T-minus...

Alright, as I sit here just a few hours away from officially entering my third decade of life it's time to post the last installment of my walk down memory lane. I need to say thanks to everyone who's emailed me or commented on various pages reminding me of things I had not posted. Obviously there are way too many memories to accurately list them all, but the help has been a lot of fun. Also, I promise to have a much more thought provoking post shortly, but I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this whole venture. And now, the final segment...

BACK IN ARTHUR

* Mom, Dad, Nick, Kevin, Jennifer and I all living in one 3 bedroom home for a week with ALL of our stuff while we try to find apartments for Jennifer and I, and then for Kevin

* Kaylee and every "first" moment with her

* Quitting my full time job to look for a part time one to spend more time at the church, THEN finding out we were pregnant

* The trip to Chile/Peru

* Tooey, tyler's backpack/child

* driving in Chile/Peru

* the local remedy for altitude sickness, haha

* eating llama (a rather tough meat)

* the trip to San Diego

* getting to see the Matt and Suzi Marquez for a week

* watching Charlie get attacked by nature (i.e. the waves at the beach)

* seeing Charlie being almost drug out to sea... in about 4 inches of water

* learning Jack in the Box had tacos on their menu

* making the videos for the kids crusade at San Diego

* the blooper reel for the videos

* learning I have a talent for writing awesomely random puppet skits

* telling the entire easter story with puppets... narrated by a monkey and using a frog to portray Jesus (yes, we crucified a puppet frog)

* Daniel the musical (puppet show)

* puppet chucking

* the birth of Clueless the Frog

* The IR

* The founding members of the IR... some of the best young men I've ever had the privilege to know

* The Dread White & Blue

* The conditioning group

* trips to the campground in Excelsior Springs

* Being the Emcee for Desert Theater

* Being allowed to create my own character to Emcee as

* helping with plays/musicals/marching band/track at the high school

* Taking Kaylee into the parenting class at AHS to help them learn about babies

* getting to know Greg and Karen and going through pregnancy/parenthood with them

* Watching all three Lord of the Rings extended versions in one day with a bunch of LOTR fans

* Halo parties

* "Matt's"

* Getting to know Nick again after being gone for 4 years

* Getting to know Jessica (Coldwell's wife)

* Going to games at the new Busch Stadium

* CFN conferences

* being on staff at Cornerstone and being allowed to figure who I am as a minister

* being ordained

* any time spent with the Allison fam

* learning the joys of Priceline

* looking oh so cool on my scooter!

* deciding to start collecting chess sets from around the world... and getting some amazingly cool ones

* getting back in touch with so many people via myspace and facebook

* playing guitar on the praise band with Tyler, Kody, Nick (for a time) and Greg

* Working at CHI and not dying

* guitar hero (haha, I know, sad but I LOVE that game)

* date nights

* about to turn 30 and still being a kid at heart

Ok, I know that's a shorter list than some of the others... but I hedged a bit and put the kaylee memories in one ambiguous bullet point. If I went through all those it'd never end.

But as I'm about to turn 30 I'm actually not freaking out too badly. Yeah it's REALLY strange to say "I'm 30" but I'm ok with it. It's amazing how short this life is and how much we worry about getting stuff and "living life to the fullest" but for me I'm beginning to redefine what that means. And to live life to the fullest in where I'm headed, 30 is the perfect age to start, cause I certainly didn't know enough to do it before 30. I barely know enough to try it now. :D

Well, I'm off for now. I pray you are all well and I'll talk at ya soon. God bless.

-Just Matt