Ever have one of those days...

where you dont really want to do anything - at all? Im having one of those months.

at least i just blogged for the first time in 6 or 7 months. thats gotta be worth something. right?

pictures from the hike

14er

Well its been a little over a year that ive lived in Colorado and I finally hiked my first 14er. After camping at the base (which was still above tree line) and having a miserable night in the wind and rain we headed up Democrat.

Now for those of you in the know - I only climbed Democrat not Lincoln or Bross. For those of you Not in the know its a series of 3 peaks over 14000 feet that are often hiked at once. But after the sleepless night we decided one was enough.

1 down 51 to go. :)

** a 14er is any mountain with a summit over 14000 feet. There are 52 (or 56 if you talk to some people) in the state of Colorado. **

Book recommendation

Family, Friends, Random Strangers...

I just read a book this past week that I would recommend to you all. It is called 'Epicenter' and it was written by Joel Rosenburg.

Joel Rosenburg is the guy who's fiction books have this nasty habit of coming true. Like terrorists flying airplanes into buildings... which he wrote about (but didnt get published) before 9/11. In this book he starts off explaining how he seems to "predict" future events so often. Then he goes on to explain some headlines he thinks we'll see in the next several years.

How does he do it? Basically he read Ezekiel 38&39 and thought it sounded like it could happen in our time. He has worked with a number of international heads of state so he picks their brains on whats happening in the world. Then he just started writing fiction books of how he thought the world could be brought to the point where Ezekiel's prophecy came true.

At the very least it is extreemly insightful into what some of the world leaders are thinking right now.

Read it. Tell me what you think.

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. :)