Melody Chats with Grandma

At Christmastime, MelodyJoy had a very animated conversation with Grandma Muntz. This lighting and sound aren't the best but it's still pretty cute.

Palmer's Hall of Honor

For the fourth update to my blog’s Hall of Honor, I have just one inductee . . . Timothy Fuller. In the past, I’ve written about people such as Dan Crabtree, Greg Vaughan and Bill Katip.

For as long as I’ve known Tim, he has been in charge of enrollment at Houghton College in upstate New York, perhaps the most isolated college I’ve ever visited. It’s a school with a great heritage and strong academics, but it has to be a very challenging to maintain and build enrollment when there is no population base within any easy driving distance. In a way, I guess I can relate somewhat to that challenge since I also represent an institution that is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Tim is universally respected by admission professionals, particularly in the world of Christian higher education. He’s served as a peer consultant to schools who are looking for insights into how they can more effectively manage their enrollment. I’ve seen the type of feedback that he has provided these schools. He’s able to give advice that is worthwhile but delivered respectfully.

Now Tim’s leaving Houghton, his alma mater, at the end of this school year . . . going to the “dark side” . . . instead of doing consulting from the goodness of his heart, he’s going to consult for a living, working for Performa. I’m sure he’ll do a great job there but I can’t help feeling that we’re all going to be somewhat the poorer now that he’s not based on a specific campus.

Having said all that about Tim’s professional competence, none of that really is why he deserves a place in Palmer’s Hall of Honor. Personally, it is Tim’s friendship that I’ve grown to appreciate very much over the last seven years, starting mostly when I joined the Cora! Cora! Cora! fantasy baseball league. I’ve appreciated the way that Tim has accepted me, has been transparent about the challenges he’s faced and has listened to my own frustrations. When I've looked into professional opportunities, he's been faithful to provide me with information that helped me make wise decisions.

I greatly appreciate Tim’s sense of humor and the way he doesn’t take himself seriously. He’s a gifted writer and his humor often comes out in the [incredibly lengthy] travelogues he creates.

A mutual friend and I were talking about Tim not too long ago. She speculated that some people may find Tim to be intimidating. Even though he stands 6’9” and weighs well in excess of 500 pounds, knowing this man, I find it hard to think that anyone would see him as an intimidator. But, on the other hand, if you’re someone who doesn’t like to hear the truth, then perhaps you won’t like being with Tim.

Tim has a great work ethic. It’s not unusual for him to work just atrocious hours but I respect the way he keeps things in perspective, particularly caring for his wife and kids. I know that when push-comes-to-shove, nothing on this earth is a higher priority than they are. I look to him as a role model in this regard.

Finally, I appreciate Tim’s commitment to his God. Without that, nothing else matters.

I love Tim Fuller and it’s an honor to me to call him a friend and be able to include him in “my hall.”

Quote of the Week

“Art
is
power.”

- Longfellow

Family Portrait = Family Gifts

Even before we went to China, I knew that as soon as we got home, I wanted to have Rosalie Petrovich draw a portrait of our four children. Rosie was a senior at Hosanna Christian School. She's very gifted and now is studying art at Biola University in California.

Last summer, when my sister was visiting, she took a bunch of photos of the kids but it was hard to get a good picture because they are of such different sizes. Then she remembered a pose she had seen elsewhere and had the kids lie down head-to-head. From that picture, Rosie produced this drawing for us:
I took her drawing to a printer downtown and they created an electronic file and high quality 8x10 prints of the portrait. The original hangs in our kitchen now and one print is over my desk at OIT. We also framed other prints for Christmas and birthday presents for some family. As you can see, they were well-received . . .

Christmas at the Coast

From Albany, we drove to Lincoln City and--after the obligatory stop at the outlet mall there--arrived at a very nice house at the north end of the city. My sister Laura and her husband Jamey (yes, there is occasional confusion with two Jameys in the house) had rented it for all of us for the holiday.

