I haven’t blogged in awhile…

23Jul08

I have been busy with school, real estate and work, this has not left me a lot of free time. I have had a lot going on in my life. I don’t think I have enough space to share it all. I am working on a paper for school and I have really struggled with it. I have had trouble concentrating on my work and getting past the issues in my life. My professor has been wonderful in working with me through this busy and difficult time.

I have three courses left until graduation. I cannot wait until the educational experience is over. It has been a wonderful experience and I have learned so much, but I need a reprieve. I am excited about getting to read my choice of reading materials for a change. Just sit back and read at my leisure with no paper attached to the reading.

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As I sit here at my desk…

03Jun08

I am sitting here at my desk at the real estate office, my mind is drifting in thought, when I should be working. I cannot help but think about my friend John Dobbs in this time of loss. You can read his thoughts about the death of his son at his blog site. The link is on my page.

John is a wonderful guy who really has been a friend to so many. For many of us, the man John Dobbs became known to us because of horrible storm named Katrina. He and the congregation where he was preaching worked tirelessly to help those in need and to help restore the community to some normalcy.

Because of his loss, I have thought a lot about my family lately. I love my family so much and cannot imagine what life would be like without them. I need to be more coherent to the needs of my wife and kids. I wish all of you would pray for John Dobbs and his family while they go through this time of heartache and pain. John I want you to know that I do not know what to say except that I love you and am praying for you.

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My wonderful wife…

02Jun08

I do not give enough credit to my wife for making me a happy person. Karen supports me in all my decisions and is often my sounding board. She is not quick to criticize but she lets me know when I may be wrong or thinking in the wrong direction.

She is a wonderful mother and a great wife. I could not ask for a better lady. She is beautiful and smart. Thanks honey for the support and love.

 

Klay

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I wanna race…

17May08

I have always been a big race fan. Only stock cars, dirt, etc… no road course racing. Even when I was younger I wanted to race. I would race my 3-wheeler on trails against myself or against a friend. I remember watching Richard Petty on tv a time or two when I was a kid and as I grew older I began to watch NASCAR. My big brother helped foster that love for racing by being a fan and taking me to a NASCAR race at Talledega Super Speedway. Now all these years later I am still watching and loving it. I know I could have been a good driver, but I never really got the chance.

I think now I would like to race with Auston. I would like to start my own race team. I wish I could find a good partner to go into racing with, someone who knows about cars and could teach Auston and I. I would love to learn more about building and repairing racing cars. So if anybody out there is looking for someone to build a race team with, I am your guy. I want to drive and I also have some sponsership and could come up with a little money. I would like to start the ’09 season, but would be willing to wait until ’10 to actually begin racing. I would love to let Auston learn for a few years and then put him behind the wheel. He may have some of my racing blood in him, and if he does he would do well.

Don’t you love dreamin…

But who knows maybe someday

 

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Had a great trip to Missourri to see family

17May08

We had a great trip to Missourri in April. We were only there for a couple of days. Auston killed a great turkey and Abigail and Timmy had fun too. We got to visit with Karen’s dad and other family. Ken and Sue are always a great host and it always fun visiting and catching up on what has been going on. Ken is retired now and spends more time on the farm. Sue is still at the hospital. This is my favorite family visit every year.

 

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We have landed at a new church home

17May08

My family has finally decided on a new church home. The Christian Church of Jacksonville is our new home. It is relatively small, but a great bunch. There is about 40 people or so and growing. Russ Lance is the teaching minister there and does a great job. They have offered me the position of your and worship minister. Karen and I look forward to our time there. There will be more to come later.

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It has been a year…

11Apr08

On the 16th it will have been a year since the loss of our friend. Please be sure and pray for the family during this time. I will be resuming blogging.

God Bless All

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Life goes on…

23Apr07

 

It seems so wrong and inappropriate to move on with life after a friend dies. I know people die everyday and they are close to a lot of people, they are just not close to me so it seems perfectly natural to continue on as if nothing has happened. However, now that it is someone I knew well it seems as if the world does not care that Shannon lost her husband and Allie lost a daddy. I know I still must go to work and I still must take of needs at home and for my family. I know the world cannot stop so that I can deal with the loss of a friend, however long that is. But would it not be nice if everything could cease for a period of time to pay our respects and mourn. Recently I was a part of a funeral for a retired fire chief, as we drove down the road in the fire apparatus, we had our red lights flashing and everyone along JFK Blvd. pulled over and stopped. That is not something you see anymore, I remember as a kid my parents always pulled over for a funeral processions, but anymore only a small portion of the people on the street seem to care enough to do so. I suppose we had such a good response the other day because the presence of the many fire apparatus was kind of overwhelming.

The loss of my friend has made me more aware that others hurt and feel loss just like I did. It happens everyday to someone and I need to be more aware of their loss. What do you think?

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A tribute and memorial to my good friend Doug

21Apr07

jess-douglas-odom-power-point.ppt

I can still remember the first time I met Doug, it was in the 7th grade at C.A.C. Doug and I were both new to the school and played football, we also shared classes together that year. I remember Doug was really easy to talk with, so we hit it off fairly quick. Then in conversation I found out that he had grown up with my cousin, Bryan Diemer, and were really good friends. Our friendship continued through school until graduation. It was only after high school graduation that we had to go our seperate ways. Of course we kept in touch and I always knew what was going on with Doug and Shannon. Shannon and I were also very good friends even before her and Doug started dating. She and I had classes together and also became friends. It made for a great friendship after they started dating because I was friends with both, we did a lot of double dating and hanging out together. I remember our senior year we took a trip to Opryland together, he and Shannon and my girlfriend and I all went, I believe it was for a youth rally that was held there.

I want to tell a few stories that I remember about Doug and I will ask that you leave a comment on my blog concerning Doug. Nothing big, maybe just a funny story or remembrance about him. It was great seeing all of our classmates at the funeral on Thursday, Brad and I had plenty to talk about on the way home.

When we were in the seventh grade Doug and I were still getting to know each other when he told me that his grandfather started Maumelle New Town. (As it was known then) I had only seen the television commercials advertising for Maumelle. I can remember thinking Doug was one of these kids who told big stories in order to impress people and make friends. Beside how do you just start a new city? Then when he told me that his grandfather owned Dogpatch U.S.A. I was really skeptical. My mom confirmed the truth for me and Doug became one of my best friends. I mean Dogpatch, that was the ultimate, a friend who’s grandfather owned an amusement park. Doug’s grandfather also owned the high rise apartment building that you saw in the introduction to Hawaii Five 0. The building that Jack Lord was standing on, I was a fan of the show and that was pretty cool. Only later did I realize that Doug was so business savy at 13 years old. After he gained my trust with all the cool grandpa stories he encouraged me to bring my baseball and football cards to school so that we could “look at them”, aka take advantage of Klay and his lack of baseball knowledge. So I did and Doug convinced me to trade my best baseball cards to him for some mediocre football cards. Oh, it was a fair deal I just did not know any better and he got the better end of the deal. He knew I loved the Dallas Cowboys and he used it against me in the trade. One of the last days I saw him at the hospital we were making plans to go to Dallas this fall and see the Cowboys play.

Doug also had his own football helmet when we started football in the seventh grade, he was the only one. Coach Macelroy issued all the team the school helmets which were solid white, Doug’s helmet was solid maroon. He stood out like a sore thumb but he had the nicest helmet on the field.

In the eighth or ninth grade Doug got the idea to invest in some of these x-ray glasses you see advertised in the back of the comic books. They were made of paper kind of like 3-D glasses. The lens were made of paper as well and the very center was a small red bubble lens. You really could not even hardly see out of them, but like a good salesman Doug began to spread the word around school that he had some x-ray glasses on the way. By the time they arrived he had sold 10 or 12 shares for these silly glasses. A share was 50 cents and that allowed you to borrow them for 1 or 2 class periods. At the end of the whole deal he made about $5 after paying for the glasses.

I also remember going over to Doug’s house a lot in Jr. High. Mrs. Gayle would always buy us pizza from the place next door to the Circle K and we would run around Maumelle without a fear of the police because of Doug’s last name.

