Sin? It's covered.

A couple questions came to mind this weekend while I was sitting in church listening to the sermon. These are questions most of us who are Christians may know, but if you don't know "church speak" you may not know the answers.

What's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? One thing. The Christian believes that Christ is God(Savior) and that without Christ he/she is destined for eternity apart from God. The non-Christian does not believe Christ is the Savior and God.

Christians believe they are "saved" by Christ. Does this mean we, I say we because I am a Christian by definition above, have somehow lost our humanity and are now perfect? Yes...OK...No and No :-), and far from it. My heart is inherently sinful by nature of being human. Sin is something I was born into because of the first sin by Adam (Eve's fault). I am born under that same curse from long ago. Because of that I also do certain things that are sinful, or sin. So, there is sin the noun (a curse), and sin the verb (a real time action like I punched that guy in the face because he looked at me funny). Both are real sin, and I have never punched a guy in the face because he looked at me funny.

So, God (Jesus) came to Earth, lived a sinless life, and was killed on the cross as a perfect and blameless sacrifice for the sins of ALL mankind. I now have been covered and my sins are forgiven. I now have Heaven to look forward to.

I believe Heaven will look like this, but way better. My job in Heaven will be to play Golf.

We Love Coffee.

Coffee Economy.

Coffee plant. Coffea aribica.

Coffee beans. Roasted.

Coffee Beans No No.

Do you drink it? Probably.

Why do we drink it? Caffeine. Here's what caffeine looks like.

Caffeine is a bitter white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and...(click here to read more about this drug)

Mmmm...I can't wait 'til my next cup.

Alcoholic in Christ.

A voice beats me, it's impossible to think.
A fall's on its way, I've become bigger, starting to sink.
Only darkness is offering its help, its ringing.
I look into nothing waiting for something. Nothing.

Passionate about what comes, I long for goodness and favor.
My sin arrives again and again like the sun rises to the day.
Darkness befriends in disquise, guilt takes me further, none the wise.
The battle not prepared for grows, tempting forever, Satan knows.

The tree is there but fatigue hinders my desire.
I ache for Christ like a child for love, it consumes like fire.
A touch that warms my within, like soothing water on my skin.
I turn towards it, He's there again. He's always been.

I can't lose sight or free the night while seized by my own will.
Failure to stand so strong, Holy Spirit be with me on and on.
Shadowed light below the Cross, it falls upon without loss.
I remember now, in God's embrace, He beat death and my sin erased.

I am free.

>>Written by me (JQ) in dedication to the alcoholics in my family, and in His family, who are covered in Christ.

Ugly Beauty.

Bogie, our Ugly Beauty dog, with Riley.

Licker. Stinky Breath.

Barking mad outside our paw streaked back door.

Napping with a blankie stuffed in his mouth. Stinky blankie.

Ugly Beauty.

Deep breath...4 weeks without LOST.

There, I said it. Saying "4 weeks without LOST" was as hard as The Fonz trying to say "I'm Sorruuu, Sorraaa, Sorry." It's an ETERNITY! Sure, I know it's just not "new" episodes but it might as well be off the air.

I suspect I may watch the reruns...and probably eat more than I should...and probably start biting my nails...and probably twirl my hair (if i had any)...and probably start drinking alone...and probably NOT be productive at all...for 4 weeks.

Pain, anguish, heartache, pizza are the only words that come to mind...

What are you going to do to cope? Maybe I'll do what you do.

Got 5 Billion Dollars?

What can you buy with 5 billion dollars? Here's a few things...

2,512,562,814 – 2 Liter bottles of Diet Pepsi @ $1.99ea from local convenient store.

1,388,888,888 – Gallons of gas @ $3.60ea in Portland, Oregon.

25,125,628 - iPod Nano’s @ $199ea from Best Buy.

58,823 - Kidneys @ $85,000ea on the black-market in India.

16,072 - Lamborghini Mercielagos @ $311,100 from Lamborghini.

18 - 777 Passenger Airliners @ $279,000,000ea from Boeing.

5 – Gallons of gas in 2009 @ $1 billion/per gallon in Portland, Oregon.

