Thursday, July 31, 2008

4 more pounds!

179.2
Finally in the 170's!
If you're just reading this, I have a goal to be at 175 by the end of summer. 4 MORE POUNDS...4 MORE POUNDS. (As I'm writing that I'm chanting it like they were for Bush when he got re-elected...4 MORE YEARS)
I started at 194.6
Here's the secret...pay close attention.
Last night we took family pics and prego pics with Emily. Can't wait to see em'. I rocked some serious Zoolander poses.
As we're heading home we decide to go see the Dark Knight with the Gafners. Cassie and Guido were watching their kids at their house so we added our kids to the mix.
We're running really late and we haven't had any dinner...it's 8:45pm.
We raid the Gafners pantry...granola bar...goldfish (not real goldfish...the small orange ones that you eat!)...and fig newtons.
We get there in time to see Sean buying all of us a huge popcorn to share. The girls each had two bites of popcorn and Sean and I killed the rest...washed it down with a huge Sprite.
So there it is folks...the secret to weight loss success...none of the books are going here because it's just too out of the box, but trust me.
Random snacks from your friends pantry, enormous bags of popcorn, and tons of soda...that's the secret!
And make sure you eat it really late.
Tell the world...I'm ready to make my millions.

Here's my two cents about The Dark Knight sense I haven't seen any posts about that movie :)
Awesome.
Loved Joker and Two face.
Batman's voice was a little weird and creepy.
Go see it.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I'm starting to read the history of Isreal

I'm starting with Joshua.
I read this today.
Joshua 3:3-4 "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.
That spoke to me huge this morning.
What a call to leaders to be led by God. I really feel that we a taking people to a place they have never been before. I want to make sure I have my eyes on the Lord!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sabbath

Spoke last night at the Stirring
Slept in till 8
Went back to bed at 9 for a nap
Played outside with the fam...
it was nice out for the first time in forever...no smoke
Lunch
Grocery shopping
Nap
Swim
Chipotle
Skype with both parents
Movie
Great day of rest...slept more today than I have in forever

Saturday, July 26, 2008

There is nothing more annonying in the world...


...than my stupid dog that can't control her bladder. Every time the door bell rings I have two choices. My dog runs to the door with frenzied excitement. If I pick her up she pees all over me...If I open the door she jumps all over the person that has come to see us and I'm yelling at them the whole time not to pet her. If they make the mistake of touching the dog they are going home with yellow flip flops!
It's an amazing way to great people that have never come to your house. They thought they were coming over for dinner but they open the door only to get yelled at by the host to not touch their dog. Welcome!
Plus the fact that the dog has unloaded her bladder on a daily basis right outside of our front door. I should probably wash that off. The Redding sun is drying up some sweet urine cakes out there. Such an inviting scene.
So remember next time you come over...jump from about 10 feet from the door and try to land on the welcome mat...Scarlet has only peed on that a couple times...and no matter how cute you think my dog is...don't ever touch her for the first 10 minutes you see her.
House rules.
Anyone want a dog?

Looked at a house today...


...because that is what we do 2 weeks before we have a baby! It's right on the corner of sketchyville and a nice neighborhood...perfect. It's a really cool house...could be going up for a short sale so we might put in a ridiculous low offer...see what happens...they say short sales take awhile...you think they'd consider changing the name...we'll see.

Friday, July 25, 2008

What just happened??@!?


I just walked into the Redding DMV fully ready to punch someone in the throat and yell at someone at the top of my lungs. To my wonder and amazement it was a pleasant experience. I have a history of losing my salvation at DMV's but Redding has changed everything.

I walk in on a Friday at 4:30pm. Last day of the week. Everyone is probably ready to kill people. But no...
Lady at the first desk...nice...friendly...gives me more information than I need.
Stunned I sit down...10 minutes later I'm talking to another nice woman behind the desk...I'm looking for hidden cameras. She sends me to a 3rd lady that is the nicest yet...takes my picture...gives me provisional license and I'm on my way.
I honestly had no words. I just had a fully enjoyable experience at the DMV. Kudos Redding Department of Motor Vehicles. Your love has covered a multitude of morons!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Great conversation tonight

