Karaoking with Jr. Highers! Oh yes the proud life of a youth pastor on New Year's Eve. I read Lynnea's blog on plans for New Year's eve and as good as the mountains sounds, I think I have you all beat. Some lame brained parent had the idea that we should plan a new years eve bash on new year's eve, so I thought sure, why not, I'm new and lots of kids will come because you know that recommended we have one, Well the party starts in 24 hours and I have 14 kids signed up and the families that requested we do this have decided to take a vacation together, crazy. I think we will chock this one up for experience.

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, I agree with all the others it was wonderful to see everyone at the wedding, I think i can honestly say everyone. It's amazing how much people have grown on me and a lot of you have become apart of me and so seeing you guys and reconnecting is I think what has kept me going through a very busy holiday season. I continue to lift you guys up in prayer(s) and pray for God guidance in our lives and on our continued journeys!

Brad, i need you to send a rent check ASAP just send the average of what you usually send and we can get square when you return.

Everyone else, i hope you had a wonderful christmas because i worked a 14 hour day on christmas. ha. bah humbug.
kurbis

Well, it's a few days after Christmas, and I haven't blogged in a long time, so I figured I should get on it. The only really funny thing I wanted to put down on this thing was the Christmas present that I got from my brother and sister-in-law (I realize you must know me to a certain extent to understand the true meaning of Christmas captured in the gift). I opened the box to see the face of my .... former soul-mate, Ms. Natalie Portman herself, staring back at me from the cover of The Oregonian (Parade?) smiling like the wonderful former fantasy that she is in my life. My sister-in-law found it rather humorous to include not only that piece of literature, but also a recent copy of Vogue which was graced by Natalie's daunting visage. I was laughing, which is the most regular emotional response I have come Christmas morning. But that isn't even the best part. Below these two periodicals was a shirt, white with red letters and black cuffs and collar with the illustrious slogan "VOTE FOR PEDRO" screaming from the front. I was nearly in tears just seeing it. It is, of course, from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, and is also my favorite Christmast present to date. Just thought I should share that I am presently in that shirt, and I got some great comments about it while walking the Cheyenne Mall today.
Kyle, I got Blue Like Jazz, and finished reading it on Sunday. What a great book. I've never laughed so hard and then felt worried that I was actually laughing at myself and the startling coincidence between that author and me. Incredible read. Oh, and my first margirita was great, but I learned to not drink a large mixed drink in a very short span of time just because it tastes good. Hmmm. I'm an idiot. Oh, next blog remind me to tell you about the Polish girl in Albertson's last week who thought I was Jewish. Great story. Yeah, I've gotta go. I'll blog more when I don't have a bar to get to, and people's internet girlfriends to meet. Don't wait up. Maybe I'll be so bored next time that I'll just list some Christmas presents. Tell me to shut up when I do that. Later.

Okay, okay, Brad, I'll get to work on the reunion. These next four and a half years will most likely fly by and then it will be far too late to begin organizing such an event. You're right, it's best to start now. I expect to see all of you there...okay, maybe it's a bit early to begin the harrassment. I'll stick to organizing.

Echoing Brad, it was wonderful to see so many of you last weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was exciting, and the sparklers were...smokey. I hope you all had great Christmas and are planning a rockin new year (yup, I just said "rockin new year"). I am leaving for West Virginia on Friday and will be spending my New Year in the mountains. Don't ask what I will be doing there, because I have no idea. The church at which Matt is doing his internship is flying us out for a few days to check it out. We told the pastor he better show us a good time on New Year's Eve, but we're not getting our hopes up. I guess we will see. What is everyone else planning for the night? I'm sure it can't beat moonshine in the mountains.

