Isaac Immanuel

congrats to the perkins on the birth of their second son!!! such a cutie and such a great name. we're so very excited for them.

initial pictures and details on andy's blog and more to come soon I'm sure.

yay!

dance of joy

the old question: "does he sleep through the night yet?"

the new answer: "yes, if you take him bowling first!"

the office had a exhilarating (sp?) night of costume bowling, to celebrate reformation day of course. so, with a few reservations about second-hand smoke, we dressed up the kiddo (and ourselves a bit) and went and had a good time. some of the costumes were very, very good. some of the bowlers were very, very bad. I think we were about in the middle of each.

pictures here (other weekend festivities too...I'll let the pics do the talking for that stuff).

so we got home and put him to bed around 10, and he woke up once at 3ish, but went right back down without needing food until 5. so we're counting that as SEVEN WHOLE HOURS, so we celebrated with the dance of joy. and even if you dont take him bowling, he can do about 6 hours, which isnt bad at all.

oh and speaking of milestones, he can somewhat accidentally roll over from his tummy to his back. if he's on his tummy and doesnt want to be, he does a huge push-up, with his head held high. this of course makes him quite top-heavy, so he kinda falls over and ends up on his back some of the time. he's developing skills.

finally

I am so very glad that the word series is finally over. sure it's nice that the red sox won and all, but I'll be happy to go to bed at a decent hour. yes, it was my choice to stay up. chalk it up to the draw of "history" (I always chuckle when sports are framed in "historical" terms), and a fond farewell to a good season, even though my team got beat: hurricanes, injuries, lack of timely hitting, so-so pitching, and, most importantly, lack of pudge. gotta have pudge.

I'm a fan of the NL, so I'm pretty dissappointed in the cards. maybe I'm wrong, but I think even the marlins would have won at least one game. give me small ball, speed, defense, pitching, timely hitting, and all that kinda stuff. but the sox beat the crap out of such play, so good for them. it's funny how the yankees are framed as the "evil empire" b/c they outspend everyone, but let's not forget the sox outspend every other team. even though the world series was lackluster, both LCS were stellar, so no complaints.

I think I'll take a break from sports until spring. it's been fun and all, but back to life. less tv, more Bible, mandolin and such.

fig leaf

more

blogging wife

michelle now has her very own blog! I've tried to get her to post here for a while, but I'm glad that she's got a place to call her own.

I realized recently that blogs can be dangerous when it comes to marital communication. this bloggy stuff is cool for lots of reasons, but if I use it as a substitute for face-to-face and heart-to-heart communication, its a very bad thing, right?

and while we're on the subject of blogs, I've been feeling too much pressure (from myself) to be "cool" here in this space. lots of my fellow bloggers are indeed cool, and have various ideas, perspectives, etc to contribute to the community. but I, for one, will not be a shining star among them, and that's ok. I'm here to recount a bit of what God is doing in my life, and that's about it. so I'm done with being sad about being left of people's blogrolls. I'm through with wanting to be popular. this is no boast, but amazingly true: I am indeed well-loved, and that's good enough for me.

counting

yes, I'm still tired. my brother-in-law had the following insights on sleep-deprivation (via AIM): "Coping with sleep deprivation is a lot like stopping a drinking habit. You are so used to the routine of sleep that you start to think you need it to survive. When you can't do it anymore, first you go through withdrawl, then anger, then frustration, and eventually transcendent."

I think I'm in the middle of the frustration stage. and now I realize better why some of my friends are addicted to coke (as in cola) and/or coffee. anyway, I think I should count some blessings here, small and large, to remind myself how good we really have it:

- our old 19" flat screen monitor, once left for dead and minutes from being thrown out, works again. and it's a beautiful thing.
- we re-arranged our living room with the help of Michelle's dad. and it is very nice. hopefully we'll have a new desk for the corner soon.
- we have the cutest and funniest dog ever. sure she's 2nd fiddle now, but we still love her. or like her. whatever.
- our parents are such a blessing. they love Caleb to pieces, and they get along great with eachother too. they're not perfect by any means, but the heritage of faith from our families is a rare and awesome gift.
- we've recently started a "small group" with some other families in our church. more on that later.
- Caleb is STILL the cutest kid ever. and now that he's on soy, he's much happier too.

caleb is baptized

Caleb was baptized yesterday at St. Elmo Presbyterian. all four of his grandparents were able to attend, and we had a celebration afterward with some friends. pictures here.

we've hardly had time to process what all this means, yet we know the bottom line is that God is faithful, and He loves Caleb as a covenant child. for the record (and for further reflection soon hopefully), we took the following vows, as found in chapter 56 of the book of church order:

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1. Do you acknowledge your child’s need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit?

