The Kelsey's

So much is happening I’ve been chasing my tail. Let me bring you up to speed on some of the things that have been going on around our place.

VBS Has Been Over for a Couple Weeks

We have video, we have pictures, I even made a slide show with music and showed it at church. But when I tried to upload it, it got rejected! It turns out they felt the music might be copyrighted. So I’m in the process of getting permission to use those songs! After that, I’ll post it and you can see it.

We Are Learning to Swim

We are half way through our swimming lessons at the YMCA. We have a great teacher and she agreed to be a part of our official "swimmer’s photo." Check it out.

She’s been a very good sport, and the kids are actually learning to swim!!

August is all about The Thirty Day Challenge

If you are going to sign up, be sure to use my super cool link so I get credit for you checking it out.
The Thirty Day Challenge is TOTALLY Free!

I did a video for part of the challenge, here it is:

And no film is complete without a blooper roll, so here it is!

I hope I win the contest with these entries! What do you think?

Things are very hectic around the Kelsey homestead. We are right in VBS week. But before the VBS pictures get rolling, I wanted to post a few snapshots from the church picnic last Sunday. I took the kids with me so Laura could concentrate at the church getting VBS decorations set up. So let’s take a look.

The Sack Race (Episode 1)

A picnic isn’t a picnic without some fun and games. Here are some pictures of the sack race. Here’s Nathan’s heat.

Joshua and Caleb were in the same heat, the age spread just barely included them both.

Hannah had her turn too.

There was also volley ball. I love that particular sand pit. I actually played volley ball there the day after I was baptized, 18 years ago. On this day, I had too much to eat and was exhausted from one run in the sack race. Times, how they change. Here’s a picture of some church friends, I just like the ball in the air.

Up some stairs from the pavilion was the baseball diamond where Joshua spent most of his day.

Nathan went sliding for pretty much 5 hours straight. He came over and had a few bites for lunch. But every once in a while he’d sneak off up the stairs.

Later in the afternoon he must’ve worked up a thirst. He got some water and then discovered the watermelon. You can see how juicy it was – on his shirt.

Afterwards we stopped by VBS preparations

The first night was last night and there were 33 participants – if you included the teen helpers, which we do! That doesn’t include all the adult staff and observers, which would add another 15 at least. Here’s a sneak peek of the room.

Stay tuned, we may have some sack race video. I missed recording the 3-legged race, the water balloon toss, and many other activities. And there will surely be some more VBS excitement. If you haven’t considered it, maybe you could sign up for our RSS feed. That’s the big orange button over on the right side. And there’s a video I did a while back explaining how to do it. If you do, our little counter in blue will go up! Yippee!

It’s been one week since I had my contract terminated prematurely. To say I was fired has too much emotional baggage and it makes you think its worse that it really is. My contract was expected to go through the end of August and it ended on June 24th.

So last week had a few surprises. On Tuesday, the job ended. Then during the week we found out that the people that were going to buy our old house (anybody want it?) couldn’t get their financing. They were supposed to close on June 30th. That didn’t happen. So the money crunch is still on in more ways than one.

Then on Thursday, I was getting ready to go to our Peacemaking weekend in Ottumwa, and I was mowing the lawn. Well I did something to my lawn mower and broke it. So I borrowed our neighbor down the street’s mower to finish – and broke theirs too!

We did have a good weekend, and I think we were able to bring some fresh insights about conflict to the people we met. The hard part is all in the application.

Just a little blurb to keep you up to speed (that’s what blogs are all about, right?).

Memorial Day Weekend

Mom came in town for the weekend. So the kids and Laura were out with her quite a bit. We didn’t get to meet up with Doug and the rest of our little corner of the Kelsey clan because there was sickness going around over there.

It did storm over the weekend. Some of the most persistent lightning displays than I’ve seen for many years. I woke up at 2:44 am on Monday morning from the thunder. I was going to go outside, but it was too wet – it’s usually raining when lightning is about. At least around here. But I sat on the couch in our bedroom and looked out the window. It was a great show.

