"Do you play croquet?!"

Yep
The family jumped at the idea of a croquet game, after I quoted this creepy character.
While croquet is a simple game, it is the social part of it that gets me every time. The simple strategies of the game cause some (mostly me) to get slightly competitive. Then again, maybe it's always been an excuse to fight. C'mon, what other game do you hear your own mother say "Alright, Joel, you can come around here, and hit Grace, and then..." There are also the almost-cheating incidents that don't go unnoticed. Wicks are turned slightly, mallets are used to form trenches through the grass, and seemingly made-up rules are remembered halfway through the game. Good-natured arguing, though, is half the fun!

As for the other half, that'd be the jokes. At one point, Daddy said,"Hey look, everyone! It's my caddy dog! ...C'mere, Major!" Major then walked sheepishly towards my dad. Maybe it was that he was the source of a joke and that everyone was looking at him, but I think mostly it was the croquet mallet placed through his collar, turning his walk into a waddle.
Of course, there's always the sitting on the croquet mallets...


...the puns "Here Tim, you can have green." "Okay! ... or should I say croquet?!"


...And of course, what family game of croquet wouldn't be complete without someone yelling "And then Uncle Harold's croquet mallet flew UP into the AIR!" before reenacting the scene from Shelly Duvall's Bedtime Story, Albert's Bad Word.

Hopes for a Successful Party

Hey everyone! Mostly I'm just real excited about an upcoming party my friends planned. At the beginning of the summer, Sarah Duncan expressed her wishes to have a hotdog party. A party for hotdogs, about hotdogs (if anyone can tell me how to keep my computer from automatically making my first paragraph into a link, please do!)


Anyway, it's going to be great fun, and Jon and Tim will both see how many hotdogs they can consume. I'd like to make Sarah's hair into a hotdog, and we'll all pitch in to finance it. (I am planning on bringing hotdogs with cheese in them!) She wanted it to still be summer, but probably before school starts.

Plans for the party changed slightly after a visit to Hope International Fellowship by a guy by the name of Dennis Hedke. He is running for state BOE in district 8. He is a scientist and a Christian. He talked about the importance the schools have in the next generation's world view. It was all great stuff, but of course, some jokes were made during fellowship time. Sarah and Bill suggested we make shirts for him, and I said "Vote for Dennis!" in my most Summer Wheatley-ish voice. To my embarrassment, Dennis walked up to our small group at that moment to say hi. ...oops Anyway, after he left, we decided that "Vote for Dennis" T-shirts would be awesome, and that we should make some.

It'd be the perfect activity for our hotdog party. Everyone will bring their own t-shirts, and I will provide paint and iron-on's. Later, hopefully, we will model our new shirts at Riverside park during our weekly Bible study.

In case you were wondering... I DID make a design for the shirts!

"...The Foal of a Beast of Burden"

Kansas Bible Camp has a new addition to their herd of poison-ivy control. And I'm not talking about just another stinky goat. This my friends, is an ass christened Peanut. A farm donated him to the camp along with two ducks. Although these really add to our fairly new nature center, Peanut is kind of only here for one reason: once every three years, he is to be ridden by some kid for acting out Jesus's triumphal entry.
Yes, this past week at KBC happened to be the Christ week. Having a live donkey there REALLY helped people understand a bit more about our awesome Jesus. See, this donkey, like the one in the Bible, had never been ridden before last Monday. Guess what? This donkey STILL remains un-ridden! As soon as the blanket was placed on his back, the unwilling Peanut tried to buck it off, and then took off running with a camper still hanging on to its neck for dear life. Thankfully, this camper has had some experience with cowboy/rodeo life, and it wasn't that big of a deal. It was still funny, especially when Andrew tried to lead it back by its bridle and kids were making it extremely difficult by waving branches, and adding to the scariness of the situation by throwing these branches right in front of the donkey's path!
I don't want you to think this is a big, dangerous creature. It's only a donkey, not a mule. A mule would be bigger and a bit wilder. It spends its days wandering with the goats, and while it will follow an unsuspecting camper, it runs away from anyone who pursues it.

My first reason for writing a blog post about a donkey, though, is to tell of my absurd experience with Peanut. During sport-time, I wandered across the creek to feed the animals. After offering the donkey a handful of leaves, he was less concerned about standing close to me. Soon, he would let me pet him while I fed him, and not long after, he would follow me around the trees while I found leaves for him to eat. He began to sniff my back between mouthfuls, which I thought weird, so I decided it was time to go. "One more tree" I said to myself. As I reached for one last handful of leaves, I was in for a horrible shock. The ass bit my donkey! (okay, dumb joke) but the donkey really did bite my butt, and hard too! I ran all the way back to the nature center. As I stopped to take a breath, I heard galloping behind me. I gasped and turned around. Peanut was running towards me at full speed! Thankfully, he turned at the last second, giving me time to run to the bridge and across.
Later, after I told Tim, he said, "Well, now I guess I have to go beat up a donkey!" I started to tell him that the donkey really didn't mean it, but Tim interrupted me with "Wow! you really got him riled up! Look!" I looked across the creek, and between the trees, I could see Peanut still running, pacing by the gate to the bridge.

Counseling

This last week at Kansas Bible Camp was a fruitful one, with many kids getting saved.
My dorm was a pretty "good" dorm, full of Christian friends who came together. Although I sometimes wish for a challenging group of girls, it was a nice change to focus teaching on growing in the faith instead of just salvation. I never felt a strong desire for a break, which was good; we didn't get as many as normal. Thursday, however, the director told us we could all take a break during quiz, and we chose to spend it consuming the enormous package we received anonymously. (some are suspicious of George Farber) I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we did.






This last week at Kansas Bible Camp was a fruitful one, with many kids getting saved.
My dorm was a pretty "good" dorm, full of Christian friends who came together. Although I sometimes wish for a challenging group of girls, it was a nice change to focus teaching on growing in the faith instead of just salvation. I never felt a strong desire for a break, which was good; we didn't get as many as normal. Thursday, however, the director told us we could all take a break during quiz, and we chose to spend it consuming the enormous package we received anonymously. (some are suspicious of George Farber) I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we did.