Every once in a while I like to jump over here to this old blog and relive old times.  It is fun to look back at the days before there were kids in the house or before I was even a pastor.  As of this writing I have just transitioned out of full time pastoral ministry and now work for a great organization called 1517.  The girls are now 17 and 18 years old.  People continue to filter through the Pavo St. house and I still love to cook.  For now, I do a lot of sharing on Twitter and spend free time doing a podcast with my friend Rich.  You can check it out HERE.  You can also find me on Facebook and IG but to be honest. I scroll more than I post these days.  I do miss long form blogging and perhaps I will do some more of it now that I am not in the parish anymore.  Who knows?  Perhaps in a few years time I will look back at this post and smile.  Until then...

Blogger are you still alive?

So, I've been kicking around the idea of long form blogging again.  I got away from it almost 9 years ago when Facebook and Twitter began to dominate the social media landscape.  Sometimes things are better said when you spill some serious ink (or pixels in my case).  So, for now this is just a thought.   I will ruminate on what I might write, but feel free to explore the wonderful posts of the past.  There is some crazy stuff here!  I'm sure a bunch of the links are dead and the formatting will be all hemajang (look it up!)  Adios for now!

Spring Training 2009

Long time no post...I know. Just a short update today. This past weekend I took what has become an annual trek across the desert to the Phoenix area to catch some spring training baseball. It has become an annual trip with church and we had about 25 people this year. I call it a work trip because I usually do devotions with the group at some point (it is a veiled attempt at work at least).  This year we took in three games.  On Thursday we saw the Diamond backs and the Indians in a brand new stadium for Cleveland in Goodyear AZ.  Good facility, no shade, but I will return.  On friday we went out to Surprise (yes that is a town) to see the Cubs and the Rangers.  Love that park!  Great opportunity to get balls during batting practice.  Good accessibility to the players and FREE parking.  Saturday we made our way to Maryvale to see my Angels take on the Brewers.  We sat in the shade the whole time and had the best location of the three.  The weather was great the company was fantastic and if you ever have the chance to make the trip, take it.  

I really hope that heaven will be a combination of Spring Training and Oktoberfest.  That would be the BEST!

Well the most interesting part of the trip came today as I was catching up on a few websites I frequent.  One of them is Uni Watch.  This site is dedicated to uniforms of all kinds.  It is right up my alley.  So tonight I was reading the post from Saturday and when I clicked on the first link on the post I was surprised to see a picture of me.  Here is the link to the post and if you click on the link labeled "let's kick back" and you will see me relaxing all by myself.  I must say it was pretty weird to be reading a site that you frequent and see a picture of yourself.  Anyway... if you like sports and anything uniform related you will enjoy the site.  That is it for now.  Talk to you all later.

Long Overdue Update

Well, well, well...here I am typing away at the blog that has been long since neglected. Hard to say why I have not taken the opportunity to continue my updates here but needless to say that what was once a weekly thing will most likely continue to be haphazard at best. So don't get your hopes up of constant updates. If you really want to keep up with me on a daily or weekly basis, you might need to join Facebook.

In any event here are the highlights since I last posted:

#1- On the 23rd of December our family was in court to get the official stamp of approval. What we have know for a long time was recognized by the State that we are a forever family. It was a great day filled with positive emotions and good times. The next time you are at my house, please ask to see the video of that great day.

#2- Christmas was great and can be described in one word--Barbie! Barbie movies, and dolls, and clothes (Ken even got some) and last but not least, a new Barbie car! The girls were in heaven.

#3- The day after Christmas as Jill and I were out shopping and at a movie (first time in a while) our oldest used her scissor skills to give her brand new Barbies new looks in the hair department. Then she turned the scissors on herself and chopped some pretty big chunks out of her hair. She looks a little strange but she nothing a clip or two can't help.

#4- New Years was celebrated on Eastern time in our house, watching the ball drop live. It is funny how times have changed!

