We Survived Christmas!!!

Ok, so this is a picture of our living room before the chaos. You can see the 2 completed toy chests that are bigger than the kids themselves, but really cool. We got Ephriam up at 7 AM and he stumbled down the hall and ran straight for the presents. He then about fell into them because he was still groggy, but finally settled on playing with the Lightning McQueen car until we had to take it away so that he would open other gifts. We finished up presents with the kids and a little breakfast before we headed for Toledo. The chaos continued there all day. The kids were pretty pooped. We returned home very late that night and slept most of the day after Christmas. We are still in the cleanup stages and I am going to be opening boxes for Ephriam and K.C. for the next several months as they discover their new toys. It was a blast, but now I am ready for some rest. I will post more pictures later.

Chris

Another Sucky Post

Lately I have been very bad about posting to my BLOG. I guess that is part of what makes it suck so much. I do actually have a sort of excuse though for last week. I have been getting ripped apart by a cold for a week now. It has gotten a lot better than when I started. Fortunately I was up for the Walker Christmas gathering this weekend. Nobody likes to be sick at Christmas.

So I have to apologize for my BLOG being more sucky than normal. Its not fun if there is not new stuff posted to it all of the time. But I won't promise that this is anything more than my blog that sucks.

So I survived round 1 of Christmas events. Everyone made it and it was very different because it was 65 degrees outside. We actually hung out in the garage some which worked out because we could use the room with the size of the family. Ephriam got a lot of cool toys. He finally figured out that we open the wrapped gifts, so he started helping others with opening their gifts. He will be a seasoned pro by the time everything is over and done with. I am very excited about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It will be nice for Faith and I to share our Christmas together and then watch our kids and the Santa Claus Experience.

Now I just need to survive a few more days at the office and then the fun can begin. Well, hopefully I will have more to post about this week.

Chris

2 Weeks Until Christmas

Do you have all of your shopping done? I completed the major stuff on Saturday. I still have a few odds and ends to get. I need some good stocking stuffers. Now I just have to find time to wrap everything and I have a couple of toyboxes to finish. Saturday will probably be the big finishing touches day. It will be here before you know it.

Survived the Party Weekend.

I did it!!!! I made it through the weekend of parties. Friday was a nice dinner at the Pastor's house. Saturday was a nice dinner and some dancing. Sunday was chillin with our Youth Kids and watching the coolest Frosty video in the world.

Some highlights
- Watching all of the kids play together by the Christmas tree.
- Ham!!!!
- Roast Beef!!!!!
- A date with my wife and no children.
- Winning $40 in gift certificates.
- Slow dancing with my wife and flirting.
- I transformed into one of the Village People for the Y.M.C.A.
- Again, the coolest Frosty video in the world. Sorry I will not post it on You Tube.

50 Posts and nobody cares!!!!!!!

I did not realize today that my last post was my 50th post on my BLOG that I am still convinced is only read by a very few people. I have even thought about anonymously commenting to my own BLOG just so that it looks like people read it.

Actually I have gone one step further to prove that nobody reads this BLOG. I am currently tracking how often this page is accessed with Google Analytics. So far after 1 weekend it has been accessed from my home and my work and 1 other person on a Fuse account. I am assuming that was my brother Mark. He only checks because he wants to know what his prize is. I am still trying to come up with an appropriate prize.

So I don't really have anything special to share to mark the crossing of the 50 posts mark. But I think that I will change the name of my BLOG again. Its not like anyone will notice anyways.

Ginormous Toyboxes

Here is a picture of my Secret Santa Project. Its not really a secret, but Ephriam and K.C. are too young to know the difference. These toyboxes are huge. I hope that they like them.

The Holiday Marathon Continues....

You have to be special to get on my calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas I tell ya. There is no such thing as a down-time weekend this time of year for me. Let me give ya the recap.

Friday was about as relaxed as it gets right now. We had pizza and watched Mickey's Christmas Carol with the kids at dinner. We then spent the rest of the evening making room for our Christmas Tree. We discovered that we were so not using our hall closet. It now contains the wagon and the double stroller among many other items that were stacked up in our living room. The biggest challenge was getting all of the toys put back in Ephriam's room. We now have limited number of toys in our living room and most of the space is dedicated to K.C. Ephriam got over it on Saturday when the Christmas stuff came out.
Saturday I had to do some work from home so I completed that in the morning. At noon we dropped the kids at Grandma's and headed out to the wilderness to find our Christmas tree. It didn't take us long to find the perfect douglas fir to cram into our living room. We brought it home and set it up and gave it some good water to drink. We got the lights on the tree and the star while Ephriam wasn't around to get into things. Then we went an picked up the kids and brought them home to decorate the tree. Ephriam was a tad bit excited about the tree to say the least. We spent the rest of the evening decorating around the house for Christmas and we still haven't finished.

Sunday we had church in the morning where we as a family read a devotion and lit the first candle of the Advent wreath. That was pretty neat and Ephriam was well behaved. We had lunch after church and then picked up the Youth Kids to go wrap Christmas Presents at the mall as an outreach. That was a lot of fun. We came home and had some dinner and I spent the rest of the evening working on the toy boxes for the kids. For the most part they are built. I just need to get the hardware to attach the lids and we need to put their names on them. They are going to be really cool when they are done. Definitely very huge.

So now I go back to work for the week and next weekend we have Christmas parties to go to on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Fun fun. Ok, well I gotta get back to work.

Chris

Sanctus Real - Live

Here are clips of a Sanctus Live Show the other night that the drummer Mark posted tonight. Hope you enjoy the show.

Sanctus Rocks!!!!

Where's Walker?

It has been 2 whole weeks since I posted. Mark, I appreciate your comments. Your prize is coming soon. "Its a Major Award!!!!"

So where have I been the last two weeks? Thanksgiving took a big hit and so did Christmas shopping. I have been going outta my head trying to figure out how I am going to get everything done that I need to do. Its just outta control. I have come to the conclusion that it never really stops.

