It has been another long day. Up around 8 when Jadyn gets up after a night of minimal sleep due to Asher not sleeping through the night. The next 14 hours are spent non-stop taking care of the kids and tending to the new house.

She walks down the stairs after a very long process of putting Jadyn to bed - as breathtakingly beautiful and sexy as she was before popping out two kids - and instead of passing out on the couch next to her lazy husband and her lazy husband's lazy friend, she looks at CJ and I and asks, "would you guys like fruit smoothies."

This is Andrea. She is amazing. And she more than anyone deserves to be a woman we love.

More on this later...

I once went to a church service that had a silhouetted drama skit of two scenes: a groom with his best man and a bride with her maid of honor. The skit was about conflicting expectations after marriage.

It became painfully obvious the antagonist in this story was the best man - mainly due to the new wife's low opinion of her new husband's best friend. I remember nothing else from the service but one single thought: "man am I glad Andrea is as cool as she is."

It is one thing to have a best friend in life as cool as CJ. It is quite another to have my best friend's wife be my second best friend.

She works at least twice as hard as I do - and complains half as much.

She is more patient and nurturing with her kids than anyone I have ever known.

She unconditionally loves and respects her husband - even when he doesn't deserve it.

She lets her husband's best friend spend weeks at her house, including over their anniversary, with out blinking an eye.

Simply put she is the most wonderful woman I know.

Some may look at this and think it isn't very feminist, but I would argue she is a perfect model of feminism because she is living the life she set out to live.

I don't feel that it has to be a woman's place to stay home and raise the kids. And even though I have spent most of my 20-something existence making financial decisions that will hopefully enable my wife to stay at home if that is what she wants, I also have no problem if pursuing a career is something that is important to her.

But feminism is about choice. This gets forgotten. It isn't doing about what is expected - albeit a career or homemaker. It is about knowing what one wants in life and not having anyone prevent that. Andrea knew what she wanted out of life, and is phenomenal at it.

I have (probably mistakenly) told more than one girlfriend that I don't really care what my mom thinks of you, it's Andrea who you really have to be worried about. She is with out a shadow of a doubt Supermom and Superwife and definitely a woman I love.

I love coming home to Indiana for vacation. I have great friends in CJ & Andrea that feel like family (more on that later this week). I get along better with my real family now more than I ever have, and I truly enjoy spending time with them.

But one thing I have really grown to love is the "once-a-year" meals I share with people I don't get to see very often. The conversation is always intriguing; hearing all about what has happened in the time apart. Seeing how we have grown to who we are today, compared to where we were the last time we talked.

And, since by some natural law of the universe that states I am only allowed to have one guy friend in any given region, these conversations are usually with women (hence the mini-blog series). This Christmas I met up with a long-time-ago exgirlfriend named Ashley.

I hadn't talked to Ashley in over 8 years. The last time I saw her was at least senior year of high school. She was a cheerleader in high school, but incredibly intelligent. She went on to Purdue and eventually took a job in engineering.

We had "talked" a few times on Facebook this year about various things, and so decided to get together for lunch over Christmas.

Ashley has grown into an incredibly beautiful, successful, and talented engineer at a large cooperation in Kentucky. And our conversation seemed to end too quickly.

But you want to know what I loved most about our lunch at Yen Ching? Well...I can't tell you.

Now I know Erik is probably thinking up some salacious reason as to why I can't tell you, but that isn't it. Really, I can't tell you because most wouldn't understand. I would come off even more conceited than I actually am.

So if I can't really tell you, why blog about it? Because we all need people in our lives that "get" where we are at. We need people - who sometimes may not have been really close friends - but who understand what is great about our current place in life, while at the same time understand the struggles and insecurities that come with it.

Ashley gets what it is like to be the youngest person by 20 years in meetings. She gets what it is like moving away to a town where you know no one in pursuit of career aspirations. She gets what it is like owning a home in the burbs while the rest of the 20-somethings live in the city.

It is a similar reason as to why I love CJ as much as I do. We get each other.

In January I mentioned the Duke University study that states Americans have fewer friends and confidants than they did 30 years ago. I have been blessed to have some amazing friendships. And the lunches like the one I shared with Ashley are what keep me from going nuts.

I know I have been awful at blogging recently, but I took a break. I have had a wonderful time up in Indiana and still have another 5 days or so.

Hanging out with CJ & Andrea is always a blast. I am the only person I know who wakes up at 11 am for work most days, but on vacation gets up at 9 and is generally exhausted all day. But I love it. Nothing like being woken up by a beautiful girl, even if she is only three.

Some of the cutest things Jadyn has said this trip:

• Uncle Andy, can you wear your hat? You look cool.
• Can we play hide and go seek? ... (1 minute later before she counts to 10) ... ok you go hide in the closet ... (don't think she quite gets the concept of hide and go seek)
• Can you not check your email and just watch me play?

And not to leave the Ash-man out of things. I figured I'd post of video of Asher and I. He can't rollover yet, but I swear I am going to see him walking before I leave on Saturday. His legs are crazy strong - as you can tell by the video. Be sure to wait for the end.


Between being spit up on all week and the fumes from the midget racing inside the Memorial Coliseum, I pretty much have smelled this entire week.

Well that's some fun stuff for now. I am going to blog later on this week about four of my favorite women of the trip - which include one of the Stolen girls, an exgirlfriend I haven't talked to since senior year of high school, and of course, Andrea and Jadyn. Think of it my own version of Esquire's "Women We Love."

Niki (not real name): "I thought you said your cousin is a Christian? He's so fun."

Julia: "Yeah, being a Christian isn't his problem."

Niki: "Well what's his problem?"

Julia: "He blogs."

This was a conversation my cousin had with a friend of her's after I met up with them in East Atlanta after the show on Saturday.

I had no alcohol that night and my sister was still able to get me dancing up on a pool table with everyone else - something most of my friends find astonishing.

The night was a blast, but it was the above conversation that got me the most excited. So even though they make fun of my blogging, I decided to blog about it.

Earlier that week our show was rejected by a potential station in Mississippi because, as they put it, "our show is too risque for their market." Keep in mind, they aren't a Christian station - they are a mainstream, secular station. True, it is Mississippi, but still, a mainstream station rejecting a show about faith because they are too risque. Awe-some!

My response: "Can I quote that when developing our marketing campaigns."

Both of the above statements mean much to me because they reinforce that I am living the vision and purpose I set out to live - both professionally and personally.

As my cousin said later in the above conversation, "Andy is a real Christian - he isn't judgmental."

Now at this point you are thinking, wow this post is incredibly egocentric - which I do not deny.

But I have said over and over on this blog that the judgementalism and lack of grace usually exuded by Christians is a significant problem with their ability to relate to this world.

In our attempt to make the right choice, we end up treating people with disdain with a lack of compassion that is incredibly obvious and unsupportive to loving this world.

So on Saturday night, I didn't get drunk, but refused to judge those who did.

And on Saturday night, I didn't go home with anybody - even though I am pretty sure I could have (shut up Cassie) - but didn't look down on those who did.

I just had a great time with some fun people and I look forward to doing it again.

So while there are many, many ways I fall short of the standard I attempt to live up to (like being egocentric while blogging), I find the two conversations above to be encouraging.

Today started like any other day at Hilton Head. Woke up. Put swim suits on. Went to the beach. Had a baby...

What?

Had a baby?

Ok, that never happened before.

It was about 5pm and we were getting ready to go to a nice dinner for our last night of vacation and Andrea started to have some pain. So she called her doctor in Indiana. Well her doctor told her everything was probably fine, but to swing by the hospital to confirm.

Two hours in the hospital and it is confirmed: she's having the baby tonight. A whole two months early!!!

I take a screaming Jadyn (who wants her mommy) home and put her to bed, we read Little Mermaid. And now I am scrounging around, trying to get everything ready for the show tomorrow night, a show I probably won't be at.

