Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Fire is warm...

Just going to throw in a couple pictures of what I see at least a couple times every day.  We burn wood at our house to stay warm.  It is pretty old fashioned technology, but we haven't had to fill our propane tank in over a year.  The wood pile in the basement used to be about twice that size.  Hopefully we are more than halfway through the winter.  The gauge tells me if the fire is burning hot enough.  The little metal thing with the slinkyish handle sticking out of the stove pipe is the dampener.  It keeps air from getting to the fire and lessens the amount of wood we go through.

It is quite an undertaking to burn wood in your home.  I am very fortunate to have a fine brotherhood of woodsmen to help me collect and split firewood.  It really is a comradeship when you burn wood.  I would compare it to the marines.  The attitude seems to be no man left behind.  Once people that burn wood know that you burn wood they usually want to help you.  Sometimes they help split, sometimes they help cut, sometimes they loan you equipment like trailers and splitters.  It is a very interesting brotherhood.

On to the rest of life.  Basketball practice was a little rough today.  We wanted to goof around just a little bit too much for my taste.  I think we used up that extra energy and hopefully they are ready to work again tomorrow.

Herds are tomorrow night.  I sat in a dark room and waited on the Spirit for a topic for Early Herd,  and He may have come, but I think I dozed off... grrrr.  Weak flesh.  Herd will be studying John 10.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Gate.  Very interesting passage.  I pray that I can relate some truth to them through it.

The weather here is beautiful which it great except that it is supposed to be freezing and keeping my ice rink nice.  The ice is only a couple days from being non-existent in these temperatures.  I hope that hockey season isn't over, but I am afraid it may be close.  I tried to fight the end of the season last year with all sorts of time spent "fixing" the ice, but I don't think I will do that this year.





Monday, January 30, 2012

Good game, bad result...

Played another very close game tonight.  They might have been better than we were.  We gave a great effort.  We didn't shoot as well as we have in a few games, but the boys played good defense and showed their ability to adapt.  I think we played 4 or 5 different defenses throughout the game and we only looked lost a couple times.  I think we only lost by 3 or 4.  The next two teams we play better come ready because we are playing our best ball right now.

I finished another week of class at the very last second tonight.  Hopefully I have a merciful professor.  I submitted my paper wrong and it wouldn't let me delete it to try again.  Oh well.  It is early in the semester.  I should be able to make it up if I score low.

Tomorrow I will be doing prep for Wednesday night.  I think we are on the John chapter 10 with the Herd and I will have to listen to the Spirit tomorrow for what the Early Herd needs to learn.  He always comes through.  He probably wishes I would ask Him sooner so I would have more time to prepare.

I did not have to start a fire at home today until 1am.  That's pretty good for January.  My ice is going to be suffering but it sure feels nice outside. 

Saturday, January 28, 2012

I Will Survive, a night at the disco

The AP2DC dance was fun.  I am not feeling well now that I'm home, but praise the Lord for grace get through the night without any trips to the bathroom.  I'm sure I will be making lots of trips over the night.  180 is tomorrow night.  I hope that I don't still feel cruddy so I can beat Tim in hockey.  Monday we have another challenging game against Gr.  Apparently they are very good.  I have confidence that we will come to play.  It is a home game finally.  We are sitting at 5-5 right now.  I'd say that is very respectable considering the teams we've played.  At this point I don't feel like we've been beaten by a team that was worse than we are.  All our losses have :been to better teams and we only lost big once.  This week we get a chance to redeem two of our losses.  We get Wapsie and DNH at home.  I am excited to see how far we have come since our last meetings.

Oh yes, the dance was super fun.  The kids looked like they were having a blast.  I couldn't really see through the dance off circle to tell who has the best moves.  I think Ed won the individual contest and doubles went to Noah and Samantha.  I can't remember who won the limbo, but it was very entertaining.