Trying to get rid of that house

Last week we got the results from the house inspection of our prospective buyer. There were about 20 items if you included the 4-5 needed by the county inspection. Mel came over with his big truck and all his tools and we worked for two days and knocked out just about all of them. The only things not done were some painting around the basement windows (we have the paint – so that’s up to me!), sanding and painting the bottom of one of the front porch posts (again, I’m on it when things dry up a bit), and replacing the back sliding glass door (this one might have to be negotiated).

I’m sore and tired and all I did was help get things, hold flashlights, “run to Home Depot,” help hold things in place while they were attached, and watch and learn.

What you’ve been missing

The weekend before this last one, I took Joshua, Hannah, and her friend Chisara to Six Flags. Chisara wasn’t too thrilled with some of the bigger coasters… But we figured you spend 80% of your days standing in line waiting anyway, and she and Hannah love to stand around and chat, so it worked out pretty well. We got there after stopping at the church for breakfast on the front lawn. It wasn’t just us, the whole church was invited! We stayed 7 hours or so.

We started of spinning around on Excalibur. This is something Hannah and I have done for the last couple of visits. It turns you around so many ways that if you don’t get sick on that – you’ll be fine the rest of the day. I guess if you do, you can just leave early – I don’t know. Mr. Freeze was open this time. I love getting the chance to feel what a bullet experiences as we get shot out of the magnetic rail gun that launches the ride.

The park was not over crowded, but it wasn’t as empty as you find it on a cloudy weekday (a great time to go…). I was surprised by how many people you “run into” there. I saw two people that I’ve worked with on contracts and we ran into my step brother Michael (yeah same name). Three people – I think that’s a record for me when I wasn’t already going with a group like my high school marching band.

I did face my fears and ride the Superman ride. Even at 40, I was pretty apprehensive. Joshua said that we would pray for me and he hoped I didn’t die. “How would you get home?” I asked him. “Oh, I’d just dig your cell phone out of your pocket before they carted your body off to the morgue.” He’s can be pretty quick witted when he’s on his game.

It was a little cool for the water rides, but Hannah and Chisara rode Thunder river three times – I was soaked on the first time and waited out the other two! We did ride the Colossus – the gigantic ferris wheel. Without being strapped in around your shoulders and neck like other rides, I find that one almost as scary as the Superman ride. We also rode the Joker (formerly known as ‘The Buccaneer’ before everything started following the DC comics theme) quite a few times while we were deciding what to do next. It’s a nice little swing to wile away the time on – if it weren’t for the screaming contests.

At the end of the day, each person picked one ride to finish up on, and Chisara’s last choice was the log flume. I figured I could stay pretty dry with a little strategic ducking. But what I didn’t count on was at the very beginning of the ride. People who just got off could mill about and look at pictures of themselves. There’s also a little station where you can pay a quarter and fire a water cannon at the hapless victims just starting their ride. Joshua and I were in our log and just getting settled when I got hammered by a stream of water right down my back! So much for the easy last ride!

We left the park, grabbed some Taco Bell (you thought we were going to eat in the park? Where a cup of carbonated sugar water costs $3.50?? Ah, no…), and headed on home. No pictures, except one or two on my phone which I haven’t figured out how to transfer without having to pay for it – so they sit on my phone.

I guess you’re wondering why we’d go to such an expensive theme park when from the previous paragraph I’m obviously a cheap old dude? Dad gave us free tickets! Thanks Dad!!

We’re just about to head off to Bolivar, MO for a Peacemaker weekend. Last weekend we were at Sunnydale Adventist Academy. Laura and I will present and the boys will sit patiently. Only this time Hannah is staying home without us. That’s a big step.

I just wanted to post real quick to let the world know that I was up at 4:37 am this morning when the earthquake hit. I thought it was Laura or the boys running down the stairs. Then I realized that nobody but me is up at that hour. Then everything really started to sway and shake. The whole house was wobbling – it was very disconcerting. It woke Laura and Joshua up.

It turned out to be a 5+ quake about 127 miles east of here.

