Every year since 1982, Jackie's friends from NorthWood High School have picked a restaurant in Northern Indiana to meet and catch up with each other between Christmas and New Year's Day. Mark and Michelle picked the Elvis room at Bennigan's this year.
The World is Flat.
My dad turned 82 today. When I called to tell him Happy Birthday, he told me that the lady from Human Resources at Lycro Products asked him if he was really going to be 82 this weekend.| Vehicle Description | Blue Book Value | Candidate Price | Candidate Miles | ||
| 1999 Ford Tauras SE Sedan 4D | $3,625 | $3,795 | 111,466 | ||
| 1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE Coupe 2D | $3,810 | Not Priced | 124,212 | ||
| 1999 Volkswagen Jetta GL Sedan 4D | $5,400 | $7,450 | 88,732 | ||
| 1999 Nissan Altima SE Sedan 4D | $5,470 | $5,900 | 127,473 | ||
| 1999 Volkswagen Passat GLS Sedan 4D | $6,745 | $7,000 | 97,000 | ||
| 1999 Jeep Wrangler | $7,875 | Not Priced | 127,158 | ||
| 2006 Pontiac G6 GT Sedan 4D | $12,300 | $11,950 | 49,035 | ||
| 2006 Pontiac Solstice Convertible 2D | $16,565 | $21,977 | 16,517 |
Bill and Cheryl invited us to the farm to have a hot dog roast on Friday night before the football game and then have a hayride on Saturday night and then have a family pork chop BBQ on Sunday afternoon after Dustin and Heather's first child Charlie was dedicated at Nappanee Missionary Church.
Becca played with the goat.
By Sunday afternoon, the tornado cleanup in Nappanee was well underway and four generations of the Mattern and Etsinger families plus three generations of Eby and McMillan families gathered in New Paris to consume a good portion of 55 pork chops cooked on the half barrels that crashed the hard drive on Saturday. (long story, involves a PTO generator and a welder)
One of the things that I looked forward to the most about Adam's 8th grade year was the chance for him to play with Marcus Wilkerson.
In the next photo, you can see that Marcus got safely to the ground without having the ball stripped.
I'll keep pushing these two to do better until they have a chance to play together at Tates Creek High School in two years for JV and three years for varsity.
Adam had another decent defensive game but the score was a lot closer than anyone expected.
Celebrating your 14th birthday at home by blowing out candles on a cake has never been so exciting...
Adam and I made a day trip to West Lafayette for Purdue's latest starting game in its very long history of football. Two undefeated titans clashed and Purdue ended up on the down side of the 23-7 score.
Purdue is a great team and they are having a great year, but it sure wasn't fun to watch them get beat that night. I bought a book about Joe Tiller to read a little more about the transformation that has occurred since he has been there. It is very interesting to hear about the poor boy from Toledo that went to Montana to play football.
Before the game, we drove all over campus visiting bookstores to outfit our family's youngest Purdue fan and decorate his room. After accumulating more Purdue stuff than I have ever owned, Adam and I parked at the remains of the shuttered Smitty's Supermarket and played frisbee in the street for a while before heading to the engineering buildings and the fountain.
I took Adam to a lecture hall in the electrical engineering building and told him stories that I could remember.
This past Sunday, Kent Billingsley told me that I looked like Deputy Travis Junior on Reno 911.
Carmen's sophomore year was packed full of games with playing time at the JV level and sitting time at the Varsity level.
Having completed five seasons of volleyball, there are plenty of roles that are not exciting. No one can make them look less exciting than Carmen.Worship is a celebration of Christ that unites us with our creator.
We can be united or restored in isolation or in mass gatherings of strangers at coliseums. Our hearts can receive peace in coliseums and rejoice in solitude.
Creativity and worship can occur without Christ as the center, but it can not occur without Christ. After all, where does creativity come from if not from our creator?
The opening ceremony at each Olympic gathering is an example of a highly technical, complex, amazing worship of the human spirit, but it falls short of the Glory of God that exists when Christ is worshiped from our hearts.
It is hard to remember the level of play that Carmen's team had in the sixth grade four years ago. I think Becca got more touches than Carmen because Becca's diminutive stature relegated her to the setter position.
Fall is here when the first football game comes up. The weather was perfect tonight for watching Adam's new school play their first game.
It was a long day which contained two battles with a very tough and tradition rich Ryle High School JV team, but the JV Lady Commodores walked away with the championship in the third game.
Becca was as Horse Camp all week. This was the only week of the summer where she was early to bed, early to rise.
You might guess that she was found spending some more time with Worthy...
Twenty one years ago, Jackie and I were married. We celebrated this anniversary at Jonathan's at Gratz Park. 
We have lived in Kentucky for 18 years and almost every where I go on the globe, when people hear where I live, it is common for them to ask me about Colonel Sanders and KFC.
So on our trip home from Florida, we stopped at Harland Sanders Cafe & Museum to be able to say that we did. I must admit it was interesting.
The Key Lime Pie was fabulous and the story behind the marina and Gramma Dot's life brought a personal side to the vacation that allowed Jackie to enjoy it even more. ( She really likes to read the history of every restaurant )
Gramma Dot loved the arts, loved education, loved people and loved the sea. She also loved Sanibel and inspired her children and grandchildren to build a Marina and restaurant in her name.
Left Side: Daytona Beach, Florida Atlantic Coast, Summer 2002, Mom taller than Carmen, Adam short hair, Becca and Mom wearing glasses
Right Side: Sanibel Island, Florida Gulf Coast, Summer 2007, Carmen taller than Mom, Adam long hair, Becca and Mom no longer need glasses.
We had some sun this morning. Jackie went for a walk on the beach while I stayed behind to play cards with Becca and do some reports for work.
On the way back to the room, I snapped a shot of the Iguana that hangs out in the pond that surrounds the pool.
Later, we headed to the Island Cow for dinner. We had a great waiter (Marvin) and had no trouble ordering tonight.
This morning we had "the world's best breakfast" at the Lighthouse Cafe.
While driving to the lighthouse and stopping at shops on the way back to the condo, the kids played video games. This is what they did on just about every 10 minute drive that we took on the island.
I don't know if we have struggled more as a family to order at a restaurant than we did tonight at Cheeburger Cheeburger. Adam was so focused on the wall of photos of people that had consumed a 20 oz cheeburger, that he didn't see the flavors of shake on the menu or the wall or hear the waitress announce that "Raspberry Pie" Shake was the shake of the day.
Adam had just headed into the condo because "there is nothing to do here", when Jackie called us out to see the dolphins. Everyone on the beach was at the shoreline and some even thought they could slowly drift out toward the dolphins.
Jackie and I went on a four mile hike this morning. The guy at the visitor center on Monday recommended that we take this walk and do the longer drive through tour during low tide because the birds and the alligators would more likely be out.
On the hike, we learned about the "allegorical" mangrove tree. I call this allegorical because it is not "literally" rooted. The roots grow down from the branches and "hope" to find water.
Sometimes they don't, like the ones on the left that growing over the path.
I also learned that I am more like a Gecko on Maui, and Jackie is more like the variety of elusive lizards on Sanibel. Geckos are slow and Floridian lizards scurry about quickly.
