Thanksgiving 2008

This was the first Thanksgiving that Cory and I got to spend the whole day together. It was amazing! We had a lot of fun hanging out with his family and laughing at the boys when they were doing stupid stuff. Here is a picture of the two of us on his aunt's couch.

There is Some Thing about Church

There is something about Church that is so personal and can shake someone to the core. I write this for many reasons. I have had issues with the church I currently go to and I also found out today that the head pastor at my church in Oregon was laid off.

Church is so personal to every person. There are many reasons for this, such as it is the one that you grew up in, and/or its where you first learned about Christ and/or its where you were baptized and/or where you have made your church family. However once you have been in a church for a while certain things begin to bug you, that is when problems begin in a church. After going through all of my ministry classes I feel extra critical about things once I go into a church. In my mind I evaluate the worship, the way the preacher preaches, how friendly the people are, who does the prayers and who is serving the communion. Now you may think well i understand a couple of those things but not all of them. But as I have been to many churches it is the most telling of the type of people allowed into those roles that says the most about a church. It says who is and isn't allowed to do certain things in the church. What is interesting is I thought we were at a period in time where sexism and racism should be diminishing at a rapid rate. But in my church women are not allowed to serve communion or lead a prayer in front of the congregation, this for obvious reason bug me, among other things.

What actually bothers me the most about church is how leadership forgets its role a lot of the time. A pastor is a head to lead a church in the direction of God. It is to follow His will to the best of his ability and be able to convey that to the Church (by the way we are all called to do this in some way or another it just may not be at the head of a church). A deacon's "job" is to be representatives of the will of the main population of the church. All though sometimes this position is not filled in the church I believe you should always have believers that are to be the representatives of the church to be able to ask for the things needed as the body as a whole.

Now sadly the next category of people I feel does not fulfill their role most of the time. The Elders description in the Bible is someone who first must be above reproach, married to one woman, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunk, not violent but gentle, not QUARRELSOME, not a lover of money, not a new Christian, most of all he must be well thought of by outsiders. Here is my main problem with most elders. They are quarrelsome. They think that they are right without explaining themselves or demonstrating that what they are doing is from the Lord. Now I know I can not judge heart and only God can do that but seriously people? Are you doing God's will without explaining why or how you got to the conclusion that God is directing you into that path? Are you truly looking after the well being of the church when most of the congregation will die within 10 years and your not doing anything to get new people in 9 months out of the year?

Half of the time I'm sitting in the church wondering why in the world this is the decision we have made. I know that a lot of people go to church for many reasons, but why do we let things get so bad before we try to fix them? I want to go to church and be excited to go have fellowship with other Christians instead of being disappointed knowing that majority of the church wont even connect with God on Sunday mornings. When will we demand more? When will we demand the change...I am thinking of starting my own church where we actually analyze the Bible and go back to what God's original intent was. When we could go back to having passion for Christ and truly be awestruck by what He did to save each one of us, and just connect with Him on a personal level. Anyone else want to start this with me?

I need help

I am spending Thanksgiving with Cory's family for the first time. On Thanksgiving it is his grandma's birthday so they want it to be extra special for her. I have asked what to bring and every time I was told nothing. The three sisters (Cory's mom is one of them) are doing everything. I don't want to be rude and show up empty handed. What do I bring? I was thinking another type of dessert other than pie, or should I just bring flowers? I know I should also get a gift for his grandma but I have no clue what she likes. For those of you who know my dad's side of the family his grandparents are like my dad's parents in some ways (whom I haven't seen since I was 16 for many reasons). So help what do I get them?!?!?

Cory gets Brownie Points

I didn't have a chance to post yesterday but Cory definitely got brownie points. Yesterday he showed up at my work with breakfast for me! I didn't ask him to or anything but he just thought I might want some breakfast...Boys learn from him.

I am sad with the results of yesterday

I know that people voted for Obama and that he won by the majority vote but I wonder how aware they are that the business that they work for will might have terrible repercussions based upon Obama's policy of how he wants to spread the wealth. I know that I work for small company there are only about 15 of us in total, but the company is over the limit of the 250,000 in a year. Most of the company is put in my both of my bosses names. We go back and forth with struggling for money and be okay for a month or two. The price of what we have to buy is high, plus paying employees, and now to pay extra guys for man power for this new law going into effect. But with the tax increases there is a real possibility that we will have to fire people in order to keep the business alive. These are good people who work off of Christian Principals and they might be screwed over in the end. It is a sad day for us.

On the good news Prop 8 passed which is such a relief, at least to me.

So We Work Together Now

As of yesterday Cory and I now work together. Reason being is that we are really short handed and because of a new federal act we have to drain every single pool and for every drain cover, chip out 3 inches to create a sump. Below are some pictures. The first being what we see when we remove the drain cover. The second is what Cory has to do in order for the pool to be in compliance.

Hopefully since I just tell him where to go and I don't really interact with him outside of that this will be really good. And Also YAY he has a job again!

By the way I know that this is boring to most people. I also realize that with all of this kind of talk I kinda sound like Jerry.

The Halloween Party

Although these aren't the greatest pictures here are some pictures of the Halloween party we went to in Temecula.

Cory was Jeff Gordon because apparently he looks like him, I was Marilyn Monroe

My and Shawna (Cory's Counsin's Wife and the hostess of the party)

Cory with Chris (Shawna's Husband). Chris was supposed to be the love guru but as the night went on he was either Moses, Jesus, or a Terrorist.

Chris and Jeff who are brothers. Both crazy and fun guys to hang out with

This is an added bonus of Cory and I at his Cousin Jeff's Wedding a couple of weeks ago