Important News

Will Update More Later!!!

A Long Delay

Okay so that short delay got to be a little bit long, but hey I am back. There are new pictures up on the latest pics page. More of those images are in the process of being uploaded to Smugmug, along with a few other new galleries.

So as for the latest news here it goes.

Amy is hosting a Candlelight party this Friday evening. So if you want anything candle related then you better give us a call or email. Call us for all your candle needs. :-)

Kelli is loving all her presents she receievd for her birthday, especially a digital camera her Auntie Kelli got her. She loves to tell people to say cheese. The pictures are the best, but hey she's two.

As for me I just built "Tiki Room North" I converted our patio into the ultimate Tiki getaway. When ever you are in town you must stop by and take in the island feel. I will post a picture later for those out-of-towners.

If you do plan on stopping by We will be closed next week, as we will be on vacation to that great place known as Disneyland. The JoElquists are at it again, when we plan on painting the mouse red and having a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time.

Till later

Keep Moving Forward.

Don

By the way if you get a chance to see "Meet The Robinsons" in 3-d take it. You will love the movie.

A Short Delay

Hey All,

Sorry for the short delay in getting Kelli's B-day pictures up on the website. We couldn't find our camera cable, and now I am at a Weekend retreat. Check back on Monday to see everything that happened at the San Francisco Zoo. Okay maybe not everything, I will leave out the boring parts. :-)

Happy Birthday Kelli!

Oh My Gosh!!!! It has been two years since Marcia, Amy and Myself waited up all night for the stork to bring Kelli Sierra Joel. I can't believe how time flies by. I have been truly blessed to have such a wonderful wife and daughter. Last weekend Kelli and Amy flew down to L.A. to visit Grandma and Grandpa Starcher, and for Amy to go to a Curves Conference. Both tasks were very successful. I on the other hand also ha a successful weekend at Jr. High Snow Camp. It was tough to be away from Amy and Kelli for another weekend, but we have been making up for it the last couple of nights by going out and doing stuff. Monday night we went to Bounce-a-Rama, pics available in the New Pictures section, and Tuesday night we went to the Great Mall.

Last week we took new pictures of Kelli and Kiddie Kandids, they did a great job. You can see the pictures at the Smugmug site, under Kidde Kandids 2007. If you forgot how to access it, go to the Photo Gallery and if prompted enter Disneyland as the password. You can also find the more of the latest Bounce-a-Rama pictures, in Bounce-A-Rama II.

Kelli's having a B-day party this weekend at the zoo so remember to check back for some pictures.

Don

Mommy See Mommy Do

Kelli Dancing

White & nerdy

Kellidini

The Great Escape Artist

Setting Up Our New Website

Well it has been awhile since I last posted to our family blog. Even though there are many reason why this is the case, I will not bore you with the details. Just know that I am working at getting better at making this a very active family blog.

Kelli is turning 2 on March 21st, which we are very excited about, and scared out of our shoes as well. She is growing up every single day. If you haven't ben to our photo site in while you should check it out. I will be uploading new pictures this weekend, plus you will want to see all the pictures from our past excursions. The site is hosted at SmugMug, open the link and if you need the password it is Disneyland.

I am about to start High School Youth Group, so I will write more later. just wanted to get a quick note up about the new site and stuff.
Don

P.S. Here is a pic of Kelli

The Unforsaking Christ

My legs hurt

Well I finally walked through the pain of my pulled calf muscle, but now my knee is starting to hurt. I really think my body is trying to tell me something. To bad I don't want to listen to it. I will walk the 20 miles that is my goal and focus for the next few months. Well that and to have a lot of fun doing it.

The walking is getting easier, I am now trying to walk to work or home from work on scheduled walking days. I get Wednesday, Fridays, and Sundays off, for now. That's three miles a day 4 days a week. I know in a couple of weeks I will have to add at least one day a week of going both ways, but I will jump that shark when I get to it.

Still the hardest part for me is this fundraising effort. I am at $175 so far, and I thank my In-Laws for their support. If you want to track my pledges you can do so by clicking here.

in other news, Kelli turns one year old in 7 days. That's coming up so quick. We took Kelli for her one year old check up today, a little early but who's counting. Here are her stats: 30.25 inches tall, and 24lbs 9.1 oz. She is doing great according to her doctor. I will put pictures up on the smugmug site later tonight.

Talk to you all later.

Don

Pac Man Fever

The Simpsons - live?!?

I love the simpsons, and when i saw this i just knew i had to post it on the blog.

I want to be a Curler

This is an amazing shot made in the fifth end of the Gold medal game. Canada Won the medal deservedly so. USA took the Bronze, first ever USA medal in Curling. Go Curlers!!

News for you

Well training moved into week two, the mileage now begins to go upwards. Last week we were suppose to walk a total of 6 miles. This week we will walk about 7 miles. I walked 8 miles last week, and probably will do about the same. I pulled a muscle in my cafe or at least strained it, but it is not enough to keep me from keeping my walk training up-to-date.

This last Sunday I was the fill-in speaker, since Pastor Bruce is on vacation. I thought I did a pretty good job, and I got a lot of great comments. The best one to me was, "every time you speak, you get better." Anyway if you want to listen to the message you can go to Sermon Central, a place where we post all TABC Sunday morning messages.

Kelli is almost 1 year old, and her birthday party is coming up soon. I can't believe that I have been a dad for almost one year. It is amazing to be a dad, and I am so glad that God has gifted me with such a wonderful wife and daughter.

Talk to you later.

Funny Video

This is a video I stumbled upon this evening.

Pretty Amazing.



