So as we all know this last weekend was Luke 18. Which means a lot of work. And just like in the past it did not disappoint in all of the busy work.  A lot of work went into planning it and a lot of work went into the weekend so I just wanted to say thank you to all of those who worked on it; it was a great success.

Now for the purpose of this blog. Saturday night I came back from work to see all of you guys in adoration, and Timmy walking out of the can. He and I decided to go check on the set up for the “God’s Love” talk and the warm fuzzies that followed.

During Bob’s talk, I was talking to the Cori Team about what was gonna happen and what to do. And Ross said something to me that just shook me deeply. After I was done telling them what to do, he asked me if he could go down to the church because he didn’t get much time during adoration and he “just wanted his Jesus time.”  For him to say something like that just knocked me down. I think that Luke 18 is really for all of us; while, yes, it’s meant to be for 7th and 8th graders, it should also be used for the high school kids as well.  I don’t think that we use it as that.  So to hear this from Ross made me think that maybe there is hope that you guys do take something out of it, other than being tired.

Personally this weekend was a learning experence, and it was a chance for me to rebuild friendships that have lost some of their flame and I made some great new ones. I have deeply missed seeing all of you on a weekly basis, so hopefully that will change during the summer.

Comments(0)

Oh goodness it’s already here. Where did the year go? It just seemed like it was Lent yesterday, which it was but let’s not go there.

With Lent comes the added bonus of giving up/ doing something more. And to me that’s the hardest thing. I can never pick what I’m going to do. So this year I started thinking early, I thought about giving up texting, or facebook, which would be really hard for me but I decided that I would end up cheating so that would not be good.

I wanted to pick something that really hit home with me, the verdict was to pray more than usual and to eat better. I hope that I can stick with my plan and I hope that all of you can stick with yours. Feel free to keep me in line and ask me how I’m doing, it will be appreciated.

Comments(0)

Yesterday, I was given the privilege of attending “How to Catch a Polar Bear.” Sounds like something I shouldn’t need permission to attend. Sounds like something that not many people would want to attend, in fact. Catching a Polar Bear, but in fact it’s a clever title for a Life Night. It was a trip down to Forest Park’s Steinberg Rink. It was such an amazing time. I had not been since last years Life Night. But this time was different. Last year I think I was too concerned about showing off to everyone that I knew how to ice skate. Rather dumb of me I know but all the same….. This year I was determined to make a difference in myself.

Deeds said something along the lines of this once: If we could go back and meet the 5th grade version of ourselves they would kick our butts. I think this hold true for myself. When I was in the 5th grade my life goal was simple. Make it to the NHL. That was it, plain and simple, and I even knew what I had to do to make that goal, live, eat, breath hockey. Now there is some need of natural ability, and depending on who you asked, I had some of it. In my mind I was good, I played my positions well, I even played on older leagues to help better myself. I can remember one weekend our rinks “clubs,” being the 4 levels of teams based on age, were in a tourney. I can remember my parents arguing about how I should play, my mom was worried I would work myself too hard, because my age team would play one game, then I would play with my brothers team right after. It was like that all day. They let me choose and I decided to play in 8 hockey games in 10 hours. It was amazing.

But somewhere along the line between then and now, I lost my first real love. I loved playing hockey. I stopped playing in 8th grade because basketball was the cool thing to do. Looking back it prob was one of the biggest mistakes in my life. I’m tall, that gave me the advantage in basketball. But I’m horrible at offense. But I didn’t care because the kids stopped giving me crap for playing hockey.  I decided to leave the game I loved, to be cool. Until yesterday.

Yesterday when I stepped on that ice and started skating all that was in going through my mind was how much I missed playing, skating around in circles, old memories passed through my head of accomplishments and goals, saves and just the happiness all came back to me…

I am not one to make new year goals. But I yesterday I decided on what mine would be. My goal is to play ice hockey again this year, or at least work toward that goal. That means losing a lot of weight, working on skating, stick work, shooting…the works.  I want you all to keep me in check on this goal. It’s one thing how hard can it be? I do not want to fail.

Comments(0)

What the heck, Coach? It seems like just week ago I was outside and it was in the 70s and now it’s snowing as I look out my window… That’s just not right that the holiday season can creep up on me like that… But in all honesty, I didn’t really feel like I was in the “Christmas” mood ’til this past Friday. (No I did not wake up at 3:30 A.M. to get great deals on presents.) Let me explain what went on…..

I woke up at the crack of 8 A.M. It was nice to wake up to a little brother asking if I would let him play guitar hero.  I ended up going to breakfast with my parents. I went to work, so far nothing special. At work my friend Matt and I were talking about the Christmas season and how people don’t take it like they should. In our opinions, everyone is too worried about this or that, not on what is really important: spending time with your family. I say family and not family and friends because, for me, I spend way too much time with my friends. I see at least one of them every day and that is bound to get worse over the holiday season. Is that bad? No, I don’t think that it is. But I think that if I spend too much time with them and not with my family it could be. Christmas should be about spending time with loved ones, which is not just your friends.

But I still didn’t feel like I was in that “Christmas mood” that so many people claim to be in. Like at breakfast we went to Bob Evans. There was this group of moms with their Santa hats on. They claimed to be in that “Christmas mood” that I was trying to find.

(To get sidetracked for a couple of seconds, Christmas is my favorite season of all. To me nothing is better than Christmas. But I hope I have good reasons for it. I love Christmas for the music and the snow and the ability to drink hot chocolate and not look stupid because its 30° outside and not 70°. I love Christmas because it brings the two memories of my late grandfather that I have. It brings back memories of going sledding when I was 5 on the biggest hill EVER (turns out that hill is like 20 feet tall).)

Now back to the moms. These people who claimed to be in the “Christmas mood” were the reason that I also hate Christmas. They were complaining about how they woke up at 3:30, had been shopping, were tired and hungry, and were upset that they had to wait all of 7 minutes to get seated at Bob Evans. Is that really the Christmas mood? They were in such a rush to get things bought and all this that they passed up all the fun..

Comments(0)

So in the past couple of months I have been thinking a lot. Shocker I know. But my thoughts have been all over the place about random things. But one thing I’ve noticed is that when I am in Seat 15, Row L, Section 308, All my thoughts seem to come together.

For those of you who don’t know I am a season ticket holder for the St. Louis Blues and that is “my seat.” It also seems to be the place where I clear my head of all my thoughts. No matter what is on my mind, no matter how long I have been thinking about something, when my butt hits that seat, I just find answers to things. I come up with a lot of solutions to problems that I am having or I just can sit back and be at peace when I’m there.  It’s so cool to have a spot where I can just sit and find answers to anything that is troubling me at that time. So last game I was trying to figure out what I was going to blog about and this came to mind. AMAZING

But here’s the thing. I thought about well is it the seat that I am at, or is it that when I am at Blues games I feel at peace with the world? It’s a weird thing to think about, I guess, but I have come to the conclusion that it’s the fact that I am watching something that I just love. I think that there is more than just this one “spot” that I can think at but right now it’s there.

So now I am curious about where you all feel you think the best at? Is it when you’re in bed right before you sleep? Maybe it’s when your driving or just listening to music. Let me know, I’m interested.

Comments(2)