Ryan and Nicole's Happenings

A Long While

2009-10-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

It seems like the running theme is that I never update regularly. Things have been, and will be pretty crazy.

Things are finally starting to click. My sleeping schedule is semi-normal, I'm getting used to the policies and procedures at work, and things at the church are going really well. We just held a fundraiser for BGMC (bgmc.ag.org). I got the idea from a couple of friends who went to a fair and saw a guy heckling a crowd of people, they would then buy tomatoes to throw at him (behind a protective barrier). My mind just wouldn't get off of it until I came up with the idea for "Tomatoes for Texts". I would tell really terrible jokes, everyone would boo, then they would throw tomatoes at me. $5 got them 5 tomatoes. We raised $182. That's really good considering we have about 60-80 people in our church. They really got behind the event and went above and beyond. They're the greatest bunch of people ever.

On a completely separate note, I had an appointment today with a neurologist to get some options to treat my back. Basically he, and I, do not want surgery. So we opted for a set of steroidal epidurals. I had this procedure done once before last year, but because of my lack of insurance, I could only do one (see this post for more info about that). So I go in on October 20th for that.

Other than that, things are going really well. Nicole has been working at least 40 hours a week for the past month, so that is great. Nicole has also been doing well. She's taken lead over Discovery Club (our Wednesday night clubs) so that's a relief to me. She does a great job at it too. She's much more organized and detailed than I am.

I've started listening to "Nobody's Listening" Podcast. It is absolutely hysterical. They also do a couple other podcasts as well (Geek Loves Nerd, Children's Ministry Monthly). They're all on the website hyperlinked above. If you have a chance, check them out.

That's all for now.

Health Care Reform

2009-08-22T14:17:00.001-07:00

Forgive me for talking about a sensitive topic, but this is something that needs to be dealt with. As a Bible believing Christian whose desire is to follow Christ and my own convictions, how can we leave 48 million Americans uninsured and left to rot away? Sure there’s medicare that covers people over 60 (or 65) and there’s Medicaid for people under 18 (and pregnant mothers), but what about everyone in-between? Did Jesus refuse to heal people if they didn’t fit his criteria?

Absolutely not.

I don’t see how anyone who is a Christian cannot be for health care reform in some form. Studies have shown (from the World Health Organization) that America’s healthcare, which supposedly is the best in the world, ranks 37^th, right below Costa Rica and right above Slovenia.

(http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/index.html)

I’d like to go back to my favorite person in history. Jesus. I believe Jesus was 100% man and 100% God (that’s another debate for a different time). When Jesus went out and performed the miracles He did, I believe He did them for two reasons.

First, He performed miracles as proof He really was the Son of God. Simple enough.

Second, He performed miracles (mainly healings) out of his compassion for people. Believe it or not, healing people was only the first step. He wanted to give them their health back, but He also wanted to restore them to society.

One example—Lepers were outcasts. They were completely separate from the city. Exiled. Never to be heard from again. When Jesus healed lepers, did he say to hide out in the country? No. He gave them their entire life back—not just their health. This meant they could come back to the city, eat with their family, talk with their friends, and live a life that was almost foreign to them. They were normal.

Now, how can a Christian be against something that would likely give these 48 million people hope.

Let me explain a story from my life. It’s rather lengthy so if you’re pressed for time, skip down to “And that brings me to today…”

In college, my wife and I were broke. Flat broke. We lived in Government subsidized housing, we were on food stamps, and we were barely making it. We each worked three Federal Work Study jobs each while at the same time, full time college students. There was no wiggle room—no slush fund. Nothing.

My family has a history of back problems and it was only a matter of time before mine developed. Little did I know, it would be in the poorest time of my life. My back was in so much pain, my legs would go numb and nothing would help. I spent hours in prayer by myself, with my wife, and with friends and faculty from Trinity Bible College for 2 years. God was the first person I went to but at the same time, I was looking for options.

One of my professors, who was more like a friend, suggested I check into sliding scale clinics. These are clinics (funded by both private investors & the government) that base your bill on your income. Praise God—I’ve found a place that can help me. After numerous visits to this clinic, they referred me to a hospital where I could get an MRI. The first question I asked was, how much? Fortunately, they could refer a patient to a hospital for a specific service one time.

So the MRI comes back and I had a bulged disc between my L5-S1 that was pinching a nerve that ran down my leg. If it went untreated, it would indefinitely herniate.

Panic.

So I go back to the clinic (which the clinic was in Fargo, a 2 ½ hour drive) where they refer me to a Neurologist. Free (because the referral policy). The neurologist recommended a set of three steroidal epidural injections, one month apart. So I went back to the clinic to get another referral to a hospital for the epidural. Again, every time, I have to drive 2 ½ hours for each trip. I get the referral and set up the epidural injection appointment.

I get the epidural and a couple of days later, I feel relief that I cannot put into words. I could do things I would have never done before without pain. I was able to work out again. I was able to sit on bleachers again. I was able to basically anything I wanted.

That’s when it hit me. I could only be referred once. I called the clinic seeing if there was anything I could do. I called the hospital I had the epidural at and asked how much it would cost out of pocket. $1,900.

Simply not possible.

And that brings me to today. Thankfully, after 2 years, I got a job with the State of Nebraska where I have reliable health insurance that covers the procedures I need. Thankfully, the insurance coverage I have did not deny me for preexisting conditions. Thankfully, I have a God who is concerned for me.

I know there are more out there who were just like me. Out of options and forced to live without hope. Out of options. Out of time. I’m thankful that my condition is not life threatening. But what about those who are not fortunate enough to have survived the recession and lost their job, subsequently losing their health insurance?

Tough luck?

Christ came for the down and out. He despised the Pharisees who thought they had everything and were well covered. He came to save a sinner like me. He came to restore me to society. He came to give me life and life to the fullest.

Health care reform is needed. What we need is health care companies who care for the patients instead of their money and that is exactly what is going to happen if they have to compete with a government option. It’s my understanding that competition is what fuels our economy. That’s why we have anti-monopoly and fair practices laws.

Example: Since Blue Cross Blue Shield (which, ironically is my insurance carrier), turned for-profit, they have been denying claims while raising rates. Case in point. BCBS of Massachusetts CEO, Cleve Killingsworth’s salary rose 26% while membership declined and it’s net income fell 49%

(http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/02/28/blue_cross_ceos_pay_rose_26/)

Greed.

