Isaiah 20 months old!

Isaiah is getting so big, and now he smiles very well for the camera, such a joy!

Spring 2011

Corey and Miriam on Corey's 30th birthday!

Miriam and Miriam (Mahder)--I've known her (and her three siblings) since she was born, went on family vacation with them (to Maine for three weeks, when I was twelve) as their mother's helper, and babysat them numerous times, etc. Now, she's a sophomore at my Alma Mater, Truman State University!

Lukie before his haircut--his hair was 5 inches long.

The kids, Corey and his parents and maternal grandmother.

Corey and his dad. Pic taken by Abby, hence the patronizing smile from Pa.

My mom and dad and Abby at a dear friend's wedding.

Lukie at the same wedding, he was ring bearer, and I was matron of honor.

Me and Isaiah at the reception.

Abby and one of her buddies, Paige, at Paige's birthday party.

The extent of my spring decor, bird and bird's next under a cloche. Don't mind the clock propped against the picture on the wall. :-)

daddy daughter dance with abby

Here is a link to the 20110205 Daddy Daughter Dance photo album.
Here is a link to a video of Abby talking about where we are going.
Abby and I went to the Daddy Daughter Dance at Providence Comunity Church in Lenexa on Saturday February 5, 2011. We had Abby's hair fixed down at my Mom and Dad's house. It was curled. It looked very nice. Abby was dressed very elegantly in a flower dress with a little white shawl. Abby and I got some pre party pictures and then headed to Chris Keup's house to car pool out to Lenexa together. Chris actually invited us to the event. He and his daughter, Ava looked great together.
We arrived at 6pm (perfect timing). Outside the main entrance there was a line of candles on each side and a young boy opened the door for us. We were greeted and escorted to the check in room. We got signed up for pictures, checked in, had our coats valet checked and then hung around until we were up to get our picture with Snow White. Abby had a flower pinned on her dress. Abby was a little nervous about Snow White. I think she was generally nervous about the new surroundings, all the people, the decorations, and the pomp. We got our picture with Snow White and then went to the main dance/eat area. And apparently we unknowingly stole some reserved seats. If your out there and you happen to read this, we really are sorry...we did not know they were reserved.
There were light hors d' oeuvres. Young boys (8-12ish) were very attendant waiters. I never had my glass of lemonade less than 1/3 full all night before one would take it for a refill. They did an excellent job. We had some snacks and then they brought out the main dinner. It was buffet style loaded with salad, chick-fil-a, and jack stack barbecue. It was very good. Abby really liked the sausage and had quite a bit of it. I had a very generous second helping of meat. Sliced beef is one of my favorite foods. The attendant boys cleared our plates and then asked the girls if they wanted vanilla or chocolate cupcakes. Abby got vanilla. The attendants brought the dads huge pieces of chocolate cake and ice cream which I split with Abby. I don't even like dessert that much so was happy Abby helped me eat it.
Dance time started around 7:15. Abby was very energetic and we danced hard. She wanted to jump up and down and do the slide though. The slide through is a move where she holds both of my hands and slides between my legs. At the last minute she lets go with one of her hands and I reach around back between my legs and grab her hand, while she lets go with her other hand. I continue the pull and she slides through my legs and stands up with a twirl, completing the slide though. We did that move many times. We also did the swing move "cradle to flip" which Abby's mom and I particularly like (kind of our signature move which we performed on our wedding night). We just had a great time dancing together...until about 7:50-8.
Abby just stopped dancing and said, "I'm done, lets go home." Miriam, Luke, Abby, and I had been sledding (with the lyford family) for 2 hours earlier in the afternoon. Abby walked up big hills many times and expended a bunch of energy. Combined with the dancing, her energy level at 8pm dropped to 0 pretty instantaneously. So, for the next 35 minutes, we got to have some great daddy daughter cuddle time.
Yep, right there in that big dance room with all those people, Abby was content to just sit on my lap, head on my chest and suck her thumb. I don't know how much longer I will get these opportunities, so I was in no rush to go. On the way home, Abby did not waste much time falling asleep. This night was very special for me. I hope we created a memory she will be able to cherish. I hope we created a tradition, at least one daddy daughter dance annually. I hope when she is 18, and prepping for her prom...that sometime during that busy year she still wants to cut some rug up at a dance with her daddy at a daddy daughter dance. I hope I have the strength to be her daddy, to guide and teach her in the ways of the Lord, and the strength to let her go.

