hello again

tuesday diana had off of work, so she was in town to see me! we went out to eat at red robin and had a great time talking and making more plans for the wedding and stuff. after we ate we went to the movie theater and finally saw the movie we missed on friday night: fireproof. it was a pretty good movie, and a perfect one to see with my future wife (further thoughts about the movie here). after the movie she wanted to find some shoes, so we stopped at payless shoes for a little bit. thriftiness prevailed, and we left empty handed.

it was good to see her again. i know, i had just seen her all weekend, but im starting to grow weary of the times we are apart. i guess thats a pretty good sign, huh?

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lazy sunday

sunday morning we went to church with my parents to covenant crc, the church we are going to get married in. it was cool to check out the church together and let her get more comfortable there. we even got to see my grandma and a couple aunts and uncles!

after church tim and jill and the kids came over. we had a great meal and a great time playing with all of them all afternoon!

eventually though, the sad truth sunk in: it was time to go. we both had such a great time seeing everyone and getting to figure out some wedding stuff. we both look forward to the next time we can come back!

(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

her friends

saturday night we met up with some of dianas friends. she went to grand valley state university here in grand rapids, so she has a bunch of friends who still live in the area. her two closest friends in town are josh and tchecomah. josh was able to meet up for dinner, so we went to one of his favorite places called blue ginger. its a really great new asian restaurant. we talked for a while with him, hes a pretty interesting guy, hes the kind of guy who loves to talk about the two things your not supposed to talk about: politics and religion. oh, and hes a loud talker, so everyone else in the place got to hear his end of the conversation. yikes...

after dinner we went to go see the movie 'w'. afterwards we got a call from tchecomah (pronounced like the city tacoma, washington), dropped josh off, and headed over to see him. it was really fun talking with him and his girlfriend- they are a ton of fun!

before we knew it, it was 2:00am and we had church in the morning! yikes! so we said our goodbyes and headed out. diana said that she was really glad to be able to catch up with the two of them again and see that they are doing so well. she really wants us to move up there soon!

beyond what?

after visiting the kids, we went to register for more wedding stuff! my mom wanted to go with us, which was a lot of fun. after registering already at target, the other place diana wanted to register at was bed bath and beyond. so we headed over there and signed up. we spent an hour or two walking around each area picking out what kind of stuff we want, everything from dishes to towels. i dont know if guys are supposed to like this kind of thing, but i had a really great time!

play time

saturday we got up on time and headed over with my mom to tim and jills to see the kids. they were quite excited to see us. we brought along some pizza for lunch and dug in when tim and jackson came back from tims work. papa came by too.

ive been cleaning out some of the junk from my second room at my house and came across a bunch of toys that i didnt want anymore, so i put them into a shoe box and brought them over to give to the kids. they loved checking out the fun stuff i had to give them, and at one point even got their dance groove on!

(more pics: 1, 2, and some videos)

date night!

after the convention on friday, diana and i headed up to grand rapids to spend the weekend with my family! we arrived in town around 2:30pm and went to a couple meeting we had made with different photographers for our wedding. they went well, and after much talk, we decided on someone. another thing we can check off the planning list!

later that night we went out on a date! it was a fun triple date with my mom and dad, and tim and jill (they got a babysitter for the kids). we had a grand plan: we were going to go out to eat and then see a movie! sounds like fun to us! we went to logans steakhouse for dinner and had a good time just talking and catching up. they hadnt seen diana in over a month, so they were excited to see her (oh, and thank tim for the wonderfully fuzzy picture above...). the food was good, but of course they messed up on my dads steak. i dont think ive ever been to the logans on kalamazoo by the M6 highway and had everything taste good. other locations ive been to are always top notch, but this one always seems to mess something up! after dinner we headed over to the movie theater. we figured we would get there about twenty minutes early and get tickets. nope! the showing we wanted to see was sold out! who would have thought? the movie, 'fireproof' is a small independent film that had been out for a month already! i guess i should have thought it through- a christian date movie in grand rapids, of course it will sell big time. oops. well, we tried to think of a plan B and didnt come up with much. we decided to go to rivertown mall and shop for a bit. we had planned to go get dessert afterward at fridays, but the wait was too long. we finally decided to go over to tim and jills and just play games for the rest of the night. dad wasnt feeling well, so he and mom headed home. diana and i went over there and we had a great time playing 'life'!