I also wanted to see how long it would take for people to notice that I wasn't posting up here, and as I figured nobody reads this so nobody said anything. I guess my life is just not very interesting.

So I think I am going to change the title again to the Blog that nobody reads. I think that it is more theraputic for me to share my thoughts anyways. Its one way that I can communicate with my wife too since we work opposite schedules. Maybe eventually my life will get interesting and people will want to read it. I guess I do have to give credit to Mark because he has actually commented twice. I owe him a prize.

I wish I had more time at home to BLOG because then I could put some cooler stuff up here. Currently I only BLOG from work so I don't have access to cool videos and my pictures at home. It will get better at home when K.C. starts sleeping all night. Hopefully very soon.

Ok, so that is my update for now. Catch ya later.

chris

Title Change - Can You Hear Me Now?

I have decided to change the title again because I often get the feeling that I am just blabbing to nothing but the wind. I sometimes wonder if anybody out there is really listening. Am I not speaking loud enough or to the right people? Is it too much to ask to hear a response? Sometimes I feel this way with God, but for the most part, He is good at responding. Sometimes it is better if he waits to answer because it will make more sense later.

These feelings really come to me when I see what is really happening in the world around me. It is painful sometimes when I pay too much attention to the world and I see the pain around me. It also hurts when I see people who are completely blinded from the Truth. When I put on my God spectacles, everything is very clear and simple and there are so many people missing out on His love. Yes, it is discouraging and frustrating when I am trying to fight the good fight, but I know that the war has already been won. My goal is to draw people to the side of Victory.

In light of things at Park Ave., I am beginning to wonder where my next step in Ministry will be.

Update on happenings at Park Ave.

I have to update a little on our church Board Meeting last night. It was budget night which is never a very fun meeting. We are really going to have to cut back on things this year and it appears that we are going to have to cut salaries as well. This of course will be decided by our Staff Parish team. This does not bother me too much as long as they do not cut the Position of Youth Director all together. I know that we have a smaller group, but it has become a very effective group lately. It takes time to build a good fire that will not flame out quickly. I still feel that there is work to be done there, but without the position I am not sure what will happen. So I have a feeling of insecurity over the whole situation, but if that opportunity goes away, then it will allow for more time at home with my family.

The part that really hurts us I think is the fact that our budget is being cut by 66%. I find that it will be very challenging to do a lot of things we are used to in the past. I believe it can be done, but I am not sure how attractive our ministy will be to our Youth. This is all really my core human being reaction to the whole situation. My mind is already trying to come up with solutions to the new obstacles. And if you know me, I can really dig in for a good challenge. Nobody said this would ever be easy.

So I have to say that I do have some peace about the situation. I will leave the decisions up to the church. It is their responsibility to prayerfully consider what is best for Park Avenue. God will provide what is needed to continue to minister to our kids even if it isn't through Park Ave. It is not my responsibility to look after them all of the time. God is in control. I choose to server Him wherever He will have me.

Please pray for our church and our ministries.

Chris

Christmas Music - Friday @ Noon.

Tomorrow one of the local radio stations will begin broadcasting Christmas music all the time through Christmas. The launch is at noon tomorrow. I like this because I am a big fan of Christmas music and I don't have to worry about having cd's with me. Plus you get a pretty good variety. Check out 99.9 FM to hear it tomorrow.

My Space Update.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I updated My Space with a new template and song. I hope that you like it. I need to update my picture again too in order to go with the theme. Let me know what you think either by commenting there or here.

Chris

40 Days Until Christmas

Yes there are now only 40 more days left before the big day. You know I like that Christmas stuff. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to accomplish everything between now and then. At least Faith isn't pregnant and tired or sick. I should have my helper elf back in action this year. I also have 2 little helper elves in training. Ephriam loves to help me when I work on stuff. Eventually I think that he is going to be my tag along helper.

So it has been another typical work week. We have been a little busy with things, but not too bad. The time seems to fly by when Christmas is approaching. I only have 3 Youth Events to run and that is it for the year. I think that I finally have my Christmas list done, but I am sure that I will add to it as time goes by. We are doing our shopping for the kids this weekend. That will be a lot of fun. I have one of the toy boxes almost complete. These things are monsters. But they should be pretty cool when I get them done. Well its almost time to leave work. Gotta go.

Chris

How did I end up with such cute kids?

Ok, I know its because their Mom is such a hottie. Although they say that my son is my little clone so I must have something to do with it. These are pictures that they had done today and I made Faith send pictures to me at work so that I could see and post it. I just can't get over how big they are getting. Well, there isn't much that I can say to make them look any cuter, so I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Chris

Guess what starts tonight?????

The Bearcats play their season opener tonight against Howard University. It will be interesting to see how things go although I am not too worried about Howard U. I was looking at the pictures of the new players since I don't know anyone on the team anymore and its a whole bunch of new faces. I have to admit that I still have the itch to want to see them win, but I have really toned down how I used to plan my life around the basketball schedule. I really like Mick Cronin and I think that he will be successful at UC, but I can't stand that Nancy Zimpher. What can I do?

Have I mentioned that I like weekends? In about 3 more hours my freedom begins. I actually have a Saturday where I don't have much planned. Now we should be past the kidney stones thing cuz they always mess with my free Saturdays. So I am hoping that nothing crazy comes up this weekend. I really need to get some more things straightened up in my basement and I want to get started on the toy boxes. I need to put together my list of things to purchase and go pay a visit to Lowes. I have some plans that I am going to modify a little to make it simpler. Hopefully I am capable of making these things. So I kinda have some plans for this weekend, but its nice that I don't actually have to go anywhere.

Well if you think to watch the Bearcats tonight they are on local channel FOX 19. Hopefully it will be a good game for them to get used to playing together.

Have a good weekend.

Chris

Uh Oh, I missed more days.

