Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Special Olympics...

I woke up early Saturday morning. It was the big day – a day we had been preparing for since October. I quickly got dressed and got ready. I got on the computer for a little bit to finish up a couple of last minute things. I kissed my wife and left the house. Today was Special Olympics of Nebraska’s State Basketball tournament. Soon I found myself in the lobby of checking our team in. I coach two teams from the same school. Both play 3-on-3, but we split the 9 kids into two teams.

One of my teams, the Eagles, is made up of a 12 year old, two 13 year olds, and a 14 year old. The older team, the Angels, is made up of 5 kids between 14 and 17. Both teams work extremely hard in practice, but the younger team is very talented and very quick, they just lack height while the older kids have height and an extended shooting range. Both of my teams are great and I enjoy coaching all of them.

We split them up by age because the younger kids are very lacking in height, so by including them on the team with the older kids we have to play against teams with high talent levels and older kids. We decided that by doing that it would give all the kids the maximum amount of playing time and the best competition level. It worked great for the Angels. They had two games and were able to win the first one by 6 and the second one they lost by 4. They matched up well in terms of height, talent, and were even close on aggression. They played so well and I was very impressed by them.

The downside was the Eagles. My kids played so well, but the bracket was problematic. We had to play back to back games. The first team we played was well matched in talent, speed, and even close in height. That game we pulled out by 4 in the end, but it was very close. The team we were against was very aggressive, but since they didn’t have any subs, they wore out in the end and we were able to take the lead. However, the problem came in the second game. We were matched up against the best team at the regional tournament. Its not that we didn’t want the competition, but this was just unfair. Our teams of kids under 15 went up against a team that had 3 men who were over 18, (one was 37 and his mustache was starting to gray) and a 20 year old woman. They had one player who was over 6 feet and shot a jump shot which would be the envy of many collegiate athletes. They were just an awesome team and our team, which has nobody over 5 feet tall, was completely overmatched. I talked to the directors and they apologized for the lopsided match-up and told me not to worry about the state games. In the end, both teams won second place, so I was very proud of their effort despite the poor match-up.

Well here we were, three weeks later and pumped up again. After checking in and attending the coaches meeting, I went back to my house to get the girls because they love cheering the team on and we didn’t have a game until 11. One bit of news was that one of the teams from the Eagles bracket had scratched. Unfortunately, it was the team that we had beaten at regional games. The Angels had some good match-ups, too.

At 11:15 we were back and warmed up. The Eagles were up first in back to back games, again. In looking at the bracket, it was very intimidating because both teams we faced were senior teams from their particular organizations. I had talked with the schedulers about this, but it was of no use as they said they couldn’t change things and they had grouped teams based on the ratings we sent in earlier in the year and not based on age. It ended up that because of how talented our younger kids were, they didn’t consider their age and matched them on ratings. In the end, our first game was getting ready to start. The team we were up against had a very strong big man who could not only drive to the basket, but could also do very good lay-ups. We put our little defender on him, which slowed him down, but didn’t prevent him from helping his team to a 26 point win. We were overmatched in this game, not only based on height, but also on talent. The other team was very well coached and they had obviously practiced a lot as they were able to execute passes that were very tough to defend and they were ready for our passes most of the time. In addition to that, they also had 4 different offenses and by the end, our poor kids were dragging.

The Eagles then had another game. This team featured a good shooter and a guy who was all over the court. He was speedy and had a good jump shot from about 10 feet. He would guard whoever had the ball and took away much of our penetration. We fought hard in this game, but with 10 seconds left, we were down by 2. I had made a few mistakes earlier in the game by not taking advantage of a mismatch, and our kids were dragging, but we still had a chance to win. I called timeout and drew up a little play with my finger on the floor. They went out to run it and the speedy kid just have well could have been in our huddle as he stepped up and picked off our first pass. I was bummed that we didn’t win, but was very proud of our kids for their effort.

Immediately following that, the Angels started their game (yes, back to back to back games coaching – I was beat). They went up against a school they had beaten at the regional games and they were ready. They had a tall guy who was automatic from under the hoop and a medium height guy who was good at mid-range shots, a great dribbler, and was very tough on defense. Our Angels jumped out to an eight point lead. I subbed in a couple of players and with our big man sitting on the bench they quickly matched our six points. We ended up getting one more basket and that marked that halfway point. I called a timeout and getting the kids a little breather. I sent them back out and it was close for a while with the teams trading scores. Then one of our guys caught the ball on the three point line, checked his feet, and then launched a bomb. It banked in and the crowd, bench, and even the kids on the floor erupted in cheers. After that, we quickly scored 4 baskets to the other team’s one. We have one kid on our team who has limited ability and wanted to try to get him a shot. We put him in and after 4 tries we got him a shot. Normally from his sweet spot he is automatic, but he was about 2 feet to the right of his spot and wasn’t able to hit it. We ended up winning by 6.

After that game, which ended at 12:45, we had another game at 3:20. In between our kids all sat around on the benches and my wife and I took the girls home for a nap. We ate lunch and got the girls down for a nap. Finally, it was time to go, so we got the girls up and got back to the school about 3:10. The kids were still waiting in the bleachers, but the head of the competition stopped me and asked if we wanted to play a little bit sooner. So we rushed to the other gym and started warming up. However, the referee was in a hurry and we were quickly prompted for the start. The kids were a little sleepy and it took a while to finally get them going. Unfortunately, the team they were playing was a very talented team. They had a tall guy who was good at the close shots and blocking shots. They had two guys who were quick, good dribblers, great defenders, and decent shooters. In the end, it was too much for our team. They would have matched up well with the Eagles, but our Angels just couldn’t cut it. Once they woke up, they played very well and I was very proud that even when they were down 30-8, they didn’t give up and kept trying. We were able to get everyone a shot and all but one scored at least two baskets. They had fun and we congratulated the other team before heading out for the day.

