We had a good weekend. Friday, Andrea met up with her good friend Trish in Hannah (between OKC & Shawnee) for the evening while I vegged in front of the TiVo. Saturday we went to Tulsa for my nephew Joshua's birthday party. It was a lot of fun - especially for the kids. They had the party at a gymnastics facility and had games planned for the kids, let them play on all the gymnastics equipment, etc. The boys loved it. Sunday we did almost absolutely nothing & tried to spend the day resting/recuperating. It was nice.

Andrea's mom, Nancy, came into town today to visit for several days. The boys have been excited about Nana coming since they found out! Should be a nice few days.

Andrea is doing much better now. She began to feel a little better by Wednesday evening. I went back to work yesterday. Last night I took the boys & went to house church (they switched the days this week so we could come) without her & Emerie as she was pretty worn out. She's still tired, but gaining energy with each new day. Thanks for all your prayers!

Well, I gave in today. freeiPods.com made an option available at the beginning of September for customers to switch their iPod selection from the Apple model to the new HP-branded models. The switch allows the site to send you whichever happens to be available at the time. People have been switching like crazy & getting their iPods much faster this way. The only difference between the two models is the little "hp" logo on the back & that another company makes the hard drive inside. Actually supposed to be a bit more stable (the Apple's have reported a few problems) & actually has better customer support than the Apple. I held out because I knew there was a great rush to switch & I thought it might speed up me actually getting the Apple (b/c of the number of people switching waiting lists). Never surfaced, though, as it has been three weeks now & I'm only slightly closer to getting mine shipped. So, looks like I might get an iPod+hp sooner now - we'll have to wait and see.

Chip & Kim won! They were one of two couples I was cheering for to win the Amazing Race 5 (the bowling moms were the other).

Smallville starts tonight! If we feel up to it we might even watch last year's season finale to preclude the new premiere!

Verdict is still out on The Apprentice - have enjoyed it & feel like it is probably one of the few somewhat-real 'reality' shows out there.

Benefactor has been un-TiVoed: This one was entertaining, but way too discombobulated (good word). Mark Cuban gets a "D" as a show host & too many people getting kicked off the show for stupid reasons (one girl last week lost her shot at a million dollars simply because she was the odd-man-out after a grade-school-style picking teams stunt for one of the games).

Survivor: Enjoyed the premiere. This one will stay on TiVo all season long as it is one of our staples.

Lost: Looking forward to watching the premiere tonight.

Andrea came down with some stomach virus last night about the time I got home from work. She slowly felt worse over the course of the evening & woke up feeling bad this morning as well. I took the day off from work to help take care of her & the kids. It's been a long day, but good as well as I have been able to do things like be an active part in Josiah's homeschooling & taking/picking up Micah from preschool - both of which I have really enjoyed.

Andrea's feeling a little better - but tired & achey. We're praying she feels manageable tomorrow as I'll be heading back to work & she'll have her normal daily routine. House church was switched this week for our sake as we were supposed to go with a home school group to the Oklahoma State Fair this afternoon/evening. Doesn't look like that will be happening this year. There's an outside shot of going tomorrow afternoon with another group, but it's doubtful that Andrea will feel up to walking around the fair, even if she is feeling better by then. House church will be tomorrow night & I'll at least go with the boys if we aren't all able to go.

Keep praying for Andrea - that she will heal quickly & be back on her feet soon. I know she is getting tired of feeling sick & being in bed all day. On a related note - we are pretty pathetic. I've been carrying around my cell phone & Andrea has kept our cordless phone in the bedroom with her. That way she can 'page' me whenever she needs me. It was either that or use the boys Mickey Mouse Walkie Talkies (which need batteries, anyhow).

We're smack dab in the middle of the Fall 2004 TV season launch! Last week was great - Survivor, the Apprentice, the Benefactor, & Dream Job 2. This week it is: Amazing Race 5 finale, Lost, & best of all - Smallville! I'm having a little trouble deciding what to do about Smallville's new season. Typically I have downloaded & burned SVCDs of previous seasons - but our DSL provider doesn't carry the binary newsgroups where these are posted. I could download them from other sources, but it would be much more difficult & time consuming. I might get some of my good friends that have Cable to download the episodes & burn them off for me. I'll probably save every episode on our TiVo & pray that they release "TiVo To Go" soon. TTG will be a USB key that you can insert into a computer on your home network that will enable it to access shows that are on your TiVo. This means I'll be able to transfer shows that we want to keep to my computer to store (freeing up recording space on the TiVo itself) or burn onto DVD. I'd hate it, though, if they don't decide to release it until later in the fall, leaving my TiVo filled up with episodes.

We rolled back into town around 7:00p last night. The house was relatively cool (probably more than we expected it to be) - but that soon changed when the boys began wrestling & playing together. It's amazing the amount of heat that two young boys can produce simply by playing! We finally put a cartoon on for them to watch while we gave Emerie a bath & finished unpacking from the weekend. This wound them down a little, which was good.

All three kids wound up sleeping downstairs, which was a first. I wasn't sure how easy it was going to be to get them to go to sleep, but they did okay. Andrea & I relaxed and watched Hidalgo together - a movie we had been wanting to see for quite awhile. It was okay - not a major blockbuster or anything.

The AC people are supposed to be out today to get things working again. We're praying (and would encourage all of you to pray, as well) that they don't run into any problems & are able to get things fixed so we won't have another hot night. Seven days of heat will wear on you really quick!

My brain's been stuck on the thoughts of community life for a few weeks now. Part of me feels strongly that God is continuing to stur up these kinds of feelings/desires/thoughts just as He did before we moved to Edmond. The problem is - I don't know where to start. I have this desire to grow deeper in my faith through community, but I'm not sure I totally understand what community really is. It is one of those 'buzzwords' that get thrown around in Christian circles (especially church circles) and alludes to many things - hanging out together over a pot-luck dinner at church, going through Bible study with a Sunday School class or small group, praying for one another, etc. I think it is these things and much more.

