a trip to the dentist

Kim's been wanting me to go to the dentist for quite some time. So today I went. After the initial interview with the dentist and the usual xrays, I settled into the other chair for the cleaning.

"When was the last time you had your teeth cleaned?" asked the dental hygienist.
"Ummm, I think it was October, maybe, October of 2000."
"Oh! Wow, 8 years is a long time. We may have our work cut out for us..."

I don't like to have metal pointy things jabbed into my gums any more than the average USAmerican. The prospect of pain makes me start to sweat. The idea of discovering a decayed tooth by jabbing it with a metal pick does not appeal to me.

But the hygienist was pretty surprised at the good shape my teeth and gums are in. Zero cavities, minimal tartar build up, next to no bleeding as she picked at my gumline...She even encouraged me to keep up the good work.

All except the part about not visiting the dentist for 8 years. Yeah, not that part...but I do have mad brushing skills.

kim comes home today

well, tonight, actually...

So after the guitar class and supper, we've been a busy family cleaning rooms, putting dirty clothes into the hampers, putting clean clothes into the dressers, and giving the stinky dog a bath.

It's fun to clean up, in a way. I feel good when everything is put away, in it's own space.

I wasn't always a big fan of cleaning, and there are lots of other things that I would rather spend my time on, but it's not all bad...

Thanks, Mom!

my brother (in law) the pilot

This is Joe's work vehicle. And you thought your company minivan was a great deal. Read a good article here.

Joe was one of the first volunteers we recruited in our student ministry here in State College. He and his brother Sam had spent the summer prior to our arrival living in a local town with other college students with the intention of living missionally. Sam and Joe were instrumental in shaping our ministry, recruiting other great leaders, and inspiring students to follow Jesus.

Fast forward almost ten years and you'll find Joe, now married to Kim's sister, being a dad to Wes, and the proud new dad. Joe's got a heart for ministry, and that no where more evident than in his own household. I love to talk with Joe about the state of the church, the transformation that Jesus continues to lead us to, and how that all plays out in the day-to-day. Joe is good with his hands (woodworking, or pretty much any thing else around the house/garage), good with his head (teaches pilots to fly, teaches college students to follow Jesus), and good with his heart (he loves his family).

I know--it sounds like I have a man-crush on Joe. This didn't start out to be a How Great Is This Guy piece. But the simple truth is that Joe is a man who is living by his convictions and letting Jesus shape his priorities. We all need someone like him in our lives to help us get after it...

in the homestretch

OK, Monday morning, and we're one day closer to The Return of the Mom!

Kim's been out of town since last Tuesday, and we've been pretty good for the most part. She left us pretty well set for food, and I had a "paint-by-the-numbers" schedule to follow for the kids each day. Nobody missed a drama class or went to school without food or clothes, although their were a few close calls!

The kids have been great, and we've gotten some huge help from some of our friends. Actually, some of our closest friends are more like family. We've tossed around the idea of adding a room onto the house for Delma!

I think that we've hit on a couple of the pieces to the life-puzzle: have a good plan, and find a support system to help...

All that said, we're ready for Kim to come home!

friday splendidness

today was pretty fun! Levi was out of school today (do they ever go a full week?), and we made the most of the day off.

I took Levi with me to meet a college student at our standard breakfast spot, The Waffle Shop--a State College original. After breakfast we headed home to wait the invasion of middle school guys intent on kickin' my booty. I've never been much of a video gamer, and that fact has never been more obvious than today.

I can talk smack with the best of them, but today I got owned (or pwned as they say) by some middle school monsters in Halo 3. I can't get it together, even playing with a partner in a 2 v 1 shootout. I felt bad for the kid who got stuck with me!

But we had a blast. Pizza, video games, air soft, and 8 stinky guys smelling up the basement...does it get much better than that?

i wasn't gonna say nothin', but...

I was going to let this one roll past, but I can't do it.

I'm home. It's late Thursday night. I'm from Georgia. I miss certain things about the South.

CMT is running this show about the 20 Greatest Redneck Moments. And I'm watching this show with a big dumb grin on my face. I think I just saw some of my friends from high school...

You don't have to be from the South to be a redneck, either, just so you know...

a pretty good day, overall

Well, Sadie was sick today, which meant that I got to hang out at home and try to get my work done. That actually wasn't a bad thing.

