Sep

25

My Future Economist

Post Category: Family, photos 

Obviously our nation’s economic woes affect Emily more than I realized.

Aug

8

Crazy Things I Did as a Youth Pastor: Paintball

Post Category: Blog Posts, Completely Crazy, Youth Group Fun, photos 

Some of you may not know that I was a Youth Pastor for 4 years back in Fort Wayne. During that time I did some pretty fun (and sometimes crazy) things so I thought I’d start a new post series to share some of my favorites with you.

Crazy Thing #1: PAINTBALL
What youth group is complete without paintball? Sure, we did the regular paintball games but, like any good youth pastor, I wanted to mix things up.

One year at camp a couple of the kids brought their guns so I set up a “Human Paintball Shooting Gallery.” We gave the guns to the girls and had the guys put on their masks and run back and forth across an open space 40 or 50 feet away.

The girls, of course, welcomed the opportunity to shoot the defenseless guys with paintballs.

Some of the guys even decided to be brave (or stupid?) and run without their shirts on. You know, to show how much of a man they were.

I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to getting shot with hard little pellets so I always wore long-sleeve shirts (and sometimes a t-shirt underneath). I did this because some of my kids (like the one pictured below) welcomed the opportunity to sneak up behind me and shoot me in the back, point-blank from 3 feet away.

Yeah, and that was through two layers of shirts. If they handed out medals to youth pastors for being wounded in the course of duty, I’d have quite a collection.

What are some of the crazy or dangerous things you’ve done in your youth group?

Aug

6

Driving BMWs And Saving Boobs

Post Category: Blog Posts, Culture, photos 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in the BMW Ultimate Drive - a special event partnered with the Suzan G Komen foundation for a cure for breast cancer.

BMW has a fleet of their vehicles that travel to locations throughout the U.S. for these special events (click here to see if there are any events coming soon to your area).

When you register you can drive any of these cars on a predefined 10-mile course. For every mile you drive BMW will donate $1 on your behalf to the Suzan G Komen foundation for a cure. This is my third time participating in this event, although my first here in Indianapolis.

The first car I drove was the V12 760Li (which has a sticker price of $124,000!!). There are so many buttons and controls in this thing that it was a little overwhelming at first. Not only did it have heated seats, you could also push a button to cool your seat and even a butt-massage! I’ll admit, I did feel a little violated at first getting a butt massage from a BMW, but after a couple minutes I got used to it.

I wrapped up my drive with a spin in a 6-speed manual Z4 convertible. This car was WAY too much fun to drive! Anyone wanna place bets on how long it would take me to lose my license if I owned this car?

So that was how I spent yesterday afternoon.

Driving around town in BMWs to save boobs. Not a bad day.

Jul

29

Photos by Daley Hake

Post Category: Creativity, photos 

On Thursday the one and only Daley Hake passed through Indianapolis. Daley, Julie & I were able to grab lunch and then some pics (check Julie out on Virb & MySpace - awesome singer/songwriter).

This was my first chance to work with Daley although I’ve been an admirer of his work for quite a while. He’s got the look and style that I wish I could rock but could probably never pull off.

You can view all the pics on my Flickr page but this is one of my favorites.

Jul

2

Rocking Our Sunglasses

Post Category: Family, photos 

Here are a few pictures just for fun of me hanging out with the girls from yesterday and over the weekend. A couple of observations:

  1. We all enjoy wearing sunglasses
  2. We think we look cool in each other’s sunglasses
  3. Emily can make one heck of a “I’m mad at you” face
  4. I have no idea where Chloe learned that pose but it scares me!

You wanna know the difference between you and me? I make kid sunglasses look good!

Jun

6

Vacation Highlights Video

Post Category: Blog Posts, Family, Videos, photos 

We’ve been on vacation in Surf City, North Carolina all week with our good friends Paul & Jayme Lea and their kids. It has been fun and relaxing and very much needed after the drama of the last month (here and here).

Vacationing together can really test a friendship. There’s plenty of people I like that I probably would not be able to share a house with for a week. We’ve gotten to know Paul & Jayme and their kids over the last couple of years in Fort Wayne and have gotten to be good friends with them. They were even kind enough to open their house for us to stay at a couple of weekends last month while we’ve been staying in a hotel.

For me this week was an important time of just unplugging from the worries of life and just unwinding. You may have noticed that I wasn’t Twittering much and I even broke one of my cardinal rules of blogging (consistency) and didn’t post anything yesterday *gasp!* It’s been good for me to get away, spend time with friends, swim in the ocean and sleep in (at least until the kids wake us up).

But all good things come to an end. Even though I could easily stay here another couple of weeks, we will be leaving tomorrow to head back to Indianapolis and the real world we’ve been avoiding all week.

Here are some photos from this week

…and a highlights video I put together.


(click here if you can’t see the video)

Jun

4

Daddy Daughter Date

Post Category: Blog Posts, Family, photos 

Yesterday I took Chloe, my oldest, on a date (we call them “Daddy Daughter Dates”). With all we’ve had going lately it had been a while since we’ve been on a date. The older she gets the more fun it is (and the more she talks my ear off!).

We got an ice cream and walked out on the pier to watch the surfers and fishermen. While we were out there we saw quite a few jellyfish which Chloe thought was pretty neat. She also lost her flip-flop off the edge of the pier so we had to sit and wait for about 20 minutes while it washed ashore.

When we got back I gave her a necklace with a locket and a tin can. Inside the can was a mussel with a pearl inside of it. It took us about 10 minutes but we eventually dug the pearl out and put it in the locket which she thought was pretty special.

I enjoy times like these with my kids because I realize just how fast life goes by and how precious every minute is.

Do you go on dates with your kids? What are some of your most special memories?

Jun

2

Vacation Pictures: Day 1

Post Category: Blog Posts, Family, photos 

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The wife, kids and I are on a much-needed vacation this week. We’re staying at a beach house on TopSail Island in North Carolina with some friends. The beach house we’re staying at is right on the beach so we’ll be spending lots of time hitting the waves (I’m already sore from my attempt at boogie-boarding).

Last night heard thunder in the distance and went out on the deck to watch a storm come rolling in over the ocean. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen! Our friends’ son Tyler took the picture of the lightning over the ocean.

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