Greetings to everyone! For those of you who are Winter Olympics fans, I hope you are able to savor the last few days of the PyeongChang games. For those who are ready for new and regular programming to come back, hold strong through the weekend. Before we begin, let me share a bonus photo…

Sidney took this photo of Sloan and I in the middle of a walking lesson. I liked it so much that I am sharing it even though it really doesn’t have a spot in this blog post.

Okay great, now let’s get started with the latest Thursday Rundown…

Look At That Track – At Coastal Carolina University, we recently installed a brand new teal track. In my opinion, I think it makes our beautiful campus stand out even more. This image was taken by our video production department. Drones are so cool!

How nice does that look? Great shot by David Russell. I work on a beautiful campus.

Perfect Children’s Book – Part of Sloan’s Valentine’s Day present from my parents was a special book. Titled Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times, it is a guide to the men and women who lived remarkably God-centered lives and reached sainthood. As the title alludes, the focus of this book is on saints from the recent era. Superstars like Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Padre Pio are all included inside the pages with a rhyming bio and a pleasing illustration. This book fills a void because before Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times was published, a children’s book of the saints did not exist. Making this whole thing better is that the author/illustrator is Meghan Bausch, the daughter of Tim and Kathy McCormick. The McCormicks, now our good friends, gave Sidney and I our Pre-Cana counseling. None of us will live a perfect life like Jesus but the saints remind us that we can still live extremely holy existences and have an AMAZING impact.

Sloan with a gift from grandma…”Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times” by Meghan Bausch.

Weird Dream – When Sidney and I traveled to Charlotte earlier this month, she urged me to use cruise control. I usually never use it but I did during our trip. In the wee hours this morning, I dreamt that I was riding in the passenger seat while Sid was driving our car down the freeway. I looked down at the floorboard and then back at Sidney. Much to my horror, she was no longer in the drivers seat but the car was still accelerating at a high rate of speed. Suddenly, a traffic light came into view in the middle of the freeway with cars stacked behind it. I started to freak out but a voice from the back told me to calm down. I looked over my shoulder and saw Sid sitting in the backseat. She coached me to just move over to the driver’s seat and take control. Luckily, this wasn’t a nightmare as Sid’s calmness helped me stop the car just in time. I just don’t trust cruise control.

Billy Graham – I just wanted to quickly celebrate Billy Graham. What an incredible life he lived. His devotion to God was simply inspiring. I had a Graham devotional as a youngster that I referred to often. Over the past day I have read articles about his visits to the places I once lived and I have ate up the summaries written about his relationships with NINE different United States Presidents. I really wish he made it to 100 but our world is certainly better for each day he lived over the course of his 99 years of life.

In August 1982, an eight-day Inland Empire Billy Graham Crusade at Joe Albi Stadium in my hometown of Spokane drew more than 223,500 people. (this photo is courtesy of the Spokesman-Review).

Sloan At 49 Weeks – In Sloan’s entire life, she has not had a more productive week than this one. Over the past several days she has started to climb the stairs, pull up entirely on her own, take steps with her walker, and crawl solely on all fours (before this week she still did her army crawl at times). Her birthday month is now less than a week away. With party preparations in the works, we are trying not to get too ahead of ourselves so we can enjoy these final days with Sloan before she enters an entirely new category.

Here is Sloan’s 49 week photo collage.

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The upper 70s weather we are enjoying in Myrtle Beach will continue through the weekend (yay!). I hope you all have a great few days and I will catch up with everyone soon. Don’t Blink.