Eric Bailey's

I am tired. We have lots to do in the next couple of days to get ready for my wife's parents moving into our house. I am tired because we just finished our big weekend church retreat.

It was a good weekend, we accomplished a lot in our discussion times. We had some fun, random activities after all the sessions were over. It was kind of different with no planned games time. I liked the freedom it created. We also had a couple of nights where a group of us sat up till the wee hours of the night discussing life, church, and anything else that we felt like bringing up.

I have some work to get done this week in organizing and summarizing the things that were discussed. This is important to get done quickly so we can finish our planning and actually get to the doing. The doing is what we all are looking forward to.

Football Update:
Our team played a "B" division team again. This team is one that we have always been competative with. Unfortunately I
dropped a couple of passes that could have resulted in the score being very different. They changed up the coverage after I kept beating the one defender. The funny part is that the guy who was covering me was pretty fast. We came close in this game, but we couldn't finish our drives and that is a big problem that we have to fix for the next game.

Our next game is on Monday (long weekend) and it will be against a "C" division team so the score should be better.

I feel rather up beat about this year's family camp. It hasn't worked out because of some big plan of mine, but it does seem that the younger leaders of the church are beginning to take over things and be allowed to do so. No one has pushed us about the food or the scheduling that we are doing. I guess that makes this the first of "our" family camps. What does this mean for the fall? Are we becoming a little more free? I think so. I think that the younger leaders might be given their space to work and build the church how we see it for the next few years.

I feel positive about this stuff right now, even though most of the work for this has fallen on to one person.

The only concern I have is that my positive feeling won't last and I wonder how I will respond as my mood falls this new school year.

I am already looking at attending another conference in Texas this year (if we can afford it). It is good for me to get away to these things and come back full of ideas, and plans or at least feeling better than when I left. It used to be that I would go away to these and I would start things when I got back. Last time I came back I wasn't quite starting new things, but I was feeling better and that is always a good thing.

Well at the end of this week a bunch of us from our church (most of the church) goes off to Family Camp. We spend the weekend out at a camp location where we can spend time together and discuss topics together, but mostly just hav fun. There seems to be so much work that has to happen to make this event seem to just happen. Meals planned, shopping done, weekend scheduled - meals, cooks, dishwashers, activities, and speaking. This year I have been involved in more than any previous year. This week I have to go pick up the key! I almost forgot.

Football update - We lost our first game this past week making our record 2-1-0. Not a bad record and our loss was to a second division team which when you consider that we are a third division team is not too bad. The problem is that they beat us so dominantly that it kind of crushes some of my hopes that we are becoming a team that could move up to the second division in a year. We faced two of the three other teams in our division and crushed them (one of them we beat by 30+ points so the game ended early). Next weekend we play another division 2 team to test our skill with. Hopefully things will go much better than 31-0 (we did play into the 4th quarter).

This week is basically going to be filled with preparation for our church family camp. I have taken on more roles with this than I have in the past. Usually I have shown up and done things, but not been to involved in the behind the scenes. This year the people who usually have done that are taking a break. The good thing is that I am not alone in this in that a couple of others are taking over some of the preparations as well.

Luckily I don't have to prepare to do the speaking for the weekend since my father-in-law is going to do the two Saturday sessions, leaving me to be prepared for Sunday morning. I just need to finish the sermon for tomorrow, and then I can think about the sermon for the next week. I think that I will be preaching 5 weeks in a row with this schedule.

We only have two weeks before we usually have Sunday School start, but I am not sure how prepared we are to start it. We have teachers for two of the three classes plus we have people who could teach the adult class. We have to figure out who can teach the most difficult class, 2-SK. It is a wide age range, with a variety of interests. I don't think that this is a group that I could step in and teach like I think I could with the other two classes (although the one would have my son and that would make the class just a little more difficult for me).

In October there is a gathering for preachers in Texas that sounds kind of interesting but I cannot find enough information about it to know whether I really would like to go or not.

I am also looking at the Family & Marriage Therapy program in Calgary. They look like they may be flexible for distance education and may have summer classes. They would also be significantly cheaper than Athabasca which only offers a normal Masters' in Psychology. I need to get on contacting these people to try and get my facts straight and then maybe start taking classes asap.

I just had a cousin and her husband stop in and stay the night. It has been fun the last little while we seem to have become a good place to stop for people we know (and some we don't) who are passing through town. I like having visitors, although I would like to spend more time with some of these people to actually get to know them again. However I understand the desire to keep moving down the road too.

I am just about settled enough from our last trip to be thinking about the next ones again. Actually I am getting a grip on the various tasks that I have no time to finish before the deadline is up. I know that our trip at Christmas is being planned as a quick trip to Minnisota somewhere, but I would like to make Victoria a destination at some point. Oh yeah, after Christmas our next trip is to Florida with some friends of ours. It sure looks like I won't be planning any trips soon.

