Sunday update

I am feeling better - finally! - today, and am hoping to go back to work tomorrow morning. Please pray that I will have the strength to go and that I'll be able to get things back in order at school and home.

Jen has been taking pictures like crazy. I thought it was new fathers who are legendary for their picture-taking mania, but apparently this includes new mothers. Anyway, due mostly to her efforts, there are 25 new pictures on our Picasa photo site. Alie and Dani, don't even think of viewing them all at once. Spread the experience out over a few days, or else you'll be on my back by Thursday that I "haven't posted anything new in forever!" :-)

On an entirely different note, Andrew Hanko had a fantastic race for Navy XC on Saturday at the NCAA Div.I Mideast Regional. Click this link to view his results. Grove City College mens and womens teams also did very well in a very competitive region. Email Coach Severson your congratulations if you concur.

Good night.

Long time coming

My apologies to those of you who have been checking our blog, waiting for another installment. Between classes, grading, TCS athletics, church and softball, I've been running around.

Then this past week I accompanied the 7th and 8th grade classes to Spruce Lake. We had a great time - excellent chaperones, great weather, intense ping-pong and air hockey, cliff rappelling, quality devotional times, no major injuries etc.

On Saturday, I played on the victorious (although admittedly a little stacked) Parents team as they battled the junior high soccer team. We won either 4-0 or 5-0, I honestly don't recall which. I scored 2 goals, one of which was the result of hustling when the kids didn't, and one of which they gave us by a hand ball 20 yds from the goal.

But the thrill of victory was short-lived. Jen & I left Jackson with Grandpa and Gram and headed over to one of our favorite places anywhere, Caffe Buono (which McKayla prnounces "Cawifawnia"), to do some grading. I started feeling particularly achy all over and unable to mentally focus. This was not so out of the ordinary, so I wasn't worried. I mean, I'm getting old; Jen reminds me of this frequently. But then we got back to the Lee parents' home and I started getting extremely chilled. Yes, folks, you guessed it - a 101*F (where's the degree sign on Blogger?) fever... and by the next day it was clearly the dreaded flu. So I'm home sick from school, missed my softball game tonight, and am feeling pretty useless. We got a little grading done, at least. The latest "PC World" got a little attention, as did Michael J. Behe's excellent recent volume The Edge of Evolution, plus a little time on a work of forensic fiction. (Detective Cross....)

Jackson is doing well. Jen figured out the source of some of his crying... let's just call it #3. He's been well behaved, and we're told he's unlikely to get sick from his daddy's current ailment. As I write, he's crying for no reason we can tell. Please pray with us for a buyer for our condo so that we'll be able to buy the larger condo that we're under contract to purchase.

Head over to our Picasa site for pictures from the past couple weeks. Sorry, I didn't bring a camera to Spruce Lake. Oh, wait, y'all don't care about Spruce Lake, only about the little guy. Fair enough.

Weekend update

Jackson met so many people this weekend in Connecticut.

Well, first he suffered through the longest trip from NJ to CT that Mommy or Daddy has ever suffered through. Almost four hours. And he didn't cry once. Starting getting a little worried a few times, but Mommy assured him we were still there, and he was just fine.

Here are the relatives he met: Grandaddy, Aunt Emma, Uncle Zack, Uncle Ger, Cousins Gavin & Chase.

He also sat through his first service at the Grace Reformed Baptist Church of East Haven. He heard Grandaddy preach the whole sermon until the applications section, when I had to hold him at the back. All the woman at GRBC loved him, of course.

Oh, and I forgot my church clothes in NJ; don't even ask what I wore to church. Good night, our faithful readers. (There are new pictures on our online album, of course.)

This just in...

5:50 PM Jackson just laughed for the first time! He's been smiling more regularly the past few days, and now actually laughed.

Sunday evening

Jackson has not yet met the Reformed Baptist pastor who is sure to most appreciate his name. (For guesses as to who this is, write in the comment section; it should be obvious.)

