The Spirituality of the Cellphone

Last April, I listened to this message at Mars Hill from a guy named Shane Hips, entitled The Spirituality of the Cellphone. He used to be in advertising (working the Porshe account) and then went to seminary became a pastor (Mennoite, even, I think) and wrote a book around this stuff. The message goes through the spirituality around the mediums of spoken mediums (oral culture), written mediums (literate culture) and technological mediums (digital culture). Bear with me, this is good stuff. Here's a five minute synopsis video that I got from Tom R.

MSU/KC Game Bet

If you have a moment, please send my friend Ross a quick text message (317-506-6437) asking him to pay his $10 debt to Dave for the MSU/KC game. Thanks! Ross is a bitter Purdue fan who got his hopes up after a fluke win in the Big Ten Championship. He also has a good sense of humor, so feel free to mess with him.

Crossroads Paintball at Killer Paintball

We had our annual Crossroads youth group paintball game today. It was a cold, nasty rainy day that eventually turned into snow, so thankfully it was indoors. It's a blast having Nate old enough to play. This was his second year playing and he had a blast. We had a ton of kids, both high school and junior high, including a bunch of kid's friends that had never come to any of our stuff before.

We've been playing paintball for at least 10 years as a youth group, sometimes twice a year. In the beginning (when I was a little younger) I loved it. Now, I enjoy hearing the kid's stories, leading packs of junior high kids to victory (rarely happens) and putting the hurt on some of the kids who deserve it most (comon, I'm being honest. everyone who works with kids wants to do this).

Two of the kids in our youth group (Jake and Sarah) parents own Killer Paintball, and they took great care of us. We had the place pretty much to ourselves, with about 35 people in our group. Being indoors was great because we could move between games really quickly and the games went a little quicker since they weren't so spread out.

We played all sorts of versions, including paratroooper (people are dropped into the game every 10 seconds), protect the president (secret service try and keep the president alive and move him across the course) and a sniper round (one of the other Dad's and I sat in a perch and got to pick off kids left and right). This was Fez's first solo-planned paintball round and he did a great job (with a little help from his wife, of course).

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Tammy with my Twin from biggest loser

Bob from biggest loser was in town with the Morellis. This picture is of my neighbor Tammy with Bob at my gym.

Comment's from Nate's Wrestling Coach

I took this video at Nate's wrestling banquet tonight (on my iPhone and then edited it/cropped it via iMovie). I thought these were cool comments about Nate from his coach Steve Potter (who went to high school with Cathie) about Nate's abilities and toughness. Very proud moment for me as his Dad.

Old McDonald Remake

Crazy Love

I'm three chapters into the book Crazy Love and digging it so far. I have to order another copy because mine is gone. I came across this book one day when Phil Wing posted perhaps the cheesiest status ever on Facebook:

Don't read the book Crazy Love unless you really want to love Jesus more.

I was compelled to look the book up and see what would make Phil post such a goofy status.... Which leads to why I don't have the book any more.

Let me step back a second and do the Wayne's World "time warp" back to Sunday. Joe's message was on loving others and sharing the great news of Jesus with our friends. He had a handout where we made a list of friends to pray for so that the church as a whole could pray for the people and that we could pray for them regularly. So Wednesday morning I was praying for the people on my list, including the friend I had met up with who happened to be in a meeting down in Florida. This guy and I no longer work together, but we keep in touch and have a very close friendship. Over the past six years I've known him we've had lots of conversations about church, about the bible and about our faith.

We had dinner last night and we were talking about church and what he's doing with it. He was telling me about his wife's faith and he shared with me that he's in a different place than her. We talked about the fact that he believed that what comes around, goes around, but wasn't sure beyond that. He asked a lot about how I made the decision that Jesus was the way for me and how it affected my life. My friend shared that based on what he'd seen in my life and what Jesus was doing for me, he wanted to learn more and figure out how to do the same in his own life. It was a great conversation. He asked if I had a book or something else that would help him understand how Jesus fits in...which is where the book Crazy Love comes in.

I sat down this morning and felt like God was nudging me to give this book to my friend. I pushed back, figuring I hadn't finished it yet and maybe should read it first to see if it was the right book to share with him. I ran into him again later today at the airport and once again felt a nudge to give him the book. He said he'd start it right away and was pretty excited about it. We'll see if it was the right book. Maybe God really is smarter than me... Or maybe I was just feeling the after-affects of our night out last night. I'm always amazed at the way God uses a guy like me, in the world he's put me in with the friends I've got.

