This was a video from our service today. We shot this at Roth Muir. For those not in Romeo this is one of the two funeral homes in town. It was the perfect location for this short video as it drove home our point perfectly.
Services went great today. I’ll probably say more later. But everything from the music to the message to the baptisms made for a very strong Easter Sunday in Romeo.
I’m a big fan of my wife’s blog. She is working hard to create a blog for mom’s like her. If you have never checked it out, here are 3 posts I think you need to read.
We have a spoiled dog. Stoney, our family yellow lab, loves our children most for their leftovers. There is almost nothing that Stoney won’t eat so he patiently waits for Megan & Paul to finish knowing there is a likelihood his bowl will acquire what’s left.
But in the last two weeks Kristen has taken this to a new level of spoiled. She now makes Stoney a pancake on Saturday mornings too. No wonder he likes her best.
Kristen handed me something labeled “assessment” from Bruce Township. My heart sank a little bit as I read it. When this arrived in 2007 I learned that our house had been assessed at about $20,000 more than we paid for it in 2005. While typically, this is a good thing. In Michigan there just wasn’t any way.
To my delight our SEV went down by 14.6% for 2008. Amazing. The boa constrictor of my our tax bill just got a little bit more palatable. At least for the next 12 months.
Last night we treated our kids to a “nice restaurant” as we took them to Olive Garden. While our kids have been well versed in how to act at McDonald’s, Chilis, Buffalo Wild Wings, and every local eatery in Romeo they weren’t quite sure what to do at a place with opera music and cloth napkins.
Quick sidenote: Paul slept through the entire experience. He fell asleep in the car, which typically means he wakes up when he smells food… but not this time.
So we got Megan settled in, she got to coloring and generally proceeded as normal through the meal. The cloth napkin was new to her but she made sure to keep it on her lap as she enjoyed her spaghetti. Kristen and I were having a fun conversation about traveling and books we’ve been reading when Kristen started to chuckle.
“You have a mimic.”
I glanced over at my 6 year old. The apple of my eye was turned her head towards me as I turned my head towards her. She was sitting with her hands folded exactly like mine. I smile, she smiled. On and on it went. When I laughed she laughed. I said “I’m a boy” and she boldly said “I’m a boy.” It was a riot.
The time came for the check and she copied my every move. As I was signing the bill her hand went to sign a pretend bill. That’s when I handed her a pen and slid the real check close to hers. She was able to copy my math on the lines and sign her name to the bottom. Where I signed my name she proudly wrote “Megan McLane.”
It’s good to see the apple doesn’t fall too far from the cart.
Yep, it’s that day again. You know, the day of the year when men frantically run to Hallmark on their lunch hours to pick up that ultra-special card that expresses deep love in a shallow world.
Here’s a rant I posted 3 years ago today about Valentines Day.
Today is slightly more subdued. The kids are excited because we gave them the Valentine’s Limited Edition Webkinz Love Frog. His name is Valentine.
For those who are like me and do not appreciate Valentine’s Day. Just a reminder that we should take a few minutes to commemorate the massacre. Just makes me want to watch The Godfather tonight.
Paul, 4 years old, is learning about money management on WebKinz.
Dad: What’s the secret to saving all that money?
Paul: You just have to stop spending money. And then you’ll have a lot.
Pretty good advice. What is your money management lesson?
No complaints today, we got dumped on last night. At our house we got about 10 inches or so. It was a weird snow too as it slushed all afternoon yesterday and then as it got colder the snow got more and more fluffy.
Kristen loves to shovel, so she jumped out there early this morning. I begrudgingly pitched in and picked up a shovel. It took us about an hour or so to do the driveway and sidewalks. It was an annoying snow to shovel since the slushy stuff on the bottom built up on the shovel and it got progressively heavier.
When I came in my shoulders were shot. Kristen’s back is a little sore but she is obviously in much better marathon shape than I am.
They canceled school last night about 10:15 PM. I totally agree on their call this time. I tried to make it into the office this morning… but the snow plows had built up snow in the drive about halfway up my door… so there was no way the Camry was going to make it in.
Note to self: Save up some money for a snow blower.
I made it through church today running tech at both services and the rehearsal. By the time the second service started I was feeling really bad. Somehow I made it through the worship set and then I went and crashed during the message. (Heard it in the first service!)
After church I had Kristen drop me off at the Romeo Urgent Care. During my exam I was feeling very bad, I mean super duper poor. The doctor was listening to my chest and I breathed in and out deeply a few times and I got really tipsy. Somehow I made it vertical until he left the room then I kind of caved over on my side and fell asleep. About 20 minutes later or so the X-ray tech came in and had me go down to their X-ray machines. I was so dizzy, I thought I’d faint. Of course, the tech didn’t get a good image the first time and had to do it again.
Long story short, I am sick. He called it “bronchitis” but he said he didn’t really know. With that he prescribed two mongo drugs and sent me on my way. With a tempurature of 103, it’s bed rest time.
All that to say, I’ll likely be out of commission for the next 12-24 hours. As I type this I can feel the Codine kicking in to take me to a happy place. Since I didn’t sleep at all last night it is a welcome respite.
Our kids got Webkinz for Christmas. If you don’t have kids you probably have no idea what this is. Let me explain.
You purchase a Webkinz stuffed animal. They are roughly the same size as a beenie baby, maybe a tad bigger. On the tag is a Webkinz registration code. Basically, you register that stuffed animal to your child’s Webkinz account and their animal comes to life on the Webkinz website.
At Webkinz there is a mini-reality set up. Your child is responsible for taking care of their pet, including earning money to buy food and other stuff. Basically, kids play games to earn cash.
Our kids are hooked on this, Megan especially. She obsesses about waking up and feeding her bunny, Sparkles, and making sure she goes to the doctor 2-3 times per week. At first Megan was horrible with her Webinz cash but has since learned how to manage her money a little better. (She keeps a balance of about 3000)
Of course, Webkinz is good and bad. We love that our kids are good at computer stuff. Paul (4) can easily navigate the site. Plus in the course of learning how to do that he can now put in his complex user name and password. To see a 4 year old navigate a mouse, type his name, play games like checkers and classic Atari titles… it warms my heart. The bad part is that they want to play 24 hours per day. They fight over time and would happily skip getting dressed, eating, going to the bathroom, brushing their teeth, or otherwise socializing with the family.
So our house has been learning about boundaries. We use a timer system and we even use Webkinz as a reward/discipline system.
This is the world our kids live in. It’s not 100% different than the world I grew up in (Nintendo and Atari) but it is a tech savvy generation. They will spend hours doing something they like and are instantly bored if something has the least bit of imperfection.
Quite a challenge to reach this generation for Christ, isn’t it?