Time for a new post.

Well, this has been a much longer time between posts than I expected. I'll get through everything eventually. First, a description of the campout mentioned in the previous post.

We went down to the Hocking Hills region of Ohio. After leaving a slight bit late from Rushsylvania at just before 1630, we proceeded without (much) adventure to our campsite, around a 2½ hour trip. I say much adventure because of a driver getting onto I-270 right next to us. The adventurous part about it was that he apparently didn't see us as he oozed into our lane. Thankfully, he missed us, and we kept going. Supper was Burger King on the southern side of Columbus.

When we got down there, we quickly unloaded and set up. Since Milkdud, his brother, and his dad had gotten there that morning, they'd already gotten a couple tents set up, a fire going, and a dessert in a dutch oven in the fire. The dessert, which we will not name, for the stomachs of the squeamish might not handle it, was basically yellow cake mix, cherry (I think) flavoring, and butter. I know there was more to it, but I don't remember what all. It was pretty good, but the Casa Mamita tortilla chips were better! :)

After a few hours, we headed off to bed. Milkdud and I were up till near 0300 talking, whereas the other talkers mostly headed off in the 0100-0200 range. However, one mishap occurred around 0005 or so. While he was talking with the other adults around the coal-bed fire, Dad accidentally slammed his knee into a picnic table bench. He managed to hit it really hard, causing him to miss most of the hiking on Saturday.

Well, reveille was at 0630, meaning I had to be up at 0615. I had a root in my back the whole night, so I didn't sleep the best. Even with these detriments, the first half hour of me being up was enjoyable, since I got a matchless fire going even when Milkdud, one of our two best fire builders, didn't think I would (at least the way I was doing it.) After a generally tasty breakfast, and a hurried takedown of camp in the beginning rain, we did a briefing of the day and headed out.

Our first stop of the day was Ash Cave. We headed there, taking a little while to admire the sites, including a really neat 90-foot waterfall. After about an hour of playing around on the great topography, we headed out on the 2-mile hike to Cedar Falls.

Cedar Falls is a nice cascade some 40-50 feet tall, coming down some rocks and splitting in two near the bottom. It falls into a pool around 150 feet across, which then has a small rock course (we termed it a slip-and-slide) down into the stream bed. We spent a little while here after eating lunch up at a picnic shelter above the falls.

After Cedar Falls we went to Old Man's Cave by car. We checked out the "cave" itself and its two waterfalls, then hit the gift shop quickly before leaving for Rock House.

Rock House is a justifiable cave. It's accessed by a steep winding trail that twists down into a gorge, then follows a rock face up to the cave, accomplishing this by a 50-step stairway with a dropoff to the side straight down a cliff. This stairway was especially interesting because it was covered with wet leaves. Yay. Anyways, when we made it up, we had fun playing around for close to an hour. It was great. When we were finished, we headed back to the parking lot, did a quick debrief of the campout, and headed home. Our van in particular got home a little before 2100.

Alrighty. That's it for the campout. Here's the rest of the stuff for the rest of the week.

Sabbath was good. We had good attendance at church, and even visitors! We ended up having the visitors here for lunch, but they had to leave after a couple of hours, missing the evening service, since the family farms, and they had animals to take care of. Oh, the other thing. Since Mortons gave me the Warheads a few weeks ago, I gave them a box. I'd found out a couple weeks ago that they were at Walmart, and I've been happy about that ever since! :)

Monday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a Cub Scout meeting. One note about this--Bumpas earned his Den Chief Service Award! :)

Tuesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and a troop meeting. Troop meeting was themed around wilderness survival shelters. I worked with a younger guy and we managed to complete his rank requirements for Tenderfoot, complete with a board of review! That was nice--he's 16 years old, so he doesn't have much time for dilly-dally between the ranks.

Wednesday--schoolwork, yardwork, and COPE training. This last is stuff for scouts. COPE stands for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience--basically teambuilding stuff through puzzles/riddles, then trust events like trust falls, smooth wall crossovers, etc., then finally a high-ropes course. We covered some of both the former, but not the high COPE. Oh well. Next week is the same thing, except it's on the COPE facilities for the low COPE.

Yesterday--schoolwork and yardwork. You starting to see a pattern here? :P

Today--schoolwork and yardwork. I've also spent a while working on this post and having fun outside on my bike. I watched a friend go over a cheap ramp several times, coming close to wiping out easily half the time. One funny thing with this---I mentioned to my friend that I was certified in CPR. His mom, who was watching, said that she didn't care whether I was certified or not, just as long as I knew how to do it! :)

I think that's about it. Hopefully I'll get more up tomorrow, complete with (I hope) pictures. I must get going. Good night!

Time for a new post

Sorry about the delay there. I kept thinking that I needed to be putting a new one up, but never thought it while at the computer with enough time to do it! :)

Alrighty. The rest of Saturday wasn't bad. We ended up going to Fazoli's for lunch as a sort of celebration. That was nice. I had some schoolwork to finish up, but not a ton.

Sabbath was quite good. Attendance was a little bit down, since the Mortons were out of town. We had the Probst family from church stay for dinner with us and a couple of ladies from church, which was a great time of fellowship and fun, not to mention plenty of good eats! The sermons were quite useful. I think that's it for then.

Monday, not much. School. That was about it.

Tuesday was different. I started into some bug or the other, and was having a bit of both mental and physical fatigue. Nothing really bad, but I was tired and was having a bit of trouble thinking. We got a little bit of yardwork done in the late afternoon before we headed off to the troop meeting.

That went mostly well. I was both the main speaker and the main leader, since Milkdud, the SPL, was absent. I gave a presentation on signals to use if you're lost. These would include basic ground-to-air signals, fires, mirrors, etc. After the presentation, everyone went outside and most of them had to make as many signals as possible from memory alone. Sean, Bumpas, and I all just watched them and shouted out how much time they had left. :)

We also did a little bit of planning for the campout this weekend to Hocking Hills. It ought to be plenty of fun, but it'll be cold and wet. Oh well. That's a campout for you! :)

Yesterday, I was still having some problems with the bug. Because of both this and the fact that some regular attendees were sick, prayer meeting got canceled. I ended up doing a bit of schoolwork and a few pinball games. :) The best of the evening ended up slightly over 18 million points. In case you didn't know this, I love playing pinball (on ME's pinball game--the physics on ME are different from those on XP) and I'm pretty good at it. My record is just above 31 million points.

Today was a bit more schoolwork and a run up to Findlay to visit the mom/grandma of one of the families from church. She's in the hospital for some major fluid drainage, and she seems to be doing a bit better after the fluids were drained. Please be praying for continued recovery for her!

Other than that, we also had the district (this county) adult Scouter's Roundtable, which is just a monthly meeting to bring everyone up-to-date on activities coming up. I made an announcement about needing money for my eagle project, and got some money and promises of more coming. I've already had one generous donor pledge enough to cover the foundation. I'm really encouraged that the Lord has given me what He has so far, and I'm confident that He will give me enough to complete the fundraising. Incidentally, while I'm on this topic, if you have the ability and the inclination, I'd be happy to get a donation from you, whoever is reading this! :)

I think that's about it. I'll try to update more regularly. Bye for now!

Praise the LORD!

I just ordered the stone for my eagle project! Thankfully, the engraving, which most other places would have charged close to $1000 for, is free. As well, the sales representative called a person down at the main offices, and this man agreed to sell the monument at cost. I'm very happy right now, as you might guess. The fundraising is all that I need to finish up, and I don't anticipate a ton of problem finishing that up. Praise the LORD for helping me with this!

Twenty Truths

Dad just forwarded this to me, and the twenty truths were so good I thought I'd put them up here. So, without further introduction...

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1. Faith is the ability to not panic.

2. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you pray, don't worry.

3. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home every day.

4. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

5. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

6. Do the math. Count your blessings.

7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

8. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me.

9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.

10. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.

11. The most important things in your home are the people.

12. Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.

13. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

16. We do not remember days, but moments. Life moves too fast, so enjoy your precious moments.

17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it, otherwise it's just hearsay. (There are limitations to this; just ask Thomas!)

18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.

19. Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and dreams you're seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the turtle -- it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.

20. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Slight weather change...

Well, the weather took a turn for the cold side. We've had snow squalls on and off today. It's been interesting, going from almost 80º yesterday to this! I took some pictures yesterday of some nice little flowers around our house, so here they are (at least the pictures.)

Tulips and daffodils by the front porch

Tree in the side yard with hyacinths and daffodils

Flowering cherry tree

More hyacinths out by the grape vines

Petunias out by the front porch just coming up (the flowers, not the porch)

Well, the flowers are frozen out now. Compare these pictures, taken about 24 hours apart.

Yesterday afternoon

Today afternoon

Oh well. As my last post said, it's all for the best. I wish the flowers could have stuck around longer, but oh well. I thought everyone would like the pics, but I need to get going. Good night, everyone!

April Fool's joke

Yes, that's what it was. I only really got one person with it, but oh well. I will continue blogging.

Ummmm... Monday (yesterday, I suppose) was busy. I did some schoolwork in the morning, but not a ton. After that, we got a big job done. We had a major cleanup job on a yard and then mowed it. It was fun, but it was good tough work. :)

Yesterday evening was also a cub scout meeting night. We only had (I think) 8 boys there, especially since the main local school district is on spring break this week. It was fun, especially since the weather was so nice. We ended up going outside, where we did kickball. The teams were all the boys vs. Bumpas (the other den chief), me, the cubmaster, and a mom. We won. :)

As I'm sure you've all heard the bad news, I won't go into graphic detail. The Buckeyes lost. 84-75. Grrrrrr.

Today was even less schoolwork. Nada. I got a lot of work done on my Eagle project, though. I have (potentially) a great praise. I can quite possibly get a very good stone for a stupendously low price, since this is for veterans. Hopefully, all works out. If it does, my job will be close to done. If it doesn't, God will provide. He will anyway. It's been a great encouragement all through my project, knowing that the LORD will be with me all the way and will help. Actually, I should put that in past, present, and future.

Tangent time. Can't remember if I spelled that right, but that's not important compared to what I'm about to say. Building on what I just said in the previous paragraph, isn't it wonderful to have this incredible assurance. If you are in Christ, He will never leave you! He will always know what is best for you and He will always do that. Everything that happens is for the best. He will always guide us in the best possible situations. That flat tire that made you late for work? It would have been bad for you not to have had it. That grandfather (speaking to myself, partly) who you loved passing away? It was good. For Grumps, everything is now perfect. He no longer has mental problems. No longer does he have to stay in a wheelchair. No longer is he bald! :) Instead, he is with his beloved Lord and Savior, in the everlasting Paradise, praising the LORD with all the saints (this word used properly) from Adam on to the latest one to die. How wonderful is this. He is no longer confined by his sinful body and sinful self. He is perfect. Now, with that in perspective, does it seem good that he died? For me, it sure does. It was hard for me, and for others, and it will continue to be. However, with him, all is well. Also, those of us "left behind" (again, used properly)(HA!), we have gained spiritual maturity by the pain we were caused, as we turned to Christ for comfort.

I think that's about it. Hopefully, this last part was helpful to you. I know it was for me, both thinking/meditating on it and writing it out. Sean's spending the night here, and we're gonna watch a movie. Bye for now!

I've been thinking, and

I've decided that, although blogging is fun, I'm going to let this blog die out. It's taking a lot of time, and it really isn't worth the effort, especially considering the lack of comments I'm getting. Hopefully nobody minds too much. Sorry if I'm disappointing anyone.