However, he did have the special privilege of briefly meeting one of my few most esteemed heroes, Pastor Edward (Ted) Donnelly. Pastor Donnelly's preaching was used by the Lord in my own salvation. (This series of sermons is available here: Donnelly on Heaven) He is not only one of the humblest, funniest and most eloquent preachers I have ever heard (with the coolest accent!), but one who evidently knows the Lord. Would that the Christian church had more men with his ability to clearly open the Word. We hope Pastor Donnelly will be to Jackson another godly man to emulate.

Sunday morning

Today Jackson was introduced to two of his future pastors, should the Lord be pleased to save him and bring him into our church. He heard (though of course without any comprehension) Pastor Carlson in Sunday School, through the webcast. And this evening, he heard Pastor Dave Chanski preach by webcast. I informed him I hoped these would be his pastors, but he didn't seem to care much. Seriously, though, we pray he will care greatly in a few years.

Our little son also experienced Trinity Baptist Church this morning for the first time, though he was not up to being present for any of the service. He met his Aunt Julie and Uncle Jeff (and it was decided that they could still be Aunt and Uncle to him, though I have called them that for years). This means that he has met all our pastors (and planned pastor) except his father's namesake Pastor Martin.

Condo listing

Check out our condo listing at http://www.forsalebyowner.com/listing/4B4AD

Feel free to send this link to family, friends, acquaintances, etc who may be interested. This condo has been a great blessing for which we are thankful. But it's feeling crowded with a crying baby. So pray for the Lord's continued provision.

Saturday morning update

Yesterday afternoon, Jackson got his first taste of three very important things: the sport commonly called soccer in America, TCS sports, and our friends from TCS/TBC. Oh, I guess it was three very important things and one very important person, that person being George R. Barnes. [This is not to be a slight on anyone else who was there, but come on, this is THE Gearge R. Barnes.] OK, so in English, we brought Jackson out to the TCS varsity girls game against Timothy Christian at the Camp Dawson fields. He couldn't take the fact that Trinity was losing 0-1 at halftime, so we had to take him home out of the cold. Of course, a quick stop by Gram's house on the way home was obligatory.

Last night, Jen & I got a little comic relief by watching a few routines by Brian Regan on his website and Google video. We enjoyed the hearty laughs.

For the first time, Jackson kept us up for a while last night. He eventually fell asleep after a little more feeding and a little more blanket-layering. (It was a little chilly for the first time last night, which Chris loved and Jen wasn't quite so keen on.)

Also, we got the contract to buy the 2-bedroom condo in the mail yesterday afternoon. So I am working on listing our current place to sell for part of the day today. Please pray that I would do a good job with that task, that our 1-bedroom place would sell quickly, that we would obtain the best mortgage for our situation, and that the move would go smoothly, if this would be the Lord's will for us. Interested buyers should visit forsalebyowner.com starting later this afternoon. (A shameless plug, I know....)

Last night

Well, the first bath went about as expected. Jackson pretty much screamed the whole time he was actually being cleaned and only settled down when wrapped in one of those towels-with-a-hood (which are really handy, by the way). We got most of the bath on film (if by "film" I mean an 8cm DVD), but I still haven't had the time to make our camcorder and computer talk. The first DVD-R did play very nicely in the computer's DVD drive, though, so there's hope!

Keep praying for Jen, please. The Lord is upholding her well, but she needs continued grace.

First full day home

Jen and Jackson had a couple visitors today. Jackson managed to get fingers (3!) into his mouth today and suck on them. This was a useful addition to the please-wait-another-few-minutes-while-mom- finishes-eating-before-feeding-you repertoire. He's healing up nicely from birthing and such. He's also getting stronger lungs, which is a mixed blessing. That's right, he can scream twice as loud as yesterday. Seriously. He also took his first nap with daddy this afternoon, during which he was very content until Mommy took a flash picture. But he settled back down for 45 minutes after that. Oh, and we also got a few smiles out of him today - not the first ones, but the first time there were several in succession.

Later tonight: baby's first bath! Let's hope the smiles continue....