Sledding!

Me and Isaiah

This is me and Gabby's kid Isaiah. We were posing for a picture, but then I started tickling him. I thought it turned out cool!

13 Below

It was 13 below when I left for work this morning. It warmed up to about 6 or 8 above though! I spent the day building walls and then cleaning up the basement of the jobsite.

I'm starting to get the whole driving stick thing. I stalled today in the driveway though, and I just started dying laughing.

I found my bank today. I kind of took the long way around, but I still got there and made a deposit.

There's a party with the youth group tomorrow. I gotta find a white elephant gift before I go. But, I cannot just find any gift! Lydia, Kyle's daughter, has challenged me to find a gift that is better than her's. To the death!

P.S. The picture is from when I was up in NY cooing pieces of a roast on the fire.

ROFL

This picture was taken up at Letchworth when I was in New York. I'm the one in the red, and I'm rolling on the ground laughing because I started acting like Gollum. This part of the woods looked just like a scene from Lord of the Rings. It was pretty amazing.

I woke up at 7:35 this morning and realized I was going to be late for the men's breakfast. I changed my clothes, grabbed my winter work gear, and headed out the door. I ended up forgetting my Bible and my study book. I enjoyed the conversations and teaching that went on at the breakfast. It was cool.

After breakfast I went with Mr. Gansmiller to his sister's house. She's got a wood-burning stove, and she needed to get a bunch of wood down from the hill and stacked by her house. We drove up the hill in a pickup truck style go kart type thing, and then hauled all the wood down load by load. It was a good time of fellowship and hard work. Alex and Andrew came after a couple of hours too, so that was fun. We finished up and had some pop and cookies and a frozen dessert. I went to get some of the frozen dessert off of my plate, and it shot off my plate and onto the floor. It was pretty funny. Kurt and I were laughing pretty hard. Life is good.

A Few Random Photos

A Wonderful Discovery

I made a pit-stop at a KFC on my way home from Thanksgiving, and I decided to get something to drink. I looked up at the menu, and I see that they have "Mega Jug" as one of the drink sizes. I was like "Oh yeah! That’s what I’m getting!" So, I did, and I filled it up with Mountain Dew. The only downside was that it was a bit awkward to hold as I was driving.

The last week and a half or so have been really good. I worked half a day on Wednesday last week and then headed down to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving. We did a big Thanksgiving dinner down at my Grandma’s, which was great. The next day Mike, Mel, Aunt Annette, and I all went Black Friday shopping. Yeee-haw!

I drove back on Sunday night and then started my first full work week. The week went really well. The guys that I work with are nice, even though they cuss like nobody’s business. They’ve been really good about teaching me stuff. I’ve done a lot of hauling lumber around and stuff like that, but I’ve also got the chance to learn new skills and tools. It’s good hard work, and I’m enjoying it!

I’m getting better at driving stick, and it’s a lot of fun! It snowed yesterday and today, so I got to peel out on some of the turns on my way to and from work. I went to youth group on Wednesday, which was fun.

I just got back from putting gas in my car and buying a Full Throttle drink. I got the Full Throttle at Home Depot, and I paid for it all in pennies!

There are two things that God has been teaching me recently, and they kind of go hand in hand. He’s been teaching me to put others before myself, and also to sacrifice my desires for what is right according to His word. I’ve been spending a lot of time in 1 Peter, which is chock full of good stuff to apply to our lives. I’ve enjoyed it very much.

Well, tomorrow I’m going to the men’s breakfast at the church, and then I’m going to haul wood with one of the guys from the church. It promises to be a relaxing day.

The Girl on the Far Right

My trip up to New York yielded a bit more than I had planned! I ended up talking to Katy's parents about beginning a courtship relationship with her. They said that they would talk and pray about it, and then get back to me soon. I was awakened on the morning of November 19th by Mr. Case calling me with an affirmative answer. Wow, what a wake-up call! I gave Katy a call later that afternoon and asked her if she would begin a courtship relationship with me. She was completely shocked, in a good way! She was totally speechless for like 20 seconds, so I took the opportunity to tell her that she could take as much time as she wanted. She was finally able to articulate words again, and ended up saying yes. Both sets of parents are excited about this, which is pretty cool. Pray that God would continue to give us wisdom and that He would be glorified through this!

By the way, if the title didn't already give it away, Katy is the girl on the far right.