We're Expecting #3

We took this photo on the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - where we and Kyndall's family went on vacation last week. It was a fun way to break the news. We told Anna Laura and Alexandria then, too.

It's hard to believe, I know. Due around July 28th as far as we can figure. We'll be seeing the doctor (Dr. Breedin, nonetheless who also delivered Anna Laura and Alexandria) mid-December to get the official date.

This was planned in case you were wondering.

Learning to Write

It's hard for me to really believe it, but Anna Laura has learned to write her own name. It was just a few weeks ago that she became obsessed with coloring because she was suddenly able to color in the lines and coloring was very rewarding to her. Now, she's writing her name.

What's more, she knows the phonetic value of almost every letter in the alphabet. It's been a month or so now but she can sound out simple words all by herself. Hard things like CH and SH throw her for a loop, but she's only 3.

Her sign language (which was supposed to help her as a baby but she started speaking too soon) has come back and she can spell simple words with her hands. She and her sister amaze me.

The image in this blog is a postcard she wrote (and Alexandria colored) for their Aunt. I just had to scan it in before we let it leave the house.

Anna Laura's Hair Cut

The other morning Anna Laura came up to our room. She knows not to come out of her room before her clock says 7 although we have been awoken by her in the middle of the night before.

Well, this morning was special because she asked if we noticed that she... gulp... cut her hair. The girls have pigtails a lot and we use scissors to cut out the rubber bands - scissors which I left on her night table the night before.

As you can see in the picture there's nothing she can do to make her not cute, but her hair will be months in the recovery. There's a good 2 inch gap smack in the middle of her bangs right down to the scalp.

Yeah, it could have been worse.

Kyndall uses the nice technique (as you can see in the fairy photo) of head bands these days and its out of the woodwork that people I meet volunteer that their kids have done the same. Hilarious.

Kyndall took Anna Laura to Kid's Cuts and the lady (I think) felt so sorry for us she didn't charge us for trying to do whatever she could - not much in this case.

After her scornful punishment she's likely to never repeat this, but we're (meaning I) more careful these days with potential tools that in the wrong little hands will mean months of goofy pictures.

Professionally Effective

This week, the pastor of my church asked me if I would present the invitation after his sermon. He was to deliver a monolog portraying Zacheas and thought it would be weird for him to do it.

I agreed, of course, but quickly pined for the week prior when I didn't have this unexpected burden. What to say, how to act, and what to do if anyone responded. I was crazy to accept the request, but now - it's over, I did it this morning and everything went great.

What's interesting to me is how I muddled over something that regular pastors do in their sleep. Then, of course, it got me wondering - does the impact of what we do get better or get worse as we get better or more proficient at doing it?

In the professional world, it's not a clear "better." The better guys are in computers, for example, the less work they want to do and the more cutting-edge they want to be. I see the same in every profession and so it makes me wonder if professional pastors are more or less effective.

Lamenting Star Trek's Absence

If you were anything like me - and odds are you are nothing like me - then while Star Trek Enterprise was on the air you felt the show was less than adequate to represent the franchise's legacy. You might have even felt, as I did, that it deserved poor ratings or even cancellation to send a message to the higher-ups that they need to produce better.

Well, that's what happened - it was cancelled - and now that there's no fresh Star Trek series on television, none in sight and no promise of a new Star Trek movie, I am lamenting that the show is gone. There's no good way to escape to the Star Trek universe even if just for an hour a week. For now, I fall back to Boston Legal - William Shatner's in it, after all. ;-)