Tuesday, March 22, 2011
We’re back at work this week and back to work on our fitness goals. It’s less than 5 months to the Tour de Cox and our vow renewal.
We’ve been enjoying life a lot and not working out nearly as much as we should be. It’s time to get back on our bikes in earnest.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Five years ago today, the tornado that changed our lives ripped through our house on a Sunday night outside Republic, Missouri. We were asleep just moments before it hit, and with no sirens to warn us, we would never have known it was coming if it weren’t for God.
He woke me up and, while I didn’t hear any audible voice speaking to me, somehow I knew that a tornado was about to hit us. I woke my wife and we crawled on the floor into the hallway, calling for our two teenage kids.
We told them to get down and we got on top of them as it sounded like the house exploded. Suddenly, I could feel wind, rain, and swirling objects hitting my back. In those moments, which actually were probably only a matter of seconds, I believed that I was going to die.
I had two prevailing thoughts: I hope it doesn’t hurt and I’ll never see my wife again.
Our daughter didn’t know that Taylor had woken up and was with me and she was screaming, “Where’s Taylor?” My wife was thinking the same thing I was about whether we would die and hoping that, if we did, it would be quick and painless. Taylor was quiet and had no outward reaction.
Almost immediately, faith began to rise up in me and I began to pray aloud and then to thank God for saving us. My wife also began to thank Him, saying, “He saved us!” as we realized that the tornado had gone through and we were still there. The fact that we were also now homeless was secondary to the fact that we were, miraculously, unharmed.
Little did I know then, that this event would affect our lives so deeply. While it was a great testimony of God’s protection, I also developed PTSD and didn’t do anything to treat or take care of it, even after I was made aware of it.
I don’t know if he even knew today was the anniversary, but a friend of mine wrote to me on Facebook today asking about that house.
Tonight, we have special plans that I’ll write about next time. Last night, Ceecee and I went to the little theater to see, “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” It was light and fun, and we had a great time. I’m really glad we’re finally living the life that we used to only talk about!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Took a 30 mile ride on my “new” Bianchi road bike with Ceecee this morning. I actually bought it a few months ago, but have barely ridden it over the winter. We had a great time, but part of it didn’t quite go the way we planned.
We rode from our loft out to the trailhead for the Frisco Line Trail, which is about 7 miles, and we planned to take the trail for an indefinite distance from there. This is the trail where Ceecee ran the half marathon right before our marriage fell apart
According to the map, it runs for about 43 miles total and we were just going to ride until we were ready to turn around. What we didn’t realize is that it turns to gravel after 8 miles. Since we were on road bikes, we turned around there.
Even so, it was a fun ride and it was by far the longest I’ve gone on my Bianchi since I bought it.
On a much funnier note, we were checking out at a store later and saw on the front of the newspaper that a prostitution ring was apparently busted in the building right across the street from our loft. Who knew?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
We’ve lived in the Missouri Ozarks for about five and a half years now, and we’ve never had a winter with as much snow as this one. We thought when we moved here from Western Kansas that we would be moving to a place with nicer and less extreme weather. Yeah.
A tornado destroys our house in March of ‘06. An ice storm leaves us without power or running water for 23 days in January of ‘07. Now, in the winter of the restoration tour, we’re having blizzards and snowstorms every other week, it seems.
The difference is, those other storms were a bad thing for us and our marriage. They interrupted and changed our lives in negative ways and I especially didn’t handle them well. Where they seemed to be a curse to us, these snowstorms have been a blessing.
Yes, we are home yet again experiencing ANOTHER snow day!
These days have not been filled with the hassle of shoveling driveways and walks, dealing with the lack of electricity, or wondering where we are going to live or what we are going to do. Instead, they’ve been joyous days of bonus time to spend together, cooking, playing, trying new things, and nurturing our ever growing trust and intimacy.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The weather was nice enough to take our bikes out today, so we got in 12 miles after work. Well, let me qualify that. The weather was nice enough FOR US to take our bikes out. Of course there are cyclists who ride year round regardless of weather, but we are not those cyclists. We’re wimps when it comes to riding in the cold.
Anyway, it was a nice ride and the first time we’ve been on two wheels in a while. This weekend, we’re taking an unscheduled restoration trip to St. Louis. After what went down Monday, we need to get to our city and fix some hurts and disappointments. I’m a little scared of what fallout there might still be, but we’re also really committed to seeing ourselves healed, whole, and as strong as can be, so I suspect this is going to be a blessing on multiple levels.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sometimes it feels like no matter how much joy and newness we’ve found, the past will never let us go. We’ve come so far and overcome so much and it’s truly been an amazing, wonderful journey. At the same time, we both keep figuratively looking over our shoulders and waiting for things to begin to crumble.
These six months have had the highest of highs and some of the happiest moments of my entire life. They’ve also had some real challenges and every time we allow ourselves to begin to think we might be in the clear to keep moving forward without any setbacks, we seem to run right smack into another setback.
Today was a tough one, to say the least. Some things came out that weren’t supposed to come out and they were serious enough to threaten all that we’ve been able to build since last August. It was a painful and frightening day and it reminded me how fragile our love still is and how much we really have come through.
On the other hand, it ended up being an opportunity to reaffirm, in the strongest of terms, our commitment to one another now. It was a chance to show each other and the powers of Hell itself that nothing will come between us or destroy the love we are building.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Well, we survived the Resolution Run this morning. It’s a 5K sponsored by a local running store and they give you a $25 gift card to spend there, so it’s almost like the run is free. We had to tiptoe over the ice, so our times were terrible, but my knee held up, so that was a win. I didn’t push at all, but I was glad not to have any pain.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Still dealing with some leftover fallout from our separation. Ceecee forwarded me an email from that guy who has still been contacting her, I thought he was pretty much gone, but she sent it to me this morning and was very apologetic. It was another of those “Can we talk?” messages. It’s not like she hasn’t repeatedly told him to leave her alone, so she didn’t need to apologize for it, but I asked her if she would allow me to get involved now.
Before this, she always asked me not to, but today she said to go ahead, so I replied to it. Maybe this will be the end of it.
Tonight we’re going to a little local place called Tony’s Famous Spaghetti. We’re calling it “pre-race fuel” since the 5K is still on for tomorrow. It’s really just an excuse to eat there because it’s good and inexpensive, but pre-race fuel sounds good. There’s still a layer of an inch or two of ice on the road in a lot of places, so this should be interesting in the morning.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
We got our snow day and had a lot of fun. We walked through the snow to this little place called Homegrown foods where they sell local produce. The actual reason we went was for homemade peppermint marshmallows. It’s not far from downtown and we also went to The Cup, so it’s a very unhealthy snacking day.
We have a 5k on Saturday, which will probably be cancelled due to the snow on the ground that won’t be melted by then. I haven’t run that far since my injury, so I wanted it to be a chance to see where I am in my recovery.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
There’s good eating, and then there’s good eating! Lately, we have been eating extremely well! This is not good for our physical fitness and running, by the way. I mean, we are supposed to be maintaining a certain level of fitness and eating and drinking whatever we want is not exactly compatible with that. Even so, we are enjoying life immensely right now.
There’s supposed to be a big snow storm coming in, so we’re prepared. We made sure we had groceries on hand and those groceries include orange juice and bubbly I made Chile in the crock pot this evening to eat tomorrow (and the next couple of days, potentially) and Ceecee made pan seared tuna and scallops in butter and garlic for supper tonight. Now we’re just crossing our fingers and waiting for the phone call to tell us that there’s no school tomorrow.
The Restoration Tour 