Merry Christmas

Just in case you forgot what it was all about.... Merry Christmas everyone.

Lookout Mountain Playground

Leslie and I have been having fun going to the playground on Lookout Mountain with the boys. We kind of make an afternoon of it by first picking up some Popeyes and have a little picnic at the picnic tables just up the road from the Cravens house. Then we head up to the playground and let the boys get all their energy out. The picture is of Killian sticking his head out of the fort.

on my desktop

I just noticed this image on my desktop and thought I would share. It was taken last winter, so the boys look quite different now.

My Three Sons

Elliot and Killian

Elliot and Killian

Killian's first morning

John David and Killian

A little sun for the jaundice

a little smile

Killian in a towel

Zero Birthday Party

The Homebirth: Killian and Mommy

The homebirth could not have gone any better than it did. Leslie called me at work on Friday the 12th at around 3:30 and said I should probably be wrapping things up. By the time I got home it was 4:15 or so, and I begin getting the birth tub set up and hauling the bed downstairs to the den. Thankfully my mom was here, so she was able to watch the boys during the whole process.

Killian Bourne Gidcumb

Debi Church (our midwife) showed up while I was getting things set up. Once everything was in place, Debi checked Leslie and she was at about 4.5 cm, which at the time was a bit discouraging. I think it was somewhere between 5:45 and 6:00. At that point I was able to focus on Leslie. Debi called her assistant (Michelle) and had her show up at around 6:30 or so. Shortly before Michelle arrived, Leslie's water broke. We were both glad about it because with the other two births her water did not break until after she was pushing. At around 7:00, the water in the birth tub had cooled down enough and Leslie had progressed far enough in the labor that Debi felt comfortable with Leslie getting into the tub. (I guess the idea is that if you get in the tub too early it can slow down the labor.)

After ten minutes or more of being in the tub, Leslie started with some really deep groans. Debi checked her for the second time and told Leslie she could push whenever she wanted. We could hardly believe she had progressed so quickly. Leslie started thanking God in a way that only a woman in labor could. I am hesitant to mention it because it was so personal and heart felt, but it was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. It really reminded me of people in the Old Testament busting out in a song of praise. But this was no song. Debi began to echo Leslie's words, and I could tell they were both involved in a deep mystery that as a man I could never experience. There was something special that took place between those women and their God that was just for them. I don't want to overanalyze the event because in total it was short, but there is something very special and deep in the way God meets a woman in labor.

I have some thoughts I would like to dig into surrounding natural birth, but like in many breastfeeding conversations you can really step on peoples' toes.

Well, after Leslie's praise, another contraction came along, and she gave her first push. By the third push Killian's head popped out, and by the fifth push, and in a total of 2 minutes, he was all out, into the water. It all happened so quickly. We could hardly believe it. By 7:26 he was born.

I will try to get some more pictures up shortly.

tigger and piglet

tigger and piglet

Botanical Gardens

I am behind on my "Family" blogging a bit. We went and visited the Atlanta Botanical Gardens back on August 19th and had a really great time. It was very kid friendly and the Niki art exhibit was worth the trip. The boys had a great time playing on the art, and yes they let you play on the art. Very fun. By the end of the day John David was tired and resting in the Patapum Carrier and Elliot was just about asleep in the EllaRoo Mei Tai. I have posted some pictures of the day here.

If you have not had a chance to go to the gardens, then grab your kids and head down. The Niki exhibit ends on October 31st and will probably never be back in our lifetime. If you go or have been then let me know what you thought.

Celebrating Ezzo week

TulipGirl is blogging about Ezzo week. Please stop by her blog and take a few minutes to read some of her posts. Here are two links (1 2)

This reading is not just for new parents. Make sure you know who Ezzo is so that when he and his books are brought up in conversations at church you will be able to speak intelligently about topics such as Failure to Thrive, Loss of Milk Production, Lies about Family beds (remember they use to call SIDs "Crib Death" for a reason), Cry it out, and Gary Ezzo's 2 Excommunications

Back when I went to school up at Ravencrest one of the guest speakers had a saying that still resonates with me to this day. He said: "Rules without relationship leads to rebellion". One of my biggest beefs with Ezzo is that he focuses on the rules and behavior and thus lets the relationship take the backseat. Remember that God says "...with loving-kindness I have drawn you" Jeremiah 31:3b. One easy question that we should ask while rearing our kids is: Am I drawing my kids into a relationship with me and by proxy into relationship with God, through loving-kindness? I think ultimately you could ask yourself: Am I parenting my children the way that God parents me?

Though, the problem with my last question is that a lot of Christians are so busy punishing, chastising, disciplining, and belittling themselves that they don't have a clue how God parents them. All they know is what their legalism tells them, not what God in his word has told them. Yes, it ain't pretty.

update

I have been just way too busy to blog. I think about it everyday, but I am just finding that everything else is taking precedence. So much has happened over the last month or so that I hardly know where to start.

One in the oven:
The biggest news is that Leslie is expecting. She is due in early January. We are getting excited and nervous about the whole prospect of there being five people under one roof. Leslie is reading Good Nights: The Happy Parents' Guide to the Family Bed (and a Peaceful Night's Sleep!) . We have loved having a family bed, but when Elliot came along we realized that 4 was the max number for our king size bed. We are now in the process of figuring out what our next step should be.

