The Stillsons Go Sledding

Rocki posted about her family's sledding adventure here.

Battle of The Local Weathermen's Blogs

Local weathermen, Rick Mechlenburg and Mike Hoffman have had an interesting exchange over the December 15th high temperature on their weather blogs.

• First, Rick said(scroll down,) "In station W***'s defense, the computer models for all of last week were not going anywhere close to highs in the 50s."
  
  
• Mike responded with, "It was also implied that we are lazy and just go with the computer numbers. I take offense to that."
  
  
• Then Rick, referring to Mike, came back with, "by his own criteria, he was off by 18°. Confused? Me too!"

I enjoy watching both of these guys' forecasts. Regarding the "December 15th high temperature" debate though, I have to side with Rick. But I promise I did not leave any of the wacko comments on either blog!

The Kalahari

Kristi's parents took our family to the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio for a Christmas getaway. Even though our vacation was delayed about 4 hours due to ice, we had a great time. I'll just post a photo slide show and leave the description of the trip to Makenna, who covered the vacation here.

The Organic God

I am reading The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg to Kylee and Makenna right now. Becky Branch loaned this book to me after I commented on her review. I was reading the book to myself, but the girls quickly asked me why it is called the organic God. I read the portion of the book to them that explains the title. They wanted to hear more of the book after that, so we have put The Invention of Hugo Cabret aside for now and are currently in chapter four of Organic God.

Imagine if you will, as a dad slows his reading down and utters these words to his seven year old daughters:

In Jesus, God put his whole heart on display for the world to see. In Jesus, my love for God is renewed. In Jesus, the fullness of God's bigheartedness is revealed. I don't know what it is about him, but something about Jesus steadies me. His words breathe life. His actions impart hope. His life inspires action.

What I Am Reading

I removed "What I'm Reading" from this blog's sidebar. I don't think it was very noticeable there, and I would usually forget to update it anyway. Instead, I will just do an occasional post about what I am reading.

Right now I'm not reading anything to my class because it is Christmas break. Before Christmas break I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Miss Holly is Too Jolly and Let's Split Logs Abe Lincoln to my class.

Christmas Picture

For the (Sledding) Record

For the record: We went back to the sledding hill after opening Christmas presents today. The slope is such a sheet of ice that Kristi and I could both easily make it over the slow-down hill. After cresting that hill, we could ride the gentle slope down, until heading back uphill bringing us within yards of the golf course clubhouse parking lot.

We didn't take our camera today, but Rocki has promised me that she will get video of this amazing run tomorrow morning when her and Jud take their kids.

iPod Shufflin'

We didn't even own an MP3 player until this past summer, but yesterday I really set foot into into the iPod age. I'm not a huge music fan. I enjoy listening to songs I like at times, but it's not my favorite thing to do. So why spend $200 on an 8 GB iPod Touch if I'm not that into music?

I really wanted an iPhone. But our cell phones are only $10 a month each, and they do what we need them to do. I guess I reasoned that since I'm not going to spend ALL that extra money on an iPhone I could get the next best thing.

The MP3 player we had before is a Dell with a 20 GB hard drive in it. I got it for $35 online last summer. It's fine, but tends to freeze up when we jog with it. The iPod shouldn't have this problem. Although, it was expensive enough that I will probably be afraid to jog with it.

I really miss having simple access to the Internet when we travel. The iPod Touch has a gorgeous little web browser built in that connects easily to wifi hotspots. That's what I really wanted.

And it plays songs too.

So here's my first iPod shuffle:

1. Stand By Me - Ben E. King
2. Ben - The Jackson 5
3. Maybe Tomorrow - The Jackson 5
4. Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin
5. Holding Back the Years - Simply Red
6. Stay - Lisa Loeb
7. Old Enough to Know - Michael W. Smith
8. Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses
9. Father Figure - George Michael
10. Centerfold - J. Geils Band (My favorite song?)
    
