Family Photos

We are all together for a short moment; here is our moment...

Funny thing with cell phones…

I’m cooking outside when I get a text message from a number I don’t recognize.

The message string goes like this:

Text “Hey”

I don’t know who it is so I text a “?”

Text “Whats wrong?”

I still don’t know this person “Who r u?”

Text “Miriam”

I know a Miriam but don’t text with her, so I send “Are you trying to reach Mark?”

Text “Whos mark?”

I text “I am.”

They text “Oh, how old are you?”

Oh brother, I text “Older than dirt”

They text “Haha”

Encampment 2009

• The sun cooked 'em (heat index of over 104)
• And burned 'em (everyone had some lobster spots)
• The bugs ate 'em (average bug bites per leg over 20)
• Mother Nature soaked 'em (rain on Wednesday and Saturday)
  

On Saturday we brought our burnt, bug eaten, soaked, hungry, tired carcasses home!

Encampment 2009 was "Fantastic"! (as Jack would say).

As the saying goes. "Leave only footprints, and take nothing but memories". We left footprints:

• On the Disc Golf courses ["Dude, good times"]
  
• At the range (way to go Robinhood Chris and Tristin)
• At the Merit Badge classes [the Deacons each worked on 3-4 MBs, my favorite was watching Matt D. dance his fly fishing rod like a pro],
  
• At the beach watching the cardboard and duct tape boats sink with their passengers
• At the climbing tower [but don't touch the black ones, they burn your hands - Daniel]
• Footprints in the night to help a neighbor take down his tent while he's a sleep - Matt C.
• To the shower that was stuck on the coldest setting - can you say "refreshing"?
• At the secret lodge where we snuck in for some air conditioned games of Perudo [you gotta' get out of the heat] and wood carving - Tristin

Wind Power

Okay, call me crazy but I've been interested in this "going green" thing. So I did some research and looked at ideas on the net for wind power. I didn't want to put the time into making propellers, and I didn't want a sky scraper over my roof. Here is my first attempt. Next I need to connect a DC motor and see if I can charge a battery. Stay tuned. Oh, by the by so far it has cost me $4.00 and 8 hours of time.

The 23 Years

The 23 Years!

Mary and I will soon celebrate 23 years of marriage.

I love you dear!

Okinawa Japan

Okinawa has been fantastic! The weather was warm, it rained the first day and today (Saturday). We had an accident this morning on our way to go diving. Rob missed the stop sign and we hit a lady's car in the back end, she fishtailed and hit the other side against a tree. Everyone was okay but, No last dive today.

The glass factory was cool (I mean hot), they have a giant furnace. Rob and I blew glass to make goblets, then as they spun the glass we formed the shape. My glove and sleeve protector had a gap and my arm got a little burn. Ouch. We go back to pick up the glass this afternoon. Rob's kids want to do it too.

My SCUBA dives were neat. The first dive was a short one to get me familiar and comfortable with the equipment. I was nervous, my mask had a little leak so I had to keep clearing it by blowing air through my nose, I also forgot to clear my ears so they were painful until Rob gave the okay hand sign (something divers do to check in with their buddy) I pointed to my ears and Rob pinched his nose and filled his cheeks with air to remind me. Once I cleared them I was good. It was not very clear because of the waves, but we did see a little sea life and Rob played with a sea snake. They are venomous but we wear wet suits that completely cover us, as well as gloves, and boots; so only a little bit of our face is not covered.

Getting in and out was the hardest part due to the weight (20 lbs of weights, 20 lbs tank, wet suit, water weight, and tired legs).

The second and third dives were much nicer, I felt comfortable. I am an air hog, meaning I breath air quickly so it doesn't last as long as Rob and Jim (Rob's friend). Rob and I shared his tank for a while so we didn't have to get out as soon. I saw both hard and soft corals, clown fish, pipe fish, scorpion (lion) fish, jelly fish, sea cucumbers, nudybronk (don't know how to spell - little colorful sea slugs with no shell), crabs, sea urchin, all kinds of star fish, an eel, and a lot of sea snakes. I took some pictures.

My third dive was a little freaky. There were jelly fish all over the place, most were not the kind that sting but it was like swimming in soup. Then Rob and Jim had talked about getting 'narked' when you go past 90' and were planning to go to 120 so that had me a bit concerned. As we descended my mask felt like a ton of bricks was on it, I just needed to let air out through my nose but since I was shook up I was not thinking clearly. The decent was faster than I felt comfortable and the bottom looked endless, I was freaked out so I stopped and hung to the side of the cliff (we were at 80 feet down). So we went up to 60 feet and there was a shelf; that took away a lot of my fear as I had a bottom under me. We found a scorpion (lion) fish which was cool.

The 4th dive (my last) the surf and surge was high, when we got in I swallowed two gulps of ocean trying to breath through the snorkel, then the waves were bouncing me all over, my BCD vest was full of air to help me float and squeezing my stomach; needless to say I felt sick. Rob helped me out and then he and Jim did the dive with out me. I bought a Coke to settle my stomach. My stomach felt sick the rest of the day. Even now typing about it brings the ick to my stomach.

The weather was raining and windy so we didn't get to go to the site we had planned, as we were heading to a different spot we had the accident. That messed up our time, and since the weather was bad no last dive.

The first dive

Rob and I went SCUBA diving this morning at the Sunabi Seawall in Okinawa. It was great! The water was nice. There was a little wind, so the surf was up and the water wasn't very clear but, we did see some fish and a couple of sea snakes. It took a little while for me to adjust and remember to clear my ears.

Rob has an under water cover for his camera so we (I) took some pictures;
Rob took this picture of me.
I have a hat on, so my hair looks strange... but if yooou concentrate and look deeeeep into my eyes you will see - it's me!

Okinawa Japan - Trip to the beach

Saturday Rob and Steve took me to the beach (it was raining but we got some nice photos). Okinawa reminds me of Hawaii, lots of vegetation including sugar cane, pineapple, and palm trees. Here are some of the photos of Okinawa outside in the rain.

Japan

I made it to Japan! It is warm and humid (its been raining and you can feel the moisture in the air). Rob and Steph and the family are doing well. We got to bed late (1 AM) as everyone came in around mid night from the play practice.

Rob and I stopped for Curry oh man it was yummy! Rob had a CALPS drink for me right away in the car, it's a yogurt drink that I love and always ask for when ever I get care packages from Japan.

I met some nice people on the flights here. A student at the U of M (Joo-young not correct spelling) returning to Korea for a cousin's wedding. A family going to a wedding in Thailand, their son is getting married, they are American from Illinois. And a man who visits the Asia Seventh Day Adventist schools from Michigan.

I'll work on getting photos up soon.

Jewelry Box in Stained Glass

My first jewelry boxes were more "box" than "jewelry" though each has its own theme and they turned out nice; I made a leap with my last two jewelry boxes. I designed a_heart_inside_a_heart. I opted to not patina (color) the solder as I think the silver adds to the beauty (and since all my work is lead-free it is safe too).

Some day I'll figure out how to make money with this hobby, but for now I'm having a great time coming up with new ideas. My next project will be to make a drawer in the bottom of a jewelry box.

Let me know what you think...

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The Hershey's kiss (hugs) help establish the size.

Quote for life.....

I was listening to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) and a guest speaker gave me a nugget. She said. "Everything will be okay in the end; And if it's not okay, it's not the end."

This goes well with President Payne's saying. "Nobody gets out alive."

So, keep it real! And keep your perspective!

My miracle - Thank you!

My little miracle (okay miracles aren’t measured big or little, but here’s my story). I lost my cell phone a few weeks ago. I was bummed, it was new in a new holder; it was going to take a long time to get 200+ contacts loaded into another phone.

I went shoveling at the neighbors who, for age and health reasons are unable to shovel snow. Then, I went to pick up a friend and her child for our family night (her car has bad tires and we just got a lot of snow), while I waited for them to come out, I shoveled a walking path on their driveway. On the way to my house we saw a mini-van stuck in the snow. We stopped and helped the van out.

At home I realize I can’t find my cell phone, I can’t remember if I had it with me or not… It’s a bit disappointing when I look around the house and the car without locating it. I know from past experience winter camping that snow is a thief and there are three or more locations the snow could have robbed me.

I decided there was only one who could help me, the one who knows all. I prayed, Heavenly Father if it is thy will, help locate my cell phone.

Prayer alone is not enough, so I went looking. I went to all the locations my phone could have been and called my number from Mary’s phone. I could not hear a single chirp from my phone, I could tell it was active as I didn’t go directly to voice-mail, but if it was at these locations it was buried.

I continued to pray. I figured if it showed up at the shoveling locations someone would find it and I would get it back. So, the area of concern was the street corner where I had pulled the mini-van out. I drove by the corner and looked for my phone. Soon the snow was plowed back by the snow plow, my faith was being tested, I could just picture my phone smashed to pieces and buried ‘til spring.

I prayed more and hoped for the best. In the mean time I replaced my phone, but didn’t load phone numbers unless I had to call or received a call.

Saturday we had a big melt and I was able to clear a lot of snow and ice from the driveway. After the basketball game I was driving home and felt I should drive by the corner again. I stopped the car. I walked along the street scanning the ground. Guess what I found on top of the snow bank – my phone, still in its case. It works just like the day I lost it.

It was a miracle, and I am grateful God answers prayers. Sometimes He answers “Yes”, sometimes “No”, and sometimes, like this time, the answer is “in time, be patient”.

Not my phone but you get the idea...

FireProof Movie

We are always looking for good movies. We started renting from the little red box at the golden arches. Saturday the children were all at different locations so Mary and I watched FireProof together. It has a great message. I enjoyed the focus on marriage and working through life's challenges. After you watch it, tell me what you think of "tomatoe juice".

More stained glass

I wanted to improve the lap shade on my night stand... so using the extra pieces of stained glass I made a new shade. It turned out very nice (don't you think?).

Shawni's First Date

Shawni and I went out for her first date... we had a lot of fun. We shopped for the "perfect" puzzle; Shawni likes to put puzzles together. I do too, but with my trouble seeing true colors it has to be the right piece shapes as well. Big Ben puzzles are difficult for me as the pieces are too uniform and small. We were tempeted to get an 18,000 piece puzzle but decided against it... Where would we do a puzzle that finishes at 6' x 9' ???

In the end we didn't find the "perfect" puzzle, but it was fun looking.

We did stop at the photo store and took some great photos. Here is one of my favorites:

Somethings just need to be changed!!!

This little video is a stink!

As Larry the Cucumber says.
"I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob!"

I hope you get a laugh too...

When running today I saw a Lion resting in someone’s front yard. Needless to say I increased by running speed. I must have run fast enough; it never caught me. just to be safe, I may change my running route tomorrow.

It was a bit chilly running today due to the wind and 10 degree F temperatures, I don’t know what the wind chill was but it sure felt nice when my back was to the wind.