TeenServe ......WOW! What a Summer!!

With Jesus and his angels pushing, and Satan trying everything that he could to stop us, we successfully made it back home in one piece from Iowa Falls, IA and Memphis, TN. The heat and humidity was .....bad, as I expected for the middle of the summer. Chris, Jaci, their kids, and the youth group that they brought along from Arizona really had a fun time with the heavy air in TN.


<>ABOVE~~~TeenServe's safety motto this year was, like Geico, "So easy a caveman could do it". A fellow staffer and I dressed as caveman and made quite a scene when that line was mentioned at the evening program each week. Tons of fun!!



THE COFFEE HOUSE
Along with the awesome music and delicious food, 4 different contests were held in the CH throughout the week. We had, by far the most creative group of people for the contests in Memphis. Below are some crazy people in the twin contest portraying Hans and Franz, as well as fitting into the same pair of pants. That was only a bit of the creativity that showed up.

We even had the king himself, "gospElvis", show up!!!

THE EVENING PROGRAM
Everyday of the week a program was held in the gym of the school. Each one started out with a slideshow of pictures of the different crews working on their respective houses. The band would follow that up with some awesome worship songs. And finally the speaker, Andy Tilly, would speak an awesome message. Below are the pics of the bands of each week and Andy.

Above - The band in Memphis, TN: Fourth in the Fire (http://www.myspace.com/fourthinthefire), consisting of: Chris Uttecht on vocals and lead guitar, Jaci Uttecht on vocals, The Funkmaster5000 on bass, and Atsu on drums(he's a Japanese drummer and an amazing person)

Above....The band in Iowa Falls, IA: Matt and Suzie K (left side top and bottom) http://www.mattandsuziek.com/, then Justin on electric guitar (he has recorded guitar stuff with the band Superchick) in the upper right, and then the Funkmaster5000 on bass once again.

The speaker: Andy Tilly (VERY cool guy)
http://www.andytilly.com/

SUMMARY OF THE SUMMER
We started out in Iowa Falls, IA and hosted two weeks of camp at Iowa Falls - Alden HS. The second week was named "the annual family week" seeing that most of the relatives from the Czech side of the family came as workcampers, volunteers, and troubleshooters. It was a great week. The pic below is of my bro Tim looking on to my computer/music/sound duties in the coffee house as I drink a smoothie.
We then headed out on the long journey to an interesting part of the country: Memphis, TN. If you put aside the ceiling that fell in on one of the houses that we were working on, the high speed chase through the school grounds, people looking to steal cars in the early hours of the morning, and the "women" that approached one of our three night watchmen in the night hours, everything went well!! It was a tough journey through the week and a half that we were there but I have named it one of my favorite weeks of camp ever. We had an amazing group of 241 campers come and we had tons of fun. One youth group even brought 54 people. Some of my favorite times were spent playing ultimate Frisbee and having crazy contests in the coffee house. Below are the men who made the Hideaway and CH stage happen: (LtoR)Funk, Me, and Roddy.

Overall.....quite the amazing summer. Jesus did extraordinary things in people's hearts and we did some extraordinary things to people's houses. It was AWESOME!!!!
Until next time.....see ya lata!

I'm back.....

As of this past Tuesday, I am home after about 6 weeks of time away on the road. Currently I'm working on a larger post with all sorts of pics from the summer and tons o info on what happend and the many adventures we encountered. Until then......God Bless!!

TeenServe is finally here! (Training At least)

Well- I'm so happy to get out of that place called MHS (for at least a couple months). I took the last of my finals yesterday...yes 4 of them (Holocaust, Pre-Calc., English, and Chemistry). I ran down the hallway returning my books to my teachers (Tim returned one today too for me) so I could catch the bus, get home and immediatly put my 2 Suitcases, Guitar, Carry-on-with-me-while-I'm-traveling bag in my Grandma and Grandpas Car to head out to Ladysmith, WI for the opening dinner.

This morning I woke up in my own hotel bed at 7:30am. I ate a continental breakfast and headed out for the TeenServe office to begin training at 9:30am. We had a sandwich, chips, and cheese & cracker lunch. 3 of the staff members tasted cheese curds for the first time!!! I was pretty excited.....we ended training at about 5pm and we'll go out to a Chinese Buffet for supper (I know confusing....Jeff and Lori at a Chinese Buffet...wierd huh! lol).
This summer, as I found out the details today......

• -I'll be setting up all of the computers and email system during set-up week
• -helping with the wakeup call in the morning and taking video at worksites during the morning
• -preparing all of the pics and video that will be shown at the evening program in the afternoon
• -running some video camera and some of the Powerpoint during the evening program
• -I'll be in the coffee house, shooting video, and running some of the music at night

Never a dull moment...I know...but I'm looking forward to it.

I plan to write on this as much as I can this summer so check it often!!

Steve

WOW! What a show!

WOW....that is what I have to say!
2-3 months of practice finally paid off this weekend as the make up was put on and the musical "Leader of the Pack" was performed in front of almost 2,000 people over the three performances that were held this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. So much fun was had by all including all that came and watched for the first, second, or even third consecutive day.
I played "Bobby the Nerd" (comparible actions to Eugene from "Grease") and had so much fun making people laugh with my geeky...ness! Wow ... I can't believe it's over.

Above - Here "Bobby" dazzles the ladies in the song "Wait 'til my Bobby gets Home" with his studly looks as all the other guys are heartbroken.

Above - Here I swing dance (along with the whole cast) with the Narrator during the song "Baby I Love You".

Above - All the way from Minesooota.... my two Aunts and Anna stand with my dad and I in the lobby following the Satuday performance. Thanks for traveling you guys....hope you enjoyed it!

Above - Here I stand with my Grandma and Grandpa S. after the Friday night performance. Thanks for coming!

Above - Here I stand with my director on Saturday night who is all smiles after our performances.

Island Pics

Sorry I forgot these last time! Notice the new pulls and knobs too (installed this weekend)

Above - Here is the finished island
Above - Here are the new chairs around the island

Here is the last piece of countertop that was installed late b/c of damage the first time

Musical: Leader of the Pack

This year we are performing the musical "Leader of the Pack". The show times will be April 26th, 27th, and 28th at 7:30 pm. Practice for the performances will hold me out of track meets (I'll still be practicing when I can) for the entire month of April. It will be shorter than last years musical (That's for you, Margaret! HaHa). Hope you all can come and see it! Call me with questions / ticket info.
See Ya!

Kitchen Done!

Well, for the most part at least! (The tile needs to be installed below the cabinets and one section of the countertop (placed left of stove) that came damaged and the new one will be installed on Wednesday) Otherwise, all of the cabinets / pantry (is/are) restocked, all of the appliances are in place everything is very nice and the mother of the household LOVES it!
ABOVE - The corner of the kitchen showing off how the countertop looks....there will eventually be tile below the cabinets on the wall.

ABOVE - This is the new sink. It is one inch deeper than the previous one. Looks very nice!

That's the kitchen!
New pics when the tiles are installed.

Some things are FINISHED!

Well, as of today, the men made the island placement (different than the last update) permanent in the middle of the kitchen, installed the microwave, and finished the pantry. The trim on the doors and windows were reinstalled yesterday as well as the wains-coating. Every thing is looking good and mom is making supper in the kitchen tonight for the first time in about 6.5 weeks.....she is excited!ABOVE Two diff. views of the kitchen. ABOVE The new island with 2 pull out drawers, a wine rack, and 2 pull out drawers inside the swinging doors.

ABOVE The outside view of the finished pantry.ABOVE The inside view of the pantry with the bottom two drawers that are able to pull out.

Cabinets Started!!!

The men are here for "until the end" as of today and have made a great progress in the looks of the kitchen. The 70 degree weather kind of softened everything up today...so we'll see how everything goes.

ABOVE - The left side of the kitchen (sorry about the darn sun)
~NEW 1)The stove will be moved over about 1.5 feet to the right and a new cabinet will take up that space
2)We will have an island instead of a table...the placement is not for sure yet on it

ABOVE - The right side of the kitchen....just continued from the above picABOVE - The start of the pantry
ABOVE - The new doors (2) in Tim and Andy's room.....the closet door in the hallway just outside of this room will be replace too (same as these ones pictured)

With the project in full tilt, I'll try to update daily.
See ya!

Seein' "Wicked" in Chicago

So, currently I'm sitting in The Hotel Allegro in Chicago on my friends laptop still amazed by the awesome show of "Wicked" at the Ford / Oriental Theatre that I and the rest of my Vocal Jayz (group of 25 "advanced" choir members) just experienced. I suggest that everyone of you make the push to see it if the opportunity is available. I am busy taking pictures of everything (the theatre, humongous Chicago buildings, Chicago style pizza, etc.) and will share them when I have the chance.

Doin' Alright...for now

So....while I was eating Chicago style pizza, in Chicago, I saw that Georgetown was down by like 14. After we just got home from "Wicked" (yes....I'm bragging), I saw that I didn't finish out my Elite Eight too badly......I have the possibility of having all of my Final Four teams still in!!!

Cabinets take over Kitchen

At 8:30pm last night, the family embarked on the task of moving all of the boxes of cabinets and a pantry into the kitchen for the men to start installing early this next week. Some were heavier than others, and the pantry definatley was the hardest: heavier and longer than all of the rest. It required us going outside and using the door to the outside to get in instead of using the breezeway / garage door.....it was big. ABOVE - Mom and Tim browse through the boxes of cabinets that fill the whole kitchen and you see the back of the pantry on the right.

Bracket is Lookin' Good

Well, so far so good for my bracket. With 14 out of 16 teams correct in the Sweet 16, and a perfect left side, I'm feelin' confident. When Florida loses to either Butler or Oregon and the UNLV team (that uprouted Wisconsin's way to a championship) gets kicked in the pants by Oregon, I will be a happy man. I'm hoping my Texas blemish will disappear with a win from North Carolina. Now that WI is out, I guess I'm sort of a Georgetown fan now....ya.

Paint Update

Over the past few days, Mom has made a difference in the color of the Kitchen with "Mexican Sand" colored paint. The cabinets will be put in soon.

Comparing your Bracket with mine

Even though Wisconsin won today, their first half struggle will kill them vs. UNLV in round two. Georgetown is looking strong and will take out OH St. and win the tourney.
Conflicting opinions??
Comment on it below.

The Czech's Kitchen in Progress

WARNING ...you may want to live here after seeing this mess! NOT! ABOVE- Tim and Mark dismantling the cabinets on day one. ABOVE- Steve and Andy's work on the countertop and cabinets below it. ABOVE- The dining room is now the kitchen and pantry. The stove, fridge, and microwave are also in this room. ABOVE- Tim and Andy ripping out the drywall and insulation (with the Badger BBall game in the background.) ABOVE- The family after completing the demolition round. ABOVE- The kitchen after the demolition round. ABOVE- Early this week the "men" came and insulated.
ABOVE- The men came, drywalled, and sealed up all the cracks.

As the painting stages start, I'll update with more pics! Enjoy!

The First Post

Hello-
Welcome to my site/blog/place of checking on me.
Ok....I know it is nothing special yet. Track, the Musical, Guitar Lessons, and other things keep me busy. Soon, I say, soon.
Until then, see ya!
Remember....God's watchin'!