Avast ye! Today be "Talk Like A Pirate Day"!

I be postin this 'ere post to inform all ye dirty scallywags that today be:

So go out there and greet everyone ya see with not hello, but with "Ahoy, me hearty!" Shout "shiver me timbers" at least 10 times today and integrate the following words into your vocabulary: Matey, booty, Arghhh, buried treasure, plank, scoundrel, plunder or any other piraty words that come to the coconut ya call your head! And remember to talk in a gravelly voice, because you've been breathing in saltwater and are bound to be a little raspy.... Now I leave ya to go round me up some fresh grub for me chow!

Cell Phone Tip #73

When talking to another person by cell phone, if the call is dropped in a bad service area the person who initiated the call is responsible for calling back. Both parties should not try to call each other right after the dropped call, as this usually will result in a busy signal as they both try to reach each other. When a call is dropped the original "caller" should be the one to once again try to reach the "callee" if followed, this tip can save much frustration for the members of a dropped call and put an end to voice mail that starts out like "I just lost you, and now your line is busy...."

Legos and my brothers

When I was younger, my one love was Legos. For probably 10 years they were the only thing I ever wanted when people gave me gifts. Because of that fact and also because I keep pretty much everything, I still have an enormous collection which my youngest brothers, Matthew and Sam love to play with. At first when they started playing with them a few years ago I limited what they could play with since they were not as old and still stuck the Lego pieces in their mouths.

Now that they are older they have free range to play with pretty much anything that is in my room. Though they are a tad destructive, I used to have several ships and castles completely built up for them to play with but those structures are long gone replaced by constantly changing setups re-enacting whatever story my brothers are acting out. Usually when they are in my room playing with them I am in there as well mainly reading or working. Listening to them talk is like window back to when I was their age and would spend hours playing in my own world.

The only downside to having Legos once again scattered about my room is I seem to step on every pointed angle with my bare feet. I now understand why my mother and dad always wanted me to pick my Legos up or at least make a path when I went to bed.

That's Amore!!

(In Napoli where love is King)
(When boy meets girl)
(Here's what they say)

When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's amore
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine
That's amore

Bells'll ring
Ting-a-ling-a-ling
Ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you'll sing "Vita bella"
Hearts'll play
Tippi-tippi-tay
Tippi-tippi-tay
Like a gay tarantella

When the stars make you drool
Joost-a like pasta fazool
That's amore
When you dance down the street
With a cloud at your feet, you're in love
When you walk in a dream
But you know you're not dreamin', signore
'Scusami, but you see
Back in old Napoli, that's amore
That's amore!

Haha, I was listening to David Crowder and I had a crazy urge to play some Dean Martin and of course if you are going to listen to Martin, you have to listen to 'That's Amore"

Dancing

On Saturday, some friends and myself got together to practice historical dances. Sarah was unable to make it because she has orchestra on Saturday and while she was missed, it worked out fine since there always are more girls than guys anyway. I would have posted pictures earlier, except I did not have any. Since I danced pretty much every dance, I never got a chance to take pictures. All pictures in this post are courtesy of either Matt or Sandi, I also want to thank Sandi for getting it all organized. :)

Matt and me, trying to look cool or something before the dancing starts....

All the ladies gathered around a dry erase board to diagram, football style, how the next dance should go

David adjusting a hat that is way too big on my head

Playing around with some hats

Rain!

Where we live we have been in a bit of a serious drought, the US Department of Agriculture has actually declared 85 of our 100 counties drought-related disaster areas. It is so bad we would need two feet of rain just to get us back to where we need to be for this time of year!


This is a local lake, the picture does not really do it justice but that little body of water in the middle is actually the middle of the lake. All that dry ground you see is usually deep under water!
Remember THIS post? That was the last time it rained, over three weeks ago. Fortunately yesterday, we got some heavy rain.....

Sheet of rain falling in front of the door

On the driveway the rain quickly started creating puddles, we got about two inches in all.

People being stupid news item of the week

Man Steals Car to Turn Himself In

GENEVA, N.Y. (AP) — A western New York man faces grand larceny charges after being pulled over in a car that he said he stole so he could turn himself in on another charge.

Ontario County sheriff's deputies say they pulled over Vincent Estrada Junior, 29, and found that the car he was driving had recently been stolen from a parking lot.

Police said Estrada was wanted on a family court warrant, and he told deputies he stole the car so he could drive to the Geneva City Police Department to turn himself in.

But he never made it there. Deputies say they arrested him and drove him back to Canandaigua to face the car-theft charges.

Estrada was being held in Ontario County Jail on Thursday, in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond.

ROFL! Just as a point of reference to anyone reading this who might need to turn themselves in because of a warrant out on them....I believe it is a much better idea to take the bus or maybe get a buddy to drive you, rather than STEAL A CAR!

Some Common fears

Tall Buildings.............

The Ocean.............................

Volcanoes.................................

Milk...

These are all common fears.

People are afraid of tall buildings because they feel like they are going to fall off and go splat on the pavement.

The ocean consists of rip tides, deep salty water, sharks and lets not forget LOBSTERS!! Need I say more??

Volcanoes.... One word.. volcanic ash, Ok ok two words.... LAVA

Milk.... Have you seen where this comes from? 'nuf said

This is what happens when you have deep philosophical conversations with William late at night when he wants to go to sleep. :)

~Sarah~

Erroneously???

I had planned this morning to blog about the David Crowder Band but before I started, I noticed this article on USA Today's website and I realized this is something a little more substantial than a band with good music

From USA Today LINK
55% of Americans think founders wanted Christian USA

"Most Americans believe the nation's founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do."

I love how USA Today gives it's opinion that more than half the United States is wrong in their belief. While not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, the idea of having a government not based on God would have been unthinkable to the framers of our Constitution. When the Constitution was written, the only possible explanation for the existence of the Universe was creation by God. The Constitution did not specifically mention God because to the founders it was a given that God created the heavens and the earth. By not adding God the founders were in no way creating a "secular" nation in the modern sense of the term. The concept of "secularism" as it is used today didn't even exist in 1787 when the Constitution was written. It is largely a twentieth-century concept, one that has arisen with the myth of Darwinism and a false belief that science should be our guild in the world rather than the Bible.

"Half of Americans say teachers should be allowed to use the Bible as a factual text in history class. Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, says the Constitution "clearly established a secular nation where people of all faiths or no faith are protected to practice their religion or no religion without governmental interference.""

I agree with Mr. Haynes that the Constitution gives freedom to people to practice whatever religion or none at all as they so desire. But as mentioned above, at the time of our Constitution the United States was a God fearing Christian Nation. The first reading textbook of that time was The New England Primer which starts off with, "In Adam's Fall, we sinned all" can it get any more clear than that? God was in almost every aspect of their culture! Most of the the first colonist were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. The Founders knew this and did not want that happening in America, so we have the First Amendment, giving us freedom to practice our religion as well as freedom of speech to talk in public about our religion. Even with this freedom to be "secular" if someone so chose, the framers most certainly did believe that religion and religious values should influence the government and its policies.

On the day that the first Congress finished its work on the First Amendment, George Washington was called on to issue a Proclamation to the people of the United States to thank God for the freedoms we enjoy. Eight days later the First President's opening paragraph in this Proclamation said: "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor . . ." By stating "acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will" George Washington and the framers of our Constitution were clearly showing that they believed in the one true God and His will should guide us. Any suggestion that the Constitution "clearly established a secular nation" is false.

Still Secularists insist that the absence of the word "God" means that the Constitution created a godless government in America, never mind the fact that there have been multiple suggestions to amend the Constitution and add it. There were efforts to add "Almighty God" and "Jesus Christ" to the Preamble for example, and several members of Congress suggested that "In the Name of God" should be inserted before the Preamble. Even though Congress was never able to come to an agreement on how God should be phrased the individual states did. With the exception of Oregon where the words "Almighty God" appear in the state religion clauses rather than the preamble, all 50 states have God mentioned in one form or another in their constitutions with "Almighty God" being the most popular.

Unfortunately our spiritual culture has now shifted so far from where it was during our founding, that even if the word "God" was in the Constitution, it probably would not make any difference. Secularist would just dismiss it as a mere formality. There are 50 reasons to believe that this is true. Secularists dismiss all references to God in the state constitutions, so there is really no reason to believe that they would view things differently with our nation's Constitution.

LINK to the whole USA Today article

Yard maintenance crew

Unknown to most of our friends is the fact we have a yard maintenance crew. This is not just any yard maintenance crew, this is a crew comprised entirely of deer! Sorry the pictures are a tad small, just click one to view it full screen.


Everybody smiling at the camera :)

Back to work!

Unfortunately, since the deer yard maintenance union has no restrictions on age, fawns doing the work of full grown deer has become an issue.

