Good Ole South Dakota!

Hello everyone!
We made it to Sioux Falls on Wednesday night at 11 pm. We had a few hours of icy roads but made it before the storm hit. We were told we were going to wake up to 7 inches of fresh snow, but were sad to wake up to nothing - the storm missed us!
On our first day of vacation we did a lot of shopping! It was fun! We went with my (Nichole's) mom and dad, sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law and nephew. We hit the mall and had a great time together. And, best of all, we got ALL our Christmas shopping done. In the evening, we went to the Kjesbo's and had dinner with them followed by some fun games of farkle. The pictures are from our time with Allen, Denise, Emily and Kyle.
So far today we are just hanging out with my nephews while their mom goes to a meeting. This morning, my oldest nephew Brenden asked me what my name- sad! Hope he gets to know us better while we are here. My parents and sister (and the kids) are on their way over now. Dad is stopping to get us coffee's at our favorite coffee shop - Black Sheep Coffee!
It is good to be home - I think I will always consider South Dakota my home. Sioux Falls has grown a lot since we were here last - I have seen a Panera Bread, Linens and Things, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and some really fun restaurants.
Oh, one last exciting thing... we will go to First Baptist (our home church) this Sunday. It will be Allen's last Sunday there and he is preaching. We are excited to be a part of that. Allen and Denise have ministered at First Baptist for almost 17 years. Allen has been the youth pastor and Denise has coordinated the music for the contemporary service. They are planting a church out of First B - a very exciting adventure for them both. So, next time in town we will go to the new church plant, The Point (is to serve).

Status update and Line Rider

Our power ended up being out for about 45 hours. We were safe and warm through most of the storm. There are still people without power.
It is now cold here and our garage door needs help getting up because it is not used to the cold. The weather is actually warmer in South Dakota where we will be heading for Christmas vacation. Who would have thought?

I have just discovered the new and improved Line Rider. Check it out.

Line Rider

There is even a wikipedia entry. Woohoo!

Wiki Line Rider

Friday Not-so-fun Pics

Here are some pics from our Friday adventure. You may have seen our area on the news. Our power went out at 5:00 pm Thursday night and as far as we know, it is still out. There were also wind gusts up to 70 mph. We played cribbage last night by candle light and slept in the fireplace room to avoid any falling trees. We woke up this morning and the power came on for about two minutes. This afternoon we ate lunch and decided to evacuate to the Junkert's. They welcomed us with open arms. Here are the not-so-fun pics.

I am heating up water for oatmeal and tea in the morning.

Nichole is all bundled up while the temp. in our home drops to 55°.

Nichole and I all warm and safe at the Junkert's.

Ernie speed-burning some of the debris in his yard.

Friday Fun Links

Here is a fun little website to waste some time during the holidays. Enjoy.

Line Rider

Pregnancy Brain and Petite Cheesecakes

I have been warned about “pregnancy brain” and did it experience with my friend Katie. Nichole has had a few times when she forgot to answer a question I asked or didn’t remember what she was talking about part way through a sentence. Today however, I experienced a true pregnancy brain moment.

I came out of the bedroom and Nichole was checking on her mini-cheesecakes. There was more smoke coming out around the little treats than should have been. I said to her it looked like something was burning. She started dancing around and exclaiming, “The pot holder, the pot holder!” I ran over and pulled out the muffin tin only to find the pot holder in between the tin and the oven rack. Nichole was cooking and while these cheesecakes were cooking she was trying to figure out where the pot holder was. Needless to say, we laughed and laughed. Here she is with the finished product.

Friday Fun links "John the Baptist Edition"

Last week I had the opportunity to baptize two students in the youth ministry. It is great to see students progress in their faith journey.One was in the first service and one in the second. It is the first time I have ever brought two extra outfits to Sunday morning church.
Today's fun link is another youtube video. In this preacher's eyes, this student may have some more progressing to do than others.

Disclaimer

The movie that is referred to in my last post is not one I would recommend. We had it recommended to us by someone else and gave it only 1.5 out of 5 stars. If you have any good recommendations for movies we would love to have them. Thanks

What if . . . ?

Do you have any "what if" questions in your life? Do you ever get answers to those questions? I got one of mine answered today.

What if you accidentally sent the wrong dvd back to your online movie service?

This evening Nichole and I sat down to watch the first episode of the Pretender. When I opened the dvd tray I found the last movie that we got from Blockbuster Online. The interesting thing was that I had just put that movie in the mail on Thursday. Blockbuster lets you know when they receive the dvd back so I logged into my email and found this.

