LIfe on Purpose

This has been one of my life mottos for a long time. I'm really excited to share that the blog name, "life on purpose" has become available - and Amy and I are going to start blogging together there. So if you've got this one bookmarked, please change your bookmarks to the new address. We'll both be posting there from now on!

http://lifeonpurpose.blogspot.com/

Lactic Acid...

yeah - my legs are full of the stuff... we ran, and my body is reminding me that I did. I got up in the middle of the night because my cell phone battery was dying... of course I was groggy. It was 5am... it beeps every three minutes when the batter is dying...

SO - I just rolled out of bed and nearly collapsed as my legs screamed at me in pain. And then I stretched and realized I'd be okay.

I'm a bit stiff & I'm going to ice my knee again.

Did someone say 8 MILES?!

That's right, the miracle of love has brought me to a place I could have never imagined. Amy & I ran 8 miles tonight as we continue to train for the Indianapolis Mini marathon (13.1 miles total). It's in 3 weeks. And I'm supposed to try and get up to 10 miles at least prior to the race.

My goal of course, is not to win or really run crazy...it's to finish. I'm really excited to have completed 8 miles at this point. We'll see how I'm doing tomorrow.

Thank you God for Aleve...

The knee once again...

So I returned to the doctor to have my knee looked at. They initially thought it was cartilage or an irritation with my kneecap. Something like retropatellar pain syndrome. But with my lower level of activity in the past months and the 6 months of time... the doc thought to do an x-ray. So I had an x-ray on my knee.

While I was there, they did an x-ray on my chest for the tuberculosis film that I have to take with me to Russia for camp. And then they drew blood for the HIV test I have to have in order to get my Russian visa... yikes.

So, the x-ray didn't show anything. The doctor poked and prodded and decided to schedule me for an MRI on my knee. This will show if there are any tears in the ligaments of my knee. He's thinking that I might have stressed, stretched or torn part of my anterior meniscus.

Next week on Tuesday keep my knee in your prayers. I'm not sure what I want them to find... something wrong that can be fixed or just that I need to do physical therapy.

I really need to be able to run this race with Amy though - it's such an encouragement to her when we run.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Seriously? Yes, seriously. Today at 11am, I received a call on my cell phone from a computer. Our flight had been canceled to return from Colorado. The flight was grounded in Chicago due to a thunderstorm.

so I called to reschedule the flight and the following fiasco ensued:
- I was told I could reschedule for $100
- I was told we couldn't fly out until that evening, and then it would entail 4 flights to get home
- I was told that I couldn't speak with a supervisor, but that the agent would speak with support
- so I opted to go to the airport and talk to someone in person

I was frustrated, but trying to keep my cool.

at the airport:
- they were wonderful. so many flights were crazy because american airlines was grounded and they were taking up a LOT of slack
- people were being really mean to the agents
- our agent had supervisor authority and booked us on a new flight and upgraded us
- we decided to fly out of Denver instead of Colorado Springs (we could stay with one of Amy's dear friends (Jaci) in Denver)

rental car:
- we rented a car from Hertz (where Jaci works) and set off to travel to Denver. About 20 minutes on the road and I got a migraine. I haven't had one in something like 3 years. It was awful, but with time, prayers and a hood over my eyes it passed in several hours.

denver:

- we had a marvelous time with Jaci. She made us dinner and took us to an 'clean' improv club. It was hilarious. I got volunteered by my lovely wife to participate and ended up making the sound effects for one of the scenes. It was really fun.

PS I guess the only trains were the ones carrying coal and passing us on the highway... and the ones at the airport between terminals.

Quarantine

It's been an interesting day at PILAT today. We're a fairly close community... and looks like one little guy brought a bug with him to our community... and then it passed to another little lady, and another. And then an adult got sick, and another. So right now we've got a total of about 16 people sick in our community of around 50. So it's a pretty significant chunk. And every break or meal another person seems to disappear.

We have a 24 hour quarantine underway for the folks who are sick. Once their last symptom has occurred, they have 24 hours to hang out in their rooms before coming back to the community.

The sad news is that Amy is now among their number. Last night she was very ill 3 times and still isn't feeling great. Someone took me in to town to the store so I could get some Popsicles, chicken noodle soup, and gatoraid.

It's like some crazy public health nightmare. Please pray for the healing of everyone here and that more of us don't get sick.

7 miles at 7,000 ft

Well, today marks another milestone in my life. Amy and I continue to train for the mini marathon in Indianapolis in May (it's 13.1 miles) and today I ran the furthest I've run in my entire life. 7 miles. And not only 7 miles, but at 7,000 feet of elevation (we're in Palmer Lake, Colorado for 2 weeks).

The run was really pretty good. My knee didn't hurt hardly at all, I wasn't really all that winded. I kept repeating a verse over and over again 1 Corinthians 9:27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave...and I really had to today.

It's been several hours and I've been a bit queasy. Amy thinks that it's from too much in the altitude. So now I'm pounding down the water.

In PILAT updates - we spent 2.5 hours with Dwight today drilling vowel sounds and a little bit of work on tones... but man, the vowels can get difficult!