Last week marked the 4th year that I have chaperoned Junior Beta Club students on their 2 day state conference at the Opryland Hotel. The hotel had been open for one week when we arrived - they had been closed due to the repairs needed from the Nashville flooding this past year - they had to spend over 170 million dollars to "refurbish" the hotel, and they also made some improvements. It was really nice, and I had a really good time.

That night while checking on the students in their rooms, my teacher friends and I had a lot of fun weirding the students out. For example, I would knock on the door, someone would answer, and I'd ask, "Why are you out of bed?" and I'd go on drawing a life lesson from a story about a wild bear when it came to using the peep hole. Too bad I didn't have any of those conversations recorded.

On Wednesday, Kara and I drove to Mississippi to spend the rest of the week and Thanksgiving with her family. We had a good visit and arrived back home Sunday night.

I joined a men's league basketball team again this year, and each year I have been on a different team. This year, I am playing for Ridgepoint Church, and all of the guys seem really friendly on the team. We had our first game this past Monday night, and I met everyone on the team. I'm not the tallest on the team this year, and there's about 3 other guys around my height.

I played the position of point guard most of the time which was different, but I hope to adjust and get better at that position.

At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, a guy from the other team hit into my face really hard ... I guess with his shoulder or elbow, but my lip got busted up really bad. It felt like someone punched me as hard as they could in my mouth, and I wondered at first if my teeth were still in... they were, thankfully, but my lip had many deep gashes and began bleeding badly.

I went to the restroom and was able to get my lip to stop bleeding. The lady working at the civic center told me that she thought I ought to go to a doctor and see about stitches, but I didn't think that I needed stitches and didn't go to see a doctor about it. They didn't have any ziplock bags for the ice - so, they put ice in this light blue medical glove, and they tied the rubber medical glove with a bunch of air trapped into it... so, it was very very awkward holding that thing to my lip. awkward... and funny.

My upper lip is very swollen and scabbed over right now. I'm trying to take care of it - hoping that it doesn't get infected. In the next few days, I'm hoping that the swelling will be down and that the skin will be back to normal.

I plan on buying a mouth guard to use from now on - I've notice many NBA and college basketball players wearing mouth guards, and now I know more about why they do.