103 other things

We listen to a lot of music in our family. Our tastes are somewhat varied. I'll listen to just about anything. My CD library has Classic Rock, Pop, Country, Rap, Christian, and an Engelbert Humperdinck CD Scott bought me for Christmas one year. Lately we've been listening to a wide variety of Christian music. I put some of our favorites (OK, really my favorites) on itunes. That link will take you to my itunes "imix". If you don't have itunes, call me on your rotary phone and I'll telegraph you the list. I probably spend too much time (and money) on itunes, which reminds me, tomorrow is new release Tuesday.

Now to make up for the inclusion of a number of female artists on the list, I have pictures of us visiting the Fort Lewis Army museum Sunday on our way back from Portland. It doesn't get much more manly than looking at guns and tanks. There are quite a few pictures so I'll just link our Picasa album.

We had a brief but fun trip to Portland to visit the Calenberg's who aranged for us to meet with 4 people who have a wide range of experience ministering and living in Liberia. Too many incredible stories to list.

Pictures of last weekend

Kobe playing soccer. Jamie got him mid-prance.

Kobe jumping while playing soccer.

Friday we went to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. Here's the view from the top of the Space Needle.

The boys playing in the steel bamboo

And last but not least, the best picture I could get of the boys and Jamie.

At least Jamie was looking at the Camera. Although, the boys thought the picture was good, she's the only one that doesn't like her picture.

Mission Trips

Tony Woodlief has an interesting article this week in World on the Web about youth mission trips. I think it's worth a read, as is his blog. His post on April 3rd reminds me of John Eldredge's Wild at Heart.

Potatoes and onions

One of our neighbors brought out a potato gun a couple weeks ago so Royce and I had to make our own. Here's the boys demonstrating proper technique. (warning: some vegetables were hurt in the filming of this video)

Making Melodies

Jamie bought me a video camera over a year ago and I haven't really had a chance to use it much. Most of the time Jamie has been using it. She's taped a few of the boys' games and some church events. I was downloading everything off the camera for her and came across some videos from the end of the school year carnival the church put on in 2007. I couldn't resist making a best of video from the "Making Melodies Booth" at the carnival. I may have to go into hiding now from some of the SDC members, but here it is.

Grandpa's Birthday

For this post, I will steal my sister's thoughts (and brother's picture)

http://web.mac.com/pannell/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/4/2_80th_birthdays_and_sleep_deprivation.html

Andrea's thought's on my Grandpa sum him up pretty good. He has always been resourceful and has been involved in more businesses and industries than we can keep track of. You could write a book with all his sayings and advice, but blogger might flag my blog as "adult only" if I listed them here.

Some pictures from the boys soccer game yesterday. We had a very unusual late March snow shower.

Jamie had to get one picture of Tyler wearing his mom's "Megan's Mom" sweatshirt

Liberia 2

So I was planning on holding off posting anything until we know more...but word has spread like wildfire so I thought I'd post something. Jamie and I (and yes Tyler, the boys too) have applied to an organization called SIM to work in Liberia. We will go for 4 days in the middle of May to an introductory weekend at SIM's headquarters in Charlotte. After that weekend we'll find out more about whether we're accepted and hopefully know a little more about when we'd go. Our best guess right now is that we'll leave around November.
If everything goes as planned I'll be filling their construction supervisor position. They have a 130+ acre campus just outside Monrovia that includes a radio station, hospital, dental clinic and school. You can see more about the site through their partners website here. They have a long list of construction needs to repair their facilities after the 14 year Liberian civil war that ended in 2003. The position is "self-supported" and we've made a 1-year commitment. After that we'll decide whether we'll stay longer or come back.
I'll post more later about what has led up to this decision and what everyone's reaction has been so far. Oh, and if anyone wants to buy a 2-year old house in Everson let me know.