A Rare Thing

It is a rare thing for me to post a blog these days. Life is hectic and busy; time to sit long enough to think about writing and figuring out what to write has seemed to take way too much effort. (It probably doesn't help that I sit at a computer pretty much all day anyway...)

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God has impeccable timing!

Three weeks ago we went over to the townhouse my 85 year-old grandmother was buying in Canon City. It was ok, but it needed substantial work, paint, had old appliances, etc., and the selling realtor had been terrible and been in breach of contract multiple times. It had a one car garage (and she has a bigger car). It would have been a very tight fit for her car and for her getting in and out. Like I said, okay, but not great.
When we got there we saw that the townhouse right next door had just been put up for sale. We went over and looked at it. It was nearly immaculate, a little bigger and had a two car garage that would easily fit her car, and all new appliances. My grandmother made an offer that morning and the couple selling the place were ecstatic. Today we're moving her into that second townhouse.

God is so good!

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Our son is graduating from college next weekend. Wow! Where does the time go? It really seems like it was not that long ago that we were taking my son to college with all his stuff and helping him move in. Now, in a week, he'll be done and we'll be helping him move into an apartment.
Two months from now, he'll be getting married.

I shake my head in wonderment as I consider these things. It does not seem that long ago that he came into the world; that I carried him in my arms, put him on my shoulders and treasured having a son... now he's finishing college and getting married. Wow!

God is so good!

Our oldest daughter is about to finish her second year of college and this has been a year of redemption and healing for her. She has excelled in her classes and worked hard to bring her GPA up after having real difficulty with one series of classes last year. There is now a Godly young man in her life who blesses her and cares for her. He has a good head on his shoulders and a thought out plan for his life. That seems like a rare thing these days. I like him. That says a lot. :) I'm so blessed to see the maturity that God is working in her life and her heart to follow Christ.

God is so good!

Our youngest daughter is concluding her junior year of high school and is ever a joy. She sings nearly continuously. She wants to be involved in everything. We often feel like we have to try to put reigns on her (whoa girl!) to help her keep from being OVER-COMMITTED. She is in that tough stage in between being a kid and an adult and is in the process of learning how to deal with life as an adult. I remember that time in my life - I think it took me 20 years to get through it. She is a very spiritually perceptive young lady and has a tender heart for people and for the Lord. She is a blessing to everyone around her.

God is so good!

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Off to the day ahead.

--Blessings--

Too, too long

It has been too, too long since I've posted. I've struggled at times thinking, I should go write (blog) something, and then sat down and not really know what to write.
So here I sit to ramble on for a few hopefully coherent moments as I now reflect on a year that is nearly 5/6 past and wondering just where it has gone.
It has been a busy year and a full year. Much has happened. Much continues to be happening.

• My wife is moving into having a career because it is where God is directing her. He has given her a vision for the church that puts her in the place where her employer wants her at the helm of the product development - because it is His vision for the church.

• My son, my oldest "child," has started his senior year of college and now has a wonderful young lady to whom he has recently become engaged. She is a joy and a welcome addition to our family.

• My oldest daughter is in her second year of college - nursing and is having a very good year - A redeeming year for her. Last year was a difficult and trying year for her, but it caused her to grow tremendously in the Lord. I can't say how grateful I am for how she is doing now.

• My youngest daughter is the "busy" one. She always has been and she continues to go at light speed from one activity to another. School musical - to music competition - to mock trial - to spring play - and whatever else she thinks she can squeeze in.

Me - I've had a good year. I've worked a lot. I trained quite a bit. I did a couple major mountain bike races. I got to go to the Interbike convention (the revealing of all the new years bikes and bike toys). I have enjoyed my family. I have missed having the time I would have liked to have had with my parents.
The year has gone by too fast. I consider that it is the middle of October and I look back and wonder how the time has flown by so quickly. I am decided that I am definitely not ready for it to be late fall with snow just around the corner any day.

This is a good life! Thank God for it!
There is much to look forward to in the days ahead. In another post perhaps I'll venture into the things that I see the Lord wanting to work in the hearts of His church, His people, His bride. There may be difficulties, but there will be exceeding joy - heart peace - for those who rest in God and trust in Jesus Christ.

-- Blessings

Busy With Life / This and That

I see it has been a little while since I last visited my blog. It has been busy here. Not bad busy, just busy.
Shortly after my last post my son came home over the 4th of July weekend and brought along his sweetheart to meet the family. That was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun and had a short but wonderful time getting to know this amazing (my son's favorite adjective for her) young lady. She is from Texas and had never been to the Rocky Mountains, so my wife and I took them for a drive through the mountains and we had a wonderful day. The next several days were very full and a lot of fun. We've sure missed them both since they went back to Oklahoma/Texas (him/her).

I've been working and trying to be mountain biking quite a bit trying to get ready for some long endurance events coming up, one of which is this weekend. We'll have to see how that turns out.

My wife and I went up to Fraser, Colorado this past weekend for a bike race and to enjoy having some husband/wife companionship time together. It sure seems hard to have time for one another when we're at home and busy with house work and chores and running the daughter to and from work and teaching her to drive.
We're both exhausted!

Our regular worship leader is at a family reunion in South Carolina, so I was blessed to be able to fill in this past Sunday. The Lord really led and anointed the time and many were blessed, so I too was blessed. What really is there that is better on this earth than time worshiping God? Nothing I can think of or have experienced.

All that said, God is so very good to us and we are immensely blessed and we thank Him for His blessings each day.

May you be richly blessed in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Quick Note

I've added a link for a new blog I've created called Gearing Up. It may not be too interesting to some, but I wanted a place to capture some thoughts about my training for biking events this summer and I figured I might as well link to it. ;)

Cheers!

Recapping 'Life of Late'

Post of the month? It's sort of early in the month yet, so we'll see.

My last post noted my busyness of late.

* Work has still been very, very busy.
* I made the time and went skiing with my daughters Monday and Tuesday of their spring break and my wife was not able to go with us. :(
* All total I ended up doing five pieces of music for our Church Easter celebration.

I have sneaked in a couple opportunities to ride my bike, but only a couple (bummed about that).

Springtime in the Rockies always means windy. This year, the March weather was one or two little snowstorms a week. April has started the same way. We'll have a high of 60 degrees one day and 35-40 the next. Sunny and warm - cold and wet. Ah, you have to love it!

My chuckles of late come from the conversations with my son, that are happening about every week-and-a-half... I just keep hearing these phrases, "she's just so amazing...", and "when you meet her I know you'll think she's amazing too!"
I teased him a bit the last time he said that, saying, "What if we don't?"
He assured me that we would. ;) Too funny.
Young romance is fun to watch. It is just weird to me that it is really my son. Not because of him, but because of me. I don't feel old enough for him to be old enough. Then I have to remind myself that when I was his age, I was engaged to a wonderful and beautiful young woman that I was most fortunate to be able to marry. I'm pretty sure I never went around saying she was amazing, like Chris does about his interest, but that doesn't mean I don't thing she is. :)

Anyway, this post has been all over the map. Maybe you'll be amused by reading it.

God Bless!

Life of Late

I just have not been much into blogging lately.

I've been busy with work. I had a deadline the end of the previous week and then demos and meetings this last week.
I have had WAY toooo much time spent in front of the computer. I've posted a couple times on the the stories page for the bike shop where my daughter works, but not much else.

I've also been trying to work on music for our church Resurrection Celebration (aka Easter program), which will actually be in two weeks, even though Easter was today. I am providing guitar accompaniment for our Friends group (7-12 year-old youth group) doing a song; accompanying my oldest daughter singing a song; perhaps doing one or two myself; and I think one with my wife.

Phew... it doesn't sound like much, but it is surely enough to keep a guy busy.

My daughters are on spring break, so for next couple days I'm taking them skiing. Unfortunately my wife has the deadline at work this week and cannot go with us (I'm very sad about this, but will attempt to make the best of it.)

So for you, my friends, that visit my blog from time-to-time, I'm still here, but only sharing occasional snippets.

A Bike Ride With My Daughter

Saturday morning I had a wonderful opportunity to go for a bike ride with my daughter (youngest). It was a wonderful learning experience for her and I'm extremely proud of how she did.

