My birthday

I am so blessed!
Thank you to everyone. I had a wonderful day, gifts, calls and experiences this year.
My children made me cards, which I will try to post.
My mom made me a neat bookmark that will help always keep me humble (it shows me as a portly little child)...that is assuming the picture of me goofing off above doesn't do it.
My wife was wonderful and bought me a new winter coat and took me to dinner with her. (see picture above)
I also received calls from family and many posts and messages from friends.
It was a great day and a good way to start a new year.

A recent fictional read...

The Most Important Little Boy In The World - A Novel - by Dean Briggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First time I have read Dean Briggs and I thoroughly enjoyed the tale. Certainly the metaphor of Jesus sacrifice was explicit throughout (from his name to the blood metaphor at the end), not a bad thing...but I thought the story that supported this metaphor was fascinating. So from the beginning with the computer virus to the end, I was engaged in the story.
From a emotional perspective, I really appreciated the dynamics of the family as well as the father and son portion at the end of the book. Rarely do you truly think of God, the Father, regarding the story, but I liked the take that Briggs had on it with the father and uncle taking up the two sides of the argument. Anytime an author can get you to stop and think about things in a new way like that, they have done a good job.

Overall, I would certainly recommend the book as an enjoyable read, though it certainly could be emotional for some readers, and I am sure that I will pick up other Dean Briggs books based on the quality of this one.

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He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado

He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Max Lucado writes, "Much has been said about the gift of the cross itself, but what of the other gifts? What of the nails, the crown of thorns? What about the garment taken? What about the garment given?" and it continues. With that as an introduction, I will say that despite reading many books on Christianity, faith, Christ and so on, I had never looked quite at all of the things surrounding the cross, Jesus' crucifixion, and resurrection in the way that Lucado looks at them in this book.

With the simple analogy of his father writing some final words to him and his wife, a picture is painted around each one of the things that we read about in the Bible that speaks to much greater meaning and significance than we tend to give them as we read through the passages. But the premise made sense to me..."Knowing that his last deeds would be forever pondered, don't you think he chose them carefully? Deliberately?" I do. And I think that any of us can relate to that. Would you do any less for something that you knew would far surpass your life?

So, trace the path of these meaningful symbols in which Lucado writes, "God was never more sovereign than in the details of the death of his Son." It may change the way you look at those things every time you read those passages from here on out and help you marvel that much more at what transpired when Christ went to the cross.

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I did magic!

So, just a little story for memory's sake...

Jude picked up a small wood chip that for some reason or another interested him and, to him, looked like a key.  He calls it his key and uses it to start his car, or open doors and so forth.  We have simply tried to keep him from ruining anything while using the key.

Well, he was at the counter and dropped it on the floor and did not get down to pick it up as he was too preoccupied by his other activity and so I picked it up and put it on the counter.  Once Jude was done with what he was focused on, his mind did go right back to his key and he got down to look for it.  He was not happy as he couldn't find it and was practically in tears.  Now of course, I didn't want to see him sad, so I got ready to give it back to him...but I also thought this could be an instructive moment....so, I said, "Jude, you know what we should do?  We should pray that you find it.  It is always good to pray and maybe it will help you calm your nerves and help you find it."

Now before you go too far with it, I know...I know.  I was manipulating the situation...but I was hoping to help reinforce a good behavior.  Not trying to force things, but simply help him in a small way realize that we can and should take all things to God.  If he happened to have a positive experience, I hoped it would simply help promote things in the future.

So, we prayed, and then went about the search again.  Of course, we "found" it mere moments later and he was overjoyed.  Being the Dad who wanted to bring home the point, I said..."Well Jude, what do you think you should say or do right now?"  A simple connection point back to gratitude and God was what I was going for here....but Jude's response?

With a voice that rose in wonder as he expressed himself he shouted, "I...did...magic!"

I guess you just can not force some lessons :)

What's So Amazing About Grace?

by Philip Yancey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So, this took me a LONG TIME to read. Part of it is Yancey's writing. I can't quite place my finger on it...but it is just difficult to get through at times. I enjoyed the stories that he used throughout the book as illustrations of the various aspects of grace that he wanted to explore, but once those were through and he dove into the subject, it just seemed to stall a little for me.

As to the topic of grace. I thought it was a great exploration and discussion. I reminder of how easily we all fall into "ungrace". How often we as Christians exhibit the exact opposite of what we are supposed to and how that is perceived. I wondered how Yancey would spend so much time on it, but by the end, I felt like it could keep going....grace really does abound.

However, for a younger generation than those who are contemporaries of Yancey, maybe they will feel what I felt. I couldn't always connect with him because of what he has lived through. His examples pointed to times that I didn't live in. Issues that were addressed largely before my time. Not that they don't still exist today, or even transcend eras, but are just not as poignant for me. And I think that it showed as he tried to move into more current day issues as he spoke on homosexuality.

I know this isn't much of a summary this time as I am caught between what I liked and what I didn't with the book. Do I think it is worth reading...YES. And based on innumerable positive/glowing reviews from so many others, I think it is that much more so...because it may just be me that struggled in some areas of this book.

So, read it for yourself and see what you think. It will certainly challenge you in at least a few areas and open your eyes to God's grace in more than one way.

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Taking Your Church to the Next Level: What Got You Here Won't Get You There

Taking Your Church to the Next Level: What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Gary L. McIntosh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Our church leadership team read this book during the summer to help us think about where we are and where we are going. The book suggests that if you are not growing, you are dying and that you need to assess not only where you are in that cycle, but how the size of the church congregation, structure and other factors play into the ability to reignite the church.

To start, I will say that unless you are a consultant, subscribe to Barna or have other ways to get the information that is in this book, you very well might not know some of the things brought up in this book. How group dynamics work inside the church structure...how church management and leadership function and that there is reasonable consistency across organizations that we can learn from. That, by itself, can make this book worthwhile. However, if you take it a step further and dive in with respect to where you are as a church and think about how you need to challenge things to ensure that they don't stall or decay....if this book can help promote that engagement at the leadership level, then it is worth much more.

For me, I really appreciated the conversations that this drove and hopefully it will bless other churches in the same way.

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12,000 Pounds of Sand

How do you move it?

One shovel full at a time.

Of course....my back will probably not be happy with me tomorrow.

Found Ring!

My honey found the ring as we dug in the dirt this morning looking for it!  So happy to have it back and to NOT be in more trouble right before our anniversary.

Lost ring?!?!!!

I went outside this evening to do a little more work on my project as I am hoping to have the sand delivered early next week.  But, in the process of working I am pretty sure I lost my wedding ring in the dirt.  I am not a happy camper.  Kristen is not happy.  And I may have to see if I can rent or borrow a metal detector this weekend and find it!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Catching up on the rest of the week....

Friday
While it was gloomy and rainy outside, it was a very good thing as it gave us a down day...a day of rest, as it was leading to....

A Very Full Weekend!

Saturday
OK, my day started back in our backyard trying to complete the work I had started on Thursday.  Another several hours of work and I had the edging done.

Doesn't really look like that many hours of work, does it?

Now, I just need to reinforce the low sides and order the filler material.

For the afternoon, Kristen put together a bowling trip for the family with another family, the Conroy's.  It was the first time for Kevin and Ben, the Conroy's two boys, got to go bowling that wasn't candle pin variety.  We had a great time at PINZ, though I was so busy that I didn't even take one picture!  We then made it home for a late dinner and a little relaxation before bedtime.

Sunday
We started the day at church, of course.  Then, home to get ready for another get together at the house.  Kristen invited a number of friends and their kids to come hang out for the afternoon starting at 4:00.  So, we had lunch and let the kids have some down time, while Kristen put her ribs in the oven.  Then friends arrived and we had the whole front and side yard full of games, people and excitement.

We were exhausted by the end of the night and had enough energy to simply get the kids inside, wash their feet and get them and ourselves to bed.  A fun weekend, but tiring.  Hopefully a few good memories and time well spent for everyone.

Vacation, day 4

So, you saw the pool in the previous posts...you also could see that it didn't seem to be too full.  Well, it is supposed to be able to fill up to around 30" of water.  Of course, that is contingent on a person setting it up in a flat space.  It wasn't set up in a flat space.

So, I have been tasked with creating said flat space.  And I started that work yesterday.  I can't say I made a lot of progress.  I certainly did a lot of surveying and planning and such...but only got so far in digging the areas for the 2x4's and driving in the stakes.  Hopefully, I can get it dug out and set up by the end of the weekend and figure out how much pea gravel or sand or whatever we need to put in it to level the area out.


After all that hard work, we did have some friends come over for dinner.  The kids had a blast, we had awesome ribs that Kristen made and she go to enjoy her second fire in our fire pit.



The weather was perfect for it and the kids got to play out side till 10:30, which they thought was an awesome treat.  They even learned a new game called "Man Hunt" from the other kids.

