Last night I was in a board meeting for more-than 3-hours. It was good and all, but it was my day-off and cut-short my time with Jess and Ella – my two favorite people in the world!

God gave me an idea this morning that I capitalized on in the form of a “surprise” date with Dad as I whisked the girls off in the van at around 3:30 this afternoon without telling them where/what we were doing.

What followed was 18-holes of miniature golf which, surprisingly, Ella made it through 16-or-so before completely losing interest! After golfing we headed out for some “fresh fries” that Ella loves so much at our McDonalds and then home for a bit before heading back out for our weekly home group!

What a memorable time we had as a family! We were both so proud of Ella for hanging in there and doing her best to play mini golf with Mommy and Daddy! She would actually hit the ball with her putter and then run and pick it up wherever it was and throw it into the pin-cup each hole! It was adorable.

It wouldn’t be fair to NOT mention that I only beat my wife tonight by 1-stroke! She gave me a run for my money, but it was an hole-in-one Eagle that put me ahead for the win on hole #16! Go me!

All the pictures from tonight are here, but below are some highlights:

Tonight I dove into my next pen-making project. I bought the kit yesterday at Woodcraft and started working on the pen tonight just after supper.

We took a break to go to our Home Group at 7 and I came right back to the lathe after we got home and put Ella to bed. Bless my little heart, I spent nearly 2-hours on this bad-boy and am proud of each minute behind the lathe! This is MY pen. This will be my conversation-piece for sure. This will be the one you can find in my pocket or attached to my moleskine journal! It’s a Euro-style pen which means it’s beefier than the standard “slim-line” (read: beginner) pens that I’ve turned thus far and as such it cost more but if you held this in your hand you would understand the necessity of a guy like me having a pen like this. Next step up in pen-design is considered a “cigar-style” pen & being a good Wesleyan Pastor like me, I decided to NOT get one of those just yet. (Okay, they were even pricier than the Euro-style, but eventually I will be a cigar-style-carrying pen-turner for sure!)

I wish I could send handmade pens to each person that’s complimented me publicly and privately thus far. Maybe when I’m “good-enough” I can offer some Stevan-made pens here for sale? Those of you in my family – please be as delighted to receive one of these treasures for upcoming holidays as I have been in making them!

Note to future pen-turners: the glue that we use to attach the brass-insert tubes into the wood blanks is quite powerful stuff. I think I will have permanently glued fingertips.

Here she is:

Today was my day-off and we stayed lazy this morning.

While we were there, I received a text-message that our Wesleyan Denomination had just elected our first-ever female General Superintendent (Dr. JoAnne Lyon) at General Conference. Quite an historic moment – sad that I had to miss being there to see it LIVE.

After the Children’s Gallery we headed towards Milwaukee to spend a little time at two woodworking stores that I am quickly becoming fond of. Rockler and Woodcraft both provided a few needed items to help me continue my woodturning hobby. After we got Ella to bed tonight I headed out to the lathe and turned two more pens. My first pen was turned just a few days ago and mailed the next day to my Grandpa to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude for purchasing the lathe for me months ago! I didn’t even take a picture of that first-pen before sending it his way!

Tonight’s pens, however, (and one I made for Jess a day-or-two ago) are pictured here: