Dear stevansheets.com “readership”,

Seriously, I want to grow a beard.

I’m twenty-six and I’ve never had more than a few squirrely-hairs growing from my chin in a not-so-attractive manner.

Manly = provider, protector, and “one who can grow beard”.

Manly is also something that one has to be to be a father. Especially a father to a son – who is also of the male gender (in case you didn’t know) I can think of nothing worse for me than for my future son (or daughter) to question my “manly-ness” by questioning my ability (or lack of) to grow man-hair on my face.

To be manly, therefore, means that I need to grow a beard, right?

Right.

So, as of Thursday morning this week, I have set down the daily or bi-daily chore of shaving what miniscule day or two-day old hair has grown on my man-face.

I felt disgusting this morning going to church with face-stub, but manly nonetheless.

I have asked the permission of my wife and she has sheepishly agreed that for the next two weeks I will FINALLY have the opportunity to attempt man-hair on my face. Yummy.

Expect photos. (unless of course this experiment fails horribly.)

The reason I can attempt this NOW is that we are leaving this week for a quick “vacation” to PA and will miss our services here on next Sunday morning.

It’s been indelibly marked on my brain that “proper” young men DO NOT come to church with partial man-hair growing on their faces (thus today’s “disgusting” adjective use).

You, faithful stevansheets.com visitors/readers/stalkers, have the privilege over the next two weeks to enjoy this man-hair experiment with yours truly. I can think of nothing more exciting for you to be involved with.

Cheer me on, if you would. (and pray for Jess)

Wanting to be manly,

-Stevan

I don’t know which is more interesting –

#1 – the White Sox have won game 1 of the 2005 World Series versus the Houston Astros.

or

#2 – tonight’s White Sox pitcher, Bobby Jenks is 2 years younger than me.

I’m going with #2, I think.

23 to 49, Notre Dame over BYU.

I’m a closet ND fan these days, though I’m NOT a fan of their TERRIBLE website.

It was weird getting up on a Thursday and getting into the office by 9AM. Usually my day off, today proved to be pretty productive after taking Tuesday off to play “chaperone”.

After a lengthy staff meeting this morning, I hooked up with two of my teens – Mark & Adam for the Pizza Hut lunch buffet. Then a couple of stops during lunch. Found out that new struts for the Neon are going to cost me $240. The labor will be “free-ish” – I just have to provide MY two hands and a case of Mt. Dew for my brother Matt VanKirk and some Saturday morning! (We’re going to attempt and get some more mileage out of the Neon over the next few years by putting in some much-needed fixes)

Wal-Mart was next on the list where I picked up Paul Wright’s latest CD – “Sunrise to Sunset”.

Then it was off to the Herald Bookstore in Winona Lake to show the guys what they had to offer. I picked up a couple classic “bargain bin” cd’s there, too – Plankeye – “Wings to Fly” and Earthsuit – “Kaleidoscope Superior”. Both have kept me company this afternoon.

I also had a couple of visitors this afternoon – Matt VanKirk and his son, Alex came by to work on the drumset in the sanctuary – so after helping them do that we taught Alex how to ride my electric scooter around the gym! Alex is only 5! It was incredible to watch him figure out the thumb-throttle and balance!

I’m on my way home from the office after a long-day – and I can’t wait to crash on the couch with my “wifey” and enjoy our Thursday Night CBS shows!

Wow, what a day!

6:30AM is A LOT earlier than I “normally” wake up on a Tuesday morning.

After a McDonalds breakfast with my beautiful, pregnant wife, it was off to school for the day!

I was given my “orders” for the day – keep track of two first-grade boys and be a good chaperone.

No problem.

It wasn’t, really. It was actually an absolute blast – I mean look at the kids in that photo (and more here, of course) and you can tell that it was a great day.

Merry Lea is some sort of 1900’s-ish restored community with buildings and such where the show us how folks lived before iPods and such! (did I really just say that?)

It was a great day – though Jess did get stung by a yellow-jacket and we weighed our options as I readied myself to stab her with her Epi-Pen.

We still haven’t had a chance to ask the Dr. what to do if Jess was stung while being pregnant, so we opted to NOT inject – and did some extra praying. Thankfully the swelling went down and besides the swelling and some pain, my wifey is healthy. I did scold the bee very harshly for stinging my pregnant wife.

At the end of the day I headed home and literally crashed on the couch thanking God that I work with Junior and Senior-Highers each week instead of 20+ first-graders! It was a GREAT experience being a chaperone and getting to know Jess’ students better throughout the day. I brushed up on my High-School Spanish by attempting to impress the Spanish girls and enjoyed speaking “pig” to the pig to impress all the boys!

It was a day to remember.

More pictures here.