Mmmm hmmm.

Hey You! I'm into Jesus! anyways, its been a while since i've been on this here blog mcdeal, I feel like i write the most though, hopefully joe will get back into it. Maybe once he goes to africa, he'll blog and let us know how things are going in the DRC YO! what what???

I feel so blessed by these last twenty four hours of my life, maybe even 48 or 72. The weather has been superb today, but let me tell you why I feel so blessed by these last few days.... On thurday night my house + pat took out took out the beautiful women of Ironbark for a valentines day dinner in beautiful cambria. It was neat because we put all our names in a hat and had the girls grab our names out of it and whoever they drew was their date. It was a fun night with good food, good company (especially my date!! This is a shout out to Jen, represent!) and good... stars. The stars were amazing and have been amazing the last two nights. On the drive back we pulled over on the one and got out of the cars. We were surrounded, nay, engulfed by the little balls of flames. It had been a long time since i had seen so many. We even saw a shooting star. After that we went back to their house and had chocolate covered strawberries and relaxed. So, with that the weekend had a great start!!

On fridizzle me and Joe slept in till pretty late, and just relaxed all day until about 4:30 when we were joined by allison and keely (and later jen and angela) for a little bbq action. I had some sausages, joe had some pork chops and K and A had some chicken... it was all good. After that I went to the poly game with A and K and saw them win, final score 10-1. Can i get a booya? Anyways, I went back home and then joe got off work, joe mo came back, and we all went on our roof to look at the stars again. I feel like stars will always remind me of how powerful the Lord is. and how insignificant I am, yet God still loves me and wants to know me on a personal level. So amazing.... I feel like the best place to view the stars would be on a sail boat in the middle of the ocean, with no land or lights in sight. There would be sooo many, I can only imagine how glorious that would look. I can just feel the warm wind blowing through my hair and hear the soft sound to the water lapping against the hull of my boat... Someday....someday.

Today we started off with some bible study action with the boys, and then Joe, Joe, and I went to the beach. We laid out, played football, built a pretty weak sandcastle, and went swimming in the friggid waters. It felt so good none the less, The weather today was pretty much perfect, mid 80's, a light warm breeze = blessing for mid february. After the beach we bbqed up some more meat and after eating we relaxed on our abundant couches and read while listening to great music. the book I'm reading called, "cruisng in seraffyn" is one of sweetest books i have ever read. I am greatful to jen who has let me borrow it.

Meanwhile Keith is San Jose running sound for the epic conference... i wish you were here Split Pea, I wish you were here...

So... I have a group project to do at 6 o clock. I wish I could just stay here and relax for hours, but work has to be done, hopefully the project wont be incredibly dull, I feel like that can't damper the mood I have been in the last few days. I feel like i've been incredibly blessed with every little thing. I am so greatful that the Lord has put so many great people in my life. I love you all. I wish my dad the best of luck doing taxes while my mom is going to a james taylor concert with her friends. Mom, you need to cook dad a worthy meal. hahahahahahaha. Just kidding. Churchin it in the morning tomorrow fo sho, then maybe a little beach action if its still warm, then a little dirt bike action, then some photo action. Its going to be hard to get school work done tomorrow. Oh well. God is good, he blesses richly! If you need proof just look at the stars.... May you all have a truely wonderful evening, enjoy the short time that we have on this earth, don't let the stresses of this life bring you down. Be blessed!
-M

Tin men

We at the heart, have been experiencing great new activities this quater. As we have just finished up week four at poly we decided that we needed to add another great activity to make our lives that much more fun. Tonight I got to go on my first bike night of my college career. What bike night consists of is a lot of people all collecting on the first thursday night at the mission downtown. From there the hundreds of bikers proceed to stop traffic completely and make a few laps around the heart of downtown. It was quite the exciting night. There were costumes that stretched the spectrum of your costume imagination. So tonight the theme was tin foil. So to join in with the others we fashioned some pretty sweet tin foil hats. To included in some of these amazing hats Bruiser had an amazing indian head dress, and there were other just look at the picture. As well as some pretty sweet hats and costumes there were a few bikers with stereos to play some sweet 80's rock. All in all bike night was great fun. In other news, school is going way fast and I don't even consider myself having midterms any more because I have tests every week so there is no way they could be any sort of "midterm". Anyway, tea at the heart is going great and so is life.
Until next time-Keith

If sails could talk...

Its friday night, I should be at the stunna shades party but I just don't feel it. I'd rather be sitting on a comfortable couch, listening to good ol, Chris Thile, (everybody, look into this guy. Hes amazing. Its some sweet folk and blue grass music.) There is a warm brown blanket sitting in the corner all alone by itself; I better go give it some company. (oh man this music is bliss) Talk about comfort, my tea is steaming, the music's soothing, the lighting is just right, its cold outside but inside the blanket feels like heaven. I enjoy this. I fear that this blog may be incredibly long because I could sit here in this situation for hours. I think that going out and partying it up and being social all the time is so very over rated. But maybe this is because I have the option of goind to a party that I feel this way. What if I had no outlet to do anything social at all? Would I still value this time or would I be wishing that I could get out and go to parties? I don't really know. All i know right now is that this right here is better than most things. I say most things because there are somethings in life that are better than this... maybe i'll list them off...
1) Praising the God in Heaven is better than this...
2) Being loved by my family is better than this...
3) Swinging in a hammock at night in hawaii when the stars are out and a tropical breeze is brushing against your skin is better than this...
4) Living in Hobbiton is probably better than this...
5) I'm almost certain that sailing to an unknown island in the tropics with crystal clear water lapping against the side of the boat and the sails full of the light air is better than this....
6) Relaxing on the lake after a session of epic waterskiing and wakeboarding is better this...
the list could go on...
hmmmm, do you know what I just did? I just used some form of psychology on myself to realize what I really enjoy in this life. If what i'm doing right now is one of my favorite things, then the things that are better than this must be amazing. If you want to realize what is amazing in your life all you have to do is think about something that you really enjoy doing and then think of all the things that are better than that. neat!
I feel like writing is great therapy. you can find out some things that are hidden deep down in the unconscous self when you write. especially when you write about whatever in on your mind. I think a little bit of blogging is good for everyone and I would encourage people to hop on the band wagon. even if nobody ever reads what you have to say, there is something therapuetic about getting things out.
I just erased a whole chunk of my blog. I realized that this is too long. So I am stopping. Right.... now... Okay, for reals, I'm stoppiing. I'm done. I done writing... why are you still reading this... are you still reading this because there are words here for you too read?? I think soooo, get some self control and stop reading. Just because there are words here it doesn't mean that you have to read them. Please stop reading. I'm seriously done. all dunskis. done and doneskis. okay. seriously all done. done now. do me a favor... if you stopped reading up there let me know by leaving a comment. (its a trap) okay. I'm done.
-M
(for reals I'm done)

Breakfast In the Heart

No, I we are not shoving breakfast into someone's chest. We decided to have breakfast this morning. Keith, obviously, is making it and it smells delicious. You should all be jealous of our potato/onion/egg delight we get to have.

This quarter has turned out to be more work than I expected and that was just trying to get the classes. Now that I have the classes, most I need but Improv. Theater I do not, I can just try to get use to my new schedule. Working, hopefully, three days a week, crusade, bible studies, hanging out...still don't know when any of this is going to happen but that is okay by me.

Tine came!!! I loved having her here and while she was here Pete, Steve, Lisi, Sofie, Jose, and Steph Lai, all came. It was weird but great to see all of the Ocean city crew and even stranger to constantly hang out with Cal Poly Ocean city people because I love all of them but we don't all hang out like that a lot. I mean, i see all of them quite often but we never just all get to hang out. It was great to have everyone here. Tine left yesterday. That was sad but I know that she has been called to Minnesota which is okay. I know I will see her again and I can't wait for that day. Till then, I have three letters I get to mail her. Tine, here they come!

