Crossing the Sea to Freedom

Oh My Goodness

2006-12-18T18:15:00.000-05:00

That's all I can say right now about life. Oh My Goodness!!

There is so much going on and it is hard to keep up and to stay focused on one thing. For those who don't know we have moved! We now are residents of Souderton, PA. We did not want to move but with Addyson (the baby) coming in February we needed more room in our place. It is amazing the difference in Logan's behavior as well. I never really thought about it but before we told Logan that he could only play in about a 3 foot area....otherwise he was getting into things he shouldent have. Now he has much more room and he is able to play nicer.

It seems like the Episcopal Church has some problems right now. Now I am passionate about many things but how can the church say that they follow the teachings of Jesus when they are so discrimintory against people? It just does not make sense to me.

Anyway, It has been a rough month, I have been sick -- I have had back problems and then there was a death of a six year old child in the after school program. I was asked to speak at it and that was one of the hardest things I have ever done professionally.

But now it is Christmas. I am excited for Christmas. It is one of the first times in my life that either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day I am not going to be with my family. I am kinda upset about that but that's the way life is when you work in a church and you have a family yourself. Katie could not get off Christmas week so we are going home the week after New Year's. But it actually works better for our family anyway.

I am sorry this Blog seems very random and scattered. I am not really getting deep into anything, but I have to get back to work. I have a meeting soon and I need to get ready for it. Plus I need to start writing my sermon for the week and a number of other things. I am going to post something later this week, I promise.

New Life with Love

2006-11-18T12:17:00.000-05:00

So here I am today -- getting ready to do another wedding at the church. It is kinda cool this time because the people who are getting married I kinda know. I guess once you start to build those relationships the weddings become more meaningful in some ways. But weddings bring me back to Katie's and my wedding. Such good memories!

I think that our wedding was the last time - I guess for awhile that we can have that many people who love and care for us in one place at one time. While it is such a good day, it goes by so fast and the fact that there ARE so many people there who love you and want to talk with you, you don't really get to spend that quality time that you want with them.

On a different note, I have been thinking a lot about my health lately. I have been committed to getting healither for the last few months. Ever since I got my Cinch Kit from Shaklee I have really wanted to be good with it, I really want to get healthier and to feel better. Maybe one of the reasons I have been feeling sick lately and having other problems is because of my health. I don't know -- but when I started I got a cold and I was out for a week. Then my back hurt and that still bothers me a little but that's been going on for the last three weeks. Now I feel up to speed a bit and I can jump back on that horse. I hope to get in a rhythm and stick to it somewhat during thanksgiving. Part of me wants to wait but part of me knows that I can't wait because then something else will come up.

Well that's all for today, I think I hear the bride so I should go and get ready.

Found this on a blog

2006-11-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

I found this on a blog and I thought it was pretty neat. Something to think about as the Holiday's approach. I usually don't like to think or talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving.....but there is an exception to every rule (plus we talk get in the mode for Christmas once Halloween is over).

In anticipation of the fast approaching holiday season...
“The Month Before Christmas”
by Jaena Womack

‘Twas the month before Christmas and all through the town,
Every person was busy – no joy to be found.

With their calendars full and great plans made with care,
They knew that the holidays soon would be there.

I’m all ready to go, with my red Santa’s cap
Though I’d rather hole up for a long winter’s nap!

The family is coming for turkey and pie;
There is work to be done; there are groceries to buy:

Cranberries, plum pudding, mincemeat and hams,
Flour, sugar, eggnog, marshmallows, and yams,

Cashews and pretzels and chocolate for dipping,
And full-caffeine hazelnut coffee for sipping,

I can’t forget ice cream -- six quarts, Neopolitan --
Good grief! I may need a sleigh just to haul it in!

Yes, it’s happened again: preparations gone wild,
And I’m half-Martha Stewart half-Julia Child.

Yet there’s still more to do! Let me show you my list –
I have shopping and wrapping and my kids insist

That we spend one whole day finding just the right tree,
Then we finally select one at least nine foot three

Which we drag to our house through the ice and the sleet…
(Never mind that our ceiling is only eight feet.)

Now it’s off to the mall for a fourteen-hour sale
With holiday coupons received in the mail.

With such bargains around…well, it isn’t too hard
To max out my VISA and Discover card.

So I head for our home with my presents in tow
And if this year is much like the past years, I know

As I pull in the driveway and walk through the door,
I’ll be greeted by sounds of my husband’s loud snore.

My children have fallen asleep on their beds
With clothes still on bodies and hats still on heads.

I grab the remote and turn off the TV,
Collapse on the couch, almost too tired to see…

I’ve run myself ragged with plans so sublime
Now I ask, “What’s the point? Is it all worth my time?”

In the silence I treasure a brief interlude;
My thoughts become clear, and I humbly conclude

That it’s not in the presents wrapped under the tree,
It’s not in the friends or the family you see,

Of course it’s not Rudolph or old Santa Claus,
Or donating money to some worthy cause.

No, it all traces back to the night long ago…
To the mother and child and the story we know

But we often forget as we bustle around,
The true meaning of Christmas can only be found

In the birth of a baby – the long-promised king
Who caused shepherds to wonder and angels to sing.

That’s why we celebrate, though some don’t know,
Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, and so…

What I whisper aloud as I turn out the light
Is not, “Merry Christmas, to all a good night.”

Rather “Glory to God in the highest” and then
“Peace on the earth and good will to all men.”

Sick of being sick

2006-10-20T16:02:00.000-04:00

So last Saturday I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling good. I guess things have come to pass where I had to go to the doctor's today. So needless to say my abliity's on Cinich has been diminished some. I have found for me to be successful I need to work out daily. That is not just walking or swimming but it is lifiting weights.

I have some medicine now and I rested today. I have a busy weekend. Tomorrow I am doing more on my internship project. Then on Sunday I have church. So I will be busy.

That is all I have for today.

Update

2006-10-14T09:20:00.000-04:00

So I wanted to update how I am doing on Cinch. I am proud to say that I am doing pretty good. Overall I am staying on the plan. Thursday was difficult since it was my day off and I was at home all day. I only had one shake at my meal because I LOVE breakfast and I wanted a good breakfast. But I did not go overboard which was good.

I have been to the gym a few times. I have not gone as much as I would like. I know using sleep as an excuse is not the greatest but it is the truth. Last week the average time I went to bed was 11:30 and I would have to get up at 5:45 to make it to the gym so I could be to work on time. So I made it twice. Thursday I did not make it (my day off) because Katie was home sick from work and Logan was as well. But I did go on Friday and had a good work out. I don't think I will have time to go this weekend....but I am going to be running around a lot.

That's how things are going so far. Not much to update on any type of weight loss. I am feeling good and that is the most important thing to me right now. On Tuesday I am going to measure myself and weigh myself again.

Day One

2006-10-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Day one on Cinch -- It has been a good day. I did get up at 5:45 to go to the gym but by the time I got ready and somewhat awake I did not leave until 7:00. So instead of lifting I swam. It was very good. I swam about 300 yards and it felt good. I felt my heart rate go up and my arms started to feel it by the end. Then I went into the hot tub and that was nice and relaxing. I did weigh myself and I hate to admit this but I will because I want to put everything out there to get as much support as possible I am at 344. Now with Cinich the pounds might not come off right away but inches will. That's the power of Luciene in the shakes. But either way I will be happy (pounds or inches or both!).

I decided to put the tea in my water bottle. I did not want to use it at first because of the little caffiene it has in it. But I decided that it would be the best for me overall. Plus it says that you use it with 8oz of water but I put it in 32 oz. For those who don't know I am somewhat allergic to caffiene so that's why I don't want it. I won't die or anything but I will see if it has an effect on me.

I have a Shaklee training tonight so I am driving right from work to there and that does not get over until around 8:30 or so. So I decided to have my shake while I take my trip there. It was good because we had a lunch meeting.

I have been good so far today. It is day one so you would think that I could handle it :) I did forget my cinch bars at home. So that has been hard but not terribly because we have been running around all day.

Now I am off to play with the kids for the afternoon. Afternoons are usually pretty easy as far as hunger wise. I am running around so much I usually do'nt think about food. In fact, I am more thirsty than anything else. I am glad I have my water bottle. I hope to finish it by the end of the work day.

I might write more tonight if I am not too tired. If not I will check in tomorrow for day two!

Cinch The Inch

2006-10-09T21:41:00.000-04:00

Cinch is here!! I can't believe it. I am SO ready to get started. For those of you who do not know what Chinch is you can go here. Last Thursday I went to the gym and I got a plan. The trainer gave me some good advice as to what to do when I work out. I plan on weighing myself tomorrow and I am going to measure myself.

I have had it and I need to do something and I know that Cinch is the way to go. After everything I have heard I have liked. The main thing that I am worried about is about being hungry throughout the day. But with this plan I could be okay.

I will keep you updated as to how I do, you can read it here or at my other blog

2006-08-08T18:19:00.000-04:00

Dinner Alone

It has been awhile since I have had dinner alone. I guess that is not much of an issue once you get married. It is rare that I am alone....period. Not that is a bad thing, I got so lonely when I was living alone I got a dog!! But I use to go out all the time alone, I can't say I really mind. I don't feel I get looks or get judged. Maybe I am wrong, maybe people are judging me and thinking things about me, who knows? who cares?
The goodnews (or gospel? for all you smart people out there ;) ) is that I have my treo 650 now. I don't think I could ever really be alone. I have acess to AIM, MSN, Yahoo. I could call someone or text them. I have a number of things at my disposal. I even have blogging (which I am using now!!)
I would like to be home, three late nights this week is crazy but that's the life of an intern.
well the food is here I should eat and then go to my meeting.

2006-08-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

treo

testing to post this from my treo.....does it work?

2006-08-01T08:56:00.000-04:00

Today is the two month anniversary of my internship. Man has it been a whirlwind. One of my goals was to blog everyday, maybe that was a little over ambiguous but I would of hoped that I would blog more than three times.

Like many people who blog I have different ideas throughout the day that I say to myself "self that would be good to blog on" and then it goes out of my head just as fast.

So one of the exciting things in my life is that I got a new phone. Not just any phone but a tree 650. I love it. I can't imagine my life without it anymore. No more worries about where my phone is or my palm -- I can check e-mail from my phone, do text messages once I get a SD card I can play MP3's and even movies. There is SO much more I can do on it all I need is an SD card and some more money. I hope that I can have this phone for awhile and really get it pimped out.

So for those of you who read this and do not know, we are having another baby!! Yes it is an exciting time but also kinda scary. The scariest thing is that there is not a lot of room in our apartment for another child. We do have a two bedroom apartment but it is SMALL. One of the reasons we took the place was so that we would not have to move next year into a new place, but I don't know how we can live there with a baby. Since the baby will be born February 14th we will have 3 months to see how things are and then go from there. I really hope we don't have to move again but I am not sure.

I also am thinking ahead to next summer. I will not have seminary commitments, I will not have internship commitments and I don't know what I want/need to do. I hope that I will be able to supply preach and teach guitar lessons for income but I should get another job for some extra cash. But where can I work for the summer?

Plus I was thinking about taking a class in June so my load won't be as heavy throughout the summer.....I would like to participate in the triathlon and see about Mexico. All very interesting ideas but I am not sure if they will happen or not. We will see I guess. First I need to make it through internship and the birth of our son/daughter.

I really should update this more, maybe then I could get some readers and I won't have such long updates. There is so much more going on in my life but I really should work on my sermon for next Sunday.

Until next time.....

