Lexi in front of the Custer carving at Wall Drug during the Mission trip. I just found this....SO FUNNY 

Lexi at Wall Drug 

This was the page that was on my calandar when I came home from vacation in California...our secretary came in and changed it while I was gone...given recent events with my hair in my life I had to laugh 

This is the way I feel a lot at church these days....especially this week 

Hula homer sits on top of the subwoofer hooked up to my computer at my desk 

Some quotes from September 2005 Christianity Today

ON FRIENDSHIP....

God is our chief friend--Thomas Aquinas

In every generation (wisdom) passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets--Wisdom of Solomon 7:27b

Friendship is realized by sharing a table--Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel

An enemy is a friend wating to be made, that is the only hope for this conflict ridden world--Desmond Tutu

ON SUFFERING--

God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him--Jurgen Moltmann

Easter is the beginning of the laughter of the redeemed...God's protest against death--Jurgen Moltmann

FROM THE NEWS--

They have been so nice. I would hate to break it to them that I really prefer Neitzche to the Bible--Eric Rudolph in response to "good people, mostly born again Christians looking to save my soul"

Terrorism is irrational. There is no clash of civilizations, only small groups of fanatics. So the dialogue between religions which have Abraham as a father is important. We must ask God to reinforce this...and hope that it will be much stronger than violence.--The Pope

The 40 year old virgin and me

Ok I saw the 40-year old virgin movie. It was both funny and depressing.

Is it worth going to in the theatres? I guess it depends who you go with. It is like a strange mix of Dumb and Dumber meets a romantic comedy.

In the course of the movie I noticed that my action figures that I own have been increasing since my 30th birthday. (The forty year old virgin has a huge collection of action figures.)

On my previous post you saw my Jesus action figures. I just purchased a Friar Tuck action figure, and I have a HULA HOMER and a talking Homer dashboard doll as well. Both also speak!

Part of me enjoys these toys, and part of me looks at the movie and starts to feel a little weird about them. Should I?

At least I have a car!

This is a my Jesus action figure collection from left to right Buddy Jesus (from the movie Dogma) The "official" Jesus action figure and bobblehead Jesus. 

Inspirational Quotes

From the Emerging Sideways blog:

Many things can wait.
Children cannot.
Today their bones are being formed,
their blood is being made,
their senses are being developed.
To them we cannot say “tomorrow.”
Their name is today.

Gabriela Mistral

And from my Great-Grandmother's obituary:

Life Means Living

It is a false belief that life necessarily wears itself out as the years go by. Life means living, in so long as we live with our eyes open toward the future, with ours ears attuned to catch the melody of the present day, with our hands eager for the new tasks, with our feet impatient for the unexplored path before us, we shall not grow old; but we shall remain young in heart and mind and spirit, which, after all, are our real selves.

What its all about

It is easy to get off track in our Christian faith. And it just as easy to get off track being a young "friar" as it is as a housewife or a student or a construction worker or any other occupation.

One of the reasons it is easy to get off track is that we often mistake following Jesus for a phalanx of other meritorious ideas.

Here are some of the most common pitfalls:

Pitfall #1
Following Jesus is about being involved in Christian activities.

The truth:
Being involved in Christian activities may be a good thing in your spiritual growth, but it may be a hindrance. If Christian activities is a well-veiled crutch to keep you from dealing with issues with your family, your work, or your friends you may need to cut back on them.

Pitfall #2 Following Jesus is about feeling good.

The truth:
If you are following Jesus with all your heart, you will probably come to the point where you have to deal with real core issues in your life. As a matter of fact, you may consistently return to this point as different issues come up. And dealing with destructive habits, deep hurts, and growing through them is a painful, not so good feeling process at times. The gospel is about forgiving and loving enemies, reconciliation, and healing. It is not always easy, but it is more worth it than you will ever know.

Pitfall #3
Following Jesus is about having the right ideas
The truth: In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the guy had his theology all wrong but his heart was in the right place with God and his neighbor, and that is what matters. A lot of people in Christian churches believe that being a Christian is about defending the faith against bad ideas, instead of commending the faith through living the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I find it easy to sometimes hold firm to the truth, but in a way that makes me look like a total a**. When I do this, I think I miss the point.

Pitfall #4
Following Jesus is about being with all the right people.
The truth:
Following Jesus is about bearing with people when they are a pain in the a**. Look at the Corinthian church. Does this church look like a model of church health? Heck no! Even the Philippian church in the New Testament had divisive people and potential church splits happening. The church needs to be full of difficult people who are committed to growing and learning to be more like Jesus, warts and all.

What is the gospel all about then? It is about becoming fully human. And it is about doing that through growing in knowledge of and love for our Creator. It is about joining his mission to build bridges of love to the world through surrendering ourselves to him and making ourselves his vessel of new hope, new life, and new love.

So we all must come back and ask ourselves...am I becoming more loving? am I becoming more forgiving and compassionate? am I becoming more bold in embracing that God's love and overflowing with love to others? If not we might want to go back to square one.

Thirtysomething singleness business

Do I enjoy being single or not? That is the question.

Sometimes, like when I am wondering what the heck I am going to do on a Friday night besides goof around and/or work on the computer, then I think it might be a good idea to get married.

Other times, like when I am at my sister's place with babies and baby schedules I think, "There is no way in hell I ever want to get married and have children."
I like having a lot of "me" time, and I like being able to do things on my own time and in my own pace. Having a partner in life just complicates that.

For some of my single friends, they seem pretty clear about wanting to get married and have a family. My friend Amy has, as George Bush would say, a very strategeristic plan for her married life. She has a goal of being married by the end of 2006. That gives her about sixteen months to meet and marry the love of her life. Since her 32nd birthday is in November, I guess that means that preferable she wants to be well on her way to walking down the aisle before her 33rd birthday. Good for her!

Other single friends of mine are pretty sure they want to be single for a while. My buddy Mike spent much of an afternoon at a work social gathering avoiding a woman who was interested in him. He is recently divorced and not ready for anything new right now.

I am somewhere in between.

Of course it is crazy to turn romance into a business plan, but sometimes I weigh singleness and marriage in some sort of mental cost-benefit analysis thing:

Benefits of singleness

Freedom!
Quiet!
More time for friends!
More time for my mission and lifes work (the J-O-B)
Less relational conflict (lets face it marriages and romantic relationships take a lot of working through relational issues and conflict, and that is NO FUN!)

Drawbacks of singleness

Celebacy
lack of companionship

Benefits of marriage

SEX!
Other forms of physical affection!
Partnership/Companionship!
The joy of having someone to love and give your life to!
Two incomes!

The drawbacks of marriage

It is a pretty final decision! (At least I hope it will be)
Being tied down!
A bad choice is utterly miserable!
Nagging and all that stuff

So what would you add to the equation, and how would you weight each of the costs and benefits?

Movies I want to see!!!

There are a couple of movies I really want to see. Here they are:



This looks funny. And lets face it....I can empathize with the man!

I would also like to see:

WEDDING CRASHERS
THE ISLAND
MR AND MRS SMITH

Brother Roger died this week, murdered by a mentally disturbed woman in the middle of a worship service. He was the founder of the Taize movement, and a leader in Europe in bringing Christians of all stripes together to love Jesus and one another 

Mom and the boys at the farm 

The new album comes out next month! I can't wait! 

It is fall again?! (sigh)

It has been raining like crazy out here. And that actually has been fun.

In the old days, it seemed like summer was more laid back in ministry...and least in my ministry. That has certainly not been the case this year, and I am frustrated because it is fall already and I have been so busy with summer stuff that I am in no way ready for fall. Yet at the same time, I want to take time to rest and recouperate from the summer.

So, I have to get all my teachers together, get the fall program together, get all the budget and writing work done, and get ready for the normal youth group routine to start all over again. And all of that in just a few weeks.

(SIGH!)

The good thing is that I like the more regular routine of the school year. I know the schedule better, enjoy the pace of ministry better, feel like I am not always caught in a whirlwind. And, for the most part, after labor day people are done with their vacations until Turkey Day and Christmas, which makes it easier to find volunteers to support certain activities and programs.

I also like the activities of fall. Hiking weather, when it is not raining, is much nicer. I like the whole sweatshirt and shorts things at soccer games. And it seems that this year a lot of our youth will be more involved in school activities than in years past, which is always very cool to go watch all the youth at school and in their activities.

This year will be a lot different here. There is a lot of pressure for me to get a second service going. Our youth group is quickly moving from a predominately junior high group to a group with more high schoolers. The vacation was not restful at ALL, and now I am not wanting to deal with anything or anyone remotely stressful. And I am feeling guilty about that.

WATCH OUT ME, HERE FALL COMES.

The Light bulb came on

The first week of the month, I was a camp pastor at Black Forest Camp in Monument, CO. And, as I put together the week, I learned a lot about my faith in putting the camp together.

The theme that was set up for all the camps was "glow in the dark faith". Thus, the whole theme was the metaphor of light from the gospels. I was a little frustrated at first, because the concept is kind of abstract for 3rd-5th graders, but I think I did a good job.

But at that time and ever since, I have been aware of all sorts of different lights, and how light describes the attributes of God in so many ways. More than that though, I became aware of how light surrounds us constantly--stars and moon at night, and sun at day. At the presence of light, and thinking about God as light, has reminded me in powerful ways about the constant "here"ness of God. And also how he is constantly invading our world with his love, and we are constanly ingnoring it. And somehow, as I have awakened the last couple of days, it has been impossible to ignore the presence of God basking upon me through the shades.

"the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it"--John 1

Pearl Kruse--1909--2005

My great-grandmother passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Until now, I have been struck speechless about the matter.

One of the things that struck me speechless is that she did not want to have a funeral. I am a person who likes clear senses of beginnings and of closures. So it threw me for a loop. I was not there when she shared why she did not want a funeral per se, but from what I remember of her I think it has to do with a combination of two things.

One, I think she simply did not want people to make that much of a fuss over her. She was a quiet pillar of strength for many of us personally, and for much of our family as a whole. But part of her strength is that she could be with you, not say anything memorable, and yet you leave her feeling totally appreciated and completely surrounded by love. At family gatherings, it would often seem that she was sitting off in a corner not doing much of anything. But by the end of the evening she had figured out what was going on in everyone's life, and when you were with her she made you feel like you were the most important person in the entire world. Her life was about doing the right thing, loving her family and friends, and tending to her flower gardens (which she did well into her senior years).

Which leads me to the second reason I think she didn't want a funeral. For Grandma Pearl, life was a thing to celebrate and live to the fullest! She worked in her flower garden into the years when many others her age are using walkers and wheelchairs to get around. Many of us have pictures of her, not looking much younger than she did a week ago, with a trowell in her work-glove covered hands and a big smile on her face. Most of us in the family also have pictures of her showing us her "thimble finger" upon request, especially when she added a new one to her collection. And she trudged through old farm land around Roundup, MT until her and her sister found the old farmhouse where they grew up. And if you said something that was inappropriate or mean in her mind, you knew. But often, it only took a look. She was easily the most kind, most compassionate, most selfless person I have ever met. There is no doubt she had her disappointments, her heartaches and heartbreaks, but she stayed strong and positive through all of it.

Her life was a blessing to us. She will be missed. But thank God for my great-grandmother, Pearl Kruse as well.

Failure at 4:30....the blues

As most of you my last couple weeks have been chaotic. Well....lets say the last couple months. The trouble with all of that is that I have gotten out of my routine of self-care. I ate mass quanities of unhealthy stuff at camp...like bacon eggs and hash browns for breakfast every morning. My trip to see my sister was not that much better. Although I think I did a heroic job of avoiding boredom eating by web surfing, I have gotten out of my routine of making my own meals, eating in instead of eating out, and the like.

So I got 10 cent folders at Walmart for a log of exercise and diet stuff. The thing is, I am avoiding the log. Cause I am having a hard time getting back into the rhythym of healthy eating and exercise (and it is a rhythm of life for me that makes that happen). Part of getting out of this rhythym is my summer schedule, and part of it is my workaholic ways. Either way, most of my diet, schedule, and exercise is something I need to own or take responsibility for.

So I went to the coffee shop for a standing meeting that I established that nobody else ever shows up for. And while I was waiting I had a bagel with cream cheese! I was not hungry, but I needed to look like I was doing something while I was waiting so I bought the bagel and ate it.

I got in the car, and realized I was eating when I was not really hungry. I was falling in the bad patterns of eating what is easy and when I feel obligated too. And I told myself, "Today like yesterday is a dietary failure!" (Well add some expletives in as well).

Then another thought came into my head. "It is only 4:30pm. I have had lunch and a bagel for a snack, but the day is not complete yet. Infact, if you just cut back a little bit at dinner and don't snack, the day might even be considered a dietary success!"

Why do I share this? Cause I think it fits a pattern in my life and others lives as well. Just because you failed at 4:30, doesnt mean you are a failure at midnight. Press on, and realize that there is always more time left to grow and change until your time is done.

Nephews getting a bubble bath 

Whats that--nephews in the bathtub 

Th marquee at the IMPROV on my birthday 

My sis and I at the IMPROV 

My momma with my nephews Zach and Garrett 

My baby sister on my birthday 

The boys at lunch 

Pictures looking out from Doheny beach 

My sis and her baby at the beach 

Zach likes to know what is going on outside 

Garrett in the car seat on the way to get pictures 

Here are the boys trying on my shoes 

In my opinion, the best mexican food in Southern California 

My nephew Garrett 

The view of the mountains from the camp I was at. 

Hot 40 over 40 (on VH 1)

In the rankings I had the following surprises:

That they are over 40
Jet Li
Nicolette Sheridan
Vivica Fox (by far the hottest of the over 40 so far)

Suprised that they were on the list
Oprah
Ellen
Fran Drescher
Bono
Tommy Lee
Rosanna Arquette

Dukes of Hazzard review

I went to watch the Dukes of Hazzard Wednesday night. Very fun! Very cool!

The car scenes were fun. There was a lot to laugh about. The plot was well crafted and in line with the TV show. There was also some commentary through the movie that was just....well....interesting.

First of all, as most of you I am sure know, NASCAR was started by bootleggers in the South. They "pimped their ride" to outrun the law, and then raced those cars on tracks on Sundays after church.

In the Dukes of Hazzard, the Dukes run moonshine and also race cars. In comes this NASCAR guy who has sold out--literally and figuratively--on his way to being successful on the NASCAR circuit. He has become a high-fallutin spoiled rich guy who doesn't see any purpose in a town not big enough for a OUTBACK.

Shades of Jeff Gordon??? I think in lots of folks minds this is the case!

Also there is a lot of reaction when they get to Atlanta to the confederate flag on the top of the car--positive and negative. Which they discover COOTER has put on their when they get there. When talked to about whether they are white or not, Luke says "Actually, we prefer the term Appalachian Americans!"

The supporting cast in this movie is well put together. Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse--who is hillarious, Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg--also well done. Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke--which is a really good part for her as well. Linda Carter as Aunt Pauline is also a fun choice.

The soundtrack sounds fantastic too! Willie Nelson singing the theme song. Jessica singing the boots song. And a lot of southern rock and acdc.

Beware though. A lot of drug humor...obviously the liquor humor...and much more.

All in all though, if you liked the show in the old days, you will not be dissappointed with the movie.

Book List

Here is another list of books I saw at the bookstore, but refused to purchase:

The Sevenfold Yes--Willi Lambert
A book about Ignatian spirituality

Holy Silence--J Brent Bill
A book about Quaker spirituality

The Way of Jesus--Campbell

No Perfect People Allowed--Burke
A book about the philosophy of Gateway Community Church in Austin TX

Speaking my Mind--Tony Campolo

Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile--Daniel Nettle

Swimming with Scapulars
A compelling spiritual autobiography of a young Catholic

Practical Intuition--Angela Martin

The Shy Single

Teachers Have It Easy (the book is actually the opposite of the title)

Quotes for Today

St Ignatius of Loyala

"To seek and find God in everything"

"Find God in all things"

As he was heard praying "My God, if people only knew you"

Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness is a butterfly, which if pursued, is always beyond our grasp, nut which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you."

BTK and segmenting your life

I watched an in depth dateline story on the BTK killer in Wichita. Very interesting. Probably most interesting to me is how easy it is to live "dual lives" and segment ourselves off from other parts of ourselves.

With BTK, he was able to segment the BTK killer person off from the family man who was a compliance officer and a president of his Lutheran church. He could just wall off the bad parts of him into a specific time and place, and live the rest of life differently.

It made me think about how we do that a lot of times in our lives. Many of us segment off "God time" into specific sections of the day or week. And then take the rest as "our time". We segment the party self from the responsible self. We lived divided lives. It seems to me that part of the mission of Christ is to help us live whole, undivided lives. And that is a lot easier said than done a lot of times.

Muticultural Haircutting experiences and my newest adventure

Well, once again I have had a multicultural haircutting adventure.

My first experience of this kind was when I was in KC KS. I went into a haircutting school and got assigned to a gentleman who "had never cut Caucasian hair before". He suggested that when he got to a barber shop he would simply do the vaccuum cutter for us white folks, as getting a sight line for cutting was too difficult with us.
Soon, I had several students standing around me learning how to cut a "Caucasian man's" hair. (He was so carefult to call me Caucasian instead of white)

A couple of years later I went into a haircutting place to get my hair done before my sister's wedding. This woman was Laotian. She kept telling me, no matter what I said, "I give you clipper cut #5, YOU LIKE. YOU SEE. SIT DOWN." She was correct about what I would like, but the language and cultural barriers were hillarious.

Today I had a man that had grown up in Spain and in Italy cut my hair at Fantastic Sam's. Some how my understanding of what I wanted and his understanding of what I wanted got mixed up, and now my hair is very bleach blonde! The nephews were scared of me when I came home, and I am still not sure what to think, except to say that they adventure of a new dew was a lot of fun! I am a little scared of what others are going to think once I get home though.

Vacation Reading

So far after one day of vacation I have finished one book and gotten most of the way through another.

The first was PRAISE HABIT by David Crowder. An excellent, fun read with some depth. The second was an autobiography of Leonard Peltier. This is proving to be very interesting as well.

Hopefully I will have more to report on in this regard as the week progresses.

For the last four weeks I have been on a book buying fast, trying to make use of the books I have before I buy new ones. Waiting to see what I get for my birthday. Should be fun!

Church Hurts

I hesitate in sharing this post. There are those of you out there that have abandoned the church altogether because of your church hurts. And I desprately hope that you will change your mind. On the other hand, I feel like I need to share a few of mine, and hopefully in the process give a better glimpse into who I am and why I do what I do as a minister.

So....now the question is....where do I start?

I suppose that would be first grade. I spent first grade in a private Christian school, in a cubicle doing workbooks for my education. I remember getting the belt for walking over to the window and staring out it at the kids who got to go out and play in kindergarten while I was stuck inside in first grade. I also remember one of the high schoolers in a cubicle nearby dropping marbles on the floor. When nobody would fess up to their evil deeds, we all had to get on our knees and beg for forgiveness.

My church affiliated with that school, however, was wonderful. I remember my Sunday School teacher named Eileen, and how much she loved all us kids. I remember the love I felt in Sunday School and church to this day.

My next church I found was in around 6th grade. It was a church full of wonderful, loving people who truly reached out to myself and my family. They were also clearly a little overly legalistic and fundamental. All dancing was wrong. Wearing shorts was wrong. Listening to secular music was wrong. Even Chrsitian rock was sinful. We all should stick to classical music we were told. Boys and girls were not allowed to swim with each other. We might provoke each other to lust after all. There was a lot of guilt associated with faith from my experience here. Some of it the result of a healthy conscience, and some of my guilt feelings a little over stimulated by an overly legalistic church.

We moved again when I was in high school. We found a Southern Baptist church (like the one affiliated with the Christian school when I was younger.) Again there were places where I felt very affirmed here, but ultimately we had to leave after a year. The pastor had a ventriloquist doll he named HERSHEY that played to all sorts of racial stereotypes, so much so that even the MORMONS were offended. They also had a confederate flag in their sons window. My mom was criticized from the pulpit for taking a job to support her family for the summer that meant she had to work a lot of Sundays. I was belittled by the pastor's son for taking a "WELFARE JOB".

We went to another church for the next three years. I felt very affirmed and accepted there. I had some differences of opinion with Church of Christ/Christian Church theology of baptism. But I also was supported and loved. My sister did not feel quite the same way though...and I think is still bitter about our experience there.

In college I attended a wonderful American Baptist church in Kansas. They helped me grow in my gifts and skills, affirmed me for who I was, and spoiled me rotten all the way through college.

As I have been in ministry, I have struggled through lots of church hurts as well.

Most recently, it has been at my current church. It has been a difficult two years. I have been criticized because I am too peppy in doing announcements, my suit does not fit well enough, when my shoes come untied I get in trouble. I have been told that my sermons are too conversational, and that my suit just isnt nice enough so just wear a robe to do announcements. ANNOUNCEMENTS! I have been beat up for going the speed limit. Which then led to me not being a good driver because I refused to speed. This led to a big conference where I was told that I lacked energy (even though I took two youth trips with kids when the last two youth pastors could not pull together one.), that I did not fit the "image the church wanted to project" (because I was unhealthy and overweight), and thus I would need to go to the doctor, go on a diet, consult a fitness trainer, and be held accountable for this. And that this was now a "condition of my employment". I have been publically mocked about a related health condition in front of the congregation by the pastor. I sometimes wear Hawaiian shirts with khaki pants during the week as an associate pastor of youth. I have been told in writing that my attire is gawdy as a result. There have been jokes about me flodding the choir unless they put hardly any water in the baptismal because I am so big--in staff meetings by my superior. In short, I have felt like I was in a junior high time warp. And the constant put downs and criticisms at times have made me feel like a worthless, hopeless failure who is stuck where I am forever. But things are getting better, relationships are being healed, forgiveness is being asked for, and so I am feeling a little bit better about being where I am at.

I guess I am at church because despite the hurts, the heartaches, and the lonliness of being there, there is a sense of God's presence and work in spite of it all. I still sense his love through the church, as broken as it can be sometimes. And I still see his Spirit working. So I press on.

A Friar's Life

Wonder where I have been?

In case you have not been paying attention, last week was working at camp. It was an adventure. At times I wanted to scream, but in any event I thought in total it went very well.

Our theme was "Glow in the Dark Faith". That was the theme for the year put together by my buddy Mike.

I went a little different direction and had a different type of light for a theme for every day. It was pretty fun!

Some of my talks I thought were a little too creative for 3-6 grade, but for the most part they went really well. The kids went out of their way to say that I did a good job of sharing about faith in a way that makes sense to them and they could understand, which they did not have to do! So, I guess I will take that at face value and assume that they thought that I did a good job.

I also pulled out my alter-ego Nancy from Templed Hills camp past, as I guarded the girls cabin until their counselor came back to camp. (About an hour and a half of sitting on the front porch of the cabin listening to girls giggle inside.) (The alter-ego Nancy is about telling the gals I just want to be "one of the gals" when I enter their space. That and speaking in a high-pitched voce that makes them giggle.)

Some of our staff situation was interesting, and since it was the last week before they sell the camp to developers it was a hard week in that regard.

The hard thing about juniors is that they don't make those giant mountaintop leaps of faith the way that a lot of high school and middle school kids do. And that is a difficult thing to get used to, especially when that is how a lot of people justify the success and failure of camp.

Camp food. Ate way too much! Hopefully all the walking up and down hills will make up for it!

WHAT IS EVERYONE OUT THERE'S EXPERIENCE OF CHRISTIAN CAMPING??

Gig's Meme Response

1. Ten years ago --Graduating from college, going to seminary, and working at a camp for underpriviledged youth in Peoria, IL.

2. Five years ago -I was officiating my sister's wedding.

3. One year ago - Was sitting in my office listening to a church leader and the pastor telling me that weight loss was a condition of my employment because I did not fit "the image they wanted to present"

4. Yesterday-Got home from the final camp at Black Hills Camp and Conference Center before they turn it over to developers to build 300,000 houses there.

5. Today -Did the church thing. Sunday School, church, youth group, over to friends for lunch.

6. Tomorrow - Fly to see family in California.

7. Five snacks I enjoy --marguiritas, slurpees, Doritoes, fruit salad, oatmeal raisin cookies

8. Five bands I know the lyrics of most of their songs: U2, Rich Mullins

9. Five things I would do with $100,000,000 -- pay bills, establish endowments for missionaries I respect so they do not have to raise funds, plant a church, quit my job, become a full-time student, give away lots of it.

10. Five locations I’d like to run away to: Homer, AK; Flathead Lake, MT; Spokane WA; San Diego, CA; Some South Pacific Island where they think plus size gentleman are attractive.

11. Five Bad Habits: bad eating habits, working too much, avoiding conflict, talking too much, thinking/fixating about the opposite gender too much.

12. Five things I like doing: blogging/writing, golfing, reading, going to movies,


13. Five T.V. shows I like: Sportscenter, FOX NEWS WATCH, Surreal Life, Celebrity Fit Club, HARDBALL.

14. Famous People I’d like to meet: Bono, President Bush, GK Chesterton, Martin Luther King JR, St Francis of Assisi

15. Biggest joys at the moment: VACATION

16. Favorite toys: My car, my singing Homer Hula doll, my nunzilla windup toy.

Great Flick.

I have watched this movie two times in the last week. Once at camp and once with our youth group this evening. This movie, as Traci will attest, is a great, classic movie.

The problem with it is you cannot keep from saying the quotes from the movie for a about a week afterward.

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

"You mocked me once, never do it again."

"Mawwwaige, is the sacred bond......."

"Wuv, twu wuv..."

ANY OTHER FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THIS MOVIE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?