Barack Hussein Obama

WARNING: BOTH OF THESE VIDEOS MAY CONTAIN OFFENSIVE CONTENT FOR VIEWERS UNDER VOTING AGE.

Watch them if you would like to be an educated voter this November.

I call the first one, "Your potential Commander in Chief."

I call the second one, "If only 10% of this is true..."

Bubblewrap!

I feel a little remiss that I haven't posted anything since Monday, but we have been very busy keeping our lives relatively simple this week. The kids are winding down the school year, so that means numerous field trips and non-learning days at school, and I am slowly packing and prepping for our trip to Florida (so the last 2 nights aren't CRAZY). Other than that, Rebekah and I were commenting during our walk last night that our lives are pretty simple and carefree. Tonight we are going to a graduation party for my cousin's son in Mansfield and Jakob is going to his first "sleepover" party with 6 boys from school. This weekend we'll try to get out on the boat once or twice and get a few small projects done around the house.In case you were wondering about the title of this post, click on the above picture and let your obsessive compulsive inner self GO! You KNOW you want to!

Happy Memorial Day!

Today we went to the Ashland Memorial Day parade. The ENTIRE town comes out for the parade. Veterans are really a big deal here in the heartland! There are displays and people marching to represent every war, including the Civil War. People aren't "too busy for the parade," rather, it is a priority to come and honor those who fought for the freedoms we all enjoy. It makes Memorial Day weekend that much more fun and meaningful to us to see the enthusiasm and flags. It may seem like there are way too many pictures (you may be thinking - Come ON, I've seen a parade before), but I think each photo tells a story of its own.

Weekend Fun

On Saturday Mom and Dad Webel came down and we all went on the boat for lunch and an afternoon ride. We all ended up with slight sunburns, but it sure was nice to get out on the boat!
Saturday night Mom and Dad took the kids to Akron to go in the hot tub and have a pizza party dinner while I took my sweetie out for a swanky dinner. After dinner we went for a walk in the "rich neighborhood" in town and gawked at all the mansions that are all going to burn one day, then we watched a cheezeball movie.

After church on Sunday we went and picked up the kiddos from Grandma's Lego paradise and paid a visit to Granny. (A little birdie told me that the kids paid a little visit to my cousin Annette to cheer her day up a little while they were in Akron.)
Tonight we had a walleye fish fry and campfire at Hrubik's. Yum!

Variety is the Spice of Life

What do Amish people, barns, forest paths, baby pine cones, ponds, and llamas have in common? Give up? Well, if you lived in Ashland, Ohio you would be able to answer this question....
Tonight we decided to go on a little hike at one of our favorite hiking spots, a county park just outside of town. As we continually seem to find out, you never know what you're going to find when you go on one of these little excursions...

On the way out of town we passed an Amish family walking down the sidewalk. This really is nothing special or unusual if you live in Ashland, Ohio. In fact, if you lived in Ashland learning how to pass buggies and avoid horse doo doo on the road are things you would need to know how to do to survive!
I was a little snap happy while we hiked (surprise, surprise, I know). Here are a few of the better ones.
Near the end of the hike there is a barn with a bunch of sheep that are pleasant to watch. But there was one very noticeable addition since we were there last year... A LLAMA!!! This one was pretty friendly. When we came up to the fence, it came really close and appeared as though it wanted to kiss us:

Then, when we wouldn't pucker up, it kept on giving us the silly grin you see below, which the kids and I found to be hilarious!
The kids enjoyed the silly grin so much that they tried to duplicate it in the below photo. What do you think? Do they look like little llamas to you???

The Goings On

Lately it seems as though I have been going through my weeks in a whirlwind fashion and there really isn't time to post the "goings on" on this blog. Strange, because I am taking the summer off from MBA classes, so you would think I would have MORE time to share.

At work I am completely swamped. One of my co-workers left the company a few weeks ago so I have been pulling double duty. My desire is to do this with as little complaining as possible and to the best of my ability; I want my superiors to see that I can handle the increased heat in the kitchen with grace and dignity. I don't always fulfill this desire 100%, but it is my desire...

At home I try to dole my time out equally to Rebekah and three little kiddos, but its not like I have a lot of time to "dole" as a working man. That's why we tend to fill our weekends with more of the bigger activities and do small stuff on the weeknights. (For example, last night I helped my gardener wife a little outside, played a little Monopoly with Jakob and did some "personal study time" with him, and went on a walk with my sweetie.)

At church I really am not very involved right now, other than faithfully attending and supporting Rebekah in her many ministries. My family and work (provision) are currently taking all of my time, and I think I really burned myself out running sound at our old church. At some point I would like to get more involved, I'm just not sure I could juggle it right now and do justice to all the balls that would be in the air. One of the best things I have learned (to keep myself sane) has been knowing when to say "no" and when to say "yes."

We are getting ready to have my parents down tomorrow to go on the boat, and the weather looks like it plans on cooperating (yey!). Then Saturday night they are going to Akron "to sleep over at Grandma's" so Rebekah and I can go out for dinner WITHOUT KIDS. Sunday after church we'll head up to Akron to do some visiting and to pick up the kiddos. Monday we'll do our local town Memorial Day parade and maybe go out on the boat if the weather looks good. We're also starting to get ready for our big trip to New Smyrna Beach in June... (insert happy smiley face here...)

