A Father's Love

A son asked his father, 'Dad will you take part in a marathon with me?'

The father, who, despite having a heart condition, said 'yes.'

They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'yes' to his son's request of going through yet another race together.

One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.' To which, his father said "yes" once again. For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride and ends with a 26.2 mile marathon along the coast of the 'Big' Island in Hawaii . Father and son completed the race together.

"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. I Peter 2:22-25

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:1-2

Mustang!

I am in Kansas City on business for a few days, and just look at the surprise upgrade that was waiting for me at Hertz #1 Club Gold yesterday!Unfortunately it isn't a convertible or a V8, but at least I look cool in it. Good thing I brought my "Men in Black" sunglasses!

The upgrades continued, as my room was upgraded to a suite with living room, kitchen, dining room, 2 TVs, etc. Not sure what they expect me to do all alone in this huge room with my little travel backpack full of stuff... Run laps? Ping Pong on the dining room table? Actually, if I do have any spare time at the hotel, I plan on using the hot tub. It looked REALLY good to my tired bones as I passed by last night...

Nice surprise #3 is that there is an IMAX theater showing Batman a few miles from my hotel. I went out to try and see it last night but they were sold out through the midnight show (way too late for this tired traveler, esp with the time change). So instead I bought a ticket for tonight after I am done with my business meetings, and I can't wait!

Oh well. Its not really as glamorous as all this sounds. I did have to travel on a Sunday (which I hate), and I am away from the fam for a few days, and I do actually have to work during the day while I'm here...

Please keep Rebekah in your prayers this week. She has all 3 kids alone, its VBS week at our church, she is very involved with helping/cooking for a big funeral at church on Tuesday, and at the same time she's preparing for a garage sale at our house next weekend. It certainly isn't the right week for me to be out gallivanting around the country, but unfortunately this trip was scheduled several months ago.

Hrubik Campout Pictures

Three things that you know

1) You know you've made an impression when you take the family to BW3's for dinner, and the waitress remembers the last time you were in and ordered 19 chicken fingers and calls you "The Chicken Finger Family."

2) You know she really does remember you when she realizes that one of you is missing (Jakob).

3) You know your kids are being raised by a Hungarian blooded mommy when you order 40 wings in four flavors, and the 3 hottest flavors are gone first...
(Yes, dinner was good tonight....)

The Dark Knight

I haven't been to a blockbuster movie in a long time. May just want to see this one... Only problem is figuring out the babysitting part. Hmmm....

What ...

... did your kids see YOU do on Tuesday night???

Perspective on "Suffering"

In four short months we will go to the polls to select the next President of the United States of America. On the one hand is a man with 143 days of experience in the United States Senate. On the other is a man with much more experience, who suffered greatly for the love of his country.

While neither one of them is really to my exact liking, today I read this rather long article written by one of them in 1973 (when I was only a toddler) in an effort to become a more educated voter.

In today's world of fast food drive through windows, microwaves, and cable news sound bites, I suppose that many of you wouldn't think it worth your while to spend half an hour or so reading an article that is 35 years old. Yet who you pull the lever for this November will affect who will become the leader of the free world in these trying times, where banks are failing left and right, cows are creating more earth-warming methane than ever before, your tax dollars are funding bridges to nowhere, and the dollar is becoming increasingly worthless (other than to singlehandedly fund the next major terrorist attack against our nation, one $5 gallon of gasoline at a time).

For the rest of you who would like to learn a little bit more about one of the candidates "straight from the horse's mouth" and educate yourself (guilt trip, I know), find a time when you have about half an hour of peace and quiet, and give this article a read.

Capper Visit

Yesterday our friends the Cappers came to visit us from Akron for a day of boating. It was a lot of fun, other than the brief downpour the boys experienced in the fishing boat. (Brrrr!!!!!)

Jesslyn really enjoyed spending some time with one of her "old best friends," and so did Rebekah and I!

Creation Museum

A couple of weeks ago we went to Cincinnati to visit my brother Lance, go to a water park and visit the Creation Museum and see an outdoor passion play.The trip was really fun for our kids because we met my sister Mona's family for the water park and museum portions.The Creation Museum was interesting. The guy who was in charge of designing it designed Universal Studios, so it was very well done (at a cost of over $28 million). Basically, the museum attempts to do battle with all the places where it says "millions of years ago" in today's textbooks and illustrates a "young earth, literal" interpretation of the Bible. In a lot of ways they did a very good job of it, though there were some "stretches" in some of their logic that were as ridiculous as those proposed by Darwin. In any case, it was a worthwhile trip and made me think about a few things in ways I hadn't conceived of them before. I only wish we would have been able to block an entire day out so there would have been more time to read all of the displays.

Yep, He's a Webel

Rebekah was in Jakob's room the other day and found the below glue bottle on his desk, cut open as seen in the picture. "Waste not, want not" and "Good to the Last Drop" come to mind. I can't IMAGINE who he learned this from... ;-)

Happy Birthday USA!

Its very fun to celebrate our nation's birthday in the middle of small town America. All of the main streets in town were lined with little flags in the devil strips (thousands and THOUSANDS of them), there were dozens and dozens of hot air balloons in the sky at various times during the weekend, and there was a general air of celebration everywhere we went.

On Thursday night we had a few people from church over for popcorn and a movie. We watched End of the Spear, a movie about some missionaries who gave their lives to witness to a very remote tribe in the Amazon. I was expecting a typical "cheezy" Christian film with bad acting, but (refreshingly) I was WRONG! If you get a chance, I would HIGHLY recommend this movie, it was VERY well done!

Grandpa and Grandma Webel came down on Friday night and we walked over to our neighbors house to crash a party they were having over there because you can see the Ashland city fireworks very nicely from their backyard. After we put the kids to bed the adults ordered Pizza Hut, just because we could.

Grandma and Grandpa slept over and on Saturday we spent over 10 hours out on the boat, swimming, tubing, playing games, eating, and cruising around. It was a BEAUTIFUL day capped off by fireworks over the lake. There is nothing like sitting out on a boat in the middle of a huge lake, watching fireworks explode and reflect over the water, and listening to incredible echoes reverberating from every shoreline.

Tonight we are going to hear the Ashland Symphony play in the local outdoor bandshell with another family from church, so I need to get off of here and get ready. Enjoy the pics!

Jakob, our "mud monster":
Relaxing by the swimming beach:
Jesslyn enjoyed holding the colored pencils (her "samples") for her artist sister Ilona:
Daddy, I'm STUCK!
If that's how you want to smile, I'm gonna put it on the DREADED BLOG for all the world to see:
Ilona soaks up some rays:
Sunset glances off a sun-kissed face:
Momma and her man-cub:
Candid shot of Grandpa:
I'm dead serious, Jakob... If you won't smile I'm gonna put it on the BLOG...
Somebody else must've gotten ahold of my camera:
A hot air balloon and fishing boat cross the path of the setting sun:
Boats begin to gather for the coming fireworks as the sun sinks lower in the sky:
Its pretty cool when the darkness finally arrives and HUNDREDS of boats can only be seen by their tiny white anchor lights, bobbing on the water like tiny tea lights.
The fireworks begin, reflecting off the water in the cool of the night:
Red, white, and blue:
And the Rockets Red Glare:
The Bombs Bursting in Air:

Computer "Nook"

Last Saturday it was too rainy to go on the boat, so I (reluctantly) got out my tools and continued working on a little project I started before Christmas that has been staring at me for too long. I have been transforming a closet attached to our family room into a central place for the family computer. I know it probably doesn't look like much in the picture, but the cupboards are now all installed, including custom phone, ethernet, and electric inside (to hide the ugly wires). All that remains is installing the backsplashes around the formica top, installing some baseboards, and putting some nicer lighting in.

Some Common Sense

Do you know what ANWR is? ANWAR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Now a comparison:And some perspective:
NOTE WHERE THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT AREA IS.
(it's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain")
THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND "GREENS" SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR, and they are right... These ARE photographs of ANWR:

ISN'T ANWR BEAUTIFUL? WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE? WELL THAT'S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH...

Do you remember the map? The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain. Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE, THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL!

THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER:
AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER:
And here is a screenshot from Google Earth:
AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND.

THEY SAY THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE EFFECT ON THE LOCAL WILDLIFE... HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE "DEPLETED WILDLIFE" SITUATION CREATED BY DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY. DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING?
Here's that same spot in the winter:
THIS BEAR SEEMS TO REALLY HATE THE PIPELINE NEAR PRUDHOE BAY:(The Prudhoe bay area accounts for 17% of U.S. domestic oil production.)

NOW, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE LYING ABOUT ANWR?

REMEMBER WHEN AL GORE SAID THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK TO ARTIFICIALLY RAISE GAS PRICES TO $5.00 A GALLON?

WELL, AL GORE AND HIS FELLOW DEMOCRATS HAVE ALMOST REACHED THEIR GOAL!

NOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN LYING, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?