Ahhh! Lauren sings with Heredes!

Ahhh...Puppeh duug

So, you may know how much we loooove our dog Pedi. He is the coolest 14 lb Dacshund(pronounced daksundt in German) in the world or at least South Florida. Anyway, I'm checking out my normal slate of blogs when I stumble upon TroyandSteph.com(ok, so i go there about everyday) and I get this wonderful info about dog breath. Pedi is the cutest K-9, but his breath, at times, can stop traffic. Steph writes..."It comes in a 30 day packet...cost is around $15.95...and can be ordered online at www.smellgoodies.com." Thanks so much Steph. This way we can love our pooches even more! Rock strong-Allen

good times, good times...

Well the wonder of the holiday season has arrived. Do you fell the nip in the air? It went below 75! Yes! Well, the DiStefano's had a great Thanksgiving day. Food, Fun, Fellowship, Family, Friends, Fake pumpkins(Heather's lovin the alliteration). Dad, Mom and the Palacios joined our existing quintet and had a blast. DJ loved playing with the Roomba(a robotic vacum) and Andy is now the youngest officially licensed pool cleaner! Sharon lee did an exceptional job on the preparation of the many culinary delights. My Fav this year was the stuffing. Sharon's Mom, Nancy gave her the recipe-wow-this stuffin made you wanna slap your grandma(thanks Dan!). Everybody got their fill. Even Pedi(our 14lb dachsund) scored a leftover turkey sandwich that one of the girls left on one of the end tables for about 27 seconds! Good times, good times.

Another cool day was yesterday, black Friday(cue the Clint Eastwood music). This is our day to go get the tree. All 5 of us piled into the Dodge Ram. I think the last time we were all together was the same trip a year prior! Drove all over creation because we couldn't decide where to get the tree, many opinions in the truck. Then we finally settled on the place closet to our house. Good times, good times! We carefully inspected the 71/2 to 8 ft trees and decieded on a beautiflul 8 ft green one! The giries helped set it up. Brit and Jen got on the floor to tigthen up the screws of the tree stand and Sharon and Lauren inspected to make sure it was exactly centered. Yours truly, of course, was holding up the tree, being the manly man that I am. It truly is a 5 person job!

It is nice that the holidays are here. If you haven't already thought about your traditions for this season-do it now. The time slips by faster than you think and you're left with vague memories when you should be left with good times, good times.

Check your score...

Wow. Can you believe it! I'd like to thank the academy for giving me my breakthrough oppurtunity, my Mom for staying up with me all hours of the night to craft my term papers, i mean help me with my term papers, CCHS, PBAC, SWBTS, FRC, SBC, CBS...i think that covers it-rock strong!

Here comes the Christmas Express...

Saturday, December 8th we'll be partnering with the parents of 600 less fortunate children by providing those parents the oppurtunity to go Christmas shopping for their children. The coolest part about this is that these kidos won't even know what FRC did, but look at their parents as the Heroes! Cool, Kingdom stuff. You can participate by attending Christmas Express and being a sponsor and/or providing a gift for one of these children through FRC, Target.com or Toy-r-us.com. May your days be merry and bright! Allen

Family update

hi guys. Well it's time for another family update. Sharon and i are in the middle of BIG plans for Christmas 2007 at FRC. We work with some of the best, most creative, crazy, inspired, not right people that you could ever imagine! This year is going to be A Retro Christmas. Pretty cool stuff considering the timing of it all. Newsweek mag just had 1968 the year that changed everything on their latest edition, Tom Brokaw just wrote a book about growing up in the 60's and retro seems to be creeping around the corner everywhere you look, or is that just because I've been to our new Ikea 1 too many times!?! That happens when your wife's the Design director at a Retro-type church(i really don't know what that means-i was just on a role!). Erwin Mcmanus is always given credit to be the church's futurist but i've always said that TDG can take him anyday! Oh well, back to the update.

Our little Lorna(side note: Lauren's great-grandmother DiStefano accidently called her Lorna and it stuck-mystery solved!) is a full member now of Phi Sigma Sigma. She really has found a home with these girls. We got to spend some groovy time with her big sis Mich. She came to FRC and we had lunch afterwards. Very cool girl. It's also cool that Lauren can have a "big sister," which that priviledge has never been physcally possible! Brit is havin a blast in drama. She's also landed her first job(cue the herald trumpets, go on the timpani roll!) She's currently employed at Caffe' Di Amore'. Did you hear my french accent! They cater partys with gourmet coffee and chocalate fountains-hmmm. She's lovin it. Imagine, Brit in the people serving business. It's kinda like Batman meeting Robin, peanut butter meeting jelly, the Lone Ranger meeting-i'm sure you get it. It's a fit! Our Jen Jen is making the big adjustment in her fist year in HS and the grades and everything else is a-movin on up. She loooooves music, FRC and of course her family. Her Mama just helped make her a brunette-looks pretty cool. Hope that catches you up. Remember...sometimes the greatest gift is the one you already have-Rock strong-Allen

Drink from the fountain of leadership

I wish you could've been there. Maybe you were. last night at our staff mtg Pastor TDG truly represented. He totally brought us closer to our god-potential while reaching his. The big takeaway of the night??? Drum roll please...

Your success in ministry is determined by how you deal with the attacks.

This is one of those things I've ALWAYS believed. It's just so cool to hear it put so succinctly(that word's for you bro!). Other takeaways...

Who have i recruited to lead and not do? Wow!

Leadership has an expiration date so we have to evaluate(i'm slappin myself 5!)

Ministry is lonely so let people in-strong.

Gold i tell ya, pure gold. I must stop because i'm beginning to drown! I know this may seem like a total suck up to our beloved Pastor, but give me a break. It's like each time we get together God begins to do a new thing. Thank you Pastor Troy for listening to God. Thank you staff and friends for being willing to grow and be challenged and thank You God for allowing us to be the stewards of this overwhelming vision-50-100-150! Rock strong-Allen

the Domino effect

This wknd we kick off the Domino effect...what to do when you've made a bad desicion. Very powerful stuff! We've made up these very groovy cards with the Domino effect on one side and a free Starbucks giftcard on the other side for first time guests. We've made over 20,000 sooo if they all get redeemed we may need to take out a loan! Buy, it would be totally cool to have 20,000 first time guests over the next month! We had a cool Trunk or treat despite the effects of TS Noel. Brit had a good group setting things up and we were just about to complete our 3rd trunk when the heavens opened up. Oh my. It was a mess, but the kidos regrouped and moved the decos into the garage where we set up shop. It was a cool time. About 100-150 kidos came by and got good candy and a groovy Domino/Starbucks card. Sharon and I spent most of the evening at Our Party central location-Starbucks on sirling & pine island. Our Cooper city worship pastor Ricky Garcia set up the deal and had a very succesful evening. We bought everyone's coffee from 6pm-8pm, it was a little rainy, but the music provided by Priscilla, Jeff, Mark and Vaughn was awesome! God has gifted FRC in a great way. We are truly blessed. Thanks for giving of yourselves guys. The Kingdom ALWAYS gets bigger when we do this. Have a beautiful day and prayer for this wknd that people will MOVE toward God even if they've(we've) made a bad desicion-Rock strong-Allen