Faith in Real Life – Page 23

In Faith in Real Life

First day of Hatteras

June 7, 2008 1 Comment

So, the objective here is not to blog about ministry, or work, philosophies of Youth Ministry, or anything in particular. The idea this week is to talk about how great it is being a dad, and a husband. We are on vacation in Cape Hatteras NC. I won’t tell you where for fear that some of you wild youth group kids would actually drive down here so that you could put sticky notes all over my car, and fill it with paper shavings. Not mentioning any names… LIZ… but anyhow, We are somewhere in God’s great land of NC.

Today we were supposed to wake up at 4:20. Um… yeah… so, we woke up at 5:30. How about them apples? So, we didn’t so much get on the road by 5. But we did leave by 6:30. Only an hour and a half off. Not bad huh? Here are some shots of the trip. Tiffany has documented most of these, except for the one where both Tiffany and I are in. That was actually taken by Noah.

We are all moved in, and things are getting settled. I can’t wait to drag the kayak up to the beach tomorrow, and just hang out with Tiff and the kids. It is going to be great. We are supposed to actually get some medium size waves tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get some surfing in! Hopefully at least some skimming.

Oh, I shaved my head too. Maybe this is in symbolism of having a fresh start this week at relaxing or something… Who knows… or maybe it’s just something I’ve been wanting to do…

In Faith in Real Life

Seaweed, Salt, & Sand

June 4, 2008 2 Comments

In three days I will be driving down to the distant shores of Cape Hatteras. I am so looking forward to it! Tiffany and I will be going on vacation a little early this year, but man has it come at a good time. I am looking forward to spending time with this woman.

We were sitting talking the other night about things that we were looking forward to doing on vacation. She asked me what I am looking forward to. It was a great question, I thought that I would share it with you. Here it is, the unofficial list (in no particular order) of what Peter is looking forward to doing on Vacation this year:

Fishing
Building Sand Castles with Noah
Knocking down sand castles with Noah
Surfing
Skim boarding
Swimming
Kayaking
Reading
Playing Guitar
Playing Guitar Hero
Spending time with family
Laughing
Eating some good old U-Peel shrimp
Celebrating Tiffany’s Birthday
Eating Breakfast everyday with a cup of coffee

There you have it. The unofficial, incomplete list of things that Peter wants to do while on vacation in Cape Hatteras NC. What about you? What things do you like doing while on vacation?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Total Deal!

June 2, 2008 No Comments

So, Tiffany and I have learned over the course of our marriage that when you can, find the best deal before you buy stuff. Whoa Baby, have we ever found some good deals. Back here I posted about the beginning of our CVS deal finds. You can read up on that story here. This is a picture of all the stuff that we got today. We went to CVS and got all of this stuff for about $45. But got $26 back in extra care rebates! How awesome is this?

We got: 4 Bottles of Listerine, 14 packs of AA Batteries, 2 packages of razors, 5 packages of regular diapers, 1 package of swimmie diapers, 3 bottles of shampoo, 1 bottle of baby shampoo, 1 deodorant, 2 bottles of dish soap, 1 spray suntan lotion, and 1 diabetes monitor. This is unbelievable. You have got to meet my wife! She is a master at hunting down coupons, and tracking down deals! My wife is amazing! I am so in love with her, and not just for her deal finding abilities!

This was too good not to share!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Daddy Diaper Duty- Meet the Man Bag

June 2, 2008 1 Comment

So, have you ever seen a man walking around the mall with a totally girlie diaper bag? Chances are that it could have been me that you saw. Even diaper bags that are supposed to be completely gender neutral still have a very feminine connotation to them. Especially when a dude is walking around with it.

So, here’s the problem. How do you take your kids out in public (equipped with all the necessary items that come along with taking a young kid out, i.e. diapers, wipes, cream, etc.) and still look like a man’s man. Well, after a while of searching, I think that I have found the answer. It is as close to a man’s diaper bag as I could come up with, which from here on out will be called a “man bag”.

Here’s a shot of my recent trip to the park with Noah, with my man bag.

So, that’s about as manly as you can make it. The bag slings over your shoulder. To you men out there carrying diaper bags… any ideas? Maybe we should get together and patent a diaper bag that any man would feel confident carrying! What do you think? Just a thought!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Why we had kids (part 2)

June 2, 2008 1 Comment

I’ve got to keep up with this guy. So, here is one other reason we had kids. Here’s part one. So anyway, it’s along the same vein as part one, but it is a little different anyhow. It’s a classic shot of my man Noah! Part one was so that we could have a natural alarm. Part two is, so that his sister would have the natural alarm too! Check out this shot. His expression is priceless!

