Nolan Levi is here

Nolan Levi : Day One

(I had no access to internet for the past few days, so the following was written on Friday)

Man what a day! Well we woke up to a phone call this morning from Kara’s physician, Dr. Murphy, saying, “I want to deliver this baby today.” He had reviewed the ultrasound we had yesterday and saw that Kara was building amniotic fluid fast, he didn’t want to go any further. So we went in and for those of you who haven’t heard yet, we had a baby boy today, Nolan Levi, at 4:28pm. He was 7 lbs 9 oz, 19 ½ Inches long. We are loving him so much. It was one of the most joyous moments of my life to hear him cry for the first time!

He is short and pudgy, with dark hair and very round features. I was thinking that he would be a little clone of me and Isaac, but he is not, he is short and round, not tall and thin. He is the cutest. I think that if you blended the features of Isaac and Samantha, my niece, you would get Nolan.

Our Doctor had a hard time putting Kara back together though. She had what was called a “window” on her uterus from previous pregnancies. The “window” is where the uterus is stretched so thin that it is merely one layer thick, and is hard to stitch back together. But our doctor believes that all will be well. I pray he is correct. This means that we are officially done with birthing any more children. But we already came to that conclusion before we knew of this.

After the long wait to stitch Kara back up, I got the coolest job on the planet, spreading the news. I started first by calling my Dad, who was at work and could not get away due to the suddenness of the event. I gave him the great news, then my cell phone signal died. So I went into the waiting room and told Kara’s parents and brother Derek and his wife April. That was fun. I then got my cell phone signal back and I called my mom, my church, my pastor, and all our friends. It was great fun.

The rest of the day was spent resting, and waking every hour or two to assist with feedings.

Baby's a comin'

So that whole thing about having a baby on Monday was thrown away this morning when the doctor called and said we were having it today. Whoa. Kara has more amniotic fluid that she should, so he wants to do this today. We will see how it goes. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. And please pray.

God is amazing

I haven’t blogged in a while. I guess my mind has been elsewhere, preparing for baby and all, which is coming on Monday. Wow it’s so close.

On a different note, I have a tough week. I have been studying 1 John for the past couple of weeks and have been preaching on love. It has been a great series, and I have learned a whole heck of a lot about love trough this.

During this study, God impressed upon me a message like I have never experienced before, I was so emotional all week, so tired, so wiped out, almost like I was carrying this message as a burden until I was able to deliver it. This was weird for me because I am not a feely faith kind of guy, total logic for me. I am not an emotional kind of guy either, I watched the Passion and didn’t shed a tear, not that I wasn’t moved, it was a great movie, its just that I am not an emotional person.

This week was different. Our service was great, we had 6 visitors come for the first time. On a side note, I was doing some census demographical studies of our area and found out that 2%-3% of the area high school attendance has been through our doors this year. Whoa.

Well anyways, I got up and delivered the message, which was different than any other I have done before, and we had a response that was amazing. I bought paint sticks and we were going to write on them something in our life that was an improper fulfillment of the core need of humanity to be accepted, loved, and approved by our fellow man, and then we were going to snap them in half and throw them away and take communion. The response was great, and then just last night I got this e-mail from one of our college students:

Dear Tom, Tonight ******* helped me pray to jesus and accept him into my heart. She explained to me what being a christian was all about, and youth group tonight really made me think and made me feel. Getting rid of the old, and in with the new. I just want to thank you for everything you explain each week, you do a great job. I love going to youth group and learning new things, it makes me feel so much better about myself. So..thank you =]

Wow,what can I say, but God is amazing. I knew that God was going to move on that night, and I had been praying all day about it, and I had our amazing adult leaders praying all day about it too. There was someone there to pray over every single paint stick that was handed out, and some others who prayed over every chair as they were set up. And God moved. He is amazing.

George Barna Interview - SHIFT '07 Conference

Thank you George Barna!

David vs. the Squirrels

If you didn't see the interview on youtube, David has a thing about squirrels, he thinks they are evil. This is great. Animated Crowder is great.

Baby's a Comin'

This is it folks, we are coming down to the wire. Nolan or Naomi will be here shortly. Kara contracted gestational diabetes, so our doctor wants to deliver early (fine by me). So this week, tomorrow to be exact, we have a test scheduled, an amnio, to make sure that the Baby's lungs are ready to take on the world.

After this test, we go back to the doctor, Thursday, to discuss the results and also to schedule the C-Section. I am excited to find out if it is Nolan or Naomi. I have been fine until now, now I am getting itchy and anxious to know. I think that the odds fall as follows, chances of Nolan coming 80%, Naomi 20%.

There is no pool, sorry. (well not that I know of anyways, if there is let me know, I want in.)

Easter Dinner

We had a great Easter. We went to church, and had a great worship service, and then came home to feast. I made a 10 lb ham shank. I have never made a ham before, so this was a nice challenge. I love cooking. I can have a rough day at work, come home and cook, and its like therapy. Its my hobby, I guess.

Well, I took the ham and injected it, yes injected, with a glaze sauce that I came up with (apple/grape juice, cherry juice, vanilla, brown sugar, honey), and I plugged the injection points with whole cloves. I then put the ham in a pyrex and roasted it at 200F from 8am to 5pm. Then I took the remainder of the ham glaze and thickened it with corn starch and started to glaze the ham every 10 minutes at 400F for the next hour.

Wow it was great. We have like 12 bags of ham in the freezer, but I'll eat it. (I also took the ham bone and boiled it with some shank peices and got about 9 cups of ham stock for soups.) We also had mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese mashed in it, steamed broccoli, and deviled eggs. It was a feast of Biblical proportions, and we are still enjoying it for lunches.

(O yeah, I baked the bone and gave it to the dog, nothing was wasted)

Isaac is so cute

The things that kids pick up and repeat is great. Isaac has been loving putting his hand out the window while we drive. Today on the way back from Meijers, shortly after the incident with the metal monstrosity, Isaac asked for his window to be down. He then said, "number five please, number five, with a diet, and French ries and something else."

That brightened things up a bit for sure.

Car Damage

Our coffee grinder burned out today, so we decided to go to walmart to get another one. I have been addicted to espresso lately, and I need my coffee tomorrow morning. On the way there, a big truck going very fast in the oncoming lane kicked up a very large piece of metal that flew up and cracked our car a good one.

I heard a clang, saw a big piece of metal come at us, and heard a crunch and bang noise. I pulled over to see the damage, and of course the driver was very nice, and courteous and drove away very fast. Well the big metal monstrosity gashed the side quarter panel, crunched the windsheild in the bottom corner, demolished the mirror, damaged the drivers door, damaged the car frame around the drivers door.

So, needless to say, this week is ending up just ducky.

construction season is here

So we got a letter in the mail the other day, it was from the post office. We have been informed that they have been trying to figure out how to deliver our mail with the upcoming construction on our road. We live on M-44, the road that connects the boonies with Grand Rapids, and it is going to be under construction from April to August, down to one lane, yee haw. So what can they do about the mail delivery, well this proves that we are way in the boonies, they are just not going to deliver it. Yeah you heard right. No mail delivery for us, we get to haul our booties down to the post office and pick it up ourselves. yee haw. And then I got home tonight to find a LARGE spray painted stake in our yard indicating where they will be digging...its literally 7 feet from our front porch. I can't wait for all the heavy duty construction digging machines to wake up both our children from their naps all summer long 7 feet from our front porch.. again I state, yee haw.

Man what a great article!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/

Rick Warren and Sam Harris debate on the existence of God.

This was an excellent article that I could not put down, I had to read all of it.

I warned you, don't start unless you have ten minutes.

two wasps

this has nothing to do with anything, but I have killed two wasps in my office today. What the heck is going on? It's still early in the year, its cold and windy outside, its barely April. Sorry had to get that off my chest.

an oldie but a goodie

I found this exploring my blog site, an old post back in the days of waiting for season six. If Jack Bauer were to write a book, this could be the cover. No doubt.

Movie Reveiw : Shooter

This was my first veture out to the movies since X-men 3. It has been awhile since I did this, but Lance and Tom were adamant about going to see a movie with me. Thank you guys, it was so fun.

