Burger-Flippin'

Thought this was a fun picture, even though Josh and I didn't get to be there! This is Josh's dad (obviously) flipping burgers for their church picnic. He made 360 hamburgers and 100 hot dogs! Makes our youth events seem like small potatoes! But it sure looks like he's having fun...

On a side note... if you haven't checked the Baby Blog lately (as in, in the last 12 hours) they are inducing me TODAY! So, hopefully, Elena's birthday will be September 12, 2007. Which is fun because it is actually 5 years to the day since our first date (the second time around). Anyway, more news posted here and there when I get a chance! :)

Visit

My big sister, Jessica, came home a couple of weekends ago to hang out (and see the belly). As busy as our lives are, we just drug her along with us on youth events! At least this was a low-key event, just putt-putt at Perche Creek. We also spent the weekend eating out, looking at baby stuff, and catching up on life for the last several months. It was great having her home, and I'm excited to see her again in a couple of weeks!

I'm not as good at taking pictures as Jess is, but here are a few that I managed to take

Ruth's creative way of carrying her golf club, and Mom's multi-tasking!


Jess and Ruth during a competitive game of plunger ball!

THE EDGE!

This weekend Josh and I took the youth on the last big trip of the summer. School starts this week, so we thought we would take them away for a weekend of team building. We headed to Camp Windermere for their team-building/high-ropes courses. It's a really neat day. You spend the morning working on what they call the "low course" doing different team building activities. Then there's one huge team building activity called The Rescue, where you have to get a person in a gurney from one end of an obstacle course to another. Then the evening is spent doing the high ropes course, which is climbing rock walls and poles and walking on wires and such, then doing a zip-line down. It was an amazing day, really, and I didn't get to do any of the activities! My job was to run back and forth between groups (they had the girls and boys split up for the low course) and take pictures of everyone. Which was exhausting, but we ended up with 450 pictures, so I guess I did my job! :) I thought I might as well share the pictures, so here they are...

The Low Course/Team Building:

The girls work on their first challenge: Mountain Tops. There were 3 platforms, and they had to get everyone from the first one to the last one using only two boards. If anyone fell off they had to start over again, so it took several times! But they all got across safely!

The boys on their first challenge: The Skateboard. They were all standing on one board, and then had to rearrange themselves from tallest to shortest without getting off. They had to get a lot closer than guys are typically comfortable with! (See James and Charlie below) And if they fell off, they had "consequences"- notice Charlie is blind, and James only has one arm. Josh lost his speech in this activity, and nearly lost his mind with it! It took the guys awhile to get through this one, but they worked together much better after it.

The girls on The Skateboard- they took a much different approach. Instead of hugging and passing, they stepped over each other. Of course, that's easier when you're small like a lot of the girls were! I'm not sure the guys would have been able to crawl over each other.

The guys celebrating their succes on Mountain Tops- they made it across on the very first try!

The Trust Fall: One of the hardest things to do! Nobody got dropped, though!

The girls on their hardest event: The Mohawk Walk. It was this cable just a foot or two off the ground, and it went between a bunch of trees. The girls had to walk across it, get everyone on it at the same time, and make it all the way across together. If anyone fell off, they had to go back to the beginning. They worked really hard and did an awesome job on this event!

The event both groups worked together on: The Rescue. They put Jordyn in the gurney and had to carry her across a massive course without falling off. The gurney could only touch a few places, and most of the course was rounded railroad ties, so it was really easy to fall off. There was a two hour time limit on the course. They started off really well, and got the gurney to the first platform pretty quick. But once people started falling off and becoming blind (or losing arms, or speech, or other "consequences) it was a lot harder and they started to get frustrated. They got very close to finishing the course, but ran out of time.

It was interesting to see how they worked together at first and then kind of broke down when things got frustrating. The "guides" that took us through all of the activities were really amazing, and really helped the kids see how they could work together, and how important it is for the Body of Christ to work together, even though we all have different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. So the low course was a great learning experience for the kids. After some time at the pool, we headed back to the course for the high ropes course!

