Orange

I am in Atlanta for a few days at a family ministry conference...the name of the conference is Orange! More updates later...I miss my girls...a lot!

One of the best mornings:

So my wife, Kristin, teaches high school. So, she leaves for work between 6:30-7:00am everyday. This means that I watch Isabella, who is almost 8 months old, until I drop her off at her nanny's house on my way to work. Some mornings she sleeps until 8 even as late as 8:30 but this morning she was up at 6:30...well Kristin has laid her in bed with me and normally she would sleep there until I get ready but this morning she is wide awake talking (making noise) and clapping her hands, squeezing my noise and playing with my face...until...she gets tired then she laid her head down on my chest and fell back to sleep. This was one of the best mornings ever!

The best steak pt. 2

So, Kristin and I really have not gone on to many dates since Isabella has been born...so when we worked out a sitter we were defiantly going to make the most of our night out!

We started out with an appetizer...seared ahi tuna...it melted in our mouths! Then we split a salad, it was surprisingly good...for a salad. Kristin order the garlic crusted halibut. I only got one bite, but it was some of the best fish I have ever had.

I decided to go all out...(I have been avoiding a lot of red meet trying to get healthy and loose some lbs.) I ordered the T-bone. I would tell you all about it...but I don't know any words that I could use that would do it justice. That is how good it was! We finished the night off with some coffee and a creme brule...it was terrific!

If you ever get the chance, and you want to splurge (it was pricey) it was worth it. The service was amazing and the food was out of this world! I need to quite writing about it...I'm getting hungry! Ruths Chris

The best steak ever...

We went to Ruth Chris Steak house for dinner tonight...it was awesome! More later...

April 17th 2004

April 17th 2004 was a good day...the best day! There have been one thousand four hundred and sixty one days since that day.

There have been some good days...some bad days, some hard days and some awesome days! But, averaged out, the past four years have been amazing and I wouldn't change anything about them. Because when you take the sum of the 1461 days, they have made us closer, stronger and made our love for each other grow more and more as every day passes.

Today is our 4 year anniversary...I am blessed to have a beautiful, loving, supportive, passionate, fun, crazy, challenging, great mom to Isabella, wonderful teacher, who makes me a better man...

Kristin Kari...I love you, now and forever...I give you my promise!

Our first family trip to Disneyland

Brian Berman

One of my best friends...ever...is Brian Berman! Ever since I moved to Simi Valley Brian has been one of my closest friends. He was/is one of the adult leaders of the High School ministry at Discovery Church. Not just one of them but he was pretty much doing everything with the help of Cassie. (another leader) Brian was my sushi buddy, we would meet for lunch a couple times a month and talk about ministry, work, life and ladies!

Eventually, the subject of Brian doing ministry started to come up more and more...well this past fall Brian quit his corporate job and moved to the Dominican Republic and is a missionary with G.O. Ministries.

In March I went down to the Dominican Republic and spent a week with him and did some work on a church building and went to some feeding centers and did ministry at a couple of churches. What I saw was amazing! Brian has learned the language fast, he translated for me all week long, and he would tell you that he hardly know anything but God has blessed him so much. The Dominican people love him...everywhere we went people would smile and talk to him like they had know each other for ever...

If you get a chance you should check out his website and his ministry...and if you have a few dollars laying around...he is totally living on support for people like you and me...you can join my family and send him some "Love" ($)

Brian, I just want you to know we miss you tons (the church, kids, leaders)...and we are very proud of the work you are doing! We look forward to seeing you soon!

Fridays

Fridays are a little different for me. Since my wife Kristin is a teacher and I have Fridays off...Isabella (my 8 month old) and I have the whole day together!

I have to be honest, this scared me to death at first...what were we going to do for the whole day? But we have had a blast. (at least I have, she could hate them...and it might come out in a therapy session later on in life) I am so blessed to have an awesome chill little girl. She started playing peak-a-boo last week and clapping. Any time she hears clapping T.V/church she is all over it! We walk to the park almost every Friday and this week we sat in the swing together, it was great she loved it.

It breaks my heart though when people see us out they always are suprised because they hardly ever see dads and their babies out with out "mom". If you don't ever get "Dady Fridays" you should take one! It has become the highlight of my week!

Teathing stinks!

My beautiful little girl is cutting teath/teathing and it is killing us! My little lady is so misrable at times and my heart breaks for her. It has been a rough couple of weeks and so far there is only two little nubs poking through...I read today that it could take up to nine (9) months for all of her teath to come in. God, please don't let teathing last nine months!

My Girls!

My girls had matching dresses for Easter...I dare say there were not two more beautiful ladies in the entire state of California that day! Having a daughter is one of the scariest things period. (I will probably blog a lot about that) It has been an amazing adventure so far, and it gets better every day!

Mike Wallace

My guess is most of you don't know who Mike Wallace is(not the news guy)...Mike is one of my best buds who lives in Visalia . You my friend are the very first person who has commented on my blog. You have been blogging for a long time, and someday I hope to be as poetic, thought provoking and flat out cool as you...long live the Vintage Press!

The title of my blog?

I wish I was more creative...I have put off "blogging" for a long time! And now that I have taken the plunge...this is the best I can come up with for a title..."My Blog"! I have thought about it for a while and...I got nothing! I have friends that have catchy titles and sayings...cool stuff they have done with their name, even just their name(that's really cool)...all I have..."my blog"? Maybe that is enough! I'm open to suggestions.

Dominican Republic Spring Break 2008

I am just now recovering from taking a team from our church to the Dominican Republic (DR). It has been a tough transition back...I still think about how no one has access to clean water, every time I brush my teeth...It is still a little weird being able to flush toilet paper...How complicated life is here in the USA compared to how simple it seems there...they have a very rich sense of community(I'm not talking about face book and blogs...they still hang out at the local store and in the streets and on their front porch)

I am very proud of all the students that went...I can't get over how hard they all worked and how freely they gave of their love to the Dominican people...One of them is going to do an internship there this summer and I know several others that want to go back...

I am always amazed by how much I "get" from going, when I start out planning on "giving" so much. You can see a video of our trip here: