Abrupt Conversationalist

Running Improvements since February

2010-04-14T14:39:00.010-04:00

I think I'm becoming a running addict.. seriously. Kids that are in my Youth Group have heard me say when I first got to Winnemucca a little over a year ago, that "Running makes me angry" cause I hated the idea.. It's funny what a year will do.. but anyway, I started running just to lose weight, but now I'm up to running 3-5 days a week with distances varying from no shorter then 3 miles and up to 8 miles(which I actually will run next week, my longest run so far has been 7 miles).

I use twitter which updated my facebook status, and I tweet the results of almost every run I do. Before I had my Garmin 405cx watch I would just record the time and distance(which I measured in the beginning by driving my car around the block, and then I found mapmyrun.com thanks to my brother-in-law J.. But either way I'd like to show you the tweets from February and how they compare to the past couple of weeks.. I think the improvement is staggering, but that's just me

This is my first official 5k distance run without stopping

This is my PR(Personal Record) which I ran last tuesday

This was the first time I ran 5 miles and thought I was going to die

This is my new PR for the 5 mile

That's a almost a 9 minute improvement for both distances in just about 2 months... Man there's a lot of potential here.

I'm sorry if it seems I'm being egotistical, I'm not trying to be.. One of the main reasons I update so often is because I know that the more people that know I'm doing this means the more people that will hold me accountable, whether verbally or non-verbally. If you're annoyed with my constant updates, that's fine, I can't be offended, so hide me.. I might get annoyed if I saw so many run updates too.

Either way, thank you for holding me accountable.. Tomorrow I'll post some short term, long term and ongoing goals in my running future. ok bye.

I had an encounter with an Animorph

2010-04-13T14:59:00.005-04:00

So as many of you know, I've been running quite regularly lately, I'm up to 3 miles 3 times a week and two longer runs for the other two days (This week it's a 5 mile run and a 7 mile run).. Last week is what I would call a complete failure to complete my running training.. I ended up only running one time and that's it.. I was pretty good at making excuses too.

So this week I decided to start anew.. to actually run all 5 times on the days that I wanted to run.. I had previously failed and crammed my runs in during the other weeks because I would never run on Monday (who knows why)... But either way, I got up Monday Morning and ran 3.1 miles, and it felt good. I think it was the first time I actually felt like a real runner. I was still really slow, but that'll be the way it is until I continue to lose the weight. I felt good.. My heart rate was right where it was supposed to be, I felt like my stride was actually "runnerish".. I don't know how else to explain it, but it was good.

So this morning I got up and changed Joshua's diaper, cause Corrie can't do it lately because of excess (pregnancy)nausea in the morning, and got dressed drank some water and headed out for my run fulling expecting a repeat of yesterday. My watch was at 20% battery, so I had to conserve and run a route that I knew was very close to 3.1 miles so I wouldn't have to continually check my distance (I get pretty OCD about it).. You can see the route if you click the link at the bottom.. If you look at the map (via the link) you'll see that at about half way through my route I turned right onto "Westmoreland Rd".. This is a main two lane paved road (I emphasize the fact that it's paved because a lot of the roads around here are just dirt and gravel). As I was running, feeling really good about the fact that I can run 3 miles without any trouble at all, listening to my "Emery" Pandora channel I saw a large bird fly over my head, pretty closely.. I said to myself, that looks like a seagull at first glance, but that's a crazy idea cause there's no seagulls in the middle of the desert. So the bird landed on the tree I was directly adjacent to and screeched, I was able to see it up close and know that it was a massive hawk..

:sidebar: My thought process when I realized it was actually a hawk;

I always loved looking for hawks when I was a kid.. You were always able to spot them in the winter in Upstate NY because all the trees lost their leaves, and hawks are large and easily noticeable. It was actually a game that my sister, my dad and me would play whenever we were driving on the highway with trees lining the road on either side for a majority of the ride, we would see who could spot the most hawks.. It was fun.. Hawks also remind me of the book series "Animorphs" where kids have the ability to turn into an animal that they touch, but they can only stay that animal for a limited time because if they "morph" for too long they become that animal. One kid morphed into a red tail hawk and forever was a hawk(unless he changed back in later books, who knows I never read too many). Also seeing the hawk reminded me of the book "My side of the Mountain" in which a kid runs away from home in the redwood forest region of the country, makes a home in a redwood tree, and then catches a Hawkling/egglet/whatever you call baby hawks, and trains it to hunt for him, and basically be his companion

:end sidebar:

Then, Suddenly amidst my reminiscing I felt something whoosh by my head and saw the hawk continue to fly over me, but closer this time. Now in the adrenaline/endorphin filled moment of running, and a hawk flying this close to me I really want to say that I felt the tail feathers of the bird come in contact with my head.. After further review and with a calmer heart rate I've come to the conclusion that what I felt was a rush of air caused by the hawk. Because if that hawk really hit me I would have known it.

So now I've realized that the hawk isn't too happy with me innocently jogging on Westmoreland Road, I looked ahead and saw that there was tree with a massive nest in it and figured that it was a protective mother.. Was the bird blind? Did it really expect a 250lb man to climb 25 feet into the air to threaten its nest, maybe if I was sub 200..

The hawk landed on the next tree and screeched and I ran past it more cautiously and turned my head to see it takeoff from the tree and start heading for me again.. this time it was definitely much closer to me, and I had to duck to avoid it as it zoomed past me while screeching to land in the next tree.. This Hawk was really mad at me.. But I continued running.. And it came at me again, this time I really picked up my pace and ran to other side of the road(in retrospect I should have done this much earlier) and got clear of the trees that contained this hawks' nest I continued my run and finished 3.1 miles in 33:23 which is about a 10:46 pace (slow, but my average lately).. I got home and told Corrie the story, Of course it was laden with over-exaggerations of how it actually attacked me and how I fended it off with my bare hands (you can't blame me, the endorphins were still pumping)

As I sat uploading my run data onto the computer I asked Corrie if she would go take a picture of the hawk, cause I was almost positive that it would still be there (I asked Corrie, not because I was afraid of the Hawk, but because she's a much better photographer then I will ever be). Alas the Hawk wasn't there, it must not have viewed Corrie as a threat or could sense that Corrie was with child and could directly relate with the Hawk on some weird level. But she did get a picture of the massive nest, which is right here. you can probably zoom it in to get a better look.

I'm going to run that way tomorrow too to see if the hawk tries to attack me again.. I bet if I got a stuffed hawk or some other type of bird of prey and put it on a long pole I could get the Hawk to attack it, but that would take too much time, but it's fun to think about what would happen..

Ok that's all I have to say about that.. What do you think about when you see a hawk? My side of the Mountain? Hawk spotting? Animorphs? Something else? I'd love to hear what you think.. check out the link to see where it all went down.. ok bye.

3.1 miles in 33:23.. I got dive bombed by a hawk 3x's too by joshmaxwellyp at Garmin Connect - Details

But as for me, I trust in You

2010-03-14T08:51:00.003-04:00

Last night at around 8:20pm I watched a little 1 year old boy pass into the loving arms of our Savior. I stood there, prayed with the family, cried with the family and asked God what my purpose in this should be.

As I drove the 2 1/2 hours back to Winnemucca I had a lot of time to think even among conversing with my friend and fellow elder from our church.

This morning I'm supposed to preach, and I had prepared a sermon on dealing with temptation, and I was 90% ready to give it, but God was telling me, "Josh you need to preach on grief" So at 11:30pm when I walked through the door, completely exhausted, not only because of the long drive, but because I've been at church all weekend for a lock-in for our Mission Team that is going to Zambia this summer (this all equals no sleep). But anyway, I walked through the door with full intentions that I would prepare a sermon on dealing with grief, and mourning.

My sinful self, said, well I can prepare this while I lay in bed, then I hit the bed and my sinful self said, "you're ready for your sermon on Temptation, and you're gonna lose an hour of sleep anyway, just go to sleep" It's so much easier to sin.

