Hold on for a long post.

Forget about dates. The following events happened some time in the last two weeks.
Wes and Butch lead teaching and music at the Rescue mission service for our Career Impact sponsored night. I saw the guys downtown getting into the service whole-heartedly with Butch's joyful worship and Wes' grounded and transparent testimony and lesson.
A couple of Peoria's McDonald's restaurants got to compete for drive-thru bragging rights. I went through Ryan's a couple of times, just to make sure the service was equal each time. Here he's on his way out to whip the guy holding the sign because it's just not bringing in the traffic he'd like.

Janell's Store took FOREVER to drive through. It's like they had alot of business or something :-) And she handed them to me personally. I have the picture to prove it. Really.... I do.

School's fun. We've got characters. Even more at the Middle School campus than the main one. Mr. Rumba can sniff out food just as well as I. Here, he found some coffee cake of which he said "40% of this piece is calorie free". Get it? Funny man.

Half the classes have a sugar stash of some kind. The teachers understand that I must enforce a food tax every time I make a classroom call.

Luckily, we've only had to use this button on rare occasion. Or over and over again when someone brings a baby and gives them the stupid button.

My discipleship group had to put me on 24-hour hand mutilation watch after stabbing my left twice in a few days. First hit bone, then went through some nice muscle.

A doctors appointment (something unrelated and boring) had me in the waiting room for over an hour. This was a bummer because I had alot of work to do. But, being one of the first nice days of the spring, I realized how lucky I was to have a decent view and lots of sunlight while I waited and caught up on my soaps.

Master Kim, my TaeKwonDo instructor, observes Matt, a purple belt (or blue, can't remember), testing for his next. Matt is always helpful when we practice together and I'll miss having him around when he graduates sschool. Master Kim is a great instructor keeping a close eye on everyone and helping us to be patient as he makes sure we are trained correctly before moving on. I had a whole spiritually relevant comparison thought up, but after waiting so long to post about it I have to pay the price. It's gone. Poof. Oh ya by the way, I'm taking TaiKwonDo lessons. Don't ever be impressed. I rolled my ankle tripping over a balance beam...and then again jumping rope.

Happy Birthday Owen! It's my first one year old birthday party. Not what I expected. Thought it was going to be a bunch of other one year old kids put together in the same room with no clue why they were together. A bunch of Owen's parent's friends watching Owen have no clue what was going on was much better.

No clue there was something edible on his plate.

It's the Tawfiks!!!! (so sorry Jan...)

This was followed immediately by a big boy birthday at the Christian Center for Joe. You know, one of several dudes spending all his free time helping setup the technical equipment at the new church before it goes (more) live on Easter. Not many pictures taken, but some guys I rarely get to hang with were having a good time with the ping pong.

Peter 'bout to get whoooooped by Treyvo.

This post needs some Chicas. Here ya go. Sunday lunch pose by Becky and Alyssa.

Sledding Saturday

Actually lots more, but it's a simple title day.

Men's Breakfast

We rolled out this year's theme for the church's men's ministry, "No Man Left Behind". In a strange twist of random fate (did I just say random fate?) I think our Sunday school class motto will be "Every Man For Himself". I like that idea. It took people lovin' on me when I didn't deserve it or entertain them in return to get me interested in ministry, personal growth and loving other people. Why should I return the favor?


Nearly record turn out and my favorite menu items provided by the ladies cook team made it a blast. Pastor Lyall outlined our call as Christian men and our Ministry purpose, then Steve talked about what the ministry involves from week to week.

From there, many of the guys headed over to the church's new building site to help build more temporary walls and coverings, cutting down on labor costs.



I barely contributed during the hour I was there. Plenty of guys showed up and they only ended up working three hours total. Twas a busy day, so I moved on to the next thing.

Sledding!
Cody and Lisa, a freakishly generous and fun couple from church let a bunch of us come over to their place this weekend for a sledding party in the afternoon. Thank you so much for hosting and being so hospitable with refreshments and conversation! They also have two incredibly cute kids who seem more grown up than some grown ups I know.

Go Bjorn go!




A little more on the cautious side, Sarah made up for it at the bottom of the hill with her aggressive snow fighting tactics.
















The Lady boat. Not so much a jumpable craft, but fun nonetheless.








Hit it!



Surfin'






Even little Johnny had a good time :-)










Next item on the list, host Lasagna trials. Josh made an edible lasanga dish at home earlier in the week, and wanted to flex those cooking muscles some more. So, he invited a few couples to our house to try it out on. A few couples quickly exploded to 15ish people and a good time.
I was fully reminded and encouraged by the loving and mature spirits of my previous roomies, Chris and Jed, this weekend. Miss you guys alot!



You guys





Jerelyn threatened to give me a black eye if I didn't step away from the sink and let her take over. YEeeesh! Don't trust that smile on her face, she mean!








Stormy, I didn't succumb to pressure while people were in the house, but it did happen eventually. (Grunt grunt)

Keeping Busy On Day 2 (Friday)

Thankfully, there was a good reason to get up early in the middle of this potentially wasted weekend. No, not Black Friday sales. I had a faint interest in finding a good deal on an air compressor, but too faint. Drey-dog is in town this week and we had alot to catch up on. How I left a restaurant without getting a picture of the food...I'll never know.

Next was another great opportunity to keep busy. I was recruited to help with picking up and arranging plants and other decorations for the church sanctuary with our resident decorator, Paul. Paul is getting to that stage in life where driving needs to be reconsidered. Sunday will be his last day behind the wheel, but since the plants we had to pick up were all the way in Eureka, he got a head start on the passenger thing. Driving to Eureka is so boring anyway, you really need a traveling buddy.

The communication issues we had with the lady at the greenhouse were astounding. Honestly, there are few things in life more frustrating than someone who does not even attempt to speak on the same wavelength as you. It was like there was a time delay in every response. If we asked a question, the answer came two responses later...every time. It's one type of example of times when I get fascinated at the idea of figuring out why people have certain behaviors, learned over time by many different situations.

The wreaths outside and crimping table inside reminded me of church youth group years ago. The fam spent alot of hours putting together real Christmas wreaths in the basement of our church to sell and raise money for youth trips. I wasn't allowed to use the crimper back then, so I was a little tempted to try it out. Don't worry, I still have all my fingers.

As always, where I really enjoy being, most days, is at church. So it was fitting that I got to spend some time on a boring weekend setting up something there. Paul had to be just as patient with me as I did with him. He has meticulous standards for how things should look, and I'm kinda dense. Looked pretty good in the end, but there is more coming.
Productivity was had, even though it was REALLY, REALLY slow. It took me the rest of the day to catch up on bills and records so that my budgeting can get back on track. I now know exactly how much I don't have for Christmas gifts this year.

Earlier in the day, a friend who I called couldn't seem to hear my voice. I thought it was just a fluke until it embarrassingly happened again. The problem seemed to be a crack near the base, undoubtedly covering another loose connection behind it, all caused by dropping my phone this morning for the 187th time. Squeezing the case seemed to take care of the problem, so one of clamps I borrowed from dad to help with break work continued to prove useful.Did you know that when you put a clamp on something, it squishes BOTH sides of the object you are clamping? Ya it does.

It seemed to be all better (with the exception of some new permanently squished keys) until I tried to leave voicemails with two people this morning and got that sassy voicemail lady's voice interrupting me with "I did not get your message". :-P

Lots Of Nuthin', Until....

Today!

This week has been pretty uneventful. No, the absence of posts isn't JUST because I've been in a cruddy mood. Monday, most of Thursday, and Friday were pretty open and uneventful.

Today was supposed to be a "work on the outside of the house" day. But I did something much more exciting, which I really needed.

My goal has been to move my desk and computer downstairs to the reading room/breakfast nook/Jed's summer bedroom...whatever it is. To do this, I needed to get Jed's stuff out, and get his help.

We moved three of his dressers and a couple new couches out to his new place. Then, I got to move my stuff and start putting together my sweet setup. You find all kinds of cool stuff when you move out. Like Andrew's prize bag for participating in the Firecracker run this 4th of July.

Jed gave me a workout later as we cleared out his basement from junk his landlord left there. Now I can't gouge Jed on rent for space in my basement.

As payment for my help (like he needed to), he invited me to a dinner that someone else payed for, HA! Shady man. Really shady.

Everyone at the table ordered chicken strips in some form or another. Odd. Tonight's dinner occasion had nothing to do with me actually. Pictured is Tim and Joan. A young couple from church I have never met. Great to meet a great couple.





Another VERY young couple from church ;-)

The last bit of the evening was spent running around town to find a simple, tiny little adapter so that I can have my sweet LCD monitor on a swing arm...but no.

You need to see this setup. I can now blog from a hammock, and have a new reading corner upstairs. Ya I know! The place isn't clean enough for pictures yet. Having the roommates move out is reason enough for a second house warming party isn't it?

The wait is nearly over. Pictures have been picked. NYC highlights are almost here.

Missing Week

Well, it's about time for that marathon post on a missing week of my life. Here's what happened the last week in July.

7/27 Sunday evening - More Trey time
Thank you for dinner (and dessert) Steve and Elise! Thank you for being so cute Trey.








Hoodies from the other Columbia Terrace bachelor pad also attended.




7/28 Monday
Work was not crazy first day after vacation...wow

Final regular softball games before the tournament and rain make-ups. Amazingly enough, there are no pictures, or I can't find them. I know, you'll live.

Meeting at church. Nothing much to be said there except welcome to the team Dave, Paul and DOUG! Paul made a special delivery.

Thank you Paul and Cheryl!






The night wasn't over. I came home to a very tense situation between Andrew and his fiance, wait, WIFE Ashley.









The Yahtzee Nazi wins again!




Nothing major to speak of Tuesday. It was our last official meeting of the discipleship group I have been with for the last 19 months.





7/30 Wednesday
Men's Bible study opened with a huge sigh after hearing our video presenter state, "You thought the honeymoon was steamy, wait till you hear THIS!" We made it through :-)

7/31 Thursday
Allergies had been kicking my butt this week, so I took some benadryl and completely missed Thursday evening.

8/2 Saturday
Softball rain make-ups. No pictures of the game buuuuuut


Ya. Don't worry, he's got his own place now.

Laugherty the flag!
The Laugherty family generously invited me over once again for a little hang time. The Deutch clan was also there, which made just enough people for a completely crazy and eventually dead game of capture the flag.







Guess who was there to greet me as I pulled up!!










You're goin' DOWN team Stuber!











As the team gimp, I was assigned to guard the prisoners.







...who clearly didn't take me seriously one bit.










I got my eye on you boy!









Recon work was fun.