Windows Vista

So Windows Vista is finally going to be launched soon and I can't wait. As an avid Macintosh user I always love to see what the geniuses up in Microsoft land have cleverly come up with on their own. (Note tongue firmly implanted in cheek) Now thanks to David Pogue of the New York Times we can get a sneak peek of what those wacky guys in Washington are up to. Enjoy!!!

Move in Day!

Just a short post to let you all know that our girls moved in today. As I type they are sound asleep in the next room. We fought SoCal traffic to get out to the foster home by 6:00 and we were a bit late but no big deal. We had a lot of papers to sign when we got there but the girls were ready to go as soon as we walked in the door. After all the formalities, the girls said some good-byes and blew kisses as they got in the car. They stayed awake the whole trip home and they both wanted cereal for a snack. Mom helped us get PJ's on but the girls had a hard time going to sleep. A lot of tears and lulabys later they were both zonked out. Tomorrow is a day filled with getting to know the house and bonding. We ask for your prayers for this time as well as for the girls legal situation. Nothing is ever a done deal until you hear it from the judge. Please pray for us and our situation. I think that is what is most concerning to me. All the other stuff about being a Dad will be ok, but I have absolutely no control over the courts and that scares the you-know-what out of me. Well, I have to wrap a few more presents and then try to get some shuteye tonight. Thanks for all of your cards and emails. We greatly appreciate them. Talk to you when I can...

It's a Girl...No, It's two Girls!!!

Jill and I are proud to announce that we will be welcoming two beautiful girls into our home December 21st. It has been a long process but we will be blessed by the addition of these beautiful girls. Due to their legal status I am not able to mention their names or post their pictures on any public page on the internet, including Blogger.com. I will also need to ask you to not mention the girls by name on any page you may have (including myspace). If you want more information, please send me an email or give me a call. In any event, Jill and I could not be happier and are looking forward to being parents. We covet your prayers as the girls make a big transition into their new home. Thank you in advance for all of your support. Please understand if posting becomes rare for a while. Have a Merry Christmas!!!

I have been wanting to post this for a while now...

In the world of the Internet, this is really old but I think it is one of the coolest things I have seen. The band O.K. Go! shot this video for one of their songs and released it only on YouTube.com. It has received over 2 million hits not to mention how many times it has been shared and copied. The video is all one take (not the first take of course), with no edits to it. It was so popular that the band did the routine live on the MTV music awards this year, pretty awesome. Enjoy!!!



One other thing...Jill and I have a meeting with the Department of Children and Family Services Today. We would appreciate your prayers and we will keep you all informed. I will post about Thanksgiving in a day or so, if I have time. Until then....

Lotsa stuff going on...

Well, where do I begin? First of all school has been kicking my butt. It is not really all the work (although that has been hard as well). It is the drive that is killing me. I don't know how people do it every day. Fighting the traffic on the 405 everyday sucks!! Mind you, I do own a hybrid for a reason and the carpool option is nice but it doesn't always help. My historical theology class has been great but has really stretched me. Going from the beginning of the Christian church to the present in ten weeks is really just a blur. Trying to keep the Gnostics apart from the Antinomians etc. has bee rough. But Hebrew is the killer. Man, I know for sure that I will not be getting an advanced degree in Biblical languages any time soon. Don't miss read this. I am doing fine in the course, but it is soooo hard. My research class is the most I have ever worked for a one unit class. I must have put 40 hours into that thing this semester and I am still not done. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. One more paper to write, two more tests to take, and one more project to do and the semester is over.

Right now I am just happy that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Jill and I are hosting again this year and we couldn't be happier. My sister Dawn and her family will be here. My brother Josh will be here too. Both of Jill's sisters and their families will join us along with some other great friends including Ingrid, Sarah, Brandon, Laura, Josh T. and possibly a few others. Pavo Bob will make is triumphant return as the main course. If you missed last years Thanksgiving post, you know that I brine my bird and here I stand, I can do no other. In my mind it is the only way to go. Nothing makes better turkey than brine time!!

So my camera died this week. So sad!!! I have to find a place to get it fixed next week sometime. I turned it on and it made some awful sounds and gave me an error warning on the screen. I hope I can get it fixed because I just got an underwater housing for it for when I go SCUBA diving next summer. There are also some pretty cool pictures I took that are stuck on the memory card right now.

This past weekend was our District Youth Gathering. It was held in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. It was AWESOME!! Great worship band, great speaker, and my pal Ingrid was one of the ones in charge. She did a fantastic job and the event went off without a hitch (that I could see). It was great to be there and experience it. I also ran the College Ministry booth for the weekend. As soon as that was over I went about five miles to Palm Desert for the Lutheran Educators Conference. Jill is on the program committee for that event and she, and all of her teammates did a great job. It was fun and we got some good VIP perks. We stayed in a suite with an awesome view of the golf course and the mountains. Good times. It is always good to see old friends and make new ones.