But it's weird, ya know. I always thought the first person I would drive to the hospital to have a baby would be my wife, or at least my own child.

But in a unique way I feel like it is partly my child. Just four days earlier, while standing on the beach, CJ turned to me and said, "you want to be the first to know what the name of the child is? Asher James. Andrea doesn't even know that I have picked it yet." Who knew, four days later, and two months early, he would be here.

Andrea is most likely going to be moved to Charleston, SC tomorrow, and her and Asher are going to have to be there for three weeks. I am trying to convince them to move her to Savannah instead because the access is so much easier for everybody up north (and me in Atlanta). But we'll see.

That's about it from here. I have done a lot of stuff with my 20 years at Hilton Head. But having a baby is definitely a first.

UPDATE
Asher's First Video

Are you sitting down? Of course you are...who uses a computer standing up? Good, you are sitting down! I say this only because I want you prepared for the craziest train of thought in the history of thinking.

I was listening to a news report the other day about how February 29th was the lightest day for gynecologists because nobody wanted to have a baby and have to deal with a kid having a birthday once every four years. Just mentioning gynecologists always draws my mind to an ex-girlfriend's father (he was an gynecologist, don't get any weird ideas). That particular ex-girlfriends got me thinking about law school. Law school got me thinking about my friend Lissa. Lissa got me thinking about 3rd year law school students - or "3L" as they attempt to fool us non-law people - in particular and what it would be like if I had gone to law school. Being back in school, with the slight reminder daylight savings time changes this weekend which means it is spring time got me thinking about what I missed most about being in school. The exciting conclusion to Andy's crazy train of thought is...drum roll please...spring break!

Ohh how I miss spring break. I was in school for 17 years. In those 17 years I never once failed to take a vacation. I never once spent it in Fort Wayne. It was always a time to get out into the world with people I loved and forget about school (even though you always had stuff due right afterwards).

I am going to take a moment and reminisce about some of the great trips. There was Antigua with the family. Hawaii with Hillary. Mexicali with APU. Siesta Key with Laura. Denver with Emily.

The closest I ever came to not taking a spring break was senior year of college. Nothing was planned except to stay on campus at APU and shoot down to the OC for beach days. As it turned out, APU went to the NAIA Championship game and I convinced APU to pay for me to go to get video footage. So my roommate Taylor and I hopped in a car and drove from LA to Kansas City overnight and just barerly made it for tip off (Lucky for Erin, the cheerleaders got to take a plane).

The best spring break by far was when CJ and I went to Hilton Head senior year of high school. We went completely on our own and spent three days there - it was cold. When we exhausted everything to do when it was cold, we went to the library, MapQuest-ed directions to Sannibel Island in Florida (9 hours away) and drove to see Andrea. That trip was not only great because we were 18 and on our own being adventurous and stupid, but it still allows me to take take credit for their marriage.

The irony of course was that in the early years of spring breaks, we usually would vacation to Atlanta. But it isn't about the location. It is about the variety. The adventure. The build-up. The friends. The relationships. What would this world be like if we continued spring break into adulthood? We all would decided in January to go somewhere, and for two months get pumped about the times shared.

For that, I am envious of my 3L friends who get one last chance before hitting the real world. Enjoy your last spring break my friends - vacation will never be the same again.

I am in Fort Wayne right now. One of my favorite things about going home is to catch up with friends I talk with occasionally on the phone, but see rarely. Lissa, myself, and another friend named Laura were set to meet at Buffalo Wild Wings. It turned out about half my graduating high school class showed up. But when Lissa walked in, all other conversation in my book ceased and the fun was about to start.

So you might be asking yourself, why is this girl so important? Do you have like a major thing for her? Not exactly. On paper, Lissa and I should be enemies. In our "Fox News" world, we should not be friends. We should have a TV show where we fight to the bitter death over just about any topic, accusing the other person of being anti-American and a horrible person¹. But there are few people I look forward to hanging out with more than Lissa. The night always seems to end too early.

