2011

I don't send out Christmas cards and I probably should. But really, who wants to get a Christmas card that says "Hey, Happy Holidays. Haven't talked to you in a year. I'm divorced"? (I know. I should work for Hallmark.)

Instead, here's a long and potentially boring blog post in case I haven't seen you or talked to you in awhile.

The Class of 2015 - I've been with this class since they were just tiny 6th graders. We did a lot this year - from night sledding and winning the Great Frozen Fish Relay at BOCO to crying a lot. A LOT at summer camp in Nebraska to 8th grade prom and a lot of days spent at the park after Bible study. I have some of the best memories with this class. I count it a privilege to have gotten to be of their lives and hope to see them at their weddings someday and embarrass the snot out of them.

 
Community - I've had some really excellent friends that have walked with me through a lot of different stages of life, but I've never had friends like the ones I have now. I hope they feel this way too, but we just get each other. We have the same sarcastic, judgmental sense of humor. We are all "running" together through church/stage of life/work even though our paths to get here are vastly different. Mostly it feels like we live in a sitcom. Or possibly Napoleon Dynamite. Or Harry Potter. Without the magic.

 Promotions/Marketing - If you've known me for even a second, you know that work is a rather large part of my life. My schedule is ridiculous, but it's seriously a blast. Every day at work is different. Some days I am cutting out endless cards, other days I'm trying to think of something interesting to say for 6 different shows and still other days I'm playing chauffeur for one of the artists we play on the station. Someone told me last night, "your job is AWESOME!" Yeah. It sort of is.

 
Elephant in the Blog Post - This year was one of the hardest I've ever lived through. I got a divorce from the man I was married to for less than 2 years. Honestly, I've arrived in a place where I'm not angry, bitter or scared anymore (that's another blog post for another day). If you ask me how I'm doing today... I can honestly say I'm doing well. We both are.

Little Man Ice Cream/Two Rivers Coffee/Snooze/Culinary Adventures - I'm a fat kid at heart and would be remiss if I left these wonderful places that I would be the mayor of, if I used FourSquare, out of this post. The community I referred to above and I spent a lot of time at all of these places and cooking a lot of stuff that was just a recipe we found online. I should probably be fatter.

Half-Marathons  - I've now completed 3. Two of those were this year and neither in the state that I live in. One in Washington DC in March and one in Las Vegas in December. Missed my goal in DC by 1 minute and 19 seconds, but did set a PR. That's something, right? 

Class of 2018  - Yeah. So the class of 2015 moved on and got old and went to high school. I made the difficult decision to start over with another group of 6th graders for a multitude of reasons, one of which was that I wanted them to love and follow Jesus. Not love and follow me. This is a class of utterly broken kids, the richest of the rich, the poorest of the poor, the naive and the experienced. I have no idea where God is going to take us, but I'm excited to be along for the ride.

I was looking at pictures from last year at this time and feeling like it was a lifetime ago. Definitely a life-style ago. I've said before, this is not where I pictured myself at 25.

I own a home.
I have a cat.
I'm divorced.
I'm working in Promotions/Marketing still at my first radio gig. And added a couple out-of-market voice tracking jobs.
I'm amazed at the way God has brought people into my life that need to hear from someone who's exactly where I am.
Kids, friends, church, work... it fits like a puzzle. Like Someone might have a plan for it all.
And I'm learning that I serve a big God that can take what is ugly and create something masterful.

Now wasn't that just the most interesting thing that you've read all day?
No?
Yeah. Me neither.