30 GOING ON 13

Well it's been a very long time since the blog world has heard anything from me, but today is so special that I can't help but be driven out of my blogging slumber. I must break the silence.

30 years ago on this day a little princess was born into the world. She grew to become a beautiful young woman both inside and out. This princess stole my heart and to this day I can't figure out what I ever did to be as lucky as I am to have her as my wife. She is amazing! I always enjoyed hearing people talk about meeting their spouse for the first time and knowing deep inside that they were going to get married, but I never believed that it would happen that way for me. You may think it's cheesy or corny, but I tell you the truth the moment I set eyes on Natalie I knew I was looking at the one that I would spend the rest of my life with. I love thinking back on the years when we were dating and how incredible it was to fall head over heals in love, but honestly it has only gotten better over time.

There are so many things I could say about my wife, it's hard to know where to start.

She is my best friend, she really is. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, sometimes she makes me crazy yet, I love to be around her more than anyone else on the face of the earth. She knows the best and the worst about me and she loves me anyway. In fact, I have learned so much about God's unconditional love through the love she has shown to me.



She is an incredible mother. We had a lot of fun together when it was just the two of us, but our lives have never been the same since God blessed us with our two children. I can't imagine what life would be like without Rob and Mel. I look at Rob and think of how incredible it was to see him born. What an amazing work of God. I remember vividly how close I came to losing Natalie and how incredibly thankful I am that the Lord answered my prayers. Now after that experience, when I look at her, I know more than ever before how much she is a gift. When I look at Melanie I see the beauty of her mother shining through her eyes. Already she is a little lady learning to have the same poise and charm that she sees in her mother.

Natalie is a wonderful woman of God. As a pastor I can't begin to tell you how important it is to have a partner in ministry who is supportive and encouraging. If not for my wife I don't know how I would make it through the challenges that accompany ministry. She has a truly compassionate heart, a heart for people. One of the greatest things about being married to Natalie is the opportunity that I have to minister with her, whether it be through song, or teaching, or simply loving on others. Her belief in me has made me the man I am today. She has been by my side every step of the way and she has comforted and encouraged me through many difficult situations. She is an annointed woman of God and many have been touched by her gentle spirit and her genuine love. I could go on and on, but there simply isn't the time or the right words to describe how much she means to me.

Natalie, I love you so much and want you to know how thankful I am for you. On your 30th birthday I hope you realize how much of an impact you have had on so many people already in your lifetime. May you know today and everyday just how much you are loved by your, family, your friends, but most of all by God himself. May He shower you with blessings today.




Happy Birthday Princess!

Guy Weekend

2 guys, 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds, no girls, what do you get?

GUY WEEKEND!!!

That's right for the next 24 hrs. it's just Rob and I and we are getting ready for the official kickoff of guy weekend. What is guy weekend all about. Food, fun and video games. Rob suggested that since we only have 24 hrs. we should make a list of all the things we want to do as to insure that we don't forget anything. He's pretty efficient. So I present to you the official list of activities for GUY WEEKEND (by the way when you say GUY WEEKEND you have to say it with a low voice and growl a little, we've been practicing that). Alright here we go. The list is as follows:

• Go to Cedar Falls Blockbuster and rent video games (Mario Party 6 & Lego Star Wars)with our free coupons.
• Go to HyVee for breakfast (We practiced how Rob would order his breakfast - "I'd like a number 10 please, with sausage patties, eggs over hard, and wheat toast. I would also like a glass of orange juice please.")
• Go to the Cedar Falls Mall and throw pennies in the fountains.
• Get ice cream at Coldstone Creamery.
• Stay up late and watch movies.
• Eat our favorite pizza (in this case were talking UNO's Chicago style frozen pizza).
• Go to the Palace Theatre and see matinee of "Eight Below".

Well there you have it 24 hrs. of fun, food and testosterone. It doesn't get any better than this!

Go Big Or Go Home

Okay after like a two week hiatus I'm back in the blogging world. Sorry to say that all this time out of play has not increased the flow of good ideas that are worth posting about or you taking the time to read about. However, if you have come to set your expectations low before reading my posts guess what, you won't be disappointed by what's ahead. So here it goes.

