It’s been a while since I’ve given a brief update on all things personal — so here we go….

1. The boys are almost six months old! Crazy! They’ll reach six months in just a few days — April 21.

2. They’re both getting bigger and stronger each and every day. Ian’s been sitting up by himself a little longer than Hayden but I sat and played with both of them for probably 15 minutes tonight while they sat up and played with a ball and we only had one or two fall-overs from the two of them. We’re expecting Hayden to weigh in around 19 to 20 pounds for their six month check-up on Friday.

3. The spit-up attacks continue! We were told the five to six month mark is usually the peak of their spit-up attacks and as they learn to sit up and strengthen their muscles it should begin to decrease — we hope so. Laurie and I have both had 2-3 shirt/outfit days recently. In fact we change our clothes more often than we change theirs. For some reason most of the spit-up ends up on their bibs or on us.

4. They’re so much fun! They’re laughing at so much. In fact, Ian just entertained us for 5-10 minutes while he sat and laughed at the dog chewing her bone and Hayden just loves big raspberries blown on his belly. Of course they have their moments when they irritate us, because we have 100 things to do and they can’t stand to be left alone and only want to be held… but in reality — can we really complain about that? All our boys want is for us to hold them? Can’t be that bad…

5. The boys are in the midst of their 2nd week with their DOC Bands now and are doing great. They don’t seem to mind their bands at all. They sleep fine with them on and are now starting to wear the bands 23 hours a day. It’s amazing that we already see a difference in the shape of their heads — especially Hayden. At times it feels like we’re looking at a totally different boy.

The boys napping with their DOC Bands | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

5. Laurie just joined me in the Over-30-Club. While we still try and maintain that she’s still only 25, she did officially turn 30 on Saturday (sorry babe). But, perhaps lucky for her, she used to say, “two kids before 30″ and it looks like she did just that.

6. As a follow-up to last Friday’s post, for Laurie’s birthday and our anniversary (4 years coming up next week!) I bought her an iPad. Somehow in talking myself out of buying one, I ended up peaking her interest more and more. So when the original gift I ordered didn’t arrive before Saturday, I told her we could combine the two gifts for an iPad. I think she’s enjoying it… just a little. (although I don’t think she’s ready to give her Mac Book Pro for it )

7. My Fool Month of Purging Meat from my diet is going quite well. I’m actually surprised by how easy it’s been to avoid meat. I’ve passed up steak at least two or three times, burgers several times and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Overall I don’t feel as lethargic or “bleh” after eating a full meal and I think I’m starting to see a bit more energy overall – but I’m not certain its from purging the meat or just sleeping better. Will I go vegetarian after April? Probably not – at least not 24-7, but it has proven that it’s completely doable and reminded me that I probably need to add a lot more plants to my diet regardless.

I think that about wraps it up. That’s most of what’s going on in my world.

Any questions?

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Tuesday briefs (4-19-11)

Time for an update on all things around Casa de Blundell. It’s been a while since I did one of these and there’s lots going on — so this might be a bit longer than a typical brief…

Needless to say, there’s lots of goodness going on and lots of…. well….. waiting.

Foster care – adoption

As of last Thursday we are officially licensed and finished with all our foster care training. Now we’re only waiting on a child (or children) to be placed in our home for foster care.

We met with our new team of partners Thursday morning to finalize a few other things and get some instructions on the continuation of paperwork that is all part of the foster parenting process.

The folks at the Texas Baptist Home have been excellent. Very helpful, very thorough and we look forward to continuing to work with them as we move into this new stage.

We really don’t have any idea when we’ll get that call — but we’re hoping it will be soon.

It could be before this post is published, could be two days from now or it could be a couple months from now.

We’re just waiting for that perfect child (or small sibling group) to be matched with our home and family.

A fellow blogger recently referred to it the placement process as similar to Match.com — we’ve personally had good luck with eharmony.com in the past — so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Home for sale

Have we mentioned that our home in Red Oak, Texas is for sale? Have you seen the add on the top of our blogs for a beautiful 3/2/2 bedroom in Red Oak, Texas? Have you told your friends about the great home in Coyote Ridge that’s for sale? Are you interested in buying a house? Wanna know more?

