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happy 4th of july

bang! zoom! go the fireworks!

]]> that's what the washington nationals' radio announcer, charlie slowes, says after one of their (rare) wins. i hope all is well with you, we have had a good week with dad in town watching after jake. he took us out to eat each night with his 'vacation money' in lieu of eating in. either would have been fine, but it was a welcome treat.

last saturday (the last day of holding a garage sale to clear out a lot of clutter), i got up and made omelets for lindsay, stephanie, and myself. i had recently seen a food network episode with some tips and they turned out really good! (for the first time ever...) i enjoy making breakfast, but i could never get omelets right - they'd always break or turn out messy.

now that i'm out of school (but still working on this last denominational modular course online), i've been watching a movie almost every night of the week (well, we played games and watched tv with dad this week) so you might miss some as i try to update the sidebar on my front page even when i don't post. i'm very close to being done with both the old and new afi top 100 lists and then i'll work on that other list i'm monitoring. after that, i recently got this book to keep me busy for years!

p.s. regarding pictures, i have some and someday i'll get around to adding 2007-2008 to the gallery :-/

school play

jake was in a play at school wednesday evening!

]]> his class dramatized the classic book 'the very hungry caterpillar' and it was very cute. they had one girl as the caterpillar and other kids as the food item and then they had a scene change and brought out a bigger kid with a stuffed caterpillar costume to play the stuffed caterpillar. then the caterpillar goes to sleep and turns into a beautiful butterfly that was played by jake! the costume they had for him was really pretty. jake was a bit scared once he realized how many people were out there (he came in under the cloak of a cocoon), but we were clapping for him so he made it to the end without getting freaked out :-)

the end of the road

well, t-ball ended suddenly last night in the bottom of the 5th.

]]> jake's white sox team, the 4th best team, were playing the rangers, the 5th best team and led the entire game by just a few runs. a very close and exciting game for sure. we went into the bottom of the 5th down by 3 runs (remember you can score 6 instead of 4 in the 5th and final inning). then, amazingly, jake's team was shut out. jake actually made the final out. good job by the rangers. enjoy wasting your friday night getting thrashed by the cubs.

awards ceremony is saturday at noon. i guess jake will get a little trophy. oh yeah - we're having a yard sale this saturday and next to clear some room for our new housemates steph (from lifegroup) and brooke (my sister). they'll both be living with us until at least december. mainly just selling some toys and games a few old electronincs. we already sold the elliptical (aka the clothes rack) last weekend.

slow goes it

so i've got this online class for the denomination to finish out my educational requirements (yes, i know, one more class...)

]]> the evenings have been pretty routine lately between relaxing with the family with dinner and tv, the occasional t-ball game (they won their last regular season game on saturday and their first playoff game is this thursday (they're already in the 2nd round via a bye for having the 4th best record)), watching movie (gotta update that list), and working on this online class. the class will be over by the end of next month and i guess then i will finally be truly free in the evenings.

i'll let you know how thursday night's game (against probably the 5th best team) goes!

happy father's day!

happy father's day (and to mothers last month...) to all the dads and gents out there! thanks for everything.

blessings

so i neglected to mention the graduation party and gifts...

]]> i was blessed to receive a few cards with gifts tucked inside, a fun wii game, an asbury diploma frame (for whenever the paper diploma comes), a 38 volume (yes, you read that right!) set of early church fathers writings, and a nikon d40 (a dslr camera finally!). i've had a blast playing with it all already and i'm looking forward to getting a few things from amazon.

I'M DONE!!

graduation finished. finally !! 6 years (3 year program, working full-time, school half-time, etc.). woohoo! now let's find a church....

el finito and a wedding

so i finished my final assignment for seminary (besides walking across a stage) a week ago.

]]> it's hard to believe it's all over and it is still sinking in. i stayed up late last thursday night to wrap up my final paper (a not-so threatening book report) and then we got up early to leave for a big trip to st. louis and kansas city for my cousin josh's wedding. well, the driving was big, but not the time off. we drove to stl on friday and spent the day going up in the arch and visiting the city. we went to the cardinals game vs. the rays and had a really good time. one lesson for wearing braces - don't eat mustard. doh!

on saturday, we pulled a round trip from stl to kc with the wedding and reception all afternoon. we stopped for meals and switched up drivers so it wasn't too bad driving across missouri and back. sadly, we didn't take the time to drive through kc or across the border to kansas so we'll have to make another trip some day for L to cross it off her list of states visited.

on sunday, we hit the road and drove back to lexington. we just stopped for lunch, but with the time zone change we didn't get back til 3:30p and were pretty zonked.

almost done.

with everything. almost.

]]> i'll have to backdate a post or two to catch up about hillbilly days in pikeville, ky and jake's t-ball season so far.

catsup

why do people spell ketchup that way? weird. anyways, this is a backdated post to try to fill some gaps.