July vacation day 3

So, yesterday was a toss up day...we were not exactly sure how it was going to turn out because of the work calls I had to be on to start the day and the fact that I had a ministry meeting scheduled in the evening.  I was up until about 2am finishing the work stuff...so I wasn't really sure if I would have the energy to do anything either....  

Me the night before..... :)

Luckily, I got through the calls, (the boys and mom were also busy during this time washing the cars!...Thanks boys for my shiny, clean car!) still had energy and we decided to go back to the YMCA for family swim time.  We had a good time, even though the water was cold and the pool was packed.  Kristen even got in the water for awhile so that I could work with both boys on their swimming.  She ditched us a short time later for the hot-tub that resides right next to the pool....but at least she came in for awhile.

Post swimming, we went home and had dinner but then decided to head out to the local beach for some more time in the water.  The weather was too perfect not to be out and we figured it would be a fun memory for the week.







Well, the memory for the day may end up being me having to splash into the water to grab Jude who was trying to drown himself...so not exactly the memory we were expecting....but everyone was safe at the end of the day, tired and had enjoyed themselves...so a good vacation day nonetheless.

Vacation...continued

Yesterday was highlighted with me getting to watch the boys at their swim lessons.  I love seeing their individual character traits play out so distinctly.  Jaden still wanting to achieve, frustrated for not being able to do what he wants...cautious in how he moves forward.  He loved today though as he got extra coaching from the instructor and was able to move at a pace he felt more comfortable with.  It was "sick", as he explained.

Jacob, on the other hand basically ran to his class and dove in.  Kristen said in the previous class she was beginning to wonder if he was going to come back up to the surface!  He is NOT a strong swimmer...he just has no fear.  His smile was on the whole time and he craved the attention of anyone and everyone....watch me!  I certainly did and it was a wonderful joy.

Busy Spring...

Maybe I will take a couple of posts and try to recap the last couple months since I have not been blogging.  However, today, I am simply going to post that it is my "vacation" week.  I say "vacation", because I still have to do some work today and tomorrow and I still have to do some ministry stuff....BUT, it is a week I hope to spend a good bit more time than I usually get to with the family (so long as we don't kill each other in the process).

So, yesterday we celebrated the 4th with Kristen's family here at the house with a barbecue and time in the above ground pool that Kristen bought.  It may have only held about a foot of water for the day because of the slant it was on, but the kids still had a blast.  They hung out till around 4pm and then went home for Todd to have a baseball practice.




For us, we relaxed until the evening and then went to a fantastic fireworks show in Bellingham.  We got to play football with the boys (can't forget to mention what an amazing arm Kristen has...she should be playing quarterback somewhere ;) ) and have a picnic dinner while listening to some music coming from a band playing at the event.  The fireworks show was so long that both Kristen and I actually kept wondering when it would end...yep, that's the finale...oh, just kidding!  Can't imagine how much it cost!  A great memory with the kids so, all in all, a great day.

A few pictures of Easter morning...

The boys are ready to hunt.
Jacob says "I see one already!"

Who is excited about getting Bey Blades in their Easter Basket?
Yep, everybody!

Already battling away.  

The three new "Beys" battling it out.

Decorating Easter Eggs

Ever so careful....

Gentlemen, start your decorating!

Jacob has a plan...

Kristen, as usual, taking it more
seriously than the kids

The finished products.

Yes, no electronics

Wow, the kids could actually have fun without electronics.  I know know that this might be hard to believe...especially of late as my children have had their noses buried in PSP's and Mobi-Go's...but, it did happen and I took a picture to prove it:

Busy Week

So, another busy week and weekend.  I am worn out.  We got to ring out (I hope) winter with a 2nd and final sled run at our friend's house...check out it below:  The lighting wasn't great due to lights going out...but it at least gives a glimpse :)

I probably should have cut this down, but oh well...there is another one I will post to FaceBook or to YouTube that gives a little better idea of how long the track was.

Of course, we also had basketball this week and I am posting some of that video on YouTube as well...so, you all can check out Jaden and Jacob there.

On to next week, Kristen's test at school, work, more Men's Ministry stuff at the church and all the other things a week brings.

Watch what you say

So Joy suggested yesterday morning that I stream Jaden's basketball game over the web so that they could watch it. I used www.qik.com to do it, though my phone was not one of the options on the website. So, I kept downloading versions until one worked....kind of...and I was able to start streaming. Well, what I didn't realizes was that it captures audio as well as the video...so, throughout the time I am streaming, I am talking with a friend, yelling encouragement and so on...
Well, I had set up Kristen's computer to watch as well...and she was, when I happened to comment to my friend that Kristen had been taking a nap right before I left for basketball.
Immediately I get a phone call and Kristen says..."Excuse me? Why are you talking about my napping?"!
Yikes!
Totally started laughing, though the guys around me said I should turn it off...making sure nothing else was capture for posterity :)
I was busted, but it was a minor infraction. You really should know technology before you use it...

