The Thoughts and Adventures of Michael R.

2011-01-18T21:42:00.001-05:00

It should be obvious by now that I no longer post here. Once I finally broke down and created a Facebook account a year and a half ago, I've only posted there.

2009-07-30T08:03:00.003-04:00

So it's been nearly 6 months for an update this time. Sigh. Let's see - both Merrie and I are a year older now.

The boys did pretty well in their various schools. Sydney moves up to middle school and Stephan will be a senior. Samuel moves on to 3 year old preschool class if he gets potty trained in the next month. He apparently likes to "read" books now though.

Stephan just turned 19. He's been working at the White Violet Center for Eco-justice at St. Mary's again this summer, dealing with pretty much everything in their garden or caring for alpacas.

Sydney and I did an overnight backpack trip the end of May to test out some new equipment I'd bought or made in hopes of future trips. He had his first Boy Scout camp and completed 2 merit badges and many of his requirements for the first 3 ranks despite having a badly twisted ankle that prevented him from walking for a week prior. He even won the Golden K award for the first aid area for his standout attitude. 4 days after we returned we went whitewater rafting in southern KY. That was his first time and mine in 25 years. They earned a merit badge for that as well.

Our whole family decided to attend Soulfeast again despite the economics, and it was a great time had by all at Lake Junaluska, NC. We got there a little late since my grandparents celebrated 70 years together (about a month early) in northern OH the day it started. It was good to see many of my cousins again, too. After Soulfeast, I embarked on my first major backpacking trip, spanning 11 days in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I'm looking forward to more trips and hoping Sydney will join me on some.

No, the remodeling isn't done yet. :p I do have all the drywall up in the foyer and stairwell so I can now mud that and then work on finishing that part and the upstairs. It will have taken more than a year by the time I get this portion finished though. :(

2009-02-01T13:18:00.005-05:00

OK, so it's been almost 5 MONTHS since I last wrote. I guess you can say life's been busy, but things are going pretty well for the most part. So let's see...

Sydney is now 11, played basketball at the Boys & Girls Club again this fall, and is at least keeping his grades at an almost decent level right now. He's still a big LEGO and Star Wars freak and spent $150 of his saved money for large Star Wars LEGO sets. He won his Pack's Pinewood Derby this year, after not racing at all last year and having to twist his arm to do it this time on his last chance as a Cub Scout. That's right, our boy is now going over into Boy Scouts and dad is excited. The Arrow of Light ceremony is Feb 9.

Stephan was co-student director of the fall school play and will be student director for the spring one, Into the Woods. He is still keeping himself above a 3.0 GPA, too. He's looking to start school at Ivy Tech next year and then transfer for a filmmaking degree of some type. He constantly changes his hair style/color so you never know what to expect when you see him - he looks somewhat normal in this pic.

Samuel is still a terror - likely more so than 5 months ago. We can't keep ahead of him. He really does know his manners and is fun to play with though and is a joy to be around most of the time. He loves to help us work around the house and check on Pastor Tim working upstairs. He likes to see and talk with my parents on Skype, and is somewhat confused when they are able to be here in person. We had one of the largest snows on record recently, and he had a blast sledding down what hills we have here. He also moved into a real bed a couple weeks ago - it's a small race car.

Merrie and I still work though my business has obviously been fairly slow for the most part. The upstairs remodeling is STILL not done (typical for my home improvement projects), but we're getting close! Here is what will be our new bedroom where the bathroom used to be.

Unfortunately, we'll have to slow way down once the upstairs is done since I haven't been bringing in much money, but I still hope to have the downstairs mostly done by year end.

2008-09-08T22:04:00.002-04:00

Sam started preschool last week and seems to be taking to it pretty well. He's also starting to speak some new words as if he needs any help "talking". He's not been anything like his father as a small child in that regard.

I spent Labor Day weekend in prison, sharing Jesus with a group of residents through Kairos Prison Ministry, and it was awesome to see God move so powerfully in the lives of ALL men present. This was the first event at this facility and I plan to work many more.

While I was behind bars, Merrie and the boys were camping for the first time in many years (1st ever for Sam) and reconnecting with old friends. They all seemed to have an enjoyable time.

We've also started remodeling our house. The entire second floor is gutted right now. Since we're moving the bathroom, I'm trying to figure out how to get the drains and vents in a convenient location while still passing code.

I heard Alistair Begg say these words Sunday and since they stuck with me for some reason I thought I should share: For the grace of God reveals one who loves us so much so as to make Calvary possible and to hate sin so much so as to make Calvary necessary.

2008-08-12T10:53:00.006-04:00

Samuel has made it to 2 years old today. We had a family party on Saturday that turned out quite well considering his parents' busy schedules recently. Today however he got the promised haircut everyone has been pestering me about. He did quite well with the razor and doesn't seem to miss his hair.

Then we took him outside to show him his real present some friends had given us a year and a half ago when they moved.

It looks like he may get some competition from Merrie to use it though.

And how many kids can say they had a birthday peanut butter sandwich on a hotdog bun?

2008-07-29T21:06:00.005-04:00

We hit another milestone today as Stephan turned 18. There were 15 family and friends that helped him celebrate at Gerhardt's Bierstube, the local German restaurant.

His German teacher was able to alter her schedule so she could wait on us. She was the one who led his trip to Greece as well.

We even did the traditional German birthday cheer, which involves lifting him in the chair three times.

I suppose our next milestone will be at 21 since it's 7+ years for Sydney to hit 18.

Meanwhile Samuel has 2 weeks to go before he reaches 2 and is on the verge of being able to climb onto the kitchen counters. God help us!

2008-07-29T17:02:00.002-04:00

Soulfeast 2008 at Lake Junaluska, NC, turned out to be a blessed time once again. It was good to get back after missing the past two because of Samuel, who still made it a challenge at times, and we were blessed to have both sets of parents/grandparents join us this year. Again we drove down on Saturday and spent the night at my parents house near Burnsville, NC, before driving the hour and a half to LJ to register Sunday afternoon.

They had a good mix of plenary speakers and workshops so even our fathers found something that interested them. I believe it was the first conference of this type either had experienced. There were really too many choices so at least for the rest of us we had to miss out on some things we would have liked to have seen.

I'll admit my recent "obsession" with photography, especially time-lapse and waterfalls, caused me to not be as focused as I should have been perhaps, but as it turned out they had a workshop on Spirituality & Photography, too. :) I discovered 2 weeks ago that many Canon Powershot cameras with Digic II or III processors can be made much more powerful with some added firmware called CHDK. The best part is that it's temporary so you don't have to use it if you don't want. It's simply loaded on the SD card.

Anyway, I uploaded 28 pics and 2 time-lapse videos from this trip to my photo album. Here is one of my family.

We're already looking forward to next year, which will feature an excellent speaker that we enjoyed previously. Hopefully our parents will want to go again.

2008-07-28T20:55:00.004-04:00

Gatlinburg traffic was every bit as bad as I had heard, but I still had an enjoyable time on my first trip to the area with much of Merrie's family the week of July 4th. We went to Ober Gatlinburg the first day and I quite enjoyed the "alpine slide", which is essentially a luge on concrete rather than ice.

We saw some wildlife, and a raccoon stopped to check it out also.

The weather was pretty nice the whole week, with just a little rain the day we left. I was able to hike several times and even managed to see a few bears. My brother-in-law and I did the Chimney Tops climb - that was awesome (and somewhat unnerving) at the very top. We had sort of a worship service at the top as a youth group from Marion, IN, was also there.

I learned that I really have a thing for taking waterfall and stream pictures. I suppose it's partly because they look cool, but I love the soothing sound of running/rushing water. It sort of turned into an obsession as my last two excursions were only to see waterfalls. This is Grotto Falls, which I reached when the rain started to fall.

I also watched the fireworks over Gatlinburg and my pics turned out fairly well for not having a tripod. Most exposures were 1.3 or 1.6 seconds.

You can find a few other pics at my photo album. All in all, it was a good vacation though Merrie's mom was ill most of the time. I have no interest in all the touristy trappings (or the crowds or traffic) outside the Alpine Slide, but will certainly go back for more hiking someday.

2008-06-21T18:13:00.003-04:00

Stephan has been at his summer job for 3 weeks now and seems to be getting by just fine. It's hot, hard work but aside from a little burn I think he's managed pretty well. He likes making some decent money, too. Now we'll see how important another overseas trip is to him.

Merrie worked Scout day camp this year. That was a bit much for her this time around. Sydney attended it though he was sort of reluctant at first. He had a decent time though. Then he and I went to Webelos Adventure Camp and had a blast. I'm looking forward to more camping with him.

Samuel is still a terror to his parents. Here's what happens when he can get into a drawer with the inkpad. We both can't wait until preschool starts so we can have a break.

2008-05-26T11:50:00.004-04:00

I chaperoned the 4th grade classes to Vincennes to tour William Henry Harrison's home (Grouseland) and the George Rogers Clark Memorial. All that was new to me since I didn't grow up in Indiana.

Here's our little Joey 4 days shy of 21 months.

And here is our big Joey going off to Prom with Andrea.

School is out this Friday. Stephan will be working as a "summer missioner" through our church for the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice starting June 2. While the work itself should be out of his comfort zone, the job is ideal schedule-wise since it's quite flexible and will allow him to join us on both of the family vacations.

I have gotten pretty busy with work the past few weeks. I started a new project for the Sony plant in town. I'm looking forward to learning Visual Basic .NET for this since I've purposely been avoiding it so far.

Sydney and I and maybe Merrie are going to start learning the guitar. I've always loved guitar music of nearly all styles and have always wanted to play, so we'll see how this works out for us.

2008-04-09T09:41:00.007-04:00

Stephan made it home in one piece, but not without some adventures. There were 9 students on the tour. His friend Andrea is on the far left.

Sunset over Athens

He tried to bring home some unique souvenirs

but they frown upon people "borrowing" from the Vatican.

:)

Anyway, he loved the trip, wants to go back, and returned with much more facial hair.

2008-03-31T09:47:00.002-04:00

Stephan's been having a good time in Greece, except he's had a lot of trouble with his debit card we got just for this trip. Seems he keeps getting errors at the ATM so he's only successfully withdrawn one time, yet the account is showing all his attempts. We kind of freaked out when we saw he had supposedly spent over half his money in the first day and a half. :) We've had to deposit more money into it and will have to file a dispute apparently so who knows if we'll ever get our money back.

2008-03-28T09:41:00.003-04:00

Sydney had a major role in his class' skit yesterday and you can download the file if you want. It is 57 MB and you will need at least a 1 GHz processor to view it decently. He did quite well. Unfortunately, they had it in the cafeteria next to the gym so you could barely hear some of the kids over the noise. I doctored the audio so it sounds much better now.

2008-03-26T18:03:00.006-04:00

I'm headed downhill now I guess as the odometer clicked off another year. Life is good though. I can't really think of too much to report this past month. I got to see my friend, Jim, for the first time in many months, we planned a couple vacations for this summer and Stephan leaves for Greece tomorrow.

Here are a couple Samuel pics. One of him playing kitty and one Easter morning.

I uploaded my first Godtube video today, which was from my inner city church's first ever Easter service.

Oh, I've also been uploading my radio shows since the beginning of the year. You can click the Christian Hard Music link on the upper right of the page and look for Rocksalt playlist posts in The Buzz forum. And just remember, if it's too loud, you're too old! :)

2008-02-25T12:28:00.004-05:00

Last night I finished working my fourth Walk to Emmaus (#134), where my best friend and accountability partner was the Lay Director. It was an awesome time of serving and growing in my faith walk. This morning, Samuel decided he wanted to be a Cha (agape servant), too, as he's donning my cap.

He now has 11 teeth.

I think the only other big news was we nearly had to call the fire dept for Merrie's birthday. OK, well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but her candles did set off the smoke detector and we didn't have one for every year! She got surprised by having some of her family come over and we went bowling. Here's the birthday moose.

2008-02-13T15:22:00.002-05:00

At 18 months and 1 day, Samuel showed us that he could scale the baby gates so yet again we've had to rearrange the house. We put him in the playpen so we could move a table and he was out of it before I could turn around. Lord, have mercy on us! Maybe he's getting me back for having him get a hepatitis A shot today that isn't required (or modifying his bed yesterday). I had to make a partial plywood door to the basement to keep Samuel out and hopefully still allow Shirley access to her food and facilities. We're quickly running out of "higher ground" for our things.

2008-02-12T15:40:00.000-05:00

Hey, look - it's been less than a month since my last update and I didn't have to be reminded either. Amazing!

