merry christmas

so i really tried to get a christmas card out this year. i L-O-V-E christmas cards and am very thankful for all of you who sent me one. mark and i even took the above photo and i was going to upload it to shutterfly, make a card, mail it out, etc. but we are busy and it didn't happen as planned...so consider this your christmas card from us :-)

a story. the other night mark and i were laying in bed and he has his eyes closed, is drifting off to sleep but he says to me, "will you sing me a song?" and i almost died laughing because he sounded kind of pitiful and has never asked me to do that before. i started singing, "..miss independent, miss i'm sufficient, miss keep-your-distance..." (which for those of you who don't know is an excellent kelly clarkson song) but mark goes "stop! stop!" i thought he just didn't like my song choice but then he goes, "i can't believe this is happening to me. i mean, i've always heard this existed but i've never experienced it for myself." i was like, "what?!" and he says, "tone deafness. i never knew it was real. but that's what you have." he then proceeded to try to give me a music lesson. he would hum a note and then he would make me try to hum at the same pitch. this went on for about 20 minutes and finally we decided i was not making any progress and i would just have to live with this condition.

sky mall

so, i was recently on a trip in which i spent 14 hours getting from charlotte, nc to providence, ri. during part of that time i sat on the plane out on the runway for an hour or so. i didn't have anything with me to read so i ended up reading Sky Mall for about two hours. i'm sure many of you are familiar with sky mall. it is a catalogue of endless, ridiculous items that you can purchase right there, while you're on the plane. if you're not familiar with it, picture oriental trading company meets brookstone meets the word of faith healing movement.

i will mention just two items that i read about in sky mall. the first, and most appalling, was a hooded sweatshirt. but first a little background information for the product- according to the advertisers, it has been proven that positive words can alter the consistency of water. Therefore, if you were to wear a sweatshirt with positive words all over the INSIDE of the sweatshirt, it would alter the consistency of the water inside you, and you, being 2/3 water, could become a completely different person. the sweatshirt was selling for $79.99. i cringe to think of anyone actually purchasing this and i am basically infuriated at the idiots selling it.

#2 from sky mall: a personal size microwave, complete with a handle, that you can carry with you everywhere you go. do you ever want to reheat your coffee or pop a bag of popcorn, but don't want to get up from your desk to do it? now you don't have to! oh wow. i think the advertisement should've read, do you hate people and want to avoid them at all costs, so much so that you'd rather not go to the breakroom to reheat your coffee on the off chance that you'd run into someone? are you too lazy to get up from your desk for five seconds? this product is for you. (okay that might be a little harsh, i know some of you, including my brother in law Ryan, are probably actually interested in the personal microwave. but still. come on.)

to the makers of sky mall: you are ridiculous.

bach-ing tonight

I haven't been a single man in awhile but tonight I'm re-living what its like to be batch-ing. Denise is out of town for a theology/academic conference and I'm home taking care of the house. I was worried tonight about Denise, she had to wait 3+ hours to get on a standby flight at the Newark airport alone, while I sat helpless in Charlotte at a network association dinner listening to the guest speaker talk about self-defense and the threats we will encounter during our lifetime. This was a completely random topic for this kind of event, had little or nothing to do with construction, but of course, the night my wife is alone and distant, I get to sit for 45 minutes and listen to heinous acts of violence in Charlotte.

I love Denise very much. For all others who love her, I am privileged with seeing her in an out of all kinds of elements as her husband. She is the most interesting person I've ever met, and I like to meet people. She is incredibly book smart, and has amazing common sense and intuition, both areas of which I am weak.

She is so honest and real with her feelings, I never have to worry about her being fake or sly with me. If she's holding a grudge, she'll recognize it and tell you so, which doesn't necessarily mean she's going to let go of that grudge right then and there...but she will.

She has exponentially increased in her tendency to forgive. She has learned to forgive herself since she's been thinking about the gospel full-time for school, and as a result, has been able to forgive others quick.

I really have received a gift.

And now I'm motivated to exercise my constitutional rights with a gun, get back into boxing, lift weights, and protect this gift the Lord has given me. The guy said tonight that criminals expect you to freeze when they threaten you, and he said that your best response and best tactic is to use your brain and think. Meaning...think fast to figure out how to get away, and/or fight back.

-Mark

i voted

so today i voted. who did i vote for? cherie berry. i just cannot bear the thought of stepping onto an elevator and not seeing her face staring back at me on the elevator door. 

on another note, my voting experience was awesome. it was about 1 mile from my house and it took about 5 minutes. that was a pleasant surprise. i had packed like four hours worth of stuff to do in purse just in case. but it was not needed.

a little story

so the other night i made chili for dinner. i called mark from work and told him i had made chili and that it was in the fridge and he should heat some up for dinner. later when i got home i asked him how it was and he was like, oh it was so awesome. great.

so the next day i went to make pasta and i was like, where did all my spaghetti sauce go? i could've sworn i had made a lot more than what was there, but i was like, oh well, i guess this will be lightly sauced.

so then later that night mark came home and we were going to have the leftover chili for dinner. i get it out of the fridge and start putting it in bowls and he leans over my shoulder
and says: um..the chili i ate last night did not look like that.
denise: what do you mean? this is the only chili in there.
mark: no, what i ate was in a small blue container.
denise: mark, that was spaghetti sauce.
mark: i ate spaghetti sauce for dinner?

