Bold and Courageous?
Not me! Paul's going out of town for a week in July, and I thought it would be a great time to head to the Old Dominion and visit mostly college friends who've settled there and in MD. None of them is closer than three hours, and even that isn't exactly on well-traveled interstates. Add to this the fact that my niece's second birthday party is on the day before we are supposed to be home (she lives with my brother and sister-in-law in the vicinity of Nanty Glo, PA ), which means I would either have to travel in the dark or travel more than, say, four hours in one day. Fuhgeddaboudit.

And I thought I was a wimp when I had to travel alone. Compared to traveling with Jay, I was Indiana Jane back in those days.

So now I'm afraid of traveling by plane alone with Jay (to OH to spend the week with my folks). How am I going to keep him occupied on the plane? How am I going to keep him occupied in the airport? How am I going to keep him corralled in the airport? How am I going to change his diaper? On and on and on. Please pray for me to have peace about the whole thing. In the meantime, I'm going to BabyCenter to read their travel tips.
- posted by Lenise @ 9:06 PM |

 
You Know You're Off to a Bad Start When...
So when I pulled back the shower curtain today in anticipation of my shower, I spotted something black and shiny, about the size of Michael Moore, but with lots of knobby legs. I impressed even myself with the horrified scream I let loose before getting the heck out of Dodge. Only Jay was still in the living room when I got there, so I (naturally!) asked him where his father was. Paul must have heard my earlier uh.. announcement, since he answered for Jay from all the way upstairs. He came down with obliging speed, and solemnly set out for the bathroom in fulfilment of his grave duty. I followed at a safe distance. He poked around for a few seconds to my incredulous, "Don't tell me you don't see anything!" (heaven knows I wanted the "issue" resolved ASAP). A split second later he said something to the effect of "oh!" which I answered with, "Kinda hard to miss, isn't it?" and a relieved retreat.

Shortly, to my great relief, I heard the sound of rapid watery banishment followed by my hero's pronouncement "spiders aren't hard to kill", and I was free to shower. And wonder whether spiders can't swim up pipes. Or how people disposed of spiders before toilets.
- posted by Lenise @ 9:17 PM |

 
There's a certain justice to this
Umm.. no pun intended, but a great unintended one!
- posted by Lenise @ 4:22 PM |

 

Oh, my sweet kitty! How I love to rub his belly!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 8:55 PM |

 
Destroyed and Rebuilt in Three Hours
So the upshot is, when Blogger warns you you will lose EVERYTHING if you choose a new template, they're pretty much telling the truth. Now the posts were all there, but the links, comments, even my nice little verse of the day... all were wiped out!

There was SOMETHING behind my confidence that all was not really lost, since I hadn't republished. I figured out over dinner that this was the key. So, after dinner, while Paul was bedding down the boy, I opened a new browser window, viewed the html, and voila!!! There was the code for my links, my verse of the day, and my cute little Haloscan button. It took me a while longer to get my comments to reappear, but I got a bonus trackback feature for my trouble. Not that I have ever been able to figure out how it works!

Oh- and I think I have (once again) fixed the empty space at the top of the column problem. I may even be able to re-occupy the space underneath my sidebar!!
- posted by Lenise @ 8:09 PM |

 
Ah, Politics!
Truly appalling news from Germany. Get the background here and then e-mail the worms running Berlin to tell them that people gunned down in their pursuit of freedom deserve a memorial.
- posted by Lenise @ 4:11 PM |

 

One of the hazards of skipping your nap
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 1:45 PM |

 
Hacking
Well, I figured out how to banish the empty space on top; now I just have empty spaces all the way down the side under my links. Small price to pay!
- posted by Lenise @ 9:39 AM |

 
P.S.
It looks like tooth #8 is pushing through!
- posted by Lenise @ 9:33 AM |

 
Nine months old and counting
So Jay had his nine-month appointment on Thursday. He was a tad over 20 lbs at six months, and now he's only 21 lbs 12 oz [corrected], but they said that was normal because he had grown so quickly early on, and he's not likely to be that big of a guy. He got some more shots, but didn't cry too long. He was able to get down and play with the big wire and wooden bead rollercoaster thing in the exam room, and he was crawling around when the doctor came in. Jay started pulling up on the doc's knee while he was taking the history.

