To the dismay of many and due to low funding, my professional ”blog hour” has been reduced to ”blog minute.” It is 5:35pm and I have been working non-stop, well semi-non-stop all day, imputing recruits into scoutware (the evil empire of recruiting data bases). I only paused to enjoy some taco bell, complements of my favorite co-worker Jenny. And it is only until now, that I have had a moment to spare for blogging. I know this puts a major hindrance in my attempt at being a professional…but it simply cannot be done with the current workload. It was a sad day having to nix blog hour. But perhaps I can bring it back at a later date to the enjoyment of my faithful readers. Although, I do have to boast that the last minute of blog minute has been quite clever and on point, if you will. There may not even be a need for blog hour after all. I’m just that good.
THINGS HUDDLE LEADER’S LIKE… June 2, 2008
Well, looks like I was the first one to post this after all! So take that, everyone who said it wouldn’t happen till next year! I’m now implementing “blog hour” at work. The first hour of work each day will be dedicated to blogging! Which means that I’m kind of like a professional blogger now, since I’m on USD’s dime for that first hour of work. (thanks Becky for bringing this to my attention!) So don’t be surprised if the next time you click on my blog it charges you $2.99. It’s just a small price to pay for professional entertainment. Now here’s to THINGS HUDDLE LEADERS LIKE! (and add your own in your comment!)
FCA Camp!
Late night huddle leader meetings with JP.
Losing campers or finding extra campers in your huddle.
Skit/Drama Team.
Sharing High’s and Low’s.
Silly stringing anybody! (but preferably JP @ R & R)
Starbucks, Freebirds, and Blenders!
Peeing in JP’s pool at the post-camp hangout.
Making fun of the “slow poke” in the group.(thanks KD)
Dressing eachother in thrift store outfits for a night on the town.
Forrest green, long sleeved, corduroy dresses, 3 sizes too big.
Playing Horseshoes at the beach…”that is not funny! not funny at all!”
Throwing a pile of seaweed on your napping friend at the beach post-camp. (this was def. an Anderson, or was it Becky?)
Blue Room Reunions!
No Kids PLEASE! May 29, 2008
This post is a tribute to my long lost friend JP, who now answers to the call of “Mom!” I say “long lost friend” because mom JP and HL Coordinator JP of old, are not one in the same. Let me explain.
Here’s what a typical day looked like with HL JP….zach wakes you up in the blue room at 0500 hours, you go back to sleep till 0900 or 1000 hours, only to awaken to a fresh brewed vanilla chai latte awaiting your every sip. By now HL JP has done all FCA work for the day and is now free to “play” the rest of the day away. There is talk of “what should we do today?” An itinerary is written (only if KD is present) and you are off on the day’s adventure, which will most likely include a trip to blenders, some ultimate frisbee at the beach, a long chat poolside about life and everything in between, and perhaps, if planned right, a nap before dinner! Then concert of a lifetime and games to follow post dinner. All to begin again the next day!
Now here’s what a typical day in the life of Mom JP looks like….zach wakes you up in the blue room at 0600 hours. You doze back to sleep only to be awoken at 0605 hours by a faint glow of light coming from the corner of the blue room as Mom JP frantically tries to find some order in the divine chaos of camp season. As you stumble to the bathroom Mom JP whisks by you and proclaims, “I’ll be back at 10:00.” You wonder to yourself, “10!? But there’s no freshly brewed vanilla chai latte waiting for me! She can’t just waltz out of here without making me a coff”….your thoughts are interrupted by the slam of a door….and it looks like she did just waltz and there is definitely no coffee! So you angrily go back to bed, but zach is determined to not let you sleep too late. So you get up and drive yourself, alone, over to Goleta Coffee Shop. You take your purchased coffee and bagel down to the beach, alone, in the rain, and somberly reminisce about the days of old and HL JP. After you wipe away some tears, you drive back to Mom JP’shouse. She is home awaiting your arrival and informs you that today is going to be “wife day.” ”Wife Day?” This could be promising! Yes, promising indeed! (or so you thought) ”Wife day” means that no office work will be done, however “wife day” does not mean you get to go play. No, “wife day” means that you get to help move furniture, hang pictures, and watch Mom JP wash windows with homemade cleaner! After you “help” with “wife day” chores, still clinging to every ounce of hope for a blenders run or toss of the frisbee, you are informed that your presence is needed for kid pick-up at school. “Oh, boy!”, you exclaim, but not really, because you are being sarcastic.
