Talk about a bad day

It wasn't a bad day for us. We made it up to Cincinnati without any major hiccups other than having to sit in traffic for a while.

But the same couldn't be said for this other couple that we saw yesterday. As we were coming through Knoxville, traffic suddenly came to a stop. And when I say came to a stop, I mean I got out of the car and walked around and talked to random people who were also sitting stopped on I-75. After a while, traffic finally got moving again. It seems as though a man was driving a brand new Chevy Silverado pulling a rather nice camper and had lost control and flipped on it's side. Other than some broken glass, both the trailer and the truck were in not too bad of shape. They got both flipped back over and had each hooked up to a wrecker to take them to check them out when "it" happened. It seems as though the tow truck driver forgot to turn the wheels on the truck when he took off right in front of us. The trailer was hooked up to another wrecker about a couple of hundred yards ahead. He got up to about 35- 40 miles an hour before the truck made a turn directly into the rear of the trailer as it sat still on the side of the road. He pretty much ripped the whole back off the trailer and caved in the whole rear of the truck as well. It was funny watching the two Highway Patrolmen look and see it take place. They both took off walking towards the guy to investigate the second accident involving the same vehicle within 200 yards of the first.
The man who had wrecked the truck the first time seemed a bit miffed that they had finished his truck and trailer off. Talk about a bad day.

Probably the Most Awesome Thing

Today we received some of the coolest news ever. Last month I told everyone that we had visited Hendrick Motorsports and Isaac had been given a all access tour. The people that gave us the tour were with the Hendrick Marrow Foundation. A few days after our tour, we got a phone call from Courtney at the Hendrick Marrow Foundation and she asked if Isaac would like to be the Guest of Honor at the Hendrick Marrow Foundation's Charity Dinner and Fund Raising event for the National Marrow Foundation. She said in order for this to happen that Isaac's bone marrow donor would have to agree also to be present as this dinner is expected to raise one million dollars for the National Marrow Foundation. Well, we have been waiting to hear if this would all happen. Today, we received a confirmation call saying that the donor is going to be there and so will we. We will be staying in Charlotte, NC from May 20th-22nd and Isaac will be meeting his donor for the very first time. We are extremely excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. This promises to be the best day ever. I will update more as details come along. We leave for Cincinnati in the morning and hope to be back in few days.

Message and Video is Up

Yesterday, I spoke at Marathon Church in Powdersville. You can view the message along with Isaac's Christmas video at http://marathonchurch.org . Click the link to view this weeks message. Isaac's Christmas video is about 10-15 minutes into the message.

Speaking, Eating, and Flaming Spears

Today was a fun day all around. This morning I had the privilege of speaking at Marathon Church in Powdersville. All three services were full of energy and it was it felt good to be a part of what is going on in the new series. If you weren't there, you can check it our here http://marathonchurch.org. The message will probably be up on the web site in a couple of days. The band did an awesome job with the U2 song. Chase tore it up with his mad video editing skills. Props to him on that. A very special thanks is in order for Bryan "Hasselhof" Holder. That water had to be cold, now if I can only get him to walk on hot coals.

After church I had to jet over to Outback Steakhouse where Gary and his staff held a benefit dinner for Isaac's COTA fund. If you are in Easley, you need to stop by and eat there. These are some of the finest folks you will ever meet. Thanks to Gary and all the staff for making that event possible. Also, I want to say a big thanks to everyone who bought tickets. You guys mean a ton to Isaac, Melissa, and I.

And lastly, tonight we had home group and as always it was a blast. Literally, it was a blast. We have kind of made it a point that we light some type of pyrotechnics and tonight was no exception. I had promised our home group that tonight we would have flaming spears and sure enough we did. We created a new "game" that involved catching flaming spears. The most catches in a row was three. It was all fun and games until Bryan lost his arm and leg hair. Jamie and I couldn't help it that he has no vertical leap when it comes to jumping the fire. Seriously though aside from the pyro frivolity we have been actually going through the book of James. It has been quite insightful and next week we are moving on to the parable of the talents.

That's about all I have for tonight. I am fixing to go to bed after a long day.

Record Day

So today is one of those days that will go down in the annals of Sammy History as a record day. For those of you who know me well, you know how much I hate to sit still. I can get fidgety and this is probably the reason I Have never been much of a fisher person. Well today, Scott and Bryan took me to the secret fishing hole. And today was a record for me. Before today, the most fish I had ever caught at one time was two. They started me out fishing with a plastic worm. I am not good at that because it involved two seperate actions at once. I was supposed to make the line jig at the same time I was reeling it in. That didn't happen too good. Then I had to get used to casting a rod rather than just dropping it over the side with a bobber on it. By the end of the day, one out of every three casts were good. It started out rocky enough with most of my casts going either two feet straight into the water or either onto the bank. Finally they had me using a plastic minnow thingyma bob. I got the hang of this because I didn't have to do anything but cast and reel. Most of the time I had no idea where I had just cast the minnow and my words of the day were " Where'd that go?". But, by the end of the day I had pulled in a record haul of 5 Large Mouth Bass. Davey Hite would have been proud. I also will state for the record that I am not a huge fan of wasps and I figure that Bryan will be posting something to this effect in the coming days.

Hanging out with Student Pastors

Today has seemed like a day of hanging out with youth workers and student pastors from all different walks of life. Last night I was in Greenville speaking at a church there and I had a chance to see what was happening in their church. It was cool to see how many adults that Pendleton Street has involved in it's ministry. Even in the absence of a student pastor, the adults have really stepped up.
Then for lunch I met up with some of the guys from Chasen, Josh Trammel from Tri County Worship, Bryan Holder from Marathon, Jeff Garrison from Piedmont FBC. We ate at Pizza House in Powdersville. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to eat. It was really cool to hear some of the challenges each is facing and hear about the cool things about to take place. Chasen heads to the studio in the next few weeks and will likely be on a big time tour this time next year. Josh is seeing some cool things take place in Seneca at the "Bubble", Bryan in facing a great problem and that is where to put all of the students. Jeff is doing some cool things in Piedmont and he is totally volunteer.
And finally tonight Melissa ate supper with Joel and Kristen from FBC Williamston. I'll be speaking down there in a couple of weeks. They were heading out to a student ministry conference tommorrow. We also ate with the Baileys(Kristen's parents and good friends of ours).
And finally, right now I am about to go back over my message for Sunday morning at Marathon. If you are in the upstate, come on out this Sunday morning. The service times are 9:00 a.m., 10:15 a.m., and 11:30 a.m.. If you can't make it out this week, I think it will be on TV within the next couple of weeks on the WB channel at 9:30 on Sunday Mornings. Hope to see you there.

Busy Week

This week has been crazy but good as well. Today Chase and I edited a video for my message on Sunday at Marathon. He did an awesome job on it. It makes everything flow. Then this afternoon Chase, Bryan, Jeff and I headed out to Anderson to shoot another video for Sunday's message. All I can say is that it will be off the hook. Thanks to Bryan for taking one for the team. Tommorrow I will be at Pendleton Street speaking at their student ministry service. I am jacked up and looking forward to hanging out with their group.

We head back up to Cincinnati at the first of next week. Hopefully this will be a shorter stay. I am tired and going to bed. Good night.

Penthouse to the Outhouse

Today, BHolda and I took off for the great city of Atlanta. When I first conceived the way we would travel, it was much warmer weather. We decided to take my Jeep. I forgot to mention that I had the top off of the Jeep. I also forgot to mention that it was 37 degrees when I left my house at 7:30 a.m.. So the box score looks like this: 37 Degrees + No Top + 70 Miles Per Hour = Freezing Butt Cold for 2 hours.

Anyway, we met up with a guy today that probably is the richest person I have ever met. We had to meet him at his business warehouse. When we arrived he opened up one of the huge garage doors to reveal his two brand spanking new helicopters and a multiplicity of Land Rover Defender 90's, Range Rovers, and other various vehicles from his personal collection. I must say I was digging one of the Defender 90's. Oh yeah, did I mention that he was younger than me. And did I also mention that he only owns 42 Applebees Restaurants. Talk about eating good in the neighborhood. After we met up with him, we left the Penthouse and headed for the outhouse. Yep, you guessed it. We were off to Atlanta Motor Speedway for some Nascar Busch Series racing action.

For those of you who have never been to a Nascar race, you are missing a part of your life. Where else are Jean shorts still in style? Where else can you find such a vast collection of 1970's school buses that have been converted into mobile party pads complete with Krylon spray paint? Anyway, this was BHolda's first time at the races and I believe he walked away with a different appreciation of the sport that we all love and hold dear to our hearts. Although he did misss the wreck that happened right in front of us because he was using his calculator on his cell phone to determine how many laps it took to make up the 300 mile race. Dolt!

And finally, I leave you with this picture. Not only is Bubba sporting the mullet but come to find out his real name is Bubba O'Reilly. Don't you just love St. Patricks Day? No matter how tough we may look on the outside, deep down inside there's a little Lucky Charm guy in all of us.

Back Home

It feels good to be back home. We got back yesterday evening. His numbers looked pretty good so they said we could go. We will be back up there in 8 days. Basically we will have spent around 20 or so days of the months of March in Cincinnati and about 11 days here in SC. The trip back up is a scheduled one and hopefully won't be as long as the most recent. The great part is that they didn't find any of the things that we were afraid they might find. They are now allowing us to give him some Immodium to help stop the runs. I know I could have been PC and said help stop him going to the restroom but it is what it is. He is glad to be back. We got him a surprise while we were up there. I got in contact with the people that get the sheetmetal from the wrecked Nascar cars and I was able to get him the Jeff Gordon door from the Daytona 500. It was the one that he got his picture with while we were at Hendrick's Race Shop. And speaking of Nascar, tommorrow I am going with my friend BHolda to Atlanta to pick up some Jeep Parts. While we are down there we are going to be big ole rednecks and sit in the cheapseats at the Busch Series race in the ATL. This promises to be blog worthy. As a matter of fact this may end up being several weeks of blogworthiness. Well I'm going to bed. Good night all.

Some good news

The biopsy results came back and nothing serious is going on in his stomach, intestines,etc. The plan is to be released from the hospital in a couple of hours and then come back early in the morning for labs to make sure he isn't bleeding anymore. If everything checks out OK then we will be heading home tomorrow. Isaac isn't happy because he was wanting to go back to South Carolina tonight. We are happy though that they didn't find anything bad going on. We have been worried this week and this was a big relief.

Not Getting Out Today

Yesterday went smooth, almost too smooth. Isaac did great and didn't even have to receive any blood transfusions after the biopsy which was the first time in a couple of years. We thought that he would be released today. But that is the difference a day makes. I got to the hospital this morning to find Melissa holding a bucket and changing his bed sheets. About 7:30 a.m. this morning, Isaac woke up and began to vomit with some blood in it and had diarrhea with blood in it and his blood counts had dropped. They just have finished giving him a bag of blood. He is currently feeling OK and is sitting up in bed eating. If all goes well, he will get released tomorrow pending the outcome of the biopsy. I will update more as we know more.

Out of the O.R.

Isaac is out of the operating room and back up to his regular room. They took him in to the O.R. right at 11:00 a.m. and he was in recovery by about 12:30 p.m. He went back up to his room on B 5 West at about 1:30 p.m. They did find an inflamed area near his intestine. They did a biopsy on the site and we should have the results back within 48 hours. We're not sure what type of infection it is. It could be a wide range of things which makes the waiting tough. Once the biopsy comes back, then we can proceed with treatment. We will update more as soon as we hear more.

