O Holy Night

Jesus is my friend....

"I don't want to die without any scars." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

So there he is this morning... So here's the deal. For the next 10 days he's gotta wear that lamp shade and taking more meds than a 99 yr old woman. For the next 7 days hes on a special diet of canned dog food that cost $44 for 12 cans. The biggest struggle is that he can't run, jump, rough house, or be outside longer than the time it takes to go #1 and 2. But he's home... I knew I was attached to the little punk but I didn't realize until I picked him up yesterday. And it didnt hit me how serious the whole ordeal was unitl I saw this...


If I came home with a wound like that there's no way I'd be out of bed... Deb asked me yesterday morning what I thought it'd be like... I was all like 'oh it won't be bad just an inch or two.' I was totally unprepared for what I saw. He had a pretty major operation. The funny thing is that most of you know Leo and Deb have struggled to find the groove in their relationship mainly to do with the fact that Leo seems to find her stuff more attractive than mine. But last night everytime he made any kind of noise she came running to make sure he was ok... its going to be a long 10 days for her...

the weird/cool thing is they gave me the needle back...

Oh well, its been a weird wild week.

Leo's in the Hospital (not funny...yet)

It may be too soon to post this because I know most of you will find the humor in the situation and I know I will too but I'm just not there yet.

If you've read my blog the last 8 month you know about Leo. I love that dog. It never gets old to come home and have act like he hasn't seen me in days. Its also nice to have something that doesn't hold a grudge. Last night get got some paper off the table and was chewing on it and popped him on the nose, then like 10 secs later he was wagging his tale at me wanting to play tug of war with his toy. Well last night we had a bit of a scare.


So yea... Leo swallowed a sewing needle last night. I was trying to "mend" one of his chew toys and I sat it down ti help Deb bring the groceries in. And when I came back in... well there's the xray.
So at 9:30 last night D and I were looking for 24hr vet and by 10 we were on the road. We get the vet and options we have are "less-invasive" surgery that might not work or invasive surgery that cost twice as much or we can do the 1st and if it doesn't work we'll do the other one and charge you for both or take your 8 month old puppy home and watch him more than likely die a slow and very painful death. Doesn't sound like much of a choice. So right now he's lying in a kennel with stitches and staples and he'll be there until tomorrow night.

I'm sitting here conflicted with a number of emotions. Relief that he'll be ok. But I'm mad at him for eating a stinking needle. Mad at myself because its my fault because he's a dog and doesn't understand what he did. And there is a logical emotionally disconnected part of me that says 'its just a dog' but that guy looses every time. Oh well, hopefully I will laugh about all this in the next few weeks.

What will I teach this dog to do next?

Canine Castration

This is Leo yesterday afternoon after his surgery... poor guy has to wear that for 5 days.... Pretty funny to see him run into stuff though...

I'm an uncle! and Leo update

Aidan Thomas and Leah Nicole Smith entered the world today. Its weird, I'm not related to these kids at all but I have prayed for them and love them like they are. Ashley, you're already mom of the year. What you have endured to have these beautiful and perfect babies is amazing. You're man better take you out for a big steak. Matt, you're going to be a great dad... I'm so proud and happy for you both... its been a rough road but they are here!!!! Aidan and Leah, you have been prayed for more than you'll ever know.... You have some of the best parents in the whole world. Know that on the day you were born people who love you very much prayed that you would grow up strong and healthy with a love for God that can never be quinched. Welcome to the World! And I promise I wont be your "weird" uncle.


Here is a really funny pic of Leo.

I walked in the bedroom this morning and he was just sitting there like that... Made me laugh really hard... Look at his legs... ha ha! I love that pup. Although he destroyed his 1st article of any importance the other day. D's glasses.... not good for him... Can you go to jail for puppy abuse? If you can Deb would've been locked up that morning...

Here is a great vid of Leo playing with his favorite toy Verde (green in Spanish)
He makes me laugh really hard when he does this... Hes a great dog
Maybe when we get back from conference I shoot some of his tricks...

These are a few of my favorite things...

This post is all about the crazy funny things that have happened to me over the last few weeks.

First of all, the most embarrassing moment of my life...

So as most of you know D and I moved into a new apt last weekend. Instead of renting a huge truck we borrowed and not so huge covered trailer from Deb's boss and his wife (Craig and Tammy Dunn) who also go to church with us and my boss Jim is Craig's brother (welcome to the Wesleyan Church Family Tree). Anyways, a good friend and fellow USC fan helped us move, so he went with me to pick up the trailer from Craig and Tammy's house last Friday morning. So I ring the doorbell and hear movement within the house but no one comes to the door. After a few moments we hear the garage door open so we walk over and Tammy walked out wearing a hoodies, sweat pants, and some flowery rain boots, much like the ones Deb bought the week before. So in an endeavor to make friendly conversation I looked Tammy in the eye and said "nice boots". She looked at me perplexed and crossed her arms and told me to shut up. Then I proceeded to tell her how Deborah had some similar. And again she looked at me bewildered. As the awkwardness builds I look at Jeff who bursts out laughing and Tammy is as red as tomato. She thought I said "nice boobs".... Then I turned red at a tomato... well maybe a burnt tomato... So my wife's boss' wife and fellow Harvest Leadership Team member thought I had made a completely inappropriate and sexually harassing comment to her and then made a "physical" comparison to she and D... Needless to say it was quite a blushing moment. By far the most embarrsing thing thats ever happened.... So everyone at church refers to us as "Boots" Tammy D... thanks for handling all this with such grace and poise, you are truly a Lady....

Now... Yesterday D took Leo to the Vet yesterday... 32.2lbs... Hes gained 8lbs in three weeks!



After we went to the Vet we passed by Barnes & Noble where they were having a book signing for a new Star Wars book... We had to stop by... and this is what we found...

Oh yea, thats dang funny!

Finally, Brian Charles turned me on to this kid on Youtube called DaxFlame... thought I'd post two my favorite posts... Is this kid for real...

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this post!

Just some pics of Leo sleeping I wanted to post. Hopefully I will post the most embarrassing moment of my life tomorrow but I need to get permission 1st. Hope everyone has a great day.

politics...

I'm going to be straight up with you. I do not keep up with politics very well. There are a couple things that I use to determine who I will vote for, I'll admit that isn't the most responsible way for a voter to make their choice but at this point it is what it is. Anyway Deb and I were watching TV last night and all the results from the primaries we on the bottom. And THIS is what we see.

Check out the bottom line

Irresponsible or not, I am not voting for a guy that is so married to the nickname "Big Dog" that he's ok with it plastered all over this type of arena. Whats really funny is that I would expect this somewhere in SC. There were a couple other funny ones. Another guy's name was "Big Al", and this other guy's was "Foxy"....

We didn't vote yesterday because we have not got all IN state stuff yet because of the move and I don't know if any of these yahoo were running in our district but I promise you I'm not voting for Big Dog....

politics...

TDK update

Alright, its almost here... this is a screen shot from the final Dark Knight trailer. Its Harvey Dent face down in gasoline. There has been speculation for 2 years now how far the Dent story line would go in TDK, now its confirmed... we will see Two Face in this film! Yes, I'm a dork but I'm really excited about this movie.

In other news... We're moving this weekend. I hate moving, I've moved all my belongings at least 10 times in the last 6 years... Now I'm moving all my stuff and all Deb's stuff and all "our" stuff. Although, I am looking forward to the new place.

Deb, Leo, and I are headed home in two weeks for Kristie and Hank's wedding. I'm really looking forward to seeing the family (both sides). Also, looking forward to hiking with David, and ihop breakfast with Greg Hayes, and Lunch at Joe's in downtown Easley and Zaxby's for dinner. I really love it here, God affirms every week that we're exactly where we need to be, so I'm not homesick, I've known this was going to happen for more than 10 years now, but its nice to be going back for a few days... I miss my mom.

Also, missing the E1 crowd...

Anyways... thats a snip it of whats going down with us...

Brain Dump

There is Leo, doing his thing.... playing with his dog... He's getting big, we are 90% house trained, we know sit, lay down, go get your toy, inside, outside, and get in your kennel, and the all important NO! So, we've made significant progress.

Otherwise things are going really well... The job is pretty hectic right now. I am helming YES Ministries 2009... And because of General Conference being right around the corner and Kory is slammed with that I have given the responsibility of all the design work for YES Ministries 2009. I have to say that this has intimidated me more than almost anything I've done in ministry. I guess knowing that my "artwork" (can i even call it that) will be sent all over the country for thousands to see is a little overwhelming. But I'm excited! So I just finished the artwork and I'm putting together a promo package to send out to a few camps this summer. I will post the artwork here once it goes public.
Deb and I are moving in two weeks. Bigger apt, closer to everything we do, so thats good news.

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to my boy T.J. He's getting married in Sept, and he asked me to be his best man. T and I have been boys since 4th period first day of our freshman year of HS. We have a million stories that still make us laugh that we can never tell anyone. So congrats my big eared friend, I am super excited for you and will be proud to stand behind you on the 13th of Sept... Love ya kid!
Peace...

Setapart Video

Click above for a Setapart highlight video put together by Kory Pence.

Its A Boy!!///NFL Combine

There is a new addition to the Rhodes' household.

Meet Leonidas our 8 week old Yellow Lab. D and I got him over the weekend!!! Look at that face!


This was him sleeping while we took care of the paper work.



This was him sleeping upside down in my armpit while I was watching TV. He sleeps a lot... He also pees a lot.

It really funny because D and I haven't agreed on a whole lot about dogs but when we saw him it was a no brainer... We can already tell that he's smart and he will a good dog for us.... he likes kids and plays well with the other dogs hes been around. Of course 1st on the list is house breaking, but we going to start working on sit and stay this week. Last night he slept the whole night through! Lets hope thats the deal from now on. Well any ways there's Leo I'm gonna try to get some video and post it...

send us some love!



NFL Combine and Friendly Visits

Had some friends up a couple weeks ago and Palmer and I went down to the NFL Combine and met Wade Phillips, Herm Edwards, saw Tony Dungy, and met Glen Dorsey... great Sunday!

Perspectives

So one of the toughest things about living so far away from our parents and friends is that we are creating a life here that we can tell them about but thats it... And words just don't do it justice sometimes. So I decided to share moments of my day from last Saturday. From the time that I got up from the time I went to bed I took a picture of what I was looking at or doing at that time. Its still not a full image of our lives here in Indy but its better than just words.

10:20am
It was Saturday so we got to sleep in late... So I rolled over and this is what I saw... our bedroom window

11:20am
Again it was Sat. morning and I'm still in bed with my wife. I'll tell you its one of the best parts of marrige, just lying there talking about nothing.

12:20pm
So hunger finally drove me out of bed

1:20pm
Hook was on!! What a great movie... You know thats what Saturdays are good for... You can always find some random good movie on...

2:20pm
Deb and I had to start getting ready to go the Harvest set-up and worship practice.

3:20pm
Waiting on D... running late... watching hook... its when Pan finds his happy thought... it was his kids... Julia Roberts as Tink... genius

4:20pm
Harvest set-up and practice

I'm bored just typing this.... So you must really be bored... chalk this one up to bad idea blog post...

The Current Journey

RELEVANT...
this the word that has been burned into my mind for the last several weeks. God has been taking me on a journey through was relevancy is. It's a Christian buzzword right now and I hate buzzwords... but I cannot escape the fact that people are attracted to things they can relate to. I am attracted to things that "get me", things that are relevant to me. So where are God and I on this journey... We're in the coffee shop stage. The place where we're just kinda sitting around talking about it... sharing our thoughts... Him telling me when I'm on the right track or way off base. I have to say this is my favorite place to be with God... to me its even more intimate than flat out worship... but its challenging because sometimes He just gives me the answers... "do this"... "don't do that"... "this is My will for you"... And in these situations He lets me talk it out and its more like nudges... Its harder but I feel closer to Him... He feels like a mentor...