Is it a coincidence that Sen. Grassley (R-IA) has said that “he would not support a bill, even if he liked it, unless most of his fellow Republicans signed on.” (Associated Press). Oh, did I mention that Des Moines, IA is known as the insurance capital of the US and this bill is the Democrats idea? Party partisan must end. For the sake of lives. It must end.

And for my sake, this must end as well. My goal here is not to create anger, but rather to open our eyes to something that needs to be changed.

I’ll close with a quote from Richard Beck of Experimental Theology (http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/)

“It's frustrating to me that universal health coverage isn't seen as a moral imperative by more Christians. Why is it that Christians restrict their moral outrage to abortion and gay marriage? It's just inconsistent and hypocritical. Does that mean that Christian moral outrage cannot be owned by a single political party? Yes, that's exactly what it means. Where's the moral outrage in the Christian community about the uninsured? Churches by and large botched it during the Civil Rights Movement. Let's get on the right side of history this time around.”

The Summer

2009-08-20T01:26:00.000-07:00

Well, summer has unofficially ended and that means things are staring to get normal again. This summer has been pretty crazy between new responsibilities at the church and the new job (aka getting adjusted to 3rd shift). The job itself is incredibly easy--it's the sleeping that's difficult.

We are seeing tremendous things happen at the church. Last month, we baptized 11 people at the public pool. Then there was a second wave of people who wanted to be baptized (many of them new believers) just last week. Total, we've baptized 18 men, women, boys, and girls just this summer. That's about 20% of our church! God is doing some pretty amazing things. I know numbers don't tell anything about the success of a church, but as a pastor, when you're able to help someone outwardly commit their lives to Christ, you get a sense of pride in them. Not yourself.

Here's a story. A lady visited our church the first time we had our baptism (and the feast we had after). She was so touched by some of the testimonies she decided to come back. The third time she came back, her daughter came with her. That Sunday morning she gave her heart to God and the next week she was baptized right alongside her mother. After being baptized the mother looked at me and the Lead Pastor in tears saying, "I've never felt so light before. It's like I'm floating."

That's powerful.

It's incredible how God provides. This past month we were looking at our budget and things we needed for Discovery Clubs (our Wed. night program). We wanted to make registration as cheap as possible so we could make it more of an outreach. The books just weren't adding up. So we prayed without ceasing while coming up with fundraisers. The fundraisers tanked. That's when God spoke to me and said that things were going to be ok. He doesn't need money to be successful. So after campaigning for materials, games, etc. we were talking to a couple in the church. They said they'd like to help us out. After picking up my jaw off the ground, they gave us $300 specifically for Discovery Clubs. God provides.

As for life outside the church, things are going pretty well. Nicole and I have just completed baby step one of getting an emergency fund set up for our finances. And now we're on to step two of starting the debt snowball. It's incredible how fast money goes sometimes! We're using some of the principles Dave Ramsey teaches. I think he has a lot of great ideas, but not all of them work for us. For example, he stresses using cash for every purchase (except for bills you mail off). I don't use cash. Ever. Except for buying a pop from a vending machine. So we don't do the envelopes thing, but instead we just stick to a written budget and track how much we spend. So far it's working. having a job that pays more than $8.10 an hour helps too...

Other than that, it's been life as normal. About 3 weeks ago I preached in big boy church. It was the first time I felt the Spirit move from what I was saying (I'm not saying that I take ownership of the message, I just happened to be the one God worked through). What a feeling. It's almost like a rush.

On a random note, I've officially decided that everyone's favorite topic to talk about is themselves. It's incredible how long some people can talk about where they've been, a funny story they heard (or experienced), or something that they have accomplished. Is it wrong? No. So I've decided to put my own ambitions of making myself look better than them (face it, we all do it) aside and challenged myself to keep the conversation focused on them. Occasionally I'll throw in a story that I have, but in a way that is non-threatening to the point they are trying to make. So far the shortest conversation I've had with this in mind has been an hour and that's because I was on the verge of being late to work. Crazy stuff.

I've officially written too much and talked about myself too much. See, I didn't even realize I was doing it until I talked about it, but isn't that the point of a blog? To talk about yourself? I say it is, and I'm not ashamed.

A Lengthly Update

2009-06-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

It seems to be a regular occurrence that I only post about once every month or even two, so I bet you can make this schedule a regularity.

Anyways, as most of you know, I got a new job. I'm working at a Mental Health Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska as a Security Specialist. No, I'm not a security guard. My job is to provide a safe environment for our patients. We have about 6 buildings on campus that house over 200 patients, all of which are mentally ill. There is a reasonable percentage of sex offenders which don't have the typical mental illnesses, but yet are still mentally ill.

It's my job to work with these people.

In one of the buildings, it houses the sex offenders. There are enough beds to house roughly 60 sex offenders. Of those sixty, there are three different wards. The Secure Ward (intake), the Transition Ward (Community transition), and the West Ward. The West Ward is the ward I will be working in. These 24 sex offenders have typically reoffended and show no sign of intrinsic rehabilitation. Although very few of these men (there are women in this program, but they are in the Transition Ward) suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar, etc. they do suffer from severe social dysfunctions. My job, with the help of other staff, is to provide a therapeutic environment.

Seeing as their illness is typically learned, the treatment goals are to substitute their coping mechanisms. More importantly than that, we want to make these men feel. They (typically) feel no remorse, guilt, or shame for what they have done. I've heard stories of manipulation that would absolutely blow your mind.

So this is definitely a new chapter in my life. I'm still in orientation/training, but starting next week I'll be on the ward.

On another note, a part of our training was to spend an hour or so on the other wards on campus. I spent most of my time on the Women's General Psych Services Ward. Here's a story from that ward:

I walked onto the ward and was instantly greeted by a lady named Sue (I changed her name for privacy). Sue is about 45 years old. She was dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. When you looked at her, you could just tell there was something missing. After being on the ward for no longer than two seconds, she came up to me and said, "Jack, would you like to play cards with me?" I politely refused and told her my name is actually Ryan to which she replied, "Oh come on Jack, Mrs. Kennedy over there already told me your real name." She pointed towards an empty room. This continued for a couple of minutes when she stopped what she was saying and said, "Jack, do you hate Jews?"

"No, I do not hate Jews."

"Oh good, because I'm a catholic nun."

"Really? How long have you been a nun?", I replied.

"A while. Look at all this white s*** on me. I need to take a shower. I'm actually black", Sue said.

She was really white.

After a while of a conversation that seemed to take a million turns, she walked away because it was time to go outside. I'll tell you though, I will never forget Sue because she never ceased to carry a thought into the next sentence.

