Announcement!!

It has been a couple of weeks since our last blog post but there is a lot to cover and a big announcement to be made here on The Indiana Lesnet Blog.

 

Last weekend, the Indiana Lesnets went on vacation.  We left on Thursday, August 23rd at nap time.  We loaded up our CR-V and headed over to Bowling Green, Ohio for our first stop at Stephanie's parents place.

 

On Friday morning, we took Grandpa Eridon with us on a trip up to the Toledo Zoo.  We all enjoyed seeing some different animals than we see at the Indianapolis Zoo, especially the primates.  The Toledo Zoo has a lot more primates than Indy, they have way more little monkeys and big monkeys like orangutans and gorillas. 

 

As kids, Stephanie and I both went to the Toledo Zoo as our "home zoo" so it is extra cool to see the kids enjoy it so much.  Although we are familiar with the Toledo Zoo, it is quite different than it was 20 years ago.  For one thing, the old tiger building is now a cafeteria.  It was pretty cool to eat lunch in a cage that used to house a tiger...if only the food was better.

After the trip to the zoo, Stephanie and I left the boys with their maternal grandparents and headed East to the great city of Pittsburgh..well, at least that was the plan.

While we were on our way back to grandpa and grandma's house, I received a phone call from the Honda dealer in Bowling Green.  We have bought a couple of cars from them that were leased by Stephanie's parents when the leases expired.  They called unsolicited a month ago seeing if we were in the market for any vehicles and any way that they could be of assistance.  I said that we would be interested in a minivan if they had one.  They brought up a 2011 with about 25k miles that had just come off of lease by a couple that are doctors without kids.  We talked #'s a month ago but we just couldn't quite come together and make a deal.  Anyway, this call was regarding the van that we had discussed earlier and here a month later they still had it.  So, before we made our trip to Pittsburgh, we went to the dealership, test drove the van, and bought it.

 

Now, off to Pittsburgh.

 

We arrived in Pittsburgh later than we had planned since we weren't planning on buying a car before heading that way.  We also didn't plan on getting a little lost on the way and going about 30 miles out of our way.  It seems kind of funny to get lost in this time where nearly everyone has GPS on their cell phones but we managed to do it anyway.  It was pretty humorous as Stephanie navigated us by using the directions posted on the hotel's website.  She had good directions but she was reading the directions about coming in from the East and not the West...oops.  Oh well, we were fortunate to see some scenic Pennsylvania and pay several extra tolls.

 

It was nearly dark when we arrived at our hotel in downtown Pittsburgh.  We stayed at the Omni William Penn, which was a nice older hotel with some cool architectural details.  The hotel had soaring ceilings in the lobby with amazing details on the walls and ceilings with ornate chandeliers.  Our room was nice and our bed was comfy.  If you are staying in Pittsburgh, you can't go wrong at the Omni William Penn. 

 

Our Saturday started off with a buffet breakfast at the hotel then a walk to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History.  We thought that it would be a nice walk as it was around 3 miles or so but we were wrong.  There were several reasons that we should have ponied up the cash for a cab or figured out how to take the bus.  Those reasons are; 1) The walk was entirely up hill 2) You had to walk through a rougher neighborhood to get there 3) It was hotter than we thought it was 4) Walking 3+ miles just to go and walk around a museum is a silly idea...better views at the museum than on the way to the museum. 

 

The Carnegie Museums were fantastic.  They had a special exhibit of impressionist era paintings which was amazing.  The other art exhibits were awesome too.  They also have a lot of dinosaur fossils on the Natural History side.  Definitely a place you don't want to miss.

 

Here is a picture of a painting we really liked at the Carnegie Museum.

 

After the museum, we went to an Asian joint called Lulu's Noodles.  It was cheap eats and it was delicious.  If you are in that area, a great place to grab lunch.

 

After lunch, we decided to take the bus back to the hotel.  It wound up being a failure as we ended up going the wrong way and went to the end of the line where we had to get off the bus.  We finally caught the correct bus and made it back to the hotel about an hour after we got on the bus...we could have walked faster but we would have been much more tired.

 

That evening, we went to PNC Park to see the Pirates take on the Brewers.  Wow, PNC Park is a fantastic park and moved in to our top 5 favorite parks in Major League Baseball.  The good guys won too so it was even better.  Below is a shot from our seats at the Pirates game.

Sunday morning we packed up and drove to Cleveland to see the Indians host the New York Yankees.  Cleveland has a nice stadium but way too many Yankees fans.  It sits outside of our top 10 but you can tell that many of the parks that we like better were built after Progressive Field and that they copied much of their ballparks from what the Indians did in Cleveland.  Good guys lost here to tough Yankees team. This park marked our 16th park visited together, so we are more than halfway to our goal of visiting all 30 MLB parks.

Stephanie is an amazing wife.  I have said that before but sometimes she just needs to get bragged up a bit.  Stephanie let me get fitted for some new irons and also let me buy some new ones.  My old ones are nearly 10 years old and although I hit them okay, I really wanted to be fitted to clubs and get some the fit me perfectly.  So, here are my Titleist AP1's...very nice!

 

Football season is here!  Yesterday we went to Purdue's opening weekend where they crushed the Eastern Kentucky Colonials.  The boys did a good job and we made it half way through the 2nd quarter.  We probably could have made it further but the sun came out and made it too hot to stick around.  The remnants of Hurricane Isaac was in the air which made the humidity about 100% and the temps were in the mid 90's...whew...sticky!

So, here is a picture of the Lesnet family of 5 at beautiful Ross-Ade Stadium getting ready to root for the Boilers.

 

 

Wait...what?  Did you say family of 5?  Yep, I did say family of 5.  Stephanie is currently about 12 weeks pregnant with a new Indiana Lesnet due on March 19, 2013.  We are very excited and thankful for this new addition.  Stephanie is feeling pretty worn down and tired and although she has been nauseous, she hasn't thrown up nearly as much as she did with Kai and Eli.  Many people think that since this pregnancy is going differently that we must be having a girl this time.  Well, we don't know yet but we will find out when we get to the point of the journey when we can know.

 

Stand firm and you will win life. - Luke 21:19

Memphis Blues - A Post for August

It has been nearly a month since our last update but it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my Memphis hotel room typing out a blog post and telling you all about our July. Now I'm at home and will try to get the blogosphere all caught up on the Indiana Lesnets and what we've been up to this past month.

This past month has been very busy as I have been out of town in either Memphis or Minneapolis every week.  Fortunately, I am rarely out of town for more than two or three days but those days are still tough on the family and I feel like I miss an awful lot.

On July 22nd, while the Indiana Lesnets were in Ohio for "cousin camp", our church became one church in two locations.  Genesis Church of Noblesville now has a second location off of Old Meridian in Carmel.  We did a "soft launch" to run through a few Sunday mornings to make sure everything was working correctly as we worked towards our official launch date of August 19th.  It has been fun going to church and knowing most everyone there and therefore knowing who the visitors are.  We have had several folks start coming to our new location before the official launch date and they keep coming back.  It is nice to see how the way that Genesis is unique is exactly what some people need in Carmel.

For the week of July 30th, I was in Minneapolis for a couple of days for business.  I was happy to be in a more familiar city and excited because I have some friends in Minneapolis that I was going to see.  A man who has been a great mentor to me in my career lives up there and we were going to hit a Twins game after work on Monday evening.  That was until I got a call from his wife saying that he was going to have to cancel because he had a heart attack.  Whoa!  Thankfully, he is doing great and hopefully we will be able to get together soon.

That weekend Stephanie and I had a small group reunion with some of the members of the group we were in back when we were members at Common Ground Christian Church.  We had a great time hanging out with some old friends that we don't see often enough. 

The following week, it was back to Memphis again for a few days.  This time, I took a picture of the view from my office.  Memphis really isn't the greatest city ever but the view from my office is pretty sweet.  You don't see very many barges floating up the White River here in Central Indiana.

At the end of the week, Kai tested for his orange belt at Tae Kwon Do.  He did a very good job during his testing and it was fun to see how well he stepped up and did a so well even though he was very nervous.

On Saturday morning, the Old Married Dudes Golf Outing teed off for the fourth consecutive year.  The Greatest Spectacle in Hacking had another great turnout with 16 dudes showing up and playing a full day of golf.  We played several different games including pink ball, wolf, scrambles, and match play.  Personally, I have played worse and I have played better but I have rarely had as much fun as I did with these 15 gentlemen.
I would also like to thank my friends at Essig Golf for hosting us at Hickory Stick Golf Course in Greenwood.  The past 3 years, Chip and his team has treated us great and treated us to fantastic golf on a terrific course.

When Monday morning came back around it was back to reality and back to Memphis for more working.  The staff member that I work the closest with at my client gave his notice so I needed to be down in the Mid-South for a few extra days this week to make sure I know everything that he does. 

Usually, I live a pretty boring life down there as I get up, walk to the office, work a 10-12 hour day, leave the office, grab dinner at the hotel, and work a couple more hours until sleepy time.  I did that for the first few days I was there but finally I had to break free and live a bit.  I asked for a dinner recommendation from the front desk people at the hotel and they suggested some restaurants that I had been to and had no interest in eating at this particular evening.  An uber drunk gentleman stumbled up and suggested that I try Gus's, he even said that he would have driven me to it but he was in no condition to drive.  The hotel staff was unanimous in agreement so I set off on the 10 block or so walk down to South Front Street.