I also know that I was suppose to write on here about 2 months ago. I was suppose to add a lot of the exciting things the Heart/myself have been doing. Well, I can't. I can say thanks to Erin for a wonderful birthday surprise. Emily has been a great help with Tea at the heart/her coffee cake (which I love!!!) I don't really think I could mention much else. Except that I turned did turn 21. What a day. I loved being able to hang out with my family on my BIG birthday. Weird though that I never got to celebrate with any of my friends...I don't get to too often because it is the 28th but I have gotten use to the wonderful birthdays my family has for me. I would've liked to have celebrated with my friends but my family was stupendous. This birthday consisted of going to the slopes that ended up being closed, hanging out for the day in Shaver with the fam, sitting in a cabin, playing some games. Going out for dinner but leaving early because it was really cold and we didn't really have a waitress. Going to eat left overs from the night before that turned out horrible but was a great laugh and then just relaxing the rest of the night with a wonderful cake and an AMAZING family.

Life, it can be crazy and one crazy part of my birthday present, which is NOT 100% sure yet but I am really hoping, is a trip to see my parents in Africa!!! I was planning on going over spring break but with that only being about 7 days, it turns out to not be quite long enough. So, instead, I might be going spring quarter! I am excited about this, though I would miss this and my roommates. I have come to love my roommates...most of the time (kidding guys) and so i know that it will be hard to not be around them for an entire quarter. That is the way things have happened but my going this next quarter means that I would be around SLO ALL of next year and I would NOT be graduating early. I am stoked about all options but God knows what will happen. Please be praying for me. I am sure I think you are all great people and I am sure that most of you I do not see enough. Well, I love you and miss you...trust me. Peace on earth and good will toward all men. Here is something our house has somewhat been contemplating this last week or so. "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13

Be encouraged,
Joe C.

A special Guest

Hello dear readers of the Heart of Avalon.
Today's blog comes from me, Erin Bailey (who some might call Grandma), and I am feeling so lucky that I rank high enough to be able to make a special note to the readers. As Matt and I were noticing that Keith and Joe have not blogged in the recent past, we thought we would fill the void with a lovely, little, special note. School has begun and though I have seen less of the Heart of Avalon, I have enjoyed some special visits in the UU with them. Starting school always changes the routine, but it is a sweet time to go home and then reunite with friends here in SLO.....and it is always nice to come back to SLO and realize that you have really come to a place you've made your home.
I was thinking as I read the blog that I hope that we, as readers of Avalon, are able to take this time to sit back and thank the boys for giving us little tidbits of joy to read occassionally here on the blog. They are a heartfelt and genuine crew and we are lucky to know them. So friends, here is a little note to hold on to that I read from this morning:
"Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling......Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." -Psalm 2:10, 12
Enjoy your day, Erin Bailey

Joe's Birthday!

Yes indeed fair avalon readers... it is joes day of birth today, but he's out in the boondocks somewhere for a while with his family. I just thought that it is important to signify this important day. of course, he's still going to recieve the birthday beat down when he gets back. Alright. Here is a picture for him. Happy Birthday JOE!!

Anyway, things are all quiet on the western front. Not alot of hub bub and todosies but it's great. I am completely enjoying break. Alright.

The question is... How are you doing today? Good? Good!, (if not good, then I hope your day gets better.)

-M

Merry Christmas

We wish all of friends and family a Merry Merry Christmas from the Heart of Avalon to all of your homes. Let today be a time where you can enjoy your families company and rest in the fact that Christ was born today. So we are on break and it has been amazing. As Bruiser wrote earlier we have been having a great time in Santa Rosa with many friends coming over to visit and some mad recording going down. There was also an exciting event consisting of a raccoon and some rakes and my garage. Anyway it was a little messy but the result was the raccoon vacated the garage. It was intense. So this is short but that's ok. Have a Merry Christmas and don't forget to wish Joe a happy birthday on friday the 28th.
-Until next time-Keith

Home again home again...

