Well, the Kentucky Horse Park had a free family day today.  So we braved the ninety degree heat (kinda cool, actually) to go see some ponies.  The kids loved it.  We have a few pictures in the album to the right.  After seeing a few horses, we decided to preempt any whining and go to the playground.  They also liked that.  All in all, a great day.

I liked this quote from Jonah Goldberg (I think):

Liberals used to be the ones who argued that sending U.S. troops abroad was a small price to pay to stop genocide; now they argue that genocide is a small price to pay to bring U.S. troops home.

Discuss.

Well, we're back from the lake.  We had a wonderful time with the folks.  The kids were mildly spoiled.  Vast amounts of cookie dough (both cooked and uncooked) were consumed.  As well as copious cups of homemade vanilla ice cream.  Made with Honduran (?) vanilla.  Tasted like Pina Colada's (and getting caught in the rain). 

The kids had a good time in the water.  Two events in particular keep sticking in my head.

We were in the pontoon boat, anchored in 10-15ft of water, trying to get the kids to enjoy swimming.  It wasn't hard since this was towards the end of the week and they were getting more comfortable.  Keith in particular wanted to climb the ladder on the back of the boat, so we let him.  Both he and Sefia would say, 'Climb!  Climb', or 'Sube!, Sube!' (thanks Dora!).

Anyway, he would climb up the ladder, wander a bit, then sit down and slide/jump into my arms.  Until one time he looked like he wanted to jump from standing instead.  Little girl didn't help matters.  She saw what he was doing and decided to encourage him by yelling, 'Jump!  Jump!'.  (Our kids like saying verbs in pairs).  Between Dad and I we were able to corral him.

The second event was related.  It was Sefia's turn to get on the back of the pontoon boat and slide into Pop-pop's arms.  Except she saw Dad dive into the water a couple times and decided that looked cool.  She inched up to the edge, planted her feet square, bent her knees, and shot out her arms behind her in a perfect diver's stance.  We were barely able to keep her from diving off head first.  Note for the future, our kids emulate everything we do.

And...

THE KIDS' CoC's ARRIVED!!!!!!  We finally received the certificates of citizenship for them.  They are now officially citizens of the US.  This means we can update their Social Security cards to reflect their status, as well as update their names on the cards.  This is quite a relief as it was the last official thing that we had no control over.

Rob

Well, it's been a while since we've posted anything.  That's because our lives are either extremely boring, or too busy.  Yes to both.

Anyway, we just returned from Germany after having a great time visiting with Daniel and Rachel.  We arrived in Berlin after getting maybe 15 minutes sleep on the way over.  We then tried to stay up until a normal bedtime.  We mostly made it.  We had mostly adjusted to the time within a couple days (although Anne used the jet lag excuse for quite a few days after that ).  Some of the best pictures from our trip are in the photo album on the right.

The next day we went around Berlin looking at a couple sites, a Holocaust memorial, a church, stuff like that.  The next day we took off on a 9 hour train ride to Innsbruck.  That was pretty nice.  We had a cabin that we shared off and on with two other people.  Traveling by train is much nicer than traveling by plane. 

We made it to Innsbruck that night, but our hotel never got our reservation.  Thank goodness Dan is pretty good at German now.  They carted us off to another hotel (which we think was nicer).  We had hoped to walk back to the train station after getting to the hotel to get something to eat, but the new hotel was too far away.  So we convinced the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel to let us order a meal (even though it was almost 10PM).  Somewhat of a mistake.  Expensive.  But very good.  And the best Pilsner I've ever had.

The next day we boarded a bus towards a small town above Innsbruck, looking for a place to hike.  We found it in Igls.  About a 10km hike across hills, through forests, across a field full of blackberries being pollinated (I've never heard so many bees before, kinda creepy), more forest and fields.  Very cool.  It would have been nice to spend a few more days there, beautiful place.  That evening we walked around the old city of Innsbruck, had some great pizza, and more of that wonderful beer.  Afterwards Anne got hungry for some dessert and back we went. 

