Dark Ages

My greatest apologies blogger friends on my lack of input recently. The Internet is down at home and life feels like the dark ages again!

So apparently we need an entirely new line placed at our house, and who knows how long it will take for someone to come out, dig up the old & busted and put down a new, working line.

Please forgive my absence! I'll be back in the swing of things as soon as possible!

Bad Juju

Scene: A nice, unassuming female (she may or may not be a nurse who married a preacher) is 5 hours into a long drive. Suddenly, flashing lights appear in her rearview mirror.

Lady: (filled with dread) Oh good grief. (pulls over)
Cop: (slowly exits car) May I see your license and insurance please?
Lady: Sure. (hands them both over)
Cop: (scanning over information) Just so you know, I've stopped you for speeding. I clocked you on my radar going 76 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour zone. Is there some sort of emergency for you to be driving this fast?!
Lady: ... Umm, no. (in disbelief that she has been pulled over for a measly 6 miles per hour. 6!!!)
Cop: Well, I'm going to have to issue you a citation for this. Give me a minute and I'll be back.

(a short time later)

Cop: Miss, here's your citation (hands over ticket)
Lady: Look sir, I just want to let you know that I am not only a nurse, but my husband is a pastor and I think if you give me this ticket, you're gonna have some bad juju on your hands.
Cop: Have a nice day miss.

Scene ends.

(the "bad juju" comment may have only played out in the nice lady's mind. What she most likely said was "thank you sir." Because remember she may or may not be a nurse who happens to have a husband in the ministry.)

(Im just saying.)

Running through 2011

Despite my lackluster finish at the Rock N Roll San Antonio Half Marathon, I have convinced myself (with a little help from my friends) to continue pushing myself and keep on racing.

Purple toenails and all.

Running is such a mind game and while I'm always thrilled with myself to finish a run successfully, getting out of the house is a battle. I often come up with any excuse to sit at home. I'll talk myself out of distance halfway through my runs. It's literally all in my head. My greatest motivation is having a goal ahead of me to work toward. So I'm working my way back up to another half-marathon with a 10k race thrown in the mix. My big race?...

Once again, I'd love to finish a 2:30 half marathon. I didnt meet this goal @ San Antonio and was disappointed in my time. Because of some personal issues that I had to face that same exact weekend, I just have a black cloud mentality surrounding the entire experience. I'm determined to change my mindset, so there really is a lot more riding on my next race than just running and finishing.

I've got 64 days until race day (April 16) and a lot of work to do!

MPact Recap Weekend

Mpact weekend has come to a close and what a fantastic weekend it was! Everyone's a little tired, had a little too much junk food and most importantly is full of Jesus! Our theme this year was "Roots" and it concentrated on getting back to the basics. We took the weekend to work on the foundation of our faith, which is something everyone needs to revisit from time to time. It was rewarding and fun and exciting and lots of other positive adjective words.

Here's a pictorial recap of the weekend:

Orange Team

Blue Team

Purple Team

... and the guys.

Jordan came up with some pretty ... interesting games this year. What youth event would be complete without gross out games and busted lips?

The few days of wintry weather here in the Coastal Bend was enough to throw a kink into just about everything. Including MPact weekend. The Harbor bridge was closed for about 36 hours which made it nearly impossible to receive mail, including the event t-shirts. I anticipate they'll arrive first thing tomorrow.

Of course, the bad weather wasnt exclusive to south Texas, as a great deal of the state got blanketed with snow and ice. Unfortunately, the James Curlin Band was booked to perform both Friday night and Saturday night and was never able to get out of Waco due to the snow and ice. But some of our student leaders had connections and were able to get a band in at the absolute last minute to play at the Saturday night service.

We hope everyone involved had a wonderful time. Jordan and I want to say a huge huge thank you to all our host homes, who were so great to our students. Big thanks to the college students (and some alumni!) who came in and poured into our kiddos all weekend. Thank you to our volunteers and drivers and bakers and prayers. We couldnt have done all this without you!