Isaac Mojo Continues

Isaac's Nascar Mojo continues. Isaac got to tour Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson's race shop a couple of weeks ago. Both had crashed the week before we went at Daytona. But, ever since Isaac's visit, the teams have been blistering the field with a 1st place finish, 2 second place finishes and a third place finish. Definitely, the Isaac mojo has kicked in for both of these drivers. Here is a picture of Isaac with the Nicorette Car while it was still in the chassis shop.

This is the car that Jeff drove today on the Las Vegas race. Here is the picture of Isaac with Chad Knaus right after Isaac had given Chad some pointers on how he should set up the car for today. Isaac suggested to Chad that he needed to add a quarter turn of wedge to help Jimmy's car get up off the corner in turns 3 and 4 a little better. And what do you know? It worked and Jimmy won the race.

Thankful

So today was a down day here in Cincy. Isaac didn't have any hospital stuff going on so we made trip over to Indianapolis to visit the World Center of Auto Racing. That's right, I'm talking the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A couple of things I noticed along the way: 1) Indiana may be the flatest state I have ever driven through. 2) With the all of the farm land in just Indiana, I don't think our country will ever be without corn. 3) Do the people in Indiana do anything other than farm? 4) I think that Footloose must have been filmed in Indiana. 5) The new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is unbelievably huge when compared to the RCA dome right next door.

Anyway, we went on to the Speedway and although we have been to the track, we have never been in their museum or taken the track tour. We decided to do both. The track tour was cool. Just to think that we were riding on the same track as the World's Best drivers was pretty cool. I will say this though, it certainly lacked the thrill part from the standpoint of speed. The ladies at Kentucky Speedway can out drive the old guy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway any day. If you are looking for a thrill ride then I recommend the 15 passenger van ride around Kentucky Speedway at 70 mph. The museum was pretty cool. It had tons of cars from past Indy 500 champions as well as some Nascar guys. I did get quite amused when looking at some of the helmets from the early years. Most were made of cloth or leather. Not really sure if that would help with your head hitting the bricks since they didn't wear seatbelts but I guess if it makes you feel safer then go for it.

The coolest thing that I saw was the special treatment that they were giving a gentleman who was blind. They opened the barriers at each car and allowed him to go up and touch and feel each car. Just his sheer excitement at being there and being able to touch the cars really made me think. This guy was thankful for the little things in life and I wondered how many times have I taken the little things for granted. It was a good reminder for me to be thankful for all that I have.

Do I Really Snore That Loud?

Today we had an early morning at the hospital. Because of all the traffic we had to leave pretty early to get there. Because of that I got a little less than my normal 8 hours of beauty rest. Well this afternoon we got back from the hospital and I decided to watch TV downstairs while Melissa and Isaac went upstairs to take a nap. Melissa was sleeping when suddenly she woke up because Isaac was snoring. Isaac was sleeping when he was woke up by Melissa snoring. Well they both looked at each other and realized that it was neither of them snoring but instead, I had fallen alseep downstairs and apparently my snoring had awoken them both upstairs. I almost wished that she had filmed it because that made me kind of proud to know that I had awoken the house with the rumble of my deep manly snoozing.

Merge In Gear

I announced a few weeks ago that I was launching my own ministry called Merge. In that I am providing camps, conferences, retreats, and speaking engagements for churches and groups. On Monday of this past week, Merge booked it's first winter retreat for January of 2008. We met with the resort and conference center people and we put down a considerable down payment to reserve the conference facility. This was a huge step for us and I have been jacked up on Mountain Dew all week. The cool thing is that even though it is almost still a year away, it is already 65 percent booked out. Although official registration won't begin until August 1st, we have already been pre registering groups. Next month, I will be in the Florida Panhandle. While there, I will be booking our camps for the Summer of 08 with the locations we will be using. The schedule is starting to fill up which is a good thing. If you know of a group that is in need of an event speaker whether it is a weekend youth retreat, weeklong camp, youth service, or main service, let them know about me. I would love the opportunity to partner with your church or group in the future.

Update

The tests this morning didn't give us any info so we will be staying through early next week. Isaac is scheduled for the operating room on Monday at 11:00 a.m. They are going to do some biopsy's in his gut to see if they can find out what is going on. He will spend at least one night in the hospital because of his tendency to bleed after biopsy's. More updates later including some possible cool news about something he may get to do.

Isaac Update

We met with all of his Doctors today. We have to be back at 8:00 a.m. tommorrow morning. They are doing a test to see what is causing his digestive problems. Hopefully this test tommorrow will give us some answers and they can begin treating him. If these tests aren't conclusive, then he will be having some biopsy's performed either later this week or on Monday of next week. We will know more tommorrow. The weather here isn't quite as warm in SC. It's in the 30'-40's all day.

Your Turn

Ok I have been tagged by Ryan Norris Ford and David Garrett so I will do the honorable thing and pass this one on.
. What time is it? 9:30
2. What is your full name? Samuel Ray Clary
3. What are you most afraid of? I get spooked real easy. The other night I was playing around on garage band on my computer and I was playing some scary noises. I got scared and turned the TV on so I would have some noise to off set my scaredness.
4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? Charlotte's Web Dang! That spider was good. Stinks that it had to die and all. And speaking of Charlotte's Web, I had bacon for breakfast. I wonder if it could have been Wilbur. Na. That would be some kind of fancy designer bacon kind of like a vintage wine. Some fancy guy in a tux would take me to the cellar of the IHOP and say something like "Mr. Clary, today we have for you a very fine bacon. It is Chez La Wilbur 1685." It would naturally be covered in green mold like an aged cheese. But the guy would eventually convince me that it actually added to the taste of Wilbur.
5. Have you ever seen a ghost? Nope, If I had I would have messed my pants.
7. Ever been to Alaska? No
8. Ever been toilet papering? Have I? I passed my public speaking class by giving a fifteen minute speech on how to properly roll a house. Complete with getaway car and all.
9. Loved someone so much it made you cry? yes
10. Been in a serious car accident? Yes, crashed two different cars in two weeks. The sad thing is that this has happened twice to me. A total of 4 cars. Two different times two crashes within two weeks of each other.
11 Do you plan to have any more Children? No, Melissa has had her innards removed. (Some people call it her baby making areas)
12. Favorite day of the week? Tuesday, Just because it is a very underrated day. It gets no day respect. Not hump day. Not TGIF, Not the weekend. It just wants some day love too.
14. Favorite Flower? Clover, if that is a flower
15. Favorite color ? Blue
16. Favorite sport to watch? Nascar 43 for life
17. Favorite Drink? The only drink Coke. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner baby
18. Favorite Ice Cream? Chocolate
19. Favorite fast food restaurant? Zaxby's
20. What color is your bedroom carpet? Beige
21. How many times did you fail your driver's test? twice
22. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? ebay member
23. What do you do when you are bored? Get in trouble Usually blow stuff up
25. Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? B Holda
26. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond?Melissa
27. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their answers? Evan Silver
28. Favorite TV shows? Anything on Speed Channel
29. Favorite Car? Anyone that I can sell and make money on
30. What are you listening to right now? The Killers , Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chasen
31. How many pets do you have? 3 fish, 1 cat, 7 snails, 4 hermit crabs
32. Which came first the chicken or the egg? Chicken
33. What would you like to accomplish before you die? Pour into others
34. How many people are you sending this e-mail to? Not sure
35. Most embarrassing moment ever? I don't really get embarrassed. I usually embarrass other people through my antics. See my posts on unnormal purveysion
36. Top 3 happiest moments ever: 1.)Marrying Melissa. 2). Seeing Isaac Born 3) Seeing Isaac for the first time after his liver transplant
37. Top 3 saddest moments ever: 1)Seeing people lose their children to disease while we were in the hospital. This covers 1 2) and 3)
38.). Hardest you have ever laughed: When the guys at home group started lighting their farts three weeks ago. I cried I laughed so hard.
39.) One talent you wished you had: I wish I could do anything musically
40.). One thing you would have liked to do for a living other than what you do now: Drive in Nascar

I pass this on to Melissa,Evan, Wil, Chase,Crystal, Casey, Allison, B Holda, Jamie and Cavin.

