What's on your bucket list?

From the time that I was in high school I've always had the idea that one day I would go skydiving. It's always been one of those things on my bucket list. For many it's the thrill factor that they seek. Not me. Don't get me wrong I LOVE adventure and finding new ways to overcome most of life's hurdles...but heights??? It's funny when I was telling my tandem partner about my fear of heights, he said, "It's not heights, it's altitude." Call it whatever you want, but apparently now I've got another fear...fear of altitude. Thanks buddy!

Anyway skydiving was my way of facing this fear. I never want anything in this world to hold me back from enjoying the fruits of life, so I jumped at the opportunity to go with some good friends. Let me just say, if you've never been, it's quite the experience! You may not be afraid of heights or "altitude," but I promise you, when that door opens at 13,000 ft and you watch those ahead of you get sucked out of the plane...it becomes REAL real fast! With all of that said, I need to say, "It was GREAT!" - Thanks Clint! - If you get a chance to go then take it. Never let anything hold you back from witnessing the undiscovered parts of life!

So now many ask, "Would you do it again?" My answer is, "With another group of friends, yes. But just to do it because I'm hooked now...nope." Anyway here are a few pics to show that I jumped and survived. -Although, the last picture could pass for another blog entry about coming back from a trip to the moon.

Paper & Heart

Every week, sometimes every day, Cole asks to go to work with me. It's something that I can usually count on when I wake up each morning. Fun Fact: He told Holly that when he grows up he's going to have his office right beside mine so we can work together! As his daddy there's a part of me that wishes age 5 stayed a little longer. Because I know that over time, age 5 will become a small dot in his rear view mirror and comments like this will become less frequent. But for now I record it in my memory bank and enjoy it while it's here!

As you can see in the picture below, Cole made it to work with me this day. He decided that he would write his first book. I'm not going to tell you about it as to hinder his sales on Amazon... Anyway it was a very cool moment when he came to me to show me his book of Adventure on a day with dad! Thought it was worth sharing!

(Yeah I'm not sure what the yarn was supposed to be either?)

My Hero!

Many of you have probably already seen this, but in my adventures of being a dad I couldn't help but be motivated by this story again!



My goal, as a dad, is to impress upon my boys
that the word "can't" doesn't exist in our family!

Months into parenthood...

Many of you have seen our friend's website and have shared in this journey with Sean, Sheyenne and their daughter Whitney. I haven't posted any follow-ups about them lately, so I decided that it was time. Rather than me trying to explain things and catch you up in my own words, I'll let them share.

Thanks for praying for them and for your encouraging comments that I'm sure are helpful through this season of life.

http://www.churchonmission.typepad.com/seanandshey/

You get a line and I'll get a pole...

I'm not sure what you do for fun and relaxation, but for my family, one of the ways we kick back is to head down to the OH river. No matter the course that life takes us, we have always seemed to find a way to flank a bad day. That may not make sense to you, but that's been our approach to this adventure that we call, "Life!"

Well this past weekend Holly, Cole, Owen and myself went down to the river. A dozen night crawlers, a fishing pole in hand and some snacks to munch on, we were set! Although Cole and Owen decided throwing mud up in the air and letting it land in their hair was more adventurous, we still somehow managed to catch some fish. Here's a few pictures from our day of adventure!

Striper #1 for Cole

Striper #2 for Cole

Striper #3 for Cole

Striper #4 for Cole (Nice fish!)

Catfish #1

Catfish #2

Cole Striper #5
(Owen had to be in the shot too)

Finally Owen's first fish!
(2 1/2 yrs old)
_________________________________

Get out with your family today!
Too often we wait for the weekend to do anything "FUN."
Why is that?
Get the fam together and make Monday an adventure,
don't sit around waiting for one to happen!!!

* Go on a walk together!

* Ride bikes as a family!
* Go to the park!
* Make a fort out of couch cushions and have a family movie night!
* Make supper together!
* Heck, go fishing!
* If you've got a better idea, do that!

Let me know how it turns out!

Duke

I'm not necessarily a Duke fan, in fact, I don't have a favorite college basketball team that I root for period. However for this years March Madness bracket, I had them winning it. And as most of you already know, Duke pulled it off which catapulted me to the top in order to win this years office bracket. So now that I walk away with $10,000 dollars....I mean a pat on the back, I can honestly say...yeah, I still know nothing about college basketball teams."

Are your days like that? I mean do you ever walk through a day wondering, "Do I really know what I'm doing, or am I just getting by?" Are you intentional with your approach to life or do you waiver with whatever comes your way and hope that works out for you? (Kind of like my bracket) What I'm getting at is, "Do you have specific goals in mind, things you'd like to accomplish?" Like personal goals /family goals / financial goals / spiritual goals /long term / short term goals?
Second part is, "Then what steps are you taking to achieve them?"

It seems to me that most people have a checklist with life.
And once those boxes are checked off, boredom sets in.
Looks something like this:

1) Find that special someone (check) -- Ask out on a date
2) Start dating = (check) --Looking forward to engagement

3) Get engaged (check) --Looking forward to wedding day
4) Get married (check) --Looking forward to first home
5) Buy or move into first house (check) --Looking forward to kids
6) Have first child (check) --Maybe another one
7) Have second child (check) --Boy and a girl. Now we're done
8) Oops, have 3rd child (check)

............Now what?????

Veg out until retirement,
then wish you could have those years back????
.............Seriously???

I don't want to be "that guy" so a while ago I've been making and creating NEW goals on many different levels that I hope to accomplish over time! And even if I come short of accomplishing these goals after giving full effort, I still leave with some pretty cool stories from my attempts at these adventures.

That's my approach and I'm sticking to it.

The Big Apple

Gosh, it feels like it's been FOREVER since I've posted anything! I guess that's because this past week I was on vacation. What started out as a vacation to simply relax at home with the family, ended up with me flying to Albany, New York.

Let me explain:

See Holly and I have been looking for a car for a while now. We had a 1994 Honda Civic Coupe that Holly had been driving since she was 16 years old! It's been a great car, but it was time for us to start looking for a replacement. We looked around at different cars and I even test drove a couple, many of which were out of our price range. This led us to Ebay, which is how we purchased our van back in 05. Anyway we came across a 2007 Toyota Prius from Albany, New York. Holly and I were shocked at the price and tried to figure out why it was so low. I called (Vinny), the dealer in NY, and he assured me that everything was good. What's funny is when I called the dealer and asked for Vinny, the girl said, "Which one?" Holly said, "It's NY, what did you expect?" Anyway after talking with Vinny, we agreed on a price and I bought a one-way plane ticket to Albany, NY.

--You know even though I've done this before, it's never easy to buy something that you've never seen first hand. I say that but that's how we bought our van, our house, and now our car. (Yes, we bought our house without ever having seen it in person.) Anyway long story short, our Ebay adventure led us to a 4:30am morning, 1 flight to Albany, NY to meet "Vinny," and a 718 mile ride back to Cincy in in the 07 Toyota Prius! I have to say, We LOVE it!!! A very cool adventure!!! Here's a few pictures of the quick trip.

Getting ready to leave

Somewhere above NY

Back home with the fam!

Where has your adventure led you?

They're here...

Tonight the African Children's Choir will be performing here at Parkside at 7:00pm!

These 23 children are from Uganda, Africa and we get the privilege of hosting a couple of the boys tonight at our house. If I have any good stories worth sharing I'll have to post them tomorrow.

Anyway if your close to the Cinci area, come on...
it's FREE and concert begins at 7:00pm.

NCAA Tournament Bracket

At the office we've put together our brackets like I'm sure most of you have done. And like most of you...KANSAS...messed my bracket up quite a bit! However even with that, I am currently leading the 22 brackets that are on our wall here in the office (one in the middle is a chart of current stats). It's funny that someone who doesn't watch basketball leads the pack. I realize this could be very temporary, so I'm posting while I'm on top! (Fist pump)

Let me know how you're doing!
Or...let me know if you have no idea of what I'm talking about!