I enjoyed this testosterone surge of a man flic very much. A movie about a sniper, with lots of head shots, and things that blow up. Hard to lose there. It actually had a pretty good story as well though.

A marksman (Wahlberg) living in exile is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he goes on the run to track the real killer and find out who exactly set him up, and why.

I give it 4 out of 5.

Ted Nugent and David Crowder*Band Recording

this is nugent laying down some wicked guitar tracks for the newest David Crowder*Band CD coming in September. I cannot wait until this day.

Youth Ministry

Some days y job is really hard. People don't listen and I watch them make bad mistakes that I advised against. I plead with people to make Christ the center of their lives because it is the best way of life, and then watch some make self the focus of their life. The Apostle Paul describes being a pastor like a woman in labor, but it does not end, because you are always laboring to see Christ come to be a reality for people. Fun.

Well today is not one of those days. I just got this e-mail:

Hi Tom!

Thanks for contacting ***** about coming to Youth Group. He's been making some bad choices lately but wants to get back on track. We just keep loving him and praying...a lot! He said that you emailed him that you didn't care where he'd been just where he's going.

That little statement meant a lot to him. You do make a difference.

Need I say more. This is also on top of being a hard frustrating job, a very rewarding one when you get feedback like this.

Movie Reveiw: The Prestige

Another great movie with another great message. I loved this movie immensely, and I watched it twice, once to see it, and another to see it with the end in mind.

It is a mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences. From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them.

This was an amazing movie with a great message and an amazing ending. I figured this movie out about three quarters of the way through, but it didn’t matter because it was done so well. One of my favorite movies this year, possibly decade. And who doesn’t love good ol’ David Bowie?

Movie Reveiw: Stranger than Fiction

My apologies to the American public, but I am not a big Will Ferrell fan. Actually, I am not a fan at all. I have no desire to see all his movies. I think he is pretty funny and all, but I am not the guy to rush out and see his new movie. But this was one of the best films I have ever seen. Most definitely the best this year to date.

It is hard to describe this movie without giving away much. Karen Effiel is an author writing her latest novel about an isolated man named Harold Crick. What she doesn't know is that her fictionalized character is real. The real Harold Crick is an IRS agent who has lived a dull existence and one day begins to hear Karen's voice as she narrates what she puts on paper to what Harold has and is doing. Because of this Harold enlists the help of a literary professor to find out what is happening and ends up changing things about his life including beginning a relationship with his IRS client, a government-hating bakery owner named Ana Pascal. Harold, however, finds trouble when he hears that Karen plans to kill him. This movie has deep meaning and a powerful message, and it is just dang good. Watch it ASAP.

NO FREAKIN WAY!!

alright, I have always loved the DavidCrowder*Band. Well they are recording their new album remedy right now as we speak (well as you read) and they ran into Ted Nugent! I just read on David Crowder's blog (yes I am a dork and read his blog daily) that "The Nuge" Ted Nugent himself is laying down a guitar track on the new David Crowder Album!! No Freakin Way! You can go and read about it all here:

http://www.xanga.com/emprise34/579603654/mmmmvenison.html

God's Pie

wow. ain't we just like that? Thanks to Josh G for this video.

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS!!

Well our doctor has just set a date. Kara is gestational diabetic, and he wants to deliver the baby early. Really early. We have an amnio scheduled for April 10th, if the baby is developed as it should, we will have a c-section on either Thursday hte 12th or Friday the 13th (yeah, friday the 13th). That gives us 22 days left till the baby's arrival. Oh My.

Daddy's boy

Recently a change has been happening, Isaac has been turning into a Daddy's boy. It has been great fun. As soon as I get home, he takes my hand and pulls me into his room saying, "play basketball!" And today we went to the store, just me and him. It was fun. I like this change, and the timing is great too, with the baby only 20 some days away, it will be an easier transition for him if he accepts my attention as well as his mama's.

Musicals are here

I have been in youth ministry for a while now. That means that I have seen every musical known to man. I really don't like musicals, breaking into song and dance is not really my thing. But I must say that I am beginning to enjoy watching the youth do them. We went to see Oklahoma last weekend, and we saw Music Man this weekend, and it was pretty fun. To see kids who are shy and reserved sing and dance with abandon is pretty entertaining.

