May
3
cupboards, stimulus check, and false alarm
Filed under house, taxes, government, friends at 4:00 pm | 1 Comment
It’s been a good Saturday thus far, and by good I mean I’ve been able to get a lot done.
For starters, I installed hardware on all our kitchen and bathroom cabinets. When we moved in, the cabinets had no hardware and the finish was starting to wear off where we constantly grabbed the doors and drawers. Not wanting to install new cabinets simply because the finish had worn off, we decided to finally put on some knobs. Not being a big fan of home improvement work, I’m pleased to report things went fairly well: only 1 mid-project trip to Home Depot, 1 broken refrigerator magnet (don’t ask), and 1 mechanical pencil accidentally vacuumed up.
I also noticed we had a sizable deposit in our bank account today, thanks to the generosity of the government’s Stimulus Package. (As an aside, if Rachel and Micah hadn’t been out of town when the bill was signed by the President, we had an opportunity to be there at the White House.) While I’m happy just about any time the government decides to give us some money back, doing so during an election year has me questioning the motives. Perhaps we’ll do our part to stimulate the economy by paying some extra on our mortgage, or tucking it away in savings. The best part is we received our second snail mail letter from the IRS today letting us know the money was coming. Helpful, and well worth spending money on postage.
Finally, being from Grand Rapids, MI, I’ve been casually interested in Cornerstone University’s recent hiring of Joseph Stowell as their new president. I saw a headline today that made my heart stop for a moment: Cornerstone University President Joseph Stowell takes life, Christian school in a new direction. No, he didn’t commit suicide. False alarm.
Now we’re off to have dinner with some good friends who are in town from CA!
Apr
28
about Face(book)
Filed under friends, websites at 5:17 pm | 3 Comments
I tried to avoid it. I held off for quite some time, but finally caved and created a Facebook account.
My life went along swimmingly without ever needing a MySpace account, and I was hoping the same would hold true with Facebook. Unfortunately, my annoyance at not being able to see information that people wanted to share with me finally overcame my disdain for keeping up with the latest and greatest social networking site of the day.
So I now have an account. I now have one more place I need to check for updates about people. I now have another place to keep my own information updated. Alright, maybe it’s not that bad, but I’m struggling to see the appeal. Numerous people have pitched the greatness of Facebook to me, but joining so I could pretend to be a zombie never felt like a compelling argument.
I’m sure I’ll see the beauty of Facebook soon enough, right? Right?!
Jan
26
a walking miracle
Filed under traffic, travel, friends at 3:40 pm | 2 Comments
My family was in town the week of Thanksgiving last year. My dad was invited to preach at our church, so the family that was still in town came to our church to worship. After the service we piled in our cars and headed towards I-95. There was a significant line to get on the highway, and traffic appeared to be moving very slowly. We moaned, and made the usual snide remarks about traffic.
The next day at work I received a phone call explaining the reason for the traffic backup. A good friend of ours that I met at work was in a car accident on I-95, and it was his accident causing the backup we experienced. He and his family were on the way to church when a car swerved into their lane, causing them to loose control. Their car rolled numerous times while crossing all lanes of traffic. His wife and boys only suffered minor bruises, but he scraped his forehead on the pavement as they were rolling and broke his neck in three places. Had his neck bent in a different direction, he could have been paralyzed or killed instantly.
This week he returned to work full time, barely 8 weeks later, not even wearing a neck brace or having had any surgery. His neck is almost fully healed, and his hair is even growing back where his head kissed the pavement. I’ve heard him describe himself as a walking miracle, and to hear the stories of God’s protection during the accident and His provision afterward, it’s plain to see why.
It’s great to have you back in the saddle, Curtis. Keep preaching it, brother!