I am glad to be at home this weekend and enjoying some time with just hanging out. I have some stuff that I could be doing on the outside but am content to just hang out. I completed my 20-miler yesterday and found it to be very humid and pretty warm before I finished. The good thing is that the 20-miler is done and I took the day off today. I may run a little tomorrow morning, but maybe not too.

We went to the DCA football game last night and our guys played hard but ran out of gas in the last half. We just need more bigger bodies. I think there are only 3 returning starters from last year's team. I have to tell you that I like the way our kids play, they just need some more bigger bodies.

I am watching a little college football today and looking to do some grilling tonight and maybe a little pool time this afternoon. We will see. It is pretty hot and humid here today so I may just hang out at home and be a bum. Planning on heading to church tomorrow and finish up with our young marrieds with no kids class tomorrow. What a great time we have had with them the last two years. We are joining another couple to start a college-aged class next week and are running a play where all the advertising for the class is through facebook. We will see how it goes. We have about 40 in that age bracket and about half of them are away at colleges, but the others are close so we are trying to keep everyone involved. It should be fun.

My birthday is next week but with many things going on including taking Shelbi to college and some travel on my part, we are going to celebrate on Monday. Hard to believe that I will be 45 on Thursday. Sometimes I feel younger than that but not usually after 20 milers.

Pray for Sondra's mom and dad. He had blood work done yesterday and has a couple of MRIs on Tuesday. Pray that all is going well inside of his body.

Home Again

Had a great trip to MO to do conferences and got to see my dad and brother and my in-laws as well. Sondra's folks seem to be holding their own. Her dad is pretty weak but did get to preach on Sunday which is so encouraging. He has some blood work tomorrow to determine levels and then has a couple of MRIs scheduled for Tuesday to check a couple of places that have been giving him some trouble. It was a short visit with them but a great time to see them and reconnect.

Morgan's ankle seems to be doing better after the crash on the soccer field last week and she practiced some yesterday and may get to play tonight some against Page. Shelbi is one week away from heading to college and is scrambling around to get all her dorm stuff together. We did pick up a laptop for her last week from the Dell auction site and she got it last night and was pretty excited to have it.

Sondra is still teaching pre-Algebra and Algebra and is doing well just tired for sure. It is pretty crazy around our house right now with many different things going on. My plan for tomorrow is to take a floating holiday and do my 20-miler in the morning so that means pasta and carbs today. Training for this marathon seems to be going pretty well. With a Malaysia trip coming up leaving on 9/9 and coming back on 9/17 I am hoping to get some runs in when I am not on an airplane.

Looking forward to a good weekend. I am ready for a little rest before the activities of the next three weeks or so.

Quick Update

I am in MO for a couple of nights of conferences beginning tonight and concluding tomorrow night. They are being held about 30 min. from my dad's so I am staying with him and saving the company lots of money. (That's a good thing and staying with my dad is just very, very good.)

My brother and I went fishing for a couple of hours after church yesterday and he caught a nice 5.4 lb. bass. I did not even get a real bite but sure celebrated with him on his catch.

I am running down to Bolivar in the morning to visit with Sondra's parents for a couple of hours and looking forward to seeing them. Hope to give you an update on them tomorrow. Enjoying nice 70 degree weather up here, maybe low 80s but barely if it is that warm and the breeze is nice. I ran a 11 miler today since I will be traveling early tomorrow.

Will catch up with you all later. I have limited internet access and am sitting in the public library in Harrisonville with my new Cass County Library card. Oh what we will do for internet.

All Things Considered . . .

I am not sure that this phrase really makes a lot of sense, since when most people use it in a sentence, they have not really considered all things. I catch myself using phrases (euphemisms) that I really do not mean, nor have I really thought through completely.

I had a very good conversation today that helped me remember the importance of not playing shell games or doing end runs. I operate best in environments where everything is up front and even if something is said that I do not like, at least I know what is going on. I can appreciate that and respect it as well, even if I do not like the outcome. I am thankful when the rules are known and the cards are played on the top of the table.

Morgan and her DCA women's soccer scrimmage went fair last night. Early in the first half, Morgan went down and from across the field it looked like her knee went out. Thankfully, it was her ankle and even though it is very sore, she is doing pretty good. My guess is that she will be out of soccer commission for a couple of weeks at most. Her team is pretty low on numbers and pretty high on injuries right now. Not a good combination for sure.

I have some travel coming up this weekend and into next week. I am leading conferences in MO so I will get to spend time with dad and also my brother and other extended family. Looking forward to that.

Pulling for Walsh-May/Treanor tonight in the beach volleyball finals and really enjoyed the men's USA/Serbia match today.