FoxDenLane.com:
Our little home based business adventure has been picking up over the last several months, and the two of us have been busy working on growing the site. We have a long way to go, but we are thankful the Lord has given us the growth that we have seen so far. As you probably know the hardest part of building a successful site is getting other sites to link to you, and to date that has been one of our biggest challenges. Well, if you have a website or a blog we would be so very grateful if you could give us a link. Or better yet, if you want to write a blog post about our site and bury the post way back where only search engines will find it we would be more than appreciative.

Other side projects:
On of the items that have kept me busy has been some work I did for one of the companies that we are distributors for. It was quite a fun project using google maps. I wrote a whole engine so that when the company adds a new distributor it should in most cases add that distributor to the map. You can check it out here.

Family activities:
Here lately we have been riding bikes quite a bit. Twice over the Fourth of July weekend we went up to the occoee and rode our bikes. The boys really like being pulled around, and Leslie and I are enjoying it as exercise and as a great family outing. I wish I had some of the pictures of the boys on the bike ride with me, but these of them swimming at the Ocoee will have to do.

Work:
Work has been very busy lately, and will be for the next year or so. The project I am working on is probably the largest project I will ever work on. It is not that the project itself is overly exciting, but the new technologies we are working with are fun. I wish I could go into more detail, but if I told you more I would be legally obligated to kill you.

I just remembered that I wanted to blog about some of the house projects we have going on, but I really need to get going. I hope everyone is doing well.

10 year anniversary

When I was young I can remember driving around with my dad in our old blue and white van and him telling me that I needed to start praying for my wife. I can remember him telling me that I had probably already met her. I can also remember during 2nd grade recess running up to a cute little girl by the name of Leslie Losch, and with no words being exchanged she accepted a ring from my outstretched hand.

We did not speak again for another 15 plus years. Though, when we did get back in touch we knew that God was involved, and that something special had happened on that playground years earlier.

To the love of my life who has given me the most meaningful and pleasurable decade of my life.

Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail

This is a post I have been trying to post for two weeks but I have been too busy to put it up. I did not have time to caption all the pictures, so I will have to do that later. We had a great time on this little day trip. If you are in North Georgia and have an hour or two to burn then the Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail is worth going to. Here is a link to the pictures and some info (1 ,2).

documenting the event

At the end of the fishing trip I tried to get a picture to document the event. After a few failed attempts I patted my cheek and told John David to touch his cheek to mine. So what does he do? He puts his hand on his cheek and throws the rock anyway. Talk about stream of consciousness.

picture of the two of us

becoming a man

This weekend John David and I went on our first fishing trip. It was only for a few hours, but it was a lot of fun. I've looked forward to the day when we could go fishing together since before he was born. I never really thought that you could bring a three year old fishing, but after reading Dimly Lit's blog post last year I decided to give it a try. It went surprisingly very well.

John David's First Fish

Besides the fun of being with him as he reeled in is first three fish and getting to spend a few hours together with it being just the two of us, I was struck by the importance of these man building exercises.

When we got out of the car at the lake I realized John David was not going to be able to carry anything down to the lake because we had to climb down a bunch of rocks, and he was going to need both hands to climb. So, I grabbed the two chairs, two poles, worms, and snacks and we headed down to the lake. I climb down the rocks first so that I could set everything down and then come back for him. By the time I got back he was yelling for me to help him down the rocks. I stretched out my hand for him to grab, but he was too scared to grab on. I ended up climbing part way up the rocks and scooped him up and set him on solid ground.

It was during that ten second incident that I realized the importance of my job over the next 18 years. That right now he is at the beginning of his journey and at his weakest point, and it is my job to build him up and to instill in him that he has what it takes to be a man. No, not to roughly push him into manhood, but instead to lovingly and consistently show him that he already has what it takes.

day trip to the hiwassee

I have been so busy at work that it has taken me all week to get this post together. Leslie and I packed up the boys and headed up to the Hiwassee River last Saturday. We had a great time, and the boys had more fun throwing rock than I thought possible. Here is a link to the pictures.

a song for the snow

Three days and three snow falls, we are loving it. Just as John David woke up this morning it started to snow. He was so excited. By the time I made it downstairs this is what was being sung.

itsy bitsy spider

Caveat the movie is about 12 megs, so depending on your connection it might take a while to download.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

When we woke up on Saturday morning there was suppose to be some snow on the ground, but only Signal Mountain and Lookout Mountain ended up with any. Being the storm chaser that I am, I packed up Leslie and the boys and we went to find some snow.

John David and Elliot really loved it. We ended up finding a soccer field somewhere on Signal Mountain that had a pretty good blanket of snow. When John David noticed the pine trees on the other side of the field he yelled "Christmas Trees" and took off toward them. Elliot followed right behind.

Elliot and John David's first taste of snow

a little sledding

Oh yea, last night we got two inches here at our house so once the boys wake up we will be doing some sledding at our house. I will post some pictures if I get any good ones.

our little groundhog

Well, our little groundhog turns the big 3 years old today. I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone! We are glad to report that he saw his shadow this morning. Okay, he got up just after 7 this morning so there was no light for us to do the shadow test, but a close friend of his saw his shadow, which will do. Yes the Gidcumb household is happy about the prolonged winter.

John David had a little party this past weekend with a few friends. He had a great time playing and eating some of the delicious cupcakes that Leslie made. As you can see from the picture he most enjoyed the homemade chocolate icing -- he ate it right off the top.

Tonight is the real celebration, so I will post some pictures if I get any.

John David's Party

sir goony's

yea, I pretty much rock

the snake charmer

Elliot Teething

Well if you have a good connection then you might want to check out the video of Elliot teething. It is funny and sad all at once. He must have used John David's toy sander for a half hour or more. We finally had to take it from him because his lip was getting real red. If you have a good connection then feel free to click the image. I think the movie is about 7 megs.
Enjoy.

teething

childhood amnesia and helping your child remember

I have always been surprised when talking to people how little of their very early childhood they remember. I'm one of those people who have an inordinate amount of memories of those very early years. My first memories start somewhere around 2.5 years of age. It is possible that I have memories stretching back before the age of 2.5 but I am not able to tie all my memories to a dated event. Though, I just have too many memories for some of them not to be much closer to 2 than 2.5.

Well, a month or so ago I started doing some research on early childhood memory and why I seemed to be the only person that I knew who had very early memories. Evidently Freud called the phenomenon childhood amnesia and of course he had some off the wall reason for it occurring. He theorized that childhood amnesia occurs when a young mind blocks out unsuitable impressions or emotional trauma, which he considered a universal human experience. It is funny to think that if I used his reasoning then I had the most normal childhood of anyone I know. I did have a pretty good early childhood thought, but I don't think it was that good. The vast majority of my memories are of time spent in groups of three or less. I guess I have a dozen or more memories when my whole family was together in the same room. On the other hand I have at least a hundred memories of time spent with just one or two other people.

That said, I ended up tracking down this article from the American Psychological Association's Monitor on psychology. I have been kind of excited about it ever since I found it. I guess it just answered a lot of questions that I have had floating around in my head for years. What surprised me the most is that a child's ability to remember his\her early childhood has more to do with the culture the child was reared than anything else. For example:

Researchers have found that depending on your culture there can be a two year span between early memories. What helps someone remember or not remember their early childhood is the way parents and other adults discuss--or don't discuss--the events in children's lives.

I'm not really sure if there is any benefit in having early childhood memories, but for some reason Leslie and I want to promote it in our children's lives. Before John David could really communicate we started talking to him about places we just went or activities we had just finished. For instance if we went to a lake and saw boats on the water we would talk to him about the boats on the way home and ask him if he remembered them or we would ask him if he liked the boats. It wasn't too long after he could somewhat communicate that he started saying "member" "member" when we were talking about something.

I think along the same line as John David's "member" "member" I don't remember to much conversation. I just see the events as I would see a movie with the sound off, but I still have some kind of running commentary in the background. For the most part I think this is due to the fact that I was very young and my speech was probably quite limited.

In the article they have a section on "high-elaborative" versus "low-elaborative" mothering.

One of my favorite things to do is after the bedtime books have been read and the lights are off and things have gotten quiet I will ask him if he remembered either something about the story we just read or about something we did that day. It must be working because a few days ago it had gotten too late to crack open a book so I just put him in bed without reading anything. He really was not going to take me not reading him a book, so I decided to compromise by trying to tell him a story. Within a few seconds he got real quite as I told him the are you my mother story. After telling him a story or two I asked him to tell me a story, and to my surprise he busted out into a song. He was singing a song about his Grandpa Losch and some of the events that transpired during the visit during Christmas. He was even singing about Lindsey and her stuffed animal puppy. It really surprised me because he is just 34 months and he was singing a song about an event that had happened more than a week earlier.

Again, I am not sure that having early childhood memories is an important thing, but if two years is the spread then it seems like an awful long time not to remember anything. I look back on those early childhood memories quite fondly, so I want to foster that in our children. So I guess the word is, if you want to foster early memories in your child's life then get started with some good open ended questions.

So, when were you first memories?

Mr. Elliot Turns One

Elliot Turns One

living an eternally insignificant life:

I guess this picture was taken back in late October. I realized this morning that I had not given this friendly fellow his 15 minutes of fame. You know, the life of a turtle can be sad, lonely, and bathed in the realization that his life is one of no real eternal significance. With all that in mind I thought I would oblige him.

Feel free to say anything you want to him. I will try and relay the messages if and when he reappears next summer.

Let me be honest

My dad every year tends to give us self-help books for Christmas. I think it tends to conjure up a bit of angst on the part of all of us kids for one reason or the other. I would bet just about all the money in the world that I am the only one of my siblings that actually reads the books he gives. The main reason I read the books is not because I want to "get better", but because I want to honor my dad and respect him in the position God has placed him in. Yes, I realize that I am 30+ years old, but I still feel God has placed him in my life and that part of honoring the position Christ has placed him in is to accept his leadership.

All of that said my parents were passing through on Saturday and dad gave me one of my Christmas presents early. He gave me Joel Osteen's book Daily Readings from Your Best Life. I have to admit that I am not excited about it at all, but as usual I am going to read it. The problem is that I am so cynical about the whole Christian 7 step books. I have really begun to dislike popular Christian fad books. You know, the let me chop it up and feed it to you on a rubber baby spoon kind of Christian books.