When we were a little older and starting to drive Doug would come out to my house to get me. My mom was very strict and Doug could always convince her that it would be okay for me to go with him because he would look out for me. Somehow she bought it every time. He had a way of making the parents love him. If she only knew what we were up to she would have been worried to pieces, however I am sure Doug would have made her feel better about it.

In the eleventh grade we were at Mazzio’s one night after a ball game and the place had nearly cleared out. All that was left were me, Brad Johns, Brad Matchett?, Alan Bessent, Bryan Diemer, Barry Mills, Mike Stecks and maybe some body else and then two men eating at the table next to us. Bryan and Alan began throwing pizza and being loud, go figure huh, Alan threw some pizza and it hit one of the men’s jackets and Alan kind of blew it off. The men didn’t say anthing but finished their beer and went outside. We were finishing at the same time and went out to our vehicles. We were all standing in a group and this guy hollers out at us and when we turn around he is holding a sawed off double-barrel shotgun pointed right at us. He would have hit us all if he would have pulled the trigger. We all froze, I was scared to death, the man was cursing at us about the jacket and threatening to shoot us. Doug walks toward him holding out one hand making the stop sign and began calming the man down. Doug apologized and told the guy it was not worth it, yada yada, Bryan and Alan are idiots for doing that and that they couldn’t help it. The guy put the gun down and we all breathed. We got the heck out of there before the guy changed his mind. Doug was cool as ice that night. Now Bryan may not have been with Alan that night and we really didn’t think they were idiots, at least most of the time, but it was the right thing to say to cool the moment.

I had a broken leg our senior year from a football injury. The day we went to “sell” ads for the yearbook Doug knew I was unable to drive because of my leg. He loaded me in the extra cab of his Toyota truck. I remember he drove as easy as he could because I was in a lot of pain and he knew I was hurting. Doug, Shannon and I went to Poochies to swim in the pool that day with the rest of the crowd. He helped me over to the pool so I could be near the action. He was a very good friend when it came to things of that nature.

I have posted a very short power point slide show of Doug. You will find the link above his pictures. I have a song attached to the show but I am having trouble making it work properly. It will begin to play on the first slide, if you continue to click through the show it will cause the song to stop. So if you want to hear the song sit patiently at the first slide. I did not have many pics of him but I did manage to find a few and I thought I would share them. If you have any you should be able to post it with your comment.

Please tell us something about Doug we may not know or may have forgotten.

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Arkansas Christian Convention

15Apr07

My family attended the Arkansas Christian Convention in Little Rock today at the Central Church of Christ. It was a small but great event. I particularly enjoyed the fellowship with those from First Christian Church in Mena, AR. I also enjoyed the opportunity of talking with Marsha from Pioneer Bible Institute. Marsha and her husband went to a portion of Papuya, New Guinea where there was no written language. They created a written language for them and then taught the community of 10,000 how to read and write it.  They then translated the New Testament into this written language, I believe it was a twenty plus year process. She is now recruiting for Pioneer and fund raising. Pioneer is very interested in our family being a part of the Pioneer team and helping them in New Guinea or another new area such as Siberia. We have wanted to go overseas and do mission work for a long time and patiently wait for the opportunity to do so. We know it will be at least two years and maybe more. So in the mean time our family will pray and continue to prepare ourselves for the work of the ministry.

Central Church of Christ has done a great work with the building where 6th and Izard Church met for years. They have remodled the old gym (original auditorium), it is now a very nice court with a new surface and a nice stage at one end. I was very impressed. It was also good to hear Leon Barnes speak again, I have only heard him a couple of other times since high school. I also saw Jason Burt there at Central this weekend, he is now their Audio/Visual guy and works with the single ministry, he is part-time and still does photography on the side.

www.arcentralchurch.org/

For those of you who did not notice my list of blogs, you will see Jim Gardner in the list. Jim and I went to C.A.C. together, although he was younger than me we were good friends. He is now the preacher in Fresno, CA. He has been out there for about a year now. Check out his blog, you might find something interesting in it.

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