My Son, The Celebrity

This picture was in our local newspaper today.
It's cool to see my son get this media attention.
But I gotta admit...now I'm worried.

I know how this goes.
We've all seen it before.

It begins with a little exposure to the public.Before you know it, he's dating a Kardashian and being harassed by TMZ. I pray that this celebrity status doesn't go to his head. But if it does...

Ethan, your dear mother and I love you. We hope you'll remember us during your 15 minutes of fame. When the bright lights and big city are calling you, keep in mind these words: People are only out for themselves. Don't let anyone use or take advantage of you in any way. Also, please plug my blog every chance you get. I need more people to like talesfromstreetroad on Facebook. But mostly, remember the thing about not letting people take advantage.

Ok, seriously now.
I was surprised to see you in the paper today.
That's awesome and you're super cool.
Love you dude!

Yo-Da-Lay-He-Who!

If you've read my blog previously, you've probably noticed that I'm not really funny.
But I'm thankful that people around me are.
They give me something interesting to post for you fine folks to enjoy.

So for today's tale from Street Road I feel I must highlight my youngest son, Gavin.
He brought a little entertainment into my morning, not once, but 3 times.

1.) At 6:30, while eating breakfast, he said:
"Daddy you actually look even older with those glasses, cause old people wear glasses." I couldn't help but laugh, then immediately posted my sons bash on me onto the Twitter. I like that he can sound so sweet and put someone down at the same time.

2.) At 7:10, while getting into my car for me to take him to my mother in law's house, he paused before climbing all the way in and said "Daddy, your car smells like cheese sticks.". I just laughed on the outside, but on the inside I was thinking "No son. That's cheeseburgers."
(Side bar: Since she is the mother of The Lovely Kristi, I just considered calling my mother in law "The Lovely Mother in Law" but that just didn't seem appropriate. Your thoughts?)

3.) At 7:15, after we fed the dogs, Gavin told me he needed to warm up his voice for the day and began doing this....


So of course I made him do it again for the camera.

So within 45 minutes, Gavin made me laugh at least 3 memorable times. I gotta admit, it made me wish I could have hung out with this cool kid even longer.

Deep Thoughts On A Wednesday Afternoon

I saw this posted on the Twitter a few minutes ago...

"The way I lead worship doesn't really lead ME in worship. I love & believe in how I lead, but I'm led in very different ways." @worshipVJ

It's got me thinking about how I lead worship.
How am I led in worship?
Why do I lead the way I do?
How do the two differ?
Why haven't I thought about these questions on my own much before now?

I don't really have any answers right now. But I have a feeling these questions will be on my mind for a while. Who knew such a simple tweet could have me thinking such deep thoughts in a booth at Zaxby's on a Wednesday afternoon.

By the way, you can follow
me on the Twitter @cshawnstinson.

Was Blind But Now I See

Well, maybe not blind.
But I did notice, back in the spring, that I was having to squint more often to read small print. So after putting it off for too long, I went to an eye Dr.
I fully expected him to test me then laugh and say "Why'd you come here? Your vision is totally normal." But instead his reply was "Wow, why didn't you come in sooner." I was not a happy camper. I was diagnosed with astigmatism in one eye and what I think is called "bad eyesight" in the other. It's actually near sighted or farsighted, but I don't remember which or know the difference in such things.

Well, that all happened in June. I put off actually getting the glasses until a couple weeks ago. I finally got them on Monday. To my surprise they actually work. They're not life changing. I can still see without them. But it's like watching standard TV then TV in high def. One is clearly better than the other, but not required.

I have made one little mistake since getting them though. When I first wore them in front of The Lovely Kristi, I said "I could see you before, but now I can see the pores in your face." When I told this story to a coworker later, he said "Pores in your face?! You didn't say 'I can now see how beautiful your eyes really are.' ?"

Nope.

Sadly, I went with the pores.

They have a cure to help with my eye problems. They're called glasses. Hopefully someone will come up with something to help with my mouth.

Side note: My pores comment was based solely on the magnification power of my new glasses. The Lovely Kristi has beautiful, average (if not smaller than average) size pores.

3 Reasons I May Lose My Man Card

Sorry guys.
Based on my actions of the past few days, I may be required to turn in my membership card to the "man" club. I hate to admit these things, but the bible says we should confess our sins to one another. So with a humble heart, I submit these and am willing to endure the repercussions.

1) I recently started checking out a website/app called Get Glue. Basically you "check in" and log what you're watching, reading, listening to, etc. Through it you can get discounts and coupons and free stickers once a month. I don't care about stickers. But the coupons and discounts, I'm a fan of..
I guess my first confession is that I watch Glee. I'd rather call it "The Sue Sylvester Show". But some of the singing ain't bad either. But worse than watching Glee, I "checked in" that I watched Glee. The pic below shows what posted on Twitter and Facebook without me knowing. So, I encourage everyone to be careful what you allow apps to post about you. Am I unicorn? Hmm?

2) I have a bunch of songs on my iPhone.
4,278 to be exact. Most are from CD's I own. But a few I got because someone loaded them onto the network at church and somehow they transferred into my iTunes file.
Today, while at work listening to songs in shuffle mode, a song by the Jonas Brothers came on. My first concern was why was a Jones Bros song on my iPhone? So that is my confession. I have a Jonas Brothers song on my iPhone. It's not there on purpose, but it is there.
But one even more interesting questions is why did iTunes pic the below pic as the album cover?!?

On a related note..."Umm Bop" by Hanson is on my playlist on purpose. (Wow the confessions are really flowing now.)


3) I recently went into Hobby Lobby, by myself, and bought supplies for embroidering. I've only felt less masculine when I've gone into Walmart to buy feminine products for my wife.

I know these are pretty rough offenses against my manliness.
All I have to offer to make up for it is a little advice:
Guys, if you're ever having to buy feminine products, be sure to add other items. Even if you don't need anything else, grab something, anything. My "go to" items are magazines and gum. Because nothing says "I am a real man" to a cashier more than a guy who has clearly bought items as if he's going home to chew gum, read, and menstruate.