Sam's Year of Service Adventure

 Today I helped some people from church move.  We assembled the menno movers, and we worked all morning moving furniture to their new house.  There was nothing too big, but it was a lot of trips since we did not have any big vehicles.  When we were done moving, we had lunch, and then I did not do much the rest of the afternoon.  In the evening, I made some crunch wraps for supper, which turned out pretty good.  After supper, I made a cake mix that we found while cleaning out the kitchen cabinets.  The cake was good.  In the evening, I watched Shanghai Knights with Christian and Leigha.

 Today I was over at Bentley again.  I started by going through the make-readies with Tony to see what else they needed.  When we had finished, we went over to our storage unit, but we forgot the keys and came back.  When we came back, we got caught up, and it was no longer worth going back to the storage unit.  Instead, we went and looked at a sink clog.  It appeared it was clogged a lot deeper than we could get to, so we put some liquid heat down the drain, which made it good enough to use through the weekend.  When we were finished with that, I went and put a door kicker on, and then it was already the end of the day.  When I got home, I played with Naomi for a while, and then I went to the nearby gourmet mac and cheese restaurant and got lunch.  After lunch, I went to the phone store where they cleaned my charging port out so it would charge again.  When I got back to the house, I played some video games before getting ready for Grec...

 Today started with an all-staff meeting.  After the meeting, I rode with Alden over to Bentley, where I did a property check and then worked on a make-ready.  We fixed a lot of little things and did a bunch of touch-up painting.  When we finished the make-ready for the time being, we went and checked out a sink that was leaking, but we found no leak.  Then we went and checked out a lock that was broken, but it also worked just fine.  Then we started on another make ready that only needed a little touch-up paint and some hinged tighted up.  When we were done with that, we went to The Taste of Philly and got some Philly cheesestakes for lunch.  After lunch, we did a little more work in the make-readies, and then Tony finally got there.  We went and checked out a broken window and then made a Home Depot run.  At Home Depot, we met Josh, and he had a door that needed to be hauled, so we took it down to Enfield for him.  Once we had dro...

 Today was pantry day.  We got a late start, so all the volunteers beat us to the pantry.  When we got there, I took right back off to go get Trader Joe's.  It was the smallest pickup I had ever seen.  It was only 10 boxes.  They said that since their warehouse is in Texas, they have not got their deliveries for the past few days because of the ice storms.  Since we barly had any food to put away we were done early and had a long lunch.  After lunch, we got started, and it was a very steady yet very easy day.  I helped move some meat and eggs around as needed and carried out some boxes when it was busy, but otherwise I was able to just walk around and make sure everything was running smoothly.  When we were done for the day, we hardly had anything to pack up, since we had hardly had anything to begin with.  We took about one cooler's worth back to the office and unpacked what we could into the fridge.  After that, I finished pu...

 Today, Tony picked me up in the morning, and we went straight to Home Depot to pick up some window tint for the Bentley clubhouse.  We did our best to get it put up, but it just wasn't working.  Once we had given up, we went to an apartment and checked out a stove that worked fine and showed them how to remove their dishwasher filter.  After that, we went over to The Ridge for an eviction.  We did not have to take anything out of the room.  While we were there, I shovelled some of the sidewalks around the proptery and we had to check out a toilet that would not flush.  When we were done at The Ridge, we stopped at a gas station on the way back for some drinks, and then we took lunch.  After lunch, we had to install a pin pad lock.  We got the lock in quickly, but it was tricky to program.  Then we went over to VSR, where we showed Posh how to install a part on a shower and delivered some ice melt.  When we were done at VSR, we went...

 Today I got picked up by Doug since it was really cold this morning.  Since Jenni was gone today, Doug and I went and made the pickup, and then we went to the pantry.  Doug helped me unpack some stuff, but I did the majority of the work while he went and delivered bread.  We got a bunch of cases of eggs last week from Natural Grocers since they over-ordered, so I had to find a place for all of them.  When I had finally moved things around to where they were good, I shoveled the rest of the snow off the sidewalk around the pantry, and then I cleaned the pantry.  After I was done cleaning, I had a lot of time to wait for Doug since he was in a meeting, so I tried to open a stuck padlock on our shed there.  I was not successful and decided to start eating my lunch, but then Doug showed up.  I finished my lunch back at the office and then got the piece of glass I bought last week cut to size for the library door at Bentley.  When I had that piec...

 I skipped a few days because I was sick, and a few other days because I did not do anything besides shovel snow.  Today we had church.  Before church, I went out and did some shoveling, and then I went to church by myself since Michael went to the Broncos game.  I met Christian and Leigha at church, as they had just finished their retreat.  After church, I went to my host family's house for lunch, and then we watched the Broncos game.  When the game was over, I headed home in the snowstorm, and then the roads were really bad.  When I got home, I played with Naomi for a while and held Josiah.  Then I ate supper and relaxed for a while until we finished the evening by playing Overcooked.

 Today, Doug and I started with the move back over at Bijou.  This time it went much faster, and it was a lot cleaner.  After that, I did some work at the pantry and took some books to Woodbine.  Once I was done with resoucres Doug took me over to Bentley, where I caught the tail end of one of the evictions and helped move some stuff out.  After the eviction, I picked up trash around Bentley and scooped out the dumpster enclosures.  When I was done with that, I picked up all the rocks that people had carried to the doorways of the buildings to use as door stops so people would stop propping the doors open.  After that, I did some mopping in the vestibules until I used up my cloth on my swifer.  When I was done at Bentley, Doug came and picked me up again, and I went over to the pantry to organize some food.  When I was done at the pantry, I went to Home Depot to try to get a piece of glass for the library door.  I never found exactly wha...

 Today I did not have work because of the holiday.  I slept for a long time.  I did not do much during the day.  I caught up on blogs and did chores around the house.  I did get away for a short bike ride and did some cooking.

 Today I got to sleep in a little bit before heading down to connenetal breakfast.  After breakfast, we had worship along with the camp slide show.  After worship, we had brunch, which had a lot of good food as always.  After brunch, I was on dishes again.  This time it went better than the first time.  After the dishes, I helped clean up some from camp, and then we got packed up and took a staff picture before heading down the mountain.  When we got home, I did some laundry and unpacked.  I did not do much the rest of the afternoon.  I stayed up kind of late since I don't have to work tomorrow.

 Today was the big snow camp day.  I started with dishes in the morning.  After I had washed the breakfast prep dishes, I went through the line first and then had a lot of dishes to do after breakfast.  When I was done with the dishes, it was time to get snow gear on and head outside.  I started by helping a few people build the tube run.  After about an hour of working on the tube run, I headed over to broomball to help officiate.  Somehow, I ended up having to officiate the game between the 2 tabor teams.  It was like the longest game ever, with overtime and then having penalty shots.  After the Tabor game was over, it was time for the championship game.  Sadly, Tabor did not come out on top, even though it was a really good game.  After broom ball, it was time for lunch.  After lunch, it was time for the Menno Olympics.  We had four different stations, and I led the hockey shot station.  It was really just broombal...

 Today was our first half day Friday.  I again spent my whole morning over at Bentley.  Today I was climbing in attics, checking for moisture.  These attics were a real pain to get around, and I managed to lock myself in a couple of hatches.  I only found a little bit of moisture after climbing around half of the buildings.  When I was done with attics it was already time to head back to the office.  We had to help move furniture off the carpet so the carpet could be cleaned.  When we were done with that, we had some food and then Tony and I worked some overtime putting up a ceiling tile around a vent in the clinic next door.  It was not a big deal, and then I headed home.  When I got home, I ate lunch and then packed for snow camp.  I relaxed the rest of the afternoon until we left for snow camp.  When we got to camp, we ate supper and then had worship.  Brett Klingenburg was the speaker for the weekend, and he had a lot ...

 Today I was with maintenance working over at Bentley.  We started by fixing a microwave door and tightening up a sink.  After that, we went over to seal up the bottom of a sink and find out why one of the sinks was loose in the counter.  We found out it was missing the bracket that holds it in.  Then we headed to the locksmith to have a key mastered to Greccio.  While we waited for the key to be made, we went over to Colorado West to get the pressure washer for Posh.  On the way back to Bentley, we stopped to pick up our keys and then grabbed some lunch from Taco Bell.  After lunch, I went and replaced some smoke detector batteries while Tony did a lock.  Then we ran to Home Depot to get parts for the sink.  We reassembled the sink and then headed back to the office.  From the office, I biked downtown where I met everybody else for supper.  After supper, we biked home, and then I relaxed for the rest of the evening.

 Today was pantry day, and it was a crazy day.  We started with our Trader Joe's pickup, and since we were short on volenteers Doug came with me.  When we got back to the pantry, we got everything put away, and then we had lunch.  After lunch, we opened the pantry.  It started out going really smoothly.  I was taking peoples boxes to their apartments and their cars.  Towards the end of the day, we had a lady show up who had overdosed on something.  When she got there, she could barely talk, and as she went through the pantry, she would fall asleep while standing and start to fall over before waking back up and catching herself.  Jenni and I had to follow her around and make sure she didn't fall into the shelves.  Eventually, we decided to call Doug and figure out what he would do.  We decided to call the ambulance, and they eventually took her to the hospital.  We were nice enough to take her food over to The Ridge for her....

 Today I did a variety of different things.  I started by going with Doug over to Bijou to move a resident.  They did not answer when we knocked, so we decided to go run a couple of errands. We started by going to Home Depot to pick up a snow shovel for the pantry.  While we were there, we got a call from the carpet guys, and they said they were ready to get started in the apartment that we needed to move.  We decided to just unlock the door and go in since the guy is deaf and could not hear us knock.  We scared him pretty good, but he was excited for us to help.  Since he was deaf, we had to communicate on paper.  He had a lot of stuff to move, and it was very dusty.  Once we had everything moved, we had to disconnect the stove so the carpet guys could move it when they needed to.  The pliers we had for disconnecting the stove were not the right ones for the job, so we had to run back to Home Depot and get some vice grips.  We were...

 Today I was with resources.  After our morning meeting, Jenni and I went to pick up Sprouts, and we were surprised by how little food we got.  When we got to the pantry, I sorted out the moldy bread from last week.  By the time I was done with this, Jenni and Kary had put almost everything away.  One thing that still needed to be done was putting a 50lb bag of dog food into smaller bags to distribute to residents.  When we were done at the pantry, we went to Westside to give them the bread.  Then we headed back to the office and had lunch.  After lunch, I added some books to the shelves in the lobby and straightened them up.  Then I spent a couple of hours organizing our closet.  It was mostly fun because I got to use the label maker to make sure everything had a label on it.  It does look much better than it did.  When I was done with the closet, I took off work early and went to look at another van.  This one looked lik...

 Today we had church.  After church, we had lunch and our business meeting.  Then I met some people from our support committee to look at a new van for us.  We took a really good look around it, and after the test drive, we decided it was not the van for us.  After van shopping, I went home and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  For supper, I made some mac and cheese and then relaxed the rest of the evening.

Today, I joined Christian, Leigha, and Naomi on a walk down to a museum in downtown, where there was a playroom for Naomi to enjoy.  We were there for about an hour, and then Brent from our church met us and gave us his car to use for a while until we get a new van.  I did some chores in the afternoon, but otherwise, I didn't do much.  For supper, we made spaghetti and meatballs, which were really good, and then I went to bed right after supper.

 Last night, we received a foot of snow, so the city was closed and I had the day off.  I started the morning by making a sled run in the backyard for Naomi and I to play on, and then I shovelled the driveway.  After that, we bummed around in the basement for the rest of the day.  Later in the afternoon, we had a learning component, and we watched a documentary about Christianity in the 1st century.  After learning component, I made supper.  I made some delicious BBQ cheeseburger sliders.  After supper, we played some video games, and then I had a call with Janessa.

 Today I was with maintenance.  We started with our morning meeting as usual, and then Tony and I had to go over to Woodbine to pick up trash in the hallways.  Then we went over to VSR and dropped off a whiteboard for Posh.  After that, we had to go up to The Ridge to drop off toilet paper and tissues.  Then we finally made it over to Bentley.  Once at Bentley, we decided to install a stove.  We got the stove all unboxed, but then it had some issues from the factory.  Things were not lining up correctly, and the instructions were terrible.  Then we found out we needed to buy a cord for it since it did not come with one.  Before we went to buy stuff, we checked in with 2 other residents who needed curtains hung, so we got measurements.  Then we decided it was time for lunch, so I called Jins Sub and Bowl and ordered some food for everybody at Bentley.  Then Tony and I went to pick up the food.  While we were waiting, we got...

 Today was pantry day.  We left early today because Doug had to go up to Woodland Park at 10, so we had to have the pickup done by then.   When we returned from the pickup, we put everything away.  When we had finished putting the Trader Joe's items away, the Sprouts items showed up.  We ended up with probably 25 boxes full of bread today.  Once we were done putting things away, we took lunch and then opened up.  I was on wagon duty today, which just involves carrying out people's stuff, so it was really easy, especially because it was such a warm day.  I had other little things to do around the pantry today, but overall it was a really smooth day.  At the end of the day, we packed up and headed back to the office.  When we got to the office, we unloaded stuff, and then I waited for Christian to meet me with the trailer to pick up my box from the pantry.  Once we had met up, we rode down to the ice cream shop and then went to t...

 Today I was with maintenance.  Before I could even get in the office, Bill was ready for me to ride over to an eviction with him.  It was over at Rocky Mountain.  The resident was not present, and the apartment was in excellent condition.  While everybody was there, we had our morning meeting.  I was over at Bentley with Tony today.  We started by checking out a make-ready where we touched up some paint, tightened some drawers and cabinets, and tightened up items in the bathrooms.  We had a hard time figuring out the paint color for the ceiling since nothing was labeled.  When we were done with that, make ready, we went to another one where I touched up some paint and tightened up a drawer.  We also fixed the garbage disposal, but these make-readies were very easy.  When we were done with the make-readies, we went to check out a work order where there was a gap under their front door.  We needed weather stripping to seal it up...

 Today I was with resources.  We started the day with a long meeting that mostly involved catching up.  I completed some tasks around the office, and then Jenni and I went to Sprouts.  When we got to the pantry, we had to throw away a bunch of food from last week since it had not happened on Wednesday.  Then we brought in all the new food, and there was a lot of it.  Lots of eggs, milk, and yogurt.  When we had everything put away, I got the pantry cleaned, and then we headed back to the office.  We took a bunch of eggs to give out at the office, but then we realized most of them were broken.  After we took a lunch, I ran back to the pantry to grab some egg cartons so I could sort the eggs.  After I had all the eggs sorted, I helped Jenni get the Christmas thank-you letters ready to send out to the donors.  When we had finished that, Doug and I took the Christmas decorations back to storage.  It took 2 trips.  When we had ...

This morning started off with breakfast and a business meeting.  Then we headed to church.  Since we still don't have our van back, Christian had to bike, so we made sure to say hi when we passed him on the way.  After church, I went out to eat with my host family.  We went to an italian resturant called IL Vicino, or something close to that.  I had some really good lasagna.  After lunch, we went back to their house and hung out for a while before they took me home.  When I got home, Christian, Naomi, and I went and got groceries.  When we got back from getting groceries, we hung out together in the basement for the rest of the afternoon, and then we had supper together.  After supper, I relaxed the rest of the evening before going to bed.

 Today I slept in for a while before making some bacon and heading to Supper Club for brunch.  This was the first time everyone in our club was there.  There was plenty of good food and games to follow.  When we got back from brunch, I did not do much during the afternoon, but in the evening, some people from church brought us supper.  I was holding baby Josiah for a lot of the evening, and we ended the evening by watching a movie.  

 Today I was back at work.  I started with the maintenance meeting before taking the resident resources van over to Wasatch to pick up the boxes for Christmas decorations, so we could take them down later.  When I got back to the office, I rode with Posh over to Bentley, where I had to help Josh clean up the dumpster enclosures.  People dumped a lot of stuff over the holidays.  When I was done with that, we tried to go fix a leak, but they did not answer.  Then we took lunch.  After lunch, we went and installed a new microwave.  Then we cleaned out some items from a make-ready area.  After that, we headed back to the office to help clean up Christmas decorations.  When we had everything cleaned up, I headed home.  At home, I helped get ready for our murder mystery dinner in the evening.  I helped make pizza and get other stuff prepared.  Around 6, Jane and Elliot from church joined us for our game.  We mixed up the sa...

 This is my first day back in the unit since December 22nd.  I skipped a few days before that, though, because I was sick.  I still went to work, but didn't feel up to the extra task of writing a blog.  Today I slept in a while since I stayed up late yesterday.  When I got up, Christian and I went to the grocery store to get the ingredients for my meal today.  When we got back from the store, I got straight to work making my meal, since it needed to sit in the crock pot all day.  I made a pot roast with potatoes and carrots.  By the time I was done making my meal, it was lunch time, so I made a quesadilla and then relaxed for a while.  Eventually, I joined Christian and Leigha in the basement to play a game of Wingspan.  We played on and off for a while, and then it was time for supper.  My meal turned out really good and it was enjoyed by all.  After supper, I did the dishes and relaxed for the evening.  If you are curiou...