Rick's Pizza

Rick's Pizza is located in Rensselaer, Indiana.  My first memory of eating there was the fall of 1987 with my dad and friend Aaron Gutwein.  After that date, my dad took my family to Rick's Pizza throughout my growing up years.  My brother Josh thinks it is the best pizza ever.  I also think it is some of the best pizza.  Rick's pizza isn't the biggest place but has several booths if you want to dine in.  The majority of the customers pick up their pizza or have it delivered.  There are a number of reasons why Rick's Pizza is the most unique pizzeria I have ever been to.  Number one, only Rick makes the pizza.  No other employees make the pizza.  Usually, Rick will toss up the pizza crust while he makes each pizza.  Number two, you can watch your pizza being made in a clean environment.  Number three, the setting is very nostalgic.  You can play video games from the 1980's, watch shows on his old computer if you dine in.  The old computer has a 3.5 floppy disk drive.  You don't see those everyday.  If you want a unique pizza eating experience please try Rick's Pizza.  The address is 494 N Van Rensselaer St, Rensselaer, IN 47978.  If you call Rick might even answer the phone and take your order.  Please see the pictures to see this unique pizzeria.  

Bittersweet snow skiing

We went snow skiing near Ostego, Michigan at Bittersweet snow skiing on Saturday, February 24th.  There was hardly no snow on the ground besides where they made snow on the hills.  With the warmer weather the conditions were really good for them making the snow.  See the pictures.  We arrived at Bittersweet around 9:50am and got on the slopes by around 10:45 am.  I have my own skis but my wife and 2 daughters rent their ski and snowboards so that took awhile.  We skied until around 5 pm and then went home.  I could have skied a couple more hours but everyone else was tired.  Snow skiing is one of my top 5 hobbies.  

 

Splash mountain in Disney World

My family and I were at Disney world's magic kingdom last Wednesday, August 16th.  I knew that Splash Mountain had closed back in February.  I was very disappointed in not being able to ride it. You can see from the pictures I took the only remnants left of Splash Mountain is some briars.  The penny coin machine, statue, and signs are all gone.  They should not have taken out Splash Mountain and replace it with Tianna's Bay.  They could have kept Splash Mountain and built Tianna's Bay somewhere else on the property.  I will take a good guess that Splash Mountain would have had more people than Tianna's Bay. The top picture shows us when we there in 2016. Well it was nice to see a little bit of Splash Mountain.  The woke police won that battle.

  

2022, wow what difference 2 years make

I have not posted for a couple years, since January 2020.  We all know 2 months later COVID hit and life had never been the same.  My wife and I went on a Christian marriage cruise in February 2020 and that was the first time I had my temperature taken due to COVID.  COVID had not hit the USA until March however it was in China in Jan/Feb.  Our cruise had sent an email saying no one from China or who had traveled to China would be allowed on the cruise.  Then in March things started shutting down.  Cruises, NCAA basketball tournament, schools and even churches.  The shutdowns were unprecedented in my lifetime.  Life changed having I wear masks, events shut down, public events cancelled and eating out was not allowed for awhile.  Now 2 years later things are getting back to normal but not like before COVID.  I have heard recently that China is shutting down things again due to another COVID outbreak.  I am hoping that doesn’t happen here.  A lot of changes have taken place in my life since January 2020.  My oldest daughter got married, my oldest son moved off to college(though he is only 45 minutes away), had a grandparent pass away.  Right now there is a war in Ukraine started by Russia.  Hopefully that will end soon.  It will take years for Ukraine to recover from that.  I will write more later.  I just wanted to post to say I am still out here.

