the most comments ever ...

yep, ladies and gentlemen ... welcome back to the Blogging Olympics ...

I will be competing with Dan Lance for the most comments ever ... one of my favorite blogging events in the Blogging Olympics ... Dan Lance still holds the record for most comments ever ... on monday evening, March 3rd, Dan blogged about Alyssa being pregnant ... yep, 27 comments and still coming ... unbelievable ...

beating out the former record holder Meghan Edwardson, who blogged about her newborn kittens ... 24 comments ... Meghan Edwardson, a young blogging competitor from New Mexico ... still a blogging legend ...

I've been training for this event for 3 months and I'm ready to throw down against 'blogging Lance,' even though the Riverside peeps give him so much love ... let the games begin ...

becoming who we are ...

I'm stoked about the new series we're beginning this Sunday night ... becoming who we are ...

in the last few years I've been speaking, this is my first time teaching through one of the books in scripture ... Ephesians ... I'm terrified, but I enjoy a challenge ...

it's either Ephesians or another Sex series ... but I think the Stirring has heard enough about Sex for a while ... actually, next year I want to spend 8 weeks in the Song of Solomon ... we'll talk about love and conflict and dating and commitment and yep, sex (chapter 4) ...

anyways, back to Ephesians ... becoming who we are ... following Jesus is not about what we do ... it's about who we are because of what Jesus Christ has done ... and what we do is simply an expression of who we are because Jesus is alive in us ... and yet we get this so confused ...

there is a war raging for who we are ... so in this series, we want to give God space to speak to us and shape us and remind us who we are in Jesus Christ ...

pray that God uses these next few weeks to shape our community in profound ways ...

asher nathaniel ...

asher nathaniel ... you've accomplished so much in just one year ...

you throw balls ...
you yell when you're hungry ...
you eat food ...
you climb through the doggy door ...
you run through sprinklers ...
you terrify the dogs ...
you drive a plastic car ...
you rip daddy's glasses off his face ... not cool ...
you pee across the room ... cool ...

I am so proud of the little man you're becoming ... happy 1st birthday ...

first Canadian music video ...

meet grandma ...

she loves Jesus ... she leads worship at her church in Canada ... she taught me how to play the accordian ... she prays for us every night ... enjoy our first Canadian music video ...

8 years ago ...

8 years ago, I married the most amazing woman ever ...

8 years ago, I woke up nervous and threw on a Tuxedo ... I waited as she walked down the aisle ... I held her hands ...

8 years ago, I sang her a song ... I do ... I kissed her in front of my grandma ... doves flew circles over our heads ... my grandma shouted, "It's a miracle!" ... and it was ...

8 years ago, I married my best friend ... Erica, I can't imagine life without you ... Happy Anniversary ...

deep thoughts

One day Dad asked me to go fishing with him ...

I got scared ... I had the feeling he was going to try to drown me ... I don't why I thought that, because so far he had never tried to kill me ... but he had never taken me fishing either, so I was suspicious ...

When we got to the lake, he walked right up to it ... "Hey son, come here," he said. "Look at these minnows" ...

"Nice try, Dad, if that's even your real name!" I yelled. Then I ran back to the car and locked myself in ...

Dad never took me fishing again ... So I think that proves my case ...

I dedicate this blog to my favorite indie band Ember ... I wear this shirt once a week ... long live Ember ... those guys rocked ... even though my brother Jeremy tried to fight Josh Hagquist ... let bygones be bygones ...

the burbs ...

so, I came home early today ... to find my wife digging a 'body size' hole in the backyard ... creepy ...

she's holding this huge shovel ... dirt up to her knees ... a grin on her face ... I'm convinced she's killed our dogs, or one of the neighbors ... and she's burying the body in our backyard ... all I can think about is that Tom Hanks film 'the Burbs' ...

my wife explains ... it turns out it's a compost pit ... for leaves and food and green waste ... that's a load off ...

what next? ... recycling? ...

what's up with Redding?

It seems like everyone moves back to Redding ... why?

I moved away to San Diego ... I moved back to Redding ...
My wife Erica moved away to Cottonwood ... now back in Redding ...
My brother Jeremy and Meghan moved to Seattle ... yep, Redding ...
My brother Benji moved to Sacramento ... and Redding ...
Dan and Alyssa to Riverside ... they moved back to Redding ...
Todd and Deborah Skinner to Brentwood ... Redding ...
Dave Reichle moved to Portland (I think) ... and he's moving back to Redding ...

And Jeff Yoder is thinking about moving back to manage Red Robin ...

oh yeah, I forgot ... everyone who has ever lived in Redding has also worked at Red Robin ... but that's another blog ...

I dedicate this blog to Shannon Pirie, Sean Bagley and Richie Masadas ... we miss you ... come home ... and Moses Lam ...

my sports career ...

yep, I'm an athlete ...

if asked to describe me, I imagine most people would used words like 'artist' or 'genius' or 'friendly' or 'great father' ... but believe or not, I am also an athlete ...

for those who are surprised, here is a quick run down of my sports career ... my little secret ...

1984 ... t-ball on those fields behind Enterprise High School ... I can still remember knocking the plastic out of those wiffle balls ...

