don't get eaten

be careful - there is a danger lurking in Allen, TX.

If you drive NORTH on Alma from McDermott to Exchange, do not drive in the right lane!

The large pacman trees are hungry and ready to eat you....

you have been warned...

christian conferencing

one of the things that John Wesley found to be super important in any Christians faith (especially those involved in his societies) was the idea of Christian Conferencing... gathering together to learn...

In April, I will be traveling to Chicago to participate in a student ministries event called SHIFT. I first was inspired to go when I heard who the speakers were - Brian McClaren, Shane Claiborne, and Mark Yaconelli. I learned more about it, got myself registered and am excited...

THEN...today I got my list of break-out sessions that I am registered for. This got me CRAZY SUPER-DUPER excited!

Here they are:


Student Ministries Leadership Conference
A07: Reculturing Student Leadership

B27: Helping Students Think Critically About Marketing

C44: Remythologizing Our Teaching

D61: Deep Justice in a Broken World

4 topics I care deeply about and want to learn more about!

oh man, is in April yet?

I look forward to sharing what I learned with you all....

better sports

I guess this train of thought all started a few years ago when I was at a minor league baseball game and thought to myself..."You know what would make this better...."

Before I share, let me say that I LOVE sports, I think there are great redeeming qualities to most sports (sorry NASCAR, you are on the short list). I love watching sports, playing sports, and talking about sports, so this in not a knock on sports, just some random thoughts that would make certain sports better....

You know what would make baseball better?
Lassos
When someone begins to steal second, the first baseman can take out a lasso and try to corrall him. Think about it....2 ways to get a guy out - the catcher would still throw the ball to second and attempt to get him out, but adding a lasso might be an interesting idea...

You know what would make soccer better?
Playing 2 balls at the same time
Think about it, it would totally change the strategy of the game. Plus think of the excitement and chaos when the home team tears down each side of the field with a ball - it would be entirely possible to score 2 goals at a time...
also, you know what would make pro soccer better - stop the fake injuries and falling down crying...man that is annoying

You know what would make NASCAR better?
The various explosive devices found in car racing video games
Think abou it...the guy in 4th is 2 laps down, at which point he throws out a heat seeking "whajammer" which makes the first place guy spin wildly out of control, only to have him land safely on the infield grass to collect his thoughts and continue racing.

You know what would make football better?
new rules
Think about it - the addition of new rules, like "FREEZE TAG" would add a whole new element to the game. Other rules to consider:
BLUE FLAG RULE - in addition to red challenge flag, the coach gets a blue flag in which, when thrown, the opposing team must play the next play with no shoes
RED ROVER RULE - at the end of each quarter, each team lines up on the sidelines and calls one player from the opposing team over
THE TONY ROMO RULE - Tony Romo is not allowed to enter the country of Mexico....ever....not just before the playoffs, ever.

You know what would make basketball better?
open player subsitutions
no need to call a timeout or wait for the clock to stop...just throw the players you want out there.

You know what would make hockey better?
nothing - hockey is awesome....

HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER!

Hope today is filled with the joy, hope, and promise that it was filled with over 2000 years ago. May God Bless your family on this holiest of days.

Amen.

dallas stars!!

we had a great time at the stars game! Here's proof!

what a day!

so after my AWESOME morning, I was worried that the rest of the day was going to be a let down...good news is, it was just the opposite! My day was SO great. I got to spend the bulk of the day with a great group of youth from Suncreek when we visited City House, an emergency teen shelter in Plano. We hung out with some of the residence and cooked some yummy homemade lasagna. We had some of the youth from the shelter help us cook and it was great to interact with them (and always great top teach people the joy of cooking). There was talks of a youth culinary small group...count me in!

The Suncreek youth were amazing and usual and rolled with the punches and jumped in where needed. we obviosuly had too many youth to all be in the kitchen at the same time, so a group just hung out and played basketball and vollyball. When we switched I fully anticipated some complaining about the amount of work left, but not one word! They all just did what was needed to get the job done! It was awesome! A group of girls made some awesome cookies that were consumed in .14 seconds, it was great to provide a group which does not get a lot of homemade cookines that opportunity.

All in all, it was a great "mission moment" and I look forward to spending more time there soon!

After lunch, I picked up Ky from school early so we could hang out on his birthday. About 10 minutes after I picked him up, I started feeling pretty lousy. Sore throat and stuffy head. Didn't matter, we went to Toys 'R Us and bought some birthday toys with Nana & Pawpaw money! A HUGE dinosaur and an awesome new tractor, he is set!

All is all, great day!

i hope my morning is an indication of how great my day is going to be...

Today is Kyler's 3rd birthday! It is awesome and these first 3 have flown by!

