weekend report

we had a pretty full weekend together. we got the sandbox filled, and Caleb took right to it. Alice just looked and smiled, deciding not to play in the sand. her turn will come soon enough I'm sure. so thanks Grandma and Grandpa! we cant wait until it's consistently warm out so we can play outside more. it's a lot of fun to run around with Caleb, so hopefully soon. in case you need to know, 5 bags for an average sandbox is plenty. 10 bags is a bit much. so if anyone needs any play sand you're welcome to it.

we also took part in the planning session for the new playground. we're so very excited about having a nice playground within walking distance. it will surely take a lot of effort to get it done, but with Josiah at (or near) the helm, I'm sure it will come to pass. he's nothing if not tenacious. the meeting was a lot of fun, as they rolled out paper so the kids could draw out their ideas. Caleb took quite a while to acclimate to the hustle and bustle, preferring to sit and watch for a while. but when he finally got down from his chair, things were wrapping up. he just wanted to collect the markers anyway, which was actually quite helpful. Alice left her mark by spitting up on the floor. oh well.

that very same evening we went to dinner at a friends house. hooray for single friends who are brave enough to cook dinner for a bunch of friends and invite the little kids too. Caleb had a good time chasing the cats around and getting into everything on the coffee table (lit candles at toddler height are seldom a good idea), and I got to chase him around trying to shove food in his mouth. but the dinner was excellent and it's always good to see old friends, even if I'm chasing a kid or two the whole time. life has changed rather quickly for us, it seems.

the kids were more than a little snotty on Sunday morning, so mama and I took turns going to church. it was a little weird to sit there alone, and almost distractingly quiet, but at the same time it's very nice to be able to engage in worship more.

we also said goodbye to the winter olympics, which we've enjoyed on-and-off the past couple weeks. there's a lot of lamenting over ratings and lack of winning on the sports articles I've read. but I tend to not get concerned over who wins. having never skied or ice skated or snowboarded, just watching these folks do cool stuff is a lot of fun. plus it seems that a lot of the USA athletes are big jerks anyway. so farewell to speed skating and the super g and other things I dont see otherwise for another 4 years. perhaps next time the kids will be into watching.

one of the latest tricks from Caleb is putting two words together. last week he said "byebye daddy" was I was leaving, and this morning it was "more egg." very cool. and my latest trick was accidentally shaving my head this weekend. I was trimming it down to 1/4" when the guard popped off and mowed a nice swath clean. so of course we had to take it all off. I'm told it looks OK, but it's certainly a bit more chilly. yet another reason to pine for warmer weather.

and finally, I've added a few recent pictures to the family site. enjoy.

welcome, Phin

congrats to the Perkins on the birth of their latest son, Phineas Cobb Perkins. check out the details here. thanks be to God for answering many prayers for Lynn's health especially. and while we're on the subject of the Perkins, I'm a little sad that they're moving very far away for Andy's new job, but I'm very excited for them too. Andy was my first college roommate, and we certainly had good times together. it's been good to keep in touch while they've been in ATL. thankfully Lynn's fam is just around the corner, and of course we'll keep up via blogland. maybe someday we'll make a trip out west? anyway, hooray for Phineas and the fam.

tired

we are very tired right now at our house. Michelle's fibro is back on the scene, after about a year break due to pregnancy and nursing. so it's been hard to readjust to her not having much strength or energy to do much besides the essentials, and the "why us?" bitterness that goes with it. we really wish Alice would sleep through, but we know we shouldnt expect that from at 3 month old. sometimes I'll take the middle-of-the-night feeding, and that makes for a sleepy day afterward, leading to less patience with it all, etc. and what was that about a prayer life? oh yeah.

some days are better than others of course, but I think part of it is adjusting to the tiny baby phase again, and how needy that cute little creature is all of the time. not that she's got any problems really (besides the annoyance of spitting up a lot), but I think I forgot how much time it takes to look after a baby (and I'm not the one there all day). so I get frustrated that there isnt much time or energy left to spend with Michelle or do other little things that I enjoy, much less keep up with the dishes and paying the bills. when this is added to mama feeling down-and-out, it starts to get overwhelming. I've consumed way too much chocolate to help me cope a bit. good thing I'm too cheap to hit the strong beverages very hard.

I find myself longing for the day when the baby will sleep for 12 hours, and I'm pretty sure that day will come soon enough. but now I realize I need to take up what we've been given now, and not sit around and whine about it. this tired and bitter heart needs to be changed, and it needs to be changed every day. sleep would help too.

so please pray for us. I realize now that these struggles are pretty much from the huge blessings in our life (namely Caleb and Alice), and I need to remember that. pray that we'll be faithful, and pray for Michelle's health especially.

happy bday mama!

happy birthday (yesterday) to Michelle, the bestest wife and mama around. we all love her so much. we had a good weekend together as a family and we got to go out to celebrate together on Friday. a bunch of us got her a cool MP3 player for her bday (a sandisk sansa -- cheaper better than an iPod shuffle!), and the kids made handprints that I framed for her.

and happy 18 months to Caleb (2 days ago). he's growing up so fast!

and now for various snippets from the kids:

Caleb constantly cracks us up, and we're often fascinated at the things that he does. we were both laughing quite hard the other day when he decided to put his blanky over his head and run around the house. he's actually pretty good at this trick, as you can tell he's looking at the floor to see where he is. of course we dont let him get into too much trouble, but we cant help but laugh when he runs into the couch near full speed.

speaking of his blanky, he's still obsessed with tag on it. he'll turn it over and over until he finds it and then exclaims his happiness when it's found. then hill hold it close to his face while he sucks his thumb. super cute.

he's turning into quite the organizer. he likes to line up his blocks or put them all in his changing table. but the best is the cards that he calls "mail." they're paper sample card from a paper company, and they used to be in a little book together. now they're all loose, and he likes to sort and organize them, making sure that they're all lined up properly. if it's the wrong time of day he'll throw a fit if he cant get it quite right, but usually he'll happily do this for quite a while. and when he's concentrating like that, he tends to hold his breath. (this is something mama also does, but she didnt realize it until we saw him do it.) he's certainly good at thinking things through.

he's been picking up a few more words, but I think it might be time to teach him more signs, as he's been more frustrated lately. but he does pretty well with the words he's got, although I'm sure we're the only ones who can tell what most of them are. the funny thing is how he says "please" for something. his word for "more" is "muh" and "more please" is "muh muh" in a sing-song tone. likewise "snack" is "nah" and "snack please" is "nah nah." thus far we need to remind him to say please pretty much every time, but he'll do it when we ask. he seems to be getting better at not whining for something by default, but it does feel like we're constantly telling him "no whining please." a lot of it depends on if he's feeling sick or tired.

