The 7 year old

The other day Jordan (our 7yr.old), and I played football out in the yard. You know as a father with boys that have competitive hearts, I find myself always being asked to not only play with my boys, but compete against them as well. Jordan by far has the most energy with Caiden coming in a close second. So Jordan says, "come on daddy let's play football just me and you." I acknowledge his request, and then accept it wholeheartedly. Now the first rule with competitive boys is you cannot just allow them to win because they get upset because you're not trying. On the other hand, you can't steam roll 'em either because they make excuses for losing and then accuse you of cheating. So I have learned to be well-balanced in a thought out methodical approach, that way, everybody wins regardless of the score. All I have to do is appear like I'm really trying to compete. I've been doing this for years now. So, the final score was Jordan 35, Daddy 28. You know you've become really good at this when your 7 year old says "good game daddy you almost beat me this time, you are getting much better," and then proceeds to give you a high five. I love my boys!

A Day Out

It's been about ten days, but now I'm back. So we are still on the Christmas break and enjoying every bit of it! Yesterday Jalen (our oldest),Renita, and myself went to have lunch at Babins. It was Jalen's first time; however, Renita and I frequent there on many occasions. I wish I could tell you how good their entrees are, but I can't. The reason is because my wife and I have yet to order anything past the WILD ATCHAFALAYA BLACKENED CATFISH Topped with lemon butter sauce and crawfish served over dirty rice with a fabulous Greek salad on the side.It is possibly the best complete meal I have ever had outside of my baby's ground turkey cheese enchiladas, and her savory moist broiled salmon marinated in a light Italian dressing topped with Italian bread crumbs...ummmmm ummmmm good! She usually serves that with some fresh sauteed perfectly seasoned green beans and rice pilaf. Okay, I got off on a tangent, but nevertheless the food at Babins is delicious. I tried to talk Jalen into getting the crawfish cheese enchiladas, so I could get a taste of something different, but he ordered something safe...fried butterfly shrimp. We enjoyed our meals, and everyone was full as tics. It's always good to sit down and feast with family. Afterwards we went to the mall in search of somebody named Ed Hardy. Oh we found him, but we left him right there where he was. Sorry Jalen, but the prerequisite for Mr. Hardy is at least part-time employment. I was able to get him a couple of jeans not named Ed Hardy prior to leaving the mall. See you guys next time.

Christmas 2008

Hey you guys the holiday season is almost over and we have had a great time. Mainly we have just been relaxing and spending time with family and friends. Christmas was a lot of fun with the kids, as this was Jackson's first time really opening gifts and enjoying it. We told him it was Jesus' birthday and that "he" actually got gifts from Santa. He thought that was really cool. Then he went to the window and said Santa brought these gifts (my neighbor has a blow-up Santa in their yard and he thought it came in the house and brought him the gifts-that was funny). He kept going to the window checking to see if Santa was still there. Well I hope you had a Merry Christmas and 2009 is your best year yet. Happy New Year from the Millers!

Two Questions

Hi all! As my lovely wife has previously stated, I will offer up some additional insight from time to time. So the first thing I'd like to say is I'm so fortunate, that means BLESSED. I do recognize that family is the foundation. So Renita mentioned the two questions we asked ourselves after watching Will Smith's movie Seven Pounds. (1). Who are you? (2) Why are you here? I know I know, it sounds like two basic questions that anyone could answer pretty quickly. That may be the problem. I have discovered that these questions should be thought provoking no matter how simplistic they may sound. Here's another question. How many of us get bogged down with our personal lives attempting to achieve goals we have set for ourselves? You can't see me, but I just raised my hand. Watching this movie yesterday allowed me to take a closer look at who I am, and why am I here.

Yes we are suppose to set personal, family, and career goals. Yes we are suppose to achieve those goals; however, are we suppose to be so goal-oriented that we get so consumed with ourselves so much that we forget about PEOPLE? Helping people to be quite specific. How many people have you helped? How many people do you know that when your name is mentioned, or perhaps when they see your face, or hear your voice, those individuals immediately have a sense of thanksgiving in their hearts because you have helped them to a degree where they recognize you as being a difference-maker in their lives? A difference-maker? How are we suppose to define that? Here's a thought, maybe we don't. Could this be the problem? We stick our chest out because we buy someone something that they otherwise, could not buy for themselves, and it gives us a sense of power. It gives us the sensation that allows us to say "yeah look what I did for you." So we ourselves define that as helping someone. Does our definition need to run much deeper than that? Do we really get to decide whether we have helped someone so much that we crown ourselves Difference-Maker in their life? The movie I watch yesterday taught me that the only time I get to define difference-maker is when a person's name is mentioned, or I see their face, or hear their voice, and I immediately get a sense of thanksgiving in my heart for the help they have given me during my life.So I ask, who are you, and why are you here?

Seven Pounds

So today is Friday (date night for the hubby and I) and we went to see Seven Pounds with Will Smith. And boy is he an awesome actor, he did an incredible job in this movie. This movie really made us reflect on who we are? and why are we here? While we reflected on many things and have some answers, we surely do not understand everything, yet it made for good conversation, and we hugged our kids a little tighter than usual when we picked them up and said an extra long prayer at bed time.

Ok while I am writing this I do believe mister Jackson has made his way out of bed as he has been doing lately, and camping out on the stairs. I think he is in protest of his 7:00/7:30 bedtime, but this is non-negotiable. So gotta go...

The beginning of something new!

I decided to start this blog first because I think it is a great way to chronicle things going on in my family life, and second because I am so bad about taking pictures and sending them out, I hope that this will be a motivator for me to have memories for years to come for my children, family and friends. Also my dear friend Alveda who is busier than me, manages to keep her blog updated, inspired me as well, Thanks Alveda!

I hope you enjoy my chronicles! And Norris will put his two cents in from time to time too.

Love ya,
Renita