Reflections

I've now been in Michigan for over a month, coming up on a month and a half, I am starting to feel a little (more) homesick. I don't regret being here what so ever, but I do miss the fellowship of people back in Oregon. They're just so one of a kind. If any of you are reading this, I miss you all! I won't be coming home until Christmas Break, and even then, it will probably only be for three weeks or so, and then I'm hopping that I'll be able to come back. I am learning so much here from Mr. Parunak it's unfathomable. I can't imagine a better person to thrust me into the engineering world. This is just sort of a reminiscing post, and I don't have any deep theological lightbulbs for you this time (not that I usually do). If I were to encourage you all to one thing, it would be this: Love and cherish those around you!! Relationships are so precious! Guard and protect the ones you have. They are more valuable then you can imagine (at least, then I can imagine, though I don't have the most creative imagination, so maybe you all can imagine how valuable they are). All the cars, houses, power, fame, and riches pale in comparison to relationships, especially our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus. So, if someone you love is near you right now, go give 'em a big bear hug, and tell them how much they mean to you!
~Sir Paul

How you treat your Mom...

...Is how you'll treat your Bride.

I’ve heard is said many times, 'how a young man treat’s his Mom, is how he’ll treat his wife". “Wait, What!?!?” you might think “But my mom’s so much different then who I’d like to marry!” It still rings true! It’s taken awhile for this to really sink in, but It really has been these last few weeks. It’s so easy for me to imagine how I’ll treat my future bride. “I’ll be one of the best husbands ever!” I think. That’s all well and good, but what about when things get tough? Am I really willing to make the choice, even when it can hurt? What if my wife would really like to have “blank”, but I can’t see why? Am I willing to put her desires above my own? How can I know? How can I prepare? Can I know?

Enter “Mom”.

God’s design for marriage and raising children so amazing. He give young adults someone who we live with,who is very forgiving, who is much, much wiser then us, to teach and train us how to treat our future spouses. They also know you inside and out, and will be able to spot a bad attitude from a mile away. So when they are giving instruction, give them your full attention! You won’t regret it later!

It also allows us to see how other people will treat they’re future spouses. In my case, when a young lady catches my interest, one of the first things I’ll want to observe is how she treats her father. Is she rude and short tempered? Does she just kind of blow him off? Or does she treat him with kindness and respect? Similarly, my Mom is the perfect proving ground for how I will treat my wife!

I heard a good quote the other day:

Sew a thought, reap a desire. Sew a desire, reap an action. Sew an action, reap a habit. Sew a habit, and reap a lifestyle.

And one that is a little more well known:

Deuteronomy 5:16

Honor they father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord has thy God giveth thee.

In conclusion, think about how you can bless your parents today. Maybe some kind words, maybe doing the dishes without being asked, maybe a note, be creative. It’s a very rewarding process. Having a close relationship with your parents is one of the biggest blessing you’ll ever have!!

Review of "The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition" Coming soon!

A couple of weeks ago, A great friend of mine loaned me a copy of "The Five Love Languages". It's an amazing book, and has given me a new insight to my relationships with other people (Mostly my family at this point). It is directed primarily towards married couples, which made applying some of the concepts in is somewhat challenging. So it was with great delight that I found that, on at the back of the front cover, was a list of other books that he author had written, one of which the "For Singles" edition! Once I got to Michigan I ordered it and am now greatly looking forward to reading it late into the night, as is my habit with really good books. 

So, when I'm finished with it, or maybe while I'm reading it, I'll post my thoughts on it. So be watching!

The Next Chapter (Or Two)

So for the last year or so, I've been trying to decide weather or not I really want to be a Mechanical Engineer. I competed for two years in a robotics competition, and I loved it! My main question was "Is what I did while competing going to be only a minor part of an actual engineering career?" I've been praying about it, and looking for an internship, or an engineer that I could shadow for awhile. I wasn't having much success, as I hadn't found any, so I basically decided that for this fall, I was going to take a class or two at our community collage, and do some heavy studying at home. But the Lord had other things in store for me. One day, a Thursday if I remember correctly, after Dad came home from work, he and Mom went out on the front porch to talk, and wouldn't let any of us listen. In walking by (maybe a little more slowly then normal) I heard my name come up, as well as Ross's, and Gene Parunak's, one of Ross's friends back in Michigan. I knew that something was up, because after "The Meeting" neither one of them would say anything! It was sheer torture! Dad said that he would fill us in sunday afternoon. 

That was a long weekend.

Sunday evening finally rolled around, and not a minute too soon. Dad called me out to the back deck, and handed me a piece of paper. It was an offer to intern with Gene Parunak at his company: In2Being!!! I had heard before that he helped people with medical device development, but I never really gave it much thought for a couple of reasons. One is that medical engineering didn't really catch my fancy, and that I wanted to be actually working on a product, not just giving advice, as I thought Gene did. Boy was I in for a surprise. After talking with Mom and Dad, I gave Gene a call to get more information, and we talked for an hour or so about the various aspects of what I'd be doing back in Michigan (that's where he lives), and how many hours I would be working a week, Etc. I also found out  that, should I accept, I'd be leaving that Friday. My first (or maybe second) thought when I heard this was "Phooey, that Means I'm going to miss Fiesta night." But I put that behind me and took the job! The next four days were a flurry of activity, buying my first suit, getting new shoes, and packing.

My flight was rather uneventful, for which I'm thankful, and Ross and Gene picked me up at the Detroit airport at 10 they're time on Friday. The next morning, after a plate of only slightly overdone eggs at my bro's house, people started arriving for bible study, which Ross was hosting. That went for about an hour, and then Gene and I went to his office so that he could get me up to snuff on his business, and sign the employment papers. We talked for several hours and looked at designs that he was working on for his clients. At lunch, his wife brought the family over, as well as enough Pizza to feed us all!
But enough of me rattling on. To the trip!