11. Monday Monday - Mamas and the Papas
12. At This Moment - Billy Vera and the Beaters
13. Human - The Human League
14. White Christmas - Kenny G
15. Baby Your Baby - George Straight
16. All I need Is A Miracle - Mike and the Mechanics
17. Worship You Forever - Shout to the Lord Kids
18. Rumors - Timex Social Club
19. Red Red Win - UB40
20. Stand By Your Man - Tammy Wynette
    

The Real Bill Ayers

On November 24th I pledged not to post anything about politics for at least two weeks. Well, it's been a month and I'm sure the silence has been deafening.

I wanted to post a link to this piece three weeks ago, but there was the pledge thing, then I kind of forgot about it. So, here it is.

Bill Ayers wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about his role as the "unrepent terrorist" in this year's Presidential election.

Here's a quote:

President-elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn’t pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions.

Frozen Pipe

Ahhhh, my first official day off work for Christmas break. And what do I spend the first four hours of the day doing? Thawing a frozen hot water pipe of course. I actually spent part of the morning sitting behind our lazy Susan, heat gun in hand. This was a good thing though, because that's where the pipe ended up being frozen. It thawed in two seconds after I found the spot.

Back to the Hill

We went back to the sledding hill today (for about three hours.) Yesterday I described the hill as "fast, yet soft." Not anymore. The hill is now extremely fast and feels like slippery concrete. You would NOT have wanted to face plant into this surface. At the end of the run there is an upward slope, I guess to slow you down. Although, under usual conditions, sleds do not make it anywhere near the slow-down slope. Today, things were different. All of us had runs that brought us within a few feet of making it OVER the slow-down hill. It was amazing. Basically, we were sledding on top of three inches of ice. You could not even dent the "snow" by jumping up and down on it. Oh, we took six saucer sleds and the snow pack was so solid that we shattered FOUR of the saucers into pieces.

Kristi and I Together On A Saucer Sled
We slid about 400 feet in 20 seconds.

Here's a video of my last run of the day. The surface was so slippery, you could just sit in one place and spin in circles. I had the idea that it might be fun to spin and then head down the hill. My brother-in-law, Ben, thought that it was a good idea too, for ME to try. So we did it. Here's the video.

Face Plant

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but if I would have had the camera on the video setting, this scene may have been worth $10,000 from America's Funniest Home Videos.

Makenna
(Click for full size.)
She popped up and said, "That was awesome!" afterwords.

Kylee, Makenna, Landen and I had a great time at the Nappanee sledding hill today. We stayed for nearly two hours. Our discovery: snow covered with sleet covered with freezing rain makes for perfect sledding conditions; fast, yet soft.

Landen made his first solo run down the hill today. He's only two, but he was in good hands. As you can see in the video, he had his sister to nearly knock him off the sled as she shoved him down the hill for his first ever run.

The Road to Ruin?

McClatchy News has an article about the condition of Elkhart County's RV based economy. It has some interesting statistics, nothing about the outlook for 2009 and beyond though.

Six Years Ago Today

The Truth About Santa

We don't do Santa at our house. Kylee and Makenna were told from the beginning that Santa is just pretend. Likewise, Landen at the age of two is well aware of the fact that Santa is not real. I heard Kristi mention that to him a few weeks ago and following in the thinking of their parents, Kylee and Makenna have driven the point home on the matter.


So, why no Santa?

I see it as dishonest.
Truthfulness with our children is our policy. We (Kristi and I) try to be truthful in all circumstances. We make it a point not to make up a lie to wiggle out of a situation with our kids. If there is something we cannot discuss with them, we simply tell them that it is Mommy and Daddy's business and not for them to know about. Persuading our children to believe something that is not true is simply wrong in my opinion.

I'm selfish.
Why would we want to spend our hard earned money on presents for our kids only for them to think that Santa brought the stuff?

I don't want to skew my kids understanding of the world.
When I was four years old, I had traveled quite a lot and, I think, had a decent understanding of the world in which we live. I doubted that it was possible for this Santa story to be true. As my mom tucked me into bed on Christmas Eve in 1975 I asked my mom, "Is Santa real?" Her answer, "No." I have always appreciated the simple, honest answer she gave me; an answer that matched my understanding of the world in which I was living. Children who believe in Santa have a skewed picture of reality and do not have a solid foundation on which to build future knowledge about our world.

I think it is pointless.
I don't see how the Santa story adds anything to the meaning of Christmas. On the contrary, I think it takes away from the celebration of the birth of Jesus. When Kylee and Makenna were four years old we offered to pretend with them that Santa would put presents under the tree that year. They weren't interested. They didn't know why we would want to pretend that. I don't know why parents want to pretend that.

I want my kids to believe.
I see parallels between the story of Santa and the story of Jesus. Both are physically unseen. Both are gift givers. Santa though is make-believe. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We want there to be no confusion between the mythic story of Santa and Jesus Christ, the Truth. Are children who have been told that both Santa and Jesus are real, more likely to doubt Christ when they find out that the story of Santa isn't true? I think maybe, which is reason enough for me to be honest from the start.

I asked Kylee and Makenna tonight if they wish that we would have told them that Santa was real from the start. They both replied with a resounding NO. They appreciate our commitment to truthfulness and I think they are especially glad to have missed the confusion and suspicion that go along with believing in Santa.

The Ultimate Compliment

Back in April I posted a video of my best time saving the Princess in Super Mario Brothers. Sound nerdy? I agreed in the post.

Today someone made this comment on YouTube about the video.

"Jumps are too perfect.. FAKE"

Well, thank you very much aero912. If you think my speed run was so great that my video must be some sort of fake, I guess that is the ultimate compliment.

Jamie Prenkert: Runner

I think Jamie is the runner in the middle.

I didn't know Jamie in 1983 when this photo and caption appeared in the Nappanee Advance News. I think I met him the night someone brought him to a party at Deb's house (Wasn't it at Deb's house?) I think it was a Halloween party, probably in 1988. The rumor quickly spread that he was at the party because Debbie liked him. I remember thinking, "Who is this guy that she likes?"

Well, I was lucky Debbie liked him because I got to know him through her and Jamie turned out to be a great friend.

One time in high school Jamie and Brent Warren were at my house and the three of us were playing a particularly close game of Trivial Pursuit, one that we kept thinking would end soon. All three of us had our pies full for hours. But Jamie (and Brent or me) kept giving Brent and I the dreaded pink Arts & Entertainment questions when we made our way to the center hub. Brent and I in return gave Jamie the orange Sports and Leisure questions. Jamie could maybe run fast and jump far, but general sports knowledge was his weakness in the original Genus edition of Trivial Pursuit.

About five hours into the game, at about 3:00 AM, the phone rang. The three of us looked at each other, then Jamie with a hint of panic states, "That's my mom." (Jamie hadn't bothered to call home to let his mom know he would be running a little late.) By the second ring we had formed our plan, I would answer the phone in my most just-woke-up voice, then Jamie would follow suit.

I pick up the phone.

Me: Helllloooow (pretty scratchy.)
Jamie's mom: Is Jamie there?
Me: Uhhhhh, ohhhhhh, yeahhhhhh (still scratchy.)
Jamie: Hellllllllllooooooooooow (really scratchy.)
Jamie's mom: ?
Jamie: We fellll aslllleeeeepp. (extra scratchy.)

Jamie was such a good influence on me.

He was. That's the worst thing I can remember we did. And if the worst thing we got ourselves mixed up with involved playing Trivial Pursuit we were probably ______________. (You can fill in the blank yourself. Just don't be too mean.)

I think Brent ended up winning that game, on an Arts & Entertainment question about Looney Tunes if I remember correctly.

And Jamie, I hope your mom doesn't find shock, disappointment and disbelief upon reading this post. But, I highly doubt we ever fooled her in the first place.

NCAA Fantasy Football Challenge - Final

My dad won our 30 team division. (There were about 20 players who played consistently throughout the season.) I managed to hang on to second place in our division with two strong weeks to end the season.

Brent Gall 88,458 points
Steve Gall 81,196 points

This Blog's Reading Level

Steve has a blog.

He gave his blog a test.

Steve does not like the test.

He will use bigger words now.

A Green Christmas

Christmas is going to be a little greener at our house this year.

When we moved here in 2000 we had a small artificial Christmas tree. Shortly thereafter my mom downsized trees and gave us her old tree which was quite large. So large in fact that we had a hard time getting it to stay straight in its plastic stand. We had to tie it to the ceiling to keep it upright. Four years ago, shortly after we had finished decorating it, the stand broke and the tree crashed to the floor. The way we remember it, the tree actually landed on one of us. I don't know if that's true or not, I think it is though. The way the tree was designed, there was no way to get it to work without the original stand, which was useless at that point.

