Elliptical

Last night it dawned on me that I haven't been exercising as regularly as I should for the past few weeks. I got out of the habit earlier this month when I attended a week-long conference. Since then, we have hosted company at our home and a large retreat at PMBC over Memorial Day weekend. In the midst of being busy, I have fallen out of my routine.

This morning, I lifted weights, spent 30 minutes on the elliptical and then used the Total Gym. I want to continue this pattern and spend at least four mornings a week following this routine.

I'm hoping that the warmer weather and the schedule that I have to keep during the Summer months will allow me to lose the rest of the excess weight that I haven't been able to shed.

Wavorly - "Part One"

I really enjoy this song and thought I would share it with you.

Markers

Several days ago, Andrea told me that she was asked to substitute teach the 2nd grade class at the Geneva School today. That meant that I would need to watch three of our four children for the day. "No problem," I thought. "This will be fun."

The day started off nicely. The kids had Apple Jacks for breakfast. Then they played for a little while. They cleaned their bedrooms and the toy room before we sat down and had lunch together.

After lunch, I put Julia in the stroller and took her for a walk, with the boys riding behind me on their bikes. The weather couldn't be more perfect. Upper 70's with a slight breeze.

After our walk, we played catch with a football for a little while. Then we came inside and waited for Andrea and Hannah to come home.

About five minutes before Andrea came home, I got a call on my cell phone. My reception in the house wasn't so good, so I stepped outside the back door for a few minutes. As I was finishing my call, Andrea pulled up to the house and the rest of the kids walked into the doorway - trying to get my attention. Apparently, while I was on the phone, Julia decided to color her arms with a blue marker and OF COURSE she had to do that two minutes before my wife came home.

Part of me is convinced that Andrea had this pre-arranged with the kids just to make me look bad. She wants me to be 100% certain that this place will fall apart if she's gone for more than half a day. I'm pretty sure the conversation went something like this:

Andrea: "Dad is going to try to make today a nice day for you. Please feel free to work against him. If everything is going well and you can't easily mess things up, make sure you give this blue marker to your sister just before 4:00. She will know what to do."

Kids: "Yes mother. We fear your wrath so we will obey."

You know and I know that this is EXACTLY what took place.

Birdie

Picture of ball before I took my second shot

Every year around this time, when Spring has been around for a few full weeks, I get the itch to get back on the golf course. If a good golfer watched me play, they would find a lot to critique, but now and then, I have a true moment of glory.

Today was the first chance I had to play golf this season. I was golfing with Tyler, a friend of mine. Both of us would admit that we were a little rusty seeing as neither of us had golfed since last August. I didn't do too well on the first two holes, but things changed on hole three.

The third hole is a par 3, 180 yard hole that has a slight dog-leg to the right. As I stepped up to tee off, I said to the ball, "Come on Pinnacle, do something good." Then I raised my club and swung. The ball flew high and far and curved toward the right just as it was approaching the green. It was almost as if there was a magnet in the flag that was drawing my ball in.

I couldn't see where the ball landed, but both Tyler and I knew it had to be close to the green. When we got a little closer, we could see that it had landed on the very edge of the green and I would have a chance to putt it in for a "birdie."

I wanted to sink that putt so bad. I drew a line in my mind between the ball and the cup and gently putted the ball. The ball only had about six feet to travel and it rolled nice and straight before falling slowly into the cup. It was a great moment. I even asked Tyler to sign our score card to attest to the fact that there was at least one time in my life when I sank a birdie putt.