Joel and Claire

Joel and his Job

2008-05-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Joel was recently laid off from Americredit where he served as a QA Manager for the past 2 years.

How exciting though, 4 weeks of unemployment ended with his acceptance of a Joint Venture Manager position with Texas Health Resources. He is really looking forward to this new challenge and has heard many great things about working for THR.

In the meantime I have returned to work as a full-time employee so that we will have medical benefits through the delivery.

We are constantly amazed in how God has worked through this whole situation.

I think Joel is anxious to return to work, Mr. Mom seems to be wearing him out :)

Flash and Wonder Woman

2008-02-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

Here is Claire and I last Halloween. I know that was a couple of months ago.. but it's still funny.

One more on the way....

2008-02-05T19:27:00.000-08:00

On July 14th, the Verinder's will be welcoming another kiddo into the family. Yep that's right we'll be up to a family of 5. That means that you have to use all of your fingers to count us (on one hand).

As a result, we will not be headed to Africa this year. The team is heading down a week before the due date. I'm sure the team will do a great job without us, but we are still bummed. Hopefully we'll try and make it next year.

Peyton is asking for a little sister because he already has a little brother. Patrick just says "Na" when we ask him... No idea what that means yet. We'll keep you posted.

This is Patrick on Christmas morning, opening his stocking.

Here is Peyton at his 4 year birthday party. It was a soccer themed party.

We're Baaaaaaaaack....

2007-07-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

(This is a picture of Claire and I presenting a soccer ball to the headmaster of a school we visited)

Well we made it back from Africa all safe and sound after 36 straight hours of travel. There truly too many things to talk about in a blog. I'd have to make this my full time job to cover everything.

I will however provide you with a few cool notes:
- We had over 60 people commit their life to Christ
- We baptised 107 people (Some in an elephant watering hole and some in a pool)
- We were able to show the Jesus film out in the rural areas (aka the bush), using a generator, portable DVD player and a projector.
- We were able to witness to non believers through the help of excellent translators
- Did you know that elephants are a big pest in Africa? The locals expend so much energy to keep them from eating their fruit or destroying their fences...

Here are a bunch of pictures as well..

http://web.mac.com/steve.elfers/iWeb/TeamAfrica07/Photos.html

Texas Bluebonnets

2007-04-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks, we've seen some crazy weather here in North Texas. We've seen snow, hail, tornadoes, windy days and sunny days. Very odd! It's always weird when the tornado sirens go off and the sun is out...

We figured it was time for an updated family picture, so we found a patch of Bluebonnets for a couple of pictures. Luckily we found another family there to help us take pictures.

Zimbabwe 2007

2007-02-28T18:55:00.000-08:00

Claire and I have great news! In June of 2007, we will be headed out to Zimbabwe for a 2 week mission trip. About 3 months ago, Claire and I were talking about getting more involved in mission work. The very next day, we received an email from our old church in Virginia stating that they were looking to make a trip to Zimbabwe. We knew right away that this was no coincidence.

Our former church, Providence First Baptist, has been dedicated to helping people in Africa for several years now. The church has made numerous trips to the south east area of Africa. This church is filled with excited Christians that truly want to show love to those in need. We made a trip with them to New Orleans last February and were able to witness God's work in so many ways. We can only imagine what's in-store for us this summer.

Here is a map of south east Africa. Zimbabwe is highlighted in red.

Can you believe those Red Raiders?

2006-12-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

If you didnt see the game... You missed the biggest come back win in NCAA bowl history. The Red Raiders were down 38-7 in the 3rd Quarter and came back to win 44-41 in overtime. YEAH!

Mike turns 36!

2006-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Today is my brother's birthday... Man 36 sounds old! Thankfully I'm still 7 years behind him. Here is a picture from the old days...

(Mike is the one on the right)

Peyton's 3rd birthday

2006-12-22T07:15:00.000-08:00

Ok here are the pictures from his 3rd birthday. We held it at our house and it went rather smoothly. I am often impressed at Claire's party planning abilities. She throws them so well, you'd think it was a spiritual gift!

Here is Peyton leading the way in the Egg Race that was held outside with hard boiled eggs.

Everyone loved their snack..

The invincible pinata. The thing wouldnt' bust!

Here is the ball pit that we often defered to.

And Peyton blowing out his candles.

Ok.. So it's been a long time!

2006-12-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

Before you say anything.. Yes I know it's taken us forever to post.
So much has happened...
- We visited Texas Tech to see the Carol of Lights and a Red Raider basketball game
- Peyton had his 3rd Birthday Party (Lots of pictures to come)
- We had Oturo (our friend from Mexico) install a Brick flower bed in the front yard
- Patrick is now 4 months old!
- It Snowed!

I'm sure I am missing something in there as I'm still trying to recover from having 9 2/3/4 year olds over at the house this weekend. The party was fairly successful and all the credit should go to Claire. She had a little party "schedule" all set up and it worked great. We had an egg race (hard boiled), pinata, a craft project and a big swimming pool of balls and balloons to play in. Thankfully we didn't have any parents that just dropped off their kids. I was afraid it would turn into a daycare of sorts!

Here is a picture from a recent snowfall. Did I mention that it hit 78 degrees yesterday? In Mid December. SAD!

Here is a picture of Peyton and I sitting on Will Rogers while at Texas Tech. Man has that campus changed..

