Joplin Trip Day 1

Last year, when our familywent to Washington D.C. I ran a daily journal entry one week after we returned. I am going to attempt that here, for the Joplin trip Spider Droid and I just finished. The main difference, is going to be that on the D.C. trip, I actually had/made time to journal each day. So, when I came back, I was just typing in what I had already written. Due to a number of circumstances, including but not limited to being absolutely wiped out at the end of each day, I did not journal on the trip.

I did take some pictures and videos. So, I will try to incorporate those here.

August 1, 2011 DAY ONE

Early A.M. wake up and head to Faith Acres. I had packed the truck the night before so Spider Droid and I just got in the truck and headed off. 15 of the 19 of our team members met at Faith Acres, the organization that was sending us to Joplin. Faith Acres is run by a family that attends the same church as my family. They are an organization dedicated to meeting the spiritual and physical needs in McHenry County and all over the world. This trip to Joplin, Mo was their second such trip since the Tornado hit. Several of the team members including our team leaders went just weeks after the tornado hit. The remaining 4 members of our team had left a few days earlier.

As the 15 travelers got to Faith Acres we packed, prayed and parted for JMO.

The first few hours went wonderfully. We were all excited about the trip that we thought would bring us to Joplin sometime that night. Many of us did not know each other well, or at all, and we took the opportunity to become acquainted. Before you knew it we were taking the first of many scheduled gas and bathroom stops. Soon after near Bloomington, Illinois we had the first of many unscheduled stops.

One of our 3 vehicles, a bus lent to us by a local church, had a tire basically fall off. Because of God's great mercy, the driver got us safely to the side of the road. This was around 9:30 a.m. and we did not get back on to the road for almost 6 hours. The majority of our team spent most of that time at a nearby McDonald's.





We had 3 children on the team driving with us under the age of 10. They were such a blessing to us, because instead of being whiny, complainy and downright miserable they showed remarkable patience and understanding. Yes one was my son, but the two others were younger than him, and behaved just as well as SD.

In fact one had this experience of joy while we waited . . .








So after the bus was fixed we got back on the road and calculated that if nothing else occurred we could possibly make it into Joplin late that night, early the next morning. It was hot out, we were tired, but we were ready to roll.

Of course this was not the end of our trials. Another one of the vehicles began to overheat a little, we were cussed out by a mechanic, who we were told would rotate our lugnuts. Not long after that the tire we thought was fixed started smoking. So there we were, not even yet in Missouri, maybe 5 -6 hours away from Joplin, stranded, and it was past 7 p.m. We had been on the road in the plus 100 degree temps for more than 12 hours. Some of the team members had gotten little to no sleep the night before in anticipation of the trip.

To use clothing metaphors: No towels had been thrown in, but the other shoe had certainly dropped. What we needed, was to be blanketed in the grace of God.

That blanket turned out to be a horse blanket.




A man I lived and ministered with in Russia, nows lives in the Illinois side of the St. Louis area and we "happened" to break down on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area so I called him up and told him of our troubles. Soon after that, he and 3 of his children drove up to the truck stop we were at. He offered for us to stay at his home which houses a horse ministry. Also, the people who had fixed the bus the first time drove several hours to my friend's house and corrected their work at no additional charge.

Horse Lessons were still going on in the darkness as we rolled/limped in.Everyone went from beleagured to refreshed as they experienced the calmness of a horse farm. It was especially great for me to spend time with my dear friend. Their home/faciility easily housed all 15 of us. SD and I stayed in one of the familie's rooms and Droid was down before I could finish 2 pages of the Star Wars book I was reading him. I fell asleep shortly after that.

Next Time: One journey ends, Another begins.

Where have you been?

I have been in Joplin Missouri for the past week. I will be Joplin intensive for the next week or so. Spider Droid and I came to help. But in the end, we were as greatly changed as those we came to help.

Here is a video of the actual tornado.





Much more later!

Missouri Relief Project

Joplin Tornado 5, a photo by DMangus on Flickr.

Spider Droid and I have an opportunity next week to do a work project near Joplin, Missouri where a massive tornado decimated the city on May 22nd of this year.

I will be posting again before I leave with a little more info what he and I will be doing.

I am not the handiest guy with a hammer and that is putting it mildly. While we don't know exactly what we will be doing this is a work and constructrion trip, something that is definitely out of my comfort zone.

Yet when we heard of the trip we felt compelled that we should help any way we can.

This leads me to my 2 questions for the day.

1) How do you react to tragedy like a flood, tsunami, earthquake, act of terrorism etc.?

2) Have you ever felt compelled, called, motivated to do something out of your comfort zone? Did you do it? How did it go?

For more questions head back to Self Sagacity.

questions of fun, frugality and fears.

I went to Great America with the bigs yesterday. Great America is a Six Flags theme park in the Chicago area. I have been going to the park for more than 30 years. That means that the park or myself are very old or possibly both. Going to an amusement park can be kind of expensive in this day and age. Six Flags has a winter reading program and if your kids participate, each kid (K-6th grade) gets a ticket. This seems like a good idea at the time but when you factor in the cost of your ticket and other family members outside of the age range, along with parking and other amenities, the cost of these free tickets adds up pretty quickly.

I have noticed that in the past year Six Flags has been making changes, some small, some big, to help families in this tough economy. Don't get me wrong, I know they are helping families in order to encourage them to attend their parks so they can spend money there. But some of the changes are very positive to families on a budget.

In the past year the reading program has allowed teachers including home school teachers to win 1 ticket per class. So, my ticket was free yesterday as well.

Now remember I have been going to this park for a long time so let me give you a little history lesson. As you probably know, amusement park food is expensive having a captive audience and all. So in addition to going to your cars to eat food you brought from home, people would sometimes leave the park, have a meal and come back. Over the course of time, the park cracked down on these activities by a) not allowing cars to leave the park w/o paying the parking fee again and b) not readmitting people to the park after 6:00 p.m., this way allowing people to have lunch in their cars but not dinner.

Also a few years ago the park sold two types of parking spots. Closer to the park for more money and farther from the park for less. Which meant if you wanted to spend less money and eat in your car you would spend more time walking all the way to the back of the lot (sometimes past rows and rows of empty parking spaces to get to your car) spending the one commodity more precious to a frugal park goer than money, time.

This year the park made some great changes that really encouraged me. They may have been motivated more by the rows and rows of empty parking spaces I alluded to parenthetically in the last paragraph, who knows. First of all, I had decided to pay the higher amount for parking so the kids and I didn't have to walk all the way to the nether regions of the lot to park. As I drove in, I noticed that parking was again only 1 price, meaning I could park close to the entrance. That was pleasant surprise #1. Pleasant surprise #2 occurred when the parking attendant handed me my receipt and told me I could use it to reenter the park throughout the day. The third pleasant surprise came at about 1:00, as we exited the park for lunch. I read a sign saying that you could re-enter the park up until 9 pm. If you take all of the pleasant surprises and put them together, it gives the patron the opportunity to eat lunch or dinner outside of the park, or in the parking lot without additional cost.

All this leads up to my first question: How have you seen entertainment companies (movies, restraunts, museums, zoos, theme parks, etc...) compete for your business in this economy? And how have you benefited from it?

Question #2 comes from a fear I have of pit bulls. I am not scared of them myself, as much as I am of my children being eaten by one. My neighbor has 2 pit bulls: an adult that was abused as a puppy, and a really cute puppy. My brother-in-law has one also. Both my neighbor and brother-in-law are staunch defenders of pit bulls. It's not the pit bulls that are the problem, they say, it is the owners.

If that's the case, how come every pit bull attack story sounds exactly the same. It was a very friendly dog that never did anything wrong and then one day it snapped. I am sorry but I don't want my children or anyone else around the dogs when they do snap.

Question 2 then is what is a pet you would never want to have or even have live near you?


So those are my questions. For more Two Question Thursday head over to Self Sagacity.

Dances with Puppy

When we were at Taste of Chicago last week there was an opportunity to get Puppy to do what she loves best: dance. At one of the booths a lady was teaching some traditional Mexican dances.

Puppy and I came forward to participate

At this point it looks a little like the Hokey Pokey.

This is the traditional part of the dance where the man stops to tie his shoe and the pink clad princess looks on.

I'm sorry ma'am but I have no intention to show that much leg!

You put it all together and . . .

As you can tell that dance was not exactly Puppy's speed. But this is . . .

It's a new move called the Puppy-it's-as-easy-as-1-2-3

Here it is live.

I will have some more pics and stories from Taste of Chicago soon.

500th Post Proclamation

It's finally here. My 500th post here at HSD over the past few weeks I have been making some tweaks to the blog but have not really announced them.

First of all, I have joined the 2nd decade pf the twentieth century and am now on twitter. Going forward I will be tweeting a link to all my new posts. I will also be tweeting my Next Time announcement that appeared and have now reappeared at the bottom of my posts.

Secondly I have added two new pages to the blog. Earlier this month I hosted the Carnival of Homeschooling with a post about my Top 10 Films of all time. I have made that a page as well as a 500th post page.

There are a few other changes, but you can check those out yourself.

I promised something very special for 500 posts. To commemorate the occasion, I have written a song. Within the lyrics, there are links to some of the posts that have appeared in HSD over the last 2+ years. So without further explanation and WITH my apologies to the Proclaimers, I present . . .

I Just Blogged (500 Times)

When I wake up, yeah, you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about playin' puppy on the floor.
When I go out, well you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about a field trip to the store.

If it's Christmas, yes you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about how much we like to bowl.
And if it's Easter, yes you know I'm gonna blog.
That it's not a little rabbit that makes us whole.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might blog 500 more
To blog and ask what you guys do
With children screaming on your floor.

When I'm teaching, yes you know I'm gonna blog
About something good that Bunny or Spider did.
And when puppysims come
I'm gonna post 'em here. She's really quite a kid.

When we travel. yeah, you know I'm gonna blog
Whether close to home or Washington D.C.
And when we get back you know I'm gonna blog
With words and pics and videos for all to see.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might post 500 more
Just to be the guy whose 1000 posts
Will make you laugh but never snore.

When I'm fed up, yeah you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog 'bout how my family drives me mad
But when I think straight yeah you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about the super times that we have had.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might tweet 500 more
Just to be the guy whose posts and tweets
reveal the passion at his core.

So that's it for post #500. Unless I get a lucrative contract in the music biz. I will be back very soon inching my way to 1000.

Next Time: Paragraphy for a Monday Morning.

Why I blog.

This might more appropriately be titled why don't I blog, as I have been essentially asleep at the blogging wheel for several weeks now. So considering my recent blog output (or lack thereof) it was kind of interesting that I was one of 5 bloggers speaking downtown Chicago at a round table discussion of blogging. The round table was held for sales executives at Feld Entertainment who produces events like Disney on Ice, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and Monster Jam. As you may recall Feld gave me two tickets to see Monster Jam with Spider Droid in exchange for posting about the event here and here.

The purpose of the round table (For the purpose of full disclosure: It was actually two rectangular tables) was for Feld to pick our brains to see how better to partner with bloggers to promote their events. The event helped put my blogging in perspective.

As I left the meeting and realized that the building we met was next to the the Tribune Tower across from WGN Radio and directly above the Billy Goat Tavern.. Here is a video of a SNL sketch based on the Billy Goat.




Here is a you tube video of the actual Billy Goat.

I ventured downstairs and went to the Billy Goat.

I was early for the lunch rush and was the only non employee in the place. The man in the video took my order. I ordered a Cheeseburger and a coke. The place was starting to fill up as I left. i went up the stairs crossed the street to the WGN building and saw the booth where they broadcast their programs.




This reminded me of why I blog. Not to get free tickets or to post give-a-ways on my blog. But because life is an adventure. An adventure I like to share.

Library Story with alternat(or) ending

Yesterday we continued one of our favorite family traditions: Library Week.

We generally will visit a number of libraries and spend the day exploring what they have. Our visit to the North Shore suburb of Highland Park was fairly typical.

We found the building . . .
















We entered the building.

We read and relaxed.

We played Games

We made friends.

And more friends

We took in the sights near the library.

From there things became more atypical. 5 minutes after this picture was taken our car battery died. A family visiting the same lake shore view as us stopped and gave us a jump. We could tell within seconds after the car restarted that there was still something wrong. We had no lights and our emergency beeper would not turn off.

We rode about 6 miles (this was in dusk) and pulled over into a gas station that also happened to have a service station. Our alternator had gone out.

An hour and a 1/2 and a good amount of our emergency savings reserve later, we were on our way home. Besides the alternator and the somewhat burned (although still eaten) crock pot meal (due to our lost 1.5 hours) this was a very typical day at the library. (Except for the kids waiting at the gas station, certain people were tired.)

Panda pictures and plans did not develop

Panda chengdu research project china ONE
Originally uploaded by davidcutts1

We have finally wandered into the top 10 most used labels in the initial 300 posts of this here blog.

# 10 Daviver's Travels

While we are not one of those families that vacations every year, we do enjoy travelling and when we do travel whether it be a field trip, a day trip, or a weekend getaway, I like to post about it here.

Today I'd like to talk about completing my panda trilogy earlier this year. And as most really good trilogies go, it has 4 parts. But to be technically correct let's call the 3rd part an interlude.

Part I:In the late eighties on a whim, I travelled by bus from Illinois to Mexico. While on the trip, I visited an old pastor who was currently a missionary in Mexico City. I also visited an ex-girlfriend who was studying in Monterrey for the summer. While I was in Mexico City I went to the Mexico City Zoo and saw the pandas among other things. I took some great pictures of the pandas but those pictures, not unlike my plans to patch things with the ex-girlfriend, did not develop.

Part II: A few years later, the summer I graduated college, I was accepted on a 2 year missions assignment to teach English in the Chengdu province of China. Chengdu is the area in China pandas are indigenous to. The above picture was taken at the Chengdu panda reserve. In my interview process, one of the missions staff introduced himself as the person you never want to receive phone calls from. There was a 2-3 month period between my being accepted and my leaving the country. During that time I worked in my father's office. One day at lunch I called home to check the answering machine and lo and behold, I heard the voice of the man you never want to get calls from. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say the Chengdu job did not develop either.

Interlude - Not all things develop the way you want or expect them to. Even though the girlfriend thing, the mission thing or the panda thing did not develop, other better things did. 3 months after China being closed to me, I was in Russia teaching English, starting churches and sharing the love of Christ in ways I could not have in China. Incidentally, Russia did not open up for visitors like myself until after I had been accepted for China. About a year after the Mexico trip, I ended up meeting the woman who would become the love of my life. Even though that picture took some time to develop.

Part III. This spring, about 12 years after Amy and I got married we visited Washington D.C. Amy had never been to D.C. and it was a long awaited and very cherished trip. On that trip we as a family saw pandas at the National Zoo; they were surprisingly active on the day we went. That visit did not turn out exactly the way we had planned it, but like the adventures depicted here, better than I could have imagined.

Next Time: 7 word September ends

Pictures of memories of family apple picking.

For More Wordless Wednesday click here

Next Time: Daviver's Travels

Vacation Pics

Next Time: Six Word Saturday. For more Wordless Wednesday (all week long)click here.

Summer's out for the school year

Zero weeks until school starts.





















Today is in fact the day. It seems odd to start school 2 whole weeks before Labor day. Amy's school started classes last Monday so I guess I shouldn't complain.


I have been promising to post about our recent vacation. That doesn't look like it will happen.

Starting today, I will be including some vacations pics in the next few posts. That will have to do.

I'll be back tomorrow with the Carnival of Homeschooling. Right now I have actual homeschooling to attend to.

Next Time: A Panorama of Homeschooling

DC Trip Day 9 Puzzle

1. To the kid's delight (and mine too), we chose an indoor water park at a somewhat affordable price.
2. I was pleased to discover that Sandusky, Ohio, home of Cedar Point, was 15 minutes from Milan and had several places to swim.
3.I have been unsuccessful in any attempt to find it, now that I need it.
4.Our only two criteria, were to stop in Milan, Ohio, the birthplace of Thomas Edison, and go to a place where we could swim.
5. Tomorrow after an Easter brunch, we will head home and close the book on a most excellent vacation.
6. It wasn't long before we were past D.C., into Maryland and heading towards Pennsylvania.
7. The paragraphy program, will randomly mix up the sentences, and you will have to put Humpty Dumpty together again.
8. I was supposed to finish up with my Washington D.C Journal today.
9. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for lunch and then started thinking about a place to hang our hats for the night.
10. Day 9 started early as we left Claire's and drove out of Stafford.
11. Because of the mix-up I have decided to give you a mix-up of your own.
12. The problem is, I wrote my last entry in one of my kid's notebooks as Amy already had my notebook packed away.
13. Using Paragraphy, which I read about at blogging2learn, I will tell you about the events of day 9.













If you are able to unmix this, place it in the correct order in the comments below.