Continue reading "Community ..." »

I'm typing this in Shawnee, OK, at Andrea's dad's house as the boys watch "Piglet's Big Movie" for the second time. We retreated Friday evening for the weekend as our air conditioner broke earlier in the week & we couldn't stand the heat anymore. The AC actually went out for good on Tuesday evening after a couple of days with low freon. Luckily we already had an appt. with the heating/AC people the next morning. Of course they were only supposed to refill the freon, not fix a bad furnace unit - which meant another five days of waiting. They are scheduled to come out in the morning & get things going again.

Continue reading "Hot & Bothered" »

Josiah surprised all of us today by riding his bicycle without his training wheels! We knew he was close to doing it when he was playing with his friend Drew (a neighborhood boy - in the picture) and taking turns trying to ride Si's bike without letting the wheels make a sound on the ground. He was able to ride all the way up the street without the wheels touching then, so we knew it was only a matter of time.

Ruth, Tim, Bekah & Sara Belcher surprised us with a visit this afternoon and Tim helped Si get started going without the wheels. By the time I got home a little while later he was zooming up & down the street! Pretty big surprise for me as I got out of the car from work! (Sorry about the quality of the picture. We weren't able to shoot video/get some pictures until we got home from dinner & my sorry camera doesn't take good shots with anything but bright sunlight.)

We went out to eat at Poblano Grill (mmmm...) with everyone (including Tara) & then proceeded to come home & 'rig' up our home with fans everywhere as our air conditioner went out last night. Whole other story there, but the short of it is that they are supposed to come out Monday to install a new furnace/fan unit & possibly extra vents. Until then we're going to sweat it out - literally. Our friends Ryan & Carmel loaned us a couple of fans & a small window AC unit that is making things bearable at the moment. I hate to think what it is going to be like tomorrow once the sun comes out. Depending on how things feel around here in the next day or two we might spend the weekend in Shawnee with Andrea's dad & then come home on Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

Looks like they are starting to ship iPods again. It had been 3-4 weeks since they had shipped any from the site as they had been backordered everywhere. They changed the selection option to offer people the new HP iPods if they wanted. Seems like those who switched to the HPs have been getting theirs much quicker. At this point I think I would lose my place 'in line' so I'm going to stick with the pure Apple iPod (the only difference is an HP logo on the others). Probably be 2-3 weeks still.

As promised, more treasures from The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee:

What, then, is the secret? Clearly it is this, that in approving Mary's action at Bethany, the Lord Jesus was laying down one thing as a basis of all service: that you pour out all you have, your very self, unto Him; and if that should be all He allows you to do, that is enough. It is not first of all a question of whether 'the poor' have been helped or not. That will follow, but the first question is: Has the Lord been satisfied?

Continue reading "Final Watchman Nee Quotes" »

Wow! It's been awhile since I didn't post anything here for 10 days! Oh well, things have been busy around the Ediger home, so it's really no surprise. Thought I would spend a few minutes, at least, giving a general update so everyone won't think we fell off the face of the earth ...

Continue reading "10 Days?!" »

• "Oregon State kicker misses three PATs"

What is wrong with these teams that throw away chances to knock off big teams & score the upsets? I felt like I was watching a Miami State/Florida State game (Try: Jan 01, 04 or Oct 12, 02 to get started - I'd post more if ESPN's history went back further than the 2001 season) or the couple of close calls from OSU's (Ohio State) 2003 National Championship year (Try: Nov 15, 03 and Nov 1, 03 and Sept 6, 03). Oh well, guess I'll just have to wait until another weekend to cheer against LSU (hey, no hard feelings from last year's loss, right?).

While it is a little too big still (2T size), we just had to break out the OU cheerleader outfit for Emerie today. Too important of a day for her to go without! She looks adorable in it, of course.

We're actually just now getting ready to sit down to watch the game (it's about 2p). The game is actually almost over, but we like to start it late so we can skip commercials, time outs, etc. Should be fun.

Oh, by the way, we'd like to thank Alec for providing the OU outfit for our baby girl!

Boomer Sooner!

Finally finished reading "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee this morning. Great book! I regret having read it so sporadically over the last several months. I began it in June & probably should have had it finished in June. While it was good, I would have retained it more reading it more systematically. Now I'm left with this desire to go back & re-read parts of it. Maybe another day. Too many books in the queue right now. Here's a final quote from the last chapter ...

Continue reading "Finally Finished" »

Enough said.

First week of school almost through (two for Si). Things have gone well. Both of the boys have liked school so far.

Micah was so cute the morning of his first day of preschool (this past Wednesday morning). I bet he was dressed with his backpack on his back at 8:00a! School doesn't start until 9:00a & the church is only 5 minutes away!

Just found out yesterday (after my dad called) that some OU game tickets went back on sale for the next two weekends because the opposing teams didn't sell all of their alloted amounts. We called yesterday & got tickets for the OU/Houston game next Saturday, September 11th. The tickets are in the south inzone & probably in the midst of opposing fans, but we're probably going to cream them anyway, so should be fun! Andrea, myself, my dad & Amber are all going - can't wait!

Oh, yeah - Sooner football begins tomorrow! Boomer, Sooner!

Checked yesterday & after 6 days they upped my status from 'processing' to 'sent to vendor' as seen above. Now it's a waiting game. From what I understand the iPods are backordered from eCost.com (where the site orders from) & there are quite a few people ahead of me in line. Honestly, I'll be surprised if I get it any earlier than the end of September. But, who's complaining? It's a free iPod!