first day of school 2010, part 2

well, we made it to the second half of "first day of school" and here are the pictures to prove it.  at least cade is only in school for a couple of hours; that seems more bearable, although it does seem strange to leave your youngest child at school.  there's no one left at home!  it's our first "empty nest" experience.  yikes.

we were doing the "abc's" with him before he left for school today, and here's how he sings them:  a - b - c - d - e - f - g - 8 -9 - 10 - 11 - 12!  i know that "h" sounds like "8," but it seems that he has things more than a little bit confused:

to see how jack's first day went, click on the "keep reading" link below

jack's first day went pretty well, as far as we could gather.  he was in a bit of a bad mood when i picked him up, but i think that was due to the fact that it was approaching temperatures in excess of 140 degrees in sunbury.  he was frustrated about the heat, the walk home, and my incessant questioning about his day.  once he cooled off and relaxed a little, the details slowly started to come out: he liked his teacher; he never went to the bathroom (to shy to ask?); he is excited about gym tomorrow; he didn't eat his lunch fast enough; and so on.  he seemed excited about going back today, which is good because he needs to learn that his last name is "milinovich" not "minovich." 

so there is much to learn, and a long school year in which to do all kinds of learning.  i am excited about the journey they will take in school, so much so that i think i'll be writing a whole post about that tomorrow.  see ya' then!

first day of school 2010, part 1

a picture is worth a thousand words (and a few teardrops, too).  in about an hour i'll pick him up from his first day at kindergarten.  i hope he's had a good day, because i've been a nervous wreck all day!  first day of preschool for child #2 tomorrow.  i don't know if i can handle all of this. 

saturday song: back to school

on this last saturday before school starts, thought this might bring a chuckle.  i'm hoping our first day of school goes better than this!

wish to join

before i moved, i had been approached by someone about making a collage for them, and i just couldn't do it at the time because much of my stuff was already packed, and i had too much to do in preparation for the move.  but we agreed that once i got to sunbury and got settled in, i would work on this piece.  well, i'm so glad for that set of circumstances because that agreement really served as the catalyst for me to make it a priority to unpack and organize all of my collage stuff.  if not for the commissioned piece, my boxes and boxes of paper, glue, and paint might still be in stored away in banana boxes.  but they aren't.  in fact, i've got a sweet little area set up in my basement that is my "art room," and i've already been putting it to use.  having already started working on the commissioned piece (i can't show you that one yet because the intended recipient hasn't seen it yet!), i got inspired and starting working on some other pieces, too.  this is usually how i work, creating several different pieces at the same time.  anyway, this one started with an old church registration pad sheet, and went from there.  it's called "wish to join," and it has the distinction of being the first collage i made in sunbury.  hopefully the first of many. 

"wish to join"

mixed media collage (paper, acrylic paint, glue)

gregory a. milinovich

lego firehouse

as you may remember, we are big fans of legos in our house.  me and my boys once built a lego replica of heinz field, and the whole family worked together to create our piece d' resistance, our lego methodist church.  so, in keeping with the tradition of sharing with you the lego productions of the milinovich house, i thought i would show you some pictures of the lego fire station that shannon and the boys built last week.  to see the pictures, click below where it says "keep reading." 

next to cade, so you can see the scale

the back

aerial view

the tower

the garage

i'm terrified of the bricks

normally the approach to a red brick building isn't so terrifying, at least for me.  which makes this that much worse.  i mean, after all, every day i walk out of my red brick house and take the 380 steps - usually accompanied by flitting birds and bright-white-tailed little bunnies hopping playfully - to my red brick church.  like snow white, or a modern day st. francis, i walk in comfort with nature, from one brick building to another; my ease and genteel fluency are my companions on this pleasant stroll. 

which is why it feels so strange to be this uncomfortable with this red brick building. 

last night jackson had his kindergarten open house/orientation.  siblings weren't invited, so either shannon or i had to stay home with cade, and i volunteered, because i wasn't sure how i would do talking the long walk to the big brick building at the bottom of the hill, like a death row inmate walking the longest mile.  not that i think school is death - quite the contrary, i'm so excited about his continued growth in learning - but, as a parent, there is something formidable about that great red box.  no matter what i do, i can't shake the image of us walking him down the hill, next monday, not with bunnies and birds, but with black clouds and ominous background music, and standing outside that school for "the moment." 