One thing I remember from my original journal entry is recalling that when we were visiting the capitol, our guide told us that each state has 2 statues of famous people from their state housed in the capitol building. I asked my guide if Thomas Edison was one of the features statues. He said, no but in Ohio, he was on a short list of potential candidates to replace the statue of a fromer governor, who was pro slavery. Just day's after asking that question, I was shocked to see this banner in Edison's birth city. . .




Here are a few more day 9 pics . . .

I did not complete a journal entry for day 10, our return to Illinois. So, this is the end of my D.C. Journey. To celebrate I am going to put all of my journal entries together including remembrances of day 9 and 10 into book form. I will be giving away 1 copy of this memoir to a lucky commenter. Anyone who comments on any of my blog entries from now until May 19th will be entered into a drawing. I will announce the winner in the next edition of Things Fortnightly on May 20th. I will also throw in a few souvenirs, I picked up on the trip. Full details will be listed in the next few days.

Next Time: Men's Monday Meme

DC Journal

Today I begin my tribute to the top 25 labels I used in the first 300 posts of Home School Dad. It is also Saturday, so I'll try to get my six words in edgewise.


Label # 20 (in a seven place tie): Washington D.C. Trip





When the family got together and decided to create a dream come true, (There's a song there somewhere, the dream in this case was our trip to Washington D.C) I decided to keep a journal of the trip and then post those entries here once I returned.

For a writer, I am a horrible journal keeper. I usually miss a day by the third entry or am going back to fill it in on a later date. Besides the night I fell asleep journaling, I was able to complete each entry before the day in question was in the books.

In terms of posting these entries here, I am very faithful to my original work. While I add pictures and sometimes videos from the day in questions and will correct grammar and spelling (not that you'd notice), I fight off the urge to turn a phrase differently than when pen first met paper, and try to stay true to the moment.


Today I am up to Day 8, our last day of sightseeing before we started driving back home.


Before I start, here are my Six Words:



Take a picture, it lasts longer.









Washington Trip: Day 8



Day 8 started like it might eclipse Day 7 as best day of the trip. I woke up at 4:45 A.M. and drove with Claire, the woman our family has been staying with, into D.C. We got to the tidal basin about 40 minutes before sunrise.


I took pictures from a bridge that overlooked both the Jefferson and Washington monuments and the Potomac river. It was an awesome sunrise among the cherry blossoms. I snapped picture after picture and even without a tripod or a really good camera, I took some breathtaking photos.

At about 7:30, i walked to the Washington monument and got in line to get tickets to go up the monument. I waited two hours just to find out that they had run out of tickets. I then met my family and my sister's family at the National Aquarium.

Most of the museum here at D.C. are free and huge. The aquarium went the other way, expensive and small. After that we spent a few hours at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Saw some real cool exhibits for both adults and children.




We went to the Julia Child exhibit and many others.

We then walked in the almost 90 degree heat to the tidal basin. The petals on the cherry trees were gorgeous. We the walked back to my sisters car and headed back to her house. We ate pizza at Kathy's and visited for a few hours before making our leave. We prepared for our return trip home and called it a night.

So that is it for my look at a label, I will finish the trip this coming week. For more Six Word Saturdays head on over to showmyfacedotcom.

Next Time: Men's Monday Meme

Six Word Saturday: Washington Trip Day 7

If you go on a long trip, odds are that one day will be your best day of the trip. Today was definitely that day. We drove into the city, walked to the White House, took a cab to the capitol building. We took a tour of the building which included an excellent movie. I have been inside the capitol dome 3 times and it never gets old. There was something immensely pleasing experiencing it with my family.



**** We now interrupt this journal for my six words, which I wrote in the margin of my notebook:






Nothing says freedom like flying kites!




We now return you to the journal entry, already in progress ****

After lunch, we flew kites on the mall as we made our way from the Capitol Dome to the Washington Monument. We rested there and enjoyed the gorgeous day and each other before going to see the WWII (The Big One) memorial, The Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial is by far my favorite spot in D.C. It is an awesome spectacle. We then walked the mile and a half (or so) to where we parked. What a day! If we could only spend 1 day in D.C. and this was it, it would haves sooooo been worth the trip.







FOR MORE SIX WORD BARBARIC YAWPS HEAD ON OVER TO SHOW MY FACE DOT COM. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE CAPS LOCK ON TO DO SO.

Next Time: How I feel about getting older.