The Problem with April 1

I don't think there were a greater than normal number of April fool's jokes this year, but it's taking me longer than normal to recover from it.

Here's the problem I have with April 1.

I'm taken by almost every prank. That's right I fall for almost every bit of it.

Let the name calling begin. Believe me you can't accuse me of anything I haven't called myself.

That's the real problem.

So what if for a day I believe that scientist have discovered one small clan of penguins who learned to fly. I might look foolish for a couple minutes because I believed for 30 seconds that a new Narnia book was coming out, but I don't care.

The problem with April 1 jokes is that I become distrusting and cynical for the rest of the month.

Sheena could tell me that she's having twins and I won't believe it until they are born. Why? Because I believe a bunch of lies on April 1.

I heard on the radio this morning that there was another earth quake in Japan. I didn't believe it until I heard it from many other sources.

This is a problem.

I'll try not to fall for everything next year, but, more importantly, I'll try and believe what you tell me now.

Happy Birthday Makiah

Yesterday was Makiah's second birthday.

We celebrated over the weekend with family and friends and then yesterday Sheena and I took our daughter out and had some fun just the three of us.

The picture to the right is her celebrating with her free birthday sundae at the restaurant of her choosing. It might be hard to tell, but she celebrated with ketchup and chocolate sauce all over her face, shirt, sleeves, and table.

It was a wild party.

She's apparently not one to rush a good thing and when the ice cream all melted away, and her spoon ended up across the room, only one option presented itself for finishing off the party.

I tried to offer help, but she turned that down with an emphatic: "I dood it. I dood it."

I think she was just worried I'd sneak a bite for myself.

She was probably right to be worried.

Happy Birthday Makiah.

Just Like Mommy

There is no denying that Makiah wants to be just like her mom.

Whatever Sheena is doing Makiah wants to be in on.

But now there's something new, and we're not sure if this is imitation, participation, or mockery. Because the list of things that Makiah wants to do just like mommy now includes vomiting.

Sheena's body does not like being pregnant. For Sheena pregnancy is nine months of nausea with a 90% chance of chunks. It's the only time in our marriage when she spends more time in the bathroom than I do.

A few weeks ago Makiah began walking around the house making retching sounds. She would then run to the toilet, shover her face in the bowl, and begin fake hurling. Then she lifts her head and exclaims: "me sick." And retches some more.

It's adorable.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I'm not so sure Sheena is all that flattered.

2 Year Old Bieber Fever

Thank You Girls in our youth group who taught my daughter to sing Justin Bieber's Baby.

The four hour dive to the island today was wonderful with a two year old singing: "Baby, baby, baby ooh."

Thank You very much.

Don't Worry Be Happy

For better or for worse, my ringtone for the past seven years have been predominantly the song "Don't Worry Be Happy."

Why?

It was cheap, and I purchased it in a moment when I was all caught up in nostalgia.

Last night I wanted an new ring tone and ended up buying a whole new phone.

Okay, so that's not how it went. I've previously written about our old cell phone. Here's a picture of it:

It's far from pretty, but it worked in its own temperamental and quirky sort of way. 

We've moved on to another phone. One with a camera (the photo above was taken with it), an Mp3 player, and most importantly a keyboard so we can get all into the texting.  Turns out we can now text anyone in the world for free. I'm actually keen to test this. Shoot me a note with your phone number and maybe I'll text you. Actually, the most important feature is probably the internal antenna. We had to super glue Flippy McFlipperson's on three times in the past month. 

Our new phone is also quite pretty. Want to see a picture. Well, you can't, Flippy doesn't take pictures. 

But if you see Sheena she'll probably let you see it and more than likely let you hold it for her for a while. She's already made a couple comments about the size. 

I should say that the motivation behind the switch is to better communicate with people: especially the younger crowd who are frequently doing the texting. After our event Monday night Sheena became convinced that I needed a better phone to be better equipped to do my job. I'm trying not to treat it like a toy, but rather a ministry tool since that increases its holiness.*

But now we need a new ringtone. We've considered a few options and are weighing the pros and cons of each. 

I can tell you right now that it won't be Taio Cruz's song Dynamite. I do enjoy air travel from time to time and I would hate for the words "We gon' light it up, like it's dynamite" to be heard coming from my phone while I'm in an airport. 

So, any ringtone suggestions for us. What songs make for a good ring tone? Or is the boring old ringer best? What do you think? And is it acceptable to get my wife a Bluetooth for her birthday?

*are ministry tools tithe deductible? 

VBS Next Week

In the hours leading up to the kick off of a VBS I'm always a weird mix of excited, nervous, stressed, worshipful, and jittery and exhausted.

The jitters are really just from the high levels of caffeine in my body necessary because of the lack of sleep over the past two weeks. For some reason it's hard to sleep when the next days "to-do" list is much longer than the list of things accomplished that day. Eventually the VBS begins whether everything was accomplished or not. Often it's only little things that I think would make everything cooler that get missed. Well, they're only missed by me. Truthfully, given my track record to coolness, most people probably wouldn't find them all that cool anyway.

