To bring you up to date...
My beautiful bride tested positive for Lyme's Disease a while back, went on antibiotics for a month, and now seems to be doing fine! Thank the Lord!
Ryan has been complaining of soreness for a while, so we took him to the Dr. for a Lyme's test. Yesterday, the Dr. called, and the test was negative! Thank the Lord! Read about his ordeal here.
Then, Friday night, we saw a tiny spot on Sean. Yep, a tick. A deer tick to be exact. They're the ones that carry all kinds of nastiness. Usually when we find a tick on the boys (which seems to be fairly often), we just pull it out. This one, however, was totally embedded in his chunky thigh, and I couldn't get it out. So, Saturday morning, my beautiful bride took him to the Dr., where they had to hold him down and dig it out. Read about that ordeal here.
That's the news here!
So, as a word of advice, check your kids for ticks. And, husbands & wives check each other for ticks. Often. even if you don't need it just to be sure. Here's a public service announcement about tick checking...
Click here to watch it.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Throat-Singing Thursday!
DO NOT LEAVE THIS PAGE WITHOUT WATCHING THESE VIDEOS!! There are some videos that will change your life. These will not. But, you just have to watch them anyway, or at least just watch 2 minutes of each. It's only 6 minutes total. What's 6 minutes among friends?
Ok, you might think I'm weird, but that's alright. i'm in the middle of preparing lessons for school, and I've been researching some different styles of "world" music.
This is Tuvan Throat Singing. Tuva is a small republic, part of the Russian Federation, just north of Mongolia. They have a type of singing called Throat Singing. It's kind of a vague term, but it's a singing style that uses the muscles of the voice to create overtones. Throat singers can sing multiple notes at the same time using the overtones produced in their voices, as well as the shape of their mouths to create other sounds.
1st - "Sygyt" - A throat singing style that creates kind of a whistling sound in the voice...
2nd - Kargyraa - A low "Growling" sound combined with vocal shaping to create some cool sounds.
3rd (This is the best one in my opinion...) A guy who uses Kargyraa along with some seriously high falsetto in the second verse of the song. Wow, what a range! I have absolutely NO IDEA what he's singing about, but it's really quite a moving song. The best part is at 4:37 into the song, he starts playing what can only be described as ancient Mongolian heavy metal.
Now, don't you feel better having watched those??
Ok, you might think I'm weird, but that's alright. i'm in the middle of preparing lessons for school, and I've been researching some different styles of "world" music.
This is Tuvan Throat Singing. Tuva is a small republic, part of the Russian Federation, just north of Mongolia. They have a type of singing called Throat Singing. It's kind of a vague term, but it's a singing style that uses the muscles of the voice to create overtones. Throat singers can sing multiple notes at the same time using the overtones produced in their voices, as well as the shape of their mouths to create other sounds.
1st - "Sygyt" - A throat singing style that creates kind of a whistling sound in the voice...
2nd - Kargyraa - A low "Growling" sound combined with vocal shaping to create some cool sounds.
3rd (This is the best one in my opinion...) A guy who uses Kargyraa along with some seriously high falsetto in the second verse of the song. Wow, what a range! I have absolutely NO IDEA what he's singing about, but it's really quite a moving song. The best part is at 4:37 into the song, he starts playing what can only be described as ancient Mongolian heavy metal.
Now, don't you feel better having watched those??
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bring on the Venison Wagon!!
I finally got my new arrows (Thank you, Mr. President for that economic stimulus!). I ended up getting Gold Tip 7595 Expedition Hunter carbons. How do they shoot, you might ask? I'll put it this way - Usually, when you shoot an arrow, you can see the trajectory of the arrow, and follow it to the target. When I shot the first Gold Tip, I pulled the trigger on the release, and the arrow was sticking out the back of the target before my mind had even registered that I had pulled the trigger. Whoa. That was fast.
So, I shot again, this time ready for the incredibly fast flight. I paid reeeeeeeally close attention this time. The trajectory was straight, flat, and fast. No arch, no wobble, just straight. Whoa again. I've spent some time over the past week making sight pin adjustments for the new arrows, and playing around with a Whisker Biscuit arrow rest that my neighbor gave me (Thanks Randy!). After much fiddling, adjusting, shooting, and whoa-ing, I am completely satisfied with the rest and the arrows. Today, I had my best target shooting ever. It was so good, I had to take pictures. This was my first group, shot from 20 yards...
Let's get a closer look, shall we?
Closer? OK!
I hardly ever shoot a group like this. That is a 2 inch blue circle. I could hear the arrows hitting each other with each shot. I'm not quite sure why some of the arrows went in at a different angle. Maybe because they were hitting each other? I don't know.
So, then, I shot from 30 yards (which is pretty much the farthest I'd shoot a deer from in the woods. Here's the 30 yard group...
Whoa.
This is not a normal shot group for me. I'm usually more spread out, but like I said, I had to take pictures it was so unusual.
I am counting down the days until September 13, when the bow season opens in Zone 2. I'm going to scout out a new property on Thursday morning. I am really hoping to fill the freezer with venison this year!
In honor of the impending arrival of hunting season, here's a great hunting story. This story is absolutely true. A fine example of how God provides for my family...
I was hunting in the woods on a friend's farm in October. It was a really slow day. No deer activity at all on a property that almost always has deer going through it. I had spent a good amount of time reading my pocket New Testament that i keep in my bag, and praying for my family. About a half hour before dusk, I was praying. I'll be honest, I was praying for meat. I firmly believe that God provides all our needs, as promised in the Bible, and I was earnestly praying that God would steer a venison wagon in my direction.
A couple minutes later, I saw some movement out in a field next to the piece of woods I was in. There was a heard of about 20 deer coming into the field, at least 150 yards away from where I was. The worked their way across this field, but stopped to forage along the edge of the woods (about 75 yards away) under an oak tree. I waited and waited for these deer to come my way, but it looked like they were content to stay out in the field.
Finally, with about 10 minutes of shooting light left, I prayed. My exact words were, "Lord, I know you are in control of all things. I know you can provide food for us. If a deer is going to come my way, it has to come right about now."
If I didn't see it myself, I wouldn't have believed it - the deer all started walking in my direction. I watched these deer that had taken their sweet time in the field, suddenly start walking through the woods in my direction as if they were following a command. I got my bow ready as they all came near. The third doe was a big one, and she stopped abruptly, 20 yards from my stand, perfectly broadside, as if she was a 3D target. I let the arrow fly & watched as it hit it's intended target. The doe jumped, walked 10 yards, and fell down dead. I couldn't believe it! And the other deer just sat there as if nothing had happened. It was amazing!
Like I said, if I didn't see it myself, I wouldn't believe it, but that's how it happened. Does God always answer our prayers the way we want Him to? Of course not. But, I have full faith that God answered my prayers that day (and many others!), and directly provided food for our family by moving those deer right in to where I was. I have a couple other good stories like this one, but I'll save them for another time.
I can't wait for hunting season to start! Hopefully, I'll have some good stories an pictures to share as the season goes on. Feel free to reply with any good hunting stories of your own, I'd love to hear them!
So, I shot again, this time ready for the incredibly fast flight. I paid reeeeeeeally close attention this time. The trajectory was straight, flat, and fast. No arch, no wobble, just straight. Whoa again. I've spent some time over the past week making sight pin adjustments for the new arrows, and playing around with a Whisker Biscuit arrow rest that my neighbor gave me (Thanks Randy!). After much fiddling, adjusting, shooting, and whoa-ing, I am completely satisfied with the rest and the arrows. Today, I had my best target shooting ever. It was so good, I had to take pictures. This was my first group, shot from 20 yards...
Let's get a closer look, shall we?
Closer? OK!
I hardly ever shoot a group like this. That is a 2 inch blue circle. I could hear the arrows hitting each other with each shot. I'm not quite sure why some of the arrows went in at a different angle. Maybe because they were hitting each other? I don't know.
So, then, I shot from 30 yards (which is pretty much the farthest I'd shoot a deer from in the woods. Here's the 30 yard group...
Whoa.
This is not a normal shot group for me. I'm usually more spread out, but like I said, I had to take pictures it was so unusual.
I am counting down the days until September 13, when the bow season opens in Zone 2. I'm going to scout out a new property on Thursday morning. I am really hoping to fill the freezer with venison this year!
In honor of the impending arrival of hunting season, here's a great hunting story. This story is absolutely true. A fine example of how God provides for my family...
I was hunting in the woods on a friend's farm in October. It was a really slow day. No deer activity at all on a property that almost always has deer going through it. I had spent a good amount of time reading my pocket New Testament that i keep in my bag, and praying for my family. About a half hour before dusk, I was praying. I'll be honest, I was praying for meat. I firmly believe that God provides all our needs, as promised in the Bible, and I was earnestly praying that God would steer a venison wagon in my direction.
A couple minutes later, I saw some movement out in a field next to the piece of woods I was in. There was a heard of about 20 deer coming into the field, at least 150 yards away from where I was. The worked their way across this field, but stopped to forage along the edge of the woods (about 75 yards away) under an oak tree. I waited and waited for these deer to come my way, but it looked like they were content to stay out in the field.
Finally, with about 10 minutes of shooting light left, I prayed. My exact words were, "Lord, I know you are in control of all things. I know you can provide food for us. If a deer is going to come my way, it has to come right about now."
If I didn't see it myself, I wouldn't have believed it - the deer all started walking in my direction. I watched these deer that had taken their sweet time in the field, suddenly start walking through the woods in my direction as if they were following a command. I got my bow ready as they all came near. The third doe was a big one, and she stopped abruptly, 20 yards from my stand, perfectly broadside, as if she was a 3D target. I let the arrow fly & watched as it hit it's intended target. The doe jumped, walked 10 yards, and fell down dead. I couldn't believe it! And the other deer just sat there as if nothing had happened. It was amazing!
Like I said, if I didn't see it myself, I wouldn't believe it, but that's how it happened. Does God always answer our prayers the way we want Him to? Of course not. But, I have full faith that God answered my prayers that day (and many others!), and directly provided food for our family by moving those deer right in to where I was. I have a couple other good stories like this one, but I'll save them for another time.
I can't wait for hunting season to start! Hopefully, I'll have some good stories an pictures to share as the season goes on. Feel free to reply with any good hunting stories of your own, I'd love to hear them!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Going to church in a boat
We're back from LBI! Check out my beautiful bride's blog here to get all the details of the trip.
Sunday morning, we were too tired from our trip to go to church, so we stayed home. We did, however, go to church on Sunday night to the best place for summertime church - The Culver Lake chapel! It's a little white church right on the lake that only meets during the summer months. The best part is their Sunday evening Float Service. That's float, as in, floating on a boat, in the middle of the lake. The church has a couple of pontoon boats that load up with people, a sound system, and an electric keyboard (with batteries), and go out into the middle of the lake and drop anchor. A bunch of boats come out, lash onto each other, and there you have it, a floating church service.
This is the church...
Here's their floating pulpit...
This is Pastor Beringer...
He's a great pastor. In a seasonal church like this, I can see how it would be easy for it to become "light" church, with just a nice message for people to enjoy, but Pastor Beringer preaches the Word of God, and doesn't water down anything. It's a great place to go in the summer!
By the end of the service, the sun is setting over the west shore. This is what it looks like.
It used to be that nobody else was allowed on the lake during the service, but now, boats have to be at least 500 feet away from the float, and any boats on the lake at that time can go no faster than trolling speed (that's slow!). Nobody really goes out during the service. It's very peaceful, and a great place to worship!
Afterwards, we got a fun high-speed trip around the lake, courtesy of our friends, Cindy & Gus, whose boat we were in. The boys loved it!
Here's a story about the church from the Religion section of our local paper. Click here
Sunday morning, we were too tired from our trip to go to church, so we stayed home. We did, however, go to church on Sunday night to the best place for summertime church - The Culver Lake chapel! It's a little white church right on the lake that only meets during the summer months. The best part is their Sunday evening Float Service. That's float, as in, floating on a boat, in the middle of the lake. The church has a couple of pontoon boats that load up with people, a sound system, and an electric keyboard (with batteries), and go out into the middle of the lake and drop anchor. A bunch of boats come out, lash onto each other, and there you have it, a floating church service.
This is the church...
Here's their floating pulpit...
This is Pastor Beringer...
He's a great pastor. In a seasonal church like this, I can see how it would be easy for it to become "light" church, with just a nice message for people to enjoy, but Pastor Beringer preaches the Word of God, and doesn't water down anything. It's a great place to go in the summer!
By the end of the service, the sun is setting over the west shore. This is what it looks like.
It used to be that nobody else was allowed on the lake during the service, but now, boats have to be at least 500 feet away from the float, and any boats on the lake at that time can go no faster than trolling speed (that's slow!). Nobody really goes out during the service. It's very peaceful, and a great place to worship!
Afterwards, we got a fun high-speed trip around the lake, courtesy of our friends, Cindy & Gus, whose boat we were in. The boys loved it!
Here's a story about the church from the Religion section of our local paper. Click here
Monday, August 11, 2008
Haircuts!
I gave the boys haircuts today. Nice short ones for our trip to the shore (more on that later).
I couldn't resist posting these pictures. Here's Sean before...
And here he is after. Who does he look like??
This haircut totally changed the way he looks! The after pictures are right after a bath, so his hair is combed down, but he went from looking like a toddler to a little boy in 5 minutes! Don't worry, it's the same length as his last haircut, so the curls will be back! (hopefully...)
In other news, we're leaving tomorrow morning to go down the shore for 4 days. Danielle's family has been renting the same house on LBI for years, so we're heading down there with Mom, Aunt Val, Mike, and whoever else decides to come! See you on Saturday!!
I couldn't resist posting these pictures. Here's Sean before...
And here he is after. Who does he look like??
This haircut totally changed the way he looks! The after pictures are right after a bath, so his hair is combed down, but he went from looking like a toddler to a little boy in 5 minutes! Don't worry, it's the same length as his last haircut, so the curls will be back! (hopefully...)
In other news, we're leaving tomorrow morning to go down the shore for 4 days. Danielle's family has been renting the same house on LBI for years, so we're heading down there with Mom, Aunt Val, Mike, and whoever else decides to come! See you on Saturday!!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Happy (late) Birthday Sean!!!
While we were away camping, Sean had a birthday! The big boy is 2!
On July 28, 2006 at 10:10 PM, our "little" Sean Jeffrey came into the world at 8 lbs, 5.5 oz.
This is what he looked like on that blessed day...
And here's the first picture of all 3 boys (can you believe Ryan was 3 and Kevin was 2??)
And here's the Birthday Boy now...
And here are all the boys staring into the pond on our farm vacation
If you look reeeeeally close at the picture of Sean's face, you'll see that his front tooth is chipped. That is pretty much Sean in a nutshell. Fearless, (sometimes) reckless, daring, tough, any any other adjective you can think of. His nicknames include "Seanzilla" and "Mighty Moose". He is definitely the biggest and toughest of the three at that age, but he is also very sensitive and charming when he wants to be (which is usually when he wants something...).