When I arrived on the scene, there were people lined up out the door to get in to Gus's.  The crowd was both racially and socially diverse, which is always the sign of a fantastic place to eat.  After a 40 minute walk to the restaurant and a 20 minute wait to be seated and another 30 minute wait for my dinner to show up, I was ready to eat some good fried chicken.  Although I was prepared for good chicken, I was not prepared for the amazing awesome epic chicken that was served.  WHOA!  Yumm!  If you ever find yourself in Memphis, go to Gus's.

On my way back to my hotel I stopped by Elvis Plaza to pay my respects to Elvis on the 35th anniversary of his untimely death.  It was Elvis Week down in Memphis and I wasn't all too interested in making the pilgrimage up to Graceland for all of the festivities up there but I did spend a little time with this Elvis to pay my respects.

After my time with Elvis, I headed down by the baseball stadium looking to get a little gift for the boys at the gift shop.  To my surprise, I saw a couple of my coworkers that commute down to Memphis every week going in so I tagged along.  It was nice to spend some time with other people instead of spending another quiet night working in my hotel room.

The Memphis Redbirds have a very nice park but they don't have particularly dedicated fans as there couldn't have been more than 1,000 people in their rather large ballpark.  It was a great night for upgrading your seats and seeing the entire ballpark.  Oh yeah, good guys lost in a yawner.

I returned from The River City in time to take Kai to his promotion ceremony for Tae Kwon Do.  Kai was so excited to get to class and get his shiny new orange belt.

Orange Belt!!

This past weekend was rather unusual for us.  We had nothing on the schedule, so we filled it up with a trip to The Indiana State Fair.  It was near the end of the fair so most of the live stalk was gone but there was a lot to see and do.  We saw some farm animals including an ox and we were able to see a dairy cow get milked.  We spent some time checking out the antique tractors, eating yummy food, and riding some ponies.

In the International Center, they had an Italian theme this year and part of that was a puppet show.  Kai really liked the show but Stephanie, Eli, and I weren't such big fans.  Kai even wanted to stay after the show and make this here mask.

Sunday was a great day that was filled with Sunday morning church, a nap, some play time with Master P, Special K, and their little sister Baby A.  We had some hamburgers on the grill which Eli was loving.  Look at that winning smile!

I would like to take a quick second to thank Stephanie for doing such an amazing job with the boys while I've been working out of town.  Although Stephanie and I have always had jobs that have required a lot of hours and stress, we have not had to travel very much since we have became parents.  Stephanie is doing a fantastic job holding down the fort while I'm hanging out in different cities.  Thanks love, I am so proud of you and thankful that you are such an amazing mom to our boys.

The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. Numbers 23:21b

A Post From the Road

Greetings from the home of Elvis! I am writing this blog post from beautiful (and hot) Memphis, Tennessee.  You probably already knew that Elvis was from Memphis and you have heard of Beale Street, but you probably didn't know that Memphis is also the home of FedEx, The Pink Palace, and Irish Diving Goats.

It has been a week since our last post and some things have happened since then.  I know that you can't wait to get all caught up so without further delay, here's the news.

Last week the boys went back to daycare and day #1 was a bit of an unknown, we really didn't know how they would do but we figured that Eli would be a mess and Kai would be super excited to see his friends because Kai was pretty excited about going back to school before that Monday.  We were a little off with our assumptions.  Eli cried for about 30 seconds and then was playing and getting reacquainted with his friends.  Kai was super clingy to me, he didn't cry but he wasn't happy to be back to school.  As I was leaving the playground where I dropped Kai off, he was standing by himself with his fingers in his mouth (his go-to position when he's uncomfortable).  A couple of boys approached him and asked him to play Avengers.  Kai said no, then looked over at me with the saddest brown eyes ever...ugh!  As I drove away from the parking lot, I looked at the playground and Kai hadn't moved, he was standing there all by himself in the middle of the playground with his hands in his mouth..sad daddy.

The rest of the week was filled with a lot of shorter days for the boys at daycare.  Kai went to school late on Tuesday because of swim lessons and both boys left early from school for Kai's karate class.  Wednesday was a pretty full day for them.  On Thursday I picked them up a little early and we went to Forest Park to play for a while.  We played until a huge thunderstorm came and chased us away from the park.  In a drought filled year, we haven't been chased indoors many times and the boys really liked experiencing the big rain, lightning, and thunder from the comfort of our car.

Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying their time at the park.

This weekend was my dad's "cousin camp" family reunion.  Dad has a bunch of 1st cousins and they are all really good friends so they get together every year at Uncle Gary's farm in Montpelier, Ohio.  Since we were going to make the trek to Northwest Ohio, we also went to see Stephanie's folks in Bowling Green.

