Ready for the Weekend

A bit lengthy for a youtube video, but worth your time. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

"May God speed the day of reckoning." - Justin Taylor

Perhaps I should be embarrassed about this, but I had never heard of Andrew Peterson until yesterday morning. All of a sudden his music and information about his brand new album, Counting Stars, started showing up on a number of blogs I read and Twitter feeds I follow. Since a few of the songs from this album were available to stream on a couple of the blogs, I gave him a listen. After listening to three songs I decided I'm a big fan of Peterson (it really only took one song). He's making a rapid climb up my "favorites" ladder, and if I had the money to buy a music album right now it would be his for sure.

I've embedded two of his songs below. The first one is a music video for Dancing in the Minefields, which is a close second-favorite for me. The second "video" just plays the song The Reckoning as well as its lyrics. The Reckoning might be my new favorite song. Out of, you know, ALL the songs. That exist (even ahead of the amazing song that Emily posted last night). Anyway,  listen to these songs and then let me know if you'd like to join me in becoming an Andrew Peterson fan (or if you already are one!).

A few recent photos

We're Rockies fans... but they're our second-favorite team. The only time we're not rooting for the Rockies is when they're playing the Cardinals. The Cards were in town last week and we were fortunate enough to find some really cheap tickets to one of the games. The Rockies swept the Cards in the three-game series, which was kind of a bummer, but it was great to get to go to the game. Even more great was the fact that the day we had tickets, both teams were throwing their aces. We got to see Ubaldo Jimenez pitch for the Rockies, and Chris Carpenter was the Cardinals hurler.

Here's a Jimenez-to-Albert Pujols pitch, taken from our right field upper deck front-row seats (really great seats, actually):

Jimenez ended up having the better pitching day. Even though our preferred team didn't win, it was nice to see Jimenez pitch so well, because even though he's having an unbelievable year, his previous 4 or 5 outings hadn't been all that great. Here's us at the game. The guy sitting next to Elizabeth was kind enough to offer to take our picture, even though we were in "enemy red."

The rest of these pictures are from our anniversary night stay at the Hotel Teatro in downtown Denver. Neither of us had ever really stayed in a "luxury" hotel before. It was extremely nice. I was reading through the notebook of services and amenities they offer while I was sitting in the room, and I came across one paragraph that said if you desire a running companion on your daily jog they have a majordomo (or "Zazu," as I like to call it) who's willing to run with you. What? Crazy. Anyway, the service was really really great (as you should probably expect from a high-end hotel). We booked our room through a website called Perfect Escapes, and when you book through that company, they put a complimentary bottle of wine in your room for when you arrive. So this was waiting for us on the coffee table in the room:

When one of the hotel managers found out we were celebrating an anniversary he also sent us up a complimentary bottle of champagne (don't worry, we didn't even open them both)! At one point I came out of the bathroom to find my wife curled up in the hotel's bathrobe on our king-size bed (most comfortable I've ever slept in, I think) with a package of Twizzlers on her lap (one of her favorite indulgences -- I bought them for her as a gift, though I've probably eaten as many of them as she has), and a glass of champagne in her hand. I laughed and told her I had to get a picture. She's really sitting in the "lap of luxury."

We had a really great time. Even though it was only about an 18-hour getaway, we were able to really relax and de-stress a little. We had a nice dinner out, we got to sleep in the next day and then go out for coffee and breakfast. And since our hotel was right in the heart of downtown, we were only a few blocks from everywhere we wanted to go. We were about a block off of Larimer Square, which is one of the more happenin' areas of the city. Really fun!

Three Years

Three years ago today I married the most wonderful woman in the world.

When I think of my life with Elizabeth, a few songs come to my mind. You can listen to them below, but I'll give you a brief description here:

Then by Brad Paisley: Goes through a couple of milestones in the life of the singer and his wife, and how during each one he thought he couldn't possibly ever love her any more deeply, but looking back he can see how much his love for her continues to grow.

Little Moments by Brad Paisley: About the "little moments" of imperfection in life that are shared between the singer and his wife. My favorite part is the bridge because it hits very close to home: "When she's laying on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark, and about the time she falls asleep so does my right arm, and I want so bad to move it, cuz it's tingling and it's numb, but she looks so much like an angel that I don't want to wake her up -- yeah, I live for little moments like that."

The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney: After the "first big fight" between the singer and his gal he heads to a bar where, instead of alcohol, he gets some wise advice from the bartender. The "good stuff" includes, once again, all of the shared moments with the woman you love.

I know this list makes me sound like some gun-totin' redneck backwoods hick, but the truth is I grew up on country music, and it still happens to be my genre of choice most of the time... and these songs have really great lyrics (from what I know of my audience, I'm sure Emily will appreciate my song choices the most!). Don't judge me. Listen to the songs.

Anyway, all of this is basically to say, Elizabeth, I love you, and my favorite part of being married to you is all of the little moments we share together that no one else will ever know about (like this one: "What? He played racquetball in his room with a tornado?"). :)

*If you're viewing this in a reader you might have to click through to be able to listen to the songs in the widget below.

weird woman

I have the World Cup championship game on the TV, not because I really care, but because I like to say "Go Dutch!"

