Miles Biked Update: June 30, 2008

The Galls have cumulatively biked another 86.1 miles the last six days.  The totals for 2008:

Steve 202.2 miles
Kristi 151.9 miles
Kylee 126.9 miles
Kenna 128.4 miles

Landen's Leg

I mentioned in a previous post that Landed came down on his leg wrong and was limping on it.  That was almost two weeks ago and he is still limping.  We took him to get an x-ray today.  I looked closely at the x-ray, but couldn't see anything wrong.  They will send the official report to the doctor tomorrow.  It's frustrating because Landen's leg hasn't been swollen and it hasn't stopped him from doing anything, he's just limping and falling at times when it gives out.  He can't tell us "where" it hurts.  The doctor only ordered an x-ray for his lower right leg, but for all we know it could be in his foot, ankle, upper leg or hip too.

kids-in-mind.com

Mark Slabaugh recently did a post about what movies you allow yourself to see.  One site that I have found especially useful in determing the content of a movie before I (or my kids) see it is http://www.kids-in-mind.com/.  This site rates movies on a scale from 1 to 10 in each of three categories:  sex/nudity, violence/gore & profanity.  Beyond the numerical scale, the site also provides a highly detailed account of a given movie's content in each of the three categories.  It's a GREAT site.

Five Things - All About Movies

Five things from this week.

1. Kristi and I saw Iron Man on Tuesday. I liked it, but didn't think it was great. I actually liked Indiana Jones better. We saw it at Encore Park Cinema in Elkhart. They had a sign up that said Bring Your Own Tub and they would fill it with popcorn for 50 cents. We didn't know about the special and didn't have a tub. Then I looked at their regular popcorn prices, $7.00 for a large. I told Kristi it was time to find a tub. She said, "WalMart bag?"  They filled up the whole bag.  That's a lot of popcorn for 50 cents.
2. We took the kids up town to the Nappanee Theatre to see WALL-E last night.  My mom went along as well.  She also brought my niece and nephew who are visiting from Las Vegas.
   It was cool having three generations there together.  All three of the generations have seen movies as children in the exact same theatre.
   This was Landen's first movie theatre experience (other than Charlotte's Web when he was a baby.)  He had been looking forward to it and seemed to enjoy the experience.
3. The big kids were sitting in the row in front of us, but Makenna slipped into our row and sat on my lap for a while.  The streak still stands.
4. On the way up my mom explained to Carly and Zach that they wouldn't buy a bunch of treats since they had just eaten at Dairy Queen and since she only brought $20.  Carly quickly became concerned because "movies back home cost $10 a ticket."  We explained to her that the Nappanee Theatre was only $4.  She was amazed.
5. Kristi and I watched Premonition this week.  Yuck.  I didn't like it at all.

Life Action Family Camp

We had a blast at Life Action Family Camp last week. I would recommend this vacation to any family that enjoys:

• growing in their relationship with Christ
• growing closer as a family
• eating great food
• having some help with the kids
• being able to participate in lots of fun activities
• participating in outdoor recreation
• spending time together "away from it all"
• learning how to further grow your family once you return home

They are probably close to being booked for 2009, so if Family Camp is something you are considering, you'll want to check into it soon. Also, here is a link to a sample schedule from this year's camp.

Life Action Family Camp - Friday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/20/08

It was our last whole day at camp. We heard more good teaching from Mark. This week he emphasized, "Spiritual information, without application, leads to self deception." So today we worked on making goals for each area he taught about, being God's kind of person, God's kind of partner, God's kind of parent, God's kind of parishioner and God's kind of provider. The goals are how we will apply what we learned.

Today was the warmest day we've had. We spent some time at the beach. We also went down the water slide for about an hour. After that we went for a boat ride and went tubing. Even Landen tubed!

Tonight after chapel there was a campfire. We made smores.

Makenna in the speed boat

Kylee on the water slide

This look?
It's the look of "Dear Lord, Save us from all these three-year-olds running around with marshmallow roasting sticks!"

Family Camp - Friday Evening

This is the audio of Mark Vroegop's last message of the week at Family Camp.

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Life Action Family Camp - Thursday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/19/08

After breakfast and chapel they had the fun fair. The kids had a ball bouncing, eating, doing crafts & playing games.

After lunch we went to the beach area. One of the teen staffers blobbed Kristi and me. He jumped from the high platform and both of us really got blasted into the air. I hadn't been that high above the surface of water since my dad and Larry used to throw me into Wanda & Audley's pool in the early 80s. (I actually was probably higher than that today.) I did sort of chest / throat smacker. It hurt. I'm glad I did the blob though.

Chapel services have been great. Mark is a fantastic speaker. He's interesting to listen to. His messages are challenging & he offers suggestions on how to put the knowledge he conveys into practice.

After chapel they had cookies / game night in the lodge.

Makenna & Me

Blobbed

Family Camp - Thursday Evening

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Thursday evening at Family Camp.

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Family Camp - Thursday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Wednesday morning at Family Camp. The message is on being God's kind of parent. Mark and his wife answer questions for about the first 15 minutes. The message starts at about 15:30.

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Life Action Family Camp - Wednesday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/18/08

We had a good morning session at chapel. The emphasis has been on being God's kind of person.

Landen is still limping a little.

We survived another round of the W.H.A.T. competition. It was an eating contest. Makenna and I lost. Kristi picked the teaspoon of cinnamon. The girl Kristi was going against choked on it, so we advanced. The next round involved gathering pieces of lumber blindfolded. I was the "caller." I directed Kylee, Makenna & Kristi to the lumber piles. We were the last ones to get our 5 pieces. (Kylee and Makenna have a hard time even remembering which way is right & left, so that made it tough.) You then used the lumber to solve a word puzzle. We got the puzzle done pretty fast, but still finished last and were eliminated.

Tonight was date night. Dinner was a Hawaiin Luau theme. After dinner Kristi and I hung around the camp. We took some time to talk and pray together. We ran into town too. I bought a South Bend Tribune. So I was able to get an information fix tonight, the old fashioned way. We sat on the pier and fed some fish and read when we got back.

Here's Kristi and the poor girl she choked.

Everyone booed this guy for picking a little girl to go against. We tried to get Makenna picked though. It was part of our strategy, because the loser got to pick someone else on their own team to try next. We were afraid everyone would feel bad picking a little girl to go against. Which could mean we would have to go last and only get one try to win, so we had the girls hold up their hand, in hopes of getting one of them picked. It worked. And thank goodness because we needed three tries before we won.

Family Camp from the Kids' Perspective

Both of my daughters have blog posts detailing our week at Life Action Family Camp.

You can read about Kylee's week at camp here.

Makenna's perspective can be read here.

Family Camp - Wednesday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Wednesday morning at Family Camp. The focus of this message is a study on the Biblical theology of sexuality.

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Miles Biked Update: June 24, 2008

Three more Galls have topped 100 miles biked in 2008 since the June 13 update. We took our bikes with us to Family Camp, and biked quite a bit there (which is quite different than Nappanee; at camp it's either coasting downhill or pedalling like mad up hill.) Here are the totals as of June 24.

Steve 169.0 miles
Kristi 128.0 miles
Kylee 113.0 miles
Kenna 113.3 miles

At Family Camp: Makenna's on the bike, Kylee's on the scooter. This hill was a blast to ride the scooter down! I could coast all the way to the lodge, which you can't even quite see in the picture.

Family Camp - Tuesday Evening

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave Tuesday evening at Family Camp last week.

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Life Action Family Camp - Tuesday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/17/08

They served waffles for breakfast. They were really good. They sort of tasted like French toast.

During morning chapel, Mark talked about our goal as followers of Jesus, being Christ-like.

On the way to lunch, Billy (who is on staff here at the camp, stopped me and asked me if I'm the Steve who blogged about Time Alone with God. He said Mark Slabaugh had e-mailed him the link Sunday. (Billy attends 1st Missionary Church in Niles, where Mark is on staff.) It was surprising to meet someone at camp who had just happened to read my blog; it was for Billy too. He said he had recognized my name on the week's camp roster.

This afternoon, our family assistant, Kate, stayed with Landen for his nap. Kylee, Makenna, Kristi and I took part in the W.H.A.T. competition. It's sort of like Survivor, except whichever team loses a challenge is eliminated from the contest. The four of us are on a team. Kylee & Makenna are the youngest ones playing. The first challenge was a dice game called Shut the Box. We won in the first round and were then safe. The second round challenge involved swimming out to a platform, memorizing a puzzle then assembling the puzzle back on shore. On shore the puzzle had extra pieces that looked similar to the correct ones. Kristi went first and got six of the pieces in place. I went next and finished the last four and fixed a mistake. The activities director, Spanky, said it wasn't quite right. (All 11 remaining teams are rushing to get this challenge done at the same time.) I thought I knew what was wrong, so we told Makenna what to switch. She went and did it correctly, but there was still a mistake. (Only one team member could be at the puzzle at a time.) Kristi and I thought we knew what was wrong, so we sent Kylee to switch the two "pause" symbols. Kylee did it correctly. We finished about 6th, so we are still in it. We get to play again tomorrow.

Spanky (the activities director) attends Niles First Missionary. Kylee and Makenna quiz against his daughter Jocelyn.

Yesterday we were unsure of which age group class to send Kylee and Makenna. They are a little old for the one and on the young side for the other. Well, today right before class Makenna told me she wanted to switch classes. I told her no. She looked disappointed. I considered that perhaps she was listening to the voice of God, and He was telling her to go to the other one. I do not want to be a hindrance to this. So, I talked to her again and told her to pray about it and to listen for God's voice and to go where He said to go. (Knowing that's probably not what she had done in the first place, but just in case she would be encouraged if she already had. And if not, she would have the chance to do so now.) She ended up sticking with the class she went to yesterday.

Landen and I were running across the grass today playing "jump over the goose poop." He came down wrong and has been limping on his leg.

Swim-dash to the puzzle solution

Back on shore we completed the puzzle, notice the extra pieces.

Family Camp - Tuesday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave Tuesday morning last week at Family Camp.

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Life Action Family Camp - Monday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/16/08

We left for Family Camp from Bible School at the church. We stopped at Meijer in Mishawaka to fill the vehicles up with gas. We put E85 in the van. It was 55 cents less a gallon. We stopped and ate lunch at Hacienda, then it was on to Family Camp.

We arrived at about 2:00. Our family helper is Kate. She is from Kingman, Arizona. The kids played at the playground with her while Kristi & I unpacked.

Supper was at 5:30, then it was on to chapel. Mark Vroegop is our speaker this week. I think he's going to have some challenging stuff this week. Friday sounds like it will be out of my comfort zone. That makes me nervous. Those times are usually good for me though.

After chapel, we made ice cream sundaes in the lodge. The kids then played with Kate some more.

There is scarcely a hint of outside information here. I was wondering who won the golf tournament. So, I called my dad. He said Tiger won in the first playoff hole after the 18 hole playoff. My dad said if I want to know anything this week to call him. I said I would and told him that if anything happened to call me.

Kate with the kids at the playground

Signing up for Life Action Family Camp 2009

Family Camp 2008

We spent last week at Life Action Ministry's Family Camp. Here's the teaser description from Life Action's web site.

More than just fun and games for the kids, these camps bring your family together with the best activities summer can offer.We have a lake (what is camp without one?), but the rest may surprise you. Yes, we have paintball. Yes, there’s a waterslide. Do we have fields and playgrounds? Absolutely.

What you’ll find most helpful—even beyond our facilities—is the spiritual environment. You’ll hear biblical messages regularly. Your children can partake in special clubs, and our family assistants will guide your family through the day’s events, assisting with activities, child care, tours, and whatever else you may need.You’ll love our summer camps. But be careful; they’re addicting.

Life Action's description humbly states, "You'll hear biblical messages regularly." This statement is true, but please understand that Life Action has put together a line up of speakers who are outstanding communicators of God's word.

This year our speaker was Mark Vroegop, senior pastor at College Park Church in Indianapolis. Life Action provided each camp family with a CD of Mark's messages. I asked Mark if I could post them on my blog. He said I could. So, I'm going to post all seven of his messages from the week.

Mark spoke on being:

• God's kind of person
• God's kind of partner
• God's kind of parent
• God's kind of parishioner
• God's kind of provider

The sound quality of the recordings is excellent. Mark is easy on the ears, challenging to the heart. I recommend this series to anyone.

If you are considering attending Family Camp, this will give you an idea of what chapel messages are like. They're great!

You can listen right on this blog page, or right click the link below and choose "Save Target As..." to save the file to your computer. They are MP3 files, so I guess they could be saved to an iPod.

Download Mark's Monday evening Family Camp message here.

Life Action

We got home yesterday from a week away at Life Action's Family Camp in Buchanan, Michigan. God is using Life Action's ministry to have a huge impact on families, reviving hearts for Christ. I feel blessed to have been able to spend the past week there.

This will be Life Action Family Camp week on this blog. There is no way I can recapture what an incredible week we had in a few blog posts, but I hope I can provide a glimpse of what a week at Family Camp is like.

I did get a chance to talk to Life Action's executive director, Byron Paulus. I asked him for permission to post a scan of the Time Alone with God page from their Spirit of Revival magazine, which he granted. I wrote about using this plan for my time alone with God here.

So, here is a pdf file of "Spend an Hour with God."

Past Vacation Week - Mammoth Cave National Park

Over spring break 2005 we spent about four days at Mammoth Cave National Park. This was probably my favorite vacation of my life. After seeing some of the crazy cool places we have been blessed with getting to visit the past few years, (not to mention a life that has been full of traveling the United States) you may wonder why in the world would Mammoth Cave be your favorite. Why? We saw some neat stuff, but most importantly we had an absoultuely fantastic family time together. We just had a ball. That's why I remember it so fondly.

If you ever visit Mammoth Cave National Park, the Cedar Cink trail is a must hike. Outside of Glacier, Cedar Cink is one of my favorite hikes.

Past Vacation Week - Montana

Last summer we drove to Montana. Landen stayed at Kristi's parents. My mom went with us. We visited my uncle, Steve Culp. We saw all the sights along the way, Badlands, Wall Drug, Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Quake Lake, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and more. We drove about 5,500 miles and hiked about 50 miles.

Yellowstone

Mt. Rushmore

Avalanche Lake in Glacier

This was quite a hike for six year olds! We are standing on the continental divide at the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, elevation 7600 feet! That's Lake McDonald in the background.

Past Vacation Week - Lexington & Nashville

Over spring break in 2007 we went to visit my sister Meagan and family in Lexington. We then headed to Nashville, with a stop at Mammoth Cave on the way.

Past Vacation Week - St. Louis

Going to the Arch

From high atop an outdoor sculpture at the City Museum

Over fall break in 2006 we went to St. Louis. This was a great trip. For one thing we scored an amazing deal on a hotel real close to the Arch. It was like $70 and included a huge breakfast, pizza for supper and tickets to the City Museum. We were also there when the Cardinals won the world series. We went to the celebration parade. We enjoyed the Arch and of course went to the top. The Magic House (a children's museum) was a lot of fun.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip though was the City Museum. It's quite hard to describe, but it was a ton of fun. Anyone kid or adult who likes to climb, spelunk, etc. would be in paradise at the City Museum. It's probably also pretty cool for people who like art, especially if you like to climb on art! If you like really long slides, once again, the City Museum would be for you. Massive mosaics. . . City Museum. Get the idea? My knees hurt for days after climbing all over that place. I want to go back when Landen is big enough to climb more.

Past Vacation Week - Las Vegas and California

In 2006 we flew to Las Vegas to visit my dad, sister and her family. My dad rented two RVs and we trekked to Los Angeles. We went to Disneyland and camped in the RVs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu. The girls touched their second ocean, Landen his first. By the way, we had a fantastic day at Disneyland. With a three-month-old in tow, we were there shortly after it opened at 9:00 and stayed until it closed at midnight.

Past Vacation Week - Wisconsin Dells

In late 2005 we travelled to Wisconsin Dells' Great Wolf Lodge with Kristi's whole family. That's Kylee and Makenna with my brother-in-law Ben and niece Abby in the background.

Past Vacation Week - Virginia Beach

We have no major vacation plans for all of 2008. So, I will take you on a brief photo journey of some of our previous vacations.

In 2005 we rented a beach house on Sandbridge Beach in Virginia Beach with the rest of Kristi's family.

Daily Time Alone with God

During my years as a follower of Jesus Christ I have dabbled in various daily devotions, prayer time, and Bible reading. I say dabble because I never found anything that I could stick with. To be honest, most of the devotional time I had, seemed simply shallow. I guess I thought that if it was just shallow, do-it-out-of-duty "devotions," why bother? Still, I never completely gave up. I would try something new from time to time. Furthermore, I would sometimes feel guilty about reading books by Christian authors because "I hadn't even read the Bible yet today."

It's been a struggle.

In the fall of 2005, Life Action Ministries visited our church for two weeks of revival meetings. One of the things they taught was how to spend "a daily hour with God." An hour? I hadn't even managed a consistent daily five minutes at this point. My thought was, "Yeah right."

Earlier this year as I was reading an issue of Life Action's Spirit of Revival magazine, I came upon an article that re-outlined the Daily Hour with God.

At that point I was up to a usual 15 minutes of some prayer and a little christian-author reading. So, I decided to give this "daily hour" a shot. Getting out of bed 20 minutes earlier and getting ready for work 10 minutes quicker would give me about 45 minutes. That was about three months ago. I can honestly say that during the past three months I have spent consistent, meaningful, daily time with God.

I think I have only missed four days during the three months. I don't say that to brag. I'm just super excited about what God has shown me through Life Action. . . how to spend time with Him.

Here's the Hour with God outline:

• Confession: Sin is the greatest roadblock to prayer; early in your prayer time, confess and ask for forgiveness - agree with God about your sin. (Psalm 139:23-24; 51:10-11; 1 John 1:9)
  


• Praise: Dwell on God’s attributes. He is an awesome God! (Psalm 34:1-3; 63:3)
  


• Waiting: Quiet your mind and heart before God; focus on Him, being quiet in His presence. (Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 40:31)
  


• Scripture: As you open your Bible, ask God to bless you with concentration and understanding as you read His word. (2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 19:7-8)
  


• Intercession: Develop a list of names of others to uphold in prayer. (1 Tim 2:1-2; Psalm. 2:8)
  


• Petition: Make a list of your own personal needs, and check them off as God answers prayer. (Matthew 7:7; James 4:2)
  


• Thanksgiving: Thank God for what He has done. We have so much to be grateful for!
  (Philippians 4:6; Psalm 100:4)
  


• Singing: Sing Scripture back to the Lord, or use your favorite hymnal or worship CD.
  (Psalm100:2; Ephesians 5:19)
  


• Meditation: Actively ponder and digest a passage of Scripture or a character trait of God. (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-2)
  


• Listening: Ask God for specific direction concerning the day’s activities. (1 Kings 19:11-12; Psalm 46:10)
  


• Psalms: Read a psalm, and pray back portions to the Lord. (Psalm 95:2; 147:1)
  


• Praise: You began your time with praise. What better way to end it? (Psalm 50:23; 150:1-2)

A few thoughts.

• I usually spend 25 - 45 minutes for my Time Alone with God. (Not a whole hour.)
  


• Three of the days I missed were Saturdays, when I'm not in my usual routine. I don't have much of a routine during the summer either, so it will be more of a challenge. (August 2008 Update - Summer was more of a challenge. A lot of days Landen was awake before me, which really threw off my routine. I did lousy in July. I'm ready for the routine of the school year again.)
  


• I usually skip the Singing one. I would like to get an MP3 player or something I could use for that though. (August 2008 Update - We did get an MP3 player with speakers so I can listen to it in the shower.)
  


• Sometimes I read Proverbs instead of Psalms. If I read Proverbs, I read the chapter that corresponds to whatever day of the month it is.
  


• Having 12 items to work through during this daily time helps keep the time focused, although I still have to fight against simply daydreaming. (Yesterday, during the Waiting time, I had half of a novel written about two sets of twin sisters, the "good" set and the "bad" set, then in the end one of the members of the bad set accidentally kills a member of the good set.) I know, hardly quieting my mind and heart before God. But like I said, I have to fight against daydreaming.
  


• My favorite parts of this Daily Time Alone with God are Confession and Listening. Confession, because it removes barriers to God and helps me live according to God's will. Listening, because I get the chance to practice listening for the Voice of God.
  
  
• I'm not rigid about how long I spend on each, skipping here and there or being interrupted. (I always appreciated how my mom would drop her "quiet time" for me if I needed her. Maybe she was setting the example of how God is always there for us.)
  


• If daily time with God is something you struggle with, I hope you will give this method a try.
  


• I will ask Life Action if I can post a scan of the page from their magazine. But for now, here is a link to a pdf file of the plan. (August 2008 Update - Life Action did grant me permission to post their magazine page - here is the pdf of that page.

One last thing,

this guy also blogged about Life Action's Spend an Hour with God plan. He's got a slightly different take than me. But it seems to work for him too. And hey, he typed the plan so I didn't have to. I think I owe him a link.

Geothermal Heating and Cooling System

Two years ago we were in need of a new furnace. We chose to have a geothermal heating and cooling system installed. Ours is a WaterFurnace brand system, installed by Collier's Heating and Cooling out of Warsaw.

Geothermal Heating & Cooling Systems:

• Use NO natural gas. Our natural gas pipe is capped off.
• Are considered to be around 400% efficient. The top natural gas units are around 95% efficient. Geothermal systems are much less expensive to operate.
• Work best if you do not set the thermostat back at night or while you are gone during the day. There is very little fluctuation in the temperature of the house all winter or all summer.
• Provide a more comfortable indoor environment.
• Do not dry the air in the house out as much in the winter.
• Do not produce any carbon monoxide gas.
• Are quiet.
• Do not have an outside unit for air conditioning. (Our deck is SO much more pleasant to use now that we don't have a noisy air conditioning unit beside it.)

We are extremely satisfied with our geothermal heating and cooling system. Now that we've had one for two years, I would not want to live in a house without one. I'm really surprised that geothermal systems aren't WAY more common than they are.

2008 Election - How It's Looking

Intrade has 2008 presidential election futures markets for each state (and D.C.) It's early, but I took whichever candidate is currently ahead in each of Intrade's state markets and plugged the "winner" into an electoral college calculator.

A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the election.

Using my aforementioned method, here's the total I came up with.

McCain: 232 electoral votes
Obama: 306 electoral votes

Miles Biked Update: June 13, 2008

All four of us have logged quite a few more miles since June 4. Here are the totals for 2008 as of June 13.

Steve 130.3 miles
Kristi 97.7 miles
Kylee 91.3 miles
Kenna 93.8 miles

Tim Russert

I was saddened to hear of the death of Tim Russert today. I enjoy following politics and Tim was by far my favorite political pundit. He was part of the reason I enjoy politics. I will miss him.

Chicago Day Trip

We took the kids (and my mom) on a day trip to Chicago yesterday. We took the South Shore train from South Bend to the last stop in Chicago at Randolph Street. Riding the South Shore was a first for all of us. Riding the train is pretty simple: just get on the train and pay when the conductor comes by (cash only.) If you travel during an off peak time, kids are free and senior tickets are half price. It was about $50 for the six of us to ride to Chicago and back.