Now kid pick-up at school…that should be a breeze right? You show up at school, kids walk out to car, kids get into car, car drives home quietly and with ease. Oh contraire my friend, oh contraire. You actually show up at school. Get out of car and walk into school. Immediately foot gets stepped on by 5th grader. Someone is tapping your head with their poster board school project. You turn around about to say, “What the h…!” oh, it’s one of JP’s. The search continues for the other one. Both kids found. Walk back to car trying to think of something cool to say…but to no avail…so you just give up. Get into car. Car starts. Kids have to go to the bathroom. Really!?!!??? Are you sure? They’re sure. Car drives to front of school, drops kids off with instructions to only use the bathroom and meet car behind school. Car drives to perfect spying location behind school. One kid is NOT using the bathroom. LIAR! Truthful child exits bathroom and races the liar back to car. Car drives to purchase discount movie tickets for the evening’s entertainment. With boss out of the car, kids in back seat begin to hit and slap each other, adult in front seat panics, unsure of how to discipline current back seat situation, ultimately deciding to ignore it. Boss returns. Hitting subsides. Car drives home with quick stop to mom’s house to retrieve forgotten cell phone. The “quiet game” reigns over the car, which makes ride home quite enjoyable. Upon return to house Big League Chew is awarded both kids for quiet game. Liar takes a small pinch of chew while truthful child grabs by the handful. Honestly, how can a handful of Big League Chew be enjoyable? That’s like the size of an avocado seed! After chew, kids are forced to shower, to everyone’s relief. Then it’s off to the movies! Ah, alas, quiet. Dad is also strategically placed as buffer between Mom JP, myself, and kids! When it comes to cleverness and seizing the moment, Mom JP takes the cake to HL JP. Well done Mom JP! Well done. Post movie it is strongly recommended that Dad take kids home while Mom JP and I go pick up dinner. Another brilliant move. Mom JP is coming up clutch in the big innings! Already made, cook it yourself pizza, is to be served! 10 min. in the oven and BAM, it looks, smells, and tastes like you slaved away all day trying to make it! Another good choice coming through, compliments of Mom JP! After dinner, story time took place and was hilarious. Characters from fairy tales, cartoons, books, and movies all interacted together as JP and the kids made up the story. Upon conclusion of story time, it was bedtime, for EVERYONE! The entire house was asleep by 9:30pm…even me!
Some things I learned from my day spent with Mom JP is that KIDS ARE EXHAUSTING AND I DO NOT WANT THEM! Or at least I don’t want them right now and/or for a while! I am entirely too selfish to have kids. I would have to completely rearrange my priorities. Now if I had to, I could, but do I want to right now…ABSOLUTELY NOT. And as much as I kid around and pretend I had no fun chillin with Mom JP…it is actually quite the opposite. It was so awesome to see how JP loves those kids. How she interacts and manages situations as they come about. And it all happens with a sense of ease to it. She’s a natural. No doubt it’s been a struggle and a learning experience. But just simply peering in from the outside one would think that she’s raised these kids from birth, not just the past 5 months. So JP, thanks for sharing that day with me. You are an inspiration in more ways than you know.
I HATE BLOGING! May 15, 2008
As I sit at Panera Bread on this Wed. evening I am pondering why in the world did I decide to start a blog. I arrived at Panera with great intentions. I would order some delicious food that would be prepared for me with care and would be brought out to me as I sit and wait ever so lazily. I would read my bible and enter into deep thought and conversation with God. And finally I would blog, blog, blog, all the while benefiting from the free wireless of this wondrous creation known as Panera Bread. Oh, but good intentions are only just that….Good Intentions.
Now before we get ahead of ourselves, I am not a complete failure this evening. I did order some delicious food and naturally finished all of it, still wanting more. I also read my bible and caught up on a study that Roxy and I are doing (one that I should have done 2 weeks ago!). Unfortunately I never made it to the deep thought portion of my good intentions. It was a good study, but I was hoping for something revolutionary so that I could selfishly blog about it and get kudos from all of you. I somehow have to believe that God was privy to this selfish ambition of mine, and therefore, allowed my mind to wander away from my revolution. Somehow allowing it to focus on the elderly couple sitting uncomfortably close to me, when there were many other table choices available. Why did I feel they were watching me read while they ate as if I was their T.V.? I debated on moving, but that would have been too much of a hassle and I wanted to pride myself on the fact that I could overcome the awkwardness of the situation and still stumble upon my genius that was awaiting me! But to no avail…I finished my study…and NOTHING! Nothing creative and intellectual at all.
