DYC Fun

Just a little messing around with sprout builder. Click the share button and drop it on ur facebook/myspace/blog, etc.

My "Interview" with Charles Barkley

We had a "farewell" evening for Kelvin Gardiner, my boss, on Monday night of District conference. I wrote a song, by request, and put together a little video. I have been asked to post it, so here it is.



BTW, Matt Boda was voted in as our new District Superintendent almost unanimously. He will be my new boss. He is a great guy, a mentor and a friend. I am very excited to be under his leadership. I will miss Kelvin greatly, as he has been a fantastic boss and friend as well. I don't think it will be the last I see of him though, even though he will be doing a bunch of overseas travel. The transition happens sometime in June so Matt is DS elect. Kinda like the presidential process.

Oh, by the way the "Fish money song of the day" is Petra singing "Lord, I lift your name on high. It's $1,000 Thursday, so I am listening all day. See? It works. Marketing sucker right here.

Quest is done :(

What a weekend. We did 2 middle school camps over a 3 week period. It was incredible. This weekend had considerably nicer weather than the last weekend did. 280 at this one and 240 at the last. We had the same band and same speaker at both.

My buddy Kevbo helped me do program at this one. He is a funny guy. Funnier than me. Some would say that's not hard. We had a blast being goofy and leading games and giving away prizes.

The band was great as always. They are really wonderful people that I enjoy hanging out with immensely. We stayed up late both nights playing games and that was fun. Jason, our speaker, is a good friend from back in my Georgia days. He did an awesome job too.

2 hours back on the blob again. I love that! I may look goofy to some, but I wore my wet suit and stayed warm the entire time. I would say that is pretty smart.

I am tired from the weekend but that's mostly cuz I stayed up so late playing games with the band, Kevbo and Jason. Thankfully we got an extra hour of sleep. I told the students that I had a gift for them because I loved them all so much. I told them we were going to let them sleep in an hour and to turn their watches back an hour and we would keep the same schedule. I am not sure how many of them realized that it was DST or not. Pretty funny, because many of them cheered when I told them this.

Welp, gotta finish the highlights DVD and update the website. Check out www.pnwquest.com later this week.

One more to go.

Tonight we had a bunch of friends over to watch game three. What a night. Lots of noise. Lots of kids. Lots of hits (in the game, that is). Lots of excitement. What a good game is all about.

Still, my boys pulled through and took game three 10-5. Felt good. I will try to post a pic of my art work on my car tomorrow. and also tell u about our fun costume party last night.

that's all.

YES!!! Another Sox update.

Some of you may be sick of my updates on the Red Sox, but this is an exciting time for a Sox fan! My house went nuts tonight as Josh Beckkkkkkkkkkett tore it up and Dustin Pedroia started off with a home run in the first at bat. Leading the Sox to a 13-1 victory of the tired Rockies in game 1 on the World Series. It was a if every player was just on tonight. Thankfully this is not a game that sits on one players shoulders.

Tomorrow some friends will be over for some more Sox action as Curt Schilling attempts to lead the team to victory number 2! This team is on fire and their fans can feel it!

I love that my entire family is into this. Jeanne-Ann makes me laugh, cuz she ordered Sox gear for all of us. (we are apparently a little low). I will toss up some pics when it arrives. Hopefully b4 the series is over.

Most analysts are saying the Sox will take it in 6. It's always nice to be at home when you win, but I will take a World series where ever we take it.

Quest...Blob

This past weekend we were at Lake Retreat for our district middle school retreat. It is the 1st of 2. (struggling to find a camp that is big enough for all of us and offers good options and is a good driving distance for most)

Anyhow, one of the huge highlights at this camp is the blob. So I though I would share with you what that looks like. (more on the camp later)

BFA Highlights Video and some other fun

Spiritual Emphasis Week is over at BFA. I will share a bit more later, but it's really late. Going to bed. I did want to post a video, so enjoy.

Day 4 @ BFA

We are almost to the end of the week. We have one more day of spiritual emphasis week. Today was cool. We had chapel and it was another encouraging one. I walked through Psalm 139 looking at how much God knows us and loves us. I encouraged students to receive that love and live in that love and live that love.

At the end I asked students to stand up if they were willing to take a new stand in their faith in Jesus and quit playng the game. I think we can all be guilty of playing the game where we don't let people see the real us. Many students stood up and said they were going to live their lives fully for Jesus!
Soooo cool!

We hung out a bit with students and then headed out with some seniors to a Doner Kebab place. I tried Doner pizza today too. Yummy.

Then it was off to a castle ruins. It was pretty cool. We climbed and played and laughed a lot. It was an amazing view from up top.

Sean and Jordan had never experienced stinging nettles, so I convinced Jordan to put his arm in it to see what it feels like. Pretty funny. I will post that video and pics of today later. I am tired so this is not getting a ton of work put into tonight.

