The Single Life

Court and Avery have been visiting her family since last Thursday, so for a time I am a single guy. Timber is still around, a loyal friend, but he isn't much of a conversationalist.

Over the last week I have tried to stay busy working on church stuff, subbing at a few local schools, doing a few things around the house, etc...For about 24 hours having the house to myself was nice.

However, the silence of it all begins to creep in. Avery not being here is obvious, she is so filled with energy. Each day she fills our home with joy in so many ways. Court, I miss her. I miss our quiet conversation. I miss her condescending nature toward my immature sense of humor. I even vacuumed today, 2 days before their return because I miss her complaining about Timber's hair being around our house. Most of all I miss her laugh, I love watching a TV show or movie with her knowing something is going to make her laugh.

I am not sure exactly when it happened, but I am less full when Court and Avery aren't around. We are each designed differently, but I could never work a job that kept me away from Court or Avery for any length of time. I can only imagine those who do such things and how difficult it is, but other than absolute necessity I could never work such a job.

I still have roughly 48 hours to go before they return. I spend most moments of the day thinking about them. I can't wait to see them at the airport.

Being a husband and a dad isn't easy. I often wonder if I am very good at either. I do believe I work hard at it, but I fear I do not work smart. It is hard work, without a doubt it is a labor of love. One thing rings true, anything worth anything is worth working for...

The single life, I'll be glad when I am not single anymore.

Riding Home w/ Avery

This is an excerpt from the conversation Avery and I had on the way home from preschool today.

Avery: What is that?

Ryan: That is a boat being pulled by a truck.

Avery: That is not a boat, daddy!

Ryan: It is a boat. See the motor.

Avery: That is not a boat.

Ryan: Avery, it is a boat. Watch as it turns right at this red light, from the side so you will see it better.

Avery: You were right daddy. It is a boat.

Ryan: Being the daughter of your mother it must have been hard to udder those difficult but often true words.

Avery: Huh!

Ryan: You were right.

Avery: (giggles) Daddy!

Dad's Day Trip through the Beartooth Mountains

Mom and Dad came out to spend a few days with the granddaughter, one might mistake the dates and surmise their visit to be due to my birthday. In actuality they came on these dates because of the price of the tickets. :)

Dad and I spent the day driving through the Beartooth Mountains. My love of the outdoors was a gift passed on to me by my father, most of the memories that I have with my father growing up include outdoor related activities. The top 10 list of these memories are all related to the wilderness aspect of the outdoors. A few memories that stick out are: the first morning sitting in a deer stand with dad before daylight asking him what every single noise I heard was, a winter camping trip in the Daniel Boone National Forest sleeping on 10 inches of snow and waking up to dad half in the tent and half out of the tent with the fire blazing, countless days sitting by his side as the haze of night gave way to the clarity of the morning, watching five silly jakes run back down the road giving dad a 2nd chance...the list goes on.

Dad is aging. He isn't ready for a pine box just yet, but his days of strapping on a backpack and heading up a mountain trail (especially trails that go as vertical as the trails around here do) are over. A case of vertigo that he developed in the late 80's doesn't help matters either.

Despite some limitations we pulled out of Billings around 8:40 a.m. this morning and began the drive Southwest to the Beartooth Mountains. Our drive would take us along the Beartooth Scenic Highway with a summit of 10,497 feet and we returned via the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway back to Billings around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon. I wish pictures did justice to the scope of the landscape out here, but they don't. The drive was awesome. Perfect weather with fantastic visibility! We saw fresh snow on August 17, it was way cool. Simply, a great day!

Check out this Youtube of our day...

A Walk for Hope and Dignity

Our church participated in the Montana Rescue Mission "Walk for Hope and Dignity", a local effort to raise awareness of the homeless needs in our area. Anyway, it was cool. 

Avery made some decent air time, go to the link and watch the video. 

http://www.ktvq.com/Global/story.asp?S=10822632

The story portrayed it as a youth event, but it was for anyone.

