Belly Buttons

Puddin' has discovered her belly button, it facinates her. Then, last night she discovered that mommy and daddy had buttons of their own and if she looked hard enough she could find lent in her daddy's button.

Night of the Terriers

We like to take family walks as often as we can, which are the nights dad gets home before dark.

Pictured above is how we usually travel on these walks. Dad with the two dogs and mom backpacking a puddin'.

The other night we had an adventure. As we were walking down one of the neighborhood streets, out of nowhere came a lady on a bike and Eb and Lucy started going crazy. That’s when I realized that the lady on the bike had two Jack Terriers running beside her on leashes. I had to stop and let her coast by (her dogs had seen our dogs and now they were pulling her). We kept walking and she disappeared and disaster was avoided, or so I thought. When we were about one block from our house, we started hearing some familiar barking and sure enough the Terriers were back and they were running fast and furious, coming toward us. We moved over to the sidewalk and I had to choke up on the collar to make sure Eb and Lucy didn’t go after them. It was a sight. The poor lady was trying to stop the bike with her feet, but her dogs looked like a couple of sled dogs pulling her along. This time she had a hold of their leashes to her left side (we were on the right of the street), hoping her dogs would continue to pass us by, but one of them was not so smart and he cut in front of the bicycle and the poor lady ran over her dog and then went flying through the air over the handlebars. It was so shocking…Eb and Lucy stopped barking and just looked at the splatter in the middle of the road. We made sure she was okay (truthfully, dad was trying not to laugh while mom was making sure the lady was okay and Puddin’ was just enjoying the walk). The lady was more concerned about her dog than being hurt. But we reckoned that they both needed a good dose of aspirin that night.

Snot, Full Diapers, & A Slight Walk on The Wild Side

My wife is awesome, and if you don't think so, you need a lesson in awesomeness. Here's her version of this past week, it has been a tough one, but as always, God has given us the strength to endure.

Well, it started with another virus. Tuesday morning things started to go south. Puddin' was not herself. By that evening she had a runny nose and diarrhea. This is a great toddler combination and the diaper rash that accompanies it all is so fun. Howard had to work late Tuesday and Wednesday night. Tuesday night I got up out of bed about 86 times to check if Puddin' had messed her pants. Sleep deprivation is a common side effect of one's toddler's virus. Toddlers love baby saline drops and snot sucking bulbs. This is quite fun and should become a national competition. I have now read Garden Buddies, Pooh, Roo and Tigger Too, and Raggedy Ann and Andy Sharing & Caring 542 times. Thursday, I thought to myself, "Self you can get some things done in between snot wipes and all the rest. I had done a load of laundry and was giving Lucy a bath (I had already scrubbed Ebenezer) when I heard Puddin' awaken from her nap. Upon entering her room I knew that she had had a significant BM. Upon taking my child out of her crib and placing her on the changing table, I knew this would be no ordinary diaper change. To leave out all the horrifying details, let's just say that Huggies should invent a body suit. Anyway, I thought out loud, "I've got to carefully plan this one. I grabbed a plastic bag and placed the said diaper in it. I put on another one just to buy time. I took the changing pad cover and all with me as I picked up Puddin', swaddled by the changing pad cover. I had to keep the dogs away while I squatted beside the bathtub with Jorja on my knee. I began filling her bathtub with water while she was squirming to get down. I grab another plastic sack, place the toddler on a huge postpartum diaper I still had, took her onesy off over her hips so that I would not smear anything any worse than I already had. I then collected onesy, old diaper and changing pad cover into the postpartum diaper and placed all in plastic sack. I was not going to save any of it. Not this time. I put Jorja in the bath and hosed her down. I then used a hairdryer to dry her poor little diaper rash area. I put thick lanolin ointment on the rash, diapered her and redressed her. At this point I knew she would want her formula. I put her on one hip and with my left hand made the bottle. Just as I was about to sit down to let her take it, Howard came through the door!!! My hero!! My knight in shining armor!! He fed her and I held back tears. He said, "you can cry if you need to." I said, "No, I'm not going to cry. I'm getting what Puddin' has and crying will only add to my congestion." I then got her dinner ready and then I went to Wal-Mart to get some much needed grocery items and time ALONE. I felt like a rebel in my '98 Caddie. I was free of poop and snot for a couple of hours and was making my way down the highway. I needed some rebel music to be my soundtrack for this moment of reverie. As I shuffled through my CD selections in my 6 CD changer, I stopped on Billy Squier's Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You. I listened to it 3 times. It was the best I could do. And because I was alone in my car, I actually drove up to the speed limit--my cruise was set on a firm 65. I now have more overnight diapers, formula and chocolate. I have a sore throat too, but I'm still reliving my wild evening with a twinkle in my eye. Here's to you Billy!!!

