A Very Beagle Christmas

Here's Phoenix the Beagle opening his toilet paper present from mom and dad. I thought that it was blog-worthy. Side-note: Phoenix LOVES to eat toilet paper. I have no idea why.

The background audio is a pretty good microcosm of the Gesch family get-togethers.

Happy Birthday Eric!

I know Eric has not yet made it to the blogosphere, but it is his birthday, so I feel that an e-shoutout is not out of line. So Happy Birthday Eric!

This is also a reminder that an entire family is unrepresented on the blog - sounds like more work for the blogfather.

I've arrived!!

Hey, I just found out about this blog-thing. I just checked my 500 e-mails and found this. I'll have to check in more often. Or better yet, just have the kids keep it up.

Nooma Parody: Burrito

Here's a clip from one of Rob Bell's Nooma Videos. He's a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Michigan. These Nooma Videos are extremely popular with youth groups.

Here's a parody of these videos that my friends and I did for our youth group. It's been on YouTube for a month, and it already has 2300 views. I hope you like it. Also- pass this video on to whoever you'd like- we want this to be big.

Christmas 2007

Thanks to Karen & Nick (or "NIKAREN" or "KARENIK" as the Illinois drivers know them) for hosting the party yesterday. It's a ton of work, but we all appreciate it. Please mark your calendars for December 2008. We will have a four hour Christmas Family Feud practice from 8 am to noon on the four Saturdays preceding Christmas.

Christmas - 2007 at Nick & Karen's home

We thank everyone for making an effort to attend our Van Drunen Christmas get-together yesterday. We thank God for each of you. We are so blessed to be able to be with you and feel loved and appreciated. ( You can tell we are getting older - by how we talk.)

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown Down!

A challenge has been received to Yous Kids from Dan Gibson (looks a little something like this guy to the left.) Family Feud, our 6 best players versus the Gibson Family's top 6, Christmas. We would open presents by the Nickster's house and then travel to Dan & Pam's to play on his 70" t.v. (Cheering Section and all.) Then back to Nick & Karen's for supper. (If you don't want to play or cheer, you don't have to go.) Let me know your thoughts.

An Apollo 8 Christmas

I recently learned something from the History channel- 39 years ago tomorrow- Apollo 8, the world's first successful manned lunar orbit mission, orbited the moon in late December of 1968. They witnessed and photographed the world's first "Earth-rise"- the Earth rising "over" the moon.

On Christmas eve, 1968, on what was at that point the highest rated program in American television history, the 3 astronauts had a message for the world- a message of God's good creation. Pretty impressive that these three men would choose this unifying message at this tumultuous time in history (1968- race riots, Chicago DNC riot, MLK, Jr. assassination, Robert Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam, etc.).

Play the youtube clip for the audio- I'm guessing video back in 1968 was difficult to muster (hence the blackness out the window the entire time)- so here's the color earth-rise photo:

We hit the bigtime!

Google: flexsteel impact couch
And watch the magic.

Grandma And Grandpa

Has anyone told Grandma and Grandpa about this yet? I would hope that they would be here to check some of this out. And is there any way we can get that Calender to work? I don't see any Christmas parties on there.

A Response from FlexSteel: "One of our most popular sofas."

Well, the results are in- aparently, the couch featured on this blog's header is an "IMPACT" model which was on sale from 1977-1990, then discontinued for a year. However, due to popular demand, it was back in 1991 for a few years. After e-mailing the flexsteel people, here's the letter (and picture above) that I got back:

Yous Kids:
Please note that the IMPACT 6393-75 sofa sold for $760.00 in a 30 grade fabric. It was a very popular sofa. It was available as a sofa, love seat, chair and ottoman. The sofa was 91” overall.

Today, Flexsteel sells through our retailers several sofas in a longer length in fabric or leather selections. Our leathers usually are the same number as the fabric except that the leathers usually start with a 7, 8 or 9 in the four digits. 7000 numbers are contemporary/transitional
8000 numbers are traditional or skirted and 9000 numbers are country. Of course the looks can vary depending what fabrics are selected.

Flexsteel styles can be reviewed on our website http://www.flexsteel.com/. We do not put all of our fabrics and leathers out there though. Some of our sofas in the longer lengths would be as
follows: (Rudi's note- she lists a lot of their current models. I've removed these to save space- but I've included the model numbers in the "comments" section).

Flexsteel has also partnered with the Antiques Roadshow TM and also with Wrangler to put together some great collections. We are very proud of them! Thanks so much for including us in your family news blog. We really enjoyed seeing it and reliving some of our past and are happy to be part of a great company and product line - where quality begins on the inside!

Sincerely,

Connie Werner
Retail Development Coordinator
Flexsteel - 1893 - Today and For Years to Come

future plans...

i finally got around to getting rudi's invite to this blog (which has a great title, by the way) and i noticed they wanted to see what my age's plans for next year are. As of now, I believe that I am going to Trinity next year! Not sure whether I'll do the sports thing, they tell me I could do volleyball or soccer so that still will be decided...
See you all very soon at Christmas!!

Blizzard '07

Woke up this morning for Blizzard '07 and the Storm Trackers were right, we did get a lot of snow. They actually cancelled church. Got to see a lot of neighbors who usually are inside this time of year. Helped some shovel. Hopefully it was the beginning of shoveling evangelism. Kids had fun making igloos. Oh, yeah, Justin lost a tooth recently.

Hi to all of my extended family out there. I can't wait to see all of you at Christmas. And after reading all of the comments about the orange couch, I look forward to taking it to college with me in the year 2025. -Keelan

Liz in Top 5!

Illiana voted today for the top 5 men and women to be on homecoming court. Liz made the top five! Homecoming is the weekend of January 11-12, so I'll let you all know then whether or not she is "Ms. Illiana".

Let's start posting people

This site was created to allow us to stay more connected as our family grows and moves into new adventures. If you were invited, it was because we wanted to hear from you not to watch and read what a few of us are up to. I know you are all sitting at home thinking you don't want to be the overzealous, let me tell you what I had for dinner last night blogger. We appreciate that, but give us something. (Don't worry, we'll let you know if we are learning too much. My guess is Keith will be the first one we have to shut down.)

Couch

Alex have you ever looked to see who the manufacturer of that couch is? I am looking at that thing and i think that thing could handle Nuclear fall out. Next time i am looking for a piece of furniture i am going to look up there catalog.

The title is perfect!

I love the title. As the first middle child of the family i hope yous two are very happy with yourselves and you acheivements.
Alex let's go for pepperdine, looks like a great time to visit just to make sure everything is A O.K! OR if you are a need someone to go out to dinner with let me know.

new header... you like?

This blog is going to be entitled, "yous kids," but I still thought that we needed to feature the orange corduroy couch somewhere. So, I've created the new header at the top of this blog. Any suggestions for change? Anything else that we could add as a representation of our family?

Props to Alex for getting me this pic (though I question the use of the confederate flag in your dorm room). Reading through earlier comments, Scott has officially called dibs on this family institution, which should survive and thrive during his college years.

Plans for next year

Alright yous kids that are moving on to academic institutions of higher learning next year, where are you going? Or at least what are you leaning towards? I'd like to know. So, Alex, Anna, Scott, Liz, Korie, Karley, fill us in. Also, Van Dyke and Gesch children you'd better behave yourselves while your parents are sunning themselves in FLA, even you Rudi.

Welcome!

Merry Christmas from Rudi and Jason. As typical first-born male children who are constantly looking for the next achievement, we've created the VanDrunen Family Blog. A place to share what's going on in your life and the life of your family. Feel free to begin, we will probably have tutorial during the Christmas Party for those who'd like one. Also send ideas of things you'd like to see included.