We can't wait to introduce you to Jonathan.  No, we did not see this one coming.  And yes, I brought all the wrong books to the beach.  God has been very gracious, and we are in awe of His faithfulness.  You can pray for us as we put ten years of parenting theory to the test and as we thank God for our own adoption as God's sons and daughters through Jesus Christ.  And join the four of us (including Cody) as we continue looking forward to bringing Salem home at least 18 months from now.  Our praise today is "Jonathan!" - Yahweh has given.

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Our family"][/caption]

 

      I don't know how to feel about this situation. If I really am looking for someone who won't do what Drew did. It doesn't seen like Trevor is the best canidate. He is more or less the same package plus a car and experience. I know that he has cheated before because it was with me. He cheated on Rhio with me. He has done the whole not talking for months thing. The other thing is that he is older. He is about to be 20. He is more in tune with who he is. I love that about him. He is really confident. I have talked about this before with Wesley and it is a proven fact that I like the overly confident-cocky guys, but all of them have an insecure side that I see when I get to know them. Trevor is no different. I don't know man.

     I think about it and it's a complicated situation.

     Pros

1. He is really really Nice.
2. I already know that he likes me ;]
3. He is super cute.
4. He has a car.
5. My mother already knows him.
6. He knows what he is doing when it comes to "romance"
7. He isn't afraid to love
8. We have that connection.
9. He has awesome taste is music. Lol (minus that he hates Simple Plan)

     Cons

1. He is almost twenty.
2. He has cheated before, who knows how many times.
3. My mom thinks he is too old for me.
4. He lives in Flint.
5. He is unemployed ... I think.
6. My mother thinks he is a nice guy.
7. My brother might not be so hot on the idea of him.
8. He doesn't like Simple Plan.
9. He has A LOT of experience.

     Now do you see the problem? I have exactly as many Pros as I have Cons. I feel like I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Lets see if it goes anymore with either Drew or Trevor ...

     I didn't know if it was the smartest idea, but ... I texted Drew when I found out that he was home. Well, I THOUGHT that he was home. All I said was "Hey :]" and from this I got a phone call from Drew's mom. I kinda freaked out. When she said that Drew was away for six months I kinda freaked a little. I wanted to be like... "ummm. I heard that he was back and thought he had his phone," but I used the noodle and something tells me that if his mom was still saying that he was away then there was a reason. I don't know the reason, but I'm sure there is one. So... He is back, but not HOME? There are so many things that are racing in my mind and all of them tell me that I am crazy insane. I have come up with many ideas on what is really going on and it seems that none of them make much sense. 1. Drew broke out of where he was staying and his mom doesn't know it. 2. Drew broke out of where he is and his mom knows, but doesn't want to tell me. 3. Drew somehow found a computer where ever he is and is lying to everyone about being back. 4. Drew and his mom are both crazy and have been flat out lying to me this whole time. 5. I am paranoid and I don't have the whole story so I am jumping to conclusions.

     The only one that makes ANY kind of sense to me is numero five. This is more than  likely my best choice. I really do feel like I am being lied to though. I don't know. I just feel like I don't know Drew anymore. How can you love something with all that you are and know nothing about them. Well, I DO know him, but not the way you should when you are in love. I know his middle name. I know his favorite band. I know him birthday. I know he doesn't get along with his parents. I know some of his friends. I know where he went to middle school. I know where he went to elementary school. I know all his ex girlfriends. I know some of the issues he has with his rentals. I know he loves hanging out with his grandfather. I know he is an amazing skateboarder. I know that he used to be the shortest kid in class. I know his favorite song. I love that he loves me. I know that I love him. The last two sentences, these should be the things that matter right? They do, they just feel like they don't.

     I know all these little things, but I want the big ones. I want to know WHY he ran away. I want to know where he is. I want to know why is would cheat on me. I want to know want he wants to do with his life. I want to know how he feels about college. I want to know why he didn't call me. I want to know what is inside his head. There are so many things that I want to know and so many things that I feel like I need to know. I don't know whether or not I actually DO, but I feel like it's something that is important. The only way that I will ever know any of these things is by talking to him, but I don't know how I am going to do that. How can I love someone who didn't call for two months?