]]> on the weekend of april 19, we drove to pikeville, ky to visit 'hillbilly days' with dad and his friend who grew up there. pikeville may be just miles from virginia and west virginia, but it feels like any other small town with all the normal big chains - wal-mart, lowe's, applebee's, etc. the drive was beautiful down a mountain parkway and at the actual festival there was great bluegrass music and all kinds of food everywhere (i had a greek gyro). the main attraction is the plethora of crafts and vendors selling things. i got a real leather belt with my name and some crosses leatherworked into it (that's really what delayed this post - i wanted a picture with a caption 'upping my hillbilly street cred').

the other big thing for over the past month has been t-ball games. with school wrapping up and t-ball, we haven't been able to go to the gym in a while (hopefully things will be back to normal after graduation). jake's team is pretty good! one of the big things in t-ball is a max of 4 runs per inning so any time you can hold your opponent to less than that in an inning, you're doing really good. jake doesn't care about fielding, but he can get his hits and runs fast enough that he always gets on base. sometimes he needs a little help getting to each base, but he's pretty much got that down pat too. his games are really fun and this has been an interesting and good way to get in better touch with our community around us!

preaching twice in a morning

wasn't too bad. i was blessed with the opportunity to fill in at louisville first church of the nazarene this past sunday.

]]> the pastor was out of town on vacation and i had around 10 days to prepare. somewhat close to what my normal schedule might be someday (preaching weekly, but looking ahead to the next week a bit). they got us a room in town so we wouldn't have to drive in that morning and then a family took us out to lunch afterwards.

they had a video camera / dvd production all set up and i walked out with a copy of the first service (haven't watched it yet) and they're mailing the second service. the audio should be on their website this week and i'll let you know when it is available. the sermon that resulted ended up hitting on quite a few of my major issues that i stump about. grace over works, equality among all people, our caring Lord we serve, and community. i'll just let you hear it sometime. i really liked it and i may send it out to prospective churches whenever that time comes. no news yet...

new mower and yardwork

on saturday, jake's first ever t-ball game was rained out so we'll try again this upcoming saturday. however, L's parents still came up ...

]]> to visit for the day and they brought us their riding lawnmower because they got a new one! hooray!

i was at the new coffeehouse working on sunday's sermon and between the time that L called to let me know they had arrived and the time that i got home (i worked a little bit more, packed up my stuff, but that was about it), my father in law had already mowed almost the entire yard. including the non-sod! that will be a welcome change from the 4 hour mows across a few days.

with the yard done, i went ahead and used the weed-eater all around the house, playset, and some spots in the yard. my arm was killin' me later! after lunch (chinese delivered mmm), L and her dad went and got a scoop of black mulch and a kiddie pool for jake (since they had the truck). the front of the house looks really nice now! however, with the new lawnmower in the garage, i now have to park the corolla outside. alas...

busy times

even though last week was spring break and i still don't have my morning class this week, but things are still crazy busy.

]]> work is crazy and stressful; we're having a status meeting every morning now because of some ... issues (can't really say more obviously). i like meetings, but not where i'm on the spot every morning to divine answers.

i haven't mentioned it yet, but i got a call thursday evening to preach at louisville first church of the naz this sunday. i'm looking forward to finalizing the sermon. the scripture references are here: easter 4a and the general thrust of the sermon is on the Lord being Shepherd both in our lives and through our Christian communities. should be fun!

spring break

so this week has been spring break, or as we call it: reading week.

]]> i was able to do quite a bit of homework this past weekend so i've ended up going to bed around 10 every night and getting some extra sleep. it's hard because each night i have things i know i could do or work on, but i have a window of opportunity to get rested up for the final sprint to the finish. i only have one lecture next week (tuesday evening) so this has ended up more like a two week break. that leaves that final sprint for the 5 weeks of april 14 to may 15. i should be completely done that day even though graduation is not until may 24 (orlando campus graduation is may 17). yeah, mark it down. you're invited to the party afterwards!

weekend

all the driving for the funeral and burial went as planned...

]]> thursday - up to cinci and back for the funeral. it was a wonderful service and really solidified my desire and anticipation of becoming a pastor. dad drove up the previous night and watched jake and then we went out for a delicious dinner at three suns bistro on thursday night.

friday - down to jamestown for the burial service. we arrived plenty early so i showed lindsay around the wood family cemetary and farm a little bit and then we went back and drove around jamestown some. around a dozen of us carried the casket from the hearse to the plot. it wasn't that heavy at all with that many people helping. the church had a potluck for everyone that afternoon (as did the church in cinci) and afterwards we just hung out with the family and talked and watched a bit of basketball. nice and relaxing.

saturday - we spent the night at the motel down the road and then got our central / eastern time messed up and ended up on the road an hour early saturday morning. that gave us time to stop for breakfast at shoney's in cookeville before doing a bit of easter clothes shopping in nashville. we found me two great suits and three sets of shirts and ties. i doubt i'll wear a suit every sunday, but that doubled my number of suits. we went over to dad's, picked up jake (dad took jake to nashville on friday morning when we all left the house), and then we all headed out to my dad's parents for my grandfather's 70th birthday party. nearly all the family was there and it was wonderful to see them! then, we went and picked up my mom's mom from her assisted living place in mt. juliet and two hours later we were finally back in jamestown - whew!

sunday - we were able to sleep around 10 hours (10p to 8a) before getting ready for easter sunday service at my uncle's church (well, we slept as good as you can with the three of us in a queen bed). sunday school (taught by my cousin) and the worship service were great and it was so nice to be with family. after a delicious dinner, prepared mostly in part by my wonderful aunt, we hit the road and returned home by a slightly different route that only took around 2.5 hours. we went straight to the mexican place for dinner because after a whirlwind weekend like that we sure didn't feel like cooking :-)

a good night's rest and now we're back at it here on monday. lindsay has 3 patient days, jake has 3 t-ball practices, i have class and homework, and the plan is to go to knoxville this weekend for a baby shower and my father-in-law's birthday.

whew!!