Well, if you hadn't seen my twitter messages, our A/C went out yesterday. It went up to 90 degrees inside our house in no time. I guess when it's 106 outside, that's what happens. So, the repairmen just came out to our house and fixed it. My amazing parents came out and sat in the heat to wait for the guys while we cleaned up out at Clovis Lakes after the kids' birthday party.
It's down to 84 degrees inside now and dropping. Thank God.
Also, I just wanted to say that I'm amazed at how easy the internet makes our lives. My tv remote became unprogrammed somehow, I google "vizio, comcast remote" and voila! I got it all fixed.
"the most important action a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first." - patrick lencioni from the five dysfunctions of a team
What may surprise you is that this is from a corporate leadership book. Not some oober sensitive Christian work.
last night, some friends of ours daughter got bit by their family dog. They've had the dog for 5 years and it had never had any previous aggression problems. But, nonetheless, because it is an ANIMAL, they do unknown things and it snapped at her.
Please pray for their daughter. She's 4 years old and is now in the hospital needing plastic surgery because the dog bit her in the face. I cannot imagine the horror of watching one of my little girls go through this and so would you be kind enough to pray that God would be with their family and that He could ease her pain and heal her face completely. Thanks.
I apologize for the lack of posting around here. Today is jacinda's sisters wedding up in oakhurst. We're playing "yes you have" by Leeland and Jacinda is the matron of honor, so she's been caught up in all the festivities. I've basically been running the kids around trying to make her life easier. Excited for her sister and pete but will be glad when we can just have a normal night at home!
Well jimmy's not brand new to the blogging world but I didn't know about his blog until yesterday. Jimmy is the guy that every church wants. He's energetic, funny, and he loves your jr higher like no one else can. He's a pastor at new covenant church in Fresno so go visit his blog and encourage him to try and post more than 10 times a month.
http://jffarrell.blogspot.com
I thought it would be a good idea to go on a family walk. Yeah it's 100 degrees outside but hey I could stand to lose a couple pounds by sweating, so off we went. Melania got a new tricycle for her birthday so we took the bad boy out for a spin. This basically means one of us hunched over pulling the bike down the street. We made it halfway and declared that it was hotter than Iraq during the "shock and awe" so we headed home.
I just went home for lunch and "wedding crashers" was on TNT. I've never seen the movie, not to sound like a pride, but because of all the crap that I'm sure is in it. But, since it's on TNT, they edit out everything. I mean every cuss word is substituted. It's actually kind of funny.
Anyway, the movie is pretty hilarious so far.
Two years ago today, we were driving to the hospital. Grandma and Grandpa were watching your big sister, so we were alone, just your mom and me. Your date and time was all set because of the automatic C-Section request from Dr. Steinke. Although I'd been through this before, I was nervous. Not really nervous about the aspect of being a father or the fact that two kids would be more work than one.
My biggest concern was that I loved your big sister so much, I didn't know if I was going to have enough love for you. My whole heart belonged to Kiara and I didn't think there was going to be enough room in there for another baby. Well, you proved me wrong.
Just like what happened to the Grinch at the end of his story, my heart grew that day. I don't know how, but God gave me extra capacity. I love you more than my own life!
You are my baby! There is this undying love that God gave me, the day you were born, that no matter what you do or say, I will love you. It's this unconditional love that the Father gave me that helps me understand how He loves us. It's a pretty amazing feeling. You showed me that.
You are my little "muncher". You and your sister are so similar, yet so different. When I look at you, it's like looking at Kiara when she was two, well, more like when she was 1 and 1/2. You are my tall girl (off the charts on the Dr.'s scale) and you eat your sister under the table. The other day, your sister barely ate 1 piece of pizza and you ate 3! I love when you run and you kind of just bounce. I love your kisses and big squeezes around my neck. I love coming home after work and having you run up to me and giving me loves.
It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating your 1st birthday. I can't believe how fast the time has gone and I'm pretty sure that the rest is going to go even faster. I hear dad's say it all the time. So let's try to enjoy every year, every day, and every moment, because no matter what comes our way or no matter what stage of life we are in, we're gonna miss it. So, just like I tell you every night after you're asleep and I tuck you in,
"Daddy loves you."
Happy Birthday Melania.
Every time I hear this song I think of you and your sister. I love you!
Finally, I got my birthday present. It took some work and time, but with the help of Jason at the fresno apple store, it happened. I know what I'll be staying up messing with tonight.
Jacinda and I have been addicted to "So You Think You Can Dance?" for awhile now. Every year it gets me more interested in dance. The producer said it best tonight, "you can not give a d#$% about dance and you'll enjoy this show". That's me to a "T"! By the way, I'm pissed that Will got voted off. I'm just sayin' he was freaking ri-cock-ulous.
