Phillips family visit pictures

Click here to view photos of Phillips family visit.

Another update: "Running away from the Rat Race"

So we're still at it. We received our approval from the HOA and bought my dad's tickets last week. I'll try to hold my tongue regarding the HOA.
Dad will touch down at 3:19pm this Saturday and we will "commence to start" on the room addition, or more specifically the wall addition.  Last night I was fortunate enough to contribute a little more wear and tear to my friend Stephen's truck.  We borrowed the truck to make a Lowe's run and proceeded to spend $1100 on supplies for the wall.  We were able to load everything but the patio door (which will be delivered) in the truck and get it home in one piece.  So (18) 2x4x8 studs, (1) 2x4x12 treated board, (3) 32"x36" windows, (2) 1 lb. boxes of 16d nails, (1) 5 lb. box of 8d nails, (2) 1 lb. boxes of 1.5" galvanized nails, a few spare sheets of 3/8" sheetrock from Stephen and 1 tube of construction adhesive stand at the ready for my Master Carpenter Father to hit the scene and put to use.  I can't wait to see this transformation, it's always so fulfilling to participate in the change, though I'm sure my body will strike back.  We'll try to remember to post pics and hopefully not long after dad's departure next Friday this house will be up on the market.

Update: 'Running away from the Rat Race'

We're still running away, however it seems like we're running more into the race right now.  We are house hunting and trying to line things up to get our house on the market.  We have looked at more than 25 houses, yikes! and are going back today to take a second look at two that have strong potential.  Our house is going to get an additional room before it hits the market. Luckily to add this room requires only the building of one single wall. Slowing things down right now is the 'waste of my time and money' HOA (I dislike HOAs strongly and pledge to never live where I have one again).  When we get that approval we'll fly my dad in for a few days, build a wall and whalaa! 160+ new sq ft (and a better price point).  Don't know what the timing will be on this all but we're getting tired already... hopefully just a few more weeks of this... hopefully.

Update on 'Running away from the Rat Race'

So we dove into the house search last weekend and have made some good progress.  I believe we have the neighborhoods narrowed down so that we don't go chasing things that are beyond where we'd like to live.  Durham is and interesting and very unique town in that neighborhood is everything when finding a place to live.  You can't just say, the whole of such-and-such area is a great place to live because things change here in fairly short distances and you have to pay attention to what the particular neighborhood you're looking in is like.  We've also made significant progress on prepping the house to put on the market.  With family coming into town we had serious motivation to get more things done as well.  We had my parents for the weekend and will have my brothers and my niece & nephew joining us on Wednesday.  The plan for now is to have the house up soon after they all return to the glorious state of Minnesota.
Please, if you know someone looking to move to Durham and then need 3 bedrooms and 1600 sq ft, let us know.

the worst human creation ever...

Please follow the link below to a post regarding human trafficking on my other blog.  Whether you agree with my beliefs on Jesus or not I think you'll agree with me on this one.


http://fameandfullness.blogspot.com/2009/09/worst-human-creation-ever.html

For all my Durham loving friends!

Rachel and I were talking last night about continuing to grown in our love for Durham and desire to serve it well.  She was re-counting to me some thoughts she had as she drove around downtown Saturday stopping off at different places.  So we find this town continues to grow on us and we find ourselves enjoying it more and more.

Well I read this morning in the Durham Magazine blog that we are definitely not alone!  Check out this short article to see what I'm talking about and join us in loving this city!

Running away from the Rat Race

So we have decided to run away from the Rat Race. It has been building for a while but we recently crossed over and completely sold ourselves on the decisions we've wrestled with.

That decision mainly involves selling our house. It's a beautiful house, the nicest we've ever lived in and we like it a lot, but it's killing so much of who/what we want to be. In order to stay in this house long-term I would either have to start trying to climb ladders to reach more money or Rachel would have to stay in the workplace while we try to begin a family. Our feeling is that either of these things would continue to lead to the typical American life (as displayed in the comic) of never being happy and always needing more. We don't want that life, we want Rachel at home with the kids, we want a fruitful life of building the Kingdom of Jesus not just our kingdom, we don't want to run that meaningless race. And so we are choosing the life we want over the house we want.

