Is this really June?

Hard to believe that it has barely reached 60 degrees today.  After all we are half way through the month.  We should be having sunny skies and much warmer temps.  My wife noticed my youngest daughter this morning was covered in goose bumps and asked her if she was cold.  She nodded her head yes and went to go put on her bathrobe.  My wife and oldest daughter both stated they were cold as well.  Being the great husband and father that I am, let it be known that I turned the furnace back on after several weeks of being turned off.  Alright, I admit I was cold too.

The forecast had called for partly sunny skies and mid 70's, but now that my weekend has arrived it is cold and rainy.  But the forecast looks good in a few days -- just in time to return to work.  I guess I can't complain too much at least my lawn is nice and green.

I hope to post some more recipes here in the near future.  I will be posting my chili recipe and a pizza sauce that is nearing where I want it to be.  So check back soon.

Jeff

Well it sounded like a good idea...

Ever have one of those ideas in your head that just seemed to perfect? It is so vivid in your mind you can practically touch, smell or taste it? Today I had one of those moments. We decided the kids needed to get out and have some fun today. Ok, ok, I will admit it was as much for the kids as it was for the parents. We decided to go to a local park and let the kids run around and my wife and I sit back and watch. They had one of the twirly slides and I had a vision. Here is a picture of the play structure:


I had the idea of taking a picture of the four of us on the slide. We don't have many pictures of our whole family since usually I am behind the lens. I envision the perfect picture of us lined up youngest to oldest at the bottome of the slide. I placed my camera on a park bench and set the self-timer to 20 seconds and to take 10 pictures. It didn't turn out as I expected. Imagine and 260 pound bald guy lumber up this thing and trying to come down the slide in time to be in the picture. Well, it almost worked, it took longer for me to get in place than expected. But nice picture of my girls, so all is not lost:



My wife was really panicked at this point. She would take the brunt of the collision had I came down too fast.

"Hey, where's Daddy?"

Trying to stop:

Almost, drat! I must have moved the camera slightly while hitting the shutter button:


Well, we regrouped and tried it again. This time I set the self-timer to 30 seconds and ran a little faster. This time it worked a little better. I had envisioned myself being closer to my wife, but my width and the slide's width did not necessarily get along. So I had nowhere to place my left leg. But I will accept it, it still turned out pretty good and we had a blast doing it:

A Good Day

Living in a small two bedroom apartment with three members of the opposite sex at times can be rather difficult. Now I am not complaining nor would I change a thing. I love each one. My oldest, who is eight years old, is beginning to need her own space. Unfortunately, having a five year old sister she must constantly fight to not have her somewhat limited space constantly invaded. And I mean fight. We have been looking at larger apartments but rent seems so high for this size apartment, way out of our budget. We recently started looking in a small town about 15 miles from where we currently live and found a great deal on a three bedroom apartment. It is a townhouse, so we will have bedrooms and full bath upstairs and kitchen, laundry, living room and a half bath on the lower floor. To say the least we were thrilled when we found today that our application had been accepted and we get to move in October! Now the girls we have their own rooms and their own space. Not to mention that half bath we really come in handy. So now the hard part comes.... packing. Ugh, I am not looking forward to that.

A Lesson Learned

You know that saying, "You never stop learning." Well, I fully believe it. Especially since I learned something new today.

Today is a warm day in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The temperature reached into the lower nineties and the old apartment was beginning to get a little warm. We are not allowed to have window air conditioners and the portable units are too expensive to even consider. However, our car does have air conditioning and a drive is still a whole lot cheaper than a movie. Off we went and on the way we dropped a couple of letters at the post office and then headed over to the car wash. I pull up to the attendant and pay for the wash. Then I do a ritual "checking of the windows," making sure they are all fully in their closed position. I then hit the "window lock" switch to make sure none of the backseat passengers can suddenly open their window. With that checked and locked I decide we are ready for the car wash. I soon feel a drop or two of water on my left arm and double check my window. Yep, it is up. Then came the soap, and I notice a few soap bubbles coming in at the top of the door. Once again I check my window and indeed it is still up. Then comes the high pressure rinse and my second shower of the day (for the left side of my body anyway). It is at this point I realize that my door is not fully closed. I am laughing, my wife is laughing, the kids are laughing, and I am wet. Once we pull out of the car wash I grabbed a towel from my trunk and dried both myself and the inside of the car.

So next time you get a car wash, heed my advice and be sure not only that your windows are up but that your doors are also fully closed.

We continued on our little drive enjoying the countryside and ending our trip at the local Dairy Queen. Nothing like a little frozen treat on a hot day, not to mention a cold shower.

Blog Title

Do you struggle with coming up with catchy user names, email addresses, blog titles? Well I do. I don't remember what the original title of this blog was so many months ago. It then went to "Who Writes This Stuff, Oh That Would Be Me." A true Browncoat would understand this reference. It is an homage to Hoban "Wash" Washburn from the television show Firefly.

Then came "Oh Yeah, I Forgot I Had a Blog." This came about after a long hiatus from the blog world. After another short hiatus the name changed to "Ramblings From a Bald Headed Fat Man." While this may have been aptly named, it just did not sit well with the Missus.


Then for a couple of days it was simply "?," maybe I was thinking back to the days of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. I don't know. This was only a temporary solution thankfully. The "Blog Formerly Know As..." just didn't seem to fit me.

Tonight I decided I really need to come up with a good title. So I began to think what things were important to me. First is God and my relationship with Christ. And while this blog will occasionally have a more religious tone I wanted something a little broader. So on to the second most important thing in my life -- my girls. That cinched it and "Life With Girls" was born.

Meeting my wife is one of the best things that has happened to me. She is one special lady who loves me with all her heart and looks past my rough edges. I love her and I just want her and everyone else to know how special she is. Then came my two daughters, now ages 8 and 5. They are truly special as well. I will admit sometimes they can be somewhat aggravating, but what kids don't. If you don't believe me, just ask my parents.

So that will probably be the main topic of this blog. Exploring the task of being a Husband and Daddy, with its many joys, foibles and challenges. Occasionally, or possibly more often, I will branch off into other areas to be determined.

Until next time,
Jeff

(Symbol) Image Credit: http://www.wikipedia.com

Family Fun Night

Used to be that Wednesday's would be AWANA night for our kids. But now it is over for the summer we decided it would be good to do something as a family. So "Family Fun Night" was born. Tonight we played a game called "Harold and the Purple Crayon." The game is a lot of fun as you never know what to expect and we tend to get a little crazy.

The game consists of several cards with pictures of various objects on them. A player takes a card off the top of the pile, and then draws that object on the game board.

After drawing the object on the game board the player then makes up a story about the object. In the picture above the first card was a tree. So a story started about a tree. The next player received a card with a leaf as the object. The story started off with a line about a tree and then a leaf. As the game goes on a story soon develops. Each player must remember the original order of the drawings. If one is missed or said out order that player is then out. The winner is the last one left who gets everything in the proper order.

As I mentioned before, things can get pretty crazy...

Everyone had a blast and it turned out to be a great family time.

So until the fall, my wife and I won't be able to get our weekly "date night" but it will be worth it. Until then we will continue to have fun... all four of us.

Direction

In the beginning of this blog I had anticipated using this as a means of sharing devotional thoughts on at least a weekly basis. As you can see, this did not happen, and in fact the blog posts were few and far between.

I am thinking of taking this blog in a new direction. While posts may include an occasional devotional thought, I hope to share more of my experiences as a husband and father, random thoughts of just about any topic (if you know me well, this could prove to be quite interesting) and the occasional what is on Jeff's desk?

Photo credit: http://www.emich.edu/

Happy Birthday

First of all... yeah, yeah, it's about time. It is true that I have neglected my commitment to write in this blog at least once every new moon, or something like that. But here I am, with some great news.

Today, started out well. I got up early and drove across town to have my car serviced by a good Christian friend. While waiting for my car I got a call from my wife and she stated she had something to say about our youngest daughter (4 years old). She had come to my wife and stated, "Mommy, I asked Jesus into my heart, but I didn't see Him go in." Cute. Later when I got home I sat down and talked to her. She told me she asked Jesus to live in her heart. I asked her why?

"Because I love Him."

"Why do you love Him?" I asked.

"Because He loves me."

"What did He do to show that He loves you?"

"He died on the cross for me." She responded.

"Why did He do that?" I asked.

"Because we sinned."

"What is sin?"

"It is when we are very bad."

"And sin keeps us away from God, right?"

"Yes, and Jesus wants us to be with God."

"So Jesus died for us."

"He died on the cross, and was put in the cave, and then He walked out, and then He went to heaven and is building us a house."

We talked a little more, re-enforcing that she really knows and believes Jesus died for her sins. She is a bright little girl and today is her spiritual birthday. Thought I would share this awesome little story.