the date went well, and i fully intend to ask her out on another one soon! (i think she liked me too...) though things didnt go exactly as my mom planned and there were a few problems through out the night, it didnt really matter. it was just nice to be able to spend time with diana and my family!

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teacher convention

last week thursday and friday we had our annual CEA christian teachers convention in south bend, indiana. every year its a fun time, we get together with all the other christian teachers from michigan, indiana, illinois, and wisconsin. there is a keynote speaker who starts it off, and then there are a bunch of seminars that we can attend on both days. its usually a good time, i get to go to hear some people who are teaching the same thing as i am and hear what they have been doing and what has been working for them in their classrooms. helpful and informative.

each year they have a speaker to start us off who is pretty good. last year we had tony campolo, a noted author, and he was the spiritual councilor for president clinton while he was in office. this years guest speaker was walt wangerin jr. an author who wrote the award winning 'book of the dunn cow', and the book 'paul: a novel'. ive read 'paul' and loved it! i actually use it every year when i teach the missionary journeys of paul. i pull out his book and read straight from it, and the kids really love it! i was quite excited to hear him speak. he was very good, and i even got a chance to talk with him briefly after the address. he even signed his newest book for me.

(more pics: 1, 2)

church and state

politics isnt really my thing, but when i saw this i felt i needed to post something. as a christian, how is this ok?
however you vote, is this sign in any way christ-like? im sure this will really give the world the right idea about christianity. they have effectively lost any chance of being a witness to their community.
show love to all, huh?

goodbye marlow

i used to be a mac man. back in college i was an art major and loved graphic design, so i bought myself a mac computer (we all experiment a little in college, right?). i loved it and used it all the time. i got all kinds of great programs for it: photoshop, a vector drawing program, a professional publishing program, tons of great stuff. i fell in love with it! i brought it with me to salt lake city and still did some really fun design work with it: making shirts and posters for the coffee house, making a professional brochure for my school, etc. when i roomed with sean for a year he would always tell me how much is sucked, and would ask why couldnt i have a real computer! (sean now has seen the error of his ways and currently owns a mac himself...) i used it for a while here in indiana, but i soon grew tired of using it because i didnt have the internet. slowly i stopped using it all together.

recently i have been working on cleaning up the second bedroom in my place, and i finally got it cleaned up enough to actually be able to use the computer desk i have it on! i plugged it all in and fired it up for the first time in about four years! as soon as the monitor came to life i was immediately brought back to my college days- oh the nostalgia! i spent about the next hour looking through the different files and programs i had used all those years ago. what fun! unfortunately, since i have a new computer that i actually use and ive been instructed to get rid of everything i dont need, this iMac is on way out. ive been loading the programs on it to a jump drive and putting them on my new computer, so i have no use for the old one anymore. i am reluctant to say goodbye to marlow (thats the computers name, by the way). anybody know where i could give it a good home?