Tonight's XStream went well. We talked about Jesus telling his followers that they (WE!) are the salt of the earth.

Eugene Peterson translates that passage like this:

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

That's got some serious implications for those of us who value the words of Jesus.

During our worship/singing, our leaders handed each student two pretzels--one salty, one unsalted. Of course, they began to munch without an invitation! We talked about the differences and noted that the salt was unmistakable, and that salt tastes good on a pretzel and eventually makes people thirsty.

We have the incredible privilege and purpose of pointing out the presence of God to our friends. We're to live in such a way that God is un-missable.

That's a pretty cool thing!

a family flurry of activity

This week holds some definite challenges.

Kim is in Houston for a Mary Kay leadership conference, which is great for her. It means that I'm responsible for getting the kids fed and out the door in the mornings, and running the Mom-taxi this week. Kim left a great lineup of meals in the fridge, which should keep us well fed. I think I can handle keeping the kids in clean clothes.

I'm not sure how much time I'll get to do the stuff that I normally do during the week, but that's OK.

I've gotten lots of offers from some great folks who can help out with rides and kid-watching this week, but I honestly look forward to being more in touch with my kids. Kim usually gets to be the one who sends them off each morning, welcomes the kids home from school, talks about the events of the day, checks up on homework...I'll get a chance to do all that this week.

Sadie was home from school today with a killer cold, and may miss tomorrow. I had a doctor's appt today to get my ailing knee looked at, and an MRI this evening after the guitar class that I teach. Levi had a meeting about auditions for the school musical.

Kim left me a great Master Schedule for the week. It's plenty full, but should help us get through the week.

If I'm a little sketchy with the blog this week, you'll know why...

phone news--a decision has been reached!

OK, so I took the time today to dive into the world of comparing cell phone plans today. It took most of the afternoon, including a discouraging 32 minute hold/transfer situation with Nextel/Sprint. I was all set to move away from Nextel, although we've been customers since 2002.

Then I got Kevin from Customer Retention on the line. He beat the best deal that I could find on a family share plan that would give us the minutes that we need, plus unlimited text messaging. I pulled the trigger, sealed the deal, and quickly called Kim to tell her the news.

Her response: Great! What new phones are we getting?
Me: Ummm, we didn't talk about new phones. Or length of contract...hang on, I'll call Kevin back.

But I didn't get Kevin--I got Cody. And Cody is without a doubt the man.

His first question was, "What deal did you get? Cause I can beat that deal."

Minutes later I was looking at a deal that included the above mentioned minutes and messaging, plus free mobile to mobile, and got a sweet deal on not one, but two Palm Centro phones. We opted to pass on the data plan, but we have 30 days to try the phones and see if the deal works for us. Even better, Cody knocked an additional 5 bucks off the price of the plan per month!

Not too shabby...I'm thinking of adding Cody to our Christmas card list.

Procrastination is going down! Now I have to get Levi's passport paperwork done so that we can fly off to the Dominican Republic for a Spring Break mission trip!

birthdays and bad calls

Today was my wife's birthday, and I'm not saying which birthday it was. Let it suffice to say that she has declared that she has reached a holding pattern of birthdays! She celebrated with her small group tonight after House Party by taking in a chick flick, leaving me to head home to be with the kiddos.

House Party was interesting tonight. We've got a set of twins in our high school group, and tomorrow is their birthday. The young lady went to Pittsburgh with her mom and a couple of friends. The young man was all set to have a party at his house, but that idea got squashed due to some extenuating circumstances. I called his house this week to check on some things and learned that there would be no party. So we made a couple of changes in our House Party plan for tonight and hosted a little birthday bash for him. Lots of Xbox360 on one big screen, the Giants-Packers game on the other big screen, mucho cake, and tons of friends hanging out. It was a pretty good night.

Unless you are a Packers fan.

I mistakenly predicted that Favre and the Pack would put up 21 points, and that the weather, the fans, and the mystique of Lambeau Field would spell the end of the Giants' run through the playoffs.

I went so far as to guarantee this to a certain young lady--a young lady who wears a Green Bay hat with a great deal of pride and panache. I told M that if Favre and the Pack didn't get things done I'd pay for my wife to take her out for some consolation dessert.

Never before have I wished that I wasn't springing to cover one of our students to share some grub with Kim...

So the birthday parts were pretty cool. The game...not so much.

decisions, decisions...

