Awkward Moment

So my parents came down in the big rig this weekend with a load full of candy that is ultimately sea bound for Jamaca (spelling). We had a great time, my dad looked like a giddy little school boy playing in the ocean. Anyway have any of you watched movies with your parents when the sex scenes come? I don't know about you, but for me these are very awkward moments especially when married, because all kinds of thoughts can enter your mind, the worst of which is wondering if your parents have the same thoughts in their minds. This always offers a good distraction during these usually distasteful scenes, but it sure is awkward and uncomfortable. I'd like to know your thoughts and experiences. Enlighten me.

Dordt College

Contacted me about my blog posting about the picture in the brochure, and they went into this whole thing about how I should keep my nose out of their business and that I have no right to jeopordize their reputation. They said that they don't want to hear of or see any other postings from my blog on the related subject. So here I am writing about it because I think it is bologna, and that is exactly what this whole post is, bologna. I was bored.

Out of the Fishbowl and Into the Fire

That is the blog title of late graduates of Dordt College (pretty funny). Another funny thing about dordt (graphic designers at dordt are gonna love this story). Since I am a youth pastor at a CRC church in Florida, I get all the promotional stuff from dordt, including the great video edited by Jack Maatman (clap clap) but also several brochures. Well I was looking through this very well designed brochure booklet that wasn't small by any means, anyway I was paging through and being very nastolgic <--(spelling error Im sure) and then I got to the last page and it was this big picture of all these fish in water and they were all shades of blue except for this big orange one in the middle. Maybe you have all seen it. Anyway I was admiring this this picture thinking that some designer at dordt did a good job. But then, I realized that I have seen this picture somewhere before. I was wondering and wondering, and then it hit me. I pulled out my cell phone, opened it up and there it was! It was the same picture that T-Mobile allowed me to choose as the background on my cell phone screen. Needless to say I laughed pretty hard. I was almost fooled again by Dordt College.

THE CONTINUATION

There were trees everywhere! I mean it. We wouldn't have been able to drive out of our complex because there were several trees blocking both exits and blocking the road in several places on the way to the exits. We walked out to the road in front of our apartment complex, it is a boulevard type street with a median. On one side of the median there was nothing but solid trees down on the road for about a 1/4 -1/2 of a mile. If I knew how to download pictures to this site I would show how crazy this really was. Anyway we walked toward the school which is a half mile down the road, and people's fences were down, there some houses with the roofs torn off. The computer teacher at the school had a front portch fly into his pickup truck. We got to the school and checked out the damage (for those of you who are really curious you can go to flcs.org and check out some pictures of the school). After that we walked back and took it easy. The next day was a beautiful 65 degree day, and we didn't have power so the fridge and freezer defrosted. Travis and I decided to try and go to WalMart because its always open no matter what, because we needed propane (people were saying we were going to be without power for 3 weeks). So we went to WalMart and got a ton of propane and then waited in line forever becuase poeple were panicing. On the way back we found out that we were under a boil water order, and we had a 7:00pm curfew until 6:00am. They treated it like a freakin disaster. We played Cranium by candlelight that night, then went to bed. Over the next few days Erin and Sheena were perfecting recipes that included hamburger (the Vande Kerks and Pattens combined had 15lbs of hamburger that we had to get rid of before it spoiled) and they had to do it all on a little grill, we ate good. I luckily was smart enough to figure that we were going to have to boil water so right when we lost power I filled the Brita like 25 times and put them into assorted containers.
We got lucky because the days were beautiful and we didn't even need power, but we were the lucky few that got power on the Thursday following Wilma, the pastor at our church was still without power until this past saturday. Right now things are getting back to normal and thing are getting cleaned up

What an experience!

Justin

Its Been So Long

Sorry, to the four people that look on my incredible blog site. We here in South Florida have been bored and busy (let me explain). After Erin's grandmother's funeral we came back to our lovely tropical home, we were the last flight that was alowed in to Ft. Lauderdale International before Hurricane Wilma came upon us (it was a beautiful night). I stayed up late watching the news wondering when it was going to hit us and how bad was it going to be. I thought to myself that it wouldn't be that bad because Katrina hit us directly from the East and only knocked over a few trees and we didn't lose power. Wilma was coming from the west which means that it has to cross over the penisula to get to us (Hurricanes usually weaken over land). So I went to sleep confident on the outcome. The next morning I woke up to the sound of full grown trees snapping in half. I had already slept through half of the storm, but the second half (the bad half) was upon us. 100mph sustainded winds, with 120mph gusts! It was exhilerating! I got out of bed and looked out the window to see the entryway for our Apt complex completly blocked by trees. I watched several 60-70 foot trees literally snap in half and buckle from the wind. I walked outside (stupid me) and I could hardly stand up. Now you have to understand that I weigh about 220lbs. The first thing I thought of when I stepped out the door and I said it outloud "God you are awesome!" Awesome in the true sense of the word. After the bad part of the storm passed, Travis and Sheena Patten came over and we walked around and saw everything that the hurricane caused. I've never seen anything like it.

Too be continued. . .