Over half way!

This weekend, Emily passed her halfway point in her pregnancy. Our sweet little man is going to be here somewhere around the end of August! Most of you have already heard all this, but I thought I would announce it to anyone not on Facebook (but apparently reads this blog? yeah pretty sure that person doesn't exist).

Anyways, this blog, being entitled ElliottEvents will hopefully start containing more than just my reviews. Let's face it, you'd all rather see pretty and funny family photos and stories!


















That's right... he's giving you a thumbs up!

4.29.2010

On 4.29.2010, I packed up my whole life into a mini-van and made the trek up north. Upon arriving, we met my fiancée, Emily, and moved into a short-term house, provided by the Anderson family. I fell asleep on the couch to a big storm, with the knowledge that tomorrow my parents would be gone, and I would start my new life and ministry in the unfamiliar world of Minnesota. I was terrified out of my mind. 


Fast forward one year and here I sit in my favorite local coffee shop where I'm on a first name basis with the baristas and owners, writing my notes for a talk I'll give next week on the power of words, and preparing a missions team builder this afternoon with teenagers whom I love. I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with my lovely wife, going on a bike ride, packing for a summer move into a new apartment next month, and fellowshipping at our home congregation, Hope Community Church, on Sunday.


Life is full of surprises and change, but God's faithfulness remains. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands." Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Our New Hobby

   Some of my favorite hobbies include playing guitar, painting, and writing. However, a new hobby I have begun developing is of a daily benefit to both me and Emily. Every morning we enjoy a cup of coffee to start off the day. I'd done some researching into ways to make a great cup of coffee. It started off with a Chemex coffee brewer. The more and more research I did, the more I heard about people who roast their own coffee in-home. This intrigued me. Eventually I convinced Emily to let me give it a try.
    There are several ways to home-roast. You can buy fancy machines that cost anywhere from $100-$1000, or you can employ different manual methods. You can simply use a baking sheet and oven, a cast iron pan, a stove-top popcorn roaster, or my current (and very elementary) method: the air popcorn popper.

The great thing about this method is how easily you can find an air popper in thrift/discount stores, making this hobby much more cost effective. Once I had a roaster, I needed to find a place to buy some green (unroasted) coffee beans. I'm still deciding on my preferred store, but three i have used so far are www.sweetmarias.com, www.burmancoffee.com, and www.paradiseroasters.com. Between online sales, bulk shipping discounts, etc. I usually am able to get my coffee for around $5.50/lb on average.

Here are some pictures of a Guatemalan Antigua Finca "Colombia" batch I roasted last week:

   Emily and I love peeking open the jar a few hours after the roast. I never smelled fresh coffee until I started roasting it myself. So many complex aromas, each origin and blend smelling so different. I usually give the freshly roasted beans between 12-24 hours of a resting period. This method combined with my Chemex brewer means that we get to drink some of the best coffee we've ever tasted every morning. What's more, it's even cheaper than cheap and burnt beans like at the supermarket and chain coffee shops.

TWO YEARS!

Although I am far from fully understanding her, big part of me feels like I've known Emily, my wife, forever. We have so many memories of being together, learning each other, and growing in love and devotion to one another, not the least of which is our engagement (one year ago on thursday!) and wedding (seven months ago yesterday). However, today is the TWO YEAR anniversary of us meeting as we boarded a plane to Israel!

HOLY COW! We've both concluded that it is amazing how close we are to each other today when we've literally only known of each others' existence for two years. God has shown us time and time again how His paths for our lives individually brought us together, walking down the same road today. His blessings, wisdom, and grace abound!

Here's a few pictures documenting some of our last two years together!

So blessed.

Chicago, That's (not) My Home Town!

Lyle and I trying to "relax our minds" during a round of Mindball. It was weird.

Last weekend, Emily and I had a great (as you can obviously tell from this photo) time visiting our good friends Lyle and Tiffany Cruse, as well as Jeremy and Ashley Elliott. There were also some guest appearances by Lee Rowell, Eric Heater, and Hailey Morris. It was SO FUN getting to hang out with everyone again in Lyle and Tiffany's apartment, my home-away-from-home during my last years at Moody.

We always love running around the city of Chicago, and this weekend was no exception, but what we mainly loved was being near our old friends whom we wish we could see more often. It's crazy to think how much has happened in all of our lives over the last couple of years, and it's exciting to see where God is taking all of us! But we still miss regularly spending time with each other. We had some good times reminiscing. Crazy that me, Jeremy, and Lyle have been so close for more than ten years now!

It was also a testament to God's faithfulness. It's truly amazing to see how He has used us in each others' lives throughout these years, in ways that we never could've guessed or planned while we were filming crappy "horror" movies in Lyle's basement during blizzards, or jumping into a nearly frozen swimming pool in the middle of winter. Now that the three of us are all "grown-up", it's great to be able to encourage each other as we find ourselves married to amazing women, studying theology, and doing youth ministry. God is SO good!