P.S. Wish you were here...

all growing up a told myself that i would never be that guy. no one ever wants to be that guy. but after looking at myself in the mirror last night before bed i realized that i might be dangerously close to becoming "that guy". you see, last night i discovered that i may actually be practicing the art of the comb-over. no lie. i was made aware of this by my most recent haircut which accents my receding hair line and forces me to delicately position pieces of hair to cover my ever-growing forehead. i know it's receding. it's obvious. my hair is collecting all over the bathroom floor and there is a scar on my head i got when i was younger that seems to be moving further down my forehead.

so to maintain some kind of element of cool hair i've resorted to the comb-over. i'm sorry. i'm so sorry i'm becoming that guy. if it gets too bad will you let me know?

i've been a switchfoot fan forever. if i could be in anyone else's shoes it would be the chuck taylors worn by one of those surf rockers from san diego. jon foreman writes in such a way that he always seems to be two steps ahead of me in life. He has this strange ability to put my thoughts to words.

While still a lyrically solid album, it took me a little while to warm up to "nothing is sound". So when the new tour dates where announced i convinced myself that this year it would be ok if i missed a switchfoot show. last year i was crazy enough to see two shows back to back. friday night in austin and then saturday night in dallas. so, i go from not planning on seeing the show in fort worth earlier this year to not only getting in free to a show but a show in vancouver, canada. oh yeah, did i mention that i got to meet the band. the whole day was pretty surreal. mish, jay and i got to sit around and talk with the band. we shared our hearts and passion for people (well, jay and mish did. i was still in shock) and they shared theirs. just cool and genuine guys. after meeting the band we listened to jon and the guys share their hearts with hundreds of others for about and hour and a half. i was blown away by the show. these guys get better everytime. i can't believe i was going to sit this tour out.

Thanks switchfoot. Thanks for doing what you do.

well in a few hours michelle, jay, and i are off to vancouver, british columbia.
what will we be doing there you might ask.
well not to much.
just...

biking in stanley park















sleeping outside here...

















to raise awareness for..























while hanging out with...



















and maybe take a hike through this...















but if anything i'm sure there will be some crazy games of farkle and some good times with good friends and family. i can't wait.

Hey Everybody...

Don't forget that this Thursday night Marcus Bowers (myspace.com/marcusbowers) will be in concert at Roads Coffee House. The coffee house will be open at 5:30pm and the music will start around 7:30pm. The show is FREE!!! but musicians always appreciate tips.

Hope to see you there.

this easter sunday my wife and i went to a sunrise service at our church. the week before the question that continued to surface was whether or not we would be coherent enough for a 6:30am worship gathering. by God's grace we where.

the service was amazing. i loved everything about it. for whatever reason it just felt like church. like how church is suppose to be done. we all sat outside on blankets or chairs. being outside in God's creation. we sang some songs led by just an acoustic guitar and a djembe. we listened to the Word of God read to us, and we took communion. it was simple. no bells or whistles. even the offering buckets looked like something you would use in a sand box.

so is there anyway we could do this more often?

something we thought you should know about...

Every night in Uganda thousands of children flee their villages to nearby cities to sleep in the streets hoping to escape the possibility of being abducted and forced to serve as a soldier. Every night thousand of children are being forced to carry guns instead of toys or books. They are being taught how to kill instead of bringing hope. On April 29th we are going to help these invisible children be seen. We want this war to end. These children deserve better.

We need your help.


Will you notice?



go to invisiblechildren.com

Are you freakin kidding me...

My beautiful wife surprised me with a new snowboard today.
I went to sun and ski sport today to pick up my old snowboard beause i just had it waxed and the edges sharpened.
Michelle had dropped it off for me a few days ago.
I gave the guy at the shop my ticket.
he goes and grabs a board on the rack infront of mine.
He hands it to me and says, "here you go."
I look at him puzzled and correct him by saying. "oh no, it's that one. the one still against the wall."
He says, "no, this is it."
"what are you talking about."
"read the note"
it reads, "Happy Birthday Baby! i love you so much. hope this rides nice. huck it, mish"
what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
when michelle dropped off my snowboard she bought me a new one.
I couldn't say much more after that because the huge smile on my face was making really hard to talk.

i love my wife.
yep, love, love, love my wife.

Mustache Club, anyone?

you know that whole year of jubilee thing.
yeah, can we go ahead and start doing that again cause i've got some serious school debt.

other thoughts...

i'm kind of glad sarah won...
moana (sp?) just never really seemed like she was into travis...
my guitar is in desperate need of new strings...
i love my wife...
i have a pretty cool dog...
i really can't justify my current lifestyle (but this is a topic for another blog)...
i'm really into what i would call 'big bands' like broken social scene, arcade fire, sufjan stevens, and sigur ros.
did i mention that i love my wife...
i want another tattoo...
maybe two more...
i can't wait to huck in winter park, co. two weeks, baby!
i'm going to make a killer sandwich tonight for dinner.
i wish you could enjoy it with me.

high five

You are George Michael. Your strong moral values

define your actions. You love your family

(some of them too much) and your father's

approval means the world to you.


