So about six months ago Shannon and I started our search for a home to buy.  Being first time home owners we had a vague idea of what we wanted in a house….three bedroom, two bath, lots a space to grow.  Our realtor started showing us houses in Albquerque, and we started to get depressed.

It seemed like there weren’t really any good houses in our price range.  They were either to small or so run down that they were on the verge of being condemened.  That was until we came accross “the house.”  The second we walked through the front door we fell in love.  It had everything we were looking for in a house and then some.  Most importantly it was in our price range.

There was some small problems though.  The Realtor for the house was a little crooked.  He was part owner and was trying to do a short sale.  But he failed to mention that he was a part owner and that the house was going to foreclose on if he didn’t get someone to pay cash for it in the few days he had left.  By God’s grace we found out and didn’t get caught in a huge mess that could have happened.

So fast forward to this last Sunday.  The house ended up going into forclosure, and no one bought it at auction.  So it came back on the market this last Sunday as a HUD home.  That brought up some small problems since we are qualified for a FHA loan and generally it’s hard to buy HUD houses with FHA loans.  Things are ok though, but we have one last issue to overcome.

HUD houses are sold by a bidding process.  Everyone interested in the house puts in a bid (not knowing if anyone else is bidding or the other bids if there are any) and the most cost effective bid for the government wins.  There’s no counter offers or anything.  You get one chance.  So now we are seeking the prayer support of all our friends.

We really feel like God is opening up the doors for us to get this house (there is so much more to the story that I’m not sharing due to time).  This house is more than a house.  We see it as a place where we can truly do ministry for God.  The only thing we have left to figure out is how much we need to bid.

So please pray that God would give us a clear direction on what to bid for the house.  Pray that He would give us wisdom. Pray that He would give us peace.  Pray that He would ulitimatly give us the house.  Thanks so much and feel free to pass this along to anyone else.  We are meeting with our realtor on Thursday to put in our bid and will find out on Monday if we got the house or not.

Every now and then I have to go on business trips for UPS.  I really don’t like going.  Generally their pointless, but mostly it’s because I have to be away from Shannon (and now Asa).  I have to eat alone, watch TV alone, and sleep alone.  It’s really depressing.

But this week Shannon and Asa went with Shannon’s mom to Denver to see some family.  I have determined that I don’t like going on business trips…but I hate having my wife and kid leave me at home alone.  Like a business trip, I have to eat alone (and now I have to make it too), watch TV alone, and sleep alone, but I have to do this at home where everything reminds me of them.

I’ve been cleaning the house today so Shannon can come home and relax, and everything reminds me of the two of them (hince the reason I’m blogging to take my mind off of it…but I’m blogging about them so it’s not working).  Making the bed, folding the laundry, cleaning the kitchen, picking up the house, all reminds me of the two of them.  So I’ve determined that I’m never letting them leave me home alone again…..yeah that’s about it.

So men…if you’re at home with your wives and kids…realize your blessing and tell your wife how much you love her and spend some time playing with your kids.  Sometimes you don’t realize how pitiful you are until you’re all alone again.

P.S. Don’t worry about me…Shannon and Asa come home tomorrow.

He is a total rock star!

Asa turned three months old this last thursday.  The boy is really starting to grow fast.  He has already doubled his birth weight and is over 12 lbs.  All his clothes were starting to get tight on him.  So, we had to pull out all of his 3-6 month clothes that we had stored for just this day.

I can’t remember if we bought this Rock Star outfit for him or not, but we just had to share the picture with everyone.

He is really starting to show his personality.  He is a morning person (unfortunatly for mom and dad).  Afte we feed him in the morning he loves to smile and play.  Most morning he actually greats me with a smile as I come into his nursery.  Oh and he is sleeping through the night now.  Every now and then we’ll have to change his diaper at 4 am, but that’s about it.

Asa practicing for his graduation pictures.

He isn’t enjoying tummy time to much, but we keep working with him.  He does love his Bumbo though.  For those of you that don’t know a Bumbo is a special chair that lets pre-sitters be able to sit up.  He’ll sit in his for hours if you let him.

He is also starting to eat a lot more.  The boy puts down 6 oz easily every feeding.  Mom and Dad didn’t realize if for about a week, but he was really fussy because we hadn’t been feeding him enough (you couldn’t tell from all the baby chub he has).  But we uped his formula and the boy is happy now.

Well that is just about it for now.  We’ll try to keep this site updated as much as possible.  Hope you enjoy.

I love what this ministry is doing. They are shining the light of Jesus in the darkest of places. These women (yeah I would say this is a calling for women only…unless the guys want to go to the gay strip-club) are going into strip-clubs and giving the strippers gift baskets to show them the love of Jesus. How awesome it that?!

I say we start to change this world with the love of Jesus one strip-club at a time.

Props to Los on this one.

Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC had a trailer stolen that had 75% of everything the church owned in it.  Ok it’s not awesome that they got 75% of their stuff stolen, but it is awesome in how they responded.  They posted this video on youtube and also put up some billboards around town to try to get in contact with the thief.   They know the ultimate reason why they had the stuff in the first place.  I have to give the guys at Kinetic Church some mad props.  For what they did, I don’t know if I could have done the same thing.

Check out some other stories on the same event:

Here and Here

Ok so Alf and I did a video update today…but for some reason it has no audio.  So here are some quick thoughts:

• Matt Chandler is awesome…he is a new favorite teacher.
• John Piper seems like he is on the edge of crazy and that is awesome!
• Seattle has some good beer.
• I like Jamison (I don’t know how to spell) whiskey
• If you want to watch the lessons live from home (for free) you can go to theresurgence.com/live  (hurry the conference ends tomorrow)
• I miss Shannon
• Mark Driscoll’s love for his kids makes me look forward to being a daddy
• Mark Driscoll’s love for his wife make me proud to have a wife like Shannon
• Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, John Piper, CJ Mahaney’s love for Christ gives me a passion to grow closer to Jesus and to spread the gospel
• I know that I’m called…I think God will clarify to me later
• The guys that I’m out here with are great men of God and I love them

That’s all for now…I’m on Alf’s laptop and the battery is about to go.  Until next time.

I just got an email from my mom:

These are pictures from the alley behind our house, Denny’s, and Jordan’s School. Just to let you know how close it is. The smoke is blowing away from the house so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Love you,
Mom

Here are the pics:

If you’re like me, you like to read.  If you like to read, then you probable have a few books.  If you have a few books, then you should probable have a way of keeping track of what you have.  So I present to you LibraryThing.com.  I just found out about this place last night and I’m loving it.

LibraryThing.com is a place to store all you information on the books that you have.  And it is so simple to do.  You just enter either the title of the book or the ISBN, find the book in the corresponding search, and add it to your library.   The let you do up to 100 books for free and then after that it is $10 a year for unlimited books.

I fell in love with this online app instantly.  I don’t have a huge library, but Shannon and I are adding to it every week.   It is slowly getting to that tipping point where I won’t be able to remember what books we have anymore.  This will allow me to keep track of them and even search for certain topics.

I’ve already started adding my books and I’m about a fourth of the way through.  If you want to check out my catalog, you can go to:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gregqualls

Try it out and tell me what you think about it.

Or about the baby’s sex.

So we ended up getting in on Saturday to have Shannon’s ultrasound instead of waiting until the 25th. Shannon and I were so excited because we knew that the baby was now big enough to find out the sex (see my previous baby post to find out my feelings about waiting to find out). So we got up early on Saturday and went to Shannon’s appointment.

The whole morning I was anxious knowing that I was about to find out the big news. The lady that did the procedure was really nice (you got to think that is pretty fun part of her job…getting to tell people what they are going to have). The baby on the other hand wasn’t being very cooperative. They kept moving around and had their legs crossed almost the whole time. The lady doing the procedure was having to do some ultrasound gymnastics just to get the pictures that she needed.

She didn’t get a really clear view, but with the shots that she did get, she was 75% sure that we are having a bouncing baby boy (emphasize the bouncing part…that kid was really moving around a lot). There is a small chance that it could end up being a girl…but I saw something purturding in the pictures that she took. We are both excited and really surprised. Shannon was really set on the fact that she thought we were having a girl. I think she is a little depressed, but we will love him just the same. And there is always a chance for more.

We have already picked out the name at the moment and we are calling him Asa Jackson Qualls. Asa is one of my favorite Bible people, and Shannon really liked the name Jackson to go with it. Things are really starting to sink in now. The nicest thing is that we can stop saying “him or her.” It’s going to be nice to just say “him” from here on out.

Today Shannon and I went to the doctor to have Shannon’s check up for the month of January. Before I tell you about the appointment, I must say that I love our Nurses Midwife. She has this quirky Doogie Howser feel about her. You can also tell that she really loves what she does. I just love people who are passionate about what they do (she seems as excited about finding out the baby’s gender as we are). She is also so nice about listening to all of Shannon’s and my questions and answering them. She’s just top notch.Now back to the baby. Shannon is currently in her 19th week. The baby is doing fine and growing at a normal rate. We got to hear his or her heart beat and it’s beating strong. We have an appointment to get an ultrasound on the 25th (we’re trying to get it scheduled earlier). We should be able to find out the baby’s gender at this time.Don’t give me the whole “Don’t you want to be surprised?!” bit. Here’s the deal. We don’t know what the baby is right now. So at any point that we find out the gender of the baby next week or in June, it will then be a surprise.Incase you are wondering, Shannon really thinks that it is a girl. We’ve kinda got our hearts set on it being a girl now because of that. But if we have a boy, I think we’ll be just as happy. As long as it’s not a donkey, I’m ok.