Gloria In Excelsis Deo

Is this heaven?

Our week in Iowa has been fantastic. Unfortunately, we have to leave the corn-filled rolling acres in the morning to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It's been warm but not miserable for our stay, but I will say this: humidity makes a BIG difference in how 85 degrees feels.

On our way eastward across the state on Sunday night we got to stop and stay with Jase & Rachel (how did we not get a picture together, guys?). That evening we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mike & Katherine and their two-month old, Benjamin. LOVE that family. 

The other day Micah was using a plastic tub as a hat.

Jaron and a co-worker took Joel and I on a tour of his glass-manufacturing plant in Dewitt. It was REALLY cool. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of Jaron on our trip (though he did take a few). Later, we all got to go swimming at my in-laws' place. You'll have to visit Pam's blog for pictures from that outing. Pam calls Micah "a bit of a wild man in the pool," and I just have to say that's an understatement. The kid seems neither to realize nor to care that when he steps off the side of the pool, or off the step in the pool that he will sink, and not be able to breathe, and drown. It felt like he spent the whole afternoon just testing to see if an adult really will show up any time he decides to throw himself in.

Today we had to say good-bye to Joel, Pam, Gabriel, Micah and Zaley, but first we got to hang out a little bit. Micah asked me to read him Corduroy... about three or four times. 

Then they both wanted to listen to their new book, Luke Goes to Bat (nevermind the hat... Micah insisted I wear it).

Here's Gabriel (and Elizabeth) listening intently.

Family photo!

In this video, Gabriel was "playing" the conch shell like a trumpet. Micah wouldn't stop asking me to "take a picture!"

So, after filming for a few seconds, I took his picture.

And those are our tales from Iowa.

Dad

Growing up I can remember my mom trying to explain to my brothers and I that we had an especially fantastic father. Being a sincere kid, I can remember trying to take that information to heart. I knew I shouldn't take Dad for granted, but I didn't really understand. Dad was Dad. Isn't this how dads are?

I didn't know that most kids didn't have dads that went to work before 5 am every day of his adult life so that he could be home by the time we got out of school. I didn't know that most dads didn't go outside to play with their kids every day -- even after working a physically demanding job. It didn't occur to me until later in life that Dad was the only coach I had for any sport until I was in junior high. He was the only baseball coach I had until high school (and, frankly, my dad deserves most of the credit for my high school team being one of the best in the state). I didn't realize it was abnormal for a dad to spend so much time with his kids. Once I was in high school and Dad wasn't my coach anymore, he attended everything I ever participated in. I didn't know other kids' dads didn't do that.

We hear about study after study after study telling us how hard it is for kids who grow up without good father figures. My brothers and I don't suffer from those hardships.

I don't know if I've ever given my dad a gift (t-shirt, mug, etc.) with "World's Greatest Dad" written on it somewhere, but in this case, that statement would be no exaggeration. Thanks, Dad.

Happy Father's Day.

Catching Up: Highlights from the last two weeks

- I had scheduled my last two posts to post on Friday, May 27, and Monday, May 30 - both really early in the morning. They didn't actually post (or at least they didn't show up in RSS feed readers) until sometime in the afternoon on Tuesday, May 31. I don't know what's up with that, but I apologize for two untimely posts this week. I'll try to get to the bottom of that.

- From May 19 until May 28 we were extremely fortunate to be visited by my brother, Jaron. It was absolutely fantastic having him around for more than a week. He's a hassle-free houseguest, and I love his idea of "fun." We spent a lot of time at the park playing with his super-long-distance frisbee. After I threw it into the tree once (and he had to climb up and pull it down), we managed to have a really fun time with it. What we learned is that to play with that kind of frisbee, you need a field about the size of 10 football fields that has NO ONE else playing on it.

- Tuesday we checked out Red Rocks Park and amphitheater, which is one of the coolest sights to see around here (I think Jaron would agree). After that we headed up to Evergreen and did a mild hike that Elizabeth and I have enjoyed numerous times. When we got back to the city Tuesday night we went to a Rockies game. The Rocks lost the game, but we all had a fabulous time (it was $1 hotdog night... and the dogs were Hebrew National, which totally made it worth it).

- Jaron took me golfing. First time I had swung a club in over four years. I had a really good time. I birdied a hole for the very first time in my life. Jaron was a bit disappointed, because the 9-hole course had just two par-4s and the rest were par-3s. We both felt a little silly for having rented a cart. It felt like the equivalent of riding the escalator up 3 stairs.

