The Best Day Ever.

What a day!

1. Slept in till 10am [First time in a long time!]

2. Left for Cleveland at 2pm with my beautiful wife.

3. Wandered around an unknown city. [Just like in the old days before we were dating.]

4. Ate dinner at an old Irish Pub. [Fish and Chips. Plus they played several U2 songs.]

5. Walked down to were the Cleveland Indian's play. [my Baseball team.]

6. Went to the arena early. [Bought some cool t-shirts.]

7. Watched opening act, "Duffy". [Amazing Band, She needs to work on her stage presence.]

8. Then the main event. "Coldplay!" [Jaw Droppingly Awesome.]

9. Setlist:

- Life In Technicolor 
- Violet Hill 

- Clocks 
- In My Place (Huge drums!!!)
- Speed Of Sound 
- Cemeteries Of London 
- Chinese Sleep Chant 
- 42
- Fix You 
- Strawberry Swing 
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (techno version) (* ten feet in front of us.) 
- Talk (techno version) (* ten feet in front of us.) 
- The Hardest Part (piano - Chris) (* ten feet in front of us.) 
- Postcards From Far Away (piano instrumental) 
- Viva La Vida 
- Lost! 
- The Scientist (acoustic) (* From the back of the stadium.) 
- Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic - Will singing) (* From the back of the stadium.)
- Viva La Vida (remix interlude)
------
- Politik
- Lovers In Japan (Amazing!!! - song of the night for me.)
- Death And All His Friends
-------
- Yellow 
- The Escapist (outro)

10. Experiencing the whole thing with my beautiful wife ................. priceless!

Here are some photo's Kim took.

It was a long and dark December. 

If you love me won't you let me know.

You didn't get to heaven but you made it close.

God put a smile on your face.

I hear Jerusalem Bells are ringing.

I know Saint Peter will call my name.

Death will never conquer. 

I will try to fix you.

Dylan @ Disneyland

Here are some funny video's from our trip to Disneyland. ENJOY!

1. Dylan on the Tea Cups Ride.

2. Dylan watching the end of his first Disneyland parade.

Jason the Defender!

So, the other night I was dreaming that some guys had Kim and were hurting her. In my dream I had infinite karate skills, so I just ran up and round house kicked them in the face. When your wife is in trouble, you don't have time to think, you just have to react! The only problem is when I reacted in my dream, I also reacted in my sleep, which consisted of me kicking the wall right next to the bed really hard. I jacked up one of my toe's pretty bad but saving Kim was worth it.

Vacation Fun!

Here are some vacation photo's.

We are having so much fun!

Go-Cart Fun!

Carousel Fun.

Train Fun!

Family Fun!

Parents Time for Fun! 

Tomorrow Disneyland!

Wish us luck!

To the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

To my Love,

To my Best Friend,

To my Wife,

To the greatest Mother ever,

and the Sexiest Woman alive,

Happy Birthday!

I love You.

We made it.

Well we made it. We are now in Southern California. Dylan did as good as we could have expected on his first plane ride. On the 5 1/2 hour flight we had someone else in our row and I think she thought Dylan was going to give her the plague or something. The look of sheer terror on her face when she saw she was sitting next to our boy, was very enlightening in regards to what kind of trip this was going to be. 

Once we got to Kim's parents at 2am New York time, we were all bushed and so we went bed. Dylan thought it would be a good idea to lay spread eagle in the middle of the bed, leaving Kim and I the very edges. So need less to say we are all rested up and ready to take on the day. First thing on today's vacation agenda............. a nap.

Old Friends at Teen Camp.

A few months ago I got asked to lead worship at a teen camp that was for all the youth groups in the Upstate New York district. So in late July me and some friends put together a worship team, two members of which were my old friends Jeremy Schulz and Josh Bachran. 

It was so great to see them and just hang out like old times. It made me realize that even though I have some amazingly close friendships here in New York, their is just something about being around people that you have known and have known you for years. I miss that. These guy are two of my best friends and I love them dearly. We had such a great time and camp was awesome. By like the second day those kids came hungry to worship God, it was amazing to watch. The picture above is us with some campers.

Flying California

On tuesday we will be flying to Southern California for the first time since we moved to New York. We are all really excited and kinda nervous at the same time.We will get to see many of our friends and family that we have not seen in ages. This will be Dylan's first plane ride, so we hope he does well. We are going to try to get to Disneyland and the beach at least once while we are out there, cause God knows when we will be able to come again. I am looking forward to attending our old church on sunday and not being in charge of anything. 

This vacation comes at a really good time for me because lately I have been feeling extremely burned out and like I just don't have anything left to give. I can't wait to spend some good quality with Kim and Dylan because as much as I try not to let it happen, sometimes they get the short end of the stick when it comes to my time. So I am really looking forward to correcting that mistake.

I Stopped Blogging!

Have you ever noticed that if you stop blogging for a while, 

it's really hard to start back up again. It's like their's all this pressure to make your first one back really good. Since so much has happened since I last blogged, I'll just use this one as a warm up.

I thought this video was amazing. Enjoy! 

Eye Of The Tiger

These are the eye's of someone who is tired of thinking about deep, spiritual stuff. I have been up to my ears lately in school of ministry homework. I had to write two sermons this week, one on Job chapters 1&2 and the other on Romans chapter 6. These topic were of my own choosing but man couldn't I have picked something easier. I could go on forever about how amazing a man Job was or how I love when Paul gets straight to the point in Romans 6 about freedom from sin. 

