circumstances...

After 8 months or so from arriving in Los Angles, God called me to follow him. I had never previously been invited to accept the Lord, However on a couple of occasions, people shared the message that God loved me. Crazy, but I already knew that without having to hear someone tell me. During that time, I was working in a gym training people how to develop an exercise program tailored to meet their fitness goals. Having been a high school and college athlete, I was extremely interested in fitness, and it was nice to get paid to tell people how to get in shape. It was at this fitness center that I met Ildi. She was a young 19 year old know-it-all atheist who revelled in crushing immature Christians who had sketchy Theological arguments. We became friends, and after several months, she accepted the Lord. That circumstance could be a whole series of posts that I will spare until another time. Time passed (about 4 years) and I finally asked her to be my wife. Our engagement was short, and we were suddenly a married couple. We planned on waiting to have children for the usual socially accepted time frame, but quickly realized that one of the reasons we married was to have children. So we started. And then really (almost) never stopped. :)

construction...

The children have finished the house from the scraps of wood. I actually had to stop them from adding more details to it knowing that it will have to be taken down soon. The builders are on the last legs of the house and the roll-away dumpster will be leaving. I certainly don't want to try to cut the wood up to fit in the trash can!


The contracting supervisor for the housing project left this sticker on the building one afternoon. When I first saw it, I thought the children put it on. Apparently, he thought is was built well :)

different scene...

On an earlier post, I shot a picture of the back of the property that we are renting. Here it is again, this time with snow. This marks the first time that we have lived somewhere where it snows. For those that have lived with the weather factor this might not seem all too important or exciting. But for us, we have never lived in it. We had visited it once on a trip to Oregon but have never had it part of our lives at home. It's a good thing that we bought winter coats this past Christmas for the family.

interlude...

On a recent post, at The Deliberate Agrarian, Herrick writes about family traditions. What a GREAT topic to cover! Ildi and I have spent time thinking about and implementing many family traditions with our children. Please visit his site and read the comments section to view the traditions we have established in our family. As well, read his post and be inspired to create some memorable traditions for your family. One tradition that Ildi has started here is to make homemade donuts for the children. What a great activity for the children to do as well as a treat for them to have.

2008...cont...

And so I spent the days of my youth in the same town, and in the same house until I graduated from high school.

Ildi, on the other hand, grew up on the west coast. She actually lived in Pasadena most of her childhood with her Hungarian immigrated parents and grandparents. They came to the US during the Hungarian Revolution back in '56. It is fun to talk with her mom about the old days. I never met her father. He was killed in an unfortunate car accident when she was 16. When I met her, she was 19, and living in Chino, CA, which is just outside Los Angeles county. She had graduated from high school one year early and was working and attending college. She was a devout atheist at that point.

After I finished High school I attended Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. I finished a B.A. degree in Art and right after graduation, flew to Los Angeles to make my mark on the world. First time flying, first time in a big city, first time living in an apartment, first time.....get the pattern here?

2008...

I was thinking about the whole 2000 scare the other day (now that it is 8 years after) and how everyone was skeptical to what would happen when the bell dropped, the clock changed, and 2000 came rolling in. It was pretty dull when nothing big happened. Not that a new year is not a big deal in all, but nothing earth shattering happened that night. Actually, I was reflecting on this year and was reminded of all the changes that have happened. Most of the changes we have had have been talked about already in previous posts. Some of the changes we are anticipating...like the FARM!

Today I gave some advice about blogging and to my surprise, I actually spoke more to myself than to the person I was talking to. I think that I will take my own advice and post the results of my conversation.

Chapter One (1)...just kidding :) It all started back in Northwest Ohio in the small town of Kenton, Ohio. I am the third child of four, and the middle of three boys. See if you can figure out the birth order. Hint: the last child is a boy. Kenton was, and is, a small rural town that is similar to most of the small towns in Ohio.