wedding band, originally uploaded by rellis44.
So this weekend is Mother’s Day but also me and Kristen’s first anniversary. It’s going to be an incredible day with lots of celebration
Thanks to Kristen, my lovely wife, and my awesome Mom and Mrs. Beth my wonderful mother in law. You all go beyond the call of duty and I’m thankful for all that you have done, are doing, and will do for the rest of your life. Thanks!! Happy Anniversary and Mother’s Day!!
I love you all!
jumping over puddles, originally uploaded by anna.klevan.
If you didn’t know GVegas as we call it and the East Coast region have been pounded with rain lately and it probably won’t end until this week. But I’m walking outside this afternoon and I see two kids having a ball running through the rain. I can’t help but think to myself “When was the last time I bounded through a puddle”
Tons of memories flooded my brain, but one in particular. It was a beautiful summer day and we had our kiddie pool out. My parents were at the fence talking to our neighbors and I was riding my bike. I think I’m 7 at this time. If you know me you would know that it’s not a casual bike ride but instead a race to win supreme chancellor of North America or whatever title I had made up at that time. I remember the breeze and I remember doing the very southern style “Hey Mom & Dad watch this” and at that moment when I had my stage I turn around and plunge into the pool. Totally embarassing but totally full of emotion and adventure.
I wonder if we teach our kids the “lets have fun and experience an abundant life in Christ” or the “don’t jump in that puddle mentality”.
Do we live our lives in a way that shows kids that life with God is an adventure?
Do we teach the awesomeness of God and the abundant, adventurous, risky life?
Do we want our kids to experience the fullness of God or show them that works is how you go places?
So I’m challenging you to be a puddle jumper today. Take your kids outside and romp in the rain and experience the fun and teach them to live life with God as the forefront.
Well I wanted to tell you about a couple of goals that God put into my heart this week at Orange:
I really think God is showing me that I really can impact people through writing. Tough to think about considering the fact that I didn’t have an English class for most of my life and grammar is just well, it’s just too hard for me to do really well. But God is giving me some bigger vision and reinforcing the fact that I can help people in ministry around the country.
I totally and shamelessly am stilling this post from Pudge
And since we are about to get into the connect with lots of people mode at Orange, I thought it would be awesome to start the 25 things facebook thing for bloggers so I’m gonna try and make it viral for kidmin people.
So if you read this comment but more importantly write your own post with your five things peeps don’t know about u!
Ok here are some things people may not know about me:
1. I was a male model and actor under contract for 3 years. (yes I know, laughter will ensue 
)
2. I have a Bachelor’s degree in marketing and graduated early and with honors (I’m a closet nerd)
3. I still play video games… Alot mostly sports and shooters but I love video games.
4. I wore a patch on my eye for three years in Elementary school (for lazy eye not be a pirate day 3 years in a row)
5. Used to work for the Brown. I was a manager and we were awesome!
And just as an extra… I am a Tiger fan. The Memphis Tigers. I went to school there. They’re awesome at everything
So I just wanted to throw this out there because I found this statistic this weekend. The Boston Celtics have won the NBA’s championship 17 times… That ismore than any other team has ever won that title.
They have never had anyone lead the league in scoring…
Funny that in a sport that thrives on individual accomplishment and every bottom feeder team is trying to acquire the next superstar that the team with the most championships has never, I repeat never, had a player lead the league in scoring. Think about that this morning!
So while my mother in law and sister in law are in town, of course shopping occurred. And so I did my husbandly duty and attended a shopping session with my wife today. (As a sidenote, I bought a shirt for $45 and I never do that, I must have been working at a church for too long) As I’m waiting on my wife to try on some clothing I can’t help but hear the women critiquing several things that they see wrong with their bodies. conversations that few guys would ever engage in and I begin to realize the different struggles that men and women have.
And as I think to myself, I can’t help but think that as their Father created each one in the womb that He never uttered any of those things to Himself.
“This makes _____ look fat”
“I wish I had your _______.”
