Camping Trip (part 2)

Here's some of my favorite pictures out of the ones I took of my family.

Jared rock climbing.

I know this one's blury, but it was so cute! He's saying, "I did it!"

Self photography. :)

I love this one of Jadon.

More self photography.

Dad, Rachel, and Jared.

Rachel: "Please let me catch a fish!" :)

Joshua had dish duty. :)

I don't know why his hands ended up blurry..oh well....

Jumping again..

I really like this one too.

My dad fishing.

On a hike..

More to come!

Camping Trip (part 1)

As you probably saw on Joshua's blog, we went camping last week. I'm going to upload is segments (because blogger is so slow), and you already got a chronological version from Joshua. (If you haven't seen his post, check it out. http://www.passiondefined.blogspot.com/ ) This post is all the pictures I didn't take that were taken by my brother or my mom, although I did edit them.

Us kids at, or rather, in Longhorn Cavern.


My little brother splashing...



My other brother stuck in a bucket! :)


My dad, brother, and I




My sister

Joshua and I

My sister and I, climbing up the 'slide'!

We came...

I looked....

We jumped...

We conquered!

My pants didn't stay rolled up evenly. :(

My littlest brother at the park.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

Sweet 16!!!

Hi everyone!

Well, Leah would probably kill me if she knew I snuck into her dashboard and made a post on her blog without her knowing, but I decided it would be worth the risk! :-P My dear little sister turned sweet 16 this past Sunday, and I know it's a bit late, but I know it would be really special if some of y'all could leave her a happy birthday comment on her blog! She's not expecting this at all. ;-) I would have done this earlier but, being a guy, I didn't think of it until after the fact. Oh well! :) Anyway, I know it would be special to her if y'all would leave her a happy birthday comment!

Leah's big brother,

Joshua

I’ve rarely had substitutes come into classes I’ve been in. Actually, I honestly only remembered one before last Friday. But not only was there a sub for my class, I was a sub for someone else’s class.

The regular director for both the hand bell class and the choir classes was out of town. As I’ve played bells before and didn’t happen to be in this class, I suppose somehow I was a logical person to ask to sub. I (reluctantly) agreed.


Well, to start out with, the overall director of the program greeted me with the question “Are you a fearless leader?” ugh…. A leader, though I don’t know about the fearless part.


Two kids were already there, trying to figure out which books went where. Then we had to figure out which bells went where. The music I was given the week before was blank, no bell assignments, no notes, ect. Thanks, Dusten.


(To simplify matters, and because I’ve forgotten which names go with which kid’s face, I’ll just call them K1, K2, and so on in the order that they ring.)


K8 entered the room, fully confident of my directing abilities. His first question was, “What are your credentials?” I played bells in a church hand bell choir for about 4 years and played under last year’s director for a year and a half. Anything else you want to know? “Your social security number.” I don’t give out that information. “That’s ok, I don’t even know mine,” with a satisfied smirk on his face. His second important question: “Where’s my candy?” I don’t know. "Where is it? You’re supposed to have it.” I’m sorry, not today.


K1 didn’t pay attention; K2 just started the week or so before. K4 kept talking to K5, K6 needed constant explanation. (Thanks K7!!!!) Two of K9’s bells were broken. Was I supposed to have K9 just play the bells or not??


In the midst of explaining a rhythm and which bells got played when, K4 said, “We can play it much better when Mr. Dusten’s here.” I’m sorry, I can’t fix that. “We get through the WHOLE song with Mr. Dusten.” If everyone would pay attention, we could get more done! (And no, I didn’t say this, though I sure wanted to.) “I don’t want to be in this class.” I’m sorry, that’s not my problem. At which point K8 chimes in with, “You know, patience is a virtue.” Yes, I know that. This is one virtue I’m currently working on.


Well, we got the first 12 measures sounding like a song. Then K3 said, “Its 11:14 and 35 seconds!!” Ok, get the cloths, clean up the bells and put them away. The clean up and set up for the next class went the smoothest out of anything else we attempted.


A few minutes later I got a call from the director. “How did it go?” It went. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I then related the events of the class, and the fact that we only got to measure 12 with it sounding remotely like a song. “Did anyone cry?” Of course I wouldn’t make anyone cry! One looked like she wanted to though… “Well, then you made progress. That was the first rehearsal that no one ended up in tears over.” Great, I made some progress.

Needless to say, I was extra nice to the choir director sub.

(UPDATE: Yesterday (the next rehearsal with the normal bells director) apparently went really well. “Did you yell at the kids or something? They sounded a lot better. No, I didn’t yell!)

OCD

I fight OCD. A lot of you do, though I don't think you realize it. That's why it's so dangerous. You see, OCD is, in actuality, probably not what you're thinking it is.

OCD is Obsessive Clicking Disorder.

I'm not kidding. You get on your email account, the web, google or blogger and click on something. Then something else looks interesting. (click) Then something else. (click) And that reminds you of something else. (click) Before you know it, you've spent an hour doing nothing but being amused. (click, click.....) An hour wasted.

(‘Amuse’ by the way, means to not think. If you don't believe me, take the word apart and figure it out for yourself. 'Muse' means to think. The prefix 'a' means no or not. Go figure.)

So be purposeful. Make the most of the time you have instead of wasting it by random clicks. Fight the urge of OCD.



Redeeming the time, because the days are evil....Eph. 5:16

If You Ever Need to Laugh, State the Obvious....

I have so many trains of thought that I can’t keep track of them and keep losing them.

I have to think all these thoughts ‘cause I don’t know what to think about them! ~my mom (both of these statements were made at 6:45 am)

If we wreck, we wreck. If not, we don’t. ~my sister

I was lying in the grass after a collision with someone on the other soccer team. It was dark and we were away from city lights so the sky was clear and the stars were bright. I tried to be funny when people asked if I was ok saying, “I see stars.” They took me seriously.

I told my little brother I was brain dead. He then replied, "You’re not if I can tickle you!!!

A Lesson Learned

As some of you may know, last weekend was the THSC conference in The Woodlands, Texas. My brother, sister, and I helped out with the children’s program.

To say that it was tiring being a team leader is an understatement. One of the staff described it this way: “If dog runs in front of the bus, he gets tired. If he runs behind the bus, he gets exhausted.” Toward the end of the second day, I had about lost it. I didn’t want anyone else to touch me, speak to me, or look at me. I was thinking to myself, “Why did I sign up for this again???”

Then God showed me how selfish my attitude was- and the reason why I was there.

It was during the midst of one of the last large groups. We were sitting, waiting for the next thing to happen on stage, and I noticed a girl interpreting what people were saying to another girl by sign language. When I caught the deaf girl’s eye, I signed a greeting.

Then she smiled. A big, happy, beautiful smile.

She replied, and I tried to talk further with her, but her speed in signing left my limited understanding of sign language in the dust. I couldn’t understand all of what she was saying, but could definitely understand the look on her face. One of the things she said that I was able to catch was “I’m very happy you’re talking to me!”

This sweet, precious girl showed me-just through these words and her smile- the reason why I was there. I was there to serve, to pour into the children around me and show them Christ’s love.

My prayer now more than ever is for God to make me a servant, following in Christ’s example. Never underestimate what the power of a greeting, a smile, or a seemingly useless act. One smile made all the work of the weekend worthwhile.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…. ~ Philippians 2:5-7a