The Mice Aftermath

I forgot to mention that Faith tipped over all of our CD's while I was cooking and feeding Audrey. Enjoy the mess?

The Mice

When the Cat's away, the Mice will play

Being a dad has its share of responsibilities - changing poopy diapers, cleaning up dirty face kids, giving baths, giving horse rides, taking the kids to the park and pretending to be "the kelly monster", making nutritious meals, reading, etc.

Michelle is going on a weeklong mission's trip to Mexico with her mom in August. That means that my first week off of summer school I will be stay at home day all week! I'm still deciding on what to do - so if you have any suggestions throw them my way. I was thinking about taking a trip to the Twin Cities to see some friends and family. Faith would love to see her cousins. We could just stay in Kenosha and I could make up an Itinerary of fun things to do. At any rate the last couple days have been practice, a preview if you will. Michelle has been earning some money essentially for her mission's trip working at a daycare through an externship program through a local technical college in town. Sounds complicated, I know. So I was off of work on Thursday by 1130 and have had the girls ever since. (granted, Mish was home in the evening and even took the girls to my 7pm softball game, but...) It's been a lot of fun. We are really enjoying ourselves and our new house. We have been reading and eating - lots of food, playing in the many different rooms and closets. I took some pics and will put them up soon. I let Audrey tackle some spaghetti. Michelle let me tackle the mess. Thanks, Mish.

Busy Life Anyone?

Hi - we are busy in my house. Why is that? What have we been up to that makes us so busy? For starters we are both teaching this semester. Only 9 weeks to go till summer. But because we are both teaching that means that we need daycare which is always stressful since we have hired a few former students of mish's to share the load. they are usually fine, but you never know when one of them might take a trip or not take the job as serious as we would like them. I mean they are our kids. Audrey is turning one in one month and faith just turned three. Next year we our definitely putting the kids in some kind of daycare/preschool facility. my buddy calls it dayscare - but what can you do? at least you know they will be reliable and won't be watching TV all day. Tuesday nights we have swimming lessons with both of the girls. Wednesday nights we have small group Bible study in our home. Thursday I help out, typically, with the high school boys small group. To top it all off we have had a houseguest, an exchange student if you will from Zion, IL living with us and going to school trying to earn her childcare certification. I'm also tutoring her in reading and I'm tutoring another student Math on Sundays after church.

I miss my wife and my family. Luckily we have spring break this week. We are headed inland to the cabin for a week to cool out. Just us 4. We are going to an indoor waterpark on Thursday, but other than that have few plans, which is great.

Summer will change things a lot. I'm only working part-time and mish is staying home with the kids. No small group stuff, no extra student living with us. I'll be adding softball on thursdays but subtracting most of the rest of our stuff. should be better.

oh yeah - did I mention we are trying to sell our house? yeah, we are looking for a bigger one. on a less busy street, in a quieter area of town.

so please keep us in your prayers and let me know how we can pray for you.

xo - kel

New Year's Res. - the workout

So many people enjoy New Year's resolutions. In the past I have been one of those people. Read the Bible more, eat less chocolate, gain 10 pounds of muscle... etc. However, this year I started a few months earlier. In early-mid November I began wanting to get back into weightlifting. I used to do some weightlifting in high school and in college.

I have a co-worker who asked me if I would join him after school. He was pretty hard-core. He read books on weightlifting, the latest articles off of reliable web sites, and he even kept 'stats' of his weightlifting. It was pretty nice because I could bring Faith and Audrey to the Y and there was a Kids Club for them while I worked out. My friend has really pushed me. I have experienced new soreness from muscles I knew I had, but never worked out before.

All of a sudden on January 2nd, a typical day at the Y, which was never so busy - just the regulars that all knew each other, became a crowded shopping mall. I hate crowds and malls. But I figure the resolutionists will fade out in 4-6 weeks and I'll keep on enjoying getting huge.

Mish has been encouraging me in it, which is nice.

A funny side note: When we first moved to Kenosha and we were looking around for a church to belong to we settled on one, where mish knew a few people from her high school. Anyways at a gathering she was talking with a young man about our age and he mentioned that he weightlifted and she interjected that I liked to do that as well... she even asked him, with me not being present, if he would lift with me, (she's so sweet) he said gruffly, "Only if he wants to get up at 6am." The funny thing is we saw this young man with a young girl at our gym and it wasn't 6am, and it didn't look like this girl could lift a whole lot, nor spot him.

Well, you may have had to be there.

I don't know what kind of exercise you are all in to, but to those joining me - happy lifting.

U.S. Cities

I was just in Chicago at its famous Shedd Acquarium with Faith and Audrey. Mish wrote about it and put up pictures on her blog. It made me realize how much I miss cities. Visiting them, participating in that style, or touring them on vacation. So here are my top 5 cities that I have experienced.

1. Minneapolis - This is an obvious bias, living there for 5 years and experiencing so much fun and times there. I especially loved St. Anthony Main, Uptown, and the University of MN. I even had the experience of working at one of its sky scrapers (now my sister works downtown in the TCF Tower). I could go into more detail, but I'll just say that I'll answer any questions that anyone wants to know. Fair enough.

2. Seattle - I was on a Mission's project in Seattle during the summer of 1998. I loved the whole Puget Sound/Mt. Rainier landscape. Truly beautiful. The city has so much character and so many cool spots. I even went to Jimi Hendrix's grave.

3. Chicago - How many skyscrapers can one city have? Between the music scene, its sports' teams, museums, and Lake Michigan, Chicago is the best big city out there. My apologies to New York and Los Angeles.

4. Denver - I never spent a great deal of time in Denver. I probably spent more in the surrounding areas, like Boulder, Monument, Castle Rock and Colorado Spings. I just can't get over such a large city in such proximity to the Rocky Mountains.

5. Boston - I joined marching band in 9th grade just so I could go to this Boston trip and go to Fenway. I think if I would have been born and raised in Boston, I would have been Jimmy Fallon in Fever Pitch. It just made the whole trip. I also loved the historical parts we visited.

I'd love to hear from any of you out there. What are your top 5 cities that you have experienced? Tell me about it.

Manny Hits 3 and knocks in 10

Strat-O-Matic Report

---

BOXSCORE: 2006 Auburn Anacondas At 2006 Kenosha Titans              9/13/2006
 
  Anacondas          AB  R  H RBI AVG     Titans             AB  R  H RBI AVG
  J.Kendall C         6  3  4  0 .222     J.Rollins SS        4  0  1  0 .261  
  M.Giles 2B          4  2  1  0 .292     W.Taveras CF        4  1  3  0 .296  
  T.Helton 1B         5  3  3  1 .307     H.Matsui LF         4  0  0  1 .297  
  M.Ramirez LF        6  3  3 10 .271     B.Hall 3B           4  0  1  0 .292  
  C.Tracy DH          6  0  1  0 .307     D.Dellucci DH       4  0  0  0 .217  
  J.Rivera CF         5  1  2  0 .295     R.Mackowiak RF      4  0  0  0 .281  
  J.Gibbons RF        5  1  3  2 .254     M.Piazza C          2  0  0  0 .215  
  A.Hill 3B           5  1  1  0 .243     D.Ward 1B           3  0  1  0 .289  
  O.Cabrera SS        5  1  2  2 .264     M.Cuddyer 2B        3  0  0  0 .281  
                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---      
         Totals      47 15 20 15                 Totals      32  1  6  1
 
 
INJURY: Rodrigo Lopez INJURED (for 0 more games) in 4th inning
 
Anacondas....... 4 0 0  0 0 0  4 0 7  - 15 20  0
Titans.......... 0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 0  -  1  6  1
 
Anacondas (44-62)        IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA
R.Lopez                   3 1/3   3   1   1   0   1   0   2.70
D.Turnbow                 1 2/3   0   0   0   0   1   0   2.06
K.Wood WIN(2-3)           3       2   0   0   1   4   0   4.83
M.Rivera                  1       1   0   0   0   2   0   4.26
Totals                    9       6   1   1   1   8   0
 
Titans (58-59)           IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA
L.Hernandez LOSS(3-10)    6      10   5   5   0   1   1   9.25
S.Schoenewei              0 2/3   3   3   3   0   1   1   3.82
L.Carter                  1 2/3   4   2   2   0   0   1   6.75
S.Torres                  0 2/3   3   5   1   1   0   2   3.58
Totals                    9      20  15  11   1   2   5
 
ATTENDANCE- 26,140 DATE- Wednesday, September 13th 2006 TIME- Day 
UMPIRES- Larry Young, Bill Hohn, Fieldin Culbreth, Bill Miller
T- 3:11
LEFT ON BASE- Anacondas: 8  Titans: 5
DOUBLE PLAYS- Anacondas: 1  Titans: 1
ERRORS- J.Rollins
DOUBLES- J.Kendall-2(18th), J.Gibbons(21st), A.Hill(15th)
HOME RUNS- M.Ramirez-3(36th), J.Gibbons(10th), O.Cabrera(6th)
STOLEN BASES- J.Kendall(2nd), W.Taveras-3(48th), B.Hall(20th)
WALKS- T.Helton, M.Piazza
HIT BY PITCH- M.Giles-2
STRIKE OUTS- C.Tracy, J.Rivera, H.Matsui-3, D.Dellucci-2, M.Piazza, D.Ward,
             M.Cuddyer
GIDP- J.Gibbons, M.Cuddyer
 
Left fielder Manny Ramirez ripped 3 homeruns as the Auburn Anacondas ballclub
embarrassed the floundering Kenosha Titans by the count of 15 to 1.
 
