My cuz came to visit

On Friday around 1:30pm my cousin Tabitha came to visit. She had been in Texas at Shepard Air Force Base visiting a friend, so on her way back through to Indiana she stopped to see Josh and I. She came to my office while I worked on packing things up for our upcoming move.(its this Friday) About 3pm we left my office and came home to get ready to go out to dinner. We decided with Josh's help to go to the Whole Hog Cafe. So, we got ready and when Steven arrived we all went to dinner. Once we ate our very yummy, very inexpensive food we headed back to the house to get some gaming on. Steven had brought his Wii over as well as his Guitar Hero II game. So, I decided to challenge my cuz in a game of Wii boxing. It came down to a descision at the end of the three rounds. I won! Today though my arms hurt like crazy. I could barely lift the case of Coca-Cola I purchased at the store for Josh today. So, back to the story... Tabitha and I were able to connect with my sister via video chat. Tabitha had never seen my neice Lilli. Then once we finished the video chat we got rockin' with the guitars. Tab, as she is most often referred to, had never played Wii or Guitar Hero. That was the reason we wanted to play so badly. This morning she left to head back to Indy. It was really great to see her, and we had a blast.

Paintball, the battle wounds

Today, Josh, Aaron, Nathan, Danielle, and our friend Steven went to play paintball at a cool cave in Joplin. We started our day with a 2 hour trip that should have only taken us 1 hour. Thanks google maps for giving us bad directions! After we finally arrived and got checked-in and suited up, the 7 hour day began with a somewhat small course inside that cave. We played what is called speed ball. It just basically means that you have to move fast and hide behind inflatable objects throughout the field. I did fairly well here as I was the last man standing on our team, twice. Mind you, I haven't played since we have lived in Arkansas and I have only played one time ever. So, I felt like I was doing well. Then I tried to move forward on the field more than I had previously...bad idea. I did make it to the middle of the field, but Nathan saw me and hit me on the mask. Well, right as I yelled hit and raised my gun in the air I was hit in the neck, THE BARE NECK, with a paintball full blast. Here is the damage it did:


I really don't think that picture does it much justice. It is pretty nasty, and I must admit... my eyes teared up when I got hit. That is by far the most painful thing I think I have experience in most of my life. Of course I haven't had any babies yet, so I can't say it will be the most painful thing ever. So anyways throughout the day, I was hit several times in some very sensitive areas. I walked away today with welts/bruises on my neck, my lower back, my left bicep, and in the chest(I won't specify on that one, but use your imagination).
Dispite the battle wounds, I did have fun today, and I did better than I thought I would.

Survival of the fittest!

Exhausting, that has been the overwhelming theme at work lately. I planned an Executive retreat where six of our top guys came and had meetings for almost 3 days. During that time I made a 75 mile roundtrip 3 days in a row. Making this trip and tending to all of the details necessary to make the meeting a success was beyond exhausting! It was a successful retreat and I feel good about the job that I did. In the background of this retreat planning, I have been gearing up for our office move. This move, I feel could quite possibly be the biggest "stresser" I have ever had to face. We are 2 weeks out from move day, and I just started packing our office today. I just called the moving company today to schedule them. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, huh? I, frankly, am not the one who waited till the last minute though. It has only been decided that we were definetly moving and have a place to go for about 7 days now. We didn't sign our new lease agreement until March 2nd. So, the next 2 weeks are going to be total hell for me as I work really hard to make this move happen. The reason I named this post "survival of the fittest" is because that is exactly what the next few weeks are going to be. Have you ever heard the saying "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger"? I guess that will be my motto in order to make it through. Please pray for me, I am surely not going to do this on my own. I will need God's strength to sustain me.