I don’t think I’ve ever set summertime goals, but why not start now? There are definitely a few things I’m aiming for this summer, so I’ll go ahead and list them as official goals.

- Teach Cole how to surf: This is actually more his goal than mine, but my goal is to be faithful to the slow process of teaching a 9-year old how to surf which means missing out on lots of good surf sessions of my own. However, the payoff could be every surfing dad’s dream of sharing the waves with his kids.

- Convince my daughter she’s not in danger of shark attacks: Until recently, Kayla also wanted to learn to surf. That is until I bought her the book detailing Bethany Hamilton’s story. Bethany was fourteen and climbing her way up the surfing ranks when a shark bit off one of her arms. Despite that, she’s made a come back and is continuing her surfing career. I thought it would be inspiring…Kayla saw the story a little differently!

- Begin My Thesis: I have a year to complete it, but my tendency will be to put it off for far too long. I’m going to try to get a head start on it!

- Quit biting my nails: Okay, this is a goal I’ve been setting since I was about 12, but sooner or later I’ll get it figured out. My nails are gross and I think that shame my actually be a motivating factor this time around.

Beginning today, I’ll start posting a Weekend Wrap-up each Monday with some stats and personal feelings about our weekend program.

Attendance: Below Average
Lesson Topic: Sex
‘Fun Factor’: Average
Volunteer Involvement: Below Average
Music: Above Average
Lesson Quality: Average
Length of Lesson: 28 minutes
Student Response: Above Average (see lesson topic!)

Overall, I didn’t feel like this was one of our better weekends. Our team was shorthanded due to the holiday weekend. Our games were pretty dull, and the energy level felt low. The two things that saved this weekend were the fact that students were very interested in the lesson topic and our student band was led by some new faces who did a great job.

If you were to take a look at the music on my iPod, you would notice that about half of it is pop and top 40 stuff. My daughter loves music and like most 6th grade girls, she likes the trendy pop stuff the most. As a result, her music tastes and preferences have rubbed of on me more than I’d like to admit which is why my iPod has a bunch of her favorite music on it while hers has virtually no music from my generation. I woke up early this morning to the sound of Kayla on the computer in our bedroom. When I asked what she was doing she replied, “I’m downloading that Wheel In The Sky song by Journey”. Ah…music to my ears. And now that she has it on her iPod, one of the classic songs from my junior high days will be music to her ears, too.

I like strategies. I like having a plan of attack and sticking to it. I like knowing what the goals, purposes, vision and direction of my ministry look like. In fact, for years I’ve rang the bell of ‘junior high ministry needs to, and can be, more strategic!’ Believe me; I have no plans to abandon my plans. However I’m beginning to wonder if, because of the brief season of ministry time we have with our students (2-3 years max) and their unique developmental stage, too much strategy actually hurts our ministry to young teens rather than helps it. Maybe part of our strategy needs to include room to be un-strategic. Maybe we need to leave room for spontaneity, last minute changes, creative alternatives and that kind of stuff. Maybe there’s a place for the strategically un-strategic.

…our marriage, that is. Next Thursday, June 1st, marks 15 years of marriage to Rachel. I’m sure on that day I’ll post something more significant. For now, though, I’m frantically trying to think of a last-minute, affordable weekend getaway. We had originally decided not to do anything special, but then two days ago one of us said “hey, why the heck aren’t we doing something special for our 15th….” and thus the frantic effort to create a memorable time away for next weekend began. Creative ideas, insider tips and offers of the use of your time-share now being accepted.

I’m posting late today, but I’m posting with a mission. On my way to an off-site meeting early this morning a few of us began talking about blogs. Being new to the blogging world, I didn’t know that there was actually blog etiquette that I needed to be aware of. Apparently, one such item is the practice of giving a parenthetical hat tip or (ht…) at the end of a post in which you use material from another blog. I’ve noticed that several of the blogs I have started to read do, in fact, utilize the ‘ht’ as a way of giving credit. This is all fine…Except for the fact that NOBODY in real life ever actually tips his or her hat to someone anymore. What is this, 1850? For cryin’ out loud, isn’t there a more modern way to acknowledge somebody than with a cyber tipping of one’s hat?

I officially pronounce (at least on my blog, anyway) the end of the Hat Tip (ht) and will replace it with something that, while not a perfect substitute, is at least somewhat more appropriate for our times. On my site, I will use a parenthetical SO, or ‘Shout Out’, to give credit when borrowing from another blog. I fully recognize that Shout Out will become a dated term in the near future, but the fact that we are currently using Hat Tip leads me to believe I have close to a century before I need to worry about being outdated.
(SO to myself)

Some poor guy was sitting around when the lightbulb went off in his head. He pulled together a few ‘advisers’ and rounded up enough money to start the patent process on this amazing new invention! Surely, it would change the world of piggy back rides as we know it. Instead, he has become the victim of an endless stream of ‘Broke Back Mountain’ jokes.

For almost 3 years, I’ve been in a graduate school Co-hort program at Vanguard University. I really can’t think of a better approach to pursuing a graduate degree at this stage of my life, but it has really been a struggle. It’s been a struggle primarily because of this stage of my life! Going back to school in my late 30′s sounded like a good idea at the time! In a couple of weeks, I’ll finish my final class which leaves me with only a Thesis and exit exam left. I believe in finishing strong; I’ve preached that principle, coached others on that principle and have lived by that principle for most of my life. But for some reason, I’m finding it almost impossible to apply that principle to my final stretch of grad school. Instead of finishing strong and sprinting toward the finish line, I find myself crawling slower than ever with the hope that if I can somehow make it to the end, a grace-giving scholar will place a diploma in my tired little hands. A diploma, I might add, that I will then tuck away in a drawer so I can get back to life exactly as it was 3 years ago.

I drive a 1991 toyota 4×4 that was given to me by a friend. It’s been a super reliable mode of transportation as well as a good truck for haulin’ surfboards, mountain bikes and other junk. But the truth is it’s pretty well beaten up and I feel a little bit embarrased driving it. I guess at 40 I feel like I should have a more respectable ride.

What I want is a new Toyota FJcruiser. They’re pretty affordable and seem to fit my lifestyle. Unfortunately, my wife thinks things like mortgage payments, college funds and food in my kid’s stomachs are a higher priority! So for now I will contently drive my truck until I can figure out a way to convince Rachel that food is over-rated.

Tonight marks the finale of season 5 of ’24′. We’re heading over to a friend’s house for our traditional season finale party. A season’s worth of monday night gatherings culminates with a silly night of dressing like your favorite character and bringing a ’24′-inspired snack. It’s a pretty goofy tradition, but one we all look forward to.

Monday’s are my day off and make a great night for hangin’ out. After ’24′ season is over, we begin having BBQ’s at the beach and surfing every Monday night and those come to an end just in time for our Monday Night Football rotation to start.