Other Thanksgiving highlights

I left out a few highlights...

We cut down a dead branch from Grandma and Grandpa's tree in the front yard. It was Dave, Tyson, Uncle Tim, Uncle Andrew and me.

Chinese students are usually really shy ( by the way, my grandparents invite international students over who are part of their Bible class ). One though, asked Tyson for his email and phone number.

And here is a pic that Uncle Andrew took:

big weekend #2

We went to Manhattan for Thanksgiving to my grandparents' house. Courtney's trail mix was a big hit. I'm glad because she spent about 4 hours making it. A special part of our celebration was when my cousin Derek called from Iraq. I got to talk to him over the phone, and say thanks for his service. My cousin Ben also called from West Asia.

Then Friday we went to Courtney's parents for another Thanksgiving meal. At night we hung out with some friends.

Saturday we hung Christmas lights, raked leaves, and cleaned out the gutters. I called my dad over for help, because it felt like we was going to be raking for hours. So he came over. What a guy. Then after dark we sanded our bathroom walls.

We sold a piece of music equipment on EBay. It sold for more than expected. So praise the Lord!

pic of me bearded

I have a beard that some of you have not seen yet:

Self-portrait. Behind me are wonderfully colored leaves from the tree in our backyard.

True Spirituality

I have changed my schedule around to allow for me to finish reading books. I have a huge number of books that were given to me by my parents or grandparents, or which I purchased at Urbana, or through IVP Press. And at the rate I was going, I was going to be reading these my entire life. I could just drop them, but I feel I really should read them.

Therefore, I just finished "True Spirituality" by Francis Schaeffer. I've read probably about 70 pages in the last 3 days during the lunch hour. This has been an incredibly enlightening and inspiring book. But the fact is that it is so meaty, that I think I forget what I've read about 10 minutes later.

But I would read it again. Sometime I'll post a list of all the books I've read recently, and all the ones I'm going to read.


So that I don't have a completely pictureless blog, I will post a picture below:




Francis Shaeffer is the best intellectual writing I've ever read, because the intellectual statements are not the end point, but he stresses that devotion to God is the end point. He refers to end point as integration point.

It is true that each of us has an integration point. In modern day songs, integration point is referred to as the "center", as in the song "Be the Center." Our focus and purpose is in Him.

middle school retreat

Courtney had a great time at the middle school retreat. She is writing a letter to each of the girls. Our church is really lucky to have such a wonderful volunteer youth worker.

What a weekend

Wow, what a weekend. Mo and I went to the Silent Auction for YouthFront. Courtney organized and did work for a lot of it. She was there from about 9 AM to 11 PM. The auction started at 6:30. Mo bid on about half the stuff, including $120 for a pair of $45 Jayhawks tickets. But luckily people outbid her on most of the stuff. Courtney and I won a few bids.

Then this morning before 8, Courtney packed her bag, and went to the Middle School Fall Retreat for church. she is teaching sunday school for the girls, and wanted to get to know them better.

I helped Ann and Nate Kurtz (Ann is my cousin) on their house. Part of that is showing up to play Ultimate Frisbee at 10 AM. So I went there and was surprised to see a few acquaintances for the first time since college. Raul and Sharon Morfii, Michael, and Tommy. And of course Christian and Katherine Zouein, my cousins, were there. Then I cooked some excellent brats and burgers for the workers at the house. Then I helped Christian to install Ann and Nate's wood floor. It is slow going, moving about 2 linear feet per hour. Their entire house is going to have the floor installed, so I think that will take a large number of hours...

It's not over. Then at 4:45 I headed home to mow the lawn. The battery had died, so I hooked up my new trickle charger. I had to wait 30 minutes (as I was losing daylight), and finally got the lawn mower to start and stay started.

So all this involved walking, running, throwing, bending, kneeling, pounding, standing, sweeping, sitting for over an hour because I was afraid the mower would die, and typing right now. And i'll look forward to hearing from Courtney about all she did at the retreat.

Facing the Giants

For Mo's 30's birthday we went to dinner and saw Facing the Giants. This was a very good film about Christian living. Some parts are not applicable, because the football team gets very religious. Courtney and I both went to public high schools. She did go to a Christian college and works in a Christian setting. But the idea of being "preachy" in a educational and work setting is not possible in the culture I live in. My company even has some Christian undertones, but being preachy would be inappropriate.

But besides that, it did include a guy walking down the halls of the school, praying for students. That does happen here in real life. He also dropped by the football coach's office, and said a random piece of Scripture, and said "I felt God wanted me to tell you that today". That kind of thing happens in our lives. The football coach was faced with the decision of praising God even in the very tough times. That happens to people. The student who was flunking, and then gave his life to God, then started to do very well academically. I believe in the power of Christ to change a life, and it very much affects academics. I felt it was much more applicable and inspiring to my life than any usual movie.

The other weird thing is that things ended up perfect. I don't sense in real life that things ever get easy, or that things ever come to a full happy conclusion. I don't think the movie was trying to say that things end up perfectly, but the end did feel a little fake in that way.

Halloween

We only had 8 kids stop by for Halloween (granted we took off around 8 for our small group). There are only 2 kids on our block, and they were with their mom in a different town. (Ta-Town)

In other news, I have gone approximately 137 straight business days without taking a vacation day! (Not counting "free" ones like Labor Day and July 4) (And not counting the half-day I took off for a class about trains) (And not counting the afternoon I took off to hang out with BJ)

I have not taken one since our honeymoon. We would take a vacation, but winter is not the most convenient time.