please-not another softball game in the rain tonight. while it may have been to our advantage last week (17 runs in the first inning), i'd rather not bat in a torrential downpour.
so far, the Nexus team is undefeated. i guess God just likes us more than the other teams.

update

Hello friends,
I am still here. Long weekend was MUCH needed and MUCH fun. Where to begin? friday.
Helped my buddy Joe work on the nursery for he and Ashby's baby, who will be arriving this week. Had lots of catching up to do. Did so through paint fumes and drywall dust.
saturday.
Spent the day with the future in-laws in celebrated Astoria, IL. First I attended Gina's hair highlighting and cutting appointment with her aunt. Then had a great meal that her mom prepared, followed by shooting some clay pigeons and a .45 with her dad. The afternoon concluded with a road tour through historic Camp Ellis in an absolute downpour. Absolutely wonderful day! Then home for a movie-G was out like a light by 9:07pm.
sunday.
9am church, a two-hour workout, lunch, cleaned out the gutters, and weeded the lawn. That Gina sure is a trooper! I am so blessed to have someone with the same interests, who has fun doing weird stuff around the house. amazing! Then we grilled out with Miley and Eric across the street, capping the night with an episode of "Arrested Development."
this weekend was "random" to say the least.
memorable monday.
slept in (or planned to). cats had other ideas. i was up at 6. jerks.
Went to a cookout at Cory and Vicky's. Much fun with great friends. The sun decided to come out, making perfect weather for another cut-throat bocce ball game, again won by Ryan Hite and yours truly. Spent the afternoon fighting with digital equipment that refused to cooperate, but finally got the latest boar hunting video to burn. HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF. I thought 40 hours of work was gone-harddrive was reformatted and only existing copy of the dvd was corrupted. things are good now. i can sleep. AND i'm all caught up on episodes of "the office."
tomorrow starts a wonderfully short week of work.
wow, what a seemingly boring life. but it's a good life.

NRA show in Chicago.

No, not the National Rifle Association-which would have been equally as cool, but not as delicious. I drove 6 hours in a minivan today to-and-from the McCormick Center for the National Restaurant Association's annual show. There were vendors, restaurants, food suppliers, etc. from all over the world with all kinds of free samples and gadgets. Very cool.
I was literally FULL from all the food samples before lunch. I think I may have had 3 small pieces of meat and a Jolly Rancher slushi this afternoon and that was enough to hold me over until dinner (10pm).
Just a fun day of food and camaraderie with my other inspector friends.

Everything else has been going great too. Last weekend was filled with graduation parties, the last "Reality" of the school year, and lots of treasured time with my GIRL.
Sunday we went to church, had brunch, took a 2-hour walk through the beautiful Springdale Cemetery and then to Imo's for more ice cream than a human should be allowed to consume (and then I went into a sugar coma for 2 weeks).

It was just one of those weekends that makes you say, "ahhhh."

4 days left until Friday!
...what to do for Memorial Day?

Lights (High- and Low-)

Where do I begin?!
This past week I was in berserk mode 24/7. And I'm glad it's over. Here are some key aspects into why it was the craziest week on record:
1. Weekend Duty at the Health Dept. (I did 9 temporary food establishment inspections on Friday alone).
2. 4 miserable days of allergies (sometimes I wish my nose was inverted so it couldn't run-and we would be more like whales when swimming).
3. The house I purchased is apparently possessed by a poltergeist. Thursday night, 20 minutes before life group was to begin at my domocile, the electricity went out in half of the house. Namely, the half that controls the air conditioning, most of the lights, some outlets, etc. It came back on (sort of) about an hour later-but would pulsate and flicker, but barely had enough strength to turn a ceiling fan. Several calls to CILCO and an electrician's bill later, almost everything works.
4. First softball game of the season. We are stellar. 9-6, good guys.
5. IHOP (International House of Prayer) was at Nwoods this weekend and the Reality leaders attended as a group Friday night. Hearing God's words of affirmation spoken through his people is powerful, moving, and uplifting. Wow.
6. Suprising the wonderful employees of Denny's with a 7:30am Saturday inspection.
7. Spending Thursday in the glorious Pekin Dragon's Dome. The floor is squishy.
8. Molly's graduation party. Two incredible Bocce ball bouts-comeback stories of the century.
9. I couldn't find the Blockbuster online movie that came this week when going through the mound of paperwork and bills on my desk this afternoon. There's only one place it could have been. Yes, in one of the steaming bags of garbage in the cans on the back porch with the junk mail. And it was. Right under the banana peels and cat food cans. Sorry "Ten Commandments." I think I'll send it back.
10. Second to last Reality of the year. Harmonica.
11. Spending quality time with Gina (sorry Leslie, but you knew that was coming).
12. While I couldn't be with my Momma on Momma's Day, at least I got to talk to her on the phone. Love you, Mom!

