Packed and Ready to Travel

I spent the day at our new church building installing electrical outlets in our new Video Balcony in the sound room.

When I got home this evening I started loading the van for my trip to Greenbrier, Arkansas Saturday morning. I think I just about have everything. I have not gone through my checklist yet.

New Video Balcony

I helped some of the men in the church build a 5' x 16' x 36" high platform in the new sound room today. The platform allows me and the video crew to look out over the heads of the sound men located directly in front of us in the sound room. We only have a 10 foot window to view the auditorium and the stage area from the second floor. So we are double decking the sound room to take better advantage of the view that we have.

Mary Is Doing Much Better From Her Surgery

Mary is not moaning this evening everytime she moves. She even fixed supper this evening. I know she is much better. I did help her with supper and cleaning up the kitchen. She is almost back to normal. Praise the Lord for his healing.

Cleaned Out The New Sound Room

My friend, Wayne Gray, and I cleaned up the new sound room. We carried all the boxes of new sound equipment out to the air handling room. We vacuumed and wiped down everything including all the new cables. Then we wet mopped the room. It has never been so clean. This evening our pastor, Bro. Larry put a coat of Thompson Water Seal on the floor. We are real close to being able to install out new sound equipment.

Angela Prepared Lunch

With Mary still down from her gallbladder surgery, Angela prepared lunch and brought it over to our house. WOW! What a blessing and what a great meal. Scott and Lacey spent the night with us and helped me clean the house. I really appreciated that. They also help prepare the food for lunch. It was great and I ate way too much. Thank you Angela, Scott and Lacey.

Mary Is Black & Blue

Here is an email that Mary sent out to the pbballfamily and the rhbrownfamily yahoogroups tonight.

Hello all,

It is a little late so I am sure you won’t see till tomorrow, but I am up and about. I am so sore and black and blue, my throat is sore, but I am so thankful I don’t Have the other pain anymore. I am very tired right now, getting ready to go to bed. Scott and Lacey and Stephen picked up the house for me and Angela is bringing lunch tomorrow. Looking forward to a real meal.

Love to you all.
Mary Ruth

Mary's Laparoscopic Surgery

We arrived at the Baptist Hospital Out-patient Clinic promptly at 6:00 a.m. this morning. At 7:30 a.m. the nurse ran me out and they took her to surgery. After a big breakfast the doctor came in to see me at 9:30 a.m. and gave a great report. All went as planned and she was doing fine. About 10:30 a.m. they invited me back to the recovery room where Mary was sitting in a recliner bright-eyed and ready to go home. First thing she said was that her pain was gone. Within 30 minutes the nurse came in to prepare her to go home. Since she was beginning to feel the incision the nurse gave her some Demerol and something else. I stopped at the drug store to pick-up her prescriptions and we got home about 12:00 noon. I guess the pain meds kicked in because she lay down and went to sleep almost immediately. She is currently sleeping soundly.

You can see more than you may care to about Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery at www.laparoscopy.com.

Mary and I really appreciate all the prayers that have made this surgery such a success. Thank you for praying.

More Acoustic Sound Board

I spent most of the day installing 4 acoustic sound boards in the sound room. They still lack a few ceiling tiles in the sound room so any day now we could start installing all the mixers, racks, and amplifiers to make those speakers we installed a while back come to life.

New Pews

I went to the new church building to work a while today on our new sound room and discovered that the pew company was putting together our new pews. The auditorum is really looking nice. I am afraid our sound equipment will be holding up progress of moving into the new building.

Camping Gear Stored

It seems a shame but I guess the biggest accomplisment today was to store the rafts and other camping gear in the barn.

I did spend several hours working on SteveBrownMinistries.com.

I also discovered that Lee and I made a mistake on our order for our new Thinkpads. We ordered it with a Smart Card option instead of an Express Card Slot. Now our order is delayed. It will be great when it gets here. Thank you Lee for buying me a new laptop.

A Day of Recuperation

I guess our heart is still at the camp on the Buffalo River. Seems like we just can't get going today. I've got our 8 foot rafts dried out and ready to pack away and I can't decide where to put them. We have also acquired a family tent and a Coleman Stove. I guess I don't have an excuse to not go camping any more.

I spent a lot of time studying raft air pumps today. After it is all said and done I ordered a $0.50 rubber stopper from Widgetco.com. I will put a valve stem in it and use our little air compressor to blow up the rafts if there is another float someday.

Packing Up Camp

Today is our 5th day here in camp at Buffalo Point on the Buffalo National River and we have to pack up and go home. Scott and Lacey cooked a wonderful breakfast over the open fire pit. The coffee was the best ever and I don't want to leave yet.

Now Mary thinks she wants a tent trailer with an air conditioner. I am undecided. I think things went pretty well with our tent, huge air matress, and lots of fans. I do think I want to add a fan mister from EZmister.com. My finger got kind of tried pumping Mary's hand mister.

It's been a perfect week for camping on the Buffalo National River.

Twelve Miles of the Buffalo is a Little Much

We were treated by Scott and Lacey to another big breakfast this morning. It was fabulous.

After breakfast Mary took us up to Maumee Access and dropped us off with our two rafts from Sams Club.

After many hours of using a raft and watching Angela, Preston and Drew float the river in their life jackets I decided I would try it. Angela took over the raft and I floated about 5-6 in my life jacket. I received a few bruises from banging around on the rocks in the rapids but for the most part it is a great way to float the river if you are not in a hurry. It is much slower than using a raft.

I looked like a big straw hat floating down the river. That's about all you could see of me most of the time. It sure was a lot cooler than paddling a raft.

We did not get back to camp until it was almost dark. It was 11.8 miles from Maumee to our camp at Buffalo Point.

A Day of Setting Around Camp

Preston, Bradley, Ashely, Drew and Angela swam and played in the water until Mary had to take Bradley and Ashely back to Laura's house after lunch. Then Angela and the boys headed back to the river to swim and play some more. I did a good job of guarding the camp and keeping the squirrels out of the food. I rested up for our next big float trip tomorrow with Scott and Lacey.

Mary brought us back a new Coleman Camp stove from Wal-Mart in Clinton.

Scott and Lacey showed up at camp about 7:00 p.m. or so. They cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the fire pit. We got to eat about 8:30 tonight. I think everybody ate two hamburgers apiece tonight. We were hungry. It was great. Our camp is great and the food is top notch.

Floated the Buffalo National River Twice Today

We spent our first night in a tent last night and we did pretty well. We have a 12x12 foot family tent for the two of us and it is very roomy. We borrowed a queen size air matress from Scott & Lacey that is about 2 feet tall with built-in electric air pump. It is very comfortable.

Angela fixed us a wonderful breakfast on the fire pit because her Coleman Stove would not work. The camp coffee was the best ever. I think I'm going to enjoy this camping trip.

After breakfast we put in at the Hwy 14 bridge thinking we were going to float about 5 miles of river. After less than two miles we were shocked to be back at camp. So we ate our lunch at camp and headed farther up the river.

We launched our $123.00 8 foot rubber rafts from Sams Club at the Spring Creek access this time. Late this evening we reached camp at Buffalo Point after floating 6.86 miles according the the GPS. We just took our sweet time and enjoyed the scenery and the trip.

We did not get to eat until about 10:00 p.m. but it was an outstanding meal that Angela prepared on the fire pit.

I think I will sleep well tonight.

Camping - We Must Have Lost Our Mind

We are leaving to go to Buffalo River State Park and spend a few days camping with the grandkids. I hope I live through this. Mary and I have not been camping in many, many years. This heat may kill us.

New T61 Thinkpad

I'm not sure why yet, but Lee ordered he and I a new T61 Thinkpad this afternoon. I can't wait to get it in a couple weeks.

Scheduled Mary's Gallbladder Surgery This Evening

I went with Mary to the doctor this evening. We got there before 2:00 p.m. and we left after 4:00 p.m. There was a lot of waiting. After much talk, her surgery is scheduled for July 25th at 7:30 a.m. It will be 3 small incisions using the Laparoscopic method unless they run into complications. Then they will have to make the big incision which takes 6 to 8 weeks to heal. We are praying the Laparoscopic method works.

A Wonderful Day At Church

I think Bro. Larry was at his very best today. I especially liked the message tonight. I uploaded it to Our Website after church tonight. I must listen to it again.

A Coding Day

I never left the house all day today. I have worked hard on my website and making audio and video files. I think I have everything that we have shot since January available on our shopping cart now. Now I just need some customers.

New Acoustic Sound Board

The big truck showed up this morning at church with the Acoustic Sound Board for our new church building. The installers drove in from Ft. Smith, Arkansas and started installing it about noon. I stayed with them until they went home about 7:00 p.m. tonight. I am dead tired from the heat and helping them. The new Sound Board on the back wall of the auditorium really looks great. They will have to come back next week to finish up.

New Videos for Our Website

I spent a lot of time today converting DVD's to video's for our SteveBrownMinistries.com website. I also spent my first serious time with Adobe Audition trying to make a CD of all the music for the Ladies Conference that we did in Hot Springs a couple weeks ago. I am really liking Audition. Lee told me it was much better than Audacity. Of course it ought to be better. It cost a lot and Audacity is free.

Worked at Home Today

Lee was not feeling well and I didn't know what to do next at church so I stayed home and worked on designing and printing forms and signs that we need for our next meeting in Greenbrier, Arkansas the first week in August.

Hanging Monitor Speakers

Today I hung the monitor speakers from the uni-strut that we hung yesterday. It was so hot I quit early (2:30 p.m.) and went home. I was burned out.

Working on New Sound Room

Lee and I worked on our new sound room at church installing so uni-strut in the ceiling to hang some monitor speakers from. Wow! Did it ever get hot up on the second floor of the new church today.

Celebrated Mary's Birthday

The kids and grandkids all came to our house today for Sunday dinner. Drew baked Mary a birthday cake and we sang Happy Birthday to Mary. The cake was so good we ate nearly all of it.

Wired Up New Sanyo Video Projector

I hooked up the New Sanyo Projector and tested it using VGA, S-video, and RGB inputs. It looks great on our new electric 15 foot screen. The screen lowers and rasies very quietly, with an electric motor. I love it.

Carrol and Barbar's for Food and Fireworks

Most of Mary's side of the family met at her brother's (Carrol Ball) house tonight for potluck and fireworks. The food was fantastic. Especially the home-made ice cream. The fireworks was the best ever. They much have had some professional fireworks mixed in. The fireworks went on for a couple hours after dark. It was great.

New Sanyo Video Projector

Today I hung our new Sanyo Video Projector from the ceiling in our new church building. It is a monster.

Shocking Youth Message Stuns Hearers

Yesterday I made a DVD of Paul David Washer preaching a message at the 2002 Youth Evangelism Conference to 5000 young people in Mongomery, AL that we found on the internet. The headline read, "Shocking Youth Message Stuns Hearers ~ So Shocking & Biblical that the Preacher Was Never Invited Back". I played this video to the young adults at our church last night. They were stunned and sat very quietly at the end. Their leader said he had never been moved like that by a message before. I have listened to it 6 or 8 times myself. The young adults gave away most of the 50 DVD's tonight at church that I made. I would encouage you to listen the the message to the end:
Play Video by Paul David Washer
If you are behind a firewall try this Alternate Link.

Our Shopping Cart Is Really Working

This is the third day our shopping cart has been active and we received an $80.00 order today from South Carolina. That really encourages us. All I can say is Praise the Lord for His unspeakable blessings.