Matt.....MATT.....

......this is how I was awakened today. The voice was Janay calling me from her bathroom and I could hear the distress in her voice. "There's a Brown Recluse spider in my bathroom.....come help me please!" Long story short, I am Janay's hero and it was a Wolf spider. It was much larger than my photo shows and saving my damsel in distress made me a little nervous. This is how he looked once I smashed him. I took two photos because I was in a hurry to flush him before he came back to life and jumped on my face. Once the toilet bowl refilled....I flushed again to make sure!

Almost Famous

After our cruise, I found a website dedicated to cruising. I uploaded a few of our cruise photos to their gallery to show others that were on the same cruise as us. When I went to the website this morning I noticed they had posted one of my photos on their front page. How cool!! Then I realized.....Janay took that photo, not me. Way to go Janay! You must have a wonderful photography teacher :)

Janay's photo is the small one of the ship in the middle of the page.

Mama Duck

I caught mama duck returning to the nest this morning while leaving for work. This photo shows her impersonating a yard ornament.

Mama Ducks Morning Return

As I was leaving for church this morning I decided to check and see if mama duck returned. Rounding the corner to her nest I noticed a trail in the morning dew crossing the yard. I laughed while envisioning her waddling though the yard to the nest. Sure enough, she was there.

June 18th, 1995

It is a date I will never forget....the anniversary of my spinal cord injury. Though my life is better in many ways because of it, I still grieve at times for the things I've lost. Approximately 11,000 people in the USA will sustain a spinal cord injury this year. The majority of those injured will be young males between the ages of 16 and 30. The video below flooded my mind with memories and took me right back to the rehab hospital. Except for a few minor details, it could be a video of my recovery process. I am very blessed to have recovered as much as I have, but I pray for a full recovery for those 11,000 people injured this year.

Spencer Flooding

Spencer has had significant flooding recently with all of the rain. My mom and dad both are from Spencer, so I figured family members that keep up with my blog but live out of state would be interested in seeing some photos.

This first photo shows the fairgrounds in the middle-left and in the background you can see the bridge we crossed to go out to the country to Grandma and Grandpa Woodcock's house.



The second photo is from the opposite angle of the first photo. The bridge is to the left and the fairgrounds are at the top.



The last photo is looking towards the east with 46 comes into town from the bottom. The high school is the buidling at the bottom of the photo. In the upper-right portion of the photo you can see where the river normally flows in the channel between the trees.

The Flood of 2008

Our county, as well as several other throughout Indiana, have been flooded by extremely heavy rains. Martinsville is one of the communities that was hit particularly hard. Janay and I were not affected since we live in a high area of town. Thank God none of our families homes were destroyed either. Janay's sister's house and her brother's house (they live down the street from each other) were very close to taking on water. Their crawlspaces were filled with water, but compared to many residents they are very fortunate. Janay's parents and her Grandma live in the same neighborhood as her sister and brother, but they live a couple streets down and apparently are on higher ground because they weren't affected. Mom lives across the highway from them and the water came up her street a little, but never reached her house. The bank branch she works at didn't fare as well and had about 6" of water throughout.

This first photo shows mom's bank and the surrounding area. The large building to the right is K-mart which had the same water damage as the bank.



This aerial view is from the opposite angle the previous photo showed. It shows the bank as well as the approximate location of mom's house. In the center-right of the photo is the local Chevrolet dealership. Every vehicle there is under water.


This photo shows the road to the neighborhood where Janay's family lives. The building in the lower-right with the blue roof is South Elementary School.



This last photo shows the same area as the previous photo, but from a different angle. The elementary school is just out of the picture to the lower-left. The neighborhood at the bottom left is where Janay's family lives.

Maybe My Motocross Career Isn't Over

The heck with being able to walk 100%.......gimme my bike back!!

Six Degrees of Separation

Most of you probably know about the theory of Six Degrees of Separation. In short, it basically says that we are only six people away from knowing everyone on the earth. I've always wondered how true it could possibly be. A recent life experience has me thinking it could be possible.

Janay and I met a wonderful couple on our recent cruise, Rick and Cindy. We first encountered Rick and Cindy at the hotel during our precruise stay. Our paths crosses a couple of times getting on and off the elevators. At that time we only exchanged smiles and polite "hellos".

The first day on the ship Janay and I were relaxing at a table by the pool when we saw familiar faces walk by. They glanced our way and came over and introduced themselves as Rcik and Cindy. Turns out they lived south of Bloomington which isn't very far from us. We are on a ship with over 2,000 people and the first couple we meet are our "neighbors". What are the chances of that? Then we find out they are both Christians as well. I soon realized we didn't meet these people by chance. God is not into coincidences.

We spoke to Rick and Cindy several times throughout the cruise. Janay and I talked about having dinner with them one night, but we never finalized plans with them. The last day came and we never saw them again. We thought maybe they would be on the same flight home, but they weren't. The only things we knew about them were their first names, they lived south of Bloomington, he was a counselor at a church in Bloomington and Cindy worked for a hospital in Bedford. Janay and I were kicking ourselves for not getting their contact info. Once we were home I tried searching the internet with the little info that I had, but my search came up empty.

Little did we know that Rick and Cindy were thinking the same thing. Rick was talking to the secretary at his church about us, telling her about this fabulous couple (ok, maybe I like to embellish) from Martinsville they met on the cruise. Rick's advantage over me was that he remembered the name of our church. When he told the secretary the name of the church she said her sister attended our church as well as a friend of hers. She e-mailed her friend who soon replied back that she did know us, confirmed that we are indeed a fabulous couple :) and told them our last name. Armed with my first and last name, Rick searched the internet and struck gold.

Janay and I met Rick and Cindy for lunch in Bloomington and renewed our friendship. I have no doubt we will be friends and maintain contact for a long time. I believe God brings people in and out of our lives for a purpose. Sometimes that purpose is obvious, other times it isn't. Rick and Cindy are a wonderful couple and we both look forward to getting to know them better.

Yes, this is a tiny example of Six Degrees of Seperation, but I think you see the correlation. I think the internet has made this theory even more believable. It has made this big world a little smaller. Thanks for finding us Rick!