You see, she has been working at a bicycle shop for nearly a year now, and late last summer she bought herself a very nice mountain bike. The interesting part of it was that she has never really been much into riding bicycles and really wasn't much past just barely knowing how to ride.
-- I tried to do the good dad thing and taught her how to ride when she was around 6 years old, but she just never got into it. --
So last year, we took several nice easy rides so she could get used to riding a bike. Nice smooth trails (like glorified like dirt roads without the cars), nothing even remotely close to difficult. Then on last Labor day we went with the guys that run the bike shop and their families up to some relatively easy trails up in the mountains. The girl tried really, really hard, but to me it just did not seem like it would ever come to her.
Well, over the course of the winter, when she wasn't busy with some other thing, she would go to spin classes to help strengthen her legs and conditioning, but she didn't go often enough to realistically expect much gain from it. But as the saying goes, "every little bit helps." And it did.

On Saturday morning when we went out, we went to a park here in town with trails around and through it. I mulled over what trails would be good for her planned out the best route for her to ride and enjoy success. The planning paid dividends along with the time she spent conditioning.
I'm not saying I expect that she'll go out and win any races this year, but the quantum leap of how Saturday was compared to last labor day... inconceivable (and yes the word means what I think it means). The girl did remarkably well and her papa is extremely proud of her.
She fell a couple times and endured some scrapes and some bruises, but at the end of the ride she was saying that she wanted to come back to the park and do it again so she could work on doing better. That is an overcoming spirit and it is a wonderful thing to see in your children.

I'm not sure when the next time will be that we can get out to ride together again, but I am very much looking forward to whenever it is. Hopefully it will be soon.

Protective Papa

There have been several incidents in the past few months involving my girls... a couple in the past two weeks.

As a father I am VERY protective over my girls!

Be off with ye scurvy dogs!

One young man who had been dating my oldest daughter said some mean and hurtful things to her... and my thoughts about him at that time were not quite charitable.

The Powerful Art of Persuasion

About two weeks ago two different young men decided they could talk in quite UN acceptable ways to or about my youngest daughter.

One young man (a long time friend of hers) made an inappropriate comment to her and she quite adamantly made it clear that he was NEVER to talk to her like that again. His sheepish response was that it was a slip like he was talking to one of the guys. She then demanded, "Do I look like one of the guys?" [I was and am very proud of her!]
Never-the-less, it has been, shall we say, difficult for me not bring a stern admonition to this pup.

I be inclined to cut out his tongue.

The second young man made comments about body parts of youngest and one of her female friends during a practice time for an activity they are all participating in. Youngest still has not been willing to share with me what, exactly the comments were. She again handled it well (smacked him for a start), then spoke with the teacher/sponsor of the activity regarding his sexually harassing comments. The teacher addressed it with him and he has been on much better behavior since.
But just to back it up, I'll be wearing my leather jacket and a mean looking scowl to the activity competition.
As a side note, I'm not sure what my daughter has said to him since, but tonight she told me that he was intimidated knowing that I would be at the competition. I smiled at her as I replied, "He should be... he should be!" (said with a Yoda voice for effect).

Now for clarity, I am a law-abiding citizen and don't go around threatening people, but... if you mess with my girls, I'm definitely willing to mess with you.

No REAL Biking - Trainer Weary

Alas, it is winter time in Colorado. There is snow on the ground and every time it gets warm enough to start to melt, we're getting a fresh blast of winter depositing more of the fluffy white stuff on the ground.
As I've become more of a biking enthusiast in the last couple years, I've also grown more impatient with the few winter months we have.
All the biking I've been doing for the past several months has been indoors on a trainer. 90 minutes, three times a week, trying to keep my muscles in some semblance of riding shape. I know it will pay off for the days when I can actually get back on my bike outside, but until then, I'm growing a bit weary of the pedaling, pedaling, pedaling, and not going anywhere. And honestly, I'm getting kind of tired of looking at the guys in my spin class. Just as sure as they are probably getting tired of looking at me. ;)
Sometimes while I'm in the spin class I'm actually wondering to myself how many hundreds of miles I would have really ridden if I'd been on the trail during all that time, or at least had a odometer on my back wheel to get an idea.
But so life goes.
In the meantime, it's only another month or so until I'll be back out on the dirt (and mud) being able to look at the beautiful Colorado as I'm riding along through it.
Until then...
I'll be pedaling along merrily on a trainer and longing for the coming days of spring.