Well, since this is a devotional book Leslie and I are going to read it together. Last night was our first night. It was pretty good. The first devotion had to do with Hebrews 11 and faith. He used the Hebrews faith passage to talk about following God by faith to wherever He has called us. His point was God either puts a drive in our heart like Abrahams father to go to Canaan (promise land) or a direct call in our lives like he did with Abraham. The problem is that like Abrahams father, we get comfortable at some point in our journey and settle in a land that is nice but not everything God has intended for us. Olsteen's call was for us to continue the journey we started. That we should take the land He has given us, and that we should not grow complacent with what God has already blessed us with.

All in all it was a good read. Leslie and I had some interesting discussions afterwards. But truthfully, there is something about books like this that rub me the wrong way. Dad says it is my inner negative self talk that has conditioned me to fight positive influence in my life. There is probably some truth to his point. I think part of my legalistic sensibilities just stops me from drinking in God's grace and blessings in my life. Am I the only one or am I just over thinking it?

Mid week vacation at the Rock City cornfield maze

Rock City Maze Leslie, Elliot, John David

Yesterday I took off and we went to Rock City Enchanted Maize. In spite of the fact that it was in the mid 80's and felt nothing like fall we had a great time. Well, it did not start out that way. When we got there we decided to go through the maze first. The first thing you noticed when starting the maze was that there was a net on either side of the trail to keep people from making short cuts. On top of being just unsightly John David tripped a few times on all the net that had been pulled down into the path. One time he fell pretty hard and was crying a good bit. Leslie and I were both upset about paying so much and it being such a mess. There was even a bunch of trash in there. I think they should have had staff member walk through the maze from time to time to tidy it back up. We are usually not ones to complain to a manager about such things but we did talk to the manager about it. But, he just gave some excuses as to why it was such a mess. It was really bad. No really, it was a total mess. It was so bad that we only did half the maze.

John David in the Rock City Enchanted Maize

Okay enough of that; back to the good times. After the maze we ate a snack and headed to do the hay ride before we left. John David loved the ride. What made it even better is that we were the only ones on the trailer. The ride was only about 10 minutes but we had a good enough time that our spirits began to lift. After the ride we headed over to the kids section where they had this other ride, which is kind of hard to explain so just look over at the picture of Leslie, John David and Elliot. All three had a lot of fun. I think they road around the little field three or more times. John David was ecstatic with joy. I took a lot of film with my camcorder and can't wait to watch it. The pictures just don't do it justice. Elliot looks miserable in the picture but he wasn't. It was just that split second he looked like that.

After the little ride we swung on the swings and did the seesaw/teeter-totter. They also had a few animals for the little ones to look at. Surprisingly, I think John David was having too much fun on the toys to really be interested in the animals. Though come to think of it, when I was getting him in bed last night he was trying to tell me something about the pigs having dirty nooses and them trying to eat, so I guess those little pigs did not totally get past him.

the three in the maze

As we headed out we stopped by the kid's maze. John David and I had a lot of fun chasing each other through the bails of hay. I think he could have stayed longer but Leslie and I were getting tired so we decided to head home. Plus by that time it was 3:30 and neither of the boys had had a nap, so we wanted to get them to bed a little early.

I'm going to try and get a page together with all our pictures of the day on it. Yea, don't hold your breath….

went for a walk

left to right: John David, me, Elliot

Last night Leslie and I took the boys for a walk around the neighborhood. The weather has been nice the last several days. I think it has been getting down to the low 50's at night, so by the time I get home the weather is perfect for a walk.

I have been looking for the leaves to start turning, but no luck so far. I'm starting to think that this fall is not going to be as nice as I would like. The weather has been crazy and it is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's here in ole' Chattanooga by the end of the week. You would think that by October 18th the weather would have turned. I'm still holding out hope for a good winter. I want to be able to bring the boys sledding. I think they would have a blast.

It has been over a year since I've posted a picture of myself, so I though this one would fill that void in everyone's life. :-) The picture is from our walk last night. I think this is the first picture I have posted of the three of us.

Got to go...

Elliot's first tooth

Elliot's first tooth

Dang is he growing fast. Elliot got his first tooth about a week ago and I am just now getting around to documenting it. Boy does the kid like to smile. He got that and the blue eyes from his mother.

For some reason I was just reminded of the time when I was at Food Lion buying some groceries. I guess it was about eight months ago when John David had just turned two. I was at the checkout with John David on my shoulders and there was an old lady behind us in line. John David and the lady were giving each other the eyes and smiling back and forth to each other while I was trying to get my wallet out of my pocket. I guess the flirting went back and forth between the two for a minute or so while I was taking care of business. After I had finished paying she started to make small talk with me. She asked me what his name was and then she busts out with:
"Boy oh boy he sure does look like you, but don't worry he will grow out of it."

The old lady had a quick wit about her and all of us, including the checkout lady, started laughing.

Hurricane refugees II

Not exactly refugees, but pretty close. My parents are on the way up to stay for two nights before heading up to just outside of Ashville where my brother's lives. They are planning to stay there for a month. My parents sell legal insurance and that kind of work has dried up for the time being, so they are headed this way to work with part of their organization in Ashville.

They wanted to head up this way two weeks ago but due to the repairs needed they had to stick around. They finally got electricity two days ago and were able to get all the repairs to their house and rental house complete. I don't expect them until really late tonight because they did not get off until after five. They spent the better part of the day trying to wrap up loose ends. I think on of the things they had to do was hang two new mail boxes. My sister Jeannie and her family will be moving into my parent's house while they are gone because she still does not have electricity, and from what I hear it could still be quite some time till she does.