Well, I figured that somebody should comment on the Janke/Bacheldor wedding, at least to say that it was great to see everybody and of course it was a nice wedding. Guess who got the garter? Yeah, when your roommates push you out of a crowd of guys to go pick it up, and your former roommate, the groom, specifically targets you before letting it fly, you quickly realize that there's no getting out of this one, no matter how much you think it's a strange tradition to throw a piece of underware at a group of single males. How messed up is our culture? Girls get flowers thrown at them, guys get underware. I wonder if Shawn would say that's an intrinsic good, or an extrinsic good. Or not. Hmmm. So I'm just sitting here with Scotty J, with a bunch of liquor boxes in his living room that we just picked up to help him get moved out. It was somewhat awkward walking past little kids in Faith Village with a box that says Fat Bastard Wine Company. It might be just as awkward as smoking a pipe on Scott's back porch, if we do that tonight. I hope so.
Oh, and by the way, in case any terrorists are checking out this website, don't think you can sneak anything onto a plane if you're flying out of Missoula International Airport. I've flown out of Minneapolis, Denver, Seatac, Portland, and plenty of times too, never once stopped or taken out of line. I'm the perfect age, always looking pretty scruffy, pretty fierce, and never once did anyone want to stop me and figure out if I was trying to commit some sort of grand, hateful, murderous act. Then I try to walk through security in Missoula, the hub of international terrorist activity, and I'm pulled aside and given a classic pat down for having too much magnetic strips in my wallet (as though I really have that many credit/debit/ID anything elses). Safety? Do I feel any safer that they are stopping every potential person who has bad credit flying out of the Western part of Montana? They can get a fake bomb onto a plane in Newark, but they'll never get three credit cards past the TSA personel in my town. Great to know. Maybe my streak is over and I'll be given a BCS on my way home out of MSP. Wow, it's fun to toss up all these acronyms. WTF. I think that means Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Okay, I'm done now. Everybody that I got to see, it was good to see you (Kurbis included), and everybody that I haven't seen in a while, count your blessings now before I find a way to weasel my way back into your life. Who's excited about getting LOTR extended edition? I'm pumped. Soon to be pumped full of Leinenkugels'. Honeyweiss is way good. We'll try the original now. Hmmm. Too much. Hey, somebody talk about the holiday season. I'm too drained right now. Gotta get back to doing nothing. Later.

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done! Or perhaps I should say, "I'm finished." I just turned in my final paper for my last class of the semester and I cannot believe I am still alive. I also bought four new pair of shoes earlier, what a great day! Okay, half of my previous sentences ended in exclamation points, that may be a bit overboard. But I am really excited! Oh, there I go again. Anyway, I will see many of you in just a couple of days. Until then...

I remembered that I wanted to put down one other thing (thanks, Gabe, for giving me the precedent to "go to town"). Let me know if you think this is ironic: In the University Center, there are always plenty of things that strike me as odd, and you've heard of many of these previously, but this one was a new combination of ideas that made me chuckle as I walked by. There were plenty of craft tables set up, as always, but one this time was set up supporting a feminist group on campus trying to raise money.... with a bake sale! Is that only funny to me? Oh, and if you've gotta fight with your girlfriend, don't ever do it in the middle of the library next to me while I'm trying to blog. Strange, so strange. Gabe, I'm sure you have something interesting, funny, deep, or disgusting to relate to all of us non-parental types. I've gotta go. I'll see you all soon (and by all, I mean the ones in Minnesota or Wisconsin, or.... you know what I mean).

Gabe, you know me too well. Remember, we're not supposed to worry about those things, or Lynnea will tell us to chill out. I bet she's watching us right now. Well, I somewhat understand why nobody wanted to follow-up my random and youthful "word vomit" from a late night last weekend. I wish I was more mature and coherent this morning, but I'm sure the same man that wrote that blog last Saturday is the same one typing this morning. Hey, some good news. I found out I don't have to take the four-hour written final exam for my grad seminar class, and I know already I got a C+ in the class. That's great. I know Lynnea and Nathan Miller do not think so, but I'm pretty happy after being a bit distracted with other life options and still trying to finish strong. We'll see what happens in my other class. The final for that class is 40% of the grade, so that's where it all lies. So I guess I only have one final, and another fifty-some to grade, so next week will only be busy reading students mindlessly wander through the early middle ages, discussing the transition of power from the Merovingian dynasty to the Carolingians(now everybody knows where that name comes from in The Matrix Reloaded - Merovech wasthe father of Childeric, who was the father of Clovis). What history lessons do for everybody - it makes me want to teach history. Hmmm, there's a career path. Maybe I'll explore that.
The really cool University of Montana girl's soccer player who broke another's girl's nose is in the computer lab with me now. Is that crazy or what? Maybe she'll break my nose! Oh, and I know that there are some missing spaces in my typing back there, but I can't figure out how to fix the keyboard to make it so it doesn't erase what I've already written when I just want to put a space in somewhere. I know it's some setting somewhere, but I have no clue where it is, and I've gotta go soon here anyway. I'll be seeing a lot of you a week from tomorrow. That's exciting, eh? Somebody better take me out to get wasted - and get some Chipotle and Cold Stone. My oh my. So, I know I've asked this before, and some people did answer, but anybody else going to be there to hang at Bach's wedding? Gotta go, I'm getting kicked out of the computer lab. Thanks Gabe.