My name is Mahtob

  I read this book when it came out in 2015.  I really liked it and I am now reading it again.  I had read the book "not without my daughter" told from the mom's perspective.  This book is written from the daughter's perspective.  The daughter is named Mahtob Mahmoody.  Very interesting book on what she remembers at ages 5 and 6 while being held captive in Iran.  She goes in great detail about Iran, writing about the smells, scenery, etc.  Most of the people in Iran were brainwashed by the Iranian government.  Mahtob writes about how she had to say "Death to America" at school in Iran.  It created hatred in her towards Iran and her dad.  There were some good Iranians who were not brainwashed by the government and they helped her and her mom escape.  Later in the book after she is back in America she becomes a follower of Jesus.  She experience similar brainwashing at the American University like at her school in Iran.  Here in America a person in college is ridiculed for their faith in Jesus.  It is a very interesting book.  I give it a 5 out of 5.  She tells it like it is.  She also talks about forgiveness.  She had the opportunity to meet her dad later in life.  She choose not to meet him.  To me that sounds harsh but she explains it well in her book.  She said she forgave her dad but did not want to meet him due to his bullying.  She saw how he beat her mom.  She did not want to put herself through that again.  She did forgive him though, which is important.  This is a great book.  I would love to hear her experience and ask her questions.
  It is also interesting that right now the Iranian people are demonstrating on the streets trying to have the Iranian government step down.  I need to pray for them.  Deep down we are all the same blood.  If we were in their shoes we would be brainwashed to.  Here in America we are brainwashed to a certain degree.  By God's Grace though we can find truth where in Iran or in America. 

2019 what a year

For farmers it has been a tough year.  I had a rough time getting my soybeans planted.  Usually you hope to get planted by third week of May.  This year it was first week of June.  The rain caused the delay.  The  we had some dry weather and lack of rain.  When I harvested I was hoping for 60 bushels per acre and it was instead around 41 to 42 bushels per acre.  That is disappointing.  I contribute it to late planting in better soils and then drier August weather especially first half of August.  I am thankful though to have been able to harvest them before the snow and rain.  The Lord provided just the right moisture for me to cut the soybeans when I did.  Last fall people were cutting soybeans in January and February.  The Lord helped me through this tough year.  My daughter Megan left home in August to live down in West Lafayette and to go to Ivy Tech.  The transition has went better than expected.  The Lord gave me Megan and now has taken her out in the world.  I pray for Megan to walk in Jesus.  She is in the picture below taken this summer.

2018 = selfishness and thankfulness

Hello, this is the first time I am writing for the year 2018.  So far already been quite the year.  My family has got hit with sicknesses.  We seem to be very busy for some reason.  Thankfully with the snow my work has slowed up but I still go in every day except for weekends which is nice.  I am including a picture of my children when we went to Turkey run this past November.  It was on a Saturday.  We had just got done with harvest and we picked up Michaela from school and spent the day as a family.  It was great.

They are growing up so fast.  I am thankful.  I had a situation already happen in the young year where I found out I am pretty selfish.  As humans we all are.  The Bible confirms this.  I was thankful the situation did not happen however it made me realize how selfish we all are.  I and my fellow humans need to be more thankful!!!  This picture is from Turkey Run and though it was a little chilly out(probably about 50 degrees) we made the best of it and enjoyed a nice hike.  I had been working a lot of hours the month before however it worked out best to go when did since harvest was done.  Not many people were there. 
I have been reading my uncle Jacks blog about Obama and different things and he has a lot of good points.  We need to not be sheep in this world.  The number one thing is to follow Jesus.  There will be no churches in Heaven.  I was born and raised in a conservative church.  I am thankful for my upbringing however there are and were some certain traditions about my church that I wondered about.  This past year in 2017 they okayed men wearing beards.  I am not sure why it never was accepted in the first place since it is not against the Bible to wear a beard.  A person must always go to the Bible first and then use that Biblical lense to analyze what a human or organization is trying to do.  I am thankful though for my upbringing we just all need to go to the Bible first.
Everyone have a great 2018, and I will try to write more later.