Ellow, all you avid avalon readers. thanks for tuning in. Joe Cabalka still hasn't posted so I decided to go ahead of him on this one. As you all know the quarter is done for all those at Cal Poly, unfortunately cuesta is still in session. An apology to Joe mo and evan, poor chaps, they are taking finals while I am sleeping in till ten and doing absolutely nothing except relaxing all day. Sooooo, you might be asking yourselves, what do college kids do in the off time? That is a great question. Lets see, Keith is busy recording with Pat and Danny of the Pat Little Band, Joe C. is most likely hanging out and cherishing time with his family from Africa at the lovely beach house. I...Matt, have been keeping busy hanging out with old friends, creating the "Brotherhood" (just ask for details) and shopping for various things. Its great not to have to worry about tests and homework and class. In the mean time I am still dreaming about sailing off into the vast horizon. Oh yeah, the shaka steak house was a wonderful time of friends and food and some basketball... the santa rosa crew cleaned house. What what?? All those who attend were Keith, the master cheif, his bro mike and wife, a musical genious name Patrick Little, a stud muffin named Danny Kim, and some lovely ladies by the names of Brianne , Meagan, Bethany, Renee? and Amanda. All in all it was a great time...

Some good news... I didn't fail my Fundamentals of Corporate Finance class... Seriously a miracle from the Lord. That feels like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders and I can stand up straight...

Yesterday I went out and bought a pair of non prescription glasses so I can look smart for class next quarter. My plan is that the professor will see me and my glasses, assume I am smart, and give me a grade accordingly. I'm excited to see how it will work next quarter...

In all seriousness, so far this break has been a great opportunity to take a giant step back from life; to get away from all the distractions that can fog my view of it, such as girls, school, money (or lack thereof)... I am excited to see what the Lord will teach me this break. Sometimes it is easy to fall into a lazy habit of not being in the Word and praying while on break and it is my hope the all the boys from the heart of avalon will be able to press forward in our walks with God; to come back built up and refreshed to take on the next quarter of challenges...

By the way, I love using this... at the end of each paragraph...

Alrioght folks, I wish yee a merry Christmas. Enjoy this random picture...
-M

Christmas, Tea, and Celebrations

I come to all with great apology for not updating you with the events and happenings at the heart of avalon. As you can imagine, this time of year is absolutley crazy. In a few short days we will find out whether or not our last minute studying paid off to get the grade or not. As we look ahead to the coming days we are terrified for the fact that we all have finals starring us down the barrel of the gun. We as men must stand firm and take the hard hit. I'm imagining it to feel somewhat like getting hit by a train.
I don't even know where to begin, so I will start with this past week we had our second Christmas themed tea at the heart. Our guests have really seemed to grasp hold of wednesday night tea time. It has been our pleasure to host tea at the heart this past quarter and we are eagerly awaiting the start of winter quarter to kick off tea at the heart off again. What I have enjoyed a lot these past few weeks is getting to enjoy our family Christmas tree and spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear. Since thanksgiving break we have been blasting the Christmas music and all the wonderful carols. We are all very excited to head home at the end of this week and enjoy our families and the celebrate Christmas holiday, but we also don't want to forget the reason for this season.
This past weekend has been pretty much out of control. I turned 21 yesterday, which was a great thing. To start it off Thursday night; Meagan, Lauren, Alexa, Angela, Bethany, and Jenn made me the coolest cake I have ever seen in my life. It was three layers thick and consisted of a layer of lemon, fun-fetti, and chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure that it was about 20lbs. After having some amazing cake I headed over to Carley's house and got the festivities started. We ventured downtown to bring in the 21st with style. I was able to enjoy several different types of drinks, some were good and others I don't even want to think about ever again. So I stumbled home at the wee hours of the night and was woken up early by pat and was taken over to Meagan's house for another great meal and a full awesome breakfast. After eating to our hearts content, we went and played some football and took way too many pictures with Buddy, my new camera. That evening my bro and his new awesome wife come to visit and again we hit the bars. After being at the bars for quite some time I realized there are really gross drinks out there. I don't know what i'm writing about anymore. Have a great week.
Until next time-Keith

Sorry Folks

Keith needs to post a blog because it has been his turn to blog for about two weeks and he's being really lazy about it... I think to myself... All these people, hundreds of people who are so dependent on our lives and what we do, who care sooo much that they are just on the edge of their seats waiting to see what will happen next are very dissapointed right now... Don't worry folks, I'll get on it. Keith will blog, then Joe will blog, then it will be my turn again, if not, then I'll keep on blogging, and it will be called the heart of Matt. So, faithful readers, all one hundred thousand million of you, don't you worry, more blogs and pictures will come soon. If not, then you can punch me in the face. ahahahahahahahahahahaha. Okay, peace outty. Look at this picture of me dancing.

