So I've been chastised for not posting much lately; sincerest apologies, I figured a break from my usual tirades might be rather nice for all. And let's just say that life has been a little crazy...

We did have some excitement last night and into this morning. Dallas + ice storm + wind chill of 9 degrees when I woke up = a good day. All the schools in the metroplex were closed, as well as several sections of highway due to 'smart' drivers in their little Mini Coopers. Eh, what can you expect from the city slickers? Kathleen and I stayed high and dry in the apartment for the morning, sustaining ourselves on Mom's homemade hot chocolate, listening to potential wedding music, and rejoicing in a day off work. It was fantastic. And then my phone starting going crazy and the atmosphere turned into Grand Central Station. By 12:30, I found myself making my way to Irving and that little studio I like to call 'paradise'. Such would be the luck. But it was nice while it lasted. Brought back the rare times of true snow days back home and the elation over being snowed in.

Anyway, in other news... DonMark and I are officially registered for the Cowtown. As long as neither of us gets injured in the next 4.5 weeks and Emme doesn't decide to arrive early, we're taking on Fort Worth. DonMark will complete marathon #1(!!!), and I'll hopefully redeem myself in round #3. We'll both be glad when it's over!

I'm also growing a forest. Well, a small one. Spruce trees to be exact. Here's what they look like now. They are growing so fast that soon they will surpass my own amazon height. Except that Harrison keeps digging them up. I caught him this morning and got really mad. But I replanted. And watered. And I have every confidence they will survive the trauma.

Check out these two articles from the Christian Chronicle, as well as the comments on the right hand side. Unbelievable...

Church in America Marked by Decline

Churches Removed from Directory

So all I saw of the inauguration this week was Obama's address, but I did run across an interesting side story. These are pictures of a lego replica made by Gary McIntire - Google his name and you can see a lot of other stuff he's done - representing the layout of the inauguration and utilizing over 1,000 lego people. (I'm a bit jealous that I don't get to play with legos for a living...) Way cool.

What a week... That's about all I got right now. I have been intending to post my bucket list, so in lieu of my usual rambling, here it is. Let me know if you'd like to help me cross something off the list or if I've mentioned something wild and crazy to you that I've failed to put down. The list is forever growing...

(Oh, and there's sorta two; I decided to make a separate account of places I'd like to visit.)

*Go scuba diving
*Become fluent in Spanish
*Tour the Louvre
*Learn to play the guitar
*Ride in a hot air balloon
*Take a cruise
*Ride a tandem bicycle
*Ski in the Alps
*Go to an orchestra/symphony concert
*Run the Boston or NY Marathon
*Sell original photographs
*Go ice skating in Rockefeller Center
*Own a dog, probably a Golden Retriever
*Fly an airplane
*Photograph the Sagrada Familia
*Sail on a sailboat
*Own a telescope
*See Phantom of the Opera
*Climb Long's Peak

And places to go?
*New Zealand
*Disney World
*Kenya
*Denali
*coast of Maine
*D.C.
*Italy (Rome & Venice)

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions. Those go on the overrated list. I mean, why only dedicate one day a year to 'resolve' to improve or change or fill-in-the-blank. Why not do that every day of the year? And why not take action instead of resolving to take action? I don't get it. However, I did do some thinking the other day. I've decided that my best reflection times are those when I can get away from everything by myself, not be in a hurry to be back and on to the next thing on the schedule, just take time to stop and breathe, no distractions apart from my own thoughts.

Go figure.

So anyway, I went exploring and found this great park up in Plano with 6+ miles of trail and took off to put in my 8 miles. It was nice, really nice. (Insert cool article here.)

Even found a really great spot to sit and chill for a bit afterwards til the wind drove me back to the car. And I was thinking about some things that have happened over the last year... and wow. I really feel like my heart's been in a battle over the last 12 months or so. The kind of battle where you're pulled in countless directions that you never saw coming and are left feeling completely hung out to dry. Know those? Don't get me wrong, those aren't always bad; I know that learning much about life and human nature, as well as about myself, have accompanied those struggles. But I think maybe my heart just needs some refocusing, some fine-tuning, if you will, some rest. And in typing this out, I was reminded of the following song. I think this is what I'm trying to say. (Oh, and it'd be nice to 'resolve' some of those hung-out-to-dry situations too...)

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me ever to adore thee,
never leave the God I love.
Til the hope of endless glory,
fills my heart with joy and love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.