the moment.

the moment is when i have to kiss his forehead and tousle his hair and say (sniff...swallow...ahem), "have a great day in school, honey."  and then he turns his little back to me, so all i can see is a sandy blond head bouncing above that batman backpack, and he walks away from me, towards so many things that i can't control. 

and there it is.  that's what i'm afraid of.  it's not the bricks, so much.  they just symbolize exactly what i feel is being taken from me: my control.  what if another child says something mean to him?  what if he is excluded from an activity?  what if he is so shy that he won't talk to anyone?  what if he does something embarrassing and needs a daddy's embrace?  what if he doesn't understand what the teacher is saying?  what if the teacher doesn't understand what he is saying?  what if he wants to use the blue clay but only gets yellow? 

look, i see how ridiculous this is, of course, but it is real for me, nonetheless.  jack is going to full day kindergarten, which means that i will have about 6 hours of each day when i'll be worried about him.  i'm thinking that if i didn't feel this way i either wouldn't be a normal parent, or i wouldn't be facing my feelings.  so it's not that i think i'm the first to ever feel this way.  i know i'm not.  and i know things will turn out fine (right?), but it doesn't stop me from getting the cold sweats as we approach the gaping doors of elementary school.  i have to let go, ever so slightly, already.  i have to begin to entrust him to others.  i have to begin to trust that, whatever is said or unsaid, done or undone, my little boy will never be really alone, and will have to face his own brick buildings in his own way.  and i hope he senses from me that i am excited for him, for the journey that he is continuing and the potential that lies in this year for him.  i just hope the sound of my knees knocking doesn't distract him. 

different house...same ol' dance parties

every once in a while, we get charged with an epiphanal experience, like a bolt of movement-inducing lightning, and we just have to dance.  we call it a dance party.  they are not planned events.  they just occur sometimes, without warning or pattern.  but when they happen, they are a complete joy.  i have one particularly fond memory of marching around the dining room table with the whole family to the entire length of a chieftains song.  you just never know what it's going to be. 

i was a bit worried that with the change of scenery of moving, we might not connect in the same way to the joy-core of the universe, that maybe we were in some sort of "hotspot" in clinton or something, but it seems that it isn't a climate or geography issue, so much as a personality one.  which delights me.  the other night, jack was wearing his scooby-doo boxers, put a bucknell headband around his torso and a backwards steelers hat on his head, and BAM, it hit.  he became a kind of dancing ninja and just went crazy.  it was awesome.  of course, the camera came out to document the random strike of unchoreographed glory, and, if you would like to see the pictures, follow the link below.  enjoy!

random: sweater vests and ricky bobby

it's a beautiful monday morning from my perch here on my front porch, my clicking keyboard accompanied by the sound of triumphant birds, singing their little hearts out.  it's about as good a time as i can think of to sit down and pen some thoughts, but i've had little time to collect my thoughts into anything resembling a unified post, so i'll begin this particularly day with a one of my random posts, a sort of stream of consciousness entry into the far reaches of my subconscious.  please only enter if you dare.  it is a bit of a scary place. 

-we've had company this weekend, friends from michigan, and it's been wonderful to see them and spend some time with them.  i have particularly enjoyed some of the philosophical conversations we've been able to share, as i find those conversations sharpen me and stir my spirit.  great to have that. 

--last night we went to a great little art deco-style theater in downtown lewisburg, pa.  this theater, called the campus theater, doesn't show new releases but instead shows classic films from the past.  so last night we took the kids and we all went to see "the muppet movie" together.  it was awesome to see kermit and gonzo and fozzie and the gang on the big screen along with some great celebrity cameos.  it was a really fun night, and i'm glad we did it.  i will definitely go back there. 

--you know what's delicious?  papa john's garlic butter dipping sauce, that's what's delicious.  i'm pretty sure that when God gets too weighed down with awesomeness, God wrings some of the awesomeness out of the divine robes and papa john is waiting there to collect all the drops of falling incredibleness in large glass jars, which he then puts into those little plastic cups that go out with each pizza.  i love you, papa john.  you truly are like a papa to me. 