What we hoped would be a two to three month process (based on what our original realtor told us) has turned into at least five months and probably longer.

Just two weeks ago we had an offer on our home — but it was far less than we could accept. Accepting the offer would have put us too far into a hole at closing.

So we countered, they countered, we countered and then they reported a day or so after our deadline that they were going elsewhere. We managed to scrounge up some additional funds and accepted their second counter — only thing is — they haven’t gotten back with us with a yes or no.

Yup — this started two weeks ago.

In the meantime, right after the initial offer was made we found a spec-home in Forney, Texas that we love and put an offer in, contingent upon our house selling. Of course at that point we were certain this other contract would work out…

Oh the “stress free adventures” of selling and buying a new home….

Needless to say, we’ve lowered our price once more and had three different lookers this last week — but no offers. So now we’re back to the waiting game.

New year, new projects

We Live Simply

As 2010 began, a good friend Johnny Laird was let go from his job. Since his announcement, Johnny and I have had several conversations back and forth about the future, possible collaborations and more.

And then somewhere along the line I had the idea to start a simple living website. Initially the idea was for a “green living” but as I thought through it more I decided to go with “living simple” as it encompasses so much more.

And like I’ve mentioned before, “I’m a pacifist because I can be one heck of a violent SOB.”

And likewise, I need to become live simply because like to horde and complicate things.

So, in that mindset, I launched “We Live Simply” last week.

We’re not hoping to turn you into monks or make you join a commune somewhere but we believe that living a simple life will not only give you the time, energy and finances to do what you’re really passionate about — but also give you the opportunity to give more of yourself away to those around you.

We believe that by choosing to live a more simple life, we not only care for our planet, but also our neighbors around the world.

Each decision and each purchase we make can have a lasting impact on the world around us.

Whether it’s cutting back on consumption, buying FairTrade, or starting a garden, we hope that the ideas you find within our site help you to live simply — both as a benefit to you and your neighbors around the world. – We Live Simply

As the site launches, my plan is to post 1-3 articles every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But you really don’t want to remember that do you? Of course not! So simply subscribe via RSS in your favorite reader (I like Google Reader), or via e-mail and you won’t have to worry — the new posts will come to you — SIMPLE!

And if you haven’t been by the site yet, no worries, there’s still plenty of time to catch up.

Here are the top five most visited posts thus far:

• The Simple Living Manifesto
• Helping others in simple ways – coloring for a cause
• Simplify your phone service with Google Voice
• The Simple Guide to Minimalist Living
• The Warehouse Mentality

Also, I’d love to get your input and experiences as we travel this simple life journey together. Simply drop me a note on the site and lets chat.

And as you may know already, there may be times there’s some cross-over posting from this site, St. Peter’s Brewery, the podcast, Red Oak Laundry Love or We Live Simply, but for the majority of the time, these sites will have their own content related to their topic.

Insurgency of Love

Late last year, I launched a newsletter – The Insurgency of Love. The premise of the newsletter is to keep folks posted on some of the projects I’m involved in as well as give ideas and pointers on how each of us can be Insurgents of Love.

I’ve pushed one newsletter out and getting ready for the next. I’m trying to keep them to once or twice a month — and not more. I want to be sure I’m not spamming those of you who have trusted me with your e-mail addresses.

I’d love for you to join us — as well as submit ideas on how your loving your community.

Sign up for the Insurgency.

The novel

Sales of my novel, St. Peter’s Brewery, continue. It’s now available in even more places — CreateSpace, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Eat-a-CD.com and IndieBound.com. I’ve heard it may be available at your local Barnes and Noble store as well (although you may have to order it).

