The MPG test begins

Alright, just got done changing the oil and filling up the tires on the ol' mini van and Geo Prizm. Now it's time for the test.

My personal driving habits are less than economical. That's the nicest way to put it. so after reading about how to get better mileage, I'm putting it to the test.

I just changed the oil.
Tires are at the correct pressure.
I'm accelerating slowly.
I'm pretty much coasting to a stop.
I'm driving the speed limit.
I'm driving conservatively.

My car averages a little better than 27 mpg but not quite 28. so I'm interested to see what a difference these changes will make!

Lake Daze Sneak Preview

In just a few hours we leave to take our brand new 6th graders on an overnight trip to a lake where we’ll do some tubing, fishing, swimming, and hanging out. This is our first time doing this and we are excited to see how it helps them form as a group. We have over 2/3rds of our new students coming so we’re pumped.



After wearing them down on the lake we are going to play some games, get to know them, and then give them some tips and tricks on how to make it through middle school by using the model of 10 middle schoolers you don’t want to be.



Then we are closing our time with a great verse from Paul in 1 Cor. 13 where he talks about “When I was a child, I acted like a child.” And encouraging our kids to move from the children’s ministry mentality into a an attitude ready to grow in their faith. Should be a good time!



10 Middle Schoolers you Don’t Want to Be Like



AKA: 10 tips to make the most out of your time in MS





Wild Willy: Out of Control


Super Christian Christy: Pseudo Spiritual


Smelly Sam: Wear deodorant!


Super Cool Kevin: No one cooler than this guy.


Clique Carey: Sticks to one group


Super Talker Tina: Won’t stop talking


Catty Catherine: Putting people down


Ninja Natalie: Always practicing her ninja moves


Selfish Steve: Only caring about himself


ANYONE OTHER THAN YOU!

Weekend of Giants Games

This weekend was a blast! Got to take Ciera and Noah to thier first Giants games ever! Wish they could have won! Man that was terrible. But being at the game with my fam, few things are better than that.

Sooooo much to blog about...but here are the highlights and here's a link to the best of the photos.




~First game with Ciera and Noah. We had nosebleed seats. but a season ticket holder let us have his tix 17 rows above the Giants' dugout. Best seats I've ever had!

~Our whole family going to Sunday's game, all decked out in Giants' gear. Lots more Giants' fans at the game than I expected.

~Getting to wear the jersey I bought with fantasy baseball winnings finally. I intentionally bought it to small as motivation to lose weight. I'm still too big but it worked out okay. And the nods from other Giants' fans and comments from Royals' fans made it so worthwhile.




~Seeing Lincecum, the Giants' phenom, warm up and pitch on Sunday. Can't believe the Giant's blew a 7 run lead. no. I do belive it. I got some sweet action shots of his wind up.





~Teaching Ciera how to score a baseball game. She did awesome! she kept it going through 6 innings! The game, btw, lasted more than 4 hours. We were still in the 6th inning after 3 hours. I have so many memories of going to Giants' games with my dad and he ALWAYS kept score and he taught me how to as well. Very meaningful.




~My buddy Jesse told me the Royal's had a new scoreboard. I had no idea how amazing it was. blew me away. totally hi def. This pic looks like it's a video game. the screen was crystal clear and the images were HUGE. There are more pics of the scoreboard via the link above.

~Texting Jeff, Jesse, and Bill during the game while they were watching it back home. So fun. Man, I miss hanging out.

Iowa Flooding

So a buddy of mine asked me last week how my in-laws are doing with the Iowa floods. The above picture was sent from my father in law, Ron. This is across the river facing thier house. This is after the flood has begun receding. It's still at 6 feet when normal is 2.

Jen's parents live in Waverly, iowa, one of the first towns flooded by the Cedar River. But, because the news in Wichita only really reported on Cedar Rapids (an hour or so away) and Des Moines (2 1/2 hours away) we never really thought of them being in danger.

Of course, the fact that the Cedar River runs THROUGH thier back yard (literally, thier back yard) I should have been clued in.

The section of river that runs through thier back yard is almost entirely shallow. 3/4 of it is between 9 inches and 2 feet. The other 1/4 is no deeper than 6 feet.

Well, at it's height, it was over 30 feet! dang!

Here is a picture of thier house after the flood. You can see that it is a two story home and they've done so much work to it! The basement/or bottom level has a retaining wall around it for when it does flood.





Mom and Dad knew it was coming so dad built on as high as he could to the retaining wall. It didn't work. They were able to get almost everything upstairs except for a couple couches they just tied to the rafters. The water came up 3/4 of the way...what is that...like 6 feet of water into the bottom level. And it destroyed the two couches.

Also, in the middle of the picture you can see a set of four french doors. this is my parent's new bedroom doors. The ones to the left are white and the ones to the right look greyish/blue for some reason.

Here's is how high the water became:

















This is looking back at the other porch to the left.



















this is the top of my dad's hangar where he keeps his tractor and ultralight. It's DOWNHILL from the house. Mom said that he was able to lay a sandbag on top of the hangar roof from the jet ski when the water was at or near it's highest.


















they are doing good. They are an official disaster area which inlcudes showering at the red cross and eating fema food. Thanks for your prayers for them!

Weekend Plans

So last Saturday I’m running to the hardware store and I’m listening to the Royals game and I hear them advertising for the upcoming series with the Giants….

Uh……excuse me….what?