Last week at the Stirring I saw a guy that I've met twice before and have talked to for a total of about 4 minutes. I felt strongly like I should ask him to hang out this week sometime. So as he was leaving I asked him if he wanted to talk sometime. It was weird...I never do stuff like that.
Tonight we had coffee...talked about life, doubt, struggles, Jesus...it was awesome.
It was one of the most refreshing conversations I've had with someone in a long time.
So glad I got a little uncomfortable and actually made the effort to talk to someone I barely know. So many times we stick to the 7 people we know at church or any group setting and we forget what it's like to be the new guy in the room that doesn't know anyone and doesn't know the rules. Tonight reminded me why I was put on this planet. Not to play it safe...but to join with people in their journeys towards Jesus.
I had four amazing conversations with people today...Starbucks, Yaks, Togo's, and Starbucks. I only drank two Americano's. Today was a good day!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

It's been two weeks

My last weigh in I was at 182.0
Two weeks...
No change!
I saw 181.6 for a brief moment in time but I'm back at 182...bummed.
I told Billy on Sunday that I've gotten away from writing things down and that I was going to start on Monday. Didn't do it. I'm going to start today...someone call me at the end of the day and ask me.
For me to lose weight I have to write down every single thing that goes in my mouth through the day. The problem with doing weight watchers for a long time is you know it really well so you think you can calculate everything in your head. The problem is I can keep track of points that way but I always cheat when I don't write it down. Writing gives me discipline. I'm back on it.
I said 175 by the end of summer and I will achieve that goal. I'd like to be 170 but I'm gonna shoot for something that is doable. Feel free to ask me how I'm doing when you see me. Thanks Billy!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Creepy floating baby is freakin' me out...

Does it seriously say 19 days!
I think he's off by about 3 or 4 days based on what our doctor says because she says Alyssa is due on the 13th. But who cares what the doctor says...I'm trusting babystrology.com
Creepy floating baby is always on the money!
The doctor said Moses was pretty low on Monday. I have no idea what that means but supposedly lower means he can't wait to jump into the heat and smoke of Redding...so we'll see!
Any tips for the last couple weeks that I'm not thinkin' about?
I've done the kid thing a couple times but none of them have shot out of Alyssa. Our last kid came with crossing borders in foreign countries and bribing them with lots of American money. I'm new at that whole birth thing and I feel like I have no clue what to do. I'm pretty good at wingin' stuff but I'm not sure if that's the best policy when it comes to having a kid. Help!

Lonely week

Nate and Meg are on vacation this week so I got the office to myself. It's usually a mad house in here with Nate and I sharing an office and Meghan right next door. I find that I'm talking to myself because no ones around. I'm sharing through Ephesians 5:21-6:9 this week. It matters how we treat each other, act in our homes, and carry ourselves at work. The world is watching! Paul tells us to live worthy of our calling. Put off the old, put on the new. Be light in a world of darkness by living a spirit filled life. Then he gets as practical as he possibly can. Here are the most basic relationships you find yourselves in: friends, husbands and wives, parents and children, and work. The way you conduct yourself in your most day to day relationships really matter.
It's crazy that the submission piece is the thing that everyone gets hung up on in these verses. The whole passage is pointed at men. It wasn't any big news in that culture that women needed to submit, that kids needed to obey or that slaves needed to work hard. The revolutionary piece is that Paul was calling the men out to submit and love their wives, treat their kids with respect and treat their slaves fairly. Women, kids and slaves were property in that culture. The verses that would have blown peoples minds were all the ones pointed at the men not the women. I'm gonna unpack it a little more this weekend. Any thoughts?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Sabbath plans



Sleeping in
Taking walks
Reading books
Swimming
Talking to family through a computer...thanks Skype!
Playing baseball (in the house...while moms out...ssshhhh...don't tell)
Naps
Good eats
Hangin' with friends
Can't wait!

More politics

Shane Claiborne is out talking about his book "Jesus for President." Here's an interaction that happened at one of his gatherings. I liked it. What do you think?

Reporters often ask folks leaving our presentations funny questions like: "Young evangelicals are the swing vote in this election... has this evening affected how you are going to vote in November?" I heard one person say beautifully, "That's the wrong question... the real question is how can we become the change we want to see in the world TODAY and not just hope that every four years we can elect politicians to change the world for us." May it be so. May we continue to become the change we want to see in the Church and in the world. Enough donkeys and elephants - Long live the Lamb
My thoughts: It wasn't legislation in Rome that turned the world on its ear in the first century. It was a bunch of crazy followers of Jesus, led by the holy spirit, living out radical community and generosity, moving willingly into persecution and martyrdom. A handful of people that held up a different "way" to the world. The world was forced to listen. No guns...No abuse of power...no lobbying to special interest.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Just found our image


We are doing a series in October and don't be surprised if you see this picture again...amazing!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Let's test the power of RevRock