Lissa is agnostic, liberal², cute, and smart. I am a Christian, conservative², ugly, and not-too-bright. But what I love about our relationship is that we have always had great respect for each other, and we have, with out actively trying, always abided by the rules of an article I came across on Cracked last week titled 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On. The basic gist of the article are these 10 points:

1. You Can Do Terrible Things in the Name of Either One
2. Both Sides Really Do Believe What They're Saying
3. In Everyday Life, You're Not That Different
4. There Are Good People on Both Sides
5. Your Point of View is Legitimately Offensive to Them
6. We Tend to Exaggerate About the Other Guy
7. We Tend to Exaggerate About Ourselves, Too
8. Focusing on Negative Examples Makes You Stupid
9. Both Sides Have Brought Good to the Table
10. You'll Never Harass the Other Side Out of Existence

I think all of these points are right on. The only exception being #3, and while I think it is true in reality, it is a sad thing about modern Christianity. I mean, take a couple of different social choices away, the fact I abandoned any desire to go to Law School, and our Sunday morning activities, and Lissa and I live pretty much the same life.

But think about how great this world would be if we approached all people we disagreed with using the above guidelines. Think how politics would look. Think how families would look. Think how relationships would be different. Think how more civilized this world would be. Think how much fun life would be. And both sides are just as guilty of continuing the hatred of the other.

This Christmas I received a present³ from Erik (creator of allenhuntshowsucks.com). I even opened it with my family around the tree with all my other presents (we joked about the fact it might have anthrax). But I sincerely enjoy Erik as a person. We don't agree on religion. But we have respect for one another, and our e-mails back and forth are a lot of fun.

My hope (which they know) is for Lissa and Erik to one day realize the fullness (I didn't say easy) of life found in a relationship with Jesus. But until then, I am thoroughly enjoying the fun times and journey together.

This past month I turned 25. I decided to spend it like I did most of my weekends this summer: down at the beach on Hilton Head Island. It was real low key - and if you know anything about me - that's the way I like my birthdays (isn't that right Patrick ;) ).

I originally sat down to write this while at the condo in Hilton Head, but I got distracted by a beautiful woman who still has 3 years to turn 25, hit save, and haven't touched it since. But I am glad I didn't because it wasn't until this past weekend that I knew what my point was with it, and here it is: I was never suppose to get this old.

This past weekend, Molly's parents and I dropped Molly off at Samford University for her to start her 4th and final year of college (I'll blog about that experience later). The ride home was really quite enjoyable as Molly's parents and I had some great conversation. As we were entering the greater Atlanta area, Molly's mom started talking about how weird it was to drop Molly off this weekend, and her younger sister a couple weekends earlier (actually the weekend I turned 25), and next year they are going to be dropping off their youngest. As we passed over 285 she made the comment, "I was never suppose to get this old." And after reflecting on this further this past week, I have to say that I think she is right.

I am not going to bore you with another discussion on why time proves there is a heaven. If you missed that, you can check it out here. But what I do think after putting some thought into this is how often life tells us exactly what we need to know, yet we ignore it. It is moments like these that God uses to remind us that something is seriously wrong with what we call life. Yet do we notice?

What happened to high school? Remember longing to get your driver's license? Or showing up for the football game to meet friends? Or getting ready for Prom? And then we moved on to college and how many of us woke up the day after graduation, looked in the mirror and just said in that subdued, quasi-depressed tone, "wow, it's over." And if you are reading this and are older than say 25, I am sure you are thinking, this kid doesn't even know the half of it; and you'd be right. I can't even imagine what it is like watching my kid grow up and go to college and start a life on their own and have their own kids just to start the process all over again.

Whether turning 25 or dropping your youngest kid off at college, it is only natural to feel as if something isn't right with the equation. We were suppose to live for eternity. We were created to live outside the bounds of time. But what do we do with that feeling? Do we just get depressed and long to have the moments back? Do we take the opposite approach and start freaking out and attempt to grab every single moment we can while driving everyone else around us nuts? Or do we simply cherish the moments we are currently having because we know they too will be short, but take solace in the idea that one day it will all be corrected? I am not sure how I am going to react, but I do hope these moments always draw me closer to - not further from - my God and my loved ones.

Last night, I received a text at about 11:32 pm from my friend Erin who is an Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels Strike Force Girl. The text was informing me of the important news that they recently got to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at the most recent Angels game and it was on YouTube. For those who care, here is the video, she is the one second from the left.



Now, when I think of Erin I think of one thing: Christmas (and the time she shot somebody in the face with the t-shirt gun at the ballpark, but mainly Christmas). Why do you ask? Because she is the only person I know who has a countdown to Christmas and starts singing Christmas songs in August.

I moved on and decided to unpause my Comcast DVR to watch The Colbert Report and what do I see.....Stephen Colbert in a Christmas hat. I know, weird. I thought it was a rerun. But alas, it wasn't. His point: the day before was June 25th, or halfway to Christmas.

Between Erin & Stephen it got me thinking about Christmas. It actually got me thinking about two things about Christmas: 1.) how much I hate the Christmas season, and 2.) how Jesus was actually probably born in June or July (due to the fact shepherds were out in the field which would fit more in the summer months not winter).

Andy, aren't you a Christian, how can you say you don't like Christmas? I have many reasons really. I think about the materialism associated with Christmas, and Jesus' anti-materialism message, and have to chuckle, if not cry a bit, thinking about the irony.

I also think about how what a facade Christmas has become. Think about it, people who never attend church, who don't really align themselves with Christian beliefs, always seem to "have" to make it to Church on Christmas? And as ministers, we cater to the seemingly American-ingrained nostalgia associated with Christmas and we wouldn't dream of not signing carolls, putting up trees and lights, etc... I always wondered why churches didn't approach Christmas like they do, well, June. Why doesn't Christmas look like this past Sunday?

My mother became a Christian my senior year of high school. I remember having a conversation with her later on that year and she was telling me one of the things she never realized is that Church wasn't like Christmas every Sunday (and that all the Bible wasn't just like Psalms). This had a profound impact on me as I started to wonder how many people think all there is to Christianity is signing Christmas Carols, worshiping a baby, and something about myrrh (what the heck is that anyways).

True Christianity doesn't get displayed at Christmas time. True Christianity is what happens in October, March, and yes, even June.

Well I know somewhere in the O.C., Erin is appalled at me. But at least in about a month it will be Christmas season for her. Which now that I think about it, she spends 5 months of her spiritual journey focusing on Christmas, so I don't really have a problem with her - its all the rest of us ;)

P.S. They sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" wrong. It is "root, root, root for the Cubbies." The only way to sing that song.

If I were to guess, I bet I am at 33,000 ft about halfway from Tokyo on my way to Okinawa. I spent two days in Tokyo with about 30 APU students I didn't know and one college professor I knew very well. Even though I don't/didn't know these students, all I can say is: it's good to be back.

A couple rows over some are having the same pretentious conversations I had in college (I think this one is about whether or not the British version of the The Office or the American version is more "legit"). I have to say, I miss this. Even if it slightly errors on the arrogant and pompous, it is this type of conversation I rarely have anymore. Conversation that for whatever reason seems to have the balance of the world at stake, but in reality has nothing at stake.

Somehow these conversations always got back to faith (don't ask my how). Whether it is the critique of U2 music in relation to racism in America, or the Simpson's take on a theological concept Karl Barth and C.S Lewis would disagree on: it was/is always meaningful.

My thoughts drift back to Atlanta and how very little of my conversation sounds like this, and it saddens me. Most conversations I have now are about Bulldog football (which never seems to migrate to faith; except when someone brings up how cute Mark Richt is and then someone else chimes in about how strong of a Christian he is).

There is a good chance I am going to do this trip every year (and maybe a trip to Indonesia and the Philippines as well) with APU students I won't know. Something tells me it will always fee a little like home.

I am now back in the States, but I am going to release the next couple of blogs about the experience a couple of days apart to allow all the opportunity to read. I will also have an entry summarizing the trip at the end.

Also, you can find photos here (more to come though)