1989 ... minor league baseball ... the Astros ... right field and second base ... our coach was drunk almost every game ... I pitched one game ... awful ...

1992 ... cross country ... sophomore year ... friends peer pressured me to join the team ... I trained for 3 months ... I ran one cross country race and finished dead last ... I quit the team ...

1993 ... tennis ... yep ...

1994 ... varsity soccer team ... I sat the bench most of the year ... I scored one goal (by accident) off my head ... got my name in the Record Searchlight for the assist ...

1996 ... surfing in San Diego ... my first time surfing, I paddled for 3 hours and couldn't catch a wave ... not my favorite sport ... though I felt like a man on that 13 foot board ...

2004 ... frisbee golf ... in a tournament, I shot 11 under par at the Kid's Kingdom course ... and I don't even own one of those little gay frisbee bags ...

2008 ... ultimate frisbee ... tuesday nights ...

and it makes me proud to see my son following in my footsteps ... Asher, I believe you can be twice the athlete I am ... if that's even possible ...

fives ...

so, I have an obsession with fives ...

ever since I can remember, I count fives ... on the freeway ... at school ... in restaurants ... in crowds ... one, two, three, four, five ... and on and on and on ...

everywhere I go, I group things into fives ... I group people and paintings and cars and fenceboards and letters and words and shapes ... five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty ... all day long, I'm counting fives ...

counting and grouping ... do you remember that game tetris? ... yep ... shapes and colors and objects and signs all making sense in my world of fives ...

and it gets worse ... as I count fives, I count my toes (right and left), and I count my fingers (right and left) ... all day long ... I've counted my toes and fingers at least a ten thousand times ...

and I click my teeth in fives ... this drives my wife crazy ... when she hears my teeth clicking fives, she will ask, "are you counting fives?" ... to which I respond, "yes" ...

it's my life ... it always has been ... please, someone tell me I'm not alone ...

amish friendship bread ...

another fantastic day ...

prayer in the morning ... Starbucks with Sean Gafner ... Thai Cafe with Christian Ostrom ... Barnes & Noble with Matt and Abby Will ...

my wife baked the most delicious meal ... taco lasagna ... tastes better than it looks ... I ate half the dish ... sweet corn ... and for dessert, yep, Amish friendship bread ... my favorite bread in the world ... I can eat a loaf all by myself ...

wrestled with my kids ... almost broke Adiah's arm ... threw Asher across the room ... made Ava cry twice ... kicked one of the dogs by accident ...

my wife and I just watched another great movie ... Sweeney Todd ... fleet street demon barber or something ... amazing ... I can't believe I didn't get to the theater for this one ... once again, Johnny Depp blows my mind ... and all that blood ... I love it ... I don't think we'll purchase this film (just in case Ava sneaks out of bed at night and throws it in the DVD player) ... she'd never go to Amy's house for a haircut again ...

by the way, I need a haircut ...

no one told me that Sweeney Todd was a musical ... unbelievable ... yep, I'm a 'musical' guy ... moulin rouge ... annie ... mary poppins ... space balls ... I love musicals ... sometimes, I imagine that my life is a musical ... I sing and skip and wear a fake mustache ... I dance around a fire hydrant with an umbrella ...

this has been the best day of my life ...

man in the water ...

enjoy this short film we produced for our music, art and film festival, Erase the Dark ...

my life in 148 words ...

born ...
half canadian, half american ...
grew up in the pew ...
met Jesus in a station wagon in 1982 ... who didn't?
enjoyed flannel graph Jesus ...
chess club ...
in the 4th grade, I pushed a bully down stairs ... my first sin ...
drank my first Coors Light in 1991 ...
kicked dave reichle in the stomach ...
graduated high school with 4.5 grade point average ...
moved to San Diego ...
surfed ...
met pentecostal Jesus ...
went forward to get slain in the Spirit ... never got slain ...
Simpson University ... met chapel Jesus ...
Haiti ...
slept naked with Todd Skinner for 3 months ...
met Erica ...
fell in love with Erica ...
Celebration and East Way and humor and Red Robin ...
proposed to Erica ...
met Risen King Jesus ...
married Erica ... the best decision of my life ...
sex ... another great decision ...
Ava Louise and Adiah Amor ...
more sex ..
Asher Nathaniel ...
the Stirring ...
this is my life in 148 words ...

david and nicole lim

yep, David Lim is finally married ...

I just got back from the wedding reception in Chico ... unbelievable ... this blog is a tribute to David Lim ...

a couple of years ago, it snowed in Redding ... everywhere ... david lim and I decided to go for a walk around town ... when it snows in Redding, everyone gets weird ... people dress weird ... and people do weird things ...

we found a shopping cart near K-Mart and we pushed it to the top of a hill ... for some reason, david lim decided to get into the shopping cart ... running as fast as I possibly could, I pushed that shopping cart down this steep hill ... and I jumped on back ... we flew ... have you ever seen the film 'Radio Flyer?' ... yep ...

anyways, I will miss david lim ... enjoy marriage ... enjoy life ... enjoy snow ...