Visit to Salem

Wednesday, June 17

Joel, Carl, Mark, and I decided to take a bike ride out 72 to go to Salem.  It turned out to be an eventful ride!  Here we are preparing to set out from behind to brand new and famed Walgreens!  I got some peanuts as some power food for the ride. 

About five miles out of town, the group stopped at a small stream flowing by to cool off for a short time.  Knowing that the tread on my back tire was low, I did not ride my bike all the way down to the stream but decided to walk down.  Here Mark is cooling off in the stream.  I got him unsuspecting! ;)  When we got back on the road, my tire was flat with a shard of rock that was almost like glass in sharpness.  Nathan Hickle was nice enough to drop off another bike and pick mine up in his truck!  You're the best, Nathan!!!  We still owe you ice cream!  :)

The ride to Salem was more tiring for me than it should have been.  I guess I was worn out from all the work and little sleep that I had been having for the last week prior!  We finally made it to Salem!

Carl, Mark, Joel and I stopped at Burger King at the end of our ride.  Carl had a trip gauge on his bike.  We went an average of 14 miles per hour and officially reached our 30 mile mark at a mortuary in Salem.  This was to save costs for us when we dropped dead from our ride!  :)  Dave Eldredge and Noah Cohen picked us up from Salem in Dave's truck and took us back.

Finally Updated Posts

It seems like forever since I have posted on my blog!  So many things have happened, I just have been waiting for my pictures and have been so busy lately.  First, I want to post a few more pictures from our latest ride with the Nisbetts before moving on to other events.

June 12
Group Alpha during our 20 mile ride to the Nisbett's house.

Our route looked similar to the hike route with small paved bridges that crossed over small streams.

Our halfway point to take a break, get some water and Eclair cake, and play some chess, was the Hamacher's house.  We all had a nice break.  Jacob was away being involved in a chess tournament.  Mr. Hamacher and I played two very quick games of chess to satisfy his chess bug.  I won the first, and he won the second! :)

When we got to the Nisbett's house, everyone was ready to work, even Glory.  Here, she was helping me get ready to do some trimming of grass around the Nisbett's house.

Several of the guys worked on the siding of the Nisbett's house.  Here, Josiah is using a nail gun to nail the siding up while everyone watches intently.

Joel and I took the tractor down to their pasture to finish putting up their barbed wire fence.

The Ride

Last Friday (June 12), Joel, Josiah, and John Nisbett and Matt and I all stayed over at my house in preparation for our twenty mile ride out to the Nisbett's house.  We took the ride at a leisurely pace and were able to stop off half way at the Hamacher's house.  We left our house around 10 and arrived around 1 at the Nisbett's house.  The plan was for us to ride to the Nisbett's house and help them with some siding, fence work, mowing, etc. until they had to leave.  That is exactly what we did.  It was very much fun! :D

Adjustments were made along the way to make sure that the bikes rode well.

We brought water, a homemade granola mixture (peanuts, raisins, and M&Ms), and Skittles!  The Nisbett kids helped us finish whatever we could not finish on the trip. ;)

It was a beautiful day for a ride.  We had some cloud cover that helped to keep if a little cooler.  God was shading us from the intense heat!  Praise God for a great day! 

But of course, there were turtles to be saved.  On our ride, we heroically saved three turtles from certain death at the hands of ferocious cars and bicycles!  I can't believe how bad some drivers are!  Josiah, you could have hit the turtle!!

Yet, every heroic deed had its cost.  But we did save the turtle!!!  I am sure that my back will never be the same again! ;)

Work or Fun?

Some work is hard, and some work is easy!  But sometimes it does not matter about what you are doing as much as who you are doing it with.  Such was the case for me with my brothers when Matt and I came in for a visit.  My parents are fixing up their house in Arnold, Missouri, right near St. Louis.  We needed to do some rock work around the house, so, for a Mother's Day gift, we all shoveled and moved into place fourteen tons of white rock.  

