Yesterday, Allie and I were reminiscing about how half our honeymoon was spent driving around lost. Seriously, my sense of direction is admittedly, not great. To complicate the problem, we had to look at actual physical maps made of paper to get where we were trying to go. Honestly, I have more in common with a pirate of the Caribbean than an iPad kid. You see, we were married one year before the first iPhone and before Google Maps was a thing. I honestly don't know how we got anywhere. Google Maps changed the game.   Today, if you need to go anywhere, get the address, type it in Google M ..read more

Did your parents ever ask you to deliver a message to your siblings? Maybe they wanted the trash taken out or their room cleaned. Whatever the reason, I was never more drunk on power than when I carried a message from my parents.   My mom would say, "Ivey, tell your brother to come empty his section of the dishwasher." I would gleefully get up, stomp to the room he was in, and deliver the message. While Mom's message was matter-of-fact, I always added a little... flavor. I would deliver the message something like, "BEN! Mom says to get your butt into the kitchen and unload the dishwasher ..read more

I wanted to tell you about an amazing opportunity that came my way. You probably will not believe this, but a real-life prince emailed me! Me, of all people. He said he chose me because of my sterling reputation and impressive resume. I was so honored. I was stunned to learn that he had run into some trouble, and to protect his fortune, he needed to transfer all of his money to the US. This is where I was able to help him. He told me that if I transferred $3500 USD to him, his account would be unfrozen. This is when it got real. Because of my troubles, he would give me $1,000,000! How could a ..read more

As a freshman in college, I had the opportunity to intern for the youth ministry at a church in South Carolina. I was only there a few months before the youth minister left the church. The church was lucky enough to have the head of the Youth Ministry department at the local Bible college become their interim youth pastor. I was officially getting an on-the-job education from an expert. I assumed he would focus on changing the way the church did youth ministry. I expected games, outreach events, mission trips, youth camps, etc., and we did indeed do some of those things. However, I was surpris ..read more

Whenever I'm watching a movie and I can't remember where I know an actor from, I'm searching on Google. If I'm having a discussion and someone says something I think might be a little off, I'm pulling my phone out of my pocket and googling it. If I have a burning question, the answer is only a few swipes and taps away on Google. How did we ever resolve arguments and answer random questions before smartphones? Did we write down our burning questions during the day and search at home from our desktop computers? Were we pausing movies to crank up the Pentium 3 and ask Jeeves? I don't know about y ..read more

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday! It is hands-down the most important Christian holiday. I love Christmas as much as the next person, but we were never commanded to remember Christmas. Do you know what holy day we are supposed to remember is Easter? Actually, we are supposed to remember the resurrection which happens on the day we call Easter. Is Easter Pagan?Where does the term Easter come from? Some say it has pagan origins. Is this correct? The word "Easter" comes from the Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess Eostre. So, is celebrating Easter pagan? Hardly. Celebrating the resurrection of Christ finds ..read more

Recently my daughter got in trouble for a word she said at school. This past summer our family went to Shakespeare in Boston Common to watch Macbeth. It was an incredible performance. I would highly recommend it. Skip ahead 6 months and my daughter was in a school performance of Hamlet. She was having a conversation with one of her teachers and she mentioned that she saw "MacBeth" this past summer. Her teacher gasped and said something along the lines of, "Swallow your words maiden. We do not speak that name aloud in the theater!" It turns out that it is considered bad luck to speak the nam ..read more

What would you do for a free Whopper? Would you break up with a friend? How about 10 friends? In 2009, Burger King ran a creative and controversial ad campaign that tested the lengths people would go for a free burger. It was called the Whopper Sacrifice campaign. It asked users to unfriend ten of their Facebook friends for a free Whopper. While it may sound ridiculous, plenty of people were happy to receive free food for the sacrifice of a mere 10 friends. To make it even more humiliating, Burger King would take over your Facebook and post, "You liked a Whopper more than [name]" for each sac ..read more

Known as the Millennial Anthem, Mr. Brightsides by the Killers is now a classic. You cannot go to a sporting event without hearing it blasted throughout the stadium and belted by all in attendance. To be honest, I do not know why it has become a sports anthem. You see, Mr. Brightsides has nothing to do with sports. It is a song about jealousy. In it, a man kisses a woman at the end of what may be a first date, and when the woman leaves, the man is thrown into turmoil as he imagines this woman cheating on him. His imagination goes wild causing him to metaphorically drown in his ocean of jealou ..read more

What is the most afraid you have ever been? Maybe it was a movie, in the middle of the night, a traumatic life event, or attempting some crazy stunt. There are two life events that top the list as my most scared moments. First, when I was 18, my dad came about as close as a person can come to death without dying. He had a major heart event which stopped the blood from pumping through his body. Once at the hospital, we were told to say our goodbyes because the doctors did not think he would make it through surgery. I told him I loved him, for what I thought could be the last time, while he was ..read more