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Juliet taking a little nap on big sissy Raegan.

Juliet is now one month old! It's amazing to me how fast the time has gone. And how much she's already changing -- for example, she's now too long for her newborn and 0-3 mth old sleepers. She's also just graduated out of newborn diapers into size 1. And although she started smiling in the hospital, her smiles are now becoming responsive to us. I have tried and tried to get a good shot of her smiling -- but my durn digital camera has a long delay, making it nearly impossible! Here's one I was able to capture -- too bad the rest of the kids weren't grinning as well!

Aidan is also doing some changing. He's finally realized that since BABIES wear diapers, and he is a BIG BOY, that he no longer should be wearing diapers. And so, he's potty-training himself! I wasn't going to start the process until Juliet was a couple months old -- but the boy wanted to start wearing underwear. He pretty much has taken charge of the whole deal, running to the potty when he needs to. I'm happy to report that a week into this, Aidan has had NO poop accidents and just a handful of pee accidents (although his aim isn't so great yet!) Hurray!

I keep hearing that my wife is taking over this blog again...but alas...this is my third post since she took it over again. Hmmm.

For those of you that don't know it, Raegan DOES want to be the next American Gladiator. She's currently in training.

Rick here. Ok...I know I'm kinda' slow to the party here, but I just registered with Skype recently and it is simply mind-blowing. Forgive my excitement (for those that are veteran skype users), but it's pretty cool that I can talk to about anyone that has a skype account in the world via webcam in real time...for free. Quality can be sketchy at times...but hey...it's FREE!!!

I was actually made aware of this technology by Nick Ostermann...a church planter in residence at CityView. He suggested we could skype a meeting instead of spending the time/gas it took to meet up downtown. So...it's free...and it saves me gas money AND travel time. Love it.

Anyway...our cityview leadership will be using it for meetings and such. So far, I've talked to a missionary friend in China...had a meeting with Nick (same guy mentioned above) and talked to my best friend from high school. Great tool...great technology. In case you're interested and in the market, you need a good web cam and then you need to download skype and register an account.

The web cam I use is the quickcam pro 9000...smooth video and great audio playback. They are on sale at Best buy as of this posting for 79.99 (regularly $99.99).

This year's presidential race has been dizzying. It's completely crazy. Not only is there a short schedule, but the very purpose of such a schedule has been thwarted. Unless something radically changes on the Democratic side, Obama and Clinton are going down to the wire...which will make an interesting convention...where two very charged portions of the party will be playing "chicken" with their super-delegates.

In my wildest political dreams, my hope is that both Romney and Huckabee stay in the race at this point. Why? Because it makes it interesting. Nobody seems pleased with this field and voter turnout is depressed on the GOP side. While I doubt Romney or Huckabee could muster the delegates needed to win (actually, Romney could...but it would take a miracle...and Huckabee I believe is mathematically out of it), they could both play spoiler and prevent McCain from getting the needed delegates to clinch.

What would all this mean? Well...since I doubt the conservatives are wanting to "fall in line", they'll continue to support Romney. And in light of Dobson's recent statements, I'm even more convinced that evangelicals will be less likely to move away from Huckabee to McCain. So...this could come down to an unlikely brokered convention. It's a long-shot scenario, but the most interesting one by far...and it would be out of character for Republicans. In the end, a brokered convention might be the only way they could stand against an Obama victory on the Dem side. How is that?

If a FOURTH candidate that is both tolerable to all sides and exciting to all those involved (becoming a party "savior") emerged from the GOP convention...it would create new media buzz/hype...a shortened campaign season where he/she would not have to face the many months of criticism and scrutiny...and more importantly, it would energize a base to a party that is utterly un-energized this year. I doubt any of this will happen...but if it DID...it would make this an incredibly interesting political season.

Ok...so our sending/home-church (The Village), added a 5th service this past weekend. They've done six service before...but that was when their auditorium was considerably smaller.

Well...they ended up at 3900 this weekend. Completely crazy...but completely cool. The Village is a church that handles the gospel with integrity, so I love it when they're doing well. Hopefully it'll continue and they'll continue to start like-minded churches.

I recently checked out the podcast top 100 for religious/spirituality and was shocked to see some familiar names. Mark Driscoll, the leader of our Acts 29 Nework, sits at number one...ahead of notables such as Joel Olestein (don't laugh), Josh McDowell and Erwin McManus.

Even more crazy, my friend Matt Chandler is at number 38. I know we aren't supposed to care about rankings and numbers...but let me be brutally honest. I'm so disturbed by so many modern movements of the church that I'm glad to see that guys I trust and love are being heard...even if some people might be subscribing for the car-wreck factor (listening to see what outrageous thing Driscoll might say this week).

Sometimes it takes me several paragraphs to say something well...or even a pseudo book. The following paragraph is probably the best, succinct statment regarding the problem with post-modern apologists in the United States.

Anyone who says postmodernity isn’t the driving force in the West is outright living in the past. Anyone postmodern who says the whole world is postmodern hasn’t seen that much of the world. Sure, there are pockets everywhere, but it’s not the prevailing global philosophy. You have to separate the materialism and styles of the west that do spread globally from the philosophy that’s global. I think postmodernity is the philosophy of an affluent society that has become disillusioned with it’s own failed promises from modernity. Most the world just isn’t that affluent.

That was written by Bob Roberts Jr. You can read/subscribe to his blog HERE

Funny college memory--I was sitting in my dorm room, listening to some crazy Christian rock like Stryper (at high volume)...and in between songs, I hear this blast of noise down the hall that repulsed me. I found out later it was Dennis Jernigan and it was being blasted at an equally high volume. Simply Disgusting.

Ok...so the guy who was blasting that music would eventually become my friend--Darrin Patrick. Darrin was a "Jernigan guy" (as we called them at SBU) and we pretty much thought he was nuts. Fast forward years later and Darrin speaks my language...something that wasn't the case in college.

Not only does Darrin speak my language, but he hooked me into the Acts29 Network of churches, knowing it would be a fit for a guy like me (and countless other younger pastors, now). Well...Darrin has turned into an incredible pastor...his church in St. Louis now runs around 1000...he's now the Vice President for Acts 29 and he recently shared the main stage at The Resurgence Conference (at Mars Hill in Seattle) with some incredible men of God (Tim Keller, Ed Stetzer, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, etc).

If you know Darrin or even if you don't know him...go listen to the audio of his message-it's incredible and you'll be blessed.

http://theresurgence.com/r_r_2006_session_one_patrick