The Day before the storm....

Well, we were laying down the brick and mortar and putting up all the wood over the windows for Jay and his next bout with hurricane cancer. This time Jay will be kicking some major malignancy (sp?)!

We played some games ate @ Denny's for lunch/breakfast and Sheila did some business over the phone and then we all went and ate Indian (from India) food tonight. During dinner Sheila had a meeting with 2 of her managers and Jay and I sat at the table eating and laughing at the Indian music videos that were playing on the TV screens in the eatery! It reminded us all of early musicals, heh.

Well, Sheila's meeting went a little long so jay and I went to CompUSA to look and I finally got the Jabra 250 bluetooth headset for my cell phone I was wanting to buy (the church is paying half of it) and Jay drooled over everything (as usual, heh heh)

jay and I then went to borders to get me some magazines to read on the plane going back home (the airport magazine stands really need to up their magazine offerings to include some Home Theater stuff and some more video game stuff..... (bad airports...bad!)

Well, I am now going to go back upstairs to be with Jay for the last night of my stay (here at the house at least) and maybe watch a movie or play some more games, heh. love yall, take care and god bless each and every one of you!!1 please be in prayer for jay tomorrow! He is undergoing some heavy doses tomorrow and we are all a little nervous about it (whither we admit to it or not, heh) BUT we all know that it will go just fine and everything will be great and Jay will tell this cancer where to go......AWAY!!!!!) when this is all said and done. Please keep praying and please know how much I and jay and Sheila appreciate your prayer!

(Oh yeah...Tiffany is doing good @ camp too and she thanks you for your prayers too! love you all take care and God bless!

Day three...

Well yesterday could have been better, but we survived the LP (lumbar Puncture) Chemo. Jay had a roiugh time of it because he said that the Dr. that does it went fast this time and it really caused him some serious pain in his legs, but madr it through OK. Jay talked to the Dr yesterday before the Chemo and told her about him having lots of night sweats. She was concerned that he might be getting a feaver due to the Cancer. He told her that he was starting to get some feeling back into the side of his face that has Balse Palusy, he could move it a very little bit, but he felt it was improvement. He also told her that he was starting to feel a little bit more pain back into his jaw, and that worried her too, because she did not want him to start to have the same stuff with the cancer coming back again while they are treating the nervous system right now with the LP Chemo treatments.

So... after she went away she called the head Dr. and now she has decided to not do the LP anymore and treat Jay's entire body in single treatements. Thisd means super high doeses of Chemo! This will effect the entire body, and not just his blood only or not just his spine and brain only (which is waht they have been doing) Now they will do the high dose Chemo Methotrexate that will hit all parts of his body and even go into the brain.

The problem with all of this is that this is the stuff that will really kick Jay's butt. He will be admited on Thursday for 5-6 days and they will (as the Dr. calles it) "Whip up a nive Chemo Cocktail" for Jay. She told him that it will effect his mucus glands (so he is asking for lots of foods that will coat his throut, ha ha) The Dr. also said that this is the one that will get involved into this stomach and GI trac, so that means feeling very sick, vomity, upset stomach, etc...

So, I will get to be here for him and Sheila for Thursday, Friday, and a little bit of Saturday until Sheila has to take me back to the Airport.

This is not the best news to hear, but I am glad they are finaly doing this and attacking thr Chemo in the entire body, because we were all wondering why they are just doing the nervous system (and possibably have the cancer come back into other parts of his body) or just doing the blood/bone marrow stuff (and have the cancer come back into his nervous system). So now thye will be doing the Chemo in his blood in Huge amounts and will hit the entire body, blood, bone marrow, and nervous system (i.e. spine, brain). This will really not be a fun time for Jay, but we are all glad they are tired of just treating one place and are not treating him similarly as if he had Leukima.

He still has Burkitt's Lymphoma, but it is in his bone marrow, Central Nervous system, and possibly Jaw, slpeen, stomach, etc...


Wiell, with all that said As soon as I get home I will put up a picture of Jay and me so you can all see how good he looks...and I look heh. Love you all and Take care.....

Oh BTW: after we got out of the hospital we ate Mediterain food resturant called Aladdin's Eatery, and dang it was really good!!! We had two orders of:

Kibbie
Two lean beef shells mixed with crushed bulgar wheat and stuffed with spiced ground beef, roasted onions & pine nuts then deep fried in peanut oil. Served with a side of yogurt & salata.

and Jay and I ordered:

Mediterranean Lamb Plate
Tender strips of marinated chargrilled lamb. Served with seasoned white rice topped with vermicelli, sautéed pine nuts, almonds, and cinnamon. Your choice of garlic or tahini sauce. Pita on the side.

and Sheila ate:

Mediterranean Beef Kafta Plate
Chargrilled ground sirloin, onions and parsley seasoned with herbs and spices. Served with seasoned white rice topped with vermicelli, sauteed pine nuts, almonds, and cinnamon. Your choice of garlic or tahini sauce. Pita on the side.

Oh yeah, and today I replaced thier fountian bottom plastice cover in the back yard and got the fountian up and going and Jay loves to sit down there to listen to it. I also installed an air conditioner in my room for thier guests anytime they have some. It should be nive and cold tonight for me.

Other than that we have been playing lots of games on the computer and Xbox.

Right now we are leaving to go eat Sushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!! (My brother loves it too, heh.) I just hope he is not over doing himself! I will try to keep watching him and listening to Sheila to see when he needs to go back to rest or something like that.

Thank yall for praying for him!!! We are dreading gong back to the Hospital to be admited, but we are really enjoying today and tomorrrow!

I went to church today....

and man I love my brothers church building. You all should see this church building!! I wish I was thinking about it while I was there and I could have shown you some pics. Maybe Jay will have some in his computer and I can post them, but man this church is straight out of the middle ages. It has all stone work inside and out. Even the shingles are made of stone and the woodwork inside is amazing!!! And I have not even got to the Stainedglass windows!!!! WOW Oh WOW Weeee! (boy that was stupid, heh)

Well, after church we went to a Mexican Food Tacaria, and the food was OK, not the best in the world, but after we spent about 30 mins talking to the waiter we found out if we wanted the good food then we have to call ahead and tell them to fix non-Gringo food and they will. They even have Lengua Tacos and Homemade Chorizo!!!

Oh man, I wish we would have made friends before we went to eat there, heh. (Although I don't think that Sheila cared too much for the ingredients of either one, heh.

Well then we went back to the church because I forgot my wallet (typical of me...I think I have too much of my mother in me...and yes Jay and Sheila were quick to point that out, heh) The music Director went back to the church and found it and then we met her at her house to pick it up and she showed off her garden...and dang do I mean her GARDEN!!!! Dude if you can grow it she probably had it. She had several gardens on her property, and I really thought I was walking around Martha Stewart's Gardens or something.

She then feed us all of her different kinds of nuts that they grow and harvest and enter all of this stuff in County Fairs all over PA. Man I had Black Walnut, Hart Nut, Hazel Nut, Butter nut, etc... It was really cool, and I had no idea all those nuts had such a great flavor, wow it was amazing!

