here are my top ten memories of 2008:
10. Yankees vs. A's at Yankee Stadium:
Shauna and I went to NYC for my bday and she took me to a Yankees game. It was awesome. I got to see the stadium again before it gets demolished. However, my fav memory of the day was switching seats 6 times and stressing Shauna out because I wanted us to sit closer and risk being kicked out of the stadium. All in all it worked out....4+ innings close to first base isnt bad!
9. The Wachovia in Charlotte, NC:
Me and my dad got to, for the first time, go to the final day of play and watch the championship come to an end. It was a great moment to see Anthony Kim win that tourney.
8: Golf:
With Shauna working in NC most of the spring, I got a lot of golf in...more than I can remember since college. Granted, her absence sucked worse than anything on the face of the planet, but it did call for great lonely afternoons improving my game.
7: Big XMAS tree:
I love big Christmas trees. At ALC, we had a 25+ft tree and it was awesome. It looked great, too.
6. Memorial Day Weekend:
My family came up over Memorial Day and we went to DC, boated into Baltimore harbor (thanks Dan), and went to a Yankees game. It was a really cool weekend.
5. Driving in NYC:
Ok, I am a dork, but I absolutely love driving in Manhattan. It makes me smile to be a pushy arrogant street pilot and pound my horn for the slightest reason. It makes everyone in the car nervous but I love it. I like to make believe I am a local. I experienced this first when Shauna's parents were in NYC over a weekend and we took a day trip. I loved speeding down 9th avenue weaving through the yellow cabs.
4. Moving to MD:
Probably one of the most difficult and rewarding things Shauna and I have ever done was to accept a position at ALC in MD. Shauna worked from NC and we weren't together very much for 4+ months. It was hard. However, God knew what he was doing with us and it is one of the best decisions we feel we have ever made. We have developed a great start to what we hope to be a deep and lasting relationship with Dan and Kathy and all of ALC.
3. Christmas in NC with Family:
It isnt over yet, but tomorrow we drive back to MD. Over the past week and a half we have had so much fun with our family and hanging out with old friends (not OLD, but friends we have known for a while...well, one or two of them were old...but they dont get online so...). It has been wonderful relaxing and not having an agenda other than to chill out. It is definitely a much needed breather, but we are ready to get back to MD. Shauna is going back for her MA and we are starting some cool new things at ALC.
2. Aaron.
Me and Aaron celebrate our birthdays by going to a concert each year (starting in 2007). We went to see The Police in 2007, and Willie Nelson this past summer. I do not recommend Willie's show. Anywho, after much prayer and time, Aaron and I have the opportunity to work together again. It is definitely something God had his hand on. It is so cool to watch Aaron work in his gift and to see him dream and create vision. God is still working some things out, but this thing has some great potential. Along with Sat evening celebrations starting at ALC soon, 2009 could be one the biggest years in ministry I have had the joy of working in.
1. My wife.
She moved to MD (finally) in June. It is so good to be married to this woman. She makes me laugh and laughs at my jokes (even when they arent that funny). I really can imagine what life without her is like, because while she went back and forth with her work during the spring, I got plenty of alone time without her. I hated it. I am so glad and blessed to have her in my life. Shauna, I love you very much.
So there it is...2008. There were many downers for sure for a lot of people, but it was truly a great year for me and Shauna. We had some challenges, problems, and aggravation, but all in all, it will be one of the most important years of our life. We learned a lot about ourselves and met many challenges we didn't know we had the ability to overcome. I suppose that tonight at midnight, we're supposed to put all that behind us...
