Amazing Laundry Room Discovery!

I came home today and made an amazing discovery in my laundry room…. There is a counter top! with a nice pattern on it! and no clothes everywhere! Even the machines were clear! wow, grandma must have come over for a visit! :)

Continue reading

Baby Luke’s Adventure at Kid U Ohio!

Luke and Dad hangin’ out and roaming around the conference. Well, it was a crazy weekend but a lot of fun. There are still lots of pictures to go through, but since Luke was so excited to go to his second Kid U, I thought I’d post some pictures of his adventures. I had NO idea how many of the attendees would be greeting him by name as they arrived. I guess more people read my blog than I knew! So, by popular demand, here are some more Baby Luke pics: Too Sexy for my Shirt! (Kid U morning at the hotel) Me and My New Bear! (Gift from Pastor Kim!) Awana be in Awana! (Awana my diaper changed too!) As you can see by Baby Luke’s Awana Uniform, he is a big fan of Awana. (This Commander uniform was hand made for him by Commander Teri at Village Church!) I think he signed up at least three new churches for Awana while working their booth! Star Struck with Mary Rice Hopkins. (or is it the spotlights?) Mary Rice Hopkins held him while singing a beautiful song about babies. He got a little star struck – it was rather funny…

Continue reading

I hate spiders…

I hate spiders. Well, ok. Maybe I don’t HATE them, but I am scared of them…. but fascinated at the same time. Even as a boy, I liked spiders best IN BOOKS! In real life… they creep me out. And yet… I am drawn to them. I will trap them instead of kill them. I kept a HUGE spider in a container in my office until it died in a fierce pose, and it took it months to die. (Kids checked on it each week to see if it was still alive, it was caught by a GIRL in Awana!) I had a HUGE funnel spider on my porch last week, and I was sad when I killed it… I was trying to draw it out with a stick and accidently gave it a mortal wound. Had the dumb thing just come out, it would have survived! But I’m happy to say a new one, even bigger has moved in! But I’ve yet to get him to come out for and pose for a picture. But below are some pictures of two resident spiders, one in the front yard, and one from the back yard. Do I dare say enjoy??…

Continue reading

Steve Tanner is my Inspiration!

My Smoke Detector Adventure (Inspired by Steve Tanner) You may not realize it, but my inspiration to blog came from my friend and now Kidology Web Director, Steve Tanner. His forum homepage is at www.steveandamysly.com but all the conversations end up at the Tannerworld Junction. There you can read about… well, just about anything. From beverage reviews to bathroom hand dryer advertising to the Trash Cans of DisneyWorld to his new toothbrush to the history of Dorito’s logos or watch Star Wars as an animated GIF! It’s all there among thousands of the other 13,547 posts Steve has posted to date! But this week, his inspiration went to all new heights and INSPIRED ME! It was his latest edition of This New Tanner Condo. (Changing the Smoke Detector!) READ IT! I was so inspired, I decided that I needed to blog my own adventure with a smoke detector. My smoke detector wasn’t broken, but it has needed a new battery for awhile now. So here is the blog record of my ADVENTURE this evening. I’d like to dedicate this post to Steve Tanner. Here is my upstairs smoke detector. It has been disconnected for several months. (My wife claims it…

Continue reading

Ministry with Balloons is a blast!

Ever since I was the house magician at the Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s in downtown Chicago (in college) I’ve been twisting balloons for kids at church, birthday parties, magic shows, etc. But my use of them in my ministry for teaching was pretty minimal and limited to one balloon creatures. That was until very recently. “Master Ron” as he is known, is a Christian children’s entertainer and awesome juggler and balloon artist. I have used him for years to sub for me in Kids Church when I’m out of town, and he is the only sub I’ve had that the kids just don’t seem to miss me at all when I get back. (is that good, or not?) :-) A computer systems analyst by day, and a balloon twistin’ juggler by evenings and weekends, Master Ron is a great teacher and communicator with kids…. and an inspiration to me. This summer I had him teach all our grade school kids at our church for Sunday School in June. We found ourselves with three weeks to ‘fill’ between our regular Sunday School and when our summer Family Sunday School class could start, and I needed something easy for me and fun…

Continue reading

Gimmie a "U" !! Gimmie a "W" !! What’s that spell?

UPDATE: Bad Link to photo gallery corrected! Gimmie a “U” !! Gimmie a “W” !! What’s that spell? UNCHARTED WATERS! Uncharted Waters is the Sports Camp Ministry we have used for the past two years to reach out to the kids in our church and community. (see last year) We had 50 kids come divided between basketball… and cheerleading. GO! GO! GO! We had at least six kids make a decision to give their lives to Jesus and GO FOR THE GOLD that will last for all eternity! The secret to the success of these sports camps is NOT me… I could never lead a sports camp (unless it was sport stacking!) What I love about the ministry of UW is that they do most of the work for us. Here is the UW Team: Coaches Josh, Catie, Lindsay and Lisa! Of course, a lot of work was also done and thanks are due to our Sports Camp director, Cherie and a bunch of volunteers. Anna Maria, Barb and Cherie (not pictured: many more!) What did I do all week? Worked on my six foot unicycle shooting…. (still needs much work) And my “Air Karl” moves!Were you there? SEE ALL…

Continue reading