Time for Pictures Only

My good friend Adam and I at my B-day party in Haviland

Audrey and I on our first plane ride of the trip.

Sunset over Salt Lake City.


And last but certainly not least is my nasty swollen ankle. It looked like a tumor.

my weak ankles

Well, i sprained my ankle on tuesday of last week, and it is now monday. it is still swollen, bruised and looks like a club foot. somebody told me that it looked like i stepped in paint. probably didn't help the situation that i subbed at the h.s. all day on friday, and then traveled and flew all day on saturday to kansas.

i'm supposed to be training for a marathon, but haven't even been remotely close to running since my ankle decided to snap and revolt against my body. it's probably like, "I hate running, so i'm just going to injure myself so you can't do it anymore." well, too bad for my ankle that i'm going to start again here soon.

i have pictures, i will put them up later.

This Past Weekend

This past Sunday was a busy one, for quite a few people as it turned out. We had Church on Sunday morning, which I preached at. Then at 3:00 p.m. we had an Installation Service for me as the Pastor of Valley E-Free Church. Audrey's parents came up and Rich did the message. Heather & Kevin led us in worship during the Installation Service, and quite a few people from the Rock Springs Church came up in support of our Church.

It was a good service, but also very tiring with everything else that already happened that day. Oh did I mention that I got up early on Saturday morning to finish my sermon, ran 8 miles Saturday afternoon, and then worked at the Teen Center till Midnight on Saturday?

Sunday evening we got to enjoy supper with Audrey's parents and Heather and Kevin and their family. It was a nice evening to a long day. Rich & Jinny wanted to give everyone a "living" Christmas present this year, so on Monday we drove up to Pinedale to go down hill skiing.

We arrived in Pinedale at the Ski Rental Shop only to find out that the Ski Slopes were now closed on Monday & Tuesdays. So we decided to go Cross Country Skiing instead. But to get up to where the trails are, you have to drive quite a little ways up a forest service road that isn't really that well taken care of. Needless to say, with a rear-wheel drive car, things don't always turn out how you had them planned. We got stuck.

Luckily a man with a tow rope drove by within about 2 minutes and he helped pull us out. Except that I had to drive backwards down the road back into town where we jumped in with Rich & Jinny so we could make it up the mountain.

Finally we got to ski. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was gourgeous. Sunshine, and where we were back in the trees there was no wind. Here are some pictures from the afternoon of skiing.

My only snow gear. Hunting gear. That way other skiiers couldn't see me coming.

Audrey gearing up before we started.

Rich & Jinny on the trail. Thanks for the great day!

Taking a little break at the top of a hill.

Audrey and Jinny racing! Not really, but it would have been funny!

My first drug test

Since I am a director at the Teen Center here in Kemmerer, I was required to have a drug test to make sure I didn't have any illegal substances in my body. This was a first for me, and it happened this morning. Kind of an awkward situation if you've never done it before.

I had to empty all of my pockets, wash my hands, not flush the toilet, and I had to get enough pee pee in this little cup so they could test it for drugs. All the while there was a lady standing outside the door waiting on the cup.

Needless to say, I'm glad it's over. And the only thing that I had to drink this morning was coffee, so hopefully they don't flag me for that one!

New Year

Here's goodbye to 2008, a good year in my books.

And hello to 2009, hopefully better than 2008!

And my first blog of the new year.

A record for the books!

We had a great new year's eve party here at the Church. Lots of fun with friends, games, food, legos, and more. We didn't quite make it all the way to midnight, but hey we tried. I think I made it home right at midnight.

Happy New Year!

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!