soon at a venue of 400 seats. On a longshot the driver called this venue and explained his son's situation to the people who sell the tickets. They told him that they'd be in touch and see if they can get him some tee shirts and a signed photo or something. The really cool thing is this: she called them up on Wednesday and told them that she spoke with Chris personally and he told them to hold 4 tickets for the guy and his family. That is really cool to me. He apparently has not let his new found fame go to his head.

I'm still looking for vacation ideas. My initial plan to go to Colorado in May has been set back due to my having to go Phoenix, AZ for work for two weeks. This may end up being pretty fun though. It's a two week training class. A former co-worker from Texarkana is going to the same class and I am meeting up with a friend of mine in the Phoenix area and we are going to go to the Grand Canyon on the weekend. I've never been there and have always wanted to see it...so there ya go. More than likely I am going to take a week off in March and April and just end up losing a week at the end of the fiscal year (end of May). Thats the breaks in a small facility where there is more work than people can legitimately handle I guess.

Other than that, things here are going great. I am truly enjoying my time here in Alabama. Recently started playing football with some guys on Sunday afternoons on the University of Alabama campus. It's me, a co-worker, some of our employees who are students and some of their friends. Seems to be a good group of guys. After a couple of weeks of initial soreness things are going well LOL It's a fun way to meet people and get some good exercise at the same time.

Until later....I wish God's abundant blessings on each and every one of you!

Greg

Sacrifice

2007-01-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

While doing some interesting studies at church recently, we covered a very interesting topic. The topic of sacrifice came up. We all make sacrifices in our lives, some more than others of course, for various reasons. We all make sacrifices in everyday lives. They sometimes involve family, friends, work, and any number of other things.

However, one example that was stated in the Bible absolutely boggles my mind. Before you assume that it's the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross for us, that one is too easy and obvious. We all know the verse and the song that states "No greater love hath mortal man than for a friend to die." However, in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul takes even this verse so far to the extreme, that for me, what he says is so far out there, that it's simply unimaginable. In Romans 9:1-3 Paul states the following: "I tell the truth in Christ, I a not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my bretheren, my countrymen according to the flesh."

Wow...think about that for a second. Paul is saying that he would sacrifice his own soul, and go to Hell, just so that the very people who persecuted him could have the opportunity to know the glory of God. I don't know about you, but to me, that is absolutely unfathomable. To be willing to sacrifice ones own soul so that others may know Christ is an amazing statement. It definitely opens your eyes to just how awesome and glorious being with Christ can and will be. And when you think about it, Paul only really knew Christ's glory while He (the Lord) was on Earth, so Paul himself probably didn't know just how awesome Heaven is. Yes, he may have known through some sort of divine intervention and knowledge, but really...think about it. He knew just how great Christ and Heaven are and he was willing to spend an eternity in Hell just so those who didn't have his knowledge and wisdom could experience it.

Paul's love and compassion for his fellow man simply cannot be questioned. I like to think of myself as a pretty nice and loving guy. I try my very best to have love and compassion for everyone, especially those who are less fortunate than I am. But man, would I be willing to ask the Lord to send me to Hell so that someone else could know His glory? I honestly can't say that I would. I don't think that that makes me a terrible person, not by any means. It does show me that no matter how much love and compassion that we have for people, that more than likely, there is more that we can do. There are more opportunities out there. There are more souls to be led to Christ. More lives to change.

Just some food for thought. I hope and pray that you are all doing well.

~God Bless~
Greg

It's Almost Over....I think

2007-01-15T09:26:00.000-08:00

My latest round of medical procedures went well. I had the stent removed from my liver on January 2nd and then on the 8th, I had a biopsy done of my liver. Both were outpatient procedures and I went back to work the next day. After having the biopsy, I probably should have taken a day off, but I didn't. That one hurt. I was in some pretty good pain for a few days after that but it has tapered off.

I went back to the doctor last Thursday and he said the results of the biopsy looked good. Now, I have to go back in March for some more bloodwork and hopefully then, my last doctors visit and then all of this will be behind me.

Now onto fun and important things! I have three weeks worth of vacation to use before the end of May. One week in May I am going to Colorado but I really don't know what to do with the other two weeks. I am thinking about using one of the weeks and going somewhere fun and the last week, just use one and two days here and there and create myself some long weekends. We'll see. Anyway, if you have any ideas on somewhere I should go, let me know. I would prefer something relatively inexpensive, but fun. I am open to suggestions, so give me some ideas on things you have done that you enjoyed. I may even do the 4 day cruise thing if I can find someone to go with me.

Other than that, not a lot is really going on. Now that Christmas is over I am able to relax some at work, and will start to do some more in depth training and learning new things.

Man I just realized...Sarah is going to be 5 in less than a month! Seems like only yesterday I was holding this beautiful little one month old girl in my arms...time sure flies doesn't it?

Anyway, I hope that you all are doing well, staying healthy and blessed. And remember, if you get pulled over doing 53 in a 35....claim dyslexia!

~God Bless~

"Reach for the stars because even if you fail at your attempt, you may land amongst the clouds" :-)

Happy New Year

2006-12-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas. Mine was not bad. I didn't go home to Texas because I was just too tired after working so much during the first few weeks of December. I did get to talk to my family...and my youngest nephew and niece loved their presents...so all is well.

I also hope that you all have a very safe and Happy New Year. Looking back and reflecting on the past year is always a great thing to do at the start of every new year. On a personal note, this past year has definitely been one of tremendous changes in many, many ways. First of course is the move to Alabama from Texas. This was a huge "leap" for me and so far it has worked out well. I am enjoying it here in Alabama, although it is definitely not home, nor do I intend to stay here longer than a couple of years. I really do enjoy my job, my co-workers, and the general group of people that I have met. The church that I attend is definitely "different" than I am accustomed to, but that's not a bad thing if you ask me.

There have been people this year who have come in and out of my life. For one reason or another, I have lost contact with a few friends whom I used to be pretty close to. Part of it is my fault, part of it is simply the case of people growing apart, and other stuff...I simply don't know. I realize that I am not always the easiest person in the world to get along with, but really, who is? We all have our quirks and unique personalities. However, to anyone reading this that I may have offended or upset this year, or at any time, I do sincerely apologize. I am trying to do my best to make it and at times, like anyone else, I struggle.

This year also brought me my near death. Believe me when I say that THAT put me in a whole new mindset on some things. These past couple of months, I really haven't worried over some of the petty things that I used to. Life is too short to let the small things eat at you and I have done better and in the new year will continue to strive to better myself in these things. Yes, there may be moments that I stumble, and yes I will be upset with myself when I do, but the important thing in life, if you ask me, is not that you get to the mountain-top....but it's the journey along the way.

With that being said, life IS indeed a journey and I believe that it is our responsibility to sit back every now and then and enjoy the view. The most gorgeous views from a mountain are not always at its peak or summit. Sometimes they come along the way.

I hope and pray that you all have a safe, wonderful and happy new year. I go in for my next surgery on January 2nd. It's pretty routine but please, keep that (and the surgery on the 8th) in your prayers. I would appreciate it very much.

Hope to hear from you all soon!

~God Bless~
Greg

A Mixed Bag of News

2006-12-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys....sorry for the long delays in postings. Belive me when I tell you that I have been absolutely SWAMPED! I came back to work on November 28 and went right into it with full force. I am working anywhere between 70 and 90 hours a week right now.

One would think that right after Christmas season I would be able to finally relax. WRONG!! haha I went back to the doctor on Thursday and my last set of blood tests were fine. This means that on January 2, I am going in to have the stint taken out of my liver. At the same time, the doctor is going to do an EKG on me. Then, on January 8, I am going back in for a biopsy of my liver. Essentially the doctor is going to cut out a portion of my liver and run some tests on it. He is also doing some tests on my thyroid. So I am not out of the woods yet in the whole medical ordeal but things seem to be looking up. He is also going to test me for anemia at one of those two visits.

Other than that, life is getting back to normal. I was planning on going home for New Year's to see my family and my best friend and his wife who will be in town, but with the surgery scheduled for the 2nd, that may not be possible with my work schedule. We shall see.

Well, I really have no other news. I hope and pray that all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season and that you are thoroughly enjoying it. I hope that all of you also have a wonderful and safe New Year.

Please feel free to call and email me. I hope to hear from you soon!

~God Bless~
Greg

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2006-11-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hey all....first of all I hope that y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Give thanks to the Lord above for all that you have. Not just today though...each and everyday. We all have SO much to be thankful for.