The kids did so well and I was very proud of them. A lot of teams quit when they are getting beat by more than 10. We’ve seen it in teams we were playing and teams that we watch. It is our policy if we are over 10 points ahead, we make sure to sub a lot and give the other team a lot of chances to get back in the game. Our kids play so hard and never give up and they are very good sports. In addition to that, they have a lot of fun. And isn’t that what it is all about?

One more thing - today has been designated by Special Olympics as the first day in a campaign to end the use of the "R-Word" in our common vocabulary. Such a derogatory term should never be part of our vocabulary and we need to make sure that we show the same love and respect to the less fortunate that we would want people showing us. This word has become an insult and it is the kind of term that cuts special needs kids to the core. Lets make sure this word is eliminated from our vocabulary and that we don't use our words to hurt others, even if it is just a casual comment.

But now, I’m back to my mission…

Monday, March 30, 2009

Politics... Pshh!!

Each day I hear about how amazing he is. How he is going to save us all. How life is going to be so good with him. How he is what we need.

The man being referred to here is not the One who has the power to save us. He is a mere man. He is a man who was elected by the people of this country to be our leader. The man is Barrack Obama. As our leader, he does deserve our prayers. However, what is with the showers of praise this man is receiving? I am so sick of hearing about how terrible of a president we had in office prior to Obama and how great these first few days of the new administration has been. And when they do make a mistake – “Well it's because of how bad Bush was.”

Take for example the fact that in the first 60+ days of his rule Obama and the congress that was elected (primarily on the “Anti-Bush” vote) has spent more than most 4 year periods in American history. “That’s because Bush caused this recession.” I’m sure that one man caused a WORLD WIDE recession. Every economy on the globe is struggling right now, with the possible exception of China (which we can’t be sure about them because they may be struggling and just not reporting it). I’m sure that George W. Bush woke up one day after being elected, and said, “I want to destroy the world.” The proceeded to systematically fly planes into buildings, cause a couple of hurricanes, start two wars, cause flooding, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, and heat waves. He called up OPEC and said, “Hey, we want you to charge enough for a barrel of oil that gas will cost $5” and OPEC being the pushover’s they are listened. He went to millions of the lower-middle class earners and told them to take out sub-prime mortgages that charge ridiculous interest rates that adjusted so they couldn’t make the payments. Then he went to a number of people who owned a house and told them to buy another before selling their current house. His plan came to fruition and most of those people lost their houses and the banks we in danger of folding. He also talked to credit card companies and had them enact the Universal Default Provision written into their card agreements. Many people were paying 20% or more on stuff that they couldn’t afford. It was all part of his master plan. He decided to give the auto companies bad marketing plans. He decided to have the media convince society that we are in the middle of a recession and that any spending that is done is out of line. Finally, his plan was complete and not just the country, but the whole world was in economic ruin.

All of the blame has been placed on a single man – an unfair burden by any standard. Bush was far from perfect, but he did find the time each day to pray – and that was the biggest reason there was a target on his back. Bush had too much respect for the office to fight back to his attacks and just took it in stride – a noble thing indeed. His successor has already fought back twice in his first 60 days.

First of all, a little defense of Bush. Bush had absolutely no affect on the weather, natural disasters, or anything related to the environment. He could have tried to stop Global Warming (incidentally, in his time in office, the average temperature of the world actually dropped by almost a tenth of a degree). He did not prompt a terrorist group who hates free enterprise, freedom, and everything that the United States stands for to fly planes into buildings taking the lives of hundreds of Americans. For what its worth, these terrorists have staged attacks in England, Spain, and various other parts of the free world, and Bush wasn’t the president there. The leaders of OPEC let their greed lead them to try to suck every penny they could out of the good citizens of the world and by cutting production of oil down to nearly nothing they raised the demand on the lessened supply. The WORLDWIDE price increase was in no way tied to Bush. He implemented programs to try to find renewable energy. What came of that? Complaints because the price of corn went up, the price of meat soon followed, and milk soon after that. However, when we cut our foreign dependence, prices returned to reasonable rates. Also, opening oil fields where the only negative effect is making caribou walk around pipeline towers helped to give us some of our own oil to get us through to times when better vehicles will exist.
After the 9/11 attacks, Bush started a war of vengeance in Afghanistan. He sought Osama Bin Laden and some sort of vengeance for the attacks which cut this country to the core. Bush, with approval from the Senate, launched these offensives which, though it took a while, lead to the United States capturing a number of enemies of freedom and largely removing terrorists from Afghanistan. Months later, Saddam Hussein kept defying orders to cease developing Weapons of Mass Destruction and allow the United Nations to inspect their research facilities. In a stare down, Bush moved to end, what CIA intelligence said was a huge operation producing WMDs. The US army attacked Iraq and found mass graves and was able to overtake Iraq in a matter of weeks. However, the WMDs were not found. High ranking military officials are convinced that these weapons were migrated out of Iraq in a large convoy that left just before US forces reached Baghdad. Its funny how this war has become the “downfall” of the Bush administration, though since we entered Iraq there has not been a single attack of foreign terrorism on US soil when we had been having one every 2-3 years. When you have them on the run, the best strategy is to quit, right? Well, that is what our President offered as part of his platform.

People downgrade Bush because of all the spending while he was in office. It was a lot and I don't personally agree with all of it, but it is important to note that the President doesn't really have much, if anything, to do with the budget. It is determined by the Senate, if I remember correctly: a Senate which has been Democratic majority for at least 4 years, a period in which spending has sky rocketed. Granted a lot of the spending was heading to Iraq, but congress salaries were raised, as well as programs put in place spending a lot more than needed. Yet, this is actually being completely blamed on Bush - go figure.

People have gone completely overboard in spending lately (a trend that has found its way to Washington). People are buying “toys” that they can’t afford or trying to live outside their means in a house that is half their take-home pay, driving a car that is worth their annual income, watching a TV that is wider than they are tall, and justifying all of these things as “needs”. They put their living expenses on credit cards and when they can’t afford credit card payments, they put those on another card. Then the card companies enact the Universal Default Provision which bumps their interest rate over 20%. They buy boats, jet skis, motorcycles, ATVs, and countless toys they could live without. They have to have the latest fashions in clothes, the best cell phone (or iPhone, or Blackberry, or…), the best computer, and the biggest cable package for their TV. They have to have letters like DVR, DVD, and HD-TV, WI-Fi, X-Box, PS3, Wii, and iPods. All of this stuff is E-X-T-R-A and keeps them from what is really important – spending time with their spouse and kids.

This brings me to my next point. Our society seems to think of kids as a burden. In his campaign, President Obama referred to his daughters being burdened with an unwanted child. It has to make them feel good that either of them might have been a "burden" to their parents, but given the current laws they couldn't be killed. Bush – a good Christian – was strictly Pro-Life. He believed that from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, you are a HUMAN BEING. Imagine that – you are a person when you are conceived, when you are born, when you are 2, when you get your drivers license, when you are old enough to vote, when you are old enough to drink, when you are working, when you are retired, when you are 90+, and when you are laying there on your death bed minutes from meeting your Maker. We are all endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights (see the Declaration of Independence) which include Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. You cannot tell me that there are not at least some of the 3,700 innocent children who are aborted each day would chose to not give up that UNALIENABLE right to life. As for the elderly, our new administration will be moving more toward a trend that says, “You are not valuable enough to society. The $25,000 it would take to keep you alive for one year is more than the $20,000 the government thinks you are worth. You are the weakest link, Goodbye. As Pope John Paul II once said, “A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.” It is interesting because this weak link in the chain of society is still better than no link at all. If there is no link in between, the chain separates. When a link is weak, the links around it need to support it and help it out as much as they can. If we fail to support these links, we end up a broken society. The elderly, the unborn, the sick, and those with special needs – they are just as valuable to this society as any other person.

We are all part of the Body of Christ. Look at the human body for example. I have 10 fingers and NONE of them can hear. I have two ears that work perfectly, but they cannot see. It is because just as God designed each part of our body with a specific purpose, just like each of us has a specific purpose, created by God, as a part of the Body of Christ. By cutting off an ear, the body suffers. Though it does not die (typically), it is not as strong as it could have been with that ear. Much the same is a baby who is aborted (or murdered if you will) or an elderly person who is struggling to hold on who is euthanized (also murdered).

So I invite people to STOP blaming Bush for every problem. If your life is messed up, there is only one person to blame, and he doesn’t speak with a southern accent (unless of course you do). The good news is that the same person that messed everything up is the one person who can straighten everything out. We are on the verge of something big – something truly huge and we don’t know what is about to hit us. We can only hope that Abraham Lincoln was right when he said. “It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.” Let us not be fooled by the media and the politicians telling us what they want us to believe and skewing the facts to advance their opinions. When we next go to the ballot box, maybe it is time to tell Washington and our local leaders that we are sick of outrageous spending and that we are ready for our representatives to start representing us.

Sorry for the rant – now I’m back to my mission…

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Halfway there...

Lent is over halfway over for this year. How fast it has gone! I feel like only last week I was sitting at my desk at work doing my best to keep from rubbing the ashes off my forehead. What happened to the last month?

Since lent is half over, I am going to recommit myself. I want to find a way to keep all of my resolutions as well as find new resolutions that will help my family and me grow closer to The One who made us. How can we get closer? Is there an obstacle that keeps us from being closer to God?

My daughters are amazing and I love them so much, but sometimes when I get home from work at the end of the day, I’m short tempered and often I end up snapping at them when they try to get attention. I am going to make a concerted effort to try my best to be pleasant with them. When I want to discipline I’m going to take a step back and think about how truly blessed I am. I will think about the fact that some people weren’t able to have kids, but God has chosen me to be a father. If one of them is crying because they don’t want to go to bed, I will think about people who have had children called home before them and think about how blessed I am that I get to hug each night and tuck into bed. I won’t completely put discipline aside, but I will work on not being so quick to impose timeout or snap and showing them that I know I am blessed to be their Papa.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