Anyway, my wife just said to me, "Whenever I hear 'FIFA' all I can think is Fee-fa Fi-fa Fo-fa Fum-fa."

Choosing leftovers

I have a weird wife. I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that.

An example:

When deciding which leftovers from the fridge she wants to eat, her primary criterion is whether or not she can finish a certain dish off so that the container can be removed from the fridge and washed. So, if we have manicotti, taco soup, and tuna casserole in the fridge she will say to herself something like, "Well, there is really only one serving of manicotti in that pan, so if I eat it then I can wash the pan and open up some space in the refrigerator. There's a lot of taco soup left, and quite a bit of tuna casserole left. I won't be able to finish off either of those. I'll have manicotti."

I have no problem with this organizationally-minded decision-making process. But I think it's funny.

Rough night

It's been a pretty rough 24 hours. My wife has developed some kind of super nasty burn on both of her legs, the back of her neck, and her lower back. It's very painful, and it itches like crazy. We've tried every possible remedy (except the $3,000-$4,000 trip to the ER), and we couldn't get anything to work. We were both up all night (with her in much more discomfort than me). As of right now, it seems like a couple of our last-ditch efforts have started to pay off a little. She's probably gotten a couple of hours of sleep, and we think we've at least dulled the pain and itchiness. Of course, she has a final paper that's supposed to be finished sometime today, and a final exam tomorrow afternoon, and I've got a big huge "I-promise-this-test-will-absolutely-totally-kick-my-butt" final exam in less than four hours for which I am utterly unprepared.

On a happy note, I'm an uncle again! Check out Pam's blog for pictures of Micah Nathaniel Rohde.

Don't rush marriage. (this advice has nothing to do with my relationship with Elizabeth!)

Single people get trampled on in conservative evangelical churches in America.

Seriously. We treat singles like lesser beings. "Are you dating anyone?" "Have you found that special someone?" "How can someone as nice as you not be married yet?" Each of these is all too common among Christians (and, I suppose I should say, in society at large). We don't generally want to hire pastors who are single. We don't want council members or elders or deacons (or whatever other high offices you've got in your church) who are single. If you're single and female, forget about heading up a ministry of any kind. Find yourself a man and then you'll be valuable. Let's make sure our church hosts 26 marriage conferences/retreats/workshops this year (once every other week sounds about right), but we don't need to do anything special for singles. They obviously don't have any relationships important enough to care about.

And our "singles ministries"? That's where young single people go who are desperately trying not to be single anymore. It's a great place to meet nice young members of the opposite sex who are Christians and might be interested in marrying me someday. And in many cases the church's general attitude toward the singles ministry seems to be, "Well, if they all hook up with each other, then we won't have to bother with a singles ministry anymore -- they'll be able to join all of our couples ministries!"

Don't get me wrong. I think marriage is fantastic, and I think it's extremely important that the church do everything it can to help marriages succeed through whatever Biblically based programs it can get its hands on. I know women who have a deep longing to be a wife and a mother someday, and men who desperately want a woman with whom they can share their life and grow in Christlikeness. I have no problem with that.

But why do people in the church feel like it's their responsibility to check-in with singles every week and find out if they're dating anyone yet? How Biblical is that attitude? Where does inspired scripture say, "Make sure you're married by age 25 (or as soon as humanly possible thereafter), because until you have a spouse you're only a fraction of what you could be"?

Jesus was single.

And Paul spent seemingly half of 1 Corinthians (okay, maybe not that much) trying to convince his readers that singleness has its benefits. He told them not to be so concerned with a change of status (and this applies to any kind of status, not just marital status). You're single? Stay that way! You only make $20 grand a year? Don't worry about it. He tells them that married people will face a whole bunch of troubles, and if he can spare them from those troubles he'd be happy to. He points out that single people have a wonderful opportunity to be concerned only about the Lord's affairs -- not having to devote attention to a wife and family. Paul doesn't have a problem with marriage, but he has an awful lot more good things to say to single people than most of us seem to.

Why aren't our churches empowering that group of people that could easily have the potential to make an unparalleled impact for the Kingdom?

Unlocked door

Elizabeth and I always lock our door. Not just when we're gone, but when we're home too. It's just habit.

Well, today we got home from work and spent a couple of hours on laundry and supper, and then we had to go out again (sidenote: I got new shoes tonight that are pretty cool lookin', which is especially good because my regular tennis shoes are literally falling apart -- the rubber heel on the bottom is hanging by a thread [or whatever a really thin piece of rubber is]). As we were walking out the door I noticed that I didn't have to unlock the door and I commented, "Oh, we forgot to lock the door when we got home."

To which my wife replied, "That's okay, we didn't do anything dirty."

I like U2

Tonight in the car I started singing a few lines from one of my favorite songs, Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. As I finished up I commented, "I like U2." Elizabeth responded instantly, completely confused, "Oh, uh, did I say I like you?"

