back to 'normal'

it seems as if the sickness has passed from our house, and we're getting back to what passes as "normal." we're so thankful for friends who helped us out, and so sorry that we got at least some of them sick. it certainly has been going around. thanks also to all who prayed for us.

michelle is now 10 weeks pregnant and we're starting to believe that we're actually having another baby. maybe that's why I've got this nervous twitch on my nose? we must be crazy. Michelle had a severe bout with nausea, but that seems to be over, and so far she's doing better with that this time around.

in an effort to get out of the house, we went downtown for lunch today and took in some of the festivities involved with the new part of the aquarium opening. I'm looking forward to having a family membership sometime soon so we can go whenever we like. having grown up on the shores of FL, I'm quite a fish nut, and I hope the kids (plural! I'm still getting used to that) enjoy it as much as I do.

now that Caleb is done with sickness, he's been much happier. for the record, here's a rundown of his latest skilz: he can pull up to standing, he's a fast crawler, he loves eating cheerios (by himself), and he even listens when we tell him "no" when he goes after the dog food (sometimes). he loves riding on my shoulders, but he's not a big fan of being left in his room behind the baby gate. he loves to be on his feet, and we wont be surprised if he's walking within a couple months.

and here are some pics from this month

conclusion

my prayers were answered. I cranked the tunes, tuned out everyone and everything but this project, and plowed through the work much faster than expected. there is still much to be done this week, but considering there was nothing to look at 24 hours ago, much progress was made.

even if the kid is screaming and the wife is undone from a long day, there's nothing like coming home after such a day. especially when there's one last Newcastle in the fridge.

on the other hand

Buddy and Julie Miller are awfully good for the soul. I mean, how can you stay stuck on yourself with songs like these? (especially if you know the back story). cranking it loud and making good progress at work helps too.

tired

I remember exam time this time of year at college, and how I used to think that was stressful. ha.

I dont want to complain, but I feel like I'm just about at my end. Michelle got so sick with flu and/or pregnancy sickness that we almost took her to the ER for fluids. thankfully she's been getting better, but very slowly. Caleb is sick too, but not terrible. just enough to be irritable, but not enough to slow him down. work is way behind and deadlines loom. I have a hard time doing more than 2 fulltime jobs at once. I've got acid in my throat and a dull ache in my neck.

yet friends help out a lot, and friends and family pray, bosses are understanding. I need rest, but it may not come any time soon. assuming sickness will remain for a while, I only hope for work to fall together quickly.

poor baby

I'm finally over the flu, Michelle is getting better (tho dealing with pregnancy nausea) and we thought Caleb successfully dodged the bug. until he threw up (a lot) on the newly-cleaned carpet (thanks to aunt Lori) today. yuck. hopefully this will pass soon. please, little boy, at least sleep well.

we're starting to realize that we may not get back to what we consider "normal" but rather we need to learn what it means to abide in Jesus during the craziness of life. perhaps more on this later, or sooner, if anyone cares to share experiences on such things.

good news

we've had a bit of a rough time lately, with craziness at work and now the flu and whatnot. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and underpowered, but I just gotta keep remembering that God is faithful. so all this not-so-good stuff has made me want to break this oh-so-good news even more:

WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY!!!

yes, that is right, kiddo #2 is on the way. Michelle is almost 9 weeks prego, and Caleb will be 15 months old when the baby arrives. we're excited, overwhelmed, a bit stunned, and amazed all at once. here's the archived story about how we found out about this one.

please pray for us, and for Michelle and the new baby especially, and praise God with us.

the streak is over

through no fault of my own, I havent been sick since the very end of 1999. I've had some sniffles and whatnot, but not enough to keep me from going to work. maybe it was the apple/orange a day thing. or all the Newcastle my dad keeps bringing over. but the streak is now over. I've got some nasty stomach flu thing (or perhaps it was those old strawberries?), and I cant keep much down. I've had water and gatorade and one piece of toast stay down. (sorry if this is TMI). I dont have much to lose, so hopefully this will pass soon, not to mention the backlog at work. michelle's feeling icky too (but not as bad) and the baby decided that today would be shrieking day. lovely. so please pray for us. thanks.

less taxes

as Fuller has pointed out, we've found an answer to the age old question: how do I pay less taxes? answer: have babies!!! it's really quite simple. more kids = less taxes. and when you get the grandparents to buy all the junk you need, you can come out ahead quite nicely. we've usually owed at least a little come tax time, but this year we got a decent refund. and some of our friends have so many kids the govt is pretty much paying them. so get to it.

the 'hood

we love St. Elmo, but I'm pretty sure my mom doesnt. we feel relatively safe, and try not to worry about stuff like break-ins and various trouble, but it seems like there's always something coming up when the folks are around. most of it is just kids being loud, but this week we had a bit more excitement.

