Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Cool Cake

Check out this cake. Jen found this blog which is dedicated to cakes, some good some bad, but this one is cool. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ Enjoy, but be sure to check out the lego cake!

Upblogged...

I have been helping one of my coworkers with a work assignment, she has been working on getting a website/blog up and running. Over the last few days she decided to move the site over to blogger. Anyway, I have been helping her with various editing and layout elements. I do believe however now that the blog she has created is better than mine... and she now probably does more on blogger than I do. So I have officially been upblogged in the sense that her blog is much more unique, purposeful and overall specifically programmed and designed for the user. Oh well, I suppose I helped, but part of me is a bit jealous of the coolness and the experience she has had over the last few days. Today she even figured out how to post (quite easily) his newsletters which were in Publisher. Her solution, save them as jpgs and then post them. Quite amazing. If you would like to check it out, go for it here. In the meantime I am trying to figure out what elements I would like to add to make mine shine a bit more...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

A Day with the Fishes

Today we went to Sea World. It was a good day. We enjoyed a behind the scenes tour and for ten bucks it was a great time. They took us to an area where they were training the dolphins and they had a baby seal. Then we were off to lunch and more shows. Sea World is celebrating Halloween, so we also enjoyed decorating Halloween cookies. Overall it was a great day. Enjoy some of the pictures from the day.



Moray Eels - one of my favorite things... I have this theory that when God was working on faces he practised on this poor animal and realized that would be a bad way to go for the human face. They are amazingly ugly to the point of almost being captivating.




Little baby pup sharks, we touched them. I felt bad though because they seemed to be sleeping...




The Beautiful turtle!



Dolphin Training! The trainers went around to the various pools working with all the different animals, it was pretty interesting. A lot of repition! AND FISH!!!
A Baby pup sea lion, about 5 months old. Was dropped off at Sea World at about a week old. Some fishermen brought it in, but the Sea World people think that its mom was probably only out searching for food and that the pup would have been ok. Now, this animal will have a life time home at Sea World because it was too young when it came in and has been imprinted by humans. She will probably be a future star in the Sea Lion and Otter show... She was beautiful even though she was drinking blended up raw fish and water - GROSS!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Too tired to obey

Yesturday I got to hang out with a great family. One of those families that I like to hang out with because in the event that I would ever have one of my own, I would like to be like. We had been to a soccer game for the older brother, and then to the pizza party. By the end of the pizza party, little brother who was two and half was tired. I was trying to wrangle him out of the chaos of arcade games and children, when he wanted back down, I put him down for two steps, and realizing this wasn't working, was about to pick him up when his mom said something very powerful.
"Just pick him up, he is too tired to obey."
There was no condemnation in her voice, no exasperation. No frustration or disapointment. I have seen many parents either give up on their children at this point and become frustrated, or not be understanding of why they can't obey and still expect them to be able to. Instead, I followed her instructions and swooped him back up and carried him the rest of the way to the car, he soon realized the battle was lost and his head was bobbing around near my shoulder, it seemed even the weight of his head was too much for him at that point. What he needed was a rest, a time away from the bright sun and chasing the ball at the soccer field. A time away from the frenzied chaos of the pizza place. He needed the quiet of his room to sleep. It wasn't a matter of being a bad kid or a good kid. (he is a great kid) He just needed rest and in the meantime he needed to be kept from the temptation to not obey.
"Just pick him up, he is too tired to obey."
I think that there is truth in that statement for each of our lives. I have been thinking about this for a while, and her statement made me think about it more today. I think that so many times I look around at the Christian world and see plenty of people who have spent way too much time out in the sun, out in the spotlight of the high profile pastor's life. They spend time running around in the chaos of the Christian life of church drama and never ending felt needs, never stopping to look for the peaceful, quietness of nap time. Then, we as a Christian community wonder why they stumble, wonder why they fall. We are disapointed, frustrated, we condemn and point fingers. No one say's, "who could have picked them up?" "Were we expecting too much?" "How can we provide rest now?" No wonder why so many of our fellow ministers struggle with depression, anxiety, private and public sin. I wonder how many times God has tried to whisper that very thing into the hearts of men and women. "Let me carry you, you are too tired to obey." I know that there is a place for personal responsibility and repentance on the part of every sinner. Yet, I would like to challenge our thinking a bit. I pray that as a Church on the universal and local level we can get better at caring for our leaders. I want to be a part of this change. I am not sure exactly what it looks like, I don't think it is an exact formula, but I want to be a part.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Lectures to My Students

So, it has been a long time since I did any heavy reading (or really any reading much at all). In an attempt to regain some initiative in my life I want to take up once again some seriouos reading. One book that has been on my shelf for a LONG time is, Lectures to My Students on the art of Preaching by Charles Spurgeon. It was recommended by a fellow traveler in life's journey recently which spurred me to pull it off my bookshelf. I will keep you posted on how it goes!

