wht's new

Hey all, been a long time since I posted, but nothing new in that whole realm. Really, just finding the time when I am thinking of something awesome has been difficult. So I'll give you some updates into our lives at the moment.

Lucy is walking, sort of running and smacking her head and face on anything and everything. Apparently her head is huge. Her height is in the 30%, her weight in th 15% and her head in the 80%. Of course I have decided that those percentiles the doctor gives us are either made up, or are of no actual concern because babies are all different. . . or my daughter is a genius, prodigy with the perfect percentages and everyone else is dumb. That being said, I also have a big head, so my apologies to Lucy for that gene being dominant. Anyways, this leaves her a bit top heavy, sort of like an upside down weeble, necessitating her face to smack carpet often. She is also learning lots of stuff and songs. Her favorites are 'O happy day' by Steve Fee and 'Baby Shark', what can I say? She is eclectic. Any time we sing those she yells and dances and as soon as we are done she says, 'again', no matter how many times the song has been sung. She has also become very into Elmo. Sesame Street must be evil geniuses because that furry, red, little, (insert funny and slightly offensive noun) is like LSD for kids. We stumbled upon an 'Elmo Dance' vhs tape at a garage sale, and Lucy, after one time through was hooked and basically 7 thousand times a day asks to watch Elmo. So now Julie and know all of the dance moves, oh and the tape features Paula Abdul so, it was already painful to have on every other day, add her in the mix and let's just say it gets annoying. Whatever. I am hoping she soon learns 'steelers'. All that to say, Lucy is fun and has not yet started throwing really big fits, so we are enjoying this stage.

In other news, our church is growing like a weed, in a good way. We are working furiously to try to keep up with the number of new folks coming to the church and making commitments for Christ. God is doing a huge work and it is awesome to be a part of it. We are in the 'about to break ground' faze of our new building which is a bit of a stresser for me because I am responsible for the worship area, pushing us further towards contemporary staging, lighting and sound, while still staying within the smallest budget know to man and also convincing everyone what is a good idea, vs everything else. BLAH! Alas, it is fun most of the time, but the pace that we are trying to move at in order to not have to have 5 services is hectic. Cool problems to have.

I continue to get opportunities to preach, which is exciting and challenging. This past weekend, our pastor was out of town and commissioned me to preach on Sex. Nothing like keeping it light. It turned out well, so far as I can tell. I had Julie team teach with me and she did an awesome job. It was a cool opportunity for us and despite running rather long, we received very positive feedback.

In other news. I still own a house in Canton. Which I now refer to as "The Thorn". Luckily, we couldn't sell it a couple of years ago and were forced to rent it out. Sparing all or you from a long rant about how bad a time that is, I will just say that it is currently a very bad time and adds much unneeded stress.

So, all in all, things are going rather well aside from 'The Thorn', maybe soon I will post something of great value and insight that will cause you to re-think how you view the world. Until then . . .

Why Michael Bolton Rocks

-Killer Vocals
-Tried to do the hair band rock thing, and toured with Ozzy but elected to instead to go after middle-aged women and the school slow dance and make tons of money. Some would say sell out, I would say musical genius.
-cut his hair after years of holding onto his hair band days, props for being current
-how am I supposed to live without you.

nuff said.
Great writers have a unique capability of convincingly and eloquently making a point to a reader in such a way as to, no matter how ludicrous the subject matter, the reader stops and thinks, 'maybe Michael Bolton really does rock. I am not that good of a writer. This point is probably why I wait so long to post on this har blog. It was really fun for a time, and still sometimes it is, but usually I have too many loose ends rattling around in my head to get something out to the masses. And by masses, I mean all two of you, although perhaps my little shout out to MB will get me some new subscribers, welcome to all of you. We'll see.

I have a couple of updates and extra points about nothing. First of all, my good buddy world famous Eric Newcomer sent me via Dan Gartley an mbox, complete with ProTools to help me get moving on some music writing. Thanks to both gentlemen for your service. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, most simply it is a tool (hence the name) for properly recording music. The hope is that I will get off my duff and starting making some original music. When that happens I will let both of you hear what I got. Oh, sorry forgot about new MB subscribers, the four of you will get to hear what I got.

