Three Funny Colin Stories

I'll have a venti Buckeye leaf, please...
During the football season, I successfully indoctrinated Colin to root for The Ohio State University Buckeyes. I trained him to say, "Go Bucks!" and "Go Buckeyes!" (which sometimes comes out Buxeyes) However, he is not really good at discriminating between teams, so if he sees any team playing football, he proclaims, "Go Bucks!" That's OK with me. Then the other day, we were at the mall checking out the kiosk that had the calendars on super-sale. We paused by the sports calendars, and he saw a football calendar and shouted, "Go Starbucks!" I cracked up, as did the kiosk employee. At least he confused it with something else I am very fond of. Now, when he wants to write something, he goes to the drawer to get his Starbucks (really, Buckeyes) pen.

Naked Boy
The other night, as I always do, I finished up getting ready for bed in the bathroom and ventured into the kids' room to cover them up and kiss them good-night. When I got to Colin's bed, I noticed something on the floor. Without my glasses on and with the lights off, it took me a moment to realize that it was Colin's pajamas and pull-up. I looked up and, although he was covered up, I could tell he was naked under the covers. I went into our bedroom, where Marcy was smiling since she had already witnessed this, and said, "Man, is he going to be cold!" Marcy insisted that we get him dressed, so she did. She came to bed and we talked for a while. She then got up to go check on him, came back to our room and informed me that he was naked again, under the covers, and smiling at her. I was told that I had to deal with this. I went into his room and, trying desperately not to smile or laugh, got him dressed and told him that if took off his jammies again, he would have to go to time-out. I came back to bed. A short while later, Marcy went to check on him again and again, he was naked. She got him up and took him to the cold, dark dining room to sit in time-out...naked. I'm sure if social services had walked in right then we would have some 'splainin to do. It continues to be a constant struggle, including bare-bottom spankings, but it also continues to be hilarious. On Friday, during his naptime, I met him at his bedroom door - when he was supposed to be sleeping - and told him that he was getting a spanking. He ran to his bed, curled up in a ball on his face, and grabbed his butt-cheeks with his hands. What a sight!

You're Not Allowed to Play with Slingshots, Colin...
The other day, we were at our wits end. All of our normal babysitters were unavailable to watch the kids for our leadership retreat on Saturday. At The Porch, Marcy asked one of our pastor's teenage sons if he could babysit (he volunteers in the nursery on the weekend, so it wasn't as out of left field as it might seem), and he said he could. So on Saturday morning, Marcy told Colin that he was going to the church to play with David. Colin's eyes got real big as he got excited and asked, "And Goliath, too?" I guess he's been listening when we've read to him out of his Bible storybook after all.

2nd Ain't So Bad After All

I think I have finally become comfortable finishing in 2nd place. It had been so frustrating this year for all of my teams to finish in 2nd place, instead of just one of them breaking through to win it all. It started with the Buckeyes football team getting thumped in early January. Then, the basketball team did the same thing in March, although they didn't get beat quite as badly. Then, the Cavaliers found out what a team - as opposed to a one-man-show - looks like when they ran into the Spurs in the Finals. And most lately, the Indians finished in 2nd place. I know what you're thinking: "No they didn't. The Rockies did." Really? Did the Rockies put up a fight against the Red Sox? No. The Indians were the only ones in the postseason that gave them any trouble whatsoever, so as I see it, the Tribe was the 2nd best team in baseball this year. That's not too bad. That's better than 28 of 29 other teams. And the Cavaliers were better than 28 of 29 other teams, too. And the Buckeyes' teams were each better than over 100 other teams. So 2nd? Not so bad after all.

Now here's what happens when two guys have way too much time and money on their hands. Enjoy!

It's a Nice Day!

I am sitting here, in my beloved recliner, thinking about how good of a weekend it had been. I am feeling significantly better than I did at this time last weekend, when I was just starting to come down with the plague. I am not at 100% yet, but I'm going in the right direction. The weather has been great! It is finally flip-flop weather. I know, I've done a lot of complaining about how we haven't had much of a winter to speak of, but that was February, and this is March, and I love not wearing shoes. The sun has been shining, it has been warm, and I've been loving it! We had two great friends come and visit for a too-brief weekend. And today, my Buckeyes sealed up a #1 seed in the NCAA Men's B-Ball Tourney. Now granted, I was jazzed about them playing in the national championship of college football, and that didn't go so well. Here's hoping this one goes much better. Either way, the ride sure is fun!


Today we had a SIMY meeting. SIMY is an acronym for Servants In Ministry to Youth. It's what we call our adult leaders in our youth group. We invited some of our students to discuss how things are going with the youth group. I think things are going well, but some of our students have had concerns, so I wanted them to be able to voice them. They did that today, and while I didn't like or agree with everything they had to say, I sure appreciate their guts to say what they did and their desire for our youth group to be all it can be for their spiritual transformation. As Emily's quote wall on Facebook says, "My kids are better than your kids!" Apparently, I said that somewhere along the way. It's true.

Thank you, Jesus, for the good life you have given me. Help me to not take it for granted...