Random pics from vacation

Good times had by all!

The Aftermath

Both our kids got shots today. They each got four to be exact. I had to hold Zeke down straight jacket style...it wasn't fun. We hate giving our kids shots but they won't let Zeke into Kindergarten without them. These are pics at our house at 6pm tonight. It was a long day for our little ones.

Good times

After my 45 minute walk this morning I thought it would be a good idea to go out and play hours of ultimate frisbee tonight. One problem...I built up some crazy chaffing this morning because I never walk that long...couple that with running after a frisbee till I can't breath and you got the perfect recipe for a guy who now walks around like he's been riding a horse for 2 1/2 months on a sandpaper saddle...too much information...sorry...the best blogs always involve details...are babies the only ones that can use diaper rash cream? Just wondering.
Until next week...

God cares about my health

So yesterday I decide to get serious about getting back in shape. This morning I wake up to an alarm...go outside for a walk...have no idea where to go...turn left out of my house....then right...seven minutes of walking through new housing development...stumble upon Clover Creek preserve (a beautiful 30 minute paved walk through a huge clearing and around a couple ponds)...I love being out in nature when I hang with God on walks.
As I was coming back to my house I just thanked God for caring enough about my health to give me a sweet place to walk and meet with him that is right around the corner from my house. Sometimes you need some sweet incentive like that when you're starting back into a routine. God is good...my legs are burning.

The notebook of shame is back

I have officially gained back more than half of the 55 pounds I lost a year ago...sucks.
The notebook of shame is back. I write down everything I eat and every time I exercise in this bad boy. This is the only way I stay disciplined with what I eat...call me weak but it works. No crazy gimmicks, no detox cleansing, just good old fashioned smaller portions. It's a novel idea but when you don't eat like a horse you can stay at a healthy weight.
175 by the end of summer is the goal. If I don't reach that goal I give everyone in the blog world permission to come up to me at will and slap me. If you don't live close feel free to berate me over the internet or hurl insults at me with reckless abandon.

What kind of idiot forgets Mothers Day?

Oh wait...that's me!
Sucks.
Alyssa just reminded me.
Gotta go.
I've got some makin' up to do.
If you're reading this and you forgot but you haven't been caught yet...there's still time...do something nice for your wife or mom.

Made it back!

Last night was great. Bunch of friends a the Spaghetti Factory...money! Came home...packed...took off this morning...kids did awesome on the plane...drove to Redding...suckiest drive on earth...made it. We're back!
Thanks to our families and friends that made vacation awesome. Love ya'll!

Best Office moment of the week

Andy taking the golf cart and flying into the sand trap...classic!
The blisters on his hands were pretty funny too.

Last night in the time share

This vacation has been awesome.
Great times with my wife, my kids, friends and family.
Tons of rest.
Lots of great food.
Lots of reading.
4 movies in 4 days.
And I bought a new hat today. Life is good.
You become a hat guy when you're bald and you live in a place that gets up to 187 degrees in the summer. I'm preparing myself.
We'll be back for the Stirring this Sunday!

Things you only see in Newport Beach

Today at Fashion Island we saw a woman with a Maltese dog strapped to her chest in one of the baby sling backpack things that you throw your kids in...unbelievable. I'm so mad I didn't have my camera. Last time I checked dogs like going for walks and not being strapped to people...only in Newport.
This place cracks me up. I can't look in any direction without seeing a Mercedes, Land Rover, or Hummer. I'm pretty sure my Echo wouldn't feel at home here. We are definitely a little out of our element. It's nice to visit but I could not survive down here.

Justice in the Burbs

Just finished this book...really enjoyed it.
I like how it was set up.
It was written by a married couple. They share a personal story about their journey to living justly...then they give you some application to how this can work out in your context...then they have some third party contributers offer a meditation based on the chapter.
Here's the benediction at the end of the book:
May the God of peace, justice, and hope lead you on the pathways of mercy and compassion. May you have the heart of God, the eyes of Jesus, and the leading of the Spirit as you seek to join with the work of those who have gone before you. and may you grow in grace.
That's my prayer for all you RevRock readers today.
Shalom

Alone with the wife

I love my kids...but I LOVE my wife! Today is the first day that we got to spend just the two of us at the beach. It was amazing. It's been a long time since it's been just the two of us for the day. The only weird part was how quiet it was. No one repeatedly asking us the same questions or grunting and doing sign language for "i'm hungry." Here was the itinerary for the day:
Sleep in
Chill
Lunch
Chill
2 hour nap
Yard House
Black and Tan
Movie
Starbucks
Chill
The perfect day

100 days to go till Moses shows up

creepy floating baby says so. What the heck...i'm gonna be the father of three...still hasn't set in.

