We Made It!

It was exhausting! I couldn't breathe. My knees hurt. The hills were not as small as I thought they would be and I had to carry a bike across a river that came up to my waist. It was a blast!

On August 19, my sister and I participated in the Muddy Buddy Competition. Note I did not say that we "competed". Let's get real. We didn't have a chance in the world of placing. We were there to do...and we did. For those of you who do not know what the Muddy Buddy is, it's a race involving teams of two people each. One person starts the race riding a bike and the other starts the race running. There are obstacles along the course and after you have completed said obstacle you switch to the opposite of whatever you started out doing. Tam and I had discussed this multiple times and decided (well, I said) that I was going to start off running. We changed my mind at the last minute and I'm so glad we did. Tam ended up doing most of the running.

After the first obstacle I was running along and kept looking for Tam. It took awhile for her to pass me (please understand that she had to carry the bike up a REALLY steep hill!) and when she did I asked how she was doing. She said she was ready for this to be over. She did wonderfully. Technically the person who finished the race on the bike should beat the person who is running. This did not happen. Tam finished the race running and ended up waiting on me. Sad, but true. The person to "finish" first has to stay in a waiting area and when their teammate gets there you have to run (or in our case walk) to the final obstacle...a 50 foot mud pit. This you have to low crawl through. Lovely! As tiring as it was, we can now say that we did it. Why? Because we could.

Takyra participated in the Mini Muddy Buddy and came in third place in her age group. She's a quick little bugger!

Yes. I am still alive.

Just in case you were wondering. Life is still ho-hum. I have decided, though, that if you could make any money being a car singer, I would be rich by now. Yes, that was very random, but there you go. I am a car singer. I am that idiot you see in your rear view mirror just wailing away. In fact, I've noticed people staring at me from their rear view mirror. And the girl who hates attention just does not care. I noticed someone else singing in car the other day and thought, "You go girl!" She didn't make eye contact or I would have smiled or waved or something. I've noticed that most car singers don't make eye contact with those around them. Yes, we know we look like goobers. No, we don't want to know that you think so. My latest choice of music is church performance tracks. They're just fun. Except when it gets to the high notes. I know I probably scare people when I try to hit those. Anyway, that's the excitement in my life right now. Thrilling, I know. Hope you're having a good week.

Life Since October

Well, it's that time again. Time to write a new entry when I have nothing to say. Not much has happened since October. I've been to Dallas to see Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. That was pretty neat. Went to the top of Reunion Tower to the lounge to sit and view the Dallas skyline. Also very neat. Have discovered that I am worth the effort to very few people including my family and friends. Other than that, it's life as usual. Have a great day.

Tra la la

Once again, I don't have much to say, but felt I should probably write something. Okay, I'm done for now. I'm going to Tulsa tomorrow to visit the aquarium and just kick around. That should be fun. Okay, NOW I'm done.

Nothin' much

I don't have much to say this time, but figured it's been a while since I blogged. So, here I am. I got a new job. Yea me! I love it. I stay busy a good portion of the time so the days fly by. I also get to work OT and get paid for it. That's great too! The OT also helps since I have no social life. I've been too tired to worry about it.

Well, that's about all the excitement in my life right now. Will blog more later.

"Christians"

I know I probably shouldn't rant about this considering who might read it, but it's my blog. I can write what I want. Some things that have been really irritating me lately are the things I and the people around me do/say while covering ourselves with the title of "Christian". Let me preface my rant by saying that I am one of the most judgemental people I know. Having said that, I feel no guilt whatsoever in making comments about others who are like me.

This Sunday will be the last Sunday at our church for our music minister. He and his wife and daughter are great. When he came in view of a call to our church, he did not hide the fact that he would be incorporating praise music into the repertoire along with the tried and true hymns. The search committee knew this. This was NOT news. But, any idea what the first thing complained about was? Yup. You guessed it. Other people had other complaints and made sure that he heard them. Apparently, when he signed on, he didn't get the memo that he was the official complaint department. Who knew?

Did I agree with everything he did while at our church? NOOO! But, did I stop and think whether or not my opinion would hurt him and possibly others? I sure did. Did I consider the fact that my complaint would do more harm than good? Yup. Did everyone else do the same? That would be a big, resounding NOPE!!!! Several people who made their complaints have the subtlety of a bear with a pine cone up it's behind. And now we've lost a very good man. A man who has made several people (including myself) understand that God truly did mean "Make a joyful noise". He will be missed.

I said all of this to say that many of the Christians I know, including myself, are horrible to the very people to whom we should be gracious. I'm not sure if that's the right word or not, but there you go. A couple came forward in church this past Sunday to dedicate their granddaughter. They were dressed in jeans and T-shirts and didn't seem very clean and I judged them on sight. The second I did, I took a step back (no, not literally) and realized what I'd done. What right do I have to decide that what they look like is not good enough for the hallowed halls of MY church? How horribly conceited was I in that moment? I hate that I'm like that, but I also hate that many people in the church are the same. I'm glad that God caught me at that particular moment and stopped my horrible thoughts. What courage it had to have taken for that couple to have stepped up in front of our congregation to offer their grandchild in to the hands of the Lord. It's not as easy as one might think.

And the arrogance is incredible! It's stopped being about God and started being about "me". That "me" was figurative. I've never thought much of myself so I don't think arrogance fits in my case. If you're going to get up in front of a church and preach or sing you'd better be doing it for God's glory and not your own because people can tell the difference. If you go to my church and are reading this, watch Robin the next time she gets up to sing. Watch Lori, Cari, Lynn, Barbara. Yes, these women are all confident in themselves, but at the same time, you can tell that they mean what they're singing. I know that Lynn is my aunt and I may be a tad biased, but I can't help being blessed when she sings. There's no way around it. She lives what she preaches/sings. It's evident in her love for and generosity toward others. Arrogance would never be a word used to describe her. My point being....it is possible to be a Christian without judging others or putting ourselves above them. Sure, you can see the differences, but see them only as that. Not as shortcomings. I'll work on it if you will. No, I won't. I'll work on it anyway.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Yes, the family went to Disney World last week. Me, my parents, my sister and my niece. We left early on a Saturday morning and came back in the evening on the next Saturday. We had to stand in several long LOOOOOOOONG lines, but it was well worth it. If you are a resort guest at Disney World you get to enjoy extra time in the parks. We didn't take advantage of that until our last night. My niece, my sister and I played in the Magic Kingdom until after 2:15 a.m. It was a blast! The only line we really had to wait for any amount of time in was Space Mountain, but my niece really wanted to ride it again so we were cool with that.

We went to Animal Kingdom, EPCOT ("Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" for those of you who were wondering), Typhoon Lagoon, MGM Studios, Downtown Disney and the Magic Kingdom. Dad made the mistake of assuming that we would be through EPCOT early in the afternoon and then we'd be able to go on to another park. WRONG! We loved it! Mission: Space was awesome. I only got to ride it once, but three of our party got to go twice.

The light shows were amazing!!! Especially "Fantasmic" at MGM Studios. Just a warning, if you do go to see this show, get there early (1 1/2 - 2 hours ahead of time) and don't sit in the first few rows. You'll get wet and if it's a chilly evening....cold. But, once again, well worth the wait. We also saw the EPCOT light show "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth". Many fireworks and a hugantic globe with different pictures popping up throughout the show. This show is great if you're not an 8-year-old who doesn't like loud noises. She kept her ears plugged and enjoyed the show anyway. And finally, we saw the Magic Kingdom light show "Wishes Nighttime Spectacular". Another warning. If you want to enjoy this show, do NOT sit close to the castle. We missed most of the fireworks because we thought we had good seats. Oh well. We went back the next night and got to enjoy the entire show.

As far as shopping goes, there was Downtown Disney. It had the biggest Disney Store I've ever seen. I think there are 12 different rooms in it. My niece was in Disney heaven. Downtown Disney also had a Ghirardelli "store". We got ice cream. It was yummilicious! DD has a Christmas store, a Pooh store, a toy store (of course), a Lego store, restaurants (including McDonald's) and a giant Lego monster in the pond. How cool is that?

I could go on and on about all the cool things there are to do at Disney World, but I won't. This blog would go on forever and ever. We had a good time, we ate like little piglets and we walked our feet off. Who could ask for more?