God had different plans and he woke me up at 1:30 and said "Grief", and at 2:30 "Mourning" and at 3:30 "Why aren't you listening to me?" and at 4:30 "Get up and do as I say"

So I did.. and he gave me the Scripture

Please pray for me this morning as I will be sharing the story of David and his son Absalom, and be looking how David dealt with mourning through Psalm 55.. This is completely a God thing, and I need to trust Him. So much easier to say that then do it. Thank you.

"But as for me, I trust in You" -Psalm 55:23

weight loss progress

2010-02-25T11:30:00.005-05:00

These are pictures that people have been asking me about.. I've actually lost 15-20 more pounds since taking these pictures, but I still think they're unbelievable.. Warning.. no shirt.

Week 1 Profile

Week 11 Profile

Week 1 Front

Week 11 Front

As of today I'm down a total of 44 pounds.. rock rock on.

Lent

2010-02-18T18:11:00.002-05:00

I saw this post over at whyismarko.com ( I edited his list a bit, but liked a lot of them)

I'm not trying to bash lent or those who are participating in sacrificing something that keeps them from a stronger relationship with Christ.. and I think that there's nothing that we can sacrifice that would equal the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross..

I just think that this is a good list that shows how good I am at abstaining from so many things..

THINGS I AM GIVING UP FOR LENT THIS YEAR

ferel cat adoption
miley cyrus music
michael jackson gloves
driving under the speed limit
reading chick lit
putting my tongue in fans
pogoing
watching the movie “little women”
D&D
stamp collecting
running for political office
taunting babies
launching my rap career
nude banjo playing
climbing mt everest
buying gold bullion
thong underwear
my search for the “lost” island
stove pipe hats
parachute pants
jam sessions with U2 in my basement
colonizing
phrenology
constructing a scale model of ancient jerusalem out of mike & ikes
vampire hunting
amateur brain surgery
freeing willy

Hopefully all that are participating in lent are handling their sacrifices well, and able to re-focus on their relationship with Christ.

week 10 update with a well deserved explanation

2010-02-14T04:50:00.002-05:00

So the two people who actually read this blog might have wondered where the regular posts have been.. I said when I began this that I would attempt to update this on a fairly regular basis. I initially did plan on this but because after my second week I decided not to because it would be broadcast to the members of my church who pledged money..not that I didn't want them to be updated, but I wanted them to be fully surprised with the actual amount of weight I've lost..

The reason that I'm writing this blog now is two-fold.. I can't fall asleep and because of what I think is the greatest physical feat I've ever achieved.. as I've written in the past i ve been working on "the couch to 5k" program to give me something to work towards during my weight loss journey, it has been going great, its been 3 weeks since I've done any interval runs and I've been running for longer periods of time at one.. last week I decided to not follow the prescribed time period for running, which happened to be 28 minutes and see if I could complete the entire 3.1 miles to see what my time would be.. I did it with some intermittent walking and my end time was 40:28 which breaks down to about a twelve and a half minute/mile pace..I thought it was good, that I was able to do it especially because I could hardly run 60 seconds without wanting to jump in front of cars to end my miserable existence 9 weeks ago.. I did this a couple of days in a row with the same results.. and I felt semi-discouraged, I wanted to be fffaster.. I think that's just my competitive nature, and I should have just been satisfied with what I've accomplished thus far.

But because of my discouragement I called my brother-in-law J who's really into running and asked what his experience and opinion were on what was going on.. he told me that I shouldn't worry about time, but just building up my endurance, which I agreed with, but he did say in passing that to improve his time he just went a little bit faster, not crazy fast.. I had never thought of it this way, and looking back on the past week or so I figured out that as I tried to increase my speed I ended up over exerting myself and ultimately ended up going much slower to compensate or had to walk for a little bit..

So..

Today I wanted to put what j had said into practice.. just go a little bit faster and it worked... I ended up completing the 3.1 miles in 35:47 which averages out to be around 11:30/mile I was so excited, I ended up shaving a whole minute off what I had previously recorded and felt absolutely great, I shouted YES so loud outside my house that corrie could hear me from inside and thought that I was injured or something.. it was overall great feeling of accomplishment.. I in now way expect to go out there on Monday and see another couple of minutes shaved off my time, but feel confident that this new perspective has changed how I will run.

So that's my greatest physical achievement.. it might not seem like much to some, but its all I can claim.. I look forward to reporting better results in the weeks to come.

Sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes as I typed this all on my phone.

Ok bye.

Week 1 Weigh in

2009-12-11T12:57:00.006-05:00

So here it is my week 1 weigh in... I really can't believe it's been one week.. What else I can't believe is how much I lost.

My initial weight was 295.4 lbs
And when I weighed in this morning I was 282.2 lbs
total weight loss: 13.2 lbs
total percentage of weight loss was 4.4%

It's pretty amazing.. and I can't really believe it.. but with hard work and eating right it happened.. I know that a portion of this was water weight loss and I don't look to have this kind of loss next week, but any weight loss is a good.. Well that's about it... here's the pictures

I am a Loser update 12.10.09 and Week 1 Recap

2009-12-11T02:49:00.002-05:00

Today started off not so good. I had planned on going swimming this morning, and I didn't wake up until 5:30.. that's the exact time I need to be at the pool to be able to lift weights and swim.. so I ended up going to the weight room, lifting weights, chest, back and legs and then came home to go for a run. Today a switch was hit in me that made jogging so much easier.. Like I've said before. I've wanted to quit before I've finished my full circuit of running/walking, but today when I finished my 8th run, I felt like I could keep on going.. I did not however because I didn't want to over exert myself to quickly.. So after I finished running, I walked for about 20 minutes and decided to try another full circuit, and I completed it.. I was even able to jog for almost 2 minutes for my last two minutes of the run.. Man was I excited. so that was my day today.

Now for a recap, I'll probably post this on a weekly basis, so people have an idea of what's gone on.. I'll post my weigh in weight, and pictures tomorrow, cause that's the actually weigh in date.. so anyway on with the recap

Friday - Started, Ran/Walked for 4 miles felt like crap

Saturday - Ran/Walked for 3.5 miles felt more like crap because my muscles were sore from the day before.. After run/walking I raked leaves for 7 hours.. yea that was awesome.

Sunday - Day of Rest

Monday - Swam for 20 minutes, then lifted weights for 45 minutes.. I felt inadequate cause I still felt like crap and could hardly swim a length of the pool.

Tuesday - I believe this was my turning point of the week. I slept in and didn't make it to the pool as planned, but went to lift weights, felt kind of sore, but was able to work through it. After lifting I ran/walked, and felt like I was starting to accomplish something

Wednesday - Failure.. I was still able to eat right, but I had no motivation whatsoever to run like I had planned.

Thursday - See above post.. I feel great

So that ends week 1 of 12 of the I am a Loser Competition. How much do you think I lost. I'm anxious to find out tomorrow morning. ok bye.

A bad Day and a rant

2009-12-09T20:52:00.002-05:00

I guess since I've had so many good updates over the past couple of days it was about time to have a bad one.. My bad day however did not have to do with my diet.. I didn't run like I wanted to, but I think that demotivation came from what occurred earlier in the day.

I had planned on having a good day off.. but at 8:30 this morning Corrie woke me up and said that there was water everywhere, I went in to the laundry room and we found that there was water pouring from the ceiling.. I didn't know exactly how to shut it off and spent about 10 minutes figuring it out.. I finally found out that it was the swamp cooler line, it had obviously busted and I had to turn off the valve.. It's my fault that it happened. I'm supposed to winterize the swamp cooler, and had put it off and put it off, and actually last night I had planned on going up on the roof to get it done, but I guess the best laid plans are destined to fail, especially when you don't fully lay out the plans.

So anyway I went over to our friends house to borrow his ladder to get up on the roof, and put it in the explorer. I was in such a rush to get back that I took the back road, which is really just a four wheeler trail and when I hit a big bump the ladder jumped up and hit the rear windshield and completely shattered it.

It was at this point that I started thinking about money that we don't have.. Corrie and I basically live paycheck to paycheck trying to pay off school and CC debt and because of that our savings is practically $0 most of the time. We had saved a little bit so that we could go to NJ this upcoming week, but that still wasn't a lot. Because it's so cold outside we have to replace the rear windshield, and the swamp cooler line is our responsibility as stated in our lease agreement..

So with that said we're probably not going to be able to make it to NJ this next week. This upsets me so much, not because of me, but because of how much Corrie was looking forward to this trip.. But who knows, maybe $350 dollars will just show up in our bank account, nothing is impossible with God.

And that leads to my rant.. Earlier today I posted a status on facebook "I throw my hands up in the air and ask why?!" and although this may seem like it's focused to a singular comment, I know that everyone who read it probably though the same thing... and much offense was taken.. By saying to me "make sure you're asking why not? too, to the one deserves it" makes the assumption that I do not trust God, awesome. Is there somewhere in the Bible that says asking a why to God is a sin? that it's wrong to do? I've had 5 years of formal Biblical Education and I can't see a place where just asking why is a wrong things, or allows people to think that I'm not placing my trust in God. The sin comes when you ask why and then curse God when he doesn't have the answer. or are angry with God because of the situation.

So let me again state that this is focused specifically to the person that made that statement as I know this person was probably just trying to provide encouragement, and will probably read this blog as well.

Corrie and I are trusting God and who's to say that he won't provide, me asking why is me directly seeking God's will in this situation and praying that he will provide an answer.

That's all I have to say, and I apologize if my stance on seeking God's will, and being a sinful Christian human being is offensive to anyone. So that's about it.

Weigh in day is on Friday, lifting and swimming tomorrow. ok bye.

I am a Loser Update 12.08.09

2009-12-08T20:07:00.002-05:00

So it's been a couple of days since I've updated my progress, but here it is.

On Saturday night I decided to make Sunday a complete day of rest at least from exercising. With my job as a Pastor Sunday's are always the busiest day of the week. I hardly get to spend anytime at home with Corrie and the baby. If I were to add to my day by running then it would in time become detrimental. So that's what I did on Sunday.. church and a nap. although i was able to maintain the correct amount of calories for the day.

Monday was my first day swimming.. I guess I forgot how difficult it was to swim a lot, because by the 3rd length of the pool I was absolutely exhausted.. I felt like someone was choking me, so after I struggled through the 4th length i took a good rest. after that i took it a lot slower, I mostly did freestyle(front crawl) but mixed in a couple of laps of breast and back stroke. all in all I was in the pool for about 25 minutes, and 5-7 of those minutes were spent resting.. Emily, a girl from our Old Youth Group is actually on the swim team for her college and she wrote me up a good swimming workout, which I will try on Thursday when I go back to the pool.

After Swimming, I went next store to lift some weights, a member of our church here is the Police Captain in town and is in the Army Reserves (Correct me if I'm wrong Rick), because of this he has a pretty good lifting schedule that isn't too strenuous yet difficult enough to challenge me.. On Monday we did, Chest and Back with some calf workouts, and death crunches (that's not a special type of crunch, but what I affectionately call crunches.. death. So I ended up lifting for 45 minutes, and then headed home.. Did I mention this was all before 7:00am.. That's not a time I usually see, but I've been motivated to get up and do this, and so I am.

This morning I meant to get up to go swimming, but didn't wake up until 5:30, which is the time I need to be at the pool so that I can lift weights with Rick and Madison after swimming at around 6:00am, so I decided to just go lift and run when I got back home. Today we worked Triceps, Biceps and Shoulders.. It was pretty intense.. My muscles felt like Jello afterward, but I know that's just the way it's going to be for awhile.. I definitely wasn't putting too much weight on because I was able to do every rep in each circuit, which is important, or so I'm told... The way I'll do weight training is Monday & Tuesday Lift, Wednesday rest, and Thursday & Friday Lift. I won't be working the same muscle group out two days in a row ever so it will give them a time to reccooperate from the workout.

After Lifting I went home and got bundled up to go running.. If you saw my facebook status this morning you saw that it was -1 out this morning, and I think that was without the windchill, but I was determined to get my run in. The second I started my brisk warm-up walk all the snot that was in my nose froze solid so it made it hard to breathe, but I cleared it out and kept going.. Today was the first time I felt kind of okay about my ability to complete the task at hand.. I didn't want to quit until the 6th set of running, whereas the I had wanted to quit by the 3rd set the first two times I ran.. All in all I finished the 8 sets of Run/Walking and felt real comfortable, but since I don't want to do too much to quickly I walked briskly for about 20 minutes or so, then started a new set for the last 10 minutes of the four miles..

I've tried to diet and exercise a lot of times in my life, but for some reason this time seems a lot easier and like it's accomplishing more. I hope I'm not boring you with these long posts, I'm going to post them anyway. ok bye.

I am a Loser update 12.05.09

2009-12-05T23:31:00.002-05:00

This morning I woke up at 6:00 am, and got out of bed close to 7:00, hey don't hold it against me I'm new to this whole getting up and working out thing.. I got dressed drank some water and ate a special k bar and by 7:30 I was out the door.

I was pretty excited that I was able to complete a full 20 minute circuit of walking/running. It took me close to two miles.. after that, I walked for 30 minutes, and then did a couple run/walk cycles and went home... I didn't end up doing the whole 4 miles, cause I had to do a rake attack with the Zambia Team, and I didn't mind raking cause it would mean more physical activity. We ended up raking from 9:00am-4:00pm. I didn't rake the whole time, cause I had to leave and go get Subway for everyone.

So after two days of walk/running I'm pretty sore.. My Hamstrings, and quads are aching, and my shins are doing a lot better then expected.. I just need to push through and it'll get easier, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

ok bye.

I'm a Loser Update 12.04.09

2009-12-05T01:04:00.003-05:00

Well day one is over. I woke up this morning at 8:00am geared up to go running in the 12 degree weather outside. It was so cold.. I'm glad I bought some underarmer knock offs at Wal-Mart or else my clothes would have been frozen, from all the sweat I tend to produce.

A lot of people have asked me what my plan for dieting is so here it is. As far as running goes I got it from Corrie that got it from a friend. It's called Couch to 5k basically it's a program that has me alternate running and walking for a specific amount of time. For example, for the first week, after I do a 5 minute warm up walk, I will run for 60 seconds then run for 90 seconds, and for each subsequent week the amount of time I run will be greater.. It's just a matter of doing it habitually.

I'm supposed to do this for 20 minutes, but I'm also coupling this with Dr. Huizenga's, from the Biggest Losers, Where did all the Fat Go diet and exercise book. In his book he recommends at 4 mile calorie burn whether it be walking, running, jogging or some combination of them, along with the correct, healthy daily calorie intake, for weight loss. Which I am keeping track of with the www.livestrong.com 'daily plate'. On this website I enter my personal information i.e. height weight age, and goal for weight loss and it calculates my daily caloric intake. I am able to enter each food item I eat, I haven't come across anything that hasn't been in their database so it's been really good. I also enter what kind of exercising I'm doing and it tells me a number of different stats, Like the daily value % of the Protein, Carbs, Fat, Sodium, Potassium etc. that I'm eating. My goal is to eat 50%Carbs, 40%Protein, 10%Fat while keeping the Sodium level as low as possible.

I consider today to be a perfect first day of the weight loss challenge. Everything I wanted to accomplish, I did. I was just barely under my caloric goal, which is awesome, and I was able to burn a lot of calories on my walk/run. which happened to be 4.0 miles exactly.. and I didn't even plan it that way.

Well that's it for now, thanks for reading, which is a great source of unspoken encouragement.

ok bye.

Silence Broken and a new initiative

2009-12-04T04:24:00.009-05:00

So here we've been in Winnemucca for almost 9 months and I haven't updated this thing once since getting here. So consider the silence broken. So for the new initiative. 'Pastor Josh is a Big Loser'

I've listened to the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast since episode 00. It has inspired me and helped shape my personal philosophy of Youth Ministry. So with that being said, two of the hosts are rather rotund and a couple of weeks ago someone e-mailed a question about having a weight loss challenge with them. They accepted and opened it up to the whole podcast listening community. Of course I wanted in. I don't even know what the prize is and I still wanted in.

As I was thinking about how I was going to lose weight I also thought of a great idea to help keep me motivated and accountable. So I created the 'Pastor Josh is a Big Loser' weight loss pledge with my church congregation. Our Youth Ministry is taking a group of teenagers to Lusaka, Zambia this summer and there is a need to raise over $4,000 a person to participate. I thought that I would ask the church to pledge per pound of weight they think I will lose. For example if they pledged $5.00 per pound and I lost 5 pounds they would in turn donate $25.00 to our trip to Zambia. It's pretty exciting and seems like it's a creative way to earn funds, instead of just having bake sales and car washes.

So with that said, I will be attempting to keep you all updated as to my progress on a daily basis. The Contest for the podcast lasts for 12 weeks, and the pledge program at church lasts an additional 3 weeks. I'd love for anyone who feels lead to participate. If you're interested, send me and e-mail at joshmaxwellyp@gmail.com or just a message on facebook.

And to prove what my starting weight is, I had Corrie take some pictures of me, and I'll be updating that picture on a weekly basis so you can see the progress. Don't worry I'm fully clothed in the pictures. ok bye.

email update; Wyoming Wyoming Wyoming

2009-03-12T12:53:00.000-04:00

As Jim Smith commented on my wall yesterday "It's a good thing we don't believe in luck" Which is absolutely true. Corrie and I believe that it takes a lot of faith to pack up all of our stuff and move across country, and we've committed to trusting God in every aspect of our lives, especially when things do not go as planned.

Yesterday, started off okay. We had just gotten our blown out tire fixed in Cheyenne, and thought we might be able to get into Winnemucca sometime late at night. about 20 miles into the trip as Corrie was driving, the transmission on the truck started slipping pretty badly, we stopped in Buford Wyoming, which is just a rest stop with a population of 2, to check the transmission fluid. I'm thankful that my first car, a $100 1987 Mazda 626, had transmission problems, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even have thought to check the ATF. So I checked the truck and it was bone dry, and I said to myself. "Oh that's the fix to the problem, we'll be fine now". So I put the ATF fluid in and we started on our way again. The truck was driving perfectly for about 10 miles, and then it started again... Great. We wanted to make it to Laramie, so that there was actual civilizatoin which would allow for our problem to be fixed more quickly.

We called Penske when we stopped in Laramie, and they sent out a service guy who was really nice. This was a blessing, cause I can imagine them sending a guy who cussed up a storm and just didn't want to help (like the guy who fixed the tire in Cheyenne). So anyway, he checked the transmission fluid and it was bone dry again. Apparently there was a huge leak, and the truck would have to be replaced. Talk about trusting God, All of our stuff was in the truck that could no longer be driven...

They found us a new truck in Fort Collins CO, which was about 75 miles South of Laramie. So they sent a couple of guys down there to get a new truck, and we had to just wait until it got back. We took our car off the trailer, left Hugo with the nice people in the auto shot and set off to explore Laramie. I was excited because there was a Sonic that we got to eat lunch at, Corrie liked it too. But by the time we finished lunch it had only been 35 minutes, and it was going to take at least another hour and half until the truck was back. So after making a Wal-Mart run, we stopped at the Laramie visitor center to see what there was to do. (Corrie was embarrassed to go in). I found that there was a mansion in town that was a musuem, so we checked it out. We ended up taking a guided tour through the Ivinson mansion. Which was interesting... It at least took up the time that was needed.. If we didn't take a guided tour we would have been in there for 20 minutes, and would have had to find something else to do.

After our tour we headed back to the auto repair shop where they were getting ready to do the offload. I really can't tell you how nice these guys were, and how willing they were to do this work. the off load took about a hour and half, and they even helped me hook the car back up on the trailer, which can be annoying. So after 5 hours or so of being stuck in Laramie, we were on our way, with a new truck.

We wanted to make it to the Utah border by the end of the night, which was quite possible, but by 9:30 pm exhaustion had set in, and I had to start talking jibberish to keep myself and corrie awake, you can see some of that jibberish in the video update that is on facebook right now. We ended up making it to Evanston Wyoming, which is about 3 miles from the Utah border. We have about 6 1/2 hours left of driving until we get to Winnemucca, so hopefully we'll make it by dinner time.

Well that's it for the update today, thanks for your prayers. We'll send another one from Winnemucca... yes!

--
ok bye
Josh and Corrie

email group; Flat Nebraska, Bald Eagles, and an unexpected pit stop in Cheyenne Wyoming 3.10.09

2009-03-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a short day of travel. We left Grand Island Nebraska and drove to Ogallala Nebraska... We were really just planning on getting some food and leaving but and adventure was to come. We stopped at the Front Street Cafe, which depicted an "old west" cow town feeling. We had some good food and decided to check out the musuem that was connected to the cafe... It was pretty cool to see all the old cowboy stuff, like old barbed wire, spurs, and even chaps...

When we had enough of the musuem we decided to try our luck at seeing some bald eagles. The menu from the restaurant where we ate said that Lake Ogallala was a great place to see Bald Eagles in the winter. It even said that on one day in February 1994 there was 368 eagles spotted, or 368 eagle spottings (the latter is probably true). So we got directions and drove to the lake. I wasn't too sure we were going to see any eagles just because it would be our luck to not see any. But lo and behold, within seconds of entering the lakes dirt access road, we saw a huge male bald eagle sitting in a tree... It was amazing. We ended up parking and getting out to get a closer look, and ended up seeing 5 or 6 more eagles. Hugo was able to get out and run around, and he a had a great time. The whole experience reminds me of my favorite verse of the Bible

Romand 1:20; For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

I jokingly said to myself as we left Lake Ogallala that "it must be easier to believe in God if you live out here". But the reality of the fact is that there's no way we can deny the existence of God when we see the beautiful creation that he has given us. This creation can be seen everywhere however. Birds fly everywhere, trees grow, rivers flow, babies are born. God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature, can not be denied when we see the creation that he has given us. Awesome stuff.

After Ogallala we entered into a more rolling area of Nebraka, which was a good change of pace. we entered into Wyoming and epected to make it pretty close to the Utah border by the time we were done driving for the night. But as we entered into Cheyenne WY a truck driver told us to pull over, and notified us that the rear driver side inside tire had blown out. We don't know how long it had been like that, because it's not easily seen. We called Penske and ended up bringing the truck to a service station and had to wait 5 hours until it got fixed. So instead of continuing so late at night we stayed at the Days Inn..

We're getting ready to leave now(9:30am MDT). and could possible make it to Winnemucca late tonight, but we're not going to rush it. We'll be driving through some pretty mountainous areas, so that will probably slow us down. So we might get there tonight, but won't be upset if we don't make it untilearly tomorrow morning.

That's about it. We'll update you when we stop next.

--
ok bye
Josh and Corrie

email group, we're in chicago 3.9.09

2009-03-12T12:51:00.001-04:00

Hello All,

Yesterday we left NJ at 5:00am which was really 4:00am because of the Daylights savings switch. We made some pretty good time. Hugo slept the whole way which was a definite blessing. We're so glad that we decided to leave on a Sunday because when we hit Chicago traffic was a mess. I don't think I can imagine what it would be like any other day of the week.

We're staying with our friends Dave and Susan, and it's been real nice catching up with them.

Now that we've made it out here, we have no real time crunch to get to Winnemucca. We're going to take it easy driving out there... Maybe 8-10hrs.. and get there when we get there. Thank you for all of your prayers. I've been updating facebook with status updates and pictures of the drive, and I'm attempting to upload videos of the trip there now.

We'll send another update at our next stop later tonight.

--
ok bye
Josh and Corrie

email group Update 1 3.8.09

2009-03-12T12:50:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

I wanted to set up an e-mail group so I can update you on our trip as we travel this week. I will be updating my facebook regularly with pictures and videos of our trip, so you can check that out if you want. If you can think of anyone that's not on this list that you think might want to be let me know. Also if you don't want to recieve these updates then let me know as well.

We'll be leaving NJ at 5:00am which is really 4:00am because of Daylight Savings, and will be traveling to Chicago where we'll stay with friends Sunday night. this is the longest leg of the trip that we will do in one shot, so pray that we'll be able to do it safely.

We're real excited to be starting this journey, we appreciate your prayers and thoughts. I'll update you later.

--
ok bye
Josh and Corrie.

Pet Peevs Part 2

2009-02-23T03:18:00.003-05:00

The Volume of TV Commercials

I saw this on ysmarko’s blog the other day, but I couldn’t help but agree whole heartedly with this annoyance. I can’t count the number of times I’ve grown accustomed to the volume of a certain television program and am rudely “awakened” by the ridiculous loudness of someone talking about Womanly Hygiene products or something like that. The fact of the matter is that I am rarely enticed to purchase any of the products that are being advertised, and it doesn’t matter how loud the marketers decide the commercial should be, it’s not going to change my mind. I would guess that commercials make some money on from advertising at 1,000 decibals, but the only things I’m going to be purchasing are earplugs.

One thing that I do enjoy about commercials is how during the Price is Right, which airs at 11am, shows only hover round commercials, or a way to lower the cost of Diabetes medicines. Now that’s using demographics.

Automated Phone Services you have to speak to

Have you ever tried calling a customer service phone number? It would be silly to think that you’ll ever get to talk a “real person”. I don’t mind having to hit a thousand numbers to get to nowhere, but I can’t stand having to speak to the service. They tell you to briefly state the problem you’re experiencing, for example “I can’t get find the on button for my computer” and the response you get from the system “did you say; you have a clogged toilet” or something so far from what you actually said that you just hit 0 over and over again until you overload it and it puts you on hold for 30 minutes until you get to talk to someone.

Slow walkers

I wouldn’t consider myself to be a fast walker. I wouldn’t consider myself to be even a moderately paced walker. But I have “crowd anxiety” and there are so many people who walk way to slow for the flow of foot traffic, in any number of public places. All I have to say is speed up or move over.

Putting toilet paper on the roll incorrectly

This is probably something that bothers me more then any other thing in the entire world. Toilet should be put on the roll so that the end hangs over the roll (away from the wall). I’ve pictured the correct way. If the toilet paper is placed on the roll in the opposite way, you run the risk of prematurely ripping the toilet paper and not having enough to finish the job. I know I’d rather have supple paper to complete the job at hand(so as to not complete it with my hand).

Pet Peeves part 1

2009-02-18T13:38:00.000-05:00

Corrie and I are living at her parents’ house right now until we move to Nevada in a couple of weeks. Since living here we've grown accustomed to watching Wheel of Fortune at 7:30 every evening. I wouldn't consider myself an amazing Puzzle Solver, or even a possible contestant on the show, but there are a number of things that bother me about the show, and I thought I'd share them here.

Constant Clapping
If you've ever watched this game show, you may have noticed that whenever Pat isn't talking or someone isn't calling a letter the contestants are clapping. Why do they clap? I know it's probably because the show’s producers mandate it, so that there is as much excitement generated as possible. But seriously, it's a little too much. I know if I was on the show, I wouldn't want to be clapping while the wheel was spinning. I would be more interested in making sure I didn't hit a Bankrupt or Lose a Turn, and that's just when it's my turn. I wouldn't want to clap when my opponents were spinning either. This would instill in them a false sense of encouragement, as if I truly care that they've landed on the trip to Mexico, or the $5,000 space. The thing that bothers me the most about this is that every once in a while you get some idiot on the show who wants to impress Vana with his ability to clap and all you hear for the entirety of the 30 minute program is the contestant clapping as loud as he can. Just stop clapping.

Buying a Vowel before solving a Puzzle
For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, you wouldn't know that if you want a vowel you must purchase it for $250 from your prize money. This has been a staple of the show since its inception. Sometimes you can make a good decision to buy a vowel like an "e" and get 5 of them and only have to pay $250. I am not against buying vowels, as they are significant pieces that are needed to solve each puzzle that Vana throws up there on the board. My annoyance stems from the fact that a contestant will be spinning the wheel, and making a lot of money and have the entire puzzle almost nailed down, and they look to Pat ask to buy a vowel, and without even thinking about spinning the wheel to make their $250 back they solve the puzzle. What's the point? If you know the solution and you don't want to risk hitting a bankrupt by spinning the wheel again, then just solve the puzzle. Why would you waste $250 for a vowel that you already know is there? I know that there are circumstances when this happens and the contestant does not know the answer before they buy the vowel, but it seems that more often than not the case is that they're just being stupid and throwing away their money.

Bonus Round puzzles with Q, Z, and J
At the end of each show, the contestant with the most prize money moves onto a bonus round where they can win anything from a new car to money ranging from 25,000-100,000. They must spin a mini wheel to randomly select a prize card that is held by Pat until the completion of the Bonus Round. The Puzzle is then brought onto the board and the Letters R-S-T-L-N-E are entered into the puzzle if they are of course part of the solution. The contestant then must provide three more consonants and one more vowel. Here is where I get annoyed. The most common set of letters that are given by a contestant are C-D-M-A, sometimes using an F or an H or a different vowel to help complete their puzzle. It makes me angry when the answer is Zoology or Qualified of Jumping Jacks. Who in their right mind would pick those letters? The contestant had just gone through 6 or so puzzles during the regular puzzles in the normal round and not once has one of those letters come up in a puzzle. This instills in the contestant a false sense of security. They probably quickly say to themselves "There's no way a Q, Z or J would be in the puzzle, I'll just go on with what I know works" Roasted. If I were a contestant and they pulled that kind of stunt on me I would take that card that Pat opens up telling me I just lost a new Jeep Cherokee, rip it up and throw it into his face as I stormed of the stage. I wouldn't clap as they would probably want me to, and I wouldn't find solace that I walking away with $6,000 cash and a trip to Martha’s Vineyard. Because I know if they just had a normal Bonus Round Puzzle I could have won, and that sweet Cherokee would be mine.

The Pat Sajack and Vana White Minute
After the show is over you may notice that it's only 7:54pm. If you're like me you might say, why they end so early. The answer is because Pat and Vana get to talk about what's going on in their life. No one care that Pat is an honorary deputy sheriff, or that Vana has trouble with dry skin in her armpits. You're C-List celebrities, and if anyone really cared then we'd see your names in the tabloids more often. Get rid of the Pat Sajack and Vana White Minute and add another puzzle to the show.

That's my two sense. Another thing that kind of irks me but not to the point of annoyance is when Pat gives the wheel a final spin for the last puzzle of the game. He's been doing this for 20+ years, you'd think that he'd hit the $5,000 place a little more often.

This is just the beginning of my pet peeves as I will call them. I plan on posting more, so look forward to them.

Awkward Meeting

2008-10-15T12:16:00.002-04:00

Today I had an awkward meeting, and I looked at someone like Jim Halpert. I felt myself do it and had to post it on here. So that's about it. OK bye.

Pumpkin Carving to be proud of

2008-10-14T22:05:00.002-04:00

Ever since I smelled the first insides of the first pumpkin that was cut open in front of me, I have gagged at the thought of that smell. I've lost my lunch on more then one occasion as the result of that putrid smell and nasty goop that is held within that huge fruit or is it a vegetable. Well last night I carved a pumpkin, and here's the picture of it. What do you think of it?

the farewell of an abrupt conversationalist. Really?

