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free dryer

hey if anyone who reads my blog needs a dryer then i have a bargain for you. when we moved to point 15 months ago we had an electric dryer. the problem was that our new home was rigged for a gas dryer. since we wanted to move to high-capacity, more efficient washers and dryers anyway, we decided to take the money we would have spent in rigging an electric connection for our old dryer and put it into a demo high capacity/ efficient dryer. unfortunately that means our old dryer has sat in the garage waiting for me to do something with it. poor sad little dryer. not being used. sitting in a dark corner by itself. no purpose or meaning in life other than holding some fishing supplies on its lid. makes a tear come to one’s eye.

so here’s what i’m going to do with the dryer. if anyone who reads my blog needs a dryer then you are welcome to have it but you have to buy me a cup of coffee. that’s right there is no getting around the cup of coffee (unless of course you’re too busy at the moment and then the cup of coffee is completely optional). pam and i would rather a friend who has a need gets this thing. so email me.

if no one want this thing (which was functioning perfectly last time i used it) then i’ll probably just put it up on craigslist and try to sell it for $50 or so.

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thanksgiving break at the terrell house

it’s not over yet but i still thought i would hit a few of the highlights of the terrell family thanksgiving break. the first highlight was thanksgiving lunch. bree, from tapestry, came over to join us along with three new friends from uwsp, they are international students from china. i can’t remember how to spell their names right now so i’ll fill those back in after i get pam’s help. it was a blast having them join us for lunch and we are going to try and do a few things with them in the future – including possibly introducing them to their first ice hockey game.

DSC_0014_edited-1the next things on the terrell agenda revolved around spending family time working and resting. the working came in the form of decorating the house. unfortunately now that all the lights are on the roof of the house one of the strings has apparently developed a short that’s blows its fuse within 5 minutes of being turned on.

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the resting part came in the form of all of us watching season 2 of “the office”, playing pikmin, and watching bama beat auburn.

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it was a really wonderful break and i am very thankful for it.

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as i said in the previous post

i know that i have already briefly posted on “black friday” but pam pointed out this article and so i thought i would post it. a worker was killed at a new york walmart by crowds trampling him as he opened the doors of the store for the beginning of the black friday sale. the crowd was so adamant about shopping that they refused to leave the store when it was announced that the store was closing because of the death. the response of some shoppers was “i’ve been on [sic] line since yesterday morning” and they continued to shop.

of course, faithful adherents usually view a few deaths as acceptable within a pilgrimage. i believe that is how america is treating “black friday” and the economy. our economy is our god and a death as a result of worshiping our deity just makes the value of our god that much greater.

i now some within the bride of CHRIST (the church) are already preaching against the value system that is behind events such as “black friday.” perhaps more of us should begin to do so and maybe the church should specifically begin to protest against participation within things such as “black friday.” this is part of what i like about advent conspiracy. i believe it is a call to readjust our worship and which deity we place out trust in.

ht to my lovely wife.

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america's "holiday"?

is black friday an american holiday (in the meaning of the word’s original meaning as a “holy day:)? i fear that it might be almost a holy day of obligation within our society.

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things to be thankful for

so i am presently sitting up at 4 am smoking turkeys and i thought that since i was up i might as well go ahead and list some things i am thankful for. so here goes:

  • a GOD WHO is worth being thankful for
  • pam – i definitely married up – she’s smarter than me, godlier than i could ever hope to be, as cute as it is possible for a human to be, and a domestic goddess (hmmmmm – baked potato soup).
  • adam and noah – my kids are great. i’m not just saying this because i’m supposed to. you can ask anyone who knows my kids and they will tell you that i am blessed to have these guys as my sons. adam challenges me with his care for those in need and noah does with his enthusiasm for the people and things he loves.
  • my parents and brother – i didn’t tell them this enough when i was growing up but i had (and have) a great family.
  • a wonderful extended family too – i have in-laws that i enjoy being around and i’ve heard enough stories to know that is a big deal.
  • a church family who loves questions and the journey and celebrates acts of faith – 14 months ago i’m not sure i had any idea how much i would soon love and be challenged by these wonderful individuals.
  • friends all over the world who encourage and support pam and i – i am constantly in awe of those who are praying for us, sending us notes, etc, etc. you ladies and gents are the greatest.
  • road races that put up with slow runners
  • c.s. lewis
  • fishing – both in the canoe and on the ice
  • the chances i get to take photos during the year
  • wisconsin summers – i can’t imagine any place it prettier
  • wisconsin winters – cold weather really is fun
  • watching “the office” with friends and family on thursdays
  • leading my fantasy football division
  • evernote – the best study tool ever
  • smoked turkey sandwiches with mayo – enough said
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the joy of having an 11 year old son

i had a haircut today.