Second, my daughter is right on the cusp of walking. This is a fun time, she is always doing lots of cool stuff, including face-planting into the hardest part of the couch, when dad forgot to catch her. I think she forgot about that though, because she continues to try to walk which is good. She also has taken to picking up my phone, holding it to her ear and saying 'hi'. This may seem rudimentary to most people, but you are not 14 months old, so for us it is cool.

I am working hard to prep our very large group of high school students and leaders for our mission trip coming up in two weeks. Very excited, but a little stressed do to the amount of details involved. Julie is doing a great job of being a mom and teaching Lucy, while still having time to love and encourage me, I married up.

That's the update, but I also wanted to make a comment on the new NBC late night schedule. I have always been a large (both figuratively and literally) Conan fan and it has been good to see him in the tonight show. Now, having only done a couple of shows, it has been a bit weird to see some of the subtle differences in his show, while it is still basically the same show. I am reserving judgment on that for a while until he has gotten into a groove. What I really wanted to say is that after a rough first couple of weeks, Jimmy Fallon has really grown on me. His last couple of shows (that I have seen) have been really funny so hopefully he sticks around. Which brings me to a gripe that I would like to voice. I would say that I watch a bit too much tv, but that is not the point I am getting at. It has been a re-occurring theme since I started to tune into some more regular shows, that every time I like a show, it gets cancelled. I am not going to list any of these for you, but over the past three years, I have really liked about 6 shows, four of which have been cancelled after one season. What in the fat?! I guess, everybody else has bad taste. Michael Bolton rocks! So, sorry Jimmy Fallon show, because I like you, you are doomed to cancellation.

That's all.

Kisses

It is about time for an update on things in the Savage household. Things are going well, we are moving into the 'busy season' at church, specifically for me in the area of youth. Lots of stuff that happens in the summertime. Also, our pastor is gone quite a bit which leaves me to preach several times, which I am growing in and get a little more comfortable every time. Julie is wrapping up her time teaching abstinence in the public schools (until fall) so we will get to hopefully have some more time hanging out all together and do family stuff with Lucy.

Lucy is a hoot. She is finally crawling and has turned a corner very rapidly where she has gone from being more responsive to stuff we do (which was really, really fun) to being proactive with stuff we do. She will crawl over to the table and pick out her favorite book "Skippy Jon Jones" and hold it up or us to read. Her once four hours of awesome nap time has now become an hour or here crawling around her bed, making noise and trying to play with stuff until we decide she's fooled around long enough and go in to get her to find her standing in her crib bouncing up and down. And the coolest thing is that she has learned to give kisses. A couple of weeks a go she figured it out. I had been saying often "Daddy give Lucy a kiss" and smooch her on the cheek, then "Lucy give daddy a kiss" and lean my cheek in to her. And then suddenly one day, we're sitting there and she leans her mouth over towards my face. We're thinking what's she doing? And then it clicks! She's giving a kiss. And so now, we say "Lucy give daddy a kiss" ( or mommy) and she leans in and gives a kiss, (well it isn't and actually smooch, it is more of an open mouth lean in, we'll keeping working) It is always followed by a hug. so nice. This last week she has figured out that her baby doll is a baby doll, and she crawls over to it and picks it up (by the leg) and pats it and makes the hands clap and of course, gives it kisses.
And keeping with the ever popular, 'what is Lucy doing that mom and dad think is cute' theme, she has also learned the 'word' 'Oww'. And every time she falls over, or drops something or there is a loud noise, she says "Owwww!"

So she is lots of fun. And as for dealing with deep issues in life that need discourse and contemplation. There is usually something huge on a day to day basis, but never enough time to successfully put into blog form so everyone can join in over-thinking stuff.

With this in mind. . . something not worth over-thinking, or maybe it is. . .I have recently been running a lot more, which means my i-pod has been updated pretty regularly, and my current favorite running song is "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. That song freaking rocks. I want to do it in church. Without editing. It may be one of my elect, but I don't care. Speaking of playing it in church. Our church definitely played Bon Jovi- Living on a Prayer last week. nuff said.

Not So much

I don't have anything to say except I am doing some experimenting with new blogger templates to see what neat-o things I can do. I have lots of other stuff going on, but it will have to wait for now, so until next time, enjoy the different looks of my blog as I try to dial-in what is going to be best.

Also, If you were once on my favorites list, never fear, you should be back up shortly, unless you never update your blog, in which case it is not that important, though I sense a shifting in the wind where blogging is becoming less and less cool, in place of facebook. You feelin me?

Can you beleive it has been a month

So after being very committed to blogging some stuff for a while, I have neglected the whole deal due to over-all busyness, and a natural high after the Super Bowl. I looked today and realized it has been a whole month, and I also notice that Adam has two posts in the month of February, which means I am behind the curve.

There is so much going on that I really don't know where to begin, so I will just fill you in on a recent adventure, and then save the rest for later.

I work at a church that is about 50 yards from a small bank. You must understand that the "town" is only 100 yard long, so that isn't saying much, save that the bank is really, really small. They do not have an ATM, or any way to electronically transfer funds. Pause for a sigh and shake of the head. For real? I guess it would be foolish to put into place any system that would encourage people from actually using your bank. What was I thinking?

Well, this high enterprise bank got robbed the other day. Pause for a side note, that the robber was unarmed. . . really? Now, as it so happened my pastor and I were leaving the church to drive to a meeting at the exact moment said unarmed robber was fleeing. He ran directly in front of us and got into a awkwardly parked car. Mike and I continued onto our meeting, talking about something else, unaware that the bank had been hit. Only later did we find out that we had seen the guy, and had both had the same thought as we were driving down the road. "It's really odd that this guy is in a dead sprint to that awkwardly parked car. Who sprints to there car? Jeez, you rob a bank or something?" I even looked back at a sign that we passed to see if the guy had vandalized it in some way, cause it was weird how he was running.

So you imagine that we felt a little silly talking to the police detectives later that day about the obviously suspicious looking guy running away from the bank.

Alas, my spidey-senses are a bit lax. I am disappointed because to date, that is the first chance to summon my inner John McClain and thwart an evil plot. How often does that happen. So I am left slightly distraught.

Anywho, little business savvy bank was the victim of its second robbery in three years. That is sad. And I got to look at a police line-up for the first time. In doing so I was no help whatsoever, as I really didn't see the guys face. Every guy I saw could have easily been or not been the guy. Which, by the way, makes me want to be sure never to volunteer for a police line up. So I picked the guy with earrings and a tattoo cause he looked like the kind of guy that would rob a bank. (I told the detective that by the way)

So hopefully the mafia doesn't come after me as a master informant. So that was a mini-adventure.

Julie, Lucy and I are going on vacation next week, so hopefully I will get a chance to post some more updates as to the goings on at the Savage house.

Bye, bye then

Super Bowl

Yeah, its today. Good times, nothing important to announce but I'll give props to anyone who can identify this person. . .

Cecil Brookins . . ."Eff" and the Super Bowl

When I was a counselor at camp one year we had a kid, Cecil. We had some rough kids throughout the summers, but Cecil was unique. We knew the first day that he took medication for "ADD" supposedly, I won't comment on that. We also were aware that he had some behavioral issues. All said and done, he had a pretty good week except that every morning he would wake everyone else up with a loud battle cry, "WAKE UP MOTHER EFFERS!!!". No matter how much earlier we tried to wake up to ward off said battle cry, we were never successful. He apparently was a light sleeper and heard our alarm.
Anyways, you must take note that he did not use the word "EFF". But rather choose to go for the unedited, grand daddy of all curses. I personally prefer 'EFF'. You still get the point across, preserve some cleanliness, and it is much more humorous in general.

