Tonight I leave you with this- according to my corporate credit card statement (try saying that fast twenty times) over the last 2 years my company has spent $184,078 on just me traveling. wow. they spend more on my travel than they do on my paycheck. Mental note: must figure out a way to travel less but have them pay me more.

I'm packing up the minivan tomorrow, the family is taking a little road trip to Houston, only a couple hours away- this will be Noah's first long trip. Should be fun, going to have a kind of second thanksgiving with Kelly's family. Have a good weekend folks.


Remember Jesus loves you, and eating too much turkey makes you sleepy. Not sure how those two relate but they are both so true.

apparently I'm a Graviton?!?

:Graviton -- You are incredibly popular. People from all around are always gravitating towards you. Nobody knows quite how you do it. You tend to be able to pull everybody to your side with time, but photons are the most resistant. You seem to be the strongest of all, but you really are not.:

go see what they think you are

love those holidays that are on Thursday- especially when you have to head back to work on Friday. on my floor there are about 5 people, usually there are a couple hundred. it is nice to have the office pretty empty, it allows me to catch up on the things i didn't want to do before...thinking about it why is that good, I don't want to do those things now.

Turkeyday was good, I surprised Kelly's family with my skills and the bird- this was my first year to cook the turkey, but based on their reaction I'll be the new turkey cooker. it is funny that her family is surprised by my cooking, I guess they don't believe me when I say that I know how to cook, but you know it's not like I've been cooking since I was 5 and I went to chef school or anything, Oh wait- I did. whatever.

I've gotten some really positive feedback about the love story. I'm still amazed that anyone would want to read through it all, thank you guys for your kind words. it's a little ironic that I posted it in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning- all day yesterday I was thinking about the whole story, little things I could have added, how Kelly and I have grown closer over the years and how our lives have changed, I'm so truly thankful for my wife. without her I'm scared to think what my life would be like. Thank you God for her, thank you God for my life.

Political comment:: Yesterday I witnessed one of the greatest acts a President could ever do; defy his critics, dupe the world and surprise everyone by secretly showing up in the heart of a country that is still a battle zone to wish his troops a happy thanks giving. wow. I don't agree with everything he says or does but yesterday will go down in the history books as one of the greatest moments in the presidency of George W. Bush. -side note, I would have loved to be around to hear him talk to his staff about how to pull it off

Bush-"Boys, I want to go to Baghdad for thanksgiving."

Random yes man-"but sir, we can't let you do that?!?"

Bush-"I said I want to go damn it, you guys figure a way to sneak me out of this country"
::end of political comment


off to try to find some work to justify me wasting another day in the office

As requested, the love story of my wife and I- though not as romantic as others, for me it is the greatest because I get to live it every day, plus we have two beautiful kids that wouldn't be here without this story. Before I start, I'd like to say that I so don't deserve the lady God has so graciously given me. This is a very long little story, if you read it great, if not oh well; it is here for your choosing. Because my parents divorced when I was a baby, I never knew my parents as being married to each other, thus I lacked a great example in how marriage should work, I thank God for his grace and for having a spouse who is as dedicated as I am to not allow anything to separate us, her parents divorced when she was 7. Together we march ahead in the battles of life, standing as one, united by our love and the love of our redeemer. I hope you enjoy my longwinded story- it is a little piece of me.


So it begins way back in the 1900's, 1995 to be exact. I was a single bible college student with no money, a crapy job and was faced with spending the holidays in ugly Dallas. Kelly, who had a boyfriend at the time, was up from the Houston area visiting her dad for the holidays. She had called looking for her friend Mark, my room mate. He wasn't there and a conversation between she and I ensued- something to the effect of:

Kelly- 'you sorry little man, your life sounds so depressing, I haven't done enough good deeds for the week, you want to come hang out with me one night?'

