The Life and Times of Todd

i was close...

2009-11-28T14:55:00.002-06:00

Well, my pre-season prediction for the Huskers was that we'd go 9-3 or 10-2, but I was an optimist and said 10-2...9-3 ain't too shabby...I'd rather we had 9 impressive wins instead of impressive wins over crappy teams and ugly wins over better teams, but the offense really isn't that good this year...

How crazy would it be if we could upset Texas, though? The TV people say we've got a shot with our defense being so good this year...I agree that they'll keep us in the game...if the defense can score and we can score on special teams and the offense can do anything against UT's defense (not holding my breath on that one)...who knows...I'm recording the game on the DVR just in case it's the greatest football game of all time...but almost every time I record a game it ends up badly...here's hoping :)

I'm gonna be a daddy!

2009-10-26T22:27:00.002-05:00

Okay, so for most of you, that's not exactly news...but still...holy crap, I'm gonna be a daddy! I've known this bit of information for about 4 months now and I still don't know that I can wrap my brain around it...those of you with children can relate, I'm sure. People tell me I'll be a good dad, a fun dad...I certainly hope that's true...there's so many things I hope for our child...I hope he/she is better at school than I was...I hope he/she is more outgoing than Joyful or me...I hope he/she knows and loves God...I hope I don't screw it all up. I hear the whole thing is a lot fun and really frustrating. I'm so glad that we've got a great church family at Heartlands that we can lean on...I'm sure we'll be leaning on the Moores a LOT. It's so neat all the little milestones we've had so far...Joyful got to see our baby moving around on her last ultrasound (I didn't get to see it because we didn't know they were going to do an ultrasound at that appointment)...before too long I guess she'll be able to feel the baby moving around...I bet that'll be really neat and weird at the same time. Here in a week and a half or so we'll find out (hopefully) if it's a boy or girl...that'll be nice to know.

So far people have been really good for keeping their advice to themselves...I hope that continues. We'll gladly accept help...and stuff...turns out you need stuff...but for the most part we could live without everyone's advice.

Crazy stuff...I'm gonna be a daddy...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-09-09T18:22:00.002-05:00

I turned the big 3-2 today...not that 32 is any special age...I think Joyful and I are going to go to dinner somewhere since it's the Dine Out to Help Out night tonight...we're taking a little trip to Chicago this weekend to catch a Cubs game one more time this year...so I guess that's my present from us :) I was reminiscing about my 30th birthday...that one was sweet...got a surprise party at Teds with all our cigar buddies and then we did a surprise party for her parents' 50th anniversary at our house that weekend and since all that family was around we did a party for me that weekend, too...got a ton of presents! That was a fun one...but it'll be nice to just have a nice quiet dinner with my amazing wife :) I got myself a lovely birthday cigar which I'm enjoying right now on the porch (wanted to lay in the hammock but it keeps raining...). Big parties are fun, but nice quiet nights are great too..

I can smell it...

2009-09-04T14:19:00.002-05:00

Ahhh...football season in Lincoln, NE!! Only like 26 hours until the first game! Joyful and I are going to B-Dub to watch the game, thanks to a lovely birthday gift card from Alice (thanks so much)...we had thought about getting the PPV, but now we'll go there...it'd be more comfy cozy at home, but it's fun to watch the game around a bunch of people. We're going to do the fair in the morning/early afternoon and then get over to BW3 early so we can actually get some seats...can't wait!

39 days, 3 hours

2009-07-28T14:57:00.002-05:00

Ahhhhh....August is nearly upon us, which means that Nebraska Football is nearly upon us! I would like to remind everyone that last year I correctly predicted our season record before the season started...I'd have to look, but I think I might have even gotten every game prediction right...basically, I rule.

This year will be an interesting year to watch since the defence should be noticeably better than last year, as should most positions...the real question is at QB...we don't even have a declared starter yet...presumeably it'll be Zac Lee. Hopefully he'll do well...he's been around for a while and in the Red/White game he looked good, for whatever that's worth. If he can do well, I see us having a really good year...if he can do an adequate job, I think we'll still do pretty well...

I could see us going 10-2 this year with losses against Oklahoma and either VT, Missou or Kansas. I'd love it if we "upset" VT...I think they're overrated this year (as they're the preseason pick to win the ACC), but I'd rather lose to them and do really well in the Big XII. I think we have a really good chance to win the Big XII North, but that all depends on how well the QB does...but either way, we've got a pretty favorable schedule this year and could feasibly go 9-3 or 10-2...so I'll be the optimist and say 10-2.

We're still deciding how many of the PPV games we'll get this year...we got all 3 last year, and it was a lot of fun to have people over to the house to watch football...I assume we'll definately get the game against perennial powerhouse Louisiana LaFayette since that'll be Nebraska's 300th consecutive sell out...unless we magically acquire tickets to that game.

Ahhhh, hooray for football season!

long time...

2009-05-29T12:00:00.004-05:00

So it's been ages since I actually updated the 'ol blog, so I figured I would :) Turns out the Facebook keeps me from thinking about updating this since most of the people I know have the Facebook...but now Shane's talking about taking links off his blog if people don't update, and I'd hate for that to happen :)

So some thoughts I've had lately...

I still hate the dentist. I went today for my 6 month cleaning/check-up...still hate that place. We even go to a lovely place, my dentist is a really nice guy and generally speaking the hygenist girls are really friendly...but just walking up to the building my heart starts pounding.

I LOVE my new schedule at work...I work open doubles Mon-Wed and then Thursday night. Wednesday I'm pretty tired since when I get done I've got about 36 hours in 3 days, but it's awesome to have a 3 day weekend and still get my hours...so hooray for that. I'd still really like to just work mornings so I could feel like I have a "normal" job, but in theory I'm slowly transitioning to that. I really enjoy working at Olive Garden...they pay me well enough, appreciate me, and take good care of me...I just don't want to work nights the rest of my life.

I am thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather...last weekend Joyful and I sat in the back yard and read and just hung out outside...looks like we should be able to do that again this weekend. It's so nice and relaxing...

Our Chicago trip was awesome...it was great to get away for a long weekend and do fun stuff in a great city. We went to 2 Cubs games and went to Second City (hilarious!!!) and walked around to see the sights...hooray for Chicago!

Hooray Tulsa!

2009-03-30T10:36:00.004-05:00

So Joyful and I had a wonderful time in Tulsa this past weekend. We went to the Tulsa Workshop and heard some great speakers. Our favorite was probably Patrick Mead...he had wonderful messages and was really funny, too. It was also great to see Alice and (briefly) Shane. Shane and Terry did a wonderful job putting on the workshop. Were there things I've liked better previous years? Sure, but this year was great, too and I heard the things that I needed to hear. Like someone said at Saturday night worship time...there weren't many people there due to the massive snow storm, but the people that needed to be there were there. I know Shane checks this thing from time to time, so thanks for a great workshop and for letting Joyful and I stay at your house...not that you had much choice...we are family, after all :) And if by some chance Terry Rush should find his way to this, a big thanks to him, too. I was a little sad that we didn't go to first service at Memorial because we made it a whole Workshop Weekend without hearing Terry give a lesson...but he did stop by and say hi when I was sitting with Alice on Friday and was as friendly as ever.

