Weekend Fun

One of the huge blessings in my life is to have a chance to have some family time on the weekends. There are so many things we like to do... but don't always get to do them all. We have a really nice park with a 1.25 mile walking path... Daisy (our Golden Retriever) loves walks around the park. The boat is always a hit... we love skiing and tubing (gas prices put a bit of a damper on this activity...) Six Flags is always fun.... Volleyball outside... Motorcycle rides....

Take some time to enjoy family time this weekend...

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Brain Teaser - Answer

First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate.You can try this experiment at home with appropriate supervision.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Brain Teaser

A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a juice glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it."If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?

I'll post the answer tomorrow.....

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was pretty nice (except for the abundance of rain.) THANK YOU to all the military who help make this country the incredible place it is.

We took the family to Six Flags Saturday and had a blast. We went out to eat a few times, including Orange Sherbert at Dairy Haven in Caseyville. The kicker was getting some BIG projects done around the house..... leveled / fertilized / seeded the back yard (Thanks Kyle and Jeff), and totally cleaned out and organized the garage. (This makes a wife happy :-) Of course, there was some grillin.... Thanks Greg! Hope you had a great weekend too.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Being Christ-Like

I'm super pumped about a story I heard a few days ago. The short version is this....



One of the LifePoint people (who happens to be connected in a Lifegroup) had some friction with another family because their kids were not gelling well. There was some misunderstanding that resulted in some harsh words. The LifePointer I'm talking about took the effort later to make a call and make sure the tension was eased. It's this kind of action that indicates a person's desire to be Christ-like.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Cook The King

David Cook - the rocker from Blue Springs, Missouri is the American Idol! Sweet! To all the broken-hearted Teeny Boppers out there... Na na na na na! OK, just between us... even though I wanted and predicted that Cook would win, I was just sure that the judges had swayed America to put Archuleta on top. But, the better man ended up winning. So, who was your favorite of the top 12? Cook was at the top for me from early on... Of course, Kristi Lee Cook was way up there too.... primarily because she is beautiful! I asked Vange if I could put Kristi on my list of girls I plan to marry some day... her reply was simply "Whatever..." Hope you enjoyed AI this season.



Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

David Who?

We set Tivo for American Idol and are just sitting down to watch. I'm just sayin... David Cook is gonna SMOKE David Archuleta... That's my prediction. Alright kids... Let's see what they brought...... Anyone got a prediction?

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Talkin' Trash

Last night, the Lifepoint family had our first picnic. Since we run 3 identical services every Sunday, it's hard for people to meet others and build relationships. The picnic was sweet! There was ALL kinds of food..... pork steaks, brats, burgers, hot dogs, and every side dish and dessert you can imagine. There were a bunch of games going on too. There was a kickball game, some washers, bocca ball???, a soccer goal for the little ones, a playground, a monster hill that the kids rolled down, basketball hoops, and my personal favorite..... volleyball. (I'm sure Bob will post some pics on his blog...)

We had a little "30 and over" versus "the young punks" volleyball game. I was not sure how the game would turn out, but (in faith) I started the trash talkin'. I am (unfortunately) in the 30 and over group. Every time one of the "punks" missed a ball or hit it out, I promptly shouted out "You are our best player!" Side note: I'm not really sure if Jesus trash talked when he played games..... I may need to ask for forgiveness..... Of course, the 30 + group whooped the punks... twice.

If you don't live near Glen Carbon, IL or if you're not part of the Lifepoint family, all I can say is I'm sorry... you are missing out. We are a bunch of ordinary people who are collectively connected to the extraordinary God! I look forward to many meaningful long-term relationships with a bunch of Lifepointers....

