We don't use the hot tub much during the summer, but Emily enjoys it the most all summer long. The hot tub seems to attract frogs, and Emily goes out there, finds them, and puts them in her aquarium and feeds them, playing with them for hours each day.
I went out to warm up the hot tub yesterday and noticed that the circuit breaker had tripped. I reset it and ran the jets only to have it trip again. "Crap", I'm thinking, "These things are never cheap to fix." I checked some of the connections and found nothing wrong, so I pulled the panel off of the circuitry to see if there was anything obviously wrong. There was something obvious enough for even me to notice, and I'm disappointed at myself for not getting a picture of it.
Splayed across the circuits was a big 'ol frog that had crept in through a wiring hole and kamikaze'd himself across the wiring. I pulled the frog off the wiring and everything worked beautifully.
Cathie's been having back pain along with some numbness in her legs for the past five months. Unlike me, Cathie doesn't complain and she doesn't take pain meds. She went to a chiropractor for a bit and then to physical therapy without any real improvement. Finally both recommended that she get an MRI done to get a better idea of what was going on. It turns out that she has a tear in her disc between l5 and s1. They've recommended that she continue physical therapy and that she will hopefully see improvement in the next 3 months.
The final results are in for the Portland Half Marathon. I didn't stay around long enough after finishing the race for the awards ceremony, and they just posted them online. Out of 112 racers in the half marathon, I finished 57th overall with a time of 1h 57min, so right in the middle. In my age bracket (35 to 39 Males) I finished 6th (5th in my age bracket was a time of 1h 36min). Not great, but not horrible for my first race. I really don't have much desire at this point to do another 1/2. Kevin and I are doing a 10k in town next weekend, but that shouldn't be too tough.
On Saturday we had the kids Panthers Jamboree. Maddie's cheer/pom team did their routines and Nate's team had a series of scrimmages against the other teams in his division. First thing you have to understand about this Panthers organization is that it's HUGE. Each football team has 31 kids, six coaches and a couple of unit directors. There are 15 different teams, 5 in each of the three levels of freshman, JV and varsity. Throughout the year the kids play teams from the surrounding communities, so this is a chance for all of the teams in the division to play each other and for everyone to see all of the cheer and pom squads.
I jumped in my car from the half marathon in Portland and drove 90 minutes to get to the event, but I just missed Maddie's team cheering. We sat in the 95 degree beating sun, getting even more dehydrated as the day wore on.
Maddie is loving cheer and she's great at it. She's a gymnast at heart, so she loves the stunts and is in the flyer position, which I learned means she gets thrown in some of the cheer stuff and is at the top of the pyramids. She practices the cheers all the time, which get stuck in my head for hours on end. The company who made their uniforms sent the wrong outfits, so they had t-shirts for the event instead of their regular game attire. Cathie said Maddie did a great job and had a big smile on her face the whole time.
It was fun watching Nate's team play. They scrimmaged for almost 2 hours straight, 20 minutes of offense against a team, and then switching and running defense. No score was kept. Nate is playing Tight End, Cornerback and Special teams on kick-off, all in starting positions, so he plays a lot of the time. 
He's only 75lbs, but he's got the reputation as one of the hardest hitters on the team. His coach shared with me that he wanted to move Nate to the lineman position, where guys are 140-160. Ouch. This is their last week of five day/week practice. They have their first real game on Saturday and then practices switch to three days/week once school starts.
Emily loves to watch just about every show on Animal Planet, including a British show called It's Me or the Dog. In the show, a dog trainer helps rehabilitate problem animals. I walked in today and saw Emily watching the show. I asked her what was wrong with this dog and she explained:
Emily: "This dog is really bad. He's always humping people."
Me (thinking I'd misunderstood what she'd said): "He what?"
Emily: "Humping people"
Me: "What does that mean?"
Emily: "It means he climbs on people's legs and doesn't let go."
Me:"Oh." (Not sure of what to say), "Ok."
