Archive - January, 2009

Cinch Biggest Loser

January 19, 2009 in Shaklee with 0 Comments

Shaklee is sponsoring the Cinch Biggest Loser Challenge!

Here’s how it works:

Enter the challenge between January 1, and March 31st, 2009. Web-based entry form found on this website for offical rules and information.

Use the Cinch Inch loss plan to lose weight and inches and get healthier!

Submit before and after photos (really good ones) along with your Cinch success story (with total weight and inches lost) by June 30, 2009.

The biggest losers will share in $100,000 cash award, with $25,000 going to the grand prize winner, $10,000 each to the next 5 Biggest Losers, and $5,000 each to the next 5 Biggest Losers. Stay tuned for launch of the new website and more details.

For more information on Shaklee’s Cinch Inch loss program, click here

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I am not eligible to participate in this event but I am willing to help anyone who wants to participate. I have personally made a commitment to lose weight with Cinch this upcoming year. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Yeast Free Pizza Dough

January 18, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

It has become a tradition in our family to have a pizza/movie night on Friday night.  My family has a history of loving to cook, so I usually make my own pizza dough.   The other week I promised the kids that we would have pizza but realized that we did not have any yeast!!!!

Quickly I went to google and looked up yeast free pizza dough recipes.  I found some but I was not real excited about them.  Perhaps the inner gourmet that resides deep in my soul wanted to show himself. So I used the recipes on google as a base and I tried some different things with the recipe that I found and it seemed to be a hit.  So I tried it again this past Friday night and I got rave reviews.

The following is my take on the yeast free pizza dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon of sugar

2 Eggs

I basically put everything in my kitchen aid mixer and mixed it up!  It worked out really well!  I let it sit for about 15 min and then went to work.  Last night I had enough dough for a cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, bread sticks and a small BBQ hamburger pizza.  Let me know if you have try this or other yeast free pizza dough recipe.

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2009 is really fine

January 17, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I never imagined that life in ministry would ever be so busy, especially this time of the year.  I thought that after Christmas there would be a lull until Lent starts.  Boy was I wrong.

Amidst he business of ministry, family obligations, and whatever else comes up I am really excited about the prospects of the year.

First the prospects of ministry:

We have some new blood on the church council – and by new blood I mean people who have never served on the church council before.  Also there is new leadership — people who have never been in leadership on the council.  This is an exciting thing for me.  I love the ideas, I love the passion and I love the direction that we as a  church are headed.  One of my goals for the year is to establish a strong foundation.  Not only in the infrastructure of the church (getting committees to meet again, establishing strong communication between the council and the lay people, ect) but I would also like for our council to establish a strong foundation in the word of God.   It is through God that we are getting our strength and passion for ministry.

I am also about getting out into the community more and getting involved with different organizations within the community.  I recently joined the chamber of commerce and I want to be involved with that organization.

At St. Mark’s we have a Community room where we once had a nursery school program.    That stopped meeting in 2007 and now we are in conversation as to what to do with that space.  I want to see what the community need and I am excited about those possibilities.

Family:

This is going to be an exciting year for our family.  Our kids are going to be at an amazing age (5 and 2) this year.  They are the joy of my joys.  Also my wife and I are dedicated to get healthy and get fit and we are off to a good start.

We also are living in a great area where we can be active outside.  It is a little hard now because of the snow but we are excited overall.  We hope that we will find a place to live by the end of the year where we can stay in one place for a long time.

Finances are always a challenge but we are better off in that area than we ever have been and we are paying down debt and starting to get some savings.  I know by the end of the year we will have at least our credit cards paid off and we will be on the road to only really have student loan debt.  This is happening even faster with YNAB (for more information visit the link on in the sidebar).

I know there will be bumps in the road, there always are but I think this is the first time in my life when I have really looked forward to the upcoming year and I am confident that this will be a great year.

No love from AT&T

January 11, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Waaay back in 2003 a little company called AT&T took a chance on me.  They gave me a cell phone plan.  It was not the greatest plan but it worked for us.  We stuck with them through thick and thin.  In February 2004 AT&T took bids to buy the company and  Cingular won.  That was okay…..I guess….It really did not affect us at all, we actually got roll over minuets.  We were happy with it.  In 2007 the name of the cell phone company went back to AT&T.  Lots of the “extras” that Cingular gave us stayed with AT&T.

