Saturday, October 18, 2008

Back among the living......


I just got home from running my first 5K in 10 years!! WHEW! I am tired, but I feel SO good!

When we were in high school, my husband and I were huge basketball players. We love it. We love the competition, the smell of your new basketball shoes when you put them on for the first practice, the soreness that overtakes you that first week of the season, the first game jitters, the roar of the crowd when you sink the game winner, we love basketball! Its my thing, its what I do, Im not good at any other sports:

I. play. basketball.

Now for some ungodly reason my freshman year of high school, I let my brother who is 2 years older talk me into joining the cross country team. He said "it'll be good for you, you need to make friends and it will get you in shape for basketball season." Reluctantly I went to the first practice not realizing that there are no try-outs for this ridiculous sport. You show up, you're on the team. YIKES! My parents were big into the no-quitting rule, so there I was, a basketball player trying to pretend like I was a granola-eating, nature loving runner. That was the longest 3 months of my life. To make the humiliation just that much better, my brother is an all-state runner, he got scholarship offers from every school under the sun, he wins races with hundreds of people in them, hes amazing, I hate him. That fall taught me so much about humility. I was good at basketball, I always had been leading scorer, point guard, team captain, those were my titles on the court. All that pride came crashing down on the trail, I was a cross country pine rider, I might as well have been the stats girl, no titles for me here. My brother would win the race, do a cool down, and then come back and run the last mile with me. But you know what I remember most, all those people lining the shoot at the fnish line, they cheered as hard and loud for me as they did for Scott when he had come through 15 minutes earlier. It makes me think about in the bible where it talks about a cloud of witnesses. I want to be the kind of friend, who no matter what has happened in someones life, they know I'll be standing there yelling at the top of my lungs, "YOU CAN DO IT!!" and if that means jogging back and running through tough times with someone, I'll do it. I think this would be the perfect place for the ol' WWJD!
Scotty Dean, I love you, thanks for inspiring me to keep on, you're an amazing runner, but a better friend.
So.....half-marathon next anyone???? HA!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

NYO!


Im not sure anyone is reading this, I think I did myself in when I didnt post for 646 years! NEVERTHELESS, I will keep writing. If you write it, they will come...isnt that how that goes? ;)

SO...my daughter has learned to say "NO!" It comes out more like "NYO!" and sometime it makes me die laughing and other times I just want to jump out a window (or throw her out one...no....we'll just go with me jumping out). It is her favorite word and she absolutely uses the tar out of it. We could ask her if she wants to move to Florida to live in the Disney castle and eat ice cream for every meal, her answer would absolutely be a resounding "NYO!"

We went to the pumpkin patch on Monday, man, it was SO FUN! There wasnt another soul there. We played in the barn and swung from the ropes, it was awesome. This picture is our Tay to a tee, she is a loner and she loves every minute of it. When we were leaving and picking up our pumpkins, I asked Taylor if she wanted to hold the little pumpkin we had for her. "NYO", she said, even as she reached out to take it with a huge smile on her face. Holy cow, I might lose my mind if we dont learn a yes soon! Any "y" word would really do!

As much as this drives me insane as a Mom, I think I do this very thing to my Heavenly Father. No is comfortable to Tay. She knows how to say it well and she likes how it rolls off of her tounge. I feel like I get in the same habit with God. No is comfortable to me. When he prods me to do something, my gut reaction is "NYO!", it rolls right off my tounge. I like how things are, I dont like my boat rocked, so the easiest thing to do is just say no. I love love love my kids, I would never lead them down a harmful path. How much more does our Heavenly Father love us??!!


James 1:16-18 -

So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all His creatures.


Im going to work on saying yes to the God who loves me as the "crown of all His creatures." And hey...maybe if Taylor hears me saying yes a little more, she'll pick up that word and end the era of the Nyo at the Rowenhorst house!!





Thursday, October 2, 2008

Where are your towels and socks?


I guess at this point we can all assume that I am quite the slacker! Holy cow, the summer was just too fun...but now its fall. I LOVE THE FALL! So Im in a coffee drinking (just in case you need another suggestion, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Starbucks, awesome!) typing my fingers off mood. Get ready...the blog is back! And this time as my brother would say, I will "come strong or dont come at all meatball!" Weekly posts....oh yah people, this is happening.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say.....Hi, my name is Staci Rowenhorst and I am a news junkie. (Are there support groups for that?) I dont think my kids know there is actual TV, they think that that big box in our family room is called Fox News. I am completely out of control, I realize it, need help, cant stop, I need to be in the know. But I got to wondering today what God might do through me if I spent less time worrying about the economic crisis, and more time giving what resources I do have to Him.

Dan bought this David Crowder DVD the other day and we had so much fun watching it. Taylor dances around like a crazy person and we all sing "we'll shout it out loud from a rooftop, we wont be quiet!" We're a mess and its a blast. At one point DC explains how he asked everyone at the concert to bring towels and socks for an area shelter. They then show pictures of trucks loaded down with bags and bags of these things. Thats what I call using your platform. We all have a platform somewhere...in your office, in your Moms group, in your small group, even in your family. Its a simple principle, are you going to like what you reap from what you've sown???