And since the book came out last December, I’ve had the honor of being interviewed by several different sites as well…

• The Belton Journal
• Johnny Laird’s blog
• Kevin Hendricks blog
• and coming soon – Homebrewed Christianity

I’d love to hear/read your thoughts about the novel as well. If you’ve read it, drop me an email or share the review on your blog/facebook/twitter etc. I’d love to see what you thought (good or bad).

Final thoughts

I think that’s all that’s happening — today.

I continue to appreciate each of you for coming back day after day to read my random thoughts and rants. I know there are millions of other website you could be visiting but for some reason you’ve chosen mine. Each of you are important to me and encourage me to keep going. So for whatever reason you come — I thank you!

Happy New Year — and here’s to a great 2010!

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Monday morning briefs

Despite the rain (that just keeps coming back), we were blessed with another great time this weekend.

Date night ::

Friday night, Laurie and I enjoyed our weekly date night with some Red Robin burgers and Couples Retreat.

The movie was funny, but not quite as funny as we had hoped. Also, whoever did the boom mics in the movie did a pretty poor job — or the director, Peter Billingsley (from The Christmas Story) did a poor job of noticing them. It seemed like every other scene scene had a random mic floating down from above. At first we thought it was something falling in front of the movie projector, but other times you could see the actual microphone and boom pole clearly. It was somewhat distracting, but not enough to ruin the movie.

Friends forever ::

On Saturday, we had a pretty relaxing day at home and then spent the evening catching up with old friends.

Erica (our favorite Spanish Scots(wo)man) came to spend the week with the Lehmanns. Erica came as a foreign exchange student, from Spain, in the mid-90′s and stayed with Keri’s family at the time. She came back in 1999 with her Scottish husband Mike and hasn’t been back to the U.S. since. So it was great to get to see her and introduce her to Laurie.

Although, she’s been apparently been stalking me/us for years via my blog and Flickr, it was great for her to get to know Laurie in person.

Saturday night, Keri and Aaron put together a great meal and get together for Erica after her 13 hr flight from the UK. We had a great time eating, catching up and general tom-foolery.

Waiting on the food with Aaron…

Some of us had more fun than others…

Amelia trying on her new kilt from Erica…

We (as in the 4 guys) even enjoyed some stout single malt Scottish Scotch (one sniff, and that stuff will burn the hairs out of your nose). AWESOME!

I only wish we had more time to hang with Erica during her visit, but hopefully we’ll make it over to the UK next year and get to see her, her family and our other great friends across the pond.

On Sunday we continued our time with friends, hanging with the Whitmires, Kiefers and Rasmussens, watching some football, talking adoption, playing with kids and sharing life together.

We are so blessed to have all our friends in our lives — both online and offline.

Helping our friends beat foreclosure ::

As you may have noticed, we passed the $3000k mark on Saturday. That’s amazing! We still have 3 full weeks before the original deadline so I’m certain we’ll be able to meet our goal for sure! Thanks to everyone who’s donated so far.

Books I’m reading ::

I’m currently still working through #B90X (and will be till mid-December). Today is day 28 – working through 2 Kings. I’m really enjoying this way of reading through the Bible. It’s not Lectio Divina by any means, but its a great way to read larger chunks of the story at at time, which in turn helps me grasp the entire story.

I’m also reading Live Sent: you are a letter, but Jason Dukes. A great book that shares a lot of the same ideas we try to stress at encounter. I’m using the book as a guideline for our Wednesday morning discussions as well.

Building a family ::

While there’s nothing new to report on the baby making side of things, we did finally sit down and fill out our first packet of paperwork for the foster-to-adopt process. We go to our first orientation next week and then start several months worth of classes before we can be certified. We’re looking forward to beginning the process.

We’re also planning on taking part in the Tapestry Conference at Irving Bible on Oct 24th. If you’re going let us know so we can meet up during the day.

Selling our house ::

Also, nothing new to report on the selling of our house. We had an offer a couple weeks ago, that was $12k less than our asking price. We were able to get him to $10k less, but that was all he was going to offer. He ended up buying a home in Allen instead (40 miles north of us). At least we know he didn’t find a better house/deal in our neighborhood.

