Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Ciera and MENSA

Jen and I had a meeting with Ciera’s school counselor, teacher, and principle today. She had tested to see if qualified for the gifted program. Pretty weird deal, because you want your kids to have the best education possible. But if your kid doesn’t make it for the gifted program, how is that not deflating for them on some level, even if you as a parent aren’t that concerned about the results?

Anyway, long story short, Ciera did qualify which is pretty cool She will now have an IEP, Individualized Education Program. Only the top 3% of kids are included in the gifted program, that will take her all the way through high school. Evidently it’s a much bigger deal that I fully understand because we now have the power to call a meeting with the principle, teacher, and counselor at any time if we feel there are educational issues. We had to sign three documents and it’s registered with the state and everything. Really weird.

Ciera scored a 128 on a standardized IQ test which put her in the 97th percentile. If she was tested again, numerous times, she would most likely fall in the 121-133 range, according to the school counselor who administered the test. Jen sent me some links about IQ test scores and such and I found out that MENSA is for anyone in the 98th percentile! All you have to do is submit a 98% on an approved MENSA test and you are in for life. How crazy is that?

To top it off, Noah is way ahead of where Ciera was in first grade, but they really don’t do any gifted testing till the end of the 2nd grade or in third grade.

Pretty wild. I’m glad that we can now insure that everything is going to be done to help Ciera learn and grow. That’s a pretty cool deal.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Monday


Some 19 year old kid in Oklahoma City got into an accident on an ATV and was pronounced "BRAIN DEAD."


His uncle, while paying his last respects, runs a pocket knife blade along the kids' foot and the kid jerks his leg back.


You can read and watch the story here from the Today Show.


Long story short, the kid beats death, comes back alive, is resurrected. Or...what probably did happen, is that he was misprounounced dead. Of course the doctors would say that the tests show that he was brain dead. No blood or brain activity. Allegedly it was the fault of bad equipment.


I wonder how often this happens? How many other people are pronounced brain dead only to have thier organs harvested? How many people would come out of it if given more time. How many funeral's could have been avoided? Kind of scary to think about. and it probably doesn't happen......very much, at least.
The fact that it's happenned once is amazing.


I hope this will propel them to make other tests for the prounouncement of brain death. If my kids or wife are ever brain dead, you better believe I'll be holding out as long as I can thinking of this story.


YS Biggest Loser Update: Jen moves to third place!

My sweet wife is working so stinking hard to lose weight! She has never been huge but because of all the fun medicine she has been experimenting with to ease her migraines she gained some weight and I twisted her arm to join this YS competition.

She works so hard! And she pushes me! If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't get in all these workouts. she amazes me! She is now in third place with the ladies.

I moved up one spot to sixth. the guys in front of me are really rockin! Marko lost 4 lbs (2nd place), and Riddle must have busted it hard cause he jumped from sixth and took back third place. What a cool competition!

great job Jen!!!!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Raining McCain

Saw this clip on Riddle's blog. So funny.




My favorite line: "I'm gonna go out, and get myself, absolutely John McCain'd."

ht to Diane. I got it to work! I pasted it in Word, then did it back in blogger. it's like I'm a real blogger now! woo hoo!

Monday, March 17, 2008

A sweet word from my boy Noah

Sunday was another day when, because of poor time management, I had to work all day and didn't get to be home with my kids at all. I definitely could have done better during the week to get stuff put out of the way.

so the short story I'm going to share is both very sweet and very scary. Sweet, because it was from my little 7 year old Noah. and scary, because I don't want this to be the theme of my life.

Here is the conversation that took place between my sweet boy Noah and my sweet wife Jen:

Noah: Mom, how old are middle schoolers?

Jen: Like 12 and 13.

N: I can't wait till I'm 12!!!!

J: Why's that, Noah?

N: Cause then I'll get to spend all day Sundays with Dad!


(For 10 weeks during the start of every year, we do Confirmation. This year the timing has been horrible. Church in the morning. Confirmation from 2:30-4 pm. Another worship service from 6-8 pm. yuck! For a while there I was slipping in some swimming with the kids at the Y between church and confirmation. I need to get back to that. I really miss being home on Sundays.)

Are you a bigger loser than Marko Update

Amazingly, I'm still in 7th place with only a pound lost.

I'm only one place away from Riddle...eh eh eh. Marko is still in 2nd place. And my sweet wife is still holding on to 6th place with the ladies.

It must have been a super slow week considering that Marko only lost 3 lbs, Mark Riddle only lost 1 and I only lost 1. hmmmmm.....

I'm so hoping for a GREAT week this week.

Stuck In The Middle 08



Another great year for our students at Stuck In The Middle, a conference for middle school students put on by my buddy Sean Meade.




Here's our recap along with a couple pics! We have a sweet video that our tech crew at First church did and I'll throw that up here as soon as I can.






On March 7, 13 middle school students and 2 adults pioneered two vans to Kansas City for Stuck in the Middle, a 3 day conference designed to help middle schoolers experience Christ.

Eight of the thirteen students made personal decisions regarding their faith, seven of them being to rededicate their lives and one to follow Christ for the very first time.

It was an amazing weekend that began with entering into the auditorium into a scene out of the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia” complete with “snow” on the ground, light posts, pillars, and sculptures of Aslan. “Snow” bubbles fell from above, which threw our students into a compulsion to stick their tongues out and catch the snow, like kids seeing snow fall for the first time.

Beginning with a video montage of famous scenes from movies like Star Wars, Napoleon Dynamite, Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Superman Returns, the stage was set to help students understand the idea that God wants them to be a part of an amazing story.

Next, Joe Castillo, the Sand Artist, told the creation story through is amazing sand art performance that had our students absolutely captivated.

After some comedy, a testimony of a man being completely healed of cancer, and worship, the speaker for the first two sessions took the stage. Jason Raitz, a Junior High Pastor from Willow Creek, opened the night and shared two thoughts about Christ:

1. Your story is amazing! No matter who you are, or what has happened to you, you are not an accident. You were created by God and your story (your life is incredibly valuable).
2. God wants you to be part of His Story. His story is amazing and you have a starring role in it.

For 8th grader Emily Henning, what stuck out to her was that, “How even if you wake up in the morning and you feel irrelevant, you are still important.”

After meeting with our individual youth groups to debrief the main session, students took part in lat night activities that consisted of inflatables, a scavenger hunt, video games, pool, karaoke, ping pong, bull riding, and hanging out.

On Saturday, Jason Raitz spoke about Crisis and how every story has crisis. Jason emphasized how our sin causes crisis.

One of the great things about “Stuck” is that they give an hour after each session for youth groups to debrief. We were able to also explain that sometime’s other people’s sin causes crisis in our lives. And that some crisis happens that isn’t our fault. And when our story has crisis, we can lean into God and listen for his voice.

The afternoon began with a powerful message about the Holy Spirit from fellow United Methodist Steve Jacobs, the Chief Scientist for the Discover Channel, that included Grant Apsley, Cody Guinn, Aubrey Maxwell, Alex Cox, and Jason Cox all on stage in front of everyone!

Next, our students took part in two sets of workshops.

One of our students, Jonathan Buster, went to the workshop led by a great Chicago based youth pastor named Andy Jack who gave our students a lesson in Lectio Divina, otherwise known as Divine Liturgy.

With candle’s set and music playing, Andy read from John 13 when Jesus washed the Disciple’s feet.

“The world that we live in is pretty loud. And God tends to speak in a whisper” said 8th grader Jonathan Buster. “And we really need to turn the volume down and listen.”

“When he read the Scripture about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet, I felt like God was saying to me, ‘You were dirty and now you are clean.’ That’s really the first time I’ve felt like God has talked to me. I think that tops all three years [I’ve been] at ‘Stuck.’”

The main session on Saturday night began with a dramatic skit about a popular boy asking a disabled girl for the last dance at school. Many of our students really connected with this idea about the difficulty of being a Christian and doing the right thing.

Sean Meade, the President of Stuck in the Middle spoke Saturday night about Christ and how he will never abandon us. His message was brought home when he shared a video testimony from Gracia Burnham about how she felt abandoned but saw God’s care after her release from Philippine terrorists.

After scurrying to get packed and eat breakfast on Sunday morning, we left the hotel and headed back to Stuck for the closing session. Sean shared about the need for community and how we cannot do this journey alone. He challenged our students to look for ways even on the van ride home to love and serve each other. And before we knew it, Stuck was over and we were on our way home.

Stuck in the Middle is a great weekend that helps our students grow in their faith. For 8th grader Sydney Potvin, it’s a weekend she will not easily forget.

“ ‘Stuck’ opened a new door to Christ and how God works” shared Potvin. “It was about being able to listen and being open to what Christ is saying and just taking time to listen [to God] and saying, ‘This is what I will live by.’”

“And for me, I committed that I would begin to follow His footsteps and begin to live as a Christian and it’s topped everything I’ve ever done.”




Monday, March 10, 2008

Pre-YS Biggest loser update

after only losing 3 lbs last week, I lost 6 lbs this week. That is a HUGE loss for how long I have been losing. I now weigh only 245 lbs (ha! only! I still have 50+ pounds to go!).

I can't wait for the standings to come out! I guarantee I'll be back in the top 10 after being out of it last week. That and, I actually weigh 244.4 lbs, so that gives me a .6 jumpstart on this week! eh eh eh

sidebar: I can't even remember when I weighed 245 lbs! That, AND I'm only 15 lbs away from my Play It Again Sport's Biggest Loser competition goal! And I still have more than 3 weeks to go with that!!!!

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Porcupine vs. Pit Bull



OUCH!!!

YS Biggest Loser Update

As expected I dropped from 9th place. I'm out of the top 10. I mean, I only lost 3 lbs last week and Marko lost 10 lbs and shot up to 6th!

So where am I ranking? I'm 11th! eh eh eh. I'm going to have a big week next week so that'll be fun to see my name up there again!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Freaking Giants...they suck too


And I'm a giants fan...the San Francisco Giants. But they are terrible too!


We overpaid for Barry Zito...and he had a terrible outing last week. Lowery stunk it up yesterday.


Matt Cain, on the other hand, was amazing!


And we have no power in our line up. The Giants are hoping to woo Joe Crede, but that won't happen either.


I am really hoping for a good season!

49ers get Isaac Bruce...and will still suck


I'm a HUGE 49ers fan, even though I hate them. It's a love/hate relationship. I grew up in the bay area during the 80's when the 49ers were absolutely unbeatable. of course now, they are very beatable.


Yesterday, they signed former 49er killer isaac bruce, who used to be a great wide receiver, signed a two year contract with the 49ers.


We'll see...I have very little faith in their ability to win or manage, for that matter. But I love 'em.