Thanksgiving 2009

Well its over....but man was it fun!

It all started the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Shopping, prepping, cooking & getting ready for a wild weekend. Kim made an amazing spread as we had her sister & family over for an all day EAT-FEST. My wife marinated a Turkey for over 24 hours, prepped it, prepared it, cooked it then we devoured it.
Family left & I started packing. I took my two boys to meet up with a friend, Brian, in San Diego who has 4 boys & two of his friends with there sons to give us a total of 15 guys. We headed out to Ocotillo Wells, California to have a guys only trip to the desert.
It was the first major trip with just me & the boys and it was amazing!

• We went through 1500 rounds of ammunition with .22 rifle's & 12g shotguns.
• Launched model rockets.
• Built a HUGE bonfire.
• Launched the potato gun
  
• Created some explosions in the bonfire.
• Ate great food
• Ran our kids on a zip line Brian had made
• Endured a very cold & crazy rain storm

I always have highlights spending time with my boys but four things stuck out to me in a big way on this trip

1- I love seeing my kids experience new things. Whenever Cody & Cole can try something new they tend to take advantage of it. I have learned not to push the new experience but allow them to be comfortable & encourage them to try it. Once they do the new experience I can see in their posture this feeling of "I AM SO COOL FOR TRYING THIS". I see it building in them confidence as well as curiosity. I also see them learning what it means to be ok to try something even if you fail, you at least attempted it.

2- Sharing life with friends & allowing boys to be boys is fun. Brian is on my JANITOR list. If i could work with Brian i would consider being a janitor for him just to get that opportunity. I enjoy sharing life, ministry moments & random craziness with him. To see my boys meet 7 other kids roughly there same age, hang out & smile for 2 days straight in an environment that says "YES have fun" allows me as a dad to sit back & enjoy so many moments.

3- Life is too short to not play. We live in this crazy, busy, on the go world. We are so connected to dysfunctional living we don't know what end is up sometimes. We never pause to breathe. I REFUSE to be a dad who models business instead of intimacy. I REFUSE to be a dad who doesn't show his boys what life is about. My boys have yet to quit talking about how much fun they had on this trip, what they want to do next time we go to the desert & the stories they are telling make me smile. I want my sons to be able to play with freedom, excitement & be able to make memories that'll last forever.

4- If you are going to endure 40mph wind gust through the night, freezing & drenching rain you better be able to have a sense of humor while doing it. We were running kids on the zip line & I looked behind me over a mountain ridge & saw a massive rain front coming. I told Brian we may wanna go soon so we had 3 more kids to get across the zip line then we'd go. Well we got 1 more kid across before the heavens opened up. It was crazy. We got wet & I mean wet. Kids were chattering teeth, sweatshirts were soaked, dads were getting camp broken down as best as possible in the rain...it was funny. Part of the cable got stuck under a rock so Brian grabbed a shovel & a handle (no bolt cutters handy) to pry the cable out. You have to smile in the midst of life, even if the circumstances suck!
You also want to grab the arm of the guy who lost his balance before he tumbles 25' down a wet rock face ridge.

Here are some pics of the trip & a quick video i did to show some students at our high school gathering

Leaves

So somehow at my neices soccer game my two boys and some other kids found some leaves to pile up & play in. I did not know that these kind of leaves were in Southern California!!

Dinner tonight

All church Thanksgiving feast at our church tonight...only half the room

FOOTBALL & JESUS...nothing better!

I just became a bigger fan for

COLT McCOY-QB for TEXAS


SAM BRADFORD-QB for Oklahoma

If you follow College Football you need to watch these Click on the name to see why

Cody my MVP

Sunday was Cody's actual Birthday. We had his last game of the fall season in Tustin. His stat sheet reads:

• 1 Interception returned for a touchdown
• 1 38 yd run for a touchdown
• 1 30 yd run
• 12 tackles

The highlight for me was after his game the team had their last get together & party. The players voted for team MVP who displayed Honor & Character for the season. Cody was picked!!

I love seeing him play, no doubt, but i love knowing that his teammates see something different in him--way to go Cody!!

