Whatcha Been Up To?

It's sorta gratifying to have so many people ask (one way or another) about one missed Sunday morning. That's what I got after missing yesterday because I was sick. And thanks to Andrew's prodding, I've got my glass of green tea and a blog to get to.

Work kicks my rear during this season. It's the same season I started in last year. Back then, I thought it was going to be a year-round paid workout, but it died down. Turns out this season is just tough every year. A big one is the Equip Conference. We pack all the high school desks into a few rooms. Last year, someone else was in charge of the stacking (left). This year, I was (right)....Back off, it got the job done.

Sometimes the only rest you get during a weekend school event is fueling the buses. Apparently I had a free-loader stealing my phone and taking pictures.

There was some blog-worthy fun stuff too. Thursday was the class' official tour of the new church building.

A tour with the Ushers a few weeks ago showed an awesome transformation, but thanks to a couple of curious troublemakers, I still found new things. Look at them, up to nothing good.

Here's the new server room. Ryan set up the network to direct all page requests to McDonalds.com.

Our Sunday school class found our recently upgraded classroom. Ryan and Ben found a couple of ways to get to the roof.

The next night, I enjoyed a relaxed dinner and card game with the Stubes, Janna and Jill. Sorry Jill. It was either you or Janna not smiling. Jed is not performing his diaper smelling duty, but I'm sure this is what it would look like if he were.

I'm An Uncle!

Eeeeeeeasy Mom. Eric did not have a baby. Not sure if I ever officially got the title Uncle for Emery, but I'm definitely getting to be Uncle to Jed and Julie's first family addition, Rosie!Not to brag, but it's my first time holding a newborn less than a day old. Thank you Marla!. It was so great to see Julie doing very well and hang out with my old roomie with his new title, Dad. Another sappy moment went by there as I wondered how time flew by so fast. I'm grateful to have been with so many friends before they met their wives and to know them and their kids now. And they don't even have to keep me entertained to keep me grateful.

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.

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)

Smell My Feet!

New Years at Chris and Jerelyn's! The only non-hoodies were a really cool couple that Cole and Christy know very well. Cole and Kristi will be moving into our hood this spring. Christi was my left arm. No clue how to spell her name, so you get all three until I do.






The engineers had to catch up on test results for each of their products and swap stories about marriage.






Trey Time!



Food Time!



















It's been a while since I've had Chris' brownies. Definitely took some home.




The freezer was packed to record capacity. Plenty more brownies on the top shelf :-)








We spent about three hours just hangin', then two playing a new (to me) game, "Would You Rather..." Very good game in my opinion. At least with this crowd. Thanks for letting me be on team Stuber tonight guys!


Jerelyn was very passionate about the game, especially when smelling feet was involved. I think at 8am tomorrow, Chris's wake up call is going to be a shoe in his face :-)


Joyous and Jon were silent but deadly winners of this mind game of sorts.

Happy New Year!!

Christmastime At The Stubers

It just occurred to me that the boring day breakdown can fit at the bottom. Enjoy the fun stuff.

With church and other events canceled due to weather, Josh and I hung out with the Stubers and Laughertys next door for some Christmas decorating....ok and food :-) Josh is a color Christmas tree lights person, but Julie prefers to mix them with white, the hard way. Madison was an expert at exchanging light bulbs.







I know! It's just their thing.















Enter Josh














Enter Food



Enter Princess Jed


Mols! I got no pictures of you. This is a tragedy :-(

Thank you for the cookies Jess!

Well, again with the boringness. You can skip the rest. It's just an accountable breakdown of the day.

Worked through finances in detail again. It was a roller coaster of discoveries that pretty much put me back where I thought I was - relatively safe through January, Lord willing.

Ran errands including the doctor's office to get some free allergy med samples (score).

Hit the gym for a jog. Word of my job made it to Abe, the owner, already. I totally underestimate how word travels around here. Checked out the possibility of freezing gym membership temporarily. It's possible.

Met with Joe's recruiter over coffee. It turns out that this is really just another "staff augmentation" company, like Volt. However, the jobs she's mentioned to Joe over the last couple of months didn't seem that bad, and at least it's something. I don't have to do anything for them to be searching.

Talked with CEFCU about refinancing the mortgage. Ya, that ain't happening without a job. It was a huge setback, but there's nothing I can do about it. A little reduction because of my call to the insurance company, but that's about it.

Left a message with Wachovia to get IRA contributions stopped.

The day's most profitable item, however, was the exchange of my embarrassingly expensive, slow and annoying new phone for one of their freebies. I already love it.

Mmmm Food

I've decided that three or more pictures of food justifies the title. But first..

We talked about Missions in Bible study last night, how we can participate and had a missions mindset in our normal lives. But also, how our participation in local or short term missions impacts us when we do them. The Rescue Mission and South Side mission have had a bigger impact than I knew. Someone at work recently pointed out a Peoria website which reports on certain crime in the city, and posts pictures of the offenders. I'm alot less interested than I used to be in being judgmental or poking fun at those people on the site when I realize that I could very well be talking to one of them at the Mission this Sunday. In that setting, they will not be fighting tooth and nail to defend their poor choices, but pouring out their regret for them, and seeking God's grace and healing relationship.

Ex-rommie Jed gave the talk at the Rescue mission Monday, prepping the men of the mission for this Christmas season from Matthew 2. Mr. Saunders spends alot of time serving the mission and pouring love out on these guys. He played piano for us which is a huge relief for me leading the singing. If the men pick a hymn that is difficult for me to sing, I can still count on him being able to play anything they throw at us. The mission guys sing pretty loud, which I like because it covers up my poor singing. However, it was this week that we found out someone in the front lobby listens to the microphone feed from the service and gets to hear every bad note from my mouth very clearly. For crying out loud! He wasn't complaining when Linda sang though. She can SANG!



Don't ask how or why, just stare in awe at these pumpkin pancakes. It did seem like there was more pumpkin flavor in the whipped cream than the actual pancakes though.


Small group
I took away alot of changes and good direction from my last discipleship group. But as a leader, I'm now digging to find out what I can learn about leading a group of guys from my last leader.

Here's what I've dug up so far..
-It's about relationships.
-Digging into other guy's lives. They've already asked for it, it's your job to do it.
-Ask "how are they better off?" Learning something from the book doesn't count. How have YOU contributed to them, or led them in a direction God used to add to them.
-What things outside of the one night per week can be used to make a difference in their life?

I don't have answers to all that, but some ideas. We're on our way, already having alot of good discussion, persistently encouraging each other to stay in God's word and memorizing. Discussion is a two-way road of course, and they are contributing immensely and deeply.

Noah and I decided to crash Amanda's B-day party after discipleship. We were either too late or she was just too embarrassed to admit that no one showed up except her roomie Joanne :-) Happy Birthday Amanda. I can't give a birthday wish to all my friends on here, but I'll let you have one just this once. Great cake Nichole!

Dude, where'd Noah go?
Ha ha ha...ha. I'm just..ha...laughing so hard right now...HAHAHA, I can't tell...ha ha ha...tell you what's so funny....ha! You'll have to ask them.

Couldn't go to bed without trying this snack idea they told me about. PB and Ice Cream.