Day Hike to Lost Lake

Court, Timber and I headed out today for a hike to Lost Lake, out and back totaling 11 miles. It was rather chilly at the start of our hike with temps in the low 50's and rainy. We didn't get a lot of pictures because of the weather, however we were heading up the trail around the 3 mile mark when I noticed Timber's head pop up. I looked to my right and at 75 yards stood a mother moose with her calf feeding in some grass along the stream. They paid us little mind.

Court started getting blisters along the trail and they were as bad as any I have ever seen. All in all it was a good day blisters aside. Beautiful scenery! Great company.

Lost Lake

Where has the time gone

This month has flown by, things are extremely busy in Billings. The long and the short of it is things are good. We are excited for our church, we will work on a Habitat House on August 9.

Court, Avery and I just returned from a trip back to the "Dub" otherwise known as Wilmington, NC. I had the privilege of marrying one of our closets friends Jamie Miller, now Jamie Miller Craig. It was an awesome weekend. Great wedding, great friends, etc...

On Sunday I spoke at our old church. I felt a bit scattered but God seemed to use the message. Hopefully, I conveyed how God is at work in Montana and how we are trying to join in. 

Then Monday came, our friends dropped us at the airport only to find out our flight was cancelled. No trip home! Thankfully some other friends of ours were out of town so we crashed at their place, which has a pool. A quick phone call or two turned the night into one final fair-well party. Avery played with her new boyfriend, Kaden, who by the way was the first little kid I liked. He is still my boy. She could do a lot worse. Though I am not ready for this whole crush thing. It was cute however.

I have long said I don't believe they have bugs in Montana, but this week I was reminded they have them in North Carolina. Avery has 21 bug bites as of today. She had a big week, she played with several of her friends and hung with all of the people who love to spoil her. She loves that and them. 

Finally on Tuesday evening we began the trek home. We returned to Billings at 9 p.m., a day behind and tired. I woke up, went to work and hiked 7 miles with the young guy I work with on Wednesdays. Time for bed!

Oh, yea, I have no idea how I ever lived in such a hot, humid climate. I about died!

A week in review...

We had a great start to the week as our church gathering on Father's Day went well. Early in the week was pretty much status quo. I worked at my job, took care of the weekly church admin stuff and did daddy day care on days when Court worked.

Tuesday was a good day, in the morning Avery and I hung with a friend of hers and her daddy all morning and I pretty much spent all afternoon doing church related stuff. We are looking into purchasing a trailer to haul our childcare equipment to and fro each week. 

I recently took on a 2nd kid at my job. Can't say much other than he is a teenager who wants to do outdoor related activities. So we took a day hike on Wednesday.  He did well on the hike considering he had never been on such an expedition. We did about 5 miles with less than 500 foot of elevation gain. We also fished a bit at a stocked fish pond. These two pics are from our hike. The picture on the left is West Fork Rock Creek and the one on the right is a glacier stream running into the creek. 

Thursday was an early start, Jon (the other pastor) and I left my house at 5:20 a.m. for an over night staff planning retreat. I miss many, many things about Wilmington, NC, however one thing I don't miss was taking staff retreats to the beach. I never fully understood this practice because we lived at the beach. I was also quite bias in that I did not like the beach at all.

We pulled into the parking lot of our trailhead 

around 7 a.m. in the Beartooth Mountains. Our plan was to hike 4 miles to Lake Gertrude the hike included roughly a 2000 foot elevation gain. The goal of our trip was 3 fold, fun, fall strategic planning for our church and spiritual retreat. The spiritual retreat part is easy in the Beartooth Mountains for those that appreciate such rugged beauty. Our hike was grueling, but certainly our thoughts rarely left a sense of awe and wonder with God. Spiritual retreat is easily achieved in such a place.

The highlights of the trip were seeing a couple of Moose, Lake Gertrude, a couple hours fly fishing and catching 26 trout, Timberline Basin, taking an afternoon to; talk about, plan and pray for our church and once we got over our fear of seeing a bear on the way out the next morning it was a highlight as well.

