"saying goodbye... part one"
Friday, September 12, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos |
my life
today’s word was supposed
to be “test.” we were going to still try to work it in
to the day to create a brighter spot, but Stacy got
called in to work (which caused untold chaos with the
family anyway) and so we didn’t get to do that.
this morning was the graveside service for grandma. mom and dad had asked me to do the service. it was just us so it was a little odd. but with our family, it was, of course, interesting! :-)
Stacy, Megan and i got there before everyone else. Aunt Pam showed up next and my parents, Meri, Martha and Virginia were about 10 minutes late. so, as they walked up, Stacy, Megan, and Pam stood in a line while i held up my Bible and pretended to be finishing the service. as they got closer, i said “amen!” and we all started walking away. we all laughed a bit and then we had to do the service.
i talked about how for us, this was the beginning of a weekend of celebrating who Grandma was to us. i read some verses and we said goodbye. it was short and to the point.
after, we all went to Mimi’s for lunch. later, i picked up Jody up from the airport and we all went up to my parent’s to hang out with the fam, the Corks and the Chandlers. it was exactly what we needed to celebrate who Grandma was.
tomorrow is the memorial service at the house.
here’s the puzzle clue for today that we didnt’ get to do yet.
this morning was the graveside service for grandma. mom and dad had asked me to do the service. it was just us so it was a little odd. but with our family, it was, of course, interesting! :-)
Stacy, Megan and i got there before everyone else. Aunt Pam showed up next and my parents, Meri, Martha and Virginia were about 10 minutes late. so, as they walked up, Stacy, Megan, and Pam stood in a line while i held up my Bible and pretended to be finishing the service. as they got closer, i said “amen!” and we all started walking away. we all laughed a bit and then we had to do the service.
i talked about how for us, this was the beginning of a weekend of celebrating who Grandma was to us. i read some verses and we said goodbye. it was short and to the point.
after, we all went to Mimi’s for lunch. later, i picked up Jody up from the airport and we all went up to my parent’s to hang out with the fam, the Corks and the Chandlers. it was exactly what we needed to celebrate who Grandma was.
tomorrow is the memorial service at the house.
here’s the puzzle clue for today that we didnt’ get to do yet.
|
"relax"
Thursday, September 11, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
word of the day ::
“relax”
i had to do a video shoot for Michael at Biola today, so Stacy came up and picked me up there when i was done. she wouldn’t tell me where we were going, but she said it fit in with the theme of “relax.”
we drove for a while and pulled up at this small strip mall in San Gabriel. at first i was a bit confused... and then i saw it. the sign for a Chinese Foot Massage place. i freakin’ love foot massages!
and this place only cost $15 for an hour! they soak your feet in tea water for a half hour (whilst they massage your back, arms, shoulders and scalp) and then massage your feet for a half hour. yeah... it was pretty amazing. and all for $15!!!!
unfortunately, it was so relaxing that we forgot to take pictures of the place. (crap!)
anyway, when we got back tonight, Stacy made me try on the Biola sweatshirt she got me on Monday. i hung my head in shame for betraying Pepperdine and allowed her to take a picture.
i had to do a video shoot for Michael at Biola today, so Stacy came up and picked me up there when i was done. she wouldn’t tell me where we were going, but she said it fit in with the theme of “relax.”
we drove for a while and pulled up at this small strip mall in San Gabriel. at first i was a bit confused... and then i saw it. the sign for a Chinese Foot Massage place. i freakin’ love foot massages!
and this place only cost $15 for an hour! they soak your feet in tea water for a half hour (whilst they massage your back, arms, shoulders and scalp) and then massage your feet for a half hour. yeah... it was pretty amazing. and all for $15!!!!
unfortunately, it was so relaxing that we forgot to take pictures of the place. (crap!)
anyway, when we got back tonight, Stacy made me try on the Biola sweatshirt she got me on Monday. i hung my head in shame for betraying Pepperdine and allowed her to take a picture.
"simple"
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos |
deep
thoughts
today’s word was
“simple.” it was a relaxing day and Stacy gave me a
picture frame.
aside from this week being my birthday week, at ROCKHARBOR it’s also been what we’ve been calling “seek week.” you see, this weekend we’re launching the new “awakening” vision for the next year. but a few weeks ago, Todd felt like God was saying that we needed to really hand the new vision over to Him in prayer. so, he and the Strat Team called for a week of prayer. everyone on staff was asked to do the bare minimum this week as far as work is concerned. prayer meetings were called every day at 6 am, noon and 7 pm. the entire community was invited to the prayer meetings. also, we had people in The Centre all day every day for anyone who needed prayer.
to be honest, i didn’t think people were going to get into it. i couldn’t have been more wrong. i haven’t made it to any of the 6 am meetings, but the noon meetings have had a couple hundred people at them (people coming on their lunch breaks) and the evening meetings have all had around 1,000 people! it’s been pretty amazing. and we’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff.
tonight was the highlight of the week (so far) for me. the theme of tonight was prayer for our families. Michelle and Roger led a time of directed prayer for the families of our nation, community and church. but the best was when Michelle led the parents in a time of praying blessings over their children. parents all over the room were looking their children in the eyes, telling them how much they loved them and praying for them. it was incredible.
i prayed with one family where the mom was looking her 9 year old in the eyes and telling her she loved her and praying over her. as she finished, her seven year old daughter (who was adopted from Iran last year) looked at her mom and said “mommy, bless me... bless me now!” the mom was crying. the daughters experienced the love of their mother and the love of God. and this was happening with dozens of families all over The Centre.
one thing that happens quite often with our Families team is that was have to “afterglow” (as Michelle calls it). basically, it just means that when we have an event or a cool experience, our team just feels the need to sit around and talk about it and revel in the greatness of the moment. tonight, some of us decided to do this at Norm’s. so, we all headed down to Norm’s and had some late night greasy food and laughed a lot.
it was perfect.
it was simple.
oh... and for some reason, as we were leaving, there were two middle-aged men playing football in the parking lot of Norm’s at 1.00 am. weird.
aside from this week being my birthday week, at ROCKHARBOR it’s also been what we’ve been calling “seek week.” you see, this weekend we’re launching the new “awakening” vision for the next year. but a few weeks ago, Todd felt like God was saying that we needed to really hand the new vision over to Him in prayer. so, he and the Strat Team called for a week of prayer. everyone on staff was asked to do the bare minimum this week as far as work is concerned. prayer meetings were called every day at 6 am, noon and 7 pm. the entire community was invited to the prayer meetings. also, we had people in The Centre all day every day for anyone who needed prayer.
to be honest, i didn’t think people were going to get into it. i couldn’t have been more wrong. i haven’t made it to any of the 6 am meetings, but the noon meetings have had a couple hundred people at them (people coming on their lunch breaks) and the evening meetings have all had around 1,000 people! it’s been pretty amazing. and we’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff.
tonight was the highlight of the week (so far) for me. the theme of tonight was prayer for our families. Michelle and Roger led a time of directed prayer for the families of our nation, community and church. but the best was when Michelle led the parents in a time of praying blessings over their children. parents all over the room were looking their children in the eyes, telling them how much they loved them and praying for them. it was incredible.
i prayed with one family where the mom was looking her 9 year old in the eyes and telling her she loved her and praying over her. as she finished, her seven year old daughter (who was adopted from Iran last year) looked at her mom and said “mommy, bless me... bless me now!” the mom was crying. the daughters experienced the love of their mother and the love of God. and this was happening with dozens of families all over The Centre.
one thing that happens quite often with our Families team is that was have to “afterglow” (as Michelle calls it). basically, it just means that when we have an event or a cool experience, our team just feels the need to sit around and talk about it and revel in the greatness of the moment. tonight, some of us decided to do this at Norm’s. so, we all headed down to Norm’s and had some late night greasy food and laughed a lot.
it was perfect.
it was simple.
oh... and for some reason, as we were leaving, there were two middle-aged men playing football in the parking lot of Norm’s at 1.00 am. weird.