Perplexed...... Please Help!

Ok, so today we headed out of Easley going back to Cincy. We made a stop in Gatlinburg because Isaac has been begging to do two things in Gatlinburg ever since he went in the hospital over a year and a half ago. He has been begging to go to this rock shop that he used to go to and to go to the Ripleys Museum. We went to the rock shop and it has since shut down. We then went to Ripleys. We have been through the thing a bunch of times and nothing really has changed. They still have the replicas of the two headed goat and two headed calf. They have the pictures of the man with the horn growing out of his head. They have the shrunken skull of some person from the amazon jungle. They have the rug that some guy made out of bubble gum wrappers. They had the 300 pound ball of twine that some man made just for fun. Idiot! My favorite has to be the fake bathroom where the man is standing and it looks like you bump into him and I guess he supposedly spills his pee or something. But anyway, I go to the regular bathroom and it has a riddle that you read while you are standing and taking care of business. Whoever thought of putting a riddle in the bathroom just isn't right. It's hard to concentrate when your trying not to pee on your feet. But here is the riddle as it appeared in the bathroom. If you have the answer let me know. PS. if you know how to open the little gate that is located near the end let me know too. This thing messed with my mind too.

Group of Pyros

So a few weeks ago, we started a home group that meets on the weeks that we are not in Cincinnati. At the first meeting a few weeks ago, their was a sudden spontaneous combustion. It was literal fire not figurative. That night though I discovered that I am not the only pyromaniac in Powdersville. All the other guys in our home group like to play with fire also.(Disclaimer: Kids don't try this at home. We are what you call amatuer pyros.) So tonight was the first time we have been able to meet since that first meeting and since we were reading in the Book of James about how a small spark can cause such a huge blaze, I decided that we would demonstrate it with some home grown pyrotechnics. This has become a group ritual now. I hope to have some pictures of this pyrotechnic display. Next time promises to provide more in the way of pyro. And a fiery time was had by all.

We leave out for Cincy tommorrow. Still no word on what treatment they are going to do.

Back to Cincinnati

We are heading back up to Cincinnati. This is a scheduled visit. We will be there for any where from a few days to a couple of weeks. They are unsure if they are going to start a new medicine to remove the excess iron off of his liver or if they are going to gradually remove the iron by doing 100 ml blood draws every couple of weeks. We won't know anything until we get up there.

Isaac has had a pretty good week. His blood numbers are doing really good. His liver numbers, however, have continued to remain elevated due to the excess iron.

More updates this week as we know more.

Isaac in the News

Here is a link to the latest article about Isaac that is in the news. http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS01/702280439/0/NEWS01

Update

I just recently spoke with my friend in Enterprise and he and his family are ok. There are some people still unaccounted for at the school.

Prayers for Friends in Alabama

Just a quick prayer request for the folks in Enterprise,Al. As most of you saw on the news today, a tornado ripped through Enterprise High School as well as a lot of the downtown area. There are at least 8 people confirmed dead at the high school and many more injured. Pray for the families and people in this area. Enterprise carries a lot of special memories for Melissa and I because this is where I served in my first church as a youth pastor. Enterprise is about the size of Easley. Everyone there pretty much knows everyone. We still have friends in that area as well as my best friend from college and his family who is serving as Lead Pastor at Church on the Circle http://www.churchonthecircle.org/index.cfm? . I am scheduled to be down there in about a month.