Snow!

Our land.....

Our home
(the new addition is on the back, so you can't see it)

Our fields

In our woods

Our old tree house

NA '08 Our friend Steve

We met a great number of new folks while at NA, but the one who sticks out in both our minds the most is Steve. The following pictures speak for themselves.....

Steve was a tall dude, notice his head peeking over the door.Group shot

Steve chilling on the bed

Steve heading down in the elevator

Steve relaxed by the pool

Running off a few extra roots while catching the basketball game.

Steve getting some nourishment after his run

Steve hanging out, star watching

Sarah and Rebekah were put off because Steve was not paying them enough attention.

While outside, Steve noticed some natives and decided to go "au naturel"

It was too much for the poor guy. So moved by emotion, he swooned right there!

Steve is down!

After that swoon Sarah was kind enough to help Steve get back upstairs.

Steve back in his real natural habitat, some guys just don't belong outside

Sarah and I are back! Twenty seven plus hours of worship and Biblical teaching squeezed into a long holiday weekend, thirty five hundred young singles and married couples all filled with the unquenchable desire of learning more about, and glorifying their Savior, such was New Attitude '08. It had been a number of years since I was a participant in a large Christian conference/gathering of this magnitude and I was curious as to what it would be like. I knew it would be encouraging just by the speakers coming but I underestimated just how encouraging it would be. The worship also deserves mentioning because anytime you have 3500+ passionate people together in a group with a singular purpose of praising God, it is simply wonderful!

I would strongly urge readers to prayerfully consider going next year. It is going to be in Baltimore, MD for the 10th anniversary and Sarah and I are already thinking about how we can get a large group of folks from our church to commit to making the financial and time commitment necessary to go. Yes, you can download the messages online, which I would encourage people to do, but the fellowship with such a large gathering of other believers, the communio sanctorum, per se, is I feel, of great benefit.

There is much I could say on the messages themselves but since they are online, I would once again encourage you just to download them and listen for yourself they are all worth listening to. Since this was a road trip, we of course got a large number of pictures, some which sadly I have be ordered should not see the light of the internet, so I will just post some of the calmer ones:

Two very passionate speakers, John Piper and CJ Mahaney:

Sarah and our friend Rebekah, who went with us:

Sarah and a slightly unkept looking individual:

No the conference was not in Elizabethtown, that picture probably makes no sense unless you know what I am talking about when I say "livin' large, lovin' life" :p

Sarah and Rebekah demonstrating the size of a bridge over the Ohio:

Panorama of the Ohio River: (Click to view larger)

Another panorama from a view we passed in WV:


Playing in a hotel mirror which was around 8ft tall:

The summer volleyball season has begun

With the coming of warmer weather also comes the greatest summer sport known to man, volleyball! I think most folks who read the blog already know we love volleyball. It is a game which requires skill, (bump, set, spike) plus the ability to jump around like a kangaroo and even when you lose it is great fun. :D We usually get together on Sundays after church and in years past it has been very interesting to see how people's competitive side comes out. The following pictures were taken by Anna who is usually the sideline photographer.

Sarah playing the ball off the net

Dan setting it up to spike

Now this picture looks like everyone is just watching the ball except Taylor, the guy with the white t-shirt, is about to set me up beautifully for a spike.

Which I obligingly hammer to the other side:

Dan tapping the ball to the other side:

Sam showing the proper way to go up for a block:

By request :

:p

Shazam!

No notebook blogger today, I have been using my breaks in class to work on an estimate for an addition, more on that at a later date, so I have did not have a chance to write anything up, besides nothing much exciting happened anyway. :p In the meantime, long time readers of the blog probably remember the dumpster house, full of trash and everything else. Well it has been slowly coming along in it's fix up but since it is almost finished now, I figured I would post some new pictures.

As much as I like the red door on my apartment, this orange one tops it IMO

Remember this?

Sadly the spiral staircase had to go

Old vs. new kitchen

This is the same room:

I am only posting this bathroom picture because I think the sink is awesome...

Going upstairs:

bamboo mini fence in back