But ultimately we overcame and survived. I can only image what a mess we’d be if an actual disaster occurred. Maybe we should prepare, maybe we all should be more prepared.

Great Grandma Doris is celebrating her 90th birthday this weekend. We aren’t able to travel to be with her. But thanks to technology we can share some thoughts. We went for the educational historical angle. I was able to show some pictures – newscast style. But I couldn’t figure out how to do that AND use my green screen to full effect. It was fun, and we’re learning how to do this kind of stuff.

So what do you think? I hope you could hear it all…

Thursday, March 27th seemed like just another ordinary day. I got off work a little early so I could make sure I got to my small group study on time. We talked and as we were leaving some storms moved into the area. I got in my car just as the rain was coming down. I was only about 15 minutes from home so I called Laura to let her know I was on may way. She told me that I had a phone call from Ruby that I needed to return when I got home.

I had turned onto Lynn Haven and the rain was really coming down. The opposing headlights were reflecting off the road and I was straining to see where the lanes were. I knew at this triple intersection, the turn lanes were deceptive and I didn’t want to accidentally drift into one of them. As I looked up from the lanes I noticed the light overhead was green, the one closer was green…

But there was one just above my head that was red! I told Laura, “I think I just ran a red…”

BANG!!

A large dodge grill came into my car just about 6-8 inches from my shoulder. It knocked the phone out of my hand and sent glass showering over me. I looked for the phone in the dark, but I didn’t want to grope around for it because of all the glass.

I looked over the hood of the car impinging on my personal space and asked if the lady driving was hurt. See looked around dazedly and then shook her head no.

A lady came running from across the street pointing at me shouting, “He did it! He ran the red light!” Then she got her composure and said, “Oh, are you hurt?” I was thinking to myself, “Well only my feelings with you accusing me like that.”

When I found the phone (it was under my leg), I called Laura back. I told her that I was trapped in my car. The mental image she had was that I was being crushed in my car. She shouted back at me, “Can you feel your legs? I mean, can you feel your toes?!?”

As the police came up to me, I was having to tell Laura, “I have to go now, I need to talk to the nice officer here.” He took my license and insurance cards and walked off to his vehicle.

Another officer got us out of the road by asking the lady to back up and disengage from my side. She did so and pulled over to the shoulder. Then he asked me to do the same.

My pastor’s wife, who was at the small group with me, was a ways behind me when all this happened. She saw the accident and did a double take when she realized it was me in the front car. She pulled over and walked back and talked with me a bit while I waited for the officer to finish doing his paperwork.

Finally he came back with the other drivers’ insurance information as well as my license and insurance cards. I was not cited, and he told me if my car was drivable that I should drive it on home.

Which is what I did.

After a lovely Sunday where the temperatures made it up to 79 degrees, here we are on Tuesday facing snow all day. During class in the afternoon, Joshua went out and measured the accumulation. We had 11 inches in our front yard. The snow was even too high on our street to even get out and drive to some place to go inner tubbing. Just before dinner time I headed out to shovel the driveway. Joshua took that opportunity to take some pictures and video. And now we have it available to share with you.

Here we are as we get started with the shoveling. Mom and Nathan watched from the garage as I got to work. The snow came down so fast and abundantly that there was no ice sheet underneath. This made the shoveling surprisingly easy to do. The snow made for a mixed up day at work as well. I went ahead and decided to brave it across the river (my new contract has me working in Edwardsville). A few flakes started to fall as I left the driveway and by the time I was to the Mississippi, I could barely see the semi in front of me. I made it just fine, but after seeing it start to pile up, I decided to work from home in the afternoon. With minor technical glitches, the afternoon went by and around 5:30 I was thinking about taking the kids tubing. But Hannah didn’t have boots and Laura was afraid that we wouldn’t make it down the driveway, let alone the street. So I figured if we were going to get any groceries – as tomorrow is grocery day. I better at least clear a path down the driveway.

This is the fire hydrant right across the street – this is how high the snow got. That’s before the street was plowed, so none of that is a result of being piled up. That’s just how high the snow came.