This means we're going to try and find a much more affordable house, one that perhaps needs some work (as I am capable of a significant amount of home improvement due to my father teaching me), one that will help us in our pursuit of fostering community, making a difference in Durham and living less hectic lives. We aren't after some sort of pipe dream of a life with no stress, perfect harmony and sunny days. We realize the reality that life will never be easy and that this move won't change that. However we also realize that these changes will better center our lives on the things that matter like other people, our family, generosity and the gospel.

So hopefully the next several updates on the blog will be about the sale of our house, the locating of our new home, the move, the repairs, etc. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RACHEL!!!
On Saturday (Aug. 15th), my beautiful wife turns 28 - I know she looks 21 :) - and we're going to celebrate in STYLE. I can't yet say on this post what's in store for us but it should be a special birthday celebration for her. While I believe that I am fairly good at showing my wife the special attention she deserves on her special day I was hoping for a little help so... leave your comments people and share the Birthday wishes for this special woman whether you call her sister, daughter, co-worker or friend. I'll pull up the site on Saturday afternoon to let her see so don't delay. :)

thanks!
-dp-

summer visits 09

Click here to view these pictures larger

Real estate bad mouthing...

I'm no fool, I know Durham has a bad reputation among many in the Triangle and I've tried to get to a place where it doesn't bother me. Most recently I've actually tried to be happy about our bad image as represented in my last post. But, despite my efforts I'm mad again. This recent blog post at Bull City Rising got me wondering if it's ever going to stop. Check out the post and consider trying the Indy's experiment yourself to see what the results are, I'm going to try it at lunch.
No matter what happens I'm falling more and more in love with this city every day and I'm proud to call it home. I guess I'm just troubled by the fact that not so many others may get this chance because they're steered away.

Welcoming the unwelcomed comments

Came across a new Durhamite's blog today. Found it hilarious that Durham still gets comments like "do you get a bullet proof vest at the [house] closing." As I commented on his post, it's fine that we still get that rap, keeps us diverse and unique... I LOVE DURHAM! Welcome Sam.

http://samsongs.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/discovering-durham-1/

Phillips updates here... Derrick's thoughts elsewhere.

I've adjusted some things so that this blog is now dedicated only to updates from our personal lives. We have added Rachel as a contributor to this blog and hopefully will be better suited to keep the family info coming.
As for all of the theological ramblings and "what's on the mind of Derrick" thoughts, those can now be found at a new blog called Fame & Fullness. Read this post to catch the motivation behind the changes and the new blog.

More family updates coming soon...

-DerRach

Our time with Joy

This summer, like every other for the last several years, Rachel and I got to have Joy, her younger sister, come spend some time with us. Her visit this time was quite short as she leaves today after only 10 days. We usually get to take some time off work and dedicate a few of the days exclusively to her and doing fun, memorable things together. So last week on Friday Rachel was off and I left work early in the afternoon and we caught a matinee together.

After that it was a few hours at Frankie's Fun Park for mini-golf, go carts and laser tag. Then on Saturday we went horseback riding at Dead Broke Farms for 2 hours. It was a great time but man were we hurting the next day.

We treasure these times with Joy and are unsure what the future holds for us with her. She has always come to visit during her summer break from school but now she is done with High School. We hope she will continue to be a part of our lives and us a part of hers. Of course we'll always see her at family get togethers but it feels like our bond with her is so strong that we would really miss it if we didn't have time together with just her. So here's hoping that this connection doesn't fade as she finds her way in the post-high school world, yes, the real world. Joy, know that we love you so much and are thankful for the times and memories we have been able to experience with you. We're proud of you and look forward to seeing what comes in your future.

