Rennovation

As I've been reading the book Renovation of the Heart, Willard defines spiritual transformation as

The process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it takes on the character of the inner being of Jesus himself. The result is that the outer life of the individual increasingly becomes a natural expression of the inner reality of Jesus and of his teachings. Doing what he said and did increasingly becomes a part of who we are.

In terms of the transformation of the mind, he talks a lot about "drawing scripture into our minds to make them a part of the permanent fixtures of our thought" (what you and I would call memorizing?). He says, "When you take these into your mind, your mind will become filled with the light of God himself. And the light shines into darkness and darkness loses."

I preface all this to say that at one level, I believed that. Memorizing bible verses is a good thing, right? Most Christians would agree with that at some level. I agreed, but hadn't done anything with it in a long time. I decided I would give it a try. I created this list of bible verses and chapters, stuck it in a zip lock bag and put it my shower to memorize while I'm showering. All good, right?

What I've noticed has been unbelievable. As I've been memorizing these, a few things have happened:

1. I start to really, really understand what the verse says. Things that seem obvious in them really click and unpack for me.
2. I want to go back and study the overall context of the verse or chapter I'm memorizing to further "get it".
3. Most importantly, This stuff is changing me and my mind in a way I don't understand. I know, I know - of course the bible changes you. "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12)" I've heard that enough, I've taught it to kids - I'm just being reminded of the truth of it in a very deep way. My thought life is changing, how I think about things is changing, my will, and my mind are being changed. There I things I used to want to do that I just don't desire any more, in a good way. I'm way more aware of things I wasn't sensitive to before. I'm not perfect, I'm not done, but I'm in awe of the journey and what this whole spiritual transformation is about.

It's sad to say, but every now and then I forget the amazing transforming and redemptive power of the Jesus. I take it for granted way to often, and I'm sure I will down the road as well. I love what's going on in my heart right now and how it's spreading to every aspect of my life. I'm by no means perfect - you'll probably still look at me and see me as a mess - but wow, what's going on in my heart is so great it fills me with this unbelievable joy.

Tight Community

We live in a fairly small community that is fairly tight knit. Cathie helps out in the school quite a bit knows all of the teachers, and we're pretty tightly connected with a group of families in our neighborhood... That being said, I found this story funny that we heard when we got back from vacation:
My Dad watched the kids last week and while they were at school, my Dad had told the kids he was going to be home doing homework for his Ethics class. Emily happened to mention to her teacher, Sheri, that her Grandpa better be doing his homework, and Sheri in turn mentioned it to one of our neighbors. Our neighbor shared with Sheri that my Dad in fact was not at home very long doing homework. Instead, she had watched him shovel the driveway after which he left the house for a while. My first reaction was more, "Wow, that's a little odd" until Cathie explained to me that the same neighbor who shared my Dad's itinerary for the day also knew that my Dad had had a heart attack and that shoveling snow wasn't the best thing for him. She knew that very few people are around during the day in the neighborhood, so she kept an eye on him to make sure he was alright while he shoveled the driveway. It's amazing what neighbors know about people...

YouTube Copyright Violation

One of the videos I posted on YouTube got flagged for copyright violation by their new identification system. I'd used a song as background music and lo and behold, their system correctly identified it and flagged it. I'm guessing that since it's my family vacation and only 164 have viewed the video so far, I'm not on the RIAA's hit list.

Gift

I received one of the coolest gifts ever today from Jay and Jess. It was a book, a photo album of the last few years of youth ministry at Crossroads. The book was filled with hundreds of pictures and quotes about youth ministry and life in general. It's one of those things you keep forever and read and read until you wear it out. Jay made the book using iPhoto and his picture choices and the layout was awesome.

Sentimentality aside, the quality of the book and the picture quality was phenomenal (and I work for a company for whom color output is kind of a big deal).

Trip Video

Here's a quick montage I did of the pictures and video I took during the trip.

