Well, it finally happened! We were at our friend Amber's birthday party this afternoon when Emerie scooted across the floor to get something. We couldn't believe it! After we got home we broke the video camera out and tried to get her to repeat it for us, but she wouldn't cooperate - she just sat there and laughed!

She's been on the verge of crawling for a couple of weeks now, scooting slightly forward to grab items just out of her reach. This is really the first time she has moved a distance, however. She's already been rolling around everywhere she wants to get for a few weeks. Before we know it she'll be unstoppable!

We're back up! Our site has been down since Monday and finally came back to life this morning. Everything should run smoothly from here on out. The only casualty were our photo albums. I'm searching for a better solution there & will let you know when the picks are back up!

Andrea and I got a chance to see "The Passion of the Christ" yesterday morning at a special pre-release screening for local church leaders. Wow! That about sums it up! Actually, it was an incredible film - very good, but very difficult to watch in places. Mel Gibson has done a fantastic job of being faithful to the biblical record, while "filling in the details" as we might imagine they took place. There are very few light hearted moments and a few scenes that are graphically brutal and difficult to sit through. However, even these scenes probably only scratch the surface of what Christ actually endured for our sake. Well worth the cost of admission. I wouldn't let anyone under 12 view it and those who have young teenagers should weigh the possibility taking into account their specific child. Some 14-15 year olds may not be ready to see this. In these cases, don't worry, as the film will live on for years on video/DVD and you can wait awhile to show it to them. I'd encourage families to view it together to allow space for discussion in the hours/days following.

If you get a chance to see it, post a comment below & let us know what your thoughts are.

Just a note to let all of you know that we're updating a few things on our end of the site, so some albums/pages, etc. may not work correctly. Please bear with us and we'll make sure we have everything working again soon.

Age-Maps:
http://www.bobbyneeladams.com/age.html (Just plain creepy)

Spot the Fake Smiles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml (I got 12/20 right!)

Imagination:
http://www.neave.com/lab/misc/imagination.html (They say there's an artist in everyone)

"... with You this near I'm dizzy"
David Crowder, "Intoxicated" from Illuminate

Wow! I was listening to David Crowder this morning taking the kids to school and was totally intrigued by the lyrics to "Intoxicated." Could I describe my relationship with God in such dramatic terms as "intoxicated" and "inebriating?"

Continue reading "Intoxicated with God" »

This week is Spirit Week at Si & Micah's school. Today was "Super Hero Day" & I just had to snap a shot of him this morning, all dressed up. He went as Clark Kent (complete with hidden Superman shirt underneath)! He was so cute!

Micah is doing better each day. The doctor said that he could return to school tomorrow if we wanted. I'm not sure if we'll send him or keep him home one more school day. He still has periods of not feeling well where he takes it easy. That coupled with the fact that he is supposed to avoid any high-activity will probably mean he'll stay home until next week. We'll see how he does today, though.

Both Emerie & Andrea are doing fine. They caught something last Friday & both went to the doctor. Andrea began feeling better on Saturday - Emerie took a few more days, but is doing well now. I guess that raps up our medical report! Hopefully we can begin to avoid the sickness trap we've been in so often, a lot of times due to Micah getting sick & some of the rest of us catching things, too.

Well, it's Monday night, and four days since Micah's surgery. He's been doing very well since about Saturday morning. He was pretty groggy for the first 48 hours are so - mainly because of the codine tablets he was taking. We finally took him off of those & left him on regular Children's Tylenol, which made a world of difference. All of a sudden he was up & around on Saturday & talking, interacting & eating more. He has slowly regained his appetite, although he is still only able to eat small portions & we have to limit it to softer foods. Taking the medicine is not his favorite thing & the ear drops he has to have to ward off infections bothers him for about 15 minutes or so after he takes them. Apart from that, though, he is in pretty good spirits & regaining his "Micah-ness." The main difference is in the sound of his voice. It doesn't sound as high pitched as it did on Thursday afternoon, but there is a definite change in voice. We had him talk into the video camera on Thursday afternoon about the day's events so that we could have a marker for his voice. I'll be anxious to pull out some older video clips from the weeks prior to the operation to see just how much his voice has changed. He is a bit clearer, although this will come mainly through time.

Thank you all for your prayers. It has been a bit exhausting for all of us, but one that went off without any problems in the process.

It's 1:17p and we've been home for almost half an hour now. The surgery went fine ("no news is good news") - which is what we had been praying for. Micah is recovering well. He's in a lot of pain, but hopefully his meds will help alleviate some of this. It will be slow going for several days & he will have to take it easy physically for at least a week. He will definitely miss church this Sunday & probably won't go back to preschool until next Thursday at the earliest (and only if he is recovering well). The next 24-48 hours will be the hardest, with any nausea and the most pain coming in that time frame. Thanks to all of you who have been praying through this. It was definitely hard on Andrea & I, but I feel better being on the other side of things now.

They upped the time of Micah's surgery to 9:45 am now instead of 9:15. This is a good thing as now we only have to get up at Crack O'Dawn instead of Half Past Dark-Thirty! Will let you all know here how things go tomorrow.

Well, it looks like we'll be going in early in the morning (Thursday, Feb 12) for Micah's operation. We're supposed to be at the hospital in Bartlesville by 8:15a with the surgery beginning at 9:15a. The procedure should only last roughly an hour with about an hour after that for post-op recovery time before we're released to come home. If all goes well, we could even be back at home by lunchtime.

Micah is doing pretty well with it all - a lot better than us! We're definitely more worried than he is, although he doesn't really know what is going to happen. The doctor sent us home with a great comic-book style book to go over with him to help explain some of what is going to take place. We've been reading through it several times over the past week. He's been looking at it on his own, also, calling it his "tonsil book."

Please pray that all goes normally. Pray for the doctors & nurses. Pray for Micah. Pray for Andrea & I. We'll update everyone here when all is through.

Well, the snow finally hit. After the forecast changed from early morning snow showers with 6-12" accumulation to afternoon showers with only 4-6" accumulation, it was nice to just see it coming down after lunch today. The boys & I went out for awhile after work to play.

We cancelled our services/programs for tonight because of the icing over that was coming once the sun went down. We're taking advantage of this down time by playing "UNO Attack" (the boys new favorite game that Si got from his Poppy for his birthday), watching "Rescue Heroes: the Movie" and eating popcorn. It's been a nice night.

Couldn't resist snapping a quick pic of Emerie this morning playing in her crib. She has got to be the most beautiful baby in the world. I know that I'm a little biased, but how could anyone in their right mind not think the same? What do you think? [leave comment below]

We've finally got around to watching the premiere of "Survivor: All-Stars" tonight. Yesterday was a HUGE workday (I think I worked around 15 hours) with our youth Super Bowl festivities. By the time I got home last night from cleaning up afterwards, I was too exhausted to stay up and watch it. We're only about 5 minutes into it (I'm typing this while Andrea finishes up a phone call). Can't wait to get into the season! We don't watch much TV, but we try to keep up with Survivor, Smallville & American Idol. It's a lot easier with TiVo (as us being able to watch this tonight instead of last night). Anyway - back to the show!