Back to the Grind

I have to admit the Holiday's were pretty brutal on my weight loss goals. I didn't really gain any weight but I definitely didn't lose any. With the new year starting one of my resolutions is to get down to 200 pounds. I'm not a huge fan of resolutions because most of the time I don't follow through with them, but this one is different. I have already lost 40 pounds and now want to lose 15 more. Jamie has done a great job with groceries and I'm starting to work out again. This is a big deal to me because I know it will help me live a healthier and longer life. I've never really cared about my body or what I'm putting in it and I'm so thankful for the revelation I had in 2oo8 and look forward to continuing my new lifestyle in 2009 and for the rest of my life. I also want to give a shout out to Debbie Hinzman and Josh Pearman for their weight loss. I'm super proud of what you guys have accomplished. Keep it up! I don't normally ask for comments but if you are on this kind of journey I would love to hear about it.

Dallas Recap

As much as I would like to blog about the Cowboys demise I will pass because I know how I've felt when the Colts have blown it and I feel bad for my friends. Plus I sent a lot of tweets on Sunday expressing my thoughts so this Dallas update is not about the Cowboys, it's about Jamie and I's little getaway to Dallas.

This was Jamie and I's first trip to Dallas and we had a blast. Here are a few highlights:

1. We stayed at the Hilton near the Galleria with a great deal on Priceline. It was actually the first time I have ever used Priceline. It worked out great.

2. The highlights for us were good friends, good food and the Galleria.

3. Good friends - We met up with friends Jason and Tina McCollum whom we were on the same youth leadership team in Springfield, MO. We haven't seen them in 4 years and it was great to connect with them and we look forward to seeing them again in the future. It's pretty awesome to have friends that you haven't talked to or seen in 4 years and when you connect hit it off like you saw them last week. Jason and Tina were amazing youth leaders and I pray God's best for them.

4. Good food - We went with our friends to Pappadeaux for dinner where I had the best fried chicken tenders and fried shrimp ever. It was great and a place we will definitely eat at again.

5. The Galleria - This by far the biggest and nicest mall I have ever been to in my life. Every store looked sharp including the Taco Bell. It also had an indoor ice skating rink and the biggest Christmas tree I have ever seen in my life. The mall is 4 stories tall and the tree went from the bottom floor to the top of the mall. We also found some great sales which always helps. Jamie was in heaven.

6. We also went to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday and had an all around relaxing weekend together. We really enjoyed Dallas and will definitely do some more getaways there.

Christmas Update

We had a great Christmas, here are a few highlights:

1. This is our first Christmas with Jace and it was awesome to watch him tear open and play with his presents.

2. This was our first Christmas not in Indy with our family, or at least for a little while.

3. We got Jace a mini drum set and he loves it. We thought he may just pound on one drum but he hits the snare, the tom and the cymbal. Sometimes he'll do a combination of hits, it's pretty amazing or at least we think so for a 15 month old. His favorite to hit is the cymbal and he is starting to learn the kick drum. I will have to post a video in the future of him playing a drum solo.

4. Even though Jace got new toys his favorite are still the remote's and our cell phones :).

5. Jamie made an amazing Turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes and green beans. It was off the hook.

6. Around noon on Christmas day our doorbell rang and we thought who in the world is that. Jamie looked through the peek hole, screamed and opened the door and there was my dad! I had absolutely no clue it was a complete surprise and he brought all the families gifts from Indianapolis. He drove 12 hours to surprise us and it was a great surprise. This is why this was almost our first Christmas away from family but it was our first Christmas outside of Indy.

7. The previous day we lost our camera in Dallas and had no way of taking pictures of Jace's first Christmas but thank God my dad surprised us and brought his camera. He got lots of pics of Jace and we didn't miss out on recording these memories. Thanks so much dad for the surprise, it was a huge blessing.

8. Christmas 2008 was very memorable for Jamie and I and ultimately we are thankful for Christ and his gift of salvation for us. It's the greatest gift we ever received and we're thankful for a loving, graceful, merciful and faithful God.

Weekend Update

It's late but here it is:

1. I lost my fantasy game and did not win a championship this year. Bummer, but I enjoyed all the leagues I was in and look forward to doing it again next year.

2. Last night I watched the Three Amigos and Rocky IV, two amazing movies. I also went for a late night workout which totally reaggravated my neck injury which led to a painful night of sleep and a painful day today. Currently the pain has died down and I will be taking it easy to keep it that way.

3. I turn 28 this Wednesday, wow I feel old. In two years I will be 30! Craziness.

4. Jace has been a little under the weather, I'm praying for God to heal him. I hate seeing him sick.

5. I had some amazing fried chicken Friday night made by Mrs. Sharon, the wife of our care director Shelby Johnson. It was awesome! We also played dirty santa and I left with a Sonic card and gave away probably the worst gift. It was great! I will never forget Brian Rush our Programming Director saying "next year I'm bringing trash!" He got my gift.