Samuel turned 18 months today. He's still a lightweight, just edging past the 20 pounds mark, but he must be healthy as he has my perpetual "wet" nose it seems. :)

He's able to climb out of his crib now though I made him upset today by replacing his mattress with cardboard so he lost 3-4 inches of height. He can still get his foot to the top of the rail but we gained maybe a few more weeks of "jail" capability. We really need that as he seems to not be grasping the concept of "No!" too well. Giggles and repetition of the bad behavior isn't the response we desire. We have a toddler bed for him, but unless we were to strap him down I don't see how we'll keep him in it. I may have to build a pen around it!

Stephan will likely continue to struggle with a moral decision for some time so continue to pray for him and us. Outside of that, he's doing well. He has a choral part in the school production of "Little Women" so he's excited about that. We just learned a few days ago that he won't actually be going to Italy now, but will be in Greece for the entire trip. He was upset, of course, but not enough to cancel. ;)

Sydney could use some extra prayer as well. He continues to just get by in school and isn't really interested in much at all, seemingly rotating his poor performance through all the subjects. We're not sure how to motivate him, and we know some children are just that way but it sure is frustrating.

We're planning to go back to Soulfeast this July after missing it the last 2 years. The summer is already getting booked pretty full it seems. I think we need to schedule some more family time off.

Thank God He is in control!

2008-01-15T17:14:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm a major slacker. Wow, 2 months since the last update. With my poor memory, I'll be lucky to recall half the major things that have gone on. So let's see, we've had Thanksgiving and lots to be thankful for this year. We actually had 2 Thanksgivings with mostly the same people. I guess we must like to eat and fellowship. Sam made out with a new toy from his cousin Mickey though and has enjoyed it since then. He even lets his brother ride!

He also likes to clean out the cabinets. Who needs toys when you've got a wide variety of kitchenware?

Merrie led an Advent study for our Sunday school class that was pretty interesting and provided some unique insights into the Christmas story I'd not seen before. We had met the writer of it a few years ago at Soulfeast.

I happened to be pretty busy doing my Christmas radio shows during Advent and a project for a client.

Then *poof* Christmas was upon us in no time and we found ourselves in NC with my folks for a few days of doing nothing. Aaaahhhhh. From there we drove back to Merrie's parents and had another Christmas that Saturday. It was quite the enjoyable time. Samuel was a bit more active in ripping off paper this year. He got a rocking chair.

OK, his was the smaller version of this, but he still has to climb into his, too. He just needs to learn to make sure he sits down rather than standing in it now.

We zipped off another family Christmas pic like last year (on Jan 6 right before we took the tree down).

That week was also spent helping Sydney build his 4th grade log cabin. Stephan had used lincoln logs for his, but we went for twigs, pretzels, "clay" around a cardboard shell. He used the same fireplace we made for Stephan though - I'm amazed we still had it.

Sam just turned 17 months a few days ago. I just noticed he's got 2 more teeth coming in so his top 4 will have a matching bottom. He's still not had a razor touch his head (Num 6:5).

Stephan just got his passport so he's set to go to Italy. However, he needs some serious prayer as he's on the verge of making some serious relational mistakes that he'll regret the rest of his life.

2007-11-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

I can't believe Merrie hasn't chastised me for not updating this in over 7 weeks. Time has been zipping by again. Samuel had his 15 month checkup today. He's doing fine except being underweight. I think he's gained less than a pound in 3 months. You'd think we're starving the kid, but he's still nursing and always eating it seems. Anyway, he's 18 lbs 9 oz now and he's gotten to nearly 30". He had three shots and still took them pretty well (better than his older brothers do). Here is Sam a day before the 15 month mark.

Merrie and I have been fairly busy with work though we're still working from home for the most part. I've had a lot of work at the plant where I used to be employed nearly 6 years ago. It was prophesied that my business would explode, and I have been busier than normal it seems. I don't want to get too busy though so I can still have time for family and God's work. We've still not heard anything regarding the community center even though the mayoral election is now over.

The 4 top teeth have come in so he's up to 6 now. Since Samuel has remained so small, he was able to fit in his Halloween costume from last year since it was big then. He wasn't as keen on it this year though.

Stephan is doing well. He'll be taking a trip to Italy over spring break so he's pretty stoked about that. He's doing some babysitting for us to work off some of that expense.

Sydney is struggling with being responsible for his school work. He's working toward his Webelos badge and was the top popcorn seller for our pack by a wide margin this year. He'll be doing a basketball league again pretty soon as well.

2007-09-25T17:12:00.000-04:00

Here's the birthday boy.

2007-09-25T08:48:00.000-04:00

God has allowed Sydney to reach his 10th birthday. We were wondering if Merrie and I would be able to make it. You certainly learn a lot about God's grace having children of your own. His official party will be tomorrow doing laser tag. Hopefully I'll get a pic up here. He and I went camping with Scouts Saturday. That was the FIRST time I've gotten to camp alone with one of our boys. It was a great time. The Webelos had to work on their fire starting skills. They were each paired up with a Boy Scout.

Even Samuel is a challenge (and danger to himself). He's being far more daring than his siblings ever were. Yesterday he climbed up onto the dining room table and started tossing things off before we realized what he was doing. Our house is beginning to look rather comical with all the measures we've had to continue to add to keep him safe or out of things. Yesterday he was going to climb over the gate since he was on the other side helping mom make a pie, but I convinced him that wasn't a good idea at this point.

He's finally getting some more teeth. One eye tooth has just popped through and you can see the other one will do so today or tomorrow and then the top 2 front teeth will join their lower counterparts within a week. He's also still nursing any chance he gets, but Merrie may turn off the tap once those other teeth arrive.

2007-09-08T04:09:00.000-04:00

Samuel started to walk on Wednesday, while both sets of grandparents were here for Sydney's grandparents day at school so he picked a good day to show off. He managed several steps, traversing about 6 feet. Of course, each time I got my camera ready he decided not to show off.

I did catch him in a bad hair day a couple weeks ago.

Children can also teach us quite a bit. Not many adults experience joy or at least express it very well. While Samuel doesn't know the joy of a personal relationship with Jesus yet (though I suspect there are some people who would argue that), he can find joy in the simplest things.

After seeing so many kids in high school driving nice cars like Hummers, we decided we needed to keep up with the Joneses and got Steph a new truck now that he has his license.

NOT! It's actually one my parents bought for their business, but I'm not lying about teens driving Hummers and Navigators in high school. Nothing like teaching little Johnny about the value of hard work, eh? Nuff said.

God's about to do mighty works in Terre Haute. I'm heavily involved in a proposal for a local community center, and there are several others in the area that have a hunger for reaching the lost. Some of these people met Thursday night for an awesome event of networking and fellowship and we've got the next one planned. I'm excited yet scared to death - it should be fun.

2007-08-12T19:03:00.001-04:00

Stephan did get his license and Sydney made it to Disney and back. Both are looking forward to school starting Wednesday. Stephan and I also went to King's Island a week ago just to have some fun together.

The biggest news is Samuel became a year old today.

This was actually the second cake he had to devour as we celebrated at Merrie's parents last Saturday for both Stephan and Samuel.

I finally got a decent picture of him sleeping like I used to as a baby.

Looks pretty comfortable, huh? He's not walking yet, but stands unsupported more often and picked up how to go down stairs after one try. There's still only 2 teeth and he weighs about 18 pounds which we'll confirm tomorrow at his checkup. He still needs work on recognizing what "NO" means - jail time doesn't seem to be getting that to sink in yet. We're quickly running out of "out of reach" room. I guess we're going to have to use the attic and basement more.

2007-07-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

Merrie chastised me for not updating in over a month. Gack! Despite all the time we've put into finding a new house, no luck yet. I'm sort of letting it slide for now and not obsessing over it. Sort of like when you're trying to get pregnant and it happens after you stop trying. And, no, we aren't. I figure God will guide us to the right house when it's the right time.

Samuel is over 11 months now, creeping up on the big 1 year birthday. It works out to be a Sunday this year so we can have a nice party for him. He's becoming more daring and dangerous for himself. He's pretty good at getting off the sofa, bed, etc. but sometimes he must not get lined up very well and goes "thud". He'll climb over things at chest height and whap his face or head on the floor on the other side. He finally got some marks on his face from pulling one of the dining room chairs onto himself. For the most part these mishaps haven't phased him, and he still has both his teeth. He thinks he's pretty hot stuff standing on his own until he realizes what he's doing. He stood up a couple times on the coffee table for 15 seconds while we were watching a movie 2 weeks ago.

He didn't grab my foot until he turned around to ham it up.

Merrie and the boys went to Maryland the 12th-16th for a family reunion on her mom's side. They also hit some sites in DC while there, including the zoo the day they arrived. I suspect our boys fit in quite well there.

I understand they had a good time overall even though there weren't many kids their age at the reunion. They went to The Mall and the Air & Space Museum the following day.

You can see how long it's been since we had been there last time from this picture.

They all came back home safely to me. I didn't even goof off while they were gone. I made 4 more picnic tables for Sydney's school and had some other projects, too.

Stephan takes his driving test Tuesday. Sydney leaves for Disney early Thursday. That's all I can think of for now.

2007-06-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

By May 28, Samuel was OK with grass. Here he's shown with one of his trademark fish faces.

Some wonder what is wrong with teenagers today, but Stephan seems perfectly normal to us.

His hair is now somewhat red.

Sam climbed the stairs for the first time on June 6. Of course, I had my mischievous little hand in that and provided the necessary incentive (look at each step).

House hunting has caused us to actually clean our house (only a little so far) and get rid of even more stuff - our van was stuffed with things to "pitch". We participated in Union Hospital's yard sale and made over $200. Even so we still had quite a bit left, much of it we freecycled before taking the rest to Goodwill.

I've done a bit of yard work the past week or so that I should have done long ago. Don't you just hate that? You decide to move and fix things up the way you wanted them but you don't get to enjoy the fruits of your labor very long. We now have a couple more mulch beds which will make mowing much easier on me now. I'm determined to fix our next house up the way we want it ASAP so we CAN enjoy the fruits of our labor.

We're getting closer to a decision in that matter. Right now there are 3 houses in the running and we'll be going through them with my folks on Thursday and hopefully put in an offer by Monday.

Samuel got his first taste of swimming on Father's Day and had mixed feelings about the matter. I think perhaps it was a bit chilly for him despite all the hot weather we've been having, but he did let out a few squeaky laughs.

We can now see the bud of what will be his second tooth so it should pop through any day now.

Merrie and the boys are doing VBS in various capacities this week, kicking off what appears will be a very busy and likely tiring summer. Sydney does basketball camp next week, then Webelos camp. Merrie and the boys will be going to Maryland for a few days in July. Stephan and I will hit King's Island sometime before the end of July. Sydney will be going to Disney World the end of July. And before you know it, school will be back Aug 15. Let alone all the house buying and fixing that should take place. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

2007-05-23T17:23:00.001-04:00

Samuel is starting to take after his parents at seems.

Both sets of grandparents report a heritage of climbing. This gene apparently skipped over Sydney, but I suspect we'll find Samuel up a small tree in a couple years.

We've been busy looking for a new house the past couple weeks. We've got a couple in mind so far though they all have their minuses, of course. We'd like to have an offer accepted by July 30 so we can start Sydney in a new school if needed, but we'll see what happens. That means we need to get packing soon and readying our house to show. Yuck!

2007-05-20T22:28:00.000-04:00

While Samuel decided to bite on Merrie's arm during church this morning, she noted it actually hurt just a bit. He was being his Indian persona ("Bag of Snakes") while we tried to get a picture once we got home, but you can see a hint of white on his gum when you look at the large version of the pic.

2007-05-12T20:58:00.000-04:00

Samuel is not fond of grass. While Sydney ate it right up (literally) as soon as we put him down in it at just under 8 months, Sam cries. He's gotten better in the last few weeks if he's just standing in it but still cries if you set him down. He does like swinging though.

We celebrated 12 years of bliss by looking all over the county for a potential new home and trying out Cheeseburger in Paradise for the first time. It was pretty good.

We also dedicated Sam.

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord." (1 Sam 1:27-28)

Samuel turned 9 months today on his paternal grandmother's birthday.

Still no teeth but cute as a button. You can see the family resemblance by checking out Sydney's page, which I haven't updated since he was 3! Poor kid.

Work has been fairly busy which wasn't expected so that's good. It will keep me from gutting our house though. However, we are considering just moving to a different one. We've seen one and have at least 3 others to check out. We'll see what pops up in the next couple months. I'd like to either be moved before school starts again in mid-August or decide we're staying here so I can get at least some major projects done this summer. We pray that we're following God on this.