Cody Turns 7

Well tonight we celebrated Cody's 7th birthday. His menu choice was chicken tacos, chocolate fondue for dessert & then hang time with opening his presents. I can't believe he is 7 already...so much life has happened in hi 7 years and it is only beginning.
He has gone from my little 1st born kid who laid on my chest being 3 days old home from the hospital as i watch college football to my 7 year old who lays on my chest & we both yell while watching college football.
He adds a lot to my life, teaches me a ton, keeps me humble & allows me to be a title in life that brings a tear to my eye, he calls me "Dad"

His brother got him Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs


Mom & Dad got him NERF Velcro Dart Tag System


He also scored a pair of binoculars from a friend for hiking & hunting

Halloween '09

Halloween isn't a holiday we get excited for [we save our $$ to spend on the consumerism & decoration of Christmas] however this Halloween was the 1st year where the boys were super excited about dressing up.

We did do some pumpkin carving

Kim was excited to help Cody look the whole part of Jack Sparrow with some cool make-up effects.

I loved seeing Cole in his Bumblebee outfit from Transformers!

We had our neice with us so the 5 of us hit the community in search of Candy!

My Learnings from someone smarter than me

I LOVE the to read Abraham Heschel. Love it! Can't get enough but can't take too much at certain times. It is deep, profound, humorous & heartbreaking...it makes my soul move.

His short bio is:
Scholar, writer, author & a theologian. He taught at Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
He lived 1907-1972, still waiting to read more about his understanding of who Jesus is. His writings are better than most pastors, theologians of any evangelical stance I have ever read on the Old Testament!!

Some excerpts to quote him before i begin my humble, human thoughts

The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and importance of Worship is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of the living is the root of sin. Modern man fell into the trap of believing that everything can be explained.....

To the prophets of old wonder is a FROM OF THINKING. It is not the beginning of knowledge but an act that goes beyond knowledge; it does not come to an end when knowledge is acquired; it is an attitude that never ceases.....

As civilizations advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information's; but only for want of appreciation....

This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living; to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.

I have always been a curious type of person as well as spiritual mystic, but curiosity and wonder can be chasms apart. Wonder sits back in awe, curiosity just asks odd questions. Being a spiritual mystic in me leaves a sense of being ok not having answers to spiritual happenings.

Over the past 2 years watching my sons grow from toddlers to young boys & seeing the sense of adventure & curiosity grow i have tried to encourage that. But my challenge (from last weeks readings) is to encourage a sense of wonder of curiosity. I want my boys to be in AWE of God & that sense of wonder to creep into every aspect of their life.

It almost is a mystical way of looking at life. That when God moves you can't explain it. Heschel also writes that

Man is the messenger who has forgotten the message

He writes that in context of saying we, mankind, have forgotten the message that our lives are a journey scripted for us for God to move in & through. We have forgotten, pushed thoughts aside, gotten to busy with to much to do for us to actually want, experience or even have a faint whispering of the divine in our lives.

Wonder at the world around us (from an ant on the ground to human life being born) helps our souls be reminded that it all starts with a source we can't explain. Most people that scares them...some people don't even want to think about it.

As a husband & father i want to lead my family in a way that we enjoy the wonders of the unknown. It causes us to ask question, NOT to seek an answer, but to seek a deeper sense of AWE that God is God.

I want to continual have an influence on my wife, kids, students i interact with that life is & always will be filled with wonder to quote Heschel one more time here

The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder

Our Weekend

Our church did a Fall Festival on Sunday. It was crazy mad fun! I co-taught the Sunday Service with Doug as we did a message on Parenting. It was lighthearted, fun, enjoyable & the afternoon was a hit.

We had In N Out roll in here with their burger truck. Tons of games, prizes & student ministry rocked out the Sugar Shack of Sno-Cones & Cotton candy.

The OC REGISTER COVERED THE EVENT which was cool too!

I Play Music

Ok not really but was for a 'bit' we did for our high school night last night

I am kinda jealous

The dialogue along with the first video is an amazing. The congruent dialogue & implications, emphasis & rhythm in how he speaks is luring within the context of the illusion he is performing.



I just say WOW, THAT TAKES RISK to do