#5- This past weekend we celebrated the baptisms of our girls. It was a special thrill for me to be able to baptize them. Although our youngest wiped off each splash of water, I know that God has claimed these girls as his very own. After church we had a big party at our house. We had Juan Pollo cater the meal and as I have stated in an earlier post that is the BEST chicken in the world.

So there are the highlights.  Many other things have happened but I don't have the time to go into all of them here.  I pray that all is well with you and yours.  Until I post again...

Big News

So, I know that this blog has been neglected for quite a while here.  It just seems that my time is very short these days.  Thank God for Facebook updates so many of you can still keep up.  But today is a day to broadcast.

On December 23rd our family will be in court to become a family officially.  That is right folks, the long strange trip called adoption will be final before the end of the year.  Merry Christmas to us!!  After years of struggle our girls will have their case closed.  What a relief!!  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers the past two years.  

More info to come, but for now raise a glass and say a toast, because today is a day to celebrate!

October 31st

Yeah, Yeah...busy, busy, no other excuse for not posting. I have a few minutes while the girls are napping to give you a quick update and a homage to this day.

Jill has been gone all week in Seattle at a conference so thanks to some good friends, I survived. The girls are really excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. Our oldest has a great butterfly costume but she is rebelling and will most likely go as Tinkerbell. Our youngest was going to be a ladybug but now that her sister is going at Tink, she wants to be Cinderella. We got some pumpkins today and I tried my hand a carving a bat. I think it went pretty well (I used a pattern, I'm not that good). I will post pictures later (maybe). The girls pumpkins are like Mr. Potato Heads. Jill has some cool pieces that make a pirate pumpkin and a princess pumpkin, potato head style. We will do those once the girls wake up.

My time is running out and I still need to do some cleaning up before the girls wake up but I wanted to leave you with a few videos for the other holiday today. Enjoy...

Nail Polish

There are a few things that I do not do as a dad. #1 Playdough- I hate the stuff. It stinks, it gets all over the place, bits of dirt and sand get in it not to mention hair (gross). So the girls pretty much know not to ask me to do playdough. #2 Nail Polish- Some of you know I am very sensitive to smells and nothing sets me off more than nail polish and its evil cousin nail polish remover. That stuff is just vile. So, the girls paint their nails when I am not at home and that was the case a few weeks ago. This time was a bit different because the girls got their first crack at painting their nails by themselves. They loved it and when I got home I was greeted with the following from my oldest, "Dad, know what? Mommy let us paint our nails by ourselves and they are soooooo gorgeous." My youngest chimed in, "You wanna see mine? Mine are adorable!" They proceeded to show me their nails and now I must share with you. So please enjoy the magic that is my daughters self painted nails.  If you click on the pictures you will see a bigger and more glorious version.  

What a month...

I know it has been a while and it may take some of you a while before you find that there is a new post but I have a few minutes to let you know that I am not dead or anything. The past month has been quite full. I have been adjusting to life after seminary and that comes with more meetings and other commitments at church that keep me busy. My ordination is on Sunday and I have been busy getting things in order for that. My home computer was in the shop for a week getting a new hard drive so I was out of computer land for a while. It was weird, I actually read the physical newspaper and a few magazines in the evening. It was quite refreshing. Nothing new to report in regards to the adoption, still waiting.

I did take my oldest to an Angel game a few weeks back. She had a blast and I think she will be my baseball buddy. She loved everything about the game, the snacks, the fireworks, the rally monkey, and dressing in her red shirt. She talks a lot about going back. I can't wait to take her. I leave you with the first picture I have posted of one of my children. My friend Sara took it at the game and I just love it. Enjoy...

Highlights

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We have had various family in town in between trips for me and trying to get in to the office on a regular basis and low and behold, not much extra time for posting.  I guess this will be just be a highlight blog:

-The girls have finished up dance class, swim lessons and the last day of summer day camp is tomorrow so I hate to say that summer is wrapping up.

-The girls got new lunch boxes and they can't stop talking about them.  Our oldest got a Tinkerbell one and our youngest has Disney Princesses.

-Jill has officially gone part time at school so she should have more time to devote to the student success program.

-I am off to San Carlos Mexico for a week of SCUBA diving with some buddies of mine.  We are making the 16 hour drive and I am looking forward to getting away for a while.

- I know I have said this before, but we hope that adoption thing will be final by the end of October.  It has been a long road and knowing how things go I will not be surprised if things go until January.  Please keep praying!!

- We had a lot of family in town over the weekend.  My parents were here along with my aunt, my sister and her family and two brothers.  It was a blast being together again.  

I am sure I could come up with a few more but I have to go to the bank and then get a haircut.  I will be out of communication for about a week (and loving it) so I will post again late next week.  Until then...

VACATION!!

I am under the gun so I will make this quick. No free internet at the Welk Resort so the clock is ticking on my 30 min of internet use. We are all enjoying our vacation here in San Deigo. We went to Legoland yesterday. Very underwhelming. It was not bad, but not great. There were a few things that were run down, and some things that just did not work. It was evident that Disney was not in charge.

We did have an earthquake yesterday. We did not feel it but all the rides closed down for a while so they could do some safety checks. We touched base with our Long Beach friends and all was well with them and with our house as well.

We are taking a lazy day today, kicking back by the pool etc. and are on our way to Sea World in the morning. That is about all I have time for. I will post more later. Until then...

Standard Update

I am back from Alaska and have just about caught up on sleep.  This summer is turning out to be the babysitter shuffle with Jill and I passing at lunch.  Jill has been working mornings and I go in at lunch when Jill gets back.  This morning I took the girls to a movie.  The Regal Cinemas in California show free movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  There is always a G and a PG option.  We choose the G option today and saw The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything- A Veggie Tales Movie.  The girls liked it but I thought it was a snoozer.  In fact I think I did doze off a few times.  

Jill also had to take a continuing ed class for our foster care license so I was on my own for swimming lessons, dinner, bath, and a video.  As I type, the girls are watching Marry Poppins in the living room.  This weekend is our niece's birthday party.  She loves the color orange so she is having an orange party.  It should be fun.  We are also going on a short vacation down to San Diego.  We will see some friends, spend time in the pool and go to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World.  It should be fun.  I will let you know how it goes later.  Until then...

In Alaska

Hey all. I am writing to you from beautiful Big Lake Alaska where I am joined by a team of others from church to teach VBS this week. Time is really short so I just wanted to direct you to our church's blog where we will be posting updates and some pictures from the week. Feel free to click here to go to the Bethany Blog. Talk to you all soon.

I am in Alaska mode!

Well I made it.  It is Tuesday and here I am giving an update.  Not much to say today other than the countdown for Mission Alaska 2008 is on.  I leave on Friday with 27 others from church to go to Alaska to teach VBS.  I hope to blog about our experience next week on my work blog (www.bethanylutheran.blogspot.com).  If it doesn't update then we have not found internet access but I am hopeful.  This week brings with it the avalanche of phone calls to the airlines, the rental car company, the mission trip organizer, the site administrators, and a few others.  Not to mention fielding questions from our own group.  I am really looking forward to this year.  Last year I had to leave early to attend class (boo!) but this year I am in for the duration.  We have the largest group going this year every and that has its own challenges, but I am looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting new ones.  Well it is getting late and I need some rest.  

One last thing, nothing new on the adoption front.  The court date went well and we got good news regarding it but we still have not heard anything about finalization yet.  I will keep you posted.  I doubt I will post next week from Alaska unless we find a great connection.  Talk to you in a few weeks.

A day late and a dollar short...

Well it is now Wednesday night and I am typing up my Tuesday update.  I guess better late than never.  I really don't have much time but I did want to mention that we took the girls to their first movie in the theatre today.  It was one of the girls friends birthdays and we all met at the beautiful El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.  Disney owns the place and they sure know how to do it up right.  The place is beautiful, the pre-show was great and we all loved the Pixar movie WALL-E.   I would highly recommend this film for all ages.  If you are not fond of sharing a theatre with copious amounts of children, steer clear of the El Cap for this one.  