Vacation is on!!!

we made it.
I've already taken a nap
played a round on golf
watched some playoff basketball
eaten at Sub Station (chilled with Sam and Mike)
saw my life group homies over coffee
spent time with family
chilled in a timeshare (thanks moms and pops) with three flat screens...totally necessary
shopped at TJ and eaten some sushi
tomorrow the beach!

Leaving in 6 hours

Long day
up at 6:30
prayer at 7:00
happy birthday song to Zeke at 8:00
oil change...coffee...meetings....food...meetings...emails...phone...pick paint colors...till 5:00
home...take kids out of Alyssa's hair for 1/2 hour...pick up food for Alyssa
6:00 Advisory team meeting at El Mariachi's
9:00 home to clean house...get everything ready for vacation...pack
10:30...blog
10:45...bed
5:00...get up
6:00...head to Sac
10:30...get on plane
noon...lunch in Riverside
VACATION!!!

I still remember...

...the first day I saw you in the hospital and you weighed 2 pounds 11 onces.
I remember holding your hand through an incubator and knowing that you were going to be my son.
I remember the interview with your birth mom telling her that we would love you every single day of your life.
I remember the phone call when she told us that she chose us to be your parents.
I remember bringing you home with an oxygen tank and a heart monitor.
I remember the colic and sleepless nights.
I remember you being the answer to hundreds of prayers from your mom and me.
I remember it all Zeke.
I can't believe you're turning 5.
I have loved you every second of your life.
It hasn't been easy but I think easy is over rated.
You are going to be a warrior in the kingdom of God.
Jesus has had his hand on your life from the day you could bring air into those little lungs.
Look at you now Zeke. I am so proud of the little man you are becoming.
I pray you become twice the man of God that you see in your daddy.
I love you so much Ezekiel Thomas Bono Lance.
Happy Birthday buddy!

Random shot coming home from the conference

This was like 2am and we were absolutely delirious. At least the gas was cheap!

Who do I have to know...

...to get seats at an event next to the Dali Lama? It looks like Rob Bell is just chillin' there with the Lama at a Lakers game. Thanks for the pic Ian. Random!

Craziness before the calm

Quick note...Stirring was awesome tonight. I love that we are talking about spiritual gifts within the context of love and family. "We're different on purpose." Got to pray with a bunch of people tonight...we have a really great family!
Back to the craziness...we leave Thursday for vacation. We are spending a couple days with friends and family in Riverside then we are headed to Newport with no kids for a couple days...praise Jesus!
Why is it that everything in the whole world has to get done the few days before you leave for vacation? You work twice as hard before you leave, which means you're twice as tired when you actually get to rest. Oh well...I can't wait to relax with friends and family. If you haven't taken a vacation this year and you aren't planning on it...shame on you! Nate will get mad at me for shaming people but we all need a break. God designed us for work and rest. Plan something...put it on the calendar right now...guard that time with your life...it will give you life in return.
Can't wait!

Graduations

So I sat out in the sun today with my family and watched the seniors at Simpson graduate. There were three students that all came through The Grove youth group that graduated today. Tyler, Holly, and Daniel. We were also there to see our friend Trisha graduate with her masters...you go girl!
Graduations crack me up. Old people singing weird songs...choirs...outside speaker that comes in a throws out one last don't do drugs and make sure you got good friends speech.
Seriously...Is that the best we can do? Did these students spend TONS of money and four years in classes to dress up in robes and weird hats and have someone make sure they have everything checked off on their Christian checklist? (pretty sure that was a run on sentence)
Why can't someone get up there and challenge these students to change the world by loving God and each other and the world and the least? What about the emphasis that Simpson is supposed to be about...go into all the world and make disciples. Make God's kingdom a reality in Redding and the ends of the earth. Seems like the easiest platform in the world to inspire some folk. But instead they got one last play it safe speech...bummer.
Sorry for the soapbox...if any graduates are reading my blog...go out and change the world...there are a ton of people in your city that need to know Jesus. Love people in such crazy ways that the world is forced to take notice. Don't play it safe...break all the rules...don't do it the way it's always been done...we believe in you.
Congratulations!

