Never Ending Story - Update

I am impressed by the wit and creativity you all have unleashed on the previous never ending story post. Quite a humorous tale being concocted!

If you're not familiar with the story or if it's been a while since you've checked it out, you can catch up on it here.

Sorry, I just couldn't let the poor lunch lady bite the dust so soon in the story :)

What about the spindly man?

What's up with the ninja monkey wrangler? Why is he troubled?

Who's hat was thrown at the monkey?

What does all this have to do with ketchup?

You'll have to read and find out!
Thanks blog readers!
Peace?

Sloppy Joe: Never Ending Story

I convinced my kids the other day that it's pronounced SHloppy Joe and said more gravelly... besides it's more fun that way.

I hadn't had these since I was a kid and Kristen has never made them, so we decided to try a new recipe of these ol' favorites with the kids. Went better than I anticipated.

I think it helped that Kristen started this one-line story thing that entertained the kids while they ate spaghetti sauce on a bun.

So here's the deal: here's your chance to collaborate on a story with the other readers of this blog. Keep it clean (inappropriate comments will be deleted).

I'll start it like I started it with the kids the other night:

"The ketchup was good"

Your turn.
Four words only, building from the previous line to create a story.
Have fun.

Peace.

The Great Pumpkin

We have this tradition with my kids that we really enjoy. I have some fond memories of carved pumpkins from when I was a kid too. I remember being in college and carving a watermelon because I couldn't find a pumpkin in any of the stores. It turned out well and did it in kind of a frankenstein design.

Anyway, since my kids were old enough to do so, they've choose pumpkins and chosen a design they want carved on them. I cut the tops off them, they dig out all the seeds and we carve them up. Kristen makes a variety of sweet and salty treats out of the seeds while the carving commences.

I know a lot of people do this, but it seems like a fun memory with my kids.

The last couple of years it seems like our designs and carvings have steadily been better and better. These are the ones from this year. Can you tell which one is the boys' and which one is the girls'?


Any of you do similar or better designs (links to pics please)?
Peace.

Switchfoot Rocked My Face Off!

Dang!!! I guess I'm not sure what I was expecting but whatever it was got totally blown away by Jon Foreman and Switchfoot!! What a great show!

We took Dave, Deb, Izzy and Lynn as part of our Orchard Arts recruiting 'thanks' in September to see the concert. My entire team did a great job of recruiting volunteers this last month, but only one got to go on the trip this time (along with his recruit).

Had an interesting experience trying to get some food before the show but I'll let Dave share that one sometime. Star Plaza Theatre is a cool venue because it holds a few thousand people but keeps the entertainment intimate with the crowd. VERY loud or I'm just getting old, though I don't know if I would have wanted it any other way.

It was great getting to talk with the folks in our group and get to know them a bit (and for them to get to know my wife a little).

Relient K was pretty good too - some very talented musicians and very fun entertainers, though I had a really hard time hearing the lead vocals in the mix. Their first drum hit dropped the huge banner that is behind them, which visually was cool. Switchfoot had an LED type deal for their background which they changed colors on and sent various designs through - I think we need something like that at the Orchard!

Let me tell you, Jon Foreman is running all over the stage, jumping off the kick drum, banging on cymbals, walking on the seats out into the crowd and he hardly sounded winded at all! He did not miss a note. Man, does he have some great vocals!! They sounded as good if not better than their CD's. Great medley pieces they put together to pull in as many of their tunes as possible. Most came off the new CD, Oh! Gravity, along with Nothing Is Sound.

The last picture here is of Jon about 10 feet from us when he walked out into the crowd with some rope lighting and his mic. He then started his next song from there which was awesome!

Wish you could have been there. I did see one of my other multimedia guys and his family there - they had third row seats! Dawg!

Great show - don't miss the opportunity if you get one to check them out live!
Peace.

Jones' Simpsonized

I jumped on the bandwagon here, but added a twist....

Here's my family simpsonized. It was the closest we could get at least (sorry Seth, they didn't have Mohawks available for kids).

Wanna try? Go here and check it out!
Let me know what YOU come up with.

Peace.






