JohnCStark’s posterous

I've been trying out del.icio.us as a place to bookmark the places I visit. It is pretty cool.

This morning the church leadership of First Federated Church met with Mike Rose, a possible candiate for the vacate position of Senior Pastor. For three hours Mike fielded questions on many topics that the church leadership had to ask him. Mike was not alone in answering questions since his wife answered a few as well. Tomorrow, Mike will be bringing a special message to the church in the morning worship service. People will also get the opportunity to meet him and his wife following the service. It was just last week that our church said good-bye to our former Senior Pastor Roger Poupart. Good-byes are particularily tough for me and this occassion was no different. The next person to become the Senior Pastor of First Federated Church will be the fourth pastor to serve at the church since I first started attending with my family in 1979/80. I knew each of the former pastors pretty well during their years of ministry at the church. They each brought unique and different attributes to the position. In the process of seeking a new leader it is extremely difficult not to reflect upon those years in formulating an opinion on a prefered future. I was asked today, and I'm sure to be asked several times in the coming week what I think about Mike Rose becoming the Senior Pastor of First Federated Church. At this time, I honestly don't have a strong leading in any particular direction. I'm not even sure what additional questions Mike could even answer for me to come to any specific kind of conclusion. Thankfully, the decision is not mine to make. It would be nice to think my opinion in the matter would make a significant difference in the process; however, I'm more inclined to sit on the fence unless God calls me to specific action. Don't take this to mean I don't care; however, in this particular case I don't have enough information to make or discern what my position should be. In the end, I know God can to do great things when we look to Him for guidance. After all, the church is not about who the Senior Pastor happens to be; it is made up of those individuals God has joined together in community. So far, I think Mike would fit into our church pretty well; I will have to work along side of him for a while to know how well that fit will actually be.

I don't have all the answers to this question, but I do know it is a tough one. Does the American flag have a place in the Sanctuary of a church? This is a question the staff at our church considered for several minutes today. Opinions were shared. Our thoughts considered. Further contemplation definitely required. In seminary one of my professors definitely had the opinion that the symbols given any space in a worship service must be carefully considered. He didn't believe flags were appropriate.

My wife wrote a really nice blog for our wedding anniversary this year. I think she was trying to embarrase me a little with a few of the things she was saying. After seven years of marriage I can hardly believe all that has happened between us. It really doesn't seem that long ago that we first started making "eyes" towards one another. We still do. Sometimes the eyes speak nicely; other times they say something entirely different. Jayne is a pretty special lady. It really does go without saying that I don't deserve her. But, I think it is pretty cool that we have each other.

Well, John has wanted me to blog for a few day now. I said that my first one would be on our 7th Anniversary and that it would be sappy. This moring when I got up a card was waiting for me with 7 Take 5 candy bars. They are my favorite right now! (if you have not had one yet, they are awesome!!!) I must say that I was impressed that I got my card right away in the moring because I get them most of the time at 11pm at night. He thought of me before hand and that means a lot to me!

Someday Jayne might write a few things on our website. I hope she will. I think it is pretty cool.

This fourth of July we once again headed towards the Longstreets' place. I'm not sure how many years we've been going there on the fourth but I think it has been close to 15 years now. For the first 8-10 years I was a single white male... then I went a few years as a married guy... and now I'm going with two boys! This year it seemed like once of the things to do was to keep an eye on the boys. This year, like last, we watched the fireworks from my parents house now on Meredith. This year Urbandale shot the fireworks off at the middle school instead of the high school. It didn't make much difference since my parents kindda live between the two schools.

Ean spent most of the time inside because he didn't like the booms. Evan spent most of his time on my dad's lap having a great ol time. Before the fireworks I also found myself helping my mom with a project on the computer she needed help with. She was pretty happy for the help. It helped pass the time away while waiting for the fireworks to start... which was at 10pm this year. The most depressing part of the whole day was at the end when I realized that in the morning work needed to be done at the church. While going to work wasn't a bad thing, I did find myself needing just one more day to recup from all the activity of the holiday weekend. One more thing... this was the first time I've ever taking photos of actual fireworks before. I experimented with the shutter speed a lot. A few of the photos turned out okay; however, I definately need to do some learning on how the pros do it. With a digital camera it was good being able to see the immediate results of the photos I took... with my film camera it would have taken days to get the same kind of feedback. If you haven't signed up to check out ALL our photos on Flickr I'd highly recommend that you do so. We love it, and I think you would too. Click on any of the photos on this blog to check it out.

Last Sunday the family spent the evening at the Clarks. Ean had a really fun time playing with Carter. It is pretty neat seeing him getting to know other boys his age and observing how they interact. If you look closely at this photo you'll see the new haircut Ean's grandma gave him a few nights before. She used clippers for the first time with Ean's hair and it came out pretty good. I heard Jayne saying later that night that after the haircut Ean really looked like his dad. It probably had a lot to do with them giving him a similar haircut to mine. Ean is definitely growing up. When you are growing up with him it is hard to see the changes without taking some time to reflect, ponder, and consider the progress he has made. Just tonight I was amazed at his increased vocabulary and quickness to learn new words. Pretty cool!

Evan is now about 14.5 months old now. He is just about to the point of walking on his two feet instead of crawing to go from point to point. He is saying new words that we’ve never heard him say before. He loves any attention you give him. In the last week, Jayne and I have noticed that Evan now wants me whenever I’m around. He wants me to hold him. This morning Jayne set him down on our bed and as I was walking around the room about to leave he wanted me to pick him up instead of mom. It was kindda funny. A week ago he wouldn’t have cared who picked him up as long as he was by someone. Evan definitely needs physical touch on a regular basis. Ean likes hugs and kisses before going to bed, but he doesn’t crave physical touch like Evan does. Our boys are really different in this particular area. The other funny thing we’ve noticed lately is how Evan always wants to do what Ean does. If Ean is eating something, then Evan wants some too. (It would be nice if Ean would be the same way! He might eat more kinds of foods.) It still amazes me that I have two boys. Three years ago I didn’t have any children. Raising two boys can be a lot of work. It is a huge responsibility along with being a great character builder.

Today after some consideration over the weekend I rebuilt my personal website with Word Press blog software. Up until today I was using Joomla, a CMS (Content Management System). Why the switch? The simple reason was for simplicity.