Thanks for the good show.

Bauer, the super hero

Yes, Jack Bauer is even awesome on Guitar, as seen here on American Music Supply's magazine cover. Rock on Jack!

No Smoking Please

My grandmother sent me this picture of a new smoking section in this building.

Help The Police

What you let your kids experience in the media matters. You can take the example here by this fella and do some editing of your own. Thanks to noel h bringing my attention to this fantastic video.

Credit Cards Suck

Kara and I are in a financial class at church. I am realizing how undisciplined I am in money, and how much I need to get a hold of this area of my life. One of the cool things that we learned this week was that when a credit card sends you a application with a prepaid envelope, you tear up the application and mail it back to them on their dime. Pretty soon they stop sending them.

Also if you pay an extra $125 a month on your mortgage, you can cut your loan length in half! From 30 to 15 years! Wow! With a $100,000 house mortgage, at the end of 30 years you end up paying more than $300,000 for it, if you don't refinance and spend the equity. Also if you finance a car, you end up paying 3X the amount of the actual price in the end! So if you pay off your car, then pay your car payment into an account and COLLECT interest instead of pay it, you can buy a car flat out!

I am loving this class, and I hope to be in control of our money at the end of it.

Hub Renovations begin!

Our your room, which is actually now a cafe since we out grew it, is being renovated. The youth before us redid this room and it was cool for a while, but it is dated, and it is time for renovations. For the next month we are renovating this room, and I'll post some pics so yuo can see how it is all coming. I am really excited to see everyone get together and help, even Isaac.

demo

Lance and Tom really wanted to rip down this mini wall, so we did. I looks great now. We are ripping down two more next week. Yee Haw.

after the mountain dew color

we put primer on all the walls, good bye city, good bye mountain dew color, goodbye baptist dividers.

mountain dew paint

there is a mountain dew colored trim on this window. I didn't know mountain dew made paint until i saw this. It is now white with primer.

Baptist Dividers

I am so glad to remove "baptist dividers" from any room. They are the accordion walls that fold up that are found in many Baptist churches.

More brick wall

yeah, still working on the wall.

The old Hub

This is a picture of the old hub. It was cool for a while, but it got dated.

The Brick Wall Wall Paper

This brick wall was tenacious! It took 2 1/2 hours to take down. Tom, Kylie, Rachel, Amy, Kara, Abby, Amy, and myself worked on this wall. Man it felt good to get down though.

Just have faith

I almost wet myself after reading the bottom print. Its weird how people now a days just make up something and believe it out of no where. They base it on, "well its what i feel in my heart." Bull crap. That's called a cult. When someone makes something up and believes it, its called a cult, no matter how sincere you "feel" if you don't base what you believe on something with authority, like the Bible, you are starting your own cult.

The moral of the story is, it doesn't matter how sincere you are, if it isn't true, it is false.

Apples are yummy

He has been loving apples lately. He looked at te bowl of apples and said, "eat it."

Isaac in a big boy chair

Isaac sat at the table in a real chair the other day.

Still madly in love

I smile just like my Dad.

Isaac and his Nana

Isaac's Nana came to visit while we went to the marriage conference. Here he is watching pooh bear. He loves his nana.

That's a big scarf

Isaac also tried on his this huge scarf while he talked with his Nana.

bonjour

Isaac was trying on Kara's hat, he looked french.

The Miracle Thaw

We went thrift store shopping today in Grand Rapids, and I found this as seen on tv wonder for $2. I got it home to test it out. It works! I started with an ice cube, it melted in 3 minutes!

Upon finding out that I did not get ripped off, I opened the freezer and started pulling things out of the freezer. I thawed macaroni and cheese leftovers, a frozen pea, another ice cube, and a shrimp.

This thing is a miracle of science! You run it under hot water for 20-30 seconds and then put your frozen item on the tray and watch it thaw out. It never gets hot or even warm, I am not sure how it works but it does and fast too.

