Snip Snip

Well Joel just got back from his circumcision. He is going really well, we haven't seen it yet but the doctor said everything went very well.

I was talking with my friend Gary Fowler and we discussed how painful that procedure must be...girls just wouldn't understand! I told him it gave me a whole new respect for those in the Bible that went through circumcision without ANY anesthesia! Gary very wisely said they just bit there lip! I can't prove him wrong, so he must be right...huh Gary?!?!

Well its almost 230 and we are looking forward to a bunch of people stopping by this afternoon after 4PM to see our new addition. If everything continues to go well as it has we should be going home sometime tomorrow!

Kyrsten & Kinsey meet Joel

Jan (my mother-in-law) went to our friend Amy's to pick up the girls yesterday and bring them up to the hospital to meet little brother. Kyrsten did REALLY well, she is 6 and this is her second time around with a little sibling. Kinsey on the other hand was a typical 2 year old. She wanted to do her own thing as well as whatever big sis was doing.

We sat them both down and let them hold Joel (with a little assistance). Here are a couple of great pics that we snapped why they were holding him...dang we make some really cute kids!!!

Introducing Joel Allen Smelcer

Here are a few pics of the little "stud" muffin!

HE IS HERE!

Joel Allen Smelcer was born at 1:31 PM on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. He weighed 6lbs 14oz and is 19 1/2 inches long.

Pictures will come as soon as we get settled into our new room...

Progressing Nicely

Well the morning has kind of creped by, but this afternoon things are moving along nicely...and quickly. It took Meg from 9-11am to from 3 to 4 cm, and then at noon she was 5cm, but within 50 minutes she went from 5-7cm.

So it shouldn't be long now...stay tuned!

Today...is the BIG DAY! - Take 2

When we were given the time to come in for the induction they told us to call the hospital an hour early to make sure that everything was ready for us...so we called at 7:30PM and they told us they needed to push us back to 7AM on Wednesday and to call at 6AM.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 this morning...they got her hooked up to all th iv's and Dr. Kasten came in between 8:30-8:45 and broke her water and she got her epideral at 9:45. Things are progressing nicely, when we arrived she was still 3 centimeters and they are going to check her at 10:30 to see how she has progressed.

Keep checking back for more updates!

Today...is the BIG DAY!

Well the day has FINALLY arrived! Tonight at 8:30PM Meg will go into the hospital and have our little boy! We went to the doctor yesterday and she was 3 centimeters, and the doctor could sense our (mainly my) impatience for the boy to arrive so he scheduled her to go be induced!

Thanks for all the votes on the name, but as you can tell the winner was Joel Allen...so that will the his name! Meg is really excited about it, me not so much, but I can tell Meg really loves it so we will go with it!

Check back for more information and definitely A LOT of pics!

Daddy Sissy Time

Today Kyrsten and I drove to Rockford, IL to see three of my students graduate from RMC. I love taking trips like this, not only to see what God is doing in the lives of three incredible young people, but I get to spend some awesome time with my daugther Kyrsten. Since she was young we have always called this "Daddy Sissy Time." I can't count on one hand the number of times she said, "we are having daddy sissy time today!"

Once we got to Rockford (5 hours & 45 minutes without a stop...she is a trooper!) we grabbed a bite to eat at our favorite...Qdoba's. Then we checked into our hotel and ran to DQ to get some ice cream. Now we are laying in bed watching the movie RV.

Tomorrow we will go to Rockford First for service and then spend some more time together tomorrow afternoon and evening. It is so awesome making memories with my daughter!! She still remembers our trip last year!

Well back to the movie and memories!

The Last Couple of Weeks

Sorry I haven't checked in over th last couple of weeks. Once I got back to work after vacation it was a sprint to get everything done!

The weekend of May 31st was Earthbeat. We went to 2 different park in the Sandusky area to spread mulch, paint, seal blacktop and simply make the parks look better. It went really well! We had around 30 students plus leaders! It is always an incredible feeling as people from the neighborhood drive by and yell "thank you" out of there car windows!

Got through that weekend and then the entire next week was filled with preparing to kick off our Axiom series called, "change: life at the altar," and preparing for our graduate recognition service this past Sunday June 8th! Alot to get done, but everything went well!

This past week has been steady. I have to right 8 messages for the month of July. I go to Tri-State camp in Missouri to speak as well as 2 churches while I am there! I can't wait! It is going to be awesome!

Yesterday was Kyrsten's 6th birthday. It was a really cool day!! Kyrsten and I leave tomorrow to go to the Rockford Master's Commission graduation this weekend. It will be so cool to see my students as well as other great friends in Rockford!