This makes me think of another "EFFin" story. Josh, Eric and I were hanging out one Tuesday evening at good old Mallon's. This was before they went high tech. And this particular evening was rather slow and some sort of higher-up manager appeared this evening, and was sort of harassing the guy who was working that night. He was a bigger guy who looked as though he just got out from under his car. (extra information in order to paint a picture) He was apparently having a bad day because he was really giving this other guy a hard time for the over all cleanliness of Mallon's that night. We mostly ignored the guys until at one point we hear the dirty manager really yelling at the other guy. He was trying to get the other guy to get the hose from out back, but again he was really having a bad night because he totally got stuck on the word "hose". He was so miffed, he got caught on the swear word. (He too did not say "Eff") He yelled, " GO get the "Effin". . . the "Effin". . .the "Effin". . ." And then tried the whole phrase over again only to get stuck on "Effin" again. Now, conventional wisdom makes me think he probably only said "Effin" 6-10 times, before "hose" came out. But in my mind, he said it like 30 times, in fact, he may be still saying it right now. That may not be funny for everyone else, but it was for me and I know Josh will get a kick out of the memory. Frankly there is no reason for either of these stories. There is probably something to be said about society and cursing, but I'll let you do the thinking. So no deeper purpose from me, I apologize.

Perhaps it is on account of cuz I am in such a good mood about the super bowl. Getting hopped up for the Stillers to cause havoc. Also pretty hopped up to make some Ro-tel dip (Thanks Tim) and I am going to whip up some homemade buffalo wings. Great for the mouth, bad for the rest of me. But it's the super bowl, what are you going to do, eat salad? "Touchdown! Alright! Yeah! High Five! can you pass the Raspberry Vinegaret? Oh and some extra broccoli! Whatever.

Speaking of the super bowl, I read the best quote ever by a sports writer the other day who was electing to make the Cardinals his pick to win the game. He was talking about Kurt Warner and how he has such a cool story and is a stand up guy who is strong in His faith and whatnot. He goes on to make his pick by saying "YOU CANNOT BET AGAINST GOD AND PUPPIES, SO I PICK THE CARDINALS. . ." Good line, and Kurt Warner rocks, but not this time. HERE WE GO STEELERS!

OKay, and now, since so far this has been a lot of nothing, here are some pics of Lucy.

Playing in the snow with Steve


Lucy's first Christmas, apparently my dad showed up, as she has a bow on her head.


Snow Suit "I can't put my arms down!"


Snow angels are stupid!


mmm Sink Bath

Steelers...

Attack of the Sasquatch

Here we go Steelers! Here we GO! (Thanks for the photo Jay)

There are several things as I have procrastinated a ton in blogging. So, I will attempt to brief and still make a couple of points, give a couple stories, and catch you all up on the Savage family.

-On Christmas
I have written a lot about my struggle with Christmas time. So I wanted to fill you in on my Christmas. It really got going on Christmas Eve, when while preparing for our church's Christmas eve service we found out the our pastor's mother had passed away. He was still able to make it through our services and frankly, it was probably the best Christmas Eve service(s) I have been a part of. God really showed up big. We were all really focused on giving Him glory and not just lifting candles to "Silent Night" just because we've always done it. We had a terrific time of worship and we also had an absolute ton of visitors. And while that is SOP for a holiday service, we have seen a major turn around in the following weeks. A ton of new families coming to the church and making commitments to follow Jesus. It really was awesome.
The next day Julie and I went to her family's for Christmas time and we really had fun and relaxed a bit. We went to my family's the next week and despite the travel stress, we again had an awesome couple of days with family. Lucy, sort of got the concept down by the end, of opening presents. It was fun to watch her eat the paper. Best gifts... a Whirly Pop, The Dark Knight on DVD, and a movie gift certificate from Julie, she knows me too well:).
The adventure to tell is that in between our tow visits I conducted my first funeral, for Pastor Mike's mom. Nothing like diving in the deep end first. I was very nervous, totally weirded out and way out of my comfort zone (which doesn't happen often) Having grown up in the Salvo, my funeral experience is a bit one sided. If the they do nothing else great (and I am not saying they don't) the Salvo does funerals with some style. Without explaining it for all of you, just think big, long and always with a great tone and that is the 'Promotion to Glory". Well, everyone else does the short, pointed thing at the sterile and a little too warm funeral home. Where the pastor does the whole thing and is relied upon to provide the family with closure, hope and fill them with great memories. No pressure right? All said and done, it also was a great experience, to see the loving family and loving church family say goodbye. I had to wear a suite. Needless to say, I borrowed one. But other than that, I learned a ton through doing it, and God has again shown up for the family in a big way. So that was Christmas. I should stop there, but I won't.

