Big game yesterday for Iowa Basketball. A really nice win over Indiana. Looking at our remaining schedule shows two probably losses but the rest are very winnable. If they go 6-2 and do well in the Big Ten tournie it would look really good for the NCAA's.

It has been freezing cold out here. The projected high today is -2.

Going to the Menard's super bowl party tonight. At their house, the wife works with me only up in the Trust department. I'm indifferent about tonight's game. I guess I'll root for the Colts because they have a couple of ex-Iowa players.

We braved the elements last night and went to a different church. Elena had been there before but it was my first time. It was much smaller than Bethel. I bet they had 50 people there. The regular pastor was off in Florida for some convention. The lady they had to replace him said that her husband was a regular pastor at some small town church and that she regularly filled in around the area as needed. She seemed a bit nervous at first and she didn't have the polished big church pastor charisma and timing. She talked about how an unemployed carpenter told a bunch of professional fishermen how to do their job. Those were my own words.

She finished with a story from her past about how a young man fell into drugs, was arrested and sent to jail. She and her husband were worried that his family would stop coming to church from embarrassment. They did a "drive-by-hugging." The family did stay with the congregation. One lady in a church group wrote to the young man in jail. At their next meeting, another lady said that she had written as well. After a few more letters, one excited lady informed the group that she had gotten a letter back. This went on for a while and then the pastor got a letter asking him to lead a Bible study in the clink. They would visit the man on Saturdays and continue correspondence throughout his year sentence. Years later at the young man's wedding, the pastor and his wife were there as visitors. His mother came up to them and thanked them because she truly believed that without the letters and the visits that her son would have never turned his life around.

After that, Olivia wanted to go out with Mommy because she saw Zach and Maddie out in the entry room running around and that looked a lot more fun that sitting next to me. I went out to relieve Elena but then Olivia wanted to go sit with Mommy. So Zach and I went running around the fellowship hall. He messed with their sound system so I hope nothing goes wrong for them.