Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

DSCF0174

Originally uploaded by blakethompson.

A quick look at my two daughters. They light up my life. They make me smile.

Well Saturday was a busy day. Started with going to Home Depot for some trees. My dad bought us two red oaks and one red maple. So we dug a hole and planted the first one and then ate a quick lunch before the easter egg hunt at. But then it was off to Jackson for the Run From The Sun.

The plan was for The Wife to run the race while I waited w/ my dad and the girls. Then Addison would run the 1 mile fun run, I’d run with her, and The Wife would wait w/ my dad and youngest daughter.

But on the way to the run, The Wife calls and asks if I want to run it with her. She says that there are some friends from church there running it too. Now I still had my sights set on the April 28th run. Yes, I’d run a few times recently, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to run a 5K that day. I’d just drank a lot of Mt. Dew and it was HOT!

But as it turns out, before it all started, I decided to register and run. So as The Wife blazed on ahead, I started my slow plod to the end. For some reason, the race is called Run From the Sun, but it felt like we were in the blazing sun for about 95% of the race. But I finished the run in about 32 or so minutes. I was shooting for 31 because that would have meant a 10 minute pace per mile. But the killer hill up High Street in Jackson put a few minutes on my time.

After the finish, Addie ran the 1 mile. She ran it in 11:22 I think. She was the 2nd fastest 4 year old to run it. And she was really zooming the last little bit of it. She was quite proud.

Here are the race results in PDF format.

I’d heard the name before, but never been a part. And we were running late as Addie, my dad, and I entered the church at about 6:04. I could hear the pastor reading scripture, but couldn’t see him. Only a table up front with candles and some containers up there. Then I saw Bob sitting on the front pew, facing the front like everyone else, as he was reading from The Gospel.

We took a seat and began to look at the bulletin. Hmmm. This Taize’ service isnt’ like a regular service.

Taizé, pronounced (Teh-ZAY) is an ecumenical, peaceful way to pray, using (easy to learn) musical chants, silent meditation, and scripture readings… a meditative, common prayer. Gathered in the presence of Christ we sing uncomplicated repetitive short songs like breath prayers, uncluttered by too many words, allowing the mystery of God to become tangible through the beauty of the Spirit in its simplicity. A few words sung over and over again (mantra) reinforce the meditative quality of prayer. They express a basic reality of faith that can quickly be grasped by the intellect, and will gradually penetrate the whole being.

After scripture and repeatedly singing “Remember me when You come into Your Kingdom” there was time for silent and reflective prayer. It lasted quite a while, then an invitation to light a candle and place it in a mini-sandbox of sorts as a sign of repentance and then to pray at the alter. If you desired to be anointed w/ oil and one of the pastors to pray over you, you’d cup your hands as a signal.

I told Addie I was going to go down and she was quite insistent that she knew how to do it. That she could light a candle. But I told her to wait and we’d explain everything at a later time. So I went up and prayed and was annoited and returned. And she still was saying she could do it.

I told her that people were doing it as a sign of turning from wrong living and telling God they wanted to live completely for Him. She nodded. And she wanted to go ahead.After explaining again that we’d talk about it later, she seemed to be okay w/ waiting. But then I began to think. Even if she, in her four year old head, doesn’t understand it completely, should that keep her from wanting to go down and pray? Heck, how many of the adults that go down understand it completely? Probably NONE. So we went.

She lit a candle, set it in the sand. And then we went to kneel. I prayed for her, and could her her whispering a prayer at the same time. I don’t know if it was one of her own, or if she was repeating mine. And then Davis, our Associate Pastor prayed over her for God to give her wisdom and understanding of Him as she grows and annointed her with oil.

It was quite special.

Yesterday morning my dad called and said he was thinking of coming down to see us. So he’s here now. And he’s here in one of the busier weekends of our schedule it seems. Yesterday there was a birthday party/egg hunt, then a Good Friday service (more on that later) and then there was a concert of local bands to benefit Don Barr’s mission trip to India this fall.

Today will be a church wide Easter egg hunt, then the race this evening. The Wife is running the 5K while I run with Addie on the one mile fun run. We’ll see how she does. Sometimes she loves it, sometimes she’s really hesitant. But I’m thinking she’ll do fine. Her age bracket is 0-5. So I figure there’ll be some 5 year old kids that can run much quicker than her. But I just want her to finish it well.

Tomorrow is a morning of THREE services. And I get the honor of having the children’s sermon on Easter Sunday. It’s like the biggest day in all of the calendar for a children’s time. So if anyone has any outstanding ideas to share w/ me before tomorrow, be sure to lay them out right here.