I ran in my first race ever this weekend. I started running about 5 months ago at a point where I couldn't even run a mile without dying. I literally hated running. I kept going at it, timing myself each time and trying to better it each time. I would run as far as I could and then walk until I could run again. When I eventually got up to 3 miles, I was doing it at about a 12 minute/mile pace. Before the race, I'd gotten to the point where I was at a 7 minute mile, as low as 6:22 minute/mile at times.
I trained for this half marathon more diligently than I'd ever trained for anything in my life, physically or spiritually. I followed a pretty strict regiment, running 4 times per week, 2 short, 1 medium and 1 long run. My long runs got to almost 14 miles prior to the race. I set the goal for myself to do the 1/2 marathon in under two hours, which seemed doable based on my long run times.Kevin and I met up with Pat, one of his fellow-teachers in East Lansing, and the three of us ran together for part of the race. There were a few hundred people in the race in Portland. It was very hot, very humid and the course was very hilly, but at least it was very nice and scenic.
Kevin, Pat and I started out at a pretty fast pace, around 7:40 min/mile for the first few miles as everyone was bunched together. They had water stations every couple of miles where people would hand you paper cups. I found that I'm not good at drinking water while I'm running. It all seems to spill all over me. Kevin, Pat and I ran together for the first 6 miles or so, keeping about an 8 min/mile pace and then we split up.
At the ten mile mark I was at an 8:30 min/mile pace and it got very tough at that point. One of the biggest encouragements throughout the race was having Susan and the kids and Will and Monaca along the course cheering us on. They would cheer and yell and shout encouragement and it made all the difference in the world. It would give me a boost that you wouldn't believe. Cathie and the kids couldn't make it because they had their big kick-off for the football/cheer season back home.
The last three miles were the toughest of my life. Mentally and physically I was just exhausted. I was struggling to keep running and not walk. I hadn't brought my iPod with me, which was a bad move. I had nothing but my own thoughts, thinking about how tough it was and how much longer I had to go. No distractions from my own thoughts, which I desperately needed at that point. I finished the race at 1 hr 57 minutes and I was excited mostly to be done, secondly to have done it under my goal time of 2 hours.
It was very cool training for this with Kevin. We ran together, shared our daily results via google docs, held each other accountable and encouraged each other. We're both very competitive and we pushed each other well. e in town in a couple of weeks, which should be a bit easier.
I was soaking wet from the heat and humidity and exhausted. I drank a bunch of gatorade and jumped in my car to drive the 90 minutes home to make it to the kids football/pom jamboree.
At this point, I don't have any desire to do another half marathon any time soon, let alone a full marathon. Kevin and I are running at 10k her
Thanks to Marko for this video... Check out the slow-mo in the end and watch the landing closely. Ouch.
http://view.break.com/527310 - Watch more free videos
Every family has to put six hours of volunteer time in every season.
I'm making the world safer again this year by working I'm the parking
lot. At least I get to wear this cool vest.
I didn't realize that we're supposed to exchange gifts on our 16th anniversary, but I continue to learn every year I'm married to Cathie. Cathie gave me a collection of gifts, each one representing the ten reasons she loves me, including a "Best Husband of the Year" award - an award I periodically claim for myself, and now have a real ribbon to prove my stature.
Each gift had a little heart attached to it, explaining how it represents her love for me. For example, a bottle of hot sauce had the message, "You are even hotter 16 years later" and a yo-y0 had, "You stick by me in life's up's and downs." It was an awesome gift and meant a lot to me.
Not having gotten Cathie anything, and not wanting her to know this, I quickly grabbed my guitar and played a song for her, to the tune of I gave my love a cherry from the movie Animal house. I don't think she had any idea that I hadn't been preparing for months for this gift.
Emily got a feel for what slave labor looked like this week, and loved every minute of it. She took part in a horse camp that gave kids a feel for what it's like to own your own horse. Throughout the week, the kids spend 6 hours a day cleaning, training, grooming and riding their own horse. They learned how to brush, clean and scrape the poop out of the horse's horse-shoes.
