Today was the “Bluffton Baby Shower”. Jess had a great time with “the girls” and we received some pretty amazing blessings from those who attended!

Two HUGE items that are now “taken care of” are the stroller/carseat combo, and the infant swing!

We are so blessed by ALL of the gifts we received for Baby Sheets today! “Thank You” just doesn’t seem to work all that well after today.

The cake pictured above was baked and decorated by Mom Garrett! Isn’t she so creative? More photos of the day are here.

I had a good afternoon hanging out with my buddy Steve Zerbe and my father-in-law, too! We sat and chatted and enjoyed the NCAA basketball games throughout the afternoon.

BIG NEWS: Tomorrow, Warsaw Wesleyan has a Pastoral Candidate! Pastor Gale Janofski will be speaking in both morning services tomorrow. Jess and I will enjoy getting to visit with Pastor J and his family over lunch tomorrow after church, too.

I forgot to mention it last week, but on Saturday, the 11th, 33 of us packed up in 4 vehicles and headed to Ft. Wayne for the annual Winter Jam Concert at the Ft. Wayne Coliseum.

A great time was had by all!

Photos from the event are here.

The back pain is beginning to subside (finally!), though I still know that it’s there.

The cold, on the other hand, has quickly become my nemisis as it has built a baracks inside my nasal passages and continues to hinder my “getting well”.

This morning we had a NETWORK meeting. The Network is our group of local youth leaders who meet monthly to encourage and pray for one another. It’s always a good time spent with that group.

This afternoon we have another Doctor’s visit. Tomorrow we head to Bluffton for a baby shower! Looks like I get to spend most of the afternoon with my buddy Steve Zerbe as Rita joins in on the baby shower festivities and Steve and I find out what we can do for a few hours in Bluffton!

So this morning I did what any normal American should do when his/her back pain has lasted for more than 2-days.

I went to the Doctor.

I haven’t been to a doctor in “I don’t know how long”, so it was quite the ordeal.

I left the dr.’s office with a band-aid on my butt, some “Cyclobenzaprine” in my system and two prescriptions. More “Cyclobenzaprine” and some “Ketorolac”. (Both of which “may cause dizziness” – SWEET!)

I enjoyed lunch with two of my Bible study buds – Jason Knepp and Shawn French at El Ariero’s (a restaurant I promised to never eat at again after a 3-visit consistent stomach-problem). We’ll see what happens.

Tonight I’m finishing up a series on Friendship at theBOX.

It will be difficult to be my usual charismatic-self with only partial-use of my neck muscles. Note to self: more fog machine, and more music to confuse the students as to why their youth pastor seems so “robotic”.

It’s Tuesday.

Yesterday I woke up with the worst back/neck-ache that I have ever experienced in my life.

Not being one to “wimp out”, I continued on in my day, drove to Ft. Wayne for a meeting with the District Youth Cabinet, came back to Warsaw and put in a few hours in the office in the afternoon, too. Last night I even went to Bible Study and then – in an attempt to relieve the pain, took an extremely hot shower and went to bed before 10!

This morning I was supposed to join Jess and her 1st Grade class on a field trip to Fort Wayne’s “Science Central”. I was looking forward to this experience very much. When I woke up this morning, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to function as a useful chaperone on this fieldtrip and I opted to head to the office instead.

I came home soon after lunch time to work on some projects that I have going on and to attempt to rest my neck/back. I also stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up some much needed Icy-Hot that will hopefully relieve some of this pain that continues to make me cringe.

A neat link I stumbled upon (even before all of my friends started posting about it!) – “The 39dollar Experiment“.