     What did I do that deserved to be ignored for two months?  I just miss him and I love him. I miss knowing everything about him.

     It's just really really hard to go from knowing everything about someone to feel like they are a complete stranger to you. I feel like I have been so clueless.

If this is found to be a valid interpretation of the law, it's really quite frightening. If you violate the Terms of Service of a website, you can be charged with hacking. That's an astounding concept. Does this mean that everyone who uses Bugmenot could be prosecuted? Also, this isn't a minor crime, it's a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment per count. In Drew's case she was charged with three counts for accessing MySpace on three different occasions. (link)

We have our first Columbus Grip Exclusive!

If you read the last Sweatin' post or if you were at La Fogata this past Friday then you already know that Beta Movement killed it. The group consists of Garrett and Drew (I will get their last names later) who are Columbus locals. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw their set this past weekend. This is the first track they've sent me but be on the lookout for more in the weeks to come. Above is the artwork off their upcoming self-titled EP which is coming soon.

Boys Noize - My Moon My Man (Beta Movement remix) (right click save link as to download)

[audio http://thegrip.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/mymoon.mp3]

http://www.whoseline.pl/

http://www.wliia.pl/

Well, that's my introduction.

Signed and sealed this First Day, Sixth Month, Two Thousand and Eight.

Just for fun, let's post the combined stats of the Red Sox who took a massive 7 of the 33 total roster positions on the AL Squad.

Manny - 0 for 2, 1 k

Youklis - 0 for 2, 1 k

Pedroia - 0 for 1, 1 bb

Ortiz - injured

Varitek - defensive substitute for 2, yes 2 innings (will somebody please tell me how a guy with stats worse than Richie even MADE the all star team??)

Drew - 2 for 4, 2 rbi, AL MVP

Papelbon - 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 unearned run, 2 k's

So, just because it skews things nicely, and I'm not a huge Sox fan, let's total these numbers and let statistics ring their beautiful bias, shall we?

The Boston Red Sox, as representatives of nearly ONE QUARTER of the AL All Star Team:

.222, 2 bb, 3 k's, 2 rbi, an MVP Award, Papelbon's surrendering of a run in the 8th that almost won the NL the game, 2 innings of no error defense at the plate, a cripple in Ortiz and a partridge in a pair tree! Go Sox!

And just to make things fair (or for the curious), here are the stats for the 2001 M's, who had 8 All Stars that year:

.167, 1 SB, 2 k's and 3.0 IP, 2 k's, 1 bb, 1 win, oh and the save also, thanks to Kaz.

Just goes to show you that even the best sometimes fall..., so here's to the Red Sox and their 116 wins this year!! Huh? Not that many? Oh. Well, at least they'll make the playoffs! What? Oh, it's not a wrap, is it... Hmm...

Well, then you suck, Red Sox.

Love,

A delusional Mariner fan

It is such a rare moment, that I soaked it in for a while. He made a new friend, and slept on the couch today - a big day of changes for my little boy...who isn't so little anymore.

I just spoke with one of Drew's favorite friend's mom today. I wanted to make sure they would be around for Drew's birthday. This is the family we have celebrated Drew's birthday with for the past three years...it is a non-negotiable as far as Drew is concerned. B HAS to be at my party, mommy.

Speaking of, we have been going around the block with all sorts of ideas for his birthday. He wanted Hot Wheels for a while, which I was SO excited about, but then it changed. He said Wall-E, but I told him we haven't seen it yet, so maybe something different. Buzz Lightyear was a choice, so was Monster's Inc. and then he settled for Little Einsteins. You may remember Santa's tactical error just last year and the story of Rocket. Now I have to get to figure out the fun challenge of making this:

You need to go to Andrea's Recipes and see the other things she has there - great stuff. I am not a cake maker. I watch Ace of Cakes and LOVE what they do - that is not me. That is SO NOT ME. Sure, I could go buy a cake...a boring sheet cake with a picture of the Little Einsteins on it...I could...I won't, but I could. Instead, I will conquer this cake. I will make it, or one sort of like it, for my son's birthday. Up until now, I've been lucky. Drew has always preferred cupcakes, so I haven't had to make a cake since Randy's 30th.