I have an office once again!

My office is not always the cleanest, as some will attest to. I normally give it a good cleaning every year or so whether it needs it or not. I'm convinced that if I had a bigger trash can, it would stay clean forever. (I'm deluded about other things as well).

I ended up moving my office to the back room in our basement that used to be Jess Shinn's room. Cathie had been wanting to make this her Scrapbooking room for the past 7 years or so, and never got around to it. The nice thing about having my office back year is that I now have a door, so the kids can play in the basement while I'm working.

Because the furnace and water softener are on the other side of this room, I installed a brand new door between the two rooms. That could have definitely gone better. I did a fair amount of cutting, hammering and smashing. I still need to get all of the trim back up.

Nate Running

Nate asked me the other week if he could run with me. It came out of nowhere, and I felt bad for not having asked him. I remember as a kid when my Dad would invite us to go running with him in the morning. My Dad ran in the morning, which made it even less appealing, and I would go once or twice - long enough to forget that I didn't like it.

The kids have a mile run that they do periodically at school as part of their gym class. Nate told me he finished first place in his class in the mile, and wanted to start running with me.

We've been out 3 times since then. We started at a mile the first time, with Nate hauling and me trying to reign him back a bit. We did that first mile in about 8 minutes, without him stopping.

The next run we did about 1.6 miles at around an 8:45 pace. During both runs, I would see him holding his sides at times. He was cramping up, but didn't want to say anything or stop. I told him that there's nothing wrong with working up to this and his response was "If I push through this, it'll make me tougher."

Nate and I ran yesterday, running this route, about 2 miles, at a pace of an 8m 50c mile. Nate is built to be a runner. He's 75 lbs and 5' tall with long legs. The coolest part for me is just having the time with him to run and talk, and have him like the running as well.

We've been talking about signing up for a race in the area, which would be fun to do together - a 5k or 10k probably.

Bahama Bob's

On Saturday night we went to the Ray's for the first official Bahama Bob's party of the year. Over time, Bob has built out this amazing cabana in his back yard, gradually adding a full bar, fire place, space heaters, TVs, couches and everything else you'd only expect to see in the Bahamas.

We hung out in the cabana while Bob had Jimmy Buffett live playing on one set of TVs and the NCAA tournament on another. Apparently Bob's clocks were broken, because he kept asking, "What time is it?" . I tried a bunch of responses, only one of which seemed to be the right one:

1. Summer Time? - Too High School Musical-ish, I guess.
2. Hammer Time? - Reminded Bob too much of his MC Hammer flared pants
3. Tequila Time - The only correct time for a man who is half Mexican and half Syrian.
   

Brad dispensed his wisdom to anyone who would listen. The hand gesture Brad is making in the picture above on the left is normally followed with, "So here's the deal..." Bradly did his best to get in every single picture taken. Eli (or Brad's mini-me as he likes to be called) soon followed suit, as you can see below.

Bob was thrilled with the sweet gift that Cathie and I brought him. When I was looking for something in our basement, I was looking on the top of some cabinets in a back room and found a wrapped Christmas present. I thought I'd stumbled across a birthday present from Cathie, only to read the inscription, "From Mom and Dad, To Thad" The package was from the people who'd owned our house about nine years ago. I opened it to find this sweet, giant paisley shirt (my brother Dan owns this shirt and still wears it) and a nice gold tie clip with Buckingham Palace inscribed on the face. Bob was honored, thrilled and delighted all at once.

Sunday Morning Speial Order Breakfast

In the presence of Greatness

I bought Cathie her dream present of matching his and hers Snuggies. Our picture made the We Match web site.

Sammy the Snake

Em loves every kid of animal, including snakes. She caught this
gardner snake and was thrilled.

Maddie's "new" Bike

We went to our fourth bike shop today and came across this gently used
bike at a ridiculous price. Madde loved it (the color was all she
really cared about) so we went with it. Can't beat $45, which was
$100+ less than everything else we looked at. I did a gain sharing
model with Maddie and gave her a % of our savings.

Lola is Cupid

"Dad, Lola is cute and stupid! She's Cupid!"

Dave and Cathie's matching Snuggiea

My brother Jon is always talking about how much he loves Snuggies. He
bought Cathie and I theae matching Snuggies to help show us why they
are so wonderful. They are pretty much backwards bathrobes made of
cheap felt. Sorry Jon, I'm not convinced.

