Anchors away...

A few weeks ago, the staff from Uptown Church (where I am currently interning) went on a retreat to Isle of Palms, SC. One of the things we got to do was go on a sailboat cruise. It was a lot of fun. Below is the group picture we managed to get (thanks to Jessica):



















(in the back row: moi, Josh, Shannon, and Shane; in the middle row: the pastors - Tom, Dave, and Mike; and in the front: Jay, Julie, and Jessica)

Word clouds...

Thanks to Jake for pointing me to a program called Wordle which allows you to make a word "cloud" from any text that you enter into it. Here's the one I made from Ephesians 1:3-14 :

Ahh...smokeout!

I just got home from one of my favorite events: smokeout. Guys sitting around smoking pipes and cigars and drinking some brew while talking about weird surgeries, sports, politics, and whatever else we can think of. This prescription is by far a cure for whatever ails you...

And for the record, never drink a Modelo. I am not sure that it is even beer, but apparently it tastes good with a lemon. I didn't have a lemon - beer and fruit do not naturally go together. Sorry Blue Moon and Corona drinkers.

Pleasantly surpised...

So, I got the July 2008 electronic edition of the Banner of Truth magazine and one of my pictures that I put up on the other blog was the cover photo! Here's the props from the inside cover:

Cover Picture:

A tour of the book room at the U.S. Banner Ministers’ Conference, held at Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania, 27–29 May, 2008. Iain Murray is guiding those new to the Conference to useful Banner titles. He is holding up one of the books in the new Pocket Puritans series (see p. 12 of this issue, and inside the back cover). Thanks to Dan Layman for the picture (from his blog, www.thelaymanchronicles.blogspot.com).

Here's the pic (taken with the iPhone):

Pure entertainment...

Alright, so my buddy Link and his comedic friend Rhett have been traveling across America making videos for Alka Seltzer's Great American Road Trip. The first of 21 videos was released today and it hilarious. I present it here for your viewing pleasure. Keep up with the whole series at the link above or at their website.

A little random...

Now that I have a little bit of breathing room in my schedule, I present to you a new dose of randomness:

* Iphone - yeah, so a lot of people have asked me if I am going to upgrade my iPhone to the flashy new version coming out next month. One word: NO. Even if they do discount it considerably for us current owners (as has been rumored), I will pass. Here's the deal. They are selling it cheaper, right? But, you have to renew your contract for a new two year deal. Plus, they are increasing the data plan price by $10. By my math, that is $240. This is more than the $200 discounted price. As long as they let me keep my current plan (which they plan to do as of now), I will pass. Sure, I will miss out on the 3G goodness, but come on, with the abundant availability of WiFi these days, is it really worth an extra $10 a month?!?! I think I will wait for the 3rd generation, thank you.

* I preached a sermon on Leviticus 22 yesterday at Uptown church. This was my second sermon in Leviticus. Internships are valuable to seminary students for many reasons - but I just may find the most value in my preaching of those two texts. Preaching classes at school never pick books like Leviticus for you to preach from...I wonder why.

* So, I (err...Pedro) actually had a good time bowling a couple of weeks ago. I even broke 100 once. But, even though I had fun, I still hate bowling. Pedro hates it too.

* Backyard Bible Club (aka VBS) is this week. Our church has three different clubs going and I am serving at the one closest to our apartment. Today was a blast. The kids are so much fun to be around and it is an amazing way to be a witness of God's kingdom work among the covenant children of our church.

* Next week is the class with Dr. Horton at RTS. I am real excited about that.

* I only have one year of seminary left...wow. I will be 32 in three months...wow again.

* I have been drinking less coffee and I feel better.

* The Salukis are going to be one of the top four seeds in this years coaches vs. cancer pre-season tourney (the other three are Duke, Michigan, and UCLA). I'm not sure how we landed that privilege after last year's debacle and this years youth movement but it is an awesome opportunity.

* Hey Cubs fans - IT'S JUNE!!!! Have fun choking in September!

Where's waldo?

ARP and RPCNA brethren at Banner of Truth.

Beautiful...

A delightful weekend was had by all...

First things first, the red velvet cake turned out great! We ended up eating about half of it over the weekend. It probably rates up in the top 5 of cakes I like. Nothing can beat pure straight up German chocolate cake!!!



Secondly, bowling was a blast!! The ally that we went to was a little pricier than I remembered bowling to be, but we managed to get the Family Fun Pack that came with popcorn and soda :-) We bowled three games and our scores actually improved as we went. I did rock out my personal bowling ball, but it quickly got replaced by a lighter ball. I'm not as strong as I was when I was 10~ 13 lbs was a little too heavy for me this time. Pedro showed up and actually he bowled quite well!! For Pedro that is...


