the unlikely orange

happy halloween from the milinovich family.  as you can see, we've got a little buzz lightyear, and a skeleton (who hastens to add that he has glowing eyes, but you're just going to have to take my word on that).  we carved pumpkins in the snow on saturday, and took these pictures yesterday, since tonight will be kind of crazy (and probably getting dark) between eating mummy dogs, getting costumes on, and trick-or-treating.  enjoy some pictures of our halloween-y (love that word) weekend.  our little lobsty.  we bought this costume a few weeks ago.  and wouldn't you know?  it doesn't fit the little pudger now.  couldn't stuff his chubby arms into the sleeves, and his legs just barely fit into it.  poor guy was stiff as a board in there, so we softened him up in a pot of water.  above:  cade's lightning mcqueen on the left (made by mommy), and mommy's owl on the right below:...

well, as i sit here on the 29th of october in central pennsylvania, i am looking out the window.  and i see snow falling heavily.  in october.   we are expected to get 6-10 inches.  of snow.  in october .  are you kidding me?  nope. so, after carving the pumpkins, i'll be lacing up the snow boots.  therefore, for our saturday song, i thought i'd choose a song by a band named " snow patrol."  this is my favorite song of theirs, called "chasing cars."  this video just shows the lyrics.  hope everyone has a safe and warm saturday.  in october .

above:  coloring by caedmon. below:  cuteness by caedmon.

thursday seems a bit late for a reaction to sunday's steelers game against the cardinals, but, what can i say?  i've finally got around to doing it.  the picture above was just my way of celebrating not only the steelers important road win over pittsburgh west arizona, but also the ravens monday night debacle which put the steelers into first place in the division.  antonio brown, the second year receiver, has been coming up big for the steelers this year, and is clearly a comfortable target for roethlisberger.  it's really great to see his maturation, and it seems to me that his upside is amazing.  this one-handed reach catch on sunday was spectacular.   i just loved this picture of troy, so i turned it into a poster. i absolutely love this picture.  it is from sunday's game in arizona, and in this particular view, i don't think you can see one cardinal fan.  there is nothing - NOTHING - like steeler nati...

i'm pretty sure that universal blogging rules dictate that i'm not supposed to apologize for my lack of writing, but i feel compelled to hang my head in silent shame.  sorry i have been absent.  life has been a bit...overwhelming.  i keep thinking that i have a million things i want to say, but i don't just want to say them, i want to say them well.  and then i get distracted by other things and i lose track of time and then i'm too exhausted to say much of anything well.  and that pretty much gets us all caught up.  with that in mind, i don't have a good 3-point sermon here today, or anything particularly witty or creative.  just my musings on this beautiful fall tuesday in central pennsylvania.  -today is quin's 3-month birthday.  he is so smiley and cute and, well, round.  just really round .  -coldplay's new album came out yesterday.  if you don't know, now you know:  i'm a big coldplay guy.  and ...

last night our pbs station was showing the new cameron crowe-directed documentary about pearl jam called "pearl jam twenty" which celebrates the band's first 20 years.  not many bands that started in 1991 are still together today, and none of them can say that they've called their own shots over their career the way pearl jam has.  because of their determination to be true to themselves, they've truly got an interesting story within the context of a music world typically run by huge corporations.  when thinking of pearl jam, even twenty years later, most people think of the grunge movement out of seattle in the early '90's, along with nirvana.  there is a sense that pearl jam is somehow stuck in the past, but to assume that is to be completely unfair to a group of artists who was continually redefined themselves amidst enormous pressure within the music business.  i've had a love/hate relationship with pearl jam since 1992, liking most of their music...

this blog serves several purposes for me.  perhaps more than anything, it is an outlet for expression for me; a chance to vent all my creative energy so i don't explode.  but it's not only that.  i also get to write down some of the funny family stuff that happens so that i don't forget.  it also affords me the opportunity to stay in touch with family and friends in a way that i couldn't otherwise do.  there are many other small things that this blog accomplishes for me, not the least of which is a healthy sense of guilt when i'm not writing enough.  but today i'm taking advantage of another advantage of having my own blog: confession.  that's right, i get to use this digital platform to air my dirty laundry to the entire internets, or at least to the 15 people who check my blog from time to time.  so here goes.  (don't judge me). while shannon is breastfeeding our little quinton, she likes to watch tv.  and she watches shows tha...

they didn't exactly win in commanding fashion, at least not in the second half, but they still won, and they are 4-2, which is certainly respectable at this point.  the "old and slow" defence is returning to form and has already moved to the top in several categories, despite the loss of several starters due to injury.  if the steelers are able to find their niche, get relatively healthy, and keep ben from being obliterated by opposing pass rushers, they will be competitive all the way through to the end.  enjoy my picnik.com creations for this weeks win over the jags. 

last weekend we went apple picking at a little local orchard off the beaten path.  it was really fun to take the kids on the hay ride down into the orchard and enjoy this little yearly festival of fruity abundance with them.  we picked mostly red and golden delicious and some ida reds.  as you can see from these pics, we had a great time on a beautiful fall day. 

after a weekend of having 16 members of our extended family sleep in our house, a climactic worship service including the baptism of our son, and keeping track of several young children, i'm wiped.  so, make up your own blog post today.  make it clever and witty, and with some sort of deeper significance.  either that, or just write about another grueling steelers victory.  you choose.  either way, i'll read it when i wake up.

