THE UNEXPLAINED

There are some things in life that you just can't explain. I realize that some things don't need to be explained to us and that's okay. But you should know that at any given moment, I am continuously rolling around in this over sized head of mine many of these "things" that are beyond explanation. Some are very deep and spiritual, some are not. But it's always something that really bugs me. This last winter, it was "Why is it that when it rains, thousands of earthworms come out of their comfy earthen homes and commit mass suicide on blacktop and concrete surfaces?" I have since found out the answer (thanks bro) and will share it with you at a later date (and it's not that they are drowning). I find that other people around me are also troubled by this nagging need to explain things. One such person is very upset by the fact that the "Dollar INN" motel chain does not cost a dollar a night but in fact cost many more dollars in exchange for one night of lodging. Why? I say all of this only to let you know that lately I have been perplexed by the following question: "Why do I have an almost irresistible craving for "Pal's" food? It really defies logic. I know that people in this part of the country have no idea what Pal's is so I have included a picture above. The picture says it all. In northeast Tennessee, there are Pal's Sudden Service restaurants everywhere. I think that I have been to most but the question remains; what is it about Pal's that attracts me so? Is it the stylish exterior of the establishment? Is it the "frenchy fries"? Is it the huge sweet iced tea for $0.79 or is it the "Sauce Burger" (taste and you will understand)? The answer is....I don't know. What I do know is that I MUST find out. So in the interest of science and goodwill to all mankind, I can think of only one way to explain this one mystery of many....ROAD TRIP. Yes, in the interest of science, me and my highly trained team of experts are going straight to the source. We're going to Pal's. We will be leaving soon for a no nonsense trip to northeast Tennessee for the sole purpose of eating at Pal's. So that our report will be unbiased, we are not going for any other reason. We will drive there (5hours), eat at Pal's, and return in hopes of answering the unexplained. Again, I do this for the sole purpose of answering the unexplained and the good of all mankind everywhere. Our team will report our findings in a future post.

TOO MANY GIANT PIXIE STICKS....I THINK

I'm not sure what caused it. I usually don't dream too much. It could have been a case of "March Madness" (I'm out of control, just ask Julie) or it could have been that my dinner last night consisted of Coke Zero and giant pixie sticks (one of my youth sponsors gave them to me, they are nearly three feet long). Either case, I had a wild dream last night. In my dream I was seven or eight years old. My whole family was there (Mom, Dad,Brother,Sister,Sister). It was Saturday morning and we were doing what we always did on saturday morning. My mom was making pancakes (I woke up smelling them this morning, wierd), my dad was drinking coffee and reading something, and my siblings and I were fighting over whose day it was to pick what shows to watch (Big family. No cable. We had a schedule). My brother wanted to watch Superfiends, I wanted to watch Buggs Bunny, and I don't really remember what my older sister wanted to watch but I think it was like an after school special or something like that. We ended up watching "The Uncle Al Show" (as pictured above). Some of you will not know what I am talking about but hang in there. I was doing the twist, going down in the cave to see the wizard, and all the other Uncle Al stuff right along with the kids on TV. This dream was so realistic I even remember the Uncle Al prayer song,"I love you God for this my day, I love You in my work and play, I think of You in every way, thank you God for this my day, thank you God for this my day.. Amen". Sounds very warm and fuzzy, right? It was until it got really wierd. Let me explain. On the Uncle Al show, Uncle Al had a dog named Pal. It was basically a dude in a dog suit. So in my dream Uncle Al suddenly get's in a fight with Pal. Al is going crazy and rips the dog's head off. (Sidenote: This is where things get really crazy but this is truly my dream last night) So the fake, big, dog head falls of the dude playing "Pal" and the actor guy turns around and I see the face of the actor as being someone very familiar. It is Brad Estep!! THEN, Brad, Uncle Al, Captain Windy, Lucky the Clown, and all of the kids on the show turn around toward the camera and say/sing, "Hey Dan! You are beautiful my sweet sweet song". In my dream, my whole family starts laughing and telling me how Brad really got me that time. Then...it was over. I woke up in a cold sweat smelling pancakes and wondering to myself about my own sanity. So "march madness" or giant pixie sticks I don't really know. What I DO know is that I will never eat giant pixie sticks, on a spring forward weekend, during march madness ever again. Lesson Learned.

COMING SOON TO IMPACT

Believe 2007

MR. CONFUSED

EVERY MORNING

COMING SOON TO IMPACT AT LCC!!!

LONG TIME....NO BLOG

Wow! Has it really been such a long time since I posted? So...what has been going on with me? Well it seems that Christmas is quickly approaching. I must say, I am am absolutley burnt out on Christmas music. I think that it is primarily because I start hearing Christmas music in the office literally around September (I won't mention the name of who does that). Soon after that, I start caroling group practice followed by the kids starting Christmas choir followed by worship band Christmas music practice followed by five weeks of Christmas music in worship. Basically, I'm done. No more Christmas music. So, on to other subjects. This saturday, i'm heading up to Chicago to pick up hosehead. It will be nice to see him and catch up on what's going on. I'm dubbing this trip the "Brad and Dan's Holiday Home Run". It should be good times. I hope that the greasy hot dog stand is open at 9:00am when I get there. Well enough of this foolishness. I need to get back to work. PURE 2007 is coming up very fast (see www.lovedtolove.org for info and registration) and there is much more to be done.

Merry Christmas,
Dan

You Better Watch Out!

PURE 2007

PURE 2007

PURE 2007

January 12th-13th 2007

Loveland Christian Church

PIANO

I know that God has blessed us all with different talents. Things that we are all obviously gifted at doing. Some people can juggle, some can walk on their hands, some people can write poetry, some people can fart on command (yes, I know someone that can do it and yes it is a talent), some people can memorize entire books in just a few seconds, and still others can...play the piano. That last one is the one that really bothers me. You see, I would consider myself moderately musically talented. I really enjoy music of all kinds. I play a little guitar, I can tell when people are off key, and I can sing the first line of literally hundreds (if not thousands) of songs. Wierd huh? But I would gladly trade any of that talent or any other talent that I have, to be able to play the piano. It has always been a dream of mine to sit down at a piano and just start playing or to go into a music store at the mall and just amaze everyone around at my piano playing ability. The fact of the matter remains, however, that I just am not made to play piano. I guess my first problem is that I can't even read music (not even every good boy does fine). All those...notes are just are too confusing. I do have friends that play the piano and I ask them what the secret is, they simply say, "I have taken piano lessons since I was six". Well guess what, I'm not six and I would hate to spend the next 20 or 30 years taking lessons just to be able to play Mary Had a Little Lamb. So here I am. Waiting for some kind of miracle cure to come along that can make me play the piano (without lessons or practice of course). I only write this because I believe that there is someone out there that can tell me how to play the piano but without all of the work. There has to be some "secret weapon" that very few people know about. I want to play the piano. Someone...please show me the way.

Fall...STINKS

Fall...STINKS! Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for the cool clear weather, trick or treating, footbal games, hay rides, and trips to the apple farm (Rouster's Cider on 132 is the best). Those things are cool to me. But the fact of the matter remains that fall (also known as autumn), is the time of the year from late september to late December in which deciduous plants in the northern hemisphere drop their leaves. You see, I hate raking leaves. It may not seem like a big deal to you but you must understand where I live. I live in a subdivision known as "Paxton Woods" (if someone reading this is stalking me and is happy to now know where I live, that's ok, just bring a rake when you come). They didn't name it "Paxton Woods" for no reason. At last count I have about 32 deciduous trees in my relatively small back yard. What it boils down to is that for the next few weeks my life will revolve around removing those leaves. Again, you might say" just leave them there". If only it were that easy. Leaves left unremoved will clog gutters, destroy my pool cover, kill the grass (that might not be a bad thing), and rot our wooden deck. In other words, cause big problems. While some may look at fall with fondness over warm and fuzzy past fall memories, I think...FALL STINKS!!!

A Morning At The Pole

The morning started early for me today. I got up at 5:50am to start this awesome day. Why so awesome? It's because today was national "See you at the Pole" day. It is the day of the year where students around the United States join together before classes and pray (often around the flag pole) for their school, their friends, and each other. It is truly an awesome sight to see so many students circled up and praying even through the hustle and bustle of the arrival of others and even some rude comments. I started this morning at home praying for all of our students at LCC that would be participating in this student led event. Then, I hit the road. My first stop was Loveland High School and then it was off to Kings. I have tried to be around a couple of schools each year to simply support them in my own prayer while they are in prayer. I must say that it is very emotional time. To see all of these students (without any adult guidance) just....praying. It fills me with a sense of encouragement to whitness this event. It doesn't seem to matter the type of church that they come from or even it they attend a church at all, everyone is welcome to join the group and unite in prayer. But today, I also was filled with a sense of...guilt. You see, being an adult, I am supposed to have it all together, to lead the way spiritually to those who will come after me. Today, I had to ask myself, Would I have the guts to participate in such a public display of my faith at... Meijers, or Home Depot, or even a Reds game? Adults are often very comfortable displaying our faith...on Sundays (if in the right building) but are we living our faith out for all the world to see? This morning, instead of being a person that tries to help lead students to a relationship with Jesus Christ...I was the one being led.

Pictures Mentioned In Previous Blog

Left: Sign that made Brad Mad
Below: Candy Factory
Lower Left: Brad's Great Timing
Lower Left: The Windy City
Bottom Left: Brad's New Home

Chicago

Well I guess I should saya a few words about "Brad and Dan's Excellent Chicago Adventure". I think that you all can imagine what being in a little car with Brad for about seven hours (yes we took the scenic route)was like. Mostly it was one studid comment after another followed by laughter folled by flatulets (I'm not quite sure the spelling is right on that word but I can't say fart's here because I think that my mother reads this) followed by video followed by side trips followed by eating followed by laughter followed by...I think that you get the picture. Brad also likes to take pictures of bill boards although most of the pictures that I have are of the mirror of the car, his seatbelt or his shoes (his timing isn't that great). One bill board actually made him kind of angry. He saw one for "Dollar INN" and the price per night was $26.95. He feels like he has a good court case to sue for misrepresentation in advertising (you know, is it one dollar or 26.95?). We also took a side trip to "The Candy Factory". It was pretty cool. They had a 30 foot tall chocolate waterfall and all kinds of wierd candy like a plastic nose that you wear on your face and candy comes out of the nostrils (I bought one of course)and even a 4 inch jaw breaker (I bought on of them as well). All in all the trip lived up to our high standards. Chicago was...huge! I didn't realize how dinky Cincinnati is. I think that Brad is adjusting well. I will try to keep you all posted on his activities. I have included some pictues from our trip as well as well as one picture of Brad's new "home away from home". Please be sure to keep him in you prayers as well as the people that have to live with him for a year.

I thought that he was gone.

It has been a roller coaster weekend for me emotionally. You see, I have a great family and I love everyone that resides in our home dearly...except one. The story of my relationship with this particular family member is very...complicated. It started out great. I can still remember my wife and I bringing him home in the car. He was so tiny, so innocent, so...cute. It was probably against the law but my wife even held him in her arms all of the way home. As he grew, I would take him everywhere with me. People always stopped and talked to us while we were out and ALWAYS commented on how cute he was. We went on like that for several years but soon after things started to to go terribly wrong. I don't know if it was him or me but things started to change. His behavior became inexcusable. He stopped listening to me, he would be out playing and wouldn't come in for dinner, and his personal hygene problems became an issue. So I decided that drastic measures needed to be taken. I needed to find someone to adopt him before I lost it, before I became violent. We had several different people express interest in him from time to time but no takers. This past weekend, however, I had the perfect candidate who was very interested. I thought I had a deal. I would offer this person $100.00 to take this "problem child" off of my hands. It may seem wrong to you but I felt so excited to get rid of this "thorn" in the side of my family. Things were going well with the negotiations and the candidate left me with a feeling that this deal would be done. I was running around like a crazy man. I bought some toys for his car ride to his new home, gave him a bath, and even brushed his teeth. I gathered his belongings in a bag and had him ready to go and then I waited....and waited....and waited. That is when the roller coaster headed down hill. I soon began to realize that my candidate was not coming back. That I would be forever stuck with this...problem. So after the up's and down's of this weekend, I am left with thoughts of what could have been and I'm still left with this... problem "child". Of course I am talking about my pain in the butt dog, Toby. Although he now smells much better, I thought that he was gone.

It's Always Me

+ DAN'S HEAD = OUCH!

My Boss....Kaitlin

If you would ask me if I would consider myself the "head" of my household, I would say...yes(along with my wife of course). Most of the time I try to be the one that has the final say in family matters, that uses the authority that God has given me to help our family in the best way possible. That is all fine and dandy but there is one person who is moving in on my territory...Kaitlin. I have this daughter (who is only two years old) that has thrown the whole chain of command into disarray. The girl has this power over me that leaves me wondering exactly who's the boss. I have come to the conclusion that it is not me, it's her. I have two other children (both boys), that understand their place in our family. They know the rules and follow them... most ot the time. Kaitlin on the other hand, lives to a different set of rules... her rules. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how she does it. This tiny, cute, innocent little girl simply makes me do whatever she wants. If she wants to read a book fifty times in a row, I do it. If she wants me to hold ten of her dolls at once, I do it. If she wants me to get her five different snacks at once (only to eat a single bite of one of them), no problem. Why is she so different? What is this power that she has? I just don't understand it. Where have I gone wrong? A TWO YEAR OLD IS RUNNING MY LIFE! Maybe there is some kind of support group for this kind of problem. Maybe there is still hope that I can regain my position in our family...probably not... at least for about sixteen more years.

Sincerely,
Kaitlin's Personal Assistant

I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart?

As I read back through some of my previous post, I have noticed something. It seems that I tend to go on and on about my troubles. I go on about how crazy things happen in my life and how things sometimes seem to go wrong. I go on and on about going on and on. So today I am taking a day off of complaining and self pity. Today (and hopefully from here on out), I am going to take ten minutes each day to simply be joyful (and thankful) about my life and the things that God has done in my life. I did my first ten minutes this morning and it was awesome.

Here's the deal, too often I (maybe you, maybe not you), spend a ton of time telling everone who is in ear shot about what a mess my life is and about the latest cotastrophe at the Ponchot house. Truth is, bad things do happen but how it affects us is what's important. Does it throw us into some kind of depression, a week of feeling sorry for ourselves, an ice cream eating frenzy, or do we simply see it as part of living this life on earth and that our troubles really pale in comparison to the good things in our life. Where is our joy? Where is my joy?

This morning in my Bible study I looked at a passage in 1 Peter 1:3ish (message)-"What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven-and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The day is coming when you'll have it all, a life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine." Why is it that some christians are so negative about life when christians should in reality be the happiest people on the planet? We have this defeatest attitude like we are always under the gun and that we are these "poor little Christians". We forget who won the battle. Jesus took care of that a long time ago. I think that what it boils down to (at least for me) is that I sometimes misplace my joy . I simply lose it. I put too much thought into my every day, messy, life when I should be jumping for joy at what God has done for me. I am going to make every effort to keep the ten minute thing going. I think I'm going to like being happy more.
d.e.p.