Internship update

2006-06-27T15:48:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I am 27 days into my internship. Things are still going well, I preached for the first time this Sunday and I really liked it. I think I did a good job. I actually found I don't mind preaching from the asile so much as long as I am wearing my alb. That might seem weird but I am comforted by that.

VBS was fun but it was LONG -- Monday and Tuesday I got here at 8:00 am and went right to work, I had 30 min for lunch and then to the pool with the kids until 5:00 -- it was a long day. I am lucky that I did not have night meetings, or I would of fallen asleep!!

Katie and I found out we are having another baby! That is pretty exiciting. It is a little sooner than we wanted, but we are excited. We are trying to make plans now. We both want a girl but in the end it does not matter. I think it will be a boy -- that's what happens in my family. But now is the time when the morning sickness comes but the excitement is there-- we are thinking about names, and awaiting doctor appoitments.

But then around september is when we really can start enjoying it, it is when she starts to show a little bit and I think at that point it becomes more real to me.

In other news.... we went to sara and gary's wedding. That was so much fun. I loved going back to see everyone and catch up with people and dance and drink with friends. I did get sad alittle becuase I realize how disconnected i have become. Sure I try and e-mail and call when I can, but it is not the same as it was about 4 or 5 years ago. But can I expect it to be like that? I know times change and people change. I mean look at me, I am VERY different htan I was 5 years ago.....mabye that has been a factor, I don't know.
I can't go to parties like I use too because I have more responsiblities now. I know my friends will have that eventually but not now. I wish there was a way I could see them more, and be with them more and feel closer than I did this past weekend. Maybe things will change when we move back to new england? I hope so -- but I am sure life will be different then -- but I would have more opportunities to hang out and I would think that things could get better...... I don't know....

That's what's been going on lately. I want to try and blog more. I always have things on my mind but I feel like I don't have the time to do this. I can make the time. I just need to do it...once i get home I get caught up in home things.....making dinner, playing with logan, talking with katie, cleaning, organizing things ect... plus we don't have wireless anymore so we have to sit on the bed to use the computer. It is not fun....
But no more excuses --

I do have to eat dinner now, and then I have a couple of meetings tonight....first council meeting!! wish me luck!

Week one....And a little more

2006-06-12T17:40:00.000-04:00

So it has been almost 10 days since I last posted. A lot has happened in that span of time. Good things, but I have been busy.

So I think I am getting settled both at home and here at the Church. The only big downfall right now is that I don't get to go home between the end of the day and any night meetings. So that makes my day pretty long. But maybe I can once I get into things more....Who knows. The days fly by so I don't even realize at times what time it is.....So that is good too.

So I have gotten my feet wet at putting together a worship booklet (all digital -- pretty cool) I have made some hospital runs and I have really gotten to know the church and some of the people here.

I have to get VBS stuff together which is next week, so I have been trying to figure out what that is all about.
I know it is easy for me to fall be hind so I have tried really hard to keep on top of things.

2006-06-03T20:19:00.000-04:00

Wow, we did a lot of work on the house today....okay apartment, but it is easier to spell house.

We have another van full of stuff to go to storage, seriously HOW did we get so much junk? I don't know how we are going to get everything in storage but I will find a way, maybe on my day off I will go and reorganize everything. I really don't want to do that but it needs to be done.

We also got logan's hair cut. He seriously looks like a different kid. I can't believe how much of a little boy he looks like. I know he is a little boy but he seems like my baby as well. Every day he looks older and older and it is really awesome. The coolest thing is that we took him for a walk but he road his tricycle. He was really good at it!!! I was very imporessed. I thought he would fumble along but he really caught on pretty fast. I walked alongside him so that he would not steer himself into the road but I really did not need to be there. He seemed like he was in full control of the suitation.

I have to still go over the services tonight. I think I have to wake up by 5:30 tomorrow morning to get ready to leave by 6:15.....that is going to be rough, but I know I can do it. Tomorrow is going to be busy and I am going to feel like I am running with my head cut off. BUt it will be good. I am sure I am going to meet a lot of really great people. I am pretty exicted about that. I just have to takei t one step at a time I think. I know it can be overwhelming and I will pretend that I know more than I actually do. I just hope that they like me and I like them and they like my family. I don't think I have ever had problems with that but it is always a possiblity.

Well I should get stuff together before I got to bed. I will let you all know how things go.....

Internship has begun

2006-06-02T20:59:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was my first day at my internship site.....Sunday will be my first "official" day, but yesterday I got my keys and went over the service and took another tour of the church. I got TONS of instructions on where things where, what things did what, and who was who. It was a lot of information but it was pretty straightforward. I am still excited at this point. I know it will be a lot of work but it is stuff that I enjoy so I am pretty excited about that.

Today I did a lot of work on the apartment. I don't know how we have gotten so much crap. It is stuff that we don't really need but I hate to throw or give away because I am afraid that one day I will be looking for it. I realized that I also have a lot of papers. They are things that I have collected over the years and they need to be put in digital format. Then I can burn them to CD's and throw the paper away, or actually recycle the papers. I want/need to get better about recycling in general.

I think I am getting ready for the summer. I am not sure if I am ready for internship. I don't know what it would be like to have the summer "off" I think I have been going for the last 20some years of my life and I have not really had a break. I mean when I was in high school I went from school to camp and back to school -- even through college!! Now it is school to CPE to school to internship. I really would like to not do much next summer, to have a "sabbatical" before my senior year. I know I will most likely have to work, but if my plan works out I will be teaching guitar lessons and supply preaching for income senior year. Maybe with a few hours at the library...We shall see....

Tomorrow is my last day of "freedom" before the "official" beginning of my internship. We are going to run some errands, go to a strawberry festival in Plymouth Meeting and then come home to continue to work on the apartment. I don't know if we will finish organizing tomorrow, but I think it will be livable after tomorrow.

Like Lent I really would like to keep up with this blog throughout internship, I think that will be possible, now that my life has settled down some. May was a crazy month, I would have to say crazier than I ever have had before. I am thankful that I made it and I don't think I had any major crashes around me.

2006-05-26T07:49:00.000-04:00

So the year is over, I can't really believe it. I don't think I have been that busy in my entire life. The month of May I had to write a ton of papers (and rewrite some), take three finals, end my 18 month stint at Good Shepherd, do evaulations, go to internship orientation, pack and move. to this point almost everything is done. We have only acouple odds and ends left at the seminary and then we need to finish cleaning our apartment in hopes to get our deposit back. However, I would not be surprised if we don't get it back. There is just too many things that "happened" which means that there are some things that might need to be replaced.

I don't think I have fully recovered from the end of the year and the continual pushing of myself until I broke. I am getting there and I hope that this weekend spent in Vermont will help. I don't have to worry about papers or reading or anything. I think it will help getting away becuase if I was here then I would keep thinking that i need to unpack boxes and I won't take the time to rest and relax. I don't think that the world will end if I forget about it(the world) for three days.

My goal right now is to participate in the Philadelphia triathlon next summer. I want to work through team in training to get myself in shape to be able to do it. there is one this fall in Disney but I don't know if 1) I can afford all the equiptment in order to participate 2) get in shape to finish by then or 3) get the time off from my internship. We already have a few days vacation getting used up in June for the wedding, I don't want more taken up that does not involved Thanksgiving or Christmas......

Well I should get to packing for my trip and getting the long list of things that was assigned to me done. I will have lost of time to update more this weekend.

What's going on

2006-05-02T09:59:00.000-04:00

I am still overwhelmed with life right now. I feel better now that I am getting some things wrapped up. Tonight I am meeting with the pastor and the leader who is going to Cruzando to transfer information over to them and I don't have to worry about that anymore. I do have a Spag dinner/silent auction this saturday and a lock-in next weekend. PLUS Youth group this Sunday and service....but all of that is pretty much planned right now.

I am going to send out my lease for the new apartment today. I am really excited about that. May 13th we will be able to start moving in and I can't wait. Our house is a mess and that does not help me feel in control of the chaos of life right now. It seems like not matter how much I try and clean, organize, the next day it is all messy again. I can't wait until we are able to have a dishwasher, to feel like things are somewhat organized and to start a new chapter in my book of life. To feel like I am continuing to cross the sea to freedom.

Anyway, the NFL draft was this past weekend. I think I really need to start to follow college football some more. I don't know who any of these guys are, well I do get to know them thanks to NFL Network. I thoguht that the Pats did a good job in the draft. I did not think they were going to take who they were, but overall I think we got some good deals, especially in Chad Jackson. I have high hopes for him.

I did not do well on a major paper that I turned in last week. honestly i thought I did real well. I was really proud of the paper. But I guess I was wrong. The good thing is that I am going to redo it...>But the bad thing is that I don't have time to put as much energy in as I did before. ahhhh

I should post this before another day goes by.....

Weekend

2006-04-24T08:11:00.000-04:00

It was busy weekend

Because of the rain Saturday we did not go to the zoo. I am not sure if Logan knew or not. He was excited to go when we kept talking about it early in the week but we did not tell him that we were not going on Saturday, we just did not go. Instead we packed most of the day. I had choir practice in the morning and then the rest of the day we packed. It was good. I feel a little better about life now that we got some of that done, but we have ALOT left
I think it will be easier once we are able to access our apartment, then we can get the couch (that we got for $50.00 on Friday night) in there (it is now in the storage locker that we got Saturday night...) and we can start putting our storage stuff in storage and all the rest in the apartment. I know we will need one day of major moving, but that will be easier if we can do little at a time until then.

Sunday I had church and I assisted at both services, taught Sunday school inbetween (3rd grade) and then I just stayed at the church because we had progressive dinner at 3:00. Oh I forgot to mention that I was up at 5 to get to the grocery store at 6:00 to buy food for the progressive dinner (not my fault, but my responsiblity).

Anyway, I left at 5:00 to get back to the seminary and to get ready by 6:45 for Easter Vespers. Needless to say i was beat by the end of that day.

Now I am trying to catch up on everything that I missed over the weekend!! How fun!!

Found some old Journals

2006-04-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

I found some old journals while I was packing some stuff up around the house. One is a journal that I started as soon as Logan was born. The other is from 98. I have never really been good at consistanly writing in journals. Honestly there are some things that I would like to leave out from the viewing public, but most of it I am going to try and type in here. I know I still have some journals from when I was like 14 or 15 years old and even when I was younger. Most of that stuff was about girls that I liked so that would be fun to put in here as well. But i need to dig those out. But until then enjoy what I have found so far and I will give some other updates soon!

Fun day

2006-04-15T21:18:00.000-04:00

So this is number 39 out of 40 blogs for the season of lent. I went back and I looked at my journey. Granted some of them might not be the most spiritual reflections I have done in my life, but they were posts and I am proud of myself for doing them. in 50 or 60 years from now, when some poor soul wants to sit down and write out my memoiors they can come back here, to the beginning and see where it all started. I wonder how long blogs will stay on the internet? In 10 years from now when I wnat to access my first enteries will they still be here? How do they decide what to archive and what to erase? hmmm

So anyway, We had a good day today, we went to an egg hunt this morning with Logan. I have never been to one and without training I will not go to one again. First we were broken into age groups. Logan was in the 1-4 age group. They needed a blowhorn becuase I think there were almost 100 kids there. So this guy gets out in front of all the kids and tells them to wait. They have been stairing at the eggs for about 15 min now and they want the kids to wait??? Then he started to yell "NO NO NO" and some people thought he said "GO GO GO" so half of the kids start to run and then there was no stopping them so ALL the kids ran and Logan got freaked out. So he grabbed one egg that I put in front of him. I tried to run up and grab another but there was no luck.

