UTE Conference

DEEDS: Two Weeks ago July 15-17 was the Winchester VA Stake Youth Conference. The theme of the conference was Serve Strong, Become Stronger. It was the best youth conference I think I have attended. From the time we arrived they had everyone assigned to work on service projects. It was not a typical one hour clean up trash and were done. We spent Several hours assigned to the National Park Service at a civil war battlefield clearing trails, rebuilding fences, and cleaning trash on the side of the road. We were able to wear the "Mormon Helping Hands" vests as an official church service project.

So we had approx 150 people in these yellow vests descend on the National Park. We had lunch then went out and worked several more hours. It was extremely hot and humid the whole day. The wonderful thing for me was to see all of these youth between the ages of 14 and 18 work outside the entire day and being of such good cheer. I can honestly say I heard no complaints, bickering or whining the entire time which is amazing considering that the age group and the work involved. After the projects were done they had everyone go directly to the KOA for swimming, mini-golf and other fun activities. I played mini golf with the Stake President...

The rest of the weekend was lots of the same. Many more hours of service projects, fun activities in between and Dances to finish the day.

Everything was extremely well organized and planned out. It was Todd's first Youth Conference and I had fun being there with him as a chaperon. We also enjoyed being a host family to the young men and adult leaders from the Front Royal ward.

THOUGHTS: I had a job offer from my old company TEKsystems come my way this month. They have been recruiting me for several months and finally put together a job offer/proposal. I have been really happy in my job and was not looking to leave. The job offer however from Tek created some great future career opportunities as well as better financial compensation. I just really did not want to leave the comfort of my current job and I could not decide which path I should take. I talked to several people that would understand my situation but I was still so confused, waffling back and forth on my situation. So I decided to take the decision to the Lord. I got up three weeks ago and went to the temple.

I had such a wonderful experience and came out with the inspiration I needed to make the decision to leave my comfortable position and take on the bigger challenge with Teksystems.

WORDS: Tomorrow is Josephs birthday and he turns eight. He is scheduled to be baptized next Saturday and all of Julie's family is coming for it. Tami made a surprise visit by taking a military "hop" to the US and is staying with us for the next month (Hopefully longer!). The kids love her so much! For certain reasons I currently feel anxious and I have all week since Tuesday. I feel like I did when I was on the plane heading to the Dominican Republic and the great unknown of my mission...

4th of July Follies

WORDS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

DEEDS: The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I started preparing for the 4th this year back in Nov. 2009. While on our trip to visit Todds Family in Missouri we bought the majority of our fireworks their at Hannibal MO fireworks superstore at dirt cheap prices. Then last month Sarah Todd and I made a quick run to Breezewood PA for some additional items. Ben came over on Saturday, July 3rd. We made our first run to Wal-mart that day and then afterwards "The Boys" went out behind the neighborhood went and blew up stuff for about two hours (see pictures). Todd came home from Grandmas and we demonstrated a few fireworks. Julie made a super dinner then we went to Wal-mart again for some forgotten items and then to ConeZone for Ice Cream. We got back home just as it was starting to get dark and the neighborhood was already lighting up with Mortars. So we joined in the fun and tested some of our arsenal. To finish the evening we played Zombie Fluxx with Ben(I think Ben is Larry). On July 4th we had Church and Verl Leavitt invited us to his house to light off fireworks. He has a large backyard that is primarily just a grassy field. He also has a nice back porch and swimming pool. Once we got home everyone started to arrive, Dusty, Ami, Eric, Mom and Sarah. We decided that Verl's backyard sounded much better than setting up lawn chairs in the empty street near our house. We went out again with everyone in the late afternoon and blew up some more stuff behind the neighborhood. We then had dinner and played more Zombie Fluxx. Around 7:45 we all headed over to Verl's house about 5-10 minutes away. Everyone had a great time playing in the pool and eating homemade ice cream and brownies. Todd mostly hung out with Jacob and Lauren while Dusty, Ben and I prepared the fireworks display. We started with bottle rockets right at dusk then started the show with the brick of Saturn Missiles. We then a great time all three of us firing mortars, repeaters, fountains, bottle rockets, Roman Candles etc. I would say we put on a pretty good show and everyone seemed to have a great time. The neighbors were also lighting off some powerful stuff so it made the show even more entertaining. That is until the neighbor about 200 yards away lit off a mortar that fell over and it hit him in the chest then hit the ground and exploded. The ambulance came at which point we halted our show. Turns out he was okay just got bruised really bad and possible broken clavicle. We finished the evening with sparklers and few more fireworks. Afterwards everyone headed home about 10:30. We got home and played some more Zombie Fluxx to end the evening. Ben left this morning after spending the weekend with us. It was too bad that Regina had to work but we certainly enjoyed having Ben and his water guns and zombie games for the weekend. The kids love him! All and All and AWESOME WEEKEND that was 9 Months in the making. I am already preparing for next year...

