The Good The Bad The Ugly

The Good- Isaac's blood counts were incredible today with platelets of 93 which is really good for him. His white blood count was up to 3.1. His counts were so good that his nurse called to tell us and her voice began cracking and she was almost in tears. This is really good and we continue to pray his counts stay up.

The Bad- This evening I was out in the yard watering the grass and Isaac came running out and said you've gotta come quick daddy. Mommy has cut open her hand. I went inside and sure enough she had cut open her hand. My parents came and got Isaac and it was off to the emergency room where we waited forever. As we were sitting there with Melissa's cut finger, a man came walking with his hand wrapped in a towel soaked in blood. Suddenly Melissa's cut didn't seem too bad as this guy looked like he had lost a pint of blood. They decided not to do stithces and were going to do steri strips because of where the cut was located so she wanted to come on home. We came home and I bandaged here finger and it has since bled through so obviously I didn't do a good job.

The Ugly- Today I met up with Reggie Smith the pastor at Marathon North. Need I say more?

Man What A Day

Wow! Today I felt like I crammed three days into one and it was all good all day. I started off the day packing and shipping out some ebay stuff I had sold. I got that shipped out and then the busy part of the day began. This morning I met with a man who had inquired about
Stone Bridge Church . His family may be looking to be involved in some ways in the new church start. We also discussed the possibility of using his building for either our youth services or possibly our main service as well. This was a very exciting conversation and I was able to share with him our 4 core principles of the church.

After a good meeting there, it was off to lunch and then to the big town of Williamston to the District One School Offices. I met with the officials there and got all my forms to rent the school that we will most likely be starting off in. That was my third time meeting with people from the school district and I was told today that we could start with in thirty days of turning in the forms I have to fill out. Most likely the official start date will be the first week of October. Two months from Sunday. Amazing.

Throughout the day I talked with a couple of different pastors over the phone with questions that I have and stuff that will need to be done. Things are starting to get exciting. As of today we have had 42 people to commit to being involved in various ways in the new church start.

This afternoon Isaac wanted to go and race his slot cars so we went. They were closed so we went by and hung out at
Norris Ford for while. Ryan got somebody to crank up the popcorn machine which made Isaac's day.

After Isaac and I got home I left out again and met up with some staffers from Marathon. We ended the evening having some grubb at Charlie T's.

Tommorrow I am meeting with Reggie and Wil at Marathon North and we are going to meet and then shoot some video for some of their upcoming stuff.

I am speaking at Liberty FBC this Sunday and then after this week it will be full speed ahead with Stone Bridge. On a scale of 1-10, today was a 10. I was able to hang out with Isaac, talk to a bunch of people about the church, get a lot accomplished with the church, and even had time for some ebay. What A Day.

Sunday Wrap

Today was a lot of fun as I finished up a three week stint speaking at Marathon Church. Next week I will be speaking at FBC Liberty and having time to catch up with old friends there. Liberty was my first full time church staff position. It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years since I have been there but it will be cool going back.

The crowd today was very responsive which makes speaking that much more fun. When the crowd is into it it seems like time just flies by. I appreciate Eddie giving me the opportunity to speak there for the last few weeks. This made for a good warm up for the new church start coming in just a few months. And speaking of the new church, I am meeting with some folks tommorrow and I hope to have our location nailed down which will allow us move forward with our launch date. I also am going to be meeting with an old friend who is interested in being part of the new church. Be sure to check out the blog for more info on the church.

That's about it for tonight. I'm sleepy.

Two Things I Don't Get

This morning I headed up to North Carolina to pick up some stuff. Along the way I was flipping through the radio stations and I had a moment. As I was flipping through the stations, I came across the Motley Crue song "Smoking in the Boys Room". And even though I had heard the song before, I never realized that Vince Neil actually did some sing talking in that song. What is sing talking you might ask? It is a song where instead of singing, a person talks the song. Quite frankly I don't get it. Are you talking or are you singing? I have nothing against spoken word albums as long as you keep it in its proper genre. There should be absolutely no crossover artists allowed. Either you are a singer or a talker, you can't do both. I used to think that sing talking was confined to Christian Music (Can you say Carmen?) but today I was proven wrong. Who'd of thunk it? Motley Crue, sing talkers. The more I thought about it though I identified another possible culprit in that of Reba McIntyre in the country genre. I am not sure if she actually sing talks but if not she is close enough to classify her as a sing talker. Sing talking, I just don't get it.

Another thing I don't get is this. How come every state in the union can have nice rest areas and concession areas at those rest areas except South Carolina. I have been in 6 states this week and today I stopped at the rest area and went to get a drink and they have the machines in cages. You have to be a contortionist to reach our drink. Every other state has nice easily accessible vending machines. Not us, apparently we have rogue bands of vending machine bandits lurking in the shadows waiting to reach their arm up in the machine to steal a pack of Nip Cheese. I just don't get the cages either.

Back Home

Man, these past few weeks have been like a whirlwind. Things are moving forward with Stone Bridge. We will be posting some more information throughout the week so be sure to stop in and check the progress. It's good to be back home. Although, I will say that the weather up in Cincinnati this week was awesome. It stayed in the mid 70's with a gentle breeze. It reminded me of the Bahamas except for the fact that there was no island, no beach(unless you consider the mud along the banks of the Ohio River to be a beach), and a load of violent crimes. Well I guess you could say just the weather was pleasant and forget about all that island talk.

Isaac's blood numbers are looking really good and it looks like we're only a couple of months away from returning to a normal life except for the fact that he can't go back to school or be around kids indoors. We are really looking forward to this and if things hold up we will actually get to go on a vacation in September for the first time in more than two years. We can't wait. Isaac is geared up and ready to go to the beach.

It's kind of been a reminder to me of how fortunate I had it growing up. Things that you once took for granted become more and more special when you see the stuff he has faced. Stuff like going to school, playing with other kids, and even having spend the night parties are things I never thought twice about when I was a kid. So, we just take a deep breath and absorb it all in and try to make the most out of what is thrown our way.

The Big News

At long last "The Big News" is announced. Starting in mid to late Fall, I will be launching a new church that will reach people in the Easley, and Piedmont area.
Stone Bridge Church. is where you can check out the blog.

If you are in the area we would love to have you get in on the ground floor. We are going to be having informational and core group meetings beginning in the next few weeks. If you would like to be involved, drop me an email at scbushelno@aol.com. Also pass this post to your friends and family.

Be sure to check out the church blog for more information.

All Aboard

The I-Man train was in full gear once again today. We met up with some of the Cincinnati Firefighters from Sharonville and headed over to Kings Island. They took us into the back lot and into their train depot. Isaac got a tour of the Engine shed and then rode up front in the Engineer's seat taking tons of families around the amusement park. It was a steam engine and it was extremely hot up in the front. Isaac had a blast. The firefighters presented Isaac with an awesome HO Scale Fire Train Set. A special thanks to all the firefighters and to the management at Kings Island for making it all possible. Here are some pics from the big day.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my wife of 14 years. I know, I know, we look so young. Truth be told we were married at age 13.

Back in the Nati

We are back in Cincinnati once more. It is for regular check ups and such. We will be here until Wednesday or Thursday. The trip up took forever because of a tractor trailer crash at the Tennessee line. Traffic came to a stop and we sat and sat. I finally had to get out and go walking for a restroom. I walked for about 15 minutes and the traffic started moving again and I had to hop back in the car when Melissa came driving up. I know some of you are thinking I should have just found a tree. That was not possible since we were trapped in by a 6 foot high concrete wall with chain link fence on top of that. We were in the rock slide area. I also thought about using a plastic bottle but then I was afraid I would pee all over the car if I missed the jug. Finally, Melissa had to put the hazard lights on and we drove down the emergency lane until we came to an exit. That was a relief.

Hopefully, we will have a big announcement this Thursday or Friday. Check back in for more details on that. Very cool things are on the way and wheels are starting to turn.

You can find my message from yesterday at Marathon
here.

Tomorrow is going to be a cool day. Some fire fighters here in Cincinnati found out about Isaac delivering toys to the kids in the hospital at Christmas and they have set it up where we are going to Kings Island Park through the back lot and Isaac is going to get to drive the steam engine train that goes through the park. They have set it up where we won't be near any crowds but he will get to drive the train around the park. Kings Island is like Carowinds or Six Flags for our friends who've never heard of it. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Awesome Weekend

We had a great weekend. BJ(Isaac's bone marrow donor) and Linda got into to town late Thursday and we spent most of the day Friday with them. Isaac had been anxious to show them his train room and all of his collections. Both sets of our parents came over and we all had dinner together and they were able to meet BJ and Linda for the first time. All in all Friday was a fun day spending time with everyone. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that we had my favorite dessert, strawberry cake from NickHenrys.

