Best Toilet Ever ...

During a recent business trip to Africa, I came across this toilet ....

I can officially mark this as my best toilet experience ever. I especially liked the well-defined spots for my feet. It was a perfect match: size 9.5 shoes. Very fun indeed.

The whole trip wasn't only about toilets. Here was the view from my hotel ...

Repentance in Poetry

This is one of those proud-moment posts that most fathers would look forward to publishing. Last month I was working with Micah on his Faith in God for Boys award. Micah is making great progress and understands the principles taught in the program. (Tangent: I wish he would read the scriptures more frequently by himself because he always seems to get a good bit out of each reading session when he commits to it. That is something I still need to push him towards.) After a discussion on the repentance, Micah sat down and wrote the following poem in about 5-10 minutes.

The scanned copy is not the most pristine. So, here is the text of the poem to make things a little easier to read:

Poem on Repentance

Whenever I make a sin or mistake, what must I do? Repent.

Whenever I make a choice I shouldn’t make? Repent.

And from this poem what is the lesson we should take? Repent.

Repentance is one of the things we must learn to go to our Father above.

For a 10-year-old, I think it's pretty impressive, but I may be somewhat biased. It is concise, symmetrical, doctrinally sound, and some rhyming is even thrown in just for fun. There is nothing more important than to learn the principle of repentance at such an early age, for we all know he will need to rely on this principle for the rest of his life and beyond.

Olivia dances

Olivia started ballet this year.  She has LOVED it!  They worked hard and we were finally able to see them perform in their end of the year recital (practices were closed, so we couldn't watch).  It was so fun to see her dance and do so well.  She looked so grown up and she did GREAT!  They danced to "I don't want to live on the moon."  It is a Sesame Street song by Ernie.  It is really cute.

 Olivia at dress rehearsal with her teacher.

 The class.

She is a great little dancer and excited to start again!  Hopefully I can get a video uploaded soon.

I've got a Golden Bear

 We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer.  It has gone by way to fast and I've got lots of fun stuff to share, but before I can get to that, I have to play catch up...again. 
Towards the end of the school year, the principal of the boys' school approached me to tell me that Micah had been nominated for the "Golden Bear" award.  Being fairly new to the school, I wasn't quite sure what a golden bear exactly was.  So in the car on the way home from school, I casually asked the boys what it was.  Micah responded, "Someone who is awesome.  They have to do awesome at all their school stuff and be nice to people."  Sweet.  I wasn't sure if he knew about the award, so I didn't say anything.  The next day though, he came home and told me that he got the Golden bear for 4th grade (one from every grade).  So at the end of the year program, he was recognized for getting the 4th grade Golden bear, all A's, and being a Gold Belt recorder player (the highest group). 

We are so proud of Micah and what a good student he is!  He IS a golden bear:)

The False Prince

I'm always on the hunt for good books.  I was recently doing a search trying to find Micah some new books and came across good reviews for a new book titled "The False Prince" by Jennifer Nielsen.  Micah loves to read and reads at an 11th grade level, so it is really difficult to find something that keeps his attention, but is still clean for a 10 year old.  So after reading a few reviews (it just came out in April) I bought it.  I read it to "preview" it and totally loved it.  Micah read it in one day and it's over 300 pages.  I will warn you that it is going to be a trilogy and I'm not sure when the next book comes out.  He is currently reading "The Ranger's Apprentice" series (thanks for the suggestion Tracy) and loves it too.  I'll have to start that one next!  I highly recommend "The False Prince" though.  Now that I probably have to wait a year for the next one, does anyone have any other recommendations for my next book?

Off to the fair

We had a fair in our little town a few weeks ago. 
Yes. it was the kind of fair that you see being set up in store parking lots and think to yourself, "You couldn't pay me to go on those rides.  Those people just threw those rides up, it can't be safe."
Yep, that kind of fair.
I guess something about the grassy field with scenic views that it was set up in made me feel like it was safer (or not...I have to admit "how safe are these rides" was a repeated thought). 
Yet, we did it.
Germans are no joke about their rides too.  They made sure you got your moneys worth, the rides lasted about 5 min. each.  I saw one kid on a scrambler type of ride crying to get off (fyi...they didn't stop the ride to let him off).  They make these things go suuuuper fast too. 
Asher was set on going on the swings, so Dudi and I went on with him.  They were always one of my favorites when I was little too.
After that peaceful ride, Micah and Asher and the neighbor kids talked "the moms" into going on a ride with them.  The kind of ride that is similar to the "Tower of Terror."  Up and down and up and down.  Uuuugghh!
I have to admit now that I've had time to recover, it was fun.  The kids were having a blast laughing, while the moms would scream every time it dropped.

We had a fun night and had some yummy food and good company!

Just like mom (and it"s not a good thing!)

This poor girl has her mom's teeth.  So far she has had one pulled, and is in the process of getting 3 fillings. 

She's a trooper. 

I love this "half my face is numb" photo.