Worst Buffett Cover Ever

Cathie and I thought the fact that our hotel in Key West had a live pool-side steel drum Caribbean band was great. It ended up being this guy, who had a very "unique" voice - and a very unique version of Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffett.

The Kite Runner

I read the book The Kite Runner on vacation. Wow. I had no idea what it was about and figured it was chick-lit based on how much Oprah liked it. I read about a book a week, and I can't remember reading a fiction book that has moved me like this book did. It was a fantastic story of redemption, but it was also a huge insight into the Middle Eastern culture and politics. Anyone read the next one, A Thousand Splendid Suns?

Our Anniversary Trip

Last Wednesday Cathie headed down to Miami to meet up with me and begin our mini-vacation to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Her flight got in around 1:30AM and after a few hours of sleep and an awesome breakfast at Denny's we jumped in our car and started our drive down to Key West.

If you've never made the drive from Miami to Key West, it's beautiful. You drive through these small keys, connected by giant bridges which are surrounded by beautiful, blue ocean. The 3 1/2 hour drive takes place primarily on a two way highway. On our way down, we stumbled across the No Name Pub in No Name Key. I'd seen this bar while flipping through channels one time, so we stopped, grabbed a beer (yes, Cathie drank beer while in the keys) and stapled a dollar bill to the wall. The place is covered with them - ceiling and walls, over 90,000 - each with it's own message.

We made it to our hotel about 2:30 and they did a very nice job taking care of us. All of the hotels we stayed at were Hilton properties, of which I have Diamond status, and Hilton takes very good care of me. I'd called ahead to the managers of each of the hotels, explained to them that this was a trip celebrating our 15th anniversary, and they didn't disappoint.

In Key West, they gave us a huge multi-room suite with a giant balcony overlooking the pool and a bunch of comps as well. We hung out in the room for a while, took a nap and then headed out for an evening of fun downtown, Key West. If you've never been to Key West, it moves in a whole different time. Things are slow and people are nice. We grabbed dinner and then went from bar to bar, listening to the different performers and sat around people watching. I think our favorite place was Irish Kevin's. The singer at this bar had the extreme gift of sarcasm in song. Which Cathie and I both seem to appreciate. We spent 99% of our time in the bar laughing at not only the songs, but the way he could make the whole bar laugh by incorporating random people in the bar into his act. We sat there so long that Cathie didn't even realize she was drinking (and enjoying) Corona beer all night.


The next day, we hung around the pool and got another nap in. We both fried ourselves in the sun, not using sun-screen. I had my shades on and have nice batman eyes, while Cathie got some odd tanlines as well (super-hero lines, as she calls them). Later that evening, we headed into Mallory Square to watch people and the sunset, and it was awesome to see. We repeated our first night of bar-hopping, having another great time. Everyone was so friendly and in good spirits. It was amazing how few cops we saw in Key West around Duvall street - especially when compared to Beal Street in Memphis or Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

The next morning we headed out for the drive back North to Miami. Neither of us had ever been to Miami Beach, so it was fun to see it for the first time together. We stopped by the Miami Ink Tattoo parlor to see about getting Cathie on TV with a tattooed portrait of Jon on her butt. Ami wasn't around, so we decided to pass. As we drove down South Beach, we saw hundreds of wiener dogs everywhere. It turns out there was a wiener dog convention going on at the same time, so we called Jon as he has two wieners himself.

From there we went and checked in at our hotel on South Beach - The Bentley Hotel. Again, I had called ahead and the manager REALLY hooked us up on this with a penthouse suite that would have normally run about $1,000/night.

When I travel, I'll often get these nice rooms, but without Cathie there to share them with me, it really isn't all that exciting to be in a hotel room with two stories, 3 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms. It was nice to have Cathie there to experience it with me finally. We were greeted in our room by a bottle of champagne and some other nice amenities. The room had two 50" plasma screens, a huge bathroom with a glass shower and a nice toilet-shaped drinking fountain that Cathie kept calling a bidet.

