Father's Day

When my mom's boss showed up with my older brother to pick me up at the "baby sitter's", I was a little confused. At five years old, there was no way that I could have known why my mom wasn't the one.

That was the day my dad died.

The next seven years, my older brothers were the "men of the house". Don't pity me though. As much as I missed my dad, his death and absence from my life helped shape me. I am not happy in the least about his death. But I am ok with it now.

I also see how it lead to many good things in my life. If my dad hadn't died, I would have never met Jill, my wife. If I had never met Jill, I would not have my wonderful family. There would be no Tilley, our biological daughter. We would not have adopted our other kids. Where would they be today, if my dad hadn't died?

Seven years later, my mom remarried. It took me a while to really understand what a great man my new "dad" was. At the age of thirteen, I was not comfortable calling him dad. So I started calling him "Pop", like Lamont called his dad on "Sanford and Son".



Over time, "Pop" set a great example for me in many ways. I owe him a lot for where I am today. 

I have a wonderful and beautiful family.  Today is a good day to be the father of The Brasfield Nation.

God bless,
Dadofmykids.

PS.  I just got an Amazon Link.  Use it to support The Brasfield Nation.  Thanks.

The Easter eggs are on the stove to boil.

There is a lot of tradition in the Easter holiday, both pagan and Christian. I understand that Christians kind of took this holiday over, replacing the original celebration of fertility or something with the celebration of Christ's resurrection.

But we still do the whole bunny thing.

It's easy for the kids to be more excited about candy and fun than about Jesus. But that's normal for kids. I wonder how excited they would be about His resurrection if we took away the fun stuff that has nothing to do with Him. I think kids would have no more enthusiasm over The Resurrection than they do Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is cool for kids because they get two days off from school. But that's about all they get out of it. Everything else associated with thanksgiving is of interest to adults. The main reason kids know what thanksgiving is about is that it's name says it all: Thanksgiving.
Easter doesn't say anything without some explanation.

So thank God for the Easter bunny which makes the holiday fun and exciting for kids. But thank Him even more for Eternal Life.

Six kids on four teams.

I just finished adding the season's baseball schedules into my calendar.  Four schedules in all. We have six kids playing baseball this season, on four teams.

Typical week during baseball.

That's four games on a Thursday evening.  We'll buy lots of Happy Happy Hot dogs.

I use Google Calendar which syncs with any computer I use, plus my iPhone.  By adding Jill to each event, she gets to add them to her calendar too.

Next, I plan to print a simplified schedule with all games listed for easy reference.  I will post that one on the refrigerator.

The new season begins next week.  We have two games on opening day.

I love baseball.

God bless,
Andy

Free Continental Breakfast

Ten or fifteen years ago, I took Jill and the kids with me on a business trip to Atlanta.  We stayed at a nice hotel where they served a free continental breakfast on the third floor.

"Perfect", I thought.  "We will save some money by eating the free continental breakfast."

Our room was not on the third floor.  It seemed kind of odd that they didn't have the food in the lobby.  But, oh well.  It was free.  Right?

At the time, I think we had four kids.  Jill, correct me if I'm wrong.  So you can see why breakfast was a big deal.  Little kids get very hungry in the mornings.

I figured it out near the end of our stay.  The third floor was the "Executive" floor.  The free continental breakfast was supposed to be for those executives who'd paid extra to be there.

When we got home, Jill told her uncle Greg about my success with what became known as "The Free Continental Breakfast".  I don't know how many times Greg teased about it.  I would have thought he was mad at me if a family get together had gone by with some mention of The Free Continental Breakfast.  (BTW, today, Greg is having surgery to remove some tumors from his brain.  Please pray for him and the family.)

Today is Riley's birthday.  This story reminds me of when he was little.  He was such a good baby.  We called him 'Wonder Boy".  I am very proud of Riley.  He is still such a good person.  He is pictured above with Tilley, when they were younger, obviously.

Days like this make me thankful to be a dad.

The day's line up included three baseball practices, starting at 9 am. That's early for a Saturday.

