Cathing Up

Here’s a highlight of a few items that I have actually completed but haven’t taken time to blog about.

#13 Avett Bros Show - August 14^th in Chicago. Car got towed that weekend, bought tickets for the wrong game in Milwaukee, and Mayer was subpar, however these guys did not disappoint! This is the only photo I could find. Fro snapped it with his Iphone.

# 20 Beat my Father at golf - I knew this was going to be a challenge and if there was any item on this list I may not complete it would be this one. My dad has played golf for almost as long as I can remember. And though I may have him on age and strength, golf is not about those things. Up until this summer we had never even played a competitive round. I have yet to beat him, BUT I am proud to say that of the 3 rounds we have played I have been within 2 strokes of him twice. The third: we won’t talk about that! I am making strides and I am definitely happy with my progress. He is coming to visit in a few weeks, that will probably be the last round we play this year. I’ll give it a go!

#22 Go to a midnight movie premiere - I went to Inception. I am sure you have say it as everyone has. It was great. My favorite movie all year. I was happy to stay up till 2:45 on a Friday morning to watch it.

#27 Have a snowball fight - I am going to mark this item off of my list. I never got to have an official snowball fight like I was thinking but every week walking back and forth after youth group from our church to the youth center snowballs were hurled. Mostly at the youth pastor. Proof that I have the greatest job in the world.

This has been a mixed bag, but we are caught up.

ryan

I'm not gonna give up.

So I'll be honest. I had written this blog and goal off. After some time on my balcony on a beautiful Iowa evening with a couple new albums, I have decided not to quit. I will catch up with the items I have yet to blog about. Then get back on it. Time is not on my side.

ryan

#3

This past weekend I raised money and rode in the Tour de Cure. This is a ride that benefits the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes is a very serious disease that has had a great effect on my family. When I decided to participate in a charity, the ADA is what I had in mind. Fortunately, Cedar Rapids had its own bike ride so I didn't have to go far.

If you are not familiar with diabetes here are a few facts for you:

23 Million Americans have been are diabetics

57 Million Americans have Pre diabetes

This means that roughly 1 in 4 Americans either have or are very close to having diabetes.

The World Health Organization says there are 171 Million people in the world with diabetes and that number will likely double by 2030.

It is very very scary. I hope that we begin to take this disease are serious as cancer or another serious disease. I would love to be apart of the end of it.

Ryan

All in a day

One of my favorite things to do is to drive on a beautiful day with the windows down and the music up! I got to do some of that today. I recently moved to Iowa so it was fun to see some areas that I had never been to before.

I found out one thing today. Northeast Iowa is BEAUTIFUL! Hills and trees everywhere. So gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of Tennessee or deep Southern Illinois. It definitely made me feel at home. I was driving on a two lane highway north of Cedar Rapids and I thought, I am never on two lane highways anymore. Kind of sad. This particular highway reminded me of 127 in Illinois. It always felt good to take exit 50 and know that I was going to be in Greenville in a half an hour.

Overall it was a very good day. Saw Dubuque, a massive umpire, the Worlds Largest Strawberry, a town named after me, the Field of Dreams, a bunch of Flags, heard a crappy local band play R.O.C.K. in the USA at a town festival, and 3 states in one day! FUN.

I am going to pile some pics below all of this. I still want to complete 3 items this weekend. 2 down 3 to go.

Ryan

a water tower with my name on it. It's Iowa's version of the Space Needle.

A church I liked, honestly I can't remember the town.

and then there's this...practically the Statue of Liberty, & the World's Largest Strawberry

Grimey bar with my name on it. I took this while driving and getting staired at by a local lady!

This rock was randomly along the highway.

Field of Dreams - if you build it

3 states 1 day

Write this down

This morning I woke up around 8 am and began my usual morning routine. I made myself a large bowl of Cheerios and sat down to re-watch some of last nights sports scores. Upon finishing my very typical breakfast with ESPN still playing in the background I pick up my laptop to check MSN, Facebook, and email. In my inbox I had double digit unread emails and multiple facebook notifications. Communication has really changed! Since this blog is about numbers and specifically my age, in my birth year my morning would have looked drastically different. ESPN and MSN would have been replace by the Cedar Rapids Gazette and I would have to wonder if my friends were bored, tired, or hungry and would not have Statuses to rely on. But I would have been enjoying Cheerios!!! And hopefully will in 30 more years.

I gave you this small dissertation to set up the fact that today I wrote a hand written letter. I couldn’t remember the last one I have written. Hand writing is still terrible so that made me feel at home! I’m not going to say much more about it other than I wrote it to someone who means a lot to me. I have a goal this weekend of completing 3 tasks this weekend so 1 down 2 to go.

From Cedar Rapids with love,

ryan

HU! in DM, IA!!!

Tonight was a big one for me. #11, Go to see a band you have never saw live. When I first put this on the list I new that not just any band would do. I wanted to see a band that I love and have never taken time to go see. I wasn’t just going to see a random show (which I often times do). Technically, I have already saw Michael Franti and Spearhead this year, but I wasn’t going to blog about that.

Tonight I at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines I went to see Hillsong United in concert. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to see them live. They have affected my ministry for many years. I want to comment about a couple of things about this experience tonight.

First, Hillsong United is TOP NOTCH professionally. Dates on this tour included: Boston, Philly, NYC, STL, Paris, Belfast, London. It would have been easy for them to sort of put it on auto-pilot for Des Moines. We were EASILY the smallest city that they played and they had NEVER been to Iowa at all. We in no way, shape, or form got there second rate show. They completely brought their A-Game! Best light show I have ever saw at a concert HANDS DOWN, sorry John Mayer, Milwaukee was good, but not like this. They played for over 2 ½ hours!!! Longest set I have ever been apart of. There drummer was amazing. I don’t know his name, but I am going to find out. He did wear a Cubs hat the entire set L I hope he gets rid of that before the Fox Theatre in StL tomorrow night.

Secondly, the obvious one, as a worship leader, I can’t go to something like this and not get totally psyched. Spiritually speaking the worship was phenomenal! At one point we were singing a chorus on some song and the lights were going INSANE and the drummer was also going INSANE and I was taken back by all that was going into worship at that moment. I wondered what it is going to be like in heaven?!?!?! Crazy crazy.

I also found out just tonight that Hillsong is opening a branch in NYC!!! This excites me. I will probably never go, not even sure I would want to, but I know that city NEEDS someone to reach it. I hope that they do as they not only are in Australia but also Europe.

Pics didn’t turn out great. I didn’t take too many. I wanted to worship.

Ryan

Oh Hi blog, there you are.

Hey, its been well over a month since I have blogged about my list so I will catch you up to date. I tried sushi and LOVED it. It didn’t taste like swank or pretension at all J It was REALLY REALLY good. I also had the chance to take my parents out to eat. This is always fun. We went to Granite City here in CR. Its my fave resturaunt so far!!!! I will try to do better so you all can get full stories.

Later,

Ryan