New York...is it what you think it is?

This past weekend I flew to New York to speak at the Metro District Jr. High retreat. I landed in Newark, NJ and picked up my rental car and headed to the 2 hour drive ahead of me. I got 3 1/2 hours of sleep that night and didn't sleep much on the plane. Once I got on the way, followed the mapquest directions. I stopped and got a philly cheesesteak and then got into the middle of nowhere.

When I tell people I spent much of my growing up years in New York I almost always get asked if I have ever been mugged. People don't understand that the greatest amount of New York is beautiful tree land. I had hundreds of acres of apple orchards and corn fields around where I lived.

So I turned off the main road to some back roads. 4 plus miles later there were signs that the road was closed to thru traffic. I figured I would just drive around it. Turns out that the road was washed out. There was no road. I turned around and there was a dear standing in the road. Not what most people would picture. I took another turn and it was a dead end. I saw 3 more deer. Then just another 1/4 mile up the road I saw 10 more deer! Crazy!



I finally arrived at the camp. www.lakechampion.org What a weekend! There were 325 Jr. High students there that weekend. They were awesome! The worship team for the weekend was a band called The Least of These. (www.leastofthesemusic.com and www.myspace.com/leastofthesemusic) They were AWEsome too! They are very talented and a fun group of guys. We went for a "hike" around the lake. Haha. I laughed a lot on that little journey.

We played Amazing Race in the afternoon. My team came in 2nd place. They did a great job setting up that game.

The sessions were sooo good. The students really responded well to God. Saturday night about 50 students stood up to make begin a relationship with Jesus Christ for the first time. AMAZING!!!

I had such a great weekend; met some amazing people; had a lot of fun; slept very little!

I love New York. But I'm glad to be home!

Embarassing Dream?

OK, so I don't know if I would categorize this in the "It's Embarrassing" spot, but there is a part of it that I don't like to share. I am not sure why. Perhaps because as I share it I am putting myself out there in a way that I don't normally do.

Now, if you know me, you know that I don't get embarrassed easily. I do plenty of dumb stuff and laugh at myself before others get the chance to do so. The thing is, this is not one of those. This is one of those, "If they know, they could potentially reject me." things. Now I am not too wrapped up in it, but I do like to be liked. It's part of the makeup of who I am.

That being said, I am also a little excited. It's been a dream of mine for many years. I have always wanted to write music and record it. I got the chance twice to do that on our youth ministry worship CDs. Recorded, not written. That was pretty cool. The bigger dream is to do all my own stuff. I have been tinkering around for a long time. Written a few things here and there. Some for youth group or youth events, some just for myself. It's those that put you out there. People hear your heart and they critique your lyrics and your voice, etc.

Now, I know I could probably never win American Idol (although I like to think I could make it to Hollywood), but then you have Sanjaya...I don't have the heart to talk about that one at the moment. Nice kid. Shouldn't win! Hurt for him with all the "hate" he is and will get.

Anyhow, all that to say...last night I entered a song into the American Idol songwriting competition. I am pretty excited about it. I doubt it will make it to the top 20, but the voting for them starts on May 2. They will post the top 20 and people can cast their vote for who should get their song for the AI winner. That song will also be the first single the AI winner releases. How cool would that be!?

Anyhow, there it is. I put it out there. Just thought I'd let you know. :)

Birthday Wishes?

I know this may sound like a lame attempt at getting people to recognize my birthday is coming up (Saturday *cough*, April *cough* 14th *cough, cough*) but it's not! I was just sitting down to watch Lost and began to think about my birthday wishes. Jeanne-Ann has been hounding me for the last week for wishes. The problem is I don't know.

I have a few thoughts. A new belt buckle, a cool beaded necklace, ummmm...that's about it so far. I am sure there are several other things, but I can't think of them. I mean, a flat screen TV would be cool, but obviously that's not happening at the moment. Any suggestions?

I know I think of stuff I want all the time, but when it's "important" that's when I can't think. I know I want a telephoto zoom lens for my digital Canon Rebel, but that is another out of the price range dream. A Macbook Pro perhaps? hmmm...

When is April 1st?

OK, so there have been a few "congrats", "you guys make beautiful babies", etc. Thank you for that, but you need to look at when the post went up. Just to clarify! :)
But you never know...hehe.

And then there were 5