I've got a good handful of you comin' to hang out on my blog on a daily basis now...I enjoy the community, the back and forth, the spewing of ideas. I'd like to see if we can actually use the muscle of this blog for good.
Our church, the Stirring is launching its first church plant, hopefully in the fall. We are funding the whole plant ourselves. We'd like to cover all the start up costs by raising money from friends and family. We have 30 of us that are doing a fund raiser called Hack Fest. It's 30 dudes, golfing 100 holes, and asking people to sponsor per hole. Each person has committed to raise $1,000.00
I've already got more than that but I haven't even tapped the power of the blog world yet. There's over 100 of you out there that are going to read this today. If you each sent me $10 we'd have another $1000. If you each sent me 2 million dollars we'd have 200 million dollars!
We believe this is how God is calling our family to grow in Redding. We don't desire to grow bigger under one roof. We want to spread out through the city, empowering more leaders, sharing space, and making more disciples in the way of Jesus. One vision, different campuses. WE LOVE. WE MAKE DISCIPLES. That's what we're about!
Sound interesting...start praying for us...send money!
Make checks payable to The Stirring at 3468 Bechelli Ln. Ste E - Redding, CA 96002 and put Hack Fest in the memo. All contributions are tax deductible.
Please pray about supporting us. Thanks!

Weight watcher must haves


I thought I would start a series of posts for my blog buddies that are battling the bulge. (I promise I'll stop using words that start with B...I don't know what just happened!)
I am a weight watchers guy myself. It's not a diet, you just learn to eat good portions. The things I look at in nutritional facts are calories, fat, and fiber. They have a point calculator that takes those numbers and turns them into points. I am allowed 24 points a day for my age and weight. When you are active during the day it gives you more points to work with.
So here's my thought...I've been doing this for over two years now and I've come up with quite a few must haves. You know, the food you can eat that is awesome and low points. Well I just stumbled across Skinny Cow. They have a whole line of deserts but I really like the ice cream sandwiches and they are only 2 points. I love ice cream and the slow churned stuff is pretty low in points but I don't trust myself to just scoop 1/2 a cup. I only give myself a small mug but I find a way to pack a pint in a mug! Now it's your turn. Help a brotha out. Got any low calorie, low fat, high fiber goodness? Hook me up! More to come.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Contentment

I'm working on being content in every situation but its difficult. Here's the things on my list that I'm realizing right now I'm not content with.
1. My town house. Not because its not nice enough or big enough. Its awesome. Its almost too awesome. I'd rather be in a place that frees us up financially more to help people and buy food that isn't so crappy. (side note: why is it more expensive to eat healthy?)
2. My phone. The iphone has officially done it to me...I've got at&t envy!
I keep all my own appointments and am constantly scheduling and getting back to emails so I broke down when I moved up here and got a Blackberry. It's awesome. I could probably be getting by with my old Razor and a little organizer but how cool would that be? The iphone at this new price has me wanting to put my Blackberry on ebay and drop Verizon like a bad habit.
3. My weight. I guess its ok to want to be healthy but I'm not content in my own skin right now and that kind of sucks.
4. My job! Just kidding Nate...just wanted to make sure you were still reading this thing!

Areas I've grown in contentment
1. I love my bucket of a car! 2o00 Toyota Echo (sea foam) The air gets cold 5 minutes after you arrive at your destination...love it!
2. I love my guitar gear! That's a first. I've spent my whole life trying to acquire that next thing with guitars...I'm satisfied...my tone rules!
3. I love my family, my friends, my church and Redding. Totally content with where God has me right now...I love that!

What are you not content with right now?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Bush visits Redding


The prez is comin' to Redding tomorrow. I'm gonna make my way to Air Force one and see if he'll sponsor me for Hackfest. I heard Bush is pumped on the Stirring's first church plant so I'm thinkin' I can get at least 20 bucks out of him. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Loving rebuke

Today I was reminded of my tendency to be a ding dong. I made some remarks in the last couple days that sat wrong with a friend and they let me know. It was brought up intentionally...it was straight to the point...I left understanding how I made this person feel...and I was given a chance to talk about my feeling on the subject.
I love the community I'm surrounded with at the Stirring. Everything is current. I piss you off and you let me know, I have a chance to apologize and we get over it and move on. No built up bitterness towards anyone...no walking on egg shells...it's how things should operate!
Staying current and being honest should mark every Christian community but it doesn't. As we are being transformed more and more into the image of Christ we need to be speaking the truth in love to our brothers and sisters that have signed up to follow Jesus. It should just be a normal part of community. Why do we shy away from confrontation? Thoughts?