The balcony wrapped the room, giving us an awesome view of Miami Beach and the South Beach strip. We hung out in the room for a long time, soaking it in, enjoying the view.

We walked through South Beach for a while, looking at the buildings, the hotels and restaurants. After we found a restaurant (that lured us in due to not only the menu, but also a free round of drinks), we parked ourselves there for a couple of hours eating and doing some great people watching. As you walk down Oceanside Drive there are hundreds of restaurants and most are attached to a hotel. The restaurants are extended out on to the sidewalks and tons of people are walking right through the restaurant table aisles to get by. You actually end up playing chicken with people as you're walking down the sidewalk and the person who loses ends up walking into a table full of people and their food. The restaurant staff would compete for customers by trying to sell you on their food and location while pushing menus in your face. After a while, they became annoying - like panhandlers or the porn-guys on the streets of Vegas. The people and the outfits were very creative, one of a kind outfits that were awesome to see. I decided my new look should be to grow my hair out, perm it, and wear a double-breasted blazer with no t-shirt underneath. Cathie decided that her new look should involve skirts that barely cover her underwear and/or are see-through.

The trip was fun, relaxing and luxurious. We never had anything we HAD to do, except get to our hotel in a given night and see a sunset in Key West. Otherwise - everything was up in the air. The best part of this trip was spending 24 hours a day, every day with Cathie. We created so many great memories, we laughed about so many things and talked about anything and everything. It's such an amazing thing to married to my soul-mate. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I can't fully experience it without Cathie being there with me - she is that connected to my soul. I would find myself just staring at her sometimes, marveling at what a beautiful woman, great friend and fun person she is.

We left 75 degrees and sun to come back to 20 degrees and snow. It was great getting home and seeing the kids. We wouldn't have been able to pull this off without the help of my Dad, Will and Susan - all helping with the kids, Jon's looking up the address of Miami Ink and Dan and Kris's airport shuttle service. Thank you so much for all being so willing to help us out!

This Sunday was Jay and Jess Shinn's last at church. I put together a video montage of pics and one of the goodbye clips that people recorded at their going away party. I showed it to Noel and he suggested I use his favorite song by Michael W. Smith, Friends instead.

Vacation

Cathie's flight was delayed, but made it in around 1:30 this morning. We have no real set agenda, just hotels to visit, and a journey to take. We've got a great convertible - a G6 Hardtop, we've got a map, we've got our hotels set, and we're off.

Leaving Orlando

I've been in Orlando for the past couple of days for a kick-off meeting for another organization within Xerox. I'm with a group of guys I've worked with for the past 13 years, which is always fun. We're staying at the Sheraton Safari, which gets its name because of a safari theme and a small alligator in a tank in the lobby. Kinda shabby. It boasts the "World's Largest Python Water Slide", which is about 50 feet long. Our guess is it's the ONLY Python Water Slide.

The team went last night indoor skydiving and to Disney's Pleasure Island where they have a bunch of themed bars. We went to the improv comedy club which was hilarious, and then to the 80's night club. We got home very late and got up early to deliver three one-hour presentations starting at 7:30AM.

I'm sitting in the airport in Orlando, flying down to Miami, where I'm going to meet up with Cathie at midnight to begin our mini-vacation.

Happy Nintieth Birthday!

The whole family (yes, Sherry, you're included in that description) went to be with my Grandma yesterday to celebrate her 90th birthday. She's at a point in her life where she doesn't want to leave the nursing home she's at for family occasions, she's having a tough time breathing, and just plain worn down from 90 years of life. My Grandpa died 30 years ago, My Uncle Bill 8 years ago and my Mom a year go. I sometimes get the sense that my Grandma just desperately wants to be with them again. Even as her body wears down, her mind is still fully there, which must make it even tougher. People assume that because she is old and can't talk loudly that she can't hear. She hears like a hawk (that's good, right?). It's funny to watch people talk really loudly to her as she just smiles and then loudly explains that there's nothing wrong with her hearing. She sits back, watches everything going on and smiles to herself.
When we lived in Livonia and the kids were first born, Nate and I (and then later Maddie would join us) would go over to her house in Detroit and hang out with her every Tuesday and Thursday while Cathie was working. She would give the kids their bottles and we'd hang out and talk about life, our family history and hear great stories about my heritage. My Grandma gets me like few people do.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Test driving new chairs for our new building

Our first service will be on Feb 7th. Hopefully.

