Back to Normal?

Well, I'm happy to report that things are back to normal ... sort of. Abby Kaye has recovered from the bug she had. We are 100% moved out of the old place. Boxes litter the landscape of our house, but pathways have been made through the debris. Also, I am insanely behind on my reading and coursework.

Despite a serious shortage in sleep this week and no hope for relief until this weekend, it feels good that we are finally getting over this difficult stretch for us. I have several thoughts I keep wanting to blog about but haven't had the time to seriously get to. I'll be getting to those as my feet get under me a bit more. Also, I have a really interesting trip next week that I'm looking forward to. I'll blog about it when its appropriate in the future.

When Moving and Sickness Collide

Well, we finished the move on Saturday for the most part. We still have a bit to clean up in the old place, but we're mostly there. Several good friends helped us out immensely on the whole moving process.

Unfortunately, Saturday night Abby Kaye got sick and started throwing up. It was a pretty miserable night for everyone. ALL night long - every 30 to 40 minutes. Awful. She stopped throwing up Sunday morning and we thought she was getting better. But then she threw up again this morning. Pray for her if you have the chance. We're taking her into the doctor's office this morning to see if it's something serious.

In other news, Sunday was my last week of teaching "Jonah" in the young couples class at our church. I really enjoyed the whole personal learning process and the teaching opportunity. Jonah is such a cool book of the Bible

Well - hopefully that keeps you somewhat updated on my life. As long as Abby isn't seriously sick, I think we may finally be starting to get back on top of things.

Mostly Moved

Well, we did it. Thanks to the very generous help of some of our friends, we moved most everything today - in spite of the rain. I am absolutely exhausted right now but it is good to mostly be done.

Caleb and Abby Kaye stayed with friends today while we moved and when we were done moving we got them. They were very excited when they walked into our new place. "This is awesome!" "Cool!"

Our DSL doesn't get connected until Tues so I probably won't post until then - assuming SBC can get their act together (they didn't last time). Thanks for those of you who prayed for us and thanks to you guys who spent time helping us with everything. We are quite grateful!

Rainy Moving

I know we really needed this rain, but why does the only real rain we've had all winter have to come on our moving day? Argh....

Oprah Comes Around

Likely due to my critique of her "truth" comment... :-) Oprah has come around and critiqued "A Million Little Pieces" author Frey.

She laid into him on her show yesterday according to this NYTimes article.

On her previous claim that the "essential truth" was all that mattered, Winfrey has changed her tune.

"I regret that phone call," she said. "I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter. And I am deeply sorry about that, because that is not what I believe."

Taco Night

We have had an incredibly busy and tiring week. Having an Apartment Life event we put on tonight didn't help. However, "Taco Night" was a great success. We had somewhere between 50-60 residents swoop in and devour what we spent most of the day preparing. Can you imagine? I cooked 20 lbs. of hamburger meat, prepared 3 lbs. of tomatoes, two jars of salsa, 5 lbs. of lettuce, 5 lbs. of refried beans, 6 lbs. of cheese, and about 200 taco shells and tortillas.

So the residents came and really enjoyed the food. Lots of it. It was fun and especially good to see lots of new faces. Then in the middle of it, a car caught on fire in the parking lot! Whew.

Our house is a tangled snarl of miscellaneous items both packed and unpacked. Tomorrow is our last day to finish packing before Saturday. Fortunately, this is a light weekend for me in terms of seminary work due.

When Bad Weeks Get Worse

For some dumb reason you can't paste into blogger. I messed up and accidentally published on my family blog. So to read about a difficult day for us go here.

This is truly a very tough week for us. If you have the chance, please pray for our family. Everything is just snowballing on us. Thanks.

Countdown to Graduation

Only 112 days until graduation! (As of this post: 2678 hours, 35 minutes, 37 seconds).

Not that I'm counting.

Done With Papers

Well, I am happy to report that I am finally done with that onslaught of papers. And yes it really does feel great to be out from under all that weight. Of course, now I'm in the midst of my spring semester!

I am personally pretty tired right now from all the late nights I've been pulling. On another front, don't expect too much blogging for the next few weeks. I have several topics I'm mulling over right now and want to blog but we'll be moving across the road next Saturday (28th) and we have so much to get together for that.

I'll try to keep you guys updated, but I might even be offline for a few days when the phone gets transferred. We would greatly appreciate your prayers during this move. Also, if any of you guys would like, I could use a few hours of good help on moving day. I'll supply pizza and drinks!

Thesis Finished

Well, my first draft of my thesis is done. I have to say that this has been quite the learning experience. I would do so many things differently if I did it again. Still, the overall process has been very instructive to me. I've learned tons about the research process and about my subject area (the emergent church and small groups).

My main hope is that Dr. Kreider (whom I greatly appreciate and value and think is really cool - especially if he reads this post) won't make me rewrite too much of it for my final draft.

I should be back to regular "ruminating" after this week. I still have two rather large papers due this coming Friday.

A Million Little Problems

(Despite not being done yet with my bundles of papers, I was quite bothered by this issue - I think because of self-righteous zeal - and am posting it here to vent.)

I haven't read A Million Little Pieces, but find the latest news sadly ironic. If The Smoking Gun is accurate, this wonderful story of redemption from a life of deception, addiction, and denial is apparently mostly fabricated/exaggerated. Ironically, this would mean the author is still living a life in deception (to millions now), addiction (to money), and denial.

Oprah helped catapault Frey to stardom when she promoted his book. My wife actually bought this book for her mom because her mom saw the show and really wanted the book for Christmas. Oprah has now responded to the criticism and said, "To me, it seems to be much ado about nothing."

My thoughts are: 1) It's no big deal that pretty much every fact that could be verified about a non-fiction book turned out to be false? 2) It's sad that Frey apparently still hasn't overcome his biggest problems. 3) Does this reflect some postmodern thinking at work in our society? Is the truth behind this "non-fiction" work really no big deal?

Did Jesus Exist?

Finally .... now we'll get the definitive answer:

CNN: Did Jesus exist? Court to decide.

Back from the Conference

I got back from the youth conference yesterday. It went very well. So for those of you who were praying for me, thank you. I believe three or four youth indicated they were accepting Christ. That was really great.

But boy have I been exhausted since then. I have no emotional/mental energy at all. Physically I'm okay, but otherwise I feel quite drained.