Stormy Weather

We have had an interesting weather week. It was below 20 on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Friday morning it was around 40, which was really nice for my run. This morning it was 60 and balmy. This was good because Amanda was really struggling with the dust and whatnot that came off the Christmas tree as we took it down. We opened up the windows and aired out the house.

We needed a few things from Sam's and the weather seemed OK, so we braved the tornado watch. As we were getting in line I got a text from Amanda about a tornado warning, which of course is pretty serious. I looked at the radar on my phone and figured that we could beat the storm if we hurried. It turns out that the radar was a little bit behind on my phone. The skies opened up just as the person ahead of us was starting to check out. I figured that I'd have the kids wait with the cart and I'd brave the sheets of rain to get the van.

Just as we started our order someone came running in from the door yelling to "get to the middle of the store." I got my card back, took the kids by the hand, and we calmly walked to the middle of the store. We hung out there for a few minutes until the all-clear. We had a nice pocket of calm to come home in, which was nice.

We saw a few downed pine trees on the way home and a lot of pine straw on the road, but that was about it. Apparently they clocked 89 MPH winds at the airport. Amanda said that it wasn't that bad by our house. Nothing blew around in our yard, so I think that we were spared the worst of it.

Lily was a little shaken by the ordeal. Noah was completely fine. It's a good reminder that we are not really in control. It's also a good reminder of how incredible it is to worship the Creator of everything who controls where the storms go. I don't claim to understand why He sends tornadoes or any other weather, but I take great comfort knowing that nothing happens apart from what He wants.

Birthday Trip

We took a trip to Ohio to celebrate my 40th and Dad's 70th birthdays. We left on Wednesday after school and drove to Charleston, WV. We stayed at what has become our favorite hotel in Charleston and had a good night's sleep followed by a lovely breakfast buffet. The whole family enjoyed the pool for about an hour and then we hit the road to Ohio. It's not every day you get to swim in a warm pool while you can see it snowing outside. That did make for a cold run back to our room since the hallways were a bit chilly by comparison.

We had lunch in Marietta and got some coffee drinks for the road. It was in the low teens, so we decided to forego the riverwalk until another time. We got to Wadsworth and had a fun evening with Grandpa and Bubbe along with a great meal.

Friday was kind of a slow morning and then in the afternoon I went shooting with Dad while Amanda took the kids to see Frozen. After that my stepbrothers took me out to dinner, which was really fun. Of course, since this was a 40th birthday celebration and not a 21st we were still in bed at very reasonable hours.

Saturday was the really big day. While Uncle Mark went to the gym to run on the treadmill Aunt Jen took us to the local farmer's market and to the West Point Market. We got some goodies and then went home to get ready for Grandpa's birthday party. The video below was taken before lunch on Saturday.

What started this was Uncle Mark convincing Noah that he had to shovel all of his driveway, the neighbors, and the street (but only to the stop sign). Of course, Noah bought it. He and Lily enjoyed doing the driveway and even made a few bucks. Later that day when Lily saw Uncle Mark snowblowing the neighbor's driveway she exclaimed, "He has a snowblower?!?" She doesn't understand about keeping up when there is just a little snow.

We had a great party that everyone really enjoyed, especially Grandpa. It was fun to have him as the guest of honor and we even got to celebrate on his actual day.

Saturday night was fun because the twin cousins spent the night. They all slept in the same room and I think that everyone got to sleep fairly well. Lily had some trouble sleeping and she woke up one of her cousins to see the clock turn to midnight. The good news is that Lily was able to nap in the car on the way home.

Sunday morning started out a little rough because Noah threw up a couple of times. He didn't have breakfast, but his stomach seemed to settle down because he was fine at lunch and dinner. He also was fine today.

Now it's back to reality, at least for a week.

Sick Day

It's been a slightly rough day here. Last night Lily was really congested and complained about some symptoms that sounded like the onset of a bad cold. Today it was confirmed and she stayed home from school. The problem is that Amanda is now starting to show some early signs. Fortunately, it is nothing too debilitating, but Lily is going to stay home tomorrow after having a 102 fever tonight. The good news is that the little Peanut is pretty resilient and doesn't really seem to be too bothered. Right now they're watching The Voice.

This came at the end of a really fun weekend. Of course, Thanksgiving was fun with family and good food. Friday night the kids spent the night with the McKenzies so Amanda and I could go see Catching Fire, which was excellent.

On Saturday they brought the kids back and we all watched the Michigan game, which ended up being much more thrilling than we thought it would be. The McKenzies went home and then there were a couple of naps during the first half of the Auburn game. We all watched the end of the game together over a makeshift dinner and everyone agreed that it was well worth our time to watch it.

On Sunday we had some new friends over from our new church. There is some Polish heritage with Amanda's friend, so it gave me an excuse to make stuffed cabbage. It was a little risky making something new for guests, but between an online recipe and my own intuition I have to say that it came out great. I'm pretty sure the secret was including some good kielbasa from the Meat House. Nothing like a house that smells like cabbage and garlic!

The good news is that Noah and I seem to be OK. I feel slightly off, but I think I'm going to dodge this. Noah seems completely nonplussed. The highlight for him is that we spent time yesterday and today working on a video game. Good times for Pook.

Closing a Chapter

  You may remember that we have had some encounters with not quite wild enough wildlife. On Sunday evening I took Oreo out for his final walk of the night and when I came back I thought I saw a log in the yard. We had a bonfire on Halloween and I thought maybe there was a stick that I missed, but I didn't remember leaving a big one in the yard like that. Then the stick picked its head up. It turns out it was Oreo's old friend the gray fox.

 

The fox was acting kind of strangely, almost like it was sleepy. It looked at Oreo, but didn't make any threatening moves or noises toward him. Of course, Oreo wanted to do battle. Oreo is nothing if not territorial about his yard and his people. I ushered him into the house and gave everyone the news. It seemed like the fox was just sleeping in our yard.

 

When I went out running Monday morning I found the fox just like in this photo, though it was still dark. I held out some hope that perhaps it had just gone into hibernation, but as the day warmed up it was clear that the fox had died. If you look at this photo closely you can see that it has its eyes open.

 

I wasn't sure what to do with this, but fortunately Cary has an animal control department for such things. I was all set to glove up and put this beast in a trash bag, but they are going to get it. They would have come yesterday, but it was a holiday for them too. The good news is that it is finally starting to feel atumnal here with highs in the high 50s and lows in the high 30s. I'm pretty sure that they will get this today, so we will be spared the stink.

 

Amanda wondered aloud why it came into our yard to die. I think it's because it has had a relationship with Oreo over the years. I'm glad that he emerged victorious. I suspect that there may be other foxes around, but I think that this is the one rabid one that has given us trouble.

 

It really was a very pretty animal, but I'm not sorry to see it go. I'm also glad that I never had to shoot it, though I was prepared.

Family Weekend

We have had a fun, but busy weekend with Grandpa and Bubbe coming down from Wadsworth for a few days. It started Thursday evening with a nice dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roasted green beans, and an amazing caramel apple pie. Friday we took them to Adams Vineyards so that we could all get a sense of what Muscadine wine was all about. We had lunch at the NC Seafood Restaurant at the Farmer's Market so that they could learn about Calabash style seafood. It was a huge hit.

Saturday we went to Chapel Hill to check out the Coker Arboretum and to do a little shopping at A Southern Season. The Arboretum is not quite as massive as Duke Gardens, but it is a lovely place to take a walk. I think it would be incredible in the springtime. We finished the day with some good meat from the Meat House and, of course, some great wine provided by Grandpa Gary.

Grandpa and Bubbe are currently on the road to Cleveland and we are having a mellow Sunday morning since we have been going to church on Sunday evenings. Noah slept in until 8:00, which was later than the 7:30 he was directed to. He said he woke up at 7:30, but decided to be nice and stay in his room.

Later I made some pumpkin-spice pancakes with fresh caramel sauce. Everyone enjoyed it but Lily, who made her own chocolate-chip pancakes. She got Noah to help her so that he would be eligible to get in on leftovers. I guess that he was in a certain mode of listening to her because while I was talking to Amanda in our bedroom and Noah was in his room Lily shouted up to him to get his attention. He opened his door and angrily yelled, "What do you command me to do?" Clearly she has him trained well!

Justin is going to come over to play with Noah today. Lily and I are going to go out for some errands and to play chess with my new clock. But right now I'm going to keep hiding in the basement and do some reading.

