All Hail The Kings!

Settle down my little Cameron babies!! (props to Conan O'Brien on that line) I know many of you have been just anxiously awaiting another overflow of thoughts from my large brain...well wait no more. I will try to keep this posting as upbeat as possible but i fear that it will turn into the melody of one Dave Teters Dobro exhibition on Sunday night. I am giving my farewell to the Kings blog like much of my fellow bloggers have done this week. Today started off much like alot of other days in the recent past... me, tim, and ryan off on some crazy adventure. This has been a recurrent theme over the last oh 2,375 days and become much more about the ride than the actual task at hand. But today we were marching to the beat of a different melody, unlike so many other constructive adventures that have gone before today we found ourselves disassembling the Kings life here in Sparta. Its a weird thought that has really hit me hard today. I have spent more time with the Kings over the last ~7 years than many members of my blood family and in that same breath they have become as family to me. Barring some multi-million dollar blessing and this side of Our Eternal Home....these next few days will be the last days that our crews will ever actually live in the same little circle. Like everyone else who grows older I have experienced many difficult things: divorces, personal and profession medical tragedies, and many personal struggles. The Kings exodus will definitely fall into the very difficult category. Sure life will go on just like it did for my some ~20 years before the kings came but most definitely life will be different. worse? no! better? definitely no! But most certainly different than before i met them. I remember everything from the early desk assembly with Tim, Daniels "Be Silly Shoes", the quiet reserved Wenge and yes the life before Emma. So many adventures, so many silly talks, so many serious discussion, so many dreams shared, so many memories that will last forever. Tim has become like a brother, Wenge a 2nd mom, Daniel and Emma I have become to love and brag about like they were my own kids. I won't really miss the Tim as the youth minister of FBC but by far more the close friend who is at multiple weekly lunches and late night secret ops missions. I could go on and on about the many stories of affection for the Kings but the one that will stay with me forever is my beautiful wife Tara. As many of you know Tara is from tim and wenge's hometown of Mocksville and they played a huge role in our dating and our marriage. Long before Tara would even acknowledge my existence i sat with Tim on multiple occasions expressing my unexplainable attraction and love for this girl for all intents and purposes I knew nothing about. Many years later i learned that Tim could have maybe been a little better friend to me by telling me that he was having similar conversations with Tara at some points in time but thats a whole different blog at a different time. So whenever I tell my grandkids about how papa and nanny met each other the story will always be tied to the Kings on their adventure thru Sparta,Tn. Well if you Kings actually read my blog I want you to know that I really do love you and I will truly truly miss seeing you most everyday but it will only make other gatherings that much more special. I feel confident with both our family's in mocksville our paths will cross many times just in passing but it would still be nice to have you right down the road. I wish for you that all your wildest dreams come true and hopefully we both won't fall into The Bignate blog curse so we can still know all that is going on across the 340 miles of I-40.

Night on the Town with the Big Al

Today turned out to be a pretty good day even though it started out with great rage and frustration for me. The last few nights i have went to bed with pounding sinus pressure and drainage. I did not sleep well at all last night...i tossed and turned all night and could not get comfy. I figured it was just from sinus stuff but maybe it was my conscious trying to urge me out of the bed for other reasons. It may have been better that i didn't make it up and look outside because it would probably have resulted in a dead man laying out in my drive way before the sun came up. As i got in my car to go to work I noticed that something was not right. The ole mule has been faithful to me for almost 8 long years. so i'm pretty in tune with the inside. As i scanned the scene i realized that someone decided they needed my XM radio more than i did. yes...somewhere between 6pm friday and 8am saturday the ole faithful soldier of almost 2 1/2 years was snatched from its loving docking home. Well as you can imagine i was pretty hot and baffled that someone would do that here in ole Gillen. Almost immediately a suspect came to mind and all you faithful readers and followers can insert that well known name into the blank now........ But after calming down i gave the police a heads up knowing that they could do nothing really. The story ends with a new discounted XM radio and free home and car kit on its way to me this week. So if the stealer of my XM radio is reading this blog...please beware... I have enough ammo in the house to hit you as long as you want to run or at least scare you to death if i miss. The last part of the day ended with great fun. Tonight we got to get the big Al and go out for a night of fun. Ole predictable allie picked chick-fil-a for her place of dining pleasure. So about 530 or so we set our course towards the big chicken hut. I guess Al has a pretty set menu and knows all the rules that she must complete to get in the big fun zone. It worked out good cause there was about 5-6 other kids in the play area that she played with for about 20-25 minutes. As we were ordering our real food she put her sites on a brownie that she wanted and i gave her the typical oh we will eat first and play next speech. Thinking that she would prob forget about it we went on but as soon as her little crocs were back on her feet out of the fun zone she was screaming for that special little treat. After eating and wearing alot of her brownie we were out the door and headed for our next adventure. We settled on something that Allie had never even heard of I guess but decided it would be fun times. We headed to Bowling World to play what allie now calls "rolling". It was fun times and she had a blast. I think she was alittle confused at first but by the end she was really in to it. We got some good pics that will be up on our Flicker page. We returned home for a nice bath and then a little hair braiding time with Sarah C. and Tara. It didn't take long for her to crash out with her bobo. She is a pretty cool little gal and will amaze you with some fun sayings. Well i'm off to crash for the night myself. Remember kids.....lock your doors and cars. Evil loves the night.