So I thought to myself…”NOW WHAT?” I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks since I started this darn thing, and now I got nothin! So I decided to log on and post an article that I had already written for the Wilson High School Swim Newsletter (I know, I know…I’m only 25 and I’m already having an article published. I’m just that good) so that at best, my faithful reader (notice I said “reader”…thanks Karolyn…actually my mom did read my first post..but she didn’t comment, so cannot be considered a faithful reader yet) would have something to read when they so diligently checked my blog tonight. Oh how naive I was with the notion that this would be a simple task! I’ll have you note that no article has been posted because I CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO POST IT! Hence why I hate this blog and will never blog again.
Well, I might!
1 foot in, 1 foot out: Dancing the Hokey Pokey with God. May 1, 2008
Wow…my first blog! Karolyn is gleaming right now. Is “gleaming” a word? Well,it sounded good, so I used it. You have to be creative and sharp with your first blog so readers will return tomorrow, only to be disappointed that you haven’t blogged again. But at least you can say you were witty and clever enough to leave them wanting more. So where should this new blog begin? Well, I already have the catchy title…check….I have started with witty banter….check….perhaps I should dive right in and explain what I mean by my clever title.
So this morning when I was talking to Roxy (who is thebomb.com by the way) she was talking about how living life with one foot in God’s Kingdom and one foot in the world will always be crazy and hectic because you are still on your time, and your agenda. You’re not fully committed to having what God wants for your life. This was the first time I’ve ever heard the idea of not being fully committed to God explained in that way…and it got me thinking. Then I was talking to Karolyn and she mentioned it’s like the Hokey Pokey…so I stole these two ideas and decided they would be my first blog! So thanks to you Roxy and Karolyn for helping me blog! 
“You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around, and that’s what it’s all about!” Really song writer of the Hokey Pokey…is that really what it’s all about? I hope not because that is really depressing. What if, already knowing that “what it’s all about” isn’t really all that, you went on ahead and did the Hokey Pokey anyways? Wouldn’t you, when it was all over, ask yourself, “why did I just waste my time doing that stupid dance when I could have made better use of my time?”
In reality though, I think we do the Hokey Pokey with God all too often. We aren’t quite content with keeping both feet in the Kingdom and allowing God to be enough for us. We know that this is ultimately the better choice..but wait..that music..I’ve heard it before..it’s that dance The Hokey Pokey!..wow, and everybody else is doing it..I wanna go do it too. So what do we do, we go and do the Hokey Pokey. We step into the world for a little, then we step out. oooooh, we liked what we saw, so we step in again and for longer this time, we do the dance, we get involved, and then sadly, we find out what this world is really all about. And what are we left with?…emptyness, we’re uninterested, we’re not intrigued anymore with “what it was all about”, we’re borred, but we’re left a little more broken than when we got there. However, now we get to choose. We can either go back to God, or keep on dancing the Hokey Pokey.
Hopefully we choose God. However, this isn’t always the case, and the dance has many more moves we can make. Instead of choosing God, we think that by “changing feet” or finding another avenue of the world will be more fun and will give me that feeling I’m looking for. So we try..and again we are left wanting more. So we think…well maybe this foot in foot out business is too small, maybe if I put my “whole self in and shake it all about” I’ll feel whole..and maybe you do for a little while..but as you begin to see that “what it’s all about” really isn’t what you thought it was all about in the beginning..and now you have your whole self in and not just a part of you like when you started this dance a while ago. So where do you turn? Do you keep getting deeper into the world and feeling more alone and more empty? Or do you turn back to God and surrender because that is all you can do?
I know for me, I chose to surrender. That’s all I could do. I was completely broken, on my knees, face down, telling God I don’t want to do this dance anymore. I had been dancing for too long and I was tired. And you know what bothers me the most? How I got to that place to begin with…why I even started dancing. The truth was, I wasn’t being refreshed with God’s word, I wasn’t spending time with Him daily, I wasn’t allowing my friends to hold me accountable because I chose to withdraw from them…so when I heard the music…I didn’t recognize it as the lame dance that it was. I just heard music and wanted to dance. Had I been walking close with God, I would have been able to hear the tune and know that that isn’t a dance worth dancing. That God offers me much more than this world can ever offer.
2 Peter 1:3-4, “For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.”
So where do you stand? Are you firmly planted with both feet in the Kingdom? Or are you doing the Hokey Pokey with part of you in the Kingdom, but part of you still stuck in the world? Are you allowing God to be enough for you…or do you still want to try out the dance? 2 Peter tells us that God has given us EVERYTHING we need for LIFE! He even gives us precious promises and wants us to share in the divine nature so that we can avoid the corruption that is so rampant in this world. He doesn’t want us to do the Hokey Pokey with the world. He knows the pain and corruption it can ultimately cause even if in the mean time things seem ok. He wants us to avoid that all together! Let God GIVE you EVERYTHING you NEED for LIFE!
Hello world! April 30, 2008
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