Back Where You Came From.

We ended up going to the hospital when Ray's contractions were around 4:30 between contractions (we were told in birth class to go when they reached 5 minute intervals). But, she wasn't in labor enough. So we were there for a couple of hours and they checked her out and while she is having strong and steady contractions she isn't dilated enough so they sent us home where its more comfortable. We got home around 4:30 AM and they expect we will be back in a few hours. Now its time to try to get some rest before heading back. Cheers.

Chris

1:06

So it's 1:06 in the morning and Rachel is having some real intense contractions. They have been building over the past couple of days and now they are really painful. Right now we are at 5:52 between contractions and this number has been steadily dropping from about 10 minute intervals a few hours ago. We are just trying to relax at home until they are close enough to go to the hospital. Cheers.

Chris

My New Best Friend.

For Christmas Rachel got me a Bialetti stovetop espresso maker and I love her for it. Thank you baby for knowing your man so well. Cheers.

Chris

I Gots a Jones.

Man, I am jonesin' some Skyline Chili. Too bad the nearest one is in Indianapolis, about 27 hours away (according to Google Maps). If I was a pimped out rapper with a Bentley and a private jet I would fly to Indy tonight and get some Skyline, but I'm not so I'll just eat my baked potato.

I Think I'm a Little Twisted.

This whole "having a baby and becoming a parent" thing has been a fun process. Its really caused me to examine who I am as a man, a husband, a future father etc. Its given me the opportunity to look at the things that have shaped me (family, music, sports, friend etc) and reflect on how they have all led me to this point, a point of becoming a father. And after examining all of these aspects of my development I realized something (that others have known for a while I presume); I'm a little twisted.

When a woman is pregnant and people talk to her about becoming a mother I assume most women have an overwhelming feeling of pride and joy for the fact that they will become a mother. They think of all the things they will be able to do with their child, how they will be able to care for this precious gift that they feel lucky to be given.

However, every time I hear someone talk to Rachel about becoming a mother something different happens. I grin, to show the person that is speaking to Rachel that I concur that she will be a great mother, but what's going on in my mind is completely different. The only thing that comes to my mind is the Danzig song "Mother". It was one of my favorite videos when I was in high school and while I agree "Mother" isn't a wholesome song about love and everlasting Joy, its what pops into my head. Maybe I'm a little twisted, I'm sorry. Chris.

New Shoes!

Got a hole in one of my tires the other day that couldn't be plugged. Found a great deal on some hardly used tires and wheels in PHX that weren't much more than replacing the one tire I needed to replace. So, baby got new shoes. Ain't she purdy?

Fun.

About Rachel.

Hey guys,

Things are going pretty well with us here AZ. The temperature is dropping, days are become too short and I am stoked for Christmas. We have had a first snow of the year and as the year comes to a close that means one thing to us......BABY! January is fast approaching and we are getting more and more excited about our little bundle of joy to arrive and hang out with us.

During the pregnancy things have been text book. From belly measurements to weight gain to blood work, perfect across the board. However last week Rach had a cold so early this week we went to the doctor to see whats up and they noticed something funny about her heart, its beating like a marathon runners and this concerned them a bit.

So Rach was ordered to get an EKG and go to a cardiologist. The cardiologist so far isn't sure what is wrong with her. After an echocardiogram and some blood work everything looks fine, except for her high heart rate. So today she is strapped to a little machine that records her heart rate and hopefully this will help them determine whats wrong with my beautiful wife.

Please pray that they find the issue and that is something that is easily resolved. Thanks folk. Cheers.

Chris

Take it all in.

I love the smell of a bike shop. If you have a chance tomorrow, go into your local bike shop and take a deep breath. Its something about the mix of rubber, spandex and chain lube that really calms the spirit. I hope tomorrow to have the opportunity to enjoy that smell, that's if the shop is done fixing my rear wheel. Also, a day off + perfect weather = an excellent day to ride.

Chris

Austin City Limits.

