Noah looks cute, but silly.
Gabrielle looks old and equally silly.
Dinner looks delicious, so I took a pic.
I'm in a band. I hope you come out and see us sometime. The name of the band is the Unknown Legends and we've already been out to L.A., San Francisco, and a couple of charity events. And that was just yesterday. We try to stay humble, but with Colton on drums, me on guitar and Gabrielle on lead vocals, we're pretty awesome.
We had a great Christmas and Christmas eve. Dinner was at Dennis and Jennifer's house. God was praised, presents were opened and conversation was light. 
More presents were opened the next morning. We said a prayer before doing so. Gabrielle started us in a rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, then the paper started flying. The kids called it the best Christmas ever. I hope a part of that is because there was more meaning behind the Christmas. Jesus may have been mentioned before, but he wasn't praised to the extent he has been lately in our prayers and conversation. Noah is able to open presents pretty well and it isn't very often he leaves his little blow up car he got. He likes to eat his cereal in it and he throws all 25 balls all over the living room. He helps keep our living room in a constant loop of destruction and repair, destruction and repair.
Soon after the presents were opened and everything was cleaned up, they wanted to play. Noah had his car and Kim did some puzzles with him. The rest of us started a band named Unknown Legends. I'm not sure how Colton came up with the name, but I like it. It seems to be sort of an oxymoron. Gabrielle grabbed her microphone, Colton grabbed the drums, and I grabbed the guitar and we rocked out to Eye of the Tiger and a few other 80's and 90's songs. 
We went to my Mom and Dad's later. It was fun.
There's a little game I play with Noah on a daily basis. Usually when I'm holding him or wrestling around with him, I'll say the single word "Kisses?" He'll usually say "No kisses!" and cover his mouth. I'll remove his hands and try to kiss him asking again, "Kisses?" He'll laugh and say "No kisses, Dad!". Sometimes it goes on for a while and occasionally he'll pucker his lips and give me a kiss.
Kisses brought me back to the blog. I'd taken a few notes in the last week and a half or so, but hadn't published anything. I still try to remain as positive as possible, but I hadn't felt inspired to take the time and write anything.
Along comes Emily.
Emily had stayed the night and was leaving Saturday morning along with Kim and rest of the kids. I was saying bye to the kids after they were already all buckled up. Gabrielle was in the back of the van and we had to stretch quite a bit to kiss. We had our smooch and we laughed. I go around to the other side and give Colton a kiss too. I tell them all bye and begin to close the door.
Along comes Emily.
She had unbuckled herself and was standing in the doorway all of a sudden. "Bye, Uncle Mark.", she said and puckered up. I gave her a little kiss and a little hug and told her "Bye, Emily." She is usually funny and playful, but that little peck reminded me how sweet she is. I love my kids, but sometimes I forget how much I love my nieces and nephews. They're all really great kids with great parents.
I go over to the other side of the van where Noah is buckled in and tell him "Bye, Noah." I lean in to give him a kiss and he says "Kisses." I smile, give him a kiss and lean back to close the door. Before I can get that far, he says "Hugs." I put my arms around him the best I can and he places his little hands on my shoulders.
:)
I give Kim a kiss as well and they were on their way.
Pictures from the past week or so:
Putting the Angel on the tree.
Decorating
Noah with his hat on backwards.
Noah looked at this playdough and said "Monkey!" Hmmm...
Innocence
Rolling out the cookie dough
Getting Dirty
Gabrielle
Tree Decoration as Awanas
House Decorating
For a more natural smile, I asked him to think of a funny joke. :)
We told Noah to eat the house, so he did.
Thank you, Lord, for unexpected kisses and hugs, wonderful nieces and nephews, great kids (mine and others) and a wife that comes up with ideas like making cookie houses and knows how to bake them.
You are a great God. YOU are my inspiration.
Today was a good day. The kids stayed home from school and we spent much of the afternoon in the snow. It started off as a snowball fight with the neighbors, and then something made me want to check the hill behind our house. I'd never thought of it before. I wanted to see if there was a clearing big enough to go sledding. It didn't take long to find one. I called the kids over and asked if they wanted to try it. They said they would, so I got busy cutting several tiny trees that were growing on the hill and clearing out all the thorny bushes. The biggest tree was only a few inches around but even hitting any stump could cause catastrophe so I cut them all as close to the ground as possible and pulling them up if I could. Tim got to try it first since he had his sled with him. He went down fine and loved it, but I had to ask he not go down face first. The space we cleared was pretty big, but at both sides were trees that aren't coming out with anything less than an axe, and we didn't need any facial injuries. Later on, when Tim finally hit the tree after running up to his sled and jumping on it, he tumbled down the rest of the hill with no injuries.
They went over a friends house to slide down his driveway (??). When the nachos were done I called them all in and we pretty much cleared out the dish between Emily, Allison, Colton, Gabrielle and I. We were famished. When we'd had our fill, it was time to head off to Awanas. Garrett got dropped off and we were on our way. We picked Jiselle on the way and began our usually boisterous trip to the church. Many times we'll go over funny lines from several movies. A recent favorite is Elf ("There's no singing in the North Pole." "Yes there is. We do it all the time." "No there isn't" "Yes there is." etc.) I brought up one of my favorite characters from Pixar's movies, Dory (voiced very well by Ellen Degeneres). Garrett did a great impression of her as she talked to the whale from inside it's mouth ("That was a tough one. I couldn't tell if he said "I'm going to get you out" or "I want a rootbeer float""). Everyone else chimed in with "No eating here tonight, No eating here tonight. You on a diet!"
We got there and headed to the sanctuary. Emily sang the Star Spangled Banner, and I attempted to tape it. The kids who had brought toys for the Oxford Fish took them to the front and had their pictures taken. A representative talked for a bit and we all stood and applauded her work.
We were a little short on people, but it was hardly noticeable. We got through the verses and headed to counsel time. Angela continued her story of Samuel, Saul and David and then played a game asking questions of the story. We played Zonk where you got to pick cards out of a bag until you picked out a zonk card or you wanted to stop. In an unusual turn of events, Team A didn't get any zonks and team B got one ever time leaving me with 21,000 points for team A and three zeroes on the B side. I made a snowman with team B's three zeroes on the board and you would've thought team A thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. That's what a great about kids. They don't hold back. When they laugh, it just funny to see them laugh.
Then it was game time. One of the girls didn't want to play so you sat on a counter. She probably asked someone to have one of the several candy canes on the counter and her and another girl had one. Once that first game was over, she asked that all the kids that had sat out the first game to come and play the second game. It was then Mary realized the girls were eating candy canes. There were several there, but only two that were big enough for her game. We ended up playing with the little canes. So we had kindergartners, 1st graders and second graders trying to pass tiny candy canes to each other using only pencils without using their hands. It ended up being slightly easier than we had thought and the game went well.
When we got back to our room, the leaders were not quite done with the room, so the kids sat outside. I asked if they wanted to sing a song and we decided on the edited version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I thought that was pretty cool. When they were done, we entered the room and gave out awards. Gabrielle finished her first book and was awarded another jewel and another book. I'm very proud of her.
On the way home, Colton asked if we could stop by the market on the corner down the road. All seven of us went into the store and I was the last one in. The kids had stopped at the door and we knocking on it since they couldn't get it open. I looked at my watch and didn't think they could be closed before 9. After 30 seconds of wondering what was going on, Emily pushed the other side of the door and it opened. It was pretty funny. We got a drink or other type of sugar and left.
Noah was still up when I got home after dropping Garrett off. The kids were ready for bed, so we said prayers and the day ended.
We had HBO a couple years ago. It was always the same old movies played repeatedly, and I've had no problem living without it. The one show I do miss is Def Poetry. Fortunately, for now, people are posting much of the poetry. This is a recent one I liked.
Watching this made me think of my little princess. As soon as she got home, she wanted to go outside. I went with her and helped her build a fort. We had a snowball fight with Tim, Matt, and Sarah. Colton came out later. We came in and had dinner after which Colton and I went and played a few games of pool. He has a very good shot. We should play more often. We came upstairs and watched Americas's Funniest Videos for a while. Colton finds the show pretty hilarious. I find it funny occasionally, but it's great to hear him laugh. Noah will laugh too just cause we're laughing. Good times...
