moving upstream

Today in church, while sipping on my Sumatra Blend, I had a thought. When you cut plywood, raw lumber, really anything with a natural grain, it spits shards of wood everywhere, and the risk of your saw kicking back is magnified which makes it pretty dangerous. In like matter, when something or someone swims upstream, it churns up water. If you brush a cat against the natural direction of the fur, it gets pissed. The point is this; anything that moves against the natural order of things is by nature going to be destructive, disturb the order. In a world where the "norms" are so skewed and far from the beliefs that we hold, should we not naturally, as Christians, disturb the natural order of things? I thought a lot about it and I really feel like if theres not a wake of shards and churned water behind us, perhaps we arent making a big enough impact.

Movin' on Up...

Okay, so if youre a fan of 70's sit-coms, you know what this will be about. Mel and I are moving!!! Six days from now, we will be arranging our furniture in our FIRST place we've had to ourselves since we've been married. I know, its totally bonkers. So, needless to say, we're excited. As if that werent enough, Mel got a job that starts this week! Seriously, I havent been a party to this many answered prayers in my life. Its awesome. God is awesome. We have been blessed...and I cant wait to have my own house!!!! Thats all. As a sidenote, the new Underoath is SO amazing. Buy it if you like awesome stuff.

32/red velvet/lasers/golf/fireworks

So, as you can tell from the title, our last 3 days were pretty average. Tuesday we headed to Abbotsford to have a combo me/justin family bday thingy. Went out for pizza...told Mel funny stories about my moms inability to stay on her feet on stairs, and trash talked about the mini golf that was to come. Mini golf, all 3 couples paired up, and though there was no tangible prize, beating the other 2 couples was enough. But we lost. Actually came in last. Off to the house for the annual red velvet cake. For those of you who dont know, its a southern thing...the cake is comparable to cheesecake in richness, but its a traditional cake. I got my brother jeans he couldnt find in Abby, and he got me Fall Guy Season 1 on DVD!! Man, Im awesome now! The next day Mel and I prepared for our trek into the big city (vancouver) so she could have laser beams shot into her eyes. Little did I know, I was entering myself in elevator-to-street marathon as we were told there was street parking, so I parked in a metered spot, and had to return, and return, and return...four times I returned to make sure the meter didnt expire...Vancouver has stiff parking tickets and I wasnt gonna get one. INSTEAD, I plugged around $20 in change into our spot over 3 and 1/2 hours. So, off to the hotel. Because the hotel was all booked, we "had" to take the executive suite, facing False Creek and the ocean, which was just really hard to swallow ;-) Since Mel had begun her parade of eye drops, I set off solo to hunt us down some sweet sweet Montreal smoked meat sandwiches and poutine. My my, that stuff is SO good...later in the evening the "Festival of Lights" was having its opening night. Its an international fireworks competition they hold in Van every year over...a week and a half I wanna say. They do it on a beach...a beach our 16th floor window just happened to face!! So we got VIP accomodations to the fireworks that we had no intention of attending, yesss!!! So, barring a Dr's appt., bloodwork, and a drive home, that was our mid-week weekend. And if youre thinking we live like rockstars, youre darn tootin. Until next time...heres a top 5 to hold you.
Search/Rescue-The Compound
The Classic Crime-The Silver Cord
Moving Mountains-Pneuma
Alkaline Trio-Agony&Irony
The Hold Steady-Stay Positive

TERRYS UPDATED TOP 5!!

Haha, so, as with anywhere online I write, heres the obligatory Top Five. Realize I do this for YOU, my devoted reader. Discover these bands and change your life.

1. Alkaline Trio-Agony & Irony
2. David Bazan-Fewer Moving Parts
3. Fleet Foxes-S/T
4. Polar Bear Club-Sometimes Things Just Disappear
5. Weezer-Red Album

There she blows. Later peeps.

Ive decided Im going for the most sparcly updated blog in all time. Lots has happened. Im married, as of Feb 2, 2008 to the very beautiful woman I mentioned in the last blog. Ive found a church home that really is a home...its not a place to go, more an extension of my life, which is great. With a wife comes lots of great married friends. Really really cool ppl that are REAL and are totally encouraging. I have another new car (new to me). Its a 92 Acura Integra and yeah, its pretty cool. I feel like if I were just 18 again, it would be close to a dream car, so thats kinda fun. Im still at Starbucks, at least for now...its been over a year and I love my job, I just cant really afford much on my wage. Umm...lets see...the plans for fall are to take my vacation and drive out to Ontario so Mel can meet the fam, see some old friends, and really just show her the ppl/places that have made me, me. I think I wont say much more, and see how this goes, and then perhaps Ill make it more regular. A friendly hello to those who are reading this. Have a great Friday. Happy Independence Day!!