Thoughts: (Click on pictures for larger size)

Our Arsenal (I am never quite sure if we have enough fireworks...)

Crazy Uncle Ben and his Junior Pyrotechnicians
Seth holding a firecracker "Little Dynamite". He kept thinking of bigger and bigger things he wanted to blow up including houses and all wild horses.
I was able to snap a picture of a plastic water gun just as it was blowing apart in the air.

Dusty brought this old stuffed alligator that me and Ben operated on and filled with as many firecrackers, flashers and and jumping jacks as we could.
Dusty pointing out the remains of the Alligator to show to his work friends..I think the operation was a success.

Joseph firing a small roman candle at some army men.
A closeup of the same picture. After multiple pictures I was able to get one that captured the fireball being ejected (on the far left).
Eric's first Roman Candle. He shot it off reciting Harry Potter spells...

A good shot of Sarah doing a Patronum (sp?) Spell

Starting the fireworks show with some medium bottle rockets...I like the spark trail you can see in the smoke.

Ben Preparing to fire off Josephs rocket to start the show.
Verls' Backyard with my family, Verls' Family and the Grow family.

Father's Day and Before that...

DEEDS: Todays was Fathers Day and I requested that my family go for a hike together in the later afternoon. I was met by several groans but after a variety of threats we all went as a family about 15 minutes away to the Appalachian Trail. We of course ended up having a good time and got several good pictures of the kids/family. We saw a variety of animals including Todd saw a black snake. We also ate some wild Raspberries.

Saturday Evening was the Ward International Pot Luck Dinner. I was in charge and we had fun as a family setting everything up. The highlight for me was the pinata that Todd and I did for all of the primary children.

Last Thursday was our wedding anniversary. Julie and I now have 16 fabtastic years together. We went out Friday night for Dinner and a Movie. We ate at Chipotle and then we saw Iron Man 2. Weird it had been in the theater for a month so their was only one movie preview before it started.

Words: Last Sunday 06/13 I spoke in Church along with the rest of the Bishopric.

Thoughts: Fathers Day really wouldn't be possible for me without my Wonderful wife Julie! It was a fun weekend with her. She made me pancakes for breakfast this morning. She makes me a happy Husband and Father!

WABBIT SEASON!!

THOUGHTS: Easter Weekend was a fun one. We had beautiful weather. On Saturday Emily, Grandma and Cousin Eric came up to visit. We went to the park and played football, baseball, frisbee, and played at the playground.

We also had fun dying Easter eggs.

Then of course we had an Easter Egg hunt. We do the hunt with the plastic ones filled with candy. Every year no matter how hard we try we always end up finding an Easter Egg months later somewhere in the yard.

EASTER MORNING!!!

DEEDS: Easter Dinner with the fool err I mean full Vorhauer family.

WORDS: Holidays with Family are the BEST!

March Madness

Thoughts: I really Enjoy playing basketball. The past 4-5 months I have been playing regularly at the church on Sat. Mornings. This year has been really fun because I started bringing Todd who is also really getting into basketball. He has become pretty good in a short time and I hope to continue to teach him. This past Saturday was the Mens Basketball Tournament. I had invited the whole "Crew" from Rockville to come play. Asif decided to play and was so dedicated he stayed in a hotel in Winchester over night. I also brought a guy, James from our neighborhood that the missionaries have been teaching. We had fun playing but ended up losing both games in the double elimination tournament. Some of the highlights for me was Asif shooting a long range shot and I caught it and put it right back up and in even though I was surrounded by 3-4 large players. I like to think Asif was just throwing an "Ally-oop" pass rather than an airball shot. The other highlight was I referreed one of the games. It was the first time I had ever done that in my life. Right in the middle of of the action Asif comes running up the sidelines and grabs my arm and points at the other referee and says...

Words: ..."Look its Jacob from 'LOST'...". I guess he did kinda look like him...

Deeds: This week for Family Home Evening we went out to Home depot and let each of the kids pick out a packet of seeds of their choosing. This evening after dinner we got out the dirt and planted them into some eggshell planters. Everyone planted a vegetable except Hannah who planted Parsley. It was a fun activity that kept the kids from fighting and playing video games for a little bit.

Oldest and Youngest

Thoughts- I love spring. Today is the first day that has felt "warm" outside since last fall. It is in the mid 50's. We still have snow on the ground especially in the front yard but it is melting rapidly. I love the spring changes and I love seeing all of our plants and bulbs "spring" back to life. I am excited that I can start yard work in the next coming weeks. I love landscaping our yard. It has been so fun working it from a pile of dirt 5 years ago to what it is now.

