Back in Lincoln

So we're back in town after spending the morning in Omaha and Bellevue. I did the Omaha Half Marathon today, and I exceeded my hopes...I got done in 2hr 3min 39sec, which is a 9:27 mile pace. Hooray for me!!!

Then we went to church at Bellevue and saw old friends...that was nice.

Off to the Moore's house for fun times and probably cake!

I love this song by Chris Sligh. For those who don't know who he is, he was on American Idol a couple years ago, and prior to being on the show, he was a worship minister, so after his time on American Idol, he put out a great Christian album...this song is a great prayer, and I thought I'd share it.

As Promised

Our house is all finished being painted! Hooray!!!! They came out on Monday and started but got held up by some rain...and they finished today...so I dug through our photo albums and found a picture we took from when we bought our house and took a picture of the house today so you can see what we've done with the place in the last 7 years. The old picture isn't the greatest quality, but it works...

Before:

After:

Exciting Times!

It's exciting times in the Stoves' household...our house is almost done getting painted and then we'll basically be done with exterior work on our house! When it's all said and done I'll have to put before and after pictures on here so you can see how much work we've had done this summer. I have truly learned the benefit of hiring people that you know to do work on your house. The painters we have working used to work for me at Olive Garden when I managed there...for those in Lincoln, I highly recommend SuperiorPro to paint your house...good guys and they do good work for a good price. We also used a contractor that used to live across the street from us to do a bunch of handyman/fix-it type projects, and he's installing a door and window for us...We didn't know the stone people and they were a hassle...I don't recommend using Edward's Stone if you're thinking about doing that kind of thing to your house. The end product is nice, but the process was a big headache.

The other bit of excitement is that on Sunday I'm doing the Omaha Half Marathon. Hopefully that'll be a good time. I'm shooting to get it done in about 2 hours 7 min...that would be a 9:45 mile pace. A fairly aggressive goal for me, but I can comfortably do 9 miles at that pace right now, so I want to see if I can keep it going for the extra 4.1 miles. I'll have to let you all know next week how I did. I'm only about 3 weeks away from the KC Marathon...I don't have any crazy thoughts in my head of going that fast for that run. I'm hoping to keep it under an 11 min. mile pace. It'd be nice to get it done in 4 1/2 hours, but that'd be at a 10:17 pace...don't know that I can do that. I'm heading out for an 18 mile run here in about 10 minutes or so and that'll be a good test to see where I'm at. I have not done a good job keeping up with my training program at all...by now I should've done a 20 mile run and then next week I'd start tapering...I need to do 18 miles today, take a couple days off and do the half on Sunday and then next week do 20 and then start to cut back...I was really hoping to get a 23 mile run in before the marathon, but alas, that probably won't happen. Of course, prior to doing the Disney Marathon the farthest I went in training runs was 18...'course it took us over 6 hours to get done...

Cubs are in!

So the Cubs clinched the NL Central with a win over the Cardinals today! Now we'll see how far they can get...maybe this will be the year! Joyful and I have decided that if they actually make it to the World Series, we're going to make a weekend trip to Chicago if they have a home weekend game just so we can be in the city for the atmosphere...but we'll see...it is the Cubs after all..

What's new?

So I guess it's been a little while since I updated the 'ol blog. What's new around here? We FINALLY got the stonework done on our house...I'm really happy with the end product, but the process of dealing with the contractor/subcontractor was a hassle. They came and cleaned up their mess today and I'm done with them, so hooray! :) Now we're able to get started on getting the house painted and then we'll be done with major projects on the house. What a headache this has all been...I'm tired of living in a construction zone...but we're so close to having a nice, quiet house again!

Other than that, though, nothing really new...Joyful's parents stopped by for a little visit this past weekend, so that was nice. They're on their way back home from their yearly trip across the country to see friends and family. It was good to see them, and we'll see them even more in November when we go to California for Thanksgivng/Christmas (still haven't come up with a good name to combine those 2 holidays).

Hope everything's going well for all of you...I'm off to work now.

happy birthday to me

Well, almost...tomorrow's my birthday, but today I'm baby-sitting Logan Kirk and I'm bored, so I figured I'd update the 'ole blog. Watching a 2 year old run around and try and get into everything can make 31 feel kinda old...

I don't really have any grand plans for the birthday this year...I'm going to lunch with Joyful, and I don't work my morning job (my gift to myself was not waking up at 4:30 in the morning for work for a day)...other than that, though, it'll be a normal day....I looked up to see what famous people share my birthday and here's the ones that I found fun:

Adam Sandler
Hugh Grant
Michael Keaton
Colonel Harland Sanders (of KFC fame)
And on Sept 9th, 1850, California became the 31st state

Happy Birthday to Me!

talking politics

At Heartlands, Jim is doing a series of lessons called "Text", encouraging us to just read our bibles. How can we know God and His will unless we listen to His word? I have been reading through the Old Testement as of late and am currently in 2nd Kings and there is a recurrent theme that's obvious, even to me...Pretty much every section starts with "King whoever was however old when he began and reigned for x-number of years...and he did evil in the Eyes of the Lord." That got me to thinking about this year's election...Often times we as Christians hear a lot about various candidates' moral stands on various issues...we get forwards sent to us about why we shouldn't vote for Obama because his parents were Muslums and his middle name is Hussein, etc. etc. I don't think God ever promised us a Godly president...as you read through the bible more often than not the rulers were far from Godly. I'm not saying that one shouldn't take into account a person's position on abortion or the death penalty when deciding who to vote for, I'm just saying that God is in control...He will allow whoever He sees fit to be our president. One could argue that having an "ungodly" president would provide more opportunities for Christians to be vocal and shine in the darkness of the world. It is too easy to remain silent and complacent when policies we support are in place. Jesus said that we are blessed when we are persecuted...how can anyone persecute you if nobody knows what you believe?