Emily

We got this e-mil from Em's teacher on Friday:

We were working on math yesterday afternoon on the carpet area. I had explained a fairly new concept to them and was giving them time to work on it. I was sitting on the chair listening to them work through their thinking and helping out when needed. Emily came up to me and said, "if you sit there any longer, you will become very lazy"! I got the biggest kick out of that! I asked what she thought that I should be doing right now instead of sitting there, and she told me to go out and play on the playground! Oh to be a kid again!

Nate's Basketball Game

Nate had his first practice yesterday and first game today. His team won (even though they reset the scoreboard each quarter and we're not supposed to know). Nate's apparently having a tough transition from the physical aspect of football. If they kept track of fouls, I'm pretty sure he would have fouled out. I reminded Nate that he's no longer a corner covering a wide-receiver, and there's no bumping allowed five-yards off the line.

Pistons Game

Nate and I went to the Pistons game to watch them get beat by Sacremento, including the much hated Ron Artest. We got the tickets through Nate's school, and Nate came to appreciate just how good Bob's tickets really are. The best part of the whole time was the conversations during the ride to and from the game.

This was amusing to me

Nate and the spelling bee

Nate was in the selling bee also and finished 4th out of 20. I won no money on him, likely because the other parents knew where he stood after his 3rd place finish last year.

Maddie and the 4th Grade Spelling Bee

Maddie was in the spelling bee at school today. They started with 24 kids and Maddie ended up in 3rd place, gettng out on the word development. By round 10 most of the adults couldn't spell the words. I won $10 betting with other parents on our kids when Maddie outlasted their kids.

Tech Lust: How to Cope with Gadget Envy

Great article on how to avoid the Geek syndrome of Gadget Lust:
Here are a few ways a geek can mitigate the lust for new technology:

• Avoid advertising. Beware the insidious power of marketing. You are not immune. We are all subtly manipulated in ways we cannot possibly imagine. When I watch the Macworld keynote addresses, I’m acting as a willing consumer of advertising. Don’t do this. Steer clear of advertising whenever possible.
• Avoid temptation. The best way for me to avoid buying video games is to stay out of the electronics store. If your weakness is audio equipment, keep away from the stereo shop. It’s easier to avoid temptation when we don’t submit ourselves to it in the first place. If you know your weakness, don’t set yourself up to fail.
• Remember it’s not a competition. You’re not going to “lose” by choosing not to purchase the latest equipment. There’s no need to keep up with the Joneses. If your best friend buys a MacBook Air, don’t let it bother you. Don’t buy a new Treo just because your sister got one.
• Make the most of what you have. If you’re a gadget-hound, you already own lots of toys. Resist the urge to upgrade when your current option still works fine. I used to buy a new computer every year. Now I can’t imagine doing that. I’d rather use a machine until it could no longer keep up with me.
• Remember your larger goals. What is it you want to accomplish in life? Will buying a new iPod help you or hinder you in pursuing your dreams? I’m not saying that you should never buy new toys. But before you do make a purchase, be sure that your decision doesn’t stand in the way of a greater purpose.

Great Balls of Fire

Why wouldn't I want to know how to make flaming balls you can hold in your hand?


How To Make Fire Balls - video powered by Metacafe

American Gladiator

I'm a big fan of the new American Gladiator. Awesome stuff, just like the original. The Gimmiks that each character has are hilarious, especially Wolf-man. I feel bad for the guy. You can imagine a bunch of people sitting around in a room dreaming these up, and then telling them: "Ok, we're going to mess your hair up, give you crazy side-burns, while you howl like a wolf, show your teeth and refer to the audience as your "wolf-pack". Nice.

