Snow, State & Church

This weekend was full of exciting items...beginning with the weather. Friday, the local weather crew predicted between 6-10 inches of snow to hit our fair city. The interesting part is, we had a high of almost 80 not a week before. Even the MODOT crews on TV thought it was a joke. We got some rain and ice on Friday and got hit even harder with it on Saturday morning. About noon on Saturday, the snow started. I'm not talking about gentle little flakes fluttering to the ground. These were big, huge globs of wet snow dropping like rocks to the ground...it didn't take long for it to start accumulating. We ended up getting about 2-4 inches of heavy, wet snow.

Shallen had district Band on Saturday in Liberty, MO. She was part of a quartet flute ensamble as well as a solo performance. Shallen ended up getting a 1 (scale of 1 to 5...1 geing the best) in both her ensemble and solo - this means she's going to state competition on May 1st in Columbia, MO. She was so excited, she called Steph immediately to tell her about making state. Not a bad way to finish out her high school band competition.

Sunday morning, Shallen had to work at the tennis courts so Steph and I attended church at the 10:45 service at Antioch Baptist Church. This is a great church, we really enjoy the services and messages the pastor brings. There were a number of baptisms this morning...all young girls. It brought a tear to my eyes as they read the testimonies of these kids - they really have a heart and passion for the Lord. The message spoke to our motives in life. If we do things to show our "godliness" before man (in prayer, fasting and giving), we have already received our reward. God wants us to be in private with the things we do that glorify him and he will reward us in a very public way. It's always great to hear these passages in Matthew from time to time to keep us focused on our motives behind our relationship with God.

Have a great week!

We're Gettin Close

For our anniversary and Christmas this last year, Steph bought me a 9-game package to the Royals for this season. After selecting the games I wanted to attend and letting the folks at the KC Royals know them, it turned into a waiting game.

My wait has paid off. I received in the mail this week, two tickets for each of the games I selected. To open that box was exciting. I love baseball and am looking forward to watching the Royals this season. Regular season begins next month at the newly renovated stadium.

My love for baseball started as a teenager when I used to play catch with my buddy Paul in his back yard. We'd throw grounders to each other making them faster and faster. We'd end up throwing just about as hard as we could just in front of the other person's feet and making it difficult to field the ball. Through all of this, we would keep count until one of us missed. We actually did pretty well many a day in his backyard.

The other great memory was pitching to his dad. Rev. Charles would taunt us by telling us that we couldn't get a ball past him. We used a hard rubber ball that tended to flatten out a little when thrown hard. Chuck would start by crowding the plate - Paul and I had no trouble brushing him back, sometimes landing a ball square in his side. Then it was all we could do not to cry from laughter when he would jump around the yard fussing from us hitting him so hard. You knew it got bad when he'd yell to Frances in the house that "the boys" were beating up on him. I remember hearing Frances laughing in the distance.

You had to be careful with Chuck, though. If you floated one over the plate, he'd get that bat around and you'd be hoppin' a few fences to retrieve it. I often think about those times when we spent our whole afternoon in the backyard laughing, sweating and loving the game of baseball! Honestly, that's what it's all about.

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when you had to force yourself to finish something...every step of the way? Yesterday was one of those days for me. My day started at 5am getting up to pick up Stephan and traveling to Boonville, MO for a court date (let's just say it wasn't one of the smarter things he's done in his life). Booneville is about 2 hours from my house down I-70.

Let me start by saying, yesterday was beutiful in KC. The temps got up to about 80 degrees (very nice for a St. Patty's Day in KC...it's usually rainy and cold). I came back home after taking the day off from work and mowed the lawn. With the warm temperatures lately, I've actually got a good bit of green grass coming up already. I did a few other odds and ends and before I knew it, it was about 4:45. I needed to get a good run in and was actually motivated to do it.

Once I got out on the road running, I wanted to stop and walk. I even tried to convince myself that I should walk and run today. I was so tired and not motivated to go on. I had planned on an eight miler, but ended up cutting it back to six...I was surprised I got six miles in.

Steph was at home waiting for me when I got back. I quickly showered and we went up to Applebee's for dinner. Very relaxing evening. I even got home early enough to catch my favorite movie on TV - "The Quiet Man" with a very young John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Ever since I saw that movie years ago, it's been my favorite.

This morning, I got Steph up at 5am and we ran a couple miles. I'm trying to help her be a little more consistant with her running. It was a little cool when we started, but we warmed up pretty quickly. I'm now at work and ready to begin a long day at the office. Have a great day, everybody!

Monday...Monday

Great weekend...enjoyed spending all that time with my beautiful wife. On Friday, Stephanie and Shallen traveled to Kirksville, MO to check out Truman State University. Shallen is interested in playing tennis in college and this school offers the best possiblilty of doing that. Shallen liked the campus and the town. Steph was not as impressed, but I reminded her that Shallen was the one attending, not her! Shallen came home and immediately signed up for housing - it looks like the choice has been made.