75 miles per gallon

If this guy could achieve 75 miles per gallon way back in 1993 by doing a little tinkering in his garage, wouldn't you think engineers at GM or Ford could achieve it as well? I would think it would be an instant top seller, given all the media hype surround $4/gallon gas (soon to be $6/gallon) ...

This Good Day

Today was a very enjoyable day for me. And as such, this is probably going to be a long blog post (warning).

I woke up and my right foot was NOT in pain for the first time in about 4 or 5 months. I'm not really sure what has been wrong with my foot, but it has been very painful to walk on it for several months. Rebekah noticed that it looked swollen and she wrapped it with ice before bed, and I took 4 ibuprofins to boot (pun intended). I can't believe I fell asleep with all that stuff on my foot (I'm a very finicky sleeper), but I did. As I type this the pain is mostly back from beating on the poor thing with my excessive weight all day long, but I'm thinking I may want to do that sleeping with it "on ice" thing a few more times this coming week to see if it might cure it?Our church had a little mini-disaster last summer. We were having a new roof put on and they had completed the shingles on all of the building except the sanctuary. A very unexpected horrific rainstorm came and basically trashed the sanctuary when it was protected by nothing more than tar paper. I wasn't there, but I guess the water was "running down the walls," requiring all the carpet, drywall, and insulation to be ripped out. It has taken almost a year to complete the renovation, and today was our "Celebration Sunday" as we had services in the "meetin' hall" once again.

It was fairly obvious to me that God meant this tragedy for good and purposely placed that storm above our building at just the right moment (kind of like Joseph being sold into slavery). We ended up with a completely remodeled sanctuary with new carpet (it was needing that), a level floor and chairs (more flexible use of the room), extra double doors to the outside for equipment, a fabulous new sound board, new lighting, etc. And the best part is that almost all of it was covered by insurance money for "an act of God."

Act of God??? Ha! I'll say!!!

Anyhow, the singing was just spectacular in the new "meetin' hall" and it was really nice to be back in there today.

Since the day started with a "celebration breakfast" at church and Jakob had 2 hours of puppet team practice after services, we decided to all stay at the church until 3pm, "AC Style." But in completely "non-AC style," we purposely brought a deck of cards and played Euchre with another couple whose child was also in puppets for the afternoon. I really hope playing cards isn't against Scripture somehow, because we were doing it right in the building.... Gasp!!!

On the way home from church I just had to stop the car and take a few pictures of the beautiful sky. It has been raining for so many days here that the clear blue sky was a beautiful sight. Jakob wanted to know what was "so fabulous" about the sky, and I told him "God made it, that's what." I really enjoy the drive to and from church because our church is out in farm country, and I'm a nature geek I guess.
Really, the sky was pretty amazing all day long, even later in the day when gray rain clouds were threatening. Even though we live in the city, our backyard is extended by virtue of the way it is positioned with respect to many other backyards, and we live at the top of a large hill. When you look out our back windows it almost looks like you are really in the country, with the green grass, multi-colored trees, and that SKY....
We live a few blocks away from the Ashland County Fairgrounds. It seems like there is always something going on over there in the summer, but we never really pay much attention to it. Every so often we can hear an auctioneer auctioning off some sort of livestock, and once or twice a year we can hear dirt bike races in the stadium. Jakob and I passed it on the way home from church and saw some people riding horses, so I decided to go home and grab the family and go back to see the horses. (Ilona just loves horses.) We got to the fairgrounds and parked the car and started wandering around looking at the horses, then we heard an announcer and decided to go in and check out whatever was going on inside (no admission charge!)
Lo and behold, we walked into a little slice of Americana...a small town horse show! It was kind of fun to watch the horses and riders in their get-ups trotting around the stadium as the announcer told them to canter, walk, trot, reverse direction, etc. Kind of like those dog shows on ESPN2. Auntie Michelle and Cousin Rachel would have LOVED it!
We watched 3 or 4 classes of horses and riders before we left and enjoyed every minute of it. We truly are blessed to have moved out of the hustle and bustle of the "big city" to a place where we can expose our kids (ok, and ourselves) to such a variety of activities. I'm going to have to keep an eye on the schedule over at the fairgrounds to see what other nuggets of enjoyment are coming up right in our backyard (almost literally!)
After dinner we rounded out the day with a "long" family bike ride (ie, out of our development and into the next). Its really cute to watch Jesslyn learning to ride with 2 wheels on her little purple bike, wobbling around like a newborn horse finding its legs. The last of our children to learn to ride (sigh...).

This Good Day, by Fernando Ortega

Morning sun and morning glories
Pouring down the hill,
Through my window
I can feel the ocean breeze.

Noisy sparrows fill the oak trees
Swallows can't stay still,
And in the glad commotion
Lord, You speak to me

Chorus:
If the rain clouds come
Or the cold winds blow,
You're the one who goes before me
And in my heart I know

This good day
It is a gift from You.
The world is turning in its place
because You made it to.
I lift my voice
To sing a song of praise
On this good day.