It is so funny how I have a hard time posting to this BLOG just once a day when I read several other BLOGS that post between 5 and 10 times everyday. I guess its all about time.

I post to this BLOG in between things that I am doing at work. Sometimes I can write it all at one time and sometimes it takes me a couple of hours because I get busy with work. So far I have spent about 45 minutes typing out these few sentences.

I keep telling myself that my time will free up more as the kids grow up a little bit. Ephriam is pretty easy to look after as long as you pay some attention to him. K.C. can still be very high maintenance, but she is getting better about playing in her seat and sleeping longer at night. Eventually we will get there. It will get interesting when Ephriam and K.C. start playing together. Ephriam has become much more into her lately. He gives her hugs and sometimes tries to cuddle with her a little too much. We still have to be careful, but I haven't seen him take a swipe at her head lately. I need to put up some of the newer pictures of them. I should make everyone who reads this BLOG give me suggestions about what pictures to put up here. Just comment on the page and let me know.

Well, I am going back to work now. It took me an hour to complete this entry.

Chris

Ack I missed a couple of days.

Ok, so Wednesday, Faith had surgery to remove her kidney stone. I worked from home for the day, but my break time was all used to help keep up with the kids and take care of Faith. Yesterday she spent a lot of time resting as she recovers. It is very painful what they do to you to remove kidney stones. I hope that I never have to do that. Anyways, I feel like I have been busting my butt a lot lately between regular work and stuff at home.

Last night I picked up dinner, cleaned up dinner, protected Faith from Ephriam's atomic splash hugs on the couch, did laundry, comforted K.C. when she had gas, took a shower, and made a quick trip to Meijer. That is a lot for an evening. Somewhere in there I checked email and ripped a few cd's as well.

So life is busy as usual. Tomorrow, I get the day off from the kids because my mom and I are making our annual Christmas shopping trip. It is always a good time for us to get together and we go to the Outlet Malls up towards Columbus. We don't get there very often so its cool to go to the different stores. I also get to start listening to Christmas music officially.

Ok, so that is today's update.

Chris

Trick or Treat

Yes it is good old Trick or Treat night here. It looks like the weather could be yucky so we'll see what kind of a turn out we will have in the way of trick or treaters. I will be taking Ephriam out either way, but K.C. may not go out if it is raining too bad. I don't need any sick babies. It should be a good time either way because we get together with my family and have a little party in the garage. Its fun to see all of the costumes on the kids.

Well, we are hopefully going to finally have some closure to the issue with Faith's kidney stone from Hell. They have decided to do surgery to remove it tomorrow because she is swelling quite a bit and it isn't moving. So I have been cleared to work from home tomorrow so that I can get her to and from the hospital. I know that it is going to be so nice to work from home and it will suck to come back into the office on Thursday, but it really is fortunate that I have the opportunity to do that. But hopefully this will take care of the issue and stop bothering Faith.

We are 54 days from Christmas and the Christmas music is about to begin in my house. It is time to get festive. There are so many things to do between now and Christmas and there really isn't that much time. "Just hear those sleigh bells jing a ling ring ting ting a ling too." Ok, I have been ready for some time now, but that doesn't make me any less excited. "SANTAS COMING, SANTAS COMING!!!!!"

Ok, enough for now.

Chris

Another Unpredictable Weekend

It was another fine weekend that went by way too quickly. I think that something out there likes to try to find new ways to take time away from my potentially productive Saturdays. Last weekend I kind of expected a little and I did get to accomplish the biggest things, but this weekend was a return event of Faith's kidney stone. I will get more into that in a minute.

Saturday is the only day that I consider my day off. I work my regular job Mon-Fri, and Sundays I spend half of the day at church between services and Youth Group. So my Saturdays are in a way sacred because that is when I try to get as much done as possible. Last weekend my plans in reorganizing the basement were to begin. I was supposed to have most of the day to work on it, but I was going to have to watch the kids in the Morning because Faith had to work that Friday night. Normally she does not work on Fridays. So I figured I would be able to start by early afternoon, but that turned out to not be the case because I needed to show Faith how to get to Parky's Farm. I had to go out anyways to purchase the wireless router, but then we had to take a trip all the way down to Winton Woods so that she could find where she was going. By the time we got back it was dinner time and I went to pick up some pizzas. So I finally got to start rearranging things sometime after 5 PM. So I didn't get as much done as hoped. It has been the ongoing project all week when I have a free minute here or there. So my plan for this Saturday was to try to put a major dent into the project as well as some other yard work that needed to be completed.

So Saturday morning I am up and ready to get moving after getting to sleep in a little bit. The only thing we had planned was to go to the Zoo in the late afternoon for their Halloween night. I also needed to make a trip to Sam's. Well, Faith starts saying that her back is hurting again like it did when she had her kidney stone a couple of weeks ago. As it got worse she decided to go visit the emergency room and I took care of the kids. So that pretty much shot my Saturday free time in the foot. Faith finds that it is the same kidney stone that she had before and she never passed it as she had suspected. So that is very frustrating. I did finally get to do some work on the basement late in the evening, but it is still a work in progress.

Next Saturday is a shopping day with my mom. As long as everything goes as planned, I should have no babies or distractions and I can enjoy the day getting some Christmas shopping done. Its a tradition that my mom and I do every year. So hopefully I will actually get a free day for a change.

Thats all for another exciting weekend in my chaotic life.


Chris

Overslept....Arrrggg

No this is not Pirate day again. I had a good night with K.C., that wasn't the problem. But I remember when my alarm went of this morning, I hit the button to turn it off like I was going to get up and then I didn't get up. K.C. woke me at 20 til 7. I had to have her and Ephriam at the sitters and then go to work. I am supposed to be there at 7. Well, not today. So I got here a little before 8. So I will work through my lunch today to make up my time. Its so frustrating that I have this waking up problem sometimes. Although I have to say that since I got an extra 2 hours of sleep I am feeling quite refreshed. When K.C. starts sleeping through the night, I am going to sleep like a dream. She is getting close though. She was down last night at 11 and woke up to eat at 3. That was the only time she was up. Hopefully she is finally gettin the message from daddy that she had better shape up because she ain't no different than Ephriam. I ain't puttin up with much crap even if she is the little princess that she is. She doesn't have that much pull yet. I must stand my ground. Ok, well back to work for me.

