Garth Brooks: Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

I went to see Garth Brooks with Art & Terri Mace (family 1st, great friends 2nd), and we had a blast.  The light show, the theatrics, the sound, the songs.  What a tremendously fun and memorable night.  It is now my new 3rd favorite concert of all time.  Shania Twain is still #1, and Michael W. Smith is still #2.

The show lasted well over 2 hours, he played every one of the hits; and seeing the energy of the band and from Garth himself was amazing.

It was nice of Garth too to cap the tickets at $75, and we did get really good seats on the upper left side.

If he has not yet been to your town ~ plan on going when he is close by ~ you won't be sorry.

A great memory for the ages.

Wounded Warrior Project: Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

In honor of Memorial Day, please consider giving to this great cause. You can give a one-time donation, or join with an on-going monthly donation of only $30 per month.

The real-life stories of lives changed is truly inspirational.  I double-dog dare you to spend 7 minutes on the website, and 'try' not be moved, touched, and humbled by the stories of these men and women and what the WWP means to them and their families.

Over 90% of your donation goes directly to helping these Warriors.

Truly, a GREAT cause worth donating too.

 I am proud to be an American when I know these guys (and gals) had my back.

Perfect Smiles: Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

The original 4 of our family; sans grandchildren, and before in-laws and out-laws (yes, we have one set of each).

Top, from left: Angela Corinne (34), Pappy (57), Nini (25)*, and Jacqueline Renee (36). 

*Nini takes a daily anti-aging serum that takes years off of her age at each birthday! 

Lots of money was spent by my parents for my perfect smile.  Lots of money from my wallet paid for Jackie and Angela's perfect smiles.  And Pam was blessed to have a perfect smile without the need for expensive dental work.

Other than the perfect smiles, you might not know that my daughter's came from the same set of parents, but I promise they did.  They are my night and day.  They are as different in looks as they are in personality, and yet I easily find my 50% contribution to their DNA soup in each one of them.  God's sense of humor is in play.

I love you girls!

I am a blessed man.

My Beauties! Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

Angela, my youngest daughter, helped to produce two of the best looking daughters known to the world; the level of beauty not seen since she and her sister Jackie had been produced 34 & 36 years ago :-)

As you might remember, this is Ava Corinne (9), and Emma Jo (7)(next month), and this is a random compilation of some of my favorite morning pictures from this school year.

Angela is so faithful to send me (and Pam) a photo every morning of what the girls look like before they head out to school.  I look forward to the picture every day, and I do get sad in the summer, as the pictures stop.  A few times this year, the girls sent me video's of their morning clothes, and that was way cool too.

I love these girls with all my heart.  They are my dueling diva's, but man oh man are they precious.  And when Spaz locks lips with me, it sends me into orbit.  I melt at the ankles.  It does for me with Ava too, but let's just say that she is much more on the reserved side when it comes to doling out kisses (like her Mom, and like her Nini); whereas Emma Jo is over the top (like her Paps). :-)

I love you girls; hope you can stay the night again with me soon! I have a special dinner and breakfast planned just for you!

I am a blessed man.

WP: Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

I have been away from blogging for 5 full months now, and hopefully over the next 20-30 blogs, you will better understand my story of "why" as I will randomly disperse the personal happenings of 2015.  I have missed it dearly, but I have kept many pics and ideas for subjects that I will write about. After spending an hour on a lazy Sunday morning looking at pics, I decided that WP was a great place to re-start my blogging journey.

As I was looking through my phone photo albums, I was stuck in the ones with my g'kids (shocker), and all of the multitudes of great memories that I have with them.

Last Friday, we had dinner with Jackie's family, and as is typical of Will, it was a quiet meal from him, with him hardly saying a word, but looking so kissable that I could barely keep my lips off of him.

So pretty, so quiet, so shy, so demure, and with such a smirk.  Most of those adjectives are reserved for girls/women.  But, they fit WP to a T.

Out of the 100's of photo's of each of my g'kids that are on my phone, these are 7 of my favorites of WP.

I love you Will Parker.  You (as well as the others) steal my heart each time I have time to sit and think about, and each time I get to see you.  My gosh, my "hands Kueny" is now a 3rd grader.  Wow.

I am such a blessed man.

The Gift

My year was made this week as WP (Will Parker) called to tell me that he had accepted Jesus into his heart, and that he got saved.  He said "Pappy, I will never go to Hell, I will always be in Heaven."  And I said, "That is absolutely right WP, and Hallelujah!"

He had received the ultimate Christmas present.  The free gift.

Tomorrow is a mystery, with nothing known nor guaranteed.  Yesterday is in the history books; never to be repeated, and whatever did happen can never be repeated.  Today is the present.  The only thing that we have to live for.  We can't live in the past, we can only dream of the future; but we must live in the present.

The present.  Present as in today, and present as in a gift.  What a perfect allegory for Jesus.  He came to earth to be born, which we celebrate today, so that He may present himself as our gift.  Our free gift into Heaven.  As you exchange presents today, think about the free gift that Jesus gave to each one of us.  It is not earned, nor deserved.  We simply have to ask for it, and it is free for the taking.

WP now owns his fire insurance for life at age 8, and as he grows and matures into a young man, I have complete confidence and belief that Jesus will also become his Lord too, in addition to his Saviour. 

Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour.  Thank you Jesus for adding to the heritage of our family this week.

I am such a blessed man.  Merry Christmas!

Books

This year, for the 2nd year in a row, the total number of books that I read throughout the year dropped.  This time to only 17 books read for the year.  I love to read, though I just do not make enough time to do it.  I remember not to many years ago exceeding 50 books a year, but that is now more than my combined total for the last 2 years.

I am announcing here, today, that I am going to write a book, a novel.  I do not know the title, or the whole story, but I have a few pages of ideas.  Page 1 is complete, only 400 pages left to go.  How long will it take to write the other 400 pages?  Who knows; maybe 1 year, maybe 5 years, but I will.

I've never written a book before, though with the length of some of my blogs; a few of you think that I have.  I anticipate the real challenge to be in getting the book published.  Stay tuned for updates ~

From only 17 books to choose from, it was somewhat difficult to cull through and deem 10 of them worthy for my yearly top 10 of reading.

10.  Then Again, by Diane Keaton.  A very enjoyable auto-biography.  I liked it because I like her as an Actress; though I do not like her as an Activist.

09.  The Informationist, by Taylor Stevens.  This is her first book.  It is a quick read, a thriller paced along the lines of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'.  Taylor's story is inspirational, as she was raised in a cult from which she escaped, and only educated through the 6th grade.  To now be an author, she has made quite the life changing turn around.

08.  Never Trust A Liberal Over Age 3, by Ann Coulter.  This is my least favorite of Ann's books, as there is really nothing new that has not already been said many times over in her previous 7 books.  But, it was a fun book, full of politically righteous venom. 

07.  Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.  This was a fascinating book about how we think, how we make decisions, and how we do it in a 'blink'.  It is one of those type of books that you will want to re-read.

06.  Crossroads, by W. Paul Young.  This is a Christian based book on faith, and the unseen spirit world.  It was hard to put down, and was a very quick read in one day.

05.  Killing Patton, by Bill O'Reilly.  Hugely entertaining and historical.  Astonishing detail with actual battlefield accounts of WW2 for each year of the war.  Several depressing parts involving Hitler and Stalin that I skipped over, as the stories of brutality and savagery choked me up.  If you love history (as I do), this is a must read.

04.  Valley Forge, by Newt Gingrich.  Wow, what an amazing book.  Excellent writing.  To hear the stories about Washington re-created and explained through the winter of 1777; you feel as you are living through it with them.  This is another absolute must read if you love history.

03.  Killing Kennedy, by Bill O'Reilly.  It is amazing how close Kennedy came to blowing it with the Cuban missile crisis.  And had he, it is most likely that today we would either be speaking Russian, or we would have been incinerated faster than the blink of a eye and never reading this blog in the 1st place.

I loved reading again about PT-109 which I did a book report on in 6th grade.  If you are offended though by rampant sex, with multiple 100's of acts of infidelity; then it might be hard to read this book as it names names, places, and times.  I had always thought that FDR or Clinton were the head philanderer's in chief, and that Kennedy was in 3rd place.  After reading this book though, history records that FDR and Clinton are distant 2nd and 3rd places for sexual conquests while in office.       

02.  Breakout, by Joel Osteen.  This is a spiritually uplifting book written in Joel's typical upbeat, smiling, and positive outlook on life kind of way.  It is impossible to read this book and not have your spirits lifted, your mind renewed, and your life refreshed.

01.  41, by George W. Bush (43).  This is President Bush writing a memoir about his Dad President Bush.  It is warm, sincere, gut wrenching with family death, funny, savvy, and chock full or hero's and heritage.  It is an incredible journey, and so well written.  I loved this book.

~

What were some of your favorite books for '14?

I've already bought my starting inventory of 12 books for '15, and I know without a doubt that at least 3 of them are going to make my top 10 for '15.

Until then....