my weekend

This past summer I got a $10 bike at a garage sale. It served me well at the Conference in Ft. Collins. Since returning to Boulder it's lived at my bosses house because I hadn't had a chance to retrieve it. So this weekend was finally the right time and I picked it up Saturday.

On Sunday evening my roommates and I went on an epic bike ride exploring various trails in Boulder. Now I have to clarify for my Boulder friends that it wasn't epic in miles traveled as I know you all ride 50 miles for a warm up, but it was epic in the sense of discovering new and hidden parts of the city.

Finally it was time to head back to the casa. There was one large hill before the mostly flat return to the house. (home was still a few miles away mind you). So we mentally prepared ourselves and began the climb. About 1/2 way up the hill disaster struck. The chain on my bike snapped like a piece of twine.

Now a bike with no chain isn't really a bike at all. Its a giant awkward scooter with a seat. Luckily my two roommates came to my rescue. One pushed me while the other rode ahead to push the cross walk buttons so i wouldn't have to stop and lose my momentum at every street. it was an arduous journey but eventually we make it back safely.

In other news i used my birthday money to buy a new phone. Thank you to all of you who contributed to that cause (parents and grandparents).

milestone

My car just crossed the 100,000 miles line. I think that means he's middle aged in car years. So for his midlife crises I bought him new tires. Seems to have made him happier... or atleast stop making wierd noises and pulling to the right.

minor health miracle

Ok so im sure most of you would not think anything of this, but to me my visit to the health fair today resulted in me receiving news that borders on the miraculous.

Yes its true - my blood pressure was and i quote "text book normal". My pulse was in the 'normal' range. Even my skin fold test result said i was only 2% over the average range for fat percentage for my age.

amazing as it may seem - IM HEALTHY!!!

tomorrow i go back for blood work, im praying those results will come back just as positive.

ok ok ill post...

Due to popular demand (read not so subtle hints from grammy and mom) im going to post a quick update...

Im in Fort Collins Colorado for the summer, working at the staff conference.

So far its been a fun summer. I've taken a class, worked with registrations, worked on some computers, been extremely social, discovered i am much more of an extrovert than i ever thought, gone on a couple of dates with various girls, enjoyed diverse coffee shops, and begun pursuing a 1 year stint overseas. That was the slow part of the summer.

My life is about to get insanely busy this week and probably continue to be for the next 2 or 3 weeks with getting the main convention area setup and keeping it running through the main 10 day conference. (on top of continuing to do everything i mentioned above).

ok probably wont post again til august. enjoy this brief glimpse into my life.

Desert in Bloom

I am in Tucson raising support right now and I have to say anyone who thinks the desert is an empty dead place has never visited in the spring. There are flowers EVERYWHERE here. I've taken a few pictures to show you... enjoy!






(ok the last one isn't a flower but it still looked cool)

Oh how i miss thee

So last week I was in Orlando.

I realized something I never thought would be true... I miss it. So many good friends and good memories. Strangely enough it almost felt like.. well .. home. I guess living somewhere for 2 years will do that to ya.

BIG NEWS.

i just thought i should fill you in on a little something new in my life...


i think i like it... you could say its growing on me... LOL

Snow Picts!!!!!

Here are some beautiful pictures I took on my day off today. These were taken hiking in the snow along the flatirons right outside Boulder. Hopefully these will tide people over til I actually write about my life again. :)

Blizzard like conditions

Well I escaped Colorado right before the snow hit last week. I'm sure you heard all about the crazyness of the snow storm. Well I'm back now. And it looks like the Colorado weather is going to have another go at hitting me! Word on the street is we have another foot or so headed our way.

I'm also not feeling very well and Christmas conference is coming rapidly. Please pray that I will get well and be able to finish everything before conference.

Turkey Day Fun

This Thanksgiving was great. Had some of the family in to visit. My brother, two cousins and one friend. We cooked the requisite feast (the fridge is still full of left overs). I realized my family is a bunch of brainiacs when any free time people had they tried to solve my various sized Rubiks cubes. We also hiked some and visited other extended family in the area.

Then on Sunday we went snowboarding. It was my first time back on the mountain in 2 years. And my brothers first time ever. I had an absolute blast! While I dont consider myself to be very good at snowboarding I thoroughly enjoy it. Not sure Nick has the same opinion of it that i do. His day was much more miserable than mine - but then everyones first day boarding is a painful one.

I'll post some pictures when one of our Holiday photographers sends me pictures.

quiet on the home front

Ok so its been a few weeks since I posted on here. But there hasn't been a whole lot to post about.

Tomorrow is the last night of my Silver Smithing class. Hopefully there will be enough time to finish everything.

Thursday Nick comes to visit. Its been at least 10 months since I've seen my brother because he was in New Zealand. So needless to say I'm excited about his visit.

Maybe there will be some crazy brother antics to write about soon. One can only hope.

rocky mountain leadership conference

This week I have been up in Estes Park staying at the Stanley Hotel (featured in both dumb and dumber AND the shining). Its the Rocky Mountain Leadership Conference which Ive helped out with registration and various other things for.

