Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Dear Olivia,

When we first found out mommy was pregnant with you, I, like most fathers, wanted a son. We found out later our baby was going to be a girl. I wasn't upset at all, but thought it would have been nice to have a boy. It was 8 years ago today you blessed our lives by entering our family. I fell in love with you the minute I saw you! There is no way in the world I would trade you for anyone else, especially a boy. I am so happy you were given to us by God! In fact, you were so special to me, I was afraid of having another baby because I didn't think I could love another kid as much as I loved you. But, if we were going to have another kid, I wanted another one like you. That's right...I wanted another daughter! God blessed us again with your sister!

You are one special kid growing into a special young lady. You are incredibly fun, funny, loving, compassionate, loyal, kind, strong-willed, opinionated, competitive, smart, beautiful, crazy, etc. I am so proud of you in all that you do. I am so proud to call you my daughter and so thrilled you call me daddy!

I pray God protect you all your life, that you have a long life, that you come to know Jesus in a personal way early in life, that you continue to be a blessing to all that come in contact with you, and that I can know you for many, many years to come. I love you, my daughter, my first-born! Please always know I will love you always, no matter what. Happy Birthday!!

Daddy

Ice Ice Baby

Our kids (like all kids) love it when the ice cream truck comes through the neighborhood. However, we've always been a little leery as many of them look a little creepy! Last year, a new truck (and I mean new!) started coming once a week. The Kona Ice truck comes every Monday evening (weather permitting) and the kids really look forward to it! They both get small snow cones and add nearly every syrup flavor. However, I didn't know they looked forward to it this much!

The Final Frontier

A few years ago, Heather got me a telescope for Christmas (or was it birthday?). I've seen a lot of neat stuff since getting it, though I must admit I don't use it near enough. I am fascinated by space and love nearly all the Star Trek shows and the like. Heather is the same way. The neatest experience with the telescope was probably me finding Saturn. That was so cool to be able to see the rings! Now keep in mind, these aren't fancy images like you see from the Hubble Telescope, but it was pretty cool. Looked a little something like this.

On Saturday night, I got the scope out again to check out a bright "star" in the sky. Turns out, it was Jupiter with 4 of its moons in plain sight! It looked a lot like this (though I could see two distinct horizontal lines on the planet, like this, though I'll admit it wasn't quite that clear). Heather checked it out with me and was equally impressed that all four moons line up in a straight line.

Livvi is showing definite similar signs of nerd-dom that her mother and I share. She loves to check out the stars, too. On Sunday night, we checked out Jupiter and the moon. The detail in the moon was incredible (even better than this). With the moon being nearly full and so bright, we about blinded ourselves! Joie took one look in the scope at Jupiter and had had enough. She started complaining about being scared of the dark. Perhaps a couple more years and we'll try it again.

Here is a picture I took tonight of the moon and Jupiter (without the telescope):


Hey, NASA! When you are done with Hubble, can you set it up in my backyard? Thanks!

Just OK

Last Tuesday was my latest business trip (and hopefully the last of the year). This time to Oklahoma City. However, the week didn't start well. I started feeling a little under-the-weather on Sunday night. Monday night, I didn't sleep well at all and woke up soaking wet! Tuesday morning, I was sweating at the Cincinnati airport, but my boss said he was, too, so I didn't think much of it. We land in OKC and when we arrived at the meeting, I felt as if the room was VERY hot when we first began. Fortunately, I got more comfortable as the meeting went on. By the end of the hour-hour and a half, I was OK. My boss was not hot this time, so I was still wondering what my deal was. While lunch was great, it was a miserable flight back only because I didn't feel well. I got home, spent a little time with my family then went right to bed. Much of the week was the same way. Long story short, my doctor on Saturday said I have bronchitis. Lovely.

One place we visited in OKC was where the bombing took place 14 years ago. If anyone doubts evil exists in the world (and perhaps fell asleep around 9/11/2001), they need to visit some place like this. Innocent people and children were killed because someone had issue with the federal government. You have to be kidding me?! Who doesn't have a problem with the federal government?! These kinds of acts, though just sicken me! As you can see from the pictures, there are chairs for each person that was killed. It just broke my heart to see the little chairs, that represented the children that were murdered. I took one picture of a child's chair and one of an adult chair that beared the name of a mother and baby. God help us! We all truly need Jesus!

Perseid Meteor Shower

After Joie went to bed tonight, Heather, Livvi, & I went outside to see if we'd get lucky and see some of the effects of Earth's annual passing through the Perseid meteor shower. We laid on a blanket and watched the sky for about 30 minutes hoping to see a show. Heather went in after about 15 minutes. I saw a pretty good one about 5 minutes later heading west-southwest. However, I was really hoping Livvi could see one before we went in....and we did! I saw the same one she did heading south, so I know she actually saw one. I was fortunate to have seen two tonight and thrilled Livvi saw one! I may try to look again right before dawn. Heather and Joie might have to wait until next year. :-(

iMPACT with Backpacks

Heather really has a compassion for people and a passion for helping people in need. A few years ago, she had an idea for an outreach for our church. In 2007, she started "iMPACT with Backpacks". It would have been enough to just gather backpacks and school supplies and pass them out, but she envisioned more. She thought a party to go along with it would allow us more time with the families and would offer the kids a great time of fun and love. Each year has gotten better as she fine-tunes the event and we learn from past events. This year our 3rd annual event involved a pizza lunch, a mini-concert, a short testimony, the demo team from Livvi's martial arts club, and a visit from the Kona Ice truck. There were about 140 backpacks picked up yesterday (at least 50 more yet to be picked up). 53 of the 70 families we were helping showed up at the party and had a great time! We were even fortunate enough to have a reporter from Channel 9 News (a great guy who attends our church) do a little story which aired last night.

Local Church Makes 'Impact' With Backpacks - Cincinnati breaking news, weather radar, traffic from 9News | Channel 9 WCPO.com

Congratulations, Heather! Another job well done! Love you!

Martial Arts Mania Month

Livvi's been pretty busy with her martial arts this past month:

• She started in the new class for older kids
• She participated in a week-long sparring class
• She participated in a week-long breaking class

All together, she had 19 classes in the month of July. She also attended a black belt exam for nearly 2 hours where two boys she knows (ages 14 and 10) got their 1st degree black belts.

Here are a couple of videos of her this past month:

• Sparring - the first kid she sparred with was the 10-year old who got his black belt a week later
• Breaking - she got first in her division and third overall.