Words- Primary Themes. At church on the first Sunday of the month the Primary asks me to come in and present the new primary theme for the month. The themes are just a simple phrase like Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I usually try to do something that will grab the kids attention for a few minutes that presents the theme in a fun way. I brought in our Gardenia that appeared to have died so we put in on the back porch and rainwater brought it back to life-Analogy to the Savior and the resurrection. Last month I brought in the childrens book "Are you my Mother" and applied to the concept that their is only one Savior. Today the theme was "God Speaks Through Prophets". So I told the children I was going to tell them the theme but then I went out in the hall and said it where they could not see or hear me. I did this twice and then said I was going to tell the theme to a messenger and then the messenger was going to give the theme. So I did this using an old missionary badge of mine so that the person represented me. I love doing these theme's each month its fun to interact with the primary children.

Deeds- Oldest and Youngest. Last Saturday was Todd's (My Oldest Son) Birthday. He had some friends over for a party Friday night (Video Games/Pizza). A friend gave us a bunch of old XBOX games so he got those. We also got him a new Bass Guitar case, and a book of rock bass music. On Saturday Seth (My Youngest Son) played in his indoor soccer game. Watching 4-5 year olds play soccer reminds me of the old Charlie Brown cartoon where the baseball players are standing in the outfield counting clovers or watching the clouds, meanwhile the ball falls right between them. After the Soccer game we went to the Mall in Hagerstown to meet Grandma. Grandma bought Todd a new suit and then he got to buy an XBOX360 with his money/giftcard and the rest we paid for as he met certain promised conditions from the past couple of years. After the mall we went to Golden Corral and stuffed ourselves. That place is good but I feel like such a glutton when I go there...

On Sunday Todd wore his new suit to church. In Sacrament meeting he was Recognized for completion of his Duty to God requirements for Deacon. He has been working hard on completing this and I was extremely proud of him. After church I was able to ordain him to the office of a Teacher.

Fly Like an Eagle(s)

Thoughts-On Saturday I had the pleasure of going to a double Eagle Court of Honor. Both of the young men are Brothers, Tyler and Jacob Grow. I was their Young Men's President at Church for over 3 years. We had lots of fun experiences together in Scouts and Church including the goofy Videos we made for the Cinematography merit badge. It has been amazing to see these two young men grow and mature from 12 year old Tenderfoot Scouts to Eagle Scouts.

These Two young men also have the blessing of having very loving and involved parents.

At the end of the ceremony the Eagle Scouts themselves presented three awards/pins. One is for the Mother and one is for the Father and the third pin is for a Mentor. To my great thrill and honor, Jacob Grow presented me with his Mentor Award Pin. He stood before the audience and told everyone how I had made an impact in his life even before he was a Scout and he tried to do everything I told him to do. I could not have been any more proud at that moment. To know that I had made such a difference in this young teenagers life and had been an example and mentor was and is a great feeling.

(Jacob and I after he pinned on my Mentor award)

Words-The Scout Law-A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

Deeds- Saturday Afternoon Seth and I went out and started making a snowman. Pretty soon Joseph was out helping us. Then Julie and Hannah joined in by finding the items we needed to complete our Super-Snowman!!!
(I Love the eyes...)

Thirty-Ate

Thoughts-I turned 38 this week. Is that old? I used to think so but i'm not 40 so I am not THAT old...We watched "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I warned the kids that it was funny but would probably make no sense to them...I was right. We had lemon bars for dessert. Dusty called me for my birthday which was really nice. Julie and the kids got me a really super warm and soft micro fleece. Seth also got me some basketball socks. I have been playing basketball every Saturday until we have had the recent snowfalls. Speaking of snow I think I have been shoveling snow every day of my 38 year old existence.

After last Saturdays record snowfall we then had another foot of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday. Its like the most snow in 100 years in this area.

Deeds-This Saturday we went to Manassas. I had been wanting to visit my Grandma (95 years old) for awhile. I had called her a few weeks ago after she had been in the hospital for chest pains. It turned out to be nothing but I still needed to visit her. So I dropped Julie off at the movie theater in Manassas to get tickets for "The Lighting thief" while I went over to visit my Grandma with Todd. She could not believe how big Todd had gotten. We laughed and talked about old times and memories I have like picking string beans in her garden with her. She really got excited when we started to talk about her model trains. Those are some great great memories of playing with her model trains at her house growing up. She even got out some of the ones she still has and we took some pictures of them.

It is amazing that she is still as sharp as a tack and can remember everything. She was telling me about the first radio her family had. I love her very much and I am so thankful to have been able to have her in my entire life. It is amazing to think she was live during WW1 and WWII. After visiting with her we went to the movie theater and saw the Lightning Thief and then went to the Golden Corral for dinner. It was kind of a Valentines Date for the whole family. After being shut in due to the snow for the past week it was nice to get out.

Words-I LOVE JULIE!!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY LITTLE LADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!