This afternoon I had the privilege of finding 5 geocaches, taking my total to 10!

Geocaching is pretty geeky, sure, but it’s extremely addicting!

What is it?

Here we go:

Geocaching is sort of a modern-day treasure hunt. On the website, www.geocaching.com I am able to search for hidden “caches” that are in the vicinity of any zip code – or better yet, exact latitude and longitude coordinates. I can then transfer those “cache coordinates” to my GPS and then travel towards to caches and find them hidden amongst public areas!

I was absolutely surprised to know that I could be a part of the geocaching community by merely owning a low-end travel GPS and NOT one of those high-dollar handheld versions that are MADE for trail hiking, etc.

I will continue to seek these hidden caches, which oftentimes have small trinkets, coins, etc., hidden in them for finders to trade. I have yet to trade any items, but have logged my “geocaching handle” (navets) on the paper log at each location.

I started this new hobby just Wednesday when my buddy Jason Knepp picked me up for lunch – we found four on Wednesday. Yesterday afternoon I took my father-in-law out for a walk and we found one. This afternoon I picked up one of my teens, Aaron, and we found three. After I dropped him back off at home I found two more before coming in to warm up.

I will try and keep interested parties updated on my geocaching adventures! I have already tracked a few that I will attempt to find when we travel to my parents’ in Pennsylvania over Christmas.

Tonight was opening night for “Christmas with the Murphy’s” our non-traditional comedy play that we’ve been preparing for over the last few months. Jess and I were to play a newly married couple with a new baby daughter (type-casting for sure).

Jess and Ella came down with the flu a few days ago and will not be able to attend any of the showings, therefore Jess will NOT be able to play my wife and deliver her lines. This is definitely a hard thing for her after all the preparation and excitement of being in this performance.

Thankfully Ms. McAfee will take Jess’ place and did a fantastic job tonight of delivering her lines after only a day of preparation!

Tonight’s performance went fairly well. One big mistake on my part went as follows:

My conversation with “Scooter” as supposed to go this way:

SCOOTER: “Where’s Sharon?”
ME: “She’s in the back feeding the baby.”
SCOOTER: “But where is she?”
ME: “She’s in one of the back bedrooms.”

Instead it went something like this:

SCOOTER: “Where’s Sharon?”
ME: “She’s in the bedroom feeding one of the babies.”

Where in the world I got “babies” from I will never know, but for some reason during last night’s dress rehearsal and tonight’s performance I have flubbed this line each time.

I will not mess it up tomorrow. (Positive reinforcement)

Jess & Ella are both feeling better and are free from most of their flu-symptoms, but we feel it best for them both to stay low and away from others as they recover from their illnesses. The doctor prescribed LOTS of fluids so this household is running freely with mucho Gatorade & Pedialite, water, and juices!

HURRAY! HURRAY! HURRAY!

You should see it!

Tonight I did my second-to-last message in a series called, “Going All In”.

I’ve been working closely with my youth pastor buddy, Jason Denniston as we are both preaching this series at the same time for our respective youth groups. We starting with merely the same topic and main idea and building two completely different messages each week, chatting as we prepare and phoning each other after we’ve taught the lesson.

It’s been going fairly well, though it’s definitely stretching my personal sermon-preparing skills and stamina. Next week will finish off the series and then we’ll enjoy a BOX Christmas Party on the following week.