Yucky

Both Annie and I are feeling yucky today.  I felt a little queasy last night but was hoping it was from watching how poorly we were shooting the ball last night from the inside.  I need to claim health I the Name of Christ because I don't have time to be sick today.  We will be getting ready for the dance tonight most of the day.  That reminds me, I need to get ice from Stinky's.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Games and a Dance

Had a game last night.   We lost, but we did a lot of things right.  I am really proud of our guys.  Their hard work all year is paying off.  We have 4 more games in the next 7 days then we are done for the year.  I don't see any reason we shouldn't win the rest of our games the way we are playing!  They are very fun to coach right now.

There is a dance at the student connection on Saturday night.  It should be a blast.  I have been discovering all sorts of popular music.  It is difficult to find popular songs that don't have offensive words or content, but I have found a lot of good songs.  I have found lots and lots of bad ones though.

Tonight we play NU High in Cedar Falls.  It will be a good game.  I am excited to see us play again.  Hopefully there is no let down or hangovee from our big game last night.  I am confident that we will play well.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Herd it through the grapevine

It was a fine night of Herds this evening.   Wild, as usual, but fine.  Got to play some hockey again which is always a joy to me.  Taught sixth graders about loving God!  I don't know what they took away from it but I beat them over the head with love one another scriptures so hopefully they will love each other this week.  The older kids got a dose of Jesus healing the blind man in John 9.  We did kind of a theme night with blindfolded games and kept the room dark.  Tried to use that as an object lesson.  Not sure what they took away from it, but I guess I never will. 

I get to go do some work with my brother tomorrow in Iowa City.  We're building some shelves and cutting down a tree.   Then we have a game against GC there.  The scouting report is that they are good and press a lot so it will be a challenge, but if we play at all like did in practice tonight we will roll.  It will be fun regardless.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Won!

We won our game tonight.  Apparently South Harding didn't get the memo that it was a B game.  They played their starters the whole time and we worked in our B kids the first half.  It was still a close game, but I got wind that one of their players was talking trash and saying how much we "sucked" so we played our starters the second half and played really well.  I bet they went about 4 minutes at one point without even getting the ball past half court.  Don't talk trash to my boys.  I don't like it.  Our boys showed a lot of class and determination.  I was very proud of our all-in around effort.  We have practice tomorrow and then three games in a row I think.  Then two practices and we end our season with back to back games.  I am excited to see how we match up with GC and GR.  Rumor has it they are both pretty good.  Then we get rematches with Wapsie and DNH.  The way our boys work I wouldn't be surprised to see us win the rest of our games.  It will be tough, but we have a lot of heart.

Herds are tomorrow night.  Early Herd is learning about loving God and Herd is a study of John 9!  Both should be very informative and possibly life changing if the kids let the Word sink in and take root.

Nothing Like a Bus Ride

I am on the road to Radcliff.  Wherever that is.  Big B basketball game.  Go Falcons.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Sabbath Day

AWe enjoyed our family Sabbath today.  I was disappointed that we didn't get to have our basketball game today, but I trust our administration's decision.   The roads are still pretty awful.  Tomorrow we have a B game against South Hardin.  I hope the weather cooperates.

Back to our Sabbath, we had our home family church today.  I felt led to study the scripture Zephaniah 2.  When I thought I heard the Spirit tell me that scripture I had serious doubt that there even was a Bible book called Zephaniah, but there is, and it was a good lesson in judgement.  We just studied last night at 180 a little bit about judgement so it was fresh in my mind.  It is kind of a sobering topic.  Check that scripture for yourselves and ponder what it may mean for us today in our corrupt nation.

I sold some tables from the stuco building today.  A lady and gentleman from an adult daycare in Dubuque came through the cold and snow to pick them up.  They were a very nice couple.  I hope they can make great use of the tables.  Thank you craigslist.  I've had much better luck selling on there than buying.  We will get into that another time.

The three older kids and I did some sledding in the driveway this evening.  I tied their sled to the back of the lawn tractor and pulled them around.  It was a lot of fun.  Macy was feeling pretty brave and was surfing on the sled.  It is fun to see the kids so happy.  I wish I  had done more stuff like that as a kid.

When I went to sell those tables I scooped a little snow off of the ice.  It looked pretty good except for a patch in the middle that must not have crossness between the rain and the snow.  That part is rough and ridgy like little waves frozen in the ice.  Other than that spot I think the rain put a nice glaze on the top.  We'll have to beg chief Scott for another layer of water.  I also need to repair some of the corner boards where kids got a little aggressive.  Sorry if you bet bored of hearing about hockey stuff.  This is like my journal so I can remember for next year what works and what doesn't.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Blast a

180 was a blast again.  Travis Luze built us a very cool snow sculpture.  Some of us played hockey, some built snowmen, and some had a snowball fight.  The rain is wreaking a bit of havoc on the ice rink.  Hopefully it will be okay.   Otherwise we will have to get fireman Scott to dump some more water on when it gets cold again.

School is already 2 hours late tomorrow and judging from my drive home they won't have any school.  That means no basketball which is no good.  We need to play a game bad.  It's been a long time, too long. 

Sorry there are no pictures tonight my phone died earlier.  I only missed one on my first quiz for my new class.  I absolutely hated this philosophy class I had to take last year, but it gave me a lot of foreknowledge for this new class.

I brought another load of firewood into the basement today.  It took a lot longer than it should have because I got my trailer wedged between two of my out buildings.  I could get my van to pull it out because of no traction on the snow.  Tried the tractor and the battery was dead.  20 minutes on the snowblower and 20 foot of logging chain later I got the trailer unwedged.  I am realizing that living on an acreage is about 20% relaxing, 30% breaking stuff, and 50% fixing the stuff I broke.  I wouldn't trade it though.  I do not miss living in town just like I don't miss radiology.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Hockey rocks!

Had a great time playing hockey last night.  Thanks to Connor and Noah S for there hard work scooping and sweeping.  We had a blast.  We made great use of our snowday.  Of course I didn't get much of my homework done though.  I will have to get on that today.

Tomorrow the stuco band will perform at Bethel reformed church outside Aplington.   It should be a lot of fun.  We haven't practiced yet which always make things interesting, but these kids are always so busy.

At 180 we are studying John 15 about the vine and the branches.  This is a very interesting and confusing passage to me.  Hopefully more study will bring out more truth.

We missed going to Winter Jam in DesMoines last night due to weather.  I heard it was a super great concert.  Tobymac reportedly rocked the house.  That's no surprise.  He always 'kills' it.

Off to work with Rocky.  He'll be working on watching Cars and I will be studying theology.


Friday, January 20, 2012

Jealous?

Annie and I went to see TobyMac and Jamie Grace in concert tonight!  Blast!  Thanks Tj for getting ussuch good tickets.  We regularly sit in the "homeschool" section.  (Inside joke between me and Annie).  The show was so good and I easily could have hit TobyMac with a dodgeball.  We were that close.  Had a wonderful time with my dear bride.  I wish we were billionaires so we could do that every night. 

We had the best server at Ihop in Coralville.  She was so kind to us!  I pray many blessings upon her!!!

Tomorrow I actually have to work and do school.  We are expecting a substantial amount of snow.  If school is cancelled I will have a pretty uneventful day.  If school is on tomorrow will be pretty wild.  We have a game scheduled against Hudson.  Right after the game we would pile in a van and head to Winter Jam, a big Christian concert in Des Moines.  So we'll see what the weather brings.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Hockey is in season

We got to play hockey on our ice finally tonight.  What a blast!  Herds went pretty well.  Kids were wound again.  That doesn't really bother me.  I enjoy the energy.  I do wonder sometimes if they ever learn anything.

