I Guess I Did This To Myself!

For Christmas this year I registered Audrey for the Salt Lake City Marathon. And I couldn't let her do it by herself, so I signed myself up for it as well. Today is our first day of "official" race day training. Audrey does an awesome job of coming up with a workout plan that will take us right up to races, and she outdid herself on this one. I just hope that I can keep up with her!

I can officially say that I have become a runner, and I think that this first marathon will cement that fact even more in my mind. The farthest that Audrey and I have gone so far is a half marathon (13.1) miles. So we are doubling the farthest that we have ran for this marathon.

One day at a time up until April 18th, 2009!

Best Christmas Present Ever! At Least This Year

Well, Audrey and I opened our presents this morning and I was extremely surprised!

Audrey hid a very special present from me for a long time. I had a very long box hidden

under the tree with no idea what it was. I got to open it up this morning, and lo and behold it was

a brand new 30/06 high powered rifle!!!!!

I COULDLN'T BELIEVE IT! WITH A SCOPE AND EVERYTHING! AND FROM A GREAT GUY

IN MY CHURCH AND A GREAT FRIEND DAVE BREWER!

It was incredible! I think I said, "NO WAY!" about 50 times.

We are now with Audrey's parents in Rock Springs hanging out for the day and playing board

games. It has been a great day so far!

Family & Friends

It has been an incredibly busy last week! Travis and Amanda got married on Saturday! WOOHOO! The wedding was really good, and it was great to see a lot of my friends and family there that I hadn't had the chance to see for quite a while.

My good friends Adam and Justin came up to Kemmerer with us after the wedding on Saturday night. Adam did a 100 mile run for missions and our Church supported him in his run, so he preached on Sunday morning for me. It was nice to have a break! Thanks Adam! We got to hang out Saturday night at our house and just catch up on life.

Sunday morning before Church Adam coerced me into running with him in the freezing winter cold. We went about 4 miles I would guess. My eye lashes were frozen, and I was glad to get it over with. Justin and Adam left Kemmerer at around 1:30 p.m. after lunch and made it all the way back to Haviland by 3:00 a.m. Pretty impressive.

Here is a picture of Adam and I after our morning run, you can see that it was cold, and almost see the frozeness of my eye lashes.

wedding day

we are in rock springs for travis and amanda's wedding today.

they are getting hitched at 2:00 p.m.

right now the sun is shining but it's about 10 degrees.

hopefully no more snow, but we are looking forward to all the happenings that are

going to happen today.

Christmas With The Carlsons!

We had our Christmas With The Carlson Clan yesterday. It was a lot of fun, but some craziness was thrown into the mix as well! All of the Carlson 7 kids were there, including their children, spouses, and my parents got to be in the day as well. So needless to say there were a lot of people there. It was also the first chance that I got to use my new GPS that my brother gave to me! It's going to be nice to have! Thanks Jared!

We opened up all the presents first. Audrey and I made out very well! Somebody pulled a practical joke though and snuck in ridiculous gifts to each person there. We couldn't ever figure out who it was though!

After presents we had lunch at like 3:00, I was starving! Then some of the kids put on a play for the entire family, and then Audrey got to read "Papa Panov" to everyone. Thanks to Lia Brewer for her awesome internet skills in finding this rare book that has become a Carlson Family Tradition to read at Christmas every year!

After that Audrey and I took a walk, ate some pie, and then went to the singspiration at the Church. It was a great day, and exhausting as well.

Jackson Trip 08

My parents arrived in Wyoming on Saturday afternoon last week to come and visit us! It has been a blast having them here, and being able to show them where we are now living. We took them up to Jackson Hole Wyoming on Monday and had an awesome time. I even got to drive my dad's new gmc sierra 4 by 4 pickup the entire way there!

1st we checked out the National Elk Refuge, and took a sleigh ride out onto the refuge. We were about 20-40 yards away from 40 bull elk. It was incredible to be that close to them! There are about 2,000 elk total on the refuge right now, and there will be upwards of 8,000 by the time full blown winter hits. We also got to see 2 bald eagles up close.

After the ride we went to lunch at the Snake River Brewing Company. Very delicious. I got a brisket & bacon sandwich w/ fries. Then after lunch we went shopping in the historic downtown distric, and then drove home.

It was a great day and lots of fun, and the sun came out while we were on the sleigh ride which was perfect cause the temperature was about 10 degrees. Here are some pictures!

