Remembering a friend

(from Bobby)

My brother, Scott, called me Sunday morning to tell me that Michael Wall had been killed in a motorcycle accident. The news saddened me, even though I don't guess I had seen Michael in years.

The Walls -- Clyde, Kay, Bryan, Michael and Patricia -- lived across the street from us when my family moved to Keller, Texas, for Mom and Dad to serve as houseparents at Christ's Haven for Children in 1982. Scott and I immediately became close friends with Michael and his brother, Bryan. All of us were "houseparents' kids," and both our families attended the old Midtown church in Fort Worth, so we had a lot in common. We watched movies together, went on church youth outings together, stayed all night at each other's houses, et cetera. In a world (even at church) where the kids from the children's home weren't considered the coolest, we stuck together.

At some point, we all left home and went our separate ways and didn't see much of each other. I have seen Kay from time to time while going to church with Mom in Keller, but as I mentioned, haven't seen Bryan or Michael or Patricia forever.

But I've been thinking about the old days (the good old days, in a way) a lot since I heard about Michael's accident. My understanding is that he leaves behind a wife and a child. I am so sorry for their loss. And I am so sorry for Clyde and Kay losing a son. Thirty-eight just seems so young -- too young -- to die. My heartfelt prayers and sympathy go out to Michael's family and all those close to him.

Candid camera

Here are some recent pics of the kids, including Keaton learning how to do the weather report on Fox 25 (thank you, Uncle Dave!), Kendall at the zoo with her friend Taylor, and Brady playing his new guitar.

Enjoy!

At our wits end

(from Tamie)

We've talked until we're hoarse, reasoned until we're blue in the face, and still we're making no headway with a certain child and a certain forbidden behavior.

Malibu Redux

(from Tamie. QUICK NOTE: If you are Randy Roper, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. Thank you.)

Five Rosses in Oklahoma minus two Rosses in Malibu equals five Rosses in Oklahoma.

As I like to say, Word People don't have to know math.

Bobby and I are here in beautiful Malibu, Calif., at the annual Pepperdine Bible Lectures. Our children are at home with Bobby's parents. So the equation adds up (boy does it ever!)

Of course, we almost didn't make it here. Bobby tried his best to keep us in Phoenix, to the point of parking us at the wrong gate in a completely different terminal. Had it not been for the friendly Southwest Airlines person who announced a final boarding call for our destination, as well as "ROSS, PARTY OF TWO!" we'd still be sitting in Phoenix. I would seriously love to have video of that moment, when we heard that sentence and looked at each other. Total sitcom material, us flipping out and running down the moving sidewalk thingee.

Oh, and then there was me missing our exit off the 405 in Los Angeles - for the second consecutive year. I'll blame my ringing cell phone, paralyzing traffic, etc.

Really, we have had a great trip. It is wonderful to put faces and voices with names. I'm promoting the online Chronicle in different ways, Bobby is working on a story. We're going to lectures and classes and different events, staying in a beautiful room with a breathtaking view. Tomorrow, we'll work most of the day and then fly home (with both of us verifying gate numbers).

Even a short trip here isn't complete without some beach time, though. So this afternoon during our dinner break, we headed north to Zuma Beach - our personal favorite of the ones we've visited in this area.

Like last year, Bobby HAD to wear his swimsuit and HAD to get wet. I think this video is even funnier than last year's, personally. Sorry it's sideways - user error.

And he went in again.

And now, a few photos taken at elbow's length. 

As an aside, I am wearing jeans and a jacket. It was 60 degrees. The natives are in summer attire, on the beach and in the water. We obviously are not of the same species.

I waffle on whether we'll ever bring the kids with us on this trip. On one hand, they would love it here. On the other, they would love it here. Someday they'll be choosing colleges. Heck, Brady is already getting recruiting letters in the mail!

Being away from our kids is easier with video chat. We were able to count heads, confirm that Papa and Nanney were NOT tied up somewhere and that the house was still standing. Not that the opposite would have pried us out of here any sooner, but otherwise our beach time would have been much more somber. At least I think so.

If you're at Pepperdine, come see us Friday morning at 9:45 in CAC 301. We want your thoughts about our work and some input on future plans! And we'd love to put more names/faces/voices and frigid beach experiences together.

 

 

Happy Anniversary to us!

(That's 18 years for those keeping count.)

I am as random as they come

(from Tamie)

Only five random facts? Just five? Honestly, I am the most random person ever and could easily fill a book.

In no particular order, as a testament to my randomness ...

1. I love cookie recipes. Nothing makes me happier than finding a new cookie recipe, baking up a batch with my kids and having everyone proclaim they are the best cookies ever, which happened today, in fact! We made the winning recipe from this year's Pillsbury Bake-off, which I will happily provide upon request. (Bonus random tidbit: I run from everything else that's remotely domestic except for cookie-baking.)

2. I am easily bored by my hair. I am known to frequently change cuts, styles and colors just to mix things up a bit - and even then I fix it differently almost every day.

3. I really, really want to visit Australia and/or New Zealand. If you'd like to buy my plane ticket, just let me know.

4. I have to sleep on my left side with the covers over my ear. If I'm really cold, as is often the case in my own bedroom because of Chilly Willy, AHEM, I'll pull the covers completely over my head. But I have to have a cool pillowcase against my cheek - go figure. When CW travels, I turn on the ceiling fan, set it on low, and turn the other fan on and point it at the wall, just for familiar white noise.

5. I'm right-handed, but I make left-handed check marks. They're much more interesting, I decided in first grade, and so that's been my MO ever since.

OK, I just re-read Bobby's random facts and now know that I can be a bit more random. Here are two more:

6. My Bible has a giant red Kool-Aid stain on the outside pages courtesy of our first family mission trip. I'm sure anyone who sees my Bible probably thinks it's gross, but it makes me smile all the time. Happy memories.

7. I have no sense of direction at all. I only know east and west as it relates to Quail Springs Mall. Thankfully, Oklahoma City is laid out on a grid. The greater Nashville area ... not so much. I spent the 11 months we lived there driving around in circles. I found many Backyard Burger restaurants that way, however.

Tagged: Seven random facts about myself

(from Bobby, in late-night rambling mode)

Terry tagged me (and Tamie).

Our assignment: List seven random facts about ourselves on our blog, then tag five other bloggers. If you are a blogger and reading this, consider yourself TAGGED. Please stopping tagging yourselves after we reach FIVE.

Tamie is asleep, no doubt dreaming elaborate dreams about David Duncan, pulpits and pizza. So, I'll take the liberty of providing random facts for myself, and Tamie can offer her own sometime when she's awake.

BOBBY'S RANDOM FACTS

1. I am in three fantasy baseball leagues. The Fellowship Fantasy League is a points-based keeper league in its fourth season, meaning that my Ross Rangers score points based on offensive stats each day (such as 1.5 points for a run, four points for a home run, etc.) My team started today in first place (for the first time in a while). "Keeper league" means that we don't redraft every year, but keep and develop players over time through free agent pickups, the waiver wire and trades. My pitching is collecting points "over its head" so far this season, but my offense is pretty nice and should produce all year. My lineup includes the likes of C Russell Martin, 1B Albert Pujols, 2B Chase Utley, SS Jimmy Rollins (with SS Troy Tulowitzski on the bench!), 3B Chipper Jones, OF Ichiro Suzuki, OF Josh Hamilton (budding Texas Rangers superstar) and a number of other stars. I also am in two other head-to-head leagues where teams play each other weekly and you get "wins and losses": My team "Goober's Gamers" are in the Mayberry League and my other "Ross Rangers" are in the Brothers of the Barbecue League. I am so far doing OK in Andy's hometown, but struggling pretty badly in the BBQ world. Alas, enough rambling about fantasy baseball! But it is FUN!

