i got a gift...

Last week a bunch of my friends and DG coworkers went to the Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago. It sounded like it was a great conference and tons of fun. I didn't go....boo. Sometimes I felt like I was there because I would receive texts like: "Josh Harris just smiled at me" and "I printed out CJ Mahaney's name tag" or "I just got my picture with Mark Driscoll!" When Anna came back, she told me she had a present for me. I wasn't really expecting this:


Haha! I laughed when I saw it but...perfect present cause I love CJ Mahaney :)

some pictures!

Sarah and Andy welcomed their baby boy, Yoseph into the world yesterday! Congratulations! He is beautiful!

We are a little crazy sometimes. Just sometimes.

Shane and Shane concert! Best concert ever!!!!

Shane & Shane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Question from Trent...

Is it un-biblical if a girl asks a guy out?

Love Lustres at Calvary

a prayer from Valley of Vision....

My Father,
Enlarge my heart, warm my affections, open my lips, supply words that proclaim 'Love lustres at Calvary.'
There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on thy Son, made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;
There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow;
There thy infinite attributes were magnified, and infinite atonement was made;
There infinite punishment was due, and infinite punishment was endured.
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell's worst that I might attain heaven's best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory.
entered darkness that I might have eternal light,
My Savior wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,
groaned that I might have endless song,
endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,
expired that I might for ever live.
O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou mightest spare me,
All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished
Help me to adore thee by lips and life.
O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise, my every step buoyant with delight, as I see

Holy Week

Last Sunday at church Pastor John encouraged us to not just let Holy Week pass by but asked us to consider how we would mark this week. So our friends, Mike and Catherine, have been hosting worship nights at their house every night this week. We are reading through a section in Matthew and Psalm 22 each night, singing and praying. It has been incredible. Worshipping with the body has helped my heart ponder the death and resurrection of our Savior.

Late last night a few of us were at their house talking and most of us thought this has been the most significant week leading up to Easter for us. Normally, I don't do much to celebrate Easter during the week leading up to it. I wait until Easter Sunday. But I would encourage you to not wait until Easter. Even though it's already Friday, don't let the rest of your Holy Week just pass by....

Philippians 2:6-11 "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

"The 2520 Stranger" by Scotch Banyon

FADE IN:


INT. 2520 HOUSE - EVENING

A light TAPPING on the front door.

Andrea Froehlich, 26, with flowing brown hair, awakes from the bottom section of a trundle bed.

ANDREA
(In flawless Spanish)
Oh my stars...I am so tired.
Whoever could it be at the door?

Andrea staggers out of bed wearing a full bodied chicken costume, bright yellow feathers adorning her frame.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the door, louder.

ANDREA
(In flawless French)
One minute! I will be with you momentarily mysterious stranger, you who are rapping so fervently on my front door.

She flaps her arms ever so elegantly as she walks down the stairs.

An elderly couple straight out of some Green Acres re-run sits inside a picture frame, hanging from the stairwell wall.

Again, KNOCKING.

ANDREA
(In flawless German)
I hear you visitor, I am but moments from the door, mere feet from the door knob. Upon its turning, the bolt will slide open and we shall meet face to face.

The door opens, letting in the brilliant whiteness of the world outside.

Andrea shields her eyes, blinded by the glory of the suns rays.

The light fades away as quickly as it came.

The front porch is empty, save for the detritus of winter; sand, salt, and squirrel carcass.

A perplexed crinkle on her brow, Andrea examines the empty porch.

ANDREA
(In flawless Italian)
Have my ears deceived me?
Have they betrayed my trust,
thrusting a knife into my back,
a most poetic homage to the late Caesar?
I hear a knock knock knocking
yet they have seemingly been produced by some unseen specter!
I shall count this as an audible misunderstanding
and shut the door and return to my abode.

She SHUTS the door and goes towards the kitchen.

Beneath the puffy yellow feathers of her costume, a GRUMBLE emits from Andrea's stomach.

She looks down at her poultry belly and laments -

ANDREA
(In flawless Russian)
This miscalculated encounter has left me famished.
I SHALL MAKE A SANDWICH!!! THE MOST EPIC OF MEALS!
THERE SHALL BE DELI MEATS! CONDIMENTS!
BREAD MADE FROM THE FINEST OF GRAINS!
A FEAST FIT FOR A KING!

Andrea turns the corner and into the kitchen.

Her face opens in sheer terror.

She throws her downy arms up into the air, sunny feathers bursting upward.

Her frightened lips, shaking, manage to emit a prehistoric SCREAM.

She slumps to the floor, unconscious.

Feathers fall softly around her.

A shadow looms over her, like a dark cloud blotting out the sun.

TO BE CONTINUED

March Madness. Madness, this is madness...

So, March Madness is finally here and we are really happy about it!!  Oh yeah.  Right now, the Purdue/Northern Iowa game is on, and I'm pulling for Purdue.  I have them in the Final Four!  I don't know if that's a good choice or not...meh.

Tonight, our own MINNESOTA GOPHERS (go blake!) are playing Texas at 6:10pm.  Yeee-haww!  And, can I get a "boom?"

We are gonna watch the games this weekend, so if you like college ball and have a heart for free-throws, then come on over!

updated update...

Hey all, we just wanted to give y'all a little updated update on our lives here at 2520...some of the things include:

1. Getting gym memberships at the yMca...not the yW. We found out from some friends about some great membership deals for people who make little amounts of $ (like us!) They have some awesome new treadmills and elipticals with Cardio Theaters! So running for a half hour goes real fast because we can watch basketball and other stuff...anyways...moving on...

2. Car Wash!! BOOM. We made it through. It was a little scary and dramatic but we did it. We even have a video.

3. Gabe & Julia visited us last weekend and it was so great to just hang out and have really good conversations. They love Jesus so much and it's so encouraging to be with them!!

4. Valentine's Day. Some of our friends invited us to hang out after church at Chipotle and Texas Tex Lanes (or something like that). Bowling rocked!

5. We just returned from Rainbow with a candy stash for the D.A. Carson seminar this weekend. You should come too! Here's some more info! If you go, you can have some of our candy. Ask nicely. We have Sour Skittles, Starburst Jelly Beans, Twizzlers, Chex Mix, Sour Punch Candy Straws. We still have some chocolate left over from our excessive purchases in Cali...actually, to be honest, one of us is out and the other only has a tiny bit left. We should've gotten more.

6. Ellie is leaving tomorrow afternoon for Brazil. Actually she is stopping in Austria to visit her brother. It still hasn't really sunk in that she is moving away. We love you, dear friend!

7. Andrea's taking violin lessons at the U and Stephanie is considering taking them too. Woot woo!! It's the Asian thing to do.

Ellie the cat.

This poor, homeless, kitty has been camped outside our house (either the under the front porch or the back, alternately) and has continued it's campaign for mercy for over a week. I'm convinced that the poor cat has been abandoned by it's owners and is in search of a new home. Who knows how many houses the cat has passed up in search of a house that she was convinced would show her mercy. She undoubtedly watched our house from a distance for many weeks before deciding that, yes, this indeed would be the perfect home. She saw the stream of people who came and went from the house, she heard laughter and singing, she smelled enticing smells and felt love. Yes, this indeed would be home. A place for her to lay her head. A place for her to do her part in the cleaning of crumbs off the floor and protecting from any rodents that might try to enter. She would even do her part in keeping the numerous squirrel population at bay.

Alas, when she arrived at the house, sure of a welcome, she was instead greeted with shrieks of fear, was shooed off the dry (although cold) shelter the deck provided--she was confused. Days went by, cold nights marked time...how long must she wait for a morsel of food, a comforting pat, a warm, dry place to sleep?

If you too feel compassion for this poor cat (whom we decided to call Ellie, since Ellie the person is leaving in 11 days) and are willing to do as the 2520 girls are unwilling to do (namely give Ellie a home)--please let us know! We are pretty sure that she is, or used to be, an indoor cat and for some reason has become separated from her family. She does not have a collar, but is friendly to people and seems comfortable indoors.

Please help her before it's too late!! (WARNING: all blow-gun owners, STAY AWAY from Ellie!!)

do you know what a bar is?

We've recently realized that a lot of our friends are not Minnesotan...i.e...they don't know what bars are. We are not talking about a bar where you get a drink or Quaker Granola bars. We are talking about...bars! They are a sweet treat baked in an 9x13 pan...just like brownies. I don't know how else to explain it. Maybe some pictures will help.

We call this a pumpkin bar:

Rice Krispie bars:

and Special K bars:


The list of bars could go on and on....Seven Layer Bars, Cookie Bars, Almond Bars, Smore Bars...

What would you call them??

my fear...the car wash.

A recent development over at 2520 is the amount of bird poop that has landed on our cars. Seriously, I have never seen so much bird poop on one's car before. Nasty. Andrea went to get her car washed the other day, and came home with a new sparkly, clean car. Mine, on the other hand, still looks disgusting and gross. It's bad.

As we were driving the other day, I told her that I have a fear of going through car washes. I also told her that I have never really driven through a car wash before...only with my parents. Andrea then told me that she has a fear of car washes as well, and has never gone through one by herself until Saturday. What?! I have never known this!!! :)

I don't know what it is about car washes. I think it's the feeling of being confined to a small space and being surrounded by water. Ick! I don't like that feeling. Or the possibility of being stuck in there....not good. I don't know. It's just something silly that I'm afraid of. Andrea can't even explain why she's afraid. She just is.

Is anyone else afraid of going through car washes?

for ellie....and past youth group peeps...

Thought you youth group guys might enjoy this short video of Jason Kemper. For those who don't know him, he is an American who has lived in Ireland for the past three months and obviously caught onto the accent quite quickly. Here's his blog. He used to work with us in the youth group. He stopped into work yesterday and it was hard to take him seriously because he talks so different now!

And the dinner comment is regarding a two-year-old bet made about the Super Bowl champ. If our team won, he cooks dinner for our house. If his team won, we cook dinner for him. I don't even remember which team was "ours" but they beat Chicago. However, he still has not fulfilled his end of the deal....

For those of you with Feed-Readers....

That "Singey's" post that may have shown up on your feed reader was posted by Trenton Burns (Katie's finance). He was signed into our account and decided to have some fun. Providentially, I walked past him right after and the guilty look on his face and our blog page open on his computer gave it all away. It's not coming back! Sorry to disappoint. Peace out!

the Y-Dub

Andrea, Steph and I (Katie) have been seriously throwing around the idea of getting a gym membership for the last week. We are determined that it will happen! However, our first attempt failed...miserably.
So last night we got home from dress shopping at about 8 o'clock and decided that the best time to get a membership to the YWCA was then!! We knew what we wanted; Andrea was going to get the student discount membership and Steph and I were going to get the joint house membership so it would be cheaper.
As we started driving, Andrea exclaimed, "Shoot, I don't have proof that I'm a full time student!" We kept on driving because we figured, "oh I'm sure they'll let you workout anyway". Plus, even if they didn't, Steph or I could have used our guest pass for her.
Upon arriving to the YWCA we found out that the membership desk was just about closed. Fortunately we got there just in time!!!
We go over to the desk and greet the employee. Steph and I get all ready to apply and I look at her driver's license and it still has her old address on it! So, I asked her if she had anything else that proved she lived at 2520. The answer was no, but she thought that they would just believe us. So the woman finds out and shows us the form of things that would qualify us:
-Driver's license
-Utility Bill
-Phone Bill
-Lease
-Joint Checking
Hmm...nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope. But wait! "I have a checking account!" Steph told her.
Response with a pointing to the paper, "Joint checking"
"Well my name and address are on it"
"Joint checking account" More pointing, "It has to be joint"
So I ask, "does a cell phone bill count?"
"The phone number must be attached to the address, so it has to be a land line"
We saw that we were getting nowhere fast, so Andrea asks, "well don't you just have a free one-day pass to check the gym out?"
Even before Andrea finished her sentence, "that is not true."
"Oh, I thought you did."
"That is not true."
"I'm pretty sure I came here with a friend and they told us we could."
"That is not true. Maybe if you have never visited the YWCA before you might get a one day pass. But we have a system that tells if you've been to the downtown, the uptown, or the midtown."
Needless to say we left the gym with our iPods in tow and no gym memberships.

dude....garlic is strong....

Most of you probably know about our (Steph & me) garlic mashed potatoes we made a long, long, long time ago. We accidentally got the garlic bulb confused with the clove. So the potatoes were, well, very garlicy. Well, now Steph just obtained a new pampered chef garlic press.....the best part of this garlic press is that you don't have to peel the garlic. And since we both now have an aversion to garlic, this is wonderful. So we are going to try to make them again..... :) BOOM. Let us know if you want some....


here's a picture of the garlic we put in the mashed potatoes...yuck...yuck...

my fave five pastors/preachers:

John Piper. I grew up thinking Christianity meant a boring life but at least heaven after death. After listening Sunday after Sunday to John Piper's preaching, the Lord showed me that Jesus is my joy. My heart became increasingly satisfied in Jesus rather than bored by him. And I'm thankful for Piper's teaching on God's sovereignty over ALL things, especially his purchase of me.

C.J. Mahaney. One of the most encouraging person I know of. But my favorite sermon of his is one he preached on the woman in Luke 7 who wet Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. He calls it an extravagant devotion to Jesus and listening to C.J. deepens my longing to have that same devotion to my Savior. And he loves basketball. I like that!

Tim Cain. The first time I heard Tim Cain speak was a 15 minute devotional and I could have listened for hours. He talks about Jesus in such a way that makes me yearn to know him more deeply. I want to know more about this "insanely beautiful" Jesus. He makes me realize that if I want to share the gospel naturally, I need to love the gospel more myself.

Mark Driscoll. I love Mark Driscoll! I'm reading his book right now ("Death by Love") and it is great. Driscoll's sermons are filled with Jesus. And he doesn't back away from talking about difficult subjects. He's real.

Tim Keller. I'm so grateful for Tim Keller. About five years ago, I went through Keller's study on Galatians and God used it to change my life. I'd never before understood the gospel like I did after reading Galatians so in depth. I realized more of what a sinner I was but also what a great Savior I have in Christ!

I have to add Jordan Thomas too. The few sermons I've heard from him have left such an impact on me about how great and glorious our God is...and of his captivating love. His one communion service message at Bethlehem a couple years ago was one of the most memorable short messages I've heard. He conveyed the love of Jesus in such a beautiful way and I don't think I will ever forget it.

Steph's going to post her's soon...what are your favorite five?

engagements in the house!! woo woo

Two 2520 girls got engaged - within a matter of a week of one another! In case you are wondering, the girls who got engaged were Courtney and Katie! Courtney to Daniel Ressig and Katie to Tony (aka Trenton).

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Love you guys!

some really good music

Sovereign Grace Ministries has a new CD (Together for the Gospel Live) by Bob Kauflin and it is really good! When Steph and I were in Cali, the CD was in my sister's Jeep we drove for the week. It played through it's entirety about three times in one afternoon as we got lost in the ghetto of LA. The best part was driving through the mountains of Malibu while listening to the words of Before the Throne of God Above. So worshipful. We both bought the CD and listen to it all the time at work, home, ipod, everywhere. Go get it!!

You can download three of the songs free on the SovGrace webiste.

P.S. This is a shout out to one of our fav. worship leaders -- Bob Kauflin -- we'd like to wish him a happy birthday! (Jan 7th)

:)

p-i-a-n-o

My roommates are really cool and bought me a piano for my birthday! Here are a couple videos. You can't really see the second video very well but the best part is Sarah repeatedly saying: "Steph, turn on the light....steph, turn on the light...." :)

Really, though, I am so so thankful for my roommates. Not just because they bought me a piano. But Sarah, Ellie, Steph, Katie, Lacy & (Courtney!) are some of the best roommates I could ever have.

And the movers -- Mike, Nick & Becky, Trent, Mr. Lundquist, Andrew, Timothy -- Thanks so much!!

.69

When we were in Cali, we found great deals on candy at Target - 75% off! That meant we got big bags of Christmas candy for 69 cents/bag. The problem was that any candy we bought, we had to fit in our suitcase. Yes, we did think about waiting and buying it in Mpls. but there is usually never any candy left over at the Target's in Mpls. Maybe the Cali people are healthier. Ellie confirmed that there was no candy in the Minneapolis Targets....at least the one she went to.

Andrea happy about all the candy:
Steph trying to sort out which bags she can depart with:

Trying to fit everything in the suitcase was rather difficult:

As we were walking to the checkout each with about 13 bags of candy....
Andrea: "Are we being stupid?"
Steph: "Oh, do you think we should get more?"