- Last Friday Jase and Rachel arrived from Des Moines. They were here to pick Jaron up and bring him back to the Motherland, but they drove through the night Thursday so they could be here for all of Friday and spend some time with us. It was a fantastic 24+ hours. We went out to Red Rocks Park to run around a little bit. Later, we pulled out the Saint Louis Cardinals-themed cornhole set that Joel built for us last year. It was the first time we'd ever used them. They are AWESOME and we had a great time playing. Jase, Rachel and Jaron took off on Saturday morning. Spending time with my family always makes me want to move back to Iowa as soon as we possibly can!

- Monday (Memorial Day) Elizabeth had the day off work, and was signed up to run one of the biggest and most famous 10k races in the country - the Bolder Boulder. So we headed up to Boulder early in the morning for her to run. It was a really fun race. A lot of people put on goofy and funny outfits to run it, and there are bands playing all along the race course. Elizabeth finished well below her goal time, even without ideal training conditions the week before with family here and everything. I'm really proud of her.

- Today I had two wisdom teeth pulled. It was an interesting experience. They gave me an IV and I was "consciously sedated" during the procedure. I was told that after the surgery I probably wouldn't remember much of it because the sedative gives you a mild form of amnesia when it wears off. I remember it pretty well, though (I think). It didn't hurt at all at the time, but since the numbing stuff has worn off, it's gotten pretty painful. Fortunately, I've got a bottle of vicodin to keep me company. I can't really eat solid food, though.

That's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. Now it's June.

The Best

I posted this a year ago on Mother's Day, and today I wanted to remind everyone how much I love my mom!


The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.

If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.

Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.

She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.

Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.

And she's the best one I've ever seen.

I love you, Mom.

Family time

Yesterday we returned home from a week-long trip to California's beautiful Central Coast. Spending time with family is one of the greatest blessings of my life.

A few photos, followed by a couple of short videos (FYI: the videos were of much higher quality before going through Blogger's uploading process - not sure what that's about).

(We were both very tired) 

The little ones were dancing to a few of the ringtones on Elizabeth's phone.

Still dancing...

Wanna know about our Christmas festivities?

Pam does.

On Thursday, December 16, less than an hour after I finished my last class of the semester at Denver Seminary, Elizabeth and I hit the road for a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate a friend's wedding (Elizabeth was the bride's personal attendant), and an all-too brief family Christmas with my in-laws.

We did a short leg of our trip on Thursday evening, and then drove the rest of the way to Fort Dodge, IA on Friday. Friday evening we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see some friends from college we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Elizabeth got to spend some one-on-one time with the bride-to-be over coffee. Then we got ready and headed to the church for photos. After the wedding was the reception -- some more fun with old friends and lots of laughter (and LOTS of COOKIES). We said our goodbyes and headed back to the home in which we were staying (the bride had hooked us up with some family friends who were incredibly hospitable and made our stay in Fort Dodge very comfortable).

Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then headed a couple of hours south where we met up with Elizabeth's parents and brother in Des Moines. We went out to lunch and then headed to the Des Moines Civic Center where we took in a production of The Nutcracker. It was fun! After the show we all went back to the hotel where we hung out for a bit and ate some more REALLY good cookies, baked and brought by Elizabeth's folks (cookies were a big part of the weekend -- and probably much of the reason Elizabeth's been sick for the last week!).

On Monday we drove all the way back home here to Denver (along the way, I swear to you we saw Santa Claus driving a semi truck through Grand Island, Nebraska).

Last week was spent with me working more than usual (the other admin assistant in the church office was out of town for the holidays), and Elizabeth working more than usual (working retail around the holidays is typically not a lot of fun), and both of us trying to purchase a few presents for the other. Elizabeth had to work on Christmas Eve and so was not able to join me at our church's candlelight service, but she didn't have to work too late.

Christmas morning we slept in (until, as Cliff Huxtable would put it, our eyes just POPPED open!). We opened presents. We watched a little bit of A Christmas Story (because I'd never seen it -- verdict? I agree with my wife: it's one of the more obnoxious movies I've ever watched, and I only watched about the first 35 minutes). We made a huge brunch (biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.) which tasted delicious. We watched White Christmas (our annual movie tradition, inherited from Elizabeth's family). We pretty much hung out and relaxed. In the evening, we watched the Cowboys game. Then we went to bed.

Any questions?

weird

This commercial makes me think of Jase. Don't know why.

Alright, Iowa!

This is the obligatory post-Iowa trip post. I had hoped to blog fairly frequently during our trip, but I was unable to, so now you have to suffer one long all-inclusive post. To see pictures (and there are only a few) you'll have to read this whole thing (or scroll to the bottom!).