On Saturday night, Grandpa Eridon, Kai, and I went up to 5/3 stadium in Toledo to watch the future Tigers (Mudhens) play the future Pirates (Indianapolis Indians) in a doubleheader.  We only made one game, which the home team won, but we had a great time.

Here is Kai with Muddy, the Mudhens boy mascot.  The Hens also have a girl mascot, here name is Muddonna...

Bright and early Monday morning it was off to Memphis for work for a few days and that is where I am writing this blog post.  Memphis is an interesting place, downtown mostly closes down by 6 and the only area that's open is Beale Street. I will be down here a few more times so maybe I'll discover more of the area and find some stuff to do while I'm here.

Here is a shot of Beale Street at dusk. 

I can't wait to get home, I miss my family.

My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. - Proverbs 7:19

The Final Weekend & 1st Day Back to School

The boys went back to daycare today.  It was pretty surreal and they did fine but today definitely didn't go the way that we expected it to go. 

We woke the boys up a little earlier than we had been getting them up and fed them breakfast.  Stephanie left a while before us boys did so she could swing by their school and drop off all of their extra outfits and stuff that they need to have.  Kai had been pretty excited about going back to school and Eli was a tough read but you could tell he knew something was about to change as he became a little extra cuddly and whiny as today got closer and closer.

When we got to school Eli was pretty relaxed but Kai wasn't doing nearly as well.  Kai had a death grip on my legs and wouldn't let go for anything.  He wouldn't talk to anyone, even his old teachers that were so glad to see him. Eli cried when I handed him off to his teacher but stopped crying after about a minute and started playing.  When I left Kai he wanted several hugs, then a couple of boys came and asked him to play Avengers with them, he said no.  I left him in the middle of the playground and when I drove away he was still standing in the same place with his fingers in his mouth (his "go to" stance when he is uncomfortable / scared / nervous).  Daddy was sad.

Our final weekend before sending the boys back to daycare was pretty awesome except Steph had to work all day on Saturday.  Although the Lesnet family was down one, we still had a good time.  Us boys went up to Forrest Park where we played on the playground(s), rode the casserole, and played mini golf.  After the park, the boys went to lunch at Chipotle.  We came home after that and the boys took a nap / quiet time while I made a side dish for a get together with the McGriffs that evening.  I made a super simple rice and beans dish on our rice cooker, it was posted online by a college dude (yes, I used a recipe from a college boy that lives in a dorm) who makes it in his dorm room...so its easy (and delicious), check it out here.

Sunday we went to the last ever service at Genesis Church while it was still 1 church in 1 location.  Next Sunday, the Carmel campus has its "soft launch" so we kind of officially become 1 church in 2 locations.  For the 1st service, Stephanie and I assembled food bags for Kids Against Hunger, which is super fun so if you get a chance to do it, you will have a blast.  Genesis filled over 31k bags of food to feed the hungry here in the US and in Haiti...cool!

After church, I took Kai to the golf course while Eli took a nap.  I have been thinking of getting Kai some golf lessons and asked one of the assistant golf pros at Pebble Brook Golf Course (where we are members) if he had some time to spend with Kai.  Jake is a lefty like Kai is a lefty so I thought he would be the perfect pro to give Kai some pointers.  Jake agreed and gave Kai a great lesson where Kai did everything that Jake asked him to do.  Kai added about 20 yards to his driver and about 15 yards to his irons in the 20 minute lesson.  Then the 3 of us took it to the course where Jake continued to coach Kai in both the long game and the short game.  Kai had so much fun playing golf with Jake and getting better.  We will most definitely be getting some more lessons with Jake this year.

After golf we took the boys to the shoe store because their shoes seemed small.  Both of them have been in the same sized shoes for a long time (Kai about 9 months and Eli about 6 months), we have had them measured from time to time but those feet just weren't growing.  The rest of them were sure growing though...amazing how big they are now!  Anyway, Kai's feet grew 2 full sizes from an 11.5 to a 13.5 and Eli's feet grew a size and a half from 5.5 to 7...whoa!

There you have it, the last weekend of The Daddy Experiment and a recap of their first day back to school. 

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. - Matthew 7:24

Screeching Halt

The plan for the "Daddy Experiment" was to pull the boys out of daycare for the summer and let them play with dad all day.  In the fall we were planning to re-evaluate whether we would send the boys back to daycare or if we would continue on with my current role of full-time dad and part-tme consultant.  We are a little less than half way through the summer and it appears that the experiment is going to meet an early conclusion.

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from a heavy hitter in the airline consulting business asking me if I would be interested in helping a regional airline with their major airline commercial relationships.  I did this for 11 years when I worked at Republic Airways so it is something that I am good at and something that not a lot of other "free agents" have a lot of knowledge of.  The company reached out to me a couple of days later, flew me down to meet with them, and hired me on the spot.  This is neat opportunity that I am excited about and I am going to be able to do much of the work from my home office here in Indy.