Workout News
Kelli and I went to the gym for about 40 minutes tonight. It was the toughest night yet. I think mainly because there was no specified requirement for the night. I will post the schedule when i get a chance.

Training Day 2

Okay so today was the first 2 mile day. I walked home from dinner after our 2x2 meeting. It was nice to walk outside, it made it seem easier, but the only problem was it was bit cold to walk in shorts and a t-shirt.

I sent out my fundraising letters this morning, now I play the waiting game. I will keep you informed of the progress.

I get tomorrow off from walking, but I have to do some sort of cross training. I will probably head to the gym, and do the elliptical trainer.

On Kelli news:

Today is her 11month birthday. Only one month till the birthday party. Today she used a pillow as a stool and climbed up onto the couch all by herself. She is growing up so fast. I will try to put pictures on smugmug later.

Training Day 1

Well I am glad that we had the day off. It took most of the day to get moving enough to get my behind to the gym. It didn't help that I had four youth kids over last night to watch movies til just before Amy got up to go to work. They crashed about 5 am, to be honest I crashed a bit before that about a movie and half before that.

Anyway I went to the gym and today was an "easy" day plus strength training. "Easy" days are at a mild pace, "Moderate" days are "Out of Breath days, and "Long" days are, let's just say I am glad we have are first one ten weeks from now.

I walked my first mile in 22 minutes and 16 secs, not bad for not going to the gym in forever. At that rate it will only take me about 7 hours to walk the 20 miles.

In other news: Amy and I are planning our first family vacation with another family. The Elquists(my buddy Darin from Camp) and the Joels will be invading ... you guessed it... Disneyland the last week of April.

We are also in the planning stages of Kelli's First Birthday Party. It should be a blast and a well attended affair. Nothing to over the top I mean she's only one and all, not like she is going to remember. My only requirement is to have a special cake just for her to eat with her hands.

Well talk to you soon.

Out of the Darkness

On July 22, 2006, I am participating in a unique event that is very important to me. It’s called Out of the Darkness Overnight and it is a 20-mile walk through the night from dusk until dawn to raise funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Their goal is to erase the stigma surrounding suicide and its causes, to encourage those suffering from mental illness to seek treatment and to show support for the families and friends of the over 30,000 Americans who die by suicide each and every year.

As you may already know I am currently the Youth and Media Pastor at Thornton Avenue Baptist Church. I have served at this church for over 5 years. What you may not know is that on January 25, 2006 one of our youth committed suicide. His name was Curtis and he was only 15 years old. He was a wonderful musician whose songs read like poetry. He was a caring and fun young man. He was a friend, brother, twin, son, nephew, and grandson. His smile, laughter, and wonderful personality will be deeply missed. By participating in this event, I hope to raise awareness of the serious threat that depression can pose and the treatment options that can help people overcome it. If only one person can be saved by my efforts to raise money and walk 20 miles, then it’s all been worth it.

Please think about how much you can give to this cause, and click this link to donate at my support page. My goal is to raise at least $1,000 for this cause. All donations are fully tax-deductible.

I will be blogging here to keep you informed on my progress and training.

Please keep Curtis' family, friends, and all of us in your prayers.

Don

Happy New Year

Greetings Everyone,

I am sitting here listening to Pastor Rob Bell, and I realized that God is with us even when we think he is not. It is usually those times that we feel God isn't with us that we need to stop and have a have a rest in God, because it usually means we are too busy to see the work God is doing. It's during those times we need to ask God the hard questions, and rely on him to answer. God knows our needs and we need to be real with Him. The Joels this year are praying to achieve more of this kind of authentic spirituality.

Well 2005 was such a crazy fast year, with a tons of ups and downs, but over all it was the best year of my life. It was the year Kelli Sierra Joel was born. The year the Joels became a family. If you haven't checked out the smugmug site in a while you will be pleasantly surprised that there has been a major update. Tons more pictures. I will post one here later to give you all a glimpse.

As far as major news everything is going well. I am currently going through some work stuff, but God has already begun the healing process. Amy has switched to a new schedule, she is now working form 6:15 to about 10:45 in the morning.

Kelli had her 9 month old check up last month and everything is super. She is still basically in the 95 percentile across the board. She now has her four front teeth, and is ready to stand up on her own anytime now.

Week of 8/22

Well okay so I just wanted to start my weekly updates finally.

Amy - Well Amy is back to work now. After nearly two months "off", the new owner of Curves decided that it would be a good idea to hire her back. We both are very happy that Amy is back at Curves. The members have been telling her that they missed her a lot and our glad she is back.
This however means that I am now Mr. Mom for 5 hours a day. Amy works 10 - 2 everyday, but with travel time it works out to me watching Kelli from 9:30 to 2:30 daily. The three of us are adjusting to this new situation.

Kelli - Kelli is growing leaps and bounds as she turned 5 months old on Sunday. We took 5 month old pictures which you can see at our pictures site.
Kelli is about to venture into a whole new world of food choices. In about a week or so we will begin to add rice cereal to her diet. I am excited for this new stage, and look forward to feeding her new foods every other week or so. We will keep you informed on what she likes and doesn't like.

Me(Don) - The summer is quickly coming to an end and I have been feverishly planning the school year out for the youth group. Trying to make sure I have all my ducks in a row for the events as well as the extra things we will be doing this year. Keep the youth ministry in your prayers as we go forward.
I am also in the process of enrolling into NEGST, The Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. But don't worry we are not moving to Kenya. I am going to be taking an online course taught by Amy's Dad. I am looking forward to getting my feet wet again in the world of Academia.

This week in Joel History
It is hard to believe that it has been a year since Amy and I went to our first baby doctor appointment, but it has. We went on August 19, 2004. Boy time flies.