kylegilbert

Yesterday we had a great day in the snow with the kids. We built a seriously big snowman (almost as tall as me), and we had a great snowball fight.

Yesterday’s post made me remember a funny prank that I played on Josh about eight years ago. Someone from the local jail left a message on my answering machine, and I recorded the message and spliced in my name so it sounded just like the message I had received. Then, I called Josh when he wasn’t in the office and left the message on his answering machine.

You can listen to the message here:
Tarrant County by kylegilbert

Good memories.

I found out tonight from one of my brother-in-laws (Nathan, AKA Great Gorilla) that Keri’s Uncle Paul decided to talk a little smack during a sermon the other day.  I downloaded the sermon and cropped out the comment to share on here.

Uncle Paul by kylegilbert

This is awesome! Thanks, Uncle Paul! Consider the favor returned.

Yesterday I woke up feeling pretty terrible, and I spent most of the day shivering while wrapped up in a fleece blanket.  But before that, we managed to take a visit to see some newborn lambs at the farm where Keri’s sister works.

Just for the record, baby lambs are even more cute than you might think.

There are quite a few blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Keeping up with friends and family as well as trying to stay sharp in the area of technology and communications. One of my favorites is a blog called ChurchCrunch. Because of that, I’m pumped to be a guest blogger there today.

Maybe not the most exciting article unless you’re into video, but it’s cool to get to contribute there today.

I thought it would be fun to look back over the past year to pick out my favorite posts from 2009.  What a fun year!  Here are my top 10 in chronological order:

1. Announcing the New Faith Promise Website 1/2/09
2. Celebrating Ten Years of Marriage 2/9/09
3. Hand Trace 3/28/09
4. The Secret of Success is Failure 3/29/09
5. Launching the Internet Campus 4/9/09
6. Yuki Got Saved! 4/23/09
7. Mother’s Day Video for Keri 5/25/09
8. Why I Don’t Own a Television 7/2/09
9. Lovable Little Apes 9/21/09
10. Video of Josh Bargaining in a Chinese Market 10/28/09

I would have never guessed that having kids would be so entertaining.  :)

For several years, we’ve drawn names to give Christmas gifts with both my family and Keri’s family. This past Christmas, someone from Keri’s family came up with the terrible fantastic idea of creating a surprise handmade gift for “our person”.

I drew Keri’s sister, and after a few weeks of making no progress, Keri suggested that I make her a bird house.  After a little research, I decided to go the route of decorating a birdhouse that I bought at a hobby store nearby.  Here are a few pics of my project in action:

The bad news of the story: I think they want to do hand made gifts again next Christmas.

For Christmas, we decided to mix things up a bit.  Before my parents arrived on the 26th, we traveled with Keri’s family to South Carolina and rented a house on the beach for a few days.

It was pretty cold, but Nathan (A.K.A. Great Gorilla) and I managed to get in the ocean for a few minutes.

Just a few weeks before Christmas, my mom was diagnosed with colon cancer. At this point, they still don’t know the stage or extent of the cancer, but it seems that she will be undergoing surgery in the very near future.

Fortunately, the news didn’t disrupt their trip to Knoxville, and we had a great time together during the time they were here (including a trip to Biltmore).

We would really appreciate your prayers for my mom and dad – for wisdom in their decisions and healing in her body.