Relapse

So it looks like I had a relapse of my hectic weekend days. I don't know why it's been so long since I've had one, but we all know I have a bad habit of making Saturdays a marathon of four or more events. Not good and I know it.

I pride myself in being able to enjoy being around anyone God puts me with. If I'm not enjoying it, I'm hoping to understand why I'm there so that I can be used and perhaps enjoy it. Well...pride gone. While it's hard enough to enjoy time with people when you're terribly distracted by depressing thoughts (been there done that), it's even worse when you know you told people in similar situations (not knowing at the time) that they have no excuse. I'm sorry.

That said, here's Saturday.

My 4th grade buddies at school were having a guy weekend sponsored by my boss and his son. I was honored to be invited by Josh and glad to double as an extra chaperon. We took over the school for about four hours playing all kinds of stuff.

Capture the flag. I got to guard the back hallway. Everything was going great until a huge blitz at the end. The old man wins again.


I never read "Lord Of The Flies", but for some reason, this picture seemed to remind me of the short version I was told.

Basketball. I was out after a few short minutes when my old duck-duck-goose injury was agitated by a run in with the wall.

You know what this means. Definitely got a work-out in this weekend.

It was a beautiful day and I was blessed to get to chat with the B-man outside for a while. But it was off to dinner at another hood house, John and Lori's. They were having several people over from their college ministry and I was so lucky to get to enjoy it with them.



Lastly, another evening of spades at Noah's with team Sarah this time. Everything is so clear at Noah's place. Ha....get it???

The weekend before last started off with a hood dinner on Friday night. It's a pretty standard Hood party, but with additions. There have been a few dwellings adopted into the hood as "pre-gehtto" hoods north of Forrest Hill. Standard means Deutch-fam (left) and lots and lots of food.



Saturday morning was an opportunity to work off the food with Ultimate friz. The Kuntz and Rabe crews met up with a little Lee and Hobbsi mixed in. The results on this soggy day were a bit...soggy. But a good work out.




SarahD wanted to ruin the workout with pizza, so later on the same crews met up with a little Mills and Borch to flavor it up at the Duncster's place.







This one's free guys. Enjoy, courtesy of my EE buddy Mike.


Finished off with a dynamic getogether at the bachelorette pad for a showing of Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed".

You Know Jimmy Is?? AHH $#(*&@

There I was, minding my own business when Neighbor Jed decided to make a milk run. It's a boring trip to Tremont, and goes faster with someone to talk to and to help fill milk jars. So I easily hopped in for the road trip. We had great conversation. Got barked at by the farmer's dogs. You know, the usual.

When we got back I was engrossed in a detailed story about my day when a drunk dude named Tim (late 30s-40s) walked up asking to borrow a phone. The true story is still floating out there somewhere, but we could piece together that about a block away, his family and friends were having a get together and kicked him out. The cops showed up but he somehow got out of that. When no one answered the number he gave us, Jed offered to take him home. It would appear that he knows the owner of every bar we drove by (you realize how many bars we have on nights like this) and is so interconnected with construction and landscaping through his STUMP removal business, that he basically runs this city. Wow, sharing a car with US about ready to puke all over our fresh milk. LuckyyyyyyY!

So when someone is this drunk, you generally don't waste your time trying to have deep conversation, even if it would be nice to balance out the sexual innuendos and other colorful language sputtered out during the ride. But, when we got to his sister's place, Stube did give him his number on the back of a random business card from his car, and entertained a couple of topics. When a certain comment prompted Jed to mention that he is not racist, Tim was kind enough to display a tattoo which supposedly notes Tim's support for the KKK.

Flashback - Two weeks ago, Mr. Stuber was headed out for the night to a Hebrew class. If you know Jed, and many of you do, he is passionate about Biblical study, and has a wealth of understanding and resources that he draws upon. Learning Hebrew seems like a perfectly logical step in enhancing his enjoyment and productivity in Bible study and teaching. Only weird thing was that he decided to get his Hebrew training at the Jewish Federation of Peoria. He got some info and a business card from the guys down there while he was at it.

Returning to tonight's story - As Tim finally....finally got out of the car, Jed expressed his slight concern that a KKK supporter, after sobering up, will now have his name and phone number on the back of a business card from....the Jewish Federation of Peoria. Smooth.

The moral of this story? Clean out your car Jed.

Another Sunday, Another Good Time

Thanks to several circumstances, I was able to enjoy visiting our church's "model" Sunday school class, Dust To Glory. It's called DTG because the original study and purpose of the class was an extended Bible overview from Genesis to Revelation. Took a while, and afterward they decided to continue with other studies. The name stuck.

I say "model" class because they have the reputation of carrying out the mission of our church's adult fellowship vision very successfully. Why so successful? Here's a few clues.


