tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207874682024-03-13T04:35:17.283-07:00holding the keysON this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Mt. 16:18-19Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-70166468605396987672009-08-18T11:29:00.000-07:002009-08-18T11:58:52.798-07:00wht's newHey 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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 . . .Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-28763587964820667662009-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:002009-06-04T18:31:41.965-07:00Why Michael Bolton Rocks-Killer Vocals<br />-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. <br />-cut his hair after years of holding onto his hair band days, props for being current<br />-how am I supposed to live without you. <br /><br />nuff said. <br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />That's all.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-76269691778077213862009-04-29T20:56:00.000-07:002009-04-29T21:20:08.648-07:00KissesIt 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. <br /><br />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. <br />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!" <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-50493375515213271172009-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:002009-04-03T20:12:01.130-07:00Not So muchI 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.<br /><br />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?Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-69121733769806158012009-03-05T22:33:00.000-08:002009-03-05T22:53:42.135-08:00Can you beleive it has been a monthSo 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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) <br /><br />So hopefully the mafia doesn't come after me as a master informant. So that was a mini-adventure. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Bye, bye thenSeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-87726931794350342202009-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:002009-02-01T10:36:13.881-08:00Super BowlYeah, its today. Good times, nothing important to announce but I'll give props to anyone who can identify this person. . .<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuDqDXvCheiMympbIQ9RxgS_htnKpsDU2HKRa7eAEm8Q9GWKKHX1GPL9Dvb3GiolMR2ErYfh5DZ3OuIlAtXXMiWW1rolML5yHTtflred03KUK_FfBchHO71A4N1nxrWPIV85Zo/s1600-h/Richard+Dean+Anderson-ALO-021059.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 287px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuDqDXvCheiMympbIQ9RxgS_htnKpsDU2HKRa7eAEm8Q9GWKKHX1GPL9Dvb3GiolMR2ErYfh5DZ3OuIlAtXXMiWW1rolML5yHTtflred03KUK_FfBchHO71A4N1nxrWPIV85Zo/s400/Richard+Dean+Anderson-ALO-021059.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297899507164860930" /></a>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-37210925112709980362009-01-28T19:47:00.000-08:002009-01-28T20:36:48.667-08:00Cecil Brookins . . ."Eff" and the Super BowlWhen 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. <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />OKay, and now, since so far this has been a lot of nothing, here are some pics of Lucy. <br /><br />Playing in the snow with Steve<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24AXd7CG5IOJJ0umIOGXhU2N-R2SerB3jEtojjnaaA5wMc3R8S8qW9pbVRwdk1pKFCIYjigq6WicRQzs48fSRMgTeZvW2QB51lJoaVVHTubaY40XwhTP-IAm6ZfVEL5s8M3fI/s1600-h/HPIM0549.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi24AXd7CG5IOJJ0umIOGXhU2N-R2SerB3jEtojjnaaA5wMc3R8S8qW9pbVRwdk1pKFCIYjigq6WicRQzs48fSRMgTeZvW2QB51lJoaVVHTubaY40XwhTP-IAm6ZfVEL5s8M3fI/s400/HPIM0549.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296559910490818386" /></a><br /><br />Lucy's first Christmas, apparently my dad showed up, as she has a bow on her head. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQu1Mr851qmtOrIriY9wdNlne7tIZIn7L9KjE5nvM5WyHW72GJs-sDptqa6dERX0QPHxQ9mQecN3vJNG4tYpJZKrKRTKvCa9UeSPlBPprjVAFb8MeZhyphenhyphenNExBBVGRZLuByYkQa/s1600-h/HPIM0525.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQu1Mr851qmtOrIriY9wdNlne7tIZIn7L9KjE5nvM5WyHW72GJs-sDptqa6dERX0QPHxQ9mQecN3vJNG4tYpJZKrKRTKvCa9UeSPlBPprjVAFb8MeZhyphenhyphenNExBBVGRZLuByYkQa/s400/HPIM0525.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296559907219938002" /></a><br /><br />Snow Suit "I can't put my arms down!"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lC4HtmuEiP2Z-l-t1u5oZ2yMsosS1Xjf7cerBZCYrSvjI43o1S-kz3N98PUuhfIi7Ep7OcA0Ax9_1EyE6vKrFEAqv8TrDs8zmtHBiN3Gcs9pwEBAsgmYyqRQ9uk1znf2F9nh/s1600-h/HPIM0542.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lC4HtmuEiP2Z-l-t1u5oZ2yMsosS1Xjf7cerBZCYrSvjI43o1S-kz3N98PUuhfIi7Ep7OcA0Ax9_1EyE6vKrFEAqv8TrDs8zmtHBiN3Gcs9pwEBAsgmYyqRQ9uk1znf2F9nh/s400/HPIM0542.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296559905477238146" /></a><br /><br />Snow angels are stupid!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU_Zxlr6-JbhFLgccNdLCYIgGEP8IqJy1GnkVVdKu9uk04hkjcuBsYHgW3kQz1DPHeBg4pNo9y2UhPKd5AllZsKdXI_Rri0R-EUDe2zgZ7He1ZYKKQ8DvWZzaowxA3wyJrqdA/s1600-h/HPIM0557.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU_Zxlr6-JbhFLgccNdLCYIgGEP8IqJy1GnkVVdKu9uk04hkjcuBsYHgW3kQz1DPHeBg4pNo9y2UhPKd5AllZsKdXI_Rri0R-EUDe2zgZ7He1ZYKKQ8DvWZzaowxA3wyJrqdA/s400/HPIM0557.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296559901186244306" /></a><br /><br />mmm Sink Bath<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJrjR0F1bIy1y3d9qgL5bD3KOkRuAHJgMFS3g71PZGE4CpYkR_vxDOPCeX87n-OMvfShHlLp8Ars2X67AB96YpjUHCIZW2UZ7uhUvbRjMj6mToVyQ6-OK0hel788BnGe926_y/s1600-h/HPIM0539.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJrjR0F1bIy1y3d9qgL5bD3KOkRuAHJgMFS3g71PZGE4CpYkR_vxDOPCeX87n-OMvfShHlLp8Ars2X67AB96YpjUHCIZW2UZ7uhUvbRjMj6mToVyQ6-OK0hel788BnGe926_y/s400/HPIM0539.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296559893864414882" /></a>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-87733945964235841152009-01-19T17:31:00.000-08:002009-01-19T17:32:08.829-08:00Steelers...Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-53507118839515563082009-01-14T19:29:00.000-08:002009-01-14T20:34:05.406-08:00Attack of the Sasquatch<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlMeHtPwwLXGauWjz-o8I3u8kS1pNFYjejGbaKewnssElZLWric7WPW2YBNUPTWBJrVg44Z2IlQoHcZA15ZKmjMlNntxfwG8sYvAkpegbRKM-1QLq9e8aHOD-PIoWTFzWUe3l/s1600-h/a.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlMeHtPwwLXGauWjz-o8I3u8kS1pNFYjejGbaKewnssElZLWric7WPW2YBNUPTWBJrVg44Z2IlQoHcZA15ZKmjMlNntxfwG8sYvAkpegbRKM-1QLq9e8aHOD-PIoWTFzWUe3l/s400/a.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291374109701378226" /></a><br /><br />Here we go Steelers! Here we GO! (Thanks for the photo Jay)<br /><br />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. <br /><br />-On Christmas<br />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. <br /> 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:). <br /> 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.<br /><br />-Two Stories from the news. <br />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. . ."<br />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!!!! <br /> <br />-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"<br /><br />-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'.<br />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. <br />It would be pretty awesome if that remains her social etiquette throughout life. <br /><br />I think that is all, if you made it thus far. . . good for you. Here's a quote.<br />"IN-famous is when you're MORE than famous. He's not just famous, he's IN-famous. <br /> -Wow, in-famous? In-famous?"Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-2898028626195489822008-12-10T18:52:00.000-08:002008-12-10T19:13:10.685-08:00Meet Hot Christian GirlsCouple of things. . . <br />First, all commence being in shock at the number of recent blog posts. <br /><br />Second, as for the title of this blog, you can thank facebook. There was definitely a side link on facebook to click on to meet hot Christian girls, complete with picture of questionably dressed young ladies. No, I did not click on the link. No, I am not petitioning to ban facebook. It does raise a few questions, comments and red flags though. And by a few I mean many. So I am not going to actually comment on it, save to mention the state of sexuality in western culture, including the church, is not that great when you have a sub category for Christian hotties to be found on the facebook. Now, had they had "Find Hot Christian Guys" on there with my picture, well, you can't argue with truth. But sorry ladies, I am taken and I did not want to invoke lust in any of you, giving the devil a foothold that would most definitely cause you to stumble. <br /><br /> So I said, "NO".