Chris

Last Night......

It was soooo nice to be home last night. The kids got their baths and to bed at a decent hour. I was able to spend some QUALITY time with my wife. It seems we get to spend time in passing lately. So when we do get time to catch up with each other it is a really nice thing.

My brothers came over for dinner and it was delicious. Mark does a very good job on pizza making. But I am not sure if he was feeling yucky last night or if I pissed him off because he left pretty early. Matt stayed the latest which is unusual, but it was nice to hang out with him. We also got the love seat moved into my basement as well. Now I have a nice place to cuddle up with my wife and watch movies. That is if the children ever give us the opportunity to do so. We have had XMen 3 now for like a month and haven't watched it yet. That is kind of the way life goes when you have kids.

It is almost the weekend again. We are taking the kids to the Zoo for Hallzooween. They can collect treats and see some cool stuff. It should be fun. Our next trip to the zoo will probably be for the lights. I am a little bit excited about that. Well, I guess I should do some more work.

Chris

I got some sleep.

Faith actually got called off for the whole night last night and I got to sleep for more than 4 hours. It would have been more, but I keep staying up to watch the World Series. The Cardinals won last night to take a 2-1 series lead. I expect the whole series to be pretty good.

I got some more of my basement organized last night too because she was home. I am getting closer everyday to making it more Ephriam usable. There are still just a few things laying around that he doesn't need to get into. Very soon though the space will be useable again.

Tonight we are having Wed dinner at my house because mom and dad will not be around. Mom is probably going to need a grandkid fix before next week. We should be getting the love seat tonight too since we will have Mark and his truck. I am adding that to the space in the basement as well. I have actually opened a lot of room up down there by moving the desks. The office area is a little crammed, but the living space is much more open.

There is my update for today. Check back for more later if you are interested.

Chris

Still Sleepy.......Christmas Music

Its only Tuesday and I am still dragging. Have I mentioned how much I am looking forward to K.C. sleeping through the night? I sure could use a couple of days of sleeping. But I won't start earning any vacation until I am on permanent with Compucom. My official start date was supposed to be yesterday, but I guess things are taking longer than expected. I guess that I don't really care as long as I get some time off for Christmas.

Have I mentioned how badly I want to start listening to Christmas Music? Faith keeps telling me no, but eventually she has to give in. I read a Blog yesterday about how early is too early and I agree that Thanksgiving isn't soon enough because that only gives you 4 weeks of Christmas Music and that just isn't enough. I don't know how much longer I will be able to stand it. I think that once Halloween is past, I can get away with it. I will definitely be playing it on Nov. 4th because Mom and I are going on our Christmas shopping trip that day. That is only a week and a half away so HAH!!!!

Anyways, I think that I am more awake now that I have had some food. I should be able to stay awake for the rest of my work day I hope anyways. We'll see if I come up with any other crazy things to blog about.

Chris

Back to the Grind.

It was another whirlwind of a weekend. They just go by so quickly. Faith had to work on Friday night this weekend to cover for someone. So I was up with the kids on Friday night. That made for a bit of a late start on Saturday. We all made a trip to Best Buy and we picked up our wireless router. We also made a trip out to Parky's Farm so that Faith knows where she is going this week.

I finally got to start working on the basement at about 4 PM. I took a little break to eat some dinner, and worked well into the evening. I got the big things accomplished. The wireless is up and running so Faith and can roam freely about the house with her Internet. I got the big furniture moved. Now the big animal to tackle is reorganizing all of the crap that was on my desk.

I should have a lot of trash to take out tonight after all of the cleanup. I will probably have a lot of trash for a while actually. Hopefully I can get the kids to cooperate so that I can get some things accomplished. I also would like to find a way to help Faith get caught up on laundry. There are so many things to do and so little time. It will get easier as K.C. get bigger and less dependent on constant care. She is already getting much better. She likes the TV a lot.

You can read about the Youth Night updates on BLOGEDGE.

So that is my weekend update. Check back to see what the rest of this week has for me.

Chris

Weekend Good!!!!

Okay, I have been looking forward to this weekend because tomorrow, a Saturday, I actually have nothing planned except to work on things around my house. Particularly I will be working on the basement and hooking up wireless Internet in our house so that Faith can get her Surf On from all over the house. It will be easier with the little ones when she can email and blog from upstairs or wherever. The number 1 rule though is to protect the laptop from Ephriam because he thinks its a cool toy. I also fully expect that Faith will blog more often now because she will have access to do so.

But it is not very often that on my only day of the week that I consider a day off do I get to hang out at home and do stuff. This is one small step towards the completion of the Man Room. I am sure that I will do some other things as well. My grass will probably need cut since I put fertilizer down last weekend and it rained all week.

I have been feeling much better today. They Tylenol Cold is a good thing. I still feel tired though, but that is part of the deal. I should have enough energy to work on things tomorrow. Hopefully K.C. will be a good girl and go to sleep in her bed for me again tonight. It sure is nice when she cooperates.

No Baseball to watch tonight. The Cardinals beat the Mets last night in an exciting game 7 to go to the World Series to play the Tigers. That starts on Sat. Night. I will probably have that on. Maybe tonight I will pop in a movie while I try to get K.C. to settle down. Well there isn't much day left in my day. So enjoy your weekend.

Chris

Title Change - Did you notice??

I decided to change my BLOG title to something a little more interesting than Chris' BLOG. Gratifying Chaos is a pretty good explanation of my life. Although things in my life can be very chaotic and sometimes feel like it is spinning uncontrolled, it can be very gratifying to see my children grow and learn new things. Or to see one of our Youth kids get excited about spiritual things as they begin to truly understand the mysteries of God.

