Night Off

First things first. I just noticed the upside down CRU magnet on my car today. Who??? Come on, make yourself known! Honestly.

Thursday nights are Bible study at the Moon's. However, there was a death in the Moon family with the funeral held today. I am not sure what the circumstances are in the death. If it was sudden, sad, or joyful. We couldn't physically have Bible study while they were gone, so we had the evening off. It's hard to schedule in stuff for that free time, but when they pop up, I try (and fail) to use them.

I realized yesterday that Thursday is the last day to vote early. Not Friday. I won't be around on election day, so voting early wasn't optional. I figure very few people know that you can vote at the courthouse, and even fewer want to drive downtown and find metered parking. Technically I was right but didn't know it. Turned out to be an hour wait to vote. Holy Cow. It takes 10 minutes to get in an out on election day. Always has for me.

So I went home to get lunch and check on puppy and then headed out to try again. The closest early voting place to home is over on Knoxville, with just a hop on the highway to get back to work. Thinking "what a genius am I, it's after lunch time and should be clear" I saw a full room of people all sitting facing forward. "They must be in a class or something". I clearly saw the voting booths and a few people in that room, but they directed me down the hall and through a door instead...a door to the very back of the room full of people. The folks at the front of the room had been waiting for two hours too vote.

So, I hunkered down next to an elderly couple who talked to me for a little while. As I mentioned in the G-ma post, I love hearing stories from other people, especially when I get to learn something new about what life is/was like somewhere else. Even just a friend's hometown and high school life. Storm's posts about life in Iraq (posted while there) were particularly captivating to me. The most notable story there was the buss trip they took somewhere with terrible service, questionable bus stops, and drunk guy they left stranded in the middle of nowhere. I later barged into a discussion about area churches with two other guys, realizing that I have a captive audience.

Eventually, the young black girl next to me opened up like a flood. It was her first time voting (20 years old). She was originally simply voting for a certain candidate because, in her words, "well...you know why". She admitted that she didn't know much about him. But the night before, she saw some of Obama's infomercial, and felt much more confident that she was making a good decision. Very sad, but it gets worse. All of that discussion was completely illegal of course. You can't talk about candidates at the polling place. But everyone else was doing it, so they clearly didn't care. I learned all about her current job at a nursing home and dreams of being a paralegal some day. Then, that she's engaged, to a dude in jail, convicted of drug dealing, serving 25 years, and has a four year old with him. I learned a ton about the judicial system. There's a new law that will cut several years off his sentence. With good behavior, he'll get another 15% taken off. And since he's engaged, yet another chunk. You can be in county lockup for year just waiting sentencing. Ok, that's all depressing. And worse, I never felt comfortable talking to her about her faith or assurance since we were so close to so many people. Didn't even have a tract with me!

So, in the end the two-hour wait room was filled with 30ish people. It took 6-15 minutes for a pair of people to vote at the two booths. When I finally got to the booth, the same type I voted in for primaries, I discovered the entire hold up was due to people who couldn't figure out the new electronic booths. The perfect topping to an election where so many people are voting for a candidate without having a clue what type of decisions they will make in office, and the consequences of them. Grr.

Alright, that's enough of the long narrations. I'm not good at telling stories, and it's kinda sad to tell your own stories all the time with people you wouldn't talk to otherwise. What's new with you? Anything?

OK back to me.





After work we had some tree trimming at the 'rent's place, with free food of course!













Then a little snickers action.








And finished off with an oil change. Yes, I'm the guy that spent four hours at a decked-out service garage last weekend with 15 guys changing oil, looking at breaks and washing cars, and decided that I would do all those things in my cramped garage some other time...



Changing oil is alot messier when you're not prepared with the equipment your old roommates had around. There should hopefully be some more car work tomorrow night. Aren't you lucky.

Quickie Updatie

Our discipleship group may have finally found a home. Panera was quiet and roomy, and offers a wide range of food should anyone have an appetite. I've always been wary of the potential for a business to claim that you can't use the facility without purchasing something. Places like this never call you out on it, but I still feel bad if I don't buy something when I'm leading the group. So, if you plan something with me on Tuesday nights after 8:30, plan on me being super-wired on the cheapest low calorie option I can think of. Coffee.

I hear it's getting a little crowded for the Kade's boys. We might let you in on our action, for a price. An Iced Chai Tea Latte each week would be nice.

I know I said Wednesdays would probably get the axe most weeks, but I'm just so proud of my AWANA boys...most of them. This week, the girls were a little short handed on help. So Stevo and I were recruited to help listen to the little princesses during their handbook time. It's a cinch. These young ladies set their mind on something God glorifying, and do it well. It's hard work joyfully done in the girl's rooms. I chose the 6th grade girl's to make life clearly easier on the 5th graders. They got baldy instead, who has a little girl of his own and just digs it. All this to find out they didn't need me in the end. Humpf!


My boys kicked it again with almost 20 sections done between just two of them! The other two were being putzes this week. There will be consequences!






Waaaaaaait a minute...is that...?

2nd House Warming

Monday was the 2nd house warming party for my house. Or, new roommate open house. Or, really good excuse to clean the house and make Josh help (usually the other way around). Anyway. With two new roommates and a host of new people at church who have not seen the place yet, it was time to host something. A tad bigger than I prefer, but there aren't enough free nights left in the year to chill with these folks any other way. Between trying to keep track of food and guests, and being a bit too critical, I was not very hospitable. But it seems people were able to enjoy the time regardless. Or else they're lying to me! :-)

Right, so I mentioned that it was a new roomie open house, but half of my new roomies weren't around. BenB (need a better picture) got sent on a work trip kinda sorta last minute. The show went on anyway.

The place cleaned up nicely. I tidied up the counters and sink in the kitchen and couldn't figure out why it still looked so cluttered. Turned out to be that massive white thing, the fridge, covered in magnets and papers so old and disorganized that you have no desire to read or look at what's on it. We could still use more magnets, but it has been thinned out quite a bit. I promise that I never had anything to do with any of the CRU car magnet shenanigans going on. Everyone in my house this last year has gotten extras from supporting CRU and then being at church when CRU handed them out.

Josh still cringes at our upstairs bathroom though. Kinda gotta get on that.

We rounded up lots of desserts. Thank you folks!! The original plan was to ask a few key people to bring desserts after getting RSVPs. But most people volunteered before I could ask. I did contribute with some cookies though. Yes that's right, I baked!! Mrs. Dreyman still squints her eyes at me in the church hallways because I have yet to give her this recipe. Posting it on here will just sting her more! :-)

INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats
* 1 package almond brickle chips
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sugars, margarine and until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips, brickle chips and oats.
3. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes until lightly brown.


At some point after 8:30, the partay picked up a little bit with the arrival of some more crazy ladies. Becks, Joanne, Allissa and the other other Sarah.

The Peoria Dance Club (PDC) tested out the dinning room floor and approved. I may be hosting the thing I hate so much sometime in the future...dancing. The only time I tried dancing in life was when I liked a girl who loved it. As sweet as she is, it made for a really big plus-side to her ending up not interested.

Soooo, we got this wall in the house. It's days are numbered. It wasn't there to start with, and it won't be there anymore eventually, on purpose. But I haven't gotten around to demolishing it in the last two years, so it has become a great way to vent frustration, or freak people out. When a couple of tough gals tried to test their strength on it, I decided it was a great time to see if I could punch through. It's been a mystery to me for too long.


No prob right? However, as new onlookers came about and wanted to see what caused the commotion, I did not pick my angles very well for demo #2, and we did not get a second hole.


As I just told Sarah K. via email, who denies being involved in the injury, "When girls are around, and a guy does something stupid, it was caused by the girls...just trust me" Her immediate reply was "So if us girls do something stupid…we can blame the guys". Fair 'nuf. Dad is SOOO gonna tease me about this.

Carols Practice

Morning church included pastor Chris preaching on God's simple, loving, and glorifying solution to the problem of sinful man's free will choices, which he laid out for us before time began.

Ephesians 2:8-10 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Need I say more?! (in other words I'm not in the mood to commentary).

Sunday school was also excellent Though I could have used more scripture reference from Andy Stanley, as usual. I know God's word tells us to be wary of what example we put forth to the world and our siblings in Christ. We've gotten to used to saying "I don't care what other people think" and simply asking the childish question "what's wrong with it?" instead of the big boy/girl question "what's right with it?". He also touched on how we will NOT reach our full potential (or may just fall flat on failure) if we ignore or avoid seeking Godly council, direction and challenge in our lives. Buying a house, making evening plans, choosing an outfit in the morning (Ladies!), opening your mouth (Kevin!) None of these are disqualified from asking the simple question, what glorifies God in this? Or what do others, worthy of being emulated and asked think about it?

Moving on . Bethany Baptist Church (BBC) sent out a heavily organized and fired-up church plant congregation to the city of Washington just a couple of months ago. Sending Pastor Daniel (the weddings guy)who is horribly missed, but has hugely blessed the new Bethany Community Church (BCC) body. They currently meet in the Five Points community center in Washington until the day that they are ready to build a place to worship and teach nearby.

There is a need to refer to people who attend BCC by some general term like "Bethany Community folk" or "Washington people", just in normal conversation with someone. It takes so long to get that out though. So I started calling these Washington people "BCCers" (Bee-sirs). It works quite well for me, and most BCCers seem to like it too.

Anyway. To share in God's work in that city though our BCCer friends, and to utilize the fantastic facility at Five Points, BBC will hold their annual "Candlelight and Carrols" concert at that facility this Christmas season. The choir has been practicing Christmas music since August, and the time has finally come to see if our 100 person choir (95 + Fred...) can hack it at the new facility.









Butch was a little bored after setting up the stage. We discovered that the white background behind us displayed shadows quite well, and found something to do to pass the time.



Bunny ears



Birdie


Crime Scene


The crane


The Storm


"Oooo, look at me. I'm Kari and I'm up high on the catwalk"


Ahem...anyway. Please join us for Candlelight and Carols at Five Points Community Center in Washing on Saturday, December 6th. Tickets are free, but you need to get one and I MIGHT know someone who can score one for you (me...me me me me).

Immediately after practice was EE once again. This week, I tried to put my trainee, Jasmine, on the spot at the gas station, giving the attendant a tract. She instead put me on the spot and I am so going to flunk her for it! :-)

When we returned to church, Pastor Chris and Ron demonstrated the proper, but risky, method for getting a tract in the door every time (this is a joke folks, we're not that crazy)

Diggin' (Saturday Part 3)

Kari's father, Doug, had an opportunity for free exercise and constructive activity after the wedding, and I wanted in.


Kari's new house isn't a huge fixer-upper, but there's alot of options, and Doug will exercise every one of them :-) This weekend's task was to knock out some concrete and pour footings to make way for some new interior square footage and exterior wall.



Here, Doug is completing the concrete break up and Chris is digging for the exterior wall footing. I'm taking the picture...I mean helping.





Chris bears the white hand of Sauron. Geeks, don't ever say I didn't make room for your jokes here. Alright alright...OUR jokes.




The poor-quality of my camera phone pictures made up for the fact that I had no intention of asking Kari's permission to post pictures of her bare house last week. She moved in the first bit of furniture this weekend including this couch with complimentary potatoes, as these hi-def pictures show.







Tyler tested the stability of the walls by tackling them, repeatedly.

Thanks for letting us hang a while and for feeding us Kari!
Where's my key?










Guess who's home this week?!?!?

After cleaning the house for a while and spoiling Maya with belly rubs for half an hour, it was finally bed time.

Congratulations Josh and Jackie!! (Saturday Part 2)

Josh T. and I haven't seen each other much in the last year. Unfortunately, he (now they) lives in Washington, which is somewhat of an annoying drive on an already busy schedule. He's done a sweet job switching from being the newbie participator we all are in new groups, to a hoster and encourager. He has also overcome MANY personal challenges in life. Josh loves learning about what other people do and like, and remembers it well.

I'm not very observant of people, but have recently enjoyed noticing the changes in life of the people who I've known so long as singles, and now know as marrieds. Josh and I were in a small group for about a year. I bet it's hard for him to remember the time when he was frustrated about things like being single and being tight on a budget. And now, he's found a wonderful bride and just enjoyed a beautiful wedding. Life will bring new challenges and joys, and he'll wonder why he ever let the old ones get to him. Wait...why do I let my current ones get to me when they will be old too? Cuz, it turns out I'm the most stubborn person I know.


Jackie, Josh's bride, was my high school counselor. Not really, but everyone in our class knew you could go to her for advice before class and she would offer the most caring and thoughtful advice you could ask for. She still just wants to help out and encourage. Once they get back from wherever their honey moon is, we'll be working with Jules on the 10 year reunion for next spring.

Ritch speaks on the same thing at most weddings - Oneness and the journey to it in marriage. It might seem like old news when you've heard it five times, but it's new news to so many people, and foreign news to a world who's mentality in marriage is that "I have my own life to live". Not surprising though if a person has yet to make Jesus Christ Lord of their life and source of their joy.

Speaking of reunion, Shannon was at the wedding. I had hoped to see several high school friends there, but Shannon was the only dedicated Crusader. Shannon was one of the best people to have in a classroom with Mr. Fay. Fay quotes don't get any better than when they involve Shannon. Originally there were four volumes of quotes, but I can only remember this one right now. "Shannon! Please sit up straight. That way when you dose off again I'll hear your head hit the desk."


Mrs. Weeks (above) was also in attendance! She was only a substitute and study hall teacher for my grades, but I'm sure she did a great job in Jr. High Bible class.







The table settings were FASCINATING. I'm positive Ritch is going to find a way to use them in an upcoming sermon.

Car Winterization (Saturday Part 1)

Saturday was a long and busy day. This is a good thing in many ways. Not in the area of discipline for myself though.

The day started off with our Men's Ministry annual Car Winterization event. Last year, we tried out the idea of offering some car care services to the single ladies and elderly folk at church. Alot was learned, but JonnyB did an excellent job dealing with the volume and complexity of the jobs.


Both years, the Hoerr brothers (standing left) offered up their shop at DHX. We fit four cars in the main bay, and one in the indoor wash bay. Very convenient. You might recognize the one on the left from the New York Team!

This year, Jon hit it hard with tons of prep and communication. It went very well! Great job dude! There were checklists of at least 20 points of inspection that were signed off by team leaders for each pit. We replaced (as needed) filters, oil, batteries, break pads (one serious break job). Checked and filled fluid and tires, cleaned interiors and washed exteriors. There are many other details I'm leaving out.

At least 15 guys showed up from the church to offer their knowledge and experience. From what I could tell, it went VERY smoothly. Only one car required extra care, and they were prepared for it.




The ladies were very patient and appreciative. Joy made sure they were comfortable and well fed. I stopped in every once and a while to get a cheap laugh. Elderly ladies are pretty easy to entertain, thank goodness. They weren't all elderly though. Melissa (left) just laughed to make me feel better.



Melissa with her car. Another happy customer!


Funny thing was that there was a brunch at church for the "Women On Their Own" ministry. Some of the ladies were actually dropped off (or their cars picked up) at church and then had their cars returned before brunch was over. Great timing.


So what was I doing? We already had an errand boy, and Joy took care of the ladies. The pits were a little intense for someone like me, though I can take care of some things. The car wash bay was my place this day. I think technically I was in charge of it actually. Either that, or Mr. Powers (below) just let me think so to protect my ego :-)



I let someone else use the sweet heated pressure washer two times the entire morning. Only so that I could take pictures, of course. That thing is awesome. It's like a flamethrower in a barrel of water!!!

This Saturday is a three-parter, by the way. Stay tuned.