As a side note, when we were in Tulsa we went to the mall and I got a sweet new hat for when Joyful and I go to the Cubs game on May 17th...I think it's pretty cool.

glorious

2009-03-23T10:30:00.002-05:00

So you know how sometimes you're really looking forward to the weekend so you can spend time with your wife and relax, and then the weekend comes and after what seems like no time at all, it's already Monday? This past weekend I had the total opposite of that, and it was wonderful. Joyful and I spent all weekend together...we didn't have any meetings to go to or anything specific to do, other than go to church on Sunday...we just enjoyed spending 2 days together. Somehow it seemed as though time was standing still. We sat out in the back yard for like 2 hours on Saturday because it was so gorgeous outside. On Sunday it wasn't quite as nice outside, but we still managed to get the Christmas lights taken off the bushes up front and got started packing for Tulsa this weekend.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I had the nicest weekend in recent memory this past weekend. I imagine this coming weekend will be right up there, too, with us going to Tulsa and all.

awesome

2009-03-06T09:36:00.001-06:00

So I got this video in the e-mail today and it's awesome for those who have cats...enjoy.

Hooray for KC!

2009-02-23T09:58:00.004-06:00

So Joyful and I had a lovely time in Kansas City. We went down on Saturday for an Outlaw Cigar event. One of the brands that we really enjoy is called Tatuaje. The guy that owns the company is Pete Johnson. Outlaw had Pete Johnson for their event. We had never been to an Outlaw event before, but heard they were fun and sure enough, it was a good time. We went down with a few of our cigar buddies from the shop here in Lincoln...we were able to get a box of really limited edition cigars we got back in November signed by Pete and get our picture taken with him. We got there right when the thing opened so we got to talk with Pete for a little bit and learn about his plans for his next limited edition cigar...he was a very friendly guy and seemed down to earth for a person in his position. Here's a couple pictures for those who might be interested :) I found it kinda funny (though understandable) how incredibly aware of his image Pete seemed. You could tell he very specifically picked out everything he was wearing to achieve the look he was going for.

Pete signing our box of Tatuaje Franks, it says:

"To Todd, Thanks Bro - Pete Johnson"

Me and Joyful with Pete after he signed the box

Our group of friends with Pete

Finally All Better

2009-01-30T14:56:00.008-06:00

So I think I'm finally over whatever nasty virus or whatever I had...this week hasn't been a whole lot of fun, but today I feel normal again...I'm being brave enough to drink some coffee and it's so good.

I'm glad I'm feeling better because I didn't want to miss out on all the Super Bowl munchies on Sunday...I'm looking forward to that. It'll be fun to hang out with friends and family to watch the game on Sunday...I just wish we got NBC in glorious HD...stupid Dish Network, we get ABC and CBS in HD, but not NBC or FOX...I'm still tempted to run out on Saturday and get a powered antenna so we can pick it up over the air; our little rabbit ears inside can't get it.

I believe I'm going to root for the Cardinals in the Super Bowl...I'm guessing the Steelers will win, and I'm always a sucker for the underdog...I just hope it's a good, close game.

So we settled on the name of Adora for the new kitty. She's doing really well. I brought her in to work with me this morning to get the stitches taken out of her leg from the injury she had when they found her. Cosette and Adora are getting along really well considering she's only been here for a week or so. They both sit on my lap together!

Our New Fluffy Friend

2009-01-22T14:08:00.002-06:00

For those who don't know...we got a cute little kitty recently. I got it from my morning job at the vet...someone had found it out at Wilderness Park and brought it in. It had an injury on one of its front legs and the tendons and nerves were jacked up, that leg won't ever work. It's really friendly and super cute, so I couldn't resist bringing it home...but now we can't seem to figure out a name for it. We e-mailed people to get suggestions and then narrowed it down to 2, and asked people to tell us their preference, but it's basically a tie, so I thought I'd put it on the blog and see what people think. Here's the names and why:

Journey - because she's been on a journey to get here
Adora - an homage to Princess Adora (SheRa), plus the cat's so ADORAble

I put a poll over on the right for people to vote for the name they like...for whatever reason, I can't get Blogger to upload a couple pictures for me, so I'll put pictures up of the cat when I can, but do vote on which name is cooler.

long time...

2009-01-05T11:08:00.002-06:00

So turns out it's been over a month since I updated the 'ol blog! I guess I've been facebooking too much...

So it turns out that I am, in fact, a psychic...either that or I really know my Huskers...on Aug. 22nd, I predicted a 9 win season, counting a bowl win...sure enough we ended up 9-4. It was nice to see us win the games we were supposed to win...that Oklahoma game was sure ugly, but for the most part it was a very nice season to be a Husker Fan...I doubt we'll end up top 25, though. Looking at next year's schedule it's set up to be an awesome year to be a Husker fan. Check this out:

Florida Atlantic
Arkansas State
Virginia Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Missouri
Texas Tech
Iowa State
Baylor
Oklahoma
Kansas
K-State
Colorado

The games that you can most likely chalk up to losses are the Virginia Tech and the Oklahoma games, but past that...Missouri is going to be a shell of itself next year, ditto for Texas Tech, Iowa State is going to have a new head coach and they just stink, Baylor's getting better, so that one might be a better game than most people think it will be...Kansas is losing its qb and good receivers, K-State is a mess and so is Colorado...our schedule next year reminds me a lot of Kansas' schedule last season...they ended up with a crazy record and in a BCS bowl mostly because they had a horrible schedule...I think we should win the Big 12 North...who knows how we'd do the the Big 12 Championship game, but I think we'll be real good next year...we'll just see who ends up being our starting QB and how he does...

back home

2008-12-01T12:37:00.003-06:00

We're back from a lovely trip to California...it was nice to see friends and family for a while and get away from chilly Nebraska...Saturday we were in Santa Cruz walking down the boardwalk right next to the beach and it was like 70 degrees, there was people in swimsuits playing beach volleyball and I was nice and warm...we flew back to Nebraska and it was snowing a little bit...so it goes...

Here's a couple pictures from the trip:

Us before we had our Christmas

Me and Joyful in front of the big Christmas tree on Pier 39 in San Fran

Me and Joyful in Yosemite

Turns out we're tree huggers :)

People heading out to surf in Santa Cruz

so close....

2008-11-19T15:41:00.001-06:00

I'm so happy we're leaving for vacation soon...I don't know how some people go years and years without going on vacation...I couldn't do it. I've only got 2 1/2 days of work left...I'm pretty much already on vacation mode at work, though...I'm hoping I don't have to actually work hard or think too much the next couple days...I got myself basically packed today, and I got plane and rental car confirmations printed out...made reservations for dinner in San Francisco at Supper Club...love that place. If you're ever in a city that has one, I recommend going (but only if you like fairly weirdo metrosexual places to eat)...we went to the one in Amsterdam when we went there since that was the original one, and it was a lot of fun...you eat reclined on a big giant bed, and you eat what they bring you...there is no menu...but it's declicious food.

It'll be nice to see Joyful's family and friends, but mostly it's just nice to go to new places with my wife :) We tend to cram a LOT of stuff into our days when we vacation so as to make the most of our time and this one should be no different...we'll be gone about a week and we've got an 8 page itinerary printed out...I think we missed our calling...we should quit our jobs and become tour guides...turns out it's fun looking up neat places to see...it doesn't matter how podunk the town is...there's bound to be some cool thing or something with a neat story behind it.
I am sad that we'll be missing my family's Thanksgiving at Alice and Shane's, but we haven't done a holiday with Joyful's family in 7 years, so I suppose we're due...
I can't wait for Friday...hang out with Stan and Mel for Mel's birthday, go to the Nebraska Cigar Festival, head to my mom's house in Papio and fly out Saturday morning!!!

