New Orleans in December, yes please!

Last weekend my and 2,000 other Youth Ministers headed down to New Orleans to learn more, laugh a lot, drink a little, pray together and grow in our mission of bring the young Catholic Church closer to Christ.

Such an amazing time. I have a few highlights...

• Being in 70 degree weather while Iowa was having a blizzard
• Seeing my Mississippi (some of them) family and enjoyed a good time
• The conference was truly amazing from workshops, music, key notes and prayer
• Growing closer to my Iowa Youth Minister friends and seeing some old friend (Katie it rocked to see you!)
• Seeing and spending time with Miller, Andrew and Ryan Hoffmann
• Giving Ryan his 30th Birthday gift.
• THE FOOD and DRINKS! OMG soooo good!

I was unsure if I would make it home on Sunday like I planed however God is good and provided me a flight home and bed's for those friends that had to stay an extra day. I have a new energy and ready to go on Christmas vacation!

If you would like to see pictures check out: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=584655&id=504190257&l=0792207eb2

God is good....ALL THE TIME!

A time of Thanksgiving ...

While it's been a while. I try to find a balance between my friend Maggie who blogs all the time and my friend Andy who never blogs. I feel that this past time frame has been more on the Andy side, I promise to wing a bit more to the Maggie side.

As any typical fall in the life of a Youth Minister my life has been crazy busy. This past weekend we had our large steak dinner fundraiser on Saturday night. We served over 200 adults, drank many, many, many bottles of wine and polished off a keg. Oh and the steak was amazing. As I was running around trying to set up more chairs, help students know what to do, work the ticket table, make sure the Youth Ministry bake sale table was under organization, and help out at the silent action I found myself smiling while running around crazy and sweating my ass off. I am truly blessed. I had so many wonderful conversations with outstanding community members, new and old friends. The table fellowship was fantastic. All were welcome.

This was the first time since I attended St. Stephens that I felt like I was part of a community not just working for a community and being there b/c I had to be. I was able to enjoy the evening with a nice balance of work/helping out but also enjoying fellowship with friends. Being church and being an active part of a community is how we are called to live, Christ calls us to be in community. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for being apart of so many wonderful communities that provide me with unconditional love and support. Now back to putting together the parish hall from Saturday party....

Friday Fun

Friday has become my new Saturday since I am working every Sunday till Thanksgiving weekend. So far I have done a good job of taking at lest one day off for me. I have found that helps me become a healthy person and well balanced.

One might ask what I do on my day off. Those that know me best know that I LOVE to clean. After sleeping in, laying around and watching TV, around 10 AM I am ready to get up and get moving. I clean the house, do the laundry that takes typically all day. I put on some music from the I-tunes while I dance around the house cleaning and enjoying the quite of the day. Cleaning relaxes me, thinking time, time to reflect on life and the past weeks events and what is to come. And at the end I can stand back and smell the Pine Sol, such a fantastic smell!

Doing everything in one day also gives me Saturday (my Sunday) to watch football!

If you ever need any cleaning help on Friday please let me know, I am $20 an hour.

God Bless and happy Saturday good friends.

Blessed...

Work is into full swing in my life! There are always so many great things going on this time of year that I often find it hard to have balance with it all. This week had several nights of not getting home till after midnight in a row. It's all been great stuff but takes a large chunk out of girls times. It is Thursday evening and for me it is my Friday night. I am trying this year to take Friday off and most of Saturdays, Sunday is always my Monday (Makes it hard to watch the Bears games sometimes...)

This week an amazing friend came into town. Mike Patin came to do the Youth Ministry kick off on Tuesday and talked about having good communication in the workplace. As always he is fantastic at new ideas, prayer, and speaking the truth. It was amazing to spend the day

with so many Youth Ministers and those that work so hard for the youth of the church. It was nice to be able to share ideas, prayer, and stories with those that understand my job the most.