"The head chewer"

Food part 2

I felt the need for a correction to Sarah's food post was in order, while it looks quite nice in that picture all arranged, that was actually not what Sarah's plate she ate from looked like. Sarah hates peas so those were not on her plate and she also did not have any bread! This was Sarah's actual plate: :p

That white stuff is a non-toxic kind of mold Sarah is rather addicted to....

Food!

Apparently, one of the current trends of blogging (at least for girls) is to make dinner and then post a picture of said dinner on a plate arranged all pretty like. So, tonight I was inspired to post my dinner. But first some background.....It all began around 5:00. My mom was in the kitchen just starting to cut up some chicken into small chunks. Now, if you have cooked a lot, you know that chicken cuts better when it is frozen. Not completely frozen because then you can break your knife,(not a good thing to do) but still frozen enough that the chicken is still kinda hard. So, anyway my mom said, "what should we have for dinner? I have this chicken and some mushrooms in the fridge." My first thought was Domino's jk, no I thought chicken marsala. Off I go to the computer to look up the recipe. Finding one, my mom and I work together to fix the recipe. (This involves me talking and chopping mushrooms while my mom does everything else. Notice I put talking first, it is something I am VERY good at. :)The dish turned out great. Everyone really like it, even Nicholas. We didn't have the right kind of wine (marsala) so we just mixed two kinds that we had.

Colors have been adjusted

So I adjusted the colors somewhat since I actually thought they were looking slightly hospital-ish myself. Let me know what you think.

I also want to add that due to Sarah reading a certain blog, she decided this morning it would somehow be funny to hide one of my shoes I needed to wear to work....Fortunately Sarah does not lie very well and I knew by her silly little grin when asked that she had hidden my other shoe. She also had hidden it in the first logical place that came to mind, under her bed, so her "joke" was little more than an irritating sidebar to the start of my day. But I do want to send big online POKE to the person who gave my sister the idea, you know who you are ;)

The Mountains

So if you don't already know this, the reason for my absence the past few days is because I was helping my dad take pictures in the Smoky Mountains:

The scenery was great, but not much interesting happened the whole job, we waited for the sun to come out from behind clouds and took great pictures when it did. Oh yeah my dad did get to fly around in a helicopter over a lake taking some pictures, but I was not able to go :( One single door from the helicopter costs around $10,000 to replace!

He also had to take some pictures from the largest A-frame ladder I have ever seen, the people all at the bottom are there just to hold it steady. For some reason I always seem to come home with pictures of bugs, the latest:

Overall. it was a good short trip to the mountains even though we did have to work.

What happened??

But...but... these colors are boring!!! I do agree that the yellow didn't really go with the red. What can I say, it must have been too late at night when I changed the colors. Maybe in the next few days, William and I can reach a compromise on the colors. :)

Eyes have been saved

I AM BACK! Not a moment too soon it seems! While I am glad Sarah came out of hiding to post in my absence, I clicked on the blog to post and I was greeted by a garish yellow on red color layout! Thankfully I have muted the colors to a less blinding hue, I am sorry for any blindness that might have occurred because of Sarah's colors. I fear her cough may have rattled the color organizing part of her brain loose :(

Oh I also moved Sarah's "blogs I read" into the renamed link section...I think I might need to add some more links myself....I am uploading photos from the mountains to my computer and I will be posting later with them. I just wanted to post informing readers it was safe to return to the blog without worry of eye damage.
-Will

HA HA :)

I have taken over the blog colors!!! Do you like them? Comment and tell me what you think. I know Anja, there might be too much red, but I like the color red.
William probably will change it back to the VERY boring colors soon. :(

Our God is Amazing !!!!

A 20 year old woman lives in Ethiopia. Her husband left her pregnant with twin girls, and a 2 year old son to care for. She has no family, no formal education, no work experience and no means to providing for her family. She has no choice but to leave her daughters at an orphanage the day they are born. Her son stays with her, he is the only thing she has left in the world. At the age where most Americans are halfway done with with their college education, and just starting to be independent, she has faced one of the greatest tragedies in life. Now this story could end there, with her young son starving to death and her dieing from disease because as it turns out, she is HIV positive. It could end with her baby daughters growing up without ever knowing anything about their mother, without knowing why she left them at that orphanage. Instead the rest of this story takes place a world away, in a small town in the United States of America where since February a family has been praying for the children that God told them to adopt. Those twin girls will be picked up from Ethiopia in a month or so. They will be given new names: Keren Fikir and Keziah Selam. They will also get to see their big brother Josiah Abel, who probably doesn't even know they exist. He is getting adopted too!
You can read more about this amazing story on this blog: http://jobsdaughters.blogspot.com/
The Mestas family can tell it so much better than I can. I've only heard the story, they have lived it. :)
To me it is just a testament of how much God loves us, and how He has used these children to show us His power. But while thanking God for this miracle, I also think about the woman who had to give these children up. In Ethiopia, AIDS and HIV is rampant, and the government doesn't have the money to provide lifesaving drugs. In America, you can have AIDS or HIV,and the drugs can slow the progression, in Ethiopia, AIDS is a death sentence.