You don’t know how excited I was when I heard that AT&T was the exclusive carrier of the iphone.  It took me about a year to be able to get the iphone. Actually it was not until after the 3G came out tha I was able to buy the first generation from an ebay sale.

That was fine.  I did not mind not having the 3G speed – and the GPS feature that the 3G had.  It was not until I started having problems with my iphone that I started getting frustrated with AT&T.  I brought my phone in to see if it could get fixed and I had no luck.  I decided to upgrade.  I heard that since I was an iphone user that I could upgrade with no problems.  Well that is true if you got your iphone BEFORE the 3G came out…..even though I have been a customer of AT&T for the last 5 years!!!!!

I can’t sync my iphone with my computer which is frustrating, be even more frustrating is reading this article from engadget:

“Been holding on to that now-antique EDGE device to keep from extending your contract with AT&T? Well, if you’ve been experiencing some sluggishness — and not just general EDGE sluggishness, mind you — you might have more to blame than just those recent outages. Open for Business reports that AT&T has been quietly lowering EDGE signal strength to give more 3G love to all you iPhone 3G and Bold users. To add to the shadiness of the situation, AT&T reps are all offering up the same solution — buy a 3G device. Unsurprisingly, AT&T’s Mark Siegel has denied Open for Business’s claims, and says that the mega-carrier is not requiring anyone to switch to a 3G phone. We’ll put on our Sherlock Holmes outfits and try to do some digging, but it’s not like we actually expect these guys to admit to a move that would definitely lead to a lot of backlash.”

Not only is my phone not working, and I can’t get a break on the new 3G phone (only because mine is not working) but now they are basically ignoring the Edge network to spend more time on the 3G network.  That is understandable to some degree because that is the future.   HOWEVER there are a number of us still using edge and we need reliable phone service as well!!!

News like this almost makes me want to ditch AT&T and try out the new Palm Pre

For anyone who loves the Guitar as much as I do

January 6, 2009 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

One of the things I would love to do this year is to spend more time playing my guitar.  I can’t get much more inspiration than watching Andy Mckee.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Health Face book Style

January 1, 2009 in Shaklee with 0 Comments

In an attempt to take my new year’s resolutions seriously I am going to do the best I can to have a positive attitude.  We can put blame on so many people and things and events around us.  The only way that I can succeed is to believe that I can succeed.

There is a great article in Time that explains this way of thinking and the results that can happen from it.

Here is proof positive of our responsibility to ourselves and our fellow men/women learn and practice the art of happiness, regardless of circumstances. I think also this is why the positive, commited, enthusiastic and forward-looking Shaklee family is so attractive to us. Let me know what you think!

Looking back

January 1, 2009 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I would have to say that 2008 was a banner year for our family.

This year there was the culmination of my graduate studies which included my graduation from seminary.  We moved from our 2 bedroom apartment in PA to my parents house in VT to our current town home in NY.

I started my job as a pastor.

I was ordained as a Pastor.

And I think that my job as a Pastor has really taken over my life.  I love my job but I have yet to really pick up on some old hobbies that I use to really enjoy.

Health wise I have gone downhill – between my busy schedule of seminary, family, work and life – coupled with the fact of terrible seminary health insurance and my lack of motivation -  my health took a back seat.  Actually it never even made it into the car.  That is changing…..

Blog wise I posted  76 posts for this year.

Reading the many blogs I have in my Google Reader, I have read many “New Years Resolution” posts.  I think that I will post my own goals for the year.

Personally

Like many people in the USA I am going to resolve to get healthy and lose weight.  It is for no other reason than my body seems to be shutting down in some respects. I am not feeling well and I have too many health problems for a 30 year old.  I have gotten some serious wakeup calls. I would like to lose 50 pounds by this time next year.

I would like to have 100 quality blog posts this year.  I would also like to start podcasting and/or video blogging.

I would like to spend more time with my family one on one.   that means to have more date nights with my wife and personal play dates with my children.

I would like to pay down most of our debt and start a significant savings account.

Professionally

I would like to learn more what it means to be a pastor.

I would like to read one book a month on theology or practical pastoral leadershipSpend one day a month in prayer spiritual renewal

Spend 3-4 days in some kind of continuing education

There are 8 goals for the year ahead- four personal and four professional.  I think they are doable and they give me something to work towards.  I know there will be setbacks along the way but I am sure I can overcome them.