So this is how my week has been so far. Towards the end of last week we received a mdical bill…from the emergency room…from before Asa was born. This was only days after we had finished clearing up all of Asa’s medical bills from his birth.

Saturday we received a letter from our mortgage company saying they had to drain our escrow account to pay the property taxes for the first half of 08. This is because the title company wasn’t intelligent enough to find out they weren’t paid before we bought the house. Now if we don’t get the seller (the government) to refund our escrow account, our monthly payments are going increase drastically.

And now I’m sitting on the cold concrete sidewalk outside of a Chevron as the guy is hooking up our van to tow cause the transmission died on it. This is our only vehicle and we really don’t have a lot of spare cash laying around to fix it.

This trend seems to happen pretty often in our family. Just when life seems to be going semi-smooth, Murphy shows up with all his friends and has a kegger in my living room.

But here is the other cool trend in my life, God always shows up a few days later and kicks Murphey’s @$$.

I must say things are really crappy right now, but I look forward to seeing what God is going to do in the days to come.

I ran my first triathlon today…this is a video recapping the event. As soon as they post the results, I put up the results for me and all my friends from church that ran with me.

UPDATE:
The results from the tri have been poster. You can go here to see everyone’s results.

Here are the results for me and my friends:
Men:
49th Nathan Schmidt 1:34:09.15
64th David Williams 1:40:27.80
71st Ryan Wallace 1:44:25.10
74th Greg Qualls 1:49:20.55

Women:
21st Misty Davis 1:42:18.00
33rd Tracey Odonnell 1:48:36.85
67th April Barreiro 2:22:52.05

We finally closed on our new house last Thursday and moved in on Saturday. I wish I could say things have been all sunshine and lollipops, but I can’t. This is the ninth time Shannon and I have moved since we’ve known each other. I have to say in general moving sucks.

We closed a week later than we planned. So we only had 48 hours to try to get the house ready for move in.
The walls are half painted (literally the top half).
The paint sprayer caused more of a mess than help (user error).
Due to a busy schedule, we didn’t have the house completely packed when friends showed up to move us.
Due to a misscommunication, we don’t have the gas hooked up. So we don’t have a heater or hot water or a way to cook food or a way to clean Asa’s bottles.
All our stuff is in boxes and we can’t unpack until we’re done painting.
We don’t have Internet (so I’m writting this on my phone).
We don’t have cable (I would have to find the reciever anyways).
And Shannon and I think we’re coming down with a cold.
MOVING SUCKS!

But God is better than all this. He has constantly provided for us throughout this move and given us peace beyond what we could have imagine.

He provided friends to help us move (close to like 20+ people).
He provided heat for our house (wood burning stove and a stack of wood).
He provided the refrigerator of my wive’s dreams in our price range (clearance baby!).
He has provided strength and rest for me as I’ve been doing 20 hour days.
He has provided grace and forgiveness for me as I’ve been cranky and a jerk.
He has provided food.
He has provided us with a new place to call home.
He has provided us a new neighborhood to minister in.
He has provided.

Moving might suck, but God is good.

I’ve been reading through C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility with my friend Alf and it has been really good. We both decided that we needed to cultivate a little humility (ok a lot) in our lives. This book has been transformational. C.J.’s insights have opened my eyes to really see how much pride is really in my life.

In the last chapter we read, C.J. wrote about looking for God’s works of a grace in our lives and those that are around us. He talked about how Paul was able to see good things in the church at Corinth even though they were more screwed up than a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich (my illustration not his). He talked about how only a truly humble person can see the work’s of grace in those that are messed up.

This hit really hard to home for me. I have to admit that I’m a pretty critical person. I’m not very big at looking for the grace in others lives and definitely not in my own life. I’m usually the first person to find faults and then exploit them through veil of sarcasm.

This hit home the other night after church when I was getting a few drinks with my friends at the Copper Lounge. We were all praying for my friend Carl (yes in a bar…and the waitress said it was beautiful) and Carl in turn started to pray for all of us at the table (he’s a great guy like that). He started praying about the miracle that was about to happen in my life and thanking God for the every day miracles in our lives.

It struck me at that moment that God is about to work a miracle in Shannon’s and my life. We’ve been in a little bit of denial that we are going to actually have a kid, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen (place you bet here ). This entire time of Shannon’s pregnancy and the upcoming birth I have been blind to the grace that God has been working in our lives. I have been blind to the miracle that is about happen.

God’s grace is blatantly obvious and I have been blatantly cold to what He is doing. I haven’t been aware of the way that He has sustained us during this time. How He has given us strength. How He has given us rest. How He has provided. How He has been there with us every step of the way and how He will be with us to the end. My eyes have been blind, but now I see (that’s kinda catchy…someone should write a song).

It’s funny how even though we don’t acknowledge God’s grace He still decides to work in our lives. But now that I’m able to see the miracle that is at hand, I have a new sense of excitement that has come over me. I’m waiting for a miracle and that my friends is going to be great thing to see.

I regret to tell everyone that this will be the last Beer Tip of the Day on GregQualls.com. But don’t worry. I have something special in the works that I’ll reveal to everyone in a week or so. Until then enjoy this final BTotD.

Here is the reality. Most beers are served too cold and this is a bad thing. I remember growing up and seeing signs at the local bars that said, “Coldest beer in town.” The only problem with this is that most beers aren’t meant to be served at super frigged levels. By drinking your beer extremely cold, it does two things.

1. It doesn’t allow the beer to “open up” and reveal all of it’s wonderful aromas.
2. It numbs your tastes buds and inhibits you from being able to experience the full flavor of the beer.

Now certain beer companies serve their beers at extremely low temperatures to disguise the real taste of the beer (which would be categorized as disgusting). I see this as one of Big Business’ greatest conspiracies to dupe the American beer drinker. They want you to think that you need to drink beer really cold. Then they can sell you their crap and have you think that it is good. To use a friends analogy, “It’s like the Wal-Mart greeter. They’re there to make you feel happy about all the crap you’re about to buy.”

Well I’m sorry…I’m not happy.

So what temperature should you drink your beer at? That is a wonderful question, and I’m glad you asked. Each style of beer actually has a different temperature. The general rule is to drink it at the same temperature that it was fermented at. If you’re like me, you’re not going to go out and research to see what temperature your beer was fermented at. So I’ve included a handy chart from herestobeer.com that will give you an idea of what temperature your beer should be served.

So here is your homework for this week. Get a beer with which you are familiar with the flavor. Now take your time drinking it and take note of how the flavor and smell changes as the temperature of the beer changes.

Until next time, enjoy your beer.

So Shannon and I like to go for walks in the mall. If you leave your wallet and purse in the car, it’s actually pretty fun. We get out of the cold and you can always stop for a fresh pretzel.

There is one thing that is mandatory in our walks at the mall. We have to stop at Brookstone and use the iSqueez. The iSqueez is a foot massager that does more than the usual moving nodules and vibrations. As the name states, it actually squeezes you feet.

At first this might sound like a cheap gimmick, but then you try it and you are stuck (literally and figuratively). There is a reason it is $399. Because people will pay that much for a few minutes in heaven (two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven). It has taken a lot of self control to not pony up the money right there on the spot (and from the look in the salesman’s eyes…he expects me to).

Shannon and I actually planned on buying it (on ebay for much cheaper) as our Valentines day gift. It didn’t work out though. So now I’m thinking about trying to register for it for our baby shower. We registered for a 50″ plasma screen TV (what else is the kid going to watch Baby Einstein on). Why not this?