Allocating Personal Time / Priorities
Part of my ritual everyday is reading a daily devotional that is waiting on me in my inbox each morning from Streaming Faith. Some mornings I read these and then move right onto YouVersion for my daily scriptures and then start the process of responding to emails, but this mornings devotional got me to thinking about all of the things that I do through the course of the day and it kind of hit home.
Two days ago was my dad’s birthday, and as I walked in my office that morning my intentions were to call him first thing to wish him a happy birthday, but before I could pick up the phone it rang and it was a client who was urgently needing me to walk them through a process. Well, needless to say I was on the phone for a lot longer than I had planned helping them get lined out, and granted, this was important. This particular client has been a client for a long time and as a result has sent a lot of business my way through the years. Well, before I had even gotten off the phone with this client I noticed an urgent email roll into my inbox from another client so I immediately went from the first phone call right into another phone conversation with the second client, I usually call this “putting out fires”. Well, once I had the second issue resolved I realized that I hadn’t eaten any breakfast and my stomach was letting me know about it so I walked into the kitchen to fix me something to eat, and it was then that my phone rang and it was my dad (we speak on the phone everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times). It was deflating for me because I wanted to call him first since it was his birthday, and I know that at the end of the day it really didn’t matter to him as long as we got to speak to one another.
I wished him a happy birthday and then we went right into talking about the usual stuff (what I am working on and how things are going on the farm), but it continued to bother me a little bit that I didn’t have the opportunity to call him first thing that morning. Well, now that I have laid the groundwork, you can see why this mornings devotional struck a cord w/ me…
Establishing Priorities
Bishop E. Earl Jenkins"Teach us to use wisely all the time we have." Psalm 90:12 CEV
Growing up, Dr. Tony Campolo says he spent many Saturdays at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia visiting Ed Bailey, the guy who ran it. Campolo writes: "His encyclopedic mind fascinated me. He knew something about everything…I was friends with Ed until he died. After a serious stroke I went to visit him…I told him all the places I’d been to speak and how I’d come right from the airport to see him.
He heard me out, then said, ‘You go all over the world to people who 10 years from now won’t remember your name. But you haven’t time for those who really care about you.’" Campolo continues, "That…hit me hard and changed my life. I decided not to let all my time be used by people for whom I make little difference, while I neglect those for whom I’m irreplaceable.
"One day a friend of mine got a call from The White House asking him to consult with the President. He said no, because it was a day he’d promised to spend with his granddaughter. The nation survived…the President didn’t miss him, and his granddaughter had precious time with her Pop-Pop."
Somebody said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing! David put it like this: "Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom" (Ps 90:12 NLT).
Time is an equal-opportunity employer. We all get 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds daily, and we must account for how we use them. So ask yourself how you would spend the next 24 hours if you knew that you’d stand before God tomorrow – then get busy!
I am not going to say that I plan on drastically changing the way I prioritize my day, but I will say that I am going to pay closer attention to the things in life that are more important. One thing that I have always admired about my partner Greg is that he makes a conscious effort to spend time with both of his sons just about everyday. It might not be anything other than going to Karate or a ballgame with them, but he manages to be there for them. We haven’t ever spoken about it or anything like that but I have noticed it over the years and never really gave it a lot of thought until today at how well he has managed this arena. There are other folks that I work with that are just as diligent about prioritizing their time with the ones they care about but he came to mind first.
A Few Personal Goals for 2009
Gosh, it’s going to take forever for me to get used to putting 2009 instead of 2008, seems like I just got used to putting 2008 on checks and things the other day. In lieu of a New Years Resolution this year, I have a few personal goals for 2009 that I want to achieve instead. I figure that if set several goals for things that I want to achieve as instead of locking myself into one thing like I have in the past I will have a lot better chance for success, even if on a smaller scale.