-M

All Dunskis...

Whose face looks the most rediculous? When saw these four pictures I was cracking up. They are all great. Here they are for your enjoyment.





















































































I'm pretty sure that's all I have to say for the day. Happy weekend of thanks!!! -From M and the rest of the Heart. PEACE!!

Christmas, Comfort, and Uncomfort

Alright wonderful readers, here is life at the heart. We have now decreed that it is perfectly legal to listen to Christmas music starting today! This is great for us because it always makes life more livable if you are allowed to listen to this kind of music. It is bad because this process is preparing me for something that is still over a month off! I have to wait for my family to come, which they come in less than/about a month, but this only makes me think it is soon than later. I cannot wait for Christmas and have been loving the music but it is still hard, i know you understand me.

Now, some things that have taken place since our last post. We have been each individually ostracized since the revealing of the car washing pictures. I know that the short shorts are short and that it may be gross for some and amazing for others. Please understand that we had this event to be funny and not to have others make fun of us. We really didn't do it for anyone else but i feel as though others have turned their back on us. I will now move on.

The best parts of this last week probably was when Keith, Matt, Evan, and myself all played hearts listening to Christmas music (yes we cheated and listened early) and had a fire smoking out the house in glory! It was great and very comfortable. Sitting in front of the fire and just hanging out was just what I needed that night.

This last wednesday at tea at the Heart we had an amazing time. There were about thirty people there, all enjoying themselves and no one feeling as though there needed to be structure. I love the feeling of no need for structure. For some reason, the way I would continually describe this week is both comfort and uncomfort.

Though this week did have many comfotable moments, it always must include uncomfortable moments. I continue to learn about others, life, and myself as I go through each week. It is the uncomfortable that does this. It is the hard and mean or mad or sad or boring situations that are when I seem to learn the most. So why would I want these to stop. Though they are hard and can be miserable to live through, I am sure that God knows the reasons for uncomfortableness. May I forever live in both comfort of God's promises but uncomfort of everthing else that I may become whom Christ desires me to become.

I gotta go be uncomfortable and define Hinduism for the world in a six page paper. I'm Out,
Joe C.

A tribute...

Over the past few hours between Bruiser, Hangman, and I our gmail notifiers have been going off the hook. I'm not kidding, if our inboxes were phones I doubt that we would have even had time to tend to the necessities of life this evening. We all are very popular but not to the extent to warrent the amounts of emails we received tonight. After the men of avalon convened for a strategic meeting we came to the conculsion that we might know what the cause is for all of the ridiculous amounts of emails. We discovered it was our from most recent amazing facebook album. When making this ablum we, the men of Avalon, had no idea what great amounts of controversy this would spark.
This afternoon Hangman, Bruiser, and I decided that since our cars had been written on and decorated by some lovely ladies (not going to name any names, Trisha & Brynn) they were due for a nice wash. Everyone knows that washing your car is not always the most fun thing to do with your valuable free time. I totally agree with my own statement. On a Sunday afternoon I would much rather take a nap than go get wet and wash my car. So it was impeccable that we somehow spiced up our car washing adventure. As all of our regular readers know, when the boys of avalon adventure we don't just do something fun we do something ridiculously fun and over the top stupid.
Today we hit an all time high on the absurd scale. Hangman and Bruiser decided that it would be great to wear crazy tight and short shorts without our shirts on, just like our fathers use to wear. It was at that point we headed to our driveway in all our white thigh glory. Looking back on this epic event, everyone worked really hard to clean the cars and it was just a great overall collaborative team effort in topless car washing. As a team we experienced some great victories such as washing three cars in under an hour and a few set backs. There was a car that drove by and yelled "you're gay," we took it kind of rough until we realized that the guy in the car had driven bye four times in about five minutes prior to him yelling his derogatory comments. We all kind of wonder what side of the road that guy drives his car.
So back to the beginning, with the massive amounts of emails. We made by far the most amazing Facebook album known to facebook itself but I think that it wasn't appreciated for it's intended time period. We at the heart, were just trying to portray the way our parents would have washed their cars at our age. Since posting our authentic pictures online we have received a very mixed review from our various viewers, ranging from death threats to encouraging notes. At this point we are going through an emotional rollercoaster with so many different emotions all at once. The only way for us to get through this time is to jump in our nicely cleaned cars and glide through the air.
Get excited in less than seven days our house will begin listening to Christmas music. We sit on the edge of our seat eagerly awaiting the day.
Until next time-Keith

