rifle match '09

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...with a tad bit of commentary from yours truly.


the participants wait patiently for all those participating to present themselves...presently


we like our shoots with added style and technology...oh wait, none of the computers are Macs...


anticipating the competition...


...and avoiding the photographer


father and son ready themselves


most of the group is here


and the event commences!




Grace had fun with the Ryken ladies taking pictures in the back, lol...






gathering to see the official results


group shot!

the past few days

On Wednesday, Dad and Mom took off for a conference that Dad was speaking at down in Effingham, leaving the five of us kids at home to fend for ourselves...methinks we handled it pretty well. Just as long as we didn't eat all the sugar, everything was fine...

Unfortunately, pictures weren't taken during the day, but in the evening we all headed off to get our haircuts...


Naomi's really enjoys CoN


Ruth enjoys waving her hands


I enjoy not having to shave


Emil enjoys the ample leg room compared to the backseat


while Grace enjoys taking all these pictures


except for this one...


slowly the mane is depleted


I played with these toys when I was younger than their age...yes indeed...we've gone to the same person for over 15 years


the layers are proven


what can I say...even gas stations have their moments


Thursday the Barnhart's and Evans' came down for the evening...you'd be surprised how loud we became with the Last Word


the ladies discuss details


then the center of attention zooms to Jonas


Taylor is the epitome of guitar


the gathering for Scripture-reading and hymn-singing

Next up...the 2009 Rifle Match...

march experimental shoot

Last week some photographers of central IL had the pleasure of getting together to do what they do best...and a big ol' thank ye to David Price for organizing this event!

a few of the results...









then some behind-the-scene shots...









and there you have it...here's to once again having grand time at the next experimental shoot!

Blessings to y'all, dear readers of mine blog!

retrospection

Another couple of weeks, even more events. Unfortunately we were unable to attend this past weekend's Hymnsing/Singing seminar, but for good (?) reason! The last few days marked the end of the 2008 deer season, with the result being two dead deeries. Yes, unlike most things, we like our deer dead and not alive. ;) Other than that...a birthday/late-Christmas party...spending an evening with the Ryken's, and other general liveliness. Naturally, always more could be said, but it's been a quite the day and I'm ready for bed.

Now on to the part people enjoy best...

a party


t'was good to see family from afar once again


skeptical about...something? possibly?


bestowing words of wisdom by means of telepathy...see the concentration?


wisdom full in bloom...go for the presents!!!


wisdom solidified


the opening of Catchphrase


the blue book of [insert adjectival phrase here]


hehe...confusion occurs outside the picture frame


the sweet nectar of caribou coffee...an addict's best friend


*poof*

everyday life


the last word


pondering the next move


wait for it...wait for it...wait fo...


AAHHHH...PUSH THE BUTTON!!!!


more cuteness

another visitation


they grew about 2' overnight


silly girls...with more hiding behind the bed


productive young ladies


afar off and away, about 2 yards, a wall aim they upon


a perfect 32" x 78" doorframe results from the blast in a totally different place from the original aim


everyone wants to be last


totally seriously last


duae-familiae devotions

and I've one last picture to upload of the final farewells from the visit, but our fickle internet won't cooperate because of the snowy weather...oh well.

Blessings!

well now...

Good evening, dear blog of mine...it's been quite some time since I've paid any attention to you. My apologies. Just be thankful no one's terminated you. The past couple of months (has it really has been that long? ...goodness) have found me...among other things...finishing up a semester with PHC, completing the 19th Thanksgiving during my life here on this earth, attending a Sing-Along Messiah up north in Chicago, almost spending Christmas with the McDonald's because of the weather, and realizing that the semester with PHC was turning out to be my last. Concerning the last point; from a note I wrote on facebook:

"I've put this off for a little bit, wanting to write the note and not wanting to at the same time. So...I'm switching higher educational routes after this semester, from PHC to collegeplus. This has been on my heart and in my prayers for a bit, looking ahead and seeing where God's leading me with my education + future plans. My major will be economics [edit]turns out they don't have a degree in econ with cp, so it's looking like possibly accounting with an emphasis in econ?[/edit], either business economics or a dedicated economics degree, and it's much cheaper. I'll probably save around 40 grand or so compared to PHC...kinda adds an incentive to the whole picture. ;)

Now don't get me wrong...I absolutely love PHC and shall seriously miss everything surrounding it. All the experience in academics gained, friends made, situations providentially overcome in order to be where I am today...I've looked forward to attending there for about 5 years or so...but things change, and I believe this is the next step in the life God's given me...

And you never know, I may pop up for a visit sometime on the east coast. ;)

To Him be the glory and honor,

~ Ashton"

Thus, here I am. Completing my enrollment with collegeplus and excited to see where God's leading will take me in this area. Let's roll... ;)

But moving on to some pictures, which have been rather lacking as of late...so we'll try to catch up from events over the past few months...

the first '08 deer season...

the Riggenbach's graciously offered to help us process the meat





thanksgiving '08...


a holiday works perfectly to celebrate multiple birthdays at one time

original Wisconsin cheese...don't it make you jealous? and don't forget the original store-boughten grapes and apples!

when the photographer's away, other people will play

and continue playing


christmas preparation...



(other Christmas pictures on a different camera...mayhap this post to be updated at a later point with more Christmas pics)

a surprise birthday party for Jessica...



the crumbs tell all



a very looong Virginia reel set..."play it again, Jeremy!!"

the sing-along messiah...

Sing-Along Messiah

the last Sabbath of 2008...


experimentation

the calm before the storm with apples to apples...you should have seen what happened after an unnamed person put down st. augustine as "hot"



an evening with the Evans'...



gearing up for a blurry game of Junglespeed

checking out Emil's new netbook

that coffee was good...'course, we won't discuss exactly how much sugar was put in mine

an evening with the Hamilton's...


more apples to apples!

a mysterious look to accompany some mysterious (i.e., weird) cards


new year's eve...



why so serious...

the last few days...


oh the things done when I'm not present

yes indeed

my poor photo library...see what has been added?!

prior watching a movie

further experimentation

kinda blurry, but too cute to pass up

...and there y'all have it! Caught up to date and ready for 2008. I know, I know...it's 2009, but it had to rhyme.



Ok, that was lame. Moving on...

Blessings to all and to all a good night!

dancing and partying

Amidst a mess of papers (well, only writing one, actually...although there is quite a few papers on my floor), homework, housework, cleaning work, me dear Mother gone for the week on a vacation of sorts (panic and mayhem hasn't ensued yet...no worries, Mom), pictures are finally here! Despite being two months late with the former album...you must forgive me...I offer no excuses...

A Bloomington Dance

Schock Partying

So yes. Aaron Schock won! All the months of hard work and dedicated assistance from countless people finally culminated in the victory of our candidate. We were rather happy about that. ;) Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay later into the evening and watch the official festivities since it was getting late, yet we were able to see a partial live interview...that counts for something, at least. *grin* Things are now settling down post election...signs are being taken down...life moves on. [cue depressing violin solo]

And so you won't go off sorrowful after leaving the blog, I present unto you this picture...

AHA!

Yes yes...I realize I need to post about Reformation Day this past weekend, but since this post is able to be shorter and less time-consuming, I thought it wise to do instead. Speaking of which, those dancing pictures still lie dormant in my photo library. I suppose they'll be uploaded to some place then shared for the masses to enjoy...

Anyway!

Read this and have a good chuckle...

Source: um...google reader?

oops

My apologies for not posting much as of late...I think this pictures sums it up pretty nicely concerning what I've been up to...



Yep, you are correct in your observation: homework and sleeping. Not both at the same time, though! ;)

I'll try to get something more substantial up after midterms...

sign delivery, take two

So...I told myself I would post this after completing my economics quiz...I think that course and euclidean geometry are my favorite courses this semester.

...

Don't look at me like that.

;)

Five days after the previous sign delivery in the northern regions, I took another route, this time going to the south-western parts of the congressional district. Mileage for that day: 460, give or take. Now moving on to the interesting part of the post...



this was my first stop of the day...Rushville...I think by the end of the day I knew more about route 24 that I should have


Mt. Sterling was my second stop


too much coffee that morning, I think


now this road was fun. I thought I would be on highways all day, but it proved to be otherwise. then about half an hour along the way since leaving my second stop, I randomly looked at my list to make sure of everything, then realized to my horror that I forgot to drop off some stuff back in Mt. Sterling...but hey, at least I received a phone call during that time from Mom saying the new MacBook arrived...made me quite happy :D


around lunch-time a stop landed me in Quincy, which is right by the Mississippi. so I drove my monster truck down near the river, parked on some random street, and walked down to the riverfront for a nice, quiet lunch






my temporary food-partaking...place. can't forget the venti white chocolate mocha, and yep...I bought a second starbucks at the end of the day


the iPhone. there to help you find your way, encourage, and reassure. it's like motivational tapes on steroids


I've found it's more than a little difficult to take pictures of signs while doing delivery


the same principle can be applied to taking a picture of floodwaters to the left




my last stop of the day...

And there you have it. A full day of driving, which in due course repeated itself this past Thursday with deliveries once again up north...found out Tanner's Orchard is a nice place, albeit really...really expensive, lol.

(e.g., I found a half-bushel of apples for 38 DOLLARS!!!)

next up...dancing stuff...

a birthday

Yesterday was someone's special day...a special young lady by the name of Ruth...





Happy Birthday, Ruth Esther...your big brother loves you...

Then this pic originally was to go up yesterday in honor of her birthday and...um...our inherent silliness. *grin*

sign delivery, take one

Back awhile and some time before that...September 11, to be exact...Schock headquarters asked me to deliver signs. I was given a list of destinations for the day, directions on how to get from here to there, and the total mileage was around 260 miles...that included driving from home, driving about delivering signs, then driving back home. I knew it'd be quite the day, so I decided to bring along my camera...hehe...


an attempt at organization while driving...a total failure


crossing over...some river...lol


trying to figure out where on earth I was


no comment :P


looking into the past while seeing the future at the same time of being in the present


the load for the day...one sign at a time


directioneering


first stop...or second one...erm...completed!




EUREKA!!! [rather obvious]


lunchtime on the road...oh yes


the Lord decided to send some rain...good times


so...imagine Ashton...driving...eating lunch...taking a picture...trying to make sure he's on the road...while the rain comes down in droves *grin*


hey now, I had to get a coffee at some point or another...it's practically required


I thought that another drink from Starbucks wouldn't hurt anything

So once all the 4x8' signs were delivered, I picked up Emil where he works on the way home, but not without taking some residential signs down south...we had some interesting conversations on the way involving this video...never a boring moment with the Bandy's, lemme tell ya...



...then there was that one day I delivered around 30,000 snicker bars...

out with the old...

...and in with the new

he does what?!

Traditionally, our family reads Scripture on the way to church every Sunday, so amidst the pouring rain I drove yesterday while Dad, in the front passenger seat, read from the Psalms...

Dad: [from Psalm 127] "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sheep."

I glance sideways at Dad: "Sheep?"

Dad: "Yes, he gives his beloved sheep..."

Me: "He gives her sheep??"

Mom, laughing: "I think it's sleep, dear!"

Dad: "What? [he looks at the passage] Oh...he gives his beloved sleep...SLEEP!! It looked like an "h" there...sheep...goodness..."



And totally unrelated to the above narrative...here's some pictures from the President's visit.

Well now...

Only a little over two weeks since my last post! I guess that's an improvement over what accumulated the time before that...

Busy are the times and times are busy. Yeeess indeedy. Between full-time college with Patrick Henry, a part-time job with Aaron Schock who's running here in IL for US congress, and the general liveliness of life, it's fun right about now. I had this completely boring post written up of what I'd done during my temporary internet demise, but I decided against it for the its inherent nature of, um...being boring. Not that what I'd done was boring, but reading about someone's life and that someone relying on his picture gallery to remember further specifics...here's a portion:

Think of it as extrapolating the whole "only real men wear pink" ordeal. ...and my first time going to a Pekin Manor [mini] Hymnsing (the lone Bandy). July 4th came and went...I'm looking through my picture library to remember all these events. Followed by putting in a new kitchen floor. The old one turned sour on us after the dishwasher broke and soaked various pieces of our cork flooring. We replaced that dishwasher who knows when. But! I have a specific date on the floor replacement, so that's a good thing.

...

Yesterday was spent delivering 4'x8' signs for Schock...around 300 miles of driving that began around 9:15 AM or so. Pictures were taken during that time, so once I get my new compy (MacBook on the way), I'll post pictures from that. As well, Tuesday was sign set-up day in Peoria, though I don't have many pictures from that day except for one or two I took with my phone at "the busiest intersection of the tri-county area."

I guess that's it for now...I'll leave y'all with a few shots...


July 4th...let freedom ring


remember those puppies? ...they're bigger now


the result of a recent head injury


Ashton gone + the rest of the family home = Grace-pictures! (my little sister's cuter than yours...whoever you are)


Sunsets by Sam Evans, Inc.

y'all have a blessed day...

hello there

Update coming soon...

/

forgive the redesign, the author needs a better sense of colors

random conversations

Last night while Emil and I were picking cherries, we discussed the interesting possibility of having an iPhone buried with oneself once they're dead so they might be found easily after world war III, but then again we thought it not the best option because of the following reasons:

1. Missiles would have taken out all the cell phone towers.

And,

2. You probably wouldn't get very good reception down in the coffin anyway.

iche and the creation museum

I sure hope y'all like a lot of pictures.

So last week we attended the Illinois Christian Home Educators convention, otherwise known as ICHE. (we enjoy pronouncing it itchy...you get more strange looks that way) And also, as an added benefit, we had the pleasure of staying with the Ryken Clan during our stay up north...a hearty thank you!! for letting us do so, Ryken's! We thoroughly enjoyed our time together with y'all amidst all the food, chatting, IM convos while in the same room, and multiple games of Dutch Blitz. You can read Mrs. Ryken's post about it here. So...after a hasty get-everything-together-then-driving-up-Friday-morning, a safe arrival greeted us in downtown Naperville...


prior one of the keynote sessions


later that day we drove Ol' Blue (you'll see him later) to the Ryken's...


figuring out the next steps to accomplish


yeehaw!! it's dinner time, y'all!


some of us tried to sleep off dinner...


...while others spent time adoring the newest Ryken, Sara


a nice, relaxing evening...haven't had one of those in a while


"emil...hold those pose...it looks like you broke your neck."


"Where'd Dad go?" "I dunno...I thought he was with Naomi." "Isn't that them over there?" "No...that's somebody else." "Didn't they go visit that one booth in that one place?" "Good question." "NAAAOMIIII!!! DAAADDD!!! Where are YOUUU???"


waiting in-between sessions and IMing Justin, only to find out that the videos we took of Dutch Blitz the night before turned out to be 5 GB. yes, you can hang your mouth open in astonishment


"You know...I should take pictures of people at the courtship booth then post them all on the internet." "Actually, that'd be...really funny, in a weird sort of way."


about to depart for the unknown

We now interrupt our programing to present you the results of Grace's Gardening, Inc. These two pictures only represent a small portion of what this young lady is capable of...




Then pictures from our trip down to the Creation Museum...Emil wrote up a more descriptive post concerning what we did throughout the day.


after four extra hours of sleep (meaning sleeping during the trip), I got up and took this picture. quite thought-provoking...it's like we're entering The Land of Really Really Bright Lightbulbs


behold my back-end-of-the-van lair, wherein reading, 'riting, but no 'rithmetic occurs


welcome to ohio! or at least the back of it


after about half an hour, emil and i switched. he enjoyed playing that game of bejeweled...and resting on a cinderella pillow


i asked naomi to make a face. that describes pretty much the whole situation


the centerpiece of this picture: a creation museum billboard


and we arrive! (this is Ol' Blue, by the way...a 2007 GMC Savana)


grace and i about to watch Men in White...an excellent presentation on creationism v. evolutionism


beware the person who dares to take this guy's coke


this isn't for those who are claustrophobic






gotta love that sign


around two in the afternoon we had the pleasure of attending a workshop by Buddy Davis


Emil found out the consequences of raising one's hand. we had quite the laugh as a result


after the workshop, splurging on drinks, only to find out we all bought white chocolate frappes


the purpose of attending the museum: in celebration of Dad and Mom's wedding anniversary!


them frappes are good...


an exhibit in the dinosaur den


this is what y'all miss out on...the botanical gardens


rather self-explanatory, no?


the famous suspended bridge...last time we were there they had to cal...well, let's just say there's more security measures this time around


I was tempted to stick my head in front of these things


check out that temperature once we started up the van to leave

We arrived home around 11:30...went to bed...and slept...

karaoke

Random picture of the week, on the way home from church yesterday. Thanks to the McDonald/Hector/Davis families for inspiration. We even got a person to smile and shake their head at us...except in our situation we didn't almost run off the road while singing. ;) If you'd like to listen to the music to which we...er...swayed to the beat, then let the music play...enjoy! (four "to"s in one sentence...I think that's a personal record. now y'all will start counting in subsequent sentences, I bet'cha)



I'll try to get a longer post up sometime this week about what I've been up to lately. We'll see if I find the time...

our saturday

Another week passes, and with it came another busy, wonderful weekend. The Bandy boys (that'd be Emil and me) began their Saturday morning by taking out some concrete, but this story needs some historical background: a few years ago after the current back steps and sidewalk was poured, we had some extra concrete leftover, so we poured it off to the side thinking that'd be the best place. Fast forward to now.


slacking on the job? or waiting for the camera?


we got bored and wanted to broadcast the impending doom to the masses


i'll refrain from what i was going to say


emil's photographic capabilities come to life



Towards the part of our job where concrete is thrown into the truck, a call is attempted to make sure the load can be dropped off in town and we find out that the call can't be made (the phone was off and the mailbox full). So the above picture is how we left our concrete pile and it still remains the same to this day. Yes, it's a mess...but! It's an organized mess. Kind of.

That afternoon the plan was to attend Providence Church's monthly Hymnsing at the Evans', and, thankfully, it actually worked out for our family to attend this month! Considering the whole of the Bandy's hadn't attended a Hymnsing for about seven months or so (although I did by myself about two months ago), it was nice to attend once again and fellowship with everyone. Since everyone attending one Hymnsing didn't work out too well considering the amount of people, our church now has southern and northern places. Oh, and y'all at the northern Hymnsing missed out on homemade ice cream...


preparation beforehand while making weird middle eastern meditation noises...quite humorous


grace and i on the way there


lenna and elita candler with one of emil's puppies he's trying to sell (only $350 a pup for those of you interested)


chatting...and waiting for dinner


aha! there's the dinner


dessert time on the famous "Steps"...rumor has it that quite a few people can fit on this thing


jacob: com'on! i was posing for you! / me: what? you were?! ah...just a sec


i think faith enjoyed her ice cream


this, my dear readers, is samuel evans hat. and not just any hat, mind you. not only does it have oodles of signatures, but an apple sticker and a taylor guitars pin. those two latter items inherently make it famous


sam's photography personified in the form...of a picture


the participation of singers

Later on that evening after the singing, Sam broke out a couple of airsoft pistols so we could shoot each other. The results were rather interesting. Suffice to say that it's always...ALWAYS! a good idea to keep your mask on while playing. And the ironic thing is that just a few minutes before an incident we were discussing how convenient it would be just to wear sunglasses or something along those lines. But what about those other parts of the face that aren't protected? you ask. Exactly! Those areas are left vulnerable, including Ashton's nose...which Emil shot.

After the shooting match concluded, we all headed home...ready for bed and tired enough to justify it.

exciting news

So this afternoon Emil and I stopped by the gas station to fill up the Honda after a few days of driving here and there. I paid for the cost, got in the car, looked at the receipt, then calculated the overall gas mileage.

The result came out to be...

39 mpg

Considering the cost of a gallon of gas locally (we paid $3.89...it's hovering around $4.00 and up in Springfield...and we can't forget that the Memorial Day prices are right around the corner), this is indeed exciting news. Now only if homeschoolers could convince Toyota to build a 15-passenger Prius.

hear ye! hear ye!

I'm done. Praise God. Just submitted my last final...theology...3 hours, almost 3600 words. I can now rest in peace...

God is good...

YEEHAW!!

I'm going to bed.

final days

written last night:

[...of the semester are winding down. Today around 2:15 AM I turned in my final paper for rhetoric, so I get to check that off the list of completed courses. Then right before dinner tonight I kicked off the evening by finishing US history 2, so no more historical lessons in regards to our nation for me anymore from PHC, at least with the title of US history...you never know when they might sneak in a course like it but with a different title. The courses had their ups and downs; I enjoyed both of them overall, despite late nights, stressful assignments, and other lovely things like that I can only attribute to God's grace for completing. Now remaining: western lit 2 and theology 2.


proof of my halo, despite being rather small


in need of a shave and a drink


of writing a paper

Friday night I had the brilliant idea of caffeinating myself in order to stay up later, so I drove off to the local gas station with Dad to spend money on three Monsters. Suffice to say...it worked, as evidenced by this morning's assignment. I drank all three, so I headed out again tonight to buy three more. Yes, it's almost twenty dollars, but I think getting a better grade in school is worth more than that.


behold, my arsenal

Oh, and the irony of it all: needing to type around 6000 words over the next few days, apparently my hand decided to move around a cast iron pan regardless of this fact. Now usually this would work out, except that Emil loves turning up the burner as high as possible when he cooks lunch with it, and a hot cast iron pan hurts. Quite a bit, in fact! Why I didn't pick up a hot pad, I've no idea. Though thankfully it wasn't my whole hand, only a finger. But hey, it sounded like a good story. *grin*]

written today:

So after completing the aforementioned history exam, I celebrated by taking pictures. I'm such a geek.







This afternoon I've the westlit final, then I'll be DONE! with that course. Tomorrow's theology, then I can put the school of spring 2008 behind me.

Praise the Lord for this past semester, despite being...rather interesting.

humor of the day

From this article

[Priya] Venkatesan said the incident occurred when she was lecturing about The Death of Nature, a book by Carolyne Merchant, and the witch trials of the Renaissance. The student went on a “diatribe” about the inappropriate nature of challenging patriarchal authority, Venkatesan said. Vakatesan respected the student’s right to express this opinion, she said, but the manner in which he vocalized his views and the applause afterward were disrespectful and offensive.

“I was horrified,” Venkatesan said. “My responsibility is not to stifle them, but when they clapped at his comment, I thought that crossed the line. … I was facing intolerance of ideas and intolerance of freedom of expression.”

Venkatesan contacted [Thomas Cormen, chair of Dartmouth’s writing program] about the event, she said, but claims she received no support from him. She canceled class because the incident caused her “intellectual and emotional distress,” she said. This event, which occurred on Feb. 1, would likely be included in a list of grievances relating to a potential lawsuit, she said.

HT:  Gene Veith