I go back to work on Tuesday (Nov. 27) I am still not completely out of the woods on this whole liver ordeal. My last round of bloodwork still came back a tad bit higher than the doctor had anticipated, so I have to keep the stint in my liver for a while longer (until the bloodwork comes down). I have to go back to the lab on December 7th and then a week later, I go back to the doctor to have the results looked at. It is then that the doctor said we'd "discuss" having the stint taken out if everything lookes ok.

This will sound weird and gross but if I sit at the right angle..I can feel where the stint it. *shudders*

My 2 year old nephew Brett is totally fascinated by my surgical scars. He comes up to me at least three times a day and asks to see my "boo boos". He even lifted up my shirt in the middle of a prayer at church and said "Poor Greg. Got boo boos" LOL Kids are a blast :)

Anyway, thats all I know. Hope that you all have a wonderful day!

~God Bless~

Most of this will be old news....

2006-11-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

I know that most of this is old news to most of y'all...but I have not been in contact with EVERYONE who reads my blog so here goes.....

For about a month before Halloween, I was pretty sick. I was not holding food down (even the simplist of things) and my energy level was next to nothing. Somehow I still dredged through 50-60 hour work weeks. Finally one day I decided to go to the doctor to see what was wrong. I was pretty jaundised (sp?)and it was getting worse. When I went to the doctor (October 17th) he ran some bloodwork and was concerned that it could be TB or something like that. He did call a few days later and say that the TB profile came back negative but he wanted me to see a specialist on November 10.

I went ahead and made another appointment for October 30th with an internal medicine specialist. I went by the original doctor's office on Friday the 27th to get my bloodwork results to take to the doctor that Monday. This is where it gets interesting....

I looked at the blood results and was concerned. Some of my results were 8-11 times what the 'normal range' was. I called my sister in Birmingham and read her the results. She is a nurse. She in turn called my sister in Texarkana who is also a nurse and happened to be at work at the hospital that night. She showed the results to a surgeon there and he pretty well told her to call me and tell me to get to the ER right away. Mind you...the results he saw were 10 days old at this point. So....I went to the ER..and the nurses there were shocked at how jaundised I was. They rushed me back for some tests and lo and behold they found out that every duct of my liver was blocked by gall stones. So...that Monday I had to have a procedure done where my gall stones were removed and a stint was put in to support my liver. Two days later I had my gall bladder removed. All in all I spent a week in the hospital and I still have to wait 2 more weeks to have the stint removed.

I am probably off work until December 4th or so. On the good side, I will get to go home for Thanksgiving but on the bad side, I am going stir crazy. My dad is here helping me out because I am not really at full strength yet. I get tired pretty easily but not as easily as before the surgery. I am still pretty sore because the muscles are starting to ease themselves back to normal and I have probably lost 20 pounds or more. Ah well.

I consider myself lucky. Yes that first doctor was an idiot (both surgeons confirmed this) and I was actually within 48-72 hours of dying had I not gone to the ER. However, I survived and things are getting better. So we'll see where things go from here. I am tempted to write that first doctor and ask why he sat on the results for 10 days w/o telling me the results. Kind of sad.

Anyway, please feel free to write, call or contact me in some way. Y'all know I love to talk :) and am a people person so I am always up for good company and conversation.

My next doctor's appointment is on Thusrday this week and then I will find out exactly when the stint is going to be taken out. After that, I should be able to go back to work relatively quickly.

I hope y'all have had a less dramatic few weeks than I have :) Hope to hear from y'all soon!

~God Bless~

Update

2006-10-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey All, just wanted to give an update as to what has been going on health-wise with me. As my friend Lisa adequately put it, "You don't get sick often but man when you do, it's a doozie."

I probably over-extended myself last Friday. It was the first day that I felt pretty good in the past few days and then I went and worked a fourteen hour day. I woke up Saturday feeling like total junk. It never got any better over the weekend so on Tuesday, I worked about 6 hours (got everything loaded and the drivers dispatched plus did my paper/computer work and filing) and left. I went to the doctor after going home and showering.

The doctor's office did some bloodwork. They are pretty concerned about some of the results that turned up. My liver enzyme count was pretty high, so that prompted the doctor to make me two appointments. One with an Internal Medicine Specialst and one with a GI. They are saying it could be anything from jaundis to some form of tuburculosis. Whatever it is, I need to get it taken care of. The appointments are on October 30 and November 10.

Other than that, I haven't had any strength or energy to do anything special at all. I am just tired of being sick and especially tired of this stupid liquid diet! I want some FOOD! :-)

Anyway, I will try to keep y'all posted periodically as to what I find out. Hope y'all are doing well!

Hi

2006-10-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone...I am still here....sorta anyway. It's been a very busy and frustrating couple of weeks in some ways. In others, it's been great. Earlier this week I took two days off so that I could have a really long weekend to go home and see my family. I got to spend plenty of time with my parents, my middle sister and oldest nephew and niece. That was good and it's always great to be able to spend time with family. This was my last chance to see them before Christmas and more than likely before the first of the year. As you can imagine, life as a FedEx manager gets really crazy from November until the end of the year.

The bad part is that I have gotten really really sick. Let's just say that I have been running an almost constant fever since Tuesday and that food has not exactly been agreeing with my stomach. NO FOOD has been. Not even simple stuff like crackers and pudding. If I don't feel any better by Monday I will make a doctors appointment here in Tuscaloosa. The bad part of that is that I have to find a doctor taking new patients and one who accepts my insurance. I dunno if it's a bug that I caught or what, but this is miserable.

I need to find a doctor here anyway so that I can get some work done. It's been about six years since I had any scans/work done on my 'cancer' so it's probably about time to have those checked out. Considering that it is a genetic disorder and I have really had no problems in the past few years, I don't know what, if anything that the insurance company will say. Regardless, I need to have it done.

Other than that, life is pretty boring. Keep your fingers crossed for me as over the next month, I will be teaching at least two and possibly three week long classes to new drivers with our facility. It's a pretty challenging thing to do, and I expect to hit some rough spots, but I think I'll do alright.

Hope that everyone is doing well. Keep your comments and emails coming as I really do enjoy them.

God Bless

A Somber Prayer Request

2006-09-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

I am going to keep this one short. I may post more later but with these circumstances it hardly seems appropriate. I ask that you please keep the family of little Lane Massey in your prayers. Lane was the infant son of Tim and Stephanie Massey, friends of mine back in Texarkana. I went to church with them.

Lane was born about 5 or 6 weeks ago very premature. He was very sick from the start, but he was a fighter. He had made a lot of progress in his health. The doctors were pleasantly surprised at his little fighting spirit. Unfortunately, this week he began to have some bad intestinal problems that he simply could not fight any longer. Lane passed away Thursday afternoon. Please keep his family in your prayers as they are understandably devestated.

God Bless,
Greg

Somehow life gets even busier

2006-09-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Whew! Things are definitely getting crazier and busier around here. Just when I finish working on my several weeks long project at work (not including the side trip to Georgia for a week) things have really ramped up. We are getting busier and busier at work and to top it off, the week of the 25th I am going to Nashville, Tennessee for MORE training.

This training was actually voluntary, but it will be beneficial to both me and the facility in the end. I am going to take a class so that I can be a certified driver trainer for our facility. That way when we have a good applicant come in this Christmas, I can train them myself rather than having to send them to another city in the region for training. Plus, fewer than 10% of our managers company wide have this training, so that is just something else that I can put on my resume to make it even more appealing. :-)

I am working an average of 14 hours a day right now. I can't complain though. I am blessed. I can truly say that I love my job. I feel both challenged and fulfilled. Very few people can say that. I am really starting to learn a lot from Nate and Roy. Roy is our manager and Nate is my 'co-worker' but he is really the one who is teaching me a whole lot. He's a good guy and we are forming a pretty good friendship. He's mentioned that he doesn't go to church like he should, and never really has. I am hoping and praying for the right opportunity to come along soon to invite him to come along with me. Please keep that in your prayers...that would be awesome.

Here's a funny story..I know...this particular post is more random than most..but hey, I am a random guy. Anyway, Roy told me last week that Kara (his 2 year old daughter) was VERY upset with me. I asked why and he told me that his wife and daughter came up to the building to see "Daddy, Nate and Gweb" and "Gweb" wasn't there! He said she went to my office and called my name several times and finally asked "Daddy...where is Mistah Gweb"? Hehe...how cute..she is an adorable little girl.