Austin City Limits celebrates its 35th anniversary year -- making it the longest running music series in American television history, pretty cool.

Some of the most influential memories regarding playing guitar was watch Stevie Ray Vaughn on ACL. I've watched his live performance at least dozen times and fell in love with the improvisational style. The way he could just play and play and play stuck me as amazing as a young guitar player and I think it had a huge effect in the way I play and jam now.

Here is a article about their 35 years and on there is a great Ben Harper and Relentless 7 performance. Ben is another of my musical inspirations and this live version of Keep it Together is awesome. I really want to see him live some day. Check it out. Cheers.

Chris

I Heart Racial Unity.

3rd Trimester.

Next Step.

I had a great time at the Nathan triathlon a couple of weeks ago. I still need to get the pics posted up, will do soon.

I am signed up yesterday for my next race for the fall, its the last of the Amica triathlon series on November 1st and I am stoked about it.

What I am hoping to do is to race these 2 shorter races this fall and try to up my distances next year. Should be fun. Cheers.

Chris

Ironman World Championships from Kona Today.

You can watch live online here.

Interesting Video Series.

Funny.

Ray Ray Bloggin'.

Hey guys,

Rachel updated the baby blog today. It was her first post with a picture, she was very excited about that fact.

www.holohanbaby.blogspot.com

Chris

Results From Yesterdays Survey.

Yesterday I did a survey seeing which baby names, of the ones we like, you guys like and the results are in.

Boy

Keegan-15
Oliver-7

Girl

Ayla-17
Harper-6

Funny thing is Keegan and Ayla are the names Rach picked and Oliver and Harper were mine. So I am choosing to take this extremely personal. I love you all...except the folks who voted for Rachel's names over my names. Cheers.

Chris

Need your Help.

Ray Ray and I are thinking of a couple of different baby names that we like, but we can't decide.

We were thinking that we will post the ones we are thinking of here and we would love your feedback, please comment on what you like. Reply with which name you like for a boy and a girl.

Boy
-Oliver
-Keegan

Girl
-Ayla
-Harper

Runs with Coyotes.

When Rach and I first moved to AZ one of the things that freaked me out was the coyotes. I wasn't sure how they react to someone walking or jogging by, will they attack a person? Everyone assured me that they wouldn't bother me, but I'm a Florida boy, I don't know coyotes.

So yesterday I was out for a jog and on my way home I saw 2 coyotes on the road with me. To be honest I was a little unsure because I've never seen them out like that. They looked at me, I looked at them and then one of them did something to settle my mind that they weren't about to attack. It took a dump in the road. I mean, I'm not a scientist, but I am sure that when any mammal is about to attack they don't take the time to squat and drop a deuce. So now I know the coyotes will leave me alone. Comforting. Cheers.

Chris

Hello Baby.

Last week Rach had her 2nd ultrasound and it was amazing. Just to see the face, fingers, toes, arms, legs, heart, brain etc... was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

Funny thing, during the ultrasound, my heart started pounding and I couldn't catch my breath. Does this mean I will pass out during the birth? I never thought I could be one of those husbands. We'll see. Haha, I hope I don't pass out.

I am loving the process of this child growing in Rachel's womb. Absolutely amazing. Cheers.

Chris

Drives Faster When Your Not Dragging the Bank Along.

Ray Ray and I paid off our Jeep last Friday and got the title in the mail a few days ago. I can't believe we paid it off so fast.

Thanks Dave Ramsey for making us believe we could do it.

This past Jan or Feb I read Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and really wanted to get our finances in order. We only had 3 debts, the house (which is on the market and we can't do anything more than that), about a grand on a credit card and our Jeep. It hit me that we had more money wrapped up in our debt than we had cash which gave us a negative net worth, which in turn meant that we were broke. I didn't like that.

So I put the Jeep on Craigslist and was hoping to get rid of that and get a cheaper car with no payments. Rach told me not to do it, but I'm a bit obsessive, if I am into something I am totally into it and at this point in my life I was into paying off debt.