You may hear me vent about my business here a lot and how nice it would be if my children didn't take up so much time. Yes it would be nice, but when it comes down to it, I love it. I wouldn't trade any of them. I may threaten to on occasion, but don't believe me. Its all worth it when they smile at me and tell me that they love me. I have been blessed with my family and I want to enjoy it for the time that I have with them.

A funny story about Ephriam - As an example of things that happen that bring me great joy and laughter with my children. Last night, somehow my son who is following in his father's footsteps in his desire to be naked, managed to take off his diaper. The amazing part about it is that he was fully clothed at the time and was wearing overalls. It was his first time going commando and he is not even 2 years old yet.

Pure entertainment I tell ya. It never stops and there are so many more moments to come. Life is short so enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.

Chris

Getting Better I hope....

I was feeling quite better yesterday evening although tired. This morning I woke up feeling very rested, but my throat was a mess. My throat gets so swollen sometimes that I can gag myself. I stopped and picked up some more Tylenol Cold on the way to work and another pack of Hall's Defense. For some reason those things help my throat a lot when it feels like this. It has gotten much better so far today. Hopefully if I keep the medicine goin, things will get better. Aside from that, I feel pretty good and motivated to get things done. I am looking forward to a weekend of getting a lot of things accomplished. So I have to make sure that I am not sick.

Other than that, it has been a pretty typical day. Just trying to get by for now so that I can enjoy the weekend. Well, back to web surfing on my lunch hour.

Chris

Under the Weather

Hey all, I started getting a soar throat yesterday and this morning I had snot falls going down the back of my throat. Lovely isn't it? I am doing much better now. The throat is better and the drainage is better. I owe my good feelings to Tylenol Cold. Now I am just tired. At least I can get some sleep tonight.

Tonight I have the Board meeting and dinner at mom and dad's. Should be good times. Well, I gotta get ready to jet.

Chris

Back in the day.

It was only 6 years ago that I could go for days with very little sleep. All-nighters were a common occurrence. Now I look forward to the day that little K.C. sleeps through the night so that I can sleep through the night.

I have always enjoyed sleeping, but never have I craved a good nap so much. But such is life that does not allow the time for naps. And when the kids get their naps, it is prime time to get stuff done when they aren't in your hair. Having the little ones can be so entertaining though. Ephriam is doing new stuff all of the time. When he starts putting sentences together, I will probably never stop laughing around him.

Not much to report from here today. We started off really busy this morning. This afternoon would be good for nap time, but I can't exactly do that at work. I think that management might frown upon that. Ok, well I am going to sit here and think of other things to post about. I hope that your days are filled with good nights sleep.

Chris

Weekends are never enough.

What a blast of a weekend I had. Don't worry Faith, I am not going to just talk about Youth Ministry. My biggest project recently has been my basement. I have been working off and on trying to get it straightened up and reoganized. I actually got quite a bit done with that this weekend and I am preparing to go to wireless Internet next weekend. Faith needs more flexibility to stay plugged into the Internet so the wireless will allow her to access from anywhere in the house. I am also trying to clean up a lot of the clutter, so I am converting all of my CD's to digital format. That is going to take a long time to do because we have like 500 CD's, but I have made small dent.

Saturday the whole family went out to Shaw's Pumpkin Farm with Matt, Angie, and Victoria. We got to pick out some pumpkins and we went through a Corn Maze. It was a lot of fun. We also went and had Cider Pops at the Apple Orchard place that I can't remember the name of. Its Router's or something like that. That was a lot of fun too. It was very enjoyable spending time with everyone and actually getting to visit with some friends.

Sunday we did the church thing and then worked on Youth Ministry for the rest of the day. I did have to do some yard work too in the middle there. But we spent the day with my brother Mark and we got quite a few things accomplished. We are getting geared up for the rest of 2006. It should be a lot of fun.

So there is your weekend update.

Chris

Hello!!!! Is anybody out there?

Ok, so I am starting to wonder if anyone reads this cuz I never get comments. I know that my wife usually does, but she is pretty busy right now. Oh well, if you aren't reading, then I guess you have better things to do than to listen to my ramblings.

Here is a little contest - the first person to comment to this posting gets a special prize. You have to post to find out what the prize is.

Chris

Youth Blogging

It appears that my Blog is my idea sharing space today. I don't know why, but I am always coming up with crazy ideas to do things different. I think it is because my mind leans heavily towards the science and engineering side. Its the creative side that I sometimes lack the necessary tools.

Anyways - I have found lately that I am not able to devote as much time as I want to things outside of my busy home life. You may know that my wife and I have a beautiful new little baby girl now and she likes to eat every 3 hours and wants to be held and cuddled all the time. She is only 2 months old. We also have a very curious little boy who will turn 2 in December. He is not as high maintenace, but he has taken on a new name of homewrecker because he destroys any room that he is allowed to have free reign in. The real issue is that free time once devoted to website updating and DVD creating is now spent feeding, changing, and picking up messes. The free time that does exist is devoted to those things very necessary for living like eating, sleeping, and paying the bills. If my wife and I ever get to sit and watch a movie together again, it will be something special.

So on with my idea. The problem I have is that I don't seem to have the time needed to update the Youth Website on a weekly basis like I want to. My idea to solve this problem is to go almost completely to a blogging format using Blogger to host it. Basically events can be posted with pictures and funny stories while they are fresh in my mind. I can also access this from work and update it from there. Work is the only place I have any free time. The blog would allow for comments so that we could get feedback from the kids about things. These comments could also testify to others who visit the page. This would be targeted at the kids themselves not so much parents and other church members. This would work better for them because students to focus more on the present and what is happening right now. If it were updated all of the time, they would be more likely to return to the page to see what has changed. The full blown website is not that flexible and my update time is basically non-existent.

