along the journey

We had family pictures taken last night. Here are the results:

Cutie Pie Caleb

Our Family

Brothers

Just the Guys

The Whole Crew

Well I went and signed up with Speakeasy to take over my DSL from DirecTV. I’m excited, like a little school boy. 7-10 days is the normal turn around time. There will definately be some downtime between now and then on both the email and web pages. One of the only things that I’m not too happy about is that there is a $199 setup fee, but there is a full rebate… but we’ll be out that money until the rebate comes through. My guess - 3 months for that.

Amy and I got some money for Christmas. I’m trying to convince her to get bicycles for us, but she wants to get a treadmill. Ugh! I want the bikes so we can excercise together, she wants the treadmill so she can excerise alone!

These photo’s of San Francisco make me want to fly out to the west coast.

Twas the Sunday after Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
Bodies nestled alone in their beds, while visions of Baugher Burgers danced in their heads.

Went to Baugher’s for dinner after church this morning. We drove up Rt 97 through snow-blanketed rural Westminster. Darin and I haven’t been to Baughers since we were teenagers. Mom and Dad used to drive us up there and we’d go sledding on the golf course across the street on days when it hadn’t snowed quite enough in the city. After sledding we’d go to Baughers and have hot chocolate and a burger. 5 of us and Caleb ate dinner for $38. We were impressed at the price, but not so much with the apple dumpling or Darin’s undercooked burger. He talked about how it moo’ed everytime he went to take a bite. I talked about how the sight of Dad’s chicken livers was enough to make me gag. How you could see the distinct texture of chicken liver, how the smell along with the sight made it all too real.

One of our cousins is supposed to be visiting with us this evening. We miss her a lot, she was one of the closest relatives we’d had. We haven’t talked to her at all since we’ve been here. We tried calling several times last year but our calls were never returned. Darin tried again this year and actually talked to her. She told him last night she’d be here at 5:30. Haven’t heard from her again today. Who knows if she’ll come.

The week’s been long. Mom and Dad are ready to go back home, as long as they can take Caleb with them. I really wouldn’t mind that so much, as long as I went too!

Well there is a nice white blanket covering the area right now. Not nearly as much as there was 20 days ago. It’s also the day when many people set aside to remember the birth of Christ, for others just another day of celebration, and others just another day off of work.

For me and my family, we choose to celebrate our Saviors birth. This Christmas has felt a little different, for me and others out there in blogland. I’m not quite sure why. I mean it’s been a very cool December. I think for us it might just be the fact that we’ve been so busy with Amy’s health and various visits to the doctors and hospital. I’m extremely greatful that my parents can be with us this year. I’m greatful that we’re not tearing up a good deal of the bathroom or floors or repairing walls or painting an entire floor of our house, as was the case last year. Our house, even though it needs a lot of work, looks really nice. The few decorations we have out make it very homey. Our Christmas service was odd this year, very short, and there was no daycare, so someone had to be looking after Caleb the whole time and he’s really not used to sitting still for very long. I ended up taking him to the nursery to play on the slide, when I decided to go back to the service people were on their way out. I really felt a part of “the body” tonight. It was nice to be able to introduce my parents to people that we’ve met over the last few months. I’m very excited to start small group. Just 2 weeks left.

Pastors message tonight, adressed directly at the children whom he invited to sit at the front of the pulpit, was about the anticipation that they feel as they wait for Christmas morning. He compared it to the anticipation that Mary and Joseph, as well as others in the story, felt waiting for the birth of Jesus. As he sent the kids back to their seats he challenged the adults to anticipate Christ tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.

Being a father makes Christmas so different. Having presents to wrap and put under the tree is an awesome feeling. Knowing that Caleb will get enjoyment out of every little thing. This evening we were in the computer room and he found a scrap of wrapping paper. He’d tear off a little piece and put it between his lips and I’d grab it out. repeat. This game went on for a little while before he was distracted by something else, but it just made me think about his excitement tomorrow.

My mom and dad and brothers arrived last night around 10:30. Caleb and Amy and I were very happy to see them. I’ve missed them greatly, didn’t realize how much until they were in my living room. We went to 34th St again last night with Amy’s parents. We’ve got some pictures that I’ll get up soon. I’m sure they’re not much different from before, except for the number of people. It was absolute zoo. We parked and walked, there were about 100-200 cars backed up for about 5- 6 blocks waiting to drive down one block of one city street! This time it wasn’t too cold. Last time my fingers were frozen through my gloves.

Amy is scheduled for her Optic Nerve Sheath Fenestration on Thursday. It’s inpatient, she’ll be in the hospital for no more than a day, but at least a night. She mentioned to me today that she had spots in her right eye yesterday, she doesn’t usually. She thinks that the lasseks (sp?) she’s been taking is helping. My thought is that if the lasseks is working and she’s still experiencing new symptoms, than it must be pretty bad.

DirecTV DSL is going out of business and therefore we will be without a webhost and internet access. With Amy loosing her job I’m looking into getting dial-up and paying for a webhost….. possibly even a resellers account. There will be changes and probably downtime… but we’ll get through it.

According to this survey my beliefs most fit the Assemblies of God. Not surprising since that’s the denomination that I grew up in.

The top 6 results are:
• #1 Assemblies of God
• #2 Seventh-Day Adventist
• #3 Free Will Baptist
• #4 Mennonite Brethren
• #5 Methodist/Weslyian Church
• #6 Reformed Baptist

Saturday we visited two different malls, and Sunday Caleb and I went shopping after church. We didn’t buy anything. We succeded in dropping off most of the flyers for Flock Momentum.

Last night we went shopping again! We visited a Christian bookstore and then a mall. We didn’t buy hardly anything. Then we hit the motherlode! Wal-Mart. We ended up spending $200 at Wal-Mart. I got new socks and underwear and two new work shirts. All of my old socks have holes in them. I haven’t gotten a new work shirt since last September shortly after we moved here and most of them are years old!

We got a My First Leappad for our nephew Tyler, and some other gifts for family and a few for friends.

Today, Amy got fired.

Not sure what we’re gonna do.

The other day when Xix and I were walking to Akbar for lunch, we passed one of these in the road. It’s been there since 96 at least- I remember it from when I went to school down here, but I don’t remember how far back. Crazy thing is, there in Cincinnati too! I don’t remember seeing them in the ‘nati, but I believe the article. I’m going to track down all the ones here and take pictures of them, for myself. All the ones in Baltimore listed are in this area too. How strange.

epistoler: http://epistolary.org/2033.html
DRon321: if he’s in Dayton, that’s the same timezone
epistoler: ah that’s true
epistoler: but his clock was set to PDT
DRon321: how did you connect it to abortion rights?
epistoler: i’ll fix that
epistoler: that’s the only thing significant about my elijah cummings page
DRon321: oh
DRon321: strange stuff man. Funny that that ends up on the page about the Pagans night out!
DRon321: ;-(
DRon321: that was supposed to be a smiley not a frowny
epistoler: heh
DRon321: i mean. I’m no pagan, but don’t frown at them!
epistoler: i like you. you’re a tolerant christian
DRon321: I’d prefer accepting to tolerant
epistoler: the kind jesus actually likes

Even more pictures tonight! This time- Bath time for Caleb.

How cute is that?