Proud Papa

Tonight we experienced our first County-wide Spelling Bee.  Shelbi, who won her school spelling bee, along with one of her best friends made it to the final four.  Megan WON!

It's a pretty cool story too, because she had a school project due today as well.  Megan had to create a short term goal and then determine some steps on how to reach that goal.  Megan's short term goal was to win the Spelling Bee and she accomplished that goal.  Pretty cool.

Entering the Spelling Bee Shelbi made all kinds of excuses to not study her words.  She felt that there was little chance of her getting to the final four.  Shelbi was within one letter of getting to the final two.  The word was vicariously.  We thought she had done it...V I C A R I O U S E L Y. One lousy "E" kept her out. Once she missed that word Megan became the winner, and then Shelbi entered a spell off for second and third place.  During the spell off she had several hard words and it seemed she could have spelled the competitors words with ease.  She ended up fourth. One place away from a trophy and a savings bond and was noticeably distraught.  Who wouldn't be disappointed coming so close to a reward and yet falling just short?

Tough stuff for my little girl.  It was like losing three times.

I was quite proud.  It wasn't so much that she had made it all the way to fourth.  It wasn't that she had spelled croquet or mystique correctly.  It was how she handled herself in defeat.  She cried a little, and the Shelbi I knew before Christ began a good work in her would have responded with anger.  Anger more at showing her emotions in public, then angry at losing.  She graciously took compliments of several people, and she was happy for her friend.

I think that while it would have been nice to be the parent of the Spelling Bee Champ.  In a way God gave us the opportunity to see evidence that this little girl, our first born, is going to be quite a woman.  A thoughtful young lady with perspective beyond her years.

When you can be proud of your kids in how they handle defeat there is a level of satisfaction that all of this teaching and modeling and questioning and rule making and integrity actually makes a difference.  At least it did tonight as I saw one handle victory with grace and one handle defeat with grace.  It was a great night to be a Daddy.

I want a Kindle 2

This is not my typical post on this site, but I just wanted to get it out there, and I want Relevant to offer me free digital versions of the books that they send me.  Now if I just didn't have to fork out the $350.  

I read, maybe 20 books a year on top of the Bible.  If I was able to get them for $10 each instead of $15-$25 it would pay for itself in two years.  The only problem I have is of the 20 books I read a year half are sent from Relevant and 50% of the other half may not be available digitally yet.

So, it might actually take me 3+ years to pay for the thing; however, there is something very exciting about being able to have 1500 books in one compact place.  

8 Passenger Arrangements

Growing up there was a TV show called Eight is Enough, and while that was a family of ten, eight of which were children, I may need to go watch a few shows on TV Land or something in order to figure out how they did it.

Did you know that the number of vehicles that will seat eight include a couple of SUV's and two minivans, unless you want to step up into the 15 passenger van?

Did you know that five girls and one boy might mean a little too much hormone, a few too many weddings, a few too few bathrooms, and can create significant sleeping arrangement issues?

Did you know that when you say yes to one in God's economy it could equal three?

Did you know that the likelihood of owning two eight passenger vehicles is highly unlikely, which means that there will be a need to dictate who drives what when?

Did you know that it is completely possible to be totally pumped and anxious about an opportunity and completely overwhelmed with the transition at the same time?

Nothing concrete yet, but we could become a family of eight...I think it's just sinking in.