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.

Invading Beecer Land

Thanks to internet problems at home and busy busy, I give you Sunday two days late.

Another great opportunity to worship x2. First thing was worship in Peoria with Fredo and Lyall...o Then off to the blackness which is The Five Points Community center and the warmth and fellowship of Bethany Community Church with Mike leading music and Daniel at the pulpit.



Yes Lyall did ride the bicycle, no I did not quite get a picture. Lucky him, sad me.


It still cracks me up that we randomly convinced BenH to come with to BCC in the parking lot at church. This made the ride a little tight though.



The whole purpose for some of us in going to worship in Washington was to hook up with part of our New York trip team and have another reunion meal. Good times, good times. Erika arranged the date and Dan and Elke picked the place. Thanks guys!



The group of career folks that were headed to Washington just for the enjoyment of it couldn't be original and went to Sol Azteca as well. What a great place. Anyone notice how poses are becoming much more common?




Hey! Over here!

As cute and innocent as Elisabeth might appear, she was actually being quite mean. It is still my challenge to catch her frowning on camera, which she never lets me snap.

There is a fifty fifty chance that a frown exists behind those hands...


Elisabeth ensured that my roommate would NOT eat my leftovers.