Best Week Ever came up with a synopsis of the characters and their "gimmicks", like this one for Chad:

Doing really Chad things like using TurboTax, and talking about his great new toaster oven. When he bests a contestant, Hulk Hogan always sums up the action by saying, “That was so totally Chad.” Or, “Classic Chad.”

Poverty, Disease and the Church

I read this article today in Relevant Magazine entitled Silencing the Roar, by Tom Davis. He talks the devils role and our role in 3rd world poverty. A couple pieces struck me and I thought I'd share them:
......It reminds of the words of 1 Peter 5:8: "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". It's interesting that the devil is described as a roaring lion. Have you ever seen lions hunt their prey? They lie in wait, silent. Any noise would set the prey running. Lions don't roar when they hunt - they roar to keep other animals away. The only time a lion would roar before eating its prey is if their kill was certain.

The devil is roaring throughout Africa. His kill is certain. Why? Perhaps because we are not standing between the lion and its prey. To quote Mother Teresa:

When a a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.

The Devil mocks the Church... roaring over the 50 million people he is devouring by way of AIDS. He gloats over the 143 million orphans and stands atop a mountain of 33,000 children each day who will die from preventable issues like malaria and malnutrition. Satan knows that if the church took poverty as seriously as we take abortion, we could wipe it out in a generation. The issue isn't whether or not we can do it, but whether or not we will have the will to act.

Shinn Going Away Party

On Saturday night we hosted a ginormous party for Jay and Jess to send them off to their beloved Ohio. My wife asked me how many people I thought would be coming and I guessed between 30 - 60. I was wrong. Way wrong. We had over 100 people show, and at one time, 90 people were in our house. If you've been in our house, that's a butt-load of people. Seriously - you could barely move.

Getting our house ready for a party is not easy, as my wife has very high standards for the presentation of our home. She also has a little quirk (I'm being kind). Cathie likes to undertake HUGE projects just before large gatherings. The family joke is that Cathie will decide at the last minute that the party will not be complete unless everyone has matching hand-knitted hats and gloves. The night before the party, she will learn how to knit and nearly kill herself getting these must-have items completed for the party. I came home from the airport on Thursday night to find our downstairs bathroom torn apart and in the process of being painted. We were able to complete the overhaul, including new fixtures and wall-hangings in time for the party. While Cathie was out at a girl scout event on Saturday, Nate and I worked to try and get the house straightened up. I guess I should be pleased with my gift, as Cathie informed me that our robotic vacuum cleaner does a far superior job that I do.

The house was decorated with these 8x10's of Jay and Jess in various poses and events over the past few years, along with a giant signable map of Ohio (did I mention they love the state dearly)? The party started at 6 and we finally kicked the stragglers out around 12:30 after Jay and Jess left.

The kids hung out and played the Wii, Guitar Hero III and Halo while the adults ate a ton of food. It was fun seeing all of our youth group kids over the past 12 years at the party, including these two chuckleheads, both who've been my kids since sixth grade.

I'd uncovered a movie from way back that we made for Jess's parents to show them why they should allow Jess to move to Michigan and live with us. It's funny seeing all of the kids and people from five years ago, but what's funnier is Jason. Jason has the spiritual gift of bullhorn - meaning he is a master of heckling from behind a bullhorn, and that gift transfers well to a video camera. Watch and see:


You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Riley

We got our dog Riley when Nate was around 6 months old and they've always been best friends. When Nate was going through his biting phase, Riley got the brunt of it (see picture). When Nate learned to walk, he did it by grabbing Riley's hair and pulling himself up. Her reaction was always to lick their face and get them to let go.

Nate's also been the one lately to load Riley up with dog treats for no real reason. She's got Nate trained to the point where she can sit in front of him, bark, and he'll go get her a dog biscuit.

Last night around 10:30 we heard Riley barking and couldn't figure out why. We went upstairs and found Riley sitting next to Nate's bed with her head about a foot from Nate's, barking. Apparently she doesn't know that Nate's not trained to get her treats when he's sleeping. Nate slept, Riley kept barking.

The Bleeding Edge Loser

I've been contemplating getting a high def DVD player for a long time, but had been stuck between the the formats, trying to decide between Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. The prices have been falling to the point that the players are now affordable, and Microsoft just dropped their prices on the XBOX 360 DVD player to $129. I figured it was time to pull the trigger with some Christmas money I'd received (so much for my goal of trying to have less stuff). I bought it last week, just before the format war hitting a tipping point - in the wrong direction for me. I bought my player on Saturday, and on Monday the announcements came out that a major studio was shifting to blu-ray, and others would probably follow.

This is the Betamax vs. VHS kind of format war all over again and probably the last physical format we'll use before digital download dominates the market-place. Lots of people and studios have been waiting for things to tip one way or the other. It seems to have tipped, the wrong way, for me at least. The one disc I have - King Kong is phenomenal. I've got some others, including Top Gun, lined in my Netflix queue to watch. Should be stunning.

Rennovation of the heart

For the third time (apparently it didn't work the first two times) I'm reading the book Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. The book is one of those that you have to digest in small chunks, full of things that push me and stretch me in at the deepest levels. Willard is a philosopher and writes in such a way that every sentence is full of meat. I came across one sentance today that I especially liked:

...one has to strongly want to not want what one now wants and to want to want what one does not now want....

Brilliant. I guess.

The Shinns

If you weren't aware, our friends Jason and Jess Shinn are moving to Ohio. I've known Jason for a lot of years. I met him when he was Ken Buck's intern and asked him to come be an intern at Crossroads. Jason eventually became the youth pastor at our church and we've done youth ministry together for what seems like a long, long time. I met Jess through Jason and Ken, and got to know her even better after she lived with our family for a year. Jess is like a sister to me. My family and I love both of them dearly.

Jason and Jess hung with our church in the toughest times. I've gotten watch Jason grow as a youth pastor and teacher as we've done so many things together. Through a very tough decision, Jason and Jess are taking a job at Buck's old church down in Xenia where Jason originally interned. I'd guessed this was coming for a long time so I think I was prepared for it to some degree. We've got a fantastic guy coming on to take over for Jason, who over time will develop into an equally great youth pastor. I've been so caught up in some of the logic and plan in this that some of the magnitude of Jay and Jess leaving has not hit me until today.

We're having a going away party tomorrow for the Shinn's (everyone is invited, 6pm at our house). For the party, I started going through pictures over the past years with Jay and Jess. I was overcome with this huge feeling of sadness. I went through pictures of the weeks and weeks we've spent at camps, youth group meetings, events and pictures of Jay and Jess with kids they've touched (not in that way). Wow, I'm going to miss them, and so will my family and my church. They are amazing.

Gates Keynote

Since he's retiring from Microsoft in July and going to work full-time at his foundation, this is his last keynote address at CES. The video is hilarious, done in the style of the office, complete with Spielberg, Clooney, John Stewart, Bono, Clinton, Obama, Gore and Jay-Z.

Xerox's New Logo

Xerox announced a new logo yesterday.

I like it, but it looks familiar:

Dallas

I flew from Philadelphia to Dallas on a very small jet, next to a very large man for a very long flight. I saw the place where John F. Kennedy was shot (the actual location of the shooting, not the back of JFK's head), the grassy knoll. I'm sitting in my hotel room watching the press coverage of the New Hampshire primaries.

Create your own caption for Mr. Buck

This is all it would take...

2007 Work E-Mail Summary

Here are my totals for work e-mails this year:

• 9,300 E-Mails Sent
• 24,300 E-Mails Received

I won the Halo Trophy!