--saturday night i was able to enjoy the steelers in their second preseason game of the year.  it was a toned-down steelers experience, both because of the nature of preseason, and the presence of company in the house (shannon tells me not to scare off friends, if possible), but an enjoyable one nonetheless.  got to see the starters play for a little longer, and also got a great look at the guys trying to make the team, so it was a fun night. 

--ever since the kayaking "episode" last week, i've been on the receiving end of some playful kidding, including more than one barf bag from members of my congregation.  i think its great that after only 7 weeks or so, we are able to laugh together and be comfortable in that way.  i think it's going to be a great journey (if i can just keep down my lunch!). 

--i preached yesterday on jeremiah's call in jeremiah 1.  talked about how, like jeremiah, we are known, chosen and given before we are even born.  not in some cosmic chess match kind of way; nor in a pre-determined puppet-play way either, but more in a loving, creative, beautiful way in which each of us were carefully knit together by God, chosen for being a part of the story of redemption and love, and - from the very beginning - given to one another.  it's not fatalistic.  it's freeing and fundamentally based on our will to live in sync with it or to reject it outright.  but regardless of our decision, we are still known, chosen and given.  the question is what we do with it.

--orange is such an underrated color.  just sayin'. 

--late last night we caught most of "talledega nights: the ricky bobby story" and i haven't laughed so hard in a while.  the grace scene, while ridiculous, is an hysterically funny parody of some of what passes for prayer.  i'd like to see it again, but i was laughing too hard to hear everything. 

--i'm inexplicably drawn to sweater vests.  can someone help me out here: what does it mean about my personality that i have a strong desire to wear a sweater vest everyday of my life?  does this reveal some dark inner truth about my psyche?  is it somehow my parents fault?  please, all you amateur psychologists, lend me your uneducated opinions!

--for some reason, it seems that most of the birds have stopped their joyous songs.  the volume level has gone way down.  so either they all realized its monday and got depressed, or they went to work.  which is what i need to do.  so i'm out.  thanks for joining me on this quick journey of the random firings of the nerve endings in my brain.  have a great monday. 

happy birthday to my awesome wife

today is my beautiful wife's birthday.  she is a saint, and for putting up with me 24/7, 365 days a year, she really deserves a very happy birthday.  i am a blessed man, and today, more than any other day, i celebrate her awesomeness.  so if you have a glass (or whatever you have in your hand really), raise it with me: 

here's to you, shannon!  happy birthday!

the princess

one thousand posts: a look back

it's been an amazing journey, it really has.  as i look back on the last 1000 posts, i am surprised at how much i've written in the last four years.  i have written about all my loves: Jesus, my family, the steelers, the yankees, art, being ridiculous, and so forth.  i have written through deep belly laughs and some gut-level tears, as well.  i have tried to say something new, but have mostly been saying the same thing over and over. 

but you have continued to read, and i continue to need to write down my reactions to this amazing life, so i keep going.  i have no intentions at stopping right now, so keep checking in here at agent orange records and see what new ways i am thinking of saying the same old things. 

today i thought i'd give you a list of 10 of my favorite posts, or at least a good sample of 10 posts that pretty fairly represent this old blog.  if you've been reading for some time, enjoy the walk down memory lane.  if you've just joined me, maybe you'll learn something new!

1.  click here to see the introduction to my blog.  it was technically my second post, but it was the sort of beginning that i'm kind of proud of: one that really set the tone, i think, for the next thousand or so posts. 

2.  one of the byproducts of this blog is that it is made me really vulnerable in ways i didn't expect when i started.  when you start writing on the world wide interwebs about your love for your wife and kids, or about your bad habits, you realize just how vulnerable you've become.  and once you start, there seems to be no limit to what you will bravely share.  this post about 10 things you might not know about me fits that theme, and served to make many of you shake your head at me. 

3.  this isn't just one post, but several actually, that were a sort of travel journal during our trip to the holy land.  i used windows as the focal piece for interpreting my trip, and many of you responded really positively to these posts.  thought it might be worth sharing again. 

4.  i have made several videos that i have posted to you tube and put here on my blog, because part of the reason i started this blog in the first place was that it served as a way to stay in touch with family and friends with whom we couldn't be near.  so while i love writing about my family, people have always seemed to prefer pictures and moving images, and i have loved making them.  here is one of my favorites of my two superheroes. 

5.  and speaking of my family, they are not only my most common topic, but also my greatest inspiration.  here is a favorite post of mine about how a simple moment in the life of a child served as an important reminder to a busy adult.  it also has some interesting scientific information about the sleep habits of certain turtles. 

6.  without question the most popular posts i've written are my "open letters" which are just letters that i've written to people or organizations that are very public.  i have written several of them:  here is my most popular post ever, an open letter to tony romo after a steelers victory over the cowboys; here is one to cade before he was born; here is one to jack when he started school; here is one to coach mike tomlin, and here is one to retail centers at christmastime. 

7.  sometimes i try to be funny, like in this post about my fury towards candy canes.  just something to make you chuckle at my dramatic way of dealing with things. 

8.  or sometimes the humor is at my expense, like in this more recent post about one of my most embarrassing moments ever. 

9.  and sometimes i try to use both the inspiration of my family and my dramatic writing to make a point about something that really matters, something that i really feel down in my gut.  like in this post about the way God accepts us no matter how bad our breath stinks. 

10.  and finally, i'd be remiss if i didn't at least make mention here that an important part of my blog is that it serves as a place for me to both praise and vent about my favorite sports teams, mostly the steelers and yankees.  in 2009 the steelers won superbowl XLIII and the yankees won their 27th world series, so i had ton to celebrate.  i wrote about that here.  i also wrote here about why it is so great to be a steelers fan, and here about my love of baseball. 

so there you have it.  10(ish) posts that take a look back at the journey i've been on for these thousand posts.  i hope you've enjoyed it half as much as i have, and i hope you continue to find things in the next thousand that make you laugh, cry, think, ask, get angry, push back, pray, and squeeze a little more tightly the ones you love.  i know i am. 

grace|peace,
greg.

999, and other randomosities

you are currently reading my 999th post, which means (for the mathematically-challenged readers) that my next post will be my one thousandth.  of that thousand, at least 10 were worth reading, so i'm just wondering...does anyone have any favorites?  what was/is your favorite agentorange post(s)?  maybe i'll do a little "best of" feature for my 1,000th. 

-in other randomosity, i never really got the chance to write about it, but the steelers played their first preseason game this weekend, and won, which is completely irrelevant, since the games don't count.  still, it was fun to see the black and gold in live action again.  things i am excited about: dennis dixon getting a chance; isaac redman running over people; daniel sepulveda kicking off; improvement from lamar woodley, lawrence timmons, key fox, rashard mendenhall and mike wallace; and seeing hines ward continuing his unorthodox trip to canton.  oh, and the steelers winning plenty of games. 

-currently listening to "agaetis byrjun" by sigur ros.  still so heavenly. 

-did anyone read this story?  it's about a guy who was having all kinds of trouble breathing, and when doctors saw dark spots in his lungs, they assumed it was cancer until all the cancer tests came back negative.  perplexed, they did more tests until they discovered that he literally had a pea plant growing inside his lung.  i don't know how he got sunlight in there, but it's pretty cool that he became his own little organic farm. 

-shannon's birthday is this saturday, so, if you're facebook friends with her, be sure and send her a little birthday love this weekend.  she deserves it.

-i can't believe that it's already the middle of august, and that school will be starting up so soon.  where did this summer go?  sigh.

-thanks to all my readers for the myriad of puke stories on facebook yesterday in response to my post about my kayaking experience.  it's nice to know that i'm not the only one who can't keep a good meal down.  and also that i'm not the only one who has trouble keeping the story to myself!  some of you certainly outdid me.  however, i didn't share about the time i once puked in front of a whole church of people.  yeah, that one was pure smoothness.  i was a teenager, and i was feeling really sick as church was starting.  i wanted to go up to the sanctuary to tell my parents that i was going to go home because i felt awful, and i knew that they sat in one of the front rows (we went to a pretty large church), so i thought i would use the stairs that took me through a door right in the front of the sanctuary.  as i got in the sanctuary and approached the front pews, i made a holy mess of my peanut butter captain crunch (or whatever my sugary breakfast of choice had been that morning) all over the red carpet right in front of the chancel.  church was to start in less than 5 minutes.  my sinse of timing and abundance of embarrassing stories continue to amaze even me.  so smooth.

-ummm...this is disturbing. 