Taking risks and watching God define our time and lives never comes to an end, though. And that is probably the top growth experience I had in 2008...it will go with me. Does that make any sense at all? In my world it surely does...
taking risks,
n
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
here it is...merry christmas
so here i sit backstage minutes before our creative teams show up at ALC as we do our final two xmas eve celebrations. green and blue are good colors for that, right??
after the last celebration, my wife, aaron and i will skip out quickly to an overstuffed car and ride to NC throughout the night. i am excited and a bit worried.
excited because i know tonight will be very awesome here in our church community. worried because as the season has snuck up on me and i have not reflected on the moment as much as i would have liked to do so. emotionally, i would have preferred to take more time to feel and reflect today and the pst few days. lesson learned. the reason for worry is that as i ride down the road, the feelings will catch up with me and i may go into several hours of verbal reflection. i feel sorry for my comrades. but then again, maybe i wont.
it will be very cool to spend time with family and take some time off. i will miss ALC over the holiday, though. i really feel like shauna and i are integrating here pretty well. even on our way back from NC over thanksiving, we recognized the belonging feeling we have here in MD. it has been a very positive, life changing year for us both. not only that, God has proved himself very faithful to us. amidst the challenges, we have seen and experienced the grace and provision of a very caring father.
well what do you know, it seems i am connecting with those feelings already : )
merry christmas everyone,
take the risk and follow what God is leading you towards...you won't regret it.
-n
Saturday, December 06, 2008
lessons for a town house maryland christmas and legend of the gimp tree
so, moving to Maryland has been a learning experience, especially when it comes to decorating. today was Christmas decorating day at the drye house (um, townhouse). we brought out the decorations and spent a couple of hours getting everything arranged. below is my top ten list of things to make sure of when you are decorating a townhouse for Christmas. it is just my learned lessons, nothing more...
10. Christmas Movie: you HAVE to have a good movie on. we chose our traditional National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and took frequent breaks. it snowed today as well, and that helped the Christmas spirit.
9. TIME: we chose a Saturday early afternoon. this seemed to work well with our weekend as we carefully kept our calendar clear for the festive event. i went out in the AM for coffee and a tree, and came back to clean out large Tupperware storage bins full of holiday cheer. we carefully planned a good 4-5 hours for what takes 2- hours tops. we took frequent breaks (ok, maybe it was just me).
8. TREE SELECTION: ok, most people would put this around the top 3 because of the seriousness of the tree, but this year, we were experimenting. it wasn't AS important. see, we ALWAYS get a live tree (ok, we have had 4 Christmases together (double rabbit trail thought 4 Christmases was a great movie and I laughed a lot) so ALWAYS may be a bit strong). for the past 3 years, i have picked out a ridiculously large tree (our house in NC had vaulted ceilings). this year, now that we live in a townhouse on the bay, i was scared to get a large tree because we have 8ft ceilings. so, as you can see, the tree is a good 4-5 ft tall and looks gimpy. lesson learned...7ft tree in the future.
7. VOLUME: a townhouse can handle more than we thought. we went conservative this year because the townhouse is a bit um, how you say, small and tall. we COULD have just looked at what other people do, but i am lazy and figured keeping the volume to a minimum was a good idea this year. plus, we took more breaks.
6. TIMING: this is the first time we have waited until AFTER Nov 28 to decorate, and to tell ya the truth, it seems as though we cheated ourselves out of a couple weeks of holiday enjoyment. i think we need to decorate either right before turkey day or immediately afterward. this is an odd year, though...we spent the week of thanksgiving in NC and away from our new home so decorating was a bit challenging. but it looks cool...
5. FOOD: today for lunch during the decorating i had some leftover chili and a turkey sandwich...a good yule log and some fresh chili with grilled cheese would have really done the trick...and some peanut butter balls...Jesus would have been more proud...don't skimp on the meal is my suggestion
4. PLACEMENT OF THE TREE: ok, now we get into the nitty gritty...we placed the tree RIGHT beside our box of glowing pictures. time will tell whether this is a good move or not. it does make the zombie on the couch look i go for much easier to accomplish. however, we may move the location back to behind the couch in the future...i am unsure...this has top three potential.
3. MAXIMUM STORAGE ACCESSIBILITY: this is a newbie priority for me. make all the decor storage very accessible in the town home. this means prioritizing the placement of boxes in the "cave" on the bottom floor. if you create "crawl ways" (kind of like walkways that you crawl through) and accessibility it makes the process of decorating much simpler. this was a grade A #1 move for us (me) this year.