Then we went to Wal-Mart for Sheila's to pick up the ingredients for her famous Herb Chicken dinner she cooked for us tonight (oh man that was good!!!!) and while she went shopping Jay and I went to a GameStop and I found Crimson Skies used and he bought a used Halo (still can't believe he did not have Halo yet) used Crimson Skies so we could play over Xbox live and then he got another Xbox Live subscription so we could play each other and talk over the Xbox for free, and play game together. We then came home to cook and let Jay rest from the long day and then Sheila's parents came over and borought their dog with them!!! Man, I love dogs. They rock this planet and man they love you. I don't care what anyone says, and now that I am a cat and dog owner I can say this and mean it, "dogs are better, heh) I mean you could starve a dog for a week and come home and that dog will pee all over him/herself just so they can give you a kiss and love you and be loved by you......if you did that to a cat they would look at you and say, "where the heck is my food you dumb dumb head?". No please don't misunderstand me, I love my cat Sushi too, but halo is maybe just more affectionate with his love, heh.

Well, we then watched School Of Rock with Sheila's parents and then played some Crimson Skies and now I should be in bed instead of doing this post, but heck why not show yall some love!!!

Well, we will be at the hospital all day tomorrow for Jay to get another round of Intra-Thecal Chemo (sp?) Apparently he gets to do three more of this chemo straight into his spinal fluid and then he gets to go back to the CHOP chem into his blood. He has this Monday (today), Thursday, and then next Monday, then he starts back doing the CHOP.

The cool thing about the Spinal Chemo is that it does not effect his blood count so he gets to be out in public and does not have to worry about being around kids and stuff, but he goes back to that stuff in two weeks, so please keep him in your prayers.

also, Tiffany is leaving tomorrow morning for the Jr. high camp so be in prayer for her too. Yall Take care and God bless ya!

Oh BTW: I found a magazine I have fallen in loved with and it is not a Home Theater Magazine or even a Video Game magazine!!! It is a Christian Magazine and loved the one that I bought and read in the air plane on the way here. The magainze is called

The Christian Research Journal. It is basically a magazine about Apologetics in a postmodern world, and man I loved it! Now the guy that I think started it may have some theology that is different than what I believe, but it is still a great magazine and I am seriously thinking about getting a subscription to it. I hope if you can find it in the news stands around you or while you are out on the best date ever (Barnes-N-Nobles drinking coffee and reading free books only to go back and do it next week and read entire books and all kinds of magazines for free) then check it out, it should at least be an interesting read.

Ok, well I have to go to bed, it is 1:41 am here and we have to leave the house for the hospital by 9:00 am tomorrow. So take care and God bless yall! keep up the prayers! Thanks yall!

Hey!!! I have arrived and PA will never be the same....

Well, I am here in Greensburg, PA

We survived the trip and boy you should see me now... I will try to take a picture of me and Jay and Sheils soon. I hope yall are doing good, I will try to post tonight sometime...so until then God bless yall!!!

Sorry about the no posts...

I have been planning and doing a wedding and now it just finished, so hopefully that will be many more to come.


Also, I will be @ my brother's house for the next week and so the posts might be sporadic for this coming week, but he has plenty of computer support at his house so I am sure that I will at least get one or two in sometime.

I have actually started some nice ones, but I just have not had time to finish them so in the mean time go check out the actually disks of the Star Ward Trilogy:



and the extras disc:



This one look REALLY cool, man nice art work for these releases!!! I love the extra's disc with the images in Darth's eyes, oh yeah that rocks!!!

Also, if you have not checked out HomestarRunner.com then you should the Strong Bad email is particularly cool this week, and I also sent you to the new home page for the site in the link which is always fun to see. If anyone wants to give me a gift, I am always up for The Cheat Kick doll a poster or the second set of figurines from The HomestarRunner.com Store!! This is a joke please don't buy me anything...the fact that you are reading this is more than enough to keep me going for a LOOOOONG time, heh.

Well, Yall have a great week, and please be in prayer for my travel and of course Jay, Sheila, and Tiffany will be @ a Jr. High Retreat, so she probably needs the most prayer, heh. Love you all take care! Hope to post soon while I am gone!

All you inventors out there enjoy the Easter Egg.

SUSHI!!! ThannnnkkyouVeryMuuuuch!!!!

OK, it has been a long time coming and I am deciding to give yall the Sushi education you all need! Oh you honor me John Choi!

OK, I figure I can just give you a bunch of links and maybe some photos and let you all decide for yourselves, but please just promise me that you will try it at least once in your life!!!! (And no not all sushi is raw fish, the best offering here in Santa Fe is a deep fried tempura shrimp and green chili roll. Ymmm Ymmm Good!!!

OK, first of all you need to find the closest Sushi restaurant to you and I found a website that allows you to find the closest one to you anywhere in the world:

The Sushi World Guide

OK, now that you know where to go (and if there are several places to go eat then find a phone book and call any random person with the last name Fujimoto, or Fujishima, or Fujita, or Tanaka...Etc get the point here? Just call someone or talk to someone who eats Sushi or at least might know something about Sushi)

Now you need to know something about the actually food you will be ordering and then eating.

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Some basic terms:

SUSHI
Nowadays sushi is commonly known as raw fish on a piece of rice. But, actually sushi means vinegared rice that is rolled with vegetables, fish or pickles, then wrapped in nori, and sliced into rounds (Norimaki). There are different sushi formats: Nigiri (hand-shaped), futo (thick), maki (rolled), temaki (hand-rolled), chirashi (scattered on top of the rice).


NIGIRI SUSHI
Sushi format, hand-shaped piece of rice with any sort of sliced raw fish on top.

NORI
(Basically, fancy definition for seaweed) Thin sheets of dried sea vegetable. Nori is often roasted over a flame until its color turns from black or purple to green. It is used as a garnish, wrapped around rice balls or other foods, or cooked with tamari as a condiment.

WASABI
A light green Japanese root that has been dried, powdered, and made into a paste. It is traditionally used as a seasoning in sushi, sashimi, and in dipping sauces. Wasabi is very hot with a taste reminiscent of horseradish. i.i. will kick your tail if you use too much of it.

SASHIMI
Raw, slivered fish, usually served with a dip made of shoyu and wasabi. The different styles of filleting are highly ritualised,different fish are cut in different ways. This is just the fish no rice or anything else...just the fish, and nothing but the fish.

GARI (This is just ginger, sometimes pink or white)
Pickled ginger, usually pink and thinly sliced. Served with sushi to cleanse the palate between courses.

HASHI
chopsticks.

MISO SOUP
A protein-rich, fermented bean paste made from soybeans,usually with the addition of barley or brown or white rice. Miso is used in soup stocks and as a seasoning. It comes in a wide variety of styles from white to red, from slightly sweet to very salty and earthy, and crunchy or smooth.

EDAMAME
Soybeans, served in the pod as an appetizer.

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You do not have to know how to speak Japanese to order, it is just nice to know what the menu is saying when you order it all.

Ok so lets start out and let me give you a suggested menu to order when you go eat Sushi.

(BTW: Most of the time Sushi is expensive so go with other people and then you can make them pay for the food and then you get to eat it all, heh)

Sample Menu:

Get some "Edamame" for the first course of the dinner.


To eat Edamame you ONLY eat the seeds inside the shell and then just put the shells on your plate or back into the bowl they came in. The shells will be taken up by the server when you are done.

Ymmmm Ymmm, salty huh? Not too bad huh? Oh yeah it is only started.

Ok, now I would probably go ahead and order some Miso Soup, and maybe a small side salad with Ginger dressing (typical dressing of the greens) (some sushi meals come with these two items.)



