Survey Says...

Brown 1
Blonde 9
Red 3
Stupid question 1

Truth is, I was a stinkin' cute blonde at two years old.
Mom and Dad were kind enough to send me these proof pictures yesterday. Like my Dad, it has gotten alot darker over the years. And then his got lighter again for some reason :-) Mom, what's the deal with my lips here? Did we have them removed when I was three?

Holy cow, I should have put down albino as one of the survey options. Look at that!! Yes, the dude with the ice cream cone is the source of my receding hairline.

"That fish is staring at me..."

Meet The Raviolis

For those wondering about the new Facebook profile picture, it's about time to explain. I've almost recovered from the 10-12 hour work days during my boss' vacation and have moved on to bad allergies again.

Meet the Raviolis. From left to right you have my ex-wife, Mother, Big Jim, New wife and daughter. Tramps, all of 'em

Here is the full cast of Saturday night's Mystery dinner with two of the Dust To Glory's care groups. Another single seat was open and I got a shot at playing a gangster.

The amazing hosts/planners and hired help.

There was an amazing meal put together.



I'm alot heavier dead apparently.

the inspector happened to be at this mobster dinner and turn up many useful clues. Unlike previous murder mystery dinners I have attended, everyone had a much bigger hand in how the game turned out. Information was much more valuable and therefore could be bought or traded. And if someone stood in you way and you had the neccessary means, you could eliminate them.

This was such a blast, even if I got picked off and picked clean!!

What Color Is My Hair (what little I have left)

So, after work today, a co-worker swore that she thought my hair color was _____. "That's CRAZY" I thought. The word is blank because I want to see if she's the only one. Vote in the poll on the right. Perhaps you just haven't looked in a while. Or maybe you're short and therefore haven't been able to see past the receding hair line. When the pole runs out, I'll break out the pictures to prove the correct answer.

Facebook viewers, use this LINK.

More Tracks In The Snow

An offer was extended to try out snowmobiling for the first time yesterday which I could not refuse. Ryan looks like a snowmobile ganster.
Alex's first time too. I couldn't let him show me up.

Speaking of Alex, he got whooped in cups by his P.E. teacher a few weeks ago. He's better than I am though.

Cute neighbor puppy who shouldn't be there

Unbelievably, it was Ben's first time on one of these, but you can't tell can you? This was totally on purpose.

Here's Doug, grinding down the hill. Thanks Doug, for sharing the fun with whoever showed up!

Roadhouse and Trail Run

Got the most random enjoyable dinner in the world together last night at Texas Roadhouse thanks to Sarah and Samantha's planning and flexibility. It's amazing what you can do last minute when you invite people who don't have plans.


Sorry Laura. The only good picture of you was a bad one of Samantha, and you're not in town to kill me.

In order to check how many text messages it took to organize this event, I took a look at my online account details (something I should do more often). Not only were 200 text messages sent or received in order to organize dinner, equally surprising was the 850ish 943 texts (in and out) which will be on my bill this month. I'm only behind high schoolers by about 400.

Steve Fruendt and I have planned this trail race for months, but it almost flew past me. With a quick reminder this week, we made it on this beautiful snowy day to Wildlife Prairie Park. Growing up with a Mom who grew up here meant that cool places like this were a part of my childhood, and I'm grateful. I've got to visit again this summer.




The trail was more rough than I realized. A quick run over by a four-wheeler was all the prep I could see. Considering how good it felt at the end, the length (6k), weather and hilly terrain were actually fun.

Steve's been sporting his toesie running shoes (because I don't know what they're actually called) around church events, but I hadn't seen them in action. This was some serious action too. Kept his feet warm and dry though.

On a side venture, I met a couple of Jason's future co-workers :-) Apparently they can remove the stink glands from a skunk!

Winter Retreat

Trip blogging always gets me backed up, but today's snow day should make up for it! This last weekend was a treat for me as I had to dump my usual fun but over-booked plans and got away with some folks from Living Hope Community Church. Living hope is a church plant and close relative of Bethany Baptist. The Living Hope Youth were looking for a bus driver for the weekend, and I had a new CDL just waiting to be used! They were also short on chaperons, so I got to try to participate in the weekend with these new friends as much as possible.

Meet Bruce the Moose a.k.a Frank. Yes, while Joe was leading worship, I was taking pictures of the stuffed mount.
Another youth leader, Jon, proved to be more than energetic enough for this fun group. Exhibit A - his never ending supply of snowballs.

Fight, fight, snowball fight!!!

The weather was not cool on the way up, confirmed by the unanimous "I'm glad I'm not driving" comments. But the bright sun on thick snow was beautiful, though slightly blinding. Note to self, bring sunglasses. What does this have to do with a sweet well shaded grove of pine trees? No clue.

Fight, fight...just fight. Who knew Joe knew so much about wrestling?

Canceled one sledding afternoon for another one. Kinda unique on this one. Sled is optional, but lots faster.

The sign says one per sled, not per tube. These guys were good too.

The camp staff made a mean meal. The saying all weekend was that if you weren't hungry, you would be when you saw the food. True dat. There was one exception. For Taco night, the campers found every edible item in the cafeteria and put together this taco of doom. Joe barely burped, but Dane might have said hello to his bite multiple times later that evening.

Lots of fun, but the most important part of the weekend was spending time reading God's word together, Learning what Jesus teaches about relationships and remembering His sacrifice for our pitiful lives.


It occurred to me shortly into the trip that it's been along time since I remembered what it was like being in my old youth group. We had some great people, but I also remember alot of issues. You know what the worst problem was though? Being late for breakfast :-) I got to be around alot of fun people including leaders WAY more capable and energetic than I, and kids great at helping each other out.

The return trip had it's own problem. On the way up we heard a huge bang. We got out and checked to see what happened, but didn't notice anything, including on the tires. Visually inspecting but not thoroughly testing the inside duals. Noticing a low tire before the return trip led to some work trying to fill it which then led to noting the lack of tire-road contact of a tire that had apparently exploded on the way up. Continuing the ignorance would have made the last two and a half hours alot less white knuckled.

We got the FEVER!

Motorcycle fever has hit Peoria early. Just got off the phone with the guy in charge of the motorcycle safety courses in the area. Once we get over a rather frustrating an stupid hurdle, six dudes from church will begin the CI Motorcycle gang. Ryan is so pumped that he will probably be bringing home this bad boy in a different color.




Congratulations to Pauli for getting her first car wash since I've owned her. I prefer to let nature do it's work, but the salt coat was just ridiculous.
A few of us dudes also had the steak fever. While waiting an hour for our seats at Longhorn, some man-time at Dick's Sporting goods was in order. Ryan picked out the gun he wants for his birthday.

"And if I can break it"

See how many things you can spot which are very wrong with this picture.

Samantha is a newbie to Bethany and after scoring a great new day job, she can finally quit at Longhorn Steakhouse. We had no idea she worked there. On her last night (right!?!) she slacked off big time with the boys :-)

Not pictured are my possie of 4th grade home-girls having a b-day party at the table next to us. They rented a limo and everything. 4TH GRADERS!!

And here's the big boy. Mooo!

Musings

Don't worry Mads, I didn't forget. Madison, the cool guest blogger, has finally staked out her own blog space on the web. Madison's Musings. Maya Maia is right here reading it with me. Join us won't you???