Greg Adkins

The Bachelor

Well, if the Bachelor had a really cute four year old boy with him at all times, that would be a good description of me this weekend. Jessica just left for some girl time with Nancy and Mandy up in Kentucky... it's just Connor and I until Sunday afternoon. We're already having a great time. Connor helped me make a pie (the first pie I've made in a couple of months) and we're both counting down the minutes until we can try some... it's a chocolate pudding pie and unfortunately, it won't be ready to eat until around 9:00 tonight. I've made some good pies and I've made some bad pies... I think this one's going to be on the good side of things. So simple... that's usually a good thing.

When Connor wakes up from his nap (which is the only reason I have time to type) we're going to cash in his token jar. He earns tokens for helping out around the house and when his token jar is full he gets to take a trip to Toys R Us for a prize. He's going back and forth between a Wonder Pets playset and a new Thomas Train. What I wouldn't give to have that be the hardest decision I have to make every day.

Other than that, there isn't much to report. It's Friday, it's my day off, and I'm taking it easy... tomorrow I think we might go to the zoo. It's "Big Truck Day" and they're having all kinds of heavy machinery there for the kids to see. Come to think of it, I've always wanted to sit in a bulldozer... maybe this will be my chance.

The Goose Attack - Connor's Version

A Heart as Wide as the Sea

My wife has had a rough week. Nothing particularly awful has happened but the weight of being a working mom has just been a little bit heavier this week than it usually is. It's the end of the school year and the freedom of summer is close enough to taste but still far enough away to break your heart if you think about it too much. Monday night she didn't get home until after 9... Tuesday night it was around 8 but I had to leave at 8:30 to go play tennis with some friends. Then last night I had band rehearsal and didn't get home until around 9:30. The crazy schedule and the lack of being together has led to this being a really tiring week.

I tell you that so I can tell you this.... last night when I got home, Jessica and Connor were just getting home too. They had been to Walmart to pick up a few things. I took the dogs outside and then checked email and came in the kitchen and she had strawberries out all over the counter and a big thing of melted chocolate going. I asked what was up and she said we were making chocolate covered strawberries for Connor's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Sometimes in an unexpected moment, the love you have for a person just snaps into perfect focus and all the reasons you love them come at you all at once. Here was someone who was in a bad mood, exhausted, and probably wanted nothing more than to just go to bed. Instead of doing just that, here she was making chocolate covered strawberries at 10:00 at night. I'm pretty sure Teachers Appreciation Week isn't a well known event (did you know this was it?) and I know for sure that Connor's teachers would have been happy with just a card or a cheap little box of chocolates or something. But that's not how Jessica is wired. When it comes to giving and letting people know they are appreciated, she goes all out all the time.

I stood there for a minute watching her work... letting Connor taste the chocolate, meticulously arranging the strawberries on skewer sticks into a pretty arrangement, telling Connor not to lick all the chocolate off of the strawberries... and for just a moment, it all became clear. I'm so fortunate to be married to such an amazing mom, such a beautiful woman, and such an amazing person with a heart as wide as the sea.

I Love Being a Dad

People who know me well know that I do a lot of things... I've always been someone who changes hobbies rather frequently. Throughout my life at one point or another, I've been consumed by basketball, tennis, raquetball, fantasty football, reading, songwriting, practicing guitar, vintage keyboards, selling on ebay, theremins, accordions, baseball cards, girls, PCs, macs, pie making, darts, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, you get the idea.

All that to say, nothing tops being a dad. If you don't know my son Connor, he's completely awesome and we have the best times together. A couple of funny things happened in the past two days I thought I would share.

1) Yesterday I took him to the Fountain City Duck Pond to feed the ducks. We've been many times and it's always a lot of fun... the ducks swim around and swarm to eat the bread we throw in the nasty pond. Anyway, on this day the ducks weren't hungry and we saw four big geese over in a grassy area. I told Connor we should go try to feed them and Connor took off towards them. I think the geese saw this as a threat because one of them went into full on attack mode. It was one of those "I wish I had my video camera" moments... that goose went absolutely berserk on Connor. It started hissing and squawking and charged straight into Connor knocking him to the ground. The goose then started pecking Connor in the stomach... it happened so fast I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. I swung my big garbage bag full of bread around my head slingshot style and slapped the goose gone wild right in the neck. It knocked him down and I was able to scoop Connor up and we ran back to safety. That probably sounds more heroic than it looked... I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to hit the ducks but I'm also pretty sure they're not supposed to eat your children... as Ben would say on Lost "They changed the rules".

Connor was obviously completely freaked out and was crying pretty hard... he threw his bread in the direction of the ducks and screamed "You ducks are mean! I'm not a snack!" Traumatic, but also completely hilarious.

