Adventure

This weekend was the big Adventure Race out at Jubilee State Park. With most of my prep going in the morning of, I started getting a little nervous upon arrival. It didn't help that the band-aids required for the race got used on the way to the race because of a package opening accident in my car. I was too embarrassed to tell my teammate until after the race.

There were 50 teams participating overall in the race, 27 in the beginner class with Storm and myself. Other rivals in this class included:

Kari and Kinsey / "Trippin Trail Blazers" Sarah and Kelli

"WCIC" Steve and Jeremy / "Beat Gustafson" Father Daughter Mike and Katie

The race started with some simple control points to find on nearby trails. Different teams were sent to different locations for the first few points in order to spread them out. Storm and I will never live down the fact that the first turn we took on this race was incorrect. It was, however, made up for within minutes. :-P

Next was biking to an area where we would do more orienteering on foot.

The Orienteering was not as serious as I had feared. Often, you are only given clues to the control points and must determine the exact location based on features from your topological map. Our maps had little circles on them instead :-)

Most control points were off the road and some were off the trail as well. Trails were closed to bikers, so hiking had a much bigger part in this race than originally intended. I actually enjoyed that because it's easier to hike uphill than to ride, and it made us more likely to go off the trail, which we did.

The other surprise was how much mud and water was involved. There was a particularly confusing marsh where we did not use the trail as our guide, but rather the compass. I was thankful for the fact that worthless shoes and wool socks were used.

Also a somewhat deep creek.

Final surprises were the two mystery events spread throughout the race. The first one Storm and I hit was the figure 8 knot tying. After so many rock climbing trips I had better be able to do this in my sleep. I was impressed how fast Kari and Kinsey got theirs considering I doubt they can pass a belay check ;-)

Next mystery event, not so simple. So you take two small boards that you never would have thought were big enough for two people to stand on, and you tell two people to stand on one. The two heterosexual team members (I assume) then throw one of the boards ahead of themselves and occupy that one. The process is repeated with the same two boards until the team has crossed a distance and returned without touching the ground. Ridiculous.

Gotcha

Finally! The finish line, 2 hours and 46 minutes later.

Brauts

...And Katie with a Banana.


I won't tell you how the other teams did, but I will say that if you want to beat Gustafson, gotta put it in your team name. Good job guys. The race was entirely enjoyable and my own ability to last it and enjoy it was a complete surprise to me. Thank you Storm for your encouragement and putting up with me!

Video of mystery event #2 may not go up becuase I'm having alot of trouble with the size of the file

Beef and Fish

Men's Bible study Thursday. J-gerb brought the hefty beef patties and Ryan performed the grill duties. I think all future cooks for Bible study this summer are figuring out ways of incorporating the grill now. It is a glorious thing.










A double-decker of ranch goodness.

Alright fine, I'll post it. When I got home, our new pets had finally arrived. It's not the big lab or energetic sheep dog I dreamed about, but close. And they can still sleep on my bed, just like Maya.

Someone forked over the cash for a little swimming pool and 100 gold fish. I named them all and cried bitterly every hour as another one suffocated to death. The irony in this prank runs deep as, once again, someone gained entrance to my house before lovingly placed the fish on my bed. The irony is for me to know and you to not know that I know you know. Yes, it was laundry day.

...moving on. Man time continued Friday as several of the guys got together for some batting cage practice down at Kartville. I went to a Brad Paisley concert last year (which was awesome) but found myself wondering where all "these types" of people came from. Had that same thought here. Nine year old with a mullet? You bet.

Blazin' through the week

Gotta catch up. There's good stuff comin'.

Sunday
The initial sparks of Career Impact's first Iron chef competition. Sarah and Matt will not be allowed to have contact before, during or after the contest, for safety reasons. Event date is still TBA.





Love Feast
Another great time hangin' out with peeps ya know and peeps ya don't at an evening potluck. Dave broke the bread for us.


Monday
First game of the season!! Kari's team kicked off Monday night softball and quite a few new folks in the line up. They did lose this time, but I still enjoyed the game. Yes, stats will be posted again this year, just not yet.