There have been numerous adventures in my family lately. My 16 year old nephew wrecked and totaled his car...as most 16-17 years olds eventually do. Then, my 13 year old niece got a black eye at school. She got told on for passing a note in class, and punched the boy who told on her. He swatted her back, in the arm and she punched him back (again) so he cold-cocked her. Kids! On top of that, my brother in law interviewed for a new job. He has been at his current job for around 20-25 years but the company is in fluxuation right now so he doesn't feel that his job is really secure. I think that the new job, if offered, would be a lot less pressure for more money actually. The main concern is that it appears to be a mostly 'desk job' and he is definitely not an all day desk type. He likes to get up and get around and his current job allows him to do that due to the nature of the work. So please keep that in your prayers.

The last thing I will mention today is a little request for ideas. As you can imagine, FedEx will be incredibly busy from November to the end of December. We have already decided that no one can have the weekend after Thanksgiving off. We have several college students on our crew who have family a ways off. So what I am thinking is since I won't be able to go home for Thanksgiving, maybe I could have a small Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment for those guys especially, but for whoever decides to come over. Now I live in a one bedroom apartment, so the question is...do I have everyone bring something? Maybe go grab a ready made dinner? Make the dinner myself? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

I hope that you are all doing well. Hope to hear from ya soon!

God Bless!

Interesting Week

2006-09-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting there last Monday minding my own business when my boss calls me. There are some major problems in our Marietta, Georgia facility and I was volunteered to go there for the week. It definitely was not in my plans but hey, I am always up for a spur of the moment road trip so I got some directions and went. Tuesday through Friday I went there, helped out with some things, went out and delivered in Marietta and the surrounding area. All in all it was a pretty boring week. Work....go back to the hotel...same routine the next day. Sometimes the life of a FedEx manager is SOOOO boring

I text messaged my friend Diane who lives in Athens, GA which was about 1.5 to 2 hours away from Marietta. Diane is the one that I emailed most of you about that broke her leg in a car accident when she was 8 months pregnant. I have also sent most of you pictures of Kyle, her now (almost) 2 month old son. The premise of the message was that I was staying in Marietta this week. She figured out how close it was and we arranged for me to go meet her. She did volunteer to meet me half way, but (a) there is very little 1/2 way between Marietta and Athens and (b) I would not feel right having her travel with a 2 month old. I know how babies can be to travel with. This turned out to be a wise decision because the after-effects of Tropical Storn Ernesto dumped a ton of rain on the area that afternoon which would have made her travels even more trecherous than before.

Anyway, we met at Logan's Steakhouse in Athens in the midst of a good old fashioned drenching. We talked (and ate of course) for a little over two hours. I had a really good time seeing her, getting to talk with her and of course, holding and admiring Kyle. He is such a little doll. Even more precious than his pictures show. I got to hold him a majority of the time we were there. It was great. He was awake for maybe half an hour. Sleepy boy. He fell asleep in my arms. There is just something about holding and watching a baby that is so special. I held him for so long that I ended up propping my elbow up on the table to keep him (and my arm) steady. Some of the waitresses came by and admired him.

At about 9:45 or so we had to leave so Diane and I (and of course Kyle) said our good-byes and I headed back to Marietta. I had a really nice time getting to see Diane. We talked and talked. We hadn't gotten to do that in a long time. It was great to get to see her. Hopefully soon we'll get to get together again.

I got back to Tuscaloosa about 7 p.m. last night and worked this morning. Things should get back to the normal routine soon. I am still working on a special project here at work that will keep me out of the facility all of this coming week (thankfully a short week due to the holiday) and part of next week. After that, I should be back in the office a big majority of the time.

I hope and pray that everyone has a very safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

God Bless

BUSY BUSY BUSY

2006-08-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the long gaps in my postings these days. I am staying very busy with work these days. Fifteen hour workdays are not uncommon at all for me. I am not complaing because I am blessed to have a job that I actually love doing. Each day is different and unique in its own way.

Despite numerous attempts, no one here has been able to convince me to become an Alabama football fan. My alliance stays with Texas :-)Always has...always will.

My trip to Livingston was awesome despite Lisa's repeated attempts to kill me. LITERALLY! However, all in all I had a very great time with some great Christians whom I love very much. I totally fell in love with the area though. At one point, on the jet ski, I asked Lisa to stop in the middle of the lake. She asked if I was getting sick (this was my first time on a jet ski) but the reason I asked her to stop was because this lake was totally surrounded by the Smokies, it was very quiet, and the temperature was in the low to mid 70's. It was absolutely spectacular. So peaceful and serene and it was just awesome to sit there and soak it all in. I definitely want to go back sometime and if and when I move again, would not be opposed to moving to that area. It was definitely a picture painted with the brush of our Lord.

I still don't have a computer at home and I am in no hurry to get one. I came up to work to use the computer after church this evening. I have been asked to help host a class at my apartment on Sunday evenings. It would primarily be people in the Young Professionals Group. I told them I would but everyone would need to bring a lawn chair because I still have literally no furniture in my living room HAHA

I can honestly say that I am genuinely enjoying my move here. God has definitely blessed me in so many ways. It was a much needed and a much appreciated move.

Well I will cut this one off now. I hope and pray that all of you are doing well and that the Lord continues to bless you in each and every facet of life.

Remember: The measure of a man has nothing to do with his stature, but rather the condition of his heart!

I am alive

2006-08-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys! Sorry for such a long span between posts, but I have been so incredibly busy over the past month that I have not had time to update this thing. Couple that with the fact that I do not have (regular) access to a computer and you can see why I have not posted.

I have gotten myself moved and settled in here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The move has been a relatively easy transition for me. I am coming along pretty well in my new job. Last week and most of this one has been spent in a driving class on learning the ins and outs of driving the larger FedEx vehicles. It has been pretty easy.

I am slowly starting to make some friends both at church and at my apartment complex. Naturally at work as well. The apartment complex is really nice and I have been playing tennis and basketball with some guys who recently moved back for college. The University of Alabama is here in Tuscaloosa so there has been a huge barrage of new/returning students who are in the process of returning back to school. I am having a good time and enjoying myself.

I am still visiting a few churches, trying to find one that truly 'fits me' or at least one that fits me the most comfortably. I have been going to one that has about 600-700 members and it has a pretty good sized group of young professionals/singles. That is definitely not something I am used to. I am used to being about the only person in a "20's Singles Group" so this is a great change of pace for me. They are a very nice and spititually minded group.

I am taking off this Friday and heading up to Livingston Tennsessee to see some friends of mine who are visiting family from Connecticut. We are going skiing and jet skiing and doing whatever else happens to tickle our fancies at the time. I have already informed my boss that I am going to be useless at work on Saturday, but that is ok :-)

Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well. I hope and pray that this has reached you all in good spirits and health.

My telephone number is going to remain the same. For those of you who have it..keep it...and if you don't have it and want it...e-mail me.

God Bless!

Greg

"God has not designed us to see through each other but rather to see each other through"

Eating Crow

2006-07-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

If you refer back to the post that I made on February 18, I talked about forgiveness there. One of the harder things to do in life is to forgive others for things that they have done which hurt/upset/offended you. However, I think most of us would agree that in that situation we would want to be forgiven for our lapses in judgement and our flat out stupidity.

With that being said, the last post that I made (and have since deleted) was very inappropriate and inconsiderate. If you read it...I'm sorry. For those that didn't..don't worry about its details. All I can say to the people that it offended, is that I am sorry. I hurt someone that I love dearly and for that, I apologize. I feel that since I made the 'issue' public on my blog, then the only fair thing to do is publicly apologize.

I can only hope that in time this person (these people) forgive me for my actions and words. I also want to thank the person who I talked with last night who has nothing to do with the situation. She said something very profound (and personal) which put a lot of it into perspective.

I know that the friend that I hurt has forgiven me and loves me..but I can only hope and pray that time will heal all wounds and repair any damage that was done to our friendship by my actions.

~God Bless~

Where to begin?

2006-06-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Wow...things are really moving fast here. I went this past weekend to Tuscaloosa to meet my new boss and check out the facility there. Everything seems really good. My boss seems like a really nice and my co-workers seem pretty good too. I am certain that for the first few months, I am going to be stressed to the max, learning the ins and outs of a new job, but I am sure that I can handle it and I am sure that everything will work out fine!