One day I thought to myself I should just as Dave, so I called the show. He said something to me that I rarely hear him say, he told me if I like the Jeep I should keep it, but just have it paid on in 18 months. So we decided to keep it, but to attack it with everything. We stopped going out to dinner, buying clothes, going to the movies. An we actually were able to pay the credit card and the Jeep off in 6 or 7 months. Freaking amazing.

If you haven't read "Total Money Makeover", you really should. Its great at getting you excited about how to wisely use money. Basically, if you have the cash, buy it, if don't, don't. What a concept? Cheers.

Chris

End of Summer, Hello Mexico.

End of Summer

Friday was the end of summer camp for the 2009 season. It was a great summer. Our programs ran smoothly and our summer staff was awesome. I was so impressed with the work that our summer staff put in, great job guys.

Mexico

I am going to Rocky Point, Mexico tomorrow to film a video with the missionaries for this summer, Dustin and Brittney Patrick. We are driving tomorrow, filming and spending the day working with the Patricks, spend the night in some condo they can get for free and then coming home sometime on Tuesday. Should be a fun trip.

Dustin and Brit are good friends of ours and I am looking forward to seeing where they work and what they do first hand. Cheers.

Chris

Post Tour Pics.

Found this site with some great Pics of this Tour de France. Click here.

Awesome.

Dear Mr. Burton and Mr. Depp,

Thank you for making wonderful, freaky, visually stunning remakes of old movies. Freaking brilliant.



Chris

New Team.

The other day Lance Armstrong announced that he would be starting a new cycling team from 2010 sponsored by Radio Shack. I think it will be cool seeing how they perform as a new team. There is lots of speculation about what riders will be part of this team, but nothing is set in stone yet. Should be cool.

Chris

Tour de France Final Weekend.

This is the first year I have really followed the TdF. I have watched every stage, at least fast forward through them to the good parts, its been so much fun to watch.

Tomorrow they race the last 'real' stage of the tour, with a huge uphill finish on the Mont Ventoux. The final Km averages 10 percent grade, brutal. Sunday ends in Paris with a circuit race on the the Champs Elysees.

Contador pretty much has it in the bag, barring any injuries or crazy mishaps during the stage, however you never know on a huge climb, if someone has the legs they can battle it out. Its very unlikely, Contador's a freaking billy goat.

Thank you TdF for all the fun for the past 3 weeks, its been great. Cheers.

Chris

Photo Shoot.

By way of a few strange emails I ended up getting booked to take some photos for a company called Pace Sportswear, they make cycling caps and custom full kits. So last Friday I took a handful of my summer staff and did a photo shoot with some of the caps they sent. Here are a few photos that we took. Click on the images to see them larger.

Sucks.

5 cyclist were hit by a van in Ottawa the other day. Sucks. Here is a link to the article.

I always have to remind Rach that I try to ride as carefully as I can when I am on the road or on the trails for the matter.

Please always drive really carefully when bikes are present. Cheers.

Chris

Half-Blood Prince.

Rach and I went to the new Harry Potter movie this morning and I loved it.

From the way it was shot to the music it tells the story amazingly. I have been wondering for years how they will tell the story of the huge books in a 2 hour movie, but they did a wonderful job of condensing the story and still getting the important information to the viewer.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

New Blog.

Ray Ray and I will be documenting her pregnancy on a new blog www.holohanbaby.blogspot.com.

Just got it set up today, so more will be added this week. Cheers.

Chris

1 in 8 Million.

The NY Times has a series of short films about people in the city. This is one about a cyclist, but the they are all worth checking out. Check it out here.

On the 4th of July there is a parade here in Prescott and we, UCYC, pick up the horse poop. We dress up and make a big show out of it, its a ton of fun. Here is our team.



We were Trojan warriors and built a Trojan horse. The secret of our horse was that the back end was cut so we would pick up the horse poop and put it back in the butt of the horse. It was pretty funny. Cheers.

Chris

Missing Dancers.