But to make up for it we played on the playground for about an hour and went home. I stayed home with Logan and gave the appartment a good scrub down while Katie went to do laundry. It worked out well....

Then we went swimming with Logan, that was fun. I was surprised how much he adapted to the water. He did not want anything to do with it at first but after 20 min he started to "swim" and put his face in the water. He continually surprises me as to how he really gets along with things. I can't wait to see him grow up.

Tonight we chilled, I should of been working on papers but I did not feel like it. tomorrow is going to be a bust, but it is easter anyway, who wants to do work then? And then Monday I am going to work all day. I need to follow up with donations and to get the youth mailing out and all that good jazz. I hope to finish one paper Monday night. I don't see why that should not happen. Then Tuesday I am going to lock myself in the library all morning for my OT paper. I really want to go to one of my professors PhD defense. But if I don't get some work done then it would be very bad for me to do that, becuase I have choir Tuesday night AND I will be playing Risk until all hours of the morning.

I really need to plan out the rest of the semester becuase it is closing fast and if i am not careful I will really mess things up. I will forget about a paper or not study enough for a quiz. I have only like 5 or 6 class periods left in some classes!!

Well I have to get up at 5 am tomorrow so I should get to bed.

Good Friday

2006-04-15T00:06:00.000-04:00

I forgot how powerful Good Friday is. Sure I did not see people crying, remembering what happened on this night 2000 years ago. But I did feel a sense of sadness, and I did feel that way too. Even though I have read the stories a million times, I heard that stories on Good friday and even taught on them, it never ceases to amaze me the power that they have.

I have a good Friday service in my head that I should spill out on paper sometime. It would me a mulit-senses type thing. People could hear it, feel it, taste it and touch it.....When it is not midnight on a friday night I will post it sometime.

It was good to get out wtih my friends as well. I don't know what to do or who to do it with but I know that during holy week when I am a pastor I wnat to take some time out with friends. I remember PK going on a retreat with other pastors Sunday after service until Tuesday afternoon. It was good to get away before the crazy week, to talk about texts that are coming up and just relaxing so you can fully be there for the rest of the week.... that sounds nice. Or even after good friday to go out and just have a beer and realx in the middle of the craziness and to regroup and renew would be good. Granted this week has not been totally hetic for me but I know how it will be....

Okay that's all for now. I am off to bed. Night!@!!

Love/Hate

2006-04-11T13:55:00.000-04:00

I have a love/ hate relationship with letters of reccomendation. I think partly it is because I hate asking for them and at first I hate reading them. Sometimes you are afraid of rejection...that there would be something in which people would write bad things or say that they do not wnat to give you one. On the other hand it is great to read what they do write(when it is positive) and sometimes there are unexpected things.

I come across this feeling now becuase I have read three different letters of reccomendation for a scholarship opportunity. All of them were good and I hope that they help me with this scholarship. I can't imagine what will happen if I don't get the scholarship.

That's all for now

Real Post

2006-04-10T10:49:00.000-04:00

So I must admit, I have been a slacker lately when it comes to posting on my blog. It is not fault but my own however, once I tell you what has happened lately you might see why.
Well I think it was last Tuesday I came down with a head cold. No big deal but it was a pain the rest of the week (including up to today)but it is getting better so that is good.

I got some new sandles yesterday. Mine were really bad and they were starting to hurt my feet. These new ones are okay. They are not the first pair that I would of picked but they are 60 dollar sandles that I bought for 20 bucks!! Not too bad, if you ask me!!

I am sad to say that my computer is falling apart. It is tough when you have something that you use 10-12 hours a day in various locations. Plus having a 2 year old who likes to pull keys off is not that helpful either. I am missing three keys and I think that there is something wrong when I close it (I don't think I can close it) I need my computer to last until the end of seminary. We are going to try and get Katie a labtop this fall for her coursework, so I have to wait.

I had a long but good weekend. I did visiatation for four hours on Friday. I was surpirsed how well it went. I did go with the visitation pastor, and he let me do all the talking (at first) but I know that we have different styles, he is get in and give them communion and get out, while I think I am just get in and talk and visit and take my time. Perhaps after I do this for awhile my attitude will change, but he is critiquing me so I don't know what he is going to say.
But the last two people we saw were very nonverbal and he said he was very impressed how I communicated with them and he thought it was very meaningful. I think this reaffirms my passion for pastoral care visitation.

Speaking of affirmation, last night a bunch of us went out to celebrate a fellow seminarian's birthday. I wanted to get him drunk but he said he does not drink, I was blown away....actually I did not think he would drink and I don't know why so I did not push it...but we were talking about what we look forward to in the future for our ministry ventures. It was the first time that I said I wanted to be a CPE Supervisor. I was shocked by their reaction. They said they could see that for me. So we will see what happens. I have two years of seminary left and then if I go into the parish right away(which is more likely than not) I have three years after that. I have to see where Katie is at before I make any major decisions.

Well I have been working on this post all day. I should do some reading before I got to bed. Have a good night.

Sick and tired

2006-04-09T14:25:00.000-04:00

So this weekend we had a 30 hour famine. Overall it went okay, but it did not help the fact that I am sick and that I went without food for 30 hours. But I only have two days of classes this week, so I am psyched about that. I need sleep, and to do my OT homework. I wonder which will come first....

Pop Song, Thoughts, Psalm

2006-04-05T00:14:00.000-04:00

I was talking about this the other night, to relate a pop song and a psalm with my thoughts in the blog. It was pretty cool -- try it....

I am going to start with a song -- Losing my Religion by REM

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

I guess when I was looking through I tunes I this song just poped out at me. Reflecting on the end of our second year, getting ready for internship, moving, ending my job, and whatever else might pop up in the next couple of months. I feel like this is somewhat of a dream, I feel that we have to choose our confessions -- what we believe in and proclaim it to the world. No matter how much seminary thinks they prepare us, in the end we are not going to have our professors to fall back on. Or as I like to say to have the "theological gods looking over our sholders" it is going to be on us. That excites me but scares me as well.
Lastly, I think that this experience they call seminary has brought me too my knees. I have felt every kind of emotion and I have been humbled by the whole experience. I have done things I never thought I could do, and other things I wish I never did. But in the end I am on my knees thanking God, cursing God and being humbled by just a hint of God's presence in my life.

I have been wrestling with this psalm for awhile and it just fits in with what I have been talking about:
Psa. 139:0 To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O LORD, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Post below

2006-04-03T23:46:00.000-04:00

I was reading over my post, I just want to make clear that I don't think that anyone has been a "bad" friend to me. if there is any blame it should be on me. I understand there are life changes and that things have their cycle. I think I am in that down cycle and I hope that I can come back up. that's all.....

Friends

2006-04-03T23:25:00.000-04:00

While I do have a Bonhoeffer paper to work on, I decided that I would write this down since it is all that is going through my head right now.

I have been thinking a lot about friends lately. Maybe it is because I miss my friends, maybe it is because my friends have been doing certain things that I have not been included on, maybe it is because I am going to miss another one of my friends bachelor parties because I have to preach on that Sunday....Whatever it is I have been thinking about it a lot lately.

I have many different circles of friends and they have overlapped a few times in my life. I have my friends from Rutland-- two of which I am still close too. I have my friends from college. I only really talk with one friend who now lives in Cali -- it kinda makes me sad that the rest don't respond to e-mails or letters but I will get over it. I have my friends from camp -- these are the friends that I consider my best friends and now I have my friends from seminary. I consider these some of my great friends as well and I know I will have these friends for a long time.

I am fusterated not with my friends from home or college or even seminary but I am fusterated because I can't see/be with my friends from camp. It is crazy how much I need that interaction with them from time to time. And maybe there is more that I can do, I don't know. But it seems like lately we have gone in our own directions. I know some are married and now I have a child (only one so far) and life is not like it was when we were 16 or even 20. I understand life changes but there was a certain time when I just felt that there was nothing that could separate us. To an extent that is true and it is more true for some than others. I guess we all have priorities and I never thought that mine would not put my friends near the top of the list.

My question is has seminary taken my friends away from me? Between my family and seminary and work -- does that mean that I can't make time for them? It is hard because there is not only the time factor of trying to get work done and school done and everything else that life demands but there is also the distance factor, some of my friends are a 5 -6 hour car ride and others are a 5-6 hour plane ride. It just seems crazy that this could separate us......

When I sit down recently and think about the stuff that "Bothers" me and sometimes I think that seminary takes the "fun" out of faith for me. I think the thing that my heart longs for the most might not be the faith interaction that I have with the kids or adults that I come in contact with. Even though that is a big thing -- I think it is also the relationships that comes with working at camp. It is the nights out, the days off, the goofing off while stealing a 7 foot sign 30 feet up in the air. I miss the long nights talking on the beach or in the dining hall. I miss the hugs and faces of pure pleasure and the thoughts that this is a never ending friendship. I miss knowing that if there is anything that I need, at any time during the day I can call these guys up knowing that they would be at my doorstep ready to fight without any questions asked.
While I don't fully believe that is gone, sometimes that seems like a distant memory.

Soon I will be celebrating the marriage of one of my friends. It is going to be good to see everyone again, I know that the weekend is going to be full of stories, memories remembered and new ones made. But I hope that sometime soon there will be more opportunities to bask in the glory of friendship, of faith in eachother and love for one another. I hope that I can fill this heart that is not broken, but maybe has a few holes where love and REason once made a home.

Pictures

2006-04-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

Here is a Pic of Logan feeding Becca an apple or something....kinda funny....perhaps Becca would not want me to post this, but she never reads my blog....so shhhhh don't tell :)

I dont' know excatly what is going on with Logan here (yes he is wearing an Eagles jersey) but I thought it was a funny pic. It looks like he is going to get hit with something.....

I thought you all might enjoy those pics. My friend Ralph has "challenged" his blog readers to post a psalm and pop song on his blog....I think I will do that and post it here. I also have been going through old notes and files from seminary and I am compiling a list of thoughts on my seminary experience so far. I don't think I can sum it all up within the next two months (how much longer until my internship starts....but I am going to start reflecting upon that sort of stuff.

For those who do read this, my challenge to you is a psalm/pop song reflection in my comment area. If you have any questions as to what that might look like, stay tuned to my blog tomorrow or check out Ralph's blog.....

Sermon from March 19, 2006

2006-04-01T20:06:00.000-05:00

John 2:13-25

13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

23When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

Slam Ball.

This is a basketball game unlike any other. It is basketball for the Millennium generation, with action that looks like one extended highlight clip after another. It’s full of instant dunks, instant air and instant gratification.

The secret: trampolines imbedded in the court, in front of the baskets.

A player named Sean Jackson, better known as “Inches,” is one of the new stars of this brand-new extreme basketball league. In Slam Ball, Inches is not limited by the normal constraints of the game — he can perform jaw-dropping 360 degree, through-the-legs, windmill jams. “It’s just like I dreamed about in street ball,” he tells The New York Times, “that I could do a certain dunk in midair, and the man I just dunked on was Michael Jordan.”

Slam Ball. It’s all about fulfilling dreams. It combines the flying freedom of a trampoline, the fantasy of stepping into a video game and the adrenaline rush of an extreme sport.

The game is played on a custom-made court that is 94 feet long and 55 feet wide, with baskets 10 feet high and four trampolines in the court in front of the baskets. Players wear soft helmets and body padding, since midair contact is allowed, and they concentrate their efforts on bouncing, leaping, hitting and dunking.

