So 10 days into daddy-ship or daddy-dum, i've realized that i really do like having a baby. When you decide to have a baby, you think, man, i'm ready. Well, you can't really be ready. I don't know how you can understand all of the responsibilities you'll have. I still don't realize a lot of stuff that we'll have to go through. I'd say i'm a fairly selfish person, but once you have a little person that needs you to clean their smelly butt in the middle of the night, you kind of just do it, not really thinking about yourself (at least, that's how it is now).
Brenna has done so great. She has some hard times when she worries if Savannah isn't getting enough to eat, but i think that's probably just normal (to worry you're not being a good parent). But, Savannah is really filling out in her face, and gaining weight, so she's obviously getting enough to eat. Brenna has to feed her every 2-3 hours, which doesn't seem like very much at first. Savannah seems like she's always latched on and eating, though. Brenna just does it and doesn't complain about how often she does it. She just does it and i respect her a lot for it. Although she doesn't complain about that, it seems little Miss Savannah has the bite of a crocodile sometimes. So, Savannah is still getting the hang of breast feeding and when to clamp down and when not to.
When we were deciding between breast feeding and formula, there really wasn't a question. Breast feeding is much more healthy for the baby, and it's FREE. It's been cool to watch and see how God intended it to be. Pretty soon, hopefully in a four weeks, we'll begin to introduce the bottle. Brenna has started to pump, which is really crazy (interesting). When we are ready to give her a bottle, i'll be the one giving it to her, so she doesn't confuse the bottle with mommy's natural bottle.
Brenna and I still super-excited and thankfully not burned out yet. I was off work last week, so it was good to be at home with Brenna and Savannah. My parents flew home yesterday, and Brenna's mom flies home today. So, starting Monday, it will be just Brenna and Savannah here. It'll be the first time Brenna has been home alone with Savannah, so yall pray for her. We've heard about post-partum depression, and really, i've seen no signs of it so far. I think she'll do great next week. Feel free to call her during the day and let her know you're thinking about her and Savannah. She'd probably like that.
Ok, that's it for now. I think i have some mustard waiting for me in a little diaper.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Childbirthing Class aka Freak Out Class
Hey ya'll! So Shane and I attended our Childbirth Preparation Class today at Barnes Jewish Hospital where I'll be delivery Baby G. The class was from 9am-1pm and covered breathing, relaxation techniques, role of the support person, hospital interventions, medications, cesarean birth, postpartum period and a tour of the OB facilities. So pretty much everything you need to know about delivery in a 4 hour time frame. I thought is was pretty good.... until... the video. Ya'll.... first of all Shane and I sat at the front of the class... which we should not have done because every time I would look at Shane I would see his face and get really tickled and start giggling to the point I would be crying. I really tried to be mature about it... but I just couldn't. First of all let me just warn you that the women in the video are naked. Yes... fully naked! So not only did we have to see random ladies' hoohas but we also had to see random ladies' boobs. There were parts of this video that will haunt my dreams forever. Now I have to say that at the beginning of my pregnancy... I was freaked out. I got over the freak out part and once I started feeling her move I started getting excited. But after that video... now I'm kinda at freak out mode again. I know ya'll are probably judging me right now... and thats okay cause I still love ya'll and I know that your eyes have not see what our did today. So... I forgive you. :) There was a couple of times that we thought, "this is it... I'm going to throw up all over the floor." The thought crossed my mind so much... I had to leave the room and walk around of a second.
So now that you have completely lost all respect for me and my motherly instinct I tell you some of the funny things our teacher said. She was telling us about contractions and how as the baby is moving down it gives you a feeling like you have to poop. She told us about how there was a patient who was having contractions very close together and the patient had a sudden urge to go the the bathroom and poop so she went to the bathroom by herself and pushed to poop and ended up having the baby fall in the toilet! Now this next thing she said I know Joel will appreciate. Another thing she was telling us was at the end of the class and everyone was starting to leave and she said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Having sex and or nipple stimulation can help bring on contractions. So I am just throwing that out there... but just so you know... I'm not going to stimulate your nipples for you."
Well besides the very awkward moments of the class. I have to say that I have really enjoyed being pregnant. I mean... the first trimester was horrible. I could hardly keep anything down. I lived off of peanut butter with apples and cheese with crackers for like almost a month. Then I would crave mashed potatoes at like 9:00 in the morning. Running to the bathroom every 5 seconds thinking I was going to throw up all over the place wasn't that great either. But once I hit 12 weeks, it really was like a light switch... all of a sudden I was hungry all the time. Even now i feel like I have a lil' hungry hungry hippo inside me. ha. I am pretty much running to the bathroom every 5 seconds... but instead of needing to throw up I just have to pee like crazy. Wow...I am sure this is probably all really gross and ya'll are wishing I wasn't writing this kinda stuff. ha. Sorry!!!
The really cool thing about being pregnant is watching my belly get bigger and watching/feeling her move. I have to say this is the coolest thing ever and I thank God to be able to go through this. It has been cool watch the different stages of her movement too. At first she was more of a flutter... or like when you have a muscle spazzium. Shane couldn't feel those. Then she went from flutters to actual punches or kicks. That was really cool. She would get pretty feisty. I remember the first time I saw my belly move. I was over at a friend's house doing laundry and I was reclined on the couch. I looked down for a second and saw my belly pop up and down like I was cooking popcorn inside my belly. I was amazed! As soon as I went home I made Shane stare at my belly with me so that he could see her move. Now that she has gotten bigger she doesn't have as much room to move around like she did before. So now her movements are her rolling around. She stretches alot and really likes to push on my belly button (like she is doing right now). I am not a fan when she does that... cause it really hurts. It feels like she is going to bust through my belly button.
Well... I have probably talked way too much about me being pregnant. But you could have just stopped reading it. :) I hope that ya'll are doing great and we miss ya'll so much you have no idea. I hope ya'll take turns coming up and staying with us. Baby G has to meet our Auburn family right? Please be praying for me, shane and baby. We love and miss ya'll.
So now that you have completely lost all respect for me and my motherly instinct I tell you some of the funny things our teacher said. She was telling us about contractions and how as the baby is moving down it gives you a feeling like you have to poop. She told us about how there was a patient who was having contractions very close together and the patient had a sudden urge to go the the bathroom and poop so she went to the bathroom by herself and pushed to poop and ended up having the baby fall in the toilet! Now this next thing she said I know Joel will appreciate. Another thing she was telling us was at the end of the class and everyone was starting to leave and she said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Having sex and or nipple stimulation can help bring on contractions. So I am just throwing that out there... but just so you know... I'm not going to stimulate your nipples for you."
Well besides the very awkward moments of the class. I have to say that I have really enjoyed being pregnant. I mean... the first trimester was horrible. I could hardly keep anything down. I lived off of peanut butter with apples and cheese with crackers for like almost a month. Then I would crave mashed potatoes at like 9:00 in the morning. Running to the bathroom every 5 seconds thinking I was going to throw up all over the place wasn't that great either. But once I hit 12 weeks, it really was like a light switch... all of a sudden I was hungry all the time. Even now i feel like I have a lil' hungry hungry hippo inside me. ha. I am pretty much running to the bathroom every 5 seconds... but instead of needing to throw up I just have to pee like crazy. Wow...I am sure this is probably all really gross and ya'll are wishing I wasn't writing this kinda stuff. ha. Sorry!!!
The really cool thing about being pregnant is watching my belly get bigger and watching/feeling her move. I have to say this is the coolest thing ever and I thank God to be able to go through this. It has been cool watch the different stages of her movement too. At first she was more of a flutter... or like when you have a muscle spazzium. Shane couldn't feel those. Then she went from flutters to actual punches or kicks. That was really cool. She would get pretty feisty. I remember the first time I saw my belly move. I was over at a friend's house doing laundry and I was reclined on the couch. I looked down for a second and saw my belly pop up and down like I was cooking popcorn inside my belly. I was amazed! As soon as I went home I made Shane stare at my belly with me so that he could see her move. Now that she has gotten bigger she doesn't have as much room to move around like she did before. So now her movements are her rolling around. She stretches alot and really likes to push on my belly button (like she is doing right now). I am not a fan when she does that... cause it really hurts. It feels like she is going to bust through my belly button.
Well... I have probably talked way too much about me being pregnant. But you could have just stopped reading it. :) I hope that ya'll are doing great and we miss ya'll so much you have no idea. I hope ya'll take turns coming up and staying with us. Baby G has to meet our Auburn family right? Please be praying for me, shane and baby. We love and miss ya'll.
Friday, September 26, 2008
We're still here!
So Brenna is in beast mode, and i'm gonna be a daddy. Weird. How am I going to be entrusted with another human being? I forget to eat sometimes. I bite my fingernails. Biting hers will be so tempting. I still hate waking up early, much less to change a doo doo diaper or feed someone. Sometimes i drop things. I'm taller than the avg person too. At babies'r'us, i didn't see any helmets for babies.
