fun times with rob's computer camera

help!! the universe is conspiring to pull us apart!

cartoons, anyone?

no greater laughs will ever be had.

babies and bodies

i came across this picture of koen when he was first born in the hospital -- pre-chub. (scroll down to last post for post-chub) he was so teeny tiny!
i suppose that's to be expected.

that reminds me of last night -- erica and i went to 'bodies: the exhibition' and there were parts of it that were truly amazing! there were other parts that were truly disturbing, but let's not talk about those. one of the amazing rooms was the one about embryos -- they had a tiny little embryo starting from week 1 and going up -- it was so surprising how much changes and grows in just a week!

my favorite of all was the blood vessel room. none of the exhibits in that particular one were from real bodies, so that made it even better to me. they did fill a real body's blood vessels with a liquid polymer that hardened, then chemically deteriorated the rest of the tissues, leaving just the vessels in place, but made up of the polymer (a type of plastic).

these are the lungs and heart. they also had containers holding the vessels of your stomach, arm, leg, etc. and most astoundingly, an entire body! from head to toe, the blood vessels were in place, making up the shape of it all. it looked like a human-shaped red bush. i never knew how many miniscule blood vessels there are in us!!
i wish they allowed cameras because that's the one i would've taken a picture of.

the thing i came away with from it all was a deep gratitude for life and the miracle that god performs in each and every one of our bodies, to maintain our living, breathing existence. those bodies had all the necessary parts to sustain life, but they weren't alive. they were dried up specimens that were truly less than appetizing most of the time. i'm so grateful for the pink-flesh, vital, warm life in me. we are each walking witnesses to the amazingly imaginative power of the creator god.

dinner fun times

nick has to wear wood-working-type clothes for his wood-working job, and yesterday i just happened to wear my plaid shirt. we were hillbilly lumberjack twins and it wasn't even on purpose, i promise!
in this picture i have gross chicken-covered hands because we were in the middle of cooking dinner for our friends susan, david & little koen...

it was so good to spend time with them and be absorbed by koen's baby grimaces. he was awake and entertaining us immensely until right before susan held him up for this picture. then he suddenly just konked right out, almost as if it were on cue.

here he is before konking. so cute! and so chubby!! he may not appear too chubby to you, but after the wee tininess that he was a month ago, holy toledo, he's getting some meat on those bones of his! he also has the silkiest hair of any baby i've ever known. and yes, i mean ever.

beach time

sunday was a church picnic out at moonshine again... we seem to end up out there pretty often these days. it's been such beautifully mild weather, with just a tiny hint of fall coming. the sunlight was perfect for picture-taking. so of course, many pictures were taken :-)

some entreprenuerially-minded individuals were making good use of the daylight. gotta admire those hard workers. i wonder how much they found...

there's a man-made peninsula type place that nick and i strolled over to enjoy the sunset upon.




then we played a little game with the gravel on the beach -- we each had to write a 3-word message to the other person (and it couldn't be 'i love you')...
here's nick's:

so thoughtful, so christian.
here's mine:

now we know who the spiritual leader of this relationship is.

good news, folks: my neck is not broken!

all day yesterday i was telling my students that i had a broken neck. it seems the more shocking the statement, the more sympathy is garnered.

i do, however, have classic whiplash, probably from that car accident a month ago. i didn't have any pain or symptoms of whiplash until yesterday when i woke up in so much agony, muscle spasms & neck pain that i could barely function. i went to school, but didn't do a whole lot of moving around.
then this morning i went to the chiropractor for the first time in my life! i'm glad to say that it was a very positive experience all around.
my chiropractor was very friendly, very helpful, educating me along the way, dispelling any horrible quackpractor stories i've heard (and they are many!). she caused my neck to make noises i've never heard coming from it before! it was rather startling.
she also took x-rays and explained that a normal neck has that natural c-curve (picture on the left) to support your head comfortably, but whiplash makes your neck straight (picture on the right). she showed me all the things wrong with my neck and said it'll take a good 3 weeks of getting adjusted every other day to get me back to normal.
that's a lot of adjustments!!

hopefully, the car insurance will have medpay which pays for chiropractic adjustments 100%. i'm waiting to find out if that's the case. otherwise i'll have to pay a $30 co-pay every visit.
that could add up. so keep your fingers crossed!

erstwhile, i'm going to enjoy the rest of this sick day by immobilizing myself on the couch and catching up on heroes, season 1.
that's what i like to call a good time.

