This morning I watched Joel Osteen on TV. We serve the God of Breakthroughs! Amen to that!

Worked out on the elliptical treadmill this afternoon at Stone Mountain.

Ran 5 miles.

Went to Staples to make the rest of the copies of the newsletters.

Checked out Barnes and Noble to look at books on Costa Rica. I’m still doing research on the places I want to visit. So far the two towns I really want to go to are Montezuma in the Nicoya penisula and Santa Elena near the Arenal Volcano. I think the planning is almost as fun as the trip!

Ate at Red Robin tonight. Enjoyed a Banzai Burger–had teriyaki and pineapple.

Yum. Last time I was there I posted a picture on this blog or a TV that people sitting on the toilet could watch. Never seen a TV in the floor before!

Working on admin stuff now. I still have three years of Outreach Updates to archive.

Beautiful clouds today.

Cirrus and cumulus forms merging.

Working on the archiving project! Scanning in all the newsletters since 2001 and putting them on line in PDF form.

Also produced the newsletter for next month.

Went to Staples to pick up supplies I need to finish the newsletter.

What exactly is Extra Virgin?

And how does a light pop out?

For the first time in seven years, our family stayed in Stone Mountain rather than going to Texas.

It was a rainy day yesterday, but today was mild.

I sure did miss seeing my parents and brother, but it was fun to spend time with the Doverspike clan!

It was fun to get together! We had delicious food and great company.

We had a gift distribution. K and I tried something different. She’d bought a bunch of tools that were on clearance from Ace Hardware. We put the box in the floor and people got to pick out the tools they wanted.

Seemed to be a popular gift. Seems like so much of the time we get gifts that we really don’t need or want.

While we were there, Debi Doverspike showed me a photo album that my mother in law Nell Doverspike had put together around 1947. I had fun taking pictures of pictures!

Came home to relax and work on admin stuff.

I have my computer hooked up through my TV so I’m able to work with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Sure beats having to sit in a chair for hours.

I enjoyed buying a few things for the the family today.

The stores were super crowded. I hope that’s good news for the economy.

We had fun opening gifts this evening! Not exactly sure why the Cummins’ family always opens gifts on Christmas Eve. Seems like my Mom told me it has something to do with our German ancestors.

Jesus’ birthday tomorrow!

Kathy and I have had a wonderful time together over the last week! We visited our new favorite place: Raccoon Mountain, TN. We stayed at Alpine Lodge.

Weather was mighty cold when we got there!

But over time it turned out to be awesome weather.

We enjoyed spending time at Reflection Riding at the base of Lookout Mountain.

Nature is fantastic!

This afternoon I explored Raccoon Mountain Cave.

Then climbed most of the way up the outside of the mountain!

Kathy was biking. She doesn’t like that cave stuff.

We had a super time, but sure do miss being with my Mom and Dad and brother Jim in Georgetown, TX.

Great to be with MY family!

Beautiful sunset this evening on our way home from TN.

This was in the front yard of the Tellus Science Museum. Great place!

Here are a few of the things I saw that made me stop and really look.

I like shooting geometric shapes with my photography.

Crummy weather today!

Rainy and freezing cold. We were thinking we might go out of town today, but I decided we’ll leave tomorrow. Didn’t want to face all that rainy, Friday driving.

Worked on redoing some audio recordings I made about 20 years ago. I’m trying to get all the connections I need in order to dub something from audio cassette tape (which comes out of the player RCA 2 channel mono) to go into my computer which is a 1/8th mono.

Takes thinking to figure out how to make that happen.

Jesse’s been thinking about his moving to New Hampshire in the Spring. It’s been a dream of his for years. He’s been reading a lot of budgeting and business books. Tough time to start. But there’s never a perfect time.

This afternoon Ashley, Jesse and I went to Azalea Place apartments in Chamblee to host our Christmas party.

We decorated Christmas cookies, sang, I told the Christmas story and we had gifts.

We had a Christmas store where the kids to pick a couple of items off of each table. They had fun. Special thanks to First Baptist Atlanta who helped with the funding for the gifts.

Working on admin stuff.

Hoping for Kathy and I to get out of town for a couple of days.

This morning I saw a Pileated Woodpecker in my yard.

They’re one of my favorite birds. That’s the kind that Woody Woodpecker is based on with the big red crest.

We went by Reboot today to pick up a couple more computers for the missions.

Helped the kids at Azalea. I cleaned up the mission.

Ashley helped Mustak’s mom with her English as a Second Language class.

The kids like the driving game. ATVs.

Jesse’s contact messed up on him today so I drove home.

Busy with Admin work now. I have the Christmas party at Azalea tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that.

Had a fun day today!

We had lunch with Bayo and Ian North as well as John Mark and his wife Cheryl.

And of course Ash and Jesse.

I enjoy getting partners together.

After lunch, we all worked together to set the playground back right side up.

We also repaired the basketball goal at the mission at Huntington Terraces.

I can’t believe how destructive some people are!

Helped the kids with their homework at Azalea.

Did you know that there are 132 islands in Hawaii?

This little boy’s name is Monkeybear. Kids say that’s his “school name,” which means his legal name. I need to see how he spells it.

I bought some games for them to try out on the Xbox. They sure were having fun!

I’m working on another archiving project: all the Whirlwind Missions newsletters in PDF form. I have the newsletters in a text form, but this is the way I originally created them, with color pictures. It’s been fun reading our history. It really has been an amazing trip!

My friends from Nebraska left this afternoon. Fun to have John Mark and Cheryl around.

Jesse had an awful night last night. Didn’t sleep well at all. Threw up three times. Bahd luck. He ate some canelope and felt better.

Ashley came with us today! Yeah! Jesse decided he felt well enough to come with us. Glad about that.

We met up with John Mark and his wife Cheryl this afternoon at FBC Doraville.

I gave him some ideas that might help him back in Nebraska.

Then they came over to help us at Azalea.

I mentioned we had our stuff ripped off from the mission last week. Today we went to Goodwill and I found a nice used TV for $50. Kids were happy about that.

The kids seemed to have a lot of homework. Surprised me.

It’s been super foggy all day long today.

Life in the clouds!