This Week in Pictures

Birthday flowers from Virginia.

Birthday celebration with Lindsay, Tabitha, Sarah, Jake and Kara, and Annie!

Kara and Tab are twins at the Gap.

Annie likes to snuggle and Tabitha is reaping the rewards.

Danielle's first formal homecoming dance, evident by the inability to walk in heels!

Roll Tide Roll

I just have to say that Alabama football is freaking awesome!!! I mean I still love Ohio State and am loyal to the Buckeyes but I can definitely say that there is nothing quite like a Bama football game in Tuscaloosa. Incredible!

Okay, with that being said, I cannot even possibly do justice to the weekend because it would take too long to write so I thought I would hit some of the highlights.

- Jen schooling me in 'Bama football and sayings. It is not "Go Tide," it's "Roll Tide" which stands for hello, how ya'll doing, and good-bye in Tuscaloosa. I sort of felt like I was in Hawaii saying Aloha.

- Mr. H being excited that we were going to have a healthy blackbean soup for dinner on Friday night, so much so he kept telling us over and over again.

- Archibald's Ribs for lunch on Saturday.

- The wicked heat and humidity. Thank goodness the game was at night!

- Mr. H saying RTR (Roll Tide Roll) over and over again and then saying that I could call him anytime and say it.

- The game going into overtime...unfortunately Georgia won...BOO

- Screaming myself hoarse at the game.

- A Georgia fan and Alabama fan almost getting into a fight in our section.

- Anna Leigh and Caroline showing us the puppets at church.

- My first visit to a non instrumental Church of Christ.

- Seeing the "puppies" again. See Jen's blog for the back story.

- Taking a ride on the Gator.

There are actually a ton more things too, but hopefully you get the idea of what a wonderful weekend it was.

Really the best part of the whole weekend was getting to spend time with Jen. We've decided that we're twins separated at birth with just a few years in between. I mean we both have a crazy love of sports, books and everything British including Jane Austen, Bridget Jones, the accents, and of course Colin Firth! Jen is one of the best friends I have and it's not because of all of our similarities. It's because she has one of the best hearts I know. She is loving and caring and truly is a woman of God. I definitely know He put her in my life when I needed it and I am so thankful for her!

And the Magic Number is...

THREE!!!

That's right folks. The Cleveland Indians only have 3 more games to win to clinch the AL Central Division and make it into the playoffs. They just finished up a sweep of the Tigers that helped that magic number drop considerably.

So to celebrate this day I added some pictures of the only Indians game I've seen this year. It was live and in person when they played the Reds, and yes friends, they won the game in extra innings!!!

This was little Abel's first MLB game. I'm trying to brainwash him early to be a Tribe fan. Susan, Jenny, Wendy and Sarah all went and Lindsay was there in spirit considering that she fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up until it was the middle of the 7th inning. Really that was the only down point of that whole evening. Well unless you count Jenny backing her car into a poll in the parking garage. She didn't seem to fussed about it though.

This is Wendy saying, "Ah shoot, the Indians scored again!"

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...well Alabama that is.

Some of you know that I'm heading down to Tuscaloosa this weekend with Jen. The trip is to introduce Crimson Tide football to me live and in person. Jen has already gotten me an Alabama t-shirt under the guise of making sure I fit in and have the full experience. Secretly I think Jen is trying to create more and more Bama fans up here in Big 10 country. Anyway, she just sent me an email stating that I will not be the only special visitor at the game on Saturday. In fact, there is going to be a whole crew of special visitors. Who you ask?



That's right! ESPN College GameDay is coming to T-town. How sweet is that?!

Numbers

12 - the number of babies in the nursery at Mops today and there are tons more mommies pregnant so that's going to grow. There were about 50 kids in all there. Crazy how we're growing

11 - the number of games the Cleveland Indians have to win in order to clinch the central division title!

10 - the number of days left till I head to Alabama with Jen!

9- the number that is my favorite.

8- the number of episodes I have left to watch of season three of The Office.

7- the number of books I have piled in the corner waiting to read.

6 - the number of conversations (both verbal and email) that I had last night that I don't remember because of...

5 - the number of painkillers I took in order to get a little relief after having a root canal yesterday.

4- the number of roots my tooth has...found not by the x-ray but after the dentist was already in there digging away at the other three.

3 - the number of roots that most people have for their back teeth.

2 - the number of games that Ohio State has won and Michigan has lost this season.

1 - the number of great big hugs I got from little Miss Clara today!

Remembering

Driving this morning I was listening to a Christian radio station that we have here. The DJ's were talking about today being the anniversary of 9/11 and then proceeded to talk about Bin Laden and how he is the enemy. One of them went as far as to say they wanted him "off the earth and it won't come soon enough." It's not that I don't understand these feelings or even partially agree with them, but as I listened something in me just felt uncomfortable as they continued to talk. It wasn't until I thought about it a little more that I realized what it was that was stirring the discomfort.

I expect secular radio stations and others to believe that Bin Laden is the enemy. I expect them to use harsh words. I expect them to focus on him. I don't expect that from Christians. It's not that I don't think Bin Laden is dangerous or that I don't want him caught because I do. But he is not the enemy, Satan is and as Christians we should never forget that. We are reminded in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

So today I remember those innocent people who lost their lives because of this evil. I remember and honor the soldiers who are fighting the worldly battle against that evil. But most importantly I remember that this evil, that Satan, has already been defeated by someone much more powerful and I have hope in something much greater.

