Happy Birthday Aunt Mar!

Aunt Mar celebrates her birthday today! Happy birthday to you Aunt Mar!

Spring is officially here, though it has felt like spring for weeks now. There's so much in bloom right now our pollen counts are through the roof. I’ve already had to mow the yard once. It's just strange to see this knowing we normally have the potential for a killing frost for another three weeks or so.

CLUB 180. Last week was our spring break and we decided to take a quick visit to Club 180 in Cumberland, Kentucky. We left on the first Saturday of our break (the 10th) and returned on Monday (the 12th).

Cumberland is an old coal mining town with very few active mines today. Poverty is the rule there. Terry and Angie Burkeen operate Club 180 as a ministry to help kids turn their lives around. Their ministry is in an old furniture store which they purchased in 2007. You can learn more about the ministry by visiting their website at http://club180ministry.com/.

Jenna and I first went to Club 180 as part of a church mission trip back in 2008. We had a large team go that year and worked on several projects. I set up several computers for their after school tutoring program. Ben and I returned the next summer as part of another mission team. They had gotten broadband internet at the club by then and I set up their network and got their lab online.

A recent newsletter from the Burkeens prompted me to ask how their lab was holding up. One thing led to another and next thing I knew we were heading up there. We had a great time visiting with the Burkeens, doing some work for them, and visiting Kingdom Come State Park. For a short trip it was probably one of the most relaxing trips I've been on in quite a while even though we went up there to work.

Club 180 recently received a donation on six computers. Terry asked if I could get them ready for his computer lab. Due to some technical reasons I was unable to do the job there so I've brought one home to work on it (the rest will hitch a ride with someone who makes regular trips with items donated to ministries there). My goal is to max out these units with new memory, load them with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office, and get new monitors for them. If anyone would like to help me do this please let me know.

SPRING CLEANING. The rest of our spring break we spent at home doing some spring cleaning around the house as well as getting Pauline’s old house ready for new renters. We didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but we did mix in some family fun. The boys had friends over to play on two different afternoons and Jenna spent time with her best friend, Mackenzie. We saw some movies together as a family (one in the theater, the rest were Netflix rentals), and we played some games together. Nate finally won a game of Settlers of Catan (his favorite) and I wish I had videoed his victory dance.

We also took Aunt Mar out to eat in Portland. It was the first time she's been out in several months and I think she really enjoyed it. We went to the 109 Diner in Portland which has really good food.

A DREAM COME TRUE. I have wanted to build a shop for most of my adult life--nothing big--just a place where I can put some tools and build some projects like the picnic table I built last summer. My dream is finally coming true.

Last week I picked up a building permit for a 20' x 30' pole barn. Construction began yesterday and now I have a skeleton of a building in the field beside my house. I am so excited to have some place larger than the closet under our stairs to store my tools and closer than Aunt Mar's garage to work from. I have so many ideas swimming in my head right now that I don't know what I'll do first, but I know I'm going to have fun. I’m leaving the inside of the building unfinished for now so that I can design and build the storage and work areas I have in mind. Vicki is worried that she and the kids never see me again.

Joe