Half Marathon

On Sunday morning August 2nd I am going to try and drag my 6' 3" 280+ lb. frame 13.1 miles in the Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon. I am joining about 200 other people from Faith Church in raising money for an area in Rwanda where we are partnering with World Vision. (I'm also doing it to prove to myself and Pastor Bob that I can do it.) If you'd like to help sponsor me, you can follow this link http://www.firstgiving.com/jasondevries1 . If not, no problem, you can pray....hard!

Prayer

We wanted to let our family know of two special needs for prayer. First - Nikki is at Northwestern Hospital for tests and treatment. She will have a feeding tube inserted tomorrow. The Doctors need wisdom in deciding on another chemo to give her. Karen & Nick are staying at the hospital as much as possible. Second - Marlene is in hospice at her home. Debbie and family are taking care of her. Dad and I were there tonight. She didn't respond to us. We are trusting God to supply every need in these situations.

Sawyer Talking

This was Sawyer Talk/Yelping about an hour ago...

Kid Rwanda

The kids ran today for Kid Rwanda - a smaller, kid version of our church's involvement in the Chicago 1/2 marathon to raise money for the village we support in Rwanda. The weather turned out to be great and the kids had so much fun! It was a nice opportunity to have the kids look past themselves and focus on other kids' needs. About 60 kids ran, so hopefully we'll raise a lot of money!
(The group picture is some of the Faith-Valpo kids)

Golf Outing Part 2

More Pics from the Outing. Kathy was so hot in Karyl's pic the sweater came off. But look at the form! Nice work people.

Golf Outing Part 1

Ha! I'm the first to post pics from the golf outing!

Fixing the TV

I recently fixed my 4 year old panasonic flat-screen TV. This is about as "fix-it" as I get.

FUN IN BIRCHWOOD - Part 2

The fun continues in Wisconsin's NW. Saturday night's dinner was at PAUL'S PIZZA DEN. The dish crew (Eric & Cole) was seen privately "high fivin" since there were no dishes to wash that night. Scott landed an 18" bass on Friday night about 9PM, just as we were heading in. The whole gang fished together in 2 boats Friday afternoon. Wow. No lines were tangled but a few "tree bass" were caught. (Notice son-in-law #1 piloting the big boat.) The boys are carrying out all chores as assigned. Mark and Leb are seen on dish duty here. Saturday night's feature film was "Stand By Me". We all learned a few "new words", in the future all movies must be previewed and approved by Grandma. Cookies and brownies are being enjoyed by all as provided by the #1 daughter-in-law.

Any Golf Outing Pics out there?

Van Fam... I saw quite a few cameras out of the golf course.  Anybody got any to post?

Fun in Birchwood

The weather is good, chores have been assigned (Cole and Conor had dish duty tonight), daily reading and evening book reports are in progress (Caleb read and reported on "Brian's Winter", Cole read and reported on "David Livingston - First to cross Africa with the Gospel). Some evening fishing netted a nice Northern Pike (caught by Mike, shown by Eric) and a prize Large Mouth Bass caught by Cole. Lasagna was the main course tonight. A fish fry last night. A good time is being had by all. (My dad and I arrived around noon today to join the fun. We plan to stay until Sunday.)