With that being said, I have already gone and made a payment on an apartment. I also went and put a down payment on some good furniture that I got a good deal on. It seems that everything is falling in place for me. I still have to set up my cable there and I will probably get a computer sometime soon. I plan on getting my internet service through the cable company too. Maybe I can get a good deal on the cable/internet combo. The apartment complex hooked me up with a good deal on a brand new washer and dryer. I pay $30 a month extra for a washer and dryer, and if in two years I move out, I get to keep the washer and dryer. If after one year I decide to move, I can pay the remaining balance. Not a bad deal at all! I also still need to find a bank, etc. LOTS of little things to do when you move. It can be a headache, let me tell ya LOL

~God Bless~

Tuscaloosa here I come....

2006-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hey gang! Just wanted to fill y'all in on the goings on of the past few days. Late last week, the terminal manager from Tuscaloosa, Alabama called and wanted to speak with me about the position that I had applied for. He and I spoke for about 20 minutes, and I answered some questions that he had, and I asked him a few.

Well anyway, yesterday afternoon he called and offered me the job! This is a HUGE step up for me. It will definitely be very challenging, and very tough. The job will be a lot more stressful in some ways, but in other ways, a lot less. My duties will be focused on to things other than what I do now. Naturally, I am going to help out in any ways that I can, but my focus will be on other aspects of the business.

I have already looked a little bit and found a few different churches that I want to check out when I get moved in. My sister used to live in Tuscaloosa and has told me about a couple of good apartment complexes that are there.

I spent most of the day and night yesterday, praying about my decision, wondering if I made the right decision. I asked God to send me some sort of signal, that things are going to be alright with my choice. Ask and ye shall receive LOL I got to work this morning and things had gone well yesterday (I was off for jury duty). I was happy for that...BUT.....two people called in sick and one guy just flat didn't show up. I tell ya, life is more difficult when you are depending on people to get up at 4:00 a.m. and come to work for low(er) wages. It always seems to happen in bunches. In my next job I won't have nearly as much to do with the people that come in at 4:00 a.m.

I tell ya, the company will flat out tell ya, your facility's day is determind by the morning load crew. When the company doesn't pay that crew very well, the crew a lot of times doesn't care how their attendance issues hinder the rest of the day for countless other people. Definiely not an aspect of the job I am gonna miss LOL

Anyway, that's my exciting news. I will fill y'all in on details (such as address, phone number changes,etc) as soon as I know.

God Bless!

Forgiveness

2006-06-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

John 8:34-36 says "Truly, truly I say unto you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the Son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

I was discussing the verses above with a friend of mine the other day. This guy is pretty well an Athiest, but reads the Bible because it's "a very interesting book". Anyway, he asked me how in the first part, it says that one who sins is a slave of sin, yet in the very next part, it says that the Son shall make you free.

A little bit of investigation reveals exactly what this means. First of all, if you look, the first part of the verse is used in present tense. Now I don't claim to be a Biblical scholar by any means..I am just a simple man doing the best I can. However, I have noticed that many times, the Bible uses that kind of phraseology, or present tense terms when it comes to sins consequences. Basically what it is saying is that if you commit sin (repeatedly) yes, you are indeed a slave to that sin. It is only through the Son, or Jesus of course, that the sin can be driven out of the house and we, made free.

Just an interesting thing that happened recently that I thought I would pass along.

Anyway...I recently updated my resume and began the process of looking for jobs elsewhere within FedEx. There are a few positions that I am interested in applying for. So far, I have applied in the following places, via the FedEx Database: Nashville, TN; Tuscallosa, AL; Ft. Worth, TX; and Columbia, SC; I would definitely prefer to stay somewhere in Texas or the southeastern part of the United States. There are few places that I am totally opposed to going to, but I definitely have my druthers on where I would like to go.

There is really not a lot of interesting things going on in my life. I emailed most of you about my friend Diane. Everything with her and the baby appears to be good. She's definitely going to have a tough road ahead of her being pretty immobile when Kyle is born, but she'll be fine I am certain. Just keep her in your prayers.

I am in the process of planning another vacation for the late summer or early fall. Right now, it looks like I will be going to Colorado the week of Labor Day. I have never seen the Rockies, so I figured..why not? I also have plans in late July (28&29) to go to a Texas Rangers game with a group of friends in Dallas. That'll be an all weekend thing. We usually do that about twice a year and have a blast. Last year was miserable though. LOL It was so stinking hot, I had worked all morning and then driven to Dallas, so by game time I was already exhausted and I was also coming off of a bad breakup, so I wasn't in the best of moods to begin with. Anyway, this year, I have already requested the Saturday off. That way I can drive to Dallas on Friday when I get off and will get to spend more time with the group and get plenty of rest.

That's all I have planned for now anyway. Luckily I have 18 days of vacation this year, so hit me up with some ideas on where to spend another week in the early part of next year. I am always looking for something fun and exciting to do, so please be thinking of some ideas!

Until next time...stay cool and God bless!

I hope this makes sense LOL

2006-06-04T11:38:00.001-07:00

Whether we realize it or not, a great majority of us has heard the music "The Flight of the Bumblebee". If you're not sure if you have or not, look for it online. It's a very common piece. I remember it mostly from watching cartoons when I was little.

I was in the mall the other day, and some pieces of art caught my attention. There was a display of local college and high school students' art work. Not having any artistic abilities, I appreciated the work very much. Most of it was pretty cut and dry as to what was represented in the paintings, but there was a group of about five paintings that were inteded to be abstract art, or open to the viewers' interpretations. This kind of art has always been unique to me, because it lets your mind and imagination run free with what you are viewing.

Now I am sure that you are wondering what the Flight of the Bumblebee has to do with abstract art. Well, as some of you know, I am (not to sound arrogant) a somewhat talented writer. About every couple of years or so, I take one of those weekend writing classes that are designed to help people with their writing techniques. I do this to keep up with any new ideas or theologies that are coming in the world of literature. Yes I am a nerd, I realize this.

Well last year, (I think it was last April) I took one of those classes. The teacher of the class went on and on about "abstract writing", which is, the story, and its purpose is left open to the interpretation of the reader. I had just been to a friend's kids band concert and they played "The Flight of the Bumblebee". The concert, coupled with the assignment in class to write an abstract piece got me to thinking...so I wrote about something that was very near and dear to my heart. The piece definitely has a special meaning to me in my personal life, but the funny thing is, when copies were passed out to the class, many different interpretations of it came forth. It was quite interesting, and I guess since most people gathered something different from it, then the mission was accomplished. I know a few of my regular blog readers may "get it" but most probably won't. Anyway, here is the piece for you, and if you want, comment or email me back and tell me what you think.

The Flight of the Firefly

With summer approaching and spring already in its full glory, I can't help but to remember those warm nights when I was a child. Several nights a week, I, along with a couple of my friends, would go over the church lot across the street. Behind this lot was a thick set of trees, which made the landscape very very dark. The reasons we went over there were plenty. Sometimes we would play hide and seek, sometimes just play chase, but the times I remember most vividly were when we took our empty jars over there and tried to see who could catch the most fireflies. Sometimes we would see who would catch the most orange, green or whatever color. But usually we just wanted to see who could catch the most...period.

As anyone who has ever chased a firefly can tell you, it is not always the easiest task to catch them. You can also not get so caught up in chasing one in particular. First, these little things don't want to be, nor were they intended to be caught. Second, if you focus all of your attention on one in particular, then many others will fly right by you and you will miss the opprortunity to catch them. The old adage, if you blink, you'll miss it, definitely rings true in these situations.

Then you have that rare occasion where you may just be sitting there, minding your own business and one just happens to come right to you. Ironically this usually happens when you aren't even chasing fireflies at all. I remember one time as a kid, sitting there with my friend, back against the big oak tree at dusk, just talking. All of a sudden, this firefly just started flying around in front of us. This was the most odd firefly that either of us had ever seen. It's "flash" seemed to be an off-blue color. Definitely not a typical glow of a firefly. We watched that thing for a good fifteen minutes it seemed. Finally, it came, landed on my friend's shoulder, stayed there for a moment, and flew away again.

Life, and its events are very similar to this experience. Sometimes when you really don't expect anything interesting to happen, the most beautiful things just happen. Totally unexpected, totally out of nowhere. It is in moments like this, that you learn to truly treasure life and its occurances. You can be walking along, in your daily routine and grind, and all of a sudden, the most beautiful firefly just comes and totally grabs your attention. You can chase this firefly with all of your might, but it's never going to come to you unless you stop, and divert your focus elsewhere. Chasing these kinds of moments is almost always futile. They have to happen naturally. While they are occuring, you must appreciate them for their delicacy and their beauty. They may be there but for a fleeting moment, but in that moment, we are given just a little slice of Heaven. When that moment has passed, the best we can hope and pray for is more moments just like that.

