Driving by braille

WOW! Talk about a CRAZY day. We had 11 National Merit students in today - we had been planning on 10, which would have been crazy anyway, but we actually ended up having another student who called this morning and said that he was coming by. So, that certainly made our days exciting. It was really a lot of fun getting a chance to meet a whole bunch of students and it was neat as well because several of the students were very interested in spiritual things. I was certainly glad that I had a chance to spend a bit of extra time with Jesus this morning before work, or things might have been even more fun. God once again is faithful!

On other fun news, I got to spend some time at Key Man’s Friday and Saturday of last week. God certainly taught me a lot at the main sessions, but as usual, the best time was hanging out with these guys who have been walking with God for far longer than I have been alive! I loved Sunday at church as the emphasis was on missions - it was great to hear quite a bit from Alex Thompson and it was so neat to hear what Ronnie had to say about missions. Then, Beyond Gates of Splendor in the evening wrapped up a great day of thinking globally.

In the evening I got to hang out with some Monday night Impact folks and then got to spend some time with Kelsey, sharing things that God had taught me at Key Man’s and hearing some of the things that she has been learning recently. That was a whole lot of fun to get some good quality time with her!

Best Valentine’s Day ever recipe:

Ingredients:

• Suspense
• A long drive
• God-honoring, fun and encouraging conversation
• Random walks through malls
• Great dinner
• CHEESECAKE
• Meeting your girlfriend’s parents
• A long return trip
• More God-honoring, encouraging and fun conversation
• Leaving your Valentine’s Day card at home (optional)

Mix together in a Jeep Grand Cherokee and let stand for about ten hours. Warning: may lead to great memories, random videos, and a bit of sleep deprivation.

Okay, okay, here is the story: I picked Kelsey up from work at 4:00 and we drove down to Dallas (she didn’t know where we were going, just the time we were leaving). We pulled into The Cheesecake Factory in Frisco, TX at around 7:00 or so and we had to wait a while for a table. So, we wandered around the Stonebriar Centre until about 8:15 or so and then finally got to eat some great food and enjoy some wonderful cheesecake! We had a waiter with ADD, but managed to enjoy the meal despite that minor issue. Then, we headed over to Kelsey’s parents’ house, since they were literally about two miles away from the turnoff we took off of I-35. We got to see the very end of the Texas Tech v. KU game, got to chat for a while and even took some pictures.

After that, it was time to drive back. I dropped Kelsey off at her car at about 2:30 in the morning and then drove back home and got a bit of sleep before heading to work on Tuesday! What a great evening!

Yeah, sue me, I am a little bit slow on posting! :~) So I got to go to the Steven Curtis Chapman concert up at the Ford Center this past Thursday the 10th. The All Things New Tour is totally sweet! I got to hear two other totally great bands as well - and . What a wonderful time of worship and praise and just having a whole lot of fun! It was certainly great to get to spend some time with Kelsey as well. My favorite songs of the evening: "Indescribable" - Chris Tomlin, "Holy is the Lord" - Chris Tomlin, "Voice of Truth" - Casting Crowns, "Your Love Is Extravagant" - Casting Crowns, "Speechless" - Steven Curtis, and "The Great Adventure" - Steven Curtis. I was certainly glad that Kelsey’s sister had managed to get a couple of extra tickets so that I could have a great evening of worship and praise!

Welcome to the first post of the month! I have a lot of news, so I will try to get it down to a somewhat manageable size so that it is digested easier. Life has been a bit crazy, because last week I was getting ready for the 1st Annual Impact Ski Trip. And what fun it was! We left around 3:30 on Thursday afternoon and drove through the night, getting into Pagosa Springs at around 3:15. The drive out was uneventful - the only exciting part was right as we were nearing Pagosa, some elk decided that they would walk across the road in front of Pete Jackson’s truck. Thankfully, no elk sausage for us the rest of the weekend! The group we went with was pretty great - Here is a picture of the group:

Pete, Rebecca, Chris, Kelsey, Andrea, Jennifer, and Joel

We skied that next day (Joel, Rebecca, Kelsey and I headed up close to opening time, Pete, Andrea and Jennifer came up a bit later). Kelsey’s aunt and uncle, Jim and Ilene, came up that day as well and they helped teach Kelsey and Rebecca how to ski. That evening, Jim and Ilene invited all of us over for pizza and salad. Let me tell you, after a hard day of skiing, the food tasted absolutely wonderful.

Saturday was more skiing followed by soaking in the Pagosa hot springs for a couple of hours that evening. It felt wonderful, but we smelled like sulfur for the next few days! Sunday we skied as well, followed by an evening of hanging out and chatting after watching the Super Bowl. Monday we made the trek back to Norman, which was a bit interesting because it snowed almost the whole part of our drive from Pagosa Springs to Santa Fe. It was certainly pretty, but the driving conditions weren’t the best ever.

That pretty much should get you up to speed on the news around here through the last weekend. I will have to post some more about some of the more recent events of this past week. But, for now, au revoir!