2) Tonight when Connor and I got home from school, Jessica wasn't home yet. I asked Connor what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to play hide and seek. We both hid a couple of times in all the usual places. Most times, on about the 3rd round or so, I try to pick a really good spot he wouldn't think of and then I jump out and scare him. Pretty standard hide-and-seek with a 4 year old technique.

Tonight I decided to hide behind a pile of pillows in the living room and when Connor came around the corner, I jumped out and roared my very best monster roar. I thought that would be pretty funny. Well, Connor's hands immediately went to his bottom and a look of terror broke out on his face. He ran as fast as he could to the bathroom and by the time I got in there he was already on the potty filling it up. His pants were... well, let's just say they're in the washer now. So yes, I quite literally scared the crap out of him.

So yeah... two stories that Connor probably isn't laughing at too much but I just can't help it... both of them were totally hilarious. Like I said... I love being a dad!

(note to Jessica: I also love being a husband!)

What???

Here is an exchange that took place in our house last night:

We were getting ready to leave to go to a Bible study and I was ironing a new shirt to put on.

JESSICA: What are you doing?
GREG: I'm ironing a new shirt.
JESSICA: Why are you changing, that shirt looks good on you.
GREG: Because I rode my bike in the hot sun today and this shirt smells like a hamburger that was left on a boat.

silence...

JESSICA: WHAT???????

I may have gone green, but I ain't no hippie

So today was earth day and I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life I actually gave that fact a second thought. Jessica has been on a real "green" kick for the past few months. I'll admit... I was one of those people who thought it was just for dirty hippies and tree huggers. But... listening to some really excellent preaching on creation care and how God views the creation and how we have been entrusted to care for it has changed my ways. I exaggerate a bit... I wasn't anti-green really, I just wasn't proactive about it in any way... but now, mainly thanks to Jessica, we've begun to change some things.

So, today for earth day, I decided to do a few things. First of all, instead of driving to lunch I rode my bike. About a 2.5 mile trip down Emory road... would have been great except I was misinformed on how far the sidewalk went. Trying to navigate the curves down by the train tracks on a bicycle wasn't the smartest move I've ever made... I about got run down by a Pepsi truck. Still, it was nice to be out in nature and it was an absolutely beautiful day.

After that, I drove down to the Halls recycling center where they were giving away big recycling bins. I put one of them in the church's copy room for paper recycling. Our church does not do any recycling to my knowledge and we go through a LOT of paper. 500 bulletins every Sunday and I'm certain that almost all of them end up in the trash. If we could just recycle our paper it would be a great start.

I'd like to hear some other ideas of how a rather large church that really doesn't do ANYTHING can start to take steps towards going green. I believe that Christians need to get our heads out of the sand and start leading the charge on environmental issues. Heck, if I can do it, anybody can. Seriously... I'd love to hear any suggestions on what we could do at Powell. It's one thing to change what I do at home but I think we could make a much larger impact by changing what we do at church.

So am I a hippie now? Let's see... did I bathe today? Check. Do I still hate Widespread Panic? Check. Am I still not the owner of a hacky sack? Check. Have I played a djembe in the past 24 hours? Nope. Are there any illegal substances in my car? Not unless you can smoke a 6 month old Wendy's chicken nugget.

Looks like I'm in the clear. I guess you can care about the environment and not be a giant hippie. Who knew?

Over the Mountain

I'm leaving in a couple of hours to go to a marriage retreat with the love of my life Jessica. This is the first time we've ever done anything like this... we're not sure what to expect. We're staying in an amazing hotel (The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC) so at the very least, we know that will be cool. More than anything, after the constant business of the past few weeks, I'm looking forward to being able to just relax and breathe.

So... if you need me, you'll have to wait until Tuesday. The cell phone will be off and the laptops are staying home.

Insane Week

Twice every year I run sound for the Christian Academy of Knoxville's musical theater department. This week it's the high school musical and I've had to be out there for about 4 hours every night this week and that will continue until Saturday night. It's exhausting working all day and then going to do that until 10:00 every night but it pays well enough that I can't really turn it down. They have a pretty amazing musical theater department as far as high schools go... great bunch of kids.

Last night we had worship band rehearsal at 9:00 which is 2 hours later than usual. We're doing an all acoustic setup this week and I can't tell you how edgy I was all day yesterday wondering if it was going to come together or sound like junk. I need to learn to chill out... the rehearsal went great and I think it's going to be a really great Sunday. The instrumentation will be me on acoustic, Rob on bass, Tim on mandolin and acoustic guitar, my brother Adam on cajon, djembe, congas, trap kit, shakers, and tamborine, Adam Whipple on piano and accordion, my new friend Rose on violin, and Sarah, Andrea, and Michelle on vocals. Should be a lot of fun.

I didn't get home though until midnight. I'm completely wiped out today so I guess it's a good thing I get Thursdays off. I'm going to relax and spend the day with my little man... at least until I have to go run sound tonight.