Sep145

It's been a couple of busy weeks. Although I'm realizing I can't remember half of what happened off the top of my head. I may have to start doing this once a week, maybe even every few days. But I think for now it will be a weekly update; and as this process of journaling becomes more accustomed –causing either the posts to be longer or written faster– I will look into updating more often.

Well since today is the freshest in my mind I'll start there. Hmmm.. on second thought I suppose it's better to start with what lead up to today's events. So I'll be starting with what happened this last week.

Sunday: The 10th, I went to church and really didn't do a lot the rest of the day, hmm... not very eventful.

Monday: This day was a little more active. I ran 4.76 miles in the morning. That evening I went to Houston Urban Gardeners (HUG) meeting. The topic was basically what plants to start now in houston. As the climate here is a little different from Utah (where I've been getting to know it's particular prevailing weather conditions for the past 10 years) I was excited to learn something new. I was actually a little disappointed, the person talked about a community garden they worked for and what they had done over the past year. Oh well, maybe next time. I suppose from the knowledge I have of plants –mostly vegetable gardens– I can suss out what plants will struggle and those that will thrive with the current weather. Anyway, after the meeting I got a call to teach at church in Elders Quorum this coming sunday. For those who know me understand why this is a big deal. For those who don't, let's say I have a fear... no I think it is worse, probably a terror would describe it better, yes, I have a terror of speaking, teaching, walking, doing anything in front of people. If I'm in the spotlight I start to shake, sweat profusely, my mind even goes blank, it's difficult to utter a single word let alone have it be audible, well you get the idea. And it doesn't matter if it is thousands of people or just one, if I know the people or not. In front of strangers, friends, family, my kids, or even my wife it doesn't matter. So the fact that I actually said yes, I'm sure will come as a shock to those who know me. I feel I am where I am because I need to learn something new and if I want to change where I am I better step up and learn whatever that something is.

Tuesday: This afternoon I went to Track 21 with my sister and two of her friends. Okay so Track 21 is a place to race/drive go-carts, they also have laser tag that spans two floors, as well as miniature golf. I've been to this place before with my nephew and we had a blast. The carts do go fast and it is a fun course but today they changed the course a little. Before there were two separate tracks but this time they combined them into a single track. I was very excited to try this new configuration out. I found out that the carts go a lot faster than I thought, I'm sure it helped that part of the change included a long straight stretch where you can really get going. Next we played laser tag and the golf. After having some adrenalin and endorphins pumped through my body, it was on to the next thing I was looking forward to, Etsy SEO: A Free Talk. It wasn't really the talk I was excited about, however I did learn a good amount about search strings and how to improve your sites rank with google among other things. The excitement was the location. Since coming to Texas I've been hoping to find a good maker space and this meetup was at TXRX Labs. Now I've only been to one other makerspace and it was shortly after I got here, it was good but I wasn't impressed. TXRX Labs however, let's say I was in maker heaven! I need to do a little more research and check out a few more places, but for now this place is at the top of my list for locations to make.

Wednesday: This morning I ran 5.3 miles, it was a struggle to get my legs to move and breathing was a challenge. Today is the 13th... they have always had a special meaning to me. About the time I was in the 7th grade I decided 13 would be my "lucky number", when it fell on a friday those would be the best days, and for the most part they have been. I proposed on a friday the 13th, we were engaged for 13 months and we were married on friday the 13th. As good as those days have been the past few have started kick up memories of the past and it's been difficult because of the upcoming divorce and current separation from my family. The book group started a new book called The Map: To Our Responsive Universe, maybe it will help me figure out what I want to do with my life and where I should go from here. I read through the chapter I'm supposed to teach. Not much else happened today.

Thursday: Today I felt extremely exhausted, in retrospect I think it's from worrying about the lesson I said I would give on Sunday. (I will find out for sure in the next few days.) That evening I went to the Temple with a friend, it was nice feeling the love of my Heavenly Father but it didn't seem to disperse the fear and uncertainty of giving the lesson.

Friday & Saturday: I was supposed to run the next two days but didn't. I'm blaming the fact that I'm still exhausted and starting to get depressed. Tonight I'm headed out with the scouts for the second annual Junk Food Campout! We had a fryer setup and even melted some chocolate for dipping. So Twinkies were battered and fried, bananas were dipped in chocolate and battered and fried, Cookie dough, double stuff oreos, and we played around with a few other things. Basically dinner was junk food and we finished off the night with a cobler. I decided to sleep under the stars, well as close as I could get was under a rain fly strung between two trees because of the amount of moisture in the air. It was cold that night so I didn't end up sleeping all that well and my mind was going most of the time that I was asleep but at least I wasn't super wet. The next morning we got the fryer ready and cooked tater tots, fried biscuits, lots and lots of bacon, and a few other things. It had started raining about the time the campout was over. Overall it was a success and the boys had a great time. After that I helped clean up and dry off some of the tents that weren't going to dry at the camp site. Then the rest of the evening I relaxed and and watched some shows with my sister and nephew. I was so tired I even went to bed a little early.

Today (Sunday) My body just doesn't want to move it feels depleted and exhausted. But I eventually got up and made it to church. Sacrament meeting went fine then onto sunday school where I listened to the lesson while I finalized a few notes on my lesson. Next it was my turn, the lesson was 'Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Howard W. Hunter; Chapter 2: “My Peace I Give unto You”' I had 30 minutes of time to fill. I was planing on having the group just read through the chapter and ask a few questions but for some reason that's not what I did. I jumped from place to place and I felt prompted to have certain paragraphs read that I didn't highlight and wasn't planning on. But the lesson kind of flowed and the crazy part is it ended perfectly at the end of the hour. I was sure I would be a good 10 minutes early. And yes my body shaked, I lost my train of thought and my place a number of times, but with the help of others sharing and giving insight I think the lesson was a success and I didn't die or pass out. So that was a plus. What did I learn from this? Well, found I can survive leading/teaching a lesson, that people are kind and helpful, and if we have faith in the Lord and follow the promptings we can accomplish things we never thought possible.

Today I am grateful for the challenge I was given, also the courage, strength, and the support of others that blessed me. Thank You.