Dad & Dan Trip 2010 - Day 2 Bluffton to Defiance 52 miles

One of the many old railroad bridges along the Katy Trail.

My sweet little boy.

What's this? A red caboose that is being renovated into a custard shop! Snacks by the tracks, you gotta love it.

The village of Marthasville was one of the unexpected highlights of the trip. It had a beautiful city park with playground that we relaxed at for almost two hours. And they had a convenience store!! Don't read this Jamie (Momma), but we purchased soda, Zingers and Cheetos and hung out in the shade.

B&B in Defiance, MO. Day 2 was a great day, 52 miles was about the right amount pulling a loaded chariot, and afforded us extra time for breaks. Defiance was a beautiful little town.

Dan & Dad Trip 2010 - Day 3 Defiance to St. Charles 20 miles

The breakfast at our B&B on the last morning of the trip was ridiculous. Egg and cheese souffle, locally made sausages, potato pancakes, pecan sticky buns, cherry walnut bread, strawberries, coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice. We put a hurtin' on it.

We stopped and took this pic with about ten miles left on the trip. We were entering the August Busch Natural Wildlife Area in St. Charles County. I must say, my backside and legs were pretty excited the trip was about over, but the moment was a little bittersweet.

Mission Complete! My friend Mike Z met us, and Daniel and I washed down the trail dust with a house made root beer and wheat beer - Trailhead Brewing Co, Historic Downtown St. Charles, MO.

Several things we learned/experienced on the trip:

-I was happy to spend so much one-on-one time with my middle son. I think he liked it too, as he was able to express himself perhaps more than with the brothers around. It was very valuable.

-We saw some great wild life. The number of bluebirds we saw was amazing. They are beautiful. We came across three snakes, four goats, two slow crossing turtles (which we stopped at), 1 turkey and about 2,000 squirrels. I never realized how useful the bell on my bike was until I started using it to move squirrels off the trail. If you wait until you are right on them, they slow you down by darting to and fro.

-People along the trail were, in general, incredibly friendly.

"Choose this day whom you will serve..........As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

Joshua, Son of Nun and a servant of the Lord

Living Intentionally

This weekend Jamie and I attended a powerful Parenting Conference with Dr. Randy Carlson. He came in to Lenexa, KS to the beautiful Lenexa First Baptist Church. The whole day was devoted to living intentionally in Christ and parenting in a way that our children will come to know and love God. One of the main themes was choosing "One thing" everyday and be intentional about glorifying Jesus through it.

Among many other things covered were 12 things Dr. Randy came up with called "Loving My Child Into Adulthood." They go like this:

1. I will not do for my child what they can do for themselves. When I do, I weaken them.
2. I will not over-react when my child over-reacts. When I do, we both lose.
3. I will not rescue my child from their mistakes. If I do I have cheated them from learning.
4. I will not treat my teenager like a child - even though they are acting like one. When I do, I create resentment.
5. I will not be dissuaded from doing right despite anger, tears, cursing or threats. When I do, I am an irresponsible parent.
6. I will pick battles carefully because it's more important to be the right parent than to be right.
7. I will give lots of encouragement because it will help my child to build confidence.
8. I will provide training, support and instruction as needed because that is my job.
9. I will pray daily for my child because my child belongs to God.
10. I will use a heart of understanding when my child is hurting, confused, searching and frustrated.
11. I will use a head of caring when my child had questions, needs guidance, and wants answers.
12. I will use a hand of logical and natural consequences when my child needs discipline.

I have added another, to personalize and make ours a Blessed 13. Each night after praying with my child, I will tickle and kiss them. For our home shall be filled with blessing, laughter and smiles.

"Figure out what will please Christ -- then do it." Ephesians 5:10 The Message

Excruciating!

The next time you or I are tempted to say "this headache is excruciating!, or 'whatever' involves excruciating pain" it would be good to know the origin of the word. From the Latin "cruciare" a derivative of "crux," which means "out of the cross, to torment, to crucify."

In the 16th century they used this word, "excruciating," to describe the pain that Jesus went through during his torture and crucifixion. As a follower of Christ, this word now has taken on a whole new meaning. It is a holy word, worthy of being used reverently and in remembrance.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18

Go with God today my friend.

Questions for Pondering

Next week my son and I are planning on riding bike (actually I will be pulling him in the chariot) from Columbia to St. Charles, MO on the Katy trail. Snickers bars are on our "list" for necessities for this trip. This week, while shopping at Wal-Mart I put a six pack of Snickers in my cart. The price was $3.68. While checking out I see that Snickers are 50 cents a piece right in front of me in the check out isle. Both of these prices appeared to be the regular price, neither were on sale and they were the same size bar.
Questions - Why does the largest company in the world have a product that, the more you purchase of the given item, the more expensive it is? Do people notice?

Home Renovations

We have been renovating all three bathrooms in our 90 year old house; actually dividing the bath on the first floor into a half bath to the hallway and knocking out a door into the spare bedroom to have a full private bath attached to the spare bedroom on the first floor. These pics are from about half way thru. I will update with some more recent photos soon. The pic above is looking in from the hallway. You can see where we studded in to put a wall and divide this large bath into a full bath and half bath.

Stripping down a door that was attached to a closet in the old bath and now will attach the full private bath to the guest bedroom. After ripping out the frame, there was a name written on the outside "H. Miller Macon, MO." I assume this is the original owner of our home.

The spare bedroom gets a new hole in the wall.

Private bath on first floor just before sheet rock. I am glad we got this project started before the new EPA lead paint regs started regarding remodeling homes built prior to 1977. More pics to come soon.

Draft Comments

Wow, I guess I have been on a blogging slump. It has been over a month since I posted something, sorry about that. I'll see if I can get back into it a little, I wonder if I have any readers left?

Well, the first round of the NFL draft was last night and here are some quick thoughts:

-By my count, the SEC and the Big 12 had 16 players drafted in the first round (and all of those were in the top 26.) The SEC had seven and the Big 12 had nine players drafted, the top four picks all being from the Big 12. That is a nice compliment to these two conferences.

-The Rams drafted Sam Bradford from Oklahoma with the overall number one pick. The Rams need some help and quarterback is the best place to start. We'll see what happens.

-The Chiefs drafted Eric Berry (safety) out of Tennessee with the sixth overall pick. I have seen him play several times and he is a completely dominant player. He can also play cornerback if needed. I see Mr. Berry having a tremendous rookie season in the AFC West.

-Sean Weatherspoon (linebacker) for Missouri was drafted somewhere in the mid 20s by the Atlanta Falcons. I love Mizzou players going in the first round, but I have never been super impressed with Weatherspoon. He was a solid D-1 player, but he never really took on the intangibles of leadership of the defense when they needed it. We'll see how he does in the NFL, I guess he fills a need for the up and coming Falcons. Who knows though, I am not an NFL scout; Weatherspoon could possibly go on this year and have several game changing tackles as the Falcons march towards the playoffs.

-Tim Tebow went in the first round! Wow, after all the criticism he actually gets picked ahead of Jimmy Clausen. Classic. I must say, I like Tebow/Broncos match. There is probably not a more loyal, college-like fan than what the Broncos have. Not to mention, their geographic fan base runs from Wichita to Salt Lake City. Isn't it also classic that Eric Berry was drafted to the Chiefs. As college players they would go up in the arch rivalry Tennessee vs Florida as SEC offensive and defensive players of the year. And now they join the rival Chiefs/Broncos respectively. Should prove to be a good matchup for many years to come.