On the adoption front, not much I can tell you today. I will have more info soon. If you want to read into that be my guest.

That is about all for now. Thanks for still coming back to visit day after day to the same post. You are all more loyal than think I would be. Talk to you all soon.

I promise....

I promise to post later today. It sure has been a while and I got a lot to say but first I have to go to work and then to the store for supplies for turkey day. Be back soon.....

Update...

Yeah I know it's time for a post. Things have just been crazy. I think this is the theme of my life right now. School is good but ohh sooo busy. Hebrew Vocab is killing me. Just when I seem to have a handle on it...bam...20 more words to know. And then for each new word I memorize I think I loose two others. Oh well, I can see a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel. Just one more month to go in the semester.

Jill and I got a letter in the mail last week that our social worker got a promotion. Good for her, bad for us. Now our file goes to a new social worker who does not know us except on paper. We haven't met her yet and I don't want to judge but I hope it all goes well (says Seth crossing his fingers knowing the working with any Govt. agency never goes well).

For the past year I have been serving on a College Ministry Taskforce for the PSW district of the LCMS. It has been good and I got to design a new sticker for our ministry. It was fun to use my new found skills in graphic design to put out something pretty cool (at least I think it is cool). The true test will be next weekend at the District Youth Gathering when we will pass them out to a bunch of High School Kids. I hope we don't see a bunch of them on the floor because the kids thought they were lame.

Anyway...Jill and I are heading out to the Palm Springs area on Friday. Our friend Ingrid is the "boss" of the DYG and we are supporting her. Then teachers conference starts next Sunday. Jill is on the planning committee for that whole shindig so she has to be there early. It is always a great time getting together with old pals from College or other teaching gigs. It is usually a pretty good party, and there is learning too.

Well I have been up since about 5:30 this morning so I am going to hit the hay. Blog at you all soon...

Post #101

I just realized that yesterdays post was the big #100. Thanks for journeying with me the past year and a half. Sorry for not updating as often as I would like. So yesterday, Jill and I had a very fun Halloween. We sent out invitations to every house on the block to stop by our house as they are out trick or treating and grab a water, or juice box, meet their neighbors, and kids could bounce in the bounce house. It was awesome. We had quite a few kiddos jumping in all sorts of costumes, from tinkerbell, to Dale Ernhardt Jr. It was a blast. We got to meet many of our neighbors and start some community on our street. We will see where this all goes. We hope to make it a yearly tradition. Enjoy the pic, I forgot to get the camera until later so no kiddos bouncing...sorry!


Yes, it is a super cool Scooby Doo Jumper!!! Thank you Jump for Fun. Check them out and you too can get some super cool jumpers for your next party.

Happy Halloween!

Or happy Reformation day or whatever you are celebrating today. So for those of you who do not live in SoCal or have never been here in October let me tell you that we do not have a typical fall season. October is know for the Santa Ana winds and temperatures in the upper 80's to 90's for three or four days at a time. Then the wind will blow again from the ocean and it will be quite chilly (for us, like in the upper 50's low 60's).

So two weeks ago Jill and our niece Maddie carved some pumpkins. They had a great time. It was the first time Maddie had done this and she had some mixed emotions about it but it was fun. Enjoy the following pictures:




So the pumpkins are carved and placed on our front steps. The next day we had some Santa Ana winds and it got hot.

WARNING: SCIENCE CONTENT (from Wikipedia)
Santa Anas are a type of f fohn wind, the result of air pressure buildup in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. This air mass spills out of the Great Basin and is pulled by gravity into the surrounding lowlands. The air circulates clockwise around the high pressure area bringing winds from the east and northeast to Southern California (the reverse of the westerly winds characteristic of the latitude). It is often said that the air is heated and dried as it passes through the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, but according to meteorologists this is a popular misconception. The Santa Ana winds actually form during autumn and early spring when the desert is relatively cold. The air heats up due to adiabatic heating while being compressed during its descent. While the air has already been dried by orographic lift prior to reaching the Great Basin, the relative humidity of the air declines rapidly as it descends and warms in its final stages as it passes over the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges. The air is then forced down the mountain slopes out towards the Pacific coast; the air mass is further heated by compression as it drops in altitude before reaching the Los Angeles Basin and western San Diego County at typical speeds of 35 knots. The southern California coastal region gets its hottest weather of the year during autumn while Santa Ana winds are blowing. During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the deserts and the humidity plummets to less than 15%. As the Santa Ana winds are channeled through the mountain passes they can approach hurricane force. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness turns the chaparral into explosive fuel for the infamous wildfires the region is known for. Wildfires fanned by Santa Ana winds burned 721,791 acres in two weeks during October 2003.



So our poor pumpkin spent the next week baking in the sun and I noticed that it was not doing well. Then the next day I found the following sad jack-o-lantern looking up at me from the porch:



I guess thats what we get for living in SoCal and I wouldn't have it any other way. Have a great day and don't eat too much candy!!

