Life Snip #4

Playing Halo with Steve (he kicks my butt):

Bathwater

So Connor's in the bathroom right now...and he suddenly says, "I'm drinking water and it's cold." Please say it's not the toilet water! We ask if it's water from the bath tub? No. From the sink? No. *Shudder* From the toilet? No. From where? "The cup." Oh. We have a cup that sits on top of the toilet that we use to rinse Connor's hair when taking a bath, and since he had a bath this morning, there must've been a little water left in the cup.

Wendy tells him that's gross cause it's the water he bathed in, so there stuff in it. He says, "No, it's ok. It's just cold."

Hm.

Life Snip #3

Cosette & Grandma
(Parents are in town this week.)

Life Snip #2

Life Snip #2:
View from my building's entrance

Introducing: Life Snips

Just for fun, and also to give me motivation to post more often, I’ve decided to start a new series called “Life Snips”. Using my camera phone, I’m going to take pictures of different things in my daily life. The pictures won’t be as good of quality as our digital camera, but they will hopefully be good enough to give friends/family a glimpse into what life is like for me here in CO.

Life Snip #1: My Desk
This is where I spend approximately 8 hours a day! At least it’s nice furniture and I’ve got plenty of space.

Easter Sunday

There usually aren’t many times in your life that you can say that was the best “X” I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was fortunate to experience the best worship I’ve ever known on Sunday. Oddly enough, (or should I say “Cynically enough”?) church holidays like Christmas and Easter I’ve usually just “coasted” since it’s “all stuff I’ve heard before”, or geared towards non-believers, etc.

However, I made a conscious decision this Sunday to make an effort to engage in worship and seek God. CHA-CHING! Boy, did He meet me. The worship set prior to the sermon was 5-6 songs (about 20-25 min.), and then there were about 3 more songs afterwards during the offering/closing. There were several times I couldn’t sing because my throat was closed up, and tears rolling down, etc. I even attempted something I’ve never done in my life: lifting my hands up. I’ve never done it as a mix of self-conscousness and cynicism and plain-ol’ “I don’t wanna!”.

As the #2 sound engineer for church, I’m part of the creative ministry team, and we meet on the second Sunday of each month to discuss our roles in the church and worship/praise concepts in general. We are reading through Bob Sorge’s Exploring Worship as a group and discussing the chapters we read. It’s been very challenging and convicting. It is in this book (and our subsequent discussions) that have asserted that God describes in His Word not just suggestions on how to worship, but commands. Including vocally, hands-raised, kneeling, dancing, etc. I had always been of the opinion that it didn’t matter how you worship as long as you find a way that’s good for you. That view has been dismantled, and I’m currently re-constructing it based on what the scripture says…not how I want it to be.

So that’s why I raised my hands in worship on Sunday, and was drawn into a completely new experience of worship and God’s presence. Pretty dang awesome.

Addenda

(Addenda = plural of Addendum)

Addendum #1:
On a fun side-note, as I was changing into my jeans today, I was trying to get my belt on, and got a little frustrated when I couldn't find the hole/notch in my belt....because I was on the last one! No more holes! That's kind of a new occurance for me. Wendy and I had a good chuckle over that.

Addendum #2:
Remember how I ran in the snow this morning? Well, my brother invited me to go bowling with him and a couople jr. high kids he works with at church. The bowling is 2-3 blocks from his place, so we walked there. Wouldn't you know it? It was snowing pretty good on our walk back to his place!

Easter will be weird tomorrow if there's snow...I'm used to the whole "Spring" feel for Easter, rather than Winter.

Daring...or dumb?

Whoops! Today I almost over-extended myself. Since the fitness room at work was closed, I decided to go for a jog along a trail that goes through our neighborhood. I was figuring I wanted to run for about 30-40 minutes so I would go out for 15-20 minutes and then back.

I had never been on this trail before, so I was enjoying checking it out since it goes alongside a wooded creek. I guess I kept wanting to see what was around the next bend or over the next hill, because before I knew it I had reahced a street that I recognized as being near my work! I looked at my watch, and sure enough I had been going for about 20 minutes.

So I turned around and before I was a quarter of the way back, I saw the first few flakes of snow coming down. I knew it was cold when I left (about 35 degrees), but was hoping I'd make it back before the weather turned. So I ended up finishing the last mile of my trek home in very light flurries.

Now how many of you can say that you went jogging in the snow, hm? A testament to my new-found dedication to exercise? Or a testament to my oft-disputed sanity?

All-in-all it was about 3 miles round-trip, and according to my wife, I was very stinky.
When I went in to shower, I thought I'd check the scale. (I know it's not a good habit to be checking the scale too frequently, but oh well). As it turns out, I had reached a major, major goal for myself: After more than a decade, I am finally under 200 lbs!!!! (199.5 to be precise; my ultimate goal is 170)

Since I didn't get to do any weights today, I'll probably do some push-up/sit-up sets.

Catch-up

No, not Catsup…I wanted to try and get a second update in March so, here we go…

Obviously the 2 big stories currently at the front of my mind have been
1. Cosette’s broken arm (Wendy has good photos)
2. My sudden weight-loss and exercising inspired by giving up soda for Lent

Wendy’s got the whole scoop on Cosette, I’ve got nothing to add.

As for my changing body/lifestyle, I know I’m still in the early stages (the “Honeymoon” stage, if you will), but I think it’s good to try and ride that momentum as much as possible while you can. Also, I know you’re supposed to ease in to a workout routine when you haven’t done it in a long time, but I know me. If I just dip my toe in the water, it’s a lot less likely that I’ll actually get in the pool. I’m the kind of person that needs to just jump in the water to start swimming.

The price I pay is a bit of soreness. I only need to watch my timing and make sure I’m not too sore/stiff come moving day. (Two weeks from today!)

What I’ve been doing is 25-30 min. on a machine (elliptical or treadmill so far; there’s also a stair machine, but I’m not crazy about those). Then I move into what I consider the “fun” part: weights. It’s not just a macho thing, it’s something I have experience with and have had success with. The season I wrestled in high school was a big influence on me in this area. It was a pretty intense program, so I was doing a lot of weights, jump-roping, running, and the wrestling exercises themselves (sprawls, shots, lunges, etc.).

After that, I took Coach Orr’s weight-training class one semester, but I dropped after a month or two. I liked the weight-training part, but he made the class run around campus every time, and that did me in.

So I’m forcing myself to do the elliptical or running on the treadmill for 25-30 minutes before I get my reward of weights. I know that the cardio/resp. training is better for a well-rounded routine anyways.

Running is one of my most hated nemeses, so I was kind of surprised that not only did I not hate it when I did it this morning, I actually kind of enjoyed it! I’m looking forward to the day when I realize that this routine I’ve started is feeling easier, with less soreness. I’ve even considered getting a bike, because there are a lot of bikers around here, and nice trails for it…and it’s so gorgeous here, I’d get to spend more time outside. But I need to reach a certain fitness level before I’ll consider that.

More to come…I want to save some for another update. =)

Getting Old (Sort of)

So this morning, while getting ready, I was contemplating some of the gray hairs in my beard and temples, and suddenly was thinking that the big "4-0" is right around the corner. (You know...9 years is "right around the corner") It just felt pretty weird thinking of myself as a 40-year-old man.

Right now, 40 still sounds old. But I remember when 30 sounded old, but now it doesn't so much anymore. So maybe by the time I'm 41, 40 won't sound old.