On the Road Again.....

Willie Nelson shared his love for travelling when he sang the words to "On the Road Again" in the movie Honeysuckle Rose in 1980. While Willie may have loved to travel and make music with his friends, I on the other hand am not that found of being on the road again. Unless, it's the stretch of travelling I am about to make over the next two months. Here's a preview:

This weekend I will travel to Dallas and represent ACU at an alumni reception in Garland where somewhere around 4,000 church of Christ folks will gather for the North Texas Praise and Unity Service. We're going to host a reception for all ACU alumni in attendance. The next night, I will partner with the admissions office when one of our alumni in Dallas will host a Purple and White Reception for prospective students to learn more about ACU.

The first week in May will find Shawna and I in Malibu, California for the Pepperdine Lectures. I will visit with several alumni from the area and will host a reception for all ACU alums that are attending the Bible lectures. This will be my third trip to Pepperdine and our reception has grown in size each year. This year, our good friends Kevin and Sarah Campbell will be there as Sarah is speaking a few times to teenagers in attendance. We look forward to hanging out with them some and eating some good seafood. I just hope we can find a restaurant that Kevin will eat at.

When we return from California, Shawna and I will spend a couple of nights celebrating our 6-year anniversary at a resort in Grandbury called Rough Creek. I've never been there but I hear it's wonderful.

The next day I will travel to Tyler to play in the East Texas Christian Academy golf tournament benefitting ETCA. This will be the 4th year in a row that I've played in this tournament. This is one of the tougher parts to my job!

I'll return from Tyler and have about 10 days in Abilene before Shawna, Austin and I will go to Leakey, TX for the wedding of Shawna's assistant coach, Terri Twilligear to Nich Pertuit. I'm really excited for Nich and Terri to get married and for Nich to be in Abilene. Nich's been in San Antonio for the entire two years Terri's been at ACU. I'm planning on Nich being my personal trainer so that I can some day get this 37 year old body back into some kind of shape!

We'll return from Leakey and have 1 day in Abilene before Shawna and Austin and I will fly to Playa del Carmen Mexico to vacation with Shawna's mom and stepdad (Sharmane and Neil) and Neil's two sons. We have a huge house with a cook and a maid for 6 days. Wow!!

After returning from Mexico, I'll head back to Dallas to play in another charitable golf tournament for ACU. I know.......

After that, I'll be back in Abilene for 7 days before leaving for my most anticipated trip this year. Kevin Campbell, Garrett Sublette and I will fly to Pittsburgh and will be at the US Open golf tournament on June 13-15. We'll get to be at the famed Oakmont Country Club and watch the Wednesday practice round and the first two rounds of the 2nd major of the season for the PGA. Having the opportunity to watch the likes of Tiger, Phil, Goosen, Furyk, etc, on golf's most challenging course is going to be awesome. And, on top of that, the Texas Rangers are playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in interleague action that Tuesday - Thursday night. So, it will be golf during the days and baseball at night. It just doesn't get a whole lot better than that!

Upon returning from Pittsburgh, I plan to sleep for quite a while!

A Master-ful Weekend

What a great weekend. First of all, I'd like to petition ACU to incorporate 3-day weekends every week. Even though the weekend was cold and filled with snow, we had a great time just hanging out and spending time as a family. On Friday, we cleaned house and made the place look liveable again. It's amazing how a family of 3 can destroy a house in so little time. On Friday night, Kevin and Sarah Campbell came over for dinner and we explored money-making opportunities through developing small businesses. Well, at least Kevin and I did. I think Sarah and Shawna got bored with that conversation really quickly.

On Saturday, we hung around the house and watched it snow most of the day. We did make a quick trip to the mall just to walk around and get out of the house. Of course, we were home in time to watch the Master's on television.

On Sunday, we got up and went to church. This was Austin's first Easter but he didn't seem too excited about it. After church, Shawna made one of the best meals I've ever eaten: Rasberry-Chipotle Pork Loin, Cheesey Mashed Potato Bake, Broccoli and Cheese Casserole, Rolls and Hot Apple Crisp for dessert. She made enough to feed an army so if you're in the neighborhood, stop by. There's plenty of leftovers.

After lunch, Shawna and Austin left for Fort Worth. Shawna had a Lone Star Conference basketball head coaches meeting on Monday morning. She took Austin so my mom and dad could spend a little time with him. They'll come home tonight. I think Shawna thinks I was eager for them to go so I could spend the afternoon on the couch watching 4 hours of uninterrupted coverage of the Master's golf tournament. While I enjoyed the golf, it sure was quiet around the house. And speaking of golf, I was so pumped to see Zach Johnson win his first major. What an awesome guy. If you didn't see it, he was so humble and made many references to his faith. He has a great opportunity to use his life as a testimony to God. I may have a new favorite golfer.

Here are a couple of pictures of Austin on Easter morning. Have a great week!