<br /><br />Third, Steelers rock, sorry Josh. <br /><br />Fourth, got into that age old discussion about Satan Clause with someone today. Always a great topic for discussion, I love to focus on the most trivial element of secular people misrepresenting the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The only thing that is interesting to think about is how the two biggest Christian holidays have found secular popularity through fairy tales. I guess the creator of the universe miraculously being born to a virgin, barely escaping being killed as a baby and eventually dying for the sin of all mankind and rising again, isn't a big enough story. That being said, I really don't blame Santa. He is just a jolly guy. You can't look at Santa and not smile. It's kinda of like a banjo. <br /><br />And last but not least a quote. <br />"What's the soup de jour?" . . . "It's the soup of the day." . . . "Mmmm, that sounds good, I'll have that."Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-20664431246439574172008-12-02T13:24:00.000-08:002008-12-02T14:40:05.331-08:00The Ten Theory<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43oPv7bkFIqlIo2JMd_-nvY0z0oVP8hhXHvy7T2z_TCuJCIKD-IQFI1hAz1pqYcCa36AJ0PabDKDrblwMHSnu9Bqm4_RxdyCO_XgLnmUq81_afK6nE3i0rD1qfjlTmEwLFovc/s1600-h/funny-pictures-bird-cat-cage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh43oPv7bkFIqlIo2JMd_-nvY0z0oVP8hhXHvy7T2z_TCuJCIKD-IQFI1hAz1pqYcCa36AJ0PabDKDrblwMHSnu9Bqm4_RxdyCO_XgLnmUq81_afK6nE3i0rD1qfjlTmEwLFovc/s200/funny-pictures-bird-cat-cage.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275311693933514210" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvx6li68yHS9BVxKQC4_4zwCgfAxE2_EGqyvtW-ulmZOsh4OOWPClye0TgBRi4fN7L56BqdXGmbFFdfnD0hcS6gVusXeW-03mp2n6fkyCG5IJ6LiGPjbiQ0HJFByjA1O9_Qej/s1600-h/watermark.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvx6li68yHS9BVxKQC4_4zwCgfAxE2_EGqyvtW-ulmZOsh4OOWPClye0TgBRi4fN7L56BqdXGmbFFdfnD0hcS6gVusXeW-03mp2n6fkyCG5IJ6LiGPjbiQ0HJFByjA1O9_Qej/s200/watermark.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275311695379535586" /></a><br /><br />We'll get to the theory a little later. As for the pictures, wanted a picture that related to what I was blogging about, but instead settled on something silly. Under the image search "Fail", are some pretty crazy funny pics, if you want a good laugh and a waste of time. I selected two. The kid for obvious reasons. The cat because he looks like my cat Jeremy, who, being a ninja cat could get himself into a predicament as such. And cats are weird in general. I won't get into that. <br /><br />I actually wanted to take a moment to comment on Christmas. I feel as though I blogged about this last year, but I will do it again nonetheless. I have grown into quite a scrooge when it comes to Christmas. I have trouble with Christmas music, most folks love the 15 Christmas carols that get sung for a month and a half every year. I on the other hand do not. I like a few of them, sort of and I have redone a few of them in pretty cool ways that help, but I still struggle through getting into the 'Christmas Spirit'. Some of this is the commercialization of Christmas, stores go crazy, black Friday. . .yeah, someone actually died. Radio stations. . .crazy, decorating house with outside lights. . . crazy, TV shows/ movies. . . crazy, all sorts of hype about the 'spirit of Christmas' which basically is giving stuff. I do recognize the cool part in bringing families together, but I struggle with the giving part. Some of this stems from my own propensity to stink at giving people I love, specifically, but not limited to, my wife good gifts. I always sort of feel like the sweater that I pick out will do justice in conveying the amount of love and gratitude I feel. This gets magnified by the pressure that a gift giving holiday (which includes valentine's day, birthdays insert other days that consist of consumer pressure to purchase a great gift.) I don't have a problem with giving, but the consumerism. Does that make sense? <br /><br />Now with that laying a subtle groundwork for my struggle with Christmas, Christmas has never been a not busy or stressful time. Salvo people can shout an amen. Pageants, Santa Claus, traffic, Christmas eve candle light services, the living Christmas tree, lots of busy and then there is this huge push to be more busy in order to have the greatest family Christmas. I immediately think of National Lampoon's Christmas vacation, which is an awesome part of Christmas. All of this really was hit on the head for me the other day. I was coming home from my parents house on thanksgiving, flipping through the radio station and stumbled upon Christian radio. . . bad idea. The speaker was reading off a list of "naughty and nice" stores to spend money at during the Christmas season. Listing naughty stores being the ones who say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry Christmas'. . . and the nice ones were the vice versa. Are you flipping kidding me? Ok church, when you go out to spend lots of money, buying lots of stuff your family doesn't need in the name of Santa . . . (as I think the percentage is small for people on black Friday pushing for the best price on the x box 9000 in the name of Jesus. . . did I already say that someone died?) . . . make sure you do it at stores that only recognize your worldview, we want to make sure that we don't intermingle with anyone who believes differently. Needless to say, I was a bit honked and I am still working through why. <br /><br />Also on the subject of Christmas, as a worship leader, I am called to usher the people of God to the foot of his throne and put the praises of God on their lips on a regular basis. I have such a hard time at Christmas with the songs, not just because I get a bit sick of them, but because I feel like they come so close to pointing towards the secularization of the Jesus story. When I hear 'Joy to the world' I think of kettles, stores, Santa, gifts and then through sheer force of will, come back to Jesus. THat may just be my own deal. But I am going to leave that for now in order to not write forever as I still wanted to address something else. <br /><br />The ten theory. <br />I was talking with Mike (my pastor) about holidays and how we always want to get it right and we always want, especially the family time to be a '10'. And he said something sort of on the fly, along the lines of. . ."If it is going to be a ten, it is just going to happen naturally. If you try for it, you might get an eight." The more I think about this, the more I think this is book worthy. It applies to everything. You always know when someone is trying too hard. I've got to think through it more, but I think that is some of my issue at Christmas. You try so hard, you miss it lots of times. I am going to look at this more for sure, so this is just a preview I guess. Anyone think of where else this theory could apply?<br /><br />IN other news. I have decided that I am old. Despite the evidence in the graying of my beard, I have held onto some hopes of stying hip. But I just got into a text conversation with one of the youth. It took me like 3 minutes to send him a one word answer, and by the time I had watched the phone confirm that the message had gone through, closed the phone and set it down, he sent back a full paragraph follow up response. The dude basically copied the dictionary in 8 seconds. I guess the iphone now has telepathic text response or something. This paragraph was just bonus by the way. <br /><br />And last but not least a quote:<br /><br />"It's got a cop motor: a 440 cubic inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-62152658272422920632008-11-25T11:12:00.000-08:002008-11-25T11:19:58.356-08:00Follow up. . .This is Lucy's thought about the ocean. (as continued from earlier post)<br /><br />HMMMM. Ocean!?<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLHCnUSnp8z3bGK0BebJFCTHTzSENW9oCQH3qFWuyppLL3iQaCrhn_BgrDUA0hwbSaXYR0lz6aAVox2nlJFuqz5_5q8qxnSmgcQaBggZMdycatWJWneV_gtAhVXPQod4iRf9lV/s1600-h/HPIM0463.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLHCnUSnp8z3bGK0BebJFCTHTzSENW9oCQH3qFWuyppLL3iQaCrhn_BgrDUA0hwbSaXYR0lz6aAVox2nlJFuqz5_5q8qxnSmgcQaBggZMdycatWJWneV_gtAhVXPQod4iRf9lV/s200/HPIM0463.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272676033804841394" /></a><br /><br />Eww!. Ocean?!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSa3gK8gjtvZ6GyBRUrfW3O1LiPLqJOYkQIOir5hVrYwbLK8MFFIcX2uKeqPwYGD_hjoEeeShk9R6E9eDL93rePd2Lc3o5eswkvTvVuVKlp9XHlwdiX48aSU4H7bSyZ47UaIa/s1600-h/HPIM0466.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSa3gK8gjtvZ6GyBRUrfW3O1LiPLqJOYkQIOir5hVrYwbLK8MFFIcX2uKeqPwYGD_hjoEeeShk9R6E9eDL93rePd2Lc3o5eswkvTvVuVKlp9XHlwdiX48aSU4H7bSyZ47UaIa/s200/HPIM0466.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272676035879409234" /></a><br /><br />Ahhhh! OCEAN !!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZBHGo1VtGjwLOSVQhKjE7kYM6tmAWFZ1Up40rPxR_zfreqqbWXrtjPBS_bNG9ItQq1ENkcF0eGNrYE6EMcMQlrFqKgkKxwJ2rifMjcEYUljv2hi2Zepr40ywHd7zf0ZTCVC8/s1600-h/HPIM0465.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZBHGo1VtGjwLOSVQhKjE7kYM6tmAWFZ1Up40rPxR_zfreqqbWXrtjPBS_bNG9ItQq1ENkcF0eGNrYE6EMcMQlrFqKgkKxwJ2rifMjcEYUljv2hi2Zepr40ywHd7zf0ZTCVC8/s200/HPIM0465.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272676040319051698" /></a><br /><br />BAD OCEAN!!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5p7xKk-e7INnHKRSIw3mZFrnIl29bK_BkzNbGiZP8nBpGg6ZgxjHWkWO2Zj-q2DOi65ZFBUAubzT6snJ5Gx71x6z25SPyu2kOAlRJ8eLD5emQCqncEUDofo2m03_hUtJuL1S/s1600-h/HPIM0464.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5p7xKk-e7INnHKRSIw3mZFrnIl29bK_BkzNbGiZP8nBpGg6ZgxjHWkWO2Zj-q2DOi65ZFBUAubzT6snJ5Gx71x6z25SPyu2kOAlRJ8eLD5emQCqncEUDofo2m03_hUtJuL1S/s200/HPIM0464.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272676049161335090" /></a>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-30759963097441721862008-11-25T10:27:00.000-08:002008-11-25T11:12:00.465-08:00Soap in the eyesWell it has been forever it seems since I posted something. I check out friends blogs regularly, I am always disappointed when they haven't updated their blog. So, I figured there is probably someone out there who checks mine and thinks I've dropped off the earth. Things have been really busy, in a good way. And frankly, there are always things I think about that I should blog about, but getting them concise enough always seems too daunting. So there are lots of issues to talk about and I hope to get a bit more pro-active in my blogging, so without further ado, a simple blog.<br /><br />I poured soap into Lucy's eyes yesterday. Not intentionally of course. It was actually her fault she turned her head as I was dropping the "Tearless" baby shampoo on her head. Come on, who does that? Needless to say, it is not so tearless when a huge glob drops directly onto eyeball. You could actually see the soap mixing with her . . .eye goo (?) and making bubbles and what started out as a whimper progressed into crying, then screaming. She was inconsolable. At one point she stuck her thumb in her mouth and put here other hand behind her head (this is her sleeping position) and clearly was trying to take herself to a 'happy place', but to no avail. The "stinging continued and the crying continued. All said and done, the soap worked its way out and she settled down, and that was that. Sad times, dad is banned from bath time for a while. <br /><br />Our dear friends from Malone had their annual Thanksgiving last Saturday. Julie and I couldn't make it, but we saw some pictures. It is always cool when loved ones gather. We're sad we missed it, but we did get to be a part of reaching out to our community with a free Thanksgiving dinner. That was a really cool time for our church. One thing that people got to see was Adam and Carrie's baby's sonogram (sp?) pics. We did hear that they are having a girl, congrats. I was thinking about how Adam and Josh and I would go sit at Perkins all hours of the night during college. Talking about 'the game' and how girls were crazy and we had to devise a plan to snag one. Now we play for the other team, since we have all girls. We now have to devise a plan to make sure no stupid boys try to snag our girls. <br /><br />Here's a movie quote and some pictures. <br />"You know, it's just occurred to me. We really haven't had a completely successful test of this equipment."<br />"I blame myself."<br />"So do I." <br />"No sense in worrying about it now."<br />"Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."<br /><br />Hint: There are 3 people talking<br /><br /><br />First Bite in. . . <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyFQKsKx_cjycsDdvZ97EJyFhC_6oC_NNHXO-EDJCzh6klt_T5PD53Oz8FOZj-pgpi4apQDfX2jm0ydolCOvwnIir8b-N8gUnaUJMnGuUw2K1rJRoP5Yv0LrQroGwYIfMUJYdx/s1600-h/HPIM0424.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyFQKsKx_cjycsDdvZ97EJyFhC_6oC_NNHXO-EDJCzh6klt_T5PD53Oz8FOZj-pgpi4apQDfX2jm0ydolCOvwnIir8b-N8gUnaUJMnGuUw2K1rJRoP5Yv0LrQroGwYIfMUJYdx/s200/HPIM0424.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272673282296233122" /></a><br /><br />First Bite out. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5I3tRmkGJXEZb_sk8reXO2qnKYOzciaREEmLCp7F5P6gMrlfeWGONPCqr18vLSvfGOROLOKywBHeLTiQkzwXrFSXuFYNCH5zPDxcBDrZxFFinP8CrQgSGh9fu0T7DrSdHPMY8/s1600-h/HPIM0425.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5I3tRmkGJXEZb_sk8reXO2qnKYOzciaREEmLCp7F5P6gMrlfeWGONPCqr18vLSvfGOROLOKywBHeLTiQkzwXrFSXuFYNCH5zPDxcBDrZxFFinP8CrQgSGh9fu0T7DrSdHPMY8/s200/HPIM0425.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272673289965859010" /></a><br /><br />Ready for the beach<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oFVbV-DKuQGMTgSX0cZEAlIhetmSrMJRTYRkD_bJ_naNxdlxt1Pru7_0FxL1COm_Vx-ydt8fw_KUPxB1fPP98Xl5XFcjH5dSUcQzxfdo0x21Z0GPXKiA7AGdn6kE0vLiiFuO/s1600-h/HPIM0434.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6oFVbV-DKuQGMTgSX0cZEAlIhetmSrMJRTYRkD_bJ_naNxdlxt1Pru7_0FxL1COm_Vx-ydt8fw_KUPxB1fPP98Xl5XFcjH5dSUcQzxfdo0x21Z0GPXKiA7AGdn6kE0vLiiFuO/s200/HPIM0434.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272673298439894898" /></a><br /><br />Mommy, Lucy, Babs and Babs' hat which is its own whole separate entity. Amazing. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1A6ElkpaleyTfwFOz4UoZwusxukvIVfIpGDzq5FyYd_7TYtQ6JpCFPk5Pc-0D_8fhimJqv6afJtDnROKe_rbTuPxLgRCnSVluLmYlHDZgqTt-EFMQLgQvR0mE6hfEnxmRaGY/s1600-h/HPIM0468.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1A6ElkpaleyTfwFOz4UoZwusxukvIVfIpGDzq5FyYd_7TYtQ6JpCFPk5Pc-0D_8fhimJqv6afJtDnROKe_rbTuPxLgRCnSVluLmYlHDZgqTt-EFMQLgQvR0mE6hfEnxmRaGY/s200/HPIM0468.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272673279429569634" /></a>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-26639805931488334012008-10-08T14:10:00.000-07:002008-10-08T14:49:35.857-07:00The Never Ending Pasta Bowl. . . pastoberfestTis the season. It's October. I really, really like the fall. Football is in full swing, hopes are high for the Stillers and the bengals stink which re-assures that the world is still normal. Apple cider. Nice cool weather. It is also the time when everything gets hyped by changing the word 'Octoberfest' into something 'new' and 'cool'. 'Rocktoberfest', 'Shocktoberfest', Is saw a 'Bratoberfest' (which I will definitely be a part of) more on that later. It is also that precious time of year when the Olive Garden offers the never-ending pasta bowl. All you can eat scrumptious pasta. This is the epitome of self indulgence. Julie and I graced the Olive Garden last Friday. My normal plan going into pastoberfest is to eat enough pasta to make up the difference of over priced meals that I have eaten throughout the year. I am sorry to say though, that this year, I did not make a strong showing. I may have to consider retirement. I was only able to take down 2 bowls. In years past, 4 was the norm. I believe the highest was 6 (which, I must point out could have been higher had I not been cut off) So I may need to hang up the gloves. <br /><br />I spent some time with some pastors last week. I was in the middle of preparing a sermon that I gave at our church over the weekend, when my pastor invited me to attend a meeting with some fellow pastors in the denomination. It was a simple little Bible study/small group. It was a very interesting dynamic. I have been serving at a church that is wildly contemporary and more importantly working really hard to minister to people. I consider myself very lucky to be a part of a church family that is concerned with reaching people with the love of Jesus and getting those people plugged into the ministry of the church, which goes way beyond our weekends together. Coming from this point of view, mixed with the fact that I just finished an MA in pastoral leadership, where the teachers and students are totally fired up to see the church become what it was meant to be, I sat with these guys and marveled at how easy it is for churches to become so pre-occupied with their thing. This group of guys was a cool group, and I won't tell you about them individually, but I will mention that they follow in a long line of people who I have encountered recently who are falling into this trap of taking what they are already doing and trying to re-package it to make it connect with new people. Let's take our Sunday service, throw in a guitar and assume that will fix the problems. We'll put out a sign for a 'contemporary service', and it will all just take off! Let's take down the sermon series from the marquee and put up there 'Churchtoberfest!'. My sermon was based on the idea that for the church to be the church, we can't just be all about Sunday. We have to be all about each other (after Jesus) and then together, all about the world around us. 24/7. This is really easy to say. I know, i just said it. But in spending time with some other pastors and hearing from other churches, I see that this easily gets lost in the shuffle. Satan wants more than anything for churches to keep doing what they're doing, make sure Sunday is an awesome show, repackage the old stuff, and neglect the call for unity, growth, true worship (living sacrifice, spirit and truth, no building built by human hands, etc) and ministry. There will always be a battle in keeping the call alive. When a church is healthy the battle is to keep it. When a church is not, the challenge is more apparent, but equally important. <br /><br />No real questions or answers, more of an observation that should challenge to be aware of the deception of Sunday. <br /><br />And now a quote. "Sallah I said no camels, that's five camels! Can't you count?!"<br />know the movie?Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-48272837574132463552008-09-15T19:31:00.000-07:002008-09-15T19:33:34.379-07:00Sad day to live in Ohio . . .Unless you are a Steeler fan. The state of Ohio got beat up with the left overs from the last hurricane. The Buckeyes got it handed to them by USC. Then as usual, the Bengals couldn't be any worse, then the Brownies lost their must win against the Black and Gold. Good times. That is not all to worry about in this particular blog post. I actually have had a ton of things that I wanted to bring up to the blog world of the last few weeks, but have not been around the internet for enough time, so I'll bring up a couple and then hopefully post a bit more with the rest later on. <br /><br />On Spiritual Gifts<br /> For whatever the reason, the topic of spiritual gifts has come up a lot in my circles. <a href="http://thesearemychurchclothes.blogspot.com">Tim</a> had a couple of blogs asking why most churches do not really utilize the power of the Holy Spirit, or at least not in context of teaching through and practicing the gifts. More specifically the sign gifts. This is really important for the church. The church where I serve does very little when it comes to the gifts. Without getting into a reason as to why, I want to comment on something that I see in the the church. The church (western culture) wether old school, or new school, dying or huge, has a major proclivity to emphasize only Sunday. Now this could not be more of a general statement. The more I think about it though, how many people only see church as a Sunday thing. This plays out in everything. Big seeker sensitive churches spend 70+ percent of their time working towards Sunday, then more of their time working on growing Sunday. Dying churches get into fights about tradition and methodology primarily circling what happens on Sunday (i.e. music style, pews, burn the organ/don't burn the organ, can we move the couch in the fellowship room?) This plays out in struggles for all of the other ministries at the church. Trying to get adult leaders to come and hang out with struggling teens, or serve in the food pantry, or whatever else in the middle of the week, leaves the church doing 80% of their truest ministry with 20% of the people. So, what does this have to do with sign gifts? Hold that thought. We have several students involved in a informal college Bible study at our church and after the first meeting several of them came to me, freaking out because they talked about sign gifts and had a mini 'healing revival/ slain in the spirit hoopla'. So, I met with the guy leading it, who is relatively new believer who is just working through his passion to preach, and minister. In my discussion, one of the things that same up was that this dude was not really plugged into a growing community. Being a person who considers himself charismatic, I wanted to connect with this guy, encourage him in his spiritual development, but also help put some order to what was going down. <br /> So here is how this all connects. The spiritual gifs were given to the church, for the edification of the church. To encourage, build up, challenge, equip, (insert whatever verb applies). The problem when it comes to the gifts is 1 Corinthians 13. Chapter 12 talk about the gifts and then how the church works and Chapter 14 talks about tongues and prophecy a bit more in depth, but 13 gets into how it all connects under the umbrella of 'the most excellent way.' It talks about what love (agape) is to look like in the church. Anyone who has been to a wedding has heard it. You know, the patience, kind, slow to anger. . .etc. Here is my point. When the church is limited to Sunday and people are not deeply connected in service and ministry outside of Sunday, they do not have the opportunity to do 1 Corinthians 13. The easiest way for me to say it, if you haven't gotten mad at each other, (then gotten past it) you haven't been there. The gifts are so important for the church, but not without 13. When the gifts spring out without a base of connectedness in a church, I feel like the idea of order gets lost and maybe more importantly, the gifts lose potency, they are more easily dismissed and it adds to the argument against their existence and use in the church. When churches dismiss or neglect the gifts, they miss out on a major part of what drives the body of Christ. But it has to come through deep connectedness with other believers, serving together, loving each other, walking through trials with each other, seeking God in prayer together. So let's get after the gifts, but let's get into each other's lives as well. <br />The Baby or the Bath-water<br /> I have recently been listening to/ watching Mark Driscoll on Youtube. If you haven't heard him, check him out. He is huge on reformed theology, men in the church and being angry. I agree with him 98% of the time, but he has some really good stuff to say about religion. My church is free from the ties of dealing with traditions that shackle a lot of churches that are trying to grow, many of who are dying. Without really getting into a long discussion on how to spur change within a church, I want to point out that when it comes to change, it all about methodology. It is always a struggle to adjust what used to work. Especially when what worked is woven into the fabric of who a church is. I think of the phrase 'don't throw the baby out with the bath water'. The problem is, for many people the baby and the water are hard to distinguish. What happens is, churches go to extremes to 'change' and they throw out truth in exchange for tolerance and universalism. That freaks out the other churches who decide not to throw out anything, and they just try harder to play the game by the old rules. All of that to say, the church by definition, is supposed to grow and reach people for Christ. When religion gets in the way, methodology takes over and people freak out over needing to change. Check out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXKT8IPdvzA">Mark Driscoll</a> if you get a chance<br />Why John McCain should be president<br /> Despite my over arching desire to not publicly support a candidate as I think everyone needs to think for themselves, I must point out how close the Republican candidate's name is to John McClain. Could he be the inspiration for Die Hard? He did help discover the wheel. . . <br /><br />And now for a quote:<br />“I couldn't help but catch the 'Equetsu Orcha' part. Did you just refer to me as white devil?”Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-5056434227041826562008-08-24T21:11:00.000-07:002008-08-24T21:34:39.466-07:00Fantasy time againWell, after thinking I might not get into a fantasy league earlier this week, I am now in a whole bunch. I am taking my weird draft strategy or taking the best of everything else while everyone fights over running backs. Conventional wisdom says that this is foolery, and if you don't do fantasy, you will not understand any of it any way, but this unorthodox draft strategy got me to the final game in two leagues prior only to loose to people who did not have top backs on their team anyway. So off we go. . . with the joyous return of the NFL and fantasy football, the further away from playing I get, the more I revel in the view from the couch. <br /><br />In other news, <br />-Lucy has grown a ton and is making lots and lots of noises. She is going to be a talker, which is a funny labeling as we hope every child is a talker. <br /><br />-I am also as sick as crap with a nasty cold thing that is keeping me up at night. <br /><br />-Steven Curtis Chapman songs can make a statue cry (see Cinderella and All I really want for Christmas)what can I say, the dude has a gift. <br /><br />-The Bengals look wretched (not really news) while the Steelers look like another run is in the future<br /><br />-The Olympics are done, and I am questioning the true value of many of the sports, that's all I'll say. <br /><br />-My cat Jeremy has fleas, because he has figured out a way to ninja his butt outside the house without us knowing.<br /><br />-Presidential election is coming up. . . nothing valuable to add, because really, despite knowing full well who I am going to vote for, I like to comment on what other people say with absolute conviction and play devils advocate, because frankly, I think people need to look deep into why they would vote for a particular candidate and make an educated choice, and a lot of what I hear from folks is a lot of surfacy stuff that doesn't actually deal with the capabilities of a candidate to lead. <br /><br />-And now a new addition to Sean's blog posts, name the movie quote. . . <br />"Kickboxing. Sport of the future. "<br /><br />until next timeSeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-81172605793896665082008-08-12T13:41:00.000-07:002008-08-12T20:17:02.768-07:00I thought I was busy onceWell hello in blog land, my apologies for the time between my posts. Things have been very busy around the Savage house. There has been so much going on it is hard to know where to begin. So I will try to keep it to some highlights. <br /><br />1. Been watching the Olympics and for the first time I can remember, I have been quite engaged by the different sports and different countries and all the hooplah. I am sure that once we get to the ribbon dance event, that will subside a bit. While I likes me a good ribbon dance, since they kicked me off the ribbon dance squad and squashed my Olympic dreams, I choose to not follow that most intense display of athleticism. All in all Olympics = cool.<br /><br />2. Stuff at the church is going very well. I have settled into the job quite well and am gearing up for some huge things coming into the fall. We have seen a ton of kids coming to our Thursday night deal and have been diving into the word very strongly, my prayer is that the kids will feel loved and build solid relationships and most of all be guided closer to Christ. There are tons of challenges with our kids, not the least of which are the 10 or so kids who put out the cigarettes their parents bought them right outside the door before they come into church. And do not get me started on our first discipleship retreat. Maybe we'll join Bible bowl. ( for those who do not know . . . just nod and smile) Our worship team is growing leaps and bounds. The players are getting better and more comfortable leading on their own, while we have added like six new people in the last couple of months. It has been awesome to see them all growing in their faith as well. Small groups is the ministry that I love and is also the most frustrating at the same time. Getting the more mature people in our church to be willing and equipped to lead more small groups has been very difficult and is perhaps the most important thing to our church. We have so many people who are new to church coming in every week, we have to get better at discipleship, fast.<br /><br />3. Lucy is growing like a weed. She and Julie went away for a couple of days last week and she came back walking. . . not quite. But she did look HUGE. It has been cool to watch her discover new stuff. And it gets cooler every day to watch Julie be a mom. Any who, for those interested here some pictures and an attempt at a video post. The video is of Lucy doing what she does, and me probably making silly noises at her. . . and then she ninja kicks the cat and tries to discuss quantum physics. . . I may have run out of batteries before that happened so, all you get is smiles and noises. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHyEVb_ALLu0r2YwLpUk8HQGTs7FSl6t2f4E3w1MkkQmJsS8pkJ69pAfAZrN-B3U34zeeHOP_3P6ZejjsumxHe_6-SxjVsnp8XPageKPfBfVXeCq0uO4jrG-B-h1KdUsPSuzY/s1600-h/HPIM0358.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHyEVb_ALLu0r2YwLpUk8HQGTs7FSl6t2f4E3w1MkkQmJsS8pkJ69pAfAZrN-B3U34zeeHOP_3P6ZejjsumxHe_6-SxjVsnp8XPageKPfBfVXeCq0uO4jrG-B-h1KdUsPSuzY/s200/HPIM0358.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233745167456263138" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0NiQ76Dqf8gg8mL_3c3DItyAUTEh0YJDdVGK1WBwU7Y6XJe58hvrs7lSErKCDFLC1DHs-3iomw6HhzwWrXEq369x4CUnwML3wGy5g37IWIfgsuIEWAL4zPz36pIuLJ7d4WHr/s1600-h/HPIM0351.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0NiQ76Dqf8gg8mL_3c3DItyAUTEh0YJDdVGK1WBwU7Y6XJe58hvrs7lSErKCDFLC1DHs-3iomw6HhzwWrXEq369x4CUnwML3wGy5g37IWIfgsuIEWAL4zPz36pIuLJ7d4WHr/s200/HPIM0351.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233745173226235362" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5vbjLmZVvN4PhatQKw1C9CdBgjcf-JRU3r4uL_t3WJon6uI0ORrJ6XJE7OpuqWeDfvGt8-Q3_h4neUv6WPdiFPxxQ2OlHKUrX7DcqwwF5ZMD9p09iwBte9UPZW0xSYo59hhh/s1600-h/HPIM0349.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5vbjLmZVvN4PhatQKw1C9CdBgjcf-JRU3r4uL_t3WJon6uI0ORrJ6XJE7OpuqWeDfvGt8-Q3_h4neUv6WPdiFPxxQ2OlHKUrX7DcqwwF5ZMD9p09iwBte9UPZW0xSYo59hhh/s200/HPIM0349.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233745175821315730" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN7ogIv1g2dTZdyX5q0G1ne0tsh6PLtCRPF765ueYygDLBTQVU7nnkCb7DEYQ8BCN9IW_JDDsKH789vtmfsDfmbAkVcGFoqS8Smd3p8GAqjfXTuk2F5cRltVD5vg17q-lnMig/s1600-h/HPIM0359.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN7ogIv1g2dTZdyX5q0G1ne0tsh6PLtCRPF765ueYygDLBTQVU7nnkCb7DEYQ8BCN9IW_JDDsKH789vtmfsDfmbAkVcGFoqS8Smd3p8GAqjfXTuk2F5cRltVD5vg17q-lnMig/s200/HPIM0359.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233745177244264546" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIw0k2h5RbjyD51NNXZTJlFUUmk4lgx04HcXf_4vtghtgJ4FRnoSUW3OkiHtHPjSioP_13CImN4Q1xBEbGJYi8r46E4X4NUJYmuNX5068QIBf58ZlTYXJPLJ0pQkPB4KESjgVC/s1600-h/HPIM0362.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIw0k2h5RbjyD51NNXZTJlFUUmk4lgx04HcXf_4vtghtgJ4FRnoSUW3OkiHtHPjSioP_13CImN4Q1xBEbGJYi8r46E4X4NUJYmuNX5068QIBf58ZlTYXJPLJ0pQkPB4KESjgVC/s200/HPIM0362.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233745182544182018" border="0"></a><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwU-pJEvlnCSMbsFp4WWl9dmtj9RzIHkeIUglVww5j7dPBgGS8hGYPN3sk3QCm2Mx9LpRgCQHNR2RA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-13404439548547195712008-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:002008-07-08T11:57:28.118-07:00Where to beginHello everyone out there in blogville. It has been quite a while, but there is lots to talk about so. . . here goes. I finished school a couple of months ago and then dove headfirst into work at the church. For those who do not know, Julie had been the youth pastor at our church for about a year and a half until Lucy was born. I was involved with several ministries at the church, but unofficially. When Julie was gearing up to have Lucy and I was trying feverishly to finish school, we decided to switch our roles at the church. I would take over the vision and direct of the youth ministry along with other ministry opportunities and get paid and she would stay at home with Lucy and serve in various areas as time allowed. Well that has happened, what was unexpected was that she was placed on 'bed rest' for the last two months of being pregnant. That is the preface for the last two months of mad scrambling to put together some youth trips and summer plans and really dive into the youth ministry for me. <br /><br /> So, we started our summer youth group stuff. I couldn't think of anything awesome, so I call it 'Super Thursday'. I may have stole that name from a furniture sale, but nonetheless, it has gone pretty well thus far. We have been averaging about 25 students that are coming and getting into the word and learning what it means to be the church. We spend time together with some worship and intro stuff (games and videos and whatnot) and then split into small groups. I am hoping and praying that it will grow and more importantly that the kids will 'get it'. If anyone has any awesome youth group games or ideas feel free to share them. We have yet to unleash the gross games, I have a ton in the arsenal, but am always looking for more. <br /><br />Then three weeks ago we took 12 senior high students to CIY Move conference. This was a great trip. They do their conferences very, very well. And it exposed our kids to a week of awesome worship, fellowship with other students trying to follow God, and terrific Biblical challenge. I recommend it. Our trip was interesting to say the least we had about as random a group of kids as possible, from a few who were entirely new to the church, to a few sold out students ready to follow wherever God leads, to a few lifelong luke-warmers, all of whom had great experiences along with some serious challenges. I won't go into detail, but if you can dream it, it probably happened. But I think it will be a great building block. <br /><br />Last week, we took 6 junior high students to a mission trip. This was also a great experience for the kids, though not for Sean. We had several kids cancel at the last minute and the organization we went through really dropped the ball in several areas. That being said, I know the kids learned a lot and had an awesome experience hanging out with the other church groups that were there. <br /><br />Mixed in with getting those trips to go, my grandfather passed away. That was definitely a stressful week, with all of the family stuff to sift through, however it was awesome to come together and celebrate his life and see family and whatnot. It was awesome to see the impact that he had made for so many people and how his love for Jesus bled over so much. <br /><br />Not directly related, I have been thinking lately, more like burdened with the idea of the church doing all it can to impact as opposed to just doing churchy stuff. The difference in the two trips were perfect examples of this idea. The one was not a mission trip but rather a 'retreat of sorts', but at no point during that trip did it feel like any part of it was simple there to give kids something to do. Every part was about challenge spiritually and challenge to go make an impact. The mission trip on the other hand was the opposite and felt like they were doing things just to fill a week. The biggest sign of this was this girl from another church, who I talked to. She was getting ready to go to college and she was sort of coerced into the trip. She had grown up in church, but was far from God. She has embraced postmodern ideology to the full, talking about 'I believe in a higher power but it isn't the same for everyone.' This was at the end of a trip, where the kids should have been shown how to love people, because Christ who call them to one faith in one Spirit loves them and wants everyone to have life. But never once on that trip did we ever talk as a community about why we were serving people, we just did it because it was a mission trip, something to do with friends from church. My biggest prayer is that the youth ministry at our church would not be a 'safe hang out', but rather would equip students to step up and play the role they are ordained for in the church as fellow ministers of the gospel. I love that our church has been so good at moving, but I see all over how easy it is to get caught up in the ideas of denomination, or doctrine, or tradition, or whatever and forget to move and follow Christ. I guess one of the things that also has come up is my wife's alma mater. The school has come under attack because it is teaching through issues of postmodernity in the church and homosexuality. There is more to that, but the thing is, that university is not condoning universalism or any other sort of huge liberal agenda, but rather trying to develop Christian leaders who can interact in the real world and love people to Christ. They are equipping the church to grow and shift and continue to be grounded in scripture as opposed to tradition. While traditions have place and are rooted often times in great things, when people fall more in love with the methodology of their particular church or denomination, or their traditions, or their original group of church friends than Christ, they lose the desire to go. What is left is a complacency that leaves the church going through motions. That's all I'll say about that.<br /><br />If you are still here, the moment you have all been waiting for I'm sure. . . <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">BABY NEWS</span><br />Lucy is now just over three months old. She is getting real big. She started smiling consistently a few weeks ago. My mom insists that she would smile at her when she was like three weeks old. (clearly gas) But now she is smiling for real. And responding to people. She can almost totally hold her head up, although sometimes she forgets to hold it up and it flops around. She makes lots of noises and is learning to grab things. The best is when she tries to suck her thumb. She is all about it, but not totally coordinated enough to get it. She is about 36% effective at thumb into mouth. Most of the rest of the time she either has her thumb tucked behind her index finger, or even better when her mouth does the sucking motion, but her hand is like 6 inches away because she can't get her elbow to move on command yet. Julie is doing awesome at the mom role. She is really shining at being a mom to Lucy, she is always playing with her and teaching her and stuff. That has been cool to see. I love them both a lot. Well, here are some pictures. My goal is to get a few more up there soon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDZCHDYqP-ef7PfNdCA9EL2w4-kRYmnOzYXINDA_dbZ53v9dOVLM5ZGSVMsgY3x-bXxpylQN5LqR6bRM2JbsZB5h7dDQNzsB3FE5u1v_IKVc-ZXXJiz8TeSkD34CdoSLjB5a8/s1600-h/MyPicture.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDZCHDYqP-ef7PfNdCA9EL2w4-kRYmnOzYXINDA_dbZ53v9dOVLM5ZGSVMsgY3x-bXxpylQN5LqR6bRM2JbsZB5h7dDQNzsB3FE5u1v_IKVc-ZXXJiz8TeSkD34CdoSLjB5a8/s320/MyPicture.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220718263783351730" /></a><br />Yeah lips<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1w3t9iUCZC1edfRy8Lv5c1RmNHeDffLl0I-viKNc9kxWpdrRnE0fI42JgVo2L649Ur7y4SRgJM0g1Scj-AFEzePH9UkozgQH62p8QnCQd2Z_5GY9DI6-HSwxQJ46a3SBp4tlJ/s1600-h/MyPicture.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1w3t9iUCZC1edfRy8Lv5c1RmNHeDffLl0I-viKNc9kxWpdrRnE0fI42JgVo2L649Ur7y4SRgJM0g1Scj-AFEzePH9UkozgQH62p8QnCQd2Z_5GY9DI6-HSwxQJ46a3SBp4tlJ/s320/MyPicture.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220718269466350322" /></a><br />Me and my dad. . . don't look at the camera!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYD8sq9Acmr-3e8elwZiXkYOfEshyphenhyphenWkDKiGzTL7SHF4V-lL3R9leoXhUqvSIyOJM_zGvpvF1axM0ty3ojPxJiy3pj5hSppA-NNOdmsDJmhR0AOJe2INjAXOFdP7T5TzyZwChL/s1600-h/HPIM0332.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYD8sq9Acmr-3e8elwZiXkYOfEshyphenhyphenWkDKiGzTL7SHF4V-lL3R9leoXhUqvSIyOJM_zGvpvF1axM0ty3ojPxJiy3pj5hSppA-NNOdmsDJmhR0AOJe2INjAXOFdP7T5TzyZwChL/s320/HPIM0332.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220717163087808386" /></a><br />This is my hoodie, it's comfy<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrC5AvWbBvH91PaqTWU1UfZaqq3TDvfOERldjH6cRZ7_lVffto5I5E8h9mETf-f9xDxieftz-qxnuH3aYhle6MeyR5qucL03iEDP_eKB3ieBICUcLrBvtBpCYF0YQVhb6iNkSR/s1600-h/HPIM0325.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrC5AvWbBvH91PaqTWU1UfZaqq3TDvfOERldjH6cRZ7_lVffto5I5E8h9mETf-f9xDxieftz-qxnuH3aYhle6MeyR5qucL03iEDP_eKB3ieBICUcLrBvtBpCYF0YQVhb6iNkSR/s320/HPIM0325.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220717191154093442" /></a><br />This is me pulling a Babs<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifE9fMVvUAaGOtamb2AKrmuLNl4egL-5CbEXRRv6Kq2m1zaLSyMjhGSf4DbW8zYZXTbFJnkNbeFRY1-z7sDMcwUDcUkV6XDjqtOkSXVm075OzGcAUvi_B5uZuaaIF-9GxMqcZL/s1600-h/HPIM0318.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifE9fMVvUAaGOtamb2AKrmuLNl4egL-5CbEXRRv6Kq2m1zaLSyMjhGSf4DbW8zYZXTbFJnkNbeFRY1-z7sDMcwUDcUkV6XDjqtOkSXVm075OzGcAUvi_B5uZuaaIF-9GxMqcZL/s320/HPIM0318.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220717197045180818" /></a><br />This is cousin Ethan ( who I am taller than) yeah baby.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-58618452411082833082008-05-16T10:00:00.000-07:002008-05-16T10:49:23.875-07:00When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the master.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/29/parade_narrowweb__300x430,0.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/29/parade_narrowweb__300x430,0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Hip Hop Horay! Well, for those who do not know, I have been working feverishly to complete my masters degree. Today, I just found out that with straight A's in my last semester, it is finished. Above is the picture of the ticker tape parade we held this morning. Schooling was quite fun, though at times was a little stressful. I learned a lot and now have some more tools for ministry, and can start paying back loans:(.<br /><br />So, for all of those who have been waiting in anticipation for some awesome blogging, I thought I would kick it back in with this thought. I had a discussion with someone from the 'uppers' of a church, on the topic of leadership, specifically when it comes to church. This person was convinced that leadership is something that everyone could learn and a position that anyone could fill. All in all, the idea being that a local church should be built on shoulders of strong leaders, plural. In essence, the implication is that when a church fails, it is simply a lack of submission to Christ, specifically from the communal form of leadership in the congregation. The pastor did not succeed in teaching those goals or the people just didn't do it. Cool, sounds good on paper, but then the ordained pastor or 'leader' of said church is sent to another church to not lead, because they should already have a communal form of leadership in place. The whole thing trying to combat the old form of church, where the pastor did all of the ministry and held a position of high authority over people. <br /><br />While it is of utmost importance for the church to be developing leaders and to have strong leaders within the context of the church (elders and team leaders)I believe that scripture is clear that there is a position of singular, visionary leadership to guide a local body. That singular, visionary leader must then be surrounded with other leaders who can help support and guide the process through, prayer, biblical insight, discussion, guidance, wisdom, etc. But at some point the buck stops with one leader. This person is not better than anyone else, nor is their giftedness better. The reality is that the role they play in the body is to give direction to empower the saints for ministry. There in lies the key. How many church leaders miss this? They either miss the magnitude of the responsibility, or they get to enamored with the magnitude and feel they are better than everyone else, and treat their role as king, with all of the right ideas and no one has a right to question. It seems like the person I was discussing this with probably has, like me, experienced too much of these two extremes. The result was an ideology removing of the position of strong, singular, visionary leadership. I am still thinking through the ramifications of this, but I have to rest on the fact that God rose up individuals all throughout scripture to move His people. When they led properly, taking advice from other leaders, following after God, empowering people and serving, they did great things for the kingdom. <br /><br />So, that is a snippet of a huge idea. I guess the biggest idea that I had to settle on was, as a leader, there is a huge responsibility. Are the people I lead being empowered for the ministry they are called to? Do they feel 'Lorded over' or loved? Am I seeking God for every step? Who am I developing to lead? <br /><br />That's it, just some thoughts.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-9949265115033291532008-05-07T19:14:00.000-07:002008-05-07T19:30:04.059-07:00It's the brak show. Look, it's me, I'm brak!Well, thought it was about time to show some more pictures of the wee lass. I actually have a ton of thoughts for jumping back into proper blogging, but, I am taking some time off because I just finished all of my work for my master's degree, and am waiting anxiously for my grades to come back and ensure that I am a master. Finger's crossed.<br /><br />Anywho, here's Lucy. She is now 4 wks old and is currently learning the violin. It's just something she likes to do in between feedings. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsx-hWsX7F73Sx8lJRgIckoW2YBk6meeUBwJHKVwXOyq_tBozaSIokrUW4DBmNC3RCFAe7n-TwYR_SsGQkGbPfuTssjBExL6UJOqV3wni8uaEC4VD3SeHdk9GTOF58cbfR3_-V/s1600-h/HPIM0307.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsx-hWsX7F73Sx8lJRgIckoW2YBk6meeUBwJHKVwXOyq_tBozaSIokrUW4DBmNC3RCFAe7n-TwYR_SsGQkGbPfuTssjBExL6UJOqV3wni8uaEC4VD3SeHdk9GTOF58cbfR3_-V/s320/HPIM0307.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197827461523388914" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtKAQ2IZB46HHHYB_G298mH8zkKRyLVqh6Qby5gCA_QjY1pwI7ZcH5oRJg-MLWdNi9Cq5YC6rU7JvORWZMIXFAjk1SNxwTnnEjuL-z_rk465btNEFT_jL4-dn6Rh-CLYF87pO/s1600-h/HPIM0308.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtKAQ2IZB46HHHYB_G298mH8zkKRyLVqh6Qby5gCA_QjY1pwI7ZcH5oRJg-MLWdNi9Cq5YC6rU7JvORWZMIXFAjk1SNxwTnnEjuL-z_rk465btNEFT_jL4-dn6Rh-CLYF87pO/s320/HPIM0308.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197827470113323522" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1d87WfE8DBeJRwCf6iVVXsclyN6KXwkla93PDwYqFxU1Lo9V5HXitq3u_aBr84PZSMMI_lDa0ZCxM5TYq30yYYqUVugXKAUA5jVftLDbuJ_af8bLkAJMTpfTaR9r4BlSn7Hes/s1600-h/HPIM0309.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1d87WfE8DBeJRwCf6iVVXsclyN6KXwkla93PDwYqFxU1Lo9V5HXitq3u_aBr84PZSMMI_lDa0ZCxM5TYq30yYYqUVugXKAUA5jVftLDbuJ_af8bLkAJMTpfTaR9r4BlSn7Hes/s320/HPIM0309.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197827474408290834" /></a><br /> <br />Obviously, these pics were taken in a one minute span. If you will notice her hands, you can join us in marveling at how she has no concept of proper hand usage and placement during social situations. She is all about having her hands around her face. <br />I guess that's ok until wk 6.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-11474426912774464052008-04-13T20:23:00.000-07:002008-04-13T20:33:21.042-07:00Some new pics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSwsPWblO5Wi_AUpwQ_hPN9ZyxXqTrX8hnGMdrJDvIUfh6eMIp5mnRZz2v_DIJPaXclLLikyj9YRmh43_AY3rMLVe7vtPwxHu2mU7UeXgW2rAI5m5Q1Kr1yiMMEyTftBnj4jV1/s1600-h/HPIM0296.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSwsPWblO5Wi_AUpwQ_hPN9ZyxXqTrX8hnGMdrJDvIUfh6eMIp5mnRZz2v_DIJPaXclLLikyj9YRmh43_AY3rMLVe7vtPwxHu2mU7UeXgW2rAI5m5Q1Kr1yiMMEyTftBnj4jV1/s320/HPIM0296.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188938240580616210" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVC6QfXwlt3ioeGBubv7xxYVdSuhE2b5FnpUibgoPezAHfS0OjJ25Cx8h7_5kXCoKmzjlREDy7k8YOGj5qejadQ5s9f0tIoLM37qzylu8xtnV0UmZX-UTeo8NqnHid6UpbIJsa/s1600-h/HPIM0288.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVC6QfXwlt3ioeGBubv7xxYVdSuhE2b5FnpUibgoPezAHfS0OjJ25Cx8h7_5kXCoKmzjlREDy7k8YOGj5qejadQ5s9f0tIoLM37qzylu8xtnV0UmZX-UTeo8NqnHid6UpbIJsa/s320/HPIM0288.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188938249170550818" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkNoHy4gZ4NSbLuOeH_eBwG5A7gpPaTCnEH0gkepBdxcYrD4J0lKJxEvoQO6EzGNWyZC3ZtA_Wsh3Ux-gzBP-4hKYdnVmhvD1RF_LDkk3rtUzzk2bDI9HfqXBFtmb9uGgTR7s/s1600-h/HPIM0291.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXkNoHy4gZ4NSbLuOeH_eBwG5A7gpPaTCnEH0gkepBdxcYrD4J0lKJxEvoQO6EzGNWyZC3ZtA_Wsh3Ux-gzBP-4hKYdnVmhvD1RF_LDkk3rtUzzk2bDI9HfqXBFtmb9uGgTR7s/s320/HPIM0291.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188938292120223794" /></a><br />Yeah, you know how every now and again you see a baby who is not so cute. You still say they are cute, but you know full well that they are not. Julie and I always wondered if our baby A. would be cute B. we would be able to tell if she wasn't or we would be just blinded by parental love. Well, we think she is cute so we will just assume that she is in fact cute. He some more pics.