Didn’t expect the next reason to come so quickly, but it sure did! Hope you guys have a great day. If you ever need to be woken up anytime before the sun rises, let me know, and I’ll send Noah over for a “Great” nights sleep.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Why we had kids #1

May 30, 2008 1 Comment

So, to borrow a theme/idea from Pete Wilson, i figured from time to time, I would inform you/remind you why Tiffany and I had kids. See, having kids has so many advantages. To those of you who are married, and waiting to have kids… Just jump in, have em. There’s all kinds of great advantages (other than tax rebates).

Like for instance, today, Noah (Our 2 1/2 year old) came in to our bedroom this morning at 5:30 in the morning. Nothing says good morning like an alarm that you don’t have to set the night before, and also an alarm that you never know when it is going to wake you up. You’ve got to love that.

This is reason #1 why we had kids…

In Faith in Real Life

Stop the motion…

May 29, 2008 No Comments

Have you ever felt like you just don’t stop. Of course you have. We all feel this way from time to time. There are times in my life when I feel like my body is moving even when I am standing perfectly still. It’s like when we reach to our pocket because we think that we feel our cell phone vibrate, even though it never physically vibrated. They have a medical term for that now. It’s called phantom vibration. Well, I think that this occurs in our lives too. We can get going so fast and in such a hurry, that we blow right through the times of rest and relaxation because we are feeling phantom “vibrations”. Our minds are so busy thinking of what tomorrow may bring, or what yesterday held that we don’t actually have time to REST and REFLECT on the RIGHT NOW, ENJOY the RIGHT NOW, EXPERIENCE the RIGHT NOW, and SEE what God may have for the RIGHT NOW.

Try it. I dare you to. Experience the right now. Remove distractions, and get in the RIGHT NOW.

I need to. I’m still feeling “phantom vibrations” from last week, let alone yesterday. It’s time we slow down and connect with one another, and with our God.

Let me know how it goes.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Memorial Day

May 24, 2008 1 Comment

Tiffany and I are planning on going to her parents house on Memorial Day. Then we are going to see some friends from NJ.

What are you doing this year for Memorial Day? Do you have any Memorial Day traditions?

And here is a secondary question… Seeing as how many people have bar’Bques, or cookouts, what is your favorite thing to have off of the grill?

In Faith in Real Life

I Luv NY

May 23, 2008 No Comments

So, as I said earlier, Tiffany and I have been going pretty hard and at a pretty fast pace recently and we decided that we needed a little time to spend together as a couple. This was awesome! Let me tell you… We just laughed together, listened to one another, held hands with one another, walked around with each other, and just spent some quality time together. The key words in that last sentence were “one another”. We did stuff together. I love Tiffany so much, and it was awesome just to be able to hang out together for a little while. We had a blast.

We went on a couple day trips. The first day we went to NY City. This was great. We’ve been talking about doing this for a long time. Finally we did it. We went into the city and just walked around and got lost. I got yelled at by a cop on a horse for something I didn’t do, and we had an awesome time. I almost met Ryan Cabrera, and then I was like, ah, who cares. So here are a few pictures from New York.

So, here was the only annoying thing about being in NY. People tried to sell me everything. They wanted me to buy, bus tours, maps, T-Shirts, comedy tickets, and any other sight-seeing paraphernalia. Here’s what bothered me though. Do I really look that different that I stand out from the melting pot of america? Do I talk that differently? Do I have the deer in the headlights look or something?

Have you ever been in a situation where you just clearly don’t belong? What was it?

It made me think though, this is how it should be for each one of us as Christians here on earth. The Bible tells us that we are strangers in this place. This is not our home. We eternally will be in Heaven, not here on earth. As a Christian, people should be looking at me and saying, hmm… he’s not like this world.

Just a few observations from my trip to NY.

Any thoughts?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Soup, Salad and bread…

May 23, 2008 No Comments

So, the other day we had a fundraising luncheon at church to help support our student center upgrades and renovation project. We decided to have Soup, Salad and a bread bar. This was a great plan so I thought. The week before we only had 30 people signed up. We decided to go ahead and prepare food for 200. Well… Let me tell you what that is like. Tons of fun… We made 10 gallons of soup, grilled 20 pounds of chicken, washed/sliced about 30 pounds of lettuce, and made 3 gallons of dressing. It was awesome. Well we had some good friends the Chester’s come over and help us cut, peel, dice, and slice all of the many ingredients. Here are a couple pictures. After all of this, Tiffany and I took 3 days off to be by ourselves. Pictures will follow for that too! But first the 10 pounds of carrots!

After all was said and done, and the dust cleared on Sunday we raised over 800 dollars, which is being matched by someone! We raised $1600! I need to thank Bryan Rhoads, and Matt Thompson in particular for giving up so much time and helping do tons of work! Also, to all of the students who served, cut, cleaned, washed, setup, tore down, moved, plated, cupped, poured, and helped on sunday, we are so thankful for each of you! You guys rock!

~Peter