Dad Inducted into ODNR Hall of Fame

Thursday, December 11th dad was inducted into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Hall of Fame! This is a very big deal and usually is reserved for people outside of ODNR that are famous for natural resource conservation in Ohio. Dad joins previous winners Bob Evans and Johnny Appleseed! Dad's plaque will be on a wall at the ODNR headquarters with those guys.

Dad's Retirement from ODNR

The Monday night before Thanksgiving was a Retirement Dinner for my dad, Tim Gerber. Dad had spent almost 40 years working for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Dad's coworkers did a great job of tailoring the evening to what dad would want. Mainly that our whole family was included front and center, all 15 of us. There wasn't any pomp and circumstance, just coworkers saying wonderful things about my father. Some things I already knew... some I didn't.

I helped organize the family and then his coworkers to all chip in for a really nice digital SLR camera for dad. I think you can tell in the photo that dad was quite surprised! After it was over the whole family went over to see dad's office for the last time. It was a great tribute to a great career!

Day at Disney *VIDEO*

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If you didn't know, Katie was speaking this week at a convention at a Disney Resort. Hannah and I tagged along and we all had one day to "Do Disney"! Katie did tons of research on how to plan your trip and had an ambitious itinerary for our one day. We started at Magic Kingdom, went to Epcot, then to Animal Kingdom, and then back to Magic Kingdom before collapsing in our hotel room. The day turned out perfect, from short lines to just the right bus showing up when we needed it. Thank you to those of you that made it possible!

Check out Joe's Blog!

Check out Joe's Blog! He's way more behind in updating it than I am :), but it's good stuff and from a different perspective than mine.
Check out Bouterse.org

Excerpts from Patrick's journal #2

Tuesday – Sept. 25th 

At like 1:30 I was wide-awake. I decided to sneak into the family room and get online. It was dinnertime in Indy, but Katie wasn’t online. I sent her a couple of pictures and this journal and updated the blog with a quick video I had made about our visit to the Methare slums. To keep the size down for uploading, I compressed the video pretty small. However, I was hoping Katie would be able to use it at BLAST. (Which I did and the kids LOVED) Around 2am I went back to sleep. Driving out of the city we came upon the huge vista of the Great Rift Valley. Then off to a remote area that had a clinic that CMF runs. The road to Narok was not as bad as I remember it, but still really bad. On the way we stopped to videotape Dan doing the Maasai Team Annual Objectives video. We parked at a favorite tree of Dan and set up at this secluded spot. In the next 20 minutes probably 4 or 5 trucks went by. This seemed kind of like the back way to the Mara. Around dinner we arrived at the old Giles, Johnson, Snyder, ect… homestead in the middle of nowhere. We stopped here last time and Katie, Dan, and I watched a movie (The Patriot) because it gets dark at like 7pm. The sun was setting so Joe and I went to take photos. When we got back we were treated to fresh baked pies. The rest of the night, Joe and I played with the kids. We have various other species that would like to join us in the guesthouse. The most annoying one right now is the squeal of the bats. I took an Ambien to get better sleep and I’m already feeling a little loopy. I get top bunk. Lets hope I don’t fall off in my stupor.

Wednesday – Sept. 26th
I had a hard time getting up on time, mostly because I was on the top bunk and didn’t want to wake Joe. Breakfast was baked oatmeal with papaya. We set out pretty soon after breakfast. We headed for a remote CMF clinic we drove to two nearby lodges for safari tourists to check them out. The first one was really nice! It’s like the place that Survivor uses as a reward in a reward challenge. Apparently Barok Obama stayed in one that we passed last year. I think the url was basecampadventures.com? Then we went into the Mara to look for animals. It took a while to find anything. We probably drove for a half hour and just saw an assortment of dear, zebras, warthogs, and wildebeest. Dan kept following the riverbank. When we had almost given up on this stretch of the river, we found a pod of hippos in the water. We all got out and took pictures, video, and ate lunch. At one point, something made a noise and they all went crazy for a few seconds – long enough for me to get them in action. As we passed by a lone tree 40 yards away, Dan spotted cheetahs sleeping in the tree’s shade. They didn’t seem to mind as we pulled up with in 10-15 feet. There were three cheetahs are kind of laying on each other. As Dan says, “That was a treat!” we found a small group of four elephants coming up through the trees from the river and then grazing 30-40 yards in front of us. This was great. Although we then left the park and headed for Ewaso Gniro. We still hadn’t seen any giraffes and I hate to admit it, but I was disappointed we didn’t see any. 30-60 minutes down the road we saw half a down heads, then long necks climb over the horizon. There weren’t any trees around, but it was a wonderful group of giraffes being illuminated by the setting sun. They were magnificent! I saw everything I wanted to see.