Jacob's Basketball

So after our vacation break, Jacob got back to basketball this morning. Just a couple of photos to share. He is doing well. None of the kids get the whole double dribble concept...heck, some of them forget about dribbling entirely, but it was fun to watch and they all have made progress already this season. Jacob scored twice today and had great passing, defense, rebounding and dribbling. I was very impressed!

Dribbling drill...and his head is up, not down.  Nice!

Driving around the excited? defense!

Surveying the defense.

Out of Diapers!

I posted this on FaceBook, for which Linda gave me grief :)

However, as of this last week, Jude has been wearing underwear all day and been wearing diapers/pullups only for bed. He is very close to not needing that as well.

I can't believe it. We are about to be a diaper free household for the first time in 8 and a half years. If that is not a landmark worth posting about, I don't know what is!

So, that $.05-$.10 per diaper that I was throwing into the trash bin will be immediately consumed by something else...but, it is nice that it won't be quite so obvious that I am literally throwing money away.

Congratulations Jude. So, what is the next landmark on the horizon for us? All in school? (only a couple years out)

Read a few books lately

So, read 4 books with Jaden so far this year as we finished up the Deltora series we have been reading. Books 5-8 of the Deltora Quest series as we had to get done to turn the books in on time.
I also read an interesting book about how God created the universe as far as we understand based on the science we know at this point. Called the creator and the cosmos. It was a fantastic read that was certainly more than I understood or still understand...but it certainly put things into a cool light...based on what science has put together so far.
Finally, jaden and I are just finishing up a book for "teens" by Frank Peretti which has been really enjoyable called the Veritas Project...definitely worth checking out. And for me, I am finishing up a really short read given out by the church earlier this year called 'How Good is Good Enough?". It is a really good synopsis of why Christianity is different than other religions and why the standard thinking of "good people go to heaven" can't hold water.
Anyway, kind of interesting that in a month and a half, I have gone thru 7 books...when I didn't set any goals for books this year...versus the past where it seems I have been slower to get thru things, even with a goal to get thru so many books in a year.

Answered prayers

God certainly answers prayers! I had a hard couple days and was a little frustrated with Men's ministry stuff and work stuff and home stuff. Part of it was feeling that over the last few weeks that what I was doing was not actually having an impact. Well today at small group, one of the men talked specifically about a god moment this week that he attributed to the fact that he has this small group to go to...something that I feel is important and have kept up despite difficulty...and not feeling that I have time and I get an awesome story about immediate life impact and spiritual growth.

Men's ministry activities starting to pick up

I haven't posted much about what I do, but since it takes up my time and energy...it is a significant part of my life at this point...it makes no sense for me not to include it. To that end, I am just posting to say I am working on the launch of our mens blog site. The goal is to launch at the beginning of the month...so keep your fingers crossed and say prayers to help me...because at this point, it is only me doing the work.

iPad

So...I caved. I bought the iPad this last week. This is my first post with it. I am already using it for work email and have downloaded a number of free interactive books for the kids...but I have ALOT to learn if it is going to be as useful as what I am ultimately hoping for. I did buy the more expensive version so that I can enable the data plan outside of the LAN functionality, but I have yet to enable it. I am looking to enable that and take the data plan off of my phone...make it a phone only again, if at&t will let me do that...
Anyway, stay tuned and I will probably post more about how I like the iPad and what I am using it for...though I really need to figu out how to add pictures to blog posts while on the iPad.

Bible in a year

Made a commitment with the men of the church to go through the bible in a year with them. Starting a new blog for mens ministry at the church to help do that and promote other stuff. I hope it will not be overwhelming...but, I am excited by the potential.

Wordle

Love wordle...here is something I was just playing around with.

Happy MLK Day

I love the way Kristen tries to help the kids recognize why we have the day off today. Despite the craziness of the kids energy levels and their general inability to listen...hopefully they will remember part of what we talked about around the dinner table.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZLvSnr6s50&feature=youtube_gdata_player

No Excuse

I really have no excuse...other than laziness for not posting. Yes...the home computer crashing has had a significant impact.
Yes, Jacob's birthday party was this weekend.
Yes, I travelled to San Jose last week.
Really....still no excuse.
I am really hoping to get back to regular updates here shortly.