The girls loved the movie.  Our oldest was in heaven.  She loved the "giant TV screen" (her words) and she was transfixed throughout the film.  She laughed, she snuggled, and she asked a lot of questions.  Our youngest was fine at first but towards the end she asked to go home.  She even talked to the movie a few times which was super cute.   After the movie we all went to their friends house for pizza and cupcakes.  On the way home the girls fell asleep and are now zonked out in the next room.  It was a great day and I am looking forward to taking them to another movie sometime soon.  This is not a trailer but you can get an idea of what WALL-E is like from this short clip:

Have a great week and I will talk to you soon...

Where has the week gone??

So my brother did a VBS post this week so I guess I will join him.  This week is VBS at my home church.  It is a blast but oh so much work.  For the past few years I have coordinated the opening skits and this year I have taken over the whole opening program.  I have not been the biggest fan of the curriculum that we have used the past few years but perhaps I can have some input next year.  Our theme this year is "God's Big Backyard".  It is a theme with potential and the kids seem to be having fun.  Our girls are really liking VBS.  I don't know what they will think next week where there is no more VBS to go to.  

Our mission Alaska team also does a hot dog lunch as a fundraiser at the end of VBS so between directing puppets and cooking hot dogs it has been a busy couple of days.  Not to mention that we had a flamingo triage set up today to fix a number of broken legs of our plastic gold mines.  These birds have brought in over $2200 so far!  If you are not sure what I am talking about you might want to scroll down and read the post about flamingos.  Anyway it was quite a site with over 30 plastic birds lying on the stage in the gym.  After about an hour they all got a clean bill of health and are off to infest more yards tonight.  

Our mission trip to Alaska is coming up soon as well.  We have been feverishly working on fundraising and we only need about $2000 more to make our goal.  We leave on July 11th and return home on the 20th.  It will be round two of VBS for many of us since that is the main thing we do in Alaska.  

Tomorrow is a court date for the girls.  We are cautiously optimistic that we may see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We ask for your prayers so that this long and drawn out procedure comes to a close and everything will be final.  I will keep you posted.

Well, I am going to cut it short tonight so good night and have a great week here in God's Big Backyard (sorry had a VBS flashback.......)

Summertime!!

Summer has begun in our house and our schedules have been turned upside-down.  This week the girls are going to Vacation Bible School with their cousins in Orange.  So far it has been good but it is a drive in the AM and Jill and I have been juggling our work schedules to make it happen.  The girls have been singing the songs and loving their time at VBS.  Next week all the girls will be at VBS in Long Beach so the fun continues.  The girls also started swim lessons today.  This is their second year in swim lessons and they did not miss a beat.  Our oldest was back at it floating on her back and jumping in the water.  Our youngest was simply a fish...she was awesome and jumped in from the side on multiple occasions.  We hope that by the end of the summer they will both be able to take some breaths and make it to the side of the pool without help.

With the end of the school year came a great surprise for me.  When we picked up the girls last week we received a portfolio of the girls work for the year.  It was a blast seeing the difference between what they did back in September compared to what they can do today.  One thing that was neat to me was a sheet called "all about me".  I found it fascinating how things have changed.   Here is what our youngest said back in September:

Where do I live? (no answer)

My family is...mommy

My favorite animal is...a giraffe

My favorite food is...pizza

My favorite toy is... (no answer)

Here is what she said at the end of May:

Where do I live? A red house (well our door is red)

My family is... mommy, daddy, nanna, sister

My favorite animal is...an elephant

My favorite food is...bananas

My favorite toy is...cars

But the thing the really amazed me was her measurements.  In September our youngest weighed 31 lbs and was 2 feet 3 inches.  In May she weighed 36 lbs and was 3 feet tall.  She grew NINE inches in one school year!!!! I knew she was growing but that is amazing.