New Link in Other Blogs Worth Reading

Shameless plug...

Our Olde Bike Shoppe (aka Ascent Cycling) has started a blog so they can post about different stuff, so I thought I'd add a link to them. Not much there yet, but I'm hoping it will get interesting as the guys start adding to it.

I admit that I am biased, but it is the best bike shop in town, so check it out if you can.

Not A New Year's Resolution

I've never been a big one for New Year's Resolutions.
I kind of tried last year.
Kerry and I joined the local Fitness 19 in December '06 and we were going to be working out together. It was a great plan and was working okay until January 3, the beginning of our annual New Year's ski trip with the kids, and Kerry's back went out almost as bad as it ever has. We had rented a condo up in the mountains so we could ski for 3 days. As Kerry was getting dressed that first morning, she bent over to pull on socks or something and slipped her disc. She couldn't hardly move much less ski. Needless to say, she wouldn't be working out when we got home. It took many months and physical therapy for her to recover. Since I had joined the gym with Kerry mainly to encourage her to go, my motivation to go by myself was pretty low, so it was pretty much done when she was injured.
When spring came around last year, I went back to riding my mountain bike for some semblance of exercise. I realized then that I probably should have continued going to the gym. ;) Anyway, after biking through the summer and fall I got to be in the condition I was wishing I was in back in the spring... So my challenge for this winter has been to not lose the conditioning gained in the past year, I've been going to "spin" classes at my favorite away-from-home hangout, the local bike shop (LBS). Spin classes, for those of you that may not know, are where you put your bicycle on a stationary trainer, get on your bike, and torture yourself (with the encouragement of an instructor) by pedaling at varying speeds and levels of resistance for an hour and a half. Occasionally (about once a week) engaging in this joyous activity has helped get me through the holiday eating season with only somewhat minimal weight gain. But now that the eating season has passed I have resolved to attend these classes in earnest, which means about three times a week.
This is not a new year's resolution, hence the title of the post. This is a goal to enable me to better participate in some of the biking activities I'm planning on this year. These planned activities include (barring schedule conflicts):
* Riding more, maybe all, of the mountain bike races in the Winter Park series (I did two of six last year);
* Riding in a 69 mile endurance race in Laramie, Wyoming;
* Possibly riding as part of a four man team in a 24 hour race in Gunnison, Colorado;
* Courage Classic to benefit 'The Children's Hospital' (this is looking less likely now because it conflicts with the just announced schedule for the Laramie race).
This should fill up most weekends of the summer.
Until then I'm going to be busy trying to rid myself of about 20 unneeded and unwanted pounds and whip myself into shape to be able to give it everything this 44 year-old body can muster.
Sound crazy?
It may be, but it'll be good.
Care to join me?
And since I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions...

It is Not A New Year's Resolution!
It's an achievable goal.

Kerry's Post Says It

I was going to sit down and blog about this Thanksgiving and how it has been with our family, Chris gone and Beth here from college, but after reading my wife's blog today, I think she captured it pretty well and I don't need to do much repeating. The only thing to add is that I would say it isn't necessarily just a mother's heart that feels that way.

Time For a Change

Today was the day to change up the look of my blog. I've gotten kind of tired of the old format.

I saw this one with the lighthouse and thought that it is more fitting since the title of my blog is Learning to Live in the Light.

May the Light of Jesus Christ shine upon you, and bring you peace.

The Last Day of Summer

Today was a gorgeous day here in Colorado Springs.
It might be the last day of summer.
We had a high temperature of about 75 degrees.
We had winds that qualified for gale warnings: 20-30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.
It is 7:00pm as of the time I'm writing this and the temperature is still around 65.

Starting later tonight it is supposed to start to snow; the forecast says sometime after midnight. Lows tonight are supposed to be get down into the 20s. BRRR!

