Jude loves this stuff almost as much as I do.

Cars, Trucks, Airplanes, and definitely Choo-choo trains are what Jude is infatuated by these days. He loves anything with wheels and an engine, and when I say love I mean absolutely obsessed. There are mornings when he’s said, ‘car’ before he even opens his eyes. Any play time consists of a car in each hand.
Lately (the last week or so) the car infatuation has shifted to trains, or choo-choo trains as he calls them. He want’s to be read books about them, play with them, and see them. After a lovely homemade meal by my wifey we’re now about to embark on a mission to see a train. The tracks aren’t far from our house so wish us luck.

A couple of days ago I received a book in the mail that I didn’t order. This book was sent to me free and there was nothing that identified the sender, so immediately I figure it’s from some weirdo religious group. I was right.

The book is called National Sunday Law and is another attempt by the 7th Day Adventists to convince me that if I don’t refrain from work and worship on Saturday (the true sabbath?) then I’m breaking one of the 10 Commandments, living in sin, and will most certainly advance the agenda of Satan. Actually, calling this a book is a stretch in itself as it was printed in size 14 font and was barely 75 pages long at that. Riddled with ignorance of the scriptures and a hatred of the Pope, (who the author claims is the anti-Christ) this book makes a lame attempt at scaring Christians such as myself to lay down my anti-christ loving ways and become a legalistic 7th Day Adventist. For the non-Christian I can only imagine it’s main goal is convincing them that all of Christendom is made up of a bunch of conspiracy theory kooks - and for that it does a swell job.

Another thought…
What is the deal with all of these different denominations and their stupid names? If church is supposed to be the representation of Christ, what is the deal with naming your fellowship after someone other than Jesus or one particular Christian practice?
For example:
Baptist - Because they care so much about the practice itself they have to name themselves that? Come on.
Lutheran - Martin Luther did some phenomenal things but Jesus is the foundation of your belief, not him. Or is he?
7th Day Adventist - Sabbath is on Saturday. Sabbath is on Saturday. All others are in sin. Join us for worship at 9 & 11am.

One of the issues I’ve been wrestling with regarding the current presidential campaign has nothing to do with the candidates policies or positions - it has everything to do with numbers.

$563,589,051 is the amount that both John McCain and Barack Obama have raised as of July. Also, as of July they’ve both spent about 80% of what they’ve raised. If I were able to somehow attain 470 Million Dollars and told I had a couple of years to spend it, I’d have no clue where to start - except maybe give it away which the candidates definitely aren’t doing.

So, is this how you become president?
What about money raised for all the other people who have dropped out along the way?

Of the 22 additional candidates who dropped out, over 600 Million Dollars was raised. For what? Do those that contributed get a cool bumper sticker that will forever remind them of the money they threw away? Then there are those candidates like Hillary Clinton who raised millions but are still millions in debt to their own campaign spending. Now they have to raise money to pay off debt for a failed campaign. What’s the incentive for giving then? Apparently Hillary offered one lucky donor a trip to the DNC with her. I think burning my money would be a better use than giving it to an indebted campaign. At least I’d get a little warmth.

When this campaign is done, over 1 billion dollars will have been raised. What could you do with 1 billion dollars? Right now in the world there are 3.25 Billion people living on less than $2 a day. This includes people like Barack Obama’s half-brother. According to relief organizations like World Vision, for just over $1 a day, children who are in need of food and basic health care can be taken care of.

As both candidates promise change, the only guarantee for anything new is that together they’ll have raised more money for this campaign than has ever been raised in the history of presidential campaigns.

Well, the Olympics are over and so (much to the joy of my family) my nights are free again. China hosted what is most likely the most phenomenal games the world has ever seen and the closing ceremonies last night were almost as crazy cool as the opening. In 2010 Vancouver will be hosting the Winter Games and I’ll be as close (location wise) as I’ve ever been to any Olympics before - about 7-8 hour drive. Any one want to meet up in BC in 2010?

It’s time to admit it, Summer is just about over.
It started with moving into our first home and included; a trip to Cali, a 5th wedding anniversary, tons of house guests, and is now wrapping up with my Mom and little sister’s trip here. In a little over a week (with school starting back up) we jump into our Fall schedule which is packed!

Now comes, planning meetings out the wazoo and lots of phone calls, emails, and flyers. While it’s going to be busy, I love it and am stoked to see all that is going to happen in the students lives. Good stuff.

Jessica and I found out recently that we will be with child for a second time! Jude’s little brother or sister will arrive in the Spring of ‘09. Crazy cool!

A primary role of mine at our church here in Liberty Lake is leading worship on Sunday mornings. Some of the freshest ‘worship’ music in the last few years has been coming from Hillsong Church in Australia. Lately I’ve been into a remix of some of their stuff called ‘Jesus Is’. You can check out a song written by Matt Redman below. I’d love to do this version on a Sunday morning if I had the right stuff.

I have been watching way too much Olympics and will be taking the night off tonight. When the first thing on my mind this morning was what events were going to be happening today, I knew I had a problem. It will be a short break though because the USA Basketball team is playing Greece at 5 AM west coast time tomorrow morning.

What did I do before the Olympics started…? Kind of fuzzy, but I think I have a family.