We also call him "mini-Jeff" because his is, well, mini-me. He has very large hands and very large feet, and he eats like a horse already. He is a big boy. He's almost as tall as Kevin, who's 2 1/2 years older than he is. I'm fearing the grocery bill in about 10 years when all 3 boys are going full guns on the food. They definitely have to learn to hunt.
Happy Birthday Big Guy!!
On July 28, 2006 at 10:10 PM, our "little" Sean Jeffrey came into the world at 8 lbs, 5.5 oz.
This is what he looked like on that blessed day...
And here's the first picture of all 3 boys (can you believe Ryan was 3 and Kevin was 2??)
And here's the Birthday Boy now...
And here are all the boys staring into the pond on our farm vacation
If you look reeeeeally close at the picture of Sean's face, you'll see that his front tooth is chipped. That is pretty much Sean in a nutshell. Fearless, (sometimes) reckless, daring, tough, any any other adjective you can think of. His nicknames include "Seanzilla" and "Mighty Moose". He is definitely the biggest and toughest of the three at that age, but he is also very sensitive and charming when he wants to be (which is usually when he wants something...).
We also call him "mini-Jeff" because his is, well, mini-me. He has very large hands and very large feet, and he eats like a horse already. He is a big boy. He's almost as tall as Kevin, who's 2 1/2 years older than he is. I'm fearing the grocery bill in about 10 years when all 3 boys are going full guns on the food. They definitely have to learn to hunt.
Happy Birthday Big Guy!!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Spiritually refreshed at Word of Life!
We had an absolutely awesome week!
I don't have enough good things to say about Word of Life. Just go there, and you'll see. We went with another family from church, and had a great time getting to know them even better than we already did. We met lots of other Christian families, including a family in the campsite next to us (Ken & Heather & their 3 boys & 1 girl. Hi guys!).
Our site was just through the trees from this...
If I could figure out how to use the "Stitch" feature on my camera, I could make that one nice panoramic picture...
There were a couple of nights that we had campfires right on the banks of the pond...
We were spiritually fed under the teaching of Dr. Hayes Wicker from Naples, FL, and Dr. Stanley Toussaint from Dallas Theological Seminary, while all 3 boys were in their classes all morning. They had a blast! The young people that teach the kids' classes are mostly from the Word of Life Bible Institute, and they do a fantastic job teaching the kids Biblical Truths!
The highlight of the week, by far, was when Ryan and Kevin decided they wanted to pray for Salvation, and ask Jesus to come into their hearts!!!!! Thank you God!!
One of the things that we were most convicted about was the need for us to have real, meaningful family & individual devotions EVERY DAY. Of course, WOL sells a family devotion curriculum that we really liked, but it cost a little (lot) more than we wanted to spend. Well, we committed to it, and felt strongly about it, so when I went into the book store to buy it, I found a shelf that had last year's devotion books HALF PRICE!!! The only difference between last year's and this year's is that there is a daily radio program that follows the current devotion book. We can do without the radio program... Thank you God!!
So, anyway, the whole week was such a blessing that while we were there, we booked the same week for next summer. We can't wait to go back!
Another highlight was on the ride home, we passed this motorcycle/car hybrid thing called a T-Rex. Click here for a cool slide show from the company that makes them. Only $49,999. What a bargain!
Here's the one we saw...
(For the record, WE were passing IT!!) Go Dodge Durango!! Pulling a camper too!
Much to the chagrin of my wife, I am now going to tell you something that is TOTALLY unrelated to the topic of this post...(she hates when I do that)
Our Honda mini-van was making a strange noise that I suspected was coming from the transmission. Sure enough, my mechanic looked at it and said that he thinks it needs a new transmission ($$$$$$). so, I took it to the Honda dealership, and, get this, Honda is GIVING us a brand new transmission FREE. Even though our warranty expired at 100,000 miles, and the van now has 113,000 miles on it. Free! As in, we don't have to pay for it. I didn't ask any questions, I just signed the paper. Thank you God!!!
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