Monday, September 30, 2013

Playing from Behind

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.
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
I love my camera cause it's small, but still has a big zoom.

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.
 
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. 
 
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.  

 
Here are pictures of the swing that all the kids like:
 




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. 

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. 

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!

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Quick Update

Well I'm late!  But here I am. 

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. 

Nasko and Jay play some basketball together.

The dunk tank!  Before it got super dirty.
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:

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).


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.

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. 

It was a crazy, fun filled weekend. 

Well I'm late, but there's a quick update and here we go, already half way through the next week.

Peace out.

Monday, September 9, 2013

The Cost of Camp

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.
 
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. 
 
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. 
 
Now everyone has video games right on their phones/tablets.
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. 

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. 

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. 

Giant Pong.  I enjoyed the game and dialing in my throws.
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. 

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. 

Maribel played forward and midfield in the harsh loss (5 or 6 to 0). 
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.

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. 

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.   

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.

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.

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.

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. 

I met Adela too!  And she's pretty cool. 

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. 

The Bible says it best:

"He who honors me, I will honor him".

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Transferrance

Yo!
 
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. 
 
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.
 
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.
 

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. 




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. 

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.

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.