What is the value of "one day"...

...I guess it really depends on who you ask.

Some would say a single day is expendable,

while others would describe the value of a day as irreplaceable!

Yesterday I sat down with a lady who has a close friend going through a very difficult time. Her friend is a Latino Pastor whose son is in a coma, so I agreed to go to Children’s Hospital and spend some time with this family that I have never met before. The family didn’t speak English very well so our conversations were being interpreted. Let me say this, “Regardless of a language barrier, there is a mysterious level of comfort, empathy and bond when Jesus is the common denominator! And that was definitely the case here!” Some of you know exactly what I mean.

Well without going into a lot of detail, we all circled up, held hands and prayed for this 15 year old boy to regain consciousness. As I was closing out my visit with this family the boy's father said this, “I believe that God is capable of raising my son out of this coma! I believe that with all my heart! (he paused, then went on)...But I also believe that God’s ways are so much higher than my own. And because of this, I humbly accept His answer, regardless if that answer is settling to me or not. From my human perspective I am pained to see my boy this way, and wish for nothing more than for him to come home with me. But if he does not wake here, I know that he will awake to a scene I can only imagine! And because of this I am at peace.”

What else can I say, except he nailed it! Now the difficult part will be for him to live this out, as I received a phone call earlier that his son has moved on.

'What is the value of "one day" day for you?'

Eeewwwhhh

This past weekend my brother, his wife and 2 kids came down for a visit which was very nice! Well one night the boys were playing together on the floor and Owen (2 1/2) was "doing the dance." You know the kind of dance that little boys do when they "have to go," but can't seem to pull themselves away from playing? Yeah, that's the one! Well after asking him if he had to go potty, he ran to the restroom and grabbed the little potty seat off of the toilet and literally threw it up against the wall, because THIS WAS HIS EMERGENCY!!! All of this was so much of a priority that he didn't even care to close the door, which is how we witnessed this next part.

Now before I go on let me say, "We could have probably won $10,000 dollars on America's Funniest Videos!" See when he got off the big potty, he did what he was supposed to do. He got his own toilet paper "like a big boy," then he wiped his bottom "like a big boy." Now I wish I could say that it all ended here, but it didn't. Because after wiping his bottom, he directly pulled it up and wiped his nose without any hesitation!!!....
Yeah...that's how we all reacted too! "NOOOOOO!!!" is the only answer any of us had for this horrific scene!!! I instantly jumped to my feet and ran to rescue him! Thankfully there wasn't anything to clean off, but believe me...I scrubbed his face anyway!

TMI...maybe, but it cracked us up. I am honestly at a loss for why he even did this in the first place. Whatever the reason, I'm still a little scarred by that night.

I guess the moral of this story is this:

"Toilet paper is used to clean things,
but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE...
clean these things one at a time!!!"

Our New Floor

This past week Holly and I decided to redo our kitchen / dining room floors. It's not a very big area, but after taking out tile, grout, concrete backer board, and additional backer board, it became a much bigger job than we originally thought.
(Isn't that how it usually goes though?)

Anyway, I decided to show you the fruits of our "blood, sweat and tears." And I am being serious when I say, "blood, sweat and tears."

Blood--Because I had to super glue Holly's hand shut after being sliced on a tile.

Sweat--Because that's what bodies do when you're working hard.

Tears--At 1:00am one night Holly cried when we couldn't figure something out (Wasn't funny then, but it is now)

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Ohio River Adventure

As many of you know, I like to go fishing! Well this past weekend I took Cole out fishing to the Ohio River. Since January he has been begging me to go fishing, so when the sun came out this past weekend we didn't pass it up. And let me tell you, it REALLY IS an adventure when you take a 5 year old fishing! I think I did more untangling line, setting the line and coaching him HOW TO CAST, than I did anything else! (Even though it was getting old, I realized these days will pass soon enough so I was proud to do it!)

Well in between doing all of this I saw my pole moving, however it wasn't moving too much so I didn't reel it in. Anyway after I was getting ready to call it quits, I caught this "thing" below. Let me say, over the many years of going fishing I can honestly say I've never caught one of these. Call it strange, ugly, weird...but Cole and I call it another adventure!

Here's a quick quiz for you:

What do you think this creature is called?
Any thoughts?

Brain Test

I want to let you know that I WAS able to do this, however there were a few times that my foot wasn't listening. I drew the number 6 very well each time with my hand, but it was my foot that seemed not to follow. In fact I began smiling a little bit, not because it was fun, but because it was sort of frustrating that I was losing this stupid, silly brain test. Then when I nailed it and did it right a few times in a row, I stopped as if I was walking away with the upper hand.

Let me know how it went for you!

When a child moves on...

For those of you keeping up with our freinds' story, here is a picture of them while at the hosptial! Even going through one of life's most difficult hurdles, I believe this picture captured a marriage at its best in my opinion!!! Love you guys!

If you'd like to read more about their story:

http://www.churchonmission.typepad.com/seanandshey

Super Glue

Super Glue is such a wonderful thing!

I mean seriously, I'm sure each of you have used it at some point in time on SOMETHING! I mean what else can you use to re-glue toys, pottery, your rear view mirror...and my all time favorite...SKIN!!! Which is where I'll pick up my story from this weekend.


Holly and I have been working on our kitchen floor by breaking out the tile that's currently in there. Well on Saturday, just as everything had been going smoothly with breaking up the tile, I hear a hammer hit the floor and hear Holly say, "Uhh! Oh no Clayton, I just cut myself and it's bad!" Nonchalantly I say, "Let me see." After seeing about a half inch gash in her hand, I told her to pinch it shut and that it wasn't too bad. Reality, yeah she could have used stitches. But what's funny is, we were too cheap to go to the ER. So instead I went and got some Super Glue that we had so I could glue it shut! (Now before you think I'm the worst husband in the world, realize that super glue is like Dermabond which hospitals sometimes use instead of using stitches.) Anyway the funniest part, looking back on it now, was right before I glued it I asked her, "Do you want to go to the hospital because it's going to scar."
Her response, "I don't care as long as you don't care."

...Now...I wish I could say that, right then and there we gazed into each others eyes and got mushy with phrases like:

"Honey, I'd love you with or without scars."
"Heck honey, I'd love you with or without hands."
"Honey, I'd still love you even if you were a vegetable."
And then realizing how deep our love goes for each other, we passionately started kissing...

...Instead it was more of us looking at each other,
as if to read the others mind
Holly: "You're really going to glue my hand aren't you."
Me: "...Yep!"

May seem silly to others, but I love our marriage!

The Tooth Fairy

I thought this was worth sharing!
(Her mother sent this to me and I had to share it!)

A little 6 year old girl wrote this letter today right before school. But before she put it under her pillow, she gave it to her mother and included some instructions. She said, "Scan it and send it to my friend and make sure she knows what the Tooth Fairy is up to!"


So "Tooth Fairy," if you're reading this...
you might want to rethink the whole tooth steeling bit!
Apparently money isn't enough these days.

A Love Story

If you have not read any of my previous blogs about an amazing little girl named, "Whitney" then you have missed out on an incredible story! Sean and Sheyenne are not only friends of ours, they are an encouragement to everyone who has read or heard about their personal journey into parenthood!

Let me step out of the way and open the door to their story...

http://www.churchonmission.typepad.com/seanandshey

Love you guys!

Charlie Bit Me

If you haven't seen this clip before, then you've probably been living under a rock somewhere. That or you don't do YouTube very often. Either way, this is probably THE most watched video clip ever posted on that site. So whether your seeing this for the very first time, or laughing at this clip again for the 100th time...here you go!

Laughter can be contagious

Things have gotten away from me today so instead of not posting anything, I'll leave you with a short video clip. And if you haven't had much to laugh about today, this may be just what you needed.



Who knows, maybe your smile today is just what he/she needed