C-mas Tree Cutting Pics & Video

On Thursday afternoon, Audrey, Maya, and I loaded up in our expedition and headed out into the unknown. Well, at least for me anyway. It was my first trip to cut down a Christmas tree. We left Kemmerer, and headed north to Cokeville and National Forest Land. On the trip there we saw 5 elk sunning themselves on the side of the road.

Once we got to our "designated tree cutting area" we had our eyes peeled for which tree looked full enough, and short enough to fit in our house and still look good. Audrey made the perfect spot, and located the tree that would shortly be located in our living room.

We chopped it down, tied on top of the Expedition and headed home! Here is a video from the excursion, and some pictures as well. It was a blast!

My First Real Christmas Tree

Audrey and I are going to go and cut down a real christmas tree this afternoon.

We got a permit from the forest service, and as i understand it, we just go find one we

want and chop it down and haul it home. It will be my first real tree if my memory serves

me correctly. So i'm excited about getting to pick it out and cut it down.

I'll put up pics when we get back.

Anniversary!

Audrey and I have been married for three years! Woohoo! We can't believe it either... We got to celebrate our anniversary this year in Jackson Hole, WY and Pinedale WY. It was a great time to get out and have some fun together. Friday we went to Jackson for the day, looked at all the shops, ate lunch at the Cadillac Grill (I got a buffalo burger), and then headed back to Pinedale where we stayed at a bed and breakfast. Pole Creek Ranch is the name of the place, and it was awesome!

Dexter and Carole Smith run the B & B, and they are wonderful Christian people. Dexter built their house which has 5 bedrooms, and he also built a log cabin that we rented out for the evening. It had a fireplace, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and was incredibly built.

Saturday morning we were served breakfast in our cabin, and then we went up to the main house and spent some time talking with Dexter. I truly know that God guides and provides just from this trip. We had no idea these people were Christians when we made our reservation, and because I'm a pastor they let us stay the night for free! How amazing is the Lord! We were so blessed by their generosity.

Last year for our anniversary we stayed at a B & B in Minnesota and they let us stay their for free too! It's been amazing! Here are some pictures from the trip...

Standing underneath the huge antler arch in Jackson Hole.

This was the cabin that we stayed in on Friday night!

It was a little bit chilly outside, but not snowing!

This was at a store in Jackson, they had a bear rug with the head still on it. I think he wanted to give me a little kiss.

The actual date of our anniversary fell on Wed. So we celebrated with a nice meal at home (elk steak and a grilled portabello mushroom). It was a lot of fun.

Turkey Trot in Smithfield, UT

We (Audrey and I) had a great Saturday! We left early in the morning and headed West for Utah. Thanks to our new car we made it without any problems, and arrived right on time for the Smithfield Recreation Turkey Trot. We were signed up for the 10k (6.2 miles). We got our SWAG bag, and then changed into our race clothes.

The temperature was in the middle 40's, but the sun was out and it felt amazing. The race started at 10:30 a.m. and I would guess there were about 50 runners signed up for the 10k. They also had a 5k and a one miler.

The course was beautiful, we started heading off towards some mountains and a little bit up hill. Around mile 2 we started into a residential area and back downhill which was nice. I started out pretty slowly, and gradually sped up, passing quite a few people in the last two miles which I ran at about an 8:10 pace.

I finished in 52 minutes and Audrey finished in 49:22. She got 1st in the 25-29 division and I got 2nd. After the race we ate at Chili's for a reward, and then headed home. All in all it was a great day and race. Here are some pictures!

This is before the race. I was all set to go.

As you can see Audrey was set as well.

I was just crossing the finish line. I know I look retarded, but I totally beat that kid behind me! He was quite a ways in front of me and I sprinted at the end to beat him. Take that, uh!

I needed a little break before I could get anything to eat. And I think that this is my standard pose after a race. The "hands back and legs sprawled" recovery technique.

And after it was all over!

finally another race

Tomorrow, Saturday, Audrey and I are running in a 10k (6.2 miles) Turkey Trot. Close to Thanksgiving hence the name. It is in Smithfield, UT about 2 hours away, hopefully the weather stays good. It's supposed to be about 45 degrees or so which is just about perfect.

Wish us luck! I'll post pics and results sometime next week!

sickness

I finally got sick... It has been at least a few years since I have been really sick. And even a few more years before that since my stomach decided to work in reverse mode.

But, this past Saturday the flu bug decided to unleash it's fury on my immune system. I subbed at the high school on Friday, and I think that I might have caught it there from all the kiddos. Saturday afternoon I started feeling sick, and took a nap from 4:30 until 5:30 p.m. I work at our Teen Center every Saturday night from 6:00 p.m. until midnight, so I decided I would try and go. I made it until 9:00 and couldn't handle it anymore. I felt horrible.