“Conceptually, it sounds like a wild and crazy and wacky idea,” says Mason Gordon, the creator of Slam Ball, “but when you put a bunch of sports into a blender, it works.” The players of Slam ball experience twenty minuets of chaos – Running around, shooting, jumping and colliding with one another.

In today’s gospel we hear Jesus stepping onto a different court during Passover, he steps onto the temple court in Jerusalem. However, the similarity is the chaos he finds within that court. Millions of people were coming to Jerusalem to get ready for Passover. Passover commemorates God’s liberation of the Israelites from Egypt, one of the greatest events in its history.

But instead of finding people preparing themselves spiritually for the event --- Jesus found entrepreneurs selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others changing money at their tables. Upon finding this Jesus Made a whip of cords, he drove the sheep and the cattle out of the temple. He also pours out the coins of the moneychangers and overturns their tables, before saying; “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s houses a marketplace!” (John 2:13-16). Jesus did not want them to sell things in order to make a prophet in the temple. That would be like having a billboard sign in the front of our church advertising for Nike, or Pepsi or instead of our hymnals having a green, or blue cover they would be covered with stickers for different organizations in the community. It was not only about what they were doing but about how they were doing it…..the people selling were trying to take advantage of the travelers, they thought it was going to be easy to sell their items for high prices and no one would know the difference but Jesus knew.

This is a different side of Jesus. We are use to seeing Jesus acting very calm and holding his composure. But this is a different scene as well. If you can imagine yourself among the different business immersed in his surroundings. There are people running into one another there is yelling, selling perhaps crying or fighting. It probably seems like a mad house. There is no control by anyone -- until Jesus steps in. Jesus takes control and drives the evil out of the temple.

Lent can be a time of reflection, preparation and the recognition of the wonderful things Jesus does for us in our lives, things that no matter what we do Jesus is going to continue to do. Also it is a time to think about the upcoming death and resurrection of Christ. But like the temple court and the Slam ball court we can find ourselves being push around and crashing in midair in the midst of chaos – we feel like we have no control over our lives. We get caught up in running between appointments, studying for tests, doing homework, taking care of the kids, paying the bills – we sometimes forget to take time for ourselves. We sometimes forget to give up our control and to let Jesus take control.

Lent is a time for us to sit back and remember the things that God has done for us in our lives – to remember the things that God has freed us from…..

When wee feel like we want to overturn the tables in our marketplaces, to start again – We hear God’s voice echoing from the Old Testament lesson “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;” But it is hard to accept that because we become so consumed in our day to day lives to really pay attention.

The season of Lent enables us to take a step back and to revaluate --- I know for me this Lenten season I have taken the time for reflection – I have started an online journaling experience called a blog. I am attempting to write in my blog every day during lent. While some might find this cumbersome and restrictive, I have found it to be very refreshing and renewing. I have been able to reflect on the day, to see where God is acting in my life and somehow my life seems less chaotic and crazy.
One of my first entries I wrote, “I do not know what I am going to write about in here, I have always wanted to keep a journal, but I never know what to write. I guess we will see what comes out.” Two weeks later I realize how much I do write, how much I look forward to writing and finding that Jesus is in my daily actions and how much – without full knowledge am comforted by Jesus’ presence.

Others I know have Taken upon the ELCA “Here I Step” challenge which By walking two miles a day during the 40 days of Lent their journey the 80 miles from Jesus' hometown of Nazareth to the city of Jerusalem. For them it is also a time to escape the realities of the world and to spend their devotional time with God.

We are freed out of the love of God for us not by what we do or do not do. Our devotional time does not earn God’s favor but only enabling another way to see God’s love in our lives. A love that is there regardless if we do devotionals or not and A love that leads to freedom and salvation.

Freedom for us can be found in the Ten Commandments – before the Ten Commandments are given God freed the people from slavery…. God did not say to us here are your commandments and if you follow them THEN I will free you. Instead God said -- I will free you, I choose you FIRST and I will give you eternal life…

God reinforces that God is the only true God; the God freed us and who has brought us salvation. That salvation came through Jesus – who when he was questioned about the destruction and resurrection of the temple Jesus shifts attention from the temple in Jerusalem, to the temple of his own body, which will be destroyed on the cross and then raised in three days.

For years, the temple has been the place of God’s presence on earth ... but now, with the coming of Christ, the body of Jesus is where God is seen most clearly – after the resurrection of Jesus – through the eyes of the disciples and then passed down to us.

The freedom of slavery out of Egypt and the presentation of the Ten Commandments is like going to the Emergency Room…..
No matter who you are, where you come from, or what kind of insurance you have, you are always going to get treatment from the emergency room doctors. They are going to fix you and make you better, no questions asked. But there is a bill after the treatment, but insurance, like grace is there to pick up the bill.

Through the story of the overturned tables in marketplace we see another side of Jesus and we need to let Jesus’ full humanness sit within us.

Jesus didn’t get angry when he was tired, exhausted and all worn out. That is what we often do when we are tired and exhausted. When we do not have the time for ourselves….. But this was not the cause of Jesus’ anger.

Rather Jesus got angry when he saw injustice and irreverence. He got angry when he saw people charging outrageous prices for the animals and when he saw how people were desecrating the temple, God’s house. He got angry when he saw their lack of respect and lack of reverence.

When we are getting pushed around in our lives, for one reason or another, we too feel that anger, that frustration of lost control.

But this wasn’t the end of the story about his anger. We are suspicious that many of these same people who were in the temple selling goods at unjust prices were also at the cross on Good Friday, watching Jesus being crucified. Jesus prayed to God, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

In our busy social world of the twenty first century, it seems that the Presence of God is being moved to the margins and to the sidelines. Even within our temples, we have often forgotten how to pray to God but simply chat with other people seated around us, or to take on the demands of the world, demands that sometimes seem overwhelming, and forget about God.

It can be easy to forget that God’s love, and grace is always around us – God creates order in our lives that sometimes may seem chaotic like a game of slam ball ---- and God first chooses us to be free from the bondage of slavery into eternal life – For it is not up to us to do anything to earn our salvation because it has already been given to us by the death of God’s son Jesus on the Cross.

Amen

Vermonter

2006-03-31T09:21:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know much about Vermont or what it means to be a vermonter here is some info....

If you are a TRUE VERMONTER:

1.Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on
route 7.
2. Vacation means going to Burlington for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.
5. You often switch from heat to A/C in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups as deer meat, beer, fish, and berries.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the K-mart store at any given time!
13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.
16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and
construction.
17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when
you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.
18. You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your friends from Vermont
19. your idea of a graduation party is a keg in the backwoods with some friends.
20. 10 degrees is considered a warm day.
21. the christmas lights are on the house year round.
22. you know the three ways of hunting deer: sitting in a tree stand (boring), stalking the deer (hard as hell), and hitting it with your truck (by far the easiest and most full proof way).
23. you know February vaction was first made for people who sugar.
24. you think the bigger the truck the better
25. you say idear and milt'n
26. you think a winter with only 2 feet of snow at a time is a mild winter.
27. you or your parents don't fully grasp the concept of internet.
28. you know you can buy a bong legally and you know where to get them.
29. you are used to the smell of cow manure.
30. you learned to drive when you could first reach the pedals.
31. you wait up all night just to shoot pesky racoons
32. you or your parents own more then 3 guns.
33. you have to travel for at least 30 minutes to get any good clothes.
34. you think camo clothes, suspenders and flannel are "in style".
35. you get annoyed when people think vermont is part of canada, but you yourself think new mexico is part of central america and its the updated version of mexico.
36. you make some of your own furniture.
37. you've at least tipped one cow in your life.
38. you've skinny dipped at least once in lake champlain.
39. you get immense fun out of setting off any kind of firework.
40. you know the few roads into canada no-one appears to know about.
41. you drink water from your own well.
42. within a mile of where you live you can find a cow.
43. you know at least one person with the last name "manahan"
44. ain't is part of your common vocabulary.

The next couple of days I am going to be working on a lot of stuff so I am pulling some humerous things together for my blog, and some pictures for the weekend. But next week I will share more of what I am working on, it will be good.

Glasses

2006-03-30T09:59:00.000-05:00

So there has been alot of action in the last day or so.

First I had to get new glasses. I think I mentioned Logan breaking my current pair. Well We went to sears and dropped a big bill to get a new pair. I could of simmed some things like trying to get just a new frame, getting a not so nice looking pair to save on costs or to not get the warranty but we got all of that. And in the end I am happy with our decision, it is going to be a little tougher money wise but things will be okay I think. If this pair can last until I get out of seminary then I will be happy.

I don't know this thought is good or not but I think about alot of things "as long as this can last until after seminary we will be okay" It comes through our cars, funiture, health, life, ect. It is not like we are going to be rolling in the dough once seminary is over, but I can at least have a decent income, Katie can contineu her education part time and work full time and I have a feeling that our income will greatly increase while expenses will decrease or remain the same. My hope is that our car payment will be done and be replaced with stuent loans (same amount). Maybe this is my pipe dream but I hope not.

So my feet are not doing so well today. I have had some problems but I now have a gash on my heal and it hurts to walk. I wore my sandles yesterday and that might be a part of it. My sandles are crap, and I should not of worn them (isn't hindsight great) but I did and now I have this problem. I wanted to work out this morning but I could not becuase of walking. So I cleaned up the house a bit and now I am going to do some school work. Maybe I can go swimming this afternoon, but I know the pool is crowded in the afternoon. As long as I go Saturday I will count this as my "day off"

I have to work on my Bonhoeffer paper this weekend. I am somewhat regreting a term paper vs. short papers during the year. But as long as I can bang out 7-8 pages this weekend I should be good. I am pretty confident I can do that. Tomorrow I should spend in the library for the majority of the day. I don't have anything going on until tomorrow night when I have this stupid gospel choir concert to go too. I am not looking forward ot the concert. Granted I LOVE gospel music and I like what we are singing but I think it is the people behind the concert and how last year it was a big deal with the organizers using our class money for their personal amition saying it was a "class project" when in fact it was only four people doing it.

Lost was awesome last night!! There are so many things that were brought up and I think it is crazy!!! I can't process it right now. I did do some research this morning and there were some great leads. I will fill everyone in as time goes on.

well I should get going but I hope to write more tonight.

Searching

2006-03-27T22:34:00.001-05:00

So I did some searching today of some other blogs online. I typed in "Lutheran" and I found some pretty interesting ones.
I think there are some great people out there who are trying to proclaim the gospel within their blog. I really commend that. I think that is very note worthy. I right now, mainly proclaim what I do on a day to day basis. I think that is good for what I can do at this point. I hope things change though.

Well it is almost 11pm and it kinda stinks that once 11 comes my body decides to shut down. Unless I have something really going on where I have to stay up and focus. But then it is doing anything I can to stay awake. that is not healthy for me.

Well I am off to bed, I liked getting up early to go to the gym. I think I am going to do it again tomorrow.

Night y'all

Funny Picture

2006-03-27T15:49:00.000-05:00

I love this picture and I wanted to share it with everyone......

I am sitting in an "Art Journaling" workshop for formation group. Or as I like to call it "a waste of time"

Monday's are long for me. But I have made it through the day today. I handed in my OT midterm, I took my Spanish midterm and now I am here.

I don't know what the rest of my week will look like. I have to sit down tonight and kind of just plan out the rest of the semester. I have to work on papers and I want to make sure that I am not staying up all night handing in a sub par paper because I was unorganized.