Yesterday Melissa and Isaac went to the lake while I studied over my message for today at Marathon.

Today was a lot of fun at Marathon. The second and third services laughed at my video of the "Yard of Dreams". I was especially proud of this video because I conceptualized, shot, produced, and edited the video myself. A special thanks to Jeff for portraying "the ghost" in the video. You should be able to watch the entire message as well as the video here.
The message will be online sometime during the middle of the week.

I will be speaking at Marathon this Sunday and then FBC Liberty the following week. The second week of August I will be hanging out with my friends Reggie and Wil over at Marathon North shooting some video for their Christmas services.

Tomorrow morning Isaac has labs here at the house and then it is off to Cincinnati for 3-4 days. He continues to improve a little at a time.

One more thing, I told my friend Gary Durkee at Outback in Easley I would get the word out that Outback in Easley is now open for lunch on Sundays. I ate there today and it is just plain good. Just tell him I sent you.

One last thing, some things we have been praying about for some time may be about to come to fruition. There are some exciting things happening that I may be able to let everyone in on in a few weeks.

I Hate Crocs

Ok so I know that the latest craze in footwear is Crocs. But I must say that these have to be the most ridiculous looking things ever created. They remind me of the Jellies that were all the rage back in the 80's. Hey, who knows maybe they'll bring back leg warmers that you can wear with your Crocs.

I have a couple of freinds who wear these ugly things and they might possibly be the most unmanliest things I have ever seen.(I know unmanliest is not a word but it is my blog and I'll create my own words if I like).

Anyway, I began to think that I was the only one who hated these things until I came across this website Crocs. It's time for all non Croc wearers to unite to defeat this blot on the landscape of all things decent. And leave a comment if you agree with me and think these things are ugly.
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Busy Week, End of the Week Visits, and Looking for Interested Parties

This has been a crazy busy week. I just finished up my message for Sunday at Marathon and I am beginning on finishing up the one for the week after that. I have to be through with it by the weekend because I won't have time next week as we will be in Cincinnati. If you're in the upstate come on out Sunday to one of the three services. Speaking of Sunday, my official video editing , producing, and shooting is Sunday. It is only a one minute video in the service but I will guarantee you will laugh or I will refund your money(not that you have to pay to get in). I was proud of the fact that I finally have figured out how to use my camera and Final Cut Pro Studio. The manual on that program is literally 800 pages.

Friday promises to be a cool day as Isaac's Bone Marrow donor is going to be visiting us from Texas. We keep in touch regularly and he keeps up with what is going on with Isaac. Isaac is doing good right now which is a good thing. The doctors have hinted that we may be able to go on vacation sometime in September. This will be huge as it will be the first vacation in more than two years.

There is a new church start possibly coming to the upstate. I am not at liberty to tell you the pastor or it's location yet but I am probably going to have a part in this somehow or some way. Anyway, some of the pieces are starting to fall in place and we are currently looking for someone to work with Children, Graphics, and possibly some aspects of music.(instruments, sound board). If you are gifted in any of these areas and would like to be a part of something new taking place, drop me an email.

You Asked Again

Recently, I have continued to receive enormous amounts of fan emails from my blog. And to be quite honest I am somewhat flattered that people would actually read what I have to say. Along with this fan email also comes some of the more weird emails. There are a few that seem weird in a stalkerish kind of way. But, being the nice guy that I am, I try to answer all emails even the stalkerish ones kind of like this one I received just a couple of days ago.

It went something like this......... Dear Sammy, thanks for the finger nail clippings after my last request. As I told you in my last email, I am a huge space science fiction fan. As of this email, I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas. It was a blast. This year I attended the Star Trek Celebrity Souvenir Auction where I was able to purchase the heel pads that Captain Kirk wore inside his boots in episode 6 of the third season(For those who don't know, this was the episode where Kirk faced off with the Klingons) . Needless to say, I almost peed my pants when I won the bid at only $1300.