Anyway, just a few thoughts on relevancy and then something funny.

1. Cool is not always relevant. - I used to equate the two... so I looked for whatever was cool at the time. Here's the thing about cool. Cool is relative almost down the each individual... Relevant is more about cultural engagement. Its about keep your finger on the pulse of the community not just parts that you can identify with.

2. Cultural Engagement - to engage the culture you must know your community and know your community you must be in the community... I don't mean live in the neighborhood either... IN the community... involvement, contribution, participation, getting dirty. two things about that...
a. the best way to learn from or about something is get your hands dirty and adsorb yourself in to
b. Creditability... (i know its cliche but...) people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care... There's a lot of truth to this...

3. The point of relevancy - finding the most effective avenues to get the gospel from the sanctuary to the streets...

let me go off on a tirade about this... and I'm not a "pastor" any more so I can say this... I'm just a regular church goer... Evangelism is the primary responsibility of the congregation not the pastor... His/her job is to equip and motivate you to reach the lost... Evangelism is not a Sunday morning activity... Evangelism should take place mon-sat in your home and workplace... where you eat... how you drive your car... the way for you cheer for your kids @ soccer games... the way you live your life should evangelize... give people a reason to want to learn what you know...

there's my tirade...

so here is a vid from the Family Force 5 concert at setapart... what was I thinking... hope you enjoy.

just a thought...

John Mayer had a great post I read today....
You know I wasn't incredibly fond of the John and Jess relationship but I gotta give it to my my boy JM for having some integrity about it...

...free ipod touch... skeptisism peaked?

d-will.... I have to say buddy I don't think the poddy touchy is going to be a freebie... just have to let ya know...

anyways, its been awhile so I wanted to update the "not so masses" about how thing are going here in "dang cold" Indy.

Setapart was incredible! The perspective on conventions is so different from where i sit now though. Not in a bad way just different. Its hard to explain but there was a disconnect from students, especially in the rallies because I sat backstage. And because @ logos5 I was a youth pastor and my job was to connect with students and now my job is to #1 support Scott and #2 connect and support youth pastors which was really really cool for me. I had coffee with Brad LeRoy yesterday (more on that later) and we were talking about where I am in life and with my job. I told him it was weird because there were some people at SA07, you know people I've known for awhile, people I went to school with that think that this position is... I don't know... up there... for instance one guy said "you're like the #2 guy"... I'm not... at all. Don't get me wrong Scott has been SOOOO awesome at letting me take ownership of stuff like YES Ministries and FUEL. And given me freedom to explore ideas of my own. But I am by no means #2. But I told Brad that I am at the bottom at the funnel... I am in the best possible place to glean off the best the Wesleyan Church has to offer. I feel so blessed that no other youth pastor (i don't care if i don't have a group right now... I'm still a yp... its who I am) has this opportunity. God is good to me.

Anyways, Brad Leroy is the pastor of Harvest Church, where we have decided to make our home. He and I had coffee yesterday and talked about our involvement with the church. Can I just say it is ultra-refreshing in sit down with a pastor and him ask me what I want to do and now what he wants me to do.... so nice... We talked about the areas of creativity and youth my favorite things to be involved in. So we'll see the journey God takes on with Harvest... the cool thing about Brad and our connection is that he was the last person to hold any semblance of my position here @ HQ... Although he was the #2 guy, after he left it went to a straight admin asst and now Scott is trying to get back to a Ministry Assistant... So its really cool to have his perspective and wisdom in that area... I respect him a lot... have since I first met him.

I guess going home and coming back here really made our lives here in Indy "real"and we've settled on a church and both have steady jobs and all that jazz.... so thats it we're here for awhile and this is our lives... we miss everyone in SC but God gives us affirmation everyday that led us here and here is where we belong until He does it all over again... now i just need a dog