the good o' blog…

636.benjamin’s wedding went really well.  Besides what it meant to me just to be involved in this wedding… it was special to be in the wedding party with Alisha on the same stage we were married on, with (one of) the same pastors officiating it.  It brought back many memories of our day!  It was cool today to be able to make eye contact with her throughout the service.

There were very little goof-ups during the day. The biggest thing was probably that our pastor was late for the reception and wasn’t there to pray before the meal.  I was handed the microphone to fill in, which I was honored to do… but during the prayer I thanked God for the way he “unioned Ben and Janelle”.  Alisha was quick to point out that unioned isn’t a word.  I was quick to point out that I am awesome (I was real short on comebacks at that point).  Either way, the day was really special for them and I am really looking forward to watching their marriage grow.

So, in other news… I finally have things rolling on the Berlin front. Here is a teaser video that I made.  And here is a letter giving more specifics about the trip and what needs we have.  I am going to keep up a blog throughout the trip, so that we can keep all vested parties up to date with what is going on.

I am really excited about the opportunities in this region. This isn’t what I typically think of when someone talks about mission trips.  I normally picture going to a disadvantaged area like Haiti or Africa (by the way, our church is also heavily involved with Haiti… that partnership has been in tact for a few years now).  With Alisha’s health, being involved in a 3rd world mission became a foolish concept.  Everything came together in a cool way for Berlin.

A few church leaders in Berlin determined to get assistance from abroad for their young and small church movement by hosting a summit meeting.  At the same time we were praying for new opportunities to be involved with at church both for ourselves and our new friends the Foertsch’s.  Mrs. Foertsch (Steph), was born in Germany while her parents were living there as missionaries… her grandparents have been missionaries there for a long time also.  That added with the fact that I fell in love with Berlin while being there in September of 2008- Alisha and I became very aware of the lack of churches there during that time… and we felt like God had paved the way to Berlin.

The ladies are not going on this trip… it is just Jeremiah, myself, our pastor, and our outreach pastor.  We are looking forward to building relationships and seeking God’s will in how He would have us get involved in this city.

Sorry for the long post, I just had a lot to say.  I am very hopeful that God provides and uses us in profound ways.  Thanks for reading my rambling!

Alisha started her iron infusions today. It was a quick endeavor that entailed pushing what looked like tar into her port.  She will have 4 more treatments over the next 2 weeks to help her anemia… which is definitely a good thing!

The rest of the day we spent running errands, mostly wedding related.  636.benjamin’s wedding is officially here.  We had the rehearsal tonight followed by dinner.  It was really nice.  Alisha and I are both in the wedding party, which is really nice. We aren’t walking together which is ok, my walking partner seems really cool.  It was a last minute decision that I was going to be matched up with her, my original pairing was supposed to be with a girl named Roxanne.  I think I got switched out of fear that I would over perform my beautiful rendition of Police’s Roxanne. If you haven’t heard it, ask for it by name… it is moving.

I managed to only sing it once tonight… Alisha was proud.

Triple 2′s!!

Another late blog… has being unemployed this week made me lazier??

Last night went pretty late, and for good reason too… it was 636.benjamin’s bachelor party!  It was a ton of fun! I was worried about it a little, no one was actually planning it… so I stepped in last week to try to pull something off.  We went to demolition ball (if you don’t know what it is, you need to check out the link- it is the love child of basketball/lacrosse/bumper cars… sweet huh?!?). I can get a little lot competitive when it comes to things like this always, so I was pretty juiced about playing winning this beloved game.

I had a great time, and I hope everyone else did too.

We played some lazer tag also, which was fun.  Ben was the top ranked marksman, so that worked out well. I suppose people avoided shooting him to be nice on his night… that’s why I decided to be on his team.

Afterwards, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a while.  I typically love B-dub’s, but it wasn’t so good this time.  First of all, it was boneless wing night, so I decided to give them a try.  I had never had them before and I won’t again… it is basically a breaded chicken (mc)nugget with sauce on it… the nuggets we not good.  Combine that with figure skating on the big screens with the volume full blast, just so that we couldn’t converse easily, and it was a bit of a letdown.

