Hey friends
It is about 6:55 am and I am just finishing up some emails and stuff I needed to get sent out this morning to parents and students. Just wanted to update and not really add anything interesting to the internet other than the fact that I hope some folks are looking forward to reading this bad boy!
Meagan and I have ben housesitting this weekend…this means I miss our apartment (i am spoiled by our bed, it is like sleeping on clouds next to an angel!) Not that the bed at this place we are at is bad, it is just not ours! Although the little dog Jack has gotten used to us and seems to like us well enough. At first he was stand offish like a cat, now he pounces, plays, and wants to be right in between us all the time. But you know how little dogs are, that little dog smell. mmmmm
Church has been great and more exciting stuff is happening even as I speak! I will update more on that later, but needless to say many prayers are being answered.
Finally I am ready to go start my day off. So I am going to be out of here in a couple of hours and then I am taking a nap.
PEACE to you
current itunes track: E-Pro, Beck, Guero
currently reading: Pagan Christianity, George Barna
currently watching: lots of DVR’d things (football, daily show, colbert, american dad, king of the hill, family guy, CSI, all sorts of fun!)
currently craving: more time with meagan and some donuts
can’t wait: TO BE HOME THIS WEEKEND!
see you then
I am a big guy. I know this and I also know that I am responsible for the choices I make. But since I live in Obama/McCain America (how scary that either one will run this country in 3 months) I get bailed out (by fast food conglomerates, who are really the ones to blame i mean seriously how good is that double beef burrito at TACO BELL, darn Mt Dew for tasting so good) even if it is my fault I am flatlining on the table in the ER. The very people who caused part of the problem (the administration and congress) are now bailing out investors and big business WHILE WE PAY FOR IT (to the tune of now 835 billion dollars). I have a solution what if every person over 18 just took a cut of that 835 billion and let us AMERICANS decide where the money can go, and if big business falls well BOO-FRICKIN-HOO (o yeah in my plan every person over 18 would get a check from the government for around 4200 dollars). I don’t get heated about much politically but this economic bailout plan is the biggest load of bull crap I have read about in a long time (and I have been alive long enough to remember both of Clinton’s and Bush 2’s administrations).
So besides that meagan and I are doing well. We are fearing for our lives now that the bailout has hit and I figure that why worry we will just open up everything we bought for fear of Y2K and just use that stuff. I mean that bottled water is only 8 years old right? How long can canned beans sit? O and we are filling up our gas tanks every night so that if that gas shortage happens we will have two full tanks for the jerk thieves who will syphon gas from innocent people’s cars while they sleep!
Alright so I am being cynical, good things in life right now are: Meagan, my job (church is great), we got internet at the house and DVR it is really great, i finally was able to rent rock band 2, and I am going to take meagan home for a visit to Lubbock next weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Well hope you are doing well. Sorry for my bitter rant. i hope you have enoyed another episode of hilarity from me, or at least i thought it was funny. calm down man.
peace to you
currently watching: DVR’d (is that a verb?) Daily Show and The Colbert Report (happiness)
currently reading: every magazine put in front of me (if you get that I will buy you a drink)
currently gaming: Rock Band 2, XBOX360
current itunes track: Parabola, Tool, Lateralus
current time: 4:01 pm
Hello friends
Lots of stuff going on in the world lately. I hope that for you it is going well and you are at least avoiding the scary news outlets that tell you good evening and then proceed to tell you how IT isn’t. But bad jokes aside I hope you are still smiling.
Meagan and I are doing good. We are excited because hopefully today AT&T will show up and install our internet and television service. We are stoked and can’t wait. Well I am excited about TIVO (finally I can catch up on all of that Army Wives I have been missing out on on lifetime) and meagan is excited about the internet (turns out that addiction to facebook was stronger than I thought).
Sometimes I leave my car at church and meagan and I drive home after a busy evening. That means the next morning I get to go to church when she goes to work. Today was one of those days. I have been in the office since a little after 6. It is nice though, quiet and I get lots of stuff done and just enjoy reading my bible or jamming to some tunes.
I found the first season of CSI for 20 bucks at Target. It is awesome. All that blood guts for the price of a couple of movie tickets. Man the box sets running length is 17hours and 5 min (not a second of which is boring). So deliver that for 20 bucks spielberg.
Speaking of Spielberg turns out Eagle Eye was AWESOME. Meagan and I went with Aaron and Karlee to see a great action flick and we were not disappointed. The movie is a little fantastical in its outreach but all in all it is a good movie that just got jammed in the reviews because movie reviewers never get it right, just like voters at the emmy’s and the oscars (really 30 rock is better than the office? yeah and i look like paul walker with his t shirt off).
