I headed to Fargo to visit my friend Chad. I didn’t get there quite as soon as I would have liked but I was pretty much right on time for supper. We enjoyed some good sausage & rice. I have to say that I never have a bad meal when visiting Chad. He’s a hunter so there is always a good supply of venison meat at his place. After we ate we prepared to work on his fireplace. He’s doing all the work of the stone facing on the fireplace himself. It had come along quite nicely since the last time I saw it. We didn’t get a lot done in comparison to the rest but when you are actually working on it you realize how much time something like that takes. Chad figured that we finished twice what he would normally get done in one night. I was happy I could come up and help. BTW, not sure I mentioned that his wife was out of town so I figured it was a good time to help him out and keep him company.

I got going back home a bit after 8 and enjoyed a wonderful car ride home talking to the woman of my life. It’s amazing how fast a trip can go when you have someone wonderful to talk to. I love being able to share how our days went and be able to laugh together. For those of you that didn’t know I’ll be heading out to MI in little more than a week. I can’t wait to get out there to spend some time with Vanessa again. I’ll be enjoying the opportunity of getting to meet her family and friends out there too!

Well, I’ll be calling it a night. Until the next post. Valete!

Well, the weekend was mostly used to work on projects, what’s new, but they’re getting all done and out of the way. Actually, I had a good lunch with Ben, and Anders helped me out with some video stuff during the afternoon. So it feels nice to be spending time with people again. Well, the bed is calling me, and I need some sleep if I ever hope to get up in the morning. Ended up staying up cause I was waiting for my Dad’s phone call, oh well. Nite!

Youth praise team practice went really well tonight. I think I’ve got a plan that is going to work to do music in the fellowship hall, we’ll see. We’ll be taking a break next week, then have a practice of Christmas music to lead for the Christmas party.

Chad, called me today. I felt bad that I was right at the beginning of the Bible study and couldn’t really talk. Then there’s youth group tomorrow, game night on Thursday, and head down to Le Sueur for the Cantata on Friday for the weekend. It never fails, Decemeber is always the busy month. The most important thing I want to be getting done before Christmas is Chad & Laura’s wedding DVD.

I’ve kind of been surprise, and humbled, by the number of comments I’ve received on my writting. I guess when you are a social introvert by nature, yet a fairly creative individual that the thoughts in your head have to come out in some form. My form has been my blogging. I used to write a lot longer ago, like high school & elementary school. When the computer was put in my hands I kind of lost sight of the writting. I haven’t done much for writting since 10th grade when I completed a year of college writting & english. Even though I may not have the deepest vocabulary (thx Anders ) it would seem that my writing is fairly easy for people to read. Now the length of my posts isn’t perhaps the easiest to take in.

Well, once again my pillow is calling (as I listen to “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns). Valete!

The Good: Had a good time with my family and got to hang out with two of my best friends growing up. It’s interesting to see where we are all at now in life. John’s all married with a baby on the way. Sounds like they’ll be doing some moving around in the years to come. I really hope John’s finds the job he’s really looking for. Jeff is still as quirky as every. John & I agreed we could see him being one of those eccentric professors, this is probably where he’s headed. And then there’s me, you all know where I’m at. A new 15in PowerBook G4 arrives tomorrow! :-/

The Bad: My iBook is not going to be resurrected by me. The decision this morning, after a quick phone call, was to buy a new (actually refurb’d) PowerBook from Small Dog Electronics. Just what I always wanted more debt. I struggled with this decision for the past few days. I’ve got too many projects that need to be done that this seemed to be my only good choice. Some may ask why I’m not happy to be getting a new computer, spending money I don’t have is not something I like doing. Let’s hope I can get this things paid off soon. So I’ve been sick since yesterday. It took all I had to get through running the projection at church for both services. It wasn’t like I could call in sick on that as I was the last resort to finding someone for this weekend. I basically slept all day yesterday was up for an hour then went back to bed until like 8:30 this morning. Decided it was worth it to use a little sick time, I’ll never use it otherwise. Besides being sick yesterday, the weather was terrible, so no Settlers, grr.

The Ugly: How about this crappy weather. Could it be any nastier. I don’t mind fluffy snow, but not this hard freesing rain stuff. Give us some real winter snow.

Valete!

Our LifeShapes study was excellent as well. Today we went through the hexagon, which focuses on prayer, and using the Lord’s Prayer as the model. While it gace and guideline, it also showed the vast ways that guideline can be worked out in our prayer life. Something that has brought me more in tune to a better prayer life is being open to the Holy Spirit’s leading in prayer. It’s also given me what I needed to approach prayer in a different way then what everyone models as prayer. Tonight on my way back from Fargo I began to think of people in my life, things I had talked about with Chad & Laura, and things coming up this week. As I began to think about these things it prompted to pray about these also. I was a wonderful time alone with God just lifting people up in prayer, confessing things in my life, and thanking Him for everything He has done in my life. This was a wonderful way to spend that quite ride home.

Well this afternoon I got to Chad & Laura’s, before I left town Chad had called and said something came up so he wouldn’t be there right away when I got there, Laura was working on making some Mac & Cheese for lunch. While she worked on that it gave us a chance to catch up, I explained some of the things I had blogged about. They are pretty busy and don’t have much time to read my blog, this is just fine. I really need to give them a call more often, I fail miserably in this area. It’s been great how I’ve been able to be very open and honest with Laura. Her brother Carl & his girlfriend stopped by to use their computer. I had an opportunity to chat with him a little too. I most shared some of the wealth of computer knowledge with him. It was good though. Chad got home a bit later than he wanted. When he got home I worked with Laura on some things about their online store, while he watched his nieces & nephew. After that they started working on supper and we were also going over some things for their wedding DVD. They finally got me their photos. I hope I can get this done for them within the next couple of weeks. I also shared with Chad much of what I talked about with Laura earlier. Before I left I mentioned to them about perhaps coming down to my place some weekend in January. They really have been down for any extensive period of time. Chad & I go out for lunch when he’s in the area, but both of them have been to my place to really spend time and visit. This doesn’t bother me but it would be nice to treat them to some hospitality too.

When I got into town I drove straight to John & Caristy’s. John had called me earlier that day about playing a game of Settler’s with some other adults. I made it at a good time as I was the first one to arrive. The game took quite awhile, I didn’t do very well. They were all up for playing something more but I knew I needed to get home to finish some things and get to bed. I’ve actually got laundry in right now I’m sort of waiting for.

So that pretty much closes the weekend. I’m feeling pretty content with things. God has really been helping me to leave things in His hands. It’s seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this much peace and contentment. I’m so thankful for everything He is doing in my life right now. I know that rough times will come again in the future, and even uncertainty. I just pray that I can remember this time in my life and be thankful for God’s provision in my life. He’s been so gracious, despite my downfalls. Well, I hear the washer winding down I think. I’ll do one more check of my email and be heading of to bed soon. I’ll be spending a little time reading before I truely call it a night.

One final thing, I want to thank everyone that continues to be so supportive of me through everything. I know I’ve got a lot of people pray for me and my relationship concerns. I’ve been seeing God work in my life in this area, and molding me. I’m so blessed to have so many people in my life that care about me. I truely thank God for them. Good night!