A Day Trip

This weekend has been a busy one so far. We got up early on Saturday morning and by 6:30 we were in the car on the way to visit my parents for the day. They live over 200 miles away, so its takes a good amount of time to get there. We had hoped the girls would sleep most of the way, but it didn't quite work that way...
We got up at about 6 and packed the car and then went to get the girls up. I got the big one and my wife the little one. I changed her diaper and carefully wrapped her in her blanket, all the while she was out. I lifted her up to my shoulder and she was still out. Carefully I walked out to the car - it was a beautiful morning, not too cool and so I thought I was in the clear. My wife had already buckled the little one in, and she was looking around with very drowsy eyes. I carefully sat the bigger one down and - wouldn't you know - the second she was in the car seat, she said, "Where are we going, Mama?" My wife reminded her that we were going to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but after that, she was awake.
Our trip was for a two-fold purpose. My brother is engaged to be married soon, and it was his fiance's bridal shower, so the girls were going to that. "The Girl Party" as my eldest called it was set to begin at 1, so we had to make it a quick trip. The other reason we were heading there was to visit as we hadn't seem my parents in nearly a month and my sister and her husband since Christmas.
We made excellent time and arrived with enough time before lunch that we could visit my ailing Grandpa. My Grandma was called home this fall after 63 years of marriage, and since then my Grandpa is suffering from a heart condition - a broken heart that is. He is very lonely, but my parents and my brothers and sisters visit him when they can, but he is just ready to move on himself.
After arriving at my parent's house, we had lunch and the girls left for the shower. I was left with my Dad and my younger brother, who will be inheriting the family farm. They asked if I wanted to help them with the cows they were working. I decided a little farm work might be fun, so I agreed and changed into some work clothes.
It is an interesting thing when you do something that takes you back 5-10 years. I haven't done hardly any farm work since graduating and getting a job. Its hard for us to get back and when we do, we usually spend most of the time visiting people and trying to catch up. This time however, I was able to get out and help.
My dad and I have always had a pretty good relationship. In fact, I would say that for most of my high school and college years, we was probably my best friend as well as my hero. We didn't have a falling out or anything that changed it, but the physical distance between us has definitely put space between us. I would still consider us good friends, but we just don't have that same relationship we did a few years ago. Maybe it is because now I have a family of my own, maybe because I moved in a different direction careerwise, maybe its just how the Father planned it, but things have change. However, as we were working those cattle, things came back to me from when I had been a part of things there and I realized that we really hadn't grown apart - we just don't have our time together that we used to. As we sorted, paired, and drove the cattle, I couldn't help but think about the old days. Iwas very refreshing.
My mom later asked me how it was, but I didn't know how to respond. I enjoyed being useful, being a part of the farm again, and especially the time with my dad and my brother. However, comparing the career I have chosen, programming computers, and the farm is not possible. After living on a farm for 21 years, I still can't understand why cows behave a certain way. I can tell you about mannerisms they have, what to expect from them, and proper care for them, but I can't figure out what they are thinking most of the time. With computers, I have grown better at understanding them with each passing day and determined that my mind is very good at thinking with the kind of logic a computer uses. I guess the whole issue is that while my dad was able to teach me a lot about cows and farming, I never had that natural "Click" where things just made sense. Computers did "Click" and thus became my passion. It is evident to me that my dad had this "Click" and my brother, too. But for me, while the farm will always be a part of me, as well as the lessons I learned from it, it became aparent that that wasn't part of the mission God has given me.
My daughters have a little half sphere toy with shapes cut out of it and plastic shapes that fit in those holes. I discovered one evening that there are 3 different shapes that will fit through the pentagon hole: The star, pentagon, and triangle. I think God made me like that hole and while there are many things that could have fit me, there is only one that is the most correct for me.
I really enjoyed the time with my dad and brother. The work was different than I am used to now, but it was enjoyable for the day. So if my mom were to ask me the question now, I would say, "Yes, I did enjoy helping out."
After all of that, we arrived back at their house and I had a quick shower. We played with the girls for a little bit and then it was supper time. We ate and got packed up. After a little more play time, the girls and I got back in the car and headed back home.
The trip home went pretty well, save the last 45 minutes. The girls were so exhausted because the only nap they had had was a 20 minute snooze they took while everyone else was eating. With about 45 minutes left, the younger decided she had had her fill of the car and wanted out. My wife and I sang every song we could think of and she even got in the back seat trying to calm her down. Finally, at about 11, we pulled into the garage. We had changed the girls into their pajamas before leaving my parents house and so we put them straight to bed. We expected some fuss, but both of them were asleep in about 5 minutes.

The trip went well, but it was rather exhausting and we used part of today to recover from that. But recovery time is over now, so I'm back to my mission...

Friday, March 20, 2009

Reflection on a sticker...

Today my wife and daughters were on their way home from story time at the bookstore and they decided to swing by the place where I work to say "Hi." I came out and sat in the car with them for a few minutes. While I was out there, my eldest daughter, who is 2 1/2 showed me the activity they had done after story time. It was "Very Hungry Caterpillar" day and so their craft had involved a small thin caterpillar and a big fat caterpillar. Knowing the story, I asked if they had a butterfly and my daughter showed me the shiny glittery butterfly sticker on her shirt. I told her what a good job she had done and went back to talking to my wife. After a minute, my daughter spoke up and said "Papa, here is a sticker for you." She had pulled the sticker off her shirt and was now offering it to me. It was a sweet gesture and so after making sure that she was sure she wanted to give it to me, I accepted the gift and thanked her, sticking her gift over the pocket on my shirt.

After finishing my conversation with my wife, I bid them all good-bye and returned to work. Our office environment is very casual, so I didn't think about the sticker until I was washing my hands after using the restroom. In the mirror, I noticed a sticker fit for a little girl - not a grown man. Now normally, I would have removed the sticker and stuck it to one of the pictures she has drawn me that adorn my office walls. However, as I was walking back to my office, I got to thinking about it. I remembered that when I was a little kid, there was few things cooler than a nice sticker. Any chance you got to have one, you wore it with pride until it refused to stick to anything. They were used on homework to make you feel special. Stickers were fun and treasured when you got them. That got me thinking - I know that my daughter loves stickers and that she enjoys having one on her shirt. Then I realized something: she had given me the sticker because I am that special to her and she wanted me to feel as special as that sticker had made her feel. WOW! I was about to get rid of such an amazing compliment without even considering what it meant... talk about an eye opening experience.

When I got home, I gave her a big hug and told her thank you for the sticker again and told her how special she was to me. Though she probably didn't understand it, I wanted to tell her anyway.

Later this evening I had some errands to run so I offered to take her with me while my wife and younger daughter went to Mass. While we were running errands, she said to me, "Papa, I wish you were a Mama."

ME: "Why is that, honey?"
B: I want you to stay home with me all day.

It gets harder to leave every day. Thats why I'm glad that they have started sleeping in until after 8, so that I get more time with them at night and that I don't have to leave sad faces each morning.

As I was helping her get ready for bed tonight, she said one more thing I thought I would share.

B: Papa, you should be a Mama.
Me: Why is that?
B: Because then you could be beautiful like Mama is.

God makes children amaze us to show us that not all of what they learn is from us - He does some teaching, too.

But now I'm back to my mission...I love it!

Engrained in my nature...

How is it that I can try so hard at something and fail so badly? I try every day to help out around the house and do my part. I try to be a good father to my children. I try to be a good son, brother, coach, etc. But it’s just a like a car with a flat tire pulling really hard to the left, I sometimes pull the wrong way. Why do we tend toward the easy way? Why is sin so engrained with us that if we drop our guard, it takes over?

My whole life has been a pattern of me fighting off the urge to sin until I think I have beat it and then BANG! Right in my face I realize that I dropped my guard and its over. Just like trying to roll the rock up the hill and just before you get there, you loose your footing and it rolls back down. It’s a constant battle that you must continually fight. For example, one that is very difficult is the urge to sit around. There is always something to do around the house, especially with little ones. There is always something to pick up or clean up, laundry to do, meals to make, dishes to do, etc. Yet, here I sit writing a Blog entry when I could be doing any of the above. Don’t get me wrong – my wife is amazing and would take care of all of these things while I’m at work, but I feel like I need to carry my weight around the house (after all I am the biggest). I find myself struggling to deal with the urge to sit around, to play on the computer, to do things for fun, etc. all the while shirking my responsibilities and leaving more work for my partner. The laws of physics state that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object that is inert will remain inert. However, maybe it is the forces of gravity, inertia, or some other physics term, but my personal thought is that it is the force of original sin – a tendency to sin that is so engrained within us all that sometimes we end up not realizing that it is even influencing our decisions until it is too late.
Sorry for the rant, but its something that always bothers me about myself... But as C. S. Lewis once said, "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good." If only it wasn't so hard to be good... But now, back to my mission...

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Real Saint Patrick

When people think of St. Patrick’s Day, the first thoughts that come to mind are green beer, parties, and corned beef and hash. Maybe some think of the Shamrock. Others think of wearing the color green to avoid pinches. There are a few people though who are aware of what the day really means.

St. Patrick’s Day marks the Roman Catholic Church’s celebration of the life of a great saint. According to the Patron Saint Index, St. Patrick was born in the late in the fourth century on the British mainland and at age 16 he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. While working as a shepherd, he prayed all the time. He escaped back to the mainland when he was 22 and became a priest and eventually a bishop. He was then sent back to Ireland.

Once in Ireland, he started to convert the pagan people of the land. He is most famous for his use of the shamrock to explain the Trinity. He showed how the three leaves of the shamrock were like the three persons in the Trinity, yet they were part of the same plant like the three persons are one God. The people loved his simple preaching and much of Ireland was converted. He often used the protection of local kings to preach to the pagan druids of Ireland. According to popular legend, when a druid priest tried to kill Patrick, he was unable to move his arm until he repented of the evil he wanted to do and converted.

During the middle ages, it was monasteries which Patrick helped to found that kept the Catholic faith alive. In the middle ages, people in central Europe feared learning and books as well as the Faith. They did everything in their power to destroy the faith or anything related. Thousands of relics were destroyed and much of Christianity was lost. However, after the Dark Ages, the faith, which had been preserved in Ireland, started to spread back to Europe and eventually became a big part of life in Europe again.

Patrick had a breastplate which has become famous for the powerful words inscribed upon it, which have become a popular church hymn:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort me and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

St. Patrick encouraged the Irish to practice chastity and sobriety. He helped to instill them with a deep faith that has lived on with much of the country to this day. Even Irish immigrants to the United States brought this strong faith with them. It is very ironic that this strong faith that he instilled lead to a holiday when people celebrate with drinking and immodest partying. One day, perhaps people will celebrate the Saint in a manor more befitting his humble and courageous way.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Shower of Roses...

To continue my theme from last Friday: After dating for three years, things began changing in my life. I completed an internship that I had picked up during college. I got a full time job and graduated from the University. I moved out of my college house and things were looking pretty good. God had blessed me yet again without me even knowing what to ask for and helped me to find a good apartment close to my good job and rooming with a good friend. The guy I lived with had been my roommate in my college house, but he was preparing to graduate as well and decided to separate from the college lifestyle. With the approach of summer, I knew something had to change. I gathered up my courage and went to a jewelry store. After hours of research I had the perfect diamond picked out, but I just couldn’t find the setting I liked. I finally just drew it out on a piece of paper and said, “Can you do this?” The lady at the jewelry store checked with their jeweler and told me it would be ready in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS!!! I had a lot of planning to do. I knew this had to be big, so I spent all of my free time over then next two weeks putting it together. Two weeks was the feast of Our Lady of Mount Caramel, so I knew that that was the day. I had been trying to find a unique way of asking and finally came up with the idea to create a little book that would do most of the work for me. I spent hours using Microsoft Paint and Word to put together a little cartoon book that told the story of a Koala from the city and a Rhino from the country who met and fell in love and got married. On the last two pages, it had spelled out in big letters “Will you marry me?” I took it to the local Kinko’s the night before July 16th. They said it wouldn’t be ready until 10AM. She worked that day until 1, so I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. I began the morning by sneaking over to her apartment after she had left for work and left a treasure hunt of notes. Then I went to pick up the ring. Next I went to ask her dad (I’ve always been bad about waiting until the last minute on things).

She thought I was heading out of town for the weekend, so it would be a complete surprise. The treasure hunt at her apartment led her to a rose with a clue attached. The final clue asked her to feed my fish for me. I had told her that my roommate would be home, but that I only trusted her to feed them (he knew what the plan was). So she arrived at my apartment to find another rose and a clue telling her that one rose was for her and one was for St. Therese. She called me as she was approaching the Parish to which we now belong, and I had to pretend to be driving without lying to her. In the front pew I left the book I had made and sat behind a pillar with a rose in my hand, the ring in my pocket, and a prayer in my heart. It seemed like forever before she arrived and placed the rose by the statue of St. Therese. This was nothing new for us as I often gave her 2 roses (one for her and one for St. Therese). However, when she knelt in the pew to pray, she noticed the book on the front pew with a little sticky note on it spelling out her name. She picked it up and began reading while I watched from around the corner. When I saw her get to then end and read the second to last page, I snuck up right beside her. She read the last page and looked around and saw me. Jumping out of the pew she gave me a huge hug and said in a hushed whisper, “YES! YES!”

I pushed back for a second got down on my knee and said, “Kati, you mean the world to me and I wanted to be right here in front of the Holy Family (their statues were right there) and ask you if you would like try to be a holy family with me?” I then told her to take a minute to think and pray and I would wait outside for the answer. She knelt down for just a minute and then joined me outside just glowing. We went to mass that evening, talked to the priest afterward, got a special engagement blessing, and then spent the rest of the evening telling our family and friends the news.

It was a great day and even though the “Yes” came from her, it was definitely another blessing from God.

And now I’m back to my mission…

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A new perspective...

Another day of sickness in my house… My eldest has two ear infections and a fever. My youngest had a fever of almost 104 this morning and the doctor says she has influenza… Curse her cuddliness. My wife is still ok, but the doctor gave her no chance of making it through this ordeal healthy. I’m back to work, but I’m dragging and irritable. But the word of the day is “perspective”. Keep things in perspective.

While looking at my Face Book account, I noticed that one of my high school classmates had her status stating that she was still at Children’s Hospital with her little girl battling a disease that was yet undiagnosed. How truly blessed we are…

A few months ago, a family from my home town laid their still born son to rest without getting a chance to know him. How truly blessed we are…

I read a story in the paper last year about a guy who was let out of prison to see his little girl before she was taken by a brain tumor. How truly blessed we are…

I heard a couple tell their story on the radio today about never having kids because of fertility problems and not having the financial means to adopt. How truly blessed we are…

I complain far too often, but when you look at thinks in perspective, we are all truly blessed… Isn’t God amazing? Well, I'm back to my mission...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

In Sickness and In Health

There is nothing like being sick to really make you appreciate your blessings. I woke up Saturday with a fever of 102.4. I ached all over and had a really bad cough. I was tired and my stomach felt queasy. However, Saturday was the Special Olympics Regional Basketball Tournament and I knew that I had 9 kids that would be depending on me to make it. Popping a couple of extra strength Tylenol and a couple of my wife’s peach muffins, I was able to make it through the day. I’ll write more about that later. Sunday at about 4 AM, I started vomiting. I spent most of the day in our basement watching movies with my daughter (who was also running a triple digit temperature). My wife checked on us more times than I could count in between running errands and going to Mass. She nursed us back to health. When I continued running a 102 degree fever into Monday, she convinced me to go to the doctor, who confirmed what I had feared. I had Influenza Type A and it was going to be about a week before I would be back to normal. Through Monday and then Tuesday, my wife continued to care for us and help us out when we needed it. My eldest finally broke her fever on Tuesday morning, but unfortunately, as it left her, it found her sister. Our little one has been running a strong fever for two days now, but it is improving with Motrin. I worked half a day today, so I’m nearly back to normal.

What does this have to do with blessings? Well, all through the weekend, whenever I would fall short on something, or have trouble, there was always someone there to pick up the slack. Someone was always doing the dirty work that I didn’t have the strength to do. And it is that someone with whom I share a bed at night that God gave to me in sickness and in health. I just pray that the sickness is behind us for this year and that she can avoid this junk. It is extremely unpleasant and I hate to see her suffer. She is such a tremendous blessing to me; I thank God for her every day. We are all praying that she doesn’t get sick for two reasons: because we don’t want to see her suffer and because we don’t know what we would do without her if she was out of commission.

And now, I'm back to my mission.

Friday, March 6, 2009

For best results, shower daily...

I shower every day. I should say I am showered ever day. God showers me with blessings that I can’t even begin to fathom. I am married to my best friend. Through her God has given me two beautiful little girls. She stays at home with them and she is an amazing mother to them.

God started leading me to her just over 7 years ago. I was a college student and was searching for where I belonged. A good friend of mine was just getting involved with the campus Parish. I thought this might be a good place for me to start. I started attending a Bible study and later daily Mass. I soon made a lot of friends there and was attending daily Mass. It was at 10 PM so it fit perfectly with a college schedule. I had found where I belonged, but now I wondered where God was leading me. It was the end of the spring semester and I returned to my hometown to work on my dad’s farm/ranch for the summer.

