300th Post...So Let's Dance

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What's New?

It's been a busy last 8 days, but I finally have some time to get a quick post in. So...what's new?

• Got some new running shoes last week: Asics Gels 1130 (Runner's World Best Buy). You know, there's nothing quite like the feel of a new pair of running shoes. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But for me, it's fun to lace up a pair of new running shoes for their inaugural run. And speaking of running, I'm having some good times lately. Maybe it's the cooler weather.
• Also new for me, I now have a Lee County Library Card. That's right. I've lived here 9 years and am just now getting a card. What got me motivated...the library now has audio books for downloading (along with music, videos, and ebooks). That was worth it for me to go in and get the card. Now which book to download???
• Not really new, but I started back doing my push-up this week. I took a few week off because of an unusual pain in my left upper arm. Not doing push-ups didn't help, so I'm back.
• Also new is the Christmas Tree that is now up and fully decorated in our house. Macy does an awesome job decorating it.

What's new with you???

Loving Out Loud

Macy, my wife, sent me an email the other day encouraging me and she ended the message with "thanks...for loving me so out loud!" What a great phrase! I loved her new phrase and thought I knew what she meant. But, just to make sure, I replied to her email asking her to define the phrase "loving me so out loud." Here's her response:

I intended it to mean loving me in action, in word, in attitude, in being pro active in nature. It means a lot to me that you verbally and non verbally show love and kindness!

Wow! That just makes me want to love her even more so out loud! Who are you loving so out loud?

Running the Hills

This past week my running routine was altered by the terrain. Instead of the usual flat ground I typically run on, I was challenged by the gentle sloping hills of north Florida. Now, these were not real hills, just inclines I was not use to, therefore making my running more difficult. And believe me, if you're not use to it, hills can suck it out of you. But something interesting happened when I ran this morning back here in flat, southwest Florida...my time was much faster! The hills stretched my leg muscles and made them stronger.

Our faith is like this. If you think of your faith as a muscle, it too has to be stretched to grow. The struggle of going up a hill in life can be just what we need to become more dependent on God and less on us. It is in the storms (hills) of life we grow the most. So next time you face a hill, don't automatically think avoidance is your best option. Ask God how He is about to grow you and how your faith can be deepened as you run the hill. Remember, running the hills can stretch and strengthen your muscles and your faith.

Just Considering...

...how blessed I am. Macy and I have had a wonderful vacation this week up at my mom and dad's house. As the day winds down, I'm taking some time to just consider how blessed I am.

• I have to start with the all incredible food I've been eating today and yesterday. My mom along with Macy and Theresa can throw it down when it comes to Thanksgiving eats. In fact, I'm getting hungry for leftovers just thinking about it right now!
  
• My incredible wife Macy. My love grows deeper for her every day. I love being with her and she still makes me laugh...daily. I'm looking forward to spending 9 hours in the car with her tomorrow as we head back to Fort Myers.
• My family. I have enjoyed so much hanging out with my mom and dad, my brother David, his wife Theresa and my nephew Michael. We ate well and laughed often. You are each a special blessing in my life. Thanks for a great Thanksgiving.
  
• My health. So, maybe I haven't eaten very healthy the last few days, but I am grateful for this blessing. (BTW - I have been disciplined enough to run 4 times up here, even in the cold! I am thankful to be able to run.)
• Special friends. I'm thinking about the people God has blessed me with as friends. Good friends are an incredible blessing from the Lord, and I have been abundantly blessed in this area.
  

I'm going to go hit the leftovers, but thanks for reading my blog. I consider it an honor that anyone would read my ramblings and observation. I hope you have had a great Thanksgiving and go tell someone you appreciate them. In closing, a few pics of my awesome family....

Start of Thanksgiving Vacation

Macy and I traveled to north Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and my brother and his family. Today we worshiped at Euchee Valley Presbyterian Church where my dad was the preacher this morning. Following the service they had a pot-luck dinner thanking my dad for filling the pulpit over the last several months. We had a great time at the church and dad did an awesome job in the pulpit. And the food...oh my goodness!

So what else have we been doing...

