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How many of you out there remember good times at your town’s local skating rink? Well, for Pastor Ryan’s birthday this year a group of us went out to Great Skate in O’Fallon, MO for a night of reminiscing and couple’s and backwards skating. Haha, It was actually the first time Brandi and I had been skating together too, so it proved to be a fun evening.

Ruthi started off really excited, she enjoyed getting her skates put on, then walking over to our table, but when we took her on the rink, she FREAKED! I don’t think it was because she was scared, but instead because she was angry that we didn’t let her do it all by herself! So, she spent most of the evening “skating” around the concession area in her skates. We managed to get a little video of her enjoying herself. She was SO CUTE in her mini-skates!

Keith and I were in Louisville, KY last week for a regional youth leader’s gathering for the Wesleyan Church called FUEL. While we were there, we managed to get to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory right there on main street during out lunch hour. It was real convenient because it was only about 4 blocks from our hotel. GREAT place to see and hold some history as I’m sure you can see here. The visit was educational and exciting. If you’re any kind of baseball fan and you happen upon the Louisville area, I highly suggest it. Compared to other tourist attractions, it’s very affordable. The adult price for the museum, a factory tour, and an included mini bat was only $10. Kids were about $4 or $6 I think.

In this video, you see me holding a bat that Mickey Mantle used somewhere in the 1961-1964 seasons. Back then they used the same bat for longer than they do now. This one was worn smooth and had a pretty good heft to it. Just imagining that I was holding the same bat that he stroked a bunch of those home runs with was surreal. You have to wear the sissy white gloves to keep the oil from your hands off the bat to help them last longer. I could have also chosen to hold one of David Ortiz’s bats (gag me), or Rod Carew (never really cared for the Twins either). In the end, I chose Mickey’s bat for the historic value, though I would have tripped over my own jaw had they had one of Stan the Man’s bats or even Lou Brock.

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Can you help me reach my goal? 19 months ago my nieces were born 15 weeks premature: http://emersonandstella.blogspot.com. Now we’re doing great, but we’re taking this opportunity to help support others who find themselves in the same boat! Will you sponsor my walk?

Many of you know that I am an avid hunter/shooter/outdoors dude. If you live nearby me you’re bound to be drawn in by a story on a pretty regular basis, and if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or even this blog you’re bound to see updates about my exploits on a semi-regular basis. While I really enjoy my hobbies, I try to remember that they’re not always for everyone, and so I try frequently to avoid overwhelming everyone with my excitement, stance, or opinions in these areas.

However, I digress. Today, I cannot withhold my excitement or fear any longer as I scream, “THE CURSE IS BROKEN!!!!” You might be wondering which curse I mean. Well, growing up, I hunted. Lots of things. But never turkeys. Though I learned to call at a young age, Dad and I never really had the know-how or interest to pursue the elusive THUNDER CHICKEN. 2 years ago (three seasons) I caught the fever. I will even go so far as to say that I might possibly enjoy turkey hunting more than deer hunting. It’s more high pace, and more action-packed. Bear in mind that I say these things after having not killed a turkey in either of my first two years hunting, and not for a lack of close calls or frustrating encounters.

Yesterday, my losing streak ended! I was hunting with my good buddy Ralph Fox, and after having struck out in our first spot, we hit gold with the second. From the time they answered the call, till the time we had two birds on the ground, was less than 5 minutes. Talk about a rush of adrenaline! I’ll be the first to admit my bird wasn’t the biggest (Ralph’s was bigger), and he even had something weird going on with his feathers. But, he’s mine, he’s in the freezer, and I smoked that sucker!!!

On a side note, my good friend, Lisa Chapman (click on her name to find her on facebook) started a Taxidermy business almost 2 years ago now and will be mounting the fan, beard and spurs for me (actually I think she’s already done . She’s got a fledgling website through WordPress that I’d encourage you to check out if interested. She does fantastic work and her rates are easily the most competitive around. She’s got pics on the site and her contact info along with directions are there too, you can find it at strutsandruts.com.

Check out the pics below of me and Ralphie grinning big time showing off our trophies!
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I know lots of people who do stupid human tricks, and what better way to find these types of tricks than work with youth. Namely, 5th and 6th graders. You’re bound at some point to find a kid who can do this. It sort of reminds me of a dog dragging its itchy butt on the floor because of worms, only different. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, “The Knee Run.”

Picked up this little number on ebay for HALF the cost of a new one at Wally World. Despite coming to me with the lack of a power cord, the camera had a bit of a charge that I wanted to try out. Check the quality:

I know you’re lying when you try and say you don’t feel the same way…

Here is the transcript for the column I just submitted to the Warrenton Journal for the Opinion Shapers spot. This is a sneak peak/pre-edited look at what I wrote. Please feel free to let me know what you think..

