Valpo - No it's not a dog food......

Valpo - that's the nickname for Valparaiso College in Valparaiso, Indiana. This last month, James, Lora & I spent 3 days there. James' basketball team was accepted to the National Lutheran Basketball championships, and "Valpo" is where the games are held.

It was a pretty long drive out. We left at about 5:30 or so and arrived at around 4:00 in the afternoon. On Thursday night, we went to chapel, where thay had a worship service led by some students from the college. The worship band was pretty loud, but I enjoyed their music.


James' team had their first game (double elimination) on Friday morning. They got behind early but then bounced back to tie it up in the 4th quarter. After missing a chance to go ahead in the final minute, the game went into overtime. In overtime, they fell behind and ended up losing.

They didn't end up playing again until Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. So, we decided to take a jaunt into Chicago. We visited the Museum of Science & Industry and the Navy Pier. We finished up by walking a looooong ways to the Sears Tower and then having supper with my cousin Troy and his wife Lisa at the Hard Rock Cafe. (Thanks for meeting us there!)

Below is a picture of Lora, James & I at the Navy Pier. Note the seagull giving us a strange look.......maybe he's looking wistfully at James' can of Dr. Pepper.....

The next day we got up at the crack of dawn to go the second game. Things were looking good at halftime - the Trinity Panthers were up by about 12 points. But in the second half, the Panthers just didn't do much offensively. In the last couple of minutes the game went back and forth in a tie. Then, with 2 seconds left, the other team shot a 3 pointer, to give them a 3 point lead. Sadly, the Panthers weren't able to tie it up in regulation.

I did get a number of good pictures of the team and of each of the players. Earlier this year, I purchases a nice telephoto lens, and spent most of basketball season trying different settings to see if I could get the 'blur" out of the pictures, but still not use the flash. I eventually got pretty close, but had to use high ISO settings to get it to work. Best shutter speed was between 200 and 250. Of course, my pictures will never be as good of those the true photo genius Tim Davis, but I continue on my quest to someday have one or two photos be as good as his bad shots.

Hopefully I'll write again before 3 months is up.

Yikes....I need to get a life.......

Happy New Year

Well, you can probably guess that it's been busy around here - given that I haven't posted to the blog since October. Yikes!

We had a really nice holiday, traveling about 1,700 miles to family in Nebraska and Texas. On our drive back from Texas, we crossed a cold front and saw the temperature drop from 77 degrees to 40 degrees in less than 35 miles. I personally perferred the temperature BEFORE the cold front.

Anyway, thought I'd post a few pictures from our time over the holidays.

The first is of my niece, who is rumored to be a genius. We asked her to display some of the impressive things that she's learning in high school and this is what we got:

Yes - she's certain to be a Rhodes scholar!

During the holidays, Lora stole, er... borrowed the camera and took some nice pictures of the scenery near my sister and brother-in-law's house. This was a nice shot of the sunset.

A few days after Christmas we went bowling, which was fun. The boys hung out with their cousins. The picture below clearly demonstrates that superior intelligence and charisma are deeply embedded in the DNA of this thar family.

We finally left for Texas, learning quickly that snow and cold are not a prerequisite for the Christmas season. We had a nice time with my brother and sister-in-law and their family. While we were there I got to record my niece singing "Away in a Manger". I also attended my nephew's basketball practice and my other niece's soccer practice. Lora and I cooked one night and attempted to compete with my sister-in-law's cooking (I think she's directly related to Julia Child and Martha Stewart....)

My brother and sister-in-law treated the boys to a rock-climbing session. Here's a few pictures of Josh & James (Yes - Lora & I chickened out).

We also visited the LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) Presidential Library and went to a pretty crazy movie theater.

The last night we had a cake decorating contest - Girls vs. Boys. The girls' cake was very nice and "Christmassy".

The boys' cake, on the other hand . . . . . . .(That's supposed to be Ndamukong Suh - one of Nebraska's Defensive Linemen.)


On our way back from Texas, we stopped in Dallas and had breakfast with George and Mary Stoneberg - some old friends from Fremont.

To all our relatives - thanks for putting up with us over the holidays!

Music Room Update

Here's a few new pictures with the black and yellow wall in process

Time for a Rally . . .

No, I'm not talking about Wall Street (although a rally there would be nice as well). On Sunday afternoon, after rehearsing music for a wedding, Lora & I (and my mom) went down to show our support for the McCain/Palin ticket by attending the rally at the Omaha Music Hall.

When we got there, the line stretched around 3 sides of the Civic Auditorium. We probably wouldn't have made it in at all, but an older gentlemen came to us while we were in the back of the line and told us that there was a shorter line somewhere else. We followed him, and sure enough, he was right!

We stood in the overflow area, as the Music Hall was already full by that time. Little did we know that we would actually be the first to hear Sarah speak. After watching the Republican Senators and Congressmen speak via a big screen TV and speakers, Governor Palin stepped in and spoke to us in the overflow area first.


One of the difficulties in being "vertically challenged" is that trying to take pictures when tall people stand in front of you is . . . well . . . challenging! I held my camera over my head, aimed the best I could and took lots of shots. The one above was one of the better shots. I could have cropped and zoomed, but I thought that the raw shot gives you a better idea of what it was like to be there.

It was a great time and fun to hear Sarah speak. Just wish McCain could have been there as well.

I guess I've tipped my hand as to who I'm voting for . . . . . . .

Also - we'll have some updates of the music room soon. The third wall has been painted and is currently being striped.

See ya!

Music Room in Progress

Ok - these are the two walls after round 5 of striping

(updated on Sunday night).

Video from Cambodia!

On August 17th, we had a presentation at church about our trip to Cambodia. Roger Eng, our former youth pastor (now Associate Pastor) put together the following video. It's mostly video, but there are also some still shots.

Enjoy - and thanks again for your support!

P.S. We are painting the music room and almost ready to begin "striping". I'll post some pictures in the not-too-distant future.

Updates

I've updated the blogs from Cambodia with inline pictures and have corrected some grammer & spelling (so my brother doesn't pick on me). I will add some pictures to the very first posts, but haven't done that yet.

FYI - I have made contact with 4 of the 5 students in our small group and 4 additional Cambodian students.

Also - couple of links that may be of interest:

The Phnom Penh Post - English language newspaper for Cambodia

International Justice Mission - An organization working in Cambodia to stop the sex slavery industry. One of their books "Terrify No More" is about the rescue of 37 Cambodian girls from forced prostitution. One of the members of our church has a relative that works with this organization. Their is also an artist support page. The organization is supported by artists such as Sara Groves, Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, Bebo Norman and Phil Keaggy.