Church Today

What an amazing day at church. We celebrated three big things: Communion, High School Graduation and the Hamiltons'. The five kids you see here have been in our youth group since junior high. Some of them, I remember from as early as 2nd grade. It's amazing to have seen them grow up and have many of them now help as leaders in our junior high youth group. It's one of the things I love about staying at a church for the long haul. You get to see generations rise up and help the next generation.

Today was also a day we celebrated communion. What made it very special was that it was Nate and Maddie's first time. We'd attended a class as a family on communion where the kids learned about the sacrament at just the right level for them. Afterwards, we talked it through and they decided that they were ready as did Cathie and I. It such a cool thing seeing my kids grow in their faith as they make choice after choice to pursue God at a deeper level.

We also said goodbye to the Hamiltons. Mark Hamilton is one of the most faithful servants for the Church that I know. This guy showed up every Sunday for 15 years to run the sound board - and did it gladly and excellently. He would spend hours and hours putting together video and art for the services as well that always blew me away. He and his wife are moving down to Louisiana to be closer to family. Again, another reason why I love to be part of a church over the long haul. Getting to see lives lived like Mark's first hand as older generations model servanthood to the next.


You can see all of the pictures here.

Mowing the Lawn

Nate's started mowing the lawn. I mowed part and Nate took the back yard and did a nice job at it. I hate mowing the lawn, but I'm too cheap to pay someone $35 a week to mow mine. At one point, I'd tried to pay neighborhood junior high kids to mow it and the end result was a lawn that looked like I'd mowed it while drunk.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should pay him, or make it a part of his allowance. Growing up, none of us got paid to mow our lawn until Susan. If I remember correctly, I think my Dad paid her about $40 to mow it.

Emily's Bed Time

When we go to tuck Em in at night, we never know how we'll find her. We've found her laying in her door way, dressed in crazy clothes, sleeping in her closet and occasionally, even sleeping in her bed. Thursday night we found her leaning up against her bed and tonight she must have decided it was a good idea to sleep in a box. Gotta love the third child.

Emily's Daisy Swaps

Emily had her Daisy's SWAP thing today. Each kid makes these little do-hickeys which they then get to trade with each other. The end result is a hat full of stuff that little girls seem to love. The rule is that you have to trade with someone if they ask. I tried to coach Emily to pretend she didn't see the other kid if they came up trying to trade a junky swap, but she explained to me that you get to trade with everyone.

Piece of Bread that looks like Jesus

We discovered this piece of bread this morning. It looks just like Jesus, doesn't it? It is listed on eBay right now. The starting bid is $5. You can bid on it here.

Update: You can also find the auction featured on GoofyAuctions.com

Tobacco Nazis

There are few things I love more in the Spring, Summer and Fall than sitting out and smoking a cigar in the evening. Schools these days apparently teach our kids to be very annoying about this stuff. My kids have grown up seeing me do this and have occasional questions, but I've explained to them that it's different than cigarettes, it's not all the time, not as bad for you and I'm not addicted to them - so it's alright. For Pete's sake, my Doctor even said it was OK to have the occasional cigar.

I was over hanging out with a neighbor tonight smoking cigars and we must have had ten neighborhood kids come up and tell us how horrible smoking is and that we're going to die. Quickly. I'm with you that cigarette's are bad and most people who smoke them smoke multiple packs a day. That's bad for you. You've got to wonder why they don't teach about excess instead - teach kids to run up to overweight people and do the same thing that they're doing to people who smoke. Or teach kids to run up to their parents when they're on the 17th beer of the night (Brad) and tell them how bad they are. I got tired of the neighborhood kids telling us that our smoking was evil, so I turned it back on them and asked them why they hate the Indians who taught us about tobacco. They weren't quite sure what to say, but hopefully some kid will go into school on Monday and ask his teacher why they hate Indians.

Roll the Bones

Check out this video for “Ankle Injuries” by Fujiya & Miyagi. It's done completely with dice.

