A Day in My Life

Over this past week, I have played broomball in two different leagues and experienced two things I never have before. The first happened last Sunday evening. On Sunday’s, I play in the Twin Cities Church Broomball League on North Haven’s team. We are normally a fairly decent team. This past week, we were playing a team of former Bethel guys. Ironically, a lot of them are old band guys which made the game a little more fun. That night, the ice was cover in a layer of snow about an inch deep which really slowed the pace of the game. It made the game more like boot hockey than broomball being that there was a lot of kicking of the ball going on. Anyway, about mid-way through the second half, I found myself down on my knees fighting for the ball. This is a pretty normal thing for me to be doing during any given game. Except this time, the guy I was up against hit the ball away and started to run. Unfortunately for me, he ran over my stick and got it caught between his legs and tripped. The whistle blew and I got called on a tripping penalty. This is my first penalty ever and the first of the league for the season. That was my first broomball first of the week.

The second one happened on Wednesday night in the Minneapolis City league. You should know first of all that this league it a lot more intense and way more competitive. Also, the ice is always much better! We started off the first half by going up 2-1. Just as the half was winding up, John Sheehan was on right side fighting to clear the ball out of our zone. As the struggle continued, his opponent tried to hit the ball out and ended up having his stick graze off of John’s and came up and hit John right in the face. He immediately went down to the ice. By the time I got over to where he was, he was trying to sit up and was bleeding out of his mouth. When he moved his hand away from his face, we saw that he had a large gash in the middle of his top lip. Then the whistle blew to end the first half. He ran into the warming hut to try and make the bleeding stop. As the second half was starting, he came back out and said he needed to go to the hospital to get some stitches. He called Marc over to drive him there. As Marc was coming, he said that he also thought that one of his teeth had been broken. This was the worst broomball accident that I have ever seen. Marc came back for some of his things after the game and said that not only would he be needing some stitches, but dental work was also in order. I feel so bad for John. But, knowing him, he’ll be out only as long as the doctors and his wife make him stay out of broomball. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

I’m planning on playing some more broomball tomorrow morning. I hope this crazy week of broomball firsts is all over with and never to return!

Happy New Year to all of you and welcome to 2009. I’m happy to be here in the new year and I hope you are too. I decided to follow the lead of Austin and post a year end wrap-up. However, I’m going to take the chronological approach. Here goes nothing:

January was filled with a lot of Broomball. I played on two teams; one in the Minneapolis City League and one in the newly established Twin Cities Church Broomball League. Fortunately, we were able to play for quite a long time last season.

February brought the wedding of one of my best friends from High School, Mike Wallin. I was a groomsman in his wedding which was a lot of fun. During this month, I also helped out a bit on Austin’s campaign. Unfortunately this year, he was forced to stop short of the election. Here’s looking to 2010!

On February 29, I proposed to Bethany! Fortunately for me, she said yes. That sparked my activities between then an October 4th.

In April, Bethany’s grandmother past away. We made the trip up to Eureka, SD for the funeral.

My brother Tyler graduated from Bethel in May. Also, my brother Daniel graduated from St. Francis High School. Daniel is going to Bethel this year while Tyler is working at ACR Homes this year and will be going to George Fox University in the fall.

In June, my good friends Emily Nelson and Bjorn Larson were married down in Topeka, Kansas. Bethany was a bridesmaid and I serenaded everyone with my trumpet during the ceremony.

July took me up to Trout Lake Camp for a weekend for my home churches annual retreat. We did a lot of boating and playing outside. Also, throughout the summer, Bethany and I were in a Crown Financial small group through our church. We had a great time in the group and learned a lot!

Now I’ll jump ahead to October, because not much else happened last summer. I had my bachelor party where we played some Broomball and had some apps at Applebees. Then on October 4, 2008, I was married to my beautiful bride, Bethany. We went to sunny California on our honeymoon.

We went to visit Bethany’s sister Erika and her husband Eric in St. Louis in November. We were able to see some of the town and hang out with them for a couple of days.

We were able to use a free hotel night we built up on the honeymoon for a night in the Hyatt in Minneapolis. Right before Christmas, Bethany got the flu which forced her to call in sick for the days leading up to Christmas. On the positive side, she was able to come out to my parents house on Christmas day. The following day, we went down to Betany’s sisters house in Edgerton, MN. We were down there with her whole family, minus one, through the 28th. We were able to meet and spend some time with their new baby, Abram.

I know were now out of months for the year, I just need to add this in since I’m so proud. In fantasy football this year, I took the consolation trophy in my Bethel Jazz league, took fourth in my work league, and took the championship in Austin’s League! My best year in fantasy yet!

That should catch us up to the present. Thanks for making it all the way through this long post. One of my resolutions this year is to post more often to the blog. I’m off to a good start already. May you be blessed in this new year!