I went to the gym this morning and I found that when I walk on the treadmill I can really go over my Spanish flash cards. That will be so good. I am going to keep walking until I learn all the words. I started and the next thing I knew 15 min went by. Usually I am just trying to make it until 10 min.

Well I guess I should get back to class.

Saturday

2006-03-26T07:03:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a busy day, I got some laundry done and studied a lot for my spanish Midterm on Monday. It was raining so we could not take Logan to the park.
Oh and I cleaned out the van which was really good because it was GROSS!!

Not much else happened yesterday. we kinda just hung out at home. Katie worked on Logan's baby book which was good. We have not been good about keeping that up. But she actually has been doing it lately and it is turning out pretty nice.

Well today is church and then work for a little then I come home. That will be nice. It is still weird not to have youth group every week. But next month we are doing ALOT and it will be nice some weeks to have that extra time.

Well I should get ready for church. Vam told me how to get pictures on here, I don't know why I did not get it before. This one should not be huge like the last (I hope)/

TGIF

2006-03-24T20:29:00.001-05:00

I am not sure if this week is a TGIF day. That means that my reading week is almost over and I did not get enough done. I still have the rest of the night tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. But like most weekends, I am sure it will not be the most productive time of my week.
I will actually be one of the last (if not the last) weekends that I will not have anything going on. That kinda scares me a bit. I will not bore you with all the details of my life, I am sure I will update as I go along, but I should take advantage of my time while I have it.
Today I helped my friend move all day. It was a good day but still kinda sad to see him go. He is going to be like 5 min from campus so that will be good. I am sure since he will not be bogged down in school work all the time he will have time to hang out. I am looking forward to the upcoming NFL season.
On Thursday I stopped by around 30 shops asking for donations for my youth group's upcoming silent auction in May. I was surprised at how many stores said they could not do it because they are "corporate" and they could not do anything. It kinda pissed me off. I look around they have TONS of product and why they could not spare a DVD or a Video Game is beyond me. I was not asking for hundredes of thousands of dollars. Just a 25-50 dollar donation. That would not kill them.
I did have some success and I was happy about that. I also have some other places "getting back to me" If I don't hear anything in a few weeks I would like to go back and check in wtih them. We shall see how my time will pan out. I don't have much time during the mid week, especailly if I am catching up on stuff I did not do this week.

Well katie is out tonight with her friends. I am glad she can do that. I am hanging with Logan and he needs to do "samball" I have no idea what that is but I should go and figure it out. Later Gators

TGIF

2006-03-24T20:29:00.000-05:00

Photobucket

2006-03-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Logan Peek-a-boo

2006-03-23T23:39:00.000-05:00

okay -- to this photo is a little big. I need to work on it

Wellness Wednesday

2006-03-22T08:58:00.000-05:00

Well it is Wednesday -- I have somewhat dedicated today to take a closer look at how well I am, what I am doing to become well.....

I have to say that I have gone to the gym this week. It felt good to be back there and to work out again. I have not been consistant about it. I think partly for the fear that this week is going to be over and I did not get anything accomplished. but I did almost finish my OT exam and I did make an outline for my spanish exam so I am pretty excited about that. I feel like I got the major things done and the rest is gravey.

This morning I took Tom out to breakfast. I thought he might of been up from his away message and he was!! We went to Michael's Diner on Easton Road. IT was pretty good. I have driven by there a million times but never had the time to stop in. They were nice enough and served us well. It was good to sit down and chat. I have never had a friend like that who also was married and who I can just call up and go out to breakfast with. I think we have a lot in common and I am thankful for his friendship. I have not had a friend like that since I left New England and I think I have been craving and missing that. I have so many good friends in New England but I can't see them on a consistant basis.

Well I am going to talk with Dr. Rivera about the Latino program today. that should be interesting. I am not sure where I should be right now with my learning of the spanish language. I know that I am further along than I have been with any other forgin language. It is amazing to me how much I can read, even if it is just the simple sentences that he gives us in class. I am pretty proud of myself. But talking is another thing. I can pick up about half of the conversation that people have during our spanish conversation tables, but I feel like I can't participate as much as I would like. It jsut doesn't come to me that fast. I hope with my studing the next year and then the immersion program that I will be involved with (I hope) next summer that I can really be up to par with it. We shall see though.

The rest of the day will be working on my bonhoeffer paper and getting ready for confermation. I think that will be a pretty full day and then Lost tonight, but I am assisting at church so I won't be geting home until late, I think that I might miss some of it so hopefully Tom and I can watch it later this week (HE has Tivo).

I hope everyone has a great day!

Joe

2006-03-20T21:27:00.000-05:00

Short blog tonight --

I accomplished almost all that I wanted to today, I got some laundry done and I went to the gym and I did some (alot) of OT stuff.

More of the same tomorrow but I hope to finish (or come close to finishing) my OT exam. That is the biggest thing hanging over my head this week. Then I can move on to bigger and better things. LIKE PAPERS!!!

I want to finish my game of Street Football on Game Cube and then head off to bed. If I get up early enough I will be a superstar tomorrow!!

Night y'all

Monday, Monday

2006-03-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

So yea -- yesterday was my usual 12 hours at the church day. Between CHurch in the morning and then getting ready for youth group and having youth group and church at night I was done.
I did preach in the morning -- twice. By all indications it went pretty well. I asked one of my youth to evaluate me (along with 4 other adults) and he said he filled it out and the question about hindering him hear the gospel message --- he said he did not put anything because "I really liked it, I was actually impressed" That made me feel good. becuase if I can get a 17 year old to hear what I am saying, to pay attention then I am doing my job.
I have found through this sermon evaluation process through the church as well as through class, that it is so subjunctive. That everyone is going to hear something different.
Granted there are key things that should be in it and should not be in it, and part of it is in presentation but there are some things that everyone will hear and others none will hear and still others that only some will hear.
I took a risk for this sermon using an example about Slamball and I compared the chaos and the crashing in to one another with the temple expereince in the gospel lesson. Overall I was happy with the sermon. It is still hard for me to try and not include the law, especially with the texts that have the law pretty much as its message. I had the ten commandments and Jesus telling everyone that they need to stop selling things in the temple and start living a life of faith.

I will try and post a copy of the sermon on My Website soon. I want to get some other sermons up there and even try and do a podcast with some of my sermons. It should be fun.

Well I should be somewhat productive today. I want to get to the gym and make some headway in studying for my OT exam.
I will write more tonight!

Times a changing

2006-03-18T22:02:00.000-05:00

Why is the weather so messed up? One day I am comfortable wearing shorts, so I vow to myself that I am going to continue the shorts wearing tradition. After I do I become SO COLD that I can't stand it. I like it when I was in New England where You had to wear shorts, long pants a winter coat and a tank top becuase the day could start out in the 30's and by noon it would be up in the 90's.....ahhh memories.

So once again I am reiminded how much I need to get serious about my health. Granted it is not wellness wednesday but I have been in constant pain with my back for the last two days. Maybe I should not admit this to too many people but that is because I do weigh 350 pounds. That is not good. I need to get in shape so my body does not hate me anymore.

I know some people don't like Dr. Phil but some things he says is very true. he says that in order to fix a problem you need to admit it. I am admitting that I do have a problem with my health and the second thing that says just rings in my ears "IF you are willing to die for you children then why are you not willing to live for them" as it stands I am killing myself. I want to be there for Logan and all the rest of the kids that Katie nad I are planning to have. I want to be kept accountable and this is the forum that i see best fit for that.

We did have a good saturday though, we went to Ambler and walked around, to get to know the area a bit, which was good. Then we went to a fundraiser for Logans day care tonight, Logan had a BLAST! He just went crazy and I am reminded again that if you don't keep your eyes on your 2 year old he and disappear in two seconds!! But it was fun!

I had my first cigar in a long time tonight, it was good --- the cigar and the company. I am reminded again how crappy things can be and how blessed I am and how priorities are important in life. I need to keep remembering that thoughout my time here at the seminary, on internship and during my ministry. It would be easier if I worked at some coffee shop or grocery store or book store where I could work my shift and then do whatever I wanted after hours. But that is not the case and I can get wrapped up so much in my life in ministry that i forget everything else and it is not worth that. Of course I hope my candacy committee never reads this because it is not what they want to hear. But it is the truth and it is how things should be done. No matter who you are.

Well I am preaching tomorrow so I should try and get some sleep tonight. I will check in later.

Friday = Fish day???

2006-03-17T22:57:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of break. It started out much earlier than I would of liked. I had to take Logan to Day Care and one of Katie’s friends because she was in a conference in Center City all day. It was okay – It was not like I had to get up at 5:00 am. I then went to the doctors and got a lecture about not taking my medicine. I know I need to take it, I don’t know why I am so bad about it.

The rest of the day seemed like I did not get much done. But I got some donations for the silent auction for the youth who are going to the National Youth Gathering. I was pretty excited about that. Now I need to start to figure out how to advertise. I don’t want to have all these awesome donations without anyone to buy them.

I made some pizza, it was pretty good, I am getting better and better at it. Logan even had the pepperoni!! But tonight my back really hurt, I could barely walk! I was thinking about starting to write “themes” on certain days….like Tuesday could be Theology Tuesday where I would take some theological concept and write about it, to try and explore the idea alittle bit and perhaps get feedback from my faithful readers (all three of you?) and Wednesday could be wellness Wednesday, where I would explore my attempt to my personal journey of wellness which would include mainly updates on weight loss, but other parts of the “wellness wheel” that the ELCA puts out, because as cheesy as it is, there are some good points to it and things that I should really consider for myself. Those are the two that I thought about for the time being, if anyone has any other ideas let me know!

Tomorrow is going to be busy, I am not going to get much done because I have a commitment in the morning and then tomorrow night is the Silent Auction for Logan’s day care. It should be fun, I was going to miss it because of another engagement but it got snowed out back in feburary. My sermon is already written (and I gave it once for class), I might need to make some minor improvements but I am glad I am not trying to throw something together.

One of these days I am going to have to polish some of the sermons up and put them on

my website

I want to save some of my papers from seminary in a pdf file and post them, but like I said when I have time.

Some my goals for this week are to:
Do my OT midterm
Write my Bonhoeffer Paper
Write my OT paper
Catch up on reading for all my classes
Kick some Spanish Butt

I think that is all for right now, it is a good list since I have A LOT of work to do on every one of those projects. I guess I want to go out and pick up all the donations I was calling about today.

Well This is getting long enough, I should head off to bed, I will most likely be getting up early with Logan tomorrow, which would give me a good chance to get some stuff organized for my busy week.

Terrible

2006-03-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

I have been so terrible about keeping up with my journal and that makes me sad. It is not even April YET!!

This week has been crazy becuase i have had so much to do. It seems like I don't go to bed until midnight and then I get up at 7am to get stuff done. And it is not even all school related.

I am ready for break. I have 45 min until it starts and I am thankful for that. I can't really pay attention right now becuase lecture is just not what I want to be sitting in and it is OT.

We are getting our midterm today. It is take home which is nice but we can't use our notes which sucks. I have been studying for it (in a group) but not rigiously enough to take a midterm without notes. I really wish she told us this when she first said it was a takehome. I do wonder how many in our class will take it without looking at their notes at all.

________

So I started writing this at 11:00 this morning and now it is almost 9:00 at night. I am VERY tired. I think this has just been a long week....too long. BUt next week is BREAK!!!!

