Having Fun!

Soooo, my mom and neices are out from California. So far, we're having a blast!

Yesterday (after church in the A.M. - more about that at a later date) we went to an indoor rock climbing place.

It's a really cool converted grain silo in Rochester (just outside of Springfield. Almost all the kids made it to the top of the 65ft. wall. Me and Beth learned how to "Balay" - a fancy term for "Holding the ropes while the others climb."


Then we went to a movie (the Simpsons). The movie was exactly what you'd expect - it was the Simpsons!

We then came home, ate pizza and played poker/watched movies etc...
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This morning Allison (eldest neice) and Darian (eldest son) went to a college day thingie at Illinois College and the other two neices went fishing with me and Austin.

We caught a few (mostly little ones), and I freed the two smallish-sized catfish I caught.









Austin lost his flip-flops (can't imagine how!)

More to come.

Where have I been???????

I dunno.

Anywhooo.......... just thought I'd say "Hey" to everyone. So,... "Hey!"

There has been a lot going on with our family - more to come shortly, with pic's and everything - promise.

On the good news front, this just in: My mom and three beautiful nieces came all the way from California for a visit. We are having fun thus far. They have really grown up! We will be keeping them busy in the Big City (Jacksonville). Honestly, it is much larger here than where they live now if you Mid-westerners can believe it! We have some fun things planned - more to come. I plan to have them reeling in some big kitten-fish by the weekend.

As for the other kind of news: We reluctantly have decided to make a change with regards to church life. Our reasons lie within the boundaries of what some may consider theological minutiae. However, looking long-term it made the most sense. We hope and pray that nobody has been hurt by our decision, and we certainly don't want to lose any friendships in the process. We just knew that it was best for our family in the long run. We are now praying for the Lord's direction as to where we really "fit in" - ..............

That's it for now.

BTW - I have changed my settings to allow for easier comments. So, for those of you said you were having trouble (you know who you are!) you now have no excuses!

TTFN

We're Baaaaaaaaaa-aaaack!!!!!

Well, we made it. We went to Bogalusa, Louisiana for a whole week. We got in late last night. Also, we ditched church today (we had planned to - I let the pastor know myself- we needed to, we didn't feel guilty about it.... well, maybe a little...)

Here's a small sampling of what we did.

Our major task was Vacation Bible School at our host church. Beth and I were in charge of crafts. We had a blast with the kids!

Cameron and I were also part of a construction crew - we mostly did drywall work for a family who is still living in a FEMA trailer after two years. The problem down there is mainly that insurance companies left people high and dry. This family wasn't "poor" or even helpless, they just had no money to rebuild their house that had been destroyed. We were able to finish up the drywalling and get the house ready to paint - starting with their laundry room. They were overjoyed at the prospect of not having to take their clothes to a laundry to wash them. (as soon as the water heater is installed.)

Beth, Darian and Rachel helped to paint a neighborhood school - it needed painting badly. In this case this was a public school - but hadn't been maintained in a long, long time. They made it look great! There was a professional painter on our missions team - he really knew what he was doing. Our team learned a lot in the process.

We also had planned on hosting a couple of neighborhood block parties. On Sunday night we had everything set up - including a full band stage and sound system - and a freak thunderstorm came out of nowhere - we got rained out. We set up tuesday at a nearby park - there were lots of people and we had a great time. Oh well.

Cameron helped tie balloon animals. He got quite good at it - really! We had one free evening, and were able to visit New Orleans for a few hours. (It really reminded me of Venice Beach, CA - with all the street performers and "Openness" - if you know what I mean.) There was a lot on display.

All in all, we had a great time!

(Except for sleeping on air mattresses on the floor - small price to pay.)

Final Preparations are underway...

Well, I am going to try to get a couple more blogs in before we leave for our trip (Saturday through Saturday). We (our family) are joining with Lincoln Ave. Baptist to go to Bogalusa, Louisiana and WORK for a week.

It will be HOT, HUMID and BUGGY - and they are making no excuses about it. We are excited to be serving as a family - all 6 of us will work together! We will be doing children's ministry (a VBS), drywall repair/replacement & painting a school. Me and Darian will also be helping with live music for 2 block parties. (Whew!)

When we return we will have lots of pics to share. Bye for now, more to come later.

Fun O' Th' 4th

Patriotism notwithstanding (please see previous post if you doubt me...) I sometimes chuckle when I think about all the fuss over July 4th. (Well, it is special in the sense that it does only come once a year.) Here is a brief history lesson:





July 4th 1776 - our nation signed and adopted a Declaration of Independence - which paved the way to our Revolutionary war with England. In that document we set forth our desire to become independent from British rule. Now, each year on July 4th we "celebrate" this defiant, patriotic act by: Getting drunk, Watching sports, Going to the beach/lake/pool and laying around in a nearly nude state, lighting explosivees on fire, BBQ-ing some sort of dead animal (that one's my favorite), or All the above.





Now, given the fact that A. we're not big drinkers & 2. Nobody wants to see me lying around a beach/lake/pool in a half-naked state I chose to go fishing instead. (We'll be at a BBQ later this evening - lighting explosives of course, & doing our part to celebrate freedom from British rule.)





Below is a sample of what I caught today. (The one that got away.)









Yes, it really was about that big. Oh well.



Speaking of July 4th traditions - I just read here that Joey Chestnut just defeated Takeru Kobayashi in the annual Coney Island Nathans Hot Dog eating contest. 66 dogs in 12 minutes! A new world record. He beat his own world record 59 1/2 (yes they count halves!) he set just two weeks ago at the qualifying event in San Diego. There was a lot of angst going into this year's competition - Kobayashi apparently had been suffering from a bad wisdom tooth and an arthritic condition in his jaw. However, the American (Chestnut) now holds the crown, er' the Yellow mustard belt! I was rooting for Chestnut last year when he narrowly lost by less than two dogs. This year, Kobayashi had a small reversal at the end of the competition (barf!) which reduced his final tally by even more! This is a photo of him celebrating after last year's victory. What gets me is not the gluttony of it all - yes it is a bit unsettling to watch! Rather, that this is considered a genuine sport. They really are athletes and judging from the appearance of the competitors - it isn't a "big-man's" sport anymore - look at the abs on that guy! The girl behind him in the picture is called "The Black Widow" she weighs less than 100 lbs. and gives all the guys a run for their money (depending on what kind of food they are competing with.) This is serious business - with serious money at stake apparently. Crazy isn't it? Heckuva way to make a living if you ask me.

Happy 4th everyone!

Could you pass?

So, I took a watered-down online version of the Citizenship test today. (Go check it out!!!!)

I did o.k., but admittedly, my grasp of civics needs at least a small improvement. My main problem areas were specific amendments - which ones don't deal with voting rights? (7th, 15th, 24th, 19th??????) How about when the constitution was written (1776, 1787, 1812, 1876??????) - it's 1787 if you were wondering. Can you name the original 13 colonies? ...or at least recognize them on a list and distinguish them in a multiple choice test? Pretty tough stuff for the average Joe (or JoAnne).

Don't get me wrong - I think it's great that we encourage (require) would-be citizens to learn about our history, culture and freedoms - a large part of how our country became so great. However, I was aghast at how much guesswork went into my own answers - and I consider myself to be somewhat well-informed (something that I should probably re-think...)

Maybe I would have done a little better had I paid more attention in civics as a H.S. senior instead of accidentally lighting my hair on fire, and other nonsense like that...... (Sadly, true story for another day - a long, long, long way off......maybe......)