On Wednesday Mike took his evening to talk to the over 200 High School students in the Des Moines area about living their faith out daily. I know it was an amazing

night for the Youth when they posted quotes from the night on my facebook page and the the countless text about fav. quotes from the evening. Then we took Mike out for a few drinks and lots of laughs. It was a fantastic evening and way

to send him out of Des Moines with a bang!

This is a picture of my bookend at work, Deanna and Mike. I don't

know why in most pictures I look like I am drugged up and eyes half open but I promise I was sober with only having one beer the

whole night. I am a better Youth Minister thanks to these two friends in my life, the wisdom we show each other is life giving.

If you would ever like to meet Mike he will be the MC for the adult Youth Ministry conference in New Orleans and one of the Key Notes at the next NCYC in Indy 2011.

Circus in town...

Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I wish we all had more time to spend together. However, when we are together it often reminds me of a 9 ring circus and their are only four of us in the family.

Mom and dad came and we got some great projects done around the homestead...

• Building me a headboard - This has been much needed and I have waited with anticipation for this moment! I think it looks fantastic and I am so thankful for them making it for me. It is not so much used for deco and much more needed to keep my pillows on the bed!
• Moved Lacy's bike rack. I am going to make an amazing wife b/c my dad teaches me how to do shit on my own. With a small help from Father I got the thing moved and pretty impressed with myself.
• Learned how to trim bushes and they all look much better! Maybe I should try cutting hair next.
• Cleaned out Wade's ears...really nothing more to say about that
• Cooked!! We had a fantastic dinner...salmon with recipe found here, veggie dip found here, Spinach artichoke dip that will soon be posted on blog, salad and garlic bread. Followed by some freshly baked Chocolate chip cookies (after burning for several years I have learned how to make them pretty much perfect...)
• Played a game of Rummy, father kicked ass.

It was a fantastic evening filled with family, friends and good memories. This was a good test to see how Christmas will go this year when mom and dad move in for a week, I am looking forward to it and already started the list of projects!

All is right with the world...

We have CABLE TV! Lacy and I have a deal, we get cable during football season every year. I love cable TV, and then add DVR as well... it was like the heavens opened up and and the choir of angles sung to me. I will no longer have to watch commercials.

Jason came over around noon today and within 10min everything was set up and ready to go. I have enjoyed watching the food network (learned how to make cabbage roles!) and large amounts of Roseanne (I know quality programing).

Monday morning will be fantastic while I get ready for work watching CNN... and making dinner and having Wolf join me is a gift.

Are you ready for some...

Fall - what a fantastic time of the year! Several people have shared with me that they are loving that fall is fast approaching. The cool crisp air, windows open, allergies starting, football starting, looking up new soup recipes, cooking with the oven, changing up the clothes the list goes on.

What am I most looking forward to, Are you ready for some football!!! It is no surprise to those that I am close to that I have a love for football. High School, college, NFL you name it and I will watch it.

Friday night I headed over to watch Van Meter boys take on top ranked (even in a class above them) Pella Christian. They played a fantastic game however could not hold onto the win. This is the first time I have been back to a Van Meter game, in Van Meter since Wade graduated. I parked at some family friends house, had a beer with Ray and chatted with Mary. Before walking on over to the game. I was not at all surprised how nothing has changed. Same cheers from the cheerleaders, locals standing in the same spot cheering on their team, same medical responders. I have a very special group of Sr. boys that have been asking me for years to come watch them once they started for Van Meter. They did such an amazing job, it was fantastic evening filled with great football, good friends and family and of course a few beers!

It was at this field where I learned to love this sport. I remember as a kid sitting on the side lines with my mom and her teaching the rules about football. It was simple, you have 4 tries to get 10 yards. I will always remember lesson number one!

I am excited to watch the Iowa vs. ISU game next Saturday, I hope ISU shows up to play. Of course there is the Bears, if we win against the Lions on Sunday in our opening game I am going to be blown away.

In other football news one of the most important parts of football is the pre and post game tailgating! This week in our football tailgating week, all week we will be posting our favorite tailgating recipes for all to enjoy! Stop in each day and check it out here.