of dallas, weddings, & scottie too hottie

my boy Scott is getting married TOMORROW!

it's so crazy that he's tying the knot.
Scott was my roommate in college. we met our 1st day as freshmen and were great friends ever since. played soccer together, hung at the beach together all the time, & had some awesome good times together.

i think i invented the nickname for him - "Scottie too hottie", but don't quote me on that. i remember being an ardent user of it at least.

i haven't actually seen him in person since my wedding over 6 years ago. that's a long time, but we picked up right where we left off. i had to beat him down in FIFA just now (4-1) just like the olden days when we were roommates :)

he's actually teaching some fancy classes at a local private college - DBU. check out this classroom he teaches in. that's what i'm talking about! i never remember a college classroom looking like that. really nice campus and facilities.

then next door to the college is The Potter's House where T.D. Jakes is pastor. i had no idea he lived so close. it's a pretty massive place with an overflow parking across the street that rivals the parking of a small stadium.
i thought about seeing if i could talk to T.D. but i didn't have an appointment or anything, you know...

anyway, really good to hang with Scott again after all these years - & i've hung with 2 of his bros so far & the rest of the fam is on the way in. rehearsal & rehearsal dinner tonight. maybe i'll surprise Scott with an embarrassing speech or something.

i met his fiance for the 1st time today and she seems awesome. we hung out for a while as we were looking for Scotts' passport for over an hour :)  haha, i don't think he would have thought to look for it yet if she hadn't asked him.
found it though, so no worries.

pumped to celebrate Scott & Katy getting married tomorrow. proud of you bro.

the bean & belle

i can't even begin to express how STOKED i am about the big, huge, EPIC Grand Opening of "The Bean & Belle" tomorrow!

i predict that this children's art studio will be dank, dope, exquisite, righteous, and (add your own stereotypical adjective here) _________  all at the same time.



this is YOUR special invitation to be there at the Grand Opening & Open House tomorrow anytime between 10am-5pm. you really don't want to miss this. (And if you're there at 10 you might even get to meet the Mayor!)



it's right in the heart of downtown Waxhaw. click HERE for the website (where you can also find directions to the B&B).



and if you come you might even find out more about the mystery room!

but whether you make it to the big day tomorrow or not, if you have children you seriously need to SIGN THEM UP. we're all created as artists. we were created to be creative. that's just who we are. i'm thankful my mom took me to art class after art class as a child and awakened my creativity.



and art is one of the most awesome ways to express the beauty that surrounds us in this life and point toward things that are more revolutionary... to point toward a world that will be even more beautiful than this.



as awesome as this art studio is, to me, the fruition of the vision is even more beautiful. our awesome friend, Jen Williams had this vision long ago for the B&B - a flippin awesome children's art studio. & tomorrow is when it "comes to pass". that's a beautiful thing. a dream birthed in her heart is now born. i can resonate with that 100%



proud and excited for her. she's like my "blood sister-in-law" or "sister-in-blood" as she might call it. could basically count these B&B founders like family. privileged to have even a peak into their journey.



look out Waxhaw (& beyond) this is the era of THE BEAN AND BELLE.



if you don't make it to the Bean and Belle you're missing out. so, i'll see you there.

cheers

my guess is that today (happy 4th of July, btw) many people will be raising a glass and declaring "Cheers" to a friend or 2.

have you ever wondered WHY we do that? where did that custom come from?
if so, then read on... or if you've never wondered, but now i've got you curious... just keep reading.

i heard the explanation from my friend Andrew. Andrew is pictured below on the far right of the pic below and his sweet wife Catherine is on my right in the pic. (Andrew Guuru is the Kenya Director for 410 Bridge and i'm privileged to call him my friend.)

Crystal and i got to know Andrew in Kenya working with Karima which is a community he works directly with. This pic was actually in his home near Karima.

Then a couple weeks later Crystal and i were living in the Havilla Children's Home a couple hours away and Andrew came to visit us twice! it was definitely awesome to see a familiar face. even though we had just met Andrew a few weeks earlier, it felt like we had known him a lot longer.

Andrew came over and we played soccer with a lot of the boys at the children's home... but of course we had tea together 1st... as Kenyans always do during a visit.

i think i must have said "cheers" or something like that or we maybe bumped glasses? Andrew asked if i knew where that custom came from... so here's the story.

when someone came over for a visit and their friend served them something to drink there was always a suspicion that their drink could be poisoned in order to kill their "friend". \
not cool.

Apparently this happened a lot, so to keep the host honest the guest would always clang his glass to the glass of his host so that some of his beverage sloshed out into the glass of his host. if the host drank then the guest figured his drink was not poisoned and he could trust his friend.

but then the custom began among GOOD friends who wanted to display trust. if i came to your house and TRUSTED you 100% then i would gently bump my glass to yours NOT letting any slosh into your glass and simply say "CHEERS" showing my absolute trust for you, my friend. trusting that you didn't poison my drink and i'll drink up without any worries.

so, Andrew and i bumped our glasses that day--careful not to let any slosh out into each other's glass--and said "Cheers".

i hope we get to do that again one day. i'm sure we probably will.