Monday, July 14, 2008

RevRock got its 40,000 hit tonight!!!


I can't imagine what Joel Osteen feels like getting to talk to that many people every week. It's taken me a couple years to get this voice. I'd probably be trying to do something big like stop the wars in the world and start feeding hungry people and maybe getting some folks to care about the earth...just a couple ideas. When my blog is reaching 40,000 a week it's on like Donkey Kong!
And Joel while your at it...use your influence in Texas to get the Astro's back in those jersey's from the 80's...classic!

Zeke's back

Drove to Sac this morning to pick up Zeke after 10 days with my folks in Riverside...he had a blast. My mom got his hair cut and he kind of looks like Loyd from Dumb and Dumber but it's all good. It's awesome to have him back. We picked up a bed for Sof at Ikea because the crib is going to Moses. Sofia and Zeke are officially sharing a room. Sofia fell out of her bed tonight...glad we got that out of the way in the first night.
The countdown is on...27 days...crazy!
I put the 3rd car seat in our Vue tonight so we would start feeling the weight of what the heck is happening to us. It's starting to become real...wow!
I'm a dad with a car that has three car seats...when in the world did that happen?

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Pastor superhero's


This guys blog is awesome. He pairs up some well known pastors as superhero's. Thought it was fitting with the conversations we've been having at the Stirring.

And the rollercoaster continues...

So yesterday morning I got a call from the manager from the place we're moving into and she tells me we don't qualify! Five days of jumping through every hoop on earth to get in...she says the whole time that everything is perfect...she actually told me she'd call in the morning just to tell me that everything was ready but instead I got the shut down phone call. She fought for us but the person that owns the place wasn't havin' it for some unknown reason.

SUCKS!!!

Felt like someone kicked me in the teeth. Alyssa and I had both really come to agreement on moving and we were stoked. Alyssa's mom was flying out to help us pack up the house. We down scaled a bunch of stuff and started putting things in boxes. Super frustrating. I guess we are supposed to be here longer for some reason. Oh well.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Greed and isolation

I was talkin' to some dudes about Ephesians 4 and 5 yesterday and we got on the topic of greed. God is really calling us to be a family that is marked by generosity. Somewhere along the line that distinction has been really blurred in the church. When the church is really living out its call in the world it is always subverting the predominant trends in culture. When the culture is calloused and immoral sexually, the church should be showing the world through our relationships and marriages what God is like. When the culture is angry and hates and demeaning towards segments of society we should be a refuge of reconciliation and love. I think the one that's really hard for us is greed. When the culture around us is bent on more and is never satisfied we should be sharing our stuff, balancing injustice, bringing people into our homes, not living in excess, and living out of contentment.
I gave the example of the goal of our living situations in the US.
If you're poor and living in the ghetto you are most likely living in an apartment. More than likely you've got some extended family living with you to lower the bills. People are always around and in your business because of the close proximity. The goal is to move out of that situation and get into a house and to lose the extra family or friends living with you. Preferably a house with a garage that's attached to the house so you can pull in and not have to deal with neighbors. The goal after the first house is the second house that is bigger and further away from neighbors because you need your space. Then you're looking for the huge house in the gated community and now someone needs to know 4 digits to come see you and a guard gives you the "once over" if you look a little shady.
Greed breeds isolation. Our desire for more drives us further away from people. The American Dream is a joke and has nothing to do with living in the way of Jesus. Jesus said he's going to prepare a place for us in his fathers house. (John 14:1-4) That is wedding language talking of a groom that goes to add a room onto his fathers house to bring his bride back to. Only the Father can tell the son when the room is ready. Then the son goes and brings the wife to live with him and his family. Living in real community is what eternity is going to be like. I have a feeling "mansions" are going to have no place in the new heavens and new earth. I'm pretty sure we'll know our neighbors and be close to each other. Wouldn't it make sense for us to start practicing for eternity now? Just some thoughts. What do you think?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

So what do you talk about for your 666th post?