So I'm not a very good decision maker. That is to say, I have a difficult time making decisions. I don't think that the decisions I make are bad ones; I simply have a tough time arriving at a decision with frustrating regularity.

Here are two examples:
1. "Where do you want to go to eat?" Hate it. I'd much rather react to a suggested dining establishment. Kim and I have come to the conclusion that if we don't already know where we're going to eat, we eat at home! Neither one of us is much good at making the call while in motion.

2. Cell phone provider. We've been with Nextel for years, and our contracts are up. We've been considering our options, but, honestly, I'm a little overwhelmed. It seems like it ought to be pretty easy to figure out the best deal for us, but I just let things roll on from month to month without making a change. The variables and options are too much to weigh out in my mind. I am open to suggestions, if you're feeling generous.

I'm sure that there's a logical reason for my struggles. I've been through all the personality profiles and strengthsfinder things. But at the end of the day, I feel like I still have a tough time pulling the trigger on decisions.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a simple way to make decisions? The Old Testament priests had the Urim and Thummim to help make decisions, and the early church fathers used a combination of prayer and casting lots to choose between Matthias and Joseph (called Barsabbas, also known as Justus) when it came time to choose an apostle to take the place of Judas Iscariot.

Anybody got a Urim or Thummim I can borrow?

a backwards glance

In the process of cleaning out some of our old stuff for the yearly Spring yard sale, Kim found our very first picture album of Levi's life. I haven't seen these pictures in 12 years.

Man, have I changed!

I was a chubby, round-faced guy! I had some serious 90's round glasses, and apparently I wore a tie to church every week. We lived in Derry, PA, and I was the youth pastor/senior pastor of a little church.

Fast forward to the me of today--40 pounds lighter, lasik surgery, and no more ties as a bonus!

It was pretty cool to see the changes, and to remember all the friends who shared the birth of our first child with us.

It's good to look back and see where we were. It gives us context for what God is doing in our lives now.

How about you? Can you track the things that God is doing? Do you remember where you've been from and the people who shaped your life? Good stuff...

a change in the family situation

Kim has decided to relocate our children. Tonight. Without my prior knowledge.

No, she's not packing up and leaving me! She's been wanting to start getting the house ready for the arrival of our baby from China. We still don't know when we're going to get her, but Kim's been working on a revised bedroom plan. Phase 1 started today with the girls and Levi switching rooms.

I had no idea. When I got home from XStream tonight (which went pretty well, btw) I headed downstairs to check in on the girls. You can imagine my surprise when Levi sat up in the bed with that "hunh? what...Dad...um..." reaction. All of his clothes are all over the room. The girls are safely tucked into Levi's room.

Kim and the girls must have worked their collective booties off to make that happen tonight. There's a lot of putting away to be done, but they made a lot of progress.

I'm not one who usually likes change, but this one doesn't look like it's going to affect me too much. And I'm ok with that!

staff fitness day

It started with a weird email from Dan, our lead pastor and fearless leader.

Let me preface this by saying that Dan was selected to be part of an elite training group comprised of a handful of pastors from around the good ol' USofA. He had daily contact (read accountability) with some well-known fitness coach. He had to workout every day, monitor what he ate, and connect with his coach by phone at some point every dang day for 40 days. I know that he lost some weight, but I don't think he got to the point where he enjoyed it--at least that's what he said!

Anyway, back to the email. Dan shot out a 2 sentence email last night telling us to wear some loose-fitting workout clothes to our staff meeting today. Rob Oshinskie, the president of Victory Sports, came to teach is about fitness and total wellness. Rob is a great guy, passionate about Jesus and the church. He talked to us about diet, exercise, and spiritual life for a while, then moved into teaching us some stretches.

Our staff is hilarious, and it was fun doing all the stretches with our team. The snippets of conversation as we tried to follow his moves were priceless. We've been offered a great deal on a group membership.

Who knows, maybe we'll all take the plunge. Staff meeting on the elliptical machines?

I thought I was done

but there's more to share. I have to tell you how stoked I am about our group of seniors who took part in Leadership Advance. Kim and I had the help of a friend (Claudia) who is on staff at McLean Bible Church to coach our students. Claudia is sharp, and she had some great insights into the lives of our high school seniors.

We had such a good time digging in to personalities and strengths and watching these young leaders figure out some creative outdoor team building exercises, but the real joy was the group project. These sharp young minds put together a dynamite presentation to match a genuinely creative and do-able idea. They received more votes from other participating teams than any other group, but they didn't win the $1000 grant to try their project.

The winning team from last year's LA came in to help decide who would receive the grant, and their votes counted more than the participants. The Estonian team actually ended up winning. I was curious as to how our group would respond, and they did not disappoint!

They took the news well, and were very mature in the whole process. They were actually excited for the Estonians!

We asked the seniors to share their thoughts with the rest of our high school students last night, and things went great. In fact, the whole night was a blast. The Estonians (who are involved in student ministry in their home church) dropped in to see how we do things. The seniors had the giggles at points, but I thought they shared some great take-aways from the experience, and God is doing some great things in some great students.

It's good to be in Happy Valley!

not bad for a day off

Today didn't go exactly as planned, but it was good.

It began for me with Levi standing over me, me being fast asleep.

"Dad, can you drive me to school? I missed the bus. And can you bring your guitar and play for my music class? We're talking about stringed instruments today."

So I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed a hat to cover the bed-head, took Levi to school, then came home to get cleaned up to go back to the school for the 10:00 music class--my middle school debut.

While I was at home, I took a call from a former student, who was obviously in the middle of some sort of crisis. He says, "I know it's your day off, but do you think that we could get together today to talk?" Absolutely. Let me take care of the music class thing, then I'll call you.

Headed back to the school. Turns out I was able to sit in on the lecture about the orchestral and folk instruments, then I got to talk about the guitar. The teacher and I played a rousing rendition of "O Susanna" for the class. Mrs. Shutes plays a mean dulcimer!

Off to the local Chinese Buffet to meet my young friend. He's not been in a good place spiritually, and God broke through the junk this weekend. He wanted to know if I could help him get back on track. We had a great talk, and came up with an action plan, and he's headed in the right direction. That's good stuff there.

At some point today, I got a note on Facebook from one of our seniors. She just wanted to say thanks for me and Kim investing in her life, for being real.

Supper's on the table and the dog's going crazy in the backyard. I'm out...

from Leadership Advance

I'm going to hit it quick, cause Dan is talking us through the Strengthsfinder right now, and I don't really want to miss much.

Today has been a blast. We began with some worship, which was good--70 God-hungry people can worship! Dan opened the speaking with a talk about our CALLING, or AWAKENING. After supper, Dr. Barbara Farmer (my kids' principal, btw) nailed a talk about LEADING WITH CHARACTER. I would absolutely pay money to go hear this woman teach. She is funny, sharp, full of wisdom, and knows the Lord intimately!

OK, gotta go. I may not be able to post later--Christian Webhost (our internet provider) is planning an outage.

Leadership Advance

Every year Calvary hosts a leadership development weekend, which we call Leadership Advance, for (mostly) 18-25 year olds. It's a great tool that features some fabulous communicators, the DISC personality profile, the Gallup Strengthsfinder tool, and a small group project that is actually funded and expected to be pulled off. There are about 70 participants for this year's LA, which is more than we've ever had. My wife and I are coaching a group of high school seniors as they work through the weekend. One of the highlights every year we do this is the end of the event, when we get to sit down with each team member one on one to debrief, reflect on what they learn about themselves, and speak words of hope, challenge, and blessing into each life.

I am praying that God uses this time to reveal himself to our students in a deeper way, that they begin to understand how uniquely God has shaped them, and that they will awaken to see how God can use them in their world--right here and now.

can you smell that?

We talked about Jesus being the Bread of Life tonight with our middle school students, which is what got me started on yesterday's post. It was a special night.

I think that our young students, now halfway through the school year, are maturing. It shows in the way they listen and interact when I teach, and in the ways they worship. It's fun to be in the room with them each Wednesday night.

I have to hand it to our female leaders. Our fearless female crew had the middle school girls bake bread during Chic Chat (girls only group that meets from 6-6:45), and while we worshiped and I taught, the aroma from the bread filled the worship room. It was beautiful. Kim suggested that we offer communion to the students tonight, too, which is not normally part of our worship.

It was a beautiful and fitting response to Jesus, the Bread of Life, who calls us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, to take his essence into our own, to draw life from the very life of the Son of Man.

