November is over

My 30 days of November blogging is over today. I think I managed about 24 or 25 days of posting.

Not to shabby.

I can't promise much for December. We'll be on the road for Christmas and have a couple retreats before then. So who knows what the blogging motivation will be like. I may run into some circus performers, nascar racers or other missionaries that I want to tell the world about.

Today we trudged through the wet snow out in the Gallatin National Forest to bag and tag our Christmas tree. It's absolutely not a perfect tree, but I like the natural look. Besides, after it's all done up it looks pretty darn good in our living room. To bad I had to cut a foot and half off of Mr. Tree to fit it under our 9 foot ceiling.

Civil War

My wife is crying because her Alma Mater (Oregon State University) is being humiliated by the University of Oregon in the annual Civil War football game. I told her, "chin up young lady, your team still gets the most fashionable award with cool hunters orange jerseys."

In other news, we discovered recently that you can watch cable sporting events for free online at stoogetv.com. This website came in handy for Pete Zagorda, who used to live in Croatia.

Advent Conspiracy Promo Video

This is my anti-black friday video

Thanksgiving

Happing Thanksgiving!

I have a boatload to be thankful for. Including, but not limited to, my sweet wife and crazy little girl, my home, my job, the beautiful view of the Bridger mountains out the back window and of course the Spudzilla 9000 (more to come on this device in the next few days).

Last night, thanks to the History channel, I learned that the so called original Thanksgiving meal in 1621 featured a variety of meats such as turkey, swan, seal, duck, crane and partridge as well as some seafood, including cod, eel, clams and lobster.

Interestingly Cranberry sauce was not on the menu.

Today at our amazing Thanksgiving meal we had two guys from India join us for dinner. We were getting to know Nipun and Rajit when we asked them about the climate in the city they're from and Rajit responded,

"It's...(contemplative pause)

freakin' hot!"

much laughter ensued.

Courage

-Leadership is not defined by talent. Look for an opportunity to break from the pack and seize it. Those are the moments when leadership is discovered and defined.

-You're afraid. So what? Everybody is afraid. Fear is the common ground of humanity. The question you must wrestle to the ground with is, Will I allow my fear to bind me to mediocrity? If so there is no reason for you to finish this book.

-Don't let how get in the way of pursuing what? Leaders pursue opportunities way before the means and the maps are available. Your industry's unsolved problems are the gateway to the future.

-Leaders don't hide from the truth. The pain of discovery is the first step on the path to change. If you are going to fear anything, fear not know the truth about what's happening around you. In the world of leadership, denial is analogous to receiving the last rites.

-What could be? What should be? Write it down. Hang it on a wall. Broadcast it.

Next Generation Leader - Andy Stanley

Christmas Picture

I've missed a few days in my "30 days of November blogging" campaign...sorry about that. There is no excuse.

Maybe this will make you feel better. This is our Christmas card picture this year. Many thanks to Elliot Jenko a student at MSU who took our picture and tried to get Jenna to smile.

Jenna got tagged

Name/Meaning: Jennalynn Grace - God is Gracious

Age: 22.5 months

Nicknames: Jenna Bean, Peanut, Sweet Pea, Crazy

Favorite Activity (ies): Reading, going to the park and swinging, hanging out with our staff team, riding in the bike trailer, talking on the phone and lately pretending to be texting.

Favorite Food: Pizza, cold black beans (I know...weird), crackers, chocolate, cereal and quesadillas.

Least favorite food: anything nutritious especially veggies

Favorite Music: Hip-hop, and bluegrass and her favorite songs is Jesus Loves Me.

Favorite toys: Giant legos, blocks, books, little jungle animals, mommy and daddy's cell phones.

Favorite books: The Jesus Story book Bible (which I highly recomend for your parent out there), Good Night Moon, and Thomas the Train

What makes her happy: Being outside and being around people. Her blanky and seeing her grandparents. Lately her new veggietale movies...she goes craaazzzzy for them.

What makes her sad: I swear she has the spiritual gift of empathy like her mom, because she get's sad when others are sad. Other things include eating (about 90% of the time) and diaper rash. Diaper rash would make me sad too.

Jenna tags: Mckenzie, Lucy, Rosie, Z & A, Nathan

Friday night

It's 7:23 on a friday night and I'm ready for bed. I feel like I could go to sleep for 12 hours.

In other news, tomorrow is the 108th Cat-Griz game.

Winter Conference 08 - The Office Promo

If you're a fan of The Office you'll know how perfect this video is. These are our students in action.

November Posting

I've beening doing decently well with my effort to blog every day during the month of November. I've missed a few days but added an extra post the following day to make up for my apathy.

What's interesting about this November blogging campaign is that it's a little like exercising your brain. It takes some work to think and then blog and finally make your posts sound legible. It's exercise for your creativity muscle...although sometimes I'm more creative than others. For example, I woke up at 4:15 this morning and couldn't fall back asleep...thus I'm not feeling very creative.

