Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

I’m supposed to be at teh church in 90 minutes. We meet at 3:30am. Load up in the bus. I’ll drive everyone to the airport and we’ll get situated there. We’ll wait for a while. The Wife will ask why we had to get there so early when we’re just standing in a line that isn’t even open.

But then we’ll go to ATL, wait there for a while, eat a brunch of sorts and see people flying to all parts of the country/world. Then the last flight of the day takes us straight into Liberia!

I’m looking forward to many things.

• I’m looking forward to seeing old friends that I made last year on the same trip.
• I’m looking forward to eating some of the fantastic food the senoritas make there at the church.
• I’m looking forward to brushing up on my spanish on the plane to make me bi-lingual.
• I’m looking forward to going on the trip with my wife and sharing the experience with her. Should be quite awesome.
• But I’m looking forward to seeing God move through our team and through me.

So as sit at the computer with no sleep and none in sight, I ask for your prayers as we embark on the journey!

Twelve days til we make the trek to Costa Rica.  We’re going back to the little Methodist church, Fountain of Grace in Liberia. If you look at the link, you’ll see an older picture. Here are some newer pictures of the church and our trip last summer. We’ll be doing more construction on the new sanctuary and putting on a Bible School as well. (For some interesting thoughts on VBS, check out Tally Wiligis’ post)
Exciting thing is that The Wife is coming this year! How cool is that? But we’ll be leaving the kiddies behind, so that might be a slight stress point for The Wife. But she’s never been out of the country before, and she’s an incredible worker. I am afraid she might work everyone else into the ground.

My back has been troubling me just a bit. I’ve realized my “core” or trunk of my body is lacking in strength and flexibility, so I took Pilates for the first time today. Wasn’t too bad. But I will be a bit sore tomorrow. But I need to do something now or be in a bad way years from now.

So pray for our trip to Costa Rica, pray for my core, and pray for my wife as we leave the girls in the States while we travel to Costa Rica.

Well, it seems youth trips are sometimes Sleep Depravation experiments. But especially our Destination Unknown Trips.

Friday morning we all gathered in the parking lot to head out to Birmingham. They kids didn’t know where we were going, and I was missing our road atlas, but it was all good. I knew the first stop. So we stopped in Bessemer, AL to hit Alabama Adventure. It was a nice, small little water park SLASH amusement park on the outskirts of Birmingham. A great place to get a sunburn and get dizzy and throw up.

We missed lunch so made it through thick traffic for a 4pm lunch. What better to do after a late lunch than go to a mall and have an early supper. So we hang out in the air conditioner and then people find their own supper. Then it’s to the big show!  Game Zone and their awesome laser tag.  It might not have been the best I’ve ever played out, but far from the worst. I was even Top Gunner our 2nd game. But we had to punt on the last game because we had to get to the church where we were sleeping. So we rescheduled the last game for the next morning.
So we get to the church, get our bearings, then go get some cokes so we can go to sleep early. This is about midnight by now. So we all break out in a game of Mafia (site, site). If you’ve never played Mafia, I must say it is awesome. But only as awesome as the honesty level of your players. I was quite impressed.

So we go to bed around 4. Probably don’t get any sleep because everyone has Mountain Dew in their veins. Get up at  6:45 and get out of Dodge because there is a wedding happening at the church that day we had to get out of the way of. So with time to kill, we go to McDonalds for breakfast and then to Barns and Noble to either look at books or sleep in their big fluffy chairs.

We squeeze in the last game of Laser Tag. The Red Team comes in victorious again (of course). And then we head home. The drive home was tough, but caffinated beverages helped me make it.

The past few weeks have been really busy for me. Not crazy busy, but just really steady. This is including weekend stuff and overnight trips and crazy lunch schedules and evening schedules. So today is a day to be at home and get stuff done. I have a few “projects” I have to attend to, but I plan to get a little lazy time in too. Well, maybe this morning has been my lazy time.

But I do need to go and move and finish the fort/swing set that we’re building for my daughters. My dad came down last weekend and we knocked out the hard part. I say hard part, but I meant the stuff that seems to take 2 people to get done. Now most of it seems to be just attatching boards and planks in the right places. I do need to relocate it a bit, so that could take extra people.

This weekend is our Destination Unknown trip. I hope it turns out as well as we’re hoping. But still working on that place to stay.

Well, I look back and see that I’ve been quite a while w/o a post. It’s not for lack of trying. There have been times I’ve opened up the “Write Post” page and stared at the screen. But nothing would come out of my fingers. So here I am after the calm. Not that there is a storm coming or anything. But life has been moving.

I know I keep saying different things, but I do think that there is a new business opportunity for me about to happen. I’ve even been looking at a contract. But I’m at a crossroads of decision making. Stay independent or join a network. Both might have some positives. Both might have a few places that will stretch me or the possible future. But MissSportsTalk.com has been getting some attention lately. And I have to make the choice. A major network is asking me to join their fold. And I could do and and run w/ it and maybe make some money after a little time spent working at it. Or I could remain a freelance guy and try to go it alone.

Either way I’d be tracking down people, doing stories, making interviews, and producing content. Could be quite exciting. Could give me lots of joy. Or a headache. I think it’s the former.