Ninja Warrior

My family has found a new favorite show: Ninja Warrior on G4. The show starts with 100 people and puts them through a Ninja skills course, eliminating 90-95 of them in the first stage. The stages are courses that have back to back feats of strength and agility that require ridiculous strength and ninja skills - things like climbing across a 30 foot ceiling, holding onto globes suspended from the ceiling. The fourth stage (which we've never seen anyone get to) consists of a 300 foot tower that they have to scale in 30 seconds. The show comes from Japan and is all subtitled, but Ninja Skills know no borders.

Bad Mom

I just read this story about a Mom who who coached her kids to act "retarded" in order to receive government subsidies. There are some funny things in this article and some not so funny. I think it's pretty safe to say that she's not going to win any 'Mom of the Year' awards.

Happy Birthday Bender!

Happy Birthday Bender! Ben turns two today.
1. Bender is nicknamed after John Bender, the breakfast club character and the name has no relation to a chiefly British slang word for a homosexual.
2. Bender always has a smile on his face and is happy when just about anyone picks him up, pokes him or gives him something that looks like attention.
3. As much as Susan complains, Ben is an easy baby who is happy getting any attention whatsoever.
4. In the Mayes tradition, Ben also has a large melon, which he has to keep covered by a helmet at all times.
5. Although Ben is not the blogging gold that his sister Allie is, he provides for some darn good pictures - like this, which is my favorite.

Relay for Life

This is perhaps the greatest letter to the editor ever from our local paper regarding our recent Relay for Life for Cancer Research:

My husband and I shared a sleepless night this past Saturday, May 5, because of loud music being played over the loudspeakers at the middle school nearby. The sound permeated the house even with the windows closed. Disturbing to say the least, but when the music was still blasting when the sun came up Sunday morning it was clear that the City of south Lyon had given permission for this intrusion. Never in over twenty years have we heard loud music for an entire 24 hours.

Upon calling city hall on Monday morning to place a complaint, I was given a non-emergency number to call at the police department where the clerk put me on hold to inquire about the source of the music and explained that the fire department had sponsored the Relay for Life cancer research event at the middle school that weekend. I then was given another phone number for the non-emergency dispatch so I could request an officer to come to the house and file a report. Guess what? The "cause" lost all of its importance when we were treated with total inconsideration by the city we pay taxes to and were made uncomfortable in our home.

We want to know how this could possibly be rectified by filing a police report? I called city hall to register a complaint and was promptly given the brush off. Shame on South Lyon for deciding when its residents can sleep. Ridiculous and rude would be the best way to describe this event last weekend. Apparently the City of south Lyon only cares about tax dollars and not the residents who pay them.

I sent in the following response to the paper, which Cathie and I laughed about all night:

Last year I had the opportunity to walk in the Relay for Life with my Mother, who was battling Pancreatic Cancer at the time. It was an amazing moment for my whole family as we walked the survivor lap together with my Mom. My mother passed away this past October, however this year I had the chance to see a friend who is a cancer survivor walk in the event as well.

I know Jim and Karen Olson gave up a sound sleep and I want to thank them for their selfless sacrifice in the support of the Relay as people walked to raise money to find a cure for cancer. I'm sure after thinking this through that Jim and Karen have come to realize that the "cause" as they refer to it deals with real people, like my Mom and my neighbor who have suffered many more than one sleepless night. There are many that have fought a much larger injustice than just that of one night of loud music; they have fought the injustice of cancer.

Will's 190 yard Tee Shot

Two feet from the pin.

Plantronics CS70N Headset

I just got a new headset for my office phone, the Plantronics CS70N. In my opinion, Plantronics is the best of the best when it comes to any kind of headsets, and this is no different. At Mack's recommendation, i got the CS55 about 3 years ago and have loved the headset and the freedom it gives me. The CS70n is lighter with better noise cancellation, better range and sound quality. Working virtually, I can be on the phone 9 hours in a given day. The headset gives me the ability to answer my phone from anywhere in the house by simply pushing a button on the side of the ear-piece to lift the handset on my phone's base. If you're on the phone for any amount of time, this is the way to go. It'll change your life.

Update: After using this for two days, I love the light weight and better noise canceling capability- but the mute button is a pain to use and the range is worse than my original CS55 headset.

