What Happens...

...when you leave Aaron alone in a room for ten minutes... forgetting that you left your financial files out on the bed.

Elf Yourself!

I'm pretty sure my brother will kill me for including him in this, but I had some great pics...and just couldn't pass it up!



Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sherlock

Aaron's word for Sherlock:

"yubyub"

You can't make this stuff up.

Christmas

One of my favorite times of the year is Christmas. I love preaching Christmas... I love the lights. I love living Christmas through my kids. I plan on soaking them up over the next couple of weeks. Fun times ahead!

Hmmm...

Josh Howard fulfilling his National Bloggers Month commitment = Fail.

Election Humor

This is perhaps one of the funniest election/political spoofs I've ever seen. I can't embed it... so follow this link and enjoy.

Sarah Palin Rap


"All the mavericks in the house put your hands up.
All the plumbers in the house pull your pants up."

No Way!

So, I get a newsletter from Emily's school Principle in early October and I find out that JIM BELUSHI came to her school to read books to the students. What the heck?!? Come to find out that Jim Belushi went to Lincoln Elementary School way back in the day and occasionally stops in to read for the kids at the school. How cool is that? For the record... Emily has no idea who Jim Belushi is... and did not say a word about this when she got home. If not for the Priciple's newsletter... I would have never even found out! There's gotta be some irony there...

Here are some pictures of the event below:





Kudos to Mr. Belushi for taking the time to come back and hang out at his old school! Very impressive!

Election Day

"If you do not vote... then I do not want to talk to you about our country's problems." -Michael W. Smith

Amen.

News Flash

My little boy, Mr. Aaron, went 'number one' in the toilet tonight for the very first time in his life. I'm sorry if that's too much information... but it's the big news of our day here in the Howard household...

Sermon Snippet: Unpacking Holiness

Leviticus 11:44 tells us something the Lord said to the Israelites and is repeated in various other places throughout scripture: “I, the Lord, am your God. You must be holy because I am holy.”

So what exactly is Holiness? The Biblical concept of Holiness implies separation. Now, I have known and understood this for quite some time. College professors beat this into my head, I’ve read books… I’ve done biblical studies. And I’ve heard over and over again this concept of Holiness as being separate or set apart.

But it wasn’t until recently when I was reading a book called ‘Be Holy’ that this concept changed a little bit for me. Before this book, I had the concept that Holiness was about being separate FROM something. Holiness means separation from culture. To be separate FROM something immediately implies a set of DO NOT rules. Don’t associate with them. Don’t watch movies. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. If we don’t do enough things… then maybe we’ll finally separate ourselves enough to be holy.

But then I read a chapter on the Old Testament foundations of Holiness written by Joseph Coleson and he said something that resonated with me and freed me from thinking about Holiness in a limited way. He wrote this: ‘Biblical holiness is about separation – but separation as a positive concept, not a negative one. With respect to God’s people, biblical Christian holiness means we are separate TO God.’

In other words, our holiness should be thought of in positive terms. That we are separate TO the Living God… we are set apart for relationship with God Most High. And it’s only through that relationship that we can hope to be changed and renewed and freed to be the men and women that God created us to be.

At General Conference this past summer, I listened to a talk on personal holiness that was given by Dr. Chris Bounds… who is a theology professor at Indiana Wesleyan University. He said something that echoes this concept… He said: ‘The end of holiness is not the death of sin… the end of holiness is love.’

The end game of holiness is not to be separated FROM something. That will happen and should happen… we SHOULD want to separate ourselves from sin and those things that cause it. But that’s not the end game of holiness. Ultimately, the end game is to be separated FOR or TO God! Holiness is about choosing to engage in a love relationship with God that would change the core of our being. Once our core is changed… everything else in our lives starts to fall into place.

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

National Bloggers Month

Well,

I read a few years ago that November is considered National Bloggers Month... so in order to celebrate that... I will be posting at least one time each day this month. In fact, this will be my second go at this. Last November, I pulled this off (barely... with the help of a few people) and this year I'm going to give it another shot. Makes it a little easier that I hardly ever write on my blog anymore... so I'm fairly certain that I could pull off something for 30 or so days.

