It's Alive!

This blog has been mostly dead for a few consecutive months now, I'm sorry to say. It just seemed like I needed a big reason to blog again because it had been so long. Well big reasons have come and gone and I continued my neglect of this digital space. Life is good, and life is busy. There have been ups and downs, but mostly ups.

Lately, some people who I care about deeply are in the midst of incredibly trying times. It brings me down when I think about it, and I've had a heavy heart for a couple of weeks now. With the sadness though comes more reliance on faith and a greater desire to help and support where I can. We certainly are never helpless, never comfortless, and never without a friend.

There is incredible strength in the bonds that we share with our family and friends. Courage and hope can be drawn from the most simple of gestures and connections. I recognize the need in myself to improve in my ability and willingness to act.

I've learned that gratitude is the most effective remedy for sadness and sorrow. Everyday I'm more and more grateful for my family. Natalie is an absolute rock. The best partner I could ever wish for in this life. Abby is the most fun person I've ever met. She is so full of life and energy. She amazes and inspires me every day, and she makes me laugh constantly. From her lips have been uttered some of the most pure and sincere and beautiful prayers I've ever heard.

Happy Memories

Lately, it seems like there has been a lot of sad things happening to people I know and love. A large majority of these instances have been completely out of control of the people they are affecting the most. I thought it might be good to generate some discussion and sharing of happy memories. Seems how this is my idea I'll start.

Memory #1 - Last summer we attended our friends Jake and Eli's wedding reception. It was in a lush, green, secluded back yard on one of those perfect summer evenings. The light back there was incredible and Abby was having a great time dancing to the music and running in circles on the grass. We were there with some of our best friends, most of whom we hadn't seen for some time. I can't put my finger on exactly why it was so great, but I distinctly remember thinking that night that I was experiencing something very close to heaven.  I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Memory #2 - This one is hard to explain, and it is not so much a solitary memory because it has happened more than once. Sometimes when I'm in a social setting, I'll catch a glance of Natalie from across the room and for a second I'm seeing her again for the first time. It is similar to times when you see pictures or video of yourself from an angle your not used to seeing. It takes a second for you to realize who you are looking at followed by a flood of thoughts. Do I really walk like that? Etc. However, when this happens with Natalie, after the recognition takes place a flood of memories of our lives together comes into my brain and it makes me happy.

Memory #3 - I remember being a very young kid, and being incredibly excited for my older brothers to come home from college. I would watch tv with the volume low so I could listen for the back door and hear the familiar voice. It always seemed like an eternity waiting for them, but they always made me feel like a million bucks when the time finally came.

Please, share some good memories, I think we could all use them.

That's What Friends Are For

My good friend and former band-mate brought to my attention the hypocrisy found in yesterday's post. I was on one hand trying to promote discussion while on the other hand I was taking jabs at a certain point of view.


I admit, that I was taken back a bit my Mr. Luhn's comment on my previous intelligent design post. It seemed weird to me that he was searching around the internet trying to find any reference to a movie that shows certain ideas are being suppressed in the scientific community. To me, his actions were only strengthening the points made in the "Expelled" movie.

Dusty, I stand corrected. I really appreciate your feedback, concern, and input. You are a good friend, and I'm glad you called me out about it. I should have held off actually publishing until I had a chance to really read through it again. I felt kind of uneasy about it all day yesterday worrying that my words would not come across as intended.

Reading back through my post, it kind of morphs from trying to promote discussion and being open minded to being argumentative and snarky. There was an attempt at humor thrown in there, but I don't think it came across as intended.

The term "believe in Science" is linked to the Nacho Libre scene on YouTube. I was trying to lighten the mood a little, but it definitely comes across as a jab. I don't know why I even write about stuff like this. I think I miss my philosophy classes.

I feel that all of these big ideas are not mutually exclusive, which is why it should make for great thought-provoking discussion. I apologize that my words were counter productive to their actual intent.


I really don't want to make this blog a place of argement. It should be a creative outlet with perhaps some thought provoking discussion here and there. It should also be funny when intended, and yesterday's attempt at humor failed because it was mixed in with an argumentative voice. I thought about going back and editing the post, but I think it is best left as a reminder to me of what this blog should not be.

Photo Booth Classics

A New Christmas Tradition?

I've toyed around with this idea for a while, and I think it would be a really fun thing to try. If it worked out, it could turn into a new Christmas tradition. A couple of years ago during Christmas time, my mother in law Cathy and Natalie and I spent a couple of hours playing and singing Christmas songs together. Cathy and I both had the old Reader's Digest Christmas Songbook, and we just flipped through and chose our favorites and played and sung song after song. After that night, I thought that it would be really fun to do the same thing on a slightly larger scale (with more instruments and more voices). It would be fun to have instruments such as a violin, cello, piano, guitars, bass, keyboard, percussion, harmonica, mandolin, harp (wink, nudge Christine). Anyway you get the idea.

It would be a casual get together, basically a Christmas party with a few friends where at some point we do this sing along/play along musical experiment. I envision almost all acoustic instruments so the setup would be pretty minimal. Maybe just an electric bass and keyboards plugged in. We would print copies of the music so you could just show up and play. The one requirement for attending would be that you either sing or play so that there is no audience, only performers. (We will have shakers and tambourines and possibly hand clapping/snapping for non singers/non players who want to participate).

Well, that is my crazy idea. Please leave a comment if you would be interested in participating. Let me know what instrument(s) you would play (including voice). Also, I will throw out a few dates, if possible list which date would work best. Possible dates: Friday December 5th, Sunday December 7th, Saturday December 13th. If none of these work you could certainly suggest another date, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling and see what kind of interest there would be.