I really do not have anything to say, but I noticed that Steve posted last and I wanted to post so that he can post again without posting twice in a row. I ran into Jon Dudek the other night. He was working for Operation Christmas Child. Anyway that is all I got. Go to town Steve!

Well, Kurbis, I'm glad you're excited. I am too. I mean, if I calculated correctly, there are really only three girls on earth, of legal age and marital status, that would willingly date me, and apparently I found one of them, so odds are one of the other two is in the middle of New Delhi, and the other one is in Shanghai, so I'm glad the one I got is right here. It's neat to find out that mathematically you can rate your social and romantic acceptability so that an equation can tell you how many people on earth could put up with you. I mean, Nathan Miller is apparently desired in fourty-seven countries across a demographic that includes some centenarians and several sets of conjoined twins, and then there's Kurbis who it turns out should not even be liked by Bethany, mathematically (and maybe rationally) speaking, of course. You plug Duerkop into the equation and you find out that 80% of the world's female population want him, but again you can find most of them between Afghanistan and Japan, leaving a good deal of space for Duerkop to traverse before overcoming this technical inconvenience. What's funny is to see yourself up against movie stars and sports figures in terms of global desirability. I fall in a category somewhere between Danny DeVito and Marvin the Martian. Miller is stuck just above Ben Affleck and right below Denzel Washington. Duerkop fell between The Rock and Barry Bonds for some reason (apparently, most foreign women like large, incredibly cut bodies... or Duerkop, so way to go Duerk). Kurbis sits just above Ozzy Ozborn but couldn't edge out the vacuum-preserved body of Mao Zedong (Chinese women really throw the demographics off in this sense - otherwise Kurbis might have beat him by the mere fact that he hasn't been dead for forty years). Don't put Scott in the equation - it messes everything up in terms of factual and coherent data. You find out that 106% of the human female population and 23% of the lemur population are naturally attracted to Scott, and then you just end up wondering what girls are being counted twice and why lemurs would have a thing for our own Scott Johnson. I have yet to run the numbers on Kyle. It might turn out that the entire eligable female population of Belize really digs the scruffy-haired worship pastor thing. Ya never know how the numbers work out. Sadly, for all you married guys, you can't run the equation. It's a shame too, because after Gabe's really gross poop story, you'd think his sociability rating would be way down. I'm grossed out. Okay, I seriously don't know where any of this is coming from. It's nearing three in the morning. I promise to not post ever again when I'm in such a weird state - it's like I'm drunk or something. I bet a lot of this is only funny at this time of night after a few beers and listening to a really annoying cabbie all the way home. Okay, I'm done. Sorry to put everybody through this. Sorry to make fun of Kurbis after he got so excited for me. Sorry to make fun of Danny DeVito and lemurs and Belize. I hope this doens't keep people from blogging. Everybody gotten their yearbooks?

HOLY SHIZZZZZZZ! WHY IS NO ONE ELSE FREAKIN OUT! HUBKA! YOU FRICKIN STALLION! YEEEEEHAA!!!!

Im ok now.

Well that is certainly some awesome news...i totally crapped my pants in the computer room at my appartment when i read that! Suhweet!

Happy thanksgiving everyone. i guess that was last week.

I am so totally stressed out with trying to get all of my semester projects done. Is anyone else dreading finals? They are so scary. Oh wait, i landscape...HAHAHA SUCKERS!

So i might have a job after this one. i might be a canvasser for the Sierra Club and fight against deforestation! Thats right y'all, i am now officially a real hippie. Im not going to disclose anymore of the possibilities for my future, but lets just say that if things work out how i want then i will be in school for 3 more years and then start my life of stickin it to the man! Pretty much you will all me some day. Well, i guess you will me more than you do right now.

i was in minnesota a month ago. it was sweet.

im getting married soon. funny story about that, but im not going to tell it.

love yall.
kurbis

The life of a dad!