We really didn't have any low lights, Timber did chase down and attempt to bite a porcupine. He came back with about 20 stickers in his grill. They didn't seem to hurt him though and I was able to pull them all out. 

Below you'll find some pics from the day trip and you can also watch a short video at Ryan's Youtube 

The next morning we woke up at 5 a.m. hiked down the 4 mile trail, seeing a black bear on the way and got home in time to take Avery to preschool and start working on church stuff. Oh yea, we bought the childcare trailer.

Lake Gertrude (Base Camp)

Timberline Basin

Silver Run Plateau and Glacier over my right shoulder (12,500 feet)

Bear Spray

It has been a while since my last blog. With the church up and running with weekly gatherings we are all busy. That being said things are positive and fragile. What does that mean? We are trying not to define success by the old numerical standards, but to help frame our first seven weeks I'll use some numbers. We have had as many as 50 people attend our gatherings and as few as 10. Most weeks now we are running 25-35 people and several people now seem to come week after week. The community we are striving to provide seems to be developing and this is why it seems positive. 

Fragile, I guess I didn't understand how uncertain this whole experience would be. Moving out and trying to do this seemed uncertain, but in time we got comfortable with our new life and ministry. Then developing a core group seemed difficult and always felt fragile. Moving to a public gathering felt a lot like do or die time. I believed from that point forward the church would work or not work. I wasn't prepared for the positive mixed with the uncertainty. So it feels fragile. I believe in retrospect I was unprepared for the amount of faith it takes to plant a church. That beings said God continues to walk along side us. That's cool!

The family is well, in fact, we recently returned from Avery's first overnight camping trip. It was awesome. The days leading up to the adventure you could feel and see Avery's excitement rising. The morning of departure she was up early and ready to go. We arrived at our campsite in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness around mid morning and set up the tent and gathered fire wood. Avery was quite the little helper to only be 3 years old. 

Once camp was prepared we hopped in the truck to drive over to the trailhead of our intended hike. It was the Lower Basin Lake trail, 2.5 miles which goes from 6500 feet at the trailhead to 8500 feet at the lake. I knew it would be a difficult hike for us, so we planned it first leaving 2 easier hikes for the rest of the trip. A 2000 foot ascent over 2.5 miles is steep, steeper than I imagined. It was kicking our butts, I was toting Avery in her new kid tote backpack. She weighs roughly 35 lbs now, so she was heavy. The hike itself was beautiful. Most of the hike is along the Basin Creek which has a few waterfalls. The views are spectacular and Avery was so wired she made the entire 2 hour hike up the side of that mountain pure joy. 

A day or two before we left I realized that the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness not only had black bears, but also had grizzly bears in fact they were more common. So I went to a local outdoor store to purchase a bear bell (a bell you hang on your pack) apparently bears don't like metallic sounds. I also bought a can of bear spray, which is essentially pepper spray on human growth hormone. The spray shoots roughly 20 feet, I have no desire to ever have a grizzly of any kind that close to me or my family. 

Turns out the bear bell ($3.95) was a waste of money. Avery literally talked, sang and generally made noise at the top of her lungs all the way up the mountain and back down it. Once we reached the lake it was awesome. So quite and peaceful. You could holler and cause quite the echo. This reminded Avery of a Backyardigans song, "There's an echo in the canyon." She started singing the song on the decent and sang it at the top of her lungs the entire way down, 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

On the hike we saw several waterfalls, had to cross the creek twice, saw a few old log cabins, Avery went to the bathroom in the woods for the first time in her life and did not understand why it needed to be buried, during a short section of the trek near the top Avery demanded to be the lead of our expedition and Timber who led for most of the trip stopped on more than 1 occasion looked back at us with a face that said, "You guys had to wait until I was 11 years old to start this type of hiking."