So you're probably wondering why I'm giving you the weather update for Colorado Springs. It is because even after living here most of my life, I'm still amazed at how drastically the weather can change in a short amount of time.
I went for a mountain bike ride this morning in shorts and short sleeved shirt; I'll be wearing a ski jacket to church tomorrow.

It is part of what makes living here so unique.

Hi - It's Me Again

I'm here to make a posting. Shocking! Yes?

I didn't even look to see when my last post was. I know it's been a while.
Summertime has been here and I have not been on my home computer much. I hit it a couple times a week and that's about all it seems that I have time for. Check the email, sit down to pay bills, maybe try to read a blog here and there...
Tonight was pay bills and since I'm still on and Kerry went to pick up our youngest from youth group, I figured I'd do something strange and actually "POST."

I have been wanting to post this family picture we had taken while we were in Jackson, Wyoming (a.k.a. Jackson Hole, Wyoming). It is one of those rare times when we are (were) actually together as a family this year. We had a wonderful family vacation time and I am so grateful to God for allowing us the opportunity to have it. I had wanted to take my family to Yellowstone for many, many years and we were finally able to go, in what may have been the last family vacation for just the five of us.


Daughter number one (our middle child) started college (see last post) a few weeks ago. Though she calls frequently and isn't far away, I know this is the beginning of her independence and she is starting to learn to exercise it.
Our oldest is now in his junior year of college. He is working as a resident assistant (RA) this year and probably won't be home until Christmas and even then it will be right about on Christmas because he has some friends getting married in Texas earlier that week. One of these days some fortunate young lady is going to figure out what a catch he is and to latch on to him and he will be off somewhere else forever thereafter.
As for our youngest, she is always busy. She has a pretty tough class load, so she is often doing homework. She loves doing the school musicals and got a chorus part (extra) in this years production of Hello Dolly. She also has a job that she works on weekends. So we are already getting used to not seeing her around.
My wife has started a new job, putting her freelance days behind her for now. By working from home she was lacking for socialization (it's important for kids to be able to socialize, it helps them be well adjusted). I think she is enjoying the new job, but sometimes it is difficult to be certain. She did receive some encouraging news that one of her submissions going to be published in "Chicken Soup for the Empty Nester's Soul." Pretty cool! As our youngest stated, "Now you can be published like me!" Which for clarification, youngest had a poem of hers about the "Heroes of 9/11" published a few years back.

As for me these days... I go to work, try to get out and ride my bicycle at lunch, go back to work, go home, sleep, and then repeat that cycle. The most excitement is, as my wife says, playing connect the dots with the latest scratches and scrapes accumulated from the days bike ride. It's not quite that bad really, but sometimes it seems she is right.

That's all for tonight.

May God richly bless you and lead you in His wonderful paths of life.

Changin' Times

Our lives changed today.
Not in a bad way.
It is a good way really.
But change they did.

It wasn't easy; but it wasn't as hard as the last time.
Maybe having experienced it once already helped this time.

We helped move our second child into a dorm room at college.

The first time was with our son two years ago. It was hard because he was the first to leave the nest; and it was hard because the school he went to was about 800 miles away. We knew that seeing him after that would be for short periods of time with many months in between. That's how it has been.

This time was similar, but different. Our oldest daughter (our second child) is attending a university here in town. She could have lived at home, but (with some help from her mother) decided it was important to "experience" typical college life. So today we helped her move up to the campus and into her dorm room. In the helping her move in, this day was similar to helping move our son into his dorm. Carrying belongings up to the room, helping set up computer, finding a couple things that would be helpful and making a run to the store to pick them up, and attempting to minimally help her get things set up - but attempting to let her decide what to put where... and trying to keep her mama from "helping" too much. All a very familiar scenario.

It was/is different this time because, even though we drove away and left our girl someplace that isn't home, she is close to home. The college is about half-way between home and my work and is a mere 15-20 minutes away. This papa knows that a phone call can arrange lunch with her anytime. Having her come to the house for dinner, if she want to, is easy. Seeing her on weekends is not out of the question. These things make it a lot easier!

I know that we will miss her being around. Having those daily talks about how the day has been, what was interesting about it, etcetera. But it is good for her to be stepping out into having her own life - apart from us; even though not easy for us.
I know God will give us all the grace to walk through this with His perfect peace.

That's about all I can write about it for now.

Maybe next time I'll share a bit about how she has tried, and succeeded in, making her papa cry by emailing country song lyrics to him about somebody needing to spread their wings and leave home...

Grace and peace to all.

Out of Touch

Life is funny sometimes. There are seasons in life where one can be so busy that you barely feel like you can keep your head above water and there are times when everything is pretty relaxed and easy going. The latter has not been seen in this neighborhood in a while. Seems to have disappeared with the demise of Mr. Rogers.
For the last several weeks I've been working quite a bit and when I have been home I have NOT really felt like looking at a computer any more. Did I mention that I am a computer programmer? It isn't a good thing when somebody who makes a living working on a computer, doesn't want to look at a computer!
So for those of you out there that occasionally visit my blog, I know it has been pretty dry the last several weeks. Sorry! Life happens.
Tonights post isn't going to be much, but at least I'm putting something out. I just wish it might have more substance that it does. That would require thinking and I'm not sure how much of that I can really do at the moment.
I'll be trying to catch up with your blogs as well.

So in the infamous words of Tigger - TTFN

If I Only Knew...

How many times, I wonder, have I said, "If I only knew then what I know now, I would have done things so differently."

I just caught myself thinking it again about something. Not anything really important, but just that thought crossed my mind.

I've thought it a couple different times lately with regard to the mountain bike I bought. If I only knew a year ago that I would have gotten into it like I have, I would have purchased a higher end bicycle... one with rear suspension and higher quality shifters, derailleurs, and brakes. But as my friend at the bike store reminded me, there wasn't any way to know. Not that the bicycle I bought was not a good one, it is just that there are things I've learned since that would have affected the decision I made at the time.

I know I have thought it many times over the past couple years regarding some really stupid choices I was making a few years ago; thoughts about quitting on God, my marriage, my kids, and my church. I got burned out on the boring doldrums of day-to-day life. I was looking to see what my life was about. Had I done anything worthwhile? Was I a success or was I a failure? I was trying to find my worth in the world. The events of September 11, 2001 kind of kicked it off. All of a sudden everything that I thought had been secure, wasn't feeling so secure any more. I thought I might be able to find my self-worth somewhere else, maybe with someone else. --- Lot's of nonsense really. Thankfully God kept me and showed me very clearly how foolishly I was thinking and acting. Thankfully He also restored all that I had considered throwing away. I have since seen through eyes of His Spirit how much would have been, not just lost, but destroyed. So now, with 20-20 hindsight, I look back and can say "If I only knew then what I know now, I sure would have done it differently."

Of course God knows and I have to remind myself of that.

So now I am trying to be attentive to those times when I am apt to utter the phrase, or even to think it, that I am to take every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ Jesus and demolish every lofty thought and speculation that would raise itself up against God...

Thankfully, every time I consider "If I only knew...", it just means I've learned something important and I need to be mindful of the lessons that God teaches me through the life He has given me to live. I'm pretty sure He meant for me to live it in fullness. After all Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has a plan for our lives that include a future and a hope.
-- This is something that I'm glad I already know!

Listening and Pondering

I'm sitting here tonight finally taking a breathe. I'm listening to some mp3s that my father-in-law gave me to listen to of a group called Il Divo and a song (among many good ones) "I Believe In You" with Celine Dion. Wow! It's hard not to sing along. ;) Be glad you don't have to hear me bringing down their fabulous voices.

It seems like there is always a thousand things to do and another thousand things that need doing. The last couple weeks have been as busy as any I can remember. My daughter's high school graduation was obviously a huge contributor to that as well as having lots of relatives.
Last Saturday I finally made a day to go trout fishing with my dad. What a wonderful day he and I had. My mom had been urging me to go out with him since April.