Satan
The anti-christ
Kirk Cameron and bad eschatology
The nature of evil
Hell
Nah...Let's tackle "the rapture" that'll be fun. Ok so I might get into some Kirk Cameron stuff.
If anyone starts getting crazy on this post I will shut it down...fair warning. I just want thoughts...not attacks.
For those of you that read my blog and aren't steeped in church culture...the rapture is a made up name that the church came up with to describe what will happen at the second coming of Jesus. There's some trumpets, Jesus appears, (I Thes. 4:16-18)we are zapped up to heaven in the twinkling of an eye (I Cor. 15:51-53), and people that don't know Jesus are avoiding un-manned, out of control cars on the freeway and then the world blows up. There are some variations to that train of thinking such as: tribulations, 1000 year reigns, I'm not gonna get into all of it. I have been refining my thoughts on this subject for my whole life.
Ultimately I believe Jesus is coming back!
How he decides to do that is his business. If I've got it all wrong I'm ok with that. If I end up chillin' on some clouds with a harp but I'm with Jesus...I'm good. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches but I'm not arrogant enough to think that everything I think about God is spot on. I've refined my positions on a ton of things so I'm open to growing and refining more.

I really like what N.T. Wright has to say about "life after life after death." Revelation 21:1-5 talks about a new heavens and new earth that we look forward to and God's dwelling with his people. He's written two amazing books that get at this. Simply Christian and Surprised by Hope. Here's a little taste from Surprised by Hope (122)

Most first-century Jews, and virtually all early Christians believed that history was going somewhere under the guidance of God and that where it was going was toward God's new world of justice, healing, and hope. The transition from the present world to the new one would be a matter not of the destruction of the present space-time universe but of its radical healing.
That's the hope that I'm looking forward to. What are your thoughts? Be nice.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Alright...here's the news...

I THINK WE'RE MOVING!
Not back to Riverside...sorry mom.
About a block down the street.
We're ironing out the last details.
We qualified for some apartments that hook you up based on your income...God bless America!
We will save a bunch of money a month which will be awesome.
The only problem is I can't find a pause button for creepy floating baby.
We're moving in the last month of pregnancy...at least it wasn't 118 degrees today...oh wait...it was!
It's a three bedroom...smaller than our place now but all we need.
No garage...that will be interesting.
We've been married for 9 years and lived in 8 places...my wife is amazing!
1. Parkwest apartments (much love to Azoulay ct. Good times with the Yoders)
2. Grandpa's house (during the Ember days)
3. Linwood (built in 1914...hands down coolest house ever)
4. Rangpur (stupid house...way too big...trying to build my empire...learned my lesson)
5. Palm (lived on a freeway next to tweekers...killer fireworks show...added 800 square feet...good times)
6. Mt. Diablo (great house...still renting it out)
7. Sunset Oaks townhomes (it's been a good 6 months...we'll miss the pool...Thanks for getting us in Don)
8. Shadowbrook apartments (here we come)
Stay tuned for details of when. I will put out a shameless announcement to get people to help. Don't worry...it's supposed to be really cold in a week!
My life is hilarious.

Weekly weigh in

182.0 this morning
That's down 1.4 pounds since the last weigh in...12.4 total pounds down
It's going slow but I'm stoked that it's still comin' off
I didn't write anything down the last couple weeks, I'm gonna get back on that.
Sean and I passed up some rice crispy sample thingys this morning at Starbucks.
It's easier to say no when you're with a friend that's trying to say no too.
Gotta get back on the bike. Next week is supposed to be less hot (and smokey I hope)
Here I come 175...I'm gonna own you!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Is picking your nose contagious???


I was driving to work this morning (refuse to bike when it's 115 degrees outside) and I saw this guy in a huge truck with his finger in his nose up to the knuckle. He was really going for it. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. As a turned the corner I felt this strange urge to jam my finger in my nose...it was weird. It was like my finger just knew what to do when it saw another finger serving its whole purpose being thrust into a nostril.
So here's my question...I know yawning is contagious, but what about picking your nose? Anyone else ever experience this? Am I alone?
Side note: There's a lot of crazy stuff going down right now with RevRock and I can't get myself to blog about it yet so I'm leaving you with everything my brain can handle...fingers, knuckles, and noses.
Side note...I've used the word knuckles more in the last few days then I have in my entire life time.
Pray for us...we've got some decisions to make...all good stuff...don't worry!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Watch out world


The Dunlap's have officially entered the blog world. Go give them some blog love.
When we left Riverside these were two of our hardest goodbyes.
Love you guys! Keep the blogs comin.

Grooming day part II


This is part one if you're late to the conversation.
Here's the final question you have to ask yourself when you enter the realm of shaving your arms...what do you do with the knuckles???
I shave my arms because my arm hair is like Sherwood forest and my tattoos become unrecognizable under the fury coat.
I usually shave my arms about once a month with the clippers. You always get to the end and ask yourself...do I leave the knuckle hair?
It looks kind of weird to have baby smooth arms and fury knuckles so I went for it today!
I am also now convinced that I should never make important decisions when I'm grooming because I think of the strangest things during these moments in my life.
Until next Sunday...

