Dave Rhoades - In Transit

One of my good friends sent me this Youtube and I thought I would share.
We were just speaking last evening of how much we have lost in our country.

Thank You to the brave men and women of the United States Military.

As we light those fuses tonight and see the brilliant bursts of light in the sky, I will remember those men and women that view those lights in the sky not as a culmination of too much barbecue laden beef or an opportunity to allow children to play in the street with sparklers; but as a means to an end. A vehicle of deliverance for the oppressed. A conduit for freedom. And yes, a possibility of death.

Thank you all for your sacrifice.

 And I would be remiss in my duties as an American if I didn’t once again make available two of my favorite videos, both from Toby…

Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue

http://www.cmt.com/videos/toby-keith/26544/courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue-the-angry-american.jhtml

American Soldier

http://www.cmt.com/videos/toby-keith/27718/american-soldier.jhtml

God Bless the USA!

Why not just leave a little earlier???

We are in such a rush, even on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Why? It’s the weekend.

I am in traffic everyday.

Whipping in and out.

Horns blaring.

Middle Fingers flying.

Tailgating.

Passing when there is no room.

Weaving.

Dodging.

And I say again, why?

Why not leave the house a half hour earlier?

Because I can’t get up.

Why? Go to bed a half hour earlier.

Then I miss “quality time” with my family.

Do you? Or just more talking heads on CNN? Or Starz network?

We are in such a hurry in the mornings because we left the house late because we really don’t want to go to work in the first place.

Who have we become in 2008?

A race of mad men.

But the problem is that on the weekends I see the same thing so that we can “hurry up and have fun!”.

I enjoy the drive in if I know I’m early and have provided myself margins so that if there is an accident I have a chance to listen to another chapter of W.E.B. Griffin, Stephen King or Dean Koontz; and eat some more of my breakfast burrito.

Slow down, you’ll be much happier.

And so will I…

This next week is Dave’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE !!!!!!!

Dave is married to our eldest daughter, Tara, and the father of our little Hunter.

Let me tell you a little about my son by marriage…

Dave has several passions in life: The Lord, his family, worship and Chipotle.

He has won so many Chipotle awards and free Chipotle stuff, I can’t even tell you. The know him by name. And if you ever can’t find him, just look at Chipotle, he’ll be there having a meeting with someone!

Dave is a worship musician extraordinaire and a guy that really cares about people.

He has accomplished so much in his young life, ie: Heading up a world wide ministry (Worship and the Word Movement) and Heavenfest July 26 which is a kin to a Christian Woodstock. www.heavenfest.com

Dave is one of those people that just sort of “showed up” in our lives. We were moving some things in or out of our other house in Northglenn, I don’t remember which, and he came to help. During the course of the night, we were thanking those who helped us, including Dave and we said something about moving to a new house soon and Dave said: “I guess I’ll be around to help you do that too…” (or something to that effect).

And he was!

I won’t go into all of the miracles that brought him and Tara together, but suffice it to say, the Lord guided their steps and he rescued my daughter from certain calamity.

Dave never meets a person that he doesn’t like and can instantly make people feel at ease. And people know that he genuinely cares for them. When he is at a concert or church or ministering and we are heading out the door, we know that somewhere along the way we will lose Dave and will return to find him engaging someone in conversation that needs help.

The most important requirement that I have for my sons-in-law: Love my daughters. And Dave has fulfilled that and anyone who knows him, knows how much he adores Tara and Hunter.

Thank you, Dave.

Happy Birthday son, I love you…

Here is Dave’s answers to my questions…

favorite movie or movies of all time: Lord of the
Rings Trilogy (of course, great movies and so much spiritual significance)
>
> favorite song: I Love You, Lord
>
> favorite quote can be from movie or book or author
> etc: It changes from day to day, but here’s one:
“It’s possible…. pig.” ~ Princess Bride (another family favorite)
>
> favorite animal: Has traditionally been a white
Siberian tiger… I guess I’ll stay with that!
>
> favorite book: The Bible, without flinching, and
secondly “Is that really You, God” by Loren Cunningham
>
> favorite scripture: Too tough… don’t know…. so
many….

Allow me to tell you about my little Dessy (Tredessa) on her birthday…

Dess was always a chubby cheeked smiler with extremely thick hair. I remember when she was just a tike and the girls got on a hair cutting kick and Dess took some scissors to her own hair, never been cut, she was around 2 or 3? Jeanie could tell you. We were sick and actually cried about it! Dess had cut such a huge swath out of her thick locks that I didn’t know if it would ever come back…

It did!

Her hair grows like mine!

Dess is the middle child, so she knows how to relate to those older and younger.

I could tell you about many childhood memories…

But instead let me tell you who she has become presently.

Tredessa works with an inner-city ministry, Confluence Ministries, helping the down and outers and urban throw aways that need someone to love them back to the place God intended. You will find her heart circling the globe, from the Home of Refuge children’s orphanage in Venezuela to the shores of Cape Town South Africa. Tredessa’s passion is the world. I am proud that she has agreed to head up the logistics of Heavenfest, a Christian music festival designed to minister to 10,000 in these western states. www.heavenfest.com

I love you Dessy.

I’ll make comments some in ()on the items below that I had all the kids put down.