You are only hurting yourself by being a bad neighbor ~or~ Missing out on 2 years of amazing Mexican food

So Rachel & I finally ventured over to Las Palmas resaurant on Wake Forrest highway (there are 4 locations in the triangle) only a half mile from our house and found what is certainly the best and most authentic Mexican food we have had yet in Durham. (these guys agree)

The great thing about this is that our favorite Mexican spot in IL has finally met it's match and it's just around the corner. The bad thing about this is that it took a full 2 years to finally try the place and it's just around the corner. And what's worse is that the guy who runs the place is our neighbor and we've known this for some time but still hadn't tried it.

We are bad neighbors. I almost wanted to hang my head in shame when I took the first bit of my chicken enchiladas, it was so good and it's just around the corner and my neighbor runs the place.

This goes to show, you are only hurting yourself by being a bad neighbor.

I keep forgetting

Every time I think about posting something here I seem to forget to actually follow through by writing it. I've got to get better at this. Recently I have wanted to post about an Acts 29 Network Boot Camp I was privileged enough to serve at, the new community group that has begun meeting at our house weekly, the difference between the NHL and MN state high school hockey, our weekly date nights, and a very interesting and informative BCR post about regional leaders meeting to talk about our area's development.
Funny I can't remember to actually post but can remember the items I was going to post about... something's wrong... oh well. So follow the links above if you want to read other peoples' stuff on some of those issues (except the date night & hockey ones, those were actually going to be original) and hopefully I begin remembering soon with this new string that I have tied to my finger. :)

I used to live there.

Springfield, IL... currently the scandalous center of the world used to be my home. Yep.
I even brushed shoulders with
THIS MAN once.











Just before I left the deeply corrupted state of Illinois I was working for the Auditor General's office part-time. About every other day we delivered thousands of pages worth of reports to representatives, officers and then Governor Rob Blagojevich's office (and yes I can pronounce his name correctly). We were just inside the security doors in the basement of the Capitol picking up items from the print shop when "Blago" stepped in. He smiled, winked, waved and even shook a few guys hands (not mine) as he passed by us on his way in for the day. That was my one encounter with the newly ousted fellow. I did hear him speak at the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum as well but that day he was greatly overshadowed by then President George W. Bush and a Freshman Senator from Illinois with great ambition by the name of Barack Obama.

So there ya go. I've encountered the guy who's been impeached by an ALL to NONE vote in the Illinois Senate. This Chicago Tribune write up calls it a historic impeachment vote. With all the history of late, I'd hardly like to credit Mr. Blagojevich with making history at all. I do hope, however, in all of this he is humbled and sees the pain he's caused his family and the emberassment he's brought to his state. But at current I believe he still holds that he did nothing wrong.

May we all continue to learn the dangers we will encounter if we live our lives in secret, planning and scheming for our own promotion. I would love to see our government become more transparent like our new President promises. Even more so, I'd like to see it happen among neighbors, friends and families.

snow in NC

I had to get up and drive Rachel into work this morning because there was snow on the ground. My company closed and since I didn't have to rush home I drove around and got some pics of Durham under a blanket of snow.

me back on the waggon... for now

So I've had every good intention of getting back on the blog-waggon for the last several months but repeatedly failed to post for weeks at a time. I think my problem is I don't feel like it's really a post unless I say something significant or write a really, really long post. So in this post I will attempt to avoid both pitfalls and make this incredibly self-centered and insignificant while also keeping it short.

So here's a list of what's going on/gone on with me:
1) I had a cool chance to go to MN on business and happened to have time to see family
2) My dog doesn't have cancer (that's not a random statement, he had a "growth")
3) My hands are really dry
4) I hurt myself while scoring a goal in my hockey game last night
5) I'm working with some amazing people at launching the Durham campus of Vintage21 Church (starts Sun 1/18 @ 11am - more info here & here)
6) We are keeping our house extra warm right now with real wood fires
7) Shower in our master bath is still the way it was 2 months ago... busted
8) Refrigerator light is still the way it was 2 months ago... short circuited
9) The book of James is kicking my butt
10) I am totally in love with my wife and we have committed 100% to Friday night dates for the year of 2009 (& hopefully beyond)

There ya go, all about me, and kinda short.