• Brad Ruggles

  

• What I'm Doing

  Follow me on Twitter
  
  
• 
  

• Categories

  • Apple (12)
  • Authenticity (30)
  • Blog Posts (6)
  • Blog Posts (153)
  • Completely Crazy (31)
  • Culture (36)
  • Family (36)
  • Moving (6)
  • Videos (39)

• Post Archives

  Select Month May 2008  (14) April 2008  (30) March 2008  (20) February 2008  (25) January 2008  (50) December 2007  (11) November 2007  (1) October 2007  (8) September 2007  (5) August 2007  (12) July 2007  (18) June 2007  (25) May 2007  (24) April 2007  (2)

• Subscribe

  Add my RSS Feed to your Feed Reader (instructions).
  
  
  
  

Blake & Mark, a couple of my blog readers, pointed out that my picture made it into the 2008 Catalyst brochure! It’s the first (and probably last) time I’ve ever had my picture on the same page as Seth Godin, Craig Groeschel and Billy Graham.

By the way, if you haven’t been to the Catalyst Conference or are unsure about going this year, what can I do to convince you to go? This is one of the absolute highlights of my year. I learn more, become more inspired and connect with cooler individuals than at any other event I’ve ever been to. You simply must plan on attending. Go ahead and register today over at www.catalystconference.com.

By the way, if you are planning on going to Catalyst let me know! I can’t wait to hook up with fellow bloggers at this great event!

Post Comments: 7 Comments 

As you’re reading this I’m probably in the car on the way back from Fort Wayne. We stayed with some friends for the weekend to give us a break from the hotel. It was a welcome diversion from two high-energy girls cooped up in a tiny hotel room!

We had some great conversation about life, parenting, church and everything in between. Their oldest girl and my oldest have both decided that they want to be rock stars when they grow up. Thank you Hannah Montana and Karaoke Revolution.

Chloe: “Dad, I know I can be a rockstar. I got a glowing microphone on Karaoke Revolution!”

I’ve tried explaining to Chloe that to be a rock star you need to have a reasonably good voice. She asked me if Hannah Montana had a good voice. Ummmm….

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Post Comments: 3 Comments 

Allow me to introduce you to an acquaintance of mine. You probably don’t hear me talk about him often because most of the time it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist.

His name is Jackass Brad.

This the is the part of me that comes out when I’m stressed or things don’t go my way. He’s not a pleasant person to be around as he tends to think mostly about himself. He’s short with his kids and cranky with his wife. If you’ve known me long enough I’m sure you’ve met him.

Lately, I’ve seen a lot more of Jackass Brad than I care to admit. He blames his visits on stress - as if that’s an acceptable excuse to barge in and complain. Just last night he showed up in the car with Lisa and the kids and proceeded all evening to do what he does best - be a jackass.

The good news is that I’m working more on recognizing him when he shows up. With prayer and conscious choice I can give him the boot before he even gets his foot in the door.

So there you go. I’ve introduced you to someone I don’t like to talk about. If you happen to see him, can you give him a message from me?

Take a hike Jackass!

“I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” (Romans 7:18-25)

Post Comments: 24 Comments 

Kids like this really do a number on my self-esteem.

Thanks to Tara Leigh Cobble for the video tip.

Post Comments: 3 Comments 

“We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” - Proverbs 16:9

A lot has changed since Monday. For example…

• I thought I would be writing today’s blog post from our new house instead of the lobby of the hotel we’re staying at.
• I thought we would be unpacking boxes instead of extending the contract for the 3 storage units that hold our belongings.
• I thought we would be settling our kids into their new rooms instead of trying to occupy them with repeated trips to the hotel pool.

For readers who may not be familiar with our story so far, we put our house up for sale in September and sold it in a market that’s not easy to sell a house in. We moved all of our belongings into storage in Indianapolis while we vacationed for a few weeks in Florida. Before we left we had confirmed all of the details on the condo we were purchasing and set to close on as soon as we got back.

We had a closing date of May 12 but talked to our mortgage and real estate agents from Florida and asked if we could move it to May 6 after we arrived back in Indianapolis from our trip. They said it wasn’t a problem. We found out last week that the closing could be delayed a few days but since our contract had a closing date of May 12 we thought we would still be ok. If we had to get a hotel room for a couple of days so be it.

We left Florida Monday morning stopping half-way to spend the night in Gatlinburg so the kids could see the Smokey Mountains. Tuesday morning I get a call from our mortgage agent. He had completely dropped the ball and not checked into the condo requirements for the type of loan we were getting. Because I’m self-employed I didn’t qualify for most conventional loans and had to go with a FHA loan. It turns out that the condo’s were new enough that they didn’t qualify for a FHA loan.

“Basically,” our mortgage guy said, “there’s nothing I can do for you. The only way I can get you into that condo is if you put down 20-25% down.” There was no way we could do that nor would I want to in today’s housing market. Basically, our mortgage guy screwed us by assuring us that we were approved and would close this week without a problem (after having all of our paperwork and information for over a month).

Which brings me to the hotel lobby I’m writing this from this morning. We’re here until the end of the week while the clock keeps ticking on our pending closing date. Lisa was on the phone all day yesterday making calls to banks hoping for a last-minute miracle. If the deal falls through we are back at square one, staying in a hotel and looking for a place to live.

I know that God has everything under control but that doesn’t make the present situation any easier. Lisa and I have been trying to figure out a way to tell our kids that we may not be moving into the home that they were so excited about living in.

Please pray for direction and God’s will to be clear. I’m learning to hold all things loosely as God reminds me that His plans are best and His timing is perfect.

In the meantime I’ll close out this blog post from the lobby of the hotel that is our home with complete trust in God and anticipation of His provision.

Post Comments: 12 Comments 

If you’re like me you’ve built up your music library through years of your changing music styles and taste. And I’m sure by now you’ve got some songs in there that someone may raise an eyebrow at but you just can’t bear to delete because…well…you still listen to it when no one is watching!

So come. Share it with us. This is a safe place.

What’s the most embarrassing song/album in your music library?

Post Comments: 15 Comments 

We got into our hotel here in Gatlinburg, Tennessee late last night. The girls are excited to head out and explore the Smokey Mountains! We’ve got a fun day of hiking ahead of us!

Post Comments: 5 Comments 

This post is for all my fellow-bloggers out there. A couple of months ago I heard about a free new Web site analytics tool called Woopra on GeekBrief.tv. I watched the video demo of it and was very impressed with its capabilities. The only problem was that it was still in beta testing. I signed up to be notified when the application became available.

Last week I got an email notifying me that my account had been activated so I immediately downloaded the desktop client (Mac users will need to download the latest Java Virtual Machine beta).

I became instantly hooked. What sets this web analytics tool apart from other web tracking tools (like my previous favorite, Google Analytics) is that it allows you to view live hits to your web site in real time. That means that I can have my Woopra client open and view visitors to my site and view their page-by-page browsing history.

There are lots of other great features (like visitor tagging and click-to-chat) that will allow you to get to know your site visitors better.

Woopra is a free download so check it out. Sign up at www.woopra.com and let me know what you think.

Post Comments: 12 Comments 

…to act this old!

Post Comments: 6 Comments 

Just writing a quick post to see if everything has transferred over ok. If you’re reading this in your RSS reader or viewing it in your browser it must be working ok!

Post Comments: 3 Comments 

Next Page →