One of my mother's first priorities was to get us all cleaned up and looking pretty so we could take some family portraits (which we then shot off to Rite-Aid for 1-hour developing so she could get her Christmas cards mailed at the last minute). Here are some of the best ones from our time spent with a tripod and self-timer on the camera . . .

We only took about 250 pictures--and that's a conservative estimate--over the course of four days together. I tried to ruthlessly narrow down how many I would post here, and you'll see I was only marginally successful . . .

Our first gift was on Christmas Eve when Laura brought us the world premier of a DVD that she and a friend had made of our trip to get MelodyJoy last spring. It was fantastic, almost a half hour long with hundreds of photos, four or five different songs and some video that I had never seen before. I know we'll always cherish it. It should have come with a lifetime supply of Kleenex . . .

Aunt Laura and Uncle Jamey with their only niece . . .

and Grandpa enjoys his only granddaughter . . .

It was a big Star Wars Christmas for Jameson. First he got the new Star Wars Lego computer game, then a whole basket of Star Wars figurines and a game, and finally a Star Wars Lego set. Needless to say, it was a good Christmas in his book . . .

MelodyJoy got a little pearl necklace that Aunt Laura bought while in Beijing . . .

Jordan made sure that his gifts to Mom would help make our home a better place to live, especially on Saturday mornings when it's time for pancakes . . .
"The" gift this year was a huge surprise to the boys as Uncle Jamey gave us a 2001 Dodge Dakota, just to make sure that they would have something to drive . . .


The weather was pretty stormy, with huge surf and lots of logs on most of the beach but we still ventured out a few times . . .

Jameson got to do his first kite-flying with a little help from Grandpa . . .

And we got to take advantage of the jacuzzi . . .

Christmas with Jeannette's Family

This year was to be Christmas with "my" family because we spent Thanksgiving with Jeannette's side of the family, but on the way to the Muntz celebration, we made a quick stop in Albany last week and stuffed Christmas into about 90 minutes before everyone went their separate ways. We gathered at Paul and Wanda's house, cramming about 15 of us into their living room.

For historical purposes, let the record show that the following is a picture of MelodyJoy opening her very first Christmas gift ever. She caught on quickly to unwrapping gifts but also was surprisingly good about not opening up other people's gifts when she spotted them under the tree. (I think she only unwrapped one and tried to start on one more.)

Grandpa Phil and Grandma Deb sent tins from Wisconsin for everyone, each with an ornament and, ahem, cash . . .

Grammie Joyce thought that we needed a way of burning off energy so she gave the boys and me two sets of Nerf guns and darts. The boys had a lot of fun playing with them over the subsequent few days . . .

The four angels: Bailey, Madison, Melody and Alexia . . .

Jordan's Basketball Tourney

Jordan has been playing in the Cascade Christian Christmas Tournament in Medford this week. All four Hosanna teams are in it with Jordan, of course, on the boys JV team. They played both of Cascade's JV teams Tuesday and Wednesday, getting crushed on the first night and losing by 15 on Wednesday.

Jordan's getting a lot of minutes right now, which is cool. He's not scoring much but you can tell that he's getting better every game in terms of positioning and awareness. What's most impressive is that even when he's playing 25 or more minutes, his energy level is just as strong at the end as at the beginning.

Quote of the Week

“You may feel that, from a human perspective, what you have to offer doesn’t count for much, that it will never be very visible or dramatic. Jesus has made it clear: There is no truth in such a perspective. We serve the Lord of the Gift. The Lord of the Gift can take five fish and two loaves and feed the multitudes. The Lord of the Gift can take two mites given by an impoverished widow and make it the lead gift in the whole campaign."

- John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, p. 51

Staff Christmas Party

Tonight we hosted our annual Christmas party for my staff at OIT.
We always have a nice time together. It's cool to work with people who,
when it's time for the obligatory holiday party, you actually look forward seeing them.

Back: Palmer, Angela, Marleigh, Kathy, Brandy and John.
Front: Sheri, Debbie and Andrea.