It's going to be a lot of fun, and at times, no so much fun. We've got 8 weeks before she hits us like a ton of bricks. We have no clue what to look forward to, even though our friends continue to tell us stuff. I hope she looks more like Brenna. Minus the adult size. Babies should be small. When yall see our baby, i think yall may want one immediately, which is a problem one way or another, for 75% of the people that are gonna read this.
She is now around 16 inches long and weighs over 3 pounds, about the weight of 4 navel oranges. Yes, Kinzie, do it when you go to the grocery store. She's not kicking and stretching as much as she has in the past few weeks. That's supposed to be normal, though. When she was kicking, it had to be one of the top 7-8 craziest things i've ever seen in my life. She's really sneaky though. She knows when i touch Brenna's belly. She automatically stops moving. Then, when i finally give up on the experience, she starts again. So, i've figured out how to sneak up on her quietly.
It's been fun seeing Brenna pregnant. I can tell she loves it so much. She really developing a maternal, protective nature about her. I had hoped to give more updates, but 7 months into this, this is all you get. Oh well. Maybe more updates will come, maybe not. We love yall and hope to see yall sometime! We'll be in B-town for Christmas!!
It's going to be a lot of fun, and at times, no so much fun. We've got 8 weeks before she hits us like a ton of bricks. We have no clue what to look forward to, even though our friends continue to tell us stuff. I hope she looks more like Brenna. Minus the adult size. Babies should be small. When yall see our baby, i think yall may want one immediately, which is a problem one way or another, for 75% of the people that are gonna read this.
She is now around 16 inches long and weighs over 3 pounds, about the weight of 4 navel oranges. Yes, Kinzie, do it when you go to the grocery store. She's not kicking and stretching as much as she has in the past few weeks. That's supposed to be normal, though. When she was kicking, it had to be one of the top 7-8 craziest things i've ever seen in my life. She's really sneaky though. She knows when i touch Brenna's belly. She automatically stops moving. Then, when i finally give up on the experience, she starts again. So, i've figured out how to sneak up on her quietly.
It's been fun seeing Brenna pregnant. I can tell she loves it so much. She really developing a maternal, protective nature about her. I had hoped to give more updates, but 7 months into this, this is all you get. Oh well. Maybe more updates will come, maybe not. We love yall and hope to see yall sometime! We'll be in B-town for Christmas!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Update and what about Aliens?
I wanted to update yall on the previous post. The family is doing great. They're really depending on God to get them through all this. A couple weeks before this all happened, we had a lesson in the youth about how when a tragedy happens, you either grow closer to God or you distance yourself from Him. The oldest teen (18) in the family has seemed to have grown so much closer with the Lord. He's been telling his friends about Christ, as well as studying his Bible daily. It's just amazing to see what God can do through tragedies like this.
Ok, so Aliens. Today at the office, my new boss (professes to be Christian, and i honestly think he is saved) and another guy at the office begin a conversation about aliens, Area 51, government cover-up. I work in the same room as my boss, almost face-to-face, or at least that's how our desks sit. Well, the conversation begins to take a spiritual turn, talking about creation, so i figure this is God telling me to speak Truth to these guys. My boss says that he thinks if he were God, it would have been boring to only create us humans on Earth, and he would have created other beings on other planets as well. So, i speak up and say it's dangerous for us to say statements like, "if i were God...". I said i have no idea if there is life on other planets or in space, because God's ways are not my ways, and all i know is what is in the Bible. I did tell them that if there is life elsewhere, they were created to give God glory. They would have to know Jesus as their Savior to get to heaven. Unless, maybe they're like animals, which are unable to receive salvation. How do yall witness to people while talking with them about aliens and such? Any scripture that yall know of that may relate to this topic? Thanks!
Ok, so Aliens. Today at the office, my new boss (professes to be Christian, and i honestly think he is saved) and another guy at the office begin a conversation about aliens, Area 51, government cover-up. I work in the same room as my boss, almost face-to-face, or at least that's how our desks sit. Well, the conversation begins to take a spiritual turn, talking about creation, so i figure this is God telling me to speak Truth to these guys. My boss says that he thinks if he were God, it would have been boring to only create us humans on Earth, and he would have created other beings on other planets as well. So, i speak up and say it's dangerous for us to say statements like, "if i were God...". I said i have no idea if there is life on other planets or in space, because God's ways are not my ways, and all i know is what is in the Bible. I did tell them that if there is life elsewhere, they were created to give God glory. They would have to know Jesus as their Savior to get to heaven. Unless, maybe they're like animals, which are unable to receive salvation. How do yall witness to people while talking with them about aliens and such? Any scripture that yall know of that may relate to this topic? Thanks!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Recent Tragedy within our church family....