Ben seemed to have a good time, and that is all that matters.

Oh, and I upset a giant… I was in the bathroom while an employee was cleaning the mirror.  Another employee walked in, but this wasn’t any employee… he was the tallest person I have ever stood next to.  The first employee asked him, “how tall are you?”.  The giant just laughed it off.  So, I chimed in, “No, seriously, could you answer the question because I want to know.”  He just motions to his name tag and then walks out.  His name tag says Yes, I am 7 feet tall. Mirror boy just keeps working away and says to me, “he hates talking about it”.

Trade spots with me big man… that’s all I would talk about!  I think God made me 5′ 10″ for a reason.

2 good highlights from today…

1. I had lunch with Joe.  Penn Station was delicious, and frankly enough to be the good o’ the day… but hanging out with Joe takes the prize.  We had a really good time. We don’t get enough time together these days.  He’s been busy and I’ve been busy, so hang time has been real limited.  This is ultimately why I ended up quitting my job… those other reasons were all fluff… I needed more Joe time.  I don’t know if he is going to quit his job for me, but he thinks he can give a little more time.  On a side note, he tried the hard sell to convince me to start “tweeting”.  I explained that I am far too old to be a “tweeter”, but he didn’t buy it.  #@joemcgill:  RT//i’ve got old b@lls#*
2. After lunch, I had a meeting about something that I am really excited about.  In April myself and 3 guys from church are going on a missions vision trip to Berlin, Germany.  I have been there before, and really loved it.  That place is a huge/vibrant/trendy city filled with 4 million people… of those, only 1% profess a born-again Christian faith.  That’s only 40,000 people.  It is estimated that 13 years ago (1997- the year I graduated from high school) that the number was only about 4,000.  We want to partner up with some new plant churches there to help them grow and help grow a movement in that region. We have been talking about this trip for quite a long time now, and for a while it appeared as if we were not going to be able to go.  But God has orchestrated some new circumstances that would allow this to happen. I have been working on a video (go figure) in an effort to get people excited about the possibilities in Berlin, to ask for prayers, and to ask for some financial support (hint, hint).  No pressure on that last part… although I should have all the info available in the next few days if you are interested in helping in any way.

If you like hospitals… you would have loved our day!  2 big appointments today sandwiched by lunch and a car-nap in the hospital parking lot.  It was pretty money.  The appointments went well.

I don’t really have much else to say about today, so let me leave you with a side by side comparison of pictures of Elle and her grandmother (my sister) Debbie… Anyone else think they look alike??

I’m so thankful that Beth didn’t freak out on me from the video yesterday! The whole thing started because her husband is Luke, the guy that did those photo shoots and now his picture is ending up everywhere.  I had asked her when she was going to start modeling… and she told me that she wouldn’t be doing that because she wouldn’t want to become the “face of something like lady itch cream”.  She practically wrote the video for me.  Once again… Beth- thanks for being a good sport! [I am expecting retaliation... it's cool.]

Monday was still pretty lazy for me.  I did a bunch of chores around the house and made myself some sloppy joe’s (I know how I like ‘em sloppy). Besides that, I didn’t leave the house once.  The rest of the week will be pretty busy, so I was happy to lay low.

Ok, time to get up and get on things.

better late than never!

Last night just after I posted I took some Tylenol PM Cold Multi Symptom… I have not felt the best and had an unproductive cough.  I think you are supposed to dedicate a full 8 hours towards sleep when you take this drowsy medication.  Well, I got less than 5.  Not really the biggest deal in the world, but Alisha needed my help with some things today and I did not want to get out of bed.

I did (begrudgingly)… Alisha had some stuff we needed to finish up for Janelle’s wedding shower.  We ran around and took care of that stuff, and then it was time for the boys to hang out.  We had arranged a few guys to meet up and hang out while the ‘ladyfest’ was going on.