I prayed a few times today. I had a good, albeit short, conversation with my mother-in-law. Kim made the playoffs in her ESPN league with the other teachers. I submitted my resume to more jobs. I need a hobby. Any suggestions? :)
I knew at least one thing I'd be blogging about today. As Carson (one of the 2nd graders at Awanas) sat up on the stairs waiting for everyone to get situated and ready for prayer, he looked at me and then gave me a kind of mischievous smile. Not the kind where he's about to do something mischievous, but just the sort of smile you might give another that jokes around with you a lot. I smiled back, then we prayed. I saw many more different kind of smiles throughout the day. I noticed Angela close her eyes as she listened to Scott up on stage. She held her microphone close as she usually does as he speaks, then she opened her eyes. She looked immediately at Scott and smiled. Scott has that effect on people as he speaks or prays before every song. If I think about it, I can think of so many other people smiling. Pastor Bob did when I saw him this morning. Sloan sat by herself as she was apparently waiting for the children's prayer. She looked up at me, waved, gave me a very genuine smile, and went about studying her gloves again. Many people smiled as I shook their hand before the sermon, and I smiled when Diane crossed the aisle to shake our hands. I smiled later on as I heard Diane speak a few times during the sermon. She would say an occasional "Amen" or other words of agreement. Colton smiled as he remembered last weeks singer. He could remember the song as well, but he particularly enjoyed when he sang separate from the rest of us as we sang the song.
I remember smiling as I watched TV later in the afternoon. There was a preacher from Detroit preaching to his congregation. When he got all excited, he would breath in hard and make an unusual noise into the microphone. It would've bothered me if I hadn't been enjoying what he was saying and enjoying the fervor he was causing for others. I believe he was talking about Ezekiel and how God's spirit pick him up and left him in a "valley of bones". He talked of how God will place us in situations that will humble us and to see what we do while we are in that place. The pastor believes that sometimes "only a shout will get you out" meaning one must still praise God no matter the situation. We need be overjoyed in our hearts because if God has placed us in a situation, then He is using us for a greater good. By the end of his sermon almost everyone was on their feet, some of them were jumping or rocking back and forth, many had their hands in the air and almost all were smiling. I thought of Diane and smiled. Although she is not loud, she is the loudest at our church, but her exclamations are nothing compared to this church I watched. As I've said before, it's great to see how other people praise our Lord. Some are quite loud, while others are quiet. That is one part I didn't really agree with the preacher about. He was sort of mocking the quiet ones. He acted as if then needed to continue to have an appearance of an intellectual or they needed to stay dignified or they didn't want to look foolish on camera. He said that some that seemed to act ridiculous during the sermon may be getting "ridiculously blessed". He told his congregation to "make some noise". People worship in all sorts of ways, and it was unnecessary of him to make note of the quieter ones. I think, though, that what he was trying to say was don't hold back. Don't hold back your praise and don't hold back your joy. He's right. We shouldn't.
The whole family smiled today as we wrestled around and even got Kim in on the act. We are fortunate Noah seems to very rarely hurt himself, but the flipside of that is that he seems to have no fear when we wrestle. He will fling his whole body and any and every part of your body. He's fun to play with, but you just have to keep a very close eye on him. I smiled as we prayed tonight. We are praying we learn lessons from this current situation, but we are very happy to have what we do. We are especially lucky to have a wonderful God be with us eternally. We are incredibly lucky to have found a wonderful church and we are blessed that He has given us each other. Thank you, Lord.
"God's greatest blessings often come costumed as disasters." I read that today. If I was to apply that to my life, I'd have to tone it down a bit. God has and continues to bless my life repeatedly. Losing my job is nowhere near a "disaster". For now, I've been knocked out of my comfort zone. That's a good thing. I think of Todd Agnew's line in "My Jesus":
"He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable, so which one do you want to be?"
I think many of us may not want to answer that question in that it may incriminate us. As is the case with many Americans, we lived beyond our means (especially me), so we could have lived and acted much less "comfortable". Even though I may like to think God revealed himself to me just this year, that wouldn't be an excuse for not looking to Him in all matters previously or even the past few months. Is my family's current state a blessing? I believe so. I believe that something good will come out of this and it will be clearly evident to us all. It may happen later than sooner, but I'll be patient and enjoy the extra time with my family. Depending on how my new job works out, I may start to see them less. I pray that is not the case.
I got to work with Gabrielle's class today. Mrs. Lomerson greeted me and showed me where to put my coat. It was Gabrielle's turn to read so she got up in the rocking chair and began to read the story of Scaredy the Squirrel. As she showed the class the pictures she gave the microphone she was using to a different classmate. If she got stuck on a word, she'd ask one of the other students. The kids laughed at certain parts, especially the squirrel's schedule (12 noon, Look at the view, 12:30: eat a nut). We clapped when she was done, and it was my turn to work in front of the class. Gabrielle had brought in my Rubik's Cube the day before as a secret object and I showed the kids how to solve it. They were more excited than I had expected and commented the whole time. Mrs. Lomerson asked if any of the children had a Cube at home and asked if they might want to try and solve it now. Several kids raised their hands.
After the cube presentation, she asked me to play a game with the kids in the cafeteria. I had read the rules before we got down there, so I showed the kids how to play. It used a "magic decoder" and most of the kids really liked that. I sped the game up a little bit and managed to get three groups of four almost all the way through the game before we were asked to come back to class for a snack. It was Sydney's birthday and she had brought in cookies. She passed them all out and I got one as well. As they were eating, I remembered a thought I had earlier when the kids had raised their hands . I asked if anyone who didn't have a cube wanted mine. Several hands went up. I asked them to pick a number from 1 to a 100 and there was a three way tie. My number was 47 and two girls wrote 49 and Matt, our next door neighbor, wrote 45. I asked those three to guess a number between 1 and 10 and there was a two way tie. My number was 6 and Matt and Sylvia guessed 4 and 8. They guessed again and Sylvia was the winner of the cube. Gabrielle and I went to find Colton and once I did, we went home.
Later on, Colton had a friend over that hadn't been over for years and Gabrielle had a friend over as well. Chase really likes Legos, so he and Colton played with those for quite a while. The girls played house and we played with the play dough. We made root beer floats later on that night and the kids went to bed pretty late. Good times...
Noah will drag me all over the house letting me know what he wants to do. I was looking for a little something different this afternoon. So, as usual, I googled my inquiry. I saw many posts agreeing that kids that age love messy projects. One woman used pudding and her son especially liked that the paint was edible. I liked the idea and I tried it. The result was pretty funny at first. With a bunch of paper all over the floor under us, I tried to show Noah what to do. He placed one finger daintily on the pudding and copied me as I wiped it on the paper. I showed him he could put his whole hand in it. He wouldn't do it himself, so I placed his hand in the pudding. He pulled it out and wiped it on the paper. With a smile, he sticks his four fingers in his mouth. He enjoys the taste, but then notices how messy his hand is now. "Messy, Dad." and holds his hand out to me so I could clean him up. :) I eventually convinced him that was not necessary and we made a mess of quite a few pieces of paper.
Sometimes I think I should have a separate blog and name it "Coincidence of the Day". I always notice something coincidental I find interesting. I e-mailed Adam this afternoon to see how things were going. I sent the e-mail and went back to my e-mail page. He had just sent me an e-mail. After not talking to him for two weeks, we e-mail each other within 2 or 3 minutes of each other. Amazing we thought of each other at the same time. After being layed off for two weeks and not hearing from anyone, I heard from two guys from work. Besides Adam, my friend Tom e-mailed me and both of them named their e-mail "What's up?" Hmmm, interesting.
We had fun. I helped the kids with their verses (Anna was pretty silly and Carson did quite a few)and then we went to counsel time and Angela told a bible story in her kid-friendly way. After the story she asked them to play a game answering questions and had a lot of fun with that. After counsel time, they played some dodge ball and had lots of fun with that.
The trip to and from Awana's was pretty rowdy. I'll just leave it at that. What a great bunch of kids. Gabrielle is always good and very sweet. She studies hard and plays hard. I don't see Colton very much, but when I do, he looks like he's having the time of his life. Jiselle still leans right up against me as we wait for our opening ceremony to start. She really is a sweetheart. Garrett likes to be a bit of an oddball (like a lot of boys that age) and almost always makes me laugh. He's a really nice, polite, kid. I hope we're friends with those families for a while.
I had one of the most important, wonderful things in my life happen to me this year: I received the Lord into my heart and began a personal relationship with him. I also had one of the worst things happen in my life this year: I lost my job. I've had a job for 20 years. It not a good feeling. I think it's pretty amazing these two things happened within 7 months of each other. I really believe God knew this was coming and did not want us to go through it without KNOWING he's with us through it all. Having Him in my life also helps me remember how many people have it as bad or much worse than I do. Without Him, I'd be filled with worry. Without Him, I'd probably forget about anyone else's situation but mine. Without Him, my relationship with Kim wouldn't be growing even through this crisis in our life. Without Him, there may not be a whole lot of joy in this house. With Him, one of the first verses I memorized still sticks with me:
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord! I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, bring your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind with Christ Jesus.
That last line is just awesome. The peace of God TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING. We cannot even comprehend the peace he has for us. It is such a monumental amount of peace, myself and many others can feel peaceful even at times like this. He has it under control. He will use this peace to guard our hearts and our minds with Christ Jesus. Why do I deserve something so wonderful? I'm just lucky enough to be one of His children. As long as this family believe God has it under control, we will get through anything. Things could get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. I know it will. I might have doubt once in a while, but it doesn't stick around too long. My heart is guarded by peace and filled with joy.
Thank you, Jesus.
I finally got to say thanks yesterday. I still can't be sure who I prayed for that night back in April, but if they were there, I hope they got the message. I thank God for bringing them into my life. I thank God for the honor of praying for them. I thank God that he used such a wonderful experience to reveal himself to me. I wanted to thank so many more people, but I got lost in the nervousness I had not anticipated. God already knows I've thanked Him many times, but the people at the church do not know my thoughts. I understand that they don't have a need to be appreciated, but they are appreciated and it definitely doesn't hurt to tell them that. I was brought into their life for a reason. They were brought into my life for a reason. That reason is good. We need to glorify Him, and praise Him, and thank Him and pray without ceasing. He is good.
The rest of the testimonies were great. After Jerry Maddock's video testimony, Pastor Bob started. He talked about his heart problems and then thanked God for the ability to see his first grandchild. To listen to him and not get choked up, one must not know him very well or it takes a lot to choke them up.
Next was a young man I sort of relate to. He seemed new to having a personal relationship with God. He praised God, the church and the youth ministry.
Lowell was soon after me. He especially thanked God and his wife. It was very heartfelt and wonderful.
Fran came soon after him with tears still in her eyes. She is very grateful to God that all her kids and all her kid's spouses are Christians and great people. I hope I can say the same when I get older.
I wish I could remember the names of the others, but I will never forget the faces. Two women thanked God for the strength of their relationship to their husbands. Another told the story of her trip to China and what the church she attended was like. It had over 2000 people in it from all sorts of countries. Many said prayers in their native tongues. That must've been truly beautiful.
Another man gave a particular funny testimony. He said at first that "God was so lucky to have me as a follower." He realized through things in his life and I'm sure through prayer, that he better understood that that was not the case.
Dennis gave his own testimony. He mentioned Jennifer and how strong she is. He mentioned how they were the family we had prayed for and donated money to earlier this year. I already knew, but for him to tell the whole congregation seemed like a pretty big thing. I get all emotional just thinking about it.
Sharon gave one of the last testimonies. She talked about her cancer and how it had taken her sister and her husband. I was in a group with her for 12 weeks and I never found that out. I'm not going to dwell on my lack of ability to get know others like I'd like to, but I'll just pray I get better at that. I would at least liked to get as close as an acquaintance might get, so I can better experience her joy when she is told she is cancer-free.
Before the testimonies started, Diane came and shook our hands as we shook the hands and introduced ourselves to those around us. She told me she got the best grade in her class. She said she got all the points possible. It took me a second to remember Day 189 when we worked on her homework and talked for a couple hours. I congratulated her as she was walking away. She seemed very happy. Kim later told me she said" "we" got the best grade in the class." Either way, I'm very happy for her. She gave a wonderful testimony which include a discussion of Pastor Don that was very kind and put him in high regard.
Regarding this, I'm not the best at PowerPoint. I barely use it. As she walked around that Sunday looking for help, I could've easily thought "I'd like to help, but I don't know much about PowerPoint. I hope she finds someone." God laid it on my heart to find her at the end of the sermon, wait for her as she talked to Pastor Don, talk to her and ending up inviting her over. He used us in each others lives for a reason, and it wasn't necessarily to "get the best grade in the class", although that was obviously in his plans.
MONDAY
Kim had today off from work and so did I (I can't believe I can joke about that), so I spent some time updating my resume and e-mailing it to prospective employers. I called Tanya at Michigan Works and she helped my greatly. We spent much of the day playing with Noah or catching up on shows Kim had recorded but not watched. I got a package sent out and hopefully it is the first of many. We prayed before the kids went to bed later and we held hands. I was told I have "heavy" hands. Noah went down easily and we said good night to them all.
I watched a few videos on Godtube.com and asked Kim a few questions. I asked her about God speaking to us. We each have our own opinions on the matter. That's not to say they're conflicting, just slightly different. Later on, I was sure God spoke to me. Clear as day. The subject matter leads me to question the veracity of what I believe, but I have come to an understanding. Contrary to what Kim and I may have believe, sometimes God does talk to us that way. Sometimes it will be clear as day. It may even be like that most of the time, but sometimes we're not listening or choose not to...
Make a choice, people. And by people, yes, I mean me. It's a tough thing to do, but we can get better at it every day we have left.
I love you, God. Thank you for loving me.
