What's with the busyness?

Except for the gym, nothing is going on tonight! You hear me???? Nothing! Christmas break has proved to be just as crazy as any other time, which is great and terrible at the same time.

David is heading home from his short time in Peoria. During my lunch break on Monday, David, Alyssa's two cousins and I broke out the smart phones while Alyssa looked on with sad face. Poor Alyssa.


While quizzing Holly for EE (Yes we're late and yes she got 100%) randomness struck as Mr. Marcus happened to be geekin' it up at Kades! Finding out that I'm not the ONLY one who can strongly dislike (a.k.a hate) Apple, and yet own an iPhone. So his is an iTouch...close enough. Marc is a member of the United States Coast Guard and a darn good one. Alot of things have changed since Jr. High.

Lastly, the Manthey's took me on a tour of the EP Festival Of Lights. Good times. I skipped a year so there were a few new floats (not these).

Awesome news though. The X-Wing and Tie Fighter are actually shooting at each other now!!!!

Awesomer news...Josh just unpacked his brand new iPhone. It's true, I screamed like a little girl when I saw it.

And now back to work and the stupid snow that started alot earlier than it was supposed to. Now I know why everyone was so mad at the weather man when I was younger.

Merry Christmas Suckerrrrrrs!

I just got off the phone with my boss who has been informed that he cannot have his truck or shovel back when he returns to snowy Peoria. They are just too much fun. It was originally a bummer when I realized that I had to keep the School's entrances clear during this 36 hour snow. But every time I finished up over there, I wanted to plow another driveway, and have fun driving to it with people spinning off beside me. Of course, not before doing donuts in the parking lot with the 4-wheel drive off. The shovel he has is shaped like a mini plow and takes care of narrow-ish areas like a machine. Good Times.
I don't remember what Wes was doing at lunch, but while Becky was thoroughly entertained, Josh was not.

Accountable

Except for the workout, I've thoroughly enjoyed just lazing around on my first day of a long weekend. But I need to be held accountable with all this free time.There's alot of things that need to get done around here. Not so much cleaning as finishing projects and organizing some things. This plaster job has got to get painted. The paint has been recently purchased and just needs to get thrown on. To the right, the walls surrounding Mr. Penguin need to be taken all the way down and the stairs moved around. it doesn't need to be pretty yet, just taken to the next step.
My garage and basement need to be rid of the junk going to the scrap yard. And finally, the clutter at my desk needs to be sifted through. I trust that if you come over to my house sometime, you'll be willing to ask why this didn't get done over the holidays, if it still looks like the pictures.

That's depressing and exciting all at the same time. But to make sure your spirits stay lifted, enjoy this quick vid from the Wes channel.

Remainders

My favorite tech blog, Gizmodo, puts up a post every week called "Remainders, things we didn't post on". I'm copying in order to use up pictures before they disappear forever.

Before the ski trip was the Bible Study Christmas party. Ever since we started studying at the Moon's, we've had double the Christmas parties. Definitely a good thing. It's tradition exchange again, but one of the most memorable was a little more white elephantish (thanks Chandy...I mean Chandrew). This homer doll was originally won by Alyssa here, but later stolen and gone skiin'.


Pride...I'm full of it. One thing I'm proud of is finally being able to back the Dream Center's U-Hall truck into it's spot without my boss' help. You'd understand if you saw the tight lot it had to be backed through. It's not a straight shot alright!


Harry's new kid, Kolben, doesn't like eating phones as much as Treyven does, but he's just as cute.

Blades Of Glory

It's time to crank out the ski post. Ben had the great idea to get a mini ski trip together as we plan the big one to Colorado in April. So Ryan headed up transportation and lodging and we spent the day at Chestnut in Galena.

Ben (middle) and Holly were our snowboarders.

While Wes, Ryan and I rode the blades. Mini skis that are much more maneuverable and do not require poles. Also easier to carry.

Everyone knows that skiing in Galena Illinois isn't a big deal. You're not really on a mountain, there aren't very many runs, and what they do have isn't very creative or scenic. But it's where I learned to ski, and there are some perks, besides the great river view.

Ryan found enough good skiing to be tuckered out by lunch time.


Holly is a good skier, but it was her first time on a board. And you can't go skiing with a first-timer without getting a good lift fall. Don't for get, you can make the videos full screen with the button at the bottom right.

Ryan's been skiing for a long time, and he learned the hard way. But for some reason, he had trouble getting back on the bunny slopes.

One of the perks that I mentioned is the fact that they do make room for plenty of jumps at Chestnut. And another perk is that it doesn't take long at all to get back on a lift and hit the jump again! So the majority of our time was spent doing just that. Ryan was by far the most adventurous of the group. Check out his disappearing act on this one.

He was the best jumper though, you have to admit. I think his success comes from the flailing arms.

Eeeeeveryone had a taste of some air...and the snow.

Ben tried out more than we did. He took some good spills on the trick rails. But the best fall (on video) was the one that gave him a bloody nose and a lesson we overheard from ski patrol about how to stop the bleading.

Coffee Time

Almost done. Lots of good video to share.

"We're OK!!"

Lots if video and pictures for later too.

Homer Is Our Co-Pilot

On our way to Galena

Sunday Was ALL About The Message

Made my annual trip to the Northwoods mall this year on Sunday. Not for shopping though. It was too cold to go outside for our final week of EE at church, so a couple of groups chose the warm indoors at the mall to mosey around and ask people questions from our religious questionnaires. Holly, Noah and I were on our way out and decided to stop at one more rest area before we left. 20 minutes later, Holly was praying with a senior in high school to receive Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Definitely the note Holly wanted to end on after a long semester and without any help from her trainer (just the Holy Spirit :-). Pretty sure she did way better than any presentation I gave my first semester, and Noah scored higher on his tests than I did too.

Some friends and I went to support the kids at Riverside Community church later that night. A few kids from school invited me to see their Christmas program which turned out to be a play/musical. I'm so used to the purely musical performances (choir/orchestra) that it was a surprise to me. I've seen college plays with tons of work put into them, but not a church. It was very well done and entertaining and was glad to hear a (different but) solid message presented afterward. I should have a program with all the important performer's autographs by the end of the week. :-)

Gingerbread Maddness

Time for the annual Sunday School Christmas party. It's a great tradition that gets mixed up every couple of years. We got another shot at gingerbread houses this year and definitely saw improvement, or the teams were more creatively dispersed. But FIRST, the cool "silver"ware.
Hard work, some really good ideas...

...and some silliness...

...lead team Uno to complete the glorious S.S. Graham, and beach party.




Wes was very happy with his team's creation and wanted alot of options for his new Facebook profile picture.




Yikes!

NOAH!!

Open Hood

Micaiah and Erin are a couple of Hoodies that I don't see much because of their status (married) and involvement in a ministry that I don't see much (college). But I got invited to an open house at their place which is just down the street and got to enjoy some new hood faces. They went door to door inviting the neighbors. It's funny how each street has a different demographic. Believe it or not, they are mostly retired folks or young couples with kids who DON'T break in to our houses.

Erin made lots of goodies and I got to meet the Godfather, Bob. This retired fellow from Naples who has lived in the hood for fifty years kept us in conversation for an hour. It was so great for Micaiah and Erin to try to go out of their comfort zone and it has benefited them with better relationships with their neighbors which will keep reaping over time.

I'm A Snowman!

Miss Gray's 4th grade class took the liberty of sculpting my likeness in this frosty form during a special snow outing today. It was pretty cool. But my ego got an equally large boost when McDonalds (yes, we're going to have a talk later) delivered lunch to the wrong campus and I had to rush it over to the correct one. The sound of 200 kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade kids cheering me on was priceless. Miss Wiele told me not to let it get to my head...but I did.

Game Days

Finally, concert day had arrived!! Lots of fun went on behind the scenes Friday and Saturday for Bethany. The teen choir warmed up with some river dance.

Huerta warmed up with some craziness. Note the ornament earring.

Fred warmed up to his grandchild baby Jesus. It just now occurred to me that baby Jesus was a girl during the 6pm show...

Ryan warmed up with some smooches for the camera.

Kari warmed up with a 100% genuine smile.

I personally loved the show. It'll be great to take a look at the video eventually to see if it was as fun from the seats as it was on stage. Due to technical difficulties, Fred, the choir and orchestra didn't even get a chance to have a complete run through and chance to tweak everything. So it was thanks to Fred's attentiveness, all the musicians' talent and God's graciousness that everything went so smoothly Saturday. It was a blast.

And then there's the break down at the after party. We just ignore it.


On to Sunday. Eastview Christian Church in Normal had their game day this weekend and Sunday I got to be an audience member to cheer on a friend. Very enjoyable. Eastview is huge. It's like having church at the Peoria Civic Center. Very well decorated.

Great variety of music and talent. That teacher can SANG!!