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2 Years Ago… a Broken Ankle

This weekend is the 2nd anniversary of a major turning point in my life. It was a major turning point because it was the first of a sequence of events that just really threw me for a loop. It spun me off in directions I never thought I would have gone. Two years ago this weekend I broke my ankle playing a pick up game of baseball.

I never intended on playing that day but they were short players so I said why not. The game was fun even though we were losing. Then in the eighth inning I made the mistake of trying to slide, and here is the result of that.

 
Yep, I have lots of hardware in my ankle now. If you count that’s eight screws and a plate. My ankle is surrounded by scars. I ended up breaking just about anything you can break with the ankle. I ended up giving my Mom a wonderful gift that year. 10AM Mother’s Day I went into surgery to try and fix this mess of my ankle. 
Many things happened after that from losing my job to breaking up with my girlfriend. My life was kind of like one of those sappy country songs. Luckily my dog didn’t die. Those events are actually what led me to start this blog. I hoped it would provide me an outlet to work through the rapid changes I was dealing with. These events are also how I ended up titling my blog. The title comes from the bible story of Jacob when he wrestles with God and receives the name of God Wrestler or Israel. You can read that passage in Genesis 32.
In the past two years I have definitely come through those trials I had to face. They have shaped me in ways I never expected to be. I am in a place now that I never thought I would end up, but its good. Life is good. God is good. God is sovereign.

If you missed it :P

Here is some of what you missed if you didn’t make it to Chicago with us last weekend.

Kyle leap frogging everything.

Snapshots.

Head, Shoes, Dog

I have a really bad headache right now and it just will not go away. I think its because I have worked so many days straight. Even though my job consists of me sitting here doing nothing its still very draining. Only two more nights and I will be done here at the Forest Park Suites.

I ordered new shoes. They are being delivered today. I am very excited because its been since October of 2007 that I got new shoes.

My dog, Marty, had a seizure last night and my Dad and I got really freaked out. Marty is our long haired chihuahua and he’s not the brightest dog but hes the cutest lil thing ever. He is so sweet and loving. I just love it when he lays in my lap and that he tries to play with the big dogs. We tried to take him to our animal clinic which is supposed to be a 24 hour place. When we got there around 10pm there was no one there and Marty was still breathing really hard and shaking really bad. I guess they aren’t 24 hour when the next day is Easter. By the time we got back home Marty was doing better but we’re still worried bout him. The interweb says that chihuahua’s are prone to seizures. So I guess I have an epileptic dog.  

Here’s Marty McFly chillaxin with my Dad.

Sorry if i have some bad grammar here, my head really hurts right now.

Beauty in a Broken Mirror

I was challenged this week to be creative and to find create something that represents me. This challenge got me very excited because I love to be created and to find ways to release my creative side. However, as the week went on I just could not think of what to do. As usual it came down to crunch time to finish my creative challenge. 
Here is how my thought process worked at 4:30 AM yesterday. Got home from hanging out with my friend Mike and was very tired. I entered my bed room and saw the broken mirror on the floor that I had broke last week. (I was so mad at myself for breaking it, I just left it.) Hmmm, wonder if I can do something with that. Then I turned and saw my Nikon D40 on my dresser. Hmmm, wonder what kind of pictures I could take with a broken mirror. I began to play around with different ideas and well none of them worked that well. Since it was like 6:00 AM I decided to go to bed. (if you didn’t know, I work as a night auditor at a hotel so I stay up all night all the time.)
I woke up took my shower and then it came to me. 
Even though the mirror is broken it can still reflect beautiful things. 
Here is what came out of that. 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
How do these pictures represent me? Well, to me, these images are a view of how my broken life reflects the beauty of Christ. Even though a mirror is broken doesn’t mean it stops reflecting what’s in front of it. As long as I keep Christ in my view, leading me, I will continue to reflect His beauty, love and sacrafice.

Daily Mugshot

I stumbled upon this site dailymugshot.com a few weeks ago and decided to try and keep up with it. Here is what i got so far. I think my hair is really funny as it flips through each picture. Anyways this is a prime example of how bored I can get at work.

Hover over the slide show for speed and caption options. 

New Years on the Beach

So this year I was lucky enough to spend New Years Eve on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. 
Here are some pictures from our little beach bash. 
The ten of us.
                                                                                             
Ha! I made them jump like 60 times to get this picture.
Sparkling grape juice leaves a real weird after taste. 

What a hurricane in Cincy?

On Sunday, September 14, the remnants of Hurricane Ike mixed with another storm front and hit Cincinnati with the force of a hurricane. I watched with amazement as tree branches, shingles, and siding were being blown all around my street. The violent wind left the area as fast as it came in. However it left, at the peak, 900,000 or more homes with out power. This is the worst power outage in Cincinnati history.

Needless to say, I saw this as a great opportunity to go out and get into some SHENANIGANS.
Here are some pictures I took.

 
Since the power was out we had to cook on the grill. MMMM… Spaghetti from the grill. 

Pictures from Philly

The Cheese Steak Adventure

Friday, September 5th, four young men set out to experience the best cheese steaks known to man. It was believed that these cheese steaks could be found in the city of Philadelphia. The city where our great nation built its core basis for the government. The city where our fore fathers argued, debated, and decided upon the great documents that hold this nation and its values together. Apparently our fore fathers liked to this while eating steak sandwiches covered in cheese.

Our first stop was at Jim’s Steaks. All the locals said it was the best and I will say it was very, very good.
Stop two was at Grand Ole Cheese Steak in the Bourse near Independence Hall. This place was alright but not my favorite.
Next we had a cheese steak with pizza sauce from a pizza place that i totally forget right now. I will update that later when i figure it out. Again it was alright, i didn’t like the bun all that much.
The fourth cheese steak stop was at Sonny’s and it was amazing. It was my first with whiz instead of provolone and it was sooooo good.
The fifth stop was a return trip to Sonny’s. Yeah it was that good.
Our last stop was at Lorenzo’s Pizza and it was my favorite of all the cheese steaks I had. I think overall i just liked the place and the fact that i could get pizza by the slice and a cheese steak and a fountain coke all at the same time. Plus it was the absolute cheesiest cheese steak around.

All man I have got to quit talking about cheese steaks i’m craving one real bad.

I would say our adventure was successful and we returned home just fine.

Capture Cincinnati

So Cincinnati has put together a coffee table book of photos that represent the city taken by the people of city. They did this last year and they are doing it again this year. I have submitted some photos for the book and I need you to help me out. The photos with the most votes get to be in the book. So go check out my photos and vote for me.

Either click on the photo badge to the right or go to http://www.capturecincinnati.com/people/crandall

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