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classroom decor

each year i have to decorate my classroom. most other teachers just pick up some things at a teacher store, they have tons of different stuff to decorate with. as a guy who graduated college with a degree in art, i think this would be a cop out for me, so instead i make my own stuff for my room each year. im always at a loss for what i should put up, so i usually just do stuff that i like! which means my room is always covered in movie, video game, and comic book stuff! this years theme is video game characters, but in years past ive done animated movie sidekicks, and superheroes!

here are some pics of my work.

this year: 1, 2

last year: 1, 2

the year before that: 1

her thoughts

sunday after church i went over to visit diana. i got to explain to her all the ideas that my parents and i talked about for the house, she was very excited about the ideas. we are going to get started with the plans as soon as we can. she said that on days she has off she wants to come over while im at work and get started on the painting! she is really excited about painting the walls, which is nice because i really dont like painting. another reason we are a perfect fit!

we didnt do too much while i was there, but it was good to be able to just hang out with her for a few hours.

home improvements

diana and i have been thinking through what we need to do to my place to make it ready for when she moves in. we know we want to repaint most of the rooms, and we have some ideas for other things. ive been talking to my parents about a few of these changes and they were wondering what they could do to help, they figured they would like to come and give some input on it as well. so saturday my mom and dad drove down to take a look at the place. we walked through the place room by room and took a look at everything we could do to improve it. the living room needs to be moved around a bit, and the tv needs to be moved to maximize the room and hide all the ugly cables and outlets. the bedroom closets need to be refigured so we can actually use the space we have, the bathroom is mostly good, and the kitchen needs more cupboard space. after the once over, we headed out to eat at charlies ale house in munster. after dinner we drove over to home depot to see what kinds of things they had that could solve our problems. we took a look at cupboards that might fit and found some good ones! we also took a look at the sheds they had, because i need one really badly! i even dreamed big and checked out the washers and driers... when we got back to my place we packed up the bed in my second room for them to take home.

it was really good to see mom and dad again. man, they have visited three times now in the last 6 months. i think that doubles the total visits they have made to see me since i moved here five years ago! this whole getting a new daughter-in-law thing might be part of the reason...

(more pics)

what do we want?

friday diana had the day off so she came down to visit me. i only had a half day at work, so we got to spend most of the day together! always a nice thing. well, we went out for lunch, but didnt have any other plans for the day. while eating we got a great idea: we could go and register for wedding gifts! we had been talking about it for the past month or two, but just never had the opportunity. after lunch we drove over to target. she and i had been at odds about how to go about this. i said we should just wander down each of the isles and just pick what we wanted. she, on the other hand, wanted to be more organized (something i typically find to be overrated...), she wanted to make a list first, and then go in and walk the isles. as the man i know its my job to give in and do what she wants, so i fulfilled my duty and gave in and did what she wanted. so we sat in the target parking lot for about 10 minutes while she made her list.

we went in and signed up at those registry kiosks by the entrance, went over and got a scanner, and then we were off! we went up and down the isles and picked what we wanted (doing it my way anyway...). her favorite part was when we got to the dishes- she has been lusting after these dishes for about 2 years, she told me. but then when it finally came time to scan them in, she saw another color that she liked better! she was so confused and didnt know what to do. i told her to scan in the old favorites, and we could always go back and change it in the next week or two. she was satisfied with that, so we moved on. we got about halfway through the store and i was done with it. i was pooped. i had had a crazy day at school, granted it was only a half day, but that half day was one of the craziest days of the year: grandparents day! so we called it a day and only got through half the store. she wasnt to happy about that, and made sure i knew it. we went home and hung out the rest of the evening. she eventually got over it, and is now looking forward to going back and finishing up.
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more family

on monday i headed back over to see diana. i still havent met all of her extended family, and monday night there was an opportunity to meet some of them. her cousin lives in vancouver and happened to be back in town for the weekend, so they set up a time for dianas family to stop by and visit. i met up with diana, her sister, and her sisters boyfriend at their dads house. we all hopped in the car and drove over to her uncle and aunts. we got there and hung out, we talked with them for a bit, then had some dinner. her cousin and husband are professors at a college in vancouver, so it was interesting to talk with them about teaching stuff and how it is so different to teach at a college level. dianas uncle, her dads brother, showed us around the house and pointed out all the great paintings he has. all of them painted by dianas dad! they were really cool, especially the painting of a church at night (thats what the picture above is). another cool bit was seeing her uncles abraham lincoln collection- it was quite impressive! it was good to meet more of dianas family and be able to have a laid back night chatting with them. each new member i meet makes me love her family more and more!