We went bowling and played video games.  It was great.  I bowled ok, but I rocked the house at Rock Band.  I was the band’s front man and sang such hits as Float On, Lump, and We’ve Got the Beat.  Despite not having much of a voice, I lead us to stardom.  The truth is that I was so over the top with my performance that I made the other guys totally screw up.

Ok, I took the Tylenol stuff about a half an hour ago… I am fading away…night.

Wow… it’s pretty late!

I have been up working on some projects on my computer. I actually got so carried away, that I didn’t know what time it was (and forgot that I hadn’t blogged).

Alisha and I ran around town today accomplishing various tasks.  Outside of the delicious buttered noodles w/ beef at Noodles and Company that I had for lunch, the most important stop of the day was to see Alisha’s doctor.  They have been digging in real deep into her blood counts recently.  The results are showing some positive things, but there is a lot of improvement to be made.

She determined today that she was going to pull her own blood from the port (the lab tech isn’t sure how to do that, so she does it the old fashioned way on the arm).  Alisha started using the wrong apparatus to pull the blood, but realized it before it became a problem.  Her nurse was actually at the hospital at that point, so she brought up the right tools for the job.

I don’t know why I am sharing this… I wasn’t there helping.  I stayed focused on my game of sudoku on the ipod. I just am not the biggest fan of needles/blood.  I can handle poop/pee/puke/snot/phlegm, but blood and the pain that is typically associated with it being outside your body isn’t something I handle well.

Don’t worry, I got through the whole ordeal safely.

I am officially 150 days away from getting through a year!  It will be here before I know it.

I slept in a little later today… I am starting to get used to this lifestyle.

Today I determined that I needed to work on my car a little.  It hasn’t been driven very much over the last few years, especially since August- the last time Alisha actually drove.  I got it cleaned out and the anti-freeze topped off.  I am glad to drive our car finally since it has mainly just sat there over the years. But I am not looking forward to paying for gas…  I am going to miss my rental cars!!

I had dinner with my family (which was so much fun!) before I had to run out for basketball. It was the first time I have played since November… I was worn out in about 90 seconds.  I think I played ok, but I just felt terrible.  I guess I could start working out a little during this time… but then that could take away from my time sleeping.  I wish I could give my all to everything, but I am human and need to accept my limitations.  I’ll focus on mastering sleep for now.

The first thing I need to clarify today is that Sunday night’s movie was a ripoff.  I knew I wanted to make a song about Alisha for valentine’s day, but I didn’t want to stay up all night writing it.  So I made the simple word change on the following video and made it my own.  That’s how deep my love for my wife is… I would do something completely unoriginal for her anytime.

I just love too much.

With that out of the way… My first day unemployed went very well. I took Alisha to her doctor’s appointment in the morning. We were there for a long time because the doctor had an emergency patient that he needed to help… I didn’t really mind, I had nowhere to be.  We had lunch together, ran a few errands, and then came home for a much deserved nap. It was a tough day.

Tonight, while the ladies had small group… I needed Jeremiah’s assistance with a chore, so he came over to lend a hand.  He really got me out of a sticky situation… thanks Jere, it was hard work but I knew you were the man for the job!

That pretty much sums up the day.  I should get to bed… tomorrow’s another big day!

So, my 2 week notice became a 1 day notice.  Looks like I’ve got another vacation to look forward to! It will be nice to not be at the hospital or on a big trip during this time.  I can live the Garfield life at home.

I had my exit interview this afternoon and it was a bit challenging to sum up my entire career in an hour along with suggestions and criticisms.  But I got through it.  It doesn’t feel real just yet, but it is.

Tonight after Jeremiah and Mark picked me up from work (because I no longer have a rental car at my disposal), and we went to Racanelli’s for some New York Style Pizza and Cookie Cake.  We had a lot to celebrate, especially since today was Mark’s birthday. He is about the only person I know that is older than me.

It was a great time.

Ok, I am falling asleep as I type… should be the last time for a long while that I have to worry about that!!