These are Dessa’s: 

favorite movie or movies of all time   Star Wars trilogy (of course, all the kids were raised on Star Wars and Dessa has the collector’s items to prove it!), Pride and Prejudice BBC, LOTR trilogy, Frequency (This question is just way too hard so I’m going to stop there)

favorite song-  My fav song at this moment, because it changes so much is:  Secular - Your Love Keeps Lifting Me   Worship - How He Loves Us (another family favorite)

favorite quote can be from movie or book or author etc-  Again this is a fav right at this moment, because there are too many to count: “A guy in a really cool camper wants to put our song on the radio.  Give me a pen.  I’m signing, you’re signing, we’re all signing.” (from: That Thing You Do)

favorite animal- Lion

favorite book-  Mark of the Lion trilogy

favorite scripture- Proverbs 21:22 & Hosea 2

You are an adventurer. No wonder I named one of the characters in Altar and the Darkness after you! 

I love you Dessa, happy birthday…

If you lie to your dog, is it still lying?????

An old adage tells us that the more technology that we have, the more time we should incur.

I think that we have found out that is NOT true.

Is it that we think that technology makes it easier on us?

 We drive instead of walk. We microwave our food instead of using a pot. We use gas powered lawn mowers instead of the push kind. We watch the news instead of reading the paper. We listen to audio instead of opening the covers of books…

These things are all designed to give us a leg up, a head start, more quality time and more efficiency.

But I think that it just makes us want to pack more things into the day.

We still have 24 hours.

We have to sleep some. (less than I used to have to but still…)

But it seems that we are constantly falling onto the phrase: “There is just not enough hours in the day.” For what?

Holidays are the worst. People rushing to relax. Try getting on the highway on Memorial Day Weekend!

Maybe we are trying to cram too much in????

Take time with the kids. Hold the grandbabies. Kiss your spouse. Lay in the shade. Sip some tea. Go to a movie. Read a book. Go to church. We are all going to be dead one day and all the other stuff isn’t going to matter…

I for one would like to work less and write more…

(Gavin Christmas 2004)

5 years ago today, June 2 was a historical day in the Rhoades family.

It saw the birth of our first grandchild, a boy named Gavin.

It has been a whirlwind of life since June 2, 2003. And Gavin has seen two siblings and two cousins born since then!

This fall the firstborn grandson will be climbing the stairs of a higher education facility; Gavin will be in Kindergarten!

I was looking through a couple of old posts that had never been published and came across one that I had written a few years ago. Have I been blogging that long???

(2007 in Nonna’s garden)

I had called it: Drools on a Cement Floor

Here is the heart of it:

When I was cleaning the garage in 2005 Gavin was helping me.

Gavin loves to be in the garage with Grandpa, I was then known as “Dra-Draw”. He was only 2 at the time. Long ago but not so long.

 Gavin was sweeping with a broom 3 times his size. Handing me things that he thought I needed. Playing in a bucket of sand. And handing me metal shelf supports, even at two. It was fun to have a little buddy tag along and make menial tasks much more interesting. He and I still love to work in the garage, well, probably he more than I when I have to clean it but still…

At one point I looked down and saw some drool on the cement and it quickened me.

I wondered if God sometimes looks at us with all of our helping Him out and trying to handle things that are too big for us and our playing in the sand of our lives, and He smiles. He’s pleased to have us with Him no matter. And it is His pleasure to see our drools on His cement floor.

My Little Gavin, you are the apple of grandpa’s eye.

You’re my little buddy.

And you and all your siblings and cousins are the future generation that will spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the four corners of the world in whatever capacity God calls you.

You are blessed.

(2008 5th Birthday party)

I love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

For more on Gavin, visit www.jeanierhoades.com

My amazing kids covering a Partridge Family song and lip sinking to their own voices!!!!

I should explain more about this video for those who don’t know.

This was a Mother’s Day present to Jeanie, my wife, who grew up on the Partridge Family.

So the kids went into the studio, with instruments, voices and several video cameras and made this video. They sang the song first and then lip sinked to their own singing as they taped it. They are all playing and singing with the instruments, drums, guitars, bass etc. and some help from amazing Dan Wakefield on keyboard. Jovan is doing a great Lori Partridge though!

But yes, those are really their voices and instruments!

Talented children!

for more go to: http://www.jeanierhoades.com/stuff-i-actually-think/one-of-those-nights

Holy Shnikees!

It’s midnight and I have to get up at 6am and I just got done watching the two hour finale of LOST!

We have a little gathering at our home on Thursday night and we record LOST to watch it when everyone finally arrives because of all of our busy schedules and I’ll tell you, it was NOT a disappointment.

Definitely worth the wait.

LOST has to rank up there as one of my favorites of all time.

You know how it is when you see a movie or TV show that you just think: “There just cannot be any one that I will ever like any better than this one.”

I’ve had the experience through the years with such greats as: St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues and Seinfeld.

Now I am experiencing the same things with: The Office and LOST.

And you can’t spell it Lost, it has to be LOST.

Just when you think that they will answer some things, they do and then give you 10 more questions to wonder about.

Fortunately and Unfortunately I won’t give away the finale, but suffice it to say, we finally found out who is in the casket!

And I said: “Holy Mackerel!”

Unfortunately also, LOST is one of those shows that you have to watch from the very first. You have to see it when Jack is wandering around on the beach with the plane in flames in the background; and once you are hooked, you are hooked for life…

And just when you thought it was fantasy, they show you the reality of the island…

Has there ever been a better “bad guy” than Benjamin Linus?

I would submit to you, there is not.

Link to Benjamin Linus    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Linus