2008-10-13T22:52:00.003-04:00

I really do stink at this blogging deal, but at least I try every once in a while... The main reason why I'm writing this now is because I wanted to see the posting capability of my iPhone. Needless to say it works. There might be some random mIsspellings because of the auto correct on this, but hopefully you'll get the gist. A lot of big things have been happening in my life as of late, most of them I can't share as of right now but in due time that information will revealed. One thing I can share is that Corrie got me a xbox 360 for my birthday with halo, gears of war, xbox live and Lego Indiana Jones ( that came with it but will probably be the most fun for her that is) it's pretty amazing. I just wish I knew more people on live so I could play with them but I guess if I don't have friends in real life then the same will hold true in an online community. Well that's all I have to say about that I think I'm gonna start writing on this more. Right now I've been writing a lot of good stuff in my moleskin notebook (not made of actual skin of moles) I should type up some of that and put of on here for those of you who care to even chck this anymore. Ok bye. (this is the farewell of an abrupt conversationaliat)

Two new computers

2008-09-04T23:06:00.001-04:00

So have you ever been frustrated by the fact that you don't have a computer? I guess I always took for granted the ability to just hop on the Internet whenever I wanted to, but alas, my stupid HP killed it's last hard drive and it was time to get a new one. Corrie's work offered a large discount on Dell Laptops, so we jumped on that, and they replaced my HP with a piece of crap gateway, which I traded in for it's $460 value and bought an HP touchsmart, which is a desktop. So that's the update. Maybe I'll make this a habit.

Interesting...

2008-06-24T10:25:00.000-04:00

Hebrews 10:23-32

23(A) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for(B) he who promised is faithful. 24And(C) let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25(D) not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and(E) all the more as you see(F) the Day drawing near.

26For(G) if we go on sinning deliberately(H) after receiving the knowledge of the truth,(I) there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27(J) but a fearful expectation of judgment, and(K) a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28(L) Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy(M) on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one(N) who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned(O) the blood of the covenant(P) by which he was sanctified, and has(Q) outraged the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said,(R) "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again,(S) "The Lord will judge his people." 31(T) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32But recall the former days when, after(U) you were enlightened, you endured(V) a hard struggle with sufferings,

burning the candle at both ends and running out of wax

2008-03-04T11:14:00.002-05:00

this saying is more then true for my life. There's a possible full time position at church for a Youth Pastor, which would allow me to focus on ministry rather then having to come and forward e-mails all day, although it does pay a lot of money for the job description, it's not what I'm called to do, I'll update you when I find out more. ok bye.

National Youth Ministry Conference

2008-02-25T00:19:00.003-05:00

So this conference was awesome. So much encouragement and resources, and did I mention encouragement in such a short time period. Well that's all I have to say about that. Ok bye.

Picking my Nose... Hair

2008-02-08T18:55:00.000-05:00

Today in my Apologetics course the inside of my nose hurt. It kind of felt like my nose hair was balled by a booger and pas pulling against it's roots. so I went up there to try to clear the booger out, and did so successfully. but the nose hair that was clumped was now sticking out of my nose, so I started pulling the hair, and I started counting, the hair that I pulled out. there wasn't a pull that had less then three hairs come out, and the total was 17.... yes 17 nose hairs in one nostril. that must be some kind of record. Well that's all I have to say about that. ok bye.

Hugo

2008-01-12T21:45:00.001-05:00

This is my new dog Hugo!

Corrie and I bought him from a breeder in central PA on Thursday, and I went and picked him up yesterday afternoon. He's just 8 weeks old, and doesn't so much more then sleep. Sometimes he'll get playful, but then he'll just wanna take a nap, that sounds like my kind of dog. We're real excited to have him and will make sure we post pictures often.

It makes it all worth it

2007-12-19T00:29:00.000-05:00

If you click the above picture you will see what I see when I check my grades, and when I checked my grades this evening, I found that all my hard work for the semester had paid off. Now I don't want to sound cocky or arrogant because that is not why I put this up here. I wanted to let people know that working a full time job at the Insurance Company, a part time job(which turns out being more full time) at Church, and being recently married, can still turn into 4 A's(even though 3 had minuses) in a graduate program. Now I can sleep easy, and long and really really long.

In other news, Corrie got a new phone, and now I'm rather envious, so to act upon that envy I decided that I would tell everyone who reads these things first. It's the blackberry pearl, and it's pretty sweet. well that's all for now. ok bye.

A sneak peek

2007-12-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

Corrie and I got our tree, and have since put our lights on it. We really don't have many ornaments, and my mom won't relinquish my childhood ones, but I do have this wonderful Mets ball that I placed on the tree first.

Here's a picture of the tree from our couch, I was too lazy to get up to get a full shot, but as the title of this blog suggests, this is but a sneak peak to the finished product. ok bye.

It's been a while

2007-10-30T23:52:00.000-04:00

It seems like every day I check the blogs that I've grown accustomed to checking, and everyday I see the title Ghetto Light show, and everyday I fail to update this stupid thing. I think the major reason is because I feel like there's just too much to say. But anyway, I got bored researching some stuff, and decided that it was about time. Major updates on life since Fathers day are as follows.

1. This summer I wanted to be at the beach any free day I had, so every free day I had that is where I was. I feel as if I got pretty good at riding waves, except for
one that took my wedding ring. Yup, that's right I lost my wedding ring less then a year after being married. Stupid Josh.

2. I got to see Matt and Abby get married in Grand Rapids Michigan one weekend, and then got to participate in missions trip in Grand Rapids the weekend after that. man that was a lot of driving.

3. I've started my Masters of Divinity degree this fall at PBU, and although I have felt a little overwhelmed at times, feel real good about it. I'm taking Greek 1, Bibliology and Hermeneutics, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and Soteriology and Angelology. I think I might even rock a 4.0 this semester. Which would be pretty flippin sweet.

In other news. Work is good, I'm an over paid mail opener/filterer and couldn't be more satisfied with my position.

Corrie and I are doing real well, and are about to finish our ballroom dancing class that we started a month ago. I'm a little bit disappointed with the class as a whole, because I feel that Corrie and I could have handled a little bit more of a challenge, but it is fun nonetheless.

Also the biggest news is... We're getting out of this hole that we presently call home. And on November 24th we'll be moving (no thanks to anyone that reads this j/k) to Lawrenceville Gardens, where there's a washer/dryer and dishwasher in the apartment. And even if we don't get the parking spot to our door we're still way less then 3 football fields away (as it is now). We're real excited too because we can get a dog, which we will be doing as soon as an English bull dog is born and affordable.

So that's about it, no picture updates at the moment, because our camera is broken, but that will soon be fixed. Hope everyone is doing well. ok bye.

The Ghetto Light Show

2007-06-28T00:17:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered what happens when you wrap a shopping bag around a stick, put it in the fire till it lights, then lift it high about the fire so it drips back down? I know a lot of you have so I'm hear to tell you. It's an amazing ghetto light show with sound effects too (in the form of laser like sounds similar to those heard in classic games like centipede or other such old games). On Fathers day weekend Corrie and I went down to her parents house for her dad's 50th get together... I don't think he wanted a party, so it's a get together for all intensive purposes. J and Cheryl were up which is always a good thing as well. So later on in the night when the old people left (no offense is meant to be taken by that statement) I told the story of how I learned how to make cool looking lights and sounds from burning plastic, after that I decided that I should give a practical demonstration and it worked pretty well. I was pretty amazed at how cool the "ghetto light show" was, and that everyone was so enthralled with it. Here are some pictures from my demonstration.

This is me preparing the plastic for melting

Now that I have it burning we can watch it drip

...

...

Don't judge how excited they are by their faces because they really are.

They were too

In other news.... Triples minus 1. ok bye.

Pinnacle Memories at 4 in the Morning

2007-06-23T03:46:00.001-04:00

So it's 3:45am on a Saturday morning, and you may ask what I'm doing awake. Well I fell asleep on the couch watching the Mets game, and then I woke up and watched the important parts over again, and have found that I'm not really tired, so I decided that this might put me to sleep. I was on facebook and I looked at my groups and saw the one for Camp Pinnacle, and looked at the pictures that were posted, and realized that most of them were really lame and didn't represent the greatness of camp, so I took the liberty to add some of my own, and make a comment about how great Jonathan Baron was, better then some people we know, not to mention any names... coughthebeardcough. So I thought I'd share some of those pictures with you. That's about it. ok bye.