We'd recommend reading 'I Promise' by Gary Smalley if you're married or will be. It submits the greatest thing required for marriage to succeed is security. No amount of communication or relationship skills will help if both partners don't feel secure. We've been enjoying it this past week.

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-04-18T22:06:00.000-04:00

It is both encouraging and discouraging to see what is going on in MS. Encouraging in that you can see at least some progress being made everywhere, even the hardest hit areas. However, there is still a lot of red tape in the way apparently. The people have not seen the government grants yet. Zoning and building codes still have not been finalized in some places. I think I already mentioned being upset about the new casino in Lakeshore. The strip mall where the "New Waveland Cafe" had been located still hasn't been touched save for the bank out in the parking lot - one of the 2 reasons the Cafe had to shutdown Nov 30, 2005, was so the businesses could come back. But the people don't really complain - they just keep on keeping on.

Samuel turned 8 months while I was in Pearlington. Here he is 2 days after that milestone.

He's getting better at crawling and working himself upright. He's had pretty strong legs for some time so now he's working out the chest and arms to snag the chicks.

Who would have thought rice and veggies would make you so buff??? He's been packing those away pretty well when we bother to feed it to him. He's still mostly a breast baby. He's also had small tastes of nasty things like popsicles, ice cream and sherbet.

I bought 7 pounds of shrimp for $20 from one of the locals on the way to the airport before coming home, and we finished consuming that tonight. Yum! I sauted them with 5 different seasonings tonight for some variety.

Our church's yard sale began today and I'm happy to report we came home with far less than we took. Merrie got a few puzzles and books, I got some sandals and a digital scale, Sydney got some slippers and Samuel got pajamas and a riding horse like her brother used to have.

Merrie, Sydney and Samuel are walking in the Komen Race for a Cure Saturday. This past week we've been working on getting Samuel used to drinking from a sipper cup rather than a normal one. He was somewhat resistant at first but seems to be getting better at it now. We'll see how it works come race day.

2007-04-18T21:48:00.000-04:00

After a few days of being home and sick I'm finally getting the last few pics of my MS trip posted. This was the team actually from my church that was present for this trip so we made up 1/7th of the total.

This is me getting ready to help install a piece of fascia board.

Here's an aerial view of a portion of Waveland showing the destruction easily visible along the coast 19 months after Katrina. There will be rebuilding for many years to come....

2007-04-12T22:59:00.000-04:00

I have a few pics of some of the other people from our group and what they have gotten to do - sanding,

mudding...

and some flooring....

I have heard some in our group don't want to go home. Perhaps they understand now why I seem drawn to come down here.

Today was picture perfect - 80 and not a cloud to be seen. My team finished installing the roof joists today so we can start sheeting tomorrow. The roof peak is over 43 feet from the pad. I took this pic yesterday where you can see Jennifer, one of the nursing students, nailing straps across the peak.

The former gymnasium became known as "PearlMart", a distribution center for food and supplies for local residents up to March 1, 2007. Note the highwater mark on the backboard.

2007-04-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

This morning I walked out to the house Merrie worked on in Dec 05. Nothing had been done to it since that I could tell, but it seems they put in a new mobile home instead.

My work team was back out on the same site and will likely be there the whole week. So much for getting to use my new power tools. Today we were able to work on the roof joists. Here we are setting the hip joist with Rob on the corner, me nailing the other end and Tom, the contractor, in the middle and his helper, Hutch, who was a set designer in NYC and decided to try a change of pace for a while.

I'll put up some more pics tomorrow. My PC locked up while writing this so I had to start over and it's getting late. I had a great time at the church service tonight. They sure bring a whole new meaning to worship. Wow! Thank you, Jesus!

2007-04-10T21:28:00.000-04:00

Everyone from our district made it here fine. I flew down with a couple from our church and their neighbor - it was the first time I could recall flying in a private plane that wasn't owned by my parents. 5 hours of flying sure beat 12 driving. I think only 1 of the 56 didn't show up, but we found out he's over in D'Iberville where we were originally scheduled. He may stay there or join us tonight. Below is a group shot of almost everyone. The tent in the background will be the new mess hall, which will about triple the seating capacity of the current one.

We're staying in what used to be the elementary school complex. They decided to decommission it because there were only 130 students and some haven't returned. They were going to raze the entire thing but the town pleaded enough that they left the gym building and what I believe was also the library building. Those will be turned over to county parks dept once things get back to some semblance of normal.

Since we arrived early, I took our little group on a short tour of the area so they could see some of the real damage along the coast. We drove through Lakeshore, and I was quite saddened to see they had opened a casino out where one had once been and failed oddly enough long before Katrina. Waveland didn't really look much different from August. There were a few more houses but it's mostly desolate - I didn't even want to take any pictures. We learned later that many still have not gotten approval to build because codes aren't finalized or grants haven't come through yet. Some people build anyway it seems. The US 90 bridge at BSL is nearly complete. 2 more sections near the middle need to be put in place and 2 lanes are supposed to be open May 15.

There are a variety of jobs for us to do this week - painting, mudding drywall, finishing some plumbing jobs, HVAC, installing phone/cable lines, putting up decks, etc. My group was supposed to do a deck today but that homeowner wasn't quite ready yet so we got to help a contractor working on a new home that will be one of the nicest in town I think but it's quite tall. The first floor level is over 12 feet.

Katrina level was about 10-11 feet sustained here, but many new homes are not that high. The other 4 in my group got out of their comfort zone in various ways at this home, whether it be heights, ladders or learning how to use power tools. I worked on putting in the blocking for the second story deck joists.

We had lunch at the tiny Missionary Baptist Church in town. They've been feeding the residents and volunteers lunch for some time now and have fed up to 700 before. Fishes and loaves. I'm hoping to attend their Wed night service.

We had a lot of rain and it was low 60s today, but it should be near 80 tomorrow.

2007-04-06T23:27:00.000-04:00

Here is me and Samuel on my birthday, with an old pic of Stephan and Sydney in the background so you can see the resemblance.

Ahhh... aaaahhhhhh...aaaaahhhhhh-CHOOOO!

Samuel is sleeping on my lap listening to Christian hard music while I work.

Here are all our boys

Sydney invited Grandma Rose over for a sleepover this week. He recently got his Cub Scout God and Me award.

I'll be heading back to MS next week. Our district of the UMC is sending a team of over 50 to Pearlington. Merrie worked on a house there in Dec 05.

2007-03-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

40 is creeping up on me fast. Anyway, it's time to throw a few pics up again....

Samuel is totally nonplussed that he doesn't get to lick the bowl as well.

It's amazing how much work swinging can be (and a good thing I wasn't eating mashed peas).

Stephan's hair has changed colors again. It took over 4 hours to get it "fixed" to this point - an expensive experiment. It has since been shortened slightly, too.

The past several days Samuel has really taken notice of his tongue, which he likes to stick out and move around. He's trying to make the raspberry sound. He giggles when he and dad touch tongues.

2007-02-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry for being such a slacker at keeping this updated. Y'all should email me a request for more pics every so often. It's not like I'm not on the computer enough.

Samuel turned 6 months today (see last pic) and celebrated by getting 2 shots. Oh, what fun! This pic was from Jan 7th, resting in dad's arms.

Next Sam is all ready to start eating at the table, he just needs to learn WHAT to eat. Note the saying on the plate.

Samuel can sit up fairly well, too (Jan 23).

He got to try out Sydney's old chair on Feb 1st.

A couple days ago he was advertising for mom time.

And here is Samuel today at 6 months.

Hopefully, I won't be so slack next time. We're all doing fine. Merrie's quite busy with work (at home sort of). Stephan started driving school today. Sydney is enjoying basketball.

2007-01-02T11:37:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas and hope you did, too. We stopped in Franklin first and had Christmas with Merrie's side of the family. It was the first time in quite a while we had everyone together at once so I took the opportunity to get a family picture.

From there we went to see Michael's side of the family, which is much smaller since he's an only child. We didn't do a family pic but did get all the Ray men since the boys' great grandparents were there Christmas Day. This was the first time they had gotten to see Samuel.

Dec 30 has been pet day at our house.
Last year Sydney got a pair of gerbils and this year Stephan bought a cat. Her name is Shirley and she apparently was a stray though she's trained and rather friendly.

The 30th also proved big for Samuel as he rolled back to front and had apple juice for the first time. Still no teeth but we bet it will be soon.

Michael and Sydney went to a New Year's Eve metal concert where 15-20 youth got saved - praise God! Stephan had some friends over at his dad's for a party. Merrie and Sam were home alone for the most part.

May 2007 prove fruitful for you.

2006-12-17T22:35:00.000-05:00

Samuel has rolled several more times, but he's not fond of his parents giving him "tummy time" to enable the practice of that skill. He still has yet to get from his back to his front. All 3 boys participated in the Advent celebration at our church. Can you find them?

Samuel is in Mary's arms and did an incredible job, Stephan is Joseph and Sydney is the wise man in the lower right.

Samuel survived his 2nd round of shots Wednesday. He's just shy of 2 feet and weighed 12' 12" naked. We started him on a bit of rice Thursday but he wasn't sure how to deal with a spoon. I was able to get him to giggle the first time today.

Merrie's last check has come so we're on our own now. She'll start doing some part-time work for VNA in Jan to supplement what I make from Topshot Systems LLC. We look forward to see what God has in store for us. Merrie and I were driving back from MS a year ago today and discovered we were pregnant the next morning. I don't expect THAT to happen again, but we've got some potentially major things that will occur this year.

May you and your family have a safe and blessed Christmas.

2006-11-25T22:09:00.000-05:00

Samuel rolled from his tummy to back 2 times today during our family gathering at the Deputy’s. He just needs to remember to keep his arms above his head. Both happened one after the other and toward the left when he normally tries to go to the right.

2006-11-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

Coming up on 15 weeks and Samuel has slept through the last two nights all the sudden – 8 and 10 hours. He can stand for a couple minutes at a time now, too, but hasn't rolled yet. My parents and cousin Linda and Merrie's dad came to our house for Thanksgiving. We had a great day, and I didn't have to cook. :)

2006-11-14T13:11:00.000-05:00

Samuel is still about the same only a little bigger. He is sleeping a bit longer at night while listening to his Gregorian chants. I'd guess he's getting close to 12 pounds. Here he is after getting his picture taken a day shy of 3 months in my baby outfit, which is still a little big on him. I'm not sure how old I was when I wore that. Sorry I didn't have time to deal with the red-eye.

We're getting closer to being on our own. We've signed up for our own insurance now. One more paycheck left for Merrie, and we're out on the proverbial limb, trusting God to work out having both of us being part-time. This is all I can think of for now. The last few days have been quite hectic and I need to leave for a job very soon.

2006-10-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Samuel had his first set of shots on Wednesday - 2 in each thigh. He wasn't all that excited about them and has been rather cranky the past 2 days. He weighed 10'12" and she said he was 22", which is likely pretty close. He was 21.5" when standing against our "measuring wall" on the 20th. He's on the bottom end of the growth curves, but he started pretty small. Even though he has done a couple things long before Sydney did, I think they were mostly lucky flukes. He's behind Sydney's development in general, as he isn't playing in his gym or smiling like Sydney had at 10 weeks. However, Samuel was supposedly 2 weeks early and Sydney was supposedly 2 weeks late so it's probable that Samuel's 3-4 weeks behind him. Samuel can stand pretty well though for maybe 30 seconds if you hold his hands - he looks like a hula girl at times but his legs keep him up.

I can't think of much more notable things other than Stephan is going to the fall formal dance so we'll need to get him a suit. He hasn't taken a very proactive approach to learning to drive either, which seems rather odd.

I've been ripping all my music to computer the past month since it's much easier to do my radio show from my laptop than carrying a suitcase of CDs. I have over 600 Christian hard music albums, but could only take about 80 with me. I've spent the last 18 shows going A to Z as something different to do. I'll have a few "normal" shows now and then 3 or 4 Christmas shows.

2006-10-16T17:21:00.000-04:00

Our trip to Chicago went well though we saw less than we intended. We started at Navy Pier Friday morning and spent pretty much the entire day there. Despite the cold, windy weather they still had the rides open, too. We also saw the children's and stained glass museums while there. We drove to our motel and had dinner at TGI Fridays. Sat morning we drove to the nearest CTA train station and took the 'L' into the city. We went to Shedd Aquarium where the line was surprisingly long though our Go Chicago cards allowed us to bypass that. We ended up staying pretty much the entire day there, too. We walked over to Adler Planetarium, but they had closed early because they had at least 5 weddings that took place that afternoon. Here we are with the Sears Tower on the far left and Hancock Building on the far right.

