At the movies

T and I have rented quite a few movies the past couple of months. Three factors help to explain why we've rented so many movies recently:
1) Redbox vending machines, which allows us to rent a movie for the ridiculously low price of $1; 2) our cable only has 20 or so channels and
3) I really don't want to watch Season 3 of Jon and Kate Plus 8 on DVD with T.

So, we've rented some movies and I've listed the top 5 we've watched. Since I get up pretty early, I rated the movie solely based on how often (or how little) I fell asleep during the movie:

5) Valkyrie- truth be told, I didn't make it 10 minutes into this World War 2 flick on taking out Hitler. More of T's genre.

4) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- decent movie, but we watched it over two nights and I fell asleep during parts of both nights, so I have to knock it down to #4

3) Seven Pounds- hadn't heard much about this film until T brought it home; ended up really liking it a lot. Lots to think about. Still dozed a couple of times in the first parts of the movies.

2) Slumdog Millionaire- I usually have the rule that if a film wins an Oscar for Best Picture, I probably won't see it. But we made an exception with this one, and it's an excellent film. No sleeping here.

1) Paul Blart Mall Cop- I'm sure some will question my sanity ranking this movie ahead of Slumdog (and the others), but I found this movie, while stupid, to be laugh out loud funny (and T didn't, a sure sign that it was even funnier!). The only thing that would have made it funnier is if I would have watched it with my brother Mike or my brother-in-law Tyler.

There you go. Should help you out the next time you're at the Redbox . . .

And the award goes to . . .

Not to us! Well, not exactly to us. This past couple of months, Hillcrest was nominated for a couple of awards for our work within the community. We were nominated as a Community Partner of the Year for Lutheran Social Services' School Based Mentoring program (the winner was the Argus Leader) for our work with mentoring over at Cleveland. We were also nominated for a Sioux Falls Spirit of Volunteerism Award in the Groups Category by Volunteers of America for our work with their thrift store (the winner was the Downtown Holiday Inn). While we certainly didn't set out to serve or mentor in order to collect some hardware (and while we'll still do these things without the recognition), these bits of recognition serve as a reminder that we're doing the right things, that we're meeting needs within the community, and that we're trying to demonstrate one church's love for Jesus and our city. It's also a 'way to go' for the countless Hillcresters who make this love for Jesus and love for people happen week in and week out.

Meet Kinsley

It's been quite some time since I've blogged. As many of you now know, our family has adopted our daughter Kinsley, who is two years old and a few months younger than our youngest son Charley. This picture was taken at my cousin's wedding earlier this month. It's been a journey filled with ups and downs, but one that we definitely feel that God has called us to. She's doing so well with our family- really enjoys the boys, calls us mom and dad, has met both of our families and really enjoys them as well. Our boys have adjusted well with her as well. We're well schooled in raising boys so having a little girl in the house has certainly been interesting! I am sure I'll blog more about the whole process once everything's been finalized, but I did want to make a quick post. We'll post some more pictures over at Facebook as well.

Jubilee

It's been several weeks since my last post (more on that at a later post), but many of you follow what happens at Hillcrest and may have heard of this past Sunday's Jubilee that took place. If you are interested, you can check out this blog that has Hillcresters telling what they're doing with the funds they received Sunday. Very cool stuff.