The Futuristic Greek sub culture of Gharmaism

2007-06-13T22:54:00.001-04:00

I have recently received my Bachelors of Science degree in Biblical Studies from Philadelphia Biblical University, all with a GPA of 3.0, which isn't too shabby. I'm not telling you this to show you how humble I am but to show you something that I once wrote while I was in Church History class my sophomore year. This class was more then boring at times, so I would write in my livejournal to stay awake. One day in class I was half awake and half asleep, so I decided it would let my fingers type whatever my half coherent mind would think. When I read these sentences I realized it was pure genius, I made up one word, Gharmaism, which could possibly be a real word, but yet it isn't. So anyways I thought I'd share them for you here.

"Stop the cord before it explodes into a thousand light bulbs which illuminate the toilet water in the three liter bottle which has been recognized as the winner of the Nobel peace prize twenty five years consecutively."

"If only the bells had been whistling a different tune then the grand piano would have had a chance to research the ecology of the eastern European nation of Turkey."

"Stop before the white line or the chance of flowers growing in the upstairs bathroom will increase greatly because the fertility of the soil in the Grand Canyon is great."

"Don't fall into the deep telephone because the drop of dew on the third to last fire pit is highly conducive to 4 year old children"

"Plaid floor tiles are taking over Mars. They need to be started or else the gaseous pine sol will integrate into the futuristic Greek sub-culture of Gharmaism."

Ok bye.

Two cars and a file room

2007-06-13T00:57:00.000-04:00

So I told you I'd post some pictures of our cars so here they are.

This is the '99 Hyundai Sonata

And this is the '03 Lancer

Like I said before we feel very blessed to have both of these cars, and we know that God rewarded us for being (at times reluctantly) patient.

Finally to give you more of an idea of what it's like to work in a file room at an insurance company. I give you the file room. This is of of 10 or 11 rows of files. There are over 24,000 active green folders, and a lot of active blue folders, which aren't pictured. So maybe you can grasp a little bit better what I do daily. But hey I like it.

ok bye.

I got the job

2007-06-12T13:58:00.000-04:00

This morning when I came to work, my manager asked me to come to her office, which is really just a big cubicle and extended an offer for the claims staff assistant. So I took it. Rock on.

Moo!!

2007-06-11T21:38:00.000-04:00

For those of you who read this, you'll probably be amazed to see that there's a new post up here. A lot has happened since I last publicly announced the going ons of my life.

I think Corrie and I were looking at buying a Chevy Blazer the last time I blogged, and that couldn't have changed more drastically. We ended up buying a '99 Hyundai Sonata, and a '03 Mitsubishi Lancer. We have finally said goodbye to the Honda which was limping on an amputated stub. It's amazing how we can see God working. It was almost a year and a half ago that I wrecked my car, and I have been without one ever since, There has been different opportunities that came up, but it seemed as if nothing would work out. God definitely told us yes when we purchased these cars which is awesome. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up of both cars real soon.

Also there is a big change in the daily happenings in my life. Instead of sitting home and watching Sportscenter over and over again (Sportscenter repeats in the morning, which makes it worse) I go a job at Munich ReAmerica, which is an reinsurance company in Princeton. One night I just decided that I was too bored with sitting home, so I put my Resume on Monster.com, and the next day I got a call from Ajilon, which is a temp agency. By the end of the week I had a job. Now you may laugh when you hear what I do but you wouldn't be the first. I am a File room Clerk, and there are files that need to be put back in numeric order. So they give me a pile of files and I put them away, and then when I'm done with that there's more files to put away. It's very cyclic and monotonous, but I like it, so much in fact that I've applied for the full time position, which would be a significant pay raise and a pile of benefits. So I'll let you know what comes of that.

As for Youth Group we have been having a lot of fun lately. Last Wednesday we had our annual "Fun Fest" at church. This is a huge community outreach, and over 700 people attended, which is great. At the fun fest, we as a Youth Group were in charge of creating a booth so people could get some information about what we do on Wednesday nights. So one of the students suggested that we have a petting zoo, but we dress up as the animals. I was weary of this idea to begin with, and I changed it from a petting zoo to just a zoo, for obvious reasons, but we bought some fabric and made costumes so that we could be animals. this went over really well. The costume that I'm wearing is not one that we made, but it's still a pretty good one. Hope you enjoy the pictures. ok bye.

I need a job

2007-03-29T14:58:00.000-04:00

When I was growing up, I can remember wishing school was done. I would count down the days until it was finished for the summer hoping that time would move faster. Then the final day of school came and I was free for the summer, and everything was grand until about a week into it when I was bored out my mind with nothing to do. This is how I feel right now. I do not have a job other then working at church, and although that takes a lot of my time to plan and follow through with, there are still numerous hours of downtime in which I do nothing. When I was working at Olly and had put my 2 weeks notice in, I counted down the days using the magnets in the store, wishing time would go faster so I wouldn't have to work anymore. Now that I haven't been there for a month now I wish I was back, well actually I don't wish I was back at Olly cause I had had enough (no offense Ang). So to sum it up I need a job, and to stop being such a lazy bumtard. If you know of anything, make sure you let me know.

Corrie and I will b buying a car pretty soon, which is exciting. It's a Chevy Blazer and it looks like it's in pretty good condition. I have a friend who is a mechanic at a Chevy dealership, and he said he'll look at it before we buy it to make sure there isn't stuff that is horribly wrong with it, or that it isn't worth buying, so that's exciting. Other then that nothing too much is new. I've been playing the wii a lot because I'm lazy, and married life is great. I think this is a record for me with two posts in one month YES!!!

Here I go again

2007-03-09T00:09:00.000-05:00

You know it's real bad when you go to post a blog, and the automatic title that comes to your mind is one that you used at the end of October. I really don't know why I don't do this more often, I mean I check everyone elses blogs on a daily basis and always expect something new, yet I don't pull through, maybe I'll turn over a new blogging leaf, but I can't make any promises cause I probably won't.

What's new.... I'm married. Yup it's true. The countdown that I had for so long finally came to end a little more then two months ago, and I couldn't be more happy with every part of it. Corrie and I are now living in Hamilton NJ in a small apartment, which is on the bottom floor. If I can make any suggestions to people who are looking to rent an apartment it would be to find an upstairs place, so that you can be the one that walks around in your high heels all day and all night, or you can be the one that takes showers at 3 in the morning or have loud music playing at 6am. Now if you're not to into wearing high heels, then the other things would work fine in annoying the crap out of the people that live below you. This is something that is pretty difficult for Corrie and me, it seems like they are always home, and there is no rest for them, they're always moving, but I guess/hope with time we'll get used to it, or our lease will be up and we'll move, whichever comes first.
I still work at my church as the Senior High Youth Director and that is something that I enjoy more and more every Wednesday night. I feel as if I'm really getting to know the students, and that I'm really starting to connect with them where they are spiritually. It is trying at times, but the trying times are nothing compared the good ones if you know what I mean. Other than church I'm not doing much right now. Kind of looking for a new job because I stopped working at Olly shoes, but I guess I'm going to be picky cause I want something that will be flexible with Youth Group. Financially Corrie and I are okay for the moment but once my school bills start to come in, my want for flexibility will probably be out the window, so I'll see what happens.

As I was writing this blog I thought that something fun to do would be to show all of you who read this the evolution of me... how I became the good looking guy that I am, then I looked at the pictures that I had of myself, and realized that I'm not all that good looking, which made me remember a story about something that happened while I was in college.... A professor at PBU had just gotten engaged and he made an announcement of this engagement in front of the whole school during chapel one morning, now this teacher was/is not on of the better looking people in the world, he was a little overweight and I kid you not you could only see his eyes, nose, and mouth because of the amount of hair that covered his face, but he was smart so I guess that made up for it. But anyway, the happy couple made their announcement in front of the whole school, and I was late. I was just walking in the back door when he made his announcement, and I was standing right behind another professor who was talking to his daughter. Now this was probably the funniest thing I've ever heard in my entire life, and it's probably because it was coming from one of my Bible professors, but he said to his daughter right after the announcement was made and the applause died down "Well.... I guess everybody has a chance..." You're probably wondering why I've told this story, and the simple answer is because if you were to look at pictures of me growing up, and the awkwardness that I've portrayed for the better part of my life, you'd probably agree with me when I say that there's no logical reason why a goof like me should be married to a beautiful woman like Corrie, but alas, God must like me a little bit. So here's some pictures showing my progression, and I think that's all I have to say for now, hopefully I'll make this a more regular occurence. Hope you enjoy my awkwardness. ok bye.