Jeannette and MelodyJoy

We do an ornament exchange each year.
Brandy got the ornament I brought,
which was perfect since I actually picked it out with her in mind.
She loves birds and now she works for a school with a Hustlin' Owl mascot,
so I bought an owl ornament.

Sheri opens one of the ornaments.

Rick, Kathy's husband, and John posture
when it comes time to steal ornaments.

Melody with my Santa ornament.

On Our Way to the Poorhouse

On our way to the poorhouse, we decided to make another stop at the orthodontist. About a month ago, Jameson had an appliance installed in the roof of his mouth. Every night, we had to use a small instrument to turn a piece of the appliance to widen it and thus widen the roof of his mouth gradually. It's worked amazingly and those teeth that were once so crowded now have gaps, as evidenced by the large black space between his two front teeth.

The appliance is a pain for eating and talking but Jamey's doing okay with it. We no longer have to keep turning it but he'll have to keep it in for another couple of months . . . and then its on to getting those braces.

Contributions may be sent to the Free Jameson's Mouth Fund in care of his parents.

Quote of the Week

"When everything's coming your way,
chances are you're in the wrong lane."

- Unknown

Jordan Gets His Cross Country Letter

Jordan Gets His First Varsity Letter

Today, they finally got around to having a little awards dessert for the cross country team. Tom and Lisa Shaw hosted it (their son, John, was the only senior on the team and Tom is the head boys basketball coach). While we waited to get started, we played some foosball and Jordan tried his hand at pool. Um, let's just say that it's not a game one picks up quickly:

Unfortunately, a number of the guys weren't there, because we started out with a neat DVD of photos and video from the past season, done by Katie Anderson's mom:


After that, Coach Zach gave each of the team members their awards and made comments about each one. Here he is giving Corey his letter pin. Corey was selected as MVP:

Jordan received the Coach's Award for his dedication to the sport and coachability. Zach said some really nice things about Jordan, such as Jordan was the kind of runner he wants and that he's looking forward to coaching him more over the next two and a half years. When I get a better network connection, I'll try to upload the video here.

A Tale of Three Boys

Today was what has increasingly become a typical day in the Muntz household . . . shuttling boys here 'n' there for various activities. It started at 7:30 AM--painfully early given how busy this past week has been--with delivering Phillip and Jameson to OIT for the LEGO Robotics competition.

For the last six weeks or so, Jamey has been working with a group of other 4th and 5th graders on building a LEGO robot that they programmed to accomplish several assigned tasks. Phillip did the same thing last year, and Jameson was on that team, though not in a key role. Well, with the team being so young this year, and having a young first-year coach as well, it was pretty challenging to make progress so we kind of drafted Phillip to help out at the last minute. He got the software and their programming loaded onto our laptop, then did some additional programming this morning.

They ended up doing fairly well, partly through good luck I'm told. In terms of the tasks their robot accomplished, they apparently ended up with the third best score out of nine teams. I think the kids had a good time and it was neat to see how Jamey fit in with them and that they clearly liked and accepted him. To see a boy with Asperger's socialize the way he does is nothing short of a miracle.

Around noon, I went over to Hosanna with Jordan for his first game of the season. He's clearly playing much better this year, with confidence and more strength, but has a ways to go. He's on JV again. In the pre-season, they will often play the freshman teams from the larger schools, because there aren't very many small schools within easy driving distance. Today they played the Mazama freshmen. Jordan didn't start but he got some good minutes . . . probably playing 12 or more out of 32. No shots but a couple of nice plays.

On the scoreboard, the game was a disaster as HCS lost 74-35 but it was encouraging in some ways. Last year, they lost to Mazama's freshmen by a much more lop-sided score, and the coaches were pleased with much of what the boys did on offense. On defense, well, there's still some work to do.

I now run the clock and/or scoreboard for a lot of the games, which I kind of enjoy . . . even though it's pretty stressful. Today was the first time that I have done both at the same time. Other than forgetting to start the clock for a second several times--which is almost inevitable--I managed to stay on top of things. At least no one yelled "Start the clock!" at me.

Number 800

Last night was a big night for the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls. They were playing in Salem against George Fox University, an NCAA III team, in the Corban College tourney. The game started out rough but midway through the first half, the guys got their act together and made it close. In the second half, they ran away with it, 84-73. OIT is 12-0 on the season now. No big deal. Just another win.

The big deal is this: Coach Danny Miles recorded his 800th career victory last night, all at OIT. He is in his 36th season at Tech. He is now #9 on the all-time wins list.

A neat angle on last night's game is that Levell Hesia, OIT's All-American point guard really took the game over when the Owls were struggling. Levell ended up with 27 points on the night. He's the only person on the court who, at about 5'5", is shorter than Coach Miles. I wonder if sometimes Coach watches Levell and flashes back to his own playing days. I'm sure Levell took special pleasure in making sure he got that 800th win right on schedule.

I've worked with a number of basketball coaches over the last 20+ years. Some were great people. Some were very successful. It's been rare to find coaches that were both. Dan Miles is one of them. Here is a guy who . . .

• was an All-American quarterback and still holds some national passing records, I'm told . . .
  
• was also all-region in baseball and all-conference in basketball, even though he stands only about 5'6" . . .
• has been named to multiple halls of fame . . .
• lives in a beautiful house at the Running Y resort . . .
  
• took a team that was 1-21 the year before he started at OIT and, over time, built it into a program that has gone to nationals 11 times, winning the national championship in 2004 . . .
• basically owns the city of Klamath Falls.

According to the OIT website, "Miles was named NAIA Division II Mens Basketball Coach of the year in 2004 as well as being honored as the recipient of the A.T. Slats Gill All-Sports Coach of the Year (2004) and received the 2005 Cascade Conference Coach of the Year Award. Miles has been named Conference All-Sport Coach of the Year on four occasions. Other honors awarded Miles include: Conference Coach of the Year (six times), Northwest Coach of the Year (twice), West Coast Coach of the Year (once), and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year in 1974."

In other words, he could be a real jerk and get away with it. But he isn't. Yeah, basketball is his focus, but it's not what makes his world go 'round. The coolest part of this story for me is that about four years ago, Dan Miles became a Christian.

To me, it's amazing to see someone who seems to be successful, well-liked and happy realize that there's still something missing in his life. Danny doesn't talk about his faith a lot, but it colors everything he does now. He helped start a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at OIT. He gave copies of The Purpose-Driven Life to his team a couple years ago. He no longer looks to run up the score on weaker teams. And I get the sense that he has a new balance in his life and truly is happy now. Watching his teams play on Danny Miles Court is probably my favorite aspect of life at OIT.

Quote of the Week

"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite of gays. ... From my point of view, I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school. But the reality is that organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings, and it's not really compassionate."

- Elton John
[observer.guardian.co.uk, 11/12/06]

December Potpourri

Here's a mix of family photos from the last 48 hours . . .

Last night, Phillip was in a Christmas play at school called "Believe." It was more of a church Christmas musical than a serious production but they always count on him to help anytime there's a production at school. He was pretty unhappy to learn it required singing but glad that "Uncle Bill" was only a small part and so it didn't require much work.

Uncle Bill and Grandpa, Phillip's good friend Nicholas.

We set up the tree yesterday but didn't have time to decorate it. As soon as we got home from church today and put MelodyJoy down for her nap, Jameson started pulling out ornaments. He ended up putting almost all of them on the tree by himself, though Jeannette of course rearranged them and I had to do the top section. I think Jamey was a little disappointed that it wasn't more of a family activity.

Tonight we went to OIT's annual staff Christmas get-together. And by "we," I mean Jeannette, me and the star of the show, Melody. Everyone was anxious to see her, from President Dow on down. She wasn't quite her usual "put on the show" self but she still broke out a few smiles and high fives and blown kisses from her repertoire of cuteness.

As usual, the OIT choir sang. I'm always surprised and impressed at how good they sound. And most choir directors would kill to have the male-female ratio that our group boasts.

I asked Phillip to pose for a picture in front of our tree tonight so that I could show everyone his new glasses.