and we died laughing. he had literally eaten a bowl of spaghetti sauce for dinner. not meat sauce, just plain, tomato sauce. i was like mark, i asked you how it was and you said awesome. he said, it WAS awesome.

my recent letter to our senators

Dear Senator Dole/Burr,

I don't know if you'll actually read this but I'm contacting you in regards to the economic relief issue you're working long hours to understand and remedy for our country. As a Republican voter and supporter for NC I'd like you to know that I am against the government stepping in to relieve these companies.
As a child, I was disciplined for things I did wrong, which taught me to change my behavior and do things the right way the next time. If we bail out these companies, practices similar to theirs will continue to be practiced, in different manifestations as soon as they are allowed to function again. If we let the companies die, I am willing as a citizen to let that affect me financially in order for the American economy as a whole to be disciplined and reformed. We are much better off disciplined and free than spoiled and controlled. Let's learn from history and let the collective aggregate knowledge of the "Invisible Hand" work under God's direction and sovereignty.
This is all the power I hold, to simply write to you and make my voice, maybe, be heard.

Sincerely,

Mark Flanders

more conversations

mark: what's with everyone in the olympics getting caught doping? how can they live with themselves, having everyone think they are olympians when really they are cheating
me: i guess they just figure everyone does it. everybody cheats. i mean, remember that bobsled team that the coach got caught putting weights in the front of the sled, or something like that?
mark: that was cool runnings.

mark: did you know rainn wilson has a podcast?
me: who is rainn wilson?
mark: dwight. from the office. he writes about books and like, people who write books.
me: you mean authors.

me: what's wrong? (mark has been trying to write a long paper for a few hours and he looks frustrated.)
mark: i'm not smart. i'm just not smart. do you think i'm smart?
me: well....you're well-rounded.
mark: so you're saying i'm fat.

(next scene: i am laying on the couch because i accidentally fell asleep in the middle of the day and slept for 2 hours. mark comes bursting inside the house and jumps down on top of me on the couch. so he is giving me zero time to ease into waking up.)
me: ugh...go awaay...you're ruining my shalom.
mark: your shalom?
me: yes- my shalom. my peace. i had peace all around me until you came in here.
(keep in mind i have just been sleeping and my mascara is now smudged underneath my eyes and my hair is frizzy and dented.)
mark: you sure don't look like shalom.

you smell terrific

mark does this to me almost every day when he's sitting out on the porch reading and i am inside cooking. it's still funny.

setting goals

I'm having to write my goals in six areas for my "Foundations for Ministry" class:

1. Spiritual Formation
2. Relational Health
3. Integrity of Character
4. Personal health and well-being
5. Vocational Experiences and Competency
6. Ecclesial Connections

Its hard. Whenever I'm writing goals down, I have to avoid a lot of optimism and steer more towards practical things I will actually do. I've written 10 pages on all these goals and after finishing, I'm laughing inside because my first goal should be that I actually look over all this work again.

I'm going to try to get Jarred J. and Josh A. to help me follow through on some of the specifics that I've set.

One of my personal health goals is to eat one bad meal per week. That is probably the most difficult goal I've set. To be honest I've been convicted several times over the past few weeks over the verse, "their god is their stomach." Philippians 3:19. I used to fast, I haven't fasted in a very long time.

Anyways, I'm sure you've heard the saying, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Well, thankfully I was assigned to plan, but try writing down some goals yourself...

Denise has written down a goal, tracking daily her grocery budget. She challenged herself by knocking down the previous month's expenses for groceries 25% and she's on pace now to make her goal! Its such a little thing, but its added a little fun to our day.

"Do it, do it."

me and mark have had a few funny conversations lately. i think i've told some of you about them, but for the others, here's what we've been talking about lately:

mark: you are really one in a billion, you know that?

me: thanks. what are you gonna do if i die?

mark: uhh, probably wait a few months and then start looking

me: a few months?? 

mark: a few...years?

me: i thought you said i was one in a billion

mark: yeah, that means there are like 6 or 7 other girls just like you

(next scene. we are driving. mark is driving slow as usual.)

me: mark, why are you going five under?

mark: i'm trying to go the speed limit

me: don't worry about the speed limit, just drive.

mark: that's the wrong advice. i know the wrong advice when i see it, and that's it.

the next one is actually me and emurr.

me: i think i want to work in an orphanage, like in haiti or guatemala or something. but i've never worked in an orphanage, so i don't know what it's really like or if i'd be good at it.

emurr: you know there's an orphanage in charlotte

me: an orphanage?

emurr: yeah, a real, live orphanage

me: i think they're called children's homes

emurr: whatever, there's one in charlotte.

also, here's a story from mark's office. they apparently hired a guy to do mark's job before they hired him but the other guy didn't work out. mark's co-workers said the kid would like disappear right before meetings and just not show up to stuff. so they started calling him waldo, as in "where's waldo". but they just started calling him that and he would be like, why are you guys calling me waldo, and they'd just laugh and say, "cause that's your name!" one day they actually taped a where's waldo poster to the door of his office. these guys are like 50s-60s. so needless to say, waldo was fired and mark was hired. and the bar was not set too high. their nickname for mark is ned, as in ned flanders, the crazy neighbor in the simpsons. so we were at a knights baseball game with mark's company this weekend and they kept calling him ned all night. well when we were leaving, one of the guy's wife said, bye, nice to meet you ned. and her husband started dying laughing and he was like, no honey, that's just his name at the office. his real name's mark. we just call him ned. she goes "oh." i think she had never seen the simpsons and it did not make any sense to her why they'd call him that.

my cousin Will

Will is pretty impressive when it comes to sports. I played with him this weekend quite a bit and he is almost as good as me when it comes to golf. Here's a video of him in action!


