#Miller6Pack

I just wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I am blessed to be a father and I am also blessed to have (or have had) a wonderful father, grandfathers, and father-in-law. I am also friends with many who are great fathers. I also wanted to wish a special first Father's Day to my brother-in-law Scott. This Father's Day it is also on my mind to honor the wives (moms) and kids who give us the opportunity to be fathers. I love every moment of being a dad and all the challenges and rewards it brings. Without my wife and our precious Gracie, I wouldn't be a dad! One of my devotionals had some poignant thoughts about fatherhood, specifically "The role of a father changes as children grow, but it doesn't end. Praise and encouragement are welcomed whether a child is 4 or 40." (Our Daily Bread) Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Wow. June? Are you serious? I can't believe how fleeting time is. I'm sure a part of it is the fact that I am not getting any younger, but I also think that a significant factor is the information blitz that we face every day. Don't get me wrong, I love technology. I love email, Twitter, Facebook, sms, pix, flix, and blogs and how all of them allow us to communicate and stay connected with friends and loved ones (or total strangers!). But I also think this blur of information traveling at the speed of light also makes time fly by even faster. I find myself getting emotional frequently (imagine that) just thinking about how much our precious little Gracie has grown since September and her first day of pre-school with "Miss Diane." In those moments I often have these thoughts that I wish I could blog or write about, but by the time I get some quiet computer time I forget to do it. I hope to have a better way to keep on top of this... maybe use some technology? One ...

I got a letter today from some dear friends, Doris and Art Fleming. Doris asked me when I was going to post more updates on my blog. I have been so consumed with work, golf, church podcasts, worship practices, and family that I have really slacked off (again) the blog posts. So this mini-post is for Doris. We miss you two so much but are so wonderfully blessed by your faithfulness and your latest journey! Anyway, I am now actually using my Twitter account, so all you Tweeters out there, here is my url: http://twitter.com/ vandalgrad We just returned from the State 3A Golf tournament. I'll write about that in another post. :-)

We are on the "West Side" for Spring Break. We have family in Seattle/Tacoma so the last few Spring Breaks have found us spending the week there doing a variety of things. As a kid I loved when my parents took me to to Seattle. We always went to the Aquarium, Locks, Space Needle, among other fun sites. We now enjoy spending time with our family and taking the little ones to fun places. Sometimes it is the simple things that are the best. Yesterday we got to listen to a young man playing his violin on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry while watching a huge cargo ship cross our path. We also went to the Aquarium, Children's Museum, and rode the Monorail. It is always a good time, but the best part of all is spending time with our family and enjoying that fellowship too.

New Year's Resolution: Blog More. Well, so much for that one. I perform so many tech related tasks daily that sometimes blogging is the last thing I feel like doing. But so much has happenened. I keep threatening to Amy to blog more and talk about our precious Gracie and how much she has grown. We watched some videos of her the other night and couldn't believe how much she has changed! I want to continue to try to post updates here as well as on my facebook page. I also think I should post some of our favorite Gracie-isms that are just the best. Which brings me to the first one. I am usually in charge of "bath time," and most of the time Gracie has her choice of a "short," "medium," or "long" bath. She almost always chooses "long" which means she is in the tub for a long time. But lately she has wanted to take short baths so she has more time to play, color, etc. So the other night I told Gracie "we should set a record toni...

January 5th, I was doing the score book at a KHS basketball game. Throughout the games, I felt what I thought was some stomach cramps or possibly mild indigestion. I figured it was due to my sitting for 2+ hours at the scorers table with no stretching or moving around. An hour or so later, the final game ended and we packed up and headed for home. I thought getting up and walking around would help. No such luck. When we got home we put Gracie to bed first. Then as I changed for bed, I noticed the pain still persisting in my stomach and it was pretty intense. I mentally reviewed what I had eaten throughout the day and found no reason to point to my stomach discomfort. Next, I tried to lie down and go to sleep. After tossing and turning for about 30 minutes, I told Amy I couldn't sleep and went downstairs to wait it out. Unfortunately, the pain intensified, albeit slowly. Surely this indigestion would go away after a while I said to myself again as I went upstairs to try to eat/drin...

New Year's resolution: Blog more. Happy New Year Everyone. SM