…sort of…

As we have journeyed into parenthood, there are times and things that come along that we whole-heartedly embrace as opportunities to create our own family traditions, which in some sense are unique to us. The uniqueness stems from the melding of “his” and “hers,” not necessarily something new or innovative. What a treasure to share the meaningful moments of childhood!! Though 5 years into marriage, the addition of Luke has probably added even more depth to these moments! It is a fun, entertaining, revealing, challenging, wonderful, exciting adventure

Yet, there are moments (as odd as some of them are) when we realize we prefer our nostalgia-laden familial customs…continuing the old faithful, rather than composing a new.

saw this news story and am loving it! I admit, the final products might be a bit eclectic, but a great work is being done. And what I love even better, is that this gentleman shows that everything does not have to be for inordinate profit: humanitarian aid, trade skill training, recycling.

Pretty cool stuff. (~4 minutes, but you get the basic story in less than a minute)

…and so the days pass, one by one; never stopping to ask if I’m okay with it

…and on this day, the 16th of November, Luke became a 17 month old little boy. He celebrated by deliberately saying “mama” (which he is increasingly sounding out these days) and “papa” (which we have never heard him utter before)!! What a special day!!

how not to give a presentation:

…trail off into personal life story
…face the screen and read facts from a book
…show complex charts and lament that it didn’t turn out like you wanted

Read this article this morning. Depressing…really. How confusing is this??
yellow = caution/suggested
white = limit/law

I took driver’s ed and license test 13 years ago…I still remember and nothing has changed.

I guess in actuality I am surprised that Dallas drivers even noticed the new signs…any signs for that matter! Driving in to work yesterday, a car entered the freeway and nonchalantly cruised from the entrance ramp all the way to the left lane with no hesitation, cutting off drivers in each lane. Apparently the driver was attempting to enter the HOV lane…he missed…but he didn’t notice this until he was on top of the divider-stick-thingies. It is a good thing we all slowed for the first pass, because he made his way back across all lanes of traffic…only this time he was facing us…yeah, he slammed the brakes and cranked the wheel to avoid the pylons. But, he spun around and skidded all the way off the freeway into the grass. I would say “unbelievable,” but for those who have had the experience, this is just about an everday in Dallas traffic…

definition of a little boy…

running noise with dirt on it

so, many times it seems there is not much to write about…course, I can always just throw up a couple of pics of Luke and that is sufficient. However, in the past week there has been solid teaching, amazing worship at church, personal study goodies, and random thoughts. these are coming…

for now, a half-random…okay not really….thought. I learned that the book of James in the NT is probably the first letter/book/writing in the NT. Most date it somewhere around 46-47 AD. Cool, huh?!! I think so. And guess what, it was one of the last books to actually be accepted into the canon (accepted by the early church as written by an apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, orthodox teaching). So, probably the earliest writing is one of the last to be accepted as Scripture. Interesting…well, my real thought is this: if James comes before Paul, why do we usually try to make James’ teaching fit Paul’s, rather than Paul fit James??

I know…I know…we are Paul-lovers! I am too, I just find this interesting.

Paul deservingly receives a lot of attention. He only wrote like half the NT and clearly (some say not-so-clearly) explains what Christians believe…and why.

Mere took Luke to the Arboretum here in Dallas, and he had a BLAST!!! Apparently he feels too cooped up at home or something because he took off running from the minute they got there and never stopped! What a day they had!

friends

Mere went with another seminary wife and her two kids…and Luke made a new friend.

what's this??

Don’t be fooled by the innocent expression…that is all it is. Immediately after this, Luke threw the pumpkin into the pile…then he picked up another one and threw it…then he did it again. Then, other kids decided that it looked fun and joined in…ours was the instigator!

i really touch this thing??

…to take this quick science quiz. After scoring your results, you can compare them to selected demographics from a sampling of test results. This quiz was part of an actual study done. If you show me up, by all means, post your results and brag…if you don’t well, no one will know I’m not sure if I’m ashamed at the question I missed or not…hmmmm.

…you can still piece together a solution. For example, my Wednesday night class is a video conference feed from Houston campus. This means there is a class in Houston and a class in Dallas, and they are linked via a video feed that is projected in both places. The prof alternates teaching from each location. It is actually really neat!

Last night the prof showed a video, which was supposed to be projected simultanesouly in Houston and Dallas. We, in Dallas, did not get the direct feed, so here was the solution (worked, but the quality was…well…lacking):

VHS player sends feed to projector > projector projects image on screen (Houston) > video camera picks up video playing on screen > digital signal sent to Dallas > projector projects feed from camera > we watch video on screen