there was a stolen car chase or something (I never got the details) and we had the pleasure of watching the cops arrest the guy across the street. it was certainly the buzz of the block for a while, with kids coming and going (and then ultimately going away rather quickly when the cops apparently got tired of them).

then last night a neighborhood kid came yelling down the street, pursued by another much older kid with shouts and vague threats. the little kid made it to the neighbor's yard safely, and dave tried to check out why a 16-year-old would want to beat up an 8-year-old. the punk just did a lot of posturing and shouting about him not coming around there, so we all walked away shaking our heads, wondering why these kids think have to think they're so tough with their "territory." I must admit he was effective though, as I wont be letting my kids wander down that street until things change a bit.

it'd be nice if we were in a "safer" neighborhood, but we like being close to friends, and having a home we can afford. I guess we'll take solace in our fenced-in yard, and our watch-pup, and trust that God will protect us from harm as He sees fit (besides, I pity the thief who bothers to break down our door, as we really have little of value). when grandma worries, they remember that they had drug dealers upstairs when I was a baby, and my dad would get chased out of people's yards when he was a kid, so not much has really changed.

I dont think we're very good at it yet, but I hope we can live in this neighborhood with more love than fear. after all, "There is no fear in love."

fever pitch

Michelle and I caught Fever Pitch last night, and we both enjoyed it. The last few movies we've seen didnt meet expectations, so it was nice to have one exceed them, and walk away happy to have seen it. Michelle especially kept saying "wow, I really liked that movie!" as she's the kind of person to verbalize her happinesses...like when we painted the bedroom, every time she walked in it was something like "I LOVE this color!" anyway, drew was cute, jimmy was funny but not annoying, and I thought the whole Red Sox thing was done pretty well. while I do consider myself a fan of baseball, we're both glad that I'm not quite as obsessed as your average citizen of the Red Sox Nation.

thanks to Mom and Dad for babysitting AND paying for the popcorn. when your houseguests cook, clean, do home repairs, babysit and even sleep somewhere else, can they still be considered houseguests? they really do spoil us, and enjoy spoiling Caleb all the more.

yappers and construction

our dog Katie is a little yapper, and we love every ounce of her 6 pounds of fluff. Caleb is a big fan too, and since he started crawling, he's been having more and more fun with her. and since he started eating (and throwing) Cheerios, she's warming up to him again. for a while she stayed just out of his reach, as he was fond of pulling her fur, but now she's not shy about removing moistened cereal from his hands.

which brings me to Caleb's funniest antic these days. we were out in the yard, and someone was walking past the back fence, so as usual, Katie ran out to greet him with her maniacal yapping. Caleb looked over and imitated her quite nicely with his version of squeeky yapping. it may not be that funny to read about, but it's rather hilarious in action. sometimes we think he's actually trying to call her with his yap, and he certainly knows to look for her when we call her with her more conventional names. hopefully we'll catch the yapping on video sometime.

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my dad and brother-in-law worked hard for us over the weekend (I supervised, cleaned up, and played gopher). we gutted the water-damaged part of the back porch, replaced beams and whatnot, layed a new floor, and put up a new screen door, all before the rains came last night. dad worked especially hard all day yesterday to beat the weather, and now all that's left are a few details. it's great to no longer get a sinking feeling (in more than one way) when you step out the back door. it's so nice to have a successful, quick project done so well (assuming the rain isnt flowing in the house at the moment). now I've got to figure out how to replace the old aluminum siding back there.

baby sign

we've heard good things about "baby sign language" and we're going to give it a shot with Caleb. anybody out there have any experience with it? I just ordered a book that will give the rundown of the methodology and the signage, so we'll see what happens. I'm sure it's not for every kid and every parent, but it seems like a good way to help the kid communicate before his verbal skills are developed, thus hopefully averting frustration for everyone. so yes, we're adding to our collection of "the books".

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I just held our friends' newborn baby. it's been 8 months since I've held such a tiny one, and I'd forgotten how light, how small, how sleepy, how uniquely beautiful a newborn is. yeah, I've got baby fever.

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all of my immediate family will be here for a visit soon. my sister and her husband will be here for a weekend, and my parents will be here for a week. partly to hang out as a family and partly to help fix our sagging back porch/laundry room. hopefully the project will go smoothly (you never know till you get into it). it should be fun, especially with Caleb motoring around the house.

commute

thanks to josiah for pointing out the cool new satellite feature of google maps. just for kicks, here's a view of my daily commute. living in St. Elmo and working downtown is indeed grand.

go heels

I enjoy college bball, and having worked for UNC one summer, and my folks living in the area, we cant help but root for the tar heels. meanwhile, Michelle's folks are planning on planting a church on the campus of the U of Illinois. should be interesting on Monday. our little tar heel was ready for the game tonite, but alas, it started well after his bedtime.