But I'm not thinking about the rocket cake quite yet. That is for another list of things to do - and with luck, Drew will change his mind again, and I could make this or this or maybe this....heh.

There is a lot of confusion about evangelism in the church today. Even within our own lives – we must admit, evangelism is not a subject we understand all too well. We come with baggage to church with our ideas of evangelism and sometimes our church adds even more baggage to our concepts. We’ve surfed the channels and crossed “Christian TV” and seen these men and women asking for money. We’ve heard their message of how God wants to bless your life – usually with wealth and health. If we avaoided those landmines, we can’t help but remember that one man/woman went before a large audience.

Billy Grham hasn’t helped church culture with his massive crusades. Sure, many people have come to faith by this man’s presentation of the Gospel and the efforts of the “crusade,” but once again, we’ve been blasted with this idea that one person must evangelize masses. Even our own church experience dictates that the Pastor give the Gospel and the “church” receives it. Baptist churches through the last century were notorious for Sunday after Sunday presenting the Gospel – demanding an altar call and hoping that some lost soul would walk the aisle or possibly raise his hand.

Evangelism is scary when you aren’t a public speaker or a fundraiser. For most of us, the idea of going before an audience and doing a “sales-pitch” isn’t our idea of fun – nor do we feel qualified to do so.

But evangelism isn’t about any of that. Evangelism isn’t about crowds, tv, money or the like. Evangelism is communicating the Gospel. Which of course – implies a working knowledge of the Gospel. Understanding the Gospel is crucial. Then all evangelism really is – is a communication of the Gospel message to another person. Sure, groups are great – but God is calling you to be faithful, to be obedient to present the ”Good News” to non-believers. Once this has been done – Evangelism has occurred.

Another reason we don’t evangelize is because of fear. Fear that we won’t be successful, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of being thought crazy. God covers all these in His Word. Failure is not telling another person the Gospel. Success is not “converting” somebody – success is being obedient to the task of testifying to the Gospel. The other fears – are quite all right – in fact warranted. Rejection is going to happen. Men and women will reject the message of the Gospel (don’t worry – its not your fault), they will reject you personally and they will think that you are crazy. All of which are signs of you doing the work God has already laid out for you.

The world hated Jesus – it will hate you. The world rejected Paul – they will reject you. The world thought both Jesus and Paul were crazy – they will think you are crazy. It’s guaranteed. Even Paul tells Timothy that those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).

So what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you evangelizing? What is holding you back? Who is in your family that is unsaved? Have you actually told them the Gospel – if not, what are you waiting for? What about your friends? What co-workers do you know that aren’t Christian? Why haven’t you told them? What about your neighbors? This is where evangelism starts. Are you waiting for their time to be up, to be judged by God, sent into everlasting darkness? Are you waiting until there are no more chances? Why wait? Will you ever find a more perfect time than the time that is near? Paul says “today is the day of salvation, now is the time of God” (2 Cor. 6:1-2). If you are waiting for them to like you more, think that you are more acceptable or even be “more of a Christian” – don’t wait. You’ve already developed relationships with these people. They know who you are, they know what you do, what your priorities are – tell them the Truth – tell them God’s facts. Share those facts, call them to change, call them to faith and repentance!

Now is the day of the Lord! Today is the day of Salvation

Sorry men – I obviously lost track and missed posting on this last week. So here goes.

Conversion. What happens in Christian conversion? What does Scripture tell us about conversion and how do we know it has taken place. Is conversion marked by tears? Abundant emotion? Overwhelming joy? How about deep sadness – even depression? Is conversion marked by walking forward and submitting to an altar call? How about raising the hand after a Gospel presentation. Is it a prayer we said after hearing the Good News?

We could speculate on a myriad of options for how we see evidences of conversion. But Scripture is clear – none of these things is in any way a marker of conversion. They may happen and could be byproducts of conversion, but they are truly that. Possible byproducts. And if they are only possible byproducts why would we ever want to take our stand on them as true evidences of real, genuine conversion.

