Morgan's Birthday

Not only is tomorrow turkey day, but also my grand-daughter's 7th birthday! She was born on the Navy base hospital in Norfolk, VA while my daughter Erin was on active duty.

Morgan is a very beautiful little girl (as you can see from the picture - I think she takes after her Papa) and really enjoys her dogs and playing with her dolls. She's in first grade this year. She attends elementary school in Independence, MO.

I look forward to celebrating her birthday with her tomorrow over at my brother's house in Lee's Summit. Thanksgiving is such a great family day for us. We all look forward to the time we get to share with family and catch up on things going on in all our busy lives.

Happy birthday Morgan...I Love You!

Intrasquad Meet

Last night was Stephan's intrasquad wrestling meet at Oak Grove high school. He was wrestling at 140. The head coach at O.G. and I went to high school together. He's a good coach and was an outstanding wrestler in his day.

Stephan ended up wrestling a kid that weighed 155. Stephan was quicker but failed to use technique - he tried to bull his way through the match. Stephan is a very strong little sucker, but technique will win over strength almost everytime.

Stephan ended up loosing on points (8 to 3, I think). All I know was, he was sure mad when he finished. He thought it was going to be a walk in the park.

As I was watching the matches (26 in all), a guy with a bushy white mustache sat down next to me on the bleechers. He looked so very familiar. As I sat there, I realized he was the old wrestling coach from my high school, Chuck Sears (back then, the mustache was a little browner). I introduced myself and he said he remembered me. He told me that while I was running cross country, he was trying to get me to come out for wrestling through some of the runners that wrestled also. Chuck is a really good guy who really knows his wrestling!

After the meet, I went over to Bob (Stephan's coach) and told him that if he ever sees Stephan messing around during practice, to kick his butt. He asked if that was a blank check. My response was, "absolutely!"

Happy Birthday

On Saturday, we met over at my mother-in-law's home (Shirley) for a birthday party. Jesse Mitchell (Steph's, brother's daughter) had her 16th birthday. It's always alot of fun to get together for a party. Craig & Nedra (Steph's brother & sister-in-law) are always a lot of fun to hang around with. My mother-in-law is one in a million (she wrote me letters pretty much every week while I was gone to Kuwait this last time). I love Jesse to pieces - she's a great kid. She attends Lee's Summit North high school. My sister-in-law Kay was also there. It's always a good time to talk with her. We have a common interest in Geneology. She owns her own company: Advanced Genealogical Exploration Services - A.G.E.S. Saturday was a great day to spend with family!

It's That Time of Year...

Steph came home last night sounding horrible...the scratchy throat, blood-shot eyes and just not feeling well at all. I had her get her sweats on and just relax as I went to the Parent's Meeting for Winter sports at Platte County High.

Very boring (I've only sat through about 8 of these) but important! The school is really pushing sportsmanship this year, both from the athletes and parents. This is a good program initially instituted in the NCAA.

Shallen is going to be swimming again. This being here senior year, she gets to make a lot of the decisions for the team: design of the swim suit, first opportunity to have a team dinner at our home, etc. Shallen likes swimming, but she likes the social side a little better, I think.

Stephan is a couple of weeks into wrestling at Oak Grove High. Yesterday, I sent an email off to his coach (an old high school friend of mine) for the schedule. When I got to work this morning it was waiting there for me with a little note. I know Bob is glad to have Stephan back on the team again this year. Stephan is really intense when it comes to athletics - I don't know where he gets it! ;o)

Steph is staying home today just to take it easy! Please pray for her that this doesn't last too long and she can be going at 110% again very soon. Thanks for reading the blog - it's good to catch up!

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning I attended church with my son Stephan. He lives in Oak Grove, MO with his mom. I pull up to get him and he comes walking out of the house in jeans with dirt and grass stains on them and his shirt is wrinkled beyond belief.

I just look at him and point back toward the house. All I get from him is a "what?" (any of you that have a teenager will understand)! I explain to him that yes, God will accept him as he is, but it would be nice if he atleast put on some clean cloths so he would be welcomed with open arms by the rest of the congregation. With a look back at me like I don't understand anything, he begrudgingly returns to the house and changes his jeans (it's a start)!

They just got a new pastor about 2 months ago...he's pretty good. He definately gets into the word and makes others follow along in their Bibles (Stephan was really scrambling to keep up).

After the service, we went to a Buffalo Wild Wings in Independence to catch the Chiefs game against New Orleans. Sad to say, the Chiefs played an OK game but lost again. They are now 1-9 on the season. Hopefully, at this point, they'll lose the rest of their games and get a high draft choice in the 1st round - quarterback Chase Daniel from MU would be a nice selection!