We’re planning on having an Open House this Sunday — so be sure and tell all your friends that might be interested in moving to Ellis County. It’s a great neighborhood, great house and a great place to live — just not close enough to our families .

NaNoWriMo ::

So last November, I wrote my first novel – St Peter’s Brewery. I was hoping to have it ready to print this summer. I’m still in the correcting phase…. argh – nothing creative about that at all . But next month is another NaNoWriMo month — write a novel in a month. I’m starting to get an itch to write another book, but I know I’m gonna get some looks from a few folks if I’m starting another novel, when my other one isn’t finished/published yet. So we’ll see. I’ve got 3 weeks to decide.

What about you?

So that’s a “brief” if I ever saw one.

How are you doing? What did you do this weekend?

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Monday briefs

Highlights of the week ::
We finally made our trip to Fort Worth and went to the Botanical Gardens today. We had a great time enjoying the public gardens (a lot cheaper than Dallas’ Arboretum ) followed up by a stop at Sonic and driving through Kessler Park looking at homes. It was a warm day and a bit muggy, but I didn’t seem to notice walking in the shade most of the time.

Laurie’s got some photos on her Flickr page and I’ll probably upload some soon too.

What I’m chewing on ::
Isaiah 58

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

Worth listening to ::
This week on our podcast we have an extended show (90 min) and talk to Brandt Russo. Brandt’s one of those guys who tends to take the things Jesus says — literally — especially those parts about loving the poor and selling all your possessions so you can give more to the poor.

Only a few years ago, while living in College Station, Texas (home of Texas A&M) Brandt decided to take Jesus at his word and sold all his goods and moved onto the streets caring for the homeless and the poor. Since then he’s been featured in The Ordinary Radicals (Jamie Moffett’s movie), started his own t-shirt company (can’t ignore the poor) to help benefit the poor and is working on his own documentary recounting his year of living on the streets and the plight of the poor and homeless.

It’s an eye opening, challenging story if you ask me. But don’t just take my word for it – listen for yourself.

Challenges ::
I feel like there’s a whole lot going on right now and I don’t feel like I’m doing anything exceptionally well. When I think through them all it doesn’t really seem to be that much – but just several things are up floating around in the air so I’m waiting to see what happens. I’m praying for peace of mind – would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as well.

Looking forward to ::
This week we kick off a new project – Red Oak LLP. I still need to meet with the Laundry Mat owner again to be sure we’re good to go (see above) and I’m hoping our group really gets behind the project. As it stands we’re planning on kicking of a local Laundry of Love on the forth Saturday of the month from 6 to 8 p.m. If you’d like to get involved – let me know.

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Monday Briefs

Highlights of the week ::
Well it wasn’t anything we originally planned, but Laurie and I were able to celebrate our second anniversary on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we made our annual visit to Outback Steakhouse and enjoyed some great steak, a bloomin’ onion, a large Foster beer (for me) and a desert sampler (for her – even though I probably ate more than her). We then came home and watched Bride Wars while snuggling on the couch (in case you wanted to know).

Saturday we had plans to go to Fort Worth for the day, but because of the forecasted rain, I did yard work and she did a few things around the house, like ironing some shirts for me (THANKS!). Then we decided to enjoy some Royal Burgers at Red Robin. Then we came home and snuggled on the couch again, watching Slumdog Millionaire.

Hopefully we’ll be able to make our planned day trip to Fort Worth before too long.

Quote I’m diggin and chewing on ::
“A Christian should be able to go to the White House, a crack house, their momma’s house or any house and come out with their integrity, vision, compassion, and commitment to justice intact.

If the Kingdom of God is within you, then everywhere you go you should leave a little heaven behind. People will know you to be a heaven leaver. You can learn to love your crooked neighbor with your own crooked heart because you’re connected to a power and grace greater than your ego.”

- Dr. Cornel West

I’m wondering and chewing on this: I leaving a bit of heaven or hell online, offline, in your house, in my house, in my car, in my marriage, in my relationships, in my family, in my job, in my church?

Movies of recent days ::
Three movies in three days?! That’s just unheard of around these parts! But as I mentioned above, we watched Bride Wars and Slumdog Millionaire this weekend and then I watched The Wrestler on Sunday afternoon.

Bride Wars was as expected, a “chick-flick.” I think Laurie liked it but said it wasn’t one she’d go out and buy.

Slumdog Millionaire was really good in my mind. Something different and challenging. Showed a side of India that we don’t typically see and also challenged me to continue thinking about how we so often slap labels on people far too quickly.

The Wrestler was OK but as I mentioned on Facebook, not one I’d watch with my parents . It was a bit crude at times and having one of the main characters working at a strip club didn’t help the matter. From the little I know, it was pretty accurate to the story of the indie wrestling scene. I think I kept waiting to see the redemption story in the movie but I don’t feel like it ever came. Perhaps (for those who’ve seen it) Ram’s redemption came in pushing through and living out his passion, with a finger to the rest of the world or maybe there was another sub-narrative I missed. Or perhaps there was no redemption story. What’d you think?

#nanowrimo update ::
I finally finished the first edit of my novel, St. Peter’s Brewery. I still have a couple spots I want to re-work, but now I can start making the edits from my read-through as well as the others several other folks submitted. If I can stay on task, perhaps the book will be ready for release by July? We’ll hope so.

Looking forward to ::
I can’t actually think of much right now that I’m looking forward to. Seems a bit depressing? I’ll keep you posted if I can think of something.

Till next week….

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Monday Briefs

highlight of the week ::
Sushi night.

While I hated that I had to enjoy the sushi alone, I was pleased with the outcome and surprised at how easy it was to make. I always imagined it being a much more painstaking process. It was time consuming, but not difficult at all.

quote i’m digging ::
“I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that I belong to a universal community.
I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that my primary allegiance is to God and to faith in Christ.
I can’t do that and then allow myself to go out and have another allegiance claim ultimacy in my life.
That is profoundly threatening if you start to think through the implications of what that looks like for the Christian who lives anywhere in the world.”

- Dr. Jeffrey C. Pugh referring to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology.

ministry-wise ::
Our group has decided to actively pursue a Laundry Love Project here in Red Oak. I’m excited about this! I hope its a great opportunity for our group to grow and serve those outside our normal walls.

I did some “site surveys” on Saturday and visited two local laundromats. The owners of the one laundromat we’ll likely use were very confused as to what we wanted to do.

Me: Hi, we’d like to see about scheduling a couple hours, once a month, where we come and pay for people to do their laundry. They come in, bring their laundry and we pay for it and provide laundry detergent for them.
Owner: I don’t understand.
Me: Well, we’ll bring several people and a bucket full of quarters. As people come in to do their laundry, we’ll fill the machines with quarters for them.
Owner: I’m still not sure I understand.
Me: We want to help people do their laundry – and pay for it – instead of them paying.
Elizabeth, laundromat customer: You can pay for my laundry!

I think the ultimate quandary for the laundromat owner was that he couldn’t understand why we would want to do this. I think he understood what we were wanting to do – just not why we’d want to.

As I talked to Elizabeth a bit longer, I found out that she spends $25 a week on laundry. Fifteen loads for her and her 3 kids. I can’t imagine!

Visiting the other laundromat, I talked with a guy who said that by himself he spends $7 – $10 a week on laundry.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this initiative. If you’re interested in helping with your time or financially, please let me know.

looking forward to ::
Spending some time with Laurie this weekend to celebrate our anniversary. She’ll be out of town for most of our anniversary day so we’re planning to celebrate some time away on Friday and/or Saturday this week. Plus, we’re going to make our annual anniversary trip to Outback Steakhouse when she gets back in town Wednesday night. And… it’ll be all free thanks to credit card rewards!