Firsts

Today Morgan started her junior year at DCA. So, that is her first day of the school year and the first time that she has started school and Shelbi has not been with her for the "first day of school picture" that every mother wants of their children. I am not even sure if Shelbi got out of bed to see her sister off to school. It is also the first day of school for Sondra. She is teaching algebra and pre-algebra for the first 8-9 weeks of school while a teacher is out on maternity leave.

It is the first day of work for me since a couple of good, close friends lost their jobs here where I work. Weird. I really enjoy my job, but more importantly, I really like the folks that I work with and when a couple of them are here no longer, it changes the make up some. Thankfully they are both doing pretty well.

I have to tell you that I am struggling with these subjective point systems that we have in many of the Olympic events. Some of the boxing, gymnastics, and other related sports are just starting to tick me off. Granted I am not an expert in any of those sports, but it sure seems a little suspect when people land on their knees from the vault or in the ring and somehow score higher than others or the one who knocked them down.

I like timed events, score a goal events and other less subjective competitions. Track and field makes sense. I can see who crossed the line first, etc. You get what I mean.

Continue to pray for Sondra's parents. Her dad seems to be doing pretty well, but is experiencing a few side effects. Overall though, he is doing pretty well. We sure appreciate your prayers for them. I am including a picture of Shelbi and Joyce and Bernard from a couple of weeks ago so you can see who you are praying for once again.

Eights Everywhere

Michael Phelps wins his 8th gold medal of the 08 Olympics and my mom passed away 8 months ago. I ate breakfast this morning at 8 o'clock and think I will count 8 rows from the back and sit in that pew at church today. Who knows why?

Looking forward to a good day at church and then Sondra and I may head to the pool since the weather is so nice. We will see.

I have to tell you that I think I have turned into an Olympics junkie. I watched quite a bit of it yesterday from track and field, women's marathon (so sorry for Deena Kastor who was the USAs big hope), swimming and the whole Michael Phelp's phenom and that Lezak guy is pretty unheralded but a mighty awesome swimmer in his own right. Hated to see the 41-year-old lady, Dara Torres, not win the gold just because anyone that age competing at that level is incredible. Heck I even watched the USA men's water polo team beat Croatia yesterday but missed the May-Teanor and Walsh match but glad they won.

New Look

I have not blogged since Sunday so when I signed in to Blogger today, my dashboard came up looking different. You know Facebook has adopted a new look and all of this new look stuff got me to wondering if I need a new look. Nah! I am currently growing a little chin hair but the hair is pretty white so that is not so new. The chin hair won't last anyway.

I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week in New Orleans at the seminary doing some training for the youth ministry crew there and all of those guys are just great folks. They each are strong personal friends of mine and one of them is a former boss of mine who has taught me many things over the years. He retired from regular work and has been teaching at the seminary for quite a few years now. I did a 5-miler and a 10-miler down there and they were both hot and humid and pretty much miserable. I ran through the a neighborhood I usually run through and some of those homes are coming back. I drove through the Ninth Ward and the St. Bernard areas though and they are still in pretty bad shape. Hard to believe that the Katrina storm and the flooding was almost three years ago. Remember to pray for the folks in New Orleans.

Morgan is in full swing with soccer scrimmages and they are looking pretty good. They could really use a few more bodies but they are playing pretty well and have had to play both scrimmages a man down.

Shelbi is a couple of weeks away from heading to Union and is still working and her oral surgery with the wisdom teeth going away seems to have healed pretty well. Sondra is gearing up to teach the first nine weeks at DCA while another teacher is on maternity leave. Sondra is pretty excited about teaching algebra and pre-algebra. She is good at the stuff and is the sole reason I graduated from college. She saved my bacon for sure.

Today is the last day of work for a few of my good friends who lost their jobs. My best friend at work, Sid has set a great example of dealing with adversity and maintaining your walk. I can say the same thing about each of my friends who lost their job in the last few weeks from where I work. I do not profess to understand how all decisions are made and am working through alot of stuff related to the job losses. Thankful I have a job and hurting for many of my friends.

I ran a 20-miler today and finished it averaging 9 min. miles. I was glad to be done but it fit into my schedule the way it needed to and I hit my marks. Looking forward to a weekend at home with many things going on.

Loving the Olympics and Michael Phelps. He is the man!

He Can Fly

Michael Phelps was just purely amazing last night in his 7th gold (at least I think it is his 7th) in the 400 IM. He just seems to fly in the water. I know there are many other athletes and many other stories coming out of Beijing, but I am just amazed at his swimming ability.

The murder tragedy and stabbing out of Beijing is so incredibly sad. I know that does not represent all of the Chinese people and it is a very sad situation. I sure hurt for the families effected.

I fly to New Orleans in a little while to do some training with some good friends in ministry. Pray that training will go well. These men are great ministers and are always an encouragement to me. I am thankful for the opportunity.

