Beautiful Wednesday

Today was supposed to be rainy and stormy, but instead it's actually beautiful!! WOOP!!

Josh had a great game last night. We had such a good time. The team ended up losing by 5 runs, but it was still a marvelous effort. Josh is a warrior on the softball field.

Today I went to Josh's office for lunch, and you will never guess what we ate... YEP, spaghetti!!! By this point we really didn't have much sauce left. So I got to his office, and he had already started getting lunch ready. His plate was covered with a HUGE mound of pasta and the smallest bit of sauce... it was really funny. So he basically ate pasta with a hint of tomato-y taste. But that spaghetti had a good run.

We had the joy of meeting our esteemed friend Richard Feero for breakfast Monday morning at Bojangles. It was so good to see him!! We're huge Richard Feero fans. We caught up, ate some BoBerrys (YUM!), and just had a generally amazing time. It's nice that we have some friends whose families are Augusta residents!! That way we're guaranteed to see them from time to time. I tell you what, Richard Feero is going places and I'm already proud to say that I know him.

Well, Josh and I are psyching up for LOST tonight... that's one of the great things about Wednesday nights!! Hope that ya'll have a great one!!

Psych Up Dinner

Josh has got a big game tonight at 7:00. He's been carb loading- we had spaghetti last night, for lunch, and we're having it for dinner tonight. This shows you two things: a. We take our church softball very seriously, and b. We made a HUGE batch of spaghetti last night. YUM!!

I'll give ya'll an update tomorrow on his performance. Hopefully the pasta will give him some extra spring in his legs to sprint around the bases after he hits it out of the park.

Fun With Digital Cameras

Josh and I had an eventful holiday weekend! We spent a couple of days with Mr. and Mrs. Desch in Peachtree City, which was fun. Josh went golfing on Saturday morning and it was pretty chilly, so he decided to golf in ski gloves. I told him that couldn't have been helpful to his score.

I got a kick out of how people described the conditions for this year's Masters Tournament, which just ended yesterday. We watched a lot of coverage on Saturday and then watched the finish last night. I repeatedly heard commentators and news people talking about the "brutal" conditions. The word "brutal" might bring some pretty extreme conditions to some of your minds, like wind chills in the negatives and heavy snow. But here in Augusta, "brutal" means temperatures in the low 50's. That's pretty bad. Come on people, low 50's is NOT cold and it's certainly not BRUTAL. I got a kick out of that. Now to be fair, it was very windy on Saturday and also breezy on Sunday, which I'm sure contributed to the assessment of the conditions. I watched the 11:00 news on Saturday night and the weatherman, in giving the weather forecast for Easter Sunday, said it was going to be another "cold" day with temperatures in the mid 50's. I would like to challenge most Augusta residents to go play golf in Minnesota between December and February. You'll learn real quick that Augusta has never seen weather to justify the assessment of "brutal." But all that aside, Josh and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Masters. It was kind of fun to watch something that's happening just a few miles down the road.

One highlight of the weekend was watching Mrs. Desch become acquainted with our digital camera. She and Mr. Desch are owners of a quite notorious film camera that they got at a yard sale which was to benefit Ugandan orphans. They claim that they paid about 10 cents for this fine piece of machinery. It's actually comical to pose in a Desch family picture, because the picture taker inevitably leaves the shutter closed or proceeds to hit the side of the 10 cent camera to make it take the picture. So you can imagine the leap from the 10 cent camera to a digital camera. This is not a feat for the faint of heart. Mrs. Desch repeatedly took a picture, switched the camera over to review mode to look at it, and pushed the trash can button to delete it. It's true that practice makes perfect, and she was really adhering to that saying. Get in picture taking pose (one leg stuck out a good bit, fingers moved from in front of the shutter), push the button, review the picture, throw it away, repeat. We got a good laugh out of the process. But I think she's now more comfortable with the camera! So it worked.

Last night we watched The Passion of the Christ with our small group from church. This was the first time that either Josh or I had seen it. It was a very powerful movie that left me humbled by my own participation in Jesus' crucifixion and also shocked at the gut-wrenching torture inflicted on him. I found myself really angry with Caiaphas and the other Jewish leaders and then it hit me- I would have done the exact same things had I been alive then. I would have been shouting for his crucifixion along with the crowd. It's nice to think that we don't really need Jesus- we would have been on HIS side. My sins aren't ugly enough to make me do what THEY did. But I realized that Jesus had to die for my sins every bit as much as those of the people shouting for his death. Another thing I contemplated was how even through all of that horrible, horrible suffering, Jesus didn't hate the people who were doing it to him, or the crowds who insisted that he was executed. He still loved them and was still willing to lay down his life to atone for their sins. Even the sins of the people who scourged him and made fun of him and crowned him with a crown of thorns. Can you imagine being tortured like that and not absolutely hating the people who were doing it to you? Revenge and hating people who have wronged you are such common themes in our culture today, prevalent in movies, books, music, etc. Jesus really practiced what he preached: "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you." Love like that is just beyond my imagination.

So Josh and I had a wonderful Easter celebration, as we hope that you did.