I'll start today with a few quick news bites:

-Emily and I are going to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars today in the theatres. It may surprise some of you to hear that I haven't seen this yet. But I was waiting till Emily and I had a chance to see it together. And then when we get home, we'll have about 5 episodes of Clone Wars to catch up with recorded on our handy dandy DVR.

-I'm starting a four week sermon series tomorrow on Holiness. I'm very excited. (I'll post a snippet of it for my blog post tomorrow.) I've been excited about what I'm hearing within the Wesleyan church about Holiness Thought and Theology. In fact, if you are interested... I highly recommend 'Be Holy...' the third in the Wesleyan Theological Perspectives series released by Wesleyan Publishing House. Very engaging read!

-I still love being a Lead Pastor. Some days are better than others. But most days are better as a lead pastor than most days as a staff pastor. If that makes sense... haha.

-Emily knows how many years the Cubs have gone without winning a World Series. Just throwing that out there. She is well aware of the numbers now.

-I absolutely love my little boy Aaron. He's into everything... He loves cars, trains and construction vehicles. And he is really starting to talk now!

-I love my wife about as much as you can love another human being. Just thought I'd throw that out there too. Did you know we celebrated 10 years last summer? Hard to believe.

I think that will about do it for now. I'm sure you'll hear more than you want to about my life in the next month if you track with me all month! Cheers!

Disney 2008 - Day Four

I can’t really put my finger on why… but this was my least favorite day at Disney. We spent the day at Hollywood Studios. The newest Disney attraction is here at the Studios, Toy Story Mania… but the line was about 70 minutes all day. I didn’t know this going in… but fastpasses are usually completely gone by 11AM in the morning. So while I was off getting FP’s for Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror… everything for Toy Story Mania was completely used up. I was really disappointed about this. I guess it’s something to look forward to next year.

I was able to take Emily on Star Tours… which, for obvious reasons, has been a long time favorite of mine. She smiled through the whole thing. I will say though that this ride is very dated now. An update needs to be made… perhaps a foray into the battle above Coruscant that is depicted in Episode III? That would be stellar. The rumor right now is that it is going to be a pod-racing theme. I really wouldn’t be as excited about that.



Indiana Jones Stunt Show. This too is getting tired. The opening sequence is good… but the rest of the show just needs to be refreshed. Change the storylines and sets. Use something from Last Crusade or Temple of Doom… or even the new one. Just rewrite portions of the show every three years or so… just to keep the audience on their toes. I think this show should stay… especially if they plan on making an Indy 5. But a freshening up would be in order.

We figured something out about Aaron. Explosions scare him. He can handle dark rides well. But put him in a stunt show with loud explosions and it terrifies him. It’s interesting to see how each kid handles and adapts to Disney entertainment.

Rock N Roller Coaster… good ride. Unfortunately, though, the Aerosmith soundtrack wasn’t working and it was kind of weird going through the ride without loud music pumping in your ears. I didn’t get to Tower of Terror or the Great Movie Ride… but those don’t concern me as much. I was able to take in the Auto Stunt Show… which is ok, but once you’ve seen it… it loses it’s pizzazz.

We went to the Sci-Fi Dine In for dinner. We went here last year too. I liked it a lot better last year, and probably wouldn’t try to go here again for a meal… maybe dessert… but not a meal. Food was not great… and the atmosphere that hooked me last year was not quite as cool to me this year. One minor annoyance… the same movie clips they showed last year were used this year. Again, let’s spend a little time freshening up things for the repeat visitors.



I think Hollywood Studios could be a great park again… but everything just felt so old, dated, and thrown together. Major work needs to be done here. The Animation tour; the Back Lot Tour; even the Beauty and the Beast show needs work. Oh well. We left the park early, so we skipped Fantasmic. After a long day at the Magic Kingdom… just about all of us were exhausted. The kids went to the pool for a little bit. I did some reading and relaxing. And we geared up for our final day at Epcot.

