It is that simple.... "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1
He is what I want. In all my loneliness, in my grieving, in my parenting, in my spiritual growth..... He is all I want. That is enough for me, for my existence.
It has been a while since I last talked with you. My brother Johnny was visiting for two weeks, Christmas, New Years, working and parenting. I am also realizing that I am still deep in the grieving stages. So I knew that I should update the blog but it became too easy to just relax, watch a movie, play a game, put a puzzle together. So here I am. I don't think that I have grieved adequately for myself because I have been so busy keeping the family together, and seeing to it that they are staying happy. Christmas was wonderful with the family but Christmas Eve was a tearful time when I was out finishing up with some gift wrapping and looking at Susan's picture above the fireplace with her stocking hanging from mantel. There was a flood of Christmas Eves past. A huge void. I miss her.
Here is a picture of some of us with Santa Claus. Every Christmas Eve for the last 10 years, this guy has come around to give candy canes to all of us. I don't know who he is, but he knows our names. Just a figure out of no where that pays us a visit each year.
And here is a picture of all of us on Christmas day after we opened presents and after dinner. What a good looking bunch. I really do love my kids. They made the days special.
And we have had a record snowfall here. Like 90 inches for the month of December. We have shoveled our roof twice now because of the large snow storms that we have had. We have been too busy shoveling even to go snowboarding as a family. Soon though. Here is a picture of my brother Johnny up on the house, clearing snow.
And to put it in perspective, here is a picture of our STOP sign out front of our home. This was several weeks ago too. Alot of it was piled up from the snowplow but still pretty awesome to see the accumulation. The piles around our driveway are 6-7 feet tall. It definitely was a White Christmas.
Be praying for me, Leah, Nathan and my nephew Christian. We are all going to run in the PF Chang Rock n' Roll Marathon in Phoenix on Jan 18th. We will be flying down on the 15th of Jan. Training has been a challenge especially for the long runs which we can't do because of the weather outside. Treadmill running just isn't the same. But it will be fun.
Too you all, His grace and peace. Thanks for being patient. Love Doug
We had a great time doing our marathon (some may think how that could be possible). But for me, how precious was running with my son, daughter and my nephew. Priceless!!! It was rather warm (78 degrees) but the start was around 48 degrees and that felt pretty good. Nathan came in at around 3:47, Christian and I came in together at around 3:58 and Leah came in at around 4:07. It was Christian's and Leah's first marathon, so I was really proud of them for doing so well. This picture was taken along with Laurel, after she finished the half marathon. A great job for Laurel also. We were all protected from injury. Several people had collapsed during and after the race, so there were casualties. And then we hurried home to watch the Arizona Cardinals win their division to make it to the Super Bowl. So it was really an exciting day in Phoenix. The weather has been wonderful. It will be hard to come back to the snow and cold.
Here is a picture of Leah and I before the race. Christian arranged for us to join his running club in a heated building before the race. There were all kinds of things to eat, drink and our own porta potties, which was very important.
Here is a picture of us three right after the race.
This is a picture of us on a hike. This was the first day in AZ. I was still in my jeans. I've been in shorts ever since.