Last Gulfshore Baptist Assembly post: (maybe)

Gulf Shore Baptist Assembly -- Click image for better view

I have been getting an awful lot of hits regarding the Gulfshore Baptist Assembly conference center. When I was a kid my parents taught the children at a CBMC conferences that was held there every year. I have a lot of fond memories of the place and am saddened to see the place in ruins.

At first I had not realize how badly damaged the place was until I saw this image. I got the image from here. I can hardly believe how badly damaged the place is. From the satellite images it just looked like the windows and curtains were blown out all over the lawn. It is hard to believe but the cinderblocks between the rooms on the first and second floors where completely blown out.

If you end up here looking for news on the Gulfshore Baptist Assembly center then please leave a comment and let me know you came.

Grandma Mac is fine

hurricane update and a few pictures

I have not blogged in a several days due to busyness. The last of our hurricane Katrina refugees are heading back to Louisiana today. We had a really good visit. I have some pictures of some of the damage to the North Shore posted here. Heather and Colt headed back on Friday or Saturday to be honest I can't remember. The days have all run together. Konrad and Roger headed back with them on a reconnaissance mission, so I had them bring my camera down to snap some pictures. They were trying to find out when the power would be turned back on and also to check on Karen's house. Her house seemed to fair better than my parents.

On to other news, Heather is headed today to Jefferson Parish with Leslie's godmother to check on Grandma Mac. We look forward to some good news.

Hurricane update and a little site seeing

Cravens House Lookout Mountain

Well we have heard from most everyone now. There is still no word from Leslie's grandmother. We would expect that she would be being evacuated. It looks like late at night is the best time to get phone calls through.

We all decided to do a few hours of site seeing last night so we headed up to Lookout Mountain. We headed up to the Cravens House and sunset rock. The view from both was nice. I total forgot to take a picture of Sunset Rock because I was holding on to John David. I did take a few pictures at the Cravens House. The picture that was to the right is of Aunt Heather and John David at one of the Civil war monuments. It has since been removed. :-)

hurricane update:

Well I just heard from my mom. They are all safe. In her words:
"It is unreal here. Just trying to keep body and soul together is a daily chore."

It looks like it could be up to 2 months until all electrical service is restored on the North Shore. Cleco (the electric company) is going to have more hard and fast timelines publish tomorrow morning. It looks like my parents will be heading up to North Carolina if they can get enough gas to get out of there. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place because they have to do a bit of repair on their home and rental home before they can leave, but while there they have to use their gas to run a small generator to be able to pump water and keep food cool. I don't see them getting out of there anytime soon.

More later...

hurricane update....

Well, the only family we have heard from is Leslie's brother Max. He lives in Baton Rouge, which weathered the storm quite well. Besides him we have no clue as to the well being of everyone else.

We feel pretty certain that everyone in St. Tammany parish is okay. Though, we have not been able to get any word to know for certain. Since St. Tammany was one of the hardest hit areas they are not allowing any one to return. The official word is from the state is:
IF YOU HAVE EVACUATED ST. TAMMANY PARISH, DO NOT RETURN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. THE PARISH IS CLOSED.

That being the case, it looks like we will have family visiting for at least several more days. It's nice to have Heather up here as well. She and colt are trying to get some site seeing in while they are her in Chattanooga. Now that it is not raining they should be able to see some of the outside places they have not been able to go and see.

Last night was great. Karen brought a gallon of oysters up with her so I fried up a few dozen and we made a huge gumbo with smoke turkey and about 50 oysters. It was a great meal. John David and Elliot have been enjoying having Nicholas to play with. I have not gotten any pictures yet but probably will tonight.

The national coverage of the hurricane has been crap, but if you have a good internet connection you can get really good coverage through here. It is from one of the news stations in New Orleans. They have a live video news feed. They are doing a great job of flying over the city so all the refuges can get some idea as to the condition of their homes.

We still have not heard from Leslie's grandmother. I would expect that we would hear something from her in the next several days. It looks like they are evacuating the city, so I would expect Leslie's mom would get a phone call at some point.

One way or the other if you are so inclined to pray then do it.

Hurricane refugees...

Just a quick update, if you don't know already about 90% of our families live in and around New Orleans. In total that is about 30 family members. Well, five of them woke us up this morning by throwing sticks at our windows. We had invited them to come up earlier in the day but after boarding up their windows they thought they would ride out the storm. At around 4:30 yesterday afternoon they realized it was a good opportunity for them to get out of harms way and to pay us a visit, so they headed our way.

The thing was Leslie's ringer was off and we never got the message. So, this morning early I started hearing what I thought was rocks hitting the window. Being that we have no family or anyone hear that would feel comfortable throwing rocks at our windows, it kind of freaked me out for a minute. We are glad to have them here and safe. It took them 12 hours to do the normal 7 hour trip. The traffic was so bad that they were going 10 mph for about 5 hours, and that was with both sides of interstate traffic headed north all the way from Slidell to about 60 north of Hattiesburg MS.

We have not heard anything for family members that are down there. We have been trying to get in touch but all land lines and cell towers are down. It could be quite some time until they could get through. I am sure they are okay. We are most worried about Leslie's grandmother because she refused to leave New Orleans. She is a very strong and hard headed woman that is in her 80's, but we are sure she is fine. I hope I don't step on any toes with that last sentence.