As soon as I get home I jump on the royals website…IT’S TRUE!   The Giants are coming this weekend for their second series with the Royals ever.  I missed the first series.  I’m not missing this one!

I told Jen and she was pumped for me.  I told the kids and they were ECSTATIC!  This will be their first giants’ game ever!

I have to work Friday night (DANG IT!).  The kids have some make up games to play on Saturday morning, so after the games, we’re gonna drive up to KC.  I’m gonna drop Jen and Charis off at our friend’s house and I’ll take Ciera and Noah to the game Saturday night.

Then I’m taking a vacation day on Sunday and we are going to the afternoon game! 

I’m so pumped!  The kids both have replica jerseys to wear to the games.  And last night I FINALLY tried on my Mike Matheny/Will Clark home jersey…knowing that I’ve taken the last month off of exercise and eating well (that means eating a bunch of crap and not exercising), I was a little afraid that the jersey wouldn’t fit.  But I tried it anyways!

AH YEAH!  It’s a little snug if I button it, but if I leave it unbuttoned, I’m golden.  I’ve waited YEARS to wear this jersey!   And now, my first time, will be with Ciera and Noah at their first Giants game.

I can’t wait!   All 5 of us will go to Sunday’s game (Charis’ second Giants’ game).  The other cool thing is that we paid $15 bucks each for Ciera and Noah to be in the Royals “Blue Crew” and in this cool kit came a back pack, a watch, a cool VIP pass, a cool Royal’s hat, and tix to the KC zoo and two vouchers for $17 tickets.  For some reason, each kid got TWO packs each.  So we have 8 free tix which is all we need for Sat and Sunday.

I’ll make sure to post some pics on the blog.  What an awesome weekend!

(photo credit:  Ben Margot/AP)

 

Father's day came one day early for me!

On Saturday Noah had his first hit in machine pitch! Machine pitch is the next step up from T-ball. He had 3 games before where he got up only a few times and each time he struck out. And he was swinging really weird. He was pretty bummed. Didn’t want to go outside and practice or anything. I talked him into playing soft toss on Thursday before a game and he nearly got a hit at the game that night.

So he had a game Sat, and we went outside and played soft toss and I could feel he was really close, watching the ball better, better swings, etc.

So Noah get’s up in the 2^nd inning….whiff on three straight pitches. But they were good swings…nice and level…his timing was just a bit off.

Top of the 5^th inning…Noah’s team, the Blue Dragons, haven’t scored and are down by two runs.

Noah’s up to the plate.

The pitch…

The swing…

WHACK!

Line drive that bounces right between the 3^rd baseman and SS. Noah runs to 2^nd base and the LF overthrows the 2^nd baseman, so Noah, after over running 2^nd and stopping, runs to third. He rounds the base and heads home for his first hit, and his first home run! Sure, in the mind of every adult, it was a double and an error. But in his head…and for all intensive purposes as this level, he hit a dinger.

SO AMAZINGLY FUN! Jen JUMPED out of her chair, “RUN, NOAH, RUN!!!!!”

After Noah got back in the dug out, I went over to tell him how proud I was of him (which I was doing even when he was whiffing like his old man) I asked him, “Noah, how did that feel?”

In the funnest, sweetest, and coolest voice ever, with eyes full of joy, he replied, “Awesome!”

“Yeah, it was awesome, Noah. Good job!”

“Dad, I hit the 2^nd home run of the season!” (another kid had hit a home run a couple games ago)

I thought it was awesome to just play catch with my kids…Like it was an emotional thing because I didn’t have a dad to play catch with when I was a kid. And I totally meant to blog about how cool it was.

it is so fun to watch them play and enjoy the game. I hope that I never push them away from the game.

It was a fun day to be a dad.

Rite of Passage

What a fun night tonight! Our church had thier annual youth choir final concert and we met with most of our 8th graders afterwards for one last hurrah together. This Sunday, they move into the high school group. and for this group, they are my first complete class, as I came to First Church three years ago. So I've had these guys during thier whole middle school years. Pretty cool.

Nevertheless, it's a very bittersweet thing to move them up into high school. So a couple of our youth coaches and myself got together and invited the students out for a late night movie and ice cream.

But first...we had a tornado warning. Nice! We had the concert and then huddled in the basement waiting for the Tornado warning to end.

after that, we raced to the movies and watched Prince Caspian. (I had expected the movie to stink as it got a bad review on sfgate.com. But I thought it was really good! I love it when my expectations are so low!)

After the movie we went to McDonald's and got some ice cream.

You know, there is just something about middle schoolers that we, our team of adult volunteers, we just love. and it's fun to listen to them joke around and have fun. I love that our team of adults thinks these middle schoolers are actually funny! They are! Our kids are so great. And they are fun. And we are going to really miss them.

So while we are prepared for the new group of 6th graders to come in this Sunday, we will miss our 8th graders. I did encourage them all to continue growing in thier faiths and invited them to come back in a couple or three years and lead our small groups.

That has been one of my most favorite things in ministry...to have my old middle schoolers lead thier own small groups of middle schools students.

so much to say...I just absolutely love my job and am honored to play a small role in the spiritual development of these kids.

Enough of THAT already

Alright! Man, that was a long time. I am so out of sorts! So many things to blog about. I definitely need to get back in the practice of regular blogging.

We are doing a last "hurrah" event with our 8th graders tonight so I'll try to blog late night tonight after we do that!

Thanks for stopping by! you rock!