It's Christmas Eve

I pity the fool who hasn't been good this year.

World Junior Hockey

So the World Junior Hockey Championships are in Buffalo just after Christmas. Most of America doesn't know it's even happening. All of Canada does....because we beat them last year and they want revenge.

ANYWAY....the rink I play at 1/2 hour away is hosting a pre-camp for several national teams and that will include 3 exhibition games. So instead of driving 2 hours to Buffalo and paying tons more money for tickets, I get to stay close to home and get AWESOME hockey for less.

Last night was the first of the 3 games. Two more games tonight. I'm amped. This is the best hockey I've seen....and that includes NHL. These players are all top level draft picks. IN the NHL you always have 4th liners that are just OK. Not here. These guys all have skills and can skate. So dang fast.

Norway's goalie last night was out of this world. He's the only reason that game didn't become a massacre. Norways forwards and defense are pretty weak compared to Slovakia....but their goal was sick. He must've stopped close to 50 shots. He was always in position. It looked effortless. I can't wait for tonight.

Hockey and Gatorade don't mix

I've never understood how guys can drink anything but water while playing hockey. I think I would puke. This is further reason. He is now a sticky mess. Add to it the fact that he had a goal disallowed just moments before this happened.

Things I Liked About our Canada Trip

This is a list (in no particular order) of things I liked or noticed about our trip to Canada to celebrate Canada with Mari's family.

-My in-laws got internet! I think I posted somewhere before that I have felt like Canada was the dark ages. I couldn't find a wifi signal anywhere. I finally found a Chinese restaurant that had a signal. But NOT ANYMORE!!!! I should probably say that I don't NEED internet.....but man is it nice!

-On a similar note: It's awesome to see my mother-in-law and neice both working on the Macbooks on the dining room table!

-Tim Hortons

-Family. Marjorie has a huge family. It's a little crazy when we all get together, but I love it. I really enjoy conversation with some awesome people. I love laughing with these people. I love joking with her younger brother about how bad the Maple Leafs are (does that ever get old?). [missed you Bea and fam.]

-I love that when you watch SportsCenter in Canada the lead stories are hockey highlights. They go through all the hockey games and give you the breakdown. Then toward the end of SC, they fit in football and basketball. This is a country that has their sports priorities mostly right. (however I think they're the only country that puts so much value on the World Junior Championship.....most of the US doesn't even know that we're hosting it this year!)

-Tim Hortons again......In the US....you're discouraged to bring a beverage into a store. While Mari and I were shopping we saw several people with a Tim Horton's cup in their hands and no one flinched at the sight.

-WIZARD

-My mother-in-laws raisin bread. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I'm pretty sure I could eat a whole loaf myself.


EDIT: Holy cow I just re-read this and somehow forgot the fact that my awesome brother-in-law helped work out a paintball deal for me and I got another new (to me) marker. The bonus for this deal was this insanely old mask that is in mint condition. YES!

Silent Monks

Thanks Andrea.

Free Crowder Christmas

David Crowder has a free O Holy Night mp3 for you to download. Recorded live at their church UBC.

GET IT HERE

Area of Refuge

Backstory: Our church put on an addition in the past year or so. We're still doing small updates. My office used to be the old cry room behind the sanctuary. It had a weird bathroom in it that everyone would use thus walking through my office. So in the remodel, my office got ripped apart. No more bathroom. New carpet. New paint. Better heat. New door. AND an emergency door (I call it the escape hatch should someone come in that I don't want to talk to.....never used it yet). HOWEVER....my office is suppose to be the safe area. They like double insulated and drywalled it. There is an emergency phone and the exit door. Fine whatever.

So last weekend I was away on a retreat with teens. I show up at worship team on Wednesday night and find a GIANT sign outside my office. Here it is.There's so much I find funny about this. The size of the sign is ridiculous.

The fact that MY OFFICE is considered a Area of Refuge. NEVER would you consider any office I've ever inhabited an area of refuge. My office in North Warren was more of an area of disaster or area of would breed small plagues....refuge? No. To be fare, because of the way I do youth group outside of the church building, my office doesn't get a ton of use and thus is relatively neat compared to past offices......but refuge? HA

Pitter Patter Contest

Long time no post.

A good while ago I told you about Pitter Patter Art and the plates we ordered for our boys. She does AWESOME stuff. They are adopting again and she's doing tons of giveaways and selling rad shirts to raise money.

Currently she's doing an awesome giveaway. Someone who bought some of her artwork sent her some free ornaments and she's giving some of them away again.

HERE'S THE LINK.

You should no only check out this giveaway, but really buy some of her art. We love our plates and will probably be ordering more from her in the not too distant future.