It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when I was awaken by the sound of a hungry baby stirring in her crib. The hour was about 1:30 in the a.m. and I was not to excited to get up to give the girls a bottle. Mom was doing the next feeding so this was mine solo. I got up to prepare the bottles and my daughter Alyssa decided that she had waited long enough and began to express to me through howling tears that she was ready for food. I finished preparing the bottles and picked up the girls placing them on the blanket that was lying across our floor. Both were telling me vocally about their want of food. However, I have a system down that has me changing their ever messy diapers before feeding. So I took my place in front of Alyssa. I sat crossed legged (or as my wife says to her preschool class "pretzel legged") in shorts with her legs pointing towards mine. I pick up her legs and placed a new diaper underneath her so the transition from one diaper to the other with be a smooth and clean as possible. This is not always the case. I then proceed to take off her diaper and clean up the present she left daddy. During this process my little princess has a gastronomic dilemma and begins to relieve some of the pressure that has built up inside her little body. This creates a chain reaction of events that eventually results in gas accompanied by poop bursting forth onto good old dads hands. I must admit I was a little frustrated, but I was also happy. Most of the time that this happens you not only get messy, but you loose the new diaper to the mess. This time it was different. I had managed to save the new diaper at the sacrifice of my hands. Proud of myself for not wasting a diaper, I wiped off and began to pull ever so slightly the old diaper out from under my little gem. I lifted it and was putting it down gently so as to not spill the contents when my daughter had another gastronomic dilemma. I was unprepared for what followed. The diaper was not yet fastened around Alyssa when she let out her dilemma. This time it did not come with a mess, but with a burst of liquid fun. She evidently was pushing very hard to get out the pressure in her belly and upon doing so she quite literally turned herself into a human squirt gun. There seemed to be an explosion and the next thing I know my legs are soaked and so is everything else. If you have ever shot a super soaker you may understand the velocity with which I was dowsed. I sat there in disbelief and absolute anger. (You would too at 1:30AM) My girls were both crying and I was covered in urine. It was a night I will forever remember.

About three and a half years ago, Marty and I walked into a tiny shop on the street of Oslo, Norway, drawn in by the sign above the door indicating it to be a piercing shop. We walked in and after some confusing conversation spoken in English on our end and Norwegian on the end of the man with a very large needle in his hand, we walked out 20 minutes later, having purchased a brand new hole in my face. We ran to the choir bus (late, of course), tried to hide the piercing from Dr. Donelson, and I haven’t given it much thought since.

Until now. The time has officially arrived, I’m finally going to take it out permanently because…(and this whole story has really just been a round-about way to tell you all that…) I got a full-time job working at Von Maur in Women’s Shoes (how perfect) from now until February 1 (when I return to school). I have been instructed to remove “all visible piercings” and I am willing to make the sacrifice. Now, those of you who know me well are most likely thinking that working full-time is ridiculous considering that I am also a full-time graduate student until December 17, BUT I think I can handle it. So please, hold back on those lectures about “balance” in my life, and allowing myself time to “live” or “sleep” or whatever it is I should be doing more of. So if you don’t hear from me for the next two weeks, or if I show up to the Jahnke/Bacheldor wedding looking like death warmed over, restrain yourself from comments such as “you look like hell,” or “I knew having two full-time responsibilities would kill you,” I’ve heard it all before and have realized that I will never learn from the past. A simple, “Good to see you” will suffice just fine. Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

currently, i am eating some delicious soup with a baby spoon. "gerber" fails to be imprinted into the metal handle, and though the curved part is not dipped in a plastic to coat and make it easier for those little mouths-- it is NOT sized appropriatly for my mouth... and yet, i am too comfortable to retrive another size, knowing that it will be one more dish to wash later. enough. the soup is good.

hello. HELLO.

congratulations! babies. jobs. dating. engagement. marriage. apartments. new situations****

here is a wave to you all. know that youre loved and missed, and um i so excited to see what advetnures ya'll be taking off on next. truely.

((after a bit of living in minneapolis -and loving it- i moved to my parent's home in wisconsin. it was somewhat weird at first. yes. it is right for me, for this time. i work quite a bit at a tiny discount store, and a nursing home. i have been reading a lot, and writing. we'll see. what else. i see hurting people, and trees, and snow daily. today god reminded me that there is so much more. more of him.))

steve, as long as you know her favorite crayon color and her middle name-- i see a bright tommarow for meagan and yourself.

that is all for now.
the soup is just about done.

sweet dreams.
jas

-jolene i need your co address.

Really, we all know that Kurbis is the "rock star", right? Man, it must be a slow week. Life get's calm and rational again this afternoon. Maybe it's the same for everybody else. Oh well. I'm not trying to get anybody to write, I promise, Lynnea. I've gotta get to class. Anybody want to discuss Camus's writings on colonial French Algeria, because I just wrote twelve pages on it, so it's still stuck in my head.