Cuz I’m not sure what to title this post.

But a few weeks ago TJ graduated from 5th grade. I mentioned that at Dad’s and donuts this woman came in a really short little black dress. I think they are called LBD’s and I swear she was showing off her BVD’s. Maybe you thought I was overreacting.

Well, she showed up at graduation in a really short white one that she had to keep pulling down. She and her husband (I assume) were walking in as I was walking in and she seemed a little out of place, like a guy in a suit on the beach- only the reverse. So as I stood in the back taking pictures of TJ and this ceremony the whole time. She sat near the back and I kept wondering what this gal was thinking and then when she stood up and stuck her butt out I couldn’t help myself.

I snapped a pic. In all my field trips and elementary school events, I swear I’ve seen more thongs than I did even in the low rise jean fad of the early 2000’s with our high school girls.

So word to the wise, an elementary school function is not the best place to show off your thong butt through your see through white little number.

There you go Becky. Now you’ve seen it too.

I do not twitter. I do blog (duh) and I read blogs via bloglines.

But lots of my friends do twitter. I can’t see adding another technology piece to my world.

However, especially those friends of mine who do not blog but do twitter, I have enjoyed getting their twitter feeds. I was excited to accidentally discover that I could via bloglines.

So, if you want to, just go to twitter. Find the people who are on that you know or would like to read what they publish. Hit subscribe. Walla…. you have instant twitter single sentence blog posts in essence.

That’s the question that came up on an add while updating facebook.

Right above this picture:

#1. Who is asking?
#2. What’s up with this facebook ad reading my age off my profile?
#3. How’d they get my body shot too?
#4. What idiot decided that I was 36 and dumb enough to believe that I got like this by drinking their green tea?

on a similiar note… I walked out of panera bread after meeting with a student yesterday afternoon. We walked through a group of 3 women in their late teens/early twenties. And all I heard were these 2 lines:

Girl 1: Yeah… well that’s Matthew McConaughey.
Girl 2: I want to lick his body.

… and our society thinks women are the only ones with body image complexes.

Our Uganda Team set out to raise 77,000. We all all but $6000 there. PRAISE GOD!! We are still working hard to fill the final gaps.

This sunday we get prayed for in church and we do a final silent auction of goods and services outside. Thanks to all of you who helped my family do our part!! Keep praying.

I know lots of professions don’t get extended time off. But I have a few friends who have been given a 3 month Sabbatical by their churches recently. No one in youth ministry- just those at the teaching or senior pastor level. I’d be lying if I wasn’t a tad bit jealous. That sounds really refreshing.

• I’d go camping.
• I’d read.
• I’d sleep.
• I’d play with my kids.
• I’d build a shed.
• I’d wash my car.
• I’d organize my workshop.
• I’d go through my iphoto library, organize it, delete some, and print family event books.
• I’d sleep.
• I’d exercise.
• I’d go for a bike ride.
• I’d take my kayak out.
• I’d take a week of surfing lessons.
• I’d sleep.

Man that sounds nice.

I’m in my 15th year as a youth pastor. I’ve taken lots of family vacations, time off work to do projects at home, spent lots of weekends and an occasional week with my wife. But the longest single stint is about 14 days in a row camping over the summer.

Next week is a whole week at summer camp which means this week has been crazy and we have no weekend service the first week in July due to us being gone at that trip.

Then I return to relax for a day.
Then I spend a day packing.
Then I plan for the fall for 2 days in my office.
Then I do yard work for a day.

Then the next day I leave for Uganda for 10 days of missions trip with my family and a team of 15 from our high school ministry. Then the team will come home and I’ll be there for additional 10 days with my family- meeting my parents and my sisters family who will already be there. All in all, I’ll be gone for 4 sundays for that trip. The end result is that I’m not teaching to high school students in our weekend service for 6 weeks, the longest single stint I’ve had off of teaching in 14 plus years of ministry.

I wonder if it will feel like a refreshing Sabbatical?

I’m working hard in the coming weeks to be able to truly leave and forget about my home concerns for a solid 21 days. When I get back, I got almost straight into a 2 day leadership conference with out church staff and then right directly into the fall launch of our ministry, coaching soccer, and a new seminary class.

Sabbatical sounds like a dream.