For the past couple of months, Nate and I have been having daily Halo 3 battles. We play best 3 out of 5, first one to ten with a special set of rules that include half gravity, increased speed and a few other funky settings we've fine tuned. About a month ago we got a trophy to pass back and forth. Unfortunately, I haven't won the stinkin thing yet, which made me want to win it even worse. We changed the level tonight to the Pit, and for the first time, I won, 3 out of 5. Life is good.

New Years Day Snow Storm

We woke up this morning to about a foot of snow. Kevin and I got out there and started shoveling, with the emphasis being on the pile of snow at the bottom left of the driveway (you'll see why later). Once the driveway was clear, we headed to the back yard and begin making a huge pile of snow by the swingset. A couple weeks ago, we'd had a little snow jumped off the swings-set. Nate was the one who originally suggested doing a flip off of the swing-set, but we weren't quite up for it yet. This time, things were different. Standing on top of the swings-set, it's about ten feet up, combined with being six feet tall, it looks pretty high up there (hence my over-zealous celebration jump after the flip). Check out the video here:

Gabe's head-plant, Kevin's hand-stand attempt and Nate's nut-crushing spread eagle all deserve bonus points. We then turned the jumping pile into a small snow fort and played around in the snow for a while.


We went back out later that evening and took the huge drive-way pile of snow and made a second snow-fort. The pile was ginormous, and we hollowed it out so that all three kids could fit comfortably inside.

I just don't remember getting this quality and quantity of snow at once in a long time. It seemed like it happened a lot more frequently as a kid. I remember making these big snow pile forts in our driveway all the time. Part of the reason we're able to make these forts is because I DO NOT have a snow-blower. My Dad's motto was always "Why do I need a snow blower when I have three strong boys and a very whiny daughter?" and I have the same motto, and two daughters. Cathie claims that "every time" I go out of town it snows and she ends up shoveling (note: Cathie tends to exaggerate a lot and blow small things out of proportion occasionally).

Kurt Family New Years Eve

My sister and her family ended up showing up 2 hours early because of a "huge storm" that was supposed to hit at 7pm (Cathie hates it when people show up early). She then proceeded to be odd. Odder than ususal. We had a great night with lots of the family being there (Kris was home with a sick Steve-O and Maddie and Em were with Cathie's parents).


Incidentally, I am a far better guitar hero player than my nephew Matthew. I let him win the first round to make him feel good and then smoked him afterwards to show him who the boss is.

We spent time playing all sorts of games, including Guitar Hero III and a bunch of card games. Two of the players figured out a way to include Jagermeister shots into the game as well. We also hung out watching old photos from ten years ago that I'd had converted from negatives. We noticed a number of sweaters and shirts that both Dan and Dad still have. We established the rule, "If you still own any article of clothing that you see in these pictures, it's time for them to go."


We all brought an hors doeuvre, a drink and a dessert. Dan is normally known for wowing us in all of these categories. This year, he either decided to phone it in or else without Kris being there, he had no inspiration. Luckily, my Dad followed suit and repackaged cookies that Kris had made for Christmas and brought them along as well.





We had what we called the "Uncle Jon" hat (named after my brother who chose not to be at our family new years celebration). Throughout the evening, every time someone would say something stupid or inappropriate, they would have to wear the hat. You'd be amazed (or if you've spent time with my family, not amazed) at how quickly the hat changed heads.






We closed out the evening watching an anamatronic Dick Clark, Fergilicious and a motorcycle jump on ESPN. We then followed a South Lyon tradition (according to my friend Nicki) and went out and banged pots and pans when the clock struck midnight. For the first time, Gabe got to stay up until midnight (he took a 3.5 hr nap today) - and even my Dad made it up all the way to midnight. Dan and the boys rolled out of there around 12:45ish, just as the snow started.

Everyone headed to bed around 12:45ish and Kevin and I stayed up playing Halo 3 on Legendary mode. We kept going, and going until around 5AM we decided we need to go to bed. After joking about the pending storm all evening, I looked outside and saw about 8 inches of snow. I told Kevin and his response was, "yeah, right....whoah. we really do." We woke up this morning to 12 inches of snow.