email update; Wyoming Wyoming Wyoming

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!

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ok bye
Josh and Corrie

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

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.

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ok bye
Josh and Corrie

email group, we're in chicago 3.9.09

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.

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ok bye
Josh and Corrie

email group Update 1 3.8.09

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.

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ok bye
Josh and Corrie.

Pet Peevs Part 2

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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.