Steve and Lynette

Tonight I want to start with my thank you. I want to thank my parents-in-law (I would rather say "my other parents," but that may just confuse you) for being such a beautiful example of a loving, respectful, Christian marriage. Every time I have seen them, which has unfortunately not been often enough since our first meeting on October 28th 2004, I have been thoroughly amazed at the love and tenderness my father-in-law shows to his wife. He holds her hand and kisses her and gently rubs her shoulders and always opens her door and has good conversation with her and so much more. It is something you don't see in many relationships that are approaching their 30th wedding anniversary, let alone most new relationships. It's a chivalry that seems to have been lost in today's world. My mother-in-law is equally supportive of her husband. She is quick to compliment him on something he has done and equally affectionate. They still have a passion for one another. It is beautiful to watch.

They are strong in their faith in Jesus. I believe this is what gives them their passion to serve one another. Their relationship is a witness to their faith.

Steve is one of the funniest men I've met when he gets going and his capacity to consume food is...is...well, there is no way you could ever imagine how much food he can eat at one sitting based on his size. Lynette is a very nurturing mom and can make some pretty delicious sweets!!! Even when Lynette tries to be annoying by waking you up with the most horrible sounding horn song she sings you can't help but smile.

They get a lot of who they are from their parents. Steve's parents are...well, sometimes when I look into his dad's eyes I feel I'm peering right at the Holy Spirit. He is so filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit that it overflows in his smile and eyes. (He is the primary reason we are naming our son Jack.) That's Steve's dad's name. Steve's mom is absolutely graceful and gentle. Lynette's mom was extremely funny and and an amazing storyteller. I will miss listening to her tell stories about her childhood.

Well, I could go on and on about how loving and welcoming they have been to me. I just want to tell them thanks for allowing me to become part of their family. I thank God for them. So thank you, my other mom and dad.

Now, on to my exercise report. Let's just say it hasn't been good. The only upside is that my buddy Tully has ran with me this week. I'm really glad we live in the same neighborhood. He is not only a pretty cool dude, but he runs faster than me and it helps me increase my speed overall. Anyway, I didn't run 17 on Sunday like a I had planned. I only ran 4. Also, I only ran 2 on Monday and 4 on Wednesday. I haven't done any push-ups, crunches or curls this week. I've been exhausted most of the week. I don't know why, but I've felt completely worn out. That is why I haven't posted any blogs since Saturday. I stay up late, but I feel extremely unmotivated to move much when I sit down. Hopefully it will turn around. At this point, I plan to run 4 tomorrow and 8 on Sunday. Hopefully, I will stop this slide tomorrow and start being able to post positive results. Are you eager with anticipation?

Lickity Split Comes the Baby, Fidgety Fast Goes the World

Where to begin?

Gas is under $2 per gallon. That means I am saving roughly $0.85 per gallon from the high that I remember. That means if I get 24 miles per gallon and I drive 15,000 miles per year I would save $531.25 in a year's time. This is, of course, assuming gas remains at the same price or lower. And we all know that is a safe assumption.

As a corollary, the other day (or 2 days before yesterday, to be exact) I was thinking about one factor that I never hear about when it comes to changes in one's life due to having a baby. A baby causes a dad to drive slower in order to keep the baby safe. (This is an indisputable fact.) If I travel the aforementioned 15,000 miles per year but I reduce my average driving speed from 49-42.5 mph, over the course of a year I am going to end up spending approximately 46.82 more hours in my car. This is, of course, assuming the baby is always with me in the car and I drive according to the rule of the aforementioned indisputable fact. That's 46.82 hours wasted in a car. That's nearly 2 days, but not quite 2 days, if you don't mind my redundancy. Life changes in so many ways when a baby comes to stay. I suppose I was thinking about that because it's a mathematical, rational way I can predict how my life will change when our baby is born. Maybe you think it's a coping mechanism. But, I think it's just a way for me to deal with the stress of the unknown. Or, maybe...just maybe, it's both.

Excitement, anxiety, fear, pure joy, passion, curiosity. All these feelings undulate through me everyday. I say undulate, because I like the word and it conveys how fast I can go from thinking about the sweetness of watching a baby sleep to wondering what in the heck I'd do if my baby started to choke. It's like riding the Janglehopper Express (if Moose doesn't mind me borrowing his Hi-Larious term) at Rickety Rides Kentucky Carnival and Creepy Stuff. What?

"It's late...I better get home fast." Can you name that tune?

