the cabin

yesterday was our fourth annual cabin trip. for four years now the guys and i have been going up to the cabin for one night during christmas break and just having a blast. the line up has changed slightly, mostly adding more players, but the fun remains the same. rex and i headed up friday and got there around noon (well before our usual time of 4:00), which gave us some extra time to just enjoy the place. we got the fire started, unpacked, then we went for a walk. one of our traditions up there is to go for a walk, which guns, and try to get as lost as possible. often times it works... we walked for about an hour, stopping indiscriminately and shooting stuff. always a good time! when we got back we chilled out and read for a while. i read my wizard magazine, and rex read the graphic novel of 'the fountain'.
around five, dusty and steve showed up. we hung out some more and played a few games. one of them i did well at, the other i did not. at eight we headed out to sporties (another cabin tradition) for dinner, and met up with aaron, jeffry lee, and adam. he had a great time there, and eventually headed back to the cabin.
the rest of the night, unfortunately, will have to remain classified information. we have a strick 'loose lips sink ships' policy that i must adhere to. im sure you understand...

'the incident'

earlier this week i was over at my aunt and uncles place with my family. my cousin and her family were not able to be here for the extended family christmas, and niether was i, so our families to decided to get together this past weeek as well. i was a great time, even my grandma showed up for a bit. we got pizza and talked and caught up. at the end of the night i headed back home (i drove over alone). on the way back i happened to notice that my driver side headlight was kind of pointing funny. i wasnt sure what to make of it. when i got back home i pulled it into the drive way to get a good look at it.
turns out while my car was parked at my aunt and uncles it had been backed into! the headlight was out of whack, the fender was crunched, and the bumper was slightly cracked. argh!!! after getting over my initial anger i made plans for the next day to get an estimate and see what kind of damage this was going to do to my wallet. because, of course, my insurance company would make me pay my five hundred dollar deductable no matter what.
the next morning my uncle called and told me to stop by him at his work (he owns a car dealership and wanted to take a look at it and see if he could get me a deal on fixing it). i stopped over there and then i went over to get an estimate for fixing it- $1100!! rediculous!!! there was no way i was going to pay that much, so i headed back to my uncle and he said he could have pull a few strings and have it taken care of for one fifty. deal! later that morning my grandma calls my uncle up and says 'im not sure why, but for some reason i seem to have a few scratches and a bit of green paint on the back of my car...'

christmas fun

friday i got out of work and began my christmas vacation (two whole weeks!!!). i headed up to grand rapids on saturday to see the family. saturday night i went to a verve pipe concert (which i wrote about here). sunday we took it easy and decided to go to the later church service (my parents church had four services that day, and they were all the same, so we opted for a bit of the ol' sleeping in). jill, tim and the kids came over for lunch and we had a grand meal (dang, my mom sure does no how to cook!), they headed home, we went for a walk, and then to church. the rest of the night we hung out and just enjoyed each others company. monday, christmas day, we took it easy once again (sensing a pattern?). mom wanted to make a big brunch, so she invited my grandma over, last minute, and we ate a hearty meal. later in the afternoon i made mom and dad go for a walk (which wasnt too hard, considering it was about 5o degrees outside and sunny) so i could wrap all the gifts i got for the family.
around 4:00 jill, tim and the kids came back. the kids opened gifts, and then we had a rather strange christmas dinner: burgers on the grill! with the super nice weather, we figured we would revel in it! we put the kids to bed and then it was time for the rest of us to open prizes! it was a lot of fun, and all the gifts were appreciated very much. for some reason i got an excess of gift certificates, so i guess my christmas gifts will keep on giving for a while! one of the highlights was that my mom got an ipod from my dad- how wierd is that? she wasnt entirely sure what to do with it... after a little explaining and training on the computer, she is very excited about it and cant wait to use it on her walks. way to go dad!
we were done with gifts by around 9:00, and we were all totally exhausted! i felt like i could have crawled in bed right then and slept for three days straight! so, obviously i decided to stay up till about 1:30 puttzing around on the computer. one of these days ill learn my lesson...
all in all it was a very fun time with the family, and i feel very blessed to have the time and opportunity to spend it with them. (chad, hopefully one of these years you will be able to join us too!)
some more fun family christmas photos here.

new blogs

over the past couple days i have been introduced to a couple new blogs and i felt like i should share in the wonderment and awe of them. the first one i have recently been checking out is by shaun groves. if you are wondering who exactly that is, well you are not alone. when i first went to go check it out i had no idea who he was. andrew osenga, a musician who i trust completely, suggested the site. i dont know if andrew knows shaun, or if its just an admiration, but i now have that same admiration. shaun is a songwriter and musician. i still have yet to hear any of his stuff, but i truly appreciate his opinions and well written thoughts. if you need a quick introduction, he has written one himself that links to some of his more thought-provoking posts. it is here. i checked out most of these former posts and now am compelled to check his site for more nuggets of wisdom each day.

the other new blog i have come across is by someone whom i already hold in high regard. his name is ronnie martin. he is a musician as well. the big difference thought between his music and anyone elses music is the fact that ronnies music is the best in the entire world. not even remotely an exaggeration. granted, i am incredibly bias, but im right, so its ok. anyway... ronnie has decided that journaling on his bands website should be focused on the music and what he is up to in the studio. he also wanted to share some of his more personal thoughts and musings, so he has created a personal blog. ah, now i will know what it is like to look into the mind of a genius.
can life get any better? i submit that it cannot.


ps. it looks like b.t. is going to give it another go- so make sure you check him out too!

christmas shopping

my family always jokes about how i wait so long to do my christmas shopping. its true, i usually do wait until the last minute. i am the stereotypical 'guy' in that sense. but, what they dont understand is that i delay the actual going out and purchasing part of the shopping, but i spend a good bit of time figuring out what im going to get each person. i dont necessarily buy into the form of shopping that so many people do- walk around the store and look around until you find something they might like. i shop in a much more methodical way. because of this, i can afford to be a bit more of a procrastinator.
friday i finally decided i would go out and get some gifts. i headed out after work (around 3:30), and by 5:30 i was done. simple as that. i got something special for everyone in the family, and not a single gift certificate in sight! (in the interest of full disclosure, i should admit that i have one more present to get, but thats because i special ordered it, and need to pick it up tomorrow).
so, i started and finished my christmas shopping in the course of about two hours. not bad, huh?

chinese fire drill!

last week i had a red letter day while i was driving. my odometer finally flipped, and now my car has 100,000 miles! this was quite exciting for me. ive had the car a little over 4 years, and i have now put on 36,000 miles. i dont know if that high or low, but i sure have been a lot of places with it! i hope it lasts me for many, many more years.

the photo gallery

i finally got around to downloading the photos on my digital camera (thanks to jeffry lee's help), so i posted a few new pictures. check them out here.