*END*

Okay, as I said, I got plenty of different replies as to what people thought the story meant. The teacher gave the story all sorts of praise, but I really didn't see it as a very good piece of writing. It was definitely not thought out, but came straight from my feelings. I guess some of the better writings are that way. I really don't know. Like I said, it meant many things to the many people in that class, so it may mean something totally new and unique to you. We all have those "firefly" moments that just mean a lot to us and stay in our minds and hearts. I know that I have a lot of those moments that are burned into my memory. This story does mean something very special to me though. Maybe one day, I will reveal what its meaning is to me....but until then...tell me what it means to YOU! :-)

Nothing too exciting....

2006-05-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally tackled the 'problem' which I eluded to in my last post. Did not have the outcome which I desired, however, the problem IS solved. Thanks to everyone who called/wrote offering to help. This was simply something that I had to take care of myself. Now that it is settled and behind me...time to move on to the next problem which attacks me LOL

Speaking of which....I am NOT looking forward to this weekend. I have Saturday off to go down to a little town near Victoria, Texas to attend my brother's wedding reception. He and his girlfriend/wife, whatever she is NOW plan(ned) to just run to the JP and get married and then this weekend her family is having a wedding reception. I am going because it's the right thing to do. I love my brother and I truly do like Amy and her two kids. They are great. However, there are HUGE religious differences and w/o offending anyone, I am praying that there is not any, muchless a huge plethora of alcohol at the reception. I am not totally against having alcohol in moderation, but I simply do not like being around it...period. I have already told my family that if it gets crazy...I am leaving. Gotta stand up for what you believe in and that is simply something that I have strong feelings about.

On a positive note however, I have preliminary plans to go to a Rangers game later this summer...possibly more. My buddy Rebecca and I may spend a weekend together just having fun at Hurricane Harbor (a HUGE water park) and then go to a Rangers game the next day. We'll see. She is job huntin now. Keep that in your prayers for her :) She has been one of my very best friends over the years.

I'll try to keep y'all posted on my goings on. Work has just kept me swamped lately due in large part to the idiocy and total incompatencies of my boss. I pray for the strength everyday to survive whatever tests He gives me LOL

Y'all please continue to give me feedback on my postings and ideas on how to spruce this up!

Power of Prayer

2006-05-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

"Do not be anxious then, saying 'What shall we eat', or 'What shall we drink' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves'? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" Matthew 6:31-33 I Thessalonians 5:17 also tells us to "pray without ceasing"

These verses have been on my mind a lot here lately. Mainly because in the not so distant future, I will be faced with some choices that are going to be life changing and life shaping. Professionally speaking, I am still working on preparing myself for a transfer. Exactly where to is still up in the air and may not be shown to me for several months yet. I know that no matter where it is I go, that it will be a difficult challenge but definitely not one that I will be unable to handle. I have been praying that God's will be done and that in His time, He will reveal His plans to me. As is only natural, the hardest part of this phrase is the "in His time" part. I sometimes get frustrated with the uncertainty but I realize that I can't worry over things which I cannot change. Whatever is meant to happen will happen as long as I keep my mind open and God's will first in my heart.

On the personal level, I am faced with several decisions that I need to make. Life is treating me very well. I am content and happy with the way my life is going and I thoroughly enjoy my life. Naturally there are certain aspects which could be better and I am working on those things. Those that know me well know that at times, I can be a very difficult person to "crack". By that, I mean I tend to keep my problems to myself. It's not out of spite, or anger, or stubborness, but more related to the fact that I don't want to bother any other people with my problems. I tend to get the idea in my head that my problems are small, and wouldn't mean anything to anyone anyway.

I know that with my friends and family that is not really true, but I guess it's simply a combonation of my personality and genetics. Some of my family is most definitely the same way. There is one big issue that I have kept bottled up inside of me for a very long time. It's something that I should have taken care of long ago and I have finally (almost lol) decided that I am going to take care of this conflict in my life. It will not be an easy task, but I know that with God's help, this problem will be solved. Whatever the result is, I know that it will be His will because of my prayers. I have been praying that He give me the strength to cope with this, and I believe that I am finally ready to hit it head on.

Please keep the situation in your prayers. It will be a tough task but I will come through regardless of the outcome.

Update: My co-worker's surgery went well and the doctor let her go home yesterday. I visited her in the hospital and she was in good spirits (mainly because of the morphene lol). She should be back at work in about 6 weeks and back to her goofy, fun self.

Also, Rebecca's surgery was a success and she is doing better. I plan to call her this weekend and give her a hard time, just like old times. Thank you all for your prayers concerning these two ladies. It is much appreciated!

Another Lesson in Life

2006-05-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

"Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16

How reassuring is that? No matter what we do, or how badly we mess up in life, God is always there for us..in all of His eternal mercy and grace. This is kind of like the old saying that "if you are not with God...you moved." That statement is so very true. God never leaves us, nor does He ever abandon us. Even (as stated in Revolation 2:4) when we leave our first love, which is God of course, He is always with us no matter what.

I got to thinking about these verses recently. It was about this time a year ago that I went through some very hard things. Without getting into too much detail, I made some very regrettable mistakes, which were in large part due to not having my eyes, or my heart set on the Lord, my first love. As many of my friends can attest to, I was simply not myself afterwards. It was one of those things that once all was said and done, I knew the mistakes I had made were wrong, and I continually beat myself up over.

It was reading these verses several months later that finally made me realize that God had never left me. He forgave me once I asked. I never truly thought that He had left me at all....it was more of a case that I didn't see how He would forgive me because I simply could not forgive myself. These verses, made me realize that His mercy was most definitely given to me in my strongest time of need. He never leaves us or abandons us.

It's like the poem "Footprints". There are two sets of footprints along the way and then all of a sudden only one. That one set starts where He takes us on His back and carries us through our trials and tribulations. His grace most definitely reaches us in our worst times. He is such a loving and forgiving God. He offers us forgiveness which we most definitely do not deserve, muchless have we earned.

We all have the opportunity to serve such a loving and caring God. We need to take the time to cherish the thought, and the opportunity. Thank God everyday for the blessings that you receive. There are so many blessings that we see, yet so many more that we simply do not see or think about. It is through His grace that we can persevere and rebound in our greatest times of need.

I will end this with another prayer request. First of all, my co-worker is going in for surgery tomorrow. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Also, pray for her doctors. Pray that they can remove the cancer that has invaded her body.

Another prayer request: My friend Rebecca is going in for some surgery today. She will be home-bound for probably three weeks. She is a very dear friend of mine whom I love very much. She is a great Christian gal. Please keep her in your prayers as well.

God Bless you all!
Greg

Here's Your Chance LOL

2006-05-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Ok...according to one regular reader of my blog, "Talking about work is boring", so apparently I have been boring people silly with certain aspects of my postings. So here is your chance....give me some good, valid ideas on what to post to my blog and I will consider it. I live a pretty boring life. I am not exactly surrounded by people my age, nor am I a socialite. I don't drink so that definitely takes out a lot of the options that I have around here, so work is a big, and important part of my life. I have tried to keep a good mix of work and personal stuff, but apparently I have failed you LOL

So.....email me with some ideas on what to write about. Post comments. Like I have said, I want to make my blog at least somewhat interesting. Otherwise there is no point in keeping it active. I have an idea that I am working on for a post...but am unsure if I will write it or not. In the meantime, let's get some suggestions rolling.

One Obstacle Down

2006-05-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day at work. It started out like it was going to be an absolutely miserable day but things ended up working out just fine.

My regional boss, Ed, was coming in today and lo and behold, I have one guy call in sick and another call (15 minutes prior to work) saying he was having car problems. However, I simply called my two back-up guys and worked things that way. Although it wasn't my strongest crew, nor the crew I would like to have with Ed here, things worked out well anyway. We were able to get the drivers out just a few minutes later than normal.

In speaking with Ed, I told him that any feedback that he could give me would be much appreciated. I told him that I wanted to have what the company considers a great facility. His reply kind of took my by surprise in a way. He said "Don't worry man. You're running a tight ship here and things are great. You're putting too much pressure on yourself. People ARE noticing what a great job you're doing." This came after Adrian told me that I was complimented on the regional conference call earlier this week. I am not the type who constantly needs or desires positive feedback, but it does feel good to know that your hard work and efforts are appreciated and taken note of......

Which leads me to the title of this post. With Ed being here, observing my management style and my people's reactions to it...he was able to "certify" me. That simply means that I am meeting or exceeding company goals in 90% of our criteria. What this certification does is start the process for me to transfer out. I have a few more things to do, and some more training to do, but this is by far the biggest and most stressful part and I passed with flying colors. Ed is a really cool guy. If you are doing a great job he will let you know. However if you are suckin up the joint, he'll tell ya too. I have been on both ends of it. It's definitely better to be on the good end of things and stay there!

So with any luck, in a few weeks I will start some of my new training. There are two primary areas I will be focusing on. Yes, it will lead to stressful and very long and tiring days, but it will prepare me for the promotion.

I leave you today with a good proverb which Ed gave me: "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't; you're absolutely right"

Life is a race

2006-05-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

"...lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1

Now I don't know if this verse in the past has totally been overlooked by me or if the meaning just now hit me, but over the past day or so, this verse has really been weighing on my heart. Maybe it's just a coincidence of some of life's circumstances.

Sometimes life's race is not simply a run around the track. Sometimes you have to run hurdles. The past few days some hurdles have been thrown up that I simply wasn't expecting. A couple of incidents with friends have frustrated me; yet it's not something that I will be unable to handle. I just need to take a step back...take a deep breath and let whatever God's will is..happen. With one friend in particular, it seems that nothing I do is right. Maybe it's just my perception, but that's how it seems. Try to do things one way, like is requested, and this friend gets irritated. However, I love this friend dearly and will work things out. With another friend, it just seems that personalities and schedules are sorta conflicting at the moment. My work schedule leaves little time for a social life, which is part of the reason that I am so looking forward to a transfer/promotion at work. I will work a more normal schedule.

On the positive side...in a couple of weeks I am possibly going to Memphis to visit some friends of mine. I have several sets of friends there actually. Kara and Derek just had a baby boy! It is their first baby and I need to go get as much spoiling in as possible. I am also planning on visiting another couple (and their kids) that used to live here in Texarkana. There may be other plans in the works for Memphis...we'll see.

I will close this out with a prayer request. A co-worker of mine named Charkeitha is currently in the hospital facing surgery for what I will only describe as 'female problems'. She is a really sweet gal. She's married with 3 kids. I went to the hospital to visit her and talked with her and the family. Lord willing she will be ok. We should know more tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers.

Perspective

2006-04-29T17:06:00.000-07:00

As I was finishing up at work this morning, I went into Kim's office. Kim used to be my direct supervisor until she and I were both simultaniously promoted. I went into her old position.

Little bit of a back story here. Natrually, when you work with someone, day in, day out, you are going to forge a relationship. Kim and I have a unique relationship. She was my boss from September of 2001 until June of 2005, so naturally, we know each other well, and care about one another a lot. She is a very special lady.

Back to the story. Kim has been having a very rough time lately. She is going through a divorce. She has 3 children, the oldest of which is currently a senior in high school. Kim is only 35 years old so naturally, she had her children at a young age. More on this in a minute.

Anyway, I went into her office just to chat and see how she is doing. Like I said, she and I have a special relationship and to an extent, we can read eachother up there better than anyone else can. We can tell when the other one is in a bad mood or has something on their mind. Today was one of those days that I could tell Kim was thinking about something. During work, while everyone was there, I just walked up and gave her a hug. I told her I love her and she just smiled at me.

After the sort, and after I finished up all of my work, I went into her office just to chat. I asked how she was and she said she was ok. She asked about my dating life, which is non-existant. (LOL)We got to talking about her, and she said that after her divorce, she never wants to get married again. She said something very striking to me...she said that she was entirely too young when she got married and she now realizes that she was never truly in love. She said as sad as it sounds, that it is true. She said that she felt that she and her husband got married for the wrong reasons and she knows that he was never truly in love either.

I've been thinking about this all day. It's really sad that she said that. I am NOT knocking her. It just got me to thinking.

Usually, I am pretty care free and laid back. There is the occasional moment or day that I feel lonely and desire for companionship. However for the most part, I am very content with my life and my singleness. As I told Kim when she asked, I guess I have not gotten married because God's timing for that to happen just hasn't happened yet. If and when I find the girl that God intends for me to marry, then I will know it.

Kim's experience just solidified that for me. I would rather be single and happy than married and miserable. Too many times, we get wrapped up in the great things that come with a relationship. Relationships are indeed great and I treasure the ones that I have. However, they do require work and dedication. We can't go into them with our eyes closed.

It's ironic that this conversation happened today. Recently, despite "hiding" my feelings, I have been in a funk about being single. I have kinda moped around and felt sorta sorry for myself a little. No more! The conversation that we had, reminded me of just how blessed I am in life. Yes, we all have our battles, but God has blessed me in SO many ways, that I have no right to even begin to feel sorry for myself. I have a lot of great Christian family and friends who love me very much, and of course, who I love tremendously. Life has been good to me and I appreciate that.

To all of my friends who read this regularly, thank you for being a part of my life. I love and appreciate you all very much. I am blessed to have you in my life and am always here for each and every one of you. In your own ways, each of you has impacted my life in your own unique way, and helped to shape who I am, and who I will become. You mean the world to me.

Life is fixin to get very interesting

2006-04-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Sup y'all? Not a whole lot of new 'news' here to report. Just some interesting stuff at work that is going on and will be going on. Let me elaborate.....

First of all, Adrian, my terminal manager informed me on Thursday that in May, I will be training Julius, our night shift manager to do my job, for about a week. After that, I will be spending an entire week working the night shift, learning all of the administrative stuff (since I already know the "physical part" of the night shift work, the office work is all I don't know) that goes along with that aspect of our business. THEN....probably in early June, I will be spending a week with Greg Lang, who is the full time manager who deals with the delivery aspect of things, learning HIS job. All of this is so that I can have some legitimate experience so that Adrian, in his words, can "get you promoted, out of here and on your way to bigger and better things."

Then, on Friday, I was speaking with my regional manager, he tells me that he is going to be here the first week of May so that he can observe my management style, and get me certified on some things, which will allow me to get ready to transfer out. He told me "Greg, you're doing a fantastic job, don't doubt that.That made me feel good.

Both Adrian and my regional boss (Ed) know that I want to get transferred by the first of the year at the very latest, so it looks like they are confident enough in my abilities to help me along in that process. Things seem to be looking up!

Now...here's the question...though a lot of it depends on exactly where there are openings...where do I want to go? Part of me wants to stay in Texas and try to go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, or Irving. Maybe even Austin to be closer to my nephew and niece there, who I don't get to see enough of. There are several other good facilities in Texas that I would definitely consider. Outside of Texas....anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Tennessee, especially eastern parts of it. Where will I end up? Who knows? But for now...the pendelum seems to be swinging toward me getting out of Texarkana sooner rather than later :)

Returned From NYC

2006-04-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

I got in yesterday from my trip to New York City and lemme tell ya...I was exhausted. New York City was awesome! So much to do....never a lapse in finding something to do if you want to.

My trip started out stangely. My dad dropped me off at the airport in Little Rock and as I was checking my bags in at the curb, security was in an argument with a man about his leaving his car unattended. Security was trying to explain to him that he can't leave his car there (in the drop off zone) and the man insisted that a friend was watching it, and his car. The security officer told him, that every car had to be atteneded, so this idiot goes off and starts screaming in Arabic. Lovely. NOT smart to get mad and scream in Arabic at an airport of all places. That may not be politically correct...but we all know it's true.

Then I went onto Albany via Chicago. That leg of the trip was uneventful. Dustin picked me up in Albany and gave me a brief tour of the city. It is much more beautiful than I thought it would be. We went on to his house, had dinner with his wife and stayed up pretty late talking and watching movies. Monday we drove around Albany some more after going to a state park in the mountains. At the state park we walked trails (absolutely gorgeous views) and grilled hot dogs. In Albany we went and saw the state capitol, the downtown area, etc. I was really pleased at how clean the area is. Most big cities are dirty in the downtown areas, but that is not the case with Albany.