While I was home that summer, I missed my community at the Newman Center. My brothers were both dating girls and my sisters were a lot younger and busy with their lives. My parents have always been involved in just about everything, so they were busy with their involvements. I was alone in the middle of nowhere. That summer helped me grow a lot and though I struggled with missing my community, I was able to discern that God was calling me to the married life and I just had to wait until he showed me the girl.

Starting school the next fall, I was excited to get back to my friends and excited to see what God had in store for me. I immediately got more involved in the Newman Center. There was a lot to do and I really enjoyed it. However, waiting for God to show me the right girl was hard – I often wondered if he would just whisper it to me or if it would be like a 2x4 to the head. I was hoping for the later, but of course God likes to whisper, too. (see 1 Kings 19:11-13). One night at Mass, I noticed a very pious looking young lady. She was kneeling in the chapel praying next to her friend. After Mass, we just happened to be leaving at the same time. I held the door for her and her friend, and she smiled at me. She was very pretty, but not the type of girl that is too good to talk to an average guy like myself. She had a beautiful smile and her bluish-green eyes shined.

A week later, some of the people from the Newman Center decided to go dancing. I decided to ask if this girl, who had been coming to Mass each night, would like to go. Of course as things work, she said she had to go to a birthday party that night. I was ready to give up – and its times like that when God does bring out the 2x4. Over the next few weeks, I had opportunities to talk to this young lady and got to know her. Of course, as I got to know her, I found she grew even more beautiful as her inner beauty shined through.

Soon we were talking every night and even chatting online when she was at home and I was in the dorms. We joined a broomball team with some of our mutual friends. It came to be Thanksgiving, and I went back to my hometown for the holiday weekend. The weekend went well, but the whole time I was gone I was thinking about her. I decided that I couldn’t let her get away without another try. There was a concert coming up with the band Rascal Flatts as well as Brad Paisley. I bought a couple of tickets and then asked her to go with me. She agreed to go. The night before that concert, I asked her to be my girlfriend and she agreed!

We started dating in 2002 and dated for three and half years. Like any couple, we had a lot of ups and downs, but we stuck by each other and grew closer. It was great knowing that we were living our calling, but we knew that there was something bigger coming. It would be a life changing event, because once that occurred, there was no her and me – there was only Us.

That’s all for this shower, but there are many more to come. And now, back to my mission…

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Vision Check...



I’ve always had perfect vision. Though my eyes were a little weak in muscles (I still can’t cross them), the seeing part was perfect. However, despite my best efforts at seeing, I still struggle to see as well looking forward as I can see looking back.

Hindsight is an interesting thing. I’ve made countless decisions in my life and I look back now on some of those and think, “Wow – that was dumb.” How much better off would I be had I done it this way or said that thing? I think back about mistakes I’ve made and wonder what I was thinking, if I was thinking at all. How can I be so absent-minded.

It is often said hindsight is 20/20, but I have come to the conclusion that this statement is false. Sure, looking back I can see the result of the choice I made clearly and what choice would have been better for me. But hindsight is not just perfect vision. It is often a magnified tunnel vision of the incident in question. For example, I recently made the decision to take a different route to work. It was a bad decision in hindsight because it ended up taking almost 10 minutes longer than going my regular route would have. But that hindsight does not consider the factors that could have been altered by my going another way. Had I gone the other way, would there be someone that didn’t make it through a light on time because they were one car further back? What about the lady that I let turn on to the street? Would she have made it on time? Was there a speed trap on that road? Did anyone have an accident? I don’t know any of these things and without researching every detail (which is impossible to do) its hard to look at the whole picture. So maybe hindsight is 20/20, but it is a very small scope you are looking through when you see that 20/20.

James Mapes once said “Assumptions are the death of possibilities.” If this is true, then assuming that hindsight is accurate causes the loss of all the possibilities that might have happened. Maybe by going that other way I let someone else get through the light and make it to work on time. Maybe I ruined someone’s day by slowing down traffic on the other route. Assuming that I should have gone the other way kills the possibility of me helping that lady and the possibility of that car that took my place in the traffic queue making it there faster. This is just a tiny example of how our hindsight doesn’t take the whole picture into account.

What gets really crazy is when you can use hindsight without the binoculars. What I mean is what if you look at events that happened and the effects that they have caused. While we can’t do this with decisions we didn’t make (like I can’t determine what would have happened had I gone the other way to work), we can see the ripples from our choice. Take for example my decision of where to go to college. Had I gone to UNK – there is no telling who I would have met, where I would have worked, if I would have ever met my wife, would I have embraced my faith the way I have, or countless other things. But my decision was to go to UNL and some of the ripples from this have been meeting my wife, embracing my faith, finding the kind of work I love, finding a good job, meeting a lot of my friends, becoming a member of my Parish, etc. I could go on all day with stuff that wouldn’t have happened if I had gone somewhere else. But if I look in hindsight, I might see that I would have saved some money and travel time visiting my parents and not see the ripples.



Those ripples are amazing, but what is even more amazing is looking at how it’s really God’s hand causing those ripples. He knew how the ripples would affect me and therefore he tried to lead me to the best ripples. Had I not made the right choice, He still would have led me with those ripples. So much like the pictures they used have in the Weekly Reader papers we got in grade school where the picture was blown up 100 times and only a small section was shown, I can’t use my ULTRA HINDSIGHT VISION to look at events and what I should have done differently. Sometimes the best vision is looking at the whole picture and appreciating what the Artist created and not paying attention to minute details.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that this:



















Is part of this:

So always look at the whole picture and try to avoid your hindsight, because in looking behind, we don't see what we have now or what lies ahead.
And now, I'm back to my mission.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

My Juggling Act

Did you know that I am a semi-professional juggler? I juggle hats. I have a lot of hats that I juggle. It’s a lot of fun and makes life interesting, especially since I have so many hats and occasionally a couple will try to slide away from me. When they do try to get away, it makes the juggling tough as sometimes I can’t catch all. Then I have to decide which hats I want to keep juggling. I could go for the nicest looking hat… Maybe the one that fits me best… There’s the one that is the most profitable… But here is the one that makes me a better person… And that one is one that I like a lot, but it isn’t any of those other things…

In the end, I have a system for choosing which hat to catch for those times when I can only choose one. The first hat I catch is my Catholic hat. It is the one that really defines me as a person. It guides all my actions and without it, none of the other hats would matter – or at least they would probably be in a much different order. Next is my Husband hat. This one is very important as well. I am married to a wonderful woman who is happy to help me pick up some of the hats I drop, as long as I don’t drop the top two. After my Husband hat comes my Father hat. This hat is the one that allows me to be a good dad to my little girls. It helps me to remember that it is my charge on earth to carry these top three hats at all times. The Husband and Father hats are intertwined with the Provider and Protector hats that I juggle. These come pretty easy and they are fairly aerodynamic so they don’t flail around a lot.

The next few hats are a bit lower than the first three, but they are still pretty important. These include my Son and Brother hats, which are about the same. Seldom do they go astray and hardly ever at the same time. These hats help me to be a good member of my family. There is also my In-Law hat which helps me to get along with my wife’s family. The final hat in this group is my Friend hat. This one I struggle with a lot because there are only so many hats that I can juggle and I drop this one a lot. I have some really good friends, but I seldom get a chance to see them because of all the other hats. I try my best to make sure that I keep in touch with this hat, but more often than I would like, it falls to the ground.

The next group of hats is a mixture of things I enjoy and things that I do for the betterment of my family or me. I love my coaching hat. I have been a Special Olympics Coach for 2 years now and love doing that. I’ve also got my Youth Group Leader hat. This one is a little more work than the others, but I feel like God keeps telling me to hold on to this one. Two other hats that belong in this group are my Acolyte hat and my Usher hat. The Usher hat is nice because it allows me to meet a lot of the wonderful people that are in our Parish. The Acolyte hat is great because it lets me serve the Church and be close to the Consecration which is absolutely incredible, however it makes it hard to hold on to the Husband and Father hats because I have to leave my family in the pews to grab this one.

There is another hat that is really complicated. This hat actually has a series of small hats that reside within it, but it gets tricky because I don’t want to drop these small hats out while I handle the main hat. This hat is my Employee hat. It contains the smaller hats of Programming, Estimating, Phone Answering, Planning, Project Management, and Client Management. These hats while smaller than the Employee hat make this one of the toughest hats to keep juggling, but it is also far better than other Employee hats and this is one that I have to keep juggling in some form or another, or I will drop the Provider and Protector hats.

The final tier of hats is comprised of things that I just enjoy keeping up with, but these are frequently dropped because of one thing or another. My Small Business hat is one that creeps up from time to time and that is why I have my little hobby Morning Star Memories. My Citizen hat keeps me interested in politics. My Football helmet keeps me interested in sports, particularly football.

There are many more hats in my life that I will pick up sometimes and juggle for a while, but 17 is usually about my limit. I wish I could do more and I hope that someday I’ll be able to go pro and handle all of my hats, but until then, my hat rack holds the rest. On my hat rack you will find my Knights of Columbus, Men’s Club, Athlete, Video Gaming, Craftsman, and Groundskeeper hats.

My hat juggling is a lot of fun, but sometimes its hard work. I wish I could juggle other things like I do my hats, but just ask my wife, I can’t. I’m not even that good with my hats sometimes – like when I have to stay late at work or when I put off preparing for our youth group until the last minute. With practice, someday I hope to become a professional hat juggler, but I may trim it down so I only have a few hats that I juggle and I will just be really good at it.

Monday, March 2, 2009

You are getting sleepy...



Holding your little one in the rocking chair, you rock back and forth. You hum a gentle tune. Your slow rhythmic breathing soothes her ears. She cuddles into you and closes her eyes. Soon, she is drifting off to dream land. As you listen to her little snores you decide it would be a good time to lay her down so you can get a little work done. And then you wake up and it is half an hour later.

How do they do it? It’s like someone hypnotized you.

Stronger than tryptophan.
More powerful than Dramamine.
It SLEEPY BABY!!

I can’t explain it. One minute I am sitting there rocking my daughter to sleep. The next minute, I’m waking up from a nap of my own. About a month ago my youngest woke up early (like 6 o’clock early). I was just getting ready for the day and so I got her up, changed her, and started to rock her back to sleep. She snuggled in and about an hour and a half later, my wife found me in the chair and asked, “Don’t you need to leave for work?”

I’ll sit down to watch the game. It will be the 4th quarter with my favorite team trailing by 3 with only 1:30 left and they are driving down the field. My little one gets cranky, so I pick her up and BANG I’m watching the amazing heroics of some player from a different team on the post game show! How does this happen?!?

Sometimes I will try to read while I’m rocking her… Oops!



It’s not like I take a lot of naps or like I’m very tired. I hardly ever nap – though I’m not opposed to the occasional snooze. I can have a whole pot of coffee and then sit down with one of my girls and before you know it, I’m gone. It’s a travesty.

IS THERE NO HOPE?

There is only a nap… a slowly rocking, rhythmic, warm, snuggly nap. But hey, there is no better kind.