Oops, wrong item.
Hello John,
The item received by BLOCKBUSTER Online® on Saturday, December 2, 2006, is not one of the movies we sent you. We will return this item to you as soon as possible.
If you intended to return I Love You to Death P&S 1 of 1, simply remove the incorrect item from our postage paid envelope and replace it with the DVD you intended to return. Then, as always, seal the return envelope and send it back to us.
We appreciate your cooperation. If you feel you've received this notice in error, please contact Customer Care at 1-866-692-2789 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST Monday through Friday.
Thanks,
BLOCKBUSTER Online Customer Care

So there you go, if you send the wrong item to your online movie service, they will just send it back. Now I have to wait a few more days for Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock Vol. 1. :-(

Irregular Experiences

Over the past few days I have had the chance to do something things that I don't get to do very often or haven't ever done yet.
On Saturday I helped Bill dig up our septic tank and free some obstructions from the tank that were causing nasty backups while Ben and Leah were here.
On Sunday I wore a t-shirt while I preached. It has the Youth Group theme for the year on it which is Transformers and was the main theme of my message.
On Tuesday I actually got to use my snow shovel and shoveled the sidewalk out in front of our house. We had enough snow and cold weather that our local schools have been closed the past two days.
This year we are also not putting up our tree since we will be gone on vacation for most of the holiday season. This is a picture of our Christmas showcase.

Thanksgiving fun links

Here are two fun links early, so no regular fun links this week either.

1. Nichole's brother is in Iraq right now. Please pray for him.

Thanksgiving

2. This is intended for youth workers, but is a good reminder to all of us.

Thankoholic

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Fun Links Absence

Here is the reason why I didn't post any fun links last week. Buh-bye hard drive.

Bobcat

Here is my nature photography.

Bobcat and baby

Yesterday afternoon we went to Gordie and Sandy's house for lunch. As we were sitting down to lunch, Gordie faked that there were some deer out the window. We ate a great meal and as we were clearing the dishes he then exclaimed, "Bobcat, quick Sandy get the camera." Of course we thought he was joking, but we then went to the window and saw a bobcat walking along the back property line of the neighbor.
It slowly walked onto the Bauslaugh's property and then became transfixed on something in the grass. We snapped some pics and then it lunged into the bush. It came out with some small vermin and ate it. I then slowly snuck out onto the porch and snapped a great picture of it looking right up at the deck. It was on a film camera so we will see how it turns out. I was very excited after this encounter with nature.
Later on in the day I had another experience with nature. I was in the living room and thought Nichole was sleeping when she called me from the bedroom. I went back and put my hand on Nichole's tummy. I felt my daughter for the first time. I was very excited after this experience also.

Youtube for Friday fun links

Mommy

I forgot to post the pic of mommy cooking for a healthy baby growing inside of her.

It's a girl

Disclaimer: Ultraounds are not 100% accurate, but we had some pretty clear picture confirmation that we are having a girl. Here is a video of our new baby. This is the ultrasound we had this morning. You can see her suck her thumb and open her mouth.

Friday fun links

Sorry there weren't any fun links last week. Here are some good ones to make up for the absence of last week.

A helpful reminder tool: GoToMsg

Helpful for all you students with iPods: Notepods

Help the world: Red

Not as helpful as we thought: Energy drinks

Sunny Coast

There is no flash on my Treo so you can't see Nichole's face, but this is the wonderful view from our balcony.

Bella Espresso

I (Nichole) decided I wanted to post things once in a while so this is my first post!
John and I are sitting at a very cozy coffee shop in Cannon Beach, OR. We are enjoying a relaxing afternoon by the ocean - it is a beautiful day! I am reading a book entitled, "Messy Spirituality - God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People" It is a great book! Maybe I will post some gleanings from it later. John is reading a techy magazine. We have had a wonderful weekend at the coast and will head back home tomorrow. We were able to hang out with several friends we don't get to see often enough - Jon, Jill & Reagan Putz, Brian & Tammy Bruya and our new friends, Paul and Jennifer Baker (Paul is the new youth pastor at Calvary Baptist). It is such a blessing to have "church meetings" at the beautful Oregon coast - for us, it is like a mini vacation with friends! Tonight John and I are going on a date in Seaside. We are going to a yummy italian place I found last time I was here.
Going back to my book now - hope you are having a restful Sunday!

Friday fun links plus one day

Here are the fun links for the week.
Yellowtail

Sketch Swap

Jesus' Face