My Dad

I have been meaning to do this for awhile. I was recently asked to speak at a teen conference called a YES Conference. It was about saying Yes to God. I was asked because the person who asked me was pretty sure I would say yes. When he introduced me, he talked about how often I say yes. Will you chaperone a teen all-nighter? Yes. Will you go pick up some pizzas? Yes...etc...

I talked about my call on my life and how I came to say yes to God and His call. I talked about saying yes to being an NYI president. I talked about saying yes to helping with a new start church. I talked about saying yes to the things God asked of me and saying yes to the little things like picking up pizzas, helping a neighbor and friends. I finished talking briefly about how I learned this spirit of saying yes from my dad. I told them my dad it seemed had held almost every position in a church but pastor. Then for a short time after his pastor left, the District Superintendent came to visit. My dad told them with no pastor, there were some decisions that needed to be made. The D.S. asked my dad what he thought the decision should be and then went with that one. Basically my dad didn't preach (he was petrified to stand in front of a crowd), but he was to be the "pastor" decision maker until the new pastor came. So that got me to thinking about all the jobs my dad has had. I wanted to list them here for myself and for future generations of his family who someday will learn the culture of saying yes to God.

My dad has been, in no particular order: board member, board secretary, NYI president, Missions president, Work and Witness Coordinator, Sunday School teacher (several times, different ages, mostly jr and sr hi), usher, head usher, money counter, church bus driver, church custodian, all around church handyman. He has been on multiple work and witness trips. The trip that he coordinated he took about 8 teenagers on the trip with them. People told him he was crazy, he told them the teenagers listened better than some of the adults. He also stayed retired when he was ready to go back to work to help build the addition to the church in Milford.

He was never one to stand up front. He didn't sing and he didn't preach. He would shake while at the pulpit to make announcements about the missionary society. But while he was the mission president the two years he was in charge of speakers for Faith Promise he managed to get Jerry Porter and Harmon Schmelzenbach. (If you are a part of the Church of the Nazarene, you know these two names.)

My dad said yes to all those postilions. I assure you, he was asked and didn't ask himself to do any of them. He said yes to helping people move, and drug his two older sons along to move the big stuff. He said yes to staying late and cleaning up. Growing up, I am sure it was not always true, but it felt like we were always the first ones there and the last to leave. Mom and Dad both said yes to vacuuming the floors and putting up chairs. They said yes to making food and visiting the sick. They said yes to my brothers friends moving in with us when they had no place else to go.

I definitely grew up in a culture of saying yes. A culture I hope I will continue to pass on to my girls.I know my sister has done a great job of passing that culture on to her children. Hopefully my dad's legacy of saying yes will continue for generations to come.

Overtheory

Check one of my favorite bands!!! The lead singer/ song writer is a friend of mine.

http://www.reverbnation.com/overtheory

Sue

We have so many role models in our Christian life. We have pastors, SS teachers, parents, professors… the list goes on. But every now and then we have a person who comes into our lives and truly shows us what it means to be a humble servant.

A person who offers to take food to people who don’t seem to appreciate it.

A person who works with kids who are not the easiest to work with for a living, then volunteers to work with even younger kids who are just as hard to work with when there is no one else to do it at church.

A person who continues to help the same people over and over and trusts that even though she is not going to see the fruits of her labor, that surely this is God’s leading and will continue to be faithful without knowing the end results to it all.

A person who for years and years continues to help the same group of people who have nothing to offer in return.

These people hunger to know more about God, they seek with everything they have to do the most they can for God, just because He loved us first.

These people when they are at the hardest part of their life, want only to know how you are doing and what is going on in your life.

Sue Riffle is this type of person. She is such a special person who will soon get the rewards she has never looked for, but so richly deserves!!

WE LOVE YOU SUE!!

@ Schnormeier Gardens

National Trail Day and just a great day!!