Not a lot of time here so lets get this post rollin'

So I am woefully behind in an online, go at your own pace class I am registered for this semester. It is a basic intro to research class and it has one major flaw in my book--you have to go at your own pace and my current pace for this class is zero. I have to hustle my bustle to get it done before the semester is over. I have sequestered myself the rest of the morning to get three of the nine lessons done. I think it can happen, it is only a one unit class so with some effort I can be done in a few weeks.

One of the reasons I am behind in the above is that my other classes are taking a big bite out of my time. Hebrew is awesome but takes mucho amounts of time. I am getting a strong A right now but to keep that up I end up spending lots of time with my nose in my book and listening to the vocab in the car. So far so good. My class in Historical Theology is fun as well. There is a lot of reading but having the love of history in me, I find it fascinating. We took a test this week. Four questions, two hours...go!! I took the whole two hours and I have know idea if what I wrote was exactly what the professor will be looking for. I did pull out the big boy vocabulary and I used "elucidate" and "milieu" as well as a few others.

On the adoption front. I know I haven't posted about this in a while and there has been a reason. Jill and I have done all the classes, filled out all the paperwork, jumped through all the hoops, etc. We though that was the hard part, but we were wrong. The next process is not only tough mentally but also emotionally. The process goes like this. Our social worker works as our advocate and interacts with social other social workers who try to match us for potential placement of children. Usually once the social workers have gotten together they give us a call and give us some information and ask if we want to continue. If we agree they gather all the paperwork and make a presentation. All the details or problems try to get worked out and hopefully a connection is made. It is hard to not get your hopes up when you get that phone call. And let me tell you it is also hard when you know you need to say "no". We have been matched and unmatched a few times and each time it is very hard. For now we just wait for another phone call and start the process again. We covet your prayers not only for us but for the children that will be placed in our home and also for those who will not. More updates on this to come...

That is about all for now, I have to get back to homework. Talk to you all soon.

here you go...

Some of my friends and family have been giving me a hard time for not updating lately. So here you go. Just some pictures from disneyland....

Even Better...

Ahhhh the wonder of the pharmaceutical industry. I feel better today. I can even hear a bit out of my ear today. Still in some pain but not nearly what it was a few days ago. I just wish I had time to sleep in and not worry about anything for a few days. I fell asleep at my desk this afternoon. It is either: a)the ear infection, b)the Hebrew vocab, c)the pain pills, or d)all of the above. I think I will take D for $200 Alex. Thanks for the calls and emails wanting to know how I am. I feel loved. Got to go study my Hebrew vocab cards. I have another quiz in the morning...

Better...

I received four, count 'em, four prescriptions from the Dr. yesterday. Well she isn't technically a Dr. She is the Nurse Practitioner who saw me at the Urgent Care office. I feel slightly better but not much. I did go to class this morning, and I think I am going to regret it. I just popped two pain pills and it is off to beddiebye for me. I will give you an update tomorrow if I have a chance. Until then...

Pain

I have the most wicked ear ache of my life. I stayed home all day and tried not to move. I finally took some pain pills. I am going to the Dr. in the AM. OUCH!!! I hope I can sleep...

I must be doing something right....

Because everything seems to be going wrong.

I don't know were to begin. I haven't the time to give great details so here are the highlights (or lowlights):

The 405 sucks! Even with the carpool lane
Hebrew class is great but five days a week?!?
I played badmidon today for the first time in yonks! It was awesome but I am sore!!!
Our new sermon series is gonna be great! (As long as I get everything done that Pastor Kevin needs)
Mac's rule...PC's drool!! My computer at work is becoming a giant, slow paperweight!
It would be nice to spend time with my wife when she is not asleep.
I went to make copies today and the copier was off (20 min to warm up)
I went to set up the projector for class no power cord
I went to check out a laptop no cord to connect to the projector.
I went to Kinkos to give them my artwork for a banner for church, it was in the wrong format
Made the cover for the Sunday bulletin, had to go back and forth to and from home 4x in one day!!
I have a new class that starts tomorrow and I have to read a book before it starts.

I say again, I must be doing something right, because everything seems to be going wrong.

Twelve Hour Turnaround

I woke up this morning not unlike many of the past mornings thinking, "Didn't I just go to sleep???" The nights seem to be rather short these days. I had class until 10 PM last night and now I have to turn around and be on the road by 9 AM. I was joking with my friend David the other day and told him my life is just 12 hour turnaround. He said that was a cool name for a band and now if anybody takes it I have proof that it was my idea. All kidding aside, my schedule sucks this semester. I travel the 28 miles to Concordia University Irvine every day and sometimes twice, depending on responsibilities at Church. I can't tell you how happy I am that I own a Prius. That car has saved us a ton of $$$, not to mention the cool sticker that lets me go solo in the carpool lane. Without that thing it would take me well over 90 min to make the 28 mile commute on the darn 405. As far as my classes go, they are not that bad. I like the pace of my Hebrew class. When I had Greek it was compacted and very intense. This class moves at a much easier pace and is easier to follow and not get behind. My class on church polity has been good and informative, but not a brain stretcher. I start a class on Historical Theology next week. There is a ton of reading for it but it should be fun. I have been looking forward to this class. I started teaching two new classes at church. One is on evangelism and the other is on Christian Mentoring. They are going well so far. I have been "the guy" the past two weeks with Pastor Kevin being in Germany. Thank the Lord there has been no big things. We have had our share of people in the hospital, but God in his mercy has not called any of them home (yet). That is about all right now. My life revolves around school, church, and sleep. If you see a white Toyota zooming down the 405 in the carpool lane, just wave and say a prayer for me. Talk to you all later.