2. PRIORITIZE LIGHTING: with the gimp tree this year, we made a priority on the best lights. see, with a 13 ft tree, you need lots of lights. with a gimp tree, you only need two strands of your best lights. so, make them count...
and finally,
1. NAPTIME: make it a point to be extra lazy after decorating by turning up the space heater and curling up for a good afternoon nap. after that, watch college football, 80s movies ($20 if you can identify the movie we're watching in the photo above...), reality TV, and Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew...oh, and get take out chinese. it is the evening the shepherds foretold.
so that's it...for all you townhouse dwellers, i hope this was helpful
-n
10. Christmas Movie: you HAVE to have a good movie on. we chose our traditional National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and took frequent breaks. it snowed today as well, and that helped the Christmas spirit.
9. TIME: we chose a Saturday early afternoon. this seemed to work well with our weekend as we carefully kept our calendar clear for the festive event. i went out in the AM for coffee and a tree, and came back to clean out large Tupperware storage bins full of holiday cheer. we carefully planned a good 4-5 hours for what takes 2- hours tops. we took frequent breaks (ok, maybe it was just me).
8. TREE SELECTION: ok, most people would put this around the top 3 because of the seriousness of the tree, but this year, we were experimenting. it wasn't AS important. see, we ALWAYS get a live tree (ok, we have had 4 Christmases together (double rabbit trail thought 4 Christmases was a great movie and I laughed a lot) so ALWAYS may be a bit strong). for the past 3 years, i have picked out a ridiculously large tree (our house in NC had vaulted ceilings). this year, now that we live in a townhouse on the bay, i was scared to get a large tree because we have 8ft ceilings. so, as you can see, the tree is a good 4-5 ft tall and looks gimpy. lesson learned...7ft tree in the future.
7. VOLUME: a townhouse can handle more than we thought. we went conservative this year because the townhouse is a bit um, how you say, small and tall. we COULD have just looked at what other people do, but i am lazy and figured keeping the volume to a minimum was a good idea this year. plus, we took more breaks.
6. TIMING: this is the first time we have waited until AFTER Nov 28 to decorate, and to tell ya the truth, it seems as though we cheated ourselves out of a couple weeks of holiday enjoyment. i think we need to decorate either right before turkey day or immediately afterward. this is an odd year, though...we spent the week of thanksgiving in NC and away from our new home so decorating was a bit challenging. but it looks cool...
5. FOOD: today for lunch during the decorating i had some leftover chili and a turkey sandwich...a good yule log and some fresh chili with grilled cheese would have really done the trick...and some peanut butter balls...Jesus would have been more proud...don't skimp on the meal is my suggestion
4. PLACEMENT OF THE TREE: ok, now we get into the nitty gritty...we placed the tree RIGHT beside our box of glowing pictures. time will tell whether this is a good move or not. it does make the zombie on the couch look i go for much easier to accomplish. however, we may move the location back to behind the couch in the future...i am unsure...this has top three potential.
3. MAXIMUM STORAGE ACCESSIBILITY: this is a newbie priority for me. make all the decor storage very accessible in the town home. this means prioritizing the placement of boxes in the "cave" on the bottom floor. if you create "crawl ways" (kind of like walkways that you crawl through) and accessibility it makes the process of decorating much simpler. this was a grade A #1 move for us (me) this year.
2. PRIORITIZE LIGHTING: with the gimp tree this year, we made a priority on the best lights. see, with a 13 ft tree, you need lots of lights. with a gimp tree, you only need two strands of your best lights. so, make them count...
and finally,
1. NAPTIME: make it a point to be extra lazy after decorating by turning up the space heater and curling up for a good afternoon nap. after that, watch college football, 80s movies ($20 if you can identify the movie we're watching in the photo above...), reality TV, and Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew...oh, and get take out chinese. it is the evening the shepherds foretold.
so that's it...for all you townhouse dwellers, i hope this was helpful
-n
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