First and Last

Hey, LaRae tagged me! So, here you go.

First and LastFirst Memory: I have a very distinct memory of sitting behind my mother as she drove her school bus (she is a school bus driver, BTW), her coffee slipping from where she placed it, and me catching it in mid-air without spilling a drop.

First Real Kiss: Oh, but there's been so many. In kindergarten, I snuck behind a mirror with a cute girl in a red dress, but I doubt that could be considered "real". I guess we would have to go with my first girlfriend, which would have been 10th grade (yeah, I was a late bloomer). I thought she was going to suffocate me with her tongue.

First Concert: I really think this would have to have been at ACU in Moody Coliseum. Probably Diamond Rio?

First Love: I should go with the pat answer and say Jennifer, but the fact is that I really loved the girlfriend I had a couple of girlfriends before her, Sara. Still, that was nothing compared to Jennifer (First doesn't mean best).

First crush: I already mentioned the cute girl in the red dress from kindergarten, didn't I?

First thing you think in the morning: "When is Jennifer going to turn off that stupid alarm?", which is really a stupid thought on days like today when she is out of town.

First book you remember loving: Probably The Monster at the End of this Book, although I have to give props to the Alfred Hitchock and the Three Investigators series of books, which was the first time I remember really devouring books joyfully.

First pet: Muffin, the toughest cat ever. I can't tell you how many times I saw that cat stand paw to paw with and eventually chase off big dogs.

First question you'll ask in Heaven: (In response to whoever asks their question before me) Who cares? We're in heaven now.

First thing you think of when you hear the word vacation: The Seafoam Motel in Nags Head, NC.

First best friend: Frank Watson. We were in kindergarten together, and he and I shared just about every lunch until he moved to Colorado in the 9th grade.

Last time you dressed up: Define "dressed up". I put a tie on last Sunday, which is dressing up for me nowadays.

Last thing you ate: Whataburger breakfast- Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Taquito and a Sausage Breakfast on a Bun.

Last CD you bought: "Hit" by Peter Gabriel and "Greatest Hits 2" by Toby Keith, both for Jennifer on our anniversary.

Last book you read: If comic books don't count, then it was Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America by Richard T. Hughes.

Last time you cried: Yeah, it's no surprise that I wear my feelings on my sleeve and cry often enough to make Randy uncomfortable. Oddly, I get misty-eyed every time I see the preview for the movie Hairspray, where you see the kids taking part in a 60's-era protest, but the last time I really cried was when we got the last report about Booger from the vet.

Last movie you saw: I just saw a Bruce Campbell double feature on TV (The Man with the Screaming Brain and Alien Apocalypse), but in a theater I recently saw the second Fantastic Four Movie.

Last time you told someone you loved them: Well, Church was this morning, so I'm sure I told Jesus that I loved him somewhere in there. I told Booger that I loved him just a few moments ago when I checked on him. I told Jennifer that I loved her when she called a few hours ago on her way back. Telling people I love them isn't something I'm overly hesitant to do.

Last really funny thing you did: One of Booger's medical problems is that he has stopped eating, so I've taken to walking around our house with bowls of Booger's food. If he is in the bedroom, I bring him food in the bedroom. If he moves to the living room, I retreive the food from the bedroom and move it to him in the living room. I'm like Kitty Meals on Wheels nowadays.

Last thing you watched on TV: Fox News (currently doing a retrospective on the success of Ron Popeil).

Last Halloween costume: I really have absolutely no memory of the last costume I wore. For last year's fall festival, I wore a black shirt and Jennifer wore an orange one. Does that count?

Last Concert attended: I hate to end with a whimper, but I'm really not a concert goer. If my first concert was Diamond Rio at ACU, then my last one was probably Colin Raye, also at ACU. Is he the guy that did the song with the line, "I like the preacher from the Church of Christ"? I just remember everyone at Moody coliseum singing along and really shouting at that line.

Alright, I guess I will tag Eric and Kent.

Prayer Request

I know I'm late on updating, but some fairly major things are going on right now. Booger is in kitty hospital right now, and they aren't quite sure what it is, but it's bad. I don't know how you feel about praying for the health and well being of animals, but I know Jennifer and I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers right now.

Being Mary in a Martha World

At this moment, I am trying to do three things simultaneously. I am updating my blog (yes, a day late), waiting for the delivery of our new sleep number bed, and preparing for my sermon this Sunday at Baker Boulevard CoC. Although the sermon is rough right now, I think it will come out of Luke 10:38-42.

38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

I don't know whether it is my relative lack of busyness with school being out or what, but I have to confess that lately I've been feeling a lot like Martha in my spiritual life. This Sunday is the most recent example, if not the best. Jennifer and I both started Sunday early, as Jennifer had to be at church by 8:30 to rehearse with the praise team and I am teaching one of the Sunday morning classes. Literally as Jennifer was brushing her teeth with one hand to rush to this practice, she was flipping through a binder with the other so that she would be prepared for the children's class she was subbing in. When I got to church, I remembered that the person I had scheduled to prepare the Lord's Supper emailed me and told me that they wouldn't be there, so I went to the kitchen to complete that task. I finsished that with just enough time to set up my classroom before class time. The class itself was fine, but as soon as the "Amen" was said to finish the study, I collected my trusty clipboard and went about finding people to serve during worship. The worship itself (The actual time to be Mary-like, I suppose) was good, but immediately after that it was on to the leadership meeting to debate and discuss what we as a body can DO to serve the Lord. The meeting ended and I had a few hours to prepare for our Home Team meeting and Bible Study.

