I'LL FIX IT....Somehow...Someway...

How many times has something happen to you or a situation arises and your first instinct is to take it on and fix it yourself? I struggle with this all the time. My wife comes to me to tell me she has a problem and what do I want to do... fix it! My kids come to me with a problem and I want to fix it. Why is our first reaction to fix things? I can think back to many situations that I spent countless hours thinking of ways I could fix or take care of a problem. Whether it's a bill that needs to be paid and the money isn't there to pay it or something bad has happened and I don't know what to do. My mind races from idea to idea, plan to plan...How can I solve the problem?

Well this week is no different. Last Thursday morning I went out to start my truck and it's a no go! I get some funky error in my odometer screen reading "No BUS". What's Up With That? I check the internet and find that the computer in my truck is malfunctioning. The internet searches say it's the PCM (main computer). Not only does it run the whole truck but the dealership will have to fix it. How can I fix it? That’s my first thought. What can I do? Why me? What am I going to do? My mind starts to race...my heart starts to sink once I see the estimated cost posted in the internet searches...how will we pay for this....how do I get to work...what am I going to do... This goes on and on and on and on. So here it is 5 days later and I am
still thinking of all the ways I can fix this....I can do this and get some money...I can sell that to get some more.. on and on it goes.

I know your saying "Michael what about God!" Well that’s were it gets difficult. In my head, I know He has a plan for me...He is the one who allowed this to happen to me...there is a reason for all this...I need to trust HIM! At the same time my mind races with all the ways I think I can fix this problem. It is a battle between the flesh of the mind and trusting in God. Do you ever have that problem? Do you battle with trusting Him? All the things I have learned and experienced in my Christian walk tell me everything is going to be fine. He will take care of it all. Do not worry. Trust in Me! I can hear God telling me these things. My head knows this and so does my heart. But I still struggle with wanting to solve it on my own and within my own power. All it takes is to just give it to Him and let Him deal with it! I can sit back and not worry, relax in Him and know all will be fine. I am always reminded of this song we use to sing in youth group "cast all your cares upon Him, lay all of your burdens down at His feet, anytime I don't know what to do, I will cast all my cares upon you!" I am pretty good about not worrying. Most of the time I think I am just blocking it out or I pretend it doesn’t exists. I can go through the day and not worry... sometimes I don't even think about it. I think it is because we don’t want to face the fact that we have a hard time trusting God. I mean fully trusting Him in every situation...100%. I know deep down He will take care of me. How and When? I don't have a clue...but I do know He loves me and cares for me...that is all that matters. I think I will always struggle with the ability to fully trust in Him...there is a piece of me that always wants to do the fixing. Do you struggle with trusting God? What keeps you from trusting in Him?

I put all this out here so you can know.... God cares for you...more then you could ever imagine. In 1 Peter 5:7 it says "cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Do you cast your cares upon him? Do you lay all your burdens at His feet? It is so easy to want to do it yourself...fix it on your own. Don't fall in to the evil ones trap...Trust in Him...rely on Him...He is the one who can sustain you in the worst of times. He loves you and does care for you!

One of my favorite verses in the bible is Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. How awesome is that! To know that our future is already planned out. Trust and follow Him and you will have Hope! Thank you Lord for planning my Future and giving me Hope!

What's Up With The O'Donnell's!

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. What's Up With That?

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. I Mean Really!

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. Who Does That?

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. Why?

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What's Up With Mike!
Hello everyone! It has been a while and yet I have nothing really exciting to blog about. I am really tired and got a thousand things running through my head. Can you relate? I have spent most of the past 3 weeks in Microsoft Certification Training classes. Talk about information overload. My head hurts just trying to piece it all together. Basically we have gone through 5 Microsoft books that are 400+ pages each. Have you ever seen the Orlando phone book? That might give you an idea. I never thought I would say this but I am looking forward to going back to work.

At the beginning of the month I hurt my back moving some major office furniture at work. We were rebuilding the Server closet and had to tone out all the network jacks. Basically that means, test about 100 cables running from the server closet to all the offices. Of course, all the network jacks were behind the desks, shelves, or a filing cabinet. So I have spent the past 4 weeks going to and from the doctor for that. I had an MRI done on Tuesday and went to a physical therapist yesterday. So now I will go to therapy 3 times a week for 2 weeks and need to go back to the doctor to get MRI results. No fun!

What's Up With Jacob!
Jacob started fall ball this month too! He has had a couple practices and will have his first game on Saturday. It will be really interesting to see how they do. His team is mostly 8 year old's half his size. There is one other boy his size and age. Because this is not the regular baseball season, there were only enough kids to form 5 teams. Most coming out of the machine pitch level. So basically, they took the older kids and divided them up on all 5 teams. He and Chase will have to lead the team and set the example for the younger ones. Jacob will be the starting pitcher, play first base, and catcher. I think it will be good for him to have this time to practice his pitching and behind the plate catching skills. Coming up next spring he will be moving up to the majors and will be playing with the big boys again!