2. Do you claim God’s covenant promises in his behalf, and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation, as you do for your own?

3. Do you now unreservedly dedicate your child to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that you will endeavor to set before him a godly example, that you will pray with and for him, that you will teach him the doctrines of our holy religion, and that you will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

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may God grant us the faith to keep these awesome promises, and may Caleb grow to know and love Jesus.

dont make her go to blogger.com

Michelle is thinking of starting her very own blog. hopefully JQ will get a spare moment to set it up so she doesnt have to go to blogger.com or some such service. :-)

soy

after a really rough weekend of almost nonstop fussiness, Caleb seems to be doing much better again. it seemed as if the "lactofree" formula made things worse instead of better. he would eat about half as much as usual, then struggle and fight and scream over the rest. of course that meant he wouldnt sleep as much, so the whole routine was quite exhausting for everyone. the poor kid just wasnt doing well.

so we gave the soy based formula a shot, and he's doing much better with it. he doesnt eat it as well as the original (which gave him gas), but he'll take a whole bottle eventually. he even slept for 6 hours straight last night (and then 4 more), which is a huge blessing. so hopefully he'll continue to eat well and sleep well.

I feel like I'm behind on pretty much all of life, except maybe for keeping the kitchen clean. I'm usually in a daze at work, I'm behind on my side-jobs, the house is a wreck, and forget about yard work. devotions? what devotions? and I really wish we had time for friends. hopefully we will be making some time soon. but he's totally worth it -- we just love him so much. hopefully soon we'll settle into a routine again and be able to function better.

turn off their TV

I like to rant about how bad the TV is for you (although I've been watching a good bit of baseball these days). now there is a clever invention that is perfect for ridding the world of the conversation-killing omnipresent idiot boxes at places like restaurants and airports -- the tv-b-gone. it's a universal power button for almost all TVs, so you can turn off any tv at a whim. check out the article in wired.

in some ways, I'd love to own one of these (only $20 delivered), but since I dont get out much, I doubt I'd get much use out of it.

google desktop

google desktop search is very cool. if you're geek enough, check it out. I wonder when google will come out with an operating system?

tired

I love my son. he's the best. but he's wearing me out. this may sound horrible, but I'm a little tired of the baby phase. maybe it's because he's so fussy lately with all his gassiness. we're trying a different "lactofree" formula, but he doesnt eat nearly as much of the new kind, so he doesnt sleep nearly as long. therefore, we're all a little more cranky these days.

I've heard stories from friends who have had babies that screamed nonstop. thankfully Caleb isnt quite like that, because I honestly dont think we could handle it with Michelle's health issues and whatnot.

these are the things I feel at 4am, when he's only eaten a little bit and is screaming with gassiness and tiredness. but around 8am, when he gives me a smile, somehow it's all a little better. I still worry what all this struggle in his little life might be doing to him as he grows. I cant protect him from all the struggles of this world, but I can hold him and comfort him and love him.

yet I find myself wanting so badly to "raise him right" and make things good for him, as if I can give him such an upbringing that he wont need Jesus. yes, somewhere in my heart, I think I CAN save my son. yikes.

he will be baptised a week from sunday, where we will claim God's covenant promises to us and to Caleb. if only I could remember His promises to us, even at 4am, even amid the crying and screaming. and now I realize a bit more how much of a little baby I really am, and how perfectly my Daddy loves me.

marriage conference

there's a christian marriage conference coming to town on november 12-14. it's put on by FamilyLife, which you can hear about on Moody broadcasting if you're into that. we've heard lots of good stuff about these "weekend to remember" conferences, so we're excited about going. after all this baby craziness, we sure could use some time to step back and work on our relationship for a while.

if anyone is interested, let us know, because if we sign up as a group (5 or more couples), we can get a $40 per couple discount.

munchkin no more

happy 2nd month birthday to Caleb! and for his present, he got 3 shots full of lots of yummy innoculations and whatnot. he was apparently very brave. for the weigh-in, he's up to 11 pounds, 1 oz, and 24-3/4" tall. his only nickname so far has been "munchkin" (shortened to "munch" at times), but I dont think it suits him much any more, as he's topping the charts in height especially.

we've been woefully slacking on keeping up with pictures. hopefully I'll get more up soon, but baseball playoffs and general exhaustion have been slowing me down.

free car

many thanks to andy and lynn as well as katie and joel for giving us a free car. in a blast from the past, I'm now driving andy's old saturn coupe, in stylish teal. being a saturn, I dont really fit in it, but that's no big deal. I'm amazed at the 180k miles on the odometer, and it seems to be running fine. so many thanks to all for passing it down to us. and especially thanks to andy and lynn for delivering it to us, as they came up for the homecoming weekend.

it was so good to hang out with them this weekend, as it seems it's been forever. gideon is so cute, and such a good kid. we can really tell that they've worked hard at training him and raising him right, so it was quite an inspiration to us. we know we're supposed to enjoy every stage of Caleb's life, but we really are looking forward to when he's able to interact more.

the dinner at the aquarium was very cool. we got to see john and robin and their little girl ansley. they're doing well in VA, and john is working and finishing his doctorate at VT. we were dissappointed that we didnt get to see more out-of-towners at homecoming (crabby? davidg? come on!), but we saw lots of in-towners that we never see except at these events.

a few pictures of these things coming soon.

buckminster fuller

who's buckminster fuller? according to sources: inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet and cosmologist. there's a biography here. and he's even got his own institute.

why do I bring this up? well you'll just have to wait to find out, but you'll be hearing that name a lot pretty soon.

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ok I guess I can tell now that it's been officially announced. the crumleys have had a boy, and (damon) named him after the somewhat famous inventor, so welcome to Buckminster Fuller Crumley (really!), who will go by Fuller. more details on the crumley family blog.

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we just went to go see him, and there are pictures here. he's quite a cutey, and made us realize how big our little boy is getting!

please pray

please pray for Michelle. her fibro is back with a vengance, and things have been difficult. we're hoping this is a temporary setback, but we're starting to wonder if we're in for another long haul. she was feeling great this time last year. just goes to show how much control we have over all this.

I used to think that I was good as sacrifically loving Michelle through all her pain and whatnot (pat, pat on my back). but today she showed me what laying yourself down really looks like. she was reflecting on an aquaintence with fibro, who said she doesnt want to have kids b/c she didnt want to deal with the extra pain and difficulty. looking down at our beautiful baby boy in her arms, and with tears in her eyes, she said, "he's worth it." even if it takes years to regain her health, he's worth it. even if she's never strong enough to hold him for very long, he's worth it. selfless love is conquering the pain, even if the pain isnt going away.

even so, please pray that her body will once again be healed so she can be the best mama she can be. pray also that Caleb will sleep longer at night, because the more sleep she gets, the less pain she's in the next day. God has answered our many prayers, and He's always been faithful. but if Hechooses to withhold healing for a while, pray that He will give us the grace and patience to remain faithful to Him, to eachother, and to our beautful son.

ride to atlanta

anyone going to atlanta any time soon? can I bum a ride? otherwise I'll probly catch the airport shuttle. it looks like I'm getting another free car from the perkins (via the knutsons), so I need to go get it.

yet again I'm amazed at how God is taking care of us, this time in the form of a car. and I'm also amazed at my continued capacity for bumming things off my friends. I'd like to think that I'm just as generous with my time and stuff, but I've been realizing how much I take from others. anything from a ride to or from work, to baby gear, to dvd rentals, to lawn mower usage, to cars -- if you're offering, and I can use it, I'll take you up on it, thank you very much.

I just hope I'm not a burden on the givers, and whenever someone needs something, I hope I can be as much as much as a giver as I am a taker. when a situation arises, I really do enjoy helping folks out, so I hope that when folks help me they feel appreciated. I know many of the folks reading this have given me something of value at one point or another, so add this small "thank you" to those I've hopefully already given, and please know that if you need anything I can give, just ask. except for our old pond, which I gave away yesterday.