Ok, now you can go two routes. The first route is to just order a 7-15 piece sushi platter (dinner or lunch). This will come with a variety of sushi that the chief has on hand and then you just eat it up, but if this is your first time I would go with individual orders. And one order of one kind of sushi would look like this:



When you get to the restaurant they will probably give you a sheet of paper with all the different kinds of sushi on it and then you can specify the amount that you desire to order. Most of the time they will give you two pieces of Nori Sushi for each order, and yes that is probably going to cost you $3-$10 for just two pieces of sushi. (Always check to see if they have a happy hour or something like that and you might be able to find half off of certain kinds for that hour)

And if you go to an authentic Sushi place they might give you a warm moist hand towel to clean your hands and I have even seen a few men wipe off their face with it as well, the wait staff will take them back from you when they come to get your drink order.

Now, you will probably also notice that there will be hand rolls (temaki) and just rolls. A Hand roll looks like this:



and the regular roll is cut into pieces ranging from 5-8 pieces and looks like this:



So, yes the hand rolls and regular rolls cost more, but you get more (as you can see) (the picture has two rolls on it probably).

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OK, now what to order:

two menus here one for the first timer and another of my favorites!!!:

1st time visit to Sushi restaurant:
Edamame
Miso Soup
small Salad
1 order each:

Salmon (Sake)


Tuna (Maguro)


Yellowtail (Hamachi)


Shrimp/sweet Shrimp (Ebi)

Now go for some rolls:


California Roll sometime it has the roe (fish eggs) around it (like this picture)but most of the time it does not like this picture:)

(A California Roll is made of crab meat, avocado, and cucumber) But, most places have all different kinds of California rolls some even have cream cheese and stuff like that so make sure it is just a plain California roll. The non roe version is Tiffany's favorite and therefore makes it a good beginners choice.


Spicy Tuna Roll (This can be spicy so just be careful with it.) This is my 2nd favorite roll and my favorite place to eat this is at Kobe Stonegrill and Sushi House in Lexington, KY. He puts some small fried tempura batter into the mix and it adds an amazing texture to it, but it does not come this way most of the time)


Tempura Shrimp roll (This one is cooked so you wimps out there can still eat this one, it is just fried shrimp wrapped in the rice and Nori.)

Ok, that should fill 1-2 people up, but not me, heh.

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Now for the fun stuff:

This is what I would order on top of what was on the other menu (my favs):


Seaweed Salad really good, but sounds bad, heh you just have to try it (tastes like soy sauce...so if you like soy sauce then you will love this!)!!!


Monkfish Liver (Ankimo) (this is basically monk fish Foie Gras, in a awesome sauce!) My favorite Sushi to order and sadly most places do not carry it. (I think it is also a seasonal thing too)


Fatty Tuna (Toro) Dang this is good, It melts in your mouth, and it is Oh so good! Super Fatty Tuna is the same thing, but this is a special cut with more flavorful fat in the tuna and it is just amazing!


Cooked Freshwater Eel (Unagi) Dang this is good! Usually has a thick Teriyaki sauce on it.


Sea Urchin Eggs (Uni) Now this one is not my favorite, but I always get it to show off for the noobs, heh. It should have that frill look to it and you need to only order this is a good restaurant or it will be the bane of our existence, heh)


Soft Shell Crab Roll (Spider Roll) You eat the entire roll legs and all because it is a soft shell crab, heh. But this is also cooked and man the flavor is amazing! This is my Favorite Roll to order!!!

If you order all the food at one time they might give you a sushi boat that looks like this (actually there are two boats, heh, hey why not it was my Birthday!) BTW: I am making the noise of two ships passing in the night, and the fog horn noise!)



<<<<<<<<<<----------------->>>>>>>>>>

OK there you have what to order there are just a few other things you need to know:

1. NEVER absolutely NEVER stab the fish with your chopsticks. Or two people grab a piece of sushi with two pairs of chopsticks. This is offensive to any Japanese. Apparently they use big chop sticks as a part of their funeral rights and pick up their dead's bones with them, and so if you stab the fish you are offending them.

(Here is some updated info from a wonderful and intelligent visitor tot he blog that gave a few correction and meaning behind why you are not to do this):

"stabbing food with chopsticks is definitely a "no no" when it comes to Japanese table manners, but not for the reason you gave. It simply shows lack of skill. Very often food does need to be broken apart by pressing chopsticks into it and then prying the two points apart or even in a way "cutting" the food with the edges. (Using one hand, of course!!)Resorting to stabbing it merely shows you don't have the skills to break up the food correctly. Your fellow diners might be offended by your crude methods, but the dead certainly won't.

Here is some more information about what you said about long chopsticks and funerals.

Yes, large chopsticks are used during the Japanese funeral ceremony. Family members (in pairs) pick up the bones of the recently cremated and place them into a pot. (They hold one bone together using one pair of chopsticks each.) This is why it is terribly bad for two people to hold the same piece of food with chopsticks whilst eating dinner.

The other thing connected with Japanese funerals is the practice of sticking a pair of chopsticks into a bowl of white rice, so they stand straight up. This is very commonly done and the bowl is placed upon the alter in front or behind the coffin during the funeral as a gift to the deceased. It is therefore a major faux pas to stick your chopsticks and leave them standing up in a bowl of white rice. (I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it anyway, but people are always warned against it just in case.)

I can see how a combination of information from these two elements of culture could lead to confusion about stabbing food with chopsticks."

(thanks anonymous Sushi expert! It is great to hear the truth, and help out one Texan's ignorance! You rock!)

2. Use the ginger to clear your pallet between different kinds of sushi so you can taste each flavor cleanly and wonderfully. Use it like you would sorbet in a fancy restaurant before you get to the main course.

3. When the food arrives at your table you can use chopsticks or it is perfectly OK to use your hands to pickup the sushi.

4. You should find a small dish (come in different shapes, but most common is rectangular very small bowl). This dish is for you to put your soy sauce in to dip the sushi into the soy sauce. It is typical to dip each piece of sushi in before you eat it (so dip the fish only not the rice...that gets you too much soy sauce and you can not taste the fish...but since I LOVE soy sauce...I do it all te time the wrong way, heh heh).

5. You will see on the plate a pile of ginger and a pile of wasabi for you to use.

6. Some people like to put a little of their wasabi into the soy sauce container to give it a little more bite. But the real men just add the wasabi straight to the sushi and see if they can take it, heh (actually crazy men do this, but you can call me what you will)

7. Most of the time you will eat the entire piece of sushi in one bite, but if you can't that is OK too, for example the hand rolls are impossible to eat in one bite and some of the larger rolls (like the spider roll) are too big too!

8. It is perfectly OK to order just a little sushi and eat that then order more, so start out small and please don't quit...keep going until you have found your favorite 5-10 kinds. There are TONS more kinds of sushi than what I have suggested to you or I love, so try it all and see what you do and do not like. Have fun with it!

9. Don't ever forget to tip!

10. Just because you are in a Japanese restaurant does not mean the people working there are Japanese. I have been to several restaurants and they are Korean and even Chinese, so be careful about using only Japanese phrases below.

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OK, here are some good things to say before, during, or after the course of the meal:

Domo. Thank you.

Domo arigato. Thank you very much.

Dozo. Please.

Gaijin. Outsiders, foreigners.

Gochiso-sama [deshita]. Traditional phrase closing a meal.

Hai. Yes.

Itadakimasu. Traditional phrase opening a meal.

Itamae. The sushi (or other Japanese) chef.