Thoughts & Highlights From My Week

1. I tried a different drink at Starbucks. I normally get a Banana Chocolate Vivanno or a Peppermint Mocha. Instead, I tried a 4 pump vanilla brevee misto and it was ok. Hopefully I will like it becasue it's $2 cheaper then my normal drinks.

2. After the Colts big win last night I am now going to cheer my heart out for the Lions. I hope they beat the Saints and get a win. I was originally hoping they go defeated but now I feel bad for them.

3. I made it to the Championship of our staff fantasy football league and am playing our media director Andy Wynn. I got a huge game from Manning and am feeling good about my chances. Last week I also had a huge victory over our kids director which felt great! She was the number 1 seed and I took her out. Haha.

4. My body still hurts from my fall earlier this week, specifically my neck. My neck feels like I slept on it wrong, which is an annoying pain. It was really hurting on Wednesday but now feels better. I'm praying the pain will be gone by Sunday.

5. Tonight is our Director's Christmas party and I can't wait. I love getting to hang out with the other directors from Peoples church. It's gonna be a fun night.

6. Wednesday we had an all staff Christmas party which was a lot of fun. We ate some yummy Hideaway Pizza and played boys vs girls in catch phrase. Just in case you are wondering I won't keep you in the dark...the boys won!

7. I'm starting to read through the book of Acts and I'm excited. This book has always inspired me to dream big and I look forward to reading through it again.

A Very Different But Satisfying Night

Last night I had a date night with Jamie. We found a sitter for Jace and then went to Chili's and did some Christmas shopping for Jace. It was a very nice night and now to the part that was very different. When our date started I decided to turn off my phone and keep it off for the entire date which was about 3 hours. This is a big deal because I have the iPhone which allows me to check email, the internet, facebook and twitter which can easily consume my time. Believe it or not I did not go crazy or die :). I didn't even miss it. After realizing how nice it was to have my phone shut off I decided to not watch tv when we got home. Typically I will get home and find some sort of sports to watch, instead I spent a few minutes on the internet (I wasn't completely unplugged), read a book and then went to sleep. To my suprise I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before midnight! This never happens but I woke up today feeling refreshed and satisfied with the previous night. I will have to do this more often. For those that are in the iPhone, blackberry, internet, tv world like me I encourage you to try to have a night like this and I pray it will be as refreshing for you as it was for me.

My Body Hurts Pt. 2

Yesterday I went to a Youth for Christ Christmas party, which was at a bowling alley. Jamie and Jace came with me and we had a great time hanging with our friends Vernon and Amy Deas and the YFC interns. While others were bowling I was following Jace around as he walked all over the bowling alley. He's a little explorer and every once in a while he'll pick up some speed and put some distance between me and him. Well he did this and starting going down one of the lanes so I started running after him without realizing they just waxed the lane. So here I am running to grab my son and the next thing I know I'm flying in the air just like when someone in the movies runs over some marbles. Jace also slipped and fell. Instantly I picked him up to make sure he's ok and then tried to figure out what hurt more: my body or my pride knowing people saw me wipe out. I think it was both, when I turned around only 4 people had seen me fall, my wife and a friend and two guys eating. The two guys eating were cracking up and trying to hide it. I'm not gonna lie I wanted to punch them in the face and see if they thought that was funny, ha. Of course I did not punch them and instead just laughed at myself with them. Needless to say my body hurts!

My Body Hurts Pt. 1

Saturday I decided to start lifting weights again as part of my workout. I got this workout from a friend where I get my heart rate up and then do as many reps as I can in 30 seconds. I do 3 sets of this and on the 3rd set I have enough weight so I can't finish the reps. This workout shredded my muscles. The first workout I did was chest and my triceps and pecs are killing me. Yesterday they were a little sore well today is day two and now they are killing me. It hurts to put my cell phone to my ear, a coat on and wash my hair. Although my muscles are hurting its a good pain and I know the more consistent I get that the pain will get better. But for the next few weeks my body is going to hurt.

Random Thoughts

1. Wednesday night we had a great youth experience. 7 students made commitments to Christ and 4 signed up to get baptized. We have about 20 students signed up for our next baptismal bash and I'm pumped to see these students take another step in the right direction in their relationship with God.

2. Wednesday night I also went completely out of my comfort zone with a few illustrations. I mainly use stories for illustrations but this Wednesday I dressed up, busted out the cabbage patch, running man, carlton off fresh prince and almost broke myself. I also had a costume change in the middle of service. I was nervous but I feel everything went very well. By the way it's hard dancing in flip flops, I don't recommend it.