We ate lunch at the Park Grill in Millennium Park, which is a nicer establishment than we usually frequent. We probably looked a little out of place with a stroller, diaper bag, three kids and my jean shorts. After lunch we waded in the Crown Fountain for a while. The kids absolutely loved this. I had seen pictures of the Crown Fountain and thought it looked cool, but pictures don't do it justice. It's not only an amazing work of art, it's a lot of fun. Next we spent some time interacting with the Cloud Gate sculpture. OK, I had seen pictures of this too. But pictures REALLY don't do this thing justice. It's simply amazing! If you haven't seen it, the pictures will give you the idea, but you have to experience the sculpture to understand what's so great about it.

We spent most of the afternoon at Navy Pier. We walked clear to the end of the pier and took in the view of lake Michigan. The highlight of Navy Pier was taking in the Cirque Shanghai Gold show. The price was reasonable and the show was enjoyable.

Then we walked back to Millennium Park and played in the fountain again. We grabbed some supper at Subway in the Millennium train station, then boarded the train for the return trip to South Bend. The train left at 8:15 and was due back in South Bend at about 10:30.

One of the stops is in Ogden Dunes, Indiana. We had been stopped there for an unusually long time, when they made an announcement that we were stopped because of "red lights" on the track. Five minutes later they announced that there was an electrical problem and that they hoped it would be repaired soon. About 10 minutes later they announced that there was a "train stuck in the wires" up ahead and that everyone had to get off the train and wait for some buses that were on the way from Michigan City.

Five buses arrived about 20 minutes later. We were fortunate to board a fancy charter, the other four buses were the school bus type. The charter bus took us from Ogden Dunes to Michigan City (we saw the tangled train on the way.) In Michigan City we got on a different train, which was hooked up to two locomotives. They started pushing the train (which runs on electricity) with the engines, but we only went about 50 feet. They said they were about to get their electricity back, so we waited another 10 minutes and sure enough power was restored. We then continued on to South Bend (without the locomotives,) where we arrived right at midnight.

I actually kind of enjoyed the bus ride. I had never been in a bus that nice and Makenna and I sat in the front seat, so we could see really well. I had gotten out of bed for the big day at 5:30 though and was really worn out by that time. We got home at 1:00 am.

Here's a few things.

• I would take the South Shore again, but not with a two year old.
• The South Shore is a really easy way to get to downtown Chicago.
• It would be better to go one morning, spend the night in Chicago, then come back the next day.
• The amphitheatre in Millennium Park is amazing. There was an orchestra practicing and just the sites and sounds of that were absolutely spectacular.
• It's not that far from Millennium Park to Navy Pier, but it sure is a long walk.

Time Alone with God for Kids

One of my daughters' goals for the summer is to "spend time alone with God every day." But what should seven-year-olds do during this time? It took me almost 37 years to figure out what I should do. So, I figured they could use some help. I shortened and simplified the guide that I use and made an outline that they can follow.

1. Ask God to help you know how you have sinned. Ask Him to forgive you.


2. Read The Bible.


3. Pray for others.


4. Pray for yourself.


5. Thank God for what he has done.


6. Ask God what He wants of you today. Listen for His voice.


7. Listen to a song of praise to God.

I don't know if this is a great list for a kid to use, but I wanted to provide my daughters with a starting place. Spending meaningful, daily time with God is something I struggled with for decades. I hope that the list I gave them will point them in the right direction from the start.

Product Review: Planet Bike, Protege Bike Computers

Our family has used Planet Bike Protege Bike Computers for a number of years now. We have used each of the wired models; Protege 9.0, 8.0 and 5.0.

The Protege 5.0 features:

• speed
• ride time
• trip distance
• odometer
• clock

The Protege 8.0 adds:

• speed comparator
• average speed
• maximum speed

The Protege 9.0 has all of the features mentioned above, plus a thermometer.

The instruction manual is easy to understand. Installing a Protege bike computer takes about 30 minutes. If you can set the time on a digital watch, you should have no trouble setting up the computer. It is important to measure the circumfrence of the tire accurately. To do this, I put the valve stem directly at the bottom of the tire, draw a line with sidewalk chalk, then walk the bike until the valve stem makes one revolution. I then draw another chalk line and measure the distance between the lines. The direction book tells you how to convert the measurement to millimeters, which is what you enter into the bike computer.

It can be a little tricky getting the magnet lined up with the sensor correctly. They do need to be lined up correctly and come really close together.

Once installed, using the computer is a breeze. You simply push it up in the holder for a few seconds to reset the trip odometer. The display is easy to read, even in bright sunlight. The information is amazingly accurate. How accurate? We did a family test of their accuracy today on the way to the supermarket. We reset the trip odometer on all four of our computers at the same spot, then checked them when we got home. Here is the result.

In our test all of our computers recorded distances within .03 miles (highlighted in yellow.) Some of the slight distance variation could be from tiny variations in routes as well as differeing riding habbits (like swerving back and forth.) All in all, our test shows the computers are very accurate.