Anyway, on to my goals. This week's running didn't go as planned. It has everything to do with some major chaffing wounds I sustained last Sunday on my long run. Those wounds kept re-chaffing everytime I started to run this week and my fear was that they wouldn't be healed by tomorrow's long run. So, I only worked out 2 days this week. Monday and Wednesday. I only ran 2 miles both those days. I also did my 100 crunches/100 curls/100 push-ups those days. So I severely fell short of my goal. But due to my "injuries" and helping my dad (who is now temporarily staying at our home through the surgery next week) I think I can forget and move on to tomorrow and next week. So in about 6 hours I will aim to run 17 miles. I'll have an update tomorrow night along with next weeks workout/running goals.

Life is short.

Something happened to my dad tonight. He's ok in the sense that he'll probably be in pain for many weeks and 4 months or longer for recovery, but he's alive. And considering the circumstances it could have been much worse.

I thank God I had the opportunity to help him a little tonight. It's the first time in my life, that I can remember, that I felt he really needed me and I was able to take care of him. My mom is also in a lot of pain at this time. She just recently had surgery to hopefully help reduce some of her neck and back pain that she lives with everyday of her life. However, temporarily the pain is much worse. So, she is not really in a position to help my dad with his broken leg and various other injuries.

Here's the story in a nutshell:
I'm sitting at home around 4:30pm. My dad calls and asks very casually what I was going to be up to over the next couple of hours. From the tone of his voice I assumed it had something to do with him bringing our longtime family friend, who was in town, over to see our new home. So I said, "nothing much." Then he asked if I'd be able to meet him at the medical clinic to pick him up. I asked why. He simply said he'd tell me about it later, but may have broken his ankle. I'd like to make it clear that his voice had not an ounce of distress. That's my dad. He's a strong man.

So I cancelled my plans to play poker and went to meet him at the clinic. I walked in and there was Dr. Bob, our family friend, sitting in a chair with his head down with his fingertips barely pinching his nose between his eyes and his eyes were closed. I'm telling you this, because this is the man who invites us to go sailing on his yacht/catamaran in Grenada (the Carribbean) and this is the pose he always has on the boat when he is at his most relaxed. So I'm wondering what happened and is it important enough for me to really be missing my poker game with friends. By the way, I know that sounds callous, but I'm sure we all think like that sometimes when we are in the routine of life.

I woke him up.

Then we exchanged pleasantries about family, career, life, etc. Then I asked what was going on. He casually mentions he and dad went out to fly my dad's ultralight airplane and he was watching dad take off. He casually mentioned that he didn't seem to be gaining enough altitude and then casually mentioned something about his ultralight crashing over the treeline and then casually said his heart had sank as he jumped in the truck to rush to help. (I was thinking Thank God a doctor was with him the one time he has had problems flying.) He trailed off a little before saying "Your dad is one lucky man" and then laughed in a quiet amused tone that reminded me of the laugh you'd have when you saw a dog chase it's tail for an hour. Again for perspective, this is the same man that sailed across the Atlantic from Portugal to Grenada with dad on a boat not more than, well not very big for crossing the OCEAN in my opinion. (For a look at the boat here's a website. This is the same boat Carlye and I sailed on for a week last fall. http://www.grenadasailing.com/boat.htm)

So, that is how I learned what happened and in just a moment's time I went from wondering what trivial injury my dad had was keeping me from poker and friends to thanking God for even getting to see him later. Anyway, the rest of the night was spent doing as much as I could to help. From running to Walgreens for medicine and crutches to sitting with him and readjusting the pillows under his legs until he could find something almost tolerable. I loved every minute of it.

My thank you tonight is to my dad for being a loving dad, best friend, confidant, and so many things that I can't begin to name them. He and I have had a great relationship and after seeing my brother's father-in-law pass away, in the blink of an eye this past spring, everyday I say a prayer for him and thank God for the time we share. My dad is unendingly generous of his time when it comes to helping his children. Just in the past couple weeks he has spent several weekends in St. Louis helping my brother Ben prepare his house to sell. He has helped inspect the home I just bought and move furniture. He has helped my brother Eric put drywall in his new home office. This is all within the last month. My dad's passion for knowledge is extraordinary. He is extremely educated, but also very in tune with common sense. He's a guy that can talk psychology with you (I'm 79.35% certain that is what his Masters is in) and fix a thingymajig on your car in the same day. Although, it is funny watching him do plumbing work. He gets the job done, but not without giving it a good tongue-lashing. One of my favorite childhood memories was when my brother Eric brought home a date and my dad was in the bathroom fixing the toilet. From the couch where Eric, Eric's date, mom, and I were watching tv it sounded like dad was having a very heated dispute with a woman of ill-repute. My dad is a wonderful story-teller and a private poet. My dad amazes me. Thank you dad for being who you are and for being a constant father. I pray I can share with my son the many experiences we shared. I pray I can be as loving a father as you have been to me. Thanks, Dad.