By the way, my resolution this past year was to lose weight and get into shape, and I am happy to report that I somehow managed to do just that for the first time in my life! Over the past few months I have managed to drop about 20-25 pounds, and most importantly corrected some bad lifestyle and dietary habits that I had accumulated over the years which should help me long term in my overall quest for wellness. (I am still losing weight so hopefully it will continue). If anyone is interested in my diet just drop me a note and I would be more than happy to share it with you.
Here are some of my goals for 2009, in no particular order:
- Personal Ministry: It has been my belief that God gave me certain talents and abilities in order to make a good living, but the main reason for this gifting is to further his kingdom, which I have strived to do over the past few years by working closely w/ several evangelists and ministry centers. I plan to take this to a new level this next year by incorporating some cutting edge technology into my online ministry projects. Stay tuned…
- Business Networking: I have honestly taken the last few years off in terms of business networking, I used to meet at least 10 new contacts a month during the startup years of Powersite but since getting the business off the ground and later co-founding Pleth, I just haven’t done a lot of that anymore, this is going to change as I find myself craving new and exciting projects for the coming year. Also, Pleth just opened a satellite office this past year in Jonesboro, I hope to make it over there a lot more this next year to re-connect with some old friends and make new ones within the industry. I am also looking forward to meeting with new clients in Northeast Arkansas to share some ideas and continue to work on awesome projects from that part of the state. I am also going to make it a goal to finally get out and meet new people in the Conway area. I have managed to stay busy this past year on client projects and haven’t devoted a lot of energy toward establishing my presence here yet, I hope to change that this next year by becoming more visible in the business community.
- Expand our Print Business: This past year my partners and I added print and graphic design to our list of service offerings. Since that time we have been awarded numerous bids on print jobs and design projects. I hope to do a better job of marketing our services in that realm and providing our clients with more comprehensive marketing solutions.
- WordCamp: I would love to attend a WordCamp somewhere in the United States this year and network with other Wordpress Developers out there and build some relationships within the community.
- Ministry & Non-Profit Service Offerings: Focus on adding Ministry & Non-Profit Web Solutions to Pleth’s portfolio of service offerings. We have had great success this year in packaging some key modules for podcasting, blogging, video, and content delivery for Church’s and since this is an area I am passionate about I would like to turn this into not only a valuable service to further the kingdom but will also turn into a profitable product offering for our company as well.
- Social Networking Integration: Explore further the possibilities of social networking integration into applications we develop for our clients. This past year I was successful in obtaining Facebook Developer status, w/ the help of a few fellow developers from the community, to launch some Facebook Connect applications on a few websites. I see this as an emerging technology that should be absorbed and not ignored.
- Powersite Real Estate CMS: I want to Devote some time to finally release my Powersite Real Estate CMS to the masses both as a packaged download w/ installer and as a PHPR template download.
- CSS & XHTML: Devote some time to getting a better grasp of CSS and XHTML. This past year I made some great strides toward teaching an old dog (myself) some new tricks and ways of doing things. I am by no means a master but should be able to get a lot better grasp on it over the next 12 months.
- Java scripting: I also want to familiarize myself with some of the emerging JavaScript technologies out there like scriptaculous, jquery, etc. I have seen a lot of new uses for JavaScript over the past 12 months and I see this continuing.
- Podcasting: I have been giving a lot of thought towards adding a podcast on my personal blog to discuss my favorite topics, PHP Development, Facebook Connect, and Wordpress. Podcasting is an awesome commitment, guys like Mitch Keeler just make it look easy but I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into producing a weekly or even monthly show.
- E-Commerce: My partners and I share the same goal on this one, we are looking to further enhance our e-commerce and security offerings this next year. Stay tuned to the Pleth website for news and updates regarding this venture.
- Email Solutions: Over the past few years we have really built our premium email solution into one of the top saas (software as a service) solutions on the market, but we aren’t going to rest on our laurels, staying on top of the industry isn’t easy, we are going to be adding lot’s of new features to our already successful product this next year, stay tuned.
