Joshua the Warrior

Grandma and Grandpa Ray brought Sir Joshua Thomas a sword, shield, and crown to more crediby establish his right to the thrown. Sir Josh, as he is more commonly called has been about the house slaying dragons and monsters. His skill at sword play has greatly increased since Granda showed him how to block and parry.
Evil Doers beware.

Practicing catholicism

Maria practices the sign of the cross.
"Name of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen."

Daddy-Daughter date

Maria went on her first date with her daddy today. First we delivered two boxes to the UPS store; Maria carried the smaller one and I carried the big one (look how small she looks compared to me...and I am not even very big).

After that we went to Wendy's and got french fries (because that is what she wanted). Then we went and watched little airplanes take-off at a nearby airstrip. We stayed there for while, eating fries, watching prop-planes coming and going. She really got a kick out of them. She sat on the hood of the car for a while (see the video) and then she started to get the shivers when the wind picked up, so we just sat in the front seat and talked about the airplanes.
I think she had a great time just being with dad and getting my full attention. I plan to take each of the kids out alone once each month so that we never lose touch with them.

"Wow, fly away!"

Easter Carnage

We wanted our kids to have fun dying Easter Eggs. We didn't really care how the eggs turned out as long as good memories were made by all. Well there was fun aplenty, but not for the poor eggs. After many eggs gave their lives due to drowning, falling, and general cracking, we all feasted on their remains.
It was warm enough to do the whole thing outside with less clothes than we might have them wear in public, so our washing machine was spared a kaleidoscope of dye.

Kids Ready for Easter

The kids sat through Holy Thursday Mass when they wanted to be in bed. Then they suffered through the Good Friday Service when they wanted to be taking a nap. Now they are excited that Christ is going to rise and candy will be plentiful.

Finally 21

My sister in law Catherine just turned 21 at midnight. She celebrated the momentus event of buying alcohol for the first time with me! We went to the nearest store and bougt some Killians, a respectable Irish beer. The guy at the counter got a kick out of the whole thing and kept saying, "Happy Birthday, birthday girl."
Catherine had fun even though it would have been embarassing for a less exuberant soul.

Happy Birthday Catherine!

The amazing ebay

Anna and I have been purchasing things on ebay for years and we enjoyed the excitement of getting things that we need for cheap. There is definetly an adrenalean rush when you fear that someone else is sitting with their eyes glued to the same auction ready swoop in and bid higher. We developed a system with the kitchen timer that allows us to place our max bid in the last 10 seconds, not leaving any previous bidder the chance to bid up the cost.
To some this may seem unfair, but I disagree: that is what the "maximum bid" function is there for. You are supposed to put in the most you are willing to pay for the item. If my bid is lower than your maximum, than you still win.
Anyway, it is impossible for us to keep our heart rates down as we are waiting for the last seconds to tick by.

Now I have found an even more fun way to use ebay...selling stuff we don't need. We've been going throught the house and posting items that may have some value to others. It is so much fun to sit and watch other people out-bidding eachother for things that we don't even want.
Do you know why ebay is better than a garage sale? Let me tell you. When someone comes up and says, "how much for this widget?"
I might respond: "10 bucks."
The professional garage sale shopper, not seeing anyone else around says, "I'll give you six for it."
Now if I say, no I am taking a big chance that some other person might come around later and pay $10 for something I don't even want around my house anymore. I will probably take the $6 and be glad to be rid of it.

On ebay, your buyers say: "I'll pay six." "Hey, I'll pay $8." "No, $10." Then some guy will swoop in and take it for $11.
Ka-ching
Selling on ebay is much more fun...

Bald Eagles Overhead

It has been a week since I first discovered bald eagles on our land. There nest is towards the back of the woods on our property. There were two adults and also 1 or more immature eagles. I called my sister, mom and dad as soon as I got back to my car. My mom and dad are real bird lovers, so it is a great blessing for them in particular, but it is really neat for all of us to have bald eagles on our land.

Anna and the kids drove out to the land today, the eagles took flight soon after we arrived. We stayed at a great distance, they appeared to be curious, but after a little while they ignored us. The river is quite high today after some heavy rain yesterday. It looks like some low areas flooded. I can't wait to see what the forest looks and smells like when spring brings the green back.

My dad is so excited about the eagles...he knows that it is one of God's great blessings and wrote about it on his blog.

It's Friday

Last weekend we took the kids to the park, Joshua and Maria really liked the teetertotter and the slides. However, their favorite part was trying to sneak up on the robins. There were probably 20 robins out worm hunting (yum) in the big field behind the local k-12 school. The kids spent about 30 minutes just trying to walk up, run up of sneak up on them in the hopes to touch one. At one point Maria enlisted me to give her some added speed, and it took more than a few tries to prove to her that even daddy is not fast enough to catch a bird.

This evening I plan to take Joshua out on a father-son "date" to a pet store so he can hold a bird. I think that he will really enjoy it.

It's Ours

After months of waiting the land is finally ours. Let me tell you how it all happened... My Sister Cindy and her husband Ben want to live in Michigan, to live close to us and my parents. They found 50 acres of land (email me to ask where) right between my work and Ben's work. We put in an offer last summer and it was accepted. We had until the end of March '06 to work out the details with the township and come up with the money. Right at the beginning we all prayed that God would open doors for us if it was His will; and if it wasn't we asked Him to close the "doors".

In the mean time, a local municipality put in a higher offer because they wanted access to the river running through the land. We (my parents, us, and some friends who are investing as well) began working with our mortgage broker to get some of the equity out of our houses. There appeared to be plenty of time. But the Michigan economy isn't doing so well, and the banks are getting nervous so their processes are taking unusually long. Even after the amounts we needed were approved, we began to worry that if the money would not be funded in time. If we delayed beyond March 31 the higher bidder would get the land. Argh...bankers' bureaucracy. We still trusted that God would come through for us in the last minute if He wanted us to have the land.

Anna and I had a signing company come to our hotel room in Nashville to sign the 2nd mortgage closing papers, it was a Saturday, how weird is that? The money for me and my parents came on the 30th. But our friends whose money we needed as well was coming slower than ours...we feared that the 31st would come and go without their money arriving. But still we trusted, my Dad said that God usually takes him to the last minute so that everyone knows it was a miracle and God's hand was in it.

Their money arrived only 4 hours before the land purchase took place. Everything went perfectly. Praise God. The land is now ours!

Fun at the Park

Maria, Cousin Damian, Joshua, Cousin Dominic, and Aunt Emily play on a see-saw at the park.