The High Ropes Course:

The high ropes course had lots of different parts. First was a big tower that you could get up by climbing two different rock walls, a cargo net, or a pole and then walking across a wire. Once you're up there, you get to zip line down, which was awesome... not that I got to do it, but it looked like fun! :) It was really neat to see the kids use the team building skills they'd learned earlier in the day to be encouraging and helpful to everyone else. It was just a really positive experience all around.

Sam on the rock wall... he did a great job and made it all the way to the top!

Josh and Charlie both went for the rock wall on the other side of the tower...

Other than the tower, there were a couple of other challenges. One of them was the "Leap of Faith." For this one, you climb to the top of this telephone pole, then stand on the top of it and jump out to try to grab a trapeze thing in front of you. It's darn hard! Josh, James, and Gavin all tried it. They all made it to the top of the pole, but none of them got the trapeze. I did it when I was in high school, but I didn't get the trapeze, either. It's really hard! Anyway, here's the play by play of Josh and his attempt at the Leap of Faith!

Arguably the hardest part of the Leap of Faith- letting go with your hands and standing straight up. It's hard to let go of that security! And it's hard to balance!

The actual leap: he was so close! :)Enjoying the ride back to the ground: doing the Peter Pan!

At the end of a long day, we were all exhausted (even me, because I ran all over the field to take pictures... and I had the cankles to prove it!) but happy. It was a great trip, and I hope the kids learned from the experience as well!

For more pictures, check with the MHBC Youth blog... I'm sure Ruth will be posting soon!

Tantalizing

Poor Truman... I love hummingbirds, so I put up a hummingbird feeder. Whenever the blinds are open, this is what he spends most of his time doing! :) After the first few times he went on high alert on the cedar chest, the hummingbirds seem to just ignore him. Guess they figure he's not a threat! They're fun to watch... as is Truman!

New Job

Well, I started my new job this week... I went into the office for partial days on Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday I taught inservices, and today I spent all day in the office. It's been interesting. Since I took this job I've been worried about teaching teachers... I don't mind talking in front of small people, but talking in front of big people is really scary for me! For one thing, I just keep waiting for them to look at me and say "What do you know?! Why are you even talking?!" But nobody did! :) Actually, both of the inservices I taught went really well. The first one was pretty scary, and I was pretty nervous. But on Thursday I was much less scared, and it went well. Both inservices were on the same topic: the data projectors that everyone is getting, and how they can use them in the classroom. They were two hour inservices, and they were very full, it took all of the time that we had to get through all of the stuff!

Anyway, so with my first inservices out of the way, today I spent all day in the office. Which is kind of weird, because there isn't really an office for us all. There's one office that's full of furniture, that one lady took, and then the rest of us are all kind of crammed into another office. And, of course, there's always some adjustments when 5 new people are thrown into 2 small rooms to work together. Turns out one of my new coworkers was actually one of my softball coaches in high school. Her name has changed, and she was only there for one year. So we spent today kind of working out who is going to work on what projects, as well as basic stuff like what hours we work and how long we have for lunch, etc. etc. with our boss. Though that kind of stuff changes with the day, and my boss is very flexible about stuff like that. And I spent the rest of the day learning how to use my new PDA. So it's been an interesting week. I definitely get the feeling that I won't be doing the same thing two days in a row. I will be out of the office as often as I'm in it, which is why they're giving us a laptop, a PDA, and a cell phone.

Well, that's about all I have to report, just thought I'd update everyone on the new job. It's going to be an interesting fall, that's for sure! :)

Sheep Show

Ruth had her last big sheep show yesterday, and we all turned out to watch! It was at the Boone County Fair, and loads of fans showed up for Ruth! We seriously had half of the church out there to watch her and Ethel. I was amazed at how much better they were at working together and walking around the ring. I still think it's funny that they have to grab their heads and drag them around. Anyway, it was kind of sad to see her last show, and think that Ethel is going to be sold on Friday. But it sounds like the girls are ready to do it again next year, only this time they want boy sheep... apparently Donatello and Michaelangelo. But we'll see. Whatever they end up doing, I have certainly enjoyed seeing the sheep every time I went out to Mom and Dad's! And Ruth did a great job taking care of them!! Anyway, here are some pictures from the fun event....