They ended the event with a competition. The kids were awarded prizes for their riding skills, grooming quality and racing abilities. Emily received the first place ribbon for her riding skills even though her horse had other ideas on what it should be doing. She really did a great job out there.
Emily, as many know, loves animals more than life itself and with all of the horses, donkeys, cats and dogs, she was in heaven. She received a special award for her love of animals. Her instructor explained that every day when she'd arrive and leave, she would go around to greet and pet every single animal on the farm.
This is one of the other animals that Emily took care of, the opera singing donkey. If you gave it an apple, it would sing Opera, or so Emily claimed. I never heard it. 
Cathie and I celebrate sixteen years of marriage today. We met through Youth for Christ, a high school youth group, and we dated throughout college. We were married by the Trent Bushnell, the head of YFC after Cathie graduated from MSU and I still had a year left of school. After we got married, Trent and his wife Patsy took Cathie and I through this set of videos by Gary Smalley called Hidden Keys to Loving Relationships. These videos were amazing and really helped set us on a course to have a fantastic marriage.
We lived in 400 square feet of married housing on campus and then in an apartment before moving to Novi for a new job once I'd graduated from State. We went through some tough stuff in the first years, including a series of miscarriages. One of the big things in both of our lives was getting connected with Crossroads Church (where we still go) almost 14 years ago.
I've married my best friend in the whole world. People don't realize that Cathie has a similar (yet slightly more mature) sense of humor to mine. She just has a much better filter. Cathie has an amazing wisdom and common sense that complements my complete lacking in both areas. She happens to also be a smoking hot woman who I still lust after even 16 years into our marriage. Cathie has also learned to be a tiny bit less stubborn since we've been married (progress is measured in nano-stubborns).
One of the most memorable gifts I've ever gotten for Cathie had great intentions behind it. I had heard this guy named Ken Medima at a Youth Specialties conference since these songs. He would right them custom, on the spot and they were awesome. He had a service where as a gift, you could fill out a form and he would write a song about that person. While I was waiting for the song, I'd put together a slideshow of pictures on a DVD all set to plug this in. I got the song a couple days before Christmas and it was, um, well.... Let me put it this way... My family still laughs about the song and actually dug it out not too long ago and we all laughed hard about it. I'll see if I can find it somewhere.
Both of our parents have been fantastic role models in what great marriages look like and what it means to stick together through thick and thin. I can't believe how quickly it's all flown by. Three kids and two houses. One dog. Three cats. One guinea pig. A bunch of gold fish.
Cathie is the woman of my dreams. I thank God every day for her.
On a side note, it's no surprise that Cathie was the first to wish me a happy anniversary. Also no surprise that she finished it with an "oh yeah, I was first!"
As part of our workout this morning, we did the Strongman Tire Flip. It involves lifting and flipping a 200lb+ tractor tire over and over down the length of the field. It uses almost every muscle in your body at a high level of intensity. Plus, it's a lot more fun throwing a big tractor tire around over doing squats on a rack.
Maddie came down the other morning and told me about this dream:
We've been watching the Olympics non-stop. Maybe a little too much.
"I dreamed that I was at the olympics watching Michael Phelps swim. During his race, I jumped into his lane for some reason and cost him the Gold medal. I felt really, really bad, even after I woke up."
While Nate and I were at the NASCAR races, Cathie and the girls headed to Dewitt to hang out with her parents and grandparents for the day. The girls decided to stay over (in no way related to our suggestion that they would be much more comfortable NOT being around a bunch of smelly boys). After the news, Nate and I proceeded to lay out the perfect guy's weekend. We went from NASCAR to BW3's for wings and football and then headed home. We tried to rent Madden '09, but no luck, so we played a little guitar hero and then watched the U.S. team crush Spain in basketball. We watched a movie and then stayed up watching the olympics until very late. We slept in on Sunday morning, made a big breakfast, watched some more of the olympics, played some more guitar hero and then headed out to see the new Mummy movie (so-so).