3. Today at Mpact we had between 280-300 students attend our club. It was awesome! God has opened a huge door to win many students at John Marshall to Christ and I'm excited to be apart of it.

4. Tomorrow we are going tubing at the Bricktown Ballpark with Ignite our College and Twentysomething's ministry. We are meeting at the Sonic at Bricktown at 3:30 pm and then going to the park at 4 pm for 1 1/2 hours of tubing. Tubing costs $10 and I hope to see many college and twentysomethings from People's Church there. From what I understand they fill the ball park with tons of snow to make a huge ramp to slide down. It's gonna be sweet.

5. Epic is doing its first ever New Year's Eve Bash and it's going to be off the hook. We are having a concert by Exodus, Dre Murray, Secret Service and the Uprise Click. It's on December 31st from 8:30 pm - 12:30 am and it's gonna be a lot of fun. Students make sure you bring lots of friends to take in the New Year at Epic.

6. I'm looking for two big fantasy playoff wins this weekend. In one of my leagues 8 teams made the playoffs and in the first week of the playoffs the 1-4 teams lost, including me I was the 3rd seed. Craziness!

7. Tonight is our volunteer banquet and I look forward to sharing my appreciation for all my volunteers. They are amazing and there is no way this ministry would be successful without them.

That's not my grandson, it;s an old man

These were the words my Babci (polish for grandma) said when she saw me on Skype. She lives in Connecticut and is over 90 years old so we don't get to see her much. She also has dementia and when my dad told her who I was she didn't believe him because she said all she saw was an old man. Ouch, I'm only 27 and the way she kept repeating that statement could cause someone to fall into depression haha. It didn't really bother me because I know web cams aren't in HD and with my shaved head and her bad vision I'm sure I really looked like an old man to her. Honestly she could call me an old man as much as she wanted if it gave her her memory back. Dementia is an sad thing and when she saw Jace she didn't know who he was but with a big smile she kept saying "he's a cutie" over and over again. She went from a confused look of whose that old man to her entire face lighting up when she saw Jace. I guess as the commercial goes "Laptop $600, webcam $40, my babci seeing Jace for the very first time...priceless." It was a moment I will never forget and although she probably doesn't remember it, in that moment she was very happy to see Jace. I guess if there is any sort of takeaway from this; it is never take your family for granted and cherish every moment with them. Life is short and can change at anytime.

Thermal T-Shirts

Monday I bought some thermal t shirts because I'm freezing all the time and I hate being cold. The only time I like being cold is before I go to bed so I can snuggle into my covers and get warm. I have never had this problem until I started losing weight. I guess the 40 pounds I lost were keeping me warm :). I used to be a guy who would start sweating just from peeling an orange (Kevin James Comedy) and now I'm cold when I sit next to the window at Starbucks on a chilly day. I love the thermal t shirts because I can wear them under a hoodie or a t-shirt instead of wearing a hoodie under my winter coat. I also got a skull cap to keep my balding head warm. Here's to thermal t-shirts and being warm!

A Blog from Jace

Jace saw daddy blogging and wanted to write his own blog, so here it is:

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Please comment if you have the translation. I think it says "Daddy stop trying to get me to say milk, just give me MY MILK!"

It Happened Again

I am in four fantasy football leagues and this year has had an unfortunate reoccuring theme for my teams. At least 5 times this year I have lost a game on the last play or minute in the Monday Night football game and it happened again yesterday. I was winning by 4 points until DeAngelo Williams busts out on his last run. I would rather get destroyed then beat in the last minutes of the Monday night game. Hopefully next week my opponents don't have any players on the Browns or the Eagles. I have two teams left in the playoffs. One with the People's church staff and the other with my leadership team. I also thought I was a hardcore fantasy football player being in 4 leagues until I met my pastor who is in 6 leagues! He is a fantasy machine.

My Wife the Holiday Queen

Jamie loves the holidays and really loves decorating for the holidays. We have decorations for fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She has socks for the fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you are listening to music with my wife after Thanksgiving it's all Christmas music. I came home one day from work and boom the Christmas tree was up and decorated. We even have a Christmas tablecloth on our dining table. And to top it off Thursday I went to get my driver's license renewed and when I came back my wife was on the top of the ladder putting Christmas lights on our house. When I say the top I mean the very top like she falls off and she's breaking a few bones. She put her life in danger because she has always wanted to have Christmas lights on the house. Jamie is one of those people that when she makes up her mind about something nothing will stop her and if you drive by my house you will see how. I appreciate this quality about her I just wouldn't risk my life to put Christmas lights on the house :). When it comes to the holidays we are very different but I will admit I love the different holiday desserts she makes in the fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love and appreciate her a lot.