(feeling the wii love...)

the travel game

oh, dear readers, i have a challenge for you.
i have always been a fan of traveling, and love to visit new places. i have been fairly blessed with the opportunity to travel as much as i have. i, in some ways, feel that i have done quite a bit of traveling and am quite proud of the places ive been and the experiences ive had.
now, i lay before you a small game. i am curious how much you have traveled? now, i have devised a simple way to figure out how much you have traveled- through travel points. what are travel points you ask? (i know this is kinda dumb, just go with it...) well, here is how:
1 point for each state you have been to (driving through doesnt count, you need to have stopped at a significant landmark, or stayed overnight there)
5 points for each country you have been to (you dont get to count your home country)
10 points for each continent youve been to (you dont get to count your home continent)

so, what is your travel score? i will post mine after a few others have

three mondays

man, this has been a rough week! when i got back from visiting the folks for thanksgiving i was welcomed back home with sickness!!! lucky me! i had (and continue to a lesser extent) a really bad cough, sore throat, and sinus issues. i went to work monday, but felt miserable, so i planned ahead and told then i wouldnt be in tuesday. i was feeling better, but by the end of the day i couldnt get through a whole sentence without hacking out a lung! i admitted defeat and called in again for thursday. i didnt care how i felt friday, i was going in no matter what! it still lingers, but at least i am feeling better. ive still got a cough here, and a sniff there; but all in all i feel like i am doing better.
it did feel really wierd the days i went in though, it always felt like it was monday! i had a whole week of work, but not a single day back to back. strange. on friday i was getting really confused filling in sheets because i kept thinking it was monday!

waiting for the wii

last weekend rex and jeffry lee came down again to play video games with me. rex was hoping to get a ps3, but soon gave up when he realized that the line up had started two days before they came down thursday. so instead we shifted our focus on to the system that i wanted to get: the wii. friday we went and saw a movie, then when out to eat for dinner. i happened to call meijers and ask them what their plan was for handling the line up for the wii. they said that they would not let the line form more than 24 hours ahead of time. so we decided that we would stop by around midnight friday and see what was going on. we got there and found out they only had eight systems! so we waited for the announcement of where the line would be forming. after a couple problems they called out that the line was forming at the media counter. i hapened to be close to that area so i made a dash for it. i was lucky enough to make it into the fifth spot! this was quite exciting and all, but the the realization soon sunk in- we were going to be waiting there for 24 hours!!! we were guarnteed a wii, but we just had to make it through the wait. they were quite lenient with the waiting rules. we could get up, go to the bathroom, or grab a bite to eat and still have our spot. everyone was actually quite nice. i think this is rather accurate.
the people in line soon grew to become a psudo- community. rex and jeffry lee were there with me almost the whole time (which is just rediculously awesome of them). we spent time reading, playing ds, listening to mp3 players, but mostly just talking and hanging out. after about the first 10 hours we started to get a bit loopy. (an actual conversation at around 10am: i decided i was going to start up a new career as a cobbler, rex was going to look into the viability of becoming a door-to-door vacuum salesman, and jeffry lee was thinking about the prospects of assassin for hire). we got quite annoyed by some of the people around us too, they were very loud and opinionated and never shut up through out the whole 24 hours. so, we decided to make up nicknames for them so we could vent our anger and talk about them when out them knowing. i still want to punch t.c. and timmy straight in the face. linix was annoying, and splatoo was just funny looking. oh well, we never have to see them again.
as the time drew nearer and nearer, the excitement level jumped. around 10:30 saturday night there were alot of new people trying to join the line. by 12:00 there were probably about 50 people in line. little did they know that meijer only had 8 of them. hee hee hee...
we got it home and had a blast! my thoughts on the actual system are here.

the visit

finally! its been quite a while since i posted, but its not my fault, i promise! i tried to log on a couple times this week, but blogger has been down and i was unable to post anything. well, looks like its back up, so ive got a lot of catching up to do...

last weekend was a blast- jeffry lee, rex, and aaron all came down. jeffry lee and rex came down on friday. right away when they arrived we headed out to see 'the prestige', which was really cool (more here). when we got back we hung out and watched some of the random shows i have on my tivo. it was good to just chill and laugh together. on saturday we slept in late and pretty much just had a nice lazy day. when i finally woke up jeffry lee was watching some of the old episodes of 'how i met your mother'. there have been some really funny episodes lately, so it was cool to rewatch them again. eventually rex decided to plug in his ps2 and play his rachet and clank game. its a pretty funny one, so it was cool to just sit and laugh along with the crazy character stuff. last into the day aaron showed up. we didnt have much in mind to do, so we didnt do much...
we decided on a special 'vs.' night. we were looking to watch some crappy movies, and we figured it would be fun to watch freddy vs. jason, and then alien vs. predator. neither was great, but alien vs. predator was at least entertaining. i cant exactly say the same for the other one...
sunday morning aaron went on his way, while the other guys ended up sticking around till about 6. rex played his game some more, and jeffry lee and i watched, talked, etc. all the while. right before they left we watched the latest episode of heroes, and i think it made a new fan out of jeffry lee.
we had a really great time, but i must admit, when i got to school monday morning i didnt feel refreshed from the weekend at all! having fun sure can be exhausting...