when noah, the youngest terrell boy, saw me immediately after he got off his bus he said “hey dad. you got a haircut today, didn’t you?” after i said yes he responded with “dad, you should congratulate me on how good my eyesight is because you have so little hair up on top that it’s really hard to tell when you have less.”

ah, the joys of having a pre-teen.

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random overheard statements around me

i’m in my public office (emy j’s) and i can’t focus on what i’m supposed to be doing because the afternoon rush has started. therefore i am going to start recording random statements that i can hear over the din of noise within the place. here are some of the statements:

  1. you have to keep a hat on to keep your ears warms, right?
  2. it was almost like a scrapbook or something.
  3. i opened the refrigerator this morning and found a bottled water in it.
  4. i’m paying for this! response – then i’ll get the most expensive thing on the menu and teach you not to make that mistake again
  5. was yours a 12 ounce?
  6. i’m not sure how to type this – random sheep sounds and laughter
  7. do you want to sit in the other room? apparently said in response to the random sheep sounds
  8. i’ll just grab this table.
  9. that’s the only one with peanut butter?
  10. i’m sure i’ve never had bad ice cream.
  11. kids’ for me please
  12. it’s really sad to be in the company of two medical people.

basically meaningless dribble but i wasn’t able to do anything else because the store suddenly became quite noisy. this is why i am now grabbing my coffee and leaving.

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join the family for thanksgiving

just wanted to let anyone who read this blog and will be around point during thanksgiving that the terrell family would love to have you join us for thanksgiving lunch. we have a few tapestry people joining us and hopefully some international students from uwsp. just send me an email and i’ll get directions to you.

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nywc jealousy

i love what i am doing BUT i still miss youth ministry. i don’t want to swap back or anything like that but i miss some of the fun and experiences that are just naturally a part of working with teens. since the only teen we have in tapestry right now is my oldest son i can’t really call that a youth ministry … it’s parenting.

anyhow, a good third of my youth ministry friends have been blogging, twittering, and facebooking about being at one of the national youth workers conventions. i know i’m not supposed to be jealous of people so i’ll just say that i hate all of my friends who got to go to one of the nywc’s. crap … i’m not supposed to do that either. … i strongly dislike my friends who got to go.

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our copper charlie brown CHRISTmas tree

charlie brown tree

as many of you know tapestry is doing advent conspiracy to celebrate CHRISTmas. you can get a great idea of what advent conspiracy is all about by just going to the advent conspiracy link above. the short version of it is that we are trying to bring the CHRISTmas holiday back to being a holy day for us. we’re doing this by worshiping our LORD through trying to spend less while giving more and then using some of the money we save to buy clean water for those in need.

part of our worship for the advent season is changing the way that we value CHRISTmas. we are taking notice of this year CHRISTmas won't suck everything we see that GOD has done during our week and placing those events on our own little “charlie brown CHRISTMas tree.” i bought 1,000 shipping tags to write these GOD sightings on. people are grabbing some of the tags to take with them and record events during the week. then they bring those tags back and place them on the tree. these should make for a wonderfully and meaningfully decorated tree by the end of advent.

our sparse little tree of course, since we’re going to be buying clean water for people it seemed only appropriate to make this tree out of copper water pipe.  i built our sparse little tree last week and then improved upon it this week. i’ve pretty much decided that i’m going to change it a little each week. i could say that there was an artistic reason for this but the truth is that each week i realize a way i could have down it better. so example, last week it had a mere three branches, where as this week the little copper tree has sprouted several new growths that make it look better (i realized there wasn’t much room for many tags to be put on it). the next improvement will be welding. i have used plumber’s epoxy to join the pipes the past two weeks but if things work out right that will change this week.

my goal is for the artistry of the tree to suck a little less each sunday night. the good news is that it’s pretty easy to improve each week from my original design. 🙂