I got this from Len Evans. Thought it’d be fun. So here goes.

Ten years ago
I was 21 and looking at two more semesters of college. Thought I might want to work in television of video production. Whatever job I would take, I wanted it to be kinda far away from home. Was dating a girl (she didn’t call it dating) that I thought could be the one, but couldn’t ever figure out what she was thinking.

Five years ago
I was 26, a college grad, married to that girl. I was working as the youth minister at the church I grew up in…yes, back in my home town. My wife and I were expecting our first child in the coming summer. Crazy to think about. Oh, and I still couldn’t figure out what she was thinking.

One year ago
I was nearning the end of my 8 years of youth ministry at my home church. I was about to move my family (which was my wife, my 3 year old, and 2 dogs to a city about 3 hours away. My pegnant wife’s due date was Nov 16th. So I was waiting til after all that before moving. I learned not to try to figure her out. Esp when she’s pregnant.

Five yummy things
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lasagna
Raisenettes
Chick-Fil-A ice cream
Cap’n Crunch

Five songs I know by heart
Foreverandever etc. by The David Crowder Band
Sadie Hawkins Dance by RelientK
Stand by R.E.M.
Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes by The Wiggles
How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin

Five things I would do with a lot of money
Pay off my house
Provide some wells in Africa for fresh drinking water.
Build a church in Costa Rica
Visit New Zealand
Build a new football stadium for Mississippi State

Five places I would to escape to
Oregon
Copper Mountain
Camp Lake Stephens
Liberia, Costa Rica
Destin

Five things I would never wear
Panties
UMiss Jersey
Speedos
Harry Potter shirt
Makeup

Five favorite TV shows (current)
LOST
Survivor
Grey’s Anatomy
The Amazing Race
Invasion

Favorites of all time:
Sienfield
Wonder Years
Fresh Prince of BelAire
Cosby Show
ER

Five things I enjoy doing
Riding in a boat
Reading
Show skiing
Playing tag w/ my daughter
Snuggling w/ my wife

Favorite toys
Laptop
Zen Micro
Cell Phone

Five people who get this ‘meme’
Rick
Kevin
Jeremy
Brad

I’ve always enjoyed TV. But never let it rule me. But with life and meetings and family and work, I can’t seem to keep caught up on the shows I like to watch. So after taping Survivor during the college bible study at our house last night, I finally watched Survivor and finished Tuesday’s 2 hour long The Amazing Race. Then this morning I watched LOST. I recorded Invasion too, but I’ve missed a few of those, so it’s not a huge priority to see it. I’ve fallen so far behind on Alias I might just have to wait to rent the season. It comes on the same time as Survivor and I can’t record both at once. A few thoughts about them so far.

Survivor:: Bobby Jon’s out, but he made the jury. I thought Jamie was gone if he’d not won immunity. Then Gary found the other idol. So a few twists. Survivor is still my fave reality tv show. But it’s gotta pick up the next few weeks. The next 2 will just be picking off the minority tribe members. Not much fun tehre unless they win immunity.

The Amazing Race:: The entertaining Paulo Family left. I’m not sad for it. But the Weaver fam would have been okay to go as wel. They seem to ooze hypocracy sometimes for some reason. And those girls need to put on more clothes. They look like the just woke up from a sleepover. I never watched TAR until midway through last season. But I’m enjoying it a good bit.

LOST:: Shannon’s dead. Who did it? What happened to the other folks? Will Locke let Merry (or is it Pippen) know he knows about the heroine? Where’s Jack? Will Sawyer get back on his feet? Where’s Desmond? This is a great show. JJ Abrams is genius. No shark jumping here.

And did anyone see any of the Trading Spouses the other night. I caught the end of it on a recommendation. Crazy, HUGE “Christain” lady on there that brought a negative light on all things Jesus. More later.

Appetizer
If someone made a statue of you, in which pose would you like to be?
Maybe with my head back slightly and laughing. That seems like a cool one. Or either with my hands on my hips and a “I’m gonna get you” pose like Horation Craine on CSI-Miami.

Salad
What perfume/cologne does your best friend wear?
Curve for Women

Soup
Name something satisfying about your work.
The students are top notch and I get to work with a pretty good staff of people.

Main Course
What was the last excuse you made, and why did you need to make it?
Excuses? I only give reasons.

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I wonder why _________________.
I wonder why we drive on Parkways and park on driveways.

I can always blame it on lots of things. But some of the reason for my lack of blogging has been the fact that we don’t have a computer desk. That means that right now, as I type, I’m stretched out in the floor on my belly. When we moved back in June, we didn’t move our computer desk w/ us. It wasn’t much of a desk to begin with. Just a table. Seems we left our bonafide computer desk w/ someone else when we left Amory. It was too big and too clunky and too….ugly. It was a freebie that was bigger than we expected, but did it’s job for a while. But we didn’t bring any with us in expectations of thinking “we’ll get a new one quickly if we’re in the floor with the computer.”

And that was June.

