Mary Kiwanuka

This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from Mary Kiwanuka from Rubate Teacher's College in Kenya. SONKA (the UCC group of churches in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky) has partnered with Mary's village to help with a clinic and a school to train teachers. Mary made her first visit to the United States and spoke with us at Nexus on Sunday.

Mary told us all publicly and Ty and I privately that she sensed something very special at Nexus. We went out to lunch with her where we got to hear stories about her life in Kenya and we were able to share a little about what life is like in the United States. One thing that was fascinating about our conversation was telling her what it is like to be a black minority and our experiences of racism. It's easy to forget that blacks in their native countries have a completely different experience than we do here.

Mary seemed a little confused as to why we would home school our children. I'm not sure we ever got the reasons across to her.

Brent's Family Down for a Visit

Alyssa had a soccer tournament in town and it was Brianna's birthday. So, the whole crew was here this weekend (well, they came in shifts with Sherri, Alyssa, Brianna and Zach as the first wave, followed by Brent and Aaron.

Alyssa won the tournament.

Horses

I've been trying to get a shot of these horses since January. Either I forget to get my camera out before I get there or I'm moving too fast to get a decent shot out of the window. This is the best I have done so far.

They are just a few hundred yards from my house. I love passing the field and seeing them out. They look the same whether it's 100 degrees, 20 degrees, rainy, snowing, sun shine or whatever. They are so peaceful. I've never seen them running. I'm not sure I've ever seen them moving (except the they were hitched to the plow and were mowing the field next to where they stay). It's like they've got life figured out and are just living it.

Touchdown Jesus

Recently, Cindi posted a website with all kinds of images of Jesus on it (there must have been a couple of hundred). It reminded me of the Jesus in front of Solid Rock. Chuck calls it "Touchdown Jesus", which is a really catchy name. But, to me, it looks like "Drowning Jesus". I'm not sure what it's supposed to show Him doing. I was on my way to lunch with Gregg at the Olive Garden in Middletown today and thought I'd try to get a snapshot. Shoulda rolled the window down!

Zoe's Now Eating Blue Buffalo

The rep at the pet store talked me into buying another food for Zoe. So, now she's on Blue Buffalo made with more "wholesome" ingredients. Apparently, Iams and Eukanuba have been changing their formulas, getting gradually worse. So, good-bye Eukanuba, hello Blue Buffalo.

Peruvian Restaurant

Today after church, Chuck suggested a Peruvian restaurant (Sabor Peruan- "taste of Peru"). It seemed very authentic. The food was excellent, the portions were large. The service was, well, not exactly quick. Maybe that's authentic, too. After a two hour lunch, we left quite satisfied though.

PetSmart (Again)

I cannot make a trip to the pet store without my two escorts. Today was adoption day, so they were particularly interested in going with me. We decided to leave Zoe at home today though.

Kayla's First Babysitting Job

Kayla had her first babysitting job today. Skip and Mandy had to go to a dinner in Mason and needed someone to watch Reid. They asked if Kayla would be up to it. I thought she'd never last until Reid got here. She loves helping out with kids. She would have paid them to let her watch him. But, they paid her $25, which she volunteered to share with Shayna (well an 80/20 split anyway).

Easter & The Masters

Easter and the last day of the Masters coincided this year. Whose idea was that? We went to Jerry and Tasha's. I hated to be rude. But, I had to watch Tiger! Unfortunately, he ran out of Tiger magic and couldn't pull it off, coming in 2nd by two shots and losing to a newcomer- Zach Johnson.

Easter

They seem a little old for Easter baskets to me. But, Tywana doesn't think so. It was so cold though, no Easter outfits this year. It was sweater weather.

Snow in April

This is crazy! A couple of days ago I was playing golf with Jon and sweating. Today, we had a snow storm (not just a few flakes). For a while it was an absolute white out. I was taking pictures of flowers a couple of weeks ago.

Building the Perfect Beast (Part Last)

OK, last post on the stereo system. I got the final component in, a refurbed NAD Amp. I've now replace everything from the CD Player to the speaker wire to the speakers. I wasn't able to get the ultimate system (I saw a MacIntosh system in Forbes magazine yesterday for $191,000). But, this one is pretty good. Actually, it's very good. I've been having a great time rediscovering many of my CDs.

Buckeyes Lose National Championship (Again)

Is it a good thing or a bad thing to lose two national championship games in the same season? First, we lose the Fiesta Bowl to the Gators (not only lose, we get spanked). We had a chance for revenge against Florida in the NCAA. They had beaten us pretty soundly earlier in the year. But, with such a young team (Oden and Conley both being freshmen), there was hope that we had improved enough to take them this time. No such luck. They gave us another sound thrashing.

Hopefully, Oden will stick around for next year and we'll get a chance to go back to the final game. It hard to believe it's been 45 years since were there (and then we lost to Cincinnati). We had been three years in a row. Maybe the basketball program is back on track?

Playing Hooky

After a year and a half of "working for myself", I finally took a 1/2 day off and played hooky. Jon and I sneaked out to play 9 this morning. It was so beautiful out (high of 80 degrees) that we had to stick around and play another nine.

I shot a fantastic round for me. I normally don't keep score. But, I was playing so well, I decided to keep score on the back 9. Shot a 45. That's at my goal (bogey golf). We stopped at Izzy's for lunch before heading back to the grindstone for the afternoon.

Ruby Tuesday's on Monday

Are these children spoiled or what? We decided to go to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner tonight using Tywana's gift certificate from Shayna's basketball team. Here's Kayla as we're finishing up (she goes nowhere without the Tamagotchi and almost nowhere without the iPod).

Weekend with Shayna (cont.)

Today we went to church. On the way home, I surprised Shayna by pulling into the putt-putt course. She loves to play and has gotten pretty good. Shayna takes instruction very well. She even beat me on a couple of holes.

Note the fancy sandals. Didn't slow her down any.