In a quiet house in the YL

Last night my parents had quite the visitor. Here is the story as told to me by my mom...

At approximately 12:00 my mom went to bed. About an hour later, my brother, who was still up and doing homework or facebook - who knows - on the computer, heard a knock on the door.

Considering he has a myriad of friends, that are also of the same age demographic, I suppose that he thought this was a bit strange, but not completely out of the ordinary as their house is set up so that you can see into it and easily tell that their are lights on and someone is still up. HOWEVER, for some reason (will have to get this detail later) he opens the door before finding out who it is. It is a obesely overwieght young lady (approximately 19 or 20) wearing way to short shorts, who is wreaking of alchohal and obviously completely intoxicated. She asks for natalie. However, there are no natalies at our house. My brother tells her this, that she has the wrong house, but she proceeds to come inside. Ya, seriously! So, he gently guides her back outside, shuts and locks the door.

Then he hears the back gate opening! He goes outside and tells her she needs to leave, that this is not Natalies house. He locks all the doors and calls the police. By this time the parents and sister are awake due to the fact that the dogs are all barking VERY loudly. She spends the next five minutes knocking at the windows hard enough that my parents are afraid they are going to break. All the while saying that she needs Natalie. However this is all nearly incoherant.

Finally she gives up, walks up the street and sits down on the corner. Shortly after the police arrive. My dad, brother, and sister go and talk to them. They arrest her and the story ends. Apparently she isn't from the area and must have been attracted to the house with the lights on.

Quite the story. The moral? Don't get overly intoxicated in unfamiliar territory!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Old information made new

A good friend and professor from college asked me to help her by subbing one of her classes. I will be teaching one evening of a five evening adult degree completion course. So, I am taking on one fifth of the course. Of course, she has all of the powerpoint/schedule/visual aids already prepared. Really all I have to do is show up and follow the outline provided by her. I am looking forward to it. It is basically intro to hermanuetics. (Which by the way is bad when you then take it is a grad student and the new prof wants you to do it a different way then the old prof and you can't take yourself off of autopilot)
What was interesting to me is that as I was reading the text book to brush up on the subject matter, it all came flooding back. I took this course as a sophmore, which would have meant that it was in the fall of 2000. It is now 2008. Eight years is a long time. I did TA for this class and graded many a paper, but it isn't like I studied the notes a whole lot as I was doing that. At one point I actually remembered what was and was not on the test, how sick is that. One of those points I thought I would share with you... In a Bible study method that is ideal, there are four major componants, maximum accuracy, maximum application, joy of personal discovery, and can be done within a reasonable amount of time. After seeing those once again, I can almost repeat them from memory again. Our brains amaze me sometimes...

Friday, October 10, 2008

A good day...

Today was a good day. I felt good (no headache), got a lot done at work, had a good time at work, survived the grocery store (a scary place sometimes), made dinner with a friend, watched a fun movie, and now I am home nearly ready for bed. Anyway, today got me thinking about what makes a day a good day. There really wasn't anything extra special about today, but it felt different. What makes a day a good day for you?

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Trip to the Observatory

On Saturday, my brother came to visit me. It was a lot of fun. We spent the morning in Old Town Temecula, and enjoyed some crepes.
Then we decided to drive to the Palomar Observatory. It was a long drive and it was cold, but we had fun. The telescope is very large and impressive and overall it is just a beautiful place to be. Enjoy the pictures!

Pic from their website - cool looking huh?

Pic we took - it was foggy that day, but it made the whole landscape look like a scene from Star Wars!



A large Manzanita tree that Kenny thought was cool, it was cool, and very red, although you can't really tell, sorry!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

A new church

Today I went with my friend Merideth to try a new church. The whole idea of church shopping just sickens my heart. I hate it. But considering what is going on at the church I had finally decided to call home, it seems as though it is time to go. Anyway, back to today. The church was good, we walked in, didn't announce ourselves as visitors (It is hard to walk into a new church and announce that you don't yet belong when that is all I want to do.) found the worship center, realized that like most churches everyone comes late, and enjoyed a longer service. The message was on being the church. They are challenging their congregation to be the church, to serve, to not be served, but to go out and serve. As a matter of putting this into practice, there will be no sunday morning services next week, the whole church is supposed to meet at a community home for troubled teens to do service projects. I thought it was pretty cool. Overall it was a positive experience. I am excited about going back next week on Saturday night, learning more about the church. Although I am not in the mindset of church shopping, I do want to find a church that is passionate and full of vision for their children's ministry department.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Where to begin...

The last few days, I have spent some quality time with two different college friends. One was a great friend, who is about to leave for the mission field. The other was a professor who has been a great support and encouragement throughout not only my college years but every year since. Through the discussions, in which you seem to recap what is going on your life now, what was good then, what is good now, what is hard, etc. It has been a good time. I time to be reminded of what God is doing, not only in my life, but in the lives of those around me, in the world at large. I am thankful for great people that are partners in life and ministry throughout many years.