"mom!,"  jack yelled from his bedroom during reading time.  continuing in a very factual tone, he yelled across the house, "mom, the apatosaurus weighed 30 tons."  as if this information was critical to the folding of the laundry, he added with urgency, "they also kept pebbles in their mouth to help with digestion, and they can stand on their back legs, which are taller than their front legs.  also...."  and he continued with a vast array of facts about some enormous ancient terrible lizard.  this type of moment is the bricks and mortar that build our normal days.  when you are in the throws or raising three boys, life looks a bit different.  the moments that add up to make up a day shift somewhat, from what might be considered typical to normal people, to discussions about grasshopper guts, iguanadon intestines, and the talents of transformers.  right now, cade says we need to have another baby so we can either name him "sideswipe" or "...

dang, he's cute.  he is certainly very expressive, and as i was taking these shots and then working on this composite of some of them, i was reminded of how many facades we all have.  i, for one, have a face for every occasion.  in any situation, there is a part of me that is willing to gauge my surroundings and help me determine which face is appropriate for the moment.  this whole process can occur in nanoseconds, and, without even consciously thinking about it, i become: "greg milinovich, master of disguise."  before you judge me, consider your own self.  i have a hunch that you do this, too.  it's part of being human, i think.  it's a kind of guardedness that we think is protecting us from getting hurt.  we imagine somehow that if we can control the self that we project with our faces and our words, we will be able to control what it feels like underneath (of course this is pure rubbish, but we go on this way, don't we?).  if yo...

my favorite poem, which i've written about before , is by ee cummings.  a few weeks ago i had the creative urge to have my children somehow read or recite that poem, set to some music and some images of them just enjoying life.  being a complete and utter amateur, i have neither all the tools nor the expertise required to do it really well, but i do have the need to express myself creatively and to document my children's lives in interesting, meaningful, and hopefully beautiful ways.  so, without further ado, here is the video i've put together.  enjoy. 

some days you just need a little reminder of mercy and hope. 

-ahhh, that's more like it.  game 5 in the bronx thursday night.  should be fun.  at least the grandy man bought us one more night of yankee baseball.  -dear a.j., thank you.  i take back all those things i thought about you.  -dear derek jeter, you are so clutch.  that is all. -dear arod, welcome back to the party.  now keep it going. -dear ivan, time to be great, baby. -dear texas rangers, i see you waiting for us.  hold on, we'll be there in a few. 

it's still grey and rainy here.  it feels like london spent the night with seattle, had a little too much to drink and decided just to stay in bed this morning.  looks like the sun is taking another sick day today.  of course, it doesn't help my mood that the yankees lost again last night.  and that i sacrificed time i could have spent sleeping watching them strike out repeatedly.  my outlook on life in general diminished on each successive strike, and yet i couldn't stop watching.  when i finally did sleep, it mostly felt like a short pause in between reliving the agony.  i keep trying to listen really closely to see if i can hear mark texiera and alex rodriguez begging God to remind them how to hit a baseball.  so far, nothing.    so, yeah, it's going to be that kind of day.  but, when i start to feel like this day would be better spent watching all three extended films in the Lord of the Rings Trilo...

usually when the steelers win on sunday, i write loquaciously about it on monday, complete with pictures and overwhelming joy.  when they lose?  i typically just pretend it didn't happen and forget to mention it all together.  the pain is just too much for me to deal with.  but today, i feel like i need to mention it.  yesterday was an uncommonly bad sports day for me.  i had a free afternoon/evening (which is a rarity), and both the steelers and yankees were playing.  it had the potential to be a really great day.  however, the steelers lost, looking generally awful in doing so.  then, the yankees lost game 2 of their ALDS against the detroit tigers.  not only that (as if that wasn't enough for me), my gators got manhandled by alabama on saturday night, and the hated ravens dismantled the jets on sunday night.  heck, even my fantasy team is getting beat unless i have a huge night from josh freeman tonight.  after the way t...

since i got it last week, i've been listening quite a bit to the new gungor album "ghosts upon the earth."  i really enjoy gungor, first on a purely musical level, but much much more from a lyrical standpoint, as they have refused to succumb to the Christian music industry's desire for bands to make safe and saccharin-sweet theologically-challenged albums.  instead, their lyrics feel like they just got done with a bible study (perhaps even the one my church is currently doing on hope and resurrection) and are singing about it.  for example, the song that i have included here seems simply to be a retelling of Isaiah's beautiful image of the new Kingdom.  this video is an acoustic performance of the song "when death dies" from the new album.  you can see that their musicianship is stellar and creative, and full of energy.  it's great art, and it's helping (i hope) the church repent from contentment with escapism or evacuation as a viable theol...