Obsanglosquatchbaptist

These two guys rock – literaly

Check out Obsquatch’s blog

Checkout Obsquatch’s YouTube Channel

Check out AngloBaptist’s blog

Check out AngloBaptist’s YouTube Channel

I love you guys – keep on rockin’ in the free world!

 

It’s Sterilized…

I love Dylan Moran and Simon Pegg

 

Shameless

At this point, I have no shame left.  If you like it, come buy my stuff.  Thanks!

 

Springtime in Chicago

So last spring I took a bunch of pictures of the flowers in my neighborhood and posted some of them up here.  I decided the other day to do a video with them and put a song behind it.  I chose April Showers by Caedmon’s Call.  However, instead of putting their recording in, I decided to sing it myself.  I’m not sure WHY I thought that would be a good idea, but I did it, and it’s up for the whole world to see now…yikes.  I’ve VERY self concious about singing alone.  I LOVE to sing…but usually with at least 1 other person if not more.  I prefer to harmonize rather than sing the melody, and I prefer to match the other person’s voice rather than singing in my own, because I don’t like the sound of my own voice.  Having said all that though, I present to you my video…

 

More Samson

Here is the promised video of Samson:

And a cute picture of Malcolm, finally realizing there’s something in that bowl of water.  Now he always sits in front of the mantle wanting to be picked up to look at the fish.  I think he just likes the smell of the fish food and wants to eat it!

 

HUZZAH!!

The return of the Evil Baby Orphanage! I’m so excited! I’m always wondering where the heck that idea went!

So…who would you put in the Evil Baby Orphanage???

 

As promised…

Here are some pics and another video of Justin and I announcing news to our families!

First off, we headed up to Minnesota for my mom’s birthday party. It was of course a perfect excuse to go up and also to give her a card with an ultrasound picture in it! I got her a cute card that said “It’s your birthday Grandma!” and on the inside I wrote “See you around October 9th! Love, Zippy Thornburgh” (Zippy is what we’re calling the baby until it’s born. It’s short for Zippy the Zygote, though technically the little one has not been a zygote for quite some time. Baby T actually just started it’s first few days as a fetus, graduating from the embryo stage late last week).  Here’s what happened when mom opened the card (sorry it’s a bit dark, she was sitting right in front of the bright window):

The next weekend we were able to head down to Springfield, IL to tell Justin’s mom the good news!  She was also very shocked and happy.  Again, it was a big surprise to her, and also even more excited because this will make her 3rd grandchild in a year!  Justin’s brother married a wonderful woman last September who has a little boy named Logan.  They are now expecing a child in September – I know!  It’s very possible that Jen and I could have our babies on the same day, or at least not too far apart!  We unfortunatly didn’t get any video of the reaction, but here is a picture I snapped.  Malcolm seems to be very excited, too!

You can see the post just before this for an awesome video my friend Abbey put together of reactions from some of our friends when we told them the news.  It’s so great that now everyone knows and we don’t have to keep it a secret anymore!  It’s been VERY difficult not to shout out to the rooftops about this blessing in our lives!  We’re very much looking forward to the growing of our family and to welcome a new little person into the world!  Oh, and of course, ready to let all of you help us to raise our child to be the best it can be.  They say it takes a village, but why can’t it take a whole world?

 

In case you haven’t heard yet…

Yup! Come October 9th (or sometime around then…) Justin and I will be parents! We’re very excited! Hopefully we’ve told most of you already, and if not, now you know and sorry we hadn’t gotten to you yet! I’ll have more pics and video’s up later today, but I forgot my camera at home and will have to run home at lunch to get it.  Thank you, thank you to Abbey for this video, and for capturing the moments for us with her camera.  Check her out on YouTube!  Also, you can find Tripp, Obsquatch, and Sarah at their various locations on the web!

 

The problem with Christian music…

…is that it can be bad.  Really REALLY bad!  I went through a phase in High School where I only listened to Christian bands like Jars of Clay, Audio Adrenaline, DC Talk, Newsboys, etc.  I can still listen to those songs and enjoy the music, but the message is not the same to me.  My faith has changed since that point of my life, and Christian music just does not speak to me any more.  I would consider that music and lyrics about 1000 x’s better than this crap though!  Take a listen, read the lyrics, and cry people, just cry for the state of religion in our world:

(lyrics courtesy of Edger, the only place I could find the lyrics!)

Jesus is My Friend by Sonseed

Jesus is a friend of mine
Jesus is my friend
Jesus is a friend of mine
I have a friend in Jesus

He taught me how to live my life as it should be
He taught me how to turn my cheek when people laugh at me
I’ve had friends before and I can tell you that
He’s one who will never leave you flat!

Chorus

He taught me how to pray and how to save my soul
He taught me how to praise my God and still play rock and roll
The music may sound different but the message is the same
It’s just an instrumental praise his name

Chorus

Once I tried to run, I tried to run and hide
But Jesus came and found me and he touched me down inside
He is like a Mountie, he always gets his man
And he’ll zap you any way he can. Zap!

Chorus

He loves me when I’m right, He loves me when I’m wrong
He loves me when I waste my time by writing silly songs
He loves me when I’m quiet and I have nothing to say
He’ll love me when I’m perfect if I ever get that way

Wow – um, that’s REALLY bad!  All the info I found on Sonseed labeled them as a Ska band.  On behalf of all the Ska bands in the world, I’m offended by that!

I just want to point out a few of the lyrics, which I have highlighted above.  First, there’s this little jewel from Vs. 2:  “He taught me how to praise my god and still play rock and roll.”  I just want to point out that if that were true, the band Sonseed would not be playing and writting such crap.

Next is the entire Vs. 3 – what I would label “Jesus is my boyfriend” music.  I don’t think I really have to comment too much on that, just read it and think what you will.  However I do want to comment on the “zap”ing that Jesus apparently doess when he “finds his man”.  I’m just a bit uncomfortable with the thought of being zapped by God.  Dosen’t mesh with my theology.

My basic beef with this whole song is just the complete hollow theology that it is promoting.  It’s what some would call the “mountain top experience”, where you have that one experience of God in your life, and amazing moment.  There’s nothing wrong with these moments at all.  I’m all for it, but there is a section of Christianity that is focused solely on those moments and attempting to prolong those moments for years.  You end up with a hollow theology, you have no basis on which to fall back during harder times.  Many people loose faith because they’ve only been taught the happy go lucky faith with no substance.  This song has no substance.  It’s great that Jesus is your friend, I’m all for that – but don’t stop there!  Dig deep, question what you’re told, learn who God is on your own terms, not based on hallow faith.

Okay…done ranting for now!  Enjoy the song for what it is – something to watch and giggle at for the cheesyness.  I mean seriously, just watch the bass player and see if you don’t crack a smile!

 

New Years…

And here’s part two (if you missed part one, just scroll down to the post prior to this one, or click here)!!  Now I’ll tell you all about the New Year’s’ Eve bash we had at our house and the out of town visitors we had this past weekend.

We througha New Year’s Eve party every year.  This is our 3rd one.  Usually what happens is I invite everyone I know, get about 2-3 RSVP’s and then tons of people show up at our house for the party that night.  This year was no exception!  We also tend to meet a lot of new people at these parties, because we tell those we invite to invite their friends, and they do!  I think we had 3 newcomers this year!

Here is Larry, Daniel, Clove, Tripp, Sherry and Carly.

Carly brought 2 of her friends, Michael and Adam, who were great fun and enjoyed the 2 pitchers of Long Island Ice Tea I mixed up (that’s roughly 11 tall glasses full of this delicious nectar).  They were a lot of fun and I hope they come to more of my parties!

Rev. George V. Hudgins III (Tripp) and Rev. Larry Kamphausen

Of course, no party would be complete at my house without kilted pastors in attendance – and might I add, they are very well dressed kilted pastors!  Some people would just throw on a kilt and head out, these two take their time and do it right!