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Monday Briefs

Late Tuesday edition…

highlight(s) of the week:
We had a great time helping host Fresha Peppa Cafe with Aaron and Keri this past Friday night. Laurie and I joined them and Tracy to host a “fancy” dinner for the Brian and Heather Treadaway. We had a lot of fun as Laurie was the paparazzi, Aaron was waiter Fredrico, I was Tiny the bus boy, Tracy was the local bar fly and Keri did most (if not all of the cooking). Lots

books i’m reading:
Still working on Gardening Eden by Michael Abbate’. So far its great! Need to get it finished so I can move on to several others waiting in the wings.

things that are annoying me:
Follower counts on Twitter. Like several others have suggested this week – I’d be totally cool if Twitter chose to remove the follower counts on the site. I could care less that you’re a movie star and have 1 million followers – and I could care less if you have 1,000 followers or 5,000 followers or however many. I’d like to think that Twitter’s not about a popularity contest. But of course if I had 1,000 followers too – who knows – I might catch myself braggin’ about it as well.

things I’m not looking forward to:
Laurie’s going to be spending some time out of town the next week or so for work. It might seem a little silly but we’ve never spent a full day apart since we’ve been married – two years next week. She’ll be gone tomorrow morning till Friday evening and then again two days next week – including our anniversary.

Of course I’m glad she’s getting these opportunities. She’s really thriving in her new job and I’m super proud and excited for her.

things I’m looking forward to:
Making sushi at home. While Laurie’s gone this week I’m going to console myself by trying my hand at making sushi. She’s definitely not a fan and not interested in trying it – so I’m going to try out my new “sushi for two” kit that I bought from Half Price Books last week.

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Tuesday Briefs

The late Tuesday edition…

Seems I’m getting later and later with this each week. Before long we may have to call it the Wednesday briefs. But then if I keep it up we might make it full circle and get back to the Monday briefs eventually . I guess we can only hope.

I was trying to find the motivation to do this yesterday, as well as today but I guess writing about my week doesn’t seem near as interesting to me as it might to someone else. I’d much rather tell someone else’s story than my own.

highlight(s) of the week:
On Monday morning I took the day off of work and attending an adoption ceremony for my friends Todd and Monja’s new daughter. It was a small ceremony with candle’s lit in honor of those who made the day possible. Reminded me how valuable and important each and every person – and child – really are.

I was glad they invited us to attend and glad that I was able to take some time off of work to be there. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Todd and Monja over the last year or so at encounter and even more so over the last six months or so as they’ve been a part of our Saturday night group. Their new daughter will be well taken care of and spoiled by the entire family I’m sure!

quote(s) i’m digging:
“People of faith claim to know the Artist but lack any compunction for protecting the artwork.”
“The closer we are walking with the Creator, the more beauty we will see in life.” – Michael Abbate’ in Gardening Eden

books i’m reading:
I’ve put The New Conspirators on hold for a bit while I try out some new books. Tom Sine’s book is great, its just taking me a long time to read for some reason. So I’m currently (as you might have guessed) reading Gardening Eden by Michael Abbate’. So far its great! Really enjoying what he’s saying and how he’s saying it. So far some great reasons for being good stewards of creation that I think any right-wing-republican-conservative-evangelical person should be able to agree with (or at least find very little to argue about) — it just makes sense.

job update:
Well, I was turned down for the job I applied for. It was a bit of a bummer but when they told me they really wanted someone with great copy editing skills and they told me one of the applicants had worked as a copy editor for 20 years at the local paper – I figured they made the best decision. I’ll be the first to admit that copy editing is not my forte’ or something I strive to excell in.