Our oldest also had an "All About Me" page and here are her answers from September.  It is a bit different because she had a different teacher.

My favorite color is...Red.

I like to eat...chicken nuggets

My favorite toy is...colors

My favorite story is...Mulan

I like to play...Teddy Bears

I like to wear...a skirt

When I am at school I like to...play on the swing

When I am at home I like to...play with toys

For those of you who know our oldest you can see that there are a few differences in this list today.  Our oldest is not shy in telling you that her favorite color is most definitely blue, her favorite food is just about anything but she loves fruit, she still loves to color.  Her favorite story is anything from Veggie Tales.  She likes to play Barbies and still loves skirts.  She loves to swing and at home she likes to sing and play with the housekeeping corner.

Well if you know me, you know that I like to keep stuff.  I have a few boxes of treasures in the garage and in a few minutes the girls preschool portfolios will be added to the collection.  I can't wait to pull them out in a few years and reminisce.  Talk to you next week, until then....

Pedometers

As I was strolling the dollar aisle a few weeks back with my girls, looking for celebration prizes I saw that there was a pedometer for just a buck. What a deal! (What does the Moorman bird say? Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!) I had always thought that having a pedometer would be cool. It would be neat to see how far one walks each day. I also thought that it would be a good motivational tool for me to stay active. So on May 23 I started wearing my new pedometer and did so every day for over a week. It was a good gage as to how active I was during the day. I started logging my steps every day as well. All was going well until on June 4th the darn thing broke. What can you expect from the dollar aisle? The thing did have a fatal flaw. The reset button was right up front and I unintentionally hit it on many occasions (see below). So now I am committed. I have gotten into a good habit and now the cheap step counter was not working. So off to Sports Chalet I go. After a bit of searching I found the pedometers and "walked" away with a new one (see picture) for a bit more than a buck. So my counting of steps continues and my goal is 10,000 a day. I will say I have made it only twice this past week but I did have two days of 9000+ so I am on my way. Today was 14,610 which included time at the gym and a walk to the grocery store. I guess my encouragement to you is to find something that works as stick with it. Until next week....

Flamingo Season

I know, I know, two more weeks have gone by and no post from me. It seems that in all of my spare time since school has been out I have found ways to stay busy. Right now I am in the middle of flamingo season. What is flamingo season you may ask? Let me tell you...better yet, let me show you:



So I have been knee deep in flamingos and the season closes the end of the month. I hope that in the end we will have raised a good amount of money for our mission trip to Alaska. Well I am off to spread another flock to another yard. See ya!!

Wow...two weeks since my last post!

Hi folks, so sorry for not posting last week but I was at the happiest place on earth with my girls. It was the first real day off I have had in a while so I used it to spend the day twirling in circles, waiting in line, and watching for princesses. I had to work all day today because of some scheduling reasons but I still wanted to post today.

Nothing new on the adoption front. Once again we are waiting for a court date. The next date is June 26th. And once again, we are hopeful that this will be the last one until a finalization hearing. I will keep you posted. We did find out that because things have taken so long, Jill and I have to renew our foster care license. That means that we have to take 18 hours of continuing education in the next few weeks. I have already completed six hours and Jill has done three. We both have to take the entire day off on Thursday to attend a foster and kinship care conference. It will be a long day but they will feed us breakfast and lunch at no cost. We hope to get at least six hours of continuing ed hours each for the day.

One quick thing from from our youngest. Her new phrase is "What in the heck in the world!" She says it when she is excited. We have just had a spell of hot weather here (90 + degrees) and we went to a friends condo to use the pool and when we told the girls, our youngest busts our her new phrase, followed quickly by her big sister who says, "Rock on Dude!" I am not sure where they pick these things up but they sure are funny.

I guess the biggest thing was my graduation a week or so back. Here are some pictures (thanks to my friend Josh for being the photographer).

