Update on Kaylee

Recently, Shawna and Kaylee went to a major-city for the pre-surgery consultation. Due to the need to have another surgeon in the operating room and the extent of the surgery needed after examining the results of recent tests, the surgery has been postponed six months. The procedure, while necessary and inevitable, does not need to be conducted acutely. Therefore, waiting until Kaylee’s summer break was the better option.

-J

This and That

Hello everyone. Don't fall over because we are updating. HaHa. It is crazy just how busy life can get sometimes. Jeremy and I are have both finished up the coursework for our doctoral degree and are now working on our dissertations. I have my topic and problem statement and am beginning my literature reveiw. I have to have at least 150 sources so this will take a little while. Jeremy has his mentor and is finishing up getting his committee. We have taken a little bit of a break from working on it hard so we are going to have to buckle down and get our schedule going for who is working what night. Usually the one that works on the dissertation does not have to worry about much else. It works well for us since I have such a good husband that is willing to help. If he wasn't so good, there is no way that both of us could be doing this. My mentor encouraged me to have someone local on my dissertation committee. This has been so helpful. One of my former professors is on my committee and has been a real help.

I am still teaching Kindergarten and love it but am ready for the winter break. Jeremy is loving his job. It is less stress and in the field that his degree is in so it is a very fulfilling work. His collegues are also great. JT is doing great in school and loving being a part of the youth group. He has become so active and has grown so much. I am so thankful for people that have influenced him in a positive manner. It is hard to believe that he has been a Christian for over a year now. He gets so excited about all activities with the youth group. The weekend before Thanksgiving, he went and saw Harry Potter with the youth group and loved it. He has also almost outgrown me in height, which makes him very happy. Me, not so much.

Kaylee is also doing well but she will have a busy month of December. As of right now, she is scheduled to have surgery on December 20th. It is a procedure to help her bowels and bladder. It is a very invasive procedure that will probably keep her in the hospital over Christmas but it will be a great benefit to her. We meet with her doctor again next week and will blog more after that appointment. Until then...

- S

More

J.T.'s Birthday Gift

In honor of J.T.'s 11th birthday earlier this month, we let him ride the zip line. Enjoy!

-J

Been A While

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since we (the kids and I) have blogged and I am getting lots of slack so I am making it my goal to put this as more of a priority. Lots has happened since we blogged last. We have moved to a smaller house which meant we had to clean out. We are loving living here. The kids have adjusted well. We live about a 7 min walk to a library so JT has decided that he is old enough to make this walk at least a couple of times a week and go to the library to check out books. We decided to go ahead and keep the kids at the same school with me this year but possibly move them next year. They have made lots of friends at the congregation where we attend. I am still teaching at the same school which makes my drive about 45 minutes instead of 25 minutes. I am meeting and riding with my best friend so the drive is not so bad.

On the school front, I did pass my comps (Yea!!!) and am now on to the dissertation phase. However, with the school year beginning at my job, I have not been spending as much time as I need to on it. I am going to have to get better. I think I am going to have to come up with some type of routine, which is not easy for me. Hope you enjoyed this brief nutshell post. Will post more specific stuff later. Have a great weekend...

-S

Are You Kidding Me?

J.T. and I have been at Horizons 2010 this week. It is a lot like the various camps which exists for our young people. J.T. has come with me for several years now and asked if he could be a camper this year. Technically he is a year early for it but we made it happen.

J.T. does not like to carry his phone with him and is notorious for not having it when I need him to have it. Thus, I have been hounding him for the past few weeks to carry it with him during Horizons week so that I could get in contact with him if I needed to do so. Apparently, he got the point a little too well. He carried it with him all day Monday.

Now, are you ready for the funny part?

Here goes...

HE CARRIED IT RIGHT INTO THE POOL WITH HIM!!!!

Yep, you read that right, he went swimming with his phone. It was by accident, of course. However, as you can imagine, it was ruined. The phone was Shawna's old phone and about four years old so no big loss.

There is actually some good news. Shawna went to see about getting it replaced and our new location allowed us to have a plan which was cheaper and give the four of us more options. I think he may need to drown another phone or two to see if it works agiain.

There is never a dull moment.

-J

Space Center

JT here, this post is gonna be about my trip Huntsville Alabama Space center

-JT

Yep, He's My Son!

Last evening, J.T. and I were traveling home. We were thirsty, so we stopped and got something to drink. J.T. asked if he could get some candy for a snack. I agreed. He picked up a box of Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers. This was his conclusion:

Dad: "Do you like the gobstoppers, son?"

J.T.: "Yea, but if they are everlasting gobstoppers, why is there more than one in the box?!"

-J

I Forgot the Videos

Enjoy

-J

Mother's Day 2010

As you know, this past Sunday was Mother's Day. I have been trying to teach the kids to love and respect thier mother. Every year for the past five or so, I would wait and see if the kids would prompt me to take them to do something for thier mother. They did not and I would have to default to telling them what they needed to do.

UNTIL NOW!!!

The Friday before Mother's Day, the kids came up to me and said, "Dad, we need to go shopping to get something for Mom for Mother's Day." I did not have to prompt them at all! I was so excited.

So, this past Saturday, we went shopping and, partially because the kids cannot wait to give gifts and partially because we did not have a good way to hide the gifts, we celebrated Mother's Day late Saturday evening. Here are some photos of the great day:

Sunday, we took her out to dinner and enjoyed the day together.

-J

The New Bike Kaylee Won the Week of T-CAP

Jordan: The week of T-CAP was boring and lame. All we did was take a standardized state test. They did one on every subject and it took all morning, every morning. Other than the morning, we got to have fun all week.

Kaylee: Okay, well, every child that took the test got tickets if they were well-behaved during the testing. The tickets were put in a bucket and then every day, after testing, they drew a ticket and one of them was mine! So, I won a bike since my name was drawn. Here is a picture of the bike:

Kaylee: Here is a picture of me with the bike and, as you know, I can't ride it, so.....

Jordan: She gave it me!! Here is me with the bike. The reason I am not riding the bike is because the tires are flat. *smile*

Jeremy: That's right! Kaylee won a bike and gave it to J.T. That is pretty cool stuff.

-J, JT, and K

Somebody Had a Birthday...

As you probably know, our little Miss Kay turned nine recently. Shawna had a sore throat and could not be involved in the singing. But, J.T. and I sang our traditional birthday song.

Here is the more traditional song...

Here is Miss Kay getting her birthday spanking.

It is never dull at our house!

-J

A New Look

Here is Kaylee with her latest look.

This was taken with a cell phone. We will see if we can get some better ones posted in the future.

In other news, Shawna completed coursework for her PhD degree. Now she has three months of comprehensive exams and a dissertation after that. Whew, it is getting close!

-J

It's Been Interesting...

So Tuesday, Shawna informed me the 4Runner had a few dashboard lights on which were not normal. I looked and the 'Check Engine' light was on. The lights indicating that the limited slip feature was not working were on as well. This did not concern me as usually, the 'Check Engine' light causes the other to turn off. I was concerned about the 'Check Engine' light as the last time it happened, I was out of town and it cost be around $700.00 to fix. So, here we go again...

I advised Shawna and the kids to take the truck to school while I look into it. I called the dealership and they could not see me until Tuesday next week. I did not know what to do but was concerned about the time frame. When Shawna got home, she advised that I call another dealership in another place. So I did and they could see me Thursday (yesterday). A buddy of mine went with me and we sat for about an hour and a half while the dealership looked into it. I was getting worried as usually the longer you sit, the more expensive it is!

My buddy said if he could go with me, then he would buy me lunch. I naturally let hin go. We waited and waited and waited and waited. The more we waited and saw food on the TV the dealership had for us to watch, the more hungry we got. We waited and waited.

Then, they came to get us. As it turns out, the gas cap was not on tight. Air got in the gas line and caused the 'Check Engine' light to come on. They did not even charge me for cleaning out the lines!

I guess going to another city to let your buddy buy you lunch is better than going to another city and spending large amounts of money on your car. Not so bad.

-J

This is What I Have Learned...

One can know so much about a topic which is way too narrow that the knowledge he has about it is of aboslutely no benefit to himself or anyone else.

-J

I Know It's Been a While...

Okay, so some of you are probably wondering why I (or any of us, for that matter) have not blogged in a while. The answer? For everyone else, they seldom blog. For me? Well, it could be attributed to a lot of things. We have been very, very busy and some things … yea, things … have happened. What kind of things? Interesting things. Good things. Not-so-good things. Just keep reading.

First, some great news! My sister, Michelle, gave birth to a healthy baby girl this past Thursday. This has been a day long coming and we are all just so excited and happy that all are well. The baby weighted seven pounds seven ounces, was 21 inches long, and named Brianna Elisabeth Jo. If you wish to learn more, visit this blog.

Now some interesting news… This past month, it was decided that I would no longer be serving as the preacher for the congregation where I have served the past six and a half years. There are obviously more details but we believe this is the Lord’s way of telling us to move on to another phase of our lives. We are not sure what that phase is but are pursuing several options and hope to know before long.

In fact, this past weekend, we visited a congregation for part-time work which was a lot closer to family (hers and mine) and may have some promise. We shall wait and we shall see. I have an interview later this week and another appointment next month. Shawna is pursuing options as well. Please pray for us as we make this transition.

Now the not-so-good news: In our travels this weekend, we got to visit with Shawna’s family. Her brother has a son (Nick) who JT looks up to in a dramatic way. The two of them know how to get into trouble. Over the holidays, they went up to shoot mice in the feed loft of the barn with Nick’s BB pistol. JT enjoyed it so much he bought his own. They went up this past trip to do more, came in for dinner, and Nick and his family left to go home. Then, the fun happened. Nick called Shawna to inform her that a BB ricocheted and hit JT in the back of the head. We pulled JT in and found they had been hiding it since they came in for dinner, about four hours. We saw the wound and felt what we thought might be a BB between the skin and the skull. We thought also it might be a knot in the head from the wound. We just weren't sure. In any case, we thought it might be a good idea to get him checked out so we took off to the hospital at 10:30 PM.

They x-rayed and the BB was certainly in his head. Here is a picture.

The ER doc decided that he would try to remove it but could not get it out. He recommended that we see JT’s pediatrician at a later time assuring us there was not any real immediate danger. We saw the pediatrician earlier today who referred us to a pediatric surgeon who said that he thought we could leave it or take it out. He said it was our choice. JT opted to keep it. Shawna and I agreed. The doc said if we have trouble, we can remove it at a later time. It only cost me a total of $130 to find out we are not going to do anything at all. Oh, well. At least we know JT is safe.

For the record, JT was aptly punished for the deception (among other things).

JT’s new nickname is BB head. He may not like that.

-J

From the Message Bin

Okay, the original plan for the 'From the Message Bin' posts was to go through 2009. I did all of them in Januay 2009 and set them up to post once a week. Along the way, some people gave me some more quotes so they drifted into January 2010 a little bit. As you can see they are gone. However, I came across this one and shared it with a sweet person in my life who told me I needed to post it. So, here it is...

"Cancel my subscription. I've had enough of your issues" (Unknown).

-J

Snow Day! Snow Day!

Yesterday was fun. Shawna and the kids were out of school. We played games, listened to J.T. present a lesson he plans to present at services tomorrow night, and had a good day together. Unfortunately, due to the inclement weather, the youth rally the church hosted today was cancelled. Thus, we have another day scheduled for family fun.

-J

Oh, What a Day

So, here is the situation. I got up this morning and began updating my computer. Here it is almost 10:00 o'clock at night and and I am still at it. I updated, turned the computer back on after restarting, and found that my files were not where they normally are. I moved them to what I thought was the right location and had to restart again. I moved them to the temporary file! They deleted when the computer turned off. Oh, well, good thing I back up my files once a week, right? I backed up this past Wednesday so I thought I would restore, and only loose two days of information. And, for the most part, it worked just like that! For the most part. The backup file of MSOutlook was corrupted. I tried to repair and restore it. It did not work. Long story short, I lost ALL my Outlook information. No contacts. No email (for the past five years). No taks. No calendar appointments. At this point, my thought was, "Oh, well, I have all but the email on my phone." As it goes, I will sync it and all be okay and only be out the email (a big loss but small compared to the over 85 gigs of inormation. As it turned out, when I synced, the computer erased my phone instead of getting the informaiton off my phone. I had the setting wrong.

Now, I feel so ... empty.

It motivated me to find a backup program for my phone and will probably find a better system for the computer.

Oh, what a day!

-J

Desk

As you can see from the title and the pictures, this is a desk.

I worked on it over a period of one week with my grandfather. It was not really a full week because there was one day we were not there. I had to rearrange my room to fit it in. And, we decided to get rid of my television in the process. Now, I think I am going to go because I am running out of ideas. Keep reading the family of N.

-JT

From the Message Bin

"I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use" (Galileo).

-J