I did a tiny amount of homework today.  I think I will really enjoy this class.  I have a lot of reading and notetaking to do tomorrow.   Chancea are you will get to hear right here what I'm learning so stay tuned.

There we're lots of kids at Herds tonight.  What a blessing!!!  I should have gotten a count of them it was kind of a full house.  I learned right away that in youth ministry you can't measure success by attendance.  It is a lot more fun to take to a crowded room of kids though than preaching to myself.

I hope the ice stays in good shape.  I think tea fire chief is going to dump another load of water on to make it smooth again.   We can't afford a zamboni.


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Baby it's cold outside!!!

Finally cold enough!!!  Hopefully they'll get the rink poured in parkersburg so there can be some hockey action Sunday night!  Our rink is doing better but I don't think it's quite big enough for competitive hockey.  It still is very fun to skate on.  Macy and I tried it out tonight.  I still can't convince Cameron to put on skates.

Tomorrow is Herd night.  I am semi ready for our programs tomorrow.   I just remembered I need to start must my homework too.  This week is getting away like they all do.

Ready for bed.  Will leave you with a picture of the kids' cardboard pirate ship.


Day Off

We have moved our Sabbath to Mondays. I didn't post yesterday because I meant to do it right before bed and I must have fallen asleep before I thought of it. I had a wonderful time with my family yesterday. We had church at home and studied the parable of the soils. Kids really understand a lot more than we give them credit for sometimes.

This morning I got up late and spent more time at home with the little ones. We built a pirate ship in the living room out of a giant cardboard box that our table saw came in. It is complete with cannons, a mast, and a sail. Pretty sweet if you ask me, but then I made it so I'm biased. Think about how God views you then? Since He made you He's biased toward you.

Finally I am at work now. I have done a little cleaning, a little organizing, a little unloading of band equipment, and now I am working on a lesson about wisdom for the 6th graders. The older kids will be studying John chapter 8. I'm a little embarrassed, but I don't remember right off what that is about. I have about 24 hours to figure it out. It'll be good.

I was hoping that the ice rink would be ready for tomorrow night, but two more days of warmish weather kind of goofed that up. Oh well :(

I start my new class Theology 201 this week. It should be interesting. My video lecturer is the guy I like so it will be fun. Now I just have to make time for studying again. I was enjoying my break from school. I am glad to get back to it though. Learning is a good thing.

Basketball practice is in about a half an hour. We have been off for 3 days so we'll see what kind of shape we're in after the kids have spent all that time on the couch. I had more athletic activity last week than I've had in a long long time. My body is a bit sore. I am not going to complain though because I loved every second of it. Until next time... God bless!!!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

1 AD

Another super fun night of 180 in the books.  We played some football in the snow.  It was a blast.  I got a bloody nose and everything.  Finally got to do a little skating on our ice today.  It started cracking pretty badly though.  Hopefully these next couple days of cold will solidify it quite a bit.

I am so thankful for the young people the Lord sends our way.  Annie and I so enjoy working with them.  And I really enjoy playing games and having fun. 

Our lesson tonight was about Jesus comforting his disciples right before His death.  We get the Holy Spirit!!!  It would really have been hard to have Jesus right with you and lose Him.  I am glad Jesus gives these words of hope and encouragement in John 14.

Tomorrow our family is shifting our Sabbath to mondays.  No school means no basketball for me so i am looking forward to an entire day with them.

The praise band did a great job this morning at Pleasant Valley Reformed Church.  It really was a great time of worship and praise.  I am so blessed to have such talented kids to perform with.  Next week we will be at Bethel Reformed. 


Saturday, January 14, 2012

More hockey

While I wait for my ice to freeze I got to go to another Blackhawks game tonight.  They won!  One young man had a hat trick!  

I am hoping and praying for very cold weather.  Sorry old people and winterphobes.  The ice at stuco is finally curing.  I do not think it will be ready for 180 but maybe for Wednesday.   No school on Monday and no basketball.  Next week will be extremely busy.  Thursday Annie and I are headed to a Tobymac concert only to turn around Friday and hit another big concert.  Winter Jam is in Des Moines.  Hopefully we have enough room for all the kids that want to go. 