A Cardinal Fan in a Cub World

Emily is not afraid to speak her mind when it comes to bashing the Cubbies!! She does it to grandparents, church-people, friends, etc. So apparently her school was going to wear Cubs gear yesterday to cheer on the Cubs and the teacher asked them to write a reminder note to bring home that said "wear Cubs clothes tomorrow". When I opened Emily's backpack, this is what her note said...."Wear Cubs clothes tomorrow but we won't because we don't like them". It was killing her to have to bring home a note about the Cubs, so she just HAD to add an extra line about how we don't like them.

Josh and I got a pretty big kick out of this!! He's trained her right, I guess.

I have to admit that the Cardinals and fan situation is probably the thing I miss most about not living in St. Louis anymore. I used to love having Cards days at school and being able to wear my jeans and Cards shirt. I loved that the teachers' conversation in the lunchroom everyday had to do with the game the night before and what was going on with the team. I loved that my kids would talk about being at the game the night before or would share their excitement about going to the game that night. I loved that taking time off from school to go to a World Series game was not only approved by the principals, but cheered on by them!! It was just a great environment and I absolutely loved the excitement toward the Cardinals - everywhere I went. I am sad that as big as a Cardinal fan as Emily is...she won't grow up in it, but she's proved she can hold her own and definitely won't turn. Now we just have to work on Aaron!!

2008 Disney Trip - Day 3

Our second park day was spent at Magic Kingdom. It was much cooler… but with the coolness came a lot of rain. In fact, it never really stopped raining until later in the evening. It was still a nice day. Magic Kingdom has a ton of stuff to do indoors which makes it easier to manage rainy weather.



Magic Kingdom also has the most fast pass attractions of any park… and I took complete advantage of this. The four of us were there for the rope drop and I took off immediately to get fast passes for Space Mountain. Whenever I was able to get another fast pass… I would leave the group and go get one for another attraction. I am not kidding… but by mid afternoon… I had fast pass tickets for seven attractions in my pocket. That night we rode a lot of big rides with pretty much no wait at all. Good stuff.



We had dinner at a place off of Main Street called the Crystal Palace. This is a buffet restaurant… but with Winnie the Pooh characters. As you’ll see by some of the pictures… both Emily and Aaron loved this aspect of the meal! Also, Uncle Kevin… who is known for his quick wit… also joined in on the fun. He had something different to say to all four characters:

To Piglet: ‘I am a big fan of your work.’ (Piglet was his favorite Pooh character as a kid) To Pooh: ‘You need to lay off the honey, you’ve been packing on the pounds recently.’ To Eyeore: ‘I see the Prozac is working for you.’ To Tigger: ‘You need to remember to take your Ritalin.’ Funny stuff.



I also experienced a first in Magic Kingdom. A couple of years ago, they redid the ‘Alien Encounter’ ride and re-themed it as a Stitch attraction. I gotta tell you, it was pretty lame. It could’ve been much, much better than it was. I actually liked the old attraction better than this one. I would grade it a solid D. They need to just completely rethink this space for a better attraction.

We stayed for ‘Wishes.’ Disney does a tremendous job with their fireworks. It was the first time we had stayed for Wishes since 2005. Magic Kingdom is just so huge and it’s opened the longest of any other park on a normal day. It makes for a long day… it still remains my favorite theme park.

I’m a huge fan of Adventureland. We had a terrific Jungle Cruise guide this time around. She had some great lines that I hadn’t heard before… like when we sailed through a dark and creepy Asian temple… she started eerily singing ‘It’s a small world after all…’ That cracked me up. She also said something like ‘If you think this ride is boring then go check out the Hall of Presidents and come back… then we’ll talk.’ She finished up by saying: ‘Enjoy your stay in the Magic Kingdom… where your dreams come true. Then the park closes… and MY dreams come true.’ I continue to enjoy other Adventureland attractions like the Enchanted Tiki Room and one of my favorite attractions on Disney property: Pirates of the Caribbean. Magic Kingdom continues to amaze me in its’ scope and creativity. As an aside… it was probably Emily’s favorite all around park as well.

