pics by Caleb

here’s a slideshow of all the pictures Caleb took yesterday afternoon.

after naptime yesterday, Caleb wanted to go out to the front yard to play with Darby, his stuffed-animal dog. he likes throwing him up in the air, usually saying “weee….ouch”. good fun. then he got the idea of putting him up in the dogwood tree, which happens to be in gloriously full bloom. so we put him up in the tree and I got Caleb a long stick to get him down. at some point Caleb wanted to take Darby’s picture, so I got the camera and let him have fun. he already knew which button to push to review the picture he just took, and I showed him how to zoom in and out. over the next hour or so he took pictures of all kinds of stuff in the front yard, including of course Darby in the tree. it was super cute to see him take it so seriously, and he certainly enjoyed himself.

Dublin

In a rather quick turn of events, I am planning on going to Dublin, Ireland this summer for a prayer conference/missions trip with World Harvest Mission. I’ll have more details later, as well as a full support letter out hopefully soon. meanwhile, I’m very excited.

I need your prayers. pray that the support-raising aspect would go well. would you consider supporting me? if so, I’ll have more about that soon.

more importantly, pray for the people of Dublin that they would know the gospel, as well as for the few evangelical Christians that are there, and those that are in the mission field there. this includes our friends Jim and Laura who are currently raising support to go there long term to be part of a really exciting music and arts ministry.

more to come…

10 years ago we fell in love

10 years ago (last night) Michelle and I had our first “real” date, at the Spring Banquet held at Rock City. we always say that was the night we fell in love “lauging and dancing in spinning embrace”. I wrote a poem about it back in the day for creative writing class, which I then turned into a song.

so to celebrate I (completely) surprised Michelle with a special night out. we were actually scheduled to go to the Indelible Grace concert. even though I was looking forward to that, this easily trumped it, and provided a great excuse to get a babysitter without arousing suspicions.

I got her some flowers at St. Elmo’s florist, Making Arrangements (next to Coptix). they do awesome work, so I highly recommend checking them out.

the main event was a return to Rock City to remember that special evening. we had a leisurely stroll through the grounds, enjoying a simply beautiful evening and all the flowers and trees they’ve got there. if you would have asked me if I thought Rock City was a good place for a date in general, I probably would have said no, but it really was a nice place to go to be together, and of course the memories made it even more special. we came to the place where the dancing was and took a few turns for old times sake. we’re still bad dancers, but still had a good time with it. I did an updated version of the poem/song too, which I read to her.

after that we were off to the Canyon Grill for some fine dining, which was of course very good. on the way back we were passing the hangglider bluff right as the sun was going down, so we took in the view for a while, remembering some of the other times we’ve been there over the years. then Michelle had the idea to stop at Covenant to stroll around the campus to relive some of those memories. wow, it’s changed a lot up there, but we found the place where I put our initials in the concrete by our dorm. it was nice remembering those lovely days of falling in love and doing the college thing.

to wrap things up we stopped by the Starbucks at Rock City and delved into yet more memories. I recently stumbled across a few folders with all of our letters and notes and cards we’ve given eachother over the years, including some printouts of old emails and all the letters we wrote eachother when we were first dating and Michelle was in Peru. it was really cool seeing all this stuff and rediscovering some poems and hand-made cards. we wrote some LONG letters that summer. maybe some day we’ll type some of that up so it’ll be brought into the digital age. Michelle figured we may be the last generation to have done long hand-written letters :-) looking at all that stuff and remembering the path that we’ve come down, the biggest thought I had in my mind was that it was completely worth it. the only thing I would change is getting married sooner (although we were married pretty much as soon as was practically possible).

there was a couple of collge kids in the starbucks studying together, and they looked like they were probably dating. I wanted to tell them “it is SO worth it. fall in love! enjoy eachother!” we’ve been so blessed to still be madly in love 10 years after it all started.

curly-heads

today the kids took eachother by the hand and had a grand tour around the yard. mama tried to keep up, chasing them with the camera and got some pics of the cuteness:

oh we just love our little curly-heads more and more (even the days when they’re little basket cases). and we’re all loving the time spent in the yard and on the porch in this glorious spring weather.

Caleb’s dreams

well nightmares, actually. yesterday morning he woke up a little bit early, crying pretty loudly. it wasnt just the usual morning crankiness kind of whining, but more like he was really upset. so I calmed him down and he snapped out of it relatively quickly, but as usual he didnt say why he was upset.

last night we were on the way home from the store and he was chatting away about all kinds of things. he said something like “tonight I will stay in bed all night” (he’s had problems getting up a lot recently) and then “this morning I woke up before my music” (we do a reverse-alarm for him…no getting out of bed before you hear the music). so we were talking about that, and I asked him why he was upset, not really expecting much from him. but then he launched into something like this:

“there was a scary lobster, a scary crab and a scary skunk.” he began
“a skunk?”
“yeah, a scary skunk. and I went to mama and daddy’s room and I was running.”
“were they chasing you?”
“yeah I was running. and there were scary rocks and a building, and the building fell on me. and there was a scary monster…”

and he repeated and elaborated a little bit. who knows where he got this stuff, but it’s pretty wild to think he’s got all of this in his head. I tried to explain what dreams are, and reminded him that Jesus is taking care of him even when he’s scared and we should pray when we’re scared. not sure how much of that sunk in. but after his initial crying that morning, he doesnt seem to be otherwise too bothered by such things.

 

 

father/son roadtrip

we didnt plan on having just me and Caleb go to NC, but Alice got sick at the last minute, so mama had to stay home with her. we were all a little sad being apart, but it was nice to have some extra time with the boy.

we enjoyed our time at grandma and pop-pop’s house, catching up with family and friends and celebrating baby Hannah’s arrival. Caleb was especially chipper all weekend, which was nice since he’s had a rough time lately since he was recently sick. but he really loved playing with the lincoln logs and “big boy legos” that grandma had for him, and after his usual warm up time was happily getting along with all our old friends in town for the shower.

the baby shower was very nice, and Michelle’s quilt was of course a hit. she made a nice bunny quilt for baby Hannah, which I’m sure she’ll post about soon. I also sang a song for her that Michelle and I wrote, and I’ll post that somewhere soon too. Caleb especially enjoyed the cake, and the stuffed animals that grandma let him take home.

we were planning on staying longer but since we were all apart we left Sunday after lunch. we like taking the mountain route home, which follows the Nantahala and Ocoee river valleys. I was trying to point out to Caleb how nice the river looked, but he was too busy watching the ever-present videos. so I found a nice place to pull over, and we had a blast throwing rocks into the river together. it really was one of the best times we’ve had. I didnt want to get home too late so we werent able to enjoy it for as long as either of us would have liked, but it was a good time. meanwhile, Mama and Alice were back home doing girly stuff like painting nails and enjoying the spring weather together, and that was apparently a blast for them.

one more notable event for the weekend: Caleb learned how to pee while standing up! he followed me into the bathroom at church and saw me use the stand-up potty, and right then decided he needed to try that. so he did it, and from then on insisted on standing up for the rest of the weekend. he’s pretty proud of himself, and I tried to instill in him that its one of the privileges of being a guy.

we missed Mama and Alice, but it was nice to have a special time together too. we’re going to try to figure out a way to do such things on a semi-regular basis.

a new career

well I’ve given my best shot at working for “The Man” and frankly it’s not for me. sure, The Man pays pretty well at times, but really, how can you put a price on happiness?

so I’ve decided to pursue my dream and become a full-time musician and writer. I’ve started with my own self-produced album and I’ve been writing quite a few songs lately, so I’m pretty excited about it. 

I’m not exactly sure where to go from here, but even so, this should be fun!

UPDATE: not really! (see comments)

un-American

with the car out of commission, I’ve been riding the bus, as so far so good. it does feel decidedly un-American however. I NEED more control than the bus affords. not to mention getting impatient when it’s not on time. so a little of my controlling nature is dying each trip, and that’s a good thing I think. it’s nice to be able to read a book on the commute too, and really it couldnt be more convenient (bus stop 1/2 block from my house, the other end just 2 blocks from work). so we’re thinking I’ll do the bus thing so we can save some funds for a better family car (van) if/when we outgrow the current family car. and while it’s not Greyhound, it’s still fun to say that I’m “riding the puppy” as Dave B. used to say…

flash fiction

back when I used to write little stories, I liked writing very short stories. apparently that’s called “flash fiction” which typically means less than 1000 words. I found a website that has a new story each day: http://www.everydayfiction.com/ 

so I spruced up one of my old ones and submitted it. who knows if I’ll get “published” but considering my recent streak of songwriting, it’s fun to think about writing little stories again.

Easter

happy Easter to all. Jesus is risen!

it’s been a bit of an unusual Easter, mostly due to the fact that Caleb had the throw-ups for most of the day, but he seems to be done with it already. we initially thought he was just tired and cranky since various circumstances had him up late all weekend. so we sent him to Sunday School which apparently went well, but then he was getting feverish and spit up a little right before church started. so mama whisked him away and soon as he got home he lost breakfast (which we pretty much forced him to eat assuming he had an attitude as opposed to being sick). but Alice and I stayed in church and it was actually Alice’s first church service (as opposed to being in nursery). she sat very still and took it all in and seemed to like it, and of course she also liked going down to nursery about halfway though.

anyway, the rest of the day was mostly naps and videos, and when Caleb was feeling better they started having fun together. he was going around rather energetic saying “daddy, I’m HAPPY!”

one other remarkable thing that happened today is that Alice actually smiled for the camera for once, so we got some super cute pics of her in her Easter outfit. so here she is, very excited about her new Bible that she got in her Easter basket. of course the candy was the big hit, but the Bibles were popular too, as this video will show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7J_vA9hzwY