Ephesians 4

Tonight we are getting into Ephesians 4.
Last week Nate started the chapter but spent the whole night talking about verse one. We talked about three words in the verse: live, worthy, received. Podcast should be up soon. It was awesome!
Tonight we are going to talk about the type of church we want to become.

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Everyone's a minister. God has placed you in your family, your neighborhood, your job, your city for a reason. Live out that calling in every way possible. The only reason we have leadership in the church is to empower and equip all the other ministers through the week. We spend a good portion of our week trying to replace ourselves. We want to be known for our team, our community, not our superstars. (Maybe that's why God hasn't given us any superstars but a bunch of messed up, goofy followers of Jesus!) If you had to give us a grade at the Stirring for our "teamness" (an amazing word that I just made up) what would you give us and why? We are trying to grow in this area and we'd love to hear your feedback.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Anyone else sleeping like this yet???


Our fan is two feet from our bed cranked on high.
Our ceiling fan is on high.
I now share my bed with a body pillow and an almost 8 month pregnant wife.
I had a dream last night I was in the Wizard of Oz and my house was being taken away in a tornado but I woke up and it was just the wind storm that I now call my bedroom.
What's awesome is that Redding hasn't even shown its full fury yet. Bring it on July and August!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Single Mom Saturday


Saturday July 12th, 11-1:30pm
Mom's show up with their kids at 11am at the Nazarene church.
We're taking portraits of the moms with their kids that we will print off and give as gifts.
Mom's leave the kids, we have a crew that will spoil the kiddos.
Mom's carpool with another crew that is taking them to Tierra Oaks for lunch...our treat.
While they're gone we got a crew that will be washing and detailing their cars.
We have 6 moms right now and we can take around 10. Know a single mom that needs some love? Send em' our way.
I can't think of a harder job in the world then raising your kids by yourself. We want to be the kind of community that takes care of our single moms!
Our hope is that this one event will turn into long term investment in the lives of these families. We want to be a church that is known for our love...anyone down to help?

10 days with one kid...weird

My mom leaves tomorrow at 6am and she's takin' Zeke for 10 days.
He's gonna be rockin' swim lessons, VBS, chillin' with family and Riverside friends.
He'll get spoiled out of his mind.
It's gonna be really weird just havin' Sof with us. She's gonna be super bored. No one beating her up every five minutes...what will she do?
It's gonna be the longest that we've been away from Zeke...it will be strange...quiet...and not as much fun!
In just over a month we'll have 3 so we will take a long deep breath for 10 days and prepare ourselves!
My parents are driving up and we'll meet them in Sac on the 14th.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

<---------Creepy floating baby

Does that countdown seriously say 39 days till the baby comes???!!?
I just threw up in my mouth.
Tasted like bloomin' onion.
At least there's no other stress in our life right now :)
I don't know if that smiley conveys sarcasm but it should!
I'm starting to take sign ups for baby sitting.
Our kids are super easy :)
There's that smiley again.

Ephesians 3


If you'd like to hear the podcast it's right here. Paul shares his story then prays that we would understand God's love that surpasses knowledge. Thoughts???

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Weird realization

Alyssa and I realized something weird as we were out at coffee last night. We were actually having time to talk and think without kids and it was amazing. We realized we should probably finalize the name for the baby and we are going with Moses. Unless Jesus wakes us up and tells us we have to name him something else.
While we were on the subject of Moses we started talking about the amount of people that are so excited to see who he will look like. We've had countless people ask us, "aren't you so excited to see who he's going to look like?" It's weird but neither of us have thought about that at all. This might we the weird piece of having two adopted kids but it hasn't crossed our minds at all that there is a pretty good chance that this kid is going to look a lot like both of us. Is that weird?
Most people are like, "oh I hope he gets my eyes, and her hair, etc..."
We just honestly thought about it for the first time last night and thought that was kind of strange. The only thing I hope for my son is that he gets my wifes looks (without lookin' like a chic) if that's possible, and that he gets my hair, my height, my humongous forehead, my two bottom front teeth that are yellow because they got the enamel knocked off of them when I was a baby, my crazy chest hair, and has good skin for tattoos! If he gets all that I'd be stoked.
What's funny is that both of our kids already look like me.
God is pretty hilarious though...I bet Moses comes out and is the one kid in our family that looks nothing like us...what if?