Being 4pm, we decided it wasn't worth trying to get to another attraction and having so little time there so we just took the train back home. We played some Star Wars Monopoly in our room. Sunday morning we drove to Moody Church. It's a pretty impressive building, too. Even though Erwin Lutzer's intonation has always annoyed me, he gave a great sermon. From here the original plan was to go to the MSI, but the boys didn't want to do that so Stephan and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and Merrie, Sydney and Samuel went to the Hancock Building. As it turned out we both finished at the same time so we found a hole-in-the-wall food joint and then left for Terre Haute. Samuel did amazingly well for such a long trip. I can only think it will get worse as he ages when he won't sleep as much. :)

2006-10-12T17:50:00.000-04:00

Boy, I can't believe how quickly days just zoom by. Samuel is 2 months old today and here's what he looks like now.

2 days ago he weighed 9'14" with nothing on. He's still fussy and not sleeping for long periods of time, but it's become apparent that he enjoys music. He normally quiets down whenever it's playing.

2006-09-29T17:37:00.000-04:00

Sydney has now turned 9, Stephan has dyed his hair black and Samuel is still gassy (but heavier). I'd guess he's about 10 pounds now. Here he is with his dad.

I believe everything Sydney got for his birthday involved Star Wars in some aspect. We even did laser tag which could almost be like lightsabers. Sydney has also been doing some basketball skills classes recently and will start playing some league games soon.

Stephan reminded me of Harry Potter with black hair, but he's since gotten it cut also. He seems to be doing OK in high school. We got his midterms yesterday (except math). We also ordered his school ring.

Merrie is still surviving Samuel's "non-stop" fussing and feeding (or it seems that way at least). Her work recently offered her another job which she quickly turned down. It's possible she'll go back part time in some capacity, but not until the new year at least.

Things are going along in a busy fashion again. I just picked up the first batch of Cub Scout popcorn for our pack - so if anyone wants to buy some.... I also built 2 picnic tables and redid the garden walk at Sydney's school as part of our pack projects. I'm working on ripping all my CDs so I can do my radio show solely from my laptop. I've been playing things alphabetically the past several months - I'm midway through S currently. There's a big concert I'm taking the boys to tomorrow, which should be fun.

2006-09-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how much he's gained, but it's clear Samuel is heaver now. He's been doing pretty well though he had a recurrence of an infection in his eye for a couple days. We've already decided he will be a "geek" like his dad. Therefore, I'm getting him as aclimated as possible to being around the computer. This is one of my favorite perches for him.

Everyone else is doing fine. We'll have to learn to fend for ourselves again as my mom left Sunday after staying a week. Stephan has a girlfriend again - they went to the Sadie Hawkins dance Friday. Sydney started a 3-session basketball skills course tonight. Merrie and I started our first Companions in Christ session tonight as well.

2006-09-02T20:03:00.000-04:00

Samuel turned 3 weeks today and lost his cord stump. Now he can take a bath!
He really likes being held! As such he doesn't like sleeping long periods yet. His brothers like holding him and are changing diapers as well. My parents also flew in for the weekend and mom will stay the week.

Stephan has a girlfriend again. We got to embarass him on the phone today. :) She seems like a really nice girl. Sydney got in trouble for talking in school this week after an excellent start so we made him write 4 pages of "I will not talk to my friends in class."

2006-08-28T21:24:00.000-04:00

Samuel came back from a weekend at grandma's with a slight eye infection. We went to the doctor today and got him some medicine. Everything is going well outside of that. He weighs 6’9” now so he’s gaining an ounce a day.

A year ago now, Katrina was just off the boot of LA poised to slam into the MS coast. A few days later I made my first relief trip. Pray for healing.

2006-08-24T11:15:00.000-04:00

While he's really named for Israel's last judge (see 1 Samuel in the Holy Bible), we just learned Samuel is also named after his great great great grandfather. His great grandparents just celebrated their 67th anniversary!

2006-08-22T16:03:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of school. Stephan spent the night at his dad's so he could drive him so we only got to see Sydney off this morning. Samuel wanted to go, but he just had to settle for waving goodbye with help from his dad.

Sydney practiced emergency drills and listened to the teacher talk all day. Stephan got "horribly lost" because all the hallways look the same despite us walking to all his classrooms yesterday. They both had good days though.

Samuel has been doing well though his skin is peeling. I don't remember that with Sydney. He had his first "sling" ride last evening at Sydney's open house. He was a bit cranky last night but overall seems to sleep better at night now. Today it seems his feeding demands have surpassed Merrie's production - he got to have some pumped breastmilk.

It seems I need to get back into the swing of things - I had a couple calls from clients to help with issues the last 2 days so I need to get focused on work items again.

2006-08-17T18:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in updates - we've naturally been very busy and wiped out. Samuel didn't want to nurse too well at first and slept quite a bit so he lost several ounces. We had to wait a while to schedule his circumcision so we didn't get home until 7:20 pm Monday. He's gotten into a pretty good nursing routine (too good if you ask Merrie), but he seems to have his days and nights mixed up as he sleeps most during the day now.

Samuel is a mover, likely due to all that exercise he got in the womb. At 5 days he already pushes himself with his legs and has done a half roll in his sleep, shattering Sydney's record of 3 months. I'm thinking we'll be needing to keep him on a short leash. He almost looks to be sporting a grin in this picture.

He didn't enjoy his first stroller ride last night, but then we discovered the pads hadn't been put back into his carseat. I got him all fixed up today with extra padding even, and he seemed fairly content with it. He weighed 5’14” at the doctor’s today so he has gained back all he lost plus an ounce to grow on. He did not care for getting his heel stuck again but was a real trooper, and I calmed him down with an airplane ride in his carseat on the way out to the car. His next appointment will be for shots at 2 months.

Merrie's mom has been spoiling us rotten this week. She left work early Friday to be here with the boys and has done all the laundry and cooking this week. We could get very used to this! She took the boys to the state fair today and tomorrow so we could have alone time with Samuel. I was mortified to discover that she hasn't managed to be in any of my pictures yet so I must correct that when they return. She'll be here another week.

Stephan had his high school orientation yesterday afternoon. He has a couple friends in some classes, but I'm sure the first week will be very stressful as the school is so large and he's not great with directions. I'm rather nervous about picking him up, too, since they didn't cover anything like that and I couldn't find an official to talk to once I was free to do so.

We went over to Sydney's school last night to see who was in his class and there were many familiar names. We're going to have to warn his teacher to rule with an iron fist. :) Sydney is not a shy child and that tends to get him in trouble at times.

2006-08-12T19:30:00.000-04:00

We arrived at the hospital a bit after 8 pm on the 11th. We got into a (very small) room pretty quickly and they inserted the cervidil in Merrie. Her contractions started becoming more regular (1-2 minutes apart) and intense about an hour later and they took it out after another hour. Unfortunately, her cervix exhibited no change even several hours later. At 4 am they started a low dose of pitocin. We were moved to a big room at 5. Neither of us slept a bit all night. She was maybe at 2 cm at 8:30 am so there was little progress, but she finally took some morphine, which helped her considerably. In fact she was able to nap on and off for a couple hours. The doctor broke her water at 11. She was still about 2 but noticeably thinner. She started having the pain in her thighs about 11:30 and very rough contractions in her back from 1:30 pm on. Merrie was even going to get an epidural until we checked her again at 2:15. Thankfully, she was dialating very quickly then, and Samuel was born at 2:38 pm with 5 big pushes. He was 5’13” & 19” and went to NICU since she had just had a shot of demoral and he came out with the cord around his neck. Here is his very tired mother (superwoman - 16 hours of contractions an avg of 2 min apart!) finally getting to touch him for the first time a few hours later.

Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. (Ps 22:9-11)
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. (1 Sa 3:19)

2006-08-11T19:03:00.000-04:00

Merrie's cervix is being cantankerous so we're heading to the hospital shortly so they can give her a drug to open it up overnight hopefully. They should start the pitocin in the morning to kick her contractions into gear. If things go well we'll have Samuel tomorrow - otherwise, they'll give Merrie a break Sat night and start again Sunday morning.

2006-08-07T18:40:00.000-04:00

Samuel update: Things are progressing as planned. Merrie is at 1 cm so we are going back Friday. Depending on where her cervix is then, they may give her a drug to dialate it quicker, and will induce Sat or Sun as the hospital occupancy allows.

Merrie spent part of this week while the boys were gone getting ready for Sam's arrival. The crib is dressed in the linen set that I picked out and all the clothes from 0-3 months have been washed in Dreft. She disassembled the car seat, stroller, and swing and washed all the cloth parts in Dreft and cleaned up the hardware. Now we just have to reassemble them.

2006-08-07T13:41:00.000-04:00

We made it home safely Sunday night. Friday went much the same for us - fixing up the mudding job so the foundation would be more suitable for the next team that worked on her house. We quit early because part of the PA team had to start driving back. I tried to find another job the boys and I could work on in the afternoon, but it had already been completed so we got the rest of the day off. I looked through several books on Katrina to see if I wanted to buy them and watched a pseudo-amateur DVD on the storm one of the team had bought. A couple of us went to buy some fresh shrimp for an after dinner snack and then went driving around Gulfport a bit until it was dusk, hitting the beach before returning for devotions and shrimp. They were good - and cheap compared to up here. I brought some home to have after Samuel is born.

Saturday the remainder of the PA team left for the NO airport and we went over to Hancock County to visit a house I had worked on. They had received less than $17K between FEMA and insurance though they had 8 feet of water in their house and lost everything, but they had been approved for an SBA loan so their home was in beautiful condition now. They let the boys swim in their pool while we chatted for a couple hours. They shared some things you normally don't get to hear about. Some people are taking advantage of the church groups, waiting around (sometimes for long periods of time) to get "freebies" when they have the ability to pay for the materials. Most people have not risked rebuilding yet either because the zoning/building codes still have not been solidifed yet in many areas. However, there are a few houses that have been put up on the coast. We also visited the family we provided Christmas presents for and they were back in their home doing well. Then I let Stephan drive for the first time on the road and we drove out and back on US 90 and visited the mobile home Merrie and I worked on before we came home in Dec. Margie was back in it though she had lots of problems with the people she hired. At least she was lucky enough to get the work done even if it was pretty shoddy at times. Many people have been just plain ripped off. Fraud remains a huge problem, not only from shady contractors but also from those spending their FEMA money inappropriately. Significant efforts to crack down on both are in effect.

Here are a few pics from the coast. This one shows a cross someone made from what had been the floor beams of their house.

This one below shows the remnants of one house while another is being built in the background. The weed growth makes it look like Katrina happened years ago.

The last one I took on this trip reminds us of what we are there for...
... to provide the hope of Jesus to a broken people.

2006-08-03T21:17:00.000-04:00

It was a sweater today! I was hardly exerting myself (repairing more drywall goofs) and the beads of sweat seemed more like a stream. We've been kind of hampered in the house we are working on because a previous team didn't do too well on the drywall installation and mudding. As a result, we've spent the past 2 days sanding and fixing mistakes so it will look nice once it's done. All the youth including my boys have held up pretty well and worked hard. Stephan has asked if we can come back next year. I suspect that is mostly because there are a lot of kids here now, which makes it far more enjoyable for him. My plan is to gut our house, but if we don't have the funds and time for that next summer, we will come back.

Our homeowner shared part of her story today, which was good for the kids to hear. She had several miracles that kept her and her pets alive. While she only had 5 feet of water in the house itself, the water was over her roof as she is the 3rd block in from the coast in Long Beach. She now almost has a nice view of the Gulf as there is nothing left on the first 2 blocks. Here we are with her.

2006-08-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

We finished up what we were to do on the house we started at yesterday. The boys got a taste of rolling paint and enjoyed themselves. Since we finished early, I took off to Hancock County to visit some of the places I worked at. I stopped at the new Camp Gulfside where UM volunteers stay and met someone I worked with in Nov who had a team of youth down! We're going to hopefully have dinner tomorrow. I stopped in Clermont Harbor and saw the new church building, the results of an 8-day blitz build. I stopped by one of the houses I gutted and the owner has gotten quite a bit of work done. He's been doing it almost all himself at age 75. In fact, he had started gutting it, too, back then and it was very hard for him to ask for help. He was thrilled to see me and show off the progress he's made.
The Mitchell's were here when I stopped in tonight to update my blog so I quickly caught up with them. They may not be doing hard labor like me, but they are working harder I think doing what they can for the people here. Over 5500 families in Harrison County are without homes, and the suicide and homicide rates are climbing. These people need our help! I'm encouraged by the number of people I see here now but I suspect it will drop off a lot once August is over. Trinity doesn't have anyone coming in for next week though.

2006-07-31T21:07:00.000-04:00

Thoughts from Sun night: Driving down and into Gulfport yesterday, I was struck by how normal things are now. You really couldn't see the external signs of Katrina very much unless you knew what to look for. That was a welcome blessing. We arrived at Trinity UMC right on schedule, and the boys handled the 12+ hour drive very well. There was a group of 25 youth and adults from Yardley UMC north of Philadelphia. They are splitting into 4 teams so we're joining up with one of them. I'm curious to see how much the coast has changed because you can't hide that damage.

Monday night: You would think from the picture Katrina hit a few years ago rather than 11 months (aside from the blue pipe). This happens to be the first couple blocks of the coast in Long Beach. Our work is going well so far. I had a scare from Merrie who had some contractions this morning, but her appt today went just fine. The boys are having a good time. Today we sanded drywall. We'll continue tomorrow and then prime.

I was very disappointed and saddened by one thing today. I went by a house I had gutted in early Oct and saw no change on the inside. This couple had plenty of insurance, too.

A group of 35 (mostly youth) from VA showed up tonight so Trinity is hosting 63 right now. I am at Gateway UMC now (to use the internet) and they have a large group of mostly youth from NY here.

2006-07-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

Well, little Samuel made out like a bandit at the shower held at Merrie's work yesterday. She was up until midnight writing thank yous since we had Stephan's party to do also. Check out all the goodies - they filled the back seat of the car. The only thing we thought we missed were bumper pads, but I picked up a set last night during the party.
One other thing Samuel REALLY needs are some flannel outfits like big brother Sydney had...

I told Merrie she'll have to make some if we can't find any. :)

2006-07-26T20:32:00.000-04:00

The boys and I built a temporary wheelchair ramp for one of Merrie's hospice patients the last day and a half. The timing was great as it was sort of a "test event" for our trip to Gulfport next week since there really wasn't much to do on the Habitat house last week. Here is our finished product.

We have to get a few more supplies the next 2 days for our trip. Tomorrow night is also Stephan's friends party at Lazer Tag. We'll have a family dinner on Sat. Hopefully we can also celebrate him getting his permit that morning.

Merrie's work is having a breakfast party/shower for her in the morning. Only 2 days of work left for her. W00t!

2006-07-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

We had an anxious moment at the doctor's today because he didn't like the fetal monitor trace. She had to get hooked up again for over an hour and that one he thought was fine. Samuel was very wiggly on the first one so perhaps that's why it wasn't as expected. He's running out of room, too - the ultrasound showed the fluid level was nearer the low end of the desired range. Obviously, this is to be expected since he is growing, but it would be nice if I could just "top her off" to make sure there's no problems. :) Sam may be growing but Merrie isn't. I think she's gained less than 12 pounds nor does she look as big as she did with Sydney. She actually said she wasn't that hungry anymore, too. So things are still on schedule for now. We expect D-Day either Aug 13 or 16.

2006-07-17T19:05:00.000-04:00

We're on the home stretch now - 4 weeks (we think) and counting. Merrie had the first of her weekly non-stress test and ultrasound and all went well. Here is Samuel's current profile.

There isn't much more to report. Stephan just got a cell phone. The boys and I are still planning to head to MS the 30th. Work has been keeping me busy for now. Merrie is going to try to have a yard sale this Sat. That about covers it.

2006-07-06T18:08:00.000-04:00

Merrie has started exhibiting nesting behaviors, which of course means a honey-do list. :) Somewhere in this week I took the time to put the crib together (including duct tape!) and we moved some beds around. It's similar in concept to the one we had for Sydney but is not designed as well so it's flimsier - perhaps Samuel can rock himself to sleep. It beats the cardboard box I had as an infant though. What had been our "guest bed" is now in what normally is Stephan's room (he often sleeps downstairs now but has been trying out the "new" bed this week) and his bed went upstairs. I'm not sure we gained much by that, but guests can now have a somewhat private room. I think my parents are the only guests we've had in forever, but Merrie's mom is hoping to come over for a week or two to help out with Samuel.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. I was busy most of the weekend preparing to have some database downtime on the 4th for one of my clients. We did manage to make it to fireworks Monday night though. I think they must have lit the wrong end of the fuse though as the finale was at the beginning it seems. Here are a couple pics. I like purple so that is why that one got picked and the other one was a fairly unusual shell design.

2006-06-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

Don't freak out! I think this is the first time since Dec I've had back-to-back daily posts.

We picked up a crib last night very similar to what we had for Sydney. Samuel already has tons of clothes and accessories. I think one of the few things we have yet to acquire or be given is a carseat for his toddler years.

Today was an info packed doctor's appointment. We learned that due to the diabetes Merrie will have to have some extra blood tests and another ultrasound over the next several weeks, and she's added regular insulin to her morning dose. The big news is that we learned that she will be induced 2 weeks before her due date. A firm date has not been set and probably won't be until after the ultrasound, but we anticipate somewhere around 8/14 instead of 8/27. The boys will be thrilled because the baby will come before school starts on the 22nd. They want to be at the hospital for the birth but don't realize how boring a hospital waiting room can be. Thank goodness for relatives and gameboys.

This development means the boys and I will likely try to go to MS the week of 7/30. That will give me time to get my current projects out of the way and for Stephan to turn 16 and allow some spare time in Aug in case Samuel wants to come even earlier. Luckily, we have a Habitat workday the 19th so they can get some practice in.

Enjoy the long weekend (if you have one) and the fireworks celebrating our country's independence and the freedom we enjoy here. It's nothing compared to the freedom you can have in Jesus though.

2006-06-29T15:54:00.000-04:00

We thought Merrie was doing OK on her diet but she had a couple high readings (mostly caused by not realizing what she ate) so her doctor put her on insulin. Hopefully that won't last but I'm sure she'll manage fine. She's got plenty of practice sticking other people. :) We have an appointment Friday. She has also realized that she hasn't been getting enough calories though she's been at her carb limit so she's researching some other foods to eat. I keep telling her pregnancy is a great weight loss program because she keeps losing weight.

We took off to Cleveland for a quick trip last week to see my parents. It was nice to get away but I also got some more work done. We got way too much sun on a cruise of the Cuyahoga - it was perfect weather for a cruise and we got to peak at the time trials of the grand prix race at Burke Lakefront Airport. Here's a picture of our family.

I'm still busy working with current clients, but need to find more clients. Business will slack off quite a bit I think when we'll need it the most (after Merrie quits). I've bought several used LCD monitors and a couple used PCs so I have my own little test environment to play around with software development.

The boys have been doing fairly well with their homework and reading, especially Stephan. Hopefully that will help him in the transition to high school. I have verified I can take the boys down to MS with me to work on houses if I can manage the time away and Merrie can live without us.

I'm sure there are other things I should write, but I'm busy now and this is all I can think of for the moment.

2006-06-05T09:01:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks have been busy researching starting a business. Topshot Systems LLC is now official. Now I need to start beating the bushes to find more work.

Raisin continues to be active, and you can see Raisin moving around now if you're paying attention. Merrie just learned she is gestationally diabetic so she's going to have to go on a special diet. We meet with the counselor Wed. Hopefully she can control it with just diet. It must be her age because I was already feeding her a low carb diet to prepare for her "yucky" glucose tolerance test.

The boys finished school Friday. Both had great attendence this year - Stephan had 1 tardy and Sydney had 1 absent. We haven't gotten Stephan's grades yet (maybe today) but he thinks he managed to keep Cs and higher. Sydney finished mostly in the B and C range with some outstandings. Hayden actually has moved away now so they don't get to see each other as often but Hayden mysteriously shows up near our house quite a bit still. He even slept over the past 2 nights. Stephan is the typical teenage social butterfly it seems.

Max and Sam had a harrowing day yesterday. The boys asked if they could play with them in the sandbox, but that escalated to putting them on the slide for which they were scolded when Merrie and Stephan got home, and then Hayden was squirting Sydney (who was holding them) with the hose when I happened to go outside. I was not a very happy camper. Max and Sam seem to have recovered from their adventure.

I got my "play" computers setup this weekend also. I bought some stuff off Ebay so I could have 2 machines to test Oracle configurations for my business needs. We never got a chance to test some things when we upgraded a client to version 10g so now I can see just what will happen when the primary "crashes". It is always fun trying to break things. :) My "lab" is in the basement on top of the stack of laminate flooring that we bought in 2001 to cover the first floor. That was supposed to happen very soon now that the boys were grown, but Raisin has put a damper on that. Maybe next summer if my business goes well....

2006-05-10T09:02:00.000-04:00

The house is pretty empty now that all our stuff went to the garage sale. Well, not really, but I did take quite a bit in the van. I still need to find time someday to Ebay the other items, some of which I've wanted to Ebay a long time. Oh, well. The Bible says there is a time for everything - it just hasn't gotten here yet for that.

I did not receive an offer from DADC so the intention is to expand my software systems development business to find more customers. I'll try DADC first since they had lots of work I could do, just not for the job I interviewed. I have been busy doing work for the 2 customers I have now, but neither will keep me very busy in the third and fourth quarter when we will need it most. Merrie is nervous, but God is in charge.

Speaking of Merrie, Raisin is beating the snot out of her. Those are her words. She is over 24 weeks now. He seems to be a pretty active fellow. Raisin's heart rate was up over 160 on the last visit - he was likely exercising at the time. Hopefully, he settles down some once he makes it out of her. A child like me would be nice. :) I don't think that will be possible when he has siblings though. It's pretty easy to feel him moving now. I think it is still hard to see him move. I am reminded of the classic space-horror flick 'Alien'. I always wondered how those people couldn't feel the alien inside them until just before it burst through their chests. Hmmm.... Anyway, Merrie is doing pretty well though she's really "done" with work. I bet she's counting the minutes though she doesn't know when her last day will be.

We have an exercise bike again though I am pretty much the only one who uses it for now. Hopefully Merrie will take to it once Raisin isn't being an impediment. This one is much nicer than our old one and we were smarter not to put it in the basement this time. Sitting at a computer all day like I do doesn't burn many calories. I've been riding every day I've been home for 30 minutes. I do my Bible reading and praying then, too.

The boys are doing well. Sydney and his new friend Hayden are nearly inseparable. Hopefully Stephan will get his grades up. That's a requirement for getting his license. Hard to believe he's almost 16. He's as tall and heavy as I am as well.

Merrie and I also celebrated 11 blissful years. We saw a one-man play called 'Underneath the Lintel', which was very good, and then went to a family comedy place that evening that was similar to the show 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'. That was pretty funny; they even did a little piece about us.

2006-04-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

This week went pretty well for me except I forgot my camera cable (or card reader) to pull the pics I took off my camera so I could do a bit more work while I was actually there. My contract is writing process instructions so I was taking lots of pics to show with the steps the operators will perform.

Merrie called me Tues morning - Sydney had lice, another first for our family. She had to stay home with him and wash everything. At least that was one way to get him to cut his hair! Now if only we could convince Stephan of that.... So this week was more stressful on Merrie than it should have been with me gone, but she handled it well. Raisin hasn't been too rough on her, but I don't think she'll ever be comfortable. I think she said she achieved that once so far. We are 22 weeks now.

They have hired someone for her job that starts May 22 or so. Merrie will orient her for a month at least and then may quit then. I'd prefer she stay as long as possible (unless I get this DADC job) in some type of capacity (even part-time) to build up as big a cushion as possible. At least she can see the light at the end of the tunnel better now.

I should hear something more from DADC in a week or two. I want to get this uncertainty over with! I've been holding up several things until I know what my situation is.

This week we get to finish cleaning out our house for the church garage sale (or Ebay). We will have LOTS of items. I think we had done pretty well the past couple years about not having too much "stuff" around our house, but I've gotten much more discerning after my Katrina relief work.

2006-04-14T15:14:00.000-04:00

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Needless to say, I've been pretty busy with the contracting work I've been doing. Merrie has been able to feel Raisin (now named Samuel or Seth) since the last couple days of March. I still haven't been able to feel him on the outside. She's been sick the last few days so pray she gets over that quickly.

The boys are doing well. Stephan has been spending more time at home to help his schoolwork. Sydney has become nearly inseparable with a boy that moved in directly behind us 2 weeks ago. He goes to a different school but they spend normally 5 hours together after school until we make Sydney eat and do his homework.

