Life's too short and precious..

This morning I opened my e-mail and almost choked on my juice. The headline read that Anthony Burger, one of the Gaither Homecoming artists, passed away suddenly of a heart attack while playing for the Gaither Homecoming cruise.

I don't think any of us were ready for this one. At least when I lost my dad last year, I was prepared for it.

Anthony was one of the artists I was friendly with. He was always good for a hug whenever I would see him at a show, or Praise Gathering, He supported me when my dad passed, promising that the Gaither gang would be praying. And, he always acknowledged and supported my work for musicians. One of his favorite things to say to me was "If Wendy married Anthony Burger, she'd be Wendy burger." Always got a good laugh out of that one.

Let me share the story of the attached picture. I was at the Dallas Homecoming two years ago. One of the things I hoped for was to get a picture of me, Mark Lowry and Taylor Mason together (I already had one of Anthony with many of the other Burger buddies). Taylor was very kind to pull this together for me. Sue Carlson volunteered to take the shot, and as she was about to, Anthony walked by and we pulled him in (for those who don't know Anthony, he is standing on the right in the shot) . It happened to be February 14, so my joke for this picture was that it was "my three valentines".

I don't usually celebrate V day--but that year, I did.

There are countless other memories to share in this five years of fandom. You can find some of those sprinkled throughout Gaither show-related trip reports in the fans section of www.wendyv.com. I hadn't seen Anthony in a year and was really looking forward to doing so in May. Needless to say, it will be very different at the Target Center this year.

Thanks for everything, Anthony, and go rest high. I hope you'll introduce yourself to my dad.

A very successful day!

Ever have one of those days when everything actually works? I must say, today turned out to be one of those.

I did not look forward to going out in -25 wind chill to my local Firestone at 7 a.m. to get my car brakes checked out. My brake light came on last week and I was prepared to have my brakes replaced on my 10 year old car (The one with the 15,000 miles. Yes, you read that right.). I thought that would take more than an hour, so I would either have to bus or walk to my haircut appointment about 10 minutes away at 8 a.m. Well, they decided a little brake fluid would do the trick because my brakes weren't worn enough to warrant replacement. So I saved $200 and drove to my hair appointment.

I got to the hairdresser and got my hair cut in a spiky hair style. I've been working up nerve to do this for weeks. It looks like the top of a little pineapple--kinda cute.

My next stop on my agenda was to get new eyeglasses. I decided it was high time for my next eye exam, plus I wanted more "chic" frames to go with the new 'do. I waited about 45 minutes for the eye doctor to show up, and read a Readers' Digest issue while I waited. How apropos for it to have an article which says "your eye doctor can tell by looking in your eyes if you might have diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer". I started to have second thoughts about this whole thing. I was nervous enough because the last time I was checked, my right eye pressure was slightly elevated. But then the doctor showed up, so I decided to go through with it.

Everything checked out well, I needed only a slight adjustment to my prescription and I got a great deal on glasses. Even better news was the right eye pressure was normal. I had that higher reading about three years ago when my eating/exercise habits were less disciplined. I attribute this improvement to cleaning up my act, eating and exercising better and taking a supplement with lutein which promotes eye health.

That appointment got done just in time for lunch...after which I got a parking space close enough to the upscale grocery store. I decided to shop there this week now that I had some extra bling. I didn't deviate much from my usual grocery order and it turned out not much more expensive than Rainbow or Cub (our discount grocery stores).

It was a very successful day!

OK, so I've been lazy...

OK, I admit it. I got a little off track with my walking training. I got too distracted with the job change and other things going on. But now I am back in to some routine. My pedometers are still a bit off, so I wasn't sure just how much distance I was getting indoors.

I decided to go with buying a couple of Leslie Sansone's walking DVDs. They are broken down by miles, so you can at least measure some distance.

The first DVD I bought has a 1 mile and 2 mile program. My goal is to alternate those for a week, then try to do both together. I also ordered another 3 mile tape, which should be here in a week or so.

The MS Walk is up to 9 miles. I may decide to do 6. So, right now I'm looking at this as two 3 mile walks. Hopefully by the time the end of April rolls around I'll at least be averaging 3 miles a day.

"Whatcha Need" is what I got..