My Problem with Fergie

Does anyone here know the musician Fergie? She was a singer in the Black Eyed Peas, and I've got to say, I can't stand her music for several reasons. First of all, I think her main following consists of pre-teen girls. If your fans are mainly 11-14 year old girls, I think that says something about your music (no offense intended if you are an 11-14 year old girl). They are some of the most vulnerable in terms of absorbing ideas, and I think for some reason Fergie appeals to them. Fergie's music is probably the last thing they need to hear. Second, I feel like Fergie is obsessed with spelling. Have you noticed that? In her first hit "Fergilicious", the word "delicious" (a clever rhyme) is spelled by some male background singers several times. In her second hit "Glamorous," she and her background singers spell "glamorous" several times in the course of the song. Is Fergie really a washed-up spelling bee contestant? Did she lose the spelling bee in 5th grade and she's still carrying around that baggage? I feel like this type of music would be more appropriately sung by Elmo on Sesame Street than a pop star. At least then children would learn about letters and spelling. Instead, Fergie spells out words with a sexy beat in the background, and everyone lauds her as a star. Fergie, if you're reading this, I think you're horrible and you belong back in primary school, where we get out all of our spelling tension.

With that said, I'm ready to move on to other news. I have an announcement to make (drum roll please......................................................................................)!! Josh and I are now on Flickr!! We just started posting pictures there and we'd be honored if you'd stop by for a look. I put up a link in the side bar as the Desch's Family Pictures. For some reason it takes me a really long time to upload pictures into this blog, so it's easier to put them up there. And trust me, we've got pictures. Our new camera is definitely earning its keep.

Last night Josh and I finally got around to putting up all of our pictures in our new apartment. We had put that off because it's a lot of work to make all the measurements, figure out just where to put the nails so the pictures will be centered and even, make sure everything is straight, etc. Once we had the oomph to get some going, we went strong until all of the hardest ones were done. Now we just have a couple of easy things left to hang up- the things that only take one nail and a quick check to be sure it's level. Our apartment is starting more and more to feel like home.

We're heading to Peachtree City tonight to hang out with Mr. and Mrs. Desch and a few other Peachtree City folks for a couple of days, and then back here for Easter Sunday. Augusta is basking in its full glory as the Masters kicks off for real today. Golf always makes me think of my grandpa, who passed away last winter. He was a BIG golf fan, and I know he would be watching the Masters. So I'll watch it this weekend for him.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Why 23 is Old

The following is a true story. The other day, I went to the gym after youth group with Bets. One of the youth in our youth group, who is 13 years old, asked to go with us. His mom promised to pick him up right when we were planning on leaving the gym, so I said okay. This kid plays on his school's middle school basketball team, but no one would describe him as a big 13 year old. Well, in case you didn't know this, when I was at Covenant one of my goals was to get my weight up to 150 pounds (which I never did), so I am certainly not a big guy. But still, I'm a 23 year old youth pastor, so I expected my performance at the gym to be better than it was. The 13 year old and I go to lift weights, and we start out at the incline bench, at my request. Well, to make a long story short, he ends up benching more than me . . . his youth pastor . . . who has graduated from college. Moral of the story? I need to start lifting some heavier commentaries in my office, because this was a real low point, kind of like when you finally reached that age when you realize that most of the guys getting drafted in professional sports are now younger than you. Well, I'm glad I'm still not banking on the NBA like I was when I was 8 or 9.

Happy Tuesday, Friends

We're having mahi mahi for dinner tonight and I'm pretty excited. I used to like fish a lot more, but as of late I've had to choke it down. But I went on allrecipes.com, and I think I've found a winning recipe. The American Heart Association recommends eating a whole lot of fish every week, and we need to get two feet on the fish train. Right now I have one foot on and one foot off. Josh loves fish and would gladly eat it often, but I'm only half-way there. I guess if it will keep you healthier longer, it's worth it. It's like spinach. I hate spinach with a PASSION, but we eat it faithfully anyway. Sometimes you just have to eat unpleasant things in the interest of your arterial and cardiac health.

All right, I've got LOTS of pictures to post, so I'll get those up here!! Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

I Can't Believe It's April

Can ya'll believe today is April 2nd? I feel like it was yesterday when 2007 made its big debut. We had another great weekend. We have some friends from work who just bought a pontoon boat this past week, and they took us out on one of its maiden voyages on Saturday. It was sooo fun!! Josh and I both got somewhat fried, of course. We met our friends at the dock at 10:00 and it was still pretty cool- when we got going in the boat, the wind was cold, so we bundled up with a sweatshirt and beach towel over our legs. But it didn't stay chilly. We stopped to barbeque right on the boat around 1:00, and by that time it was HOT!! I think we both got fried in the time that it took to barbeque, eat, hang out, and get back to the dock. We both got those really lame sunburns where you ask "How the heck did that shape get burnt into my skin?" I hate getting those, but I will forever have the type of skin where if you put your hand over your knee for too long, you'll get finger-shaped burns. But that's OK, it was worth it. I really like boat rides. Our friends have this really cool grill that folds up and you can unfold it and grill right there on the boat!! We just parked, threw down the anchor, and ate lunch. Yum!!

To continue in the spirit of spring celebration, Josh and I ate corn on the cob last night for dinner. My mom has always called it corn on YOUR cob. It was soooo good!! I love corn on the cob soo much. My mom always saddled me with the job of shucking like 20 ears of corn, and I always took a brown paper grocery bag out on the back deck and shucked away. Corn on the cob makes me think of SUMMER!!! Josh and I are hoping to buy a grill now that we're in our new apartment so we can make some of those good things for summer... barbequed chicken, hamburgers, baked potatoes, of course HOT DOGS, etc. YUM!! It's in the mid- 80's today, and I'm sooo ready for summer clothes weather. I'm wearing a quasi-long sleeved shirt, and I'm about to combust. Bring it on!!