1 – Satellite Radio station @ $5 billion dollars from XM radio.

Do you Hulu?

It's obvious that the internet has changed since it's full consumerization in the 1990's. In my opinion the major change that has allowed super growth of the internet is the speed at which consumers are able to download content. Can you imagine trying to download YouTube videos on a 56K dialup connection? I mean people are still doing it but to really grasp everything the Internet offers, and enjoy it, you need a high speed Internet connection. I now live on a 3000K connection and I could never go back to a slower connection...spoiled for sure. All this high speed shtuff has laid the foundation for websites like Hulu.com. Downloadable video content blew up with YouTube, and now Hulu.com is trying to do the same with premium video content. It's just plain cool, and FREE.

What is Hulu.com? Hulu offers U.S. consumers a vast selection of premium video content, on demand, free and ad-supported: full episodes of TV shows, both current and classic, full-length movies, thousands of clips, and much more.


Now I can watch that Tom Brokaw Report I missed and my favorite Make Me A Supermodel episode...you know the one, anytime I want, for free. And it doesn't stop with TV, I can watch movies for free too.

Here's more nuts and bolts of Hulu.com, it's the "web's most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and more to deliver premium programming across all genres and formats, television shows, feature films, and clips." (That's straight from Hulu's site)

Check it out.

Oh...one thing I found that I don't like about Hulu. No LOST...yeah, that's a problem, but I can get those from ABC.com.

† Screwtape's Easter.

† Screwtape is the name of a Senior Demon from the fictional book The Screwtape Letters written by C.S. Lewis. "What if we found a long lost letter from old Screwtape instructing his nephew (Wormwood) on the horrors of the Ressurection?" was the question Bob Silver asked when he wrote this letter in the same fashion as C.S. Lewis wrote his book. It's well worth the read.

You can take our wives...

What’s your favorite movie speech or monologue of all time? Which one gives you chills everytime you hear it or see it. For me it’s this:

Braveheart Freedom Speech by William Wallace.

"I am William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?"

"Two thousand against ten?" - the veteran shouted. "No! We will run - and live!"

"Yes!" Wallace shouted back. "Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"



The running joke with my buddies is taking the last line of this famous speech and changing it to “…they may take our wives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

In all seriousness, this speech reminds me of one that Jesus would give us. He sees his army getting scared, doubting, and then he busts out his loving freedom speech to remind us that if we fight this battle we will be free because we are free in Him, always. And we will fight.

I have heard a form of the question so many times that starts “And dying in your bed many years from now...”, and when I hear that I know what my answer is, no matter how that question ends; I don’t even have to think about it.

I know what I want my legacy to be. Do you?

Shhh...play number 7.

Are your kids Hannah Montana fans? If they’re like my kids they must be. As we drive down the road we have to put in the HM CD and I hear the constant requests to play “number 1”, “number 7”, “number 9”, etc. Naturally, or unnaturally, over time I start to develop MY favorite HM songs. When they’re blurting our requests I’m thinking “Say this number or that number”, and as soon as I hear the one I want, I go to that one. Funny? Crazy? Weird? All the above. Nobody is more perplexed by this than me. Dude, I am old, and I am a dude. I listen to Kutless, Skillet, and occasionally some Metallica to keep it real. Hannah Montana?

My wife laughs and jokes about this. We were at Blockbuster Video a few months back, we split up looking for our favorite movie genres so we could regroup and try to convince each other of which movies to get. At the regroup my wife shows me three different movies and then pulls out this comment, “OH…and I picked this out for you.” I was like cool, the wife is thinkin’ about MY tastes. Then she hands me the Hannah Montana movie case. VERY FUNNY! We gut laughed for a bit before I said, “Let’s get it.” J/K! We did not get it.


I am not the only “dad” to do this. I know this first hand. My friend Eric, with 4 kids, and I work together and were on a lunch/errand trip around town recently. With the radio on we cruise around talking and ranting like most guys do. We pull up to a stop light, stop, and we both catch ourselves humming a HM song on the radio. I said, “You too huh?” He was like “Yeah”, forlorn and depressed. “It’s OK dude, it’s OK” I said with love and sincere compassion. We chuckled for a sec and then cleared our throats, stuck our chests out, and quickly changed the subject. The light turned green, we burned the tires like guys do, got to cruising speed as fast as possible, and put the whole conversation behind us.

