Rainbow

¹¹And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. ¹²And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that [is] with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: ¹⁵And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

~

I took these pictures at sunrise yesterday morning. It had not yet begun to rain where I was; but it immediately reminded me of God's promise from 7,000 years ago, and is still true today.

I am thankful for the promises of God.  I love seeing His promise in the sky like this.

Emma Jo

This little spitfire gives me the best lovin' of any little girl since her Aunt Jackie was about the same age.  And let me tell you "I'm lovin' every minute of it Jerry!"

Her love is unconditional.  No matter what she is doing, if I ask for a hug or kiss, you can guarantee that she will immediately stop what she is doing and come give me what I ask for.  And when she sees me, she is the only one that runs into my arms.  Actually, she runs, and then about 10' away she launches herself into my arms; knowing full well that I will reach out to catch her!  My heart beats faster with joy just thinking about it.

She will hug me for minutes on end, and she gives the best kisses too; so full of love.

This is my Spaz, with a few of her morning ready for school photo's.  I always look forward to my grand daughter photo's each school morning.  I love the assortment of bows, boots, colors, and coordination.  The smiles are always great; unless of course a diva moment has previously ensued, like the top photo.

Emma Jo accounts for 87.7% of the Franco food bill though; as she never stops eating. She out eats me, and I am probably 5x her weight.  If you were to look into her back pack, it is not full of books, it is full of food snacks.

I love you Emma Jo, you mean the world to me.

I am a blessed man!

Ava Corinne

She will be 10 in February. In so many ways though, she is so much older than that.

Ava Corinne is a mini-me clone of her gorgeous Mom, and "it freaks me out" to see the deja vu similarities more defined by the year.  Other than having her Daddy's eyes, this little girl is 100% Momma in the beauty of her appearance.

She, and her sister, and her Mom have 3 of the best smiles ever created.  And her long, thick black hair is killer.  She donated a 1' of it a few years ago to charity, and it has grown back even prettier than it was.  

She is so gifted athletically with grace, skill, and strength.  Goodness this girl is strong; she has more core strength than most boys her age.  She can do back handsprings, she can do one handed cart wheels; to me (the sap), the things this little girl can do is amazing.

Plus, she has personality.  In spades.  She is one of the sweetest, most giving, and obedient children that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Her servant heart, her mercy, her tenderness are constantly on display.  She is so incredibly obedient, such a great girl.

She struggles with math, and she is prone to diva drama; but my oh my, she is such a wonderful daughter, and a perfect granddaughter. 

Besides, there are a lot of dramatic actress diva's in Hollywood that are worth millions and probably take care of their Pappy's later in life :-)

I love you Ava Corinne.  I just wanted to tell you today how much I love you, and how much you mean to me.

I am a blessed man to have you as part of my heritage!

Happy 58th Birthday To Me

www.MikeFournier-Tulsa.com

When I was 8, I never wondered what I would look like at 18, much less at 58.

Fast forward 50 years, (and I do mean fast), and now I know.  I have not availed myself to the plethora of products and services available to try and make me look 38; such as: no Botox, no chemical peels, no laser treatments, and no plastic surgery.  I just have ample supplies of oily skin, courtesy of my Mom's genes.


I am mildly contemplating having the dark fatty bags under my eyes removed, but who knows when (or if) I will ever do that, as I have vacillated on that decision for probably 10 years now.  I did have Lasik surgery 15 years ago, but other than that, it's all-natural me.  

Now, at 58, I will admit to wondering what I will look like in another 50 years.  My Mom aged very well; I hope I do too.

I don't smoke or drink daily; and I have never gotten enough sleep (according to legend that 8 hours a night is optimum).  But, thanks to Pam, I do eat right and organically for the most part, definitely take my vitamins and supplements, drink filtered water, go to the gym, and work hard and long in my career.  I love my life.

I think it was Pam that took this picture of me to send to my g'girls a few weeks ago.  I was sitting in the dining room one morning (which served as my office overflow), while I was working on house plans.  We are in a nice rent house while we build our new home, but the space for my work is hard to stay contained in just one room.  I sent them this pic to my g'girls because the highlight of every morning for me is to get phone pictures from them as they are always dressed to the 9's on their way to school each morning.

Happy 58th Birthday to me; for I am a blessed man!  Here are some recent photo's of some of my family from yesterday when we got together for family day:

 I love you all.

Caveman & Momma's Boy

Owen: "I love Momma too, but Will REALLY loves Momma."  (The reason I decided to type in Momma's Boy) for Will. NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT, but WP has certainly favored Mom, and o'Mike has certainly favored Dad almost from the 1st day of their births.

Yesterday was making memory time for me any my g'boys.  After inhaling Bueno in 6 minutes (they don't savor their food for hours like my g'girls do), they immediately wanted to head to the arcade at the Bowling Alley. 

(Note to others: go ahead and spend the $100 on the pre-paid card; as you will get credit for $125. Then, after you go through $35 in 35 minutes you won't feel nearly as bad, because it only cost you $10 the first time).

Momma's boy lost the game of bowling to Caveman by the score of 78 to 74.  "Owen, stop throwing the ball so hard ~ you're going to break the pins!" says WP to his brother, who is definitely ready for a heavier ball, and yes, he was hurling it down the lane with all his might, and you should have heard him grunting while doing it.  Sounded like a real caveman.

They wanted popcorn, and at least 20% of it ending up on the floor, which I picked up and placed in the dish, telling them both "Don't eat this."  I leave to get a drink, and WP says upon my return "Pappy, Owen ate the trash popcorn, and the kernels."  I look at o'Mike and he shrugs his shoulders and grins like the Caveman that he is.

WP wanted 'revenge' in the arcade from losing the game of bowling (he didn't want to bowl a 2nd game), and promptly won the 1st game of air hockey 7-5, to lose the 2nd game 6-4, to win the 3rd game 7-1.  As you know, WP is super competitive.

Next, race cars and ski balls.  o'Mike won the ski ball, and then WP set a track best of 117 on the Tokyo drift.  For his age, his driving skills are amazingly reflexive, anticipating turns with adroit skill.

To close out our day in the arcade, we spent the next $25 dollars and 25 minutes at the basketball shot game.  WP had set the machine record of 45 the last time we were here, and he was determined to break his record.  I didn't keep scores, but he had several in the high 30's, several in the low 40's, once a 44, and then this one; a 50!  He has so pumped, hooting, hollering, fist-bumping his brother, and you can see the 50 at the bottom of the picture.  To get his 50, he made 9 shots in a row, then a miss, then 6 shots in a row, and I forget after that how many more he made.  He was on fire.

We then proceeded out of our new home under construction to check on things.  I had a few things to do with the sledgehammer that I had brought, and to the amazement of Caveman, he saw it, smiled, and said "Pappy, you have Thor's Hammer!"  Of which, he grabbed, and literally went around smashing every rock, pipe, and object that he could find.  I warned him early not to get Thor's hammer near my truck, as I liked it just the way it was.  Caveman worked up a good sweat swinging this 20lb sledge, and of course I was amazed at his power, as the hammer weighed 1/3 what he weighed.

With the sledgehammer, he occasionally got his superhero roles mixed up.  A few times he was swinging it as "Hulk Smash!", but most of the time in stayed in his role of Thor.  When he raised it into the sky waiting for the lighting to strike, he did have to use 2 hands though.

WP make the most profound statement of the day though when he said "You know you gave that hammer to the wrong person don't you Paps?"  That made me laugh.

Finally, Thor relinquished his hammer, and allowed me to use it for what I had brought it for, and after a few minutes of pounding, WP made another announcement that I found funny when he yelled from the back of the truck "Come on Gramps, are you about done?, let's go, it's hot in here!"  Where did he hear Gramps?  He's always called me Pappy.

To finish out our day, we stopped at the ubiquitous QT on the corner, where they chose corn dogs, chips, drinks, candy bars, and a cappuccino for WP.  Maybe something else too. I bought the 1st round, then Mom arrived to pick them up, and she bought the 2nd round.

I LOVE you boys!  I missed you so much.  Hope you had as much fun as I did.

I am a blessed man!

Hula Hoops?

Emma Jo, (my youngest g'daughter) was using one of these not to long ago, and she kept it going for ages.  It was amazing to watch.

My wife used to be able to that as well (and probably still can if she wanted to).  I can still remember from 40 years ago watching her do the hoop, and being astonished that anyone could keep it up that long.

Me?  I was lucky to get it to swirl twice.  Seriously, I never could do it.  But, I never could roller skate either, or ice skate, or snap the fingers on my left hand, or whistle.  There, I said it!  I have no idea if any of this ties into my lack or coordination; but I definitely fall short in that category.

Q: And whom do we have to thank for the rebirth of the Hula Hoop?  A: Barnes & Noble of course; as the new leading marketer of nostalgia.  Now called the GloGlitterRing, and selling for $6.

And no, to answer your question, I did NOT buy one.

Grand Canyon

The pictures don't do it justice.  Words to describe it won't either.

We took off a few days last week and flew out to the Grand Canyon.  It was my 2nd trip, and Pam's 3rd.  My 1st trip in '07 was met with hazy skies, and while I enjoyed it; the beauty of that trip did not compare to this trip. This time, the temps were pleasant, the skies were clear, and the Canyon was gloriously beautiful.  My regret is not being able to spend an entire day/night there, as I am told that sunset in the Canyon is a lifetime memory.

We were on the most popular south rim again; and my next trip (who knows when), will be on the west rim, as I want to walk out on the cantilevered glass ledge.  And, to be there at sunset too.

If you've never been to see it, I heartily endorse a trip there.

Amazing.  Astonishing.  Awe-inspiring.  And none of those words do it justice.