Tomorrow's tour stop is Pleasant Valley.  If you have no place to worship tomorrow come jam out with us at 9am.

Friday, January 13, 2012

I <3 winter!!!

Winter has finally arrived!  I know I am a rarity, but I have grown to love cold weather.  Ice skating is one of my newer most favorite things to do.  U never had ice skates that fit as a kid and now I do!  Bring on the arctic blast.

We went to the boys basketball game against DNH tonight.  There was some pretty interesting officiating.   I lost my temper with a kid at practice over less bad calls.  Certifying that I am still an imperfect, sinful human.

Tomorrow is band practice and Sunday our praise band begins its world tour of the county at Pleasant Valley Church.!



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Rest...practice...meeting

Had some recuperation time today, or laziness, whatever you are more comfortable with.  Annie went to MOPS and I went back to bed.

I started reading a book last night called Pagan Church.  It is very interesting so far.  Pretty much talks about how most of what we do in " church" now has no biblical origin.  I am interested to see what it says.

I received 25 lbs of books in the mail for my next online class, theology 201. 

Basketball practice was a bit of a letdown tonight.  Not because we did poorly, which we did, but because we were supposed to have a game.   NU wimped out and didn't send there kids over.  Something about danger to life and limb.  Townies.

We had our stuco board meeting.  It was very long.  We dud get a lot done.  My favorite part was when they kicked me out to discuss my salary.  I got to go to my office and play wife my hockey puck and stick.  I walked on the ice today.   There is a slight possibility we could be playing hockey very soon!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I herd you...

Early herd was fun.  6th graders have a lot of great questions and comments.  We learned about Esther and purpose.

Herd was on the wild side tonight.  We had a good worship time and then tried to study John 7.  It was interesting to me, maybe too deep for the kids? 

Annie has MOPS tomorrow if the weather is good enough.  We have a basketball game at NU tomorrow.   Hopefully we can come out with a victory.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Good day...tired day

Got up early today for me.  The crack of 8:30.  It was tough.  I did need at nap by 11 and another at 1.  I think I mist be sick, or lazy.  I going to go with sick.  It seems so much less, well, lazy.

Brought Mark his big red barge wagon back right away this morning.  Then Rocky and I went to the bank and post office to do our errands.  We ended up at the stuco.  While Rocky watched Cars I did a bunch of planning for the Herds on Wednesday.  We are going to study Esther with the 6th graders and John 7 with the 7-8th graders.

Basketball went well today.  The boys were a little goofy after their win last night.  Hopefully we will be back to working really hard tomorrow.  We have a game against NU on Thursday there. 

I hope our varsity won tonight.  I haven't heard anything about it yet.  See you all tomorrow.

Oh and the picture is one that I made on a program on ipad called Sketch Club.  If you have an ipad buy this app.  If you don't have an ipad have your daughter win you one at the world's largest science lesson.


Monday, January 9, 2012

Sorry no pictures...but a big win!

Our seventh grade boys had a strong showing tonight against Union I'm Aplington.  We won by about 14 in the A game and lost by about 10 in the B game.  Even with a loss in the B game it was a good night for Falcon basketball.  The B guys scored 12 points which is far and above what we have scored before.  I am very proud of our effort and am looking forward to Thursdays game.

I was able to get most of my stuco bills done today.  Just a few loose ends to tie up tomorrow.  We received over 2000 dollars in year-end donation checks today!  Praise the Lord for generous people that are getting behind what we are doing at the Student Connection. 

Cameron and I watched the BCS game at the stuco tonight.  It was kind of a snoozer, not nearly as exciting as me beating him in Madden.

Tomorrow will be prep for Wednesday and basketball practice after school.  I "heart" my job.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Angry 180

Tonight for 180 we had an enormous live game of Angry Bird.  Annie's brainchild, I brought in a whole bunch of wood scrap and broken landscaping blocks.  We used tennis balls with little pig faces on them, and one team had to fortify their pigs.  The other team bombarded the fortresses with dodgeballs.  The winning team was of course, Cheney and Tim's.  I'm not sure they would have one if Cameron would have kept participating.  Then the boys had a lesson from Romans 12 while the girls went to their newly refurbished backroom for whatever Annie is teaching them about.  We had a great time.  I'm guessing there were about 30 kids there.  It was nice to see a few of them who hadn't been there in a while.
Not sure what tomorrow may bring.  Could be woodcutting or working at Stuco.  I know I need to get my bills done right away this week.  Also we need to make up fliers for the upcoming.g Project Purity and Winter Jam concert.  Lots going on in January.  We also start our praise band world tour here in a couple weeks.  And on the 16th it is back to school for my next online class Theology 201.  My book used were almost $200!  Hope they are interesting.  Have a blessed week.





Saturday, January 7, 2012

Saturday...

Spent some time cleaning house and the lawn today.  Put the new bar on my chainsaw and it works great!  No more cutting in a circle.  If you've even had a worn chainsaw bar you know what I mean.  If not skip that part. 
Went shopping and returning stuff in Cedar Falls and Waterloo.  I got to go to Best Buy and finally get Annie her Christmas present.  I had ordered this for her four times online and each time I got a notice back that they were out if stock.  I had been to Best Buy a week ago and they told me they always sell out of those around Christmas.  I'm feeling like I finally picked a good present for Annie.  Got it home, installed it and... she actually loved it and it works great.  I new that'd surprise you.  Something was easy for once.  I'm not holding my breath though.

On another note, Macs are supposed to be superior to pcs in every way, right?   Thus may be the case for one that actually works, but is quite untrue of the emac that isdwelling in my office.  I think I am on my seventh attempt to install the operating system.  The legendary simplicity of Macintosh is fading in my mind.  At least my pc laptop will start up.  Not much more than that as the screen won't display anything.  I guess that's what you get when you have a pile of tiny screws left after you take it apart and put it back together, 'back together,' being used loosely.  Needless to say that computer is at the Computer Doctor.  No, literally, the guy's business is called Parkersburg Computer Doctor.  Hopefully he charges less than a medical doctor.
While we are discussing computers, my wife has been wooed by the dim glow of the Ipad 2.  Our laptop, which I destroyed while "fixing it" has been out of commission for about a week.  Annie, who initially hated the Ipad because of its ability to turn our children into psychotic monsters, has taken quite a liking to that little gadget.  She is a recent subscriber to Pinterest and loves browsing crafting ideas on the Ipad.  I think she's becoming a Mac believer.  I would have to say that I adore the ipad and always have since little Josie got it in the mail from Fedex.   We'll leave that story for another day.  I have this app that allows me to draw pictures.  I will post one here eventually.  It is really quite amazing what you can do.  I also got Garage Band which could consume a considerable amount of my time if I let it.

Wow.  That was a tangent.  We were going to go to the Waterloo Walmart after Best Buy.  I won't let Annie go there by herself, but since we were shopping together today I thought it'd be fine.  Do not mistake me for someone who is racist or holier than though.  I have shopped at that Walmart many times.  Annie used to live rigt next to Covenant and we would go there at midnight frequently.  There was never a lack of creepy people there.  And it was no particular race or ethnicity.  The creepiness did not discriminate.  One time a guy there, about 6'6" and 300 pounds stopped me.  He said, "where do you work," and acted really friendly.  If you know me at all you know that I could carry on a conversation with anyone.  So I told him I worked at Allen Hospital.  Should have seen this coming...  He says, "I do too!  In laundry... my car is dead in the parking lot could you give me a ride?"  Now what would you do?  Remember I am not your average person.  I am overly friendly and a terrible judge of character.  So I left my pretty girlfriend or wife, can't remember if we were married yet, at scary Walmart while I went to drive this man somewhere to help get his car fixed.  We proceeded to drive around every bad neighborhood of Waterloo.  At one point he asks if he can use my phone...  now I know you're thinking that I must be pretty smart...I'm a college graduate...(I was trying to think of other examples of my intelligence and I'm not coming up with anything).  Okay maybe what I did won't shock you then.  Yes, I gave the man my phone.  Not only am I driving him down every dark, dilapidated street in town he now has my phone and about 200 pounds on me.  He directs me to a house where he is going to get something to help with his car problem.  In retrospect I'm pretty sure he was selling or buying illegal drugs of some kins, but I can't prove that.  So he gets back in the car and we head to what I think is back to Walmart.  However, he keeps wanting me to take him different places.  Finally, I think he can tell I'm getting sick of hauling him around.  He tells me to pull over right next to downtown East Waterloo.   I did get my phone back by the way.  He gets out of the car and asks me if I have any money for him to buy cigarettes.  At this point I think I would have paid him anything to get him out of my life for good.  Fortunately I only had four dollars.  He assured me that he would pay me back at work the next week.  He walked away and I headed back to Walmart.  I never got my four bucks back.

All of that to illustrate to you the type of characters that frequent the Waterloo Walmart.  So tonight we have just left Best Buy and I am about to take my wife and four young children to this same Walmart that I just described above.  To show you that I am not just being bigotist we were headed to the parking lot of the store to do our shopping there.  The only thing that stopped us was the police car that was parked right I front of the door with its cherries flashing.  Cedar Falls Walmart had the kindest gal working at their Tire Lube Speeds tonight.  Out van was done in no time.  No strange people approached me for rides.  I didn't even mention the time my friends Kyle and Chris were at Waterloo Walmart and someone came in with a gun.  I think we made the right choice of Walmarts today. 

We got all the necessities and headed home by way of Wendy's for some "you did good at Walmart" frosties for the kids and a "you survived a trip to Walmart without giving a serial killer a ride" root beer float for me.  When we got home I got to install Annie's present, an undercabinet cd/radio thing for the kitchen.  I know, kind of a letdown huh?  Who new those were such a popular holiday gift.  I literally spent hours online shopping for this particular one.  I even started early.  Annie loves it.  We got to rock out in the kitchen during bedtime snack.  Got to bed fairly early but here I am telling you about my life at 1am.  Daphne was up with us for quite a while, now she's back in bed.  She's been a little feverish.  Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading if you made it this far.   Oh and we git two new fish from Uncle Thad and Aunt Stephanie.  Betta and Ralph.




Friday, January 6, 2012

Hawk fan?

We had one of if not our best 7th grade basketball practice today!  We actually competed in our scrimmage against the 8th grade.  It was a lot of fun.  We have our first game in about three weeks on Monday.  Hopefully we saved some of today for Union.

I took Rocky to his first hockey game tonight.  We watched the Waterloo Blackhawks and Rocky heard me cheering, "go hawks!"  We have a divided house, Macy and I are Cyclone fans and Josie and Annie are Hawkeyes.  Josephine is a militant Hawk fan and is constantly walking around saying, " cyclones stink."  Poor child.  Anyway, Rocky was quite concerned when he heard me cheering for the Hawks(blackhawks).  "But daddy, you're a Cyclone," Rocky said with an alarmed look.  We had a lot of fun hanging our with Connor and his dad.  Thanks Gil and Chris for the tickets!!!


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Lazy Thursdays... kind of

Thursday is usually my recovery day after middle schooled immersion on Wednesdays.  I went to bed really late and got up really early for me this morning.  I got to run some errands with two of my favorite people, Rocky and Daphne.  If you've been reading you've noticed I've been doing some renovating here at Student Connection which required me to eliminate some unused items.  I spent a large part of the morning hauling stuff around and either getting rid of it or putting it into storage.  Let me know if you need a foosball, air hockey, or pocket billiard table.

