Random Sevens…

I like the number 7. It’s great for random things.

Like photos:

Ava has a serious addiction to hair clips. If she’s missing from a room for a few minutes, she typically returns with no less than 29 clipy things in her hair. I think this style might catch on.

This is a scary looking cat. I like cats okay, it’s just that a 200lb St. Bernard is still a pet. If you had a 200lb cat, it would be continuously figuring out how to eat you. Thankfully this cat is not 200lbs.

My friend Josh and I built a massive desk for my office. This may have been a bad idea. I’m noticing that no matter how large your desk is…it still gets filled with crap.

Here’s a shot from my phone of Allison taking the kids’ photo. I love that Saul is just sitting there as a support to whatever she’s doing. He’s a faithful little pig-dog.

These are Finn’s bubbly toes. I like to eat them. My prediction is that he’ll be crawling within 2 weeks.

This is what you do not want to happen to your MacBook Pro. The screen was losing connection for some reason and if you bent it just right, it would work properly. Bend it a little too much though…

This photo is awesome. That’s all.

Or how about 7 random questions that no one actually asked me, but I still feel inclined to answer?

Who all is going on your Compassion Blog trip to Kenya?

So far, I know of these people…click on their names to see their bloggies.

Brad Ruggles

Kent Shaffer

Kristen Welch

LV Hanson

MckMama

Chris Giovagnoni

Keely Scott

Patricia Jones

Shaun Groves

I can’t wait to meet these peeps and hang out with them for this unbelievable experience.

Do you need any financial support for your trip to Kenya?

Well thank you so much for asking! While most of the trip is being funded by Compassion International, we still need to raise funds for Allison’s plane ticket. It’s about $1,500 and if you’re looking to give…

Thank ya…you are so generous.

What’s going on with your church right now?

Well…things have been crazy lately. Our leadership team went through a 60-day fast where most of us gave up all drinks other than water. This proved to be a lot harder than it sounds for those of us completely addicted to coffee and soda. We were fasting to get some clarity surrounding what to do as far as the space we meet in is concerned.

Currently, we rent an old church building that was for sale. The price was too much for us to purchase the building when we moved into it, but since we’ve been renting it for the last year and a half or so…we feel like it’s home. Our fast led us to the decision that this was indeed the right space for us and we have agreed to purchase the building as long as we can raise the funds to do so.

Originally the price for this building was $1.1 Million, but we had our offer accepted and we are buying it for $700,000. We need to raise $140,000 for the down payment by March 1st. So far, we’ve got a bit over $10,000. Lots of fundraisers are planned and we are praying that we can do this. Otherwise, we’re going to have to find another place to meet with our 600+ people.

Our commitment is to not USE PEOPLE to get a building, but rather we will USE THIS BUILDING to get people. The goal is not a building. We could care less about the building, but we need a home. If you’re a person of prayer, please join with us as we pray to plant our roots in a neighborhood that desperately needs us there.

Have you really been buying only ORGANIC food in 2010?

Yes and no. I’ve felt it heavy on my heart to commit to organic buying for some time now, and while I don’t like to be heavily influenced by T.V. or movies, I have to admit that Food Inc. pushed me over the edge.

As far as grocery buying goes, yes…I’ve been buying 100% organic for about a month now. And yes, it’s a lot more expensive. I’ve had to find new ways of shopping and I’m finding myself traveling to more stores now to get good deals on certain items. We’ve also been eating less meat, which is a good decision anyway. I’m noticing that many items have dropped in price quite a bit over the last couple of years, and I’m sure that these things will continue to drop as more demand for organics increases.

It feels like an adventure. I was getting really good at grocery shopping before this decision, and now I have to re-learn quite a bit. The cost is higher, but the COST of not eating organically is high too.

Did you know that…

* 1 in 3 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with childhood diabetes.
* 1 in 2 children of minority groups will be diagnosed with childhood diabetes.

Our argument tends to be something along these lines:

“Well, it didn’t hurt us when we were growing up…”

But the harsh truth is that what we are buying and eating today is NOT what we ate growing up. It’s something different entirely, and it’s much worse. Genetically modified foods and chemicals have made their way into everything.

We are still eating things at friend’s homes and restaurants that are assuredly not organic. And that’s okay. I don’t want to be some food snob who refuses good food that happens to not be organic. But as far as my personal buying is concerned, it’s going to be ORGANIC for us in 2010. If that means eating less to balance out the cost difference, then so be it.

Are you really going to buy a hand gun?

I don’t know if I’ll ever own one or not, but I’d like to. And to the best of my knowledge I have no intent on shooting people with it. I like shooting targets, and I own a nice, large safe to store it in.

If you opened up a restaurant, would there be some sort of theme to it?

YES!! I would do some sort of a good and evil theme. I can imagine a chalkboard style menu hanging above the ordering area where there is a “good for you” menu listing lots of healthy eating options, and a “bad for you” menu filled with comfort foods overflowing with butter and cream. Glorious.

What are your 7 favorite T.V. shows?

In no particular order…

* Hell’s Kitchen
* Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares
* House
* Dexter
* The Office
* Antiques Roadshow
* Iron Chef America

If you’re up for it, post a random sevens post on your own blog and link back to this post here. Then leave the blog post in a comment so that we can all see how whacked out you are.

Love Wins,
Ryan