More Photos from Kiana's Birthday Party

Kiana's 4th Birthday Party

5 Things: Tyson

We watched the documentary "Tyson" last night. It covers the rise and fall of Mike Tyson, heavyweight chump champ. We left the movie thinking these five things:

1. Having a strong male influence in a boy's life makes a world of difference.
2. Tyson was a really, really good fighter.
3. His search for significance turned him into an arrogant, mean, sex-addicted, drugged-up, womanizing, self-worshiping idiot. It happens all the time.
4. See #3.
5. See #3 again.

Jumping Jack

Jack loves his new bouncer. Ella does a good job of making him smile and laugh when he is in it.

Jack & Grandma

@ Dennis Day's birthday party

5 Things: Cancer

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) died last night after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. The news made me think of 5 things:

1. We miss Craig. A lot.
2. Cancer is devastating. And brain cancer, especially so.
3. May we (please) stop talking about someone's "battle" with cancer, or how they will "fight" cancer, or "beat" it. The human will is a wonderful and helpful thing. But it lacks the ability to wage war on a pre-programmed regime of aggressively multiplying and enlarging cells. Let us keep our wills, and employ them in our struggle to cope with disease, but let us not be so naive to think that we (alone) have the power to simply overcome disease with our wills or our ability to fight. In cancerous conditions, the "self" is not the solution. It is the problem.
4. The likelihood of each of us or someone we love getting cancer is extremely high. Let us be ready.
5. Life is a vapor, here for a short time and then gone. Live well.

Jackson's Face-plant

Yesterday, Melissa made a quick Facebook comment about Jackson's face-plant, courtesy of his big sister. Several requests were made to see the video. Enjoy.

Jackson @ 18 Weeks

What Jackson is doing now:
Loves to smile and is easy going.
Sits up without support for short amounts of time.
Grasps tightly on to things and reaches for toys with both his hands.
Loves sucking his thumb.
Blows raspberries and coos/laughs.

Creative Silly Ella

Ella got our flash light today and thought it would be perfect as a little stool while she drank some water out of her sippy cup. What a silly girl.

Josiah's Birthday Party

Ella, Jack, and I had fun today at Josiah's birthday party. Shaylyn did such an amazing job on his cake!

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

Recently you and the Democratic-led congress created the "Cash for Clunkers" program. The idea was noble, aimed at taking a number of higher-polluting vehicles off the road and selling more fuel-efficient vehicles to replace them. But the program ran out of funds very quickly - much faster than your team of experts estimated. So another injection of tax-payer funding (your welcome) was called for and approved. And now that funding runs out this weekend, again - much faster than you expected. So what started out as an idea that may have made some sense can now be added to the very long list of government attempts that have failed with great speed and great expense.

I have a couple of questions for you regarding this program:

1. I'm looking at buying a new (used) car soon. Since the last car I bought gets pretty decent gas-mileage, I don't qualify for the C4C program. But I'm paying for others who, perhaps foolishly, bought a less efficient car. Smart decisions are discouraged, less-smart decisions are rewarded. Does that sound right to you?

2. Since the government can't adequately predict and plan for the C4C program, and since the program had to be re-funded, and since the program ran out of funds much faster than you expected ... why should we trust you to run the health care system, which is exponentially larger and less predictable than the C4C program?

3. Did you read the parody about the Cash for Codgers program? Pretty funny, wasn't it?

You can email me at schulzfamilyblog(at)gmail(dot)com, or just post a comment below.

Have a nice day.

Todd

Rice Cereal, part II

The Heart of a Ranger

Gabe, who writes for OurArmyLife.com and is deathly afraid of some very tiny bugs, posts a touching story about a fascinating visual phenomenon, a fallen soldier, and a 21-year-old heart that is beating, right now, inside a 57-year-old woman. Read about it here.

Ella Grace

Rice Cereal

Jack had his first rice cereal last night.

See Ella's first rice cereal here.

Helpful Big Sister

I was getting the kids ready to head to Walmart this morning and saw that Ella decided to be a helpful big sister and give Jack some toys and a book to take along. The only thing I put in the car seat was Jack!

Lunch at Long John's with Papa

5 Things: Wonders of the Natural World

via WebEcoist ...

1. Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

2. Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.

3. Red Tides

Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.

4. Mammatus Clouds

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather.

5. Fire Rainbows

A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.

What to Expect @ a Dog Park

Marcus and Abby Taylor are friends of ours. They live in California. We miss them. They recently took their son Maddox to a dog park and snapped some photos of their trip. This one made me laugh:

This is Funny

(HT: Z)

Iowa State Fair 2009

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Cute Faces

Jackson has been making some pretty cute faces lately. Here's a sampling:

The Iowa State Fair

We attended the state fair yesterday. The weather was great, the crowds were scattered, and the hundreds of animals kept Ella happy for hours. We'll post a slideshow of the day soon, but for now, here's how things went down last year:

Kind of Blue Birthday

Kind Of Blue- considered by many to be one of the greatest jazz albums of all time - quietly turned 50 yesterday. According to Herbie Hancock,

"Here's a record that I could recommend to anyone--from any country, of any age. If you want to hear the spirit of jazz, listen to Kind of Blue."

I agree.

Date Night

Melissa, the kids, and I enjoyed a nice date at the Jordan Creek Mall last Saturday. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and then strolled around the lake, taking in the live music.

Since she missed her afternoon nap, Ella was pretty tired for most of the night.

We topped off our meal with one of our favorite desserts - the Godiva Chocolate Brownie Sundae.

Jackson's 4 Month Stats

16 pounds, 2 oz. (75th percentile)
24.5 inches long (50th percentile)
size 3 diapers

Adorable Jack

He loves that thumb!

Grudem's Systematic Theology on iTunes

Wayne Grudem’s entire Christian Essentials class is now on iTunes. This class covers five years of lectures going through his excellent Systematic Theology book.

From Monergism Books,

I have no problem saying that this is the clearest, most accessible systematic theology I have ever read! Grudem has a gift for communication. He lays out the details in terms that are easy to understand. The format of this work is beautiful and highly recommended for beginners.

Find the free audio here (link opens iTunes)

The Twins and Their Kids

The kids and I headed to Shelby Hansen's house today for a get together with my twin and her twin. The four of us are good friends from high school. There are 11 kids with all of us. Four of our kids are babies. Jack is the oldest (17 weeks), Allison Sheriff is 11 weeks, Hailey Hansen is 8 weeks, and Jason Vis is 4 weeks old. The three oldest boys are not shown. Anna and Amber Sheriff, Ella, and Jaelyn Vis are in the big girl picture.