They Came

I just want to let everyone know that the Happy Meal Toys I found for Caden came in the mail yesterday. And when he saw the box he almost jumped out of the house he was so excited. We took them out of the box together and he played with them until he went to bed last night.

I know, he'll get tired of them soon enough. But I decided that it was worth every penny to see the joy on his face.

Cool Video

I just read about this video in another blog and just had to put it here.

Please check it out and let me know what you think.



U2 is greatness.

Old friends

This week has been pretty cool. I've been able to chat online or talk on the phone with different friends I haven't talked to in years.

It's hard to believe that we've all grown up and moved into different areas of our lives. And it is good to know that we've grown up from who we used to be.

Well, I'm still trying to grow up I guess. Just look at my previous post.

But nonetheless, I'm looking forward to more conversations with old friends.

Found Them

I finally found them. That's right I found the entire set. All eight of the Legion of Super Heroes Happy Meal Toys .

And just for the record it was my son who wanted them and not his dad. You believe me right?

Relaxing

Today has been a really good day hanging out with my son. We've gone to the store and library together and right now he's sitting on the couch with me while we watch "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody."

It's the little things that make the day great.

Mini-Golf

Well I guess I've been slacking here on the blog. I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. So much going on to talk about.

Today we had some fun with the kids. We got up this morning to see that the temperature was a bit cooler than normal. So we loaded up the van and headed out to the mini-golf course. I have to admit to everyone out there....I won. Even though my wife really really wanted to beat me. I ended the day with two holes-in-one! Yep, I know I'm a professional.

Here are a few pics from the trip.

Wedding Ring

I went to the store yesterday to see what size my wedding ring is and what size my finger is. It's strange but after 10 years it seems that my finger is either getting bigger or my ring is getting smaller. And I hadn't noticed anything until we moved here to Kansas.

So here I am standing at the diamond store talking to the lady about my ring. She measures my finger and says that I need a size 8. She measure my ring and says that it is a size 7 1/4.

I'm thinking to myself, no wonder I can never get it off. No wonder it's always cutting into my finger.

So then I ask the lady if my fingers are just swollen or are they getting fat. She looks at Crystal and tells her to answer that.

Wow, I'm getting fat.

Anyway, it seems that since I've started working out my fingers have swollen a little bit and she recommends that I wait a month or so to see if I want my ring resized. It could also be the heat causing it to swell or the sodium in my diet.

So I left the store with this new knowledge of sodium, heat and being fat.

I just want my ring to fit again. It kind of scares me when it feels so tight.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

Here it is, the greatest college chant ever:



Can't wait for college basketball.

The Wii

Buying the Wii was one of the best things we've purchased as a family. It's something that all of us play together. That part is cool.

But my daughter is getting really good. I mean really good. I'm amazed at what she can do in some of those games. It doesn't even seem that she plays the games correctly yet she usually dominates.

Did I mention that she is only 6? Now I'm embarrassed.

Pictures from Council

Like I mentioned before it was really cool to hang out with some old friends at General Council this year.

Thanks Kenda not Kendra for these pictures.




And my favorite food was blah blah blah blah mozzarella. Yeah, I'll have that.

Gotta go, church is about to start. Blogging in the sanctuary before church, people are starting to stare.

HSM2

High School Musical 2

Well I have to admit that I enjoyed the movie last night. We bought the CD for the kids when it came out Tuesday so we had a head start on the music from the new movie. And I have to say that I wasn't too excited about the music. I thought the music from the first one was really catchy and actually pretty good for a Disney Channel musical.

But after watching the movie last night the music actually made sense. And I found myself singing the songs today. (Scary) I would recommend the songs "What Time is It and You are the music in me."

And as a parent I was totally comfortable with my kids watching it last night. Even though it is probably aimed just a little bit older than them.

So overall I had a good time watching High School Musical 2. If you haven't seen either one I would recommend checking them out. Actually it's really hard to get away from them right now.

And remember as you're watching that it's a musical. They sing at weird times and in weird places.

And how many of us dream that we could just break out in song somewhere and everyone around would know the words?

Big Night

Tonight is the big night that my kids have been waiting for. They're so excited that the premiere of High School Musical 2 is on Disney Channel.

So we're heading over to my parents house to watch it on the BIG screen with nice surround sound TV. And to top it all off we're having pizza and popcorn.

My kids are in heaven.