Anyway, the reason I am emailing you is because I am heading to the Star Wars Convention in two weeks and I was curious if you had a favorite character and if so what type of costume would you have? And if it wouldn't be too much trouble could you dress as that character just once for a picture. I am your biggest fan. Nanu Nanu, David Garrett

P.S. My good friend Ryan is heading to the Prince convention in a few weeks and he is wanting your advice as to whether he should dress for Purple Rain or wear his Raspberry Beret?

Well David, you asked so here is your answer. My favorite character from Star Wars would have to have been the Lost Jedi Quin Bin Phin. He was the 4th son of Quy Gon Jin and Gi Gi Binks(Jar Jar's younger sister). Here is a picture. His costume looked more or less like a bed sheet with a belt around the middle and a flashlight for light sabre.

Oh and tell your friend Ryan, I would go with the Raspberry Beret. Purple Rain is so not in this time of year.

Random Thoughts and Apologies

Right now I am sitting watching the Tour de France. It's pretty interesting stuff. The crashes are a little worse than in Nascar. For example, About five minutes ago these two guys were leading the race coming down the Alps and one guy suddenly lost control sending the other guy head first over a metal guard rail and down a hill. And true to form him he climbs back up the mountain and his team gives him a new bike and off he goes again. Me personally, one time over the guard rail and I'm done.

Today at Marathon was fun. I think the Clemson fans enjoyed the first part of the message where I was able to make fun of Carolina's losing streak from a few years past. I noticed one family who stood up when I asked Carolina fans to stand and they looked kinda of mad for the next ten or so minutes because I made fun of their team. My apologies to any Carolina fan who may have been offended but I did give Carolina fans some props for their faithfulness(misguided as it may be).

I think also that I could have potentially offended anyone from Florence after I referred to it as the arm pit of South Carolina. If you are from Florence, again as I said in my message "I am sorry"(that you're from Florence).

You can watch this week's message in a couple of days here.

I will be speaking at Marathon for the next two Sundays and then at FBC Liberty on August 5Th.

Join me tomorrow for another segment of You Asked featuring another random question from David Garrett.

We Now Interupt this Hiatus

.............. ......... .......... ... We now interupt this blog hiatus to bring you some late breaking news. My blog hiatus lasted less than a day but I had some news I had to share. This afternoon Isaac officially passed the second grade. We are extremely proud of him. He missed over a years worth of school while he was in the hospital. But, to be quite honest we really didn't care during that time because our number one goal was just to bring our son home. He was so excited that he could read 68 words a minute on his final reading test. Anyway, back to my hiatus. I may post tommorrow as I have a special request from David Garrett. If I do it will be good.

Blog Hiatus

I'm taking a blog hiatus for a couple of days. I just need to clear my mind and think about stuff. I'll post again later this week or early next week. I am currently working on some stuff that hopefully I'll have thought through, prayed through, and hammered out within a few weeks.

I'm speaking at Marathon Church Powdersville Campus for the next three Sundays. During that span we will also be in Cincinnati and I'll be in Florida meeting with some folks about contracting their location for camps in 2008.

Update and Prayers

Just a quick update and prayer request. Isaac has been feeling good the last couple of weeks. We go back up to Cincinnati in a couple of weeks. We are finally getting settled into being at home more. The doctors hope to have him transitioned to doctors down here by the middle of September.

I've asked for prayer about this before, I have several big decisions to make in the next month. My prayer is that I would be patient and wise with this upcoming stuff.

I will be speaking at Marathon Church Powdersville Campus for the next three Sundays. If you're not in the area, you can catch it on www.marathonchurch.org next week.

First Pitch

Yesterday was an incredible day. We left yesterday morning for Charlotte. Isaac had wanted to visit some of the race shops that he hadn't got to visit before. We visited, Michael Waltrip Racing, Roush Racing, and Haas Racing. He was determined to spend all of his money on diecast replicas from each shop.

After visiting some shops, we headed on over to Kannapolis to the baseball stadium for the game. We were met at the gate by Courtney and Beth from the Hendrick Marrow Program and the General Manager of the Kannapolis Intimidators. We were taken up to a suite where we met the Director for USA Baseball and met two other bone marrow transplant families. Isaac was able to meet a boy and a girl who were both close to his age that had received transplants as well.

After a few minutes, they took us down to the clubhouse which was a cool experience. The team presented each of the three kids an official hat, jersey and baseball autographed by the entire team. Then they allowed us to hang out in the clubhouse and allowed the kids to talk to each player and get more autographs. We had bought Isaac a bat to get autographed by the team. He went from player to player getting each one to autograph it. This was pretty cool because according to the Team Director, most all of these guys will end up in the MLB in a couple of years. Isaac got his picture taken with all of the players including Pedro Alvarez who is supposed to be the #1 player taken in next years draft. This guy has already turned down a huge contract from the Boston Red Sox in order to go to college to get his education which was cool to see.

After the autographs, we walked out onto the field with the team. Isaac carried the bat for #9 Jordy Mercer from Oklahoma State. All of the players were extremely nice. We then went to the dugout and waited for the opening ceremonies. Isaac and the two other kids then went out for the opening pitch. He did awesome. He told us he almost cried after he pitched the ball because he was so excited. Overall, the night was a 10 on scale of 1-10. A special thanks to Courtney and Beth at Hendrick and Team USA Baseball.

More Info for Tommorrow

As I said, we will be heading up to North Carolina for the Team USA baseball game tommorrow night. Isaac gets to throw out the first pitch. You can watch the game here. I'm not sure if they will show the pre game stuff or not.

Three of My Favorite Things and A Job I'd Like to Have

Tonight I got to experience three of my favorite things. The first is just walking around in the back yard with my shirt off. This is probably one of my favorite back yard past times. The second is blowing stuff up. And the third is blowing stuff up with my shirt off in the back yard.

Tonight was fun, I went out in the backyard and proceeded to blow up a ton of fireworks in the backyard for Isaac and my nieces. There is nothing like a burning fuse in your hand right before a cardboard encased pouch of gunpowder explodes into oblivion. My favorite smell is smoke bombs burning off what ever it is they burn off. Seriously, I could inhale that stuff and be happy.

Which leads me to my a job I'd like to have. I imagine that someone somewhere has the dubious distinction of being the guy that gets to create the cacophony of incidiary delights. I would love to be the firework tester guy that works with the firework creator guy. All day long everyday just blowing stuff up and getting paid to do it. Yeah that would be pretty cool.

Thursday is a big day for Isaac. We are heading to Kannapolis ,NC where Isaac is going to be the guest of Hendrick Motorsports and Team USA for a baseball game versus Team Japan. Isaac will get to throw the first pitch and it promises to be a cool afternoon. He will get to meet all the players before the game and then we will watch the game from one of the suites. We'll have some pics as soon as we get back from up there. I hope everyone has a great 4th.

I'm Probably Gonna Catch Some Flak

I have a confession and when I confess this, I 'm probably gonna catch some flak. Years ago I had heard some guys talking about their shower habits and I actually heard this one guy say something about his loofa. I had no idea what he was talking about. Better yet, I had no idea why I was listening to guys discuss their shower habits. It seems kind of like the View only without Rosie.

Anyway, I finally found out what a loofa was and to be quite honest I thought they were kinda sissy, especially for a manly man to say that he bathed with one rather than a manly wash rag where you can see the dirt and the evidence of your hard work. So I dismissed the loofa and all male loofa users Worldwide. I thought of them as Metro's.

Well about 6 months ago I was in Bed, Bath and Beyond,(I know, I know, the pot calling the kettle black) and I came across a loofa on a stick. I figured it was made by the same guy who made soap on a rope, possibly for prisoner use where dropping your loofa could be a real bad thing. I gave in to temptation and purchased a loofa on a stick. And to my amazement, I actually enjoy using my loofa. I no longer have those hard to reach places between the middle of my shoulder blades. I now can wash all parts of my body without trying real hard. After 36 years, I had given up the wash rag and exchanged it for my loofa stick.

I didn't realize how awkward it was that I used a loofa on a stick until a couple of weeks ago at camp when Evan checked into our room and he thought he made a mistake and went into a girls room because my loofa was in the shower along with my Secret deodorant on the counter.

There I said it and I feel better by getting this off of my chest. I hope this post encourages male loofa users everywhere. You are not alone.