I will hit 200 miles this week!

I'm so excited!!!  I am almost 1/5 of the way there!  On Thursday I will hit mile 200 - funnnnnn!  I might have technically hit it already... but I'm only logging 3 miles a day - even when I do go a little further than 3.  Its just easier to keep track that way on my calendar :)

Speaking of calendars... I'm posting a little calendar for March so anyone who sees a mile or two (or three!)  that they want to claim, can do that!  Just send me a comment on here - or on facebook - and let me know which miles you want. 

And of course you are all invited for Mile 250.  We are planning on having the party either March 19th, which is a Saturday - or March 20th, Sunday after church.  It will be in San Marcos, and you can either walk my full 3 miles with me that day - walk just mile 250 - or just show up and hang out and eat, pray, play, sing and have fun! :)

My sister came up last night to walk with me (the rangers tried to turn her away at multiple locations... the roads were bad and people were acting crazy!! - but she managed to get up here for a walk!)

I am so glad that we walked - because though we slipped many... many times, we didn't fall!  AND - it was just a beautiful day out!  The sun was glinting off the snow, making it sparkle -and it was just a really nice walk with my walking buddy!

Oh!  For all my monthly sponsors - I finished my full month of walking!  Don't forget to click on that donate button please! :)

For all my prayer sponsors - I finished my full month of walking!  Don't forget to say of praise of thanks for His faithfulness please! :)

Did I ever tell you about the initial stages of me starting to walk?  It was completely motivated by selfish reasons.  Before God gave me the idea to walk for a Jesus well - I had asked my hubby if he would help motivate me to stay consistent with my exercise.

I contrived of a incentive program that he would match my walking miles with travel miles for us.  250 would get me to Las Vegas (never been there - thought it might be fun), 500 - Sedona, AZ, 750 - Santa Fe, NM, 1000- Portland, and 1100 Seattle. 

Now, I found locations for all those miles - but I only wanted to go to Seattle.  I just figured if I didn't make the full 1100 miles, I would still get a consolation prize hahahaha.

So batting my eyelashes, I lovingly and sweetly asked my husband if he thought this would be a good idea.

Smiling, he tenderly looked down at me and replied. "No."

We are planning on a big family vacation later in the year, and he didn't think it was wise to split up our vacation savings to Seattle as well.

Understanding on the outside, but whining on the inside, I said "yeah you're probably right!  But don't you worry! I'll still walk!  I'll still make my goal!"

I lasted two days.

So.... then the cut to the rest of the story which you already know... watching the Gospel for Asia dvd, being amazed at the well, gotta get the well... walk for the well...  I just gave up on Seattle - cuz really - Seattle is cool.  Jesus Well is cooler.  :)

But then God - being my God - the One who loves me - the One who delights in seeing me smile... decided to give me a little present.

Joseph's conference for Christian chefs this year was in Portland - and he added 2 days... in Seatlle.  :)

I'm so glad that he loves me, but He loves me even more!

So - we leave for that little present this weekend.  I will be walking my 3 miles hitting the Space Needle, Pike's place and the original Starbucks.  so fun!

Check out my calendar and let me know of any days that look like they will work for you!

love you all

Walking, talking, talking and talking!

I’m catching up here – so it’s a long one again!

Life has been soooooo busy!  When it rains – it pours.  And when it snows – ugh.

I am so thankful that my treadmill is fixed!!!  (hubby, you are the best!)  I would NOT want to be out walking in snow right now!

Last week I got to speak at our youth group, and talk all about “Well worth the walk”!

I wasn’t scared at all!  There were 70 teenagers (of whom I knew maybe 20%), and I was not scared - at - all. 

It was more like terrified.  Yes, mm hmm, – that’s the word I was looking for! Haha

I know! I know!!!!  I shouldn’t be.  But there is something about being in that environment that brings you right back to high school.  Honestly, is there anyone that would want to repeat those years of your life??  Not even if you paid me. 

It was like I could feel myself breaking out as I was speaking!!! Lol

They were very gracious – and they really paid attention!!  They were supportive, and no one picked up their phones to text while I was talking!

Ok – one did.  (yep, didn’t think I saw you did you? Hahahahaha)  But one out of 70??? Come on- that’s amazing!

Here is the thing that was the best – 5 teens prayed for the well, the campaign, the community who will receive the well, and for me!  Loved that part! :)

Speaking of being prayed for – I emailed Gospel for Asia just for fun and let them know what I was doing, and Stephanie K. (from Gospel for Asia) emailed me back and encouraged me!  Then she sent me a handwritten postcard telling me that she prayed for me!!! So special! 