I've been looking into a couple new shows to ease my summer re-run blues. Burn Notice is one that I actually really enjoy. It's pretty straight forward. There is a problem, they fix it. But there is a underlying theme and the plot moves on throughout the season. I'm not sure of the actor's name, but he's the guy who was a jerk in the movie "Hitch", if you can remember that detail. It hung me up for about 5 minutes of the first episode and then I liked him again. It's been on a lot, so even if you missed a couple episodes, you could probably catch some re-runs to get back story. Oh, and I think it's already in it's 2nd season.
Also, I've checked out "The Cleaner" with Benjamin Bratt. Not quite sold on it yet, but it's different. He's a freelance, hire-able, addiction killer. He basically gets hired and then, with the help of his team, goes and figures out what kind of drug the person is on, and get them into a rehab center. I'm not hanging on the edge of my seat, but it makes me talk to the TV, even when I'm just home by myself watching it!
Have you ever had Mochi? It's a Japanese dessert that my brother and sister in-law introduced me to. They have a couple different flavors at Trader Joe's, but strawberry is my favorite. I'm not really sure what it is, but it's kind of like a dough with ice cream in the middle. The consistency is something totally different, but oh, so good. Next time you're at TJ's pick some up and check them out.
As you know, Jacinda is off in the ATL still and after a long week at work, I met my parents and the girls for dinner at Mah's Terriyaki and then took the girls home with me. I missed them so much. Melania wouldn't stop squeezing my neck! I, being the jealous type, decided that since mom was out having fun, we needed to do some of our own damage. Something not too far away, but far enough to make it special for the girls, you know?
Hume Lake.
This place holds so many memories for me starting in Jr. High @ Sugar Pine even up until my last Men's retreat about 2 years ago. I told the girls the night before and Kiara was amped. She said it took her a long time to fall asleep because she was so excited.
Of course, we didn't get going as early as I had hoped, but we made it there by noon. The drive was long and not very scenic until the last 45 minutes, then just beautiful mountains. Seriously, look at this picture out my window. Why would you choose to live in this area? It's so dry and dead looking. Anyways.
There were 4 things that Kiara wanted to do, so I let her pick what order they would be in. Boating, milkshakes, hiking, and general "checking the place out".
Boating was first, so after a not-so-quick trip to the bathroom with 2 girls in a 2x3 foot stall, we put down our deposit, got our life jackets, and rowed out. It was a really nice day and they both took turns "rowing". They were so cute in their life jackets and we ended up finding a group of ducks and feeding them all of our snacks. Kiara would've thrown me overboard if it could've made the ducks stay longer. She was so into it!
I'm trying to think, but I'm pretty sure it was Melania's first time on a boat like that. She had a couple little tumbles in the boat, but she loved it too.
When we went to go turn in the boats, the girls at the boat shack were way into the girls and so I asked Kiara, "what do you want to do next?" The girl behind the counter was whispering to her, "milkshakes", but Kiara yells out, "Hiking!". I think Jacinda is raising our kids right if they choose hiking over milkshakes. I know that's not my doing!
Our hike was more of a walk, but I let her pick where to go and she had brought a map that she had made the night before for our hike. We walked up and down, through dirt, down slopes and stairs and ended up by the gift shop. We saw the "blob" on our little exploration. Lots of sore backs and necks from that thing!
Next we found ourselves at the Snack Shop, where we got Cheeseburgers, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, fries, and drinks. We sat outside, but there were tons of flies. Melania kept getting all hot and bothered by them. "shoo fwy, shoo" she kept saying.
After the lunch festivities I went in and ordered the shakes. Pink for kiara, which means any flavor as long as the outcome is pink, which this time was sherbet, and Melania and I shared a Cookies and Cream shake. I tried to get them to pose for a picture, but they were pretty into the ice cream at this point. I grabbed some random person to take a picture of all three of us. It's below, but Melania's look on her face is like, "who the heck are you?"
We got cleaned up, the girls threw a couple rocks in the river and we drove home. They both kept telling me how much they loved me on the way home which was awesome. I would reach my hand back to pat them and they'd both grab onto it, just gripping my fingers tight. Best Daddy-Daughters day yet. Here are a couple more pictures from the day:
I'm sure you've seen this over on either Carlos, Heather, or Jacinda's blog, but it is the video of Jacinda surprising Heather by visiting here out in Atlanta. I watched it today at work. We had a whole little group of people huddled around a screen as if it were some new reality TV show!
Juno great characters. Juno's lines and vocabulary are stimulating and the way that Ellen Page pulls off the character is hilarious. I give it 4 out of 5 orange tic-tacs. (****)
Reign Over Me It was one that I wanted to see, but always passed over. I thought the premise was pretty depressing and the movie definitely was. It made you think about what you have and appreciate the time that you do have with your family. 3 out of 5 Bruce Springstein songs. (***)