So with that, I'm going to head out. If I ever have more stories (which I know I will) I'll post them.

A Rant

2009-05-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

If you don't want to read the babblings of someone who is upset about something, please stop reading here.

In case you don't know, I live in a small town just outside of Lincoln, NE. Our town doesn't have anything historically significant that sets it apart from other small, rural towns. About five years ago, the pork industry boomed and Farmland decided to build a processing and storage plant just a half mile out of town. And this is where the story picks up...

The residents of our town were happy because they had good employment and a second subsequent plant opened (Nestle/Purina--dog and cat food makers). They paid better, had better benefits, etc. Naturally, a lot of the Farmland workers migrated to Nestle/Purina leaving a gap out at Farmland.

Farmland decided to hire illegal immigrants and long story short, five years later, our small, rural community is (at best estimations) 1/3 hispanic.

That is why I'm writing this. Not because I'm racist. On the contrary, I am extremely upset at the people of our community who do not accept the Hispanics. You can see the racism everywhere. People mock them behind their back, they give them the "leftovers" instead of the freshest products. It's terrible.

If I had a solution, I would share it with you, but I don't. This is a world-wide (yes, world-wide) problem. So what are we to do? Love. Love is the trump card in this game. If we can't love people we (sometimes) can't communicate with, how will we ever show love?

Here's an example: At work, we frequently (and when I say frequently, I mean about half) get customers who know little to no English. They can say "One pound" in a thick accent which can barely be understood even by themselves, but you can tell what they want when they point and use their fingers to indicate how much they want. A couple of my coworkers play this terrible "game" where they just repeat what they said until it becomes funny to them. When that dies down, they'll roll their eyes, and sluggishly give them what they ordered. At the first sign of wrong doing (on the employees part) everything the customer does is seen as an act of terrorism.

"I can't believe they won't even learn enough to get around." I heard one of my coworkers say that today. It set me off because I know exactly what it feels like to not know what you're actually saying. You place yourself at the mercy of the employee to ensure that you get a rough estimate of the picture you have in your mind. It's tough. I remember asking for 500 pieces of gummys...when I actually wanted 50. The shopkeeper (in Morocco) laughed WITH me and happily gave me what I ordered. I couldn't understand a word he said, but his expressions said, "I can tell you're learning, and this is how I'm going to help...by giving you exactly what you ordered." I quickly learned to annunciate (and study more) because he encouraged me to do better. Imagine if he would have rolled his eyes, expressing, "Ugh, look at this obvious foreigner. Why can't he learn the language before he gets here? Can't you see you're wasting my time?" If that would have happened, would I be more encouraged to learn more Arabic? No. Would I just never go there again? Probably. As much as America is not a "face-based" culture, we are. It's called our fragile ego (for a lack of better term, any suggestions?)

Ok, that's enough ranting for now.

On a happy note, things are going well. I'm actually thinking of doing some writing. I have a couple different ideas, but I still need to do some praying if I'm going to invest some serious time into it.

That's it for now. If you haven't already checked out the church's website, you can do so here: www.radiantsprings.com
We're going to (and already have) post pictures of every event we host and have a part in.

Enjoy!

-Ryan

Finally, We Have Internet

2009-03-02T16:33:00.001-08:00

As promised, I said I would update the blog with pictures, so here you are. The pictures above are at the church. The children's room is a work in progress. Hopefully in the next couple of months we can get a new stage. Hopefully.

Since you are my followers of everything that is going on in my life, I have been designing a new website for our church. You can take a look at the old website here. The new website (which hasn't officially launched yet) can be found here.

As for our life, it is going really well. We're just getting into the grove of things and starting to build connections with people in the church.

Sorry this is such a short post, but hopefully I'll be able to update a little more frequently now.

Another Update

2009-01-27T19:46:00.001-08:00

Well, after 2 weeks at Walmart, things are going pretty well. Surprisingly, working at Walmart is saving money in more ways that one. First (after 6 months) I get 10-15% off pretty much everything. Since I pretty much buy everything at Walmart, it adds up. Second, Walmart has partnered with tons of different companies to provide a discount. The one I already took advantage of is my 20% discount at Verizon. Pretty awesome.

Those are just a couple of cool benefits.

Nicole got a job at Doane in food services. She will probably start next week. Sweet! I'm really excited for her. As of now, she's in the marketing department in food services. She'll also be a "checker" to let people into the caf...kind of like a bouncer...but less intimidating.

Hopefully we'll get our own internet here in a week or so. Hopefully. That means we'll be able to update with pictures. I like to see pictures of what everyone is up to, so I'm just assuming people like the same of us.

Gibson, our cat, has fleas. Everytime I feel an itch anywhere I just assume I have fleas too. I bought some flea stuff, but it was for cats under 5 pounds. Stupid me. Last time we weighed him, he weighed 17 pounds. What a fatty.

Things at the church are going really well. Wednesday nights are going a lot more smoothly. Sunday mornings are starting to get into a groove. There's always some hick-ups, but we're starting to get into a routine. But if there's one thing I learned, it's that once you get into a routine when working with people (especially children) it's time to change things up.

A Long Awaited Post

2009-01-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Life has been super crazy lately. After we moved in, we left for the holidays to go to Des Moines/Pella and Wahpeton, ND to visit family. That went really well. Then we came back to Crete. We hit the job hunt and all of the places we applied to are either not hiring, or closing. Seriously. It's crazy. I had been hounding Wal-Mart for about a month and the finally told me, "Hey, stop calling. If we have a job open, we'll call you." I thought that was a clear, "we don't want you" until 2 weeks ago. That's when I got the call from the lady I annoyed asking me for an interview. I, of course, took the interview and next thing you know, I become a deli sales associate.

The job is pretty easy. It's not stressful, it's not challenging, and I get to be bored most of the day. That's when I let my mind wander to Children's Church and how to make it better. But the definite bonus of the job is the ministry to the employees. They remind me of when I worked at DQ. They come in, talking about the party they were at the night before. But honestly, that is the only job open here in Crete. They job I talked about in the last post is still open, but it'll take another 2 weeks to open up. Nicole is hoping to take that job. I think it'll open up a lot of ministry at the college.

Things at the church are starting to take off. We're already seeing growth. We started with 6 boys and we just grew to 7 boys and 1 girl. So that's cool. The visitor that came last week, came again this week, and is planning on coming again next week. Please pray for this family because you can just feel the rough times they're going through.

Last week we went to a Minister's Retreat. Basically all the AG pastors met in North Platte (don't worry, I still don't know where it's at) and had an inspirational time. Mark Batterson was the guest speaker. He's a cool guy. He started a church in Union Station (DC) that just exploded in growth.