We have never had an actual Protege computer fail, but we have had two wire harnesses fail over the past few years. Also, my mom lost a Protege computer because it fell out of the holder. I can think of no other negatives to these comptuers.

We have also tried a Schwinn bike computer and found the Planet Bike computers much nicer to use.

I highly reccomend the Planet Bike computers. They run about $15 - $25 at most online stores. If you enjoy riding and like gadgets, you'll love a Planet Bike Protege.

I Blog, They Do Too

• Pastor Kent blogged about worshipping at the hospital with Steve & Angie Chupp.
  


• Jeff Bell shares an e-mail he received from another Pastor in Elkhart who realizes, "We're on the same team."
  
  
• Martin LaBar ponders the relationship between science and religion. This post reminded me of Rob Bell's writing in Velvet Elvis.

If you come across truth in any form, it isn't outside your faith as a Christian. Your faith just got bigger. To be a Christian is to claim truth wherever you find it. It's not truth over here and Jesus over there, as if they were two different things. Where we find one, we find the other. . . . if Jesus shows us what God is really, truly like, and God is truth and all truth is God's truth, then Jesus takes us into the truth, not away from it. He frees us to embrace whatever is true and good and beautiful wherever we find it. (Velvet Elvis, Movement Three True, Logos)

Movie Review: King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I had heard about King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters a number of months ago. I thought it sounded like a movie I might enjoy, so I set the Tivo to search for that title. Last week, I noticed the Tivo had recorded it. Cool!

Kristi and I watched King of Kong last night. It is a documentary about one guy's quest to break the 20 year old Donkey Kong high score record and the record holder's quest to retain the record.

We generally enjoy documentary movies and King of Kong was no exception. It is an incredibly interesting story; funny, suspenseful, frustrating, absurd, and filled with surprises.

Kristi and I both really enjoyed King of Kong. I highly recommend it.

King of Kong will be airing on the G4 channel (DirecTV channel 354, Dish Network channel 191) on June 13 at 7:00 pm and on June 14 at 2:30 pm.

May 4, 1991 Revisited

Kristi's sister, Lori, journaled about May 4, 1991 as well. You can read her journal entry as a comment at the bottom of this page. (You can also read mine and Kristi's if you missed them.)
Thanks Lori!

Anyone else have a journal entry from this date? Ben? Deb? Jamie? Anyone?

Your Links Will Open in a New Window

I always like to have my links open in a new window. That way visitors can click a link and easily get back to reading the rest of the blog post. Here's how to use Blogger to make blog links open in a new window.

1. Make the link like usual using Blogger's Compose interface.
2. Click the "Edit Html" tab.
3. Find the URL (the web address) in the code.
4. Put a space after the quotation mark that follows the URL.
5. Put the following after the space. target="_blank"
6. Make sure the > immediately follows the quotation mark after the word blank. (No space there.) So at the end it should look like this. target="_blank">

The link can be tested on the Preview screen.

Deep River Waterpark

We went to Deep River Waterpark yesterday. It was a fantastic family day. The park wasn't very busy, so we didn't have to wait very long for anything. The attractions are a little spread out though, so it does take some time to get from one place to another (especially with a two year old in tow.)

We didn't go on the really high, steep body slides, but tried everything else. Our favorite was the Double Dueling Cannon Bowl Ride. The girls also really enjoyed the wave pool. Landen was even able to ride on the Whitewater Run Tube Slide (once with me, once with Kristi.) He said it was his favorite thing all day.

For Indiana residents, the park is only $13 for the next week with an early season discount and this $2.00 coupon (print one for every person going.)

So, how much fun is Deep River Waterpark? I'll let Landen explain.

Landen Hawk?

DO I NEED TO TURN THIS VAN AROUND?

Is it too much to expect that if I am going to spend money on a fun day with the family that the day actually be fun? Whenever we make a day trip, I get this hard to describe sort of nervous feeling in my stomach that expects the day to be a perfect family outing, but knowing that just might not happen.

To kick of our first-summer-in-a-long-time-with-no-major-vacation-plans right, we decided to head over to Deep River Water Park in Crown Point, Indiana. We debated some about whether to go today or tomorrow. The kids really wanted to go today, so we decided to go for it. We packed everything up and the kids were waiting in the van when all of sudden Makenna comes in and says in her whiniest voice, "Kylee is being mean to me." I said, "We're not going today." And we didn't. We made the girls help clean the whole house and told them we would try for the water park again tomorrow.

On the plus side:
I'm a parent who is not afraid to take something away. I'm really pretty good about making a reasonable threat and then sticking to it.

On the minus side:
I expect utopia just because I'm spending money.

I don't think it is too much to expect a fun day, but perfection? I need to set reasonable expectations and handle any problems that do arise in love. (And I do reserve the right to "turn this van around" - in love.)