I'm constantly impressed at how quickly he picks up on things. we were looking at a magazine or something and I pointed out the boys and the girls. then a little later I asked him to point to a boy in a different picture and he got it right every time. same with the girls. for all I know this is completely normal, but I thought it was pretty cool. I've been trying to teach him colors lately, but pretty casually. this morning he had a stack of legos of different colors and I asked him to point to blue, red, green, yellow, and he got them mostly right. could have been luck, but probably not. crazy.

he's been enjoying playing with the dog more and more, and she likes it too. he really loves her, and it's nice to see her willing to interact more. I'm pretty sure she's the reason he's SO into animals. some kids like cars or balls or blocks. our kid is really into animals. he loves all his stuffed animals, and he loves pointing them out in his books and such and making noises for dog, cat, sheep, duck, monkey, fish, elephant, bee, bird, lion, pig, etc. some are better than others (dog, sheep and duck being favorites).

and let's not forget little Alice. she's smiling and cooing more and more, and she positively lights up when we turn on the mobile for her. she also enjoys the play gym and bouncy seat whenever she gets a chance. usually she'll only need 1 bottle in the middle of the night, but sometimes she's pretty gassy, so that wakes her up and makes for a long night for all. but it's nice to have her on a 3 hour routine during the day. she's pretty good at spitting up when she takes a bottle, but if you're expecting it, it's not hard to handle. we look forward to when she can sleep longer, but we're realizing that time is flying faster with her than it did with Caleb. it's a lot of fun to have her all tiny and snuggly, but I cant wait until she can run around and have fun with her big brother. and oh yeah, she's got the cutest bunny slippers ever.

the kids

here's the kids enjoying some time together. Alice is smiling and cooing more and more, and she'll even give a giggle now and then. Caleb is always very interested in her, so he really enjoyed it when we put her down in the play gym.

sparkle button

Caleb likes belly buttons, especially sparkly ones, although in this picture he seems to be thinking that Tia Lori is a little crazy.

resolved

these are more new life resolutions (as in life with 2 little kids in the house) than new year resolutions, but I have resolved to make sure the kitchen is clean before bed every night, but to not worry too much when I miss a night, and yet not let it pile up too high. we'll see how it goes. we also want to start planning meals in advance, instead of throwing something together at the last minute.

more importantly, I want to get into the habit of family devotions and singing. any ideas for things that work or dont work with little kids in the house? Caleb likes it when we sing together (and so does the dog for some reason), so that's a start.

lotsa pictures, happy new life

I've added a bunch of new pictures to Alice's first month, as well as Christmas fun and other various December festivities. and if you're tuning in late, dont miss Alice's first pictures as well as Caleb's first haircut.

happy new year to all, and happy first month birthday to Alice. as expected, December went by very, very quickly. my mom left this morning, so today was back to reality for us, or I suppose it's more like starting the new reality. I think it went pretty well. now that help is gone, I've found myself stepping up to do more. perhaps not a lot more than I would usually do, but I've been doing it a bit more urgently. if there's a free moment to clean off the desk or empty the dishwasher, it must be siezed before it's gone. with 2 babies in the house, there are not that many free moments any more. so Christmas is packed away, our new water filter is installed (you know you 're getting old if you spend your christmas money on a fancy water filter), and the kitchen is nice and clean. for now.

we're wondering how Caleb will do without extra people to play with him, but he seemed to be fine today. the real fun begins tomorrow when I go into work and mama tends after everyone by herself. we're praying for strength for each day. in a lot of ways I'd love to stay home and help all the time, but we gotta pay for diapers somehow. and without an office in this house, working from home only works for short bits. anyway, please pray for Michelle in this big transition. her health is doing pretty well except for her back. we're hoping that will improve as she's able to get more sleep, but we may be at least a couple months away from that. but considering how fast the first month went by, we may be there before we know it.

a good birthday

I'm 29 today. weird, but good.

we had a good day with family today (pictures hopefully coming soon). first we (Michelle, my mom and my sister Lori and I) took the kids to the Creative Discovery Museum. Caleb had a blast, and it was a lot of fun watching him run around and playing with all the cool stuff with him. we lunched at Mojo (with Newcastle for me) and headed home to relax a bit. the girls made me some yummy cookies and we played with Caleb some more too. pizza and beer for dinner, chased by cake and ice cream. in my book, that's culinary happiness all around. but to top it off, we were somewhat mysteriously given a gift certificate to St. John's, so we're going high-class tomorrow night.

now I'm making DVDs of our home videos, and Alice is asleep on my lap. although I'm thankful for the new pants from Michelle, the book from her parents, the beer from my sister, and the Hair of the Dog (sorta) gift card from my folks, as well as all the yummy treats from everyone, I really couldnt ask for more than what I've already been given: a loving family, a wonderful wife, and 2 beautiful, amazing kids (and a nice dog too).

so another good year. we're anticipating next year to be something of a blur, starting with next week when the steady stream of family help is done. pray with us for strength and faithfulness for each day, especially for Michelle as she cares for the kids all day. God has been very good to us, and we just want to live lives of gratitude.

happy new year to all!

festivities

our Christmas festivities began last night with the Christmas Eve service at church. it was a lovely time with much singing and scriptures, as well as some aerobic activity. there was no nursery provided, so Caleb was up in church with us for the first time in a while. so to him, it was a new place that needed much exploring, even though grandma and grandpa and mama were doing their best to keep him relatively calm. somehow I ended up with the easy part, as I held Alice the most of the time, who was sleeping. but of course Caleb wasnt the only antsy kid in the house, and if you're at our church you're pretty much used to at least low-level kid noise during a service.

but it was an eye-opener for us, and it made us thankful for nursery during church. he was up and down on the pew, making faces at the Greens behind us, and doing all kinds of funny stuff that toddlers generally do. someday we'll teach him to sit quietly, but that may be a little while from now.

anyway, the service was quite nice, and we got to participate a little. I helped with some music (and apparently Caleb said a hearty "Hi!" when he saw me up there), and Caleb was a sheep for the kids' manger scene at the end. super cute. and my parents took part in the Hallelujah chorus sing-a-long at the end, which was quite good.

when we got home, we caught our breath, lit the candles, brought out the yummy appetizers and drinks, and had a nice time together. we were planning on making the Christmas church service in the morning, so we opened the presents for the grown-ups, to save time for the next day. it turned out that we realized afterward there would be no nursery again, so we decided to skip church in the morning. I scored some good worship CDs (thanks KatieK for suggesting Robin Mark: I'm loving it) and a music stand too.

Alice gave us a gift of going 4 hours between feedings at night, so we woke up relatively chipper. we brought Caleb into our bed in the morning and got his stocking to open together. he's pretty good at opening presents and gets very excited, so he dug right into his little cars and new box of crayons.

we had a leisurely morning, and since Michelle got a waffle iron for Christmas, we all had yummy waffles for breakfast. then came time for Caleb to open his presents (and his sister's too). he loved to tear at the bows, and once I started the wrapping for him, he'd tear off the paper with gusto. thanks to all for the cool stuff! we requested (almost) no toys (we've got plenty), so they got lots of nice books, videos and clothes, and the few toys Caleb did get were great (almost any wooden and/or building toy is good in our book).

then came the feast. we had a whole thanksgiving-style meal, which my mom headed up, getting help from all of us as needed. and of course it was super yummy (cant go wrong with turkey in the oven bag). and no holiday is complete without some utter exhaustion, so we got some naps in, and time to hang out and recover from the hustle and bustle.

so there's our "Tender Tennessee Christmas." we're so thankful that we could have a nice holiday here at home with our little family.

8 saturdays, 2 sundays

with the paid holidays and a few vacation days left, I've got the rest of the year off! woohoo! so we celebrated with mojo, beer, ice cream and yahtzee. I think this is my first extended vaction home, so we're treating it like one giant weekend. no travel worries, no fretting over not getting much sleep, lots of good food and drink, lots of playing with the kids, spending time with eachother, and letting mama get as much rest as she needs.

my folks come into town tomorrow night and my sister will be here next week too, so we're looking forward to some nice family times during the holidays, not to mention my 29th birthday coming soon. it's been a very good year and a wonderful month. we'll probably post some pictures of festivities, but that may be about it for a little while.

whoever you may be, I hope you have a great Christmas, and that you know the joy of Jesus this season.

Christmas Letter 2005

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We hope you and your family are doing well, and that you know the joy of Jesus this season. We’d like to tell you about the adventures we’ve been having this past year, as God has been very good to our little family, through the good and the hard times.

Our year basically consisted of two major things: our son Caleb growing from a baby to a toddler, and the birth our daughter Alice. You can read details and see pictures and videos of these adventures on our website, which can be found at wiegersfamily.com.

In March we got to go north for Michelle’s brother’s wedding. It was such a joy to celebrate with Brad and Renee as they began their new life together. Besides participating in a great wedding, we also got to meet our twin nephews, Julian and Chase, for the first time (they are just 11 days older than Caleb). It was so much fun to see the boys interact, and we definitely had some special times with the extended family.

The day after we got home from the trip up north, we found out that we were pregnant again! We had hoped to have our kids relatively close in age, but we never guessed that we’d have another baby so soon, this time due on Thanksgiving day. So we were all abuzz with excitement and nervousness about the year ahead with two growing babies. Michelle’s pregnancy went rather well this time. She was able to keep up with Caleb, as he was cutting teeth, learning to crawl, getting into everything and learning lots of things quickly. As you can imagine, the year was filled with firsts for him, and we delighted in every one of them (except the few illnesses), even as we dreamed of another baby coming very soon.

We enjoyed some very special times with family over the summer. Michelle’s family gathered at her Aunt’s place in Delaware at the end of June. It was a fun and busy time as the boy cousins, all close to a year old, kept us running after them. We got to celebrate their birthdays early as well as surprising Mom and Dad with an early celebration of their 60th birthdays. We then traveled to Vermont to spend time with my family at the lake. It was such a relaxing time and really good to get reconnected with extended family. When we got home we found out that we were having a girl, much to our delight.

August brought Caleb’s first birthday and a nice little party with family and friends. We are truly blessed to not only have supporting and loving families, but to have such a community of friends surrounding us, and to be a part of a church body with them. We also had our 6th anniversary at the end of the month, and we marvel at how God is blessing our little family, even though we don’t deserve any of it.

As the summer ended we were starting to realize that another baby was really coming soon. Having Caleb to chase after often distracted our thoughts from the new life growing inside Michelle, but we still managed to get ourselves ready. We had hoped that Caleb would be walking by the time his little sister arrived, and he took his first steps just in time, and now there’s no stopping him.

Meanwhile I was being led to be more involved in the music at our church. This has been such a blessing to us (and hopefully to others) as I’ve had the opportunity to lead a little acoustic group that sings and plays music for the opening of our worship services. In another vein, I’ve enjoyed playing music for the Sunday school kids, as well as helping teach the 4 and 5 year olds.

When fall arrived we were getting excited about meeting our little girl. We thought that she would surely come sometime in November, but as it turned out, Alice Florence Wiegers was born on December 1st at 5:48am. She is named after two of her faithful great-grandmothers. Michelle did great during labor, and I had the amazing honor of cutting her cord as well as catching her little body as she came out. She was born with a good amount of short, dark hair and weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 20 inches long,. She looks a little like her brother and has some of her mama and daddy too. We are very thankful that so far she’s a good eater and not a bad sleeper either. We had many prayers about various aspects of Michelle’s pregnancy, labor, delivery and Alice’s first days of life, and we give thanks as God has answered every one of them. Caleb is doing really well with Alice. We’re so thankful that he loves his little sister so much as he’s very interested in her, and loves to give her hugs and kisses. He is still adjusting to a different life with less time with his mama, but so far he’s been a great big brother.

Now we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with our little family as well as our extended family members. God has richly blessed us more than we could have imagined, and we look forward to His care during another year. Please pray for us this next year as we learn to be parents of two small children and try to walk in the way that God has for us.