Well, I think that's enough updating for now. Nothing really is going on. We're still using our neighbor's internet, and it's not always the fastest, so uploading pictures and videos will have to wait until we can get internet ourselves. The first day we get it though, you can bet there'll be pics and videos up.

So Far, So Good

2008-12-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

We made it. Everything with the move went semi-eventless. I'll start from the beginning.

For the past 2 weeks, we've been packing up everything when we've had the time. After finals we kicked it into gear and started working hard. Fast forward to Tuesday. The temperature -15 (for a high!). The windchill -40. What better day to load the Uhaul? We wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of Trevor and Amber. If you're reading this, THANK YOU! Trevor is a human tetris machine. Anyways, the next day we go to leave, and the Uhaul has a flat tire on the rear passenger side. It wasn't completely flat, but it was getting there. So we take it down to Aberdeen and it hadn't lost anymore air, so I thought we'd be all right.

We weren't.

As I was filling up on gas (which would be a usual occurrence) I saw a guy looking at his tires. Just out of the blue, I asked him if he could look at our tire as well. Long story short, he's a tire salesman and he was shocked we hadn't already shredded the tire. So we took the truck to the Uhaul place, got it filled up, and an hour later, hit the road.

I miss cruise control and being able to go over hills at more than 60 MPH.

The truck sucked gas like nothing I've ever seen. in 550 miles, we had to stop 4 times to fill it up. That's crazy! Granted, we had the back completely full and it was towing our car. I'm just extremely happy gas is 1.59 instead of 3.59! What a difference!

So we make it to Crete, and I'm figuring with a handful of people, we can unload everything in a couple hours. Boy, I was wrong. We had 11 people show up and it took us 45 minutes from start to finish. And the icing on the cake is that only a couple of our breakables got broken. They weren't anything special, so that is good.

The next day (Thursday) we go to a couple of interviews that were pretty much guaranteed jobs. Long story short, the earliest the first job starts is February, and the other job starts in March! Uh oh. After we found that out, we went to almost every business in town, picked up applications, and are turning them in today (Friday).

So, please pray that these jobs work out because we know that this is the right place for us.

If you are wondering about the house, we are unpacking our last boxes today and I will give the grand tour. I'll post it on here once I get it finished.

Well, this is a long post so I should stop it before it gets any longer.

Our Trip to Crete

2008-12-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving break, we went to Crete. While we were there, we looked for jobs and houses. Long story short, we found a house, but still no jobs.

The house is nice and small. I would classify it as 1 bedroom with an kitchen, living room, basement, and a tiny bedroom that would be more like an office. We might be able to fit a bed in there, but more than likely it will become an office. The floors are all hardwood and the kitchen is linoleum. The basement has hookups for a washer and dryer. It also has a room below the basement to use as either a pantry or storm cellar. I think we should use it as a sweat shop and make some money on the side. We have a garage, but we won't ever use it because we bottom out every time we pull into the driveway...

The landlord is still working on the house so just ignore all the construction stuff.

Sorry It's Been A While

2008-11-19T06:18:00.001-08:00

Life has been pretty crazy. I'm writing this in a class that is just rehashing everything I've already learned. Not that it's not important, I just think that the content could be a little better...

Anyways, nothing new has really happened lately. Tomorrow I go in for my second epidural. This time it's in Aberdeen (30 min away) instead of Fargo (2 hours and 30 min away).

Speaking of this topic. I went through all the medical bills I have had just in the last year. All of these are just from the problem with my back. The total was $4,300. Praise God because not only did the epidural work, but I've only had to pay $145! This is without insurance as well and no medicaid/medicare. God has really taken care of me and I believe that God is providing the way to be healed.

Graduation is right around the corner. I kind of feel at peace with the whole process. We're both really excited about Crete. Next week (after Thanksgiving) we are going to check out some houses. I called the landlord that Brent (the Sr. Pastor) recommended and he has a small house (1 1/2 bedrooms) which is just in our price range...which is next to nothing.

I've started working out. Every morning (either before or after my morning classes) I head to the fitness room, jump on the treadmill and get fit. In the past week, I haven't lost any weight, but I have noticed that I am able to run a little longer every day. I started running for 20 min, with breaks almost every 7 minutes. Now I can run for about 20 min straight. Every day I try to add a minute or so. I just want to be healthy. I'm not looking at losing 40 pounds. That would be nice, but I just don't want to be out of breath from walking up a set of stairs. Plus I don't want to buy a new set of clothes in the next size up...that's not going to happen!

I quit my job flipping burgers in the coffee closet because I got offered a job doing what I love. I humbly accepted the position of making promo videos for TBC. I hesitated saying this on here, because I didn't want to boast about it, but this is a huge step for me. I say this in a non-boasting way-The administration saw the work that I had done with the promo videos for the missions trips people went on this summer and liked them. They called a meeting with me and asked if I could do the same thing for the school. So far, I'm working on the midnight worship we just recently had. It's time consuming piecing together an hours worth of film!

Well that's about it for now. Class is almost over so I'd better wrap up or I'll never get back to posting.

Ryan and Nicole are now Employed

2008-10-31T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we made the call last night to accept the position in Crete, NE.

For those of you who didn't know, we candidated at Radiant Springs Church in Crete, NE last weekend. As we left, they offered the position to us and we took a couple of days to think and pray about it. As the pastors there, we would be in charge of the Children's Ministry, help out with worship, and be general associate pastors. This is a very exciting time because we feel that the Senior Pastor will gel well with us.

Crete is a smaller town just 20 miles outside of Lincoln. They have a college of about 1,000 there-Doane College. They offer some Master's level programs so that could be an option later on. The town has a BK, Subway, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart (YES!!!!), and just other places like these. The town population is around 7,000-so it is on the smaller side of things.

We would have to find a full-time job while we're there. I'm looking at being a bus driver for the school district (I never, ever thought I would be saying that), and Nicole is trying to become what's called a "para". It's basically a teacher's aid in the Elementary School.

So yeah, those are our plans. We hope that this will be an exciting time in our life. If you happen to think of us, shoot off a little prayer.

Apps I Use

2008-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I use a mac (Macbook Pro). A lot of us out in blogland use macs and I wanted to list some of my top apps, so here they are:

Microsoft Office 2008-I would be useless without this.

Adobe Photoshop-This is where I get to express my creativity. There's not a lot there, but I try.

Plaxo-This is the best app I have. It automatically syncs my Address Book and iCal to plaxo's site. This way I can have my calendar and contacts wherever I go (because it has a cell friendly website).

The Missing Sync-This app is awesome. It syncs everything on my Q to everything on my mac. My calenday, contacts, notes, call log, texts, etc. Then Plaxo syncs it all online. Pretty awesome system.

iCal, iTunes, and Mail-I love all these apps and use them pretty much every day.

Newsfire-This is the best RSS news reader I've found. This is how I keep up with everyone's blogs because it automatically downloads them when the cmputer is online and I can read them whenever I have time (with or without internet!)

That's about it. Hit up the comments and recommend some apps to me. I always love a fresh new app!

2008-10-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

New York

2008-10-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sorry this is a little over due, but I finally had time to catch up on the blogsphere.

New York was incredible. Nicole and I went to NY for Nicole's Grandma's 80th birthday/family reunion. I met a ton of people there. There was close to 50 people at the reunion/birthday party! Surprisingly, I can still remember most of them! Woot! Anyways, we had a great time. 90% of our time was spent with family. We actually had the opportunity of staying with Nicole's Aunt (Eileen) and boyfriend (Jon). We had such a great time there. It turns out that Jon is an IT supervisor for a library supply company (plug-www.gaylord.com ) Anyways, he is seriously hooking me up with his old stuff that would sit in his drawers, closets, etc. What a blessing!!

In the 10% of our time there that was not spent with family, it was spent eating pizza (9%) and apple picking. I think I ate 6 apples in the 20 minutes of picking. Then drank an apple cider on the drive home. I had way too many apples that day...

Here are some pictures of the fam plus other randomness.

A OK

2008-09-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well my epidural yesterday went pretty good. When I get nervous I start cracking jokes...so the jokes were endless and only got worse. it started with "Wow, this is the first time I've paid someone to see my crack!" We'll stop there...

But really, it went really well. Although I must say that I felt a lot more than they said I would. That aside, I have significantly less pain than yesterday (even with the soreness...) All in all I'm praying that this will be a permanent fix.

My side note for today...the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is by far, my favorite show of all time. It's not meant for kiddies...but the humor is so creative and...humorous! So if you have the courage to watch it, do it!

Epidural

2008-09-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come. Tonight we leave for Wahpeton so the drive to Fargo is a little shorter. My epidural is scheduled for 11:00 AM. I'd appreciate all the prayers I can get because this is a totally new experience for me and I gotta say, a having a giant needle forced into my spine doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Leavin'

2008-09-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning, Nicole and I are taking off for Utica, NY (upstate). We'll get back Tuesday of next week. I'll post pictures either while we're there or when we get back!

MRI

2008-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello world.

I finally was able to scan my MRI pictures into my computer. On the first picture, the bulge is in my lower back. You can see that it's not white like the others...it's black and yucky. The second picture is taken from the top down. It's like I am a loaf of bread and they cut me in half. Pretty cool. They added a nice pointer to help show where it's at.

So with this, I have to have an epidural. I'm not sure if I put this up yet or not. It's Sep. 26th in Fargo. Nicole's going to drive me back so I can crash in the bed!

Anyways, that's really all for now.

Boring/Busy

2008-09-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have to admit that it is hard to be both bored and busy at the same time, but

It's Been A While

2008-08-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry it's been so long on updating this. Life has been pretty crazy and not having internet at our apartment doesn't help...

Here's a rundown of the past couple of weeks:

1. I visited a Neurologist about my disc in my back. He said that he doesn't think I should have the surgery because in 10 years, it will go back to the way it is now...so with that, I have 3 epidural appointments. My first one is on Sept. 26. Not looking forward to that...

2. School starts on Wednesday. I'm not too worried about this semester. I have 10 credits (4 classes) and two of them are Freshmen level. Really, this semester is going to be prepping to leave and find jobs. So if anyone out there in blogland has any ideas, let me know. Priority number one when we graduate is to pay off our debt. In order to go into the profession we want to, our school loans have to be paid off. We have no specifics on where, we just know the when-December 6th (that's approx. when we graduate). Really, we just want to live as cheaply as we can with decent jobs and put all the money on our loans.

Side note-It's incredibly hard to make it through any college without any loans! Props to the people who do it!

3. My computer died. That's another reason I haven't been religiously updating this. Apple has incredible support though. I don't have to pay for a thing (even the tape to tape the box!!)

4. I'm thinking of joining Twitter. I've heard so much buzz about it. Any thoughts?

5. Myspace is officially dead.

6. I've recently been on a rampage of giving stuff away/selling stuff that we don't need. We just have too much "stuff" that we really don't need. If you saw anything of mine that you liked, ask for it and more than likely I'll give it to you. Exceptions, my computer, my phone, my car, and my wife.

7. If you have any suggestions of what you want to know about me, post a comment and I'll write a post on that stuff. As Will Ferrel put it, "I'm a human onion."

That's all for now.

People Who Have Impacted My Life the Most

2008-08-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much describes it. I'm going to list the people who have impacted my life the most. These are in no specific order. These people helped shaped me into the person I am today. Whether that's good or bad I'll leave to you. By no means have I "arrived"-I hope I never do. But these people have had a significant impact on my life.

-Mom & Dad
-Mr. Manja
-Mr. Millen
-My Mentors from Morocco

Brief break...apparently I like "M"'s

-Kelly McCormick
-Mr. Nugent & Mrs. Lehman
-Brandon & Colyn
-Nicole

Life

2008-07-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry it's been so long for an update. Things in Ellendale are going pretty good. Nicole and I work in the Coffee Shop on campus...so if you're ever happen to "swing by" Ellendale... haha.

Anyways, there isn't too much happening lately. In a couple of days I go to the doctor in Fargo to discuss some treatment options for my back. For those of you who don't know I have a bulged/borderline herniated disc in my lower back (L4-L5). It's been getting progressively worse lately. So that will be good. I'll make sure to post the results on here as soon as I find out.

It's a weird feeling knowing that we'll be leaving Ellendale in about 6 months (God willing...). We started cleaning out everything that we want to give away to TBC's Salvation Army-type store (only it's free).

Well, that's it for now. The posts (for the meantime) are going to be a little off because we don't have internet at our house, so we have to go to the school to do it. We don't feel like signing a year long contract at 95 bucks a month just for internet!!! It's ridiculous.

Big Surprise!!!!!

2008-07-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well I just had a HUGE surprise today. At the welcome back party that Nicole's mom threw for us, my dad showed up! He drove 7 hours just to say welcome back. Dad, that meant a lot to me. Thank you so much for coming up here and visiting us. It really, really means a lot. You haven't left yet (but by the time you read this you have) but thank you for coming and hanging out with me!!

We're Back

2008-07-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, after an extremely long day of traveling, we finally made it back to ND. There weren't too many problems while traveling...but a couple of really close calls. On the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, Nicole didn't have a seat until someone didn't show up...so that was really close. Then on the flight from Minneapolis to Fargo, we had about 45 minutes to get from one side of the airport, through customs, and to the other side of the airport (after going to the wrong gate). We finally get there and there were 2 seats left. Wow...just barely made it back, but we're here, safe, and trying to catch up to the time change. Anyways, that's all for now, just letting you know that we made it back safely!

It's Official

2008-07-14T22:32:00.001-07:00

Well, we're all packed up and ready to go. We are leaving today for Casablanca at noon. We're staying at a hotel tonight then leaving tomorrow morning at 4:40 for the airport.

It's crazy how fast time flew by. It seems like yesterday we just arrived in Fes and now we have to leave. It is definitely a sad goodbye. It's like we're leaving our family. This goodbye isn't permenant though.

This could be the last post before we get to the States. Thank you to all of you who have been faithful to me and Nicole. And even those who haven't been, thank you as well. You are all a part of our family.

One Week

2008-07-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

Our time here has come and gone. In just one week we'll be on the plane back to the states. We are due to arrive on July 16th at about 7:40, but who knows how traveling internationally will go.

Yesterday we went to the Medina. It was a ton of fun. We went with our mentors and both Nicole and I had a blast. We looked at (and bought) tons of stuff. This was our fourth trip into the medina, so that means the fourth time into the same shops. We did not buy a thing the first three times because we wanted to be able to eat. It's like going to your favorite mall and not buying anything until 2 months and 3 trips later. Needless to say, we bought unique things to remember Morocco by. When we get back, I'll post pictures of what we got so you can see them! (They're packed, or I'd do it now.)

Ifran/Azrou

2008-07-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that it has been a while since I have put up some pictures, but I think this post will make up for it. I'll add some captions to the pictures to help explain.

Moroccan Fruit Loops. Less colorful and less sugary. It reminds me of the colored pasta noodles...but only as Fruit Loops.

Ifran is a city located about an hour outside of Fes. It looks like a slice of Sweden landed in Morocco. There's the Swedish architecture, flowers, ponds, ...and this lion.

Just outside of Ifran and Azrou there's a mountain that has monkeys that run wild. As you can see from these next couple of pictures, there are no cages, no leashes, and no rabies shots. Thank God Michael Scott had the Rabies Fun Run. If you didn't get that joke...watch The Office Season 4 on www.hulu.com.

For some reason, baby monkeys are awesome.

The stare-down.

Pretty cool picture.

My favorite shot. Just so you know, Nicole took all of these pictures. She does an incredible job with a camera!

This is a cool shop in Azrou with fun curvy lamps. We ended up buying the cool candle holders in front of the lamps.

As you can see, Morocco is pretty awesome. It's weird to think that in 11 days we'll be back home. It's like we just came here...and now we're leaving. There's one thing for sure though, we will come back with a plethora of stories!

Personal Record

2008-07-04T02:56:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while I find joy in beating my own personal records. One of my favorites was in High School where I played guitar for 7 hours straight. For some reason, I don't have the time to beat that one...

Anyways, last night I beat one of my personal records. 7 cockroaches in one night. Take that Orkin-Man! No pesticides here. Just Ryan and his size 11 shoe!

Turkey Pics

2008-06-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Nicole and me at the banquet

Fun with shadows

The sand at the beach

Mountains

A cave tunnel at the pool

Friends?

Me, Nicole, and our good friend Rachel at "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

The cast (see previous post of what I thought about it).

Heat

2008-06-27T08:41:00.001-07:00

It's hot. There's no way around it. The high for the past couple of days has been around 108 with about 50% humidity. There's no dry heat here. Last night it cooled off to an amazing 76.

Here's an example of how hot it is. This morning when I took a shower, I went to grap my soap (liquid kind) which is normally a gel...when it's not boiling. I'm not kidding here, when I poured it out, it was just like thick water. The soap was warmer than I was. I didn't even touch the hot water nozzle. Nothin' but cold water for this guy!

The heat is worth it though. I would live through the heat just for the food. Then you add in the friends, the hospitality, and the culture and it's an added bonus. Anyways, that's all for now. Just expressing my love and affection of heat.

Flailing Arm Man

2008-06-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

While in Turkey, we had the opportunity to see a French version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". It was definitely lip-synced by people who don't speak French...therefore they just moved their mouth up and down, up and down. As if that wasn't funny enough...they brought out some male dancers and it seemed like they lost their choreographer just before they got to this song, so they told the dancers to go out there and start spastically flailing your arms. This is the result.

It doesn't help that they are wearing nothing but black boxer briefs. At the performance it looked like the black sensor bars they have on TV to cover up the inappropriately dressed people. If you need an example...just watch an episode of COPS.

Clean Shoes

2008-06-26T01:23:00.001-07:00

This has got to be one of the best stories of how Nicole and I ended up with clean shoes (without even doing anything!)

We have a friend who works for us cleaning, doing dishes, etc. kind of like a maid, but so much more. She is incredibly friendly, even though I can't really communicate with her as much as I'd like. She comes to our place every Wednesday morning. When we come home, we are continually surprised by her ingenuity. It is amazing what she thinks of to help us out. It's in the little things like, using a cup as a toothbrush holder, reorganizing our fridge, and putting our shoes in the washer the day before we leave for Turkey. Yep, you read that right. She did this out of the kindness of her heart and we really do appreciate it, but our shoes were still drying as we were wearing them on the plane ride to Turkey.

So here's how it happened. Nicole and I were upstairs at our mentor's house playing with their children, having a good time. Our mentor asked if I wanted to go somewhere with him. So I went downstairs to put my shoes on. I couldn't find them. Usually when she cleans the floors, she puts them in the window threshold, a random basket, etc. so they're not in the same spot all the time. After looking for them for about 5-10 min, our mentor asks F*****h (no, it's not a swear word, I just want to respect her privacy) where she put our shoes. She replied, "Well, they were upstairs playing with the children, so I put them in the washing machine. I didn't think they'd need them for a coulple of hours." After that she apoligized profusely.

I am really happy that she thought of cleaning our shoes, but unfortunately they take a little longer than a couple of hours to air dry...

So now you know the story of how we have clean shoes.

Turkey Wrap (Up)

2008-06-24T18:42:00.001-07:00

Get it? Turkey Wrap + Wrap Up = Turkey Wrap (Up), right? For the record, I thought of that a week ago and kept reminding myself so I wouldn't forget my prescious cheap joke.

Anyways, Turkey was absolutely incredible. As you can see from the pictures, we stayed at an incredible resort called Maritime Pine Beach Resort. The spelling could be wrong, but it doesn't matter. It was in Antalya, Turkey. It's on the Southern Coast of Turkey right along the Mediteranean Sea (sp?).

We had some of the best food we've had in a while. Turkish spices are absolutely incredible. They have a great mixture of spicy and sweet. However, their desserts were not as great as the main courses, which is a very good thing.

Without spilling my guts too much, I have to say that this time in Turkey helped direct me even more into what to do, where to go, how to get there, etc. I was encouraged by more than one person in leadership to go onto get my Masters in Counseling. The only problem I have with that is I don't want to stay in school. I'm getting a little taste of what's out there and I don't want to spent any more time in school. There's pros and cons both ways.

Ok, that's enough ranting for now. I'm writing this on the plane ride back to Casa (about 4 hours) then we have a train ride to Fez (about 4 hours) then a taxi ride to our place (about 5 min). We really are taking Planes, trains, and automobiles...in that order. Pretty neat. Anyways, that's all for now.

Resort

2008-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello from Turkey! Sorry it took a while to put up some pictures...we've been on the beach too much. haha...but seriously. The beach here is amazing, the food is amazing, the room is amazing, everything is amazing! So, here are the pictures (so far)...

A view of the beach

Being weird. I like this one because you can see Nicole in my sunglasses

The view from our balcony.

Nicole playing in the sand on the beach. That's the Mediterranean Sea.

Having fun in the pool. The next three pictures are taken in a row.

A garden in front of our room.

The beach

Nicole in the pool.

I'll try to put up some more pictures later!

We Made It

2008-06-18T15:01:00.001-07:00

After traveling for what seems like a while, but in reality is about 12 hours total, we have arrived at our resort in Turkey. More to come on that later (with pictures, and trust me...you won't want to miss them.)

I want to dedicate this part of my blog to my cousin Shawn and her baby, Micah. Micah, you have people all over the world thinking of you. So if you're reading this, keep Micah in your mind please!

Quick Update

2008-06-17T01:00:00.001-07:00

Hey, we're about to leave Fes (in about an hour.) I'm not sure if we'll have internet for the next week or so. If we do, I will update with pictures of the resort, writing about what it's like, etc. So check back to see if we have internet!

Leaving/Randomness

2008-06-15T23:18:00.001-07:00

Hello. I would just like to say that on Tuesday the 17th, we leave for Turkey! I am not sure if they'll have internet, so this site may not be updated until we get back on the 25th or so.

Anyways, things here are going really well. It's getting hotter and hotter each day. Yesterday it got up to 97! My North Dakotan blood was about to boil. Haha.

On a completely random note, the Cubs are doing so good right now! They have the best record in the majors (as of Monday morning/Sunday night.) I don't want to jinx them though.

Well, that's just a quick update for now. I'll try to post more picures and stuff later!

Pictures

2008-06-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures. I photoshopped them to make them look nicer (hopefully). Some just make the colors brighter and some give us a second head. Haha. Just kidding...but that would be funny. Anyways, enjoy!

At Volubulis

Moulay Idris

My mentor surprised me on my birthday with some figs. It's an acquired taste that I haven't acquired yet, but still trying!

Ancient ruins overlooking Fes.

Horse stables in Meknes. Yeah, it's long.

A view of the Medina of Fes.

Cool, huh?

Fountains on the walk from our mentor's house to our place

Commenting

2008-06-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, I have it set up where you don't have to have a google account to comment. All you have to do is click "Name/URL." Please write your name in the name section...just so I can know who's comment it is. Thanks! Hope that helps!

What We Do In a Day

2008-06-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

In this post, I'm going to try to explain our daily routine. First we wake up...obviously. If our mentor hasn't set a time to get going the day before, he calls to let us know. After that, we find out what we're doing for the day. Sometimes we go for an extended walk observing the people, sounds, culture, etc. Sometimes we head over to his place to hang out and informally talk about whatever comes up. Really awesome. Sometimes we have the day to do whatever we'd like to do. Sometimes we visit historic sights or important cultural landmarks. Sometimes we try to meet other requirements. Everyday is different which fits my personality perfectly...at least I think so. Then at night Nicole and I usually unwind by talking about different things like frustrations, observations, our favorite foods, etc. And that is a typical day.

Pretty soon (on Tuesday) we leave for Turkey. We knew our resort would be nice, but we didn't know it was going to be all-inclusive! Woo hoo! I can't wait to be swimming in the Mediterranean! I'll definitely be posting pictures. But for now, that's all folks.

Some Fun Stories

2008-06-05T23:53:00.001-07:00

I was at a local Hanout (a store) ordering some gummies. I was trying to order 15 of my favorite, plus a variety of others for a total of 40 Dirhams. Of course, I said words before thinking of what they actually meant. This is what I said, "Hkemseen hada oo schweea hada hada hada. Rrbaeen Dirham, affeck." What this means is "50 of this (my favorite kind) and a little of this and this and this-40 Dirhams please." They looked at me weird. I walked to our mentor's house and it clicked. I had ordered 50 of my favorite gummies instead of 15. Hkemstash is what I wanted to say. Oh well. At least I have my favorite gummies for a while.

Another story...

I told one of my Moroccan friends that my birthday was coming up and he said that he was really happy for me and that he would text me when it is my birthday. I was honored. He did just as he said and this was his text to me, "Happy birthday Mr Ryan!! your comrade ******** whom I Wish he was by your side to feed you a sweet cake." Haha. It was really nice of him to do that.

Pictures

2008-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

This is where Moulay Ismail would keep his foreign slaves. Extremely dark, scary, and unlivable. We saw where they were tortured, attacked, and murdered. Moulay was a fearsome ruler who was known to have killed over 20,000 people himself (that's an average of 2 a day.)

This is Moulay Ismail's horse stable. This picture doesn't really show all of it. It is humongous. He had about 80,000 horses in these stables.

This is in the stables. Kind of a cool picture but doesn't show much.

This is where Moulay would actually keep his horses. This is how long 1 row is (I'm guessing there were about 20 of these rows.) The width is just as long as the length, if that makes sense.

I just think this is a funny/cool picture of Nicole.

Pictures

2008-06-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here's some more pictures over the past couple of weeks.

This turtle/tortoise lives at our mentors house in their yard. It's always fun walking through there to find him.

Nicole, being the good student that she is, practicing writing her Arabic. I, on the other hand, sitting in the corner taking pictures...

Hand woven carpets=Amazing.

This is at the tannery in Fez (but a different one.) Today's colors were brown and red.

This is at Volubulis. We went there again the other day.

Pictures

2008-05-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

I figured it has been a while since I posted some pictures, so here are some more.

Cats are everywhere!

On our 1 year anniversary date.

I had steak on our anniversary. Yummy!

The flowers I got Nicole for our 1 year.

Pictures

2008-05-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

That's the ocean behind those houses

At the medina in Fez they sell camel meat...this is the head, which they sell as well. It looks tempting, but it could be a pain to get through customs.

Above and below is a leather tannery. It has a pungent smell...

This is in Moulay Adris

Saturday Morning

2008-05-24T03:45:00.000-07:00

I have always loved Saturdays because I never have to wake up to an alarm clock. That's not always true, but 90% of the time it is. Today is no exception. I woke up and laid in bed for about 2 hours and it was the best way to start off a day. The only things we really have planned are to go to the market to buy some food (maybe even some meat!) Then we are celebrating our mentor's birthday at his house with enchiladas and cake. Yummy! Other than that, we have today to do what we want and it feels really good. Anyways, thats really all for now. Feel free to comment/e-mail me if you'd like. Also, we just got skype...but we don't have phone numbers (except for the ones we have memorized) so if you'd like us to call, send me an email and I'll write your number down and give you a call when we have time. It's usually around 7-8 PM here, which is 2-3 Central time. I hope to hear from you!

Our Apartment

2008-05-20T13:13:00.001-07:00

Hey, here's a video of our apartment. Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qf33GYuriDa

Rabat

2008-05-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

The king's humongous mansion in Rabat

This is how they pour tea for special guests. Believe it or not, he did not spill one drop.

Us drinking the tea. It's delicious-Mint tea.

This was the nicest bathroom I've ever been in. I found excuses to use the bathroom because I felt like a king.

Rabat/Fez/Volubilis/Moulay Adris

2008-05-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

The main street in Rabat (the capital of Morocco)

The medina in Fez. This medina is humongous! By the way medina literally means city, but what a medina really means is a marketplace.

Me with something the Saharan's wear. I felt like Bear Grylls off Man vs. Wild minus the Wild. This was in the medina in Fez

A Roman city from a long long time ago-Volubilis (sp?). The pictures don't do a good service to what it really is...I promise I took this picture and didn't steal it from Wikipedia. Weird!

This is Moulay Idris. Moulay is the grandson of Mohammed (the prophed of Islam). He is the person who brought Islam to Morocco and this is city named after him. Just for the record...we climbed the highest hill. You can't really see it...but it was 2 hours of nothing but stairs and sun. I'm such a lazy person...

Marrakech/Rabat

2008-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Jmaa el Fnaa. aka Tourist Trap. Snake charmers, pet monkeys and all around great place

A waterseller. They flavor the water with roses...hence the name "Rosewater"

Delicious dried fruits. The apricots are my favorite

These guys are hilarious. This is still at Jmaa el Fnaa. Good times.

At the old castle in Rabat (it's on the ocean.) Doesn't Nicole have the best smile in the world?!

Casablanca/Marrakech

2008-05-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

Our first meal. It was noodles, chicken, peanuts, cinnamon, and sugar. DELICIOUS!

Nicole in the mosque (outside is pictured below)

The 3rd largest mosque in the world is in Casablanca. It has retractable ceilings and heated floors!)

A Moroccan friend I met outside the mosque. He noticed I was American and the first thing he said to me is, "I love sloppy joes!"

At a garden in Marrakech

We Have Arrived

2008-05-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hello hello hello! These last ten days have been incredible!! Tonight I will find some time to sort through the millions of pictures we have and post them. But I just wanted to let everyone know that we have arrived at our apartment and it is quite nice! Maybe I can take a video of it and post it on here...we'll see how ambitious I am. I'm going to go have dinner now. Check back later for posts with some pictures!

We Made It

2008-05-08T02:24:00.000-07:00

Hello. We made it safe and sound. We had no problems going through customs. It was very easy. Sorry about the lateness of this, but depending on our next hotel, it could be a little bit before our next update, but we will more than make up for it. We hqve TONS of pictures already, and most of them will be up in about a week when we settle into our apartment. I hope this helps!!

Ryan

2008-05-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

-24 hours until departure. It's weird having our whole life in a suitcase so we can pack up and live somewhere for months at a time. Right now we're counting our "lasts" for a while. Our last stuffed crust pizza, our last wal-mart, our last drive, etc. The list goes on and on.

On a separate note, mario kart for the wii rocks.

Snow

2008-04-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

I hate snow. Especially snow that falls in the last week in April. If I can remember right, the phrase goes, "April showers bring May flowers." I think North Dakota should have their rendition of this saying, "April snow showers bring May showers which bring June flowers which bring July snow storms." Seriously. Today's high was 33. Ridiculous. Granted, Ellendale didn't get a lot of snow, but every other town South and East of Ellendale got DUMPED on. We're talking snow, sleet, ice, wind, everything! I'll be so happy when we leave and we won't have to worry about freak snow storms.

On a good note, today was the last day of classes. All we have left now are finals. Woo hoo!

2 Weeks

2008-04-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here's our picture from banquet a couple weeks ago.

Well, it's weird to think, but we're 2 weeks from departure. It's exciting yet very nerve racking. No more waking up on Saturday's, having a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and catching up on sports with SportsCenter. It will be different, but exciting all at the same time. 3 months might not seem like a long time, but I know it's going to fly by! Anyways, that's my thoughts for now.

Pictures

2008-03-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, I figure I should put up a couple of pictures. Some of you may not know me (Ryan) or my wife Nicole. So here's a couple of pictures of us.

By the way, there are probably going to be a TON of grammar errors, so if you're into that kind of thing, let me know and I'll fix it.

This summer, posts will look very similar to this, but maybe just a little caption under (or above) the picture.

Welcome!

2008-03-19T11:09:00.001-07:00

Hey! You found my blog. I'm glad that you are checking this out.

In May when I leave, I will be posting pictures. There probably will not be text for certain reasons. Feel free to bookmark this site and check back as I put up pictures.

2008-01-07T11:17:00.001-08:00