Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: architecture, Family, food, life, music, travel
Our quick get away to Arizona was a lot of fun despite the 105+ degree heat. It was fun catching up with family we haven’t seen in years. It was fun floating around in a giant pool. It was fun enjoying some great food. It was especially fun for me to see some of the amazing architecture and venues in the Valley of the Sun. You can check out some of my iPhone Arizona Trip Photos on Flickr
While I do love traveling, and especially a good road trip, it is good to be home now where it’s currently a beautifully cool 68 degrees. I was reminded of one of the reason why I love living here when I heard the music in the park next to our little place in Orange earlier. I always forget about the annual summer concert series on Wednesday nights in Hart Park until it’s about half way into the summer and I’ve already missed all the good shows, only hearing them occasionally from a distance. In case you live around here too, be sure and catch at least one of these.
2009 Concerts in Hart Park dates (thanks to oc.metblogs.com):
* July 8, The Wise Guys Big Band Machine – Big band/swing music
* July 15, The Fenians – Traditional and contemporary Irish music
* July 22, Stone Soul – Motown, soul and R & B classics
* July 29, Open Wide – Classic rock
* August 5, Crashdance – Top 40 dance favorites
* August 12, The Sam Morrison Band – southern classic rock
* August 19, The Hodads – 50’s and 60’s rock-n-roll
* August 26, Film at Eleven – Motown and R & B classics
Hart Park is located at 701 South Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
The music may be a little hit and miss for your taste, but it’s all free and free makes everything better, right? Are there any summer traditions you enjoy that make home just as sweet as a good trip?
Spending the weekend with family in Tempe, Arizona and decided to visit a place that Guy Fiere recommended. He’s the host of a show on the Food Network called Diners, Dives and Drive Ins. It’s a place in Glendale called La Piazza Al Forno.
The pizza was really good and the service was even better. We got the Itallion Stallion with a load of spicy meats, the Piazza Blanco with basil and white sauce and the Mediteranian with pesto and feta.
The place has a really comfortable and relaxed family feel. I’m sure that Guy’s feature on this simple brick oven pizza joint has helped business quite a bit. They’ve capitalized on it with a banner our front and literally putting Guy’s name on the place with his signature on the wall right by the front door. Have you ever gone to a place just because you saw it on TV?
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Calvary, faith, Family, friends, Leslie, life
This past Sunday in my LifeGroup, we were discussing chapter 2 of Henri Nouwen’s book “Here and Now” on the topic of joy, especially in the midst of sorrow. It was such a perfect topic for my own life and many in our group. It was also really meaningful with Thanksgiving being this week. I’m so thankful for this group of fellow believers. In the short time we’ve been meeting together, I can feel God at work and can’t wait to see what growth comes from our time spent studying and praying together.
This week at Calvary, we decided to create a little twist to the traditional thanksgiving testimony service we have each year. We had people share a passage of scripture they were thankful for and how that verse has impacted their life. It was incredible this morning to hear the common thread of hope from God’s word woven into the trials and challenges of so many people’s lives. From miraculous healing and God’s faithful provision to conquered addictions and restored relationships – I find myself just thankful that I get to work at a church where God is still moving and lives are being changed.
I feel like for Lesie and I, the past year has been a lot of waiting on God to come through. There’s been a lot of trust, and as we’ve found blessings along the path – there have been just as many trials that have stretched our faith and in turn drawn us closer to each other and to the Lord. I am extraordinarily thankful for my beautiful wife and the fact that I get to share my life with her.
Finally, here’s a pretty obscure passage I found when I was prepping for the LifeGroup time last Sunday. I’m thankful for the promises and hope we find in His word.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Even when times are hard and there aren’t many signs of good times ahead, we can choose to give thanks and rejoice because of who God is. He provides the firm foundation we need to stand on and He gives us the strength we need to make it.
I hope you can find much to be joyful about this Thanksgiving.
Filed under: Finding God in the Ordinary | Tags: basketball, biola, Calvary, church, faith, Family, friends, Leslie, life, politics, prayer, work
Life is happening so fast. I’m struggling to keep up. This should really be seven different posts, but I want to catalog all my thoughts from this week in one place.
Sunday – Struggled as two of my main tech guys were late for sound check. Struggled as a couple of important media elements had to be adjusted at the last second before the first service started. Jumped in to help serve communion after an amazing message by Brent Dedmon during second service. Got to celebrate my brother’s birthday over a great lunch that afternoon.
Monday – Did devotionals for a group at Calvary called God’s Housecare. They are a group of retired guys who get together each week and help clean the Worship Center. After cleaning they gather around coffee and donuts and hear from one of the pastors on staff. I talked about the sovereignty of God in light of the then upcoming elections. It was fun getting into of God and politics with guys older than my dad. They were surprisingly balanced and wise.