Been awhile for ben to post

Good evening,  A lot has happened since my last post in October.  I am quite thankful that President Donald Trump prevailed.  His first 100 days has went fast.  I give President Trump kudos on changing Mexico City policy, starting keystone pipeline, nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme  Court.  I am so thankful he made it to office instead of Hilary Clinton.  I feel hopeful.  I know President Trump is not perfect however I am glad I voted for him(though I voted for Ted Cruz in the primary).  He surprised the media who basically told the general public that Hilary had won.  My distrust for the mainstream media has never been higher.  Right now it seems the big news item is North Korea and if they will try to make the United States upset.  I hope not.  I know North Korea is an evil government keeping their citizens in labor camps if they don't follow the government.  I hope someday there can be freedom for the citizens of North Korea.  I hear the North Koreans don't know much about life outside North Korea because the media tells them lies.  I wonder how often our media lies to us.
Been a busy week planting popcorn, spraying pesticides, etc.  We are about 80 percent done with popcorn already due to the dry weather.  My boss is in his 70's and he cannot remember being done planting popcorn before end of April. My daughter graduates next month.  I cannot believe she will be living on her own in only 3 months.
I like to read books, a trait passed on to me from my mom's side of the family.  I enjoy reading my uncle's blog about politics, etc.  I check my uncle's blog a few times a week.
Also my wife and I went on our first cruise.  It was wonderful.  We had stops along Mexico(Progresso and cannot remember other one.)  I would recommend a cruise to anyone.
Well I will type again another time.

Mainstream Media and Donald Trump

I watched the 2nd presidential debate this past Sunday night.  Wow, again the 2 moderators were actually debating with Trump.  Again I do not understand why the Republican Party agrees to such terms.  I do not understand.  Then I read that Rush Limbaugh says that the Republican Party in general does not want to win.  I think I am finally starting to see things.  I was disappointed in Donald Trump's tape over the weekend from 2005.  They were crude, horrible comments.  Trump did apologize.  I have never heard Bill and Hillary Clinton apologize.  I myself before I became a Christian(during my sophomore year of college) also was embarrassed of things I did.  I repented of those actions.  I will still be voting for Donald Trump.  Mr. Trump will put in good supreme court justices and seems to be pro-life.  Planned Parenthood is trying to get Hillary elected which tells me that Donald Trump will be pro-life.  When Paul Ryan says he will not defend Trump I now see that the Republican Party is not wanting to win.  I also now am cautious of watching the news because it is trying to brainwash us.

 

 

 

I will continue to pray for the election and our country. 

On a good note the Chicago Cubs won the first playoff series and now will face the winner of the Dodgers and Nationals.  I have followed the Cubs my whole life enjoying them even when they had losing seasons.  This could be the year they win the world series. 

The Debate and the Smokey Mountains

I watched the debate on Monday night with my lovely wife and a friend.  I thought started out good until Lester Holt inserted himself.  I was in disbelieve as he would fact check Donald and never asked Hillary anything in regards to Bengazi, Clinton foundation and her emails.  When the topic of cyber security came up I thought Donald would go after her poor record.  Nothing came up except when Lester Holt asked Donald about his tax returns and Donald had to bring the emails up.  After watching the debate and thinking about it I have come to a couple of conclusions.  One is that the media does not want Donald Trump elected.  Number 2 it is scary how the media is controlling our minds.  I was in disbelieve how Donald Trump was debating against Lester Holt and Hillary Clinton.  If the American people let the media get away with this we are in trouble.  The media is controlling us worse than I thought.  I am reading a book right now "Trapped in Hitlers Hell"  about a Jewish girl how actually became a Christian.  The Nazis brainwashed the Germans.  We are being brainwashed by our media.  The debate keeps rolling around in my mind.  I am in disbelief in what I saw.  If Hillary gets elected our country is finished.  I hate to be negative however I do not believe there is hope.  As a Christian however my hope is in Jesus Christ.  I feel sorry for the people though where Jesus is not there hope.  I will be praying for my country more than ever after watching that joke of a debate.  The media and Clinton versus Donald Trump. 
On a more positive note my family went to the Smokey Mountains.  They are beautiful.  We even came upon a couple wild black bears.  That is the first time in my life to see black bears in the wild.  We were in our car though so I was not scared.  I have attached a picture I took.

Here is a picture of my son at the Smokeys.





On the way home in Kentucky we stopped by the Ark Encounter.  Ken Ham built a ark that was the same scale as the one from the Bible.  It was amazing.  I will attach a picture.  My family and I enjoyed it.  I met a Jewish guy there where he liked it also though he does not believe in Jesus.  I need to pray for him.




We need as a country to go to God otherwise we will need his ark of protection from our country if Hillary is elected.

My uncle has a blog and inspires me to keep writing on mine when I read his.  Thanks Uncle G.!







 

Brexit, Hillary, and our state of the union

Brexit took place last Friday.  I am thankful for the people of Great Britian to get out of the EU.  I heard one source said that forced immigration is one reason people voted Great Britian to exit the EU.  I am thankful they let the people vote on it.  I look forward to November so President Obama will no longer be in office come January 2017.  My concern is Hillary though.  I will not go into specifics but look on news sites besides the main stream media.  Hillary has a track record that is not good.  Today a report came out on Benghazi.  She failed in that situation.  She has the email problems.  She is not fit to be president.  I am praying for Donald Trump to get elected.  On June 12th, a self proclaimed ISIS gunman killed around 50 people.  He was on the FBI's radar and actually been interviewed by them.  Also when he tried buying armour from a gun shop the gun shop owner was suspicious and alerted authorities.  There were numerous signs about this guy.  I believe that policitical correctness got in the way.  The sad thing is our DOJ(department of justice) tried sending out an edited transcript taking out the words Islamic from the call.  We as Americans need to be vigilante as our government is trying to not show us citizens all the facts.  President Obama cannot leave office soon enough.  If Hillary Clinton gets to be president though it might be over for our country.  However my faith in God shows me there is a better day even if Hillary Clinton gets in office.  I have been reading through the old testament in the Kings and Chronicles.  There were not a lot of good kings besides Hezekiah and Josiah and a few others.  God will be faithful.  I need to pray for our country. 

The Donald Trump

Now that the Indiana primary is over and my man Ted Cruz did not win it is time to move on. I am ready to give Mr. Trump a chance. He has Dr. Ben Carson as an advisor which is a big plus. Also he said he would be careful with supreme court nominees which to me is a huge deal. The court misses Scalia greatly. I am willing to give him a chance. What I am dissapointed in seeing is that several Republicans are not giving him a chance. Mitt Romney, John McCain, and House Speaker Paul Ryan are not supporting Trump. They need to give Donald Trump a chance. Mitt Romney had his chance and could not win. Why can't Romney support Trump? The establishment is looking silly by not supporting Donald Trump.

Ted Cruz loses in Indiana primary

Planting is well underway and my boss is about 80% planted with his popcorn.  We had a 1 inch rain during the weekend so we have been out of the fields.  That gave me some time to think about and vote in the Indiana primary.  Usually the Indiana primary does not mean anything.  However, this year it was a big deal.  I knew that Indiana was a big deal for Senator Ted Cruz.  Donald Trump is rolling.  There are things I like about him however there are things I do not.  The research I have done and also listening to afa.net (american family association) I believe Senator Ted Cruz is a Christian and a man to stand up to the establishment.  John Boehner, the ex-house republican leader, ripped Ted Cruz this past week.  I thought that was a good sign.  Senator Ted Cruz is a deep thinker and a smart guy also.  I went to the polls yesterday and cast my vote for Senator Cruz.  By 7pm eating supper with the family we found out that Trump already won.  I am disappointed but it will be interesting to see who Donald Trump turns out to be once in office.  He has no record so it is a guess.  The statements he makes, ripping Senator Cruz's wife's looks, saying Cruz's dad was in a photo with JFK's assinator makes me wonder about his temperment.  I am thankful that Senator Cruz will return to the Senate to hold the Republicans responsible.  I will look back on yesterday with dissappointment however God holds the future in His hands.  With that truth we can move forward.  I know I need to pray for our nation more.  We will see how things turn out.  I am hoping Clinton will be defeated. 