- Online Properties: My business partner Greg Smart and I were discussing an online property that his mom manages that has sustained profitability this past year through a bad economy and has seen increased readership and ad sales. We (Pleth) own several online properties that to date haven’t really been a primary focus for us because we spend so much time developing projects for our clients, but this next year I want to expand this into a profitable business model for us. I get a lot of inspiration for doing this by watching how our friends at Demand Media have been able to be successful w/ their online brands. Just to give you a preview as to what my first online project will be, think NASCAR…
- Increase My Blog Traffic and Readership: I have seen a lot of traffic to my blog this past year and I hope to see that continue over the next couple of months. I am hoping to leverage some of the social networks (facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) to do just that. Stay tuned, and if you are a reader of The Cotton Club, please be sure to share my blog w/ your friends.
- Learning to Fly: This was one of my 2009 resolutions and I only managed to sneak in 2 classes, I hope to devote some time toward ground school this year and hopefully get up in the air on my own in the next 2 years. With some of our friends moving out of state, multiple offices, and a long list of clients who are pretty spread out, this is something I really, really, want to make happen.
- Health & Wellness: I want to continue on my trek toward getting back into size 32 jeans. This past year I went from a size 38 to 33, so I only have a little bit further to go toward this goal. I am going to implement a wide ranged workout routine that help me to continue burning fat and building lean muscle, this routine consists of everything from walking, cycling, running, boxing, and possibly some weight training. I know it’s a stretch too, but I would love to be able to get myself into shape to compete in the Little Rock Marathon, or comparable 5k this next year. I have historically gotten into great shape quick but fell back out just as quick. I know it’s going to take an increased level of determination on my part but hopefully I can make this happen. Out of all of my goals set above, this is the one that I probably wouldn’t wager on.
Best of luck in 2009, and I hope that all of you have a prosperous, healthy 2009 and achieve everything you set your sights on. If there is anything that my business partners and I can assist you or your business in this next year, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line, we would love the opportunity to work with you!
We Wish You a Merry Christmas!
I did this video when Bella came over to visit us for Christmas. She told me that the night before she was excited about coming to see her Un-Cotton!
Merry Christmas!
I just wanted to take a few minutes this morning to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It is my sincere prayer that we don’t somehow get Frosty the Snowman or Flip and his tongue frozen to the flagpole mixed up with the true meaning of the season! A baby was born who would grow up to one day pay the ultimate price for our sins! I know it’s tough sometimes, we have transformed this holiday season into something out of a horror movie, but let’s all try to remember the true reason for the season!
Powell Creative & Gang…
I just saw this on Facebook and had to give a shout out to the gang from Jonesboro (Powell Creative). They showed up on the front cover of the Winter 2008 DXNEWS magazine. This publication is put out for District 10 of the American Advertising Federation. We (Pleth) work very closely w/ Melissa and the gang at Powell Creative in Jonesboro, in fact we just opened a new office right next door! Kudos!
Jayden Eats a Lemon…
I shot this video tonight while we were all out to dinner after church. I had picked up Jayden (Garth and Melisa’s boy) and was holding him. Somehow he had grabbed my lemon off of my sweet tea and was eating on it, the look of surprise on his face is priceless.
2007 Christmas Letter…
Well this year our Christmas Letter didn’t make it out in time to go into our Christmas Cards, partly due to the fact that my partners and I have been pretty swamped with work as of late, so sorry to those of you who were looking forward to the Novel! Maybe Next Year!
Drop the Mike Launched!
A long time friend of mine, Mike Muise, from Register.com fame, has launced his new Blog, www.dropthemike.com. Mike’s an innovative dude and I have to give him credit for coming up with another cool idea! He’s giving away an Ipod Nano to folks who blog about his new website in an effort to give his website more exposure! Sweet Idea!
If you haven’t already visited his website I urge you to check it out, Mike is an expert in the industry and I am pretty sure his posts are going to be useful to those of us in the web design, hosting, and managed IT services industry.
