mattmehaffey

Home Again in SoFlo and Vacation Recap

Vacation went way too fast but Janie and I had a blast in Orlando.  There aren't many cities I have visited I could see us living one day but Orlando is definitely one of them (New York, Phoenix, and Denver are the other three). 

Friday, we went to Cirque du Soleil and had dinner at   at Downtown Disney.  Never been to Cirque before.  We were floored by the creativity.  To be honest I never had much desire to see it but now we want to go see the shows in Vegas too. 

Saturday, we hung by the pool in the heat and worked a 1,000 piece puzzle in the a/c.  Jigsaws making a come back?  Uh, no, but it was kind of nice to do something mindless.  That is until we realized our puzzle only had 999 pieces.  JETER!!!  (It still stresses me out to see the picture of the puzzle in its uncompleted state).

Sunday, I preached again at Journey Christian Church.  To steal a line from my wife, we have become Journey's "Fan Club Presidents."  I want to say a special "thank you" to Jodi Dinnan and Adrian Traurig for all the work they did to make my job so much easier.  You can listen to the podcast here.

Orlando - day four

Two days of vacation left. Boooo!

Thursday morning we loafed around the house finishing off West Wing season 3 and watching Jeter work on his dog-paddle.

Then things got busy. We had fish and chips in London followed by dinner in Mexico and dessert in Norway. No, we didn't rack up frequent flyer miles. We used our last Disney pass on Epcot because we really enjoy the world showcase, and yes, the food. We did go on Soarin' which is a flight simulator that makes you feel like you are flying over California. After hearing, our niece Mackenzie, talk about it we knew we needed to fit it in our schedule of gluttony.

Orlando - day three

I didn't blog about day two of vacation because it was basically built around doing nothing. It was great.

Today is our Disney Magic Kingdom trip. By three we saw 85% of what we wanted to see. We were working the fast passes like we were pros. Our longest wait, 10 minutes.

We came back to the house for a few hours but we are going back for Space Mountain and the other 15%.

We are having a really good vacation. I can't stop thanking God for allowing me to spend the rest of my life with my best friend.

This Post Smells Like Wet Dog

We have created a monster. A water monster. Now that Jeter knows how to swim, he does not want to stop. He thinks he's the lifeguard because he hates when there are items (beachball, noodle, red ball) floating in the pool. To him they are lives needing to be rescued.

Orlando - day one

Blogging from the iPhone is a bit tedious but it'll do in a pinch.

We are on day one of our week long vacation in Orlando (I am not counting Sunday and neither would you if you've preached three times in 4 hours). Journey sure knows how to take care of their guests! I left even more impressed with the people there.

You can listen to the podcast at http://podcast.journeychristian.com.

I am speaking next week too. I'd say I'm looking forward to it but honestly I want this week to crawl by and enjoy having Janie all to myself.

This morning we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure where we went on rides like Hulk and the very creative Spider-man 3D experience. We had a good time but Universal could learn a few things from Disney. Paying for fast passes seems excessive.

Now we're going back to our rental house to teach Jeter how to swim.

R & R - Orlando Style

Remember in Talladega Nights when during an interview, Ricky Bobby, blurted out, "I don't know what to do with my hands!"?

I can relate.  Janie and I are leaving in less than 2 hours for an 8 day vacation.  I am sure it's going to take some time to get used to doing nothing.  We haven't had a true vacation since the summer of 2006 when God threw us into this church planting maelstrom.  Not to mention we've been pouring in 70 hour work weeks since we moved to South Florida, a year ago yesterday.  Save the lectures regarding burn out.  We know, we know. 

I will be blogging.  It actually is something that relaxes me.  You can also follow me on Twitter.  Go here to subscribe. 

Destination: Tampa

For my birthday, my amazing wife planned a two day excursion which we just got back from. Monday morning we left for Tampa to watch the Reds vs. my beloved Yankees in a Spring Training game. I have never had the opportunity to see Legends Field (soon to renamed Steinbrenner Field) so I couldn't wait for the experience.

We stopped briefly at our new favorite breakfast place, the Lighthouse Cafe on Sanibel Island. This is us driving over the bridge. Look closely and you can see the lighthouse.

On to the game... We got there early enough to get up close and watch the players go through their pre-game warm-ups and take batting practice. I was worried most of the starters might have the day off so I was trying not to get my hopes up. I was thrilled when I found out practically all the starters except Melky was going to play. Not to mention I got to see Joba, Mariano, and Ian Kennedy pitch! Here are some pics from the day.

Meet the Parents

Janie and I had a great time visiting my mom and dad over our break. They are two of the most comfortable and generous people we know.

We got in late on Sunday, Dec. 23, feeling the beginning of our colds. When we got up the next morning my dad had two medicine bottles filled will amoxicillin for Janie and me. No, he's not a pharmacist.

I have never met two people who love movies more than my mom and dad. We saw both I am Legend (IMAX) and National Treasure 2. Both were really good. The 6-minute preview to The Dark Knight was sick!

They also know how to eat. We had a late Christmas Eve meal at Olive Garden, a lunch at McAlister's and then on the way to the airport we stopped for some White Castles! I'd like to apologize to everyone who flew on the plane with us that night.

We are excited because mom and dad are our house guests the week of launch so we will see them again in less than a month.

Christmas in Indy

I am going to brag a little a bit in this post about my family. They are pretty much the best family in the history of families. Am I biased? Probably.

Being 1,200 miles away from one another makes me really appreciate the time we have together. This year, I was like a kid anticipating Christmas. I couldn't wait to spend Christmas Day with my whole family. When Christmas Eve rolled in Janie and I both got really bad colds. My worst day just happened to be Christmas Day. I could barely talk and I was exhausted (not to mention heavily medicated). It got so bad I had to excuse myself at 6 p.m. and go to bed. I slept until 10 the next morning!

I honestly believe God intervened and gave Janie and me these colds because it forced us to rest. We have been constantly on the go for months. Now I feel refueled and ready to get The Pursuit off and running!

Beach Discovery

On my recent archaeological dig in the Sahara, I was fortunate to unearth the ruins of ... OK, I'll come clean, actually I discovered two side-by-side sand castles on the beaches of Captiva this past Saturday. Here are my assumptions regarding the creator/artist who was not present:

1. This person is very creative.
2. This person has way too much time on their hands.
3. This person will come back the next day and the tide (and little kids) will have demolished it.

I wished for a moment, as I stared at the very cool sand castles, I was a little kid again and had my G.I. Joe action figures because I would have been in heaven!