Didn't get it? When I said "I like U2" Elizabeth heard, "I like you too."

my wife the goofball

*Disclaimer: This post is not as awkward or uncomfortable as the first few words might make you think.

Last night when Elizabeth and I were laying in bed, just getting ready to fall asleep, I tried to start a game of "footsie" with her (which I know she doesn't like).

Elizabeth: I'm gonna punch you. (15 seconds of silence... I think she's probably asleep, and then...) In case you die during the night, I don't want the last words I ever said to you to be "I'm gonna punch you," so... I love you!

Holes

Last week while in a vacation cabin with my family I was re-introduced to a breakfast known as "eggs-in-the-hole," which is made by cutting a hole out of a piece of bread and frying an egg in the middle (a kind of egg and toast combination).

For my wife this was the first time she'd ever had such a dish, and she loved it... which led her to ask me yesterday, "Hey, tomorrow for breakfast can we have... uh... hole-in-the-toast?" That question led me to laugh very hard. Then she asked, "Well, what's it called? Hole-in-one?" So I laughed harder.

Now "hole-in-the-toast" is what we call that meal.

(and congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States)

My dear wife

I have a pretty special wife. I love hanging out with her. Last night we went out with a plan to stop at three different places. They included: Wal-Mart (for a few groceries), Sam's Club (to take advantage of their $10 for 10 weeks membership -- it's a trial run for us to see if we'd benefit from a year membership), and Kohl's (to look for and pick up some much needed clothing items and shoes for Elizabeth). Instead we stopped at 5 different places and tried to stop at a 6th but it was closed. The two we added was Whole Foods (a huge-mongous grocery store that we'd never been in before) and a different Wal-Mart (because we remembered a couple of things that we'd forgotten at the first Wal-Mart). The 6th stop that we attempted was Savers (a second-hand store -- we're looking for a couch that's not broken).

Through it all Elizabeth was an absolute delight, which may not sound especially amazing to you, but she has been dealing with some weird sickness for a few weeks now and yesterday she started a special diet that actually makes you feel worse before it makes you feel better. She's quite a trooper, and I'm glad she's the one I get to spend most of my time with.

Last night after we got home, we found out that the mother of one of Elizabeth's mentors had passed away. It was one of those things that was pretty heartbreaking because we knew the woman from church and Sunday school classes. She was an extremely pleasant woman with a lovely southern accent. It's obviously a bummer of a situation, but it made me fall in love with my wife even more, because in situations like these her huge heart for other people just pours out of her. She hates it any time one of God's creatures suffers, and she can't hide her care for them. I love her so much.

Marriage

Today my wife and I took part in a focus group for a little company who offers marriage-class type things in order to help marriages be stronger.  They utilize horses and dancing as two unique forms of learning about relationships and marriage.  It's really sort of cool.

During the focus group, we were asked, "Is there a difference between marriage and long-term committed relationships?"  One woman who has gone through a divorce and is now in a "long-term committed relationship" who is not a Christian immediately answered, "Only legally."  Marriage, according to her, is simply a piece of paper that gives a couple certain governmental rights and recognition.  Inside I was fuming.

That's all.

First Anniversary!

Last weekend Elizabeth and I went away to Vail, Colorado, in celebration of our first anniversary. We had an awesome time.  Our hotel room was much more fantastic than either of us thought it would be, our hike up the mountain was littered with scenes of beauty, culminating in a super sweet water fall at the end, we took a gondola to the top of Vail Mountain to eat at a restaurant out on the deck overlooking some snow-capped mountains, and we walked around Vail Village to visit local shops and sample the tastiness at the farmer's market.  The whole time, our cell phones were off, and we were relaxed!

On the hike

The waterfall at the end.  We look a little awkward because

there was no one around to take our picture, so we had to prop

the camera up on some rocks, set the timer, take a guess as to

where we should stand, and take a few wobbly steps across

unstable stones to get into the picture before the timer went off.

On the gondola ride up the mountain for dinner.

I'm on... top of the world lookin' down on creation...

That's our 1-year anniversary cake.  It was gooooooooood.

Wings

As of yesterday I've been married to Elizabeth for 9 months.

It's hard to say that 9 months is a real accomplishment, but it kind of feels like one a little bit.  Tonight the two of us finished watching the last episode of the last season of the all-time greatest television show, "The West Wing."  It was a little sentimental, even though I've seen the whole series now more than probably anyone else on the planet who is still in his right mind.  I will discontinue rambling now.  I'm tired.  I can hear my bed calling my name.  It's not as creepy as it sounds.

Wife

My wife is fantastic. She just makes me smile so much. Today we were hiking in the foothills with another family and I just grinned because of how excited Elizabeth was. She smiled the whole time, she oohed and aahed over every little flower, dog, bird sound, cactus, and shrub along the way. She loves God's creation more than just about anyone I've ever met. I hope to have that much of an appreciation for the Lord's handiwork someday.

Thanks Elizabeth. You're the greatest wife a guy could ask for.