Feeling Freakishly Old

So on Saturday, Andrea and I went with Alicia and Lisa to Bethel to an orientation day. Lots of parents and kids all wandering around, getting info, filling out forms, dropping cash left and right for all kinds of stuff.

We were pretty easily some of the youngest parents there--most parents were late 40's and into their 50's.

It was really exciting to see the twins as they were starting to really sense the reality that they are going to college. At a great place, too. They couldn't stop smiling all day.

In the last session, Andrea poked me and said "Think about 3 years from now. Where will our kids be?" I had to work it out, but this is where we will be in 3 years: 2 in college, as juniors, 1 in high school as a sophomore, 1 in junior high, in 8th grade, and one in elementary, in grade 6. That's freakish. Now if we could just adopt an infant, we'd have one in preschool too. (I shouldn't joke, God just might take us up on that...)

Oops

So, I wore a green shirt when I preached yesterday. April 20th. 4/20. Hmmm...

I wasn't making any type of statement by my choice of wardrobe.

Others who wore green yesterday may have been making a statement by their clothing.

Here's why... 420 is a slang term meaning marijuana. Snopes deals with the origin of the term, which is unclear. But, the term is popular within certain segments of the population. The Star Trib did a story a couple years back about rural street signs ("420th Street South" or "NE 420th Ave") being stolen left and right by kids. The ones with 421 or 419 are all left intact.

And, apparently at 4:20 pm on 4/20, one is supposed to light up and toke in a symbol of unity with cannabis users worldwide. And, of course, users all are to wear green on 4/20 to also symbolize their love for weed.

I guess I need to make a note of that for next year.

Who knew??

Bird Poop

So, we've not had to worry much about bird poop in the past 5 months or so while the birds were laying low and trying to survive the winter...or gone south to survive the winter.

Last Friday, I came out of the house and saw that a bird had left his/her mark prominently on the windshield of my little Hyundai. Used about half a gallon of windshield spray to finally get it off the windshield.

Saturday, I came out and started laughing because a bird had dive-bombed our Honda Pilot and just barely missed the driver's door handle. I imagined the twins or Andrea using that car and grabbing a handful of poop when they went to open the door. It was just not a direct hit, but close enough for them to be weirded out by it.

Yesterday, I went out to run an errand and there were 3 distinct globs of bird crap on my windshield. More washer fluid...argh.

This morning, I came out to run the kids to school...grabbed the handle of my Hyundai and felt something strangely squishy on the door handle. Yep. Sure, they miss the Honda door handle, but they manage to drop a prodigious load square on the drivers door handle of MY car. What the heck???!!!!!??

These birds have some kind of agenda. A vendetta of sorts. Perhaps we have to fill the bird feeder (empty for about 3 months now) as an act of contrition, thereby seeking an end to the senseless scat strafings.

If you visit us, you are now warned. Your car will be a target of these beasts.

Monday!!

Mind dump time...

--didn't do this last week because I played hooky with one of my kids who needed dad time. We did Mall of America and had a ball. Great to connect for a whole day. But taking Monday off just scrambled my screen for the whole week. I never got into a groove with work until Friday. It totally threw me off my game and I forgot stuff, didn't know what day it was, and just put out fires the whole week.
--lots of great meetings last week. Leadership Council, a couple great lunch meetings, a coffee here or there.
--I love our Leadership Council. These guys are great and I appreciate them a ton.
--The Journey has rocked for the last couple Sundays. I'm enjoying the "Identity Theft" series. I think lots of Journeyers are connecting with the teaching and are challenged by it all...
--I'm excited...I think we'll have a new worship leader on board in a few weeks.
--I have a 2 week break in my class, which is welcome. It's a great class, but the time demands are pretty strong. I'm gonna work ahead so that May will be manageable.
--I grilled ribs on Saturday afternoon. WOW. Those things are fabulous when I can manage to not burn them...
--I saw "Expelled" on Friday. If you haven't heard of it, it's a Michael Moore type documentary done by Ben Stein, and it deals with Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. Stein interviews a number of professors, researchers and writers who have been fired or denied tenure because they believe in both evolution as a scientific fact and an intelligent designer. There are some great points in the movie. My favorite part was to see famed athiest, philosopher and author Richard Dawkins interviewed by Stein. Dawkins claims that the most likely explanation for the origin of life (which is the unanswered question left by Darwin--he deals with the origin of species, but fails to explanify how life itself started) is that intelligent life from elsewhere in the universe came to earth to seed the earth with life. Yet Dawkins claims to reject Intelligent Design. Fascinating. See it if you have a chance.
--Saw 88 Minutes with Al Pacino last night. OK, I actually saw it with my dad, but it starred Al Pacino. Missed the first 10 minutes or so, but the plot is easy to pick up on and it kept me guessing. I usually figure out who the bad guy is, but I didn't until the very end on this one.

There's what's going on in my world...

--

Monday, Monday

Got lots of thoughts swirling around, just in time for the Monday Mind Dump...