What is up with everything going small these days. When did we suddenly awaken to the reality that to be cool and cutting edge we must keep getting smaller and smaller. You look around and everything seems to be following this trend. It's not enough to have the Motorola Razr, but now there's the Sliver (maybe someone will comeback on that with the Splinter). With iPod's you've got the 5g then the Mini, next up the Nano and don't forget the Shuffle. On a recent SNL sketch Steve Jobs was the host and made fun of himself by pretending to introduce the iPod Micro, Pequeno and Invisi. We've got mini oreos, mini m&m's, and pretty much a mini version of everything out there. I think ad guys are running out of ideas, seriously. I mean if I have to start using a magnifying glass to place a call to my mom or eat a handful of snacks something is majorly jacked up.

Now I've gotta hand it to M&M's. They have obviously faced facts and realized that there's only so far you can go with small before you've gotta go BIG!!! That's right, awakened from slumber the ad wizards strike back with the Mega M&M. Whoooooo Baby, what genius. I'm perspiring just thinking about it (which isn't saying a lot since I sweat brushing my teeth).

Now I have yet to consume any of these Mega chocolate morsels, but I'm sure there awesome. If you've had some let me know cause I'm curious as to the packaging. Has the packaging gotten bigger or stayed the same size. Cause if it's stayed the same I'm thinking when you buy a package you must get like 3 M&M's which would really stink no matter how big they come. Who is going to eat just 3 M&M's.



Anyhoo, to wrap up, it appears as if small is out and big is in. Which means bring back the Ghetto Blasters and The Brick phones. It's time to junk that Sony Handicam and dust off the Sony Portapak. BIG IS ... ummmm... well... BIG!

Can You Shred?

Okay I came across this website and I had to post it. It pays tribute to The Shredi Master and all other fast fingered guitar players. If only I could shred like The Master, but instead I am left playing my air guitar. Which by the way, if you are a fellow air guitar player you should roll over to this site and check out the U.S. Air Guitar Champion on the Today Show.

Ok so back to this website that I stumbled onto. If you are having a boring day or just looking to kill some time go take lessons from Mr. Fastfinger. Before long you'll be shredding with the best of them.

Just one more note, if you really want to learn to shred you need to seek out The Shredi Master or to learn to jam on the keytar you can learn mad skillz from Waverly Rules. However, you might want to wait until after April 1.

Bricks Rule

In my prior post about my iPod, Bliggity mentioned another obsession of mine and asked me to post about it so here it is my LEGO Star Wars Millenium Falcon.

985 pieces of pure joy and excitement! Those who know me well know that I'm not too handy when it comes to a hammer and some nails, but I do enjoy building things. So if anyone is ever in the market for building a house out of LEGOS (which would be sweet) give me a call cause I'm your man. Mmmm hold on ... Let me rephrase that I'm your man as long as it's LEGOS and as long as the set is for ages 9 and up. Anyway here's my precious Falcon and luckily the perpetrators of the break-in didn't recognize the value of such an item as this and left it on top of my bookshelf.

I also have provided a link to a LEGO movie that I came across that I thought was fun. Hope you enjoy it. One more thing its good to know that we can still enjoy things that we used to love when we were kids, like LEGOS. After all, when we grow into adults all we have to do to preserve our love for things like the BRICK is just buy cars that look like them :)

iPod I miss you!

Many of you may know that next to my love for God, my wife, and my kids, I have a love and affection for my iPod. Now a few weeks ago the church was broken into and along with pastors laptop the perpetrator made off with my iPod. It has been a few weeks now and I admit I am starting to feel a sense of separation anxiety. Thankfully I still have my library of music, which I was careful to backup, but I still miss my good ole' scroll wheel. I sure hope the guilty party is enjoying my 4000 song library, especially the tracks of my kids singing and the sermons I had uploaded onto it.

Speaking of songs, I enjoyed taking the quiz that Waverly Rules posted that matches your taste in music with a celebrities personal playlist. Not sure why, but mine ended up being closely related to Nicole Kidmans (yikes). Well I thought it would be fun for those reading this to take a few minutes and put together what would be your ultimate playlist of favorite songs and post them for the rest of us to see. A persons playlist says a lot about themselves so think good and hard about it and post your favorite tunes.