Me- 'you're a chick with a heartbeat that actually wants to do something??? Oh yeah, I'm there'

Ok it wasn't that bad but she asked me over because she felt sorry for me. So on December 26th I picked Kelly up from her dad's and we went to dinner, actually I went to dinner, she watched me eat (she had already eaten)- then we went to a nice little coffee house and from there went to a movie. I had a habit of opening doors for ladies; Kelly commented more than once that she really appreciated my chivalry. I brought her back to her dad's and she invited me in for a bit.

Mind you this is NOT a date. We were just 2 people with a mutual friend hanging out. So we talked about life, God, what we feel God had called us to. We also talked about her boyfriend and the troubles they had been having at the time, I chimed in and gave some advice (apparently it was bad advice ;o) ) and we continued to talk. At one point she told me, very randomly, that because my name is Chris, she could never marry me. "OK, whatever" I thought. We continued to talk and the clock amazingly said that it was 6:00am, we talked all night, she pushes me out the door not wanting her dad to find a strange guy in her room at 6am. Since we were in Texas where everyone has guns I agreed.

I drove back to the dorm, realizing that I totally missed curfew, I went to the grocery store and picked up some chocolate milk and doughnuts, breakfast, incase I get stopped coming back in. I talk to my friend Ken (Ken was too stuck at the dorms over the holidays) about the non-date I tell him that I found the kind of woman I wanted to marry, Ken tells me I'm crazy. I also tell him that I think we are going to have plans with Kelly for new years. Again I'm crazy

December 30th Kelly calls and asks what I'm doing for new years, I ask if I can bring a friend- the next day Ken and I are headed for Galveston. At this point I know I like Kelly, a couple of problems though; boyfriend being one, the fact that I hated dating and told God I just wanted to find someone to marry and skip the whole dating game thing being another. So we hang out in Galveston, end up talking all night again, this time she tells me that she broke up with Sparky (seriously that was her boyfriends name). She told him that she wanted to be treated better, have doors opened, be appreciated, he agreed but the next day blew her off- he agreed that she needed better. I'm a chicken when it comes to women, so I don't ask her out at this point. We leave Galveston without me making any type of move. Ken had to be in Dallas by 9 am, he worked the luxury boxes at Stars games and puck time was 10, we left Galveston at 5 and got to Dallas a little before 9, I drove really fast and only fell asleep twice!

Kelly calls me on Jan 2 and asks me "so are we going to go out or what?" Since it appears that she likes me I say yes.

Many miles are driven the following weeks by my self to see Kelly, then one morning while sitting in a park watching prisoners pick up trash I say "you know that we're meant for each other, lets get married" her response was "NO!". the absence of a ring, me not being on my knee and the fact that my request was weak at best probably influenced her response. That day we went and looked for rings, the next day we bought one. That night I drove back to dallas with ring in hand, thinking 'what the hell am I doing?' at the same time God gave me a he peace about what had occurred, at every turn God was showing his hand in every part of our relationship. Ken though I was crazy, all the girls that I showed the ring to were jealous.

The plan was for Kelly to come up to dallas, stay at her dad's and revisit the whole proposal thing, this time she wanted my to put some thought into it. I called family and told them what was going on, asked my dad for advice on how to approach her dad whom I had never met, did I mention that Kelly is an only child?- dad said "wear a bullet proof vest" to which I replied "dad, he designs missiles, I don't think that will work" after a chuckle from his end and me explaining that Kelly's dad really does design missiles my dad told me "wear a very big bullet proof vest!".

Kelly comes up, I head to her dad's- we are all going out for lunch. Somehow I get stuck alone with her dad while Kelly and her stepmom disappear in another room. Then I find myself standing in a room with the man that I met less than 2 minutes ago, am about to ask for his daughters hand in marriage and in the room we just walked into there is a really big safe from which he start pulling multiple types of firearms from.

No joke.

I forgot my bullet proof vest, I though my dad was kidding.

