So there’s this expectation most people have when they relocate their family to a totally different part of the country for a job.  They expect to be there for a while.  “A while” is such a relative term, but for most of us “a while” is defined by something more than 8 months.

Vanessa and I definitely had no intention of moving back to Tennessee a short 8 months after relocating to Iowa, but as we now know that’s exactly how long our time in Iowa lasted.  As we put our house on the market and packed up all of our belongings to move to Iowa we definitely had every intention of putting down roots and building a great worship ministry at Grace.  We were excited about the opportunities that were ahead of us in Iowa City and all of the great things that would happen in our new home.

We were pumped about the idea of developing new friendships and relationships that would surely last a lifetime.  We were enjoying sweet corn and awesome locally raised beef, a mild summer, the idea of being a short 4 hours from Wrigley Field (well, that was mostly me, but Vanessa does enjoy Chicago), and overall just the idea of new adventures.  We even enjoyed the massive amounts of snow and learning that the term “blizzard” actually does refer to specific parameters of snow and wind, not just a lot of snow.

We met great people, were part of a solid church, and we lived in a good community.  I had a coffee shop less than a mile from the house (you know that’s important).  We were making every attempt to make North Liberty and Iowa City home, but it never quite clicked.  Something never seemed quite right, and over the course of a few months it became apparent that our stay in Iowa City would not be permanent.  Still, we never though it would only be 8 months.

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Well, I’ve neglected the blog as I’ve made the move from Tennessee to Iowa.  This week, the blog resumes with Wordless Wednesday.  Feel free to comment.  The best caption (determined by your “thumbs-up” votes) gets recognized Friday at noon.

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I’ve made lots of new friends in the last couple of months with the move to Iowa. For those of you who have known me for a while I apologize if you’ve seen this before. For those of you I have just met, I apologize that you’re seeing this now. This is my old band, Plaid, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto opening for Audio Adrenaline 10 years ago. I was 19 and dumb and loved to make weird faces while playing and loved to dye my hair. Somehow Vanessa stayed with me anyway and ended up marrying me – Thank God! I had lots of good experiences with the band and a ton of fun playing on the road. Now I get lots of good laughs looking back on it. Anyway, enjoy. Now you’ll know a little bit more about my past so you can see where some of the crazy ideas I have come from:

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For all 5 of you who read this blog (Hi, Mom!), we have some big news:

Yesterday I accepted a position as the Director of Worship at Grace Community Church in North Liberty, IA. My first Sunday at Grace is May 31st, and after a couple of weeks of “back-and-forth” we should be completely relocated in mid-June. We will then be diving into the world of northern accents (they may not know it, but Iowans sound more like Minnesotans/Canadians than Midwesterners), corn (the church is right next to a corn field), Chipotle (big fan of Chipotle – it’s like Moe’s or Blue Coast but better), and actual snow (they actually know how to handle snow – crazy for us Southerners).

Among the many things we’re excited about we’re especially excited that Vanessa will get to stay home with the kids (we don’t have any other kids yet, but hopefully they will come soon). We feel for us that it is very important for her to be able to spend more time with our kids, especially in their extremely formative years before they start school.

Being at Grace will be a great opportunity for us to partner with what God is already doing there. The church has experienced explosive growth the past few years and I will actually be the first full-time Director of Worship they have had. It will be exciting to see this church continue to grow and to see how we can help to continue to develop the worship ministry.

We’re definitely going to miss the people at Harvest View and others we’ve grown to love here in Tennessee, but we feel that this is the best move for our family at this point in our lives. Be sure to follow this website/blog, Vanessa’s blog, my twitter, and our facebook pages to keep up with us and our transition to the land of the Hawkeyes!

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We are having a HUGE yard sale for the next two days (Friday, the 24th and Saturday, the 25th) to help raise money for our adoption fund. Be sure to check out our Craigslist posting for more info.

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Following the tornado damage caused yesterday in Murfreesboro, 180 Degrees Ministries and Journey Pointe are teaming up to host AFTER THE STORM: Tornado Relief Event. This will be a night of worship and will feature highlights of a few different ways you can contribute to storm relief as well as a love offering from which all proceeds will go toward storm relief.

This event will begin at 7:00 pm on Friday, April 17th at Journey Pointe, which is located at 1267 Middle Tennessee Blvd in Murfreesboro.

The event will be led by my good friend Allen Morrell along with many other musicians from the Murfreesboro area (including me) with some encouraging words shared by Steve Austin.

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My mom with, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and a monkey.”

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For Wordless Wednesday this week, a picture of my daughter and her stunning fashion sense. Post your own caption. Vote for your favorite caption with a “thumbs-up.” The caption with the most votes at noon Friday wins a piece of my past (a Plaid CD made in the late 90′s).

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