here was what i wrote on nov.6th but had problems posting it, you jerks! ;)

i wasn't going to write until i read michelle's blog about wanting to travel (and retire). i have a response. surprise, surprise!

first of all, God puts desires in our hearts because He wants to fulfill them, including the desire to travel and have leisure time and experience things outside of ourselves. and in response to what you've heard about christian speakers talking about working their entire lives, come on. remember how God has different plans for each person? no lumping everyone into the same category--especially not the category of church leaders--infamous for being used and abused and worn out because of unrealistic and arbitrary rules created by humans.

of course we are supposed to work hard and make a living and be responsible for our families, but God also gave us brains so we could make money and do what we dream of doing (in our vocations AND our avocations)!

so dream on, michelle! and more importantly, plan on!!!

we had a great weekend in vegas-the U2 show was amazing. i have to say the first time we saw them it was better, only because we were so much closer and the crowd control at the MGM was poor and matt and i were both on edge. the set list was fantastic, though and they played "with our without you", which is the first song i really LOVED on the radio when i was in 6th grade (from the album, joshua tree--first album i ever bought (mary, stop laughing!!!

we didn't end up gambling until 1:30 am on saturday night, though. people think (and i used to also) that you only gamble in vegas but not so. we were busy all the night before and all day just walking around, enjoying the amazing casino hotels--there are so many fun things to look at in all these themed places! we stayed at the flamingo, which i thought would be shady, but it was absolutely beautiful and we had a large room (2 queen beds, an air mattress on the floor and still plenty of room to move around. they had a huge courtyard/habitat for different species of birds (including penguins!) with waterfalls and beautiful plants. there were also several pools and even 3 waterslides (waterslides were closed--it is november, after all). so we hung out by the pool all day long and walked around the nice area of vegas quite a bit. when we finally did get around to gambling, i doubled my money and came out $46 ahead!!!! yeah!!! oh my gosh, i had so much fun playing craps. we played for about an hour before we called it quits (i think i was the only one who quit while i was ahead, though). everyone was high-fiving and yelling and we made a bunch of new friends at our table.

we also had a fun "dinner bet", in which everyone in the group takes the amount of money they would spend on dinner ($20/couple) and plays roulette and bets it all on red or all on black. if you win, you double your money and eat a great meal. if you lose, you spend your money and eat at mcdonald's--ha! so we put $60 on black and doubled it!!!! such a great feeling!!!! and we ate very well, indeed.

but we're glad to be out of las vegas. it is fun in small units of time, but the atmosphere of excess gets to you. maybe we'll go next summer when ryan has a conference out there :)

welp, matt ordered pizza and got a movie so we're going to relax and wind down from our long day of driving and go to bed early (7, maybe 8 hours of sleep total this weekend! :) oh well, we won't have energy to do this when we're older, might as well get it in while we can!