We then headed to palmgarten (a girls dorm) for dinner and some games. We had a blast hanging out with them. We were "gifted" with a tradition they have. After prayers and amen several girls came screaming and running all over and kissed Jordan, Sean, Sam and I on the cheeks with Nutella lips. Nutella is an AMAZING choclate hazelnut spread!!! It tastes so good, but was strange to have on my face. haha.

Then it was back to the Stemples and we played some card games and Sean and Jordan headed to bed wayyyyy before me, as usual.

Nite friends!

Photo Booth Fun - My Heart Will Go On (Titanic)

We had a little fun with photo booth yesterday when we had a free moment. We showed it at chapel today.

Chapel was cool. I spoke from on top of a ladder. 2 Peter 1:5-7. Looking at the things that we need to do on our part, knowing God has given us all we need for life and godliness.

We then went into Freiberg to do some sightseeing and shopping. We climbed the spire in a beautiful church (279 steps) and then had some fleischkasa...mmmm.

Then we headed back, by train, to go to some more dorms for dinner.

Sam and I went to Sonne with the guys and Sean and Jordan ate with the girls tonight. We all ended up at the guys dorm after all the guys stormed the girls dorm to "creek" Jordan. A "welcome to BFA" tradition for guests. Sam and I were videoing, when all of a sudden I went into the creek too. It was pretty cold and it was raining pretty hard too. Everyone got wet. It was a blast.

Enjoy the video. You could be one of the first ones to see the next "big viral video." haha.

Our Cali Trip

Last week we took a little trip down to Eureka, CA. We met up with our good friends the Daffrons. This is our 2nd year in a row to go camping with them. Last year we went just outside of Modesto which is located 62 miles south of the SUN! So we took a slightly cooler trip this year.
We camped out in tents and went to the beach each day. Ryan and I surfed and the girls and the kids played in the sand. We hung out, wandered and enjoyed some relaxing times together. So good. Below are some pics from that trip.
Enjoy.
We saw an Elk Crossing 2 Miles sign and what do you know? We saw some elk!!! So cool.
Ahhh...the sunsets!
Hey, what can I say? I'm Oregonian. We are all tree huggers...right? How cool are the Redwoods?!?!

ps. sorry it has been a while since I have been on here. We are in full "fall swing" and lots to do. But I love blogging and am committed to keeping you updated.

 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing, I went...

Last weekend was our Father's Day celebration. I know, you are thinking, "Father's Day was last month!" True, but my family had to go out of town and we celebrated Mother's Day with our friends the Condellos and the Unwins. Perhaps I will write about that another day. It was fun...for the guys.

Anyhow, the girls decided we should celebrate together again. So the first time we would all be together was last weekend. I was told to wear nice clothes and a tie; to bring a sleeping bag, matches and a spoon. Steve had to bring (I can't remember) and Brian had to wear a swimsuit under his jogging pants. This was all a rouse as I walked outside to see everyone and they were not wearing what I was wearing. The girls had a great laugh about that one. Then the three guys were blindfolded.

We jumped into the car and drove off. I told Jeanne-Ann that I have an amazing sense of direction and that I would figure out where we were going. I figured out that we were in Mollala. Not bad, huh? We got out of our vehicles and were lead up to a wall where the girls took our pictures and then we turned around and took off our blindfolds. We were at Oregon Skydiving!!!!!!!

For EIGHT years I have been saying, "This is the year." Well, this is the year. We went in for training and waited...and waited...and waited. The clouds were out in full force and they don't dive when you can't see the ground. They were hoping it would happen, but not hugely optimistic. We set a new date for yesterday.

Now I had all week to get mentally ready for this great event in my life. Well, we woke up to clouds again after a week full of sun. We got there and it was still cloudy. We waited...and waited...and waited. We went to get lunch late and said if nothing by 12:30 we would jet. We waited a little bit longer and at 1:15 there was some blue spots and some activity inside. Finally the first group (from 9AM...we were at 10AM)went up.

Then it was our turn.

I realize this a bit longer than normal...but what an amazing day!


We went in and got our straps all set, put on our "really cool hats" and walked out on to the airstrip. The plane pulled up and we began the boarding process. I went in first, which meant that I would dive last. The plane went down the runway and turned around for take off. The engines roared and we began...then we slowed down. I was upfront, basically next to the pilot, and heard him tell my guide that the front tire felt flat. That was fine for take-off, but not landing. We all got out while they put air back in the tire.

Then, finally, we got back in. With roaring engines we took off. There was not a lot of wiggle room and the windows were pretty low, but we got a pretty good view of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood. We climbed and climbed and climbed. It was not like taking off in a 747. The climb process was pretty slow, but it built our anticipation up a lot. Steve, Brian and I kept high fiving and knuckling each other. We were so EXCITED!!! Out of the 3 of us, Steve went first. When Steve stood at the door and I saw his face, my stomach really started to tumble around.