About lunch time I ran out of gas and took a nap just like a kindergatener minus the fold-up mat.  Then I got to enjoy this beautiful weather for a little bit while my kids played outside, without coats, in January.  I would count this weather a blessing except for the fact that we poured an ice rink five days ago and it won't freeze.  In fact it pretty well melted today.  Oh well, you can't have it all.  Maybe I will ask the board for an indoor rink?

Speaking of the board I am sitting at the board meeting that never was right now.  I had a band practice with some 6th graders at 6 (seems appropriate) and thought we had a board meeting at 7 ( with seven board members, also fitting).  I guess I missed some emails today.  Thank you samsung.  So you lovely people get to see a whole new look to the blog.  I used the time I was supposed to be meeting to coolify this page so you will love it.  Peace and God bless.  Time to go home and celebrate our family,s Sabbath tomorrow!


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Herds

Had good a good night of Herds tonight. 6th graders did a great job and learned about living out Roman 12:1-2. Check out the website www.iamsecond.com and watch the football player named Bradie. We played a new game called Ping Pong Dodgeball. I think they enjoyed it.

Another day of basketball practice done. We looked a bit less rusty today. Starting to move again and get back in shape. Still not real sharp but they are working hard. Big game next Monday with Union at home.

Regular Herd had an unusually small crowd tonight. Some kids said there is a big semester test in science tomorrow people were studying for. Those that came had a great time. We learned about John chapter 6. Right after Jesus feeds the 5000 he gives a speech in the synagogue in Capernaum. He tells the people that He is the bread of life and that they need to eat His flesh. This alarms a lot of His followers and they end up leaving Him. It is a very interesting passage and the kids did very well to listen to the teaching on it. Then we broke out the wrestling mat and had a few matches. It was a lot of excitement. The picture included is from a staring contest. Each week we have a Boys vrs Girls event to see which gender will dominate the week. Boys rule this week!!!


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Another day of work

<p>Back to basketball finally today.&nbsp; We were pretty rusty and out of shape.&nbsp; Three more practices till Union next&nbsp; Monday.&nbsp; The jh boys are 0-5 in our last little streak here so we are itching for a win.

Hockey rink is starting to freeze!  if we could just get a few more below freezing days we will be set. 

Finished painting the backwoods at stuco today.  The young ladies have their very own small group room finally

. I hope they like the paint sheme.


Monday, January 2, 2012

I rink so...

Thanks to Cameron, Connor, and his dad, the ice rink is on its way to being ready.  Nothing is ever easy.  The rink sits on uneven ground so one end has to be about a foot deep while the other is only about 4 inches.  The other big project over the break has been painting.  Some young ladies, Connor, and I did a couple days worth of painting.  The color combinations are pretty interesting.  Tomorrow morning we will be shampooing the carpets thanks to Leon!  We just installed the carpet this summer and it is already in dire need of cleaning.  What a privilege to have so many kids coming through our ministry that our new carpet is worn out already!  Basketball also starts back up in the middle school!  Hope the boys have have stayed in shape over break or it will be a long pracitce tomorrow.



Sunday, January 1, 2012

Haven't done this in a while?

Today we celebrated New Year's with my brother Seth and his family.  The kidney stone scare kept us away from going to Chicago to see DePaul play #1 Syracuse.  Macy and I had a great time ice skating at Coralville mall.  She discovered the novelty store Claire's, good bye college fund.  It was interesting to have my 4 kids and Seth's son out in public all together.  Grandma Pam was very helpful in herding our brood.  Got home and quickly lost interest in the Cowboys game so I was sitting in bed, and it occurred to me that I haven't blogged in about a year and a half.  There is an appear for everything so here I am!  Hopefully a more constant presence from now on.  God bless!