Another Caleb saying...

I don't know where Caleb thinks these up, but they are funny (well at least I think they are funny!!)

So, Monday, I was a doing a P90X workout and Caleb likes doing a lot of the moves in the video that I was doing. So, we were sort of doing it together.

During our workout, Caleb looks at me and says, "You should go running, do a P90X video and then go to the gym all today." I thought that was interesting so I said, "Thanks, that sounds kind of fun!"

He then said, "No dad, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to mom!"

Tera, once again, had her self esteem boosted like never before. I don't know where he gets that Tera needs to go to the gym so much. Man, it was funny!

Caleb's Last Day

Today was Caleb's last day of school before Christmas. He is now officially on Christmas break. It is his first, so I am not sure if he knows how awesome Christmas break is.

Don't you remember how awesome it was to get out for a few weeks for Christmas? Not only did you not have to go to school for a couple of weeks, but you also celebrated Christmas (which when you are younger is obviously when you get a lot of cool things), you usually get to set off fireworks (for New Year's Eve), and you get to sleep in an play all of the time. I always looked forward to Christmas break!

Caleb actually gets close to three weeks off. He doesn't go back to school until January 5th, 2010. Actually we fly home from FL on that day so he won't go back until January 7th. He will have to do a HBL day on that Wednesday, but still, he gets quite a break. I sure hope he enjoys it! I know that he will.

Tomorrow is a busy day with a birthday party and an outreach event for the teens...it should be a lot of fun!

Busy, busy busy!!!!!

It feels like this every Christmas, but the we are busy! We had an event at the church last Saturday (Angel Tree party which was a neat thing), The SEC Championship on Saturday afternoon (ROLL TIDE!), another party on Saturday (and Christmas parade with the lighting of the Christmas Tumbleweed...no joke, here is Chandler they build a Christmas tree that looks like a lot of tumbleweed put together with lights on it), church on Sunday, I had meetings all day yesterday, Tera is working in Caleb's class tomorrow (and taking snack for his birthday), staff Christmas party on Friday night, Caleb's birthday party on Saturday, working at Tempe Homeless Outreach with teens on Saturday night, church on Sunday, Teen Christmas party next Wednesday evening and then we leave on next Thursday for a couple of weeks.

Keep in mind, they are all good things, but still it seems like we are crazy busy. Oh yeah, Tera is going to try and find a night to get together with her small group as well.

In the midst of it all, we are doing well. We are looking forward to all of it!

Crossroads Community School-CRCS

Here is a picutre I got today of all of the students who go to Caleb's school. His school is Kindergarten-8th Grade.

They collected shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and had their pictures taken with the boxes they had brought in.

We are still up in the air about the school. It is not at all what we were prepared for in Ohio, but it has made the transition a lot easier and Caleb has made friends at the school. Tera doesn't love the HBL days (home based learning) but we are making it through. I

thought you might like to see the kids from his school. (The poster is a promotion for the school, so just disregard that part.)

Our Christmas Tree

Well, here it is. Sorry it is later than I promised. Tera did an awesome job on the tree and I think it looks good. I keep telling her she needs to take a picture and send it to a magazine or something.

Sorry again that you have to turn your head to see it.

Merry Christmas!

Grace and Peace!

Caleb's Prayer Last Night

Caleb prays for our dinner every night. They are awesome prayers! You never know what he is going to say. They are usually prayers of thanksgiving, thanking God for anything and everything.

Well, last night, Caleb was really thankful for something and I thought I would share it with all of you.

Caleb prayed, "And God we thank you for the gym so mommy can go and lose her big butt!" Now, I am not saying Tera has a big butt or that she needs to go to the gym to get rid of anything, I am only reporting the prayer of a 5 year old.

I think it made Tera feel really good about herself! It was a real self esteem builder!

Hope all is well. Have a great day!

Grace and Peace!

Christmas Tree Time

It is that time of year already where the Thompson's get there tree and get it up so that we can enjoy it as long as we possibly can.

This year was a little different experience. Last year, we drove in the middle of the country (remember we were in Ohio) to a tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree. To my knowledge, there isn't a place close to us where we could experience that again. Also, it would be a little warmer here and probably not as enjoyable in the heat.

So, we decided that we would just go to Lowes and get a tree from there. However, once again we were left disappointed with the selection that we had to choose from. That is something that was an adjustment from Ohio. However, we found a tree. When I say we found a tree, I mean we found a tree. Usually we try and get a 6 foot tree or so. Not this year, we picked from the 7-8 foot tree section at Lowes. The Thompson family in AZ got the biggest tree we have ever gotten.