Disney 2008 - Day Two

Our first full day at WDW was spent at Animal Kingdom. It was a brutally hot day. Sunny, 90’s, a ka-jillion percent humidity. Melissa’s sister, Priscilla, and her husband and daughter were on the tale end of their trip to Orlando… so it was nice to all meet at Animal Kingdom and experience some of the attractions together.

As always, I immediately ran and got fast passes for Everest. Melissa and the kids ran and got a few character autographs. I was proud of Emily on this trip for a couple of reasons: 1) This was the first non-stroller trip for her… we made her walk the entire trip and she didn’t complain at all. She held up really well and had a pretty good attitude through most of the trip. 2) She challenged herself on a few attractions… she rode an attraction called Primeval Whirl… which is a tame mouse type coaster… but I thought might be a little bit too much for her. Not only did she ride this thing… but she loved it as well. She would tell you that this was one of her favorite attractions of the whole trip! She rode it three separate times!

Later in the day, she also rode Kali River Rapids with Kevin and me. She had a good time… even though she is exactly like her mother… she wore a poncho for a water ride. Getting wet is part of the fun of it for me… but not for my girls. Some of the other big hits of the day included Expedition Everest; Kilimanjaro Safaris; The Lion King Show (best on WDW property) and the Finding Nemo Show.

There are about four exhibits and attractions at Animal Kingdom that I have never found the time to do… and that didn’t change. I had every intention of hitting some of the animal trails… but we just ran out of time. I’ve always wondered why Animal Kingdom closes so early (5PM on this day) compared to the other parks. Some say it’s because of the Animals… but honestly… you don’t see very many animals when you are there. Because it’s always a shortened day… I never see everything that I want to see.

We closed the park by eating at another new restaurant called Yak and Yeti. Don’t ask me why you would put the word Yak in any American restaurant name… but it was an Asian flare type restaurant. I was a little worried about this one going in… but I thought the experience was tremendous. The restaurant was beautifully decorated. Our server was very nice. I thought the food was tremendous. I got a steak and shrimp combo entrée and it was very good. The shrimp was breaded and it came with this dipping sauce that was excellent. For dessert, I ordered fried Won Tons with cream cheese and vanilla ice cream. The whole dinner was fantastic. When we left the restaurant, the Animal Kingdom had already closed down… so it was kind of eerie to walk to the front of the park and only see a couple of people around. Very rare at a Disney park! All in all, I really enjoyed Animal Kingdom… it is slowly developing into a nice theme park.

We spent the rest of the night relaxing and hanging out at the hippy pool. I usually don’t take the time to swim on trips like this… but I went ahead and went down to hang out with the kids. Both Emily and Aaron had a blast. Aaron even wanted to get into the big pool! We took turns holding him above the water.

Disney Trip 2008 - Day 1

So we left for our annual Disney trip on Thursday morning very early. Even though the wake up time was brutal that morning… I actually prefer to get into Orlando as early as possible. It opens up a wider range of possible activities. We flew Southwest out of Midway and arrived in Orlando at around 11AM.

We utilized Disney’s Magical Express… which shuttles WDW resort guests from the airport to their Disney hotel. This is a free service that I wrote about last year. It’s a money saver and if you don’t care about renting a car… it’s one of the nice perks about staying on Disney property.

The resort we decided to stay at this year is called Pop Century. It’s Disney’s newest ‘cheap’ resort. The theme of the hotel is basically an homage to American pop culture from 1950 through 1990. The 50’s pool was shaped like a bowling pin. The 90’s pool was shaped like a laptop computer. The 70’s land had a large game of Twister available in the courtyard. The 80’s had huge Rubik’s cubes. We stayed in the 60’s… and our pool was shaped like a flower and it was called the Hippy Dippy Pool. There was a four story tall Balue Bear that Emily really enjoyed.



All in all, I was impressed with the resort. We had good service. The food court was decent. Our rooms were small, but nice. Bus service was as good as you can expect when you have to service that many people. The pools were great. There were two ‘splash park’ type spots that Aaron got a huge kick out of. I would recommend this resort to anyone wanting a cheap way to stay on Disney property.



