swimming lessons

No I don't think we have the next Michael Phelps in our midst, but I figured our girls should at least learn to put their heads underwater without me having to dunk them and have a major freakout on our hands=) Friday mornings have been designated and they are already LOVING IT!!!

As I explained what was going to happen and how they needed to listen, Addy asked what would happen if she drowned..............I told her that I'd at least hopefully get a discount? =)

You won't drown Addy, (she gets that drama queenness from her mother=) Jk Kendra

Here's to future olympic endeavors!!!!!!!!

7 yrs

I can hardly bring myself to say or admit it, but my firstborn beautiful daughter Ava turned 7 last wednesday. Where did the time go? We watched some home videos of her trying to sound out words and singing along to the doodlebops, oh how things have changed (although change is not always bad=)

We had her friends come over for cake and ice cream and then burned off all our energy at jungle joes for the afternoon!! thanks to all the parents who brought their kids out to join us=)

I love you soooooo much Ava and I look forward to many more years of your sweet heart for life being on display in our family. I love being your dad more than you could ever know.

right away

The other day I made an amazing discovery. I was baking a delicious pizza for dinner, and I used the handy little pizza cutter thing to transform it into eight or so delectable slices. (none of this is amazing yet I know, just wait, it gets amazinger) Of course the pizza cutter was covered in sauce, cheese and my tongue print as I attempted to lick it, but instead of just leaving it on the pizza tray to take care of after the inhalation of Digiorno goodness, (with cookies).......... I decided to run it under the sink.............right away.

It was incredible. The hot culligan-purified well water cascading over this brilliant invention brought back its silver shine with no scrubbing or soaking. I stood there in amazement, recalling the former times where I would leave the gadget for at least a day and have to scrub with steel wool and paint thinner to remove the caked on elements.

Here is the lesson I learned........ Things end up being easier to deal with, when you take care of them right away. I recently experienced how true this is with pizza cutters, but believe it or not, there are more important situations where this principle is applicable.

You notice a particular sin in your life that maybe you've struggled with before rearing it's ugly head, don't ignore it, don't wait, address it before it gets caked on and tries to set in to your life permanently.

Your relationship with your spouse is strained or something has happened to cause your heart to withdraw or become detached.............begin to take steps right away.

Stress at work or busyness is taking you away from your family and causing worry and financial fear to dominate your heart.........Don't just wait hoping things will get better, address it right away.

Disappointment with God or complacency in your faith has caused you to lose your passion and zeal for life and the Lord. Acknowledge it, and bring these things to God right away.

I don't know your situation, but I do know God desires for you to walk in His freedom and nothing gets easier when you avoid, deny or ignore it.............including the dishes

halfway there

WOW!!! World's shadiest and laziest blogger award goes toooooooooooo. Me.

I can't believe it's been over a month. I'm not gonna dwell on all the things that have happened that I've not updated, instead I'll just move forward and try to be more consistent for the dozens of people who used to read this =)

July 1st is today and one of my favorite days. It is the exact halfway point of the year............I know it's hard to believe, but 2011 is now 182 and a half days old with only 182 and a half or so to go.

Time to revamp, refocus and rethink some of the goals and vision you had for this year way back in january. Forget about things that you wish you had done already and get back to living each day to the fullest. We serve an incredible God who wants every day of our lives to unfold for His glory.

Hope you had an amazing first half of the year and I'll see you guys in January=)

Goodbye Michael Scott

Michael Scott says farewell as the regional manager tonight on the last episode of the office. Here is a list I ripped off from a guy I went to high school with of his top ten (very subjective obviously as there were thousands) awkward quotes.


10. Diversity Day (Season 1)

“Abraham Lincoln once said ‘If you are a racist, I will attack you with the North,’ and those are the principles I carry with me in the workplace.”


9. Lecture Circuit (Season 5)

“I don’t know you. But I need to know you in order to sell to you. That is why I have asked you to go around and tell me your names. I have an amazing mnemonic device by which I have memorized all of your names. Shirty, mole, lazy eye, Mexico, baldy, sugar boobs, black woman. I have taken a unique part of you and used that to memorize your name.”