So I had to close the Teen Center early (the kids weren't too happy, but they got over it pretty quick). Got into bed at 9:30 and by 10:00 my stomach started working in reverse. It was one of the longest nights of my life.

I had to call our Elders on Sunday morning and let them know that I wouldn't be able to be at Church. Then Sunday ended up being one of the longest days of my life because all I could do was lay around.

Before Saturday I would think, "Oh it would be nice if I was sick, I could lay around, watch TV, and be a bum all day." The part that I forgot though was that you feel completely miserable the entire time, and it's not so much fun.

I think sin invades us that way sometimes. We think, "Oh it would be nice to do this or that, whatever I want." But then we forget how miserable we are afterward. We step outside of God's plan for our lives, and we get beat up. The same way I feel after being sick; beat up.

Our problem is that we forget. We forget how horrible sin really is, we forget the consequences, and we only remember the "instant gratification". Like being sick, we forget the part about how bad we feel, and we remember or even trick ourselves into thinking that we can get a day off and not have to do anything.

Don't believe it! Being sick stinks. If you haven't been sick in a while, and you are thinking it might be nice, let me tell you that it's not.

Pics of our new apartment

Audrey and I are completely moved in and settled into our new apartment. So I figured that I would take some pictures so that you can all see where we are at. Audrey does a great job of setting things up, and making it feel homey and safe. It's a great place, and God has blessed us with all that we need. Our Landlord bought a new fridge and stove for us, and we just bought a new to us washer and dryer for a good price.

Our Living Room - That's the front door, our couches and chairs are to the right, that big screen in the middle is for our projector. We have the piano next to the screen on the left, and our table at the bottom left of the picture.

This is our guest bedroom. Two single beds that we aquired in Iowa, it has two big closets off to the right, and a dresser, and a door leading into the bathroom.

The Master Bedroom. It is quite large, we have two nightstands next to our bed. Two dressers, our entertainment center, and a large closet that is off to the right.

Maya is enjoying our new place. She is getting lots of love, and special visits on our couches and chairs.

She likes to be close to us all the time. Either playing with us, or crashing on the floor next to us. Yesterday I was playing with her and she bashed her head into my lip. It didn't bleed, but sure hurt me way worse than her.

Come and Visit! We will show you a moose!

Facial Hair

I'm growing a beard.

I read a story about a guy who just started running and he said, "Anything that is this hard should make you grow hair."

I thought it was pretty funny, and true at the same time. So far my beard is not as manly as I would like it to be, but maybe if I keep running it will grow in thicker.

Our next race is Nov. 22nd it's a 10k in Smithfield, UT. Hopefully the weather is decent.

That's all I have for now.

Nov. 5th - Not quite as much recognition as Nov. 4th

Isn't it great to know that I got up this morning the exact same way that I always get up?

Now that question might sound weird to you at the moment, but let me explain. With all the hoopla yesterday and who is going to be the next person to "lead our country", some people might get so caught up in it that they lose sight of the big picture.

What is the big picture you ask?

It's that I woke up this morning the same way I always get up. That all the stuff surrounding the election really hasn't changed anything. And you know the more important thing, that quite a few people have pointed out already is that God is still in control!

Where is our hope really? For me it's in God, not Obama. And it wouldn't have been in McCain either if he would have won. Jesus is my president, and when I look back on the past, God uses the people that are in power, no matter if they are hethen or if they are blessed by God.

So as we are coming closer to Thanksgiving I thank God that HE is still in control of our world, and that I woke up the exact same way today as I did yesterday.

We Are Moving!!! across town....

It has been a crazy past couple of days here in Kemmerer, WY. Well, at least for Audrey and I... We have been blessed with an apartment to live in! God is so good in taking care of us! It's three bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, porch, laundry room, and it's only 2 blocks from the church!

Monday I drove to Rock Springs to load up as much of our stuff as I could (thanks to a guy in our church who let me borrow his pickup and trailer).

I left Rock Springs at 6:00 p.m. arrived in Kemmerer at 8:00 p.m. and the Brewer's (THANK YOU) helped us unload everything and we were done in an hour.

Our official move in day is Saturday, and I will take some pics and have more info in the days to come.