Christmas Decorating

I'm not a scrooge but I've never been into decorating for the holidays. I've read many friends blogs, tweets and facebook status where they are ecstatic about decorating their house or tree for Christmas, especially those that get a real tree. It almost sounds adventurous as they describe their search and their find. As for me this does not excite me in any way, shape or form. Even as a kid, decorating the tree was a chore not something I looked forward too. It was annoying not enjoyable. Maybe it's my lack of artistic ability or creativity. Lord knows I struggle to even match my clothes, without Jamie I would be a mess. If she had a penny for every time I've asked her "does this match?", she would be a millionaire. Matter of fact I once did a sermon on decorating a tree with a friend and the parts I decorated looked horrible, after service more people made fun of my tree decorating then compliments on the message, lol. Maybe when Jace gets older I will get into it because he does, but currenlty I'm not interested in decorating a tree or a house. To those that are, more power to you and I will enjoy driving past your home and saying wow that look at that house. Now my wife that's a different story and a blog for another day.

Lazy Day

Here are some of the highlights or lazylights of my day off:

1. Slept in cause last night I stayed up til 2:30 am watching a movie. I am definitely a night person. If I had the choice of staying up til 3 am or waking up at 5 am, I would choose staying up til 3 am every time.

2. Hanging out with my little guy. I love spending time with Jace. His new thing is he's always trying to sit on our laps and when we get him out of his crib he always gives us a hug and a kiss. I can't say it enough I love him to death.

3. Going to get my Oklahoma driver's license. Hopefully the lines won't be long.

4. Paid some bills. Always fun!

5. Ran out to the mail box in shorts and a t-shirt. Not smart, it was freezing!

6. Won another free trip from cheaptickets.com. Yeah right, those scams are annoying. I remember when I was in high school and I got my first "You won a million dollars" junkmail. I was so excited I called the number then realized it was a scam and have been bitter ever since. Just kidding no bitterness but they are annoying.

7. Watching Survivor tonight and hoping Corinne gets voted off. And I have to say Randy getting blindsided two weeks ago is my all time favorite survivor moment. It was awesome! As Crystal said "Randy is a troll", LOL.

8. Jamie is making a very yummy pasta and spinach dip tonight. I will eat it and enjoy it. I may even post some pics of her masterpiece.

Sit Back and Observe

This is exactly what I got to do tonight. At our youth experience one of my leaders, Derek Colvin, spoke for me and did a very good job. Since he spoke I got to sit back and observe our experience. I got a good look of what the audience sees which was very weird on a Wednesday night because I'm so used to looking at the audience not the stage. It was weird but also productive; I definitely saw some areas we can tighten up and got some ideas for doing illustrations. Tonight was very enjoyable and I look forward to getting back in the pulpit next week.

The Battle

The battle against my flesh has begun. After all the bad eating I did over Thanksgiving I now find myself craving the foods that will stop me for getting to 200 and put me on the track for 240. Especially Steak n Shake, I had a two shakes and a frisco melt over Thanksgiving break and now I want Steak n Shake all the time. They were soooooooooo good. It's funny before Thanksgiving these cravings where minimal, now they are haunting me. It's gonna be tough but I'm determined to get back on track and not stuck in the world of "I will start tomorrow". I learned from the last 4 months of losing weight that the first couple weeks are brutal but after that you get into the routine and it is much easier. So the Battle has begun again, Lord help me as I journey towards 200!

Weekend Update

1. Saturday we drove back to OKC from Leavenworth, KS. It was a very boring drive and our home was a beautiful sight. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

2. Watched the Bedlam game and was hoping OSU would win but Oklahoma is clearly the better team.

3. Speaking of OU, they were given a gift from the BCS. I am not at all a Texas fan but they got hosed. It would be poetic justice if Missouri beats OU and Texas goes to the National title game.

4. A lot of my friends in Oklahoma will not like number 3. Haha.

5. Sunday I preached all 4 experiences at People's Church. I consider it a huge honor to speak for Pastor Herbert and I really enjoyed it.

6. The 4 experiences were awesome with many people giving their hearts to Christ.

7. I was also very tired after preaching 4 times so after church I came home and sat on the couch and watched football the rest of the day.

8. Speaking of football, I have to say "I love Oklahoma City"...once again they showed the Colts game. Most of the people around hear claim to be Cowboys fans but I believe deep down inside they are all Indianapolis Colts fan.

9. Speaking of the Colts, it was ugly game but a win. I'll take it. We are now 8-4. Go Colts!

10. I put on a few pounds from the holiday so its time to get back to the grind and hit 200 pounds.