Pure Awesome

I put this as a facebook status but I need it captured for a little more permanent amount of time.

"Girls only care about hugging and kissing and getting married and Barbies and Pixies and stuff. They don't care about ninjas". -Corban

Doesn't get much better than that.

My Financial Downfall....Timeline

For those of you not in Warren, you probably don't care one hoot about these pictures. They are clearly building something right? The first picture was taken last week. The last three pictures were taken 2 days apart. The week before picture one there was a GIANT hole in the ground. They're rocking this place out. So what?

The structure you see is going to be a Tim Horton's!!!! IN WARREN! There goes the money I make giving guitar/drum lessons.

My buddy J and I are going to try to camp out so we can be their first customers. Updates to come.

Zach

This is Zach. (he's the one on the right for those keeping score at home.)

There have been some questions on Facebook and via e-mail about Zach so I thought I'd just make a post and tell you what's going on.

Zach is 21. I've known Zach for awhile now. Zach has been going to my buddy J's youth group for ever. Zach now helps out with the youth. We started really getting to know Zach well in the past 6-8 months since I've been helping with J's youth group and Zach comes to my summer Ultimate Frisbee and occasionally to our Summer Bible Study at our house.

Zach would admit that he's had a rough home life through most of his life. He hasn't had many positive things modeled for him. So we recently found out that Zach needed a place to stay. So we figured we had a bunch of extra room and lots of love in our house that we could share. So Zach is now living with us. The boys absolutely adore Zach. It's like having this cool older brother hanging around to give them extra attention. Zach loves up on the boys too.

So if Zach shows up in family photos, you know why. He's going to be part of our family for a good while.

Hair Part 2

Have you seen this pile of awesomeness?????? Sooooo sweet!



And there's this article from NPR that has both this video and the Sesame Street Video I posted earlier in the week. The article talks about how young black girls are being empowered to love the way they were born. I would suggest that it's not just girls. I've watched the Whip Your Hair video 3 times in the last 15 minutes with Tobiah on my lap and he keeps asking for more. He loves it.

I'm hoping this is the start of an awesome movement.

AND if that weren't good enough there's already a Remix that is super duper cool!

Questions and Answers

About a month or so ago I started doing what I thought was self-analyzing. I was really just talking to God about what He had called me to do and where I was headed.

Basically my questions have been like this:
-Have you called me to do youth ministry or have you called me to Warren and it just so-happens that those things have been connected for the past 10 years?
-If you've called me to youth ministry, how much longer will I be here before you move me?
-If you've called me to Warren to do ministry (whatever that looks like) how much longer will I be working for churches?
-If I'm not working for churches, any ideas what the plan is because I'm not qualified or trained to do anything. Literally.
-Etc. etc. etc.

Not that I really expected any real clear answers from all of that. I guess that for years we were in the process of adopting the boys and it was pretty clear to us that "this is what you're suppose to be doing." Then we asked, "what's next?" and God pretty clearly called us to buy this big stinking house...and in so doing called us to hospitality (which I would say is still a work in progress).

So one afternoon I was driving somewhere...not sure where....and basically it felt like God was just telling me to chill out. Aaron you're where I want you to be, stop worrying about the details, those are mine.

Fast forward to this week. I had to meet with our Pastor Relations Committee for our yearly evaluations. I've had a lot of bad meetings in the past with these types of groups (not so much at this church but in the past). Even though that's been over for awhile I still get tense inside knowing I have to go to these meetings. I argue with myself and tell myself to calm down. I know that mentally I'm preparing to defend myself and what I do.....because I've had to do that in the past.

So we sit down at the meeting....and they say things like "what can we do to make your job easier?" "What do you need more of from us?" "If you could have anything to help with your job what would it be?" "What's the most stressful part of this and how can we fix that for you?"

I was flabbergasted. I didn't have answers for those questions. Who were these people? So wait a minute.....you don't want to question how well I'm doing my job even though you know nothing about youth ministry? You don't want to try to measure whether I"m a success or a failure based on preposterous expectations? You want to come along side me and encourage and support me? Seriously?

Not only that but the head of the committee looked at the job description for my youth position and said, "this thing is preposterous....let's re-write it so that it makes sense....Aaron would you be willing to help me re-write this?" Wait, what? You recognize that objectives have to change and you're not going to hold me to this thing that is 4 years old? huh.

As if that wasn't good enough, they also agreed to go to bat for me about a problem I'm having with having taxes not withheld from the worship part of my job...which causes us to take a hit every year come tax time. HA HA

In all the years I've been working with and for churches I've never been in a meeting like that. Now that I type that out.....that's kind of sad. But it was also the coolest experience!

So the entire time I'm at this meeting, I keep hearing God say, "Aaron I got this." "This is the place that I have for you." "Stop trying to steer the ship."

Crowder

For a long time David Crowder spurned music videos. I was OK with that. Now the creative guru's have pulled out some crazy stops and done this.

Humbled

Preface: You don't have to read my blog to know I love hockey and play weekly. When you think of a locker room you probably imagine crude jokes and behavior. I would say that for the most part that's normally that stereotype isn't too ridiculous. However that the locker room that I dress in, it's not the norm. We've had conversations about Chai tea, our kids, boating, snowmobiling, and of course hockey. I won't say that inappropriate comments aren't heard there, but it is far from the norm.

So Dave sits down next to me this past week and asks, "So Aaron, your boys.....did you adopt them locally or internationally?" (because of my preface, this didn't catch me too much off guard) So I started talking about my boys a little bit, which isn't really too hard for me to do. He also asked if we had traveled and how long we had to stay there.

I already knew from previous conversations that Dave and his wife had 6 kids already. He and I have talked about how they have to schedule a lot of activities with the kids and how late night hockey is his freedom from the house. So I was blown away when he then shared with me that he and his wife are traveling in the near future to the Ukraine because they're adopting two little girls. Two MORE girls. I expressed my amazement at another two kids. He then shared that their youngest two children were adopted domestically through the foster care system. So while we're getting dressed he's telling me all about the struggles of using the foster care system and the waiting game of having the parents finally give up custody and rights to their children.

Dave also shares with me that they just found out that one of the girls has major heart problems and the orphanage has told them that they don't expect her to make it. Apparently in the Ukraine Orphans are treated like broken furniture...not much use. So Dave's wife has been calling and hunting via the Internet for doctors in the region to do surgery on their little girl.

Dave then goes on to tell me that in a couple weeks they're getting two 3 year olds through the foster care system to have at their house for 6 months. So they'll have 4 kids in their house that are 3. WHILE they're working on figuring out the struggles with their adoptions......oh yeah they both work full time too.

The more Dave talked to me the more amazed I was at his life. He and his wife seemed to be like super people. What an amazing testimony to God's love working in people's life.............. right?

I don't claim to know anyone's heart, but I would make an educated guess that Dave's not a Christian. He and his wife do all of this because they think it's the right thing to do. It's not out of a response of God's love in their life. It's not because they heard good teaching on taking care of the widows and the orphans. Not because they really felt like God was calling them to do something big. They just think it's right. They're just good people.

I'm not shocked by that. I know quite a few non-Christians who are just good people. They raise their kids to have good values. They do extraordinary things above and beyond the call of normal daily duty. In fact a bunch of guys in the locker room that I dress in are really really good guys who genuinely care about their families and their community...but aren't lovers of God.

The shock for me is the contrast of Dave and the nice guys in my locker room to us inside the church. What is our response to hurt and struggle in the world? Let's face it, it's a whole lot easier to write a check to support a missionary to go do something for us, than to actually get involved. We don't really want to put a face on injustice.

If the God of the universe lives inside of us, how do we view children that don't have parents. What do we do James 1:27? How do we look at Dave and his wife and not feel incredible humbled?

Dave and his wife could really use your prayers.

Hair

This isn't TOTALLY applicable for the boys....no ribbons or anything....but particularly Corban has VERY different hair than all his white friends and asks lots of questions. This rocks. Sorry for the multiple Sesame posts......I have kids....

More Things I Don't Understand

Here once again are things I don't understand. For those joining the game late, these are just lists of things I just can't get my head around. Some more serious than others. Here and Here are the last episodes if you need to catch up.

-Speed Limits: Now it's not that I don't understand the function of Speed Limits. But I guess I don't understand what they really ARE. The word limit mean: The point, edge, or line beyond which something cannot or may not proceed. Ok so we're dealing with a definitive cap. But that's not how it works. If the sign says 50 everyone knows you're allowed 5 over. So we drive at least 55. So is 55 really the speed limit? But if they raised the speed limit to 55 we'd all go 60. And we all know that the Speed Limit signs on a high way mean we can go even a little faster than the "5 over" theory. So maybe Speed Limit signs should just say "somewhere around 40ish".

-Smoke Detector Batteries: Why is it that smoke detector batteries only fail at or around 3am. You start hear that annoying "hey my battery is starting to go, you should change me really soon" beep. It wakes you out of a full on sleep and instantly into slight panic mode because you wonder if this is actually the alarm going off. You wonder if you need to crawl on all fours, or just stumble around stubbing your toes on furniture. Then the task of figuring out which smoke detector is actually the perpetrator.

