Heart Is Taking Off

This morning my heart is on a plane with Amy and Brad heading to Yichang...

Please keep them in your Thoughts...

A new season.

Dragon Boat Festival in Nashville?!!?

On Saturday, Nashville held its 2nd annual Dragon Boat Festival.

You might remember when Jaime and Andrew came to Yichang for the festival this year... we ended up taking a long walk in the rain and no boats. Big disappointment. Well, I was determined to make this festival better.

A couple of weeks ago I learned that you could sign up to race so I did. However, practice was during the big wedding weekend. No racing. I was still excited to go though. It was nice to spend the morning with Amy, Brian, and Amanda. Plus, it was a fundraiser for the Cumberland River Compact. (Also, a great way for companies/corporations to work on teamwork!)

We got to the festival, watched a dragon dance and drum performance, and then people started lining up to race. A team walking by asked if we wanted to race because they were down a few team members. Dream come true...

Brian and I joined the HVUD (Harpeth Valley Utility District) team. We got our blue wristbands, awesome t-shirts and ran to our boat. 20 people in a rather dinky (but still terrific!) dragon boat. In our first heat, we finished in 1 min 30 sec. We climbed out feeling good about the time and thought it was pretty easy. Then we had a huge amount of down time. In the semi-finals, we got our time down to 1 min 26 sec. I felt like we all tried a little harder. (My arms were telling me so...) Another huge down time. Finally, it was time for the finals.

After climbing in the boat for our final race, we were coached by the professional steerer. We learned that it is much more about the whole body motion rather than just the arm stroke. He showed us how to do it right. When the race started, we were all going strong. By the time we got to the finish line though all of us were feeling it and some had even stopped for a minute to catch their breath. Nice little workout. 1 min 23 sec.

Proud to say that the HVUD team got first place in their division! Strong.

What a great day!

Thanks to our "Jia You!" cheerleaders, Amy and Amanda!

In the video, we are in the boat marked number 1.

Up and Down Kind of Day

Working full time now and took out nose ring. Boo.

Reading Francine Rivers book on Ruth and learning how to use Wii Fit. Strong.

Wedding Bliss

What a great joy it was to share in the wedding of Tyler and Ashley Davis!

Talk about a gorgeous bride...

Almost had to protest walking back down the aisle to Rocky Top though. You just can't make that a classy thing. (War Eagle!)

Cincinnati Trip

Last Wednesday Amy and I got in the Kia and headed to Cincinnati. We spent the evening catching up with Brad and walking around Newport. Of course, we spent a few hours watching Project Runway (season 4) which Mrs. Ellis' graciously TIVOed for us. It was so nice to be together again!

On Thursday, we ate Skyline Chili, watched some more PR, and then met up with Danielle and family for La Rosa's pizza. Talk about some good eating! After pizza, we "kids" headed downtown to catch the Reds/Astros game. The Reds have a super nice stadium and we were thankful for the more eventful ending. (Reds did not score the first 7 innings!) Wrapped up the night by watching some more PR.

Friday, we picked up the famous Grandpa Willis Turner and went back downtown to the Freedom Center. The Freedom Center was amazing! We learned a lot about the Underground Railroad. Mr. Turner was so nice to also provide a nice history of Cincinnati and his life too. That will forever be a good memory. After several hours, we were finally kicked out because of closing time. We did not even catch the present day Freedom side. Guess next trip back...

The Olympics party took over most of Friday night. We did stay up so we could finish PR. Strong.

On Saturday we grabbed Skyline again before yet another goodbye. I hate those.

The Ellis family were such great hosts and I am so thankful to spend some more quality time with my "other family" (Amy and Brad).

8/8/08

8/8/08... In a couple of years many Americans may not remember the significance of this date. However, any China expat will be able to tell you exact what took place and where they were.

Over the past two years many people asked "Will you go to the Olympics?" and many look disappointed or "lectured" to me about not going. Truth... you could not pay me to go to the Olympics. (Mao bless China!) I got to see track and field events in the Birds Nest. I got to see the Torch run though Yichang. I wear a Beijing 08 shirt with pride. I will cheer loudly for Liu Xiang and the female hammer thrower whose name I cannot remember. However, I watched the opening ceremonies sitting in a big comfy chair with a great view of everything from a house in Cincinnati.

On Wednesday, Amy and I drove up to Ohio to spend some quality time with Brad. (More on that later...) We celebrated 8/8/08 by going to eat American Chinese food (yum Crab Rangoon!) and watching the ceremonies at Brad's house. Danielle from Wuhan also came over with a fabtabulous Olympic Rings cake. We donned our shirts, cheered for countries with few athletes, tried to determine where countries were, poked fun of a famous spectator who checked his watch, and watched with awe as the Chinese performed some great sights. All in all the perfect evening of American/Chinese/World pride. :)

Living to Please

Living to please God above living to please others...

A lesson in progress.

I really am so blessed to have friends that can call me out.