Can't wait. I'll let you know. (I have to admit that I like the music from the first one...not sure yet on the music from the sequel, have to listen to it some more.)

First Day of School

Well today was the first day of first grade for Alexis. It was also the first day for her to ride the bus.

Let me sum it up. Alexis couldn't wait. Mom and Dad were a bit sad.

Hope she has a great day. She's my precious girl.

Studying

Well here I am getting ready for my next class here at Evangel. If I felt inadequate to teach the last class on parenting I'm feeling even less worthy to tackle the topic of marriage. But here I am today getting ready to start this new class.

We're using the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. We purchased the seminar DVD's and some small group workbooks from his website.

So I'm reading the book today and watching some of the seminars just to get a head start on the class. All I can say is wow. Things are brought out in the book and seminar that seem so obvious but are things we don't see as couples.

I'm only in Chapter 4 of the book but I would really recommend it for any marriage couple. (I'm even going to read it with my wife!) And if you're here in Wichita come check out the class starting August 26th at 9 AM. I have a feeling it's going to be good.

Little Vacation?

We just returned from General Council Sunday night and I guess we had a mini-vacation on the way home. We stopped in Kansas City to take the kids to Science City down at Union Station. I have to admit I wasn't too excited about this little detour. I was ready to be home. But after stopping there and spending time with the kids, we had a lot of fun. Here are some pics from the stop.

This is Alexis working some serious magic....what happened to her legs?


Here is Crystal and the kids walking across a cool bridge.


A picture of Science City.


A Picture of the entrance...check out the cool maze on the floor and the helicopter to the right.


Here is Caden coming down out of the tree house.


I think we'll plan another trip up there. It was a lot of fun.

Again, it sure was good to see everyone last week. Although it was weird to say goodbye all over again.

Back from Council

Well we made it through our General Council. It all ended pretty good. We elected a new general superintendent and assistant superintendent. Check out all the results here. The business sessions were really worth all the money.

Sometimes I wonder what guys are thinking when they get up there to speak.

Anyway, we're back in St. Louis on our way to Wichita. Here's a highlight from today:



I love this stuff.

Council

We've been here in Indianapolis all week for General Council. It's been a big week for a lot of reasons.

First we are able to see our good friends from Greensboro. It's been really cool to see all the youth and hang out with the Blackwoods again.

Also, today in the business sessions we started the elections for a new General Superintendent of the A/G. The turnout in the session was pretty big. They even ran out of voting devices. We didn't get very far and didn't elect a new GS but we start again bright and early tomorrow.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow! I'm getting ready for bed.

I do miss my kids. I'll see them again Saturday. Can't wait.

St. Louis

We have made it to our first stop on the road to General Council. We are spending the night here so we can break up the trip just a little bit.

It's nice living so close to family. We've been able to see Crystal's family a lot more since we've moved back.

This week the kids are staying with Grandma and Papa while we head up to Council.

Oh, one more piece of good news. Today I was able to eat at one of my favorite places....



Life is good.

Coming to the end

Well we are coming to the end of this Sunday. It's been a pretty busy day.

First we wrapped up our parenting class this morning. I think overall the class was a success. We're seeing people who aren't connecting with each other coming to the class. The cool thing is we're seeing new groups form. I really can't wait for the next class to start at the end of the month. It's going to be on marriage....yep, I need to be there!

Then I preached in the morning service. I think things went well. I talked about being "Set For Life." And no I wasn't able to drop money from the ceiling this time. (But I handed out free money to people on the front row!)

I'm heading to Council tomorrow. Should be fun this week. I'll get to see a lot of students from North Carolina.

Big day....big week coming. Wow.

Logging In

I've heard from several of you that it is hard to log in to leave comments. I can't really say why that is. When I log in I have to use my email address as my login and then my password.

I really like the comments so I hope you can figure this whole thing out.

Anyway, I had a great week celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary. Marriage is great and it is getting better each day.

Right now Crystal is in the other room playing tennis on the Wii trying to get her score up for her Mii character. Our daughter is at the pro level on everything and we're getting beat way too much.

Ok, enough rambling for tonight. Tomorrow I'm heading to the Y then mowing the lawn and then working for a while.

Can't wait to travel to Indy next week.

Been a while

Sorry I haven't posted. We had friends in last weekend from Dallas so things were a bit crazy around the house. Instead of two kids running around we had six.

And I did my very first baby dedication last Sunday morning. Pretty cool.

Well, back to work for me.