-Battery Packaging: Along the same line of smoke detectors....why is packaging for batteries so hard to open? The pack I bought to change into our smoke detector was a solid cardboard back with a tiny hole in the middle. The hole was right where the battery, and smaller than a dime, so there's no way you're sticking a finger in there and ripping it out. There isn't always perforation, there isn't a smooth way of opening it without dumping batteries on the ground. You would think that in the age we live we could do better than that.

-Truck Commercials: To be fair, we don't have TV. However, on spending time with relatives, or friends I have noticed this. Why is it that every truck commercial has video of large, random objects being dropped from great heights into the back of a pick-up truck? Who does that? Are there guys that just say, "Yeah, let's lift this giant bail of fencing up another 10 feet and drop it into the bed instead of just sliding it in the back." Is the point of the bed of the truck to see if it is actually a trampoline? I just don't get it.

-4 Wheel Drive Around Town: Currently the downtown of Warren is being torn up in a "beautification project" (which I'm bitter and cynical about anyway). But in the process several streets are closed, and on the few that are open you have to drive over some dirty paths where they've cut chunks out of the road. Why is it that people in big pick-ups or 4x4 SUV's drive over these dirt paths at 5 mph? YOU HAVE A TRUCK!!! We live on the edge of a national forest and there are tons of trucks here...I get that.....so drive it!! Why would you buy a 4x4 and be afraid of a bump in the road? I'd use that thing as a jump.

Little Kids Eating: Marjorie and I try really hard to expose our children to a wide variety of food. We prepare a variety of foods with different textures, flavors, vegetables, meats, fruits, you name it. Why is then, that kids gravitate back to their loves of Mac N Cheese, Pizza, Hot Dogs, etc. We definitely don't push those things. We definitely encourage other things. Why are those things the staples of little kids (if they were allowed to). The other night Tobiah and I were on our own and I just casually said, "What shall we have for dinner?" "MAC". He can barely talk and he's bugging me for mac n cheese.

Duck Face Pictures: This is a particularly girl thing to do. For some reason when girls get their picture taken it's cool to pretend you're a duck (see photo). Maybe they're ptretending they're kissing thing air. Regardless. I don't get it. It looks silly to me.

Along the same lines....Rural white kids flashing gang signs. I've been to New York, but only as a tourist. I've never been to LA. However I know enough to know that wearing certain colors, or flashing certain hand gestures will get you killed. Why is it that very white teenagers in the very rural part of the country are wearing gang colors and flashing signs in pictures? Seriously? What you own the turf out back of your daddy's barn?

Botox: Butt fat huh? In your face huh?

Flag stealing: We bought an Ethiopian flag to hang on our front porch. Someone stole it. Flagpole and all. Who seriously wants an Ethiopian flag? Like what are you going to do with that?

I'd love for you to share things you don't understand as well. It'll be like group therapy.

Moo

It's been a long time since I've blogged. My bad. I've been thinking hard about ramping back up. Let's hope this is the the start. Thanks Steve for this.

Church

Because I work for a church, and have for a number of years, I end up spending a lot of time thinking about the church. I would venture to guess that I spend more time thinking about church than most church-goers do. Because I spend so much time thinking about church, I then often write most of my newsletter articles talking about church and what we’re doing and where we’re going. I often wonder if I"m a broken record. I almost want to apologize for constantly questioning what church is…….almost.

Old Picture

Just re-found this picture and it made my die laughing. Just thought I'd share.

Francis Chan thoughts on move...

Many of you might know that Francis Chan this past spring left his church as the full-time teaching pastor to do something new. This morning my buddy Kent posted this video...thought I'd repost.

What's Next for Francis Chan? A Conversation with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris from Ben Peays on Vimeo.

Sick to my Stomach

Well there are bad worship songs....and then there's this. Have we really reached this level, that we have to cater to kids potty style humor during worship? My boys won't be listening to this nonsense

FOUND AGAIN: At a Concert.

Francis Chan hurts my head

My friend Bill posted this on his blog a little bit ago. I am really digging Francis Chan thinking right now. Sometimes my head hurts from thinking.

MUST WATCH this video

Every now and then I find something that you just really need to see. This is one. I find this fabulous. I hope you do too.

Part of the Family

I found this draft buried...but it's a good story so I'll post it now even if it's a little late.

Here's how the story goes:

My grandmother (mom's mom) is a GIANT garage saler/fleamarket queen. Always has been. Always looking for a deal.

About a year after Corban came home, my mom calls to say that Gram is at a garage sale just up the street from her house looking for things for us......that we didn't ask for. Ok.
So the next time we arrive at my parents house there is this little blue kids recliner there. For us. That we didn't ask for. My grandmother decided we needed it. To be completely honest, we hated the silly thing. We wanted nothing to do with it. We didn't want it. We didn't need it. What were we going to do with this thing in our small apartment? We tried leaving it at my parents....but they didn't want it either. So we finally took it home.
And Corban quickly fell in love with it.