If you know me, you know I love to be scared and thrilled. This was THE moment. Steve went, and then Brian was up. He rollwed out with a gorgeous view behind him and then it was my turn. Looking at the propeller in front of us and the ground below my heart was elated! Then we rocked...left, right, roll! Yahoooooooooo!!! I was flying. I did it.

I was in the air. 13,100 feet above the ground. I told Kirk, my guide, to have fun and spin all he wanted. I was thinking when the chute had deployed. He started to spin moments after we jumped. Faster and faster. It was like when you are on one of those playground "merry-go-rounds" and you look up, but you are looking down. Then he kicked his legs to the other side and he spun us the other way. I wondered if I would get queasy, but I never did. One more spin on both sides and then suddenly YANK! He opened the chute and we began to float. Wow!

We had a very serene floating moment and then he asked if I wanted to steer. Of course! So he told me to pull down on the one side and we began to spin. Haha! More spinning. It was crazy cool. We went all the way flat in a spin. Then he had me pull the other side and we spun the other way. Then I pulled both. Weightlessness. When we would spin, there was an intense amount of pressure on my legs. They began to lose circulation but it didn't matter. It was like the pain I enjoyed from the sunburns I would get on my college spring break trips to Florida. I didn't care that it hurt, I was just glad I got color.

Steve landed first and Brian and I landed at almost the exact same time.

It is hard to explain the feelings I had. Excitement, thrill, joy, bits of momentary fear, smile, trust, weightlessness, bodily stress, stomach whirl. If there were a word for that combination, that's what it would be.

You gotta go.

Seriously, I mean it. You must go skydiving. this is your sign!

Bonehead moments of the week!

This weekend was filled with a few embarrassing moments for me. I don't get embarrassed easily, but I did this weekend. On Friday I went with Jeanne-Ann to take the kids to school. As we were walking out of the school I heard someone crying in the school (surely someone who didn't want their mom to leave). I didn't pay it much mind and i went to grab Jeanne-Ann's hand as we walked out. She kind of pulled her hand away. I tried three times and she did the same thing and I was getting a little irritated as Jeanne-Ann says, "Erik, what are you doing?" I then looked to my left and realized that Jeanne-Ann had stopped to see if the crying child was OK and that another mother was walking next to me!!! She said, "I wondered what you were doing, besides, I'm married." We had a good laugh.



Then came Sunday. There was a "ministry fair" at church (all the different ministries have booths set up and you can go hear all about them). I went over to see my friend Patrick at the college booth. We chatted for a while and I asked Karston if he wanted to go give Maria (Patrick's wife) a hug. I had seen her out of the corner of my eye standing near Patrick as we were talking. I was looking at Karston as I went around the table with my arm out ready to give her a hug and looked up as she pulled back a bit...it wasn't Maria!!! It was a college student that had dark curly hair like Maria and was about the same size as her.

Seriously! What is my deal?! Oh well. My bonehead moments continue to give others great joy so I thought I would pass this along to you.
Few days ago i tried tc held Jas hand 3 times and it wasn't her.
Sunday aM at the College booth i went to hug Maria. not her.

American Idol Songwriter Reject!

I put myself out there. I spent TEN bucks and wrote and recorded a song. But I got no love. Bummer. I was kinda hoping that just maybe I would make the top 20. There are some good songs on there, but I was hoping. Of course, I did not put tons of time into it. Oh well. Maybe next year. Maybe next year you will hear my song sung in the american idol finale and on the radio in the number 1 spot. We'll see. I will have to spend more time this year crafting it. I was really hoping that Blake would do my song! (as he is gonna win it!) I guess melinda could've sung it too, but I prefer Blake.

I'm so glad there's always next year.

Lost and the Red Sox!!! but this is about the team winning, not their miserable season

Man...the last episode of Lost kicked my butt. There are times when I watch something that I get so pulled in that my emotional strings are played well. Sometimes it's a moment where an extra-terrestial is trying to get home and the tear ducts are opened a bit; from time to time there's the Boy named Tommy who wears a coat that's too small and causes my gut to hurt from laughter; and then there are the OTHERS!!! My ire rose quite high tonight. I wanted to yell, "If you really are just normal then why do you treat them like animals."

I know what you are thinking. Well, yes, I have never denied that I am a bit too into TV. I guess I just drop my "thinking" when I am being entertained and allow myself to be entertained. Sounds a bit weird, but I love watching something that will take me on a journey.

The end of Lost had Henry or Ben telling Jack Shepherd that if he plays nice he will take him back home. Jack didn't believe that Ben had any contact with the outside world. Ben told him that in the 69 days they had been there (it's apparently 2004) Bush was re-elected, Christopher Reeves passed away and the BOSTON RED SOX won the world series. Jack laughed and told him he should've come up with something more believable. Then he showed him the video of the final game.

Ahhhh...it's good to relive one of the greatest moments in baseball history again. Seems soooo long ago and yet seems like it was just yesterday. bitter sweet moment...