I had a good meeting with my spiritual director. I always want to skip it but after I go I do feel like it helps. I just talk about what is going on in my life and then she asks where God is in the midst of the good things and the bad things. We basically talked about the situtaion at the seminary with one of the students who has been asked to leave. I have talked alittle about it on here. It still makes me mad but I do have a better sense of what my role is in everything.

Anyway, again, I am sleepy so I need to go to bed. Goodnight everyone.

Joe

Catch Up

2006-03-13T20:24:00.000-05:00

I am going to write early tongight since I have not really written anything of substance the last few days.

This weekend was good -- since it was SO nice outside we went for a walk and then to the playgroud. It was fun. The older Logan gets the more fun he is to play with at the playground. He is exploring the monkey bars, and he tries different ways to go down the slide, his favorite is still the swings but he is getting into other things as well.

Then Sat night I had a "double date" my "date" was Tom and then Becca and Marissa were there too. It was SO much fun. I wish we did not wait until now to do stuff like that. I denfently need time like that with my friends. Just to go out, drink and blow off some steam. I have not done that much becuase of time, and money. But I chalk it up to sanity time.....

Sunday was good-- it was weird not to have Youth Group or Service on Sunday night. It is not like I relaxed much but I did use the time to go over OT stuff and Spanish stuff. But that was good because I did really well on my spanish quiz today, so that made me happy.

A Few Hours later.....

I think we got an apartment today, it is in Ambler....I will have a little ways to drive to my internship, but the trade off is that if we stay there for my senior year then I will not have much of a drive. Plus it is cheaper than the other one and it is on the first floor. The bad news is that is is SMALL> But I have learned a few things since I have been married. My life is much better when Katie is happy, and she REALLY likes this place. So then I will get over it. It is liveable or I would of said that there is no wya that we can get it. but we have lots of room now and it will be an adjustment. If we don't like it and we still feel stuck we can always move back on campus next year. It is only a year.

I have to prech in class on Wednesday. I am nervous. It is not like I have not preached before but I am getting evaluated...by people who know what they are talking about!!!
I hope I do well!!

Okay so it is late again and I am tired. I am going to have to send out some e-mails and then head off to bed. I have some time tomorrow morning to work on some things. Night!

2006-03-13T07:24:00.000-05:00

I usually don't do much with forwards but I really liked this one....enjoy

A pastor wanted to raise money for his church and on being told that there was a fortune to be made in horses decided to purchase one and enter it in the races. At the local auction, however, the going price for a horse was so high that he ended up buying a donkey instead. He figured since he had it, he might as well go ahead and enter it in the races, and to his surprise, the donkey came in third.

The next day the local paper carried this headline:

"Pastor's Ass Shows. "

The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and this time it won!

The local paper read:

"Pastor's Ass Out Front."

The bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he
ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.
The next day, the local paper read:

"Bishop Scratches Pastor's Ass."

The bishop was fit to be tied ! He ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.. The local paper, hearing the news, posted
this headline the next day:

"Nun Has Best Ass in Town."

The bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for ten dollars.

The next day, the paper read:

Nun Sells Ass For $10.00."

After the bishop was revived, he ordered the nun to buy back the
donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read:

"Nun Announces Her Ass Is Wild and Free.

The bishop was buried the next day.

Tired

2006-03-12T22:34:00.000-05:00

It is only 10:30 but I had a long weekend, it had it's ups and downs.

But I am going to bed so I can wake up wicked early tomorrow and finish what i need too for the day and then perhaps sometime between my craziness i can fill my weekend in.

Night

Sweet dreams

Joe

Tooth Ache

2006-03-10T21:52:00.000-05:00

So today I had my root canal. I was a little more nervous going in there than at first because my day did not start out so good. I was planning on going into church to get some work done, and I thought that since I was going to do that I should drop off the van to get the mirror fixed. So Katie took the Sunfire and I had the van. Well I forgot to have her leave the van key for me. Since Logan hid my copy that was the only one left.

I did not realize this until I was walking out to the car, by then I thought it was too late. I made some calls (one to Katie and the other to the doctor) and then I tore the living room apart. I eventually found my keys and headed out the door.

So this office is on City Line Ave, which is not too bad but it is in a hotel. I was thinking that it was going to be pretty sketchy. But my nerves were calmed when the Dentist walked in. He was VERY nice and he explained everything that he was doing and it was great. I can't say I enjoyed the procedure all that much but I was feeling okay when I left. But I did not feel like I should go into work or even just pick up my pay check. I was taking medicine all day and I had to clean up the living room and make pizza. So today was a day of cleaning and chillin.

So I have been downloading a bunch of stuff. I really would like to start doing a podcast. It is one of the reasons that I choose to have this blog, because I heard that I can do it from here....But I found this one program where you can record everything in the program and then get yore RSS feed through MAC.com....I think I am going to try that route. I signed up for a 60 day trial....by then I hope to save my "allowance" and buy a year's worth of MAC.com.....who knows I might like that blog even more....We shall see.

I hope to first podcast my sermons. I have about 5 or 6 more left this year and then I will have a bunch more during internship, and maybe have a weekly podcast about internship and application of what I learned/did not learn in seminary compared to internship....I don't know. I might not even have time on my day off to do it.

_________
Apartment update.
I think Katie and I have decided to take the apartment in Soudertown. It is nice enough and the other places I called just are not calling me back and the other apartment in Soudertown is gone. Depending on how tomorrow afternoon goes we might take another drive in that area to look around. I am convinced that there is something else but I don't want to spend every weekend from now on looking. We will be happy there I am sure of it.

_______
I just want to complain about the seminary a bit....there is some injustice issues happening right now....and it really pisses me off. I had to go through something similar (not to the extent it is happening now) last year. Assumptions were made, people were not being forthcoming with one another and things were blown out of porportion. I can't believe it and it really makes me hate this whole process even more. It was to the point where I was ready to leave LTSP and head off to either another seminary or to a divinity school. I was thinking "hey I got my Lutheran year done why not?" But then things get complicated with work, and Katie's job and Moving and Logan and CPE -- so we stayed. On the one hand I am happy because things have calmed down for us and I met a lot of great people this year. But it does not change the fact that things are happening to someone else, someone who is called to ministry and they should not be going through this.....I have never heard the term used seriously "guilty until proven innocent" What kind of crap is that? How can we stop this from happening in the future? Should people like this be pastors in the church and shaping future pastors? I really don't think so but am I willing to risk everything I have worked for?
It makes me think back to Bonhoeffer (since I am taking a course on him right now) He gave up his life standing up for what he believed in, it would of been easy to go with everyone else in the church and join Hitler, but he did not and he was put in jail for it and eventually died. Where is my dedication to the church and to God's call? Is God calling me to stand up for what is right and if not??? Then why not?

Questions that are not going to get resolved tonight, but things that I will be thinking about all night and for the rest of the weekend.....but please pray for me and for my friend and for LTSP.

Testing

2006-03-09T11:43:00.000-05:00

I forgot to test this link thingy

Really Cool Website

I hope so!!!

I forgot

2006-03-09T11:13:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I forgot to write in my blog....>BAD JOE

I hope lighting bolts strike me dead....or all of your faithful reads abandon me.....

hahahha -- both are pretty funny

Anyway, one of the reasons I did not write is because I was working frantically on a paper due yesterday. I stayed up until one am working on it and then I got up at 6 and worked on it until class -- I got it done which was great but I was beat after Lost last night so I went to bed early.

I got ahold of the reliator we are going through for utilities -- it is just at our limit for payment per month. So unless we find something realy awesome this weekend, I think we are going to take the 2 bedroom that we found. That is pretty exciting. I just got to get all the little details together. Then start to look and see if we can stay there senior year. I hope we can....

Well that's all for now, I am going to come up with a good theolgoical subject to reflect on tonight, my life is not interesting enough to keep up a daily posting.

Until tonight.....

Papers

2006-03-07T23:43:00.000-05:00

Well i have a paper due tomorrow so this is going to be short. It is acutally due in around 15 hours. Part of my inablity to get this paper done in a sufficent amount of time is the fact that the professor did not fully explain the paper until last Wednesday, and even then it was never fully explained. But with looking for apartments and other things occupying my time I have not finished it.

It is not like this paper needs a lot of research but it does require that I fully read a book I have only skimmed.

Well instead of talking about it to death I should finish it. I will write tomorrow more about my apartment adventures and the like.

Rocks, PAPERS, Siccors

2006-03-06T22:41:00.000-05:00

It is hard to imagine what I would do if I could get a head start on writing a paper. Would I be getting all A's in seminary??? Most likely not becuase I did hear that in order to be a good pastor one needed a GPA of LESS than 3.5...I think I got that covered.

Speaking of GPA's I saw that I did pretty well during my January Term Class. It was on Lutheran Spirituality......I guess that is a good thing right? I am not sure what our professor would have to say about it....oh well.....

I am off to Red Hill tomorrow....I have some personal things to take care of and then I am going to the church where I will be an intern and give him some lease information. I still don't know where I want to head with everything. Part of me feels that I should take this one place and be done with it, another part of me does not want to jump in too fast. We shall see I guess....

Not much else happened today....I had classes ALL day which makes for some fun times.

I am working on an interesting paper right now for church and society. I guess basically it is looking at a chruch that I am familiar with and seeing how the chruch relates to society. It is based on a book by Richard Niebuhr called Christ and Culture. This is where my complaint on getting papers done early stemmed from. But granted we had a week to read 250 pages and then a week to write the paper ON TOP of everything else we have to do for school and then all the other stuff that consists of my life.

It does make one think though -- I start to think how I relate my faith to the culture that I am surrounded in, and then I think about how I relate to cultures that I am not embedded in -- I am a white, male that grew up in the middle class....how am I going to relate to people who are not of that??? If I am thinking about incorporating hispanic ministry to my list of things that I want to do, can I be effective?

I guess I ask these questions but I have been there, and I have been successful. But it is always a worry, I guess I should be worried if I think I am "da bomb" in everything that I do and have more faith in myself than I do in God. Becuase it is only through God that I am able to do what I do with any amount of success. If I relied on myself to do good then I will fail, pretty hardcore. I wish that I have always had this idea of success and where success comes from.....it would of made more of my life easier to handle, I think.

Well on this note I think I should head off to bed. I do want to apologize for anything that does not make sense. I sometimes reread what I wrote the next morning and I notice that things are not perfectly written. This is good and bad, it is good because when I do write it is usually late at night or early in the morning. I am usually pretty tired then and I find that I make more mistakes....but I am more honest as well, becuase I am not thinking as much when I write. So that is that....

until next time....

Twice in one Day!!!

2006-03-05T21:58:00.000-05:00

So as promised here is another post from my lovely life.

It is not about 10pm. I am watching the awards show, posting my blog and drinking Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi (yes I know, but you get use to it). Instead I should be reading my Old Testament, writing my paper on Church and Culture or numerous other things. But I am beat.

As you might of seen I posted my first listing today at 6am and I have not stopped since then. I assisted in church this morning, taking on more presiding roles.....Went to third grade Sunday school and I fully realized that I REALLY enjoy working with that age group. I think enjoy ministry with young children and adults than teenagers. Don't get me wrong I love working with teenagers but I Really love working with the younger kids and I think I ma better at it too.

Well I went to the second service and then came straight home for only an hour, I had lunch, took in groceries, changes, talked with Katie for a bit, took out the trash and went back to church.

I was happy that I got my Spanish CD working in the car. I think that will be fun with my commute to and from church. I went to the dollar store to get some stuff for youth group. I got these fake roses for the golf course. There was not a price on them (imagine at the dollar store) and the cashier started to yell "DARNELL I NEED A PRICE ON THE ROSES" granted it was a Dollar store not a dollar tree so things are not really a dollar. Well Darnell called and said there was no more roses and then lady hung up the phone and yelled "DARNELL BRING ANY KIND OF FLOWER" well5 min later darnell came and I cashed out and left. Pretty humorous.

