I’ve written about Hellotxt.com before. It’s a wonderful service whose main competitor is Ping.fm. Another noteworthy alternative is Loopt.com (especially since they have a nice iPhone app). All these services provide you the ability to update your “statusphere” (multiple online social services) with one, single update. It even allows you to update selected services if [...]

Sundown Friday. In years long before my own ancestry can be traced, a man’s body was removed from rough wooden poles before dusk. For religious reasons, the body must be buried before dark. He was dead, certainly. A staggeringly unusual death. Drama. Political intrigue. Controversy. Desertion. In only six hours, a man hailed as the [...]

We’ve had several days home now after our incredible trip to Alaska. I’ve processed a lot about our trip, and I know that our time spent with our friends there will continue to be used by God to teach us life lessons long into the days ahead. However, here are “10 Things I Learned in [...]

The volcano refugees are almost home.  We woke up this morning in Memphis. Not where we’d hoped we’d be when we left Anchorage yesterday morning. But we’re grateful to not have an ornery volcano spewing ash over our plane routes home. When we sat in the Alaskan Air plane yesterday a.m., we all breathed a [...]

Jesus I Never Knew, The by Phillip Yancy   Except for a couple of pages at the back of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed Yancey’s book that seeks to bring Jesus “down to earth” -again. He does not attempt to reincarnate Christ. Rather, he deftly gives us a grounded perspective of Jesus without the frills [...]

We were so excited! We made it to the airport this time… But as we turned in the rental car, the helpful Enterprise folks said, “Uh, I think they just canceled all flights out today…” Sure enough, while I was standing there, with a dumbfounded look on my face, my Twitter alert from Alaska Air [...]

This is a pretty awesome video from the Ground Truth Trekking blog that shows a time lapse video of Redoubt’s eruptions: Redoubt Eruption March 27 2009 from Bretwood Higman on Vimeo.

So which do you want first? Aaaahhh. The bathroom remodel is going well this afternoon. Just in case we have to live here for 3-4 months, Mike decided to add another bathroom downstairs. That way, two families won’t be sharing one. I’ve been helping *watching* him tile Saturday afternoon. On the flight front, Redoubt Volcano [...]

Alaska went from beautiful to bizarre on Thursday. We were supposed to fly out Thursday night, so Mike went back to work to begin some return to normalcy and routine. But at 9:24 a.m. Alaska Time (12:24 p.m. CST), Redoubt erupted again. This time, however, it was a tremendous explosion that shot debris and ash [...]

We’ve been in Alaska since last Thursday night, and it’s amazing what we’ve been able to cram into a week, thanks to the ever-tireless efforts and prodding of a pregnant Kristy. She’s got more energy than we do! You should have seen her sledding down Hatchers Pass. (Just kidding, Ginger!) Yesterday, I went to work [...]

  I tweeted yesterday that we were heading to Alyeska to watch the kids and Carolyn ski. I received great abuse on Facebook and Twitter about not going skiing myself. Here’s the rub… I tried the skiiing thing 10+ years ago when I took a collegiate group to Canada. We went to beautiful Banff. I [...]

Monday was a relief. We did relatively nothing. No long road trips. No snow machine excursions. No polar bear plunge. (I keep seeing this glint in Mike’s eye, and so I’ve been wary outside when I’m around him.) No sledding. Nothing special planned. It was wonderful. Monday was our first opportunity to just be with [...]

Here’s the text of a recent comment I left on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg’s fan page: Facebook is getting as busy as MySpace was when I left the latter for that reason three years ago. PLEASE remove all the junk from the Lifestream. 90% of folks don’t want to know who made what moves in [...]

Sunday in Alaska. By the time we were dragging ourselves out of bed from happy exhaustion from sledding the day before, our friends and church in Monticello were already beginning worship. We went to Mike and Kristy’s church, Wasilla Bible Church, and enjoyed being able to worship with them. Though we didn’t see Sarah Palin [...]

It’s been a weekend of white wonder. I’ve never sledded quite like I did yesterday at Hatchers Pass. Nor have I have driven a snow mobile/machine until today. Both experiences left my family and the Hales in high states of joy and wonder.  Alaska is such an incredible place. It’s intoxicating. Yes, it’s mind-numbingly cold [...]