Seriously...

Is this the biggest moving van you've ever seen!!??? At least I don't have to have a trailer hooked to the back that is dragging my car...oh wait...yes I do. Well, at least I got a good night sleep last night to prepare for today...oh wait...Jesus decided to wake me up at 4:10 a.m. and tell me what I was going to share about the Stirring when I preach there the first time. At least he let me fall back asleep 4 minutes before my daughter got up! Awesome. Jesus does live in the Middle East because he's always up and wants to talk when I'm sleeping. It's cool Jesus...at least you have Verizon so we don't have to pay for long distance.
Can you tell I'm sleepy?

Cardboard and packing tape

That is my life right now...getting close...getting anxious...getting tired...getting excited!

Goodbye to my Grove peeps

Today we had lunch as a staff and they all said their farewell's to my family. It's crazy that this is actually happening. There are some people on staff that have known me for my entire 31 years of existence. There is something really weird about leaving the familiar. I'm always up for change but it is going to be crazy figuring out how to do life and ministry in a new place. I'm planning on a couple huge melt downs in the next month or two. I'll be up in Redding for 17 days without my family starting Friday so you can bank on a huge panic attack coming soon. Stay posted.

Anyone want to help a brotha load a moving van?

This Wednesday and Thursday I'll be packin' the Uhaul. I could use the love if anyone has any extra to spread around. Thanks.

Projects that wait till you move

1. Huge hole in the drywall behind your fridge that you put there to get the water line in.
2. Hole in the ceiling where a fan should go in the bathroom.
3. No baseboards in the laundry room
Every house I've ever moved into is a huge fixer upper. This happens every time. I move in...work like crazy till it's almost all done...leave 7 annoying things that I will fix the week before I move....take that back...I call my father in law and have him come over and help me...thanks Bob. Anyone else do this? 7 places in eight years...same story every time.
Can't believe we are moving into a brand new place that is totally finished! I will have no idea what to do in this place.

7 days...

...and counting till we load up everything we own and put it into a Uhaul truck with a trailer on the back that will carry my "light blue" Echo and I drive 600 miles to the place we will call home...Redding California. What the heck. It's officially becoming weird.
We'll be loading up the Uhaul next Thursday if anyone wants to throw their backs out for their good ol' friends!

Tons to be thankful for

New life
New family
New church
New friends
New house
New food
New conversations
New opportunities
New struggles
New provision
New vision
New hope
New dreams
New songs
New heavens and new earth
Happy Thanksgiving

Periwinkle is the "new white" for garage doors

Here's a pic of our new place in Redding. It's a 3 bedroom town home. All the garage doors are crazy colors. Blue, yellow, etc. I love it. It's pretty easy to lead people to our house. God provided in ridiculous ways for this place. Thanks Nate for makin' it happen. I'll post more pics later.

Don't be jealous...

...the truck is gone and the echo is here! I imported my rims so don't start askin' where you can get some like em'. It's a 2000 Toyota Echo, 73,000 miles. Alyssa had the audacity to call it "Sea Foam"... I'm callin' it light blue. It gets over 40 miles to the gallon...just like my truck! Ended up sellin' the truck for $4,000 and picked this bad boy up for $3,500...I should work at a used car lot. If you want to go cruisin' before I take off for Redding you better get a time slot now...the schedule is fillin' up!

We're back!!!

Sorry for the long blog drought...it was actually kinda nice.
We're back...Redding was awesome...Alyssa posted a little about it.
I got 129 blogs to check in my reader
Gotta pack the house
Gotta rent our house
Sold our truck
Gotta find a little cheap car...good gas mileage
Found an amazing pad in Redding...gotta post pics
Gotta find some time to blog
Gotta go...

Redding...here we come

Alyssa and I leave tomorrow at 5:30am to head to the airport. We are going to Redding to find a place to live. Please pray that we find a great place to call home. We want to make a decision with the kingdom and our kids in mind. Thanks for joining us on this crazy journey!

Life is good

This morning my son (who normally wants to wrestle 98% of the time he's awake and can't sit still) asked me to sit on the couch...I did...he came out with his blanket and pillow...laid in my lap for 10 minutes...then tells me, "Daddy, I love you all day and all night."
I'm good for about 3 months now!
Then he proceeds to ask for the U2 Zoo Station DVD...goes to get his drum sticks and tambourine...plays along with the songs and tells me he wants to be Larry.
Seriously...this morning made my year!

Go order this if you know what's good for you...

...click above and order...trust me...i just watched it...good times

This really made me laugh

Technology is awesome sometimes. I'm sitting on the couch watching the football game...writing some blogs...watched that commercial on tv and laughed really hard...thought to myself...why not share the love with my blogmates...googled fedex kinkos commercial...grabbed the embedded youtube link...30 seconds...done.

7 more work days...what the heck!!??!!?

I looked at the calendar today. I have 7 more days in the office till I'm off to Redding...crazy! I'm in Monday and Tuesday of this week then off to Redding to find a place to rent. I'll be back in the office Tuesday and Wednesday of the next week, then we're off for Thanksgiving. The week after I'm in three days and then I leave for Redding on the 30th of November. That's the day I drive the Uhaul up there with all our stuff. I'm flying back on the 17th of December to be home for the holidays and then we leave as a family on January 2nd. When I fly home for the holidays I won't be going back to work so that only leaves me 7 days in the office...It's starting to set in that things are winding down...it's pretty crazy!
I told the young married group today that we were going to be leaving. I've really enjoyed being a part of seeing that group become a reality.
Starting to process through the keyboard.

Great Sabbath

For those of you new to Rev Rock, I have a weekly post about my Sabbath. I do this for accountability to the rhythm and pace of life that Jesus has given us the freedom to live. Here's how my day of rest went this week.
Left the phone off.
Morning: Breakfast then time with family.
Afternoon: Picnic and playing with family at the park
Went home, had an incredible nap
Night: Made a pizza, wrestled with Zeke, played with Sofia
Went to go see my friends band play
Great day. How was your day of rest this week?

A new head covering

So before I move up to the great white north where the temperature actually drops below 80 degrees in the winter, I made a hat purchase to cover my bald head.



I'm thinkin' about rockin' the hat "b-boy style" like this...old school Run DMC style, but Alyssa's not really havin' it.
Any thoughts???

The oatmeal revelation

I just fed my daughter for the first time in two months when she didn't turn into the spawn of Satan. This is our normal routine...double bib...try to find your che...10 deep breaths...put in ear plugs to get through the next 15 minutes of your life...start with the rice cereal...start singing songs as loud as you can to distract...dodge left and right and back left as Sofia spits, screams, and throws the cereal at you...pull her hands away as she rubs cereal in her hair, clothes, face and eyes...curse under your breath so she doesn't subconsciously pick up those words and start sharing them with all her buddies in the school yard...run for the bottle of salvation...sweet redemption in 7 oz of water and generic Target brand formula...nipple of bottle hits mouth...quiet...happy baby...start preparing for how you will survive the next cereal experience in 12 hours.
Fast forward to today. We switched to oatmeal cereal. She didn't cry once...ate the whole thing...no complaints...what the heck...maybe we should have tried that sooner...oh, the joys of having no idea of how to raise your kids...don't lie...we are all fakin' it trying to act like we know what we're doing...98% of the time totally flying by the seat of your pants...I love it...wouldn't trade it for the world. Just look at her. (thanks for the pic Jon)

Reason 149,876,395,238 that Apple rules

I had a piece chip off on my macbook...sent it in Monday at 4pm...it was waiting for me when I got to work today (Thursday) at 9:30am. Amazing!

Committed to his work

So there is this guy that cruises around our neighborhood on a bike that is connected to a huge cart that has a lawn mover, weed eater, blower, brooms, rakes, and sheers sitting on top of it. I am intrigued by this guy and want to know his story. Can he not afford a car so he goes from place to place with his bike and lawn gear to make ends meet? Is he just a stud and loves the calf workout of the century as he works? Either way...kudos to my lawn-bike neighbor with freakishly large calves. You are the man! I wish everyone had the drive that you do to pay the bills. I will try to grab a picture of this guys set up...it's amazing. I just didn't want to photo him like he was some kind of freak show in the neighborhood. Maybe I'll try some guerrilla paparazzi techniques and creep up on him in some bushes...is that weird?
Side note...new friend in blog world...my friend Jonathan. Great guy. Go give him some love.