We made the first one just in time. We had to push a little though. Levi had to change out of his pj's after we got here.

We went to Goodwill between practices one and two, to find a baseball glove for Asher. Success!! In addition to a glove, we bought Kk some cleats, a bat and a helmet for the three Yankees, and a pair of sandals for Levi. All for less that twenty bucks.

A quick pit stop at home for some lunch.

While the Yankees were practicing, the other kids asked me to play ball with them. By the time we were bumped off a previously vacant field, we had quite a pick-up game. The whole gang moved to another empty field where I snapped this photo.

I now am sitting in the grass with Kk, watching the Yankees and typing up this post with the breeze cooling me off.

There are plenty of chores that I could be doing at home right now. In fact, I feel a little neglectful of the house. But spending the day like this will pay off. The payoff is kinda mysterious yet simple. Simple: memories, closer relationships, exercise. Mysterious: unknown future events, unforeseen influence, no regrets in case of tragedy.

If I was not a dad, maybe this day would be much less fulfilling. I don't know. I can't say for sure.

Practice number two is almost over. We'll be back later for practice number three.

God bless,
Dadofmykids

The Brasfield Nation Smoky Mountain Invasion

I played hooky from work today so we could all go to the mountains.  All means all.  That's Jill and me, our eight kids, daughter in law and grandson.  We all loaded up in Heapy for a drive to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a picnic.  We had a great day.  Here are some pics for you.

Asher sitting on the bridge.  You thought it was a log?

He "fell" off.

Notice everybody in this pic is doing something different.

Have you met Kelli, our sweet daughter in law?

Kk loves to hold Drake.

See.  I told you it was a bridge.

Levi looking for minnows.

Can you see who is on his shirt?

Mellow Asher.

Mellow Levi.

Mumzie got skills.

Picking.

When a boy has mustard on his face, his daddy will take his picture.

This is our friend Tanner.

Looking for minnows.

Tanner Kiss.

Shameless plug for my buddy Wayne at United Plumbing.

Tucker caught a minnow.  No surprise there.

Tucker, what are you laughing at?

Another of Tucker's little friends.

The Brasfield Nation: The Next Generation

It's official.  I'm a grandpa.  Or is it Grandpa, with a capital G?  Drake was born today.  Actually yesterday since it's after midnight now.  A perfect baby boy.  And so begins the next generation of Brasfields.

Our four "older" kids were gone to a concert with the church.  Jill was at the hospital, waiting for Drake to arrive.  So I took the three younger kids out.  We went to Shono's in the City for dinner.  I had sushi (French Kiss Roll and Ruby Roll).  And they had either chicken or shrimp with rice.  They all wanted lessons on holding the chop sticks, even though I am not good at it myself.  The closest any of them came to tasting the sushi was when Asher held some in his hand.  He gave it back to me.  The food was delicious.  And the kids were good.  We had a good time there.

As we were walking back to the parking lot, Jill called to say that Drake had been born.  Oh how excited she was!  Crying and everything.  She immediately started sending pictures to my phone.  It was awesome.

The four of us continued with our plans to attend the Knoxville Ice Bears hockey game.  During the first period of the game, I was studying all the pictures Jill was posting on Facebook.  No idea what happened in the game.  I was really excited and overflowing with happiness.  We saw and spoke with three different groups or individuals that we knew, a customer, the Williams family, and Jazz and Alisa.  I showed them all Drake's picture.  Jazz asked how old Drake was.  "About half an hour", I said.  After the second period ended, we left to go see Drake at the hospital nursery.


When we got there, we passed the nursery first.  We didn't know if Drake was there or with Kelli.  But there was a baby that I thought looked like Drake.  After we found Jill and Daniel, they took us back to the nursery.  Sure enough the baby I had seen was ours.  He's a perfect little gift from God.  I don't think there is anything more precious than a newborn baby - except a newborn grandbaby.

Jill took the kids with her and headed home so I could stay and hold the baby.  After the nurse brought him to Kelli's room, I got to hold him.  I haven't lost my touch with a baby.  He listened to me and watched like he knew what I was saying was very important.