2. I attended two summers of high school journalism summer camp at Abilene Christian University and planned to attend college there until Oklahoma Christian sent a nice recruiter to my house and made me change my mind. I had never been to Oklahoma until the spring of my senior year of high school when I attended a scholarship dinner at Oklahoma Christian. Who knew that I'd meet my wife at Oklahoma Christian, all my children would be born in Oklahoma, and that -- 22 years after my high school graduation -- I could say that I have lived 19 years in the Sooner State?

3. My three years away from Oklahoma were when I worked for The Associated Press for a year in Nashville and two years in Dallas before moving back to Oklahoma in 2005 to join the Chronicle. In a strange way, the best decision I ever made was when I left The Oklahoman after nine years in 2002 and moved away to work for AP. I grew so much as a person and a journalist in my time with AP, and proved to myself that I could succeed in a big-time news environment. So, I have no regrets -- and feel like I am fulfilling my life's calling back "home" in Oklahoma. Monday marks the beginning of my fourth year with the Chronicle. Time flies when you're having fun!

4. I have had "writer's block" lately when it comes to blogging. Not sure why exactly. But the thoughts are flowing tonight, or is it morning? Guess Tamie's frequent posts in recent days have inspired me to contribute myself to "our" blog.

5. Mom and Dad are coming to watch Brady, Keaton and Kendall next week when Tamie and I fly to Los Angeles for the Pepperdine Lectureship. I am looking forward to returning to Pepperdine (it is just such a beautiful campus), but as much as I fly, it always makes me nervous. I like nothing better than LANDING!

6. I sleep with four blankets and two fans running, 365 nights a year (well, as many nights as I'm home). The blankets are necessary because it can get quite chilly with those fans going full blast. My wife thinks I'm NUTS, and maybe I am.

7. I just watched the first four seasons of "JAG" on Netflix and can't wait for season five's release on May 20. Tamie, on the other hand, thinks this is an awful show. She laughs in all the wrong places. In the interim, I have started season one of "NCIS." It appears that my TV critic wife may like this "JAG" spinoff" better than the original.

OK, tagging assignment completed! Well, almost ...

Bonus random fact: The last two digits of my Social Security number are LOW. And I read tonight where my economic stimulus money from Uncle Sam and George W. could be deposited into my account as soon as Monday. Given that we get paid monthly and payday isn't until Wednesday, I must say that an early deposit of economic stimulus money on Monday would not be an unwelcome surprise.

Cheers! Thanks for reading!

Telling on my baby

(from Tamie)

Kendall will be 9 on July 9. We will spend that day driving 900 miles across a big chunk of the U.S. OK, not quite 900, but many more than 9.

So we're planning her birthday party a month early for that reason, and so her friends can more likely make it. She's very, very happy about this. So thrilled in fact, that despite all the dancing around, giggling and other exuberance, she could no longer express her joy to her satisfaction.

"I wish I had a tail," she declared, "so I could wag it."

Boy, don't we all.

By the way, she chose the cute little Dalmatian photo above. While she begged me not to share the story. :)

Telling on myself

(from Tamie)

Last night at church, a friend/awesome mom/general all-around fantastic/kicking tail at the Y kind of girl congratulated me on blogging regularly again.

I had to admit to her it was because Bobby was out of town and I didn't have anyone to listen to all my minutiae.

Since I'm telling on myself today, I'll share the April installment of Crazy Things That Happen to Tamie at Work. (You may remember a previous episode, where I nearly impaled a college student with a bathroom stall door in the Bible building - must look for that link.)

A few weeks ago, I started smelling a strange odor in my office. It smelled like ... well, there's really no way to sugar-coat this. It smelled like a dead animal. It was faint and intermittent, but it was there, by golly.

When you smell something strange, it never fails: You want other people to smell it, too. I have no idea why we're wired this way, but admit it - if you sniff the milk and it doesn't smell so fresh, you need either sympathy or confirmation from the person standing closest to you.