I say oh well, what can you do? I love my kids and I want them to hear kid music. It just happens to be kinda catchy. FYI…I have NO Hannah Montana songs on my iPhone playlists…seriously…just Miley Cyrus. J

Familiar Face.

Do you recognize this friendly face?

It's Kerby from Coffee Bar in Scappoose (best coffee in Scappoose). For the past 5+ years she has been the constant through 3 different owners. She knows your drink and has it going before you order it (if you visit regularly). She does a great job managing the awesome staff there too, always welcoming and friendly.

If you visit CB regularly, give her a big high five and let her know she's awesome!

Today is my B-day.

I am 36.

Here are 4 famous people with my birthday, March 19. Obviously not the same year. Can you tell me who they are?

The last one may be obscure, unless you are "radio" Dave. (hint hint)

John is cool.

For those of you who haven't seen the TLC show John and Kate plus 8, it's time. If you have kids, one or two or any "normal" number of kids, this show will make you feel like your life is a vacation. a literal cake walk. Even with three kids, I can honestly say that, when things are looking grim and I am asking myself why I had 3, I watch this show and thank the good Lord above I don't have 8.

I really can't relate to John and Kate, with my 3 kids, while they have 8, but I really do relate to John. Guy to guy, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, we totally connect, we're buds. I wish my wife could see me on camera rolling my eyes like he rolls his at Kate. If you are a dad, and a husband, watch this show and you will see what I mean. John is cool. I will also say that he appears to have the most patience I have ever seen in a dad.

TLC will you come and do a show in our house so my wife can watch herself on camera and see how silly she is? I have seriously seen that same look, on Kate's face below, on my wife's face! Very funny. Keep up the good work John and Kate.

Flying Humans.

If you ever wanted to fly this sport will give you the chance.



Amazing!

This post sponsored by Red Bull Energy Drink.

A house divided.

Mark 3:25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." According to the Bible, we are headed for a serious fall. Somehow I don't think this is what the Bible is talking about.

Ducks vs. Beavers. Divided boys against girls. Houston, we have a problem.

Go Ducks!

Guilty Pleasure.

Once in a while I get on a kick of needing a kick. This drink is my guilty pleasure and I often find myself nodding off to sleep well after 1am after I have downed one of these earlier in the day. They definitely give you a kick.

These drinks get a bad rap and it's not hard to see why. Even though, as you can see by the label, this particular drink carries a variety of vitamins, it's not really that healthy for you. This drink is also not regulated by the FDA. There is no requirement to show us how much caffeine is actually in one of these drinks. The 16oz. Sugar Free Rockstar that I drink, on occasion, is said to have as much caffeine as 1 to 2 cups of coffee. OK, that's cool, but caffeine is said to also be potentially disguised in other ingredients like Taurine. Anyway you put it, energy drinks are loaded up to give you a buzz and young America is downing them one after the other.

Be careful though, if you need a buzz, be sure to drink these as responsibly as you would alcohol. I read a recent article of a young man that was drinking 8 16 ounce Rockstars a night just to get through his night shift at work. He was rushed to the hospital with basically an overdose. Yah, I said EIGHT, that's a Freegan gallon!

Speaking of alcohol, these drinks are often used as mixers with hard alcohol like Vodka, Rum, and Tequila. The thought being that because these energy drinks have so much caffeine in them it would reduce the effects of the alcohol. Well, the only thing it's been shown to reduce is your awareness of how much you have really drank. In other words, folks were less likely to realize they were drunk making them a larger threat to do such things as drink and drive. Scary.

Side Note: One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor! Five Tequila, Six Tequila, Seven Tequila, Morgue!

So what's the morale of this story. I have no idea.

How about this? Moderation.

JT speaks.