Ramirez was in a groove all day.  The Kenosha fans hated to see him
approaching the batter's box.  He rifled a three-run blast in the 1st inning,
cleared the bases with a Grand Slam homerun in the 7th inning and belted a
three-run homer (his 36th of the season) in the 9th inning.  Auburn kept the
scorekeepers busy in the 1st inning which saw them plate 4 runs on 5 hits,
the 7th inning which saw them plate 4 runs on 4 hits and the 9th inning which
saw them plate 7 runs on 5 hits.  For the game Auburn out-hit Kenosha 20 to
6.  
 
The victory went to Kerry Wood(2-3) who went 3 innings, allowing no runs.
Livan Hernandez(3-10) was the losing pitcher.

• Go to Strat-O-Matic Homepage

Humbling/Cowardice - The Tiger in me

You know some people think they know everything. And some of them actually do know a lot. Others who think they know everything really don't know much at all. Then there are some who don't know anything at all. Or others who know some things but are to quiet to mention it. The people that know some things but are too scared or unwilling to learn new things out of fear - that is my camp. I'm admitting it to you now. Wow... that took a lot.

But I want to let you all know that I can become someone else. Not like multiple personality kel, but just an evolving person that tries new things and gets better at the few things he does know.

You all know that I enjoy baseball and football and fantasy sports. And those interests will probably stay around for awhile. But I am capable of more.

It started about a month ago. We were at the cabin and todd said that he would only go waterskiing if i went. Well, Andy was going to go for his first time too. I stunk at waterskiing. It was embarassing for me. I couldn't even get up. But I figured why not. I 'll give it a try. Why can't I have that attitude with more things? Turns out I actually got up and went about 100 yards. last week I went again and this time I went around the lake and crashed twice. 2 major wipe outs. the first time i crashed i went shoulder/face first into the water outside the wake. I couldn't figure a way to get back in. My shoulder feels like a tore something and the other time
the skiis flew off of me and the one hit me just above the eye. It still feels sore. But you know - it felt so freeing to do something that I thought I was incapable of doing. I felt like I did when I was 8 and I truly thought that I could be a pro football or baseball player if I kept at it. Now I know that i'm not going to be a pro skiier - but more than likely if i keep working at it, I should get better at it. And more importantly - I believe that I can do anything (go waterskiing, make omelettes, fix my computer) if I try. I need to believe and know that we can do all things thru Christ Jesus our Lord. Even insignificant things like waterskiing - can be significant if they jumpstart your hunger to do better, to learn more.

kel tiger

Tagged

Michelle is trying to get me to get back into blogging... so she tags me and I don't want to let her down. I have to answer these cute questions about my limited book reading. Don't get me wrong - I like books, or at least I used to like them, but now most of my reading is articles on education or computer articles. But either way - here it goes...

1. One book that changed your life.
More than a Carpenter - by Josh McDowell

2. One book you've read more than once.
Catcher in the Rye - by J.D. Salinger

3. One book you'd want on a desert island.
Besides the Bible, How to survive on a desert island - author unknown

4. One book that made you laugh.
Slaughterhouse 5 - by Kurt Vonnegut

5. One book that made you cry.
Don't Waste Your Life - by John Piper

6. One book you wish had been written.
Honest Short Stories - by Eric Johnson

7. One book you wish had never been written.
Handmaid's Tale - by i don't know off hand(I don't care) I don't really remember what it is about but I had to read it in high school and it was pretty graphic about some homely girl getting it on with some old guy... classic literature.

8. One book you're currently reading.
I just finished Douglas Coupland's Life After God. I really enjoyed it. But otherwise I just started reading Fantasy Football Draft Magazine 2006. I just picked it up. I know a bit late this year, but hey I'm trying to stay pure. (my wife calls it my porn - oooh gross)

9. One book you've been meaning to read.
A Case for Faith by Lee Strobel

10. Now tag 5 people. I don't really know 5 people who read my blog for sure. Matt M., Ann (a bunch of Savages in this town) S., Tim M., Loren M., and Kari J.