Good stuff...

people leaving Jesus isn't new

I wonder what it would have been like to be part of the crowds that heard Jesus teach. The scriptures tell us that he was amazing, that he taught with authority, and that he taught in ways that the common people could understand. People loved to hear him, and they followed him from town to town.

But when he talked about being the Bread of Life, right on the heels of feeding somewhere between 5 and 15 thousand (they only counted the men) with a few fish and 5 loaves of bread--the contents of a boy's lunchbag--things started to get a little shaky. Read the story here.

He goes from "whoever comes to me will never be hungry...whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" right into "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you."

I can hear the high school girls now: Ewww. Gross.

I don't think Jesus got asked to do many women's retreats, either.

Part of me wonders if he sounded, well, just a little crazy. Those words aren't smooth talk from the grinning preacher; they're not easy to hear, to understand, to digest, if you'll pardon the pun. People started complaining about his teaching, and many of the disciples walked away from their relationship with this new teacher.

Eat my flesh and drink my blood...take Jesus, the things that made him alive, put them inside me...

Jesus moves from "believe in me" to "take me--flesh and blood--feed on me, and you'll have eternal life."

That's what I want--to feed on Jesus. Everything else will leave me hungry...

monday menagerie

Here's a quick re-cap of some stuff from the weekend (including Monday, since it's my day off!)

• Someone left a gift on our porch for the girls Sunday morning. We thought it was a cute little kids' toy computer. Turns out, it's a real live computer built for kids. The girls have been loving it! Check it out here.
• Kim and I took down all the Christmas decorations today. She cleared the stuff out of the living room while I climbed up on the roof to grab the lights. We moved the tree to the curb. Kim re-arranged the living room and tidied up while I went hunting. She's quite the woman!
• Taking down the decorations, putting the trappings of Christmas away...it makes the end of the holiday season seem so final. I'm not sure I like it.
• It was 68 degrees today--68! I'm not ready to concede to Al Gore's global warming theories, but honestly--68 degrees? Not in January, right?
• Levi and I had fun watching the BCS Championship game tonight. LSU came roaring back from a 10 point deficit to claim their 2nd BCS title. I still think the Georgia Bulldogs were playing better ball at the end of the season than either LSU or OhiO State. Sorry, Alex.
• Baseball preseason workouts start tomorrow for State High. I'm not coaching this year, which is still a tough decision to live with. But I won't miss getting up at 5:30 to head to the gym every morning.
• Not coaching at State High was a difficult decision to make, but I know that God is going to bless that choice. I am going to have a lot of time to spend with my kids, and the opportunity to get outside and do more outdoorsy stuff.
• We've been given permission to get the ball rolling on a climbing wall and bouldering room in the Barn. This could be a great thing for our community! I've enlisted some of the great folks from State College who have a passion for climbing, and we should start construction in the next few weeks. Yeehaw!
• I've started watching the tv show Chuck while I toil on the treadmill, and I'm not sure how it's going to develop, but it's a fun show.
• Seeing me back on the treadmill has inspired our kids to start their own exercise programs. Sadie was off an on the treadmill quite a few times yesterday. In fact, at one point she stood off the belt, cranked the speed up to about 9 (max), then hopped on the moving belt--facing backwards. Her feet shot out from under her, dumping her on her head/back, which caught the speed of the moving sidewalk, which flipped her completely over. I watched the whole thing unfold, with my mouth wide open. She was more scared than hurt, and I don't think she'll try that again.
• I'm teaching a beginner's guitar class at church. We start tomorrow. I think I have about 9 students. Should be fun!

Wow, that turned out to be a much longer post than I anticipated. If you read the whole thing, I probably owe you a diet coke or something...

Levi rocks

My son got Guitar Hero 3 for Wii for Christmas. I've not tried it yet, but Levi is stinking great at the game. I like to watch him play. I may even have to sneak in some practice time so that I can keep up with him!

new year+new shoes=new me

Last year I was running about 5 miles a day, just about every day. There was a time in my life when I didn't like to run, but about 9 years ago, I discovered that I enjoyed my daily run. I delt energized, and it is a good way to stay in shape.

My buddy Doug (track coach, guitar bud) told me that shoes were good for about 300-500 miles, then they need to be replaced. So, at 35 miles a week, I figure on replacing my shoes about every 3 months. I bought a new pair of shoes in January of last year. I had a gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods, but I opted for the cheaper line of Asics running shoes. I had been running in the 21 series, and I decided to give the 11 series a chance.

Then I had that infamous snowblower incident on March 17.

The doc told me that I wouldn't want to do anything to elevate my heartrate for a long time. Combine the injury with the start of baseball season, and that left little inclination to do any running.

I have tried to get back into the swing of things a couple of times since baseball ended in June, but every time I ran my left knee hurt like crazy. It felt strangely similar to the way me right knee did, before I had a quarter-sized chunk of my patellar tendon removed .

Kim bought me a new pair of the 21 series for Christmas, however, and I thought I'd give 'em a shot. I ran 4 miles yesterday, and 4 today. I was a little apprehensive, though.

I can't even begin to tell you how good I feel! I've found my groove, and my body is reacting well. Let's hope that it continues.

So what changes are you making to your new year to try to get at that new you?

read thru the Bible in a year

I started reading through the Bible last year when Becky Tirabassi was in town. She was speaking about the Burning Heart Contract, and it absolutely connected with me. If you have the opportunity to hear her speak, jump on it. But I digress...

My reading plan had me in Ezra 3 today. The Israelites have been set free from captivity by the Persian King Cyrus. He told them that God had given him all the kingdoms of the earth, and that God had appointed Cyrus to build a temple in Jerusalem. In chapter 3, the work for the temple has started, with the newly freed Jews laying the foundation for the second temple in Jerusalem.

Here's the cool part:

But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.

Joyful shouting mingled with the tears of those who had seen the glory of the former temple, that was no more.

Looking back with regrets, looking forward to restoration...sounds like the start of a new year, a new season.

Yup...

a sadie funny

Our girls both have those crocs that are lined with fuzzy stuff, and both pairs are some shade of olive green. Of course, the shoes are different sizes. It was pretty cold today--around 10 degrees at bus-gettin'-on time. That didn't dissuade Sadie from traipsing out the door in the crocs, though.

As she prepared to leave the warm confines of the miniature van (ht Sean Michael Murphy), she exclaimed:

Mom, I have on Lilly's crocs.
No, wait--I have on one of Lilly's and one of mine!

Kim came back home and told me the tale, sending me out the door to meet Sadie at her school with one olive green croc in hand.

It's never boring around the Sublett house!

great news--our financial situation just got a little brighter

According to an email I just received from the World Health Organization, things are looking pretty rosy:

This company or this e-mail address, attached to this (your) IP Address, "has been given" the 2007/2008 designated Award of £6.5, million GB Pounds equivalent to £13,591,000 US Dollars),

Not a bad start to the new year, not at all...

a few thoughts to catch up

Happy New Year, just a wee bit late!

It's been a goofy kind of last few days, so I thought I would put together a list to welcome in the new year.

• How 'bout them Dawgs!?!? Them boys put a whuppin' on the Rainbow Warriors and Colt Brennan.
• UGA coach Mark Richt is a quality man, and I think we'd be buds if we lived close enough to hang out.
• WVU is pounding Oklahoma right now. Couple that with the UGA win, mix in a horrible performance by LSU and Ohio State, and crown UGA the Champeen of the world of college football.
• I like college sports more than the professional version.
• My 12 year old son knows more about the NFL rosters than I do. It's funny to answer most of his questions with, "Hmm, I don't know, bud."
• I spent most of the last few days on the DL, so the end of the year vacation feels a little wasted.
• I'm feeling a bit like I belong in the scratch 'n dent bin lately. I don't want to bore you with the details of all my various ailments (lest I begin to sound like those folks we go to see at the nursing home), but suffice it to say that the doc prescribed a muscle relaxer for neck spasms, and I may be getting a little loopy as this post develops!
• I came home tonight from a pretty good 1st XStream of the new year to find out that the entire house is grounded from any and all new Christmas gifts, including the Wii. Apparently there's been some broken furniture downstairs and no one is putting things away when they're done Wiiing.
• I confirmed a spot on the Spring Break mission trip to the Dominican Republic for me and Levi. I am pumped! You should be expecting a letter in the mail asking you to pray for us!
• We had a good meeting with parents tonight. I wanted to talk to them to let them know that we'll be teaching on SEX in the month of February with our middle school and high school groups.

OK, I think that'll do.

I'm working on a few pretty cool things that I hope to be sharing with you in the days to come.