The Kelsey's

We’re half way through August and nothing is happening at The Kelsey’s. That is mostly my fault. There have been plenty of pictures taken, and a fair amount of video. The problem in the process is that dad’s not getting things published out to everyone. Too much on his plate? You could say so.

I started a new contract where I’m not just doing development, but I also have some management responsibilities. This is a bit of a twist for me. I’m still not sure what to think about it. My church responsibilities haven’t lessened. I still have a bit of Peacemaker paperwork to do. And we have started working on peacemaking across Iowa and Missouri.

But it is August, and August means… The Thirty Day Challenge ! This is a free education on Internet Marketing. I participated last year and learned a ton of stuff. But it is a major time vacuum. The month is about half over, but the material will remain for people who are interested, indefinitely.

If you want to see a little more what we’ve been up to – here a web site I am trying for the thirty day challenge – It’s called I hate grass care . I’m taking my disdain for my lawn to a whole new level. I talk about how to manage your grass care . And I also show you some handy things you can buy to help you with your grass care. The idea being that if somebody buys what I’m promoting, I earn a commission.

My I Hate Grass Care site has a video that Joshua helped me with.  The kids have been helping where they can.  I have another site that I’m trying to work on too, but it hasn’t progressed as far – it’s Homeschool Software , but I’m having technical difficulties with that one.  Anyway, that’s keeping me pretty busy.

We’ve got more pictures and video from the church picnic, from vacation bible school, and from swimming lessons. And a little more from the thirty day challenge. Stay tuned, there’s plenty more to come.

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!

The House Situation

Today was a crazy day. I took Joshua over to meet an inspector to get an occupancy permit for the house we are trying to sell (the one we lived in from ’95 to ’03 or so). The back sliding glass door was open and the inspector said, “I hope you still have your copper pipes.”

He turned on the water and it worked. He said, “Naw, you’re ok.”

But I had go get my hair cut for my Job that starts Monday (more about that in a bit). And then I took Joshua home and went to take care of the house. I got some wood to brace the door shut. But while looking in the back yard for the stick that used to keep the glass doors secure, I found a chunk of a door frame… I figured it had to belong to me.

So I went through the whole house and I found the back door that leads to the car port had been busted through. Then they put the frame back up and even re-latched the chain lock and the deadbolt metal plate so it looked undisturbed. They just forgot and left the glass door ajar.

Well I’m not handy enough to actually fix the door – so what did I do? I took a long piece of wood and screwed it to the door frame. Now the door won’t open at all. So it’s secure, it just doesn’t function as a door right now.

So the question is, will this deter what is most likely mischievous kids, or will it make them more determined to break in to the point of breaking a window or something…? From talking to the neighbors, it seems that there was a party on July 4th at our house. We weren’t informed.

So that’s the excitement there, other than the fact that the people that were going to buy it aren’t going to be able to. And they were going to lease it, but it’s looking like they can’t afford to do that either.

So the house is still out there.

The Job Situation

So I took a 3 week contract to define a potential client’s needs, and then if they are willing, I would lead a team of developers to implement what we planned out. I’ve never been on such a short contract, but it sure beats sitting at home without a job. I’m being told that they are pretty confident that this short assignment would roll right into something much more stable if the work is done well. But they weren’t sure enough to sign a contract over it – now were they.

It will be an interesting stretch for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been involved in requirements gathering that was planned and not due to a chaotic work environment. So it could be interesting. I guess we’ll know much more after Monday.

It’s getting close to sundown on a Friday night, so I think I’ll just sign off for now. Gotta get you more pictures. Oh, one more thing… I incorporated a new commenting widget called Disqus. Give it a try and see what you think.

So what do you do on a holiday where the big event isn’t until after dark? Does the rest of the day feel like any other day? It may have seemed that way in the morning.

But soon after lunch time, we did something a little different. Laura suggested we stop laying around the house and go outside and play.

“It’s the 4th of July and it’s beautiful outside..!”

So we decided to do ‘some activity’ outside. Joshua grabbed his glove and mine, and a couple of baseballs. Hannah grabbed her iPod. Caleb grumbled a bit about having to put on socks and shoes instead of just flip flops. But I demanded if we were going to do some running around, you would need more than those.

So we were going to go in the back yard and play catch. After all, the yard still looked like it had been mowed. (That reminds me, I need to do something about the fact that I don’t own a working lawn mower – this fact will become noticeable to the whole neighborhood very soon.)

I thought we could walk over to the near by high school and run around the track. But instead we settled for walking a few blocks to the park and throwing the ball around. We got there and Joshua and I started playing catch. Hannah walked over to the swings and Caleb decided that doing that was better than watching.

It was only about five minutes when Caleb came running back over to us. I thought he had forgotten to go to the bathroom before leaving – he looked a little agitated. When he got over to me I asked him what was wrong. In an agitated voice he said, “Dad, there’s bees out here!”