--The Journey was great yesterday. Big crowd, including a dozen or more first time guests. I love that.
--We've finished Colossians and today is spent in working on the next series. I'm pretty sure the direction I'm going to go, but it isn't a done deal yet. You will hear about it in the Travel Guide for sure. I'm looking at 2 options and am excited about both.
--Luke and Jillian tied the knot!! What a great ceremony and wonderful reception. I haven't been to a wedding and reception for quite some time. I've married 4 other couples in the past few years, but didn't always stay for the reception and such. But, for Luke and Jillian's...I wouldn't miss it. I love those guys and it's been great getting to know them through the pre-marital counseling and in our life group.
--I hope and pray they get on the plane this morning for Cancun. The person who made travel arrangements made the reservations in Jillian's married name. Of course, she had no ID or passport in that name. So, we scrambled around last night to get copies of the Marriage Certificate, Marriage License and affidavits signed by me and notarized attesting to the fact that Jillian Coalwell is Jillian Alexander...
--Someone's messing with me (practical jokes). They will be sorry. My creativity knows few limits or bounds, and practical jokes get my competitive juices flowing.
--On Thursday, we took part in an extraordinary spring ritual. For 3 years now, the official start of spring is some late afternoon when I go and yank off the cover from our RV, pile all of us in for a 10 miles drive to Wagner's Drive In in Brooklyn Park. This place is an old-fashioned drive in restaurant, with car hops and the whole deal. We open the windows, feel the spring breeze and get greasy burgers and fries. We diversified this year and added a couple chili cheese hot dogs. Sweet times. When the kids saw me taking the winter tarp thing off the RV, they started yelling and going crazy. They will remember these nights forever.
--I turn 44 this week. Don't feel anywhere near that old.
--Another spring ritual: first serious grilling session of the year on Saturday afternoon. That was a thing of beauty.
--Thanks Kelly J for the brownies. We went to their home late on Friday evening for dessert and it was brownies.
--We have 2nd interviews with 2 worship leader candidates this Saturday. Also have 3 others in the initial stages of consideration. Pray for us as we proceed.
--I'm at office hours and Gary Odle just strolled in, so I am going to go.

Peanuts

Had peanut butter toast for breakfast this morning. Yeah, you all should intuitively know this--Extra Crunchy. But I digress. I've been to T-Wolves and Twins games in the past 2 weeks. Incredibly sweet seats for the Wolves game (7th row, under a basket). But I digress yet again.

At these games, I had peanuts for the first time in a good decade or so. Real, live...uh, real, dead in the shell peanuts. Why haven't I been eating these things for the last 10 years? There's something incredibly fun about crushing your snack before you pop it into your mouth, not to mention getting to throw the spent shells all over the floor. I purposely ground the empty shells into the Dome's floor during the 7th inning stretch. There's something magically childlike in tossing those shells everywhere.

From now on, peanuts are gonna be my snack of choice--the snack I'm too cheap to buy at the stadium, but will smuggle in in a jacket or cargo shorts pocket. Move over licorice, peanuts have arrived. Yeah, that feels good.

On the lighter side...

Abby took out a kids' pool--really for toddlers--and shoveled herself a spot on the driveway yesterday afternoon. She then ran a hose from our utility room and filled the pool with hot water. She crawled in with a t shirt and shorts and "swam" for about 30 minutes. She had to keep re-filling it with hot water because (1) She displaced so much water from the pool itself, and (2) it was cooling down quickly. She's a nut. A creative, full of life nut. Just one of the reasons I love her.

I spent 4 hours yesterday cranking out some work in a Dunn Brothers. Got Luke and Jillian's wedding stuff all pulled together. Made a bunch of calls, plus a zillion emails. To pay rent, I bought a Naked Juice. Of course, I told the guy, when he asked what I'd like, I said "I wanna get Naked..........................................................................juice." I never bothered to drink the stuff because I had just come from a breakfast meeting and had plenty to slake my thirst then. I got home and decided to give it to Nate. He's been escpecially helpful around the house and he LOVES Naked Juice. Squeals of delight are awesome!! You'd think I just gave him a million bucks.

April Fools was good at our home. I got Andrea at 3 am, with a tried-but-true 'my back is killing me and I need some painkillers' kind of thing. Then I wrapped a little pony tail elastic thingie on to the sprayer of the kitchen sink. One of the twins got nicely dampened before they left for school. 2 of the younger kids were had easily. Josh is proving elusive at this whole thing, so I have to gun for him next year. The rest of the family tried to get me on several occasions, but I didn't fall for anything, except for Josh who got me with a 'I haven't done any of my homework' thing. That's the true beauty of April Fools Jokes--the more credible they are (and not doing his homework is a very credible notion, unfortunately), the more easily they are carried off. I wrapped up the evening with re-doing the kitchen sprayer with scotch tape. Got someone else, but I wasn't home to witness it. I also got a Journeyer who will remain anonymous, althought he's the cross-smashing prophetc bass player on most Sundays.

Obnoxity? Obnoxiousness? Hmm...Stuff that's bugging me

Snow.

Mosquitos. Yes, already killed 2.

Holes in trampolines.

Piles of laundry.

That's it for now.