Watery weekend!

Our weekend started by us heading out to Son Life Camp in Wayland for our churches annual church camp out. We had a nice lot with full water/electric hook-up...which was perfect for our humble tent...haha. A few hours after we got there, we began to hear thunder and soon the storm came in. We spent the evening in our good friend Tom and Cindy's camper, and at around midnight, went back to our tent to sleep - which stayed completely dry! The next day was beautiful and we enjoyed the lake and sunshine with our church friends. It was really nice to have a lazy day with nothing to do...and then it happened...the phone call.

Aaron's parents went to our house to feed our cat and discovered that our basement had flooded. We got the call and within 10 minutes were on our way home to check the damages. We found that our carpet (only 3 months old!) was completely saturated. After talking with a few neighbors we realized the storm hit our neighborhood hard. Almost half of the neighborhood had some flooding in their house...our neighbor across the street even had it coming in through the ceiling and walls. Our electric had been out for most of the night, causing our sump pump to not work. But our neighbor had a generator and even he couldn't keep up with the water coming in, that's just how fast it was coming in.

So we got to work hauling furniture and belongings to higher ground. Then we ripped out the carpet, and borrowed some fans and dehumidifiers which are still running today! We also tried to save some of the carpeting and drapped it over our deck. Hopefully we can re-install it later this week. We're pretty sure no major damage was done. The baseboards were a little wet, but we got the fans going right away, so I think they'll be okay.

Our spirits were down a little because of our ruined weekend, and so we called it a night shortly after midnight. Before going to bed, we checked our email and noticed that our friends Marv and Sue (pastor from Ottawa) had updated their carepage. Sue has been suffering from brain cancer for a few months now, and things are looking pretty grim. But despite everything going on in their lives, they continue to have the most positive attitude. They look heavenward for their refuge and strength, and their faith hasn't wavered even a hint - they end all their posts with, "Sue may have cancer, but God is good - all the time." Marv and Sue have been close to our hearts ever since the beginning of our relationship, and so we continue to think and pray for them daily. Anyways, as we went to bed that night, we talked about how silly and selfish we must look complaining about a little water in our basement. In the big scheme of things, it's a pretty minor problem to have.

We woke up this morning with a new perspective on things. We drove back to Wayland to take down our camp, and enjoy church with our church family. We shared lunch with our parents, and then spent the afternoon/evening working on the basement some more - but we're certainly not complaining about it! We're also thankful for our parents, Uncle Paul, brother Chad, and friend Terry for giving up their Saturday night to help us! We love you guys. Oh yeah, and we can't forget about our amazing church family! We're so blessed to be a part of such a loving and caring congregation.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend

Pictures - part two - the climb

I did a 4-5 hour hike today up to a place called Canon's Creek and also a spot called the punch bowls. Here are some pictures, but they don't do this place justice - it's pretty amazing.





This is the Glen Eyrie Castle. An amazing place...





These are the "punch bowls". I guess people slide down the rocks, but I didn't try it, since I was all alone!

Another waterfall...

My corny attempt at a video...haha

Pictures - part one

Custer State Park, South Dakota...


This is me on top of the rock that was in the first picture.



This is the bus, she's a beaut. A 1989 Eagle with only 765,000 miles on it (767, 000 now)

3,800 miles in 7 days - day 49...

ok, not really day 49, only day 4. It has been an interesting couple of days, and even though I would much rather be home, I'm sure trying to work on the attitude thing and trying to make the best of it...and actually there are some cool things that I'm experiencing - there are just people who I would rather experience them with, maybe that's whats so boring about this!

Here's where I've been: Sunday was spent in Rapid City, South Dakota and surrounding areas - some of the group did a cave tour and Wind Cave National Park, and the rest went hiking at Custer State Park - both very cool places. Driving a bus through the mountains was interesting, had to stop at one point to let the brakes cool down - but at least no more break-downs. Sunday night we headed to our next destination - an Indian reservation - in the middle of absolutely nowheres. Even Jill (my GPS friend) couldn't help me. It was close to midnight before we finally made it, but we drove for miles on roads with no signs, street lights, or houses - kinda weird. At one point I even ended up on a gravel road. Monday the group did a service project at the reservation and then we headed towards Colorado. The group spent the night at a church in Castle Rock.