If we truly realize that praying a prayer, raising a hand, filling out a card, and even feeling guilt or joy are not true evidences of conversion – we would do well to look for the real evidence.

Jesus says in John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. Jesus is saying that if you have “FAITH” you “will do” what he did. What is that exactly? In verse 10 he has stated that he is doing the fathers work (John 14:10).

Jesus continues describing what it means to have faith. Faith isn’t mere acceptance – it is trust. Like you are trusting the chair you are sitting in to hold you up – is the trust that God is calling all men to have in Him and the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus says in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Later he says the same thing again, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (John 14:23-24).

Scripture is clear – not only is there a change in “religion” or even “morality.” Conversion is something that changes a man’s affections, his love and who he aligns himself to. Conversion’s byproduct, the only byproduct we can truly see and in some sense measure is in a man’s love of the Lord, demonstrated in obedience. Scripture tells us that to become a believer you must “repent and believe.”

But anybody can say they’ve repented and believed. We can train anybody to say those words. So what is the reality behind this – what does it look like in real life?

James 2:14-26 handles this argument. At the core – faith without deeds is dead. Dead faith = unsaving faith. Alive faith = saving faith. Alive faith is one that has deeds to match the profession. Those deeds may look different among people – but they demonstrate allegiance and obedience to Jesus Christ.

So church, Bethel Grace, where do you stand? Personally – do you have actions in accordance with your faith? What kind of actions?

If you believe it is God working through you to do good works (Phil 2:12-13)  - there should be no shame in sharing what God is doing in your life?

Unless – there really is no action?

Comment – don’t be silent on this one. 

Rove Snubs Congress: Ignores Subpoena to Testify (story)

He is quite the character. Wonder how it feels like to consider yourself above everyone else. You know sometimes in life you go, “With what trivial stuff are those folks messing about?”… well MC Rove just lives like that 24/7. Must be a weird feeling. All about attitude I guess.

Does Jesse Jackson Resent Obama? (story)

Why we even paying attention to this guy… I bet he has the Rove groove one, but man does reality hit back hard.

Oops! The Biggest Mic Mistakes (story)

Pretty funny there at the end when the CNN guys are delicately trying to avoid saying the word ‘nuts’.

Iran's Bold Move: Round 2 of Missile Tests (story)

They just love making headlines. I guess we can say they won round 2 seeing how they didn’t lose.

Yes, There Is Water on the Moon (story)

Interesting if you’re interested in this type of news.

Done Deal: Brinkley Gets Kids, Cook $2.1M (story)

Sounds fair and square… $2.1M or the kids… tough call.

For Your In-Flight Viewing Pleasure: Nothing (story)

I read while back they got these teams trying to figure out how they can save on the weight an airplane has to carry. I guess this one was pretty easy to spot. 500 pound of wiring and equipments easier.

'Racist' Comic Strip Sparks Wal-Mart Hubbub (story)

“In 2005, the Mexican postal service issued a series of stamps commemorating the Memin character. President Bush and several African-Americans, including Jesse Jackson, asked the Mexican government to recall the stamps.” You start wondering what Jesse Jackson actually does in term of useful stuff.

Doctors' Personal Lives Need Saving, Too (story)

Article is alright, though not exactly breaking headline news.

Ooh La Lawyer? Site Ranks Hot-torneys (story)

The stuff folks figure out to come up with. This is just sad. You don’t have to be just smart and eloquent anymore to be a lawyer, good-looking is also a prerequisite now.

A Look Inside the World of Gay Muslims (story)

Not sure if I wanna have a look inside the world of gay Muslims …

Serial Killings Target Rabbits (story)

Evil is on the loose. Killing time killing rabbits.

Flavor Flav Says He Lost 'It' at 6 (story)

Oh save us the details. First gay muslim men now childhood sex stories.

Drew, Kate, Megan Newly Single (story)

Now this is more like it… newly available celebrity single women… now we’re talking.

What Are the Six Fattiest Ice Cream Flavors? (story)

Obviously anyone eating icecream doesn’t remotely care about how fatty it is. Icecream is rated by taste, butter is rated by fattiness. This just makes me feel guilty while I should be enjoying myself. Kinda like rating Kama Sutra position by their chance to transmit STDs… don’t do it!