Waiting around with the rest of the sheeps :)

Making Ethel "stand pretty"


Waiting for the judge's decisions

A First

Today was definitely a first for me... at least a first in the last several years. Today the youth group left for a float trip, and I stayed home! I'm never one to miss a party (thanks to Mom for that attitude), but I decided that sleeping on the ground, then sitting on a canoe seat all day, then driving back may not be the best choice for me! :) Plus, we had 11 youth and 9 adults going, so I figured I wasn't really needed! So now I have an evening and all day tomorrow completly to myself, with no plans, and no husband... kinda lonely, kinda nice! :) I'm thinking I might even get the blue room unpacked... if something pressing (like reading) doesn't come up! :)

YAY!

Well, no good news on the old laptop, but we found a very similar laptop (as in, nearly identical, only more memory) on sale for $450, so we went ahead and bought it. And, actually, Josh and I are so blessed to have a church that takes care of us, and they are buying it for us. Since Josh uses the laptop so much for church, they had already decided to buy us one. So, since we had found one we liked, they're going to reimburse us. Which is definitely an unexpected blessing right now. I'm just now getting it set up (just couldn't resist a blog-stalk and quick post), but expect blogs and pictures soon!

Fun

Well, just for fun I thought you guys would like to see a picture of the bridesmaids dress that Jessie picked out for her wedding in April. The sash will be gold instead of green (red and gold to match the Marine uniforms), but other then that it's pretty much the same. Pretty cute... and GREAT motivation to lose the baby weight!! :)

No news yet on the laptop. :( Don't really expect any, so we will probably be buying a new one in the next couple of weeks. I feel like someone cut my arm off without it! Amazing how dependent you get on something like that... I can't even pay bills without it!

Big Bummer

Well, there won't be many posts for awhile, most likely. Yesterday someone broke into Josh's car and took his laptop bag, with our laptop, several of his books, all his notes, his flash drive, all of Ruth's graduation pictures... you get the idea. So if I owe you an email, sorry, but I won't be replying anytime soon because I can't check my hotmail account at school. So my school account is your best bet for now.

I don't even care about the laptop that much... it's the stuff that's on it. All of Josh's notes for sermons for the past year. Scans of all of the ultrasound pictures (some of which got lost in the move). Every picture I've taken since November. All of Ruth's graduation pictures, and the cd I just burned for her, which Josh was taking to her.

Anyway, it's very frustrating. I guess the guy pushed down Josh's window enough to get it unlocked, then just grabbed the bag off of the floor. An MU police officer came to the house and fingerprinted the window, and got a good print (provided it's not Josh's or mine), but that only helps if the guy's prints are on record. If they're not, well, we're basically out of luck. We don't have the box the computer came in, so we don't have the serial number, and Compaq can't give us the serial number unless we have the serial number (WHAT?! Talk about the opposite of helpful!). And without the serial number the officer can't put it into the system that pawn shops use. At this point, I'd really just like to have the bag back, even if the guy kept the laptop and threw the bag in the dumpster. The flash drive and cd alone would make me feel a little bit better.

It's just one more expense, and Josh and I have been trying to be very careful to keep a savings account and plan for things, and this past couple months it's been one thing after another. Outside of buying the house and putting in a fence, there's been the new transmission for the car, and the expense of the dog incident... and now it looks like there will be a new laptop, too, because we use it too much to just not have one. I mean, on the one hand, it's good that it happens when we have my summer school checks to count on. But, on the other, the summer school checks were supposed to go towards having a baby and rebuilding our savings account after the major hit it took (transmission, house, fence).

Really, it's just very frustrating, and it makes me very sad to lose all of those pictures. And Josh feels like it's his fault, even though it's definitely not. But there's still room for God to work a miracle (Josh's cell is still intact, after all), and, if not, well, it's just a laptop, and we'll survive.