However, the good news is that they’re still really interested in bringing me on to their team and my current boss is still happy to see me advance in my career so they’re trying a few things to see if they can bring me on in a similar position as the one I applied for. It might be a few months down the road still, so I’m not expecting anything soon but if it happens – wonderful – if not, no biggie.

things you should be listening to:
Our last two podcasts (with Adele Sakler) have added some fuel for the fire of some (or so they think) but that’s OK. Don’t let them (or us) tell you what to think. Listen to the show and think for yourself. As Flobots say, “There’s a war going on for your mind – if you’re thinking – you’re winning.” Listen to Adele’s story, chew on it, think about how you typically respond, how you would want someone to respond to you and then how you think Jesus would respond. And then share your thougths with us and others.

things I’m looking forward to:
I don’t think I’ve read an entire book this whole year yet. Geeze! I’m looking forward to checking at least one off my list. Don’t know how much longer it will be – but I’ll be glad when it comes.

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Tuesday Briefs

highlight(s) of the week ::
We completed the Tour of Dallas Saturday, riding 20 miles in roughly an hour and a half.

Laurie impressed me throughout the race. She smoked me everytime we went down hill and was often several lengths ahead of me as she weaved in and out of the other riders.

Also, turns out she had a busted gear shift so her gear was stuck in a high gear the whole race. So every time we were heading down hill she went to town while I struggled to find a gear that kept me from simply spinning my pedals.

We’re considering another ride in Lancaster on Saturday – but I think we’ll hold off till we see what the weather does.

quote i’m digging ::
“Jesus wasn’t a king who ruled with an iron fist but ruled with a towel – washing people’s feet.” Shane Claiborne

work update ::
Still waiting to hear back on my job interviews. Expected to hear something on Friday or Monday but nothing as of 5 pm today. We’ll just keep waiting.

cars cars and trucks::
Had to take my truck to the shop yesterday. Knew I’d need a new fan clutch which was covered under warranty ($100 deductable) but found out in the process that my left front wheel hub bearing was going out as well. They replaced it as well and while the ticket was well over $900 – I still only paid $100 – making the warranty investment worth what we paid on it.

Unfortunately I’m typing this blog post on my BlackBerry while we wait at Firestone to get a new belt for Laurie’s car. It’ll cost $50 more than what we paid for the work on my truck! Doh!

looking forward to ::
Getting Friday off. Wasn’t expecting it at all but found out yesterday that we get Good Friday off. Should be a nice day to do whatever I feel like.

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Tuesday Briefs

highlight(s) of the week ::
Wow! I’m not even sure I can remember what we did this last week. It seems like it just flew by. I think the highlights of the week were (again) just hanging out with people who I just really enjoy hanging out with.

Wednesday night is Laurie’s Bible study night at Northwest so I spent some time hanging out at Chick-Fil-A in Cedar Hill eating dinner and editing my novel (I’m about half-way through the first editing round). Afterwards I stopped by to see the Lehmanns and then Aaron and I got to hang out at White Rhino Coffee House.

Thursday night I skipped the gym and decided to rush home to meet Laurie for dinner (at Chick-Fil-A in Waxahachie) and enjoyed just getting to spend some time with her alone before we both rushed off our separate ways again.

Saturday was our regular community group night and we had a great time hanging out with our “small group” of us and the Kiefers.

And then again last night, we had fun hanging out with friends for Aiden’s birthday party.

quote i’m digging ::
“Salt me well brothers. Salt me well.” Balthasar Hübmaier before he was burned at the stake (via Homebrewed Christianity).

work update ::
I had a second interview for the job with the DCCCD Mar/Comm department today. This was a team/group interview and I felt like it went well. Hope they did too. I’m thinking this would be an ideal position for me but we’ll wait till Friday or Monday to see if they think so too.

freelance work ::
Finished part one of a slideshow presentation for coffeehousechurches.com. They’ve got some great resources over there so take some time and check them out.

gym/weight update ::
We’re doing the 20 mile Tour of Dallas bike ride this Saturday (April 4) from downtown Dallas to White Rock Lake. I’ll welcome your prayers .

looking forward to ::
Believe it or not (from the statement above) I’m looking forward to the bike ride this Saturday. It’ll be something fun to do with Laurie and Todd and I’ll be glad to say I completed it when we’re done. It’s just one step in hoping to do Hotter’N Hell this year or next.

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Tuesday Briefs