High-Speed Chase Ends in Murder (story)

See the right to bear arms saves lives! A .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, why would anyone wanna run around with that??

Amanda Knox Turns 21 in Italian Prison (story)

Bummer!

5 Things to Cut Risk of Type 2 Diabetes (story)

I’m guessing not eating one of those top 6 Icecreams would help.

7 Steps to a Happy, Healthy Dog (story)

1 step to a Happy, Healthy Life, don’t get a pet.

And some of the remaining headlines:

Women Live Longer But Die Poorer *** Fuel Costs Hitting Schools in the Lunchbox *** Dentists Open Wide for Mercury Criticism *** Teen Survives Pin to the Head *** New Laser Zaps Away Cancer *** Modern-Day Miracle Man? *** The Golden Toilet Survives *** The Brady Bunch, Then and Now *** Beauty of Albinism *** H'wood's Baby Boom! *** Ventura Rips Media on Senate Story *** Now That's Just Nuts

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Yesterday, after a romp in the sprinkler, Drew decided he and Duncan needed a snuggle.

music has been the theme of the last few days. Either Drew is listening to it on the "white computer," his headphones, or the radio in his room. Sometimes he doubles up.

Here is the layout that I finally finished yesterday. This is from Las Vegas in April '07. The boys slept so lovely together...sigh.

Other than that, not much happening.

D: Mommy! (said while I tossed an empty box down the stairs to store later.)
M: What?
D: What IS that? (pointing at the box at the bottom of the stairs.)
M: A box?
D: Nooooo. That is a space wrapper for my flashlight!
M: Of course. How could I miss that?

Darrelict

Two mad fresh blogs.

I haven't really posted an updated graph since I did the first one so here's an update;

As you can see the actuals are just a little bit below the short term projections so I'm pretty happy about that! :)

(It looks better when I don't have to shrink the image as much to fit on this blog :P).

I've started getting back in to the exercise again and ugh I'm finding it really hard....damn that week of no exercise!

Thursday

Thursday feels like it was a years ago, not really sure what happened - I think we tried to play some C&C3 but it didn't work too good (had all sorts of problems).  I ended up playing some more magic with JD and that was good fun :)

I think I did 6km on the higher level - I had these horrible chicken mustard things from Lenards, won't be ordering them again!  (Note: the honey mustard kebabs are good, just didn't work so good on whatever part of the chicken these pieces were!).

Friday

Had lunch with the team, I had some Fish + Shrimp which was pretty tasty but I was still hungry so I ate some chips :(.  I also organised like a biscuits + cheese thing to go with our drinks and I had a few of those so felt pretty bad and thus didn't have a second shake - I did have a yogurt for dinner instead.  Also did another run because I was feeling guilty :)

Saturday

I cranked out the good mince and had some burgers and my god they were good!  As promised JD, I said "This IS a tasty burger!" :)

Also went for another run, think I did the shorter / more difficulty one.

It was my friend Drew's birthday slash "I've finally handed in my thesis after 5 years" partay, guess that means I should start calling him Dr Drew :) Good times were had by all, especially those "binge" drinking.  I forgot to mention I also had a couple of party pies whilst there, but I didn't have a second shake because I figured I'd probably snack on something there!

Sunday

My neighbour unexpectedly knocked on my door and asked me to fix her PC which I did gladly - she gave me a couple of bottles of wine for fixing it (she works for a wine company) and my god the white one is goooood!  I'm certainly not a wine connoisseur - in fact I normally hate the stuff but I was having some grilled sweet lip snapper for dinner and thought what the hell....The snapper was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S and the wine just made it that much better...If you have stocks in Lenards now is  a good time to sell, I think I'm going to be on the "Fish and Wine diet" for the next couple of weeks :)

Did the longer but less intense run today - I also started doing some weights and ugh, I hurt all over ! :(

Played some magic against Scott and then some C&C3 against Scott / Adam which was fun...No wonder my house never gets cleaned!