Like not liked it. Loved it. Had to sit in it to watch his movie after his nap. EVERY DAY.

How can you get rid of that? So we kept it.

I think we were hoping that at some point he'd out grow it and we'd still ditch it somehow.

Then Tobiah came along. Somehow when Tobiah start trotting around Corban gave up the little chair and laid on the couch while Tobiah instantly got the chair. And it was HIS chair.

After a couple years of boys jumping, sitting, standing, leaning and laying on the chair, it needed some work. Actually Marjorie and I were constantly adjusting the springs and the foam under the seat.

Soon after we moved to our house we knew the couch was done for. Staples were coming out. There was barely any seat to actually sit on anymore. It was just in the way. So one Wednesday morning.....
Odd really. I miss that chair. My boys are growing. The chair we didn't want was important in their lives at one point....and now is gone.

To the Moon

The boys have a habit in the mornings of coming and jumping into our bed if we're not up by 8.

So the other morning Corban comes running in to our room full of energy and ready to attack the day while I just wanted to get another 1/2 hour sleep. Marjorie gets up to go get Tobiah.

In the mean time Corban jumps in bed with me and starts talking. About everything. (Quick backstory...Marjorie had taken the day off work so we could go up to Presque Isle beach in Erie for the day....but we had only told Corban that we were going to do something "special" for the day so he wouldn't stay up all night hyping himself up to go swimming)

So Corban's talking to me about whatever he wants and I'm trying hard to ignore him and finish my dream. At some point he said, "I know what we can do fun today...we can all get in a space ship and go to the moon."

To which I said, "Sure. Let's do that."

Let me state for the record that while Corban has a vivid imagination, he is also very level headed for a 5 year old and almost always knows the difference between pretending and imagination. So when I said, "Sure. Let's do that."...even though I was half asleep I was still pretty sure he knew that we were pretending.

So he runs downstairs and starts telling Marjorie that we're going to the moon today....again I thought he was just pretending....until Mari said something like...."well we can't do that for real, you know that right?" To which Corban was stunned. Why not? Why can't we? Please?

By this point I've groggily made my way downstairs. In my infinite fatherly wisdom I believe I'm going to teach my son something about he world. So I start explaining about space travel and NASA and blasting off to the moon. Then I said, "Do you know how many people have ever actually been to the moon?" "No dad how many?" "Um...I'm not sure....but probably like only 5"

To which my son won the argument by saying...."Well I'm 5"

Fresh Kicks: UPDATE!

Last week I posted about my Fresh Kicks. I told you about how my buddy J hooked me up with the guy to get them.

What I didn't tell you was that when I was bidding on my Nike Vandals, J also bid on a pair in his size...but lost the bid. So when I got my shoes J immediately came over to check them out and loved them.

So last week while I was writing my Fresh Kicks post I went back on e-bay to double check what I actually paid for them. While there I did a quick search of the guys inventory and found that he was selling the Vandals in J's size for 10 bucks with only like a day left. Guess who won the Vandals? That's right. J and I can now be seen on the streets of Warren....or more than likely in youth groups in Warren wearing the same shoes. He clearly has more of a selection of shoes to chose from to wear on any given day, so the likelihood we actually go complete GEEK and wear them together is slim.

Must Watch Video: Hockey Fight!

I just stumbled across this. FABULOUS! Gloves come off.....and mom calls her little boy. Hilarious.

FOUND

After much searching......

Jumble Box

I have a box in my basement (exciting stuff right?). I call it my Jumble Box. In all my years of playing music in various locations around the world and in various venues and places, I've met a bundle of other musicians/sound guys with similar boxes. Actually they're not always boxes...sometimes it's a plastic tote, or a cabinet, or cupboard somewhere. And they have their own name for their "Jumble Box."

So what's in my Jumble Box? Well...a jumble of cables, chords, adapters and microphones. There's even one of those metal things that go around your neck to hold a harmonica while you're playing guitar. Guess what's not in there? A harmonica.

Over the years I've just steadily collected old cables and stuff in this box that seems to continue to make it's way to every place that I've lived. To be honest I don't even know how some of those cables got in there in the first place, nor can I remember how the box got started in the first place.

Now here's the thing about that: I have spent tons of time teaching other people how to properly roll and wrap a microphone or instrument cable. For the record you can't just wrap it around your elbow...that puts kinks in the wire on the inside. To properly wrap a cable you do a quarter twist of the cable with every loop. I was on a church worship team for awhile where we had to tear our gear down every week and set it back up every week. So every week we had to wrap all our cables and put them away. I was constantly lecturing people about making sure the cables were done properly. I worked in a recording studio for a year and in a studio you have to be a bit OCD about how your cables are treated.

