My Brothers and I

My brothers and I playing volleyball in our yard.

My brother Michael

Yours truly

Michael next to the picture he painting for the duck stamp competition (Bottom right).

Our house in Arnold, MO.
My brother, Daniel, taking snooze. :)

Matt getting ready to play in a volleyball tournament.

My concentrating face

My dad

Psalm 28:6, 9b

"Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard to voice of my supplication. Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever."

The Lord is truly so good to us! It is good to praise Him! Like a shepherd, He gently carries those who are struggling and gently guides us in the paths that we should go. It is amazing what peace God can provide. If we really believe in the greatness of our Father, what thing do we think that He cannot do? His love is so abundant and free towards us!

Costume Time!!! :D

Well, it is costume time again! I don't suppose anyone realized that I have always enjoy such childish things as dressing up? Yep! And I get to do it again tomorrow at the Riefer's Somethingth Annual Costume Party!

There are funny memories we have had! Good times with good friends. People doing things that never thought they would do! Funny faces captured in the act!

What fun acting in the plays was!

Bad hair days among our wild cast and crew!

Bygone years and memories of meeting new friends!

More unrevealed pictures!

It either is twins, triplets, or simply three look-alikes!

Ha Ha Tonka

Last Friday, my three brothers and I joined a group of guys and went camping down at Ha Ha Tonka State Park. The first night, we cooked hot dogs and hamburgers and roasted marshmallows around the fire.

When everyone was finished eating, Carl and I and next Mark and I played the guitar while everyone sang. Afterward, we all went for a night walk and explored the road. It was neat to walk and talk in nearly complete darkness except for a few flashlights. Oddly enough, all across the road, there were glowing insects (larva or worms or something).

It was so pretty there. There was a spring with green-blue water. There were also many places to climb. There were hundreds of steps climbing here and there.

We found a natural bridge that you could drive a truck under. We all climbed on top of the bridge.

My brothers, Michael and Daniel, came and had a great time! They have always loved camp-outs!

Here we are driving back to our camp site after a long hike.

We had to hike around this canyon in order to reach the castle. Here we are on the other side looking across.

It was long hike and everyone was tired, but it was a lot of fun!

Visiting the castle was a neat experience, but it was also sort of ironic. As we approached the castle, we kept seeing couples coming down. We wondered just how many couples got engaged here. They all jokingly warned me to not go and see the castle! I just told them that I was taken already! :)

Blessings of Work

"If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!

2 Thessalonians 3:10b-13, 16


Call me crazy, but it is a great blessing to be really busy. It CAN even be a blessing to be so busy that you wonder how everything will be completed. This can be a blessing when the Lord is your source of strength because you can recognize that He is the one who is getting you through. From my perspective, if I am willing to work hard, be diligent, and do my best, I do not think that it is unreasonable or selfish to ask of God to provide the strength, focus, and even skill to complete my tasks well. God is very concerned with all that we do. I believe that He can and will give us strength when we ask of Him. I had never thought about it this way before, but in the previous verses, Paul says to "not grow WEARY OF DOING GOOD." I always assumed this was only referring to doing kind deeds, but I think Paul is more talking about how we work. If the Lord is our strength, why should we grow weary? Paul goes on to request peace continually for the people in every circumstance--even when busy and when working.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped." Psalm 28:7

2 Thessalonians 3:1-3, 5

"Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified...and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ."

4th of July Back Home

For the 4th of July, I went into St. Louis to visit my parents and shoot off some fireworks!

We took my grandma to see a huge display shot off over the Mississippi River!

My parents are the bestest parents in the whole world!  I thank God that they have been such loving and kind parents to my brothers and I!  Here they are standing in front of my cousin's house at a 4th of July get together.

I love shooting off fireworks!

My brothers, Matt and Michael!

MY HOUSE

Here is a picture of my house from the outside!  My parents live in Arnold, Missouri near St. Louis.

Over break, I built a wall, ran some outlets, and prepared some sheet-rock (I call it drywall!)  ;)  It is almost like a colander!  Sorry, inside joke!

Annie

I bet most of you did not even remember that I took these pictures. I must apologize at how long it has taken me to update my blog. There are two major reasons, maybe three if I stretch it a little! :) The first is that I have a film camera that requires about a week to develop the pictures. Okay, now that I have explained why this post was a week late, I now need to explain why it was months late! My computer has been broken for some time. My keyboard and mouse on my laptop froze up. The computer store where I take my computer is in St. Louis. I was not able to get it back to St. Louis for weeks, and it was not until weeks later that I was able to get my computer back, and it was not until weeks later that I was able to make the time to do some serious blogging!!! What a mouthful! :0

The eventful ride down! We made up a slow-moving three vehicle caravan.

Old friends reunited after what must have been weeks of separation since the play!

Traffic was perfect for running cookies between the vehicles and writing messages to the other cars in out caravan.

My great family and I (except for my dad)!

Our group made up most of this section! We had around thirty people!

Here is most of the group that went. My mom and two younger brothers valiantly defended our seats while we valiantly fought terrible traffic!

Stargazer

Matthew 6:28-29 "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these."

We can learn a lot of lessons from flowers! My favorite flower is the Stargazer lily. If you think about it, whenever we look at a flower, we should remember not to worry about the uncertainties of the future. Just as God cares so delicately about the lily, he cares infinitely more about you and me! He holds our hopes and dreams in His hands. He will provide us with the strength and patience to trust in His goodness and His plan.

As I said, the Stargazer lily is my favorite flower. Often when I look at the Stargazer, I draw some additional lessons from it. Jesus is known as the Lily of the Valley. He really must be beautiful if He is anything like the lily! The Stargazer tells a hidden story. If you look at the pedals of the Stargazer, you will find that they begin a reddish-pink color and change to white. The Stargazer is a picture of what we are like when the precious blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sin. We are declared righteous when we confess that we have sinned against God and believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay our penalty. On the Stargazer, the red represents the blood of Jesus, and the white represents the fact that we are declared righteous. The green of the stem represents our growing to know His Word and growing to know better who He is. Lastly, in name and in actuality, we should be like the Stargazer and always look heavenward in worship of our Savior who created us.


On a different note, this arrangement of flowers is probably the nicest that I have ever seen! Besides the beauty of the Stargazer, the little red flowers with their yellow highlights perfectly accent the arrangement.

Haying!!!

Friday, June 26

My parents, two younger brothers, and I all got to join the McCluckeys at their house for a fun day of "haying"!!! The night began with people gathering at their house and talking and having fun. In the McCluskey's living room, Matthew Beaty instructed Megan (it was filmed) as to the finer points of wisdom on getting others to like you! ;)

There were lots of people there who all had a great time!

Here are my little, and yes they still are shorter than me by a little, brothers. Michael (left) is 17 and Daniel (right) is 15. They were a big help in the haying and had a blast!!

I was determined to take as many photos as I could that night. I could have posted the funny one of Megan and I, but I thought that she would not want me! :) I will add it later if she wants me to post it!

So many people mistake Josh and I as either brothers or cousins. But then again, I have been told that I look like a lot of different people!

A very nice picture of Matt and Stephanie!

Zeke chilling out on the deck.

Mrs. Hamacher keeping vigil over two of her sons.

No, this is not Joel's son, this little fellow belongs to Andy!

My mom and Mrs. Riefer were able to have a good talk in the McCluskey's kitchen.

It is funny how small is all so relative! Small to one person is not so small to another!

Some recipients of the dreaded picture taking were quite stunned, like Chris here! :)

Here is my dad, Jim. My parents are the best in the whole world. They have been such a blessing to me. I thank God for the privilege of growing up with Christian parents!!

I really liked this shot I took of Jenny! The lighting on her hair is perfect!

Though most older people preferred not to "die twice" (according to them ultimate frisbee was one death and haying was another because of the intense heat), some of us younger people got in some playing time.

I came in late to the game because I was enjoying a great conversation!

Ashley and Megan took control of my brother's camera while we were working. I like the lighting contrasts on this one!

Talk about posing for a picture! This looks like the cover for an album or CD!

Some of the girls and younger people rode on four wheelers and brought us guys water and gatoraid! Thanks, girls!!

Another really nice picture!

And another!

My parents really enjoyed themselves. They hit it off very well with Mr. and Mrs. Riefer and the McCluskeys and the other people at the party!

We piled the wagons really high! Once in a while, if we piled them too high, some of the bales would fall off!

Here Daniel is organizing the bales as fast as he can, so we can take the bales and pile them in the loft of the barn. After we finished haying, the girls bombarded us with water balloons and dumped water on us. :D Everyone was soaked to the skin! It was a blast!!!

Here is what we looked like soaked. Some people even took out the hose and sprayed people! Some people really enjoyed getting wet! Others got wet by "accident"!! ;) It is always so sad when this happens!

When everyone had cleaned up and had eaten some delicious pies and desserts, many people gathered around the piano to sing while Mr. McCluskey played. We had several people sing and play the guitar to accompany him.

I know the pictures are reversed, but we next gathered around in a circle to play the guitar and sing.

It was a great night that I hope to remember forever!! There was a sense of victory when Matthew Beaty and I through up the very last hay bale into the loft! What a neat memory!!