Last week, Josh’s mom was scheduled to come over and pick me up. (TWO broken Teague sewing machines- we HAD to get them to Joe the repairman as quickly as possible). After a very cheerful knock on the door, Mrs. Teague walked in, gave us some cookies, and was generally quite sunny and content.
It wasn’t until about a full minute of greetings and conversation later that she mentioned that she needed our help. As she was driving through the gate, it slammed shut and left a scratch on her Porshe.
Josh immediately left with her to go talk to the manager of the apartment. The manager’s first response was somewhat of denial. He told Mrs. Teague that it wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, but, well, “no one saw it happen.” Josh-he’s quick and asked him if the camera aimed at the gate hadn’t caught any of the action on tape. No, no, that camera just for monitoring, not taping. (No one was monitoring at the time.) The manager then got the idea to have Maxine, the leasing agent, drive her car through the gate.
If Mrs. Teague’s car needed a band-aid, Maxine’s car needed needed a stiff sling and a leg cast. The gate completely dinged in the side of her car while leaving a nice, long scratch.
The really sympathetic part of the story is after Maxine told the managerthat gate had, in her words, “killed her car,” the manager replied (to Josh and his mother), “Well, that’s good for you.”
He then went about contacting the gate company.
The coolest part is that after Mrs. Teague and I left, Josh had an idea for a good deed.
Remember that Mrs. Teague brought us cookies? She baked them for Josh because she felt like God wanted her to. Being the trusting Christian she is, she followed even though she wasn’t sure why cookies would suddenly be important.
Well, Josh decided to give them to the manager and Maxine to ease the feelings of everyone involved in a- wait, two- gate accidentS.
Of course, they were impressed, grateful, and caught by surprise.
That’s Josh, his mother, and God working together for you.

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When we started this blog over a year (!) ago, we used the first post to thank people for everything they had been doing for us and our engagement. Tonight as we ate a delicious dinner prepared by Josh, we talked about all the amazing things we’ve done and people we’ve met during our first year of marriage.

This year was a busy, crazy year! We joined up with our awesome community group, I started my first job, and I only threatened to quit my first job twice. Josh threatened to quit his first job and actually followed through. Thus sending him off to grad school while I move into a second year of teaching that is supposed to be easier than the first. (Prayers accepted.) Josh got his wedding ring resized- twice.

Josh won his first design award, complete with a trip to Paris, we went to four weddings of friends of ours, welcomed a new niece, and the first of our friends had a baby boy. We celebrated Silas’s first birthday, moved Annie into her freshman dorm, had two sets of friends get engaged, and went on our first helicopter ride. And saw Mount Rushmore and the Eiffel Tower. Not to mention the Anna Ruby Falls we visited just yesterday.

We thank Jesus for his blessings and faithfulness in our marriage this year.

We could go on, but pictures are worth so many more words. So here’s about 50,000 words summed up into little moments captured on film. Err — on digital screens from the past year. Some you’ll remember, some are new. Enjoy them all!

You probably have. But if you haven’t, you’re bound to soon enough . . . how about now? So MySpace is this online social network thing where every member (it’s free) has their own personal web page to post what they think describes them best — providing a “profile” is part of the signup process. I had heard the horrors of MySpace addictions through young people I know — YoungLife, siblings, etc. And of course through the press that it gets just about every day for the past year and a half.

I decided this week that my time was finally here to give it a try . . . after all, I am going back to college for more schooling (duh), so I figured I had at least get up to speed on the biggest thing since the iPod. At the same time though, I really didn’t want another place to keep track of messages, events, people, etc. I have a website a number of websites that I’m directly affiliated with. I’m easy to find on Google . . . that should be all people need to find/contact me.

They ask you to post a photo with your profile. I posted one solitary image . . . and yes I’ll admit that I posted one of my better photos, but I didn’t think much of it. The only information I put in my profile besides that I’m married (big clue, people), looking only for “friends and networking opportunities” (maybe “friends” is saying giving too much leeway?). Of course, they ask you to put in your age, your education background (so people can find you), and a few other minor details. Basically I pointed the page to my actual website at joshteague.com . . . thinking some extra traffic couldn’t hurt.

I probably should just give you the link to look for yourself. Sorry to waste your time here.

Anyway, overnight I apparently got placed in the “Cool New People” box that appears on everyone’s page and on the front page of MySpace. As I later will find out, this is something to be desired and is “hard to do.” This unwarranted publicity resulted in my Inbox being flooded with well over a hundred messages in an 8 hour period of time. I thought MySpace was suddenly holding my email account ransom or something. In addition to that, I had a hundred or so “Friend Requests” awaiting my response — which, sadly for them, meant immediate deletion. The messages though . . . we’ll keep those for the remainder of this post.

The messages I received can be grouped into one of the following (sometimes multiple!) categories seen below:
8 Celebrity Look-alike claims — John Cusack & Fred Savage. (?)
45 Random “Hi” messages. Thats all. Just a “Hi.”
34 Remarks of flattery.
1 Insulting Remark. “You are ugllie.”

And finally, as Lauren states, I seemed to have spoken to a generation of MySpace users who vowed never to join MySpace but found themselves falling to the prey. 34 messages fell into that category. We call them the MySpace Haters.

Here’s a few messages that stood out from the rest:

hey u obviously dnt knw me but i saw ur picture in the cool new ppl box, and i just wanted to say that u look very handsome, theres this shy yet stunning look ur eyes have, its a bit hard to explain. but i just wanted to let u knw wat type of alure you held…..srry for bothering u
- karen
——-
hay are you 15 i am buy
- nancy
——-
My names Martin, what’s Up bro! Just wanted to send this note first in hopes you will accept me as one of you buddy’s man. I am not gay so please don’t dismiss as such, I am a genuine friend, who will go out of my way if I think your cool, and sending you this message means just that? I hope to get to know all my myspace friends and get to party with everyone of them at least once! So if this mean a trip to come chill with me here in Long Beach, so be it. I will welcome you, and put you up, and feed you, and get you pre-drunk before we go to the Bars, and chill with some friends.
-Martin

Ok, I’m off to hang with Martin.