Tuesday – Heard from Dr. JP Moreland and Dr Klaus Issler from Talbot School of Theology. They met with Calvary’s pastors and directors to talk about things like modern-day miracles, gifts of the Spirit, prophetic words, the voice of God, demonic activity, spiritual warfare and the power of prayer. How do we avoid the trap of having a rational, limited and contained view of God that fits so neatly within our modern, Western, linear worldview, and instead carry out a faith as “empowered evangelicals” willing to take risks and be open to how God is moving in miraculous ways not just around the world – but also within our own church? Followed that faith-stirring time on a completely different note with an amazing time of Pizza, Wii and Rock Band with the whole staff. Made it home in time for my friend Marty the plumber to fix my leaking toilet. He’s a really good guy. Then, watched history unfold that evening as the results of the election were announced.
Wednesday – Packed up our stuff so our home could be tented for termites. It was strange to wrap up our food in plastic, hand over our keys to strangers, and trust that everything would be okay while they killed the bugs lurking in our walls. Had a really long day at work, full of meetings. But, it was fun to celebrate my good friend Tammy’s birthday with my communications staff during our regular Wednesday meeting. Leslie and I were able to check in to a brand new hotel that night, Worldmark by Wyndham in Anaheim. It’s a timeshare resort that my dad has points for. It’s only been open for a week. Strange to feel like a tourist in your own backyard.
Thursday – Took advantage of hotel living and used the fitness room in the morning. Had the place all to myself for the most part. Had a great time later that night with my sister and parents at Cheesecake Factory, which was right across the street from the hotel. They have a new pumpkin cheesecake – good thing I had worked out that morning.
Friday – Checked out of the hotel and went with Leslie for a surgery she needed to have done. The surgery went well, but as she woke up from the anesthesia she was hit with a massive migraine. Was able to get her home just in time for the gas guy to come by and reconnect our gas. He was able to fix a leak in our furnace and discovered a problem with the ventilation of our dryer that I was able to fix on my own. Two hugely dangerous problems solved. Got to head out that night with my friend Michael to Westwood to watch some hoops with our alma mater, the BIOLA Eagles, take on the Bruins of UCLA. We lost by about 30, but it was still fun to see Biola represent at Pauley Pavillion.
Saturday - Was woken up by a ringing telephone – that’s almost never a good thing. Leslie’s mom was in the emergency room. Turns out she had three heart attacks this week because of a clogged artery, but didn’t realize they were heart attacks. On our way to the hospital in Whittier I was pulled over for speeding and despite the plea of a medical emergency – the officer still took about five minutes and still gave me a ticket. I’m still not over that. Leslie’s mom seems to be doing better now with a couple stints inserted. They’re keeping her there for a couple nights to monitor everything.
That’s the week that was. It feels like with every blessing, comes a trial. It feels like the closer I am to God, the harder life gets. Or, is it the other way around? I can’t tell. I know that He is at work in both the seemingly ordinary and in the obviously extraordinary moments of life. I’ll keep believing and trusting and praising Him through it all. And even as I feel like I’m constantly falling short, I know that God is constantly lifting me up. Life is happening so fast. I hope I can keep up.
I went to the wedding of one of Leslie’s cousins today at Ocean View Baptist Church in San Pedro. It was the smallest sanctuary I’ve seen that had eight moving head lights installed. Very interesting. They also had all three of the church’s pastors help officiate the ceremony. It was weird to find out that Leslie’s cousin Julie’s roommate, who was the maid of honor, was a girl I knew in high school. I hardly knew any of Leslie’s family, but I knew the maid of honor… small world. Oh yeah, and my mother-in-law played piano for the ceremony. She’s a talented woman.
The reception was in a backyard garden way up in the hills of San Pedro. They had a full stage, dance floor, great food, and lots of family and friends. The moment that made it all worth it for me was when the father of the groom gave a toast. He was using a metaphor of how he had seen a seed of faith planted in his son David’s life that had now grown to be a healthy, 30-foot tree. He was really looking forward to someday when he could look at his son as a giant sequoia. And of course… to complete the metaphor that meant his new wife Julie was like the perfect fertilizer who would help him grow. Really, that’s exactly what he said. It was an awesomely awkward moment.
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Family, health, Leslie, politics, sports, tv
Some kind of stomach bug hit me hard on Friday night. I spent most of the weekend in various states of duress, with different parts of my body taking turns malfunctioning.
So, I spent all day Saturday layed out watching the Olympics, football, and the Civil Forum at Saddleback. The Olympics were good when filtered and fast-forwarded using TiVo. The Charger’s game was horrible as none of the starters played. The Forum with Obama and McCain was fascinating. It was so well done. I thought they both did an amazing job of presenting their point of view and for the first time I feel like I actually know where they stand on some key issues. Why can’t reporters be as good as Warren at asking simple, yet challenging questions?
I thought I was feeling better on Sunday and didn’t want to miss church. Met up with the family afterwards for lunch and everything seemed to be feeling better. Then, I spent the evening at Corona Del Mar helping video Calvary’s beach baptisms. It was a great time with just over 50 people taking the plunge. At about an hour in though, I had to make an emergency exit as the bug came back.
I’m taking it easy this morning, trying to make sure I’m recovered before our appreciation event tonight for all of Calvary’s worship and creative arts volunteers called The Studio. I have to be up front a few times throughout the night, which won’t be very easy if my stomach is rolling in pain.