The Dialogue of a Bum and Robot

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg, I'm a bum! a bumski bum bum with some fellers dancin up on my binski."



"Dude thats wack, check me out, I'm a robot, and I'm all up in the place."



"Mahhhh see? arrrh, I've got my pipe, see, I've got some trash! its mine! ALL MINE, IT'S MY RUBBISH. You can't have my filth sunny. I've also got this trash man to move me around the place. it works out pretty well... Why don't you just go to the moon and let me be. "



"Been there done that shizzle. Its boring there. I've been alot places. You know, like the zoo, the dunes, pipeline, you know, like pretty much most places. Why don't you ever leave your bin? You aint go no legs? Yous a chicken. a big fat Chicken!"



"I'm a BUM, But I just got meees some chiggin. Looks mighty fine. Chicken right on top of my head. yep, thats what I like, some chicken on my head. And I guess my arms kind of turned into some drumsticks. thats weird..."



Yeah, well, I, uhhhhh, I gotta go... now. soooo, don't uhhh, don't ummm, be sure to get the chick- I mean, well, okay, Thats a chicken on your head. I mean, you might want to get those arms checked out. This is my turkey. I'm going, and thats my turkey, and you have a chicken on your head. Later Bumski!"



"Later Roboto Man! I'm out as well... Trash man, come take my bin away! yeah, thats the way we roll, PEACE"

We have a Problem

Alright, so here is my problem. I haven't written on this thing in WAY too long. What am I doing??? I am very sorry to all of our avid readers (that is like 2 people, my roommates) but I hope to do better now that i have much I can say...so this might be long.

First, our tea at the Heart has been amazing but I must make a change to the previous post. Both Erin Bailey and Emily Mentink were founders of the tea at the Heart wednesday nights. They actually were there before both keith and I, though we joined later that night. We do enjoy our tea times and think they are stupendous. We have them every week after crusade. They are most delightful and I believe that in weeks to come we shall see an amazing growth in both attendence and spectacularness of this event.

Second, I really like lists so i shall try to make this a REALLY long list.

Third, I am sick. Do NOT fear my glorious friends and family. I have gone to the health center and shall be getting better shortly but I had never had a pressure head ache until I got a sinus infection, not a fun experience.

Fourth, Work is work but now i must work a little more because one of the hostess quit. I must cover her shift in order to be someone's hero. You know, i do what I can!

Fifth, A wonderful weekend here at the heart because of some amazing moments that have taken place. A nice game of softball was played that I couldn't take part of but I heard it was great. Unbelieveable reading of scripture while having live guitar in the background put all Matt, Evan, and my own heart in a state of peace and pure joy mutiple times during this weekend. I have come to enjoy another form of worship. This I hope to spread to everyone I know. Which brings me to my next point.

Sixth, I hope, more than anyone else in my house and if i am the only one setting it
up i am okay with that but, to set up a night of worship taking place within our house. I want others to experience freedom of different forms of worship. I think it is going to be amazing and i don't know how many people come but if it is only me and one other person i will be very happy, though with many it may be even more amazing but God can do big things with just a few (those that choose not to come will just miss out on what God might have had for them here at the Heart).

Seventh, I told you I like to make lists!

Eighth, I have decided to shower soon so I cannot continue my list making for all of eternity. I miss my family but am excited for their trip to South Africa and hope that those here in the US will be praying for them and the country, that it can figure things out in a safe way.

That is all I have for you all, now a shower and maybe I will read for class tonight or go see my nephew, though I can't get close since I am sick.
I'm Out
-Joe C.