Konichiwa. A greeting, roughly `how are you'.

Omakase. Chef's choice.

Okonomi. The practice of ordering sushi a few pieces at a time.

Sabinuki. `No wasabi, please.'.

Well, I hope you enjoy the Sushi, and please let me know if you used this sushi guide or not! I know it sure has made me hungry, heh! The most important thing is just go try it and don't let the "ewwwwuuu grosssss" statements of the world hinder you from living a little! God bless you all! Take care and Good night!

The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer

I pray this prayer everyday and I thought you might like to have it to print off for you to tape on your computer screen or bathroom mirror or where ever you can see it every morning.

Now, a word of warning...."warning".... no seriously. This is the hardest prayer I have ever found to really pray it and mean it. So, get read for your Gluteus Maximus (and Minimus for that matter (except that it is more of your hip than Maximus)) to be kicked if you really earnestly honestly pray this prayer. But I promise that your devotional life to God will do wonders when you can really pray this prayer...BTW: I still have a hard time praying this prayer totally honest and earnestly after praying it every morning for the past 5 years. Anyway, I will try to get you all a devo soon, but this will have to tied you over until I do it.... BTW... I have modified it for modern tongue (even though all tongues are kind of old school anyway, heh)

I am no longer my own, but Yours.
Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by You, or laid aside for You.
Exalted for You or brought low for You.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily give all things to Your pleasure and disposal.
And now, o glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am Your's. So be it!
And the convenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen!

This covenant prayer is part of an entire service that Wesley wrote and would normally have his church do at the first of every year. For some excerpts from the service you can go HERE. Or you can read the entire covenant worship service in the United Methodist Book of Worship (copyright 1992) pages 291-294. You can find a UM Book of Worship on the desk of any UM Pastor (or at least you should find one there) or at any local Cokesbury Bookstore

Well, have fun with that one for the rest of your life, and let be able to grow closer to God and nothing else...Especially our selfish desires)!

Take care and God bless yall!

I was going to write a devo today...

But, I got so into it I lost track of time. Sorry, I will try to put another one up soon. in the mean time read Philippians 3.1-6

Have fun, and then I will try to write about it soon. Have a grat day!

Star Wars DVD covers...

Oh yeah! If you want to see the Star Wars DVD trailer then you can check out Amazon.com and click on the high or low bandwidth versions! Oh yeah...I can't wait!

OK, the only other thing I have to say is Happy Father's Day to my Daddy! Daddy I love you so much and I can never express it! You are just a awesome, perfect, wonderful role model for life. You are amazing that you treat all people equal (which makes you a perfect judge!) and truly listen to God in all matters...even when it comes to me, heh heh. Thank you for being a wonderful example of what a Daddy is to be like. I hope if it is God's will that I can be half the man that you are some day!

Have a wonderful Day everyone...




Oh, I forgot to tell you all that Jay is home from the Hospital (has been that way since Friday evening), but goes into the Hospital on Monday for another round of Chemo. Please keep praying, and thank you for your love! His wife's birthday is Monday too, so she said that super effective Chemo would be the best Birthday gift she could ever ask for!! ha ha.

Hey Jay I got a phone call on Friday that is from a guy in South Carolina that his whole church is praying for you and tells me about it everytime I talk to him! He is a dang wonderful Church membership software rep, heh. (BTW: if you ever get into a church that wants to get serious about their church membership and computers then I think that ACS is the only way to go!

Just goes to show you that the church of Christ is far beyond any local church or even connectional church, it is truly universal! Thank you God!

The Easter Egg today is for all you girls out there. I can't tell you how many times I played this game in Elementary school (mainly around 4th and 5th grade!) (Any guy would play this game because you got to learn the basics of flirting at such an early age, heh. (You can ask around, but I think I got to be decient at that fliting stuff, heh....Tiffany want to comment? lets see if you actually read my blog, ha ha)

I'm tired...

.

Really, I am very tired and therefore not going to make a lonbg post to keep you (all 2 of you) all happy. I am sorry about this, but I am really really tired, and I really need to go to sleep. I have church tomorrow and have to say good bye to Tiffany's parents.

BTW: Tomorrow is Father's Day so make sure you tell your Dad you love him! And if you forgot you can always till get a Amazon.com gift certificate for him and send it via email to him and he will get it within 2-3 hrs. heh. I hope you like your's Dad! Ha Ha. love you all....

Oh and it probably will not be too bad to go ahead and give your heavenly Father a gift of not sleeping during the worship service tomorrow too! Ha Ha.

love yall!

Well I used 911 for the first time today....

Yep thats right 911 was called by me today, so let me tell you what happened:

Well Tiffany's parents came in lasat night and one thing that Eddie (her father) and I always try to do when he comes up to Santa Fe is fishing. Well, we went to Cowles and then followed a one lane Forest road to the Penchuela Creek that feeds into the Pecos River. for a crude map go

Well it is amazingly gorgousHERE!

Check out the phone photos I took up there:

This one is of the mountians not great but decient for a phone camera:



This one is of a I really think 5 story tree. This picture does not do it justice, but it wil have to do:



and then finally you can see here the beaver ponds that I fished in here:



Ok back to the 911 story. Well I started fishing the beaver ponds and then Eddie said he wanted to go down stream to fish it, and I said OK. Well, I knew we had to be back at my house by 7:15 (about an hour away from where we were fishing) so around 5:30 I started heading back to the car. Well, I got to the car and Eddie was not there, so I then just packed up my fishing stuff and took down my fly rod and reel. Everything was packed away and so I just sat in the car waiting for my father-in-law. Well, after reading everything in the car, and listening to about 45 mins. of NPR, I decided that I would go looking for Papa Eddie. Well I took the trail back to the beaver ponds and looked for him there thinking that he probably went back to the popint that I last saw him... No luck.

So... then I went back to the car thinking he just took the stream to the car instead of the trail (which was higher up on the mtn, and you really could not see the stream from it). Got back to the car and nothing. Then I started getting a little worried. So I decided to tell one of the people camping to look for a guy that had a brigh orange Chicago Bears cap on and tell him I was coming, but that I was out looking for him. Well, this time I put my wading boots back on and decided to walk the river looking for him. Well I walked the river back to the beaver pond and still nothing. So I took the high trail back to te parking lot and still no Papa Eddie at the car!

Then I decided that I would tell the people caming that if he comes back that I left to go get the Forest service to look for him. So, after giving some backpackers a lift to the main road I found the nearest cabin and drove up in their drive way and asked if I could use thier phone to call the forest rangers to start a serach and rescue. The family in the home finanly allowed me to make the call and I called 911 and told them who I was (name, social number, home phone, etc...) and description of Eddie (name, what wearing, age, ect...) Then the State Police (who I was talking to) told me they would call me back after looking at a map and started calling the serach and rescue team members to deploy them to look for Eddie.

They told me they would call me back and so while I was waiting for them to call back I called Tiffany at home to tell her I lost her Dad and that the sercae and rescue were coming to find him.....She was not home...so I called her cell phone and got her. I told her crying my eyes out (actually just for the record it was just really hot and my eyes were sweating) that I lost her dad and that the search and rescure team were coming to lok for him. Then she told me that he was in Pecos, NM. @ a country store. Aparently he got lost and went all the way down the strewat to where it met the Pecos and then he caught a ride into Pecos (20 miles away from where we parked). Needless to say I was relieved and VERY tired. I called 911 back and told them to call off the search and rescue from my father-in-law and then I drove all the way to Pecos to find Tiffany and he dad in her car (she drove up from Santa Fe when she heard where he was). I hugged them both and we all went home to eat Chicken Marsalla (her Mom was making while everything was going down)

It was a very eventful day! And needless to say I think I will always take 2 2-way Radios and maybe a GPS Device with us the next time I go fishing with anyone! Man, this was very scary and I am so happy that Jesus listened to my prayers.