“I need to fix this part of my body ______”
Incredibly eye opening for me and thankful that
“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb.” – Psalms 139:13
Just as we are beautiful inside, God also formed our outside and shaped us into what we are…
Well most of you know the rumored report of Cal going to UK. First I predicted that this would happen a few years back. Way before the Gillespie hire but I guess I was a little off. A couple of things are off in the report. Number one Rivals is not a student newspaper. I know I was a student at the U of M as late as 2007 and know that our paper there was “The Daily Helmsman” so that is error number one. Also the Commercial Appeal hasn’t announced anything so I would consider that enough fact that Cal hasn’t jumped ship yet. I still think it will happen and here are a few reasons that have been thrown out there:
None of which I think he cares about. I really think Cal cares more about being in “The Club” more than any of these things. He wants to be looked at as one of the great coaches in college basketball. At Memphis he may not be able to get the credit he deserves. I mean 4 sweet 16′s 4 straight years is legit 
coaching and yet he gets no credit because of the conference he plays in which is ridiculous in the first place. It gets tiring playing the underdog card over and over and over. I think the legacy of Calipari is what this whole thing is about.
Memphis fans listen to these to keep your head up.
So don’t fret. Yeah he may leave us in shambles, but I mean look at the bright side. We could be looking at the NIT championship game. O wait that was Kentucky 
I’ve been recovering the past two days from some crazy bad sickness I had. I have never been as sick as I was the last week. My head was pounding, had a crazy fever and couldn’t breathe through my nose. Which speaking of that, has anyone ever discovered that cereal is like the hardest thing to eat when you can’t breathe through your nose?!
But I digress. I sat on the couch for two days straight. Couldn’t watch TV because it hurt to open my eyes. So literally for two days I sat on the couch and did nothing. Couldn’t go to sleep either. Just a bad day. But it did let me know how much I hate being sick. Not the pain or hurt involved in sickness but instead the debilitation that accompanies illness. I hate not doing anything it just eats away at me.
Got some cool things coming up this week. I have a really cool idea for a competition at Orange. I know how creative the people that attend the Orange Conference are so I want to throw a challenge on you people. It’s going to be fun! Anyway, missed you guys and can’t wait to get back in the swing of things!
Kristen, came home yesterday and was just really upset. You probably already made an assumption about me making a mistake. While my life is ridden with plenty of mistakes, I thought I did pretty well this time. She’s still in school and does observation hours for her education degree, after all that she goes to work for a family with an autistic child. Then she comes home to me… Yeah (insert joke here). But at school yesterday, she had a department head drop the ball. The lady needed to reserve some space for classes and she didn’t do it on time.
Basically students in this particular department have to wait to sign up for other classes and wait to tell their job about their school schedule because the lady dropped the ball… Needless to say I was upset but Kristen was not happy, then the child she takes care of was sick and that throws all of his “normal” behaviors off kilter(if you know anything about autism then you understand the quotes). Some other things were going on and it was a rough day… Really rough. Now generally I would try and come up with some profound piece of wisdom for her but I didn’t and couldn’t. I just held her while she cried. I know only of this type of love because she gives it to me when I have a tough time. When I need encouragement she is always the first one. I got to be that for her for this one instance. And it was cool. Haven’t got many of those chances early on in our marriage but yesterday I did. It was so much fun to drop everything and give to her and yet at the same time it was a learning experience. Because as men, we can always try to fix the problem but we can’t always feel the circumstances. I got too and I am grateful for it. Spiritual Leadership is definitely deeper than ordinary leadership. And I have so much more to learn.
Guys you’ve been there. Your wife is shopping and you are…well waiting for her to stop shopping 
So there I was at the mall the other day waiting as my wife was trying to find a dress for a friend’s upcoming wedding. And so I sat on the couch by the waiting room for her to decide if she like what she had found on the rack. (By the way thanks for the couch Macy’s!) And instead of the usual surf the internet on my iPhone I decided to make some casual conversation with an older lady who was chillin on the couch as well.
So I did. Her name was Francis. She lived in a town in the surrounding area and she goes to a church. The same church that she has been a part of since she was 5 years old. I could pretend to guess her age but these are the quanitative statistics she threw at me when I asked about her experience there. 4 buildings, 8 or 9 preachers, and 1 pastor?! I was peaked by her particular use of vocabulary, just like someone outside the church must be when we throw out “saved” words (that one was free!) at ‘em. So I asked her Ms. Francis, “What did you mean by that, what was different about this one?”
She said, “I was going through some tough times in my life. He helped me get through them. I grew real close to him and his wife through that and I still go see them at their house.”
I’m in the production and programming world. But nothing substitutes for genuine relationship and love that comes from our Savior given to those that we have relationships with. Francis’ small testimony of how she felt just reinforced that God calls us to love Him with everything and then love others. And that no matter how flashy, heartfelt, passionate and relevant our programming is unless we are concerned with people’s lives and how we can meet their needs through the love of Christ and pointing them that way, change isn’t going to happen.
