Archive for 'Personal'
Soapbox: My technology pet peeve
Posted on 20. Dec, 2011 by Kenny.
There’s probably no way I can write this post without coming across as a little bit of a jerk… so I apologize and the front end. This isn’t directed to any particular person… but just multiple encounters I seem to have on a weekly basis.
It seems that almost everyone has a smart phone today. That’s probably thanks to the iPhone where a very friendly mobile internet is available to all. With our phones, we have access to almost anything and everything. It’s an amazing time in which we live.
My pet peeve comes from when people with these amazing tools to access almost infinite knowledge ask me questions that no longer seem necessary any more. Obviously, if its something I should know that you don’t know, then ask me. But if it’s one of those things that very few people would know… then for goodness sake, look it up. Google it. Map it.
I know some people with a smart phone that rarely if ever have opened up google maps on their phone. Sometimes they ask me for directions and my response is almost always the same. Don’t you have google maps on that phone of yours? I get asked how to spell stuff all the time. I’m a horrible speller. I think people don’t realize how easy it is to look up a word, even on google. You could probably get the correct spelling faster than asking me, even if I was a good speller. Nine times out of ten, when someone asks me a question like this, I end up looking it up on google. Why? Because I have a smart phone with access to the internet.
Oh, so do you. You’re paying $30-40 a month to have google in your pocket… look it up.
Actually, my wife has gotten very good at this. We talk about all kinds of random topics every day. There was a time when the answer to 6 out of 10 questions she would ask me was “Google it.”
Now we’ll be talking about something random, like who won the oscar in 2003 for best actor and we’ll both reach for our phones at the same time and I’ll say, “Am I looking it up or are you?”
Sorry for being a jerk. If we’re going to talk, let’s talk. But if you just need answers to simple little questions, go talk to Google. 
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Introducing Genevieve Pearl
Posted on 21. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
Totally unexpected, Genevieve came to meet us yesterday afternoon at 6:21 PM on 11/20/2011. Although her heartbeat and position was good, the doctors were concerned about her lack of movement and the low levels of amniotic fluid. We were in a gray area where we had a choice to move forward with a regular delivery where there were a lot of unknowns on how the baby was going to do with a lengthy process or just schedule a c-section where we could get her out quickly and avoid any potential complications. We’ve fought too hard for this little girl, so we opted for the c-section.
She was born at 6:21 PM at 6 pounds and 6 ounces and 19.25 inches long. He has a full head of dark hair and looks amazingly similar to Titus when he was a newborn.
Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us through facebook, twitter and text message congratulations. We look forward to introducing her to all of you soon! Enjoy the pictures below!
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Baby Watch 2011: Live
Posted on 20. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
I won’t be monitoring the live feed, so if you want to leave comments, just do so at the botom of this blog post!
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Baby Watch 2011: She IS coming today!
Posted on 20. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
Due to some “gray area” potential complications, the doctor recommended that we move forward with a C-Section and get the baby here today. So, we’re all set for a procedure at 5:00 PM CST. Woo Hoo! Everyone is very excited. So, this is my last post. However, I’m setting up a post to go live right after this with “scribble live.” That way all my twitter updates (which there will be many) will post on this blog as they happen.
Pray for us!
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Baby Watch: This could be the day!
Posted on 20. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
Well, this could be the day our little girl comes to meet us. As I was headed to church this morning, Sara informed me that she hadn’t felt the baby move at all this morning. She called the doctor and was told to go ahead and go to the hospital. Shortly after checking in, the baby started moving quite a bit.
Before being discharged, they needed to do a test where they see how the baby is doing. The heartbeat has been fine and the baby is pretty far down, so position is great. In this test thought, the baby scored a 2 out of 8 where 8 out of 8 is passing. What does this mean? We’re probably having this baby today.
So, stay tuned for more info… follow @kennyconley on twitter for more up to date notifications. Pray for mom and baby Conley!
