Danny in 2003

Video from Late 2001 - 2002

Check out some video from the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002 including:

- Party at the Kershners with the unmarried Wells'
- New Year's Eve Party
- Jim and Andrew Wrestling
- Toby's Birth
- Some quick Video of Danny

Nice Video of the Kids

Here's a small glimpse into our life:

Danny's First Day of T-Ball

I missed Danny's first ever T-Ball game, but I got to hear some important things about it.

First-when I called Kristin at 7:05 AM this morning to talk to her for the first time in a week, she told me Danny's game was at 11:30 AM, and that he was already wearing his cup! He was so excited!

He called me on the way and said "Dad, I'm nervous about going to my first game without my dad." I told him to listen to the other coaches, to concentrate, and to do his best and it would work out!

Kristin told me that the first time he got up to hit, he hit the ball, started running to first, and then ran to the bench to grab his glove because he was going "into the field!" So cute.

I told the story to the guys on my mission trip, and AJ shared a story about his son. When he was playing soccer, he son always wanted to play goalie. Finally, after many games, the coach gave him a chance to play goalie.

The other team got a breakaway towards AJ's son. There were no defenders left- just the other team with the ball and AJ's son in the net. The crowd looked up, and AJ's son was turned around backwards with his head stuck in the net! The other team scored easily... HA

Making Sense

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Miami waiting to wake up tomorrow so I can fly home to my family. I'm trying to make sense of my trip. I think it will be more effective for me to debrief in a few weeks. Right now, everything is too fresh. It was yesterday that I woke up, rode a trufi into town and back, worked in the after-school center, had dinner with the Timmer's, and flew overnight to Miami. It's too close to what I experienced to make sense of it. Here are my observations so far:

1. The work Mike Timmer is doing is a hugely successful one. He is creating ministries that are effective, self-sustaining, and make a difference in the lives of many.

2. The orphans are a success story, not a sad story. How they get to the orphanage is always a painful experience, but they are there- they've been saved. You can tell on the looks of the kids faces the ones that have been saved and the ones who are lost.




3. The power of the Internet makes Bolivia close to the US. I was able to blog, email, and fix problems at work all while being in a third world developing country. However, the Internet also makes it possible to feel closer to home when far away- the value of which cannot be understated.

More later, but I'm tired...

Bolivia Day 1

I left for Bolivia today. We traveled from Boston to Baltimore to Miami. We're staying at a hotel tonight on our way to Cochabamba tomorrow.

Interesting group- very diverse personalities, and we seem to be in pairs- Me and Savage, the Dore's, Marie and Sue, and AJ and Jim. Everyone seems to be respectful of everyone else so far. I enjoyed my first day. I'm trying to think of what I can share about the day that is interesting....

Google Reader

For those of you who use the Internet, I suggest Google Reader. It is a free service that keeps track of other websites and lets you know when a website has been updated. So instead of checking 14 blogs to look for changes, Google Reader tells me when someone updates their blog. It even displays the blog for me to read along with other new items. It works very well....

The Knife

After having knee problems suddenly appear in January of 2007, today, I finally got a prognosis. I need surgery on both of my knees to fix a movement defect. Basically, both of my knee caps are tilted towards the outside of my knee, causing the problems I have running, walking, standing, etc. To fix the issue, the Doctor is going to cut the tissue that attaches my knee caps to my femur so that my knee cap will be free to move the right way. It is an arthroscopic procedure with a fairly quick (2-4 month) recovery. I can only do one knee at a time, so I'll do my left this summer sometime and then my right sometime after the first surgery.

Believe it or not, I'm excited. It has been such a pain (literally) dealing with my knees for the past 16 months. Having a straight-forward, relatively simple solution to the problem is such a relief.

First Day of T-Ball

I want to share some of my experiences and quotes from T-Ball today. I am the coach, and Danny is on my team. There are 10 players of varying skill levels. We had our first practice today.

First, I had to buy Danny a "cup" as is required by Little League. Once he got it on, he hit is three times and goes "Anybody home?" Then he said "The butt's hanging out!"

We got to practice where I met the other 7 players and their family. For eight players, there were about 20-22 people at practice. Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc. Unreal. Camcorders, digital cameras- I didn't see any members of the press though.

-- Name this song reference "She took me by the hand. She made me a man." --

We did all sorts of drills and running and fun stuff. I had them moving quickly doing lots of different things. It was interesting- going from high school girls softball to 5 year old boys T-ball.

Afterwards, Danny said to me the following things:

"Dad, I actually had fun at T-Ball."

"Dad, I liked the things you had us do at T-Ball. It was interesting what we did."

"Dad, T-Ball practice like changed my life. It like actually changed my life I liked it so much."

"Dad, thanks for T-Ball, it was the best day of my life, even though it was just practice."

When we first got there, he went to go throw a ball with another little boy. Watching the two of them walk away together was a priceless memory.

He's another sappy story. Yesterday, I left my new ATM card in the ATM. Idiot. So I called to get it replaced. It will be my third card in three weeks. Anyway, I called Bank of America. After 15 minutes of verifying me, getting a new card ordered, etc., the lady on the phone said "I'm sorry this happened to you, but we'll take care of it for you." Guess what- I started to cry! I was like "Kristin! WHat the heck, I"m crying!" She busted out laughing. It was ridiculous. I don't know if it was being sick or the medicine or what, but I totally lost my mind. It was very embarrassing. Something the lady said just struck me. What a sally I am. Kristin said that's what happens to girls with PMS- they cry for no reason.

I wish I remembered more about the T-ball time, I already forget some of it...

Spiritual Warfare? Or me being dumb?

