JeffMilesSays.com | Let’s make the world a better place! | Faith, Family, Fitness, Fun, & FunctionsI know, we still haven’t sent anyone a Christmas card from 2009…and it looks like it just isn’t going to happen so here is the picture we were going to send you.
On another note, here are two more pictures that we wanted to show you as well. Buster finally got his spring trimming done…he doesn’t even look like
the same dog…but you be the judge…
At least now he looks more like a terrier than a sheep dog…
Prevailing opinion seems to be that I don’t blog enough about my family so I wanted to throw up a couple more pictures taken from this last weekend. Enjoy!
Carrie is now 5 months old and starting to enjoy the pleasure of rice cereal & Caleb just rocks. Mandy plays superwoman as she watches both of our kids and usually at least 1 other child to help some friends out. Things are going well, we can’t wait for the Spring so that we can get outside more!
Well that was a wild ride…
It all started one night when I walked into our room and my wife asked me a question that led to the first You Make the Call post. After watching my wife voraciously devour the first few of these 14 books and having the discussions that these books inspired, I had to try them for myself. I was not disappointed. These were great books.
Disclaimer: these books are chick books so guys, there is not a whole lot of action in them.
The books start with Redemption a book about Kari Baxter and the troubles she is having (this is the situation that I discussed in the You Make the Call post). In this book you meet the Baxter family and through the course of the next 13 books, you learn all about them.
To try and review each individual book would give away too much information (I am surprised however how much information about the series is given away by the covers), but the 14 books are broken up into 3 different series:
The thing I liked most about this series is that it made you deal with issues of faith and morality that you may not normally deal with because you can imagine the Baxters living down the street from you. Karen Kingsbury does a really good job of setting the scenes in a way that you can believe they are really happening. For instance, book 3 deals with the Baxters (and friends) dealing with the events of September 11, 2001. There are a couple topics that Kingsbury talked about that hit almost too close to home. I can’t spoil the books, but Mandy and I read Summer right around the time we attended a friend’s memorial service a situation that if you know where Mandy and I have been with a couple very close friends of ours and you know what happens in Summer you can understand why Mandy was bawling at the end of the book and I was brought to tears as well. Parts of Summer are some of the most powerful chapters I may have ever read. Reading Summer brought healing for both Mandy and I.
Mandy asked me a question when I had about 3 books left in the series was whether or not I liked the Baxter Family Drama series more or books by Dee Henderson (O’Malley Series & Uncommon Heroes Series). It was a tough call for me. I like the Dee Henderson books because for chick books there is a lot of action in them…mainly because of who the characters are. But the Baxter Family Drama really hit home on issues and make you deal with them. I told her that I think I liked the Dee Henderson books better, but after finishing the Baxter Family Drama I think it may be a tie. Either way, I hope you give both authors a chance to entertain you.
Overall rating for the Baxter Family Drama Series: 5 out of 5
I love being a part of the BookSneeze program, it allows me to read great books like Living Life In The Zone – A 40-Day Spiritual Game Plan for Men. This is the fourth book that I have reviewed for Thomas Nelson Publishers and with each one I have tried to pick a different genre to review. I have reviewed the following books:
I took a risk when I signed up for this book, but it was a risk that I feel really paid off. I am not usually the type of person that likes to have his hand held while studying the Bible, but figured I would try this devotional. I am extremely glad that I did. The authors hit on all the major topics facing men today (life, wife, kids, friends, work, and the future) in a format that was easy to read, easy to follow, filled with good examples and scripture, and with homework. It also helped that it used sports as the vehicle to convey the information. A typical devotional for a day followed this format:
I would completely recommend this devotional for any male who likes sports and is trying to live his life for God. As I went through this devotional I felt on several occasions that it was speaking directly to a situation that I was facing at that moment in time. Hopefully, you find this devotional as thought provoking and inspiring as I did.
Rating: 5/5
As I have mentioned on Facebook and LinkedIn before (for those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook or LinkedIn) that November, December, and January are my busiest months of the year. Even though it is my busiest time of year, I still try to keep my reading habits up. To do that I usually return to books I have read before, but love to read to help me get away from the stress and busyness of my busiest months.
A little under a month ago, I picked up my copy of The Chronicles of Narnia (amazon affiliate link – to the boxed set, I have the unabridged version) and started reading with The Magician’s Nephew. I have seen worlds created, worlds destroyed, and voyages had. C. S. Lewis along with J.R.R. Tolkein (with his Lord of the Rings trilogy) have set the standard for what has become the fantasy genre and it is good to go back and read both series from time to time.
While Hollywood has tried and in my mind succeeded with making movies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King I still love reading the original books from time to time. I am also looking forward to the Upcoming Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie which comes out this year and The Hobbit movies which are also coming out soon.