Could really go a second glass of wine but I think I'll just try and hit the water, I'd be surprised if I'd drunk 1L let alone 2L like I'm supposed too!

I also had two people mention that I've lost weight (well one asked and the other said she noticed I had) so that was a bit of a plus and one of my mates said he reckoned he could see the difference the other week.  There are days where I reckon I can see it and other days where I don't reckon there's been any change but I think that's pretty normal.

Anyway I'm going to go to bed, need an early night! :)

1.

All smiles and enthusiasm, Risa asked me if I wanted to write and perform a mime scene for Oregon State Thespian Competition with her. Of course I wanted to.

We began working on the blue-carpeted stage in Trisha's classroom, figuring out the plot and what actions could make sense ("You have to remember to get your feet over the 'invisible' window sill! Maybe you should start opening the window from lower?"). The basic plot is this: The main character wakes up, realizes he's late to work, drives to work, gets yelled at by his boss for being late, realizes he's late to meet up with his girlfriend, drives to her cafe, and proposes to her. The "twist" was that the day doesn't go as he planned. Along the way he is killed by a burglar, is thrown out a tall window by his boss, dies in a car crash, and finds out that his girlfriend hates him, has a secret lover, and thinks he smells. I was the main character. Risa was the burglar, boss, and girlfriend.

It came together when we realized we could press both the play and rewind buttons of my tape player at the same time in one deck, and record that "rewind" sound in the other deck. Music played through most of the piece, punctuating our gestures, but whenever something horrible happened to the main character, we and the music froze. Then, in sync with a snippet of "rewind" sounds, we reversed our movements, quickly sending our bodies back through a series of motions. The "rewind" sound played for only a few seconds at a time--just long enough for the story to go back to a place before the horrible event began. Then the forward action would start up again, this time without the (often fatal) interruption.

It garnered laughs beyond what we anticipated. Even the simple silliness of miming led audiences to smile. We took it to competition and on the final night, with all of the competitors and teachers watching, we were awarded first place: a couple ribbons, the chance to take the piece to the International Thespian Competition, and--immediately after receiving the reward--the opportunity to perform in front of everyone there. We were all smiles.

2.

At the end of that year, I went to the International Thespian Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, not to perform the mime piece with Risa at the competition down the street, but to meet and audition for college faculty from numerous theater departments from all around the U.S. (and from Japan). Taking a break from all the networking and auditions, I stopped in at one of three rounds of mime competition.

After two rather sad, somber pieces, a small boy with a backpack jumped on stage, put a cassette in the deck and lay down on a table:

The boy wakes up to "Morning Mood" from Peer Gynt, and, realizing he's late for school (cue the Lone Ranger section from the "William Tell Overture"), rushes to put on his clothes. He gets into a car, drives too fast, and...

...right then I spoke aloud: "What!?" This was the exact same beginning to our piece! Even the same two pieces of music! With the same transition! There was no burglar to sneak in through the window and kill him, but other than that it was exactly the same!

Nearly all the audience (three or four people) threw glares my way. Speaking is particularly shunned during mime performances.

A barrage of questions and doubts came my way: Was this 'wake up' routine common among beginner mimes? How many people around the country saw similar pieces over the last few months for this same competition? Was our piece just obvious? Why was ours funny if it were so obvious? Why do people laugh at mimes, anyway?

In retrospect, the "rewinding" of the action was a big difference. But I was a stubborn high school kid who thought he had helped recreate the wheel. Seeing so much of an "original" idea reanimated by someone else scared me to death. When I returned home from Nebraska, I threw out my white face paint and hung up my black leotard. Never again would I mime.

but we live in SE Minnesota and the one county without a natural lake and quite a few spring fed springs, which means hardly any mosquitoes. With the wetlands we have been in June, we have been a breeding ground for bloodsuckers. Poor Drew's ear is swollen.

I looked like a moron in my backyard waving my arms, kicking my legs, slapping myself, my husband, and my kids. Yes, we have the family friendly cutter, but these skeets are ruthless, seriously. So we are a little housebound during dusky hours and this is what happens:

We are all a little batty. Thank goodness a trip to skeet-free Colorado is coming up, or the zany level here at chez Brock would be through the roof!