On my desk at work I've had a picture that is a montage of family pictures over the years.  The problem?  Its nearly two years old.  So I spent some time and created a new one:

You like?

Well school is officially up and going for my three oldest children.

However it had potential to be a rough start.  After looking at class assignments for my children, my wife and I determined that one of our children would probably be better served in another classroom.

So I typed a detailed email (after attempts at a call failed) to the principal about it.  I was ready to battle for the change.  Only to get a reply, "You're probably right.  Let me check the classrooms out and we will see what we can do."

A few hours later we were given a new assignment for our child. 

Compared to our previous school district.  Our oldest son had just completed a year where the class was a mess.  Great teacher, but the student dynamic made it a bad learning environment (we are talking about a kid threatening to bring a gun into school... kind of bad). Then the next year we looked at the classroom makeup and were a bit concerned about it.  We raised a stink to the principal and she steadfastly refused.  Raised a stink to the district superintendent... who steadfastly refused. Not good for a school trying to pass a levy, the only levy I've ever voted no on.

I am proud of my school district, they have been well above expectations.  Two more examples.

First, two of our children need(ed) speech therapy (typical for boys from what I hear).  The first school district thought they knew better than the parents.  They started doing things without ever talking to us!  Talk about a mad dad.  Then comes the new school district they have worked with us as a team to get the best help possible  Room for improvement?  Sure.  But so much better then the previous school district.

Secondly, education.  The first school district was rated 'Excellent' by the state of Ohio.  So when we moved in the middle of the school year we expected our children to have a little bit of time to adjust socially while not being pressured academically.  Were we ever wrong.  The new school district was so far ahead that our kids were pressed academically right off the bat.

So when the November elections come around again, I'll be voting again for the levy.  This is one school district that deserves it.

Welp the time has come.  I'm calling it a day in relation to the basketball court.

I've played countless hours of basketball since I was 12 years old, many days I'd go out and play all day wherever I can play. Even now I play twice a week every week. Honestly so many memories.  Drinking from the old ladies water house. The injuries (broke my leg on Fathers day. The fights.  Lots of character lessons learned.

Just a partial list of the places I've played.

Power House Park
Friends back yard
School
Helicopter Park
The park on Summer Side Road.
The local YMCA
A local Catholic church who has open gym.
Church basketball leagues.

Really the list could go on and on for all the places I've played.  I've really never had a down period from the basketball court, really only three that I can remember.

1. I broke my leg, playing basketball, and didn't play for a month.
2. I broke my hand, 'playing basketball', and didn't play for 3 months.
3. This year I took several months off due to a busy schedule.

The last break did me in, a month or so into it I realized my knees didn't hurt.  My feet felt great, just overall made life better. Then I was playing last night and hurt myself not once, but twice.  The first time landed hard and tweaked my right knee, the second time I stopped funny and jammed (hard) my big toe on my left foot and and the way down hit a guy in the face (not intentional).  Today I HURT.  It is hard to walk.

So today I'm done. For now.  Not saying I won't play again, but I'm not going to make it a part of me going forward.  For the better part of two decades basketball has been one of those items that defined who I was.

I said that my last post would be my last from the weekend, but after the past few hours I just HAVE to post.

At 6PM we went to church to have a meeting recapping the mission trip that my wife and two oldest children went on a few weeks back.

As I sat there and listened to the stories I got emotional about it all.  For such a broken man to have such a wonderful family is beyond my comprehension. Knowing what could have been for my older two had our life not taken the turn it took 11 years ago makes what is my reality that much better.

However what floored me the most about tonight is my wife.  Shy as can be... she was put in a position where she HAD to speak in front of everybody and I was floored.  Like she was born to speak publicly.  Eloquent with words, cracking well timed jokes, and getting her point across.  Was very cool to see.

The mission trip was a great time for the 15 people that got to go and was great to see them bring that impact back home.

Well just a few days ago I posted about how my wife and I have celebrated our 11th anniversary.  Well what brought that on was a religious conversion.  We were non-Christians.  We were living together, we had a six month old son. 

Then the Cincinnati Church of Christ had some members come and invite us to church and then change our life's.  11 Years ago almost to the minute of this post we were baptized (stock photo by the way, not me). Some of the night is fading away from memory, though I still remember Pete calling me by my son's name... which ironically still happens to this day at my current church. 

But 11 years ago our life changed forever, and looking back on it now... I AM SO GLAD IT DID!  I couldn't imagine life without this change.  Well unfortunately I can.

My wife and I wouldn't be together.  I was highly immature and had a serious anger problem.  It would have only been so long until she would have had enough.  So my children would be another part of the statistic of living in a broken home.

I'd be struggling with employment in this non-manufacturing economy.

And worst of all... I'd probably be supporting Obama! THANK YOU JESUS! 

One day I will share the story of this period in my life.  So many God moments involved with it.

Well in all my busyness, yesterday was my anniversary.  My wife and I have been married for 11 years.  It amazes me how long that is... and it amazes me how small that is.

When we talk to significantly (40 to 50) older friends we find them married for 6 to 10 years... here we are at 29 and 30 and already married for 11.  Then today at the men's breakfast for my church I sit next to 4 guys that have been married for (34 or so years, 49 years, 61 years, and 62 years!!!) a REAL long time.  So on one hand we are on the high end, on the other hand we are just getting started!

I am blessed to have the wife I have.  She has stood by me during some tough times.  I've asked her to do things she didn't want to do , but she trusted me enough to go along on the journey with me and in the end I think its all worked out pretty well. 

Then at other times she was, to borrow a sappy song, the wind beneath my wings.  When I doubt myself, she props me up.  When I feel like I'm wandering in the darkness she assures me we are headed in the right direction.

Proverbs 15:18
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

OK, how's this for an open and honest post...

I am throwing it out there, I want feedback.  Over the past week one thing has burdened me and it is my daughter.  When we lived in Milford she had a great circle of friends.  Girls that are still pretty close today.  Then we moved to Batavia in the village and she was alone.  No girls her age.  Now we live in a more populous area of town and there are surely a ton of girls around, but that won't reap rewards until the start of school when she finds out exactly WHO lives around us. 

But I know that a girl's worth is largely determined by the relationship she has with her dad.  Yeah, that's me.  So tips?  Pointers?  Help....???? I want my little girl to grow up and love Jesus.  I want her to value relationships and have my relationship define those other relationships, and not her lack of relationships now to define a life time of relationships for her.  Right now I'm feeling inadequate, she doesn't have that group of friends (Christian or not) that will keep her well balanced, and frankly the lack of CLOSE Christian friends concerns me greatly.  I don't want the source of her self-worth to come from non-Christians... why would she be drawn to church/God in the future if it offers so little for her?

OK, so its a bit delayed.  But I've had to catch up from vacation.

Update 1
Update 2

The final day of the vacation was just a day to do nothing.   We woke up late and took a walk down to the resorts indoor water park for a little more water fun.

Pictured to the left is a large bucket that dumps water every few minutes on the folks below.  Was a pretty cool design.

Then we came back to the room and did what any good adult wants to do on vacation.

SLEPT!!!

After several hours of sleeping we ate and started loading up our car for what was going to be the trip back home on Sunday morning.

But at 9 PM I was wide awake and decided it would be good to leave right then.  Because it is easier for me to stay up late then it it is to wake up early.  So at 10 PM we pulled out and headed home.  5.5 hours later we pulled up to our driveway only to hear our daughter say that she didn't feel well... now what I haven't mentioned in previous blogs is that we dealt with a bit of the upset stomach on vacation.  My wife and I didn't feel great, but our seven  year old actually threw up a few times... so when we walked in, what did our daughter do?  Throw up.  No fun.

Then our oldest son got it a few days later.

Overall the vacation was much needed.  I have felt much more refreshed since we have returned.  The last 3 months have been very hectic and overwhelming. We had baseball season, buying a house, moving, a side project, pressure at work and more making life hard.  Thankfully as of this post all of the above are gone (with the exception of the pressure at work, which is just life).

Probably no major vacation next year ($$$), but we will just replace it with some smaller one.

Well I stumbled across something on another blog and I'm stealing it.  With permission :-)

It has been called 40 days of focus.  Basically commit to doing things for 40 days.  Now when I saw this I had the idea that inviting some men from my church into the fold to go through this with me would be a great idea, so the invite went out to a few select men and here we are.

In August I will be involved in starting a new small group in Bethel and there are three of us guys (the fourth guy is a maybe for the small group) who for the 40 days leading up to the group launch will focus on our spiritual lives. 

Tom C, Scott W, Matt K, and myself have laid out our own goals and we will be moving forward with them.  I will post personal updates here daily, and on occasion will update you on the status of the other guys.  Plus I will encourage them to make comments on each thread as well.

From July 7th until August 15th we will be in focus.  I am really stoked about what I know God will do during this time.  I am scared about what I know the devil will do during this time.

So what are my goals?

• To read the New Testament.  ALL OF IT.  That equates to 6.5 chapters a day, so on dates that are odd I will read 7 chapters on dates that are even I will read 6. 
• To pray daily AND log my prayers. Sometimes we overlook our answered prayers.
• To wake up at 6 AM.  I am very inconsistent on my wake up time, six am gives me some time to do some of my list.
• To play with my kids when I get home.  Before I do anything else to see if they are clinging for my attention, and give it to them.
• To love my wife more.  She deserves it.

I could add more, but maybe that will happen after this 40 days.  As I could easily see this taking on a life of its own.

However I will also lay out one soft goal.  Things I'm just not sure if I can do it due to time, but we will see.

• Walk the dog (and thus walk myself) every night.

If you are a reader of this blog, are you up for the challenge?  If so grab a friend or two (or you can just do it yourself) and DO IT.

One more note to make, due to the nature of this challenge my blog will be silent of other things unless the other things warrant a double post. 

HT: Josh Young
HT: Aron

Well vacation is almost over.  Only today left before we start our drive home.

My prior recap covered Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Today I'll cover Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday we had one main goal.  Go to a place called WonderWorks.  It is very unique from the get go as the entrance is a HUGE upside down house.  But once you get inside it is basically a bunch of neat stuff.  Earthquake simulator, hurricane simulator, to a bed of nails!  You can see me laying on the bed of nails in the picture.  While it didn't pierce me, it still hurt a bit!

Overall I would HIGHLY recommend making the trip to this place if you ever find yourself in this part of the nation.

After we spent 5 hours looking at all the neat things we went to a dinner and show at the same building called Hoot & Holler.  Now this was a pretty good show... only made GREAT because my 7 year old got a starring role in the final skit.  The story of Paul Bunyan.  Honestly not knowing if the popular story of this is anything like this, I'll cover the basics of this version.  Basically Mom Bunyan had twin boys, and one of them was kidnapped and the kidnapper planned on coming back years later claiming to be the missing twin.  But every time the villian came back Paul Bunyan was supposed to attack him and fight him off.  But they needed an 'understudy' to fill the attacking role.  They picked none other than my 7 year old.... and attack he did!  The first time he came out I was dying laughing... they couldn't have picked a more perfect child for that role.

Then on Friday we decided to go on a long hike to see, what we thought was a cave.  Lets just say that is 4.6 miles of my life I'll never get back!  Though it did give us this photo op:

Then we decided to drive to a place we had seen earlier in the week and saw this waterfall on our way to it today.  Now this is the safe tourist picture :-), and understand there is a decent amount of zoom here.

But that wasn't good enough for me!  So we slowly made our way over to that waterfall through a pretty active stream that was, at the point we crossed just over knee high to me.  It was a risky move (you know worst case scenario we get soaked) but well worth it for pictures like this!

So overall the last two days were pretty fun, and at least we got to end our nature fun on a high note.