2011-02-05 daddy daughter dance

In praise of love basket

Love Basket is the adoption agency we used to facilitate our adoption of Isaiah. They recently asked us to submit a brief testimonial. We did and you can see it on Love Basket's Domestic Testimonial Page.

We were very happy with service provided by Love Basket.

disclaimer: Miriam's dad, Frank Block, is the Executive Director of Love Basket so we have some bias in recommending Love Basket. I wish I could post our answers to Love Basket's survey about their service. I took the liberty of settling a couple of son-in-law/father-in-law scores by providing some "entertaining" responses about the executive director. In actuality, Frank is a fantastic father-in-law whom I greatly respect.

beautiful

An old picture from 2009 that may be used on Love Basket's Adoption Testimonies page. And wow...what a beautiful family. And doesn't Miriam look, ummm, well particularly hot? I think so. Isaiah was really tiny, not so much anymore.

Athletes 4 Athletes Crossfit Competition

I competed in the CrossFit Lee's Summit hosted Athletes 4 Athletes Competition today. Below is the workouts we performed and some video of me competing. I competed in the RX (as prescribed) division. I do not know the complete results but I will post when I find out.

A huge thanks to CrossFit Lee's Summit (where I work out). They did a great job of organizing and running the competition today. My wife, kids, parents, and Pat Whitworth and his son Erick also came out to cheer me on. Thank you, I appreciate your support.

I am definitely looking forward to more of this.

0700-0745 Athlete Check In
0745-0800-Rules and explination of events and scoring
0800-Event #1 starts

****Event 1***
AMRAP 10:00
RX
    6 Squat Cleans (135/75)
    9 Burpee Box Jumps (20 inch box)
    12 KB Swings (24K/16K)
Scaled
    6 Front Squats (75/45)
    6 Burpee’s
    6 Box Jumps/Step-Ups



********Event 2********
“DEADLIFT MEET”
3 – Single Deadlifts
Performed like a weightlifting meet.  All athletes will call for an opening weight and adjust their 2nd and 3rd lifts accordingly.  Once a weight is put on the bar it’s not taken off. Each athlete will be given 3 attempts.  The WOD will be scored as best lift percentage body weight.
(A 150lb athlete with a 375 deadlift would score 250% and beat a 215lb athlete with a 516lb deadlift and 240%)
RX and SCALED divisions performed the same…scored within division



******Event 3******
5 Rounds for time
RX
    5 Sandbag Overhead Squats (60/40)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court
    3 Atlas Stone Shoulders (100/45)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court back
Scaled
    5 Sandbag Squats–Any position (60/40)
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court
    3 Sandbag Shoulders
    Sandbag sprint length of basketball court

2 months of CrossFit

I have been CrossFitting at CrossFit Lee's Summit for the last 2 months and I have been really enjoying it. I am working out at the 5:30am class so I can avoid traffic on the way to work. This is the kind of fitness I want.

Here is a quick shot of me doing a box jump (1 of the 15 I did):

an inspiration

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/sports/baseball/17reflect.html

"It didn’t matter to me — I wanted to join the fight against Hitler and the Japanese. We were losing that war and most young men of my generation wanted to help push them back. People today don’t understand, but that’s the way we felt in those days. We wanted to join the fighting. So on Dec. 9, I gave up the chance to earn $100,000 with the Indians and became the first professional athlete to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor."

"I knew then, and I know today, that winning World War II was the most important thing to happen to this country in the last 100 years. I’m just glad I was a part of it. I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I’ll tell you this — heroes don’t come home. Survivors come home."

-Bob Feller
died december 15, 2010

Bob, in my book you are a hero...and an inspiration.