N.T. Wright interview

I found this N.T. Wright interview on someone's blog. Lots of cool content. This is the list of issues he covers in the interview.

1. On Being Compared to C.S. Lewis
2. On Eschatology Leading to Action
3. On Mark Dever’s critique of Wright’s notion of a “public gospel”
4. On Avoiding the Errors of the Social Gospel
5. On the Importance of the Ascension
6. On Hell
7. On Purgatory
8. On Doug Wilson and Third World Debt
9. On John Piper’s Future of Justification

It's enough to explode your mind this week! Your welcome.

What the heck?!??!!

Why did God give us the cutest kids on the planet?

Almost home

We're in the terminal waiting to come home. Can't wait to be home and see my family. I gave a little update from our trip here.

Church plants, sun, food, hot tub, 2:40am

Sat in the sun for 1/2 hour today. Don't know if you can tell but my forehead is on fire. The download of information today was out of hand. So much good stuff...so many good talks...my brain hurts. Had dinner with Nate, Bill, Jill and Tim and talked about great stuff. We laughed till my face hurt. Our hot tub at the hotel is 127 degrees...I no longer posses the first layer of my skin. Last night we went to bed at 2:40am...we planned out stuff for the Stirring for the next year...good times. I'm gonna try to get some sleep tonight.

32 in Orlando

I turned 32 yesterday on a plane flying from Sacramento to Orlando. I had dinner with Nate, our church planting coach and his wife at BJ's. Weird. Got a free pazzoki...word.
Kind of weird not being around family. I had some family and friends call me but it was still kind of weird. I remembered that it was my birthday as Nate and I were driving to the airport. I guess Birthday's become less of a deal as you get old.
All I know is Jesus was crucified when he was 33 so I got some serious work ahead of me this year. I love my life, my family, my friends, my church. Getting old is cool. I'm stoked about this year. Sucky thing is that I threw my back out getting out of bed yesterday...that can't be a good sign.
Conference has been great...I'll blog later on that. Hot tubbin' time!

Orlando here I come

I'm takin' off tonight after the Stirring. Nate and I are headed down to Sacramento to stay with his parents tonight. We get up early for a flight to Orlando. Four days out there for the Exponential Church Conference. It's focused on church planting and it should be really cool. I'm looking forward to hearing from Alan Hirsch. Some people hooked us up to go so I'm stoked. I will try to blog while I'm gone but I have no clue what my internet situation will be like. Have a great week!

Sunday is groomin' day

Being bald is awesome! I haven't really had hair in a photo since our wedding pictures.
I am in a constant battle to make my life more simple. For years I've shaved every other day or every three or four days. But I have found that I can get away with shaving my head once a week now. I will usually shave the neck once or twice through the week but Sunday is grooming day. I have everything boiled down to about 15 minutes once a week...amazing!
Here's the routine:
1. Trim bottom of the beard with #2 extension
2. Trim sides of beard and mustache with #1 extension
3. Trim from bottom of the ear to middle of the ear with no extension, higher setting
4. Trim from middle of the ear to top of the ear with no extension, lower setting (makes for the perfect transition to the baldness)
5. Shave the head
6. Shave the neck
7. Newly added to the routine. Trim the arm hair with clippers...no extension. (This is not in attempt to highlight my guns...it's because my arm hair is out of control and there is a forest on my left arm that makes it impossible to see my tattoos. Then if I leave the forest on the right arm it looks crazy...hence...it all comes off.)
8. Periodically thrown into the mix...cut down the 3 inch stragglers that sprout from my shoulders.

And that's all folks. 15 minutes every Sunday morning. The life of a bald man. Don't be jealous.

