Faithfulness

At youth group we are talking about the "fruit of the Spirit" from Galatians and this week is Faithfulness. This song by Lincoln Brewster is stuck in my head - it's beautiful and SO true!:

More Faithful Than I

Even though I get off track

Lord Your faithfulness never dies

Even though I turn my back

Lord Your faithfulness never dies

You'll always be by my side

With Your arms open wide

I've not a need

You won't provide

Lord You're so much more faithful than I

Lord You're so much more faithful than I

Even when I am full of doubt

Lord Your faithfulness never dies

You pick me up and You pour me out

Lord Your faithfulness never dies

And Lord I'm grateful that

You're so much more faithful

You're so much more faithful

You're so much more faithful than I

I'm super in love with...

SO AMAZINGLY GOOD!

Stuck in my head...

You turned water into wine - how extraordinary
Gave sight to the blind - and still I carry
My own load when you told me
To take your yoke ‘cause yours is easy

And I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't wanna believe
That you're big enough - but you're big enough yeah!

I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't understand that you're big enough
But you're big enough Jesus

You turned darkness into light - keep my lamp burning
And you are my everything
There's no denying, your love is so amazing
And even though my problems seem typical
Nothing for you is ever too difficult
You never have reservations - love without limitations

And I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't wanna believe
That you're big enough - but you're big enough yeah!

Oh, no matter how I try to get around it - I'm reminded
Wherever I go I'm totally surrounded
It's all about you - I can never doubt you
Even if I wanted to…

And I don't wanna box you in
You've been doing big things since the world began
Sometimes I just don't wanna believe
That you're big enough - but you're big enough yeah

Pretty smart...

SO sorry!

I've been the worse blogger EVER! I have been so busy. Last week I was on a mission trip with 25 high schoolers from my church dry walling and putting down lanolium in a house. This week is Vacation Bible Schoool at church. I promise to be more exciting soon!

Please pray for:

My friend Amy - she lost her grandmother Saturday
My friend Demetric - he lost his dad Friday
A youth at my church, Aaron - he lost his dad to Swine Flu on Saturday

New (to me) Music I'm loving:

Shine by Laura Izibor

We have a WINNER....

ME for completing the 5k and setting a new personal best!

Haha! I know you didn't really come to hear that. You came to find out who won the giveaway. Well...I'm happy to announce that it was ... DAPHINE with a guess of 51:36.

My new personal best set during this 5K is 51:50! That's over 2 minutes off of my previous time. Congrats to Daphine! Check out the Stretch Island Fruit Co. website and e-mail me what flavor you want to try of Fruit Leather as well as your address.

I took some pictures so you could pretend like you were getting ready with me. So here we go - showered and ready to go - way too early in the morning:

Since we're BFF's I'm going to show you things you don't probably want to see. But I'm going to do it anyway. My feet had been feeling a little pre-athlete's footy (I made that up). I can just feel when it's coming on, so I gave them a little spray first.

Then I taped up that pesky broken pinky toe. Good news is that it worked great and it only hurts a little right now. I think keeping my running shoes on a little longer afterward this time helped too:
Then came the socks - one of the kids at church, Julie, says you're not cool if your socks match:
Then the shoes - the same cool kid, Julie, gave me these awesome shoe laces. I love them:Had to have my iPod and Nike Plus accessories:
And some Powerade - this was all I had before the race - I wished later that I had eaten some oatmeal - I was just feeling a nauesous at the moment.
And my race number and safety pins to put it on with.

I guess the most important things are what I did better and learned this time, which will help me improve my time on the next race. They are:

• Keep taping the toe.
• I learned on-line how to handle those side cramps I got last time and I tried what they suggested and it worked! I learned that the problem is that you are getting a cramp in your intestines because they aren't used to bouncing around so much and if you push up and in under your rib cage and lift your liver a little it'll get better and IT DID!
• I learned to not chug the water at the water stations. Though you only have like one second between when you get the water and when you throw the cup away, it seemed to be better to just take sip then to try to choke it all down.
  
• I learned that I need to pre-program the songs in my iPod for the entire time. The songs that were slower seemed to slow me down. I need faster, upbeat songs for the entire time.
• Eat a little something for breakfast even if I don't feel like it.

There you have it. Lessons learned...now, here is the report from my iPod:

AND this time at the end of the race, I got a congratulatory message from Lance Armstrong! Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway and for all your encouraging words.

Last Chance for the Giveaway

Tomorrow is the Ignite 5K and I'm really excited about it. I got a nice mile and a half in at the gym (I drove into a tornado to go work out - I didn't know it at the time!) before they closed yesterday. Tiger Woods congratulated me again on a new personal best and I'm feeling good for tomorrow.

My stats last night were:

Distance - 1.50 mi
Time - 20:44
Pace - 13.46 mi/min
Calories - 321

So you have from now until tomorrow after the race is over to get your guesses for my time in to win a box of Stretch Island Fruit Leather (yumm). (A 5k is 3.1 miles if that helps) You can guess as many times as you want. Whoever is closest wins. So far we have:

Courtney 47:45
Meghann 48:00
Mika 50:00
Daphine 51:36
April 52:14
Mimi 52:31
April 53:49
Rebecca 60:00

Rebecca 60:01
Lisa 61:45
Grandma J 62:00

Here's what I was rocking out to on the treadmill last night:



Happy Friday!

Mini-Makeover

I was getting tired of ponytailing it everyday:

and having this mess of thickness:

So I went to the Beauty School by my house and:

Ohhhh! Shiny!:

It only took an hour and a half this time (remember 3 hours last time?). So $15 and one burn to my scalp later:

Ewww - those little random hairs are gross but you get the idea. What do you think?

Update: It takes so long because they are students and have to get approval of every step and more instruction before they do anything. They are also really nervous usually and cut one piece at a time to make sure they don't mess up. They also flat iron it one piece at a time!

Sunday Cuteness

This past Sunday, I was really into worship. I had my eyes closed and was singing and I felt a tap on my shoulder. My friend Stephanie told me to grab my camera because there was something super cute happening. Two of the early elementary kids - Beth and Ryan were dancing to the music - and boy were they serious about it.

I love this dead arm spin. They were having so much fun:
Afterward he gave her a picture he had colored.

When she got in the car to go home, Beth said "Ryan is so romantic."

We might be seeing a wedding in about 16 years! Stacy Cross - are you available to shoot this one?