new phone = happiness

i got a new phone!
it's pretty fun! in this picture it looks kind of silver, but it's actually white, like an ipod.
i like it.
i like things that are fun to figure out. they add a little spice to life. of course one of the funnest thing about it was its free-ness...
not only was it free, but it's quite a bit snazzier than my old phone. it has a camera, bluetooth compatability, and that handy little knobby thing in the middle to navigate around.

materialism strikes again. what can i say? i'm an american.

nick the craftsman

i have the very exciting privilege to announce that nick has found a job!
some of you know that he finished with doulos at the end of august and has been a bit adrift, wondering what to pursue next. he has some definite passions, but finding a job that fits those for now, to pay the bills and all, has been a bit of a head-scratcher.

then a couple of days ago, leah mentioned that art, her surrogate grandpa who makes dulcimers, is looking for help, as he has more work than he knows what to do with. nick went in yesterday to have a chat with him, and it's a go!



nick is going to be learning how to use a router to make rustic looking signs like the one behind us that says 'artfolk'. that's the name of the shop, named after art, of course, but also his folksy artistic things he makes.

i'm so excited for the things nick will be learning to make. after he masters the sign-making, he'll also be learning about gouge carving, instrument making, and who knows what else! he loves building things with his hands and especially loves wood-working, so this is really a perfect job for him with endless possibilities. i'm also excited for his opportunity to work alongside art all day long. from what i hear about the guy, he's really neat.

monett, mo

on labor day, nick and i went to visit one of his friends on a farm close to monett. it was a beautiful 1 1/2 hour drive through some of the prettiest land in missouri.
when we got there, we pulled up to patrick & hannah's place, and the cows were eating their yard. i guess that's the be expected on a farm. saves on mowing time, eh?
(whoa -- great idea, maybe i need me a cow...)
nick hadn't met patrick's 2-month old son, anodos, yet, so that was fun. to further add to his unique name, this child has a unique skill -- he's being potty-trained. that's right. two months old.
evidently there's things happening in the parenting scene of which i had no idea.
he also has red hair. he's destined for greatness.

we parked the car at their house, but then ended up walking 1/2 a mile to their parent's house and i unfortunately left my camera in the car. if only i'd had it, you would be privy to such delightfulness as pictures of a warm late-afternoon sun in the green, green foliage all around... their picturesque pond by their 2-story house... a trampoline in the yard that i really wanted to bounce on... if i'd had my camera i probably would have done it, just to take pictures. sometimes pictures make life happen.
it was a delightful 2 hour visit of relaxing discussion about books, babies & hmm... i can't think of what else we talked about, much less a topic that starts with another 'b'.
darnit.

suffice it to say that i enjoyed getting to know nick's friends.
i think it was tolkein who, after a close friend had passed away, expressed how sad it was not only for the loss of his friend, but also for the loss of how his friend interacted with c.s. lewis. tolkein saw a side of lewis through his dead friend that he was never able to enjoy again.
confusing couple of sentences there, but i hope you get my point. (or, more importantly, tolkien's point)
that's a lot like something i wrote in my other blog, about how we are able to see aspects of who god is by seeing him in other people.

all that to say, i saw more of who nick is through watching him with patrick, hannah & anodos. i liked what i saw.

camdenton, mo

nick and i had the delightful privilege of visiting laura, matt & the girls this weekend! i was so really excited to see laura again. it's been a good long while.
it's nice to know that some friendships stand the test of time and are just as fun even when there are years between visits.

laura especially loves this group shot. looks like she needs to put those shades back on.

it was an amazing day -- bright sun, not too hot, beautiful greens and blues all around... the boys all headed over to the infamous rope swing (might seem familiar to you frequenters of laura's blog). there were some painful landings involved, but they didn't seem to mind.

haley & ana were especially fun to watch -- ana's just the squishiest baby ever! her chub is the cutest thing in the whole world. and haley is very very fast when she runs. i don't think i've ever seen a faster little girl in all my days. in this noodle picture she was singing a little ditty to herself as she walked back and forth, bobbing along.

one of my favorite things about the visit was watching laura & matt as they interacted with their kids. they're natural parents.
<
with camdenton just 2 hours away, hopefully there will be many more visits to come. at least for the next year -- then it's off to mexico with them! they're hoping to be dorm parents in chihuahua with the mission. laura has quite a bit of experience with that whole scene, having lived in a dorm most of her formative years. matt was a d.a.r.e. officer and worked with youth for quite a while before joining new tribes. they both have very sincere hearts for kids and are going to be great dorm parents.