We did another short 1 mile hike that day with little to no ascent, however it was around small mountain lake with water so clear trout are easily seen. Avery liked that part of the hike. That night we made a campfire, ate and cooked marsh mellows. Avery like most kids is a pyromaniac and loved the marsh mellows. 

She was so driven by adrenaline she powered through the day without a nap and way past her bed time when we got in the tent at 10 p.m. she got into her new sleeping bag. It was a mummy bag which we promptly mummied her up and she was fast asleep within 5 minutes. 

As I lay in my bag that night, a little concerned about the potential of grizzly bears entering the camp I realized it was probably the best day of my life to this point. I know the PC thing to say is the day your child was born is the best day, but the reality of that day is I was so overwhelmed with trying to do things I had no idea how to do (i.e. be a good husband and dad) i really didn't enjoy it. Certainly in retrospect the gift of Avery makes that the best day. That being said June 17, 2009 was the best day of my life when I knew it was the best day. 

Court, Avery, Timber and I had spent and entire day together experiencing new and exciting things. We enjoyed each others company and worked well together. Court who is generally in most ways a city girl, showed the side of her that I am most attracted to, her fearlessness. She hiked that mountain, collected firewood, cooked over a campfire, etc...she was pretty awesome. She seemed to sleep just fine, if she was worried about grizzly bears she didn't act like it. Laying in my sleeping bag that night I thanked God for the day and my family.

That night a storm came in and rain set in for the morning. It cancelled our hike for the day, but we were all tired and a bit wet from making breakfast in the rain. So we tore camp down and headed home. I can hardly wait to go back. Avery wants to bring her fishing pole (Barbie model) and "catch some of those fishes."

If you subscribe to my youtube account and are on my friends list I'll give you access to a short video retrospective of our day. 

Pay Day

It took almost one year, but I reached the $100 limit today on Goggle Adsense. They won't mail you a check until you earn $100 or more. So now I should have a check coming my way. What to buy?

Church in Tree Hill, NC

As I sat watching the season finale of the CW TV series "One Tree Hill" 2nite I realized I should have planted a church in Tree Hill. In one hour the magic touch of the writers made all wrongs right and a seasons worth of difficulties and tribulations were washed away as all the main characters finally reached their intended goals and destinations. It was beautiful!

Unfortunately it was also make believe. I know it is a bit cheesy that I watch "One Tree Hill" I blame working with teenagers and the fact that the show was shot in my former home town of Wilmington, NC.

Planting a church in the real world is difficult, this week has been an example of that fact. The first two weeks of our public gathering certainly went well and a general sense of excitement has been among us. However, beneath the surface our small core group has been struggling. This past Sunday did not help when only a handful of people showed up to our gathering. None of us expected miracles, but it felt a bit like a punch in the gut. 

It was only one week, but pray for us. It hit us hard and we are uncertain of what to do if we continue down that path. 

While planting a church in the real world may never end with a neat bow tied on top like TV land does, watching "One Tree Hill" 2nite reminded me of something. 

Believe dreams come true, because they do!

Travel Troubles Up Date

After our fiasco in late March with Delta I sent a strongly worded e-mail to their customer service department. Loosing the luggage was bad, but the multiple times people lied to me on the phone simply to get off the phone with me was what pushed me over the top.

Anyway, I feel obliged to inform you we got 3 $75 vouchers in the mail last week. Certainly Delta did not have to do anything, but I appreciated the gesture of this token offering. For us in our current situation it was well timed. We booked our flights back to Wilmington for the Jamie Miller wedding the same evening we got the $225 gift. Our tickets were still outrageous, but the $225 we saved was much needed.

Take a Deep Breath...and Jump!

Our public gathering began this week.

It was a success, much of what we are doing is unorthodox and unconventional so we have few examples from history to look at making it difficult to judge success. However, we have a deep desire to foster community, community in a deep and interpersonal way. I believe our first week was a step in that direction.

I was most pleased with the atmosphere of our first gathering. As we started it felt a little like a first date, awkward. However, quickly our group settled in and a sense of community filled the room. The vibe was open and engaged. I have no idea what to expect next week or the week after that. To confess, I long for a sense of control again. Ministry before now seemed very controlled. This is the advantage of working in long established places, work wasn't always easy but it was controllable. I have no control over what is occurring now, I simply trust God and follow my heart and values. 

I will hope things continue to go well, but for now I am thankful for the first week. It went well, we have a lot of work to do, but it went well.  

Free Jones Soda

Today was a cool day, part of our publicity strategy for the church was to purchase about 500 bottles of Jones Soda with our church logo and info about our public gathering and website on them. Jones Soda allows you to personalize bottles if you buy more than a case of them. 

Jones Soda is a trendy Seattle based company that probably appeals to the 25 and under crowd. However, their soda is delicious!

Anyway, we took our 500 bottles of Jones Soda today and went over to Montana State Billings and Rocky Mount College for a free give away. It was pretty cool. Our flavor choices were Green Apple, FuFu Berry, Berry Lemonade and Sugar Free Black Cherry. Our strategy was simple, give it all away.

So on a nice 80 degree day Jon and I headed over to the campuses and started giving away our soda. We were well received. The combination of the hot day and the bright colors of our sodas coupled with the end of a long semester seemed to provide a small spark for people.

A few people asked why we would do such a thing which allowed us to direct them to the info on the bottles. Believe it or not a couple of different people had actually heard of us. 

I have no idea if this publicity will help, but if nothing else for this one day we were able to make a couple of college campuses a little bit brighter. Unfortunately there was non left for me and Jon so we stopped and got a Gatorade on the way home.

Travel Troubles

On Monday Court, Avery and I flew out of Billings for a visit with our families and a few friends. Unfortunately Billings was hit with a snow storm Sunday night and our flight was 45 minutes delayed on Monday morning. We even had to have de-icer sprayed on the plane before we left, it was a bit unsettling.

We arrived in Salt Lake City, UT and I ran ahead of Court and Avery in an attempt to catch the connection flight we were about to miss. I got to the gate only to find out the plane had mechanical troubles and the flight was 45 minutes delayed while they got us a new plane. Once it arrived we started to board the plane to find out it also was having mechanical issues. They moved us to another plane at a different gate but now it was obvious we were not going to make our connection in Houston. 

I started talking to the gate agent and she found us a direct flight to Memphis from Salt Lake City, UT. Once we finally arrived in Memphis late that night we found out Delta had lost all four of our bags. I spent most of the rest of the evening talking on the phone with Delta who refused to tell me they had no idea where our bags were at, in fact, on several different calls they literally lied to me to get me off the phone. 

Thankfully, after taking matters into my own hands I returned to the Memphis airport the next afternoon and found our bags sitting in the luggage area unattended. We then left Memphis to make the drive to Knoxville to start our visit with Court's family. Two days late!

We paid $15 for 3 bags and $25 for the fourth and they lost all of them. How did they loose all four?

The Public Library

I got a library card yesterday. I do not remember entering a public library before yesterday. I blame my father, to much of my youth was wasted waiting in the car while he picked up or returned a book or books. He makes several trips a week to the library.

So oddly enough I have never been or checked something out of one. Money drove me to our public library. (Jerry if you are reading this it will make you proud.) After my fly fishing trip last weekend I certainly have an interest in learning more about the sport. I also wanted to learn more about places near Billings where a guy like myself could take his rod and head down to a river or stream, a state law allows for public access of all streams inside the high water mark. My other agenda was to investigate potential camping areas near possible fishing access. Court and I plan to take a few family camping trips this summer and I would love to get out and fish a bit before her and Avery wake up each day. 

So I went to the library, got the card, checked the online card catalogue and found the fly fishing section. As you can imagine it was pretty large in a library located in Montana. I checked out 12 books and currently am working my way through them. 

Mostly, I got stuff about fly fishing destinations in Montana, but I did get a couple of how to fly fish type books. They are not proofing to be much help though. 