Last Day of Vacation!

Sitting in my living room enjoying my last day of vacation! Our church as the most incredible policy...our offices are closed on Mondays, so when a holiday falls on a Monday we get the next day off as well! It is so awesome!

This vacation has been awesome and relaxing! I did very little if any work over the past 10 days, but that means that I have alot to do when I get back in the office tomorrow! Steve Ommert is speaking in Axiom so that is at least one thing off my plate!

I have a lot to do to prepare for Saturday! Our last Angelfood distribution is this Saturday before our switch to Great Food for All, so many things left to do in preparation but I am confident that all will get done! We also have Earthbeat on Saturday and we are kind of behind the 8 ball with this event...alot to do and not alot of time, but I really think all will go well...plus there is like 50% of rain that day so we may have to postpone to our June weather date.

Then next week I have to start our new series in Axiom as well as prepare for our grad service on June 8th, in which I am speaking...I think!

Anyway...back to enjoying my dayoff!

Update on Dad - Pt3

Well it has been a few days and I haven't updated you on dad so I thought I would...honestly there is not a lot to update. Dad is still in the hospital. They have kept him to make sure they can get his blood sugar regulated, everything is fine with his heart. His sugar has been jumping up and down while he is just laying in bed. He is hoping to come home today, I know because he is really getting antsy!

Please keep him in your prayers! The challenge for him will be when he gets out, he has never been great at watching his diet, but this time his life depends on it...literally!

New Poll

As Meg and I were driving back from Washington DC we were talking about what we are going to name our boy.  We have really struggled to come up with a name that we both like...she has her favorites and I have mine, so I told her I would throw it out in the blogosphere to get some additional opinions.

So help us out!

Update on Dad - Pt2

Well I thought I would give you and update on my dad before I head to bed...I called to talk with him real quick around 8PM tonight and he seriously sounded amazing! Recently I had noticed that he had been talking with some slurred speach or like he was talking with a fat tongue. Tonight when I talked with him he sound normal again. It makes me think that the blockage head had in the artery was effecting his brain.

Anyway, they did end up putting one stint in his artery and then they found another place that they used the balloon to expand. He came through feeling really well, other than his back hurting from laying on the hard table. The surgeon said he may be able to go home tomorrow, but dad thinks they will keep him a little longer to make sure everything is going okay with the diabetes.

I would like to thank everyone for there prayers! I really do appreciate them! Now we just have to face my stepmother going in for another surgery on Tuesday! It doesn't seem to end...

Update on Dad - Pt1

I received a call from my dad later in the day on Tuesday letting me know that on top of everything else he has diabetes. Because of this they wanted him to come into the hospital a day early (yesterday) so they could get him regulated before the procedure this morning.

When he arrived at the hospital yesterday his blood sugar was around 480, but the day before is was over 600. It is supposed to be at 100 or less. They were able to get it down to 87 yesterday afternoon before dinner, but when he ate it shot up to over 200 again. They also tried to some kind of test to measure the blood circulation in his leg yesterday, but he had a muscle spasm and they had to disconnect him because of the pain.

This morning some time is when they are going to perform the heart cath. So please pray that everything goes smooth!

We Now Interrupt This Broadcast...

Sometimes I get really aggrevated when I am watching one of my favorite television shows and I hear the words, "we now interrupt this broadcast..." If it is something really big then its cool, but if it is just election results or something like that, then I get so mad!

Well today I got a phone call...we now interrupt this vacation...from my dad. Let me back up about a month, I was talking with my dad and he told me he hadn't been feeling well and then a couple of weeks later he told me he was going to the doctor to see why he had lost like 25 pounds (without trying) on top of some other things that had been happening. The doctor had him do a stress test and as well as another test on an artery.

So my dad calls me this morning to tell me that Thursday he will be going in for a heart cath. where they will put in stent and if it bad enough they may have to do a bypass. My dad, in his usual fashion tried to blow this off has if it was no big deal, and honestly their are hundreds if not thousands performed every day in this country that goes off without a hitch.

I guess with the recent passing of Mike Thomas and the question that my dad have joked around about for along time (is it going to skip a generation?) Allow me to explain...my great grandfather, and his brother as well as my grandfather's brother all passed away at the age of 65 or 66 (I can't remember). Needless to say that when my grandfather was that age he 'knew' he was going to die that year...he lived to be 88. So my dad and I have always joked, "I wonder if it is going to skip a generation?" Kind of a sick joke, but now it comes to close to home...my dad is 65 and will be 66 in October...it really makes your mind go crazy!

I apolgize for this being so long, but I just feel that I have to get all of this out...I have been crying on and off the whole time I am writing this...I know there are several people who read this blog (but just never comment..hahaha) I would really covet your prayers! I am sure that my dad will go through this with no problems and everything will be okay...but it is still hard...it brings losing your parents real close to home...I don't really like it!

Anyway...back to vacation...gotta beat my wife in Mario Kart!!

Wedding and then Vacation!

As I mentioned in my last post I performed the wedding of Aaron Pippin and Lauren Fahl! The wedding went very well! I admit I cried as she walked down the isle, she looked amazing! They are such an amazing couple, I can't wait to see what God does in their lives!

On Sunday I was back at FMC for our morning service and then following the service the Family and I headed to the Outer Banks for Vacation. We got in around 1:30AM this morning! Kinsey did EXTREMELY well traveling, still got cranky a little bit but overall she did well!

Now that we are here it is just relaxing, reading and more relaxing! I may check in with the happenings of the week, but other than that it will be my usual sporadic posts! hahaha

Later!

Back in Painesville

I am back in Painesville this weekend to do the wedding of Lauren Fahl and Aaron Pippen. It is such an honor for me to do this wedding! Lauren is like another daughter to me and Aaron has become such a great friend and fellow youth pastor! I know God is going to do some incredible things through this couple and marriage!

I really hope that I can make it through this wedding without crying! I know this is going to be an emotional wedding for me! I am going to share a little bit about each person and them as a couple in a part of the ceremony and I know that is going to be hard for me. Lauren's dad passed away from a brain tumor when she was only 15. To see what this girl has been through and to see how she has stuck close to God is truly incredible!

34 acting 24, but not feeling 24!

Over the course of the past 4 days I have played a total of 5 softball games and 18 holes of golf. Friday we played our church league softball opener and won. Then on Saturday, we played in a tournament that got rained out the weekend before. We played at 2PM, 8PM, 11PM and 1AM (Sunday), going 2 for 4.

The weather was kind of crazy, it was mostly sunny all day, but when night came the temperature dropped. We were planning in probably mid to upper 40's...IT WAS COLD! Which then caused you to get stiff between games.

I played okay. My bat came alive in the 8PM, 11PM and 1AM games which was really cool. My defense was average as usual. Made a couple of good stops at 2nd base, but was not always able to finish for the out. I got tagged in the knee with the softball as I slid into 3rd base, didn't hurt alot, but I do have a slightly swollen knee. The worse is my strained/pulled quadricep, hamstring and calf muscles in my right leg. I am walking with a really good limp, which brings me to today.

I played in the ODC golf outing with Josh Martino and Rick Carson. We picked up a guy named Jason Cooper from Miamisburg....All 3 of these guys play INCREDIBLE golf! I was the weakest player, but for limping around like I was I did pretty good! I won closest to the pin in my age division on hole 17 (I was about 4 feet).

Tonight I am going to rub my leg down with "Icy Hot" and wrap my leg and sit around the rest of the evening...I want to get back to walking normal!

No ODC for me...

Well as I stated on my last entry we had a gentleman pass away that has been apart of our church for over 20 years. He was only 64. The calling hours are tonight from 5-8 and then the funeral is tomorrow morning at 11AM. Due to the funeral our entire pastoral staff had to cancel our trip to the Ohio District Council. The one of the reasons that stinks is because this year we are electing a new District Superintendent, so we will be unable to vote. Thank goodness for great friends that are going to keep me in the loop during the election!

I had a very busy weekend and then played in the ODC golf tournament today...I will try and post about those later!

Sudden Death

This afternoon as I am getting ready to shoot a video for Sunday our Church Secretary comes in the room and tells Meg and I that Mike Thomas (who attends our church), has collapsed at Wal-Mart and is not responding..."it's not looking good" she said.

Well an hour later or so we did get word that Mike passed away.  It was so sudden, so unexpected, Mike was 65; not real old, but not young either.  I mean this guy seemed to be in good health!  For him to just collapse and die is just hard to believe.  Meg and I were talking at dinner about how these kind of deaths are always are to accept or understand.  They come from no where...one minute they are here and the next they are gone!

Needless to say, Mike truly loved God and so there is no doubt where he is spending eternity!  Mike was a very fun joking guy, he was a guy who would always say something sarcastic/funny when you saw him and you couldn't help but laugh.  He will truly be missed around FMC!