Well, I need to get going we have a full house.

is this normal :-)

Life is Good!

I was thinking about Michael's post about almost losing all of his pictures and decided to burn all mine to DVD just in case. While in the process of trying to burn all those images I came across this image. I'm not quite sure how I missed this one the first time around!

Family Visit: wave 3

Kyle, Logan, John David, Blake

Well, my sister Jeannie and her husband Jay and their three boys, Logan, Kyle, and Blake came in for a visit while on their way up to the CBMC conference in North Carolina. They came in at about midnight and left the next morning at around 11:00. We had a good little visit. I was good to be able to see them and their boys. They have grown so much. John David was quite surprised when he woke up the next morning and found the house full of people. He was excited to have three playmates that were full of energy and ready to go.

After they had eaten some pancakes and were full of energy from the honey I was able to get them to stand still long enough to take a serious picture and a crazy picture.

Jeannie: I have a few more pictures if you want me to send them to you. Let me know.

acting crazy

Note to self:

old photo

1977 at CBMC

My Aunt Sandy came across this picture and sent it my way via e-mail. She saw where I had mentioned the CBMC conference that my parents were headed to teach. The South East CBMC conference use to be held at Covenant Collage up until the mid 80's or so, and this picture is of me back in 1977 at the age of three standing in front of Covenant College.

Thank for the picture Sandy!

old photo

1977 at CBMC

My Aunt Sandy came across this picture and sent it my way via e-mail. She saw where I had mentioned the CBMC conference that my parents were headed to teach. The South East CBMC conference use to be held at Covenant Collage up until the mid 80's or so, and this picture is of me back in 1977 at the age of three standing in front of Covenant College.

Thank for the picture Sandy!

Family Visit: wave 2

blueberry on the finger

... My parents arrived on Sunday evening and hung around until Wednesday afternoon. We had a good time. Dad and I were able to knock out a few little projects during their visit. My Dad is the type that does not just like to sit around, so I have to put on my thinking cap as far as projects go.

One thing we did that was fun was to go Blueberry picking. There is a little farm about 3 minutes down the road that has a bunch of Blueberry bush, and you can pick your own for 1$ a pound. It is a pretty good deal. We ended up with 11 pounds in about 45 minutes.

I don't think I got the address exactly right, but if you look closely at the satellite picture then you can see the blueberry bushes under the red dot.

blueberry on the chin

Elliot got a little sun burned on his right leg because his leg was hanging out of the wrap. John David had a ball though. At one point I had not heard from him in a while so I kind of nervously started looking around for him. It only took me about two seconds to find him about twenty feet away tucked under a bush and filling his belly. Yea don't worry; I tossed in an extra 50 cents when paying because I know the kid must have eaten a half pound.

I figured he was occupying himself so I just let him eat. Leslie found me about ten minutes later and asked if I had seen John David. I pointed her to the bush. She started laughing and then grabbed my camera and headed over to where he was. The three pictures in this post are the ones she took.

On the way back to our house after the berry picking my Dad noticed a tree on the side of the road that had been partially cut up and tossed out for the city to pick up. That was just the project he was looking for. I tried to convince him that my chainsaw did not work, but he just viewed the broken chainsaw as another project. So, after dropping Elliot, John David, Leslie, and my Mom off at the house we ended up back at the tree to load up as much as we could into the back of my pickup.

Now I have enough fire wood for the winter. All I have to do is split it, which should take me well into winter until I get it done.

elliot hanging around on mommy

We had a really good visit with the parents and wrapped up several projects in the process. My parents headed out on Wednesday morning to visit my brother before the yearly CBMC conference at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina that they teach at. My sister and her family came in on Saturday before the conference started. I'll save that for the next post...

Family Visit: wave 1

Nicholas and John David

I've been really sparse on posts lately. I have a ton of things rattling around in my head, but just no time to get them into ones and zeros.

It is the time of year where our families either come up to visit us or is either passing through to bigger and better places. Leslie's mom and nephew were the first to make it our way. They came on either Wednesday or Thursday night and stayed until Sunday morning. We had a good time.

John David had a good time playing with Nicholas. It was touch and go from time to time, though. He is use to having all of his toys to himself, so when it came to sharing there was a bit of a learning curve. There was a time or two when John David and Nicholas got into it. I have never seen John David act in such a way. It was quite strange. At one point John David and Nicholas were on the back porch playing with these two little cars that you can sit on and kind of push around with your feet. I only caught the beginning of it out of the corner of my eye, but I think Nicholas grabbed the car John David was playing with so John David tried to pull it away from him. Nicholas got mad and hit John David. John David hit Nicholas and they both started swatting at each other. By the time I got over to them Nicholas was just about to lock his teeth into John David's left hand, which was still firmly grasping the back of the car. They were both very angry and I'm not sure how long it would have gone on if someone had not stopped it.

I guess those little incidences will happen when an 18 and 29 month old play with each other, but regardless it was a little sad to see.

Enough of that…..