• We stopped off in Sarasota on the way up to the panhandle of Florida for brunch with our good friends Pamela and Jeremy.
  
• I'm about half way through reading a biography of John Newton entitled "John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace." Fascinating read.
• My neck is killing me - probably because of bad reading position yesterday.
• It's harder to run in cold weather!
  
• Mom made me some Chess Cake Bars yesterday. That, along with all the desserts at the church today, I may have overdone it a little today. I can't wait to run a little of this off tomorrow.
  

Life's Too Short...

...to drink bad coffee. Or for that matter, mediocre coffee. For those who know me well, know I enjoy good coffee. My preferred coffee to brew at home is Peet's. You can now purchase Peet's at your favorite supermarket, but I prefer to order it directly from Peet's. The reason, the beans are roasted on the day they ship them to me. Now, that's fresh!

What made me think of Peet's today? I got an email from them thanking me for being a customer. Everybody likes to be appreciated. So I thought I would throw a little love back to Peet's.

New Gadget

A week ago today I got a 16GB iPod Touch. I had been saving up and finally got enough cash. So, last Sunday afternoon I went down to Costco and made the purchase. (I like Costco because of their excellent return policy.) After exactly one week of having the Touch, let me say, I am very, very impressed. Here's my quick points review:

• First of all, it's a whole lot more than just a music/video player (it's an iPhone without the phone or gps)
• It's incredibly intuitive
• Everything just works...easily
• Best mobile email platform ever
• It's sets up and works great with Exchange Server (all my email, contacts and calendar stuff right there and it looks tons better than on my smartphone)
  
• Excellent web browsing experience on a mobile device - it's actually usable! (If you've ever tried to do much web surfing on a mobile device you know that it's not much fun)
  
• It does tons more than I had anticipated
  
• Great screen display
• Noticeably better audio quality than on my previous iPods.
  
• I really want an iPhone now!

If you're in the market for a new mobile multimedia/web device - I highly recommend the new iPod Touch.

Got to go watch the Cowboys now - Go Cowboys!!!

Very Proud...

Macy and I left the house at 6:30am yesterday heading up to Lakeland, Florida. Why Lakeland? This was the site of the 2008 Florida Baptist Convention and our senior pastor was preaching the Convention Sermon on Tuesday morning. We also thought it would be fun to pick up Pamela Bigham in Sarasota and take her along with us on what we were calling a "field trip." We had an awesome time with Pamela. She and her husband Jeremy recently moved from Fort Myers to Sarasota for Jeremy to attend Medical School.

Okay, back to the trip. Not only was our senior pastor preaching, but he also was nominated for the convention presidency. He lost the presidency by 12 votes. The time slot for the convention sermon was right after the announcement of the election results. This made for a slightly awkward situation, but he handled it with class and dignity and then proceeded to preach the lights out. Very proud of my pastor yesterday.

And I'm also very proud of Pamela. The girl is growing in her faith and has such a heart for the things of God. It is so cool to hear how God is using her in her new assignment in Sarasota. Macy and I really enjoyed our time with you yesterday!

I won

Penn State loses today to Iowa. LSU loses to #1 Alabama. And I won a really nice electric toothbrush today at our church’s Business Expo. Pretty cool! Thank you Dr Craig Mayer for this very nice doorprize.

I also had the privilege of officiating my friend and bother, Ed Schenck’s memorial service today. What an awesome man. He was a servant-leader and left an incredible legacy behind. It was an honor to be around his family today and see and hear the impact he made on them and so many others.

Update: Texas Tech just rolled over OSU. What a fun season!

C'mon Man

Why is Circuit City opening a brand new store over on Six Mile Cypress in Fort Myers when they are reportedly closing 155 store nationwide before the end of the year? C'mon man!

Voting Completed

It was exactly one hour from the time I arrived at my polling location until I had finished voting and was pulling out of the parking lot. Not bad. The process went smoothly for me once inside, but it is not speedy. I felt really sorry for the hundreds of people in line outside when I left. They would be there a while.

FYI: Starbucks is giving away a free cup of their regular coffee today if you tell them you voted.

