tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34555056528665215122024-03-04T20:25:14.763-08:00Exciting Adventures with CodyAnd sometimes unexciting and unadventurous endevours.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-28236077574054518832014-03-05T03:57:00.000-08:002014-03-05T03:57:07.188-08:00Age is Just a NumberWith so many folks sharing lists on Facebook and my birthday just marching by, I thought it would be fun to make up a list of how to stay young. I've pulled it off to some extent, even though many scoffers said it would wear off by now.<br />
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FYI: Many of these may be RESULTS of being young at heart, not CAUSES, but I believe most of them help out in some way or another. Also, I'm not an expert on anything mentioned here. Allison McCormick might know how the food part works, and Kayla Nye might understand the physical activities. Tons of my teacher friends will understand the general outlook on the life of an elementary kid.<br />
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Anyways, here we go:<br />
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1) Run around a lot. Not like a marathon, but because it's fun. Haven't you seen a 4 year old book it from room to room intent on whatever his little world is focused on? Whenever the volleyball is hit to 3 courts down I always try to go get it. It's not to show off, or be obnoxious (although both might happen as a result), it's just to run and run and run.<br />
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Eric Liddell sums up (in Chariots of Fire at least) what I feel every time I run for a loose ball or jump over some random object : "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." <br />
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2) Skip New Year. It may sound silly, but I began to skip New Year in the 2007 range in a hot tub with Evan Winer. It's not the physical act of skipping the ball dropping or not knowing the passing of Midnight, but it's the mental decision that this hyped up passing of 1 second from the clock isn't worth dictating my activity for the moment. Sure, I'll celebrate the New Year, but I'm not going to let some piece of some holiday (especially a secular one) decide what I'm doing. <br />
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I shoveled the driveway this year. Other years I've taken a lap around the house. Outdoor hot tub is still the favorite though.<br />
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3) Learn! At some point in the 20's we acknowledge that we thought we knew everything in our teens, but really we knew nothing and now that we know that we know everything. Read a book! Doesn't have to be a school text book. Read Ender's Game and consider the ethical dilemmas that run right along side of school yard dynamics. Or the Chronicles of Narnia! Each book will awaken the imagination (that the internet and modern media have put to sleep) and at the same time each book will teach Spiritual Truths in a form that is SO easy to digest. <br />
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Also you can learn through experiments, or art projects. Use creativity and imagination. Color! Even use the internet to come up with some random experiment that is probably free and fun. Our Youth Pastor is constantly coming up with new experiment that I'm often baffled and amazed by. Learning can be fun, and I think it'll keep you young!<br />
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4) Calories. While learning about things, look up calories. Never mind, here it is:<br />
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<span>Calorie = "the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C (now usually defined as 4.1868 joules)."</span><br />
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I think of these things different than most (and probably incorrectly in this case). Calories are like clutter in your house. If you don't clean it up, it'll find a spot to stick and you'll end up on hoarders. Well if you don't clean up your calories on a regular basis they'll stick to you in places you don't want it. So simply if I have a Swiss Roll pack then I just need to move, jump, run, and dive enough to change X grams of water through X degrees Celsius. <br />
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So long story short. Don't drive everywhere. Ride you're bike to church, or work, or whatever. Not to save gas (although that's nice) but because it's cool! Make it a goal to make it to one weekly activity on your bike. I try for Youth Group in the Summer, and then anytime I go to friends and I have 20 minutes extra I'll bust a ride there. It's fun and it's a good example to kiddos that are apt to follow us right into feeling like we need a car. <br />
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5) Work with kids. This is my favorite! Usually. Personally I teach a Learn to Swim class twice a week, then I go to two church activities with kids. Everyone has different interests and limits on how much kid they can deal with. Find your niche and go for it. Maybe helping one kid with homework is more to your limit. Be intentional about it! <br />
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You don't have to focus on needy kids either. Your friends will probably appreciate you helping their kids with homework so A) they get a break and B) someone (that may or may not be "cool") reinforces the worldview they've been striving to lead their kids into. Some parents need some prodding, but next thing you know you'll be coloring and running around with a light saber.<br />
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6) Get decent sleep when you can... but never give up friends for sleep. Well not never. I think it's important to get a good night of sleep on a regular schedule, but I also think it's important to stay up til 3am star tipping (if you don't know what that is it'll also help you stay young unless you're a victim of getting dizzy as you get older), playing taboo, or talking with folks you haven't seen for a while. I'm an early bird, but every once and a while an all nighter can liven things up.<br />
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7) Don't worry. This is straight up Biblical. The lilies of the field don't worry, so trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understand, and don't worry about tomorrow cause He's got it under control. Pretty much enough said. Don't let life cripple you. When finals are coming up study for 2 hours then go throw a Frisbee for a bit. If you're unsure then pray about it. <br />
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8) Fresh air can rejuvenate you. This goes along with some of the others as well. Study breaks outside help renew your mind 4.7 times better than study breaks watching tv or napping. It's science. It's not science. But you see the point. Something about pumping blood through your system will help you focus. This is something our kids need to do more as well. <br />
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9) Don't drink (pop, coffee, alcohol, energy drinks) or smoke (or do drugs). One more situation where I'm an oddball. I wouldn't condemn folks for these things, but I would condemn myself for it. Our bodies are a time bomb and all of those things seem to take time off of the clock. I know you can even out some of those things by working out maybe, but in order to keep life simple I avoid them. Less junk in, less junk out. <br />
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Energy drinks are the new ones on this list. I personally have never had on but they terrify me. There are physical laws, like the conservation of energy. I think we're overlooking something when we drink a Monster or 5 hour energy and figure our day is good to go. Our body has to process that stuff and I am betting we'll pay for it later (with exploding hearts).<br />
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10) Keep life simple: Eat PB&J every day. It's the perfect storm. A nutritionist could tell me why, but I just figure there is some protein, fruit and bread mixed together. I love PB&J. I look forward to lunch every day because of it. Yogurt too for that matter. Some things need mixing up here and there, but PB&J with a Dannon (or some live culture yogurt of some sort) keep me going all year. <br />
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So scoff again if you want, maybe my heart will explode tomorrow. But until then I'll keep eating Little Debbie's like it's my job and running down errant foul balls (even if I have to push other kids out of the way to do it. JK. But seriously.... jk.)Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-57263996390212818172014-02-09T19:15:00.003-08:002014-02-09T19:27:37.523-08:00Winter Goes OnHere we are in February and Winter is still dumping on us. I'm a fan in general. Sure, our driveway is difficult to navigate and our shovels have been pushed to the limit, but I'll still take this. I've been reminded of Michigan Tech days over and over again, yet even this is a shadow of what they go through every year. <br />
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I made plans to watch the Super Bowl up at camp and arranged for lodging with the Alchin's. It turned into a great weekend where I got to catch up with most of my camp friends. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhep4vMXq6lIpsh53vIYE4cm-oNWLHERaQicntLBJlc18dJg-WQnTzOqr9RjpgJDKa7ptWa-gBLUyl6CnB-vJ5gbA4tmaTNqjeVJUvqOqUxS1TwfLWzOhhdT58iPZlZMG_yV-3ZxyBmg1I/s1600/2-1-13+Camp+Trip+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhep4vMXq6lIpsh53vIYE4cm-oNWLHERaQicntLBJlc18dJg-WQnTzOqr9RjpgJDKa7ptWa-gBLUyl6CnB-vJ5gbA4tmaTNqjeVJUvqOqUxS1TwfLWzOhhdT58iPZlZMG_yV-3ZxyBmg1I/s1600/2-1-13+Camp+Trip+(5).JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tubing with Andrea Ford was fun! As well as some good ole pond hockey.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adela spent more time in the skate hut.</td></tr>
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I know I'm the minority, but I really enjoyed the Super Bowl. Anytime one team is so clearly dominate I usually like it. Especially a defense that executes perfectly. I don't really blame the Broncos for that mess, because the Seahawks came out with a good game plan (another thing I enjoy watching- solid strategy beating another usually solid strategy). Plus I enjoyed seeing most of the ads, which are another aspect that got knocked but I thought they were at least par for the course. It helps to watch with kids cause they are all about laughing at those commercials.<br />
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This week our Youth Group enjoyed sledding. A lot of folks balk at the idea of going out to sled in some of the single digits we've been dealing with, but I'm a huge fan. Kids need to learn that if they go outside and run, their bodies will keep them warm.<br />
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After some hesitance, most of the kids (and helpers) ended up sledding. I actually ended up freezing my toes (too many layer, too tight, doesn't let the blood flow) and I bailed to the car after about an hour.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The girls do what they can to stay warm, including sledding.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGmKPScWBU2n565DTytPKH7I6uFeKyrcvciqXL5oaKidYx1egnVUv-CYdEET200kAT4L2nQBLmu8wyghG1g0kR4CzAPj80Nbf3zTw03Ik-7dj8yRYHN3LygDjkMpP6qNGJfghCxRV_0rV/s1600/2-6-2014+Sledding+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGGmKPScWBU2n565DTytPKH7I6uFeKyrcvciqXL5oaKidYx1egnVUv-CYdEET200kAT4L2nQBLmu8wyghG1g0kR4CzAPj80Nbf3zTw03Ik-7dj8yRYHN3LygDjkMpP6qNGJfghCxRV_0rV/s1600/2-6-2014+Sledding+(2).JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noah Wygant is getting down.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZqJ2pTVeQOE1b3LrJWz8h4NgoBPYLYtzmrzLxikX5D_SyY1-cRJhEOD8tOyohe_uKJFoBT-4wxpLy8jy2eusIXZ0xzb6wTYHOMuBTeLSuBtvRcZn3TnnToBharsHuri5mCBq-OWE2Bwn/s1600/2-6-2014+Sledding+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZqJ2pTVeQOE1b3LrJWz8h4NgoBPYLYtzmrzLxikX5D_SyY1-cRJhEOD8tOyohe_uKJFoBT-4wxpLy8jy2eusIXZ0xzb6wTYHOMuBTeLSuBtvRcZn3TnnToBharsHuri5mCBq-OWE2Bwn/s1600/2-6-2014+Sledding+(3).JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most of the kids were majorly bundled.</td></tr>
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We made it to Pizza Sam's and enjoyed the pizza and a group devotional with Tim. I've been enjoying the steady group we're getting at Youth Group and I'm looking forward to Valentine's dinner this Thursday.<br />
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To finish up the weekend Adela and I went to the Valentine's banquet for our church. In about 17 years of attending Garrison Hill's I've never joined the Valentine's banquet. I enjoyed the special evening with Adela and 17 other individuals from our church. We took home a solid door prize with dinner for 2 at Culver's.<br />
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In a final note I'd like to mention that some of my dear friends from Camp Barakel have left their positions there. I spent many nights at the Harris' house, joining them on family events and learning what it's like to eat the best kind of food. All while Randy gives me a hard time for eating all his yummy food. And while I worked for Randy, I worked with Mike Baker. I grew very close to him and his family over my years there. <br />
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Their exit from Camp doesn't surprise me, but it is a bittersweet ordeal. Friction is often difficult to work around, even among Christian friends. Most of our churches have experienced some kind of difficulty over the years, sometimes ending in catastrophic meltdown's and other times ending on good terms for all involved.<br />
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My hope and prayer for Camp and these families is that everything comes together over the next months and years. I just experienced jumping off of the cliff from one job (Camp) to another (Denso) and I understand the nervousness that mixes with excitement. Yet my experience didn't include taking a wife or 4 kids along with me. <br />
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So I pray for these folks and for the stability of camp. And I send out a big thank you for the decades of service represented in these two families. They were a tremendous help to me for my years at camp and I am confident they'll be a great asset to the ministries and communities that they land in.<br />
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In the meantime life goes on like it does. I look forward to weeks of swim lessons, church outreach, ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, and whatever else comes my way.<br />
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Adios!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-91217017872680865412014-01-26T19:27:00.002-08:002014-01-26T19:27:34.878-08:00It's Been a While...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well it's been almost 3 months since I last blogged (most of November, December, and now most of January). I'd been unsure about continuing because my life is very steady and repetitious. But that's how it works when I'm putting in 40+ a week and filling my nights to the brim. The final straw was a Sunday night when I was trying to stuff blogging in between volleyball, watching a show with Adela and going to sleep. The balance wasn't working out right, so I held off, forgot and then chose to take a rest for a while. Well tonight I have an extra half hour, so I'll try to churn out some quality information.</div>
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December was fun. Denso has a bit of a Winter break and I spent it travelling up North for a wedding, hanging out with my visiting brother, freezing under several blankets during a 4(ish) day power outage and feeling sick in there as well. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Casey, Bernadette, Myself, and Adela</td></tr>
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January has been a whirlwind. I've stayed in Battle Creek every weekend so far and enjoyed the time at home. I'm loving the snow and I've been sledding several times. Here is my schedule at a glance:<br />
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<u>Monday: </u><br />
5:00PM- Learn to Swim Class<br />
7:30PM- Swimming workout (about 45 minutes)<br />
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<u>Tuesday:</u><br />
Ultimate Frisbee in Kalamazoo (1 hour starting at 7:30pm, 8:30pm, or 9:30pm)<br />
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<u>Wednesday:</u><br />
5:00PM- Learn to Swim Class<br />
6:15PM- Clubhouse (games and Bible study with elementary ages)<br />
7:30PM- Swimming workout<br />
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<u>Thursday:</u><br />
6:30PM- Youth Group (various activities from week to week)<br />
8:30PM- New game/tv night with friends.<br />
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<u>Friday:</u><br />
No plans, and so far no travelling.<br />
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<u>Saturday:</u><br />
9:00AM through 12:15ish PM- Swim meets. I try to organize the little ones so they don't miss events.<br />
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<u>Sunday:</u><br />
9:00ish AM through 12:00ish PM- Church<br />
5:30PM- Volleyball<br />
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That's the rundown. I fill extra time with Adela for the most part. We have been watching the Shield and sometimes the Harry Potters (although she's ditched me on those). I also have been playing video games over this stretch and trying to read a couple books. <br />
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Here are some quick pictures from Youth Group where we did some melting crayon art:<br />
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To wrap up, I had a couple thoughts. <br />
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1) Not sure how much I'll be interested in blogging. Weekly worked much better when I was at camp and I had lots of different stuff going on, and usually some off time to write a little. Even repeating the same schedule can be of utmost importance because it takes a lot of time to invest in relationships and community. So maybe I'll get back on the weekly bandwagon, but most likely I'll try to find something a little more spread out.<br />
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2) Camp ministry is so much different than people ministry. Instead of rocking peoples world for a weekend (or more likely doing dishes while OTHER people rock their world) I now am hip deep in Battle Creek. Between work, sports, and church I'm interacting with lots of folks and enjoying the reconnection to Battle Creek. This takes time and patience, both of which are difficult for me to manage at times.<br />
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3) A random thought as I travel around town and spend much more time in vehicles with radios in them: I hate the radio. Christian radio has been generally awful around her for years. I've found some new stations I like while I also mix in pop stations as well. Today I realized that if I turn it off I can redeem some of my drive time. I've realized this before, but habit takes over and I mindlessly scan. Often times I'm trying to drown out my thoughts (frustration from sports or life, idle driving thoughts, or even generally happy thoughts about sports or life). <br />
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My goal is to just leave it off for a while. I listen to sermons here and there but otherwise I'll leave it off and force myself to address my own thoughts and maybe it'll be just the time I needed to sort things out and prepare myself for the coming tasks of the day.<br />
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Well that's it for now. I think I'll try to take more pictures on a weekly basis and aim for Sundays again, but we'll see how it goes. <br />
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Thanks for checking it out!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-35864371989537418642013-11-03T19:25:00.001-08:002013-11-03T19:25:33.589-08:00Back to Huckfest Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It's been 3 years since I was able to go to Huckfest. We won the "B Cup" portion of the tourney. That means we lost a game in the pool play, were placed into the B Cup and won our games from there. I think that places us in 9th place officially, but we got a trophy, so the rest is whatever. </div>
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Our team consisted of a fairly random group of folks that Chris Hox and Evan Winer have assembled over the last several years. It's actually to the point where I feel comfortable with most of them and we have a very skilled team. I feel like we miscommunicate at first, but then we get it together as we go. <br />
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After spending most of my last couple years of college with Evan, it's always good to catch up some. 7 years after I graduated we still have a lot of things in common and the old jokes usually still stand. <br />
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Here we are after the final win. We were 5-1 for the tournament, kinda funny to get 9th place after that. <br />
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Volleyball was mixed this week. It was fun to switch up to another pool of teams. They were much more skilled, but it also meant we lost. We played tight on the best team in the league, then took a straight dump on the next team. <br />
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I also saw Ender's Game this weekend. It was one of the better book adaptations I've seen. So many of them have been terrible (the Hobbit being the latest, and about to fire it up again). This one really covered the heart of the story and did a good job of communicating the themes. The end of it didn't quite jive right, but otherwise it was very well done. <br />
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Anyways. Not the most exciting batch of news. Next weekend should be more chilled out than that even. So here we go. Still working and staying busy.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-62004601601953873502013-10-28T20:11:00.000-07:002013-10-28T20:11:05.439-07:00Jack and Jill AgainI thought this would be my first weekend to skip Jack and Jill since my first time in 2010. Again, Jack and Jill is a work weekend at Camp Barakel that focuses on bringing the Summer staff back to impact camp while enjoying a reunion atmosphere. <br />
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Well to spite the Jon Ford's weather forecast, the sun was out most of the day, but then some icy showers blew in and out a couple times. My crew consisted of JD Stanton, Joey Winterstein, and none other than...... Mike Baker. We were tasked with building a new Octoball ring in front of Boys Dorm on the West side. By 2pm we were wrapped up with time to send the boys off, fix the door on Danny VanOrman's work garage and then a bit of cleaning to help Mike prepare for an upcoming group retreat. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjlI5GRXySYF5fy61aLEfRwYfP94mP8I-A-ot_gkUP7W9pUpv8JzKZ07OM-7M0KSXMSJTg-EnsGvLI-Cw8XWPB39FkWyrXoyX3sNDlRgbbCNlPFIfsPHpombdZk1DApIqMqcnoF0yWoJe/s1600/IMG_1683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjlI5GRXySYF5fy61aLEfRwYfP94mP8I-A-ot_gkUP7W9pUpv8JzKZ07OM-7M0KSXMSJTg-EnsGvLI-Cw8XWPB39FkWyrXoyX3sNDlRgbbCNlPFIfsPHpombdZk1DApIqMqcnoF0yWoJe/s400/IMG_1683.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rainbow lands on Ethan!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Y0kW-lWkFwatEfZDZgyGSVp3desbawUiU5X9rGJQ9NnuFrxjlorfTofeQOhB6dPG8j40kfpQfTB-8fhGwr_RQcCLaelLplOA1lGUGh7tQWwAtecztL58WuIHlYYXddflqIsx07P6Xl_i/s1600/IMG_1689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Y0kW-lWkFwatEfZDZgyGSVp3desbawUiU5X9rGJQ9NnuFrxjlorfTofeQOhB6dPG8j40kfpQfTB-8fhGwr_RQcCLaelLplOA1lGUGh7tQWwAtecztL58WuIHlYYXddflqIsx07P6Xl_i/s400/IMG_1689.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're cleat brothers now or something.</td></tr>
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The afternoon was capped off by a bit of an ultimate Frisbee game. I didn't really plan to play any sports, so I was privileged to share one of Dan Krueger's cleats with him. Never tried that before and it worked pretty well. I enjoyed spending the evening with other Summer staff carving pumpkins, a little catching up with Mike Baker at his house, and finally a bit of frosty star gazing before turning in at the reasonable hour of 1am.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This pumpkin tried the microwavable cheese dip and then hurled.</td></tr>
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Sunday turned out to be quite filled up. Adela and I decided to hustle down to catch part of Hannah Ford's last soccer game at Delta College in Saginaw. We were able to catch the second half, a point that left me fairly grumpy. I like my itinerary going really well and not only did we miss the first half, but I took the wrong directions (didn't specify the correct campus or something) and ended up being an extra 10 minutes late. After testing Adela's patience and using her GPS we were back on the right track before long. <br />
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My attitude turned around about the same time as some of the girls almost got into a fight. There was a hard foul (deserving a yellow card) that led to a tussle, then some other girls jumping in, and finally a couple red cards for the main belligerents. The refs forgot about the original foul though, so I made sure they remembered it (although I think the ref on the line already was thinking about it). <br />
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Beyond that excitement Hannah played excellently, and so did her friend Natalie. Even if the skill level isn't perfect, it's fun to watch A) someone that has a great touch like Natalie, and B) someone that I trained with for years and then seeing them put together an excellent effort on defense. <br />
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From there it was the usual. Volleyball in Battle Creek, and then some tv with Adela before she scrambled back to Hope for classes on Monday.<br />
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Working with Mike always fires me up about camp. I always try to keep myself open to Camp Barakel (where I think God might bring me more permanently someday), but in the meantime I am really excited about the work to be done in Battle Creek over the next several years. <br />
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Thanks for reading and enjoy the Fall weather while it's back to being reasonable. Not long and we'll be buried!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-7858975393232990382013-10-21T17:24:00.000-07:002013-10-21T17:24:18.947-07:00Busy Weekend for Real!You can tell the Winter is coming because our Youth Group is at M-66 Bowling once a month or so. This month was no exception. I ended up rolling in a little late and not playing, but there are usually a couple kids that want a helping had for a throw or two.<br />
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This weekend was all setup. Adela was coming and we already had plans that were complicated and filling up our Saturdays. But I decided to fill it up to the brim. Here is the breakdown:<br />
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Friday night I jumped at the chance to go to downtown (like usual). It was the "Fall into the arts" event that filled up all of downtown. The premise is that every business opens up its doors to artists to come in and display their work while offering their wares to the public. We ate with Mom at Pastrami Joe's, got some cupcakes and walked the whole stretch and back. <br />
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Saturday morning we went straight to Middleville for some breakfast with Adela's camping parents. It was a pleasant country drive, a short visit, and a different route back to catch Maribel Cleland's last soccer game in Pennfield. We hung around town for a couple hours, then hustled over to Charlotte to join in on a surprise dinner to celebrate by Dad's birthday coming up at the end of the month. <br />
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After pizza we considered what to do next. Adela was thinking about a haunted house and I knew there was a "good one" in Jackson. I'm not a big fan myself, but I've never been to one so I figured we should go for it. I hollered at Hannah Ford, knowing she lives in Jackson, and we caught dessert with her and Brad Smith. After that we made our way to the "Jackson Underground" haunted house.<br />
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I didn't know what to expect exactly, but it was pretty fun. I go through these things so differently than most people. I'm analyzing hiding spots, checking corners and inspecting every shadow. Oh, and also walking as low as possible to get under the fog. I was never scared, but there was some cool stuff. My favorite was the star tipping tunnel that makes you lose your equilibrium. All said, Brad was the point man for the most part, yelling at the props and people for being unsanitary and doing illegal things, the girls screamed a lot, and I took up the rear, ignoring the chainsaw people that kept jumping out of the shadows.<br />
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The next day we went to Cornwell's Turkey Farm to check out the Haunted Adventure after church. Most this weekend was either unplanned, or planned at the last possible moment. I was also trying to keep Adela in the dark for the most part, trying to keep her on her toes. This was the main surprise I was planning, especially because I had roped Emily and Xavier into coming over to check it out.<br />
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Our first stop was the haunted barn which had the same type of star tipping tunnel, only much slower. It's still very disorienting and hard to stand up straight. <br />
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Following the haunted house we went to the free mini train rides, stopped through some of the shops and eventually took the hayride to the corn maze.<br />
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The corn maze could have been more difficult, but it was good for daytime and a comfortable walk around. <br />
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It was so much fun to see Brad, Hannah, Xavier, and Emily. We also saw her family, celebrated with my family, and supported our church family all in one day. I love looking back at a day that we were able to see so many people, and cover so much ground. I've been hoping to see all these people and I'm thankful that everything kind of came together on its own. <br />
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The biggest news is that we set the date of June 7th for the wedding, and we are aiming at Midland. It's not my ideal timing, but it's fantastic to be able to start planning. Don't get your hopes too high yet cause I don't know about numbers or people or anything. I wish I could invite anyone and everyone but that's not quite how it works. I am very grateful for all of the folks that I'd like to invite. I'm thinking of you as I draw up my lists of people.<br />
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Well now that a date is set I can finally start to get excited and jump on some of the planning details. Hopefully we'll have jet skis, sleds, and ultimate Frisbee!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-77336578365169678232013-10-14T19:12:00.000-07:002013-10-14T19:14:09.630-07:00Most Beautiful Day of the YearIf you're like me, you've found yourself saying it over an over again this Fall. This is the most beautiful day of the year! We had multiple chances for that this week. But let me back up a bit before I get all the way into that. <br />
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First, major schedule changes taking place now. I may have mentioned it already, but I'm playing Sunday night volleyball at the Y. It's the best volleyball I can join in on and I'm thankful for a team that let me jump in with them. So far we're undefeated and it's been a lot of fun to play. <br />
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Then on Mondays and Wednesdays I offered to help with Learn to Swim classes at Harper Creek. One of my favorite things to do and something that I missed a lot at camp. <br />
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On Tuesdays I've joined in on a pick up basketball game at Pennfield High School. It worked out that I was invited through some people at work and now I'm in. And although people may think I hang my hat on my athletics.... I'm seeing the wear and tear on my knees and it worries me sometimes. Then again, maybe it was being out of shape. Either way, that sets me up for some good athletics to help keep in shape from week to week.<br />
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On Thursday our church had one of my favorite Youth Group activities of all time. A downtown scavenger hunt. Tim scattered some food for the kids to pick up and took pictures of them to use as clues. We made our way from one end of town to the other. I rode my bike to it and was distracted in the middle by parent teacher conferences at the Math and Science Center. Fun to roll in and say hello to any teachers that weren't chatting with parents. The building is beautiful!<br />
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Thursday was truly an awesome day. Perfect temperature all day, yet a crisp touch to the air. Youth Group ended at the Math and Science Center where Tim spoke about spreading the Gospel in practical (and impractical) ways. Anything could be just the trick, from inviting someone to Youth Group, to throwing a message in a bottle. Even TV pastors can be the push in the right direction!<br />
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I know a lot of folks avoid and dislike Battle Creek but I still have hope for the place. Like the whole world it needs a lot of redeeming work, but this city is just the product of those that will invest and take part in it. If everyone keeps their distance and hides in the country (or in Kalamazoo) then there will never be any improvement.<br />
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Anyways, being downtown was a blast and I'm happy the downtown area is growing up and that the most intelligent kids in the county are joining in on it (whether they like it or not).<br />
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That's the weekend crew. I joined Dad, Brenton, and Grant for the Camp Barakel Men's retreat. We all drove up together but I cheated because Adela also came up with some of her friends to volunteer in the kitchen. The weekend was also gorgeous up at Camp Barakel. A little chilly here and there, but by and large another perfect Fall Day.<br />
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Although it was nice to be able to hang with the guys and then switch over to see Adela periodically throughout the day... I probably won't go for that at a Men's retreat again. I pretty much want to spend all my time with her, so it can potentially defeat the point of a <u>Men's</u> <u>Retreat</u>. I think we balanced it decently, and I was excited for the opportunity to be together to see the camp staff.<br />
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The weekend speaker was Tom Harmon and he focused on "But He Giveth More Grace", which is not only scripture, but the name of his latest book. I don't think anyone would have been talking about the Tom Harmon books 10 years ago. Times change though. Lots of good wisdom and fellowship with other believers. I'm very blessed to call the weekend a reunion with staff, a Father/Son retreat, a Men's Retreat, and a Couple's Retreat all at once. <br />
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That being said, I'm looking forward to a weekend where I may be able to catch up with different staff for lengthy periods of time. In the meantime I'm hoping my muscles and sleep schedule recover from this fun filled weekend.<br />
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God Bless!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-32996820714256726012013-10-07T04:29:00.001-07:002013-10-07T04:29:10.582-07:00A Visit to MidlandThis week at Clubhouse I spent a lot of time trying to conquer my camera setting for the gym type lighting. It's shut me down on indoor pictures for years. I know camera nerds conquer this in moments, but I was pretty excited to get it to work.<br />