Well, take care everyone and good night! I am sorry I do not have an update for you on Jay, but I woke up too late this moring and got back home to late this evening to call him. Please keep up in your thoughts. Love yall!

Oh, I did catch 3 8 inch trout and one 14 inch in the beaver ponds and Eddie did not catch any, heh. God bless you all!

I was driving down the road.....

and then I saw THIS!!! Holy Cow! It has been a long time since I have actually tried to catch up to a car just to check it out. I am not one who looks at cars any more, because I am more of a small SUV guy like THIS and THIS and THIS. Unlike Tiffany is is in love with THIS car. Man only slightly better than her first love in THIS car.. ugg!

But then I thought to myself, what if someone gave me that Crossfire or I won it....and my first thought is woo hoo I would drive it once around tiown and sell it immediatly and pay off our credit cards and most of our student loans. Wow, yes that is how much I hate debt, heh.

Oh also today I saw THIS and it made me immediatly think of Jay! It really looks cool, but I wonder if the blade is as good as what it could be? Still very cool if you ask me, and they are trying to make themselves cool by selling bags and posters and such, heh.

(the Easter Egg today is for Blake and Reese (make sure Blake finds the egg Reese)because I actually heard them talking about this site one time and man talk about addictive, basic, but fun!)

(Oh I meant to tell everyone I did write this update yesterday, but for some reason after I cliked for it to be published (I went to bed immediatly and just let it update on it's own) it apparently went to an error page and when I came down this morning and tried to go back to the page with all the information it was all gone so I had to re-type everything. Frustrating?....Yes very. But still fun.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Jay and our family we need them all. Love yall!

Jay update and a great castle analogy!

Now the Burkitts is in his central nervous system and in the Blood-Brain Barrier. The Dr.'s concluded this when they tested his peripheral nervous system and found nothing and after doing all their tests have shown that it could only be in one place. It looks like the cancer moved to a better (much better) hiding place when the chemo was being administered to Jay. (this explains why they did not detect it earlier because it was not there, but after the chemo started to attack it it ran to the nervous system and the blood/brain barrier. With the Lymphoma in the blood brain barrier it is very difficult to attack.

Jay put it this way:

Imagine a castle wall that can never be destroyed. Now, imagine the Lymphoma guys in on that wall attacking the good cancer destroying chemo on both sides of the wall. (inside and outside of the castle) Now, the Chemo can only shot the cancer when they come out of hiding from the wall. Now also realize that the Chemo guys can only attack with limited ammo, because the cancer guys on the wall will start to not even be effected by the chemo because they become immune to it after a while. That is what it is like with the cancer being in his central nervous system and in the blood brain barrier.

Now what we have to pray for is that the chemo will be very effective against the cancer hanging out in the barrier. (We will know the results to this by the end of the week.)

The good thing is that we know what is going on and why Jay has been in so much pain with the cancer on the central Nerve Root This is causing Jay to have tremendous pain from all over his body. (Jay said at one time his pain was so bad that he started to cry just thinking about it. There are no major tumors in the central nervous system, but they think it is still effecting the Nerve roots some how.

But the bad is that the cancer found a very good place to hide, and that you can only take so much chemo before the cancer gets wise to the treatment and then the chemo is not effective...So we have to pray that this chemo attacking from both sides of the wall is very effective.

So right now they are giving him (via a spinal tap to get into his spinal fluid)Methotrexate and Solu-Medrol (a steroid to help the pain. They should be starting up the CHOP again soon, but really want to see how effective the spinal tap drugs are effecting the Lymphoma that they are almost 100% positive in in the central nervous system.

All that to say.... Please continue praying for Jay and his wife, and all of us! Thank you for your prayers and love!

OH for all you Halo freaks out there I just Down loaded a program called xbconnect and if a game has a system link in it then you can play people online. It was lots of fun today playing people in Texas and Alabama in Halo online!!! If you have a high speed internet connection and Halo, and a router, then please contact me and lets play some Halo online!!! The program is free so just go get it!!!

Love you all, take care!

Fun Easter egg this post too!

HD-DVD

Now, I know that most of you do not even know about High Definition stuff but in the near future you will. I read today that 1 million Digital TV's were sold in just the first two months of this year and if you have not already chances are the next TV you buy will be High Definition, so you need to know about the next future of DVD's. The first part of being educated is to go toTHIS website. You really need to go to the second page after you click the link, but this website is the best way I have seen to explain it to the public (those who are not Home Theater freaks like me). The second page shows VERY clearly the difference between the widescreen versions of DVD's and VHS tapes as opposed to the Full-Screen versions.

If you still buy full screen movies after reading this article then you need a good Dr. :)

Now, that you have been educated with Widescreen, you need to know about Digital TVs (otherwise known as High Definition TV's) Let me see if I can get you a good site for the education of these TVs so you will be educated on this one too.... here you go!

Ok, now that you know why Widescreen, and al the different TVs that are out there (beware of anything thing that says EDTV). Then you really need to look into caring about the new High Definition DVDs that are coming out. There are two groups here (Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD) and they might be causing another format war. (NOT a good thing). I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember, but there was a format war a long time ago with BetaMax, and VHS tapes way back when. We all know that VHS won, but the public was confused and it really hurt both formats, and just confused the consumer. A modern format war is the DVD-A (the A=audio) and the SACD (Super Audio CD) both of these were supposed to bring multi-speaker audio into the main stream and with both format the general public is just confused. They are both really cool and are amazing for Audio only discs, but the public is mostly clueless. This might be occurring with the new High Definition DVDs in the future.

Now the thing you all need to Know is that your current DVDs are not high definition. You really need to got to your local high end electronics store and ask them to show you High Definition to see what all the talk is about. (the slang term of HD is "window"...It is that good) Well a new thought is being brought up now and rumors are running rampant that the next Playstation video game console will be a Blu-Ray capable DVD player. This would make a huge segment of the population Blu-Ray supports and a very smart moved if you ask me. But, there is nothing stopping Microsoft to allow the DVD player in the next Xbox (look for it around Christmas 2005 or first of 2006) to play their encoding format (DC-9) (which BTW the HD-DVD people have allowed to be one of the different ways to be on HD-DVD's.)

Well for those of you who could care less then just hunt for the Easter Egg and have fun, for those tech heads like me I hope you already know this stuff, but if not then consider your self educated.

And all of you better not even think about buying anything home electronic with out talking to me first...Never only talk to a sales person....Trust me they really probably do not know. heh (pray for them)

Jay update: well, we are waiting on test results to find out what is going on with the nervous system. Keep praying!

Hmmmm

Well, I spend the entire day taking photos of the mountains beside Santa Fe for the church website. So nothing special today that I can think of. Oh well, I did take one picture with my new cell phone. The quality is not great but it still looks cool.



