posted from iPhoneSlide.com

When Jenn and I were searching for a church to hire me, we spent 10 months learning what we were looking for. We felt like we wanted to be in a place where we could be involved in other areas of ministry in addition to music and in particular, we wanted to be involved in missions. Well ask and you shall receive I suppose because now, Jenn and I are going, with 10 other people from our church to the horn of Africa. In January we’re taking off for two weeks and helping missionsaries that are already there impact the lives of the people there. It’s really exciting. Perhaps the coolest part of this whole thing is that a bulk of the team is made up of people from our Worship and Arts department here at the church. Three of the guys from the band and two singers are going which is incredibly exciting. Because of the make up of the team, the name of our trip is "Rock the Horn ‘08." I’m pretty excited about it so I thought I’d share the logo with you, which was designed by one of the guys on the team, named Justin.

We’ve got a long way to go with support raising and preparing spiritually and culturally, but it’s going to be an exciting time for sure!

Labels: Clovis Hills

So after two months and change, I am feeling bloggy again. Now, there are some of you who were, let’s say, pleasantly persistent, asking me to post again; Well, here you go.

I’d like to point out some changes in this here blog, as I’ve been doing a little house cleaning. You’ll notice that I’m focused a little more on linkage now. If you read this thing, I’d love to know it and be able to link you. If you go to Clovis Hills, then I definetely want to know about it so I can put you on here!

I won’t make any promises, like I have in the past, about my posting activity. What I will do is say that I’ve enjoyed the break and am excited to be a regular blogger again. You can look for some new elements to my little corner of the blogging world that will, hopefully make you want to stop by on a regular basis!

Labels: Blogging

So this weekend has been insane. On Saturday we had a party to celebrate my mom being Breast Cancer free for 5 years. It was a big day. We called it the pink party, so everyone, including myself wore pink. I know what you’re thinking; “Paul, how can someone as cool as you rock a pink shirt?” Well don’t worry dear friends, I did and it looked sweet.

Okay, anyway. The party was up in Oakhurst and was crazy with family from all over the country, and friends. My sister, Alison was the brains of the operation and her and Jenn threw down a pretty sweet get together. My brother did a video slideshow (made on a mac, thank you very much) and I wrote a song and sang it for my mom. All in all I’d say we’re pretty fantastic kids.

If that wasn’t enough we had church on Sunday where a transformer blew at the start of 2nd service. The power was down for only a couple minutes as our crack technical team rolled right through, but it was long enough to make things awkward, as Kimberly and I tried to yell from the stage to keep people entertained. After church we had a rehearsal for next week’s service, because I’ll be gone all week in Chicago at the Willow Creek Arts Conference.

Today I went over to Dana’s and laid down some vocals for a song we’re working on for our upcoming “Heroes” series. Now I’m helping Jenn get ready for summer school, sending out a few last minute emails and trying to find time to pack for a few days in Chi-town. Oh the insanity!

This summer is going to be pretty break-neck as well with rolling out some vision for the fall (music wise), recording, conferences, a much needed vacation and two series where our pastor will be gone.

I think I need a nap.

So this weekend has been insane. On Saturday we had a party to celebrate my mom being Breast Cancer free for 5 years. It was a big day. We called it the pink party, so everyone, including myself wore pink. I know what you’re thinking; “Paul, how can someone as cool as you rock a pink shirt?” Well don’t worry dear friends, I did and it looked sweet.

Okay, anyway. The party was up in Oakhurst and was crazy with family from all over the country, and friends. My sister, Alison was the brains of the operation and her and Jenn threw down a pretty sweet get together. My brother did a video slideshow (made on a mac, thank you very much) and I wrote a song and sang it for my mom. All in all I’d say we’re pretty fantastic kids.

If that wasn’t enough we had church on Sunday where a transformer blew at the start of 2nd service. The power was down for only a couple minutes as our crack technical team rolled right through, but it was long enough to make things awkward, as Kimberly and I tried to yell from the stage to keep people entertained. After church we had a rehearsal for next week’s service, because I’ll be gone all week in Chicago at the Willow Creek Arts Conference.