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-88320016803149133082008-04-07T06:47:00.000-07:002008-04-07T07:22:45.948-07:00AdaleiFor those of you who are new, Julie and I just had our first baby, Lucy Adalei. (see pictures below) She is good times. We brought her home on Friday. She is so little! She sleeps on my chest sometimes and runs a serious risk of falling into my belly button and being lost forever. Not quite. She sleeps, looks around, does bathroom things and eats (and throws up). At this point in her life when everything is new, this a vast array of fun to chose from. We are going through the joys of getting on a schedule with her/ finding time to sleep and go about life. It really is cool. Julie's mom has been hanging with us, which has been a huge help in the transition process. <br /><br />So that is the update. I did want to make a couple of non-related comments. <br /><br />1st of all, I got to hang with my friend Thunder Dan Gartley last night, which was good times as always. Dan may be the friendliest guy I know, he always makes me smile. Anyways, he recently got me hooked on the awesomeness of Tom Petty, (to which I am greatful) I don't know how I over looked them for so long. I do not think they have ever made a song I don't like. But then last night we got see a band that he has been talking about called, 'Decemberadio'. Yeah they rocked in every sense of the word. Dan had said that they were the most talented and legit rock band in Christian music, and I must second this claim. Anyone interested in some great rock, check em out. <br /><br /><br />2nd, Lucy's middle name is Adalei. And we need some clarification. It is a silly spelling, but easy to say. (Add - uh-lay ) We sort of made it up. And chose it based solely on the rythm along with her first and last name, along with wanting something that sounded unique and girly. So no big ploy to fool the world and make life difficult for her forever. The reality is that in about 6 months, nobody except the family will pay notice to her middle name. Until, of course, she is a famous female singer-songwriter who also plays the violin and sings awesome harmony with her dad. <br /><br />I write this out because I have had several people say, in response to me telling people her name, "Eww, why did you make her middle name so hard?". . . mk, I am not angry, although this response automatically switches my brain into cynical sarcastic guy. I kind of want to say, um "Eww, name your own child", or express how difficult it is to repeat 'Add-uh-lay" 'yeah, it is pretty difficult, we should have simplified it to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.' While here name is no Ann, May, Jo, Marie, Sue or one of the other 10 American sounding girl middle names, her name isn't hard to say. It is sort of difficult to spell. But that is in honor of her dad and people messing up 'Sean'. Names are funny. <br /><br />Also, I did find some hunting and found out that her name is loosely connected to the German name Adelaide, which means 'noble one', or when applied to a little girl. 'princess', which is nice. So, that's it, check out Decemberadio.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-54211022779746721872008-04-02T19:07:00.000-07:002008-04-02T19:14:05.427-07:00I love LucyHere are a few more pics<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWvlWhxYULyslsIYz7pUpwNupx_IibMULbOrAOGSaOSHw7-330YTti7ncVlLnldLQIGItiW0ab_uFLgTHRlsihj8NoYi5Ku96gRZ2KTTQpvUgM67Tt8GuI96GnP64v9j_qryF/s1600-h/HPIM0265.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWvlWhxYULyslsIYz7pUpwNupx_IibMULbOrAOGSaOSHw7-330YTti7ncVlLnldLQIGItiW0ab_uFLgTHRlsihj8NoYi5Ku96gRZ2KTTQpvUgM67Tt8GuI96GnP64v9j_qryF/s320/HPIM0265.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184836079814854802" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5i1IsYjhz0c8ujMbNVi0Md5EGjg3x5mkGq48ayHMlN_xsY57Bi6sa95mRaqDe06fIiwslUOKl8ymF-aXn9X8P_GM5fq2mlboFiD-r_k1Q_6gHIpMbAYKuVh4L74fROSA5A1Z/s1600-h/HPIM0267.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5i1IsYjhz0c8ujMbNVi0Md5EGjg3x5mkGq48ayHMlN_xsY57Bi6sa95mRaqDe06fIiwslUOKl8ymF-aXn9X8P_GM5fq2mlboFiD-r_k1Q_6gHIpMbAYKuVh4L74fROSA5A1Z/s320/HPIM0267.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184836084109822114" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKR1zm8RQhWvq-ZP-5rPES24nY8mZRupJ9wUvwWPA91ZkEL-4bY1wRorf9yx8AtJA7LjjlROse4qRhF1y5aB0fwC-Hfnx4Y1xs3WK2SpJjY1eDMf5P56yGsfkjxtEHwqtn8Uj/s1600-h/HPIM0266.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKR1zm8RQhWvq-ZP-5rPES24nY8mZRupJ9wUvwWPA91ZkEL-4bY1wRorf9yx8AtJA7LjjlROse4qRhF1y5aB0fwC-Hfnx4Y1xs3WK2SpJjY1eDMf5P56yGsfkjxtEHwqtn8Uj/s320/HPIM0266.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184836088404789426" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCAP5ajEUEdvUGdxMDMjKWfLKHy9umnxCuhys2Dyx-gSlpu8mD_Ci6IVPWiLUNSvTTiL7ojnEBzXqO7j92tYsKRgawKZa82xH-p4jSjc7rooQiVDQCKHnQcOXwrbuX3Ccqq9U/s1600-h/HPIM0268.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCAP5ajEUEdvUGdxMDMjKWfLKHy9umnxCuhys2Dyx-gSlpu8mD_Ci6IVPWiLUNSvTTiL7ojnEBzXqO7j92tYsKRgawKZa82xH-p4jSjc7rooQiVDQCKHnQcOXwrbuX3Ccqq9U/s320/HPIM0268.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184836092699756738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIAAs-o8y5_d03YWvkGCh1Z9MeHtrSD8v6Ch8n5MexCacSYW832HNNjBhYCJ_PN-voIdWgtjUidhO5A1lstdKeXfvkrMDie6-3pDZIpsdfXcTn9PFwFGoSDRFqKb_bALt3w-ft/s1600-h/HPIM0271.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIAAs-o8y5_d03YWvkGCh1Z9MeHtrSD8v6Ch8n5MexCacSYW832HNNjBhYCJ_PN-voIdWgtjUidhO5A1lstdKeXfvkrMDie6-3pDZIpsdfXcTn9PFwFGoSDRFqKb_bALt3w-ft/s320/HPIM0271.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184836096994724050" /></a>Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-65010082870627781152008-04-02T15:37:00.000-07:002008-04-02T15:47:52.707-07:00Lucy Adalei Savage<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBK5RZVHDkXuZXvRBYU_HFL-Jn5yb8Jy-TefvxnGgE7eofNp1Jtq-dxdCm3W7dxetpqoSn2irkBXCtpFY9SvZl8EPPVsyyIcr6i3UCYWkfuMv5TnEI27j3z2IMchL_LEaxCK4u/s1600-h/HPIM0263.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBK5RZVHDkXuZXvRBYU_HFL-Jn5yb8Jy-TefvxnGgE7eofNp1Jtq-dxdCm3W7dxetpqoSn2irkBXCtpFY9SvZl8EPPVsyyIcr6i3UCYWkfuMv5TnEI27j3z2IMchL_LEaxCK4u/s320/HPIM0263.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184783260307048514" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAy18dSAuVydTRHnJtP2eZaCWKOvu5JUJMMbZWQhJ8yGa6gbqv8x8bXiasPBwmILojR7MmCPqaU8ehaVxL7tP9mfObcAjD2FKTDPwkr8DGk3Mr48zB4mPgfs0a4mze-ygslzRn/s1600-h/HPIM0262.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAy18dSAuVydTRHnJtP2eZaCWKOvu5JUJMMbZWQhJ8yGa6gbqv8x8bXiasPBwmILojR7MmCPqaU8ehaVxL7tP9mfObcAjD2FKTDPwkr8DGk3Mr48zB4mPgfs0a4mze-ygslzRn/s320/HPIM0262.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184783264602015826" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDE8Gjrsy7R7RDPDrOoEYWItJ0FRmXZaMgHP6ga8qBV13CE9RLVNfMmv3z6NyW2mu5BnZj0vm-IQEnxFnoWZfpkrqAgeRz-MFCqpl2NK-E62SKITlX1S8dNOb2env1xAtVjaEZ/s1600-h/HPIM0264.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDE8Gjrsy7R7RDPDrOoEYWItJ0FRmXZaMgHP6ga8qBV13CE9RLVNfMmv3z6NyW2mu5BnZj0vm-IQEnxFnoWZfpkrqAgeRz-MFCqpl2NK-E62SKITlX1S8dNOb2env1xAtVjaEZ/s320/HPIM0264.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184783273191950434" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OWXvETxlZTVL-Lv0Y_fa-5k-hopXixDBkLuzGmCv_Y5LQLtTjXf1KrOOE_rSrJm9Pds6IOesF25yVboXIlwn_ZH0SG81yt1BUtcxGlxx6n3u5SxB4xg4BEL0wMfhxu_nG95b/s1600-h/HPIM0270.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OWXvETxlZTVL-Lv0Y_fa-5k-hopXixDBkLuzGmCv_Y5LQLtTjXf1KrOOE_rSrJm9Pds6IOesF25yVboXIlwn_ZH0SG81yt1BUtcxGlxx6n3u5SxB4xg4BEL0wMfhxu_nG95b/s320/HPIM0270.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184783277486917746" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDh3E_4Ra4-eFItLRIYHzOLDpV6cS0tabY5aD9vz6zKX7mSa6JSV5NNVA4k0PjBMYB-ETXf7Fxr1kh-EZNBTI9vULJBFNUMDjiW5XKy2jNwAxeBCSDLE8mmQVz_yz2utwSo7Q/s1600-h/HPIM0269.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDh3E_4Ra4-eFItLRIYHzOLDpV6cS0tabY5aD9vz6zKX7mSa6JSV5NNVA4k0PjBMYB-ETXf7Fxr1kh-EZNBTI9vULJBFNUMDjiW5XKy2jNwAxeBCSDLE8mmQVz_yz2utwSo7Q/s320/HPIM0269.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5184783290371819650" /></a><br />Ok, all we just finished delivering Lucy. 6 pounds 15 Ounces, beautiful little girl with her daddy's cheeks and here mommy's long legs. I know you have all been praying with us to get us through the long ordeal, and so without further ado. . . here are some photos.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20787468.post-41689752468355839032008-04-02T05:52:00.000-07:002008-04-02T06:03:57.395-07:00Go slinky go! This is going to be some kind of recooord!!!Hrs 48-49. It is officially the nicest day of the year thus far, except we still don't have a baby. She is having good strong even contractions, but is only at 2 cm. (if you don't know what that means, you don't want to know) This means that after all that time we will more than likely end up having to do a c-section. <br /><br />The good news from waiting all this time. . . I get to skip my last class of my graduate school career. Good times. <br /><br /><br /> word, if you know all the words to the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel AireSeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09367817264457331901noreply@blogger.com0