A Sad Christmas

Finley and I had a sad Christmas this year. I had a miscarriage early Christmas morning. I was in my 7th week. I got to see the baby's heartbeat the Thursday before. We are choosing to trust God in this. I am grateful of His love, peace and goodness. We are very sad.

I passed my test!

I found out yesterday morning that I passed my P.E. exam. I am excited about being a professional engineer, but I am thrilled to learn that I won't have to endure another 8-hour exam (not to mention the hundreds of hours I spent studying instead of playing with my family.) Thanks so much for all of your prayers; they payed off!

The good, the bad, and the thankful

Erica, Norah, and I traveled to Taylor Ridge, IL a few weeks ago to celebrate thanksgiving with the O'Connors. The trip up was much less terrible than expected thanks to the Backyardigans and the portable DVD player that I strapped to the rear headrest. It was a great thanksgiving. We laughed with family, stuffed our bellies, played with the donkeys (yes, there were donkeys), and ate again.On the way home, we stopped to spend the night in Cape Girardeau, MO. The next morning got a little exciting when Norah did a swan dive off the bed. We called our pediatrician, and he assured us that she was fine. On the following Monday, however, an x-ray revealed a minor buckle fracture. The good news: her hot pink cast was pretty cute; the bad news: it prevented her from sucking her thumb, which was much worse than the broken arm since it is her main method of self-soothing.
After only two weeks her cast is off. The actual removal was quite an ordeal, but she is so happy to have her arm back. She spent much of the day pointing to her arm and clapping. That night, she stuck her thumb in her mouth and went right to sleep...all is right with the world.

Side story: During the car ride, I convinced Erica to listen to two past episodes (which I carefully selected) of my favorite radio show, This American Life. My hope was to get her hooked. I struck out. She liked the show but says I picked depressing episodes.

Camlin Marker Funny Indian Commercial Advertisement

Erica sent me a link to this video and asked me to add it to our blog. The funny thing is that she was logged on to YouTube as me, so I thought I was receiving an e-mail from my future self. I thought it best to follow my future self's suggestion, so here it is.

One

On October 28th, our baby girl turned one. We had 2 birthday parties, both at the park. And increased exposure to cake did not help Norah like it more! She did not like the gooshy icing at all!

What I'm not doing.

For those of you who haven't heard, I took the Professional Engineering exam on Friday, October 26th. I have spent the past week recuperating from the previous six weeks, which I spent studying...whenever I wasn't studying. Seriously, I have never studied so hard in my life, and unless God speaks to me audibly and tells me...no, commands me to go to medical school, I will never study that hard again. I am not guaranteed to pass (one guy in my office failed it three times), but I feel pretty good about it. If I didn't pass, I plan to quit my job and call Truckmasters.


Keep an eye out for more posts in a few days where I'll tell everyone about all the cool stuff I missed while cramming.

Our Norah took her first steps today! She walked 3 steps from Finley to me!

Weekend Warriors

Our weekends have been so exciting recently. This weekend's drama began early yesterday morning when a policeman knocked on our door to tell us that both our cars had been broken into. Nothing was taken from Erica's car (there was nothing to take unless they wanted baby toys and a car seat). From my car they stole my wallet (which contained three or four gift cards) but they removed the credit cards first! Rather courteous we thought. The weekend ended with a huge display of God's amazing grace.

Last weekend, we started landscaping our house. After three or four mosquito bites and only one decent blister, I broke my shovel and called it a day.

On Sunday we had dinner with Lance, Diana, and Evan Hilliard. Watching Evan and Norah play together was a blast.

Two weekends ago, Erica threw a baby shower for Valerie. Chris volunteered to help out in the kitchen. Here are a few clips from that experience.

Three weekends ago, Norah, Erica, and I traveled to Monroe, LA to visit Adam, Rebekka, Chris, and Valerie. We had a blast helping them register at Target for stuff for their expected babies. It was a great weekend catching up with old friends and taking in the sites, like standing water, "The Pentecostals" (a local church), Transformers, and swamp flowers.

Jeanne Marie

This week marks the 10 year anniversay of my mom's death. I didn't remember the anniversaries at first; I believe they were just too painful. But now, my heart won't let me forget. I've had a heavy sadness all week, and today it occured to me.
I am sad that many of my friends will not even recognize her name. Most of you, including Finley, did not get to meet her.
So this blog is going to be for me.
Please feel free to skip over it, but I need to remember my mom today and give myself permission to be sad.
These are just a few of my favorite pictures of her. My grandfather was an amateur photographer,
and I am so grateful to him for every box of photos. I thought these baby photos were poetic. Going back over them I realize how much my Mom and my Norah look alike as babies. Thank you, Father. I wonder if she will continue to grow to look like her Grandma. Mom, Norah and I have the same eyes. And norah has darker hair than Fin or I did, like my Mom. I, like many children, think no one was as beautiful as my mother, so I can think of no none I'd rather my Norah resemble.
We are going to the Cathedral this weekend to light a candle for Mom. Going into a Catholic Church is like entereing the heritage of my family. It's like going home, though I don't fit in as well as I did when I was younger. My mom loved going to mass. She said that no matter how hard our week was or how much we had argued, when we went to mass on Sunday, everything was somehow okay. The walls fell down and we were able to remember how much we loved each other and how for so many years we were all the other one had.

Hilliard's in space

My best high school friend, Lance Hilliard, lost his father, Matthew Earl Hilliard, to a heart attack on Tuesday. Please pray for Lance and his brother Richard as they mourn their father's passing. At his father's request Lance and his family plan to have Mr. Hilliard cremated. His ashes will be, funds permitting, launched into space!

Sweet Baby James

On thursday evenying Erica and I went to meet Lucy James. To my delight I got to hold her for a few minutes, and I think we bonded. She must have known what it took for us to get there. Here is the story.

Erica remembered Amy's comment that she was delivering at Doctor's Hospital next to St. Vincent's. As we drove up to the Doctor's Building Erica went in to ask where Amy was, but the information desks was vacant. We finally decided that she must have misunderstood, so we drove across the street to St. Vincents. After parking in the deck and walking in the door Erica picked up the phone at yet another unmanned information booth. We learned that Lucy James was in room 434 on the OTHER side of the street. Back across the street we went, laughing at our own ignorance. We parked and went to the fourth floor of the Doctor's Building. It was deserted. After a deep sigh, we spotted a janitor that told us we were in the "Doctor's Building" but needed to be in the "Doctor's Hospital". "There is a breezway" she said "on the fifth floor".

At this point I must add that if you are getting bored with the story please feel free to skip to the next paragraph. It won't hurt my feelings. I must also explain that even though I grew up only a few minutes from this hospital, and was actually born there, I had not been back until thursday. My family is loyal to Baptist Hospital to a fault. Anyway, back to the story. We took the elevator to the fifth floor, walked down a hall and found... a dead end. I peered through the window and saw the breezway on the floor blelow us. At this point Norah looked at me as if to say "you have got to be kidding me". We took that stairs (they were closer) down to the breezway and crossed over in triumph. "We're almost there" I said in a desperate attempt to keep my family's spirits up. At the other side we reached our destination only to find a locked door. "No!" someone in the family cried. By now we were feething like mice in a pshycology experiment. I looked around for some explanation or way out and found that we had in fact walked across the TOP of the breezway. Down another floor we went, through the breezway, through the door, up the elevator, and we saw a sign that said "NICU". "We must be close" I said feeling a little like John Edredge hunting elk in Montana. A few more turns and we entered the labor and delivery waiting room. "We're here" we exclaimed to everyone else in the room as if we had just discovered america.

It was worth it. If you have not met Lucy yet, I highly recommend it. She is in "Doctor's Hospital". Tell her I sent you.

Charlotte Mullhearn

Dear, sweet, Charlotte Mulhearn passed away early Friday morning. We never got to meet her, but after praying for her for so long, Erica and I had become quite attached to her. She will be dearly missed.

6 Years!

On Saturday, Erica and I celebrated our six year anniversary. It didn't go as planned, but it was a wonderful day. The bed and breakfast was booked, and our baby sitter was out of town. Instead, the whole family spent the day together. We began by returning books at the library. Actually, the books were ours, but we didn't want them anymore, and no one else did either. So, we put them in the drop box and sped away. Next, we went to the mall and shopped for clothes. Norah had a great time sticking her tongue out at herself in the dressing room mirror. After a nap, we had dinner at Loca Luna. We sat outside, which was fun, but the mesh tables proved to be a challenge since the holes in the table were the perfect size to accept Norah's cheerios. Norah loves feeding herself, but needs a little more practice. Erica and I, thankfully, did not drop as much of our dinner on the ground as she did. We concluded the evening, after bathing Norah and putting her to sleep, by watching The Queen. We give it three stars. It was a good night, and it was nice to spend an entire day remembering how blessed I am to have such a wonderful wife.

Norah has a tooth

My baby girl has her first tooth! If you look on the lower left you can see it. She cut it a couple weeks ago and is working on cutting its neighbor. I know because Norah and I were up doing battle with it from 12 to 3. I love this picture.

Just like daddy

My little girl already loves to be behind the wheel. Click here for the appropriate backgrount music.

Memorial Day

We just took Norah's 2nd trip to Illinios. (I think she is just darling in the suitcase) Uncle Ray and Aunt Elaine have a big party/ family reunion every year on Memorial Day. They live in the country and have a farm house, stocked pond and two barns - one for the growing animal population and one for toys (remote control planes, tractors, and this year an inflatible barn for jumping).

The kids also got their faces painted. I love having so many children in our family; here are Ireland and Kiki. Finley loves visiting the O'Connors and the dynamic of a big family. He has decided that he wants a large family as a result, well that and being an only child (same for me). We want our kids to be able to share the memories, joys and hardships of growing up and having us a parents.

That is actually a difficult idea for me; I know that I will do things that will hurt Norah. I just pray that I am the kind of parent who can listen and apoligize without getting defensive. Okay back to Memorial Day, I especially love this last picture that Finley captured of me throwing Norah in the air. Click the link for more pictures: Link

Dedicated

Today was a great day! To quote my wonderful wife: "Today we publicly dedicated Norah to the Lord and dedicated ourselves to raising her to truly know Her Heavenly Papa." Most of our family and many of our friends came to support us. Erica purchased a beautiful dress for Norah to wear which most people mistook for a family heirloom. Our favorite part of the outfit was the bonnet.

The Sabins, however, took turns calling her the Amish child and/or Esther Williams as a result. For those of you who aren't familiar with my family tree, the Sabins sprout from my mother's side. They are die hard cynics, and we love them for it, most of the time. Afterward we had lunch and cake at our house. There was much laughing and very little cussing. Like I said, a great day!

Your Age by Eating Out

I got this as a forward. I love that people can do this kind of stuff with math. I cannot. So if you have time, give it a go. - Erica


Work this out as you read ...

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat.
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 ....
If you haven't, add 1756.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.
You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number
(I.e., how! Many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)
The next two numbers are
YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)
THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

The Doctor

We just took Norah to her 6 month check-up. She is 26.25 in and weighs 13 lb. That puts her at the 75th percentile for height (she's been at the 50th at all her check-ups until now) and only the 5th percentile for weight (she's been at the 25th). We hope the drop is due to her recent "fever virus" (i love the descriptiveness of that term). About a week ago she woke up with a fever of 103.1. I was worried! Thank God we have great doctors who are very easy to get a hold of, even at 4:30 on Saturday morning. She wouldn't eat solid foods for a couple of days, but she is back to eating again (everything but avocado, which causes her to gag and cry). Poor avocado.

She Sits

Norah can now sit up unassisted

(longer than the amount of time it takes gravity to pull her down)

Norah at 5 months

Norah is finishing up her 5th month. She just hit a growth spurt and looks so much older. She loves standing, eating pears, being held, making rasberries, smiling, taking baths with Mommy, and watching everything around her. Yesterday she started splashing in the tub.

Today, I sat Norah in her bumbo chair near an open door so she could watch the rain. She loves being outside. She would watch the rain and then look up at the sky trying to figure out where it was coming from. She would sometimes look up and raise her arms. Her innate awe and praise of God was beautiful.

Baby Norah at 4 months

I haven't written in this for so long. Finley and I are so proud of our new daughter, Norah Marie. She was born 10.28.06.