:))

Tagged for iTunes Party Shuffle

A blog friend of mine over at realyouthoughts has tagged me... so I'm posting the first 10 songs that show up in a party shuffle on my iTunes. So, Tyler, here they are:

Broadcast - Steve Fee
Frontline - Pillar
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Tonight - Jeremy Camp
Try again - Keane
Bad Day - Daniel Powter
Crossfire - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Mind Storm - Joe Satriani
From God Above - Hillsong United
Not Falling Apart - Maroon 5

Who knew? Some of these I haven't listened to in a while. Zach, Kyle, Doug, and Larry - tag, your it! List 'em out gentlemen... your top 10 songs that show up in your iTunes party shuffle.

Peace.

Fantastic Fourth

My wife already posted about our great day together as a family.
We had a lot of fun together.

I have a wonderful family - more than I could have asked our imagined. My hope is that July 4th, 2007 will be as great of a memory for my kids as it was for me.

I concur with my wife that it was one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. It can't get much better than sitting in the middle of a well kept golf course on a blanket with the fireworks exploding right in front of you and even right above you.

I tried to convince my kids that those who were executing the pyrotechnics were creative artists - they choose which part of the sky (canvas) to explode the fireworks, which colors and when. They also work with sound, anticipation, effects and use a combination of those things to draw the participant into what is happening.

I felt a connection for sure as a creative arts guy.
I can't say my kids did.
Hopefully they can block that part of the memory when they recall our time together :)

How was your Independence celebration?

Peace.

Kids and Classics

Got one of those musical birthday cards from my Mother and Father-in-law... you know, the kind where you open it up and it plays a familiar tune.

Luckily my kids have opened it to play the song about a million times so far. My son also thinks the song goes, "bring home my llama" instead of "sweet home Alabama". So he sings it that way every time he hears it.

It was funny the first 500 times.
Ok, it's still funny :)

I guess I need to play more classic rock for my kids to learn.

Peace.

What is Heaven like?

I was sitting around the dinner table last night with my wife and kids, enjoying some great food. I love eating meals with my family... it seems like that's the time we talk about some cool things. Sometimes we talk about some pretty deep things and sometimes (most of the time) we joke and laugh and tell stories or our day.

Last night was one of the lighter-mood meals.

There was a lot of laughing, giggling, talking, and of course - eating. Somehow we started talking about what heaven would be like for each of us. It was just fun.

Apparently one of my daughters would have an endless stomach and be able to eat steak and chocolate whenever she wanted. My other daughter would have an endless supply of paper, pens, paints, brushes, and clay to be able to create masterpieces. My oldest son would have a huge screen and the coolest video games at his disposal. We all agreed that Kristen would have a large fluffy bed in a sun-filled, breezy room, with every best-selling book at her fingertips.

What is your idea of heaven?
Peace.

Blind Date

Probably one of my favorite commercials of all time.

Peace.

Going Down in a Blades of Glory

Ok, so with a little help from my friends, I surprised my wife for her birthday last night and took her out to dinner and a movie. She's got the basic rundown here.

We went with one of my friend's recommendations for restaurants and let me tell you, it was pretty good. You can tell this guy where you are going and what kind of food you're looking for and he'll tell you the best places to go. So far he has been right-on with every place he's sent me to (thanks Scott)!

We went to this place and totally loved it - one of my new favorite places to go in Geneva... good stuff and even somewhat healthy.

I knew my wife wanted go see "Blades of Glory" with Jon Heder and Will Farrell. Since, it was opening night we got our tickets early and got in line early - and got good seats. A couple of things about the movie... you need to know that I think Will Farrell is usually pretty funny. You also need to know that you should be in one of those stupid moods to go see it. I thought it was a good movie, very funny, but I think both of those guys have been funnier. It helped that there was a theater FULL of people laughing at the same stuff I laughed at (tends to amplify things a bit - mob mentality I guess). Don't know if it would have been as funny at home.

Still funny though... and my wife had a blast which made it totally worth it.

Peace.

Coffee Anyone?

Still trying to catch up on some of my blog posts while out in North/South Carolina....

