Can I hold Molly?

That is the question that we have been getting from Ben and Caleb, especially Caleb. It is fun to see them come up to her and talk to her in their breathy high pitched voice that they seem to think is appropriate for a baby. Even Matthew likes to give her "kisses". He leans down very gently and presses his cheek up against hers. We are getting more and more used to our family of six. Amanda is feeling better and the boys are getting more used to sharing their mommy.

The blogosphere rumor mill

In classic blogosphere fashion, it appears that my photoshop joke about Joe buying the Dairy Queen in Alpena has caught fire. A high school acquaintance of Joe's and mine just posted the following comment on a post from last week.

Hi Andy,
Someone had told me a few days ago that they had heard that Joe bought the DQ in Alpena, so tonight I googled to see what that was all about...pretty interesting. My dad actually built the DQ on state street with one of his friends when he was in high school, so I think that is really cool. Your blog is great and it looks like you are very happy! Tell Joe I said hi!

Dani (Mischley) Melford

To correct the rumor, Joe did not buy the Dairy Queen in Alpena (although I am sure that after I made that post he probably gave it some serious thought.) I thought it would be a funny post and it certainly has been. You can check out the comments on the original post for even more laughs.

My sincerest apologies to Dani Mischley Melford and all those from Alpena who have been led astray by this blog post. In the future, I'll try and label joke posts as that. Happy Monday to everyone.

I know you're out there.

I posted an invitation a few days ago to leave a comment if you never have before on our blog. Why do I care and how do I even know that people are reading our blog? I guess I care because I love to have people reading the blog, but blogs are supposed to be a dialog. I write; you read and respond. I know that's not how everyone reads blogs. For instance, Amanda, my own wife, has never commented on our blog.

How do I know that people are reading our blog? There is a very cool web service called Sitemeter that I utilize here at 2ABC2M. This service tells me every time someone hits my site. It tells me the Internet Service Provider that each hit comes from, their location and how long they were there. It's not perfect. Lots of times it won't tell me the location and sometimes the location is wrong. For instance, for the longest time I couldn't figure out who was hitting our blog multiple times a day from Rosebush, Michigan. Then on vacation Gregg told me that his companies ISP came up as that. Sitemeter is a pretty cool service though and it's free too!

What does this mean for you? Well not much, other than the fact that I know you're out there. I know that my good friends from the University of Virginia are reading. I know that Amanda's family from California checks in from time to time. I know that most people either come from Gregg and Allison's blog or go there when they're done reading ours.

A couple of things that I don't know are, Who is reading from the Michigan State Government in Lansing? Also, who is reading from Brooklyn, New York? I'd love to know who you are. I'd also love to have you keep reading anonymously. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

More from John Piper on the Bridge Collapse

35W Bridge Collapse

Joe called me last night around 7:00 pm local time. He said, "Are you on the bridge?" I said, "What bridge?" Tricia and Alex had left about an hour earlier and I had just gotten the boys off to bed. After Joe told me what had happened we quickly turned on the TV and followed along with each of the Twin Cities television stations.

If you look at the map above, you'll see where we are located in relation to the bridge collapse (the red arrow.) We have driven over that bridge a number of times, every time we go to Dave and Joni's house. I was just near there last Wednesday at the University of Minnesota.

When I got to work this morning I checked a lot of my usual sites. One that I read every morning is the Desiring God blog. This is our pastor John Piper's ministry. Read some of his hopeful, yet sobering words about the bridge collapse here.

Below is a live traffic camera from near the scene of the collapse.

Don't be afraid. Go ahead and leave a comment!

Many of you come to our blog often: maybe monthly, maybe weekly, maybe even more often than that. We'd love to hear from you. Who are you? How did you find us here? Who told you about our blog? What do you think about what we've been writing?

Of course you don't have to leave a comment and let us know you're out there. You can remain somewhat anonymous. Commenting on our blog is easy. You don't have to sign up for an account or anything. Just click on the link that says "0 comments" below. Then click on "other". You can then put your name in so we know who you are. Its that easy. We'll look forward to hearing from you soon.

Classic CCM

I was feeling a bit nostalgic here at work today so I put together a lala play list of some of my favorite classic CCM artists. Most of these are CDs that I got while I was in college through the Chrisitan CD club (maybe an oxymoron.) Others go all the way back to when I was in junior high and became a Christian. I swore off "secular" music, threw out my AC/DC, Bobby Brown, NWA, and Chicago. I pretty much listened to CCM and the oldies radio station. Here's a sample of some of the artists I included in my play list.

1. Michael W. Smith
The Project
Michael W. Smith 2
I 2 eye
The Big Picture (Tricia had a poster of him from this album up in her room.)
Go West Young Man

2. Steven Curtis Chapman
3. Charlie Peacock
4. Rich Mullins
5. PFR (I helped out with one of their last shows at TU)
6. Petra
7. Geoff Moore and the Distance (Taylor alum)
8. Jars of Clay (just their first album)
9. Out of the Grey
10. White Heart

Who would be on your classic CCM play list?