-finally, i hope your day is as good as this:

losing my ham sandwich

yesterday a friend from church invited me to spend a couple hours in the afternoon in a kayak on the susquehanna river.  for those who don't know, we live just up the hill from the susquehanna, and the river, which cuts down through the center of pennsylvania, really offers some beautiful scenes.  having not kayaked in a really long time, but thinking i would enjoy a little recreation while getting some of the local flavor, i took him up on it. we agreed that he would pick me up at one, kayaks in tow, ready to take a ride around "the island" on which is located shikellamy state park. 

so i left work around noon, grabbed a ham sandwich and looked forward to a couple relaxing hours.  my friend picked me up, we got to the park, unloaded the kayaks, and were in the water in no time.  i really enjoyed the tension of the oar against the water, propelling me forward; the sound of the water lapping against the kayak; the feel of the wind off the river.  we headed north for a bit before making the turn to stay around the island and coming down the other way we encountered a few boats and wave runners (just a very few, really), and the wake they caused in the water was enough to cause the kayak to bob up and down a bit, which in turn was enough to make me feel a little sick.  but we paddled on, south along the island, continuing to talk about the town and things at church, and i'm doing my best to keep my best foot forward as the new pastor, still wanting to make a good impression (it's probably too late for that).  all the while, i'm feeling more and more sick, and less and less like talking.  i started paddling faster, just hoping to get back to the dock.  we turned the southern corner of the island and started back north, and couldn't have been but several hundred yards from the dock when my friend asked me a question and i felt something that felt distinctly like a ham sandwich coming up my throat.  i leaned over the other side of the kayak and left a souvenir in the susquehanna (well, at least what didn't end up on my shirt, anyway): a partially digested ham sandwich. 

so embarrassing.  you know, best foot forward and all of that.  i can't even float in a kayak without dumping the contents of my stomach to be carried away down to harrisburg.  geesh.  my friend was very gracious about it, not visibly laughing at me at the moment, but did call later to give me a good ribbing, which i fully deserved.  my stomach didn't feel right the rest of the night, and even this morning i still feel a bit off, which is ridiculous to even say, but it seems that i've got my mother's stomach when it comes to water travel, which is to say that i get nauseous just stepping over a puddle, let alone sitting on a boat that bobs up and down like a bottle with a message. 

so, i figured i'd tell this story this morning as i figure it will soon be out anyway, likely printed in the church newsletter this month.  better to tell it myself and get it out of the way.  but let it serve as a warning to you: if you invite me to join you on something more strenuous than eating a ham sandwich, just make sure you stand at a safe distance.  here's hoping tuesday involves less regurgitating, but just as much laughter.  have a good one.

pics from knoebel's amusement park

last week i promised you some pics from our trip to knoebel's amusement park, in elysburg, pa.  so here's one, and to see more, just click on the "keep reading" link. 

jack in the ball pit.  couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since those balls were disinfected.  still, he loved it.  :)

cade thoroughly enjoyed this candy apple.  this looks like it should be an advertisement for knoebels!

knoebel's has a pool and waterslides and all of that stuff, so one day we just do that part of it, and the kids really seem to love it.  apparently, jackson likes the taste of chlorine.  hey, after swimming around in multi-colored balls covered in bacteria from urine and God knows what else, you get thirsty!

cade became very attached to his map, and wanted to look at it all the time.  he also loved riding rides and became notorious for reaching into my pocket and stealing ride tickets. 

we got to ride the ferris wheel together, and while jack was a bit nervous about it to begin with, they both ended up loving it and wanted to ride it again!  we had a great time at the amusement park, and can't wait to go back again sometime soon (we only live 20 minutes away, now!). 

more from training camp

tuesday afternoon i stopped back in at training camp in latrobe, but this time i did a bit less studying players and watching drills.  i had both of my boys with me, and while i was thinking we'd just drive home yesterday afternoon, they were insistent that we go to see "the steeler guys," so we went.  i didn't think they'd really like it, since the heat index was 103 yesterday, and the whole thing is centered around watching guys practice football, but they loved it!  we first went to the steelers store and picked something up  (they got free magnets there, and nothing makes my kids happier than swag), then we went to the concession stand and got some enormous freeze pops, most of which ended up in the grass, on their clothes, and covering 93% of their epidermis.  i'm pretty sure that while i was watching the defensive backs do some drills, my children literally bathed in freeze pop juice. 