Life

There are many days where I get frustrated with my job, the children's ministry one. I lose site of the significance of raising up children of God and instead focus on the teachers who want to complain about one thing or another, and the screaming and crying of kids in bad moods, or the parents who want me to change a rule just for them. Today, however, was not one of those days.

Today God reminded me in a HUGE way why it is that I do what I do. Today one of my girls, Libby, made the decision to give her life to Christ and be baptized. Today she ran into class with a smile a mile wide and said, "Miss Megan, I get to be baptized today!" Today I was reminded of when I first made that same decision all those years ago.

Libby is probably one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet. She loves everything and everyone around her. She is kind and giving to other children and she's one of the first ones to volunteer in class when something needs to be done. But even with all of that Libby knew that wasn't enough to get her right with God. She knew she had to make the decision to trust and rely on someone bigger than herself. She said she was excited and nervous all at the same time, but nothing was going to stop her. And then I realized why the "Kingdom of God belongs to ones such as these."

When is it as adults that we lose this excitement and nervousness? When is it that we start looking at our cross to bear as being more of a chore than a privilege. I'm not sure when it happened to me, but it did. And today, a little girl reminded me that no matter whether it be our physical life or spiritual one, we get to do it and that is what makes all the difference!

As a funny little side story, Libby is a champion swimmer and not afraid of the water. She's just like a fish in water actually. As we were heading to the pool she asked Renae if she was going to have to hold her down under the water for a couple of minutes before she could bring her back up. Renae assured her that it was just a quick dunk and just laughed. You gotta love how kids minds work!

Reunion

So I've finally gotten some time since I've been back to update about the family picnic. We had our annual Labor Day family picnic on Sunday and as usual the place was packed out. Since my Uncle Bob and Aunt Barb have moved back to the six mile radius of family, or as we like to call it the compound, their kids made the trek for the first time in a long time. This year we also had new additions such as Melissa, my cousin Jake's new wife. It was my Uncle Orvan's 74th birthday so we did a little celebrating of that as well. Here's a picture of the whole crew, well the ones that were there at least. Yes, there are actually family members missing from this picture including Dan who is the photographer. Crazy, I know! Can you find Waldo?!

After the picnic some of the cousins headed over to Dan and Jen's house for an "after party campfire." I must say during this time I heard far, far too many personal, and by personal I mean personal, stories from my cousins. I may never sleep soundly again!

Here's some of us sitting around the campfire, making smores and sharing stories. Well, like I said some of us were sharing stories and others of us were trying to shut our ears and flush our minds!

Seriously though, what is really cool from my perspective is that I'm one of the youngest of the "original" cousins. Being as such there are not a lot of memories that I have of my grandparents when they were feeling well, but my other cousins have tons of them. It was great just to sit there and listen to all of their memories of grandma and grandpa, and family vacations, and, yes, even my cousin Brian remembering that when I was two I crawled up into his lap and he fed me pumpkin pie. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I love my family!

Who Knew?!

I've lived in Cincinnati now for 5 years and was unaware that there was a place so cool nearby. Well, actually I was aware of it's existence, I just wasn't aware of how cool it really was. The place I'm talking about is the Newport Aquarium. It's tagline is "A million gallons of fun" and it lived up to it.

Bry and I headed down there early this morning because every morning just after it opens they have a penguin parade. Today we got to meet Randy. They have two other African penguins (which means they like warmer climates) named Paula and Simon as well. Yep, they are named for the American Idol judges. Bry got to get up close and personal with Randy at one point.

Right now they're having Shark Fest at the aquarium so there are tons and tons of shark exhibits which are totally cool. Bry and I went in for one short show and after the "movie" was over they raised the screen and behind it was a window into one of the aquariums that held not only Sweet Pea and Scooter, two of the sharks, but it also had a loggerhead turtle. Now the funny part about the loggerhead turtle is on the way back to Cincinnati last night Bry and I were playing guessing games to pass the time. He decided to think of an animal and I had to guess. At one point I had guessed turtle but that was not specific enough for him. He told me when I finally gave up that it was a loggerhead turtle he was thinking of and that he had learned about him on Diego. Alrighty then. So needless to say when the aquarium worker announced that it was indeed a loggerhead turtle Bry about jumped off of his seat.

The coolest part for me is that in areas as your walking through they have created tunnels so that the water and the animals surround you and you're only about an inch of glass away from them. In one of these areas they had scuba divers working on the exhibit and cleaning it and what not but all of them stopped and interacted with the people and posed for pictures.

Bry's favorite part was indeed getting to pet the sharks, which I agree is pretty cool as well. I think he was a little startled at first and a little scared but he did good. They have two or three different kinds you kind pet and it's interesting to feel how different each one is. (No, I didn't get any pictures of that because my hand was wet from petting them as well.)

After the aquarium we took a walk across the Purple People Bridge which spans the Ohio river. At this point Bry informed me I take pictures of everything!

So now Bry is downstairs playing with his shark toys from the aquarium. Let me just tell you he is about the easiest kid to entertain. We're heading to a park later on because it is beautiful here today, but Bry insisted that he had to play with his sharks first. Whatever you want kid.

***Warning*** If you're considering visiting Cincinnati anytime in the near future you might get dragged here whether you want to or not!