the weekend

saturday ended up being a lot of fun (except for the getting up on time thing...) i was up and out of the house around 8:30. i headed up to michigan. it was a nice drive, it gave me time to listen to some of my new music a bit more. the latest brian vander ark is really growing on me. also i listened to the new andrew osenga stuff, which i just cannot get enough of! i got there a few minutes early, but soon after rex and jeffry lee were kind enough to meet up with me. we headed over to my moms new work place.
she didnt know i was coming, but it worked out perfectly! when we walked into the big work area she was with the rest of the family in the office up front. we were able to sneek in and surprise her. she was helping me little niece, she looked up and saw me and was totally blown away! it was funny, she actually started crying! after the hugs and stuff we were able to dig into the excellent grub they had for the open house. of course, they had to have the open house food standard: meatballs! (which are a personal favorite, so i was quite happy...) soon after aaron joined us (free lunch, can you blame him?) we hung out for about an hour and a half, then the guys had to get going. i headed out soon after. the trip home was a bit harder. i started to get really sleepy, so i poped in a little dane cook. that usually keeps me awake!
one of the coolest things about the day was just an appreciation of my friends. those guys came all the way out to my moms work just to hang out for a little while. how cool is that? i just felt really blessed that the guys are willing to give up a couple hours just to hang out. for rex and jeffry lee it was about a 40 minute drive just to hang out in the work area at my moms job. maybe im making something out of nothing, but i just totally appreciated them that day.

mom's big day

ive decided im going home this weekend. kind of strange, considering i was just home for five days this past weekend. but i have a good reason.
over the course of my life i have had many achievements to celebrate- graduations, being hired for a new job, etc. and through all those times my mom has been right there supporting me. but as i think about it, there have been very few achievements that mom has been able to celebrate. i dont mean that in a mean way, she is a very sucessful woman, she co-owns a business, she is still happily married to dad, she is strong and supportive of all her kids, and she is a super fun grandma to jills kids. on saturday she is having an open house for her shop. about a year ago her and the other co-owner decided it was time to stop renting their building, and instead build their own. so they did. they moved into it a couple weeks ago, and now get the chance to proudly show it off to the world.
i told her that i wouldnt be coming, having come down this past weekend and all. but the more i starting thinking about it, the more i realized that this is a truly special event for her. this is an achievement that she is truly proud of, how could i miss out on that?!? so, saturday morning i will be getting up bright and early, driving two hours to celebrate with her, and then driving two hours back home right after. its going to be a pain, but i guess thats what will make the event that much more meaningfull.

smells like teen spirit

ive always heard that the sense of smell is the strongest sense attached to memories. like, if you smell something it will trigger your memory quicker than a sight or a taste will. ive always kind of dismissed that because it sounds crazy, but a few days ago i became a believer!
i was walking out to my car and i caught a whiff of who-knows-what, but the instant i smelled it my mind went a million miles an hour and for some reason it reminded me of those nasty orange circus peanuts candies. i havent had one of thise in at least fifteen years! but immidiately my mind raced to a fond memory of going with my dad, uncle, and cousin to the gander mountain store when i was about 11. i distinctly remember walking through there and checking out all the random sportsmans stuff. jeff (my cousin) and i each grabbed a pair of binoculars and ran to seperate ends of the store and would try to mouth messages to each other and see if we could see each other that far away. my dad and uncle loved that place, they were busy checking out all the hunting stuff. after about the first hour there i got bored and jeff and i found a small row of snacks. we convinced our dads to buy us some. jeff got a big bag of jelly bellys and i got a pouch of circus peanuts. we enjoyed the treats as dad and uncle ted finished up there shopping.
wow. that was so wierd- up until i caught a whiff of that smell, i dont think ive thought of that memory in a dozen or more years, and it all came back as vivid as if it had happened last week!

a visit home

shoot, i go and buy a new computer and now have the chance to post more often, and i havent in almost a week! i blame the busy week, actually.
this was a very unusual week- we had our teacher convention in grand rapids thursday and friday. that meant we only had school monday, tuesday, and a short day wednesday (which is totally rad, by the way) so i had been a bit busy with all that. yesterday and today i have been busy with convention stuff, or hanging out with other teachers and friends, so i havent had too much time to spend in front of my computer.
everyone else is busy right now, so i figured now is the time to catch back up!
wednesday night matt, rachel, and i drove up to grand rapids and met my parents for dinner. rachel had met them briefly before, but matt hadnt. it was really cool. i have a great relationship with my parents, so i actually enjoy hanging out with them and introducing them to my friends. they were there normal cool selves, so matt and rachel felt really comfortable. we just ate and talked about how the year has been going so far. not much, but it was fun. afterward we dropped of rachel (she stayed in a downtown hotel) and then headed to my parents place (where matt and i stayed). we watched the ballgame and continued talking with my parents. eventually it was time for bed so we hit the hay.
thursday night i wanted to hang out with the guys and have matt meet them. so, matt and i headed to ruby tuesdays and jeffry lee and rex joined us soon after. we ate and talked and acted pretty stupid (what else are friends for, huh?). when we finished up we headed out to the poolhall. there, aaron and his fiancee jessica joined us. we played doubles and singles and the whole time i totally sucked! matt kept telling us all night before we got there that he really sucked, but once we started it was soon revealed how much of a hustler he really is! (ok, maybe not a hustler, but he was making some amazing shots!) at one point even i was able to pull out a decent shot or two, but rex certainly dominated the night. needless to say, a good time was had by all.
this afternoon matt and rachel headed back down to the ol' indiana homestead. im sticking around for a couple more days yet.

I'M BACK!!!

after a far-to-long absence, i have returned!!! i finally caved and saved enough money to buy myself a brand new shiny laptop computer! (the one in the picture isnt exactly what i got, but its as close a picture as i could find) needless to say, i am quite excited about this new purchase. its been alot of fun messing around with this thing the past couple days, but its very obvious ive been out of the technological circle for a while because this thing can be confusing at times...
i still havent gotten the internet at my house yet, but i dont think i will. i will just be spending alot of time at the local coffee shops mooching off their free wi fi.
anyway, i am very excited to reenter the world of blogging. i have missed it more than i thought i would!

my excuse

i havent been able to post on here for a while and it sucks. ive really gotten used to putting my thoughts on here over the past year, but now i am unable to.
heres the deal: the only computer i have access to on a regular basis (at work) now has a blocker so i cant go to this site anymore.
argh.
im thinking i may actually have to cave in and replace my six year old imac and actually buy a new computer. maybe. we'll see if i actually cave in...

friday

i was thinking about going home today because i thought everyone would be busy, but then i got a call from aaron asking if i wanted to hang out tonight. so i decided to wait until tomorrow.
i headed back out to sandy pines for dinner to see my parents once more before i go home. when i got there they were about to start making the food, i had some time so i headed over to my sisters place to say hi to the kids. they are having some friends out there this weekend and they were all about to eat too, so i mostly just got to hold my niece so my sister could get everything ready. after about five minutes they were ready, so i said my goodbyes and head back to the folks. we ate burgers and chatted; it was nice. i told them my sad plight about the mp3 player, and they understood. after a funny 'stash' match between mom and dad and many laughs, i headed out.
i first stopped at best buy to return the mp3 player and get the money (i figure i will use this as the start of my saving for the nintendo wii) i went to the house and met up with aaron and steve. we spent a good hour trying to figure out what we should do tonight, during which rex called to find out the result- which turned into a very funny argument and an equally silly abrupt hang-up (on my part). we decided to watch a few episodes of animaniacs (which i had just bought on dvd). the show holds up surprisingly well considering its from 1993. one observation aaron made what that it was alot more 'a.d.d.' then we remembered, but thats what kept it fun!
soon after we met up with rex and jeffry lee at fridays. we hung out there for a few hours and had some fun discussions. i tell you what, i sure do like hanging out with those guys...

ill be heading home tomorrow afternoon, so i guess this ends the day-by-day account of the fun and excitement of this vacation back home. i dont usually like to use this blog as a journal like this, but i think i will really enjoy reading over these posts later and remembering the fun! i hope they havent been too boring to read...

thursday

i gave rex a call and met up with him for dinner tonight. he was downtown doing homework (no surprise there) so we met at logans. he was feeling really good because he had spend some time enjoying the late afternoon with some of his engineering buddies... we had a good meal and good conversation, it was nice because it was the first time i got to see him since ive been home. that guy has been way too busy on his class projects! oh well, only one more week then hes a free man (well, except for that whole job thing). around nine we met up with jeffry lee at the theater. we then proceeded to see 'lady in the water' (review forthcoming). when the credits were done we noticed a strange thing in the theater: there was a door at the top of the stadium seating with an exit sign above it. being rather adventuresum guys that we are, we decided to take it. we opened the door and found our selves on the second floor! how strange, the theater has a second floor! we lerked around for a bit trying to think of naughty things we could do up there, but then an employee walked by and killed any chance of our tomfoolery. so we headed to the stairs and went out to the cars. we stood around in the parking lot for a while talking about the movie and what ever else we wanted. eventually rex headed out (you know, work at 7:00am and all). but jeffry lee and i were not quite finished for the night. so we headed over to steak and shake and hung out for another hour or two. its kind of funny what kind of freaks and geeks youll find there at two in the morning...

wednesday

today was the big day: my birthday! i met up with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law for dinner. i got to choose the place to eat, so i picked ruby tuesdays. i havent been there in a long time and i really love their salads. jill and tim were pretty happy because they got to leave the kids at home with a babysitter- finally some peace and quite for them! at dinner my parents gave me my birthday gift: an mp3 player! i was quite excited, ive been wanting one for a while now. but heres the problem: i dont own a computer it will work on. i have an old imac from 2000, and the mp3 player only works on windows xp. a bit of a bother. my parents said i could bring it back and find one that would work. then i realize the full extent of my problem: sure, an ipod works on macs, but my mac is so old it runs on os9, and all ipods are only compatable with os10. lucky me. i guess i could keep this one and just load it up with songs when i come home to visit (even my computer at work doesnt have windows xp, so my parents laptop would be my only option). but that seems stupid. then i thought 'well, maybe i should get a new computer'. yeh, right, like ive got the money for that. and if i did id want the internet at home, which would be even more expensive. i dont know, maybe ill just bring it back and plan on getting one later.

after dinner i met up with aaron. we hung out for a while and caught up on life. we wondered around target and meijers looking for season 1 of animaniacs, but wound up empty handed. soon after dusty called and wondered if we wanted to go out for the night. he had just finished taking the bar exam (he graduated from law school in may) and needed a little release. i was up for it, but aaron figured he should get a good night sleep for work the next day (i cant blame him, it was already 10:30 by then). so dusty, cary and i head out to what used to be lennys mexican grill. on the way we were all on our cell phones inviting anyone else we could think of to make the night even more fun. we were able to actually round up seven or eight people. so we talked and sang (it was karaoke night) the night away. certainly a fun way to spend a birthday!

tuesday

tuesday night i made plans to hang out with nathan & ang, and steve & cary and have burgers on the grill. i hadnt seen any of them in quite a while, so i was looking forward to catching up with all of them. nathan and i have been friends for a very long time, weve been friends and gone to school together from elementary school all the way through college. ang became friends with us on about day two of freshman year, and by about day 6 we all knew that they were going to get married. and they did. after dordt nate went to calvin seminary and has now been preaching up in canada for the past three years. they dont get a chance to come down very often, so it was really great to see them again. steve and i became friends freshman year of college, and we became friends of cary about 2 days later. by about day 6 it was obvious that they were going to get married. and they did. after dordt steve went to pharmacy school in sioux falls, and last year moved to west minneapolis. it was really great to see them as well.
but heres the thing: they have kids. nates got two, steves got one. this fact totally changes everything. it was fun to see them again, but it was just so different. i am in a totally different world than they are at this point. just as we would start talking about something we would be interupted by one of the children screaming or getting into trouble. i know this is totally normal for couples with children, but ive never seen my friends in that light. another one of those times when i am forced to accept the fact that we are all growing old.

monday

after being awoken by my sisters phone calls, i got ready and headed over to see her and the kids. i picked up burger king for everyone on my way (jacksons favorite- mostly for the kids meal toys...). i hung out over there for a while and played with the kids.
we went down to the play room and i asked jackson what he wanted to play with 'i wanna play legos!' now this i can appreciate! i played with legos all the time growing up, i loved to build cars and stuff, but my favorite was always building spaceships. the most coveted piece of legos in our house were anything that we could make into strange wings (oh, and the ones with bendy joints). i was curious as to what kind of stuff he liked to make with legos so i asked him 'what should we make?' out of the clear blue i get this response: 'a cactus'. what?!? this three and a half year old is given limitless possibilities of what to make, and he wants to make a cactus?!? maybe this kid is stranger than i thought...

that night i headed downtown grand rapids to meet up with sara and adam. we went to a pretty cool bar that had a super comfy sofa and lounge chair in the corner, so we took advantage. it had been quite a while since i have been able to talk with those two together, so we spent the evening catching up and discussing how we had each gotten to where we are. but, as usual with adam, it degressed into a 'remember when...' nastalgia-fest (which i totally love, so i didnt mind at all). finally we called it quits and i headed home for the day.

a special day

happy birthday to me!!!

sunday

sunday morning came up quick on me. i had to pick up my gramma in the morning at her house and bring her out to sandy pines (if you dont know what sandy pines is, its kind of hard to explain. its a camp ground, but its more like a resort. most of the trailors dont move, and the main mode of transportation is golf carts. sounds wierd, but when i was younger it was the coolest thing ever!) so we could have lunch with my parents at their place. on the way there we were driving through the town of dorr and my gramma, out of the blue, starts pointing out building and telling stories about them. i had no idea, but she grew up around there! we were driving and she would say 'see that house? thats the house i was born in, right in the bedroom there!' what?!? that just struck me as so strange, first of all because i didnt know that, and second because she wasnt born in a hospital. we kept driving, 'see that cemetary? thats where my parents are burried' wow! how cool! it kind of makes me want to go to the cemetary and find out where they are. i must say, i got a pretty interesting history lesson on the way to lunch.

later that day i headed back out to sandy pines with aaron and jeffry lee. we tooled around the place on the golf cart and saw a trailor that had recently burned down. cool. then we had hot dogs on the grill with my parents. it was really cool for me because my parents never really spend any time with my friends. they have become close with many of my sisters friends, and my dad will actually go golfing sometimes with her friends (actually, i guess that is kind of wierd, huh?) but they have never really been able to spend time with my friends. it was the first time they had met jeff and it had been a year or two since they had seen aaron, so we had a bit to talk about and stuff.
it was really fun. i dont just mean it was enjoyable, i mean it was a joyful, fulfilling, loving kind of fun.

after we got back we hung out at my parents house. zaagman came over and we headed to the backyard. it was really cool, we pulled out a few of my nephews toys and started playing. we played trackball and velcro ball (im sure youve seen those- its like baseball, but the mitts are flat and have velcro on the fronts). it felt like we were just kids having fun and playing in the backyard. it felt like i was ten years old again. i loved it!

around 10:30 aaron went home because it was getting late and he had to work, but the rest of us headed over to adams. we spent the rest of the night joking around, remebering the 'good old days', watching his new childrens tv show, and listening to really bad songs submitted to a record company. it was as silly and strange as it sounds.

saturday

saturday i headed to my parents house (after sleeping in far too long...). i actually didnt go to my parents house today because i didnt get there until much much later.
i met up with jeffry lee at the mall. we chilled, ate dinner, then rummaged through the local k b toys store. i always like to go into toy stores and check out what 'those crazy kids' are into these days. (actually, i want to see if theres anything cool that i might want to get). unfortunately their transformers supply was severely lacking. so we moved on. after a brief stop in barnes and noble and gamestop, we headed over to the theater. we went to see clerks 2, which i thought was much funnier than i would care to admit (i feel guilty about it. and a little dirty.)
after that we headed over to jeffry lees house. i had never been there before, and as it turns out, he lives way out in bfe. after the seven hour journey, we arrived at his place and chilled for the night. there was much talking and laughing, mostly at the movie we decided to watch- bloodrayne. it was so bad you dont even want to know...
it was a good old time, and i eventually rolled into my parents place around 4:30am. if today is any indication, its going to be a rad week!

the long trip home

i headed back up to the ol' grand rapids for my one long visit. i try and make an extended visit at least once during the summer, it gives me a chance to catch up with as many people as i can. usually i only hang out with three or four friends when i come up, but during this trip its time to check in on all the old pals i can.
i usually have a lot of fun while im up here, so i think i will try and keep this thing updated a bit better than i have been lately, so i can actually have an accounting of all the fun stuff i typically forget about in a week or two!

a strange craving

the other night i had a craving. this is wierd for me, i cant remember a time that ive ever had a really strong craving for something to eat or drink, but it hit me hard. i felt like i was a pregant woman or something. it was just wierd.
i finally gave in. at about 11:50pm i quickly drove to the grocery store before it closed at 12 and bought a gallon of chocolate milk. when i got to the register the clerk gave me a strange look and said 'so, just the chocolate milk then?'
'yup.'

wedding crashers

this past weekend i went with my buddy rex to minnesota for the wedding of an old college friend. last weekend rex invited me to go along with him. he had actually been invited, i was just coming along with him to do the crashing!
we left thursday in his car and immediately got caught up in crappy chicago traffic. one hour and 10 miles later, the actual road trip began. its been a while since i have been on a road trip with someone else, so it was a nice change of pace for me. we had a great time on the road, we caught up on life, told funny stories, mocked others poor driving skills, and sang along loudly to the music. the only down side was the lack of air conditioning. ugh. we finally got there and got a hotel, enjoyed a good dinner, then chilled at the hotel.
friday we got up and went to go and get chris and amanda a wedding gift (nothing like waiting till the last minute, huh?), got ready for the wedding, then headed over. due to a timing error, which was no ones fault (chris), we got there about an hour early, so we just chilled for a while. eventually other people started coming, so we felt bettter. the wedding was outside at a golf resort. the weather was beautiful, the ceremony was even better, and the whole thing was really fun. afterward we went inside the club house and had the reception. it was alot of fun, a chance to catch up with old college friends who i havent seen in five years, and never actually thought id see ever again! so it was really cool got talk to them and see what they are up to all these years later.
rex and i were having so much fun talking with everyone and dancing (which he is considerably better at than i) that we ended up closing the place down! we helped pack up the gifts and stuff, and then one of the girls got the idea that we should so get some ice cream. in theory this is a great idea, the problem is that its 12:30 in the morning. the only place thats open is the grocery store, so we end up standing out front of cub foods eating ice cream out of the containers with plastic spoons. truly a site to see.
saturday we were invited over to hollys for a grill out before we headed back home. we had a great time talking, laughing, remembering, and renewing all the bonds we have together. good food and a great time.

satelite dish

im not quite sure how, but i got myself suckered into changing my tv service. a guy came to my door last week and we started talking and he was saying how much better his service is than the other one. also, its twenty buck cheaper, and theyll give me a dvr with 100 hours on it.
i guess thats how i got suckered into it. the installers come tuesday. i hope it doesnt suck.

gone swimming

sunday i was hanging with the family for fathers day. my little nephew (hes three and a half) was telling me that he started swimming lessons! he asked if i would come on monday and see him swim at his lesson. my sister said that he did really great at it last week and he could even jump in the deep end and swim all the way to the other side! i was quite impressed with this, because i remember that i was terrified of the water for many years when i was little. i didnt dare go in the pool in our backyard until i was about six (but thats probably due to my big brother telling me evil sea creatures lived in there...), so for him to be that good at his age really impressed me!
first, it was a miracle that i actually made it to the lesson. i am on my summer schedule right now (which means that i stay up till 5am and wake up around 1pm) and the lesson started at 9:30am! it was a bit rough to get up at 9 after only four hours of sleep, but i knew i really wanted to because i dont get many chances to be a part of his life (i live about two hours away). i got there and he started doing his thing- the only problem is that he had forgotten everything he learned the week before! he had the hardest time jumping in, and by the end was crying his eyes out! poor guy! im sure he will have his confidence back by friday. you know, so he can forget everything for next week...

poke it with a stick.

where exactly does the name of this blog 'poke it with a stick' come from? well the simple answer is that its an inside joke that most of the people inside have since forgotten. but, the idea that was behind the joke, and the reason for my naming it that is much more complicated.

the idea of 'poke it with a stick' is to examine something. to poke something and find out more about it. what is it? what does it do? why is it here? what is the meaning behind it? in a way that has been my intent for this journal: to look at my life, what i do, what i understand, what i think, and what i believe and poke it with a stick.
now, the title also has a funny element to it as well, which is where i have usually taken it. most of my posts are light hearted and opinionated, which is fine. but i am now realizing that i have lost sight of the real power and understanding that i was originally aiming for. i am reminded that i have all too often forgotten to look deeper, to think harder, to challenge myself farther. i have come to a realization that i need to be following that path as well. for these reasons, among others, i have decided that i would like to give myself a place to share those thoughts as well, a place to take the journey to better understanding. so, again the 'poke it with a stick' blog family grows to include another page for such thoughts. find them here.

the phone

lately jeffry lee has been calling me a lot lately. i like that.

mini golfing

this past thursday i finally got to meet up with a few students and gollow through on the event that had been auctioned off a while ago. i got together with these students and went mini golfing! it was a lot of fun. the kids that had won it were eight graders this year, so it was cool to see them one last time. we played a good 18 holes, but before we began, as is customary, we gave each other fake names while we played (i was gregory). none of us were any good, so that kept the game light and fun. after we finished that we headed over to the ice cream shop and gorged ourselves on the tasty treats there in. they had a table inside that has a checker board built in to it, so he had a few matches of play. i am typically good at checkers, but i was hustled big time. after that we headed home, but before i dropped them off, i had to take a little stop at gamestop (not really, but i knew these boys loved video games) so we wandered around there for ten to fifteen minutes, then we were off. after that i brought them home and bid them farewell. i hope it was worth their $325!
in a couple weeks i look forward to doing it again with three other students!

a busy saturday

this past weekend was alot of fun (and im not just saying that because it was the start of my summer vacation. but that didnt hurt either...) on saturday a friend and i headed downtown chicago in the morning. they had a huge book fair going on, and it she really wanted to check it out. i was up for it and tagged along. it was really cool, there were current best sellers as well as some old original first printings and other relics from hundreds of years ago. it was fun to look through the different booths and check it out. i ended up finding a book that reinterpets the book of genesis into poetry. i figure maybe i can find some cool stuff in it to make that text come alive even more when i teach it. i got to talk to the author for a while and everything! quite cool. later that day i went to the merrillville mall to get a gift, then i went to one of my students open house (and then gave him the gift. the movie UHF. inside joke, long story...) where i met his uncle who turned out to be someone i knew from dordt days! how strange!
all in all a fun and relaxing weekend. i guess i have a few more of them lined up here soon. cool.

oh, how embarassing

all of us teachers decided last week that we would get together today for lunch as a last get together of the year. we ended up going to red robin (great burgers!). after an hour and a half we wrap up and ali, the science teacher, remarks 'huh, where are my keys?' we didnt see them so she was worried that she may have locked them in her car. which is bad enough, but the story gets funnier: she did lock her keys in her car, they were right there in the ignition. and the car was still running!!! how ridiculous is that?!? we spent several minutes roaring with laughter as she stood there genuinely impressed with her own stupidity. fortunately she has another set at home, so rick brought her to her house and is now bringing her back to her car.
for some reason, i dont think any of us will ever let her live this one down- we will be reminding her of it often next year, me thinks.

the end!!!

the much dreamed of day has finally arrived: schools out for the summer!!! i dont have much planned for the summer, ive been looking into a job to keep me busy, but so far all paths have been dead ends. if i dont end up finding anything ill probably have to plan a cool road trip for the end of the summer or something.
i wont be posting on here as regularly after today (mostly because i dont actually have the internet at my house...) but ill try and keep updating whenever i get the chance!

'the morning' by andrew osenga

buy this album.
heres why.

memorial weekend

to be honest, not very memorable. i was feeling crappy all week, so i knew i would be laying fairly low during the weekend. friday i went to the library to get some movies for the long weekend (they are free, and i knew i wouldnt have to bring them back until this morning) so i got five. if you want to know more about which ones go here. i didnt dare go outside too much for fear of melting. it was rediculously hot here this weekend. on thursday it was around 68, by the time saturday rolled around it was in the high ninties, and over that with the humidity! i like to think of myself as a kind man, but all bets are off in that kind of weather. i turn from mild-mannered teacher into 'HULK SMASH!!!' needless to say, i kept most of my activities indoors. i got a sneak peek at what life will be like after this week: pure lazy fun! ahh, i cant wait...
but first there are a few more events before the year can be called 'over', such as: tonight is 8th grade graduation. hopefully it wont be too long. i better go rooting around my closet and see if i cant find that 'once a year' tie...

bye bye 8th graders

though the sixth and seventh graders still have a week of school left, the eight graders had their last day today. its sad to see them go, but its exciting to know they are ready to move on. the selfish part of me wants them to stick around because they are so much fun and i will really miss the conversations and discussions we had together, but the teacher part of me is impressed and joyful about what they have accomplished over the past three years and excited about their next step into high school!

and just like that *poof* they grow up

it doesnt make sense

i cant figure it out: the weather is great, the sun is out, its in the high 60's, and here i am sick. i thought being sick was only allowed when its bad weather. well, it shouldnt be allowed. sunday i was just sitting around and somehow, amazingly, i could actually feel myself get sick over the course of about 5 minutes. it was one of the strangest observations i have ever been able to witness. and i have been feeling crappy (sore throat and sinus) ever since. ive been trying to take cough drops, but it almost seems like they make it worse.
today my voice got so horse that i actually had to stop class because i couldnt continue without coughing. i hadnt planned to, but i just had them read their textbooks the rest of the hour. i really should consider staying home tomorrow, but i wont. ive only got six and a half days of work left until august, i would feel pretty stupid to not be able to handle that... i guess ill just try to get to bed on time tonight (although last time i did that i was up tossing and turning until three a.m.)

that was rather nice

im just getting back from talking to an old friend. we used to be really close and would hang out all the time. we would often talk for a long time at the end of the day. but about a year ago we had a bit of a falling out. i didnt budge, nor did she. we went our seperate ways. we still kept a business relationship, but we would never really talk anymore. slowly, i think we have both let the wound heal and are now able to chit chat here and there.
today i was just over talking with her for about 45 minutes. it was lovely. i guess i had forgotten how well we got along and how nice it is to connect with her. i dont know if we will return to that social friendship, but i look forward to deepening our working relationship; you know, a friend, not just a collegue.

it comes up fast on you

im slowly starting to realize that its almost the end of the year for me. usually im counting down the days when spring break hits, but this year i havent really even given it much thought. weve only got 9 days left! yikes!!! thats a good thing and a bad thing. its good because, well, lets face it: then its summer vacation! but its also a bad thing because i have so much to cover yet with the kids before schools out, and because this means the 8th graders will be gone forever! thats a sad thought for me. when i started here the current 8th graders were my homeroom kids, and now they are moving on out of here. there are some really great kids in that class and im really going to miss seeing them everyday. it sounds cheesy, i know, but us teachers really actually do love our students! ive only got them for one more week, so i guess i should make the most of it and enjoy these last few days. either that, or ill just give them all F's so they will have to come back here next year...

the weekend at a glance

here is a quick list of fun stuff i did this weekend:
-went home to michigan
-met curt (who seems like a rather cool guy)
-spent some quality time with my folks
-finally got to chill and talk with the guys again
-caught up with adam
-played play-doh with my nephew
-went to tgi fridays twice in one night
-payed way too much for gas
-had my favorite home cooked dinner
-celebrated mothers day
-when to the grocery store for chocolate milk
-2 hours later, when back for diced pineapples
-visited with both of my grammas
-laughed hysterically with my dad many times about really stupid stuff. a lot.

a special day

happy birthday to my niece jaideyn! she turns one year old today! i dont know what is expected of a one year old, as far as development goes, but when i saw here yesterday she was starting to stand up on her own. she just stands there, not holding on to anything, looking across the room. you can see this look on her face that says 'i want to go over there, but how?!?' im sure she will figure out that riddle soon!

as it is

its been a while since my last post, partly that has been due to my wanting to leave quickly after school last week (mowing the lawn, running to the bank, post office, etc) and also due to the lack of things to say. some times i feel like sharing, other times i dont. so it goes.

lights, camera, auction!

saturday was quite a strange day. our school had its annual auction to raise money. its always successful and alot of fun. this year the ladies who are in charge of setting the whole thing up came up to me and asked if i would be interested in donating anything for the auction. i asked what might they have in mind? she said that the local mini golf place gave us four tickets, and was wondering if i would be willing to go play mini golf with a few students on a saturday afternoon. they would then auction off two of this activity. i thought 'well, that sounds fun, i would like to do that with the students even without the auction!' so i said yes.
as this weekend grew closer i started to get a little nervous. how much would i go for? heres what i was afraid of: what if i only go for a couple dollars? i try not to be proud, but that would be a bit of a blow to my confidence. but then i got scared of the opposite: what if it goes for alot of money and the students realize that im not really that cool, and they wasted their money on this? i couldnt win, so i decided that i wasnt going to think about it.
saturday came and my item came up. it was really crazy because some of the parents were bidding on it and i felt totally strange. after it was all over i peeked my head back up to see what had happened. it turns out that it went for way too much: 2 parents actually paid $325 bucks for their student to spend an afternoon mini golfing with me! yikes! i better make it worth their money...

wii. my thoughts

spiritual gifts test

we have been doing spiritual gifts tests this week in 8th grade. it has been really interesting to see the students fill them out. looking at some of the results as we went along was kind of cool because i got to see some of the students realize things about themselves for the first time. some of the students are realizing that they havent given any thought to what they are called to and what they excell at, while other students are figuring out the focus they always had.
one of my students came up to me after class while we were filling out the test and said 'am i doing this wrong? i seem to be getting really high numbers in a lot of these categories. is that right?' it was funny to me because it was absolutely right. hes just starting to realize how blessed he is by God. this guy loves to serve, hes an amazing leader, he constantly encourages, and he is passionate about scriptures and prayer. the only thing hes missing is pride. not too bad, huh? seeing his response to this test has been cool because hes gaining some self confidence and is realizing what God is calling him to. there are quite a few other kids who are begining to understand and figure out how to put their gifts to use.
its great to see these kids begin to step out and own their faith, it makes it all worth it!

sick. but funny.

i was talking to a friend last night about how much we like pets. she has a cat and loves it but sometimes gets sick of it. we started talking about if i have ever thought about getting a dog. i said that i would love to, in fact, i really want a dog. the big problem for me though is the committment end of it. not that i have any fear of committment, i just travel around a bit on the weekends, and would get really sick of trying to find a place for it every time i needed to go away.
as we talked about it more i also said "one of the biggest things keeping me from getting a dog is the fact that its not just a committement for now, but actually for ten to fifteen years!"
she said "thats true..."
"i could easily do it if it meant for just a year or two" i told her
"maybe you should get a 14 year old dog then!" she laughed
i said "but its when they are puppies that they are the best, i dont want someone elses old dog." its at this point that i came up with one of the sickest, most depraived suggestions ever as a solution: "i know, what i really want is a puppy with cancer!!!"

lawn work

wow, i really hate lawn work. i, unfortunately, spend most of my saturday doing lawn work. sure, it would have been a lot easier if i had actually not procrastinated and instead mowed the lawn a week ago. but no, i decide to wait until the grass is about as tall as king kong before i finally cave in and mow.
i started off putting the bag on to catch the grass. that didnt last long. instead i ended up going over everything twice (there by taking longer, and making me hate it more).
as i was mowing i decided to make a few changes to my back yard. first, i guess for some reason the old residents thought they could grow a garden in the back. so, i ripped out the 'rabbit keep away' fence and junk. second, i figured i would get rid of the fire pit my other old resident decided to put in. i didnt mind having it, but ive never used it, and im not so sure about its legality. so out it went.
after taking far too long and making me far too annoyed, i finished up the lawn. the problem is i know that beast will reer its ugly head again way too soon.

finally!

phew! this has been a very hectic couple of weeks! i have been keeping way too busy these past two weeks (well, except for the good friday vacation day...) i have been swamped with extra activities that took a lot of extra time and effort (two things im not used to). last week i had to plan and coordinate the easter chapel for school. i plan most chapels at school, but this one was for all the grades, so it has to be 'extra special'. it was alot of details that needed to be taken care of- kids needed to practice skit, we needed a set, helpers to work the set, people to set up, a power point slide show for the songs and graphics, etc. it went over well, so i guess its all worth it right? also, yesterday our school had an extra fundraiser and i was tapped to take care of the decoraions for it. sounds easy, but i really hate using cheesy decorations you can buy in stores. i typically prefer to make them myself. which takes alot more time and alot more stress... but that was last night, so thats out of the way too! the other thing that has been looming over my head was redoing my bathroom. i had started last weekend and i finally got it done this weekend (well, i still need to install the new door knob). also i had a bunch of friends over monday night so i wanted it finished and the place cleaned up as well.
but now all that is taken care of. now i can sit back and relax. at least until the next stressful event shows up.

good friday

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
Luke 23:44-46, Mark 15:39.

this weekend

im not entirely sure what i have up this weekend. my folks first said they wanted to come down with my sis, bro-in-law, and the kids. but i guess tim has a lot of work to do, so he cant afford the time off, so he cant come. my sis then says maybe she should stay home with the kids then, my dad then says he doesnt see the point in coming down just the two of them, and my mom wants to go to their church for easter. so maybe they wont come down. or maybe they will. so, my weekend is still rather undecided at this point. if they come down it will be alot of fun, but if they dont maybe i can actually get caught up on my school work and other projects. either way im sure it will be a busy weekend!

gameworks

another fun thing about the trip up to minneapolis was going to a place called 'gameworks'. its a big video arcade for adults (i dont mean 'adults' as in bad stuff, i mean an arcade with a bar in it). the place was big and they had a lot of games to play (most of them were sega games, but i tried not to complain too much...) with tons of driving sims and stuff. we had some coupons so we got to play 10 or 15 games for only five bucks each!
they even had ski ball! certainly one of my favorites, and, as i guess is manditory, that game gives out tickets that you can trade in for crappy stuff. at one point while we were playing, robbs ski ball machine decided that he had won it all and just started spitting out the tickets! and then it kept going. and going. and going. eventually the machine emptied out and robb got about 350 tickets when he should have only gotten about 8! the only problem was this: even with 350 tickets all you can get is crap! so, we figured we would be nice and we found a young kid who was there and we gave them all to her.
after a while we got bored and we headed over to coldstone for ice cream, which is always top of the line!

ps. the next day we heard on the news that someone was shot and killed on the street corner in front of gameworks about 20 minutes after we left. yikes.