Even though we checked in early, both of our rooms were ready. (We also had Melissa’s parents and brother along with us.) After having lunch and a brief rest… we took our first adventure and went to a miniature golf course called Winter Summerland. There are two rounds of 18 holes at this place… one is a beach summer theme… the other is a snowy winter theme. Melissa and I had already played the snowy theme. I left the choice up to Emily… and she picked the beach summer theme. Melissa’s Dad won out of the five of us that kept score. We stopped keeping track of Emily’s after round three. (She’s a huge cheater.) The highlight for me was ‘the bridge.’ There was a bridge that you had to walk across and when you walked through an infrared beam… things started squirting water at you.

We ended our day by eating at a new restaurant called ‘The Wave.’ We took advantage of the free dining again… so each of us got a free entrée, drink and dessert. Our waiter was very nice. The décor in the restaurant was very classy and modern. The only bad points: It took forever to get our food; and we were next to a table of eight drunk people. The food was delicious. I had the lamb… I had never tried lamb before and wanted to give it a shot. It was good, but I wouldn’t choose it over steak again. They brought us some multigrain bread which was delicious. Desserts were served in three bite sized portions and it was pretty good. Final bill would have been around 225 dollars… but it was all free because of the free dining plan!

Emily's first day of 1st grade!

Well, it seems like only yesterday I was posting about Emily's first day of Kindergarten. I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. Emily is definitely ready for 1st grade, but emotionally it has been hard on all of us. She has been very concerned with not being able to hang out with Aaron and I and play with us as much. She's talked a lot about how long her days will feel. I think they will go faster than she thinks...lots of activities, lunch, recess, art, music, etc. I know she'll adjust and just love it. She seems to have a great teacher and everyone speaks highly of her.

Yesterday was a half day for her and today is her first full-day. The house is definitely quieter. Aaron jabbers and makes noise, but she was my conversationalist. There was always plenty to discuss with her around!!

Em waiting in line, with her class, to go inside.

Random Summer pics

I had an awesome summer with my kiddos! We really enjoyed the Wheaton area this summer and found lots of fun things to do. We visited the library at least once a week, the pool a couple of times a week, lots of parks, the splash park, the zoo, and the Children's Museum.

I already can't wait for next summer and all the new memories we'll get to create!! This summer went way to fast. (Watch for a post on Em's first day of school.)

Enjoy the pics.
Emily at the splash park.
Aaron wasn't crazy about getting wet, but he enjoyed the splash park more this summer than last summer. He like to dump water and play with the water guns.

Children's Museum

Aaron's favorite part of the day...the water table. No matter where we took him, he kept migrating back to the water table. Anyone who knows him well, knows that this is not surprise.

Emily pretending to be Superman!!

Emily building her very own creation!

The finished project - a scooter

Giant Lite-brights!!

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen.

Emily's new look and Aaron's new skill!!

We found out this summer that Emily needed glasses! Not a surprise since I got them in 1st grade and Josh got them in 2nd grade. She was a little apprehensive at first, but has done great!! She looks good in them and seems to like it that she can see better now.



We're hoping it helps her to see things in 1st grade...seeing as that is less than 3 weeks away!! I told Josh that sending her off to 1st grade will be harder on me than kindergarten was. It just seems so official...all day, everyday.











We are also very excited because Aaron finally decided to start talking!! This has been a very late skill for him. Not because he doesn't understand or communicate. He understands everything and communicates great....just not with words. He's finally begun to communicate on his own and it's very exciting. It's neat to see just how many words he understood and knew, but never said until now. A few things he'll say on his own in response to things....MOM(in caps because it is always yelled as in a state of emergency), choo choo, juice, clean up, mickey mouse, chuckie cheese, Sherlock (prounounced shoe la), night night, hi, wow, uh-oh, bye bye, pleeese, cheeese, thank you, love you, no, mine, and maybe a few more that I can't think of right now. He'll say most anything you try to get him to say....but these are just his independent words. We knew he had it in him, but he kind of walks to the beat of his own drum and there's no pushing him if he doesn't want to do something. What a difference there is between my boy and girl!! But I love them both and wouldn't trade either of them for the world!!

Star Wars Dance Off

I'm a sucker for Star Wars humor... wait until half way through and see who comes out to steal the show!