We hope that you know the love of Jesus this Christmas, and experience God’s blessings in the coming year. To see how we’re doing during the year, please visit our little family website for lots of updates and pictures and videos: wiegersfamily.com

Love,

Bob, Michelle, Caleb and Alice

long day

apparently it's been a very long day here on the homefront. aunt Liz is taking good care of us, but Caleb had something of a meltdown while they were all out, and he never really got over it. current theories include finally realizing that he hasnt seen much of his mama in 2 weeks, or perhaps some sickness coming on, or both.

meanwhile, mama and baby Alice have thrush. please pray that this will be cleared up quickly, as this was the same infection that mama and Caleb had when he was a newborn, and (amung other things) led to us putting him on the bottle. this was a very hard thing for us, and facing that prospect again is even harder, so please pray that God will heal. one good thing is that we've caught it sooner this time, so hopefully we can get it cleared up.

but baby girl is still a good eater and a good sleeper. some nights she'll go 3 to 4 hours between feedings, and often I'm able to sleep through them. we almost feel normal at times. and so far she isnt complaining about her diaper rash due to the thrush, and hopefully we'll get it cleared up before it starts hurting her. it's hard to believe she's been here 2 weeks, as it seems like she's been around a long time. she's still a tiny little girl, but it's nice to see her cheeks filling out and her little muscles getting stronger.

family foto

here's our Christmas pic this year, soon to be snail-mailed to as many folks as we're able to.

oh and if you're inclined, catch all the details of Alice's labor over on mama's blog.

liam and cay-wub

Caleb is getting to the age where he enjoys playing with other kids as opposed to just near them. one of his good buddies is Liam, who lives across the street and is about a year older than Caleb.

yesterday Caleb went to the window at the door and spotted Liam and his mom playing in their yard across the street. Michelle was a little worn out, so she was resting on the couch as Caleb started shouting at the top of his little lungs while he banged on the glass. his yells are pretty loud, but thankfully not really annoying, as you can tell he's just excited about something. this went on for serveral minutes, as he was clearly excited about seeing his friend.

and apparently he got their attention. so Liam moved to higher ground to get a better look at Caleb and wave and call out "Cay-wub! Cay-wub!". sometimes it's "Bay-lub" or some equally cute attempt at his name. unfortunately for Caleb mama was too tired at the moment to go over and play, but it's fun to see them become friends. we think their personalities are somewhat similar, although Liam enjoys telling Caleb what to do (having learned this skill from his older sister, no doubt).

we're so thankful for our friends and neighbors, and that we're good friends with our neighbors. hopefully we'll be able to stay in or near beulah land long enough to have us all grow up together.

costumes

here are some of our looks for halloween this year:

thanks to the Cooleys for the use of the cool froggy costume.

grandma T. gave him the glow-in-the-dark skeleton t-shirt, which caught us a little by surprise, since death and evil and such were forbidden costume ideas back in the day.

and here's a knit pumpkin hat, which Caleb left on for about 1/2 second, so I'm showing him how it's done.

more pics here.

weekend recap

it was a very good weekend as a little family. we got stuff done, got to hang out with folks, and spent some good time together. words now; pictures later.

on Friday night we party-hopped a bit. first it was Katie's art show. until then we had only seen her art online and in the art cards we got. this should be obvious, but wow what a difference. her stuff is so great. and it was good to see her. we've been friends-of-friends for a while, but got to know her better via blogland lately. and it's probably natural to have a certain affinity for someone who gives you a car. anyway, if we had the budget (hopefully some day!), I'm pretty sure we would have bought her newest one "Be Still." Michelle was captivated by it, and it really is great.

then it was off to a celebration of all things Susan Green. she's meant a lot to us, especially during our Covenant years, so it was good to remember God's faithfulness in and through her. it was nice to see lots of folks we dont see all that often (like Katie's kids...itty-bitty Eden is so very cute!), and Caleb did very well playing and eating grapes until 10 or so.

Saturday was a day to get lots done. dishes, laundry, photo albums, random getting-ready-for-baby-girl projects. and we harvested lots of pecans! who would have thought the pecan trees in our back yard would give us such yummy nuts to eat? we must thank the dog for keeping away the squirrels lately. in the evening we took Caleb to the corn maze, but didnt actually go in it...just took some fall pictures with the pumpkins and such. we both think he's even cuter in his cozy fall clothes. Saturday night I worked on a friend's website as I took in the World Series a bit.

today I got to sing for church with Tom and Jim. we did Chris Rice's "Nothin'" which is based on "Nothing But the Blood." I think it went pretty well. then in the afternoon Caleb and I went to Isaac's first birthday party. we left mama home to rest, as she's been feeling the pains of late pregnancy lately. it was so cool to hang out with all the Williamson family. Caleb was a little overwhelmed at first, but warmed up to them soon enough. I cant tell which kid belongs to which mom, but they're all pretty cool. having a big family like that is such a blessing, and it makes me thankful for our church family too. anyway, Caleb had his first chocolate cake and had a good time.

we're loving the cooler weather, and looking forward to next month and holding our little girl.

geek day, baby night

it's been a full day. (the next paragraph is relatively geeky. skip down if you're more interested in baby/family stuff).

early this morning Ed and I headed to an all-day geek event for work, namely a Microsoft TechEvent and MSDN thing. being Microsoft developers we get to take in these free presentations now and then. we have a good streak of bringing home decent door prizes (I won a PDA last time, which went strait to eBay), and there are always t-shirts and other schwag. the content of the actual presentations is usually somewhat pertinent to our work, although often it's either over my head or doesnt apply to what we do, or both. but today was very good for us, as it addressed the new versions of our database software (SQL 2005) as well as our programming platform (ASP.NET 2.0). for the first time at one of these, I knew exactly what they were talking about, could see the benefit of the upgrades, and even could ask some relatively intelligent questions. so we're looking forward to the new versions, and as Ed marveled, some of the features of the new stuff may be the first time we'll use a Microsoft product as it's intended (without bending over backwards with workarounds for our purposes). we shall see. oh and Ed won a nice laptop bag.

when I got home the fun began. Michelle had a get-together here tonight (which happened to be almost exclusively the wives of Coptix). so she was busy getting stuff ready, and I was on baby duty as well as trying to help with the dishes and whatnot. but there was also an event this evening for work that we needed as many work folks as possible to attend. so instead of going myself, I volunteered to watch Fuller so his parents could go. double baby duty!

it was actually a lot of fun so see the boys interact, and to marvel how different they are. then again it's not that surprising, because the boys' dads personalities are pretty different too. then Jaron showed up with his mom, so he joined in on the fun too. having 2 kids to tend to was eye-opening for what we're about to experience, but chasing after 3 kids isn't easy. I have new respect for the Wells. thankfully these boys are all low-maintenance, at least until bedtime fussiness kicks in. but after playing and whatnot, I got Fuller and Caleb put to bed, and handed off Jaron to his mama.

then I retired to the backyard to hang out with the dog and pluck on the banjo a little while the girls had fun together.

great-grandpa

this past weekend Caleb finally got to meet his great-grandpa and step-great-grandma. there are a few pictures here. we enjoyed the new aquarium together and had a nice time here at home. they lived in Florida until recently, and having moved near Nashville made it possible for us to finally get together. it's always fun to see Caleb take to folks so readily, and this weekend he seemed to prefer hanging out with the guys. he had no problem snuggling with great-grandpa, as well as playing with toys and reading books. and we could tell that great-grandpa was quite proud of Caleb, which isnt too surprising, as he's always telling us that he's proud of us and is constantly praying for us.

it's interesting (to me at least) how my attitude has changed about my grandfather over the years. they lived in the same town as we did growing up, so we got to hang out quite a bit. he was (and still is) something of a lay-preacher, never hesitating to bust out a mini sermon on whoever will listen. I think I learned to become immune to and perhaps a little embarrassed of these little episodes, not that they were particularly loud or forceful. it's just that being in the Dutch-Reformed tradition, you just didnt exhibit your faith that way. in fact, you didnt talk about it much at all. but you did go to church at every opportunity and get involved a whole lot, which was good. but talking about stuff, that's not our thing for some reason.

which makes me glad I married out of our subculture. Michelle isnt like this, in fact, she's quite the opposite, which has been great for me. talking about your faith and what it means in our lives is a big part of it all (as well as getting involved in people's lives and the work of the church, etc). so I've come to appreciate grandpa's heart even though his methods still might be a little chaffing. and I only relatively recently learned that grandpa wasnt always quite the upright, faithful man we know now (to put it mildly), and his preachy ways were quite the turnaround from hard living (I only know vague things of the past, as I've never personally known him any different).

so I hear him go on about how things are so bad these days (and nearly laugh inside due to the cliche of it), and I suppose he's right, but I tire of the judging-the-world stuff, and I've read enough books to know that back in his day (or any day) it was just as bad as today.

but I love how he's got the old man's attitude of "I'm checking out soon, so I'm not holding back on what I think is important." I love that he's not afraid to directly encourage us to pray and to keep the faith. we surely could use more of that. yet I hope that when I'm old and uninhibited like that, I'll not only encourage folks that way, but be humble enough to admit my mistakes and help folks learn from them. even still, I now realize I can learn a lot from grandpa. funny how your elders seem to get exponentially wiser as you age.

old friends, new blogs

old Covenant folks might be interested in checking out Kat (Gulick) Haase's new family photoblog. oh and Leah has started one too.

laini's gonna kill me...

...but this little video (~5MB, QT) is too funny to not share it with the entire world. but I'm just the messenger here, as Rich took the video while we were all together recently, and passed it along to me. apparently he gave her the opportunity to ensure this clip wouldnt see the light of day, but I guess she wasnt willing to meet his demands? I'm sure she'll try to get a certain someone to take this post down too. so Laini, dont hate me for too long please. all in good fun, right?

speaking of, I posted some of the pics from our time together with everyone last week, which can be found here. we also went to the Passage again yesterday, which Caleb absolutely loves. the only drawback is that it's a bit loud, so we may check out the gentle waters on the other side of the big fish tank.

and finally, there's nothing so sweet as a sleeping baby...

for the dog-lovers out there

say a little prayer for our dog Katie (although I'm not sure about the theology of praying for pets, but I suppose if God looks after the sparrows, He looks after our woocher too). anyway, her tiny posterior has got some gross issues, and she's moping and limping around the house. hopefully it's no big deal, as we hate to see her suffer, and we really cant afford vet bills right now. soon we shall see.

new pics and the latests

havent felt much like blogging lately, as it seems to trivial compared to the suffering and chaos down south b/c of the hurricane. as a lifetime hurricane watcher, I was filled with dread when I saw 175mph on the screen last weekend. we're so glad Jeannette and family were already out of harms way, and pray for all those who still are. the blame-game so rampant in every media form makes me ill. do we not realize the unprecedented and enormous complexity of all this? not that I'm particularly interested in political debate, but cant we wait at least a little while before we pass judgements?

anyway, I've put some recent pics up on the family site. many of the pics have been in this space already. since this little family blog is for posterity as much as anything else, let's see if I can remember some of the latest stuff about Caleb:

hold on

Michelle has a knack for coming up with every-day metaphors that have something poignant to teach us about our spiritual lives. there was a point in my life where I would find such pictures rather cheesy, but thankfully I got over that a while ago, and now I love them, and I love that she kind find encouraging things in even the mundane.

last night I stumbled upon one myself. here's the background: we were talking about how it's hard to live faithfully every moment of every day, especially for a stay-at-home mom who deals with chronic pain and fatigue. it's too easy to get caught up in trying to measure up to these lofty ideals, and to look at all you havent done that day, or what you've done wrong, or could have done better. but we remembered that God loves us for who we ARE (which is his children in Jesus), not for what we DO, and we need to respond to that love in faithfulness. of course faithfulness can look like many things during the day: it could just as easily be a nap as a visit to a friend in need. so we need discernment, and that discernment can only come from God's Spirit, to whom we need to pray, without ceasing.

so as we were considering these things, I was reminded of Caleb. we're trying to teach him to walk, and so far he's loving it. he holds our fingers and zooms around the house, or sometimes he'll cruise around with a chair or his walker thingy. but he doesnt want to do it by himself yet, being a generally cautious kid so far. I try to get him to hold on to me with just one hand, but he'll always stop, reach back, look back, and refuse to go forward unless he's holding on with both hands.

and I realized that's what we need to be like: refusing to walk through our days unless we have both our hands holding onto our Lord and Savior, who will faithfully guide us in His ways.

six

yesterday was our 6th anniversary! check out the wedding pictures here. we're so thankful for the love we've been given and how far we've been taken on this journey together. six years ago we chose 1 John 4:19 as the verse we wanted to focus on, and it holds true more and more: We love because He first loved us.

Michelle has a good rundown of our mellow festivities here. I'll add that Caleb gave us a very nice anniversary present yesterday: he napped for almost 4 hours! so we got a good nap in, and got to spend some good time awake together too. oh and for the 2nd year in a row, KatieK helped me with my present for Michelle. last year was the family necklace, this year was some of her art cards to adorn her new sitting corner. we'll need to get them framed and on the wall soon. speaking of Katie's art, apparently it's in a local gallery, so we gotta go check that out soon.

so we're very thankful for another year and a nice weekend together. I love Michelle so much, and I love loving her.

spikenard

there was a time when I was somewhat obsessed with the mandolin. we used to play folksy/bluegrassy songs with our friends, and even attempted to form a little band, briefly calling ourselves "The Railway Children." our biggest splash was doing the music for our award-winning claymation, I'll Fly Away.

but health and schedules and such took priority, so we never got very far. yet I still continued to noodle, thanks mostly to having the instruments close at hand on the string swings.

then not too long ago, Joe invited me to accompany him while playing the "preparatory music" for church (which is the transition between announcements and the worship service). thankfully it was well-received, so we worked on some songs from the RUF Hymnbook (which I learned from listening to Indelible Grace). we'd play maybe once a month, and somewhere along the way Mark joined us too. or maybe it was me who joined Joe and Mark? I don't remember.