I looked around and we were in a vast field of clover with the puffy white flowers poking out everywhere. I bent over and looked down.

“You’re right! Why this right here would be called a bumble bee.” I took a few steps and said, “And here are two more.”

This wasn’t helping.

“Caleb, you’ve walked all the way across this field twice now and they didn’t even notice you. Besides, this is why I told you to wear shoes instead of flip flops, you’re just fine.”

No consolation. By this time Hannah is on her way over because it’s looking like there’s a conversation that she’s missing out on.

We walked over to the sidewalk and considered just going home. But instead we decided to go on over to the track. Hannah wasn’t interested, so she took the balls and gloves back to the house. Only after we got home did we find out that she decided to take the long way home and even stopped off at the Haakenson’s to visit for a while. Freedom from the supervision of parents is becoming a “thing” with her.

So we walked over and ran up and down the bleachers of the soccer field. I was sure there was a track around somewhere. So we walked all the way around the back of the school and found it on the far side.

We ran one lap. This was enough to leave some of us gasping for breath! OK, Caleb was ready to go – but the rest of us were through. I did manage to jump one hurdle that was on the side. But that took it all out of me.

But before we left, I lined the boys up in one end zone and we pretended to run back a kick off. We did the 100 yard “dash(?)” for what would be considered a touchdown. However, a touchdown isn’t a touchdown when there is no defense. But there were all these metal stakes in the ground, but I don’t think they counted.

After a leisurely stroll home, it wasn’t long until dinner. Not a bad way to mess around while waiting for the big 4th of July feast that was being prepared for us.

Usually on the night of the 4th, we go to a local Steak -N- Shake and order milk shakes for all and sit on a hill and watch 3-4 fireworks displays. We discovered this worked better for our toddlers because they were far away enough from the booms. And the Florissant display was close enough that we could still enjoy some booms during the finale. Plus no crowd and we could just wander back home as soon as it was over.

But this year the 4th fell on a Friday night. We don’t buy anything from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday to honor the Sabbath day. So this year we just stayed home. We were pretty pooped from running around in the afternoon anyway.

It’s amazing how the prosperity of this country has allowed us to become so very sedentary! I’m not complaining! Just observing.

I think things will be changing around here soon… …Laura bought a scale this week.

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?).

Oh, a week went by yesterday – but we are still in the next week… I hope you are forgiving. I don’t have a theme for this blog post, just some recent pictures from the kids.

Cruisin’ with the Kelseys

Caleb is free with the pictures while riding in the van. This is a view from the family view mirror.

Here’s Nathan to Caleb’s left.

And here’s Hannah in her own world on his right.

Caleb has quite a few self portraits. I’m working on pulling those together into a slide show or a collage or something, stay tuned.

The latest thing

The boys have just been ga ga for their Wii. We are trying to help them to appreciate temperance with this new activity. But right now they are excited by this little guy…

That would be "Lego Indy Jones!" We’ll try to get you a recording of Nathan cheering them on…

I know throwing up a couple of pictures real quick is a cheezy excuse – but hey, I could’ve just left you hanging for a week or two.

We are getting geared up for another Peacemaking weekend. This time in Ottumwa, IA. Yes, Ottumwa is right in the middle of all this flooding mess. We’ll see what we have to face when we get there.

Speaking of Peacemaking, I have my paperwork in to my mentor. We’ll be talking about that together to make sure I have everything he needs to approve me. I then just need to turn in my independent paperwork. I plan on finishing that off over the next two weeks. Then I’ll be able to graduate in September! I’m sooo close!

We’ve been so busy living, that blogging has sagged a bit. Well no more! Starting this month you will see at least one blog entry every week! Oh, it’s the 11th? Well, last week we were at Camp Meeting… we were in the sticks… What can you do.

The Latest On the Car

First off, I think the biggest response I’ve gotten from people is that my car was wrecked. “Hey how are you doing? I saw on your blog that you wrecked your car.”
Ok, that was the end of March. It’s June now. But the lesson is learned. If it isn’t blogged, it didn’t happen. The car is fixed.

Hannah Continues With the Piano

Hannah was getting a little weary of having to practice. But she loves her teacher, and she loves her annual recital – so we’ll hang on a little longer. She’s back to practicing sans the complaining.

The Camera Is a Hit

The kids have produced more pictures, soundtracks, and even videos than I can possibly put up here – unless I just dumped them all on you. So instead of that, I’ll stick in some “flashback” posts and try to include more of them. Oh yes, very very soon. Here’s a sample shot. This is us at camp meeting. What’s typical about this shot? What’s atypical? If you can’t answer this question, I invite you to get to know us better. Or just call Laura, she’ll know.

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.