Non Verbal Sermon Teaser

Pictures of our "set dressing" from Sunday.
(Thanks to Bubba Hollingsworth who did an outstanding job putting all of this together.)

Sermon Series: Story-teller (A series on the parables of Jesus)
Sermon Title: The One about the Builders (Matthew 7:24-27)

How Aaron Changed Our World

Gen Con 2008

I wanted to take a moment while it’s still fresh to blog about my time in Orlando as Melissa and I attended the Wesleyan Church’s General Conference. I went to the conference very excited and very curious to see all the ins and outs of the business portion of the conference. I left uplifted, encouraged about the state of the Wesleyan church, and greatly refreshed for ministry.

For all the talk about the conference bar electing our first woman G.S… there were actually two other things that stood out to me that were, just as, if not more important than that decision.

1) Holiness Forums. Education and the Ministry hosted three Holiness forums. They were fantastic. The first forum was an excellent theological perspective given by Dr. Chris Bounds that examined the various Wesleyan views of Holiness. This was significant because there were three views given… the Short Way, the Middle Way, and the Long Way. The Short Way was identified as the official position of the Wesleyan church… but Bounds went on to detail how John Wesley had more of a Middle or Long view of holiness. Dr. Bounds said something very powerful towards the end of his talk… and it is in my estimation that if this statement can be taught and modeled by our leaders and pastors… along with being understood by our congregations… it has the capacity to change our churches through and through. He said: “The end of holiness is not the death of sin… the end of holiness is love.” Powerful stuff.

The second forum was on corporate or atmospheric holiness. Dr. Jim Garlow was the keynote speaker and his talk was both moving and powerful. He gave his personal testimony and it was so raw, so authentic… it brought me to tears at various times. He made some great suggestions about how to build atmospheric holiness… including making better use of the Eucharist and the Apostle’s Creed… as well as promoting simplicity. He talked for an hour… maybe more… and I never felt like it went long.

The third forum was on social holiness. Both speakers did a great job. I felt that these forums were the highlight of the entire conference. They really reinvigorated my passion for our holiness distinctive in the Wesleyan church. I was reminded why this distinctive remains an important one to hold on to and I was reminded why our theology of holiness needs to be taught clearly, often and well. This was very important for me.

2) Change in our membership. The conference voted that each local church could decide whether or not they would use an updated version of Community membership. Community members were given the right to vote on all church issues with the exception of the reception of Covenant members. There was much debate on this issue… which was very intriguing to listen to. This was a great step taken, in my opinion. Covenant membership is still required for elected and some appointed positions… but now Community members have the right to vote in all local conferences. This will be very helpful in my context at Wheaton Wesleyan. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I applaud the Wesleyan church for electing Jo Ann Lyons. This is a great statement and affirms our tradition of ordaining women into ministry. Some people think that this election will make a huge difference for our denomination. We shall see. I have some opinions about this… but I’ll reserve those for another post in the future.

All in all, Melissa and I had a fantastic time at conference! Barring any emergency… I will make it a point to be at all future General Conferences. We were able to connect with old friends and be refreshed for ministry in our personal context.

Indiana Jones 4 Review

Okay… it’s officially time for my Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review. And this may be very surprising for some of you to read. To be very honest, it was surprising for me to write. I almost feel disloyal... but this was how I felt as I left the theater last night:

I am a little disappointed. Perhaps I had built it up a little too much in my mind. Maybe I made a mistake by watching Raiders of the Lost Ark this week… I don’t know. I was hoping to see an Indiana Jones movie that had me hooked from beginning to end like Raiders and Last Crusade. What I got was… well… not that. In fact, as much as I hate to admit this… I think this is my fourth favorite Indiana Jones movie. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I liked Temple of Doom better than KOTCS… and that should speak volumes. That said… I’m going to get into some spoilery type of stuff here… so if you haven’t seen the movie yet… you may want to come back later. Also, this will be about double of the length of a typical post from me… so you may want to grab a snack or a soda before you pull up to your computer for the long haul.