Today I went over to Dana’s and laid down some vocals for a song we’re working on for our upcoming “Heroes” series. Now I’m helping Jenn get ready for summer school, sending out a few last minute emails and trying to find time to pack for a few days in Chi-town. Oh the insanity!

This summer is going to be pretty break-neck as well with rolling out some vision for the fall (music wise), recording, conferences, a much needed vacation and two series where our pastor will be gone.

I think I need a nap.

Okay, no he’s not, but that was the most clever title I could come up with to talk about riding my bike to work. I’m finding that when I ride in the morning it’s a pretty sweet time to prepare for the day. I haven’t quite figured out that whole focusing and thinking about specific things, because truth be told much of the time I’m thinking how much easier it would be to drive, but I turn on the iPod, rock some tunes and cruise.

I think I like it so much, not because it gives me time to think about stuff, but because it gives me a period of time where I can think about nothing other than pedaling and the occasional bit of traffic. I’ve often struggeled with finding time to turn the world off and the 6 miles to work and 6 miles back give me the time to do that.

So before and after work my only problems are the sweat on my forehead and the pain in my booty.

Labels: about me

Saturday Night Live used to be incredibly funny. Back in the day (as the kiddies say), with guys like Will Ferrell, Chris Farley, and Mike Meyers, it was the best thing on TV. Over the past couple of years I have been pretty unimpressed until Dana showed me Deep House Dish.

If you haven’t seen it, you should spend all summer getting caught up on it, because it is pretty much my new favorite thing.

Enjoy!

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I know some of you veteran bloggers may scoff at a measley 100 posts. You may think that to only post 100 times in about a year is pitiful. “It’s barely twice a week.” you may say, or you might quip, “How can you be serious about blogging and it take you this long to hit the magic 100?”

Well it was hard for me so BACK OFF!!

Anyway, I was just about to write and check in since it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I blogged last and then blogger notified me that I have written 99 posts making this one number 100. Man that was a long messy sentence.

100 blogs is a big deal I think. I started this thing about a year ago and have been reasonably faithful to it, which if you know me is a big deal (I’m a good starter, not a good finisher). I’ve been learning a lot about myself this year along these lines; finishing things. I’ve been reasonably successful at accomplishing some of my goals this year and would like to continue that process. Here’s what’s on tap. You all can help keep me accountable.

1)I am stuck (still on 40 pounds lost). I go back and forth between feeling really good about it and feeling like I could have been a lot farther. No more guilt though, I’m back on the wagon. It was this time last year that I started this crazy little weight loss game and I aim to finish it.

2) I am going to run in the race for the cure in Fresno in October. It’s a 5k which shouldn’t be too bad, but I get tired driving that far, so I’m hoping to survive a summer of training in the Central Valley heat.

3) Our church is poised to see some pretty amazing growth happen starting this fall with thousands of families excpected to move in all around us. It means that our church is positioned to really meet people’s needs and connect with all of these young families. It also is an opportunity to get that much better in what I do, which means recruiting more musicians, creating three really solid bands as opposed to one band made up of 20 interchangable musicians and hopefully taking our act on the road a little bit in the next year doing conferences, retreats, camps and things like that.

With all that going on, the next 100 posts are sure to be exciting! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for all of the haps coming up.

by the way. It has been about the busiest I’ve ever been in my life and I am now officially (well almost) on top of it, which means that I’ll be setting aside more time to blog. My goal is every day; Content drives readership!

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PDub? I’m not sure. that’s what is in the lead so far for my new nickname. Here’s the thing though. I don’t really feel comfortable saying, “ok, that’s the winner, that’s my nickname.” there’s something disingenuous about that. So the real winner is when I start getting called something. So if you see me on a regular basis and you think I should be called something like Pauly Haug-O-licious, you’ve got to make it happen.

If you’re embarassed to say it, that’s a good gauge that I’d be embarassed to be called it. You all make the call though!