The next day we traveled to Munich.  That hotel wasn't quite as nice, but the free breakfast was wonderful (it had scrambled eggs and AMERICAN coffee).  We saw a few sites, but in general we felt there were too many people in Munich for our taste.  Next we traveled to Fussen.

In Fussen was Neuschwanstein.  The fairy castle that was the inspiration for the Disney castle.  Rainy, drizzly day.  The clouds were pretty cool as the mist wrapped around the castles, but it was a little bit yicky.  I wish we had more time to hike around there, since there were quite a few trails.

Well, we'll leave it at that for now.  Maybe I'll get back to describing the rest of the trip later.  Or not.  We'll see.  Suffice it to say that Dan and Rachel are great hosts, and we had a wonderful time.  Thank you.

Keith and Sefia's Aunt Rachel G. made some hats for them for Christmas, and we've finally taken a picture. Sefia loves her critter cap, and pulls it on right away. Don't you love the little 'ears'? Thank you Rachel!

Also, for you cat lovers...
http://www.cs.tlu.ee/~meelis/catmusic/

And for those of you with boys, a little article about gun-play. I agree with the article, especially since I've already seen this behavior difference in Keith and Sefia. Keith thinks an Elmo drill is a gun, and likes to play dead when it is pointed at him. Of course Sefia doesn't need weapons. She just smacks with her hand. Immediate trip to timeout. Where she promptly gets naked and flings her diaper around. Sigh.

Anyway, I remember Eric and me playing with weapons at an early age. We made swords and guns out of legos as soon as we had enough legos to do it. And don't forget the dirt clod grenades from the corn/soybean fields around our New Paris house. Ahh. The satisfying 'smoke' that would erupt when I beaned Eric with the dirt clod. Of course when he ran to Mom, I had to somehow turn it into his fault. I was successful 50% of the time.

This will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me.  I want Rudy Giuliani to be the next Republican Presidential Nominee.  Mainly because I think his foreign policy would be the best, most stable stance for the U.S.  Even though I hate his position on abortion, gun control, and all the other socially conservative stuff I believe in.  I just think he will keep our country safer than any other Republican candidate.  That's not even mentioning the pansy chickens running for the Democrat Nomination.

So, Rudy is the man.  Unless a viable social conservative comes along.  And no, Mitt Romney aint it.

An unfortunate girl named Louise
Lets a vast ventral blast with each sneeze.
She attracts quite a crowd
When they rip out real loud
And she blushes right down to her knees.

And the timewaster:
http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/dice/dice.html

There was a young fellow named Charted,
Who rubbed soap on his bum when it smarted.
And to his surprise
He received a grand prize,
For the bubbles he blew when he farted.

Anne got me a great book for Christmas...The History of Farting by Dr. Benjamin Bart.  Periodically I shall post an entry from it.

EVRYONE farts, admit it or not.  Kings fart, queens fart.  Edward Lear, the 19th century English landscape painter, wrote affectionately of a favourite farting Duchess who gave enormous dinner parties attended by the cream of society.  One night she let out a ripper and quick as a flash she turned her gaze to her stoic butler, standing, as always, behind her.  "Hawkins!" she cried. 
"Hawkins, stop that!"
"Certainly, your Grace," he replied with unhurried dignity. 
"Which way did it go?"
pg 8

This is a picture when I was a kid, goofing around with Grandpa.  Can you see the family resemblance?

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This is an interesting link:

http://markshea.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_markshea_archive.html#116611119750997638

Basically he's saying that Christmas isn't a co-opting of a pagan holiday (I always thought the date was). Its actually a Roman emperor trying to create a pagan holiday overtop the Christian holiday. Interesting. Is this true?

Since Hallowe'en (a little tribute to the UK spelling, there) is upon us, I thought I should post this for those who don't realize what they are supporting when they contribute to those little orange UNICEF boxes. As an adoptive father, you would think I would support an organization that purports to save children (especially orphans). I don't. In short, what UNICEF does is make it harder for children to be adopted into loving families, instead preferring them to be confined to orphanges or the street in their home country.

Granted, I believe their stated goals are admirable. I believe their implementation is skewed and wrong. For more information, please visit the following website.

http://www.guatadopt.com/archives/000228.html

And remember, if UNICEF had its way, the two beautiful children you see to the right would still be in Guatemala, possibly in an orphanage or on the street or dead (very possible given our son's illness before we brought him home).

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth
and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of His Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day He rose again
according to the Scriptures
and ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And He will come again with glory to judge
both the living and the dead,
whose kingdom will have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son together
is worshiped and glorified,
who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

I guess I haven't posted much (nothing) since July. Well, got some new pictures of the kids up. Not much else new to report.

Several weeks ago we were at my parents' cabin down in the Smokies (check out the shameless plug link to the right). While in Cades Cove we ran across some bears. A mom and three cubs. very cute. Some idiots were actually getting out of their cars to take pictures. Just remember, 25% of the population is retarded. That mother bear looked awful skinny to me...

While we were there, we also rode bikes around Cades Cove, hiked a bunch, and generally had a good time. Never once went into town. It was nice. It rained the last night we were there (I love rain in the Smokies). I tried to take a picture of the trees by the back porch, but it didn't turn out well.

Just put up some new photos from the 4th of July week.  Check them out!  We had a great time at my parents' place.  Too short, though.  Needed more cookies (yum).  We ended the week at Eric and Lisa's for our nephew's dedication.  Quite nice.  They are great hosts!  Their little guy was absolutely adorable (and well-behaved). 

In the eyes of Kentucky, we are now a family.  We saw a family court judge today (Judge Bunnell) downtown.  Signed some papers, tried to keep the kids under control.  Now we just need to get their Kentucky birth certificates and their Certificates of Citizenship.

Rob

A little humor for ya.

Lamentations of the Father.

Rob

Today was the Reunion picnic for A Helping Hand Adoption Agency.  This is the agency we used to adopt our little ones.  The events started in the morning, but our kids don't have the stamina (or should I say, the parents) to stay all day.  So we showed up a bit before dinner.

There weren't nearly as many people there this year as last year, but the weather today was kinda yucky.  Still an impressive turnout of a couple thousand people.

We were able to see Cinthya and Ana Maria, which was nice.  They are very busy as the Guatemala section at AHH has expanded a lot since we went through.  They have 75 families chasing paper and 30 or so waiting for referrals!

The kids got cranky quickly so we left shortly after dinner.  Next year we should be able to stay longer, which will be fun.

Check out the couple of pics!

Rob

I stumbled across this website today.

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/1024/home.php

Cool.  I checked out the trailer for the next episode, and it looks a lot like the original series.  I'm in the process of downloading the first episode (should be done by tomorrow morning).  Hope its tolerable!

Rob

How stupid is Ben Roethlisberger?  Regardless, I really hope he is okay.  If you don't know what I am talking about, check out drudge. 

<short rant>

Let me get this straight.  The dude won't go out on a football field without a helmet, yet he gets on a motorcycle without one.  And not just any motorcycle, a 1300cc sport bike.  1300!!!  That's just asking for trouble.  You're telling me he's going to ride like a granny on a bike like that?

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to drive (or ride) to the vehicle I'm in.  If I'm in a truck, I'm more conservative.  If I'm in a sports car I, well, you know.  At least I accelerate fast.  Up to the speed limit.  No more than five above, officer.  Acceleration is more fun than constant fast speed anyway (unless your throttle sticks ).

My guess is he was distracted while going about 20mph or so, and didn't notice the traffic.  'Cuz he got off lucky.  I never ride without my helmet (and armored jacket).  This guy directs a pro football offense?  Those field smarts must not translate to street smarts. 

</short rant>

Just to reiterate, I pray he is okay.  Speaking of, next time you see an ambulance, pray for the people inside instead of grumbling about the snarled traffic (I know, not easy to do).

Rob