Notice a certain quote: "Past the women's.." where Will remarks that he hit the ball past the Lady tee box. We had made it crucial in our game that day that each man hit it past where the women tee off from. Thought you'd like to know that....

isaac ryan bunch

isaac, bored with us


with uncle mark


with uncle david


with dad :-)

so this is our nephew, who was born last thursday and who is adorable. mark is in love with him and today when he got home from work he was acting really weird. when i asked what was wrong he said, i miss isaac. and then he said that he wants to have kids. i asked him when and he said, like in two years. so i said, okay we will talk about it then. and then he got upset that melanie and i painted over the baby room so that i can use it as a guest room now. but, seriously? should i have left it baby blue with airplanes all over the walls for the next 2 years and 9 months?

it looks great now- it is kind of a mango color. the exact color is titled "apricot surprise." i will take a photo for you all manana.

ps. i am really trying to enforce the baby calling me tia mercedes. everytime someone says, look isaac, it's aunt denise, i say, uh hem...it's tia.

Labor pains

It's 3:45 am on Thursday morning and I can't sleep here at the hospital. Denise is asleep on the floor next to me in the chair and my mom and cousin are trying to sleep. I had starbucks at 8pm and I'm still feelin it, I think being in a brighter-than-day hospital waiting room is contributing though.

Amy is at 4 cm, which I didn't know before but one has to reach 10cm of contraction before actual delivery begins. I can't imagine, I know guys we've always tried to hold on to the equivalent pain level of getting hit below the belt but really, think about that rush of pain for 8-16 hours in waves every 3 minutes guaranteed. Now I'd most likely tap out after the first 2 waves. Just knowing that another one was coming would make me cry like a sissyman.

Anyways, watching Amy a little here, a little there has made me think of the part of scripture where Paul says, "my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!" (Gal 4:19) And I wondered how short our life is, compared to eternity, like 9 months in the womb to an entire lifetime. This life, and all its pains are only for a short while, we need to do now what we won't be able to do then, and do those two things (witnessing and trusting) by looking forward with hope to the next existence promised to us.

I told Denise tonight that sometimes I picture the heavenly scenes and think of the huge gatherings / concerts we'll participate in and how Jesus will occassionally appear as the lead guitarist or blow us away with an amazing drum solo. I enjoyed last Sunday's sermon Driscoll gave about how we will hear Jesus sing at the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Looking ahead to these days has helped me see the joy I have in Christ during those monotonous days, the ones where you can sometimes feel like a waste of space as far as kingdom building/disciple-making/prayer-full days go.

Come on Amy...you can do it!

it's july

hi, i don't have much to say but thought i could update you on our lives. we are in summer school right now- taking one class each and mine is over on friday and i cannot WAIT because i will have august off from school so i will just sleep in every day and then lay on the couch eating potato chips all day. not. i will work. but this class that i just took was amazing and so helpful to my life and thinking. it was called cultural apologetics and was about understanding the culture around us so that we can better share god and the gospel with it. i have numerous resources to suggest to you from the class. these include the books: unchristian by david kinnaman, total truth by nancy pearcey and religious literacy by stephen prothero. i think i need to do a post about total truth because i learned an awesome lesson from that book, but i'll have to write it later when i feel like thinking. (i literally just finished writing an 8 page paper)

mark's sister is about to have a baby and we are so excited! we are going to have a nephew. just call me tia mercedes. (that's spanish for aunt denise.) also, in family news, mark's brother is about to get married in two weeks which we are also really excited about because it is about dang time (just kidding if you're reading this) and we are getting a new sister-in-law that we love! 

some things i want to do this summer that i have not done yet are to paint my front door red and my shutters black. right now they are green and green. i do not think mark wants me to undertake this project because he thinks he will end up doing all the work. we'll see. i also need to paint our guest room which we now call our "baby" room because it has airplanes painted all over the walls for a baby boy. however, we do not have a baby boy, nor will we in the near future, so i want to paint it either a light green or mango color. 

guess who

we haven't posted in a while. so i thought you'd enjoy these fun pictures. some of my faves.

Bad week for:

The Week magazine puts out a list of "Good week for..." and "Bad week for..." every week. Here are a few of this week's.

Bad Week for:
Hoarding, after a Massachusetts apartment building burned down because of fumes from 45 gallons of gasoline stored in one couple's apartment. The couple, police said after arresting them, were trying to save money by stockpiling gas before the price went up again. (okay- this could have actually been me and mark. we were talking about doing this the other day.)

