MONSTER TRUCK JAM!!! (and some cleaning!)

I know it's been a while, but I have (drum roll, please . . .)

PICTURES!!!

I've had a pretty busy past week or so, so I'll just start with the most recent "events".

A couple of friends from church and I went to a Monster Truck Jam in Maryland last Friday. I've been to a Demolition Derby before (several, in fact) but NEVER to a Monster Truck Jam!

It was hot, hot, HOT when we got there and it didn't get any better until the sun went down. Before the trucks started, they had what they called "quad wars" and some local people jumping their "street legal" cars.

This first one is a pic of the Quad Wars. It was basically two teams of 4 -- Team PA and Team MD. The PA team won the first two and the captain was really arrogant and rude. The MD team finally won, but ol' PA captain wasn't very happy about it and challenged the MD captain to a "captain's challenge" MD's 4-wheeler thing broke, so PA guy ended up winning, but I'm convinced the whole thing was scripted just to give us a little extra entertainment. I guess I'll never really know (not that it matters anyway!)

The "quad wars" was kind of interspersed with the "street legal jumping" and the monster truck racing. Basically they were the floor show to keep us occupied while the drivers of the trucks/cars fixed whatever gunning your engine for that short of a distance does to it. Anyway, these are some pictures of the local folks jumping their cars/trucks/whatever would run. They could enter just about anything!

An F-150 . . .

A flame-y looking truck . . .

A Suzuki sidekick . . .

And lots of others -- I have more on my Facebook page if you want to check them out there (if you haven't already -- I got those on there a little faster than on here) Before it began, they brought the drivers of the trucks out to give a little shout out to the crowd and draw for positions. They had 6 monster trucks racing and one you could ride in for $5 (we thought about it, but didn't give in to the pressure)

I got to see . . .El Toro Loco . . .

GRAVEDIGGER . . .

Mopar Magic, Stonecrusher, Taz, and the Black Stallion were there also, but I don't have very good pictures of those.

At the end of the final race (between Stonecrusher and Gravedigger), Stonecrusher had some technical difficulties . . . well . . . he went over the barrier between the two lanes and ended up in Gravedigger's lane. Let's just say he had two tires that looked . . . um . . . less than good. . .

At some point near the end, one of the drivers brought out a 4-wheeler type thing with a slight modification added to it -- a jet engine. That's what they said at first. Then they said something about a helicopter, and the fact that it runs on kerosene. I'm not really sure what it was, but I do know it was fast, loud, and HOT! He went across in front of the grandstands and did a few "burns" for us -- the flames were almost as long as the 4-wheeler and we could feel the heat from it from our seats 5 or 6 rows up! You can't see very well in this picture because of all the dust that was kicked up, but if you look sort-of toward the middle bottom, you can sort-of see him.

I'm at my parent's now, but before I left, I had been spending the earlier part of the week trying to get my apartment in order. Part of this included trying to get rid of a mattress I've had in my living room for about 2 months or so (I just know school was still in when I got it). I don't have a truck and I don't think my landlord would appreciate my dumping it in the dumpster, so I did the next best thing . . . I took it apart.

This is the progression of my labors . . . here's how it looked when I started . . .

That's some stuffing in the bag at the bottom of the picture. That stuff was around the edge of the box spring and reminded me of some "critter" nests we used to find at my grandma's

This is what it looked like when I took the cover off it . . . and the covering stuff . . .

The next task was to get all the wire off the wooden frame . . .

Then get all the springs off . . . (It was late, but how often in your life do you have the opportunity to stack mattress springs???)

Which left me with this:

Then it was time to take all the wooden parts apart . . .

Leaving me with only the top mattress part to get out! I kept looking at the wire, thinking, "Surely there's something I can make with this, or some use . . ." but I gave up and threw it in the dumpster. I am now only left with the memories (and the pics!)

Anyway, so after I was finished that, and I cleaned my apartment (it was in desperate need of it, just ask my friend, Karen!). When I was done cleaning, I was so impressed I decided to make a video and show y'all my apartment. I realized that I've only showed pictures of the "dining room" on here so far, so here's the "official tour" of my apartment!

Day camp, and other such excitements!

So it was never my intention to go 2 weeks without posting, but such is the life of a single Christian school teacher trying to make it by -- internet becomes a luxury I just cannot afford. So, here I am, once more at the library posting yet again without pictures! You would think that with the dramatic decrease of things I must remember (like, um, SCHOOL!!) I could remember something as simple as a camera. But, alas, I must paint word pictures for you. hmmm . . . I may have another idea, but we'll see if I can get to it or not . . .

Anyway, the main reason for not posting for the last week is that my church had its Day Camp last week. I (in my extreme insanity) agreed (a.k.a -- volunteered) to be the craft director for the week. I figured, "it's no big deal. I helped my mom with it for years!" The main difference is that I couldn't call on people to help me cut stuff out or make preparations because I've only been attending the church for a little less than a year, and I'm not really what you might call bold enough to just ask people for help. they've got better things to do with thier time, right?? Maybe by next year I'll be more confident in asking for some help.

The week went well nonetheless. We had a couple of times that I wasn't sure we would have the craft ready for the kids to atually do it, but God works things out at just the right time so we know that only HE could have arranged it! We had about 160ish kids come and about 50 workers. I think we had 3 children make a salvation decision!! One child was led to Christ by a teen who had only been attending the church for 2 weeks!

So I'm back to trying to work on stuff for my apartment. My list still hasn't gone very well. I don't even have new quotes for you today! I know that x-men and x-men 2 are 2 of my next movies, but I can't think of lines for them right now.

I did get to it, but I've been sitting here goofing off for too long, so I'll just leave you with my interpretation of 2 of the crafts for the week. The first one is from the first day: a creation mousepad. Each column has pictures from each day of creation (that's a dinosaur on day 6 :S) The second one was the "big" project. It was a tin can with pasta glued to it to make a pencil holder. I spray-painted them white, then the kids painted them with a color which represented the 7 "c's" they learned. Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation. These 2 crafts were a lot of fun to make (but the better ones were the ones I got to use my drill for!!!!!!) The last picture is just for fun -- I like Microsoft Paint WAY too much!!!