You Cur!!

With Storm's blog MIA, someone's gotta try to think up the catchy titles.

Saturday night was the big tourney. Kari put alot of prep into this event, and it paid off. Six tables of round-robin euchre was a blast.

Mooner, eye-balling the high point scorers across the way.


Dude, just fold.


Some marrieds are allowed, but if you don't have a baby to hold, then you have to be really fun.


I love how my pictures often don't capture the atmosphere of the event. Really, we we're not zombies. Excitement rotated in and out based on team make-up in predictable fashion.




You know those annoying people who stop the game because they're ticked that they have a had which doesn't allow them to compete! Ya, I'm not one of them. But I did spy on alot of hands, and we had some losers. Jeffrey wished he was playing poker (right)


I cried bitterly when a black suit was called during this hand :-(


Thanks again Kari! I never knew so much work had to go into an activity to mix up people.

Personal Week

On the non-work side of last week, here's what went down.


Saturday was a big Euchre tournament. We were hoping to draw in a few people who could enjoy the time, even if their skills were not...fresh. So a refresher night was formed at Nellie's place. It was a good ole time and a side of Jonny B I've never seen before.







Janelle has cats!! This is new.













BACK to Ryan's house. Friday was the return of Friday Night Impact. Ryan graciously hosted, lots of people brought food, Kelli brought the music and Ben Davidson brought the word.




After Ben's preachin' I found some of the dudes flexing their mental muscle on Ryans cool strategy game, Blokus.

I lost.

Pete's sis Natalie was visiting for a few days. She fit right in, kicking my bootie in this game, and getting some chocolate cheese cake.

I did NOT get a piece. Brittney has NO manners!! While I was searching for a fork, she quickly dispatched my only source of joy for the night.


Speaking of joy. Ben gave an awesome review of one of the sessions Josh and I sat in on at the counseling conference last month. Speaking from James 4, we diagrammed a little bit about ways we can fill our heart (with good or bad) things, meant for our own satisfaction and contentment, rather than God's and other's.

Speaking of what you satisfy the heart with...

TAYLOR!


Joe had his daughter all to himself on Saturday. But rather than hoard the pleasure, he offered to let anyone come over and get a piece. Josh and I spent some time over there playin', eatin' and cookin'.



Bacon wrapped lil' smokies.

Tots 'n BBQ


I asked Joe if I can name Taylor whatever I want and pretend she's mine. He seemed fine with it. Now that I have my "I want a baby" kicks satisfied for a few days, I plan on ditching the 50 singles God's blessed me with in Career Impact and joining my old and entertaining friends in the young married's class to tide me over until I'm actually married. The shallow pursuit of happiness ends at that point right??



About nine folks responded to the call of the awesome weather Saturday morning before baby time - plus two fans. I think we have some new Ultimate enthusiasts.






This picture is here simply to let the world see Ryan in his element - a split second before falling on his butt.

Work Week

Last week's update (aka catch up) can be split into work stuff and personal stuff. So at work, which would you rather do? Stare at Mrs. Lyon's computer which is flashing a blue screen every time you try to use the projector(left)...Or check out Herbs auto repair(right)?


At school, if you can drive, then you have to get a CDL license so that you can be used for student outings which require a bus driver. So one of my IT counterparts was charged with taking a bus to it's regular maintenance checkup, and I drove separately to bring him back. My boss has a knack for finding the cheapest deals. The bus maintenance deal happens to be in the middle of Bellevue Illinois at a place called "Herbs", hidden on a back road you would never find if you didn't call up Herb first to ask. There, you'll find a really old dude eating an orange behind a cluttered desk in a shop packed with ripped up cars and a bus which only fits about ten feet into the garage. Totally awesome.

Later on in the week, however, I totally would have picked the blue screen. The biology class was dissecting pigs. What a rip off. We only got fish back in my day. Pigs require alot of formaldehyde, which is leftover after throwing away the pigs. So two trips of five gallon pails of that stuff (and two bags of cut up pigs) left my smell receptors pretty well fried.

St. Patty's Day, a week early in the Elementary!




<--Healthy table



















Not so healthy table-->












Looks delicious doesn't it? Well, it did. Grubby 4th graders!!!

Right Now!

Kevin is listening to Mark Schultz - I Am

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".

Other Going's On

Wednesday last week I had the opportunity to speak to the AWANA kids again. It kinda snuck up on me, as usual, but since I usually just talk about what God's teaching me, it wasn't hard to find alot to say. We spent a little time just refreshing the kids understanding of my job title. I'm not a custodian, trash man or cleaning person. I'm a Maintenance Engineer. I don't expect them to know I'm also an IT administrator.

About six or seven years ago, I tried to apply Philippians 2:3-4 (my buddy displaying on the left) to my life in the midst of trouble. It never happened. I know this because eventually I found myself again only finding joy and comfort in what other people could do for me. But as God faithfully and patiently pushes me through life, he's given another chance. We talked about this, Mark 12:31 and what this reveals about OUR RESPONSE to 1 John 3:1. God's love has been used as an ambiguous warm blanket and comfort while we wallow in sadness or joy replacement, instead of a gift to respond to and purpose to drive us in obeying God's commands to be selfless. And no, none of those big words were used in AWANA. The deepest example we talked about was how you treat the weird kid everyone avoids at the end of the lunch table. It would be nice to divert them from hitting their 20's avoiding normal people and only finding joy and rowdiness in close proximity with their best friends and favorite worldly diversions.

Sir Nan prepped our spaghetti and healthy sauce on Thursday for this month's man-only study. Oh so good. Ryan allowed us to experience the comforts of his home.


Cozy seating. The Good Kevin seems to be having some trouble with the Large print Bible. Might need to switch up to jumbo.


Jimmy James on the big screen! Or is that Pastor Fred?


AAAAAAnd pool.


Ryan's sister, Janelle, doesn't allow me to take pictures of her. But I found a way around it. This picture is evidence that Michael Jordan is in fact the ring leader of the Peoria McDonald's Franchise.

Yes We Will Catch Up!

Monday (last week's Monday) was a budget meeting which all staff was required to attend. As annoying as it was to have to come back to school in the evening, there's a reminder of God's sovereignty everywhere you look, even boring meetings. The presenter for most of the evening was Denise, the school business manager. Denise has a huge hand in determining the school budget. When I started as temporary work at the school, I felt really awkward around the administration because we all knew people were trying to get me hired, and that the administrator and Denise were the ones who had to decide if I would stay. So, that's why I was caught hugely off guard when the first thing Denise said to me in 10 years was that she's always remembered how when I was in school, I stayed after school (probably because of track) and played with her kids while they were bored. You know, these days I recognize the honor in hanging around and talking to/entertaining the folks who aren't so lucky or entertaining. But back then, I have no idea what I was thinking and I'm glad God was doing the thinking.

A member of the school board treated James (IT boss) and I to sushi last week. I mentioned to James that my first attempt to eat sushi was at Mings buffet. In disgust he swore to give me a better opportunity by getting our Korean boardmember to go to Sushigowa (sp) with us. He didn't let me finish my story, which ended with "and then I had sushi at a five star hotel restaurant in Thailand...it was good". What you see here is their combo deal with six or seven different types of sushi/seafood represented. Most of it was good.

Side note-I was recently offered a job to work for another GREAT boss who's family I love. When their son in-law (my best friend) is in town, they treat me like family and have me over to play :-) There was even the prospect of working with several other Christians on the job, and being motivated to work with and encourage other people as part of my job. Why didn't I take it? Well, besides not feeling directed there after prayer, and realizing that the major difference in jobs was slightly more pay (not enough reason), I was also swayed by last Thursday's special treat on my maintenance desk. Mr. and Mrs. Hauter, an elderly couple who comes in faithfully every Thursday to clean off lunch tables, asks for updates from everyone and offers encouragement, ALSO leaves special treats for everyone, even if it's just a couple of leftover cookies that they scrounged up before leaving the house.

Notice who's name they put first. SNAP!