I have to say that the main reason I was able to gut it out over the last few days is because of my amazing wife Leslie. She has gotten me drugs and made me soup and jello and allowed me to just lay around and moan. I can’t say enough good things about how great she is.
Filed under: Extraordinary Life | Tags: entertainment, Family, food, Football, fun, life, travel, vacation
After wrapping up VBS last week at Calvary, I got to follow it up with a great weekend away. Leslie and I headed out first thing Saturday morning for San Diego.
We met up in Old Town with my brother Ty and his wife Shelley and our favorite nephew Connor, who had already been down in SD for a few days on vacation. From there we headed over to the harbor to go on a SEAL Tour. It’s one of these huge open-air bus/trucks that drive you through the city and then drives right into the water and becomes a boat to take you around the harbor. Our tour guide was really funny. The whole experience was like one big smile. (even though in the photo below, they’re both too busy looking cool bother with smiling)
After that we grabbed some good grub at Buster’s Beach House and Long Board Bar. The rest of the fam headed back to the OC and we spent the afternoon shopping and chillaxing (that’s a word our tour guide used, and Leslie immediately knew I wouldn’t forget it.)
At about 5 pm we got on the Green Line train from Old Town to …. Qualcomm Stadium! It was the very first game of the preseason with the Chargers playing the Cowboys. It was my first time going to an NFL game. We got there almost 2 hours before game time to take in all the pregame warm ups and see all the sites we could. Leslie had gotten us tickets as a gift for our anniversary back in July.
Sunday was perhaps the most relaxing day I’ve had all year. I felt a little twinge of loss for missing out on the big One Service we had at Calvary on Sunday to close out VBS. But, that feeling drifted away as I listened to the breeze blowing through the giant pine trees around the pool I was floating in.
We were able to extend the weekend into Monday as we celebrated Leslie’s grandma TooToo’s 90th birthday. Her family all got together in Laguna at Las Brisas for brunch. We just hung out all day with her and wrapped it up with dinner at Mike’s in Whittier. It was like a perfect Toot day and great way to end the weekend.
Filed under: Finding God in the Ordinary | Tags: Calvary, church, faith, Family, Leslie, marriage, vacation
This week, Leslie and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. For the past couple years, we have gone away for our anniversary. However, with time off hard to come by and gas being so expensive – we decided to follow the latest, hottest trend and do a “staycation.”
I was able to get Leslie a couple days off of work on Wednesday and Thursday. For our actual anniversary day, which was Wednesday, I decided to line up a day of things that she loves.
It started with sneaking out first thing in the morning and getting her some McDonalds along with a big bouquet of red roses. After surprising her and opening a couple presents we headed out to SusieCakes in Newport. They have the best cupcakes and a great, vintage vibe. We then headed up PCH to Main Street in HB and went to Color Me Mine. After a couple hours there we walked down the pier and had lunch at Ruby’s. I had brought stuff to just hang out at the beach, but it was actually a bit cold out so I had a backup plan to go see WALL-E at Bella Terra. We had some extra time before the movie, so we went and got pedicures. Yes, I got a pedicure… and I liked it. After seeing the movie, which was really good, we walked over and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
Overall, it was a great day. By the time we got home it really did feel like we had been away on a little, mini road trip even though we drove less than 50 miles round trip.
Then on Thursday I had a Pastor’s day away that had been planned for months. It was an amazing day down at Dana Point with a couple hours of quiet time with the Lord, a baby seal spotting on the beach, some great fish tacos for lunch and a couple hours of whiffle ball. It really was an incredible time of connecting with God and the other guys on staff. I’m so glad I went.
Meanwhile, Leslie was able to take care of some much needed errands in the morning. She then decided to go get her hair done by her sister at the salon where she works up in Brentwood. Leslie and her sister haven’t been on the best of terms in recent months. It was such an answer to prayer that they were able to reconnect and they wound up spending the rest of the day together hanging out at 3rd Street in Santa Monica.
For those of you still reading this ridiculously long post, I thought the two hour quiet time Eric chose for us to meditate on while at the beach on Thursday was exactly what my soul needed. He had us read Psalm 23. I feel like those 2 days away from the office this week were like a picture of this passage. How good and faithful and loving God is to us.
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.
Thank you Lord for my wife. She is beautiful, sweet, kind-hearted and full of grace.
Thank you Lord for my job and the people I work with who point me to You each day.
Thank you Lord for times like these, where you give rest and peace and renewal.
This last weekend I went to a shooting range in Huntington called The Firing Line. It was me, my wife Leslie, my little sister TIffany and my dad Hank.
Leslie had never even held a gun and had been bugging me for a few months to take her shooting. I think it was ever since Calvary’s Man Camp.
My dad brought his 22, which is a fun little gun that doesn’t have too much kick so you can get pretty accurate with it. We also rented a 357 Smith and Wesson. It was incredibly powerful with a wicked muzzle flash.
The best part of the whole day was watching Leslie empty out the first clip … and completely miss the target. There were 10 shots fired and zero shots that hit paper. I think the first time was just a bit overwhelming for her. After that, she just got better and better with each round. By the end, she was consistently hitting right in the neck region of the target. Should I be impressed or nervous?