when Tom came back into town and joined us things really started coming together. he's excellent at the lead vocals (both Joe and I prefer singing backup, and Mark abstains) and got the nifty finger-picking stuff going on. and recently we've been joined by Jim on bass too, which I find especially cool, since the bass is my first musical love.

of course not everyone can make it to every "gig," so we're a loose federation, but we do enjoy making music together, and helping to lead our church family in worship. I'm thinking of recruiting a certain accordian player to join us. we shall see. anyone else who may care to join in, please let me know.

the music guy at church was wondering what to call us (as the other regular group was called "the quartet"). a few of us were at a Bible study together, and we read John 12, where Mary annoints Jesus with spikenard. someone mentioned in passing that that sounds like a pretty cool name for band. so, with tounges somewhat in cheek, that's what we call ourselves. I could get into the potential symbolism and such, but that might be a bit much.

this week we're going to get a little old-timey, doing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" with a bit of "When the Roll..." thrown in for good measure. I'm always a little nervous when I'm doing the lead vocals, but being backed by Joe and Jim always makes it sound pretty good. it's a struggle to battle the "look at me" thoughts when I'm up there, but I hope the songs we do help the church and those with us see Jesus a bit more.

need indoor date-nite ideas

our 6th anniversary is coming up soon (woohoo!), so we were trying to think of a good place to have a date-nite here in or near Chattanooga. a few stipulations for this particular occasion:

goodbye, friend

yesterday we said goodbye to Sarah, who is off to get her master's degree.

I first met her at freshman orientation 10 years ago, when a group from her hall and a group from our hall decided to hang out together (I think it was Myriam and Andy who got all that started?). somehow I ended up being the mascot of her hall for a while, and along the way we became good friends. I even had my eye on her for a while, but thankfully she knew better and let me down easy. now we can laugh about all those times, when she was caught in the middle of most of the rest of my crazy relationships. if nothing else, she proved herself a good friend by remaining a friend through all that weirdness.

anyway, along the way she became best friends with Michelle. it really started with a road trip they took together our senior year, and it solidified when they lived and worked together at Esperanza. many years later, their friendship is indeed rare, as they can dig through the most serious things at one time, and the next be laughing with such silliness that they're crying. the years and closeness allow them to be completely themselves with eachother. she's stood with us in some of the hardest times of our life together and been there for the joys too.

since I never had a younger sibling of my own, I always enjoyed taking care of her like a brother, so I loved packing her spacious moving truck for her (besides the fact that it was the easiest move ever). and perhaps we tried a little too hard to set her up with a good guy, but then again, perhaps not.

so I will miss her, but I know Michelle will miss her all the more. I hope to fill some of the gaps that she has left, but I know that despite my best efforts and intentions, there's just no replacing a true friend.

so if you can, hurry back, friend. we pray that God will bring you back home in good time, and if He chooses not to, that our friendship will remain strong.

---

update: Michelle has added her memories and goodbyes on her blog, along with lots of pictures.

great-grandmas

Caleb got to meet both of his living great-grandmothers during our travels this summer (he also has 2 step-great-grandmas, one of which he met earlier this year, and the other hopefully soon). we spent the most time with my dad's mom, as we were staying in her cottage in Vermont. Gram W is getting up in years (88), and getting a little more, shall we say, particular about her circumstances. so we were a little nervous about how she would handle sharing the little cottage with 4 adults and 1 infant (who took to crying in the middle of the night for most of our time there).

but most everything went really well, and Gram was super sweet with him, crawling around on the floor, playing little games and generally having a grand time. I'm sure she got tired of the baby hubbub now and then, but she'd get out her walker and go for a stroll. and Gram is famously talkative, so we'd need to go for a stroll of our own now and then. it was special for my parents to have them there together, as this was the first time 4 generations of my immediate family were gathered. I just hope I'm as energetic and encouraging as she is by the time I'm that old. it's just cool to hear her sprinkle in reminders to love eachother throughout her conversation. hopefully all our kids will get to know and love her as much as we do.

and on our way home from VT, we got to stop and see Michelle's mother's mom. it was a brief meeting, as she was on her way down to FL, but it was fun to see them interact. Caleb loved her shirt with animals on it, so they had some cute times together. Nan has had cancer for a while now, and she seems to alternate between bad reports and good reports, so we just pray that God will continue to take good care of her even through some pretty hard times.

baby names, friends

dont forget about the baby name contest. winners receive fabulous prizes! and speaking of, for your inspriation and entertainment, I present to you the coolest applet on the web: the NameVoyager. it's quite addictive, and if you have a living room full of friends with you, you might just be sitting there entering names in for hours on end. quite the modern parlor game.

anyway, it seems to be the time of year when friends come and go. I guess being still closely associated with academic types makes August a transition month. some old college friends are coming back into town. Joel and Jenny and the girls are returning very soon, and I saw Sarah D back from Slovakia the other day too.

but the hardest part will be losing our best friend Sarah, who is going to grad school in CT for a few years. she's very close with Michelle, and I've known her for 10 years now, which is somewhat amazing to me. alls I got to say is that she better come back, and she better visit often. we will miss her greatly.

depressed dog

now that we've returned from vacation, our dog is depressed. she wasnt able to go with us, so she stayed at the house of her favorite person: Marylu. she's a dog-lover's dog-lover like no other, and she's a big fan of our little fluff-ball, so I'm sure she took very good care of her while we were gone. many thanks out to her.

but now the dog clearly misses her. she laid around all depressed yesterday, only perking up when we approached the front door, clearly hoping that we'd take her back. she was happy to see us initially, but that didnt last long, and we wish she'd enjoy Caleb more. she only tolerates him for the food he drops her way. wait til she finds out she's dropping further down the ladder come November.

goodbye, dix

so our st. elmo winn-dixie is going to close. bummer. I remember when they were building it, when I visted Covenant for the first time. all the students were quite excited.

we got tired of their high prices and terrible produce a long time ago, but there's still a place in our hearts for the old "dix." for me, it started with the Big 60 cookies. they were an institution for us back in college, and I still love them, especially if they're ever-so-slightly soft from being a little stale. perhaps I'll have to stock up.

but now that we shop at wally, we only stop in at the dix for milk or perhaps PBR or some other item we've just run out of or need for the latest craving. I guess that makes us somewhat culpable for the demise of the dix, but then again, I cant be blamed for their absurd prices or nasty veggies. and on our budget, the bottom line reigns when it comes to variable expenses like food.

nearly every time we go to the dix, we see at least one person we know. usually it's 2 or 3, not counting the tall cashier guy who goes to New City (I think)...not that I know him, but I've seen him all the time for years now. if the store isnt bought up by Publix or Bi-Lo or something, that is what I'll miss the most...the community feel of it. and if CVS goes down with it, that will be truly sad, for there was never a pharmacist like Steve. I wouldnt mind if rent-a-center died, but that's another story.

so hopefully they'll get bought up and fixed up, and the new place will have good produce and killer prices and all the same faces. or at least a place to buy yogurt without having to go all the way to wally.

need baby roadtrip advice

we're going on a long road trip soon (~13 hours BB (before baby)), and we're a little nervous about how Caleb will do.

we went to Cloudland Canyon yesterday, about a 30 minute drive away. it was 4:30, which is a rough time of day for the bambino, and he really didnt like the journey. of course there's lots of twists and turns and altitude changes on that trek, but it's made me nervous about the long haul.

so any tips or tricks out there? here's what we're planning so far: borrowing a DVD player, turned car seat to face forward, got a few new books and toys, stocked up on baby benadryl. we thought about leaving at bedtime, but recovering from that would be more than its worth. plus I'm likely to fall asleep at the wheel when it's super late, so that wouldnt be very good. in the past, we get so excited about the trip that we cant sleep the night before, so maybe we'll leave at 4am or something?

if nothing else, please say a little prayer for us.

welcome, Ellis

congrats to Jeannette and Chris, whose son arrived a bit early yesterday. apparently everyone is doing well. woohoo for babies!

we'll get out first peek at our new baby next week. here's about where our baby is now. hopefully we'll find out the boy/girlness, so stay tuned for scans of the ultrasound. I'd love to have a daughter, but it would be fun to have 2 boys close in age. any guesses or feelings out there? maybe we'll run the "guess the name and such" survey again.

GA blog

JQ and crew have set up a blog for General Assembly, which is here in chatty this year. so this is pretty much a bookmark for me.

Michelle's dad is here in town for the festivities, as he was recently ordained as a church planter to Champaign-Urbana, IL. we're so excited for her parents as they take this next step in their ministry. check out their little site here for more (slightly outdated) info on them, and do pray for them too. and send them money. lots of it. the sooner they get the funds they need, the sooner they can start planting the church there near the U of I campus.

in Caleb news, Auntie Sarah taught him how to clap the other day, so he's been having fun with that. here's a little video and some pics too.

we're getting excited about our upcoming travels, but a little nervous about how the baby will do on such a long journey. please say a little prayer for him and us when you read this.

gifts

my parents were in town this weekend, and as usual they gave us a multitude of gifts. for being here less than 48 hours, they sure can pack in the giving.

first is always (and evermore shall be?) the case of Newcastle. my dad likes good beer, and knows that I love it yet dont get it for myself much, so he consistantly spoils me with 24 wonderful bottles of the good stuff. there really couldnt be a better food or drink gift for me.

then there's something for the kid. usually nice little clothes that we need and maybe a toy or two they picked up at the church yardsale or something. this time we even sent back the annoying toys, so they can be "grandma's house" toys.

on Saturday morning they hit the ground running with the gifts of service. grandma tackled the mountain of dishes (which took her pretty much all day, on and off) while grandpa installed the new roof rack for our car. their presence also freed me up to make a big grocery store run, while mama started her little family photo project. I cant express how wonderful it is to have a clean kitchen after such a mess for too long. I'd get oh-so-close, but never quite done. between sick baby and busy work stuff, we just couldnt kill the beast, but grandma to the rescue. we pledge to keep it clean until vacation.

oh yeah and I shouldnt forget to mention that I didnt change a diaper all weekend, which is a little strange. nice, but strange.

in the afternoon I was also freed up to do some gardening. this year I've adopted the Bush Doctrine and are hitting the bugs with a pre-emptive strike. no more sissy "insecticidal soap." I've busted out the real bug killer, and hopefully the harvest will do better and last longer this year. the tomato plants are looking great, as is the main cuke. we'll see about the squash plants and other cukes. the snow peas were about done after a bountiful harvest, so I tore them down, turned the soil, and planted more tomatos. yum. I think we're done planting new stuff this year, except for some marigolds maybe.

on Saturday evening they happily babysat while we went out for a nice dinner at Bonefish Grill. even better, my workplace picked up the bill as a thank you for staying late lately. the whole experience there was great and Michelle was just giddy to be out at a nice place together. good atmosphere, servers, beer, food and desert. if you go, you must get the "bang bang shrimp" appetizer. simply amazing.

when we got home, grandpa had mowed the lawn. even better, he mowed it with a new mower he bought for us! woohoo! no more mooching off the neighbors (thanks dave for all the mower use, by the way). maybe I can whip this lawn into shape so the kids can have something to play in besides a clover patch. I've wanted to buy a mower this season, but the roof rack took priority. grandpa to the rescue.

on Sunday morning we went to church while they stayed home with the baby, who isnt quite fully recovered from his week of sickness. we had a nice lunch and some last moments of cuteness together. it's so cool to see them love him so much, and he does quite well with them too.

now it's just us again, still enjoying the many gifts and blessings that they brought, looking forward to our next meeting in Vermont.

and this picture cracks me up.

skin color

we have some friends from college whose son is 2 days older than Caleb. it so happens that their son J is 1/4 African-American, so apparently that makes him "black." sadly, he and his family was the center of recent racist hatred on a racist's blog, which came to the attention of many of us here in blogland, which touched off quite a firestorm (I wont be providing links, since it will give the fools yet more attention).

anyway, the kids and moms got to hang out the other day, and of course they had a grand time and got some cute pictures. as I looked at them it became quite clear: Caleb's skin color is pretty much the same as J's, even though Caleb's heritage is 50% dutch and 50% mixed-anglo. yet Caleb will likely never be subject to all the crap that many will deal out to J and his family. in many fool's eyes, Caleb will have a "nice tan" and J will be "black."

I'm not sure what to do with these thoughts. it makes me angry and sad that they'll suffer hate and we wont. yet I know in my heart that I judge people based on appearances and prejudices too. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

my dog is cuter than your dog

and here's proof.

maybe cuteness isnt the most popular dog attribute around, but that's what Katie's got going for her, epecially when she was a pup.

dave and meadow

congratulations to Dave and Meadow, who were married yesterday in Charlotte. here are a few pictures of the adventures.

