Update.....(It's been a while)

Wow, haven't been here in over two and a half months. Sorry to those two or three people who have actually expected me to put some updates here. Life's busy, and I'm a man of few words. That combination has left me either without sufficient time to post or without an idea of what I should be posting about, and quite frequently both.

So what's new you ask? I'll be happy to tell you!

• Can't remember exactly when it started but my wife and I are now leaders of our church's youth ministry (though technically I'm not a youth minister as I'm not ordained). We started out with four kids, but now that has grown to eleven kids, and I believe God will continue to help it grow.
  
• Dec. 18th, 2005 - Had a Christmas party for Family Ministries of Florida. They are a Christian group that provides homes for children who can no longer live with their parent(s). Family Ministries has three couples that will "adopt" (not in the legal sense as far as I know, but in the family sense) a child in need of a family. Between the three couples they have around thirty kids (whose ages go from three or four all the way to seventeen). My church decided that this year we would help them out by buying gifts for the kids and have a nice Christmas party for them. It was a blast. I really enjoyed being able to help the kids, and they certainly seemed happy to receive it!
  
• Dec. 25th, 2005 - Had a wonderful Christmas. Got a lot of nice stuff (a lot of Florida Gators stuff from my wife for my new Gators themed office, awesome!). And as the saying goes, it was better to give than to receive. I bought my wife an iPod Nano (black) and a beautiful male Golden Retriever puppy. I named him Luke, but Bre said that since I bought it for her, she gets to name it, so she renamed him Brady. Fair enough I suppose. He is a real blessing. Seems smart as a whip and is already learning sit and fetch at twelve weeks, and is getting good about where and when to use the bathroom. He is super lovable and really enjoys both horsing around and just laying there getting pet (though each is done when he feels like it).
  
• Dec. 27th, 2005 - Finally (for the most part) got into my new house. Got my bed in and got my stuff out of my storage unit. My landlord still has some things she needs to retrieve from the house, and I still have a laundry list of things I need to get done (paint, clean, etc.), but I am happy to finally have a place that I can call "mine" in some sense.
• Jan. 1st, 2006 - I officially began as an deacon of my church! I was nominated by some of the members of the church for the position and the members voted unanimously to trust me to bear this great responsibility. For those unfamiliar with the position of a deacon within a church: qualifications of a deacon, the word deacon comes from the Greek word for "those who serve", but basically I will be doing whatever I can to help my congregation.
  
• Jan. 2nd, 2006 - Went to the Outback Bowl. Had an AWESOME time. Iowa fans were real polite, even after they were guaranteed a loss after a bad call at the end. Still not sure how I ended up with a sunburn in January, not to mention the fact that I had to get out of my seat and go into the club area (thank God for club tickets) twice because the heat was getting unbearable. That is not to say that I wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat!

So far 2006 seems to be going great. For those praying for me: pray that my contract with my current company turns permanent. I really enjoy working here, and my boss is a really good guy. Hope to see you sooner than it took for this update to come. God bless!