I know, it's been a while since I have written anything, and the men's trip happened a little while ago, but here it is. I have uploaded a few pictures from the trip and I hope it gives you a sense of what goes on during a men's retreat. The first picture is of Nick. While at home we men are often encouraged to keep our shirts and pants on, so on a men's retreat many men use this opportunity to show off their manliness. Nick is one of the manliest of the men, so he is one of the first of the men to shed his shirt and display his prowess.

Another thing we men do on our trips is call our wives. We all know that when we leave, our wives are lost without us. So because of that we call often just to take care of all the little problems that might happen during the day. We also call to lend our emotional support to our wives, as they are emotional wrecks when we are not there. We are the light of their worlds, and they just feel like the world is dark and scary when we are not there. We also take this opportunity to eat out. This is one of the few occasions we get to order food without our wives ordering a small dinner salad and then eating 2/3 of our meal. It is pure joy to sit down and get to eat everything on our plate all by ourselves. If you look closely you can see that Scott has a huge grin on his face, that's because he can hardly wait to finally have his meal to himself. Michele is notorious for the ordering a salad and eating from his plate. She even brings her own fork with an extended handle for extra reach.

Not much explanation needed for this next one, just a bunch of guys going to the bathroom in the river. You can also see a puff of smoke coming from one of the guys. Some of us also use this time to smoke the once a year cigar. I wont tell you who is smoking out there, but to some of those men there is nothing better then smoking and peeing in a river on a nice summer day.

Here is a few of the guys standing around throwing the football. Of course Jake has his shirt off because his wife does not ever let him go without a shirt at home.

Nick throwing the football, he has his shirt on because he just got a call from his wife and she said, " you still have your shirt on don't you?" Of course he told her yes, and then after he got off the phone he felt guilty and put it back on for a few minutes. You notice he has his hand in front of his face while he is throwing, that is because he is such a man, that he can complete a pass without even looking.

Finally, we always end our day with sitting around a campfire, or just some wood, and tell stories of the good ol days. Sean, Vanilla Mike, and Moix seem to have more stories then all of the rest. If I remember correctly, Mike has just gotten done telling a rousing tale about some shenanigans him and his posse got into. while Sean is making a few grunting noises and Moix is pumping his fist making a whooping noise. That about sums it up.

Big Baby

Well, tomorrow is the day that the men of the church are leaving to go camping and canoeing. I am excited about going because I will get to hang out with some very cool guys, and I will get a chance to get to know some other guys that I don't know that well. All and all I think it will be a fun trip. As everyone knows, I do not like the humidity, and I would never just choose to sleep out in it for no reason, but I am more than willing to do it if it mean's I get to develop some relationships. But from all of the comments I have been getting I must be the biggest baby ever!! It seems that the consensus is that I am going to get out there and just whine about it the whole time. I have also gathered that people think I have been going around complaining and whining constantly about it for the past couple of weeks. It's been a little weird to have so many people come up to me and say stuff like, you just need to suck it up, or you just need to make the best of it,and look at the bright side, when I never had plans to go out there and be a stick in the mud.

I am pretty happy with who I am. I know I still have a lot of room for improvement, and I am working on stuff constantly, and I know that in some things I just don't fit in with the typical southern guy. I don't care about hunting, and it's not that I am apposed to it, I just don't want to do it. Unless that is, I am allowed to shoot some neighborhood cats or my next door neighbors dog. Fishing is all right, but it is not something I am passionate about. I don't watch fishing or hunting shows on TV either. I also don't love to mow my yard. I do it because it needs to be done, and I can't seem to get Dana to do it, but I don't love it. I really could care less if my grass is Bermuda or crab. In fact I really don't know the difference. My only goal with my yard is not to be noticed. I don't want people going by saying look at that house, that yard looks like trash, and I don't want them looking saying he has the best yard on the street! If I have the best yard, then I have to keep up the standard, and I don't want to put that much into it. I'm not into trucks, and I don't have an opinion on the whole Ford verses Chevy debate. I don't work on cars, and I could care less if yours can go faster then mine. The only thing that I am really worried about when it comes to my car is if it works, and how good of gas mileage it gets. I don't love the hogs, and I really don't fallow any college sports at all. If I root for any college team it's going to be ASU because I graduated from there. So there are times when the guys are standing around talking about stuff, and I just don't have anything to say, well nothing intelligent anyway. I'm OK with that, I don't feel like I have to be a part of every conversation, and I don't feel like I have to know more then the next guy about everything. What I am not OK with is people thinking I am some sort of cry baby that complains all the time. So I am purposing to do better at it. I am going to not talk as much about stuff I don't like. I thought I was just voicing my opinion on things, but I guess it is not being perceived that way, and I can't change the way people perceive things. The only thing I can change is me. It's so frustrating when we try and change other people like our friends or our spouse, when all God wants us to do is to work on ourselves, sometimes I forget that, and it's good to be reminded.