6 month old awkwardness

4 year old awkwardness

8 year old awkwardness, although Michaelangelo helps a little bit in taking the notice off my rocking socks. by the way TMNT in theatres 3.23.07.

21 year old awkwardness, this is a painting just so you know.... How'd I convice her to marry me???
ok bye.

Elliott

2006-11-09T01:04:00.000-05:00

This is my nephew Elliott. Today he is 10 months old and look at him walk. There is no sound to the video because my sisters camera doesn't do sound, and it's a little bit shaky but it's still great. Hope you enjoy.

ok bye.

Update on Life

2006-10-30T17:16:00.000-05:00

I really can't believe that there are only 68 days until Corrie and I get married. Life has been pretty hectic since my last post; my responsibilities at Church will hopefully be stepped up in the next couple of months. The Junior High Director will be moving to Michigan at the end of the year, and although I will not officially be taking that position, I will attempt to take on as much as I can. We have had some cool events at Youth Group as of late, I'll put some pictures up so you can see the craziness that is Bible Baptist Church Youth Group. One thing I wanted to let everyone know was that Corrie and I were looking for Apartments in the Hamilton area, and when she went out to look for them she only found one that was semi-big enough for us to live in, so we went up there and filled out an application on Saturday and today we found out that we got approved which is amazing because my credit isn't so hot So later this month we're going to move my stuff in there and I'm going to live there until we get married. This is really exciting because I've always had to find a place to stay, whether it was at my grandmothers, or Matt's or School or even Bruce at times, but this apartment will be Corrie's and mine, isn't that great. In other Wedding news, Corrie and I have the invitations wax sealed and almost ready to be sent out. We just need to buy stamps and send them out. It's pretty exciting, because we'll be married and that is definitely exciting. So that's about that. Maybe I'll try to update this more often. Ok bye.

White Water Rafting

2006-07-23T01:10:00.000-04:00

So many of you may know that I'm the Senior High Youth Director at Bible Baptist Church in Hamilton NJ... I think I might have mentioned it once or twice, the reason why I bring it up again is because Tuesday will be the first event that I have planned since being at the church. Now I might have made the mistake of expecting a lot of kids to be interested in White Water Rafting because I paid for 20 of them to go, and now it looks like I'll only have 12 or 13 which leaves me short. I really need prayer on this, so that I'm able to come close to "breaking even" with the church when this is said and done. But if I don't then I guess I live and I learn. So new things with me have been, nothing really. I'm starting to realize how soon my wedding is and how much still needs to be done for it, but I have faith in Corrie... it should all be alright. I booked the honeymoon, but I'm not allowed to tell you where, cause Corrie might be looking at this right now. I just need to find some cheap tickets so we can actually get there.

Well that's all I have to say for right now, pray that I'll be able to get too many kids on Tuesday, because too many is better then not enough. ok bye.

Summer Days halfway over... YES!!!

2006-07-17T23:30:00.000-04:00

So it's been a while since I've written in this wonderful connection to the outside world. I last updated in the beginning of June and said that my grandmother was real sick, the next weekend she passed away. That has been a difficult thing for me to handle... Actually I haven't been sure how to handle it, but I guess it'll get easier as time goes on.

I finished my summer classes shortly after the wake and funeral for my grandmother, and am happy to say that I have only 14 credits left in my College career, at least for the undergraduate work... I don't know if I'll go on to get my Masters but the thought has crossed my mind a couple of times. I do although have to write some papers for the group dynamics class that I took in the very beginning of the summer, but I'll probably hold that off until the last second...

Some of you who read this may know that I am now the Senior High Youth Director at Bible Baptist Church in Hamilton NJ. The experience has been a good one thus far. I've made some minor changes and some more major changes for the group since starting there in March or April (I'm not sure the exact date). The most major change that I've made is the institution of Small Groups which we will be starting on Wednesday, so I'll update on how that went later on.

Summer has been going well for me so far. I got to go to Ocean City for the week a couple weeks ago, that was good that I got to spend time with Corrie and her family. Sometimes it's good to just be able to get away from things, even though I didn't get totally way from everything it was still good.

Well I think that's all I have to say about that for now. I would like to mention that I am a die hard Mets fan and they are playing pretty well right now, and for that I'm pretty excited. I'm even more excited that I'll be going to the Mets vs. Padres game at Shea on the 8th of August. I'll get to see the Mets and the return of Piazza to Shea, so it should be an event to remember.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of my nephew Elliott and all of his baby chubbiness (I'm not sure of that spelling). Ok bye.

P.S. - The reason I'm excited that summer days are almost over is because my wedding is less then six months away. YES!!!

A weekend full of driving

2006-06-05T15:17:00.000-04:00

So here I am at the beginning of my last session of the summer. Only two more grueling weeks left and then I’ll finally have a free summer ahead of me. One thing that kind of upsets me is that I won't be at camp this summer, but that may be a good thing judging by what's going on up there thus far this year. I'm excited to see what happens; hopefully it won't be as disastrous as I think it will be.

This weekend I went to Albany with Corrie to see my grandmother who is not doing too well in the hospital. When we saw her she didn't look too good. The sad part about the trip is that I probably won't see her again. I really don't know how to deal with sympathy either. People say that they're sorry that this has happened and I don’t know how to react. My abrupt, blunt, tactless self says whatever but that's not what I mean. I will be devastated when she passes, not only because she has done so much for me and the family over the years but because she is not saved either. I feel hopeless in this because there is nothing that I've ever been able to say that has gotten through and now she really isn't coherent enough to listen. So if you're reading this pray that the Gospel will be presented effectively before she passes. On the brighter side of things, I got to see Elliott the big fat baby this weekend too. He is such a happy baby. He's always smiling, and is hardly ever cranky. Corrie and I got to spend a lot of time with him so that made the weekend a lot better.

Corrie has been planning a lot lately for the wedding. I'm starting to get really excited about it. I'm starting to see different parts come together like the photography, the order of the ceremony, the reception etc. Only 215 days left and we'll be married... It doesn't get much more exciting then that.

I better start paying attention now. The pictures in this post are of my nephew Elliott... isn’t' he fat and cute and happy. Ok bye.

Google is taking over

2006-05-23T12:02:00.000-04:00

So since I've seen how cool google is, and how a lot of their software and programs are more then useful I've decided to give this blog a try. The funny thing about me is that I will post blogs consistantly for about a week and then I'll forget about it and then when I want to update it again I won't be able to figure out what I should say. Another thing that keeps me from updating is that I'll say I should write a blog but then I'll forget about it 5 minute later and not remember it until I think about it again a week later. I really have a poor short term memory... I bring my keys into the house everytime I get out of the car yet I forget where I put them, and that is kind of annoying.Anyways, life has been going pretty well as of late. Ang got married on Saturday, which is pretty exciting for her and Andrew... but now the countdown to my wedding is really in place... yes it is stil 228 days away but I am starting to understand what is going on within the plans... I'm pretty sure that we're going to use the same photographers as Ang and Andrew used, but J and Cheryl knew about them first ;) and I'm looking through the book so we can get the honeymoon all set. Corrie and I have decided that I will choose where we're going and she'll have no idea until we get there. Another thing that we've decided concerning pictures is that we'll probably take them before the ceremony so we'll be able to spend more time with the guests. One good thing about our wedding being so far away would be that theres at least one wedding a month that we are attending until the end of august, so that will help us get through. Hopefully, Corrie won't get too overwhelmed with planning and I'll be able to help out where I can without getting in the way.I guess that's all I have to say about that, I'm gonna post some pictures of Ang's wedding on here as well. ok bye.

By the Way... Triples!!!