"memories"
Tuesday, September 09, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
today was my birthday...
30 years! holy old.
today’s word was “memories” and this was the puzzle i got...
when i got to work, she’d decorated my workspace. as you probably know, i have been collecting the Mountain Dew Green Label Art bottles. Stacy passed out cans of Dew to a bunch of people in the office and asked them to decorate them and creat our own ROCKHARBOR Label Art collection. it was a pretty cool idea and i got some fairly creative entries.
after work, we got in Stacy’s car and drove for a while not knowing where we were going. in the end, we found ourselves in Santa Monica where we met Megan for dinner at Houston’s on 3rd Street. i’d never been there before, so i was pretty excited. (and the food was excellent!)
after dinner, we walked around 3rd Street and saw the coolest dog tricks i’ve ever seen. (check out the Jack Russell on the skateboard!)
while we were walking around 3rd Street, i got a text from Katie saying “Happy Birthday.” when i texted back that we were here, she asked if she and Alec could come and see us. i said, “of course!” and so we got to hang out with them too!
all-in-all... an excellent birthday!
today’s word was “memories” and this was the puzzle i got...
when i got to work, she’d decorated my workspace. as you probably know, i have been collecting the Mountain Dew Green Label Art bottles. Stacy passed out cans of Dew to a bunch of people in the office and asked them to decorate them and creat our own ROCKHARBOR Label Art collection. it was a pretty cool idea and i got some fairly creative entries.
after work, we got in Stacy’s car and drove for a while not knowing where we were going. in the end, we found ourselves in Santa Monica where we met Megan for dinner at Houston’s on 3rd Street. i’d never been there before, so i was pretty excited. (and the food was excellent!)
after dinner, we walked around 3rd Street and saw the coolest dog tricks i’ve ever seen. (check out the Jack Russell on the skateboard!)
while we were walking around 3rd Street, i got a text from Katie saying “Happy Birthday.” when i texted back that we were here, she asked if she and Alec could come and see us. i said, “of course!” and so we got to hang out with them too!
all-in-all... an excellent birthday!
"starting new"
Monday, September 08, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos |
my life
first, i weighed in this
morning.
today’s words from Stacy were “Starting New.” i found this puzzle in my car. at the front desk was a Biola Sweatshirt as today was my first day teaching at Biola University.
i’m teaching two classes at Biola this semester. the first is an internship class and the second is an evangelism and discipleship class. today was my first day and it was pretty freakin’ awesome!
today’s words from Stacy were “Starting New.” i found this puzzle in my car. at the front desk was a Biola Sweatshirt as today was my first day teaching at Biola University.
i’m teaching two classes at Biola this semester. the first is an internship class and the second is an evangelism and discipleship class. today was my first day and it was pretty freakin’ awesome!
"starting bad and ending well"
Sunday, September 07, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos |
my life
i woke up this morning to
the ringing of my phone. before i answered, somehow i
just knew...
Grandma Jeanne had passed away.
now, it’s not like we didn’t see it coming... we did. in fact, over the past few years, we’d gotten used to being told “she’s only got a day or two left,” but then she’d always make some miraculous recovery and be home in a day or two.
fortunately, this wasn’t like any of those times. there was no traumatic episode or rush to the hospital. she simply went peacefully in the night.
after i got the news, i still had to go and work at church. after church, i was supposed to go sailing with Michael Anthony, Kit and Tommy. however, given the events of the day, i headed up to the house to be with my family. we spent the afternoon eating (a lot) and talking and laughing. it was good to be together.
