Jury Duty

Last week, I had jury duty.
Click here for my thoughts posted on my other blog.

Gettin' Back on the Horse

In my high school, college, and single days, I rode my road bike - a lot. I was involved in competitive cycling - racing in a few races - riding with Mizzou's cycling team. But the time pressure of marriage, work, etc slowly ended my riding. Seminary absolutely killed it. Yet this year, I have resolved to get back on the bike - primarily for health reasons: physical and mental. I cleaned up my bike, put new tires on her, got some new gear, and today, on this most gorgeous day (78 degrees), I rode.
My body quickly remembered position, form, and spin. And then my body quickly remembered that I haven't done this in a loooong time. I didn't ride too far - didn't want to overdo it. But I know that I will be a hurtin' unit tomorrow. But I plan to stick with it.
Everyone: keep my accountable!

Vacation, Phase IV - The Journey Home

It's a long drive from Harrison, AR back home. So we started early. We got up at six and were on the road by seven. Harrison is situated deep in the Ozark Mountains. So we spent almost three hours getting down out of the mountains. On top of that, their was thick fog cover that morning that made the going even tougher. We Texan flatlanders don't do to well in the mountains, so we were glad to be finished with them. It seemed to take a long time to get to Texarkana. But then we had to get all the way down to Houston. Texas is a huge state! You just have no idea until you get here. The girls were tired and cranky and everyone was just ready to get home. We finally arrived about 7:15 pm. Back home - back to the humidity we love and crave (when you don't have humidty anymore while you are travelling, especially in the winter, you miss it. You have to live here to understand.) - back to our cats and dogs - back to our beds. It was good to go on vacation and see everyone. But it is great to get back home.

Vacation, Phase III

The trip to from St. Louis back home to Friendswood, TX is too long to drive in one day. Fortunately, Mike Ada, a fellow brother pastor and classmate of mine, lives in a town called Harrison, AR - about 30 minutes south of Branson, MO. On the 2nd, we left St. Louis early and arrived around lunch. We had a great time catching up with, as Emma calls them, "Our far away friends." The Ada's have a girl about a year older than ours and a girl about a year and half younger. So our girls just jumped right into play with them. The last time we saw them, Chris was pregnant with their son. So this visit, we got to see Joel for the first time. And he is all boy! We talked for hours, and had a great dinner with them. After we put the girls to bed, we talked for a few hours more, then we went to bed. We had to get up early the next morning to complete the final phase of our vacation.

Vacation, Phase II

Early on the morning of December 30th, (yeah, I'm behind on the blog) we journeyed from Jackson, TN to Kirkwood, MO - the suburb of St. Louis my parents call home and where I was born and raised. We arrived around noon and ate a big meal with my parents and my sister, her husband, and their two boys who were in town from Charlotte, NC. We had not seen Nancy and her family for over two years, so this was a rare (and short) treat. We opened gifts, and then spent the afternoon together. Nancy and I coordinated our gifts. We got Mom a digital camera and Dad a turntable that he can plug into his computer in order to make mp3's of his old vinyl collection. That evening, we went to have family pictures taken (notice a trend here?). After the photo session, the Pezolds left for Belleville, IL on the other side of the river where EJ's sister lives. They spent the night there and headed off to NC the next morning. On the 31st, I went with Mom and Dad to purchase a new flatscreen TV and a dvd player that will upscale dvd's to near HD quality. I spend the rest of the afternoon installing their new equipment. We attended church with my parents for New Year's Eve. Then they went off to a party and Sheri, the girls, and I went back to the house. Isn't that just backwards! But, that's the way it is when you have kids. So, during this trip, we brought my parents into the 21st century. We left to begin our trip home on the 2nd.

Vacation, Phase I

Christmas Eve and Day are intense for a pastor. At Hope, we had three services to conduct on Christmas Eve (ending about 1 a.m.) and another service on Christmas Morning. I preached for half of them. So, it is time for some R & R. We decided awhile back to go see family after Christmas. It had been over two years since we've been to Tennessee (Sheri's family) and St. Louis, MO (My family).
Phase I of vacation began on the 26th as we made the long journey to Jackson, TN (the longest leg of our trip). We left at 4 a.m. (ugh) and arrive a little after 5:00 p.m. The girls traveled better than expected. While in Jackson, we had a Christmas celebration with all of Sheri's family. We also had photos of the whole family taken. In addition, we worshipped at Concordia Lutheran, the congregation that helped support me while in the Seminary. We visited other friends in the area and then journeyed to St. Louis the morning of the 30th. A good visit long time coming.