FREE online tax return fun

thanks to dword over at crumleydotorg (and often either 4 feet to my right or 4 blocks north, depending on the time of day) for finding this link for the IRS's new free electronic filing program.

that link brings you to a page of links to various service providers, and none can be much better than TurboTax for the Web, which I've used for 4 years now. previously they stepped you through all the questions for free, but you had to pay to file and/or print it. now apparently the whole thing is free if you're in the know. even if they charged the $20 for filing, it would be worth every penny.

note that you WONT find mention of the free deal on their main site...only if you go to taxfreedom.com.

not all our papers are in yet, but so far we're getting a decent refund (the funnest part of the online forms is the refund tally in the corner). yay! another joy of parenthood I guess. enjoy.

babble

it seems like we've got a talker on our hands. just two days ago, Caleb's vocalizations were mostly limited to shrieks of delight and/or sadness (and only a look at his expression would let you know the difference). but all of a sudden, he's almost constantly babbling. bah-buh-bah-buh-babbuh-babba kinda stuff. super cute. of course this is no astounding skill, but I am certainly surprised at the all-at-onceness of it. was there some switch in his head that was thrown on? as his personality continues to be revealed, we both think he's more and more like his mama, which I think is really cool.

---

in other news:
-many congrats to my old roomie dave on his engagement!
-please pray for our niece casey and her family, as they just learned she has diabetes. she's doing well, but of course there's lots to adjust to
-a bunch of the sites we've done recently havent been launched due to various hangups on the clients end. so even though they're relatively minor, it's nice to have launched 2 within a week: a small one for the college and a tiny one for the city. further evidence that matt rocks.

old picture

this picture is from May 1977, recently found by my uncle and passed along to us. I'm 5 months old (about Caleb's age) and my parents are 27 (about my age now). cool.

jumping squeaker

here's a video of Caleb in his door jumper thingy. he also displays his vocal talents of squeaking and shrieking with delight as he does his jumping. one of his latest tendencies is to reach out and grab just about everything, and he's wearing out his reputation as a mellow kid. we're guessing that once he starts crawling he'll be into just about everything.

without further ado: here's the jumper video.

toothy flipper

as can be seen in this photo (if you look closely), Caleb's got his first tooth! he cut his first one without too much distress. he would get a little fussy during the day, but he was able to sleep as well as he has been lately (12 hours or so). his little tooth is quite sharp, and we're pretty sure the next one will be here soon, as he's been fussy and had a hard time eating lately. his mama is having fun making lots of baby food for him (and I help too), and so far he's enjoyed the yummy goodness of homemade butternut squash (mixed with his rice cereal).

also, he's quite adept at flipping over, but so far only when he's in his crib. but then he cant sleep that way, so he cries until we come turn him back over. hopefully soon he'll master flipping the other way.

Laini and Jaron came over the other day, and Caleb enjoyed trying to baptise him or something (not knowing that he needs to be ordained first, and that Jaron is baptised already anyway, and besides he forgot the water).

done with Alias

we dont watch much TV, but it has been fun getting together somewhat regularly with some friends for "Alias night." in case you dont know, it's what I call a "techno-spy soap opera." lots of CIA secret mission stuff, some hokey evil-twin kinda stuff, and some somewhat intruging x-files stuff thrown in. it's usually well written and well acted, if you're able to suspend disbelief for a while.

anyway, our friend Mateo is really into the show, and he got us into it too, so we get together with some folks and make a fun night of it. but I've recently realized that I shouldnt watch anymore. the recent season premiere had a prominent scene (which they managed to show twice) that caused me some difficulty. it featured Jennifer Garner's character 90something percent nekkid. the last thing I need seered into my lustful brain is an image of this woman in a negligee or whatever other skimpy outfit she'll don in the next episode (or after the next commercial, for that matter). I needed to ask God and Michelle for forgiveness for my lustful attitudes.

so I was struggling with these things, when I came across this verse: Galatians 4:16: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." I couldnt reconcile walking in the Spirit and intentionally filling my head with lustful images. so it was a pretty easy decision to turn it off.

but now I've got to live with the decision. Michelle still likes the show, so she watches it without me, which is weird for us. they recently moved the show from sunday to wednesday, so the plan has been to tape it on wed and get together with friends (at our house) on sun. do we still have them over and I go hide in the other room? I hope not. or will they be ok with us not watching the show but still hanging out? I hope so, but somehow I would be surprised if it worked out.

so I guess I'll stick with occassional sports on TV. and no, I wont be going to see Elektra.

carnival study group

what follows is one of the most fascinating emails I have ever received. firstly, it's in dutch, which is rather cool. I have lots of dutch heritage, and I'm somewhat proud of it in a not-quite-thoughtful way. I love dutch sweets and tulips and such, but I dont speak the language, nor have I been there yet.

anyway, it came to my wiegers at gmail account, so I assume there's some confusion on the part of the sender. so I ran it through freetranslation.com and got the following interesting, entertaining, and yoda-esque result (names withheld).

whatever this carnival is, it sounds like a good time:

Just an e-mail from the carnival study group. We are come yesterday with each other a temporary program fixed to put.

The proposal is follows as:
8.30 - 9.00 hour
Children come in the own class within and about it becomes a kind of fashion show held each other the clothing to show.

9.00 - 10.30 hour
I---- is in the own class busy with games, puzzles etc only then just even something differently than normal. "The class on stilt" For Instance murderer, normal you are will sit finished and you on the ground, are will sit now that you finished and you on the chair etc. Ideas are collected yet by us.

10.30 - 11.30 hour
We a procession will walk. Over the route etc, we will have it next week.

11.30-12.30 hour
I---- closes the morning self off in the own classes. The onderboouw goes goes 12.00 hour to house and the superstructure to the main building that jointly to have lunch in the hall. Until end is there yet hossen in the hall. We want to use hereby further no other spaces.

Do now that we have single questions at you:
* there extra budget Is for knutselmateriaal? AS is there vague much too little colored paper in the colors yellow, white and red.
* Is there a possibility that we with the superstructure a fries can eat or a roll bent sausage or peas soup? Hears for our feeling awful by carnival.
* Do you REGULATE the drinking and something well for the children of the base in the mornings?
* Do you See to for the lootjes and the drinking and the chips for the superstructure of the noons?
* By the family of S---- becomes there prevent a group of parents with each other sought, that in the harmony with want to play, is there prevent a possibility that they single crates beer get and for the family of S---- a flower as bedankje?

Gladly we hear so fast possible an answer on above questions. You may speak to me also always on school or ring me home. With kind greeting, C----

sunday school

after a semester hiatus due to adjusting to life with Caleb, I'm back with the sunday school kids, and I got to jump right in to the fun yesterday. an hour before we were to begin, the lead teacher called to say she was sick, and would I please take the class today? fun!

2 years ago I signed on to help with the 4 and 5 year olds. basically I was crowd control while Abby worked her magic. I learned a ton just watching her teach the kids, and she was good and kind enough to include me in some of the teaching as a caught on. amazingly, the kids loved me! and I loved them too. Abby had to move on, so I took the lead the next year, sharing the duties with Jenny. it was the same group of kids, so I felt very comfortable with them. I just pray that they learned more of Jesus' love that year.

but when Caleb came, I took some time off, not knowing how life would go. so Jessica took the lead, with Jenny helping too. but now Jenny is off to grad school, so it was perfect timing for me to jump back in as a helper. mostly the same kids, just a bit older of course. the wild card is that now Jessica is in charge and I have no idea how she runs the class, but I'm sure she does great.

anyway, the call came in for me to be in charge on my first day back. in charge and probably alone with a bunch of kids who happen to generally like me, but who also know that they can get away with stuff with me (I'm not very authoritarian, unfortunately). I figured I'd bring the guitar, read a Bible story, do a memory verse, and bust out the crayons and paper when all else failed.

thankfully Karen volunteered to help out, and all went rather well. there were 7 kids. we sang some songs, and that went predictably mediocre. as a big group our kids sing OK, but in smaller groups its pretty weak. I dunno if it's a presbyterian thing or what? but after a while most of them were singing and thankfully I even knew the chords for the one request I had (Jesus Loves the Little Children). then Karen read about John the Baptist.

and then we did my favorite part: the memory verse. I wasnt sure if the kids somehow would be "too old" for the somewhat silly fun we would used to have with the verses. I think Abby started doing fun voices as we repeated the verse back and forth, and the kids really get into it, especially the LOUD voices. but thankfully they're still into it and we said Malachi 3:1 back and forth in normal, baby, marching, quiet, REALLY quiet, and LOUD voices. and somewhere in there I did my best to explain what the verse actually means.

anyway, no especially poignant or touching moments, but I pray that the kids learned more of God's love in our time together. sometimes it's just crowd control, and especially when there's no plan or curriculum I tend to focus on just surviving the hour. so pray for me and Jessica and the kids, that we'd all know and love Jesus more.

birthday II

michelle takes good care of me. about 2 weeks after my actual birthday (which is in the midst of the holidays) she got me a cake and had some friends over for a little celebration, including 2 of my favorite things (sweets and beer).

having a late december birthday has a few drawbacks, but with such a thoughtful wife, the advantages (like almost always having the day off) far outweigh the disadvantages (like almost always having everyone gone).

in short, my wife is awesome. and not just because she got me a cake.

oh and our kid is cute too:

a few more pictures here.

broken

I want to live a life of brokenness in front of our kid(s). brokenness and also put-back-together-by-graceness. I want Caleb to know that we dont have it all together, that we really do need Jesus for everything. of course saying that is pretty easy.

last night we had a chance to actually live it. Michelle had a rough day. one of the worst in a while. her fibro has been flaring pretty badly, and Caleb seems to be teething, so he's not too happy either. he was crying as she tried to feed him, and as she handed him to me, pretty much at her end, she started sobbing. Caleb immediately took notice and just looked at her quietly. I think he knew something was up. she didnt want him to see her in this state, which is quite natural. but we stood there, Caleb looking quitely, mama crying, daddy holding him close and shedding some tears too.

he's learning so much, watching and living with us amid the struggle. how we deal with this will surely help shape who he is. I just pray that we'll point him to Jesus, and not make him think we can get through it on our own.

beulah neighbor

friend, neighbor, "managing partner," and now blogger, Dave has just started This Old Drug House, with hopes for conversations on life in the heart of St. Elmo. so go check it out. just watch for the speeding coupes as you cross the street.

settle down

the holidays were great, but I'm glad that we're back to "normal" life. relatively regular days and schedules, no travels, just living life.

work is starting the year out busy, which is a good thing, and I need to get a site started and finished this week. should be a little crazy, but I do better when there's pressure. and the office should be a little quieter, as one of our number will be mostly working from home to look after his kid.

I got 2 settlers expansion packs for christmas: 5&6 player expansion, as well as cities & knights. so who wants their butts kicked? for many of yall out there, I happen to be your settlers granddaddy, so to speak, as we taught quite a few folks around here (we caught the fever from trippy). so let me know if you want to get in on the expansion too. we played with the monahans and perkins the other night, and it was a good time. very cool to have 5 great kids among us too. gotta love isaac's LONG hair. so cool.

the new year brings some thoughts of doing things differently and/or better. more scripture. more music. more love. and more sunday school kids! yes, I'll be hanging out with the kids again, and I'm quite excited. we'll see how much they've changed in the 6 months since I've seen them last.