Universal Orlando, originally uploaded by Jason Archer.

About three weeks ago Grace and I went to Orlando Florida to the Overflow Conference. Overflow is a brand new idea for the Free Methodist Church to have their annual conferences all together in one place, rally, worship, and cast vision for the future of the church. Because of all of the traveling I’ve been doing, especially in April, I really wanted to see if I could take Grace with me. I wanted to take her for a few reasons:

1. I wanted her to be able to see the benefits of my new job. She could go with me on a special adventure. And we can afford it.
2. I want to continually cast vision to her about what kind of life we want to live and how we want to live. I want to place her in front of opportunities to find her calling.
3. I needed time to spend with her. I’m wired to multi-task, but with Mick and Grace, I value focused time to have significant conversations without too much noise. Bottom line: I miss that time and needed to hang with my girl.

Wednesday

Our trip started Maust-Like. Favor. (That comment was for you, Joel Maust). We arrived in Detroit to find our flight was overbooked. Because I wasn’t crusty to Elaine, the ticket agent, we not only got two free round trip tickets anywhere in the US, but we also got bumped to first class for both of our flights from DET to Atlanta and ATL to Orlando. Elaine made it a point to affirm to Grace that the way I treated her was instrumental in the hook up. So we flew first class all the way. And it was nice!

We enjoyed the day traveling together, talking, taking pics of Flat Stanley for Micki’s class, and not being in a hurry. When we arrived in Orlando late, I realized that our hotel was going to be a $50 cab ride, $40 van ride, or a $2, 2-hour bus ride. After talking to Micki and her wisdom, she said, “Why don’t you just rent a car? We wound up sweet talking the car rental place and got a car for cheaper than a cab ride. The entire day was an adventure. Fun. Not rushed. Just with Gracie Lou. It was a great day.

Thursday

Thursday we went over to the conference, spent the morning in the penthouse with the Roller family doing tech support, and Grace went with Aunt Yvonne to be a greeter to the more than 1100 people who would arrive.  Dinner was a blessing.  We wound up catching up with Mike Rynan, a missionary to Africa.  We took him out to Buffalo Wild Wings.  It was neat to hear about his family as well as have him talk to Grace about what a missionary’s life looks like.  After we got back, the conference started with an amazing message by Pastor Hector Fernandez.  It was in Spanish with a translator.  The title of the message was, “Passion for Souls”.  It was powerful.  Grace and I took pics and video on the Flip camera.  After the session, we went back to the room, uploaded pics, blogged, and made a video.  The site I helped create is:  www.livethestorytellthestory.com

Friday

Friday was a crazy day.  I knew I was working and let Grace know her job was to be my apprentice.  But I also wanted to see if there were windows to do something fun.  We went to the morning session to take pics and video.  For lunch we snuck out together and had lunch at a cafe outside.  We did some shopping on the strip on International Drive and got ice cream.  It was a nice break.  After the session in the afternoon, we then went to a place Grace was really excited about:  Waterworks.  It was an interactive kids museum with lots of cool stuff to do.  It was a surprise for Grace and fun for me to take here there.  Friday dinner we took Henry and Virginia Wingfield out for dinner.  Great time to spend with great people.  I love those guys.  Friday night was the most powerful service.  It was the ordination service.  It was so moving to see a group of people giving themselves over to the mission.  We blogged, created video, and told that story as well.

Saturday

Saturday morning Grace slept in after staying up late to watch the NBA playoffs with me.  I set up my booth for the Web site and got ready for the Saturday morning closing session with Bishop Roller.  It was great.  After the session, I was able to connect with so many people.  One thing I remarked on as we traveled home was the fact that I had forgotten that I’m from the east.  I had opportunity to reconnect with David Prince, Mac, Katrina, Bob Billings, Lynton and Nancy, Ted Smith, Charlie and Angie, and Chris Hoppe-Spink.  I know I’m forgetting people, but that’s the blessing.  One of the greatest joys for me was to introduce Grace to these people that she didn’t know from different seasons of life.  Katrina from high school mission trips and summer camps.  David and Mac from church planting.  Wingfields and Beverages as well as Pastor Keith from Virginia.  And Ted from my childhood in Batavia and Edgewood.  I hope Grace was able to see how we’re connected and what the Body of Christ looks like.  All of these people had fingerprints on my life as I’m sure I did with them.

As the conference ended, we discovered we had extra time before our flight.  Which we took advantage of.  I took G to Universal City Walk where we had lunch at NBA City, bought her a “special bracelet” as a reward for her hard work, and enjoyed the hot sun.  We were excited to get home late after midnight on Saturday.  We were in beds at 2am tired.  But it was a good tired.  Satisfied.  Know what I’m talking about?  I knew that time was beneficial to serve the Bishops.  I knew it was beneficial for my team to have a win with the Web site and tools to connect people.  But for me the greatest piece was simply time with my girl to invest and cast vision for her life.

More Photos

Check out the Overflow photoset in Flickr.

Wednesday

Thanksgiving break was one of the better ones in Archer-dom.  Lots of what we remember usually have to do with setting a good tone.  We had been watching some Food Network shows on great new ideas for dishes.  After finding a few favorites, we got our supplies and enjoyed a really fun evening cooking and baking in the kitchen.  All three of us.

Thursday

This year we decided to head to Durochers early to hang and prep for the day.  It was a good call.  We arrived early, made some appetizers with the kids, and had a blast.  10 kids and 10 adults.  Lots of noise.  Great food.  Seems like we ate all day.  The kids performed some skits and puppet shows.  We all snuggled down and watched Muppets from Space.  Looked at black Friday ads.  Relaxed.  It was a genuinely good day.  Oh, and one of our highlights was Mick’s milk.  You see the pic.  You can guess.  Ask her about it.  A great moment.

Friday

Friday morning was my first “Black Friday” experience.  Up at 5.  At Strods at 5:15.  Shopping after hooking up.  Here’s the nutshell for me on black Friday:  Much ado about nothing.  What I loved was the adventure of being together.  Loved being with John and Lissa.  Loved seeing the excitement of Micki looking for deals.  But I really didn’t see much at a discount motivating me to be up that early and wait that long.  Plus, I’m seemingly ruined lately for consumerism with much of what I’m reading lately about our wealth and responsibility with our wealth.  But enough “debbie-downer”.  It was really fun to be together.  But don’t count on me next year.

Later in the afternoon we wound up hooking up with Duros to catch “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.  Really fun movie.  Great time.  Later in the evening we were wandering around the mall and saw Duros eating at the Alpha Coney Island.  We stopped and hung out a bit more.  That’s where we captured the soon-to-be-classic “Jasmin Soulpatch” video.  Later that night I helped Strods make a 50th wedding anniversary video for Lissa’s parents.  Wow.  50 years.  I hope to celebrate that someday.

Saturday

Saturday Micki worked on her paper while I was helping a friend drywall the ceiling of his basement.  After getting cleaned up, we connected with the Pages at Outback.  Dave treated us to a great meal with all of the kids.  Dave and I were at the “kid table”.  A great meal and fun being together.  We were planning on going out after dinner to see “The Blind Side”.  After heading over to Jackson and discovering it was sold out, I hopped on my Fandango iPhone app and bought tickets in Lansing.  We ran to the cars and drove about 80 to Lansing and made it in time.  We couldn’t sit together, but it was a fun adventure.  We got to ride up with Shanna and her friend Monica.

After getting in late Saturday, I prepped for our class.  Sunday the class was a bit lame.  But the afternoon was good getting time to gear up for the week.  All in all, fun long weekend.  Great friends and great adventures.  Definitely thankful.

Thanksgiving Photoset |  Fantastic Mr. Fox Photoset

Cougar Crazies

Originally uploaded by Jason Archer

We’re winding up a good weekend here in Archer-land. Friday night was snuggle night. We baked pizzas and watched some TiVo. Saturday morning I got to sleep in and have breakfast with Brian, Chad, Chuck, and Sam. Great time to connect with the fellas. The rest of the day belonged to Grace.

We went over to SAU for homecoming. The day started with the Lady Cougars volleyball game. We then went over to meet up with Dr. Beebe and Mrs. Beebe for a book signing of his new book with Richard Foster. After we enjoyed seeing them, we headed over to the soccer game, stopped off to have cookies and punch with Steve and Heather Castle, enjoy a half of soccer, then head over to the SAU Fieldhouse for the old timers basketball game to see Chuck Brant, Chris DeBacker, Ryan Cottingham, and Duane Skene. It was fun to watch. There were a lot less mullets than when they played as students. Micki finished up her class she was in all day and met up with us in time to head into Jackson for an art festival in Jackson. We got a chance to see Mary Lou Miller’s art downtown. After grabbing dinner, we headed back over to the SAU Fieldhouse to see the SAU Men’s Basketball team play an exhibition game.

All in all a full day. But really a day with no agenda. That was the best part. Even more than the enjoyment of a great fall day was the people we shared the day with. Throughout the day we ran into people we knew or friends along the way. Truly a day to measure the worth of a life. Richness in relationships. A really great day.

So this is one of the many reasons why I love Isaac Strodtbeck. We’re finished with Taco night at Strods. Kids are playing. John is making dessert. And apparently Isaac is still hungry. He comes over to the chip bag which has crumbs left. He does the obvious hand grab in the bag to get out big enough crumbs. But when that effort goes down, he simply commits to going all in. Just grabbing the bag and putting it over his head to let whatever chip residue slide directly into his stomach. And this is what “Growing Up Strodbeck” is all about. Well played, I-man. Well played.

Last Saturday we had a fun time hanging with Durochers and Pirate Island. Unca Sam asked Grace to babysit Baby Jasmin while the Duro family did Pirate Island. It was a perfect fall day at Flavor Fruit Farms for apple cider, roasted nuts, and apples. We hung out for awhile, had the traditional hot dog roast for lunch, and headed home. I picked G up on the bike later in the day. With so much love for apples, I talked to the owner of Flavor Fruit about what kind of apples he uses for Apple Crisp. We got some “Spy” apples, picked that morning, and I went to town on making an apple crisp and apple cobbler. Just in time for a spontaneous bonfire with Strods, Chilcotes and Millers. A really nice Saturday.