Well we set up for church golf, and I had about an hour so I talked with Katie and studied Spanish a bit and went to Wal-Mart to get prizes for the game.

Youth group was great we had over 20 kids again. I am feeling bad about not having it every week, but again only half of my leaders were there and once they were there they soon were not to be found by 6:00. It is fusterating, but I hope that changes with the week off.

Church was good, but it went long because of the Katrina video. So I got home at 9 and now it is a little after 10. I think I am too tired to comprehend anything right now, I think I will get up early.

I wish I had a theological insight to share with you now, or something profound. All I have is a recap of my day. I hope that suffices.

PS -- If anyone knows how to put a link in my text please let me know, I would like to do that. I think I found out to put an image in the text so maybe tomorrow when I have a free moment I will try and post a picture. I like sharing those.

Night and I will update more tomorrow.

Lost Blog

2006-03-05T06:02:00.000-05:00

So last night I wrote this long blog about my day yesterday. I lost it!!!! I tried using this new program and it seemed to disappear. I feel ashamed....

Well maybe I won't go as far as to say I am ashamed but kinda fusterated and sad....

I will try and recap what I said last night. It seems though that I can never capture the feelings and emotions and the pressure of the situtation the second time that I write it. It is kinda like when you spend hours working on a paper and forget to save it and then the power goes out. Thank God that Techonology now a days saves your work for you so that is not such a big problem anymore......imagine what it was like when the dog really DID eat your homework!?!?!

Anyway, yesterday we spent from about 10am until 6pm looking for apartments. We had one lead from Rent.com to this one place. But the only way in was through the fire escape, and it was on the fourth floor. Then when we got there it was really crappy inside....thanks rent.com.....FOR NOTHING!! Then we just drove around different areas looking and we actually found a great place in Souderton, PA. It was 2 bedrooms and spacious and the landlord I guess recently put in 30,000 on the inside. It is in "downtown" Souderton which is not booming but we really don't have a yard or anything. But there are parks and stuff closeby.
The only thing is that we might have to pay for eletric and gas.....not ever having to rent an apartment in my life before I don't know how much that would be a month. So I don't know if we can take it or not.

Everything else we looked out was at least 100 dollars more than the church will pay for an apartment. So we will see what happens.

The other option would be to stay on campus at the seminary. I am not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand we will not have to move, it is affordable and it is working out well for us. On the other hand, it would be an hour commute for me!! This would not be so much of a problem if I just had to go up once nad then come home. But what if I have a meeting at night?? Would I just stay at the chruch from 8am until 10 pm??? What about SUndays? I would need to leave at 5am and then get home about 1 (maybe) and then if I have something at 7 at the church I might end up spending 4 hours in the car!!! I know I will be spending a lot of time in the church on internship but that would be crazy!!

Do any of you on internship now have advice?

Souderton is about a 20 min drive for both Katie and I which would be nice.....we shall see though....

I will make some phone calls on Monday to find out more information.

That's all for now, I have to head off to church myself. I am assisting today, we are doing Katrina fundraising stuff. No sermon at either service. Which kinda stinks for today becuase the OT lesson is about Noah and the Flood and God's promise....oh well.....I hope they can get some gospel from the movie we are showing!!

I will write when I come home tonight, hopefully I will have more to say....

Peace!!!

The Hunt

2006-03-03T21:53:00.000-05:00

So tomorrow we are going apartment hunting. For those who don't know, I do have an internship site for next year. I will be at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Red Hill, PA. I am pretty excited about it. However, Andy E. is there this year and the church decided to hire him next year. Which means that he and his wife will be living in the house that we were going to live in next year. Good for Andy, bad for us.

The church is going to pay a certain amount per month for rent. So we are not totally left out in the cold. But to find a decent 2 bedroom apartment is a hard thing to do, especially if you have never done it before.

However, we found an apartment in Souderton, PA. Which is 20 min (more or less) from the chruch and 20 min (more or less) from Katie's work. So that would work out perfect. If we like the apartment. I don't really know at this point what to look for and what is good or not good for apartment hunting. BUt I will soon find out.

But today I woke up at a decent hour and found my money clip that has some credit cards and my drivers license. I am happy about that. Then I went to football practice. I realized how much more I am out of shape than I was in the fall. It is acutally pretty sad. I really hate that about myself right now. I have worked out every day during lent and I hope to continue that trend. I think that tomorrow we will have to go walking and then Sunday I will go to the gym depending on what happens with Chruch.

I then got some studying done this afternoon, and tonight I studied Spanish with Nancy. It was good but I am SO far behind learning Spanish than where I would like to be, especially if I want to do an imersion program next summer. I think that would be SO great and perhaps I might try and get a Spanish Concertration. The field work might be a problem, but I will see. I think doing an independant study my senior year which focuses on Spanish work would be great. We shall see though.

Well I think I am going to get some more stuff together and then head to bed. Night Y'all

Music of the Heart

2006-03-02T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today I am doing well in my Lenten journey. I went to the gym this morning. I went swimming and I did about 10 laps, with various strokes.....

Class was okay, I really don't understand everything becuase Dr. Gafney goes WICKED fast and uses many Bibical names which I don't know how to spell. So my notes read

Ambliech said to harmilain about YHWH ect.......

See what I mean???

THe rest of the afternoon I have been cleaning the house and watching Music of the Heart. It is a great movie if you have not seen it yet. It makes me want to go back to school and study music again. I am always inspired by those type of movies...

I have to head to the kitchen and clean that (or attempt too) before Katie gets home. I wanted to get the whole house done but a boy needs to rest.

Tomorrow we have football practice again!!! I a m very excited, it will be nice to get out and run around with my friends again. I think football is my favorite time of the year even though i had to find a babysitter every friday in the fall. I love being active and athletic. Another reason to get back in shape.

Well I am off and I want to leave you all with a Chuck Norris Quote.....

Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.

Blog sounds like Frog

2006-03-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

So here I am, trying to start this blog thing. I have heard so much about it, I am pretty excited!!!!

I think names are so hard to come up with. I figured I would start with pstrjoe. Why you may as.....well I am going to be a pastor one day, so I thought it was appropriate. Perhaps it is kinda weird now but in a few years it will fit.....is that a bad thing?

I am not sure who is going to read this, if anyone will but I have some cool ideas for things to write about.....

Being a Dad
Being a Seminarian
Things I learn about in Seminary
Working
Internship

Those are a few things, I am sure more will come up as I move along in my journey.

There will be some laughter, crying, romance, and perhaps we all might learn something.....and when I say we all I really mean me I guess......for now anyway.

Welcome to my world. Enjoy yourself and leave comments so I know you are here!!!

Being a Father

2004-06-07T12:11:00.000-04:00

I have not written much in this for awhile. I really want too but it seems like I don't have the time. I want to incorporate this with my daily devotions. Currently my daily devotions are non existent and I would like to change that. I do think about my faith and I do pray but I would like to make a conscious effort for daily prayer, scripture reading and journaling.

The month of may flew by. Logan is getting bigger all the time. It is really awesome to be a father. I was SO scared that with Logan being a part of my life that life was going to be over. I was unsure how things was going to effect my relationships and honestly all my fears and dismays have left. LIFE IS GREAT! Everything seems to be on the right track for me to be a good father to Logan and good partner for Katie.

The wedding day is coming closer and closer. I am more excited than nervous. I think that if we did not live together for a while first I would be more nervous but I see this as solidifying our relationship. I just want everything to go well, but I know I don't have too much control over that once the planning and preparation is done. You never know what is going to happen at your wedding no matter if you prepare for everything.

At this point I am more nervous to go back to school and making everything work in Philadelphia. I am not sure how we are going to do everything, between Katie finding a job, me going to school and both of us trying to take care of Logan. That does not include trying to survive fincially. I just hope and pray that things are going to work out.

I am at work right now and need to get back to doing some stuff that needs to get done. But these are the things on my mind right now and I had to get them out. I will write more later.

My stay at the hospital

2004-04-09T11:53:00.000-04:00

I can't believe everything that has happened recently. I am thankful that it happened now where I am more flexible and can afford to take time from work and not get behind too much because other people can step in and help out.
FEB 26, 2004 Logan Joseph McGarry is born at 1:53pm. It was a really happy day. I was nervous because Katie had an emergency c-section and I could not be there for the actual birth, but I was the first to hold Logan and see his beautiful face. I was SO happy.
I was up for around 60 hours and my stomach did not feel too good. I thought I just needed some rest. I went home and went to bed and got up the next day (Friday) and still did not feel good. I called my doctor and they did some blood work and an x-ray. They found nothing wrong. The pain did not go away and got worse and I was throwing up. Saturday it was worse and I said "hi" to Katie at the hospital and went downstairs to the ER. About 3 hours of waiting I had enormous pain -- the worse in my life!! Apparently my appendix burst!! At least that's what I found out later. I started to scream for a doctor or a nurse and no one came. 2 more hours went by and someone came in to do blood work and x-rays again and within 10 min I was in surgery.
I woke up in another room with a tube down my throat and I was really draggy. I started to come around and found out what was going on and I was transported to my room.
I was not sure who knew about the surgery. I was not able to call anyone or get in contact with anyone. Katie was in the same hospital and I was not sure if she knew!!
When I got to my room there was a really nice nurse who called my parents and Katie and told them what was going on. I rested but was never totally comfortable. My parents called my room and talked to me and decided to come down and stay with us until I got better. I don't know what I would of done if they did not do that or even what Katie would of done after her surgery and the baby.
Sunday Katie went home. I got to see Logan real quick as she left. It was nice to see him and Katie. For the next few days when Katie came by she was sad because she felt bad for me and she was scared and she missed me. I missed her too but for the surgery until the next Wednesday I was out of it. I could not breath well and I was sweating all the time. Everytime I drank water I threw up and I could not eat anything.
Finally they figured out that fluid was in my stomach and there was so much of it, that it was compressing everything else. They ended up sticking a tube up my nose and down my stomach and pumped everything out. Right away they pumped about a gallon and a half out and I felt better. Then for the next week it was just get better and rest. I got tons of cards and visitors. IT was nice but I'd much rather spend the first two weeks of Logan's life with him and with Katie than in the hospital.
The blessing occurred when I HAD to take time off of work to heal. Part of me hated staying at home because I was somewhat bored. I don't like being idol for too long. But I was there to get to know my son and be a part of his life. I loved being there for and with Katie. Sure I was in pain and I am still in pain a month later and from what I understand I will be like this for much .longer. But that's the plan God has for me right now. I don't have much control over it.
It is good Friday. A time to remember the sacrifice God made for us and It is just awesome. I have a lot to remember this year. 2004 will go down in the record book for me and it is only APRIL!!!