For a Couple of Days, This is MY Blog

Well, since William is going to be gone for the next couple of days, I must pretend to be him and post about every little thing that happens to me. Btw... William will be home on Saturday, but that night he has a coming home party for one of our friends who just got home from Iraq.
So, today I went to my violin lesson. I did not go to my voice lesson, however, because for the past 10 days I have had this Dry Hacking cough. I have become quite addicted to cough drops. I have decided that they are the best invention ever! Today is the first day I have only had to take one. Yay!
After violin, I arrived home to eat lunch and pick up Molly. We headed to a local music college where Molly has a cello lesson and I have a piano lesson. After both lessons are done, we have a 3 hour break before Molly's cello group starts. So off we go to the library. I love the library! Two hours and 84 books later, Molly and I look at each other and say "What are we going to do for the next hour?" Getting into my truck, (yes, I drive a truck, a green F150 Ford truck to be exact.), I happen to see the consignment shop in front of us. Problem solved!
We spent the next 45 minute looking at all the funny clothes that people actually bought to wear... in public...
Maybe next week I will bring a camera and capture all the weird and unique stuff that we saw.
After cello group, our destination was home, where my family eagerly awaited. Or maybe they just wanted to see the new library books. :(

Oh, and just on a side note: I have NO idea where my brother got that crazy video. I personally think it is great and I am quite envious that he found it first. Even though, since I am a girl, I don't have to worry about the way I hug.

Now that I have given you more details about my day, I must go and do something. :)

~Sarah~

Gone for a few days

I am heading up to the mountains for a few days to work with my dad. My sister Sarah has promised to uphold the high standards readers have come to expect from the blog posts, hopefully she will not forget :p

I leave you with a great instructional video of how to properly give a "man hug"

If for some reason the video fails to work here are the instructions in written form:

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Step 1:

When to hug

This is entirely down to what you feel comfortable with. When greeting family members, or a good friend you haven't seen for a while, a hug almost certainly required.

Congratulating a mate on getting engaged, becoming a father or even securing a promotion, a hug will be in order.

If celebrating a sports win, you will find that suddenly worrying about hugging is no longer an issue. Anything goes.

---

Step 2:

The approach

When going for a hug, make it clear what you are doing. You won't want to catch the huggee of guard.

Start by spreading your hands wide with you right hand about 20 centimetres higher than the left. Lean back ever so slightly, this is a non threatening stance, making it clear you are not about to attack. Tilt your head to the left - this lets your huggee know where you are going so they can do the opposite, others wise there may be an embarrassing collision.

---

Step 3:

Embrace

Step in towards your compadre. Your right hand will go over their shoulder, with your head going to the left of theirs. Show you sincerity by gripping them firmly in your arms - there is nothing worse than a floppy, half heart attempt. Keep you head level and facing forwards. Looking down, or turning towards you mate may end up as inappropriate nuzzling. Hold the embrace for as long as you feel comfortable, a second or two will do

---

Step 4:

The pat

This is the crucial part of a man hug, separating it from a traditional cuddle. With your left hand pat your buddy 3 or 4 times on the back. This demonstrates you are still men - you maybe be affectionate but you can still dish out some pain.

If you still feel this is too effeminate for you then give a light, double punch instead of a pat.

---

Step 5:

The break

While you are giving the final pat, break. Lift your hands smartly away, don't slide them over your buddy in a lingering manner. This may confuse them, and you.

Alternatively you could finish by gripping your friends firmly on the upper arms and saying something celebratory. 'Well Done Colin", "Congratulations", or "Great to see you again" are all good. This makes to reason for the hug clear and finishes it succinctly.

Another great option is to throw a few playful sparring punches at each other. Add a growly cheer to this and you are home and dry, like a big cuddly bear.

Now return to whatever you were doing before the hug. Don't feel the need to cough, avoid eye contract, or scratch yourself. You are still firmly a man - but one who is not afraid of showing their emotions. Mission accomplished.

A new window

So I finally got around to hanging my new "window"

Does not look quite as "windowish" as I had planned, but that might have something to do with me painting the frame black. :p Still it is something better to look at than just a wall.

Laborless day

Yesterday was Labor Day, the last three-day weekend of the year. I usually like three-day weekends; most of the time either my family or myself has something going on for that extra day off. But yesterday, my dad had to work and everyone else in my house had school stuff they were working on so we just stayed home. Since we had nothing planned, I decided I would just have a day of doing absolutely nothing, sounds great huh? It was not, it was actually rather weird. Usually on days I am not working, I still have stuff I need to get done, just not work at the office. For example, Saturday I wake up a little later, do various jobs inside and outside the house and by the time I am finished I only have a few hours of nothing going on.

Yesterday I literally had nothing to do the whole day and the day just seemed to drag on! By lunchtime I was feeling a little bonkers, I thought to myself, this must be how it feels when you are so rich you don't have to work. No wonder celebrities get in the messes they do, they have all this money and free time and it just gets them in trouble. I don't mind having free time I love having free time, but I also like having something to do, or maybe a better explanation is, I like having the option of doing something. :D Yesterday I could not even work if I wanted to because the market was closed! In the afternoon, I wanted to get out and do something so bad that I ended up going grocery shopping with my mom! Grocery shopping! I can't remember the last time I went grocery shopping with my mom; it was fun in a "lets see how much money we can spend on food" way. :p I did have a bit of an ulterior motive though since I wanted to swing by Home Depot and get some little picture hangers for my new window.

Anyway, because we went shopping rather late, we did not have dinner until 8 or so and by the time Sarah and I had finished the kitchen, it was almost 9pm. For some strange reason I then did not have enough time and ended up going to bed an hour later than I wanted to! The moral of all this is, while it may sound lovely to not have any work to do, I don't think I could live without working.

Volleyball!!

Yesterday the weather was wonderful, I went outside @ 7am or so and it was about 60 outside, I don't think it ever got above 85 and there was a nice breeze the whole day, still a little warmer than I like but it was bearable. After church we headed over to the A's house for a volleyball/cookout event. Not everyone from church was able to make it but we still had a pretty good number of people show up, enough for four volleyball teams of 6. Pictures galore:

Daniel about to hit the ball as John Paul looks on.

Daniel playing the ball off the net, I am not sure how John Paul ended up sitting on the grass :p

BJ and Mr. Baker going at it

My dad trash talking with Mr. Albright

Me and John Paul doing the chicken dance as we wait for the ball

Mr. Baker showing his wild side

Sam and I getting in each other's way :p

Gina serving

Great shot of Dan in the process of serving

Everyone just watching the ball float in the air

Me tapping the ball back on the other side

John Paul about to spike it

Sarah showing off her great jumping ability as she hits the ball

Bethany about to hit the ball

Sarah serving

Now while it looks like BJ is about to just knock Candace's head off he is really going for the ball

If anyone reading this was there yesterday, sorry if you are not in a picture, my sister Anna was taking the pictures with my camera and while she did a good job taking pictures, she was not as familiar with the controls so a lot of the action pictures were blurry.

After playing volleyball ( my team never lost, 5-0 baby! :D ) people started heading out around dusk. Somehow we then started playing soccer and continued to play for about an hour and a half. Soccer is a painful sport on the shins and ankles and to make matters worst since we started playing around dusk the light was not that great and only got worse. :p I think for the last 45 minutes we played in almost pitch blackness. people kept passing the ball to the other team as well as just headlong running into each other!

Taking trash from the dump

Because of where we live, we bring our own trash to a local dump. Usually this task is done on Saturdays and if I am home the job falls on me. If you have even been to a dump you know that all kinds of things get thrown away in the large item section, couches, shelves, random pieces of large wooden furniture, you name it. Today as I started to unload our trash, I looked over to the large items bin and saw what looked like the frames from some French doors. Never one to throw out possibly valuable trash, after I finished unloading I ran over and grabbed two of the frames. I had no idea what I was going to use them for, but I figured I could find something.

As I drove home I decided I would use them as a frame on my wall over a picture, sort of like a fake window with a fake view :p Now I just have to find a great picture to use...... leading candidate so far:

Oh yeah and a picture of the frames, I have two but I only have enough room on my wall for one.