hello friends and family:

it has been a while since i was last on here. lately i have been listening to kanye west, busy with school, turned a year older, and dieting/exercising.

this dieting/exercising is so strange to me. i always thought that i didn't need to be dieting and that the exercise that i was getting was sufficient enough. but recently the more i thought about i need to view my body as an image of God since we were formed in the image of God. i figure that being overweight is probably not the best way to treat my body. that the nice little luxuries in life is not the way to go all the time (example: driving a car when i could ride or walk, eating fatty fast food when i could wait another hour and cook fresh food myself, etc.) i have recently rediscovered my love for fruit...not that i didn't like it before but it just taste better when there are no fatty foods in the way.

it is now october and it looks like this month will be just as busy and quick as the last few. we went to ohio last week and are going to be going back in another week. driving 12 hours round trip twice in a month really makes it hard on our finances, as well as driving 8 hours a week. it kills me how much ashten and i rely on gasoline. as soon as we are done with school i want to swear off of it, perhaps try to shrink our carbon footprint in the meantime. (whatever that means, it is all just cliche' anymore i fear)

our friend marcie is planning on visiting later this month. how exciting.

joey moved to europe. i miss him. if anyone is in germany and sees him, tell him that i say hi.

that is all for now, just a quick update.

peace

ryan