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Otherwise this week was a blur. I remember riding my bike downtown and around town in general. It kind of makes me sad sometimes. Battle Creek was so nice and it still has signs of life, but it's never going to be what it was. On the way through I stopped and spent some time creeping on the new Math and Science Center downtown. Yep. I'm that guy walking around the building at 6pm, creeping out whoever the administrator people that were there.<br />
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I should also mention my new volleyball shoes as they were a big part of the week. I decided that I would look into getting some real men's volleyball shoes. Well they showed up and were awesome. Like playing on clouds. Great traction and flexibility. The only thing left is to see if they last. Pretty exciting so far though.<br />
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Then I travelled with Adela and her roommate to Midland. It was a bit of a botched trip because the goal was to take her sister home, but her sister took a different ride and we decided to go visit anyways. One of the spots to visit was Dow Gardens, which I'd been told I would enjoy but had never visited.<br />
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Then I asked Adela to marry me there. No big deal... right?<br />
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Here's a quick summary: I had been picking on her about her other rings and had somehow managed to confiscate 3 of the 4. While at the gardens I lagged behind and she came to get me like I was a 5 year old. Which is about par for the course for us. I made her come all the way to me, and offered her a Vera Bradley box to put her last ring in (with the others). She said thanks, but no thanks and started to walk to catch up to her family. I grabbed her hand and helped her take off that last ring and then gave her a Taco Bell hot sauce packet that said, "will you marry me", as I also got down on one knee. Since I couldn't conceal the box casually I had the ring in my camera bag and whipped that out at the same time. She was mostly confused. She asked if I was joking (which I'd be ok with except I had the ring out, so that should have made it pretty clear). I told her it was real, asked her to marry me and while still in shock she said.... yeah. About like that too. Yeah. I offered to put the ring on and we carried on from there.<br />
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I'm thankful for her parents for jumping in to help me find a spot while preserving the surprise of the moment. And to Hannah, her photo taking roommate who essentially took care of engagement photos on the spot. She did a fantastic job and had no clue what she was going to be getting herself into.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbqFjnimEPewonjG-Dir7cFFAFsvGdmLbWkEWFN_Epl0YQhzKjK9cjYTi8s7tR1udle2G55ax3RU2w1IPdClJ-It9yh2QQM0LfjQIbhzRd_nARubgiDRxMfUdZrakIPC_zFk2PxYw7O-7/s1600/1377165_345343275611057_1430124275_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHbqFjnimEPewonjG-Dir7cFFAFsvGdmLbWkEWFN_Epl0YQhzKjK9cjYTi8s7tR1udle2G55ax3RU2w1IPdClJ-It9yh2QQM0LfjQIbhzRd_nARubgiDRxMfUdZrakIPC_zFk2PxYw7O-7/s640/1377165_345343275611057_1430124275_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A couple thoughts on getting engaged:<br />
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1) I don't know what I'm supposed to feel like exactly, but it's not much different than before. I treated her and her family like they were my family before all this went down. Yes, I suppose it's much more firm now, and other people can consider our relationship more permanent. Adela and I have been in it for the long haul from the moment I said I love you on her trampoline one night months and months ago. Or maybe even weeks before that when I told her "my ship is sunk". <br />
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2) Everyone wants to know dates! I understand that, but it's going to be a couple weeks to narrow these things down. I'd love to set a date, but apparently I need to consider what Adela wants, and we need to consider what our families are up for. I feel ok telling you it could be anywhere in the next 7 months. We need to consider our living situation, her schooling, and try to find the time that makes most sense to make it happen, all while keeping God first in this engagement. <br />
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Beyond that I think everything is still up in the air. I could see us having a private, very small scale wedding followed up with a couple receptions aimed at different groups in our lives (one for extended family, one for friends, or some breakdown like that) OR I could see it being traditional from start to finish. <br />
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So hang on! We're sorting it out!<br />
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Finally I'd like to thank all our friends from over the years! Many of you have come right out of the woodwork to say congratulations, and we appreciate it. <br />
<br />Fun times!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-62716099749840067312013-09-30T18:38:00.000-07:002013-09-30T18:38:08.367-07:00Playing from Behind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It's been a very busy week here. A busy couple of weeks. So busy in fact... that I'm struggling to remember where all I've been the last two weeks. So here are the highlights.</div>
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The main reason that I was so confused and busy was because of Adela's new job. She's been working as a nanny in Holland and the job is a bit of a schedule crunch without a car. So I was trying to help her find something within her price range. Turns out I found an Oldsmobile Alero (1999). So after a week of running around looking at cars with my Dad I picked up her new Alero for her. </div>
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See... that kept me so busy I forgot about the Tigers game I went to with the Camp Barakel maintenance crew. It was a good game to go check out as they won a close game with a lot of runs throughout. Prince Fielder even ate a nacho from the crowd at that game. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_VajdLMmBfremgXEgZVmqU4MqDXaTtIDIxO3AlyQQ-txXQS3taGaJrsP-ISbD5vC6P3KuynVnb33lTjxMrtgtYmx8m26usVYcM1B1d7rjXDGxPnx81mrVC5hseTn-UB9c6a1Msf9TKDd/s1600/9-19-13+Tigers+Game+(66).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_VajdLMmBfremgXEgZVmqU4MqDXaTtIDIxO3AlyQQ-txXQS3taGaJrsP-ISbD5vC6P3KuynVnb33lTjxMrtgtYmx8m26usVYcM1B1d7rjXDGxPnx81mrVC5hseTn-UB9c6a1Msf9TKDd/s400/9-19-13+Tigers+Game+(66).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love my camera cause it's small, but still has a big zoom.</td></tr>
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Somewhere in there I played some golf with High School friends and it was a blast. I rarely enjoy much of the golf scene (usually I think it's a fun idea til they ask for money), but it was definitely worth some cash to hang out with these guys. To add to that mess I ended up helping move a piano with one of those guys on Monday. Which made Adela sad cause it pushed back me getting her car to her.</div>
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It worked out that she could wiggle her schedule around enough for me to pick her up, bring her back to Battle Creek and then send her off with it. This gave me a good opportunity to test the car out and make sure it would behave for her. Found some issues along the way, brought it in to the shop and got it mostly fixed up for her. It'll need some more work but so far it is lining up as a good deal. </div>
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Ok. So next thing I can put together is the Harvest Party. If you're not familiar it's a family that has supported Camp for generations that lives on a Sesquicentennial farm in St Johns and they host a giant party on their property. It's a yearly event that I've never been able to come to cause I was at camp working every year. Well I wanted to make sure I came to this, the very last one. </div>
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Here are pictures of the swing that all the kids like:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74PGcHxt1rEFUnCiY6I0V6so52YnW2ZrmvKatXlubIM0RQNFF1gHDNTes7QZYFI8Gc4azSQuvH-Lj6RCU3Uc4ohoch79jEz8_pNr0P70HeYdkE3XuyGcxx45TacuUfFJPGVraw3p_J1Su/s1600/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg74PGcHxt1rEFUnCiY6I0V6so52YnW2ZrmvKatXlubIM0RQNFF1gHDNTes7QZYFI8Gc4azSQuvH-Lj6RCU3Uc4ohoch79jEz8_pNr0P70HeYdkE3XuyGcxx45TacuUfFJPGVraw3p_J1Su/s400/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(1).JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvkhlXzbwr0z9fSCkiQNrfrk3ozY6e3JJC5CQ8HZeswB1uLzKR65JBUArBr38mRciJ_0JK45Anpr7cE5sMhOK0ZuSepwXbsvoncjGC2sWEfw4DUMdMVZqdEGMlUJ6zIuxltUXM1Qztxjcf/s1600/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(17).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvkhlXzbwr0z9fSCkiQNrfrk3ozY6e3JJC5CQ8HZeswB1uLzKR65JBUArBr38mRciJ_0JK45Anpr7cE5sMhOK0ZuSepwXbsvoncjGC2sWEfw4DUMdMVZqdEGMlUJ6zIuxltUXM1Qztxjcf/s400/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(17).JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwA5Z5jVAITnF5Dz3sh7_UTk4FkH87EVADU4_HRVVrMrH2IwJnSrH_Zwwb2k-8Dn3Oxg-yzhhw__3Xa3IA-aQqjoRUPKHJjE1yn1Kn6mW4x5thg6DVyqKPVvaO4VDsfcx3eOiOwyW20M9/s1600/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(19).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwA5Z5jVAITnF5Dz3sh7_UTk4FkH87EVADU4_HRVVrMrH2IwJnSrH_Zwwb2k-8Dn3Oxg-yzhhw__3Xa3IA-aQqjoRUPKHJjE1yn1Kn6mW4x5thg6DVyqKPVvaO4VDsfcx3eOiOwyW20M9/s400/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(19).JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgLUAD5itRR44TvDBrwNpCuxZLvotL0Kw3xdgt7Nx7d58ikpSCWI-o08I8bfBOAagjqS8y8BT1-8rxQ2AQ4zLIBQaC1wVbK993BRgCyl845dGaTmO3KAYj3V5_3id_YlzTTQTX3vIi41L/s1600/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(20).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgLUAD5itRR44TvDBrwNpCuxZLvotL0Kw3xdgt7Nx7d58ikpSCWI-o08I8bfBOAagjqS8y8BT1-8rxQ2AQ4zLIBQaC1wVbK993BRgCyl845dGaTmO3KAYj3V5_3id_YlzTTQTX3vIi41L/s400/9-28-13+Harvest+Party+(20).JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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There is so much going on at the party that I don't even know what all happened. I saw people, then didn't see them for the rest of the time. It was followed up with a stop at the Wheel Inn in St John's that included Titus Brown, which I hadn't seen in... well in a long time. <br />
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On Sunday afternoon I jumped into the volleyball league at the Y Center and joined a random team. I'd played with one of the guys one other time and they took me on. It's weird to be there and not play with the Penrod's but I kinda know a lot of people there now and feel comfortable all over the place. <br />
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Sorry if you're a close follower and you wanted another week. Sometimes I'm happy I am posting anything anymore cause life just goes so fast. If anybody has more questions or comments please let me know!<br />
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Thanks for reading.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-56324202642656917812013-09-18T19:25:00.001-07:002013-09-18T19:25:35.682-07:00Quick UpdateWell I'm late! But here I am. <br />
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Last week we had a fun fair at church. It's not the biggest fun fair in the world, but it had most of the normal amenities. Basketball hoops, dunk tank, bounce pit, and a variety of other mini games. The idea is that each kid that walks up gets 20 tickets or so and then they can run around playing the games, picking up some candy along the way along with some school supplies if they do really well. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeIJGruO3z8-0eq0fISxjFe4R4XD7_9j0UhcsdXsnZSOQf7dxvfWWqPFRaOj0HwUT-2mVi0fHtBl3ZsOxKI_NHO5bIuXwQzpIimO2-luzU-5C5WgLRAZJKXRFDKqyLUtp7ySiRV271j_u/s1600/9-11-13+Fall+Fun+Fair+(18).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGeIJGruO3z8-0eq0fISxjFe4R4XD7_9j0UhcsdXsnZSOQf7dxvfWWqPFRaOj0HwUT-2mVi0fHtBl3ZsOxKI_NHO5bIuXwQzpIimO2-luzU-5C5WgLRAZJKXRFDKqyLUtp7ySiRV271j_u/s400/9-11-13+Fall+Fun+Fair+(18).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nasko and Jay play some basketball together.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcabJWgs_iOqhTrgeQGf8qGnHl_QukrYvFvck9A_ixeJzZd1Z_yY_yESlD3Vu_Y2QF3L7TZihOhyMjl5F_1CzNGsiWUS_rfzj1k22A82Va_PAROKVS-AhLbTrI1O3tMI1RBUHaPmZ-3Pn/s1600/9-11-13+Fall+Fun+Fair+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcabJWgs_iOqhTrgeQGf8qGnHl_QukrYvFvck9A_ixeJzZd1Z_yY_yESlD3Vu_Y2QF3L7TZihOhyMjl5F_1CzNGsiWUS_rfzj1k22A82Va_PAROKVS-AhLbTrI1O3tMI1RBUHaPmZ-3Pn/s400/9-11-13+Fall+Fun+Fair+(4).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dunk tank! Before it got super dirty.</td></tr>
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I don't have pictures from the weekend but it was a full load of fun. Here's the quick run through as fast as I can put it together into words:<br />
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I got home from work and picked up Mom from the house. Drove to Holland to pick up Adela. Drove to the Aguilera's house in Freeland to drop her off and Mom got to meet her parents for a bit. Drove across Midland to "North Bradley" to take Mom to our old family friend, Laurie's house. We stayed there for a night after chatting for a short bit with Laurie, her daughter Jessie, and her sister in law Joy (and Cain the giant dog pictured below).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAkGDHQVTcxhG_EhyY38EQzoKoiX2kmMYVfhsMTbNQ03-VRGM0W-f_Hnp7Kge_AZ5IOWmLzMjEiQYlwm4xUQid7l1sUK2qB6oSlL6JKu5GnuforCTsPXaZ-vt-nrrg_z2BUCUlG-el_ny/s1600/9-15-13+Cain+the+Dog+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAkGDHQVTcxhG_EhyY38EQzoKoiX2kmMYVfhsMTbNQ03-VRGM0W-f_Hnp7Kge_AZ5IOWmLzMjEiQYlwm4xUQid7l1sUK2qB6oSlL6JKu5GnuforCTsPXaZ-vt-nrrg_z2BUCUlG-el_ny/s320/9-15-13+Cain+the+Dog+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Saturday morning I went to Mandy and Jon Van Regenmorter's house to see them and their boy. I had breakfast there and played some tennis with Jon and his Mom for a bit. Ran up the street to meet up with Adela at her church for their fun fair. Some shopping at the mall (most of which I spent in Dunham's and Barnes and Noble). A quick stop at the Aguilera's house, then we ran off to meet Jubal and Kalie at Olive Garden (and Ruby too!). We went back to their house for some chit chat and eventually some dumpster diving with Sam Doyle and Joey Winterstein joining along the way. We found a couple fun items like a bookshelf, computer table, and several items from the 5 Below store.<br />
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Sunday morning I ran over to pick up Mom and bring her back to Adela's church. We then retreated to the Aguilera house for lunch and some chilling out. We reviewed pictures from Colombia and then rolled out of Midland. Dropped Adela off in Holland and then hustled home for the night. <br />
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It was a crazy, fun filled weekend. <br />
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Well I'm late, but there's a quick update and here we go, already half way through the next week.<br />
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Peace out.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-74743545903473421192013-09-09T19:29:00.000-07:002013-09-09T19:29:29.695-07:00The Cost of Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Matuszapalooza. You've probably never heard of it. You shouldn't have at least. Cause it's a get together that my college friends have organized for... a long time. I've been around it since 2005 probably. It's been a while anyways.</div>
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In the good old days we'd play video games for hours, then go swim in the lake, then video games, then sleep, then video games, then swim, then Frisbee. Kind of random mix of whatever laziness you feel like. There was always one instance where a new game bloomed out of nothing. Like you had a couple tennis balls, a whiffle ball bat, and a stuffed duck and before you know it you have the world series of duckball happening in a little college in Waterford, MI. OH! And then the fan game. We always get the ceiling fan going and throw anything and everything we can into it while taking cover all over the living room. </div>
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Yeah. No one was ever majorly injured. And this year we discussed the fact that we have yet to break anything in the house. Not so much as a random hole in the wall or anything. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchAZdS-wMTCIR23pxUqHBD7kM5TU_Xz6F0XrzY7tKVPLmavtxZu99ROy7uLqeZC4fc2EuaNDVSVhzQTxPBR4hcmoTvm1VmwGi7kvKjNhhPz3b4jBjVZ9rewfnKXy6PlzP3r52XCA2JfPn/s1600/9-7-13+Matuszapalooza+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchAZdS-wMTCIR23pxUqHBD7kM5TU_Xz6F0XrzY7tKVPLmavtxZu99ROy7uLqeZC4fc2EuaNDVSVhzQTxPBR4hcmoTvm1VmwGi7kvKjNhhPz3b4jBjVZ9rewfnKXy6PlzP3r52XCA2JfPn/s400/9-7-13+Matuszapalooza+(1).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now everyone has video games right on their phones/tablets.</td></tr>
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I knew this year would be different (it's been 3 or 4 years since I've been available for it because of camp). I drove up to about 6 very new looking cars of various makes and models. Much different than the junkyard we used to park around the cottage back during college years. <br />
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Then once inside the same core groups were there, playing a game like Apples to Apples. That was after I showed up at about 12:15 AM. We played some random mini hockey stick and foam ball game until about 3 AM while people dropped off to sleep one at a time. <br />
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In the morning we went to Subway/Tim Horton's for breakfast/lunch at about Noon. I figured I'd just eat a foot long (gotta celebrate Subtember) for lunch along with a doughnut for breakfast. We played a new game (to me) called Munchkins that took several hours and then they played "Giant Beer Pong". Very little beer was involved, and there was no ping pong ball. They did have 5 gallon buckets filled with lake water and mini soccer balls. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5ejznsOdSisYBmw9qFVl7IhTDcUKcz9GkPd-Ts5rkenN9k1ZhTl55yczrTECLms1RKkFe8kFycvmqlgFWx0npBZkwOuuPOs8dXrhhgww9EFMzsafiLhzl6bSgM5h1r7qBd8sEKLlBmf0/s1600/9-7-13+Matuszapalooza+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5ejznsOdSisYBmw9qFVl7IhTDcUKcz9GkPd-Ts5rkenN9k1ZhTl55yczrTECLms1RKkFe8kFycvmqlgFWx0npBZkwOuuPOs8dXrhhgww9EFMzsafiLhzl6bSgM5h1r7qBd8sEKLlBmf0/s400/9-7-13+Matuszapalooza+(3).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant Pong. I enjoyed the game and dialing in my throws.</td></tr>
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After that I headed over to Brad's. Didn't want to go to Waterford without seeing him and we watched a couple movies and caught up. I left early Sunday morning to get back for church. I like being able to keep up with friends all over the state, but I also get frustrated when I feel like I've not been around for church hardly. In fact, I spend more time with the church during the week than on Sundays in an average week. <br />
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After church I jumped into the Cleland van ad went to Maribel's soccer game. She plays for BC Fire and I've heard a lot about this travel soccer team over the years. They still struggle with typical soccer issues like passing and seeing the field well (anticipating where to be, even when they don't have the ball), but they are much better than the average Junior High aged girls. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maribel played forward and midfield in the harsh loss (5 or 6 to 0). </td></tr>
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After soccer there was dinner with the Moody's (another Subtember foot long) and then the Children's Musical at church with Mom. We brought our canned goods and enjoyed the kids jumping around and singing. Nasko Cleland as Nebuchadnezzar was a very funny part.<br />
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This weekend I thought a couple times about my time at camp. Meeting up with college friends and catching up got me to be a little reflective. When I first walked up to the cottage I mentioned that I noted all the new cars sitting there. In talking with some of the friends it was interesting to see what they'd accomplished and bought over the years. <br />
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It shed unexpected light on an aspect of camp I'd never thought of. Lost earnings. I knew when I went to camp I'd be living off of my savings and the gifts of my friends and family (and folks that just wanted to help people out at camp). Never thought about the engineer salary that I was dropping for what eventually became 3 years. <br />
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The way my mind works is that I had to check it out and some quick math showed that I'd have a lot more in my retirement accounts and I'd probably have enough to buy at least half of a nice house (all of many of them in Battle Creek). That was assuming some frugal saving, but that's something I'm good at generally.<br />
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Well all that is to say I don't regret giving that up. Would I like $100,000 to spend on whatever? Yes. But it's very difficult to compare the experience I had at Camp Barakel with that much money. I can easily say that the world would think this is foolish, but the world doesn't know what happened at Camp over those years.<br />
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I never missed a retreat in 3 years. I met countless campers of all ages at every place that they can go on the property including the zipline, water front, thunder express, dining halls, lodges, medicine tepee, and the chapels of course. Throughout that time I learned how to lead a crowd (in announcements, games, or whatever is needed... even just stalling), and how to engage with all types of people in short spans. I learned how to do all kind s of maintenance tasks that I won't even try to go over in this post.<br />
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Even better I met the Bakers! And the Harris'! And the Alchin's, Haines', Shaw's, Vanorman's, Boeve's, Gardner's, Douglas', Linsley's, Brown's, Marilyn, Kathy, Shedlbauer's, Ford's, and Proper's. Plus a slew of Seasonal and Summer staff that I miss almost every day. <br />
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I met Adela too! And she's pretty cool. <br />
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Finally I was doing work for God. Nothing can be more rewarding to me than that. I've given tithes and offerings since I was a kid and my Dad started working that process into my system and I've almost always enjoyed it. Now it's 20 years later and whatever I've give to God in money and time I don't regret any of it. <br />
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The Bible says it best:<br />
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"He who honors me, I will honor him".<br />
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Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-74284918623653328802013-09-03T19:27:00.000-07:002013-09-04T03:51:18.136-07:00Transferrance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Here we are in the start of the Fall. School starts up and so do the Fall sports. Volleyball, Soccer and Football. On tv, all around Battle Creek, even in the park up the street. </div>
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Last Wednesday I got to see one of Hannah Ford's soccer games with JCC. It was an easy one to catch because it was against KCC here in Battle Creek. So me and Maribel Cleland stopped in to watch the game.</div>
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Community College soccer is funny because there is a mixture of skill levels. They are all solid players, but many of them don't have nearly as much polish as the others. Hannah Ford has polish! She somehow was switched to a wing defender after years of midfield and it's fun to watch her stand her ground in her portion of the field.</div>
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This week Youth Group was at Graham Lake for the last tubing day of the year. The water was hot and the weather was perfect for hanging out at the beach. We had food off of the grill, lots of kids falling in the water, and a devotional about relying on ourselves too much. <br />
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I spent Labor Day at camp to help out with dishes and the zipline. On Saturday night I left camp, which is a rarity for a weekend visit. I went over to the Yoder's house to play some Settlers of Catan (first game in... 3 years or so). It was a lot of fun, although Jubal completely controlled the game. It was even better to catch up with Jubal, Kalie, and Kyle until the late hours. <br />
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Every time I leave camp I immediately miss the families that I love to visit there. Families that give up their normal incomes, their pick of schools for their kids, and even the right to stroll downtown to the movies. I know there are advantages to living in the isolation, there are also many disadvantages.<br />
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Our society calls us to do it all ourselves, to take the world for our own. God calls us to give up ourselves and do whatever we can for others. Don't rely on your own strength, give it up and serve God.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-39012937299963707102013-08-27T19:33:00.000-07:002013-08-27T19:33:20.633-07:00Xtreme WeekendIn an effort to get to bed before 10:30pm I'm just going to comment on some pictures for the weekend. We'll see how long that lasts before I end up writing a book.<br />
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So this is me at my "Xtreme Obstacle Course" on Saturday morning. I've always wanted to run a race like this because it would engage my brain more than just plodding through a 5k. There was a variety of interesting and fun obstacles that made me feel like an American Gladiator. </div>
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My time was a 25:54 which I feel comfortable with because of the obstacles. I think I could have gone even faster if I knew how to warm up my lungs properly before these type of races. Well I ended up in 4th place overall, and 1st in my age group (a couple competitive runners beat me and a lady with a sweet time). Oh, and there are summary videos online that I'll probably try to link on my Facebook wall (or timeline, or whatever they want me to call it now).<br />
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I have no pictures of the wedding I went to because I'm foolish. It's not like I'm going to go dance or whatever, so I should have just snagged the camera. But that's ok. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moments. And that's what I did. My highlight was catching up with some of the camp guys that I hadn't seen for a while.<br />
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The wedding was followed by staying the night with the Calhoun's. Emily let me invite myself, Hannah and Adela over to catch up for a minute before leaving for home Sunday morning.<br />
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This is South Haven. Possibly for the last time this year? Probably not. Or not the last of Lake Michigan at least. In this picture we have 3 great reasons to adopt!<br />
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I always like the sunsets (just one more reason West is best). This night was interesting because the sun seemed to be obscured by a light haze. Made the pictures turn out in a much darker hue than I'm used to.<br />
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This is the last picture I took on the way off the beach. Hopefully I'll get the rest of the nice pictures onto Facebook soon.<br />
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This was the last Youth Group trip of the year. I had the privilege of driving the Cleland girls to and from the beach. Caleb is shown here after he basically challenged us to try and bury him while he was standing up. We did our best and he did his part while we shoved sand over at him for a half hour. <br />
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So that's it I guess. Adoption seems to be the theme. On a random trip to the beach we had a little over 20 people there and yet 8 of them were adopted. The truth is that we all have the opportunity to be adopted into God's family. And the trick isn't to act like the good kid or to suck up to God, but to just admit that we struggle and offer ourselves to the only one that can help.<br />
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I'm happy to call myself adopted right with the rest of the group!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-40488116445881022282013-08-20T18:57:00.002-07:002013-08-20T19:02:16.159-07:00Life as I know itDriving. The driving never seems to stop. Well this weekend I was at it again. And doubly so. But first, more about the preceding week. <br />
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My sports are pretty much finished for the Summer. I might find some others to work on, but for now my nights are free and I'm loving it. More time to ride bikes and get stuff done in my messy portions of the house. Not that anything is getting done, but there is still time for that.<br />
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All my bike rides lately lead right to the Riegel's. Last week was Brenton's last week of school, so I jumped in the festivities.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kids each made a sweet poster. Ella included new house rules.</td></tr>
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During all of this they've been expecting their newest addition, Violet. She came along and now I've been able to visit with her a couple times since then. It's a busy house with all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in there. Even today I was there and we took 4 laps around the neighborhood on the bikes. <br />
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Then all the driving came from a weekend at camp. I arrived with Adela and Hannah just in time to spend some time with the counselors before everyone went to sleep. Saturday was the driving day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my bus! Most of the campers were in the rest stop at this point.</td></tr>
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We rolled out with the buses at 12:30pm and after 3 rest stops, 2 drop offs, and 392 miles we made it back at about 10:30pm. One of the scares for HIS Week campers is that we might have some bathroom emergencies, but the Bus Attendants were on top of things and the only emergency we had resulted in a quick stop at Dairy Queen with one camper getting off and on quickly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvtVD36YhIJj0R-h-3WbOrgr9XZdafAKRBrNCW8OPAhbLAMeZKQM723reN-e9ItOmymb1yU7kiUQZGoI4iI-D9QF7V-rI4gVlITsb16SciYz2vARWoLGSNj1Se-r7H8nM0c4cx_R3LQ2h/s1600/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvtVD36YhIJj0R-h-3WbOrgr9XZdafAKRBrNCW8OPAhbLAMeZKQM723reN-e9ItOmymb1yU7kiUQZGoI4iI-D9QF7V-rI4gVlITsb16SciYz2vARWoLGSNj1Se-r7H8nM0c4cx_R3LQ2h/s400/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(2).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the Engineers was juggling and riding his unicycle to the delight of the watching campers.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuEqC1HsS9-SW5Ax7LLgqm2DJskt0bLmomM_mgVHLYRJTu1Oq_tCPpAZuesfi35CcF9gghyphenhyphenKt6BiPIGlzxmRJlqWWGqhwtQGKqncWfwJL0rOECIjQzJap4yY4OcggvjgfjVQLmSONfhCMS/s1600/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuEqC1HsS9-SW5Ax7LLgqm2DJskt0bLmomM_mgVHLYRJTu1Oq_tCPpAZuesfi35CcF9gghyphenhyphenKt6BiPIGlzxmRJlqWWGqhwtQGKqncWfwJL0rOECIjQzJap4yY4OcggvjgfjVQLmSONfhCMS/s400/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(6).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My old camper Jasen! Ethan did a great job helping him out at the stops.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KMFIJ_isB_3fL-0LDfXBsB3i3qV4HYHBi5adpo5JgWKlOqO0wAY224Cwnfk7W9lRQ0-xd0AkR6AkhamKZ63F_XXbo1zdJkn3kYYkPAYRL_517v-1kIlM8VvzgBKcRWSIfexMfCtVhUZf/s1600/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(9).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KMFIJ_isB_3fL-0LDfXBsB3i3qV4HYHBi5adpo5JgWKlOqO0wAY224Cwnfk7W9lRQ0-xd0AkR6AkhamKZ63F_XXbo1zdJkn3kYYkPAYRL_517v-1kIlM8VvzgBKcRWSIfexMfCtVhUZf/s400/8-17-2013+HIS+Week+Driving+(9).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last sighting of the buses in the wild for this season.</td></tr>
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I'm thankful for the opportunity to help camp out on occasions. I felt like this Summer was going to get up there and back, but I made it for most of a week around the 4th of July and then again this Sunday. I now have an ambitious plan to join in the work (and some of the play) over 3-4 times this Fall. <br />
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On the way home we stopped to visit Adela's family. We jumped in the pool and then had some burger tacos. That rounded out a busy, fun filled weekend.<br />
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And that's how it'll be for me for a while here. More driving and driving and driving. But that's ok. I like staying busy and this will keep me that way.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-39342891725247225512013-08-12T20:11:00.001-07:002013-08-12T20:11:24.219-07:00Colombia and Etc<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There is a lot to be said about the trip to Colombia, but I'm hoping it'll be best said by the video that will someday come out about it. For now I'll throw down some highlights with a couple pictures:</div>
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We left on Friday, which gave us the weekend to settle in and get used to Colombia. I enjoyed a chance to remember the language and see some of the sites. On Saturday we went to Guadavita (pictured above) and then ate dinner in the country. <br />
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On Sunday we went to what we consider our sister church in Colombia and I enjoyed the challenge of a service in Spanish. I did well with the songs, then I kept missing more and more of the sermon until it turned to communion where the context let me understand more of the words. (I should also probably mention that I accidently grabbed a huge chunk of bread. Which turned out good because I was super hungry. It was difficult to hide in the meantime though, so I kind of crushed it in my hand to hide it.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkt-FD74enRJuILoEHcsvAB32ZF9EtCVEFdsDTngK5oYJuWx0jlQUAhyc0NocDOwoQbxAF0zdKJmU0jkF-QDNbE2_CDx50pggSXFJQdjkK4SvJt6B6voJKIQFeNAguvYeU0_1du1zzCsg-/s1600/8-2,10-13+Colombia+(43).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkt-FD74enRJuILoEHcsvAB32ZF9EtCVEFdsDTngK5oYJuWx0jlQUAhyc0NocDOwoQbxAF0zdKJmU0jkF-QDNbE2_CDx50pggSXFJQdjkK4SvJt6B6voJKIQFeNAguvYeU0_1du1zzCsg-/s400/8-2,10-13+Colombia+(43).JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Later that afternoon we took 4 of the kids from church and went downtown. We all took "blessing bags" (bags with toothpaste, toothbrush, snacks, and a couple other items) and handed them out as we happened by the people. Every single individual expressed gratitude for the bags, and some people even ran to get their friends and tell them about it. (I was impressed by this. It would be so easy to ask for more to bring to friends, then keep it. But many of the people immediately thought of others they wanted to get in on it). <br />
