Monday, January 22, 2007

Financial Counseling

Some look to Larry Burkett and Crown Financial Ministries for financial advice from a "christian" perspective. Maybe we should look no further than SNL.


(ht - david rudd via others)

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Bedhead Runs in the Family

Our eldest son has some of the craziest bedhead when he awakes. The sad thing is that his bedhead styles are much like some of the styles of today. To see the bedhead styles of family and friends click here! Send photos of your bedhead and if they are worthy I will post them to our site.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Mars Hill Video - Ruth

Mars Hill Church is producing some excellent video work for their new sermon series on the book of Ruth. You can view the video, download the mp3 and read the sermon notes here. They have also given the option to embed the videos to your own web sites. The first few minutes of the video are a dramatic retelling of the first section of Ruth. It is well done. I encourage you to go to their web site (here) to check out all of the talent they have within their church. Their main church web site is www.marshillchurch.org.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Today I'm this many

At 10:34 PM on January 16, 2006 Asher Tobias entered the world. He loves graham crackers and dancing. He has 5 teeth and enjoys playing with any toy that Ezra has. He especially loves his mommy and claps every day when daddy comes home. He won't make it far in the field of zoology because he thinks every animal he sees is a dog. His birth weight was 7 lbs. 3 oz. He currently weighs 25 lbs. On average he has gained 1 1/2 lbs per month. If this continues he will weigh 187 lbs when he is 10 years young. We will hope for the best and cut back on the graham cracker consumption. Happy Birthday Asher!


Monday, January 15, 2007

The Church

The preaching pastor at our church (Trinity Church) is doing a four-part sermon series on the church. Last week he talked about what the church is and is not. This week it was "The Church - How to Find It, Love It and Leave It." If you have ever had to look for a new church you should listen to this sermon. If you are thinking about leaving the church you attend you should listen to this sermon.

Click on the mp3 link below to listen to the sermon. (58 minutes)
"The Church: How to Find It, Love It and Leave It"
January 14, 2007
Andy Perry

Sunday, January 14, 2007

A Birthday Gift

PoMonkey sent one of our sons a birthday gift. We didn't know who to give it to but Clive sure did like being a monkey for a day.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Olde Fashioned Sing Along - pt. 1

Last evening we gathered with some friends to play Settlers of Catan. During our game we began discussing horrible music videos on YouTube. We watched the video to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. It is a horrible video but it accomplished something. The rest of the evening we were singing "turn around, bright eyes."

Have you experienced this? You are on your way to work in the morning and you hear a song on the radio. It sticks in your head and you find yourself singing it throughout the day. A few hours later you hear someone else singing the same song. You WIN! They are singing the song because they heard you singing it first. My wife and I play this game around the home. It's almost as good as Settlers of Catan.

I like doing series posts. I just finished one at Christian Cheese and I have done a few other series at this blog. So, for the next few days (or weeks) I will be posting song lyrics for one purpose - to get them stuck in your head. How many people can you get to sing the same song?

I will begin with this one.

Total Eclipse of the Heart - by Bonnie Tyler

...Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there's only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart

...Turnaround bright eyes
Turnaround bright eyes

Bryan, is this better?

In a comment here my "friend" Bryan said "Vince: in the hair department, less is more." On Saturday I was overcome with sadness over this comment and I had to make some changes. Now I hope Bryan will love me for who I am.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Black's Eschatology

Every night we read through a portion of Ezra's bible. We are now at the end of the book. Tonight we talked about Jesus coming back. I said "Ezra, Jesus is coming!" He got a very worried look and said "No! Jesus not coming." I had to assure him that Jesus was not coming over to babysit. I said "Jesus IS coming." By this time Clive was running back and forth between the front and back door looking for Jesus. Jesus hasn't come back yet.

Thursday is a good day

Last evening I received a laptop via the Brown delivery man. I have been waiting for this day for quite some time.

Today I sat in my favorite bagel establishment with my laptop. I had a two meetings with two different people and I never left the table. I was a true loiterer. I was there from 8 AM until 1 PM. I sent email. I read a few online articles articles. I communicated with a friend in Minneapolis and my father in Missouri. I downloaded some updates for different programs. I updated some things for the church web site. I worked on some notes for a class I am teaching on Saturday. I never left the table.

To top it all off...the bagel place now has peanut butter cream cheese. I know that sounds strange but it was really quite tasty.

and...and...The Office is on tonight!

Thursday is a good day.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Then and Now and Happy

We had a great anniversary. Thanks for asking. Some were asking to see a before and after photo of me and mine. Here you go. One is from 1998 and the other from 2007. You choose.

Monday, January 08, 2007

2557 Days

My beautiful bride accepted a great challenge 2557 days ago. She agreed to take me as her man. Some may say she was out of her mind for doing something so crazy and they may be right. Nonetheless, she married me. I am happy.

Our anniversary has become a global event. I believe the picture posted below was purchased from an inside source to be plastered all over the world wide web. Many friends and some people we have never met are posting tributes to our anniversary. The event has caused friends to begin posting on their blogs again here and here. That is something that has not occured in quite some time. If our anniversary is what it takes for people to post to their blogs then we will have an anniversary every day!

Our friend PoMonkey started this mess here! Check out her blog to see the links to all of the tributes. Unbelievable.


Friday, January 05, 2007

The Best 7 Years

On Monday we will celebrate our 7 year anniversary. It has been the best 7 years of my life because of this woman. She has great bedhead. Check it out here!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Soon it will be 7

This is my hot wife (the one on the left). She is a gift from God. She loves Jesus, me, our boys, our dog and she does a heck of a job (pardon my language) bringing order to our home. She prepares wonderful meals, buys great groceries, keeps a tidy home, loves our boys, serves me and takes care of our family in more best and better ways than I could ask. She is patient with me and my oddities. She plays a mean cribbage and has amazing bedhead.

January 8, 2007 will be our 7 year anniversaryof marriage. This has been the best 7 years of my life and by far the best 7 years of my married life. She has put up with me and I love her more than coffee and mountains. Watch out!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

New blog for 2007

I have this problem of partially reading books. This is my pattern of reading:

1. I hear of a new book that sparks my interest.
2. I purchase the book.
3. I read several chapters of the book.
4. I loose interest in the book because steps 1 & 2 have been repeated.
5. Steps 1-4 are repeated as often as step 1 occurs.

(read full post here)