Tuesday started with us getting up at 4:30am to catch the 5:10 train to New York City. We both caught a few minutes of sleep on the train but not much. The train let us off right at Madison Square Garden in NYC. We immediately went walking and hit Times Square. TV does Times Square no justice. It is SO big and SO busy. We did so much that I don't remember what order we did things in. Then we went to Rockefeller Center. And this huge Catholic Church arcross from Rockefller Center. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it but it is a magnificant structure and the inside of it is gorgeous. I got some good pictures of it.I know on Tuesday we visited Ground Zero which was very somber. There are signs all around the perimeter telling the story of 9/11. Very sad indeed. A list of all of the victims who passed away is also present. Just trying to read the names and soak them all in is an extremely daunting and sad task. You can't get a really good picture of the area where the Towers stood, but you can see this big, gaping hole in the ground and the landscape and know what happened. After that, we grabbed a bite to eat in Manhatten (VERY pricey) and made our way to our hotel in New Jersey to get a couple of hours rest before heading back into the city. That evening we went to Times Square again (I wanted to see it at night) and then to the Empire State Building. I wanted to go to the top (Observation deck) but there was a 2-2.5 hour wait. It just wasn't THAT important to me. If I was in NYC for a week...yeah I would have done it...but with only 2 days, that would have taken a lot of my time. We milled aound in NYC for a while, just looking, etc until we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we headed into NYC and went into Central Park. It's amazing. We were on the outter edges of the park and still, a lot of the hustle and bustle of the city were drowned out. We also visited the Statue of Liberty. Again, there was about a 2 hour wait for the ferry, and we didn't have that kind of time before the ball game. The part of the trip that made me the most upset was the fact that my camera quit working at the Staue. I got one decent shot of the Statue from land and then, my camera died. I was pretty mad about that. Dustin got some good pics and said he'd send me some...but it's just not the same. After that we hopped on a subway and headed to Yankees Stadium where we had tickets for an afternoon game. THAT got off to a bad start when security made us leave the stadium area and check in our bags (we were carrying backpacks) at a bowling alley across the street. Naturally this bowling alley charged $5 just to put a bag in a closet. Robbery I tell ya! Seriously though, I overheard someone say that this bowling alley made over $150,000 last baseball season just having bags checked in. GOTTA be some sort of agreement with the Yankees. There is NO indication on the tickets that wouldn't be let in. Both of our bags were small enough to fit under our seats. Anyway, after the Yankees game we went into the Financial District, walked around a bit, ate some dinner, and went back to the vicinity of Penn Station where we would catch our bus back to Albany. We watched in amazement, along with about 100 other people, as this artist took 2 pans of spray paint, a ruler and a pan lid and did a PERFECT painting of the NYC skyline. It was amazing. All I could say was wow. This guy was awesome. It was spectacular.

Then we headed to the bus terminal for our ride back into Albany. That was uneventful except for the girl sitting in front of us talking on her cell phone for 2 hours solid while everyone else tried to get some sleep. Ah well. We got back to Albany and stayed up talking with Dustin's wife for a while before going to sleep. Got up the next morning...went to the airport and left. I just got my luggage today though. Somehow it got lost either in Albany, Chicago, St. Louis or Little Rock. No telling LOL

All in all I had a wonderful time. I loved visiting Dustin and Laura, definitely loved NYC. I plan to go back up there sometime but will definitely spend more time there. Two days simply isn't enough. I will try to work it out so that I can go up there in the fall, to see Dustin and Laura, to see the leaves changing colors and to spend more than 2 days in the City. I had a spectacular time and look forward to going again.

I will try to post some pics soon. I dunno how to do it, but I will try. I just got my digital camera and am still learning its featuers. Stay tuned!

One more week.....

2006-04-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

One more week (actually 6 days but who's counting?) until I am actually in Albany, New York. Most of our plans are getting more and more set in stone. There are places that Dustin and I both want to go, so we'll get as much of that done as possible. I was doing some research and it costs either $14 or $18 to go to the top of the Empire State Building and look out from the observation deck. I am sure that it is a spectacular view...but is it worth that kind of money? I dunno. When it is all said and done, it's still just looking out the window of a big, tall building. Will I go? We'll see.

Definitely want to go see the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and Central Park. Time Square is of course a natural. If any of you have been to NYC and have other suggestions, let me know. I may even try to take in a museum or two. Most of it just depends on time, and walking distance. I am getting more and more excited.

Tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day. I have to do my regular duties at work, and then it is off to the college with my regional HR rep for a job fair. So I will be pretty packed in until 1 or 2p.m. Add to that the fact that due to the job fair, I have to bail on a conference call with the Regional Director of Operations, and it's just gonna be a lovely day LOL. Adrian, my direct supervisor suggested that after the job fair I come back to work at 430p.m. for the second conference call but I told him no way. The thing is, I am considered part-time. I am paid salary, based on a 30 hour work week (or less). If I do that, then that will have me at about 13 hours tomorrow. I told him I would do it if he covers me on Saturday since I will be WAY over my hours by then, he said no...so I said no too. Simple as that. I put in far more hours than I am "paid for" as it is...and to add to my already stretched work load would be unfair. So, they will just have to gimme a run down later.

By the way, the lip is healing up very nicely. I still have a small knot/swelling on my upper lip but it's nothing major and it is going down in size. Thanks to all of ya who called and checked on me. Thanks for all of the jokes on my inability to say certain words too. That was MUCH appreciated :) LOL It's all good though.

I'll leave ya with a good one today. Go read the 23rd Psalm. I sometimes read it during frustrating times, and it reminds me of who is actually in charge and leading my path :)

WHAT A DAY!

2006-03-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

LOL So much for a relaxing birthday....and so much for a relaxing Sunday. Man talk about a day!

It all started out innocently...had church services this morning...then I went to lunch with my dad (a birthday tradition). I came home, watched a little of the NCAA basketball tournament and then went to play football.

We were about an hour into football when it happened...the previous possesion I had scored on a 75 yard play. Then we went on defense (I think...I truly do not remember lol)All I remember is the ball being thrown in my general direction...then a huge crash...then I woke up with 3 or 4 guys standing over me and I was in a pool of my own blood. I (apparently) colided going full speed with another guy. His head, elbow...something...caught me square in the face.

So now I have a split lip and am trying my best to keep gauze and ointment on it to prevent the pain from getting worse. It actually didn't hurt a lot at first. I was able to clean myself up with a water hose and drive myself home. It was after an hour or so that the pain set in.

It's a pretty nasty cut. My sister (a nurse) looked at it. She didn't think it needed stitches...and anyway...your mouth is about the worst place to get stitches anyway. My nephew and niece are getting a kick out of my having a big gauze pad over my mouth LOL

The day did end on a good note though :-) Sarah (my 4 year old niece) called to wish me a happy birthday. That was great. I love hearing her voice everytime she calls me. THats MY girl :-)

Anyway, I hope that you all had a great day. Less than 2 weeks til I invade New York!

Three Weeks and Counting

2006-03-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a week! Life has gotten crazy around here. My sister, brother in law, and nephew and niece came to visit us this week. I had a really good time. I always enjoy spending time with them and getting to sit and talk with them. Of course I love getting to play with Sarah and Brett. They are precious. We played in the back yard, played in the house, watched Barney (of course hehe) and all in all had a really good time. With them being here, naturally my sister that lives here and her two kids (also a nephew and niece) were here more than usual. It's always fun to have most of the family together. Add to that the fact that my brother came to town and we had us a little family reunion goin on. It was a good time..I just wish our oldest sister would have been able to come. I got very little sleep but it was still a good time.

Work has been VERY crazy over the past week and a half. One of my top guys was severely injured in a car wreck on his way to work last Saturday. Keep him in your prayers. He basically destroyed his ankle...had to have it re-set. So he is going to be out of action for about 6-8 weeks before he can start rehab. He's a good worker so as far as I am concerned..he's got a job when he comes back. Then I had to fire a guy for his attendance issues so I went from being overstaffed to being understaffed. LOL Such is the crazy life at FedEx. So naturally my 'numbers' have been sub-par...but you can't explain that to upper management...they expect new people to perform as just as good a level as experienced people..ah well...we managed to pull out a decent week and after a terrible Thursday...had an excellent day on Friday...so things are lookin up! I only work three days this week so next weekend will be a much needed break.

Now, to the title of this post. Three weeks from today, I will be arriving in New York for my vacation. I am really excited to be seeing Dustin, Laura and later in the week Greg and Lisa. This vacation is LONG overdue. I haven't had more than 4 days off in a row in over 3 years. I am going to enjoy this vacation and not even worry about work. I am going to have myself TOTALLY overstaffed just in case anything happens while I am gone. I want the people running my shift to have PLENTY of back-up people to call upon if anyone gets sick, quits, gets fired, etc. I still haven't decided what to do the last 4 days of my vacation yet. Hit me up with some suggestions. Maybe I'll go to Dallas and see an old buddy whom I still owe a dinner to for college graduation. Everytime we get something planned...this punk backs out though. You know who you are....PUNK LOL

Anyway...I hope that everyone is doing well and that the Lord has blessed you with good health and spirits.