Finally, if you have read this far, please take a few seconds to add my mom and dad to your prayers.

I intend to make this a short blog. I'm still recovering from my run this morning and think I might go to bed early for once.

For anyone just tuning in, I had set a goal to run 16 miles this morning. It was a way to get myself back on track from 16 I had run in July. Since then, my running has been inconsistent, to say the least, and the longest I had run was 11 miles a couple weekends ago. However, I did it. My buddy Todd has commented before that running was a slow form of Chinese water torture to him. And, I really thought about that today. It was painful mentally and physically. The mental part was the hardest, though. After I had completed 4 miles I was thinking of every reason in the world why I wasn't going to be able to finish 16 and that I should just give up and go back to sleep. I started at 6am. But, my method of running is always just to run one more mile and then see how I feel. It's a mind game I play with myself. Because as I progress I break it down into fractions with the goal of getting to half way because it's all the home stretch after that. So I'll tell myself, "I've already ran 2/3rds of being half way, so I can't stop now." It probably sounds crazy, but that's mild compared to the things you think about when you're running for 2-3 hours without listening to music or anything other than the occassional dog bark in the distance. However, today the primary reason I ran on was because I had written in my blog I was going to run 16 miles and I didn't want to fail on my very first day. It's amazing how accountability works. But, even though a ran on, at mile 8 I was near quitting. Because I had not been training properly in the prior weeks leading up to this mornings run, I was beginning to develop several blisters and chaffing was taking it's toll. And here's where the most amazing thing happened (besides the beautiful soft rouge and lavender sunrise and gentle cool winds). I began asking God to help me get through the run. I asked Him to take away the pain or do something to take over for me. And, not even a minute later (and I am not exagerating a bit) this little dog ran up to me and then began to lead my run by about 5 paces. He didn't bark at me or want me to pet him or interrupt me in any way. He just showed up to run with me and he even led the way for over 3 miles! It was amazing. I'm not one to easily say when God does something or not, but that dog humored me in such a way I forgot about all the pain for those 3 miles. Anyway, to wrap the story up I ran all 16 miles. And I pumped my fist when I had finished. Kind of like Kirk Gibson did in the world series. A small victory. I think that's why I run. It is torture, but I choose to endure it. And when I can overcome all those doubts and temptations to failure it's a solid, pure feeling of accomplishment.
So my next goal along these lines is to complete my 4mile/6mile cyle through the week and meet my upper body strength building goals I mentioned in a prior blog. Then I will aim for 17 miles next Sunday morning. At some point I'll try working on eating better, too. But I enjoyed eating 3 candy bars after I ran today. So, one thing at a time.

One last thing...
Mushrooms. I’ve had them many times; on pizza, in oil, on burgers, with pepper. But today my buddy Cody made them. He grilled them on his new Broil King. I think that was the name. One of those big stainless steel grills that make you think of big time barbeque. Now, I know there is an intense debate over charcoal or propane. It’s a debate that has started wars and ended J.C. Penney 3-day sales. So, I know not to take sides. But there is one thing that I will say on the topic. Cody’s propane grill (and Cody’s skill) produced the most delicious mushrooms I have ever savored. They were spectacular. And I mean spectacular. When you ate them it was like a giant display of fireworks going off in your mouth. That sounds wrong. What I mean to say is the taste buds in my mouth lit up like fireworks on a 4th of July celebration. The flavor was as close to perfect as I can imagine a mushroom tasting. So today, I want to say thank you to Cody for a great day of watching the KC Chiefs play and for the most amazing mushrooms I’ve ever had.

Where is my car key?

Never in my wildest dreams, including the ones about giant toadstools and leprechauns with southern drawls, did I think someone would figure out my blog title so quickly. My friend Jessica has done just that. Thanks for taking the time to translate. That means you read the blog.

So my first bit of news is that I'm already on my way to acheiving my exercise goals. As a stated in my last blog, Saturdays would be my days off to recuperate, and I did just that. I sat in a car for nearly 5 hours today and moved only enough this morning to get up and get my cinnamon rolls off the stove. 5 of them. This is a Saturday morning ritual my wife and I have shared for nearly 8 months now. Maybe longer. Carlye gets up earlier on Saturday than I do, due to my staying up late every night, and makes us cinnamon rolls. What a treat. She is the greatest wife a guy could pray for. She is every bit as sweet as the frosting on the cinnamon rolls. And just in case you are starting to crave cinnamon rolls, we have found that the best choice rolls are more scrumptious than the name brands. So save yourself a dime and dig in. Yum.