Be praying that we can get everything done with the house, plus everything else in life! it seems a little crazy!!!

mi casa es su casa - COME VISIT US!

my first one in a while - this is for my grandma and grandpa!

hey guys,

here are some pictures of my new guitar! it has been so great to have, and

it has been a lot of fun learning how to play it.

the sound on it is great, and i can even plug it into a sound system.

thanks for helping me in getting it. i really appreciate it, and i will get good

enough soon to play a song for you. i'll have to make a video of it and send it

to you.

hope you enjoy the pictures!

love, jadon

Nothing Spectacular, Just Life

Last week was incredibly busy, and I bet that if I look back at all my blogs I will say that I have busy weeks a lot, but this one seemed super busy.

Tuesday we went to Salt Lake
Wednesday we had Church
Thursday we went to Rock Springs
Friday I subbed at the High School
Saturday we babysat
Sunday we woke up late for Church

And now it's Monday! I don't have anything incredible to write about. Maybe those are the times where you just start typing and then something incredible comes out of your ramblings. I'm not really sure, but I don't think anything wonderful has been typed yet.

It snowed here on Saturday. Blizzard like conditions, but it is already starting to warm back up which is nice, except for in my office right now. It is a little chilly. The sun never comes through my office window, which is too bad.

Elk season starts on Wednesday, hopefully I will be able to go out with somebody and enjoy watching them get to shoot an Elk. I am still considered out of state since I haven't lived here a year yet. Audrey's Dad and Bro-In-Law both have tags for the Kemmerer area so it will be fun to go out with them when they come up.

I'm not good enough on my guitar yet for any performances, but I think I will be soon. I am really enjoying practicing and learning.

How's that for some random thoughts on Columbus Day!

New Guitar

I got my new guitar tonight!

It's late and I'm tired, but wanted to let everyone know how sweet it is!

And the timing was totally God too because we showed up at the store
right before it was going to close, so he let me in and helped me out.

I even got a case for it, which is necessary so it stays nice for a really long time.

I will have pics and maybe a video when I get good.

And now I'm going to sleep because I sub at the high school tomorrow.

Jimmy Needham & Barlow Girl Concert

Last night, Audrey, Alyssa, and I went down to Salt Lake City to see Brooke Starret, Jimmy Needham, and Barlow Girl in concert. It has been a while since I have been to a concert so I was looking forward to going and hanging out, and hearing these good musicians. I have seen Jimmy Needham before at Barclay, and he lived up to his performance at BC last night. The new songs on his cd are really good, I especially like the one called "Hurricane".

Barlow Girl put on a good show, and they impressed me as well. I really liked how each band took out a time to share about their own faith, about how God has moved in their lives, and how they in turn can encourage others through those things, even the hard ones.

We got home right around midnight, which in college, was not late at all... but things have now changed. I was beat last night, and fell asleep pretty quickly.

All in all it was a great outing and a lot of fun.

New Guitar!!!

Thanks to my very generous and loving grandparents I am able to buy a new guitar! I went to Rock Springs and checked out a few at the "Pickin Palace". They are an authorized Fender dealer, and they had a few good choices to choose from.

I am going to look at them again on Thursday, but I'm pretty sure that I have found the one that I want.

I will learn some sweet songs and put them on here, but only when I sound good enough!

Maya is settling into Wyoming

We have been blessed by Pastor Larry. He gave us a 1996 Grand Marquis for free! I know awesome! So I had to get new tags for it, and I brought the others home. I was out in the back yard when all of a sudden, Maya came up out of nowhere and started gnawing on one. I thought it was hilarious, so we took pictures. I think she must like Wyoming if she is eating a Wyoming License Plate, or maybe half-retarded.

So here are some pictures of Maya eating metal. She's got some strong teeth too, because she was chewing through different parts of them.

woo hoo! finally made it!

it is finally here, the last day in september. somedays i thought that it would never come, and other days i just decided to act like it was october so i didn't have to blog. oops, my bad. i know that i missed a few days here and there, but some months only have 28 days so i figure i'm good.

and you would think that since this is my last blog of a blog every day i would have some profound new knowledge about life or the blogging world. sorry to burst your bubble, but i don't. blogging everyday is just like any other discipline. you just have to do it. even when it is the last thing you want to do, or you are really tired.

and i think that goes along with anything in life that is worth doing. sometimes you just have to do it. stick with it, endure whatever is going on, and one day you will be done with it, and you will have emerged changed. maybe not in some drastic way, but you will still be changed.

our relationship with God is like that, our relationships with others, things in our lives that we have to do, things that God calls us to do.

we must make it a discipline, something that we do no matter what happens. unless it's blogging then you can have exceptions.

see you in october.....

