Tuesday: I am writing this blog from the passenger seat of my Ford Expedition while Seth is driving us to Baton Rouge in the pouring down rain. I absolutely HATE driving in the rain because I have been in three automobile accidents caused by hydroplaning (all of which, I was in the passenger seat). So needless to say, I am a nervous wreck right now. The weather is horrible which makes the trip we are making even worse. We are on our way to the wake for Seth’s aunt, who sadly passed this week. Your prayers for Seth’s and his aunt’s family would be greatly appreciated.

I have been working really hard on getting my website and online store up and running and am just about done. Well at least I am at a point where I can publish it for you guys to see. I do still have a couple of things under construction. So please check it out at www.goangelle.com when ever you get a chance. There is a link to the online store on the home page of the website or you can visit the store directly at www.shop.goangelle.com. Stop by and purchase your official Angelle and Rush Racing Products apparel and merchandise. Your support is what keeps teams like mine on the track!!

Well, my life has been pretty normal lately. I guess that is a good thing because after a weekend like I had in Chicago it’s always nice to come home and just be normal. Driving A Pro Stock Motorcycle at over 180 mph in a 30-mph crosswind is exciting but not what I would consider normal activity. I was happy that we did as well as we did considering the conditions but was really expecting to make it to the winner’s circle that race. We had several of our friends from Rush Racing with us for the weekend and it would have been really nice to celebrate with them at their home track. I’ve told my team that we are just having a streak of bad luck and it is going to run out sooner or later. I just wish it would be sooner, rather than later.

A friend of mine and Seth’s, Chris Selinas, was married this past weekend and Seth stood in the wedding. Chris is from Baton Rouge and his new wife is from the town I live in. Since Chris didn’t have any family living here, I offered him my home for his groom’s men to hangout and have a place to dress for the wedding. I did the girl thing and prepared the food for a bunch of men and then hid away in my bedroom with my friend Ashley to do hair and makeup for the wedding that night. I think the guys had a good time. I had my practice tree and reaction time tester set up for them to race each other, they also played darts on my back patio and later serenaded each other during a game of American Idol on the XBox. My house is wired with a sound system throughout so Ashley and I had a hard time doing our makeup because we were laughing so hard at the sounds coming from the speakers. I think it was singing but most of the time I wasn’t too sure.

A few of the guys that were in the wedding, including the groom, are MMA fighters so a couple of them did some training while they were here. I’ve been pretty lazy lately with my training but that is about to change. Seth will be fighting in a MMA match this August so he has started training pretty hard for it. I am going to take the opportunity to help him to train to get him ready but also to get myself back in shape. Fortunately for both of us, I have my own gym here at home which I named Kombat Klub. It’s a fight gym, not a muscle gym. There’s no weights to lift, just a big JiuJitsu mat and a few Thai bags for kicking and punching. Lots of boxing gloves, hand wraps, Thai pads, kicking pads and things like medicine balls, jump ropes and, of course, a stereo to help with motivation. It’s pretty cool to have your own fight gym at home. My friends come over to my place to beat each other up. All in good fun of course. Thank goodness we all get along pretty well.

Well we made it through the bad weather and are getting close to Baton Rouge so I'll finish this up when I get home.

Wednesday: I'm home and am running behind on getting everything that I had to do before leaving for the race so I am going to have to cut this blog short. My flight leaves at 6am and I still haven't unpacked from Chicago yet. I usually do this so it not surprising that I am running late ... again!

It was an unfortunate reason that Seth and I had to travel to Baton Rouge yesterday but I must say that it was good to visit with his family. I did not know Ms. Coralie, Seth's aunt that passed, but her grandson did such an awesome job speaking at the funeral and what he said about her made me feel like I did know her. We will never fully understand why some things happen the way they do, like losing a family member before we feel it was their time, but I get through it by reminding myself that God does things in his time ... not mine.

Recently I found myself starting to lose a little faith because my team and I haven't won yet. It gets pretty frustrating for me when I am doing the best I can and it still isn't good enough. I started to forget my blessings because all I was focusing on was the results of my performance on the track. I have a bad habit of basing my self worth on the amount of success that I have at the races. Being with family yesterday and today reminded me that the people that truly love you don't and won't remember you by how many trophies you've won or records you've broken. What really matters is the impression you leave on the hearts of others. The kind of person you are when no one is looking and listening is what it's really counts. Like I said, I didn't know Ms. Coralie, but I know what her family will remember about her. She was a great cake baker, a wonderful mother and grandmother. She was so unselfishly giving that she would do without so that she could give to others. She was buried today, on her birthday. It was a celebration of her birth as well as her life. It was a day that brought a beautiful family together, and me back to reality. I was once again reminded that there is more to life than winning races.

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” -- Don Williams Jr.

On a less serious note, here’s today’s joke:

Boudreaux and Clotele had a big argument on Saturday night. It degenerated into the silent treatment. At bedtime Boudreaux realized that he had to get up at 5:30 to go fishing with Thibodaux. Thibodaux said that he had a new hot spot so Boudreux didn't want to miss it. Clotele always got up at 5 a.m. to leave the house for 5:30 to work in the church on Sundays but Boudreaux didn't want to ask her to wake him. He didn't want to be the first to talk and thus lose the argument.

Finally it occurred to him to just write her a note, so he wrote "Wake me up at 5:30" and handed it to her. She read it and grunted.

The next morning, Boudreaux awoke with the sun shining through the window and a breeze blowing the curtains. "A fine Louisiana day," he thought until he realized that he had overslept. He started cussing because Clotele had forgotten to wake him. Then he noticed a note on the bed.

He grabbed it and read, "It 5:30. Wake up!"

Till next time gang,.....

God Bless!