So anyway, have a good day friends. enjoy whatever you can today and keep those gas tanks filled up, you never know when there is gonna be a shortage!
o and by the way turns out that CSI leaked the end of its episode about wall street, guess what turns out it was SUICIDE! YOU CAN’T BUY PROPERTY AND THEN LEVERAGE AGAINST WITH MONEY PEOPLE DON’T HAVE TO SPEND ON THE PROPERTY YOU ARE LEVERAGING! oops…someone is gonna pay for that (and if the bailout goes through it’ll be us paying out of our well you know…
peace to you
currently watching: CSI, Season 1
current itunes track: Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix, Experience
currently drinking: Mt. Dew
currently reading: Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
current time: 9:29 am
This week has been busy. Planning, working, living, laughing, and enjoying! Meagan and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary yesterday (from the day I asked her out. hahaha). So we celebrated the best way we know how, by being at church and having a great communion service with the students. man i love being a pastor.
Heroes and the Office return this week. WOW. Never have I been glued to the tv like this, o except every video game I have ever played. (i am sure mom is laughing. i know you miss the sound of sirens and gun shots from the game room haha!). I am excited for the office. o man i have been watching youtube clips in my office OVER AND OVER. If you did not see the slap face commercial during the olympics. then stop. STOP right now. type youtube into your browser address and look up the office slap face. one of the greatest 31 seconds you will ever spend. i promise.
My friend Jessica and I have been planning a new mid-week service for prayer and worship aimed at college students and 20 somethings. Well really it is aimed as a place for people to come and drop FACEDOWN before God and worship and pray for an hour. I don’t really care who shows up…I am just pumped that we can all worship TOGETHER! So if you are in the Oklahoma City area on October 7th at 9pm you should come to Northview Community Church for the first FACEDOWN. Seriously it will rock.
I have been reading like a maniac. Meagan and I are on different schedules. Mainly she gets up at 5:15 ever morning and I DON’T. So what does this mean for me when Meagan declares bed time at 10 
? Well it means for me that I have been reading, anything I can get my hands on until about 3 in the morning because I don’t have to get my day going until 8:30. So I have been reading. Fiction, non-fiction, magazines, classic novels, theology books. You name it I am ingesting it (well not like really ingesting it and don’t name drugs cause…thats just bad). Anyway I feel like the bookworm I was in high school again and it is grand. I LOVE reading.
Well I better go. I have to get ready for our small group and then we are going to PARTY and watch the office premier! AWESOME.
peace to you
current itunes track: Inside Out, Eve 6, Eve 6
currently reading: Simply Christian, N.T. Wright (just finished Fahrenheit 451. such a great novel)
currently watching: the office clips on hulu.com
currently gaming: i am going to rent rock band 2. sounds awesome.
I am a pretty macho guy. I love football. Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, and Die Hard are some of my favorite movies. I enjoy video games that let me be the shooter. Anything with a satisfying explosion is pretty cool. My Dad and I built model cars, rockets, and rc cars. So I see myself as pretty tough.
But over the last couple of years a couple of my best friends have been a 5 year old and a 2 year old. My friend Joey has a couple of boys who know no strangers. They make friends with anybody and know that the college students (their dad was a Resident Director in charge of an entire dorm at SNU) want them to be the center of attention. I have never had my heart melted like hearing Judson cry “Beff” (he never could get that J sound down) and then run right at me to get picked up.
Grady (the 5 year old) was pretty sure we were all there for him every time we visited. I was excited when he called to invite me (my new wife and all of our friends) to bring my favorite ice cream topping to watch the “REAL” Alvin and the Chipmunks. I remember being one of the first people besides his parents to feed Judson. I was pretty stand offish about little kids (babies just aren’t my thing) but Joey (who is a great judge of character) knew that I could do it. So I put on the mommy feed ring around my stomach and held this new quivering life to feed him a bottle. I grew up right there and Jud must have known it was me (because for the rest of their time here in Oklahoma he would run at me full speed to be thrown in the air). I knew those boys weren’t mine, but I would have died to make sure they were safe.
So when Joey decided to move to Phoenix for a GREAT job opportunity, I lost a whole slew of best friends, Joey, Sarah, Grady, and Judson; and now they have added another little life, Wyatt, to the mix in phoenix and honestly I can’t wait to get there, put on the mommy feed ring and help out with this one.
I don’t know what it will be like to be a Dad, but after My Dad (who has always showed me how to be a man) and watching Joey (who is one of us even if he is a “little” older) I know that it will be awesome…(but I can certainly WAIT. hahaha!) One thing about these boys was that they were always fun to play with, throw around, spin around, and just when they started puking you could give them back!