Flower explanation:
When my brother was in the Hospital the first time he was sick beyond belief (and probably drugged beyond belief) all he could talk about was how much he was worried about Tiffany not being in ministry. He told me that he just saw Tiffany as a flower in the desert, and that she was beautiful even in the desert! So, I took this picture with my new phone for my brother and my wife! This shows you how great of a guy Jay is....laying on a hospital bed totally out of it, and he is thinking of his brother's wife's welfare and not his own....

Love you Jay! Here you go...Tiffany in the desert....BTW: I totally agree with you! :)

P.S. She does have some spikes lower on down past the flower too, ha ha.

Thank yall for your prayers for Jay and God bless you!

Dudes...I have found a great place to go

Well, I don't want to give the site away just yet, but find the Easter egg in this post and I hope that you can enjoy my humor. Tiffany did not get it, but at least I think you all are smart enough to "get it".

!@#$%^&*())(*&^%$#@!^%$@(&!)

(I wonder where the Easter Egg is this time? heh Ok that was bad. I wish I could make a link with out the underline and making it a space so it would be invisible like HomeStar Runner.)

P.S. If anyone would like to help that would be great! Thanks!

Talk about some love!!

Ok saw Chronicles of Riddick today and man one word, "HOLY COW!" (Ok 2 words.)

Yes, there were some cheesy CGI stuff in there, but good Sci-Fi story line and great fun! If you like Dune, The Fifth Element, or even Stargate then you will love this movie! Lots of battles and even a few Scripture references, but you have to be listening for them. I think I listen for scripture all over the place in movies, because I hope some day I can be able to use the clips in a sermon illustration.

Did you like the Easter egg in the last post? Kind of cool huh? I thought so too.

Well have a good night.

BTW: are you tired of the TV guide costing too much money, wish your computer would remind you when your favorite show was on, how about know more info about a show 2 weeks away? Then the ester egg on this post will make you very happy!

Welcome to the roller coaster ride

GREAT NEWS!!! (Man, any more of this and I don't know if I can take it.)

Jay and his wife talked to the Dr. Today and he said that he does not have MCL (Mantle Cell Lymphoma) but going back to the original diagnose of Burkitt's Lymphoma. This is great news, because Burkitts is curable and has a good chance of being taken care of. (Unlike MCL that has no cure). His wife said that probably someone in the Dr.'s office got in trouble for telling Jay and her something that was wrong....So pray for that person too. :)

Man this is killing me. I mean I love roller coasters, but dang emotional ones kind of make me sick, heh.

Thanks for your prayers and keep'em coming. God bless yall!

My brother update

Well, now the Dr.'s are telling my brother that is diagnoses has changed to a form of Lymphoma called MCL (Mantle Cell Lymphoma). This form is only in about 8% of all lymphoma patients in the US and Europe. So please keep your hearts and minds in prayer.

For some basic information you can go here.

Or, for an article that is better news of MCL you can check out an article talking about the new form of working on MCL here.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! This is not as good as the other news, but the new research and experiments going on it give you more hope!

Wow, just found an Easter egg of an Easter egg

May I have your attention!(<---Hint) Well, I wish I could tell you more but if you LISTEN real carefully to A video of one of the Easter Eggs I hid for you in the previous post then you will know what website to go to. You should go and have fun reading the words. Then try another website under the assumption that there must be more of them...at least three of them...only to find out that there are only two and maybe the "wotr" have decided to not pay the internet bill. Criptic, but lots of fun!

I hope you can find it. If not just leave comments and maybe I can give you hints.

Anyone know of other internet hunts like I have just given you? I love this stuff, and maybe we can share some with each other.

BTW: I need to give my props to a friend of mine who introduced me to blogs. Thor, thanks! Here is his blog to keep you entertained.

Also another blog that actually proved to me the power of blog is Alton Brown's blog. He is a awesome food chief on Food Network with his show Good Eats. Kind of a comedy science food show, lots of fun and great food. Anyway here is his blog. Inspiring that a famous (well as famous as a Food TV guy can get) is showing you a picture of him in the hospital! That is great and inspiring. I knew right then the power of the blog and especially for people to see pastors for who they really are....Just like them. :) Thanks Alton, for being real and open!

Free music

I don't know if any of you have heard of shame and shame, I actually first listened to shame back when he was part of a group called shame and Caleb (they rocked BTW, if you ever find it on a store shelf snatch it immediately!!) But I bought the new shame and shame CD just the other day and they are giving away 2 free MP3's if you jjust give them your email, name, and zip code. It is really great Folk Rock Christian (Actuall shame and shame are more mellow than shame and Caleb, so they would probably be more Folk than rock of Folk Rock Christian) But I thought I would throw you the website to DL the MP3's. (Oh also check out the other guy named James Clay. His song Franklin Park is a Christian Counting Crows. I can't even describe how much he sounds like that band. WOW, I actually thought I was listening to TCC when it first came on. Very good stuff.ShaneandShanemusic.com

also I will be adding more and more Easter eggs on the posts if I can remember to do them, heh. be looking for them. The one in this post sends you to one of my favorite bands/groups!!! Oh yeah they are awesome...Primarily in person though. You might even find a video of them somewhere.

Hola!

Good morning everyone. I wanted to give you all an update. My brother is home now and he is doing good. I talked to him for about 30 mins. yesterday until his face started bothering him. By the way if you would like to know more about Bell's Palsy you can go here.

Also, please be in prayer for our church there is stuff going on that really needs your prayers.

BTW: if anyone is interested in reading about the High Definition DVD format war that is brewing then go to The Digital Bits link found over there ----> on the right side of the page. Hit the link and scroll down to his two cents and he has a good write-up about it and also some links that are great at explaining what the heck I am talking about.

Also, I (well Tiffany) just bought a new commentary book written by Tom Wright called Paul for Everyone, The Prison Letters. WOW, this author changed my life and a lot of my theology in Seminary and now he has started a commentary set that is amazing. It is like reading a great sermon for every chunk of scripture in order for all these books. You can see them here @ Amazon.com. (If they get it up) you might be able to read my review of it, heh.

Well, take care and love ya! I have some plants to water and a prayer time to go to, bye bye.

News

Well, I know you all waiting with baited breath and sadly I can say that there is no Baby this time around. Thank you all for your prayers and it just means we get to try it again the next go round. Thank you for all your prayers and we will try to keep you all posted.

I think I now know why some couples choose not to tell everyone about this stuff, because when it does not go the way you want it to then you get everyone and their dog asking you if it went well...And of course when it does not you have to tell everyone the bad news over and over and over and over again. It is almost like reminding you every time that it did not work, heh.

It is a catch 22 though, because you want people praying for you, but you don't want to have to do the dirty work to explain it to everyone that we are not pregnant. So...still trying to think about that one.. What do yall think?

Well good news for those of you who are like me and are Lord Of The Rings Freaks! New Line has told the public the 4 DVD set will be on sell in December!! You can read about that here. You might have to register to read the article, but it is free and then you can read it. If not The Digital Bits has a short summary of the article.

Well we are starting work on the church's website and I think I will be taking lots of pictures for it soon.

In the mean time I will try to take some photos with my new phone and see if I can post them here.

