Category: family

  • Buick Open Date

    TigerKristen and I made a return trip to Warrick Hills yesterday to watch the third round of the Buick Open. It was a lot of fun to traverse the grounds as a spectator. Here are some highlights.

    A place to sit We spent the early part of the day trying to find a place to get a good view. Generally, we sit on the grass… but the rains the other day left the ground too wet to comfortably sit. So… we made our way to the "beer hole," the 17th. This is a very nice little par 3 and it’s virtually surrounded by stands. We sat there from about 1:30 PM-5:30 PM. We managed to see darn near everyone. The stands were great for their comrodarie too. I talked to an old timer for quite a while and then a couple other people later on.

    John Daly, super Detroit Tigers fan     At the "beer hole" John Daly and his group waited their turn to hit. Daly is one of the PGA Tours favorite players and draws quite a following. A "beer guy" himself, Daly planned to suprise the local fans with a little local knowledge. Just before they hit, the entire group swapped their hats for Detroit Tigers hats. The crowd went nuts. Then, just for good measure… Big John knocked it stiff. More screams and high fives.

    Off the hizzle On the 18th hole, Kristen and I joined the mob of people following Tiger Woods. (We’re talking something like 10,000 people following one guy around a golf course… crazy!) We found a place along the ropes of the left fairway. I peered around a tree to watch Tiger tee off. I saw it leave the clubface and take off down the fairway. Then I saw it start to make a familiar driving hook around the tree that I was looking through. I’ve got that shot in my bad too… it’s ugly. You heard a "Ooo" as the ball thumped a guy along the ropes about 50 feet past us. The guy had covered his face to protect himself… good idea. The ball pelted the back of his hand and bounced into the fairway. As Tiger made his way over there he put on the Tiger smile and apologized. He was a class act, he told the guy he was sorry that he got hurt. He gave him a signed glove and shock his hand. The guy who got plunked said, "Go get ’em Tiger." Of course, TW took advantage of the fairway off the hizzie and dropped it on the green 7 feet from the hole and grabbed his second straight birdie.

    Great day, better time with Kristen Is that enough said? We needed a whole game all by ourselves.

  • Out of the mouths of babes, part 2

    Niagra_falls_113After the last post about Paul, I’m guessing people think my kids are really wild animals. Well, truth be told that’s partially true… but they also are really sweet and say nice things.

    Last night Paul and Kristen were laying in Paul’s bed. Kristen was trying to get Paul to go to sleep when he said, "Mommy, can we sing the calm song?" Kristen didn’t think she knew it so Paulie started singing…

    "Oh, no. You not let go, through the calm and through the storm. Oh no. You not let go of me."

    Kristen instantly recognized it as the Matt Redman song, You Never Let Go,  on the Passion CD. It’s amazing the spiritual truths my 2 year old is picking up from listening to our iPod. (The boy likes Tomlin too, he once got us all stopped talking in the car to saym "Mommy, holy is the Lord. The Lord is holy." Makin Moses proud there eh?)

    Here’s the lyrics from Redman’s song… good stuff. He completed ripped off David!

    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    Your perfect love is casting out fear.
    And even when I´m caught in the middle of the storms of this life,
    I won´t turn back, I know You are near.

    And I will fear no evil,
    For my God is with me.
    And if my God is with me,
    Whom then shall I fear?
    Whom then shall I fear?

    O no, You never let go,
    Through the calm and through the storm
    O no, You never let go,
    In every high and every low
    O no, You never let go –
    Lord You never let go of me.

    And I can see a light is coming for the heart that holds on –
    A glorious light beyond all compare.
    And there will be an end to these troubles,
    But until that day comes,
    We´ll live to know You here on the earth.

    (And I will fear no evil¦)

    Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on,
    And there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes,
    Still I will praise You, still I will praise You.       

  • Out of the mouths of babes

    Lightforce_018Few things are more fun for me than hanging out with my kids and talking away. For this story… you need to know that Paul still has a hard time with his "s" words. The conjunction "st" gets pronounced more like "sd" and "s" words often come across as "sh" words.

    So you can imagine the laughter in the house when Paul was wrestling me tonight and he proudly proclaimed, "I’m sitting on daddy’s head."