And thus concludes my crazy week.

camptown races

I had a great weekend! We had a beautiful day for the Kentucky Derby party and our horse got 2nd place. Gina knows how to pick 'em. It was very cool because my friends and her friends were all there (and they're the same people). Still quite strange we never met before now.
I had to work both days to do some inspections of temporary food establishments, which are quick and easy and the mileage check adds up from driving all over the county.
Yesterday we had our first practice game for softball. I think we've got a pretty promising team for the summer league! As is typical, I rolled my ankle going after a ball, which didn't hurt very badly at the time, but became excruciatingly painful by the end of the night. It was moderately better this morning, so hope it's functional by our first game thursday. I'm falling apart.
Is it bad that I'm living for the weekends and not appreciating the week days? Oh well. The sun is shining!

what is beauty?

mutual, uncontrollable laughter.
shared prayer at the end of a long day.
shared ice cream-anytime!
a friend whose ear never tires and shoulder never grows cold.
bird songs at daybreak.
a clean house.
the smiling face of the one you love.
helping those in need.
puppy kisses.
budding trees in the spring.
holding your world in your arms as they drift into sleep...

drippy.

i came to the quick realization today that sampling a septic system in a torrential downpour requires both a rain coat AND rain pants. failure to wear both results in soggy britches for the remainder of the day.
also: boots are a good idea. squish.

i confess

Last night on knoxville avenue at approximately 5:52pmCST, I committed involuntary vehicular squirrelicide.


poor little fella didn't even see it coming.

pruned.

John 15
The Vine and the Branches
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

It's funny (or ignorant) how we (I) hold onto things in life that bear no fruit and resist pruning when we know that eliminating the branch will give room for life to flourish. When we try to do things on our own, the results are bitter, sterile. We need the Gardener's careful touch to bloom into what HE has planned for us...

2 Corinthians 6:14
Do Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers
14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Tonight I am thankful for the Gardener's pruning, for in it the darkness has turned to light!

ecclectic

The past two days on the job have brought me to the conclusion that you have to a)be at least a little crazy to work here, and b)have the capacity to let your mind jump from one task to another every 14 seconds.

For instance: today I arrived, thinking I was just attending a pool conference in the morning and would have nothing to do the rest of the day. However, that was not the case. I had two septic system tests to schedule, a pile of temporary food licenses to sort through and schedule inspection times for this weekend, then was asked to go check out an extensive septic system that a farmer decided he was going to install himself. I was impressed, to say the least. He had dug a hole, approximately 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and 20 feet wide to put the tank in and over 1200 square feet of trenches BY HAND. And he had 5 more trenches to dig. Then I came back and talked to a guy on the phone who wanted to know what kind of cleaner to use on the floor of his daycare, while trying to plan out my next day of restaurant inspections.
We can't work more than 40 hours per week without getting scolded, so I have to figure out how much time it will take to drive to each temporary location over the weekend and do the inspections and then take off early some day this week.
It's wild and crazy! but i like it.

whirlwind

overwhelming joy. a spirit at ease.
that's as close as I can get to describing what i've felt over the past 2 weeks. spending time with Gina is like being reunited with a best friend I'd never met.

i know you're probably sick of hearing about her. but that's too bad. you're going to hear more (or you can read someone else's blog, i guess).

it's kind of like i'm living in a cheesy country song. everything is perfect just being in her company. the sun is always shining from her eyes. the mood instantly lightens when she walks in a room. i get giddy when the phone rings and it's her. see what i mean?!

it's not infatuation. it's not lust. it's more.

and for those of you making bets-quit it. you're going to jinx us! but it's cute.

Gina-i'll see you in 11 hours!!

timely "Sleeping at Last" song...

Tension & Thrill

The headlines talk
Of sadness and new risk.
Life is deadly,
My finger’s to your lips.
We’ll send the world in reverse.

Love is tension and thrill
That begs to be ours.

We are diamonds waiting to be found,
Catching light in the corners of our eyes.
We are diamonds waiting to be found.

We are the hunted,
We are the shining northern lights.
We are the nervous,
We feel our hands becoming vines.
We’ll dream in color tonight.

Love is tension and thrill
That begs to be ours.
There are cities inside of everyone:
Life within life,
The trembling in our voice.

When I look into your eyes
I see the tip of an iceberg.
When I look into your eyes
I see that love is an iceberg
That throws us into the sea.

We’re walking on the ocean floor,
Feeding sharks out of our hands.

We are diamonds waiting to be found,
Catching light in the corners of our eyes.
We are diamonds waiting to be found.


We have been found!

something new, something real.

What a difference a week makes. It's safe to say the news is out. I have met someone.
But Gina is different. For some reason, I've always seemed to attract girls with baggage. LOTS of baggage. And girls who were one person in public, and a completely different person in private. weird. always lacking authenticity and genuine character.
Gina is different. She is someone I can openly share my faith with. She understands what makes me tick-and why I spend so much time at church with crazy high schoolers (who I love)!
she's real. she's a beautiful person-inside and out! It is utterly uncanny how much we have in common.
actually, it's a bit frightening.
even the things we've always hoped life and relationships would one day be like are aligned in a way that is undeniably profound.
I can be 138.4% open with her about anything and everything. We talk for hours-sacrificing sleep and early morning sanity to learn about each other.
i've turned into a complete sap.
and i don't care.
Gina is different. Gina is amazing.

i promise this is not turning into a poetry blog.
weird.
it's just the way things have been pouring out lately.
unexpected surprises, both good and bad, but MUCH more good!
someone who understands-finally!
words can't encapsulate these feelings.
wisdom beyond experience.
adoration.
jubilation.

an affirmation with her every word.
g.

when life is at its best and past obstacles have faded in the dust of your footprints, the enemy siezes an opportunity to plunge a dagger of lies into the soft under-belly of assurance.

to the unbeliever it may be a fatal blow.

But the betrayal of trust, the deciet, the cruel and heartless act of defying a mercy and grace-filled commitment...

is washed away by the comfort and healing words of wisdom, love, and encouragment of true and loving brothers and sisters.

The enemy has no power within the camp of the believers. He is defeated by the most powerful and priceless weapon of love.

thank you b, d, c, l, and g for your words and your prayers! i love you all!

friday. 2:31pm.

anticipation.

for tonight.
a battle. of bands.
Reality students. and other students lost in reality.
anticipating their connection.

for tommorrow.
friends. and a festival.
A new friend. and a new found hope.
anticipating the moment when surface friendships
transform
into authentic relationships.
amen.

AMAZing weekEND

Whew, I needed that!
It was one of those relaxing weekends, not for laziness, but for getting things accomplished and the satisfaction that comes from checking things off the to-do list. And for friends. Great friends, new and old. Nexus was thought-provoking and fun, as usual. I met some awesome new people and am eagerly anticipating building new relationships. The clouds of the past several weeks have definitely lifted and HIS hands are at work! I love it!

bueno.

Fridays are my favorite. There's just something in the anticipation that they bring that makes the whole day pass faster than any other work day. I'll be spending some kwality time with my boys-Tom and Kyle tonight and should be getting my precious Grand Am back after a week in the shop. Tomorrow is NEXUS! I may even get to mow my yard (meadow) for the first time EVER-or change my oil-or clean out the gutters-or something. The possibilities. Either way, it's all goooooooood.

There is a certain beauty in storms.


It begins with a single drop of rain.
Then a chorus of bursting tears on the pavement.
The wind rushes in like a stampeding herd.
A bolt of lightning illuminates all the night keeps hidden for an instant-
The empty space between flash and thunder steals your breath-
Then air shatters...life shatters.


But in the aftermath…in the still quietness after the thunder fades and clouds part…a glimmer of hope and light on the horizon…
there is peace.
There is new life.

awakening

time. once spent, it cannot be reclaimed. to someone with moments left to live, each millisecond is priceless. to one serving a life sentence, days pass like months.
why is it that there are split moments in time that remain vivid and ageless in our minds, while the rest pass without a second thought? why are there things we can't remember and others we can't foget, regardless of how hard we try?

an instant change the course of history.
the hammer piercing the roar of the crowd as it drove the nails into His flesh...
the thunder of the stone being rolled away...
the revelation that He had returned...

more personally, there are moments that change our lives. each and every decision steers us. often blindly we make choices that could enhance our life or end it-"do I take the shortcut home?", "do i eat my steak rare tonight?"
How do we spend the time we've been given and who do we spend it with? relationships. if a relationship fails, how do we cope with the time lost in it? is it really lost???

i yearn for the day when time no longer matters. where there is always time for dessert. where the band keeps playing one more song. where neighbors have time to share a beer on the tailgate after mowing the lawn. where jobs, phones, tv, and taxes take a backseat to meaningful conversation and deepened relationships.

help me to make the right decision this TIME.