Saturday, we did some work around the house. I finally got the new faucet put in the kitchen sink. It turns out, whenever a new house is built and the plumbers pipe in the kitchen sink, they don't put in shut-offs unless prompted to. Problem is, neither Steph nor I were here when they were building the house. I had to cut the pipes, put in shut-offs for both the hot & cold lines with compression fittings and run flexible lines to put in a new faucet...alot of work for exchanging out a faucet.

For lunch, we had the good fortune of meeting Steph's mom and sister Kay at Jason's Deli...I love that place. Excellent food and conversation. Everything seems to be going well for family - all in good spirits and healthy.

Saturday night, Steph and I went to O'Dowds Irish Pub in Zona Rosa ("The Plaza" north of the river) to watch the finals of the Big 12 Tourney. MU looked a little sluggish in the 1st half, but gained momentum in the 2nd and went on to win the tournament. They are now seated 3rd in the West Region and Kansas is seated 3rd in the Central. Should be a good tournament. It's too bad we couldn't get a home-town team to play at the Sprint Center for the opening rounds...who wants to watch Oklahoma???

Sunday, we met with three other families (the parents) to discuss the graduation party for our four girls. These girls have been friends all through grade/middle & high school. They are the best of friends and we love each and every one of them. Plan on seeing a high school graduation announcement in the near future.

On a separate note, I need all my prayer partners out there to lift up a newly found cousin and her husband (Marcy & Tom). I met Marcy and her mom Besty when doing research for the Elkins family tree. They live in Illinois and Tom is experiencing some issues with his heart and lungs. Please pray that God will hold this family tight and assure them that he is in the midst of this troubling time. I pray that a renewed strength is given to both Tom & Marcy as Tom awaits results back from tests.

Have a great week!

Beautiful Day for a Run

After getting off work yesterday, I had the need to get out and get my daily mileage in. I'm still preparing for the Nashville Marathon and knew I needed to get in a run between 5 and 8 miles (I settled on 6).

It had started to rain here yesterday as I was leaving work about 3:30. The temperature was in the mid to upper 40's...great running weather. Since we live North of Kansas City, the farther I traveled north from work, the more it seemed to pickup in downpour. By the time I got home, it was a constant flow of rain - sometimes a little sideways with the wind behind it.

I ran in the house and changed as quickly as I could knowing that I probably didn't have a lot of time before the temps started dropping and the rain would increase. I stretched and made it out of the house in time to start my run in a light rain that I knew would get worse as I ran.

Running is a great release for me. It gives me time to think about all the rushed areas in my life that need to slow down abit so I can make a solid decision about them. It also gives me a time to reflect on my beautiful wife, great kids and all the wonderful things God has so favorably blessed me with.

I'm glad I brought some light-weight gloves with me...I really needed them later in the run. Rainy days are fun to run in - it give you new obsticles to overcome, like dodging all the massive puddles that begin to spring up. There's a lot of new construction around where we live so I got the chance to run through a lot of mud and muck as well - it's all part of the run.

The farther I ran, the stronger I got yesterday. I was constantly forcing myself to pull back a little as my body was trying to set a blistering pace. I had to keep telling myself this was suppose to be a nice easy run, not a race. I finished the 6 miles about a block from the house and walked to the house for my cool-down. It was a great run for a solid day all the way around.

Fun Weekend

This past weekend we had the pleasure of having our grand-daughter Morgan over. She is a lot of fun and a ball of laughs. We went out Friday night to get her some new clothes and go out for dinner (the new clothes have become a ritual starting back a number of years ago...it's fun for both of us).

We spent Saturday morning driving around the Nothland looking at houses in a snow storm. We made plans earlier in the week to have our realtor take us out Saturday morning just to check out a few houses since ours is now on the market. It was cold, wet and generally uncomfortable. Out of about 10 houses we looked at, only one was worth thinking about for us. It's only the first day, I'm sure we'll see more we like over the next few months.

Sunday, we took my mother-in-law Shirley and traveled south to Lee's Summit to visit Steph's brother Craig and his wife Nedra to celebrate birthdays (Steph's was Feb 22, Nedra's was the 28th and Shirley's is Mar 5th). Nedra's daughter Ellen was there as well along with Craig's daughter Jesse. We had a great time with talk about current events and family news (Ellen is getting married in the fall).

Monday evening was Stephan's Spring vocal concert at Oak Grove High School. A number of the choirs performed (including the middle school choir). They all did a great job and I found out between songs, that Stephan made the All-Conference Choir (the boy never tells me anything)! I'm very proud of him. He is currently running track and preparing for his final year in school.

After the concert, I ran into an old friend of mine, Robin Wise, who used to live up the street from us growing up. Turns out, she has a set of very pretty twins in the 9th grade that Stephan is friends with...go figure!