I will walk to Woodman's Cove,
The fishing boats are leaving,
Seagulls follow just above the water.

I will wait until the sunset
Brings them home again,
Rigging lines and anchors in the harbor.

repeat chorus

Friday night we took the kids to see National Treasure 2 at the $2 theater in Mansfield. This isn't the norm for our family (its only the 3rd movie our kids have seen on the big screen), but it was a nice change of pace. The movie was pretty good, lots of action, pretty "clean," etc. Maybe a tad too much suspense for our sheltered 6 yr old, but really not any worse than Narnia was. I think the big screen made it more suspenseful for them than it really was. Anyhow, if you're looking to be entertained and can throw away your logical inclinations (several occurances in the flick did not compute in my engineering mind), the movie was a fairly good "escape."

One other note... The previews advertised The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian. It looks to be every bit as good as the first Narnia was, especially if you are a fan of this C.S. Lewis series.

Redneck Seafood Dinner

You know you're a cheapwad if...

McDonald's is running a special today. If you buy a medium Coke you get a free Southern Style Chicken sandwich. Apparently this is a blatant attempt to take on Chick-fil-A. Anyhow, we decided that this would be a pretty cheap way to get dinner, so tonight the family went to McDonald's to eat. We ordered 5 medium sized Cokes and got 5 free chicken sandwiches. So far, so good. Thats when the humor began...

Our kids looked at us really strange when we handed them the medium sized cups and told them to go pick out what kind of pop they wanted from the machine. You see, normally we order something from the dollar menu for the kids and they get a small sized water, and they have been conditioned to understand that this is cheaper and healthier for them than pop. They were further confused by the fact that everybody got the same sandwich, and that they all came in "adult" packaging (Big Mac style boxes instead of the normal $1 double cheeseburger wrapping).

Jakob kept asking me if I had used a coupon, and I told him "no." Ilona kept asking why we paid for pop for all the kids, and why we didn't just get small sized pops because they could get all the refills they wanted for free from the machine, and because Jesslyn would never be able to finish that much pop anyway. When Jakob finished his sandwich and told me he was still hungry, he was further confused when I went back up to the counter and promptly brought him back ANOTHER medium sized Coke and chicken sandwich.

The protests were classic. "But Dad, you're wasting money! Webels don't DO that!" I don't need TWO pops! (At least this didn't happen to us!)

It was probably funnier to us in person than it sounds here. I guess you had to be there...

Star Wars

Q: What do you call a bad guy in Star Wars who has a really bad cold?

A: A Sniff Lord

Joke created by Jesslyn (age 6) and Ilona (age 8), who is turning out to be quite good at coming up with Webel Jokes.

Two Wheels

Jesslyn learned to ride a two wheeler a week ago Sunday. It came to her a little too easily compared to the other two kids (she barely fell at all). Here's a video of it that I realize is entirely too long. (I got lazy in the editing room, ok?)

Busy Saturday

Today was very busy. After a good breakfast of eggs and bacon Rebekah took Ilona out for a "date." They went to a make-up store and did some girlie stuff and got KFC for lunch. While they were gone Jakob and I moved a bunch of big rocks into a circle in the backyard to form a firepit, trimmed the maple trees, and cleaned the back patio. Then I walked to McD's with Jakob and Jesslyn for lunch.After Rebekah got home we got some mulching done in the flowerbeds, I made a new pink bike for Ilona out of parts from two bikes that were given to us, we watched "The Incredibles" as a family while we ate dinner, and we took a family bike ride. It was our first since Jesslyn learned to ride a two-wheeler last week. (I'll post video of her learning whenever I get around to it...)

I caved to Rebekah and let Jakob go on a Saturday afternoon motorcycle ride with the neighbor (the highlight of his week!). I'm still toying with idea of getting a motorcycle next summer, we'll hafta see about that one though.
We ended the day by inviting the neighbors over for a bonfire in our new firepit! S'mores for all! Tomorrow is Mother's Day, so it will be a nice family day of rest.

Tonite

Jakob hit a bunny in the butt with his crossbow from 40 ft away. Uncle Jimmy would have been proud...

Tech Support

These are pictures from India. Its where you call when you have a technical problem with your computer.

May 5th

Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as:

Sinko de Mayo


This is the first (of hopefully many) installations in a new category on my blog titled "Webel Jokes." Hope you enjoy reading 'em as much as I will posting 'em...

What we did today

'Twas SO nice to get 'er in the water and go for a lazy paced spin on such a blue sky day! We had forgotten how utterly RELAXING boating can be!

Ilona's Mousetrap Powered Balloon Popper

Some of you may recall last year when Jakob was given this very assignment. I certainly do, and I wish I would have kept a few of the components from his... Why an elementary teacher would think that an 8 year old girl would be capable of building something like this is beyond me. I mean, she helped me as much as she could, but really its all the daddies doing their best to pop a balloon using a mousetrap and however many in between steps that are required.