Porn and Nachos

Today we wrapped up our sex series by talking about porn, and then I ate nachos afterwards. (hence the title) I thought it would be a little more awkward than it was, but it went really well. I don't think they have been this silent since the talk on alcohol. It was fun. I read a transcript to them of the Ted Bundy interview that James Dobson did. That was an amazing interview. Here is the link: http://www.pureintimacy.org/gr/intimacy/understanding/a0000082.cfm

I also used alot of statistics off of www.xxxchurch.com

It was a great night, and we even had a great laugh. In the middle of the talk, Christian was asking J.D. to turn the page of his Bible, and he was making the hand motions for page turning, which also looked alot like something else, and I thought he was doing a spanking gesture, and I asked him what that meant, only to find out it was a bible page turning gesture. Everyone in the room was laughing so hard, a few of us were crying. It was a great night.

Jack vs Chunk

thank you Jason S. for pointing me in the direction of this brilliant piece of cinematic wonder. www.theshinobi.com

Gas and Church pt 1

I was driving to church today and saw a sight that baffled me. There are two gas stations in town a Wesco, and a Marathon. They are right across the street from each other. The Marathon was empty, barren, no one there getting gas, the Wesco on the other hand was jumpin'. There were people waiting in line for gas.

The question that immediately popped into my mind was: "why don't they go over across the street to get gas, its the same thing?" And then a question popped into my mind that I thought I needed to ponder for awhile, "Why do some people flock to certain churches and others are barren and empty, we are "selling" the same thing?"

I don't have answers yet, sorry, I have to think about this one. If you got any suggestions I'd like to hear it,

FamilyLife Marriage Conference pt 5

We left today to come home. The experience leaving was just as great as coming. The doorman, who was dressed just like the doormen from the movies, got our car, packed our luggage, asked us if we needed directions, bowed and said, "have a peaceful day sir." Wow, having everyone bow to you is really weird. Its good to be home.

We got to see Isaac and give him kisses and hugs. Kara was holding him and I asked, "how about a family hug?" and he reached out and grabbed my neck and pulled my face towards Kara and hugged us both. I love that. He is such a sweetheart. I missed him, but I was so glad to get away.

FamilyLife Marriage Conference pt 4

This is a picture of one of the lobbies. The chandelere was 8 feet tall! Yet again an example of how fancy this place was. Here are some thoughts from Saturday:

We Interrupt this romantic evening…

Well we were eating our wonderful burgers and had some great romantic plans for the evening when we got a call from Kara’s mom, who is watching Isaac. “I think he just had a seizure but I’m not sure.”

I always knew that we would be away and he would have a seizure, but I was not really thinking it would be today. So it goes with a special needs child. I wouldn’t trade Isaac for anything, I love him just as he is, even though it is sometimes scary.

Just got off the phone with Isaac and his Nana, he’s doing good. He is tired, which is a sign of seizure recovery, his brain is really tired and needs to rest. He’s doing good though, and his Nana and Great Aunt Camelia handled the situation great.

FamilyLife Marriage Conference pt 3

This was the ballroom that our conference was held in. Wow. It was fancy. Here are some more thoughts from Saturday:

Thoughts on Saturday Night:

We are finished with the day’s schedule. We are supposed to go out on a date for our evening homework, so we did not go out. We ordered room service. It was amazing! I got a burger with bacon cheese and mushrooms, and my goodness it is the best burger I have ever had! We also got some jalepeno poppers as an appetizer. Get this though, they brought in a table with centerpiece and set it up right in our room! And then the gal who brought it bowed to us on her way out! WOW!

Also, I have only had water to drink for the past 12 days. No milk, juice, pop, or anything, only water. It has been good, I haven’t missed the drinks at all. Today I broke it and had a diet pepsi. I really don’t miss it, I am going back to water after this meal.

All in all this has been a great weekend away to focus on Kara and my marriage, something we haven’t been able to do for 4 years. We are going to try and do this annually.

FamilyLife Marriage Conference pt 2

this is a picture of one of the rooms. Ours was a bit smaller than this, but looked very similar. Here are my thoughts on Saturday morning:

We are staying at the Amway Grand in Grand Rapids for the weekend. It is so nice. It is one of those classy old hotels with expensive everything and servants everywhere. There was even a shoe shiner downstairs! 6$ for a shine.