Stacy stayed home today because she had planned something for tonight to kick off my birthday week. when i got back to my place around 5.30, she was in the kitchen preparing a dinner for me. i took a quick nap and when i got up she had finished cooking. but then things got a little weird.
dinner was ready, but she just kept talking instead of serving the food. then the doorbell rang. it was Tommy. he said that he was driving back from the marina (they went sailing without me) and had a birthday present he wanted to drop off. (a signed copy of his old Basix cd... best present ever!) he gave it to me... we laughed... he said he didn’t want to interrupt our “romantic dinner”... and then he kept talking. then the doorbell rang again. it was Timmy.
i knew that Timmy had taken my place on the sailing trip and so, i assumed that he must have been parking the car or waiting in the car for Tommy and had gotten sick of waiting. but as we’re talking, Stacy reaches into a cabinet and pulls out a whole bowl of popcorn. this confused me a bit. just then, the front door opened again and in came more people. it was a reverse surprise party! (very creative)
the title of the party was “the one where matt turns 30” (just like the “Friends” episode) and was mostly like a kid’s birthday party. we had hats, toys and even a piñata! it was pretty awesome.
at the end of the night, Stacy gave me a gift that it took me a while to understand. (i’m slow like that.) it was a series of picture frames each with a word for each day of the coming week. these were to be hints of what that day would hold. the words were “surprise” (for today), “starting new,” “memories,” “simple,” “relax,” and “test.” i’m excited to see what she’s got planned!
here are the pictures from the party...
Grandma Jeanne had passed away.
now, it’s not like we didn’t see it coming... we did. in fact, over the past few years, we’d gotten used to being told “she’s only got a day or two left,” but then she’d always make some miraculous recovery and be home in a day or two.
fortunately, this wasn’t like any of those times. there was no traumatic episode or rush to the hospital. she simply went peacefully in the night.
after i got the news, i still had to go and work at church. after church, i was supposed to go sailing with Michael Anthony, Kit and Tommy. however, given the events of the day, i headed up to the house to be with my family. we spent the afternoon eating (a lot) and talking and laughing. it was good to be together.
Stacy stayed home today because she had planned something for tonight to kick off my birthday week. when i got back to my place around 5.30, she was in the kitchen preparing a dinner for me. i took a quick nap and when i got up she had finished cooking. but then things got a little weird.
dinner was ready, but she just kept talking instead of serving the food. then the doorbell rang. it was Tommy. he said that he was driving back from the marina (they went sailing without me) and had a birthday present he wanted to drop off. (a signed copy of his old Basix cd... best present ever!) he gave it to me... we laughed... he said he didn’t want to interrupt our “romantic dinner”... and then he kept talking. then the doorbell rang again. it was Timmy.
i knew that Timmy had taken my place on the sailing trip and so, i assumed that he must have been parking the car or waiting in the car for Tommy and had gotten sick of waiting. but as we’re talking, Stacy reaches into a cabinet and pulls out a whole bowl of popcorn. this confused me a bit. just then, the front door opened again and in came more people. it was a reverse surprise party! (very creative)
the title of the party was “the one where matt turns 30” (just like the “Friends” episode) and was mostly like a kid’s birthday party. we had hats, toys and even a piñata! it was pretty awesome.
at the end of the night, Stacy gave me a gift that it took me a while to understand. (i’m slow like that.) it was a series of picture frames each with a word for each day of the coming week. these were to be hints of what that day would hold. the words were “surprise” (for today), “starting new,” “memories,” “simple,” “relax,” and “test.” i’m excited to see what she’s got planned!
here are the pictures from the party...
"stacy's back..."
Saturday, September 06, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
"a new photo"
Friday, September 05, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
as you probably know, i
edit our Family Time Curriculum at ROCKHARBOR.
as i was doing this month’s edition, i realized that
the picture of me that we’ve been using in it was from
my pre-weight watchers days. it was time for a new
headshot for a thinner matt. this is it. (though in the
curriculum it’s cropped down to just a headshot.)
"a night at home with Rambo"
Thursday, September 04, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
"another birthday celebration and a sleepover"
Monday, September 01, 2008 Filed in: daily
photos