Change

2000-03-11T15:59:00.000-05:00

Looking back at the last two years and to sum up everything that has happened to me is hard to do. Mainly there has been so much I can't express it all right here and right now. There is no way I cna ever think that I would be here at Camp Calumet working full time and living in the Conference Center. Never would i think that I would be in love with the girl of my dreams and she would be in love (though I am not sure) with me. However wo don't have a relationship becuase we are 1,200 miles away from one another. Funny how life turns out!!!
I guess in order to summerize the last two years or so I would say it has been about CHANGE!!
What do you think of when you hear the word Change?
The money in your pocket?
The color of someone's hair?
The clothes on your back?
Or would you think about the attitudes of some people or the wya they live their loves or how they make their decisions?
It is funny how someone can experience all of these things. You take a boy who is far away from home -- lost, confused and who does not feel loved and take him and put him in a place where he learns to have direction in his life.
He is close to the friends that he loves, He has some sort of an idea what he wants to do with his life.
In order to make his life perfect is if he has the girl that he loves standing beside him.
Is it right to have this boy's life perfect?
Some might say yes and some might say no.
"He doesn't deserve to have a good life."
"He doesn't do things the way I do them, so he is wrong"
If they say that they are fools!!!!
Everyone deserves the perfect life. I see my life now and say I almost have the "perfect" life but what about two years form now? What would I consider the perfect life and will I have it?

Good Times

1999-02-21T12:50:00.000-05:00

Wow -- what an amazing day!! God I have learned more about you tdoay than I have in a long time. Thank you for bringing me here and meeting all the wonderful guys. They gave me so much insight this weekend.
I love being where I am, feeling accepted and included. I have not felt so included in a long time. Beofre I realize what I learned here I have to let everything sink in.

Can't Sleep

1999-02-20T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well its about 1:30 am. I am tired but I can't slee. I am in Eudora, IA on a men's retreat. It is good and excatly what I need right now. God I love talking with you and sharing with you and talking about you. I feel storng towards your minstry everyday. thank you for having B ask me to come here and thank you for letting me get to know Chad. My first impression of him was wrong and I am glad about that. There is so much to him and I want to get to know them both better. I feel like someone who doesn't know things around here. There are so many dovoted Christians here and I feel like sometimes that I am not as devoted. Like tonight when they were sharing what they have been reading in the Bible I did not have much to share. I felt bad and I felt like I was not "doing my job". I don't want to feel that way. If I can't read your word then I do I expect to help others? Please help me get through to J. Hopefully she will se what she has been doing and what she does and how much that hurts me.
Please be with my family too especially with what is going on right now. And lastly pelase lep me with my decisions in life and help me think about what I am going to do with myself.

Psalm 40 + 42

new year/ new questions/ new love

1999-01-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Boy lots of stuff has happened to me. I switched my major -- to what I don't know. I know that whatever direction I go in is the right one. I am thinking Religion with either a socology or communications minor but I am not sure.

I ended up having a wonderful break. I loved being home for Christmas and I loved seeing James and Jeremy. We had a blast. I ended up drinking and getting pretty drunk. I had lots of fun doing it and I don't know if that is totally wrong or not. Nothing bad became of it and I don't do it alot but it was fun. Is that bad? I was probably doing it for the wrong reasons but I don't knwo waht those reasons were. I think I was not thinking and that was the problem. but was it a problem?

I did go to NYC with my family and Bill did not go. That was a bummer but it is the fact of life. SO I guess I have to deal with it.

I am back a school not and I am on duty as an RA on Satu night. That might be interesting. I hope that I don't have to confront any big parties. This weekend has been good and con only look to get better. I am happy now and I have not been happy in a long time. I am glad to be happy.

I still have a thing for JH. She is amazing. I wish she would have more time to spend with my. When we do spend time together I would like to know more about her, then talk about me. But I want her to see how great I am and hopefully like me back.

Things with J have bene up and down. It is so dumb and I should not worry about it but I do. Things are good and how I feel is good and I am content with that.

I started to work out again, but once again my activies have taken over my life and I can't stop them. thigs come up and I have to deal with them. I whish they would not come up and I was not so busty but then would I be happy? I am not sure.

So many questions in life and I think I will have them for a long time. Some of them I think might never get answered.

Why?

1998-12-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

I have so many prayers to you God and you know what is in my heart. You know what I have been praying lately. I have been so confused about relationships, who has been in my life and who changes my life. I haven't felt like myself recently. I don't know who I really feel like. I don't even know what I am spoe to feel like. I want to thank you for bring people into my life. People who are open and hoset. I want to get to know them better.
Why did I decieve them? I am such an idot. Ifeel so clsoe to you but I do wrong and not just little worng but big wrong. I try to live a life for youbut I do bad things. Am I trying to fool other people or am I fooling myself?
I have gotten over my feelings for J and I want to contiue with that. It is the first time in a long time that I can honestly say that. I want to get closer to JH but I just can't make myself at this point. I don't feel like I deserve that right now. Even though her friendship is what is important to me and makes me feel close to her.
Help me Lord. I have to go but I know this is going to be good for me.
Closing Verse
2 Chronciles 6: 14-42

Thank You

1998-12-08T22:30:00.000-05:00

I am so thankful for you wathcing out for me this weekend. Thank you for my talks with JH and the postive comments I got from K and J and all the rest of the people that talked to me on Sunday. thank you also for bringing J back to me. I still need to talk to her but at least she is calling me again. That makes me happy.

Help me trying to decide what to do before the reuniton and after the reuntion. I don't know what to do. I should go with my family aftoer the reuniton . I know that but I want to go to camp too. I want to hang out with the boys but I can see them. I would like to hang out with J and L and whoever is there.
I really don't like being so far away from my good friends. I love my friends here but other people have been there for me for a long time and I want to see them and hang out with them. Help me decide what to do.

Getting Old

1998-06-04T15:09:00.000-04:00

I am almost 20 years old. I could never of dream of this day and I know it is not going to be the biggest day of my life. Right now I am happy though. I am happy with how things are going so far with me. Many of my goals for the year have been reached.
I am at camp once again and I am loving it. I do miss J though and I want to talk with her lost but I know I can't. I wish I could, I want to talk with her everyday and tell her what I did and see what she has been up too. I am a little depressed about that, but everything else is great.

Pain

1998-03-10T18:35:00.000-05:00

There are three different kinds of pain.

Pain is a very complicated feeling. The first type of pain is physical pain. I try not to think about this type of pain. I try to use the saying "if you don't think about it, it will go away." Most of the time it works for me. There is nothing you can do besides sit, rest and waith for it to heal. If you take care of yourself, physical pain should not come around that ofetn and if it does then you can heal real fast.
The second type of pain is the pain of a broken heart. I have experienced this too many times in my life. there is nothing that you can do to heal this pain but wiat. Some people like to fill it with other things like drugs, drinking, or meaningless emotional activities. My personal favorite is food. Of course that should not come as a big surprise.

the third type is just an overal pain. the pain of lost friends, or a lost football game. It is the pain when you have to say goodbye to a friend who you know you will not see for awhile. Or the pain of feeling so stupid when you have done something wrong. I would say this is the pain that people experience the most.

Another Depressing Poem

1998-02-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

Depressed, alone, confused, scared, upset.
These are the feelings I am feeling right now.
Where do I belong?
Who are my friends?
Who can I trust?
Who wants me around?
Why am I so sad?
How can I feel better?
These are the questions I ask myself all the time.
Is this good? Am I trying to find myself? If I am I hope I do soon because this stinks. All I want is to have someone I can love who loves me back, is that too much to ask?? I would think not. I want to know where my place in the world is. Right now I don't feel like I belong anywhere. School, home or camp.

Where do I belong?

Christmas

1997-12-08T23:44:00.000-05:00

For me Christams begins with the first snowfall. I for one have never been someone who likes to buy Christmas presents. However, it makes people feel special when they get a present from someone who care about them. So everyonce and awhile it is good to get Christmas presents. But is Christmas all about presents? Should we base this holiday season on Santa and the grinch? I don't think so. this is all about Jesus and celebrating his birth into the world.

That's all I have to say about that.

Happy Day

1997-12-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

Remember the saying. "Always look on the bright side of life."
Well today I have "seen the light"
they are right "the grass IS greener on the other side."
Talking and being open and honest with people is the best kind of way to approach ANY situation.
Advice giving is good but not totally and completely necessary. Sometimes it is good to just stay out of a situation.
On the other hand, if that person has no one else to go to then you might have to sit and listen.
ANYWAY
Rejoice and give thanks to be alive. One day you might not wake up. So live life to the fullest all the time. It is difficult to do this but it might be necessary because like I said, you never know when it is YOUR TURN.

ADVICE 1
A Helmet is always a good idea
Listen
Be honest
When in doubt act like a Boy Scout
Smiling is good
BKA (Brass Kicks Ass) so watch out
Pride lease to arguments; be humble take advice and become wise (prov 13:10)

Only if wishes came true

1997-12-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

I wish there is someone who could feel the feelings that I am feeling right now.
This is the feeling of loneliness in the world that we live in.
I wish there was someone I could talk to -- to tell me that everything will be okay.
If they could only understand what it is like to be me, then they would know.
I I wish I could be someone else for a day.
Someone who has the world in the palm of his hands.
I wish all the guys of the world who treat women like crap, get crapped on themselves.
Only if people know how difficult it is to be a nice guy in the world today, then they would see why nice guys always finish last.
I wish I idd not get crapped on.
Why do I always get crapped on?
I wish people could understand that I have feelings to and I need to express them.
Why won't they listen?
DO they CARE?
I wish I do not weigh as much as I do.
Then the world would listen to me, instead of making judgments about me.
I wish I could get more sleep, get better grades, have closer firends, be in a better band, be in a choir, have no problems.
Wouldent that be nice?
I wish the girl of my dreams could understand how I feel about her.
But she can't she won't listen.
Finally, I wish, wishes came true.
That would only be in a perfect world.

Expression of Feelings

1997-12-04T00:49:00.000-05:00

I wish I could tell the girl that I love how I feel. To me this is a very big deal. Her golden blond hair and big brown eyes.
They make me tremble, to you this should be no big surprise.
Her voice is sweet.
So it is a real treat.
To stay up late and talk with her. But once again I messed things up.
Why couldn't I just leave things the way they were?
All I should of done is sit there and drink out of a cup.
But alas I could not leave things as they were I wanted more, I felt I deserved more.
I was the best friend I could be. I sat and listened, cried when she was sad and laughed when she was happy.
I did not do this just because I wanted more then just friendship, I did this because I cared for her. I n fact, I still care for her and I always will.
Sitting here next to her I am in great joy and I am real happy.
I wanted to do anything for her without thinking twice about it.
Is this bad? Maybe....
How can it be so bad if it feels right in my heart?
Am I stupid? Yes....
However, as long as I am happy it is okay.
But I am not happy.
So should I think twice about doing stuff like this for other people?
Well not now, not at this time.
At least not to an extreme.
I would not feel right doing that.
Then what is the right decision?
I guess it is only to keep what I am doing and hopefully I will find someone as great as this beauty I know now.
Someone with a sparkling personality, great looks, a mind she can express whenever necessary, and most of all someone who cares for me as much as I care for her.
Last night I went crazy because I did not talk with this special person.
At the time I felt if I called her I would bother her because I had nothing to say, I just wanted to hear her voice and I wanted to see how she was doing.
It sounds dumb and cheesy but that's who I am, that's how I show I care.
Is that a crime?
Should I be punished because I do care?
I realize after 19 years!!! The Closest I can get to a girl ever is to be her friend. Is that okay with me?
Sure it is.....
I do want more but like they say, I will take what I can get.
The biggest thing I have to do is get my ugly ass looking better then it does.
that's what it is all about.
Even though I see people like me holing hands with a beautiful girl.
What's up with that?
Where can I get one of these?
I don't know
However, if this girl understands how much I want to be with her, taking care of her, watching over her making sure all the creeps of the world stay away.
I will listen, give advice, if wanted, give her anything she wants, and most of all I will be the most loving person I could ever be.