diana

ive been taking a ton of pictures of diana (really, can you blame me? shes gorgeous!) and i wanted to share! i couldnt think of a subtle way to do it, so why not just show off? check em out: 1, 2, 3

the rest of the night

we left shakespeares around 1:30am, but we werent done hanging out just yet, so we invited jeffry lee to come back to diana and barbaras place. sure, its an hour and fifteen minute drive, but so what? he said 'ok', and off we went! after a bit of confusion with finding where jeffry lee had parked, we drove back, the two girls with me, and nick went with jeff. by the time we got to their house it was almost three in the morning. what do you do when its three in the morning? well, you have a campfire! we swapped stories and laughed the night away. by around 6:00, we came inside and crashed on the couches. as barney stinsen would put it: this night was truly LEGENDARY!!!

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shakespeares

after seeing the tosh live we werent ready to go back home, so we tried to find a place to just chill. fortunately, nick is from kalamazoo, so he knew just the right place: shakespeares! it was only a block or two from the state theater, so we walked over. it was the strangest thing, as we were entering the pub we came across a couple people i know! a couple hours from home and i see two familiar faces! at just that moment brian, mollys boyfriend, was walking out! we chatted with him for a minute, and then we continued in. after about two steps in i see my cousin john and his girlfriend heading for the door! they stop and we chat for a second. how strange!

we found a table and had a great time just talking with each other. this was the first time that jeffry lee had met dianas sister barbara and nick, so it was really fun having everyone get to know each other! everyone hit it off instantly. very helpful, considering barbara and jeffry lee are going to be walking down together in our wedding...

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the tosh

i have set many goals for myself in my life, and i have been blessed with the ability to achieve many of them. graduate high school? check. go to college? check. become a teacher? check. this past weekend i was able to cross off another life long goal: go and see daniel tosh live!

a couple months ago jeffry lee noticed that daniel tosh (from here on to be referred to simply as 'the tosh') was going to be in kalamazoo. needless to say, we were psyched! i had known that nick, barbaras boyfriend, also loved the tosh, so we decided to invite diana, barbara, and nick. they said yes, so we got the tickets. well, this past saturday we went and saw the tosh live!!! and it was glorious!!!

jeffry lee drove down from grand rapids, the rest of us drove together up from buchanan. we met up and walked over to this cool little pub. it was a great place, it totally felt like an irish pub should. i did what any self respecting person would do in an irish pub: i ordered fish and chips! after a great meal, we walked down to the state theater where the tosh was to perform. after a bit of walking about looking for bathrooms and cars and stuff, we arrived at the show. for some reason ticketmaster wont let you order more than four tickets at once, so we had to split up to get to our seats. nick and barbara sat together, and diana, jeffry lee, and i sat together. the show was a blast, the comedian before his was really funny, he was a mix of mos def and dave chapell. very funny. then, out came the tosh!!! he was hilarious, and rude, and hilariously rude. i giggled, guffawed, belly laughed, and howled for the next hour and a half!

after the show the tosh was even outside willing to take pictures with anyone who wanted to. and i wanted to!

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best stuff on earth

this past weekend was a blast, and action packed! i went to dianas and hung out with her, her sister barbara, and sisters boyfriend nick. we were chilling out and decided to play some games. they have a nice assortment of board games and card games to play, so we dug in. one of them they had was a strange game based around snapple! they had never actually played it, so we busted it out and gave it a try. it wasnt too bad, but it wasnt too good either... after we grew bored with that, we pulled out a popular favorite: skip bo! a good time was had by all.

(more pics: 1, 2)

the future in-laws

sunday i went over to dianas mom and step dads house for breakfast. dianas step sister and her boyfriend were visiting from boston, so i really wanted to see them. last time they were around i wasnt able to visit, and having never met them before, it was important to see them this time. the only problem was that diana wasnt able to come. so it was just me and her family! fortunately her family is really cool and i dont feel uncomfortable at all around them- in fact i had actually been missing them! i arrived and helped her mom cut up some potatoes for the meal, and then everyone else started to arrive. dianas sister barbara came and soon after illana and matt arrived as well. dianas step dad prepared an amazing meal for us: waffles, sausages, eggs, potatoes- the whole nine yards! it was delicious (i think diana and i might have to take some cooking lessons from him before she moves in...). the meal was great, and it was a lot of fun to meet illana and matt, and chat with everyone for a couple hours!

eventually i met up with diana and we went for dinner with her sister. it was good to see her after being apart all weekend. i would have loved for her to be with me at sara and curts wedding, but she said she and her step sister had a blast!

the after party

after the ceremony we headed off to the reception. it was quite a hike, the ceremony was at mars hill in grandville, but the reception was about 45 minutes away in lowell. we got there and the place started filling up. the bride and groom were still no where to be found. turns out the keys to the car that they were supposed to take were accidentally taken by the photographers, so they had to head back and give them the keys!

about an hour after the start time, they finally showed up! we were announced in and had a seat. after the toasts we got up and got our food. when we were done it was time for some dancing! sara had asked aaron to dj the event, so he was hanging out over by the sound equipment playing some lite tunes as we ate. once the dancing bit started i grabbed a chair and joined him up there. over the coarse of the night there were some people who would get up and dance, but surprisingly to aaron and i, the biggest hits for getting people on the floor was when he played some 60s and 70s rock! it got all the old people out there busting a move! by the end of the night we had all gone out on the dance floor and had a great time. aaron even got to play a little vanilla ice.

all in all it was a great time, and i wish sara and curt the very best!

(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4)

sara-mony

the ceremony itself went well. sara looked beautiful, curt looked handsome. curt even rocked out on his bass guitar and played the music for us as we walked down the aisle, and played the bride song for sara as she came down. there were three groomsmen, and four bridesmaids. since i was the last one of the guys, that meant that i got to walk down with a lovely lady on each arm. nice, huh? pastor wade's message was a good one. he spoke of curts love, saras faith, and how they both combine into hope. afterward we headed outside to wish them off with bubbles.

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park shoot

saturday we met up at mars hill church at noon for pictures. we brought our tuxes to the grooms room and changed, then headed back to the sanctuary. when we got there we got the low down on what we could expect for pictures. the plan was to go to a park just down the road and take some photos there. curt wanted to get some photos of all of us guys wearing sunglasses, but a couple of us didnt have any with us, so we stopped at the gas station and picked a pair from their amazing assortment... we headed to the park and had a great time just messing around and taking some good pics. there were a ton of ducks there that were really annoying (well, they were ok, it was their poop that was annoying...), after a while the ladies came too. we took some photos with everyone. there were some really great spots in that park that we took pictures at. as we were posing the photographers would ask one of us to move slightly, or step forward a bit. at one point the photographer asked me to move 'hey ken, could you take a step to the right?' we all looked around to see who this ken fellow was. we all looked back at the photographer with a puzzled look on our faces. turns out that she meant me! so for the rest of the night i was called ken by everyone. quite strange...
(pics: 1, 2, 3, videos: 1)

chillin with the guys

after the rehearsal dinner i gave jeffry lee a call to see what the guys were up to. they had all gotten together and were having dinner at logans. i stopped by and sat with them until the finished. everyone was there: jeffry lee (who is sporting a groovy goatee), aaron, rex, freddy, molly, and freddys friend max who i hadnt met before.

when everyone was done, we headed over to the movie theater to catch a flick. molly had other plans, so she didnt join us, and aaron still needed to tweek sara and curts wedding playlist so he skipped out too. the rest of us went to see a movie (my review here), and then did what we always do: headed over to fridays. max left soon after we got there, but the rest of us hung out for a couple hours and talked. its always good to spend time with those guys, and im really starting to like freddy, hes a pretty cool cat.