I'm torn on this issue, I guess. On one hand, I can see the problems inherant in substituting activity for contemplation (how many times can we have the faith vs. works discussion?), but on the other hand, it's not like the activity in question is pointless. What I do, what we all do in the church, is important. It's not like we can all put down the work we have been given to do and just sit in silent reflection over the words of God. Our faith has to have an active component. So how do we balance this?

I think the answer may be an issue of perspective. Perhaps the point is not that we should stop the busyness in our spiritual lives, but rather that we should remember why we take on all this busyness in the first place. The activity that we engage in is not our faith, but it is rather an outcropping of our faith. In other words, the work that we do is not the point, but it is a reflection of the time that we have spent at the feet of Jesus. Perhaps we could use a little more of this time, I suppose, but we shouldn't grow weary of the work we do in response to the love God has shown to us.

Happy Anniversary to Us (A little late)

You'd think that being out of school would give me more free time. This is, by and large, the case, but I am currently in what I like to call the rebuilding phase of my summer vacation. This is the period of time (about a week or so in length) where I finally get to all the little things that have fallen through the cracks during the work year. I've spent most of the day cleaning our bedroom, which was quite a task. I'd post a picture, but I'm not sure where Jennifer put the camera (finding that will be my next rebuilding task).

One of the things that Jennifer and I have been able to do is to celebrate our 7th anniversary. Some of you are aware of the little tradition that Jennifer and I have about this day, but I thought it might make good blog fodder. Most of you are at least passingly familiar with the tradition of buying themed gifts based on which anniversary you are having. If you aren't, Wikipedia has the breakdown of the tradition here. Well, when Jennifer and I prepared for our first anniversary, we really tried to follow this. The first year is supposed to be paper (we were in the dark about the whole modern interpretation at the time). The problem is that you can go in two ways with paper, neither of which really worked for us. We didn't want to go the cheapskate route (Cards, homemade "coupon books"), but we didn't have enough money to go the expensive route (plane tickets, concert tickets). After many weeks of soul searching, we broke down and had a conversation about our predicament, ultimately deciding to scrap the tradition and make our own themed anniversaries instead. Each year we sit down and decide what our theme will be. Here, then, is the list of our Wedding Anniversary Traditional Gifts (thus far):

1st - Pajamas. This sort of makes sense, since the first year you still have all of those hot and heavy romantic feelings for one another and are as likely as you will ever be to appreciate a "sexy" gift. Our first anniversary, Jennifer gave me black silk pajamas, and I gave her something skimpy that probably shouldn't be described. Not surprisingly, I don't think either of us have worn our respective gifts in the years since.

2nd- Videos. Nothing particularly romantic here, but it was an opportunity to prove that we "knew" one another. I gave Jennifer The Phantom Tollbooth and Donald Duck in Mathmagic land, and she gave me one of the seasons of The X-Files.

3rd- Sacrifice. If I remember correctly, this hit us during one of our many financially tight years, but it turned out pretty well. I agreed to go with Jennifer to her ten year high school reunion, and she went to see wrestling with me. She so got the better end of this year, since I was the only spouse at her event and thus got an eternity of boring stories about people I don't know, while there were plenty of wives that got dragged to the AA Center to see Hulk Hogan flex his muscles for two hours.

4th- Food. Okay, this was a little bit of a cop out for us, as we buy food for one another as often as we tell each other, "I love you". This one is kind of hazy for me, but if I remember right, Jennifer bought me a big bag of candy and I took her out to a romantic dinner.

5th- Special Event. This one was a lot of fun, as Jennifer and I stumbled into an advanced screening of the movie Serenity. The movie itself was beyond awesome, but it was also really good because we spent the day at the theater standing in line and talking with one another, rediscovering why we fell in love with one another.

6th- Power Tools. I swear by all that is holy that this was not my idea. Having recently bought the house, Jennifer had been secretly bugged by a hedge that was growing out of control in our backyard, so she asked for hedge trimmers. I in return got a dremel set that is far more advanced than I need for my purposes (customizing action figures). As a side note, I've not once seen Jennifer use the hedge trimmers in question, although I recently broke them out to trim the bush that was bugging Jennifer (does that count as part of the anniversary present?)

7th- Wish List. Amazon.com is a wonderful thing, especially the part that allows you to create a wish list of things that you want others to give you (If you are thinking about me as my birthday approaches, mine is located here) . Again, this was a bit of a cop out for us, but it netted me "40 Years of the Avengers" and "44 Years of Fantastic Four", two DVD-ROM's that together consist of 1085 comic books, scanned cover to cover. In return, Jennifer received a basketball, a couple of CD's, and a bunch of cookware. The girl's got some odd tastes.

Although we usually don't officially decide what the theme will be until sometime in mid to late May, I pressed Jennifer to think ahead and here are a few of the frontrunners for upcomming anniversaries.

8th- Education. Jennifer wants to take a cooking class (not that she needs it), so I will go with her to this class if she will go to a class with me. The problem is I can't for the life of me think of a class I want to take, much less one I would subject her to. Any ideas?

9th- Home Improvement. This is coming sooner or later, but we need some time to save money. We will be updating either our master bathroom or the kitchen, but the details of this are still up for debate.

10th- Vacation. I have talked more than a little about our Nags Head vacation, which was quite good, but Jennifer has been wanting to take a cruise for forever. I'm okay with that as long as it isn't to someplace ordinary (no offense, but Mexico has been done to death). Jennifer jokingly mentioned the Mediterranean, which would be neat, but expensive. Maybe Alaska? I don't know. Anyone have a good cruise they would recommend?

Alright everybody, that's all I've got. Take care of each other.