Learning Stuff and Things.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in previous posts, but I’d recently applied for admissions to University of North Alabama.  My original intention was to finish my course of study in Psychology and Sociology, but after some conversation with my mother-in-law (a completely unbiased wealth of information), I’ve decided to switch to Social Work.  Instead of having a generally unusable four-year degree, a BSW would prepare me to become a Licensed Certified Social Worker (LCSW) right out of college.  Social Work is a rapidly growing field, and demand will only continue to increase in proportion to population.  In addition, I’ve got my eyes set on a Master’s in Community Counseling…but don’t hold your breath.  I’ve got five or six semesters to finish up my bachelor’s, and the master’s program would be another forty-eight credit hours.

All that to say….

I’ve been accepted to UNA!!!  I suppose there was never a whole lot of concern, as my junior college GPA is pretty good, and my test scores were all above average, but it sure feels good to say that I am now a student at a university.  It make me thing that I should have done this a long time ago.  In all honesty, however, I’m glad that I waited.  I feel that my life experience, mistakes and successes will be of great value in the years to come.

In related learning news, I’m teaching Isaiah to play the harmonica and melodica.  I use the word “learning” very loosely.  I don’t really know how to play either instrument, and I’m not sure if Isaiah has figured out how I am conjuring polyphonic sounds from pieces of plastic and/or metal, but I think it will pay dividends in the end.  I’m exercising my own abilities to musically improvise, which can only aid my playing of stringed instruments.

Isaiah is walking more and more, and I’m hoping that he’s independently and uprightly mobile (not a real phrase) by ten months.  I know its not a race or any sort of competition, but I’m really enjoying the rapidity of his development, and would like to teach him to pole vault this summer.  He is exploring and growing more and more inquisitive all the time.  We saved a big box from his toddler car seat, and he’s been using it as a fort.  I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what a fort is, but if he did, then that’s what he’d imagine his box to be.

On the twenty-ninth of April, the world will celebrate Brianna’s 27th birthday, and our second anniversary!  We’ve already purchased one of our co-anniversary presents (although I’m getting at least 99% its use)…a Nintendo Wii!!!  We’ve also agreed to purchase a watercolor painting from one of our favorite artists, Geoffrey Benzing.  We haven’t decided which one we want, but I’m sure it will be well loved in our home.

I digress, and must attend to the subject of more import.  For nearly two years, I have been married to the most beautiful, wonderful, intelligent, understanding, loving, and caring woman I’ve ever met.  Brianna is exactly what I needed in this life.  She is my best friend, closest ally, greatest supporter, and only love.  The past two years have been the best of my life, and I’m looking forward to what the coming decades will offer.  …and now I will spend the rest of the day with her. 

Southern Living

Just a quick note to say that I love the South… I wasn’t always sure that it would work out for me, but after six months, I can honestly say that I adore living in Alabama.

Since we moved to downtown Florence, we’ve been walking a lot more, and I’m remembering why I detest cars so much. Sure they’re nice for driving aimlessly down county highways, and climbing switchbacks to reach remote mountain vistas, but there are certain aspects of life that can only be captured on foot.  I’ve owned a reliable vehicle for about six years now, but had previously walked nearly everywhere I needed to go.

Walking allows me to step out of the busyness of the greater world around me and into the microcosm of my neighborhood.  The weather is warming, the dogwoods are in bloom, and I’m getting the itch to explore.  And, no, those aren’t mosquito bites…the humidity hasn’t returned, so those pesky little buggers aren’t feasting on me quite yet.  I’ve got miles of historic neighborhoods to appreciate, hiking trails to discover, and civil war battlefields to walk.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though.  Our downtown apartment is excellently located within walking distance of our church building, library, favorite coffee shop, Asian market, the regional university, and Brianna’s parents’ house.  There are also two parks within a mile of our front door, one of which has a jogging trail.  We going to do our best to spend a significant portion of our time outside, and to encourage Isaiah to do the same.  After all, we have to find out if his skin can tan or not.

 

Addendum to all those who have never lived in the South:  hardly anyone walks in the South.  I’m pretty sure it’s frowned upon.

Jivin’ and Tweetin’

So much has happened since my last post. I can’t even begin to…begin.

Long story, short version: we had a baby (June 26th, 2010). we named him Isaiah Samuel. Isaiah gets bigger. We moved to Alabama (Sept/Oct). Isaiah is growing. I work at Books A Million, then BAM and Target, then just Target. Isaiah is growing more. 2011 begins. Isaiah is even bigger than last year.

Present day, I’m more and more in love with my wife everyday. She is exactly who I need, and we really enjoy life together. Isaiah keeps growing and progressing faster than we can imagine. He’s just over nine months old, has two teeth (the front ones on the bottom), is crawling like crazy, and walks a few steps every once in a while. We are living in downtown Florence, just a stone’s throw away from our church building. Calvary Fellowship is everything I need in a church home, and the congregation there has been very loving and supportive of our family. Work is going pretty well, and I’ve applied to the Social Work program at University of North Alabama.

That’s life in a nutshell. I’ve added twitter to my blog…hopefully that will help keep my updates more current.

Update time

My lovely wife has informed me that it has been almost three months since I’ve updated my blog.  I suppose that it’s about time that I do.  Where to begin?

I’m pleased to announce that Brianna and I are nearly halfway done baking the bun in her oven!  Just before Christmas, she and I were in Florence, AL, for our sibling-in-law’s wedding…my brother-in-law, Daniel and new-sister-in-law, Maggie.  While in town, we visited Parke (my father-in-law) at work, in the radiology department of their local hospital.  He pulled some strings and got us our first ultrasound…and IT’S A BOY!!!  We were pretty surprised, as Brianna was only thirteen weeks along at the time.

More recently, we visited our birthing center, for our first pregnancy checkup.  The location is a Christian non-profit organization, which means that with Medicaid, we won’t have to pay for anything!  …well, at least on our child’s birthday.  I’m sure we’ll make up for it in diapers and baby stuff in no time.  We’ve also started going to birthing classes.  It seems tha Brianna and I are much more prepared than most of the other couples in the class.  We’ve been doing our homework and reading since week five or six, and Brianna has been doing a great job of eating healthily and exercising.  Since her second trimester began, she’s been working nearly as many hours as she did before she was pregnant, AND going to the gym several times a week.  I’m impressed with her resolve as a pregnant mother, and am absolutely positive that she will be an incredible mother…and a beautiful one, at that!

Onething is over, and we’ve moved into our new warehouse.  Things are starting to settle down a bit at work, and it’s starting to look like a legitimate operation.  Pallet racks are being constructed, we’re receiving truckloads of product, and having to use the forklift to do just about anything.  The only problem is that I have no phone or internet in my office…which makes working a bit more difficult.  Sure, all of the other computers have internet, but somehow I got overlooked.  I’ve been assured that they’re going to hook me up on Monday, but that’s the same promise that I’ve gotten for the past three weeks.

While I’ve been internet-less, I’ve had the opportunity to get back into my Isaiah commentaries with renewed vigor.  I’m almost a third of the way through chapter one!  That might not sound like much, but I’ve got over thirty pages of notes so far, and am only nine verses into the book.  It feels good to be exercising my brain a bit, not to mention my spirit.  Plus, all of this note-taking has worked wonders on my typing skills.

Nearly all of the snow  has melted, and it has been over fifty degrees for the past few days.  I’m not sure what the weather is going to be doing for the next few weeks, but I wouldn’t mind if it stayed sunny for a while.  I’ve only been out disc golfing two times since Christmas, and it was so cold both times that we didn’t finish half a round.  Even worse, I managed to get a warehouse job for my golf buddy (this is the good part), but he sliced his foot open on his second day at work (the bad part), and now he probably won’t be able to go golfing for a while (the worst part).  I’ll be praying for rapid healing!

I’m playing acoustic at church in the morning (and bass for the next several weeks), so I’d better hit the hay.  Until next time…even if it is three months from now.

Constantly Changing

My boss likes to say “the only thing that is constant around here is change”…and he likes to say it often.  Now, more than ever, he is right.

We finally found a new location for our warehouse, and have begun the process of moving in.  Not that we’ve actually moved anything, but we are preparing to move in.  Our current warehouse is pretty much a piece of junk.  The roof leaks like crazy whenever there is a light rain, and the layout is less than ideal for operating a real warehouse.  The new building that we just signed a lease for is only ten minutes away from our current location, doesn’t have a leaky roof, has tons of office space, and is easily ten times the size of the old warehouse.

In addition to my role as shipping manager, I have been named the project manager for the moving process to the new warehouse.  So far, that hasn’t meant a whole lot more than sitting in on meetings and taking inventory of assorted warehouse goodies.  Soon, I’ll be conducting all sorts of business and hobnobbery with building crews, movers, shakers, candlestick makers, and the like.  I’m looking forward to the task, not only because it will get me out of the office a bit, and allow me to add my input to the warehouse build out, but also because it is a bright and shiny star to put on my resume.  I have no doubt that once it is all said and done, I’ll be more confident as a manager, as well.

In other news, Brianna is doing pretty well with being pregnant…in my estimation, at least.  She seems to be nauseous on a daily basis, but is being a good little trooper and making sure that she gets enough nutrition for two.  She is doing quite a bit of prenatal research and finding out what types of vitamins and supplements she can and cannot ingest.  I’m very proud of her diligence, and am more than confident that she will be an awesome mother.  We are both extremely excited about being parents, and eagerly await the arrival of our new addition to the family…and I’m convinced that we are having a boy, which is even more cause for excitement.

For the next couple weeks, I’m playing bass as a replacement on a couple different prayer room teams.  This week alone, I’m playing one set a day, Saturday through Wednesday, plus an extra set at Rivercity Church on Sunday morning.  This will likely be my last set at Rivercity for a while, as the regular bassist is almost completely healed from his elbow injury…praise the Lord!  My regular Saturday sets with Tiffany Larson’s “keep the fire burning” team is going very well.  We have been focusing on Psalm 23 for about two months, and it seems to get better every time.  In addition, I’m playing a set on Sunday afternoons as a substitute for a friend who is in Thailand, as well as Monday thru Wednesday for a co-worker who is out of town.  The latter team is composed of a group of students at our music academy; needless to say, they are excellent musicians.  I’ve had a lot of fun playing with each of the teams, and am hoping that I’ll find a regular gig one of these days, rather than having to be a substitute bassist.

Until next time…

Joyful Tidings

My wife has been acting a little strange lately.  She’s been constantly craving chicken wings, and crying for strange reasons.  We’d pretty much decided that she was pregnant.  Saturday night, we went to the store and picked up some pregnancy tests, just to be sure.  At about three thirty in the morning on Sunday, she got up to go to the bathroom, and when she came back to bed, announced that…she…is…pregnant.  As you may surmise, we didn’t get much more sleep that evening.

We weren’t exactly trying to conceive a child, but we weren’t trying too hard to not conceive, either.  That being said, we are totally stoked about being parents!  For many years, I wanted to start having kids around the age of thirty, and now it looks like that might become a reality.  According to our estimation, Brianna is five weeks pregnant, which puts her due date pretty close to my thirtieth birthday on June 30th of next year.

As you may imagine, the pregnancy has brought us a lot of attention.  By noon on Sunday, our facebook friends had posted nearly 100 replies to our statuses (stati?) of parenthood…and the comments keep rolling in.  Our respective coworkers have showered us with congratulatory praises and embraces, and shrieks of joy (mostly Brianna’s friends).  My favorite, however, came from my friend/co-worker/ex-roommate Monica’s daughter, Lana.  When Monica told Lana that I was going to be a father, Lana said, “aww…he’ll be a good dad.”  I shared a house with Monica and Lana for a year, and was blessed to be a part of their life for that time.  Her compliment was my favorite of them all.

Where to go from here?

Several of our friends have recently had children, and several have mentioned that the state of Missouri has excellent pregnancy coverage for families without insurance.  This comes as quite a relief to Brianna and I, as neither of our jobs offer decent insurance plans.

It looks like our plans to move to Florence, Alabama will be pushed back at least a few months as we eagerly await the birth of our child.  We were hoping to buy a house and move southward at the end of next May when the lease on our apartment is up, but the prospect of moving to another state with an extremely pregnant woman sounds rather daunting to me.  We thank the Lord and His great wisdom and provision that we didn’t commit to buying a house already!

Chances are, I’ll be looking for a new job.  Brianna is currently bringing in the bulk of our income, and that can’t last forever.  I’ll need to either find a second part-time job, or another full-time job that pays a lot more than the one I’ve currently got.

Brianna and I ask that we would be in your prayers now more than ever.  We are in very high spirits, and are very gald to have the love and support of so many friends and family members.  We know that the next eight months will be exciting, interesting and challenging, and feel that we have been equipped to handle the rigors and rewards of pregnancy and parenthood as much as any young couple, if not better.  We are thankful to have had wonderfully loving parents, as well as excellent role models for parenthood in our families and spiritual mothers and fathers, and we are looking forward to each and every one of you to join us as we celebrate the life of the newest addition to our family!

Approved!

This past Monday, I auditioned to play bass in the IHOP prayer room.  I’ve been playing as a replacement bassist for almost nine months now, and decided that I should make it official by going through the process to become approved for my position.

The process was quite enjoyable.  I got to sit with a bunch of other musicians and singers while we waited for out turn to audition.  The group was quite amiable, and very encouraging and supportive.  When my turn came, I plugged in my bass and let ‘er rip.  I got to choose from four songs, and selected “Holy and Anointed One” by John Barnett, as it holds a special place in my heart.  John was the worship leader at my church when i was a teenager, and I know the song pretty well.  There were some big names (among the IHOP community) in the room, especially Cassie Campbell, our resident bassmaster extraordinaire.  She makes me a little nervous, as she is one of the most talented bass players I’ve ever seen.  All in all, I think it went pretty well, and I left with a feeling of satisfaction.

Today, I was pleased to find out that I was approved!  Next Monday, I get to go to my first worship team meeting, and will be introduced to the other musicians and singers as a new addition.  Hopefully, someone will ask me to be on their team, and I’ll get to start playing more often.  I’m really enjoying the team that I play with on Saturday nights, but I’d like to play a few more sets per week.  In any case, I’m pretty proud of myself for making the cut!

Double Duty

My coworker Justin is on vacation this week.  He is the Receiving Manager for our warehouse, as well as the mail pickup/delivery driver.  Since he is out of town, I get to do double duty for six business days, running his department as well as my own.  Technically, it isn’t such a bad deal, since I’m usually only busy for half the day.  After juggling our combined duties for eight hours, I feel like I’ve done a decent days’ work.  The weather has been nice this week (except for today), and I get to enjoy the sunshine when I’m out on delivery.  Plus, I get a chance to talk to people in person instead of replying to their emails and phone calls.  There is a lot to be said for the value of face time.  Let the reader understand.

It has been at least a week since my last post; let me do a little catching up…

Last Thursday, I tossed a bunch of spices and some citrus juices in a bag with a sizable chunk of pork, then put it in the fridge overnight to marinate.  While home for lunch on Friday, I dumped the mixture into a crock pot and put it on high for about six hours.  By the time I got home, our apartment was filled with the delicious aroma of roast pork (semi-Cuban style).  After letting the roast cool for a bit, I shredded it up and put it in a jumbo sized ziplock bag with some of the juices, so that it would stay moist.  That evening, I had my first homemade Cuban sandwich…and it was pretty stinking good.  I had procured some relatively thin bread from our church’s food ministry (which wasn’t quite Cuban bread the best substitute I could find…and the price was right), which I layered with deli mustard and sliced pickles.  Then, I laid down some pork, topped with ham and swiss.  After closing up the sandwich and pressing it down as much as possible, I stuck the whole thing into my electric sandwich press (not quite traditional), and…PRESTO!!!…Cuban sandwich.  I was quite pleased with myself.  I made one for Brianna, and she liked it so much that she asked for another the following night.

Also on Thursday, I went to my first Kansas City Royals game.  I hadn’t been to a MLB game in years…not since I lived in Phoenix.  I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I enjoy the sporting event experience.  Apparently the Royals have Ladies’ Night at least once a season, and Brianna’s clinic was doing 10-minute chair massages for the event.  For me, that translates into free tickets and parking passes.  She even managed to get a free ticket for my buddy Cory so that I didn’t have to sit by myself until she was done working.

After loading myself up with plenty of ballpark foodstuffs, I sat down for what was the least exciting baseball game I’ve ever seen.  The Red Sox were in command of the game, and the Royals must have been revisiting their Little League years, making plenty of errors and showing poor batting skill.  Even worse, their best pitcher and one of their managers got thrown out for arguing a strike-call.  The KC squad made a little run in the eighth inning, and managed to load up the bases.  Unfortunately, the Sox rallied in the ninth, making the final score 10-3.  By that time, we were already home.

Saturday morning, I had a meeting with several members of Rivercity Church’s Pastoral Care Team.  They are a prayer ministry team, designed to help people seek God for repentance and healing through encouragement and exhortation (my description).  We spent a couple hours getting to know each other, and it looks like I might be joining the team.  Our hope is for Brianna to join as well, but since she works on Saturdays it may prove impossible.

On Monday night, Brianna and I celebrated three months of marriage over buffalo wings, beers and Monday Night Football.  It was a great evening…only slightly marred by the Cowboys’ victory over the Panthers.  We really, really hate the Cowboys.  Is hate too strong a word?  I think not.  I love my wife for many, many reasons.  One of them is her hatred of Dallas.  What a woman!

The rest of my week has been dominated by lots of work, parcel delivery, and end of the month accounting reports.  Not much to tell there.

Brianna and I are trying to finish up the audiobook version of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it is a lot harder now that we’re listening at home, rather than in the car.  I get distracted too easily to give it my full attention, and when I try to just be still and listen…I end up falling asleep.  Only three CD’s to go!

Job Hunting

If any of my coworkers are reading this, don’t be alarmed!  I’m not leaving my current job any time soon.

In order to continue with our house hunting in Florence, Brianna and I have decided that we should start scouring the market for employment, as well.  So far, I’ve applied for four positions, in fields ranging from shipping/receiving/warehouse to medical.  I’m excited to see what prospective employers have to say about my resume.

In other news, I made a bargain basement purchase of bike pumps the other day.  They were marked down 75% of the original price, and they are some of the best frame pumps you can find on the market.  Being the schemer that I am, I promptly listed them on ebay.  So far, I’ve sold two, and nearly made my money back!  If I end up selling four of them, I’ll probably keep the fifth, plus some decent profit.  I already have a good frame pump, but this one comes with a lifetime warranty.

That’s all for now.

To Alabama and Back…

This past weekend, Brianna and I made some tough decisions.

Wednesday evening(maybe it was Tuesday), Brianna found out that she was pre-approved for a home loan.  That was pretty exciting news.  Sadly, I have no credit history, and they wouldn’t let me put my name on the loan.  Instead, our lender based our pre-approval solely on Brianna’s credit and income.  Even so, we’d be able to afford a pretty good size house.  She and I talked it over for a bit, and agreed that we have some big some decisions to make before the pre-approval expires.  Sadly, that meant that we’d have to cancel our trip to Mississippi, and go to Alabama instead.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time in AL…but we were both looking forward to MS.

I don’t have time to get into all of the details this morning…it was an action packed trip.  We looked at about a dozen houses, received some excellent home-buying advice, went to a UNA football game with the in-laws (GO LIONS!), saw my brother-in-law play some excellent tunes at a show, drank some awesome Rivertown coffee, were blessed by our church family at Calvary Fellowship, and managed to get some decent sleep.  It was a great weekend, and it definitely helped solidify my love for Florence, AL.  I’m really looking forward to living there.

As a result of our house shopping, we’re looking into other loan options…preferably ones that will allow me to use my “unconventional credit records” to secure a loan.  If it all works out, we could be buying a house in the near future…in the South!