He's still got a cough and a runny nose =[ I mentioned that he had been getting a lot of colds, but the doc didn't think it was anything to worry about, given that he's been in the nursery. I'm afraid he's still too congested to go to the nursery tomorrow, which means one of us gets to carry him around all morning in church tomorrow. It's not a thankless job, since whoever has him gets a lot of attention (vicariously, anyway ;) ), but it is a tough job, since he doesn't much like sitting still. Last weekend we went to Holy Trinity Lutheran in Wytheville, and Jay basically demanded to be walked around except during the hymns. It doesn't help that he's missing naptime.
- posted by Lenise @ 8:40 AM |

 
Mystery Beef
Something I've run into a lot while attempting apologetics around the web is the accusation that evangelical Christians want to convert everybody. Well, yes, it's true, but why is that so bad? Don't we all enter into debate hoping to change someone's mind so that that person will agree with us? Isn't that why many non-evangelicals enter debates with evangelicals: to change our minds?

Don't Muslims recruit converts? Don't atheists? Don't Mormons? Atheists aren't even operating with a view towards eternal consequences, right? Or do they assuage their fear of the hereafter by dazzling backwards fundamentalists with their logic?

I don't see how non-Christians can understand our call to evangelize until they honestly consider the possibility that we're right- that receiving Christ is the single most valuable thing to be gained in this world, and that the Bible is our connection. If they can do that, it should all make sense. They may still not agree, but they ought to understand. Instead, we're all constantly told that Bible-believing Christians are either stupid or crazy, either hypocrites or uptight goody-two-shoes who refuse to see the world as it is. Why should they consider something so unsettling and foreign as our belief system when they're constantly told by the world that it can be safely ignored?
- posted by Lenise @ 9:54 PM |

 
Mission Accomplished
So obviously we made it back with the sheep rocking chair (hereafter referred to as Squishy Sheep). We also had a nice weekend with my parents and my Uncle Marv, whom I hadn't seen since 1991, if I remember correctly! We went to the church pictured below and an antique show in Wytheville, and ate some yummy German food, once they dug up their high chair.

Jay had his first french fries this weekend, at his grandparents' instigation. Before the meal was over, he was employing diversion tactics to grab the prize french fry from Grandpa's plate. My dad said he looked like a walrus with both ends of the fry hanging out of his mouth ;) Jay also got to try cranberry sauce and spaetzel Saturday night. Last night he even tried some shredded chicken at a Mexican restaurant. He was only too happy to give the waitress a first-hand view of the mastication process. No table manners!
- posted by Lenise @ 9:01 PM |

 
It's all in how you look at it
My [grandmother's] cousin, a distinguished Lutheran theologian, has the following take on diapers:

Ode to DIAPERS

D.....	Diapers are Absorbent cloths,
I.....	Immune to germs, or bugs, or moths,
A.....	And, cut in standard shape and size,
P.....	Protect the nurse from quick surprise.
E.....	Emergency gives her no fear
R.....	Regardless of what she may hear,
S.....	Since Mother keeps a-plenty near.

-W.H. Greever
- posted by Lenise @ 10:44 PM |

 

I'm going to have to kiss you now.
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 1:42 PM |

 

You have a lovely pink nose, Squishy!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 1:42 PM |

 

Thanks for the boost, Squishy Sheep!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 1:41 PM |

 

Nine months old?!?
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 1:40 PM |

 

The 18th-century home of the first pastor of the congregation, Rev. Flohr
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 5:20 PM |

 

In 1854 (my great-grandfather was in his 60s when my grandmother was born, incidentally)
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 5:19 PM |

 

The church building over whose construction my great-great-grandfather presided
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 5:18 PM |

 

Unfortunately my only grandparent-y photo of the past weekend. Duh!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 5:16 PM |

 

Where we were last weekend
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 5:14 PM |

 
He's got Rhythm
So we went to the big Bible School celebration at church tonight (yes, Jay's too young to participate in VBS, but his Daddy plays Moses this year), and Jay applied his recently gained jumping skill to a new situation. Even though he wasn't in his doorframe jumpy seat, or his springy crib, he jumped rapidly and with enthusiam during just about every song. One kept speeding up with each new verse, and it seemed to me he was keeping up with the music. Of course, I'm a proud mama, so I could be making the whole rhythm thing up...

By the way, he's discovered he can move the walker, so he spends most of his walker time ramming into my computer chair in a "Mama, here I am; pick me up!" vein.
- posted by Lenise @ 9:24 PM |

 
Cool
An alumnus of the Washington and Lee law school is headed to Kyiv on a Fulbright!
- posted by Lenise @ 7:48 PM |

 
Funny!
Anyone need a hobby?

Via Possumblog
- posted by Lenise @ 10:26 PM |

 

Oh, Mother!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 8:16 PM |

 

Talking to the hand
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 8:16 PM |

 

Demonstrating his cat-trapping device
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 8:15 PM |

 

I think it went that-a-way
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 8:15 PM |

 
Good News, Good News, Bad News
So I saw my rheumatologist last week. During the check-in portion of my appointment, I learned that I have a net loss of about 20 lbs since becoming pregnant. My waistline doesn't seem to have gotten the news, though...

Then the good doctor told me I was in at least as good shape as I had been the last time I saw him, which was in January, before I got sick and had the Flare That Would Not End. Of course, I've been taking 1200 mg of ibuprofen a day instead of 600, but as long as it keeps the arthritis in hand, I guess that's OK!

Then the news I have been dreading. My rheumatologist is retiring. I have to find a new one =[ I have not had the best experiences dealing with medical professionals, but I've been very happy with my rheumatologist, who gave me his home number and just treated me like a person.

Well, it was good while it lasted!
- posted by Lenise @ 2:59 PM |

 
News to Me
Paul just informed me in a you're-crazy-for-thinking-otherwise manner that 77F is not hot. If we were talking outdoors, I'd be on board...
- posted by Lenise @ 3:42 PM |

 

Deep thoughts
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 6:03 PM |

 

Modeling the latest summer fashion (OK, so he's been wearing it for two months; it IS North Carolina)
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 6:02 PM |

 

Maniacally blowing raspberries
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 6:02 PM |

 

Subduing the tiger
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 6:01 PM |

 
Daddy and Baby
Paul just offered to turn pages for our piano-playing baby Jay. They're so cute together =)
- posted by Lenise @ 3:35 PM |

 
Long time, no type
Well, at least not so as y'all would know. I've been working on my MTW application when not doing the other stuff that keeps me busy (work and baby and house envy).

Paul still hasn't agreed to take me to see the house, so once I finish my application, round 2 of pleading will begin (fair warning, dear). *Sigh*

Jay enjoys kissing the baby in the mirror (you must admit, the mirror baby is very nearly as cute as he is) and making horrible faces while eating cottage cheese (though he must like it- he's always ready for more). He's even discovered jumping (in his little doorframe seat- he still doesn't like to be parked there, though). And he still hasn't figured out that he can move the walker. That's OK with us, really, since if we can get him in there, we can give him a toy and leave him there for a while and get something done without worrying what he's gotten into. (This pleases the cats as well).

I guess that's the update for now. Maybe I will think of something interesting next week!
- posted by Lenise @ 1:42 PM |

 

Uncombed Baby Jay fresh from the bathtub
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 9:55 PM |

 

Hello, bear. Welcome to my thumb!
Posted by Hello
- posted by Lenise @ 9:53 PM |