Here are some of the highlights with photos of the past couple of weeks!

The boys learned a lot of good skills while hanging out with daddy.  They have become great at helping cook, clean up, and mowing the lawn. Now that daddy is going to be working (and some of it from the home office), it looks like it will be up to me to do these chores again.

Although the Daddy Experiment is coming to an end, it doesn't mean that summer is already over.  We let the boy stay up super duper late on the 4th of July to check out the fireworks.  We went to the show up in Westfield.  Here is a picture of mommy with her sons waiting for the fireworks to start.

Track season is mostly over.  At least it's over for me as none of the athletes that I coached made it to the national meet in the events that I coached.  Since there is only 9 athletes still competing, we had our year end awards program.  Here is Kai with his training group and his coaches, Coach Jason and Coach Paul.

In the past couple of weeks, we have also been to several parks (of course traveling by bike trailer), the zoo, the golf course, swimming lessons, and karate class.

Staying home with the boys has been a huge blessing to me but I believe that it has been an even bigger deal to the boys.  They have never been able to spend this much time together and watching them bond has been amazing.  Kai is such a good big brother and Eli is very patient with Kai's demanding personality.  They hold hands whenever we go out and about and give each other hugs when the other one is sad (usually Eli hugging Kai).

Kai has been wanting to play golf every day lately.  He loved golf last year but this year when I would ask him about golf, he would tell me that he didn't want to play and that golf is boring.  For some reason, he changed his mind lately and has fallen in love with it again.  In the past, we would just have him hit a shot when daddy hit one so he would tee off with me, then pick up his ball and drop it and hit a second shot when I hit mine and so on until we got to the green and Kai would putt.  Lately, he started asking about his score and I couldn't really give him an answer so we have started having him tee off from wherever my first shot lands (or the closest tees on par 3's).  When playing this way, he gets about the same score that I do...he's pretty good (and I'm not).

So, the Daddy Experiment ends on Monday (7/16) and the part-time consultant transitions to full-time.  It is with some strong mixed emotions that we end this chapter of our lives.  Being a full-time dad was the best "job" ever and being paid with lots of hugs and kisses is so much better than money.  Although I loved the full-time dad job, I believe that at this point I am the best dad I can be when I have a good balance of professional time and daddy time.  I guess we'll find out if I'm right.

I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. - Zechariah 11:12

The Secret to My Sucess

Yesterday, the boys and I went up to Ohio to visit my mom for her birthday.  We had a nice visit and the boys even got to ride in a combine. 

Although to visit was fun, one question that my mom asked me really jumped out, she asked me how staying at home with the boys compared with my corporate job.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom and always talked about how much work she did and how it was so hard, so I knew that it was a bit of a loaded question.  I considered just giving her the answer that she wanted (it was her birthday) but instead I was honest and told her it was a lot easier than the corporate job but it takes a while to get used to getting paid in hugs and giggles instead of dollars.

I know why being a stay-at-home parent was hard for my mom.  She did a good job, but she is a bit of a loner who doesn't keep many friends.  She didn't have a community of people to get together with and do "parent things", and she didn't have me involved in any activities so she was 100% responsible for my entertainment.

I have had sucessful days and less sucessful days in the past few weeks.  The sucess of each day is almost totally dependent on having a flexible plan and schedule in place with one or two highlight activities.  Disasterous days happen on days where there is no plan or if the plan gets thrown off and I don't realize it quickly enough and move on to the next activity before extreme boredom sets in.

My days go something like this:

8am - Wakeup, get dressed, talk about what we're doing for the day (its important to let them know the plan)
8:15 - Breakfast - usually something I've already cooked and can warm up quickly - pancakes and waffles are great for this (I make them from scratch and hide healthy stuff in there)!
8:45 - Talk about the day again then let the boys do some play on their own.
9:15 or so - Start the main thing for the day.  It could be a trip to the park or a class or the library or on Fridays the grocery store
9:45 - Snack - don't miss this!!
11:30 - Ask about lunch, my kids are pretty flexible about lunch time so they can make it until 12:00 or 12:15 but you can't assume that they'll make it.
12:45 to 1:15 get home for Eli's nap time.  Eli can make it to 1:30 but it starts to get a little iffy.  Kai has a quiet time during Eli's nap.  Sometimes Kai will nap but mostly he just plays in his room.
1:15-3:00 - ME TIME!!  I will do about 30 minutes of house work then work on my business, study, or read for pleasure.
3:05 - Snack, be ready because they're hungry (Kai is usually out of his room a little before this but he prefers eating with Eli and sometimes he even helps me get it ready).
If the schedule has been kept reasonably well, the boys are really flexible and happy from here until dinner time.  Some days we have something planned like Karate or a trip to the swimming pool and some days we just do whatever the boys come up with like playing golf in the back yard or something quieter inside like reading or coloring.  I play the afternoons by ear and have a list of go-to things to get everyone back to their happy place if someone catches a case of the grumpys.

So, there you have it.  The above schedule works for me and my boys and makes this "job" seem like a play date.  Of course, I would love to get some pointers from other professional full-time parents.  Leave a comment and help a brother out if you can!

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. - Proverbs 16:9

Finally A 5-Day "Work" Week!

After three weeks of doing this daddy thing part without "working" a full week, the fourth week was the moment of truth and I am glad to report that everyone survived the week pretty well and we are looking forward to full-week #2 of The Daddy Experiment.

Although we are just three boys playing all day long every day, we still have to eat.  I like to let the boys make me breakfast and on Monday they made me some yummy pancakes. 



Of course, it's late June so it is hot outside.  No better way to cool off then with a trip to the pool.  Kai is afraid of the big pool so we just splash around at the baby pool.  We are starting individual swim lessons next week so hopefully we can move in to the big pool soon.  Daddy would like to cool down a bit too.

Of course, we rode the rickshaw to the park a few times.  Here we are at Cool Creek Park in Westfield.  They have some awesome trails back in the woods where its nice and cool.  There is also some swings along the way so that tired boys can stop for a short rest.

My Aunt Bee and my Grandma Lesnet used to always tell me that "you have to be watched" while we played board games.  Well, I turned my head away from Eli for about 30 seconds and he had climbed in to the bath tub in our Master bath and turned on the water.  I guess Eli gets his "have to be watched-ness" from me.

Kai started Taekwondo this week up with ATA in Noblesville.  Mr. Saldivar made the class super fun and Kai really warmed up to it.  Kai is a pretty quiet dude (unless he's at home with the family) and I think learning to kick a little tail will bring him out of his shell a bit.  At the end of class they did some practical self defense stuff and Mr. Saldivar had the kids to an eye swipe to get away from a "bad guy" with their "tiger claw".  Kai and the other kids loved it and Eli has been giving the tiger claw swipe while yelling "swipe" since the class...awesome!

On Friday, our neighborhood had their annual 4th of July parade.  A parade isn't a parade without a fire truck and we don't do things half way in our neighborhood so all the kids with their decorated bikes, wagons, powerwheels, and scooters followed the fire truck down the street to the neighborhood park.

Here is Kai and mom in the parade.  Kai's bike was well decorated and he liked it but also couldn't wait to get all of the streamers off of his bike and off of his helmet.

Although the parade was mostly an early celebration of the upcoming Independence Day holiday, I took it as a celebration of us boys surviving our first full week of The Daddy Experiment.

This weekend was pretty awesome too as I had a track meet on Saturday morning, then a quiet Saturday afternoon and evening with the family.  Sunday was pretty fun too as we played some mini golf and spent some time in the arcade in the morning followed by some celebrations at the new Carmel campus of Genesis Church.  In the late evening, Kai and I went to Pebble Brook Golf Course and played a few holes before bedtime.

A new "work" week starts in a few hours so its time for me to sign off and get to bed.  We have another action packed week ahead of us and I'm going to need my rest to keep up with these crazy boys.

[ God’s Promise to David ] After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, - 2 Samuel 7:1

The High Fives and Humility

Each week, one of the coaches at the Body in Training Track Club leads the Thursday devotions by giving a little talk about the topic of the week.  There have been various themes like doing your best, salvation, and serving others.  This week, we are discussing humility which I must have all figured out because I am the keynote speaker this week (actually I signed up, I don't think anyone would ever hand pick me to speak on such a weighty subject).

As we go through life, some things that we learn affect us down to our very core.  Some of those things are profound because they are complex and you have to think about it for a long time before you have that ah-ha moment.  Others are quite simple but they piece many things together and since they are simple, they have an immediate impact on you and you have perfect recall that you can use whenever you need it.

The super simple, life changing, and powerful thing that I learned back in the summer of 1997 was The High Fives.  I was working at a youth athletic camp north of Cincinnati through Athletes in Action and the director of the camp taught us all The High Fives.  The High Fives are five principals that the director's father had put together as a guide to proper living. 

