The Last Two Weeks

Last week was an excellent week. I got a raise, a promotion, found out that my church is going to look into bringing my favorite Christian rock band to Des Moines, and spent some great time with my kids.

I've been at this job for over a year and got the promotion to Technical Specialist II. It came with a raise and some praise from my supervisor. That always makes a guy feel good.

The very same day, I got a message from my preacher that he would like me to get the information together on Petra's last tour. He would love to have our church associated with bringing Petra to Des Moines. This could be huge! I've gotten most all of the information together and we are going to present it to the elders next Wednesday night. I am a pretty good salesperson, but this will be the best thing I've ever sold, if it goes through. I'm already envisioning this entire event.

Last weekend was such a blast with my kids. We went to Adventureland as part of Wells Fargo Day on Saturday and saw the iCubs for free on Sunday.

At Adventureland we went on some mild to slightly wild rides. The craziest being one called The Mixer. This thing goes upside down and spins. Brittany went on it with me. I had tried to convince her all day and she finally relented. It was awesome, but she swore she'd never go again. During the day we went on the TeaCups, the Star Fling, Bumper Cars, the Log Flume, and the girls went on several together. We went to the circus and they had fun there, too. It was muggy and slightly cloudy so there wasn't much sun to be had. It wsa such a refreshing day to just walk around, ride on some fun rides together, and just laugh a good part of the day with my children. Derek went along to help out and the girls had a great time with him, too. Derek and I have a similar sense of humor and he's great with the kids. It was just a great time.

On Sunday we went to see the iCubs with tickets I had won at my church on Father's Day. We sat right by the Omaha Royals bullpen and the girls thought it was pretty cool sitting right near the players. They actually enjoyed the whole game. It was quite sunny that day and I got a nice burn. Paige caught a T-Shirt that turned out to be a Post Office shirt instead of the iCubs, but she was glad she got something that was tossed into the stands. Brittany took her glove just in case there was a foul in our direction, but she ended up sitting on it to protect her from the heat of the seat. We watched and visited and I tried to point out some things I thought they might find interesting. The iCubs got stomped 9-4. There were 3 homers in the game that they thought were pretty cool to see.

It was such a fantastic week. I hope to have many more like that!

This week has been pretty good, too, but not in the same way. My softball games got rained out on Monday, but many of us rode in a van together and that was a great time to visit with everyone. We went for some Dairy Queen since we couldn't play ball. We did have a practice last night that went well for those that were able to show up. On Tuesday, my married girlfriend :) (Anne), thought she'd take pity on this old man and get me out for some exercise. She is quite the runner and since I can't run we walk around Gray's Lake in Des Moines. It's about 3 miles around it and we do two laps. We did this on Tuesday, Wednesday, and plan to go this evening. It's been hard on the legs, but at least I'm getting a workout. I hope to build up to a jog. I did jog about 1/4 mile the first night, but had to nix that idea on night two. The knees are getting to feel like they must belong to my dad. It's good exercise and good conversation. With 6 miles of walking, you gotta talk to make the pain seem less. I'm sure Anne isn't breaking a sweat, though, as she has been able to jog up to 8 miles a day. I think she just walks with me and then goes home and gets a real workout with her running.

Oh, and I got more pictures from Waterstock! Steph is a real sweetheart, but I'm sure she'd be mad for me saying that. She was kind enough to send the pictures and my program from Waterstock to Anne with something she needed to get to Anne. Most people would just wait until the next time they see them to get stuff to them, but Steph mailed these things out. Ain't she sweet? I'm sure she is rolling her eyes as she reads this and hoping it doesn't ruin her reputation! :) I will post the pictures this weekend. She got some great shots!

Well another month, another party. Not sure how big tonight's will be, but we've had over 100 each of the last 3 and a contest each time. It's been great and the revellers are making less and less mess outside the house each time. I may post some details on the festivities this weekend as well.