Sobibor

I am currently reading a book called "Escape from Sobibor" by Richard Rashke.  I was doing some googling and came across it.  I read it today during my down time during popcorn harvest.  It is a really good read about World War II and the holocaust.  When I was a senior at Purdue I was involved in a Study Abroad program.  I spent the spring semester of 1996 in Godollo, Hungary, not far from Budapest.  It was one of the best trips of my life except for Hawaii with my wife.  For Spring break during my study abroad program we went to Poland for a couple days.  There we visited Auschwitz one morning.  I will never forget it.  We saw rooms of suitcases and eyeglasses.  I had a sick feeling in my stomach.  It was kind of a blur but we watched a movie saw the rooms of the Jews belongings, went to the execution wall.  We went to the gas chamber.  I was only 21 years old then and did not know a whole lot.  I wish I could go back with the knowledge I have now.  It is something I will never forget.  I did not know about the concentration camp of Sobibor and I am enjoying reading the book by Richard Rashke and learning new information about the holocaust and the World War II time.  It seems that Sobibor is as close to hell on earth as you will ever get.  It is sickening to read about it but educational to see what can happen when a government goes corrupt.  6 million people, mostly Jews, died like animals.  One part of the book tells about 2 German boys going into the ghetto in Poland and just shooting Jews at random.  In the book a liason for the Poland government who was in hiding in the west vomited when he was snuck into a concentration camp to see firsthand of what was happening was for real.  War is horrible and like hell on Earth(though the real hell, fiery brimstone, will be unmatched).  The Allied forces really did not do enough I believe since they new the concentration camps were happening.  The weird thing is that the world is still against the Jews.  They have their own country now called Israel however their allies are few and every nation wants them to give up pieces of their land.  What have we learned from history?  Not to much.  I believe when the leader of Iran says he wants to wipe off Israel from the map that someday they will try to do it.  May God continue to protect Israel.  I could not find my own personal pictures of Auschwitz however I have attached a few from the internet.  Today I am thinking the closest things to concentration camps would be in North Korea.  The people there live horribly.  We have a lot to be thankful for here.  May we be thankful, watchful, and alway be aware we could lose our freedoms anytime. 

Denver International Airport (DIA)

Last week my 2 sons and I had the pleasure of visiting my sister, her husband, and her 2 children. Also my mom and brother's family were there. It was a great time. The week went fast. I love the city of Denver. If you love the mountains you will love Denver. We saw Mount Evans, which is 14,000 feet elevation. It was 90 degrees in Denver and up at the top of Mount Evans it was 42 degrees and 19 degrees wind chill. Needless to say I froze in shorts. I was not prepared. The best thing we saw was Garden of the Gods. My mom suggested it and we all loved climbing the rocks. It was great to be with family. One thing for this trip is my 2 sons and I flew since my wife and 4 daughters stayed home. It was fun to fly and the boys loved it. We flew in on Tuesday, August 4th around 3pm on southwest out of Indianapolis. The flight was great. We landed and then took a underground train to get our luggage. The area where you get your luggage had an interesting painting of a person with a mask on holding a machine gun and wearing a gas mask. I thought that looked interesting. The next picture showed people of the world and the guy in the mask and carrying the machine gun dead. The word peace was on all the people. I have attached pictures. That piqued my interest so I asked my sister and brother in law about the airport. If you look on the internet there are several conspiracy theories regarding the Denver International Airport. One is that there are 4 underground buildings.  Originally 4 buildings were built and then something happened where they were told to bury them. Another is that the government operates out of the 4 underground building.  Supposedly last September a comet could have hit the Earth and Obama was in Denver to go to the airport and hide out if that happen. There is a horse my sister and brother in law were telling me at the airport outside where the horses eyes are red and when the builder was making it the head fell off and killed him. I googled it and that is true. Also the airport project took longer to build and went $1 billion dollars over budget. It was interesting.  I am not really a conspiracy theory type guy but I found the pictures in the airport interesting.  If you google DIA you will find lots of other wierd information.  I would definitely recommend Denver. It is beautiful.  As far as my attached pictures go, the last picture shown is a far away picture of the horse when you drive into the airport to be dropped off.  The first picture is what I saw when I went to get my luggage.  This picture is with my 2 sons standing by it.  The second picture is the end of the person with the machine gun and sword.  I will have to do more research on this.  Interesting......

