2013 to 2014::

2013 was a big year!
I got ordained!
I ran 2013 miles! (and put a stress fracture in my hip- ouch!)
I learned lots of bible verses-

I had some wonderful times with my family too-
deanna and I celebrated SEVENTEEN YEARS married- whoa!

we discovered feeding koi fish at japanese gardens,
 

cable cars:

golden gate park,

we visited disneyland-

we discovered bocce ball,

we celebrated my kid turning NINE. (and grew OUT of the children's discovery museum.)
jane had a great time being a homeschooler!
she did really great at all of her school work, and got to go on lots of cool field trips-
like this one to see some original star wars props- (ok this was really more for me:)

and she got REALLY good at cursive writing. I have never seen my child so interested in hand writing! kudos to her awesome teacher!

and we made lots of homemade toys!

at church, I celebrated 12 years of middle school ministry at the same church- whoa!
and we did some fun things like renting out a roller rink for a 50's party:

we rented an ice cream truck:

 

we rented an ice-rink:

we threw some crazy parties:

we played a lot of games:

I wrote about a million-billion letters:

and we did lots and lots of talks!
some were at schools:

some were on video:

some were on the road at camps:

but most of them were at home in our big green room.
I also said goodbye to some good co-worker friends, and hello to some new co-worker friends!

I kept all of my new year's resolutions, but here are a few more:
I plan to run 2014 miles in 2014!
I plan on memorizing another 12 chapters of the bible with my friend Mike,
no candy or un-diet soda.
and only ONE serving of fries per week. this year I'll have 52 friday-FRYdays!

I'm starting out next year with SIX WEEKS OFF for extended leave. I'll probably post 1000 blogs and tear every leg muscle I've got. and go broke by giving all of my money to malibu grill. but hopefully I'll get some good rest too.

it was a great year! next year will be great too-
happy new year friends!

God is love.
-rev-rob

wintercamp 2013

I"m still glowing from our wintercamp last weekend. it was just about perfect. the leaders were incredible. the facility we stayed at, camp chinquapin was delightful as always, and the snow and mountains were spectacular. the students themselves were so gracious and engaged with what was happening. we rented a snow hill, an ice rink, and we went on a hike through pinecrest lake. there were snow angels, snow men, and snowball wars. the roads were clear, and so were the skies.

I taught a set of talked that I have been thinking about for months called awestruck wonder.
 

I looked at the problem of losing our wonder for jesus- or being just bored with faith. how do you rediscover your wonder? this led to reading many books, and many good conversations, including one with one of my favorite authors, steve korch. the result was a set of talks that seemed to hit the students right where they were, at just the right time, and in the perfect setting. I received a number of rare kudos from the students about these talks!

you can see all of our silly times here:


God is love.
-rev-rob

2013 miles in 2013

at the beginning of the year, I made a goal to run 1500 miles. I ran 1000 last year in 6 months, I figured, 1500 would be easy. at some point, early in the year, I thought it would be fun to see if I could do 2013 miles in 2013. I did the math, I mapped out the pace and got moving. this goal was a lot harder than I thought it would be!

to say the least, I spent a LOT of time at the gym this year. at least an hour a night on average. on he way, I met some new friends, and enjoyed running next to them and talking with them and their lives. running next to someone makes the time go much faster. I also burned off a lot of stress- there were nights when I came into the gym stressed and frustrated, and at the end of my run, I was completely distracted from my worries.there were also many, many nights when I could not wait to get the run over with, and at the same time, there were so many times when I stepped onto the treadmill, and I could almost feel my whole body smiling back at me as it stepped back into the routine of breathing, striding and sweating. speaking of sweating, when I run, I get soaked. its embarrassing. I bring towels and headband and even a clip on fan, but its unavoidable.

this year I had to replace my iPod at least once, maybe twice. I had to replace my shoes at least once, maybe twice. I lost several toe nails. that was also really gross. but the worst thing that happened while running this year was that I actually broke my hip while running. I thought it was a sore muscle or maybe a strain. I knew it was an injury somewhere in my hip or backside, I couldn't really tell. I thought it would just go away. I actually kept on running through it. there were several days where I limped all day, and then ran at night! I had discovered that I could run half marathons on the treadmill in 90 minutes- I thought that was so cool- so I just did it every night for weeks. and then there was a night when I almost collapsed. I couldn't run a step- I could barely walk a step. I eventually went to the doctor to have it looked at. my doctor was actually a former olympian which was pretty cool. we did an x-ray and an MRI (which was fairly freaky) and he found a small stress fracture in my ischial bone.

(by the way, this is not a photo of me!)

he kept asking, "did you fall?" nope. I just ran too much. I took a few weeks off and then started really slow, and before long, I was back in action.

I had a lot of time to make up and so for the last few months, I have been on the treadmill 90 minutes a night, but at a slower pace. last wednesday night, I did it!

 

I ran 2013 miles in 2013! I was relieved that I could have teared up right there in the gym. I found a few people online who also had the goal and shared it with them and thanked them for their encouragement. the next day, Jane woke me up with my own trophy- I love it!

 

 



now I'm taking a few weeks off, and then on January 1, I'm going for 2014 miles in 2014! hopefully this time there will be no MRIs to go with it!

God is love.
-rev-rob

homemade toys:: lalaloopsy land

my kid is in love with lalaloopsy toys- she also loves to create playsets and worlds for her dolls to play in. she has created lots of amazing little playsets for her loopsies- but this time, the whole family teamed up to create the ultimate laloopsy land.

the lalaloopsies live in this world of fabric and buttons stitched together- here is how they show the world on their merchandise:

we wanted to create something similar- jane has a large folding table that she uses for her play tables- so we measured it out and went to the fabric store. jane designed how she wanted the lay out to go.

 she put in hills, a path and a stream. then deanna got to work on her sewing machine and put it all together. afterward, jane decorated it with accessories.

she has been happily playing with it for days! and the nice thing about it is that when she is done playing with it, she just needs to roll it up and store it for another day.
being a dad is fun.
-rev-rob