A holiday highlight was having my brothers-in-law add a phone line, a cable line, and re-do the electrical outlets for our newly arranged office space downstairs. The guy who originally worked on the electrical system must have been smoking something illegal-half of the circuits from the panel weren't grounded, and the downstairs outlets were not wired correctly.

A Christmas highlight was seeing Benny and Carissa play together. Here they are trying to fit in Benny's sweet new ride.

On a personal note: AA, I realize UK called the other day (caller ID). You must have been traveling in a bad cell area-the recording was entirely cell phone static. I am assuming it was to touch base for Christmas. Merry Christmas to you-don't worry your card is coming. Remember, our household is comprised of 3 youngest children, and both adults are procrastinators by nature. If there was another msgg, let me know.

Random Photos Of The Day

With the news of the CO snowstorms, a bit of Steamboat powder sure would be tasty right about now!

Benny playing on MaMa's side of the bed.

Jenna got it right. We are putting in paperwork for Bennys sister in Korea. I had anticipated having the application in by now, but it's taking more time than originally thought. We are going through Holt.

Benny loves anything outdoors....grass, leaves, gumballs, bugs. You name it. He's all boy.

Our good friends Jason and Amanda have finally made it to China to pick up Emily. Click on their link to the right if you want to read some up-to date entries, and see some great pics of their journey.

PATIENTLY WAITING

Benny is just sitting by the mailbox, eager at the chance to give our mailman a wave and smile!

I detest paperwork.

Whether it's taxes, family stuff, business...I don't like paperwork. However, there are some bits of paperwork I love. Click on the top link at the right column, and you might understand where I am heading with this. We are filling out that paperwork tomorrow. Now, I love that paperwork!

I have so many buddies (you know who you are) that would appreciate this article from today's Denver Post.

Flatulence forces plane to land
By The Associated Press
Article Last Updated:12/06/2006 09:54:10 AM MST

Nashville, Tenn. - It is considered polite to light a match after passing gas. Not while on a plane.
An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.
The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning sulfur from the matches, said Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority. All 99 passengers and five crew members were taken off and screened while the plane was searched and luggage was screened.
The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a "body odor," Lowrance said.
She had an unspecified medical condition, authorities said.
"It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well," she said. "It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up." The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane. The woman, who was not identified, was not charged in the incident.

OK, it's been awhile since my last posting. Here are a few pics from our trip to Tim & Kim's in Augusta. One is Benny crashed out on Aunt Kim, and the other is of Benny's cousin, Decker.

Things I have learned:

. If all is quiet at home, assume someone is guilty of something. I found Benny silently putting a jar of vaseline on himself from head to toe. The clothes are gone, but he has really shiny hair.
. If your child is lactose intolerant, don't experiment with whole milk (for 3 days).
. If you set out a glass ornament, it will get broken.
. If you set out a small, wooden nutcracker, it will get broken.
. If you set out another small, wooden nutcracker, it will get broken.
. If your kid gets a Tickle Me Elmo, he will continually push the button to make him talk and gyrate loudly.
. If your kid gets a Thomas The Tank sing along book, he will continually push the button to make it talk loudly.
. If your kid suddenly discovers DVD's, he will continually want you to have it playing. (doesn't happen).
. If your kid is watching DVD's, he will continually want Elmo and Thomas to be making their noises in the background.
. If your kid wants you to read Veggie Tales, Madam Blueberry for the 10th time in a row, chances are you haven't even got dressed for work yet.

Here is a picture I nabbed from Ed Tritschlers blog. Last month we made our way to Camp Neotez. This is one beauty of a place, which I am sure we will be seeing plenty of in the coming years.

Ed, hopefully I haven't broken any copyright laws. I'll be glad to pay a royalty fee.

This has been a busy few weeks. Last weekend we left for NYC (sans kid) for a few days of R & R. We saw them do the Today show on Friday, went to Little Italy (which lives up to the name--it's only 3 blocks long or so) for lunch, and had some great Mexican food that evening. It seems that Chinatown has almost overtaken Little Italy. As one friend from the area put it: The Chineese love to work, and the Italians like to sit around and drink wine.

All, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Email from Marsha in CO

RECALL NOTICE
The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart.
This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.
This defect has been technically termed "Subsequential Internal Non-Morality," or more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.
Some other symptoms include:
1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.
The number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R
Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart component. No matter how big or small the SIN defect is,
Jesus will replace it with:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control

Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Believers' Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded.

For free emergency service, call on Jesus.

DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility. Thank you for your attention!

GOD

Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by "kneemail."

Here is a pic of Benny and his friend Julia (neighbors granddaughter). We pulled them in our wagon 2 times around the block -of course they loved going fast on the downhill section.

I'm taking a sick day today, and working from home. I just finished some bookwork for the accountant, and wanted to post a few pics of Benny. One is him rocking out to Jimmy Buffett's version of Uncle Johns Band (although I have to turn down the cuss word each time). The other is of him sitting at the kids clothing store in downtown Kirkwood. We are missing one of his red shoes-If you can find it, there will be a nice finders fee. Kids shoes aren't cheap!