I got a chance to run out to the Chattanooga Greenway and pick 12 or so cups of blackberries. I made a pretty good (if I do say so myself) blackberry cobbler on Saturday night. The recipe was out of the 1999 Southern Living cookbook and it is one I will make again.

blackberry cobbler

On Sunday Karen and Nicholas left. Judging by John David's attitude change he must have had a much better time playing with his cousin then I was aware of. Once they left he just quietly moped around the house. It was quite sad. I gave him one of his Richard Scarry books to look at but he was much more subdued than normal while looking at it. He just stood there quietly in front of the couch flipping through the pages.

Luckily my parent showed up at the end of the day, and he quickly popped out of his little sadness.

More latter....

i buy eggs for a living

Yesterday while on the phone with Leslie she told me that John David thought I was buying groceries. The way it came up was she was talking to him about me being at work and he started saying something like cereal, strawberries, blueberries,…

We think his understanding of what working was occurred when I told him that I had to go to work so we could eat.

Well, this morning as I was heading out of the house I yelled up the stairs to tell Leslie that I was leaving for work. She yelled back to me from one of the rooms to have a good day. I then heard her tell John David to go tell daddy good bye.

This was John David's response once he got to the gate and peered down at me from the top of the stairs. Mind you he was yelling at me from the top of his lungs.

John David: Bye Bye.
Me: Bye Bye booger. Daddy is going to work.
John David: Work Eggs. Get Eggs work.
Me: Daddy works on computers at the work office (vs our home office)
John David: Eggs Work Eggs.
Me: Daddy is going to the work office not the grocery store.
John David: Eggs

Realizing that it will probably take several months to clear up the confusion I headed to work laughing.

got my scanner hooked up

leslie 2nd or 3rd grade

Well, I am finally getting around to hooking up my scanner after more than 7 months of living here on fox den lane. I was looking for a picture to test with and found this one of Leslie sitting behind me on the bed. I think she was in second or third grade. Enjoy.

breastfeeding makes her uncomfortable

Barbara Walter's Breastfeeding Comment

I'm not sure if we really need another reason not to watch The View, but for all those women who think breastfeeding is a very important part of mothering, then you might want to watch this clip.

How absurd!

father's day

Click to view Commercial

Yesterday was great. I had a great time with the wife and boys. The morning started off with several cappuccinos while watching Sunday Morning on CBS. They had a great segment on about how on tv the American father is portrayed as borderline stupid and inept. I wish CBS had a better link because they did a great job on that story. I'm glad that secular media is finally talking about this issue. The way the American father is portrayed in sitcoms like Everyone Loves Raymond, According to Jim, Still Standing, and Yes Dear has aggravated me for a long time and I'm glad someone is talking about it. If you still don't know what I'm talking about then check out the movie clip of the Verizon wireless commercial that was yanked after a fairly large uproar by fathers.

Dad Shirt

Back to fathers day, after Sunday Morning was over Leslie prepared a smorgasbord of homemade banana, chocolate chip, banana chocolate chip and plain pancakes. They were very good! After our 12 o'clock breakfast John David and I took a long three hour nap. Luckily I woke up about 15 minutes before he did so I was able to slowly wake him up with tickles. He thought it was so funny. He just laughed and giggled while trying to get away from me by rolling to the other side of the bed.

Once we had our fill of tickling we headed downstairs for presents. Leslie and the boys got me two gifts. She got me a powerball and a t-shirt. I guess it shows that I have reached a certain level of geekness when the wife starts buying clothes with binary on them. For those who don't know the shirt says DAD in binary. Here is a link to an ASCII chart if you're interested.

After the gifts we headed to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner. I remember Reardo saying in a post a while back that he is always a little disappointed when he goes out for steak because he knows he could have cooked it better himself, and as a grilling fanatic I felt the same way.

We ended the night by watching Finding Neverland . It was a good movie if you could get past Johnny Depp's un-American behavior.

It was a great father's day. I fell asleep thanking God for the family He has given me. I am truly thankful.

Atlanta Vacation

Leslie and Elliot ontop of Stone Mountain

Well we just got back tonight and everyone is asleep except for me. I took Friday and today off from work for a little vacation. The vacation was taken under the guise of being my birthday, but in all actuality we just needed a vacation.

We headed down to Atlanta to go to the Atlanta Zoo and Stone Mountain. We had a really great time. We got down there on Friday evening and checked into the Holiday Inn express which was about five minutes from Stone Mountain. After changing rooms because the first room was dirty we left because the second room was a bit nasty. We were pretty disappointed because Holiday Inn Express had been our hotel of choice. For the last six or so years we have always sought them out because they were always very clean and they would have a newspaper at your door when you woke up, but this one was really bad. We left the Holiday Inn Express and headed down the street to the Country Inn and Suits. It was perfect.

After the whole hotel change we did not have a chance to do anything on Friday so we ordered a pizza from this little pizzeria in a strip mall. I think I can say that it was the best pizza I have ever had. They also had these baked pretzels, which were very good.

Elliot on the train ride

On Saturday we got up and headed to the park. I was pretty excited about going because I have all kinds of fond memories of Stone Mountain from when I was a kid and use to go there with my Aunt Sandy. I was a little nervous because I though it might not be as good as I remembered. It was even better. Well, except for the lasershow. John David totally freaked out when the fireworks started. And there were hicks screaming “The South will rise again” during the show, but I guess that is what you should expect when you visit a park that themed off of President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson being carved on the side of the mountain. I digress.

John David before the Laser Show

On Saturday we went up the Mountain, rode the train, did the lasershow(kind of) and went for a swim.

On Sunday we rode the boat, went up the mountain, drove around the park, went to the mill, and visited the plantation. We could have easily spent another day or so just hiking, doing the water slide, and visiting the museums. We will most certainly go back again.

It is getting late and I need to get some sleep before work tomorrow.

...Oh yea, and today we went to the zoo. I've been to better zoos but the Atlanta Zoo beats the Chattanooga zoo by a mile. Though, the Chattanooga Zoo is worth going to just because it is sooo sad. Really it is. By the way, I hope the link I just provided to the chatt zoo is not the official zoo home page because if it is it just proves my point.

the teletubbies in my house

Leslie and I have both been baffled over John David's interest in Teletubbies. Yes, Teletubbies. After watching just part of an episode before Leslie turned the station, he began running around the house saying: "Tuby tuby". "Tuby tuby". "Tuby tuby". It took Leslie a few days to figure out what he was saying. I think it was not until John David noticed a commercial on PBS with the Teletubbies in it before she figured out what he was saying. Since then she has let him watch them a few times and he has become their biggest fan.

That being the case, I decided to sit down with John David this past weekend to see what the hullabaloo was all about. I tell you the Teletubbies are just strange! In short they are little baby creatures that run around with TV's in their bellies and have antennas on their heads.

According to Jerry Falwell Tinky Winky (the purple tubbie) is gay because he carries a red handbag. In the episode I saw Tinky Winky was not sporting the red handbag, but I guess he does at times.

The more I hear from Jerry Springer I mean Falwell the more I think he might be a dingbat. Talk about someone always looking for a conspiracy! I think every 2 year old has gone into their mother's closet and put on the first pair of shoes they find. Does that make them gay? I think Falwell might be off his rocker.

Well here are a few Teletubbie links if you are interested:

• Teletubbies BBC
• Teletubbies PBS-Kids

greenway

Elliot sleeping

Yesterday's afternoon we decided to head to the shady side of the North Chickamauga Creek Green way for a walk. As much as I dislike Chattanooga's winter weather I have to admit that living in Chattanooga has its perks. There are so many great walking paths, green ways, blue ways, playgrounds, and parks here in ole Chatt. I have not been to any other city that has so much free family friendly activities to offer. I look forward to getting a canoe when the boys get a bit older and hitting some of the blue ways.

While growing up just north of New Orleans in Covington Louisiana we lived for 4 or 5 years on the Abita River. I use to love to jump in the old pirogue and paddle over and under all the fallen trees in the Abita. The wildlife you get to encounter while quietly paddling on a river is an experience I want to pass onto the boys.

taking a break on a greenway bench

By the way, I wish the city of Chattanooga would put some more effort into their website. It does not do justice to what we have

mr. elliot

Elliot on Leslie's B-Day

It has been a while since I've posted a picture of Mr. Elliot. He is really growing up so fast. Today was his 5 month birthday. It's hard to believe. He just loves hanging out in the sling. He is constantly smiling and laughing.

Other news, I have been having some pain in my left kidney that has been more than uncomfortable the last few days. I went to the doctor about it today and he was pretty convinced it was not a kidney stone. He is sending me in for a cat scan in the morning. So I am pumping myself up for the barium breakfast. Oh, I can't wait.

he called me a fundie

Talk about little things that can make your day.

I'm the head of "one of those Bush-loving Christian fundie families:"

friday the 13th activities

Leslie with the cat at Southeastern Salvage

I took last Friday off from work to celebrate Leslie's birthday. We had a good time. We spent the first part of the day shopping at antique and salvage stores. We ended up buying three items. A teak end table, a chair for John David, and another small table that I am not sure what we are going to do with. It was a good deal at only $10 but I'm still not sure what we will do with it. After the shopping was done we went out to eat at Macaroni Grill. It was not a good as I had remembered from when we ate at the one in Atlanta about 7 years ago.

If I'm not mistaken this was the first time we had gone out to eat by ourselves since Elliot was born. We had a good time.

Leslie with the man
at the InSyde OutSyde Shop

After we ate we ended up back at the house so the boys could take naps before heading down to the grand opening celebrations for the new water front in downtown Chattanooga. The new water front is very nice, and John David had a great time running around while listening to the music in the background. Well, I don't guess it was all music because we did get to hear Zack Wamp speak for a few minutes.

I think we left the grand opening at around 9:30 and then headed back home to get the boys in bed. We finished the night by having birthday margaritas and watching The Notebook. Yea, she picked it out. :) To give her credit she also picked out Hotel Rwanda, which was both disturbing and good.

playing catchup

It has been 17 days since my last post. I think I've just set a new gid record, hopefully not to be broken again. Being that it has been so long let me do some catching up with this post.

We went to North Caroline for the mini family reunion. Here is a page with some pictures of the highlights.

Once we got back John David and I got really sick. I think he ran a temperature of 102 or better for about 4 days. John David and I had some good bonding time as we snuggled up together sick in bed. I took a picture of him right before we went to bed one evening. He just looked pitiful. Here is a picture to prove it. Poor kid!

sick in bed

Last weekend the River Chase subdivision had a garage sale and we decided to sell a few things. At midnight on Friday while Leslie and I were setting out the things we did have to sell, we broke out into laughter when we realized that our garage sale was so pitiful that it looked like we had already had the garage sale and all that was left was the junk. It was very funny. Though, it might have been tha