More hodgepodge

-Melissa added a few counters to the side of this page. They're cute.

-Yesterday I obviously didn't mean the only thing I like about visiting the in-laws is the television channels. Great people, so service minded. We've been incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. They always have great food too. Food is always a key to my heart.

-On that note, I weigh 204 lbs today, so that's kind've crazy. My goal weight is eventually 180-185, so I've got about 20 more pounds to go. For a while there I was up to around 240, sheesh. Now, though, I'd like to start building muscle again. All my weight loss has been from a lack of food, so I think even my muscle is deteriorating. I just can't convince myself to get a gym membership though. For now I've been doing the strength excercise and yoga stuff on our Wii Fit.

-So far Noah enjoys peas, carrots, rice, sweet potatoes and even oatmeal. All babyfood of course.

-Had a fun date night with Melissa last night. We went to skyline, then Kmart, then borders. I actually didn't mind even shopping with Melissa, so long as it was just her. I miss the constant one on one time that we had before Noah. Things are different now. Better, I think, but just different.

All over the place

-Noah has been crazy sleepy the last couple days. We're not really sure what to make of it. We keep thinking either he is sick or if fighting something off.

-I promise I will continue my "life story" soon.

-I'm so excited the Columbus Clippers are now the cleveland Indians AAA team. Melissa and I already bought some tickets for a "dime a dog" game. We'll try to go to 3 or 4 games I'm sure. I was telling her today it's a great date because it's a great place for conversation.

-Noah scoots all over the place. He just kicked over a picture frame when I put him on the floor 8 feet away. He basically rolled and flopped over there.

-Support has been ridiculously hard lately. More than ever we've been feeling the blow our economy is having on people. We've had a great deal of "we just can't right now" and "I may get laid off, can I get a hold of you in about 6 months?" lately. Praise God He is not constrained by a weak economy.

-We're heading to Waynesfield this weekend to visit Melissa family. Should be fun. I always love going there because they have 900 or so channels.

-I moved Noah 6 feet away and he just grabbed another picture frame while I was typing. Now he's crying cause he's hungry so I'm out!

Daddy Day

Tuesday-Thursday I'm a stay at home dad, which is kind've fun. I'll tell you what, I've definitely had to grow up quite a bit and stop being so selfish. Bad thing is I just take all my selfishness out on Melissa. Not good. Noah is so close to crawling. He is pushing himself up on his hands and knees at times, he just hasn't realized that he can move. I also think he is starting to learn how to manipulate us. We absolutely will not put up with that. Well, maybe Melissa will because she is overcome by his cuteness, but his cute factor only goes so far with me;) We got this idea from friends, but our parenting mantra is always "We will not negotiate with terrorists!"

We learned that he hates peas. We tried yesterday and he locked his mouth closed after gagging for a few minutes. His look was hilarious, "You tricked me!"

I put shampoo on my loofa (sp?) today. Anyone ever do that?

picture

Getting ready for march madness!

Noah's eating baby food now. Last night was the first time we tried it, and we gave him carrots. His reaction was hilarious, I'll have to put the video of it up on here soon.

Off to a wedding

The Badenhops are getting married today! I'm excited. Will be a fun day.

story number two

The little dude loves to be lifted up.

We have a pantry that sits on our kitchen floor. It's about 6 feet tall and has tons of heavy things in it, so we decided it would probably be a good idea to fasten it to the wall somehow since Noah will soon be grabbing things, we'd rather not have him crushed under our panty.

So we go for a walk the other day (we've been doing this quite a bit recently because the weather is awesome, and we decide to stop at the local hardware store to see if they have anything that could accomplish our desired task. We have Noah with us in the stroller.

The guy that helps us actually looks a bit like Dwight Shrute from The Office. Chubbier, but totally Dwight. He's using all this technical jargon and I feel totally emasculated. One time he even chuckled when I responded to something he said. He said when we screw the pantry into the wall, we may need to "shim" it. I said, "Shim?" He didn't conceal his laughter. Tried, but failed.

Anyways, he hands us these 2 inch screws and a couple washers and some twisty/foldy things to put on the screws (see how technical and handymanish I am?). The total comes to 94 cents. That's less than a dollar. He says thanks, hands them to us, and walks away to help another customer. We talk for a minute, decide the screw things proably won't hold it, put them back and leave.

I noticed from my peripheral that as we were leaving the chubby Dwight Shrute worker man was staring at us. I though nothing of it. We get stared at a lot when we have Noah.

So Melissa and I saunter away. Seriously, this was one leisure stroll. Unbeknownst to us, we were being followed. Dwight and probably his store manager caught up to us about 300 yards down the road. We were quite a bit away. The manager asks me, "did those screw-things (I don't remember what he called them obviously) work out ok for you?" I turn and reply, "Huh? No, her dad doesn't think they'll hold, he has something else in mind." I notice he has a notepad with him. He asks, "So you don't have them?" "No," I reply and feel kind've wierd. I ask if he wants to check my pockets or something. He asks, "So you put them back?" "Yeah I put them back right where we got them?" Dwight speaks up, "No you didn't. We have someone circling around the store and they said they didn't see you put anything back." I just kind've looked at them. The manager was eventually like "Sorry, we were just checking, we have a right to do that," and they walked away.

Craziness. Fun story, but it was a bit ridiculous. Do you seriously think we walked to your hardware store, with a baby, to steal 94 cents worth of merchandise and then saunter away!?!? We were even a bit mad for an hour or so. It's a bit embarassing to be accused of theft, especially for something so petty. Eventually our pride fell and we cared not, but man.

Keep your goods close when the notorious heisters The Shadle Family roll into your town!

Goodness gracious

In the shower. Much easier than baths we've found.
Climbing the pole?!


Two funny stories.


Melissa is known for talking in her sleep. In fact, while we were still dating she slept in the same room as my parents on one occasion (we were going to my older brother's wedding reception and the only other bed was in the room with them, wierd, but I digress). In the morning my dad walked up to us eating breakfast and said something like, "So, Melissa, who is Susie? Cause you were yelling at her in the middle of the night!" It was hilarious amd embarrassing for her.


Anyway, since Noah has been born we're pretty sure the sleep-talking has stopped, but we're equally sure that some bizarre things are happening in our bedroom while we sleep. Our nightlight has been pulled out a few times and the blinds have been pulled a couple times as well. I think Melissa has traded talking for walking!


A few nights ago, though, the talking returned. She woke me up around 2 or 3 in the morning because she was feeling my face. Groping would be a better way of putting it. And she was saying something like "get it off! we have to get it off!" It was ridiculous. And not to long before this incident she woke me up around the same time just pushing against me. She was saying "stop Bart! You're going to suffocate him! Give him room!" I was dumbstruck. I looked at her and was like "Melissa he's not in the bed with us!" She was unfazed and rolled over. Man my wife is crazy and it's these little things I love about her.





Ok, that was much longer than I anticipated so I'll post a picture or two and tell the other story tomorrow, stay tuned!

Journaling

I love journaling. Here's an excerpt from today. I think that this will help understand my "life story" a bit more when I continue soon.

I love you, Lord. I love the saints througout the ages that have affirmed your love for me. I would be lost without them. I love that you name and define me. I am not the person lies speak about me. I am chosen, claimed, and blessed by you. Every aspect of me is named by you, the source of all good. From conception, before, even in the womb you formed and developed me exactly as you would have.
I am plagued by a desire to be somebody. It is like a race I cannot win. I HAVE to be famous, to be popular, to be well known, even in Christian circles, often especially in Christian circles now. Beneath all I do is that lurking motivation. A desire for MY glory. Sometimes the motivation is minimal, sometimes gigantic and consuming. I want to be like John Piper or DA Carson or CS Lewis and NT Wright or George Mcdonald. I want to be famous.
I call this a plague because terrible fear grips me when I doubt whether or not this will happen. I'm overrun by the fear of being a nobody, by being a loser or a sell-out. A weak person.
So I return again to you, Lord, the chooser and the blesser. I am beautiful and chosen and blessed and AWESOME in your eyes. I love Psalm 139: "OH Yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration. What a creation!" You look upon me and sing and shout for joy at your creation. You love me with the ferocity and adoration a bear loves her cubs.
So I resign my fears and desires to be your chosen and beloved. I cast aside my desire for earthly glory because I already have much greater. I am your beloved. You are my father. Let me hear no more lies about who I am. Let me rest and lay my search for glory down, for You are the one deserving.

And let the reader of this blog belive no more the lies about themselves. Let them know and be known as the beloved of the High King.

Thoughts, and my favorite picture

What a great picture.

A few things I'm thinking about today:

My wife is amazing. She has been in a "biggest loser" competition with others at the law firm she is working at part-time while we raise support. Today was the final weigh-in and she won by a landslide. She lost around 13% of her weight, and all of her baby weight, plus a few pounds! I'm really proud of her. Now if she can just get her husband to buy into a weight loss plan....

Spring training has arrived and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm optimistic about he Indians this year. Odd years seem to work well for us ;) With Wood, Betancourt, Perez and Lewis I'm pretty confident we have one of the better bullpens in baseball. If Pronk and V-Mart can hit again I think we're serious World Series contenders. We have some question marks, namely our SP's beyond Lee and perhaps Carmona, but we always seem to have good SP's regardless. Kevin Millwood anyone?

I'm also a ridiculous fantasy baseball nerd. I love it. It's like nirvana for a statistician, which I seem to have a pretty big interest in.

Noah is spitting up like madness today. He is napping currently, but he just wouldn't stop this morning. He's sleeping on is stomach now and getting much more acquainted with "tummy time." He'll be crawling in no time.

I'll continue my "life story" tomorrow.

Sorry

Apparently I'm a liar. My posting hiatus hit a few weeks. It's always on my to-do list, though I confess it's rather lower on that list.

Life is going well. More later (you've heard that before!)