I think I am going to start a project that I have wanted to start for some time now. I have wanted to buy a card digital camera for a long time so I can carry it around with me all over the place so I can just snap shots of people worshiping. I think it would be really cool to have a collection of pictures of people worshiping. I figure as a Pastor I will have quit a collection by the time I have lived a long life. Maybe some of you can take all the pictures and make lots and lots of money and help send my grandkids to college someday. (hint hint)

Well, for those prayer warriors out there please be in prayer for my brother. Monday he was admitted back into the hospital. Aparently he is having problems with his muscles hurting (not just acheing) and not being able to keep too much food down him. I talk to him this morning and he was eating everything is sight, but he is having a little Bales Paulsey (sp?) (loss of muscle control in his face) on the right side of his face. He is on Morphine (sp?) and is waiting on the results to get back from an MRI and Lumbar puncture. (I think they are checking if the cancer has gone into his nervous system). (For those of you who don't know he is receiving Chemo for two different forms of Lymphoma (one in his bone marrow and the other in a few lymph nodes and dispersed areas of his body) The good news is this is the best kinds of Lymphoma you can get, but it really sucks and is not a super happy thing that he is back into the hospital. For those of you who want to know more you can check out here. Both of the forms he is are Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and one is Large B-Cell Lymphoma and the other is Burkitt's lymphoma. You can learn a lot more about high-grade NHL here.

It really taught me a lot about this mean sucka, so if you dare to learn more then you will know as much as me, because these websites were the best I could find when I went searching around.

Thanks for the prayers, Jay, Sheila (his wife), Tiffany and a baby, and also for me who is guest preaching this Sunday. Thank yall and have a wonderful night! God bless and take care!

You got to see this

Ok here is the best looking naked body laying out on a table I have seen in a long time.


Ha Ha. Well, I will try to tell everyone as soon as I can on the blog if Tiffany is pregnant or not. We got artificially "inserted" 2 Wednesdays ago, and we hope to get the blood test results back tomorrow.

BTW: I got a new Cell Phone (T610) and new number today from the church. It is a very nice phone considering it is the Church's and the business Admin got it for free!!! Woo hoo it even has Bluetooth to sync with my computer and pocket pc.

Well that is all for now have a great night. (Oh if you want my new cell phone number just call the house and I will tell you or email me.

Oh and yes I know the Church's current website is bad...very bad...but we are working on that one and a new one should be in place by the end of the summer. It will be based off of

Saddle Back. Talk about a great website. It is totally visitor friendly and I think it is the way all church web sites should look and act. I am looking forward to working with our web design person and getting it up and running soon.

Ok, my wife is calling for me to come to bed, and I must go, so God bless you and take care!

Ok the promised stuff...

Ok well I finally got the photos ready for your viewing, heh.

Ok here is the deal. I just spent 4 days at a Southern Baptist Camp, called "Lifeway Christian Center" (If you have eve been in a Lifeway Christian Bookstore then you know what company I am talking about). So I decided that I needed to go to the bathroom and as I was sitting on the toilet I looked to my left, and normally I do not ever look on the walls of the stall, but something drew me to this one, and you just have to see what I saw.

Then I looked a little high up and saw this.

Needless to say I was shocked! Wow was I really in a bathroom. Man I was really wondering what was on or in the walls of the other stall. Now most of the time if you walk into a public bathroom a magazine is the last thing you want to see, because most of the time it is not a magazine you would desire to read for the articles, so you can image what was going through my mind when I saw this!!!

Well if any of you want to know what this place looked like then you can see the pictures below. It is hard to imagine that this place is just 15 mins away from the High desert of Santa Fe. Needless to say it was a nice retreat.


And this one that is a good picture if I do say so myself, heh


Well, thanks for your patience and I hope you are all doing well. Take care and have a great night!

Sorry for the delay!

Well, sorry that there is such a great delay. Annual Conference has wiped me out and I am still not even feeling like I am back up to normal even after a 20 min nap today.

I got the photos I was wanting to show everyone but I will have to Dr. Them a little and make them smaller so everyone can download them if they like. But man these will at least bring a smile to your face and maybe even crack you up. (I think a lot of my jokes are they way...Either a sympathy smile because you did not get the joke or a crack up...Or a oohhhh because the joke was so cheesy, but I think you will like it.

BTW (By the way) I have found now the proof that Jesus supports the Cub Scouts. Right here! Oh yeah I knew it! Notice he is promoting cub scouts and not boy scouts by his hand.

Annual Conference Dia Dos.

Well the second day of Annual Conference got straight to one of the two big issues that we were going to talk about this year. Today we voted on the Clergy health and Benefit plans. It was crazy! @ two points during the voting we were voting to see if we could vote. If that is not messed up I don't know what is. Man, it was crazy! I wish you could have been there! At times I was just cracking laughing at the whole process and thought to myself how much of this is God and how much is of God? I guess we just have to do the best we can with our humanity and hope that god uses us anyway sometimes, heh.

Well, I have got to share with you what I saw today while I was using the bathroom, but I think I will take a camera with me tomorrow and take a picture of it so you can crack up laughing like I did in the middle of...uh....well... I will just show you the picture tomorrow. (how's that for suspense and hooking you to come back tomorrow? ha ha)

Today was a good day, but it is kind of fun to people watch and especially people listen at annual conference. Some people are the sweetest people in the entire world, and others sure are on an agenda, and I truly wonder if their hearts are in the right place. (So, I just pray for them ;) )

One thing I am noticing while serving St. John's UMC here in Santa Fe and while being around the big wigs of the conference is that I honestly do not care about what people think of me. This is a total shift in thought from High School, but I can honestly say that I serve God and I am secure in my life and relationship with God that I don't care what others think about me. I am willing to talk to the sweet people in their groups, and more than willing to listen with the "opinionated" people in their groups. They are all serving God in one way or the other, and sometimes you just have to look deeper and past the opinions to find their heart. It was a good day, but I am tired and I will be going to bed now.

Another shameless plug....
On my way home from conference tonight I listened to the Chris Tomlin "Not To Us" CD. And man I love this CD!! I worshiped all the way home singing at the top of my lungs and when Tiffany and I got home (she was following me home) I asked her if I was driving crazy and she said, "YES! You were going so fast and crazy!". I smiled and thought to myself yeah your right, but dang I worshiped!! Go get the CD and crank it if you like a CD full of worship songs, and man I just love it!


Support Chris and Grassroots by buying and/or listening to his CD here.

Good day..but tired

Well the first day of Annual conference went well. I got to see lots of friends that I have not seen since the last Annual conference, and even had a few surprizes! (Hi Tood...I saw your mom today and I gave her my business card and hope you came to check this blog out)

Well, the usually opening ceremony occurred with the Bishop giving the "state of the union (in our case conference)address" and he said that the goal for this coming year is that every church have at least one profession of faith (people coming to know Christ for the first time and not just transferring their membership from another church) a 2% increase in membership each year of the next 5 years, the church's people to actually tithe (10% of income goes to the church), and for the entire conference to be lead by the Holy Spirit.