I'm so proud of Nate and the person that Nate is becoming. We have fantastic conversations about everything from great "What if?" conversations (i.e. "What if you could be the best in the world at the sport of your choice, what sport and what position would you choose?"). I really dig these kind of weekends with him.
My Dad was kind enough to take his boys (his sons, grandsons and step-sons) to the NASCAR races at MIS yesterday. This was our first NASCAR race ever so we had no idea what to expect. My Dad had us get there very, very, very early to make sure we could enjoy every morsel of the event. There was a ton of pre-race activities and we spent hours wandering from tent to tent getting free swag and people watching.
My step-brother Mark is the real fan around NASCAR racing, while my brothers, Dad and I have never watched NASCAR and had no idea what was going on. Mark answered all of our dumb questions and helped us get what was going on. We had no idea who we were getting our pictures taken with or whose numbers we were wearing.
You could get your picture taken with all sorts of cardboard cut-outs of the racers, which we did regardless of who they were. Steve-O found his new hero, the Cheerio driver guy (Steve-o's diet consists ONLY of Cheerios as a part of an experiment that he has submitted himself to on behalf of the children of third-world countries. Very noble).
At the Toyota booth, you could get spray-painted tatoos of their drivers numbers, so of course, we all did. While in line I asked the fella with the mullet behind me what number I should choose and he told me who the top 3 most popular numbers were. I ended up getting #20, Tony Stewart (who came in 3rd). Nate got the same number, because it's also his football number (chosen because it is also Barry sanders number). I considered getting the tatoo on my neck, but then re-considered the combination of paint and sun-burn giving me a semi-permanent NASCAR tattoo. 
Notice that Dan and Dad are both wearing collared shirts. When Jon arrived, he was wearing one also. He seriously thought that you had to wear one to get into the hospitality tenet. When we first arrived, we met up with Kevin at the National Guard booth, they had a fitness competition which you could win t-shirts, hats and frisbees. Jon asked if I would do the push-ups to get him a NASCAR t-shirt so he wouldn't have to wear a collared shirt around. We all got into it, I got 70 push-ups in and won a shirt. The kids participated in the two-minute hang as well. Note that Kevin, Drew and I are all wearing our t-shirts here.
We wandered around and had a couple of beers checking out the rest of the tents until we stumbled around the Navy Seals Fitness Challange. They have a series of events that you do back-to-back to see if you could qualify to be a Navy SEAL (the greatest, most elite warriors in the world). The SEAL who was running the event was calling out to the all of the guys without shirts on that if they thought they were man enough to not wear a shirt, they should be man enough to take the challange. For the record, Kevin and I had our shirts on at this point. We got to talking with the guy and he goaded us into doing the challange, at which point we felt obligated to remove our shirts. It consisted of a rope climb, sit-ups, push-ups and then chin-ups. I don't remember my wall-climb time, but I got less than 60 push-ups, 50 or so-sit ups, and ten-pull-ups (all to strict Navy SEAL Form)
Even at age 37, I found that I can qualify for SEAL training. I also found that if I ever try out again, I should do it without two beers in my belly on a hot day. Both Kevin and I felt like crap for a couple of hours afterwards.
One of the best parts of the whole event was the people-watching. As you'd probably guess, the event involves a lot of tattos, beer, mullets, raunchy t-shirts, tube-tops and no shirts. They were very strict on what you could bring in, so you knew the pros that had the see-through back-packs filled with their head-phones and radio scanners to listen to the pit-crews.
One of my highlights was watching a couple get married at the event. They really love their NASCAR apparently.
We ran into these two guys - "Fanny pack guy with the collared shirt" and "backwards hat with the barbwire tattoo and budweiser guy"... Oh wait, that's my brother and brother-in-law. 