The guns get put up with no shots fired, thank God! While I was cleaning out the car (and checking to make sure my underwear was still clean) the stepmom tells dad that Kelly and I are going to get engaged. That takes the pressure off of me having to ask his permission, since his response was "congratulations, Chris is it". We all packed up in the Saturn and go to eat some lunch at a nice little place called Celebration (if you are ever in Dallas, go eat there!) Lunch went well. Dinner was even better, just me and Kelly and Ken and Kelly's best friend Mindy. Dinner, movie and then a little trip to the park.

This was not your ordinary park; this one has big stone teddy bears. At 2 in the morning, on January 21st 1996, while sitting on a teddy bear's leg with me on my knee in front of her, Kelly said yes when I asked her to marry me. At this point I'm floored at how God could convince such a wonderful lady like Kelly to want to commit her life to a looser like me, I didn't complain though.

The next step was setting the date. We had discussed getting married in the summer of '97. no need to rush, and it would allow our families some time to realize that we weren't crazy (too late). Kelly tells me that I have to choose the date, and that I should seek God on it, there was significance in the date but I couldn't know the details just yet.

I prayed. The next morning while waking up a number was in my head, it wouldn't go away- I grabbed a calendar, not knowing why, started counting weeks, again not knowing why, then I arrived at a date- August 10th 1996. For some reason I felt like that was the date God gave me. It was either an answer to prayer or my mind playing tricks on me. So I head over to Mindy's where Kelly was. I tell them I have a date, August 10th, not for next year as we had discussed, rather the August 10th that was less than 8 months away. Their jaws dropped, I though I messed up.

After they regained their composure, Kelly let me in on her little secret and told me the significance of the date; August 11th 1994, while writing a paper for her history class, God spoke to Kelly and told her that she would be married within 2 years. That meant that on August 11 1996, if she really heard from God, she would be married.

Only a couple of people knew about that experience, Kelly had me choose the date to test me and God. The date was set, God's little revelation to Kelly was coming to fruition. We didn't have much time to plan, more importantly than that we needed to get to know each other.

I had a really stupid idea, I was going to move back to Seattle for a few months and tie up some loose ends there, since I had only intended on moving to Texas for only a short time. I'd move back to Texas in June or July. Oh how I'm so very glad that God is bigger than I am, the Seattle idea got struck down, and I headed for Conroe, Texas. I moved in with Kelly's Aunt and Uncle. The first time Kelly and I went to her Church, she introduced me to people as her fiancé, many stunned looks followed. But her pastor smiled and said "isn't it great when God moves in his many mysterious ways?" He became my pastor that day.

The next few months seemed to fly by, Kelly had worked with people with Mental Retardation since she graduated from high school, being that we were in a small town you took any job offered you, especially since I was a bible college and chef school dropout who had no idea what I wanted to do- Kelly got me a job in a group home working whit 6 guys with MR. those guys opened my young eyes to what is truly important in life.

Kelly and I took a trip in early June to Seattle so she could meet my friends and family, to this point she didn't know anyone who had known me more than 3 months longer than she had, can I say faith. The trip went well, everyone she met matched my stories and everyone confirmed that I was who I said I was. We even got some presents. I had only been a Christian for about a year and a half a this point, Kelly asked Jesus into her life at the age of 3. We came from such different backgrounds. I lived most of my life hating God, she never lived a day away from him. The trip to Seattle helped her to understand who I was, and how much I had grown. It was good.

We are nearing the big date, ironing out the last few details. God continued to show off through the planning process. When we first talked to Kelly's dad, he offered to pay for the wedding. He asked how much we needed and Kelly's response was $1500. I'm not sure you know how much weddings cost now, or back in 96, but $1500 is just a drop in the bucket. Kelly's dad wouldn't budge so that is what we had to work with. God came through, we would pray so specifically about something, one example was flowers to make the bride's maid's bouquets, Kelly wanted a certain # of a certain shade of red of silk roses, and she wanted them to be about a third the price we had seen them everywhere else. So we drive by a Michaels and she asks me to stop the car the flowers she wants are there. OK. She goes in, they have the exact #, right color and they are even cheaper than we wanted. Yeah God!

