Mission Trip and Randoms

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, I've been pretty busy with Vacation Bible School at church followed by a week long mission to San Marcos, Texas. Both went very well, but I'm very excited to be done with both. I am exhaused!!! But both were a lot of fun. This first picture here is more for Brittany than anyone else, So thanks Brittany for the birthday clothes and shoes, they are awesome! They help keep me a little cooler. But when it gets at least 95 degrees every day for the past 3 weeks, well, everything is hot. But in a small part I think that I'm getting used to it. In a very very very small way...

Here is a lovely picture of my first attempt at a texan meal. I had originally planned on grilling it with a baked potato, but we were out of propane, so the put the brakes on that idea. So I improvised and cubed the potatoes and cooked them in a frying pan together. On the whole, this wasn't my strongest idea I've ever had, but it go the job done(and a healthy portion of ketchup fixed the overdone potatoes). Where the plan went really wrong, was when I was cooking it, I filled pretty much the entire house with a thick cloud of smoke from the butter and steaks. It pretty much looked like a bar throughout the house, but smelled like heaven.

On our mission trip we had a wonderful time helping out a gentleman that goes by the name Mr. Lee. He has had quite a few back problems and surgeries and has done a number on his finances. We helped him out with quite a bit of painting, both inside and out, including his cement porch and walkway. We also layed lamenant tile throughout the whole house and put quarter round moldings around the base board. And it was HOT! A couple of days reached one hundred and seven! But we survived and managed to have a little fun too! One of the evenings we jumped at the chance to go to Austin and check out the city a little bit and this is a picture of their famous bridge(which I forgot the name of) where the bats come out of. It was sooo cool. We was literally thousands of bats come out the the bridge for about 20 minutes. It was really neat, I've never seen anything like it.

A couple of evenings during the week we had the opportunity to play in the river that runs through town. One night we went tubing and another night we just went swimming and found a nice waterfall to jump off of and explore. We got a steak dinner one night and spent friday at a water park. On the way home we stopped at a small german themed town, fredricksburg, that I guess is pretty famous, but it was pretty weak compared to frankenmouth. I would have liked to enjoy some good german beverages, but I was at work.......such is life. Maybe a return visit someday.

I'm having a lot of fun down here and I love my job. I have new and exciting challenges every day, but I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I'm learning a lot every day and hopefully I can put that knowledge to good use. On my horizon I have two weeks of summer camp and a visit from my beautiful fiancee! On the work front, I am implementing a plan to redo our youth wing and I feel mildly over my head with the whole project, but I'm faithfully moving forward.

One more try

I would like to start out by apologising. I just read my post from last night and I'm realizing how weird it was. Sorry. I will give this another try....

It's 90+ degrees outside with the sun high in the sky. This what it looked like.

I stole that pic from the internet, that's why it has a funny date on it. Anyway, I had been looking forward to biking all week and I finally got the chance to get out and hit the trails. And it was soooooo hot. It was a bad idea to bike in that weather. I think that I started to get heat stroke, so I bailed out of the coarse. I'm not exactly sure what heat stroke is, but I'm assuming I was about to get it. Hahahaha, that sounds really dumb, but I'm leaving it anyway. There were a couple of bright spots out of the whole adventure (besides the sun, of course). In case you were wondering, my biking skills are improving, so that is a bonus. I really like riding my bike. I had a first today on my bike- I ran over a snake! It was really bright and green. I did a little research and I believe that it was a rough green snake. Harmless. I still have my eye out for a rattle snake. I really want to see one, but I really don't want to see one too. I very large turkey cut in front of me too. Kind of a crazy day on my bike.

Back to the rattlesnake- I have learned that people love to cut the rattle of the the snakes. They like to do it so much that they will stop their car on the road in order to get the rattle. I haven't seen any of these rattles either. Now, when I ask people way they do this, they answer that I've gotten multiple times is just to have the rattle. It serves no purpose, it's not worth anything, it's really pointless, but texans love their rattles.

Speaking of Texas and Texans, here is a list of some things that I've learned or simple observations I've made since being here. I like to call this section: Just in case you were wondering.

In my office, the only two things on the walls are maps.
The filing cabinets in my office were made in grand rapids, because they are steelcase. They make me feel at home.
I love bragging about the friendly mitten because people down here are so full of it with texas.
A lot of people hate the redwings down here. I guess they just don't understand good hockey.
Many people down here have two pairs of cowboy boots. Work boots and church boots!
Mesquite trees ruin bike tires.
Mesquite trees make good bar b que!
I still say POP.
Everyone still laughs when I say POP.
I love leading bible studies, it gets me really excited!
I really like my intern Austin, he is a lot of fun and helps me out with a lot of stuff, including cultural differences.
It turns out with a nice set of golf clubs, I'm a really decent player! Plus I can bomb the ball 300+ yards!
Speaking of golf, did you know that a former Masters winner goes to St. Paul?
I really like waving and saying hi to people.
In texas they wave and say hi back!
The grass down here sucks. It isn't as soft as Michigan :( (kinda prickly)
Shiner is the beer of choice down here. Haven't heard of it? It's brewed in texas.
They love football down here, and for some reason they like to bring up the lions....
Great mexican food.
When I say is hot out side, the only thing people say back is, "just wait."
Prime time tv gets here earlier in the evening.
Many of the book on the shelves i my office are older than me, and not in a good way.

Ok, that's all I got for you guys now, I promise my next post will include pictures and some more about my life. I miss everyone of you!

-Mark

Insomnia....

Disclaimer: Not to sure how this one is going to turn out. I've had some problems sleeping this past week, I'm feeling a little sick and the Wings lost again :(

So I can't sleep and I'm watching the matrix on tv. I've been in bed since 10:30 (I was tired then, but it never translated to any kind of sleep, I think I missed the point of being in bed). So I finally decided to do something productive, at least pseudo productive. I will now attempt to give you a small glimpse into the inner workings of my sleep deprived mind.

The most constructive thing I could think of during my sleep deprived state was to think of things that help me sleep. With out any further introduction, here is my top ten list of things that help me sleep:

10: A good back rub.
9: Shopping. I don't know what it is, I just know it's a life leech.
8: When my college roommate Zach was out of town. (Zach was a big talkerrrrrr)
7: Gilmore Girls.
6: Tylenol PM. (wish I had some now)
5: Factory work, same effect as the shopping but with a little more fulfillment.
4: Vacations. Weather laying on the beach or climbing a mountain, I'm exhausted.
3: Not being in a Honda Fit parked at a rest stop in Virginia.
2: Finance class.... if only Dave Ramsey had been teaching....
1: My old sleeping shorts!

Oh, how I miss my old sleeping shorts. They were great two-toned red basketball shorts. Kinda gross, but I rocked those bad boys out for about 6 years!! Ewwww!!! But they were so comfy! Don't worry, I did the math. Assuming I averaged 8 hours of sleep a night over the course of 6 years means that that spent around 2 years of my life wearing those shorts!! Almost as long as I have been dating Brittany. Just a fun little nugget that I thought y'all would enjoy.

Sweet Dreams!
-Mark