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Baby Watch 2011 Begins
Posted on 16. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
First of all, I flat out stole this image from Google image search because I liked it. It’s not mine, but a traveling band called “popple” made the image. I just spent 10 minutes on their site watching videos. They’re nuts… but I like them. So, if you’ve got a few minutes to be entertained… check them out. Maybe even buy one of their albums. Popple, if you’re reading this and my stealing your graphic angers you, let me know and I’ll come up with something original.
So, as many of you know, I’m expecting a baby. Actually, my wife is… but it’s going to be my baby too. For those of you who haven’t heard our story, this is our 2nd child born but our 7th pregnancy. If you do the math, you’ll understand how precious this new little baby is to us and how grateful we are to be where we are right now.
Our son Titus is almost 4 and a half and he’s excited about meeting his sister Genevieve! Genevieve will be the first daughter born to a Conley in 64 or 67 years (I can’t remember exactly). So, this little princess is going to shake some things up. Actually, this little girl is such an answer to prayer. Sara and I never really set out on a particular number of kids to have. However, I’ve always felt like I was supposed to be the dad of a little girl. I love having a little boy and I can’t wait to explore all the other father and son things we get to do… but I felt like I was supposed to have a daughter as well. With all the miscarriages, it didn’t take long to realize that I might just have to be satisfied with what I get. Our last miscarriage was a boy and so it seemed that if we were only going to try this one or two more times, having a girl just might not happen. So, you can understand how special it was to find out that our baby was a girl.
So, the due date is November 27th. That’s 11 days away. Illuminate is over (whew!), my mom is in town to help and the only thing on my agenda is to meet my little girl. So, I’ll keep you posted here. I blogged the birth of Titus 4.5 years ago and I intend to journal parts of Genevieve’s arrival as well. So… stay tuned… Baby Watch 2011 is now on!
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It’s ALIVE! It’s ALIIIIIIIIIVE!!!
Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.
…and we’re back! For the last 2-4 weeks it’s been touch and go with this site… and at times it was pretty much dead in the water. So here’s what happened. I use Dreamhost where you can host multiple sites on one account. Some of the sites I had are old and out of date. They weren’t getting updated when WordPress upgraded and at least one of those sites were compromised. Since all my sites sit in one directory, they all got infested. Yuck!
So, I got this site cleaned and moved over to a more secure location where other people make sure the site is clean and up to date. I’m sure I’ll talk more about that later. Hopefully, you’ won’t ever get the scary warning below ever again when visiting this site. If you do… I might just give up.
Well, I’m actually out right now. Since I’ve not been able to blog here, I’ve been blogging at other places. For the last 10 days or so, I’ve been doing a series called the Homeless Blogger. You may ask, ”How would I have known about this?” Well, I’ve been tweeting every post multiple times… another great reason to be on twitter! For those of you who continue to resist, I’ll post links to my Homeless Blogger series later this week.
It’s good to be back. I’ve missed you. Really, I have!
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Preparing for what is most important
Posted on 28. Sep, 2011 by Kenny.
Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with the rapture or end time’s theology.
Two days ago my sweet wife sent me this text.
“We are only 62 days from due date. Aaack!”
What she meant by that is “We’ve only got 62 days to get a bunch of things done!!!!”
I quickly responded with this text:
“62 days until we get to meet her. Woo hoo!”
The funny thing is that I’ve been thinking about this silly little text exchange ever since. We do have a to do list a mile long and I’m not quite sure we’ll get everything done before the baby makes it here. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been busy and we’ve gotten a lot done. We cleaned out the garage (that may not make sense since… she won’t be living in the garage, I promise), we had an epic garage sale, I painted the rest of the house (all the common areas), we’ve bought diapers (that’s another story people) and kinds of other stuff.