Tea Time

To start off I want to apologize for not posting so often. I think that it might be a result of school really starting to kick into gear, and what I mean by gear is not 3rd or 4th but about 8th and then all of a sudden into reverse. You might think that a car can't go from 8th gear to reverse, at least I did, and then I opened the door to week 5 and 6 of school and well we went from 8th gear to reverse. It's a pretty crazy time right now on campus. We have reached the time of the quarter where so much is happening that it is hard to capture it in words so I'm going to do my best to describe a few things that have occured this past week.
Last weekend was Fall Retreat 06 at Hume Lake which was an amazing experience. I'm not even sure how to begin to describe it other than mind blowing, way to quick, and a sweet time with the broski's. For me, fall retreat started thursday night when our band began our marathon practice which set the stage for the weekend. We practice in the dungeon for 5 hours and for some reason it didn't seem that long. In fact it was awesome for me cause while we were practice we were all able to worship freely and enjoy God's presence. About 3 hours after practice we woke up again and left for the mountains. Our car ride was full of dinosour fruit snacks, teddy grams, and red bull. On the way up we attempted to play catch with the teddy grams between cars. Instead of catching the teddy's the hit Lissa's windshield. Let me tell you it was a teddy gram blood bath on her windshield. It was just like bugs getting splattered all over the windshield except they were poor little teddy's. As far as the weekend itself, I had a great time just enjoying God's creation and being in His presences. I also had the best worship experience of my life, and that might have been because we woke up morning at 6 to practice. If you want to know more about the weekend just ask or I could just write forever, but it was great.
Tea at the heart has become a weekly occurance that is a tradition we would like to continue for months to come. It has become one of my favorite parts of the week. Tea at the heart is wednesday nights after crusade when we have tea, cookies, and usually a great discussion question. The weekly regulars usually include; bruiser, hangman, lefty, splitpea, and patch. There are a variety of others who add to our great night. Tea at the heart is truely a sophisticated event for tea is involved. This last week we had a special guest and live music by our very own Patch, aka pat little. Come join us next week and who knows what could happen. Enjoy the great weekend.
Until next time-Keith

Fall Retreat

My oh my, it was a great weekend for us here at the Heart of Avalon. Split Pea (Keith), Hangman (Joe), and I, bruiser, all embarked friday to a land where the air is crisp in the skies are clear. A land where freedom rings and waves of grain flow. A land of milk and honey, also known as Hume Lake. It was absolutely beautiful up there, the weather was perfect (but brisk) and the people were great. It was our fall retreat for Campus Crusade. I can't really describe how great it was... but I'm telling yee, 'twas... great. It was a sweet time of learning, fellowship, and relaxation. Way too much stuff went down to capture in this blog. Here as an exagerated story of the highlight of the weekend... for me anyways... It all started and the eve of october the 27th...
The winds were howling and the skies were dark with malicious clouds threatening to pour down torrents of droplets. Such droplets that bring chills to the most manly of men. The retreaters were bundled inside the lodge, hoping... nay, praying that the weather might relent. But alas, the lumbering clouds grew more feirce. All but one cowered in deathly fright... This one man went out into the barbaric elements, he fought the feverish winds and gusty gails until he reached the lake; the source of such malicious weather...
The man sat still and listened to the chaos around him. In the midst of such turmoil he heard a calling, a calling from the lake... it said, "please, please sir, let my waters sooth and calm you. Let my ripples lap against the side of your boat while you bask under the sun. Let me..." WHOOOOOOSH, CRACK! A tree branch had hit our hero in the head rendering him dead.
The winds died that night. The gusts fell flat into a lull. The retreaters were relieved and able to enjoy the rest of the weekend without a cloud in the sky. Some say that the clouds were satisfied with the lone man and left. Some say that they left too soon, because the man fought. But little do they know that it was not the man who fought but the desire in his heart to explore the unkown lake that allowed him to live.
The next morning warmth was beating down upon his body as he genly awoke to the light of day. He had no recolection of what had occured the night before, but deep inside him he had a miniscule notion to embark upon the lake and explore the uncharted lands that lay beyond its shores. So he went forth; he set his sights on the distant shore and rowed. He left with no intentions to return. He went...

