what’s in a name?

as most of you hopefully know, we will have our third child on, around, or about july 27th of next year.  as this baby was a little unexpected, we are just now beginning the obligatory name debate.  as usual per the last two children, we are not even close to being on the same page.  probably not even the same book.  in fact,  i don’t even think we are in the same bookstore right now.  i, being the free spirit that i am, tend to gravitate towards more unique or exotic names and brit….does not.

brit is very conservative with names and doesn’t get too far outside the box.  in fact, she has a whole list of rules that must be strictly adhered to for consideration.  here are some of brit’s rules with baby-naming.  write these down, they may come in handy one day…

1. no initials. this rules out names like JP, JT, LT, and my personal favorite TI.

2. the child shall not be called by his middle name. if you name your child thomas parker, you sure as heck better not call him parker.

3. brittany can not have seen, heard of, or known anyone with the same name who is unsavory or has questionable character. seriously.  there have been several times i would name off a potential moniker, and i would get the response, “but i knew a charlotte in third grade and she put glue in my hair.”

4. no nicknames. we had the discussion of naming a son after our grandfathers.  Ivo Thomas or Thomas Ivo.  The issue is that I don’t want to call my son either one of those names.  I posited that we could name him Ivo Thomas and then call them Bear or Blaze.  Maybe even Rock or Titanium…

5. no nerd names. example: i think naming a son Jedidiah and then calling him Jedi would be flipping awesome.  brittany does not.  it’s not like i want to name him skywalker or something.  hm, skywalker…..

so, you can probably understand my frustration with this whole process. with her many, many rules we did manage to pick out a few that meet our criteria. some are unisexual so they will be listed in both categories.

girls

charlotte, parker, reilly, isabella, chloe

boys

parker, thomas, ivo, lane, riley, tyler

i think there are a few more that we discussed, but i can’t remember them right off the top of my head.  sound off in the comments with your ideas or suggestions.

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i am super excited about the Lost season premiere party at casa de lucas.  we always thoroughly enjoy hanging out with that gang and adding lost to the mix just makes it that much better.

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the holiday season at the buckle has been rough.  we have lost employees at an alarming rate and business has been booming, which is good for the paycheck but not my stress level.  adding to the stress is ashley (store manager) pushing me to become a team leader at the beginning of the month.  she is in a bad spot right now with management in the store and i know she likes and trusts me and i am one of her only options and  as exciting as the prospect of making more money is, it would require me to open my availability up to the point of working almost every saturday and at least two nights a week.  this is just not doable.

the worse part is without the move up, i just don’t think i can afford to stay there.  the pay has been decent over the last few weeks, but obviously that’s due to the holidays and come mid-january i will be back to barely making more than minimum wage.  i love the discount, but when you have no money to buy clothes, the discount doesn’t hold much weight.  buckle has been a good temporary solution when i had no other income, but it has always been that, a temporary solution.  my goal is to get on with Max or another bank part-time to earn some money while i finish school.  max is really flexible with school schedules and would give me a set pay rate so that i know what i am bringing home.

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that’s it for me.  no big plans for new years.  we’re just going to hang out at church with the youth watching movies and playing games until 2009 gets here.

happy new year.

peace.

Hello 2009

after being berated on facebook for my lack of writing (which was well-deserved) i decided i should whip out le blog and post my resolutions for the upcoming year.  normally i am one of those sad sacks who constantly writes down resolutions and gives up on them the first chance I get.  however, I think I have solved this conundrum, because my first resolution is…..

keep my resolutions

this seems like a simple enough solution to the problem.

on to the rest of my list….

anyone who knows me well knows that I struggle with self-control.

spending.  eating.  procrastination.

these are areas where I really struggle and without a doubt it affects every facet of my life from ministry to my kids to my body.  i have become increasingly more prone to doing…nothing.  nothing of value.  by nothing, I mean playing video games, watching tv, surfing the intrawebs, incessantly updating my facebook status, and all around time wastery.  it breaks my heart to think of how much time I waste just  existing rather than doing things with purpose.