Left to Right: Michael (17), Daniel (15), David (20), and Matthew (22)

Funny Faces! :D

Matthew never actually dumped the rock on us, but we did toss a little rock on Daniel when he became irritating!  :)

I do not remember whose idea this was, but it makes for a good picture!

Matt and Michael did actually carry one or two smaller wheelbarrows of rock when the tire on our smaller wheelbarrow popped!

Visit with Friends

This Thursday, I got to take a fun surprise trip out to Edgar Springs to visit the Riefers! :)  At first, Mrs. Riefer thought that I was Josh knocking on the door, but she quickly realized who it was.  After a quick, but very nice visit, I made the return trip to Rolla in time to go to work.

Later that evening, Mr. Riefer, whom I work for, took me back to his house for a wonderful evening at their house!  After a delicious meal and some good conversation, we all went outside to play badminton.  When it grew dark, we returned inside to play Taboo until it was time to leave.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, Josh and Megan!  My camera phone does not like taking certain indoor shots! :)

Camp-out

The post-Pirates of Penzance syndrome continues.  You just cannot keep us pirates and policemen apart!  In celebration of Justin's sixteenth birthday, Justin invited Nathan, Joel, Josiah, John, and I over to his house for a camp-out.  We sat around a camp fire, roasted marshmallows and hot-dogs, and had fun!!  And of course, we entered into all the common conversations that take place during camp-outs like why hot-dogs are called "hot-dogs", what the precise definition of a lie is, why Christians usually wear black clothing to the funerals of other Christians when one should rejoice that a Christian is going home, and how we want to die eventually!

Before going to bed around 1:30 AM, we decided that we wanted to have some fun that night, so we proceeded to wake up at 3:00 AM.  Precisely at 3, Joel's and my alarm sounded and our groggy group woke up to sing a late, and I must say a somewhat unenthusiastic, happy birthday to Justin.  We then each played our part to bring to life a big truck--one person being the motor, another being the air-horn, etc.  Of course, all fun must come to an end, so we returned to sleep!

The next day, our little band of brothers ate breakfast, relaxed a little, and helped Mr. Mosher pull nails from some wood he wanted to reuse.  We ended up with a pile of boards about three feet tall by four feet wide of "denailed" wood! :0  Upon finishing this project and eating lunch, our group piled into Joel's car and Nathan's vehicle and headed over to the Nisbett's house to unload a trailer-full of mulch and load up a trailer-full of siding for transportation.

We filled the evening with fun as well, but it would take too long to recount going to see a movie, playing a pickup game of volleyball, or fellow-shipping with friends! :D

What An Awesome God!

Wow!  What an awesome God we serve!  1 John 5:4b-5 says, "This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."  I have noticed several verses pointing out the victory that we have as believers in Jesus Christ all because of what our marvelous Savior has done for us.  I was looking at the following pictures I posted of the Top Ten Pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope and later looked up and saw the most beautiful sky:

I suddenly realized a little bit better just how big and great God is!  When you read the size of the galaxies pictured here, just think that our God made each one by the word of His mouth on the fourth day!!  If my God can put such wonders into perfect motion and order, who am I that He takes any notice of me?  Why am I so important that He would send His only beloved Son, Jesus, to one small planet to die for a group of people who hated Him and sinned against Him?  Because of the abundance of His great love!  When I remember this, it really should change how I live my daily life!  If God is such a great God and loves me so much, why should I worry?  What can take God by surprise?  What care of mine does He not have under His complete control?  We can live victoriously because of what Jesus did for us and because God is so big and so powerful.  He has everything under His control!!  I guess that is why Proverbs 3:5-6 says, 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Psalms 8:4 "What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?"

The Top Ten Pictures Taken by the Hubblespace Telescope

One light year is 5,879,000,000,000 miles!

The   Sombrero   Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope.  The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes...  The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from earth.

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood.  The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star.  Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula.

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a 'pinched-in-the-middle' look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula.  The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon).

The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting.  It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.

The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.