This morning, we received some terrible news. A guy in our church is in critical condition at a hospital here in St. Louis. He has a wife and 4 kids, which are all in our youth group. Not much is known about the situation right now, but please pray for the family. A few minutes ago, we got a call that they're gonna take him off life support tomorrow. It's gonna really just be a time of mourning for us in our church for the next several weeks and months. The oldest one is 18, and he's really been on fire for the Lord lately. In February, we went to Dare 2 Share, and he really got a passion for sharing Christ with his friends. We keep him accountable every week to make sure he's shared his faith throughout the week sometime. So, it's just a really hard time for them now, as i'm sure you all could imagine.
We're definitely in need of prayers here, and also any verses God's laid on your heart for situations like this. Thanks yall.
Shane and Brenna
We're definitely in need of prayers here, and also any verses God's laid on your heart for situations like this. Thanks yall.
Shane and Brenna
Monday, February 11, 2008
Dare 2 Share Update....
So, Friday and Saturday, Brenna and I were at Dare 2 Share. It's a really cool conference that teaches youth how to share their faith. Then, once they've given them some methods of doing that, we actually go out into our communities and walk door-to-door telling people about the love of Jesus. We initially ask for can foods for Sunshine Ministries, and then we spring a second question on them. Brenna and I walked around down a street with 5 kids each. She would take one side of the road with her 5 and i would take the other side with my kids. (i say kids, but they range from 13-18). Anyway, then, we split into two groups of three so we would cover more houses. It was an awesome to see these kids telling others about their faith and what God has done in their lives.
We graduated from Persecution University because we had several doors slammed in our face. When we asked one lady if we could ask her another question, she said "is it about Jesus?" we said, yes. and then she said "just take yor can goods and be happy" So, we were just like, ummm, ok, thanks. Another guy had this whole government, religion conspriracy theory. I tried explaining to him how religion is just a bunch of rules and regulations and how Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I guess all we could do was plant a seed there. And finally, I talked to a guy that believed there was no devil and no hell, but said he had read the Bible several times from front to back. It was hard to try and show him the love of Jesus, but still tell him he was wrong. He was trying to say how God wouldn't create a place like Hell because he is so loving. Nothing was really getting to him when I tried to say how God is a just God as well as a loving God. I kind of got hung up on the fact he didn't believe there was a Hell or even Satan. I just can't believe that someone that has read the Bible would beleive there's not a literal Hell.
These were just a few of my stories of people I encountered with the two youth i walked with from door-to-door. As we were finishing up with the last house on the street (on our side), i noticed Brenna and her two girls were talking to a guy at the house they were at. So, i figured I should probably go over and help out, since it was a guy. He's a pretty tall, black-guy(for your mental picture). His name is Sam, and I could tell they were at a critical point in the conversation. Brenna was explaining to him that no matter what he's done, he could come to God as he was. He didn't have to change and be a better person before he was able to come to Jesus. I told him Romans 3:23 and explained how we've all sinned and no one on their own is good enough to be with God. It really broke us when he started to cry. You could really just see God working in him. He told us how he used to go to church and we kind of got it out of him what he believed. We could tell he had once gotten saved, when he was a kid. He went on to tell us how he really wanted to get back in church, so we invited him to our church. (Unfortunately, he didn't come yesterday, but maybe he went somewhere else.) As we were kind of wrapping it up, we prayed for him and whatever was going on in his life. You could just really tell it was something big. It was amazing that we only knew this guy for 15 minutes, but we felt this love for him because we knew we were the ones God put in his path. I was so disappointed yesterday when he didn't show up, but I know God knows what He's doing. Brenna wrote down his address when we left, so we can write him a letter. We'll try to encourage him and include some verses he can look up.
Derwin Gray, a former NFL player, (aka "the Evangelism Linebacker" just google it), was one of the speakers this year for Dare 2 Share. He had a really cool analogy i thought i would share. He explained how he was a terrible basketball player. He said if there was a device where Michael Jordan could be transported and be placed into your body, you would then be able to "be like Mike". You'd have all of Jordan's shooting abilities, his defense, the passes, everything. It the same way when when get saved. Jesus is inside of us, but we tend to say, "hey, do it like this, Jesus". We don't actually let him live through us. We end up trying to make everyting happen by ourselves. We try to save people ourself, instead of letting God work on their hearts. I think that's kind of why i was disappointed when i didn't see Sam yesterday at church. I felt like i had failed, but even if i never see him again, we told him about Jesus and his love for us. That's exactly what we're called to do; to go and tell.
It was a great weekend. I could just really feel the power talked about in Acts 1:8. I'm sure Brenna will probably have some things to add to this post so be looking out for that. Be looking forward to His return, it's coming. Talk to yall later.
We graduated from Persecution University because we had several doors slammed in our face. When we asked one lady if we could ask her another question, she said "is it about Jesus?" we said, yes. and then she said "just take yor can goods and be happy" So, we were just like, ummm, ok, thanks. Another guy had this whole government, religion conspriracy theory. I tried explaining to him how religion is just a bunch of rules and regulations and how Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I guess all we could do was plant a seed there. And finally, I talked to a guy that believed there was no devil and no hell, but said he had read the Bible several times from front to back. It was hard to try and show him the love of Jesus, but still tell him he was wrong. He was trying to say how God wouldn't create a place like Hell because he is so loving. Nothing was really getting to him when I tried to say how God is a just God as well as a loving God. I kind of got hung up on the fact he didn't believe there was a Hell or even Satan. I just can't believe that someone that has read the Bible would beleive there's not a literal Hell.
These were just a few of my stories of people I encountered with the two youth i walked with from door-to-door. As we were finishing up with the last house on the street (on our side), i noticed Brenna and her two girls were talking to a guy at the house they were at. So, i figured I should probably go over and help out, since it was a guy. He's a pretty tall, black-guy(for your mental picture). His name is Sam, and I could tell they were at a critical point in the conversation. Brenna was explaining to him that no matter what he's done, he could come to God as he was. He didn't have to change and be a better person before he was able to come to Jesus. I told him Romans 3:23 and explained how we've all sinned and no one on their own is good enough to be with God. It really broke us when he started to cry. You could really just see God working in him. He told us how he used to go to church and we kind of got it out of him what he believed. We could tell he had once gotten saved, when he was a kid. He went on to tell us how he really wanted to get back in church, so we invited him to our church. (Unfortunately, he didn't come yesterday, but maybe he went somewhere else.) As we were kind of wrapping it up, we prayed for him and whatever was going on in his life. You could just really tell it was something big. It was amazing that we only knew this guy for 15 minutes, but we felt this love for him because we knew we were the ones God put in his path. I was so disappointed yesterday when he didn't show up, but I know God knows what He's doing. Brenna wrote down his address when we left, so we can write him a letter. We'll try to encourage him and include some verses he can look up.
Derwin Gray, a former NFL player, (aka "the Evangelism Linebacker" just google it), was one of the speakers this year for Dare 2 Share. He had a really cool analogy i thought i would share. He explained how he was a terrible basketball player. He said if there was a device where Michael Jordan could be transported and be placed into your body, you would then be able to "be like Mike". You'd have all of Jordan's shooting abilities, his defense, the passes, everything. It the same way when when get saved. Jesus is inside of us, but we tend to say, "hey, do it like this, Jesus". We don't actually let him live through us. We end up trying to make everyting happen by ourselves. We try to save people ourself, instead of letting God work on their hearts. I think that's kind of why i was disappointed when i didn't see Sam yesterday at church. I felt like i had failed, but even if i never see him again, we told him about Jesus and his love for us. That's exactly what we're called to do; to go and tell.
It was a great weekend. I could just really feel the power talked about in Acts 1:8. I'm sure Brenna will probably have some things to add to this post so be looking out for that. Be looking forward to His return, it's coming. Talk to yall later.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Dare 2 Share....
http://www.dare2share.org/survive/
This is what Brenna and I are doing this weekend with our Youth group. We'll post more about it on Sunday afternoon probably. We'll be getting out and sharing the Gospel with a ton of people here in St. Louis. Please pray for us and the people we'll be talking with. Thaks yall.
A lot of stuff is going on up here. Soon, i'll post about what our church vision is for the next 3-5 years. It's really exciting!
This is what Brenna and I are doing this weekend with our Youth group. We'll post more about it on Sunday afternoon probably. We'll be getting out and sharing the Gospel with a ton of people here in St. Louis. Please pray for us and the people we'll be talking with. Thaks yall.
A lot of stuff is going on up here. Soon, i'll post about what our church vision is for the next 3-5 years. It's really exciting!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Microsoft Surface
Go and check out this new technology at:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
It's really cool. Watch the videos on the home page.
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
It's really cool. Watch the videos on the home page.
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