Long Time

So sorry for the lack of blogging! I always have good intentions but the follow through is a tough one for me. I started seminary classes two weeks ago and they are not too hard but hard enough. I am taking a class on Church Polity. What is that you ask? It is how the church (LCMS) is organized and how it does its "business". The class also has a team ministry focus and that should be fun. I am also taking Hebrew. I am convinced that Hebrew came straight from aliens or something. It is wierd. There are hardly any words or letters that have an equivalent in English, Spanish, Greek, or German (the languages I am familar with). I feel like I need some sort of decoder ring to figure this thing out. So far so good. The big bummer of the semester is that my Hebrew class meets five days a week in the morning. For those long time readers of this blog know, that means I have also have night classes two days a week so on Monday and Thursday I just stay in Irvine and do homework or some work for church in the Library. My wallet has taken a hit too with the increased driving to and from school.

Nothing new on the Adoption front. Our social worker has been on vacation for about a month so have been in a holding pattern.

I think I am getting sick. I have felt rather blah all day and now my throat is scratchy. I think I may go home and go to bed. I still have a sermon to write but if I don't go to sleep I may be out of it for a while. Type at you all later.........

The Boston Massacre- 2006

I love baseball. Just everything about it fascinates me. Many of you know I worked at Angels Stadium for four seasons and I got to see some great games. I enjoyed four games of the World Series in 2002 and got to see my team win it all. But the worst times at the stadium were when the Red Sox would come to town. I posted a story about this before and you can read the details here. The Angels open up a three game series with the team from Bean town today and Anaheim better get ready to host the biggest bunch of myopic fans the world has ever known. Please take a minute to check out my friend Rich's blog about his feelings of Red Sox Nation. I can't agree more!!! It was great to see the Sox lose five straight to their arch rivals from the Bronx. I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear this past weekend. Go Angels!!!

Seth go to Petco!

I got a call from my friend Matt who lives in San Diego the other day and he invited me to go to a San Diego Padre baseball game with him. I looked at my schedule and lo and behold, I was free!! So I jumped at the chance to visit another Major League stadium. I had been to the old Quallcom a.k.a Jack Murphy stadium in San Diego a few times and it was not a very baseball friendly park. It is a much better venue for football. Anyway, the new baseball stadium is nestled in the historic "Gaslamp" district in downtown. What a cool place. There are tons of cool restaurants, clubs, and bars surrounding the park. By about 5:00, when we got there, the surrounding area was a buzz. We had some beers in a bar about two blocks from the park and by the time we left it was wall to wall people heading to the park. What a good vibe. It reminds me of the vibe at PNC park in Pittsburgh or SafeCo field in Seattle. The stadium itself is very pleasing to the eye. It has all blue seats and a lot of tan tiles and steel. There are two large towers that serve as light-towers but also house luxury suites. The towers hearken back to features of the old Padre's stadium when the team was part of the Pacific Coast League (minor league baseball) back in the 1940's and 1950's. Our seats were on the field level, first base side, a bit outside the baselines. Like many of the new baseball only stadiums, this one has its perks and quirks. There are a ton of luxury suites, an upscale area called the Toyota Terrace (right behind home plate), a couple of five star restaurants, and enough angles in the outfield wall to give Euclid a headache. A couple of the coolest things in the park include a place just outside the outfield wall called "The Park in the Park". It is a grassy area with a bit of hill for people to sit and watch the game, or throw the ball around. The is even a mini baseball diamond the kids can play on. My favorite part of the stadium is the old Western Metal Supply Co. Building. This building was on the property when construction started. It has some historical value to San Diego and the designers incorporated this building when they made the plans for the stadium. One corner of the building serves as the left field foul pole (quite a cool feature). The bottom floor is home to the Padre's team store. The roof is a group party area complete with its own bleachers, and the middle three floors are luxury and party suites. One really neat feature is that from the team store you can walk out at field level and watch the game from the left field corner. I stayed about an inning and watched the game from there. What a great way to honor the history of the area. We had a great time at Petco Park and I cant wait to go back. Enjoy some pictures I took:

Our Seats were about twelve rows down from here.

The Western Metal Supply Building.

Me on the field level just outside the Padre's team store.