Death To Hobo Husband

Well I'm starting to come around and feel more like myself these days. Natalie wanted me to only work half days this week, but I've been finding it hard to pull myself away that early. Once the prednisone wears off though I start to feel the let down, so I'm going to try to pace myself and get home earlier.

The reason I'm posting this is because on Natalie's blog she had mentioned a couple conversations she had with the kids recently. It's amazing what kind of gems come out of their tiny mouths. It was because of a conversation I had with Rob on Monday morning that I decided it was time for me to get up and start living again. I have had very little contact with the kids over the last week due to the Mono and so I hadn't been involved too much with their daily routine.

Monday I was feeling better, but I promised Natalie I wouldn't go into work but instead would rest another day. Well I decided to help out with getting the kids dressed and ready for the day. I myself had been wearing the same pajama bottoms, hadn't shaved for a week and it had been a few days since I had hit the shower as well. Pretty much I had morphed into Hobo Husband. Well anyway I sit down on the bed to help Rob get dressed and the following conversation transpires.

Rob: Uhh, Dad I don't think I want you to touch me.

Me: Excuse me, what do you mean you don't want me to touch you. I'm helping you get your clothes on.

Rob: Uhh, Dad I don't want you to help me with my clothes.

Me: Why not?

Rob: Because Dad I don't want you to touch me.

Me: Rob your not going to get Mono.

Rob: I know dad I just don't want you to touch me.

Me: Why not?

Rob: Because Dad I don't want to smell like you.

And there it is. Such compelling words from my four year old. "Dad I don't want to smell like you." That was all I needed to hear. There was only one course of action to take. It was time to kill Hobo Husband. So that's what I did. I got up, shaved, showered, put on clean clothes and went back to work. Thank you Robby for being my inspiration, for pulling me out of this sickness funk.

You Can't Waste Love

SCRIPTURE -

"Watch what God does, and then do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."

Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

OBSERVATION -

In a world that seeks to complicate our existence and leaves so many with confusion and frustration Paul instead speaks of a simplistic lifestyle of learning and loving. As God is our father and we are his children, we are challenged to learn from Him and then do what He does.

This illustration makes a lot of sense when I put it into the context of parenthood. My children watch what I do, what I say, how I respond to others and they often times mimic what they see and hear. They do this simply because I am their father and there is an innate desire within them to be like dad. Unfortunately I'm not always pleased with what they see and hear come out of dad and I am often humbled and reminded about the weight of my role. Especially when my four year old corrects me by saying, "Dad, don't say stupid!" The bottom line is children watch and repeat what they often see in their parents and we being God's children are called to do the same with our Heavenly Father.

I like how the love of God is not cautious, but instead is described as being extravagant. What a great visual word. In other passages of scripture God's love is said to be "lavished upon us", or "poured out to all." Extravagant, lavished, poured out, these descriptives tell us that God has held nothing back from us. He has loved us beyond measure. So love is not to be stingy, careful, or cautious. We are to let the love of God that has been poured into us flow out of us and into every person we come in contact with. We are to be channels of God's love, not sewers.

APPLICATION -

In order to learn from God my father I must willingly stop, listen, learn and then respond. So many times my love is full of ulterior motives instead of being purely unconditional. God desires to teach me how to love like Him and how to live "a life of love." Love should be seen in all we do; it should drip off of us like sweet honey, like beautiful fragrant perfume that fills up a room. Love is present in its strongest form not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done for us. Love is present, when He is present. Pure and true love points to the Father, for He is love.

PRAYER -

Lord, I want to learn form you. Father teach me to walk in your footsteps. I want to bear the mark of your identity upon my heart. That people would be able to see the family resemblance, that they would see the image of my Father. Teach me to live a life of love, to be a channel that your love can pour through and into the lives of others. I am your child, I am still learning. I don't know it all and I desperately need you. Help me to slow my pace long enough to sit at your feet and listen, learn, live and love. Teach me today, Father. I love you!