Because most of Kelly's family is located in the Dallas area and because Dallas is easier for people like m family to get to than Conroe is, we decided to have the wedding in Dallas. We made many trips up. On our last trip before the wedding Kelly had a Doctors appointment, she was loosing insurance through her dad since she was getting married and we felt it was important for her to get one last checkup. The Dr. found a very small lump in her neck. Nothing to be alarmed about though, many people have cysts and that was most likely what the lump was. To be sure a scan was planned for the next week.


Thunderstorms in Texas are so very awesome, the day that Kelly had her scan I had to work, after work I went home to take a nap and through my nap the thunder was pounding right outside my window. I waited for the call, though I knew that they would want to run more tests. I got the call; I drove to dallas to be with my fiancé. In the week from when the first doctor felt the pea sized bump to the test, the bump grew to the size of a quarter. They wanted a biopsy. Kelly was going into surgery the next morning.

Waiting in that hospital seemed like eternity. What happened next killed time and sucked all the happiness and cheer from my universe. A nurse walked out, approached the family and said "Kelly McDonald's family? The doctor found cancer; he is removing her thyroid". Part of me died that day, I walked outside and sat in a daze.

Cancer. 3 weeks before our wedding and the love of my life has Cancer! It is still difficult to remember that day. Funny thing was Kelly didn't know, she would find out in the hallway on the way to her room, her response was "I knew that".

Our families encouraged us to postpone the wedding, allow Kelly to regain her strength, heal, get over this. I said no way. She needed me more now than she did before. I needed her too. She couldn't sit up without help, much less anything else. The week after she was released from the hospital, we stayed at her father's house, I was by her side 24/7, at night I slept on the ground next to her should she need any help in the middle of the night. That week we shared many things God had put on each of our hearts, visions, dreams, and life lessons. I wanted to be married to her so that I could be next to her forever, serving her, taking care of her, protecting her. The next two weeks were so long.

With her thyroid removed her metabolism started to slowdown. Because of the cancer, radiation had to be administered but that couldn't come till about 8 weeks after the surgery. By the time the wedding day arrived, Kelly was sleeping close to twenty hours a day.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride so much more and for anyone who didn't know, there was no indication that this little daughter of God had just been diagnosed with cancer and had her thyroid removed just three weeks prior. This was her day and she shined. We exchanged vows, prayed, had communion, prayed some more and then we got to kiss. The reception was nice. She got tired and we headed for the hotel.

That night after we got everything in the room and settled down a little bit, Kelly started crying. My thought was that she realized that she made the biggest mistake in the world. I asked what was wrong her response was "I don't know if I'm tired or hungry" I was relieved, after a quick call to room service the hunger was taken care of and shortly thereafter Kelly fell asleep thus fulfilling the need of her exhaustion. I called my dad to say hi and to thank him for being civil to my mom at the wedding, his response to my calling was "what the hell you calling me for son, this is your wedding night?!?" I explained that Kelly was asleep and that while I would rather be involved in other activities on my wedding night, I was just glad to be lying next to my new wife plus we'd have plenty of time for that other stuff later.

The honeymoon was OK, she slept and I fidgeted around her dad's lake house, the water was low on the lake but the lake house was free and our original plans for the honeymoon were too much for Kelly to handle in the state she was in. She continued to get more lethargic.

A couple weeks after we got home Kelly had to go back in for radiation, after she was released from that I slept on the couch for the first and last time in our marriage. The first year and a half was tough, many complications arose from Kelly's thyroid cancer and removal but in the long run it all worked out. She is now cancer free, healthier than when we first met and the proud mother of the two most beautiful children in the world. I love my wife, I love our story. Most of all I love the fact that she would choose to have me in her life everyday. I am still amazed that this woman who remained a virgin wanted to marry a rough and ragged wandering kid from Seattle who was so new in his relationship with God that my hair was still wet from baptism. Still I look back over the years and realize that God is great, he has a plan and that bums like me if you play your hand right will get a babe like my wife.

