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.