Interesting observation...When I arrived at McGregor this morning (another election polling place) there was NO line to vote outside. I could not believe it! They ought to let you have the option to vote at a polling place that is close to where you work. Just a thought. Go vote.

Voting

I'm in line right now to vote. I got here at 6:15am. There are 15 people in front of me. It 6:35 now and the line behind me is getting real long. Glad I got here early. I'm also glad I brought something to read.

I hope you have, or wll be, voting today.

Feel the Weather

It started with a dramatic change of temperature last week. I went from running in a suana to actually being a little chilly when I fininshed my runs. How refreshing! The cooler, drier air is such a treat for those of us who live here in SW Florida, where it stays pretty warm all year round (we actually had several record lows for October!).

This is especially nice for anyone who exercises outside. The weather almost begs for you to come outside and do something. For those of you who live here in SW Florida, take advantage of this time of the year and decide to start that exercise program you know you need to. I promise you'll feel better!

  

Picasa 3

Google continues it's march toward world domination. Well, maybe not world domination, but they do have a new version of Picasa out. It's still in beta, but that's not stopping me from giving it a try. I've been using Picasa 3 now for several weeks and my my initial reaction: I really like it. Picasa is Google's free photo software that is simple to use and takes care of all basic photo editing chores you might have. Picasa 3 is not a revolutionary upgrade, but does add several useful new features (see link below for details). If you're not using Picasa yet, I highly recommend it. If you're using Picasa 2, I would encourage you to upgrade if you don't mind running a beta version. See link below for download site.

http://picasa.google.com/

Info on new features in version 3

High School Football

Last night, Macy and I went to a local high school football game - ECS was playing host to Moorehaven. Our nephew, Tyler Leach, plays for ECS and we've been wanting to get to a game to watch him play. We picked a good one - it was homecoming for ECS. Unfortunately, it rained most of the game. But we stuck it out, almost to the very end. It was actually a pretty exciting game, with lots of offense. ECS won with a final score of 50-38. I guess if you're going to sit in the rain watching a high school football game, you at least want some excitement. Congrats to ECS for the victory. And in spite of all the rain, Macy and I had a great time.

Attitudes

Quality of life is greatly determined by my attitude. If my attitude stinks, life doesn't seem so great. But when I have a good attitude, everything seems better. The thing that messes with our attitudes the most is change. Nobody likes change. Yesterday I had to tell some folks about a change that I knew they would not be so crazy about. What was so cool was how they responded. While they didn't like the change, they understood the purpose behind the change and had a great attitude about it. What a great reminder to me how important our attitudes are and how much they impact our lives and especially the lives of those around us.

How's your attitude today?

Off the Ship

We arrived back in Ft Myers yesterday afternoon after a truly relaxing and wonderful cruise to the Caribbean. For me personally, it was a time of needed relaxation and rest. But there is also something wonderful about returning home and to the routine and rhythm of life. I'm looking forward to Monday morning, running early and going into the office. I'm off the ship and back into the real world...and that's a good thing.

Here are some pics from our cruise...

Omar Update

Hurricanes and cruises don't mix well. Fortunately for our cruise we were able to avoid Omar and not experience any negative effects of this storm, other than we were unable to port in San Juan today (not a big deal for me personally).  So if you were worried about how Omar was impacting our cruise, no problem...we're good. BTW, I have never seen a hurricane with this path. Very strange.

Crusin' Day 3

Something about spending 2 days at sea on one of the world’s largest cruise ship that puts one in a relaxed frame of mind. Believe it or not, I didn’t even check my email for 48 hours! We arrived in Philipsburg, St Maarten this morning. We had an great time of worship and Bible study with our group Sunday morning. And yesterday morning (Monday) we had our first marriage seminar session. Other than that I’ve been eating, sunning, chillin, eating, hanging out with Macy and friends, eating, and having a great time. I think I could live on this ship.

Group news: Wayne Woodring won the Belly-flop competition yesterday. He won this same award 2 years ago on Navigator of the Seas.

We had a nice time in St Maarten this morning. Gotta run and get ready to go eat again.