Same thing happened w/ our table. We sent one of our kitchen tables back w/ my mom. The other was under piles of boxes in the garage when we first moved in here. So for almost a month, we ate on the kitchen floor. Chinese style. Pull up a cushion. Sit cross legged. Lean up against the wall. Whatever it took. But we would all gather on the tile floor and eat our meal. It helped us get the boxes taken care of more quickly out there.

Now it’s time for a desk. Because sitting up typing is much easier.

And here’s a shoutout for today. Rick is finally trying out something besides Blogger. I’ve been trying to get him to give MT or WP a whirl, but he’s on TypePad now. That’s MT’s hosted version. Check him out right here.

Had the online sales chat yesterday w/ my new friend at Earthlink. I should be getting me some cable internet w/in the next week. That means that I’ll be blazing around the net and not having to wait forever and ever for pages to load. In Amory, dialup wasn’t so bad if it was just general web browsing. It would usually connect at 53kbps almost every time.

But here in Clinton, dialup only gets me 24kbps. At first I thought it was our rental house. But even in our new house. Heard other people say they’ve never seen anything higher than that on dialup here in Clinton. But I’ll be zooming soon. And at a table/desk instead of in the floor. So maybe I’ll be able to type a little more soon.

I figured out last night that if I could create some device that allowed me to blog from my bed at night by merely thinking the words/paragraphs as I lay on my pillow…I’d have a blog with loads and loads of content.

But I don’t. So I have to find time to actually sit down and type. But it’s hard to do that when I don’t actually have a desk to sit in. So I either have to lay flat on the ground (belly) or sit/lean against the wall and turn my head sideways when I type. Neither are perfect.

Much love…..

Seems that when I get in bed at night and everything is quiet, I begin to think of things that need to get done and things that I should have done already and things that I wish would change in my life. It’s quite a wide variety of things. Everything from I wish my daughter would whine less to I wish I had more of a hunger for reading God’s word to I wish my back never felt stiff. Not bad things at all. But I find myself starting to talk to God about these things and I’m saying, “God, here’s a few things I need from you…” and then sometimes I actually start giving him my grocery list.

But what is it that I really need from God? I think it’s that I need more of Him. Not just to help finish some project I’m behind on or ideas for new projects or a greater realization of huge truths around me, but Him. Him and only Him.

But why are the most simple things sometimes the hardest to live?

I’m unhealthy.

If you were to look at me, especially when I suck in my tummy, you’d think I looked healthy. I could probably even expend some energy to flex or something and look healthy that way too. But I know I’m out of shape. But I’m ready to so something about it. I think I’m going to start running some, and work on my core elements (stomach, back, hips, shoulders) and try to eat right most of the time. I figure if I do that, I’ll be around longer and be able to play w/ some grandkids. That’s a really crazy thought when my oldest is now only 4 years old. But I know that I feel really stiff as a 31 year old guy and expect my back and legs to get even stiffer as the years go on if I do nothing.

Some friends ran a marathon a few weeks ago. My wife ran one a few years ago. I fully believe I can do one if I were to put in the time to train. I’m thinking of doing a half marathon in April. How cool could that be? 187 days from now.

Both girls have had some fever this weekend. Not good. I think Addie’s over it, but Ella’s on the front end of it. Fever is never fun w/ kids.

Friday’s Feast #67

Appetizer
Do you button shirts top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top?
Top to bottom. Is there any other way?

Soup
What is your favorite sandwich?
Probably a Reuben if I’m ordering out. But a good PB&J.

Salad
What was a family project you helped work on as a child?
Family project? What’s that?

Main Course
When have you acted phony?
I think if I ever tried to act like a pony people would have thought I was just acting fake.

Dessert
Do you write letters or postcards? If so, to whom?
Not tons, but sometimes to youth and thank you letters to folks.

We were in Target last Saturday. Looking around. Went down the One Dollar aisle. Saw some things that might be worth a dollar. Then I found a cd with scary sounds. Said it had moans and chains and doors creaking and heartbeats and spooky laughter. All that good stuff. And a scary face was on the front. I wanted to get it. Bev thought it was pointless. But it was only a dollar. So why not.

Bev was afraid it’d scare Addie. But she actually held onto the cd the whole time in the cart. Seems she was both drawn to it and scared of it. I can relate. Sorta like when I used to like going to haunted houses and all growing up. But we got home and she wanted me to put it in the stereo. I did. She ran from the room. I turned it off. She came back and told me to turn it back on. I reached for the stereo and she left again. Oh well.

But now she wants to sleep w/ a light on somewhere. And told Bev that she had scary dreams of things grabbing her and a witch. There was no witch anywhere on the cd. But Bev says it’s because of that stupid cd. Who knows.

But there will be some interesting decisions to be made in the next handful of days. Halloween has been something we’ve skillfully avoided the last couple of years. But it’s going to be decision time. Do we let Addie go get some candy dressed up in a costume? Is it participating in an evil holiday? Or is it like eating meat sacrificed to idols?

More to come later this weekend I think.