This little campaign has spread so many people already – and we haven’t even gotten to the part where we share the well!  In preparation for that part, I went to the GFA site and watched a Jesus well video.  If you get the chance, go to Gospel for Asia’s website, and watch the video on how they install the well.  Wow.  It just helps to make what we’re doing a little more real.  When you watch it – would you remember to pray for the hearts in our Asian community?

 

I can’t wait for them to receive this well – but more than anything, I want them to know that the blessing is from the God who loves them.  I want them to see His hand working through fellow believers across the world.  I just want them to receive His gift of Living Water in preparation for their drinking water!  But who knows- maybe He will give some drinking water in preparation for the Living Water!  He does all things well.  I will trust Him and just keep my focus on what I need to do!

For my walking this week, I got to walk with soooooo many people!!! I didn't take pictures because I was walking with them one-on-one, and I thought they would feel really weird with me taking a picture of only them... and from behind?  just weird. hahaha

God has just been so good to me this past week.  Or - maybe I am just especially aware of how good He has been to me this past week!  Strangely enough, its been a rough week.  so busy.  so strained. so stretched.  But – so good!

There were days when I would have rather do ANYTHING else than walk.  And there were days when I was just so down and needed a good kick!  But then there were days like today - where I was just feeling soooooo wonderful and I walked...

not 3.

not 6.

not 9.

But -12 miles. 

Woooo hoooooo!

it just felt so good!  I walked with Emily this morning, and with Jennifer this afternoon, and I just felt like I could keep walking forever!  The song lyrics “You do not faint, you won’t grow weary…. You lift us up on wings, like eagles” were playing over and over.

and I was soaring!

Tomorrow morning I’m out with Hannah - and I can’t wait!  The Lord just worked out my schedule so that I was able to do it all.  And I am so thrilled that I still have my treadmill to walk on.  We are expecting a foot of snow this weekend - i am REALLY going to be loving my treadmill this weekend!!!!  But there is just something so special about walking outside with friends!

My sister hasn't been able to come up and walk with me lately (I sad!!!)- but she has been walking a lot with her friends down in the city (I happy!!!)- and we just were talking about what a blessing that is - to have fun walking - and talking - with company :)

Funnily enough - after 12 miles - guess what hurts the most on my body??

my throat! hahahaha

cuz i talked almost 90% of the time with my girlfriends :)  I was literally hoarse at the end of the night.  So next time - its their job to talk, and i'll just do the walking – if they can manage to keep me quiet hehehe.

Thank you all for your continued prayers even though I’ve been quiet on here.  So many things have been going on with me, so much growth and stretching, and seeing God’s loving hand in everything in my life – but there are just days when I don’t make it to my blog.  But I promise – I’ll not be silent for long!  And when I catch up – just hold on to your eardrums – or I guess – your eyeballs, since you’re reading hehehehe

Love you all!  The Mile 250 party is fast approaching!  I’ll send out more information as it gets closer! My mom is helping me plan it – so it should be soooooo fun!  She is the Party Planning Queen! 

Keep praying for His joy in my heart and life!  It is definitely my Strength!

Oops – p.s.  please, if you love snow – come up and enjoy it next week when we will have a ton!!!  Just call us up and tell us you’re coming!  There are days when we are down the mountain, but you can still come up on those days if you are ok with enjoying the snow on your own! 

My God loves Sudoku!

Stay with me here, i'll get there...

I know that most people see God and His majesty displayed in creation – and I do as well.  We look out at the splendor of His creation and know that only a God as amazing as our own could be the Master Artist behind all of this.  Rori and I were talking about that same thing yesterday.  She was relating a story to me about how she was on vacation and just couldn’t pull herself away from her run on the shore because she was overwhelmed by the experience!

I get this.  (I didn’t always – but I do now.  It’s not that I wasn’t amazed by creation – but I kinda thought well of COURSE He did this. duh. What kind of God would He be if He wasn’t capable of this and more??  I just expect greatness from a Great God.)  But I do see what you see now.  I live on top of a mountain.  I guess He just wanted to show me a better view of Him.  Yeahhh – He’s pretty amazing :)

However - I am an analyzer.  Though I have my creative, artistic side, and it’s a pretty active side…I am equally logical.  I am mathematical.  I love algebra.  I love puzzles.  My sister laughs at me all the time because there are times when she poses questions to me, and she can literally watch as that side of my brain takes over and starts computing.  I swear, I think she does it on purpose!  Just because it entertains her that 1. I have that switch - that 2. she can flip it so easily!  brat!! hahaha  It’s unmistakable when I am “there” too.  I just get this robotic, glazed look .  She swears the green Matrix numbers are filing down just beyond my retinas.