Another cool destination to me would be to go east to PEI or even as far as Newfoundland. I have been to PEI before and most of the eastern provinces, but not to Newfoundland. When I was about my oldest sons age we did a summer trip across Canada from Victoria to PEI/New Brunswick/Nova Scotia (which ever is further east). My dad and brother rode motorcycles while my mom and cousins (and aunt and uncle) took a van. I alternated between the van my dad's bike. We met up with my cousins in Winnipeg so I was on a bike from Victoria to Winnipeg before I started alternating. That was a fun and memorable trip. Maybe in a couple years we can take the trip from here east on bikes. We have the bikes all we need is the time and the preparation. That would be a fun trip.

I still don't feel totally back from vacation. We had a fun time, and did a lot of different things which was good. Somehow I just can't seem to get my head back into what I am doing here. We are supposed to be making big plans for the fall and yet I am not dreaming like I was last spring. Something has changed in me. I may just be tired, but my whole self seems to be that way. I think that I need to dream with some of the other dreamers again, or maybe we just need to start doing things again to start dreaming again.

The new touch-football season has started. Actually this past week was the second week of football. I missed the first week. This week we played an established rival, a team that has been in the league almost as long as our team. We beat by 30 points by the end of the 3rd quarter (which means we did not play the 4th). While I did not catch a touchdown, I caught a couple of long balls and I caught 3 - 2 poiont conversions (you get 6 for a touchdown and either one or two for the conversion which is the play right after a touchdown). I also intercepted their only attempt at a convert (they only scored one touchdown). We are off to an 2-0 start. Next week I guess is the real test since we play a team that is in the b divsion and we are a c division team. Brace yourselves for my weekly updates as football season goes for the next couple of months.

I suppose I should finish what I promised, a quick run through of our holidays, since I was not able to give updates while we were away.

We were not able to leave on Sunday afternoon or Monday afterwards, but had to wait till Tuesday July 26th until we could go. As we were driving down the road we suddenly both agreed that we would like to take a short cut through the states to get to Regina. The trip felt quicker that the traditional route that takes us through Winnipeg. I liked it. The next day while waiting in Regina at my wife's grandfather's house (waiting for her parents to catch up with us coming from Dauphin), we took a quick trip to Dog River. Our boys enjoyed looking around and seeing the different buildings that are used for the TV show (Corner Gas).

We went to Calgary on Thursday, and checked into Fairmont on Friday. On Sunday the girls left us. They went to a wedding in Calgary while me, and my two boys and my father-in-law were left to fend for ourselves. I was planning on just cooking up some spaghetti since the ground beef was already cooked, and the sauce and the noodles would take very little to cook. The plan was changed somewhere and the roast was thawed. So I had to cook a roast. I cook a lot of basic things, but I don't do the roasts. Anyone who has eaten at my house, if you have had a roast it was my wife who cooked it. I did my best and some people gave compliments, but I thought the meat was too hard and the potatoes did not have enough flavor to them. I enjoy far more the roasts my wife makes.

It was after the busy weekend that I started learning the difference that clubs make in the game of golf. I have had a mish-mash set of clubs (the most expensive was a $45 driver, the rest were about $5 each). I could score a consistent 125 (for those who don't know much - like me - par is usually about 72). I sold those clubs in the garage sale and then when I cut my hand I also bought clubs for $65. I couldn't check them out until my hand healed.

My first game with my new clubs was done on a nine hole par 3 course (par 3 course means it should only take three hits per hole, and your first hit should put you on the green where you putt from). My father-in-law and I lined up and hit and at the end of the game I put the ball on the green 5 out of 9 times and I think I got two pars. I couldn't putt worth a hill of beans.

My second game was at a Par 66 course (which means that there was only one hole that was a par 5 and those are the best opportunities to beat the par suggestion). I scored a 94 hitting a wonderful par onthe 9th hole, on in two and only a two putt. It was here that I discovered that I could basically play this game. I don't know if I even count as a beginner anymore.

My last game was only 9 hole, but it was on a full course. I hit a lot of long shots and fairly straight (although I do not always aim my body in the exact right direction). A bogey is one over par and in nine holes I did eight of them (mostly because of my putting). The one bad one was 9 shots on a par 5 hole.

I have brain meltdowns while I play golf. Usually it happens around hole 11 or 12 where I just can't quite concentrate and so my hits can get erratic. On the par 66 I had to work through this and get my swing back. I did. On the full course, I had my meltdown on hole 5 or 6 where I too 6 shots just to get to the green. I hit poorly and then took three putts just to end the embarassment.

All this to say I like my new clubs, but I need a putter (one that aims for me).

Me and the boys came home last night (or was that this morning?). We left Regina and drove straight through (except for a little side trip to Fort Qu'Appelle where my friend took my boys swimming and so I had to wait a while before we could hit the road again). I did not really have trouble staying awake and I am not sure why. Whatever works, we made here in one piece, and I only saw one animal (I think it was a young Moose) and he was standing on the side of the road watching the cars go by. I'm home, but my mind is not back yet, I think I left it in Winnipeg or Dryden, maybe even Fort Qu'Appelle where I left my hat. I need sleep.

I am just posting a quick note. There has not been much opportunity for internet here. It is expensive and difficult to find. I find that surprising. It also means I have had to spend more time outside!

I will update everyone on my golf scores and my other adventures once we get back to T-Bay and I can write with ease and no time pressures. The holiday is almost over and I should get back to it.