Dec 26, 2008
At the Redeemer Youth Christmas Party this year we enjoyed all sorts of great snacks, a huge Chick-fil-A nugget tray and then we played some games. Early one we played Birdman and later finished off the night playing honey if you love me please please smile. This lead to some really funny pictures which are in this post. Click here to read the rest of this post.
Dec 26, 2008
Past 11 Months
I’ve been working with Travis “Ubuntu” Shanahan this week on making some big changes to The Graze. In other words this week I have tried to do something technical and failed and then Travis did something technical and succeeded. This blog began February 1st 2008, a mere 11 months ago as a means of put all things related to Redeemer Youth Ministry in one place. Since then there have been 207 post, and 14,665 visits (roughly 45 a day, 20 of those might be Tony making sure I have not posted embarrassing pictures of him) If you ever find yourself looking for something interesting to do, go through the archives in the left side bar, it reminds of all the fun stuff we did this past year. Up until now The Graze has been hosted on a free site called wordpress.com which is great, but limited what can be done on the site to a set of preselected options and about 60 themes (most of which are plain white).
Future
This week we changed to what is called a hosted WordPress blog. This will allow greater freedom regarding what can go on this site. For instance check out the 2009 Youth Calendar page on the left sidebar. All events youth related will be on that calendar. Click on an event and you can see more details including a map to the location if not at church (try HS and College Game Night on 29th for example). This hosted version allows for various file types to be used for video, pdf, flash, mp3, etc. making this more like a website than just a blog, for that reason www.RedeemerStudentMinistry.com will no longer be used after January. Any info which would have been found there will be here.
These changes also provide almost unlimited visual themes and customization. I’ll change the theme at least once a quarter due to the ease in which it can be done, for now winter seems appropriate. The switch gave us opportunity to add a domain name at no extra cost so we added www.rpcyouth.com meaning you can get to The Graze by going to www.TheGraze.org or www.RPCyouth.com. those who have struggled to remember the address will appreciate the easier to remember RPC Youth.com address. Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding different features to the blog and I’ll draw attention to each aspect as it is added. I hope you enjoy the graze as much as I enjoy posting on it. Huge thanks to Travis Shanahan for using his God given ubuntu skills to make this update happen.
Dec 19, 2008
We’ve loved to hear about fun foods and places in Kansas City so I thought we would share this post with all y’all. Since moving to Kansas Laura and I have been in search of the best food in a few different categories. One area of great importance to Laura is where she can get the best cookie in Kansas City. After trying out every place in town we can confidently say that the best cookie in Kansas City is Connie’s Cookies located on Metcalf avenue just north of 95th street near MicroCenter and Borders.
Laura first learned of Connie’s during the Summer Olympics when the Vos’ hosted a Gymnastics watching party (I assure you I did not attend this “sporting” event, Laura did.) to root on Shawn Johnson (there is a butter statue of her in Iowa, weird place). At the party were Connie’s Cookies which Roxie, Renae and Julie had been raving about. Laura came home and couldn’t tell me who won the gymnastics, but described every detail of some cookie she ate. A day later she drove to Connie’s Cookies and bought a box herself. We’ve been hooked ever since. They are simple iced sugar cookies and yet uniquely better than any cookie I’ve ever tasted.
Today was a special day for Laura though. We went into Connie’s to get some cookies as a gift and while we were there asked if we could take a picture as we’ve been meaning to blog about this for awhile. We took a picture and the owners Julie and CIndi invited Laura behind the counter to learn how to ice the cookies. It was like she ran into a famous singer, actor or athlete for Laura to be able to do this. To understand better you must know that Laura has been trying to ice cookies like Connie’s for some time. In fact when discussing this with Sarah it was decided that they must have a machine that does the icing. No machine, just the world’s greatest cookie-icer. She ices 1200 cookies a day and has a brace on her wrist to prove it. Below are more photos of Laura’s best day ever. Notice her face when they tell her she can keep the cookie she iced. Anyway if you have not tried these cookies yet quit wasting your time and go grab a box of them. Best served with a tall glass of milk. Follow link to see Laura learn to ice a cookie. Click here to read the rest of this post.
Dec 18, 2008
Friday night from 7 to 10 students from 6th grade through college are invited to the Redeemer Youth and College Christmas Party in the Youth Room at church. This will be an insanely great time of fellowship as we get caught up with what God has been doing in the lives of our college students. You are invited to bring dessert food, but not required to. We have ordered a tray of 200 Chick-fil-a nuggets with barbeque, buffalo and the mysterious “Chick-fil-a” sauce. We’ll be playing a mix of Birdman, Family Feud (board game edition) and Taboo. Hope to see you there!
Dec 16, 2008
Wednesday Evening the students of Breakaway will join with Martha’s annual Caroling in the neighborhood just east of Redeemer. We will meet in the Youth Room before going out as one large group. Students are expected to remain with the group the entire time. We will go from home to home singing carols (printed sheets of lyrics will be provided) proclaiming the coming of Christ to residents. The evening is over at 8 p.m. Please be sure to dress for very cold weather. The weather man is predicting something in the mid 20s. Parents you are invited and encouraged to join us for this evening of caroling.
Dec 14, 2008
Sunday, rather the Lord’s Day, the children of Redeemer put on the 2008 Christmas Pageant. Led by Kimberly Bigg our children did a insanely great job retelling the story of our Savior’s birth. Follow the link for a few more select photos and/or for the link to our Flickr account where there is a set of 134 pictures from the evening. (flickr account updated to include pictures from Sarah Rose) Click here to read the rest of this post.
