Just Like I Like It...

...one of my favorite meals ever:

Got the Titan stuck...

Went muddin at Kirby Lake and got the truck stuck. Andrew Wheeler pulled me right out. It was fun, but some water got in the truck and soaked the carpet; it stinks now.

Call me...

I'm won't be getting on the internet on a regular basis for a while. If you need something important, call me: 325.669.6549 or shoot me an email at work: daniel_a_julian@bcbstx.com. thanks!

I am weak but He is strong...

You probably remember the song "Jesus Loves Me". Well, a line from that song came to mind tonight: "I am weak but He is strong."

Some days, more than others, I realize how weak I really am. These are days that I focus on my weakness... pouting, getting frustrated, and whining to everyone (wife, friends, and of course God) about my weaknesses. Other days, I realize how strong God is. These are days that I focus on Him... praising God for his power, strength, and promise. The problem is, I'm not always good at noticing both at the same time, (I've been told I have a one-track mind) or I have the wrong attitude. I like to praise God, but unfortunately it's followed up w/ a comment like, "Well God, you did great... but wasn't I pretty good, too. I mean, did you see me? I was pretty awesome. I appreciate you taking care of A, B, and C... but check out what I did on D, C, and E." The problem here is that I'm not recognizing my TOTAL need for God. Going further, are the days I cry about my weaknesses. I get so caught up in the "woe is me" that I forget about God completely. I put God outside the ropes like a tag team and call Him in when needed. He stands there watching as I get myself in to big trouble. (I was going to try and reference the awesome movie Nacho Libre, but I can't picture Jesus as Esqueleto... or me as Jack Black for that matter. sorry, moving on...)

Today I struggled w/ some things and was getting upset that I couldn't control them. It wasn't until dinner time that I finally gave up and "tagged" God to jump in and take my place. Jennifer and I had a great opportunity dumped on us tonight: we were given money to go eat w/ her brother Chris and his girlfriend Lori at Szechuan. This was great b/c... 1 = we love Szechuan... but 2 = b/c we had a chance to build some relationships and invite them to church. As easy as it seems to say, "hey, you should come to church with us tomorrow", I have a very hard time doing this. I'm learning that it's hard b/c I'm depending on myself. This is where the "tag" comes in. I surrendered to the Holy Spirit and let him give me the courage. The words flowed out just fine and were received well. I was expecting an immediate excuse as the reply, but instead, it was followed w/ a semi-interested "well, that's early, but we'll call you and see if we can make it." It may seem like a small thing, but none-the-less, it was recognized and God was given all the glory. They may or may not come tomorrow, but that is out of my hands. I was obedient in inviting them, so now I'm trusting in the Holy Spirit to use that in some way.

I spent some time worshiping tonight (and practicing for tomorrow morning's service) and I really sensed the holy spirit filling me up. I felt like an empty gas tank. A peace fell over me as I headed to bed and I began singing the tune to "Jesus Loves Me" again.

This situation also reminded me of Kevin's sermons thru the Beatitudes..."blessed are those who mourn, the meek...they will be comforted, filled". We need to recognize our weakness, but not stay there; look to the Lord for strength; praise Him who is God.

I pray that tomorrow will be a beautiful time of worship... confessing our sins, recognizing our weaknesses, and praising God for His power and majesty.

Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong,
They are weak but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

Communication in Marriage...

Notes from Sunday School at Southside Baptist Church. Jackson Boen is the teacher for our Young Married's class.

Ephesians 4:29-32 = The "prerequisite" for today's study.

6 Gold Nuggets from the Boen's (Jackson and Becky):
1. Understand men & women are different:
- doesn't mean one is better than the other, just different
- women's needs:companionship, significance, emotional responsiveness (regarding intimacy)
- men's needs: admiration (the "superhero syndrome"), physical responsiveness, regarding intimacy), companionship
2. use your ears
- relative verses: Prov 1:5; 17:1; 18:2,13-15; James 1:19
- our spouses perception is our reality: don't waste too much time defending your comments, but deal w/ the reality/perceptions. (if you say something and it's taken the wrong way, that is simply how your spouse perceived it and that perception should be addressed as opposed to defending what you originally said)
3. be intentional
- spend 15-20 minutes each day talking. "couch time"
- schedule some talking "dates". give each other 3 questions to answer the day prior to the date, then talk about them on your date.
- be creative: letters, notes, cards, shoe polish car, sidewalk chalk messages, etc.
4. learn his/her love language. there are 5:
- acts of service
- touch
- quality time
- gifts
- words of encouragement
(note: mine is quality time and words of encouragement, but jennifer's are different. so I have to make sure i'm speaking "her" love language and not mine; make sure i'm not solely trying to give her words of encouragement when her #1 love language might be acts of service. It is, however, to remember that all are important and good.)
5. Dream big and plan.
crazy things are going to happen. what if you were asked to move out of the state b/c of your job. do you know if you spouse and/or family would support you in that? talk about it now before you have to make the decision.
6. Learn how to apologize.
(note: i had to skip out early for worship practice, so i missed the explanation on this one, but it seems pretty self explanatory).

Leafy Ocotillo...

After 1 year, our Ocotillo plant is finally putting out some leaves. Only on one stem, but hey, at least we know its still alive. It appears to be in the beginning stages of leafing out b/c even the one stem still only has a few leaves. I'll be watching this over the next few weeks to see if we get any more leaves. As always, here are a couple pics:

Southside Shootout...