JT's first interview. He is going to be famous someday so I figured I would get him started speaking into a microphone now. Click the following link to listen to his interview answers. (fyi...it's a large mp3 file so it may take some time do start.)

JT Speaks.

A special thanks to Radio Dave for letting us use his studio to conduct the interview. Hey Dave, I am perfectly OK with you getting JT into radio. Maybe he can be a DJ like you!

Also, on the way home from Dave's, all the way across the street, JT beat me home and thought it would be funny to lock me out. I recorded the whole thing and it's quite funny. Take a look.


He's a stinker.

Almost 2 years ago.

I heard for so long that I didn't look healthy, I looked tired, I was gaining weight, I was forgetting things, but I just thought I was out of shape. Well I was out of shape, but not in the traditional sense of the phrase. I was just plain sick. Here is what happened nearly two years ago.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease or Hypothyroidism. Basically, my body was attacking my Thyroid Gland thinking it was some foreign object in my body. My body was slowly shutting down due to lack of thyroid and I was slowly dying, or at least it seemed that way. My metabolism was gone. Here is a list of symptoms associated with this disease, I had ALL of them.

1. Increased sensitivity to cold


2. Constipation (TMI...sorry)


3. Pale, dry skin


4. A puffy face


5. Hoarse voice


6. An elevated blood cholesterol level


7. Unexplained weight gain — occurring infrequently and rarely more than 10 to 20 pounds, most of which is fluid


8. Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, especially in your shoulders and hips


9. Pain and stiffness in your joints and swelling in your knees or the small joints in your hands and feet


10. Muscle weakness, especially in your lower extremities


11. Depression

Here is a picture of me just before diagnosis. (JT is sooo cute)

I honestly don't know how long ago that my thyroid started to die but looking back at old pictures I see big changes around the time Fisher was born. I sometimes wonder if the trauma around that event, the greatest stress I have ever known, had an adverse effect on my body. God will let me know some day. :-)

Anyways, my doctor told me that my low levels of Thyroid hormone were so low they were off the chart. I was the worst case he had seen. Thanks Doc, I already feel better. :-) But what he told me was that because it was treatable, with a simple synthetic thyroid pill for the rest of my life, that I was going to start feeling better in short order. I was going to get my life back. I started to cry in the room on the spot.

In between the time I first had blood drawn and my diagnosis of low thyroid, I was sent to get a sleep study done. I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea . I spent the night in a hospital room hooked to a dozen wires and was basically told that I was stopping breathing an average of 60-80 times per hour. So, my body would begin to relax, fall asleep, and my airway would close and my body would twitch, to wake me up (although I didn't fully become conscious), to open the airway to get a breath. Found this cool drawing below for visual aid.

I was never conscious of the fact that my body was doing this. That's the scary part. I thought I was sleeping. Kelly had woke me many times to tell me to breath because I had stopped. I just figured I was snoring. Because my body never really went into deep sleep, REM sleep, I was getting about 10 minutes of sleep per hour, and that was cumulative throughout the hour, not even 10 minutes in a row. The doctor's made me take a sleeping machine home right away and required me to wear it moving forward, they feared if I didn't start sleeping with it right away that I could die in my sleep. It was that bad.

It took some time to catch up on sleep after not sleeping for years. My life has changed in the last two years since going to the docs and getting help. I had become nearly comatose. Sleepy during the day and not interacting with my family. I could do nothing. All my energy was used trying to maintain my job and by the time I got home I was not able to function. Not much help to a wife and three kids. So needless to say my wife, kids, and I are happy campers now.

I have to maintain my thyroid levels with medication and go to the doctor to have them checked whenever I feel more tired than usual. I haven't been able to shed all the weight since my diagnosis two years ago but I'll hang on to the weight for the "new" life I now have.

I guess I have a couple words of advice, so here goes: Never wait to go see a doctor when you think something may be wrong with you, mentally or physically. And if others are telling you they think something is wrong, you are already behind the eight ball. GO GET HELP.

Here I am with my family now.

Thank you God for developing medical treatments for folks like me. You have given me my life back.

Ugly Cry.

