Joe's Place

As I sit here Easter morning reflecting on the awesome miracle of Jesus’ death, burial and ressurection, I can’t help but also get a little distracted by the sobering weather events in our area on Good Friday.

Natural forces were on display two evening’s ago to remind us of that in spite of society’s “enlightenment” and continuing deception that we are somehow in control of events here on earth, we, simply, are not.

The gift of earthly life that we’ve been given and God’s wonderful grace that allows us to fulfill our days is certainly unmeasurable. But the priceless gift of eternal life that was freely provided to us by our heavenly Father that first Easter morning lasts forever.

Happy Easter to all.

Time and distance may separate families when it comes to reunions and gatherings, but one thing that seems to be able to unite the male family members is a friendly game of golf.

And so it was on Monday afternoon that a few of my uncles and cousins got together at Meadowbrook Country Club in Ballwin to see one another and find out just how much damage we can afflict to an otherwise lovely course. Things were a bit wet due to recent rains, but we managed to get in a round under overcast and cool-ish conditions.

Our gracious host and resident family golf pro, Mike Carron, laid out a lovely time for us to renew relationships and rivalries mixed in with the distraction of advancing a little white ball around in as few a strokes as possible. A good time was enjoyed by all, and it was great to see my elders actually putting the “hurt” on the ball a number of times.

Yes, we may look like a motley crew, but there’s a lot of love in this group. I can’t wait to get together again sometime real soon.

Theres photos from the day in a gallery on my Photos page so you can see them. Click the thumbnail, click the “Photo” page link at the top or here’s a link that takes you right to it.

When waking up to snow on Christmas morning, the world just seems at peace. Having family spend the morning with you is priceless. From the Renaud household we wish you and yours a blessed Christmas. May the real reason for our celebration — Jesus– resonate with you today and every day.

It’s not very often that I compliment Apple. Admittedly, Steve Jobs and Apple have long been considered masters at marketing especially when it comes to video commercials.  (Who can forget the Super Bowl ad for the introduction of the new Macintosh?) And while Apple’s marvelous advertising campaigns haven’t exactly managed to separate me from very much of my money in the past, after watching a recent video at Apple.com that may be changing soon.

The simple reason for this is that Apple’s good taste in video has now risen to new heights for me. You see, my lovely and very beautiful starlet wife was featured in a recent Apple spot presented on their website, “iPad in Business Profiles.” O.K., well technically she wasn’t the featured actress and actually she only appeared in a couple of frames in the video. But nonetheless she was still in the video. I’m so very proud of her.

Now, before you click that hyperlink to view it, I need to warn you that the whole video is pretty long and her couple of frames are easy to miss. So like the loyal, loving and supporting husband that I am, I did a little video editing and provided the clips below to help you get right to them.

Video Clip #1 – This is the best clip of her and it certainly will be the one that the gets her noticed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That’s my girl!

Video Clip #2 – Admittedly, you have to look real close to see her, but trust me it’s her in the background.

Yes, Apple’s marketing is quite lovely. As for me buying an iPad — well, not just yet.

We recently took a week for summer vacation 150 miles away  in the Ozarks in southeastern Missouri. Many people this year took vacations closer to home, but frankly we did so because we really happen to enjoy this part of our beautiful state.

The first part of our vacation we spent at Clearwater Lake. I am so blessed to have two very generous aunts and uncles that allow us to use their vacation house (a.k.a. the “club”) and boat when we’re down there. It obviously saves us money to be able to do that, but staying at a place that you know really well and have childhood memories of is the icing on the cake. I’ve got a pretty cool family for sure.

We had some pretty ambitious plans to have our three sons and their families join us, but that didn’t exactly work out for two of them. We were disappointed and I know that they were too, but those things happen. We at least got to share some time there with our oldest son and his wife and their four children.

I couldn’t help but think of the times when I was young and we would take our vacation there. The big difference was that those vacations always seemed to end up involving doctors or emergency rooms somehow. No excitement like that this time, just having the granddaughters buzzing all over the club and generally enjoying themselves as kids do provided all the excitment that we needed.

The second part of our trip we spent in the very quaint and pretty little town of Eminence, Missouri. While not far away from the Clearwater area as the crow flies, it’s one of those places that’s hard to get to. The beautiful Jack’s Fork River flows through town and the Current River is also near by.

This area is definitely what the Ozarks are all about. Eminence has all the normal array of tourist traps including gift shops, convenience stores, lodging, cabins and restaurants. We spent two nights at the Hawkins House Bed and Breakfast and had a fabulous stay there. We can wholeheartedly recommend the Hawkins House if you’re ever near this part of our state.

Vacation this year was full of fun, relaxation and even a little drama. In particular I enjoyed daily walks with my lovely wife, being pontoon boat taxi driver, running a couple trot lines for catfish and playing canoe paddler. Good times indeed.

If you’re interested in some of our adventures, my wife has a beautiful and very detailed account of our 2010 summer vacation in three installments here. Suffice it to say though that this year’s vacation has plenty of memories and after all isn’t that what vacations are all about?

A view of ours truly with my ever-vigilant and trusty copilot enjoying the rather cramped cockpit of a U-Haul coming home from a recent adventure in South Central Texas.

The dynamic duo was on the way home from San Antonio after a couple of days off and a mission to help rid my Mom’s garage of excess stuff to recapture some new living space for her and my sister. And what didn’t get thrown away or donated went home with us, hence the need for the U-Haul truck.

The good news was that we were successful in our endeavors. The bad news was that after 1000 miles sitting with little seat adjustment, our rear ends were numb for the next week. But now the really hard part of our adventure- getting rid what we brought back or at least something getting rid of something else so that we don’t end up in the same situation. Stay tuned to E-Bay or Craigslist to see how we do with that.

Well here he is world. Possibly the cutest grandbaby boy on the planet and he’s named after me. He doesn’t look a whole lot like me, but the genes are there.

He weighed in at eight pounds, thirteen ounces and twenty-one and a quarter inches long. Papa and mama are a little tired but doing just fine and Grandpa couldn’t be prouder.

UPDATE: 4/14/10 If you’d like to see more photos of Baby Joseph, my son’s blog now has many more and the whole story.

Anita and I are so very excited to announce the arrival of the latest addition to the Renaud clan. My oldest son Josh and his lovely wife Yoli are blessed today by the birth of their new baby boy Joseph Martin Renaud. I’m very proud that they chose Baby Joseph to be my namesake and we look so very forward to seeing him in person at the hospital later.

However, after spending most of the day with them, I can assure you that his older sisters are even more excited than I am to see him. We showed them Josh’s most recent post on his blog with pictures of the new baby. They couldn’t be happier. Jump over there yourself to see baby Joseph and Mama. They both look great.

Even though this is grandchild number six, this kind of thing just doesn’t get old. It is very humbling to experience indeed.

The grandsons were over today and we with the weather being decent (by March standards) we decided to make a trip to the park. There’s nothing like the excitement of little boys engaging the playground equipment. The local park has a very nice playground set and it is just like a magnet the minute it appears on the little ones’ radar screen. Watching their fascination with all the ladders and slides and colors is a place that we all remember. I appreciate the entertainment with the simple things at their ages knowing that it may not last very much longer. So while it does, I’ll gratefully take it all in.

Here are a couple of videos of the boys’ mastery of the twisty slide because this is what grandpas do.

Keaton_on_slide

Hayden_on_slide