Tuesday
31 hours. That's how long Steve (Middle School Principal) and Jay (School Dean) had to stay on the middle school roof thanks to the kids raising enough money during a fund raiser early in the semester.





Water balloons were 50 cents a piece. They made over $100 the first day!








Wednesday
My little bro, Eric, had his frist run in with hood hoodlums on Wednesday. It was just some bored elementary kids who, thought no one was home and broke in to the empy unit next to him. When he went to check out the noise they bolted with nothing. But going over to check it out gave me a chance to play some guitar hero three with the boy.

He was just going to show me the hardest song in the game for kicks so I could see how crazy it was. He ended up beating it on the expert level for the first time. It's kind of a big deal. Check out the mad skills.


Wednesday was also my first chance to get pumped about the weekend race Storm got us into. A local outdoor store sponsored a combination mountain biking/orienteering race for this weekend (today actually). Wednesday was an informational meeting and a chance to sass the competition (pictured).

Ransom Lasagna

It has nothing to do with lasagna, but I can't let a good pic go wasted. Happy birthday dude.


Remember THE FORKING? Well I do. To refresh your memory...





As all of the vandals have been named and stepped forward, it was time to get our silverware back within the demanded parameters. So, roomie Josh prepared a fantastic meal last Saturday









Oh look! Just in time for dinner.

Four of the seven hoodlums.
Rachel,Sarah, Kim, Amanda. Joanne, Jed and Julie not pictured
Innocent slow poke Owen came along for dinner as well.

Ha ha very funny.



Sorry for the cruddy phone pics. I wonder where my camera was? Perhaps it has some good stuff on it.

Catching up is a pain. Almost there.

Illinoisans Again!

Celebrating our graduates. Watching the seniors taking advanced placement exams today finally got me thinking about the possible excitement and coolness of what this year's high school graduates are looking forward too. The new environment. New friends. New classes (some boring). For the halfway intelligent students (unlike myself) new groundwork being laid for future career, ministry and relationships.

Well, Friday night was a celebration, but not just of the future. At Bethany, the graduates were hosted a banquet with their family, classmates and mentors. One of the highlights of the night is video clips of their parents being interviewed. Everyone gets to hear the praises, prayers and other stories each parent has to offer. And I get food
Here's the kitchen and serving crew. Head chef Janine not pictured. I get her cooking again for Men's breakfast in a couple of weeks. Score!!

Yummy!


Just hours after Mike and Holly became Illinoisans again, they were hangin with me at the theater. I took this picture and got a dejavu feeling. It turns out they brought Sam (Holly's dad) to a movie with us the last time they were here. I love Sam. He treats me like family when his Daughter and Son-in-law are in town. Mike and Holly will be back for the summer, and only 45 minutes away after that.

Hair Day Cometh

Well, I got behind again. But this time it was somewhat legitimate. Nothing was going on and then everything went on at the same time and late too.

Mr. Hobbs' big day finally arrived. As promised, since Kelli was able to tackle real Summit County moguls on the ski trip, Hobbsy gave up his hair to Brooke's scissors this last Thursday.





Dun Dun Dun!!


Done already?

YIKES!

This isn't the best "final cut" pic, but Ryan's reaction to the Bulls game score makes up for it.

Wrap It Up!

Not that's not a really wierd burrito. Freddo and I checked out the Lebanese place out at the Northpoint shopping center and the gyros are wonderful.

Final week of AWANA! Kinda like EE and some other seasonal things. It's terribly exciting to start the season, and you realize all season how grateful you are for it. But ending it is a joy of it's own. Except now I don't have a regular Wednesday schedule. Kevin's not so good at non-schedules but is getting better.

The last week of AWANA (for the bulk of leaders) is the big AWANA store. Kids redeem points they've earned throughout the year to buy fun stuff from the "store". The high valued items go fast.



My station was the $1 table, a.k.a, indecision lane. The kids have to decide what they want with their last few bucks. I think we should just make it the candy table next year. A little thank you to all the parents :-) We did push more jewelry than I thought we would, undoubtedly due to my excellent job modeling it.