The first day in NC, I found that I could not send any emails or upload anything using the connection at our friends place. I had lots of work to do and emails to respond to you know!

Off I went in search for a wifi connection that could give me the upload and email access I craved. No better place to go than to Starbucks.

I was pretty stoked that Statesville, NC actually had a Starbucks. So my son and I went in, I ordered some coffee and my asked my son if he wanted a hot chocolate. He asked if he could have coffee because he loves the sips that I give him sometimes. Now, I'm not in the habit of giving my children coffee, but he had agreed to go with me on my trek to find an internet connection while the others were too busy playing with friends.

I ordered him a tall decaf in a grande cup and poured a ton of cream into it. His eyes got as big quarters he was so excited! In fact, he was good the rest of the day to just pal around with me from place to place. That was a good thing since this Starbucks had NO WIFI! I was so bummed! I tried to 'borrow' someone else's connection they were using through their phone but it wasn't good enough.

We ended up going to another Starbucks in Mooresville, a Panera and even a McDonald's (can you believe that, wifi at McD's, though it was $3 for 2 hours). None of these sufficed though I got some things working at the McD's location. I finally figured a way to make it work though to this day I am still not 100% certain why I was having so many problems.

Do you think that God interacts with electronics to get us to take a break and slow down sometimes? I do, though it's hard for me to do.

Anyway, my son is now addicted to non-caffeinated Starbucks (maybe more because it's Starbucks than anything else). My wife informed me yesterday that she was walking into a grocery store with the kids when Seth said "Look Mom, there's a Starbucks in here... I wonder if they have decaf?"

Peace.

Bubba on Golf

Last weekend, I couldn't resist going out to play a round of hack golf with my good friend Willem in NC. Him and I used to go tear up a local course out there at least once a week when I lived there - it was cheap and we always had a blast. I am not a golfer by any means but it was cool building a relationship with Willem.

So I called the course to make sure I had brought clothes that were ok to wear on the course and in the clubhouse since I've actually showed up under dressed to a course before and told I couldn't play. Who knew!

The conversation went kind of like this:
Me: Uh, yes, can you tell me what your dress code is to play the golf course there?

Bubba (or similar name - u pick): Your what?

Me: The dress code for the golf course...

Bubba: (big pause here)... well it's cold out today so yer better dress warm!

Me: (struggling not to laugh my tail off) - no what I mean is, am I allowed to wear jeans and a t-shirt and play golf on the course there?

Bubba: Shoot man! Ya can wear bib overalls iffin you want to, I reckon.

Me: Ok, I think we're good here.

Bubba: Yeah, shirt and shoes'll work too.

My wife thought I needed to change the above conversation to be both politically and grammatically correct but hey, that's how it happened...

Now this conversation is probably not NEAR as entertaining unless you imagine Bubba's accent, the fact that he might-a-been gnawing on something ranging from chaw to roadkill and probably about 4x my age (alright so maybe not that old, but the rest aint far off).

Ok now, why don't we re-enact this together to get the full effect... just kidding. Welcome to the south! (Disclaimer - I have plenty of southern friends and acquaintances who may not get this - for one, they are not originally from the south or two, this conversation is perfectly normal - man I love you guys!)

Peace.

I'm The REAL Mike Jones

Probably one of the funniest things I've read in a while...

You've got to check out this blog post from Nazarene Nooz that my wife found today on the web. Pay close attention to the pastor's name and his rationale...

Doggone cracked me up!
I think this is supposed to be a spoof but it's funny either way.

I still claim that I'm the REAL Mike Jones!

Pimped out peace.

80's Hair Metal

My wife gave me this card for Valentine's Day earlier this week.

I laughed.
I cried.
I mostly laughed.

And then I ate a fabulous meal where everything was made into heart shapes and prepared by my wife and kids. It was great!

Peace.

Staff Outing

Scott posted a video snippet of our staff outing to downtown Chicago last week.

Now, one thing to keep in mind before you watch the video - my two favorite foods are chocolate and steak, not necessarily together. If you chose one of those and continually brought it to my table until I could eat no more, this would be a sample of the results :)

Enjoy!