Is your grooming process simple or crazy?

Side note: quite possibly the most random post ever on RevRock

13 minutes and 30 seconds...

till Alyssa pulls in the driveway. I'm not anxious or anything. To everyone in the world that pulls off the single parent thing...I salute you...you've got one crazy job! Have a great Saturday.
Oh and by the way...the dog pooped in the house again last night and peed on a couple of my friends when they came over to play poker...I found out that one swift kick + low backyard fence = less problems in my life!
Just kidding...don't call PITA on me...but seriously...I thought about it.

My dogs poop is allergic to...

...CEMENT!!! Ever since we have finished our back yard with cement my dog has been pooping in the house...what the heck??!!? She never poops in the house but apparently she doesn't feel comfortable dropping a loaf on hard surfaces...she prefers carpet...unbelievable. Any suggestions besides torture and repeated kicking? I'm saving those techniques for the next time.

Two days without the wiffy

Alyssa just took off to spend a couple days with her closest friend Annette. They are meeting halfway between our two homes (Santa Cruz and Redding) for a girls retreat away from hubbies and kiddies. Alyssa is the hardest workin' momma on the planet and honestly I can never give her enough of these little times away to recharge. She is an amazing, sexy, big bellied woman and I am the luckiest dude on the planet!
Have a blast babe...I love you!

Instant backyard

This is what I've been doin' the last couple days. Yesterday T.J., Brent and I brought in a ton of fill dirt with wheelbarrows to get ready for the cement. Today...instant backyard! Bring on the BBQ's.

Carry weight

I just got done speaking at the Stirring tonight. We're talking about the family that God has in mind and what it looks like to grow and mature in that family. I proposed that as we grow we contribute and we start to carry weight. I'm pretty sure I surpassed the normal quota of times you can say poop in a sermon. Oh well...poop is always awesome material! Tonight was a lot of fun and also super intense at times. Sometimes I struggle to find the filter when I share...it comes out pretty raw...hence the poop stories.
I'm gonna start getting some really weird traffic coming through my blog. In my last few posts I've mentioned afterbirth, Joel Osteen and poop.
Can you tell I'm tired? I think I'm gonna sleep till Tuesday. We reached 30,000...Yippee!

Who's gonna be number 30,000?

only 60 more visitors till we hit 30,000 on ol' RevRock. What the heck?!!? I'm like Joel Osteen...well maybe not...more like Rick Warren...yeah...me and Ricky...two peas in a supersized pod!

Creepy eye piece

Did anyone see the piece that Alyssa and I put together with all the shots of people's eyes for Erase the Dark? This is a picture of my daughters eyes. They were not easy to capture...she is constantly moving. I'm not much of an artist but I love to create things and it was a lot of fun to pull this off with my wife. She had two pieces of photography that sold last night...they were both amazing. This was my favorite...

Isn't she awesome?

That wine has an oaky afterbirth

I finally got to watch the first episode back of The Office...amazing!

One crazy night!!!

450+ people in a gym
6 amazing musicians
6 great films
100+ pieces of art
The best food even eaten
$5500 total raised for Cypress Elementary and Eagles Soar after school program
Our first Erase the Dark music, art, and film festival was a huge success.
Thanks to everyone that made it happen!

John's story

We shared this video the second night of our "We are family" series...powerful stuff!

Do you have any idea...

...how long it takes to hang and light 100 pieces of art in a gym and make it look cool? I do! You've gotta come to Erase the Dark tonight. I'll post pics tomorrow. It's like Anthem on steroids. I'm not exaggerating...there are 100 pieces of art. It's gonna be fun.

The bald worship leader

Ian sent me this. Hilarious. Long live the bald worship leader!

You gotta laugh

The Dunlaps

Here are two of the most important people in the Lance universe. Steve and Karen were up for a few days to hang out and it was awesome. They are amazing friends and we miss them like crazy! Can't wait to see you guys again in May.

THIS FRIDAY!!!

Go here to check out the info. This Friday night, April 11th. 7pm. 10 bones. It's gonna be ridiculous! Great music, films and art. Alyssa is putting in a couple photos. Can't wait...spread the word.