Post-Halloween Thursday Rundown

You can’t resist the suspense, huh? What five random topics will Brent write about tonight? Okay, enough of that. This blogger is at least grounded enough to realize that you most likely accidentally tapped on the link to my latest Thursday Rundown 😉. So let’s get right to it…

Trick-Or-Treater Count – It was another lively Halloween night at my parents’ house. They passed out candy to 292 trick-or-treaters who came to their door on Tuesday night. The tally could have easily surpassed 300 but the candy supply was exhausted. Congratulations to my wife who won the annual Reser family poll on how many trick-or-treaters would stop by (she guessed 304). The 292 trick-or-treaters eclipsed last year’s total of 275.

Here is the tally sheet for the trick-or-treaters at my parents’ house on Oct. 31, 2023. You can see our predictions at the top of the sheet.

2023 Pumpkins – Because I wrote about grocery store pumpkin patches earlier this fall, I felt obligated to follow up with a photo of the jack-o-lanterns we carved. Our pumpkins came from our local Safeway as Sloan went for the biggest gourd she could find while Beau prioritized symmetry. Both opted for the happy jack-o-lantern approach this year.

This photo is terrible but I am entitled to a blurry image every now an d then.

National Cash Back Day – Today is National Cash Back Day which I semi-celebrate because there is nothing like bypassing ATM fees by walking into a supermarket to buy a .99 cent soda only to request $60 in cash back. With that said, I do recognize that some places now charge a $1 fee for cash back which will promptly persuade me NOT to request cash back. Also, I will admit that cash back can be a bad thing when tempted to blindly request it with every purchase you make. My advice is to use cash back when you need actual physical dollars for a cash-only event or a birthday gift and there is no fee for doing so.

It is a pretty cool option to use your debit card to get cash back.

Saintly Rhymes Through The Year – Our dear friends Tim and Kathy McCormick, who also happen to be our marriage mentor couple and the godparents to Beau, recently sent us a special gift. Sloan and Beau received Saintly Rhymes Through The Year just in time for All Saints Day. The book was written by their daughter, Meghan Bausch, who also authored Saintly Rhymes For Modern Times. This latest children’s book uses rhymes to tell the stories of saints on their respective feast days. All of the rhyming biographies are informative and creative while the illustrations are beautiful. You can order the book here.

Beau holds “Saintly Rhymes Through the Years” by Meghan Bausch

Pain Hustlers – Over the weekend I watched “Pain Hustlers” on Netflix. The film centers on a desperate and broke woman, Liza, who gets an opportunity as a sales agent for a pharmaceutical company. The movie follows the character as she teams up with some other driven people at the company to persuade doctors to prescribe the drug they are pushing. Once Liza tastes success there is no going back as she does whatever she can to gain influence and push a drug that isn’t safe. The movie kept my interest and portrayed the shenanigans and corruptness of some pharmaceutical companies while offering subtle commentary on the opioid crisis. “Pain Hustlers” gave off “Wolf of Wall Street” vibes in a less effective manner but if you are looking for a movie this weekend it might not be a bad choice.

“Pain Hustlers” reminded me of “Wolf of Wall Street.”

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I hope your November is off to a solid start. Thanks for reading and I will catch up with everyone next week. Don’t Blink.

Saintly Thursday Rundown

Greetings to everyone! For those of you who are Winter Olympics fans, I hope you are able to savor the last few days of the PyeongChang games. For those who are ready for new and regular programming to come back, hold strong through the weekend. Before we begin, let me share a bonus photo…

Sidney took this photo of Sloan and I in the middle of a walking lesson. I liked it so much that I am sharing it even though it really doesn’t have a spot in this blog post.

Okay great, now let’s get started with the latest Thursday Rundown…

Look At That Track – At Coastal Carolina University, we recently installed a brand new teal track. In my opinion, I think it makes our beautiful campus stand out even more. This image was taken by our video production department. Drones are so cool!

How nice does that look? Great shot by David Russell. I work on a beautiful campus.

Perfect Children’s Book – Part of Sloan’s Valentine’s Day present from my parents was a special book. Titled Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times, it is a guide to the men and women who lived remarkably God-centered lives and reached sainthood. As the title alludes, the focus of this book is on saints from the recent era. Superstars like Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Padre Pio are all included inside the pages with a rhyming bio and a pleasing illustration. This book fills a void because before Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times was published, a children’s book of the saints did not exist. Making this whole thing better is that the author/illustrator is Meghan Bausch, the daughter of Tim and Kathy McCormick. The McCormicks, now our good friends, gave Sidney and I our Pre-Cana counseling. None of us will live a perfect life like Jesus but the saints remind us that we can still live extremely holy existences and have an AMAZING impact.

Sloan with a gift from grandma…”Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times” by Meghan Bausch.

Weird Dream – When Sidney and I traveled to Charlotte earlier this month, she urged me to use cruise control. I usually never use it but I did during our trip. In the wee hours this morning, I dreamt that I was riding in the passenger seat while Sid was driving our car down the freeway. I looked down at the floorboard and then back at Sidney. Much to my horror, she was no longer in the drivers seat but the car was still accelerating at a high rate of speed. Suddenly, a traffic light came into view in the middle of the freeway with cars stacked behind it. I started to freak out but a voice from the back told me to calm down. I looked over my shoulder and saw Sid sitting in the backseat. She coached me to just move over to the driver’s seat and take control. Luckily, this wasn’t a nightmare as Sid’s calmness helped me stop the car just in time. I just don’t trust cruise control.

Billy Graham – I just wanted to quickly celebrate Billy Graham. What an incredible life he lived. His devotion to God was simply inspiring. I had a Graham devotional as a youngster that I referred to often. Over the past day I have read articles about his visits to the places I once lived and I have ate up the summaries written about his relationships with NINE different United States Presidents. I really wish he made it to 100 but our world is certainly better for each day he lived over the course of his 99 years of life.

In August 1982, an eight-day Inland Empire Billy Graham Crusade at Joe Albi Stadium in my hometown of Spokane drew more than 223,500 people. (this photo is courtesy of the Spokesman-Review).

Sloan At 49 Weeks – In Sloan’s entire life, she has not had a more productive week than this one. Over the past several days she has started to climb the stairs, pull up entirely on her own, take steps with her walker, and crawl solely on all fours (before this week she still did her army crawl at times). Her birthday month is now less than a week away. With party preparations in the works, we are trying not to get too ahead of ourselves so we can enjoy these final days with Sloan before she enters an entirely new category.

Here is Sloan’s 49 week photo collage.

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The upper 70s weather we are enjoying in Myrtle Beach will continue through the weekend (yay!). I hope you all have a great few days and I will catch up with everyone soon. Don’t Blink.