We bought a new tree that year (2004.) We wanted a big tree again, but this time we opted for a pre-lit model, "so we would never have to worry about the lights again." We had a beautiful tree that Christmas. 1,500 lights! It was a marvel. The thing caught your eye from the Hartman Street bridge over Berlin Court Ditch for Pete's sake!

After wrestling this monster out of our attic in 2005 we discovered that a whole section of branches failed to light. Kristi called the company's Christmas tree hot-line and since it was under warranty they mailed us a new section for free.

The warranty had expired as Christmas 2006 rolled around and so did another section of lights.

Last year the entire second row of branches went dark. The tree was really a little too big anyway. (The bottom row spanned halfway across our living room.) So, we decided to remove the bottom row of branches, hack the pole off and remove the lights from the new bottom row and put our own lights on.

Removing lights from a pre-lit tree is NOT an easy task. Using wire cutters, it took Kristi and I about two hours to get the lights off of this one row of branches.

As Christmas drew closer that year, our tree grew darker. Sections of the pre-lit lights continued to go out.

I'm not sure what we were thinking at the end of 2007. Maybe we were just hoping that a summer spent in a hot attic would cure our sick tree. However, when we set the tree up Friday night, even more sections of lights were not working.

We decided it was time for a new tree. Kristi called her mom and dad and we all headed out to find a new tree. It would be smaller, with energy efficient LED lights. As we looked, we realized that we really liked the looks of the tree we already had. .. if it would just be a little smaller and have working lights. So, we decided not to buy a new tree at all, but instead to take off another section from the bottom of our tree (to shrink it further,) hack off the pole some more, remove ALL of the pre-lit lights, and buy LED lights to put on the tree. We even had two sets of extra hands along to help us remove the existing lights.

How long does it take four adults and two seven year-olds to remove the lights from a 7 1/2 foot tree? Four HOURS! (Keep in mind, we didn't even remove the lights from the two biggest rows of branches.)

After we had worked on removing lights for a couple of hours, I joked to Kristi's parents that this was our plan for the evening all along - we had no intention of buying a new tree in the first place. Ha! Not really! But as you can probably imagine at this point in the story, we were incredibly thankful to have their help.

In the end, we have the same tree. It's shorter. It's just right for our living room. We will be able to leave it all put together to store it. It is energy efficient, it will only cost us about $2 in electricity to light it this year (as opposed to about $20 before.) It works! And we will never have to worry about Christmas lights again. . . maybe I shouldn't have typed that.

A Change of Pace

Yesterday was a treat! I spent the day at NorthWood High School participating in Carl Anderson's writing conference. (He teaches how to teach writing.) The conference started later than my usual work day, so I took Kylee and Makenna to McDonald's for breakfast. Then I got to drop them off at school on my way to the conference. I almost never get to do this. At noon I picked Kristi up and took her out for lunch at LaFogata. The conference was over early enough that I got to pick Kylee and Makenna up from school too.

I enjoy my job, and would not want to spend lots of days sitting in conferences, but the change of pace was nice. An hour for lunch? That would be OK everyday.

Kylee's Celebrity Look Alike

Makenna's Celebrity Look Alike

Makenna Look-alike Meter

Kylee Look-alike Meter

Landen Look-alike Meter

Thompsons

I'm sure glad they moved here in 1983. Besides the tremendous asset they are to our community; my middle school and high school years simply would not have been as much fun without Tara around.

NorthWood Gymnastics

My sister was on the gymnastics team in high school. One time when I was in 5th grade, Mike Engle went with me to one of her meets at Elkhart Memorial. Mike and I were flirting with some high school girls from Memorial (Neither of us ever lacked for confidence.) Anyway, these girls from Memorial just would not believe us when we insisted that we went to "Central." We stuck with our story though, because it was true. Mike and I headed right back to Central Elementary the very next day.

Also in this picture from a 1983 Nappanee Advance News issue is Chris Fisher. Three of Chris' children have been students of mine in second grade at Bremen.