Here is Nathan and mommy watching the driveway being cleared. Nathan was fascinated with the “no.” But he didn’t want to get down in it. Just a little technical note, in case you didn’t notice. I airbrushed our license plates so that we aren’t advertising our registration all over the Internet. I think it came off pretty good if I do say so myself. I getting the hang of all this web stuff little by little.

All done! Yeah, compared to Laura and Nathan, I’m a little bundled up. I didn’t know how long I was going to be out there. It went so quick, I might even consider saying it was fun. Naw…

Here is our video of this happening. Don’t be alarmed if it looks blurry to you, it starts out that way and the focus gets better as we go along. Also, this is filmed by Joshua, so take your Dramamine! It’s not too bad. Also, Nathan does NOT have a soul patch under is bottom lip. He had finished experiencing a pre-dinner brownie just before coming outside. Joshua thought there was 7 minutes of footage. It was a good guess, it came out to about 5.5 minutes. I am learning how to edit video, so I brought it down to 4 minutes. Most of that was spent with Joshua whipping around shooting at the tree tops trying to get a shot of the birds that were chirping away. They probably thought spring was coming soon after last weekend – frankly, so did we.

Just a quick technical note to self.  This video is embedded as Quicktime with Javascript.  There are four choices and I wasn’t sure which would be best.  Quicktime beats Flash for picture sharpness, and the Javascript makes it so you aren’t forced to load the video until you click on it. That’s nice for people who are running short on bandwidth.

This whole driveway ordeal took all of 15 minutes. But, as the threat of global warming causes us all to wear extra sunblock each time we bathe, and forces us to hold in our breath so as not to exhale as much poisonous Carbon Dioxide, it’s good to have these memories of a good hard snow – it’ll probably never happen again.

Life’s hard being the third boy. You get hand me, hand me downs! Earlier this month, Nathan faced the reality that boy’s clothes can be tough – but never tough enough.

We were sitting down for dinner and we heard a “riiiiipp”. Nathan looked around to see if something was behind him. But instead it was just the material next to the seam right around his back pocket giving way to his behind!

He walked around a little bit as he began to experience the new found freedom of movement, as well as a considerable draft.

As he made this discovery, he started to pull on the material in an effort to rectify the situation, but it was no use. He finally turned to mommy for help. After a moment of examination it was clear that these pants were done for. It took little or no effort to pull the material asunder.

So we let him parade around in his tattered jeans for a few moments. There was much laughter and he was pretty proud of the little comedian he had become. Since the camera was nearby I thought I’d take a few shots (nothing untoward) and post them up for you to see. Even the most rugged of dungarees can’t stand up to a few adventurous boys!

The End!

This hasn’t happened for a long time. A virus tore through our family and no one escaped. It started with Nathan who got sick at Church last Sabbath and Laura took him home along with Hannah and Caleb. Joshua and I stayed after to talk to church members about being part of a peacemaking ministry. Later Saturday night Caleb joined in.

Hannah was getting nervous. You know you can’t see germs – but they’re floating around out there. She started to spend a little more time in her room.

On Sunday, Nathan and later Caleb were back up and around. While Laura was out running errands, Joshua started complaining that he wasn’t feeling well. And then it hit him full force. Then Sunday night were dedicated to Hannah and Laura being sick.

I opted to stay home and work from home to avoid my family epidemic from reaching a workplace and spreading like wildfire. I guess I forgot that the reason that I usually avoided illnesses that spread through the Kelsey’s is that I’m actually away from the home most of the day. But after a day of trying to spare my colleagues, I was attacked at about 10:30 pm on Monday night. I was sick all the way until about 6 am. I just took Tuesday off sick because I was so dehydrated, sleep deprived, and weak.

This virus was very violent, but thankfully for all of us, it was fast acting. About 18 hours were enough to fully dispatch it. So now today, we are fully through the cycle. It’s been a tough couple of days. So now the question is how do you get your life back into the swing after facing a few days of sickness.

We’re better now – but the question is will we get back to normal. Normal? What’s that?