Philippians 4:7 "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"

Yes I am still alive....sorta

2006-03-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hey guys...sorry for the delay in postings...I have been pretty out of it lately. Work this week (thus far...2 days to go lol) has been pretty stressful. We've been a lot busier than anticipated, one of our other managers is on vacation which means we all have to try our best to pick up the slack. No biggie..just don't wanna hear anything about me working too many hours from my boss when he keeps giving me more to do.

This is gonna be a short post. I am definitely looking forward to my vacation. I need a break from work and life in general. I am facing some tough stuff in my personal life so please keep me in your prayers. Also, Lord willing, I will be looking to transfer out of Texarkana by mid to late summer, so if you could, please keep that situation on the back of your minds and in your prayers.

As my vacation gets closer I will try to post more. Right now, there is just nothing interesting to speak of going on.

Vacation Plans

2006-02-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

My vacation is the week of April 10 and plans are coming together! I decided that I was gonna go somewhere that I have never been before so.....I am flying up to Albany, New York to spend some time with my best friend and his wife.

Dustin and I are going to hang out in Albany for a day or so before treking down to New York City for a day or so! I have never been to NYC and I am very excited about it. The best and coolest part of it is that I was able to secure us two tickets to a New York Yankees game at Yankee Stadium!! There is SO much that I want to do in New York City! I want to go to the Metropolitan Museum, Time Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Ground Zero. If time allows, I want to go to the Fox News Studio early in the morning and try to get on tv and wave to my mom :-) She LOVES Fox and Friends that is on every morning.

Another really cool thing is that my friends from Connecticut, Greg and Lisa have offered to let us stay with them (they are only 45 minutes from the city, and if we stay overnite this would save Dustin and I the expense of a hotel room) and they offered to take us up in their plane and take an arial tour of the city. That would be SO awesome.

As y'all can see, I am really excited about this trip. I have to use my vacation by the end of May so I figured this was as good a time as any. Once June rolls around I get three more weeks of vacation so there is no telling where else I will go.

Ok, I am sure that you are thoroughly bored with my blog at this point so I will close by saying Happy Birthday to three of my buddies that have birthdays coming up this week:

Bre-Happy 22nd Birthday girl..hope that it's a good one and that you get to see Ava soon!

Amy K.- Keep your chin up and keep smiling...it will all get better and I know you will have a great birthday!

Phil- P=Diddy! Have a great one man and try not to get yourself arrested for any random acts of silliness that you may or may not commit while being somewhat.....inebriated :) LOL J/K man...looking forward to seeing you Easter Weekend!

One of the Hardest Things to Do in Life...

2006-02-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest things to do in life is also one of our most important duties as a Christian. Of course no one ever said that being a Christian would be easy, but it's definitely a difficult journey to partake in. Anyway, one of the most difficult things to do as a person, is forgive. It's extremely difficult to forgive another person in many cases. It's human nature to 'remember' and to 'hold grudges' and for some, even the process of 'getting even' with someone who has wronged them, be it intentionally or not.

We have all been in situations where we messed up and somehow wronged another individual. Hopefully when that situation arose, we asked that other person for forgiveness. Shouldn't we logically pass that idea on to the next person? Of course we should. It's like the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you'd want a person to forgive you, then logic would tell you that if someone asks for your forgiveness, you should grant it to them. Heck, you should forgive them whether they ask for it or not.

The Bible's mentions of forgiveness are far too numerous to even try to delve into here. The bottom line is that Christ has forgiven us of our sins and transgressions and He wants us to treat each other in the same manner. A big part of being able to forgive another person is having a good sense of humility. If God's Son was willing to lower Himself to our lowly standards, and make the ultimate sacrifice, and still forgive us of our sins against Him, then who are we to think that we are too good, or so much better than anyone else that we don't have to grant that same kind of treatment? The answer is: we're not...no one is so good that they don't owe it to another human being that gift of forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the best, kindest and strongest tools that we have as Christians. It sets an awesome example for those around us who may not be Christians. Forgiving brings inner-peace because we are vowing not to let that person or their actions bother us or bring us down.

Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

As I sit here and think about Valentine's Day and what exactly it means to people, I can't help but wonder how we fell into this emperialistic trap. Now don't get me wrong, I do not hate Valentine's Day at all. I am definitely not one of these people who is mad, sad, upset, or bitter today just because I am single. I love Valentine's Day and the premice behind it.

What gets me, is how people have been entrapped to believe that (a) they must go all out and spend exhuberant amounts of money on their loved one or (b) feel like they have been deprived of something if their loved one doesn't go all out. You don't need a special day to let someone know that you love them. Nor should Valentine's Day be the only (or anywhere close to that for that matter) day that you plan a romantic evening for your loved one. Love is something that should be shown and told at every opportunity. Take no days for granted because tomorrow is not promised to us.

Now all of this is not a cop-out for Valentine's Day....when I am dating someone on Valentine's Day, yes, I do try to plan something fun and romantic, but it is because I want to, not because I feel obligated to do so. Yes, there is that inate peer pressure that goes along with Valentine's Day...no guy wants to be "that guy" who did not do something special for his lady LOL If you do nothing for her on Valentine's Day then you will almost assuredly be subjected to the snarls, jeers and head shaking of your ladie's friends LOL

My point (FINALLY!) is this: Again, love is something that should be shown on every occasion and you don't need a special day assigned to you to remind you of that. Do the little things throughout the year that you know your loved one will treasure, and life will be much more easy and bearable to live!

Confusion

2006-02-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

Life, and more specifically, people can be very confusing. I really don't understand people, nor their thoughts, muchless the motivation behind their thoughts. Take for example a friend from church. She is about 24 or so. I have been talking to her and getting to know her because I am thrilled to finally have someone my age at church. The topic of dating in general (not US dating, just dating as Christians) has come up.

She mentioned that she has recently come out of a relationship and that any guy she "dates" right now really doesn't have much of a chance with her because the pains of the relationship are still fresh. I can TOTALLY relate. Anyone that knows about what happened to me last spring can attest to that. Anyway, I have this weekend off. So I called this girl up to see if she wanted to hang out, maybe go to a movie, go bowling, just do SOMETHING to get out of the house. She tells me that she can't this weekend because she is going out of town with this guy she has been dating. Mind you two weeks ago was when she told me that she just couldn't date anyone. Now this puts me in an awkward position because she really doesn't know me very well (nor I her) so it's not like we are great friends. So now I feel kind of odd about seeing if she wants to hang out because she is dating someone. Puts me in kind of a precarious position. Oh well.

I have had a couple of incidents of people of the female gender saying one thing and totally acting the opposite way lately but I will not bore you with the details. I swear the older I get, the harder and harder it is to understand women and their ways of thinking.

Other than that, life is great. I am enjoying my first weekend off in ages. No work related stress at all. I will just try to relax and sleep as much as I can since I am still not totally over being sick. All in all, life is good.

Y'all give me some suggestions as to what to write about. I want to keep this blog interesting. Remember though it is a work in progress.

I leave you today with my favorite Bible verse. It is a good summation of the meaning of life in my opinion. Galatian 1:10 says "For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondervant of Christ." That verse speaks volumes to me. God Bless--Greg

2006-02-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

There's not really a whole lot interesting going on in my life at the moment. The past three weeks I have spent basically at work, then coming home to rest. I have been sick as a dog, and taking medications like crazy. This new anti-biotic seems to be working, as the past couple of days I have felt a little better. Let's hope that they keep working and get me back to normal soon.
Last week my sister came to town with my niece and nephew. My dad and I took the kids to the park and I taught Sarah how to feed the ducks by hand. She screeched and hollered, but it was the good kind. She had a blast. We then headed to the slides and swings and this is where Brett had more fun. He loved every minute of it. They are growing up so fast, and not getting to see them as often as my other nephew and niece has really made me realize just how fast kids grow up. Seems like only yesterday that I was holding her when she was only a month old and here she is today turning four years old. Seems almost unreal, but she is my baby girl.

Work has been crazy and stressful lately, but at least it is not without its results. I feel that I have grown both as a manager and a leader over the past few months. My crew, I feel truly likes me and respects me, and they go the extra mile to meet goals. There are a couple of guys on my crew whom my boss wanted to fire but I stood my ground and refused to do so and they have blossomed into excellent employees. Faith my friends is the key.

I am new to this blogging thing so bear with me. I hope to be able to update it semi-regularly with random musings from my life and the world around us.