Today we had Reggie McNeil speak. The guy was hilarious! i do believe he has a gift for using sarcasm to make his points hit home. He talked about Greatness in Leadership and the disciplines which lead to it.

'if you have to choose between being a good leader and a bad leader choose to be a good one cuz then you'll make a positive difference. but there is always a third option - to be a great leader. great leaders change the world.'

one of the points that hit home for me was 'grow in your strengths'. ive heard it a lot before that even though common sense says to work on your weaknesses you'll be able to make the biggest difference if you work on your strengths. well Reggie used an illistration that just seemed to make that idea totally fresh again. heres his illistration in my own paraphrase:

there was a baseball great in the 1940's Ted someone. he had a 400 batting average which as i understand it is a feat that is still unprecedented. one day his coach tells him to give some hitting pointers to a new rookie. so ted walks over and stands there watching as the rookie swings at 95mph fastballs.

finally ted offers this advice "watch the stiches". the rookie looks confused and asks him what stiches. ted replies 'on the baseball. if you watch how they spin you'll be able to tell where the ball is going to go after you hit it.'

the rookie was dumbfounded because as the baseball adage goes 'in the first 10 feet from the pitching mount the ball looks like a blur and for the other 50 feet its invisible'.

Ted had 20/10 vision and was able to watch the stitches spinning on a ball going 95 miles per hour. (he also once said that on a good day he could see the commisioner meaning the baseball commissioners signature on the ball.)

after telling us this story Reggie asked "Where can you see the stitches?" thats such a profound question. where in your life are you gifted with a talent that no one else has as easily or naturally as you do? if you know what that talent is (most people dont know theirs) then you need to go out and spend your time using and developing that gift. why spend all your time struggling to develop a skill that your not gifted in when God has given you ones that you ARE gifted in?

its like from chariots of fire where the guy says "when i run i feel Gods pleasure". what gift do you have that when you use it you feel God smile?

im not 100% sure where my giftings and talents lie. but after today i eagerly want to discover them. i used to think i knew what they were but then i never did anything to develop them so now i have to go an rediscover them.

if any of you have any insite into my life and where my talents might be let me know. :)

ps theres supposedly a blizzard on the way and im up in the mountains. i am sooooooooooooooooooooooo incredibly hopeful that we'll get to have a blizzard here. its also supposed to clear out tomorrow night so by friday the roads should be clear down the mountain. perfect! a blizzard in the mountains but we can still leave when the conference is done. (blizzards are on my list of natural disasters to check off having lived through). :)

FINALLY!!!

Its snowing here in Boulder. Im watching it out my office window. YAY! Its not enough to stick at the moment but Lord willing that will change. :)

I made this.

so i took like 6 pictures and only this one turned out even decent. its hard to tell but the stone is a really nice blue color.

if you'd like to buy this or commission something like it let me know.

elk picts

Elk bugleing

This pass weekend I went to rocky mountain national park with some friends and listened to the Elk bugle. It was quite the experience, very much different from my expectations.

I figured there would be these deep booming mating calls that would echo across the valley as the male elk tried to attract mates. Instead they made these rather high pitched squeaky sounds. If you've ever watched a movie that had whale calls they sound JUST like the elk.

The most exciting point came when we had layed out our picnic dinner and the closest herd of elk which were only about 75 yards away all turned and started coming right toward us. There were a tense few moments before they turned and ran off down the hill.

Pictures should appear soon once my friend with the camera emails them to me. :)

Snow!

There was snow this weekend in the tops of the mountains visible from Boulder. :) yay! its definately fall here. getting crisp out!

as usually for me... no pictures at the moment. but you can imagine them!!!

Fun times in CO

So last week was spend on a retreat at a cabin up in the Rockies. On the drive down the mountain we got to see the first snow of the season. Yay! Trees were turning bright colors... well bright yellow atleast. All in all a fun time was had by all. Heres the team picture taken at the retreat.

GOOD NEWS!!!

YEP i found my camera cable.... look at all the pretty pictures...


Here is when i first arrived in the GPI Office. The handing off of the laptop baton.


The week before last i was in Denver for a planning meeting for the Denver Christmas Conference. This was the view out the window.


And here is a quick peek at my apartment (taken during our labor day party). Look at all the fun people... and thats only Half the room!!!

Ok so now the pestering about pictures can stop! :)

Good News Bad News

The good news is I got batteries for my camera and took some pictures recently.

The bad news is that I cant seem to find the cable to connect it to my computer ANYwhere. So still no pictures. :(

This past weekend was pretty good. Sunday afternoon i went for a hike up the backside of the flatirons. and yesterday for labor day we had a small crowd over to our apartment for a cookout. It was fun having church, small group, and work friends all together in one place.

The rest of the week i'll be at an ops team retreat up in the mountains. This should be a great time of bonding as a team and preparing for the fall.

Ok pray that i find my camera cord! Have a great week!!