Custom Kitchen

What do you get when you mix a Bible verse, a laser level, a Cricut and some vinyl?
You get a customized kitchen!

Giving Upper Case living a run for their money!

Happy 4th of July

4th of July was packed full with family fun - Saturday we headed to Pella for some family time with the Strouds and Pella VL's. We hit the pool, grilled burgers, played baseball, and caught some fireworks...of course. I love summer days, the pool, summer food, my summer wardrobe, and outdoor activities. So I tried to include them all in one day...didn't do too bad I would say. We had a blast playing catch in the backyard along with riding ponies. Oh yes and just in case your wondering Nathan has some mad baseball skills - who needs t-ball. He's already swinging the metal bats.

America's favorite past time......

How many of you had one of these sweet plastic ponies growing up? I did...so for ol'time sake i decided to saddle up but Nathan wasn't sure I knew how to ride the ol'stallion. So we both saddled up...

Best Buddies....this is after Nathan had been hit in the face twice with the baseball (by his dad). He is one tough kid

Me and my momma watching fireworks - see any resemblances....
We had a great time celebrating

America's birthday as a family....Happy 4th of July!

Yankee Doodle Pops

Thursday evening, Heather and I attended Yankee Doodle Pops, presented by the Des Moines Symphony. It was a wonderful evening of music and fire works! The weather was just perfect. April, my boss at work, had two VIP tickets that she wasn't going to use so she offered them to me! We got a front row viewing...it was awesome!
My friend, Patrick Riley adjusts his music before the performance begins. He plays cello with the symphony and did a fantastic job!

The Governor was also in attendance, he actually got the front row! We were in the 5th row...

They started playing around 8:30 and it was great.

Simon Estes was a guest performer, I have heard him sing a few times now and every time he amazes me with his deep baritone voice. He sang three songs with the symphony and they sounded fantastic.

...and for the finally, fireworks!

It was really cool to have the symphony playing with the fireworks in the background!

They do such a good job putting on this great event! As Simon Estes said, the Des Moines Symphony, under the direction of Joseph Giunta is one of the best symphonies in the country! Simon would know, he has sung with all of them. Big thanks to April for those wonderful seats, it was a wonderful evening!

Book Review: Wild at Heart

First and foremost, what a great book! That might be obvious with the time this book has spent on the bestseller list, but it needs to be said, this is a great book. John Eldredge does a fantastic job of unpacking masculinity and what God calls men to be. Wild at Heart, subtitled Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul, does just that. John takes a look at what makes the masculine heart and soul come alive and then explores how we need to call that out in our journey to manhood.
He starts off the book by addressing "the wound". This is huge and before you can get to the "rest of the story", you have to start by healing your wound. Everyone has wounds and John does a great job of unpacking the wounds most men receive and how to recover their masculine hearts, given to us in the image of a passionate God.
John explores three big theme's that he says are essential to men; a battle to fight, a beauty to rescue, and an adventure to live.
A battle to fight: I think this really hit home for me as I watch my 3 year old nephew play. He is all boy and it is clear when every stick turns into an imaginary gun or sword that will be used to defeat the "bad guys". He is always ready to take on any "bad guy" that stands in his way. John Eldredge says that at some point, that warrior spirit was crushed and pushed down. As he says, our churches today are filled with "really nice guys" but we need to be reclaiming our warrior hearts, hearts that are God given!
A beauty to rescue: To me, this ties into a battle to fight, deep down men want to have somebody to fight for and women want to be fought for. That is why timeless fairy tales, generally, have the story line of a damsel in distress being rescued by her knight in shining armor. To me, this brings back memories of my college days when I was pursuing and dating my wife. The dates I would plan, the hours spent talking to one another, I was fighting for her heart. The book then challenged me to continue that fight. Often times, once we hit marriage a man's mind shifts, it goes from fight for her heart to I have her heart...what now? John did a great job of reminding me to fight for my wife's heart on a daily basis and I have found when I pursue my wife, her heart comes alive!
An adventure to live: This last section tied everything together. With a battle to fight and my beauty to rescue, it is going to be an adventure. The big thing I realized is that my beauty wants to live the adventure with me, and I love that! The adventure is so much better when I get to share the adventure's with Heather.
John makes that point that in most churches today, if you look around you will find that the majority of Christian men are bored. I think this book does a great job of exploring the masculine heart and what it will take to recover our hearts and live how God designed us to live. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Now that I understand my past and the journey that God has me on...it is anything but boring!

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

DMAF

There was a lot going on in Des Moines last weekend, besides hosting the USA Track & Field, Des Moines also had their annual Arts Festival! It was held at the Western Gateway Park downtown and featured the newly finished, amazing, Pappajohn Sculpture Park! We met up with the Pella VL's Saturday evening to take in all the art.
I accidentally spilled a large bucket of paint on the street...
Nathan enjoyed the kids activities, especially making his own superhero mask. Despite the 95 degree heat, he wore that thing the rest of the night!

With temps at 95 and heat index of 104, we tried to cool off by standing in the water feature by the library!

Nathan, the superhero, and I get cooled off and splashed around a little.

Having been melted in the heat, we headed up to Smokey Row to grab some ice cream in the conditioned air. I think Aaron was a little delirious from the heat, the was using this puzzle piece as his pacifier.

...but not to worry, he too got cooled off with a little ice cream!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Nathan loved his ice cream cone!

Aaron and Heather having a tickle fight...

...which spurred on Chad, Nathan and Aaron into a big tickle fight, filled with laughs and giggles!

We had a great time at the Arts Festival and hanging out with the Pella VL's. Let's do it again next year (minus the heat index)!

2010 USA Track & Field

Last weekend, Des Moines and Drake Stadium hosted the 2010 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. I was able to attend Thursday's events and it was awesome! It was amazing to see the nations top athletes competing right here in my backyard!
Some of the big dogs...Jeremy Wariner, 3 time Olympic gold medalist and 3rd fastest competitor in history in the 400m.

They also ran the Junior National Championships and Trevor Dunbar, running for Portland, ran 14.34 for the 5k. What really caught my attention was his well groomed mullet. He rocked it out and rocked the blue oval!

My favorite event was held Thursday night, the 10,000m run, 25 laps for 6.2 miles. There were some big names in this race too. On the left, running for the Oregon Track Club is Galen Rupp. On the right, Dan Browne, member of the 2004 Olympic team in the 10k and marathon. Also running in the race was Wartburg grad, Josh Moen, who now runs professionally for Team USA Minnesota!

And there off...it was a great race. Galen Rupp won in a time of 28.:59.

Here is a full list of results, if you are interested.

You'll shoot your eye out...

As some of you may know we have a yard filled with creatures that seem to be a bit of an annoyance. Seth has come to the end of his rope with these creatures and decided to "borrow" his dad's b.b. gun in order to take back his yard. Deer, squirrels, gophers, and cats let it be known you are not welcome in our yard and we will shoot!