What a great day!!! Today was the American Hiking Society's National Trail Day. Last year I hosted an event. This year I settled for going to the Knox County Park District and the East Central Ohio Audubon Society's Early Riser Bird Walk. It was out at Honey Run Park where I helped make the trail. We saw 25 different birds, including the Indigo Bunting. I happened to be the one to spot it, about five times. It became the running joke that it was following me.

So after getting home from that, Amber went to scrapbooking and the girls and I went to the Farmer's Market and the Pink Cupcake. We bought a tomato and a head of lettuce, and a cupcake and some cookies. We enjoyed our treats at the PC. We came home and set up the tent and had a picnic out by the tent, picnic basket and all. We made turkey sandwiches and had our lettuce and tomato on it from the farmer's market. We then cleaned up quickly as the rain started to come. We relaxed for awhile inside until it was time to go the teen's bonfire at the Dubusky's.

The whole family went. We enjoyed hot dogs, chips, lemonade and of course smores. We played some capture the flag. (Anna cheated a little and actually held on to her team's flag the first game.) We came home very wet, sore and very tired. Overall it was a great 2nd day of June!!

Picnicing in the back yard

Our picnic is right outside our tent. #daytimecamping

Saturday at the Market and Pink Cupcake

Another Saturday morning of the farmers market and The Pink Cupcake. #funw/mygirls

End of school year trip to McD's

Memorial Day Parade

Ashlyn proud of "Old Glory" given to her by the Exchange Club.

Took the girls to the waterfall today.

RIP Maurice Sendak

The first book fair I can remember is when I was in second grade. Hundreds of books to choose from, and only one got my attention as a second grade boy.
This shelf with Where the Wild Things Are and the two wild things has been hanging in my office for several years. I have always loved this book since. As an adult, I even loved the simple life portrayed by Little Bear and his family as my girls would watch that cartoon.

"Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so." - RIP M. Sendak

Ella's Birthday

Today my "little" girl is 7. I cannot believe she is 7 already. We had a great day for her birthday. Today was the first day of the Farmer's Market. So went down to the Market then made our traditional trek over to the Pink Cupcake.

This is by far my favorite part about living in Mount Vernon. Taking the whole family to the Farmer's Market and going to the Pink Cupcake to pick out our mini muffins or favorite cupcakes. It is one of those little hole in the wall business that kept the look of the store the way it would have looked many years ago.

After the FM, I went over to MVPD bike auction to see if I could get Ella a nice bike for her birthday. It was a beautiful day to be at an auction, 77 degrees and mostly sunny. But it was to no avail. I had to run to Wally World and get the bike she had her eye on before. I really surprised her though by adding the Princess basket with tassels and a bell with the money her Gran sent for her.

All in all we had an additional 11 kids come by for the party and they were all great. Now time to see where Ella wants to go for her birthday dinner and see if maybe it won't be Mc'D's Playland. :-)

Bedtime snack at McDs

Bedtime snacks. I am sure this will wind them down for bed. :-)

99 ways to Simplify life with Kids

I love these ideas. Not all are practical for everyone. But the more ideas you have the more you can use and come up with some of your own.

Guess who scored free Chipotle for lunch?

RIP SJ

Daddy - Daughter Date Night to celebrate Anna doing well taking the OAA test.

Our little orphan Ashlyn.

It's not the Prodigal Son, but Anna was ecstatic to once again find B, who was stuffed in with her sleeping bag, for almost 10 months.

What a night of baseball

9 game collapse by the Red Sox
8 1/2 game collapse by the Braves.

Unbelievable night!



ESPN Story about last night...


When Alexander Cartwright drew up the first modern baseball rules in 1845, I don’t believe he envisioned players with $100 million contracts or games played on fake grass inside domed stadiums.

He certainly didn’t envision nights like this.

Four games with playoff implications, three going to the wire, three blown saves in the ninth, two games going extra innings, one game tied with maybe the most dramatic, clutch pinch-hit home run in history -- certainly one from a guy batting .108 -- and the final game ending on a blown save in the bottom of the ninth, completing the most colossal September collapse the sport has ever seen.

The clock had struck midnight. Jonathan Papelbon was about to close out Boston’s 3-2 victory to secure at least a spot in the wild-card tiebreaker game on Thursday. He’d struck out Baltimore’s Adam Jones and Mark Reynolds. But Chris Davis lined the first pitch he saw into the right-field corner, chugging into second with a double. Nolan Reimold fisted a high fastball into right-center that bounced over the wall for a game-tying double. And then Robert Andino hit a soft liner to left. Carl Crawford, Boston’s $142 million free agent, raced in, got to the ball inches before it hit the ground … and couldn’t hang on.

The Orioles had won. Collapse on the verge ...

Three minutes later, just after the result from Baltimore had been posted on the scoreboard at Tropicana Field, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Evan Longoria hit a low, screaming liner into the left-field corner that cleared the fences by a few inches. Maybe the most stunning few inches baseball fans have witnessed in a long, long time.

The Rays had won. Comeback complete.

We spent the past three weeks sweating and cheering every home run, wild pitch, bad call, bullpen blow-up, broken bat, diving catch, clutch hit, rally-killing groundout, triple play and rookie from Yale. Then this night arrives, a gift from the baseball gods.

How does this happen? How does a team summon up the mental fortitude to look at the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth inning, see that you’re losing 7-0, know that your rival for the wild card is leading 3-2 ... and win? Yes, the Rays weren’t facing David Robertson or Mariano Rivera -- Joe Girardi wasn’t going to use his best relievers with the Yankees’ first playoff game set for Friday -- but I don’t care if they were facing guys from Scranton or Staten Island, it was an amazing turn of events.

They scored six runs in the eighth, capped by Longoria’s mammoth three-run shot deep into the left-field bleachers. But when Johnny Damon popped up with a runner on second to end the rally, you felt the energy sucked out of the Rays. That was their last chance.

Right?

It wasn’t. They had one more. With two outs in the ninth, Joe Maddon summoned the red-bearded Dan Johnson to the plate. He had begun the season as the team’s first baseman, ah hopeful anchor to the middle of the lineup along with Manny Ramirez, but hit so poorly he was sent down to the minors.

Back in 2008, Johnson had hit another dramatic ninth-inning, pinch-hit home run for the Rays in their first run to the playoffs, tying a game the Rays won later in the inning. Some called that win the most important of the season, the biggest win to date in Rays history. Johnson is one of those baseball lifers; he got some time in the big leagues a few years ago with the A’s, but has spent more time in Triple-A than the majors. He played in Japan in 2009, but the Rays brought him back last season as Triple-A insurance.

And Maddon sent him to the plate. He was hitting .108 in 83 at-bats. He also had zero hits in September. Cory Wade got him in the hole at a ball and two strikes, throwing his changeup that drifts away from left-handed hitters. He threw a ball and Johnson fouled off a fastball. Wade threw another changeup, but this one didn’t move. Johnson hooked it down the right-field line, over the wall -- just barely -- and into history.

By the way: That home run Johnson hit in 2008? It came off Jonathan Papelbon.

It’s easy to say this is what we love about baseball, but it’s true: Anybody can be the hero. It’s a theme I’ve written several times throughout the season. Evan Longoria is the biggest hitter in the Tampa Bay lineup, and he delivered a game of a lifetime. But he’ll get many chances to do that again. We’ll see him in the playoffs on Friday, we’ll see him in many All-Star Games and many Octobers to come. He’s starting to build his legend.

But Dan Johnson? He’s not even the 25th man on the Tampa roster. He’s more like the 32nd or 33rd or 34th man.

And that’s how baseball works. Papelbon and Crawford, big names with big salaries, can’t do the job in one ballpark. In another, Dan Johnson gets us to extra innings. Jake McGee gets out of a two-on, nobody-out jam in the top of the 12th. Evan Longoria swings … the ball heads toward the foul pole … it seems to will itself over the fence … a player is mobbed at home plate. Unthinkable elation. Unthinkable heartache.

What a night, my baseball friends.