Our most recent project has been shingling our roof. We actually finished TODAY and as you can tell by the pictures, it was a family affair. We were blessed because it started to sprinkle when we had 3 shingles left to put down. It was pouring by the time we were finished cleaning up. The project is finally finished. We started Memorial Day weekend and have worked on it on and off over the weeks between.
Retta and I hosted "Food Fear Factor" for the youth group at the end of April. We had several "games" that involved food challenges. Most, if not all, were disgusting. We had several kids puke and everybody was covered in food substance. The games included, eating chocolate pudding mixed with corn & Mt. Dew from a diaper, drinking a blended Happy Meal, eating pigs feet, spam, etc. The point of our lesson was that sin is always a bad thing, regardless of the fact that sometimes it seems fun or harmless. Just as some food is obviously no good, so are some sins. However, some of the foods we ate are good, but when eaten to excess or in a different way than normal, they make you sick. So it is with sin. It may seem okay or harmless or even tolerable, but it will always make you sin sick and impact our relationship with God.
Egg pass. Passing a dozen broken eggs through each person and seeing how much they could collect at the end of the line.
Racing to finish a jalapeno hot dog covered in hot sauce.
Giving Egg pass instructions.This spring, Retta & the kids went to Inner City Mission in Springfield and help do cleaning, arrangement of a clothing closet and other things. They had a great time.
We've always got some kids around our house. It's either the boyfriends, Retta's friends, the youth group, neighbor kids, who ever. Retta loves to have a "full house", the more the merrier. This picture was taken during a recent youth night at our house.
Chris and I attended a "No Girls Allowed" weekend retreat with the Jr High and High Schools boys in youth group. The camp had a "ropes course" and we did several of the activities where the kids had to work together as a team to accomplish the task.
Here they are trying to figure out how to get everybody through the openings in the ropes without touching the ropes or more than one person going through any one hole.
Here they are all trying to get onto a tree log that is suspended by two chains.At the end of May we had a talent show at church. Chris participated in a "dramatic presentation" of Elijah and the prophets of Baal making a sacrifice. In the picture, Christian is in yellow and is dancing around the alter meant for Baal.
The kids participated in Mission Olney the first week of June. Mission Olney was started by our Youth Pastor 3 years ago. Several churches in town partner together and have the youth conduct community service projects all week in town. They paint/clean city property, businesses and homes of people who need help, work at the local food pantry, and they go to the nursing homes and play games with the residents. Chris got his picture in the print version of local newspaper. Retta did a good job of hiding from the camera, but was captured in one picture.
Adrian has a summer babysitting job. Drew spends every weekday with Adrian while his mom works at the local hospital. It's not a difficult job as you can see below.
We've (Retta & Kids & friends) have spent a lot of time in the pool this summer. So far, it's been a lot easier to keep clean this year. We discovered at the end of the season last year that our pump was not working in it's optimum condition. So far the only issue we've had this year has been "Chlorine Lock" due to the heat and rain. We had to over Chlorinate to get the water to start reacting to chlorine properly.
Amber's boyfriend James and his family have become fixtures at our house. We joke that we don't know who is dating James. It's either Amber or Chris because they both spend about the same amount of time with him.
Of course, Adrian and George are together each and every weekend. George goes to school in Ohio during the week & is home on weekends. For his parents, it must be as if he doesn't come home from school, because they can't see him much during waking hours.
Retta and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on May 16th. We went out to eat and saw a movie in Effingham. During our anniversary reflection, we commented that we've had a few good years, a few not so good years and a bunch of years that were just OK. I praise God that the good years have been the recent ones! We're targeting at least 51 more years of marriage, Lord willing.
Picture taken the night we were re-engaged.My life is pretty much consumed by work. Even with the manufacturing supply issues caused by the Tsunami and nucular events in Japan, we have been working many hours. We did have limited production for a month, but as of June 6th are back in full swing. I normally leave for work around 6:05 and get back in the house in the evening between 7:00 ~ 9:00. I am my father's son.
My "little buddy" Okada-San. Okada is my Japanese coordinator and is both the cause of and solution to most of my problems. Here he is concerned that all this material is sitting behind a sign that clearly says not to put it there. He called me out of a meeting to show me this and explain to me that he could not understand the "American Mind". How could they ignore the sign?
New temporary employees going through our "training dojo". This was a project I worked on for about 2 weeks, developing a training program to be used to increase the knowledge of new employees quickly. We cover Safety, Quality and TPS (Toyota Production System). While developing this project, I discovered that the Toyota Production System, which is the benchmark of worldwide manufacturing, is actually based on Piggly Wiggly's soda supply method. Back in the early days of manufacturing, some Toyota executives visited a Ford plant and met with Henry Ford to understand how he was making cars at a low price. They were not impressed. That night, they went to the grocery store to get food supplies. They observed how a new Coke bottle would slide into place at the front of the line each time the front bottle was removed. This observation at a Piggly Wiggly was the inspiration of TPS.
Manufacturing Team Member meeting with one of my QC Team members explaining a defect we shipped to the customer and what actions should be taken to prevent it from happening again.
I will be leaving for Japan on June 30th, returning on July 7th. I have a week long meeting to study the new Toyota Highlander seats that will go into production in October of 2013. That's right, we are already working very hard on this project that is 2 years away. If you notice the dates, we will actually start our meeting on Sunday and finish on Wednesday, working every day in between. Due to the fact that 2 of the power plants are off line the manufacturing plants have all been assigned days that they can run production. Toyota is on a Sunday to Thursday schedule.
I've been practicing my chop sticks. Actually, I haven't. I normally use chop sticks at the Chinese restaurant anyway.
We also have a mission trip to the Tuscaloosa Alabama area scheduled. Retta, the kids, and several others from church will be traveling to Tuscaloosa on July 6th, staying through July 13th. I hope to join them when I return from Japan. Our current church is partnering with our old Alabama church to assist in the continuing cleanup activities in the area. Our house in Alabama was located between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. The path of the tornado was about 4 miles north of our home (which we still own, have rented out, but also for sale *prayer request*). We collected home goods and canned goods last month at church and a couple from church drove them down (van & trailer load) to Tuscaloosa a week ago. They took video of the damage in Tuscaloosa. I couldn't believe what I saw in the video, utter destruction for blocks and blocks. We know several people who lost everything in the storm. It just makes us thankful for the protecting hand of God upon us thus far.
Well, I think I'll let y'all go for now. I've enjoyed reading what everyone else has posted, even if I haven't made any myself. I'll try not to go as long between next time. EDK
3 comments:
Good to hear from you, Eric. Y'all have been busy! Sounds like the Mission Olney event was a great way to help the community. It's also great that your church can partner with your old church in Tuscaloosa.
Loved reading about your activities and seeing the pictures. What a busy man and family. I'm amazed at all the projects you are all involved in. Hope to see you around sometime this summer.
I've heard all this stuff over the past months but it was fun to read it all in one big re-cap. That pool is calling my name!
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