So here is your warning.  If I come across rude, let me know it.  I will be attempting to be brutally honest with my closest family and friends.  So if you don’t want to know, don’t ask.  I understand there are times of flattery, like opening a gift you have no idea what to do with and you say,”Oh, thank you so much.  This is really thoughtful of you.”  Fine, I can do that.  But if you ask me or get in a conversation with me about a subject, you’re going to hear what I think.

Now, I realize this may weed some friends out, people who think I’m being rude, and that’s fine.  I don’t want to have to put on a face or dance around the truth to appease somebody who obviously doesn’t really respect my opinion.  The best friends are the ones you can have arguments with.  The ones who see black when you see white, and then 10 minutes later, that conversation is just over.  Done.  Put to bed.  Not someone who remembers that for years to come and holds on to it.

I came to this after thinking about my friends around me and some recent conversations I’ve had with them (all good, so far).  Then I started thinking about Jesus and if he spoke empty words of false praise or phrases just to appease people.  I can’t find any.  Now, I’m not saying I’m going to go around calling strangers out on sin, but fellow Christians are to keep each other accountable and help them from falling into sin, staying in sin and to get out of sin.  Swallow that pill.  Do you have a friend at church (not the pastor) that holds you accountable for you sin?  We should.  We all should.

Is there such thing as a little lie?  A small cuss word?  What kind of friend or family member are we if we can’t be VERY honest with each other?  Do you like those shoes?  No.  Do you like Justin Bieber?  Yes.  Do you like onions on your pizza?  No.  Do you want to come over tonight?  No.  Why not?  Because we just want to stay home.

You don’t have to like my answer, but you should respect the honesty, and I’ll do the same.  I may hurt your feelings, but I will always try my best to do it in truth and love, but never with the malicious intent of hurting your feelings.  I’ll apologize if what I say is not the truth.

What if we put too much faith, dependency and responsibility of morals on our government.  Yes, I believe America and it’s laws were founded on God’s laws and by a group largely of Christian men, who never imagined, issues being argued today, would ever be, well, issues.  I believe that the so-called “separation of church and state,” which doesn’t exist, was designed to keep government from controlling the church as happened in the land from which they came.

I have a revelation for all of you though.  If you really want to change our country, the world, our laws, our leaders, it starts with your neighbor.  It is our responsibility as believers to show the love of Jesus to those immediately around us.  To willingly be a vessel for God to use to change the hearts and minds of those around us.  To instill the morals and values Jesus gave us, into broken homes, marriages, and our children.

Why aren’t more Christians elected into office?  Because there aren’t enough passionate, true Christians to vote them in.  The best way to change that is to help people find the free gift of salvation and help transform them.  I’m not talking about someone who simply believes in God or says they are a Christian, but doesn’t uphold the values and lessons taught in God’s word.  I mean someone who is more focussed on the eternity of the currently elected officials, and their neighbors and family.

I still endorse voting with your morals, because a country without them and God, will never make it.  God can take care of the finances, policy, etc. if our hearts are in order.  Weigh it out.  This guy condones killing babies, but has a good plan to get us out of debt.  Really?  Millions of lives a year versus debt?  More on that in a later blog.

So get busy.  Tell everyone.  It’s our responsibility, one person at a time, to keep/restore values in America not our government’s.

Each place has had things I miss, things I don’t and unique qualities.

Missouri of course, is where I grew up and where my oldest friends are. My family is still there. That’s where Jody and I met, got married and lived for a while. My first full-time job was there. Jody and I miss Old St. Charles, toasted ravioli, the Zoo, Ted Drewe’s and of course going to Busch Stadium.
I don’t miss the ridiculous traffic, high crime rate and lack of sweet tea(real sweet tea).

We moved to Alabama, I guess technically in 2003 and we were there for about 3 years. We lived in a smaller town. I miss the little home-grown stores, getting my news from the barber shop and how much house/land you got for your money and the slow pace of life and the scenery.
I don’t miss the smell of chickens in the air twice a month, having to drive 15 minutes to Wal-Mart and having to decipher some of the thicker accents.

Current residence in Tennessee. Well, we couldn’t move too far north, and get out of sweet tea country. We really like our quaint small town square, the local country store restaurants(not Cracker Barrel). We love our church and the friends we’ve made. Everything is very close for shopping, activities and good schools. We have an excellent system of greenways that weaves through town for miles. We can be out in the country in 5 minutes or in Nashville in 25. Music is everywhere. That being said, I wish the schools were a little smaller. Traffic’s not bad, but a little busy at times. Seems like we have a lot of severe storms.