Drop the Mike – Ipod Nano Giveaway
2006 Christmas Letter
We hope that this letter finds all of you happy and healthy this Christmas Season. This has been an eventful year for us, full of adjustments in our first year of marriage. All of it for the good, we are both very happy! We celebrated our first anniversary a little differently than we had originally planned. We had wanted to go back down to Natchez and New Orleans, but in light of Katrina and our crazy schedules, we decided against it. Instead we had dinner with Cotton’s parents at Sonny Williams Steakhouse in Little Rock. Cotton just happened to know the piano man there and he sang us a song.
We both remained active in our Church Ministry as Student Ministry Leaders. We attended a few leaders’ retreats and of course helped out with fund raisers, like Toad Suck Daze and Fireworks Tent. This year at the Fireworks Tent Cotton and several of the youth made bombs out of sparklers wrapped tightly together and blew up things while the tent wasn’t busy, and sometimes while it was… If you haven’t ever seen a sparkler bomb go off, you really should see this firsthand. It is very similar to dynamite and makes a loud bang as it shakes the ground. Cotton had the bright idea of blowing up a 25lb frozen turkey. With the turkey being frozen, it had to sit in the back of Ryan Long’s truck all night to thaw out in the Arkansas July heat. The very next day, with video cameras rolling, they managed to put the Turkey into flight again. The drumstick of the turkey was recovered 125 yards away as was several other unidentifiable remnants. There should be videos on Cotton’s personal website if you are interested.
Off and on during the year we have helped Garth and Melisa Bowman by babysitting their daughter, Arabella. Donna may not always get her way but when it comes to Larashleigh, Bella, and Emma Kate (Trey & Julie Elliot’s Daughter), they have their Uncle Cotton wrapped around their finger. Donna continued to sing on the praise team this year and has sang a few specials off and on throughout the year at church. She still sounds great and with the addition of Odis Richmond to the praise team, they have a sound that is all their own. Cotton has begged for Melisa to let him play the cowbell but she hasn’t let him yet. He does well enough to play the radio. He still manages The Church Alive Website and hosts all of the websites for the Church and helps out as much as he can in his areas of expertise. One such area found him on a mechanical scaffold recently soldering a video line to one of our new projectors in the auditorium. The height didn’t really do him in, instead it was his leg that wouldn’t quit shaking (totally on it’s own) that made he and Garth have to make another run at it to install the church’s new projectors.
Learning to Fly…
Another blessing we have experienced is that Cotton’s business has continued to grow beyond all his and his partners’ expectations. They have an office in Batesville and still maintain all of Mark Martin’s accounts as well as several hundred other clients around the country. As business continues to grow, the demand for the guys to be in different cities across the country has grown. It’s grown to the point to where his partner Kegal, who is a very experienced pilot, has had to fly them from place to place. Cotton has always enjoyed flying but it wasn’t until he and Donna flew to a Razorback Game in Fayetteville with Andrew and Christine Hornacker in Andrew’s Cessna 182, a small 4 seat single engine airplane, that he was bitten by the bug. We made the short trip to Fayetteville in no time and grabbed a courtesy car to eat dinner and onto the game. The trip home was even smoother than the flight down and occasionally we would glance down and see the traffic backed up on the interstate from Clarksville all the way to Fayetteville. Flying is the only way to go. Cotton & Garth started hard and heavy with high expectations but due to their schedules neither one of them has been able to really get on track with their training so far. They have both sat in the pilot’s seat and actually flown the plane but neither has been able to complete the ground school or necessary hours to get their private license. Cotton was able to take off and land with just a little bit of instruction, he now wants Donna to call him “Captain” but she won’t do it. I don’t think that Garth has had any luck either with the “Captain” thing, he was even going to start wearing the Captain’s hat… No respect from our women.
Summer Travels:
In July Cotton and his business partners met in Las Vegas for a Hosting Conference at the Mirage Casino. They had a great time, and made lots of good contacts that have continued to pan out for them all year long. When Cotton landed at the airport he had a limousine take him to meet his partners at Jimmy Buffet’s, he had a blast. One of his partners, Kegal, had been to Vegas several times so he made sure they didn’t miss a thing. The highlight of the trip for Cotton was seeing the fountains at Bellagio. When they start playing “fly me to the moon and those synchronized fountains start going everyone got quiet, it was awesome. He is planning to take Donna out there on their next anniversary so she can see it all firsthand. The weekend prior to Cotton’s Vegas trip, he and Donna flew to Ohio where they got to visit with some of Donna’s family and also see Lake Eerie. Donna’s parents also met us out there with our niece, Larashleigh, who got to tour the Hershey Chocolate Factory. While in Ohio we also attended Jeremy and Jenny’s wedding reception that was held at Holly’s house and when Cotton had to head out Donna got to shop until she dropped in Cleveland with her cousins.
Change of Address…
A few weeks after we had returned from our vacation, our Realtor, Dale Tice, contacted us and told us that she had found a buyer for our condo. We had it on the market the entire time we had been married in hopes it would sell so that we could relocate to Conway to be closer to family and friends and our church. The first deal fell through on the sale and it left the both of us a little heartbroken but we put our faith in God and knew that he knew our hearts so we kept faith that he would bring a buyer our way and like always he pulled through. Our buyer just so happened to be the same person who was unable to secure financing the first time so it all worked out great. So, bright and early on a Saturday morning, Cotton and two of his buddies, Garth Bowman and Trey Elliot, loaded up in a U-Haul truck and headed to Fairfield Bay with Donna and Melisa following behind them to get their condo unloaded. It was an all-morning affair even though everything was already boxed up. There was very little room to spare on the truck; thank goodness we sold the furniture with the condo. Once the trucks were loaded they all stopped for one last Goodwin and Daughters cheeseburger on their way out of town and headed to Conway.
Finding New House & Moving In…
Just when you think things are looking up, you hit a roadblock every time… We had a few new construction homes in mind for when we sold our condo and wouldn’t you know it, they had all sold… Finally one weekend Dustin and Bridgette drove down from Oklahoma City to visit and went house shopping with us. The night prior Cotton had went online and picked out about 4 or 5 listings that he wanted to look at and made arrangements with Mike Bernadsky, a local realtor that they had met earlier, a really nice Christian man who took a personal interest in helping us to find what we were looking for. After looking at two or three homes on the other side of town Mike brought us over to Southwind, a subdivision that is being developed in it’s third phase. We found a 4 bedroom new construction that was exactly what we were looking for. The house wasn’t finished by any means so it was hard to tell what was what but from what we had seen so far we knew that that was the house we wanted. Cotton told the Realtor that he wanted to write a contract that evening because lately everything they had even remotely liked had sold right out from under them. He also threatened to lay down in the driveway and not let other Realtors show the property. Ha. Well, after about three weeks of living at Donna’s parents house we were finally able to close on the new house and get moved in. Donna had already picked out all of the furniture from a store in Helena and it was delivered and setup all in one day. Cotton’s parents followed the guys up and helped out also.
House Blessing BBQ:
Once we had been moved in for a couple of weeks we decided to have a Celebration of Blessings Party for our friends and family that had worked so hard to help us get moved. Cotton smoked about 16 racks of ribs and his business partner Greg and his mother Ilene drove down and managed the grill where they cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for the kids. Trey and Julie Elliot also brought a blow-up bouncy house to setup in the backyard and the kids all had a blast jumping in it and playing x-box in the house. We are not for sure but we think that we had close to 60 or more people show up and have dinner with us. It was a great time and we are thankful for the wonderful family and friends that God has chosen to bless us with.
