Happy Birthday Carver

So I call this Blog the Adventures of Bucksnort and his Boy, yet I failed to complete a post I started on the Boy's first birthday. It was a busy weekend, so now 2 and a half weeks later I'll let you know what a special day it was.
A little over a year ago, we were excited and frightened about this little boy who had been growing inside Laura's belly. After a few premature trips to the hospital due to some high blood pressure, the doctor scheduled the C-section about a week early. I could not sleep the night before, I was so excited. We had to get up about 4am to get to the hospital around 5:30. Molly brought me a quad shot white mocha to keep me awake and I chased that with a 5 hour energy drink. I didn't want to miss out on a single thing that happened that morning. I was a little jittery, but enjoyed every moment of that day. They pulled Carver out of Laura and started to clean him up. I watched from a distance with tears in my eyes and then the nurse invited me over. I was a bit fearful to hold the little 6lb boy. I held him tightly and did not want to let him go. I still feel this way. I love to get him in the morning when he wakes up and is so glad to see me. I love to see him smile, walk, fall, laugh and make faces at me. My heart melts at this adorable little boy.
He is now a year old. His baby days are fleeting and he is becoming a little boy. He has a great personality and is stubborn as a bull. He had around 20 people come and celebrate his first birthday. He got cake absolutely everywhere and loved all the attention. I look forward to many many more years of watching him grow into a young man.

Reliving the Past

So my 10 year reunion is coming up and all those high school memories keep coming to mind. We had a swimming pool at my house and during the summer time we always had parties. If it was near your birthday and everyone was going to the Lowery's chances are it was a surprise party for you. It was pretty fun. Of course, now I live in Washington and my parents have moved to Hawaii and the house is sold. All those memories of the old pool can't be relived unless the new owners are on vacation in late August. One of the memories that I have involves the diving board. We had the old Monkey dance, butt bounce, WWF moves, and of course splash contests. Everyone wanted to see how much water you could get to land on someone nice and dry or how high you could get the water to shoot in the air. I follow a blog called Coolest Toys and it had this splash meter. I probably wouldn't have bought it, but it looks pretty cool. Toys are so much cooler these days but we had more fun building our own stuff.

One Great Mother

Last year at this time we were preparing for one of the biggest events of our lives. I was super excited and Laura was super frightened. We had no idea of what was to come in just a few weeks. Laura was celebrating her first Mother's Day as she had been nurturing Carver in the womb for 8 months. She was terrified about the kind of Mother she would be. I kept telling her she would make a great mom and to just relax. She would fall in love with the strange thing in her belly that kept kicking her. A few weeks later she met met the cutest kid in the world - okay he was much cuter after he lost a few wrinkles was cleaned and put on a few pounds. Carver met the woman who had brought him so much comfort as he was growing into a 6lb little boy. She has continued to bring him comfort and lots and lots of love. She learned how to change a diaper and she instantly fell in love with a complete stranger. Laura is a great mother and terrific wife. We are blessed to have her in our lives. Her love for me encourages me to be the man God has created me to be. Her love for Carver teaches him to love others and grow into a great man/little boy.
Happy Mother's Day Laura - You are the Best!

I stink at this...

So my last post was pretty raw in the way that I was feeling and my emotions have been a bit of a rollercoaster. People should be real with each other about how they are feeling. The problem is we don't know how to respond when someone is real - especially in the church bubble. I grew up thinking that we always had to be great - especially on Sundays. Now that I am in sales at work it's kind of like this as well. Customers don't want for me to tell them that I lost a job recently and really don't want to be doing this at the moment. It just makes things a little awkward. So we struggle to find who we can be honest with and when we can be honest. We have to find a filter. Kind of ironic - I use a filter at home to get the pure water and I filter my feelings and language to keep the pure out.
All this to say, I am not sure what is next on the horizon for me. I can see what is here and now and I have to trust God for the future. For now I am going to focus on being who God wants me to be today - An unashamed follower of Christ, a loving and responsible husband and father and passionate Children's Director at the Rock. This is where and Who God wants me to be.

Bummer...

Can I be honest for a minute or ten? This afternoon I went to a meeting with my hopes high of a dream job – full time Children’s ministry. I have been working with another church for about 6 months and had been talking about a full time position. I was really excited because I would be able to continue to serve at the Rock on Sunday mornings and there during the week as well as on Sunday nights. I love the church, but I truly believe that God wants my family together at the Rock. Turns out that the other church wanted and found someone a little more committed to them. I completely understand their choice and decision and it makes sense. We were talking about something that was way outside the conventional ministry box and it really wasn’t the right fit. Nothing was ever set in stone, but I had my heart set on it and now it is crushed. I don’t understand what God is doing. It is my heart’s desire to be in full time ministry. I felt God’s calling when I was 17 and have struggled to find it since. I have been in and out of full time ministry outside the normal church settings and I have been part time at the Rock for almost 4 years now. I love the Rock Church and it is great for my family. I am just not sure that I will ever be able to serve full time there. There needs to be a lot more growth for to happen and I don’t know what God’s plans are. As it is I have too much on my plate and there is so much more that I want to do but can’t. I work my butt off trying to provide for my family and to do a good job. I have passed on opportunities to advance in my professional career outside the church and with other churches in hopes of going into full time ministry. I just don’t get it. What is God doing? What are his plans? I don’t want to be working two or three jobs to make ends meet and support doing ministry. God knows my desire – heck he put it there. What’s going on? Is he just trying to teach me to be patient and content? This seems to be a journey and I am just kind of running in place.

A Day in the Sun

It is amazing what a little sun will do for you. Yesterday, Carver and I went for a a few rounds around Green Lake in the sun. It was a beautiful 70 degrees and we had a great time. Carver had a huge smile that made everyone else smile. We talked back and forth with each other the whole way around the lake. Well it was more like yelling and grunting - you know guy talk. It's back to gray skies here, but I know Summer is coming and I can't wait.

Mariners Predictions

Baseball is officially on and I am excited. I enjoy watching football and going to a hockey game or even a soccer game. I don't care about Basketball at all - so I am excited to not hear about brackets and Final Four or Elite Eight or Sweet Sixteen for quite a while after tonight. It is all about Baseball now. The Mariner's did a little bit of house cleaning over the off season when it comes to management. Finally - Bill Bavasi is gone, but unfortunately the effects of his poor decisions will live on for a few more years. But that's life - we must live with the mistakes of others and most importantly our own. We just have to choose to learn from them and hopefully not make them again.
This would be considered one of the rebuilding years for the Mariners. No one expects them to be in contention for anything other than not being the worst team in baseball. They were 3rd on the list last season. However, I think anything is possible. Two years ago, the Rays had the worst record in the American League - Last year they won the World Series. I don't think the Mariners will make that kind of change, but I think they will stay competitive and will be fun to watch. After all - Griffey is back. So I thought I would throw out a few predictions of my own, this way I can see how wrong I am at the end of the season.

Ichiro - .300 Batting Average and 200 hits - this one is a little predictable

Griffey - .260 BA and 27 Home Runs and will play as a Mariner in 2010

Beltre - .280 BA and 35 Home Runs and will be traded in July to a contender - this will stink

Lopez - .285 BA and 22 Home Runs

Bentancourt - He's going to choke this year and will either get traded or released or sent to the Minors. Maybe we will get a Shortstop for Beltre

Johjima - .220 BA and 15 Home Runs

King Felix - 18 Wins and 8 Losses

Washburn - 10 Wins and 4 Losses and Traded Away in June - hopefully

Mariners Season 79 Wins and 83 Losses - 3rd Place in the American League West

Any Predictions for you?