World's Ugliest Baby???

This evening, as friends of mine from Mosaic, as well as a good number of neighbors gathered for our Thursday group (which has transformed itself into neighborhood barbecue), I took this photo of my friend Richard who appears to be carrying a small child. It took me a second, too....Look closely :)

4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July to everybody! The 4th of July in Los Angeles was HOT, but being surrounded by great people, and doing fun things made it all worthwhile! In the late morning / early afternoon, I attended the annual Mosaic 4th of July barbecue at Elysian Park, a park which incidentally, I had never been to before! It was set up and organized this year by a group of interns, a group of individuals I've been getting to know over the past few weeks! They did a great job making the BBQ fun and exciting, although I have to say that after playing some very intense volleyball and ultimate frisbee, I was glad that I had brought along an extra t-shirt! After the barbecue, my friend Kent and I went to Dodger Stadium and watched the Dodgers lose to the Atlanta Braves. Despite the gloom of the Dodgers losing (especially to Atlanta), it was a great way to further celebrate the 4th. There was an Air Force flyover by the largest plane I've ever seen in my life, and the game was followed up by one of the best displays of fireworks I've seen as well. I guess that makes sense, given that it was sponsored by AAA, and I know they've been making tons of money off of people like me, who subscribe to membership and then only use their service to bail out friends! Tomorrow I hope to finish carpeting the garage!!! We'll see how it all goes down!

It's HOT out here!!!

Coming back from Atlanta last Thursday, I thought I'd enjoy the much cooler weather here in Los Angeles...WRONG. The past two days have seen temperatures in the mid 90s with no relief in sight. With this kind of a heat wave going on, it 's hard to me motivated to even leave the house when I can work up a sweat simply walking to where my car is parked across the street!
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to return to Mosaic (which I had missed the previous week due to NECC), and I was reminded just how cool it is to be able to be part of a community that is so vibrant, so alive, and so willing to simply love each other! Some of you may know this, but at Mosaic I co-lead what's called the "Connection" team, which basically means that we are the folks that try to make sure that guests feel welcome and are able to "connect" (hence the clever name) with small groups, ministry teams, or other opportunities (boy, that was a run on sentence!!!). Anyway, fairly frequently I feel tired or not in the best of moods when I arrive, but over the course of the night, I am inspired and completely blown away by my team members and how they serve each other and serve God in this context! It's a constant reminder to me as to how by simply giving of ourselves, we can really make a difference in people's lives! I know they make a difference in mine.
Anyway, this Wednesday is Independence Day, and I'm looking forward to a BBQ with some folks up at Elysian Park and then a Braves-Dodgers game at Chavez Ravine! I definitely know that summer is now here!

Summer 2007

Finally! After 10 longs months of teaching, summer is finally here! As much as I'd like to say that I took my first two days of summer to sleep in, this didn't happen. Yesterday, a good friend of mine, Eric, hosted a barbecue/fund raiser for his summer mission trip to Bali. He, and a team of other from Mosaic, will be serving a group of missionaries who are already in Southeast Asia as they rest and recuperate from their work. The BBQ was tons of fun and they raised almost $2000 for their trip!
Today, I fly off to Atlanta to attend NECC 2007, an educational technology conference. It should be fun and informative. I'm looking forward to spending some time perusing the various forms of ways to implement technology in my classroom next year. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing the Atlanta Braves lose to the Washington Nationals either Monday or Wednesday, thus allowing the New York Mets to increase their ever widening lead in the NL East.
Anyway, I am starting this blog as a way to keep track of myself this summer. I'd love to hear from any or all of you so feel free to post comments to anything that gets updated here!
Peace