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practice makes perfect

this past weekend i stood up in the wedding of my friends sara and curt. it was up in grand rapids, so i had to leave work early on friday to make it up to the rehearsal on friday. it started at 4:00 and i got there a bit late (dang you, chicago traffic!), but we had enough time to run through it a few times, so all was well. it was really great to be able to see the two of them again, it had been almost a year since i last saw them! i didnt know anyone there except the two of them, so it was fun to get to know everybody else. i talked with the pastor too and he actually grew up down in indiana where i live- small world!

after a few times through, we called it good and headed over to saras friend antons house. we got pizza and hung out, which gave me a chance to mingle and let everyone know i was not just the late jerk who held up the rehearsal...

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shoe shopping

on thursday diana came to see me. we knew we wouldnt see each other for most of the weekend, so we got a little head start. when i got home from work she was already at the house chilling with poco. we had a few errands to run, and we were both really hungry, so we headed right out. we ate at pepper jacks, which is basically a chili's knock off. the food was good, and it was nice to just be able to see her while we talked (im sure getting sick of phone conversations all week...). after dinner we did a little shopping. we stopped at old navy and the shoe store. her nice doc martins she wears at work finally gave out and cracked in the sole, so a new pair was needed. we found just what she wanted, and i got a new pair of work shoes too- half off! after a bit more shopping, i figured i should get a haircut for the wedding i was in this weekend. she tagged along and read through a magazine while i got the new 'do.

buried treasure

earlier this week i found this little jump drive. its mine, but i didnt know what was on it, so i figured id take a look- and oh, are there some gems! im not entirely sure why, but this thing has a few photos and a couple videos even! i would guess its been sitting around for about two years. and now, really outdated, here are the contents for you to enjoy:

pics 1, 2, videos 1, 2.

down the drain

ive been having some issues with my toilet lately. i decided a couple weeks ago that it would probably be the best option to just replace it. it worked out nicely that a week ago diana found a really cheap one at home depot, so we got it. for the past week it had just been sitting there waiting for me to get to it. last night i finally had a free night, so i got to be macho home improvement guy!

i was a little worried at first, my dad always told me 'its not very hard to work on anything in your house, except for plumbing- stay away from that!', but i decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a shot. whats the worst that could happen? oh, i guess i could totally destroy the toilet and have to call a professional and pay tons of money to fix my ignorant mistakes... but what is life without a bit of blind stupidity, right?

i started by clearing out the area of all the extra stuff and turning off the water. after that i emptied the tank and bowl and began taking it off from the pipe in the wall. this was a challenge because i have a very limited set of tools and a limited set of knowledge about such things, so there was a lot of 'this will do', and 'i hope this works!' fortunately it did! after i undid the connection to the wall, i unscrewed the old stool from the floor. once i got it out from the bathroom i had a startling realization- i forgot to tell my renter not to flush his toilet! we share the same line, and now mine was exposed, which could cause some real stinky problems... after i asked him to 'let it mellow' for a little while, i got to work scrapping off the seal that connects the toilet to the pipe. it made out of bees wax! i was quite surprised by this. kinda cool. next i pulled out the new seal and bowl and put them into place, lining it up to the screws. i realized that i would need a new tube to connect the pipe to the tank, so i headed over to mennards for that (did you know mennards has really cheap huge canisters of cashews? me neither!). i got back and got to work attaching the tank to the bowl. hooked up the new hose, and voila! new toilet! i double checked to make sure everything was tight, and then turned the water back on. much to my surprise, there were no leaks! now came the real test: the first flush. and it past with flying colors! it flushed perfectly, and still no moisture where it shouldnt be! i must say, i felt very manly (and a bit surprised) that i could replace a toilet all by myself and have it all go well!

(more pics: 1, 2, 3, and a video!)