I must say that Chapin Hartford, the composer of "Whatcha Need", one of the songs on Mark Lowry's latest album "Be the Miracle", certainly nailed it. "Whatcha need is what you get and it might be the opposite of what you dream and what you plan, it's out of your hands."

This year I decided I would go back to full time permanent status where I worked. As an in-house temp, I was technically considered part time, even though I have put in 40 hour weeks for the last two years. A week or so ago I looked at one job posting that interested me but hadn't decided to go for it. Then I woke up in the middle of the night that weekend and felt a strong impression on me to post for the job. I inquired about it the next Monday and learned the job was still open but they were in the final stages of selection. However, because I had done an assignment for the supervisor, they were interested and rushed my application through.

It looked promising--but I didn't get the job because another candidate had a touch more experience in a couple of areas. I was a bit disappointed and couldn't understand why God would wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me to post for the job...if I wasn't going to get it. The only thing that made sense were the words of the aforementioned song.

This week I updated with my supervisor and she told me of a posting that was still open in an area I used to work in as an admin assistant. This was an IT/tech job I had interest in over the years, but the timing hadn't been right. I believed it was closed because a friend of mine just got hired for it, but it turns out there were two open positions...and the supervisor I worked for inquired about my availability. So I posted for it and yesterday was offered the position--which I accepted, of course! . I'm very excited.

The last part of the song chorus? "Whatcha need is what you get and the story ain't over yet, if you thank God for what you got, it will turn into what you want."

Progress..sort of...

I'm continuing to train for the MS Walk, but not sure just how much mileage I got in this week. I had problems with both pedometers that I have. I replaced the batteries on both of them, but I just can't figure out this stride setting thing. I played around with it and it seems the readings are still a bit off. I know I can do a mile in about 20 minutes but the readings are showing slightly more than half a mile now in that time period.

I got outside this weekend to get a half hour walk in. We are said to be having a pseudo winter here in MN so far, with less snow and temperatures a bit above normal, in the 30s. No complaints on that from me! But it wasn't in the mid-30s when I went for a walk while waiting for my car's oil change to be done, so still a bit too cold for long outside walks for me just yet.So back on the makeshift living room/kitchen track in the evenings.

This week "American Idol" starts, thus impacting that schedule a bit, I'm sure...

Training begins..

Despite a rather stubborn ear infection that's been hanging in since Christmas, it is now time for me to start training for the MS Walk Twin Cities I'll be doing in May. I'm doing this in honor of Mark Lowry, the best male singer to my ears, and it's a good opportunity to help me keep in shape. The walk itself is 9 miles. I'm hoping to break it down to 3 walks of 3 miles each in terms of training.

As I said, one of the side benefits of this is to get in better shape. I'm happy to say that I've been able to stay at the level I got to in September when I lost 13 pounds. But now we are well into winter here in MN and the motivation to stay active while indoors is a challenge. A co-worker recently loaned me a few Richard Simmons "Sweatin' to the Oldies" videos and a Leslie Sansone walking tape. Now, those were a lot of fun to do. But if I'm going to train right for this thing, I've got to do some authentic walking. Leslie's got some steps in her video that aren't always actual walking, so that won't quite work for me in training for walking distance. And during the week, when you work all day and commute back and forth and have to have some life at home, who's got time to go to the gym or malls to walk?

Over the weekend, I came up with the simple answer. Turn on the Dance channel on my cable system's music choice channels and just use my living room and kitchen as a walking track. One of my Christmas gifts to myself was a pedometer, so I put that on and just started going...and going. I found that I didn't really have to like the music all that much--as long as it was rhythmic and helps me keep my pace. My first goal this first week is a mile a day, and I made that easily. Next week, it will be a mile and a quarter a day each week, and so on.

Yeah, I hope to lose some more weight, too. It would be cool to be in shape for "Senior Trip" in April. I'd like to hit there with my red hat, feather boa and say "I'm 50 years old...how the heck do I look??"

I'll keep you posted.

My new blog

Welcome!

Much of this will be a mirror blog of sorts to one I have on Gaither.com, with a few edits here for non-member readers. Meaning, you may not know who/what I'm talking about if I used the Gaither blog stuff here verbatim.

Happy 2006!