i'm tired today. i just can't seem to wake up completely. i think part of it is the weather. it is wet and overcast and cold - it is perfect stay at home in your pajamas, watch a movie and/or take a nap while drinking some kind of hot beverage weather. i think the other part is the pace i've been keeping. i'm ready for a break.

even in the midst of my sleepiness i've had a pretty busy day. i went to the link at the 6th & 7th grade center this morning, then came in for a staff meeting (we are redecorating the office area so that is exciting), and then went to a bible study that happens once a month with some other youth ministers in town. we are studying the book of hebrews. it was so nice this morning to just immerse my mind in God for an hour and a half. i need to do that more.

tonight i'm going to a powder puff football game that heidi is playing in. it should be a lot of fun. cold, but fun. tomorrow night i'm headed to a lock-in. i'm not a huge fan of lock-ins in general, but this one shouldn't be too bad. i think there will be plenty to keep me busy and i'll have my students to hang out with.

saturday is the auburn vs. georgia game. it is a pretty big deal. this game will determine a lot for auburn. i have faith in my tigers though. i have been telling all my ou friends here that we are coming for them and i really believe we are. war eagle!

whew! the meeting is over and i'm still alive. i wish there had been more high school parents there, but i guess that's the way it goes sometimes. i had fun with the ones that were there.

at the risk of sounding totally shallow and materialistic, i have to confess that i love my ipod. it is so amazing. i have close to 1400 songs downloaded. it has changed my life - in silly, inconsequential ways - but it has changed my life nonetheless. i was the person who would carry 30 or so cds with me everywhere i went and i would be frustrated when i didn't have the cd with me that had the perfect song for whatever circumstance i found myself in, i would be sad and make a mental note to make sure that was one of the cds to keep with me at all times. anyway, now i just take my tiny ipod with me and i'm set no matter what comes up. so have i mentioned that i really love music?

another technological advance i appreciate is my cell phone. i'm not exactly sure how i stayed connected with people before i had one. my cell phone is my only phone these days so it is an essential part of my existence. but, i don't think the cell phone or at least having it as your only phone is as perfect as the ipod. i don't miss the action of taking out a cd, placing it in a cd player and pushing play. i do, however miss having a phone and an answering machine at home. i miss the action of coming home, checking my machine, and listening to my messages. there is a small piece of excitement in pushing play on your answering machine - it could be that phone call you've been waiting on or someone you haven't heard from in a while. you don't know. all you know is there is a blinking light waiting for you to push play. on my cell phone, i always know who is calling or whose call i missed. no adventure, no mystery. i find myself sometimes when i'm getting home wondering if i'll have any messages and then i have to remind myself that i already have all my messages. it is kind of a downer. isn't that silly?

what is sillly is that i'm still in my office at 9:40 when i could be home. so, i'm getting out of here asap. peace.

last night i went out to okc with the mcilroys to see ashley smith. she and her dad were at oklahoma christian for a few days. it was so great to see her. i'm very blessed to have her as a friend. i'll get to see her in nashville in a few weeks and that should be great fun! it was fun to talk with her dad, too. one of my best friends and her husband just moved to nashville to work at chris' church.

today i went with mandii and her mom to bert mccutchan's funeral. for those of you who didn't know bert, he was a great and kind man. he owned a local guitar shop that mandii worked in. he was a great supporter of mandii as a musician and as a person. i definitely wish i had spent more time at the store hanging out and i wish i had told him thanks more often for all the ways he blessed mandii's life. i hope mandii will remember how much he loved her and believed in her.

recently i've reconnected with a few old friends from the southeast through blogs. it's crazy how much networking happens through these things. anyway, it has been cool to get comments from matt, jon, and greg and to keep up with them through their blogs. i know all three of these guys from my days back in alabama. i think i have known greg since i was 12 or 13, maybe earlier than that - he and his family are those kind of people i feel like i have just always known and i can't really put my finger on when i first knew them. greg used to direct our chorus at church. those are funny memories - i think we were probably really horrible. thanks for your patience greg! anyway, it is good to reconnect.

so, tomorrow night i have my first parent meeting as the interim student minister and my first parent meeting without brad. i'm a little nervous about it because i don't think running meetings and public speaking are my strengths. also, in the past, brad and i would work on this stuff together, so i could at least get a cheese factor check on anything i was going to say or ask if what i was saying made sense. i know it will all be ok and i have a great team working with me so i shouldn't worry, i'm just a little anxious about it. and i think it makes it sink in that the voss fam is really gone. i miss them a lot!

peace.

i had a very full and fun weekend. friday night lindsey, mandii, and i went to the david crowder band concert. it was excellent, but there were a couple of bonuses. first, one of the opening bands, mute math, was amazing! one of my favorite things to do is find new, good music, so i was having a blast. they have an ep out and it is ok, but it doesn't do justice to their live show. you should definitely check out their video.

the second bonus came from one of the guitarist in dcb. dave stopped the show abruptly to tell us a story about how jason, one of the guitarists, had been staying up with their bus driver, playing on the cb and convincing truckers that he was garth brooks. so, jason sang a quick excerpt from an old garth song, "the dance." jason sounded just like him. it was hilarious, but also a little bizarre. we were all amazed.

after the show we went to outback and got some ridiculously large desserts. i think i decided that night that chocolate and raspberry sauce may be the most perfect food combination.

anyway, mandii introduced me to another band, frou frou. from first listen i liked them. i love many things about mandii larsen, but one of my favorite things about her is that we have similar tastes in music - most of the time - there are exceptions. she always knows all the 90s songs i loved (and still love) in high school and college. it is a beautiful thing. anyway, another new band i'm interested in is the killers. lindsey let me hear some of their new cd and i liked most of it. their song that is on the radio right now contains these lyrics, "somebody told me that you had a boyfriend that looks like a girlfriend that i had in february of last year..." you just can't beat that kind of genius in songwriting.

saturday i went to kickboxing (which i'm incredibly sore from), caught a little bit of one of my students' basketball game, took a nap, and went out to pryor, ok to volunteer with compassion at a bebo concert. sunday was another full day. it did not start out well as all the copiers in our entire church decided to rebel and jam up simultaneously. it was horrible. after church i met with my amazing student ministry team, went to another basketball game, went shopping for something to take to the gathering, went home, went to the gathering at the mcilroy's house, came home and watched extreme makover, cried, and went to bed. whew! it was a full weekend as i've already said.

the gathering was great, by the way. jeff built a fire down by the mcilroy's pond and we roasted a hot dogs and sat around the fire and talked and shared our lives. i love those times. i don't think we have enough of them. i think my prayer today for all my friends and family is that they would have times like that - slow, quiet, beautiful times of simply sharing their lives with others. and in honor of lindsey -peace.