So I mentioned the strange smell to Virginia, who is all about getting to the bottom of weird things that happen (one of the many things I love about Virginia.) She goes into full-on Nancy Drew and starts sniffing around my office. She smells NOTHING. I am completely unprepared for this because Virginia's nose is legendary. We sniff all around. At one point, no joke, I had my NOSE UP AGAINST THE ELECTRICAL OUTLET. Nothing. Tonda comes in and sniffs. Nothing. We recruit random folks to poke their heads in and breathe. Nada.

This goes on for a week or so, on and off, with no one smelling the faint-yet-repulsive dead animal smell except me. Virginia files a maintenance report (poor OC maintenance people, no doubt drawing straws to see who has to climb into the bowels of the Bible building and see what carnage awaits.)

A day or so later, I walk into my closet at home and smell THE TERRIBLE SMELL. Oh my goodness, it has followed me home! I start looking around, sniffing everything in sight. I pick up my new favorite pair of shoes, these cute white leather ones I just bought.

Cue the music. I sniff the tops of my pretty white shoes. Oh my goodness, I about lost my lunch - they smelled AWFUL!

The only conclusion I have is that maybe, possibly, they were treated with some toxic chemical to keep them cute and white. And that when I wore them to work and sat down at my computer for a long time, my nose was close enough to my shoes to detect the awfulness - no one else had the same perspective.

I'm sure you'll all rejoice with me and the OC maintenance folks now that the source of THE TERRIBLE SMELL has been found. I do know how to clear a room ...

Oh-so-strange dream (warning, not for the fainthearted)

(from Tamie)

Last night I dreamed about David Duncan.

I'll pause now and give everyone (especially Barbara) a moment to recover.


.
..
...
....

OK, here's the dream. A whole big bunch of us were at the church in Harrah, Okla., where I grew up. David was preaching that day for some special event.

We were all standing around talking before services, and David told me he was going to do something truly shocking, something that would completely knock people's socks off. Those were his words, folks: shocking and socks.

At the appointed hour (got to love the CoC lingo) he began his sermon. It was completely appropriate and David-esque until ...

He paused. And stepped back. And reached inside the pulpit (there were shelves inside where the sound equipment rested) and pulled out a huge slice of pepperoni pizza. Then he took a big bite.

Everyone was speechless except for me. I began laughing so loudly that I woke myself up.

So I have no idea (a) where David was going with this particular illustration or (b) whether he finished the pizza, because honestly, I don't think pepperoni is his favorite, which of course leads us to (c) why on earth I would dream something like this.

So, always one to look for a little wisdom, I consulted the Google-approved Dream Moods Dictionary.

Pizza

To see or eat pizza in your dream, represents abundance, choices, and variety. It may also indicate that you are lacking or feeling deprived of something.

Why yes, I am deprived of something. PIZZA. Totally makes sense to dream about pizza. But why would David be the one eating it and not me? This makes me wonder about

Church

To dream that you are in a church, suggests that you are seeking for some spiritual enlightenment and guidance. You are looking to be uplifted in some way. Perhaps you have made some mistakes in the past which have set you back on your path toward your goals. With proper support, you will get on the right track again. Alternatively, it may also mean that you are questioning and debating your life path and where it is leading. You are reevaluating what you want to do.

This obviously has something to do with me being a sub-standard third grade Bible class teacher on Wednesday nights. I choose not to blame Mrs. Thomas, my own third-grade teacher (although her husband, who was high school principal, totally busted me at high school graduation when my friend Kelli and I tried to spell out something cute on top of our mortarboards) and therefore suggests

Childhood

To dream of your childhood, indicates your wish to return to a life where you had little responsibility and worries. It also represents innocence. Alternatively, it suggests that certain aspects of your childhood has not yet been integrated into your adult personality. Or on the other hand, some childhood anxiety has yet to be resolved in your adult life.

Well there you go. Obviously David doesn't have the same issues I have. He is perfectly comfortable coming to my childhood church and eating pizza in the pulpit. Then there is the highly controversial

Laughing

To dream that you are laughing, suggests that you need to lighten up and let go of your problems.

Must ponder this more as time allows.