Sometimes we can find ourselves in some pretty weird stuff. Life has a way of turning without making sure we’ve got our belts buckled, and more times than not we feel like we’re hanging on for dear life with our bodies halfway out the window of the passenger seat while we scream for the ride to stop.

Of course, we all KNOW that God is in those places with us. We all read Psalm 139 and think about how nice it is that God is everywhere and that there is nowhere we can go that escapes His presence, but the truth is that every know and then we need a reminder that sets our hearts at ease and lets us rest in the reality that there is absolutely NOWHERE that His presence cannot find us. Even in places that we probably shouldn’t have gone. Need more proof? A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words…

Yep, this was supper a couple nights ago. Apparently, hot dogs are quite stackable. Who knew?

Monday was the first day of training for my November marathon. I’m not sure when I decided to run a marathon, but at some point over the last year of running, it became a goal of mine and now I’m in the last 20 weeks before it becomes a reality. I do a good job of logging my runs at a great website (Running Ahead), but I’ll also try to journal some along the way here on The Blog Channel, too.

The first step was choosing a marathon that wouldn’t be too hot, too cold, or too hilly. Funny thing, too, was that a friend of mine told me that he had run his first marathon in Richmond years ago, and as it turns out, that’s where I’ll run my first, too. Saturday, November 14, 2009 I’ll be towing the line at the SunTrust Richmond Marathon with about 5000 other marathoners and tackling the 26.2 mile course. What clinched this race for me was that it is being held on what would have been my brother Stephen’s 40th birthday, so the whole family is going to head up together and use the race as a way to honor his memory and hopefully raise a little money for Special Olympics, too. More on that in a later post, though.

The second step was choosing a training program so I can at least survive this crazy goal. Since I have already used Hal Higdon’s plans before (his training program for the Half Marathon got me ready for the Thunder Road Half Marathon in Charlotte last December), I decided to go with his Marathon Intermediate I plan. I had to modify it a little and stretch it to 20 weeks instead of 18 in order to get my 20 mile training runs done before I get on the plane for India in mid October.

So far this week I’ve run 3 times – 4 miles Monday, 5.5 miles yesterday and 3.5 miles today. 2 more runs this week and I’ll be finished with week one.

This is one of my favorite wall hangings from the staff bathroom at Camp Shenandoah Springs.

Today Wendy, Parker, Will and Sydney ran their first 5ks. It was cool running with them and seeing them enjoy it. We even met Phil and he ran.

Any thoughts about this? Interesting, isn’t it?

Accidents are funny in any language.

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ENJOY!

I’ve noticed that it’s been a month since I added a blog entry, and so I’ve been thinking about what would be the best “first” story to post on my way back to blogging consistency. I’m pretty sure I can’t come up with a better one than the story that appeared in the Stanly News and press last week.

Now, what makes it funny is that I never even knew it was getting written. I had spoken at the Greater Oakboro Business Association luncheon about 704, and a reporter from the SNAP had asked afterwards if it would be okay for her to mention the 704 project in her article. Of course I said yes, but I assumed she would have something like “and Paul Jenkins shared about 704″ buried in an article about the actual meeting. Imagine my surprise when I turned the page of the paper and saw the following article splashed across the width of page 10A.

So, 704 is now “officially” out of the closet. Hang on, cause it will only get crazier from here.

You can see the entire story here.

Sorry it’s actually an end of the week blooper (which would be EOTWB), but I think it’s well worth the wait. This one’s not slapstick funny, but more funny because we get to enjoy an awkward moment at Microsoft’s expense! What follows is a voice recognition demonstration gone awry…

Here are a couple pics from my date last night with Wendy at the last showing of Riverdance. We even met up with Renee and Nehemiah there.