Still, it felt good to use the public resources and it showed some shift in my own nature. In years past I would have simply ordered several magazine subscriptions and books online. Only to find that little info was useful.

A River Runs Through It

In the fall of 1992 during my first quarter of college I heard these words for the first time, "Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters."

A good friend, Bobby Newman, and I watched the movie A River Runs Through It, and in an instant we were both captivated by Montana. We were so excited by this land we spent most of the spring of 1993 planning a road trip for the specific purpose of fly fishing in Montana. My mother used to ask how were we going to get there, and being the simple Georgia boys that we were I replied, "We'll go to Chicago and turn left." She rarely smiled at this notion and I believe genuinely feared this road trip would become more than boyhood fantasy.

Like so many childhood dreams time, life and other things got in the way of our plan to drive to Montana to become fly fisherman.

Sixteen years later I stood on the banks of the Bighorn River this morning with a new friend, Brent Downey, who is a fly fishing guide with 20+ years of experience (www.deaddriftoutfitters.com).  He had agreed to take me out. Providing me the opportunity for my childhood dream to become a reality. 

Today 16 years of hoping became a reality as, finally, a fish rose. I landed my first Rainbow Trout this morning a good fish, 17 inches in length.

The cliche of people moving to Montana because of the movie A River Runs Through It is not something a person who desires to be accepted by the locals mentions. In truth that movie is not why I moved here, but as I think back along the path of the river that is my life I can't help but wonder if it is all connected. 

All told we spent about five hours on the river today. A short four mile float. I managed to land four Rainbows and had a fifth one on late in the day, but he got off. Almost as if the river was saying to me, you still have a lot to learn comeback again some day. 

My best fish measured just a hair under 18 inches. I managed to catch it on my own, so to speak. Brent had slipped away down the river to wet a fly of his own. I am most proud of this fish, mainly because I made a perfect cast to the area I was attempting to cast to, allowed it a good drift and set the hook perfectly when the trout took the fly. 

I felt like a small boy again today, excited by all the sites and sounds of the river. As the sun faded this afternoon I found my mind drifting to May 3, this is the day we begin the public gathering of our church. I am excited, scared and nervous about it. I worry nobody will show up and I worry more people than we are ready for will show up. Yet, I am excited, like a small boy, by all the sites and sounds that church planting has to offer. 

Despite the poetic beauty of the quote listed above it is not my favorite quote from the movie A River Runs Through It. Instead I have always fancied this quote,  "My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy."  

I do wonder. Why did it take me 16 years to first see that trout rise from the water on my line? My excuses are long. In fact, I simply allowed myself to be distracted from the desire of my heart. Or more specifically maybe I was just afraid, afraid of the journey that it might take to get there. Though I am not an old man, I have learned this lesson. I will not be distracted again and I will not live in fear.

As I stood on the banks for a final moment of reflection this afternoon I realized that for three years now I have been hoping for a church. It was clear to me on the banks of the Bighorn River that all good things, trout as well as planting a church, would come by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy.

And I am not afraid.  

Yellowstone River State Park/WMA

Court and I caught a rare day yesterday where neither of us had to work and Avery was also at pre-school. So we threw our bikes into the Nissan and headed about 30 miles east of Billings to the Yellowstone River State Park/WMA. This area is roughly about 10,000 acres of open grasslands, coulees and ponderosa pine draws. There is a five mile road not open to vehicle traffic that splits the middle of the property. 

So we decided to take our bikes to make the five mile ride and turn around and come back. Even though we recently had a good snow melt the road looked very dry and fairly smooth for an off road/dirt road.

This only lasted about 1/4 mile. Quickly the road got almost unrideable at times and the trip was mostly up hill, sometimes a slow grade and other times it was an extremely steep grade. Up hill nonetheless! Still we charged ahead, we made it about 2 1/2 miles before we were completely out of bike riding energy. (A few weeks of riding around the neighborhood might have been a better way to break in the bikes for 2009.)