A New Commitment...

This blog is like my commitment to Christ in my junior college years. Starting anew every few months or so...but I was convicted this week when visiting a friends site (who updates more regular on me) and in the "blogs I read" menu, there was facing the giants. I thought poor friend, they've probably memorized the last blog. But, Puddin' is a about 45 days shy of her first birthday and there's more to blog about. She's developing her own personality and makes us laugh everyday. This picture was taken when my mom came to visit us. As I tell people, Puddin' is my third child.

A long overdue update....

Our family is still here. Mom sends out her own e-mail pictures to her list and dad doesn't blog as often as he likes, but keeps being inspired by other blogs to persevere until it becomes habit (He does have about a million blog ideas, just not the time to sit down and type as often as he would like).

God is blessing our family. Puddin' is growing like crazy and this morning when mom walked in and checked on her after her morning nap, she was sitting up in her crib. So, now we must drop the mattress down a level. She is such a blessing and manages to get her dad to stop working on the computer in the evenings to play her. Right now, her favorite is the being rolled over and over across the bed. We are definitely blessed.

Things are going well at work, although moving up to management has been a tough transition. It's hard to find people who want to work on commission now days. I still lack finding one more person to hire before I can officially be a manager (right now I'm acting as a manager, but not reaping the benefits of the manager). I've struggled over the last few years about being in a "secular" job, after all I trained for the ministry...and often asked is this where I'm suppose to be Lord? Shouldn't I be preaching. But through some close friends and very intimate worship times God has made it evident this is where I'm suppose to be at this time in my life. And he has given me a passion for my job and a vision how to run my district in a way that hopefully will best glorify him. I'll probably share that in the next blog, it's too detail to go in here. But, this blog will be my outlet to share what God is showing me in Scripture. Last night, as Amber and I talked and I shared how I think God is showing me to run my district, it excited me and I have a desire to allow him to shine through me whether it be in the church or the boardroom.

But just as awesome as God is, he has given us a ministry. We will be stateside prayer coordinators for a missionary from our church (I'm sure you will be hearing more about Dr. T in upcoming blogs). Briefly, he is a national from a southeast asian country that is closed and has come and received training and is going back to his home country knowing persecution may follow but willing to share the gospel. We had a chance to hear him share his testimony a few weeks ago and it was the most passionate I had heard in a long time, in fact it drove me to my knees asking for that passion in my life. It will be exciting to be a small part of this man's ministry.

Baby Aerobics

Now take your left foot and cross it to your body.

Then lift your feet and do some crunches.

First reach out and touch your toes.

A Late Father's Day Blog...

I meant to post this blog on Father's Day, but the weekend was busy and I disappeared for the week to study for a test I had to pass for a promotion. After many hours of study, and a passing grade I can get back to life. Anyways...here's a picture of puddin' and I on Father's Day. All I can say is I love being a dad. I have often felt overwhelmed, but at the same time extremely thankful for the blessings God has put in my life through my wife and daughter.

For all of our regular readers (all five of you), I'm fully taken over the blog and will start blogging more on what God has been teaching me and not just family updates. Don't worry, there will still be more and enough pictures of our puddin' because I know that's why four of the five of you visit the blog.