I cry every time I see this; in fact I nearly bawl; in further fact I get that quivering lip and almost get that thing Oprah calls (dang, I'm using another Oprah reference...time to sell the Miata) the "ugly" cry. You know, when you just lose it but try to hold it back and it comes out like, well, ugly. This video really affects me. Especially the second and third times I watched it.

God's love is so powerful yet so tender and graceful. He loves us and never leaves us. He's right there.

Reach out to him.

Napping.

JT is quite a character. At Sportsman's Warehouse today I told JT it was time for a nap since he was acting up. He decided it was a good idea and headed straight into the tent with the cot. Check out the video.



One of the reasons I was saying he needed a nap is because he was using bad words. He was hiding in the store, I think in some racks of clothes, and my Dad was calling "Jaxon, where are you?", kind of playing with him. My Dad begins to chuckle about something JT said that I didn't hear. I asked Dad what it was and he said JT replied "I'm right here STUPID!" I was like, SAY WHA?


So I go to Jaxon and say "JT we don't call people stupid, EVER." To which he replies "I didn't say stupid, I said DOOFUS."

Of course I LOST it and belly laughed for a moment. Then reminded him we don't call people bad words period. Somehow I think he didn't take me seriously.

Sausage, Egg, and Hashbrown McNussin.

6:30 am. Stop by Coffee Bar and grab my incredibly delicious Venti Iced Americano w/ Cream. Best in the 'Poose by far.

6:33 am. Stop by Mickey D's and grab a Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg and two Hashbrowns (2 for a buck or one for .99 cents, I am getting two even if I shouldn't).

As you can see by the pic I sometimes add one of the Hashbrowns to my sammy. I call that the Sausage, Egg, and Hashbrown McNussin.

Then I pop my cholesterol and blood pressure pills. GTG.

Sweet Ride.

Hold On!

Fisher tries to hold on once the slide hits the end of it's road.

How often do we hang on for dear life when we hit the end of our "slide"? Maybe it would be less painful or less dangerous to just let go? Let go and let God.

Pa Joe and the glasses.

The kids had fun trying on Pa Joe's glasses. I tried to get them to come close to pose for the pics and they each nearly fell because of the prescription.

Here's Roo-Zee.

Here's Fishman.

Here's Pa Joe with the kids.

Happy 79th Birthday Pa Joe! We love you.

Full Moon.

I hope this picture doesn't offend anyone. It shouldn't...

...because it's just my elbow. Geez...you think I would really put a "full moon" on this family oriented blog? :-)

We were just having a little family fun on the way home from Pa Joe's birthday party. Gotta make a 45 minute drive interesting for the kids. We had a good laugh over this.

For the first time in a year.

The Miata fits in the garage.

After 4-5 hours of cleaning the garage has room and IS clean...well...almost clean...still some organizing and shtuff to do.

iPhone, Cool.

So I did it. I got the iPhone just yesterday. It's amazing. Sure it's an Apple product, and I am taking heat for it because my workplace is primarily a Microsoft shop and we are a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, but who cares, the iPhone is just plain awesome.

The coolest thing so far is the web browsing experience with its scalable zoom in and out with the touch of your fingers. Of course the cool features are really endless but too many to list.

With the release of Microsoft Exchange compatability for the iPhone just today, at least in private beta, I am very close to having the perfect phone. Now they just need the ability to take video.

iPhone is cool.

Kel's Revolution

In a world where she already has too much to do, Kelly, the soccer/basketball/football/swimming/coffeebar/gwpo/etc mom, the wife, the entrepreneur, the CEO of our home, embarks on a journey into blogging. Just when we thought there wasn't any more time in the day, the week, the month, she busts out some pics and some type, weblogging her "next".

It's started a revolution in our circle with Dave, our "big deal" in the hood, and myself, blogging this very second, popping out blogs within a few days/weeks of Kel's. "What Kelly Did Next" is the blog and it adorns pics and stories of family, friends, funny quotes, and most of all a little peek into Kel's deep and fascinating personality. If you haven't seen it check it out.

What Kelly Did Next

And Dave's is here: A Day in the Life of Dave

Thanks Kel for being a Pioneer, if only in the hood.