However, it’s very easy to get so focused on all the stuff, the to do lists and busy ourselves with all the preparations that we totally forget that everything is getting ready to change for us. I really don’t think it has set in yet. I mean, we’ve done this before with Titus and the change was significant… but it’s been so long since we’ve had sleepless nights, diapers, bottles. Although we’ve had one child already, we’ve never had two. I really have no idea how much harder this is going to me. Honestly, I’ve spent very little time thinking about this… I’ve been too busy getting everything ready and doing all the normal stuff in life.
I can’t say that I’ve really spent that much time thinking about how to father a daughter. I can’t tell you how excited I am, but I’ve really not spent nearly as much time thinking, planning and praying about raising a daughter. Again, I’ve been too busy getting everything ready and doing all the normal stuff in life.
I don’t want to minimized the list of things to be done because they are important. However, I’m pretty sure that preparing my heart to parent a daughter and preparing for the significant change of enlarging our family by one more is far more important than the list. Isn’t it funny how we get distracted from the most important by the urgent.
I think this is a little more personal because I talked about this last weekend at a conference in NC. In kidmin we often push ourselves toward being successful in the short term. How many kids came to faith this year? How many kids did we have this Sunday compared to the same Sunday last year? How many volunteers do I have now compared to 6 months ago? These are great things to focus on, but I wonder if asking the question “How many of the kids who came through my ministry 8-10 years ago who are now in college are still chasing after Jesus?” Isn’t that question more important? Why don’t we spend more time preparing for that?
The same is true for us personally. How often do we sit and dream about the day we finally stand before God and give an account for what we’ve done. Isn’t that far more important to all the other urgent (and important) distractions in life?
That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.
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Top of the list again
Posted on 27. Sep, 2011 by Kenny.
Yesterday, Tony over at Ministry To Children released his top blogs of 2011 post. He spent who knows how many hours pouring over numbers, stats and data to determine a rank for the top 100 kidmin blogs. He’s been doing this for years, but last year was the first year he used a subjective method to consider all the data.
The results? Childrens Ministry Online is the top blog for the second year in a row! Woo hoo!
It truly is an honor. This last weekend I got to speak at a conference where no one knew who I was. Well, maybe there were 2 or 3 people who have read this blog. I encouraged the conference attendees to read kidmin blogs. I encouraged them to contact the authors of the blogs and and pick their brains. I told them not to be intimidated, we’re just a bunch of nobody’s trying to make a difference.
So, although I’m the top Kidmin blogger for the second year in a row, that doesn’t change the fact that this nobody still loves helping others, connecting, sharing ideas and learning from anyone who has ideas. Although I’ve gotten a little slower in recent months (due to Illuminate), feel free to contact me about anything, I love to connect.
What makes me happiest about this list?
Two of my closest friends are with me in the top 3. Oh yeah, and Matt McKee is 14! Ha! I love you too Matt!
I’m excited about many of the other kidmin people I know that are blogging their hearts out. I’m excited to see other friends climbing up this list and making a difference, sharing ideas and making Kidmin better. Here’s to another year blogosphere!
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Pray for Rain
Posted on 07. Sep, 2011 by Kenny.
You’ve probably seen this on the news, but Central Texas has been experiencing wildfires that are devastating homes and communities. I honestly don’t remember the last time I’ve seen rain. It’s been several months for sure and it was nothing more than a flash in the pan. Also, with temperatures over 100 degrees since late May, this area has literally become a tinder box.
Here in Austin, we’ve had fires start up all around the city, several just a few miles from my church and home. Many friends have been evacuated although I don’t know anyone personally who has lost a home yet (although many have). The fires in Bastrop (southeast of Austin) have experienced the worst. The fires have been burning since the weekend at least and firefighters just haven’t been able to contain it.
Obviously we’re in the midst of a significant drought, but we simply need rain to put these fires out. So, if you think about it, send some prayer out here to Texas where we could really use a few storms!
This is a view from space. You can see the fires from Bastrop as the smoke trails hundreds of miles down to the gulf coast.
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