What's Up With Hannah!
Hannah is busy too with dancing, band, and youth group. She has been dancing for a couple years now and is really good at it. I enjoy watching her and the other girls perform. She plays the clarinet in the band. Her school had a football game last week that she had to attend. So, Jacob and I put on our band shirts and went to the game too! It was like going to a Seminole game. Players on the field, cheerleaders cheering, and the band in the stands playing their hearts out. Sadly the Griffin Tigers lost but I did enjoy hearing the band play. I am very proud of Hannah and all the hard work she puts into practicing. I know most of you read on Robin’s blog about Hannah’s prayer for us to get a van before youth group started up. Well we did and Hannah has been using it to full advantage. On that first youth meeting she invited 3 girls to go with her. I am so glad that we were able to accommodate everyone so she had that opportunity. I remember when I was in youth group I would drive around town in our huge suburban and pick up friend from all over to bring them to youth group. Anyway since that first night, 2 of Hannah’s friend have gone back every Sunday. How cool is that! God has opened up a door to allow my daughter to have an avenue to share Jesus with her friends. It can't get any better then that!

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What's Up With Robin!

Robin started working in the office 3 days a week. She has been working hard too. I am not sure what this will change in our day to day routine but we will see. To find out more on her you can check her blog and find out!

Wow! 13 Years!

Happy Anniversary!

Robin,

Thank you for the best 13 years of my life.

I love you! I love you! I love you!

Always and Forever,

Michael

God My Provider!

A few days ago Robin called me at work to see if I was interested in meeting her at the local Maytag store to look at dryers. She really wants a new one since our current isn't working very well. We looked and found that they were too expensive. Our current dryer has some major issues. A couple of years ago the timer went out so the dryer runs foreevvvveeerrr until you open the door to stop it. After we moved into out house the cable man was working in the attic and dropped his 100lb roll of cable out of the attic right onto our dryer leaving a huge dent. The worst part about our dryer is that a load of towels takes around 3 hours to dry. Needless to say our 10 year old dryer is on its last leg.

Well today I was leaving work and got a call from a lady I do computer work for. She needed assistance with getting her fax machine to receive faxes. I told her I would swing by and check it out. As I was working on her faxing issue we caught up on things since the last time I was there. In our conversation somehow the talk of Robin and I looking at dryers came up. I told her our current one is pretty much on its last leg and that we really needed a new one. She immediately said that she new someone that was selling a dryer and that it wasn't that old. So in my head am thinking $200, $300, or maybe $350 for a newly used dryer. As I was finishing up she said she would call them real quick and see if they still had it for sale and how much. After she hung up the phone she turned to me and said they would sell it for.........are you ready for this.....$50 bucks!!!! Yes I typed it correctly......$50 Bucks!!! So she gave me the number and directions and off I went to see it. I arrived and found it to be in excellent shape. I loaded it in truck, paid the man, and brought it home to surprise my wife.

Now it’s hooked up in the garage and already drying a load of laundry. The best part is the timer works! No more staying up till who knows when waiting on the clothes to dry before I can go to bed. Also it is a Kenmore that matches our washer and old dryer to the tee! So all this to say that God is good and does know all our needs and even when we don't think there is a way he can make it very easy. Jehovah Jirah My Provider.

NASCAR Race at the Bristol Motor Raceway

OK for starters, I think you might find it interesting that I am on I-75 heading back to Florida and I am blogging at the same time. Isn't technology wonderful? We are also watching National Treasure and dad has the sound hooked into the car speakers. Pretty Cool!

Here are a few pictures I took at the NASCAR race. Because both races were at night, I couldn't take very many due to it was dark. Every race we go to at Bristol starts off pretty much the same. They introduce the drivers, a parachuter drifts into the raceway with a huge American flag, and they sing the National Anthem. This time they had a cards at each seat and had all the fans hold up their card during the anthem. When they gave us the signal, we held up the signs and made the USA on one end of the raceway and the American flag wrapped around the rest of the seats. Then we flipped them over and did the second one, which showed the Sharpie 500 and Bristol on one end and Sprint giveaway on the other end. It also wrapped around the entire raceway. The Raceway contacted the Guinness Book of World Records to document it as the biggest Card Stunt ever done. It was so cool to see the signs develop. We all thought it was awesome to be part of breaking a world record. After that, Air Force jets soar over the fans at mach speeds. I got a decent picture with one turning on his afterburners. Then someone says “Gentleman Start your Engines” and they start um up. It is REALLY LOUD!!!

As you can see the 2 pictures of the cars are very dark and hard to see so I decided to put my camera away and just watch the race. Again, Dad hooked us up with awesome seats in the handicapper section. So we all got to be together to watch the race. The race was a pretty good one but again none of our favorites won. The race ended around 12am and had to wait for an hour or so before we could even leave the raceway. We didn't get back to the house until 2am.

Now for the funny part. David and Audra really wanted to treat us to dinner so when we got to the house they were cooking us dinner. They had grilled steak, salad with all the fixins, baked potatoes, and freshly made tea. I must admit I have never eaten steak at 2:30 in the morning before but it was awesome! I may have to try it at home some time with Robin and the kids.

Busch Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway

Here are some of the pictures from the Busch race. Dad got us some awesome seats in the handicapper section. Robin told me to take more pictures then just the cars. I hope I did to her satisfaction. The pictures are of my Dad, my brothers Mark and Tad, my sisters Ann and Nina, friends Barry and Farah, and Jacob of course. We had a blast. None of our favorites won but the last few laps made for a very awesome finish. We were glad to get to be together and have a good time.

Fun with the Family!

Well we made it to Bristol!

It has been fun spending

time with the family. I

put together some pictures

of us with my nephew

Sebastian. It's always fun

hanging out with my

brothers and sisters.

Mark's friend Barry came

from Jacksonville as well.

We are having a great time!

Wish everyone else was

here with us.