I love her and she loves me.

life keeps charging on- I went camping with about 50 kids from the youth group last weekend, but it wasn’t your normal camping. it was expozure, I led a team of 8 students, together we competed against 4 other teams, assisting me was a mom who is a RN. in the end we were hungry, tired and just plain worn out. I connected with some of the kids in ways I couldn't before, God moved and I'm glad that we went.

This week I've been on vacation, Tuesday Kelly and I packed up the minivan and took the kids to the Ft. Worth Zoo, it was great, at first Ros had a hard time understanding where we were, but once she realized that we were face to face with the animals she has fallen in love with from her baby Einstein DVDs she got very excited. The tigers and gorillas were the highlights of the day. the mountain lion and I almost got into a fight though, it was eying Noah like he was lunch.

Vacation is nice, I haven't had the chance to rest much, my honey-do list is long and the more I'm around the more Kelly adds to the list- today I'm organizing the study, working on the yard and helping Kelly in our quest to eliminate all the white walls in the house, we have 5 gallons of paint, 2 for Noah’s room, 2 for our room and one for our bathroom- once we're done with those rooms we will only have the study, a hall and the guest bath to paint.

off to work for the wife I go

I have a travel tip for you- when looking over your itinerary, make sure that you acknowledge each and every digit, especially with regards to departure times.

I never thought that a one (1) could have such an impact on how my day turns out. Yesterday I was in Pleasanton California (just outside of the bay area), the morning started off nice, I headed to the office to finish a couple of things, check email, etc. about 11:50 I decided to check my itinerary so I could check my flight status on American Airline's website, my flight was at about 2:30 and I was only 30 miles away from the airport. Then something really terrible happened, a one appeared just to the left of the two in the set of numbers that indicated my departure time, in a nano-second my departure time changed from 2:30 ish to 12:22. there was no physical way I could make the flight. I packed up, gave goodbye hugs and kisses (I was in the bay area) and headed for the airport. I arrive and am greeted with great warmth and acceptance, I got a seat on the next flight out, which ironically was at 2:30. I found a place right by the gate to grab some pizza and beer.

Life was good again.

We board the plane, we sat there. and sat there .and we sat some more. The captain come across the speaker and informs us that there is some sort of hydraulic problem and a mechanic is on his way to check it out. We continue to sit. Then one of the flight attendants asks everyone on the plane who is headed just to Dallas to stand up, we, the Dallas bound travelers, are going to catch another plane, those who are trying to connect to another flight in Dallas are doing something else, don't know though because I was walking off the plane about the time they were getting their instructions.

There were 35 of us headed to dallas, and we were about to find out what our fate held- we were being sent to the San Jose airport via little vans. We broke into groups of 7-9 and headed out. Our arrival was met with a little bit of bewilderment from the ladies at the ticket counter in San Jose, apparently there was a little communication problem between them and Oakland. The situation was resolved quickly and we all got seats, only time would tell if we would actually make it to Dallas. I shared with our little group that we were a train ride and snow storm short of a remake of a Steve Martin/John Candy movie. We eventually got in the air, and we landed in dallas about 11pm. Got home a little after midnight. I was just glad to be with my family, to give my kids kisses and be able to snuggle with my wife.

Life is good, not noticing a # on you itinerary is bad.

I’m about to head to the airport- my trip back to the hometown is complete. The business part is pretty much complete and what’s left can be easily competed from my office.

My time outside of the office has been a little disappointing but overall it has been a good trip, Sunday I drove out to spend the day with my dad’s parents- they live just outside of Yosemite. The drive out was great, the music I brought helped the miles just flyby (my lead foot helped too) spending time with the two of them was great, next year they will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. 10 years ago to celebrate they climbed Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in California, they plan to do it again next summer, I’d like to be there with them, though if we did it today, my grandpa would kick my butt at it, they are in such great shape.

I tried to visit a couple of places that stand out in my memory of growing up in the Bay Area, unfortunately 20 years bring a lot of change and many places don’t exist anymore.