• Left home just before 4 pm last Thursday. I essentially walked out of my Thursday afternoon class, drove home, loaded the car, and left. After we accidentally missed our exit and took what I like to call "the scenic route" to find our way back to the right road, we made fairly decent time to Lincoln.
• Stayed in Lincoln on Thursday night... slept in a KING SIZE bed (which is always a highlight for me). We were able to sleep in a little bit on Friday since the next leg of our trip was shorter and we didn't have a real pressing time we needed to be in the Quad Cities. Our hotel offered a fantastic hot breakfast, so I took full advantage.
• Rolled into the Quad Cities at a little after 3 on Friday. We stopped off at Joel and Pam's. We greeted Joel and Micah (Pam was gone and Gabriel was sleeping) and checked out the in-progress Cornhole set Joel was working on for us.
• Headed to Elizabeth's parents house, where we'd be staying for the duration of the trip. Visited briefly with her whole family. Her parents had an obligation Friday night, so we went out with Clay (Elizabeth's super fun brother). We had dinner at Bennigan's and then went to the cheap movie theater and saw Salt (really good movie).
• Saturday Elizabeth and I were joined by her dad on our 9-mile run on a beautiful path through Davenport. The weather, by the way, was aMAZing for our trip. Highs were between 65-75, and no humidity the whole time. Reminded me of Denver weather with Iowa scenery. Kinda weird, but incredibly great.
• Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of one of Elizabeth's best friends. It was a really great wedding, with a fun reception, great food, and we got to spend (all-too little) time with a couple of other friends of Elizabeth's from high school.
• Sunday we went to Northridge for church, where we met up with Jase and Rachel, Joel and Pam (obviously), and Jaron and the friend he brought with him from Texas. My grandparents and aunt cousins were there too. It was SUPER great to see everyone! I sat in between Jaron and Jase during the service, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. We're all too big to fit comfortably on normal-sized seats, so we were quite friendly with each other. At one point, Pastor Doug made a comment that made Jase and I giggle, and we eventually both just lost it. I could not contain my laughter. Every time I giggled my body shook a little, so even though I wasn't making any sound, Jase would feel my laughter and that would get him going too. It was a cycle that could not be defeated.
• After church we all went to Joel and Pam's and hung out all afternoon. We played a little catch outside, had a really fantastic lunch and dessert (thanks, Pam!), and sat around chatting. Then we got Tropical Sno and then went disc-golfing in Long Grove. Turns out I'm awful at disc-golfing. I'm pretty sure I hit every tree on the course at least once... including one throw where the only tree anywhere near the path toward the hole was about a foot and a half tall and it was about 50 yards away. I hit it. It was actually an incredible shot.
• Sunday night Elizabeth and I had dinner with some of her extended family. We had brats and chatted with everyone.
• After dinner we headed back to Joel and Pam's where we all played Loaded Questions and laughed our heads off... almost literally.
• Monday morning was the "Run with Carl." Elizabeth and I were supposed to run 3 miles for our marathon training on Monday, so we had signed up, along with her dad, to run the 5k "Run with Carl." Joel drove into Bettendorf and ran it with me, which was incredibly nice of him to do. I really enjoyed it -- this was the first real "race" I've ever been in. I was more or less satisfied with my time, and I felt really good all during the run, even though it poured on us for about 10 minutes of it.
• After the race we showered and then went back to Joel and Pam's. We all decided to have lunch and dessert, but in reverse order. We drove to Whitey's for ice cream, then ordered some Casey's pizza, which we ate while watching Wipeout on the computer.
• Shortly after lunch, Jaron and his friend took off back to Texas, and then Jase and Rachel had to get going back to Ames. I was in desperate need of a tough-to-find journal article for one of my classes, and the nearest library that had it was in Dubuque, so Joel and I dropped Elizabeth off at her parents' and drove north. I had a really great time hanging out with Joel on our mini road-trip... but then we got to Dubuque and they didn't have the article (even though all signs indicated that they did). The student worker at the desk didn't seem to have much of a clue, either. We went to two other higher-education libraries in Dubuque where we struck out twice more on the article. So we headed back to the Quad Cities, having failed our quest -- but enjoying our time nonetheless.
• Monday night Elizabeth and I had a redbox night with her family. Turns out The Backup Plan is an awful movie (Joel and Pam warned me).
• Tuesday we took a 5-mile run in the morning. After lunch Elizabeth went shopping with her mom while I did some homework. In the afternoon Elizabeth and her mom and I had chiropractor appointments in Clinton. After the chiro we stopped at a few more stores to do some shopping. We went back to her parents' house for dinner, then we headed to Joel and Pam's one more time to pick up our finished Cornhole boards and say good-byes (thought I had a picture of the Cornhole boards Joel built us, but I don't -- I know for sure he has a picture of us with them, so he'll have to post 'em for you. They're impressive!).
• Wednesday morning we were on the road at 7:00 (Central Time), and we got to our place in Denver before 6:30 pm (Mountain Time) for a total of less than 12.5 hours on the road.

Some other tidbits:

• Elizabeth counted and determined that in 4 full days in Iowa I ate 11 desserts and drank 6 soda (for you Californians)-pops (for you Iowans). So I'd say my marathon-training diet is looking pretty great. But I'll have you know that it was worth it. My 11 desserts included TWO Tropical Snos (fabulous), and multiple different kinds of ice cream including home-made (YUM!!) and Whitey's (YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
• We really got to know our new Camry on this trip. We put almost 2,200 miles on that thing in less than a week.
• Came pretty close to hitting two possums, a couple of deer, and a cat (just missed it) while in Iowa.
• While on our way back through Nebraska on Wednesday, we had to call 911 to report a drunk driver. When we called we weren't sure if he was drunk or falling asleep, but he kept drifting out of his lane really badly. Nearly hitting a couple of other cars, and almost driving completely off the road. Right after Elizabeth hung up with the 911 dispatcher, the guy DID drive completely off the road and down into the median. Rather than it jolting him awake and scaring him and making him reconsider driving while impaired, he drove right back up onto the road and kept going. That's when I got especially nervous -- and pissed off -- about the guy. Oddest part? He was in a company truck. Elizabeth has called the company to not-so-kindly ask them to get their deadly drunk drivers off the road so that my life can continue to be lived.
• At the Run with Carl on Monday we ran into a couple of college friends we hadn't seen in awhile. That was fun.
• Funny moment: At one point Joel looked out the window of his house and noticed that a little boy and his teenage sister were approaching his door to try to sell him something. He began to groan about it, but then in an instant his eyes lit up and he raised his finger in an I-have-a-great-idea kind of way. He exclaimed, "Quick! There's a gorilla suit in the closet!" Both he and Jase sprung off the couch and flew down the stairs. In just a matter of moments Joel was dressed like a gorilla... and that's how he answered the door. It made me laugh pretty hard. We're a weird family.

"...let all you loyal Iowans sing..."

"We have so much time and so little to do! Wait... strike that... reverse it."

Elizabeth and I (Lord willing) will be hittin' the road sometime Thursday afternoon to make our way to the eastern end of the great state of Iowa. We've got a friend's wedding on Saturday, and some hanging out with family for a few days after that.

We are REALLY excited about our trip. It's far too rare that we get to hang out with family, and we're really looking forward to it. (Another reason I'm excited is to drive our new Camry for an extended period of time. Go ahead, call me a nerd -- I love to drive.)

Unfortunately, we each have about ten gazillion (give or take a few) things we have to take care of before we leave, both job-related and home/life-related.

Here's to hoping we get everything done in time!

Coaching

I love baseball. I love watching it, I love playing it, and I'm sure with a little more time and experience, I'll love coaching it.

Right now the "coaching it" part is kind of frustrating. I'm an assistant coach of a 15-16 year old rec league team. Most of the kids on our team do NOT seem like they've played much baseball before. Some of them don't have a clue about the most basic rules (didn't realize I needed to teach some of them what it means to "tag up"). Also, we were allotted about 4 1-hour practices prior to the start of the season. And now that games have started, we no longer practice at all (so even though we see more things to work on each game, we have no time to actually work on them). Evidently, rec league baseball isn't a very serious affair around here.

It would also be easier if I were the head coach. My head coach is great (he's an assistant pastor at the church where I work). We get along fabulously, and I think he's doing a good job of trying to impart some baseball knowledge while not taking the thing too seriously. But being an assistant coach means I feel uncomfortable being very assertive about things. It would just be easier to be in a position where I could command the team a little more (and I'm not at all suggesting that I would make us any better... I'm just saying that for myself I would probably feel better about the job I'm doing if I were in charge).

My dad was the only baseball coach I had until high school, and he was very good at it. He also had a slight advantage though, in my opinion: He started coaching us at 5 years old and continued with pretty much the same group of kids for about ten years. He helped us from the ground up. When we were 15-16 we knew baseball because we'd grown up with it and had been coached well. Now I'm trying to coach 15-16 year olds who have the baseball experience and knowledge of probably 7-8 year olds (with a few exceptions, of course).

