SERENITY NOW!!!

Its the eve of Summit 2007, and I would ordinarily be so pumped about taking 25 teenagers to the top of Lookout Mountain for a week that I could hardly contain myself. Its kind of tough right now... I just put the finishing touches on tomorrow mornings message -on fishing... and I spent a lot of time yesterday working on a video for the service that I would have ordinarily used to prep for camp... So my camp "get up and go", got up and left about Tuesday afternoon.

But, we had some great time with the core of our small group this evening, eating Cajun food and letting ducks nibble on my hind quarters... It was the relaxing break I needed to remain sane! The small group part- not necessarily the duck part.

Don't know why I felt this was bloggable, but I did.

By the way, something to sing about here: Summit 2005- 5 teenagers, 4 adults... Summit 2006- 12 teenagers, 5 adults... Summit 2007- 25 teenagers, 5 adults... Pretty stinkin' cool... Okay I feel more ready to go to camp now... Thanks. Sonny & Ryan, we will truly miss you guys!

I Crack Myself Up...

...and it doesn't matter if anyone else laughs.

Here is a video about ribs that we shot yesterday for this Sunday's service. It is very low res, but its still funny... too me anyway. SPOILER ALERT - if you are a Compass-ite and don't want to see a video "before its time" do not click on the link.

Just thought I would share my love for ribs... Kelly says its ok to love your ribs, just dont LOVE your ribs.

Arm Paint Update

Just a quick post here... the arm paint was removed this morning... frustrated at my apparent inability to see or scrub the inner portion of my right bicept... Kelly moistened a towel as I was drying off this morning and abraised the black smudge right off... "Let me just help you out here" she said somewhat motherly... Although, I must admit it was actually pretty hard work to not clean it off for the past few days... But I cracked up this morning as I filled Kelly in on the joke. I think she was relieved that I wasn't THAT hygenically challenged.

Total elapsed time on arm: about 80 hours over 6 showers (yardwork and outdoor wedding receptions necessitate additional showers).

Total time on arm since I picked Kelly and Macy up: somewhere in the neighborhood of 48-50 hours.

Speaking In Tongues

Macy has recently started speaking in tongues... Not involving flaming tongues of fire, mind you, but Spanish. And really, its more yelling than speaking. You see, we in the Rose household are experiencing a new period in our child-rearing journey... We are now in the Dora-ic Period

All children who live in this brilliantly hued world of Spanglish animation learn that this is one romance language that is better screamed than spoken. There is nothing like sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying a bowl of Froot Loops and listening to a 3 year-old sprite in the next room yelling words and phrases like CASA, BOCA, and MI PADRE VA LOCO Y SORDO EN EL MISMO TIEMPO at her DVR babysitter.

I was reminded of this strange multi-cultural world that we sometimes live in at Target today: Two Asian women and the 6 or so children that were with them (5 under the age of 4) were browsing next to me in the water bottle/vinyl lunchbag/yoga mat section, all speaking rapid fire "you ain't from around here" words. In the midst of this din of hastily strung together "long" vowel sounds, two words spewed forth from one of the boys: "Lighting McQueen!" Over and over he yelled this at the top of his lungs... As the two startled mothers looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, oblivious to the Pixar marketing, I couldn't help but smile... And get a craving for some cereal.

**ARM PAINT UPDATE** The paint almost came off in the shower this morning... I am not sure there will be much left to annoy Kelly with...

Pleather Doesn't Breathe

I officially just sat in my recliner for four hours. Right now my emotions are running the gamut between pretty proud of myself and pretty disappointed in myself. See, the thing is, Kelly & Macy are out of town, and I have worked until at least 10 each night this week, so I granted myself a night of television... Here is what 240 minutes of sweat inducing, cushion-creasing, legs falling asleep has taught me:
-I under no circumstances want to watch more than 10 minutes of a reality show where people want to be pirates. I know this because at 11 minutes, the I-will-watch-any-reality-show-no-matter-what curse was broken. However, please note that Hell's Kitchen 3 is already flagged on our DVR. And, I will miss you Tim Gunn.
-Get Macy Jane's flowerbed mulch and rocks from the busted asphalt at the edge of our driveway out of the Radio-Flyer... and dust off the trumpet I havent played since last century... I am officially a bandwagon member of the Cleveland Cavs NBA Championship. Wow... does Rasheed Wallace have ringworm or did he lose a bet?
-Lastly, after 14,400 entirely fruitless seconds on my rear, it is now time to blog again. I purposefully took 1 month off to ensure that I did have the desire, and reason to blog. Special thanks to all four of my known blog readers: Crull, Ashley, Mark, & Meredith.

There you have it... I am back on the blogspot... And there is a splotch of paint on my arm from a project I was working on at church today - I am going to see how long I can leave it on there before Kelly physically cleans it off herself. Any one want to speculate on how many days it will be?

Another blog...

...is in my head and won't come out. Its about how there are a lot of new church plants out there that are named virtually the same and may actually be a new denomination of non-denominationals. Its almost like you can put some key words in a bag and pull out two or three to make your uber-hip church... Examples:

Cross Bridge Church
-also leads to a great evangelistic presentation!
Life Pointe Fellowship
-(probably purpose driven)
Church by the Retention Pond
-not everyone has a cool geographic feature nearby!

Or here's a strategy that one particular denomination, errr church uses in all of its franchises, errr plants... Just take the city's name you are planting in and add Church after it... which works well until you want to reach one of these towns (Alabama alone makes me smile).

Okay maybe the blog came out.

Proud Mary Keep On Rollin...

As the vacation of relaxation continues I am becoming more in tune with what actually relaxes me and what doesnt... so here is a partial list:

-Watching the NBA Playoffs in HD: relaxing.
-People I havent seen in years telling me how much weight I've gained: not relaxing.
-Attending a strangers wedding on a fake paddleboat: relaxing.
-Watching Mark swelter in the heat as he performs said strangers wedding: relaxing & funny too.
-Blogging random things from my brain: relaxing.
-Listening to a homesick 3-year-old scream and scream and scream and scream: not relaxing.
-Eating bacon with friends: relaxing.
-Jerking the chains of Best Buy salesmen: always relaxing.
-Driving Macy Bricker around with the fuel light on: relaxing ...for me.
-Paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas: not relaxing.
-Watching Mark's neighbor edge her yard in her swimsuit: not relaxing ...first, she's about 60 ...and second, lycra affords zero projectile resistance.
-Thinking about the 600 mile drive home: not relaxing.
-Not spending my Saturday night thinking about church tomorrow: relaxing.
-Knowing that typing this blog post drives someone crazy (DM): relaxing.
-Listening to the Mark & Miller Show: potentially relaxing ...should I ever choose to listen to more than 3 minutes of one.
-Knowing when to wrap up a blog...