week-of-e 2006 & Meet the Parents

This is a basically 2 posts in 1...

Week-Of-E 2006
well, i'm back from another wonderful week-of-e trip to Florida. to give you an idea of what happened, here it is:

-we grilled out by the beach
-had the cops called on us (2 squad cars and 1 helicopter)
-found a box of 12 guage shotgun shells under a bed in our hotel which were not there when we first got there
-had prostitution and drug deals going on in the hotel rooms next to us
-gave a church an opportunity to easily transition from traditional to contemporary worship styles by leading the Palm Sunday Service
-put all of the siding up on a house as well as all of the saufet and facia
-put all of the plywood and tar paper on the roof of a house as well as putting up plywood around the entire outside and boxed in the frame
-thomas got crabs...well, okay, so he caught one from the gulf
-had an amazing time...

So there ya have it...

Meet the Parents
so this past weekend, after returning from week-of-e, i drove up to the Chicago-land area and met up with Nikki and her family for Easter. Actually, we would call it, Chreaster, because it was her family's chance to have Christmas and Easter together. It went great. I must say, I have never sung Christmas carols in April, but hey, I'll adjust to it. It was fun! I even got a present from Nikki. She told me before I would open it that no one else would get it besides the two of us...I opened up the medium size box to find a Scrat doll from Ice Age 2. We saw Ice Age 2 on our first date. It was a good time! Nikki's dad and I then had a little chat as we air-ed up the air matress. Having that first talk is always like pulling a band-aid off from your neck (or some other area that would hurt really really bad). Nontheless, I received his blessing on the whole ordeal and so its official. I was even fortunate enough to have her senior minister of her home church mention me in the sermon on Easter Sunday. That was rather embarassing. He said "perhaps you are here searching for something...perhaps you are here because you were invited by a friend...perhaps you are dating someone in our congregation and wanted to score points with the family..." Everyone got a good laugh out of it...

It's all in the gut...

So I'm writing with the motive of bringing forth a point. Recent events have proven that my deepest-inner-gut-feeling has been correct. I sit here thanking God for the way things have gone. Despite any hurt or pain along the way, I have made it to where I am today and am pleased with where it looks like everything could go. I've got to be completely honest, I've got an internship secured, a great accountability partner (who I praise God for, because w/o his strong-willed character, I would not have been confronted and would not have receieved the wisdom that I have seeked) and I've also got some amazing roommates who I will miss ever so much when i leave for internship. It is funny, how things change and how we roll with the punches, that i like to call life. I've recently concluded that with the combination of wisdom and seeking God's truth, my gut feeling has been correct. This is also valid on how well I did in poker last monday night (I did the best I've ever done!) What can I say....I'm doing great and despite how many times I get hit in the gut, I will continue to abide by the feelings within.