So, the next question was, "How in the world are we going to get this beast of a tree home." If you don't know, all we have is a PT Cruiser (I know, you are all now jealous that I drive a PT Cruiser...i guess you will just have to get over it.) So, how are we going to get this thing home...the guys at Lowes said, "We will tie it to the top." Boy was I relieved...now I wasn't only going to be driving a PT Cruiser down the street but I was now going to be driving a PT Cruiser with a huge Christmas tree strapped to the top of my car. Here is a picture of the guys strapping it down...


Well, we got it home, set up our newly purchased tree stand and brought the tree inside. Come to find out, our tree was so big that it didn't fit into the tree stand that we had purchased. So, I had to take the tree back outside, take apart the tree stand, put it back in the box, go back to the store and return it, buy another and then go home to try it out.

I made it home and thought, 'Man I hope this works.' Put the tree stand down, went out and picked up the tree again, put it in the stand and...................it was big enough.

Here it is in our house.... (sorry it is sideways, i tried to turn it but it wouldn't let me...hopefully you don't get a sore neck while trying to look at our tree.)


It is fully decorated now and looks awesome! Tera always does a nice job! That is right, I said Tera...she gives the boys each a tree to decorate and then she does the big tree...well, we help but she moves the ornaments where they look good. I can't fault here, it looks amazing, but we always laugh about that every year. I will post a picture of it tomorrow.

So, another Thompson Christmas tree is up and looking good. We are way ahead of the game this year, but the way my vacation works out, we will be leaving earlier than usual, so we had to get it up to enjoy it as much as we possibly could.

Thanksgiving Weekend Trip

Well, we made it to the Grand Canyon and back without a hitch. Here are some pictures to show you that we were actually there. I took these with my phone, so they may not be the best quality.

Here is a picture of Caleb and the Grand Canyon...


Here is the rest of the fam at the Grand Canyon...


Here we are at Cracker Barrel for our Thanksgiving Dinner later that day...


Here is what I ate...


All in all, it was a quick trip but well worth it. Caleb loved the Grand Canyon and is ready to go back and hike it, so if we have any takers out there, come on and join us. We missed being with everyone for sure, but know that you were in our thoughts.

I will have to post some more pictures of the weekend from our Polar Express trip. It was awesome and we got some good pictures. I will also try and post more pictures that we took with our camera later as well from the Grand Canyon.

Well..........

Well, it is the Monday before Thanksgiving and I am sitting in my office, preparing for a lesson in a couple of weeks. I am really excited about the Advent season! It is always fun (plus we are starting to use Lectionary for Sunday gathering times which should lend itself to fun).

I am also getting ready for our trip this week. It is going to be a lot of fun. Caleb and Cully are home now watching Polar Express, getting ready for our train ride. It is going to be nice to get away with the family for a couple of days and see part of creation that I have yet to see.

We had a good Sunday yesterday. Sunday's are always a busy day, usually the craziest day of the week. But, we made it and I think overall it was a good day.

I am working my way through The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet. It is a really good book. I think it makes a lot of good points and I will look to implement some of it in what we are doing here at Crossroads. It is the first book that I have read by Leonard Sweet, which seems odd to me.

Overall we are doing good. Maybe I will have something better to post tomorrow!

Grace and Peace!

Imagination

Caleb and Cully have a great imagination! I remember when I had an imagination like they have. It was a lot of fun!

*People could jump from building to building...
*A lion could talk and a dragon was real...
*You could be in space one minute and in the depths of the ocean on a submarine the next...
*Everything somehow became a gun...
*You could make the world whatever you wanted it to be...
*Superman could actualy fly...
*Spiderman could actually climb up walls and swing with his web...

I want to get back to having an imagination like that. So often in our world today, we seem to grow complacent and believe that the world is always going to be like it is today and there is nothing that we can do to change that. We lack the ability to see how the world was (Gen. 1) and how God created it to be (tob=good, appropriate) or see how God intends to be and is doing whatever He is able to do in order to get the world there. Some might say, "if God wants it like that, why doesn't he just do it?" Great question, but I think he is having a hard time because those who believe in Him struggle with imagination. They think that God doesn't really care about what happens here...we are just getting ready to leave this place and go to heaven. All the time God is looking for a group who could imagine what this world has potential to be and living a life that tries to make the world more like the place God created it to be. We are His plan to make that happen...there is no plan B.

