the unlikely orange

on saturday we went to our first ever penn state football game. we are!.... ....new at this! but we had a blast.  we left at 10:30am for the 3:30 game at beaver stadium, just a few miles from our house.  we got there without any traffic, got into our parking space and set up "camp," which meant that we had table and chairs and food and snacks and drinks and games and toys.  we played board games, threw the football, had a dangerous throwing competition, and took a walk around the perimeter of beaver stadium to fully emerge in this "cross cultural experience" as i kept calling it.  the weather was spectacular, and helped us to fully appreciate the pregame, as well as the game itself. once we got into the stadium, we were blessed with padded seats (with backs!) and truly enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance of the blue band, the student section, the nittany lion, and more.  so much fun! the game was sort of meh, at least in the first half, as penn st...

today is labor day, the official end of summer, and so i find myself reflecting today on the summer of 2016.  as different as this summer was, we still did our annual tradition of making a summer bucket list, which i wrote about here , back in july.  shannon designed the bucket list with a patriotic theme, knowing that we would be vacationing in washington dc this summer: and as awesome as that week in dc was, it certainly wasn't the major event of our summer.  no, without question, the mark of summer 2016 for the milinovich's was moving.  everything was either leading up to the move (putting all of our possessions in cardboard boxes) or resulting from the move (unpacking all of aforementioned boxes). but we woke up the first day after moving out of our home for the last 6 years, a place that had become home to us, with great friends at a great church, and this is how that first morning greeted us: and somehow, we knew everything was going to be ju...

yesterday was the first day of school for all three of our boys - 6th(!), 4th, and kindergarten.   the biggest impression of the day, for me, was all the newness.  new shoes.  new backpacks.  new unopened packs of 18 un-sharpened pencils.  new bus stop, new bus driver, new bus route!  new kids, new teachers, new new schools, new everything .  it's a season that is ripe with unthinkable possibilities, and overwhelmingly disorienting at the same time. and so, my prayer for my three boys, in the midst of all the brand new everything, is that they will find ways to make the "new" become familiar - that school will be like a family to them: fun, supportive, encouraging, and challenging in the best way.   i pray that they will find the joy in this adventure, and that in the midst of discovering new names and ideas, they will come to see more of the One who made it all, who makes all things new, and who calls us all family (familia...

on friday i had the opportunity to lead a group of 10 of us to latrobe for the annual friday night lights steelers practice at latrobe memorial high school stadium, along with 12,000 of our closest friends. we drove out there, did the steelers experience with the kids (including bounce house races, rock wall, face painting, spinning the prize wheel, football toss, and a photo op with the steelers' 6 lombardi trophies, among other things). then we waited in line to get in, so that we could get our position around the autograph fence, and then there was a significant amount of waiting.  but at least the weather was beautiful!  we enjoyed good conversation and laughter along with homemade steelers cookies.  finally the team and coaches arrived on school busses and the autograph session began.  you never know who might come your direction, so we were pretty surprised when ben roethlisberger came near us and started signing.  sure enough, he came our way, and i got h...

this morning for my quiet time i was reading acts chapter 3, about peter healing the crippled beggar at the temple gate (acts 3:1-10).  i was struck by a particular word which is repeated in this short story.  after peter heals the man, we are told that he  jumped to his feet...then went into the temple courts, walking and jumping.  i guess i never thought much about this before, but today i began to wonder why he was jumping.  there was no practical need to jump.  this was not a utilitarian action.  he wasn't jumping over anything.  he was just walking and jumping, one presumes, with great joy for the way his life has been changed.  jumping for joy.  you know what isn't very dignified?  jumping for no apparent reason.  let's be honest, you look sort of silly.  if someone was walking into church on sunday and starting just started randomly jumping up in the air, we would think something was wrong with th...

last week we had the opportunity to visit the turkey hill experience near Lancaster, pa, and part of the fun of that experience is designing your own imaginary ice cream flavor, packaging, and commercial.  they boys and I worked together to come up with a  brand new flavor called "MILINO-NUT," and it is a coconut ice cream with coconut chips, pretzel bits, and fudge swirl.  I know, right?  you want some in your belly right now.  well, perhaps you could call or write to turkey hill and demand that they start production of MILINO-NUT right away.  look for it on the shelves of your local grocery store soon.  here is the commercial we made...we were trying to hypnotize you into buying our ice cream.  let us know if it worked....

  this little ninja turned 5 years old today, and it marks an anniversary of five years of exuberance, vibrancy, and belly laughs.  this kid has a galaxy-sized imagination, and the heart of an entertainer.  he is constantly singing and dancing, telling jokes and doing impressions and making us double over with laughter.  he loves an audience, and since we are his primary one, he seems to enjoy us, at least as long as we give him attention.  he likes us less when we talk to one another, or look in a different direction, but he gets over it.  to be sure, it is a five years that we can't imagine any other way, than loving and laughing and living so abundantly because of him.  we love you, Quinton.  happy 5th birthday!   his lego ninjago cake i think he likes it.