Political protestors, after rumors spread that Denver authorities plan to control unruly demonstrators at this summer's Democratic National Convention by unleashing a new infrasound weapon that makes people poop in their pants. For security reasons, city officials will not confirm or deny they've acquired a "crap cannon" but say their crowd-control measures will comply with federal and city requirements.

And this is my new favorite magazine.

unchristian

so i have a book recommendation. i had to read this new book called "unchristian: what a new generation really thinks about christianity...and why it matters" for a class at gordon. it is by David Kinnaman who is the president of the Barna Group, which is a research company that a lot of you have probably heard of. if you have heard a statistic on religion, morals or spirituality lately, it was probably determined by these guys.

so the book- kinnaman has basically spent the last 3 years doing research and surveying hundreds of thousands of Americans to find out what they think of christians. people surveyed were asked, among other things, what words describe Christianity. The top 6 responses were as follows:
1.hypocritical
2.too focused on getting converts
3.antihomosexual
4.sheltered
5.too political
6.judgemental

(not in that order, that is the order that he discusses them in the book. number one was actually antihomosexual.)

so the book is EXTREMELY interesting and has been extremely helpful for me in thinking about myself, how i treat people and how the church treats people. if you are in ministry at all, i would suggest buying it now.

one funny thing from the book that i have to share-
In their surveys when they asked twentysomthings outside the christian faith to identify the best-known Christians, the top 5 answers were:
the pope, 16%
george w. bush, 13%
jesus, 9 %
billy graham, 7%
mlk jr., 6%

when they asked twentysomethings who are christians, their top responses were:
billy graham 29%
george w. bush, 17%
mlk jr., 8%
jesus, 7%
mother teresa, 7%
mel gibson, 7%
james dobson, 5%

according to christians, mel gibson is one of the most famous christians of all time. just behind jesus and mother teresa.

what my darlin has on ebay

Check out Denise's ebay spots...

Guess Shoes

Rehearsal Dinner pair

Banana Republic


She's so savvy. I need to take lessons eh?

why are man hole covers round?

answer: because man holes are round.

this post is on behalf of the fitness couple. it is taken from the reliable source of wikipedia. my favorite is number 8.

The question of why manhole covers are typically round, at least in the U.S., was made famous by Microsoft when they began asking it as a job-interview question. Originally meant as a psychological assessment of how one approaches a question with more than one "right" answer, the problem has produced a number of alternate explanations, from the pragmatic and satirical ("Manhole covers are round because manholes are round.") to the philosophical.

Reasons for the shape include:

1. A round manhole cover cannot fall through its circular opening, whereas a square manhole cover may fall in if it were inserted diagonally in the aperture (A Reuleaux triangle or other curve of constant width would also serve this purpose, but round covers are much easier to manufacture.)
2. Round tubes are the strongest and most material-efficient shape against the compression of the earth around them, and so it is natural that the cover of a round tube assume a circular shape.
3. The bearing surfaces of manhole frames and covers are machined to assure flatness and prevent them from becoming dislodged by traffic. Round castings are much easier to machine using horizontal boring mills.
4. Circular covers do not need to be rotated to align them when covering a circular manhole.
5. Human beings have a roughly circular cross-section.
6. A round manhole cover can be more easily moved by being rolled.
7. If an automobile rolls over a dislodged manhole of another shape, the sharp corners could puncture the automobile's tire, whereas a circle doesn't have corners.
8. It's easier to dig a circular hole.
9. Tradition
10. Aesthetics

Other manhole shapes can be found, usually squares or rectangles. Nashua, New Hampshire may be unique in the U.S. for having triangular manhole covers that point in the direction of the underlying flow. The city is phasing out the triangles, which were made by a local foundry, because they are not large enough to meet modern safety standards, and larger triangles cannot be found.

control + s

i don't have much to say but i wanted to get that jesus camp bumped down a little on the screen. so i'll tell you something weird about myself. among the many other things that i do not trust in this world (like how manholes were allegedly made round for a purpose. i mean, yeah right.) is "control + s." or in my case, since i have a mac, it is "apple +s." i do not use apple + s because when i do it, i see no results or confirmation that my document has actually been saved. so every time i do apple + s, i also go up to my navigation bar and click File -> Save. Only then do i feel the security and peace that my paper has actually been saved. To make this OCD even worse, i have a fear that my computer will crash at any time and i will lose my work, so i email like every single draft i do to myself. that way, if it disappears from my computer, it's still there in cyberspace.

jesus camp

Anybody seen this movie? I watched it last night, its 1:20 minutes, so its a quick dip. My thoughts are still very primitive in development about it but overall I was a little disturbed over it. I felt angry too at the adults who are defining their success and effectiveness over how the kids react to their challenges and sermonettes. I may be off-base but I sensed a TON of pride present in the leaders and parents and didn't at all think that they were walking humbly before God. I tended to side with the radio show host who was appalled by the entire topic, but had an interesting discussion with Denise after about how we would raise our kids. For example, I think I would try to tell them equal amounts of argument for either side of evolution and creation, but in the end definitely make sure they knew what I believed and why. In the movie, the parents would only explain how ridiculous evolution is and that "we believe the Bible, so creation is true." Now I agree with that statement but I believe also that we should explain out of humility and an anti-fundamentalistic attitude, the concrete reasons why the Bible is true and authoritative, and also why teleologically, ontologically, and fundamentally creation is easy to believe. www.dictionary.com

I think what I've learned from seminary also is how important it is to know what issues are worth contending for and what issues are worth being diplomatic about. The people in this movie more resembled Muslim extremists than Christians. I know that's harsh but watch the movie and tell me what you think. In your comments, send me a link to your blog.