So Sudoku.  Have you ever seen those puzzles?  You either love them or you hate them – but I see God in them.  They are amazing!  I mean – every number has a place and there is no other place for the right number except in the right place.  And it doesn’t just click in its own little cube.  It also has to click in the vertical line its connected to – and the horizontal line its connected to – and the entire puzzle.  Some of them have color codes that need to be analyzed, and some even have more criteria to take into account!

Did you ever drive down the highway and look at people in passing cars?  I do.  Not only do I look at them, but I wonder what a day in their life would be like.  What makes them laugh? What makes them scared?  Why am I looking into THEIR particular car at that moment and what effect do they – even though they are strangers – have on me?  Wait - she looked over and saw me staring... what is she thinking now based on my looking at her?!  And that is just one car – one family – that intrigues me.  What about the thousands of cars that are passing up and down the highway, everyday, all the time? What about each little window in each hotel, or highrise, or skyscraper - and all the lives that each window represents.  Go to New York.  Look at the immensity.  Open up Google earth and start spinning the globe.

(computer overload – rebooting… lol)

What about the “random” person that you smile at in the store?  What about the issues that I’m exposed to daily? What about how my issues involve other people?  What about you reading my blog!!! It’s too much for my mind!  I can’t even handle the expert Sudoku puzzles – but God has this world – full of individuals that are intertwined and meshing, and affecting one another, and influencing one another – all for His purpose.  And He doesn’t just know me in a general way.  He knows me intimately.  I pray for something, and He hears.  He answers.  He speaks.  He loves.

When I am listening to Pastor John’s message (like this Sunday!) I am thinking – SURELY  he must have a bug inside my house, he must be following me on my walks and reading my thoughts, because HOW is this message EXACTLY what I was going through this week???  Of course, he doesn’t know my thoughts - but we do share a bond. The Spirit that is in him, is in me.  We are shoots from the same Vine.  The Spirit that is speaking through him, has been opening my ears and preparing me the whole week to hear those words.

so good.

And so - I know that my God loves Sudoku. (told you I'd get there)

I am in my own little cube, but horizontally, and vertically – I still fit exactly where He wants me to be.  I know He wants me exactly where I am, because I am there.  When He moves me, I will be exactly where He wants me, and when He wants me.  Even when I’m "stuck", He reveals another number in the adjacent line that He will use to complete me.  He has placed me in the infinitely bigger picture of His whole puzzle -and the puzzle is not just the 9 by 9 square I’m used to solving.  It’s like a billion x billion x billion cube!  Ok – its bigger than that too….

(computer overload – rebooting.)

I love that He is so infinitely bigger than my mind can comprehend.



This one looked fun!  Its a kid's sudoku - so why not give it a try :)
I'm not gonna give instructions - look them up yourself hahahaha



P.S.  My husband figured out how to fix my treadmill - Happy Valentines day to meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I love you Joseph :)

I can see your house from here :)

Yesterday was perfect because, well...

Sometimes I wonder what I should share with you and what I shouldn't.  Not because it's unimportant or invaluable, but just because I think maybe it's only so meaningful to me, ya know? Maybe it was just between me and Him or something like that.  You know the verse that talks about Mary "pondering all those things" surrounding Christ's birth.  It says she treasured them and pondered those things in her heart.  Sometimes thats how I feel after a walk- like there are way too many things to try to put into words.

Who knows - I'll just write.

My treadmill is dying (sad day) ; I haven't played Taps yet, but it's definitely about to walk out the door and sneak off into the woods to find a solitary place to meet it's Maker. Good ol' Tready.  Who could have predicted that I would put him through so much work in the last few remaining months of his life?  I mean he sat there collecting dust for YEARS.  I'm sure he thought he was already put out to pasture, and then I started my well walk. Ha! I didn't see it coming. I'm sure he didn't either.

Anyway- so I reached 1.5 miles on Tready, and quickly realized one of us was destined to break if I continued, and it quite possibly and seriously could have been me with all the jerking the machine was doing. ( YouTube some treadmill disasters when you get the chance. I was about to be a star in one- so it was time to continue outdoors.)

Joe came home from work and I asked him to drop me off at the top of the hill, so I could walk my way all the way back to the front door of our home to finish up the remaining miles.

He obliged (nice hubby) and dropped me off at my starting point. In front of me was the nice downhill road leading all the way back to our house, and behind me (looming treacherously) the dreaded road uphill - I mean - upMOUNTAIN to Boucher. I knew if I took the road down- it wouldn't be the full 1.5 miles, so I thought wellllll, why don't I just walk a quarter mile up towards Boucher and then I can turn around and come right back!