I did have the enjoyable experience of going out to eat with Kelly’s uncle who’s been here for the last year on business and his new girlfriend, I’m the first in the family to meet her, and based on what he and I have discussed she might be his bride soon. We had some great sushi, and a lot of laughs.

I also ate dinner with my co-worker’s family, her husband is a fellow homebrewer and we drank some of his master pieces.

The trip has been nice, but I miss my family. I miss holding my wife, I think that I’m going to just stay up all night tonight and hold her tonight. To the airport I go.

I'm home, sort of:

I'm in California currently on a business trip, this is the first time I've been back to the Bay Area for a reason other than visiting family. it is strange, many places that I grew up going to are gone, towns that were small and quaint are bigger and have 20 starbucks, on the same corner.

there are still some familiar places though, some I didn't realize or remember until I saw them. one in particular really hit an emotional button- When you drive east on 580 from Oakland to San Leandro you pass by a church on the highway, there are 3 white crosses there. growing up those crosses always brought joy to me because they meant that we were about to see two people that brought joy to me, my great-grand parents, the tow of them lived the life of Christ better than anyone I have ever known though I didn’t know that at the time, all I knew was that they loved me, they loved me like no one else did. Their house was a few miles from that church, those crosses were a landmark. driving by them Sunday brought many memories back, they brought back the sorrow I felt when my great grandfather passed away back in 1985, the anger I had towards God because of it, and the joy that I had of being able to tell my great-grandmother that I was a Christian and that I appreciated the love she and my great-grandfather had given me. The last time I saw her was he 95th birthday, she took Kelly aside and told her that I was looking better than I had ever looked, that she was glad that I had married such a beautiful woman and she thanked her for being a Christian woman. Viola, my great-grandmother passed away 2 years ago at the young age of 97, she is with her Lord, Jesus, and her husband Frank also.

Seeing those crosses made me a little sad that I wasn’t going to see Frank and Viola, but I know that because I’ve seen The Cross, I’ll see them soon enough.

last night I met Timmy and Michael. they were first time visitors to our youth group last night. A couple of weeks ago Timmy and Michael were in a really bad car accident. Timmy was driving down a dirt road that all the kids like to race on, he was going over 85 miles an hour and didn't see the wall that he crashed into. Everyone lived and the only sign of the accident now is a cut in Michael's forehead. Timmy came to church because he knows that God protected them that night and he wants to get to know Jesus more. I hope to see Timmy again because this 15 year old is someone who God has some awesome plans for, please pray for Timmy.

We had our small group last night, I had 15 guys between the ages of 15 and 21 in my group, we talked about being more Christ like. It was good. I'm encouraged and have a hope for the future of our world. Timmy walked into our Church having only one Christian friend, Michael. He left knowing that he's got 13 brothers in Christ that are there to help him in his walk. We're going camping in a couple of weekends, Timmy is going with us. church is good, God is awesome.

I was talking with my boss today, this year has zipped by- Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away, Christmas isn't too far off either. wow. last weekend sped by, we took the kids to the fall festival at church friday night, Noah was a little red chili pepper, and Ros was an angel- with her pink cowboy boots so I guess she was a texas angel. Saturday was my mother in-law's birthday, can't say much about that. But Sunday night I was able to accomplish what I have been wanting to do for a couple of weeks now, Brew some Beer! it is a beautiful process, the end result is even greater. I made a red ale that is a revisit to the first beer recipe I came up with a couple of years ago. the first time I brewed this recipe I think it was a success, this time I'm hoping to hit is out of the park. I'll let you know how it goes.


I'll leave you with this- a coworker received an email from a friend who is in west africa with the peace corps. they were reflecting on the interesting combination of religion and business names. She read us a list of business names that had strong religious influences and one stuck out in my mind

"Jesus is the answer Bar and Grill"

Rosalyn got her first pair of cowboy (or cowgirl) boots last week. they are so cute, they are pink. she hasn't wanted to take them off since she got them, a couple of times she took her nap with them on. I'll have to try to get some pics.

off to School I go. mondays are a beating.