And here is Peyton and Claire infront of the Christmas Tree on Memorial Circle. (Patrick is bundled up in the car)

Kids do the funnniest things...

2006-10-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Peyton has been doing a few funny bits recently. Yesterday he was sitting as his craft table at school when Claire was picking him up. He was concentrating on the window looking for something. Claire asked him "What are you looking at out there?" Peyton replies, "I was looking for Jesus but he is sleeping right now."

Peyton is also very proud of his potty usage. Yesterday I was in the bathroom by myself with the door shut and he busted in to tell me the rules. He wanted to make sure that I wiped the seat, flushed and put the seat back down. It's about time I learned that!

Pumpkin Day!

2006-10-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we headed over to Pumpkin Day at Peyton's day school. You know this is one of those events where they have a petting zoo, story time, painting pumpkins and a sack race. Man it was hilarious to see these 2-3 year olds jump around in those sacks. Those are moments to live for right there! I wish our camera was working... would of been a great picture!

The Verinder guys are headed down to Houston this weekend for the 3rd annual golf tournament. Wish me luck! (I came in 2nd place last year..)

If only they were like this all the time!

2006-09-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our sitting at a photo studio. Is these pictures, Peyton is 2 years 10 months and Patrick is 2 1/2 weeks

Let's go Tech! (Insert your Aggie joke here!)

2006-09-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Texas Tech and Texas A&M square off this weekend! A&M looked really weak with their win over Army so I predict a 21 point blowout here. Get your guns up!

What time is it anyways?

2006-09-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's been a while since our last post. This whole lack of sleep bit is wearing on us! Somehow I had forgotten how bad it was. I was thinking that it would just be a way to get in more late night Xbox.. Wrong!

This past week Claire has taken a few pictures of Patrick that are really awesome. Take a Peek...

I also decided that I would repaint our bedroom/master bathroom since we recently got new bedroom furniture. It is now 99% finished and I will be posting pictures soon. The painting is done, but there are a few details that to be touched up on.

More pictures...

2006-08-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Patrick. He is now 8 days old...

Patrick James Verinder has arrived...

2006-08-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

Claire, Peyton and I welcomed Patrick James Verinder into the world today at about 2pm. He weighs 7lbs 1 ounce and stretches out to 19 3/4 inches. He and momma are doing great and are getting lots of deserved rest. More pictures to come, but here is one from the hospital.

Only 2 1/2 days to go...

2006-08-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

This will probably be our last post as a 3 person family. We are expecting the new baby to arrive on Monday. We still have no idea if it will be a boy or a girl, but we are prepared for either! Well sorta. We change on the boy name every other day. It's kind of like that game you used to play when you were kids (Imagine you and your wife with your fists out on this one). "Bubble gum bubble gum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish? THREE 1.. 2.. 3.. And you are not it.."

Let the party begin!

2006-08-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed north to Plano to celebrate a fellow 2 year old's birthday. We've known this family for about 5 or 6 years and wouldn't think of missing out on the party. Peyton joined in to play with the bubbles, sidewalk chalk, balloon hats and of course birthday cake. Claire joined in on the balloon hat fun as you can see in this picture... You can't see it in the picture, but she is only 2 weeks away from her due date (August 21st). Exciting eh?!

Birds and the Bees

2006-07-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks we have been watching a dove build a nest on our back patio. Our cats are always going in the back yard so we were a little concerned that they might get the bird. Turns out that the bird was pretty smart and evaded the cats. Well the egg has now hatched and Peyton got to catch a glimpse of the baby bird this weekend. We're trying to relate it to him getting a new baby... but I don't think he's getting it yet.

Crazy about Cars!

2006-07-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Peyton has been nuts over cars for sometime now. Just to give you a glimpse of how overboard it has become... He sleeps with his cars. Must go to the potty with his cars. Every time we drive by the theater he asks to see the movie "Cars". He plays for hours on end with his cars and he will assign you a car to play with. When we go to Sunday school we have to take the cars. However, we have convinced him to keep them in the car so that they are "safe".

If only we could bottle this passion up for school later on down the road!

When going through the last of our moving boxes, I found my old R/C car that I built in college. It's much faster than the normal wal-mart car but has its quirks. It could have something to do with me running it over jumps and through water. hmm Anyways, once Peyton saw it in a box he has begged to go outside and play with it. So for the last 8 days we have gone out after work to run it around the yard.

San Antonio Bound....

2006-07-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at the Schlitterbahn waterpark, just north of San Antonio. Peyton spent most of his time enjoying the slides and water toys at the kiddie pool. Claire, and the baby to be, had their work cut out chasing him around the pool.

This past week Claire and Peyton traveled to San Antonio with her family of 10. They visited all of the area attractions including Sea World, Natural Bridge Caverns and Schlitterbahn. Peyton had a blast and is already asking, "Can we go to San Tonio? See the dolphins?". Joel wasn't able to make the trip due to a lack of vacation. While the rest of the family was gone, he was able to get in a few rounds of golf with a buddy from Virginia. It all worked out in the end.

The above picture is of Peyton checking out the flamingos at Sea World. His favorite animal at the park was the Dolphin, but Claire has a thing for Flamingos. If you ever get a chance to visit our home, be sure to check out our laundry room. Claire went a little crazy with the flamingo theme. (Pictures, Pull knobs, Pink walls)