I just may be a psychic

2008-11-12T09:41:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was predicting that the Huskers would win 9 games this season, counting a bowl game. I would just like to point out that Nebraska currently has 6 wins, with 2 games left, plus the bowl game. We play K-State and Colorado, both of which should theoretically be wins...K-State's a mess what with Ron Prince "resigning" and Colorado is Colorado...plus, yesterday the coaches handed out the Blackshirts:

So one would think that the defense would be especially motivated the last 3 games of the season...9-4 would be a pretty sweet deal after the last couple years here in Lincoln...

ahhhh, fall...

2008-10-31T11:47:00.003-05:00

I do believe that fall is my favorite of the seasons...fall and spring are my top 2 with fall just winning out. It's so nice that it's not hot anymore, but it's not super crazy cold yet (well, we did have those few days of pretty cold the other day)...the leaves changing colors...it's so nice to see the changing of the seasons and see God's hand at work in nature.

I got started putting the Christmas lights on the house yesterday...I need to finish up today. It makes me sound super motivated, but it's supposed to get to 70 again, and who knows how much longer the nice weather will hold out. It's not like I want to be walking around the roof when it's freezing outside. All I have left to do is 2 more strands of lights and run the extension cords so I'm done on the roof...We're really looking forward to decorating for Christmas this year...we look forward to it every year, but this year we're hosting my family's Christmas. We went a little nuts last year with the post-Christmas clearances and it's going to look like Christmas exploded in our house...should be fun.

The Marathon Wobbles

2008-10-19T16:50:00.004-05:00

So we just got back from Kansas City where I did the KC Marathon yesterday. It was a nice trip. For those who care, my time was 4 hours 40 minutes and 17 seconds, which makes it a 10 min. 46 sec. mile pace. I'm pretty happy with that. I had to do more walking than I would've liked for the last 5 or 6 miles, but all in all, I thought it was good. I wished I had my music with me...but I thought I'd be a good boy and not bring it since technically speaking mp3 players and the like aren't allowed on the race course (safety reasons). Last night, if I sat down for too long, I could barely walk...it was pretty amusing. My left knee started to hurt at about mile 21 of the run, and it got real stiff that evening...we went to dinner and when I got out of the car I was practically dragging my leg behind me. Mercifully, I'm feeling pretty good today...my knee works right and my only problem is my legs are real tired, which is to be expected...I thought I'd have problems when we got out of the car when we got home just now, but other than being a little stiff, it's not too bad at all...stairs suck, though. Here's a couple pictures for your entertainment:

Me just before the race started...

Me finishing 4 hours and 40 minutes later!!

Other than the run, we wandered around The Plaza a little bit, roamed the Crown Center mall, ate way too much yummy food (had a great lunch at Gates before we headed back today...mmmmm, bbq...)This morning we went and worshipped at the Overland Park church of Christ, which was lovely. Got to see Allen French, who I hadn't seen in years, so that was nice...Jim, since you read this from time to time...Curt Sparks told me to kick you in the shins...

I'll post some more pictures once they're available online from ASI (took all the official pictures).

ps...thanks so much to the Moores for watching the house and pets for us while we were gone!

Live From New York!

2008-10-06T10:29:00.002-05:00

Don't know if any of you fine people are Saturday Night Live watchers, or if that's past your bed time...really, we don't watch it very often because it's definately past our bedtime usually. However, the Tina Fay doing Sarah Palin stuff has been really amusing the last couple weeks. I don't know if you watched the Vice Presidential Debate last week or not...Joyful and I have made a point of watching all the debates together (next one is Tuesday night) so that we can be informed voters. I was really interested to see the VP debate mostly to see how Palin did since she hadn't done too many interviews, it seemed like she was mostly working off a script. She really didn't do too bad...though it was funny how if she didn't want to answer the question, she would very obviously change the subject...anyhow, here's the video of the SNL parody of the VP Debate...Queen Latifah did the moderator...not sure who the guy is that did Joe Biden, but he was pretty much right on, too...

Back in Lincoln

2008-09-28T13:45:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-09-26T23:05:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-26T13:51:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-09-25T09:37:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-09-20T18:53:00.003-05:00

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?

2008-09-16T15:38:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-08T11:16:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-05T12:50:00.002-05:00

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?

Good Start

2008-08-31T20:20:00.002-05:00

So we had a nice little group watching the game at our house last night. We had a nice surprise in that Joyful's brother, Tom and his wife, Terri came through town and were able to stop by. They got in town towards the beginning of the 2nd quarter and Joyful went and got them.

Seems like it was a good start for the football team. I had really thought the game would've been closer...I was telling people 10 points, so 23 points was good. It was nice to see the defense play with passion and actually make some good plays...very refreshing after last year.

Also caught a little bit of the LSU/Appalachian State "game"...I was hoping that would be more like last year's Michigan/App State game, but alas...I saw a fair amount of Okie State beating up on Washington State...OSU was looking pretty good, I must say.

So, college football has started and all is well with the world...

Psalm 65:9

2008-08-27T09:55:00.004-05:00

" 9 You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so."

It's been an interesting start to my day...I was woken up at 3:30 this morning by Honey barking to come in...certainly nothing new, it's pretty much a daily occurence...however, when I went to bring her in, I discovered she was barking because it was raining. Unfortunate, since yesterday we had the siding taken off our chimney and the plywood replaced in preparation for the stone veneer that's going to be put on this week. It was lightly raining, and when I got back up at 4:30 for work, it had stopped, so I wasn't too worried. I got off work early today so I could take advantage of the nice temperatures and go for a nice run...I got home, changed clothes and headed out...noticing that the sky was really cloudy, and not nice, fluffy clouds...mean, nasty clouds. I was about 2 miles in when the rain let loose. It was a downpour for about the next 3 or 4 miles and then it let up, but by then I was soaked...my feet squished with every step. I had planned on doing 13 miles today to get an idea of who I'll do in the Omaha half marathon next month, but by the time I got to where I was passing the street into my neighborhood (9 miles), I decided I should come home.

So now with the rain, our project is likely going to take even longer...it was supposed to get started last Thursday, but the job the mason was on was running long, so it got pushed back to yesterday...now it rained and we have to let the chimney dry out before they can wrap it in Tyvek...hopefully they can get some good work done on the other parts of the house while it dries out. When it's all said and done, I'll put a picture or 2 of our sweet looking house on here...

So close...

2008-08-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

Only 1 week until the start of the College Football season!!! Actually it's just under a week...there's some games on next Thursday night, but none of them interest me...we're having people over to watch the first Husker game next Saturday. Mom's coming donw around noon to hang out for a while and a couple guys from Ted's are coming over, too. Me, being the person that I am, looked up on the guide and typed up a list of all the games that are on TV on Saturday. I'm sure that makes Joyful sad. I wouldn't say she becomes a football widow during football season, but I do enjoy watching it. With the wonders of the DVR, I can record some games and watch them at my leisure...but it's just not the same as watching it live. Chances are good that by the time I watch the game I already know who won...Don't get me wrong...Joyful enjoys football, and sports in general...I just REALLY like football. I'm really hoping we can make it to a game or two this year (Hey David...I know you read this from time to time..any games you and Cheryl don't want to go to...)

So next Saturday these are the games I'm looking forward to seeing (at least parts of them anyways).