So I am sure I speak for Aaron, Eric, Curtis, Tomy, Robert, Chris, Selena, Christina, Sybil, and Meagan when I say we miss all of them and we can’t wait to get some TICKETS TO PHOENIX!
current itunes track: The Day That Never Comes, Metallica, Death Magnetic
currently watching: Saving Private Ryan 60th Anniversary D-Day edition
currently reading: Last Man Standing, David Baldacci
It has been a few. I apologize. I know there were some of you literally suffocating from a lack of knowledge about what is going on in the life of one 23 year old caucasian, male, student ministries pastor in the northwestern part of oklahoma city, oklahoma.
Meagan and I had an awesome college small group on thursday night. Our college group is phenomenal. It was our first time to meet and everyone clicked and we shared stories from 7 until about 11 it was so much fun. it will keep meagan and I feeling young (cause we are old. seriously meagan woke up at 9 today and couldn’t go back to sleep…on saturday. crazy.)
I received a birthday card from kristin thomas. wow. i never knew receiving a birthday card (a grandpa card at that) could bring such joy. I immediately pinned it up on the wall in my office because its my office and I can put whatever I want on the walls (you know within reason. it is a church. my Pantera and Metallica posters have to stay at home….haha. no i don’t really own those posters)!
The children’s pastor at the church I work at has family that lives in houston so we have been praying and glued to the weather reports about the town. Such an odd thought to think of a place so big in such peril, but maybe it will wash away some of their terrible football playing and help out their team! I mean look at what happened to the New Orleans Hornets (ok they was in poor taste sorry).
Meagan and I went to our first Seeworth Academy Football game. It was funny because they were playing a team I used to cheer for because it had students from my first youth group in it. So it was interesting and quite a study of the human spirit to watch a rather wealthy group of students (mostly white) play football against a Seeworth team that has one white player. It was a lineup like the gridiron gang. Watching these students from different sets and gangs work together and not yell at each other when things got bad but rather play harder was an amazing thing. They were down 28 to 8 at half and were able to keep the score at 28-14 for the end of the game AND they had touchdowns called back for holding which was really sad! It was cool to meet a lot of the people meagan works with though, I feel safer knowing they really do take care of her. And seriously they had their security guy there with a gun on his hip so if anything went down it was getting old west style on the field.
well enough stories. i hope you are all doing well.
peace to you
current itunes track: Texas and Seafood, Mitch Hedberg, Do You Believe in Gosh?
currently watching: Hot Shots (I love old school parody movies. none of this crap that is on now)
currently reading: It, Craig Groeschel (yeah not by stephen king there is a difference here)
Just moved into a new office at church. I am out of the bullpen and finally into my own space. Yeah I am stoked. So all those posters from my “college life” that meagan won’t let me hang up in the house…guess what? I can hang ‘em in my office. SWEET! hope you are doing well.
peace to you
current itunes track: Cornbread, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Radio City
currently gaming: Mercenaries 2, XBOX 360
currently frustrated with: the fact that the new facebook will be the only facebook
Hey Friends!
Today is my birthday and it is the strangest birthday I have ever had. I am married, I have graduated from college, and my mom and dad are hundreds of mils from here. Now I have had birthday’s when I was dating meagan (and I knew we would be married), I have had birthdays in college (hoping I would graduate), and I have had birthdays apart from my parents, BUT this one feels so weird because it is like I am an actual adult and I realize why people want to do childish things on their birthday, because you miss that anticipation of a stupid song and cake. Now I have a great evening planned with friends, but the pinnacle of tonight is laughter and stories about days gone by. The theme of birthdays - at least when you live at home and worry about homework and if your teacher’s will be nice the next day – can be found in the the apex, the precipice, the mountaintop moment of joy when a cake with candles (hopefully trick) is brought out of whatever kitchen is present and everyone you know (and that matters in this world) sings you happy birthday in the most god-awful key you can imagine.
Now I realize that as you get older everyone that matters might not be able to be in the same room to sing you that song and that is pretty darn sad! But I don’t want to be a debbie downer, I just realized that there are new ways to look at birthday’s and that now the point isn’t the cake or the presents, but the people around them that matter o so much!
so on this day of OLD growth how about wisdom from some young folks? In my last post I wasted time with an awesome forward. Well I took that and transformed it into a youth lesson for us to share at church. Here are some responses.
I fear: Jellyfish (9th grader)
I miss: being loved (senior)
I wonder: how ants feel being 500 times smaller than me (a pretty tiny senior)
I care: about everyone (8th grader)
I hate: when I can’t find something then I find it when I don’t need it (a frustrated 7th grader)
I love: sisters ( a beautifully sweet junior)
I always: watch tv (a really honest 6th grader)
I wish: I had more time (a wise 8th grader)
I never: cuss (8th grader)
I hate: gas prices (a non-driving 10th grader)
I don’t always: ride my bike with no handlebars: (a rambunctious 9th grader)
I have: much more compared to people in other parts of the world (a very perceptive and wise 7th grader)
Nothing like reading the words of students to know that this is the great job in the world. I love my students.
peace to you
current itunes track: Can’t Complain, Nickel Creek, Why Should the Fire Die?
currently reading: just finished up Postmodern Youth Ministry, Tony Jones
currently watching: The office, Season 4 (i am addicted…)
I am: sitting in my office at church, drinking a Frostie concord grape soda, and listening to Ray LaMontagne.
I dream: in technicolor. mostly about places I recognize, but that don’t look like that in real life!
I think: therefore I am wrong…The Husband’s motto! haha just kidding. I think: it is perfect weather today
I know: enough to know that I don’t know much and I best keep my mouth shut about what I do.
I want: to live in such a way as to help all those around me!
I have: more than I deserve.
I wish: I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller I wish I had a girl that looked good I would call her (o wait I do hahahaha!)
I hate: the pursuit of power.
I miss: being 10 and listening to Jesus Freak in the church van on the way to quizzing trips.
I fear: that I am inadequate in all that I do.
I feel: content. This cold weather and the mood today are soothing.
I hear: what they are trying to say, but are too afraid to admit.
I smell: good. Thanks to my wife for clean clothes!
I crave: some down time. I just want to be at the house with the phone off for 48 hours….is that too much?
I search: for that which I have already found.
I wonder: why people are so concerned with politics when they won’t help the people they see everyday.
I regret: having but one life to give in the pursuit of God’s kingdom.
I love: meagan. God. friendships. laughter.
I ache: right now. My back hurts because of the cold front!
I care: what happens to my students.
I always: look for ways to surprise my wife.
I am not: an olympic swimmer. a ballerina. not even a pencil.
I believe: that what I believe is bigger than some people’s supposed beliefs.
I dance: like kevin james in hitch (before hitch got a hold of him)
I sing: loudly.
I cry: when necessary.
I don’t always: shave. if you haven’t noticed.
I fight: complacency, apathy, and ignorance whenever they show their ugly heads around my students.
I write: on this blog because I think its fun!
I win: staring contests all the time. you just didn’t know we were playing.
I lose: my train of thought oft…what was I saying?
I never: want to say never. I am always safeguarding that which I do!
I confuse: meagan a lot. its a little game I play!
I listen: when you talk. really. i truly care what people say.
I can usually be found: at this desk or on the couch at my house.
I am scared: of being near windows after dark. seriously, bears could be out there!
I need: to drink more water and not spend so much time on here.
I am happy: with everything in life right now.
I desire: well thats for me…i am not writing that down!
I hope: that people will learn that there is more to this “Jesus Thing” than where we go when we die.
I have: wasted your time. hahaha! thanks for reading.
peace to you
current itunes track: Burn, Ray LaMontagne, Trouble
currently watching: The Office, Season 4
currently reading: Old Copies of Time Magazine. I enjoy this.
Hey Friends! It has been a LONNNNNNNNNNGGGGG weekend.
I took 20 folks to six flags for the annual Naz Nite event and no one got hurt and I didn’t forget anyone so it was successful. I really enjoyed riding the Tony Hawk’s Big Spin ride…pretty awesome. We went all night friday and then on saturday, I saw some of the sickest mullets you have ever seen. O and I almost ate my own weight in Pink Things (if you don’t know, you have never been to six flags). It was a good weekend because I got to hang with aaron and karlee at six flags and then when I got home meagan’s mom and dad and her sister and brother were here (we missed micah!). We had so much fun going out to eat and hanging together and watching the NEW TV that meagan and I got on thursday evening, right before I left for six flags.
I got up this morning at 5:20 to run some errands for my precious wife before her FIRST DAY AS A TEACHER! I am so proud of her. I went and bought her slim fast bars for lunch (she gets fifteen minutes, and I don’t think she needs slim fast bars, but that is what she TOLD me to get!) and then I got her a stop watch, for what I don’t know, maybe she is going to teach her students to be olympic swimmers and she will train the next michael phelps! Then I went and got her favorite starbucks drink (granda mocha frappuccino) and kissed bye before she left to go to work!
While I was at wal mart this morning at 5:30 i did happen to pick up the 4th season of the office on dvd. I have already watched two of them and have almost wet myself laughing. Seriously when pam sees michael naked I fell out of my chair (i had forgotten!) (I didn’t see where it began, but I saw where it ended hahahaha).
So anyway laugh is busy. I am ready for some down time and I LOVE my wife. Hope you are having a good day.
kristin thomas you have to come to oklahoma city. now.
current itunes track: Digital Love, Daft Punk, Discovery
currently watching: The OFFICE, Season 4
currently gaming: gta IV, xbox360, on the new 42″ tv…meagan is too sweet to me!