Today the group went to Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. The views here are amazing. The castle on the website looks even more amazing in person, however, apparently we are the surfs because we're staying in what would resemble servants quarters. My room doesn't even have a TV, but that only makes it easier for me to get outside and enjoy this place. Tomorrow I don't have any driving to do, so I'm going to hike up this mountain. Should be cool - but hopefully I don't fall and kill myself! Oh yeah, and when I was parking the bus, I scraped the side of the bus. These roads are not meant for buses and the corner was impossible to make. I am still down on myself though - I was trying to do a good job this week and now my bus needs body work...grrr. I guess that's all for now. I'm sure nobody cares about what I'm doing each day (it feels like I'm doing one of those school assignments: "what I did this summer" but at least I'm entertaining myself...haha. -aaron

3,800 miles in 7 days - day 2

Today was one of those faith building days. One of those days where I have to keep saying that God has a plan for me and maybe he's using this experience to teach me something. One of those days where I say whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!!!

For starters, this job is stressful. And I don't sleep well when I'm stressed, so I have that going against me. I don't drink coffee or caffeine because that makes me have to pee and we're on the road for up to 4 hours at a time without stopping today. Although today we had an unexpected stop. We were driving down the I-90 just minutes away from South Dakota when somebody on the bus yelled, "Aaron, you need to pull over". I look in my mirror to see a billow of smoke coming from the back of the bus. With a few choice words and some mad bus driver skills, the bus is pulled along side the interstate and the group is evacuating to the shoulder of the road. I grabbed the fire extinguiser and head to the back where we discover the problem. An amp (or energy converter??...something that runs off the battery that you can plug AC power cords into) had fried. Wires melted, sparks flying, the whole works. I guess we were lucky that we killed the power in time and the sparks didn't spread to anything else. After some phone calls and investigating the situation further, the situation was resolved, and we re-loaded the bus and headed to the next city, where there was a mechanic waiting for us. He capped off the wires and said we were good to go as long as we didn't use the amp anymore - I said no problem! Oh did I mention that while the group was evacuated it was raining outside? We were about 1/2 mile past a rest area so they all took off for that. This kind of stuff stresses me out, so it was a long day. But there's a saying that goes "eat that frog" (or something like that). It means that if you woke up every morning and ate a frog, it would be the worst thing that happened to you all day. (If that doesn't make sense, it's because I'm tired!) Anyways, what I'm getting at is that today's problem was our "frog" for the week, so it's clear sailing from here on out...only 6 more days of this! Pray for me!

3,800 miles in 7 days - part 1

Hey - Aaron here. I thought I would update on my random life. Currently, I'm sitting at Damon's in Wisconsin Dells at a resort called Kalahari. I'm on my first charter bus driving trip of the summer and I'm already ready to be back home! Heidi dropped me off at my bus this morning at 4:00 a.m. and by 11:00 a.m. the group was getting ready to go to what is supposed to be the countries biggest waterpark. They're here until 6:00 p.m. and then it's back on the road for a few more hours...and this is day one...I'm doing this until next week Friday...yikes! But I'll make the most of it and have some fun. The group I'm with is pretty cool. Ok, I really don't have anything else to say...maybe I'll post some pictures of my daily adventures. :) Have a great day!

A new Nephew

My new nephew finally arrived on May 31 at 4:30pm. My sister in law was 2 weeks overdue with her 5th baby!!! It ened up being a rough delivery because the baby was twisted and his shoulder wanted to come out first. Yes, it is another boy! That makes 5 boys for my brother Chad: Ethan 9, Lucas 7, Wesley 5, Jackson 3, and now Caleb. I love them so much and love being their aunt. Aaron seems to like being married into the whole uncle thing too :).

Please continue to pray for my sister who is adopting from Etheopia (sp?). They are running into some problems and their adoption has been postponed and they don't know how long to be. They had a benefit garage sale though last weekend and raised closed to $3000! God is good!! Hopefully we can bring this other little boy from half way around the world.