Yup that’s right…a glass in each hand!  The larger glass is the aforementioned Long Island Ice Tea that is my specialty.  The smaller one is a Chocolate Stout that Larry brought – it tasted like Hershey’s syrup in milk, pretty tasty!  I was sampling a small glass of that, so I did not walk around the party all night with 2 drinks in my hand!

Kate & Malcolm share a moment…

Poor Malcolm…there were so many people at the party, and no one to snuggle with!  You can see how happy and content he is that Kate decided to spend some quality time with the small brown one!

Clove and Daniel

Aren’t they cute?  Clove and Daniel we married this past spring.  Yay newlyweds!  Clove of course is looking fabulous as ever in her red boa!

Sarah & Michael

Here we have Sappers and her bf Michael.  They’re way cute.  We like Michael, we want to see more of him!

Tripp got a hold of my camera and started taking shots of himself with everyone.

Kate, Larry, Sherry, Michael, Carly

Some of the gang waiting for the count down.  We got all decked out in hats, tiaras, streamers and champagne (actually, it was probably sparkling wine, but whatever…)

Trish was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS decked out in a green dress with crystals on it and costume jewelery.  She had to leave for a bit to do some singing with one of her theatre groups, Hell in a Handbag Productions, singing some songs from “Poseidon, an Upside Down Musical”.  I think next years party I’m going to require fabulous costuming – Kate, Clove and Trish seem to be all set!

And here we have Kate attacking Evy with her tongue

The party was great, loud and lots of fun.  I think everyone was out by 2 am.  There was a bit of clean up the next day, but what is New Years day but the day to clean up and recover from New Year’s Eve!

On Saturday we were joined at the Llama Nee Inn (our apartment for those of you unfamiliar with the name) by the Brekke’s (Susie, Erik and Jannah) and later that evening by Kiersten, my college roommate who lives in Norway now.  She was home for Christmas and usually the old gang from school gets together for a night.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to all get together this year, so we had a long weekend with 3 out of the 5 of us.  Becky lives in Minnesota, and Mandy is in New Jersey.  Here’s a shot of us that Kiersten’s parent’s were nice enough to take before they headed back to Iowa after dropping her off in Chicago:

Susie, Jannah, Erik, Kiersten, Justin, Me and Malcolm

We had a fun time this weekend, watching Jannah run around the house, pulling things off the tree, petting Malcolm, and saying words that we’re probably not her attempt at cursing, but sure sounded that way!  Justin and I got some gifts for everyone, but my favorite was what we got for Jannah:

It’s a little wooden cutting set.  The veggies have velcro holding them together and you cut through with a wooden knife.  It really sounds like you’re cutting vegetables!  It’s really fun.  I got it from a local shop called Green Genes that sells recycled, organic and re-pourposed toys.  Jannah really liked it, and I’ve even heard that Susie’s day care kids are enjoying the toy as well!  Jannah was very grateful and gave her godfather Justin a big hug!

And with very little prompting from Kiersten was soon putting all of the veggies in her mouth, but don’t worry, the toy is made with lead free paint!

Jannah is a fan of singing, as is her daddio, Erik.  I was able to capture the “5 little Monkeys” song on video a bit, but be warned: the cuteness is almost too much to handle!

The Brekke’s joined us for church Sunday morning and then came back for a lovely brunch cooked by Justin.  We had biscuts, gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage (provided by our meat share).  It was all really good.  The Brekke’s headed out shortly after that to get back in time for the Vikings game (but I guess it didn’t matter, since the stupid Vikings lost the game anway…).

Kiersten stayed with us through today.  Actually, as I was working on this post, she and Justin stopped by the office to say goodbye on their way to O’hare airport, as she’s flying back to Norway tonight.  It was great to see her, and I’ll miss her for another year!

That’s it for now folks…hope you enjoyed all of my posts today!