What a beautiful day.

The good news: It's 74 degrees.
The bad news: Well, it feels like 73 degrees with the wind chill factor.

Am I dreaming, or is this November? It's one of those days that makes me feel like putting on Jimmy Buffett, which is what I'm going to do. Don't worry, Benny is fast becoming a JB fan.

Jackpot! Our videocamera has photo capability, and for the past several months we have been taking pictures. I didn't realize until last night we could easily download the pics on the computer.


Benny and his cousins

Carissa at the zoo

Cassady doing a dance routine

Here are some legit pictures of Jason and Amanda. We are soooo excited about their little girl, and can't wait to hop a plane to see Emily. If you would like to keep up with what's happening, click on "The Carters" to the right. Feel free to email her if there are spelling, grammatical, or general English errors in her posts. She would appreciate it.

...and then there were 4

We have some great friends from out of state that just received their referral for Emily, who for now resides in the Jiangxi province in China (I think). To celebrate, I wanted to post some very flattering pictures of the new parents. These were taken in Virginia last Thanksgiving.

Emily is their first daughter. Jason and Amanda's first kid is Charley, their extremely loyal and spoiled pooch. For you Colorado folks that don't have their blog address, give me a shout and I'll forward it. Amanda, let me know if I can publish a link to your blog.

Wow, what a fun time at Trunk or Treat the other night at McKnight. Here are a few snapshots, but hats off to the Coles and the Martins (I am sure among others) for a great night.

If your church doesn't have these each year..suggest it. Similar to the Fall Festival in Littleton, this is a great outreach activity to the community.

St Louis has a neat tradition of not merely coming up to the door expecting candy. The kids have to work for it with a joke. Last year the winning joke was this:
Tiny girl: What does a fish say when it hits a wall
Us: I don't know...what?
Tiny girl: Dam !

This year the winning joke goes like this:
Chubby kid: What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?
Us: A stick?
Chubby kid: Nope. Defective Merchandise!

Yeah: Small and big kids dressing up for fun
Nay: Big kids dressed up as Colts leaving Denver with a last minute win

"Serenity Now"

The title of this post is a not-too-obscure reference from Seinfeld. If you can't let things go...just try repeating Serentiy Now. Of course that remedy proved to be full of holes on that episode. It reminds me of my longstanding problem of needing to be at church on time (or anywhere else for that matter).

Now, I don't have the best memory in the world, but one I do have is of our yellow 1973 Pontiac Catalina idling in front of our mailbox on the occasional Sunday morning-with the horn blaring as if to say hurry the heck up, we got a long drive ahead with places to go and people to see. The funny thing is that we only lived a few blocks from the church building. I indeed inherited this trait. I want to pack up, load Benny, and lay on that horn. In the same way that smokers need that first drag to reduce tension, I have this delusion that hitting that horn will give me the same satisfaction. As my wife reminds me-I do my best sinnin' in my singular effort to drag everyone to the building on time.

Tday was no different. One would think it would have been different, since we were the scheduled Greeters. After all, don't they usually show up earlier than everyone else to actually greet? However my Love decided she needed to have a bit of breakfast. "It will only take a minute" says she, as we whip into McD's. "I'll even go in". My inner voice is chanting, Serenity Now, over and over. After 5 minutes I finally decide not to be stressed out. I turn on Jimmy Buffett, and look at my surroundings. Lo and behold I saw these signs at Walgreens. I cracked up and lost all my high blood pressure and tension.

Day 366

Today marks day 366. 1 year and 1 day ago we picked up Benny. On day 364 we celebrated our first Gotcha Day, complete with an airplane cake and a pinata. I'm thinking the pinata is a Mexican thing, but hey-Guatemala's close enough. This party could not been a hit without his cousins Abby and Carly taking care of the entertainment portion, and Gabrielle taking the pictures. We kept the party small, but it was big to us.

We certainly are blessed. There was a memorial service yesterday for the Leicht family. Their daughter passed away prior to birth. This time of the year, there's a lot of talk about "heroics" on the baseball diamond. One of the most heroic things I have seen came at the memorial service when Sandy and Mike opened up their hearts, and shared several words and thoughts about their feelings and their little girl. The turnout of people praising God and the sharing of heart-heavy emotions are great examples of why I believe in worshiping as a congregation. You simply don't get this benefit from praising God on your own.

If anyone would like to remember the Leicht family. They request a donation be made to Christian Family Services. See the link on the right margin.

YEA: Being able to expose and share the grit and dirt from your life among friends.

NAY: Having the grit and "dirt" exposed for you in game 2. I guess we aren't all "Mr Perfect"...besides, aren't most "Gamblers" cheaters anyways?

Due to strong demand, and verbal strong-arming, I wanted to post a bit on Benny. For the past few weeks, he has not eaten hardly any meat. Today is a milestone-he ate a bunch of ham. Not earth shattering, but hey, I'm not Reuters.

