Every time I go to type the words "pool party" together...I almost type "poop party". But that's beside the point. The real point of the story is this:

I went to a pool party with the girls yesterday. Ava has twin cousins named Lillian and Sophia. They're about the same age as Ava and they have a blast together. I can't imagine what they'll be like when they're older. I've got a feeling they're going to be pretty close.

Here's Ava with her little hoochie-mama bikini:


This is Lillian. She's the serious one. I'm not quite sure she trusts me just yet.


And this is Sophia. She marches to the beat of a different drum. I like that kid.


I wonder if they'll remember this. There are several people I know who are able to recall many memories from when they were 2-3 years old. This concept baffles my mind as I don't have a single recollection of anything before I was 4 years old.

Many times we block out memories that our mind doesn't want to remember, but I believe some of us just aren't wired to recall that far back. I've got a specific impression of me and my uncle playing some sort of track & field game on the Atari and I'm fairly certain I was 4 years old...that's as far back as I can go right now. What is your earliest memory?

...and you know what? It's a lot more fun than being good at something.















"The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing." - Phyllis Diller

"It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course." - Hank Aaron

"Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose." - Winston Churchill

"If I had cleared the trees and drove the green, it would have been a great shot." - Sam Snead

"Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you're not good at them." - Kevin Costner

During the previous two nights of our vacation we set our fun aside to throw down some serious dominoes. Mexican Train Dominoes is an Olympic sport...and if it's not, well, that's just an upsetting injustice. A 2-day world championship tournament took place at the dining room table. The objective is to be left with the lowest score. Add the scores from day 1 and day 2 together to see who has the lowest overall score.

I'll let the evidence speak for itself:

We'll see how good you are:

I am looking for a word that is ten or eleven letters long. (singular or plural) If you follow the links, you just might discover some major clues as to what this word is. There are six clue words throughout this scavenger hunt...add these clues together to make the word I'm looking for. Email your answer to detzelpretzel(at)gmail.com. Do not post your answer on this blog. If you get the word correct...you'll win a prize.

Let's start shall we?

Click Here to find Spider-Man in the Detzel Family Circus.

Note: This contest has been fixed...no no...repaired I should say. It was acting strange earlier, try again if you couldn't figure it out.

...I've decided to come up with a cooler, more professional name for Dodgeball. Sphere Eluding. Well...either that, or Orb Avoid. Or maybe Ditchglobe? I dunno, maybe I'm reaching.

Dodgeball is a good name I guess. It's definitely a good game. I'm proud to say that I'm the owner of at least one good idea in my lifetime. That idea was men's dodgeball. For over a year now we've been renting a little gymnasium and gathering anywhere from 15-30 guys to play a couple hours of ferocious dodgeball every Sunday night. Dodgeball isn't a new idea, but what's different with our dodgeball session is that we play with dangerous brutality.

We don't use the "regulation" full-sized, wouldn't-hurt-if-it-fell-off-a-building-and-landed-on-your-head, foam balls that actual dodgeball leagues use. Those balls are for ninnies.
We bring the pain.

The funny thing about our dodgeball is that it's opened the door for many people to get connected with God. Guys from all over the place show up for dodgeball...guys who would never set foot in a church. Time and time again they show up and after the group of dodgeball players show them that they're real men who have fun AND happen to love Jesus, they end up coming to church. It's been an amazing opportunity to show people the love of Christ...oddly enough by smashing them in the face with a rubber ball. God is weird like that.

I brought Tony with me to dodgeball tonight. Tony is 15, and he works at the hobby store with me. I've known him since he was about 5 I guess and he never really says much. He's a teenager. He either mumbles or he whines. I told him I was picking him up tonight for dodgeball and he was all for it. I picked him up and he was his shy, normal, teenager-y self. After dodgeball though something broke...Tony was talking up a storm and he was asking me questions and telling me stories and kind of acting like a real human. Once again the mysterious power of dodgeball has opened up some kind of door. Schweet.

God is telling me that I'll be the person to open the door for Jesus in Tony's life. We'll see.

I love dodgeball. It's so many things to me:

* A healthy outlet to vent anger or frustration.
* Proof that I do guy stuff too and not just gardening, cooking, and stampin' up. I mean...I don't do stampin' up...that's for women only! I do not do that kind of thing!
You should see my new Valentine's Day Bundle I picked up from cincymoms.com!! It's so totally fab!! Love, love, LOVE it!!
* A work out like you wouldn't believe.
* Connection for guys who aren't ready for church.
* Guaranteed sympathy from onlookers...the occasional black eye is great for attention!!

If you'd like to play some serious dodgeball in the Cincinnati area...lemmeknow!
Just remember, we play for reals yo.