so long, 35

well sunday was my birthday. turned 36. i don't think i feel like i'm 36 but who really knows. i guess i feel a young 36.

35 was crazy. found out i needed heart surgery. decided to start a church. had jason and diana move in with us. had heart surgery. started church. bought big house in bad neighborhood with jason and diana and moved into it. honestly hoping 36 is a little toned down.

my birthday was fun. my kids were really excited about my birthday and my wife bought me 3 birthday cakes.

speaking of our bad neighborhood, friday afternoon i come home and notice probably 15 cop cars about a block and a half from my house (on the corner of idlewild and jones). a guy next door tells me the cops have two guys holed up in their that they're trying to arrest. so we've got a standoff. doesn't last long and i don't hear any shots fired.

what i think is strange is that we saw nothing on the news about it. there was nothing on any local internet news sites about it. even when we asked the few police officers we know, no one said they knew anything about it. i can't find out what's going on when there are 15 cop cars a block from my house... this is raleigh.... our lead news stories are about cats stuck in trees and bad stuff that happens in fayetteville... we have to import a lot of our bad news.

next time it happens i'm calling the news myself and then maybe i'll be able to figure out what's going on.

This article was pretty cool. I figured after ripping a front page article from a couple weeks ago I would say something about this one. Front page of Sunday's N&O about these three guys from the Summit Church in Durham who moved into the 'hood in Durham. Someone who goes to the Summit told me about them after we moved into our house. Apparently when they went away for Christmas or something people broke into their house, slept in their beds and put cigarettes out on their furniture. Just not an ounce of respect. Really nice article.

It rained a lot on Saturday and I took this picture of Abigail looking out the window. That's a pretty little girl...
















and another pretty girl...

Break out the Brewers!

Best record in baseball and (sadly... and hard to believe) the biggest division lead they've had in the history of the franchise. Now, granted they just finished a 10 game homestand against a St Louis team that was grieving a teammate, against Pittsburgh, and then against the worst team in baseball (the Nationals can't seem to escape the curse of Montreal), they still went 9-1. Good teams get it done against teams they are supposed to get it done against. Now we go on the road against the Mets and Phillies and I think we also play the Braves and the Dodgers in the next few weeks. I guess I'll enjoy this while I can...

National League Central
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Milwaukee	24	10	.706	-
Chi. Cubs	16	15	.516	6½
Houston	16	17	.485	7½
Pittsburgh	14	18	.438	9
St. Louis	14	18	.438	9
Cincinnati	14	20	.412	10

he's growing up

so yesterday i pass by the playroom and see michael doing a puzzle and say, 'michael, who's the man?' i do this a bit and tell my boys that they're the man just to let them know i think they're great. so he says, 'you're the man, daddy' and i respond, 'no, you're the man, michael'. to which he says, 'daddy, why am i the man? is it because i winned? is it because i ran real fast, daddy?'

dangit... this kid is 4 and he's getting caught up in an acceptance by performance mentality already. this breaks my heart a little. i mentioned sunday that he already has this desire to win when we play games or do puzzles. part of me thinks this must be bad parenting on my part. part of me thinks i'm real screwed up and just passing it on to my son. and part of me thinks he's human and i should just expect this sooner than later. so i tried to explain to him that he's the man because i love him, and that will never change. so i asked him, 'why are you the man?' and he says 'because i love you daddy'.... arrrgh!

i'm finding it a challenge to describe God and my faith to my kid but this has been one of my best opportunities. his question reminds me of the psalms where david says, 'what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?' and again where he says, 'you knitted me together in my mother's womb'. my guess is that he's asking a question that we are all asking at some level and one that he'll continue to ask for the rest of his life...

more postsecret stuff

i guess you had to be there yesterday for this to make any sense... sorry

anonymity isn't enough, we need community...









the gospel's supposed to continue to change us, but it's hard...













this breaks my heart and makes me think a whole lot about how I am teaching my children to understand Jesus...

don't look now...

but something's brewing in Milwaukee... end of April, 7 games above .500, 3 1/2 game lead in the central... 2nd best record in baseball...

i was 11 in 1982 when the brewers went to the world series... could this be the year we've been waiting 25 years for...

National League Central
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Milwaukee	16	9	.640	-
Pittsburgh	12	12	.500	3½
Cincinnati	12	13	.480	4
Chi. Cubs	10	14	.417	5½
Houston	10	14	.417	5½
St. Louis	10	14	.417	5½