When Kyler woke up, I went into his room and laid down next to him on his bed. I gave him a big hug and told him Happy Birthday. He told me that he "did not scream real loud for me so he would not wake mommy up". This launched a 20 minute conversation ( a LONG time for a 3-year old) which covered a wide range of topics, including but limited to: Palm Sunday, donkeys, cars, cartons, lids, Bella, The Dart Train, the Moose on the Dart train, the Moose on the Dart train that scared everybody off the train, the real train, the deer on the real train, which animals bite (ants), and which do not (deer), who was currently sleeping in our house, where did everyone go who WAS sleeping in our house, bounce houses, birthday cake, and finally, "can we play with my octopus after we get dressed and go to school and I will not cry?". We just laid there and talked about all kinds of things. It was a PERFECT way to start off my day....

who wants a ride....

...ON THE BUS!!!!

That is it, it is official, mark the tape, I AM A CERTIFIED TX CDL ACTIVITY BUS DRIVER WITH PASSENGER AND AIR BRAKE ENDORSEMENT!!

I took my driving test this morning and passed with flying colors! Let the bus trips begin!

In all seriousness, it was a lot more difficult, and a LOT more time consuming, that I thought it would be. But trust me, OH SO WORTH IT - to have the ability to easily do things off campus will make ministry so much easier!

I am off for a celebratory lunch (yeah for Pei Wei!).

Hope you and yours are doing well.

monday monday

it's monday
it's raining
it's daylight savings weekend
its monday

ok, enough negativity -

there are still a lot of things to be happy about.
My kid turns 3 a week from today. St. Patty's Day!

We have family and friends (who might as well be family) coming in this weekend for a small get together for Ky. Should be great times.

We had a great time last night at UMYF - good times - sorry if you missed it!

Time to go to school - hope everyone is well - I will try to blog this afternoon when Ky is napping...

a recantion

As per my "Barney" blog entry below, it has come to my attention of a song about a horn that is good....now before I officially recant my horn statement, I would like to put a few prefaces on my recantment...

PREFACE #1 - "76 Trombones" was written by Meridith Wilson ~ which has been brought forth as to redeem all "Horn songs" - for The Music Man
PREFACE #2 - I was IN The Music Man in high school (I was in the chorus, and my biggest claim to fame in that show was I was the guy who carried the big box which contained the pool table in the opening Iowa scene - Somehow, carrying a pool table only took 2 of us...we were incredibly strong, as most delivery men from Iowa are, or, for that matter, ALL people from Iowa are.)
PREFACE #3 - While I love that show, I would hardly call "76 Trombones" a "good song about a horn"
PREFACE #4 - I wrote that blog very early in the morning - I was tired
PREFACE #5 - I am just so glad someone is actually reading my blog...I will recant anything at this point

SO....here it is

I, EVAN JONES, ON THIS DATE - MARCH 5, 2008 - DO HEAR BY RECANT MY STATEMENT THAT 'THERE ARE NO GOOD SONGS ABOUT HORNS'. I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE TO MEREDITH WILSON, THE GOOD PEOPLE OF IOWA, EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER PLAYED A HORN - ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO PLAYED A TROMBONE, ANYONE WHO HAS EVER PERFORMED IN THE MUSIC MAN, ANYONE WHO LIKES BARNEY, OLD LADIES, FAT CHILDREN, PERSONS WITH ONE FOOT, THOSE WHO LIKE THE DETROIT RED WINGS (I AM LYING ABOUT THAT ONE, I AM NOT SORRY FOR YOU), AND ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY READS MY BLOG FOR MY SLANDEROUS AND OFFENSIVE STATEMENTS.

Jackie....I hope you like it, thanks for reading my blog!

snow day!

I know, I know...

I imagine there will be a lot of people talking about this today, but here is MY version of the story....

last night I was up late (ok, not late, just later than the rest of my family). As I was crawling in bed I noticed that it seemed to be much brighter outside. I went over to the blinds and cracked them open to see SNOW!!! And lots of it! I was so excited, I went and woke Jana up! Being the good sport that she is, she h0pped out of bed to see it!

We are from South texas, and this is a rarity (like 1986 was the last time rarity) down there.

I could hardly sleep last night I was so excited to show Ky in the morning!

When he woke up, he was grumpy as usual and then I told him I had a big surprise for him. Like a light switch, he stopped crying and said "what is it? show me"

We went over to the window and I lifted the blinds to see the 5+ inches of snow that had fallen the night before! He flipped! He was so excited and talked about how it was like on Barney!
When I asked him if he wanted to go play, he said, NO! I want my mommy to hold me and you make a snowball....

a few minutes later we were all outside touching the snow. I will post some pictures when I get home...

when I dropped him off at school this morning, he asked me if we could play in the snow when we got home. I told him it would all be melted...then he started crying....screaming "I DON'T WANT YOU TO MELT IT".

A mom in the parking lot heard him and laughed and said, "WE had a very similar conversation this morning."

When I told him that I wasn't the one melting it, he said "who was melting it?"...I told him God. Then, not wanting him to not like god for melting the snow, I changed my answer to the sun. He doesn't like the sun anyway, it gets in his eyes.