jakemiller

happy new year!

it's 2009! 
i'm glad.
2008 was kind of a weird year.
but this is a new year.
and we're making some big changes as we start 2009.
what's on tap?
new job... check.
new church... check.
new place to live... check.
new city... check.
new state... check.
new start?
check.
it all begins tomorrow.
come along for the ride.
happy new year, everybody!

what would you take?

so we're moving this week... sort of. actually, we're only partially moving. because we're going to be living in someone else's house for a while, we're only going to be taking some of our stuff.

because we're limited in what we can take, we've found ourselves asking "what do we really need?". what are the things that we absolutely have to take with us? certainly there are the obvious things, like clothes. and a toothbrush. because let's be honest... nobody wants to be around stinky, naked jake.

since we've been asking ourselves this question... i thought i would try something that i've never done in my year and a half of blogging. i'm going to pose a question to you, and ask you to comment back. a lot of you stop by here every day but i never hear from you, so here's your chance. 

if you were moving and could only take one thing with you (besides clothing and toiletry items), what would you take?

alright readers, comment away. like i said, i've never done this before so if nobody comments i'm gonna be really embarrassed. and it will be all your fault...

greenville :: chapel hill :: yorktown

today marked the second of what will probably be quite a few trips up interstate 85 to virginia over the next couple of months. 

we're spending the next few days in yorktown... getting to know the area, meeting some new friends, and looking for our new home. i'll also spend a couple of days at the waters edge offices this week with the staff getting prepped to come on board in january. it's good to be back up here... can't wait to get back to waters edge church in the morning!

on the way up, we stopped in chapel hill, nc for logan's first experience at the university of north carolina. we grabbed lunch on franklin st., spent some time in kenan stadium, and took a walk around the smith center. the kid isn't even two yet, but his blood is already turning blue. he's a tar heel... i love it.

of course it's convenient that chapel hill is the exact halfway point between greenville and yorktown. it makes for a good stopping point during the long trip... pretty sure we'll be planning trips to greenville around a few carolina games in the years to come.

big news coming...

... tomorrow.

headed to the atl...

it's wednesday night and i'm getting geared up for catalyst 08. it's entirely possible that i've scheduled more "let's hook up @ catalyst" meetings than there are hours in the day, but that's part of the experience. i can't wait to get down there and dive in tomorrow. 

i wasn't able to make it down today for the pre-conference labs with the rest of the cool kids, so i had to live vicariously through anne jackson's catalyst backstage. which... by the way... if you're not able to make it down to catalyst this year, this is the next best thing. it's an all-inclusive behind the scenes look @ the catalyst conference, complete with interviews w/ the speakers, webcasts, a chat room, and real-time updates from people blogging and twittering from catalyst 08. make sure you check it out.

i'll be getting on the road well before sunrise tomorrow morning so i can beat the traffic and get to the arena before the first session. i'll try to post some thoughts from day one tomorrow night. if you're on twitter, i'll be posting regular updates throughout the conference. follow me on twitter here.

my life. in words.

 

thanks anne, josh & joe for the creative inspiration.

what do your words say about you? find out here.

weekend update

here's what's been going on in my world over the past 7 days...

• we had a great week @ the beach! it went by way too quickly.
• litchfield has become our favorite place to go to the beach. 
• logan is officially a beach lover. it took him a day or so to warm up to the ocean, but we convinced him that nemo was in there waiting for him to come play and he was good to go. 
• i eat entirely too much when we're on vacation. about 10% of it is healthy.
• steered clear of a few jellyfish in the water... while holding logan. that was interesting.
• i managed to avoid getting sunburned @ the beach, i think for the first time ever. 
• did manage to get sunburned while cutting my grass yesterday. go figure. 
• have you ever taken a bath in cold water w/ vinegar? yeah, me neither... until last night. it was a "home remedy" for sunburn... and it stinkin' worked! sunburn = gone. i was shocked. and yes, i was burned that bad. 
• have you gotten john mayer's new live cd? you should. it's fantastic.
• i'm now the proud owner of an iphone. seriously, how did i manage before i had this thing? 
• i think i still smell like vinegar...
• as i type this, there is a preseason nfl game on. that can only mean one thing... it's almost fantasy football time!
• speaking of the nfl... i'm sorry, but i'm so over brett favre. enough is enough, dude. 

alright, that's all for now...

vacation

it's time to unplug for a little while. we're heading out of town in the morning for a week at the beach... and we can't wait to get there! this will be our first "real" vacation as a family of three so, needless to say, we're really excited.

i'm looking forward to no schedule and no agenda. i'm not planning on doing much in the way of emailing or blogging... and i'm not even sure i'll turn my phone on unless it's an emergency.

i'll try and find some time to at least turn on my computer long enough to post an update in a couple of days. until then...

on the road again

i love driving. and it's a good thing, because i've spent an awful lot of time in my car lately. city to city, interstate to interstate... going all kinds of places for all kinds of reasons. this week and next week are more of the same.

today, i spent the day in florence doing some contract work for a friend of mine. tomorrow, i'll spend the day in atlanta with ryan working on some things for theAMP before meeting up with casey for dinner a little later. although i should point out that when i say "later", i actually mean 5:00... because for some reason, casey likes to eat with the senior citizens. regardless, it will be great hanging out with them again. just like old times.

then, this weekend we're heading to the beach. thanks to the generosity of an anonymous someone (and it's killing me to know who... is it you?) kristi, logan and i will be relaxing on the beach for a week. no agenda. no schedule. just me and my two favorite people in the entire world, enjoying every minute of each other. i can't wait.

checking in

with everything that's going on right now, blogging has taken a back seat. it'll most likely be that way until things settle down for us and we get moved. hopefully that will be around this time next weekend. 

i'll update as often as i can. in the meantime, here are a few odds and ends from our world over the past week...

• it looks like we've found a place to live!
• we're heading back down to charleston tomorrow and hope to finalize the details in the next day or so. i'll post an update as soon as we know something.
  
• we'll be calling this place home for the first half of this week. 
• we'll (hopefully) be packing and moving the last half of this week. 
• my start date has been pushed back a couple of weeks. this is a huge blessing because it allows us to finalize our living arrangements and take our time packing up the house.
• anybody want to help us move?
• we'll be taking logan out to the beach for the very first time this week.
• i'm so excited to see how he reacts to the ocean. hopefully he'll love the beach as much as we do. if not, he's in trouble because it's getting ready to be in his backyard. 
• there are a few people coming to look at our house this week. please keep praying that someone would buy our house... soon! 

one last thing... i want to thank everyone for the encouraging emails and phone calls over the past week. it's honestly been overwhelming hearing from so many of you. i'm sorry it took me a little while to get back to everyone. you've been so encouraging to us over the past couple of months as we've been seeking God's direction. words can't express how much we appreciate your support, encouragement and prayers. we are truly blessed with great friends and great family. thank you! 

road trip

kristi, logan and i heading out for a little weekend road trip.  some good friends of ours recently moved to chattanooga, tn and have invited us to come up for a few days to get away and hang out.  

so, i'm going to be putting the job search on hold for a few days so i can grab some much needed down time.

i've got a couple of updates and a few other things rolling around in my brain that i want to unload on the blog, so be on the lookout for that early next week.

have a great weekend everybody!