to read more and see more pictures, just click below where it says "keep reading."


after the final bit of sticky sweet liquid was spread on some uncovered area of skin, we moved over to the steeler experience, which is a huge field set up with all kinds of activities for kids, and they had a blast.  they had a moonbounce and a place where you could try and kick a field goal, or throw a ball through a circle, or run a football obstacle course, and lots more.  they really loved this, and had a great time with it.  they also ran a 40-yard dash, but were particularly impressive on the obstacle course because at the end of it, when you jump over the last hurdle, the staff member throws a football to you.  both of my children caught the football!  they were so proud of themselves (and i was mighty proud of them, too!).  here are some of the pictures of the day....if you want to see more of them, just click here. 

after the steeler experience, we went back over to chuck noll field, drank some water and watched about 25 minutes of hurry-up offense situations with both the first teams and second teams.  it was fun to watch, and even more fun for me that jackson seemed pretty interested.  he kept wanting to find troy polamalu and hines ward because he said that hines is my hero and troy is his hero.  then i pulled them both next to me in a sweaty sticky side hug and told them that they're my heroes. 

we had a great day.

training camp, 2010

well, i had an awesome day at training camp yesterday, although it was brutally hot.  i went by myself, so i really enjoyed just being able to run around and see whatever i wanted and do whatever i wanted.  i stood by the gate and watched all the players walk down into practice, and then sort of alternated between fields during drills and scrimmages.  i was lucky enough to be very close to the action when coach lebeau returned to training camp after being away for his incredible hall of fame weekend, and all the players and coaches greeted him.  it was a pretty cool moment.  here is a picture of tomlin welcoming lebeau back to camp.

practice was good, and i enjoyed watching everyone do the drills, especially the rookies.  i was most impressed with ziggy hood, who looked like a man possessed, with motor that just wouldn't stop yesterday.  he looked great.  as far as rookies go, antonio brown looked great as a wide receiver, catching some sweet passes, and i was also impressed with rashard mendenhall, who looked very good.  i got a bunch of pictures, but don't want to share them all here, so if you click here you'll be taken to my facebook album and can check them out there. 

work of art, etc.

+ shannon loves to watch "top chef" on bravo on wednesday nights, so i often watch it with her, and this year, at 10 pm, right after "top chef" is a new show called "work of art: the next great artist," which is nothing groundbreaking because it essentially follows the exact same formula as the other competition shows that bravo has had (top chef, project runway), and yet it really intrigues me because of the subjective nature of the product. 

as you know i am very interested in art and while i don't really care at all about "the art world," in which pretentiousness and shock value seem to rule the day, i am very much fascinated by the topic of art itself: what makes good art good?  what makes bad art bad?  and who decides?  sometimes i absolutely detest the winning piece on the show, and would have chosen something that the judges critiqued harshly.  at other times i agree 100% with the judges.  so this show has been very interesting to me from that perspective, and also just from the perspective of an artist who at times has felt like i could have done better on some challenges and would have been absolutely awful on some others.  it's been both fun and infuriating to watch, but i've really enjoyed it for the most part.  anyone else out there watching it?  any thoughts?  i think this coming wednesday night is the finale, so you could check in and see the (probably infuriating) ending so we can vent about it together. 

+ i just bought the new arcade fire album at amazon for $3.99 digital download.  how awesome is that?  it just came out this week, itunes wants $9.99 for it, and i just napped it for 4 bucks.  so far i'm not super impressed with it, as i want my indie music to sound a bit more indie, but i'm going to give it more of a fair chance.

+ a huge shout out to gail who is a frequent visitor and commenter on this blog who, along with her husband, made the trek to come out to my church yesterday.  it was great to see both of you you!  thanks again for making the drive and reconnecting.

+  and now to the best news of the day:  i'm currently writing this from a little south of pittsburgh, ready to head to latrobe today for steelers practice.  WOOOHOOOOOO!!!  that's right, i just used all caps like a teenage girl on facebook chat.  i'm that excited.  this year i'm going by myself, which means i'll be running around all day trying to get some good pics and just an overall broad experience of camp, so look for some reflections/pictures later today or tomorrow (for those who care, or who enjoy shaking their heads at my fanaticism).