Thursday – Sept. 27th
The clinic building has not really changed in four years. However, there are three new buildings that house clinic workers and the CMF HIV/AIDS missionaries. All that took until after noon. So we headed back to our room for a cho break and ended up breaking out every leftover food we had and ate an impromptu meal of crackers, cheese, apple, muffins, and peanut butter sandwiches. After that we picked up some Maasai men and they took us to a village of a Maasai man with AIDS. His house was not very traditional; it had a tin roof and was square. We went inside and he told us about how he learned he was HIV positive and how he is open to learn more about God because, “Nothing on this earth is good.” That is pretty powerful. His wife is also HIV positive and made us some really good chi – very sweet. I filmed the clinic worker we had translating for us as he sat next to the man in his bed. We stopped in Narok and stopped at the blanket store for some Maasai blankets and to the guy on the corner selling Maasai knives. The prices are better than in Nairobi, even though the blanket guy jacked the price up 40 shillings (60 cents). The knife guy said they were 900 shillings ($12), but got them down to 600 shillings ($9). We plan on spending the day in the Nairobi slums tomorrow.

Summer Sabbatical is Over *VIDEO*

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OK our little summer sabbatical from the Gerber Family Blog is over. We promise to get back into the practice of updating regularly. I've compiled a slideshow video to show off the highlights of our summer. It's big (2 minutes and 3.3MB) so it may take a little to load. It takes you through Katie's "Crossing" event for graduating 6th graders, to zoo trips, to baseball games, to family vacations with both the Shuttleworths and the Gerbers, to Sesame Place theme park and ending up at the Indiana State Fair.

Hannah's Flower Girl Dress *VIDEO*

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I was looking through the video tapes of the wedding and found this quick clip of Hannah in her dress and holding her flowers. I thought some of you might like to see her. Sorry, it's really quick!

Wedding in Under 30 seconds *VIDEO*

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I had four video cameras taping Dave and Kari's wedding. I'll be getting around to editing them all together into one video soon. But for those of you that can't wait, here's one camera's tape sped up 100x and lasting only 29 seconds. Now that's my kind of wedding! :)

Uncle Dave's Married!

This weekend was a very BIG weekend for Katie's family. Katie's brother, Dave, married long time girlfriend, Kari, on Saturday in Fort Recovery, Ohio. (In truth she's been a part of the family for years now. :) The ceremony was in Kari's small country Catholic church, but the reception was a huge party in town. The photo above is from the rehearsal. Hannah was a flower girl and did pretty well walking down the first half of the aisle! She was coming off a week of being sick and then straight into a wild weekend. Below is a photo of her holding her Papa's hand while leaving the rehearsal. We'll post some more this week once we get it all organized.



P.S. This week is international videoblogging week '07. The idea is to post a video everyday of the week. Come back and I'll do my best.

Rob Bell, Katie, and I

Sunday Katie and I drove up to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend a conference at the sudo-church, Mars Hill. Mars Hill is a very non-tradition church plant started around 2000 that has grown into thousands of people meeting in their converted mall. This is due to the blessing of God and the very powerful and creative teachings of Rob Bell. I've been listening to Rob Bell's sermons for a couple of years now online. Since I've been listening to him for years and have read his book, there weren't too many new things for me. However, it was really great for Katie and I to get away and focus on what God might be saying to us right now.