To be honest though, I think my my brain might explode and ooze out my ear at any minute. My brain needs a break. I need to watch a Seinfeld episode that I have seen a hundred times or just turn a fan on high speed right by my head so the white noise blocks my thoughts. Anyone know a good fart joke? Those are always good for mindless entertainment.

My Most Recent Top 5 Songs

So much great music has come out in the last few months, that I thought I would share my most recent favorites. Here are my top 5 favorite songs right now in order.

1. "Violet Hill' by Coldplay [amazing single, I can't wait for the album.]

2. "Grapevine Fires" by Death Cab for Cutie [California Fires, very emotional.]

3. "Empty Bottles" by Stacy Clark [A brand new favorite, thanks Silo!]

4. "My Soul Sings" by Delirious? [An amazing worship song.]

5. "Get On the Plane" by The Myriad [I am Pete Best!]

Alright now it's time for you guys to crack open your ipods and make your own lists.

I love stuff like this, I am such music nerd.

Praying Over Food Can Be Dangerous!

So I went to lunch yesterday with a friend of mine at a country club. Now, I am not usually the type to hang out at a country club but I had heard so much about this amazing goat cheese and scallops salad, that we thought we would try it.

Anyways, so the food comes and like a good boy, I offered to pray over the food. So I bowed my head and just about put my eye out on one of the salads long pointy tentacles. Yep. That really happened. Good thing no one saw.............Oh wait the whole restaurant saw!You know, Sometimes you just gotta laugh and rub your eye at the same time. No wait that thing had salad dressing on it........... it stings .... it stings!

Lost and Found

This morning Dylan and I got up at our usual time, but that was going be all that was usual about this morning. Instead of completing our usual routine of Playhouse Disney and Cheerios, we were forced into a foreign land. This foreign land did not include our regular morning pals of "Little Einsteins" or "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" and not even "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"! Thats right folks, I lost the remote. Not just lost it but rather, it had disappeared.

Sooooo, after like fifteen minutes on my hands and knees looking for the remote, I heard my son saying something. He had been talking for a while but I didn't not hear him because I was to busy searching for the remote. He was saying "Doggy, Doggy" and pointing to the window. Outside I looked and there were our two dogs playing in the backyard. He was fascinated by them for some reason, so I scooped him up, put him in his high chair and rolled him on over to the window. There he ate his breakfast and laughed wildly watching the dogs play. I turned on the new Steve Fee album and in my heart began to praise God. What a great morning! I think I will leave the remote lost. Well...... until Thursday for The Office. haha. 

I encourage you, to shake up your routine or you might just end up wearing one of those remote head bands that are so wildly popular. You never know where God is waiting to meet you!

Krispy Kreme Wedding Cake

So, I went to a wedding in Ohio this weekend. It was the wedding of some of my oldest, closest  friends. It was definitely an evening of contrasts. The wedding was in this very old, very beautiful, very traditional Lutheran Church but the reception was in a Modern Art Museum. Not only was the reception in an Art Museum but it was kind of a Movie Themed reception. But the best of all we the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Wedding Cake. Yep, you heard me right! In this museum of fine art we were all eating doughnuts. Crazy. I guess Krispy Kreme has a higher social status than I thought. Here is the proof!

Great Big Shoes

After I took this picture, I remembered a song my friend Dan Lance wrote a while back called "Great Big Shoes". I only heard the song once or twice but the title stuck out to me. Dylan had been walking around in my shoes all day that day. He tripped, he fell, he cried but always he got up. As some of us try to walk in the shoes of Jesus and live our lives as he did. We should never forget, that when we fall, to get back up and continue striving to take the next step. Because our father is waiting with open arms, just like I was waiting for Dylan.

My next post I promise to get off the soap box.

Marvelous Light

I never thought by wife would give birth to a break dancer. Oh well, I guess I better buy some gloves with the finger tips cut off.

Be Strong...Have Faith and Fo Bricks.

I had a pastors class this weekend, it was about 2 1/2 hours away from home.  It was a very interesting class, all about becoming a holy people. It was also about defining our faith as a denomination and how we get rid of horrible misconceptions. Very cool. And really, any chance you get to sleep on an air mattress it's a treat. Nope!

The picture at the top is a wall in the youth room at the church where my class was. I just thought it was the most encouraging fake brick wall I had ever seen.As we all know Graffiti and Fo Brick Walls are a youth room essentials. I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because the kids want to feel like they are livin the Thug Life. Never the less, the statement on the wall is very true and it encouraged me.

In the last year, I have:

- Moved across the country [with my wife, a 6 month old, two dogs and a cat.]

- Started a new job [Worship Pastor @ Life Church: North Site]

- Visited Canada [ Eeh.]

- Lost my mind several times [and then briefly found it again.]

- Watched my son Dylan, become a year old and beyond [18 months]

- Lost 30 pounds [Yeah!!]

- Got my District Pastors License [Pastor Day....Sounds weird.]

- Froze my butt off [Winter here, lasts from November - March.]

- Learned how to use a snow blower [My back thanks me.]

- Really become good at doing the dishes [I am house broken.]

Thats all for now. 

Feel free to make your own lists and post it in my comments page.

P.S. 

Meet Dylan Joshua Day the 18 month old.