Ugh....

Ethiopia:
Spent most of the day trying to get some last minute paperwork together. Needed certified copies of our birth certificates, passports, and marriage licence. Went to four differnt places without any luck at all. Very frustrating not to get it resolved. Plan B: Send off the originals instead of copies. To top it all off, the Saturn broke down.

No run scheduled today. Liking this easy week. 7 easy tomorrow.

Food:
- Scrambled eggs, bowl of Kashi granola
- Six dollar burger, fries, Coke Zero.
- Another ton of Oreos and two cans of Dr.Thunder (can't remember the last itme I felt that icky)
- Fishfingers, mashed potatoes and broccoli
- One of Leah's awesome homemade fudge pops.

A twofer..

Yesterday:
It was a travesty. Didn't run (was supposed to run 6mi) and I ate all kinds of crap.

On a more personal note; as I was teaching the youth group on friendship evangelism is was struck by my own failings here. I don't put on my "what's-God-going-to-do-in-and-through-me-goggles" in the morning. I don't look out for people that God might put in my path. Hopefully by writing about this here every once in a while, I'll keep a better focus. We're not here by accident. We're here to live the Great Commission.

Today:
Food:
- Bowl of oatmeal
- Chic-fil-A Chicken Egg Multigrain Bagel Calories: 490(!) - Sodium: 1230mg(!!!!)- What?!?! It was free, how could I pass that up?
- Wendy's BLT Cobb Salad
- The leftover pack of Great Value Oreos made me feel really sick, as I ate way too many of them. A dozen at least.
- Tomato soup and a boiled egg.
- Two small slices of homemade bread with stuff on top.

Run: 6mi easy. First 3 and last 2 felt really good. The extra day off obviously did good.

Started humming this song this morning, it’s one of my favorite childhood TV memories. I haven't seen the clip in a long time, but it keeps popping up in my head fairly regularly.

Chow Fan deliciousness

No run scheduled today. So I headed to the Y instead. Nothing fancy, just a couple of circuits.

Food:
- Oatmeal w/apple sauce, scramble eggs, glass raw milk.
- One PB&J and one ham & cheese sandwich, two carrots. Prot. shake.
- Two bowls fried rice. Apple tart w/ vanilla ice cream.
- Snacks: Handful of pecans and raisins, prot. shake.
- Slice of bread w/canned makrell in tomato sauce, it's almost 11pm, and I shouldn't eat it, but it's virtually impossible to pass up freshly baked bread.

Noticed at work today that I was able to restrain myself from bad snacks as I knew I'd have to post them here. Encouraged that the blog then serves it's new purpose.

Ethiopia:
Nothing new here. Trying to get an English language Norwegian birth certificate is proving to be more difficult that it ought.

Skoleboller and Troll Hunters.

Watched the most amazing Norwegian movie tonight, called Troll Hunter. Not for young kids or the faint of heart, but if you like cheeky fake documentaries about trolls, it might be for you.

Run: 6 miles easy with Troy and Dillon. 9:45 pace (might remember wrong here).

Food:
- Oatmeal w/ apple sauce, two fried eggs.
- Three slices of bread with misc stuff on top, two carrots, protein shake.
- Two chicken and one fish taco.
- Snacks: Two granola bars, half a banana. Skolebolle. Handful of chips.

Ethiopia:
Paper work taking way too long on our side. Especially all the health forms. Had no idea that this could drag out the way it has. No forms = no visa. Not worried yet though. But there isn't really that much time until we leave. Mostly our fault though, we should have just organized everything straight away, set up appointments, etc., as soon as we got the list of required paperwork from NMS.

NMS sent a Norwegian volunteer out a month or so ago to work on our future home, here's a few pics. Not much but at least it'll give us an idea of how we'll be living.

Btw, as to time line: leave Greenwood right after Christmas, visit family in Norway, then move in mid-January to Addis for language school to learn Oromo. Then go home to Norway for missionary training in summer 2012. Only after all that will we actually move out to Bodji.

The second reason

We're moving to Ethiopia as missionaries in Jan 2012. There'll be lost of stress, joys and weirdness related to that, so this mit be a good place to put some of that into words. More on this later.

Later...

We're going with the mission agency (NMS) that sent us to Hong Kong in my childhood. We'll primarily be partnering with Mekane Yesus (the Lutheran church in Ethiopia). We'll primarily be helping train local pastors, evangelists and lay leaders in the western part of the country. We'll living in Bodji, so small it doesn't show up on Google Maps(!)

Food:
- Scrambled eggs, bowl of oatmeal w/ maple syryp and frozen blueberries.
- A lot of meat, two potatoes, salad. Two brownies, scoop of vanilla ice cream.
- Two servings Mac and cheese with peas and ham.
- Scoop vanilla ice cream and a pie e of Leah's apple almond tart.

Run:
Nothing scheduled; recovery day... Sorely (pardon the pun) needed, knees and calves are really sore.

The first reason

I've finally taken the step to sign up for a full marathon (Kiawah on Dec 10th). Hoping that if I keep regular posts on here, I'll feel like I'm being held accountable, especially when it comes to my diet. It's far to easy to snack on junk when I'm at the office. There's always leftover cakes, bags of chips, bottles of soda, etc just laying around.

Run:
This morning I ran 14 mi (22.5km), at an avg pace of 8:53, goal pace was 8:30. Troy was kind enough to run the first 7 with me. Felt a lot better than I did during last Saturday's 12 mi. Though running past Westside Baptist's pancake breakfast at mile 10, felt like cruel and unusual punishment. The air was filled with the wonderful aroma of pancakes and bacon. Thankfully Leah had some ready when I got home.

Food:
- Banana and slice of plain bread.
- Two blueberry and two cinnamon/pecan waffles. Small glass of apple cider. Approx 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt.
- 4 slices of HW homemade bread, with turkey, cheese and bell pepper. 1 cup raw milk.
- Hand full almonds
- 4 pieces fried fish, grits, slaw.
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, chopped pecans.
- 100g Firkløver chocolate.
(I do fine during the day, it's just the insatiable craving for sugar at night that gets me.)

Here's to another attempt...

It's made me sad to not keep this thing updated. another attempt is coming as i now have reasons to post. more later.

I'm running Cooper River Bridge Run this weekend with Troy. Should be fun. Haven't run a race since November i think. Really haven't trained for it at all, a part from running with the track kids.

I find it very difficult to get excited about blogging. To attempt to do this twice a month seems to have been too ambitious. Yes, Troy, you still get to slap me.

I just ate a whole bag of Cadbury's Miniature Chocolate Easter Eggs in one sitting - my stomach is a little unsettled.

I want to go on a trip to a place i've never been before. The think about an international marriage is that all free time and money goes towards traveling to the country you're not living in. And even through going home is absolutely fantastic and i wouldn't change anything, it'd be so much fun to go somewhere completely different.

Below is another gem from Norwegian pop music Hall of Shame: "Bombadilla Life" by Franklin .
I listened to this song over and over and over on my yellow Sony Sports Walkman. I made ample use of (what i think was called) the "auto-reverse" button; no need to flip the tape!

FYI

Leah is posting to her blog again.

Music at K-Mart

So i was in there tonight helping to pick up a recliner for my grandmother-in-law, when Crash Test Dummies' "MMM MMM MMM MMM" came on over the PA. Since it has been stuck in my head ever since, and because the Olympics are in Canada, i figured i'd spread the love:

Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Official Music Video) - Click here for more blooper videos