Ohio State...BLAHHHH!

On the way home from Youth Challenge we hadto travel through Columbus, OH. The Ohio State game was just over with Ohio State stomping the Gophers 44 - 0. We happened to stop at a Steak n Shake for supper. MISTAKE! It was loaded with red and grey Ohio State fans. If you follow sports at all you know that Ohio State and Michigan University is the biggest college football rivalry. Right now, with just a couple of games to go, both teams are undefeated. We may see a championship title game played by two rival undefeated teams. Well, as we were sitting there eating I kept hearing people running Michigan down. I could hardly take it. If you have ever eaten at Steak n Shake you realize that it seats approx. 50 - 60 people. So, as I was leaving I was fight a terrible battle with the little devil on my shoulder. He kapt whispering, "SAY SOMETHING". So I did. With my back to the door I said rather loudly, "Excuse me Ohio State, on Nov. 18 the boys from the Big House, (Michgan's Stadium) are coming to to town and you are goin' down." The place erupted. Boos were the word in the house, mixed with get out, loser, etc. The manager had already been harassing me, but at this time was laughing hystrically. What an exciting moment.

Busy Day

Sunday was a busy day. I was very grateful that Randy Tolley was able to preach Sunday morning. After arriving at home at nearly 2:30 am I was in no mood to preach. But there is no rest for the weary. We started our Christmas Program practice on Sunday. We practice from 2:00 to 4:00. So we have the cast over each Sunday. What a blast we have. After practice we prepared for a Missions service with the Middleton's. After which they stayed over at the parsonage for the night. Needless to say, I was grateful for my bed Sunday evening. Today is a new day, and I am feelin' fine (mostly).

Youth Challenge 2006

I am sure every blogger will be posting about Youth Challenge (with exception of Aaron McCarty who is still having a bad day). Myself and five other guys from our church went out this year to Youth Challenge. The theme - Beyond Survival. It was a great time. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Batesville, home of the Batesville Casket Company. We made it out in 8 hours and made it back in 9 hours. We hit snow near DuBois, PA. Nearly a half inch was on the ground. It was a very exciting trip and it was great traveling with the guys from church. A great time was had by most!!

Like Father, Like Daughter

Kayla is going to be a health nut just like her dad...cookies and milk for breakfast!

Mexicano

This past Thursday we ate at the new Mexican restaraunt in Selinsgrove. It is an authentic mexican restaraunt with excellent food. This is what I ordered. It is a Macho Burrito. It was every bit of 12 inches long and at least 4 inches wide. It was delicious. The name of the restaraunt name is Casa Sanchez. Ahhh. What a breath of fresh air.

Mr. Mansfield

Yesterday evening, Vonnie and I enjoyed the evening at the Silvermoon Banquet Hall. The reason for dining there...The Pregnancy Care Center was putting on a banquet in effort to raise money for the Center. It is something that I feel is a great causeto give too. We enjoyed an excellent meal of grilled chicken, steamed veggies and boiled potatoes. For desert we had cheese cake and I had nearly six cups of coffe...decaf of course. YUK! After all the comotion was over the special speaker was Mr. Stephen Mansfield, the author of "The Faith of George W. Bush". He did a great job. I realize the list of important people I have met doesn't come close to Jon Plank's but hey, it's a start.

Justin's Birthday

Justin's Birthday Cake
A bike from Grampa & Grandma Hallenbeck A set of "real" golf clubs from Grandpa & Grandma Ellison

We were planning on something exciting for Justin's 4th birthday, but he had an unexpected bout with pink eye that put those plans on hold. So we went to Hallenbeck's and had a cake and special dinner with Great grandparent's Howard & Charolette Hallenbeck, Don and Val, Lonnie, Ronnie and Laura. We hope to have a get together later with some of his friends. He loves to play with Eric Susan, Travis Zimmerman, Zeb Dreisbach and Ashley Plank. But until then....

My Last Time

Today, I mowed for the last time...hopefully. And of course I couldn't do it without the help of two eager hoodlums.

It's Here

I recieved my new camera in the mail today. It is pretty cool. It is exactly the size of a credit card, a little thicker of course. These are basically the first pictures I took with the camera. One is of the new lanolium that was installed in our kitchen a couple of weeks ago. The other is of Justin and Kayla.

BREAKING NEWS

As promised before, we have breaking news to be given tonight. As with other news media, we are not on time. Tonight, at the New Columbia God's Missionary Church, we took a new step. A step I believe is a positive step in the right direction. We brought Rev. Randy Tolley on staff as Assistant Pastor. After we announced this step to the congregation this evening, Rev. Tolley preached an excellent message entitled, "When the Sacredness is Gone" out of 2 Samuel 6:1-7. His points were as follows: We have lost the sacredness for life; for marriage; for God's Word, for God's House; for God's man; for God's Day. It was an excellent truth. We are excited about working closely with our good friends Randy and Gwen. Welcome aboard Tolley's!

Press Conference

Attention all Newkie News blog watchers. A special press conference will be held tomorrow evening around 10:30. Very exciting news will be announced at this time. Hope to see you then.

New Camera

I just purchased a new camera off of ebay. I am so excited to get it. I sold my other camera. I loved the camera, but it was just to bulky to carry around. As you can see, this camera is much smaller and compact. You can carry this in your shirt pocket without much hassel. I will post pics from it as soon as I can. I have convinced myself that if I had a smaller more portable camera I would take more pics. We will see.

AAAAARRRRRRGGHH!!

This is the wonderful feeling that I have within me as I am finishing one of my least exciting things to do....hang wallpaper. Last evening I spent the good part of 4 hours hanging wallpaper in my study. This evening I plan on hanging the wall boarder. I hate doing the hanging but I am excited to get it finished. My study is almost complete. The only thing that I have left to do is purchase a couch for people to sit on. My paper and border have a rustic look to them that matches the oak bookshelves that Paul Miller recently built. I'll will try to post some pics soon.

The Chatterbox Cafe

The past couple of years, Jeremy Fuller has asked if I would open the Chatterbox Cafe after the Conference Wide Rally. So, this past Friday night that is what we did. Last year we made a small profit, this year we did even better. I think peopel really like the idea of being able to eat at the snack shop since it has moved upstairs. If you remember having the snack shop downstairs you will likely remember a dark, dungy basement that stank like crazy. On top of that you had ping pong balls flying all around you and kids running and screaming. Yes it was quite an improvement taking it upstairs. It has been proven over and over that it was the right move. Now the only problem is, is that when you leave you smell like you have just left the grease pit because of all the smoke. Oh, but what a small problem it is compared to the many past problems.

Watsontown Yard Sales

This past Saturday was the Watsontown Community Yard sales. Seemingly the entire town turns into one gigantic line of yard sales. It is always an exciting day. It is also a time where our youth group goes throughout the town handing out free sodas with information about our church. Last year we handed out over 600 sodas. This year was a bum year for the sodas though. It was rainy and cold. People usually never turn down free things, but Saturday you just couldn't give the soda away. Oh, well. Better luck next year.