Life isn’t fair is it? For some reason it all seems to pile on when things are at their worst too. At the time of writing this, our community has lost two beloved teens within two weeks of each other. Both deaths were the result of traffic accidents. It’s hard to completely understand the pain that the families have been feeling during this tremendous time of loss, and while I didn’t know either of the teens personally, I knew several friends and classmates whom it has affected heavily. So for what it’s worth, to the Sherry and Monshower families, I cannot imagine your loss. You have my heartfelt prayers and deepest condolences.

Back in November, my wife and I decided along with some other friends that we were going to try and go an entire year without regular television service. We had charter cable at the time, having already downgraded from a satellite dish with the DVR, but were still finding that we were spending more time than we liked in front of the boob tube. The funniest thing about the “time-saving” aspect of the DVR, is that it was almost like keeping up with the shows we had recorded was a second job, and had taken the place of more constructive hobbies that kept us active, outdoors, and our minds sharp. Because we didn’t have to watch commercials, we actually had more time to keep up with more shows. So the cycle repeated itself. It didn’t make our life more efficient, it made it more cluttered.

The temptation was simple. After a long and frustrating day (or any kind of day for that matter) of dealing with people, talking, reading, studying, etc., I would come home and flip the television on and start my vegetation routine. It got to where it didn’t matter what was on, as long as it was a distraction from anything and everything else. This led to poor habits. Some easy to break, some not so easy, one of the not so easy ones being spending quality time with my increasingly intelligent and challenging little girl. It all came to a head and made me start to think. I didn’t want to raise a child who thought the best way to entertain herself was to flip on the television. Or that in order to learn or behave, the television had to be on. But it was an easy habit to get in to. When she got to be too much of a handful or needed a distraction we would turn on the TV. There she could be entertained by the Backyardigans, Yo Gabba-Gabba, or Wonder Pets for countless hours, and my wife could find a way to keep sanity and get the house clean. And so it became the babysitter for a time. It was a welcome distraction to allow us to keep our sanity, and lazily retreat from the stresses of parenting.

Now, nearly 5 months into our pact we are loving life. It’s amazing how much free time you find out you have when it’s not filled with that second job of keeping up with shows. Some things stick with you though, and it’s interesting how and when those things pop into memory as if they were there for a reason. One in particular that sticks out to me is a silly commercial about young people slowing down and driving safely. The car is swerving left and right in the road, a silly talk-show host looking guy gets in the back seat with the passenger, and tells them, “They can have a certain safe passage to adulthood if they just slow down and pay attention.” Interesting how after 5 months of not seeing commercials that one comes running back in a time like this.

I’m sure if given the choice, either of the young people who lost their lives [and without question their families] would choose to have their life back. I am not in any way pointing the finger or blame at anyone. Accidents happen, we all know that. There is nothing fair or understandable about it, that’s just the way life turns out sometimes. My question to us this week is, is there something more we could be doing to prevent it? If we really took a look at staggering but true statistics that traffic accidents are the number one leading cause of death in teens ages 15-19, would we maybe be more willing to consider changing the legal driving age from what it is?

I remember how aggressively I looked forward to receiving my license to drive a motor vehicle on my own when I turned 16 years old. It’s wild to think that was nearly 13 years ago. It’s even wilder to think, that at the age and maturity level I was at during that time, that the state was willing to grant me permission to operate the most dangerous tool in the world? I’ll admit, as I’m sure many of you would, I did some pretty reckless and stupid things back then, and was fortunately spared in some very close calls. I don’t expect any young people to agree with me, especially those spry 15 year olds who are chomping at the bit to receive their shiny new license (by the way, remember when you had to get a slip of paper, then wait to receive your actual license in the mail?), or even those confident 16 year olds who have just started driving or have a safe driving record. We were all at one time convinced we had it figured out and were the best drivers in the world. As I said before, I’m not looking to point fingers, I just want to start a healthy discussion. What could we be doing better to help protect our young people?

Did you receive enough love as a child? Well, baby Jack thinks that he didn’t.

This video was put together by Seth and Coby Piper and Adam Fratzke from Bartlesville. I was lucky enough to have these dudes in youth for 3 years while we served at First Wesleyan Church there. Since I left they’ve been doing creative videos and I just saw this one today and had to post it. My fav is the music that comes in when you see the sock monkey. Awesome.

Great job guys, you’re so grown up now, LOL.