My main gripe was with the story. And I should preface this by saying that I had no problem with the aliens aspect of the story… I am a big fan of the X-Files and Close Encounters… so that wasn't a big deal to me. I just felt that there were many, many poor story telling decisions and ommissions. For example, I didn’t feel the urgency in this film that I felt in the other films as it relates to the end goal. In Raiders, Indy was trying to find the Ark before the Nazi’s did. In Temple, Indy was trying to acquire a Shankara (spelling?) stone for a village that was dying without it. In Crusade, Indy was on a quest for the grail, (really, his quest was for his father…) and the urgency for the grail was heightened when Indy’s father was shot. In Crystal Skull, I never felt any urgency to find the Skull… or return it to the city. I know he was up against the Russians… but I never really understood what the Russians were going to do with whatever they found. If only you could take over the world with a super charged magnet... as that was about the only thing that was interesting about this skull.

I thought the dialogue was convoluted and, at times, confusing. Sometimes Indy would be talking about something that happened in the 40’s and I would wonder if it was important to know… and then miss something that I was supposed to know. It was also very plot-driven… rather than character-driven. I never felt like characters were given a chance to react or question their circumstances... the story just marched forward from one location to another. I'm not sure if this makes sense or not... but compared with Crusade, which was almost completely character driven... this film was almost the opposite. Indy was the only character that I felt for. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t have cared if Marion or Mutt would have died… I was never really invested in them emotionally… even when I found out that Mutt was Indy’s son. Don't know why... I just wasn't.

Here are some nit-picking things about the story:
• For the majority of the second half of the film… Indy took his cues from a crazy old man that was ‘possessed’ by the Crystal Skull. The old man figured out most of the mystery… Indy just watched and then helped when he could. I sometimes wondered why Indy was even necessary.
• The ‘tarzan’ and ‘monkey’ scene was part bizarre and part dumb… and on a whole did not fit into the story.
• Where are the cool booby-traps? The characters were put into two ‘tomb’ type situations where Indy could have encountered some sort of trap resistance… and there was nothing. What made the other movies iconic were these types of sequences… the bolder in Raiders, the Spike Room in Temple, the blades and walk of faith in Crusade… there was really nothing like that in Indy 4… other than the collapsing steps.
• Only Temple of Doom had a worse opening sequence… and I really wasn’t a big fan of the A-bomb sequence… I thought they could have wrapped up the scene better. The warehouse scene was okay… and the homage to Raiders was very cool… from the music to the glimpse of where the Ark has been these past 20 some years.
• Kate Blanchard was good… but she didn’t even come close to some of the other villains: Belloq in Raiders and Donavon in Crusade were far better. I might even argue that Mola Ram was better…

Okay… enough criticism… here’s what I enjoyed about Indy 4:

-Harrison Ford. He was great again as Indiana Jones… he was definitely older, but the script allowed him to be. He did a marvelous job. I can’t even imagine how bad this movie would have been without him.
-The various homages to the previous three films.
-The sets and settings were phenomenal. The last set in the ‘temple’ or spaceship or whatever you want to call it was just beautifully done. There was also a burial site that was very well done. Very articulate… yet you felt like it was ancient.
-There were some nice humorous moments… like the quicksand part when Indy is offered a snake to pull himself out.
-John Williams, once again, outdid himself with the musical score. Tremendous.
-Most of the action sequences were good... the jungle chase was well developed and fun to watch.

In summary... I think Indy could have been utilized better. I think the dialogue could have been tightened up. I think urgency could have been built into the story better. I think the story as a whole could have been a lot better. Here's what we are left with:

It's a decent to good movie… but it just wasn’t near as good as the originals. Is it worth seeing in the theater? Yes, absolutely. It’s a fun summer flick and I am not sad that I saw it. I just think that it could have been infinitely better. I heard a rumor that they might make an Indy 5 with Shia LaBouef as the lead and Indy as the ‘Sean Connery’ type sidekick… to be honest, I kind of hope they decide against this type of scenario.

I probably need to go back and watch it again. Perhaps I'd like it better with another viewing. For now I’d probably give it a 6.5 out of 10.

If you'll excuse me... I'm going to watch the opening scene in Raiders again to remind myself of why I fell in love with these movies to begin with...