-Two Stories from the news.
1st Rick Warren is giving the prayer at Barak Obama's inauguration. There was this hoopla surrounding this, because the gay community (not my term, is this the most PC we can get? I don't know how else to say that so whatever, sorry gay community) was offended that they would have someone pray who believes that lifestyle is a sin. Without explaining all of the details in here, I just think it is strange that the same group who pushes for acceptance should be all up in arms when someone who disagrees with them is asked to pray on the national stage. "We want to accept everyone, unless they are different then us. . ."
2nd what in the fat is the deal with these life-like baby dolls? It seems like every other day there is a news story about this craze called Re-Borns. They are creepy little life-like chucky dolls that look like newborns that people spend thousands to get made and then take them out in public, have birthday parties, and the list goes on. Oh, yeah and these are for adults! Can anyone shed some light on this for me, because as of right now, it is just too weird for me. Every time I see an interview about these things, the whole time, in my mind I hear REE-REE-REE-REE!!!!

-In other news. . .I was working a little late one evening last week at the church, which is located out in the sticks. (one stop light) And as I am leaving the building, I see some trash on the lawn. So I pick up said trash, being the nice guy that I am and I walk it over to our dumpsters, which are actually 8 well closed, solid trash cans with wheels. These cans are around the side of the building next to the woods (which is next to more woods and farms and what not, the only reason this is important is too mention that there is little to no light back there. I don't have a problem with the dark, because I am big and strong and intimidating) So I lift the lid on one of the cans, and I get this sort of weird smell. It wasn't standard garbage wine smell that wafts from a garbage can. It sort of had a skunk thing going on. Now having a master's degree, I used my mental prowess to deduce that there is no way a skunk could enter a trash can with a lid four and a half feet off the ground. So, i think, "that's weird." I decided to look a bit closer into the can, remember poor lighting, I couldn't really make out what was in there. Usually, there are just white bags in there. This sort of looked (in the dark mind you), like a piece of furniture. So, I stare in a bit closer out of curiosity. "what is that?" After about 30 seconds of deliberation, I decide to forget it and toss the trash into the can, with my face still over the opening. When said trash hit the piece of "furniture". . . it moved. . . now, for all I know it could have been anything hamster, a cat, a skunk, a raccoon, or my top three finalists a giant bear, Sasquatch or Jason Vorhees. Needless to say, I immediately screamed like a little girl, let the lid slam shut and ran for my life. As I was leaving. . . I definitely heard the can shake with anger and growl. Moral. . ."Don't freakin litter"

-Lucy has officially said her fist word! it is 'dad'. this is a victory. we will continue to work on 'Mom' however, I will still continue to train her on the side for 'Steelers' and 'John McClain'.
Speaking of Lucy, she is getting really big. She has a cute little belly and she laughs a lot when it gets tickled. She also is very vocal and depending on the circumstance she has taken to yelling at the top of her lungs. Like when everyone is singing at church, she doesn't quite get the singing part and just makes loud noises. This also happens when conversation around her gets loud or when there are other babies playing around her. She hasn't quite gotten the crawling thing down yet so when other kids are playing around her she takes to flapping her arms wildly and screaming.
It would be pretty awesome if that remains her social etiquette throughout life.

I think that is all, if you made it thus far. . . good for you. Here's a quote.
"IN-famous is when you're MORE than famous. He's not just famous, he's IN-famous.
-Wow, in-famous? In-famous?"