You know you're in a good church when you have activities like a shootout. This was "advertised" as a Father & Son shootout, but was really open to anyone who wanted to come out and shoot. We met out at the Police Training Center on East Lake Road by Fort Phantom Lake just outside of Abilene city limits. Pretty awesome place. It was hot, but we had a lot of fun. It was cool to see dad's there with their kids, husbands and wives, and friends; all there having a great time of fellowship and bonding. Here are a few pics:

Crazy Snowball...

Snowball decided to pose for a couple pictures a-top the waterfall. She's so cute... and she's so not coming inside till she dries off. ha!

Belated Spring Cleaning...

Well, I've decided to clean up my blog. It's long overdue for a fresh new look and more importantly, some fresh new content. It's been brought to my attention that the content of my blog has been lacking. I was challenged to make my posts more "mature". Not in the "R-rated" sense, but in a way that might be more uplifting, positive, constructive, encouraging, and most of all a reflection and outpouring of the Lord's presence in my life. I'm sure I'll still have some funny posts from time to time and will probably still post a few random YouTube videos, but I hope my posts can be a bit more "meaty" (in a 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 kind of way). I'll probably be going thru some of my old posts and possibly deleting some that I'm not too proud of. I'd love to hear any comments. God bless.

Where has all the talent gone?

certainly not to John Daker...

Someone scratched my truck... it was me...

Well, in efforts to keep my truck safe from bad weather, I scratched it trying to squeeze it in to our small garage. I've done this several times before w/ no trouble. It's such a tight fit. There are literally only a couple inches of room on each side. Both side mirrors touch the rubber flaps of the garage door opening when I come thru. Here are some pics of how close a fit it is... and also of my new scratch:

ForTwo goes ForFun...

For those of you with an offroading spirit, but still want a small car for the city, check out the modded ForTwo:

This table saw won't even cut a hot dog...

Why would you want this saw? well, since it won't cut a hot dog, it also won't cut your finger off. Hmmm, let's watch the video:

Stanley Clarke...

A little different style of Double Bass than the previous post.

Fly, you big, fat, wooden bumblebee, fly...

Terrible Car Wash...

Ever been to a self-service coin-operated car wash? Well, if you haven't, consider yourself lucky. They're terrible. At least the one I just went to on S. 3rd behind K-Mart in Abilene, TX. I spend $6.00 worth of quarters trying to get my truck clean. I didn't use all the options on the selector. I used (1)tire wash (2)bug gut loosener (3)pre-wash (4)foamy soap wash (5)high pressure rinse (repeated steps 4 and 5 three times each). After this, I drove straight home, only to find (1)my tires were still orangesh-brown from mud still being on them (2)chrome rims not shiny, had a thick haze on them (3)dirt and spots all over the body of the vehicle and (4)bug guts all over the front. I then used my own supplies to wash the whole truck again. My bottle of soap, tire cleaner, sponge, and water probably cost about the same as my coin operated self-wash of $6.00 AND I could probably wash my truck 7-10 more times with these same supplies before having to buy more.

Now, you may be thinking, "Daniel, it takes so much longer and so much more energy to scrub the truck yourself than it does at a coin-operated car wash." Well, this is also false. My hand got just as tired waving the high-pressure sprayer as it did doing my karate-kid, "daniel-san", wax-on-wax-off circles with my sponge. Also, it took me a good 35-40 minutes at the coin car wash and only 15 min at home.

Here are a few other advantages of washing my car at home:
(1)No hose dangling from the ceiling/wall to bang in to my truck while I wash.
(2)The crazy west TX wind does not blow all the water out of my sponge before it gets on my truck. At the coin-wash, the wind was blowing thru my stall so fast and furious, the water/soap was blowing away before it even sprayed over to my truck.
(3)I can dry and vacuum my truck for no additional cost.

To sum things up: Don't go to the coin-operated car wash.
If you don't have a driveway or street to wash your car in yourself, come to my house. I'll let you use my driveway for free.

Crazy Animal fights...

... don't worry, no animals were harmed (because of anything I did) in the posting of these videos:

Bugatti vs. Jet...

Thru the Fire and Flames...

wow. amazing. 9 yrs old. i feel like i'm pretty good at GH3, but I can only play this song in practice mode (so I won't fail) and the best I've done is hit 67% of the notes. This kid is unbelievable!!

Intruders? Bring 'em on...

I'd hate to be the villian who messes with either of these:

**Ultimate**Final** There's a New Bar Coming to Town...

Okay, so I keep saying this is the end, but we just keep adding, so here are some more pics of the bar (I really do think it's done this time):

Bittersweet Goodbye...

Well, it's a sad night. I'm driving to Goldthwaite tomorrow to meet the prospective buyers of my Titan. It looks very promising that the deal will go down. As excited as I am to be out from under that debt and having the ability to put more money towards student loans and our house, I'm really sad to see the Titan go.

Apple gets classy...

The rich folks at Computer Choppers are almost through with their custom made 24 kt Gold Macbook festooned with diamond-encrusted logo. It’s catching eyeballs. With price as affordable as $7,000-$8,000, you can place an order for your own Gold Macbook.

Now you have doors, now you don't...

Regular doors, suicide doors, lambo doors??? Oh no, you've not seen anything like this...

Spl / it person / ality...

Stick 'em up...

...and give me all your brisket!!

**Final** There's a new bar coming to town...

well, it's done (almost, hehe). just need to add glass middle shelves and a rope light to go underneath for added "oooh ahhh". Also need to sand and re-stain the bottom shelves. they got a bit roughed up when i cut them to size. hey, look... our dining room chairs actually look pretty good under there.
Here are the final pics: