here’s what the fireplace looked like after we set it up (at my parent’s house)...



tonight, Stacy and Tammy wanted to get a Christmas tree. so, i went with them over to Home Depot to pick one up. they kept smelling them. i think that’s weird.

our family has a tradition that we usually set up Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. somehow, this year, that got pushed off to the day after the day after Thanksgiving.

anyway, we met up at the house along with Brett and Dakota and began to take Christmas out of storage. another tradition me and my sisters have is to put Santa and Mrs. Claus in inappropriate (read sexually compromising) positions in order to freak my mom out. of course, at this point, she doesn’t freak out as much anymore but she does still get a little ruffled and it’s entertaining.



Dakota looked ridiculously cute today... especially after she found this crown somewhere in the house.



we went to see Scout again, and (though it’s hard to tell here), he actually looked much better. they say he’ll be able to come home in a few days. (which is a bit hard to believe.)

it’s Thanksgiving!

we headed up to my parent’s house. we didn’t have as many family members there as usual since Amie was in Indiana and Andy moved to Australia. but Megan brought Ryan (more on that in a moment) and Stacy brought her mom, sister and the kids.



after dinner, Ryan decided to get my dad by smashing his face in a plate of whipped cream... it was pretty awesome! (anyone that ballsy is more than welcome in our house!)



dad was shocked and got him back in very unoriginal style.



we had originally planned on going to a movie after dinner. but this is what happens every year. we decide to see a movie. the time comes to go. we debate whether we should really go or not. and then it’s about an 80% chance that we won’t end up going. we didn’t go this year. instead, we watched “As Good As It Gets” at home.


(Meri loves it when i take pictures of her.)

finally, Scout had a bad week. yesterday, he got out and was attacked by a bobcat. he’s in the hospital and they’re not totally sure he’s going to make it. so, we decided to end the night by going to visit him. he did not look good.

today was our annual staff football game. we always face off against another church staff the day before Thanksgiving. usually, it’s called the TurkeyBowl. however, since it was just us and Saddleback today, we called it Purpose-Driven Football.

unfortunately, we lost in OT. it was really close though and our team did a great job! of course, since i am athletically useless for such a competition, i brought my camera and took pictures for everyone.

there are two bands that i will see every time they come through town if i can...

U2 and Coldplay.

Coldplay was at the Pond (Honda Center) tonight, so... of course... so was i!

it was great. they have seriously gotten better every time i’ve seen them. so talented.

on top of that, it was POURING rain outside and we parked about 1/2 a mile away and had no umbrella. so, we really were playing in the cold as we ran to the concert and back.

i got to Biola early this morning and found this park bench. so, i just chilled here for a bit and read out of “Permission Evangelism” (great book!).

went in to the Outlet (our middle school Sunday celebration service) today. i haven’t spent a lot of time in there, so it was good to see what they’re up to. (especially since i’m speaking in there soon!)

Megan, Meri and i had a little iChat about our holiday plans today. they weren’t thrilled that i was taking pictures.

tonight, we had all of our elementary volunteers over for an early Thanksgiving dinner at my place.

this morning, i went down to the beach to watch Stacy surf. however, by the time i got there, she was out of the water because it was so foggy and the waves weren’t great. oh well. i like it down there in the mornings. very peaceful.



later, we went up and saw the kids and i read to them for a bit. they don’t care what the words are... they make up their own stories to go along with the pictures.

after work today, Stacy and i were hanging out at my place when i decided i needed a nap. before i went in to lay down for 20 minutes or so, i told Stacy that i’d been thinking about buzzing my head again. she said “cool” and that was that.

about 10 minutes into my nap i woke up. when i walked out 10 minutes later, i had no hair.

i wanted to go a little faster.

since the fires were so close to Erin’s house, she and the kids came and stayed with Stacy. so, this morning they came to church.

only about 15 minutes into service, Nani’s pager goes off meaning that Erin needs to come and get her because something’s wrong. being that Erin’s already on edge because of the fires, i took the pager and went to see what was going on. Nani was throwing a huge tantrum. (normally she’s really good, but today she did not want to be alone.)

so, i took her and we went over to the Lab service kids rooms and hung out. she was fine once i was there, but i’m still not sure what was up with that.

Stacy and i met up with Megan at Koji’s for lunch today.



of course, we knew about the fires that were burning behind Yorba Linda, but we didn’t realize how bad they were. by the time we came out of the restaurant, this is what the sky looked like.



the weird thing was, the smoke never made its way down to South County. in fact, it was beautiful and really clear in Irvine. tonight, it was so clear, i took this picture from my balcony.

we decided she was old enough.

we may have been wrong.

either way, today was the day that we took Nani on her first trip to Disneyland.

(she wasn’t big on the rides but LOVED the fountains and the carousel.)

every year, the girls of the ROCKHARBOR staff have a “Girls Day Away” where they go and do whatever girls do when they all get together. (i think it was a spa day.) apparently, for years, the guys have been talking about doing one for themselves but, as Stacy Scott pointed out, they could never get one of the girls to organize it for them.

all that has changed.

tonight was the men’s night.

we started at ROCKHARBOR (behind 3080) with a gaming truck. this thing was pretty cool. basically, it was a big trailer with about 15 XBox stations in it. the guys piled in and we played Halo 3 for about three hours straight.