I spent sunday night at Genes house, so that we could get an early start the next morning. We got on the road at about 9am (hey, that's what happens when you have a bunch of kids, as he does) and I drove the first 5 hours, after which we stopped for lunch, and then Gene finished off the last half hour of driving through Chicago to get to the McCormick Place Expo Center. We set the booth up and then headed off for our hotel, which was (thankfully) bed-bug free!
The next three days were a whirl of activity, not that there weren't slow points, but in general it was very enjoyable. We talked to lot's of people, and it looks like Gene has four or five good leads. So it was a grand success! On the third day we got to do some walking around to look and the other expo booths. There was some pretty incredible machines, let me tell you! Here's some pictures! 

This robot is an assembly line cart mover. It could push a cart weighing over 10 tons!

This pictures just makes me get all dreamy. This would be so much fun to design and build.

Here's Gene and his booth. That's where we spent most of our time there. Loads of fun. 

 

For this event I got to purchase my first full suit! I felt pretty professional! I guess I'm not your standard male, in that I like getting all suited up for an occasion, be it biking through the woods, or manning a booth and the Medical Device and Manufacturing Expo.

A glorious weekend!

A couple of weekends ago, I was Extended a generous offer to come to Fiesta night at the Cornelious's house, and possibly even stay the night, partly because it's a pretty long drive. I drove down about an hour early to help them get set up, though primarily because that meant that I got to spend an extra hour with them. :)
Fiesta night was loads of fun, and I got so see some other people that I hadn't seen in quite some time. One of the games we played was called Ninja. Everybody stands in a circle, and taking turns, tries to slap the hand of the person standing next to them. Easy, right? But there's a catch. After you swing at they're hand, you have to stay in that position, and you can only move when somebody else tries to slap your hand. It makes for some rather humorous photos.

 Mr. Long Arm.

You what!?!

I didn't make it to bed until really late that night, actually, it wasn't until early the next morning. We talked about so many things, that I didn't bother to watch the time, that is, until it we got really tired, and noticed what time it was. So I wasn't able to journal about all the events of the day, so I was trying to catch up the next morning. I got a few paragraphs done, but then these little munchkins started showing up, and It quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to get much written down.

 This little girl, Maryann is her name, almost always had a cheerful countenance about her.

That morning, after we finished putting the sheetrock up in the shop, Mr. Cornelious and a couple of the boys suited up, and we went out to gather honey!

Yes, there is a boy in that suit.

That cart weighed about 600 pounds! And that was only about 3-4 hives.

This is What Maryann and Josh were doing while we pulled honey. Not sure how it got started.

Mrs. Cornelious bought a treadmill off of Craigslist while I was there, and once they got it set up, all of the kids just couldn't wait to get a turn on it.

Family bonding time. I hooked my laptop up to they're TV, and we played some Angry Birds!

So come saturday afternoon I was dreading not looking forward to the prospect of having to drive home that night, and end my lovely sojourn with them. As it got closer to dinner time, one of the boy's asked if I was staying for dinner, and Cheryl said that I was invited, but that I'd probably have to stay the night if I did. (Muffled "Yippee" followed on my part) So I gave Dad a somewhat nervous call, hoping that I hadn't left something undone at home that I had to go home and fix, or that there was something on the calendar that I had to be home for. My fears were much relieved when Dad said that it'd be fine. (followed by a not quite so muffled exclamation of joy) So the adventure continues!

The next day being sunday, I got to go to the Church they attend.

Maryann blinked.

After Church, and more honey extracting, Eric invited me to go Kayaking with him on the river! That was super cool of him, I'll remember that trip for a long time. I'd never been kayaking before, so it was quite the learning experience, and I managed to only flip once! There were some pretty good rapids, for me at least, and there were some slow parts. It's was loads of fun, and we got to talk quite a bit. I asked him a bunch of questions about life, and when his had been like before I met him, how he and Cheryl met, why he joined the army, etc. Here's some photos that Cheryl took with my camera after she dropped us off.

Once we got back from that, it was starting to get late, and I was planning on packing up and heading home. I would have loved to stay another night, but I had already stayed two, and I didn't want to overstay my welcome. But then one of the boys came to my rescue again. Or maybe Cheryl asked if I'd like to stay for another night, I don't quite remember how it happened. But however it did, and I got to stay yet another night! 

I should mention that dinner that night was really, really good. But since Cheryl had been gone for a large portion of the afternoon, she wasn't home to cook it. So Laura Cooked the whole meal, with minimal help from Mrs. Cornelious, while baby sitting her 5 younger siblings. Did I mention that it was really good?

Anyway, so the next day they're friends the germonds (the first photo of this post has two of them) were having they're annual labor day BBQ! Dad had said last night that I had to come home on monday, so I drove my van there so that I could head straight home once it was late. So with Ben and Michael riding with me, we headed for the BBQ. As you might expect at a BBQ, there was a lot of great homemade food and desserts.

Here's Gabe wearing his Daddy's sunglasses.

'click'

They set up a slip and slide, so I attempted to get photos as kids were sliding down it. This is the best one that I got.

6pm rolled around way to soon for my liking. So I had to start the journey home. After saying goodbye to the kids and and Mr. and Mrs. Cornelious, I got in the van and started driving, my eye's only slightly moist. It was a great weekend, and I look forward with great anticipation to going back sometime in the future. 

Thank's Cornelious's!!