From behind the fence by the team store.


Behind right field in "The Park in the Park".

Long Awaited Pictures.....

Here are a few pix from my adventures this summer. I have many, many more, but these are some of the good ones

Watching Fireworks on the 4th from a super secret location

Mission Alaska VBS @ Big Lake!
Big Lake Alaska
(Mt. Mckinley is in the background of this one
but it is over 350 miles away so it seem so small.)

Hatcher Pass Alaska


Beautiful Alaska Flowers

Sunset in San Carlos Mexico (no photoshop here just the raw image)

David @ 40 feet

Jill and I are off for Napa tomorrow to taste wine...and to see my sister. I should have some more good pictures then. Later.....

Alaska Pictures

I have not had the time to dowload any pictures from Alaska yet but you can check out My Pal Ingrid and her blog to see some of the events from Alaska. Enjoy!!

WOW!!

What an amazing couple of weeks it has been. Mission Alaska was one of the best mission trips I have ever been a part of. The kids were amazing, the team worked fantastic together, and besides from some travel mishaps it was a drama free event. We did have some issues getting back to Los Angeles. First of all, our plane had a clogged fuel filter that needed to be fixed and the parts were in Seattle so our plane was delayed until the following day (about 12 hours). The airline put us all up in a hotel and we got a few hours of sleep. Then back to the airport for another round of check in and security. We were delayed again and finally on our way to Seattle but we were too late and missed all of our connections. We had to stay another night in a hotel. The team took in in stride and we were all doing great until at 1 in the morning there was a small fire in the hotel. We all packed up quickly just in case we had to leave. The fire department put it out and we could go back to sleep. Most people just stayed up since we had to be at the airport at 4 am anyway. Then it was back to the ariport for round three of check in and security (what a pain) We finally got back to LA none the worse for wear. Because of all this I lost a day of work and prep for my vacation. I got it all done (some of in in Mexico) and now I am sitting in a wonderful house right on the harbor of San Carlos. It is a guys SCUBA diving trip. We drove the 14 hours here this time and the weather has been a bit on the hot side. It has been above 95 almost the whole time, but the diving has been great and the company even better. There is nothing better than great friends, good times, and cold margaritas. One second while I have another sip... the sun has just set and the sky is colored in reds and oranges that will blow your mind. I will post some pictures when I get back to the states. That is the short update from here, talk to you all later.....

This is a "Real" Post

It is Friday morning and I still have to pack for Alaska and do some paperwork, and go to the store for some supplies, but I know that I really need to post on my blog. I really enjoy posting and it has been far too long! Let me get you updated since the last "real" post.

I was at the beach last week for a bonfire for our Alaska team and snapped the picture above. The sunset was amazing and I love it that you can see downtown Long Beach in the distance. If you click on the picture you will see a larger version of it. Enjoy!!

I have taken two summer school classes. Like I mentioned in a previous post, they have been quite intensive. My first class was on the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) with an emphasis on the writings of Luke. The class was awesome but I spent at least 5 to 6 hours a day outside of class doing the homework. We had to translate a ton of Greek and do some reading in a big commentary. The class was worth the work. Dr. Middendorf is amazing. Although we did not agree on everything, he always makes the story come alive. It was awesome reading the book of Luke straight through in 9 days. It was easy to see the connections and the themes. My second class this summer was "Multicultural Ministry in an Urban Setting". It was so-so. The info was good, but it was nothing new to me. We had to do an urban research project that I just finished last night. It took a lot of time and effort but it is finished now. I have one more class this summer. It is "Intro to Research". It is a one unit class that is all done on the internet. It will not be very fun but it is a requirement and another hoop to jump through. It seems like I have been jumping through a bunch of hoops lately.

I leave for Alaska today and I will be back in SoCal on the 16th. I am very excited about returning to Alaska. It will be great to go back to the same places and see some of the same kiddos. Fundraising for this years trip was an adventure. First of all we have a few more people going this year (23 compared to 17 last year) so we needed to raise more funds. On top of that, because of fuel prices, airfare was much higher. Last year we spent about $250 per person on airfare. This year it cost almost $600 per person. Then there is the cost of rental vans and gasoline. As I started adding up the numbers I realized we had quite a hill to climb. After totaling all the costs up I realized that we needed to raise about $26,000 to meet our costs. I was shocked. That is a lot of money!! I was sure I was going to have to ask the team members to pony up and pay the rest of the bill and I was not looking forward to that. I was honestly worried. But God had other plans. Right when I started to worry, God provided. We received a few large donations and then the floodgates opened. Every day I received a couple of checks in the mail and soon not only had we met our goal, but we had exceeded it!! God Is Good!!!! I am humbled and awed at his provision. I know that God has given us an emphatic "YES" to go on this trip. To God be the Glory!! I will give you an update when I get back. If I have access to a computer I will post from Alaska.