Jim Cramer on the Daily Show

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the interview between Jim Cramer on the Daily Show with John Stewart. I've never taken any of his financial advice, but I watch the guy all the time when I travel because he's amusing and possibly nuts. This entire episode of the daily show is hilarious, but be sure and watch the intro that shows Jim Cramer on the Martha Stewart show and the actual interview about 7 minutes in. Stewart is pretty serious and Jim Cramer is overly contrite on the show, apologizing for everything ever done in the world. Either way, it's amusing.

I am interesting and well read

I came across this through Technorati as a link to my blog. I guess it's fairly recursive and maybe self-serving to quote someone quoting my blog, but I've always loved a good recursive loop. I thought this was an interesting view (and just so happens to refer to me as interesting and well-read) on something I'd written late last year about my life in the future. I'm not sure how the author Wes is connected to my blog or me. but I think he knew my Mom back in the day (which was a Wednesday, incidentally):

Read this if you think you'll live to be 50-60 years old or if you're that now

If you're between 50 to 60 years old, I would invite your comments and insights in response to a post from Dave Kurt who writes a really interesting and well-read personal blog.

This is a guy who is in his 30s, revels in being a family guy, has a job that requires him to travel a fair amount and who wants to be known as somebody who serves others.

In this post, he writes about what he wants his life looks like when he hits the 50s and 60s and when he's an empty-nester and a grandfather.

He's thought about this and you can see his focus and his vision for where he wants to be at that point in his life. He lists 12-pretty specific goals. I'm impressed and his list seems like an exercise worth emulating by others.

His list includes both silly and serious items, but I'm sure they reflect his personality and his values.

QUESTION: For those who have made to this empty-nester and grandparent phase, did you think through where you wanted to be when you were younger? For those who are younger, have you thought about or are you doing that now?

The Poison Dart

A bunch of friends at Calvary Baptist put together this giant Dart War for their youth group every year. They've got a new theme every year and it seems to get more and more elaborate each time. This is the trailer for the video that Reagan Rose put together. Amazing. Give him a call if you need any professional video stuff done. He's good. Web site stuff, too.

The Poinson Dart Trailer/Promo from Reagan Rose on Vimeo.

H20 Basement

I walked down into the basement and felt a "squish" combined with a "splash" followed by a pit in my stomach. My sump pump had gotten stuck and flooded the basement. For the first half hour I was angry at myself as I'd talked last week about replacing my sump pump. After canceling all my meetings, I started trying to figure out what to do. Cathie and I updated our facebook status to let people know what was going on and what we needed and then I opened up the phonebook. The first company I called was Johnny on the Spot carpet cleaning who gave me a range of $800-$3000 to get the water out of my basement. For that price, I think it should have included a massage and dinner. I called around until I found someone who would do the water extraction for $300 and we set about clearing out our basement. Meanwhile, our facebook statuses were noticed by neighbors and Alex was kind enough to bring Paul's de-humidifier over.

We cleared out everything from the basement, which was a lot of crap. My Dad called and offered to help followed by our Pastor Joe Muzzi coming over along with Jen Niemi. Dad, Joe, Cathie and I got a lot of the stuff out of the basement and then Jen and Cathie focused on getting rid of some of the junk. My office was a job that I had to deal with on my own. I have hundreds of cables and power cords a slew of computers and other crap down there. I had to face my demons by myself, because I was the only one who knew what I needed to do and where things went. I then went and rented a giant commercial de-humidifier while the guys suctioned out the water and set fans around the room under the carpet to dry things out.

At some point, I came to grips with the fact that it could have been a lot worse. My house didn't burn down like the Raitz's, we didn't really lose much stuff, I was home to deal with it, no one has cancer, we have friends who gathered around us to help us out.

Two Movie Reviews

I saw two movies this weekend. One good, one bad. Here's my take on both, for whatever it's worth:

The movie Watchmen was a huge disappointment. I figured it was a comic book movie for adults - kind of a Batman Dark Knight meets Iron Man with more Super Heroes. It ended up being more of a Sin City (which I liked) in terms of the edginess and visual aspects, but story wise, I just didn't get it. I know it was supposed to have all of these deep social and political undertones, but they were way over my head. The theater seemed to be filled with a bunch of comic book fan boys who got all of the inside jokes and I was clueless around. The part that my brother Jon would have enjoyed, was the character Mr. Manhattan. The character was blue and naked the whole movie. I just don't need to have 30 minutes of full frontal male nudity in any movie I see. Kind of a rule I live by. I left the movie thinking, "I am $10 poorer and left with 3 hours of my life I'll never get back." Apparently I am not alone. My brother-in-law Kevin had the same feedback.