Sunday was a good day of rest. Church that morning was especially good~ very blessed and encouraged by the pastor's message. Enjoyed the traditional crock pot lunch and then ice cream...

I think that my dad had a happy 60th birthday and felt celebrated, which is really all that is important!!


Happy Birthday Dad!!

Keep it out of the gutter...

My dad is coming to town this evening and I am very excited about it! He will be turning 60 on Monday and he chose to come here to celebrate. Of course, several folks in IL weren't too keen on the idea of not getting to celebrate with him and so he will be leaving early on Monday morning to see them too.

We plan on having a little birthday celebration tomorrow afternoon. We are going bowling with him and a girlfriend of mine (very excited about the bowling!). Dan doesn't enjoy bowling as much as the rest of us, and I love to bowl. I used to be in a league when I was little. I'm thinking maybe 10 years old or so...my high game at that time was 174. I have NEVER even come close to that again!!! I do get to rock out my own personal bowling ball this weekend! (Probably hasn't been used since that high game) My dad to0 is an avid bowler, still bowls in a league. To be honest, he will probably beat the total of all three of our scores (Sorry Lauren, you may be really good. I just know that Dan and I aren't anymore).

I've also made my very first red velvet cake to celebrate. I don't think I've ever had red velvet cake. I'm looking very forward to that experience!

I'm really looking forward to spending time with my dad and relaxing. I promise more details to come - with pictures :-)

Which way is up?

The Uptown church staff had a refreshing and productive retreat these past couple of days in Isle of Palms, SC. I am really glad I got to be a part of it and I am excited to see how God is going to work in and through the church in the coming year.

It has been a long time since I have laughed as hard as I did Sunday and Monday nights. When I went to bed Monday night, my face literally hurt. The highlights were helping Shane write songs for all of the staff members and Jay's now infamous 'exposed nerve ending' story. You should ask them about it if/when you see them.

Nevertheless, I am declaring today national Reorientation Day. I have a lot to get done and much to get organized, etc. I really trying to get everything in order so that the next week or two will run smoothly. We'll see how that goes...

While the Cat is away...

Many of you may be wondering what have I been doing while Dan is gone?

The answer: WORK!

Yes, working and missing Dan is what I've been doing. I worked the first two nights last week while Dan was away. So in someways my life maybe didn't change so much... I'm used to sleeping alone during the day, and when I work I don't do much besides work and sleep. So I didn't notice as much that he wasn't around except for the fact that I had to cook all of my meals and clean them up, pack my lunches and didn't get nearly as many hugs and kisses as normal (The cat just isn't the same). Anyway, week one~ learned how much Dan serves me every day and all of the little things that he does to help me be the best I can be and still get everywhere on time. I am a very spoiled wife.

Wednesday was a little bit of a different story. A girlfriend and I went out for dinner, a little shopping, and a movie on Wednesday night. I had a great time. I haven't done that in a long time. I don't have many evenings free and those that I do I prefer to spend with my husband so a girls night out was much over do and a GREAT time. I do believe that even Dan benefited from it too. :-) All was well until I got home and needed to go to sleep. I'm not used to sleeping alone at night. It took awhile for me to fall asleep, but it helped knowing that once I got up Dan would be home that very same day :-) I had to work Thursday night so I didn't get to see him until Friday morning, but we have been together every minute until 2 pm today when I dropped him off to go to the staff retreat.

I am off tonight, and will have a small group meeting this evening. Again, I'll be especially reminded of Dan's MIA when I go to bed tonight. I'm so glad we have a cat. Gracie is a great snuggler. Tomorrow I work, and then Tuesday he will be home when I wake up. All in all, I must say that God has provided abundantly while Dan's been away. Besides missing is good for the heart. It helps me remember all of the fantastic qualities of my husband that I too often take for granted.

Away again...

Well, it's been fun being home for the last couple of days. Meg and I had a great weekend and I even managed to be somewhat productive. But, alas, I am leaving again this afternoon for a couple of days. All of the staff from Uptown Church are going to Isle of Palms, SC for a retreat. This will be my first staff retreat since becoming an intern there and I am looking forward to it. It's hard to leave again so soon, but I know that I will benefit greatly from the time of planning and fellowship. I won't be gone as long this time as I'll be returning on Tuesday afternoon. See you then!