Well, we've been dating a few months now, so I thought I'd introduce Shauna. On Sunday we went over to Tumwater Falls - which I've driven by nearly every day since living in Olympia, but never got around to checking them out. Sunday was a beautiful day -- the last of which, it seems, we'll see around here. The park closed at the early hour of 4:30, so we headed down to Capital Lake and caught the sunset:
A few week's ago Shauna invited me to go to Mexico with her family! So this Monday, I'm heading down to Cabo for a week of relaxing, swimming, most likely sun-burning, and hopefully a little hiking and exploring too! With the Bahamas trip last April and this week's trip, I will probably remember 2007 as the year of unexpected and undeserved tropical vacations. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures...

Friday and Saturday

What's the perfect way to spend a day off?
A hike with some good friends.

What's the perfect way to start that beautiful day off?
Hitting a deer on the interstate.

...maybe not. But that's what happened. Five minutes into our trip a deer went charging across the four lanes of north-bound traffic on I-5, gracefully jumped over the median, entered the left lane of the south-bound (which happened to be my lane) and locked onto the front of my car. It bounced off the mazda and was hit by a girl who was driving by to the right. She was going MUCH faster than I was.

We were blessed to come out of it in such great shape. No one was hurt, and the damage to my Mazda was just a cracked grill and a slightly dented hood. Thankfully I was able to slow down from 70 mph to about 30 mph before hitting it. I see the experience as a gracious reminder to stay focused while driving -- and definitely to make the resolution to no longer write text messages while I'm driving.

A collision with a deer wasn't enough to stop us from doing a sweet hike, and after an hour of straightening things out with the state patrol and the other girl, we were back on the road. We headed to Goat Mountain -- which is a great ridge-trail directly between the three big mountains: Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens. We had amazing views of all of them. We were out here with a crew last October and I wanted to get back here ever since. Here are the stats: Elevation gain: 2000 ft. / Distance: somewhere between 6 and 8 miles. Here's some of what we saw:

After the main elevation gain, Matt and Nick stopped for a conversation:
The trail followed this ridge... non-stop, 360 degree, great views!
This is me standing on the rocks that you can see right in the very middle of the previous picture:Peanut Butter and Jelly tastes so much better with a sweet view...
The gaping, snow-filled crater of St. Helens:
My favorite shot of the day: (Rainier)
On the way home we got a nice sunset look at Mt. Rainier:
We stopped at a little burger joint called Huff 'n Puff for some well-deserved burgers and shakes on the way home. It was a solid two hour drive back.

Saturday night was Nick's birthday party. We had a sweet time and also got to carve pumpkins... Here are some of the best:Mine was an angry deer. After hitting the deer Friday, I was able to use this pumpkin-carving as a "coping mechanism" for dealing with the emotional debris-field that remained after the accident.

This past weekend was the Reality Retreat. We headed out to Millersylvania State Park for a sweet weekend of hanging out, teaching, worshiping, eating, games, sitting by the fire, staying up late, canoeing, row-boating, volleyball, reading, and relaxing. It was fun and I met lots of new people. I got to do a little bit of everything in the worship realm: I played bass for the worship team Friday night, I led Saturday morning, and when the drummer couldn't make it for the evening worship I filled in for him. I had such a sweet time playing the drums. I haven't been playing drums lately... so it was good to get warmed up again. I also hadn't really played with a good worship leader/guitar player before and it was fun!

Our youth group recently got a ping pong table donated to us... and we've been playing lots of round robin. It has significantly increased the fun-level at youth group.

1) It was great at the end of the day yesterday when I took my wallet out of my back pocket, placed it on my desk, and realized that I hadn't reached for it all day. These days my wallet's open in my hand with the check or credit card sliding out of the slot almost constantly. The receipts are many at the conclusion of any given day. Such is life. But it felt good to realize that I'd not spent a dime all day.

2) Dental Hygiene. I value it. It wasn't always that way. When I was a kid I enjoyed the fact that even though my older sister Andrea brushed her teeth much more diligently and frequently than I did she was the one getting the cavities, while I had zero. After moving on in life, getting a couple cavities, getting wisdom teeth pulled, and realizing that dental work comes at an expense, I've decided that it matters to take care of your teeth. I've been flossing consistently for over a month now. I also brush.

3) Does anyone ever read song lyrics when people post them? I usually tune out when I see the title of a song followed by the neatly squared sections of text that go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, first-line-0f-the-verse. Anyhow, here's a song, and maybe it won't be that great a read-through, but the song is incredible and you should go out of your way to listen to it. It inspired my youth lesson for this week on Guilt and Grace.

Embracing Accusation
Shane & Shane

The father of lies coming to steal, kill, and destroy all my hopes of being good enough. I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide.” He’s right. Hallelujah, he’s right. The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed. That I am cursed and gone astray. I cannot gain salvation, embracing accusation.

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of God to me tonight? If the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine. I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide.” He’s right. Hallelujah, he’s right.The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed. That I am cursed and gone astray. I cannot gain salvation. Oh the devil is singing over me an age-old song… that I am cursed and gone astray. Singing the first verse so conveniently, over me, he’s forgotten the refrain.

Jesus Saves.

He’s redeemed us from the curse of the fall.

I've neglected the life of a blogger for almost three weeks now... I haven't taken any pictures lately... and that's always the post-able material. Life is busy, but life is really good. However, the great disappointment these days is that Alan's moving back to Florida at the end of this week. He's assured me that he's not moving out because I complain about the unrinsed dishes in the sink, or because my alarms are intolerably loud, or because I only listen to U2, or because I'm too pleasant a roomate. His real reason is an internship opportunity in Bangledesh -- teaching Bible to middle school students. He's hoping to head out there in January. For now though, he's wrapping up his time in Olympia [which has been swell], and heading home. Josh Schans flew up from FL yesterday to make the cross-country drive with him.

Here's a Josh-man tribute picture from our Bahamas trip last April...