When I return I have three days and then I am off to Mexico for vacation. It will be a small group heading to San Carlos. This should be the year of a big trip, but we all agreed to keep it small and just go and spend time relaxing and making our own schedule. We are driving this year (14 hours) and it should be much better than my last trip to San Carlos on the bus ride from hell.

I will be home for about four days then it is off to Arrowhead Lutheran Camp where I will be serving as "Shepherd of the Week". It will be my first time back during summer camp since 1998. I am looking forward to it. My nephew AJ will be going with me and he will be in Little Chief Camp that week. AJ lives in Colorado and he comes out each summer to stay for a while with us and to see Grandma.

On the adoption front, our file has been approved by the supervisor of the Department of Children and Family Services. That was the last paperwork hoop to get through. Now we have one more class to take and then we will be eligible for placement. Our social worker said we have been "fast-tracked", whatever that means. I will keep you all posted on any further developments.

That is about it from here. Jill is busy tutoring all summer and making some extra money. She loves it and we both hope that at some point she can do it full time. Well I better start packing or I will be mad at myself for spending so much time in front of the computer. Talk you all later....

Wow...

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Not much time here...VBS this week...Class every night this week...My parents are here this week...Mission Alaska next week. YIKES!! None of it is bad, just not enough time in the day to do everything I want to.

I love summer time!!!

Talk to you later..........

Yeah I know....

Sorry for no posts in a while. Things have been quite hectic around here. I am in the middle of summer school and it is a killer this time around. Our classes are three weeks long but the first week is pre-meeting assignments. The professor gives us a list of things to get done before the class meetings (a ton of reading and a paper etc.) then class meets every day for nine straight days (eight hours on Saturdays and four on Sundays too!). NINE DAYS IN A ROW!!!! Well we do have Tuesdays off, but we have to do homework that day so its not really a day off. Then we have a week to finish up a project or paper. I am in the last week of one class and I just got my assignments for my next one. Not to mention I have to get ready for VBS at church and our mission trip to Alaska next month. Everything is in high gear. I haven't been to the grocery store or done laundry in two weeks. It is getting a but scary around here. So needless to say I will keep this one short because I have to get back to work. I promise a longer post next time (or maybe you like the short ones). Until then......

Baby Logan Jeffery Busch

Jill and I have a new nephew!! Logan Jeffery Busch was born on June 2nd. The Busch family is doing great!! Here are a few pixs from the hospital. Enjoy...

Random Thoughts

Here I sit, knowing a post is past due, but not knowing what to write. I just got home from a 11 hour day at church. It was not bad, it did not seem long, it was pretty good, busy, but good. I have chapel for the day school in the morning.

I will be talking about "Jesus Loves Me". We will be singing four different versions of the song. My pal Ingrid will be doing the readings for me so it is not just a one man show.

I also have a handyman coming to the house tomorrow. He will be putting up gutters on the addition, building a gate and installing some screen doors. I could do some of the work myself, but when do I have time?

I am watching the Angel game right now as I type. My team is not doing too well this year. They have been bit by the injury bug and they just can't hit when the pitching is good and can't pitch when the hitting is good. I will live and die with my boys, but it would be a better summer if they could string together some wins.

I got an iPod a few weeks back and I have been slowly converting all my CDs to digital. I am about 90% done and let me tell you, I have been listening to some music that I have forgot about. I also realized that many of the CDs I listened to a few years back, did not age well. I have just put some away, never to be heard again. Some things that were cool back in the day are just not even close to cool now.

I went to an Arby's restaurant today with some of Jill's students. Jill gives raffle tickets out for doing good things in class and every other week she raffles off lunch with Mr. Moorman. So we walk into the Arby's to get some yummy roast beef and potato cakes and I notice that the place has "earned" a grade of "C" from the health department. There it was in Red in the window. NOT GOOD!! You have to get between a 70% and 79% for that grade. Anything lower would get the place shut down. I have only seen one other "C" and that was in downtown LA when I was on jury duty back in '97. I still feel fine and I did not hear that any kids went home sick so I guess we dodged a bullet.

I had a great weekend. I was on duty to preach all the Sunday services and it went well. I showed a Goofy cartoon to start the message. I was preaching about road rage and I used the cartoon called "Motor Madness". It stars Goofy in a dual role as Mr. Walker- pedestrian and Mr. Wheeler- driver. If you haven't seen it you can find it in the extras section of "A Goofy Movie" DVD or in the Goofy box set. We also had some out of town company. Andrew one of Ingrid's friends from High School stayed with us. Ingrid's sister Sarah B. was with us as well and our good friend Dr. Ben. We all went to Jill's sisters house for a BBQ and to play with the nieces.

Jill and I also spent some time in Burbank at David and Heather's house on Saturday. The men built a water feature in the back yard and did some other work in the yard. The women watched the kids and made the men food. I know, a bit of gender stereotyping going on but that is just how it worked out. We listened to some good tunes and had some male bonding time in the back yard.

