A Medieval Weekend

My little brother and his wife are coming to town this weekend. I can’t wait for them to get here. It is going to be great. Tomorrow night we are going to Medieval Times. It is a themed restaurant and show. The outside of the building looks like a castle. Every time my brother would drive by it he would say, “someday I am going to go there.” Well I found out a couple of weeks ago it is closing down. So when Chris and Laura decided to come up this weekend, I knew we had go.

So I booked us reservations. It is going to be great. And today at Circuit City, I was able to get a new digital camera for 60% off. So I will take plenty of pictures. So stayed tuned…

Here is a funny video…

The Boys

In the willow world, our weekends tend to be Friday and Saturday, due to the hard work that takes place on Sundays. Well this last Friday a friend name Ernie gave some of us Autoshow tickets (thanks Ernie). None of us are really car guys, but we had a ton of fun going downtown and hanging out. We rode the train down to the city then got day passes for the El. We spent several hours at the car show, we walked off a lot of calories which was good.

It was really cool after a fun day, to sit back and reflect on how God has blessed me with some really good friends. Matt and I have been friends sense almost day 1…well his day 1. I love that he lives up here. Kellen moved up from Georgia to do an internship at Willow. It has been really awesome to get to know him and watch  him grow in amazing ways. Then there is Adam. What can I say about him? He has quickly turned into one of my best friends. My love language is quality time and words of affirmation. But I think the quality time sometimes drives him crazy, because I just love to hang-out, and he likes to be alone. But he seems to accept me as a friend anyway.

When I first moved up to Chicago on June 12, 2006; one of hardest parts was leaving all the people I knew and loved. And although I still love those back in STL (well…most of them). God has really blessed me with some amazing friends. Even though two of the three I mentioned, I supervise at work. They probably have no idea how much I look up to them.

Thank you God for providing for me in way I could have never imagined and blessing me with friends that challenge me to be more like you.

Matt

Adam

Kellen

Do Work!

All I want to do is “do work” but I want to do it well.

It has been at tradition for three years now for our Jr. High ministry to go to a Bulls game together. Typically it is on a Tuesday night. Which you would think doesn’t work too well for families. So this year when I talked to the Bulls they let us do it on a Friday night. Jackpot! We should be able to double our attendance no problem. But due to budgetary restrictions he have to cut our ticket numbers in half. However, we haven’t even been able to sell that much. Nobody is buying tickets. Is it the economy? The timing? The fact the Bulls suck this year? All of the above?

With about 24 hours left before tip-off. I still have 20 tickets to sell…and that adds up to about 400 dollars that is lost out of the, already shrinking, budget. So I guess you take your lumps and move on. And I don’t think we are going to do a Bulls game again next year.

However, it is interesting the Bulls advertising campaign right now is “Love It Live.” Turns out…nobody is loving it at all…let alone live.

The Bulls organization sent me letter head and a pocket schedule saying thanks for purchasing tickets. I found it interesting that both items had the NBA championship trophies and the years they were won printed on the. And yet the motto is “Love It Live”? There is nothing less live than 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998. Perhaps if they would have vision for the future instead of implying their organization has already peaked, the could win again…and draw attention to themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching MJ, Pippen, Longley, Armstrong, Rodman, and the gang. But get over it. It is time to move on, it has been 11 years.

But sense they won’t move on my budget to minister to teenagers has taken a hit. Thanks for nothing!

PS. GO BULLS!