Ok, so about the actual race itself. Michigan International Speedway is huge. It holds a billion people, all baking in the hot sun. I think they purpsely face the stands so that the sun shines on our necks (hence, the term red-necks). The cars are loud and fast. We had great seats.
I decided to root for #20, Tony Stewart, since I had his tattoo on my arm. 
We kept trying to show Steve-O where the cars were, but he had a tough time figuring that out.
All in all, it was a fun day. I can now say I've been to a NASCAR race, and I actually read the re-cap today on the race in today's paper, which is the first time I've ever read anything about car-racing.
You can see the rest of the pictures online here.
Cathie and Em went for a bike ride yesterday. They stopped by the fountain in town and had this conversation:
Emily: "Mom, I'm as thirsty as an eagle."
Cathie: "As an eagle?"
Emily: "Yep, but not as thirsty as a skunk."
With the first two weeks of practice almost done, this season really seems to be shaping up well for Nate. Last year he came onto a team that of 28 guys as one of only a couple who hadn't played Panthers football before. As a Dad, it was tough to watch him struggle to learn the fundamentals like the stances, positions, blocking and tackling. It so hard to watch him try and figure things out and watching him get so frustrated with his progress. He would push himself hard, but being a relatively small rookie on a team where everyone knew each other and had played together, it wasn't always enough. His coach last year stressed fundamentals and Nate played at defensive back most of the time, taking a back-seat to the more senior guys on the team. Last year has paid off and he's going into this season being one of the older guys on a team of 5th and 6th graders.
Nate began getting ready for the season about a month before this year, with he and I doing daily workouts of about 30-45 minutes each. We did running, jumping, strength and stamina conditioning and got him in even better shape that last year and it's paid off. Watching Nate, he seems to be in some of the best shape out there. He's always out front when the team runs laps and is able to crank through the conditioning they do without a problem.
He's been going at things this year with a new confidence based on the kind of shape and technique he's got. Watching the tackling drills and running plays are night and day difference from from last year. I've heard the coaches call him out a number of times for his technique and hard work out there. He's more focused than I've ever seen him and tries to always be the guy who puts in the extra effort and goes the extra mile. I'm so proud that Nate pushed through a tough year last year and worked so hard to prep for this year. The most important part is that he really loves every aspect of the game: watching, practicing and playing. It's cool to have this to do together.
We went up North-West-ish this past weekend to spend some time at Lake Michigan. We stayed at Will's Mom's cottage in the New Era area (home of the infamous Rothbury festival that just happened) just South of Silver Lake Dunes. Her place is walking distance to Lake Michigan, set back in the woods in a beautiful environment. We left Friday evening after Nate's practice and rolled in late. The next day's forecast was ugly, showing thunderstorms all weekend long. We headed to the lake to try our luck and had sun for the majority of the time. The bad news was that Lake Michigan was FREEZING cold. This was not the kind of cold you could get used to. This was the kind that you eventually got numb to. We still had fun playing in the sand and burying each other, not doing too much productive at all.
The next day the weather was cooler and it was very windy so we headed off to Silver Lake Sand Dunes for the day. These are awesome Dunes that are sandwiched between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan. We went on a dune ride and then went and hiked the dunes. We learned a valuable lesson: 30mph+Sand Dunes=Skin Exfoliation. After getting sand blasted, we climbed the giant dunes and ran down into the lake, which was a decent temperature.
I'd already had my Canon SLR camera in for it's fourth repair (I think Best Buy now gives me a replacement based on what I understand about the service plan) and the screen died on my Sony DSC-T1 digital camera. I was taking pictures blind, and trying to supplement with my iPhones camera, so the pictures are a bit spotty in places.
We then hoofed it over to the Lighthouse where the kids and I climbed the 150 steps to the top to get a beautiful view. I'm not a big fan of heights, so I had no problem climbing right back down.