8. Double Date (Season 6)

“Finish your cake, Helene. I want you to enjoy that cake. Because I have something terrible I need to tell you. And I want you to enjoy your cake before I tell you this terrible, terrible thing.”

7. The Convict (Season Three)

“Close your eyes. Picture a convict. What’s he wearing? Nothing special. Baseball cap on backwards. Baggy pants. He says something ordinary like ‘Yo, that’s shizzle’. Okay, now slowly open your eyes again. Who were you picturing? A black man? Wrong. That was a white woman. Surprised? Shame on you.”


6. Company Picnic (Season 5)

“I wrote down a list of bullet points why Holly and I should be together, and I’m going to find the perfect moment today and I am going to tell her. Number one: “Holly, you and I are soup snakes.” The… and the reason is… because… in terms of the soup, we like to – that doesn’t make any sense.”


5. Gay Witch Hunt (Season 3)

“You don’t call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they are acting retarded. And I consider Oscar a friend.


3. Scott’s Tots (Season 6)

“I told them if they graduated from high school, I would pay for their college education. I have made some empty promises in my life, but hands down, that was the most generous.”

2. Phylllis’ Wedding (Season 3)

“They say your wedding day goes by in such a flash that you’re lucky if you even get a piece of your own cake. I say that’s crazy. I say, let them eat cake. Margaret Thatcher said that about marriage. Smart broad.”

1. Dinner Party (Season 4)

“You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person!”

how long are your God's arms?

Boy have I been lazy in my blogging!!! God has been putting things on my heart, I just need to find time to write them down=)

Ephesians 3:20 is a very familiar scripture that is quoted often. "now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine according to His power that is at work within us"

That is a LOADED Verse!!! Can I be honest and say I don't always live that way? In fact, too often I'm imagining things for my life that I don't even dare ask for much less believe that God wants to do it. Do I really believe that God can do more in my life thru his power in me than I can even think or imagine? How does that work?

Moses had a similar issue. After miraculously seeing God deliver Israel out of egypt by the ten plagues as well as crossing the red sea on dry ground, Moses had a doubting moment.

In numbers 11 the people were complaining about having to eat Manna all the time. They missed the onions and leeks they so "enjoyed" while being slaves in Egypt. God was not pleased with their lack of gratitude for his provision and told Moses to communicate to the people that they would not only get meat, they would get it till it was coming out of their noses.

Here's a snipet.....

Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

God says the people are going to have meat, but Moses, the same moses who saw all the miracles in egypt and spoke with God face to face as a friend................doubted.

How are you gonna do that God? If all the flocks and herds were slaughtered or every fish in the sea caught would that be enough for 600 thousand men? That's a whole lot of hot pockets and we don't even have bathrooms out here and you know how those hot pockets go right thru your people. (that's the message translation)

And God replies, "Is the Lord's arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true" I love that. It reminds me of that commercial where the guy is scared to eat BK"s burgers cause his hands are too small. God's like, I got the oceans in my hands Mo, don't go thinking I got stumpy arms of provision!!!

I don't know what dream God has put in your heart. Maybe its for a healing, a financial breakthru, a loved one to know Jesus, a seemingly impossible situation. Our responsibility is not to figure out how in the world God could ever do that, we are called to believe that God is bigger than our imagination or any circumstance we're facing and His grace is ALWAYS enough.

His arms are Dikembe Mutumbo long, and he wants nothing more than to wrap you in them, hold you in his love, and let his power and glory be on display. Be encouraged today in that!!!!

irish open 2011

As most of you know, I am a tennis freak and love everything about it!!! I played in a tournament with Almendra Duran (she is here from Mexico interning at the church) and we embarked on our 3.5 rated journey to to the top of the tennis mountain!!
Alme is a fantastic player and we had a lot of fun. The highlight was playing a completely drunk lady on friday night who could literally barely hold her racket. She had lost her morning match with her partner (as we did) and literally drank all day until we played that night!!

Anyways, we ended up winning the consolation (some people call it losers) bracket and won an "I survived the irish open" towel!!!
It was alot of fun and thanks to the peeps who came to cheer us on=)