  • Doggy First Aid, part 2

    I just got back from the vet. Stoney is now sporting a very cool orange bandage. They took him in the back room and he came back a few minutes later. He was very good about it. He’s been pretty lazy today, but I’m expecting him to be back to his normal self in no time.

  • Doggy First Aid

    Dewclaw2We are dogsitting for Nat’s massive hound dog named Flapjack. So far, it’s been really easy since he’s a nice dog. But the first day Stoney and Flappy did get into a little bit of a scuffle.

    In the course of fighting there was a lot of scratching and biting. While Flappy didn’t get hurt at all, Stoney did get a bloody ear and his right dewclaw got messed up. I cleaned up and iced his ear. But we’re keeping an eye on his dewclaw. I’m not trying to be cheap, but I’d hate to go to the vet to have him charge me $100 to remove a nail that will likely fall off in a few days.

    p.s. Still no Violet.

  • Late Nights

    The last several days (ok, weeks) have been a series of late nights. I am really looking forward to a nice and lazy Saturday.

    Middle Madness last night was a lot of fun    . We went out to Dryden and ran around doing a scavenger hunt. Then the students tried to make some homemade ice cream. The best part, to me, was watching students try to make ice cream and have it not work. They just kept ending up with a mushy bag of white stuff.

    When we got back to town we decided that we needed to go to Dairy Queen. So about 8 of us went and got DQ. It was really cool to hang out with middle schoolers without their older siblings. It’s not that I don’t enjoy hanging out with high schoolers, it just that when you mix them… the older ones manage to push their way to the front of all of the adults attention. And middle schoolers are people too!

  • Have you seen her?

    Mclane_spring_005It’s not unusual for our family cat, Violet, to be gone for a few days in the summer. We have one of those wonderful cats who likes to be out all night and sleeps in the house all day… but we haven’t seen her for about 3 days now.

    We hope she’s OK. She the nicest cat I’ve ever met. She’s very friendly and likes human interaction. We often joke about her being the neighborhoods cat since we gather most people don’t know who she belongs to. Kristen and I even joked that some family might have taken her in their camper up north or something. We just hope she comes back soon. (Though as I write this, Megan is telling me that she slept in her bed last night. I still haven’t seen her.)

  • Boys Day

    Dadandpaul_small_1
    Today was  one of those days you circle on the calendar and say… "wow."

    In the course of my normal craziness one of my favorite old guys came over to me with a funny look on his face. He asked me what I was up to after church. In my mind I was thinking, "Cool, an invite for lunch." (One of the coolest things about Romeo is how friendly people are. We tend to get invited out for "dutch lunch" Instead, he hands me an envelope with 2 tickets to the Ford Senior Championships.

    After some trying to figure out who to go with it dawns on me that the best person to take is in the backseat of my car! So Paul and I had a great day together.

    It was a great reminder to me of how much I love spending that kind of time with my son. We went to the golf tournament for the afternoon. He did great, though I don’t think he cared about the golf at all. From there we popped in on Kristen’s parents for a little ice cream and then drove home. It ended up being about 9 hours of pure "Dad and Paul time."

    Best part of the day… on the way home Paul said "My best part of the day was spending all day with you." Well said, little man. That was the best part of my day too.

  • Dave is here!

    P4080004I’ve been a little silent about this because of our recent connection problems. But Dave is here and we’re having a great time. I’m having to relearn all my "Northern Irish-isms" as we try to communicate well.

    One of the best things so far is how well he’s fit into the family. It’s absolutely incredible how much Paul likes him. The only odd thing so far is that Paul enjoys acting like a dog around Dave.

    He gets introduced to the church family in the morning. From that point on I’m pretty sure he’ll get invited over to a lot of people’s houses. He’s likely to be the most popular man in Romeo for a few days.

  • Paul Likes it Loud

    IpodAs Kristen reported a few days ago, Paul has fallen in love with the iPod. He’s two you know? He likes to sit very quietly and listen to music. Now that he’s discovered that I purchased a few songs from Cars, he won’t let me have it back.

    This morning, as soon as he got us, he asked for the iPod. As I turned it on and gave it to him (which he can do on his own now) he said he wanted the Cars songs and he wanted it loud.

    I’m with Paul, I like it loud.