For those who still read "Xanga" I wanted to be sure and remind you that this coming wednesday August 1st is Youth/Young Adult coffee shop night.  We will meet at 5:30pm at Panera this time and then over to Cambridge for our discussion.  Hope to see  you all!

Also, I have a new bloging area... http://past0rdean.blogspot.com/

Lake Trip 2007

 Better late then never!  Life has been to busy for me to stop and post of the lake trip with pictures, but now I shall tell the tales and show the proof...

We started the day by moving my Grandfather - in - law's pier back into the water and trying to connect it.  This was no easy task as these things are much heavier then they would appear.  You would think since they float on water it would be no problem to move it back, that is true, once you get it into the water. As you can see by the crowd gathered it took quiet a few of us.

I don't know if we actually got a shot of one accident or not, as we were moving the pier back into the water, Charity got her leg smashed and rubbed between the pier we were moving and the part that was still in the water, the sad thing is that we were all so involved in the moving, we did not hear her screaming to stop...we really do love you Charity...

So we finally got it back in place and then after all that work, decided to use the Neighbor's pier..

One person was better at supervising then helping!! REBECCA

This is an action photo by Alli Shirley...She caught Chris Pelham doing a flip off the boat and into the water, pretty cool shot...

One of our cool folks we brought along on the Lake Trip...Evan...

A rare photo indeed, I am surprised it was caught, but here we have it, Jeremy Conner actually smiling and without being paid or held at gun point...

This is some of the crew boarding what is deemed the U.S.S. Bill Rowley..actually they like it because it's a fast boat...

Chris slowed down long enough to show off his God given Muscles and we are all much better people for it...Thanks Chris for blessing us...

And now just some photo's for fun, see the crew, etc...Be sure to look on down, you will see Rebecca thinking she can dance and see Rick knowing he can dance...

Ok, that's it, hope you enjoyed the pictures...we had a great time at the Lake and the only accident of the day involved poor Charity.....

Divulge 7 random facts/habits about yourself and then tag 7 more people to do the same.

I was tagged by my wife, so I will do this and the first 7 people to read this blog are tagged....hahaha the only problem is I never have 7 people read my blog :(

1. I don't like using any hair brush but my on, except now that I have been married for almost 8 years I have gotten use to using my families hair brush, but the thing is, I have to clean the hair brush every time I use it, I can't stand to use a hair brush that has not been cleaned, does not matter if it's my very on personal brush that nobody else uses, I still clean it.

2. I have this weird thing on the side of my right knee, it's like an extremely big dry patch of dry skin, my mom always said it was my birth mark, Alli and her mom say I was abused or something as a child...no they did not say that, but they said something funky about it...it really is sort of weird.

3. The first 12 years of my life (for those of you who are slow at math, that would be from birth to 12 years old) my family had NO indoor plumbing; there was no toilet, no shower.  We used the bathroom outside in the woods and took our bath under the water hose during the summer, during the winter, we would have to heat our water on the stove and carry it to a ummm washing area, and tub I suppose is how you spell it.

4. I once had a pet Armadillo, I named him nosey.

5. I love (Hellman’s only) Mayo sandwiches with a cup of coffee.

6. Ok, this one is a little freaky.....but I once prayed and hugged a man that had just murdered his wife. ( I did not know at the time HE was the killer)

7. I have witnessed to a Buddhist monk before in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Lake Shore.

Ok, that’s it for me, there are probably much more interesting facts then the one's I put down but I can't think of them...

Later

I have not had too many times in the short few years that I have had children where my heart just stopped, however that all changed on Sunday.

We had an elders retreat and the Rowley’s and the Shirley’s family decided to meet up and stay over the night.  Lot's of fun, a great little break from life.  So we take off down to the lake Sunday morning and we are getting ready to take the boat out. I had been working with Andrew a little in the water, he has never learned to swim so we had a life jacket thing on him but you know someone who does not know how to swim especially at 4 years old, it can be a very unsettling experience.  They connect the tube to the boat and Andrew wants to ride, so I let him.  Robert Rowley is riding with him and Bill is going slowly and I am in the back of the boat with my eyes glued to Andrew ready to jump in if need be.

So we are riding along and things are going well and Andrew is having the time of his life, well you know when you pull a tube the force of the water is on the front of the tube, that is why you sit and hold on to the back of the tube. For whatever reason I did not think to tell Andrew to sit to the back and Robert did not sit to the back either, so at one point I turn and look at my son and Robert in the tube as the water begins to over take the front of the tube.  I jump up and shout Bill, and run to the back because Robert already fell out and when I looked Andrew was on his way out as well, Bill stopped fast and by the time which was under 2 seconds, that I got to the back of the boat one foot on the seat and the other getting ready to dive into the water, I look up during that split millisecond and see that the tube was upright again and Andrew was still in it and more importantly he was ok.  I stopped and gathered myself to see what was going on and with in another second was down on the boat plank pulling the tube, Robert and Andrew in to the boat. 

Oh my folks, can I just tell you a Dad's heart left him for that brief 2 minute ordeal.  It really seriously was not a long ordeal at all but if you would have asked me after the adrenaline stopped working I would have told  you how tired I felt.  I thought I was going to lose my little guy, this is the thought going through my mind even though I know he has a life jacket on and know that he would not have sunk, I also know that in his eyes, daddy is supposed to be right there to save him, and at that moment, I felt a million miles away. To look up and see the fear in his eyes and him yell "daddy" and then the sort of relief when the tube stopped turning over, followed by a seriously frightened look with a cry on this little guys face...man,

My fear of water and what's in the water suddenly did not matter to me at that moment, as a fact, I can tell you I did not even think about it, my only thoughts were on my child.

Well, there was much resting and some good relaxing and even a funny story or two, but I think this one was the one that will stick with me for a while.

I know it's a great example of how our Father loves us much more then this and if we are willing to forego fear and all other things to save one of our children, how much more will he and has he already done for us.

Amen

We had our youth/young adult work day today, we went to some older folks in our church and cleaned some of there yard and we also cleaned the outside of their house. Tough jobs but the group came together and did a great job at working together.

I had the toughest job of all, simply keeping them all together and making sure they knew what to do.  Everyonce in a while someone would come up to me and say "I don't know what to do" So I very nicely showed them to a spot they could clean or something like that, by the end of the day there I noticed nobody came to tell me "I don't know what to do" :)

The nicest thing was to see all people get along with each other, we had varying ages in the group, from probably 12 or so on up to 70's or so.  Everyone worked fantastically together and you know it sort of makes a pastor proud....but not to proud.

We had a great hike and cookout afterwards, Chirs, Josh and myself decided to break a log that was stretched out from one end of the creek to the other.  It was no easy task but in the end my guess is that right around 350 or 400 pounds was no match for the tree.  With me weighing about 200 of the pounds that entered the contest at the last moment the tree came down.  Josh and I were holding on to the little tree so that if or when the dead log decided to break we would be ok, we would just ride the little tree down, I'm not sure Chris was holding on to much of anything other then Josh.  It is sort of a strange feeling when you have been jumping up and down on this dead log as if it were a trampoline and then all of a sudden it is not there anymore and you continue to go downward....strange in deed.

Well, have a great week folks and read my wifes blog spot.

www.sillymomma99.blogspot.com