So the house hasn't sold, boo hoo, I'm *cough* real sad *cough* about that. So here's the new plan, I'm about to be burning up the roads like a mad man. We're staying here and I'm just going to commute the 2 days a week to college to finish up, and then I'm also starting an interim position at a church next Sunday so I'll commute for that as well. School is not quite 2 hours away, church will be 3 hours away. Yikes, that's a lot of miles. I wish I knew someone with a small car I could borrow. I'll also continue to put in a couple of days at the marina and clean the boat 4 nights a week. Crazy as all this sounds, I'm so excited about it.

Last week a friend brought a '94 Mazda Miata over to the house for me to check out for her since she was thinking of buying it. Well that pretty much ruined me. I generally don't like convertables because on a hot summer day, even if I'm blasting the AC and doing 70, I would still sweat. This was night time when she came over so Audra and I went riding around. Kind of brought me back to when I would take the pop up sunroof out of my mustang, roll the windows down, and go cruising at night. I've always loved small cars that hug the road so we had a great time. Charlie, enjoy that new Rabbit for me.

Someone let Audra borrow several seasons of Gilmore Girls so she's been watching a lot of that lately and I have to admit I really like it. Thankfully it's not like watching 24 where we just absolutely have to watch it together. If I've got some reading to do or something I can go lay in bed and be perfectly fine with missing an episode. But still I find it to be a very good show.

My mom bought Curious George for JonMichael this summer so we've watched it 50 times in the past month or so. I remembered reading something about a Curious George movie that was going to be made and that Will Ferrell was going to be in it so I figured it would be some dopey movie that I'd hate, but I didn't realize it was to be a cartoon and that he was doing the voice of The Man in the Yellow Suit. Turns out it's a fantastic movie! Will Ferrell was perfect for the part too. If you were one of those kids who was addicted to the George books as a kid like I was then this is a must see. They really did a great job with this movie!

I'm not the biggest baseball fan in the world, but I used to watch it quite a bit as a kid. These days I'm following along with the home run record thing with great interest though, not because I love Barry Bonds, but like many others I can't stand him. I love seeing headlines like "Bonds kept quiet as Giants lose".

I lifted the Jeep a little more and man am I happy! I blogged some time way back about how I needed to beef up the rear and that's just what I did. What you see is the progression that my project has taken(stock, rims and tires, 2" budget boost, 3.5" lift). What I've done most recently is put in a set of coil springs from a Grand Cherokee with a V8 in it which gave me just over 1.5". I was shocked about that because I had read different reports of what it would net me. So with my 2" spacer I'm at around 3.5" up front. My bro in law gave me the rear leafs from his XJ after he lifted it so I added the top 2 leafs to my pack, plus the half inch trim block that came with my original budget boost, and ended up with 3.5" in the rear as well(I took off my 1.5" lift shackles and went back to stock). The ride is amazing, much much better than the stock leaf pack and extended shackles. I couldn't believe I actually ended up with the same lift height on both front and rear since it's not an exact science. I've got some shocks ordered which should be here tomorrow afternoon and that will finish out the suspension. Next up is rolling in a bedliner in the interior, which I'm starting tonight. After that will probably come a bumper.

The only difference between this and a real "Charlie Moment" is that this wasn't embarressing to me and wasn't brought on by anything I did, but it was still one of those rare moments.

Saturday was my birthday so by the time I got finished working and cleaning the boat Audra wanted to take me to dinner at the restaurant that is on the water at the marina. My next door neighbor is the manager at the marina so she and her husband are there a lot as well. I needed to wash my hands so as we were walking in I opened the door to the single seat bathroom at is in the main walkway(which was quite crowded with people), but I was turned around still talking to Audra and my neighbor. I held the door wide open for several seconds and when I finally turned around to go in the bathroom I was met by a guy who was already in the bathroom. He said "Excuse me!" so I said "Well lock the door why don't you!"

Stay tuned, the "moment" hasn't hit yet. After that guy closed the door I turned to my right and went to the other bathroom. When I came out I went to find Audra, who was by then in a small group of people dying laughing. It was funny but I didn't really see the big deal, but then they pointed out to me that the guy who was in the bathroom was naked from the waist down and he had his pants in his hand! Man, I'm so glad that happened, just made my whole night!

hey guys

Almost 2 months, wow, that's a record. Still here. Here's the update for the 1 or 2 of you who don't know what's going on. I resigned from my church back in April. There was a lot happenening, serious trust issues, and it was just time. Since then I've been busy, but things have been so good for us. It was absolutely the right thing to do.

I've been working at our local marina this summer and it has really been life changing for us. For the first time I have been able to build relationships and meet people not as "Michael, the youth minister at FBC", but as just plain old Michael. These people I'm meeting don't have some pre-formed opinion of me and they don't feel like they have to act any certain way around me, they can be themselves. I've also discovered I can just be myself, which isn't a different person than I was before, but it's very liberating to have an identity outside of church world. In some ways it's been difficult though because I know I have a calling on my life, yet I don't want to go back to being boxed in. That's something I'm really having to pray though.

I enjoy my job on the water. One cool thing about the job is that pretty much everyone who is down there is there for vacation or for relaxation so pretty much everyone is in a good mood. Audra and the kids come hang out on the docks almost every day for a little while and JonMichael just loves the fact that I get to work with boats. We have several charter captains and I was fortunate to find favor with the top dog of them all. He noticed that I went the extra mile to take care of him and his customers. Because of that, he offered me the job of helping him clean his beautiful boat in the evenings when he gets in. Doesn't take long, it's very enjoyable, and the extra money is nice. His family has been a huge blessing to mine as they have done nothing but love on us.

So the plan from here is to go back to college in a month, take the 2 classes I need and graduate. We're trying to sell the house, which has been hard since we love this place so much. I've hatched several plans to work here and just stay since we've built so many new relationships over the past 2 months, but God will have to make it obvious that we are supposed to do that. Maybe he will.