Jacked Up

As many of you may know, Spaceman started school this year.  She seems to be enjoying it even though it is making her pretty tired.  I'm not enjoying it for one reason: Jack.  I've never met this little guy but I hear about him all the time.  Apparently he saw Kayla on the playground during the first week of school and immediately started chasing her.  Now she enjoys chasing him.  In fact, it is her favorite part of school.  It seems that even though they are in different classes they have gym class together.  He bonked her on the head with a baton during a relay and everyone laughed.  Not me.  It got so bad that when I was urging Kayla to get a haircut (it gets super tangly) she looked at me and whined, "but then Jack won't recognize me".  Perfect.  Lets buzz it all off then.

I thought I would have at least 5 more years before I started hearing about boys.  When I was in first grade I remember some girls having crushes on boys and I thought it was weird.  I'm pretty sure I still wanted to marry my dog Mopey at that age.  Mopey died, so I settled for Kristen.  Speaking of Kristen, Kayla did tell Kristen that some boys and girls wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend but she thought that was silly because they were just kids.  So it seems like Jack is just a fun friend to run around with.  But if you think I'm gonna stay on the sidelines much longer if these stories keep coming home then you don't know jack. Or me.

Anniversary Surprise

Kristen and I celebrated? our 7th anniversary on July 7.  7 on 7/7.  Maybe I should have bought her a lottery ticket.  Instead we went to Taco Bell, Costco, and Denny's.  So romantic.  El Mano would be proud.  Kristen bought me the sweetest Kasey Kahne hat ever.  Kayla went in on a present for Kristen with me.  I was so excited about giving the gift that I had to videotape it.  Here is a truncated version (no long video's with dial up internet).

We will rise early Wednesday morning and head off to Michigan for a weekend of kamping with a bunch of Cedarville friends followed by a family reunion in the U.P.  I can't wait to sit on the beach of Lake Superior and watch a sunset.  Sooo peaceful and relaxing.

Footwear Optional

After we moved into our new house last year we started searching for a new church closer to where we live.  Many church visits later we decided to go deal with the 40 minute drive and go back to the church we were at.  Plus it is super close to Costco so we do our shopping after church.  That helped make our decision easier (plus we really like our Sunday School class). 

Today we went to the earlier and more contemporary service.  Before communion the pastor had a little talk about how we have freedom in this country and also freedom in Christ.  Agreed.  We were then told that if we wanted to we could take our shoes off before we went up for communion (in this service you also walk up for communion kind of like the Catholics without the priest).  The rationale for the shoe removal had something to do with being on "Holy" ground and having the christian liberty to do this.  I didn't quite follow the logic there.  He again said that it was our personal choice whether we wanted to do this or not. 

I walked up with my shoes on.  Most people were barefoot but the whole situation was very strange. 

Would you have removed your shoes?  For those that say yes, why?  Peer pressure or something else?

Yo Quiero Derechos!

Today I was oh so close to experiencing the thrill of a derecho.  A derecho is a long lived straight line windstorm as opposed to a tornado which spins.  There are criteria that must be met such as distance travelled, length of the squall line and windspeed.  I'm pretty sure the storm that rolled from Indiana to D.C. today met all of those. 

I was watching it on radar throughout the day and once it got across the mountains of WV, the storm just blew up.  Best bow echo I have ever seen and it just accelerated all the way to the Chesepeake.  Numerous wind damage reports all through northern VA and MD.  Possibly even a tornado in Luray, VA where Kristen and I went canoeing on the Shenandoah River last Friday.  I saw a 64 mph gust at Fort Belvoir.  I'm sure winds were over 70 elsewhere. 

Anyway, I am a little sad because the southern edge of the derecho passed just to my north.  Nothing for me.  There is another line forming to our west right now.  Hopefully the first one didn't stabilize things too much.  I want some good winds.

This spring is the most fun since my freshman year of college (1998).  That was my first real exposure to severe storms and there were plenty that year. 

Our cable got knocked out from last nights storms and a few weeks ago our phone line got knocked out for 5 days!  Totally worth it though.

Any storm reports from OH or PA?  I saw a nasty cell right around Jeffersonville last night.  Probably went right through Xenia.  Do tell.

Alpha and Omega

I'm gonna go ahead and leave out many of the juicy details about laying the tile floor.  I'll leave that to Kristen.  We did get it done before my family arrived last week.  There are a few things we learned and will do differently next time but overall the floor does look quite a bit better than it did.  It was much more work than I thought it would be, but once you start ripping up a floor there is no turning back.

                              BEGINNING                                                                              END

Kayla and I had a fun time last night.  I hooked up the bike trailer and we headed down to a rec area by the lake.  We found an acorn that was starting to sprout a tree.  I'd never seen that before.  We then threw acorns at a goose that was in the water.  Slightly childish behavior but I found it fun.  Yes, I did hit it once before it flew away.

Last week my Dad, Mom, and one of my sister's visited.  It was very nice to have them all here.  The house stayed much cleaner with more hands on deck.  Food was also vastly improved.  Come back anytime!