Kinda forgot I had this...

Whelp, it's been forever since I was on here. That may have something to do with the fact that I forgot I had a blog. Anywho, here's an update on my life.

I'm moving. I'm moving to the South Hill (the Perry District) with a friend of mine from WSU/Crusade who just moved to Spokane. It's a sweet house. I just started packing today...

I'm still super-involved with music at Vintage Faith. I've been playing keys mostly recently, which rocks my world. I'm hoping to play mandolin some week here. We're finishing up a demo cd that we'll have available at church on Sunday. Y'all should come by and pick one up!

This last week we signed the operating agreement for the INDABA and opened our business checking account. We're in the process of finishing the business plan and applying for a loan. Keep praying for that. It's been a kinda slow process, but God knows what He's doing, eh?

I'm still looking for a job. I've applied a few places and am hoping to hear back soon. Please be praying for that. Will needs a job, too. We Doornink boys rely on our women to be responsible.

Speaking of women, I'm dating the bestest one ever. Her name is Jill and she teaches Chemistry and coaches basketball at North Central High School here in Spokane. She's also tall, beautiful, musical, a complete goofball, loves the outdoors, loves Jesus, and likes spending time with me. Those aren't necessarily in order of importance... (also, I still haven't figured out the last one yet. If you have any ideas, let me know!)

Anywho, I've got more packing and cleaning to do. Until next time...

Happy painting and God Bless, my friend!

Mom's Birthday Song!

We decided to write our dear Mother a song for her birthday. So, we arranged a medley of tunes from Phantom of the Opera. It's great. We recorded it and it sounds fantabulous. Loads of fun. I'm talking like "barrel of monkeys" fun here.

Mom’s 55th Birthday Song

(Greg - Phantom of the Opera)
December 20th: the day is here
The day she’s thought about with dread and fear
She’s getting older now, barely alive
The birthday of our aging Mom has come
She’s 55

(Ben - Music of the Night)
Mother’s aging
We all saw it coming
She tries to stall it with aging cream and running
We all know it’s useless
To bad she tries to do this
There’s no way to hold back the tide.
Our poor, aging mother’s 55.

(Karen - Angel of Music)
Though she is ancient, we still love her
It’s nice she make us look younger
Father is glad she’s finally joined him
She’s now the world’s 9th wonder.

(Mary - All I Ask of You: Verse)
No more talk of aging
Forget reality
You’re young, youthful, and stunning
Eternally becoming
We will always love you
Though you’re old and gray
With wigs, wrinkles and dentures
And all those wheelchair adventures

(Greg, Ben, Karen, Mary - All I Ask of You: Chorus)
Say you’ll love us even though we’re honest
Deep inside there is still youth
Let it shine like a lighthouse beacon
We all know we’ll be there someday, too
Forgive us, Mom, it’s all we ask of you

It's Christmas, it's Christmas Time!

This is how we do Christmas at the Doornink household:

The Christmas Tree...

The Nativity Scene...

A Christmas Breakfast of a Cinnamon Roll Christmas Tree:

A Christmas Dinner of Cornish Game Hens
Shooting Dictionaries with lots of guns to see how far through the bullet goes:

A Gingerbread Sculpture Competition:

Friday

I'm finally done with my MBA. Time to celebrate! Just turned in my paper this morning! Yay!

I finished it this morning and then went to River Park Square to pick up some stuff for my mom. The specialty store I was going to was closed and I didn't really know what to do. So, here's what happened:

Just before I had arrived, the lady working the store took a break and locked the store. Unfortunately, she locked her keys in the store so she couldn't get to them. This being the only store in town that could fulfill my shopping needs, I was in a pickle. So, I decided to wait it out. The store's owner was getting chains on her car and then coming to unlock it, so I went and got some food. Upon arriving, the store was still closed. So, I sat down and started chatting with the lady who worked there. She was probably about 65 or so, so we just sat down and talked about anything and everything for quite a while.

