Leap Year Birthdays…

Does anyone have a birthday on Feb. 29?  I have never met anyone (that I know of) that was born on February 29th.  Thousands of babies are born daily in Atlanta alone, so there should be plenty of people out there with this dilemma….  When do you celebrate your birthday, Feb. 28 or March 1?

 Just curious.  

Cinderella…

Steven Curtis Chapman has a great new song called Cinderella.  You can listen to it here.

I couldn’t help but think about it while I was dancing with Cinderella tonight….. and Snow White!! 

            Boy they sure grow quick

Ridiculous…

I’ve got the NFL Scouting Combine on while I’m cleaning house today.  I’m watching 300+ linemen run 40 yard dashes in less than 5 seconds…. that is just plain RIDICULOUS!!

An amazing two days…

Monday and Tuesday of this week I volunteered at churchplanters.com’s conference for church planters (duh). There were 250 church plants represented by it’s attendees. Some are already up and running, some are still in the planning stages.

As a volunteer, I was able to sit in on some of the speaker’s sessions. To say I was blown away would probably be an understatement. Even though they were speaking to church planters, a lot of their message applied to all Christians. I wasn’t able to sit in on them all, but every chance I got, I was in one.

Here are the three I was able to sit in on:

Steve Furtick : The Courageous Leader

Steve’s energy and passion for Christ and Church Planters had me so fired up, I wanted to go plant my own church.

Darrin Patrick : The Spiritual Leader

Ok, this one really messed me up. It was like he and I were sitting in a room and he was speaking directly to me. If you were there and heard him, you know what I’m talking about…. Very powerful message.

Bil Cornelius The Resilliant Leader

One of the most encouraging messages I’ve ever heard. As a matter of fact you can go to churchplanters.com and download the podcast for free. I definately recommend it.

I will post more about what I learned from this experience later. I’m still trying to let it all soak in and process it. It was a bit like drinking water from a firehose.

later,

Brad

Paul, this is for you…

My first Car…

Thinking about my childhood memories the other day has got me in a bit of a nostalgic mood lately.  I started thinking about my first car….    a brown 1972 Ford Mustang

I know… not the best looking pony car Ford ever made, but it was all mine.  It had a 351 Cleveland engine and would run like a scalded dog.  I couldn’t imagine having to keep that tank full now.   I worked the summer of 1985 in a metal fabricating shop to save up enough money to buy it, a whopping $500.  After I bought it, I quit.  It didn’t take long to go through the rest of my money filling that tank, so I had to go back to work bagging groceries to keep my baby’s tank full.

Ok.  How about some feedback.  What was your first car? Tell me about it.  What do you think of my baby?

 Later,

Brad

My most memorable childhood moment

Last night I was asked, what my most memorable childhood moment was (good or bad)? At first I couldn’t come up with an answer. I mean, I had a very good childhood with plenty of good memories, but none that really stood out above all others. But as the night went on it hit me. My favorite childhood memory was growing up in a small town and the innocence of it. I think most people look back at their childhood and feel like it was a more innocent time than the present. But I really think that mine is probably the last generation that can say they grew up during an age of innocence. What I mean is, I remember going out as a child and getting on my bike and I could go pretty much anywhere I wanted as long as I was home for dinner. We rode our bikes all over town. We rode them to our friends houses, to the library, to the Dairy Queen, to the ball park. (I can’t imagine letting my girls do that today) My hometown was so small that the local drug store still had a soda fountain in the back (that’s right, Alpha Soda was originally in the back of Alpha Drug Store).  And the same building that housed the drug store also was home to city hall, the courthouse (top floor), drug store & library (first floor), and the police dept. & fire dept. (ground floor in the back).

Here it is as it stands today.  Today it is home only to Alpharetta City Hall.  Alpharetta was still pretty much a small country town until the late 80’s early 90’s.  Today it is home to the rich & famous of Metro Atlanta.  Sad, I couldn’t even afford to live in my old hometown, even if I wanted to.

Anyway, thats my favorite childhood memory.  Growing up in a small town.

How ’bout ya’ll?

Sick day…

I’m home sick today.  I have finally caught the “crud” that has been circulating around for weeks now.  Oh well…. time to catch up on some of my reading.  I’ve been reading a really good book lately: Srong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker M.D. She is providing some real insight into the dangers that young girls face in our society today, and how we dads play a large role in defending our daughters from these dangers.  It has been a really great book so far and I highly recommend it to any dads of daughters.

 Altough, I’m not sure how much I’m retaining due to the grogginess brought on by the large doses of NyQuil.  Maybe I should just go to sleep…

Later,

Brad 

Date Night

Last night was date night for me and Hannah.  Dinner was at her favorite resturant… Ihop.  The movie was her favorite Disney star… Hannah Montana: The best of both Worlds concert in 3D!  The tickets were a little pricey for a movie $15 ea.  But it really had more of a concert feel to it.  The kids in the theatre were even applauding after every song.  I actually enjoyed it and Hannah (my Hannah) loved it.  For you dads that go with your daughter, there was a quick shot of a really cool trick the drummer did that was well worth the price of admition.

 We capped off the night by shopping for earings.  Hannah got her ears pierced on Friday and she couldn’t wait to go shopping for earings.  We had a blast.  Although its hard for me to grasp that I am shopping for earings with that little bundle of joy we just brought home not that long ago.  Sure do wish I could slow it down for just a little while.

 So, overall recomdations.                                                                                         

Hannah Montana Concert in 3D = two thumbs up                                   

Ihop = two thumbs up                                                        

Father/Daughter date = two thumbs up                                                                                    

Later,    

Brad

Ahhhh…

Beautiful day in the south in January.  Sunny blue skies, short sleeve temperatures, slight breeze gently rustling what leaves are left on the trees…….  ahhh.

Days like today, I love living in the south.