But Addie is loving my dad being here. She has always loved him. But it seems she’s taken to an extra attatchment this weekend. Here’s an older picture of the two of them.

Feast 89

Appetizer
What movie soundtracks do you own?
Man, I have quite a few. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (c’mon, I was in high school), Batman, Titanic, Vanilla Sky, Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, The Wonder Years, Forrest Gump, etc.
Soup
How much cash do you usually carry with you?
Usually zero dollars. Sad, huh?
Salad
Are you more comfortable around men or women? Why?
I’m equal opportunity.
Main Course
What is the most mischievous thing you remember doing as a child?
Putting a snake under a friends pillow. He went to bed that night and slid his hands under his pillow. Found a snake. Freaked out. Didn’t talk to me until our 10 year class reunion.
Dessert
Who is the funniest member of your family?
Years ago I would have said my grandfather, hands down.

At one time this season, Mississippi State baseball was #1 in the country.  18 wins. Zero losses. Then they went to LSU and went 2-1 there. They kept the #1 ranking. But it’s been downhill since then. Since they were 18-0, they have gone 7-7. Freaking 7 wins and 7 losses. Something has gone amiss. And I hope they can get it back together.

I’m not ready to say that the game has passed Coach Ron Polk by. No way. But am I ready to say that he should be the coach for a long while…..doubt it.

Fever is never good for a baby. I say baby, but mean a kid 2 or younger. Our oldest daughter used to get some pretty high fevers. It even spiked up to 105.x one time (that looks like a radio station).  We got a little worried. It was weird that time because there was a friend over for supper. But we had to put her in a tub of warmish/cool water, sponge her down and give her a double dose of baby Advil and baby Tylonol. But anytime we called a doctor, they’d ask if she was eating and seeming in a fairly decent mood. She always was.

We never took her in, and the fever always broke finally. Usually over night w/ a lot of sweating and wet hair (looked funny when she woke up).

But our youngest has had a fever this week. Not nearly as high. But one of those lingering fevers that she smiles through unless she’s really tired or hungry. I wonder if it’s a family thing? Both of them have seemed to get random fevers w/ out any other symptoms except a runny nose.

I have a lot of books. I have a habit of seeing books I want to get, buying them and reading the first third or half or whatever, and then putting it down, picking up another and then never going back to the previous book. So here’s a list of books I already own. I don’t need to go to Amazon or LifeWay or wherever and browse for the newest book with fantastic reviews. I need to start w/ what I already have and plow through them!

The Divine Conspiracy
Radical Reformission
Seven Practices of Effective Ministry
Podcasting For Dummies
Naked Conversations
The God Bearing Life 

All of those after the Bible, of course. I’m also going to dive into The Da Vinci Code since it is getting so much hype and the movie comes out next month. I remember reading Dan Kimball’s take on Da Vinci vs. Narnia and the effect it can have on conversations. So I want to know a little before hand.

I’m checking out Last.fm after seing it in someone’s profile from their blog.

Pretty interesting. It basically watches what you listen to in your media player on your computer (Windows Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp) and then will recommend artists, songs, and other users music tastes and play them through a little radio thingy.

Sounds interesting. We’ll see.

My wife is the runner. I am the poser when it comes to running. I’ll do it now and then. But I seem to concentrate less on the “now” and more on the “then”. There was a time when I ran more regularly, but it hasn’t been lately. But even on our wedding date, the two of us ran in the Gum Tree 10K run in Tupelo, MS before our wedding. Heck, even one of her bridesmaids and four of my groomsmen ran it with us.

Leading up to that day, my wife (fiance) and I would run a 10K race on the weekend, then I’d spend all week recovering from the soreness and stiffness, then run another one. We did that for 4 weekends straight until our wedding “race”.

But yesterday my wife brings up a race that’s going to be here in Clinton. It’s the Brickstreet Firefly 5K. At first, I thought, “Cool, I can do this.” But then she goes and starts telling some friends about it too, wanting us all to run it together.  So now I have more people to worry about. With just Beverly, I know I’ll finish behind her, but with a slew of other people, I’ll have to actually train a little so I won’t come in last in our group of friends. Who likes coming in last?

So. Now I MUST run to prepare. Three weeks. That’s enough, right? Enough time to build up some endurance. To build up a little burst of speed for the end. And maybe a little confidence as well so I really don’t come in last of all the people I know running.

Oh, and on my wedding day….Beverly came in first from our wedding party, and I came in …. last! But I was saving my energy!