Review

It happened. 007 Casino Royale was part of the holiday vacation with family. It was a great movie with lots of action and a great opening scene. After post movie conversation with Amanda and her brother it was brought to my attention that Casino Royale reveals a lot about previously released Bond movies. In reality a person will not even pay attention to Daniel Craig being a blonde bond. 007 did not disappoint and provided great entertainment. As the Christmas season continues I do look forward to seeing another movie, We Are Marshall.

Unknown Beverage

It is confirmed that many Starbucks employees do not know anything about the Iced Cafe con Leche. A delightful drink and more easy on the pocket book than a Frappuccino. A visit to Starbucks in Owasso revealed that the employee did not even know the drink was on the menu behind him. The employee tried to deflect my choice to a different item but I politely pointed out that it was listed in the coffee section. He proceeded to ring up the item and then pulled out the large ring binder in order to research how to make my drink and mentioned that he had never made that drink. After twenty minutes and checking twice on the progress, the barista hand delivered the drink and mentioned that he called to find out how the drink was to be made. He did a great job for his first attempt. The unknown beverage to many employees is probably unknown to many customers. I am confident that this scenario will take place if this beverage is ordered again. It can only come full circle if I actually tell them how to make the drink. May the unknown be known.

NMC

It was another great year at the National Missionary Convention. Many people, youth and adults, gathered in Indianapolis, IN for this annual event. Conversations were plentiful with friends, familiar faces and partners in ministry over the 3+ days. The images to remember include two college age females handing food to a man shaking a cup to siginy his need of spare change. Adding to the pictures were thousand of students sorting & packing clothes as well as building walls for future homes to be built. Through these images and quantities of people you see the great interest people have in God's heart for all people. Encouragement was received as a young girl shared gratitude, with some of the CIY staff, for the role that Summer Conference played in her life. God truly used that event to change her life. It will be another year until the NMC takes place again, but the focus will always be to make God's mission our mission.

Blonde Bond

A recent conversation with Amanda included me saying that the new 007 movie did not look that appealing to me. Her response was something like, "I don't know about a blonde bond." That's right, it was even discussed on the Today show, a blonde James Bond will be ruling the special agent world for Casino Royale and the next two 007 movies. Whether or not a blonde Bond will be a success will be known this weekend when the movie will be released for all to enjoy. What I learned from my comment is that my wife and I look at things differently. I was already aware of this but it is always great to be reminded of the different perspectives that we have about certain topics. I will not have an opinion about the success of the blonde Bond because I will not be watching it. Once again that is where our perspectives differ because Amanda would enjoy watching it.

Madness

Whether it be the approaching Christmas shopping season, talking of what one lose team should be in the BCS championship game or the fact that college basketball has started there is Madness to be experienced. It is official, Christmas is here. This is known because Starbucks has their festive holiday cups out. Instead of the sleek, basic white they have gone to the bold, outstanding red. What one loss team deserves a chance to go toe-to-toe with the winner of Ohio State & Michigan? The past three weeks have seen formidable opponents drop to one or two losses starting with USC losing, then West Virginia and now Louisville lost to the still undefeated Rutgers. This is truly madness because they talk about it every year. It is probably a good thing they have this computer messing things up, otherwise the experts would be complaining about human votes being the reason a current undefeated Rutgers is being overlooked. The only good madness still lies with college basketball. It will start to heat up as teams begin to play in Holiday tournaments and encounter a rare early season ranked opponent. One good thing to see is that North Carolina is a preseason #2 pick. The Tar Heels should do well with several returning players and a few top recruits to help them push for another national title. Madness will reveal its true self in the weeks and months to come but can only be experienced to the fullest in the month of March.

Signs

Recent travel has once again revealed one of the best ways to laugh. It deals with signs that stand in front of churches across the country. Many of them post service times for the week and also ministers that work at that particular church. However, whether for good or bad, some also include a note as to what the sermon will be about or a phrase to make you think about the relationship you have with God and other people. Here a few from the past...Faith is the postage stamp to your prayer, To avoid burning...Use Sonblock, and the one that fueled me even writing about this, God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts. How about that one? Even though it brings laughter, how effective are these signs? Would you pull into the church and ask what that phrase is talking about or making reference too? Probably not. Use the sign how you may and share them as they come your way.

Here It Is

I must start with the important information first. My wonderful wife, Amanda, and I have been married almost four and a half years and for one year of that have enjoyed our son Mason. We share in many things: changing diapers, Starbucks, Lost, the Oklahoma State Cowboys and chocolate chip cookies. I look forward to sharing on future blogs about my wife and son and how they make each day special and different. There will be many other discussions but this is what I will start with for now