The fam came up to Tupelo to check on The Father In Law. He fell the other day and had to go into the hospital. The girls and I slipped out of the hospital today to catch a lunch at Sweet Peppers Deli. We’re done now, but here’s a quick picture.

Free Hugs Campaign. Inspiring Story! (music by sick puppies)

I just caught wind of this video today. Apparently it has been around for a while. But still quite inspiring. I’d like to think of trying something like this around here in our area.

Wow, it’s 11:30 here in Grandville, MI, just outside of Grand Rapids. And, yes, it’s cold. But not at all unbearable. I have not even been here 24 hours yet, but it feels like we’ve been here about three days. We left Jackson Sunday afternoon around 5:30 and didn’t get to our hotel in Grandville until close to 1:00am. But then after check in and getting settled in, I seriously think it was after 2:30 when we finally got to sleep. Then we got up at 6:30 because we had to do some early registration stuff. So today has been a long day and not a lot of rest.  I really, really plan to do more details, but here’s a quick overview of the last 30ish hours.

• Brister carried John, Stevie, and me to the airport. We got there in plenty of time. Time enough to watch the Saints get beat and our plane delayed because it had to wait on another plane that was late. So we spent about two hours waiting in that Jxn Airport. Good times.
• I had a double seat to myself somehow. Had two two month old babies in front of me. But they traveled well. Thankfully.
• Quick stop in Detroit’s airport. Possibly the nicest airport I’ve ever been in.
• De-icing of our plane on the runway took about an hour. We didn’t take off until after we were supposed to have landed!
• A taxi ride from Grand Rapids to Grandville with a crazy driver. Nuff said
• Hotel said no check-in’s after midnight. As we were standing at the door at 12:28. But she let us in anyhow.
• No wifi though. But that was our first hotel. We got one night there because it was across the parking lot from Mars Hill.

But I’m about to fall asleep, so I’ll leave it at this for now.

I’m pumped about going to Mars Hill in a couple of days. But I’m curious as to how I’m going to handle the weather. I’ve always done fairly well in Colorado. Yes, it’s cold. But it’s never really felt as cold as here in Mississippi when you compare the temperatures. But I’m not so sure the Grand Rapids area is going to be as dry as Colorado and the Rockies are.

Highs are about 30 degrees with the lows in the mid 20’s. But w/ the wind chill, you’d probably take about 10 degrees off of that. There will definitely be some snow while we’re there.

I keep going back to what it said in the FAQ of the conference…something about the weather in West Michigan in January not being for sissies. For that I might try to walk around in a tshirt and nylon breaker!

A couple of weeks ago I began looking through the folders on my office PC trying to find the video from the mission trip to Costa Rica. Couldn’t find them anywhere. After looking off and on and trying to find them throughout the network, I came to the conclusion that they were gone. How so, I dunno. But non existent anymore.

Thankfully I saved the actual tapes from way back when. I found those and started importing them to the MacBook Pro yesterday. I watched them off and on as I did it….and I’m convinced that I would leave tomorrow if i could to go back. The place is beautiful, yes. But it is full of beautiful people. People that welcome you w/ a love that’s bigger than ourselves and you worship and work and play along side each other. Plus the memories that we made with the people from our church here in Clinton is pretty amazing too.

I know not to count any chickens before they hatch, but I really hope and plan to go back this next summer.