The second movie Cathie and I watched with Em and Maddie last night was called The Ultimate Gift. I have no idea when I put this movie in my Netflix queue or how I heard of it, or erally what it was about last night. We played the "blindly pick a movie" game last night and this is what we chose. The movie is about a wealthy grandfather who dies and his selfish family who all want his billions. One kid is a trust fund baby and anticipates a big inheritance. Instead, his grandfather has devised a crash course on life with twelve tasks – or “gifts” – designed to challenge the kid and teach him what's important in life. It was a good movie with a good message and good lessons and drove lots of good conversation with the kids. Also it had uch less full-front male nudity than Watchmen, as in none.

Were we meant to live for so much more?

I've read a series of "teen" books lately: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series, The Twilight Series and the Warrior/Magician/Drago Heir series. I'm not big into the fantasy type books normally, but I liked the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've noticed this theme in each of these series of books. If I've noticed it, it's probably pretty obvious to everyone, because I'm not the deepest thinker out there. Each set of books seems to have these undertones of a larger, hidden world and a of deep, unlocked potential and using those abilities and connection with the hidden world to save the world around them:

• The Nicholas Flamel series is about a couple of twins whose paths cross with a wizard/alchemyst and they have something awakened in them that causes them to see a whole world of magic and a series of powers they didn't know they had. The kids work within this new world and their new abilities to save the world from destruction.
  

• The Twilight series is about a girl who discovers a world of vampires and werewolves and (spoiler alert) is brought into this new world and given great powers as a part of it, and ultimately works together with her kind to save her community.
  


• In the Weir series, an apparently ordinary 16-year-old boy turns out to have magical powers that make him a target of a covert society of wizards, enchanters, and warriors called the Weir. He discovers that he has powers he never knew existed and ends up being a key to saving the world from evil.

One way to look at this would be a bunch of authors piling on the success that Harry Potter has seen. I'm not so sure. I think there's a reason the Harry Potter themes resonate with us. Regardless, I get wrapped up in the stories and I connect them with them for some reason beyond just a love for a good story and underdog. I think these themes are wired into our hearts from the beginning.

I think God has created our souls to be a part of something larger than the small worlds that many of us live in. A lot of people I know live with the sense that it's got to be about more than just getting a bigger house, a bigger car and keeping up with the Jonses. Wedesperately want to discover that there's a larger story that we're a part of and that we have abilities and potential beyond what we know. I think we all have glimpses of what the world could be and what we could do, if we just had what it takes...

It made me think of this song Meant to Live by Switchfoot

Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bid for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

I've talked to a lot of guys who like me, regularly ask themselves the question, "Do I have what it takes? Am I enough?" I know I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a long time. Over time, God has answered it for me in amazing ways, but I often come back to the question and wrestle with God over the answer. I saw the movie Taken recently, about a Dad who goes to extrodinary means to rescue his daughter from the mob when she's kidnapped. Something in me wished I had what it took to be the guy who would know exactly how to respond in that situation, just like Liam Nissen's character.

I remember as a kid asking myself the question of "Do I have what it takes?" felt like the world around me answered with a resounding "no". No matter what I did, what I heard from my parents or what I achieved, I felt like the answer continued to be "no" even into my 30s. I'm trying to figure out how to instill the answer of "yes" in my son and "yes" in the boys in my middle school youth group in a way that sticks to the psyches and souls. One of my favorite authors, John Eldredge, has this to say about it:

Asking the question 'do I have what it takes' was supposed to be answered by the father. Unfortunately, 'do I have what it takes' has been answered by our culture in crippling ways. The answer is almost always 'no.' And 'yes' comes with massive conditions - 'yes' if you go into business; 'yes' if you become a doctor; but that's not what's written in their heart. The boy needs to know from his father that he has what it takes. If a man does not have that one question answered deeply and affirmatively, it cripples him the rest of his life. His relationships with men end up driven. He's a guy with huge tires on his truck but never takes it off road. I'm for guys with 4-wheel drive trucks if they use it, but not if they only strut and posture because they're terrified of being a man.

