along the journey

We’ve had an interesting vacation. We’ve been in Ohio for a week. There have been two days during the last week that we’ve not had to drive 45 minutes to the hospital. Here I sit, again. My 9 month old neice started having seizures last Thursday, and was in ICU until Monday, she was released from the hospital late Tuesday night. She had RSV and pneumonia. There’s more to the story…. but yesterday my sister , her Aunt, was watching her and we noticed her leg was swelling. This morning my sister woke me up at 7 to tell me that she was back in the hospital. So I got up and dressed and am now waiting for them to come back to their room. My brother has been here since 1am. He doesn’t know I’m here….

For the praying folks out there- say a prayer for Baby Brianna.

Today some friends joined Caleb and I for a special trip to Port Discovery. We had a great time. Click on Calebs head to see us all. We had a great time. I need to thank my employer for providing us with the corporate passes. It was the first time any of us had been there, and it was simply amazing. There was so much to do. It’s something that the kids can enjoy until their into their teens probably. We’ll definately be taking advantage of this employee perk again, probably several times over the next few months.

I was talking with Amy tonight when she asked me what I want for Christmas. I told her that I had setup a wishlist over on Del.icio.us…. I had tweaked my old template to have a space for the wishlist, but this new one doesn’t yet have a spot for it. So here’s a link for it.

A friend came over and spent most of the morning with us. Her and her daughter had pizza with us before she had to take her daughter to school. I said something that was a bit rude, so I want to make sure she knows that I really didn’t mean to be rude, and want to make sure she knows it.

After they left we headed down to show off the family to my co-workers. As I pulled up the building manager was coming out of the loading dock, and he approved of me parking in front of it, which was really nice since there were no meters available and we didn’t have any quarters anyway. I paraded them around through 5 or 6 of the 18 floors of our building. They were all very tired afterwards and are now resting soundly in the bedroom.

I’m so proud of them. Especially Amy. She’s doing so well. Recovering so quickly. Taking such excellent care of our new baby. It blows me away at how effortlessly she does it. Guess that’s just the Mom in her. Love you honey.

I really thought that I’d write more while I was home with the new son. But I’m not. My time on the internet is spent just puttzing around, usually researching new games, sometimes new music. Sometimes old games and old music. While we were in the hospital I had brought along an actual book. Mere Christianity, and had made some progress, that is until I figured out the whole wireless internet thing there. And then I was no more good. And I haven’t picked up the book since. Bah. I’m so addicted to the internet, and it’s not even productive. Me and God, we’re dealing with that.

The new kid- awesome. The big kid- awesome, but having some issues, we’re not sure if they’re new brother issues, or just a growing up issues. Hitting us, particularly when he’s upset, yelling that we’re bad mommy and daddy. But we’ll get through it.

So we’re all packed up. Just about ready to go. Some details that i left out of the previous entry…. Baby Bo was born on 11-24-04, He was 6lbs 14oz, and 19 inches long. Amy recovered from the surgery super fast, and it’s been an excellent few days. We’ve had a lot more sleep than either of us expected. I’ve had a bit more sleep than Amy, since there’s not so much that I can do with regards to feeding the baby. My breasts just can’t replace Amy’s. That I’m greatful for.

We’re waiting on the doctor to come and do an evaulation on Amy, then they’ll take Boaz to the nursery and do an assesment on him. Then write up the discharge paperwork. They say that whole procedure will take about 35-40 minutes, but that’s after we talk to the doctor. We don’t even know if she’s in the building right now.

I’m looking forward to being home. I can’t do anything but imagine the new dynamic of family that will exist, and can’t wait to see it in action. Amy, Me, Caleb, Bo and Stella, a happy family.

Lebanon fire Friday leaves 2 families homeless
Lebanon fire investigators are looking for the cause of an early morning fire that left two families homeless and injured a firefighter and a resident.

The fire started just after 1 a.m. Friday at the rear of a duplex at 443-445 E. Main St, Lebanon Fire Capt. Krista Wyatt said.

My mom called me at work a few minutes ago to share that with me. That’s the house next door to my parents house. The $1000 damage, my parents house. She says they’re alright and that their house is damaged a bit. The house has been in general dis-repair for a while, and has housed lower income families of 13 or 14 people, or so it seems. I wish I were there for my family, but they’ll be alright. Hopefully they demolish the house. I doubt there’s room to build a new house if they do. It will be beneficial for the neighborhood if they don’t rebuild.

Say a prayer for the displaced families if you think about it….

Amy and I are laying in bed, watching the closing scroll across the screen. A big dawg is laying at Amy’s feet, and Caleb is going through the drawers of our nightstand. It’s already a lazy Saturday, just the kind that I like.

Last night Amy and Caleb and I had dinner with a co-worker and his wife. We went to TGI Fridays and the service was absolutely horrible. We checked in at 6:45 and were told there was a 20 minute wait. We weren’t seated until 7:30 or so. We almost immediately orderd appetizers that didn’t arrive until after 8. At 8 I called for a manager, and just before he arrived our appetizers did as well. HE saied that he’d comp our appetizers and while we were still trying to eat our appetizers the entrees were brought to the table, and there was no room for them. Everyone loved their food, it was really good, except for my fries that seemed like they were the end of the batch, short crisp fries. I love the Jack Daniels sauce. We ordered a couple of slices of cheesecake to go, and after giving the server our credit card it took at least 15 minutes before he brought it back for us to sign. I was so frustrated. Caleb rode in Paulie’s Envoy on the way home…. Paulie told us that he took a wrong turn and Caleb told him. He had an excellent time.

After we got Caleb to bed I taught them how to play Carcassonne. Carcassone is the board game I got for Christmas. Amy and I play it, by ourselves, but playing it with four people makes it a completelyt different game. Much more strategy involved. Both Paulie and Val got the game pretty much right away, except for a few rules that I always forget until they apply during the game. Val won the first game by at least 20 points. We played a second game with the River expansion. I really like to play the River, but we should’ve played with it first because by about the halfway point, we were all too tired to really make any thoughtful decisions. THat game Paulie won, followed by Val, with Amy and I at the back.

I got Carcassonne because they say it’s a good intro to German Style board games, and both Paul and Val really enjoyed the game and couldn’t wait to try out some of the other expansions.

Today we only have a birthday party for Abigail, but nothing else. There is a little bit around the house that I want to do, but I’ll probably not get to it.

So like any child does eventually, Caleb has become fascinated with his “private parts”. Like any responsible modern parents, we’ve decided to call his a penis. Caleb also knows that poopy comes from his “hiney”. Lately he’s been reaching between his legs past his penis and telling us that his “Highness” - I’m sure it’s a combination of penis and hiney, but it’s just so darn cute.

We took Caleb roller skating the other day. Our friend DJ’s at one of the skating rinks Christian Skate Night. So we showed up in support. They had those little fisher-price roller skates that have varying settings that prevent him from falling on his butt as easily if he had regular skates on. It was difficult for me, I hadn’t been on skates in at least 5 years, maybe 6. And then having to hold Caleb’s hand to help him from falling so much. By the end of the night he was surprising us at how well he was doing. He would run/skate much faster than Amy or I were comfortable letting him go. He wore himself out so much that he was happy to return the skates to the skate rental. Amy wants to get him into some sort of class, turn him into a pro-hockey player or something.

I have such excellent memories of going roller skating when I was young. My parents ran a group home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We’d go roller skating at least once a month… I remember my dad teaching me to skate backwards. I only hope that Caleb can have similar memories.

Been putting this off for a day or 4. I just really don’t know what to say. I’m so tired of people asking me how Amy’s doing, it’s not that I don’t like people to let me know they’re concerned, it’s just that we really don’t know. She’s feeling better, but not 100%. Just not a whole lot of new news….. except that she was released from the hospital. Church was hard this morning… just about everyone at church knew what was going on as a result of our prayer request network….. and consequently, just about everyone asked me how she was doing…. I’m just being a grump.

It seems that Caleb and I have really had some bonding time. I’ve really enjoyed the time we’ve gotten to spend together. I admit that I probably forget to change diapers until they smell, i admit that I forgot his medicine just about half of the time…. and last night I kept him out until well after 11. He’s had it tough, everytime we’ve dropped him off somewhere he’s cried miserably…and once he’s tired… completely is no good, wanting his daddy. We told him that she was sick and had to stay at the doctors. He seemed alright with that…. and didn’t really seem to mind until yesterday when we picked her up. He’s so caring and loving and concerned. It’s really sweet.

Life has been getting pretty busy, lots of extra church activities, and trying to figure out how to do more, and deal with a sick wife and being a “stay at home dad” for a few days… it’s really putting strain on me. But we’re hanging in there…. we’ll get through it.