I saw Bernie again last night

Last night I ran into Bernie from Best Buy. I hadn't seen him in a couple months but he remembered my name and we had a chance to talk for a little bit and he got to say hi to my family. His leg is doing a little better but he's still inching out a living by washing people's windows at Best Buy everyday. If you're shopping there over the holidays look for him.

Did you vote today???

Just a friendly reminder. I know I wont be here to reap the benefits of positive leadership but I cast my vote for all my fellow Riversidians. (why did spell check have a problem with Riversidians?)

What to do with the gap?

(pictured above...both sides of my left arm)
So I got an appointment with Sid when i was with Alyssa getting her tattoo. I'm going back right before Christmas. I need some help on what to do. You'll notice that I have a nice little banner (my 1st tattoo) that cuts my bicep in half. I thought that was going to be my first and last tattoo...I was wrong. So basically I cut my arm in half when it comes to the sleeve that I'm trying to accomplish. So now I'm left with this gap between the ship and angel on my forearm and the banner on my bicep. I want to keep with the theme I have so far and I'm looking for ideas. The one thing I know I'm getting for sure is a compass on my elbow. After that I'm open for ideas. My ship tattoo represents my journey into something new over the last couple years. The angel is from Isaiah 6 and it's a reminder that I was created to worship. The banner on my arm is Philippians 3:8. Any ideas? It's got to be traditional...that's the only given...because that's how I roll. Let me know what you think.

Already gettin' some love from the Stirring

We made the front page of The Stirring website. I think that's awesome. We can't wait to get up there and join the team.
Related news...We head up to Redding next week to find a house to rent. Please pray that we find the right place for our family. We also need to find a renter for our house here in Riverside. Anyone interested? Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Green boogies x 3

Sofia + Zeke + Me = lots of green boogies
Stay away from our house if you know what's good for you!

Suck

Garage Salbath

Saturday was 1/2 garage sale, half Sabbath. First half of the day...up early...getting rid of a ton of stuff. Second half of the day...fat nap...family...watched "We are Marshall" (good flick).

ALLERGIES

This is me with my eyes fully open right now. I've had allergies since I've been a kid and I have no idea what brings them on. I am totally annoying to be around right now. Good times!

I can't get away from it

So I've been off of aspartame and sucralose (aka Equal and Splenda) for about 2 months now. I haven't had a diet coke since the post I put up a long time ago...feelin' pretty good about that. Then this morning I go to have my Kashi granola cereal with my yogurt and I realize that my yogurt is made with Splenda....uuuurrrrggggghhhh! This breakfast was my highway to weight loss when I was on Weight Watchers. 3 points in the morning and it filled me up. I was talking to Adam about this yesterday but there are a lot of ways to cheat when you are doing Weight Watchers. You can manipulate fiber and drink diet coke all day and lose weight like crazy. So I figured out the system pretty well and dropped 55 lbs. but now I've put 18 back on. This time I'm trying to eat things that are actually good for me and do it right...much harder. The good thing about Weight Watchers is that it teaches you portion control. If I could just figure that out I could do this without cutting any corners. As American's we have a warped since of what we "need" to eat to get full. The portions that we are served at restaurants is usually plenty for two people.
Anyways...sorry for the ramble...just trying to bring you into my process. I'm trying to drop 15 lbs. by the new year. People always binge at the holidays and make resolutions but my resolution is starting right now. Feel free to ask me how I'm doing.

Garage sale this Saturday

Feel free to bring over any crapito that you'd like to get rid of. We are downscaling a ton before we take off to Redding. I'm also trying to sell my truck again if anyone's interested...cheap!

Alyssa's new toy that I'm gonna steal

Just came in today. Alyssa is the photographer in the family but I'm gonna try to figure this out so I can post some sweet pics in the future. Watch out world.