At this time, one of the mall security guys came up and we explored the possibility of using deadbolt cutters to cut the simple padlock. The owner didn't really like this idea, so we decided to wait it out. We kept talking about life and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. I saw my brother, Will, and his special laddie friend walking down the hall at me. They didn't see me until they got to within probably 10 ft. Michelle saw me and just got this freaked-out look on her face. I supposedly left town hours ago and was sitting in the mall talking to this lady. I would lave to have known what she was thinking...

To make a long story short, I passed of my responsibilites to Will and Michelle and skipped town. The roads were terrible, so I wasn't able to go the speed limit until about 50 miles out of town. I got in town just as Mary landed. (That's a whole nother ordeal. <--- Look! Poor English!) We all got home and I made Dad laugh twice in a span of 5 minutes. I'm not sure if I can take full credit however. It was late and he was sick. Still, I like to think it was me...

Time to spend break with the fam!!! Also, Mom's birthday today. We need to do something fun for her...

Thursday

I got up at 6.00 to work on my last paper (due Friday) for an hour or so before I went to proctor some economics exams. The first was supposed to be at 8 and the next was at 1. I got up and realized there was at least 20 inches of snow on the ground. I immediately checked to see what schools were closed and saw that Gonzaga had been canceled for the day. I thought this strange, as there were finals, but I trudged through the snow nevertheless, just in case. I had tried emailing and calling my prof to see if we were still on, but to no avail. So, I got there with all of the students just in time to find out that it had been canceled and that they had to take it at home.

So, I still got paid for the exams and didn't have to do any of the work! So, instead of proctoring the exams, I got paid to go look at a house I'm thinking of moving into. I was gunna go with Jimmy, but he was stuck in Rearden, unable to get around. So, I looked at the house by myself and loved it. Hopefully we'll get it.

After I looked at the house, I braved the elements and drove up to the South Hill to go sledding at Manito. My friends live on 28th, and I made the mistake of trying to drive on their road instead of 29th, the arterial. So, I got stuck and was rescued by 3 lovely ladies. I still need to make them dinner for their heroic deed.

So, after I was rescued and we all warmed up in the house, it was time for sledding! We walked to buy sleds at Rite Aid (the only place close that still had any sleds). We bought two disk sleds called "The Avalanche". They rocked. We thought about buying one of the two-man "Gladaboggan" sleds. I'm not sure if it was named because of the joy it brought people or the fact that gladiators used them in ancient Rome...

Sledding was a blast, we went crazy-fast down the runs. They were made by kids who don't quite have the same mass that we did, so we would go off the jumps and land on the next ones instead of before them and going over them. Needless to say, it was a very painful, yet exhilarating, experience. I made it down once without crashing and burning at the end. It was good thing we both knew volleyball rolls! She was much more graceful in hers than I was.

At the very end, we saw another run that looked dangerous. The run went within 1 foot of a tree and near the end of it there was a fencepost that was all bent over like someone had run into it. We felt like daredevils, so we hiked up to try it. At the top, it looked even scarier, so we (Jill) decided that I had to go first. We (I) quickly found out why people weren't sledding there anymore. There was a big rock right in the middle of the run that you can't really see but you definitely can feel. I landed right on it, putting a bruise on my tailbone and a huge crack in poor Avalanche 2. It still kinda hurts to sit on it right now. Needless to say, it was rather painful.

The evening ended with warm clothes, the best cocoa ever, losing at card games (despite cheating) and a great conversation about life, God, and the thoughts and reflections of an ignorant prideful sinner... Fun times!!!

Last Class and Almost Finished!

So, I just finished my last course of my MBA here at Gonzaga. Let me tell you, was it ever thrilling to walk out of a classroom for the last time, well not exactly the last time. I'm actually proctoring 2 undergraduate final exams tomorrow, so I'll be right back at Jepson. Irregardless (my lame attempt at humour) I have finished my last course! Well not exactly. I still have to finish two papers for the course. I'm working on both of them and will finish one of them tonight. The next one I'm hoping finish during the exams tomorrow. They're both due Friday, at the latest, but I'm hoping to finish them early. Anywho, I'll let you know when I'm done. Closing in!!!


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Now playing: Jessica Rabbit & the Gorillas of Rythm - They Can't Take That Away From Me
via FoxyTunes