Mile 12 of the Blogs

I feel like I'm in mile 12 of a half-marathon of blogging. It's day 29 out of the 30 days of September. I'm so close to finishing this marathon of blogging, yet it still feels so far away.
But I guess I'll push on and make these last two blogs count.
I can't say today was incredibly eventful. Just another full day of life and ministry and all the little things that come up unexpectedly. Planning ahead is great and all, but real life never looks like the plan. Maybe that's more true of being a Pastor than of a 8 to 5 job. It was good day though. A few unplanned events, a guitar lesson, a game of battleship during supper, work at the church and now hopefully a good movie and a good nights sleep.
I'll write my finale blog tommorrow so be sure to catch it!

Until then .... Bye!

Pinedale Half - Marathon

Audrey and I ran in our first Wyoming half-marathon this last Saturday. We ran one in Mason City, IA last October. The race on Saturday was in Pinedale, WY. We had to leave Kemmerer, at 5:30 a.m. drove for 2 hours and ended up at the race start at 7:30 a.m. We picked up our packets, which at races you get all kinds of good free stuff. So we got a really nice long sleeve t-shirt, chapstick, sunscreen, a water bottle, and lots of other little goodies.

There were about 80 or 90 people signed up to do the half-marathon, and Audrey finished 6th out of the women and I finished 20th out of the men. She was 16th overall and I was 32nd overall. She finished with a time of 1 hour 53 minutes and 54 seconds, and I finished in 2 hours and 1 minute.

We split up at mile 8, and after mile 12 is what killed me. We hadn't trained too long for this race, and the farthest we went was 12 miles in training and i could tell. The race course was pretty hard as well, lots of hills, no food, and only water at intermitent stations.

I had my new shoes on and my insole moved up on the inside of my right foot at about mile 4 and half, and i got the hugest nastiest blister from running on it the rest of the way. they had a free barbeque for anyone there after the race. it was a good day, and i'm still sore today! Here are some pictures that Audrey's mom and dad took. We will be getting more later, and there should be more pics soon at www.pinedalehalfmarathon.com.

The home stretch. Coming towards the finish line!

I'm not really sure what I was looking at here, that's where the food was going to be served though.

After the race was over, stretching with Audrey and Rich.

This is coming back down a road that goes up above Fremont Lake, which we ran partly around. The trees are changing colors and it was georgeous.

bible instruction course

audrey and i started a bible instruction course tonight in rock springs with the e-free church there. it was a lot of fun, and we have a whole text book, with tests, syllabi, and the whole "college course" shebang.

i think it will be a really good thing, and we are learning more and more about God's Word, that is eternal and will last forever.

it's late, and i'm exhausted... so sorry for nothing really long. but the point is that i blogged today!

Remember My Toe Story?

as i said last night, i would try and deal with my blood blister thing/deal if it hadn't gotten any better by today. so i wore flip flops all day hoping that might make a difference. but it didn't. so this afternoon when i got home, i clipped my toenail and stuck a needle underneath it! and here is the final result of what happened!

it didn't even hurt!

and hopefully now i will be able to run the half-marathon on saturday pain free (well at least on that toe anyway).

september is coming to a close...

not sure if i said anything about it or not, because my memory isn't that great, but audrey and i ran 12 miles on sunday in preparation for our half-marathon that is coming up on saturday. just thought you'd like to know. and i have a huge blood blister thing/deal under my second toenail on my right foot. and maya chewed up my other running shoes, so i had to buy new ones when we were in provo for the football game. i think running the 12 miles in the new shoes had something to do with it. but i tell you all this as a precursor to the good part of this story. i got to play basketball tonight with a bunch of guys. they play every tuesday and thursday night at 8:00 p.m., and it was a blast. it totally felt like i was back in haviland playing pickup games. but my basketball shoes are packed away in who knows where, so i opted for wearing my new asics running shoes, which destroyed my second toe even worse. needless to say it is incredibly tender this evening, and if all is not well before saturday i'm going to have to get a hot needle and poke my way through my toenail to let out the blood.

i thought it was an interesting story....

Football Game

Audrey and I got to go watch UW play BYU this past Saturday down in Provo, UT. It was a blast, even though Wyoming got destroyed. The whole atmosphere of college football is a lot of fun. We sat in the Wyoming section so we weren't total outcasts. I bet the percentage of UW fans there was less than 10 percent. And on our way out, we saw the UW semi where they load all of the gear, so we took some pictures in front of it. People were looking at us like we were crazy, but it was fun.