Slacker

Hard to believe it's been two months since either Melissa or I have posted on this page. It's been a busy couple of months. I am going to try and get back into some personal writing. It's always been an outlet for me and I've gotten away from it. Here are a few thoughts rattling around my brain right now.

-Indiana Jones 4: I will be seeing it tomorrow at 4:10PM. I am very excited about it. The reviews have been mixed... but that is to be expected. I'm sure I'll love it. I'm really not that picky and I'm very loyal, so this should be a great 2 hours spent. I'm planning on taking Emily after I've seen it so I know what parts I'll need to cover her eyes on. We watched ‘Raiders’ together last week and she really liked it. She was a big fan of the truck scene. Haha! She loved the opening sequence too, but come on, who doesn’t love that iconic opening?

-American Idol: The right guy won, despite what Simon tried to tell America on Tuesday night. I got so mad during the show because Simon made it sound like there was such a wide gap between the two singers. I'm sorry, but there wasn't... and I felt a little justified last night when Simon said pretty much the same. I can't vote against the first guy to sing a U2 song on American Idol, can I? Even if it wasn't one of my favorite U2 songs. Maybe some future contestant will sing some Achtung Baby songs... that would be pretty cool.

I was a little annoyed at the finale because they crammed so much in and those of us who DVR’ed the show barely even heard who won before it cut off at two hours. Maybe instead of having the USC junk and the terrible singer… maybe give some more time at the end for announcing and celebrating the winner. I didn’t get any of that last night.

-Church Life: Things have been really good here. This was the first conference year since 1997 that Wheaton had an increase in average worship attendance. So we have a lot to be encouraged about. I'll spend some time in a future post talking about some of the church wide initiatives we've implemented. It's been a challenging and very fulfilling year. I'm convinced coming here to Wheaton saved my personal ministry. There were times in my last position were I seriously considered teaching high school religion or working at Toys R Us.

Thankfully, God knew what lessons I needed to learn and to see some mistakes that I should try to avoid. Once I settled into my position here, I knew that I was in my ‘sweet spot.’ Doing the kinds of things that God specifically designed me to do. I have loved it and would never seek out a staff position again. Melissa and I love Wheaton and would love to stay here for many, many years… Lord willing.

-Book and Movie Reviews: There is an application on Facebook that makes reviewing books and movies much easier than it is here on blogger. So I will no longer be posting reviews here. If you are interested in those… look me up on Facebook. Speaking of movies… there are so many this summer that I want to see! Wow. As always, I’ll probably see one or two and then hope for the best through my Blockbuster queue.

That’s all for now… have a good weekend!

Easter Sunday!!

Easter morning started out like Christmas morning....Emily couldn't wait to get up and see what she got from the Easter Bunny. Her "big" gift was the 101 Dalmation movie. She was very excited about that.


We had a great morning at church. It started with an all-chruch Easter breakfast. Very yummy and a great turn-out!! Church went well as we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We had a great attendance in service and it was exciting to see so many faces - both old and new.

After service, we all rested and allowed Aaron to get a good nap and then we met my parents for Easter dinner. We had a nice day and it was nice to be around family on Easter...something we haven't really had in the past.

The kids opening their Easter baskets from Bunca and Papa.

Aaron loved his new Easter tractors and Easter Thomas trains!!

Thanks mom and dad for a nice dinner and the goodies!!

Decorating Easter Eggs

One of Emily's favorite traditions is decorating Easter eggs. Once she sees Easter decorations in the store....it's all she talks about. We finally found time to do our eggs and she had a great time. The hardest part was waiting on the eggs to boil and then cool!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Lots of fun things to share about...

About a week ago, we participated in an Easter Egg Hunt at the local YMCA. It was a fun event for the kids. Aaron was in the Age 1-3 hunt and he walked away with about 6 eggs...not too good. Emily was in the 4-6 age group and she did very well. She definielty knew what she was doing and got lots of eggs. It was a fun time with crafts, face-painting and even the Easter Bunny. (Notice Aaron is not in the picture...he wanted nothing to do with the Easter Bunny.)