Talk about basic things!!! That is just embarrassing that these would even have to be mentioned as goals when they in reality are to be just expected in every church. But sadly the church as a whole is declining. This is very sad, but not accepted by me and I will not accept anything less that pure excellence in Jesus Christ from all members of any church that I serve. So, if you ever get me as a Pastor you better be ready to either kick me out of jump on board with the direction God is taking His church. OK enough of the pastor coach pep talk, heh

Well, I have decided that I am going to save money on church wear. As most of you church going people know, most pastor wear a robe of some kind and then on those robes they wear a stole. A good history and meaning behind the clothing worn by clergy is here. Well, in the UM church I am not supposed to wear a stole until I am ordained a full Elder (because right now I am a probationary Elder) and then when I am a full elder I have the right to wear a stole to show that I am a fully ordained Elder in full connection) (church lingo for you can do all the pastor stuff in any church not just your local church you are appointed to)

Well, I have always believed that this wall between clergy and laity (preachers and church members) should not have been built up. It is my belief that I am constantly working myself out of a job, because the church needs to be the church and not expecting the pastor to be the church for them. The Holy Spirit that I have in me as a Pastor is the same Holy Spirit that is in you (if you have accepted Christ) and is the same Holy Spirit that was in Jesus. What makes anyone think that I as a pastor am any different than them. Yes, God has given us all gifts some, preachers, some teachers, etc.. But every church has those people and they are all as important as the rest. So I am constantly trying to find a way to show by servant leadership that the church must be the church and not keep holding the hand of the pastor. One way I thought was to wear an alb (see the second link for robe above) because it looks more like something a servant would wear and more like something most people think of monks wearing. I thought this would be a good symbol of showing that I am trying to humble myself to the work of God and that the congregation can and should join me in following God. But then I got to thinking.... Hey I don't have to go buy an alb, and I don't even have to go buy and wear stoles...

A perfect way to symbolize the servanthood of Christ was to represent the Christ that washed his disciples feet would be to wear a towel around my neck on my robe. I know it would look stupid and people would ask if I just hot out of the shower that morning or if I showered with my robe one, but just like taking my Id picture the way I did it would allow me an opportunity to share the meaning behind it and hopefully better educate the church and visitors to be servants in Christ serving Him and others in all that we do. So, 2 years from now you visit me and I am wearing a towel you will know what I am symbolizing and attempting to do with my new stole. Also I can get all kinds of towels, red for Pentecost, white for weddings or Easter or Christmas Day, purpose, blue, green etc.. For all occations, and it will be cheap!!! Oh yeah I am getting excited now.

Well I will not even get into my thought of the contextual class I had to take as a probation member of the conference. It is a class to show and educate all the new pastors of the multi-cultural diversity that is found in New Mexico (for example, 300 different Indian Nations, Spanish, Mexican, Cuban, Philapino (sp?), white, oil people, Asian, African American, military, etc....) They discussed them all and then talked about how to best ministry to each culture. I learned a lot, but I was a little confused about the Native American mistrust among the Anglo. I mean sure the white settlers totally screwed them all over a while back, but in all honesty I never did that to them, I don't even know what was done to them, but they expect me to apologize for what my rude selfish ancestors did to them. Hey, I have no problem saying that I am sorry for what they they did, I totally agree that it was wrong, but why do you have to be mad at ME? Especially when we all claim that Jesus Christ is our focus and center of our lives. A life that is based on forgiveness and healing, love and grace, but you still want me to apologize for something I personally did not do.

Well, as you can see I have a few issues. This does not at all mean I am saying I do not like or love Native Americans, it is just the opposite, I love them so much as Christians, and especially as non-Christians, but I have always believed the key to helping non-Christians to see and realize their creator God loves them and desires a relationship with them to to first develop a relationship with them first and show them what a healthy loving grace filled forgiveness filled relationship looks like and then help them over time by loving them to develop their own relationship with God. This is true of Native Americans, Mexican, Spanish, Asian, Rich, Poor, Male, Female, human or space alien.

It is all about relationship and we as Christians must be willing to drop our protective and safe bubles we live in and love the unloved even if it means years and years of frustrating patience. So, I say bring it on angry Native Americans, I will love your socks off and help you and me to allow God to work in us and through us so we can do the will of God. Off for now and see you tomorrow night! Love yall!

Annual Conference today (which means....

I will probably not be able to update my bolg for a few days) But I wil try any way. It just depends on when we get back each day and how tired I am from sitting through boring church business stuff...and a little bit of worship.

BTW: I will be getting a new cell phone soon and when that happens I hope I will be able to get more photos up here. that way I will not have to "borrow" another vote blog sign and just take one while driving, heh.

Also I have come up with an idea that I think will make things intyeresting in this blog. Since I love Homestar so much I might try putting easter eggs in my posts everynow and then, but so far I have only come up with on way that I do that. I will try it in a later post, ah heck I will try it in this one. Good luck finding it!

(Well, the easter egg is a cheesy way of doing it, but it works kind of, heh here is a hint at what you will find when you find it: Lets just say this is a friendly reminder of what it looks like to be touched by God)

Home Star Runner Cracked me up today

This might be a late posting for some of you diehard Homestar runner fans out there, but you have to check out the site right now.

Homestar Runner "It's Dot Com!"


Check out:
*The Cheat Commandos titled "more commandos"
*Puppet Jam 2 with They Might Be Giants
*and The Cheatar "Be sure to keep clicking on the Cheatar and then you are treated to Limozeen playing a song with the huge guitar. Man it is big!

BTW: Just in case you are a hard core guy or gal I would highly recommend to you any of the Space Ghost Coast to Coast shorts with Brak in them. Just flat out great classic stuff. Let me see if I can find a link for you to find out more info....

THIS sound wave is a very small sample of what one can expect when they are speaking of the genius of Brak. There are millions of fansites out there dealing with Brak so here one I found:

Brak's Scrap Book

On a second trip around the net I found out that there are very few actually updated sites about bra(because Space Ghost Coast-to-coast is no longer running on Cartoon Network, but Brak Presents The Brak Show Staring Brak I think is still on Adult Swim every now and then), and I am now showing my age, but oh well if you find anything dealing with Brak at least listen to it, chances are you will crack up. Take care and God bless!

Voting day today.

Here in Santa Fe and I am sure other places around the world (mostly smaller cities) we have the actual people running for the various offices standing at major intersections around town holding signs saying vote for me. Waving at people etc... (see previous post of a sing for Blog.

Well, I got to thinking... What if you, me, and Christian just stood on a street corner with a sign that said, "God loves you!" or "God loves you...And so do I", or maybe even, "God loves you...Any questions?"

I think that would rock, especially around now when there would be a political person standing right beside you hold up their sign, ha ha.

I remember reading somewhere of a guy that did social experiments. And one of them was to pay random people $40 to hold a sign that either said "yes" or "no" and to picket on road, with the "yes" on one side and the "No" on the other. They had pictures and man that cracked me up. They got like 10-20 people picketing with yes and no signs... Oh man, that would rock, but I wonder what kind of response you would get with "God loves you" signs. Well, I am late again for work (this time from lunch) ha ha. Take care and know God loves you!

Good morning!

I probably should not say good morning because most of you will probably no read this in the morning time, and if you do then probably not the morning of the 1st. I could say good June 1st, but it still will be in history. I supposed like most things, but what really gets on my nerves is when you watch a great movie and then it has a political joke or some kind of reference to something going on in that time period, and then I know when my kids watch the movie a couple 5-15 years down the road they will not get the joke. I think timeless movies are better, but then again some things that were written a long time ago that might have jokes or plot lines that satired (sp?) the times are still good today. Like Revelation, or some of Shakespeare's works (not to versed in that, but I am sure some were) I hear that Alice in Wonderland was written talking about the government/ruler of the time period (while also on drugs? Is that right) What about.......(must.....come.....back......to what I wanted to write about.....

Maybe I should call this blog "stream of conscience" ha ha.

Well, I just really wanted to tell everyone what a beautiful day it is today. I am late for work (hence no links in the post) But I wanted to tell you that I prayed for everyone reading this post and I hope your day is made just a little brighter because of God being with you! Take care and God Bless!