happy halloween (i'm a bit behind)

ARRGGHHHHH!!!!  i feel like everything is a week behind in my life right now.  so, sorry about the delay, but here are a few pics from halloween.  hope you're all enjoying the week.  steelers joy all around. 

the best sports year ever

it has been an incredible year for me.  at least as far as sports are concerned.  actually, somewhat unbelievable, to be honest.  let's recap...

on january 8th of this year, my favorite football team, the florida gators, beat the oklahoma sooners 24-14 to win the bcs championship.  the year was off to a really good start.  but it got better...

less than a month later, the steelers wrapped up in an incredible season by winning super bowl 43 and raising the trophy for a sixth time.  a dramatic game that came right down to the wire, this superbowl made me feel so blessed to be a fan of a great franchise.  i even remember saying to shannon that this just might be my year....

and this week completed the hat trick for me as the yankees won the world series of the philadelphia phillies.  as i refleced on what an amazing sports year its been for me, and how rarely the planets must align for this kind of thing to happen, it occured to me that many of you may doubt my real fanmanship (new word) of these teams.  i mean, the gators are good right now, so i could have easily jumped on that bandwagon.  i don't think anyone doubts my love of the steelers, but some may wonder about about my affection for the yankees.  so, in order to silence any potential critics who may accuse me of jumping on the a bandwagon for this amazing ride of a year, i did some research in the milinovich archives and dug up a few gems, which i like to call exhibits a, b, and c.  firstly:

if you can get past the stunning good looks, you'll see that i'm wearing a florida gators hat.  that is actually my favorite hat of all time.  i still have it, only now it is basically gray.  this hat is the reason i love the color orange.  this is a picture from early in the 90's, and indicates that i have liked the gators since i was in high school (thanks to rick, who was a mentor of mine and a huge gator fan).  so that's the gators, what about the steelers?

i don't really need to defend this one.  i grew up in western pennsylvania.  even though i left that area for awhile as a teenager, and then again as an adult, it is clear that my blood is black and gold.  if you question my real fanaticism for the steelers, watch this.   but what about the new york yankees?

now, as you can see in this picture from 1993, i am ice skating (which means i'm in public) and i'm wearing a yankee shirt.  i was also wearing a yankee hat, but you'll have to take my word for that.  this took place at an ice skating rink in lexington ky, where i lived at the time.  in 1993, the yankees hadn't won a championship in 15 years, or since i was 2 years old.  so, i wasn't a bandwagon fan.  i was a high school kid in kentucky (not a lot of yankee-lovers in bluegrass country) who liked a team that was not winning.  i loved the yankees mostly because i loved baseball, and baseball history, and i read everything i could about the greats of the game, so many of whom were yankees.  plus, i loved don mattingly and the way he played the game with passion and integrity. 

so now that i've defended myself, let me be.  let me revel in what must be the greatest sports year ever (i'm not a huge hockey fan, but i generally support the pittsburgh penguins, and they won the stanley cup this year, just as a bonus gift).  i still can't believe it, and know that it will likely never happen again, but, at least for now, i'm one of the luckiest, happiest fans ever. 

the yankees win!

i have a bunch of thoughts about my year as a sports fan, but for now let it suffice to say: congratulations to the most storied franchise in the history of sports.  the new york yankees won their 27th world championship last night, bringing it back to the bronx after a nine year hiatus.  i'm exhausted after staying up late watching all the post game stuff, so i don't have a great deal to add right now.  just, this: 

tttthhhhhheeeee  yyyyyaaaannnnnkkeeeeeeeess   wwwwwwiiiiiiinnnnnnn!!!!!!!

practice what i preach

yesterday was a gorgeous fall day here in north western new jersey, so i decided to take an hour before it got dark (so stinkin' early now!) to rake up some of our leaves.  if you've never been to our house, then you probably don't realize that our house is nestled into a little valley, with a few trees in our front yard, and about 250 of them in the back.  if we don't start raking in mid-october and then keep it up, we often have trouble finding our front door.  i kid, i kid.  but seriously:  lots.of.leaves.  so, i thought i would rake some of them yesterday, thinking that every little bit helps.  so jack came out with me and we worked pretty hard at raking up large piles and putting them on tarps to take up to the road, where they will sit until some leaf-sucking truck comes and carries them to leaf heaven (hell:?).  we were mostly working in the front yard, right along the sidewalk.  after about 45 minutes we had it looking pretty good, and were just finishing up for the day, when a gust of wind appeared, (literally) out of nowhere, and mockingly blew every leaf that had previously been sitting our our roof and dumped them right on the area that we had just raked.  i just stood there, shoulders slumped, a look of shocked disgust on my face.  but then i looked over at jack, who, with a huge smile on his face, just said, "yay!  now we have more leaves to rake up!"

an attitude of gratitude, we always tell him.  that's what you need.  looks like he's been putting it into practice.  looks like i need to practice what i preach. 

thank you, God of color and change, for the things that blow my way; for the way you meet me in the mundane moments.  for work and for play, for children and for crisp air, for the pallette of fall colors and the power of a child's simplicity: thank you. 

one song

as you know, i <3 my ipod.  since i had to have it replaced (hard drive crashed), i've been putting music on it again.  i'm up to about 2,500 songs right now.  which got me thinking about what everyone's most precious songs would be.  so i'm asking you to help me out here:  what ONE SONG should i make sure gets on my ipod?  it doesn't have to be your favorite all time song - it could just be something you're really into right now.  but you can only tell me one song.  c'mon people.  what's it going to be?  what's your one song right now?

weekend without pictures

so, i'm tired this morning.  it is the classic monday morning here at the milinovich house.  it feels less like just another day on the calendar and more like an alex rodriguez swing to the face.  so, if you're going to read this, please have very low expectations. 

had a very good, yet busy weekend.  unfortunately, however, i didn't get much in the way of pictures to demonstrate it.  my parents were here from pittsburgh for a short visit, and so we spent a good bit of time just hanging out with meemaw and pappy.  friday jackson had a little mini-parade and halloween production at school, so we all went to see that.  then i had a wedding rehearsal that evening, before we all went to cracker barrel for dinner (mmm...chicken fried chicken).   saturday included the wedding (the bride nearly passed out - at a halloween wedding!), and trick-or-treating.  luckily the rain mostly held off and the boys seemed to have a great time in their dragon (jack) and doggy (cade) costumes.  then we came home and did the obligatory candy sorting.  and i stayed up until nearly 1 am watching the yankees win game 3 of the world series.  i slept for a few hours and then was up at 5 for a full sunday morning of preaching about moving from fear to generosity.  yesterday we set up cade's big boy bed for the first time and disassembled his crib.  he slept like a little angel in it last night.  i, on the other hand, stayed up and watched the yankees win again.  which was awesome.  but i wish these games started at 7 and not 8.  mornings come too early!

and so, there you have it.  my weekend in a paragraph.  not very creative or interesting, i know.  sorry about that.  i feel low on  creative energy this morning.  i think i invested it all in the dream i had last night about the family of cats that had somehow invaded our house. 

pumpkin extravaganza

my parents came into town last night, and we celebrated their arrival with a pumpkin extravaganza (my family is famous for extravaganzas.  i'll have to write about that another time).  we started with a fresh salad covered with freshly roasted pumpkin seeds, then moved to a main course of pumpkin pasta and pumpkin bread with pumpkin butter.  we finished with some homemade pumpkin pie with some pumpkin flavored coffee, and then brought in the actual pumpkins for some carving. 

hope everyone has a fun and safe (and possibly pumpkiny) halloween!