So I started down this train of thought by simply reflecting on a pretty obvious theme I noticed in these books. To conclude, I think God has wired our hearts to connect with these themes for a reason. At the end of the day, I truly believe that God has created our souls to be a part of something huge, to be a part of his larger plan and his kingdom. I believe there is a world beneath the surface and I've been learning more and more about it as I come to understand this Kingdom of God that Jesus continually talks about and how it can invade this world. I believe God wants to answer the question of "Do I have what it takes?" for each of us to let us know that we're made for so much more than we can imagine, and that we have what it takes, because he created each of us uniquely to reflect the answer of "Yes!"

Lola's new hair do

Surprised by Hope?

I've been reading the book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright. Wright is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and a really smart New Testament scholar.

I'd had this book recommended by a few friends and seeing this video on Colbert, I thought it sounded good in theory, so I bought it and let it sit on my shelf for about 6 months. I finally needed a change in reading so I picked this up. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The book is not a self help book, or a "change the world by doing these three things" book. It starts out with a very historical, academic approach on the history of Jesus' resurrection and the early church - dry as can be. He looks at it from an apologetic standpoint and looks at it in the context of Jewish and early Christian beliefs at that time. Sounds exciting, huh?

The ultimate purpose of the book is to basically point out where much of how and where Christianity has gotten off track today in the context of the heaven and how that impacts our faith. The book looks at the how this has shaped various eschatologies (end times stuff, like the left behind book series that Noel and Jason love), how we treat the earth and how we treat social problems, and ultimately often view Christianity and salvation as being all about "dying and getting to heaven".

So how is this book impacting me? In the beginning, the impact was boredom. My friend, Mr. Kenneth James Buck encouraged me to stay with this book for a number of reasons, so I did and I'm glad. I'm starting to understand the early church, the jewish beliefs about resurrection and heaven and where a lot of my beliefs about heaven have come from, not all biblical.

I'm still in the mode where I'm trying to understand so much reading. The book is not heretical, or stating anything crazy like "we all go to heaven" or "this is heaven now". In fact, it really upacks where some of those ideas come from and the fallacies behind them. I'm starting to try and look at things a little different and understanding what Jesus meant when he prayed "let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Anyone else read this book yet? Am I missing something here so far at about 150 pages in?

Push up Contest

The guys and I at the 6am Triad workout decided to start a 30 day push-up contest. We took a baseline on Tuesday morning at the end of our workout and established our handicaps. We all threw in $5 to see who come make the greatest improvement over your handicapped number.

When we were at the Nascar race this summer I was able to crank out 73 in a row while fresh at the National Guard deal to get my brother Jon a t-shirt (he had worn a collared dress shirt to a NASCAR race?) Later on, Kevin and I then did a Navy Seals challenge (to earn a bag of crap) where I got about 60 push-ups in at the end of a whole series of exercises.

I'm trying to find a good push-up workout, like this 100 Push-Ups workout. Let me know if you know of any great workouts. Here are the handicaps so far:

1. Me -25
   
2. Kirk -20
3. Howard -10
4. Fred -5
5. Alex -5
   
6. Dave 0
7. Mark 0
8. Dr. Roy TBD
   

Interview with Em

This is a cool idea. Cathie asked Em these questions and wrote them down exactly how she responded.

Interview with a seven year old
By: Cathie and Emily Kurt

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"No or Maybe"

2. What makes mom happy?
hugs and kisses

3. What makes mom sad?
When somebody dies.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By tickling me or making funny faces

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Uh.....bad? No not really, she was funny and smilied a lot probably

6. How old is your mom?
38..(she got that right?)

7. How tall is your mom?
I don't know...short, maybe 5ft or 6ft

8. What is her favorite thing to do
Go on Facebook

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
go shopping for food.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
" probably dancing. I can't imagine you singing, mom, sorry". (That made me LOL)

11. What is your mom really good at
Typing and taking care of me

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Playing Zooreka

13. What does your mom do for her job?
You don't even have a job, but you cook, that's your job.

14. What's your mom's favorite food?
Potato soup

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
That you cook for me all the time.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Wanda from Fairly Odd Parents

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Cuddle

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have curly curly hair

19. How are you and your mom different?
We're different sizes

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She cuddles and gives me hugs and kisses and tells me.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Target

Twitter Frenzy

Got this from Will. Very funny view of the world of twittering and blogging as the solution to the world's problems.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

An ode to simpler times...

Thanks to Dana and Ted for this video....

Junie B. Jones

Em had "Dress like your favorite book character" day at school today. I'm pretty sure she didn't remember until this morning, at which point Cathie and Em quickly threw together an outfit based on Junie B. Jones, the main character in a series of books by Barbara Park.

Cathie and I started reading these to the girls when they were little, and I'm not sure who enjoyed them more. Junie B ("The B stands for Beatrice, except I just like B and that's all") is pretty irreverent and occasionally rude, but cracks me up. She's probably all that's wrong with America, but I think we laugh as hard as the girls as we would read these stories to them .

On a side note, I've been reading the Amelia Bedelia books to Emily at bedtime. I remember my Mom reading these to me as a kid, but I'd forgotten just how dumb Amelia is. Emily and I have decided that she's actually dumber than our dog Lola. Amelia's one saving grace is her savant like cooking skills, which even after ruining everything, saves the day and keeps her off the streets selling crack.

This Weekend

We had a fun semi-busy weekend. On Friday night Mark, Brad, Bob, Eli and I got together to play cards over at Bobs. Brad won for the first time ever, and Eli and I won bubkus. Rarely happens. Normally I end up winning and Eli comes in second place.

On Saturday I felt like a sloth, so I figured I'd go for a run. I looked outside and it looked warm and sunny. I was wrong. I froze and dragged my but around.


On Friday night Em spent the night with a friend, and on Saturday night Maddie K spent the night at our house. At some point they had this whole make-up gone wrong thing happen. They followed it up by setting up a carnival in the basement. I found this amusing after talking with my step-brothers Mark and Michael, both of whom are carnies. It sounded intriguing enough that I'd love to go hang with them for a day at a carnival. They claimed they don't know any carni tricks like pick-pocketing or guessing weight, but I figured there's still a lot they can teach me.

On Sunday we went over to the Niemi's for a small surprise party for Matt. Matt showed up early and ruined the surprise. I got him the wonderful hat he's wearing, along with a whole collection of "turning 40" gifts, including a candy dish with nasty mints, a loofa, a ceramic cat and other stuff that old people love.

Gabe and Allie's Basketball Game

We went down last weekend to celebrate a slew of birthday parties in Dewitt. While we were there we went to see my niece and nephew Gabe and Allie play basketball, coached by their Dad. They're on the same team and it was a blast watching them. I love the piture on the right of Allie taking the shot, giving it everything she's got.

You can see more pictures here.

At half time, they invited the parents to center court to participate in a game. Judy jumped right out there only to find that the game was spinning a basketball on your finger. She tried hard and kept the collateral damage to a minimum. I give her tons of credit for trying!

Kurt Birthday Celebration

We went to my Dad and Judy's house in Dewitt to celebrate Kevin, Nate and Judy's Birthdays. We had both sides of the family there, the Kurt/Brown side and the Prelesnik/Kildea side. We all got along beautifully. We were all very careful to not hit Jason in the junk based on recent snippage.

We were all very proud of Dan's brand new hair style, as seen in this picture. Jon was practicing his hand modeling as part of his spokesperson correspondence classes, as he is trying to become one of the suitcase bearers on deal-or-no-deal or a wheel-of-forture letter turner.

Allie continues to amuse me like nothing else. She's got the middle-child-dramatic side of things (as pictured here where Susan is putting her earrings back in) and on the right where she's always up for a little bit of trouble. Her personality is so much fun as she wrestles with her brothers like nothing you've ever seen.

Wilbur was there to celebrate and to keep an eye on us from a social work standpoint. He's demonstrating in this picture how not to huge a child. He would not hesitate to call social services on any of us if need be. Kevin walked around with these blocks on his head all day, which seemed odd to me, but no one else.

Will insisted that we take a slew of pictures that would prove that he is more loved than Kevin, who married into the family. My Dad happily obliged and even suggested that we hold hands in some of the pictures. Again, seemed odd to me, but no one else.

I'm not sure which picture is creepier. The picture of Susan and Dan on the left, or this picture of the funeral the kids conducted on the right.

We had a fun day and for the most part, no one got hurt. We had lots of great food, and I think I even got a nap in at some point.

You can see more of the pictures here.