Every time I would give myself a marker to hit, something would catch my eye just past where I had determined to go... So I would add a few more yards...

Right!!  so I made it to the top, hahahahahaha

Oh - by the way, along the way up to the top of Boucher, I got a really great shot across the valley, showing a different perspective of where we walked when Cory took us on the dreaded "Green Mile" hike-  which had to be 5 miles at least!!!!  Check out the pic below, click on it and it will open up full size. I still can't believe I did THAT and was afraid of little old Boucher!!!

Yeah, that's my nickname for it now "little ol' Boucher" hehehe  It seriously wasn't bad at all!!!

Amazing how things can scare or intimidate you from a distance. You start moving though, and doesn't His strength just kick right in?

Actually- His strength never left me. I was just too preoccupied with my own issues to "activate" it. Hahaha

Up at the top of Boucher, wow- that view just never ever gets old. Looking north to south, I can see from Lake Elsinore all the way to Mexico- and allllll the ocean in between.  And looking west, I can see all the way to Catalina island (and San Clemente island).  The sun was just shimmering off that ocean, and it was -in a word, sublime!  And if you look all the way around, it's nuts!! You have like a 300 degree view. I can seriously see everything up there- even your house ;)

So at the top, I just stopped and watched this cool little hawk doing his thing. Two others joined in the mix and it was spectacular to watch- especially when they started to hunt. Watch that from on top a mountain sometime. You look down on birds in flight. Wild.

The day was perfect for just closing your eyes and letting the sun warm you with the breeze blowing sweet kisses your way :)   I had to pull myself away to go back home.

On the way down... Hmmmm, yeah that's just between me and Him :)

Suffice it to say, I walked by myself- but I was never alone.

Can't wait for heaven! Can you?  :)

Click on this picture to see it bigger.  See the snow-capped mountain in the background?  So, that light green patch in the middle is the field we climbed, and then follow it all the way up to the peak.  yep - the Green (5) Mile(s).  oy!




You have to click on this picture to enlarge it to see the ocean and the islands properly.  And you gotta come see it in real life :)




Look at the sun glinting off the water. This is only one piece of the panoramic view! 



The Road Less Travelled

Remember that poem by Robert Frost?  I think every single person in the U.S. has had to memorize that at some point!  Of all the poems that I've had to memorize, this one sticks out in my head the most.  Its the one that I remember the best, and I can still almost quote the entire thing.

Well on today's journey, we came to one of our favorite spots, and right as we were about to start walking to the left- what did my little eye spy to the right???  The road less travelled. 

It was just beyond the road, and from where we were standing, it looked like it could be a trail - so I asked Joe if he thought we should check it out.  and of course my husband said "Let's go!"

I was not at all disappointed.

It was an adventure - and right there  - off a main road in Escondido, tucked away only about 100 feet from the road - was this cool, little trail!!!

As we continued on - it turned into this untamed, secret pathway to a different time.  Or - at least, I thought so!  The trees even started to look prehistoric!  We could hear the water of a litle stream to the left of us.  At points, the water would just disappear, and I can only assume it was underground at that point.  I started talking about how neat it was that water underground is all connected!  How this water is underneath the ground and how our well would have to be dug to connect to water underground!  I thought it was so amazing, and the kids did too!  I could tell they were impressed with my musings because right after I finished talking, they quickly ran away to express their amusement in this discovery of mine!

As they were running, I made sure to look back at Joe and tell him they weren't running away from this discussion - they were just really excited.  He just nodded, smiled, and kept walking.  That's why I married him.

*smile*

As we walked further, we came upon a little family walking through this path.  They had tons of shopping bags, the little girl was slung across the dad's back, and I thought - this is not a fun little walk for them - this appears to be a normal walk "home".  It was just a little reminder of why I was walking - for people in need. 

God just keeps giving me these little moments of clarity.  Its amazing how when you asked to be used, He doesn't just use you to help others, but uses your environment, the people around you, your daily situation to bring to mind everything He says in His Word - just bring it to life in an amazing way.  I think about all the times when He is pouring into me His precious truths, and as soon as I think the "lesson" is over, I'm running in my own direction - just like my little kiddles.  He's pretty patient. 

hmmmm.

I love you guys.  Thanks for being part of the lesson for me.

So little!  they can walk right under!

too big.  need to duck :)

This is just too funny.  My 6'8" husband! hehehe

Kinda prehistoric looking, right???



I know its the sun's rays filtered through the trees.  But everytime I see rays like this - I think its God's reminder to me of how much He loves me.  I don't know why - I just do!!!  love this picture :)