Well enough random thoughts from Seth for today.....talk to you later.

Origins

Greetings from the Origins Conference in Pasadena California. It is awesome!! What is it? This is from their website:

The ORIGINS experience is an international leadership convergence scheduled for May 22-24, 2006 in Los Angeles, Ca. ORIGINS is powered by Awaken, a think tank for creativity, innovation and cultural architecture, and field tested by Mosaic, a community of faith, love and hope in Los Angeles, Ca., and a growing number of churches and leaders worldwide.

That may not make much sense to you, but let me tell you, it is a wonderful creative place for followers of Christ to come together to worship, sing, learn, and engage the emerging culture of the world. There are people from all over the world here. A church called Mosaic sponsors the conference and as I stated in my last post, they do church differently. They are always looking for ways to reach out to those who don't know Jesus. Not just people who have left church, but people who are longing for spirituality. Mosaic and Origins is a very creative place. I have seen more laptops here than on a college campus. And the Mac people make up well over half of the community, including all of the people at Mosaic and Origins (That is great for me). I will post agian with some specifics but for now let me say that this has been the best conference I have ever been to. It is a powerful and uplifting event. I am on a high right now and it is only half over. Stay Tuned......

Retreat Weekend!

With the semester over, you would think that I have all this time on my hands and things are getting done around the house. You would think I have been relaxing on the couch and catching up on all the TV shows that are clogging my TiVo box. If you think that is the case you are wrong. It has been non stop since the semester has been over. I have been subbing at Pacific Lutheran High School this week for starters. It has been fun and teaching is sorta like riding a bike. You don't really forget. I also had a day long retreat with the leadership staff at church. It was awesome as we hammered out our parish theme for next year: "Disciples: By Divine Design". It should be awesome and very preachable. This weekend is also our end of the year CrossRoads retreat with the youth at church. It is the first retreat for the incoming 8th graders and the last one for the graduating seniors. It is always well attended and we will have close to 50 at the retreat this year. My pal Ingrid and I wrote the Bible studies and I think they kick butt!! The theme is "The Fab Four" with a nod to the Beatles. The weekend will have a Beatle theme and our studies will focus on another fab four from the bible: Mary, Abraham, David, and Paul. We will talk about the themes of fear, faith, forgiveness, and freedom (pretty good alliteration). We will take off for the mountains this afternoon. This coming Monday and Tuesday I will be an a conference in Pasadena. It is sponsored by Mosaic, a church that does things a new way. They are blazing new trails of how church happens and how to engage this generation in living their lives as a servant of Jesus Christ. I am looking forward to it. I also got my reading assignments for my next summer class, so it is time to start reading again. At least I had a week off.

Our home interview with the social worker went very well. And I have already had my one on one with her. Jill goes in today for her one on one. Then in two weeks we will have one more meeting to set up a parenting profile and match assistant (so they can find the best possible match of children for us). We still have to take one more class and then we will be all set. It is a very long process. We are coming up on about a year in it and we may have up to a year to 18 months to go depending on finding a suitable match for us.

That is about it for now. Hasta Luego......

Half Way Done!

Today is a great day. I am officially finished with the semester and now I am half way finished with seminary!!! I finished up my last bit of work and took a killer final yesterday and now I feel relieved. Upholding a Cross Cultural Ministry Center tradition we all went out to the Pilsner Room to knock back a few cold ones after class last night. Three of our professors plus three alumni from the program joined us. It was a good time. I have about three weeks until the summer session starts and that is a great feeling. I am glad to have this semester over. I have never read so much in my life. My eyes need a rest. I probably read more than I needed but I was just following directions. This summer I will have a class on the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) with an emphasis on Luke. We will also spend some time with the book of Acts. I also am taking a class called "Urban Ministry". It should be fun. My summer classes are very condensed. We get the assignments a week before class starts and have to do some before we meet. Then we meet every day for nine days in a row, followed by a week to finish any assignments and projects. This is the first summer we are doing it this way. We will see how this all plays out.

As I type this we are waiting for the social worker to arrive for our family interview. She said it would take a couple of hours. It is one more hurdle to jump in the long adoption process. I will keep you informed.

That's about all for now. Talk to you all soon.

Well......

Yeah I know I said I was going to post more often and here it is with a long stretch between posts. Where have all the days gone? First of all I did take some time to travel to Florida to see some family. Josh and I traveled together to Dallas and met up with his girlfriend Molly. Then the three of us were on to Tampa/St. Pete. The weather was tremendous and the sunsets were amazing. The following pictures I took should prove my point:



The downer of the trip was that I had to still log on to class from Florida. It went well even though I did have to stay up till one in the morning. The trip back was uneventful. Since then I have been up to my eyeballs in work and school. I had a test tonight and I have been reading almost nonstop for about a week. I have two more papers to write and one more test to study for, as well as some Greek to do. Then I will have about two weeks to breathe and then the summer term starts.