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Just for a little context, the streets of Bogota are much like Chicago. Similarities include the homeless, entertainers, dense amount of people, and both fade from downtown to general suburbs in a similar way. Some differences include the press of traffic in most places, yet Bogota has limits to traffic in many of the downtown areas (for safety and for space). On most streets that have cars there are 3 lanes and they tend to be filled with motorcycles, entertainers and vendors. They drive very aggressively (many consider it dangerous), yet they are generally safe. While there are any close calls (I've seen contact every visit), I've always felt safe in Colombian taxis. They are definitely more skilled and friendly in a much more stressful press of traffic than most North American drivers experience.<br />
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This year I didn't get nearly the same amount of pictures because someone was assigned as the photographer/videographer. I decided to leave my camera behind most of the time and enjoy the moments instead of letting them slip by while I tried to capture them. I did make sure to get a fresh picture of Bogota. It's hard to describe, and the picture doesn't do it justice. It's a city that goes on forever (or further than we can see), yet it's captured by mountains that basically encircle the city. <br />
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These pictures capture the 4 children (Caren, Juan, Laurena, and Camila) that we spent time with along with their parents (in the second picture on the right) and a missionary that reaches out to their community. (It also gets all the team except myself and Jay). <br />
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Our experience at CRAN (which I have no pictures of) was challenging, and yet good. All of Colombia kind of acts on their own set of time rules and CRAN had several scheduling changes. This can be frustrating if you have a plan that is setup for the whole morning, but if you roll with it you can get all of the important stuff (Bible lessons) in. This was likely caused in part by Bogota's 475th birthday, which is a major holiday for them and landed right in the middle of our week. <br />
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Man, I need to keep going so I can go to sleep yet tonight.<br />
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I was happy that Adela was able to come along! This girl helps me in so many ways. She helps me keep a good attitude in trying situations and her love for the helpless is a living example of James 1:27- "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." She has a passion for those in need that I can't even comprehend fully.<br />
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I'll wrap this up with a couple final subjects that I believe are tightly linked. <br />
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"Soy especial in los ojos de Dios" (I am special in the eyes of God). You can see it taped to my hoodie (rather sloppily, yet it held up all week). We gave this card to each child twice (once on a picture frame with their picture in it and another time in a little keepsake bag). I tried to make sure that any kid I played with tried to read it, then I'd help if needed. And afterwards I'd tell the they are too. Many of them would kind of blush and squeeze in for a hug. It's not in my comfort zone to tell people things I consider are commonly known facts, yet for these kids it was clearly special for them to hear those words. <br />
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As the week unfolded I caught many people leaning in to read those words (you can tell if people are staring at Gringos and if they are trying to read). One kid in a market asked me if I was a Christian and told me he was as well. Another woman on the Transmilenio told me she liked the card (after a lengthy discussion about her experience growing up in both New York City and Colombia). <br />
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This tied in with our last day that included a trip to visit a special needs orphanage. After a sketchy taxi ride (quite a story I'd be happy to share with anyone, and it's important to note I never felt threatened) we landed at this House of Light and Life. They have all ages of disabled people with a lot of Cerebral Palsy along with Down's Syndrome and other ailments. These people live in chairs, most of them strapped in for their safety and the safety of those around them. It's as dependent of a life as you can have, yet every single one of them was special. Our group tried to show them this in a limited time by not only talking to them, but touching and hugging them. <br />
<br />It made me think of a man that understands the humanity of a disabled person (physically or cognitively). His name is Lee Brown and many of you that follow this know him. He's been ministering to disabled campers for what has to be over 30 years during HIS week at Camp Barakel. I couldn't help but think of him knowing that HIS week is starting tomorrow (Tuesday). <br />
<br />I've written far more than I meant and yet it doesn't cover a tenth of our activities and the work that God did over the last week. I'm very thankful to God for the opportunity, for Adela being at my side through it, and for a mission team made up of Godly people that are willing to give up themselves for the work of the Kingdome of Heaven.<br />
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Here are two final thoughts:<br />
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1) I'm thinking about HIS Week at Camp Barakel and the many campers that will get an exciting break fro their normal routines. I'm praying that God will work in their lives along with the parents (and workers) that get a much needed rest during this week of camp.<br />
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2) I'm also thinking of Ferley, an almost 12 year old boy at CRAN who needs a home. He's special in God's eyes, and I'm not just saying that, I know it. I've seen him stop bullying on the rough playgrounds of an orphanage, I've seen his athletic stride as he sprints up and down the hills (elevation 8000 ft), and I've seen him sit and listen to the word of God spoken through our team. <br />
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There is not a doubt in my mind that someone who reads this blog knows someone that could adopt a 12 year old boy that they would bless, and then they in turn would be blessed by him. I wouldn't say that any adoption is easy, yet I've seen so many adoptions come through to the point where the family has more benefit from the adoption than the child. <br />
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Please consider sharing about Ferley. It's an opportunity to REALLY advocate for a REAL person instead of just talking about it all the time. Help find him a Christian home and Bethany Services (along with Project Hope) will help every step along the way. <br />
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<a href="http://project-hope-ministries.org/contact/">http://project-hope-ministries.org/contact/</a>Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-17942144412401800422013-07-23T19:55:00.002-07:002013-07-24T19:03:57.282-07:00Ultimate Tourney in Traverse City<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This weekend was one that I've been licking my chops at for some time. But first, I'll discuss the week. Another normal week in general. Softball was cancelled because of some scattered thundershowers. Disappointing, but not all that unpredictable. </div>
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On Tuesday I surprised Adela by stopping by in Holland. We didn't do anything too exciting, but it's always good to see her. Then on Wednesday we had to switch out of our normal volleyball courts because the apartments had some locals playing at their court. It was still fun, although I was the only guy there and the proceedings were a little more silly than I prefer. </div>
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Then on Thursday I got the special treat of Adela coming by to visit Battle Creek. It was great! She borrowed a friends car and rolled into town. She thought the youth group was going tubing, but it turned out another scattered thunder shower wiped that out. It worked out well though, because we went to Willard beach and the water was HOT. I'm so used to Shear Lake that it was nice to get in some warm water. </div>
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Now for the weekend! It was the Great Lakes Greatest ultimate Frisbee tournament in Traverse City. I was excited cause I've missed a lot of tournaments to be at camp the last three years and I've never been to Traverse City.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The warm weather was cooling off and rainclouds were the order of the day.</td></tr>
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The tournament was run better than many I've been at over the years. There were only 6 teams and the competition was under par (2 solid teams out of 6). But to spite that, everyone had a great attitude and was there to have fun. Our team became "Discs on a Plane" and we had about 3 teams worth of top lines. <br />
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One thing that impressed me about our team (and the others) was the ladies. They were by far the best ladies I've ever played with. They gave our team a huge edge. With the skill level of our team and the amount of players (14 guys and 6-7 girls) I didn't play a whole ton of points. I usually am in and out 2 points on, 2 points off (or more sometimes). This week I was more of 2 points on, then 3-5 points off. It left me with a lot more energy afterwards, and I wish I had left more on the field.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwGI8_3hIxiwKHZ4KA9BcnptKu9vrS98o3pt6eGipiwxDyqEMuF09whIG-tZpft_PQkV40sfhWfVoM-mYgHl8lPdHOnCW0cFlRD2wCu5e0TVEYAdmER_hezIXeagxAbduE7FgCme33WCvx/s1600/IMG_0839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwGI8_3hIxiwKHZ4KA9BcnptKu9vrS98o3pt6eGipiwxDyqEMuF09whIG-tZpft_PQkV40sfhWfVoM-mYgHl8lPdHOnCW0cFlRD2wCu5e0TVEYAdmER_hezIXeagxAbduE7FgCme33WCvx/s400/IMG_0839.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every good tournament ends up with a new mini game. Like Wiffle Tent here.</td></tr>
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I played well in the tournament. Even though I wasn't in as much I played solid with a good mix of good throws and bonehead throws. More importantly the team played great. The championship game was close, but our wave after wave of skilled players was hard to deal with and we won the whole thing undefeated. <br />
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A tournament of firsts for me. First I stayed at the whole time to the finish. First that I was part of the winning team. And the first Summer tourney since leaving for camp. I really enjoyed it, but it was a little eye opening that I've been outside of the Ultimate community for a while. And I'm out of shape!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigH4NrQvunCRQoy75xYFOtwkSh2kmgU8OpVmvPKNY5qeXCVGxBZLogIdTND4lB7Hcz3Z_Pf-IC1wLfrn0TV-ApqZh8HjUCKjnyjsT9aBpPQGO13mRMIuxS1VXGzbUixeCtlkZXrtKzpC1/s1600/IMG_0844.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigH4NrQvunCRQoy75xYFOtwkSh2kmgU8OpVmvPKNY5qeXCVGxBZLogIdTND4lB7Hcz3Z_Pf-IC1wLfrn0TV-ApqZh8HjUCKjnyjsT9aBpPQGO13mRMIuxS1VXGzbUixeCtlkZXrtKzpC1/s400/IMG_0844.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a shot of the bay with the random boat anchored just out of the swimming area.</td></tr>
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As for Traverse City... I wasn't impressed. I'd certainly visit again! But it had some issues, maybe the biggest one being overhype! Here are my three complaints:<br />
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1) The Bay: It faces North! I love Lake Michigan for the sunsets. Now it wasn't terrible or something, but it was disappointing. I did enjoy the beach and I imagine there are fantastic overlooks and points all the way around it.<br />
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2) The Spread: It was about 15 minutes to get anywhere we were going. Campsite to fields: 15 minutes. Fields to town: 15 minutes. Town to Campsite: 20 minutes. And not city minutes. Like... country highway minutes. I felt like I was in Fairview again! <br />
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3) The Ritz: Traverse City wishes it was Grand Rapids. I like South Haven and Ludington cause there is much more of a walkable feel to it. There is some of it in Traverse City, but I feel like if I was walking I'd be wondering what I was missing. South Haven I can go wherever I want on foot and I can cover everything I want to do at the beach. It's a classic beach town... on steroids!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FE_CnCpK1v-V3hVumj-wdpJfC2XDrH_IqjHW0frv-9sNOc4gAQgc8sr_b8z-TvG5o2xzXBzJLm5RRKRByrpqKikB_aBgG4YfKGbUxFWUhoE4jVjoXDEa2ITTUtLnTp083P0uRj3y15T8/s1600/IMG_0845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FE_CnCpK1v-V3hVumj-wdpJfC2XDrH_IqjHW0frv-9sNOc4gAQgc8sr_b8z-TvG5o2xzXBzJLm5RRKRByrpqKikB_aBgG4YfKGbUxFWUhoE4jVjoXDEa2ITTUtLnTp083P0uRj3y15T8/s400/IMG_0845.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's where the sun sets here.</td></tr>
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Overall it was really fun though. Like I said, I'd go back again for a tourney or a road trip. I think I would still prefer my other locations on the West coast. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVqTMl1J2PS4DJyn9UIK07ADwbnWpna5tZTL9hoVnH3vP79p_B5JZuUKrp7cGv0SZ69Ta2nIlDrpcYOszqchLbZUFHI9bj3MxDaLwx_D_ptxcC-RBv4qYmrFB7YqcJkfnA7-2mVkwEq-Hn/s1600/IMG_0847.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVqTMl1J2PS4DJyn9UIK07ADwbnWpna5tZTL9hoVnH3vP79p_B5JZuUKrp7cGv0SZ69Ta2nIlDrpcYOszqchLbZUFHI9bj3MxDaLwx_D_ptxcC-RBv4qYmrFB7YqcJkfnA7-2mVkwEq-Hn/s400/IMG_0847.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's my new tent on the far right! The field was a little pokie, but it was a good camping experience.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVvEslrc9Jl2UKDbYEHeSPpvPFK3LO044uwUHsc96HKniv2yqCbbEBNEDfuWP0NCGXEs4b1NayGBnc6sczF6E2IsypUXfo5ObHNxozZROtFIiwKRiUWmiGOyjFpxeYmY_ysZTEjOoJyaK/s1600/IMG_0852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVvEslrc9Jl2UKDbYEHeSPpvPFK3LO044uwUHsc96HKniv2yqCbbEBNEDfuWP0NCGXEs4b1NayGBnc6sczF6E2IsypUXfo5ObHNxozZROtFIiwKRiUWmiGOyjFpxeYmY_ysZTEjOoJyaK/s400/IMG_0852.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discs on a plane!</td></tr>
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A good, safe trip. Thank God for that! And for great weather! And everything!<br />
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If you're wondering... I do miss Camp. I'm having a blast this Summer, but I'd much rather be digging dirt with Mike Baker or hosting a counselor snack on the West side. <br />
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By the way. I'm struggling to finish blogging on Sundays. So look for it Tuesdays. That might be my new night for a while. We'll see though. Adios!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-12977844418765760652013-07-15T14:20:00.000-07:002013-07-15T14:20:10.678-07:00The Heat is On!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here we are. Another week of Summer is gone! And now I'm realizing that the rest of the Summer weekends are planned out. Crazy. </div>
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This week we had a lot of church events, which was great. So here are the pictures... a lot of them with kids from the youth group.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5h-NjvOiWztS1nCx50IwthDGmM5AaWaekQW0zMV6vOPn8eN3BgI5yr6YxWdSleK3egk4gzEL1wtGNYGZxDlVLegWuKsAyge0kOSrkMkNRq_esWG8dBzHUFr4VXPFNX0zI5gV9Y1iiX0kf/s1600/IMG_0770.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5h-NjvOiWztS1nCx50IwthDGmM5AaWaekQW0zMV6vOPn8eN3BgI5yr6YxWdSleK3egk4gzEL1wtGNYGZxDlVLegWuKsAyge0kOSrkMkNRq_esWG8dBzHUFr4VXPFNX0zI5gV9Y1iiX0kf/s400/IMG_0770.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Craft Night at the Church. We had several stations, each with unique crafts that will be given to the kids at the CRAN orphanage when Project Hope sends a group down in August.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw03_ZXvw2aIuVeBGEKZFa8WYBUBF0g_U7ZxOgP5Kej2k1g6_sKU9_A5IZgsnFN8SWmGWizy5C6q45Go6f15RnrlfvDv79Ko8g6b6o7SBlVJJuGVawcBANPcgPInYCSQufiolhLzBYNAHa/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw03_ZXvw2aIuVeBGEKZFa8WYBUBF0g_U7ZxOgP5Kej2k1g6_sKU9_A5IZgsnFN8SWmGWizy5C6q45Go6f15RnrlfvDv79Ko8g6b6o7SBlVJJuGVawcBANPcgPInYCSQufiolhLzBYNAHa/s400/IMG_0768.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My group worked on little hair accessories. I had a lot of fun crafting!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmSf8fjj6Ru5NkhFNXet9dbam5dSTcI23iY58ujZdfVHbGTMUqSS8a2B1ThQLAI-L6VM5MO-JgfgVtkFwYzmRwNoUjT0MuQaAEfWReo9g3gRlihJvcA6pUjTpXx0EA77RET7EIc2qLDyeN/s1600/IMG_0774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmSf8fjj6Ru5NkhFNXet9dbam5dSTcI23iY58ujZdfVHbGTMUqSS8a2B1ThQLAI-L6VM5MO-JgfgVtkFwYzmRwNoUjT0MuQaAEfWReo9g3gRlihJvcA6pUjTpXx0EA77RET7EIc2qLDyeN/s400/IMG_0774.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Thursday the Youth Group went to a public beach at Gull Lake.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkS7n_V4WB6gvmYnr2XSKYHI8tYMco58c-vxI1OXcy1XOxpyLWgwr_PhLl_QRWypVpazvnAKjhIV3VI2YUxNLW7x0cyKeOak4sKRco15bQ35tBRpDKn1refBMbZBhUJzDgs9KT23h4nD5/s1600/IMG_0777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkS7n_V4WB6gvmYnr2XSKYHI8tYMco58c-vxI1OXcy1XOxpyLWgwr_PhLl_QRWypVpazvnAKjhIV3VI2YUxNLW7x0cyKeOak4sKRco15bQ35tBRpDKn1refBMbZBhUJzDgs9KT23h4nD5/s400/IMG_0777.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first event was hitting each other with noodles.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuADADqSlxLKKi0WvWTeFCXfO_8_BKYZuQo_elRdJXfklo2oWFIxeM322DIJV32rfsr17OIfzZUPm627rJfONUDefiTZqNF6_7Iu4DwF3tcpCl5XQ_GgZcrotIQAZ2HMm3Ujh9ugvkR1W7/s1600/IMG_0784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuADADqSlxLKKi0WvWTeFCXfO_8_BKYZuQo_elRdJXfklo2oWFIxeM322DIJV32rfsr17OIfzZUPm627rJfONUDefiTZqNF6_7Iu4DwF3tcpCl5XQ_GgZcrotIQAZ2HMm3Ujh9ugvkR1W7/s400/IMG_0784.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then there was bocce ball all over the park.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD7FxwyLSrTbN-TqleAAQBvhDCzhZHS_6Cl6Y_me2CdTQM_bZV6pD1vysJJEa6X-wWXxIVtxx5d1xe4fy1Qf0VPIFqUWhcFr-scNcIAmPtzKHVR7ckoPrffp7HfDCEi8n5JTkk-7d-b9MY/s1600/IMG_0791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD7FxwyLSrTbN-TqleAAQBvhDCzhZHS_6Cl6Y_me2CdTQM_bZV6pD1vysJJEa6X-wWXxIVtxx5d1xe4fy1Qf0VPIFqUWhcFr-scNcIAmPtzKHVR7ckoPrffp7HfDCEi8n5JTkk-7d-b9MY/s400/IMG_0791.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tim just bought a boat that the kids enjoyed.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeZnate7OcqTA8gKR1-a6XlEuQScZdWogpWSIkwwjxLBDvsIxdschZG_DQP9ZWV3NJncvkNdT1ggTXsVAOUlbvsJJOZ-PlKeC-TvxICdxeuLYLpi-cQ_LO5-vzjhZQtHQL0arAH8jDQUr/s1600/IMG_0807.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeZnate7OcqTA8gKR1-a6XlEuQScZdWogpWSIkwwjxLBDvsIxdschZG_DQP9ZWV3NJncvkNdT1ggTXsVAOUlbvsJJOZ-PlKeC-TvxICdxeuLYLpi-cQ_LO5-vzjhZQtHQL0arAH8jDQUr/s400/IMG_0807.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Venue change here. Now we're in South Haven on Sunday. Catching some sun while staying cool.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiBPegKkiijZq0HLo9zKT-OMFXn11SOwJz8FM8o_FesaIelByklD5v9h-54R_XB4FEGeShBA2i5yX9lWR12s9SrOGJ85ZFqkEzJ6zI5ZNUD-ocYtvW6XzwQSU81G4JMQDebRzV7H8NKbQ4/s1600/IMG_0812.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiBPegKkiijZq0HLo9zKT-OMFXn11SOwJz8FM8o_FesaIelByklD5v9h-54R_XB4FEGeShBA2i5yX9lWR12s9SrOGJ85ZFqkEzJ6zI5ZNUD-ocYtvW6XzwQSU81G4JMQDebRzV7H8NKbQ4/s400/IMG_0812.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jordan has good form when throwing that football. </td></tr>
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We seem to have a connection with South Haven. Tim likes it and so does a decent group of us. Driving an hour is worth the relaxation and fun of the beach. I discovered that floating along on Tim's boat is super relaxing. <br />
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We had some bad neighbors on the beach, and I was explaining to the Colombians (Tim's newly adopted kids) that when you drink a lot you go crazy and un around like these people were. All in Spanish of course. Broken Spanish that is. So then the police came, so I explained that part of it as well. If you're too crazy the police will come.<br />
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Now it's back to work. Some weekends I feel I pack a week into 2 days which is great. But then I get that feeling I'm just getting off a week of vacation on Sunday night. But that's ok. I enjoy my work.<br />
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Stay cool this week! It's stinking hot!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-90700542785047085682013-07-08T04:27:00.002-07:002013-07-08T04:27:40.181-07:00Tents and Tents and Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Just captions today as I try to catch up before work:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL_N7a7gsLF02a-opk01salkY-m-OmbM0yzyIdtjflEkou4E6rb91ANQUKcCyzYsm87dVypMpYyN6BN7rW30LRDG720E30fm0uRGjWcxF-OtTEV8zC0p1IQbwXZhC1R2PDp3ykdWdsElQ/s1600/1+Softball.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL_N7a7gsLF02a-opk01salkY-m-OmbM0yzyIdtjflEkou4E6rb91ANQUKcCyzYsm87dVypMpYyN6BN7rW30LRDG720E30fm0uRGjWcxF-OtTEV8zC0p1IQbwXZhC1R2PDp3ykdWdsElQ/s400/1+Softball.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Softball is going well. We're 2-2 and that somehow puts us right in the mix to lead the league. Apparently everyone is having trouble keeping a winning record. I'm not a "skill player" so I'm enjoying improving my game everyday.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxREJCQ811ZyqyQIgNSG2rR1Pt9ned_zqq2gtVGVo2B9AOWu-kzv30e4q57YJ3BJGmWG2hlsNiFhpfV7q2S6QAQTsWDrRjaYNMRbj4EdE1xJPnmrLHqfQH-jETtT7C8AXC98WXUHEpxkkE/s1600/2+New+Tent.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxREJCQ811ZyqyQIgNSG2rR1Pt9ned_zqq2gtVGVo2B9AOWu-kzv30e4q57YJ3BJGmWG2hlsNiFhpfV7q2S6QAQTsWDrRjaYNMRbj4EdE1xJPnmrLHqfQH-jETtT7C8AXC98WXUHEpxkkE/s400/2+New+Tent.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Got a tent in the mail last week. Looking forward to using it. Even more so when my sleeping pad shows up. Without a pad I wake up with a crooked back for the rest of the day and I'm still tired the whole day.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0UR-XTCzAdxtaObvazE7k58vkWf82OjTtgKynuY5G9bUVuhkRBtEjPajuEsDKSGkbWBbT60EvZ4Af7ZApOOMgHxVY12E-HJ4N7L4lZEPr7Puy0z2QvfG5EFwMh9lhaorDS1nyV1CwIIW/s1600/3+Fireworks+Tent.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0UR-XTCzAdxtaObvazE7k58vkWf82OjTtgKynuY5G9bUVuhkRBtEjPajuEsDKSGkbWBbT60EvZ4Af7ZApOOMgHxVY12E-HJ4N7L4lZEPr7Puy0z2QvfG5EFwMh9lhaorDS1nyV1CwIIW/s400/3+Fireworks+Tent.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fireworks tent is a big fundraising opportunity for my youth group. Our youth pastor basically lives there and it's fun to go hang out with him and help with the sales and organization. This year they almost sold out and shut down early.</td></tr>
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That week saw Adela visit for her birthday and it was a fun weekend!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQG1tYpwB9m5kw39WTZFRZzUKdOEtGkESbdTmT5d1OfdXp_EF4KBwrNjMiWr3E9mF4ekyS-pOcPn-dXKr-uezactuxrnQjGzDrvVLGziIp8-rRHQDa-9d5G-RdfEKfuKWXJ9kqNtgNWTq-/s1600/4+Bearskin+Rug.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQG1tYpwB9m5kw39WTZFRZzUKdOEtGkESbdTmT5d1OfdXp_EF4KBwrNjMiWr3E9mF4ekyS-pOcPn-dXKr-uezactuxrnQjGzDrvVLGziIp8-rRHQDa-9d5G-RdfEKfuKWXJ9kqNtgNWTq-/s400/4+Bearskin+Rug.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bearskin rug on Thursday morning on the West Side! I jumped up to camp since we had a 4 day weekend at work. They needed lifeguards, so I was able to fill a gap while also catching up to my friends and relaxing a bit.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBuo8PkKILPcF-PMyoyOR5HG5VQWf3gPqWpmmk6dr5FcSWfq9ZetojJDsruW3UMBqLpQbw_CB9V7P-LIR2Rl295Ow8Q1IJGeZmE0UwHoHItGH8eUvVzNN1Ax9UeVoUxjIYFBL69JLKgA-/s1600/5+New+Building.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaBuo8PkKILPcF-PMyoyOR5HG5VQWf3gPqWpmmk6dr5FcSWfq9ZetojJDsruW3UMBqLpQbw_CB9V7P-LIR2Rl295Ow8Q1IJGeZmE0UwHoHItGH8eUvVzNN1Ax9UeVoUxjIYFBL69JLKgA-/s400/5+New+Building.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the start of the new seasonal staff house. Looking forward to see it take shape although I also want to work on it!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6kK4wQ6QmOFRiHvOSVaBidZabxjPqphtK6AGrlsp1kX_PALh5jKwc8zgFHH7uzGXyRa45Kne1_IR5VcUBbWelaOPtZKQRrzIs6P9lMeRRG8S38NSmmwm-ChWfnzP4lXq0FTCnj9wTaP5/s1600/6+Watermelon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW6kK4wQ6QmOFRiHvOSVaBidZabxjPqphtK6AGrlsp1kX_PALh5jKwc8zgFHH7uzGXyRa45Kne1_IR5VcUBbWelaOPtZKQRrzIs6P9lMeRRG8S38NSmmwm-ChWfnzP4lXq0FTCnj9wTaP5/s400/6+Watermelon.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I offered to guard for the STEP program on Friday night. Good thing cause they didn't know how to play watermelon football (obviously from this picture). It turned out to be a lot of fun and I think everyone was involved.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YzBED5Rm3PZ45shWq3dfGrcvniI3vkVmCCw8Sw-1Q58I1HJYmlXrext284qhrlrInewJh4xUwxu3jcACBx0PlMJhap5A7nT3CP2HrQ0m7gO-uvk427RUoTPhORv0L29GjmShRdNaceIf/s1600/7+Water+Frisbee+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YzBED5Rm3PZ45shWq3dfGrcvniI3vkVmCCw8Sw-1Q58I1HJYmlXrext284qhrlrInewJh4xUwxu3jcACBx0PlMJhap5A7nT3CP2HrQ0m7gO-uvk427RUoTPhORv0L29GjmShRdNaceIf/s400/7+Water+Frisbee+1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben Calhoun catching a disc. He had some good catches.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58aqW97Ua9a6c6dr5i8ifzh0zHFYDduDnymyo-_HuLK7dAs_ZbtoKmz4zrZR5Wh-_DwIEFa0iwfu7GOEim5xee1poQf855hm3Bc_iBRRtmQQ_9pzYx_SmRfrGfmKctwDMp04O4zdePRhl/s1600/8+Water+Frisbee+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58aqW97Ua9a6c6dr5i8ifzh0zHFYDduDnymyo-_HuLK7dAs_ZbtoKmz4zrZR5Wh-_DwIEFa0iwfu7GOEim5xee1poQf855hm3Bc_iBRRtmQQ_9pzYx_SmRfrGfmKctwDMp04O4zdePRhl/s400/8+Water+Frisbee+2.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And his friend. Nathan Dufrin maybe? His catch looked more epic... but he couldn't quite actually catch it.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6cSNqdnwkZByv7ui866heUnFTUvBljykoNV8tIsQoLyl-RlXd_M3dgPKKpcKUAJ1rt7G-3btII0BA6I5_erjVvx1mYGTA5u0Aw5ycNZI-BUyYCErciT91WBtgKQcnmfQasTQ36Qa3S6s/s1600/9+Water+Ambush.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6cSNqdnwkZByv7ui866heUnFTUvBljykoNV8tIsQoLyl-RlXd_M3dgPKKpcKUAJ1rt7G-3btII0BA6I5_erjVvx1mYGTA5u0Aw5ycNZI-BUyYCErciT91WBtgKQcnmfQasTQ36Qa3S6s/s400/9+Water+Ambush.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guarding for the water ambush. It was a mess. But it's neat to see all the campers gathered in one spot before the start.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9bRMku_jwBfLS_YbS4VjqnIELbMUHVy-VwNpgLzuyQ1PgQ_Izoty89hh9S_gtICf23N7e4arhNp2dr_8edT1vabPiREaQmyaSCK4UYQEBqHRYpUkXfWfXnajUNxPQOmi4n-FFalaMl1jh/s1600/10+Hannah+Rowing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9bRMku_jwBfLS_YbS4VjqnIELbMUHVy-VwNpgLzuyQ1PgQ_Izoty89hh9S_gtICf23N7e4arhNp2dr_8edT1vabPiREaQmyaSCK4UYQEBqHRYpUkXfWfXnajUNxPQOmi4n-FFalaMl1jh/s400/10+Hannah+Rowing.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And finally a funny picture. Cody Witzgall is in the back of the rowboat. He was rowing but he couldn't keep a straight line so Hannah Ford had to replace him. Funny to watch this beastly kid get replaced by a much smaller girl. And she did great!</td></tr>
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That's it! Gotta run!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-85383591556283365132013-06-23T19:54:00.000-07:002013-06-23T19:54:33.007-07:00Going to Grandpa's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This was another Summer week that kind of goes into the blend. Along with a weekend that was very different. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhxjZzAeL3H7OVoNQ2OnxIKSU3lTmUER39Teh37LiP11W2DgeY3GvWGbAxq-3WZluU0FOJzKvH8SzZhjqJSs3aCBwU4JXsBOfBCXIG1XbOYRePiQUitQbFY4WSNgEhlYwv4JWuRhYDosh/s1600/6-17-13+Bombers+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhxjZzAeL3H7OVoNQ2OnxIKSU3lTmUER39Teh37LiP11W2DgeY3GvWGbAxq-3WZluU0FOJzKvH8SzZhjqJSs3aCBwU4JXsBOfBCXIG1XbOYRePiQUitQbFY4WSNgEhlYwv4JWuRhYDosh/s400/6-17-13+Bombers+(2).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Softball was cancelled Monday, but it just gave me more time at the Bombers with Mike and Randy.</td></tr>
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Softball Tuesday was the normal. We provided about half their team and they went on to thrash us. Still fun to get out and about. Then Wednesday I played Soccer with the Chin Youth Team before joining with Grant Penrod for some Tennis at KCC.</div>
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Thursday night was an odd one because Ultimate Frisbee switched from the usual awful field to KCC's extra field. Turns out some other folks play there. Some of them knew the details of Ultimate, but that doesn't mix well with our folks so much. Either way, we all played together and it went all right. Future weeks I think we'll split off to Wednesday nights though.</div>
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Friday I rode my bike into work. Terrible idea. It took about 25 minutes cause I have to avoid the Dickman on my bike. By the time I got there I was a hot mess, and had to clean up a fair amount. I won't do it in the future cause it's not worth having to change and dealing with randomly SUPER hot days against rainy days and etc. </div>
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This particular time on the way home I saw the remains of the motorcycle that was wrecked Friday afternoon. All that was left of the bike was the middle third. Some of it burned but I imagine most of it was knocked off by the force of the impact. The car looked like a truck hit it. Pretty awful and pretty evident that the rider didn't make it.</div>
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But... the world keeps spinning.</div>
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Friday night I spent with Dad out at Grandpa's old house. I got to see his bees and then go for a motorcycle ride after changing my oil.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-znO7NuichyzxLpW_balA4pNLTuYW1Zq1KA2PMsGWu1Le5MLpy33P-3foQpqqYz3jSPkMbfPkqeikkT95dODJkJgRRnZv-TCf4FQc8-5mL4o5nDIiGt1Sqb7gxuxnoalrPsZln0wVQcgC/s1600/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-znO7NuichyzxLpW_balA4pNLTuYW1Zq1KA2PMsGWu1Le5MLpy33P-3foQpqqYz3jSPkMbfPkqeikkT95dODJkJgRRnZv-TCf4FQc8-5mL4o5nDIiGt1Sqb7gxuxnoalrPsZln0wVQcgC/s400/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(4).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad is in their flight path, kind of getting low and out of the way.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBirN8CdN7J1uZbjjFQzwbCC7ROvBsyQ1PIPWB_ttRoNS5zXrvioNwui_EO2lvqVqeCa4xJ5iPOCCbL1q8lOTbDJ3R2PC8W9OFvYZXO3fJPzjpD5sAm_9zH2BwKdn-xHkQgSK1gKFiYT16/s1600/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(8).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBirN8CdN7J1uZbjjFQzwbCC7ROvBsyQ1PIPWB_ttRoNS5zXrvioNwui_EO2lvqVqeCa4xJ5iPOCCbL1q8lOTbDJ3R2PC8W9OFvYZXO3fJPzjpD5sAm_9zH2BwKdn-xHkQgSK1gKFiYT16/s400/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(8).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flying one is blurry, but you can see he's carrying pollen in his little pollen sack on the back.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUWWNOJmG3agpvlrJ84Ufd27bO1yVx6mVd7gwVJKPMkbVdDXvwSlUtRfklLoheQ0cctgx1G0HUjpp5PZL3RNzOYvlN8vhu8fNiV4urXShE97HcR2i-kXulf2f0vR6VoHci4cs2XIsesTu/s1600/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(12).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUWWNOJmG3agpvlrJ84Ufd27bO1yVx6mVd7gwVJKPMkbVdDXvwSlUtRfklLoheQ0cctgx1G0HUjpp5PZL3RNzOYvlN8vhu8fNiV4urXShE97HcR2i-kXulf2f0vR6VoHci4cs2XIsesTu/s400/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(12).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He has about 5 combs started. I think it'll be neat to see the results in the coming months.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum9_fMuId40emm8_E5oh_XvX8j8OdfAiHHrL4JD8ms_W1f9fh1fXpPEiku90yQ5bXRMxupBx_Z3dcvi7T8LkW_m-4WJ6_5r68HjOPiO0oaXRIh7p1Nkuo-Fu-FKYO380v1CVxjPrazm4y/s1600/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(19).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum9_fMuId40emm8_E5oh_XvX8j8OdfAiHHrL4JD8ms_W1f9fh1fXpPEiku90yQ5bXRMxupBx_Z3dcvi7T8LkW_m-4WJ6_5r68HjOPiO0oaXRIh7p1Nkuo-Fu-FKYO380v1CVxjPrazm4y/s400/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(19).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going into light speed. It was a chilly dusk ride.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNppoDp9sXX6urt9BeRDzhkG9dFjaBa3n0ZgxXxDjyA0NHzm_FxzEGjIfFiZWd6lMQsZ8NxeRwtZVvWJV6fWs6lpQZosE16s4IGHzkzOBnL4PpRUCgP9RyLrQTjt8jOjzsLfeN6lTHNzly/s1600/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(25).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNppoDp9sXX6urt9BeRDzhkG9dFjaBa3n0ZgxXxDjyA0NHzm_FxzEGjIfFiZWd6lMQsZ8NxeRwtZVvWJV6fWs6lpQZosE16s4IGHzkzOBnL4PpRUCgP9RyLrQTjt8jOjzsLfeN6lTHNzly/s400/6-21-13+Bees+and+Bike+(25).JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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He has the microphone system that is pretty fun to play with.</div>
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Saturday I played disc golf and shot a personal best of +1 there. Now anything over that will be disappointing. But that's ok. I had the pleasure of doing that with the Moody's and then we watched the movie Flight. Not so much the redemption story I was looking for, but also not awful. Definitely rated R for a reason. </div>
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And finally Sunday I went tubing with some of the Youth Group and the Wygants. I haven't been real tubing for years and it was fun to go again. I saved a couple rollovers by pulling myself back on, but also biffed a couple of times. At least my pants stayed on the whole time.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7debtYph_TNRaiMgBnHi1vTvpYFOamTpU9ah5s-ifLeLjkENusMjaq_HupbyCfILWZ12tBGHgM6t9VG-NcbG0QEYNJLZ0gi18cQt8EgMvxDkga0T-Yfv8US9khimNgoKTVeA4awBi6e2/s1600/6-23-13+Summer+Tubing+(17).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7debtYph_TNRaiMgBnHi1vTvpYFOamTpU9ah5s-ifLeLjkENusMjaq_HupbyCfILWZ12tBGHgM6t9VG-NcbG0QEYNJLZ0gi18cQt8EgMvxDkga0T-Yfv8US9khimNgoKTVeA4awBi6e2/s400/6-23-13+Summer+Tubing+(17).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The girls had a lot of fun together and a lot of crashes too.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVLf2Rc4KHPvfhNTBSNeY1jl-LOV5FnqNdDZPTLEwoMjcMhWUQA33UzQe7O3YTq2XWuX2zhcOaFp2d2oOrvTiLk6GumNY9Pi5LmYy9HpzLtIR_jscrunwLD4K6gdCYyvIyQ2MQJcbuKX-r/s1600/6-23-13+Summer+Tubing+(34).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVLf2Rc4KHPvfhNTBSNeY1jl-LOV5FnqNdDZPTLEwoMjcMhWUQA33UzQe7O3YTq2XWuX2zhcOaFp2d2oOrvTiLk6GumNY9Pi5LmYy9HpzLtIR_jscrunwLD4K6gdCYyvIyQ2MQJcbuKX-r/s400/6-23-13+Summer+Tubing+(34).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite part nowadays is falling asleep on the front of the boat. Except when Tim stops fast and drenches me.</td></tr>
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So another week is in the books. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm hired into Denso. Waiting for the official dealio in July, but I've signed on to continue in my Packaging Engineering role. It's fun to see how these 6 months away from camp have gone. Still missing it though.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-13344982492968507182013-06-17T20:22:00.000-07:002013-06-17T20:22:17.919-07:00Outdoor Activities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This was a banner week around here. Steve and Jen Knapp were up from Florida for the week, so I got to see them twice. Once in Caledonia for a game night, and then once at the Riegel's to grill out and hang out. I have pictures of this... but on the other computer that struggles with blogger. But it's on Facebook for sure!</div>
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After that fun I got to see Adela for the rest of the weekend (I picked her up on Thursday right after work). On Saturday, Mom thought it would be fun to head to the zoo! And it was. Here are some pictures. I have many more Facebook.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNU_27LZbhxVBJFBvjA3C5hAD1C9FEs1s8t3imor9AgWUp82ixoDGCj_wgyHXEYitgsxxwNyq_nVKx_grFfVXOXPL8cR3_3FzKaNlTie4QTZVGkaqaHHwjNE_XrmXlsr4iRlhxhXobnUeE/s1600/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(22).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNU_27LZbhxVBJFBvjA3C5hAD1C9FEs1s8t3imor9AgWUp82ixoDGCj_wgyHXEYitgsxxwNyq_nVKx_grFfVXOXPL8cR3_3FzKaNlTie4QTZVGkaqaHHwjNE_XrmXlsr4iRlhxhXobnUeE/s400/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(22).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That goat could eat like... 5 pods in one lick.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36gWIAm7O4HEl4t5Ej28C9Xrq0JKqvLj6TtdlexiNwQU1Xmuw64F97v-IVdvUeBv5wwExfSMoPV_uFDENeRbzNXmmaWcGuFWWT7BkF1blswTVMCUtlUcgP5rW_77WPwHkoP_jHY2MT2f1/s1600/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(36).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36gWIAm7O4HEl4t5Ej28C9Xrq0JKqvLj6TtdlexiNwQU1Xmuw64F97v-IVdvUeBv5wwExfSMoPV_uFDENeRbzNXmmaWcGuFWWT7BkF1blswTVMCUtlUcgP5rW_77WPwHkoP_jHY2MT2f1/s400/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(36).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A peacock. Mom got calling to one of them. Like son, like mother?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyftJ600z_s_IYfnfNSrasE68dH07i83ZluNTSEh4z3qzROR1RReUm_dnQJAFd_KCoYADIqmYh7O4lHqmEKVLfxf1jkxG-TqycnjDChboCn0syE0AlOoEXVG-OasAgHImGOamIVnocC7IR/s1600/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(24).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyftJ600z_s_IYfnfNSrasE68dH07i83ZluNTSEh4z3qzROR1RReUm_dnQJAFd_KCoYADIqmYh7O4lHqmEKVLfxf1jkxG-TqycnjDChboCn0syE0AlOoEXVG-OasAgHImGOamIVnocC7IR/s400/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(24).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My turn to feed. I was so busy taking the picture that I didn't even see him eat this.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDRVm5bFfMvdc5vZ6tZvij-T3pYn99bFP6f3QXTAXhFwUftoqyALNwoeQUIgzshE4blzQmiDKCBSL4TUWE3VQQkYE9fC9TZgqwG2wxwPNLGXiR6STrmEvycpTPvLgfAfincvgjUY8pTx1/s1600/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(77).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDRVm5bFfMvdc5vZ6tZvij-T3pYn99bFP6f3QXTAXhFwUftoqyALNwoeQUIgzshE4blzQmiDKCBSL4TUWE3VQQkYE9fC9TZgqwG2wxwPNLGXiR6STrmEvycpTPvLgfAfincvgjUY8pTx1/s400/13-6-15+BP+Zoo+(77).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gotta love the giraffe's. Well worth a dollar to feed them!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyuQ-nYv_W0w5_VCIJrsXIzTqooBWKETQ9B-nFplNEpcGcZu8_AudKsydhdtzSGfQEWj1WL3rg3OALYnX94U5MtEC_Ldy53qRvRCZo2EfR7urN-z0FnRCdIjrnHN5g7o0XN9WqQCsLkLfS/s1600/13-6-15+(111).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyuQ-nYv_W0w5_VCIJrsXIzTqooBWKETQ9B-nFplNEpcGcZu8_AudKsydhdtzSGfQEWj1WL3rg3OALYnX94U5MtEC_Ldy53qRvRCZo2EfR7urN-z0FnRCdIjrnHN5g7o0XN9WqQCsLkLfS/s400/13-6-15+(111).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the fountain at the Arboretum. I've been in there, but just for frisbees.</td></tr>
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On Sunday we went to church, where power was out. It was fun to have just hymns and a more quiet service. Nice to know that church isn't dependent on the power grid. And afterwards we went to South Haven! <br />
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I love South Haven but haven't been able to go because of camp the last three Summers. So we packed kids in the cars and took off. (Again, most of the pictures are on Facebook). I was excited cause they finally updated their parking lot to a debit card paying system. No more guessing if they're ticketing or guessing if someone already paid for your spot earlier in the day. Just go and pay and no problem. They even have parking attendants with iPads that can actively check on every spot.<br />
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We all played a little of everything, walked the pier, and even snuck in a bit of a nap before driving home with some Yummy Taco Bell in our bellies. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictFaKQAQRbyehxLtNR-DKwvkky_Aqf51Hef7yMZuSEPsjd9bhdSqiw8QtJlasedeKiWxsU_IBZao9mbt-surzoh1AGMWEewJSsQOV-u3-vtmEAPCgXHFwNYDIwA2JWDdkulII8HXWHH3i/s1600/13-6-16+Beach+Day+Fun+(28).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictFaKQAQRbyehxLtNR-DKwvkky_Aqf51Hef7yMZuSEPsjd9bhdSqiw8QtJlasedeKiWxsU_IBZao9mbt-surzoh1AGMWEewJSsQOV-u3-vtmEAPCgXHFwNYDIwA2JWDdkulII8HXWHH3i/s640/13-6-16+Beach+Day+Fun+(28).JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant picture of this ship at South Haven. The distance made it look all foggy. </td></tr>
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And that's all I have to say about that....<br />
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Just kidding. I'm also having fun with sports. Had a good Softball game Monday night. I'm so excited to run the bases again. I've missed that part of it. And only 7 or so games left in that league. Tuesday I skipped Softball in favor of the Knapp's. Wednesday was lively beach volleyball. It even included an almost arrest with 3 cops running around the apartment complex we were at. <br />
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This week Monday softball was cancelled for my team because of a scheduling error. So I joined the boys for another Bombers game at CO Brown stadium. It's really a blessing to stay connected with some of camp on a weekly basis. <br />
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I'm already getting sad that Summer will end. So I'll be sure to make the most of it!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-39085135376179245602013-06-10T20:17:00.001-07:002013-06-10T20:17:06.704-07:00Can't keep me off camp property!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Actually... you probably could. But they haven't tried too hard yet. I spent the weekend up there getting recertified in lifeguarding. This is 10 years since I was certified at Michigan Tech and it has changed my life. It let to my Summer jobs, which led to my Full Time Jobs, which led to camp, which led to Denso now. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ErlRVpmIiIAHJ_mnwuOGxjw4rn4cpOk53zbWuOxoKV_hogV7VfgDS5EQW3ukSVJ2KWQZg44Qm-5jwhh-lsuz2eKVZRKUg6iS6O6ADTE2yGkzK_SSc7R4GEAZA92oDjnPCHjUzOVnAazo/s1600/IMG_0281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ErlRVpmIiIAHJ_mnwuOGxjw4rn4cpOk53zbWuOxoKV_hogV7VfgDS5EQW3ukSVJ2KWQZg44Qm-5jwhh-lsuz2eKVZRKUg6iS6O6ADTE2yGkzK_SSc7R4GEAZA92oDjnPCHjUzOVnAazo/s400/IMG_0281.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our LG review class all loved their manikins.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbAZ-skb6C_59OK4Y0d4KCvPkMWvC9JxIYt-5oL5UVKMnsf2NooZuNQkRGEzL04PEucrnhRXvGXSVKAABZLeGNoly2UMX6CqeSs3LWwH2dpUhLk4DqoHTiAB3-8JZl3YK1bU1Hh3G3FT_/s1600/IMG_0292.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbAZ-skb6C_59OK4Y0d4KCvPkMWvC9JxIYt-5oL5UVKMnsf2NooZuNQkRGEzL04PEucrnhRXvGXSVKAABZLeGNoly2UMX6CqeSs3LWwH2dpUhLk4DqoHTiAB3-8JZl3YK1bU1Hh3G3FT_/s400/IMG_0292.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They did not love the super cold water. I was backboarded twice and a shivering mess both times.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAs1zwsxxaRgrzP_wnSDbHbUcN-wFJNuP8WO3G66T7KVjf8vfge3qPLvEgsSYT1CAT-2iFMllEljHj9G9bYmZBaADFtpHIBL_DEfhbYnh-_5HptlE5c2zZLQDusDZlOTqH85nTgkzVF4d1/s1600/IMG_0295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAs1zwsxxaRgrzP_wnSDbHbUcN-wFJNuP8WO3G66T7KVjf8vfge3qPLvEgsSYT1CAT-2iFMllEljHj9G9bYmZBaADFtpHIBL_DEfhbYnh-_5HptlE5c2zZLQDusDZlOTqH85nTgkzVF4d1/s400/IMG_0295.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had some spectators. Nice of them to stop by and show us what it looked like to be warm.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujWIoWGChY1R_4_0p7_VrJlreQpKvF5xr67m2kkv2KhPT9WCXc7OUfvEw5-cSNfNFe-SpXOO_FI28RdvuxSQI0UXekkFC2JNsOTCC3o7Bf_pGOcdxS18I0qGTVuuD0HOsQT_ZZyQPLuvQ/s1600/IMG_0302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujWIoWGChY1R_4_0p7_VrJlreQpKvF5xr67m2kkv2KhPT9WCXc7OUfvEw5-cSNfNFe-SpXOO_FI28RdvuxSQI0UXekkFC2JNsOTCC3o7Bf_pGOcdxS18I0qGTVuuD0HOsQT_ZZyQPLuvQ/s400/IMG_0302.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our class joined the Beach/Walmart trip. This is what happens when you harass people carrying swim noodles.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3UUpv-NUwQDORwnLUtimxwKleGiORLZOA3GCQHtT9m9Ck-1shyphenhyphensbN9lt_VwXH4kM6Kw0m6wp84ZPbwcWyjKCmfbVpHPo2RvDDci8-Be5BTMZp1gOPAPXWlpTR6lebk6lVfmBNKz1t-2r/s1600/IMG_0304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3UUpv-NUwQDORwnLUtimxwKleGiORLZOA3GCQHtT9m9Ck-1shyphenhyphensbN9lt_VwXH4kM6Kw0m6wp84ZPbwcWyjKCmfbVpHPo2RvDDci8-Be5BTMZp1gOPAPXWlpTR6lebk6lVfmBNKz1t-2r/s400/IMG_0304.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice pic of chapel. Paul wasn't quite capturing the under 6 crowd.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgm1ZJCkVT8Ex89lu21TZIUPQgYPg0CfkxGiAq-5hxGTnKR78ZmBTeEOyxb8LGjbm6q2FTOmvBWFrkyHyCp2P5As-7hlzsOKyy_lXzI2YrBOVOryFVdtdEzxhuMqyQNb8sqyNULo8osYs/s1600/IMG_0307.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgm1ZJCkVT8Ex89lu21TZIUPQgYPg0CfkxGiAq-5hxGTnKR78ZmBTeEOyxb8LGjbm6q2FTOmvBWFrkyHyCp2P5As-7hlzsOKyy_lXzI2YrBOVOryFVdtdEzxhuMqyQNb8sqyNULo8osYs/s400/IMG_0307.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But the box hockey did. I joined them for a bit during the end of chapel.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzWfGi64II9Lytpu3dLiMPoMSdzFgt88cWS1XC1h-oRoNX6zf7gMCZZ_t9dQjlYykbxFM9FJJ0LEW4Hhabglwyx3Tu5lf6jSWfLvBvzIYs17ClKnH3udlwwOXmUQdqhUElNAxh9ugGI7Q/s1600/IMG_0325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzWfGi64II9Lytpu3dLiMPoMSdzFgt88cWS1XC1h-oRoNX6zf7gMCZZ_t9dQjlYykbxFM9FJJ0LEW4Hhabglwyx3Tu5lf6jSWfLvBvzIYs17ClKnH3udlwwOXmUQdqhUElNAxh9ugGI7Q/s320/IMG_0325.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was my drive home. The camera makes it look better than real life. Hard to see through the rain.</td></tr>
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Even at home I got to see Mike Baker and Randy Harris on the down swing of their bus trip. Watched a Bombers game with them after my softball game. I'm hitting like I should again, so that was fun. Always better when I get to run the bases a little.<br />
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Camp is starting and I'm sure a lot of people will be surprised by how it actually work. I sure am praying for the Summer Staff to learn fast, and play hard.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-76419280066502848792013-06-02T18:29:00.001-07:002013-06-02T18:29:08.442-07:00Summer SchedulesThis week I didn't get much for pictures because I was too busy actually doing stuff. I don't like taking a break to snag pictures in many cases. Plus it can be sorta awkward. <br />
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On Thursday I went to Holland and had dinner with Adela and some of her family. She made some burgers and we played a game of Scum afterwards. A lot of driving but definitely worth it. <br />
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This weekend was the first I spent here in Battle Creek. I had some plans to go out and about to the East side of the state but then I had ended up with a bunch of Battle Creek events to work on. Friday evening I rode my bike to Kelsey Snowball's open house before watching a bit of baseball at Wattles Park and then finishing off with watching Star Trek (2009) with Ethan and Liz. I really put off the long bike ride, but 11:30PM seemed like it was late enough.<br />
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All told it was a good start to the Summer biking season with about 20 miles logged in. I don't really like riding for the fun of it, but when I have a destination I like it a lot better. Hopefully this is the start of the good habit. <br />
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I started Saturday with a look at a house. I have some friends flipping it and while some of the details were enticing, I probably want to save up more of a proper down payment for a while. Also, coming off a missionary stint I'm not a big fan of locking down on a house. That payment can cripple a run at raising funds as a missionary.<br />
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As the day went on I had a bit of an impromptu softball practice. I spent the afternoon with Josh Nye and Matt Garrett. We just horsed around outside and played some softball. Brian Murphy joined us for some basketball and playing some Zombies on the Xbox. Next thing I know I'm going to bed at 2am!<br />
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As for the Summer Schedule, it looks like I'm locked in, or close to it. Here it is:<br />
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Monday- Softball with Battle Creek Bible. It gets my competitive fi in for the year since Garrison Hills only plays in a slow paced, low skill level league.<br />
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Tuesday- I do like the slow paced league sometimes. It's usually great outfield practice and I like the fellowship with folks from my church.<br />
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Wednesday- Pick up volleyball. I've got a small group of folks that are planning to play throughout the Summer. Looking forward to seeing how this comes together. <br />
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Thursday- Pick up Ultimate Frisbee and Youth Group. Youth Group is different every week obviously. Ultimate Frisbee is just up the street and it's great to be close and give me the option to do either. <br />
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Friday/Saturday- Weekends are saved up for trips to camp, Ultimate Frisbee tournaments, and the other things that come up throughout the Summer. <br />
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Sunday- Obviously I'm here for church most weekends, but sometimes the events of the weekend spill over into Sunday. Today I played Tennis and other weekends there will be other one day sports. <br />
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It's a good start to Sumer athletics! I played Frisbee, basketball, softball and tennis. I like being tired and soon I'll be back in mid-Summer shape.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGt95q6M_w3lU1LDrJ0sL6KEeFYs1CKKWHX3hrd8idkp1_9cYYSPdgCUCHLJ5JUM4_zps9VEUQlwm5o7Iwlws2xNuVDkccLbcS2LXxEdGIDwzSeynDthanVo6cePERG8fUHaxYvWhIT-K/s1600/picture001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUGt95q6M_w3lU1LDrJ0sL6KEeFYs1CKKWHX3hrd8idkp1_9cYYSPdgCUCHLJ5JUM4_zps9VEUQlwm5o7Iwlws2xNuVDkccLbcS2LXxEdGIDwzSeynDthanVo6cePERG8fUHaxYvWhIT-K/s320/picture001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Any time of season is a good for laying in the sink.</td></tr>
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Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-40176473280000876132013-05-29T03:53:00.001-07:002013-05-29T13:22:14.415-07:00Family Camp<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was a holiday weekend, explaining this super late post. So here's the recap, mostly in pictures.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisa7K3v4mrwg-jg0KLr7Z7PVHxBDBkGb8EbyWdv_X42i4EajgBUbG6fdRxDELcf-Xt7Zn38g4X1CunNTVSlOEMQxGxSryU7bzEa-NDNUaNLUtsKHeOzcfXYV_npgbZzMA1aXZr7STEG0A4/s1600/IMG_0217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisa7K3v4mrwg-jg0KLr7Z7PVHxBDBkGb8EbyWdv_X42i4EajgBUbG6fdRxDELcf-Xt7Zn38g4X1CunNTVSlOEMQxGxSryU7bzEa-NDNUaNLUtsKHeOzcfXYV_npgbZzMA1aXZr7STEG0A4/s400/IMG_0217.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We watched a movie for Youth Group. Most folks played board games, play-doh, and Just Dance.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vj8dKoCG4LV5U4krF4HBCaw1-zjbgietRaFwWEEit3W-_yng_Q2lvhVGB2rlW9DZLndy9Mxz-IazRVSmNjO0lgbjVOiTVyIl_N7crZq1UzHpVPMeDH02uuWlHFzlo86M9M9GfL4l6Wzi/s1600/IMG_0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vj8dKoCG4LV5U4krF4HBCaw1-zjbgietRaFwWEEit3W-_yng_Q2lvhVGB2rlW9DZLndy9Mxz-IazRVSmNjO0lgbjVOiTVyIl_N7crZq1UzHpVPMeDH02uuWlHFzlo86M9M9GfL4l6Wzi/s400/IMG_0233.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I played some softball. Basically my first practice of the year.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidWAKgsnIWl3GxRdGFy_G78uz6zkIF9N2yLzVy-wwMxGRs8Hz2nWS1UqX10dytreuTd6TtcxljcKmhk3S83OeZ6BZJPUkl9SEO148y0_MwbgJWTFH-dnNQihSMsb-4KQGv4GYCoSuen7m/s1600/IMG_0247.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidWAKgsnIWl3GxRdGFy_G78uz6zkIF9N2yLzVy-wwMxGRs8Hz2nWS1UqX10dytreuTd6TtcxljcKmhk3S83OeZ6BZJPUkl9SEO148y0_MwbgJWTFH-dnNQihSMsb-4KQGv4GYCoSuen7m/s400/IMG_0247.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isaac Haines had a rough weekend. Looked like he'd been boxing. I'm sure this net helps though.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbHWOPNIobD1qbHIGD-jtShchsDxtzk8TE9Em5MDxi6BJa5eGqpOo5NZKQjRev9FRmNQGEFO3AuaAihKtO177DtOa2qfeJLo86hzdlzFjO0XJL7RFnK9DkpbmT65BLjIm443G-9K1PWkk/s1600/IMG_0245.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbHWOPNIobD1qbHIGD-jtShchsDxtzk8TE9Em5MDxi6BJa5eGqpOo5NZKQjRev9FRmNQGEFO3AuaAihKtO177DtOa2qfeJLo86hzdlzFjO0XJL7RFnK9DkpbmT65BLjIm443G-9K1PWkk/s400/IMG_0245.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copy cat.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCcwZVZtM_xg-8Rpo-rgH-b8AsbsVGOMFuTUp7OR-a4uKxVHREHQ6SOJzsZhJQKI6RB4B1JO1DHj7Oi1PAxoLJA7HDyTpmhPHrf6DAsA3O-rE5clkoPDGl9aAY7aB_M0j5lLZdREwiQY5/s1600/IMG_0251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCcwZVZtM_xg-8Rpo-rgH-b8AsbsVGOMFuTUp7OR-a4uKxVHREHQ6SOJzsZhJQKI6RB4B1JO1DHj7Oi1PAxoLJA7HDyTpmhPHrf6DAsA3O-rE5clkoPDGl9aAY7aB_M0j5lLZdREwiQY5/s400/IMG_0251.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fisherman's Chapel on Monday.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY63U3c2-Sfb3nL5HUYIa5NzDJtRKB6MWefwM2fMJrVIbkEuP-CI3uBSrnGI8jNT4XBZz-_P68GetoIOoNzxYhbgg_BHtTAbeKYLaxdWEaE-Owp25ehjk6sasddnHXfDYCFy9ros6hZEdE/s1600/IMG_0256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY63U3c2-Sfb3nL5HUYIa5NzDJtRKB6MWefwM2fMJrVIbkEuP-CI3uBSrnGI8jNT4XBZz-_P68GetoIOoNzxYhbgg_BHtTAbeKYLaxdWEaE-Owp25ehjk6sasddnHXfDYCFy9ros6hZEdE/s400/IMG_0256.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This tree was teasing us, just asking us to try and pull it out.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_yFe_N8LFCKTZ4-gDItL4xiwa8oWQSAB3V7PiqGfKBqYKuRBxwIQ1vmRc2MwOAVy1fpd4cjZ5hC3C4bTzrmrpYgbvk4GDmJeyOOtRpjq6akID_VpoK6G4qO_OqMlAFd0Z53yguEmq1op/s1600/IMG_0260.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_yFe_N8LFCKTZ4-gDItL4xiwa8oWQSAB3V7PiqGfKBqYKuRBxwIQ1vmRc2MwOAVy1fpd4cjZ5hC3C4bTzrmrpYgbvk4GDmJeyOOtRpjq6akID_VpoK6G4qO_OqMlAFd0Z53yguEmq1op/s400/IMG_0260.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is Brad trying to get his rage out. Just kidding, it's really "throw random stuff into the river". It was fun until my Frisbee ended up in the river and we had to go chasing after it. We got it though!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DfPeQDDhTZHIwM2FwEyfiR6r0WpOxLaNr8sn_UIyhc2MeTmRBhD2PQ9DcXCXa0-MGItijOE2Bw_jodGoT7JlMMDlfe8-53V515KQh5q5T5IOce_LsOSHVsU85aH9WYNtH8iLrmUugs_o/s1600/IMG_0266.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8DfPeQDDhTZHIwM2FwEyfiR6r0WpOxLaNr8sn_UIyhc2MeTmRBhD2PQ9DcXCXa0-MGItijOE2Bw_jodGoT7JlMMDlfe8-53V515KQh5q5T5IOce_LsOSHVsU85aH9WYNtH8iLrmUugs_o/s400/IMG_0266.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the way back I worked on my balloons. This tail extended past the back of the Jeep at one point.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDUIWte7R3B405Otm6Y6HlCAZVWqntar0NrBtH6N0RDI728pshSkj13aWelboB-uSSFbb5HHLY2kUKLpbuaoZ_cj4kugS51EqoXYT9fR9PjKXVp9TcZmK5CfJWT6lXMZI1OoBCgdStlDwA/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDUIWte7R3B405Otm6Y6HlCAZVWqntar0NrBtH6N0RDI728pshSkj13aWelboB-uSSFbb5HHLY2kUKLpbuaoZ_cj4kugS51EqoXYT9fR9PjKXVp9TcZmK5CfJWT6lXMZI1OoBCgdStlDwA/s400/IMG_0221.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's normal at camp to make plato sculptures to describe yourself. This is where my mind will be during the Summer staff workshop. Camp Barakel... apparently on a lily pad...?</td></tr>
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<br />Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-8475814730012536182013-05-20T19:12:00.001-07:002013-05-20T19:12:45.791-07:00Trippin<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1I1iVQRCIUWwgX717QMVnjH1nMzVTu72Hiqq4r2bvVm7O_rH3_relcKpVrMHOFm9J0vCVgAeOYS9I79qNKjDdXB1svMlx1JWHu8N6yMoLCGPM-od64j4vfbOWcpsj5gRMttWBBjaHmcW/s1600/IMG_0118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1I1iVQRCIUWwgX717QMVnjH1nMzVTu72Hiqq4r2bvVm7O_rH3_relcKpVrMHOFm9J0vCVgAeOYS9I79qNKjDdXB1svMlx1JWHu8N6yMoLCGPM-od64j4vfbOWcpsj5gRMttWBBjaHmcW/s400/IMG_0118.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can usually see a nice sunset at the airport in Battle Creek. As long as you don't mind the fence.</td></tr>
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This was my busiest week this year. every day was bang bang. Work, soccer, sports, youth group, Red Wings. Blah blah blah. <br />
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For Youth Group we went to Bailey Park. I wasn't sure how crowded it would be, but it had plenty of room. We let everyone split up and do whatever they wanted. Playing catch, throwing stones in the river (sometimes at the ducks), horsing around on the playground, and my group wandered over to some youth baseball games.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sDkbwQ7xb-K8Ap8LVfOZDTXh6hVHBIJhTMKxTF4fa0vuvGS4BlEQkf5o59ErqEFh9i1lCqmHJ8_E1MROiGVshxvWvyykKU7m4SQA3sSUFqacmCjzxyVdE6MWjS_AsnxB1i0_QadxIBtz/s1600/IMG_0122.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sDkbwQ7xb-K8Ap8LVfOZDTXh6hVHBIJhTMKxTF4fa0vuvGS4BlEQkf5o59ErqEFh9i1lCqmHJ8_E1MROiGVshxvWvyykKU7m4SQA3sSUFqacmCjzxyVdE6MWjS_AsnxB1i0_QadxIBtz/s400/IMG_0122.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwing rocks into the river fascinated many of the kids for a while.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT6nwNgyJHxRBG2jPeKlzx8fOGt5ELWrYDb7rISKgkkklKhGfBqNg9iri4oMdZsCZDkIHYpIkxkUEG6SH8-9WhIUuRrxRvsbEuW87MxhK5WSsnZWswiRvo1CQu5BezeI7trezg1PlnaCvK/s1600/IMG_0127.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT6nwNgyJHxRBG2jPeKlzx8fOGt5ELWrYDb7rISKgkkklKhGfBqNg9iri4oMdZsCZDkIHYpIkxkUEG6SH8-9WhIUuRrxRvsbEuW87MxhK5WSsnZWswiRvo1CQu5BezeI7trezg1PlnaCvK/s400/IMG_0127.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of them were trying to learn to skip rocks, even though most were not really good for skipping.</td></tr>
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The mosquitoes came out right when we tried to eat. So some ran to the cars, some walked around a lot, and some just sat there and ignored them. It turned out to be a really enjoyable night out and about. On a side note I'm happy we had that oil spill cause the river doesn't stink anymore. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56NpSUvM7d91Sc96EinMENNuwzJA-CdqhjnydvW9ioYFUwXanyYSK_k3DQAFPlq5JwqKOPf8Wjuxh40X17LjyU9UOnMTB9viJ-VpB6_q5ck3ryeRfQTDNjpHGtNTX-2FEdsuSgv-SW7Xz/s1600/IMG_0137.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56NpSUvM7d91Sc96EinMENNuwzJA-CdqhjnydvW9ioYFUwXanyYSK_k3DQAFPlq5JwqKOPf8Wjuxh40X17LjyU9UOnMTB9viJ-VpB6_q5ck3ryeRfQTDNjpHGtNTX-2FEdsuSgv-SW7Xz/s400/IMG_0137.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These girls loaded up this tire swing.</td></tr>
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After Youth Group I didn't even have time to do anything before going to bed super late. And after that I also had to go to work at 6:30am to track with a project we had going. So that early day was followed up by a couple meetings in the late afternoon. I hustled from there to Holland to pick up Adela before a weekend of dishes at camp. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8wVWhOR9GRuzFvHH4gRlgY7U8_SuTr8tDSeT7e0T6C3rWeKVJP10MsIRSC86x_yo81Rx7Cthu3Q-nImDm1Rvv7Vqi0V7iYcwT2zXeFLIum0IOhixcdL_WyADmzgO0rWOpnNJ2xyXajP4/s1600/IMG_0159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8wVWhOR9GRuzFvHH4gRlgY7U8_SuTr8tDSeT7e0T6C3rWeKVJP10MsIRSC86x_yo81Rx7Cthu3Q-nImDm1Rvv7Vqi0V7iYcwT2zXeFLIum0IOhixcdL_WyADmzgO0rWOpnNJ2xyXajP4/s400/IMG_0159.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's Miss Sassy on the phone.</td></tr>
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They just finished zipline training and so I figured I'd go up and see how they were doing. It's really weird to see how other people run it and the things they say. Fun to take some pictures and ride the zipline though. I even got to run it for a bit in the afternoon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0VaSP8mXRTQxJdBEoXywGYbLUjzH200Y7abem5HC3L3N7MMKELBOi5lewKjQL3ZiqbhtPesGVM3n3z3URWHtjV3ob3jLJnYj1qvIcKjN04DDp92QX3EJ50bnbavMOSJgUId__QA-YsiP/s1600/IMG_0176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0VaSP8mXRTQxJdBEoXywGYbLUjzH200Y7abem5HC3L3N7MMKELBOi5lewKjQL3ZiqbhtPesGVM3n3z3URWHtjV3ob3jLJnYj1qvIcKjN04DDp92QX3EJ50bnbavMOSJgUId__QA-YsiP/s400/IMG_0176.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeremy Rook doing his thing.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMeBWcGX3TP1FpiB-cAKHCVbpo08XcgjrTndMBEdvnky6Yn9-t7uMlDzuVYpbmlVjCYB8K3UKIjltMQdJkLtClkGQLF-DMNPO4bHsowWvrIGT-iNjSkIwyFAVSiIX-0cmj4vF-BrfynQA/s1600/IMG_0194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMeBWcGX3TP1FpiB-cAKHCVbpo08XcgjrTndMBEdvnky6Yn9-t7uMlDzuVYpbmlVjCYB8K3UKIjltMQdJkLtClkGQLF-DMNPO4bHsowWvrIGT-iNjSkIwyFAVSiIX-0cmj4vF-BrfynQA/s400/IMG_0194.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adela got to zip with one of her campers. That would be great!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZAvBTCED9ERm0QU4ekXxNeZLW-dVxQhIwXaM7fVJWU2mEZ1W0B3DbgXwMI7Ii_JfjrUH4qdiIwbABaIi4hQwHkd5nbTCEj5gNdaJQtDBrpi1AxC47kYaxUoihwJt5SuAfCUOlbl_xtAw/s1600/IMG_0203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZAvBTCED9ERm0QU4ekXxNeZLW-dVxQhIwXaM7fVJWU2mEZ1W0B3DbgXwMI7Ii_JfjrUH4qdiIwbABaIi4hQwHkd5nbTCEj5gNdaJQtDBrpi1AxC47kYaxUoihwJt5SuAfCUOlbl_xtAw/s400/IMG_0203.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's what I look like apparently. When I zip, you zip, we zip.</td></tr>
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So that's pretty much it. I love camp so much. I am going to miss it even more as Summer staff start to arrive for training. It's a good, busy time of year. Basketball and Hockey Playoffs, Tigers are playing, sports are happening, weather is opening up finally. <br />
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Here we go!Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3455505652866521512.post-83405522572912283782013-05-13T15:27:00.001-07:002013-05-13T15:27:43.499-07:00New Camera... lots of pictures!!I'll let the camera do most of the talking here. I will try to chip in here and there so you'll at least know where I'm at. We're starting with Youth Group at the lake. The weather didn't cooperate, but that didn't slow us down very much. Like they say at camp:<br />
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"Whether the weather be good, or whether the weather be bad, whatever the weather we'll weather the weather whatever the weather be."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDbagb_uCqaavtDkTKz3dxXsd2_TPDo4VCsx0fj8sm7xbUmHE1IpddS5ZynpQ-tQ-Rm_FVXAAKt8MOco6zvKmlHV2wPRmKCJl9iC08-6tnJVZSD1sXJiueVz6aDAxKtnkb_jzck7y7nis/s1600/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDbagb_uCqaavtDkTKz3dxXsd2_TPDo4VCsx0fj8sm7xbUmHE1IpddS5ZynpQ-tQ-Rm_FVXAAKt8MOco6zvKmlHV2wPRmKCJl9iC08-6tnJVZSD1sXJiueVz6aDAxKtnkb_jzck7y7nis/s400/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(5).JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our best volleyball player of the night with a great dig.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhseZvObKuLRQYUC54y2ShGspTAUXizuB1KY008IlNsMDi0MkzmwpWrjTM0wjaTS7v4KM156JnBX0OJD-1UEPdU1Jq9OuSzv5eqLjD3WFCHUgSSUGUBlVsKnnhdbA1JTHE68Z7CKu9mIuRA/s1600/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(13).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhseZvObKuLRQYUC54y2ShGspTAUXizuB1KY008IlNsMDi0MkzmwpWrjTM0wjaTS7v4KM156JnBX0OJD-1UEPdU1Jq9OuSzv5eqLjD3WFCHUgSSUGUBlVsKnnhdbA1JTHE68Z7CKu9mIuRA/s400/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(13).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noah Wygant took care of the grill.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifx1hiwORNJfxcUwxg8K_ks56OJ7BnzeBvuMObWpfNwFuCmPWMkcjdbIpfTTrmywE6eSLvgMI7INE7Uy4CnIRC4rtX8jYOgMPu4h2S8w5FbjGsS5JXa-LUR7FzoF1Mba-hpyJDvi8HPD2T/s1600/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(18).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifx1hiwORNJfxcUwxg8K_ks56OJ7BnzeBvuMObWpfNwFuCmPWMkcjdbIpfTTrmywE6eSLvgMI7INE7Uy4CnIRC4rtX8jYOgMPu4h2S8w5FbjGsS5JXa-LUR7FzoF1Mba-hpyJDvi8HPD2T/s400/5-9-13+Youth+Group+Beach+Day+(18).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even with no swimming the lake is still relaxing to visit.</td></tr>
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I usually help with Youth Group and it's been a lot of fun to have more of the responsibilities. BUT... I'm still looking forward to Tim returning. <br />
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On Friday I had one of those ridiculous days I tend to find myself in. I woke up at 5:30am to snag some donuts for work, then I worked til 7:30am. I ran straight from there to the Battle Creek Children's Water Festival (12th straight year!!). Without Mrs. Lindow there it was a lot different, but everything still went smoothly after all. From there I caught up at work for a couple of meetings from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. <br />
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After that I busted a run to Grand Blanc for a 7:45pm viewing of Iron Man 3 with Brad, Emily, Hannah, Xavier and Silas. That's a bunch of names I guess. I thought the movie was great and probably the funniest of the three, although they definitely pushed the limits a bit further. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdQokcnHK5IO9XCkloBNyz8FSnaw5vs8Mivzx3FvNyPz76iff6Dg8P3g3pO6qUiyMdBxmJdMo3dxZjQ-MApLBTbjMmL4ggljz-Ev3Oq2yylwvFxn4dfbWY-q9OBnlegP3Wy_2XJ4PcI5N/s1600/5-10-13+Friend+Randoms+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRdQokcnHK5IO9XCkloBNyz8FSnaw5vs8Mivzx3FvNyPz76iff6Dg8P3g3pO6qUiyMdBxmJdMo3dxZjQ-MApLBTbjMmL4ggljz-Ev3Oq2yylwvFxn4dfbWY-q9OBnlegP3Wy_2XJ4PcI5N/s400/5-10-13+Friend+Randoms+(1).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some Frisbee before the movie. I don't know if he's scared or angry or what.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrm6iw7tS7cDS0M71yWFD3XLhf-dTEuT3Gve-9_kPE_vU9M3UpouKn4WkqPDvTrjJVW_qy-QqbLrTCFb_AWZ4tUkIyqXwm7wPTtvlC6PDRAyBa7RGqaUPx1pr1oxbPfy_DynbFVHU8GL7/s1600/5-10-13+Friend+Randoms+(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsrm6iw7tS7cDS0M71yWFD3XLhf-dTEuT3Gve-9_kPE_vU9M3UpouKn4WkqPDvTrjJVW_qy-QqbLrTCFb_AWZ4tUkIyqXwm7wPTtvlC6PDRAyBa7RGqaUPx1pr1oxbPfy_DynbFVHU8GL7/s400/5-10-13+Friend+Randoms+(7).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blur in the picture is Emily. She's super fast!</td></tr>
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After the movie I hustled up to camp for the labor weekend. I didn't really plan to help much, but I sort of treated it like a retreat and another chance to catch up with everyone. I spent the morning wandering and taking pictures of the workers, then I helped Randy in the afternoon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaAsjMRPjUJqb6zSa7k6Xi3jPLx7s_wTQllQYY-SY_tIZJxKMNfu9zroibLH6Z9MZrfFrbfN7GbhD_YAF2NeSVU0Vv0iZJwWlL2hg8Mi-FpxgaTE444R_ncl3PVx3dvEvMzEb22h5-VNK/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaAsjMRPjUJqb6zSa7k6Xi3jPLx7s_wTQllQYY-SY_tIZJxKMNfu9zroibLH6Z9MZrfFrbfN7GbhD_YAF2NeSVU0Vv0iZJwWlL2hg8Mi-FpxgaTE444R_ncl3PVx3dvEvMzEb22h5-VNK/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(1).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love the camp paths on sunny days.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZnhpjh_2tdirBA3Way5z5DJbNb-v-XKabQyaBp_wFqlhWTEM_ndxdR6DUXi9S5POgJstpW7RxQaa2hKnWChMpXAPp3FAfW8Jn7BdDk62RxmzdPt6Sn_QcfCs1cgnv_ziQPjqT3i7UvT_C/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZnhpjh_2tdirBA3Way5z5DJbNb-v-XKabQyaBp_wFqlhWTEM_ndxdR6DUXi9S5POgJstpW7RxQaa2hKnWChMpXAPp3FAfW8Jn7BdDk62RxmzdPt6Sn_QcfCs1cgnv_ziQPjqT3i7UvT_C/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(5).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working on the docks. But the union's not on strike, they're not down on there luck and it's not so tough.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5zxS5YQMtEC5rn0h4vfYPaWPi3lAO895-uBHR19V-XSNtPveG8R4CeImEdMciXckZOUre1lZD72wlITGNbaJ-6at7p9iTj0BevECzXA1hGZE6LOKN2OfHo8dIV93SztqdLaSg5jcqRvPq/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(15).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5zxS5YQMtEC5rn0h4vfYPaWPi3lAO895-uBHR19V-XSNtPveG8R4CeImEdMciXckZOUre1lZD72wlITGNbaJ-6at7p9iTj0BevECzXA1hGZE6LOKN2OfHo8dIV93SztqdLaSg5jcqRvPq/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(15).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dining hall looks great. You can't see the sound absorbing layer in the carpeting.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVp3WnNjYQWWTSuVJCcm1DwjaaF4pm9KnTUiXV3-iG_TxE6khP3g4uM80gJ0paNmCc6Qx74c109-cpeRWDOVrMCZJ9nb-FNbAOC5MUQ20N3n3hFvHrSK-f2NX79RUZts_BPbVjpO-VQduo/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(16).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVp3WnNjYQWWTSuVJCcm1DwjaaF4pm9KnTUiXV3-iG_TxE6khP3g4uM80gJ0paNmCc6Qx74c109-cpeRWDOVrMCZJ9nb-FNbAOC5MUQ20N3n3hFvHrSK-f2NX79RUZts_BPbVjpO-VQduo/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(16).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The siding I stained a couple weekends ago will land on this part of the Chapel.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL8s_BJvWB1_4iYtu6VGk15kGI9w2uy7rgShjpUGjZ3B7NQ7MMru6eIYjXfD2LknQFcNN7ndDDjKCYmWuSOT07IceMtOsm6CJmLB352xo2z9rDFh3c3O4sfESJVbCyR2CPCvs36T-_GpsX/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(18).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL8s_BJvWB1_4iYtu6VGk15kGI9w2uy7rgShjpUGjZ3B7NQ7MMru6eIYjXfD2LknQFcNN7ndDDjKCYmWuSOT07IceMtOsm6CJmLB352xo2z9rDFh3c3O4sfESJVbCyR2CPCvs36T-_GpsX/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(18).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Helping Randy load up and pull this work van in from the shop.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-pmO0ZZrVhYfEMW7xM5MOE1MI5IFVf4FbLcS1Yq9VAo2wNvV8BQkT8PWP5ncGHd3-KFjV7X4Fij3DRTKWULEB18QcN20JWpDkvhysNT-gxOxrE6qpHmLm23lq2ZWVkYo35hpZLULu9xQ/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(20).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-pmO0ZZrVhYfEMW7xM5MOE1MI5IFVf4FbLcS1Yq9VAo2wNvV8BQkT8PWP5ncGHd3-KFjV7X4Fij3DRTKWULEB18QcN20JWpDkvhysNT-gxOxrE6qpHmLm23lq2ZWVkYo35hpZLULu9xQ/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(20).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end game with the docks. Taking them out in chunks and sawing them up from there.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbimFerlXI8Wg2asSKhKDpEugZ3Cj47C-wWZ5TRQO8q6knoAuNd48soTI7Er40q9P1OwTCRxZc0vy7GQh7_HvULJwbooonf-NN6AhwCmFEeeiVPB4NM8e3Wx-PSN9EY5Lo6Apk6w04qAPT/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(21).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbimFerlXI8Wg2asSKhKDpEugZ3Cj47C-wWZ5TRQO8q6knoAuNd48soTI7Er40q9P1OwTCRxZc0vy7GQh7_HvULJwbooonf-NN6AhwCmFEeeiVPB4NM8e3Wx-PSN9EY5Lo6Apk6w04qAPT/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(21).JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The East Side Dish Room. Looking forward to trying out the new setup.</td></tr>
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Before dinner we played a game of Sorry! which is probably my favorite game. I wrapped up the evening watching a promotional video for camp that was produced in the 70's and included Randy and Connie as singles. Watched the Tigers and some Nascar before heading to bed.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytScp0WqGcPeqOJfwuhDbfoi8suiSDaVcyJG10gZKNlEu3Mpfjr0yCJDq2puAlOnA_0YV3bwxL6WH-2kgoSzNu_rndP8qX6Kg_VV0RYJdaJXk52tkus5-hiTNHfj2zmr4W-71dwJYLYRK/s1600/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(23).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytScp0WqGcPeqOJfwuhDbfoi8suiSDaVcyJG10gZKNlEu3Mpfjr0yCJDq2puAlOnA_0YV3bwxL6WH-2kgoSzNu_rndP8qX6Kg_VV0RYJdaJXk52tkus5-hiTNHfj2zmr4W-71dwJYLYRK/s400/5-11-13+Camp+Barakel+(23).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karen and Aaron. Also known as Ka'aron. Aaron is still sad about a 3rd place finish at Sorry!</td></tr>
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Then it was the typical rush back home in time for teaching Sunday School. We discussed Tithing and what it's all about. Many of the kids in our Youth Group don't know anything about it so I thought we'd see what the Bible says and discuss what people thought of tithing and giving in general.Codyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08085787943469560220noreply@blogger.com0