spent the day at home with maria today... I love wednesdays. Maria is fun, and after eating like crazy she was a happy girl. we went for a walk in the beautiful area around the house here... it was cool after the rain, and not humid at all... a nice breeze and the sun... we sat in the grass, and just chilled for a while. she learned how to pull grass out of the ground. i tried to keep it out of her mouth.

I promise to post some pics soon... I usually use candis computer to do the web updating, and that computer is only here on weekends so thats my excuse for not having more current pics up.

Jesusfreakhideout.com: Lloyd's Crazy Captions this has some pretty funny fake captions to photos with your favorite christian bands. you can actually win a cd for making up something funnier than everyone else. pretty cool website. from what I can tell

actually you can hear and learn the song here too... that way when we do it in church you will already know it.

click here o praise him

{Passion '03} heres a good review for you... it starts off interesting, and recognizing the difficulty in reviewing modern worship albums.

i hate it when reviewers of albums are all positive on every album... thats lame... its like when you ask the waitress whats especially good, and she says, "everything is especially good" it really tells you nothing...

this review on the other hand is critical and honest i think... I am looking forward to hearing the album... we will see if it makes my priority buying list.

I came across this site because I am learnig a new praise song "o praise him" by David Crowder. its not out yet.. thats wy i have to learn it off the web

great day with the youth group yesterday. after church, we got together, and went tubing in the schylkill river. It was a georgeous day out. (cool for some) and about 25 of us went. Everyone was in a pretty chill fun mood as we relaxed down the river. I tried to raise some ruckus but everyone (except ruthy) was so chilled they didn't respond back very much.

We went back to church and I cooked up burgers and dogs as fast as I could. Tons more people showed up for youth group later on, and it was a great night. I had an outline that I feel God gave me - and although it wasnt as prepared as I like it to be, I distinctly heard God's voice saying that he would give me the words. Well I think it worked out ok... I definately felt God directing my thoughts. I hope it made sense to people... it was about doubt, and faith. I just have to trust That God can work through me even despite my weaknesses.

I've decided that I'm a better teacher (small group) than preacher (big group.) I'm more comfortable with it, and I really enjoy discussion - which can't happen when you are preaching. I guess it will be a new challenge for me... to start to learn to be a good preacher. as much as I hate the idea. God moves me to new places, so I got to be flexible. I am so critical of preachers because so many of them are boring. So I know all the things wrong, but can't seem to do a good job myself. It takes preparation, creativity, and good communication speaking skills. dag.
Kristi led worship and did a great job... we will miss her when she is gone (sept-dec)

Went out to eat with the ACTV staff tonight. It was cool, and I decided I like my co-workers alot - we had good conversation. The only problem is that I don't necissarily like being their boss. I wish we just worked together and I didn't have to be the letter of the law around the place. That said, I need to start shaping this place up. We really need to get on the ball with ACTV stuff. It's been pretty slow around here all summer - time to kick up the work.

today I worked like mad... trimming shrubs, and weeds and everything that grows up like crazy when you live in the woods. I also got the riding mower working again... it sort of died - a big puff of black smoke, and bad news... but I took it apart, and realized the air filter probably needed to be replaced. Thats when I read the manual (i am a manual reader - and quite edukated one at that) and realized that I should change the oil too... so I went to town, got the parts and did the job. feels good - makes me think I am quite a manly man.

Then I cooked up what might be in the running for our biggest chinese meal of all time (so far) we had so many dishes, and it just kept going... all went pretty smooth except the huge fire I almost started.

You almost had to be there... I was heating up oil on the stove, and accidentally dripped some water into the pan... the flames shot up I kid you not, like above the stove fan thing, and almost to the freakin ceiling... ask candi, it was something. I jumped back, and it died down right away fortunately... but it was pretty cool... like pyrotechnics in a big concert. hey I could be in a rock band... and we could just cook up some stuff... you know like the ghost of General Tso - and light it on fire and it would be like BURNINATION ROCKIN THE LAND.... YAAAAAA.

the only thing I dont like much about chinese cooking, is doing the dishes afterward. its nuts... and we cant do the special dishes in the dishwasher.

