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.

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

This would have been mine

…if I was in the 11th grade.

The Ultimate in Whatcom County Dating

If you are married, you know the importance of “Date Night”. It’s a night to get out and away from home to connect with your significant other. Last night I went to the Ultimate Date here in Whatcom County, Washington. Cynthia and I were “lucky” enough to get tickets to the Lynden Fair to watch the hottest ticket in town. Randy Travis? no. Chicago? no again. Though both of those shows are really going on this week here in our little section of the United States, the hottest ticket in town every year is the demolition derby. Yep. You read right!

So we had an evening filled with Fair Food and smashed up cars. Break out your John Deere Hats and “Git-R-Done” t-shirts, because here are some pics for you (Incidently, this first pic is the first pic of Daddy with his baby pai…it’s a family pic of sorts):

All in all it was a fun night. Cynthia and I had a great time. Cars were smashed. Fords and Chevy’s were rivaled. All was right in this neck of the woods.

My Blogroll A-C

I just wanted to introduce you all to my friends in my blogroll. I hate when I go to blogs and I don’t know who they are. Now you will know some of them. Please visit them and say hello.

Aaron Nelson – Photographer, Phormer Starbucks Partner, and Phriend of mine. I hope he plays the trumpet still. He was good at that.

Alan Hirsch – Have you read “Shaping of Things to Come”? It is pretty interesting. This is his blog. Now you can get in his mind whenever he posts something!

Baron Miller – This is our pastor at Roosevelt Community Church. He posts on his sermons and attempts to draw conversation out of people. Sometimes it works.

Big Skye’s Country – Chess Player, Interesting blogger, Lover of Jesus, and they dress up as a bear. Any questions?

Blending Worship – Mandy Thompson lives out in New England. She is a worship leader. This is her worship blog. I like it. It makes me think.

Brad Hauge – This fool never posts anymore. He put an RSS feed on his site for me, then he never fed into it ever again. he is still my friend. I love him.

Cameron Garcia – The “Man of Many Thoughts”. Cameron discusses his journey in becoming a pastor and the “wonderful” things that come along with it.

CEC Worship – A great worship resource and finder of funny YouTube clips.

CHauncy Handy – Former Youth Kid turned friend. Chauncy has great things to say.

Chris Knox – Friend. Sporadic blogger. The Best. Seriously, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie just named one of their kids after him. Knox, you rule.

…more to come tomorrow

New Amos Lee Album

I bought the new Amos Lee album, Last Days at the Lodge, a few weeks ago when it came out. I just got around to listening to it, and I love it. Anything this guy does really is pretty amazing. I’ve been listening to him for a couple of years now. If you haven’t heard of him, below is one of my favorite Amos Lee songs called “Arms of a Woman”. If you think it sounds like Norah Jones, it is because he was one of the first signed to her record label. So there you go. Buy his albums and support him. Do it now.

State of Shock and Awe

Well, I haven’t been posting as much lately. It isn’t laziness, it’s busyness. I’ve been working 50-60 hours a week at both of my jobs. Tack on guitar lessons that I’ve been giving and life things in general, and you see that I’ve been busy busy busy.

Not only that, but my wife, Cynthia, and I found out that we are expecting a baby. That’s right, this is the real deal. I used to joke with the Cynthia’s pregnant, but this is not a test. Here is a pic for you:

it’s blurry, but it’s a baby. We are at week 13. craziness. It will only get crazier I’m sure. We’ve been talking names. Right now we have Ron Part III for boy and Rhonda for a girl (that’s a joke).

Wow, another brown kid.

How I Learned to Celebrate Fathers Day

Growing up, I came from a single parent home where I was raised by my mom. My parents divorced when I was in the second grade, and we moved from beautiful Kaneohe, Oahu to Blaine Washington. My mom had graduated here before going off to live with my dad. I can’t remember really celebrating Fathers day. Usually I gave my grandpa a fathers day card, as he was my only father figure (and a great one at that), until only a few years ago when he passed away.

Fathers Day has always been such a foreign concept to me. I always put up a front and I would act as though it didn’t bother me, but when I would try to hang out with friends they were always hanging out with their own dads. I felt as though my Dad had left my family in a lurch by not paying child support, visting only on Christmas, and through the physical and mental abuse that he caused my mother, brother, and sister and I. Needless to say, Fathers Day was not a day of celebration to me.

It wasn’t unil I was in my early to mid 20’s that I found my true father: my Holy Father. I came to a realization of how a father could love. I forgave my biological father a long time ago for the pain that he caused our family emotionally, financially, and physically. I learned this love and ability from my perfect father I have in Jesus. Only he could have taken this pain away and shown me what love and freedom truly looks like.

I learned to celebrate Fathers Day as a day of recognizing the way a father looks at his child and smiles no matter what they have done. I learned that Jesus loves all of his children, even my dad. This was a hard concept to wrap my head around, and it still is. But today, Fathers Day has become a day of reconciliation for me in truly seeing how God sees us as his children, and how I don’t want to treat my kids and how I would want them to see me. Someday when I have kids, I hope that I remember this and instead of wanting a day to get away from them on Fathers Day, it will be a day to share love and laughter with them.

Happy Fathers Day to all my Dad-Friends out there! And to the single moms out there who play the role of Dad also, Thank You Thank You Thank You,  and please don’t give up hope.

Questioning the Questions of Faith

I’ve talked about them before, but Asbojesus is still one of my favorite sites. Their pictures speak into the questions that we’ve all have and more! Check em out. I’ve got them linked in my blogroll.

Everytime I See This, I laugh…Really Loud.