This is Steve. Okay, the back of Steve's head. I admit, a terrible shot. Steve's a busy guy (and MUCH better with a camera than I). An important fellow at Caterpillar. An Elder at church (currently?, not sure). Missions committee chairman. What's he doing here? Meeting and greeting folks, especially the ones he doesn't know. Is he the only one? Heck no. I'm just getting camera shy these days. I'll bet you 10 bucks these welcoming folks remember and follow up with people too. Marrieds quite often take time and pity on us single folk who just want attention and entertainment, God bless 'em.

Other cool stuff:

-One of the announcements was a very inviting activity for women who know what great ladies will be there to welcome them.

-I heard announcements about reaching out to members not there because of various circumstances.

-Asking couples to host incoming internationals.

The biggest reason for the visit was that a friend, Kristi, was showing a brief overview of the trip she recently took. Kristi was given the opportunity to spend some months in Slovenia last year with a missionary family supported by our church, Don and Jodi Green. The greens are in charge of pretty much the only campus ministry going on in Ljubljana, the capital city. They also have a very large family with six adorable children. Kristi had the opportunity to serve in the normal ministry efforts of Don and Jodi with students, but also to minister to the family in many of their personal needs.

My group was in charge of food for class today. Looks a little sparse doesn't it? The main course was still in the kitchen at this point as chef Josh worked diligently to get his from scratch biscuits and gravy out the door. They were amazing...when they were finally finished. Thanks Jeff-C for the spirited dessert!



It's time for another round of EE. I got out of playing a major role this semester, but still get to help out here and there including prep for Sunday's informational lunch, and several weeks of trainer subbing. The lunch is always encouraging because it's a sum-up of a great ministry, and a fun video by D. James Kennedy, the founder of EE International. Peter and Dave representin' the CI this semester!

Super House To House.

Whoops. Getting called into work. Make it fast.

Steve and Elise once again hosted House to House this week, embedded in a superbowl party. Jedster provided the projector and both Stubers and Harry's decked out the food.

Speaking of Stubers, why are mommy and daddy always fighting!?!.

Trey brought the entertainment.
And during halftime, we spent some time going over today's sermon on Revelation. Harry used his choo choo train book heavily as a reference tool.

House to House - Hood Edition

You're only getting caught up by a day cuz I still gots things to do, and our internet is still being a poop.

This Sunday kicked off another six weeks of house to house. A short term small group study that our church puts on to encourage spending time in God's word and getting to know other people. I had been in plenty of house to house groups before and feel rather well connected. It's nice to have Sundays off, so I decided to pass...until Jed got a group going in our hood. There's really no way to get out of that one :-) Steve and Elise graciously hosted and put together a great food selection.

Appetizers Shmapetizers

With an incredibly disappointing lack of photos from the Storm and Katie's appetizer party the Saturday before Christmas, lets use up all of the cool ice pics I took before they go to waste. We got pounded with a couple of nights of freezing rain or melted and re-iced water a couple of weeks ago, and it lingered for almost a week.

Icy wake-up call before and after.


Road block down the street. No clue why. Maybe Albertson's power lines were being a pain again.


After the refreeze, things looked pretty cool.

Looks like this guy was ready to die already.













Storm and Katie hosted an enjoyable evening of appetizers (enough to feed a small army or the Deutch family) and games about a week ago. All I got was Tim trying to warm up his coffee after being advised by Jon about pre-marriage topics and becoming an American. It's all about the R's Tim!




Next time, I promise Jack, I won't leave you hangin' at chick's night. I MEAN girls night. You look miserable, simply miserable.

Happy B-day Trey!

There's alot to catch up on this weekend with three parties, a work day and mini concert. The first of three parties was a combo Birthday/Christmas party at Steve and Elise's house in our hood.

On the way over I got jumped by the hoodies from the bachelor pad down the street, Mike and Jim. Jim is engaged though. Michael is recently separated...from the middle of his beard.

On the way back we got jumped by a cop asking if we had been stabbed. Apparently we were walking about 40 feet from a stabbing (a dating dispute) that the cop was just now responding too, across the street and three houses over from my house. I can tell you this because Mom already read about it in the news.




The Harry's had a full group invited for the party. Hoodies, families with kids Trey's age and a few more.






Pastor Fred directed the food line. "Pregnant women, children and pastors first!"

Fooooooood!

Rodney (left) helped me understand when I can make milk runs out to his family's farm while I'm a little more free during the day. JonnyB got to eat something other than cookies. And JonnyH...juuuuust a goofball.





Happy birthday Trey! Alot has changed since he was brought home a year ago.






Standard procedure is that Connor gets a beating, with a recent up grade of Mike getting tagged in for round two.










Trey is now completely mobile and brings the beat down on Mike.








Ohhhhh no you did not just point that at me!



Homemade pinata time!!


Score!


Thank you Harrys!


(sigh) Two more to blog about.