The Words in My Blog

These are the words that are found in my blog, thanks to Wordle.net. The words that are larger have been used more frequently than the words that are smaller. Other than it being fun to use, it does have some educational uses as well. It has the ability to pull out the most important words of a passage, website, or message and communicate them in an colorful artistic way. Click on the small wordle below to create your own wordle.

You Know You are Spoiled When...

...when your parents allow you to bring your lawn mower with you to the store.

...when your parents let you hold your lawn mower on your lap while you are on the way to the store.

... when you are only 16 months old and you get an entire ice cream cone from PJ's to yourself.

... when you can buy five more minutes of cuddling before bed time by holding on super tight when your daddy tries to lay you down.

... when you can get your daddy to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the thirtieth time in a row, by simply dancing around and signing, "more - more."

... when you point at daddy, then the ground, then at daddy, then at the ground, then at daddy, then at the ground.... over and over and over again until finally daddy joins you on the ground for a little bit of rough house!

... when you open the cupboard, pull down the box of nilla wafers, carry them over to daddy and gently sign "pleeeeaasse," you will get at least two every time.

... when your wife makes awesome new dinners almost every night!

... when your wife decides that she wants to bake... cookies, homemade bread (I know), brownies...

Feel free to add to the list.

Thank you!

While we were in transition from California to Illinois, we had a lot of help. Our friends and family really helped us out and worked at making it as easy as possible for us to leave. Hey, wait a second...?? Just kidding. In a time where there were many variables and unknowns, the people in our lives offered their time and services to help us in this transition and we thank you. There were friends in Illinois who catered to my coming back and forth, and back and forth, again and again over 6 months time and constantly let me stay at their house, eat their food, or gave me rides to and from the airport. A special thank you to the Stipps, the Seftons, the Sheltons, the McCormick's, and the Upchurches for their hospitality and just plain ole' helping out. Then there were the numerous friends and of course our family back home allowing us to stay at their house (Cooners), helping us move, drive the moving truck (Grandpa Earl), or supporting us financially, or offering help in babysitting, buying us helpful gifts or plane tickets (Kilpatricks), and all the other intangible things that people did behind the scenes that were done without Amy or I every knowing. There were many more people not named that were named and Amy and I publicly want to thank you and Owen and Callie also want to thank you the only way they know how. You know Owen... you have to envision him using his sign language and sporadically moving his hand back and forth quickly away from his mouth saying thank you!

Callie Elia Kilpatrick

I moved all my family's stuff to Illinois. As soon as it was somewhat settled I hopped on a plane to get back to my very pregnant wife. In fact, I was suppose to fly out on a Tuesday, but I left the Saturday before, just in case. When I arrived back in San Jose, I was very happy to see my beautiful wife and my son Owen! It had been about 2 weeks and it was a very happy reunion. The joy that Owen expressed when he saw me gave me that same amount of joy that only The Father can provide and the type of Joy that cannot be explained. To put it simply, it was fantastic! A couple days later I experienced the same type of joy again. I guess it was one of those joyful weekends. We were at Taco Bell one evening eating Taco's (not the inspiration of Joy) and Amy begins going into labor. Wheewwww, I am so glad that I am here with her and not in Illinois. I was kind of bummed though, it wasn't the type of labor where we threw Amy is the car and I had permission to break land speed records and break traffic laws to get to the hospital. It was the type of labor where we went back to the Cooner's house in Gilroy and hung out for a while before casually getting in the car, and casually driving to Santa Clara for the birth of our second child. Once we get to Santa Clara, instead of going inside and waiting for a few hours, we decided to walk around the hospital.... the whole hospital. We killed about 45 minutes of "labor waiting" and most likely sped up the delivery by at least an hour by walking the circumference of the whole hospital. Once we were in, the nurses confirmed that Amy was in fact in labor and gave us our room. Things were going well. Amy's anesthesiologist was really good, the doctor/midwife was good, our nurse the one who does a lot of the work... not so good. It seemed as if she was focused on all the wrong things, when all I thought the focus should be on my wife and new daughter. Anyway, without getting to detailed the delivery, it went really smooth. I'm not gonna say it was easy, or else I would be black-listed for life, but I thought it went a whole lot better then the first delivery Amy had with Owen. After the birth, Amy and I really got to take our time and bond with our new little girl. It wasn't the "floppy baby" experience we had with Owen. Again, this is where that type joy comes into play. We named her Callie Elia Kilpatrick. We decided on Callie as a reminder of our time that we shared in California. We saw Callie as being God's final gift for us during that chapter of our life. She was the icing on the cake, and even though we tried really hard to have Callie in Illinois, it was clear she was meant to be a "Callie"-fornia girl! We gave Callie the middle name Elia, (pronounced A-lee- ah). It is the girl form of the Hebrew name Eli from the story in 1 Samuel in the Bible. The name Eli means "God has answered." Over the past few years (3-4) Amy and I had been in constant prayer and in conversation about the life that God had in store for our family. It was becoming clear, that God was preparing us for something different, even though we had no idea what that was. It was finally in these last 6 months before Callie was born that God was revealing to us what he had been orchestrating all this time. We prayed for clarity, and God's answer was so very clear. So, we gave her the middle name Elia as a constant reminder in our life of how God answered prayer! We gave her the last name Kilpatrick, because it has a nice ring to it. Now six weeks later, she is an amazing little girl. She is beautiful, she is social, and her big brother loves her just as much as momma and I.