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Quality Control

Every week I assemble a pack for each band member at Lifepoint and deliver them to everyone. Included in the pack is an audio CD of the songs we are doing that week, a Notes page, a Set List, and the actual Charts for each song. I'm usually very thorough in my accuracy in designing and facilitating the music each week. This week, however, I had to fire the Quality Control manager for the packs (of course... I AM the QC person..... so I fired myself...) We are doing a new song by Big Daddy Weave called FOR WHO YOU ARE. In my iTunes library I have 2 songs titled FOR WHO YOU ARE..... One by Big Daddy Weave and one by Hillsong. Guess which one I put on the disc.... You guessed it.... The one from Hillsong..... I intended to load the BDW song and the chart is for the correct song. Live and learn!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Find the word

Alright.... that moment has come. You know... the moment all parents face.....I was trying to help Haley with a school project and got stumped.... The task was to find a word that starts with "e" and ends with "v". Anyone? Anyone?

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Blessing In Disguise

Have you ever been handed a situation in life that you dreaded, only to find out later that it was a huge benefit? Early in my professional career, I experienced a Reduction In Force (RIF) from McDonnell Douglas.... Basically I was let go. At the time, I was crushed. I took 2 different short-term jobs just to keep our family supported. After 4 interviews, and a 9 month process, I was hired at AT&T. When I look back, I can confidently say that I would not be near the salary that I'm at now, and I would still have double the drive time that I do now if I were still at McDonnell Douglas.

Here I am again - forced into a job (or place, or situation) that I'm not thrilled about (Kim, you know the pain...). Here is my attitude this time - "God, what part of YOUR story do I get to play through this situation?"

Early in his leadership at LifePoint, Bob spoke about the idea that God is always at work in our lives. We should be looking for Him in all kinds of situations. OK God, here we go... my trust is in YOU!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Cartoons

I got a chance to hang with Dawson and Griffin last night and watch a little Scooby Doo. It made me think about all the cartoons I used to love as a kid.

Bugs Bunny
Tom and Jerry (which my boys love)
Flintstones
Jetsons
Batman (the boys dig this one too)
Schoolhouse Rock (LOVED the theme song)
Speed Racer (yes, I'm going to see the movie)

What are some of your favorites?

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God/ Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Idol Withdrawal

I'm suffering... Tuesday nights have been filled with "Date Night" and American Idol. Last night I got neither... What a bummer. Tonight I plan to OD on AI.

Last night was pretty cool though because I got to go to my girls' soccer game. Of course, that was after mowing about 5 lawns.... After the game I finished assembling the music packs for the band at LifePoint and jumped on the motorcycle to deliver them. The ride was refreshing, but too late (since I get up at 4:45 am now....) It's all good!

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Brown Baggin'

Holy Cow.... I have not regularly taken my lunch to work ever in my life.... There has always been a day here and a day there, but never consistently. I started my new position at AT&T yesterday, and elected to only take 30 minutes for lunch. (The schedule is pretty sweet... 6 am - 2:30 pm) Yesterday I took a Bologna sandwich, and today it is Peanut Butter. I had to go to Wal-Mart last night and buy a new lunch box (they didn't have Batman... or Jimmie Johnson..... Bummer.) The soft lunch box I had was a bit difficult to bungee down to the back seat of my motorcycle. The new box works great. I'm now an official Brown Bagger. I hope 2 positives (besides being at work for 1/2 hour less) come from the 30 minute brown bag lunch... 1) Gonna save a few bucks... 2) Gonna lose a few pounds. We'll see.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

Morning Person

Well.... I'm not much of a morning person. I actually do most of my thinking / reading / music stuff, etc from about 9 pm til midnight. That's not workin' for me anymore... The alarm is set for 4:45 AM - YUK! My new position at AT&T starts at 6 am in downtown St Louis. There is an upside though... I'm done most days by 2:30. This should equate to more family time - Rock on! So, it looks like I'm becoming a morning person - against my will! I'm sure it will all work out fine.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / Family / and Friends with every word and every action.

TGI.....

Thank God it's..... Friday? What about Sunday.... or Thursday? OK, I get it... Friday - the end of the work week.... But is that the only day we are thankful for? Last night (a Thursday night) I got to lay down with Dawson (my 5 yr old son) and just talk, laugh, pray, and simply enjoy some time together..... So, yesterday I was TGIT. Take today and be thankful.. Look for God's hand in what you do today.

Live loud, live intentionally, and love God / family / and friends with every word and every action.