I know, how can you have a good time while having bad luck.  Let me explain.  First the bad luck bit. 

I arrived home from work today to a flurry of activity.  My wife is trying to leave to go scrapbooking with friends, my kids are all over me to have dinner and then watch movies.  So, she leave, we eat, then go watch Arctic Tale.  A very cute movie, suitable for small kids, except when the walrus get eaten!  Try explaining that to a three year old!

We had another movie, Underdog, a blast from the past for me.  The kids loved it.  Between movies, we had cookies and made popcorn.  I wanted milk with my cookies, but it wasn’t quite right….a little warmer than I wanted.  Hmm…the fridge seems a little warmer than it should be.  So I got out the thermometer from outside and the fridge is….YIKES!  57 degrees!!

 So now, the good time part.  See, living in Minnesota I know it won’t get above 40 tomorrow, so I can just put everything in a cooler on the deck!  And it will be just fine until the fridge is fixed (or we get a new one).  Since I have two freezers in my garage (need space for all them veggies from the garden), I put all the freezer stuff out there.  It’s unplugged now, so maybe that will reset whatever is wrong with it.  Otherwise we will probably have someone look at it next week.  Maybe it won’t be a super duper expensive repair, but I doubt it.  So it’s a good thing we have that emergency fund from the Dave Ramsey FPU class we are taking!

Hope you all have a great time.  Later.

Well, it is almost time for us to return to Minnesota from California.  I can’t say that I will miss California that much, because the entire time we have been here, it has rained and been cold.  I am not sure that the temperature has gotten over 60 degrees.  Now, don’t get me wrong, 60 degrees in February is plenty warm for this frozen boy from Minnesota, but it is not what was in the travel brochure!!!  I feel like I have fallen for the old ‘bait and switch’.  Come to ‘Sunny’ California!!  Hahahaha, only when they are actually here will they realize it is more overcast and gloomy than East Germany during the cold war!  (For those younger readers, it you don’t understand the last reference, pay better attention in history class!)

It really was a great trip though.  Even though there wasn’t much ’sunlight’, there sure was plenty of ‘Sonlight’.  Even more than what I could have learned at the conference, was what God showed me through the actions, converstations, comradiarie that was shared with the great group that went with us.  We still have a long road ahead of us to getting small groups off the ground at Journey North, but at least now, the GPS as acquired the satelittes and we can see the roadmap ahead of us.  We just need to keep the little car on the pink road, and we should be good.

I am excited to return home, not only to see the sun again, but to see my kids, whom I miss intensely.

Looks like I have to go pack now.  Hope you all have a great day.

Ohh….I can hardly wait.  We leave in just about 12 hours for our trip.  I will miss my kids, but this is really exciting, and I am really excited.  Well, about as excited as I get about things.  I try not to get to excited about stuff, because I once realized that most of the stuff that I was getting excited about was the wrong thing. Like bad service, telemarketers, that kind of stuff.  And I would take out my excitement not on the cause of it, but on those around me!  That is pretty backwards.  I learned pretty quick people don’t really appreciate my ‘excitement’, so I try to take it a little easy.

Of course, this is different.  It’s a different type of excitement, so I guess I should be able to open up a little and let it show.  But years of training have kept the excitement inside.  I tell people I am excited, but my actions show…well, they show ‘me’, which isn’t all that exciting to tell the truth.  Hopefully, this conference will help me to see that it’s ok so show my excitement about God, and that it’s OK to get other people excited about God’s love and his forgiveness.

Wish me well on my trip.  I will try to write a little from California, where it will be WARM(er than Minnesota!).  Have a safe and fun week!

My wife and I leave tomorrow for a trip.  We are attending a small groups conference in California with 6 others from our church, Journey North Church.  We will be there 3 days, and return on Saturday.  I pray we have a safe trip, and arrive well.  I am looking forward to a little warmer weather.  I must admit, both of us being on a plane when we have three small children has me a little uneasy.  I know, nothing happens with planes anymore, but hey, it’s a really heavy thing up in the air.  Even with all the science and physics classes I have taken, it still amazes me that a plane can stay up in the air.

Our children are being cared for by loving, caring people, so I guess I don’t have much to worry about.  They will have a great time, and will not even notice that we are gone.   Until we get back, then they will notice, and not leave us alone for three days!

We are really excited to be going on this trip!  It’s been really exciting over the past few years to see how God is working in our lives.

I went to McDonalds today.  Only because I am the only one here, and I thought I would give myself a little treat, and not have to decide what to make for lunch.  So I went there.  I even went through the drive-thru, which was probably my first mistake.  No, my first mistake would have been going to McDonald’s.

So, they are still serving breakfast, which was fine.  It was 10:45, but breakfast would be OK.  I ordered a McSkillet Burrito.  I had never had one, so thought I would try it.  The cashier asked me if I would like something to drink, so I said water, because I didn’t want coffee, and I didn’t want to pay MORE for OJ or pop.  She asked if I would like a ‘bottle’ of water.  No, I just want some water in a cup.  She said they can’t do that.  How about coffee that hasn’t been run through the coffee maker I thought, but didn’t say.

I should have just canceled the order right then.  I didn’t really NEED the food. But I didn’t. The cashier told me when I paid that their ‘computer system’ would not allow her to do that.  So I wondered, did the computer system keep people from putting water into a cup and giving it to me?  No, I don’t think so!  Apparently, the cost of the cup is prohibitive.  But wait, I paid for a cup of coffee.  I just wanted WATER in it instead of coffee!  AFGHH!

When I picked up my food, I was asked once again if I would like the coffee.  No, I would like a coffee cup, with water in it.  Sorry, can’t do that! 

But hey, they did give me EIGHT napkins.  Apparently no shortage of those.