We are at the weekend to remember marriage conference and loving it. This is Kara and I first time to get away since Isaac was born. He is over three years old now. We are both loving the time together, it’s like a second honeymoon. Wink wink.

The conference is great, the talk last night was weird to sit through because it was the exact points that I made on Wednesday for our sex series. We are selfish in nature, we approach love in the same way, selfishly, media shapes our way of thinking about what love and sex really are. He used better illustrations though. He said that most people approach marriage like a tick approaches a dog, but we are two ticks, not a tick and a dog.

This conference has been making me think about myself, my actions, and my motivations for a lot of things and I have come to the conclusion that I am the most selfish person I know. I will have to work on that.

FamilyLife Marriage Conference

This weekend we got to go away to a marriage conference. Internet connections were a bit pricey, so I recorded my thoughts on Word, and blog them when I got home.

Well, FamilyLife puts on a marriage conference at the Amway Grand every year, pastors get a free ticket to the conference, but we still had to pay for the room and food and travel.

This was by far the nicest hotel I have ever visited. Our room was filled with cherry antique furniture, King size bed, and a marble bathroom. It was great. This was the kind of hotel that had a suit shop in the lobby just in case you had to get a suit to go out to eat at their jacket only restaurant in the lobby.

Quote of the Day pt 2

Okay, so i found another quote that hit me really hard. I have been guilty of this in the past most certainly. I will try and stay far far away from this mentality in the future though:

"Leadership development recognizes the value of people. Our ministry's leaders are the ministry's most important assets. Not to develop them while involving them in ministry is to use, and ultimately abuse them. This is most often the result of an unbalanced, task-dominated ministry. "

example: "Joe pursues growth at the risk of the church's spiritual health. The preoccupation with numbers leads Joe to keep his leaders and volunteers running in the red zone because "there are more people to be reached." Any burnout casualties along the way are justified by the greater evangelistic cause." p.26-27

Wow, amazing line. Using peoples talents without developing them as people and leaders is just using them.

Quote of the Day

I am reading this book on leadership. I just got started and a quote jumped out at me already:

"Leaders don't vaguely affect followers, they infect them with God's direction...Leaders who know where they are going (mission) and can help their people visualize it (vision) will attract followers." p.21

I love this quote because I have heard so many Pastors, including myself, ask, "How do I find leaders?" This verse is great because it says that if you are leading well, you will attract them to you.

More to come later

movie review: Strangers on a Train

This was a creepy movie by none other than Alfred Hitchcock. It is about two men who meet on a train. One is a rich mama's boy, kinda creepy, and the other is a star tennis player.

The rich mama's boy recognizes the tennis player and strikes up a conversation, treats him to drinks and lunch on the train. During this time he says how he really wishes his mean, controlling father would die, but he can't kill him because he would have motive.

The rich mama's boy also notes that he knows of the tennis players coming divorce and also about a relationship he has with a senator's daughter. "Wouldn't it be nice to trade murders?" The tennis player laughs it off and goes about his day.

His wife is pregnant with another man's child and is now not wanting a divorce, and is going to keep gold-digging the tennis player.

Well the rich mama's boy then show up to town and strangles the tennis players wife and shows up on his door step, "now you have to kill my father." The tennis player didn't know he was serious, and he doesn't want to murder anyone. The mama's boy stalks him while the tennis player is under severe suspicion. It was a great movie.

It is a bit cheesy at the end, but it was good. I find it funny that in classic movies, if you are a crook and run from the cops, they will shoot at you, even if you are unarmed, and even if you are in the middle of a crowded street.

The Sex Talk

I have to admit that I had so much fun yesterday. We started our Sex series. Now a lot of youth pastors cringe on this talk, but I had fun. I loved to hear comments afterwards like, "my priest would never say that!" and "I didn't know you were aloud to talk about this in church." I had them laughing, blushing, thinking, and surprised with the talk.

I spoke on Genesis 2 and 1 Corinthians 6. God's plan and our plan and how they differ. I like to ask really tough questions like, "if love is so great, then why does it hurt so much?" and "If you are such an expert on dating and love then why are you so lonely?" and "If love is a game with rules, tactics, and strategies, then who loses this game?"

Over all, it was a blast. I think I should speak on this more often, it was too much fun for only once a year.

movie review: The Roaring Twenties

I loved this movie. This is going on my top ten list of favorite movies of all time. This was a great look at America in the 1920's. It follows Eddie (James Cagney) after he gets back from WWI. He can't find a job so he starts to drive a taxi with his friend Danny. The prohibition hits and he learns he can make some money bootlegging. He rises to the top in the business and has it out with a few mobs. Then "Black Tuesday" hits and he goes bankrupt, sells the business to his corrupt partner and ends up driving a taxi again. It is a great Depiction of life in the twenties, great acting, great storyline, and a pretty cool ending.

Everybody's doin it

So this is the cartoon me. All the cool bloggers are doin it.

Spring Hill 2007

Well we are back from our weekend at SpringHill. It was an amazing weekend. The band Red Umbrella was sweet. They led worship and played some of their songs. I really liked their sound a lot. I am buying a CD tomorrow. Craig Gross was pretty sweet. He spoke about letting go of the things that hold us back like addictions and God moved in our group.

It was cold though. -20 windchills and single digit temps. The coldest weekend in ten years is what I heard. And it felt like it too.

We all had so much fun so here are some photos of the weekend:

Spring Hill 2007

Morgan rocked open mic night with her rendition of On Fire by Switchfoot.

Spring Hill 2007

Christian and Caleb rocked open mic night. There were some moments where I thought I was on American Idol tryouts though.

Spring Hill 2007

This is the Euro Bungee. You hook two bungees up to a harness and jump on a trampoline and do flips and things.

Spring Hill 2007

Kylie rockin the wall

Spring Hill 2007

More climbing wall pics. Rean really rocks at the clibing wall. In the fall he took on the wall an unbelievable 10 times at least and conquered. He is a beast.

Spring Hill 2007

Darin on the climbing wall.

Spring Hill 2007

This is me after High Speed Tubing. And Kara was frozen from watching. I actually had a snot-cicle in my moustache. Never had one before. I had such a great time tubing.

Spring Hill 2007

I had not ever been tubing before this moment. It was truly amazing. This is Amy, Maddie, and Noelle after a ride down the hill.

Spring Hill 2007

so this is the Desperadoes led by Bing as we went high speed tubing down the hill. Plus you didn't have to walk back up, they had a machine pull you up....ahhhh America is great.

Spring Hill 2007

I got called on in our game show, and we had to name that sound effect, but we couldn't hear anything through the monitors because the crowd was so loud. People thought we were pretty dumb when we couldn't name sounds like George W. or Daffy Duck, but honestly we couldn't hear.

Spring Hill 2007

Rachel we played a "game show" on Saturday morning and it was pretty fun. I got to pick out a few people that I thought would not mind being called on. So I had fun letting people like Lacie and Chelsey worry about whether or not I picked them. I didn't though, I did pick Rachel, and she had to play this game where you blow a ping pong ball down the stage, around the front, and up the other side.

Spring Hill 2007

Josh was a good goalie.

Spring Hill 2007

Noelle and Emily playing broomball

Spring Hill 2007

Broomball was pretty fun. Broomball is like hockey, but with boots, broom, and a ball. They had a competition of all the churches together, and we lost our first game, so we were out of the running right off the bat.

Oh my frozen toes

We are leaving for our retreat in about two hours or so from right now. There are winter weather advisories and windchill advisories for the entire weekend. This is going to be the coldest windiest weekend of the year. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for the onslought of winter ahead of me. I am still excited though, it will be a blast, but it will be COLD!!! Please pray for our travels and our weekend. Here we go.

SpringHill here we come!

We are leaving for SpringHill tomorrow evening. This will be our first winter retreat with them. The students are getting really excited, and I have to admit that I am too. Craig Gross is the speaker, and Red Umbrella is the worship band. I am really excited to see what God does this weekend. He has been moving and placing key people in our ministry leadership this year. This is getting good folks. I am excited for our ministry's direction, and I am excited about our weekend at SpringHill! I am not excited about leaving Isaac for the weekend though, I'll miss him.