Miles Biked as of June 4

Kylee, Makenna, Kristi and I all have bike computers on our bikes. They produce plenty of information; speed, average speed, odometer, trip distance, trip time, etc. Here's a rundown of total miles ridden so far in 2008 for each bike-riding-member of the Gall clan.

Steve 90.4 miles
Kylee 80.1 miles
Kristi 71.1 miles
Kenna 70.2 miles

(We don't actually call Makenna, "Kenna." (Well, Kylee does sometimes.) It just made my little table look way better.)

Summer Goals

Kylee and Makenna are both very goal oriented; however, they sometimes need some help coming up with their goals. On Sunday I sat down with them and came up with some goals for the summer. They pretty much thought of them. I mostly just helped refine the wording.

Kylee's Goals for the Summer

1. Pass the plus time test.
2. Improve at soccer.
3. Update Blog regularly.
4. Bike 250 miles.
5. Start learning to play the piano.
6. Spend time alone with God everyday.
7. Listen for God’s voice.
8. Follow God’s voice.
9. Read at least 10 minutes a day.

Makenna's Goals for the Summer

1. Pass the plus time test.
2. Improve at soccer.
3. Update Blog regularly.
4. Bike 250 miles.
5. Start learning to play the piano.
6. Spend time alone with God everyday.
7. Improve following directions.
8. Improve being kind to my siblings.
9. Read at least 10 minutes a day.

Our Family Goals are:

1. Go to Indiana Beach.
2. Go to Chicago on the train.
3. Go to the water park.
4. Be nice to each other.

Diet Update & Product Review: Omron HBF-500 Scale

I'm still on the "Don't Drink So Stinkin' Much Mt. Dew Diet." When I wrote about it in April I was encouraged that I dropped below 140 for the first time in years. This morning I weighed in at 136. I would now be hard pressed to record a weight above 140 at any time of the day.

We think Landen threw our scale onto the kitchen floor because it fell apart. So, we bought a new scale from Amazon, the ultra-sleek Omron HBF-500. It was $64. It seems to be more consistent and accurate than our cheap old scale. It is a scale that also has "full body sensing technology." It does what it is advertised to do. Here's how it is advertised.

Want to know more about your fitness level and overall health? The Omron HBF-500 Body Composition Monitor with Scale is a big step in the right direction. The device offers highly accurate full body sensing technology, and monitors your weight, body fat, and visceral fat for healthy weight loss. You can even use this highly sensitive measuring device to monitor your skeletal muscle and resting metabolism to keep weight off. Meanwhile, a memory display helps you track your progress.

The weight display measures weight up to 300 pounds in .2-pound increments, while body fat percentage can be measured from 5 to 60 percent in .1 percent increments. Meanwhile, skeletal muscle percentage is measured from 5 to 50 percent, also in .1 increments. Visceral fat classifications are available, too; the device will tell you if your visceral fat levels are normal or high.

One of the keys to weight loss and management is tracking your body mass index, or BMI. The HBF-500 rates your BMI from 7.0 to 90.0 in .1 increments. BMI is classified at three levels: underweight, normal, overweight, and obese. You can also assess your resting metabolism; the device measures your resting calorie consumption from 385 to 5000 kcal in .1 kcal increments. All of the measurements taken by the HBF-500 can be stored in memory for later comparison with your current statistics and goals. The device can display information from up to three months prior to the current day.

My body fat percentage of 21.4% is still in the "high" category.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is yet another cool, useful and fun tool from Google. You simply set up a search word or phrase, tell Google where to look for the phrase; web, news, blogs, groups or video and Google will notify you of new pages that match your search via e-mail.

I use Alerts to keep up with some former students, find follow ups to interesting news articles, and track things that affect me.

Last year as we planned a family road trip to Montana, I used a News Alert for the search "Going to the Sun Road." This kept me up to date on this road that I was hoping would be open in time for our visit to Glacier National Park.

My favorite alert is a Blog Alert for the search 'Nappanee.' With this alert I am notified daily of any blog posts that are published that contain the word "Nappanee." It's interesting to read about stuff going on in town, who's visiting, etc.

Here are some "Nappanee" blog posts that Google alerted me of in the past few days.

• Carrie's longest car ride ever was from Nappanee to Lemoore, California.
• Jenn played an Elkahrt County version of the Amazing Race that brought her through Nappanee.
• Alison is interning at Nappanee Missionary Church this summer.
• Melissa swung through Nappanee on mission support raising trip.

Three things:

1. Goshen News and Elkhart Truth articles about Nappanee usually get picked up by the "Nappanee" Blog Alert.
2. Alerts work way better for search terms that have unique spelling.
3. Tomorrow Google will alert me of this blog post.

June 2002, June 2008

Three people, two years, one pose.

June 2002

June 2008