We drove to our friends' wedding reception today. Chris and Brandi. Chris has been a great friend of mine (or BFF in pre-teen girl language) since my freshman year of college when we won the intramural sandvolleyball league championship. I think we won by forfeit if I recall correctly, or maybe a rainout, but the taste of victory still swirls in my mind. Not really. But I'll always remember it because it led me to get to know Chris. He is one of the most generous people I have ever met and has married a woman equally kind. I pray God gives them the strength to build a lasting and loving marriage.

Getting back to the goal of running a marathon. Tomorrow morning before Sundee School (I really appreciate when people say Sundee and not Sunday) I am going to run 16 miles. I will try to get up around 5:00am and get to the trail by 5:30am and be done sometime around 8am. I'll give an update tomorrow. I'm just praying my legs don't lock up since it's been so long since I've done 16. Anyway, that's the plan. So I'm going to try and make myself go to sleep around 11pm tonight so I can get in 6 hours of sleep. Making myself go to bed at 11 with probably be the hardest part of this whole plan.

On another note, after I finished blogging last night and laid down to go to sleep, I started thinking I could use this blog for another reason. I am going to try to write about one person in my life everytime I post. It's in line with something my wife and I talked about the other night about trying to create a habit of being actively thankful to God and all those people he has blessed us with knowing. It's easy to get caught up in the routine and responsibility of life and lose touch with understanding that the good life we have is a gift. So this will be one way I can say thanks publicly to my friends and family.

So with that, let me begin with my wife. Carlye. Her name alone invokes so many emotions to pour through me. I met her when I was 27. I had prayed for so long to find a passionate, God-fearing woman to live my life with. And there she was, behind a desk and looking as cute as any fast talking Philly girl could look. Curls in her hair and a twinkle in her eye...and other things that only a husband can appreciate. But it wasn't until she had moved back to Philly that she would open her heart to me. I could tell you all the details of our courtship (for my purposes, a courtship means the time when she was turning down my advances and not actually dating me), but you might think they were simple and small, but to me they are the stuff of epic novels. Little gestures and smiles that are etched forever in my mind. So let me just summarize with telling you we had known and told each other we loved each other before we had even kissed. And, if you know me at all you know I am an extremely cautious (that doesn't mean wise) person and that is completely out of my character. I believe it was one of those times when God takes over for you like in the poem "Footprints." And now she is carrying the second greatest gift of my life. She is so much to me. She is energy. She is style. She is playful. She is patient with my stubborness. She is affectionate and reassuring. She is poetry when she laughs. She is a book with immeasurable intrigue and knowledge. She is confident in her relationship with God. She is built from the wood of a beautiful family tree. She is my wife and I love her. Thank you, Babe.

I've never kept a journal. That is what guys call diaries, right?

I'm trying to think of why I'm doing this. It might because of Paige's blog saying "we want you," and my mind wandering to those old ads for the military. You remember, don't you? Uncle Sam back in the 30's and 40's with that long skinny finger. So, hey, I can't let my country down! And what is really weird, and I'm not kidding on this one, I really did have an Uncle Sam with a skinny finger. Actually all of his fingers were skinny if I recall correctly. To be totally honest he was a great-uncle. I think. I can never remember the terminology for family lineage. He was my grandpa's brother. Uncle Sam.

So it's 12:32 am or so. My wife is in bed. She's been in bed for several hours and I am still up. This happens only 7 out of 7 nights a week. I'm never sure if I'm an insomniac or my body is just programmed to sleep at a different time. Sometimes it's frustrating since I can't comfortably lay down with my wife hand and hand and take a stroll down Sleepy Lane together. I fidget and move around way too much for her to fall asleep. And she and our baby need their sleep. I wish I could have thought of another name, because Sleepy Lane sounds kind of lame. However, a lane is usually what one strolls down. But, I would have preferred something with a little more zest like the word Jazzercise.

Speaking of Jazzercise, I see that the blog is being used successfully as a place to be accountable for exercise and healthy living. I will take this opportunity to join in.
I intend to run a marathon again. That is a little over 26 miles. My longest run this summer has been 16 miles, but that has been nearly 2 months ago. So I am in serious need of getting back on track. Since July, I have travelled and moved and have not made time to keep up with my running. So far this week I've ran 4 days. So, I'm building the habit back up. I intend to run 16 miles this weekend. It will be extremely painful since my long run of 11 miles 2 weekends ago was the highest since my 16 in July. Then I will add 1 mile to my long run every Sunday until I'm back to 26 miles. That is 10 weeks from this weekend which is November 26th. During the week I will run 4 miles and 6 miles every other day Mon-Fri. In addition, Mon-Fri I will do 100 crunches, 100 push-ups, and 100 curls to help build my upper body strength for the long runs. I will have Saturday's off to recuperate.

Now on to other things. Although, my fingers already feel winded from typing. And since it is officially Saturday I should be recuperating. So goodnight and God bless!