Nebraska Vs. Western Michigan - duh..
Virginia Tech Vs East Carolina - we play V. Tech on Sept. 27th
Oklahoma State Vs. Washington State - I tend to enjoy watching OSU play (thanks to Shane's influence)
Appalachian State Vs. LSU - can Appalachian State upset LSU like they did Michigan last year?
Illinois Vs. Missouri - probably won't see much of it as it starts at 7:30 and Nebraska starts at 6, but this should be a fantastic game.

My prediction for Nebraska this year is we'll have 9 wins counting a bowl game. I think our offense will be good...the O-Line should be excellent, we're deep at running back, and if Ganz can sustain anything close to the performance he had in the final 3 games last year, our offense will be awesome. Obviously defense is where all the questions are...we've got basically the same players as last year's horrible defense, so it's a matter of coaching and motivation...we'll see what kind of head coach Pellini can be, but it's well known what kind of motivator he is. Should be exciting stuff.

Running the Big O

2008-08-11T12:47:00.002-05:00

So as a training run for the KC Marathon that's only 2 months and a week away, I signed up for the Omaha Half Marathon on Sept. 28th. With the Omaha half only being 3 weeks before the KC full, it's not like 13 miles will be that far in comparison (hopefully it'll seem pretty easy since by then I should be up to 20+ mile runs), but it'll be good to run in race setting. Last year I did the Omaha half in 2hrs 14 min. This year I'm really hoping to get it done closer to 2 hours. 2 hours 4 min. would be a 9:30 pace, which would be good. I did 9 miles today at a 9:45 pace and felt really good. I felt like I was pushing it towards the end, but for the most part I felt like I could've gone faster.

Only 19 days until football starts...

What a nice day...

2008-08-05T10:19:00.002-05:00

So kick off to Husker Football is but 25 days away...hooray for that! The Journal Star had a big 'ol story about the Huskers on the front page today since fall practice started yesterday...

So every time Joyful and I go to Target and make our lap around the store, we always glance in the electronics to see if, by some miracle, they actually have a Wii in stock. Of course, they never do. It's the top selling gaming console in the world, and nobody ever has one in stock! Of course, there are much more important things to spend our money on, but it's nice to dream. This morning I rode my bike to work at the vet...it wasn't opressively hot out like it's been lately, even at 4:45 in the morning, so I figured a nice 8 mile round trip bike ride was just what the doctor ordered. On my way home I figured I'd stop in at Target and make a lap around the store since it was on the way home and I do love Target...but what to my wondering eyes should appear? A Wii sitting in the case in the electronics department...were my eyes playing a trick on me? I took a second look, and it was still there. I called Joyful to tell her the glorious news. So we decided we could justify it if it's our Christmas present to ourselves, we're going to wrap it up and put it with all the other presents and open it at Christmas. Well, maybe a little early...we are hosting it this year after all, and I need to be able to beat Bryan at bowling.

Enough whining...

2008-07-31T09:47:00.002-05:00

So after my day of lamenting the house falling apart, I've decided to look on the brighter side of life. That being the fact that there is now less than a month until Husker Football kicks off! August 30th I'll be at my house with friends, wearing my #38 Dan Alexander jersey watching the Huskers play some football.

I love this time of year...I spent like 15 minutes today watching videos on YouTube of old Tunnel Walk videos and Husker highlights...clearly none of the highlights were from the past couple years with the Callahan disaster...but I digress.

Here's a sweet video I found of the Tunnel Walk from the Red/White Game this past spring. It's not the actual video feed, it's a guy down on the field with a video camera, so you can see the whole atmosphere...crazy stuff...we were in Europe at the time, otherwise we would've been some of the crazy people that actually sold out a Spring Game with 81,000 people...ahhh, football in Nebraska.

The Joys of Home Ownership

2008-07-30T11:52:00.002-05:00

So since we've been back from our glorious European Vacation, our house has decided that it hates us and stuff keeps breaking...I thought I'd vent a little bit and run down the list of stuff we've had to fix or are in the process of getting fixed...our fridge broke down yet again and we decided we're tired of spending money on our crappy fridge, so we bought a new one (hooray for clearance sales!!)...with all the massive storms we got in the spring, we discovered that when they installed the deck on our house, they did it wrong and it was allowing water to seep in behind the siding and it started leaking into the basement...we got the seeping problem fixed, but now we have to probably replace some trim work in the basement because it got water damage and is molding a little bit...also due to the storms and the seeping, we got water damage on some of the siding on our house and replaced some of it with the same type of siding, and are getting some stonework put on to replace some of the other siding...the first massive storm of the year gave us roof damage and we had to replace the roof; but at least in the process of doing that, we got a couple sweet-o skylights for the upstairs bathrooms and better ventilation in the attic...our new bit of excitement was that a couple days ago we discovered that the floor drain in the utility room was stopped up, and the utility room was flooding, which then sent water into the basement, messing up the carpet and trimwork on the baseboard, so now we have to replace that...

The positive of all the rain is that we've hardly had to run the sprinklers this year, so that's nice...also, at least we're not in California where they're having all the wildfires. Speaking of which, pray for Joyful's parents. Yosemite is having some pretty heavy duty wild fires and the town where they live is on fire. They have evacuated to Ed's house in San Jose, so they're safe, but their house is in the zone that the fires are currently, so their house is in pretty good danger of being burned up.

So I guess what I'm saying is that while it sucks that we've having problems with water damage on our house this year, at least we have a house to have problems with...

So close I can taste it...

2008-07-26T19:04:00.003-05:00

Only 35 more days until the glorious start of Nebraska Football!!! They have announced that the first 3 games will all be on pay per view, which is annoying that they're not just on t.v., but at least I can watch them. I think we're gonna pay for at least one of them and invite people over with the reasoning that the $30 we spend on getting the game is just as much or less than we'd spend going to BW3's to watch the game, eat some wings and have a couple drinks. So for those of you who live in Lincoln...the game against Western Michigan is August 30th with a 6pm start. We'll pay to get the game, you bring over food and the beverage of your choice (but enough for us, too) Let us know if you're coming...Go Big Red!!!!

Christmas in July

2008-07-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

Sunny day, high of 95 degrees, what do Joyful and I do? Wrap Christmas presents. That's right, Christmas presents. Joyful's parents are coming out here in September and we're sending her family's presents back to California with them, so we got them pretty much all wrapped. The beauty of us going to Disney to do the marathon in January and Europe in April is that we're pretty much done with Christmas shopping and it's still July! I was reminded, though, of how little I enjoy wrapping presents. It was fun to see what we've gotten people and think about how much they'll (hopefully) enjoy getting what we got them, but I get so frustrated wrapping the things...inevitably I cut the paper too small and end up with a gap or some other frustrating thing.

On a happy note, I FINALLY have some really promising leads for my business, See Spot Run. It was becoming extremely discouraging that I wasn't really getting any response from anybody who wanted to pay me money to run their dogs. People would always tell me what a neat idea it was and they know people who it'd be great for, but I couldn't get anyone to actually contact me wanting to set something up. This past week I got 2, count 'em 2, really positive leads. Please be praying for me the next couple weeks about this. I'm meeting with one person this week and a family next week. I would love to have some clients who aren't already my friends (though I'm extremely grateful for the Kirks and Donna).

We're having some fix it work done to the house today...our front porch was starting to sink so we're getting that fixed and we've got water seeping into our basement because when they built our deck they apparently did it wrong, so water can get trapped and work its way through the walls...sucky. It's good to know people, though...I called Steve Kolb with Kolb Remodeling who used to live across the street for us and now he's turned into a full blown general contractor so he can help us with all our fixing needs...hooray for that.