My Great Aunt

Tomorrow my Great Aunt Edna turns 100!  What an accomplishment.  She is my fathers aunt, my grandfathers sister and she lives in Indiana.  She is something else.  I have come to appreciate her more and more as I hear more about her.   I want to share what her local paper said about her so you can get to know a bit about this wonderful lady.  The following is from the Jackson County Tribune:

Her life, Her way

By JOANNE PERSINGER

Edna Moorman Dye remembers exactly what people said when she came home from Indianapolis and went to church at Borchers one particular Sunday.

"Edna Moorman's got a car!" was the first thing that was gasped.

"Oh, and she's driving it!" was the second.

That was in a time when women didn't, as a rule, drive a car, let alone own one. They didn't usually finish high school, either, and they especially didn't go away to the big city to go to business school.

Why should they, when they could go to work right away in a factory, or marry and settle down?

That might be what other young women did, but Edna had plans of her own, even when she was a youngster in school.

"When we were studying geography, I said, ‘I'm going to see that,' and everybody laughed at me."

As it turned out, Dye, who now lives in Seymour and will mark her 100th birthday on May 7, has been to all 50 states and several foreign countries. She lived for a time in Alaska before it became a state, and when she was 87, she visited the Panama Canal.

It would have been hard to predict the adventures she would have when she began life on May 7, 1908, in Bartholomew County. Born at home to August and Elizabeth Moorman, she grew up on a farm, complete with cows and pigs and chickens.

"We'd come home from school and Mom would say, ‘Change your clothes and feed the chickens,'" Dye said.

Kids today, she added, "don't know how good they've got it."

Dye and her sister, Frieda, and her brother, Roy, would walk two miles to school. Later, Dye drove a horse and buggy to school. She would get out for lunch 15 minutes early so she could feed the horse.

"Oh, those were the horse and buggy days," she laughed.

She graduated from Cortland in 1927, an accomplishment in itself. Many girls attended school only until they were 16, the required age at which the law allowed them to leave, but Dye was determined to graduate.

"I liked school," she said. "A lot of girls quit at 16."

Frieda had gone to work and was already making money, and, "the neighbors thought it was terrible" that Dye's parents were going to pay to send her to college when instead she could have been working and making money.

"Then, when I bought a car ...," she said, laughing again.

But Dye was off to business school in Indianapolis, studying shorthand and typing. Her first job was with the U.S. Rubber Co.

She kept busy with work and friends and enjoyed dancing. On a visit home, she also was planning to go to a dance, but this time, Frieda put her foot down. Go to the dance Edna might, but she would not be wearing that flapper dress.

It was at a dance, in fact, that she met her future husband, Byferd Dye, who was from Kokomo. Edna had a friend who had a brother at Fort Benjamin Harrison, where Byferd was stationed with the U.S. Army, and Edna and Byferd met and hit it off.

On April 25, 1935, they married - eloped, actually.

"We were married two or three months before we told anybody," Edna said.

Secrecy was required so that Edna could keep her job; she wouldn't have been allowed to work had it been known that she was married. So they said their vows in a chapel in Indianapolis, and eventually, Byferd got a promotion, enabling Edna to quit work.

Byferd stayed in the service, and a couple of years after they married, he and Edna started their family. Their two sons were both born at Fort Harrison. William lives in California and James, a pastor, lives at Southport. The Dyes' daughter, Jacque Schultheis, who was born in Texas, lives at Seymour. There are seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

When Dye's husband retired, they moved back to the Cortland area. Dye worked for the Indiana Telephone Co. for several years. She started out as an operator and eventually became a night supervisor before she retired.

Through the years, Dye has enjoyed dancing, quilting, playing cards and doing volunteer work.

She mowed her own grass until she was 87, and drove her 1975 Hornet until she was 91.

An open house is being held in her honor from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. May 11 in the social room at Lutheran Community Home. All family and friends are invited.

Lets all take a moment and thank the Lord for the blessings of life and family and give a shout for 100 years of life for Edna!