The High Fives are simple and here they are:

1.    Fear God – Be continually mindful of God and His awesomeness

                  a.       Deuteronomy 10:12-13
                  b.      Proverbs 12:27

2.   Be Yourself – You are God’s workmanship, embrace your uniqueness

                   a.       Psalm 139:13-14
                   b.      Romans 12:4-6a
                   c.       Ephesians 2:10

3.   Do Your Best – Your best doesn’t mean 99% effort

                  a.       Colossians 3:17, 23-24
                  b.      Hebrews 12:1
                  c.       Philippians 3:14

4.   Be Honest – Lies will catch up with you, somehow the truth always comes out

                  a.       Proverbs 12:22
                  b.      Colossians 3:9
                  c.       Proverbs 19:22

5.   Be A Mirror – Reflect God’s awesomeness to others and reflect what other’s say to you up to God

                  a.       Philippians 2:3-5
                  b.      1 Peter 4:10
                  c.       Luke 14:11

So, what does The High Fives have to do with humility?  I have found that they are the answer for nearly every situation I have ever been in and I'm pretty sure that they can be that for you (and my athletes too).  This is about humility though so I will talk through these principals and help you see how each of them point you to a more humble and powerful life.

When people hear Fear God, people are often a little confused by what that means.  Isn't God supposed to be our Father in Heaven?  Doesn't everyone say that He's loving, compassionate, and generous?  That doesn't sound like someone that I would be afraid of.  It is true that God is more loving and generous than we can fathom but he is also absolutely perfect, absolutely powerful, and he is absolutely everywhere.  Being constantly mindful of His absoluteness should give you a healthy and continuous reverence for Him.  It's hard to think that you're a big deal when you compare your awesomeness with His awesomeness.

If you are trying to be something that God did not create you to be then you are never going to be happy.  You (and me) are God's workmanship, he made each of us unique with different gifts and passions.  Embrace what makes you amazing and give God the glory as you love nearly every minute of your life.

Doing your best sounds pretty cliche but so few people really give 100%.  Most of the time, it isn't even appropriate to give a mere 100%, you have to give something like 110% or 150% or whatever.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that giving more than 100% isn't possible, but these exagerated percentages show how rarely we really do our very best.  God wants us to do things to the very best of our abilities, with maximum effort, using all of the gifts and resources than He has given to us.  If you truly do everything with maximum effort, you will be too busy and effective in whatever you're doing to worry about bragging.

Be honest, sounds simple enough, but is it?  If you are truly honest, you know that whatever you just did that you were puffing your chest out about could have been done better.  You may have won because you got a lucky bounce or another person got a bad break.  Only you know how much work you put in and how well you really performed.  Be honest with others and be honest with yourself and you will realize that there is always room for improvement (and if there is no room for improvement, that should be pretty humbling too).

Being a mirror is a great visual to the idea of reflecting God and His love to others.  Think of the mirror at 45 degrees where whatever shines down from above gets reflected to others and whatever is directed at the mirror from the ground level gets reflected up to heaven.  If you are being a good mirror then whatever gifts you have received from God will shine from you on to others to bless them.  The mirror also reflects things upward so whatever others tell you (whether good or bad), you should reflect those up to God and give him praise (of if they say bad things then send that up to God so that you don't have to dwell on it and you can continue to love those who say [or do] bad things to you).  Re-directing all praise that you receive from others up to God reminds us that we are using the gifts that He has given us to do good things and we are merely being good stewards of those gifts.

So go, live life, love others, and whenever you're in a situation where you don't know what to do or how to think, ask yourself, "am I following the High 5's?"

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. - 1 Peter 4:10

I'm Too Old For This Stuff

Some of you older readers may recall Danny Glover starring in Lethal Weapon as Roger Murtaugh where he says (more than once), "I'm too old for this $#!*".  Well today Mr. Murtaugh, I feel your pain...literally.  It's 1:00 in the morning and I can't sleep; I've got a fever, my legs are just short of cramping, and my tummy is really angry at me for gulping down a Blooming Onion on Sunday evening.

So...what did I do that has me repeating movie lines from Roger Murtaugh?  Well, my day went a little something like this:

Wake up call from 20 month old Eli at 7:15 in the morning, then Kai up at 7:45.  Breakfast and play time until 9:30.  Followed by a quick snack then a bike ride (rickshaw style with both boys in the bike trailer) down to Founder's Park in Carmel which is a 10 mile round trip.  We got back from the park about noon and had some lunch, Eli went down for a nap around 12:30 (put him out of his misery really, he was wiped out).  Eli napped from 12:30 - 2 while Kai played semi-quietly in his room.  Up at 2, got a snack then off to the neighborhood pool (via bicycle) for a relaxing dip on a 90+ degree and very windy day.  Back from the pool about 3:45 because Eli filled up his swim diaper at the pool and Super Dad was unprepared to change it at the pool house.

At 4:00, Stephanie and I closed on our house for like the 1,000th time as we refinanced.  We have a 10 year note now...awesome!!

