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.

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.

Run the race

Today was a bit of a gloomy day at first. I snuck in an early walk around the building at work before it rained. We've had alot of rainy days this summer. Each time, I can't help but think about the folks who have said they really hate gloomy days. Or the ones who get soaked delivering packages in them. I feel bad that they are probably not feeling too hot. If it wasn't for those thoughts, I'd rather enjoy gloomy days. It reminds me of a song by Amy Grant, "Lonely Days". Look, I grew up on that album alright.

There's some good stuff in that song. Lonely days (more than weather) should chase me to God, not be chased away by me. Sometimes I'm grateful that I do not have the capacity or stamina to put off tough thoughts on my own for too long. I need the opportunity to deal with them and learn from them the way God wants me to.

Other great songs on that album include "El Shaddai" and "Fat Baby". Not to be confused with "My Big Ol' Fat Baby" by Stewie Griffin.

Another Monday, another couple of softball games. Congratulations to both Kari R. and Joey's teams for kickin' it. Perhaps the wins have to come in pairs. I'm sorry I didn't make it for Bethany East's victory.

Dave wins MVP for giving us four, count 'em, four RBI's. First a homer with one on base. Then a triple with two on base. Michael and Kari had the play of the game with a double play on second and first. Nice.

Ashley made a beautiful base hit, but didn't want to follow through to second when the first baseman missed the catch by a mile (juuuust kidding Ash). Doug tried to tell her, but no. Doug, I think she's laughing at you. Are you gonna take that?



Joey's team warming up.


Doug called up the owner to see if we can trade Ashley for Tyler. He's thinking about it.



Later, I got to see the other Mr. Dave and Timly glorifying it up at the Rescue Mission. Dave, your joy and excitement definitely fired up the guys. Very encouraging. Good job with the song we didn't know. Nuthin' like singing into the microphone a really fast hymn that you've never heard before.

Timlee reflected on Phil 3:13-14 - "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Tim, thank you for sharing your heart and God's word. Most of all, thank you for not wearing short shorts for our Marathon. It was, and forever will be, a good decision. Seriously though. I've stumbled quite a bit in the race recently, but I'm encouraged at Paul's clear vision for how we are to press on.


Good night!

Virginia Part 1

We're Wiiing it up right now at Kristi's place in Lynchurg, Virginia. The Rabenhorst Nintendo Wii is going to be loaned to Kristi for the summer, so it's getting thoroughly used tonight. Going to be a long night.

The 13 hour trip went well. We took a couple short detours, but arrived at graduation just in time, 7:35am.

Things at the homestead seem to be falling apart. You know that you're neglecting things a little too much when Jed calls to offer to mow the lawn. Thanks man.

I'm not feeling too creative right now. So, we'll post pictures and see what comes to mind.

Dinner was in Champaign at Za's, where we met up with Josh's brother, Aaron.


One of many phone calls between Kari and Doug over a map.


Amusing gas station bathroom sign.


Wake up! Almost there.


Turns out Josh was one of Chuck's undercover bodyguards.


4800 graduates.


Where's Kristi?








There she is.


Proud parents


There's chuck.


The only competition between Chuck and Doug was a staring contest. Doug was in the stands and Chuck was at the podium. Chuck never started, so Doug won by default.

Josh wasn't very excited to see Kristi walk. We did take a nap after lunch, so Josh, and everyone else, is wide awake now, I assure you.


Students actually walked later in the morning at different locations for their major. Here is Kristi's proud strut.




Lunch at the Depot (where Kristi works).

This one goes out to Kristi and Chuck

Congratulations grads. I'm proud of you all! Not only have you most likely graduated with a much higher GPA than I, but you probably don't have a second unfinished degree for which you you are still paying...alot.

This weekend is gonna be exciting. It's road trip time. Last year, about this time, a group of friends let me tag along to see our friend, Kristi Rabenhorst, at her college in Virginia. It was just an excuse to get cheap labor out there to move her (you KNOW it was!) but we enjoyed it thoroughly anyway. This time, she's graduating!! Yeah!! Even though that's reason enough to go...there is one reason why I cannot NOT go. Chuck Norris is giving the commencement speech at Liberty University. That's right. I'll give you a minute to let it sink in. It's pretty heavy.

In honor of Chuck, here are a few of the top fun facts (out of hundreds) you may not know about him.

-Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.
-The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.
-There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist.
-Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.
-The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.
-Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
-If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.
-The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodgeball Chuck Norris played in second grade.
-When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn't get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.
-How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris? ...All of it.
-Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.

So, packing is always a stressful thing for me. Not because I can't decide what to take, but because I make those decisions 1-5 hours before leaving. For Thailand, a 10 day trip, I pretty much packed from 2am-5am the morning we left. We left at 5:30am. However, for this trip, we leave 30 minutes after I get off of work. So packing started at 10pm last night. Without the pressure, it's really hard to get motivated though!

Here's a picture of the folks going on this little trip today.
The two on the right (jean jacket and sassy...actually they're both sassy) are not going. Apparently, they love their moms. j/k I LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Let's not forget the proud parents coming along as well.


Results of the arm wrestling match between Doug and Chuck will be posted as soon as humanly possible.