Anyway, my points here, to sum up, are: I love baseball. My current coaching gig is a little frustrating. My dad's a great coach, and I want to coach like him someday.

P.S. We've played one game. We lost 10-7. Found out that this level of ball is determined solely by the quality of the pitchers. We had a great pitcher for 4 innings, and we were winning. Then we put in a not-so-great pitcher, and we were suddenly down 10-2. Fortunately, they put in a not-so-great pitcher in the 7th inning and we scored five runs to make it moderately close. Interesting.

Graduation weekend

Elizabeth participated in graduation ceremonies for Denver Seminary this weekend.

This is her (both in real life and on the big screen) being handed her degree from our seminary's president, Dr. Mark Young.

This is us with her parents and her brother who came to visit.

There's plenty more pictures, but I'll let Elizabeth post them (if she wants). They're all pictures of her anyway.

The Best

The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.

If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.

Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.

She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.

Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.

And she's the best one I've ever seen.

I love you, Mom.

I'm ashamed

If you're a Rohde brother, this post needs no comment at all.

If you're not, just skip this completely. Nothing to see here.

Personal mail IS AWESOME

There's someone named Emily who is really cool who writes a blog that I regularly read. I would describe my relationship to Emily, but I'm pretty sure 97% of you reading this are part of either her family or mine (or BOTH!) and don't need to be told.

Emily recently sent hand-written letters to my wife and I, because she's awesome. Mine was even Dallas Cowboys-themed because she knows I'm a fan. How sweet, and wonderfully personalized. Even though I wasn't the winner of the special grand prize contest, I enjoyed my just-for-me letter more than just about any other mail I've gotten in quite some time.

Thanks, Em!!

Important

A new blog, that you do NOT want to miss out on, has begun. You can find it HERE. If you think that Joel and Jaron and Jase and I are silly individually, just wait until you see how amazingly awesome we are when we blog in ONE PLACE about Rohde-related things.

(I'm egotistical, so I launched it on my birthday.)

Frustrating

What's frustrating about Denver weather is that you can ALWAYS count on a major huge snowstorm in March. What's more frustrating is that this year's is choosing to come on the very day my family is supposed to be traveling through town on their way back home to California. It's going to be a 24-hour storm that just might re-route my family and make it so that I don't get to see them tomorrow night.

Iowa trip, briefly

We went to Iowa last week. We were there from Wednesday evening through Sunday morning, and we didn't see the sun once. It was okay, though. It wasn't THAT cold, and it never really rained on us, it was just foggy and sometimes misty and VERY wet because of the buckets and buckets of melting snow.

It was a fabulous trip, but quite busy. We got to see my whole family. Elizabeth's parents took time off work to come to Ames and hang out with us for an afternoon too. Her brother Clay hosted us for three nights and he was far more gracious than he needed to be.

Oh, and on Saturday night, Jase and Rachel got married.

CLICK HERE to see a facebook photo album from our trip.

YAY!

Family's here! We love it when stuff like this happens. Mom, Dad, Jaron, and the five younger kids have all stopped off here to hang out with us for a few hours while they refresh themselves from a long day and night of driving, as they prepare for another long night of driving.

It's really wonderful having them all here, but it always ends up being a challenge too. Our little one-bedroom place isn't fit for 10 people. We grilled burgers, hot dogs, and italian sausages for supper. It was all really really tasty (I was quite proud of my grilling-for-a-huge-group-of-people skills). It was also really fun to do. I like being able to prepare meals for my family... but as I shared with my parents tonight, it's sort of like going through a tornado. There's some normal preparation work, and then when things start coming off the grill it's complete chaos for about 10 minutes while the food hits the table and all the kids need a hot dog, a hamburger, ketchup/mustard, apple juice, silverware, corn, and whatever else it takes to eat their meal. Then as quickly as it started, it's over, and there's a huge mess to clean up (and if they're lucky, adults get to eat). I know that this is nothing new, and all of you with kids probably think I'm a moron for thinking this is a topic worthy of blogging about, but it is, so back off. My blog. Not yours.

A few memories

I found some photo prints in a box in our bedroom and I scanned some of them in. Here are a few.

This is my grandpa and me in front of Morro Rock. I wish I had more pictures with him.

At my high school graduation party.

The Wilton Little League All-Stars circa 1996. (I'm the chubby kid, bottom right.)

We were the undefeated champions of the tournament, of course.