Wow, a month to the day since I last wrote. A busy month, too. Alex (Julie's brother) got married on Dec. 29th and it went really well. I was an usher and (no offense) I got the feeling that ushers are completely useless. It's rare that people even understand what an usher does. Anywho...the wedding was beautiful and I got to emcee the reception. Alex and Erin will be an awesome couple.

Then we went to Florida (Disney World specifically) the first week of Jan. What a blast! The whole clan was there (9 of us!) and we hit all four parks at DWorld. Epcot was my favorite, followed by Animal Kingdom, Magic Kindom, and MGM. It was my first time there so I was like a little kid. :-) When we were at the Animal Kingdom, it POURED all day. Nothing more funny than THOUSANDS of people wearing the same poncho. hehehe We managed to have a spectacular day despite the weather. In fact, the weather was terrible nearly the whole time. Incredibly cold for Florida (30 over night, 45-50 during the day) and it showed on the news. I'll never forget, "Experts say blankets keep you warm. Use them and keep your heat down...you'll thank yourself at the end of the month when your bill comes!" Hilarious. The airports were fine and our flights were great. Security didn't seem a whole lot tighter to me, but that's just me, I guess.

So we've been back for a week and it's been...interesting. At first it was really hard because we had just been with our awesome fam for a week and now we were back in our "regular lives." But then I had a though: You can't enjoy a vacation if you don't have that "regular life." Why would you appreciate a break if your whole life is one big break? So, we're back in the swing of things and it's going fine. Especially since the Packers whooped the 49ers. Sweet relief. Rams next week. I hope they can win. If not, play a respectable game. We'll see, I guess.

I'm reading a new book called, "The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry" by Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster. Holy junk...long enough title!? I just realized that. The point is, it's a great book. If you're in youth ministry, get it. I'm through chapter 2 and am already changed. Nothing revolutionary, really, just right. Moving from program oriented ministry to relational/incarnational ministry. Very old concept (Paul and Timothy) and yet it's been lost in our fireworks and crying ideals. Really "tending the souls" of young people. So, I'm being revitalized in my ministry and my personal life. That's exciting.

Well...there's an update. Enjoy and I'll continue to write more frequently. :-)