Halloween and Home Made Costumes

My sons dressed as Jedi's for Halloween.  They asked that Heather dress as Princess Leia and I dress as Darth Vader.  We are not a family to drop lots of cash on a costume, so Heather made me a homemade costume.  It was a black long sleeve tee with a print out of the Vader's computerized chest, Crayon boxes with printed out designs as his belt (which fit on my own belt) and a black curtain pinned to my shoulders.   The costume looked great, but some old self esteem stuff came to the surface.  I was really worried as she planned the costume that I would look stupid.  I reiterate, it looked really good.  I did look like Fat Vader instead of Darth Vader, but that was not the costume's fault.

The stress over the homemade costume brought back a memory from my childhood.  I remember wanting to be Frankenstein for Halloween.  I began to create the costume by using two cardboard boxes.  One for my head and one for my body.  Before school, I designed the boxes with scars, scary eyes, and a angry mouth.  When I got home that afternoon Mom had altered the head.  In the few hours I was at school my Frankenstein had become a bit less angry.  He had bright round eyes and a big smile.  I tried to convert my Frankenstein into a robot, but in the end I gave up and wore some of my Dad's old Army stuff.

Sorry, Mom.  I'm sure it looked wonderful.  I was (am) a jerk sometimes.

Youth Ministry Stories #7 (Joey vs Mickey Trexler)

The Nature Boy, Rick Flair.

Mickey is the up top in the right, wearing
sunglasses in a blue jacket.

My first summer as a full-time head youth director was in 1995.  I was working at First Baptist Church in North Myrtle Beach, SC.  We took about 20 students to Summersalt (a summer youth bible camp).  The boys were staying in two hotel room which were side to side and connected by an adjoining door.


Mickey Trexler was one of the middle school boys who were on the trip.  Mickey was standing in the opening of the adjoining door with his shirt off, flexing.  All of us in both rooms were begging him to cut it out.  After a long time of pleading with him to put his shirt, on some of the middle school boys were getting really mad and tempers were on the rise.  I realized I needed to put an end to what would end up as a fight.  I walked over and stood beside the shirtless and flexing Mickey.
"Hey everybody," I yelled.  "Wanna see my Rick Flair impression?"
Chuckles and "Yeah" from the boys.
"WOOO!" I shouted loudly, and then immediately backhanded Mickey in the chest hard enough to leave a red hand print on his chest, one that was discernible 5 days later.


Was it stupid...yes.
Was it mean...yes.
Was it an inappropriate way to handle it...yes.
Would I ever do it again...no.

Was it funny...ABSOLUTELY!!!

My Birthday wish list

My birthday is November 2nd.  That's next Tuesday, and I know you all are wondering what to buy me.  Below is my birthday wish list.  This should help you with your shopping

A Yoda back pack

$39.95

http://www.coolstuffexpress.com/Yoda-Backpack.html?feed=Froogle

The Chillow

$29.95

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/chillow.html

A rubber band Gatling gun 

$499.00

http://www.slashgear.com/rubber-band-gatling-gun-costs-499-13101956/

TV visor glasses

$22.49

http://www.smarthome.com/6340/SKM-industries-9403-Khaki-TV-Visor/p.aspx

Wrestlemania Tickets ground level

$225-$300

Star Wars Pancake molds

$19.99

An isomething (ipad, iphone, or macbook pro)

$200 or $499 or $1799

How about all three

$2498

Nolan's prayer

Nolan asked to pray at dinner last night.  This is Nolan's prayer.

Dear God,
Thank you for the salt, and the pepper, and the chicken, thank you for the the ketchup, and the water, and the rice, (then he looked at the corn), and thank you for this yucky food I don't like.
Amen

Nolan answers the question...Why did the dog sneeze?

My children notice that I am a ham, a showoff, and that I am always trying to get the laugh.  Now my children are trying to mimic me.  They have learned the basics of the "why did the chicken cross the road" joke.  During most of my car rides, the boys take turns telling jokes in what they call the "Jokes Game."

Why did the man eat an orange?
Because he likes oranges?
(Hysterical laughter from all three boys.)

Why did the dog cross the road?
Because no cars were coming?
(Hysterical laughter from all three boys.)

These joke telling sessions go on forever.  They tell joke after joke after joke.  My 2-year old Levi even gets into it even though I can't understand anything he says.  James and Nolan understand enough that they think Levi is the funniest of the three of them.

Why did *gibberish gibberish gibberish*?
To *gibberish gibberish gibberish.* hahahaha.
(Hysterical laughter from the other two boys.)

Eventually one boy will begin to digress, and he will slip in the word "poopie."  Soon it is out of control.

Why did the poopie cross the road?
because he was lost?
(Hysterical laughter from all three boys.)

What did the poopie have for dinner?
Poopie?
(Hysterical laughter from all three boys.)

Poopie, poopie, poopie, poopie?
Poopie!!!!
(Hysterical laughter from all three boys.)

This is about where I break up the joke telling session.

This morning Nolan told me a joke, and I have laughed all day about it.  I consider this Nolan's first real joke:

Why did the dog sneeze?
I don't know, Nolan.  Why did the dog sneeze?
Because it was stupid.