Actually that didn't happen, but me and my safety officer Joe, and some friends (the wonderful Erin Bailey and fabulous Karen Loperena) took a row boat out on the lake, and it was great. Nothing like the story, but it was great. here is a cool verse... "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you." Hosea 10:12. I've been pondering that one all weekend.
Sorry for the stupid story. -M

gloves, pugs, and cake.

So right now i am typing with gloves on. Very difficult. They are Matts new gloves he got for his dirt bike and such. I am slowly learning how to type with them on. Now i am not. It will go faster this way. So this last week was a long one. With three midterms yesterday and work all week, I am exhausted. We had a pug come visit, Shnooks. It was great, he just ran around the house and was like a fat baby when you picked him up. We also had a birthday. Joe Morgan's birthday was on monday so we went to dinner. WE went to Tahoe Joes and it was grand. Now, all week we have had more cake, cookies and wonderful brownies that I can't handle it. Tought week and I am now off to Fall Retreat, which i am very excited about. be Praying for it. Thanks. Peace,
Joe C.

Fifths

It was going to be another long drive home to Santa Rosa, with moments of complete uselessness and wanting to just pull over in Soledad cause the drive is so boring. But to my surprise Thursday's drive was one of the best in mustang history. I was accompanied by varies guest such as, my very own bruiser, neighbor lindsay, bean, and in our hearts we brought Hangman (Joe C-balk) with us. As every good trip goes, it must begin with Costco. What I believe made our trip such a sterling spoon was the fact that we split up the drive into fifths. Now you are probably thinking that celebrating every sixty miles isn't that interesting, I would agree. Instead, we not only celebrated every sixty miles but we took about 150 pictures documenting every part of the way home and had some sort of snack that as well. On the list of goodies were in-n-out, and of course it was made animal style as should any in-n-out double-double be. Also there was rockstars, which don't taste very good but they get the job done. And going back to my childhood years of t-ball, we had some good old Big League Chew, and sunflower seeds. We made a few random sketchy stops through san francisco which included AT&T Park (giants statium), Hyde street, Lombard street, and the back roads of the hood.
While in santa rosa we did a plethora of activities such as visiting sebastopol, going boating and getting our bronze on, and touring around napa while hanging out with kelli anne. It was a great fun fill weekend with an abundance of great food, and lots of avacado. Overall it was great going home and was so much fun seeing kelli. I've decided that MASH is the answer to all my questions to my future. So to pass some of the time we decided to go back to our juinor high roots and play a few quality games of MASH. To my surprise I ended up with a great life. I marry meagan, we live in a house in colorado and I am a librarian. We have four kids, I drive a bmw m3, as a librarian I apparently make 1.2 million (not bad). Our lovely honeymoon is in jamaica, and we have a white tiger as a pet. I really like the pet. The weird thing is that this is the second time meagan has ended up as being my wife in mash. Maybe it's fate. So matt's bruises are getting better and he is back on his bike. Good to have you back bruiser.
Until next time-Keith

Bling n Ice

I discovered that my ears are still peirced after 2 years my 6 gages being out. I thought that they had long been closed up, but no, I was grossly wrong. So I put some Bling n Ice in my ears. I am now one of THOSE guys... We'll see how long the trend lasts. I'm guessing a couple of days. Anyway, I'm not sure why I wrote that...here is a picture of Bling N Ice...







And now, a poem that I wrote durring micro econ:

I once was walking through the tress
When an eerie feeling fell on me
Amidst the shades of brown and green
I wondered if there was more to see
Than things that have always been
What caused these trees to grow
What made their leaves fall low
Why did they paint a colorful show
Beauty that makes the heart rate slow
Then I doth perhaps to think
And a warmth soothed my heart to wink
Despite my ears and nose of pink
The eerie feeling began to sink
My mind has found the missing link
The what became WHO
The WHO who made my heart anew
The WHO who is as warm as stew
The WHO whose Word is wholly true

The LORD to whom honor is due
-M
ps. please notice the sweet links that are up now, get yourself a pair of moccaisins, and play addicting games. don't forget to see the latest sports news...