Usually the morning of the thrid day is the best day of VBS for me. Everyone's into a good routine and things are humming along. This is why two day VBS' just don't cut it for me. You miss the best day. The last day is never all that good, because it's the last day, and they are usually finale touches that I'm hoping work as well in real life as they should in my head.

Regardless, VBS begins tomorrow. I'm super excited, and typing fast because of the jitters. It's an awesome privilage to work with families and their children. One I'm trying to relish amidst all the things that are yet to be done. 

stuck in my head

Thought I'd share a few random things that are in my head right now.

I'm currently reading a book about church change that has a picture of a compact fluorescent light bulb on the cover. Is that because the CFL is a symbol of change, or was the book, written by a pastor, inspired by the old joke: "How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?"

I can't believe the spell checker missed my original miss-spelling of fluorescent.

The post burp apology/plea for excuse, should be equal in volume to the burp.

This story here inspires me to get a smart phone. Oddly enough, the geriatric phone I currently use fails to be that inspiration.

My dreams of mobile phone ownership used to involve communication, now they involve taking pictures of old men in ridiculous sweaters.

I didn't really understand what a sweet tooth was, until I met a bitter one.

I love a good groaner joke if I'm the one who thought it up. But I usually roll my eyes, and find them so unfunny if someone else does. Does that make me a hypocrite? 

If Iceland is green, and Greenland is ice, what is Peachland made of?


Someone found my blog last week by searching "christopher miller vs. walmart" but I've never had a confrontation with the retailor. Which one of me is out there picking fights with Walmart? Whichever Chris Miller you are please stop. I've got great plans for the penny I now save on milk and I don't want the price to go back up.

In my house, math causes more arguments then I care to count.

Whenever I have a problem to work out I got to the bathroom: especially if the problem is constipation.


What about you? What are some random things stuck in your head?

When is it too early to brag about your kids?

You hear a lot of parents brag about their kids every time the child learns a new trick. And let's face it, a trick, for the most part, is really all they are doing. At first anything they learn is just for the entertainment of the parents. Parents say "Where's your nose?" and scream with glee when the kid manages to connect finger with nose within the next couple minutes. The child tries to get it right not because they care where their nose is, or what it can do for them, but because, I'm assuming, they like to answer questions correctly. No one likes to be wrong at any age.

One of the "talents" you often hear parents bragging about is the ability to blow kisses. I'll admit that I find it cute when a toddler can blow a kiss. I saw a child today who learned this skill really young.

How young you ask?

In utero.

That's right I saw a baby on the ultrasound blowing kisses.

And why was I there looking at the ultrasound? Was I job shadowing? No! Do I break into ultrasound offices as some sort of a twisted hobby? Of course not!

I was there to see my child. That's right, my kid is already blowing kisses. And at about 18 or 19 weeks. Take that!

Of course, at the rate at which my child's intellect is increasing I fully expect it to be better than me at math by age four.

Happy 2

It's a big day today. Today, September 30, 2008, marks a number of things. Firstly, my wife greeted me this morning with "Happy Anniversary." Oh yeah, I've got that going on today. I was prepared for it. I remembered. Secondly, at 3:30pm today we get keys to our new house. We're so excited.

After four months of being nomads in guest houses and spare bedrooms we have a place of our own. It's shiny and nice and hypoallergenic.

Have I mentioned we're excited?

Actually, there's a lot to be excited about right now. It seems that these past four months have been made up of huge days. But that has us a bit on edge. Experts say that one major life change in a year is about all that a person can handle. But what about four in four months. Since June first we've moved to a new city, both began new jobs, bought a house, and learned that in march we'll be having a baby.

We're holding off on getting pets though. I hear puppies are gateway drugs.

Hopefully we're good on major life changes for a while. I think I'd like some time to enjoy these.

Coincidences

Is this weird to anyone else? It’s weird to me, but maybe I’m just weird like that.

Two years ago there were two rather significant dates. June first when I proposed to Sheena, and September 30 the date of our wedding.

This year on June first I began my new job as pastor of student ministries at Lakeview Heights Baptist Church. Yesterday Sheena and I bought a house. We move in September 30.

Cue theme to the Twilight Zone because I’m a freaking out a little.

The Call

We awoke Friday morning to the phone ringing. Lakeview Heights Baptist Church near Kelowna, BC, voted the night before to hire me as their youth pastor. Wow, what a great moment. Sadly, the moment was a bit overshadowed by the brutality of the timing. It was 7:30am and I had been in bed less than six hours. We were out at a concert in Victoria and it was really late when we got home. I think I said yes. I sure hope I did. Maybe I should give them a call and confirm.

Okay, so we’re moving to the Okanagan. Oh, and we’ve got a month to pack up everything and go. Awesome. Please pray.