The glasses

I guess some people never get passed the 80's.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started out with a long trip in the car on the way to Maryland. It was also my mom's 60th so we suprised her by showing up at David's doorstep. We had a great time with her and with the rest of the family. I put together a video with pictures and it was fun to see some older pics like the one above.

It was also great to see all my nieces and nephews, but it is tough living so far away and we all agreed that we wish we lived closer.

Overall, the trip was long, including horrible traffic and a dog with bad gas, but it was a great time honoring my mom on her 60th and having solid quality time with the fam.

YOUTH SUNDAY - Props to my wife

I have to give quite an honorary blog post to my wife who preached a sermon on Youth Sunday at the Village Presbyterian Church this past Sunday. It was an interesting experience for me...I was held in reverence of God that my other half not only spoke in front of such a large congregation, but that she blew me and the congregation away. Her words were both bold and gracious, authentic and filled with truth. I guess I may have some bias, but she may be the next Beth Moore. Just neat to see someone close to you use their God given gift and affect a congregation so strongly. Unfortunately, I could not include the entire talk, only a tidbit below. If it is not up yet, I will try to get it up soon.

Shawn McDonald

Melissa and I went with her Youth Group to see Shawn McDonald in downtown Naperville. He was great as usual. He is so good with song writing, expressing His walk with God, but doing it with great music. I think we all felt that there was quite a strong presence of Christ.

Anyway, even though it is long, I must share the story of how we ended up getting to the concert.

We started out our treck to Naperville by loading into the Church van. It was pouring outside, and it was hard to see outside. We knew we were in for some traffic, but as soon as we got on the highway, it was a dead stop. 1:35 minutes later, we find ourselves at a parking garage in Naperville, following the directions we were given. Yet, where in the world is this college that the concert is? We found a map and realized we were a couple blocks away. Drive there? The students insisted otherwise, so we walked. We walked three blocks, and the rain picked up, and we started to get quite saturated. Then, as we are at a street corner, a car goes through the intersection and sprays four of our high schoolers. Completely saturated, we continue walking and find the college. Still no sign of the Union, we ask around, getting unclear and contradictory directions. Finally, someone sends us in a different direction. As we walk down the street another couple blocks in the pouring rain, we come up on, what else, the parking garage that we started at! Melissa then gets a call from someone we know at the concert and finds out, it is sold out! Since we came so far already, we decided that we would try to find it still and hope that they would let us in. In desperation, we ask one more person and he directs us a half a block from the garage we started at to a small building....so we got there, about an hour and a half late. But they let us in and we got to see most of Shawn McD.

THE SEASON BEGINS

The Spartans open up the season tonight against Brown. With so many previous seasons of All American starting line ups ending in Final Four appearances, it is hard not to have high expectations.

This year, though, they do not have near the talent, losing three starters to the NBA. It will be interesting to see if they even make the tournament.

Either way, my friends and I will be watching every minute. GO STATE!