At night we would go to Lake Michigan and enjoy the sunset and then come back for a camp fire. We spent a lot of time hanging out by the camp fire at night. Emily had found some driftwood that she claimed was a "hand-massager". She believed that if you rubbed it, it would make your hands soft. We thought we were nuts, until we tried it. You can see her pictured with it below. On Sunday night, Nate and I took Will's Mom up on her suggestion to take the telescope down to the Lake and see how close God really is.
Nate and I did this about midnight and were blown away. The moon lit up the entire beach and the stars were crystal clear. We never figured out how to use the telescope correctly, but it was a fun trip none-the-less.
On Monday, we tried to pack a bunch of things in while still getting back in time for Football/Cheer practice. The girls went horseback riding while Nate and I hit the go-karts. We headed over to a nearby dairy farm to get ice-cream and then stopped to see Jon and the kids in Grand Rapids. We made it home just in time to get the kids in their uniforms and off to practice. It was a quick trip, but a fun one. The weather could have been better, but it somehow made it even more fun because we had to improvise. The kids wanted badly to bring friends on this trip and we held firm, knowing that as the kids grow up and lives continue to get busy, we don't have a lot of years left to just have family time like this.
You can see the rest of the pictures here.
I'm selling my 16GB iPod touch on eBay. They seem to be selling used for between $250-$300 used. Make me an offer I can't refuse, or feel free to bid on eBay for it.
I'm also selling my Motorola Q9m Verizon Smart Phone let me know if you're interested. I'm looking to get around $150-$175 for it.
Only two weeks left until the half marathon. I got up this morning and mapped out a 13.1 mile course on mapmyrun.com , and did the run in 1 hr 34 minutes, which I thought was a pretty impressive pace of 7:12 minute/mile. I went back to map-my-run and found that I'd turned back on the wrong road, and only ended up doing this route of 11.3 miles, but I did it at a pace of 8:19 minute/mile. It's still an improvement of my time last week in terms of time and distance. I figure I'll try the full run next week prior to the race. I think Kevin and I can do it at an 8:10 minute/mile pace, since we tend to keep each other moving pretty well when we run together, which would give us around a 1 hr 45 minute time.
This year marks a big milestone in my life, as I define milestones at least. I think my spiritual life is a lot like my golf game. For the longest time, I considered myself a golfer. First, I'm not a good golfer. I would go out and play, hit a few good shots and even more bad ones. I would get lots of advice and try and tweak my game on the course to get better at it. I never really worked on my game outside of the golf course and playing. I never tried to work on the fundamental elements of my swing or dig into better understanding the game and the techniques that the great ones use. I just went out there, played and tried to fix my game as I went.
I started reading about Tiger Woods workout routine and saw that he works out 3-4 hours a day off the course to play at the level that he does. Aside from that, he reviews game tape of his play and works with swing coaches on the fundamentals. He does everything off the course to ensure that he has the ability to play great golf on the course.
So much of my walk with Jesus has been me trying to do the opposite of Tiger's approach to golf, and more in line with my golf game. I would look at the things I was doing in my life and try and change those directly. I would look at the list of things Jesus said we should be and I would work hard to do those things. I would try hard at not flipping off the guy who cut me off, or not lying, or turning the other cheek. I would often fail and turn back to God and ask for help and ask him to change me. I was really following a gospel of sin management, trying to just keep from doing bad stuff. I would read books, read the bible and listen to various sermons and other Christian consumables. I tried to tweak my game on the course, but never really went back to work on the fundamentals of my swing. Did I grow and change? I did. Radically? I'm not sure I did. Don't get me wrong. When I look at my life, God still used me in ways that amaze me, gradually changing me to get me to a point where I'd be ready to do this.
At the beginning of this year, I was just tired of where my life was at in a lot of categories and I decided I would take a new approach across the board. I started digging into what being a disciple of Jesus meant in a new way. I started looking at what it really meant to trust and follow Jesus. Not just something he did or something he said, but trust the whole person of Christ in everything. I started focusing on learning from Jesus how to live in the Kingdom of God as he did it. I set out to learn whatever I needed to learn in order to obey him, understanding how to be changed on the inside to become the kind of person who loved others, instead of just trying to act like a person who loves other people.
I've started trying to incorporate different spiritual disciplines into my life and I've seen real changes in myself, changes at the deeper level of who I am, changes that surprise me. I find myself doing things differently, not responding the way I used to, not wanting to do things that I couldn't stop doing before. I like the way Richard Foster describes spiritual disciplines with this picture:
It's like I've started to work on the fundamentals of my golf swing, without even holding a club, and now I'm surprised that my game has improved.
A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines--they are a way of sowing to the Spirit.
Bible Memorization - Last year I read the bible in it's entirity. It was great in a lot of ways, but in one sense it was like going to an the best all you can eat buffett in Vegas. I didn't necessarily savor each bite. This year, I've focused more on reading smaller chunks and memorizing them. I started off by trying to do this for five minutes a day while I was in the shower (as opposed to Brad's use of five minutes in the shower). I started to see these changes in my life, in my thoughts and in my actions - all without me really thinking about it. I guess the G. Gordon Liddy's mantra, "What you think about you do, and what you do you become" is true. I find the verses I'm memorizing bouncing around in my head throughout the day and really impacting what I'm doing, saying and thinking. I'm back to do this again as part of the guy's discipleship group I'm leading this summer.
Solitude - My pattern in the summer has been to get up in the morning, grab some coffee, my breakfast and the newspaper while the house is still quiet. After the paper, I grab my Bible and my journal and whatever book I'm going through (right now it's a book on Discipleship by Dallas Willard) and take 30-45 minutes to read, journal and pray. I'm pretty consistent with this, except when I'm not. I've been doing this on and off for about 15 years and have a stack of journals that are one of my prized possessions. The biggest thing that's changed in this is incorporating silence into it. Not reading, not writing. Just sitting and listening quietly.
Silence - As I type on my MacBook Pro with Pandora and have my iPhone nearby, silence, either auditory or information silence, is tough. I'm a people person combined with the fact that I'm always surrounded by noise. I'm trying to leave my iPhone at home on my runs occasionally and just spend that time alone, thinking, reflecting and praying. In the mornings, as part of my time alone, I spend time quietly listening to God. It started with about 30 seconds before my thoughts would take me somewhere else. I'm getting better at listening longer, and in that silence, being able to hear the voice of God. I would get pretty uncomfortable at first in my silence, having to just be alone with my thoughts. I've gotten to the point where I've started to really enjoy it and be able to listen to my thoughts and have a very interactive dialogue with God. Might sound weird, but it's a very cool thing.
Fasting - This one has been the hardest for me. I've been trying to fast one day a week. In the fast I'd tried fasting, thinking that if I did it, God would see how devoted I was to Him and while being impressed with me, answer my prayers. My fasting is now about trying to train myself to not be as dependent on what my body tells me I need to eat, buy or do - to break the reflexes, while reminding myself and training myself of my dependence on God. I don't know that I've seen much progress. Fasting is just plain hard for me and it's only gotten slightly easier over the past few months. I'm a guy who indulges myself pretty easily with whatever I want and this is largely about denial. My body has no idea how to respond to me suddenly not giving it everything it wants exactly when it wants it. I will organize my day around getting a workout in, but it's impressive how I can find an excuse not to fast in a given day. I've learned a lot about my real priorities as I've tried to work this into my life.
Panthers football season started today and Nate had football practice
and Maddie had her cheer/pom practice, as she's cheering for Nate's
team. Practice is five days a week for the next month, 5:30 to 7:30.
All of Nate's conditioning paid off this year. You could see it during the warm-ups and conditioning as a lot of the kids couldn't do fifteen solid push-ups in a row. Nate was one of the faster kids and you could see the difference in his confidence, form and understanding of what was going on.
I remember last year how nervous Nate was going into the season. This year he was excited and had the playbook memorized going into the first practice.
The Niemi's, Schultz's, Eaton-Browns and our family hung out at Brad's cottage in Pickney and it was a perfect day. The water was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better. They have this giant floating foam water mat that is about 5 feet long by about 20 feet long and only 2 inches thick. The thing is amazing, allowing a slew of kids and adults to sit, stand, jump and run on this thing without it slipping under the water. We BBQ and hung out while the kids played.
At one point we happened to notice the Dog's shock collar and decided to give it a try. I strapped it to my ankle and tried to see how close I could get to the fence without getting shocked. Nate gave it a try next. All the while, Will and Moanca (both social workers) sat by and watched, never calling child protective services, so I figure this is fine, but probably not advisable for a youth group event (unless the kids are over 18).
Nate was the bravest, trying it multiple times (never on his neck). I remember a while back trying out Mike Thompson's new dog shock collar, which happened to have a remote control. He zapped me at level 1, then level 2, and then a really painful next shock. I asked him if that was 3, and he told me "No, it was level 5. If you'd of felt 3, you'd have never of wanted to move on to level 5."
Emily came back the other day with a goodie bag from a birthday party. One of the items in the bag was a my-pretty-pony type horse:
Emily: "I love this Pony. It's all sparkly!"
Emily (very disappointed): "Oh no, I can't play with this."
Me:"What's wrong?"
Emily: "The package says it's an accessory. You can't play with accessories."
Emily: "Dad, you should try and get even bigger muscles than you have so that when you make a muscle, it will make a picture."
Me: "A picture? A picture of what?"
Emily: "Yeah, a picture of you on your muscle."
Madeline: "Emily, that's not real. It's only in Spongebob."
I got up this morning and ran, doing my longest run of about 11 miles at an 8:30min/mile pace, which is what Kevin and I are targeting for our half Marathon on August 23rd. My last long run of 9 miles was at a ten minute mile, so this feels like a big improvement. I remember starting of running a few months back when I was running 3 miles at 11 and 12 minute mile paces.
For the first time, I used Body Glide and it changed my world. Jess had mentioned this stuff to me once, but I could never find it. I kind of remembered the name (Body Lube, Astro Glide - close, right?) and started asking at the running stores. It would have been less embarrassing to ask for anti-chafing lube.
Kasey and Michael got married tonight and my whole family was there to see it happen. Kasey is way more than just a friend of ours... She's like a little sister to me and a big sister to my girls. Kasey was in my youth group back in sixth grade when it was her Mom, Brad and I figuring out how to run a junior high youth group. To bring it full circle, she's marrying Michael, our church's semi-new youth pastor and taking on the equally involved role of youth pastor's wife.
On the ride home we were talking and I was telling the girls that I hope they marry a guy as great as Michael, at which point Maddie chimed in and said she hoped Nate married someone just like Kasey, so she'd have a cool sister-in-law. As her pseudo-big brother, she had to run all of her boyfriends by me to give her my blessing. I remember the guys that she dated, and some of them were real tools - only she didn't quite get that at the time. Kasey has babysat my kids since they were born and they really do see her as a big sister. She really gets my kids and loves them dearly. My girls idolize her and I'm always amazed at the patience she has for them.
Anyways, back to the wedding. The wedding was at this very cool lodge in Hartland and the ceremony was outdoors. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and the scenery was gorgeous. The ceremony had the special touches of Michael and Kasey, including a sand-pouring ceremony that represented their relationship as husband and wife intertwined with their relationship with Christ. At the end of the "sandy ceremony", Emily, in her always outdoor voice, not-so-quietly said to Cathie, "That sand looks cool. Do you think I can have it?"
The reception was held at the same place inside and outside the lodge. It was a very cool place and a fun reception.
They had nice cold keg beer in clear glasses. At one point I looked over at Nate and saw that he had a beer in his hand, complete with a full head of foam. I walked over to ask what he was doing, as he explained that it was sparkling cider for the toast. I dug this picture, because it looks like he was drinking more than sparkling cider and picking up chicks (Tiffany) at the wedding.
