...I've decided to come up with a cooler, more professional name for Dodgeball. Sphere Eluding. Well...either that, or Orb Avoid. Or maybe Ditchglobe? I dunno, maybe I'm reaching.

Dodgeball is a good name I guess. It's definitely a good game. I'm proud to say that I'm the owner of at least one good idea in my lifetime. That idea was men's dodgeball. For over a year now we've been renting a little gymnasium and gathering anywhere from 15-30 guys to play a couple hours of ferocious dodgeball every Sunday night. Dodgeball isn't a new idea, but what's different with our dodgeball session is that we play with dangerous brutality.

We don't use the "regulation" full-sized, wouldn't-hurt-if-it-fell-off-a-building-and-landed-on-your-head, foam balls that actual dodgeball leagues use. Those balls are for ninnies.
We bring the pain.

The funny thing about our dodgeball is that it's opened the door for many people to get connected with God. Guys from all over the place show up for dodgeball...guys who would never set foot in a church. Time and time again they show up and after the group of dodgeball players show them that they're real men who have fun AND happen to love Jesus, they end up coming to church. It's been an amazing opportunity to show people the love of Christ...oddly enough by smashing them in the face with a rubber ball. God is weird like that.

I brought Tony with me to dodgeball tonight. Tony is 15, and he works at the hobby store with me. I've known him since he was about 5 I guess and he never really says much. He's a teenager. He either mumbles or he whines. I told him I was picking him up tonight for dodgeball and he was all for it. I picked him up and he was his shy, normal, teenager-y self. After dodgeball though something broke...Tony was talking up a storm and he was asking me questions and telling me stories and kind of acting like a real human. Once again the mysterious power of dodgeball has opened up some kind of door. Schweet.

God is telling me that I'll be the person to open the door for Jesus in Tony's life. We'll see.

I love dodgeball. It's so many things to me:

* A healthy outlet to vent anger or frustration.
* Proof that I do guy stuff too and not just gardening, cooking, and stampin' up. I mean...I don't do stampin' up...that's for women only! I do not do that kind of thing!
You should see my new Valentine's Day Bundle I picked up from cincymoms.com!! It's so totally fab!! Love, love, LOVE it!!
* A work out like you wouldn't believe.
* Connection for guys who aren't ready for church.
* Guaranteed sympathy from onlookers...the occasional black eye is great for attention!!

If you'd like to play some serious dodgeball in the Cincinnati area...lemmeknow!
Just remember, we play for reals yo.

I think I have a disease. It's called Black-Eye-Syndrome.

I developed BES close to 3 months ago. Here's what my first outbreak of BES looked like:

Now believe it or not this was right after the first flare up and it actually got worse than this. Half of my eyeball filled up with blood. I had blurred vision for over a week. There is some kind of hairline fracture on my eye-socket.

All of this from dodgeball of course. I love dodgeball. I'm not very good at dodgeball, but I love dodgeball.

I'm posting this because it's nearly 3 months after my first outbreak of BES and I can't seem to get it cleared up. Every morning I look in the mirror and I'm like, "What the crap??"

Here's what I look like this morning..."What the crap??" p.s...this image is reversed due to photobooth being weird and backwards...or...forwards. Whatever.


No that's not a shadow on my face. I still have BES. Every single day someone asks me..."do you have a black eye?" or "did you get hit in the face again?"