Random Photo of the Random Moment: Caleb MacDonald

Hey Caleb, I would have thought that an earring like this one would be slightly out of your character, but as they say, seeing is believing!

Actually, in absolute honesty (for those who weren't there), this was a bit of trick photography on my part. Caleb was telling a very interesting story, and Joseph was twirling the chain. Meanwhile, I was standing there with my camera, and just so happened to snap the picture just at the right (random) moment!

Sorry Caleb, I just had to post the picture. It was great seeing you last weekend, and hopefully we will meet up with your family again sometime soon.

More to come about last weekend's trip to Houston later.

Six Flags Great America!

September eighth found most of our family (Dad, Joseph, Joanna, Josiah and I) at Great America for their annual Homeschool Day. There were also a few of our friends from our church there. These included the Webb, Englund, VonHolten, and Carlson Family. Below are a few photos from the day.


The first ride of the day was Super Man! The lines are reputably long for this ride, so we hit it right away. I rode it with Aaron Englund who waited back with me in the line for the front row. Luke VonHolten, Dustin Webb, Anna VonHolten and Joanna Erber decided the wait was too long, and jumped the rope and headed for the back rows.


Next was Raging Bull! I only hit this one three times, but I got some pretty cool video footage on the last time. I might be able to post that later.


Throughout the day got my nerve up for the Giant Drop. This ride is just a tall pole that drops your bench about 250 feet free fall, and then grabs you for the last 50 feet. Aaron Englund was the one responsible for getting me to ride this.


Well, I didn't think I'd survive that ride, but I did. As a matter-of-fact I went three more times, and brought Mrs. Webb and Dad along two of the times.

Stay tuned as I'll try to get some video footage from Raging Bull up later.

Random Photo of the Random Moment

Tavia? ...Rich Man?

ICHE's 2005 Father/Son Retreat

Lately I have been very busy working with Jeremy on an addition that he has just started building on a customers house, practicing the Piano, selling various items via ebay, and also (best of all) ICHE's 2005 Father/Son Retreat held at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Here are a few pictures from the retreat last weekend.


For those of you who have seen the Trunk Monkey Commercials - We Were There!!!



Walking through the Museum you've got to keep your eyes out for ravenous monsters lurking around every corner.


Joseph even found one to ride, and we had some high-speed racing action there for a minute.


I walked into one room, and there was someone's pet Dino that had gotten loose.


Friday Morning/Early afternoon found us moving 160 yards of mulch into the islands in their main parking lot.


Oops... Was this Supposed to happen? No It Was NOT!

At one point during the morning the people in charge at AIG started getting optomistic that we could finish the first 70 yards of mulch by 2:00pm. Well, we had it all done by 11:30am, so they ordered another truck load of mulch while we were eating lunch. It came in, and as you can see, dumped the mulch in the less-common way. We were able to get the trailer empty, and the mulch distributed by mid afternoon.


Hmm...


Ken Ham gave a teaching to us on Friday Night. I even got to shake hands with him (or a picture of him).


Here is a picture of our group that was taken by Ken Ham himself, immediately following his address.



Wrestling was the activity of the evening. As you can see, there was some stiff competition between some of the participants. The next morning, many woke up even stiffer with bruised backs that were slowly seeping out clear... Maybe I won't mention the details. Needless to say, the ground was bumpy and hard, and the bruises didn't come in their sleep.


Some matches were so even, and SO LONG, that the spectators lost their interest.


Saturday some of the crew helped with the Irrigation Systems, and the Waterfall. Meanwhile, others helped staff the AIG Staff picnic. I got to Ref' a few volleyball games, including the one shown above that featured a "Big Ball" (this is a totally different game, even though the only difference is the ball).


Saturday night we enjoyed Pudgy Pies around the fire before we headed off to hit the hay.


Here's a picture of the whole crew. Over 75 guys!

You can read about the retreat from AIG's perspective at the AIG Museum Blog.
You can also watch a video there, that we are in.

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Liberty Day

Whoa there Henry, this is a discussion not an argument.

Shown above is Joshua (Patrick Henry) presenting an excellent argument in response to the discussion of whether or not the colonies should be prepared to defend themselves against the invading British. Liberty Day 2005.

Plan now to attend the next annual Liberty Day Festivities, March 4, 2006, featuring special guest speaker Paul Jehle.

Mozilla Firefox

Hey everybody!

This may not be new news to many, but if you don't have Mozilla Firefox, you need to get it! We just made the switch to it and I am amazed! Ever since AOL came out with it's software bomb (aka web browser), I have been a bit shy to any web browser but Microsoft Internet Explorer (for Windows users). After all, it was clean, basic, and reliable (I thought)! What could be better?!? We'll, Firefox is better! It's faster, and safer! You see, most internet viruses and spyware are designed to come in through Microsoft Internet Explorer, so, if you are using Firefox, they can't get you!!! Now, after many months of preassure I finally made the switch. And now I'm putting preassure on all of you out there who haven't yet made the swich... You've gotta try it.

It's fast, free, safe, and easy to install! Click HERE to go to the Download page now!

Air-Soft Training.

Here are some pictures from last Friday, when we played Air-Soft with four new Air-Soft guns that I just got in a trade. We decided to play a couple of rounds before dinner, to decide who were the cooks.

Fortunately (for everyone that ate dinner) I was on the winning team, and didn't have to cook.


The loosers (Joseph and Josiah) cooking dinner.

Josiah got lucky and went with Josh to Wal-Mart to get some more BB's.
This is also when Josh was scolded for letting Josiah cary the BB's.


The winning team relaxing...
Or rubbing in the win.


The mafia invading.
I couldn't find my sunglasses so I got a nice pair of goggles instead.



The dead waiting to be raised up.

Praise the Lord for Rain!

This morning we received LOTS of much needed rain. Praise the Lord!
It rained like a rain forest for an hour straight, with lots of drizzle before and after, returning the grass to a nice healthy bright green.

Now its about 80 degrees out, and the sky is blue without a cloud in sight. And trust me...

IT IS VERY HUMID!

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Mrs. Toussaint

Our Final Winner of the July Random Photo of the Random Moment was Mrs. Toussaint! Congratulations! Shown in this photo (r-l) is Mrs. Toussaint, Joanna Toussaint, and Grandma?
I was not at the ICHE Mother/Daughter Retreat, (Praise God!) so I am not 100% sure.

We'll, I've got a lot to update since our trip, so stay tuned!

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Jeanine Erber

Our last winner on the Random Photo of the Random Moment was Jeanine Erber! Congrats Jeanine!
This picture was taken at an ICHE Board Meeting as some of the board kids (no pun intended) played with a new digital camera.

In the picture from left to right is: Jeanine Erber, Kristen Gibert, Amber Moeller, and Gretchen Sisson.

The Huber Caffe'

"Fellowship Of The Spirit"
----------------------------------------------

No, the last picture of Brandon was not a recent one. It was taken last November just after the SanAntonio Independant Christian Film Festival.

The picture shown above was taken last night as we sat around with the Hubers and enjoyed a few Frappuccinos, and lot's of good fellowship via Text Messaging and A.I.M. The Hubers really have a nice Caffe' set up here. Anyone who hasn't had the privilege of being here yet really needs to come. The internet is free, and the fellowship (and food) is great!

Thanks for the Frapps, Nikkae!

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Brandon Huber

Our next winner is...

Brandon Huber! Congratulations Brandon!

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Anthony Huber

I desire to wish a warm Congratulations to Anthony Huber, on being the first to post on Random Photo previous to this one!

Due to the fact that I won't be posting much about our trip on this blog, I have decided to continue this program of Random Photo's it until we get home from our trip (August 9th).

So until next time, happy blogging!

Phoenix, Santa Barbara, Back, and Beyond!

Hey Everybody!

I'm blogging from El Paso TX right now, but rather than telling you how I got here, I will simply insert this nifty little link and you can read all about it on our family's blog. The Erber family blog address is: erbersetc.blogspot.com.

Until next time,
Jonathan Erber

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Joshua Erber!

Our last Random Photo winner was Joshua Erber! This picture was taken from the same night as Justin Kelly's "Random" photo.

I am currently posting from Santa Barbara CA, so stay tuned for some photos and stories from our trip. They should be up in about a week or so.
Josh

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Justin Kelly

Our last Random Photo winner was Justin Kelly! Shown in this picture is Justin Kelly, and Joshua Erber (l-r).

And we're not sure why these two always send each other to the ER?

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Nathan Del'

Our most recent winner of the Random Photo of the Random Moment was Nathan Deladurantey! Congratulations Nathan!

This photo was taken at last year's Liberty Day Celebration, as the Erberantey Ensemble performed an original arrangement of Revolutionary Tea.

Obviously it is Nathan in the front, with Joshua, Jonathan and Jeremy (l-r) behind him.

Random Photo of the Random Moment: Josiah Ortega

Our last winner of the Random Photo of the Random Moment was Josiah Ortega!
He is shown in this picture wearing the crown as the King of England next to Jeremy.

Sorry that he wasn't more visible, but after a week of looking this was the only photo of him that we could find!

Happy Birthday Luke!

I'd like to wish a big Happy Birthday to my close friend, colleague and fellow Cub fan Luke VonHolten.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!!!

The Wild Blue Yonder...

Last Christmas, Dad gave me a gift certificate for a free introductory flight lesson. So just last Saturday we decided to head over to Dacy Airport (about two minutes from our house) and go up for a flight.


It was really great, we spent about an hour going over the plane to make sure that it was ready for flight. It usually doesn't take this long to do a pre-flight inspection, but she explained everything that she was looking for and what each part/sensor/device did.




After that was done we got into the plane, started the engine, checked all of the controls, and headed for the runway.



Should I take off without her???



Once we were off the runway she handed the controls over to me, and announced that "it's all yours"! I think that she regretted that later... just kidding. After we were up to about 1700' we circled around, saw our house (we are the gray house in the trees just to the right of the pool), and then headed North East towards Lake Geneva. It was Saturday so the lake looked really neat covered with sailboats.


From there we went slightly more East to see the really cool corn maze that is pictured above, we circled around this and headed for home. Once we came into the last leg of the landing pattern and started heading in toward the runway, she took back most of the controls and we touched down just fine. After we had slowed down to about 30MPH she let me taxi back to the office. This was probably the hardest part because you steer with your feet by pushing the pedals back and forth, but you also break by tilting the pedals up and down. Needless to say, I couldn't taxi in a straight line. Over all, it was really a neat experience, and I hope I can get my own plane someday.