The Middle East and Iran

In the fall of 1995 I was at Purdue University in West Lafayette. It was my senior year and I met in my class an Arab who I will call Abu(that is not his actual name). He was friendly towards me and we studied together. He grew up in the country of Kuwait however he was Lebanese origin and called himself a Palestinian. How he came to Purdue I will never understand. We became such good friends he came to my house on weekends at times. I will never forget one Sunday morning in the fall of 1995 I went to get the newspaper before church and right away I went right for the sports page like any other 21 year old would do. My friend though was shocked at the front page though stating that the Prime Minister of Israel had been assinated. I did not care 2 licks. Abut was upset I did not care. I really did not care though. My mom, brother, sister, Abu and I went to church that morning and I will never forget our minister who was our elder came up to Abu during lunch and sympathized with him regarding Rabin's death. He was trying to make peace with the Palestinians so Abu took this hard. From that day forward I started to look into and learn about Israel and Palestine and the conflict. The first time I visited Abu at his apartment he showed me a video of Palestinians being persecuted by Israelis. This was before he visited my house so again I did not care about what he was telling me. After the situation with Rabin I started to look into Middle East more. Abu had berated me for caring more about sports in the paper than about middle east news. There is more to this story but I have now learner much about Islam and the Middle East because of Abu. I am pro-Israel now that I have done my research and am opposite of Abu on beliefs on who is right regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because of Abu, who I talked to for over an hour this week, I pulled my head out of the sports page to dig into the middle east conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. My findings and research have led me to support Israel. Abu does not like this but is happy for me to have an opinion on this. As Americans we need to wake up, pull ourbheads out of the sports page and look around at the world around us. I have had the chance to share the gospel with Abu and I still pray that he will become a follower of Jesus. According to the Bible Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Thank you Abu for challenging me. I asked Abu about Iran deal we recently made. Abu is a Sunni Muslim and the Muslims from Iran are Shiite so there is tension there. Abu did not like the deal and is dissapointed with the presidient. I am thankful that I now follow the middle east.

yellow corn

Here in Indiana I work for a farmer.  We have a rain gauge and one of the employees writes down the rain every day during the week.  They have records going back to 1988.  The biggest month was July 2003 where we got 15.0 inches of rain.  This past month though we had a new record.  It was 17.3 inches of rain for the month of June.  That kept us from spraying the corn for burr cucumber and morning glory.  My employer who is also family grows mostly popcorn.  He is a go getter and planted it in April so his corn looks pretty good however about 15% is drown out or yellowed.  I have a little field and did not finish planting it until around May 20th.  The first 10 acres was planted around May 8th and it looks okay after that though the corn is yellow about waist high and struggling.  I do not know what will happen.  Very frustruating however I do have crop insurance.  I put on my nitrogen, the corn is just not getting it.  I know in the book of Habakkuk I believe chapter 3 it talks about how we should praise God even if our crops fail.  So I need to be praiseful regardless.  See picture below of my employers field.

RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act)

Very dissappointed in our governor Mike Pence for caving in to anti-RFRA protestors after he signed the RFRA into law. He was blackmailed by companies who were swayed by the LGBT organization. Several companies threatened to leave Indiana if Mike Pence did not change the RFRA law. That is extortion to me. I personally called Angies list to complain to them threatening to not expand due to RFRA. Our governor caved and made the law more confusing. I am dissapointed with Indiana where I have lived all my life. I want my religious freedom protected. I should be able to refuse to do business with someone if I do not want to.

Pearl Harbor and USS Arizona

My wife and I went to Pearl Harbor while in Oahu.  We went in February 2014 during the week.  We got there right about 8am and received our free tickets to the USS Arizona for 8:45am.  It was very solemn and interesting to read all the facts they had in the buildings.  I learned a lot.  I did not know much about Pearl Harbor before visiting.  Every American should try to visit this one time or another.  Please see pictures below.  My wife and I only went to the buildings talking about the history of Pearl Harbor and then the USS Arizona.  There is a short movie before taking a ferry to the USS Arizona.  The total time we were there was about 4 hours.  At noon we then left and ate at Schooners a restaurant with lot of military personnel.  If a person is in Oahu they just have to stop at Pearl Harbor.

 

view of the USS Arizona memorial from the boat

Inside the USS Arizona

oil from the USS Arizona

Diamond Head State Momument Honolulu, O'ahu

On Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 my wife and I climbed the stairs to go to the top of Diamond Head in Honolulu, O'ahu. It was beautiful to see from the top of Diamond Head. You could see Honolulu and the beach area. See attached pictures. You pay $5 to park which is way better than walking to the starting point. The trail is about .8 miles one way. It took my wife and I about 1.5 hours to go up and back down. It was a real nice hike. The trail was built in 1908 as part of the US Army Coastal Artillery defense system according to the Hawaii State Parks brochure. The military used it to help protect O'ahu.

looking north on top of diamond head towards honolulu