(by the way, Mike Erre is ridiculously good at Halo. Pete Shambrook gets incredibly intense when he plays. to the point that he doesn’t hear you if you try to talk to him. Shawn Scott and i sucked and spent most of the time talking.)



after that, it was off to the movies for the midnight screening of “The Quantum of Solace.” (it wasn’t great.)



but, we had a great night and it was really good to get to know some of the guys a bit better.

last week, our extended family suffered a loss.

as some of you know, my cousin, Jordan, has been living with my parents for the past few months. we’ve become pretty close to him over the past years as he and Megan graduated from Pepperdine together. aside from Jordan, we’re not very close with his family or that side of the family. he’s kind of a more distant cousin and we only got connected with him because of he and Megan going to Pepperdine together.

anyway, Jordan’s brother, Jared, passed away last week. today was the funeral. i went up with Bekie and met Megan and my parents there.

it was a bit awkward for a few reasons. first, we aren’t very close to that side of the family. second, it was kind of like a family reunion, but under horrible circumstances. (those are always awkward anyway.) third, they asked Matthew Cork to do the message and i think that trying to give hope and peace to a family you don’t know of a person who took their own life is a difficult thing. (Matthew did a great job and i don’t envy him that task.)

Jordan and his family are, of course, a wreck right now. it’s hard to see anyone going through that kind of pain. i wasn’t sure if i should be there at first, but i’m glad i went now. i know Jordan appreciated it.

obviously, it would have been highly inappropriate to be snapping pictures during the service, but i did take one quick one from the car as we were leaving the graveside service. at least it was a very beautiful day.



on a more positive note, Bekie and i had a great time catching up on the rides up and back. also, she made me go to the Urgent Care to get my foot looked at because i had refused to do so. (it was a little infected.)

tonight, i taught the Big God Story in my evangelism and discipleship class. but, before i did, i wanted to see how much these Bible school kids knew. so, i had them put the events of the Bible in order from beginning to end.

they did alright! (of course, with 39 kids, you should be able to do that.)

Stacy taught in Studio K this morning (and last night too).



today was mom’s birthday so we went to dinner at Roy’s (as we always do for her birthday).

today... i realized that i, matthew morgan barnes, am a man of great influence and power.

as of today, November 8th, 2008... there is Mountain Dew in the ROCKHARBOR staff vending machine.

Chino’s big into cars now so we thought we’d take the kids down to Cars and Coffee this morning. it was fun! (i love the way Nani came running to me when she saw me from down the path. so freakin’ cute!)

so, tonight we were supposed to go to Disneyland with a bunch of people from work. i was very excited about this.

Stacy was on her way over to my house so we could go when disaster struck. as i was opening the door to my bedroom, my foot got in the way (bad foot!) and the door (with a metal strip running down the side of it) went over the top of my foot and the metal strip cut it pretty badly.

i didn’t feel it at first. i wasn’t looking that way, but just from the way the door felt as i pushed it open, i knew something wasn’t right. then i looked down.

mucho blood.

i knew that the shock of it would wear off pretty quickly so i took advantage of the lack of pain that i was experiencing. i started to think about whether i had any large bandages or not... just as i began to realize that i didn’t, the pain kicked in.

HOLY CRAP ON A STICK!!!! (it was painful.)

all i could come up with to stop the bleeding was wrapping my foot in paper towels and painters tape. so, that’s what i did.

and then i called Stacy and said “so... i think we’re probably not going to Disneyland, but if you could pick up some large bandages on your way over, that would be awesome!”

she was a little confused at first, but then i explained the situation and the level of pain i was experiencing. she came quickly with bandages.

we didn’t go to Disneyland.

we watched “Across the Universe” instead. (a descent but too long movie that made some obvious plot sacrifices to fit in particular songs.)

good night!

on our first date, Stacy and i went to Koji’s and then went bowling.

tonight, we tried a new Japanese place (“Tokyo Table”) and went bowling at Strike @ the District.

first, i led worship in Studio K this morning...



then i went over to The Outlet (middle school) to watch Jeff lead worship there.

tonight, Megan and Carly Manarelli got baptized in the service at ROCKHARBOR. Megan is a 5th grader who i’ve known for a year and a half now and Carly is her 1st grade sister who is, clearly, my best friend. anyway, when you’re getting baptized, you can ask for anyone you want to actually do it and Megan asked me. (Carly asked Stacy.) this was a very cool honor.

now, if you’ve never been to a baptism at ROCKHARBOR, let me set the stage for you. it’s just about the end of the service and there is an inflatable pool on stage. as each person is brought up to be baptized, the worship team is playing and the whole place is singing. each time a person goes under, the place goes nuts. i mean... yelling and cheering like the home team just scored a touchdown. (the first, and probably last sports analogy you’ll ever read on this blog.) it’s a pretty cool experience and i try to make it to all of them.

i’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. (look for Poison guitarist, CeCe Deville in one of the pictures. i guess he became a Christian and has been coming to ROCKHARBOR for a while now.)

the organization Megan goes to Africa with (“Angels of East Africa”) is auctioning off a custom West Coast Chopper and was down at Cars and Coffee this morning.