It’s been fun.  You should try it.  Be open to where God may want you to go, even if it really doesn’t make any sense.  The key is to not worry about what anyone else says.  If we truly believe that God is our provider and protector, then we should trust his commands and plan for us are for our good and let Him work out the details.  After recently reading Francis Chan’s Crazy Love book, I have a feeling a vast majority of Christians are asked, by God to do what we all consider to be, some crazy things, but we resist because people would think we were nuts.  Or we think it’s too crazy.  Too dangerous or risky.  But that’s what God wants.  He wants people to look at us and say, “what are they thinking?”  Then when the plan levels out and they see God’s blessings on us for being obedient, we can tell them the story of how God brought us to this place at this time for a specific reason.  People do some really crazy things for their boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, kids, hobbies, etc.  But when was the last time you did something crazy for God?  God proves throughout the bible that every time He asked someone to do something crazy, like Isaac sacrificing his son, He is always faithful in resolving our fears.

How crazy are you for God?

2. Reports that Pujols would veto any trade. I don’t buy it. If the Yankees or Red Sox called St. Louis and said we’ll trade you our first baseman for yours plus we’ll send some cash to cover the salary, Pujols would have to highly entertain the idea of easily getting what he wants in money and years and another town that will embrace him.

3. Not getting a deal done before the season could greatly increase revenue for STL this year in attendance and Pujols gear.

4. If the Cardinals are confident in resigning Pujols, you can say goodbye to Carpenter. Frankly, I’ve said it before, even if Carpenter is having a terrific year, you trade him.

5. Like it or not Berkman is the back up plan here. For everyone’s sake, he needs to have a fantastic season.

6. If Pujols does hit free agency, I don’t see him choosing the Cubs, simply because he has made it clear he wants to play for a winner.

7 His character will be revealed not by how much his contract is worth, but by where he signs, whether or not it’s in St. Louis.

I was browsing through the current 40 man roster for St. Louis, so it got me all excited and I started speculating the line up and other things.  Let’s start with the most fun one.  What could the line up be?  The best part is the fact that Tony will only use the same lineup 15 times this year so it’s really pointless to do this other than for fun.  So let’s have some…

Theriot SS

Rasmus CF

Pujols 1B

Holliday LF

Berkman RF

Freese 3B

Molina C

Schumaker 2B

Pitcher

Speaking of pitchers, here’s the probable rotation…Wainright, Carpenter, Garcia, Westbrook, Lohse

Of interest to me are some of the infielders we could see within the next 2 years or so.  Zach Cox and Pete Kozma are very promising prospects and we need infield prospects.

Unless somebody really impresses other than these guys, this will be your bench…

Jon Jay

Tyler Greene

Allen Craig

Don’t count out Daniel Descalso

That’s all I have to say for now.

I don’t want to see Pujols leave.  Besides his talent, he just really seems like a good guy and a huge asset to the city in general.  But leaving those aside, we have to ask the question, can the Cardinals compete without him?  My answer is yes!

My optimism for him sticking around fell from 90% to 70% almost overnight.  When the Cardinals acquired Lance Berkman, part of me wondered if he was Pujols insurance.  A man who has finished closely in NL MVP races and plays first base.  Sure, he’s aging and he’s definitely no Pujols.  But what first basemen will really be available at the end of next season?  That’s a small pool.  Maybe a puddle.  Berkman would be  viable candidate for 2 or 3 years to fill that void.

Money.  Let’s say the Cardinals top offer to Pujols is $28 million a year for 8 years and he rejects it and the deal is dead.  If St. Louis were to take that $28 million and invest it in 3 other players or so, they could fetch some pretty good talent to spread across the field, not to mention retaining Molina in a year or two.

Not to mention what you could get in a trade for Pujols, which is what you would HAVE to do if you plan on not signing him, let’s look at who are free agents that could be had at the end of next year.  Here’s a short list

Jose Bautista

Jose Reyes

Jimmy Rollins

Cody Ross

Grady Sizemore

Mark Beurhle

Scott Kazmir

Those are the names that pop off the list the most.  You could stock the pond with some good free agents and players from a trade to have good, young team.  Pujols could pull in the hard to get, controlled young talent from the right franchise.

Do I want to see him go?  No.  I hope he stays.  But the waters are getting rough and each day that passes is a day closer to the end of the Pujols era in St. Louis.  If he doesn’t stay, he MUST be traded.  Far, far away out of the NL central and maybe out of the NL all together.

For those of you who didn’t know, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s in February of this year.  Crohn’s is a funny thing in that know one really agrees on what causes it or even really, how to treat it.  Most MD’s have a general protocol and believe it is due to a malfunction of the immune system, affecting the digestive system.  So most medicines are immuno suppressant along with anti-inflammatory and often times a steroid like Prednisone during a time of flare ups.

Well recently none of the medicine has been working much with the exception of the Prednisone.  So, realizing that the next step is going to be biologic medicine I decided to try some alternatives.  First let me explain that biologic medicines have proven to be extremely affective.  Biologic are administered either through shots or I.V. approximately every 8 weeks.  The one administered through I.V. takes 2 hours every 8 weeks.  There is also a significantly higher rate of disease and cancers while on the biologics.  Because of this risk I talked my doctor into letting me try some other approaches before we head down that road.  He somewhat reluctantly agreed.

So as of this past Saturday I started taking herbal supplements.  I am building up to the full array of recommended concoctions, but here’s what I am currently taking.  Two Cayenne for bleeding.  Two White Willow for inflammation.  A probiotic.  A Camomile supplement for digestive relaxation and will soon start on fish oil/omega 3′s.  So far so good.  I like to think I’ve already seen a difference, but am reserving those claims for a while.  Ultimately I am expecting God to heal my body completely, so these are steps to reduce the symptoms, until then.  I think my body is adjusting to being off of all of the other medicine I was taking.  I’ve had some headaches and tiredness, etc.

I appreciate prayers for my condition and prayers that they will find out what causes this disease, to help other people.

Christmas!

It looks like we will be in Sullivan over Christmas this year.  We are looking forward to services at TBC while there and Christmas Eve with the extended family for the first time in a while.  By then, Jody will have less than 3 months to go in her pregnancy.  After waiting for Addison for 7 years, a few months will seem really quick.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.  We will be spending it with our distant relatives, the Hensons in Tennessee.  Thanks for the invite, we are excited for Thursday.

You’re not going to get much for Ryan or Schumaker, but let’s face it. After seeing Descalso play last night, I think he could play 3B, SS or 2B and he’s a much more balanced hitter.
I got to see him play in spring training and I was impressed back then.

Shelby Miller will probably jump to AAA some time next year, maybe right of spring training.
He’ll be at the MLB level and starting, soon.

I think they need one more veteran position player that can play everyday. Probably at an infield position.

That’s all for now.

The easiest way to do it is as a prediction and by position.

2011
Pitching.
Not a lot will change. The rotation will be Carpentar, Wainright, Garcia, Lohse and whoever they pick up in February or McClellan. I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed to see Westbrook back.

Bullpen will mostly stay the same, Boggs might become the new closer. Salas is going to come up big next year in the pen.

The obvious position players are:
Holliday LF
Pujols 1B
Rasmus CF
Molina C
Schumaker 2B

Let me take this moment to say something about Skippy. Yes, he started extremely slow, but his overall numbers on the year translate into about what was expected of him.

That said here are some possible changes. Let’s start internal
Winn = gone
Miles = questionable
Greene, Craig, Jay all have legitimate shots of getting starting gigs at RF, SS, 2B respectively
Freese is going to get one more shot at 3B. Another injury and he’s traded. Frankly I would deal him this off season if it were me.
Feliz will float around in the free agent waters for a while, so he’ll be the Cards’ back up plan for 3B if he’s still available.
Lopez is more likely to come back than Miles.

I see the Cardinals shopping for a LF, RF or 3B bat.
I think they’ll take a look again at Tejada and Beltre
They should at least dip their toe into the Jason Werth waters, Philly can’t hold em’

Expect the Cardinals to increase payroll without telling anybody they are. They’ll make it public that they still don’t have money for negotiating purposes. But giving players the opportunity to play in STL with Carp, Waino, Pujols, Molina and Holliday will be enough to entice some players to make a deal.

This is my attempt to get back into regular blogging.

Cardinals….They’re about where expected I think.  What we didn’t expect is a race with…the Reds?  Well, it does make for a nice rival.  Former GM vs his former Assistant GM.  A note to consider, even with the Cards 3.5 games out…. in 2007 we were 7 games out on September 2 and ended up being co-champions with Houston.  Just sayin.

Okay, so the big news is, I’m gonna a be a dad.  Yes, it was a surprise, but no it wasn’t.  Anybody that knows our full story, understands.  I’ll shorten it up for you.  We’ve been trying for about 7 years.  Tried fertility treatments.  Decided to not think/talk about it this year, and bam!  As of this blog (8-20-2010) Jody is 10 weeks along.  She’s been really sick.

Other than finding that out, and about the same time, the dog getting a kidney stone (surgery), the dishwasher catching fire, the truck AC fan going bad and me needing to get four fillings, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  Jody just took a much less stressful job in January that allows her to work from home.  I think even God said we didn’t have money for another fertility treatment and we had to make a decision on that by the end of August, so yeah, God!

I’ll keep updates coming.

It’s all still really surreal.  We went in to a OB specialist who is known to be really good with fertility cases.  Jody was feeling sick and sluggish and she’s had that before and nobody could tell her what was going on.  She started the examination and she says, “oh, I think I see the problem!”  We were both about to sigh with relief.  Finally somebody figured it out.  So we ask, “what is it?”  She’s says, “you’re gonna have a baby.”  Jody sits up and says, “what?”  Actually she said it a couple of times.  Even on our way to our second appointment, two weeks later, I don’t think we believed what we heard.  So finally after the 2nd appointment, it sunk in a little bit.

God has blessed.  We may not really know the timing of this for years to come.  We praise Him for His faithfulness and mercy on us.

Thank you to everybody who knew our situation and had been praying for us.  Jody and I are asking God to bless all of you who interceded for us and ask you to celebrate this wonderful answer to prayer with us that you were all a part of.

Thanks

Josh