So in a music setting I'm a freak about taking care of cables and adapters. Yet in my house I have a rats nest pile of cables. And like I said before I know TONS of musicians/sound techs/studio owners who have a similar bin or cabinet in their house or corner of their studio. They don't use that stuff regularly but it exists.

What's the deal with that? I could see if I was the only nutball pack ratting stuff away, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Here's what I was thinking this week though as I tripped over my Jumble Box...how much of my life is like that Box?

One of the first things you learn in youth ministry is to be real with students...because they can smell a fake a mile away. I try to be as honest with them as I can. I've shared openly with students that there is hurt in my life. I struggle with my relationship with Jesus at times. I cry when I'm hurt. Even at that there still parts of my life that teenagers don't need to be privy to.

There are areas of my life that are jumble. Sometimes I'm not nice and say things I instantly regret. I'm not always the best husband or father that my family needs. More often than I'd like I'm quick to anger rather than slow to anger. Sometimes I let the boys just watch a 1/2 hour movie rather than playing a game with them. I have been known to yell at other drivers while in the car.

I just finished reading "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. The whole book is about the Holy Spirit. One of the big things I got out of the book was the idea that if the Holy Spirit truly dwells in us, our lives HAVE to be different. If we are listening to the Spirit's leading, our lives CAN'T look like any one else around us.

So I guess I'm wondering if more of my life needs to be less like my Jumble Box. Where do you fall in this? What's your Jumble Box look like? How large has your Jumble Box gotten over the years? What needs cleaned out once and for all and pitched?

Blame It On the Aaron!

ANOTHER STORY!

Every year the area youth pastors have done a weekend retreat at a camp not far from here. It's a lot of fun, and has spawn some amazing ministry opportunities. The last two years as a fun activity we've done a "Talent Night" on Saturday night. Just a way for kids to do goofy stuff or serious stuff or show off a bit. Some of the kids have amazing talents we didn't know about.

So this past February we had our retreat. On Saturday evening at dinner our food coordinator told me that after worship I should send the kids up to the dining hall and she'd have big bowls of pudding laid out for them. So after worship I did what she told me to do. I told everyone there was pudding laid out and they should go eat it. Little did I know that in the mean time there was a change made and there were different snacks laid out for the students.

So we get back and some kids are filing over to me to do some last minute sign ups for the talent show. I'm semi-MCing the event from the back of the room at the sound board. One of those students is one of my kids...Kevin. I don't think anything of it. Kevin is normally pretty quiet...but it seems that when we get to the retreat a switch is flicked in his brain and he becomes incredibly outgoing and vocal.

So I'm letting everyone know who goes where and we finally get to Kevin. He stands up and lets everyone know that he's going to do a free-style rap based one....NO PUDDING. He's angry that I told him there was pudding and there wasn't any...because he really likes pudding.

He then proceeds to bust a rap that is not amazing. If you talk to Kevin today, he'll tell you that it wasn't very good. However it was one of those moments on a teen retreat where everyone got behind it because it was so bad. It became the "cool thing". Everyone kept saying "Blame it on The Aaron. UHHH"

I submit for your viewing pleasure Kevin's Pudding rap in it's entirety. I would like to point out ahead of time that I muted his mic at the very end because he clearly had nothing left. Prepare yourself....it's not really good and might not even make sense to you.



So the retreat is over and every is talking about this Pudding Rap.....for weeks.

At the time we didn't know that one of the girls had videoed the whole thing. So when she posted it on YouTube and linked it for me, we flipped out! The madness continued!

So I told Kev that I was going to try and redeem his Rap a bit. I've been thinking about how to go about doing that.

The first thing I did was ripped the audio from the video. Problem one arose here. I'm now using the audio from a video shot in a really big room with lots of crowd noise. Not a good starting point.

Step two was finding a program to work in. To be honest I haven't worked enough in most modern editing software to be comfortable. So I played for 1/2 hour with a program that really wasn't designed to do what I was asking it to do.....but found that I could make it work.

Then I started cutting up the audio I had into little snippets. This was also hard because any little section with bleed or crowd noise couldn't be used. I had to get just the right little clip. I then started looking for sounds. I didn't know what I was looking for exactly....guitars? orchestra hits? gongs? bass? I just knew I'd find something. Here too was a problem because it needed to be in the right format so the program I was using could edit it easily enough.

Then it was a lot of cutting and pasting...finding loops and using making them fit. Because of the program I was using, and the quality of the audio my hands were tied. But after WAY too much time messing around with this....it's done.

We took teens to Pittsburgh two weeks ago to work for World Vision's Distribution Center there and I put it on the mix for the trip. That was big reveal to students.

So here's what I did with Kev's Pudding Rap.


PUDDING RAP MP3

Fresh Kicks

Story time kids!

This story starts out a long time ago. Like....1985ish....I was in 5th grade. It's possible that it took place the year before in 4th grade, but the more I've thought about it, I think it's 5th. The most popular kid in our class was Benji Zawacki (who after some internet searching I've found out now works for Amnesty International in Burma). Benji was cool...but he was always just a nice guy to everyone.

So I'm pretty sure all the boys in our class played Biddy Basketball during the winter. Benji's dad was one of the coaches. Benji showed up with these black Nike's with gold swooshes. Everyone was in awe.

Now my brother and I never went without. There was always plenty of food to eat and we always had clothes etc. But my mom watched every penny and we never bought the highest fashion stuff either. We just knew that that was the way it was. So imagine my amazement when we found the exact same shoes in an odd discount store near where my grandparents live!

So I showed up at basketball practice and everyone thought I was wearing Benji's shoes...until he showed up. I was flying as high as a kite. It sure didn't make a better basketball player but I felt great that whole season because I had some great kicks.

For the record: My mom taught me well. I don't buy shoes for fashion. In fact I'm a cheapskate. I don't buy shoes that cost more than I think they should ask.

Enter my buddy J.

J is a youth pastor here in town. Over the last two years he and I have done more and more stuff together with our youth groups. We spend a bunch of Monday mornings together as he watches his son and I have the boys. We chill.

J is addicted to shoes. I don't understand his addiction, but he doesn't understand my addiction to paintball guns. We commiserate in each others addictions.

To be fair, J is more than addicted. Even though he lives with me here in little old Warren he's actually pretty well known in the Nike Sneaker Blog world.....whatever that is.

So over the years J has talked to me about shoes. About 5 or 6 months ago J asked me if there was one pair of shoes that I wish I still owned. I couldn't think of anything immediately. The more I thought of it though, I could only think of one pair of shoes. The black Nike's with gold swooshes. I tried describing them to J but I was doing a bad job of it. So after some Google searches I found them and shared the pics with J. He knew right away what they were...Nike Vandals.

So fast forward to a couple weeks ago. J sends me the link of a guy on e-bay who has the re-release of the Air Vandals. They're almost identical except that instead of gold swooshes they have golden yellow swooshes. Here was the problem though: The guy had them as a Buy It Now for something like 70 dollars plus 16 in shipping. That's WAY more than I would normally pay for shoes that I use daily far less shoes that are just fun to wear around. So I start digging around on the same guys e-bay store. He has a pair just for auction! So I bid what I'm comfortable paying. I WIN! I paid 30 dollars including SHIPPING!

Behold my childhood revisited!




























I DO NOT like the strap that is on the top of these. It came off almost immediately. I really like the way the original Vandals strap went with the shoe. I'd love to find a strap that is black, yellow and white...not sure if that exists....J?

I LOVE these shoes. They are super comfy. They are really really light weight because there's no leather at all....it's all Nylon sides. J has definitely not hooked me on buying shoes...I still don't understand his obsession, but I really love owning these shoes. Thanks Bro!

Happy Sunday

Vacation Part 3: The Rest

This will mostly just be pictures I think. The rest of vacation with my parents, brother and his family.




























We spent a rainy Monday going to The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca. They were good at pushing evolution, but for the most part it was a cool place. The boys both love dinosaurs so it was a fun day checking out fossils and skeletons. The whole place was very interactive and they had a couple little play areas where the kids could play with some dinosaur toys.











































































My brother is an avid fisherman. He brought a couple kiddie poles for the kids. Mostly they just caught some small sunfish. Corban took his turn and had the catch of the week on a tiny pole. A nice catfish. He was pretty scared of the look of that thing! Tobiah used a pole without any hook. He just liked casting and reeling.

Vacation Part 2: The Expected

This is the second installment of the vacation posts. We rented a house on one of the Finger Lakes in NY two weeks ago with my parents, brother and his family and these are some of our adventures.

I'm sure I've told most of this story before...but by now you have to know I like telling stories....so I'll tell it again.

While in Ethiopia picking up Tobiah we had to take a drive to the US Embassy to get our paperwork officially stamped. We walked to the AAI house to catch the van to the Embassy. A bunch of other families had to go too so we all piled into a van to make the drive across Addis. As we drove, Marjorie started chatting with the woman next to her....who turned out to be a super dooper cool person. As we drove, we talked a lot to this awesome couple who in many ways had a bunch of similarities to our own story. The more we talked the more we felt we connected. We spent only a couple hours with them and we felt like we were somehow connected.