Ray and I are watching So You Think You Can Dance tonight and I really miss being around dancers. There is something in their spirit and how they carry themselves that I really enjoy and miss working with.

Also while watching I realize that while I really love music there is something about music when its backing a great dance that makes it complete. I mean I don't even own and stereo at home, I rarely listen to music, but watching a creative performance backed by a great song makes something that is way bigger than just a song and a dance. I like that a lot. Cheers.

Chris

Dan Updates.

My friend Dan fell in a climbing accident last weekend. He is still in the hospital and has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Another friend of ours, Kris, is putting regular updates on his blog. You can see his blog here.

Stupid.

California, Colorado and Dirt.

CALIFORNIA

I spent this last week directing a High School camp at a different camp in Ventura County, California. The camp was called Forest Home: Ojai Valley and that area is wonderful. Its located about an hour and a half or two hours north of LA and its a beautiful area.

The camp went really well and it was a great group of students and sponsors to and out with.

COLORADO

The speaker for the week was named Jim Burgen from Flatirons Community Church near Boulder, CO. If you ever get a chance to check out their church you should.

DIRT

One of the main points that we are talking about at high school camps is to serve others. So one of the days we go and volunteer at different organizations and get the kids an idea of what can be done in their communities.

One of the groups went to a homeless mission called Turning Point. It is a place for people that are rejected from the homeless shelters.

While at Turning Point some students cleaned and organized closets full of clothes and supplies, some kids cleaned windows and scrubbed floors and some other kids did something that will stick with them for a long time. Every night the mission fills up so the lady who runs it has people sleep on the floor and on couches, when those fill up so has them sleep on a dirt patch out behind the main living area. The kids had the job of pulling weeds and tilling up some of the dirt to make it a softer place to sleep. After the day of service the kids talked about how they couldn't believe that people were sleeping out behind this building on dirt. I think it really put their lives into perspective and opened their eyes to how some other people live life. Hopefully they will have a greater appreciation for serving those in need in their communities. Cheers.

Chris

Update From Cali.

Marriage, Past, Present and Future.

PAST

I figured out that last Sunday it had been 10 years since Rachel and I met. It was June 1999 and Rach was traveling with her college, Atlanta Christian College, to summer camps promoting the school. We worked together for a week at Tri State Christian Camp and I honestly fell in love with her that week. She was everything I had wanted in a wife.

Its been an amazing 10 years.

PRESENT

While we have known each other for 10 years, Monday will be our 7th wedding anniversary. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing wife.

FUTURE

As we look to the future we are so excited because in January we will be having our first baby!!! Yep, Ray Ray is preggers and we couldn't be happier. Shes 10 weeks now from everything the doctors have seen things are going well and there are no problems. She's super tired all the time, but hasn't dealt with too much morning sickness. She's only had a couple of 'crazy pregnant lady' breakdowns, but to me they were beautiful because they are just part of the process.



We are so excited. Cheers.

Chris

You're Freakin' Kidding Me.

Land of the Lost sucked.

Like so bad that we almost left early because we could have been spending that time sleeping, rather than watching this awful movie. I know some people don't like Will Ferrell (side note: those people are dumb, sorry Jeni), but this was like nothing I had ever seen.

As the movie was going on I thought to myself that maybe its not that funny to me because its for kids. However, if it is for children don't take them because the language is bad. My Nanny would be so made at me if I wrote those words on this blog.

Whatever, don't waste your money on this movie. If you would like to throw that money away please feel free to send it to me, I'll buy spandex shorts with it. Cheers.

Chris

Typomash #2

The new Typomash is up. My article is on page 26 and its titled Homecoming. Check out the whole magazine there are some great articles by some really cool people. Enjoy.

Oh, Sameer, You're so Funny.

Found this on Derek's blog. Funny.

Cool Video.

Awesome.

Bartape.net

Cervelo is a bike company and they have made these really cool short films about their factory team. The website is bartape.net and they are worth a look. Cheers.

Chris

I Turned 30 and Never Wrote About it.