And lastly, 6 year olds, speaking in tongues, is always a little freaky to watch, especially with Indie-film-esque music playing in the background. I'm not saying I don't think people should speak in tongues, I pray that I would, but that they should do so either privately, or do so for the edification of the body as found in I Corinthians 14:22-24, I Cor. 14:39-40. Well actually, I'll save you some time:

I Corinthians 14:22-24
23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all,


I Cor. 14:39-40
39 Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

I have more to say, but Denise is schooling me with studying. So I'll possibly get to write more later.

Flan

what are you eating

so i came home the other day and caught mark eating this snack. i said, gross, what are you eating? he goes, bread and butter. like it's no big deal. except it was like fifteen slices of cold butter on a piece of bread. basically an entire stick.

i have a dream

it has long been a dream of mine to one night, when everyone is asleep, to go throughout the world and change all of the car make and model stickers on everyone's cars and just switch them all around so that when you wake up in the morning, your acura is now a honda and your infiniti is now a camry. i figure, it would be too much work to change them back and most people would forget what cars are which anyway. i think this would be a good socialist, leveling-of society type thing to do. as in, sorry lexus owner- your lexus is now a kia.

anyway, i literally think about doing this at least once a week, but i think i've found two people who have already done this! there are two guys that live at the top of our street and i drove past their cars this morning and was like, no way. both of their cars are ROYAL blue, which is not an appropriate color for a very expensive car. the "lexus" sedan looks an awful lot like a honda accord and the "mercedes" suv looks a lot like a ford escape. could this really be happening? could they have bought affordable cars and just switched the car make stickers? maybe i'll try to get a photo so someone else can help me decide.

a dream that my uncle patrick has is that the three named people (John Michael Montgomery, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Michelle Geller, etc.) would fight the one named people (Cher, Bono, Madonna, etc.) in an all out brawl. maybe his dream will come true too.

stuff christians like

www.stuffchristianslike.net - this is hilarious. go ahead, peruse. included in his list are: side hugs, getting people to like us, kissing dating goodbye, donald miller, chic-fil-a and slowly turning against oprah. wuahahaha.

the wonderful analog world

So the other night Denise and I are simmering down afer a long day at work and we decide to give the ole' tv a shot. Presto. Channel 111 yielded an old episode of "The Office". Yes, we had found CBS. It was a little fuzzy so we pulled the tv out of its cave and lengthened the amazing antennas to 4 feet! We then sat back and watched FREE tv. Unreal this feeling is.


On another note, I witnessed while driving on Albemarle road a showdown. 10:00pm. One big man, two cops. Out of my peripheral, I see the cops jump the big guy, twice the size, easy, of either cop, tackle and wrestle him to the ground trying to get cuffs on. The big guy shrugs them both off like a leather jacket and proceeds to beat both cops in the face and ribs as I'm on the phone with Denise, speechless. Thankfully, one cop pulls a tazer and fires it into the large scary man and he starts jolting. I've never seen a tazer go off but its loud, and for a second I thought the cop had just shot the guy!!

Then, the unthinkable, the big man gets up with the tazer wires hanging from his back while the cop is pulling his electro-stunner trigger trying to subdue him. Big hoss starts hitting the cop again! This is totally going to be on a cops episode next year. I had to go after I saw this part of the standoff, to my chagrin but I didn't read or see any news about two beaten or dead cops today. So that's good. All in all let's just say that I felt a little burdened to pray for those two cops, knowing they both probably got kids at home. Unbelievable job?

Its one thing to watch two drunk white dudes fight but when there are cops involved, and weapons, it definitely effected me all day today. But hey, its not about me. Just thought it was interesting how I couldn't get the violence out of my mind when I'm surrounded by it in movies. What must it be like to experience that? Wow.

no socks

so i have to tell this story. for the last few weeks mark has been dropping not-so-subtle hints that he wanted me to buy him some dress socks. (since he wore carharts and tennis shoes every day at his last job, he has never needed dress socks and he probably owns like three pairs) so anyway, every night for like two weeks, we'd be getting ready for bed, and he'd go, man, i really need some dress socks. and i would say, why don't you buy some. basically he wanted me to do this errand for him. but i never did. so the other day he was getting ready for work and didn't have any clean socks, so he wore his boat shoes, without socks, thinking that this would be fine. he gets to work and basically all of the guys there let him have it. they're all in their 50s or 60s. they were like, mark, did someone tell you it was casual Friday or something? and, are you looking for the flooring department? (because apparently the guys don't dress as nice down there) then later they were in a sales meeting and at the end, the guy leading the meeting asked if anyone wanted to recognize anyone else- meaning for a job well done. and one of the guys goes, i'd like to recognize mark flanders, for not wearing any socks today. so basically mark left the office that day, drove to tj maxx and bought some dress socks. and he said the lady who was the cashier looked down at the socks and looked back at him and said, i have never in my life seen a man buy his own dress socks.

remember this?

this is for everyone who was at this party two summers ago. for those who weren't- a bunch of us were hanging out and all the sudden, (is it 'all the sudden' or 'all of a sudden' or 'all of the sudden'? who knows. it's a doggy dog world.) mark went into the pool and started splashing around like he couldn't swim. our friend mason stripped down to a speedo and ran, jumped in and "saved" him. the video's a little dark so it's kind of hard to tell what was going on. but it was hilarious.

welcome to the neighborhood

well, we are now living in the new house and getting adjusted to living about thirty minutes away from all our friends. i would say that being farther from friends is the only negative i can find to living here. our neighborhood is awesome and has some quirks. one being that the city does not pick up our trash because we do not pay city taxes so we had to hire an independent trash pick up service. "he's an independent communications consultant. which means he's unemployed." (what movie?) anyway- our trash can got delivered the other day and i went out to look at it and on top it said No Hot Ashes in huge letters. But I thought it said No Hot Asses. Which I thought was hysterical and laughed at for about ten minutes. Yesterday we also received our first issue of "The Cambridge," which is the neighborhood newsletter. It's basically two sheets of white computer paper that asks if anyone wants to be in the neighborhood watch program or rent the clubhouse out for a birthday party. It does however, offer advertising. A full page for $50. One of the two full page ads in the "newsletter" was for Aflac insurance, purchased by our next door neighbor Joe Gussman, who is very northern and also very nice. Sidenote: the other full page ad was for an Allen Tate agent who listed all the homes in Cambridge that are for sale right now. So if anyone is interested in moving...let me know. So anyway, Mark and I are reading the newsletter together last night and he's like, "Awesome! Business card ads are only $7.50. I should put one in." And i was like, for what?? And then I realized that he has about thirty businesses he needs to advertise. Golf ball sales, GypsyBug.com, used laptop purchasing, and the list goes on.

we are LOAN owners!

Hey guys,

Mark here to say that we now have a place. You're all welcome anytime. The closing wasn't as crazy as I thought it was gonna be. The "stack" of papers people must sign was hyped up a little too much. Maybe it wasn't so bad because I had been practicing my signature...

Denise said I needed to do a better job of expressing my feelings on the blog...haha. I'm not laughing at her, but with her. But, to honor that request, and not to write mere itinerical entries I'll tell you a little about my feelings.

I feel like we're moving to the promised land. This is what I wrote in my Bible this morning while reading Leviticus. I laughed at myself b/c I'm ridiculous but I am just so grateful for how the Lord has provided for us. He has performed some of those freaky financial things for us that you hear about during "sharing time". He's really been faithful. And secondly, just the fact that we've been in this transition mode from this apartment to the house for about 2 months now its just really begun to wear me out. So I can't wait to open those boxes!

The Lord has really lifted me. He is so great and big. My language is so inadequate. Reading about these great leaders in our church history class has humbled me and made me realize how little I have done. (i mean, there are dudes in the reformation period that baptized over 100,000 people!) But that's where the Lord has filled me with joy, because I realized that I am only a worshipper, not some guy who's got something to prove or do. So that's helped me focus on him, and his greatness, the way he allowed those men to rough him up and laid his hands down to be nailed. Its so different from me, I use all my energys to save my own life, to make myself look/feel good. He aggressively lost his own life. That was his mission.

If you want to get a more clear pic of this, listen to Matt Chandler's podcast on his present series of Luke, he has totally re-opened my eyes to the way Jesus lived with the sole purpose of dying to himself. UNBELIEVABLE new stuff I've never heard.

Matt Chandler - the Village Church podcast

the famous redwood

oh my gosh, i just found this picture on mark's computer. he must be documenting the growth of his redwood. (which by the way, has now moved from the windowsill in the front of the house to the laundry room where there is more sunlight.)

unmazing

i think i invented a word tonight. it is called unmazing. it is when something is amazing in a negative way. like i cannot believe he did that, it was totally unmazing. feel free to try it out in your own conversation.

"secular" work vs. ministry

so i thought i'd write my thoughts about our first class too. (denise) i basically was falling asleep about 2 hours into the 8 hour class when mark nudged me to wake me up and then wrote $325 on the sheet of paper in front of me. as in, that is how much money i am wasting if i sleep through this class.

so, anyway. my biggest takeaway from class was when Dr.Rosell said that he thinks one of the biggest problems in the church today is the false idea that there is such a thing as the division between the secular realm and the spiritual realm. the idea that if one man is a doctor and one man is a pastor, one does "secular" work and the other does "ministry." he believes that the bible does not at all teach this and that humans made it up. i think it's interesting because so many people i know hate their jobs because they don't see a ton of purpose in them. they are bored with work, always want to be doing something else, or can't wait to retire. but what if they saw their jobs as ministry? so often people who do regular jobs are told that they are doing ministry when they use the money they make to support missionaries, or use their homes to host bible studies. but that is not what i'm talking about. what if we all saw our 9-5, Mon-Fri jobs as our ministry. and i'm not talking about evangelizing all day at my company. but there are tons of ways to do ministry within a workplace. i heard a quote the other day- "A Christian is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God." How can I live, speak, pray, think so that this statement is true about me?

i guess some people may still hate their jobs because they are just wrong for them. but some people, including myself, might start to find more joy and purpose in what we do. if we could erase this idea of a secular and spiritual realm, there'd be no yearning to retire early so we could just do ministry the rest of our lives. no- our lives are purposeful right now. as someone in class said, "All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests." the levites were one of the 12 tribes of israel called by god to be set apart from the other tribes. some were the priests, some were not- they had other jobs and other obligations. and they were just as "called."

okay, last thing- and this has nothing to do with the above. i want to write about the movie "To End All Wars" but i don't want to give it away for people who haven't seen it. so this is just a heads up- i'm giving you one week to rent it. after that, i'm spoiling the ending for you on here.

Gordon

We had our first weekend class and what a joy it was for me...(Mark) I absolutely loved it! It was the first class in which I have sat for 7 hours listening to any lecture and not blink. I didn't even want to take notes because I tend to miss what the speaker communicates if I write it down. So I watched Denise take notes..haha.

Dr. Garth Rosell was our teacher. He has been teaching this class for 40 years. Unreal huh? He is extremely gifted, he made me want to re-read the 100 grueling pages again because I felt like I had missed something.

He not only just told us dates, but helped us process the implications of what Martin Luther wrote, and helped us see how insanely disciplined John Calvin was despite his life of sickness.

I don't know I just really soaked it all up. What topped off the weekend was a great night with Aaron (O'Hare) my best friend, and Stacy his girlfriend. We loved eating with them and then fielding Aaron's barrage of questions about what the definition of a church is and what qualifies as a church and what should happen in a church. It was something he had been chewing on and wanted to get our thoughts. I loved it. I learned a lot, about what I just expected, and also what really is.

We'll see you guys next week. In the meantime, check out my "bots". (blog-on-the-side). It's a little experiment. www.flandaddy.blogspot.com



we love u.

Name your terms...

ok...so my efforts were futile on the last blog announcement. So here we go. If you will follow through and sign up for one of those offers...most of them being free...then leave a comment here outlying your terms for me to "scratch your back". Be it a dollar or two. Or a co-operative sign up to get you your stuff. I signed up for Drew (my cousin) yesterday and got him his referral and it was free for me.

So post your terms here, or email them to mflanders15@gmail.com. I'd be happy to return the favor. Or you can just do it out of the kindness of your heart :)

remember click here: Get your TV or cash reward.

So now here's the blog entry:

Denise is asleep on the couch, taking a nap before our little party at Joe's tonight. She has been a magnificent wife to me this whole month. So here's my brag list. She has cooked me 15 meals in the past 20 days. She has kept our house PRISTINE because we're trying to get it rented by March. She has made cakes for the guys in my small group, the one last night being a chocolate/buttercream/mocha cake!!! She has not once "nagged" me to do something, when there were lots of things I needed to do. She smiled and was super pleasant to be around, during her headaches ya'll, I would ask her how she feels and she would laugh and say, "uh, gotta headache", I'd then be blown away at how she had been smiling and paying attention to me. When I get a headache, I want to shut down my whole world, its pathetic. And lastly, she has encouraged me daily with her rising 3 hours before she has to be at work to read her Bible. And she looks like she enjoys it from her cozy little setup every morning.

So really, I'm blessed and have thanked God for her many days this month. So for any of you doubters out there...Denise is my nominee for wife of the year.

Scratch my back

I'll scratch yours? I'm trying to get this tv for the new house. It's free totally if I just do a little work. I signed up for the free ringtones offer and now I just have to get 20 of my friends to sign up for one of these offers. Help me out? Then shoot me an email on somethin you're working on and I'll get on it.

Thanks guys, I really want this tv so I can have something decent for ya'll to watch while I grill out for you at the new house. cha ching. Here's the link.

42" Plasma TV

just another vid

we bought a house...

...and now we are broke. but we are happy. here's a little preview-




we signed our contract last night and we close on february 28. if anyone is interested in renting our place starting in march, let me know. :-)

video entry eh?

Husband.

(loosely inspired by Jason Cowan's "Wife.")
Husband. He’s very weird.
He’s growing a redwood tree from a tiny, pinecone looking seed that he found in the redwood forest and then protected for a WEEK until he could get it home, put it in a red coffee mug, and sit it on the windowsill. This morning, he walked over to the window, pulled up the shade, leaned down, and said, “come on little redwood.”

Sometimes I want to melt with how genuinely childlike he is. My car is consistently an absolute mess. One day he tells me, “Hey I made up a song that I think will really help you.” It went, “Bring in one thing from the car, next time it won’t be so hard.” He sang me the song in complete seriousness.

When he gets up in the morning his hair is completely insane. It is matted down and up in like five directions. If he happens to not take a shower that day, he will actually leave it that way well into the day.

If he gets antsy or feels like he’s been around all women too long, he’ll drop to the floor and start doing push-ups. If someone asks why, he’ll say something like, “The estrogen was just getting to me.”

His mom has told me when he was young, it was like he was the president of his own little country. Once, he got his brother and sisters to “play church” in the living room. He proceeded to deliver a “sermon” (at age 7) and then he asked them to put their heads down and thumbs up if they wanted Jesus to come into their hearts. If they did, they could have communion. If only there were a home video of this.

He’s very gentle.
In the morning he wakes me up because I basically refuse until the last possible second. He’ll pick up my arms one by one and rub them “to slowly get the blood flowing.” Then he’ll leave and if I still don’t get up, he’ll call me from downstairs and tell me it is crunch time.

He always makes the coffee. He always cleans up after dinner. He always says “You’re beautiful” and “I love you.” Whenever we argue or hurt each other’s feelings, he refuses to let it go without talking about it. He forgives easily when I am the one who wronged him, and he apologizes quickly when he is the one who wronged me.

He is very patient.
There are about a million things I do regularly that get on his nerves. These include not washing the spatula that I used to make my eggs with in the morning, overreacting, and repeating a point over and over when he got it the first time. But he doesn’t freak out or remain perpetually angry with me. He just says, one more time, “Oh look, here I am cleaning the spatula again. If only someone had washed it this morning, it would be a lot easier to get this crap off.”

a dime a dozen

what is up with the expression "a dime a dozen?" you CANNOT buy a dozen of anything for a dime. you can't even buy a dozen pennies for a dime.

a few road trip photos

me and kal and stac inside a giant redwood tree!

climbing up a mountain on pfeiffer beach in big sur, california. the view at the top was amazing.

rocks on pfeiffer beach

me and mark on the coast of big sur, california

long rides...Sunday thru Tuesday

My inspiration...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duj_g0WuQF8

and once more...trying to impress the ladies...

Sunday morning we awoke and checked out and found that they charged us the normal amount, so either my reasoning worked, or they just gave us the discount to as not to receive a bad review. We left in good spirits as we climbed the last leg of the road to the GC when we realized that because of the snowfall, and the heavy fog surrounding us, that we probably weren’t going to see jack. We reached the top and could see absolutely nothing. Bummed a little we went inside and looked around for some silver lining. We found a cute breakfast place and sat down. We prayed and thanked the Lord for all he’d provided so far and then asked him for a slight clearing of the weather so we could see what he made there. We finished breakfast and walked outside to find that we could see about a half mile where before nothing. We thanked the Lord and hiked around. Absolutely gorgeous.

After that we drove on into California, after passing through the Mojave Desert which was an experience, see http://www.shawnandkalle.blogspot.com/ for details. But we arrived in the evening at Joshua Tree National Park. Unreal rock climbers paradise. We got to our campsite just in time to catch the sunset. We ate hotdogs and s’mores and played 20 questions where the boys stumped the girls on these two items: “crossword puzzles” (Shawn) and “heat pad” (Mark). We went to bed at 8:30 just because it felt so late. We got frosted on and woke up at 6:30 to catch the sunrise. Jumping around on these rocks was so much fun. My back was feeling pretty good thanks to prayers from friends.

Leaving from there we went on to LA where just outside we stopped for an In and Out burger, introducing 3 of 5 members of our party, namely the girls, to the goodness that lies inside. They loved the fries especially but loved everything, so I’m proud to know them. (even more) We stopped at Autozone and got some help replacing the flasher relay in Shawn’s jeep. With everything running an hour later we got back on the road and pushed hard through 5 o’clock LA rush hour traffic, not recommended. We now have been driving for about 4 hours and are trying to figure out if the mess we’re driving through (rain) is what we’re going to camp in tonight. Hopefully we’ll find some cheaper accommodations? Will update in 24 hours.

Our Seattle Trip...Friday n Saturday

On Friday after work we piled into Shawn and Kalle Stinson’s cars and headed west. Our first stop was in Memphis, pulling in around 12:45am. Thankfully one of Shawn’s friends hooked us up with a nice place to sleep. We woke up and went to breakfast at Brother Junipers’ where we were assured our stuff would get stolen out of our cars. Thankfully, the Lord protected our stuff as we watched our cars while eating in the infamous Memphis.

Our next stop was yes, Amarillo, Texas. We beat George Strait to the punch and made it to “Amarillo by (morning)” by nightfall. After a big Texas meal, that proved to us that NC bbq is world’s better than Texan bbq, we slept and woke up to Arizona. Arizona is a lot bigger and just went on and on. We were on I40 all the way until here where we broke north for about 60 miles to see the Grand Canyon! It started to snow while in Arizona and ended up with 18 inches. We put on the 4 wheel drive and got to our hotel. The guy tried to charge us 20 bucks more than previously revealed on the phone. I reasoned with him for about 5 minutes during which I learned how I can lose an argument to someone who doesn’t argue back but just says the same thing over and over. I need to adjust my skills.

more to come...

rejected!

Hey ya'll. Well we heard back a lot quicker than expected. I'm a little sad but we tried! Our offer was too low and the bank was already negociating a closing date with some chump who offered more than we did. Oh well. We're starting over. It was fun though! I still reccommend low-balling. We'll keep you posted.

We made an offer!

Hi everyone. Quick update...and I'm realistic that no one has probably been checking to see when the next post was going to be but I (Mark) wanted to use my day off to blog a little. We met our realtor this morning and made an offer on the REO (bank owned house) in N. Charlotte! We asked for 25% off the price they have it listed at. I know, it sounds crazy but we don't mind getting shut down or no response, cause' hey, if we don't find anything else, we'll bump up our offer slightly and try to get them to take the bait. It was a pretty cool way to start 2008. On your comments, if you so choose, put your link in to your blog. I'd love to learn.