Weekend Activities

We had a fun, but very busy weekend here. On Friday night I took Amanda out to see Star Trek in IMAX 3D. I was a little skeptical since I'm more of a traditional Star Trek fan, but it was quite good. Seeing it in 3D was really something. I spent most of Saturday painting. While Noah and I listened to and watched the Indians game the girls took a long walk with Oreo. Later, we went to see the finals for the NCAA Division II baseball tournament. There we saw the University of Tampa whoop up on Minnesota State. There were fireworks at the end, which Noah didn't think too much of. We got to see a few unique things at this game:

1. There was about a 15 minute delay because some of the lights went out.
2. We got to see a great dogpile when Tampa squeezed the last out
3. Some of the fireworks went off sideways and started a small fire in the landscaping behind the right field wall

Overall, it was a great time. Noah and his friend Nathan hung out and didn't watch much baseball. Nevertheless, they had fun. Lily and Rachel enjoyed getting their faces painted too.

A "selfie" Lily took in the car

Lily's flower just before demolition

Of course, this made for a late bedtime, but it was worth it. Everyone slept in this morning. We had breakfast, had a fine time at church, and then came home. I did more painting and the girls took another walk. Noah stuck with the whole game even though the Indians got bludgeoned today (final score 11-3).

Amanda suggested we have a family movie night, which we all embraced wholeheartedly. We watched the Karate Kid. Noah got really excited when Daniel landed the fateful kick on Johnny's chin.

I'm glad that I have the kitchen ready to be painted when the painters come on Wednesday, but it was still a lot of work. I did the trim to save us a lot of money. At their suggestion, I did it before they put color on the walls so I could be messy with the paint. I still have to paint the doors in the kitchen hallway, but I have made terrific progress. I think I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow so I can rest.

Holiday Weekend

We've had a good weekend here. Hardly restful, but good. On Saturday Noah and I ran some errands in the morning. Then in the afternoon Lily went to a friend's birthday party where she got to hang out with some of her best friends from school. Noah, Amanda, and I went to a small party where folks gathered to pray for some people who are adopting a child from Uganda. As we were coming home we got an invite from Nathan's dad to go see the UNC vs NC State playoff baseball game at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. We certainly couldn't pass that up! We all had a great time.

After church on Sunday we had some lunch and hung out while watching the Indians' game. Then we met Nathan's family at the USA Baseball complex to watch Grand Canyon University take on St. Edward's. Why would we go to this game? It was free and the weather was beautiful. We had a really nice time.

Today we started off by getting Amanda a new bike. This was a long time coming because her old bike is not in good shape. We hit the local Goodwill where Amanda found lots of clothes for the kids. I also found a tweed-like jacket for myself. I'll take paying $8 over 325 pounds any day!

Amanda and the kids hung out while I went to Durham to donate platelets. When I got home I fired up the grill and we had marinated beef tips from the Meat House. That's hardly everyday food, but it was good for a holiday meal.

Tomorrow is a big day on the home repair front. Our oven has conked out, so we decided to replace it. We are getting a new range tomorrow and Amanda is looking forward to using a convection oven. We also take our car into the shop to get the collision damage repaired. I am interested to see what kind of car we end up with.

Lost and Found

We have had a busy weekend so far. We decided that it was finally time to replace our old TV, so I took Noah to Target to take a look at what they had. We ended up with a 47" Vizio floor model that we're very happy with so far. As I type this Amanda and Lily are happily watching "The Voice" through Amanda's laptop on the TV. However, the process of getting to this point was not without its bumps.

First came the shopping experience. Noah wanted to look at toys, which was fine with me. However, he forgot that I was talking to the TV guys. He got scared about it and I found him crying and scared. This happened once before at Sam's Club and I always feel terrible when it happens. He played Lego Star Wars on their XBox 360 the rest of the time I was working on my transaction.

Next came the breaking down of our old stuff. Our old TV was very nice when I bought it in 1996, but it has become something of a dinosaur. What it hasn't lost over time though is mass. I had Amanda help me take it out of our old TV armoire and as we took it out the plastic just disintegrated under our hands. She ended up dropping her end and the TV literally fell apart. It was as if the plastic had turned into marzipan. This ended my dream of putting the TV in the basement.

Noah, Lily, and I later went with Noah's friend Nathan and his dad to the NC State Red White game. We had a good time there except for them being out of food by the time we arrived. After we got home I asked Jeff if he would mind helping me get the old TV to the dump as well as some other miscellaneous bits that we had leftover from all our construction. We left Noah and Nathan playing in the yard, which Amanda knew about.

When we came back I found Lily in the backyard dragging Oreo by his collar back to our house. I asked her about Noah and Nathan's whereabouts, but she didn't know. It turns out that they weren't in the house. We started to search for them and I found them being escorted by a local mom. I thanked her for her help and then we started to interrogate the boys.

As you might imagine, it was not a very fruitful discussion. Apparently they were helping Lily retrieve Oreo the other time he got out and then decided to "go exploring." We explained again that they were not to leave the area around our house. It was much scarier than the time at Target, to be sure. Fortunately, it ended well for everyone.

I think that's enough excitement for now. My next post will likely include some photos of our redecoration in the bedroom and bathroom.

How to Buy a Car

Our van was starting to have a strange burning smell coming from the engine. It also had about 83,000 miles on it and I figured that we were approaching the time of four-figure maintenance. From the beginning we wanted something smaller, but it wasn't available. Since we are coming into a little bit of money I thought that this would be a good time to look into a Mazda 5.

I planned on getting one used. Carmax had the color we wanted, but it was a fleet rental (danger!). It had 40k on it and they were asking about $16k for it. As a lark on Friday I started looking for new cars and found that the MSRP was $21,400. I filled out a few web forms to see what kind of deals we could get.

I was first contacted by a gal in Goldsboro at Frema Motors. She got some information about our existing van so she could give me a proposed trade-in value. While she was working on all of that I got a phone call from a dealer at Capital of Cary. He gave me the old "The MSRP price is $21,400 and the invoice is $20,400, so we're probably talking around $21,000." Shortly thereafter I got an email from Frema with a price of $17,271. Needless to say, that got my attention.

I explained that before we did anything for sure I wanted to test drive one and see how all the features work. We also took our van to Carmax to get it appraised there since we got more than I expected for our Camry. I also emailed my contact at Capital of Cary to let him know what she bid. He did the traditional, "Wow, how can they do that? We need to put our heads together here..." He came back with an offer of $16,979. I had promised the gal from Frema that I wouldn't take a local offer if there wasn't a significant difference (her exact words were, "don't show someone there my offer and take theirs for $50"), but I considered $300 significant. We test-drove what we thought would be our car that evening, but I wanted to wait until they gave us a number for taking our van. That evening I emailed my contact at Frema to let her know that she was underbid.

The next morning I received a call from Goldsboro before I heard from the folks at Capital. The general manager there told me that he would beat the offer I had by $500. At that point I stopped haggling and agreed to the deal. They delivered the car to our house as well, which was nice. We signed the paperwork at our dining room table and then I took the van to Carmax to get our check for $6000.

In the end, I got a new car for $500 more than what I would have paid for one used at Carmax with 40k miles on it. We got the color we wanted (the dark red in the link above) with gray interior. I'm kind of partial to red and gray, after all. All in all, I could not have been happier with my experience. The moral of the story is that you want to have two dealerships courting you. It is definitely a buyer's market.

Social Weekend

We just finished a very social weekend. It started on Friday with the Daddy-Daughter dance at Lily's dance studio. Lily and I started the evening with dinner at Firewurst, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. However, after dancing a while I started to regret the wasabi slaw. We did some line dances (Hokey Pokey, Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Slide), a little waltz, a little swing, and some popular songs. I got to learn some moves that Lily and her friends made up for the newer ones. I think Lily was surprised that I can move a little bit. We had a great time.

We started off Saturday with Noah's basketball game. It didn't start until 10:00, but we had to be there at 9:15 for team pictures. I gave the girls a break and they didn't arrive until just before the player introductions. Plus, they had to run an errand for a birthday party Lily was to attend on Sunday. Noah played much better. He pulled down two boards and brought the ball up the floor a couple of times. Unlike most 5 year-olds, he understands that he is supposed to pass when he gets in trouble. That was encouraging.

After basketball we went to Uncle Eric's birthday celebration lunch at a local restaurant. Right after that we stopped home to let out the dog and then met friends from our old church at the NC Museum of History. That was fun, but by the time we were done we were all very tired.

Sunday started off with church as usual. We came home, had a quick lunch, and then I took Lily to a birthday party. I was told that there would be a "fashion show" from 4:00-4:30 and the birthday girl's mom encouraged the other parents to attend. I told Amanda about it and she picked up Lily. There were a few snags though:

• The show didn't start until closer to 5:00
• It lasted about 45 minutes
• No other moms came

Nevertheless, Amanda survived and Lily had a great time. It was good that Lily went because apparently this girl likes Lily and it meant a lot for Lily to come (her mom's words). We wouldn't necessarily know that from the stories we've heard in third grade, but things can be complicated among 8-9 year-old girls. It encourages us that girls want to have Lily around. I think she is more popular than she thinks she is, but that is just fine.

This week is ramping up already with activities for me planned every evening. More to come later.

Ice Storm

Unlike last week, we finally had a real winter weather event today. The kids went to bed on Thursday knowing that their school day would be 3 hours shorter, but they ended up getting dismissed 4 hours earlier than normal because the weather came in more quickly than expected. Basically, the county was trying to avoid what happened in 2005 when an inch of snow turned commutes across town into 8 hour drives.

I left the office at around 11:00 because we also were dismissed early. This was good because Amanda had lunch plans with a friend and I didn't want her to miss them. I waited in the freezing rain to pick the kids up at the bus stop, but by the time they arrived it had stopped. The kids and Oreo were glad for that. I got a fire going in the fireplace and got some work done while the kids hung our in their rooms.

The second wave hit around 2:00 with some legitimate ice. I had never seen a forecast for "ice pellets" until I moved to this area, but I certainly saw them. I salted the steps and driveway, but it was hard to stay on top of the ice because it came down so wet. As of right now we have about an 1/8 of an inch of ice on the driveway and on the road.

The only real negative to this is taking Oreo out. He doesn't mind the ice and in fact I think he kind of likes it. He keeps stopping because he wants to bite at frozen leaves, bits of dirt, and blades of grass. I'm not sure what we're going to do in the morning because walking on our road will be difficult with the ice. He may have to adapt to going in a different spot. The one thing for sure is that I am not going to have Lily walk the dog in the ice.

Noah's basketball has been canceled tomorrow. Unlike the locals, we did not manage to restock our milk before the storm hit, so we will have to improvise a bit at breakfast. If that last sentence doesn't make any sense then you've never lived in the South.

Weekend Update

It was a busy weekend here for me. Amanda has had a persistent cough that started last Monday, so Friday afternoon I took her to the urgent care. The doctor prescribed some cough syrup with codeine and gave us a script for amoxycilin that we could fill if she didn't get better. She wasn't much better on Sunday, so I filled it and now she is on the mend.

I started Saturday with a treat. Noah and I went into Raleigh to get some of the new dark chocolate Krispy Kremes. Later, he and I ran some errands and then came home and played some basketball in the street. It's a shame that the goal in our neighborhood is at 10 feet because he desperately wants to shoot. Nevertheless, he enjoys dribbling, passing, and playing defense.

Sunday I took the kids to church and then out to lunch at Jersey Mike's. I probably wouldn't ever go to Jersey Mike's except that the Cary restaurants have free kids meals on Sundays with adult purchase. Of course, the kids had a great time and the highlight for Noah was seeing a basketball teammate and one of his coaches. We chilled out at home for a couple of hours and then went to our home fellowship.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful except that we are making a conscious decision to put Noah to bed early on Mondays. He gets to bed late on Sundays because of home fellowship and now is late on Tuesdays because of basketball. It isn't pretty in the morning when he doesn't get enough sleep. Lily worked on her probe, which is like a mini research paper. She does them in Microsoft Publisher rather than drawing and decorating pages in her notebook. Mom is very proud.

Hanging Out

Happy New Year! We had an extremely mellow New Year's Day. We had an egg casserole for breakfast, but besides that the morning was very quiet. Amanda and I read most of the morning and the kids did their things.

Around 1:00 I took both kids to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch some football. We ate wings and saw the first halves of the Capital One and Citrus Bowls. It is always weird to root for Michigan, but the game is kind of a win-win for me. If they win it looks good for the conference and if they lose then I get to see Michigan lose. The kids enjoyed the food, drinking sweet tea, and the attention our waiter gave them.

After that we tried to get gas at Sam's, but it was closed for New Year's Day. We finally did something I had wanted to do for a while - we checked out Gander Mountain. I've decided that Gander Mountain is like REI for Republicans. The kids were fascinated by all the pistols, rifles, and shotguns. Now Lily knows how bullets and shotgun shells work.

I dropped Noah off at home and Lily and I went out to get supplies for her desk. We bought her a pink desk lamp at Lowe's and then she spent her own money on a rolling chair from Target. I got it set up for her while dinner baked and she was very happy with the results. She is loving her little bedroom office now.

It was a nice start to the New Year. I'm sure it will be good since I got everyone to eat at least a mouthful of sauerkraut.

My Turn

This has been a rough week for health at the Chamberlain house. On Sunday Amanda had a bad head cold that kept her laid pretty low on Sunday and Monday. She felt a little better on Tuesday and Wednesday, but never great. She was finally back to herself on Thursday.

Meanwhile, I felt a little funny Wednesday night and suspected that I was coming down with something. Those fears were confirmed on Thursday. Fortunately, my manager let me go home early. I came home, took a little NyQuil, and then hit the hay. I took my temp around 7:00 and found it to be 102.4. I have a sell order in at 102.8.

I guess if you have to be sick it is better the week before Christmas than on Christmas proper. I'm really hoping that we all are in good health for the weekend and for Christmas.

Family Day

As noted previously, we had a lovely walk in the woods on Saturday. Here are some photos from that walk.

Oreo loves a walk

Mom and her Pook

Imperious Lily

He insisted that we take this photo

This is unrelated to the walk, but as I am including photos I thought I would include this one. Lily's famously long hair needed some conditioning, so Amanda whipped up some goop from a recipe she got from Pinterest or some other online source. She turned yesterday evening into full-on spa time. Here is Lily getting the royal treatment.

Amanda putting a magnet to the toenails

Noah's Day

Noah had a very good day yesterday. We went to soccer in the morning and he did very well. He seems to do the dribbling drills about 50% faster than the other kids. At the end of practice I asked his coaches at what age they start working on headers and they told me that it depends, but that Noah was definitely ready. They then described him as being "very athletic." I told them that I envision him being a midfielder who gets things set up for the offense and they agreed. They said that he has a good sense of space. I think he gets that from me. My problem is that I can't make my body put the ball (soccer, football, basketball) where it needs to go. Noah doesn't seem to have that affliction.

After soccer we picked up Brenna, who spent the night. We came home and visited with some friends from our old church and then went for a hike at Umstead Park. Noah really enjoyed himself and even decided that he wanted his picture taken on this tree. I think that this came out pretty good, though I'm no expert.

He requested that we take his picture

Finally, at the end of the day he got to play some electronics. This is pretty much an ideal day for Noah. Perhaps the only improvement would have been if we went to a sporting event of some kind or went bowling.

(Some Scary) Stuff

We have had a little bit of a scare the past few days, though we didn't know why. Noah has been throwing up and we didn't get it. We're used to Lily throwing up for various reasons (though she hasn't pulled that trick in a very long time), but this was weird for Noah. We thought it was because he was gagging while coughing. It turns out that we think it may have been linked to this. The good news is that he has been fine today, though his appetite is still not 100%. Nevertheless, I don't think we need to take him to the pediatrician.

We tried a new church today. I knew that it would stretch the kids because they were with me for the whole service (I prefer the term "gathering.") It was just me because Amanda is in Pennsylvania for a funeral this weekend. Lily was sort of dreading sitting through a sermon. I really knew she was in a bad way when she wouldn't join in singing "Mighty to Save," which is one of her (our) favorites. I gave her the bulletin to take notes on the sermon and she really got into it. In fact, she was gushing about how much she enjoyed it by the end. Noah didn't enjoy it nearly as much, as you might imagine. My plan is to get each of them special notebooks that they only use on Sunday mornings. I think that will help. Also, I sweetened the pot this week by offering an extra 30 minutes of electronics if they behave. We won't do that every week, but it was a good start.

After that we went to Sam's Club. We had lunch, which was interrupted by Noah's need to use the facilities. Lily took him while I hung out. After that he had a better appetite, but not what he normally has for a hot dog. At the end of our shopping he wanted to look at the Wii games, as he usually does. He did that and Lily and I started looking around too. Apparently he lost track of us because when I went to get him he was gone. I then heard them paging me over the PA and I found him standing there crying. He was very glad to see me. I think we've done well with that being our first really lost child at a store in 9 years of parenting. I don't remember ever getting paged for Lily and certainly never for Noah before. I don't think he was too traumatized by it though.

We came home and I got some Crock-Pot dinner going while they changed clothes. We took Oreo for a walk on the Black Creek Greenway, which was a nice time on a beautiful day. After that we took him to PetSmart to get his flea control medicine. I am writing this at the end of the 90 minute electronics-a-thon. It's almost time for dinner anyway.

Take a Hike

After all the tumult of the past few weeks we wanted to do something fun together as a family. The weather was very nice yesterday, so we took advantage of it with a walk at Umstead State Park. There is a creek with some big rocks where the kids like to play. Amanda had bought picnic supplies at Trader Joe's and baked some homemade bread for the occasion. We packed up and headed over, though the kids' attitudes were a bit lacking during our preparation.

Taking a break on a tree God seemed to design for it

Once the five of us got going we had a good time. Oreo seems to really enjoy hiking, so that's a plus for the little guy. His only problem is that he gets a little tentative on the small bridges that have gaps between the planks. Who can blame him for that?

The hike went well, except that the kids got some blisters. Noah had new Crocs and they irritated his ankles. Lily had old Crocs that were a little too small. Nevertheless, they had a great time playing in the creek. The only negative for me was having to carry Noah back up the hill on my shoulders. When we got back to the van he had the nerve to complain that his butt was sore. As for me, my neck is still feeling it a little bit.

But, despite all the complaining and the blisters, I have no regrets over taking that walk. We really try to take advantage of the nice weather we get in the spring and fall here. We hope that these little walks in the woods will become fond memories for the kids.

The Big News

I had made an allusion to some "big news" in a previous post and have already received an email inquiring about it. I'm afraid that in this case "big" does not necessarily mean "good." The news is that we need to leave the church that we helped to start. I didn't want to publish a blog post before our church family heard the news.

There are a few reasons for this. One is that I don't think I should ever have been ordained as an elder when I was. I think that I have been growing in my role as an elder, but I also think that we did it too soon. We were in a rush and it was a mistake.

Another is that I disagree with our remaining elder (Jerry had disqualified himself a week ago) on some things that will cause too much friction. I don't think he is going to move on them and I am not willing to give in on them anymore. I ignored these differences for too long.

The biggest is that through a series of misunderstandings and miscommunications it would be very difficult for Amanda to sit under Rob's leadership going forward. There is forgiveness, but it takes time to rebuild trust. We don't have that kind of time while serving together.

We hate the fact that this may mean the end of Sovereign Christ Church. We love the people there and don't want to see them hurt. However, I think it is better to do this now than after we add another 10 families. We plan on going to First Baptist Church Durham after this. I think we need to just attend and participate at a church for a little while to recharge our batteries.

Vacation Photos

One of the reasons why this blog has been quiet for so long is that we were on vacation the last two weeks in July. We got a free trip to North Myrtle Beach thanks to some work that one of my co-pastors did on a house there. It was nice to spend some time with the other elders and their families for a few days. You can see that we got busy in the sand.

We got back from that trip on a Friday and then on the following Sunday we went to stay at a cabin in Boone. Here are some photos from that trip. I believe that this waterfall is simply called "The Cascades."

This was taken on Grandfather Mountain. This was an expensive day because they charge $18/adult and $8/child. We decided we wanted to get our $52 worth out of the day, so we started off with a hike up the bridge trail to the famous "mile-high bridge." The bridge itself is really not that high, but overall you are still a mile above sea level. We hiked back down to the car (only about .4 miles each way) and then drove down the mountain a bit for a picnic. I think that this photo was taken after our picnic. The view was quite stunning.

After that, we decided to do more hiking after a potty break. We drove up to the top and tried to do a loop. Once we figured out where we had to go we started on the very strenuous Grandfather Trail. We didn't get to the part with ladders, but there was some climbing up and down involved. The kids were troopers. However, about halfway through it started to rain. Amanda and the kids found some shelter while I ran back up to the very top to get the van. We finished all of this with a trip through the nature museum and a stop at the sweet shop for some fudge.

On Thursday we went to Linville Falls and Linville Caverns. These photos were taken from various overlooks around Linville Falls.