I just read an articles from Brad Ruggles (head on over and read it, I’ll be here when you get back) about a new iPhone app that allows you to insert the names of your family members and it will generate specific prayers for you to pray…
Our 3 year old prays for dinner and it is basically the same prayer every day because it is the prayer I pray for my food and he loves to pray so before we eat, we all grab hands and Caleb prays “God, thank you for this food, please bless it to our bodies, Amen.” Pretty simple, pretty boring, but I love the fact that my son is already developing a prayer habit. His prayers are simple and straight forward but they work.
There are two sides to the coin with this app. One, it will probably help people have a better prayer life, but two, how would my wife feel if I had a friend write a script for me to take home and read to my wife when I got home from a day full of meetings?
OK, it’s your turn, what do you think? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.
You may or may not have already read a review of Avatar, but if you are one of the 3 people in the country who hasn’t seen Avatar, you need to go see it.
Warning: you probably need to get your tickets at least a few hours in advance, then arrive at the theater at least an hour early to stand in line to get a good seat. I wouldn’t have thought that was the case with a movie that has already been in the theater for a couple weeks with a bunch of other really good movies at the same time, but it is so.
Normally I would save my rating for the end of the review, but due to the nature of my rating, I will go ahead and give it.
Plot: 2 out of 5
Visual Effects/Experience: 5 out of 5
Review – Plot (spoilers – skip to next section after the first sentence if you don’t want to know what happens):
If you have seen Dances with Wolves (amazon affiliate link) you have seen Avatar from a plot perspective. The movie takes place on a planet called Pandora. You soon learn that Jake Scully is not the original man for the job, but due to his twin brother being shot while being mugged, he is the only man for the job. Jake is an ex-Marine who has been paralyzed from the waist down. Since Jake is an identical twin and the Avatars (genetically created human/Nav’i hybrids) are created for a specific person Jake is the only human available to connect with the Avatar. Jake is tasked with infiltrating the Nav’i and learning their ways so that the corporation can displace them to gain access to the largest deposit of unobtainium on the planet. Just like in Dances with Wolves Jake “goes native” as he realizes the horrible intentions that the humans have.
Review – Visual Effects/Experience:
WOW is the best way to describe the visual masterpiece that James Cameron
has created. Cameron has also partnered with James Horner for the soundtrack as well so the combination of visuals and soundtrack is just amazing. I watched the movie in digital 3D and while I wasn’t really impressed with the 3D experience I thought the movie was amazing and will probably buy this movie when it comes out on DVD.
What are your thoughts on Avatar?
I hope to do more “You make the call!” posts in the future as I want to have more interaction involved on my site with the loyal readers that I have. But, they don’t work if you don’t interact so please make a comment.
My wife is reading a book (by an undisclosed author) that she received for Christmas. It is a fiction book, but the reason that Mandy likes it so much is that it deals with real life issues. She has not finished yet, but tonight was talking to me about the book. The reason she talked to me about it is because she wanted to hear what I think the characters should do in their given situation. Here’s where you come in…I am going to lay out the scenario, but I will change the names of the characters (and some of the irrelevant details) and I want to know what you think should happen.
Scenario:
Katherine is the main character in the book, she is married to Tom. Katherine is a very busy business woman, Tom is a college professor who is also a journalist. For the last year, Tom has felt like Katherine doesn’t have time for him and when young Tina, one of his students, shows interest he begins pursuing her, to the point that he falls in love with her, tells Katherine that he wants a divorce and proceeds to move in with Tina and has lived with her for the last 3 months. In an effort to get Tina out of his mind before he leaves Katherine Tom makes love to Katherine and now Katherine is 3 months pregnant with their first child. About a month after Tom leaves Katherine runs into Jeremy, the man who she has known since they were 12 (they are now 28). They were childhood sweethearts and had dated for several years until when Jeremy was injured during a professional game (he is a professional athlete) and Katherine went to the hospital to visit him the nurse told her that Jeremy was in with his girlfriend. When Katherine heard this, she never entered the hospital room. Now, during the current situation, the mixup is uncovered and they realize that Jeremy never was unfaithful to her, he was in with the team trainer and had told the nurse he couldn’t wait to see his girlfriend (Katherine). Katherine starts to let herself fall for Jeremy when Tom finds out that she is pregnant with their child and asks their pastor for a meeting between the pastor, Katherine, and himself because he has realized all that he is leaving behind.
We don’t know yet whether or not Tom wants to come back, but here is the question for you to answer, let’s assume Tom does want to come back and he leaves Tina, what should Katherine do?
A couple of Bible passages come to mind as I think about this:
Remember, don’t just be a spectator, let me know what you think…