Benny continues to be fascinated with computers, and is consistently messing with our Mac. He is just tall enough to reach up and start fiddling with the keyboard. By this time, he probably thinks that "Stop" and "No" are computer-related terms. Right now (thanks to our dear son), the fonts are big on the screen, and the screens don't look "normal". Any clues to the fix?

Speaking of computers, here is a shot of him at the computer in Guatemala-almost a year ago. Hard to believe.

I'm not sure what has happened to the pictures from the previous posts, but here is Benny doing what he loves-just playing. This is a plane that I played with growing up.

Last night was a great win for the team, although the first inning wasn't looking too good for Carpenter. If you managed to see Kenny Rogers pitch an agressive game for Detroit the other night, you saw an inspiring game (for the over-40 crowd). His ball was breaking big, and he had a great intensity showing on his face. That is what sparked Detroit to win the series, in my mind.

Aaron and I drove down to Birmingham this weekend to pick up a piano for his wife. Along the way, there were legions of Nascar fans going to Talladega. I'm not really a fan of racing, but ended up watching the last few laps of the race. Wow, what a finish. I'm sure it was bittersweet for the winner (# 25-don't know his name). He bumped his 2nd place teammate as he was making his move to pass Earnhart Jr on the last lap. That bump caused him to careen into #8 (Jr), taking them out of the race. #25 cruised on to win. The funny thing, everyone was throwing beer cups and booing him as he exited his car in victory. Oh well, I guess that's racing.

Here's a sneak preview of Benny's Halloween costume. He is the sweetest Great White around....but his teeth are still sharp.

Here's to good friends

Has it been almost 20 years?

Here's a pic of me and my buddy Todd (also known as Wib-short for Wilburn). We have known each other since college, and have spent some great times together. Here is one of those times, at Steamboat Springs in 1987. We are still great friends, and usually touch base with each other 3 or so times/week. This is a perk of being in the same wireless network-the calls are free..which is good...we usually don't have anything important on the docket...just "hanging out" 700 miles apart.

If you are interested, that is "Russell" the dolphin. Russell made several appearances in pictures throughout the college years. I think Mark (also known as George) still has him.

Yesterday afternoon we went to celebrate Wells' first birthday. Another of Benny's contemporaries I hope he grows up with. After the party, they gave out some neat party favors, including a Wells First Birthday CD.

Here's a picture of Benny's NeNe from a few weeks ago. She hadn't seen Benny in quite a while, and really liked reading to him day and night.

Here's my Sweet Boy in a jovial mood. I actually woke him up at 8am. This never happens. His buddy, Pink Bear, is faithfully at his side.

I am working on a post with some old pics, compliments of my buddy, Wib. Hopefully this weekend.

It's late, it's been a stressful day. To end it on a good note, I wanted to post some pictures of my beautiful family. The good news is that I have tomorrow and Monday with Benny. Tomorrow is an action packed day...dual haircuts, oil change for G's car, maybe the Magic House, Trivia Night for some function for G's work.

The picture with Benny and Grace makes me chuckle. When Aaron and Kelly got home, they realized there were 5 or so apples that had little bites in them. I expect no less from Gracie, who is the funniest eater I know. The plus is that she saved them probably $0.40, since we bought apples by the pound.

I am a bit jealous of our friends in Memphis....who booked a house at Rosemary Beach next month. Today would have been a good day to be on vacation. Like the commercial said in the 80's....take me away, Calgon, take me away. Of course this reminds me of another old commercial I remember seeing at Grandma's house, when she had the Soap Opera's playing loud on the TV...."You're soaking in it, Marge" . I think it was for some dish soap, hence "soap opera".

Last week we did a few things that I hope will be yearly traditions:

Attending the Balloon-Glow at Forest Park, and
Picking apples in Illinois

These days it's easy to just be lazy on the weekends, and do nothing after a tough week. Where is the joy in this? To grow as a family, we want to experience things as a family! This includes cutting down on those lazy, nonproductive weekends.

What about you? Do you have any traditions that serve to pull your family closer?

10-18

Hey, at least it wasn't a conference game. Let's hope there are less turnovers, and more offensive punch next week with KC

Our Wednesdays Men's Class had an interesting and lively discussion about finding a need, and doing something to affect others in the name of Christ. Like James says: Faith without works are dead. This video seems to nicely dovetail on that discussion.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures taken last week. All co-vacationeers are pictured. Still glad to be home for awhile, though.

It's hard to believe it's been a year since Katrina made landfall. It's funny, but during that time alot of my prayers were directed to Guatemala, and Benny's safety. The lines of communication from his foster mom to Dillon Int'l weren't that swift, and tensions grew when we kept hearing about the mudslides and deaths in the outskirts of Guatemala City. Guatemala certainly experienced their own fallout from the Hurricane Season of '05. It ultimately delayed our getting him for a bit-which is verrry minor in the grand scheme of things. We even flew around a hurricane getting to Guatemala, but looking back seems like a million years ago.

What's playing on ITunes right now? Quite an interesting mix!

Mark Knopfler
Talking Heads
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
R.E.M.