Then we came home and went immediately to the hospital with Tobiah. They came home and went immediately to the hospital with their little boy E. The problem was that we didn't know that because we didn't get any real contact info from them other than the fact that Andrea had a blog called "Better Than Good." So we started searching. And searching. And searching. We pretty much gave up. Then one day I just did the same search I always did and found it right away.

So we've been Facebooking and e-mailing back and forth for the last 2 years. A few months ago Andrea told me they were going to a family reunion just west of Pittsburgh in WV (West Virginia not World Vision this time). So we started planning and plotting to get our families together. The problem was that it fell just at the end of our vacation away. So we worked it out to drive from the Finger Lakes on Saturday to my parents house and meet them for brunch on Sunday morning.

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

The boys got along as if they had known each other forever. Their teenager daughter S fell in love with Tobiah. Too bad they live far away or we'd have a new babysitter for sure! It was only another 2 hours spent with them, but it was AMAZING time spent. Such an amazing family. Hugs all around. I really wish we lived closer....even moderately closer.

BUT....there are plans in the works to do something really cool with them in the future....but you'll have to wait for a totally different blog post for that announcement!!!

(see what I did there....always keep your audience wanting more)

Vacation Part 1: The Unexpected

NOTE: Last week [two weeks ago now that's how long this post has taken me to write] we were on vacation (thus all the pictures and videos pre-posted). Our clan, my parents and my brother and his family rented a house on one of the Finger Lakes in NY. This is installment one of vacation.

So all the adults sat down Sunday night to get an idea of activities we wanted to do throughout the week. We just made a mega-list. We knew it would rain on Monday, so we planned an indoor museum (possibly more on that later). On Monday we randomly decided that Tuesday would be Watkins Glen day. You may have heard of Watkins Glen for it's big Nascar races.....but there is a State Park there that is fabulous.
From the main gate there are several trails you can hike to the top. We chose the Glen Trail. You hike along a large creek that was cut by glaciers and lots of erosion. There is a good size drop (about 400 feet) in elevation as you hike a bit under 2 miles to the top. There are tons of waterfalls some that you walk behind and under. It was a really nice hike. Lots of pictures (more at the bottom). Tons of fun. Kind of a struggle at times with Tobiah because his little legs still don't do stairs well at all. It was much easier to carry him.
So at the 1 mile marker we could see we were most of the way to the top. The remaining hike was relatively level. The problem was that everyone was tired and hungry (we had planned a picnic lunch). The littler kids weren't stoked about hiking back down. So my dad and I decided to hike back down to get the vehicles and drive them to the top parking area and meet everyone else there.

So on the way down my dad and I decided to count how many stairs there were (559) from the mile mark to the bottom. I tell you that only to say that I was somewhat distracted on the way down and not really paying much attention to people.
HOWEVER....as we neared the bottom I knew we were almost done counting so I slowed a bit and happened to look up. I saw some kids. No bid deal right? Then I looked up and saw.....saw.....well I saw Avery.

Those of you who have been following my blog for years....or just know our story, will remember the struggles we had with Corban's adoption. You'll remember that we had to wait for a year and a half for him to come home. During this time we started reading a bunch of blogs and connecting with some families who were also in the waiting process. One of the couples we met were Avery and Heather. They each have their own blogs and we followed both of them. While they were waiting they made a couple trips to Ethiopia. We never met...but we knew them well.

And there in front of me was Avery. I just knew it was him. I took a harder look at the kids.....yep these were definitely their kids...and this HAD to be Avery. So I motioned for my dad to slow down...and stop counting...and said, "um...excuse me...you're Avery right." Now let's keep in mind that they had never met me. After a quick explanation of how I knew him all was well. I explained that we were at the top and they explained they were headed there and hoped to see us in a little bit.

So we easily found their van in the parking lot (big Ethiopian flag bumper sticker on it). Dad and I drove up to the top for lunch. I jump out of the fan and run to Mari...."YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED".

So we eat lunch. The kids go to play on the playground while the adults finish actually eating....and then they appear. The whole family. The ladies exchanged hugs, the kids went off to play and Avery and I stood around talking.
Tons of cool stories came out of our time together. The Moore's took two trips to ET before they finally went to pick up their kids. Heather definitely remembers holding Corban. So she got to hold our "little" boy before we did!!!! They shared a lot of insight into our first agency and where Corban was living. We talked about life with our kids. We laughed and cried. It was an amazing afternoon. It was amazing.

Not sure how anyone can't say God didn't have his hand in this meeting. They just "happened" to be at that place on that day at that time. We just "happened" to choose that day to go to the Glen. Dad and I just "happened" to go back down to get the cars and I just "happened" to look up even though I had ignored every other person on the way down.
We started the day being strangers and we ended the day with new friends.