We stashed the bikes and headed off on foot, after we walked a mile we veered off a side road another two miles that ended over looking the Yellowstone River. The view was worth it. 

After finding a spot out of the wind among the rocks we had a short snack picnic and headed back to where we had stashed the bikes, another 2 miles hike up the side road and 1 mile hike back to the bikes. The final 2 1/2 mile bike ride was rough, but at least it was down hill.

By the time we returned to the truck we were both completely exhausted and out of energy. Oh, I was ringing wet with sweat. We finished off our last drinks of water and loaded the bikes to head home. (Total miles traveled for a trip was 11, 5 miles on bike and 6 miles on foot.)

On the way home I stopped at the first gas station we passed and went inside to purchase a couple of bottles of water. I returned to the truck with 2 bottles of water, they were the 1 liter size. Court responded in her typical sarcastic tone, "we don't need that much water." I told her that the 1 liter bottle was only 10 cents more than a 20 ounce bottle. She responded to me with some sort of scoffing sound.

 

As we drove home I am pretty sure Court was going in and out of consciousness, but as we pulled into the driveway I realized something. Both my 1 liter bottle of water and her 1 liter bottle of water were completely gone. I asked her if there was a hole in her bottle, but she only scowled at me. 

All in all it was a great day, Montana truly has magnificent scenery. I don't know if we'll be using our bikes off road in the future. Our bodies may be to old for that, but I see many hikes through rugged terrain on the horizon.

Oh yea, small bonus, I did see some turkey tracts on the WMA portion of this public land. :) Of course, that had nothing to do with why I chose this spot for our day trip. Or did it?

This is pretty lazy

But, you can check out my friend Jon's blog about our adventure yesterday. :)

Jon's blog about our trip to Red Lodge

March Madness

I love this time of year, UCONN vs. Pitt, Louisville vs. Marquette...and it is only going to get better. 

Google Adsense

some of you may have noticed i added adsense to my blog, it is a way to make a bit of extra cash. i get a small percentage of money anytime someone clicks through on a site they see and want to check out. i can't really control content on the links. google uses some method to make the links relevant to the stuff on the page it is placed. 

anyway, i noticed a link to Christian Leadership B.S., i am aware that means bachelor of science, but i did find some irony in the fact that google thinks my blog is relevant to Christian Leadership BS. :)

heading to orlando

i am stuck in the denver airport on my way to orlando. i will be part of a CBF related current conference for young CBFers. 

airports are funny, i am waiting on some dinner and there is a guy standing out side the eating area just hollering. free tickets! free tickets! free tickets! i can't tell from where i am sitting but he must rep some credit card offering free miles if you sign up. 

it is quite funny though peoples reaction to him.

as we prepare to do a small bit a publicity for the church i wonder if any advertising works. we seem so numb to it in our culture. i know it must work or i assume it does. after all why do people spend so much money on it. 

still nothing beats word of mouth. i love eating at a restaurant someone told me about or buying something because some other person i know has it and swears by it. i'll be do'n a bit of publicity for our church, but i do so with a bit of a aloof air about it. 

i'll take word of mouth any day.

from the mouths of babes

My daughter, Avery, prefers to have her hair done in a hair style known as "Dog Ears". I only know how to fix her hair with a "Pony Tail". Being that I have worn a crew cut for most of my life I believe it is impressive that I can fix her hair at all. 

She doesn't think so, and often attempts to convince me to give her "Two Pony Tails", that is Avery talk for the "Dog Ears" hair style. I gave up long ago trying to explain to her ponies don't have 2 tails. This explanation is always met with an insistence that Timber has two dog ears and she wants 2 pony tails. 

On the days I fixed Avery's hair for the last several months I have convinced her only mommy knows how to give her "Dog Ears" or in her words "Two Pony Tails".

Recently Courtney bought some Detangle Hair stuff to spray in Avery's hair after a bath before you comb it out. I hate the stuff. It is greasy! So I choose not to use it. I prefer to work through the tangles naturally. 

Wednesday night I gave Avery a bath and she hopped up on her stool by the sink in her fashionable blue robe and asked to use the Detangle Hair stuff. I replied, "Only mommy knows how to use that stuff. Daddy CAN'T DO IT." 

from the mouths of babes...

Avery forcefully turned and replied with insistence, "Daddy, yes you can! DADDY YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!"

Only two women fill my heart that way, Avery is one of them. I often respond to her when she is frustrated with the thought, she can do anything she wants if she is willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Maybe she is listening.

Oh yea, I still didn't use that greasy stuff. 

the lighter side

Most people know that my life is vastly different these days. I have four jobs: part-time community based services worker, part-time stay at home dad, church planter and from time to time I also substitute teach. 

Of all the things I do I dislike the sub stuff the most. All respect goes out to my mother and all the other educators I know. I am sure being in a class long term is different, but subbing is kind of boring. I struggle with it, but I make some extra cash and I leave the house each day with a vision of the people God wants to bring together to form this church and know I might meet them anywhere. Still it is boring!

Having so many different jobs means my days are never the same, I have never had a job where things were fairly repetitive, but now things are never repetitive. The bad of that is the unknown. It is scary! Somewhat uncertain, etc...The good of that is the unknown. Everyday is an adventure and I believe God has away of using all of it to more completely shape whatever it is He is doing. 

the lighter side...some days are heavy. i get discouraged about the potential of the church almost every day. (i also get encouraged.) For the first time in my life I do jobs I don't always enjoy. Somehow I believe I understand other people better through this. Today however was a funny day.

I am not on the Billings Public School substitute calling list, i.e. I don't get a phone call every morning. Instead I basically surf the school website and pick up jobs of teachers who are out with advanced notice. (Conferences, Personal Days, etc...) It is easier for me to coordinate my schedule this way. I also have time to screen jobs I would be less likely to take. (I.E. Grade school classes, high school classes where the teacher might be required to know something about the subject, etc...) With that said I am not stupid and I can fake knowledge about anything. So I try to take High School and Junior High School jobs of any kind, save math related classes. 

A week or so ago I accepted a position for Consumer Science. Honestly, I had no idea what that meant. I knew it was for 7th and 8th graders, so I thought how hard could it be to teach a Science class. 

This morning I rolled up to Lewis and Clark Junior High and walked into the main office to get the classroom key and info folder. I walked down the hall and found my room for the day and opened the door to find sewing machines in the classroom. Apparently, Consumer Science is a fancy way of saying Home Economics. Yes, I was the Home Ec. teacher for the day. 

I wish I had a video of those students class after class as they first entered the room to see me as the substitute. Hmmmm! They were certainly stereotyping me by the way I looked. 

With that said I spent the day showing 12, 13 and 14 year old students how to use a seam ripper and walked them through the proper way to mark fabric and cut it into perfect 90 degree angles. I was to say the least a fish out of water, but I faked it pretty good. 

Do you think this is what Paul meant when he exclaimed become all things to all people for the sake of the Love of Christ? Just something to think about.

Spring has sprung

I know that spring hasn't actually sprung in Montana, but for almost two weeks our average high temp. has been around 55 or so. Save a few shady spots the snow is completely gone from my yard and I contemplated running outside this morning. I decided against it. :)

There is a sense of excitement around the church and life here in Billings. I was reading Jonah this morning and I certainly understood his situation. Not that God told me to come to Billings to save this city, but I understood his reluctance to follow God. I get that. Following God is a scary thing where I take 2 steps forward and occasion I take 2 steps back. Though we continue to move forward.

So the deep thought today, keep moving forward.

The IRS...

...gets a bad rap. On several occasions I have called and quickly received advice and guidance on issues relating to the church and its non-profit status. Once you find the correct form or instructions for a form(all of which are posted on-line to look at or download) it is all pretty easy. I for one don't mind saying, I am impressed with the IRS.