After closing was over it was dinner time and then off to track practice which starts at 6:00.  I haven't mentioned it on this blog but I coach hurdles and jumps for Body In Training Track club here in Noblesville.  Body in Training is a faith-based track club with athletes ranging from 5-18.  Although I am ancient and it's been a while since my track "stud" days at Purdue, I do the workouts with the athletes so that they can see what they are supposed to do and I can get a little workout in myself.  Today's workout was a sprint drill and hurdle drill warm-up followed by several four-step down / backs, three step work, some hurdle work through the curves, followed by a couple of laps of speed makers.  All of that coupled with the high heat today and I was the only one walking well at the end of it...I really put the kids through it today but they all got better too.

When I got home, Kai wanted to go for a bike ride on his bike down to a tunnel that is about a mile away.  He got a new bike helmet that he loves (its green) so he is totally in love with riding his bike now.  He rides very quickly but he is a little afraid down hills so he needs me to grab his bike when we go down hills.  Our current set up is that rides his bike super fast and I run a little behind him.  Of course, he's 4 so he changes speed a lot, good interval training for the old man...and I AM too old for this...

Tomorrow is another day and the boys have already asked about bike rides and going to the pool.  We'll see how daddy is doing, it may be a library and play in the backyard kind of day.

Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD. - Leviticus 19:32

Still Riding With Training Wheels

For those of you following the Daddy Experiment, today nearly marks the completion of 3 weeks of full-time parenthood.  Although it has been 3 weeks, I have yet to work a complete week by myself.

The first week was Memorial Day week where my lovely wife was home on Monday so week #1 was a mere four days.  The second week was even shorter as I took my father-in-law to Cooperstown, NY to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame so I only "worked" for two days by myself.  This week has also been an easier week as Stephanie took Monday off of work, so another four day "work" week.

So, a day after my last post and my last day of my "work week" the boys and I had a pretty awesome day.  Everyone behaved well and we stayed very busy.  Stephanie forgot some papers at home so the boys and I took a road trip down to see her and all of her co-workers.  Then lunch and nap then a rickshaw ride down to Founder's Park in Carmel.  Founder's Park is sweet with a ginormous sandbox and some cool climbers.

Here is a shot of Kai and Eli playing in the sand at their new favorite park.

On Tuesday evening, Kai really wanted to go fishing again but this time without Eli since Eli likes to go in to the pond and cut our fishing trips a little short.  We caught a lot of fish but Kai really liked the super tiny ones.  The one he's holding in this picture was the smallest one that he caught.

For Grandpa Eridon's Christmas / birthday we decided that he needed a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  I planned our itinerary and Grandpa's twin brother booked the hotel rooms and we took off for Cooperstown to cross a big item off of Grandpa's "bucket list" (it was on mine too but this trip was about him and not me :) ).

To make the trip even more epic, we stopped in Erie, PA to see the Erie SeaWolves (Detroit's AA affiliate) play and in Syracuse, NY to see the Syracuse Sky Chiefs play.  We splurged for the best seats in the house and enjoyed watching some future big leaguers perfect their craft.

Here is Kit with C. Wolf, the Erie SeaWolves' mascot.

Here Kit and I are with Scootch and Pops, the mascots of the Sky Chiefs of Syracuse.  At this game we saw a pitcher go yard and a grand slam.  It looks like the Nationals have some good young talent in their farm system.

We had lunch at the Cooperstown Diner.  This place is just as small as it looks but it was AWESOME.  I had a 13 oz cheeseburger.  Love!

Here is Kit and I at the entrance to the Hall.  That cheesy grin was on both of our faces all day long.



Kit and Kris at the Birthplace of Baseball.  This stadium was really cool.

After our great trip to the Hall, the father-in-law caught some nasty stomach bug so I drove the entire way back from Syracuse to Bowling Green, Ohio.  After a short stop at the in-laws, I continued the trek back to Central Indiana with Stephanie and the boys.  In total, a 650 mile day of driving.

On Monday we all slept in a little bit and Stephanie took the day off of work.  Kai has swim lessons this week with the Noblesville Swim Club so we did that then spent the rest of the day getting re-acquainted with being home.

Tuesday brought reality back and the training wheels came off of the Daddy Experiment.  We have had a great week with picnic lunches every day after swim lessons, a rickshaw ride to visit some friends, and a friendly track meet with the Westfield Track Club.

We also fit in a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and check out super hero toys.  Kai really likes the Avengers, especially Ironman and Captain America.  I like The Hulk but Kai says that I play too rough when I'm Hulk and he wants me to be Ironman.

Here is Eli after our picnic and Potter's Bridge Park.  Happy boy!

The boys are loving The Daddy Experiment so far.  They really enjoy all of the time that they get to play together and all of the cool stuff we do most days.  They are super tired at nap times and bed time and they really get their money's worth at those times.

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” - Galatians 4:6