The full website would remain up for general information and a good source for parents and others to visit for more info. I may add a Google Calendar to that which can be updated from work as well. This will keep the events up to speed and people who visit that page. Big updates can be done from time to time, but aside from the calendar, it would not require any kind of daily or weekly maintenance. The Blog would remain the main source of up to the minute happenings.

So there is a download of some things happening in my brain. I may start setting some of this up today if we are not too busy. I already have a lot of them in process, just have to create it and go live. Feel free to leave comments about what you think.

Chris

Read, Think, Pray, Live

Today I have been inspired by a sort of new way of how to approach reading the Bible. I was reading through the introduction of the Message Remix Bible and learned about something called lectio divina. The basis of it is that you read scripture, think or meditate on it, pray about it, and then take action because of it.

I know that it doesn't sound like anything new, but it made me think about how my scripture reading approach has been lately. I think that I have read it so much that I don't give it quite as much time as I used to. I always seem to be powering through scripture like a champ, but I don't slow down and stop to listen for God's still small voice. I think I used to contemplate scripture a lot more when it was more unfamiliar. Now I always seem to have an answer or explanation for each written word, so I just plow forward looking for something new. What I really need to do is chew on it for a while and focus on the little.

I am currently brainstorming how I will plan to use this in the Frontline Bible Study. I really have a desire to see our youth kids grasp God's Word and start thirsting for more. I just know that I am not capable right now of putting together deep weekly encounters with the Scripture like I want to. So the sudden God inspired answer to this problem is to slow down and dissect the scriptures instead of plowing through them.

Please comment if anyone reads this. I would like to know what others think.

Chris

I'm a Slacker who lacks sleep.

Ok, so its been over 2 weeks since I last blogged about anything. It was about that time that Faith started back to work. My free time has been severely slashed. I am usually good at managing time to accomplish things by using what free time I do have very effectively. It doesn't work according to my plans anymore with a child that eats every 2 hours and is constantly in need of something. On top of that, the lack of sleep overnight while Faith is working doesn't help motivate me to do things when I have a free moment to breathe. Typically I just want to sleep. But we have the first 2 months under our belts with K.C. Eventually I will get her to sleep through the night for me, or at least only get up once between 11 Pm and 5 AM. We have definitely been very busy people lately. It just never seems to slow down at all.

This weekend is our annual Scavenger Hunt with the Youth Ministry. We are totally siked about it right now although we have a lot left to do to get ready. I am hoping for a really good turnout this year. I will put more up here later about how it goes.

Mr. Mom

Yes it has been a week since I last blogged. My wife reminded me last night because she may be the only person that actually reads my blog. I don't believe that I have ever received a comment for anything I put out here.

Anywhoo, I have been a little busier than usualy since last Wed. Faith went back to work on Wed night and I get to watch the kids all night and drop them off at the sitter's before I go to work in the morning. K.C. still eats every few hours, so that means I get to wake up in the middle of the night to feed her. The first night I got 3 hours of sleep. Not really enough to function at full capacity. The second night I got 4 hours. Thats a little better.

We are getting our routine down now so I should have her trained to sleep through the night in a few more weeks. But hopefully you will continue to see updated Blogs from me if you actually read them. I may have to get a counter put up here so that I can see how many people actually read what I put up here.

Chris

Back to Work.

It is always hard to go back to work after a long weekend. At least I didn't forget how to do my job. I am surprised we didn't have more password reset requests because generally, people forget their passwords a lot over a holiday break.

This past weekend was very busy. We had dinner with Matt and Angie on Fri night. They are in California now to have Victoria's kidneys removed to prepare for her transplant.
Sat. Faith's family came in for a visit. We went to the Newport Aquarium and had dinner at Smokey Bones BBQ and Grill. We also watched the Notre Dame Football Game. The Irish started off a little shaky, but eventually won the game.
Sunday was church and a cookout at my parents' house. My Aunt and Grandma came in from Indianapolis to visit at the cookout as well. We had a packed house and the weather stayed dry although it got pretty cool in the evening.
Monday was my day of freedom so I began by sleeping in till about 10 AM. I then cut the grass and went to the driving range with my Dad and Brother Mark. Mark and I then went to Best Buy where I purchased the computer microphone and we had dinner at Pizza Hut. We then met my other brother Matt at the movie theater to see Talledega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Very very funny if you have ever followed Nascar. You may not catch all of the jokes if you have not been into Nascar all that much.
I have a few more hours of freedom tonight before my wife and kids return home. I have a few projects I want to take care of and play some more with the computer. I also need to turn on my fantasy football draft so that we can get our players.

So that has been my weekend in a nutshell. I need to have a break from my busy weekends. Is there a such thing as a weekend from your weekend? Someone needs to set that up. God was serious when he setup the Sabbath day for us to rest. Now I just need to learn to take advantage of it.

Chris

Jogger spent four days stuck in swamp muck

This Sounds like just another trip to Ichthus.....

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- A missing runner was rescued from a Florida swamp after spending four days stuck in the muck with only the waist-deep water to drink.

Eddie Meadows, 62, had left for a run over his lunch hour Thursday but never returned to his office at a nearby University of Central Florida research park, authorities said.

He was spotted among the brush and trees Monday morning as friends and colleagues searched for him......

New toy for Podcasting.

I spent a little money this weekend to improve my recording quality for the Podcast. This is the microphone that I picked up at Best Buy this weekend. It picks up sound really easily and gives a much better quality output than my mp3 player. I should be able to produce a podcast with multiple people now and it shouldn't be too complicated. It is always fun to buy new toys.

Minivan driver shot, killed in Avondale.

Just another reason why its scary to buy a minivan.

I'm so Technerdical

Ok, so I have successfully uploaded my first Podcast. It actually works although the sound is pretty crappy, but I can't complain. Right now the podcast that is up is really just nothing but me saying this is a test. I am going to put some more silly stuff up there to add an episode and see how easily I can update it.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I get 3 days off although I don't get paid for my vacation day yet, but this is the last vacation day I don't get paid for I hope. If all goes well, I should be a permanent employee at the end of September and I will get vacation benefits. I am looking forward to my extra day off though. Faith is taking both of the kids to Toledo with her Mom and I get the house to myself. I have so many projects to accomplish I won't know where to start. Knowing me, I will probably work a lot on Youth Ministry stuff.

Tonight I am working on getting the house ready for Faith's parents to visit. They will be the first to sleep in the spare bed downstairs. I also need to make room for some new furniture. We are getting a bed for Ephriam and a dresser. I think some other things too, but I can't remember. I have no idea where it is all going to go yet, but we will squeeze it all in. I never thought that I would be able to fill up my house so quick. The funny part is that I can count the number of pieces of furniture that I have actually purchased on 1 hand. Free is Good.

Ok, well I have a little while left here at work. Friday is almost here.

Chris

PODCast

Well I officially have my own Podcast setup on ITunes now. I am still currently testing it out, but I hope to be able to use it for Youth Ministry. I may create others as well for different things. I am just so technerdical. I have a very short test message up right now and I am curious to hear the quality because I don't have very good recording hardware. Actually I just just used my MP3 player that has a recorder on it. If I want to be as cool as some Podcasts, I am going to have to spend some dough and upgrade to some cool recording tools.
Oh well. Its a short post for today. I have been busy playing with the RSS file and its almost time to go home. Check back for more updates on the podcast and I will show you how to access it once I put something up there worth listening to.

Chris

Still Adjusting

Life is still pretty crazy around here. It takes a lot longer to get adjusted to 2 kids than it does to just 1. I think with every baby that a couple has, God should allot parents an extra day to their weekend. Sometimes I really don't know where I find the energy. Last night I entertained both of them while Faith worked on K.C.'s room. Fortunately KC was not hungry and just enjoyed me holding her while I attempted to entertain Ephriam. At least I learned that he is extremely fascinated by the stereo in his play area in the basement. I can probably get away with playing a CD for a while. He is trying to figure out how to climb the shelf to get to it though. I don't look forward to the day he figures it out.

Warning - shifting to Youth Ministry thoughts - my brain might puke all over this blog if you aren't careful.
Sunday was our official return to Youth Night. We kicked it off with some high energy goofiness. Let me know the last time you have seen a skit that included constipated singers, the simpsons, heavy metal, nuns, hippies, and a gangsta rap choir? It would have been funny to videotape, but it didn't happen. It was pretty funny. Our attempt was to show that Church Worship doesn't have to be lame especially since it isn't a requirement that you worship only on Sunday. Hopefully we can keep the energy up each week.
Probably my highlight of youth night this week was the Bible Study. We had one person show up for it, but this person really wants to get something from it, so I know that even though it will be small, it will be a very effective Bible Study. More to come on that later.

I get to play golf tonight weather permitting. Should be a good time either way. More on that later.

Short Week

It has been another short week in the life of Christopher Walker. It has been a busy and eventful week for me. Monday and Tuesday were spent getting our brand new urban assault vehicle. I will post some pictures soon. Wednesday was a trip to my parents for dinner. Last night was the first night I have actually been at home for more than an hour. I spent last night working on Youth Ministry stuff and tonight I will be doing the same.

This weekend looks pretty busy too. I have 2 cookouts to attend on Saturday and of course our Sundays are busy now with Youth Activities. I am attempting to start a Bible study with our kids this week, so that should be interesting.

Ephriam and K.C. are keeping me pretty busy. There is always something to do at my house. That is a short update for now. Have a good weekend.

Chris

This is your Brain on Youth Ministry

Ok, ok ok. Yes, I have been a little hyped about Youth Ministry lately. I can't help that my enthusiasm runs wild when I get to thinking about how we can come up with cool things to do in order to reach students for Christ. So today, I am going to attempt to post about things other than youth ministry starting.....
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HERE

Ok, so yes my growing family and I had a nice visit this weekend with the Herstich Family. It was our first time meeting Xander and a while since we have seen them all together. They live up in the Akron/Cleveland area, so we do not get to visit with them very much. I am hoping that we get to go visit them once K.C. gets bigger and is ready to go on road trips.

Today I will sign my life away again as we purchase the dreaded Minivaaaaahhh....er....urban assault vehicle. Surprisingly we had a hard time finding a local dealership with much in stock that we were looking for. We ended up getting our local Chevy Dealer to get one from another Chevy dealer so that we could purchase it at the local place. It makes it a lot easier if we have to bring it in for maintenance and repairs. So we will be trading in the little red Cavalier. The 2 Door Coup wasn't gonna get the job done with 2 carseats. Honestly, I am not looking forward to another car payment, but we gotta do what we gotta do and I can't afford to buy a cool Suburban or Tahoe. The good side of things is that I get to drive the Vibe all of the time now. The Vibe is a nice little ride with good tunes and a sun roof. I will gain power locks and windows as well as cruise control.

So, despite giving in and buying the affordable urban assault vehicle, it looks to be a pretty good week so far. Work has been laid back today so I have had time to blog with little interruption. Now I am off to do some web surfing and maybe I will find something cool to share with you all.

Chris

Last Blast Weekend

Youth Ministry is now back in full swing. Last night we had our first meeting of the year. We held a cookout at our house and played a little football in the backyard. We had 6 kids show up which is a bit smaller than we expected, but it was good quality time.
This is our kick off event of the year and only the second time we have done this, so a lot of people are still enjoying summer vacation. Next week, we are starting up a Youth Bible Study. I don't expect everyone to show up for this, but a few would be nice. We really want to get down and dirty when it comes to God's Word.
We do have pretty high expectations for this year, so I hope that things run smoothly and will give us an idea of how our Purpose Driven Youth Ministry is running. I plan on sharing more updates on how things are going each week, so check back for the latest.

Chris

FRIDAY'S HERE!!!!!!!

Its funny how every Friday I get the Domino Pizza commercial in my head when the Tuesday guy is upset because he is not popular like Friday and the Friday guy busts through the door and yells, "FRIDAY'S HERE!!!!"

So anyways, I always look forward to the weekend. My little break from my regular job is a chance to focus my energies and time on things that I want to do. This weekend marks the beginning of Youth Ministry after our summer break. I am pretty stoked about some things that we have going. The kids are all coming to our house for a cookout on Sunday Evening. It is a chance for us all to reconnect after the break. Also, our friends Mike, Tracey, and Zander Herstich are stopping by for a visit. We have not seen them in a while and we have both moved and had babies since the last time we all got together. Faith did get to see Tracey at a baby shower. So we are really excited about seeing them again.

We are also looking at purchasing a new vehicle that will be able to haul the whole family around. I am not looking forward to another car payment, but we are running out of options as our family grows. So we are breaking down and Faith will become a Soccer Mom. We will commonly refer to it as the Urban Assault Vehicle because we dare not utter the words miniva....ahhh!!!!

Ok, enough about painful car shopping. Things are moving right along around here. We are still adjusting to having 2 kids to look after. Looking forward to K.C. to be sleeping through the night.

Its been too long....

We have been down 1 man at work for the past week, so we have been very busy around here lately. Hence the lack in my blogging. Not a whole lot new to report. K.C. is getting bigger everyday and Ephriam's personality continues to grow. Last night we had dinner at my parents' house and Uncle Mark let Ephriam play on his drum set. The little dude went nuts on those drums. Surprisingly, he had decent coordination for only being 19 months old. Either way, he got the biggest smile on his face and I need to remember to bring the video camera over the next time. Everyone else is doing great. Youth officially starts up this weekend. Please keep our ministry in our prayers.

Fall is upon us.

You know that it is almost Fall when the Back to School Ads dominate the newspaper and people are begging for cooler weather. Football practice is in full swing for High School and the scrimmages have started. Soon we will be keeping warm in the stands on a Friday night enjoying the crisp cool air.
Fall brings a lot of things for myself to look forward to. I have already mentioned football, but the cooler season brings jack-o-lanterns, turkeys, and many family gatherings. It also brings a new school year and a new beginning to Youth Ministry at Park Avenue.
This will be my 4th year leading Youth at Park with my wife Faith. We have officially made my brother Mark a Youth Leader for this year. He has been a great help to us as we adjust to our growing family. We have completed our Purpose Driven Youth Ministy Training and we are looking forward to using what we have learned to create a healthy, well-balanced youth ministry.
As the end of August approaches, I am preparing for my life to go back into Ludicrous Speed. Especially with 2 kids at home not including myself. We are doing our best to prepare for the adjustments. The Youth Ministry training will help a lot in this area. We have high hopes for the changes that are happening and we look forward to all that God has planned for us.

Chris

Still Recovering

It has been almost 2 weeks since K.C. was born and we are still in recovery mode. The house is getting back together as Faith is adjusting to having 2 little ones to accomodate at home. K.C's room is still in progress, but I have the dresser, changing table, and crib all put together. I have yet to empty the room of all of the other junk and install a couple of ceiling fans. I think I will be saving the electrical work for the weekend. Having two little ones is definitely a handfull, but Faith is doing wonderfully. She is very glad to see me when I get home because just having an extra set of hands around is a big deal. We have been keeping up with things the best we can until we can get K.C. on a schedule and start establishing new routines. It will all come together eventually. There is my update for now from the working world.

Stay classy Cincinnati,

Chris

Chris is approaching Hurricane Strength

I could very well be the first hurricane of the season. Isn't that exciting?

Chris approaches hurricane strength

Not a whole lot to report from my end of the world today. It has been a very busy week at work for me so far. I am hoping that the end of the week will calm down a little bit. I am also hoping to get some more sleep the rest of the week, but we will see how things go and if more sleep is allowed.
Ephriam is still making his adjustments to K.C. She has been a good baby so far, but Faith and I are both(more her than me) adjusting to her getting up every 2-3 hours to eat. We all need some more sleep. I am already looking forward to the weekend. I have a lot to do now that K.C. is home.

Chris

Tropical Storm Chris Forms

Its about time they used a good name for a Hurricane. It will be interesting to see what I can do. I just hope I don't become another Katrina. I feel bad for anyone name Katrina now because their name will be immortalized in disaster.

Check back for the latest updates on my Tropical Storm. We'll see if I become a hurricane.

First Pic of K.C.

Hey all!! I wanted to share a picture of the new addition to the family. She has already stolen my heart.

I'm A Daddy Again.

K.C. - Kendra Christine was born on Wednesday July 26th at 11:34 AM. She weighed 5 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 inches long. She and Faith are doing great. We expect them home today sometime. So far K.C. is a much better eater than Ephriam was so hopefully we won't have quite the struggle that we did with the Little Man. Ephriam is still in his own world. He has enjoyed being spoiled by his Uncle and Grandparents who are up visiting from Tennessee. He is very curious about her, but he doesn't realize that she is permanent yet. He will start figuring that out when she is home with us all of the time.
Luckily I have had the help around to allow me to recover from being up all night before K.C. was born. I had to go right back to work because I have no vacation yet. Actually I am at work right now waiting for my customers to call me back. So I was pretty tanked yesterday, but now its Friday and I am finding my energy again. I am looking forward to having people over to visit K.C., but we are going to try to spread things out a little bit so that her and Faith are not so overwhelmed. Well, I hope that you like my BLOG. Please come back and visit often as I will try to update everyday from work. Have a nice weekend.

Chris

One small step for me......one giant leap for a baby seal.

Ok, so this is my first blog. Its nice because I can do this from work on my break. I am not going to put much in here yet because I just want to get it setup. So there you have it. My first post on BLOGGER.

cya