God has really convicted me the last two weeks of what do I really do with my time.  I mean, really.  what did I do with the last year?  i have had 365 days as a father, husband, pastor and friend.  did I enrich the lives of my family by being an active father?  did i pour my life into anyone else with any substance?

I mean, I think most of the time I spend adequate time with the kids, but I don’t want to settle for adequate.  I want to be able to build my kids up mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally and the vast majority of the time I feel like an overpaid babysitter.  so much of my time is devoted to doing things I want to do rather than things I should be doing.  which is why my next resolution is…

deny myself more often this year

let me elaborate on what i mean by deny myself.  i taught a sermon on mark 12:28-31 last week and the main point was loving other people as much as you love yourself.  jesus said this was as equally important as loving God with everything you have.  in this area…

joe=fail

as a follower of Christ, but ESPECIALLY as a leader in the church, i have to work harder at putting other’s needs before my own.

this starts in my own house.

brit is such a selfless person.  there is a song that plays at work and i don’t know the artist or title, but the chorus has the line “you were the first to give, i was the first to ask.”  this lyric really unsettles me every time i hear it.  i feel like it is the epitome of my marriage.  i take, brittany gives. i have to work harder at meeting her needs and not worrying about my own so much.

be a better student

i was a horrible student in high school.  thus far in college, not much has changed.  i have two and a half years in on a bible/ministry degree from a school that i spent more time arguing with than learning from.  in this two and a half years, i have never really taken college seriously.  after a semester off and a new school, i am rejuvenated and ready to do some of that learnin’.

i register for classes at aum next monday and school starts two days later.  technically i am a sophomore, but i am entering as a freshman because ZERO of my credits transferred.   this bothers me, but whatevs. i am just ready to get going.  my resolution is to work  hard to not only get good grades, but also to LEARN.  learning at college.  novel concept.

lose forty pounds

yes, forty pounds.

i have been on a three year fat fest that ends this week.  way back in 2005 i weighed 185 lbs, i could run two miles in 16 minutes, and could bench press 225 ten times.  i tell you this not to boast in the least bit, but to illustrate how far i’ve fallen.

i now weigh in at 218, i couldn’t run two miles if you were chasing me with an ax, and probably couldn’t bench press our cat.  i blame starbucks for it all.  free lattes and pastry samples all day……yay!  i have got to get in better shape.  i bought a mountain bike for Christmas in hopes that something fun AND healthy will be easier to stick to.  now I just have to find someone to go ride with me.

grow a beard

i mean…a serious beard.  grizzly adams style.

learn how to do “man stuff”

before you openly mock me-an explanation.  my dad never taught me how to fix things around the house.  being a handy man was something my dad failed at miserably and i am well on my way to following in his footsteps.

we have tons of unfinished projects around the house that i have got to take the time to complete.

i need to: lay quarter-round, lay hardwood in our den, re-tile both bathrooms, replace sink in master bathroom, replace kitchen countertops, reface kitchen cabinets, and about a million other things that are too numerous to list.  most of these things aren’t even that difficult, just time-consuming.  however, there are a few (tile and hardwood) that I am going to need to learn skills for.

blog more consistently

there, you happy?

don’t get so easily discouraged

one of the biggest flaws in my personality (in my opinion, you can leave your thoughts in the comments section) is my willingness to give up or want to quit something because i get discouraged, and i get discouraged easily.  one thing goes wrong and i tend to crawl into the fetal position.

no more.

i refuse to quit anything this year because it: a) becomes too difficult, b) doesn’t go exactly as i planned, c) makes me uncomfortable, or d) upsets someone else.

my blog is a great example of this.  i stopped blogging basically because some members of my church didn’t like some things i said during this election year.  rather than deal with it like a big boy, i just moved my blog and then stopped altogether.  incidents like this will not happen in the future.  consider my guns stuck to.

hang out with friends more often

date brit more often

get debt free

excluding mortgage and student loans.  i mean, realistically….

become a bargain shopper

our goal is to shop at dollar general and dollar tree as much as possible.  go off-brand whenever feasible.  something has to change with our spending habits. living paycheck to paycheck doesn’t get it.

end resolutions

there are others, but i hit most of the important ones.

sorry about the long post.  i promise they will be more frequent and less wordy in the future.

peace.