Mission Alaska 2006 is coming up fast and we are behind in our planning. I think the next couple of days will be filled with Alaska for me. We are behind in our fundraising too. I know that God will provide but I can't just sit like a bump on a log and expect money to magically appear in the Mission fund. I am also busy with my weekly online Bible study. Feel free to check it out sometime. It is a lot of fun for me to write each week. I also preached all five services this past weekend. It went well and I feel more comfortable each time I preach. I also feel humbled during the writing process. It is a time to let the Spirit move me. It is awesome. I usually start in a direction and find myself someplace else. It is always wonderful and awesome at the same time. I love the journey.

Thank you for all of the well wishes for my birthday. I hope to celebrate it more this weekend. Both Jill and Sandy are out of town and the house is pretty quiet. A bit of a different birthday for me. Not bad...just different. Jill is in Washington DC with her class. They visit the Capital Building and the Smithsonian tomorrow. Well that is about it. Nothing new on the adoption front. You all will be some of the first to know when something happens. Peace...

NBA = Not Basketball Anymore

So a few years ago I swore off the NBA. I was sick of such a great sport dragged through the mud of greed, fame, and bling. Back in the day I was a huge LA Lakers fan. This was back in the glory days of Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Nixon, and later Scott and many others. I used to sneak my old transistor radio into bed with me and listen to the smooth sounds of Chick Hearn calling the Laker games. I fell asleep many a night to the sound of the Lakers playing in the Fabulous Forum in front of a sellout crowd of 17,505 as Chick used to say. I loved the Lakers and basketball. Then something funny happened. The NBA realized that it could make money promoting super stars. It was cool at first, Michael Jordan, Clide Drexler, Karl Malone, etc. And then with as fast as the short met with the knees, the NBA changed. Soon there was talk of "Jordan" rules. The fact that Michael Jordan can get away with bending some of the rules as long as it was entertaining. This was a slippery slope. Soon the refs began looking the other way when it came to the rules as long as the play was entertaining. Very quietly without much fanfare. Traveling was commonplace. Carrying the ball was not called. Hanging on the rim was complemented instead of called. Then came the high school kids into the NBA. All of the sudden, the NBA was seen as a way out of the ghetto and the entire landscape changed. The league is now dominated by players, not teams. There are no good rivalries anymore. No Lakers vs. Celtics. Everyone has too much respect for each other and the fire of competition has given way to entertainment. I think David Stern and Vince McMahon (WWE) have a lot in common. Even the purity of college basketball was impacted because no one wanted to stay in school if they could get paid. What happened? The NBA ceased being about the sport and became all about the almighty dollar. The sport I grew up loving looks nothing like it did even 10 years ago. It was after the 2001 season when I had had enough. I stopped watching, I turned the channel when highlights came on SportsCenter and I pined for the good ole' days of my youth. (I must be getting old.) Which brings me to my point. I couldn't help but notice that both local NBA teams have made this years playoffs. I am happy for one reason, my brothers team, the Clippers are finally in the playoffs. But what struck me funny is that they are the number six seed in the western conference but they have the home court advantage in the first round. WHAT?? Who's stupid idea is that???? How can the third seed team not have home court advantage. Who is making up these rules? I believe that this is a real sign that the apocalypse is upon us. How does that even make sense??? And the cherry on top was that the Clippers lost their last game of the season to clinch home court advantage in the first round. THEY LOST TO CLINCH HOME COURT ADVANTAGE!!!!! If they had won, they would not have home court in the first round. Is anyone else confused?? The first time I heard of this possibility I did not believe it. There is no way that a major sports league would let this happen. Memo to David Stern: Everyone is laughing at you and your league. What a joke. I am more convinced now than ever before that the NBA is no longer about the sport that Dr. James Naismith had in mind when he nailed peach baskets to the walls of the Springfield gymnasium in 1891. What a shame.

Juan Pollo and the iSight Camera

Happy Easter Eve! Can you say that? Are we still in Lent? I guess I should know. But I know that it is already Easter in other parts of the world so I feel O.K. about it.

The one really good thing I learned in parenting classes is that there is this place called Juan Pollo that makes the best tasting chicken in the world. They have awesome potato salad, great rice and beans and some killer salsa. We learned of this wonderful place when one of our classmates brought it for dinner one night. Jill and I were hooked right away. If you have a chance to go take it. So why all the talk about chicken? Well, Josh came over tonight for Easter and we went to Juan Pollo for dinner. The nearest one is in Anaheim and we took the 15 min trek over to what I call chicken corner. One one corner is Juan Pollo, across the street in one direction is El Pollo Loco, and across the other way is El Pollo Norteno. It did not dissappoint. We got the mini pack which has one chicken, rice, beans, potato salad, tortillas, and salsa. Jill also got some horchata, and I had a pina juice. Very yummy indeed.

So when we got back home, Josh and I started playing around with the iSight camera on my computer. We had a blast taking goofy pictures of ourselves. Here are the highlights, enjoy: