Remember Our Troops

Christmas came and went, and it is hard to believe that we will be starting a new year in a couple of days. We had a wonderful Christmas with both of our families; I will post some pictures soon.

This song has made me think about the men and women in our armed forces who did not get to spend Christmas with their families this year. I spent Christmas away from extended family for several years while my family was on the missionfield, and that was hard enough. I can't imagine not being with any family at Christmas. Please take the time to listen; although this is not specifically a Christmas song, I know that you will be touched. There are pictures that go along with the song, but sometimes they won't play on a slower connection.

Singing Santa

You probably haven't ever heard Christmas singing quite like this. Go ahead and click on it; you know you're curious.

Belated Thanksgiving Pictures

We ate our first Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday with my family, and then we had a fun time playing games. My mom gave me a good reason to be thankful; she made ham instead of turkey (I am not a turkey fan!).


On Wednesday we drove down to North Carolina. My one aunt and uncle were the only ones that knew we were going down, so it was a nice surprise for my parents and grandparents. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at my aunt's place on Thursday morning.


Grandma and Grandpa really seem to be enjoying their meal.

Grandpa has always been one of my heroes. He has not been doing well physically for several years now, so I'm thankful for every opportunity to let him spend time with his only great-grandchild.

I don't know which Devin enjoyed more: spending time with his second cousins or their dog.

We left to head back up to Pennsylvania at 5:30 A.M. on Friday morning to make it home in time for Thanksgiving with Missy's side of the family that afternoon. Devin isn't quite old enough to play "Sorry" with his cousins.

How Fast Are You

How fast are you? Try taking this driver's reaction time test; it's pretty fun. The automible driving manual says that the average driver's reaction time is: .75 seconds or 1 car lenght for every ten mph. My best average on the game was .194something. If you do better than that, let me know what your time was.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf


In other news:

• -I obviously didn't get around to posting Thanksgiving pictures, but some may appear in the near future.
• -I haven't figured out how to post a link without having to show the actual link, and would appreciate some pointers.
• -I didn't get a deer in gun season, which may be a first since I started hunting (I don't remember for sure).
• -Christmas is exactly two weeks from 28 minutes from now, if that makes any sense. If it doesn't make sense, it is still true.
• -I really should go to bed, since I am in a very goofy mood.

Hunting Woes

Well, a very busy week and a half is over, and now we are getting ready for a very busy Christmas season. It is amazing how many activities we can pack in around holidays. I will post some pictures this coming week from our Thanksgiving get-togethers.

Deer rifle season is halfway over, and I still have not shot a deer. Last Monday was opening day her in PA, and it rained all day. I hunt with my father-in-law and two brother-in-laws (Jason and Scott), and none of us got anything. The weather on Tuesday was better, but we still didn't have any success. We hunted yesterday, and Jason shot a nice doe at about 10:00. I walked up to him after he shot it, and he said that I could sit in his spot. He had already seen seven deer, and I hadn't seen anything where I was sitting. So, I sat at Jason's spot for the rest of the day. Jason went home and didn't come back until about an hour and a half before quitting time. He sat in my spot from that morning, and guess what? That's right, deer came by him three different times within about an hour's time! Oh well, I guess that's the way that hunting goes.

I had better success at foosball than I did with hunting.

I know that this is a little late for Thanksgiving, but I just saw it today and thought it was neat.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=0183913358

Busy Time of Year

The last several days have been quite busy. We have eaten three Thanksgiving meals, spent around 17 hours on the road for a quick trip to North Carolina, gone rat hunting (more on that in a moment), and done other miscellaneous important and not so important things. At the moment we are caring for a very sick baby. Devin came down with something; he was running a fever of up to 103, and earlier this afternoon he had the chills really bad and then threw up. We are planning to head out tomorrow to Missy's brother's place, where we will be hunting. Those plans may change, depending on what happens with Devin.

I set a rat trap out a couple of days ago but have not caught our critter. However, there are plenty of signs that he is still very active. Since nothing else has worked, Missy's two brothers and dad came over last night and we went rat hunting. First we snuck around outside with .22s and a shotgun. Then we tore some skirting off of our trailer and shined our flashlights all around underneath it, but we didn't see anything. Then we went inside, set some bait out, and waited with a .22 and birdshot, but nothing happened. Although we weren't successful, but we had fun in the process.

My brother-in-law brought a 4-wheeler with him from Ohio. Can you believe that my dear mother-in-law refused to let me take her for a ride? I don't know why in the world she wouldn't; I was just trying to be nice.

Critter Problems

I am sad to announce that we have a critter in our trailor! That's right, some creature has been sneaking into our kitchen at night and devouring anything that it finds in its path. I'm not sure what kind of a creature we are dealing with, but it is pretty big. The first night it came out it left a set of tracks across our stove (I know that is disgusting), and they sure weren't mouse tracks. My guess is that our critter is either a rat or a squirrel. To date it has eaten half a bag of chocolate chips, a pack of wheat thins, half of a bag of those noodle things that you put on salads, a good bit of bread, a biscuit, an undetermined portion of our flour, and chunks out of six potatoes. It has climbed up into our cabinet drawers, into our trash can which has a swinging lid, and onto our sink. We know it was on our sink because it carried off a sponge that Missy uses to do dishes. Now, it has started gnawing on a corner of our cabinets, leaving a nice little pile of wood chips on the floor in the morning. Needless to say, I am quite fed up with whatever it is!

Shortly after after it attacked the first time, I put out some rat poison. The crazy thing didn't even touch the poison for about five days. Now it has eaten poison on at least four different occasions, and still nothing is happening. I have looked at four different places for rat traps but haven't found any yet (they must not make rat traps in China, because Wal-Mart doesn't even have them). As soon as I find one, hopefully our creature will be history. I had been waiting on getting a trap because I kept thinking that the poison would do it's job, but it hasn't seemed to be working. So, I will let you know when this conflict is resolved.

I think this is it's entrance hole. I haven't covered it because I have been putting the poison by it. Notice the potato it drug into the corner.

I thought that this poison would work; it was expensive enough.

Ten days later, and it is still eating poison.

Hawaii, Here I Come!

Devin says that the weather is getting entirely too cold. He says that he misses being able to play outside like he could a couple of weeks ago, and that if this weather keeps up he is going to Hawaii.

A Comment on Comments

I have been rather discouraged over the fact that I have not received any comments to any of my posts for a long, long time. Granted, I don't know whether I would comment on my blog if I were someone else (if that makes any sense), but that is beside the point. Today a fellow blogger informed me that he had tried to leave comments on my blog a couple of times and couldn't. Sure enough, for some reason my "allow comments" option was turned off. So for all of you frustrated fans out there who have been dying to leave a comment on my blog, like my dear mother-in-law for instance, I have fixed the problem and you may now feel free to do so. And just for your information, I know that my mother-in-law is one of my greatest fans, although I am sure that she would never admit it.

Tigger

We don't celebrate Halloween, but I think that this little Tigger would have been given lots of candy.

Musicians, Meat, a Miffed Sister-in-Law, and Missions

As you can tell, Devin is going to be quite a musician when he grows up. We knew he had talent, but we didn't know how much until the other day when he sat down at the piano and started playing Mozart. OK, maybe that is a slight exageration, but we are still very proud of him.

I finally got my first deer with a bow. I haven't hunted archery that much, but I really wanted to get a deer with my bow this year. I have a blast gun hunting (no pun intended), but archery just adds a whole new dynamic to the sport. When this monster buck walked by me at 25 yards, I just couldn't resist. After I shot this button buck, I did feel a little guilty when I realized that Bambi will never have the experience of going sliding on the ice.

As you can see, my dear sister-in-law, Romelda Susan, is miffed at me because I have posted pictures of my two other sister-in-laws on my blog and have never posted a picture of her. I don't like to see her unhappy, so I promised that I would post a picture of her too.

On a more serious note, I am happy to share that Missy and I will be going to Costa Rica next September as full time missionaries, Lord willing. We will be working under Evangelistic Faith Missions. While this is a big and somewhat frightening step, we are excited to be able to fulfill the call that God has placed on our lives. We would appreciate all the prayer support that we can get as we start to transition into this new realm of ministry.

50th Birthday Party

A couple of weeks ago we had a 50th birthday party for my dad. We did a little something for him on his birthday, but my mom waited a few weeks after that to have his actual party. By waiting, we actually caught him completely by surprise (something that rarely happens with my dad).

My dad has been an awesome father to me. I can honestly say that he is my number one spiritual hero; that means a lot. I have told him before that if I can be as good of a father to my children as he has been to me, I will be satisfied. Thanks dad, for everything. I love you!

Big Shoes to Fill

I know this picture is a little out of date, but I never got around to posting it and I think it is really cute.

Missions and Michigan

Well, the last couple of weeks have been very busy for us. On August the 6th, we took our youth group to New Mexico on a missions trip. We got home early on the 14th, and then turned around on 16th to head up to Michigan for my cousin's wedding. So, I at least have a legitimate reason for not posting for a while.

Our missions trip to New Mexico was great. We worked with the McCaslands, missionaries to the Navajos. Our youth group helped with several work projects, held a VBS throughout the week, and then we had special services on the weekend. The country out there is beautiful, and the people were so nice. The young people worked hard, and God really helped us. We averaged about 45 kids throuhout the week at the VBS. On Sunday night there were about 80 Indians in the service, and at the close of the message over 20 of them (mostly young people and adults) prayed to get saved!

Devin did awesome with flying.

The McCaslands had three horses, and we rode them a lot.

We went swimming in this lake.

What is a Gardener?

So, what exactly is a gardener? I have been asking myself that question, since I am trying to determine whether or not I am one. If a gardener is someone who plants a garden and then lovingly and tenderly cares for that garden multiple times a week (like my inlaws), then I am definitely not a gardener. However, I did plant a garden this year. My problem is that I like the results of a garden (especially corn on the cob), but I don't like the upkeep of a garden. I did till the ground before I planted, but that was the only time that I tilled. I don't pull weeds much either. After all, who needs to pull weeds when you have one of these?

I planted cauliflower this year. I read somewhere that you are supposed to tie up the leaves to keep the heads from getting bleached out. I figured that it would be easier to tape them up.

So, if that is not the way to garden, then I guess that I am not a gardener. However, if a gardener is determined by his produce, then maybe I would be qualified as a gardener afterall.

Talent Show!

Not just any baby could do this!

Monthly Post

Well, it is time for my monthly post. I actually have a lot of stuff that I could blog about, but I just never get around to it. Part of the problem is that I rarely get around to loading our pictures from our camera to our computer.

We had a fun July 4th week. I got the whole week off from work, so we went out to Missy's brother Scott's the first weekend, and her brother Jason's place on the second weekend. We haven't been out to Scotts for probably more than a year, so that was nice.

My mother-in-law was pretty impressed with my father-in-laws softball skills, and I must admit that he did pretty good.

As usual, Devin got plenty of attention!

On July 4th we went with my parents to the Penn State fireworks. If you have never been to them, you really should go. They are rated as one of the top ten in the country, and are amazing.

A New Birth

This past Saturday was one of the most exciting days of my life, I think. One of the mothers of two of our bus kids got saved! It is awesome to see that God still is able to change lives, and He even lets us have a little part in it. It is also exciting to see the power of prayer in action. After Anette had prayed clear through, she told me that it might sound strange, but she had been feeling that people were praying for her for a little while. I really wasn't surprised, because I knew that people had been praying for her, and I believe that God honors our prayers. Sunday she came to church and there was an obvious change in her. Please pray for Anette as she would come to your mind. She is going through some very tough situations in her life, but I believe that she is going to make it.

A Great Father's Day

I hope that they rest of you fathers had as happy a father's day as I did. Missy made my first father's day really special. And I must admit, I am pretty proud to be the father of a little man as handsome as this!

They Say I Need More Pictures

My sister-in-law informed me that I need to post more pictures on my blog. Hopefully this will maker her happy.

Actually, I think that she wanted me to post more pictures of Devin. So, Sarah, here you are.