New Years Resolutions

I will fear not this path You have lead me to and this life you have given me. I will live boldy in your Name and challenge others to do the same.

I will try not to question the bumps in the road or the lessons the detours will teach me. I will remind myself that the road was never meant to be easy

I will remember how much I have been given and how much is asked in return

I will always ask myself, if not me than who? Life is not lived if it is only lived for you

Happy New Year and My God Bless you and your family

Enough with the boring exercise updates......

Well, now that the Christmas cards have gone out with the intriguing last line, wondering if we will be a family of 6 by years end, and with enough information leaks to sink a boat floating around in cyber space, I figured it is probably due time to announce that we are at the beginning of our 4th adoption journey which, hopefully, by the grace of God, will lead us to our daughter in Colombia. This will be our first I-800a experience as we have gotten by on the I-600's for both of our last journies, and will sink us deeper into paperwork than we have ever been. A daunting task for those of us whose last 2 adoption have been to african countries! I hear a psycological exam is even part of the mix! What fun, now someone might actually certify that I am crazy! Well dear....put up the mile ticker and the Bogota weather.....we are heading south!

Back in the saddle

I've been saying it for weeks (or maybe months or longer). I've been slackin' BIG TIME since the 50k in October. Except for some treadmill running at work, there has been zippo running miles. Just not motivated to get outside yet, though I'm close..despite the cold.

Inside, I've finally decided to get the bike hooked up to the trainer. Not wanting to take up space in the new basement, or to sweat on the nice floor in there. I've relegated myself to my own personal hobbit hole in the utility room. Not being the tallest fella around, I can just fit sitting up. My head touches the cold air returns from the AC system.

Its not pretty, but its there, and more importantly, I'm using it. So I'm getting my daily dose of exercise now. And the bonus, I'm making quicker progress on Destination Kinshasa (only 7000 more miles to go!).

For the Love of a hat ... part II

If you've followed our journey, E1 lost his favorite hat. After some searching, it was recovered, much to everyone's joy.

Unfortunately, it was only about 1 week after recovery that disaster struck. On the Sunday after we recovered the hat, E2 wore the hat to church. Mama brought E2 to Sunday School class, while Papa brought the two youngin's into the church. We had our typical trip to our favorite coffee shop after Mass. Finally, in the afternoon, E2 had a birthday party at a local "fun center".

It wasn't until Monday that we discovered the hat was missing again. Did he have it at church? Yes. No. I don't remember. Was it at the coffee shop? Don't think so, as it warmed up a bit. How about at the bowling alley? It was cold, but I was spent, not sure I remember the hat on his head.

Called the bowling alley on Thursday, no luck. At church the following week, took a wild chance on if there is a lost and found at his CCD class. Nope. "but you can check it the baskets down the hall..". Basket #1. Lots of nice mittens and gloves we thought about "using". But no hat. Basket #2. still more gloves, my oh my kids lose lots of gloves.

Basket #3. Pushed aside more gloves, more hats. And at there it was. At the very bottom. I look up at J. Her face turns into a fly catcher with her mouth so wide open. NO WAY!!!

I'm telling you... this hat has a purpose. And its not yet fulfilled with E1!

Welcome home!

Tales for a tired little boy

After reading "How does a dinasour get well soon" for like the hundredth time, E2 decided he wanted to tell a story himself last night before bed about his foxy. I already know this is not going to come out nearly as cute as it was being there, but I will try. We just bunked up the boys bed, so E2 is on the bottom bunk. I turn off the light and he turns on his flashlight and starts the story:

e2: "Once upon a time.....WHAT WAS THAT!"
mama: "That was just papa closing K's door"
e2: "Oh, once upon a time there was a big monster and ....WHAT WAS THAT!"
mama: "That is just the shadow of my hand from the flashlight, see...(I wiggle my fingers"
e2: "Ohhhhh, once upon a time, there was a big monster...no..no....a little mouse...WHAT WAS THAT!"
mama: "That was the shadow of your hand silly, see, wiggle your fingers"
e2: "Ohhh, there was a big monster...no, no, a little mouse and a bunny"
mama: "I thought this story was about Foxy??" mama hands him his Foxy
e2: "WHAT WAS THAT!"
mama: "that was the shadow from your Foxy, see..." mama shakes Foxy in front of flash light
e2: "and the bunny liked to eat carrots and pink lemonade....."
mama:"pink lemonade??? I think we better finish this story up tomorrow....good night sweet pea and turn off that flash light before you scare yourself again"

In the beginning there was darkness...

Along with the darkness, there as damp, unused, void of space.

11 years ago, a few weeks before J and I got married, I started tearing up the basement. Tonight, 11 years , 6 months, and a couple of weeks later, Its done. (ok ok, so I need to hang a new door going down the stairs, but that doesn't count).

The original inspiration, was the Knight of the round table tapestry we brought back from Belgium so many years ago. J created some individual crests for each of us. They are backlit with halogen dimmers so they add a nice glow to the basement.

Its so nice to have another usable room in the house. If all those toys were strew about the house, I think I'd have already gone nuts!

Eat, Pray, Love

With our fab new satalite dish, we got to sample some free pay per view movies. I picked Eat Pray Love, not because I praticuarly enjoy Julia Roberts films, but because I thought the idea of taking a year off life and finding yourself sounded like a cool idea. I heard the book was much better and gave a lot more background into her life before she set out on her journey, but alas, I am just sticking with the movie for now. And I have to say, I get it! There was a line in the movie about how Americans, in general, feel like they need to work themselves to the bone to EARN 2 weeks of vacation. One of the men in Italy said something like Italian's don't feel like they have to earn time to just enjoy themselves, they know they deserve it. Yes, there it is, the daily grind, get up, get the kids ready, drop off the kids, work, work, work, get home, make dinner, feed kids, get kids ready for bed, collapse on couch and zone out to tv until crawling up to bed and falling asleep until alarm rings and cycle starts again (or in Ted's case, replace tv, bed and sleep with work work work) and the years roll by faster than the blink of an eye. What am I missing here? Part of me thinks about the chain e-mail that went around a few years ago about the kid that died and ended up in a room with the library rolladexes where each card cronicled his life and how he was embarrassed to see how many hours he had wasted watching tv, etc then Jesus comes along and crosses off him name on all the cards that were sins and writes his own. What will my rolladex look like? Will I be embarrased by the number of hours wasted? And what about this life I have been given? Did I spend too many hours defending "Christmas" as a Christian holiday when I should have just listen to people and "lightened up?". Yesterday was the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The priest talked about Original sin and Adam and Eve being banished. What I had never thought about was if they had not sinned, and we had all remained in paradise, there wouldn't have been the need to send Jesus down as our Savoir. That fact just escaped me I guess. This, my friends, is not paridise. Which probably means, life, in general, is hard, there will be frustration, exhaustion, trials, and uphill battles along with the joys, acomplishments, happiness and sucesses. Which leads me to the question, how do you eat, pray and love in your life?

Another Great Interview with the Twietmeyers