We started maria on cereal this week... mostly its milk with a tiny bit of cereal in it.. so far other than a messy face, she is doing great at keeping it down and stuff... Julie Dunst is absolutely the most funny person to tell you horror stories about her kids and barf. She had me rolling on the phone the other night.

her one story involved being at the grocery store, and her one kid asked what the orange stuff was in her ear... and she said oh... I though the baby missed me when he puked. must have been mashed carrots or something. anyway, get her to tell you the story - she is histerical anyway, I like Jim and Julie and their family alot... they bring life to our church.

http://www.marketplace.org/play/audio.php?media=/2003/08/22_mpp&start=00:00:23:54.0&end=00:00:26:02.5

found it. hmm what do you think of this?

Yahoo! Yellow Pages rocks...
just type in Reading, PA and then like grocery stores... and it finds all the stores in the area. cool

today I found out that there are like 100 little spanish stores in Reading... BUT the big news is that I found 2 new chinese grocery stores... that is what I was going after in the first place.

so I went there, and found that you can get baby choi sum (like baby bok choy) at these places... plus I got other cool stuff like popsicles that are green bean flavored... hmmm sound delicious (maybe)

We are having Conrad Vicki, and the twins Bryn & Lydia plus mom & dad Esh over for chinese. It is officially to celebrate Vickis birthday. (same day as my sisters birthday sept 1)

Conrad and Candi were both in Hong Kong for more than a year, so they have both enjoyed green bean flavored popsicles before.

the rest of the meal will pretty much rock... I am working on my bbq ribs chinese style... learning and hoping to get this one perfect this time... also making other bbq'd pork cha siu i think it is called. we also are doing spring rolls (like egg rolls) and wonton soup - hand stuffed wontons... and egg fu yung or something like that... and oh well I hate to bore you with the details

Thank goodness Fresh Air had Terry Gross on today... the other guy on there is pretty boring. Terry Gross is possibly the best interviewer on the planet. I don't agree with all her personal views, but she rarely lets those show. And those thing certainly don't matter for 90% of her interviews anyway... like today interviewing Jazz greats.

I also really like Ira Glass... although I believe he is a better producer than interviewer... he gets really good guests, and then lets them do most of the talking.

If you have no clue what I am talking about you really must listen to more NPR 90.9 philadelphia... its interesting stuff about 80 % of the time, and 20% of the time it is really interesting enough that it makes me want to stay in my car to hear the rest.

anyway, i heard something that really made me think tonight... hmmm ill see if I can find it

Life is good. Busy but good.

We went on a real vacation this year... first time in as long as I can remember. It was cool to visit friends in virginia and spend time catching up with people we dont get to see that often.

We stayed in a hotel for the first night and the last night, and that was nice too... I feel like the vacation was a real learning experience, and spiritually enriching too. Diversity in the Body of Christ is so cool.

First we went to a wedding for my college friend Jim. It was in a baptist church, and it was cool. Congrats guys! After the reception, we drove up to Amherst, and for two nights stayed with Adam and Angie. Adam is a United Methodist pastor, so we went to church with them on sunday. It was a more formal service with liturgy, and stuff, but it was neat to see God blessed there.

Monday afternoon we drove up to visit with Daisy and Steve - the newlyweds. We appreciated their hospitality too... Wow Daisy is an amazing homemaker. They live in a tight community with family, and church friends. They attend a Beachy Amish/mennonite church (i think thats what it is called.) Anyway, it is evident how much they Love the Lord.

We spent two days with them, and then went to visit other friends back in lynchburg. I went to college with Tim & Heidi.... Heidis first husband past away, and Tim married her this past november. They have 3 great kids 6, 4, and 2 - WOW what a handful. Anyway, Tim is the official photographer for Creation fest, and Purple Door fest. check out his pictures Tim and Heidi are great, and we went to church with them on wednesday night... its a very packed contemporary church with tons of young people, and kids, and organization like crazy. I was pretty impressed that it was so packed on a wednesday night. The pastor and staff was all at a willow creek seminar or something.

Anyway, like i said, the diversity in the body of Christ is great. Each denomination has its strengths and weaknesses. Its interesting that way... no one is that much better or worse. I could go on and on about it but you would probably get bored.

i hate when I type posts, and they just dissappear into thin air - eaten by the blog monster.