I'll be busy the rest of the month, too, it seems. I'm off to Cleveland for a week for a contract and then cleaning out our house for the church garage sale and finishing my current development projects and then back in Lafayette the week after that to install and debug them. I should know more about the job at DADC then, too.

Have a joyful Easter!

2006-03-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

My interview went well Friday so we'll see what happens. They want somebody with controls experience though, but I offered to do contracting for their software needs if I'm not offered a job. Hopefully I will hear something soon so I know what to do with some other consulting opportunities.

We had our sonogram this morning. Everything went well except that God is blessing us with another son! We all had wanted a girl. So here is Raisin now at 19 weeks with his arm going up alongside his face. You can even see the lenses of his eyes (the dark circles in the sockets).

I won't post the pic of his private parts in case he turns out to be bashful. We forgot to ask if our due date was still the same so if we're on the same schedule we have a very good chance of a healthy boy in just under 5 months.

2006-03-22T19:51:00.000-05:00

Well, the actual meeting part is over. There's just my going-away dinner to do now in about 10 minutes. I was not a happy camper earlier today because some proposals I really wanted passed were shot down (haha - bad pun). I was the lone supporter on 2 things that we need to grow our sport. I was so mad inside for a while I was not going to come back to the meeting after break or go to my dinner. I listened to one of my fav bands and calmed down while we finished up other business. At least I have all tomorrow morning to reflect and enjoy some R&R before heading back home. I have an interview with DADC again Friday. Still not sure what to think about that.

2006-03-17T10:31:00.000-05:00

NCAAs turned out well. We only had one issue to deal with and the competition in the individual finals was tough. For the first time ever, women took the top 2 places in both events. Luckily, the teams weren't as close as last year so we didn't have to worry about dealing with a tie. I had a good time overall. I am really going to miss not being there next year unless I can finagle a position somehow. I caught the shooting bug again in a way. I decided it was time to see if Sydney wanted to shoot so we have started this week. I figure if Sydney is shooting, I can shoot with him. :) My intention is we will only do air pistol. They have a program out to get more youth into pistol since we have a serious drought of good pistol competitors in the US so he's got a much better chance to succeed in pistol than rifle. Plus pistol is cheaper and more time efficient to do.

Merrie is still hanging in there. She still gets sick at times and is unfomfortable much if the time it seems. I bet she wishes she was 6 or 7 (or 20!) years younger. She brought home a doppler (?) unit last night that she had to use on a visit so we listened to the heartbeat (we got Sydney out of bed so he could, too). It was in the high 140s to 150 so there's a better chance for a girl than the 130s we were told on the 6th.

I'll be busy consulting again for a good month or two. I had a phone interview Wed with one of the few places in town I would want to work, but I don't know what to think about it yet. First I'll see if they still are considering me in a couple weeks and deal with it then. Being out of work for so long has got the freedom bug in me now so it would be really difficult to go back to a normal job.

2006-03-10T01:44:00.000-05:00

I'm in Colorado Springs for the NCAA Rifle Championships. I'm on the games committee, which oversees the running of this event and the playing rules. Today was just a practice day for the student-athletes so it was pretty uneventful. Tomorrow they shoot the smallbore event and Sat is air rifle. This could be my last year here since my term on the committee will end after our annual meeting, which is in less than 2 weeks back here in COS. Last year was the best Championship ever for several reasons and was also held here so we'll see how it turns out this time.

2006-03-07T07:20:00.000-05:00

Everything is going well. We had our monthly appt yesterday and the heartbeat was still there. Unfortunately for Merrie it is going down, which usually indicates a boy. I guess because our hearts our bigger. :)

I'm getting things ready today to be off to the NCAA Rifle Championships in Colorado Springs the rest of the week. This is my last year on the committee and am acting committee chair. This means I will miss our county men's meeting at church Sat where one of our guys will be talking about his relief work with the Red Cross. I've given him my diaries/blog and pics so he can share some of my story as well.

I also got our Emmaus site switched over to a new host yesterday. I'm looking forward to making some of the changes I've wanted to do to it for a couple years now. I added a link to it on the right.

2006-03-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Busy would describe the last couple weeks. Not because of anything in particular, other than some contract work that took nearly all of last weekend, including a 20 hour day Sunday morning to Monday morning. I got caught back up with my Bible reading and study on Tuesday and this has been a great week for that. I've had lots of new insights in Scripture, which really hasn't happened much at all in the past. I'm not sure why this is happening now since I'm not really doing much different, but I think part of it is I'm at least trying to focus on God more. I think AfterHim.com has been helping as I've been spending a lot of time interacting with the other men there and spending less time on the Christian music forums I frequent. In fact, I've given the latter up again for Lent.

I need to get our Emmaus website moved this weekend to a new host so I've been busy researching Christian web hosts the past few days and have it narrowed down to just a couple. I may even decide tonight though I need to get my Katrina material together to give to someone at church tomorrow. Our church is hosting the county UMM next Sat and the presenter from our church is talking about his time with the Red Cross in LA last fall and he wanted to mention about my work in MS. Sadly, I will be in CO for the NCAA Rifle Championships next week. I am seriously considering going down again with Sydney (and maybe Stephan) over spring break though. In fact, I finally called Fay Jones to see how things were going and found out they aren't running the Coastal Outpost anymore because Pete has had some health issues. So pray for him back in Bastrop, TX.

Merrie is hanging in there. She generally doesn't do too bad unless she has a hard day at work, which are more frequent than we care for. They finally are advertising her job though so maybe some relief will be in sight soon!

2006-02-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

We had a sonogram yesterday and all seems to be well with 'Raisin'. Raisin didn't want to cooperate with the sonographer - she (?) kept looking at the "camera" as shown here.

Raisin looks like an alien in that pic! :) She was quite active and you could see the heart beating, the arms and legs kicking around, the brain lobes and the face pretty well. Even though I didn't care for my wife to have this test now (it was meant to find certain defects and isn't all that accurate), the "live video" and pics were worth it to me. Here is a closeup profile of Raisin's head.

It is AWEsome to see God's creating in action. We also learned we are 2 weeks further along than previously thought based on the crown to rump distance. 13 weeks and 3 days now though I'm not sure how they can be quite that precise. If that's correct our due date is now August 18. Maybe Merrie can pop her out early so the boys can see since school starts the 15th I think. They seem to think they'd like to watch. We think they don't have a clue what it is like!

Merrie is beginning to feel just a bit better, too. Praise God!

2006-02-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

We're 10 weeks along now and things haven't changed. Merrie has a few more weeks of sickness to live through before things start to improve. We were fortunate enough to hear the heartbeat on Friday though. 160 BPM - right on target! We have an appointment next Monday to do a special ultrasound to detect abnormalities since Merrie is at greater risk because of her age.

I found a cool site for Christian men. AfterHim is a nice place to relax (or not) and fellowship with other men who wish to improve their faith walk and hold one another accountable. My accountability partner was the one who told me about it.

The consulting work I've been doing will keep me fairly busy for the next 2 months at least. I sure hope it continues after that as well, but I'll start trying to expand my customer base soon. It's not wise to have all your eggs in one basket.

2006-01-26T11:18:00.000-05:00

I finally joined the new wave of IT. Yes, I got my new high speed wireless router and laptop card working yesterday. It's as fast as my wired connections. I love being able to surf in bed now. :) Now if I manage more trips to the Gulf Coast or anywhere else, I can connect at hot spots, too.

Peace

2006-01-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

Things are still going ok for now. Merrie hasn't changed at all - still sick and tired all the time so that's a good sign as much as she doesn't like it. She takes a nap at work each day now so that has helped a bit.

We're thinking of making some significant life changes in the future. Merrie will quit her job once Raisin is born so we will both be working part-time. I'll be trying to increase my consulting work in the meantime, unless by chance I happen to find a decent full-time job here. Of course, you need to keep praying things continue to go well with Raisin. Our next appt is Feb 3 and then we have a level 2 ultrasound on the 13th to detect certain abnormalities.

This will effectively end my relief trips I think. Maybe I can take the boys down over break or for a week once school is over.

2006-01-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

Today we found out we are only 6 weeks along. Things are going well except for Merrie's nausea and fatigue, and she probably has another 6 weeks to go before things improve. That will likely delay my next trip to MS so we'll just have to see what happens. The incredible thing was we got to see our baby, nicknamed Raisin, through the marvels of modern technology. Raisin is inside the red circle and is currently the size of, well, a small raisin.

You could even tell the heart was beating! That is awesome!

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Merrie took the rest of the day off since it's been a tough week on her. I'm not sure how she's going to manage several more like this. Prayers are encouraged! I'll be out of town working most of next week so that will be especially tough for her.

2006-01-01T20:23:00.000-05:00

Christmas went much better than last year though it wasn't difficult to beat a miscarriage on Christmas Eve. I've been enjoying my time here at home and have pretty much assimilated back into "normal" life. The holidays are always busy it seems so I've been doing a bunch of little things.

We have 2 new members of the family; Sydney got a pair of gerbils Friday so those are our first real pets. We also have even better news - we found out the day after we got home from MS that we are expecting again! Some of you may ask how that happened since I had hardly been home. LOL. We think we are about 7 or 8 weeks now, which is when we lost the last one, so pray things continue to go well. At Merrie's age, it gets more challenging. We have our first appointment Friday. I still plan to return to MS every month but I will likely stop once summer arrives.

For those of you who I owe picture CDs they will be mailed this week!

Happy New Year!

2005-12-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

We finished off Friday evening by doing a bit more sightseeing and I finally got to see the trailers with the Rolls Royce parked in front of them that I had been hearing about. Katrina was no respecter of persons.

After dinner we drove up to Kiln to visit with Pete and Fay Jones who were busy helping prepare for 'Christmas in the Kiln' on Saturday. It will have lots of games, activities and of course toys and Santa plus an area the kids can get presents for their parents, which you can see in the picture. I wish we could stay around to help but we need to get home to our boys.

The Jones' will be running Camp Coastal Outpost for volunteer groups coming down. That will be important as time goes on and churches seek to regain control over their facilities. I'm sure some will continue to house work teams for quite a while, but it puts a great strain on those churches. Facilities like the Outpost will be needed to ease the burden and continue to encourage teams to come down by giving them a decent place to stay and be fed. The first month or two will be spent making some of the modular accomodations later groups will stay in. It sounds like it will be a pretty nice setup when it's fully implemented. This may be where I come for my January trip.

We drove back Saturday and took a detour through New Orleans to see what it was like. You really couldn't see anything from I-10 and the bypass on the north side of the city except waterlines and a little gutting debris though it was clear some business areas were not open still like a mall and a Walmart. As expected there wasn't anything like the physical devastation you see in MS. Maybe it's worse by the Superdome or wherever St. Bernard's parish is, which is where the Rainbow people were asked to set up their cafe when they had to leave Waveland. We also decided to stop at Lambert's in Sikeston, MO, to have an early dinner. We listened to Ted Dekker's 'Red' on the way home - book 2 of an excellent trilogy so far. I'm going to get 'White' from the library and actually read it. Gasp!

I'm home for about a month now. My next trip will be the 3rd or 4th week of January. I wish everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that you remember the birth of Jesus Christ at this time (though his real birthday was a couple months ago) rather than all the crap capitalism has thrown into it.

2005-12-16T17:18:00.000-05:00

Boy, I hope I never gut another prefab home in my life. Their efficient construction techniques make it very challenging to do repair (or in this case demolition) work. Once I got out to the house Merrie and the Kansas team were gutting, I'm glad it was mostly done because it would have been very tedious work. Unfortunately, there are some things you just can't do without ripping out the studs as well so it won't be truly "clean" when we're done. Regardless, the 2 grand-daughters had a blast tearing apart the house so it was good therapy for them.

We drove through Lakeshore and Waveland on the way home since the Kansas team had not seen the real devastation yet. It is still hard for me to fathom after all this time and much has not changed at all in some areas. However, we did experience an incredible moonrise this evening; I hope I can get some nicer pics tomorrow.

There was a town meeting at church tonight where reps from many of the government agencies at all levels were present for a brief status report and then a Q&A session. There were a few things that stuck out to me:
- there are several proposals in legislation that would greatly help the Gulf Coast if passed
- BSL still has about 300 of 450 donated gas water heaters available for those in need of one
- there is some type of IRS program that may allow some to receive refunds of taxes from previous years to aid in relief
- all the seafood here is edible though the oyster reefs were essentially wiped out by the storm so it will take 2-3 years before a crop can be expected
- the US 90 bridge will start contruction about Jan 18 and 2 lanes will be open in May 2007
- some people cannot start the rebuilding process because they cannot get permits for various stupid red tape reasons
- slabs are not eligible for cleanup by FEMA or the Corps of Engineers
I found the last comment the most interesting though. A woman wanted to know when President Bush was going to send the military down here to help rebuild the Gulf Coast in the United States rather than various places in Iraq. Needless to say, nobody couldh give her an answer to that pointed question.

I finally got to see a picture of the storm surge and I'm rather speechless. It was taken in Pearlington as it came in from the bayous and Pearl River. I'm not sure where the person was when it was taken since it was clearly fairly high up (maybe 20-25 feet judging from the power line) or how they managed to survive, but it showed the area already looked flooded and about a 12-15' wall of water was a 200 yards out and you could some larger swells a couple hundred yards beyond that.

This morning we finished up Mrs. Peters double-wide. Merrie and I had lunch with her and then sprayed it down. Then we did a little sight seeing and will run up to see Pete and Fay Jones before we leave in the morning.

We're talking with Mrs. Hair now and see was saying she's still not considered in the flood zone by the new maps though it's possible a few streets down from her they will need to raise their houses. However, if they do need to do that, it's only 2-4 feet, which would not have helped them at all. Our government dollars at work doing intelligent things again. Not!

2005-12-15T13:37:00.000-05:00

I'm done with my work on the Hair's house. The Virginia folk left for lunch since someone got a cut so I did the ceiling repair by myself. It looks very nice if I do say so myself. :) I think they have a couple small pieces to finish after lunch, but I'm headed off to join the team Merrie is helping. They are gutting a double-wide trailer. Apparently the 2 grand-daughters have been very bitter about the storm and lack of help they perceive has been done. The grandmother kept them home from school today so they could be there while the house was cleaned out (and maybe even help). I won't be as quick on the updates anymore since I'll have to use the library's internet. Peace.

2005-12-15T09:12:00.000-05:00

While I was in the car yesterday, I heard on the radio 'Cajun Night Before Christmas.' It was a real hoot. Here it is:

Cajun Night Before Christmas
by "Trosclair"
Published by Pelican Publishing Co. 1988

'Twas the night before Christmas
An' all t'ru de house
Dey don't a t'ing pass
Not even a mouse
De chirren been nezzle
Good snug on de flo'
An' Mamm pass de pepper
T'ru de crack on de do'.

Den Mama in de fireplace
Done roas' up de ham
Stir up de gumbo
An' make bake de yam.
Den out on de by-you
Dey got such a clatter
Make soun' link old Boudreau
Done fall off his ladder.

I run like a rabbit
To got to de do'
Trip over the dorg
An' fall on de flo'.
As I look out de do'
In de light o' de moon
I t'ink "Manh, you crazy
Or got ol' too soon."

Cuz dere on de by-you
W'en I stretch ma' neck stiff
Dere's eight alligator
A pullin' de skiff.
An' a little fat drover
Wit' a long pole-ing stick
I know r'at away
Got to be ole St. Nick.

Mo' fas'er and fas'er
De 'gator dey came
He whistle an' holler
An' call dem by name:
"Ha Gaston!
Ha, Tiboy!
Ha, Pierre an' Alcee'
Gee, Ninette!
Gee Suzette!
Celeste and Renee!"

"To de top o' de porch
To de top o' de wall
Make crawl, alligator
An' be sho' you don' fall."

Like Tante Flo's cat
T'ru de treetop he fly
W'en de big ol' houn' dorg
Come a run hisse'f by
Like dat up de porch
Dem ole 'gator clim!
Wit' de skiff full o' toy
An' St. Nicklus behin'.
Den on top de porch roof
It soun' like de hail
W'en all dem big 'gator
Done sot down dey tail.

Den down de chimney
I yell with a bam
An' St. Nicklus fall
An' sit on de yam.
"Sacre!" he axclaim
"Ma pant got a hole
I done sot ma'se'f
On dem red hot coal."

He got on his foots
An' jump like a card
Out to de flo'
Where he lan' wit' a SPLAT!

He was dress in musk-rat
From his head to his foot
An' his clothes is all dirty
Wit' ashes an' soot.
A sack full o' playt'ing
He t'row on his back
He look like a burglar
An' dass fo' a fack.

His eyes how dey shine
His dimple how merry!
Maybe he been drink
De wine from blackberry.
His cheek was like a rose
His nose like a cherry
On secon' t'ought maybe
He lap up de sherry.

Wit' snow-white chin whisker
An' quiverin' belly
He shook w'en he laugh
Like de stomberry jelly!
But a wink in his eye
An' a shook o' his head
Make my confi-dence dat
I don' got to be scared.

He don' do no talkin'
Gone straight to his work
Put playt'ing in sock
An' den turn wit' a jerk.

He put bot' his han'
Dere on top o' his head
Cas' an eye on de chimney
An' den he done said:
"Wit' all o' dat fire
An' dem burnin' hot flame
Me I ain' goin' back
By de way dat I came."

So he run out de do'
An' he clim' to de roof
He ain' no fool, him
For to make one more goof.
He jump in his skiff
An' crack his big whip.
De 'gator move down
An' don' make one slip.

An' I hear him shout loud
As a splashin' he go
"Merry Christmas to all
'Til I saw you some mo'!"

I learned today that they didn't have enough ridership to keep the bus routes open in Hancock County, despite our best efforts to help (taking a ride around the lot) at the New Waveland Cafe a few weeks ago. However, citizens can call 24 hours in advance to schedule a pickup for appointments, groceries, etc. I also learned the Salvation Army stopped serving any meals here today.

I also talked with Fay Jones. The arrangements with the Morrell iCare village fell through so they are now coordinating a new volunteer housing site in north Hancock County off Route 603 called the Camp Coastal Outpost since the land was donated by Coastal Hardware. So far I think they just have a house they are repairing and a couple large tents, but they expect to make it into a decent facility to use for the next 18 months at least. I expect to get up there before we go home and check it out.

Last night Connie Hair and her husband, Jeff, came to the church so he could meet the people who worked on their house since he's been working everyday, and they were quite emotional about it. That made the day for all of us. It was a cool ending to the devotional time where we were comparing how God became flesh, appropriate during the Christmas season, and we are God's "flesh" for the people here. It's one thing to donate money or supplies, but it means so much more to the people to give your time to be here and share in their lives.

Time to get to work now!

2005-12-14T17:27:00.000-05:00

I zipped over to Pearlington to see Merrie and the crew she was with gutting a house there. It was not in very good shape because it had floated up off the blocks a couple times according to the neighbor.

Merrie and several others were having a great time trying to get linoleum off the floor when I arrived.

I took a few pics and then ran an errand in Slidell. It was very spooky driving across 90 at that point where it's all marshy bayous and you feel so vulnerable knowing what it must have been like. Upon returning I ate lunch with her and the team at one of 2 remaining relief centers in the county before coming back to do more drywall. We did not get quite done but it's pretty close. Now I'm off to eat with Merrie and her team at the Mexican place.

2005-12-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

Before I left last night, I finally got a chance to talk at length with the owner. She and her neighbor were talking about how it was like right after the storm. They said it was beautiful at night because you could see so many stars and meteors since it was pitch black except when the helicopters would come over and check on their tent with spotlights. They and their 2 neighbors were the only ones who were there south of the tracks at that point as far as they knew. The area smelled of death and they knew there had to be bodies in nearby houses. 5 people perished of the 20 who had stayed on their street. One was a man who had to be left behind on one boat trip because there wasn't any space left. Another weird thing to both ladies was they found themselves excited at the sight of the first bug after 2 days; it was the first living creature they had seen.

More stores are beginning to open along US 90. A Waffle House that was under construction before the storm is now open, a Mexican restaurant is open, as well as a couple more auto parts stores. Yet the great majority of businesses remain closed. It is still a good sign and very much needed for the residents so they don't have to drive all the way to Slidell or Gulfport for some things.

Merrie is off with her crew from Kansas to finish gutting the house in Pearlington and I'm back at the Hair's to hopefully get close to done today. I'm hoping to find Merrie's team in a while so I can get some pictures of them working.

2005-12-13T18:25:00.000-05:00

I don't really have any time to write as I'm using the DSL at the Hair's house where we've been working the past 2 days. We simply have been hanging more drywall and will be here at least 1 more day. I'm getting pretty good at this. I think Merrie went with a team to Pearlington to gut a house so I hope it wasn't too bad. I'd like to write something deep and profound but I'm drawing a blank at present so this is it for today. Peace.

2005-12-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

It's been a bit over 2 weeks since my last update, and Merrie and I are back in BSL. We dropped our boys off at her parents in Franklin Friday night and drove down here Saturday morning. It took somewhere around 12.5 hours with 2 pit stops and a contruction delay near Nashville. It was dark, of course, as we drove into the area, but it was strange to see Fred's parking lot mostly empty where the New Waveland Cafe and Market had stood for 3 months. The shower stalls still remained but the furnace and water tank were gone. As we drove down Main St. into BSL, it was wonderful to see a couple elaborate Christmas lighting displays.

As fortune has it there is a team from Virginia that also got here Sat so I bet we hook up with them. :) Sunday morning was too cloudy to see the sunrise, but Merrie and I did take a walk around after showers and breakfast. They've cleaned up a fair amount of the roadside debris since I was last here. I also enjoyed seeing 3 cardinals flitting about. The church mouse is still here, too or perhaps it's one of its relatives. The "humane" traps don't seem to be doing the trick.

We were able to contact both Christmas families so we delivered presents Sunday afternoon to the Bushes and Weavers. We brought down many gifts so I'm sure it will make the season easier for them to handle though they may have trouble finding space in their trailers for them. While we were out, we visited one of the homes I worked on during the last trip to make sure he had gotten his trailer. As it turned out, Willie was making a landing and steps to his his trailer when we arrived and was doing quite well though his wife was not back yet.

We got back from our errands about 3:30 and the Virginia team was done with their work, which was applying another coat of joint compound in the church daycare area. We took off the rest of the afternoon and had dinner and devotions.

Monday we got our first major job, hanging sheetrock. This homeowner's house had flooded with about 7 feet of water in the house. They had remained and ended up having to swim 150 yards to the railroad tracks. They are having to repair their home from their savings though the husband's company has donated lots of material. We happen to be some of the labor. This job may take us all week since we aren't a big team and I'm the only drywall "expert" of sorts. I wish I could write more but the library is about to close and I need to check email real quick.

2005-11-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

We almost made it through the parade without rain, but got a good downpour at the end. In a way that is fitting though - it was water that brought the volunteers to the area and it's water bidding the Cafe and Market farewell. Since I helped carry the lead banner, it was difficult to get some good pictures. Here is the staging area.

The view behind on US 90...

and the view ahead....

Here is a "float".

We even had some surprise entertainment that brought down the house.

It was an awesome time had by all - certainly the most memorable and touching parade I've seen.

I took off for home after a quick snack and some good byes. It took me just under 12.5 hours to make the drive. I stopped by the Cracker Barrel in Slidell to get an audio book, Ted Dekker's 'Black', which helped keep me awake until I arrived at 4:30 am. I did make it to church this morning though not the early service we normally attend! :)

Anyway, I'm home for 2 weeks now so the blog will be slow. I'll be doing contract work in Lafayette most of this week, which is why I came home earlier than I had originally planned. I may have anyway though because my wife and I really missed each other!

2005-11-26T12:29:00.000-05:00

We got a fair amount accomplished in just over 2 hours of gutting before we cleaned up for the day. We could have finished the house easily if we had a full day. However, we're getting some pretty good showers now, and it was already very muddy there. Here is an "after" shot.

Our parade will likely experience some rain today. Hopefully the showers moving this way will get here quick because there's clear skies for a couple hours after the next band according to the current radar.

2005-11-26T08:03:00.000-05:00

Thankfully our last job was not as large as I had expected because the house had not been touched since the storm. There was 2 inches of thick bayou mud to shovel out of the semi-finished bottom floor and the furnishings on the second floor were strewn about as the water made it to the second story rafters. This was the worst house I've had to gut in all my time down here. In 6 hours we managed to get all the belongings "cleaned out" so we're ready to do some gutting for a few hours Sat morning before the team leaves for Virginia and I get ready for the parade.

I stopped by Walmart this evening, but they are nowhere near fully-stocked yet. The setup is still more like a warehouse (sort of like Sam's Club but much smaller), but they have many areas boarded off. I couldn't find batteries; surely, I just missed them. They did have Christmas decorations available though. Tonight we ate out at the Italian buffet establishment that just reopened (with a discount for relief workers) sans carpet and regular dishes and silverware.

I understand Habitat for Humanity has adopted Waveland according to their mayor on Tuesday and will even build homes to what the original blueprint was.

There were a couple funny yet sad comments in the paper Thursday....
"I just wanted to say thank you, Hurricane Katrina, for making Christmas shopping easy this year, because it's hard to buy something for someone who has everything, but now that they have nothing it's going to be quite simple."

"You might be a hurricane refugee if one of the pastimes you really miss is flushing the toilet... if the thought of a hot shower sounds better than a hot date... if you're having trouble deciding where to go for Thanksgiving dinner - the Red Cross or the Salvation Army."

Sat morning: We have some light showers this morning with 50% chance of isolated showers and thunderstorms for the rest of the day. Not the best parade weather, but the show will go on I'm sure. I need to get going to the jobsite. Peace.

2005-11-25T08:11:00.000-05:00

I've learned Pete and Fay Jones, the couple from Bastrop, TX, who have headed up the New Waveland Market, will be remaining in the area on a semi-permanent basis to take over the volunteer coordination of the Morrell iCare village. I think that will be a great fit for both parties. The Jones' already have plans to have it running the way it should be by Jan 1.

Our next assignment sounds like a major job - a large, 2-story right on a bayou that is to be completely gutted. It's difficult for volunteers to keep the proper mindset through this. Our main purpose is to just BE here with the people in their hurting, yet we tend to fixate on "getting the job done." I think it's especially true for those that are only here a week or less because they need to make their trip "worth it," but I still struggle with it since I'm a "Mr. Fixit" type (just ask my wife!).

This morning we're finishing up our current job ASAP so we can get to work on the heavy-duty one. I'm going to go recon that one as soon as I'm done here.

2005-11-24T19:24:00.000-05:00

We got an early start on our work because there wasn't a huge crowd at church, despite some great fried turkey and fixings. Here is a shot of Main St UMC in BSL for Thanksgiving lunch. I'm not surprised because there were tons of Thanksgiving meals going on all over the area.

This new assignment had already had a lot done by the homeowner, a 72-year old retired oil field worker who had no insurance. His house didn't have a lot of damage from the hurricane other than flooding but was obviously in some state of disrepair beforehand. We had to tear out the bathroom and kitchen and clean up the yard debris. We got mostly finished but will go back in the morning. Sadly, he needs some work that volunteers likely cannot do.

I stopped by the New Waveland Cafe to have dinner. Though I didn't have any since I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, I learned all the pies were homemade from the same recipe by the townspeople of one of the Rainbows. As always the people were wild and friendly and the food was great, including some high-test garlic mashed potatoes. They just announced they're giving away the 20 extra turkeys they have cooked. Here I am, a satisfied customer. I got to shave yesterday after 10 days so I almost look respectable again.

I hope you all had a wonderful day thanking God for all you have. Peace.

2005-11-24T11:59:00.000-05:00

Oh, BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!!! Be very thankful for what you have - you never know when you'll lose it. I'm also thankful I have the ability to be here and help. Peace.

2005-11-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention our morning devotion involved Snoopy and his "happy dance" that he "owed" to his feet. That was related to how David danced with all his might to the Lord for all He did for him. It was suggested we "dance" somehow today as we were working for the Lord and had pictures of Snoopy to remind us of that as you can see in the team pic I posted earlier. I did a happy dance on the doorstep. :)

We finished up Pat's house shortly after lunch. She was reduced to tears after we took our group picture with her and prayed over her. I can't help but think, 'Jesus wept.' It's humbling to get that type of reaction but it's become so commonplace. Here was someone who couldn't do anything for 2 weeks she was so depressed and now she was talking about all the things she wanted to do with her new home.

Afterward some of us had a drink looking out over the bay at the former US 90 bridge. I stayed out there longer and met with my friend Larry, who is also from Indiana and had been my POD coworker for 9 days. It's just so weird to be dangling your feet over the edge of the pavement to a 12 foot dropoff of where the road used to be against the backdrop of such a beautiful horizon and sky. He relayed to me they had more traffic today and so many of the customers were making a point of saying thank you for all the efforts.

I've heard a couple times now how the huge outpouring by the Church has restored some people's faith in humanity and that there really are still "good" people. Even those who profess to not be believers have mentioned how they've been overwhelmed by the efforts of the Church. Is this not exactly what we're supposed to be doing all the time? Get out of your pews and into the world! There are hurting and marginalized people right outside your door. What are you doing to be Jesus to them?

The Clay City group left this afternoon to go to Gulf Breeze, FL, to do Thanksgiving prep. Apparently, 5 of the youth had gone there last Thanksgiving break to do relief after Ivan so they wanted to return to see how things are now. They will be back here Thanksgiving night.

Thanksgiving morning: We met the sunrise for the first annual (as far as we know - and likely the last) BSL Turkey Trot. Several of the group jogged (or walked) around the town for half an hour. I can't remember the last time I jogged that long - I think I'm spent for the day! :) After breakfast we reorganized and cleaned up the fellowship hall area and set up the tables and chairs. It was full of various items from around the church as they remodel from Katrina damage. We're free for a while until we need to serve at noon. We just did a recon of our afternoon work site, and I stopped by the New Waveland Cafe on the way back to get this posted.

2005-11-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

Tuesday: I awoke earlier than normal so I could get to Main St UMC by 7. I thought maybe I could catch the sunrise, but I didn't quite make it. After breakfast and a quick devotion, we headed out to complete the job the team had already started. This was actually very uncommon for this area at this time - putting up drywall. They had stressed to the coordinator they wanted to do at least one construction job while here so this was it. It only took 3 hours to finish so we came back for an early lunch and went out to the next assignment. This house only had maybe 18 inches of water in it and had no furniture since the owner had just bought it before Katrina to rent. However, she has decided to live here because she can't bear to go back to her home in BSL. She told us about how she and her husband had spent 4 years fixing it up mostly on their own and he had passed away the year they finished. It has obviously been difficult on her. She was amazed by how much we got done this afternoon. All the paneling is out now and we've made major progress on ripping out the flooring. Tomorrow we'll finish up the floors and rip out the drywall. It felt good to get dirty and more hands-on today. I left them a bit early to get a couple pics since it wasn't cloudy in the west and to take a shower and get my stuff from the "bunkhouse" where I'd been staying. One big advantage the church has is heat. It will still be pretty chilly a couple mornings this week. After dinner and devotions, I took a walk out to what I would call the boardwalk area of the old town. I've seen it many times during the day, but it was a gorgeous, clear evening for a walk. I played around with getting a nighttime picture of the bay. I got a pretty decent shot at 15 seconds, which is the slowest my camera will go. Here's the neat thing of the day. I came into the fellowship hall area to type this up Tuesday night since they don't have internet here, and there is a group of youth from Clay City here! How cool is that?! They were approved to take 2 days off school to come down. Maybe I can get them to play some euchre sometime. :) My battery is about dead, it's late and I need ot brush my teeth so that's all for today.

Wed morning: I got up early and went to the beach to watch the sunsrise. So here is a rare sunrise picture from me.

It's lunchtime now and we have gotten nearly done with the house. Here is a picture of the Virginia team and the homeowner. She was telling me how her family had been in this area for 4 generations and many of her cousins have also been flooded out in the Slidell area. One of her cousins has lost his house 3 times for various reasons but will rebuild a fourth time at 72 years old.

Update on Katherine Larson: Kat's MRI showed a huge tumor
that was about the size of a tennis ball at the base of her brain and
also a stem that was about as big around as a penny and went from the
head of the tumor clear down to the c-6 vertibrae. Other than a slight
weight loss that the doctors had previously attributed to stress (her
mom being in Iraq) she did not have any sign of sickness until she went
into a seizure on November 6, 2005. My sister Trish who has been
watching her since her mom left for Iraq, took Kat to the Airforce base
Hospital where the doctor had her rushed to St. Louis Children's
Hospital because he correctly suspected that she had a tumor in her
brain. The Red Cross located my sister Kim in Iraq and she flew into
St. Louis on November 12, 2005, and doctors performed Kat's first
surgery on November 16th. God is faithful--they removed the head of
the tumor without any complications and Kat came through the surgery
well. Having the pressure of the tumor removed from her brain stem, Kat
is devouring everything in sight and she has kept her sunny disposition
and wonderful sense of humor throughout her ordeal. Dr. Leonard has
repeatedly remarked that this is a miracle and that she has done way
better that he could ever wish for. (God gets the glory for that!) I
know that Dr. Leonard is very concerned about the next stage of Kat's
surgery. After the pathology of the tumor came back, the doctor has
diagnosed her with a type one tumor that was not connected to any of
the surrounding tissue. Please continue to pray for Kat, she is
scheduled for her next surgery tentatively around the 8th or 9th of
December. We are praying that the rest of the tumor is unnatached as
well...the surgery will be performed in between the 1st and 6th
vertabrae, the nerves that control breathing, digestion, speech and
walking are located in this area. Kat is a beautiful 13 year old
christian girl who we love very much. All of your prayers are joyfully
appreciated.
Thank you,
Shannon Larson (Kat's Auntie)

2005-11-21T22:32:00.000-05:00

Traffic was down today, which is normal for a weekday, but it's the lowest since I've been doing the POD. I hope that's a good sign but suspect it's still partially due to the weather which wasn't as nice today as forecasted. We got a large group of volunteers in from PA this morning who had spent the night at the Morrell iCare camp. The tents they were housed in apparently didn't deal with water too well. Since there is nowhere here to house them they managed to find motel rooms in Hattiesburg, 1.5 hours away.

Now that we have so many people here and are expecting more the next 2 days, there isn't enough work for everyone to do. Thus, I got to read up on Oracle and Visual Basic - my old areas of expertise - in an effort to get ready for my contracting job when I get back. However, I'm here to work. I can read at home. So I went over to Main St UMC in BSL to see the group from VA there led by Tim Wells who I worked with at Trinity many weeks ago. I'll be going out with them the rest of the week. The devotional tonight was rather insightful. We need to allow Jesus to shovel out the muck in our lives like we're doing in these houses.

When I got back, I made some more connections with International Aid. She was telling me about several things going on in the area. I was pleased to learn about Lakeshore Baptist, the church I came across on my second trip down that was totally wiped clean. They are doing some remarkable work there so I could end up there on future trips. I'm not surprised by this. I've been by 3 times now and could tell it was a special church.

I need to get up earlier than normal and I'm up later than normal so I'm off to bed now. Peace.

2005-11-20T21:37:00.000-05:00

Fairly typical day again with about the same amount of traffic as the past 3 days. I've worn one of my Emmaus shirts the past 2 days and have gotten many nice comments on it. I posted a pic of me on our Emmaus site for those who know about that. We had someone give us a card at the POD thanking us for being here. We get told that over and over along with 'We're going to miss you.' We often get to hear about what they lost and how they are making out now. We really have become part of the community here in the parking lot of Fred's Market. I'll be interested to see the response to the parade Sat. The Rainbows are organizing a Thanks-for-giving parade to say thank you to the community for all the support they have given to the Cafe and market. All relief organizations as well as residents can have "floats" and join in the fun.

I got to listen to the Colts go 10-0 on the radio this evening. I haven't been keeping up with them or anything else for that matter. Tonight they had a bunch of people dancing at dinner with a local band jamming out some classic covers. I miss my wife. We never get to dance. Well, my brain doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders now so I think I shall go to bed. Peace.

2005-11-19T19:15:00.000-05:00

Today was much lighter traffic-wise than we expected. We had just a few more cars than yesterday through the POD. The good news is we think that is because Walmart opened up in their building today so hopefully they got a lot of traffic through there. It was a beautiful day to be outside; I got too much sun on my face.

There isn't a great deal to say for today. We got more water in. We had to repair the shower piping. We had to take a bus ride around the parking lot to increase the ridership so the driver can keep his job. They started doing free bus routes around the area last week.

The Rainbows have been having a blast - almost too much fun to make this last week less stressful on the residents I presume or perhaps to make leaving easier on themselves. Here's a couple from last night greeting us for dinner.

A few of them were dancing around the kitchen while making dinner tonight to what I think is 40s music. I'll just say it sounds like before my time at least. They have been absolutely wonderful cooks and servers though. They brought a whole different attitude to the area than any other relief center I've seen. Last night we had a local band playing during dinner and it just livened up the whole atmosphere. Speaking of dinner, the line has gone down now so it's time to go. I skipped lunch today because they're feeding us so well.