Changes

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been very interesting lately. We are definitely in a giant transition time in our lives. We have working on simplifying things in our lives. Barb got some rough news health-wise and we are going to do all we can to get her R.A. under control. With that, this blog seems to more of a burden than a blessing at this point. We did have 2 blogs and no we are going to consolidate both of them into one new blog. The new blog can be found here. This will be more of a family-style site to update our family and friends all over the country on what is going on in the payne household and posting tons of pictures. It will not be a church/ministry site anymore. That area of interest is still very much a part of our lives, just not part of our blogging. This blog will disappear in about a week. Change your links/favorites/bloglines/etc. if you want to continue to peak into our lives. Thank you for your prayers. We appreciate them.

Mastering the Fork

This kid rocks!

Kidopolis Commercial

In the midst of all my work for "Treats. Period." I took time to throw together a quick commercial for Kidopolis. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it was fun to make. I used my neices and nephew as actors. They did a fine job.

PSA's

These videos are hilarious. Check them out now!

Church Beauty

I came across a really cool website called ChurchBeauty. They highlight "church websites that inspire." What is really cool is how they have the best church websites broken down by categories (clean, simple, color scheme, video, usability, well written, etc.).

I love checking out other church websites. I love seeing what other people are doing and how God is working in the lives of other churches. As big as web surfing is these days, I'm still suprised so many churches have the crappiest websites. My blog looks better than many of them and I stink at this stuff. I especially love checking out children's ministries. There are some cool ones out there and I'm going to try to highlight some of them soon.

Perhaps someday soon Catalyst will be added to ChurchBeauty.

Tech Help

Eric mentioned that my blog header is off center in browsers other than Internet Explorer. I didn't realize that until he said something. Anybody know how to fix it so that it is centered in Internet Explorer and other browsers? It took me forever to get it aligned for Internet Explorer so I don't want to screw it up!

My computer continues to drive me insane. It's not near as bad as it was, but there are little things that occur as a result of all the tweaking I have had to do to get it to work. One thing that is happening is with my Itunes. I open Itunes and the computer starts making tons of noise, the program uses up about 50% of the computers superpowers, and then it says it's "not responding". This totally stinks because I have new music to add to my Ipod, but can't because of this. Also, I can't charge my Ipod up for some reason.

Sometimes computers are dumb.

Treats. Period.

"Treats. Period." is this Sunday and I can't wait! This is the first big event we have done for kids at Catalyst. I'm am finishing working on a few things for the event. It's going to be good.

If you know anyone with kids who live in Portage County, take time to invite them to this event. One of our goals at Catalyst is to reach young families and this is a great way to do that. Invest in these families. If you are passing out candy this year, get some flyers and throw those in kids' bags too! Email me if you need some flyers.

If you are going to be at Catalyst on Sunday, then swing by a store and pick up a couple bags of candy. Since trick or treating in Kent is actually on Saturday, stores may have serious sales on candy by Sunday. Invest in these kids by getting them all "sugared up"!

Most of all, be in prayer for this event.

Celebration

Today is Barb's Birthday. She turns...well, I'm not saying, but it is one year older than me now! She is the most amazing woman and I cannot imagine sharing life with anyone else.

We also got some good news yesterday...

Barb found out she got the District Sub position she applied for...basically doing what she is doing now, but getting paid double. Not a bad deal!

We also found out that Barb's bro and sister in law are having a boy. That rocks! Boys seem to be taking over the world lately. I'm ok with that.

makeover

It was time for a little blog makeover. I've been meaning to do this for a while and things have just been too hectic lately. Actually, things haven't slowed down at all...I just decided to stay up way too late and get at least some of this done. It's almost 1:30am. Joshua will be up around 8am or so. I better get to bed soon.

I changed the name of my blog because I love my family and that is what my blog has evolved into...a blog about my family. That includes my family, extended family, and my church family. Also, perhaps my lovely wife will guest blog on occasion (if enough people comment about that) and I want to make this a place where she feels welcome to do so if she wants. And who knows...maybe Joshua will want to blog too. He was messing on the computer today, when we weren't looking, and he managed to open internet explorer so maybe he will be blogging soon. This kid is going to be much smarter than I am. I can totally see it.

I have some more tweaking to do with the template, adding more links, and a few more extra goodies I've been holding back. I also have a giant list of posts in my brain so look out for more frequent blogposts.

Umm...I'm tired. Have a good night...morning...whatever it is. Us morning people tend to ramble this late. Sorry.

The Nana Face

Joshua makes this hilarious face that is now referred to as "The Nana Face". It started out as a mimic of Nana when she would discipline him, but has grown into something he does for fun. We do the face to each other and he really can't keep a staright face too long anymore. I probably shouldn't think it is funny, but it cracks me up when he flashes this frown at strangers. They probably think he is a mean little guy, which is so far from the truth. The good thing, though, is last night we were out at a restaurant and the mall and he also likes to wave at people now. Which will Joshua give you...a friendly wave...or The Nana Face?

(The picture above doesn't even come close to capturing the complete essense of The Nana Face. It's the best we have captured so far.)

words

In a matter of a couple hours I heard
tons of new words from our son, Joshua. Among those words...

movie
mall (what can I say? We love going to the mall!)

and the best one of the night:
Joshie!

Here's a great picture of Joshua with his balloons from Red Robin. His cousin, Grace, got one, so not to be outdone, Joshua grabbed 3 from the bunch!

This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures of Joshua right now. He was just sitting on the couch, cuddling in a blanket. I love the stage he is in right now. It is probably one of the most challenging, but also the most rewarding. He is talking more than ever (mostly "NO"!). He dances, he sings, he runs around like a crazy man. He tried so hard to be bigger than he is. He is definitely a daddy's boy right now and I am eating it up.