.

Anjelah Johnson- Nail Salon

Here you have it, one of my favorite skit comedians, turn up the volume and ENJOY!


www.ryancook.net

Addicted to Facebook

Ran across this, thought I'd post it-

10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook

1. Facebook is your home page.

2. You update your status more than twice a day.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.

b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)

c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year=old girl.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people.

www.ryancook.net

Back in the Saddle

Well, it has been a while since I have posted a blog, actually since 6/17, so I thought I'd get back into the swing of things. I took some time off and had a great vacation w/ the family, much needed R & R.  I also took some blogging time off as well. So what's been going on in my life? A lot!

In my personal life, I started a detox last Saturday from caffeine and most sugars. It's been a week now and I feel great.  A much needed detox! My family all started going to the gym together, that's way cool!

Spiritually, I am drawing closer and closer w/ Jesus everyday! He is stretching my thinking and abilities everyday, and I welcome it.  

Our ground breaking is next Sunday afternoon, way excited for our new building to start. We have many community outreaches coming up in the next 6 months. Tons of exciting things going, on so I will keep you posted.

I challenge anyone who want's to start blogging, to go for it, dive in head first. Don't hesitate, the time is now! If you need help, or have any questions, I would be more that happy to help or you can refer to this blog and this one for help.

If you happen to be reading through my blogs and find something you would like to share, it is easy, just click the share button at the bottom of a blog.

www.ryancook.net

Curbside Treasures

OK, so it is nearing curbside garbage season. If you are reading this and not residing in Grand Junction, it is a time where residents can throw away all of their junk. From sheetrock to carpet, fence pickets to tree branches. It is a beautiful thing! If you drive by some houses, you begin to wonder where in the world do they store all of these items through out the year. For instance, you can drive by a 1000 sq ft house and find about 10 yards of junk and trash sitting out by the curb.

This is our first year, I had no idea we needed to move our junk out a little early so no one does a ‘drive by drop off.’ We have been waiting until the weekend before, so items didn’t blow away or mess up the street. Little did we know........ I think it is one of those unspoken rules that the jealous county people have, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Well Renee came home the other day and found out we ‘lost it’. Someone came by and dropped off an entire trailer full of junk (including a concrete sewer lid) in front of our house.

Before Renee called me, she started her own Sherlock investigation. First she called Grand Junctions finest to file a report, so the police showed up to our house. Second, she called the city and they did a drive by and pointed out the things they wouldn’t take. They said it was our responsibility to get rid of the concrete. Third, she called the manufacturer of the equipment. She left them a message and inquired who they sold their equipment to. After all of that, our neighbor came over and wanted to give the description of the vehicle and trailer to the police. Good times.

When Renee called me and started to describe the contents of everything on the curb, including the tea brewers, one person came to mind. I called the owner of the company, and bingo, it was his crew. They tried to do the drop off, but it backfired on Mr. Beau & Mr. Clinton, nice try guys.

They were good sports about it. They all came back, loaded it all up and hauled it off.

The culprits........

Beware for curbside trash dumpers!!!!!

Lane and Suzy, we miss you dearly. Please visit anytime. We love you lots!!!

Leave a comment if you wish @ www.ryancook.net.

-Peace

Jury Duty

It’s 8:10am I feel like I am getting ready to take a flight, I forgot about the metal detectors at the courthouse. As I am getting my shoes and belt back on, I flag the elevator to the third floor of the Mesa County Courthouse. Now 8:15am, the line is winding out the door to the Jury selection room. I thought it would take forever to get in, but the line goes fast.

As we all entered the room I saw all sorts of people; People of all ages, race, economic background and culture were seated in the room. All of us were faced toward the northeast looking out a wall of windows. The view and landscape outside is phenomenal, as you can see the Bookcliffs, I-70 corridor, and The Grand Mesa.

I walk by the window, pause for a Kodak moment and make my way to a round table to hold my laptop. (Funny, I am looking for a tabletop to hold by laptop.)

As I look around, I see people starting to mingle, complain a little and make their way to the refreshment table. The court offers free coffee and water. I feel like I am at an AA meeting or something; Um, my name is Ryan, I am a FREAK.

I brought my man-bag w/ me. It has everything I might need for the day. A couple great books, my bible, laptop, ipod, Enrichment magazine, and a few mints. I first reached in to grab an awesome book I am in the middle of called The Shack. (Very highly recommended)

After opening the book, I can hear much chatter and murmuring, I couldn’t concentrate on the book too much. I like watching people, so I closed the book and began to glance around. Previously I had asked if they had wireless here and the court clerk said they didn’t have it. I decided to type a little so I opened my laptop and picked up 3 other local signals, yes, I love it when a plan comes together.

The court clerk just lowered the curtains. I think she is getting ready to start a juror movie, boring! Ok, yes it was boring. The court clerk is back in front talking. Wow, something I just found out, I will not get called back for summons until next year, if sooner, they will excuse it. I won’t get called back until 2009, YES! Ok, there are 55 people here and the court will choose 6 jurors and 1 alternate for a 6-day civil service.

We get a 10:30am break, a lunch and an afternoon break. Wow, they even have a free phone here for us to use incase we don’t have a cell phone. The courts do not want us walking outside and talking to the general public so they do offer a smoking room here in the building for jurors only, kind of like the ones you see in the airport, stanky. They also have a fresh air room, nice.

They say no questions are stupid, but there is a lady sitting in the front row rolling out stupid questions. Like, ‘if we get picked, do we get St. Patrick’s day off?’ ‘Why did they have all 55 of us come in if we only need 6?’ And on and on and on…….. A guy just leaned over and said if he gets picked he hopes she is NOT on the jury! Hahaha funny guy.

I think they have asked us to turn off our cell phones about 15 times. Just now a ladies phone went off w/ the ring tone; Glamorous, G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S by Fergie. I love people!!

Ok, it is only 9:05am and I think they are going to excuse us for a break. Oh, it’s a restroom break. Many people are hovering around the 10 cup coffee pot, which is now empty and some peeps are heading to the enclosed smoking room, YUCK.

OK, we are on another break out from the courtroom. They picked 17 for the jury seats. My friend Bessie Scott just got picked as a juror, I think she is mad, she has 3 doctor appointments this week. The judge will probably excuse her.

Back in the court room and the judge is asking about hardships. You would not believe the excuses people use. I think they just dismissed 10 of the 17 and now picking 10 more. Bessie did get excused. After listening to the first jurors excuse, the rest of them caught on. Anyone could just say they have reservations and travel arrangements and they got excused. Funny.

They are dragging this out big time. The attorneys from both sides are asking the potential jurors questions. They have the 17 potentials but they won’t let us leave. Some of the answers they are giving funny. I think the judge is getting mad about a group of us snickering about their answers. O’ well, we have to make good use of the time. Hehehe

Just got back from lunch hour. More of the same questions….. BORING!!!!!!!!!! I try to read, but my concentration gets broke from some of the stupid answers from a particular juror, which I forgot to mention, tried to get excused earlier because of emotional problems and issues. She is the same woman from the breakroom asking the stupid questions. She is from New Jersey, so we nicknamed her ‘Jersey’.

After a long day of sitting on wooden pews we finally get the ‘nod’. The rest of us ‘on lookers’ were dismissed and the judge kindly ‘thanked us’ for our time. Yeah, NO jury duty!! I said goodbye to my newly found juror friends and headed home.

If you would like to comment about this blog, you can do so at www.ryancook.net.

-Peace

Invite, Prayer and funny stuff

Invite, Invite, Invite…. This Sunday is ‘Friend Day’ at GJFA. Call up a friend, invite them to church and then take them out to lunch, or better yet, make lunch and invite them to your house.

You will not want to miss the next three Sundays leading up to and including Easter 2008. The services are going to ROCK! Do what ever it takes to get your friends here, (bribe them, pay them, trade them, drag them, be creative.. haha) you will not want to miss the next three Sundays.

Don’t forget- Time change this Sunday morning at 2am.---- Spring Forward. Yes, you will lose an hour, but don’t fret, it’s only an hour; skip out on one of your Saturday night shows and hit the bed early. Look on the bright side, more daylight for the bbq.

I came across a blogsite where this guy actually has conversations w/ his blog. A little weird you have to visit this blog on ‘having text’. It is hilarious and sooo true. Make sure you make it to the Textual Definitions. Anyway, you can check it out here.

I know many people who read this attend other churches. Perry has a great post here about when to pray for the pastor of your church.

Sermon of the week! It's only 5 minutes, he gets going at the end, check it out.

One day my wife and I were driving and I thought my cell phone was vibrating. I looked down to grab it and there was no call. Right then I broke down and told her it has been happening more frequent, maybe I need to go to the doctor or something? I started to wonder if there was some weird thing going on until a few days later I saw a special on ‘phantom vibrations’, sounds a little weird huh? Check out these two articles here and here.

Life church in OKC has an awesome resource website incase anyone is interested. It is called OPEN, it’s a website where churches can access, download and use LifeChurch.tv’s creative content for free. Videos, message outlines, graphics, you name it, they have it; btw, check out their banner on their site.. sweeet!

That's it for now, as always, if you have any comments, please post them @ www.ryancook.net

-Peace

Sick isn't Fun

Dear readers: As you have noticed I haven't posted anything for a while. We were out of town last week for a conference. After arriving home, Friday night I started coughing. I didn't know exactly what was wrong; I had Bronchitis 2 1/2 weeks earlier and thought maybe it was just a slight after cough.

Well I couldn't get out of bed Saturday or Sunday. The symptoms are horrible. Today I went to the doc and they said I have influenza b virus. So I have been secluded away in my bedroom w/ no human contact until the contagious cycle is over.

The main reason for this post is PRAYER. Please keep my kids: Chayce, Drayven, Londyn and Reave in your prayers that they don't get sick. Also, please keep my lovely wife Renee in your prayers; she has to put up w/ the biggest sick baby in the world.

Thank you all for your prayers!

Ryan

This Week

God is so Good!

This is going to be an awesome conference, not to mention 75 degree weather!

You have to listen to Brother Barry. If you watch all 3 videos, it will only take about 25 minutes, and it only gets better. Have some tissue near by, you’ll be laughing so hard that you might start crying. Filmed sometime around 1985-ish. Check it out here.

If you want to pray to live worship music, you gotta check out Saturday nights @ 6pm. It really rocks; Come visit twice a month or whenever you want. Read, pray, journal, think….. it’s a great place to get alone w/ God.

This is going to be a rock’n movie. Check it out if you can. U2 rocks!

Great quote I heard today: "I'd rather die than embarrass Jesus Christ.- When we lack integrity, humility, and generosity, that's exactly what we do.”

This week, Pastor Ted will be preaching a message titled, ‘In the zone’. I hear its gonna be a good one- 2 service times 8:30am and 10:40am.

Joel Osteen made it to the homepage of Yahoo today. Check it out if you have time. http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/137/joel_osteen

Transparency builds credibility and authenticity.

I went out on a lunch date w/ Reave, my 2 ½ year old baby girl on Thursday. We had a blast. If you haven’t had a date w/ your daughter, you should try it sometime. Funniest thing in the world, I think she thought the ‘date’ was something tangible. She kept asking, “where’s the date?”

Men, don’t forget your valentines gift- or you'll be in a world of hurt!

WWW.RYANCOOK.NET

-Peace

Misc.

Dang! Our worship team nailed it last night! If you missed it, I would highly recommend making the next worship night. Tami and the worship team sang their hearts out; Glenn and the band played like there was no tomorrow. OUR WORSHIP TEAM ROCKS!!!!

* We are now ending day 8 of the Daniel fast and I am rummaging through the house looking for something sweet to eat. (the bad thing is I know there is nothing here)

* Things I have learned so far on the Daniel fast:

* Tofu does not = Cheese! Today we tried to make cheese from soft Tofu. We added garlic, spices, anything we possibly could. Can you believe it never tasted like cheese! Yuck, sorry babe, it had to be the nastiest thing I have tasted in a long time.

* It is very hard to satisfy the “sweet tooth”! No matter what, we cannot find anything for dessert. Well yes bananas and apples, but for some reason they don’t taste like ice cream!

* I really rely on caffeinated drinks.

* When a church can unify, miracles will follow.

* If you’re listening, God is speaking.

Please leave all comments at www.ryancook.net.

-Peace out!

Fasting & Funerals

Day 3 of fasting. Most of the sugar and caffeine headaches have subsided.

Day 1 and 2 where bad. Killer headaches and a few bad mood swings, shwew, glad that’s over. Usually during day 3 the haze is lifted and clarity of mind comes around. I still don’t believe how much we are addicted to sugar, caffeine, meat and dairy products.
I love Starbucks, red bull, butter, chips, cheese and any type of candy. Now it’s fruits and veggies, yeah!

I do have to admit, I have not had any heartburn the last 3 days. I am sure it is due to the raw fruits and vegetables. It is a healthier eating lifestyle than I am used to. I would like to try and stay as a modified diet lifestyle for a while longer after the 10 days. I will keep you posted on how that goes later.

Funerals

I have been to a few funerals since arriving in Grand Junction. Although I have only known most of them for about 8 months, it seems like I have known them for years. Even if I didn’t know them to well, I get to know them through the slide shows and stories told about them during the funeral itself.

What I like is the lives they have affected. From what I can see, they have all left a great legacy. What they did here on earth mattered. They didn’t spend their time here bickering and complaining, they spent it building family, relationships, friends and the Kingdom of God.

I thank God for men and women like this, the ones that paved the way. They set the bar for Kingdom builders.

If you would like to comment on this post or any post, please do so a@ www.ryancook.net

-Peace