Work has been somewhat topsy-turvy the past two months. As I've written before I've been moved to a new project, along with about six or seven others that were part of my previous project along with three guys from another project. We've been learning how to work together as well as learning the new application we're working on. It is exciting and exhausting and has been a bit tumultuous trying to get us all on the same page. It has been a good thing, but change can be uncomfortable.

I've shared a time or two in the past that I've been mountain biking. I've embarked on this endeavor to get in better physical shape, but as my wife points out, I don't tend to do much part way. When I get into something, I get into it all the way. When I started I never thought about attempting to race, but I like to challenge myself and so I think the next challenge is to attempt a real mountain bike race on a real mountain. I'm thinking of entering one on next Saturday in the beginner division for the "getting closer to getting older guys" aka men's beginner for ages 40-44. It's a good way to get some experience and attempt to determine if I'm interested in doing more races. I'm realistic about it. I don't necessarily expect to win, but I want to go out and give it the best I've got and see how it goes.

My youngest daughter has been working at a bicycle shop since spring break. She is actually becoming interested in biking. I wasn't sure that would ever happen, but the ice has started to melt. She demo'd a mountain bike from the shop this afternoon and went for a short ride with her mother and me. She was a little shaky, but not too bad given the relatively few times she has ever ridden a bicycle past learning to ride when she was five or six. I'm hoping she will get into it somewhat seriously like her papa has because it would be good for her in many ways. We'll see where it goes. She has a fiery passion and a low key competitive spirit so it could be interesting. She got a little bit of a rough introduction to it today when she got a little cocky and had a close and unpleasant encounter with the gravel. She is mostly okay, but came away with a few scrapes and bruises.

And saving the best for last...

My wonderful wife and I will celebrate our 22nd anniversary on the 22 of this month. That is pretty amazing and I am very grateful to be with this awesome lady for all these years. There is no one on earth I would have rather shared the last 22 years with. She is beautiful inside and out and is absolutely my best friend. !!!What a blessing!!! We've had our tough times but our God is good and He is faithful and has brought us through them all. I'm looking forward to the next 22 and then the next 22 after that, God willing. And after all these years, we're reminded daily about how much we still have to learn about how much it takes to be good for each other. Thankfully we have a heavenly Father that does not get weary in sending His Holy Spirit to continue teaching us.

Coming and Going... and My Head is Spinning

Rambling thoughts about the past week and a half...

Our son moved in for about three weeks and has now moved out. He has moved into an apartment while attending summer classes at Focus on the Family Institute. It is kind of different for us to have him in town but not living with us. Quieter too.
Our oldest daughter has graduated from high school and has registered for college and has signed up for classes. She is also working three jobs to make and save money for this school year.
Our youngest daughter is working full time at a local bicycle shop so she can earn money for a car.

We had family in town for about a week. Saw a lot of some and very little of others.
Some of my wife's family was staying with us. Others spent quite a good deal of time with us. It was fine, but it was exhausting.
My youngest sister was in town for a week staying with my other sister (in between us in age) and I saw her all of a couple hours. I missed having time to visit with her. She lives in Arizona with her husband and two children and we don't get to visit with her very much.

My lovely wife encouraged me to get away on Saturday and have a day fishing with my dad. I took her up on it. Had to fight myself to go. Friday evening I was thinking to myself that I was tired and it would be too much work. Thank goodness we went anyway. We had a wonderful time. I know I treasure the time I get to spend with my father, and knowing how I feel about getting to spend time with my son, I'm sure dad was blessed by it too. There is just something special about that kind of time... time to talk as we drive, time to enjoy walking the river, being excited about catching a couple fish, being out-of-doors, enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

A friend of mine emailed me today asking if I would like to go up to a mountain bike race this coming Saturday. I'm not thinking I'm ready for a race, but it might be cool to go up and ride some of the other trails in the area for familiarization for a possible race later in the season.

I'm trying to figure out what my wife and I can do for our upcoming anniversary. Twenty-two years and I'm very grateful for such a gorgeous, caring, and wonderful helpmate. Unfortunately I think Hawaii is out of the question this year. May for our 25th anniversary, God willing. Guess it will have to be something closer this year.

It's late. I'm rambling even more than I intended. I'm going to bed.

Blessings to you all.