Yeah so maybe Uncle Ishmael doesn’t work as well I guess.  That’s OK.  Well, yesterday I officially became an uncle.  (Right?  I’m still an uncle to my brother-in-law’s kids, right?)  I’m not sure about the word “uncle” in front of my name.  Kinda weirds me out.  Uncle Brook?  It sounds so proper.  Like Pastor Brook…or Mr. Brook.  Gross.  I have even been called Uncle Randy before, but that was just because the kids couldn’t tell me and my cousin (their actual uncle apart for some reason).  Oh, well.  Since there doesn’t seem to be any sign of me growing up anytime soon, maybe by the time this little girl learns to talk we will come up with a better, less formal way of referring to me.  And just in case  you are wondering, Aunt KK is adorable.  That one can stay.

Toby and Stephanie Ringwald, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law-in-law…man I am not good at these relationship names…, had a beautiful little girl yesterday.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to take my wife 1400 miles back to be there for the birth, but hey, they don’t remember anything prior to age three anyway, right Wendy?  But we do have pictures.  I am not going to post them all because I am tired and I’m going to sleep.  Here you go.  Taelyn Brooke.

(I know what you are thinking.  How sweet!  She’s even named after Brooke Shields!  No?  Well she isn’t named after me!  There’s an “e” on the end of her name…and she’s a girl!  But she has already learned the symbol for touchdown.  She may not be a boy, but that’s a good start, Toby.)

So if you wanna see more of this cute little baby, then you can just go to here.  (Ha!  That’s almost like go to hell, but it’s not so don’t get all freaked out.)

Yeah so I stole that from him, but I liked it and I’m gonna use it!  Anyway, I have never had the artistic eye for much of anything outside of music.  Seriously.  Ask my wife.  You have no idea how many mornings she has stopped me before I could walk out the door for work and made me change clothes.  But there is so much to art that I don’t understand, yet still like to see!  I’m sure many of you are right there with me.  Anyway, you probably don’t know him, but my brother, Tate James, is quite the stud when it comes to the artistic and design world.  He is currently a student at The University Of Oklahoma (boomer sooner!) working on his degree and his portfolio as well.

Recently he has launched a blog with his buddies and a new website as his portfolio!  You definitely should check it out!  Might be something right up your alley.  Also, if you are looking for someone to make a new logo for you or design something for you, he is your guy!  You just have to pay him to do it!  (There!  How’s that for a plug bro?!)  He is also on Twitter and Facebook, but I will let you stalk him on your own there.

The Apache House
Tate James Dot Com

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there, but a super big one to my mom!  Yes I know for some of you that is hard to believe that I actually have a mother and am not some alien species that is hiding here on earth.  Normally I guess the thing to do here would be to post this tomorrow for actual Mother’s Day, but I thought I would try to be ahead of the game a little since I am a good 1361.83 miles (exactly according to MapQuest) away from my mother this year.  Sorry mom!  I was gonna make the drive for you but then I realized it is supposed to take 20 hours and decided we can Skype instead.

We all love our moms.  Sometimes that love is deep inside and we don’t realize it is there (i.e. – when we are trying to be cool in Junior High and she drops you off at school with a kiss, a thumb cleaning of the lipstick, and a yell about how much she loves you).  Sometimes that love is there but isn’t shown real well (i.e. – the conversation with your mom about how you just can’t move back in now that you have already moved out and you are a guy and that would be taking a step backwards).  Sometimes that love is there but a little manliness is over shadowing (i.e. – having a conversation with your brother about guy stuff and, oh, by the way, you should go home and see your mom more often because she would really like that).  And then there are those times that you just have to buy her a card, even though to a guy buying a card is painful and easily avoided, and attempt to tell her how much you love her and appreciate all the crap that she has gone through and put up with for you.

I mean come on.  We all can think back to those certain years in our lives when we made our mom’s life miserable just for the sake of being a pain in the as…troturf.  For me that was…well…probably from about 5th grade on.  For my sister it was the first 6 years of her life (i.e. – medicine stains on the ceiling).  She deserves a little more than what we have put her through.  Yeah, so you hated it when she would stay up late to make sure you got home safe.  So you hated it when she would call you while you were driving with your friends just to make sure you were wearing your seatbelt…and being safe…and driving under the speed limit…and being polite…and to make sure you were still being safe…and to see when you would be home…and to see if you were there yet…and to see if…

But seriously.  As I sit here on my back patio thinking about how much I love my mom and how if she were here right now she would be totally loving the sound of the wind (that’s a very slight breeze to you Okies) blowing through the palm trees and the one random wind chime that we have up for some reason and how she would be so “filled up” right now, I just wanna take a minute and say thanks to mom for everything.  I know that sounds nice and simple, but if you really were to take the time to sit down and write a thank you note for all the things throughout your life that she deserved Thank You notes for the Green Peace people would be up in arms because of the amount of paper you just used and trees you killed!  Come to think of it, my mom would be pretty upset too.  Hmmm…

So here you go, mom.  Thank you so much!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I love you so much!

Hey all you bloggers out there!  Welcome my dad to the blogging world!  Go here!

Well, we are finally back from our trip to the best state in the middle of the country.  Am I biased?  Maybe a little, but just yesterday I saw on Yahoo! an article that listed out the most liveable cities in America.  Tulsa, OK was #5 and Oklahoma City, OK was #6.  Only 4 other places are considered better (and honestly I don’t think any of them were appealing).  I think Huntington Beach, CA should have been on the list but it wasn’t.  Anyway, we had a great trip to see EVERYONE possible in as little time as possible.

We flew out on Thursday morning entirely too early in the morning.  For some reason I always seem to get the big guys next to me.  At least I did for the flights to OKC.  The wind was crazy in Dallas, TX.   I was riding the fence on deciding if it was fun or if I needed to make sure I was good to meet my Maker that day.  They had shut down most of the runways and when we were on the final approach the wind was insane.  Definitely the bumpiest flight I have been on.  As we were about to touch down the wind shear hammered us and the pilot floored it and took off again to take another pass at it!  Wow.  Never heard so many women gasp at the same time without Brad Pitt walking in the room!  Well we made it the second time around.  We finally got to OKC just fine.

Thursday night was filled with briefly seeing a few family and then heading out to see my sister’s play called “Seussical” in which she has the star and kicked everyone’s butt as the Cat In The Hat!  After the play and hanging out with them for a bit we headed out to Purcell, OK to see KK’s family.  We got to hang out with her parents for a little while on Friday and then headed out to Tulsa, OK for Chris and Randi’s wedding.  We got there just in time for the rehearsal and then had the rehearsal dinner where we got to see the rest of “The Mob” that we hadn’t seen yet.  It was great to see them all!  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see Cayce and Efren as they were in Venezuela, but I got to Skype with them later.  We had a mini bachelor party that night and played a good bit of Halo, Halo 3 and FIFA on Xbox 360 until about 4 in the AM.

Saturday rolled around and we got to sleep in a little bit and everyone kinda did their own thing for the day.  Taylor and Julia Faught (with one on the way) and Jason, Brittney and Logan Waymire all came down to hang out for a bit.  We met them at Incredible Pizza and had a great round of putt-putt in which Julia kicked all our butts and Taylor was dead last!  Good times.  It’s always good to see Taylor not win at everything.  I think it boosts everyone’s self esteem when we can even think that we are competing with him.  (You should see his highlight reel from high school…wow!)  He probably just let us win.  After Incredible Pizza we got to hang out with Blaire a bit before I was forced to shower and get ready for the wedding.

The wedding went great and the guitarist stole the show.  Well, maybe not.  The focus was on the bride and groom…and the pastor/professor.  The reception was good times too (except that the Final Four games were on at the same time)!  But we had to call it quits a little earlier than everyone else and head back to Edmond, OK.

Sunday morning we got to hang out with some good friends from LifeChurch.tv and visit the Edmond Campus and hear Trent and Marcy tear up some worship!   They rock.  Then we headed back to Purcell, OK for a bit and got to see Toby, Stephanie, Talley and the soon to be had Taelynn.  They are such a cute little family.   Glad we got to see them.  Then we headed back to OKC to catch a plan to DFW and then home to Orange County.  We barely made it through security and onto the plane in OKC…wait…no…there was no one at the airport and it is tiny. Dallas was a different story.  We were supposed to get there early, but that didn’t happen.  Then we got to hang out with Wendy and Cade Collinsworth for about 30 minutes in their new car!  Nice.  We missed Todd, but it was good to see them.   Then we grabbed some TGI Friday’s as we were boarding the plane home.  I felt bad for those around me as I ate broccoli on the plane.  My bad guys!  Met a new friend sitting next to me that leads worship at Saddleback Church.  Good times.

Then we made it home and went to pick up Jack from the Normans’ (thanks guys!).  He was very excited/pissed off when we got there.  It took him a good bit to settle down.  Finally we made it home and got some sleep in our amazing bed!  Yeah!

There you go.  Weekend in the Great Plains recap.  Cayce, Efren and Todd we missed you.  Cayce and Efren thanks for the car.  Sorry for the miles.  Reagan, great job on the play.  I am not on the verge of liking Dr. Seus.  Mom and dad, Rick and Mary, Dennis and Brenda, thanks for putting us up for a few days!  Chris and Randi, congratulations!  We will be praying for you guys!  We love you all and miss you all and can’t wait til you all move out here!

Ah the mob. This weekend KK and I flew back to Oklahoma for a friend/brother’s wedding. We haven’t been back to Oklahoma since my sister’s wedding in October! Been a while. So this week we get to see the craziness that is my family and those that we basically family. We get to see KK’s family including our new sister-in-law who is about to pop with a baby. We get to see some of our very best friends including two working on popping with child and one who just did. Seriously? Could more people be pregnant at the same time? Ridiculous.

We are excited to see them all! We are excited for Chris and Randi! Please don’t rob our house while we are gone. Jack we will come pick you up soon.

Right now we are in the middle of the best tournament sports has to offer.  The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is now down to the Elite 8.  Good times.  Not what this is about though.  That’s not why I am writing.  Every game the announcers (you know…the guys that get to sit courtside and say the exact same thing I said 30 seconds earlier) go on and on about the impact players.  Those that have a very important affect on the outcome of the game.  Every sport has them.  We honor and praise them every time.  It never fails.  Impact players.  Of course this picture is more of impact + player, but it’s pretty awesome, you have to admit.

But sports isn’t the only place that we see this.  Yeah, it’s kinda a cheesy analogy, but it’s the truth.  For some reason tonight as I was thinking about blogging, the impact players in my life where who I thought about.  So I decided I will take a break from my normal crazy ramblings and just pay a little tribute to the people that I see as major impact players on my life.

Honestly, there are far too many to start listing them all out and what they have done and how they have affected my life.  I would love to do that, but I am getting kinda sleepy and I already know that my dog is going to be up early and crawling all over the bed in the morning so I am gonna make it more brief and just touch on a few (not listed in any specific order).  

