Olympics

I've been sucked into the olympics.

I don't normally cry watching TV or movies except anything related to sports stories...and especially the 'underdog beats all odds to win olympic medal' stories.

The sappiest romantic comedy or saddest drama has nothing on those human interest stories like the one about the russion gymnast whose son had leukemia so she moved to Germany and now is competing at the age of 33! Or how about just plain competition to get your eyes a little misty...like the amazing 4x100 swimming relay that the Americans pulled out over the trash talking French. I don't have anything against the French...just trash talking French.

My other thought about the Olympics: China's image obsession about their country seems to be backfiring on them a little bit. This came to a head with the little girl who was pulled from singing in the opening ceremonies because she wasn't perfect looking enough. "It was in the national interest." the organizers said.

Alright men's beach volleyball is on...I gotta go.

Getting learned

I'm heading to Portland for a couple days of seminary class. Should be fun. All my favorite staff friends that live in Portland (that's right...I have favorites) are out of town this week at a big conference...so I'll be studying by myself.

I'm still trying to figure out if seminary is right for me. I love to learn and be challenged in critical thinking and leadership. Sometime classes fulfill that and othertimes they don't. This class will be a good test to see if I want to continue to pursue my Masters degree or put seminary on hold for a while.

Here's what I know about Portland in the summertime...it's green and people ride their bikes.

hmmmm...

Has anyone else been sucked into late night Olympic viewing?

This post is dedicated to Summertime

Batman review

Jody and I along with some of our friends Matt, Sarah and Pete were amongst the crazies who went and watched the midnight showing of Batman-The Dark Knight last week. Yep that's right...we defied age...although I was feeling it in the morning.

Unless you live under a rock you've heard all the stuff about Heath Ledger playing the Joker and then ovedosing on prescription drugs...which added to the hype of this movie. And since we drove by Heath Ledgers apartment last weekend on our NYC trip, I thought we owed it to Heath.

Anyway, the movie almost lives up to the hype. The cast is great in this film, but Heath Ledger is the star of this movie...he will be in the running for an Oscar for his performance as the Joker. He was simply fantastic in this role. He plays the part with commitment and creativity. Sad that he was only 28 years old when he died. Don't take your child that's younger than about 13 to the movie...it's got some disturbing violence. A great film, but it's not perfect. It's long, over 2 1/2 hours it could have been a little shorter. It was long enough that I had to go to the bathroom really bad for the last 30 minutes of the movie. Also the Two-face character's makeup job was a little cartoonish for me, which kind of took away from the "real-ness" of the Dark Knight. But all in all it lead to great discusion of morality and if man is basically good or evil.

NYC

Jody and I went to New York City last weekend. It was actually a suprise gift for Jody's birthday last April (I won't mention how old she is).

It was a blast. Here's the quick photo tour. If you'd like to see more visit Jody's facebook page.

Conan O'Brien's desk


Met's game - we had Maury Povich's seats.


We got to talk to Al Roker.

Fourth of July weekend

It is sooooo good to be home. I can't get over how awesome summer is in Bozeman.

Thursday we went to Music on Main, where they close down mainstreet in Bozeman and usually cool bands play. We managed to eat some tasty vendor food and enjoy some ice cream.

Friday we hung out at home in the 96 degree weather. Jenna now has a kiddie pool in the back yard. We bbq'd, had dessert with some friends and then watched the fireworks from our backyard...a perfect view of the big ones out at the fairgrounds. Although the the big ones were almost outdone by all the locals around us shooting off their own personal fortunes in fireworks. This was only my second Fourth in Bozeman since moving here in 1997 and I was reminded of how crazy people are about their fireworks.

Saturday, We loaded up the car for some sweet yardsaling action and a trip to the huge Farmers market, which again speaks to Bozemans awesomeness. Jody made these delicious muffins the night before...which speaks to Jodys awesomeness. I took a nap in the afternoon. We went to our church for the first time in a couple of months and then I closed the evening by reading a good book on our back porch looking out at the sun setting on the Bridger mountains.

Not bad at all.

Finally an update

I know, I know...I'm a blogging delinquent. Well that's about to change...I'm about to to wow you with my amazing stories of adventure and witty humor in far-away lands. Stay tuned.

In the meantime check out this amazingly stacked pile of wood somewhere in Austria.

the traveling child

Quick update

Not having internet in our aparment is killing me. KILLING me!

We're already more than a third of the way through our summer project! Things are going really well. Our summer project team has been amazing and we've begun to see God open up doors with a large number of Croatian students. There's so much to write about and not enough time.

Here's the important stuff.
-I drove in Rijeka for only the second time and didn't die
-There are more than 100 steps up to our apartment.
-We sweat alot here
-I eat a lot of grilled sandwiches and drink a lot of cappucino's

Here's some of what's coming up.
-Grocery shopping later today.
-We have a weekly meeting tonight and a big Story of Soul outreach next wednesday that our students are in charge of!
-Bible studies thursday and friday.
-I'm going flyfishing with Kevin Kneeshaw on Saturday

That'll have to do for now. Later

So far, so good.

We made it safe and sound to Rijeka, Croatia today. Everything has gone relatively smoothly. Our students are amazing travelers. Jenna did great so far too. We'll see if she sleeps through the night though.

Tomorrow our students will be racing through the city competing in an Amazing race. Thanks for all your prayers!

Summer Project begins

As I write this 12 college students are arriving here (Denver) from around the U.S. to join our summer project team to Croatia. All is a go for what I expect to be a great summer of seeing God at work in our students and staffs lives and in the lives of the Croatians we'll interact with.

Jenna's doing great so far, but the mother of all travel day's starts tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers.

Packing

We've started packing for our trip to Croatia....a total of 7.5 weeks away from home. Our goal is one checked bag and one carry-on for each of us.

We're officially crazy.

Actually I was thinking about starting a new website about traveling with children. Check it out...it's in the works.

Now, how many pairs of underwear do I need....1 or 2?

Yard Sale Mayhem

Up until now we've just been patrons of the yard sale scene in Bozeman.

All that changed last saturday. We had the mother of all yard sales. 7 families with their stuff in our front yard (strategic traffic zone of Bozeman) plus perfect weather = the perfect storm.

People started showing up at 6:30 am. 6:30! We hadn't even pulled stuff out of our garage yet and one lady asked me if she could rummage around! By 8 am cars were lining the street in both directions and it was non-stop untill noon.

Inventory was moved.

It was awesome.