You Might Have Seen this on ESPN2

The stadium is spectacular, the crowd was energetic, the players were a little nervous, and we made our national television debut during ESPN2's broadcast. It was a great night, but unfortunately New York sat back and played for the tie and RSL was unable to break through for the winner.

As My Friend And Brother

Well, this post has been a long time in the planning (I can't say "making" because I'm just starting it now. ) Last year for my birthday, I received one of the best presents I have ever received. It was a heartfelt and thoughtful blog post from one of my best friends, Jeremy Wilkins. He wished me a happy birthday and briefly chronicled our years of friendship. It was a really nice gesture, and I don't know if I ever really told him how much I appreciated it. At that time, I decided to return the favor with a similar post on his birthday. I actually did remember throughout the year and sometimes I would start to think about what I would write. In hindsight, I should have written it and saved a draft ready to post on his birthday. In the mean time, our little Abby joined us ten days before her due date and four days before Jeremy's birthday. I had lots of people tell me that my life would be turned upside down when she arrived, but it doesn't really sink in until it actually happens. It's not so much that you don't do the same major things, it's that the spare time in between (optimum blogging time) gets completely consumed by your new addition.

I guess that's the long way of making an excuse for not following through with my original plan. Well, as Jeremy pointed out, our relationship began in high school. I can't remember how it got set up (I think it might have been Curt and James trying to set up me and Lindsay), but I was asked to join Lindsay Smith and some friends for "Lazer U2" at Hansen Planetarium. Jeremy was there, and he was pretty cold toward me because he had dated Lindsay and still had some feelings for her. I remember him commenting how much he hated U2, and that made me wonder why he would want to come along to "Lazer U2." I'm pretty sure he wanted to punch me in the face that night. Needless to say I was a little nervous when I heard that he would be at Curt's cabin for the trip we would be going on that summer.

That cabin trip was amazing, and to top it off Jeremy and I had quite a bit in common. I came home from that trip with some new friends and a much better idea of who I would be hanging out at school with my Junior year (I had been hanging out with James and a bunch of people who had just graduated.) That year was full of attending every HHS sporting event possible: girls volleyball, girls soccer, swimming, drill team, girls basketball, boys basketball, and football to name a few. All these trips were instigated by Jeremy, and his support was always due to his extreme loyalty to his friends who were on the various teams and his dedication to make his Senior year of high school one to remember. This loyalty and ultimate fan-ness has never worn off. It is rare for any kid, let a lone a punk rock kid with pink hair, to be so completely devoted to his school and any event going on there.

As far as my soccer games, he was co-founder of the BBQ VIP's, a supporters group for the soccer team who would BBQ at all home games and expertly heckle the opposition at home and away games. I don't think he missed a game in two years.

After he graduated, we continued to hang out until he left for his mission. This included a lot of down hill skating, extreme walking, camping, and just generally being awesome and ghetto.

He was one of two friends who I regularly kept in touch with during our mission years, and I still remember seeing him and James and my parents at the airport as I rode down the escalator. As soon as I was released, he made me go outside with him, Brady, and Landon to listed to a couple of tracks from A.F.I.'s new album. It was pretty gnarly after listening to strictly church music for two years.

I went straight from my mission to the "Summer of Hell" in Nevada selling scripture DVD's with Jeremy, James, Ryan, and Lindsay. I don't know how many times he came to pick me up in his parents green minivan when my car broke down that summer, but it was a lot. I also don't know how many times I saw him pull out his phone and use the calculator application to try to figure out how much he would have to sell per day for the rest of the summer to break even. There are so many great and horrible stories from those months. Jeremy hit some serious lows, but his loyalty to James overcame everything else and kept him out there.

We went straight from that adventure to the "crap house." I remember when Jeremy's parents were there to help him move in, his mom asked me, "do you think (the previous tenants) were cooking drugs in here?" I wasn't quite sure how to answer that. That was definitely one of the most fun years of my life. He and James encouraged me to put together a band to play at a Halloween party. That resulted in the most fun show I've ever played, as well as the formation of a band that would be a big part of my life for the next 18 months or so. He didn't miss a show, and somewhere in the world there exists roughly one billion photos of us playing (99.9% of which were taken by Jeremy). Other highlights were my nephews' visit, halo, pop-a-shot, Dr. Mario, trying to date girls, freezing in our rooms, $2 tuesday rollerskating, and of course Amish Country Football Club games with one side of the stands full of our friends. I also hit a low point in my life that year when I was completely broke and working for almost minimum wage at Wendy's. It was a lot of really hard work, and when paychecks arrived they were severely depressing. During this time, James and Jeremy were a big support to me.

He continued to be a best friend through my college years, including after he got married. He was determined to continue to be a good friend to us all and not drop off of the face of the earth. He succeeded, and in the process our entire group of friends got to know Hallie better and became close friends with her as well. He was and continues to be a great example to me of maintaining balance in life. His marriage, friendships, church callings, job, and hobbies all recieve the right amount of attention and care. I'm glad that he and Hallie will be having a baby any day now. They have been such stellar friends to Natalie and I. We are excited that we get to enter this new chapter in our lives at roughly the same time.

This is starting to sound like an obituary, so I'll close this extremely long post with one final somewhat mushy thought. If you were to scroll through the numbers in my cellular telephone device, you would not find his number. I almost put it in as soon as I got it, but then I realized if it was in there, I would forget it. Jeremy is the kind of friend that if I was stranded and my phone was damaged or lost, I could find a phone and call and he would do every thing humanly possible to help me. So happy extremely belated birthday, and thanks for being that kind of friend. Here's to another epic decade of friendship.