Golf

I'm in a golf league and I really don't enjoy golfing that much. I like golfing as a social thing - drinking beer, smoking cigars and hanging out with friends on a nice sunny day - but golfing itself - I can take it or leave it. I'm not good at it and it's not cheap - so all in all, I'd rather be out mountain-biking than golfing I agreed to be on a team with Will and Bob in order to improve my game - hoping that if I get better at it, I'll enjoy it more and since I golf just enough at work that it could be useful. Will and I are golfing tonight together. Should be interesting. Will has asked me to refer to him as Fiancé Will . Seems odd.

Weird Noise

I woke up last night at about 1:30AM and ran to the window, hearing what sounded like a screaming girl out our window. In the middle of the night this sound, combined with the recent kidnapping in South Lyon of one of Maddie's friends got me wide awake in a hurry. I listened at the window and it it turned out to be some kind of animal - making the loudest screaming girl noise I've ever heard. It was creepy. I lay back in bed, listening a minute longer and got back up one more time, not convinced that it wasn't a kid. No idea if it was a wounded cat, raccoon or what it could of been. This morning, i check with Cathie to make sure I hadn't dreamed it all. I hadn't. Cathie had heard it too and thought the same thing I did. She just let me get out of bed and check.

Chaos

We had our Chaos Junior High Youth Group meeting last night. I gave a group of kids a ride and on the way and we had this thought provoking conversation in the car:

Zach: What are we doing tonight?
Me: Poking each other in the eye with big, sharp needles.
Brian: Sweet! Let's give each other piercings too!
Eric: Yeah! I want nine piercings!
Zach: This could be the greatest meeting ever!

We had a huge group of leaders there yesterday. Shinn has done a great job pulling together a core of leaders for junior high of our ex-high school/now-college students to help lead, and together we have a blast doing this.

Jason was teaching on our image of God, looking at how people view God from the perspective of two comic book characters view of the world - The Green Lantern and The Punisher. Mike Rays and I had the sixth grade boys and we got to hear some hilarious and honest answers. As Jason would talk about a new Super Hero, the same kid would raise his hand and ask, "Is this guy in the Bible?" Mike and I were dying laughing.

I love working with these kids. Their honesty and views of God are so interesting to hear and there in a place where they can be impacted in a big way.

Will and Monaca are Engaged!

Our friends Will and Monaca are engaged! Words can't describe how excited I am about this. Will is like a brother to me - one of my best friends in the whole world. He is a part of my family and i speak for us all when I say that we are all thrilled to have the family now grow by one as Monaca joins the Kurt clan (much to our chagrin, she will not be taking the Kurt name when she marries Will). Our kids are very excited, especially the girls, who love Monaca to death. Even Nate showed something that was beyond ambivalence when he heard the news. The whole family has been pulling for Will and Monaca to take this step for a long time. Most excited is Will's Mom, who gain a daughter, lose a roommate and gain a bedroom and couch back.

I can think of no one that would have been more excited at this news than my Mom. The day before she died, she sat down with Will and Monaca and tried to get them to move their schedule up a little bit, but they wouldn't go for it. She considered Will one of her boys and as Will put it, my Mom had the best seat in the house for the proposal.

Rumor has it that Ted Haase will have the important job of coaching and motivating the ring-bearer and flower-girls.

No idea what means

Just got this message. No idea what application caused it or what it means.

Roll Call

Aside from my family and close friends, i have no idea who reads this page. If you would, take a sec and leave a comment and let me know who you are and where you live. If you're feeling ambitious, you can click on the map below and put a pin on it and show me where you're reading from. Thanks!

Jott

I'm trying out a new cell phone based transcription service called Jott. It lets you call it, speak a message, which it will in turn translate to text and send either to you or others. I use my voice mail and e-mail on my phone to record to-do's for myself all the time. I'm trying this to see if this is easier than having to type out a quick e-mail to myself as a reminder for things. Jott integrates well into my address book, pulling them all over from just about any source and then allowing me to interact with everything via voice commands. It's free, it's beta, and it seems to be a good idea in concept.

I still use the YouMail personalized voice mail system which made it past my two-week window of usefulness testing. If you haven't tried YouMail yet, it's rather cool. It's also free and it lets you personalize the voice mail greeting based on phone number and then access your voice mail via a web browser, if you like.