When I was running 5 yesterday, I sure did not feel as though I was flying. The last couple of weeks' training have included some longer runs than I have done in over a year and the speed workouts are designed to make you faster and they take their toll as well.

Last night Sondra and I headed over to some friends for a night out on the lake and so enjoyed our time with the Drummonds. They are really great people who we just do not get to be around near enough. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a good meal at a marina on Old Hickory Lake. I know the place had a name but I am not sure I ever clued in to what it was. We spent about three hours on the lake and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I am loving the Olympics. I like swimming, soccer (today's USA men's game was disappointing ending in a tie), boxing, handball, and . . . heck, I pretty much like it all. Beach volleyball is pretty exciting too and is the game I enjoyed the most when we were in Athens in '04.

It was a pretty good day at church today as well. We have three more Sundays with our married with no kids class and then we are headed out to begin a new class with a couple targeted at reaching collegiates. Should be great fun!

Wisdom

I ask for it every day and according to James, "if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask and He will give it freely." Granted it is not a magic charm, but I know that I need wisdom. There are many things going on around the Turner's and we are asking for wisdom. I know that God will provide it.

Shelbi got her wisdom teeth cut out today and she is doing fairly miserable but no more than what one would expect. She had one tooth that was pretty tough and it is pretty sore right now but she will make it.

I think my dad may be one of the wisest guys I know. He just seems to be patient and wait on God to show him the next step. I think wisdom and patience must go hand in hand. I seem to be lacking in both of those categories.

I talked to my good buddy Shelby today and he is beginning to get some relief from the pain he has been living with for years. It was good to hear his voice and to know he is doing some better. Thanks for continuing to pray for Sondra's parents.

I question my wisdom this morning in running 13 miles and then heading to work. Actually, it was not all that bad, but it was fairly humid. I was thankful to run 10 of with some of my running buddies. Sure makes the run go better.

Can't wait for the Olympics to start (actually I know they already have) but am ready for the full-on Olympic events. Was disappointed our US women's soccer team got skunked yesterday. Bummer.

Back in the Swing of Things

We had a great weekend, Morgan and I, just hanging out together. We did a little school shopping (tax free weekend), napping, and then headed out for dinner on Sat. and then to see The Dark Knight. That is one good movie. Full of action and the whole good vs. evil, shading towards the dark side when trying to be good. All in all a very good movie. Sunday was very busy with church and training conference.

Monday was the first day back in the office after the word that about 5% of the workforce would be losing their jobs. Pretty tough stuff for everyone involved for sure.

Sondra and Shelbi made it back from MO today and had a really good visit with her folks and even saw my dad on Monday for lunch and a short visit. Sondra's folks seem to be holding their own right now. Her dad has lost quite a bit of weight but all in all is doing okay. Pray that he will want to eat more.

Running has been good and hot but I am right on track with all of my training. Today's workout of 10 miles with 5 x 1 mile repeats. What a fun workout or not so fun.

It was an all day meeting at work that proved to be fairly productive. Some of the changes at work will effect our team. Change is not bad, just definitely different. The future looks pretty good to me though.

It has been really hot here so the icy picture is to make me think it is cooler than it actually is.

Long Roads

I took out this morning about 6a and headed out for my 18 mile run. The weather was more humid than I hoped for but it was cloudy/foggy so the sun did not beat down on me the whole time. I was determined to only do 9 minute miles and ended up doing 9 minute miles. I have a tendency to run too fast on the long runs and over train and I was disciplined today. Who knew? I ended up running most of it on the greenway and it is very hilly in parts, but I do not have to dodge traffic and most of it is shaded. All in all, it was a pretty good long run, but it was 18 miles.

Yesterday and today have been hard days regarding work in a lot of ways. Mostly people. With the economic down turn, I know all ministries and businesses are having to make some drastic moves. We are not immune at my place of employment. Some of my best friends at work and in life were let go. I know that God will take care of them and am not just saying that, but I sure hurt when others hurt. Being merciful just hurts some times but cannot compare to the feelings that my friends must be going through.

I still have my job for which I am thankful and I will have a new boss. I was thinking about that today while running and this will be my fourth boss in the last three years. I must be hard on bosses. My current boss is retiring and is landing well but I will miss him terribly. He has been an icon and a legend. Others of my friends have been at my place of employment for many years and they will be seeking new areas of ministry. Each of them are highly skilled, incredibly competent people. They will be fine. I am also experiencing survivor's guilt I think.

Sondra and Shelbi drive to MO to spend time with Sondra's parents and just left a few minutes ago. That is about an 8 hour drive that they are breaking up by spending the night with some friends of ours who live about half way in between here and her parents. Praying for their safety on the long road.

Morgan is at the lake today and I will be doing training at Long Hollow tonight with my good buddy Jeff L. He is one wild man who loves people and it will be good to be around his people and him.