Inspired

Right when the trip across the country could not have been more boring, I run into this man. Prior to my meeting him my grandfather and I had been riding in the cab of a very bumpy, uncomfortable, loud, Uhaul for the last 12 hours. The last couple hours were spent traversing the Salt Flats of Utah at a top speed of about 55 mph. My back and hips were sore, I was tired, and then I was humbled. It was my curiosity that led me to this man. Mind you, we are literally in the middle of no where. Flat, hot, desolate desert of Utah. As I was heading to the bathroom at the rest area, I got a glimpse of a bike wheel. "Huh, that's strange, why would someone have a bike out here??" So I investigate. Leaning up against the back wall of the rest stop was this inspiring- dehydrated- sun burned person. I was amazed, I was intrigued, I felt guilty for being tired, and I had so many questions. My mind raced, I can't believe this guy is alive... I can't believe that you're allowed to ride your bicycle on Interstate 80. Isn't that against the law. Where do I start. My first question... Where did you start your ride? "Portland..." he quietly answered. Whoa, how long you been riding? "I couldn't tell you exactly." Are you riding for a cause, what's your motivation? "My motivation," he answered... "to get as far away from my wife as possible!" Whoa, that's not what I was expecting, I thought. He continued... "She took my house, my truck, my money... she left me with nothing. So I stole my bike from her, got on it and decided that I would get as far away from her as possible... after riding all day I stopped, slept on the side of the road, and then kept going the next day... I haven't stopped since." I was so impressed! I had so many questions, but I could tell he wasn't really interested in making small talk. I reached for my wallet and gave him a few bucks and wished him luck on his journey. He then said, "yeah I think I'm gonna call it a night... I'm gonna try to make it to Salt Lake tomorrow. I'll take the next day off and then keep going! I appreciate the help, he said, my wheels are missing about 7 spokes and my tires are going bald. I am hoping to find another bike at a garage sale or something when I get to town. " I was in shock! I didn't know what to say. I wanted to give him a ride, I wanted to give him my bike that was sitting just inside the Uhaul, I wanted to give him a bottle of water, I wanted to find him some aloe... I wanted to do something, but all I gave him was a few dollars. I slowly walked back to the truck thinking and pondering and doing nothing else. My reaction from that day still haunts me.

The First Leg of the Trip

Its 5:00am. Picture yourself in a gigantic Uhaul truck. Come on, play along, Get in the truck!... Good, now that we have you and you are aboard for the ride, we are leaving for Illinois. I say we. I mean you, myself, and my Grandpa Earl. Oh don't worry, we have plenty to talk about and we are going to try to get there in three days. And if you really get bored talking to us, you can always jump in Jessica's car, she is following close behind. She is making the same trip, so we decided to caravan. The first three hours are not bad. The excitement of the huge truck is starting to wear off, but there is still a good amount of energy in the cab. We have been riding for a while, so this would be a good time to pull over, "get some coffee for Grandpa," take a bathroom break, and switch the drivers. It just so happens that we are passing my old stomping grounds. Loomis, California. There is a Burger King there now, so I thought that would be a good place to pull in. I have had a great respect for Loomis, I spent some of my best years here. And my view of this little town just got better. As I enter into the BK I am immediately drawn to a space age soda machine, its incredible. It claims that it has over 100 different flavors of soda. Skeptical, I get in line and spend approximately $2.00 to see how this thing really works. Never before have I seen such a device. And to think that I first discovered it in Loomis! The machine was pretty intuitive, growing up in Silicon Valley I had no problem navigating the touch screen display and cyphering through the hundred options that were available. It was then that I thought about that 9 year old kid who always takes his time filling his happy meal sized cup with a little bit of soda from every option. I don't know what you called it when you were a kid, we called it a "suicide." And with 100 options, if there is ever a kid who tried it with this machine, it might as well be suicide if there is someone impatiently waiting behind him. Nonetheless, I continued and easily found the Diet Coke option. It was then that I realized the real potential of the machine. I could have have the drink with or without caffeine, or with Lime, or Cherry, or about 8 other diet coke flavors that I didn't even know existed. I was so intrigued. I shared my enthusiasm with Jessica. She was equally thrilled. My Grandpa on the other hand wasn't that interested. He got his coffee from the antique coffee maker, and was desperate to get back on the road. I wonder if we will see another soda machine like this on our journey. With about 2000 more miles to go, who knows what we might run into.

Moved

Its almost been three months since my last Web log (blog). Since my last addition... I have sold two cars, I have left all my friends and family in California, I have moved all my stuff and family across the nation, I have had a daughter, I have bought two cars, I have started a new job, my son has tripled in size and ability, I have even lectured on blogging and had my new "college students" create a blog of their own. Did you catch that I had a daughter! It's not like I haven't had things to write about. Her name is Callie! Yes, we named her after the state of California. I have about 40 posts in my head that are screaming to be captured in html. So I am hoping to start today with a mini series of cool things that have happened in the last three months. No promises here though. It might be December when I blog again, but know that I have good intentions. If it makes you feel any better, I have been neglecting my Facebook friends just as long. So, I guess all that to say, that I have moved to the lovely Village of Bourbonnais Illinois. If you need context to this move, it was expressed in earlier posts. Happy hunting.