This is one of those milestones that we hope for.  Now it's here.  I pray that Drake and all the future Brasfield grandkids will grow up with parents and grandparents that show them how awesome the love of God and family are.  I pray that we teach them to follow Christ and to love their neighbors.

It was another good day with The Brasfield Nation.

God bless,
Dadofmykids
(Grandadofmykids too?  Well I don't know if that came out right.)

Crawdads, Merry-go-rounds and my Lawler shirt.

The Brasfield Nation invaded Rock Springs Park in Lenoir City today.  Tucker caught a crawdad.  And the kids learned how to go faster on a merry-go-round.

Tucker's Crawdad:  There is a creek at the park.  It took Tucker about a minute to find a critter living in the water.  And seeing a critter is never good enough.  He has to catch it.

The strange thing is that he had a net tucked away in our van.  I didn't know there was a net in the van.  But he didn't even think twice.  He ran and got the net like greased lightening.

Here's the video of Tucker catching Fred.  (That's right.  He named it.)

The Merry-Go-Round:
The kids asked me to push.  Faster.  Faster!!  FASTER!!!!

So I taught them how to use centrifugal force to make themselves go faster.  In this video, watch closely after I stop pushing.  You'll hear a thump as Asher hits the deck and Riley moves toward the center.  At that point, they pick up so much speed that Tucker is not able to bring himself in.

We also threw some baseballs and sat on a bench.

My Jerry Lawler Shirt:
When we got home, the mail man delivered my Jerry Lawler shirt.  In case you don't know the situation, Jill ordered a shirt from my favorite pro wrestler, Jerry "The King" Lawler, for Valentine's Day.  She ordered in plenty of time, about a month before Val' Day.  When it didn't arrive on time, she contacted Lawler's website.  To make it up to me, Jerry Lawler himself called me on Val' Day.  He said he wanted me to know that Jilly had done it all right.  Additionally, he autographed the shirt and put it in the mail.

Jerry was supposed to be on Monday Night Raw on Feb 14.  But his mother passed away the day before.  So he was off taking care of funeral arrangements and family business.  He still called me, despite his personal situation.

Jerry Lawler is a WWE Hall of Famer.  Class of 2007.  I watched him on local Memphis TV when I was a teenager.  He retired from action and became a ringside commentator.  Recently, he came out of retirement and is due to fight for the WWE Championship tomorrow night against The Miz, on Pay Per View.

The shirt arrived just in time for me to wear it during the championship match.  I think I'll wear it to church tomorrow, too.

It was another good day for The Brasfield Nation.

God Bless,
Dadofmykids

Hooked for Life

Put the bobber in the fishing hole.  Sounds easy, but it proved hard for these kids.

Jill and I helped in the kids class at church tonight.  The second part of the class was done by David Orr, who is an avid fisherman.  He uses fishing to teach about relationship with Christ.

Tonight's game involved rolling a large rubber ball over the "rocks" and into the "fishing hole".  The kids had a blast with the competition.  Here's a video of Levi in the final round:

Levi finished in second place and won the ball (or bobber).  Brion took first and got a brand new rod and reel combo.

Great job, Orr!!

God bless,
Dadofmykids.

We went fishing today. Look at what we caught.

The weather was great, for February.  59 degree F.  Breezy.  Compared to the subfreezing temps of this winter, we thought Phil was right.

On the advise of an avid fisherman friend, we tried a new spot. It was under the bridge near the Ft. Loudon Dam, on the Maryville side.

I couldn't be sure, but it looks like Tilley was fishing for tweeters. 

Watch this video to see what Asher caught.  

In addition to the three above, Tucker, Riley, Kk, and Jack, were on the rocky banks with us.  They were all so excited to go fishing.  It would have been fun to catch some real fish.  But we had a good day regardless.

If you are able, take your kids fishing.  I know you may have important things to do.  But, you'll be glad you spent time with your kids instead.  Be sure to take along a camera.  Take pictures.  And celebrate even the smallest of catches.

God bless,

Dadofmykids