Arrested Development: Which Bluth Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

chew on this...

"A final fallacy is the maddening practice of many Christians to allegorize works of art, especially works of literature. The practice is deeply engrained in a certain type of Christian temperament. When I assign a Christian critique of a poem, I can confidently expect to find one or more attempts to allegorize the poem to make its details fit events in the life of Christ or Christian doctrine. Why is this so offensive? Because the doctrine of creation tells us that things have value and integrity in terms of what they are as created objects. We do not need to allegorize trees or windows or sidewalks in terms of Christian doctrine before they fulfill their God-given purpose in life. By the same token, we should not attempt to define Christian art in terms of how easily we can allegorize the details to fit Christian doctrines."

-Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination

What do you think about this...

there are somethings i just can't run from.
being metrosexual might be one of them.
although i don't consider myself as dedicated to the lifestyle as others.
i'll pick up a power tool now and again.
as long as i look good doing it.
but i'm comfortable with all that.
so now i have to ask myself.
am i metrospiritual?
i'm about being hip and holistic.
i've even tried surfing.
i'm into whole foods and hybrids.
so according to beliefnet.com i might be boarderline metrospiritual.
are you?

i almost blogged yesterday.
i was so close to writing something down.
something worth reading.
but i never got around to it.

i would blog right now but i am too busy being MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm done...

i just checked my grades online.
they're all in now and it's official.
i'm done with college.
i gotta tell you i feel sort of weird.
i spent a good five and a half years plugging away at this thing
and now it's over.
i'm done.
crazy.
i'm done.
amazing.
when i woke up this morning i could actually feel a difference.
i slept in a little longer.
on friday i walk the stage and get that piece of paper that will hang in my office and tell everyone that...
i'm done.

your love is better than wine...

Mish is gone tonight.
again.
she's enjoying the bachelorette party her good friends have given her.
they've been at it this whole weekend.
i miss her.
i can't wait until she gets back.
i won't see her until tomorrow.
i'm on my own tonight.
i think i'll go buy a cd.
maybe read.
or work on my finals for school.
my goal is to finish up by tuesday.
my college career is coming to a close.
amazing.
derek webb writes some pretty good songs now and again.
i'm listening to one right now.
something about your love being better than wine.
it's a beautiful song.
something about it makes me feel good.
it's refreshing.
it's freeing.
it lets me forget about any doubts or fears that might be hanging around in the back of my head.
just go listen to it.

So here's the deal. I'm reading this book called knowing God by J I Packer. At the end of one of the chapters he closes with this statement.

"The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending and being spent - to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need."

So how will you spend Christmas this year?

I feel as believers if we really wanted to have a Christmas service we would hang a sign on the front door of our church saying, "sorry, we are not meeting here tonight because we are out serving the poor and hungry."

I think someone may have blogged about this a while back but here are my top six favorite shows I have seen along with the top six I would hope to someday get to experience.

in no particular order...

best shows I've seen as of late:
1. Broken Social Scene w/Feist @ Gypsy Ballroom, Dallas, Tx
2. Arcade Fire @ Austin City Limits, Austin, Tx
3. Death Cab for Cutie @ Trees, Dallas, Tx (i had my elbows on the stage for this one)
4. Mutemath @ Gypsy Tea Room, Dallas, Tx
5. David Crowder Band w/Shawn McDonald and Robbie Seay Band @ The Door, Dallas, Tx
6. Switchfoot @ Stubbs, Austin, Tx

Shows i would like to see:

1. Switchfoot acoustic show @ Canes, San Diego, Ca
2. U2 @ ANYWHERE!
3. Ethan Durelle on the rooftop of Gachet Coffee Lounge, Dallas, Tx
4. I wouldn't mind stealing some jazz in Europe
5. If Sigur Ros did a Christmas show I think I'd probably go.
6. Arcade Fire in a smaller venue

I know I'm probably missing some shows but I'll blog about them later.

I had a professor once make the statement that all truth is God’s truth. I've never really thought about that before. I like it. on brent’s student ministry blog he posted a quote from rob bell’s new book about being careful to label things “Christian” because we can blindly consume things that we think might be safe and acceptable without really testing it. I think the statement that all truth is God’s truth really applies here. What i mean is that often times there are things we come across in this world that we as the church would label secular but the reality is that it may speak more of God's truth than anything we might assume to be "Christian". I love knowing that God is not limited to what we find at mardels or family christian book store.