It was nice to spend the time with Stephan. He's a very good kid with a heart of gold. As with any parent, I hope I have taught him all the right things in life. One thing I did teach him that I can find comfort in is: God has all the answers; lean not on your own understanding, but look to Him for all answers in all situations. As with the rest of us, he will go as far as he can on his own, then turn to God when it gets a little too hairy!

Today, I attended the funeral for my Uncle Charlie's wife, Karen. She passed away last Thursday of breathing issues due to emphysema. Charlie's a great guy - always been involved in our family and treated us all as his own when we were growing up. He even babysat for a week one summer when mom & dad made a trip to Las Vegas - I'm not sure how he made it through that one! Please pray for Charlie as he moves forward with his life after the loss of his wife of 18 years!

Veteran's Day...Remembered

Back in 2003, after I had returned from my first tour of duty into Iraq, the United States seemed like a very different place. A lot of the patriotism from the 9/11 tragedy had worm off and people were getting back to their everyday lives.

Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing! The last thing anyone wants is to be terrified of what could happen next. No one deserves to live in fear and live their life that way every day!

There were a lot less flags flying when I came home...people had to be reminded to remove their hat when the National Anthem was sang at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City...people seemed too busy to stop and look at our flag as it waved in the summer breeze.

On November 11, 2003, I attended my first Veteran's Day parade as a veteran. It was at the Liberty Memorial for WWI vets. The theme for the day was the Korean War. I was in Dress Blues and as the flag was paraded past me by veteran's of the Korean War, I raised my arm to salute and was overwelmed by the thought of my Grandfather who had been in WWII and my dad who served during Vietnam - both were gone at this point.

Both my dad and grandfather were in the Air Force. My brother Jeff was in the National Guard-Army. My brother Derek was in the Air Force. My daughter Erin was in the Navy. My uncle John was in the Navy. With the geneology I have been doing on our family, we had someone back in the Revolutionary War - James Elkin of Virginia. My family has a rich heritage in this country's military.

This Veteran's Day, say "Thank You" to a veteran who gave of their time to preserve our freedom and our way of life here in this United States of America!

Before & After...

I promised a few folks that after I got the deck done, I would show it off. It's been done for a while now (this summer) and I never posted anything. I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted, drew it out, and built it to scale. Here are some before and after shots!

Before:

After:

I had a lot of fun designing and building the deck...of course with my son Stephan's help! I can't wait to get the house that Steph and I want so I can do a lot more of this kind of thing. Thanks for letting me share.

Last night was Stephan's first school choir concert of the year. I tried to get some pictures of him in his choir robe, but just took a picture of the back of the lady's head sitting in front of me! Steph hasn't snorted like that in a long time after seeing the picture. Here are a couple of Stephan and I after the concert (as you can see, he quickly ditched the robe)!

Beautiful Weekend in KC

You gotta love this time of year - especially when it's in the mid 70's! What a great weekend. Saturday morning Shallen left early for District Band tryouts in St. Joe (about 45 minutes north of us). Steph and I woke up early (I guess our bodies thought it was a work day). We had a nice, quiet breakfast at Perkins. As usual, with weekends, we had a lot of running around to do. We plan to get a family picture taken this next weekend, so we needed to pick up a few pieces of clothing for that. I love the fact that we are still driving around with the windows down. By the way, Shallen made 3rd seat in the District Concert Band!

I finished up the bannister around the front porch...it actually turned out pretty well. I still need to put a 2nd coat of paint on it and finish the hand rail coming up the steps! We also went out and did a little shopping for carpet. We want to replace the upstairs carpet - it's a little dingy now. The intent is to get the house ready for sale in the Spring. We have a lot of painting to do inside from now til then.

Saturday evening, we went to the Wizard's Playoff game. This is our professional soccer team. It was great fun. We had a gentleman sitting behind us who had an english accent...he was hysterical! I think he feels our players are wimps. There were very few sliding tackles and he was pretty critical of the refs and the silly calls they were making. The Wizard's tied Columbus; this sends the playoffs back to Columbus.

Sunday included more of the same. We caught the Chief's game over at Colby's (my middle daughter) while she cut Steph's hair. The Chief's are definately playing better while under the direction of quarterback Tyler Thigpen. The Chiefs are using the spread offense, usually only seen in the college ranks. They also complemented it with a good running attack for some much needed play action (listening to the last couple of sentences, you'd think I knew what I was talking about). Larry Johnson, our embattled running back, is due to perform his game suspension for off-field behavior next week. Honestly, the Chief's are playing just fine without him. Hopefully, following his return, we see a much improved attitude and servant-like qualities from Larry.

We closed out last night going to my cousin's visitation. It was really sad. We saw her husband John and daughter Jen. It's always nice to catch up with relatives...just not the most opportune time. Please continue to pray for this family - they're really going to need God's strength over the next couple of months as they return to a life without my cousin in it!