Hey Guys,

I'm 30. I have come to grips with it and have this horrible feeling that the older I get to worse I become at things, not a good sign since I have possible 50 more years to live. So the way I see it from age 60-80 I won't be able to do anything successfully. Awesome.

For my 30th, Ray and I went over to Orange County and hung with a couple of our friends, Shaun and Melisa. Shaun turned 30 a few days after I did so we went to drown our sorrows in Ruby's cheeseburgers and California Strawberries (they are the best strawberries I have ever had, seriously I at about 14 lbs of them). Sounds lame, but we had a great time.

While we were out there Ray and I picked up a new laptop, ours has been jacked for months so we saved up and got a new Mac. She's cherry.

Also while we were out there I got my b-day present, an '08 Gt Peace 29er Single Speed.



Greg, the camp director, and I were talking about riding the Whiskey Off Road MTB race (its a local race of 15, 25 or 50 miles) next year on single speeds. So since our talk I have been looking for a used on that I could get cheap and that's what we did. I found her on Craigslist in OC and brought her home. She's tough on our trails with the one gear and rigid front end (no suspension), but a fun bike to ride.

I've had the chance to ride a lot over the past several weeks and it feels good to get in some sort of cycling shape where I can now go for a ride and actually enjoy it.

Hope everyone is doing well. Peace out.

Chris

Made Over.

We filmed a make over video for our summer program today. I've been growing out my beard and hair to make the transformation as drastic as possible. Here's my before and after.

I Love Wikipedia, They Have Crazy Stuff Like This.

I love that the symptoms of Swine Flu are the same symptoms you experience every time you have ever been sick in your entire life. Cheers.

Chris

I Think Ron is a Douche Bag.

I Got This.

I have had swallowing difficulties for a while and had a swallowgram done yesterday and they said I have a Hiatal Hernia, which is a hole in my diaphragm which allows my stomach to come through and causes me to have acid reflux which in turn causes me to have difficulty swallowing. Awesome.

Typomash.

A friend of mine, Mynhardt, is helping a friend with a new South African online magazine called Typomash. When speaking with the editor, she said she was wanting a monthly feature called The Norther Hemisphere from someone up north. He suggested that I do it, she and I emailed back and forth and now I am getting to write for this project.

I am excited about this because I think this will help me be more creative at work and give me an outlet to write besides here on my often neglected blog.

The site launches on May 1st (also my 30th birthday, more about that later) and we'll see how it goes. Cheers.

Chris

My Transformation is Complete.

Camp men have trucks.

Especially the guys I work with, they are all from the midwest and they have trucks. I did't fit in because I grew up in Florida and have a Jeep (which is close, but just not 'rednecky' enough). However, I am happy to say that today I completed my transformation by purchasing a 1988 Chevy 4x4 from a local drywall company.

My new 'big ass' truck comes with a decrotive layer of drywall dust blanketing the dash and a dust mask in the glove box in case there is another SARs scare.

Its also the first time Ray and I have had 2 vehicles since about a month after we got married, boy are we fancy now.


Oh, how sweet it is.



Don't I look manly?


Chris

You Would Like to Eat What? My Eyes?

A couple of weeks ago we had a program "adventure" week for some 6Th graders and one of the days we had a guy come talk who was a 'birds of prey' expert.

He brought this huge owl and the whole time he was teaching the kids about birds of prey I swore this thing was going to attack his face. I mean this bird had the beak of a samurai sword and the eyes of Satan. You could see into its deep dark soul and tell that it had only ill intentions. Satan or not, nobody died, however I am sure that's only because we all were extremely lucky.


Here is "Satan With Wings" doing his best imitation of Lord Voldemort. Evil bird.



See, looks just like him......except with feathers.

A bunch of people took pics with this widow maker and I was the only one it stared down. I almost punched it in the face.

Life and Priorities.

Life

My boss, Chris Herrington, called me this morning to tell me that he and his wife were rushing off to the hospital to give birth to their new baby. WooHoo! Please pray everything goes well with the birthin'.