I want that type of imagination! I want to be able to be a part of God's redemption of the world! I don't want to be one who says, "things will always be like this, so why bother?" I wonder what might happen if we all reverted back to our childhood again and tried to see the world for what it could be and not what it is? "If you want to be my disciple, you must become like these little kids..." (my paraphrase) I am not so sure it was a suggestion, but maybe he really meant that.

A little heavy today, but I have been thinking about this a lot. I am doing a teaching on it with our Jr. High in a week. Not sure why I wrote this...maybe it was for me!

Grace and Peace!

Caleb's Kindergarten Shots

Well, I (Jeremy) just took Caleb to get his Kindergarten Immunizations and let me tell you it was fun.

He made a friend when we first arrived, which I thought was going to be good. They played outside while we waited, then sat next to each other trying to out do the other with the best shot story (I think Caleb won with his hospital stay for a couple of days a few years ago). Then they moved to other important things like how much Cully cries when he gets shots, how much each other writes, and Caleb went on and on about how "excellent" of an artist he was. It was great! I thought for a brief moment that this might not be that bad.

Then, they called our name to go back and get the shots...that is when things got crazy. He was totally fine until we sat down in the chair...but as soon as my butt hit the seat and his butt hit my lap, it was over. After we were done, the person giving the shot said, "You did an awesome job of holding him down". I said, "Thanks, this wasn't the first time." Caleb walked and is still walking around like he is a body builder...arms straight out you know. He will be fine but it was quite the adventure. At least he is done now until he turns 11!

Well, tonight Caleb and I are going to watch a middle school play "Alice in Wonderland". Tomorrow I will share some more thoughts from Arizona!
Grace and Peace!

Getting Older

Well, today I (Jeremy) on the calendar am offically another year older. It is kind of crazy to think about. I am offically in my third decade of living. Now I know that this is troublesome for a lot of people. My wife is dreading the big 30, however, for me 30 wasn't that bad.

I was trying to think back over this past year and remember some of the big things that took place. Here are a few:

1- ran my first 1/2 marathon
2- moved across the country
3- changed jobs
4- watched my firstborn go to kindergarten

That is just a few of the things that have happened this past year. It has really been an awesome year of life! I am in the best shape I have ever been in and feel great, I have two awesome kids who are fun to be around and most of the time do what they are supposed to do, a beautiful wife who loves and supports me, a God who is faithful and a job that I enjoy doing. I can't think of much more a guy could ask for as he is turning 31!

I hope that all of you (well, the two people that actually read this) have a good day!

Grace and Peace!

Our Thanksgiving Plans

Well, life is pretty good. We just decided yesterday that for Thanksgiving we are heading to the Grand Canyon. It should be a lot of fun!

On Wednesday, we are going to a place called Flagstaff, which is about 3 hours from Chandler I believe. Wednesday evening we are going on a Polar Express train ride, complete with a visit from Santa, treats and a trip to the North Pole. On Thursday, we are going to get up and go see the Grand Canyon. I have never been there before, so I am pretty excited. I have heard it is amazing!

At some point on Thursday, we will find a place for Thanskgiving lunch or dinner and then either head back or maybe stay another night.

We will take plenty of pictures and if I can learn how to post them, I will put some of them up after our trip.

Things that kids teach you

This will probably be a constant posting here on this blog, as my boys teach me a lot of things about God and life and even about myself. Here is something that happened yesterday.

Caleb asked me, "Dad, can I go and do something in my bedroom?" I of course didn't mind, wondering what exactly he was going to do.

He came out about 5 minutes later and there wasn't any marker on his face or arms, all of his clothes were still on and nothing seemed out of place. Of course I didn't see the bedroom, but he looked like he did when he went back there.

A few minutes later, he proceeded to tell me what he was doing back there. I hadn't seen it, but he had taken a Bible with him (a real Bible, not a kids Bible), and told me that he was spending some alone time with God. He asked if he could go back and spend some more alone time with God...it was pretty awesome! I almost started weeping right there.

This was quite convicting to me. He learns more than I realize and hears more than I realize. I am going to do better, because of him, to make sure I spend some "alone time with God" each day. Thanks Caleb!

Grace and Peace!

Welcome!

If you are reading this, I am not even sure why I am doing this (thanks Mark). I will write from time to time with stories and updates on what is happening in Arizona. Honestly, I am not sure that anyone is interested in reading what is taking place in Arizona, but we will try it and see what happens.