I took off work early on Friday and left mama and the baby behind for the day. I got there in time to hang out with the guys at a pretty cool bar near downtown Charlotte. the rooftop bar was just mellow enough, so we got to hang out and drink and smoke and talk about old times and new times and honeymoons and sex and whatnot.

many thanks to Meadow's parents, who let me crash at their house, along with a whole bunch of other folks, including blog friend Kristen (and Kate too). it was also good to see Ethan and Betsy (double congrats to them on a baby on the way and getting a professorship at UTK), as well as Jarod, Winship, the Crabbies, and of course Andy and Lynn. Meadow's family was really great, and it was good to see Dave's fam again too.

the service, while inordinately early, was beautiful. so much scripture (which I got to help read) and worship, and it was really cool to have Dave's dad leading. and to top it off, Jarod played the pipes for the recessional.

I really missed Michelle and Caleb a lot, and of course everyone was asking about them. it's amazing to me that I had seen Caleb every day of his life until yesterday. I left the reception a little early, hoping to make it home before his bedtime, but alas, I took an ill-advised route through the mountains. but the good part of that was it brought me through Frankin, where my old friends Scott and Satu live. as soon as I pulled up to the Whistle Stop (an antique mall and whatnot that his family runs), I ran into his sister, who was on the way to meet them for dinner, so a poor decision ended in sharing a meal with old friends.

now the race is on to our time with family this summer. we're so excited about our big road trip to be with Michelle's family at the shore, and my family at the lake. just over a month from now!

maggie

Maggie is one of my sunday school kids, and like all of the kids in our class, she's awesome. and now she's a reporter for The Pulse. I'm just surprised she didnt mention unicorns. maybe it was edited out?

note to self

dear self,

we both know that you love your wife, but you need to remember that it's about HOW you love her. it's that whole love-languages thing. you may feel loved when she does something practical for you (like cleaning the kitchen or something), but that doesnt mean she gets all warm and fuzzy when you do the dishes for her. she appreciates it, sure, but she's gotta feel the love.

it's the big things as well as the little. pray and read with her. take some initiative. write her love notes. just remember, simply taking care of her needs doesnt equal showing her love. be a blessing to her.

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

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.

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."

better

how to make a really rough day better:

coming home to roses, jelly beans, moose tracks, newcastle, and 2 beautiful smiling faces.

she certainly knows how to make me feel loved.

easter portrait

it seems that our family easter traditions have boiled down to a family portrait and the basket-hunt, as well as some sort of egg-themed gathering with friends. we kinda skip the whole special easter dinner thing (having leftovers for the past couple years, and out for sushi the year before), and we dont see much family, as my folks are always doing the choir music for their church and hopefully soon Michelle's folks will be leading their new church.

so here's the yearly portrait. last year Caleb was in utero, so it's much nicer to be able to see him this year, even though he's more interested in the dog than smiling for the camera.

we also had the basket-hunt, and Michelle hid mine quite well. Caleb slept through this event, but he did get to share my basket with me, although his part was playing with the giant egg after I ate the contents.

and we had the usual crowd (formerly known as the Alias Group before we stopped watching Alias together) for egg decoration, and as usual, they made some wonderful creations. Michelle's egg has a personality all its own, which she'll have to explain sometime.

in other Caleb news, his creeping is turning into crawling more each day. he's into knocking down towers of stacking cups, and if placed a foot or two beyond his grasp, he'll manage to get on his knees and scoot forward. he's able to cross a room in about 10 minutes like this, given enough encouragement and praise. it's really cool to see him take satisfaction in his little triumphs. have I mentioned that he loves drinking water out of a cup, gnawing on apples, and can feed himself cheerios? and tooth #4 is almost through. it's quite a cliche, but he's growing up fast, and we're loving each little milestone.

weekend pics and details

lots of pictures from the weekend can be found here.

many congratulations to Brad and Renee. the wedding was so nice and a lot of fun, and I was quite honored to be a groomsman. of course the boys (Caleb and his twin cousins) were a big hit with all the family. Caleb also enjoyed meeting his great-grandparents as well as Michelle's old friends in Lancaster.

as promised, life was a bit crazy with everyone under one roof, but the red, red wine helped ease the tension, as well as a mad evening of karaoke (thanks to DJ Steve). highlights included Wind Beneath My Wings, Respect, Sherry, Michelle, Piano Man (with spanish subtitles), and any song that Steve belted out.

the twins also had their dedication at church, so it was great to be able to be there for that special time with the family. we pray that all our kids will know and love Jesus their whole lives.

many thanks to the family for putting us up, putting up with us, and for all the fun and good times. we're looking forward to another crazy fun time this summer at the shore. by then all the boys will be mobile, so the craziness factor should increase all the more.

we're so thankful that Caleb traveled well, and for a nice place (and adoring dog) to come home to. thanks to those that looked after everything. we didnt expect Katie to be excited about Caleb coming home (since she doesnt really pay him much attention these days), but this morning she was positively giddy to see him. it's so cool to see them becoming buddies.

now back to life. work is rather busy, and my folks will be here soon. we're so glad it's springtime too! it's hard to believe that Easter is here already, so pray that God will continue to change our hearts to love Him all the more during this weekend of celebrating His and our resurrection.

better baby, sick wife

after a week of being stuffy and sniffy, Caleb seems to be getting better. but the bad news is that his mama's got the flu or something. please pray for her, and for me as I attempt to juggle working from home, baby care, wife care and general upkeep. I love being with the baby during the day, but I'm ready to hand him over at about 5. unfortunately I only have myself to hand him to right now.

he's learned to crank up his cries a few notches, so he's to a full-out scream these days, which is really grating (especially when Michelle is attempting to sleep in the next room). in other milestone news, he's pretty good at getting around by rolling over to get to his toys.

and now caleb will add something:

C6666666666F BB MJ ,Vv b77777uu -.[;/.

another blogger is born.

I got what I wanted...now what?

I have long desired to have a family of my own. even in high school I just wanted to be able to settle down with someone, but all the "nice girls" were taken at the time. so I went off to college with marriage as my unspoken goal, and also hoping to discover my vocational "calling" or whatever you might call it. having thought a lot about the idea of calling, I havent come to many conclusions. so I think by default I decided my calling would be to have a family.

after tangling myself in a love-trapezoid for a while, I fell in love with Michelle and we married soon after college. marriage was and is entirely great. not that I consciously thought like it this way, but I checked "get a wife" off my list and turned my thoughts to "have kids." I wasnt antsy to have kids right away, but I knew that in good time that's what I wanted. and six months ago, God gave us a beautiful little boy, whom we love more and more. so now, after many years of quiet longing, I have a little family.

but not long ago, as we sat in church, I came to realize that my desires may not be quite right. I forget what