Priorities

I was reading on Marko's blog this morning some of his notes from the Jr High Youth Ministry Summit he hosts each year and I found something interesting. There was a little brief thing about priorities in ministry and how the thing you value the most should be recieving 70 percent of your focus, time and resources. However, many times the thing we say we value the most gets the 30 percent instead.

This got me thinking how we do things here at camp and I think that we would all agree that we hold a high value to small group relational ministry within the context of our summer program. However, I think that our large group sessions recieve way more of our finances than things that foster community and relationship.

I know that within program ministry, large group "sessions" are really important, to have low quality bands, speakers, lights, sound systems etc can really distract people from the message you are trying to get across, however does it need to take up the resources that we throw at it? This applys to camp as well as to church and even family budgeting, what do you value? What gets your money?

I don't know what camp could look like if we spend more of our budget on community building projects (games, community spaces, etc). Would we suffer as a ministry? Or would we thrive by allocating funds for our primary values rather than a piece of the pie that is typically uses for attracting people? Just a thought and I look forward to where it could go. Cheers.

Chris

Wall Day.

Here I am hanging from the wall on my repel device removing the hand holds. No, thats not a poop bucket like they use in parades.

Here I am using a ladder to get a couple of the holds we missed, you can see in the picture, but this ladder felt so janky that I thought I was going to fall the whole time, but I survived.


Jenn, Kris and I worked on the wall today and had a great time doing it.

This morning Jenn and I repelled down and removed all the hand holds from both climbing surfaces. To do this you have to repel down and them wrap the rope around your legs in a certain way to lock off the figure 8 device. I have to admit the first time I locked myself off like this I was so freaked that I had done something wrong, but I did it right and did not die.

This afternoon we had to spray stain on the wood surface to weatherproof it. To do this you climb up again and we had someone belay us off the top and Kris and I used a spray gun to spray the stain on the wall. It was actually a cool day working in a harness, hanging above the earth.

Mmmmm Strawberries.

I got a Facebook friend invite from a guy I went to JBC with and it reminded me of an awesome moment that I cherish in my heart.

It was my senior year, 2001, and one of my professors had organized a ski trip to Sugar Mountain, North Carolina. So, we woke up around 4:30 am to leave at 5 and I grabbed a quick bowl of strawberry oatmeal before we left.

We drove the few hours to NC and as we arrived Lucas and I were standing outside the van in the cold, grey light of morning waiting for everyone to unload skis and such from the van. While we were standing there glassy eyed and tired from the trip I farted. He glanced over at me with an understanding little nod and after about 15 seconds we both realized that my fart smelled jsut like sweet strawberries. Seriously, just like the ones that I ate in my oatmeal.

It defied everything that I had learned pertaining to science, logic and faith. However, it made me smile and it changed my life. It gave me hope that in all bad situations greatness can rise from it. I have been longing for a sweet, yummy smelling fart every day since. It has not returned. Cheers.

Chris

Program Week.

We programmed an "adventure" week for some 6th graders from Phoenix this past week and we had a blast with them. The kids got to do team builing, kayaking, slacklining, fire making, emergency shelter builiding, first aid, and other out door campy activities.

The kids were a lot of fun and we really had a great time hanging out with them. Cheers.

Chris

We'll Just Have a Testing Party.

I had the day off today so I drove Ray to work so I could clean out the Jeep. I love riding with her to work when I have time off, I wish I could do it every day. A little small piece of me misses commuting, because its the best time to drink coffee and listen to talk radio.

On my way home I dropped in to Goodwill to see if there were any must haves. There was a massive wood carving that was hard to pass up. And they had a old orange crash helmet that I wanted soooooooooooo badly, but it wasn't in the budget for this month (Thanks Dave Ramsey, you kept me from buying something I didn't need, I love you).

While looking at old Walkmans and popcorn poppers, I noticed there are things at GW I would never purchase used.

1. Under Pants. Gross.

2. Sandals. I can't imagine wearing sandals with no socks knowing someone else did too. Can't do it.

3. Jogging Shorts. All that sweaty undercarriage action makes me want to throw up.

4 Diabetes tester. I saw this on the shelf, the thing where you prick your finger and it reads it. Even in Africa people know to not share that device. Please reader of this blog, get a new diabetes finger prick tester thing if you need one. If you can't afford a new one call me and we'll find you someone that can. Cheers.

Chris

Didn't Make It.

Guys,

I hate to say that I didn't make it out to the Dollar Car Bonaza on Saturday morning. After writing about it last week and getting all pumped up I ended up having to work on Saturday. So staying up all night wouldn't have been a good idea before trying to be safe at the climbing wall for 6 hours Saturday.

I appologize from the bottom of my heart.

I still need a cheap vehicle, so if you know anyone that would sell me a road worthy car for a buck let me know.

I feel so bad that I didn't go, I feel like I am letting my blog friends down. Have a great day. Cheers.

Chris

To Do Or Not to Do.

Ray and I have only had one car for the past 5 1/2 years and I want a car. The reason being I hate feeling trapped at camp, Ray goes to work in the Jeep and I have nothing. Plus, in the summer, having a car is really nice to run around camp quickly. So, we have been trying to think of a cheap way to get another vehicle and I may have a solution.

Lamb Chevrolet is having a huge sale on Saturday and some of the cars are going for $1. I mean, you can't get a good cup of coffee for a buck!

So, Ray and I were planning on going down there to look for a nice little car/truck/van/jeep/scooter/ambulance/hovercraft/john boat/roller blade/jet pack.

Heres the deal though, I called them today to ask about the details and they said that last year they started having people line up at 4pm on Friday afternoon. So, to get a deal I have to be there Friday, which sounds so freaking boring.

So what do you think? Should I go do it? I'd love to hear what you think.

Chris

I Thought This Was Funny.

Woman swallowed whole by leopard

I thought it was one of those fake emails too, until I saw the photo below. Somehow the woman was lodged in the leopard's throat and they finally *cut the leopard's head off to let the woman escape.

She was unharmed.... Unbelievable!!

Current, Community and Sidetracked.

CURRENT

I have been watching the channel, Current, more and I love it. I am a documentary freak and the channel is set up to be a journalistic/documentary channel and for me that is perfect. There is a great show called Vanguard, check it out if you have the chance.

Another thing about the channel that I think is cool is that the do View Created Content, which is little shorts that people send in and they show on their channel. I really like this because it makes the channel interactive. Instead of just being a form of entertainment, it encourages the viewers to get out and produce something that tells a story. I love this idea and would love to get this Incorporated in what we do with teens.

COMMUNITY

One of the shorts this morning was about Brooklyn Kickball. These guys were documenting a group of people that get together in Brooklyn and play kickball on Sunday afternoons. I was just kind of watching it as I ate my breakfast when it dawned on me that that these people we not just playing a kids game, but they were living in community with each other.

Towards the end of the piece a 20-something girl was saying that she loves coming out to play with everyone because its really given her a group that she belongs to and she feels that she has really met a bunch of great friends through playing kickball. I believe that a need for community is something that is really important to everyone.

SIDETRACKED

While I was thinking about community I started searching local ways that people get a sense of community here in prescott, here are a few; Church, YMCA, bar/coffee shops, dog park (one of my favorites), theater, mountain biking, local adult sports leagues.

While I was looking at these different ways that people interact in town I noticed something that got me sidetracked. This is the list of banned bats for slow pitch softball. 84 BATS! That's amazing. I didn't realize there were that many different bats that one could choose from to play softball with. I love the names of the bats too, they are freaking awesome! I personally like the Freak, Uncensored, Beast Unleashed and Lady Virus. I think that softball is finally getting the hardcore street cred it deserves. I wonder what happens if you used a banned bat. Do the umps check ever batter to make sure they don't have a Liquidmetal Plasma Fusion or Anaconda Original. So, that sidetracked me for a while, I have to get back to work.

I Really Like Michael Moore.

I watched Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, the other day and its great. Its all about the American health care system and I found it very interesting and informative. Of course he has an agenda that he wants to get across through his films, but don't we all.

If you have never seen a film by him you should check it out. Bowling for Columbine is also fantastic.

Camp Staff.

Here our program team. We get stuff done.


Jarred, Jenn, Me, Herrington

Update.

Sup homies,

Last weekend we had great winter camp called Alalanche for middle school students and it was awesome! There were a couple hundred kids and the whole weekend was supposed to be a wild "avalanche" of an event and it was.

Rachel is in PHX all week for more training. She's learning about lending, which is funny because while she is doing that I am becoming more addicted to Dave Ramsey and wanting to get completly out of debt. We don't have much debt, the house (which we are still trying to sell) and the car, but I would love to be debt free.

Anyone want to buy a wonderful, georgous, well loved, Jeep? I hate the idea of selling it, but to get rid of a car payment would be great. Ray and I are trying to decide if we should sell it or attack it and have it payed off ASAP and then have a great, practically new vehicle thats paid for. Oh Dave Ramsey, you inspire me so.
Cheers.

Chris

Top 1000

Heres a link to the top 1000 grossing films of all time, kind of cool to look through.

Vegas and Musicals.

Vegas

Yesterday was a long day at work. We left Prescott at 5:45 and drove over to Las Vegas for a couple of meetings and then drove back, we got home around 8:15.

The trip was nice and we got to hang out with a bunch of children's pastors at an area networking meeting. It was cool seeing all these people working in children's ministry and how they are working so hard to provide quality experiences for the kids they work with.

After that meeting, we went over to Pei Wei (pronounced Pay-Way, pardon?) and met with some of the youth ministry team from Central Christian Church. They have a really cool ministry going on where they run 3 or so campuses, but are teacing on the same lesson plan and doing lots of activities together. Each of the guys has their own area of expertice, from writing the material to marketing to leader development and others. We had a blast hanging with them and hopefully they will be coming to camp this coming summer with the JR High kids.

Musicals

Rachel is directing a childrens musical that will be performing in March and last night they had audicians. She said it was great seeing all the kids and being back in a theater environment. I know she will do a great job and while she loves banking, she excited to work with something artistic, even if its just on a very part time basis. I am really happy for her and can't wait to see it all come together.

New Years Resolutions....Update.

I posted around the new year about a few resolutions I have and I'd like to update you on how its going.

Fast Food

Ray and I made a resolution to not eat fast food in 2009 because we are fat Americans and we like our South African bodies better. Its going great! Sure, its only been 12 days, but every epic journey begins with a step....or 12.

Coffee Roasting

I also said that I wanted to learn more about coffee, in particular, how to roast coffee. I contacted the roaster/owner of Prescott Coffee Roasters and asked him if I could come watch him work and learn about the roasting process. He said it was fine so I spent Saturday with Rich roasting several batches of coffee. It was so interesting and it made me appreciate coffee even more than I did. So much goes into a cup of coffee, its crazy.

At first I was super confused, but as we continued I caught on. Rich logs the bean temps as we go and has a whole system for how he does what he does. The amazing thing is, if your beans are only like 5 degrees warmer or cooler at the end of your roast they can be ruined. And if you end up ruining a batch that's like 8 pounds of coffee wasted, which at 10-13 bucks a pound that's a costly mistake.

So I just wanted to fill you in on what I have been doing to work towards my goals. I love to hear your resolutions and how its going with you so far. Cheers.

Chris

Video Shoot.

We have Jr High winter camp, Avalanche, coming up in a few weeks and today we shot a rules video for the event with these genaric action figure guys. I converted my desk to a studio adn we had to come up with ways to get our figures to do what we wanted them to do.

Hopefully we can put it together well and it will be as good as we hope it will be. I'll post the final product later. Cheers.

Chris