Christmas Dinner / Celebration:
Christmas this year is going to be held at our new house. We will head down to Helena before Christmas Eve so we can spend some time with Aunt Maxine and Grandma Rohrscheib. Cotton is planning on deep-frying a turkey this year so he has been practicing on our friends who don’t seem to mind too much. He thinks that he has almost got it down well enough to feed the family. Donna has also been practicing her dressing recipe and it has been awesome.
As you can see, this year’s letter is shorter than last years, thanks for taking the time to catch up on what we have doing all year, and we hope to hear back from you as to how 2006 treated you.
Merry Christmas & a Blessed New Year!
Cotton & Donna Rohrscheib
2005 Christmas Letter
Dear Friends & Family,
We hope that our first Christmas letter finds you all in good health with lots of happiness this Christmas season. 2005 has been a wild year of change for the both of us, from the time we met it seems that we haven’t had a still moment.
Hopefully most of you were able to attend the wedding in March; it was great to see everyone, even if we didn’t have a lot of free time to spend with you. For those of you who were able to attend, we hope that you enjoyed the wedding as much as we did. Once the wedding was over we headed to Little Rock where we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Presidential – Presidential Suite (compliments of Brian Rogers) prior to us heading down south for the rest of the honeymoon. Needless to say the honeymoon was awesome and a much needed vacation for the both of us. We plan to have all of the photos from the honeymoon on our website shortly after the first of the year for everyone to see.
The Monmouth Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi was beautiful and the food there was probably the best we had on the whole trip. Cotton was attacked by Mallard Ducks prior to us leaving so that made the trip to New Orleans from Natchez a lot shorter because we laughed the whole way as we looked out for more ducks. Once we arrived at New Orleans we stayed at the Saint Louis Hotel, one of the nicest French Quarter Hotels down there, compliments of James Johnson. We also had some great food while we were there and we are pretty sure that we saw everything New Orleans had to offer at least twice, and it is probably a good thing considering Katrina would visit a few months later…
One side note on the New Orleans trip, while Cotton was attacked by Mallard Ducks in Natchez, the pigeons on Bourbon Street weren’t much nicer and several times picked Cotton from a large group and swooped in on him a few times, who knows why? We figured it must have been his cologne so we have since changed that. Donna was a little embarrassed by the bird attacks and found it hard to enjoy her sandwich at the outdoor restaurant while the birds were swarming Cotton and people were starting to stare at us. The both of us were a little afraid to head home with the top down on Cotton’s car.
Once the first week of the honeymoon was over we returned to Arkansas where we met up with Dustin, Bridgette and Larashleigh, Donna’s sister, brother-in-law and niece, then headed to Batesville to meet up with Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, and Kurt Busch. Cotton’s company does a lot of work for Mark and his dealership. It was a fun time and Donna had her picture taken with Mark at the dealership, it was great. No sooner than we were able to download the pictures we had taken on our trips we headed out again, this time headed north…
When the two of us first met, Donna had already been working a lot with the student ministry at The Church Alive in Conway so Cotton kind of fell into place there too, although with a hectic work schedule it is sometimes hard for him to attend youth gatherings as much as he would like to. No sooner than we returned from the first leg of our honeymoon in Natchez and New Orleans, we set off to Winter Park, Colorado with a group of other adult leaders and youth from the church for some snow skiing at Mary Jane. The trip was fun, one highlight of the trip came when Cotton and one of the other Adult Leaders crashed head first into each other doing about 60mph down a “black” advanced slope. His ears would ring for a few days after that one. The Rocky Mountains were beautiful as you can imagine and the entire group had an awesome time.
In 2005 we also were taught valuable faith lessons, both of us encountered health issues, Cotton would fight high blood pressure and anxiety attacks while Donna would battle Lupus head on a few weeks prior to the wedding. We are both pleased to report that our health has been restored through prayer and we want thank all of you who remembered us.
In addition to the new marriage, 2005 was also a big change for Cotton’s business as well. Cotton’s company, Powersite, was able to purchase another company, Webworks, and pick up a large number of new accounts. In addition he was able to branch out with two of his friends Greg and Stephen Smart and form a new web hosting company, PLETH Networks, LLC. Pleth hit the ground running and it appears that after one year of hard work they will have 4 servers online with hopes to add more sometime in the first quarter of 2006. If it weren’t for Greg and Stephen, the extended honeymoon would not have been a possibility, they are great partners who Cotton has a whole lot of confidence in and we both feel that great things are ahead for PLETH in 2006.
Anyone who knows Cotton knows that he is a huge NASCAR fan. Through their relationship and proven track record with Mark Martin, the guys were asked to visit North Carolina twice to meet with Team Caliber, who at the time was owned by Roush Racing and would later be sold to NASCAR. Team Caliber was interested in PLETH’s successful e-commerce software and would later contract the guys to develop an entirely new wholesale portal for the company as well as restructure their existing retail presence. The entire process on this NASCAR project would end up being more than the guys could imagine, it seemed that opportunities from this project will bless the guys on into 2006. Cotton was able to return to North Carolina again later in the year with his partner Greg, this time they had a little more time to see everything they didn’t get to see the first time around. The project with NASCAR is still rolling and the guys seem to think that great things will come from it down the road.
Donna has also been quite busy in 2005. In addition to working as a youth leader at The Church Alive, she was also asked to be on the praise and worship team. She fits right in with the rest of the team and has performed a few solos throughout the year. She managed to make it halfway through God Bless the USA this year without crying and did a great duet with Greg Hendrix one Sunday.
As youth leaders, the both of us would end up spending quite a bit of time on the road having fun with the youth, including a few UCA games and even a trip to 6 Flags over Texas where Donna convinced Cotton to ride the big roller coaster they have there, something he has traditionally not been a big fan of. So much for trying new things… The Church Alive Revolution Ministries keeps a pretty full calendar of events, and in order to do that we rely a lot on fund raisers. Of course Cotton would find himself right in the middle of these fund raisers, once he cooked “chick-a-bob’s” at the Toad Suck Daze Festival in Conway and was pounded by golf ball sized hail earlier that morning setting up, and probably the hardest work Cotton got into all year long was during the annual fireworks tent where the guys all wheeled and dealed with customers over fireworks. Cotton did manage to incur the wrath of “The Donna” a few times as he, Ryan, another leader, and few youth learned to make explosives from sparklers. That’s right, it was pretty impressive to say the least, the guys would eventually go on to blowing up several watermelons, a box of chicken, a huge impressive hole in the ground and almost a landscape nursery. Thankfully Garth, Scott, and a few of the other adults were on hand to help Cotton and Crew chase down the lose flames before they had an opportunity to spread. Cotton also had a brush with the Bouncy House Police as he paid the group a visit to the fireworks tent to shut down the bouncy house that Scott had picked up for the smaller children to jump in. Thank goodness Arkansas has enough surplus in our budget to fund the bouncy house police or else they would pop up all over the state and children might have something fun to do…
During the summer we spent a lot of time back and forth between Arkansas or as our niece, Larashleigh, pronounces it, “Arksinaw”, and Oklahoma spending time with her. She is a precious child and we both love her dearly. Her Uncle Cotton and Aunt Donna went with her to the Zoo in Oklahoma City and arrived at see all of the animals with her, it was a blast. She also came to “Arksinaw” and spent a week with her favorite Aunt and Uncle. One highlight of the week with Larashleigh came when Cotton was in his office working and all of a sudden Larashleigh came running into his office with big tears running down her cheeks after Aunt Donna had used that “no” word. Needless to say Uncle Cotton had to help her convince her Aunt Donna that “no” is a bad word. She also made it back to Oklahoma and told her teacher that she didn’t have to do what the other kids had to do because she is prettier than they are… Wonder where she heard that??
Probably the two biggest highlights of the summer was our big get together at the Hoerz Castle (Donna’s Grandparents) on Greers Ferry Lake. We grabbed a pontoon boat that morning and stayed on the Lake pretty much the whole day, it was a blast and the weather was nice all day… Well, most of the day. Cotton and Dustin finally convinced the parents (Donna’s and Cotton’s) to get on the pontoon boat and ride back with them to return the boat to the Marina. The clouds had started rolling in and you could hear thunder in the distance as the long trip to the other side of the lake progressed. Probably about 45 minutes before they would return to the marina the clouds had gotten considerably thicker with rain streaming down and the occasional blast of lightning crashing into the lake. Needless to say Cotton’s mom was a little concerned and began calling loved ones telling them that she loved them when the storm really set in on them, finally Cotton shared more good news when he looked down and noticed that the boat was pretty close to running out of gas. The group aboard the USS Minnow would barely make their way back to Shiloh Marina on fumes. Definitely a highlight of the summer and on the way back home the entire carload of wet people managed to start singing the song “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” for no apparent reason. Still don’t know how that happened?? When we returned to Bakie’s we all got dried up and headed home. As a few of you probably already know, we lost Donna’s Grandpa later in the year, but we can all be pretty sure that he enjoyed that weekend quite a bit and we will cherish the time that we arrived at spend with him as well.
Cotton was also a judge at the BBQ Contest in Helena’s King Biscuit Blues Festival again. This time he brought in some reinforcements to sample the meat w/ him including Dustin, Don, Dad and also Garth, who probably enjoyed it more than any of us there. Cotton and Garth would soon start BBQ’ing on the side for members of the church to perfect their “ribcooking-mojo”.
Also this year a big celebration took place in Oklahoma for Larashleigh’s birthday party. We all headed out to Oklahoma where we arrived at see her be a part of her Christian schools homecoming court, (because she is the prettiest girl at her school). She did great and even after homecoming was over she still had enough energy to change from her homecoming dress into her cheerleading outfit and help the cheerleaders out a little bit. The next morning we went to Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Connors Gym where she takes Gymnastics and had her birthday party. It was fun; Uncle Cotton enjoyed the Bouncy House while Grammy Bakie would impress everyone there when she turned a flip.
Donna would also find herself getting involved with BeautiControl Cosmetics with some of her girlfriends from the church and had a few spa parties this year. She has had a few parties in Conway and Helena, and even managed talking Cotton into letting her give him a Microderm Abrasion. Over Halloween we headed to Oklahoma for a spa party, (and to see Larashleigh). We went to her Fall Carnival at her school had a really good time, Donna convinced Cotton to bid on a basket at the auction and ended up winning another basket full of stuff for the house. The next day Donna and Bridgette put on a spa party for a bunch of women. Pappy, Dustin, and Cotton locked themselves in the bedroom and watched NASCAR and Football all day. It was a blast.
Over Thanksgiving we all headed down to Cotton’s parents house on the Little Red River in Heber Springs and had a great time. Cotton’s dad gave him his birthday present a little early, a smoker, and he even showed us how to “smoke a bird”. The food was delicious and the highlight of the trip was probably either watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or when Cotton’s mom woke up in the middle of the night and ate every bit of the candy that Nonie (Donna’s Mom) had brought down with us. We are blessed in many ways but family is probably one of the biggest blessings we have and we are looking forward to many more years together with our parents spending time together like that, and of course watching Mojo chase Eddie around the house and growl at Pappy (Donna’s Dad).
Well, that pretty much wraps up a full year and also brings to a close the first annual Rohrscheib Christmas Letter, we hope that you have enjoyed hearing about our year and again thanks to all of you who have been a part of our lives at some point or another. We both feel the Lord brought us together and has a lot of great things in store for the both of us, we will continue to seek those plans and blessings and serve in whatever capacity we feel led.
We wish you all a peaceful, healthy, and prosperous 2006!
Cotton & Donna Rohrscheib