Happy 2007

We had a great Christmas at the Gerber's. Hannah got her rocking chair from Nana and Papa and she loves Rockin Out every day in it. One of the many fun moments at the Gerber's was watching Hannah play with all her cousins. At Thanksgiving time, she was more in her own little world. But, that wasn't so this time, her and Clara played so well together. We had to seperate them at least once a day because they wanted to play with the same toy, Great minds think alike. However, they always ended up giving each other great big bear hugs and went to a new toy.
We are now trying to get back on a semi schedule and are in morning of our beloved Buckeyes. Since the start of the New Year, Hannah has had her first open cut right below her lip. (First Blood) Hives all over her body meaning a trip to the Dr. and her first Chucky Cheese experience. WOW, we are going to have one fun Year. Happy New Year Everyone

Merry Christmas '06

The Gerbers have enjoyed another Merry Christmas with the Shuttleworths. This year was a little different than years past. First of all because Hannah is more and more fun opening up presents. Secondly because Katie and I had to leave Ohio and run back for church on Christmas Eve. And thirdly because Katie's grandma was scheduled to have surgery right after Christmas. She came through the surgery Wednesday really well and is recovering with family at her side.
Hannah got many fun presents, including her very own kitchen set. Wednesday, after waiting at the Dayton hospital, we drove to Columbus to spend time with the Gerbers. This is the time where we go from Hannah being the only grandchild to being one of 7!

Photo Blitz

We've been bad, very, very bad bloggers. I'm going to try to make up for it now. Let's start with Hannah's Lion Halloween costume.

Next up is our friend Uncle Joe's inner child coming out. Before going to dinner with Joe and Helen we stopped for Hannah to play on a playground.

Papa came for a week for a convention in Indy. Hannah really enjoyed having Papa home every night!

Over Thanksgiving we went for a 4 mile hike with Papa and the Lozadas. Hannah did at least a mile herself!

Last one will be Hannah with the cast of Breakfast in Bethlehem at E91. All of Hannah's Grandparents and the Bouterse joined Katie and Hannah for the performance. I stayed home under quaratine.

Hannah's Christmas Present

Katie and I decided to give Hannah something different for Christmas. We got her tickets to see Sesame Street Live in Fort Wayne on Friday night. Although we don't let her watch the show, she has many toys and books with the Sesame Street characters in them. She loved it! For an hour and a half she danced, clapped, and pointed at the characters on mommy's lap. We were pretty close so she could see them really well. I think that was a great idea for this year!

Son of a Preacher Man

I guess that's me. Very early this past Sunday morning I grabbed Hannah and we drove to Columbus to go to church at Beechwold and see my Dad preach for the first time ever (and according to Dad the last time ever). Their new minister starts this coming Sunday so this was kind of a message from an elder before the new guy arrives and the work really begins. Dad did a great job and brought up great points about the past, present, and future of Beechwold. In my youth I would be more bold, but this was Tim Gerber so it was humble and meek.

Vacation Days 2 and 3 *VIDEO*

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We had a great time at the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County, Indiana. I'll let Katie update this post with details, but here's a video slideshow of some vacation highlights. BTW our camper stayed closer to 70 degrees last night!

SPECIAL THANKS goes to the Coster family from church for letting us borrow their pop-up camper!

Vacation Day 1

Last night was a little cold but the camper stayed in the sixties. Hannah's having a lot of fun playing in the camper!

Hannah's First Carousel *VIDEO*

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On a beautiful Saturday this weekend we met both sets of grandparents and Aunt Sue at "The Great Darke County Fair" in Greenville, Ohio. Hannah ate a lot (OK we did too) and rode her first carousel ride. Later we were able to visit greatgrandma Shuttleworth in the hospital shortly before she was released to recuperate from surgery at home. Hopefully Hannah's presence helped!

My Apologies

I don't know if its our crazy summer schedule or that we're already boring parents, but we've been awful at updating the blog lately.  

Last week was BLAST week for Katie and I.  Meaning: we're busy entertaining/teaching 100 preteens until 9 or 10pm every night!  It took all weekend to recover.
*UPDATE*- This ministry made possible by our friends the Bouterse, who watched Hannah every night!

This week Katie is in Colorado Springs at the invitation of Group Publishing to join a think tank on pre-teen ministry.  Katie is the youngest pre-teen minister and probably has the smallest budget of the 6 picked from around the country.  This is an awesome opportunity for her!!!

Mission Possible '06: Home Edition

It's going to be hard to communicate all that happened last weekend. (That's why I'm going to make a video for everybody.) For those that don't know, Katie and I took 39 preteens to Fort Recovery, Ohio for a missions trip. We do this trip every other year and this was our third. Each time it grows exponentially in scope! This time Ft. Recovery has a new minister and when we asked him if he had any ideas for a project he came back with a huge project. Long story...short... A woman in town with tremendous needs had a house falling apart around her. She lives with her grandson and adult sons. It just so happens that the boy is a preteen, perfect!

So Katie's home church took on the enormous project of fixing her house in one week, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition style. Then we brought 39 preteens for the weekend to help finish the job and totally redo the boy's room. This was an amazing project and, like the show, at times didn't seem like we could get it done. The entire family came to the church on Sunday and after a luncheon we took them to the house for the big reveal. 75 people yelled "move that truck" and they pulled away the semi blocking the house.

This was an life changing project for the Ft. Recovery Church and for our kids. There are dozens more stories to tell, but my fingers hurt so we can tell you then later. Pictured below is Cindy McGough and her family and a before and after shot of the house. I think you will be able to tell the difference.

Hiking in the Smoky Mountains

We had a very busy Saturday hiking in the natural beauty of the mountains and enjoying the unnatural beauty of cruising in Pigeon Forge. We are having a great time! Surprisingly Hannah had an easy time hiking up the mountain!

Childhood Dream Come True

Today Katie and I spend the afternoon reliving some of the places we went on our honeymoon in Pigeon Forge. We ate at the same diner, golfed at the same putt-putt, shopped at the same tacky souvenir shop. While we were driving we saw the unmistakable glow of a bright orange car with a black 01 painted on the sides and a Confederate flag on the top. Yes from the Dukes of Hazzard it was the General Lee parked at Cooters Garage in Gatlinburg. Cletus was even inside signing autographs! I actually paid $5 to get in the General Lee and get my picture taken. Yee-Hahh!!!

Shuttleworths in Gatlinburg

Thursday morning we left with Katie's parents and headed for part two of our vacation in Gatlinburg, TN. This image is what we woke up to from our bed in our cabin high up in the mountains looking over Gatlinburg.

Camp Gerber '06

Sunday through Thursday we started our vacation with Pat's whole family taking over the Shuttleworth cabin. We swam, played, games, ate a lot of food, and ate a lot of great food! We are very thankful to the Shuttleworths for giving up their home for four days. There's nothing like living in a house with 7 girl cousins!

4 Wheelin' with Dad *VIDEO*

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Cousin Ely's Birthday *VIDEO*

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We are in Fort Recovery celebrating Camp Gerber '06 with all the Gerbers! Monday was Cousin Ely's birthday and she got to get her ears peirced. So all the girls went to WalMart in Greenville. After lunch we celebrated with cake and ice cream and presents.

Day at the NACC *VIDEO*

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Monday the Media Services Division of CMF drove down to Louisville, KY to setup CMF's display for the convention. We've done this for several years. We rent the hardware from a company that ships it straight there. Well, they sent most of it. After unpacking the hundreds of pieces, there were several key pieces missing. We decided to make it work with the pieces we had and build this 15 foot structure. It only took an extra 4 hours!

Camp is OVER!!

Yes, after weeks of planning and stressing CAMP is OVER! We had a great time and the kids were great. Over all we had 68 campers, 12 faculty, & 2 deans = one crazy wild week. We only had...1 hospital run which turned into 4 stiches, 1 minor head injury with a lot of red stuff (Don't want to be to graphic), 1 reallly homesick child, & 1 Bible kicked into the muck of the pond that will never be found by humans again that started a chain of events (The kid who kicked it didn't mean to, and he got sick with nerves, which made another kid worry about his friend ending in homesickness & one kid who lost a very nice Bible.)

However, There was much growth and the Holy Spirit moved. God was faithful, and taught me a few more lessons = You can't depend on your own strength to make things happen and when you totally give everything over in Prayer, Watch Out.

We will post pictures later
Now it is time to REST for a couple of days

Visiting Katie and Hannah at Camp *VIDEO*

Last night after work I went to visit Katie and Hannah at camp! Hannah's having a blast with her grandma playing all over the campgrounds. Last night they were having a Hawaiian Luau on the beach.