Here is my past two weeks:

Last week = Flu. In bed for 2 days. I don't function well when I'm sick. My mind feels like mush and I cannot focus on anything.

Friday = T-Ball Meeting, Small Group, watching Cascade play. I got a ticket for going through a red light in Bedford. I was not happy. I had a split second to make a judgment call about if I could stop in time, and I made the wrong decision. Oh well.

Saturday = Birthday.

Sunday = Strep Throat. First time since I was a kid. In fact, it was the first time in at least 7 years (that I have records for) that I went to the doctor for being sick. Monday was the worst I have ever felt being sick. It was unreal.

Tuesday = Work although still sick. But I did it.

Wednesday = On my way to work, at Exit 3 off of 93, traffic gets backed up right before the exit almost every day because of sun glare. And probably 3 times a week I exit (along with every other person who exits there) in the breakdown lane. Today, a State Trooper was not impressed. He pulled me over- twice in 5 days! No ticket today though.

So, is it spiritual warfare for my trip with me being sick and breaking the law, or just me breaking the law???

NYC Photos

 
 
 
 

Trip to NYC

For my Bolivia trip, I decided to go to the Bolivian Consulate in NYC in person rather than mail our passports and applications to them. Also, we could get visas in the airport, but we have a short connection which is probably not enough time to get through the visa line. Long story short, me and my team have our visas which are good for five years.

I decided to take Danny with me. I woke him up at 5:05 AM and he said "No dad!" I said "It's time to go to NYC" and immediately, he was awake and ready for our adventure.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, both of us are fairly sick. On the way back tonight, we stopped one time for 10 minutes and drove the last 3+ hours straight with no stops. Pretty impressive for a 5.5 year old.

We drove to NYC and parked in the upper west side which is just outside of the "congestion zone" for parking. Basically, I researched and found a parking lot that was cheap and near the subway.

We took the 1 train into mid-town Manhattan to 42nd street. West 42nd street. We had to trek to 211 EAST 43rd Street to the Bolivian Consulate. The cool part is that 43rd street is chopped in half by Grand Central Station. We got to walk through and see the huge train station. Keep in mind, Danny is sick. My hyper boy could barely keep up walking with me and eventually had to be carried. He weighs 50+ pounds. Yeah. And I wore my girly clog shoes. Idiot...

We found the address for the consulate and went to suite 702 which was nothing more than a 3 room office that employed 3 people- all Bolivian (obviously).

They asked what I wanted. I said "visas" and they took my folders and left. It was a little disconcerting. The passports of myself and seven others were taken from me into another room that I could not see. Then, we had to leave to take our $800 cash payment for the visas up the street to the Chase bank to be deposited. When we got back, we sat for about an hour waiting for our visas.

There were a lot of people in and out, but interestingly, two sets of Bolivian nationals who live in the US full time who were trying to get the Bolivian Consulate to help them out. One set wanted visas because they have US passports, and the other wanted a new Bolivian passport since she lost hers. This lady came in last, but had her needs taken care of first. One of my first real experiences being the minority and not first in line...

Danny and I left with the 8 passports and went looking for pizza. It was 12:30 PM and we hadn't eaten since we had Dunkin Donuts at 5:30 AM. Sick, hungry, and tired described Danny, but he did well. We found a great pizza place that sold $.99 pieces of pizza. It was great. We ate it out on the sidewalk with people walking by, some of whom made comments about Danny's Red Sox hat and our bravery for coming to NY with a Boston hat!

Here's where I could have planned better. I knew Danny couldn't make it back to the subway station (about a half-mile to a mile walk), and he wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. What we ended up doing was taking a $20 cab ride uptown to our car on 96th street, and then driving downtown to the Financial District to see the Statue. Then we had to drive north again to get off the island of Manhattan... I should have just parked Downtown and moved around better on the subway on the lower east side instead of starting on the upper west side... Anyway, and I learned about Manhattan. Manhattan is a tall, skinny island surrounded by the Hudson River to the West and the East River to the... East. Upper means North, Lower means South. Uptown is North, Downtown is South, and the line separating East from West is Central Park Uptown and 5th Avenue Downtown. Also, streets start at the southern tip of Manhattan as 1st street and run parallel up to like 150th street. The "avenues" run North and south and connect the numbered streets. Make sense? It really does because if all of the streets had unique proper names, it would be impossible to figure out how to get around.

I was impressed with the efficiency of space in NYC. There is no space- at all, for anything. A parking garage is not a place where someone drives in and parks in a spot- no. I drove in, stopped, and then watched them take my car and park it surrounded on all four sides by other cars. They asked me what time I was coming back so they could store my car in a place where they can easily get it out.

Also, the monthly cost of a parking space in the "cheap" parking garage where I was is only $508 a month! I cannot imagine paying over $500 to park my car and be required to give an hour's notice before I can even get my car.

Buses were parked on the side of the road literally touching each other. There is no space between buildings. There is no space anywhere but up in the air. It's no wonder the rental price in Manhattan is higher than in any other part of the world.

Oh yeah, one weird thing- there is no parking anywhere. Especially none that is free. I paid $12 to park in a cheap garage for 2-3 hours. We drove down to see the Statue which is all the way Downtown in the prime real estate zone. I pulled into something at the southern tip of the island and found a place to park, in an open lot, for free. Other people were parking there, there we no signs, so I left it there. It was weird. It didn't feel right- but no ticket, no problem!

Danny and I are shot- 12 hours, 34 minutes and 500+ miles in one day. Being sick didn't help, but it still was a fun adventure as evidenced by Danny saying to me at one point "I think this is a day I will remember for the rest of my life."