• The Units – Unfortunately in today’s world we can’t just assume that everyone’s parents are big impact players.  Mine were.  No matter what I have been going through, they have always been there to help me and support me in anything I do.  They still are.  I have had a ton on my mind recently and I know that they are always there to bounce things off of.  Plus it’s pretty entertaining to watch them get into an argument.  I’ll have to act it out for you sometime.  If you know them, it’s hilarious and so much fun to watch.  They always get over it too.  That helps.
• LifeChurch.tv – This one I am just gonna lump into one because there are several people that fall into this category.  God used this place and the people in it to shape and mold me and help me find what I believe to be my calling in life.  He used the leadership of Craig, Sam and Chris as well as guys like Trent and Derrick to do exactly that.  Who else and I gonna enjoy a quality joke about J-ness or P-ness with?
• The Mob – That’s how my mother would describe it.  I have been blessed with not only an amazing family but with a few more amazing families added in.  The Teagues, Thibeaults and Harrymans have been apart of the family for a very long time now.  Life would be completely different if not for them.  How else would I have learned to play ladder golf or have actually made it through several books (thanks mom and Rick)?
• My Boys – No not the TV show.  I’m talking about the special men in my life.  Too gay?  Fine.  How about my bros?  I have done a lot of growing up with these guys.  If the saying is true and you actually do become more like those that you surround yourself with then I might have a pretty good future.  Taylor, Jason and Todd have been a big part of my life for the past several years.  Not all at the same time or for the entire time, but they are definitely on the list.  I mean you gotta have someone to run from the cops with, argue about whether basketball or wrestling is more manly with and survive a work place while enjoying the Weekly Chuckology with!  PS – happy birthday, Todd.  I can’t believe you didn’t answer the phone when I called at 2 AM.  Loser.
• The Real Reason I’m Semi-Cool – Yup.  You know it.  My wife is really the coolest thing about me.  Not really sure if that actually works, but for the sake of this post it’s gonna.  I mean what do I say here?  She is it.  She’s the love of my life.  She is very smart, yet still dumb enough to accept a proposal from me.  She supports and adds to my ministry.  She pushes me to be better at everything I do (even if she doesn’t know it).  Who else am I gonna tease about rolling all over the place in her sleep?  At least she only does it on her side of the bed…wait…nevermind.

Well there you go.  Those are some of the people on my mind at the moment.  I just wanted to take a minute/post and recognize them and the impact that they have had on my life.  I would be some completely different person without them.  Yet for some reason I don’t take as much time to tell them that as I should.  For that I’m sorry.  I hope they all know how much I really appreciate them and what they have done for me.  If you don’t know and you are part of the list above, then I do.  I really do.

Take some time today and tell your impact players how much they mean to you.  Thank God for them.  You wouldn’t be you without them.

As I write this I realize that it is pretty condemning of me, but its on my mind so I think I will write it anyway.  Today I did something that I don’t normally do.  After I did it, I realized how often (or more like how seldom) I do this.  I actually picked up the phone to call one of my best friends to see how he and his preggo wife are doing.  Yeah.  Unfortunately, I am a terrible friend and I don’t do that.  I don’t know why that is.  I really do wanna know what is going on, but for some stupid reason, I don’t just pick up the phone and call.  Like I said, I’m a awful friend.  I don’t call those that I care about near enough.  Yes I call my family (probably still not enough, but at least I do) but unless they call me, I tend to not call everyone else that I love.  

Wow.  Even as I write this I am realizing even more how bad this is.  But for some reason today I realized that I’m a complete tool and decided to break my streak of crappy friending.  So I called Taylor.  Got to talk to him for a good while.  Got to catch up on his wife and help them add up how many weeks along she is.  Got to hear the news about the family.  Got an accurate count on the number of wiener dogs that are running around his dad’s house.  Got caught up with his sisters and mom.  Good stuff.  Now I know how to pray for them better instead of waiting for him to call me.  It was good.

I don’t believe in New Years resolutions so I don’t do them.  Don’t get me wrong.  This isn’t one.  I just wanna get better at it.  If it was a NYr then I would have to wait until the beginning of next year to start it (don’t get me going on this).  Anyway, I had plans to call Jason (another one of my best friends) today as well, but my wife got home and I got distracted.  I always get distracted when she is around.  Makes it kinda hard to concentrate on things.  But that’s ok because I like that.  Back to what I was saying.  Jason is still next.  It may not be tomorrow, but it will be soon.  So, I wanna get into a better habit of keeping in touch with the ones that I care about.  Now, if I don’t call you, please don’t take that as me not caring about you.  I probably just dropped back into being a sucky friend again.  My apologies to all of you that I love so much and just don’t call enough!  I really do love you!

Just in case you happen to be curious, I am listening to Standing Outside Of A Broken Telephone – Primitive Radio Gods – Rocket.  No it actually has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it might be interesting to read back later on.  Wait.  It just changed to Shattered (Turn The Car Around) – O.A.R. – All Sides.