Wow, today has been nonstop, except for an hour-and-a-half nap that I took this afternoon!

This morning, breakfast at the church was just what we all needed to kick off an exciting day of working around the church building!

I got my hands in various aspects of workday action, including powerwashing, cable-running, sweeping, television-fixing, and even picture-taking! Someone had to document what was going on today!

After the workday, I came home, ate lunch with Jess, napped for a bit and then it was back out again – this time for a fun-filled evening at Dan & Tina Warren’s home.

They provided an excellent meal, great fellowship, and the best pool in the neighborhood! I can’t forget to mention the excellent homemade icecream made by Chad Stiver, too! Thank you Dan & Tina for an amazing evening that we won’t soon forget!

More pictures of the pool party here. More pictures of the church workday here.

I also have to mention just how much the guys had tonight playing “Ladder Golf” – the name I have chosen to continue to call my PVC-made wanna-be horseshoes game. What a blast. First, Mike, Dan’s son, and I had a great time going head-to-head and then we were challenged by Dan and Chad for a match. We beat those “older gentlemen” 2 games to 1! Dan also helped me realize that I needed smaller diameter rope to make the game work better. I brought a dozen golfballs and made the necessary rope changes and sure-enough a better game! It’s sure to be a hit tomorrow at our afternoon church picnic!

Why is it that when you play a game and you team up the boys versus the girls, things can get pretty ugly?

Tonight the game was “bid euchre”. Dad Garrett, Rich, and me played against Mom Garrett, Jaymie, and Jess.

Game 1:
Guys are up 47 to negative-10 in a game to 50. Girls come back and stomp us 50 to 15.

Game 2:
Guys beat the girls in just 4 hands with a whopping 52 to negative-10.

Game 3:
The girls mentioned that we should play “best out of three”. We again stomped them 59 to negative-23.

Before the three hands of euchre, Dad Garrett served up an amazing home-cooked meal. We had italian sausage and pork roast with all the sides. Two salads, potatoes, and some of the best home-grown bbq sauce I’ve ever had.

What a night it was.

The drive home with Jess proved to be quite the sing-a-long to try and keep us awake WAY past our normal bedtimes.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to the church by 7AM. We have a “work-day” scheduled and there is a pretty big list of “to-do” items! I’m curious to see how many “faithful workers” show up tomorrow morning at that hour to work on the church!

This morning, I headed to Lowe’s like I said I would and picked up the supplies needed to make the “Ladder Golf”/”Hillbilly Golf”/”Redneck Horseshoes” or whatever you want to call it.

I was finished with the project and testing it out in the front yard by 3:15PM.

At about 3:30, Dan Warren showed up to pick me up for our afternoon of golfing. We headed to “Racoon Run” – a local golf course and met up with Thomas Young and Jay Godshalk. Thomas is an IWU Senior and comes to Warsaw Wesleyan when he’s home. Jay was on our softball team and also attends our church.

What a blast we had!

I haven’t been “real” golfing since I was in college, I think. This was truly a day-off treat that I won’t soon forget. $15 paid for 9-holes and a golf cart too!

We played “cart-best” so I was with Jay. Thomas and Dan played on the other team. If Jay hit the ball closer to the pin, I would pick up and move to his location and vice-versa. When all was said and done, Jay and I had fun, but were 10-over par (on only 9 holes, remember!) Thomas and Dan were just a couple over par.

At about hole 4, the clouds starting getting darker-than-normal and it poured like I hadn’t seen it pour in a long time in Warsaw.

We got drenched, and yet still managed to have an absolute blast on the golf course. Thanks to Thomas and Dan for getting me out of my “haven’t golfed in years”-slum this afternoon and inviting me along for a great time!
Tomorrow morning we have our monthly NETWORK meeting – this time at First Christian Church where my buddy Gary is the youth pastor. My other buddy Scott Greene is joining us for his first-ever NETWORK meeting. It’s always a great time when multiple youth pastors get together!

Tomorrow night, Jess and I are headed to Bluffton for “game night” with the Garrett Family! I’m looking forward to that!

Stayed up late last night working around the house. It felt good to use my “after theBOX” energy for doing chores! We had a good time last night in youth group. We did two “Sound Advice” songs last night – where we played two songs that can be heard on secular radio and used those songs as discussion-starters. First song, “Breaking the Habit” by Linkin Park. Second song, “The Reason” by Hoobastank. Good times.

Today I’m going to head to Lowe’s and attempt to purchase the materials needed to build my very own “Ladder Golf” set. I had been calling it “Golf Horseshoes” and may still call it that, but Dad sent me the plans that he found in his “Family Handyman” magazine where they called it “Ladder Golf”. I’m going to try and have a set ready to use at our Fall Family Fest on Sunday. Maybe folks will love it so much that they’ll want to buy a set for themselves and I’ll become a Millionaire!

I can see it now.

Done daydreaming.

Yesterday’s 6AM sun was absolutely beautiful. You know me, I had to pull over to the side of the road and take a picture:

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Oh my what an early morning. I’m up, showered, and half-ready for a full day.

We “officially” finished our church-league softball season last night with an 11-8 loss to Walnut Creek Church. Apparently we lost to a team that hadn’t one a single game all season long. How’s THAT for a bad game. It was fun, though, and if we DID win, we would’ve needed to turn around and instantly play ANOTHER game that same night! Ugh.

Grandma and Grandpa did stay for the entire game on the hard bleachers! I heard my wife and my grandmother yelling for me each time I was at bat. Surprisingly they cheered “more-than-usual” when I was walked at my last at-bat…

After the game we headed to Ritter’s for icecream and I snapped a picture of their sign with a not-so-typical spelling error.

After Ritter’s we showed them our apartment for the first time and then they headed back to the church where they had their motorcoach parked.

This morning I have a hospital visit and then I will be taking my wife to breakfast at Bob Evans. It is the third-year tradition to take my wife out to breakfast on the first day of school! Dad always did this for us kids growing up, so I’m doing my best to pass on this awesome tradition!

Pictures of yesterday are here.