So this got longer than I thought it would be...

16.5 Pounds of Fun

2008-07-15T10:24:00.004-05:00

So we are FINALLY getting the last of our Europe pictures tomorrow. It took Winkflash just over a month to get our pictures printed and sent out...granted, there are over 2,000 pictures but over a month seemed a little excessive. On the UPS tracking site it says that our box of pictures weighs 16.5 pounds...crazy. That is so many pictures! It'll be fun to flip through them. I love our digital camera and it's cool to watch the pictures on the TV, but it's so much neater to me to flip through actual, physical pictures.

By the by...if anyone's looking for a house and wants to live next door to us, there's a house for sale. It's been for sale for a while, probably because they're asking for more money than people are going to pay with the housing market such as it is, but it seems like a nice house.

Also, random side note...my sister and her husband live in Owasso, Oklahoma, which apparently is also where Garth Brooks lives, and he sat behind them at Red Robin the other night...how crazy is that? The coolest celebrity encounter I have is either having Tom Osborne come in to Macaroni Grill a few times when I worked there or the time Larry the Cable Guy came in...he's got a Sky Box for Husker games, so come football season he's in town a lot...he was super funny and he tipped his server $150, so hooray for him. What's your coolest celebrity encounter?

Boy I tell you what...

2008-07-07T15:18:00.001-05:00

The things they can do with computers these days...I found this cool site by way of the KC Marathon's site called RealBuzz...It's a site about "Healthy Active Living". They've got a bunch of cool stuff on there for runners...training advice, nutrition, apparel, all that kind of stuff. They've also got this thing called "Map Your Passion". It uses Google Earth and it makes it so you can map out your running routes and see other people's running routes in your area. That way you can see exactly how far you're going...pretty neat stuff. If one were high tech enough to have a GPS device or have it on their phone, you could upload your routes to your device and have it with you.

Speaking of running...today for the first time I did "hill repeats"...if you don't know what those are, it's code for "torture". Basically it's running up a steep hill over and over again...but the KC Marathon is a hilly one, and doing HRs is good for that and for building leg muscles...plus my training plan called for them today, so I had to. I did wuss out though...I was supposed to do a 50 min. workout and I only did like a 35 min one...but hey, it's better than nothing I suppose...

6 Years Ago Today...

2008-07-06T15:26:00.000-05:00

On July 6th, 2002, a balmy, rainy day in Lincoln, Nebraska, I became the luckiest guy alive because I got to marry my best friend. How the time flies. It's been a wonderul 6 years, we've shared laughter and tears, we've travelled the world together. God has blessed us so much in 6 short years...I can't wait to see what He's got in store for the rest of our lives.

109 Days and Counting

2008-07-01T11:18:00.003-05:00

I'm all signed up to do the KC Marathon in October! My hope was to do Chicago this year, but I procrastinated in my signing up and it's full already (which is INSANE since it's also in October and it's limit was like 40,000 people). But as it turns out, this is probably a better choice. It's a cheaper marathon to enter, the hotel is waaaay cheaper...to stay at a downtown Chicago hotel the weekend of the marathon would've been like $250 a night...we're staying at the Crown Center Hyatt (which is the host hotel) for $99 a night, plus what with gas prices and all, a 3 hour drive is better than an 8 hour drive. Plus Kansas City's a nice city to visit. Joyful and I went there for our 1st anniversary and it was a lot of fun.

The race is on Saturday the 18th, so we're gonna check-in on Friday and out on Sunday and make a little weekend of it.

I'm doing this one by myself...Joyful's still working on putting the miles back on after her ankle problems. So if anyone knows of anything good to do in KC at 7 in the morning, let us know. The race starts at Washington Square Park right next to the Crown Center (hence staying at the Hyatt), so I suppose she could roam the park some assuming it's nice weather that day. Of course, she could always go back to the hotel and sleep for a couple more hours while I run.

I'm excited about training for another marathon...I like having the goal to look forward to, I like running the big miles and having time with just me and God to chit chat. The sense of accomplishment is so big...I remember crossing the finish line at Disney World and almost crying.

Let the fun begin...

And so it begins...

2008-06-28T15:46:00.003-05:00

So yesterday was my last day working my day job at Kawasaki. They were very nice to me there. After working at Macaroni for the last 3 years, it was so refreshing to work at a place where I actually felt appreciated (of course, I feel appreciated at Olive Garden, too). I was but a lowly temp there and on my last day, the 2 gals in Payroll gave me a card with a thank you note and a Target gift card in it, and the gals in HR brought in lunch from Mr. Goodcents to say thanks for my help.

Now starts a new time in my life. For those who don't know, I'm starting my own business. It's a dog running business called See Spot Run - Lincoln. You should check out my website. It's not perfect, but I'm not a web designer, and I can't afford one :) The gist of my business is me running people's dogs who are either hyper or overweight or just really like to run. It seems like it'll be a great thing for me...I'll get to be outside, which I enjoy...I'll get to be active and run, which I enjoy...and I'll get to hang out with dogs, which I enjoy. Now I just need to get me some customers. So if you live in Lincoln and either have a dog or know someone who does, you should hire me to get the dog some exercise. I'm going out today to distribute flyers around my neighborhood and I'm working on figuring out where would be the best places for me to target. So if you live around here, let me know where you think would be a good place for me to aim my advertising money. Also, look over my website and give me some feedback with the "contact us" form. Maybe let me know some questions you'd have if you were a customer of mine.

Black and White

2008-06-21T11:17:00.004-05:00

So it turns out that some pictures just look cooler in black and white. We brought a bunch of black and white film with us to Europe (yes, we still have a film camera...but if anyone wants to buy us the digital Cannon EOS, you're more than welcome to) and got some cool artsy pictures, and if you take pictures of random people in black and white it's not weird or voyeuristic, it's artsy. So here's some fun pictures:

Very hip, cool Parisian kid

Turns out tons of people smoke in Paris (as is the stereotype)

Big Ben

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment

A cool lamp post somewhere

The Louvre

Ahhh, Paris...

Cute little girl in Rome

father's day part 2

2008-06-15T21:20:00.001-05:00

So it turns out that:

a) at church today Jim wasn't there...Phil Canarsky talked, which is always great. He's such a great speaker...always makes me think I need to go to the Hispanic church, but I never have.

b) they didn't really talk too much about Father's Day, other than people doing announcement type things wishing people a happy Father's Day

c) Darth Vader was at church today...that was odd...

d) I sat next to Vern Moore...my "dad" in Lincoln...hooray for the Moores...I hope some day I can be as good a dad as Vern has been...those kids have all turned out great. Each of them is their own unique person, they all love God and they're all just such great young people (I'm 30 now, I can refer to people as young people now). I've still got a picture in my bible of Nic, Bree and Kami from when I first met the Moores and they were all little kids...crazy that 2 of the 3 have graduated high school now, and Kami's next year...makes me feel a little old.

Side note...we FINALLY got our black and white pictures from the Europe trip...so I'll have to put some of those on here before too long. Never ever ever use York Photo for your picture developing. We'd used them jsut fine for several years and never had a problem, but they jacked up our order so bad from the Europe trip it's insane and they're being jerks about following through on the guarantee they clearly post on their website. We eneded up taking our film (some of which York messed up) to Target to get it developed. They did it faster, cheaper and better than York did.

father's day

2008-06-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

So tomorrow's father's day...that day tends to make me a little sad. Maybe it'll be different some day when I'm a father, but for now just being the child and not having a dad here, it's a little sad. I do think back to the fun memories though...dad out in the back yard working in the garden...me and him going to watch softball games down at the park and bringing oranges...he'd cut a hole in one end and we'd squeeze out the juice and have really yummy orange juice...I can still remember his voice.

The older I get, the more people that knew him tell me how much I'm beginning to look/sound like him. I like that. Not that there's anything wrong with my mom's side of the family...they're all great, and that's the side that we did stuff with as a kid. But it's just nice to hear...to have that connection.

And, of course, I'm sure tomorrow at church, in Jim's lesson he'll probably talk about how for some people it's not an easy day, perhaps they have a strained relationship with their dad, or their dad abandoned them, or as in my case, they died...and praise be to God that we have our heavenly Father looking out for us, comforting us and guiding us. Which is true. Over the years, I have relied so much on the comfort and peace that can only come from Him. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have my dad alive still...but that's a pointless thing to dwell on. Life is what it is, and God is in control.

Happy Father's Day.

At long last...

2008-05-26T11:38:00.006-05:00

So I'm finally updating with more pictures and stories! We're hanging out at CiCi's Pizza on this fine Memorial Day uploading pictures to Winkflash so we can get pictures ordered before too long, so what better time to do stuff with the 'ole blog!

This is inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It was crazy how ornate everything was there. I can't even fathom how much money was spent in the making of that place over the years and how many people could have been helped instead of building a massive ornate church building. (This coming from the guy whose church meets in a school gym)

This is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Technically speaking you weren't allowed to take pictures in here, but there was tons of people in here and most of them were taking pictures...what can they do? Anyways, it was crazy...This chapel was bigger than I thought it would have been and I didn't realize how ornate the whole ceiling was...I just really knew about the part you always see with Adam reaching for God...it was really neat.

This is light on the wall inside the Pantheon in Rome. It's a big, circular building with a hole in the middle of the ceiling to allow light in. So there's always a "God-ray" as Joyful and I call them. It was a neat place...and it was free, so all the neater.

This is one of many pizzas in Italy. This one's the veggie pizza. It's got a slice of eggplant, some roasted red bell pepper and zucchini. Notice how the ingredients aren't mixed up...there's the eggplant part, the pepper part and the zucchini part.

This is the Rialto Bridge in Venice. It's the main bridge over the grand canal. I can't remember in what year it was built, but it was a really long time ago. There's 3 bridges that go over the grand canal, and this is the biggest/most impressive. Also, if you notice the boat going under it, that's essentially the Venetian "Bus". That was their public transportation there...they had stops just like a bus. We got a travel card for while we were there like we did for pretty much every other city, but nobody ever looked at them! Well, they looked at Joyful's once on the last day, but they never looked at mine. Stupid being honest people...we totally could've just ridden the things for free the whole time. Even the rides over to the other islands of Murano and Burano to see them make glass and lace...nobody checked for tickets on those either.

Hooray for functioning computers!

2008-05-12T22:29:00.004-05:00

So a big thanks to Mickey who fixed the 'ole computer for us!!! It's up and running like new. Europe was a fabulous trip...we took a little over 2000 pictures on the digital and about 30 rolls of film. So on with the show!

The Eiffel Tower was amazing. We climbed the stairs up to the 2nd level...almost 700 stairs! Then we took the elevator all the way to the top. We had dinner that night at a little cafe near the tower and then went back so we could see it at night time. It was amazing at night time. Every hour on the hour it does a neat light show.

Notre Dame was awesome. We got to go up the towers to see the Gargoyles and everything.

The ruins in Rome were really fascinating. It was so neat to think of all the history that happened there. Just think, this is where Paul came to talk to Caesar!

The Collesium was neat to see. We didn't actually go in it, but it was neat to see from the outside.

Words..

2008-05-08T15:05:00.003-05:00

I never can think up a good title for new posts :)

So I'll probably get some pictures up next week. The computer is going to get worked on this weekend. I don't know what happened to it while we were gone, but it got screwed up good. So our friend, Mickey, is going to clear the hard drive and start over from scratch. We went and got an external hard drive today so we could save all our important stuff...

Here's a picture from the Sunday after we got back. I did the Lincoln Half Marathon. No great finishing time or anything, but I did beat last year's time by a little bit. There was a small group of people from Heartlands who ran...Ave did the full marathon (his first one...good job, Ave!) Doug did the half and got done well before me, not that that's much of a surprise or anything :) It was a perfect day for running. It started out in the upper 40's and not a cloud in the sky. By finishing time it was about 60 and just gorgeous. My knees didn't give me any trouble which was awesome...I credit that to the fact that I was praying almost the whole time that God would let my knees hold out :) I was worried since I didn't run at all in Europe and I haven't exactly been Mr. Discipline with my running as of late anyways.

On a side note, I'm updating this in the middle of the day because I stayed home from job #1 sick today. I haven't felt 100% this week, and this morning I got up and started throwing up. I feel well enough to go to job #2 tonight, so that's good...

Home Sweet Home

2008-05-04T18:19:00.003-05:00

So we're back home now. Vacation was absolutely glorious. I think our favorite city was Barcelona. They had such a great mix of cool shops, little restaurants, great weather, and it was very pedestrian friendly.

We were blessed with safety and overall good health...we each had brief moments of feeling like poo, but all in all we were fine.

I'll put some pictures on here before too long, hopefully. Our computer's being stupid for some reason, now that we're home. So I'm updating this on Stan and Mel's computer. Whenever we get everything up and running on our computer I'll put on some pictures and what not.

Ahh Spring

2008-04-06T00:49:00.000-05:00

I love spring. It's in a tie with fall as my favorite season of the year. I love to watch the changing of the seasons...to see God's hand at work, turning the grass green, watching the tulips pop up through the ground. Joyful and I got out and did some yard work today, trying to get some stuff done before we head to Europe on Thursday. It's not very often that I actually enjoy mowing the yard...that first time or two in the spring is always nice, because that means that winter is officially over. Baseball season has started (the Cubs are already sucking it up), it was almost 70 degrees today, and the Huskers are in the midst of Spring Football...gotta love this time of year.

Chances are good this will be my last post for a while, seeing as how Joyful and I leave for Europe in 5 days!!! Huge amounts of thanks go to Nic and the rest of the Moores for watching the pets and the house for us. It's nice to know that our big, ferocious beast of a dog will have company while we're gone...they always do a great job. If they have parties, they clean up really good so we don't know, and there's usually pizza or some other kind of food in the fridge when we get home :)

Have a glorious rest of April...I know we will.

Hooray for Running

2008-03-29T22:36:00.002-05:00

Today was the first race of the season. The State Farm Run was today. I did the 10 mile. I'm pretty happy with how I did (1 hour 38 min, 9:54 pace) seeing as how I haven't done much running at all since the marathon. I've been having a really hard time trying to figure out how to get in my running since I work all the time. My 2 options are either wake up really early and run before I head out to work for the day or stay up late and run before bed. I'm not a wake up early kinda guy, so that leaves running before bed, but I'm having a hard time keeping my motivation when bed is calling my name. I'm always glad when I make myself run, I just need to get myself in a routine.

I never in a million years would've thought I would enjoy running so much...I actually miss it when I don't get to run for a while. It feels so invigorating to get outside and get my legs going. Plus it's great meditative/prayer time. I'm not good at having "quiet time" with God at home because, well, we have a really big t.v. Running's great because there's no tv...just you and the road...plus you know, the whole health benefit...I remember when I first started I literally couldn't go further than like 3 houses down the block before I had to stop and walk because I thought I was going to die...I like seeing myself get in better shape so I can be healthy and be a good husband to Joyful, and someday instill a healthy lifestyle in our hypothetical child by setting a good example.

I also wanted to publicly say how impressed I am with Ave Pickering...he started running maybe 2 or 3 years ago and he's great! He's almost twice as old as me (sorry Ave), and he totally kicked my butt today. He had a 9:02 pace for 10 miles...crazy stuff...

Ahhh, Tulsa

2008-03-29T22:26:00.004-05:00

Wish I was there...this weekend is the annual International Soul Winning Workshop in Tulsa, OK. I always enjoy going there...it's a wonderful time of worship and learning...plus it's nice to see Alice and Shane for a weekend. From what I read on people's blogs, it's a wonderful workshop once again this year.

This picture was on Keith Lancaster's blog from Memorial Drive's rehearsal...a lovely picture of Alice and Shane singing together. The fact that Shane is able to be at the workshop is due to the awesome power of God...check out his blog for the details of that if you want, but Satan was working to keep him away from the workshop, but God wanted him there. The fact that we're leaving for Europe in a week and a half kept us away from the workshop. Mom's down there this year...I bet they're all having a wonderful time, and I look forward to hearing Shane's report of the workshop once the weekend's over and he's rested up.

I should have known...

2008-03-23T17:34:00.001-05:00

I was so excited after the first day of the Tournament my bracket was at 91% correct, now I sit at a lowly 45%...sad. Stupid low ranked teams that don't know they're supposed to lose.

I added a link on the side there for "Matt's Bike Ride". You should check out his site, it's really neat. He's a guy I used to work with at Macaroni and he's on a bike ride from as far north as you can get in Alaska to the bottom of South America. He's seeing such neat stuff and having awesome experiences. It's always so neat when you see someone do something huge like that. It makes me wonder what I would do if I didn't have any obligations. I think I would really enjoy taking a road trip (in a car, not on a bicycle) across America and just see what I see...sleep in the back of the 'ole HHR most nights and just see the country.

What would you do if you could?

Bracketology

2008-03-20T23:09:00.001-05:00

So this year, for the first time, I decided to try doing a couple brackets for the NCAA Tournament. Nothing involving money or anything, just the free one on ESPN.com. I did 2 of them, one where I actually put a little thought into it, and one where I put the team that I'd personally like to win. Obviously the latter is already completely toast...the one where I thought a little bit is doing surprisingly good. At the end of Day 1, I only missed 2 games...I had picked George Mason to upset Notre Dame (mostly because I can't stand Notre Dame), and I had picked the 9 seed Kent State over the 8 seed UNLV as pretty much a coin toss...other than that, though, I'm looking pretty good...

So basically what I'm saying is that I rule.

Hooray for technology!

2008-03-16T12:27:00.001-05:00

So today at church, they unveiled the all new and improved Heartlands church website! When I got home I flipped through it and gotta say that I'm most impressed. Nice, professional looking site. It's at www.heartlandschurch.org if you're interested. It's even got a satellite picture of the land that the church is hoping to purchase. I'll put a link on here later when I'm messing with the blog some more. I discovered a handy feature of this blog...I can e-mail my blog and have it post automatically. Kinda cool if you ask me. So when Joyful and I are in Europe and don't have the laptop (who wants to lug all that stuff around Europe for 3 weeks?) I can go to an internet cafe or something and e-mail the blog and let people know what we've seen or some deep thoughts that came to me while sitting at a little cafe in Paris. It's just amazing how connected you can be if you want to be.

Only 25 more days...

33 Days and Counting

2008-03-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

So lately with me working a ton during the week and spending a lot of time with Joyful over the weekends, we've been spending a lot of time working on planning for Europe. We spent about 4 hours tonight hanging out at The Mill planning and researching. We can't wait to go! Only 33 more days!

It'll be so great to see all the things we've seen in pictures, and then take our own pictures so that all of you can look at our pictures! I can't even fathom how many pictures we'll take there. We got ourselves extra batteries and a new, bigger memory card, so now we've got 3 1/2 Gig of memory for pictures, which I think will be about 2,000 pictures. Crazy stuff...

I learned tonight that one of the roads we'll go on in Rome was built in about 200 B.C. Seems to me that Lincoln can't even build a road that lasts longer than 4 years without having to be fixed...

be thankful...

2008-03-02T13:00:00.000-06:00

Colossians 3:15
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

God calls us to be thankful for everything He has blessed us with...sometimes it's easy to be thankful..."Thanks, God, for the raise at work.", "Thanks, God, for the sweet new car." Sometimes it's not so easy...how do you find something to be thankful for when a loved one dies? How can you be thankful when you unexpectedly lose a job? How do you give thanks when you can't afford food to put on your family's table? You can give thanks knowing that God is in control...he won't give you anything more than you can bear, you can give thanks knowing that you are learning something that God wants you to learn...verse 17 of that same chapter says, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." We are representatives of Jesus! We should definately be thankful for that.

Speaking of things that I'm thankful for...I'm thankful that God made it so that cat pee glows under black light...Joyful and I took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to open up the house, rent a Rug Doctor, and clean the heck out of all our carpets. I'm also thankful that the State of Nebraska passed a state-wide smoking ban. Normally I wouldn't be thankful for that, because I think that individual businesses should have the right to decide whether or not they allow smoking based on what their customers want, but I'm happy because it looks like the state-wide ban might (hopefully will) supercede Lincoln's ban. Nebraska's ban has an exemption for tobacco shops, and Lincoln's doesn't. So if the Nebraska ban supercedes the Lincoln one, we'll be able to legally smoke inside Ted's! That would be sweet...but seriously, even if you don't like cigars, how dumb is it that you can't smoke inside a tobacco shop? Who do they think they're protecting? If you work in a tobacco shop, clearly you're okay with tobacco and smoke.

just so ya know...

2008-02-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

So I changed the settings on the comments section so that you don't have to have any sort of user name to post a comment. Seems like that would make it easier for more people to comment.

Life in the Stoves household is alright at the moment...Joyful had to go to the doctor today. Her foot/ankle (fankle? anoot?) area has been bugging her for some time now...it started hurting a couple weeks before we did the marathon and hasn't stopped. She went to our regular doctor a while back and he said to rest it and see what happened, so she did and it still hurts. So she went to Nebraska Orthopaedic to have an actual foot doctor look at her fankle. He said he thinks she may have a stress fracture, but the x-rays were inconclusive. She had to go back today to have a bone scan done, which she didn't like because it involved getting a shot which she really hates. But it sounds like they used a really little needle and the nurse lady was nice. We're still waiting to hear back from the doctor to see what he thinks is wrong. We're hoping whatever it is, it's something concrete and conclusive...no more of this, "well give it some time to rest" nonsense.

Does it hurt?

2008-02-24T00:28:00.000-06:00

So tonight, Joyful and I got matching tattoos. She made up a cool 26.2 design (being the artistic person that she is) to commemorate us doing our first marathon. She got hers on her hip, and I got mine on my calf. I thought it was appropriate to put it on my right calf since it was my right heel that I broke a year and a half ago...that calf muscle still isn't the same size as my left one. For those who live in Lincoln, we got them done at Iron Brush (www.ironbrush.com), and Kevin Chasek was the tattoo artist that did them. He was very friendly and did great work. As the title of this post says, Does it hurt? Well, they are poking you repeatedly with a needle. They say that your body kicks in some endorphins and makes the pain go away...that's more or less true. The thing with this tattoo is that it's not very big, so, for me anyways, by the time the endorphins started to kick in, he was basically done. The one I've got on my right upper arm is a little bigger, and I don't recall it hurting as much as this one...but it's not like it was ever unbearable or anything like that...just kind of an annoying pain. They say that tattoos are addictive...I don't know about that, but I suppose I am up to 2 of them now. The only other one I plan on ever getting is someday when Joyful and I have a kid, I want to get his/her handprint put on my left upper arm...

Song...

2008-02-17T13:15:00.000-06:00

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

Today at church we had the pleasure of having the York Choir join us for worship. It's always nice to listen to them, but I like when they come to Heartlands, they also do stuff with worship. It must be what it feels like to go to a big Southern church with a choir. There was Derek up there leading songs with the choir behind him...great stuff. I love being able to worship our God in song...song can be such an emotional way to express yourself...strong memories are tied to song. The choir did this long medly with some readings intersperced to guide our thoughts before the Lord's Supper. One of the songs they sang (don't remember which one) made me choke up because it was a song we always sang at Bellevue and it's one where it starts out with just the women singing and it reminded me of standing next to my mom and listening to her sing. We also sang big, loud praise songs like Days of Elijah and you could sing for joy because of God's greatness...what a wonderful gift God gave us in song.

I like shoes...

2008-02-17T13:00:00.000-06:00

So here's some thoughts that went through my head today for whatever reason...I was wearing these very hip and cool brown shoes I've got and I was thinking to myself, "man, these are cool shoes...I've got some cool shoes". That got me to wondering exactly how many pairs of shoes I own...so when I got home from grocery shopping with Joyful I counted, and I've got about 20 pairs of shoes and sandles, which made me think that I've got a lot of shoes for a guy, which made me think of the times in the past when people have accused me of being metrosexual just because I like shoes and I use product in my hair and actually use lotion when my skin's dry and I have the ability to dress myself to where I look nice. That made me want to look up the word "metrosexual" in the dictionary to see exactly what I was being accused of and here's what I found:

Definition:
a heterosexual male who has a strong aesthetic sense and inordinate interest in appearance and style, similar to that of homosexual males

Now I don't know that I would say I have an inordinate interest in appearance and style, but I do like to look nice...I don't know that there's any point in any of this, but now that I actually have people telling me they read my blog I felt compelled to give you something new to read. Hope you enjoyed...I bet I'll find some sweet shoes when Joyful and I are in Europe.

unfortunate reason for an update...

2008-02-08T10:01:00.000-06:00

So I'm home from work sick today. I started getting a cough a couple days ago, and yesterday I had a really bad cough, which made me get a monster of a head ache, and my body was super achey and weak. I toughed it out at both jobs, but this morning I didn't think I could do it, so I called in sick. I don't know the last time I called in sick.

On a happier note...Joyful and I have all our hotels booked for our Europe trip, as well as our plane tickets and train tickets...so that's exciting! I'm really looking forward to seeing new things and places with Joyful...I can't even fathom how many pictures we'll take! But hey, it's a once in a lifetime kind of trip...

Hope you're all doing well and aren't catching whatever this is that's going around.

I've been tagged...

2008-01-27T14:08:00.000-06:00

I feel so special...Shane tagged me :) It's way more fun than being tagged in a game of "it" when I was a kid...this doesn't involve me running around the circle trying to catch Alice and Bryan...I don't know 5-10 people with blogs, so I'll skip that part of being tagged, but I will post on mine :) The rules are: I'm supposed to list either 5 places I've always wanted to visit or revisit, 5 unique things about me, or 5 things I never imagined being in my future when I was 25.

Seeing as how being 25 wasn't that long ago, and I don't have many unique things about me...I'll list 5 places I've always wanted to visit or revisit:

1) I've always wanted to take a trip around Europe...and I get to! Joyful and I bought our plane tickets the other day...we're going to Europe for 3 weeks in April!!

2) I would love to revisit Japan...that was such an awesome trip, and it was only a week and a half long! I'd love to go back for a longer visit...we barely even scratched the surface in our 3 days in Tokyo.

3) If/when the end the embargo, I'd love to go to Cuba before it becomes Americanized. I've heard it's actually quite beautiful and almost a trip back in time since it's one of the few civilized places in the world that doesn't have McDonalds and Pizza Hut.

4) I would love to revisit Hawaii...Joyful and I went there for our Honeymoon, and we always talk about wanting to retire there someday, but it would be so nice to go back for vacation again.

5) I would love to go on a Carribean cruise...they've even got this one cruise that goes out once a year where all your stops on little islands include running races...that'd be fun to go on a cruise with a bunch of people who share an enjoyment of running. Plus you'd get to see the "off the beaten path" areas of the islands where all the tourists don't go.

Where would you like to go? Someone other than Shane needs to answer...jerks...

Hooray for God!

2008-01-23T22:29:00.000-06:00

Something that's really been on my heart lately is how awesome our God is...As I'd imagine you all know, I was let go from Macaroni Grill recently. On my drive home that day I talked with God...you could call it praying if you like, but I felt somewhat like David in the Psalms pouring his heart out to God. I thanked Him for the opportunity He was giving me to trust in Him and not worry. Growing up in the church, you always know in your head that God's in control, things work out according to His plan...bla bla bla; but I had an opportunity staring me right in the face to actually trust God! Sure enough...I lost my job on Thursday and the following Monday, I started my 2 new jobs! Then when Joyful and I got back from Orlando, we found out that I had gotten my bonus from Macaroni Grill (we weren't sure if I'd actually get that or not), which magically paid for the entire Disney trip and then some.

Turns out that God knows what He's doing...I hope that none of you lose your jobs or anything, but I gotta tell you...it's exciting to watch God at work right before your very eyes.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6-7

You Always Remember Your First

2008-01-23T14:02:00.000-06:00

They say that you always remember your firsts...your first love, your first job...my first post in the magical land of the blog is about my first marathon. Joyful and I did the 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon. This was mine and Joyful’s first full marathon after doing the Lincoln and Omaha half marathons last year. All in all, it was a great experience! I thought the organization was fantastic, the pasta dinner was lovely (if pricey), and the run was great! My only 2 complaints are that it turned into a pretty expensive trip (but Disney’s good at that), and all this supposed entertainment that they kept promising in the speaker series before the race wasn’t very much…there were many miles of quiet, solitary road going through wooded areas with nothing to see or listen to. I’m sure that is awesome for some people, but we needed something to take our mind off the running. But the characters along the way were awesome! Plus it made it so that when we went to the parks on Monday and Tuesday, we didn’t feel obligated to stand in lines with the kids to get our pictures taken because we had already done so during the race! We sprung for the Runners’ Retreat and I feel that it was worth the money. If nothing else, we didn’t have to stand in huge bathroom lines before the run. Plus there was yummy food afterwards, and we got our pictures taken with Donald and Daisy and Mickey and Minnie before the race. Our time was nothing to brag about, but we finished our first marathon! I’m thinking I want to train harder and do Chicago in October (and hope it’s not so hot there this year!). Here’s some pictures of our day: