Yeah, He Can Shake It!!!!

It's been a long while since i've written on my blog. I've often thought about what i need to post on here, but just haven't gotten around to it. I think it's funny that this is the post that i felt had to be shared with the world.

I went dancing the other night for the first time in what seems like a really long time. In the midst of having fun and letting myself start to loosen up and dance, a certain skilled dancer comes to mind time and again.

"The Carlton Dance" should be a regular tool in any dancer's repertoire. While most are familiar with the hilarity of the dancing of Carlton Banks, played by Alonso Ribeiro, on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, not everyone is aware of his dancing expertise.

Here's a compilation of "The Carlton Dance"


For the ill-informed, Carlton loves the singer Tom Jones, who's song "It's Not Unusual" was Carlton's song of choice. I'd like to point out here that Tom Jones is Welsh. Tom Jones has an incredible voice and was obviously really hot when he was young.



I'm half Welsh, which, by default, means my voice is pretty good and i'm kinda hot.

While being the originator of "The Carlton Dance" is incredible in and of itself, I'd like to point out that 'Carlton' is a much better dancer than that. Alonso Ribeiro was a star dancer as a child, appearing on commercials, TV specials, and more. I love it that his dorky character could move like this. I could seriously watch these clips all day, laughing all the while.

And you know i can dance like that.

You Should See Me Move!!!

well....... it happened. i packed up my little VW golf with lots of clothes and other interesting things and headed north in good company. the first few days were packed full and went by rather quickly. it's monday, raining, cold, and it's starting to sink in that i'm here for real. i'm working on finding an apartment/room, which is the next step. i'm enjoying being here, though it feels a little weird to be back in this place in an extended sort of way.....
in other news...... i might be switching cars. VW for VW. i'll keep you posted. cause you're dying to know.

I wanted a deer..... i got a deer..... kinda.

i've only been hunting twice in my life. i've never had a hunting license, so i just go to spot. you know.... "THERE'S A SQUIRREL!!! SHOOT THE SQUIRREL!!!!" i'll just say that a number of squirrels were shot, solely because of my presence. moving on.....

scott from work talks about hunting, guns and whatnot on a regular basis at work. i mentioned once that i'd only been hunting one time and since then he's been offering that i could go along some time.

it's archery season here in virginia, so i finally took up his offer and went along with he and his son, chance.



nothing crazy happened. i dressed warm, happy to be able my boots. they were in camouflage. we climbed up into a tree stand and waited. and waited. and waited. i'd say we were up there for over 2 hours. as scott said, 'the woods were dead.' we didn't see any animals besides birds the whole time. i wasn't really expecting to see any carnage, but thought i'd be nice if it'd happen. or at least to see something.





once again.... WE SAW NOTHING!!!!

then today, November 11th, my 28th birthday, began.....
it began quite nicely, i might say. mindy called just after midnight to wish me a birthday. then my mom had a birthday cupcake waiting for me when i got upstairs. i left for church, running late for worship team practice.

about 4 minutes after leaving home, i followed the road through some woods, moving at around 45 mph, and right when it was opening up into a field i saw something at my far right and then BANG!!!!! my passenger side window exploded and glass flew all over my car.

i knew right away that it had to be a deer. i was pretty shocked, but slowed down while checking my rear-view mirror and seeing the deer lying in the road. i pulled into the next driveway, cleaned the glass off my clothes and out of my hair, and started walking back down the road towards the 'scene of the attack.'

i guy had been driving behind me and was now coming up the road. he slowed down to ask if i was ok. he said that he had seen the deer coming towards my car and there was pretty much nothing to be done. i was bolting across the road and just had either terrible or wonderful timing, depending on how you look at it. it ended up laying on the road for a few seconds before getting up and running off.





the damage........ passenger side window completely broken and scattered across my car, side mirror broken off with mirror shards throughout the inside of my car, a third of my windshield shattered and knocked in, dents and scratches on the side and front panel of my car, deer hair stuck on the window and door. i think that about cover's it.



so, to rap this up. i sat up a tree in the cold for 2 hours hoping to get a glimpse of a deer and was disappointed. then this morning, one came to me.

Easy....... Fun....... Tasty

I haven't written on here in a long time. i'll be writing more very soon about other interesting things in my life, but first.....

i saw this on the BBC News website and had to check it out.



www.freerice.com is just awesome. you click on a word that best defines the word above. If you get it right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. If you get it wrong, you get an easier word. so either way, sometime you're probably going to get a word right. or am i right? or am i right?

I just did it and got to vocab level 33, with 280 grams donated. my brain hurts, so i think i'll come back later and start over. they definitely find some interesting words.

so, enjoy..... learning and helping others.

Where Can I Go With That?

I finally got around to using a day of vacation. It's been about 10 months now that i've been working for Munns Manufacturing. I never wanted to ask for a day off, cause i felt bad leaving the other guys to work overtime. anyhow. i finally decided that the benefits outweighed my negative feelings of leaving the guys hanging.

So i go to my boss and ask how many days of vacation i had saved up, not having taken any days yet. 10 months of work. if you're in Germany you might be thinking something like 4 weeks. that would be acceptable. if you're from the states, you know that's ridiculous.

30 hours. that's right. just 3 of my normal 10 hour days. not a week or maybe even 2. i MIGHT come out of this whole year of work with a week of vacation. that, i might add, includes working mostly 50 hour weeks.

so what can you do in a week of vacation? sorry folks, but i'm not flying to Germany for a week. i'd rather quit work and make it a 2 month trip. a week is nuts. i'll probably just end up using a couple days to make some long weekends, then a super long weekend to go somewhere further away, like the beach or the mountains, or........ probably to lancaster.

why, you may ask, is this such a big deal? i find myself working and dreaming of what i could do with 5 weeks of vacation. why do we work so much and get so little vacation? why are our lives so overshadowed by this work junk? work so much that your vacation is you trying to get back the lost life/energy that was sucked out of you by work. yeah..... i'm exaggerating. :-) but it kinda does feel like that. between the driving, the unpacking, packing and driving, it feels like such a short time to be and enjoy. no 3 weeks........ more like 3 days.

I found this chart online, which got me thinking about this again. finland: 44 , Germany: 35 , USA: 25. ahhhhhhh, but may i point out that germany's 24 minimum paid vacation days are a definite. no ifs, ands or buts. the USA, however, has a cute little footnote thinger. we have no law that sets a minimum amount of paid vacation. so those 15 days that they're counting are an average for employees "with 10 years of service."

I'm enjoying my extended weekend, but can't ignore that little kick in the gut that reminds me what all this work isn't getting me. or....... i guess i'm not so worried about myself. i'll be ok. but my co-workers, working over time to make ends meet and to enjoy those few hours/days that they get to spend with their kids amidst it all, or waiting for friday to drive to their cabin to soak in every minute of escape that they've fought for. i wish they'd get to have a 5 or even 3 week vacation getaway with their families.

i know i'd see a difference in their eyes when they'd get back.

Ein Jahr.

I've been thinking about this for a while..... i left germany and arrived back in the US one year ago.

time flies by... on the one hand it feels like so much has happened/changed since then, yet it's all still so vivid in my mind. i think about germany all the time, day dream about what i miss, talk to myself in german, and just still feel really connected.

three and a half years. that's a long time to spend somewhere. definitely longer than one year.

ganz sicher.

i was planning to write alot more, but i'm just so tired from work today. :-/

Can't Wait to Hear the Star Spangled Banner.

I'm been working at Munns Manufacturing the past 9 months and most days we listen to the WCYK 99.7, a local country radio station. Besides playing the same songs over and over and over again every day, the station also has a creative way of announcing the lunch hour.

When twelve o'clock rolls around, there's a short pause and then it begins..... The Star Spangled Banner
. An accapella men's vocal arrangement signals that i am free to sit down for the wonderful half hour lunch break.

So whether or not i'm a super patriot....... i look forward to hearing the national anthem every day, hopefully as quickly as possible.

Allergic to....... America?

Growing up in pennsylvania, my allergies usually got really bad twice a year. i'd have several completely miserable days where i'd be sneezing all day long, blowing my nose, wiping snot all over the place,.... you get the picture. it just drains your energy and frustrates you. i'd get the good meds to help me make it through the day.Then i moved to germany. my allergies barely bothered me at all in germany in the 3 and a half years that i was there. i might have had slight sniffles one day, but not even enough to take medication or really be bothered by them. i thought about it and enjoyed the notion of not being tortured twice a year.

.....now i'm back in the US. we're in that spring/summer phase thing with stuff blooming/blossoming and lots of pollen in the air. i don't know what it is, but there's SOMETHING in america that i'm allergic to.

Work today was unbearable. i somehow felt that it would be a rough day, so i took a handkerchief along in my back pocket. i was constantly pulling it out to blow my nose or sneezing all over the place. it was soaked before lunch and i was miserable, wondering if i could go home early because of allergies. i pushed on through the day, wishing it would all be over and wondering what i could get some medication.

Long story short, i called my mom and found out that she had some hidden at home. i'm happy to say that i made it through bible study this evening without snorting loudly, sneezing, or hocking up snot.

i wish i knew exactly what it is that i'm reacting to. or could it just be america?

The Scanning has Begun!!!!

I've been wanting a scanner for a long time and just wasn't able to make a decision about which one to get. right. indecisive. i want to scan all the old pictures that we have laying around, from my immediate family, great great great grandparents, friends and all that good stuff.
long story short, i made a decision and bought a scanner.
I got a Canon Canoscan 4400F online and after receiving it several days ago have started scanning such wonderful pictures as this one.As you can see, being able to put pictures like this online was well worth the investment. i'll be scanning alot more and posting lots online.

Yeah, I'm Movin on Up....

Well folks, my time in Virginia is about to come to an end. As of May 14th, I will be working as a Refugee Case Manager/Social Worker for Lutheran Refugee Services in Lancaster, PA.
I've really really enoyed my time here in virginia with my family, new friends, church and work. when i came back from germany, i figured that i wouldn't stay here very long and didn't make much of an effort of integrating myself or puttin down my roots.
Despite that, I started relaxing in the little amount of time that i wasn't working.
So when the job offer came, the decision was harder than i thought it would be. I didn't give a straight up "yep. i'll take it." it was more like "umm........ i'd like the weekend to think about it."
i had been hoping for a job like this since i got back from germany. i'll be working with refugees, helping them to overcome obstacles to employment, whatever they might be.
i'm really looking forward to starting this new job after spending the last 6 months building steeples and wondering what my next step in life should be. the decision was also hard because i had been toying with the idea of going back to school for a masters in social psychology or international studies. i just don't think i'm the greatest student. :-) change that......... i don't like to study.
my first day of work will be in philadelphia, then it's back to lancaster. it feels strange moving back to lancaster, the place where i spent 20 years of my life.

things have changed. i've changed. i'm shaking just thinking about it.
starting over. again.

oh. did i mention that i wanna buy a house?

Letters of Christmas Past.

Our family has sent out yearly christmas letters for who knows how long. My mom keeps everything. This year she came up with the cool idea to give us each a copy of all the christmas letters from 1984 - 2006. There are lots of memories in there and i thought it'd be cool to share some excerpts. Parts may be difficult to understand without background information, but you'll get it.
enjoy........

1984- Jared's love is nursery school. He can't wait to go on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He's making lots of friends and enjoying himself. He's also feeling his oats with his brothers and standing his ground. No one pushes him around. Of course, that makes for some fun bouts sometimes.

1985- another highlight of our year was a trip to Disney World in Orlando in July. We sunned on the beaches of St. Petersburg, enjoyed a visit to Kennedy Space Center, and greeted Miceky and friends with a smile.....
Jared started kindergarten this year and loves it. He takes special care of our new hamster "Nibbles".

1988- Jared is a third grader at Quarryville Elementary School. His big thing this year was getting glasses, which he was looking forward to. He now tells everyone, "and now I look like my daddy." To show you how active he is, in a short time he has bent or brokern off 3 arms on his glasses in sporting events......
Jared loves Garfield. In his room you find a complete Garfield library, posters, and stuffed animals.
This seemed to be the "year of the pet" at the Hankee house. Jared started it off with a hamster for his birthday, which died after one week. We still can't figure ou twhat happened. We now have two rabbits which belong to Seth and Tom. They bring them into the house regularly and even want to train them to walk on a leash. (Janet and I might try that with them if it works with the rabbits).

1990- Bruce's father died in September, after a year-long bout with brain cancer.....
In mid-October Tom announced that he was leavning our home, feeling the call to independent living and hte opportunity to "be on his own."

1992- Jared officially announced that Bruce is now the shortest one in the family.

1993- One of the highlights of the year for us was hosting an exchange student from Spain, Miguel Alonzo, for 4 weeks in July. He fit irhgt into the family and we enjoyed taking him with us to Pine Lake Family Camp in Wisconsin.
Jared is an 8th grader at Lancaster Christian and has decided that he will spend his high school years at Lancaster Mennonite High School. Jared played goalie in LCS's soccer team and is currently playing on the basketball team.

1997- Jared, who turned 18 in November and got his braces off as a birthday present, is a senior at Lancaster Mennonite High School. Jared and several of his friends have a "Happy Campers" group. They love to camp out under the stars, even in sub-zero weather. In August, 1996, Jared spent three weeks in Pamplona, Spain, visiting an exchange guest, Miguel Alonzo, that we hosted several times. He works part-time at a local Chinese restaurant and still loveds to play his guitar with friends and at school chapel services.

1998- Jared just completed his first semester at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va, where he is majoring in Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies and singing in the EMU Chorale.

1999- Jared left for Albania November 31 and will return home August 15,2000. On March 8 Janet's Father, Homer Luckenbill, Jr., suffered a stroke and brain hemmorage that left him critically ill.

2000- After fasting and praying for several months at the end of his mission, the Lord led Jared to move into Lancaster at 362 S. Ann St., Lancaster, PA into a discipleship house with 5 other Christian friends.

2003- This time last year janet, Bruce and Seth celbrated Christmas in Germany while visiting our son, Jared, during his InterMenno mission experience. Jared returned home in August from his year in Germany and Switzerland.

After 21 years as pastor of St. Paul's Church, Quarryville, Bruce has accepted a call to pastor Greenmonte Mennonite Church in Stuarts Draft, VA. The Hand of God has been so evident in this call in so many ways. We sold our house on Friday, November 21, the first day on the market.

2004- Jared is still serving in Germany as the coordinator of the German Mennonite Church's refugee resettlement and asylum ministry.

2006- Jared completed 3 years of mission in Germany, arriving home july 31. he is living with us and has a temporary job building church steeples in waynesboro until he decided what the next step will be. Jared left in early september and completed a seven week cross country road trip to california, putting 10,000 miles on his car. He is enjoying reconnecting with seth and playing guitar on the church's worship team.


I know that i mostly included what was written about me, but it would have been so.............. much. i'm you're intested, i'll tell you what happened to who on what year. There was generally about a paragraph per person each year.

diary entry from Feb 14. 2007

"Well, It's valentines day and the power is out. No wishing anyone a happy V-day by email or anything like that. No Yoko Ono for me.

It's funny, but this is the type of evening that I've been wanting for a while. It feels like switzerland. The lights are all out, the stars are shining like nobody's business, candles are lit, I'm just sitting and relaxing. No TV, no internet, no distractions. Just peace and quiet and time that just welcomes you to be at ease.

It's almost as if i can look across the valley to see the snow shining by moonlight and the farmhouses that dot the hillside. Warm tea in my hand, my hostparents' guitar and just.......... time.

I think there's a big difference in being isolated from the world with your view blocked by trees or mountains so that you can't see anyting... and being isolated with the ability to look out over the world that is quiet and yet distinctly seperate from you. Alone, just being, and nudging the world along and witnessing the small wonders. A cow bell from across the valley. Smoke from a farm house chimney glowing in the night.

Just taking in the world."

thinkin.

so....... i'm sick. i missed 2 days of work, saturday is almost gone and i'm still pretty darn sick. i was hoping to beat this thing over the weekend, but it's looking like that won't happen.
i started housesitting wednesday night for a couple from my church that's out of the country for a couple months. that means i'm sick in a house by myself. the tv isn't working right now, so i've been reading some.
but if being sick is good for anything, it's good for making you think. think about life, family, the past, friends, faith, love, where you're headed, how nasty it is to be sick.
who knows. if i stay sick much longer, i may have it all figured out.

Bruce. The Man. The Legend.

Months ago i wrote on here about my dad's cancer, surgery and recovery. it's odd to think that 3 months ago on my birthday he was laying in the hospital in lancaster. He had a really quick recovery and was blessed to not have all the normal problems that often come with his surgery.
He's been pushing himself hard to get back in shape and to continue to lose weight, doing great on both of those. you wouldn't be able to tell that he had major surgery 3 months ago.
The past week brought around my dad's 57th birthday. the man took it all in stride and shows no signs of slowing down.....
basketball season is coming to an end, but he kept fit with his favorite past time, reffing basketball games. here's a little clip of a game i showed up at.
Another year has passed and i continue to be blessed to have an awesome, loving dad.

my first trip with work.

I've been working at Munns Manufacturing for about 2 months now. We build steeples, which means that we also deliver them so they can be installed. There are several guys that drive for most deliveries.

We'd been working on a steeple for a while that was to go on library in Toms River, New Jersey. This thing took forever. We had to put copper shingles on the top of it, cleaning the copper first, then spraying it with a solution to start the patina process.

Then, we had to take part of the steeple apart to get it out the door and so that it wouldn't be too large to be delivered. This past monday morning 4 of us left with 2 trucks and trailers. It was a 4 day trip with all the driving, re-assembling, and installation.

I had lots of fun with the good company of my co-workers. Oh, i should mention that the steeple went on an old church building that's attached to the library and which will be turned into a coffee shop/cafe.

This is what it looked like when we arrived. Most of the gables and one side were not attached. It took us a full day to re-attach the one side and the gables, all while it was still on the trailer.




I was gonna comment on all this, but it's pretty self-explanatory and i'm tired. We certainly had issues with putting it back together and getting it placed. Ask me if you wanna know.

Before the Cut.

The last time i had had my hair cut was at the beginning of september for brad's wedding. i'd been hearing "about time for a haircut, isn't it?" for a while. so before my sister and law, melissa, cut it at a christmas get-together, i felt the need to document my mane before it got chopped and i shaved off my facial stubble as well.

You can tell that i kinda enjoyed this.

Stuck on the inside.

I was at work saturday morning to help finish a steeple that we needed to get ready to ship to wisconsin. It's not a big steeple, so the inner structure isn't very large. someone needed to climb up inside the steeple, which is lying on it's side, to put some rivets on the inside. the inner structure is a long narrow pyramid, with braces holding it together, making several squares on the inside, getting smaller towards the top.
the 4 of us there started discussing who would fit through the second to last square in the structure, where you would need to rivet the pieces into place. long story short, i tried and just barely fit my upper body through, having to push one arm and shoulder through first, and then the second. it was a really tight fit.
the square was 11' 3/8 inches (29 cm) across. the fun started when i tried to get back out. i pushed an arm back through and started trying to squeeze out. it didn't work. i layed in side for several minutes, trying different angles and techniques.

the thoughts ran through my mind.......... is blood rushing to my muscles, so i can't fit back out....... can i crawl out another way......how would they get me out of here if i'm really stuck........this things would 10s of thousands of dollars....... oh man, how dumb.

I finally found the right angle to get my second shoulder back through the hole. I spent the rest of the day thinking about that hopeless feeling. the bruising on my ribs helped keep the reality of the stupity of my actions, or what could have been, running through my mind.

My shortlived taste of helplessness and fear........

I was listening to a show on public radio on the way home from church the other week and was interested and hit pretty hard by what was on. it was a special on juvenial delinquents. In no other country are youth treated like they are in the US legal system. In certain cases, youth can be charged and sentenced as adults. the craziest part of the program, or of US laws in this area, is a law in the state of Colorado that says that a youth that is involved in acrime where someone is murdered can be sentenced to life in prison without bail. That means..... I'm 15. my friends and I decide to rob a store, but not to hurt anyone. i don't bring a gun, but a friend of mine does and ends up shooting and killing someone................... I, go to jail for the rest of my life.

Crazy stuff. This law just seems crazy to me. I don't understand how we can have laws that are just this brutal. I've never had someone close to me that's been murdered and can't say that i can even begin to know how victims' families feel, but this just seems wrong in so many ways.

I can't imagine going to jail as a 15 year old, knowing that i'll never get back out again. never live a normal life again. that, and the thought of being in jail just scares the bagibits out of me.

I started writing this several weeks ago and haven't been able to get it out of my mind...... take the time to listen to that show if you have a chance.

Doing well.

hi y'all.
just thought i'd give a little update on my dad. he came through surgery fine. The doctor said that there were no other signs of cancer, so that's a good thing. he'll get tests back in about a week to see if there was cancer on his lymph nodes, which they also removed.
I stopped by the hospital today to see him. He looks better than i thought he would, but he's still in pain. He moved to a chair while i was visiting with him and they were going to have him try to walk a little later.
Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns. he'll probably be in the hospital another 2 days, then with friends for a week or so until they remove his catheter.
He was joking around today and definately being himself, so i'm pretty upbeat about his recovery.

oh... and thanks for the birthday greetings. i'm not feeling too old, though my age is starting to scare me.

With a little help from my friends.

Some of you know that my dad found out a few months ago that he has prostate cancer. He's been running back up to lancaster for tests and to talk to his doctors. They gave him a couple options for surgery, explained it all, set a date and well........ it's on friday.

The basic idea is that they're going to go in and remove his prostate, along with some lymph nodes that are close by. It sounds pretty easy, but it's going to be a pretty big surgery. He's been pretty relaxed about it, but I think it's starting to sink in that this is a big deal.

My mom and dad left this evening for lancaster. My dad is going into surgery early friday afternoon (November 10th). it's expected to take a couple hours. After that he'll need to stay in the hospital for 3 days, then another week or so up in lancaster until he's recovered enough to come back down to virginia.

So..... i'm asking that you please pray for my dad, his doctors, my mom and everybody involved. you never expect things to happen, but they sometime do. we just wanna cover this in prayer.

I guess that's all. muchos thankos.

Denison Witmer is gettin old!!!

So i've been listening to Denison Witmer since Lancaster Mennonite High School, where he graduated with my brother and where I would often get to hear him play. I've followed his career and made sure to get to shows.

My German friends might remember seeing him play at Carambolage a couple years ago, or at Kubik NUN Kaffeehaus this year.

Well Denison just turned 30 and decided to reward us all with some great free music. He's done this with a website made specifically for his birthday.
happybirthdaydenison.com

He's recorded a bit lately with a full band or with electric guitar, but those who know him from way back still love the simplicity of just him and his acoustic guitar. That's what he's done for this..... just sat down and recorded himself playing his songs and singing.

I'm so happy that he's done this and love the opportunity to download great classic versions of 33 of his songs.