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Horsing around for 5 YEARS!!!

On Friday Katie and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We celebrated by renting a cabin in Brown County Friday night. Nana and Papa came to Indy to watch Hannah for us. Saturday morning we went to a breakfast buffet and then went horseback riding. Probably not a great order of events! Maybe tomorrow we'll be able to walk normal again.

Fort Wayne Zoo *VIDEO*

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Those animals better watch out when Hannah's let loose driving in the zoo!

Grandma's Retirement Weekend

Sorry, we've been neglectful bloggers. Like all of you, our summer schedule is getting crazy. This weekend we were in Fort Recovery celebrating Grandma Shuttleworth's retirement from over twenty year of teaching. We went to her retirement ceremony on Friday and spent the rest of the weekend grilling out and going to the zoo!

Hannah's Hat *VIDEO*

Last weekend we celebrated both Katie and her Dad's birthdays with the Shuttleworths. Here Hannah is trying on her new hat.

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Fun with cousins! *VIDEO*

At the party, Hannah got to play with her (Bennett) cousins!

She can really throw a party!

We had Hannah's 1st birthday party Saturday with most of both of our families in Ohio. Katie's been watching too much Martha Stewart and has been planning the party for weeks. It was a book theme, since Hannah loves to play/read books forever. There were book decorations everywhere. Katie made the cake in the shape of a huge #1.

Swinging *VIDEO*

After a big lunch at Grandma Shuttleworth's, we all went for a walk to the park. With the beautiful weather, Hannah got a chance to go swinging for the first time. As you can see, she really liked it. I see a swing in our future...

Hannah's First Steps *VIDEO*

Technically she's been doing this for a couple days now, but I thought you might want to see some very early steps from Hannah. We're at Grandma and Grandpa's house tonight to help Dave paint his new house tomorrow.

Seattle Day 2

Today was my day with the church planters and their families. We met early in the morning and went to the area (45min South) where they will be planting the church. We did some interviews with them in Starbucks of all places. Then in the afternoon we drove back into Seattle and I shot them and their families. So I got to go up the Space Needle, watch a musical fountain, and see some amazing architecture. We have had wonderful weather! It's been fun.

Seattle Day 1

It's 10:30pm in Seattle, which means its 1:30am to my body. I did a lot today, but I'll make it quick. I flew out early this morning and arrived around noon local time in Seattle. My friend, Andy Smith, and his boss picked me up and we went downtown to get some touristy video. So we went to the famous fish market where they throw huge fish at each other.

Remember, you can always view a bigger version of the pictures by clicking on them!Down the street is the very first Starbucks ever! (Under Construction)Then to the "Troll under the bridge".
It's been a long day and my camera's not quite working right, so please pray for my zoom! Good Night!

Lego

While mom is working Hannah and I went to the Lego store in Chicago!

Christmas Time Part 2

Pat, Hannah, and I are wrapping up our 10 day Christmas Vacation. What a joy it has been seeing family and friends and watching Hannah react to her little cousins. We are enjoying a day of rest at dad and moms place right now. Today has been precious for Pat and I watching and playing with Hannah. I think she is changing and growing everyday and we don't want to miss one minute of it. We will be heading back to Indy tomorrow full of wonderful memories and pictures that captured our time together.

P.S. Hannah is pulling out everyone of Grandpa's CD's and we all know how many that is....

Have a blessed New Years
Katie

It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

We have just spent over a week with both of our families having a BLAST! It's been a great Christmas holiday. We were blessed with way more than we need and were able to bless others we love. Hannah ends up being the center of attention, whether as the first grandchild or the seventh. Let's just say she's stocked with toys for months and months to come and we have gift cards to buy all the batteries they will go through. Do they sell toys that don't take batteries? Well, we'll write more later. We're still enjoying vacation at the Shuttleworths.

Pat

Christmas is Here!!

After all the hussle and bussle of December's Christmas parties, shopping, and traffic, our family's Christmas has finally come. Last night we drove to Fort Recovery to spend 4 days celebrating with the Shuttleworths. Then it's on to Columbus to do 3 or 4 days with the Gerbers.
Merry Christmas everyone.

Tiny Tim
(that would be Timothy Patrick)