On a day when I needed a laugh…

this video and pic helped me. Enjoy them both…

Happy 8 Year Anniversary

Wow. Cynthia and I have been married for 8 years today! Cynthia has been so supportive of me and my ministry with Cornwall and Roosevelt Community Church. She has supported me in school and cheered me on the entire way. She was a very important part of Loa coming to this world. She has laughed at my jokes even when they weren’t funny. With her I’ve shared many laughs, many secrets, many joys, and many kisses. I love her!

I’m Excited for Football Season

I am REALLY excited for football season. I’m not really a baseball fan, so usually around August 1st I begin to get excited for the season to start. I am only in one fantasy football league, so I am not that bad. But I found this clip to share with you. Though this is a CFL (Canadian Football League) clip, it’s still really funny and involves football.

Jean Claude had a heart

…even when he was young.

Guitar Nerdom

but useful none the less. If you are a guitar player and want a little insight, John Mayer offered this video. He goes pretty fast, but if you listen, it makes sense.

I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)

This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!

2/27/09

Dear Friend,

I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.

Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.

Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.

Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.

So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

The Brown Kid

St. Arbucks Jumps on Board

…two years too late.

Starbucks announced that they will give money this holiday season to the (red) campaign. Seriously, didn’t this happen already? Isn’t everybody done with the (red) campaign? Of course, it’s a good thing, as St. Arbucks will donate .05 cents from every holiday trio sold (Gingersnap Latte, Peppermint Twist Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte), but what if instead they said they will donate all procedes from the holiday trio sold on one day? I am sure more people would be on board for this. Maybe Uncle Howie should have been on board two years ago when the (red) campaign was relevant.

Fat Hawaiian Update

Do you watch the Biggest Loser? You should. It is inspirational and awesome. You will laugh and cry (from laughing) and be angry at Heba and Vicky. I just want to know why they are so mean! I feel like i am back in middle school. The show also makes you want work out as these people are trying to lose weight for life.

For six weeks, I was involved with Bob Anderson’s boot camp in Ferndale, WA to help me lose weight. It is a 10 week program, but I was able to hop in in the the middle of everything. I’ve been trying to lose weight before the baby gets here. Here is how it is going so far:

I weighed in on 9-27-08 at 227 pounds and could do 29 push ups and 28 sit ups.

Today I weighed in at 214 pounds and I did 45 push ups and 40 sit ups.

Improvement! I love it. I will do all of the measurements (chest, arms, legs and waist) and a final weigh in at the end of 10 weeks on Dec 6th.

This would have been mine

…if I was in the 11th grade.

My After Election Hangover

I feel hungover. I can’t believe what happened last night – I keep wondering if it really did happen. A lot of people on my facebook status updates are angry – more are angry than happy. But overall, I am glad for what happened last night. I am excited for the future of America. I feel that for once my vote counted. But I still feel hungover.

I voted for Obama because I am a democrat at heart. I always tell this story about when my mom taught me about voting when I was a kid: “Remember when you vote”, she told me, “to mark everyone with a ‘D’ next to their name”. Now obviously I don’t vote this way, and all kidding aside, the reason I feel hungover is because I feel as if I did something awful last night. I feel as if people look down on me because of my choice. As if I am less of a Christian because of my vote and my political stance as a democrat?

A lot of my friends are angry and sad, and then they threaten to leave the country, and then they say that they are putting it in God’s hands. I wonder why we as Christians say things like, “we have to put it in God’s hands” when the situation is bad in our opinion, but if it turned out the way we planned, then it suddenly “God is good”. This is where the seperation of Church and State was a good thing.

Maybe then, we shouldn’t vote as christians, but instead as Americans. When religion creeps in then all hell breaks loose. Maybe the mistakes we make are when we mistake our faith with our morals. Hmmm. this is complicated to explain. Maybe what we think are Christian values that we vote on are really things that we do simply because we have believed that all along. Maybe they are things that we believe because we were told they are good or bad.

Either way, we witnessed history. I feel more proud of America than I ever have been in teh past. I am one of the millions who have witnessed what has happened, and truely believes more than ever that anything is possible.