My point is what if all Americans (or followers of Christ, for that matter) stopped watching reality tv and began to exercise our brains and begin to be creative and innovative? I'm guilty as the rest of of them, but what if we began to create instead of being consumers all the time?

Or maybe I should take a mid-morning nap.

Props to this guy for being creative.

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy

So true. Beware there is a bad word edited out in this.

Snow Cone Jeep

I had a friend send me this link today and suggest that CRU purchase it and make the official "CRU SnowCone Jeep." Of course we would have to trademark the phrase.

We could travel around to all the extreme sporting events, ala Redbull, and peddle our sweet snowcone goodness to all willing partakers.

Quantum of Solace

We were given some Movie bucks for the local cinema a couple months ago and finally got a chance to use them last night. We opted for the new James Bond movie. My official review...it was so-so. One of the coolest things about the movie however, is the scene set in the middle of Siena, Italy during the Palio di Siena horse races, which Jody and I experienced a few years ago.
Anway, it wasn't nearly as good as Casino Royale. The action in the movie wasn't very creative and the sheer volume of it limited the character development. Plot was fairly predictable, yet hard to follow throughout (if that makes sense). It was nice to watch on the big screen, but I'm glad it was free for us.

In a side note, I never buy pop/candy/popcorn at the movies, but after we purchased our tickets we had some extra movie bucks, seven to be exact. I was all excited to buy some popcorn, candy and a couple of diet Cokes. I was midly disapointed when all I could afford with $7 was a large coke and handful of sour patch kids.

22 month old's vocab...or "that's what she said."

Today Jenna said the word "actually" about 400 times and the phrase "see you later" once.

Lately

Things I've enjoyed lately, in the following categories:

Internet: Apartment Therapy
A website all about decorating and enjoying your home. I have visions of someday being a cool, hip person with good taste.

Books: The Next Generation Leader, Andy Stanley
See me explanation in previous post.

Entertainment via TV: The current season of The Office; Frontline (PBS)
Question. Why do I schedule my thursday nights around The Office?

Fact: I can't help it, it's my guilty pleasure.

I think Frontline is one of the best TV programs there is...although I've only seen 3 episodes. Get online on watch it, specifically the one about the war in Afghanistan.

Cuisine: Hebrew National Hot Dogs
All beef hotdogs that are soooo tasty.

Outdoor recration: Flyfishing
When I spend time outside right now, there is nothing I'd rather do than go flyfishing. There have been multiple moments over the last few months where I've thought to myself, "this could be a scene from the movie A River Runs Through It." It doesn't hurt that a bunch of scenes were filmed right outside of Bozeman on the Gallatin River.



This "Things I've enjoyed lately" ideas was stolen from Alexis.

International Thanksgiving

Jody and I are going to have some International students over for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Any ideas of what to do during that time?

Leadership

I've been reading this book by Andy Stanley (pastor of North Point church in Atlanta). I highly, highly recommend it for you people out there itching to refine your leadership ability. It has challenged and inspired me, as well as forced me to ask myself serious questions about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.

Worth every penny of the $15.

training for the 2024 Olympics

Thoughts from Church this weekend

Big Idea: We want our lives to matter, to leave a mark. This God-given hunger for significance is squandered through an unexamined life. Intentional alignment increases our chance to be part of a noble endeavor greater than we could produce individually

-Recognize opportunities for significance
-Align my world to those opportunities
-Make sure I'm involved in somthing bigger than me

"Greater things than I have done will you do..." Jesus

-Regret is often the unsettling awareness that we paid too high a price for something worth too little. Greatness is measured not only by the size of the accomplishment but the sacrifices made to achieve it. Too many people just window shop.

Thanks Pastor Derry.

Water

Check out the pictures of the water situation in various parts of Africa. The reality of it is tough to take.

Surrogate Sharers

Here at the NQE Blog we like to provide practical tools for daily living. For all you college students out there who need to tell their parents you're changing your major...check this out.

30 days of posting down the tubes

I can't even post 3 days in a row...how can I expect myself to post 30 days in a row.

Look at it this way, 3 out of 6 ain't bad.

Our annual Fellowship dinner is tonight in which we raise all the funds that directly support the ministry at MSU. It's always a little stressful, but it should be a fun time and hopefully point everyone toward how amazing our Lord is. I wish all of you could be there to get a taste of what we do!

If you're in town, swing by the ski-swap tomorrow and buy some of the stuff I dropped off there today.

Jeff Sharkey Android Developers - CompareEverywhere

This is genius Jeff Sharkey, a student here at MSU who's been involved with CRU.

30 days of blogging

I started this 3 days late so it's actually only 27 days of blogging.

GO VOTE!!!

Get out there and vote people! History is being made.

I voted a couple weeks ago on my handy dandy absentee ballot.

An interesting fact...Montana State University gives all the students the day off from school because of election day. I'm not completely sure why this is. Maybe it's so they can drive back to their towns and vote or maybe it's so they can all sit around and scan internet headlines of the big day.

Anyay, I hope your election day is great one!