Dystopian Paradise

I’ve been debating a lot lately how much information I share publicly, vs the things we should be keeping private. Kassy definitely takes a much more cautious approach to online information sharing. Ever since I had an old college buddy track me down via this very blog, I’ve definitely given a lot of thought to how much information I post here. On top of all of this, I’m starting to take a much more public role at church, and so now I’m weighing everything out before we get too far along and I regret some early decisions I’ve made. One of the biggest questions surrounds just how much information I post about the kiddos. I have friends who use pseudonyms for their kids, and it’s something I’ve considered in the past. I’m not even sure what the questions to ask, and what I would change if I could, but it’s something to think about.

Sometimes all this distance between us and family is alright. Although we hate that our kiddos won’t see their grandparents as much, it does buffer us somewhat from all of the daily ins and outs of all our family members’ lives. The drive home can be a real bear of course and we can always sympathize folks making the drive down here, but the distance gives Kassy and I a chance to reconnect that we rarely get.

Tonight is one of those nights where I hate the distance between us and family. We had a family tragedy tonight, but being 11 hours away I feel so powerless. Please lift up a thought for my father’s family tonight as they deal with this. I know I will be.

Just saw Michael Moore’s new film “Capitalism: A Love Story” and he raised an interesting question. Is supporting capitalism a sin?

Should Christians support a different economic system that provides more social support or is that the Church’s responsibility exclusively?

Ultimately the film raised some great points around whether our current system of government is controlled more by the votes of the citizens or the dollars of big business.

I don’t purport to have answers to any of these questions, but I really enjoyed thinking and talking about them with some friends the other night and thought I’d share them.

So I’m about to get a hiring bonus for recruiting some friends to come work for the great company I work for, Bazaarvoice, and I’m trying to decide what to do with the extra funds. We’re still HDTV-less, a feat growing quite rare here in the US, so that’s almost a given, but what I’m really thinking of doing is getting a new laptop.

The big question is whether to get some big iron that can do my photo and video editing, or a simple netbook fr what I do most: web browsing and email. Thoughts?

Wow, it’s been a year since I posted anything. Let’s see in that time Kaden has turned two, started talking like mad, continued to develop a fanatical obsession with baseball, and grown up so much. Now Jace has arrived (he’s 11 days old today), and we’re starting over on this parenting thing in some regards. Being a parent to two is quite a bit more tricky than I think either of us realized, and so there’s been a lot of soul searching, and praying going on here around how we handle all this.

There’s always been alot of prayer in our household when it comes baby time, as there’s so much you can worry about, and if you get to offload all of those cares on someone so much bigger than ourselves, that’s a beautiful thing.

I head back to work next Monday, which I’m apprehensive about, but overall, I think we’re in pretty good shape. There’s definitely a few more things I wish were caught up inside the house, but I think Kassy’s in pretty good shape to do this on her own. I’m sure my schedule will change, but I think we have a handle on what we want to try first, and we’ll figure it out as we go, just like we did with Kaden. The good news is that Jace has been a champion sleeper. generally sleeping in three hour stretches, and even one night sleeping six hours (something we’re still a bit unsure about).

All in all, I’m glad to be back. I was interested in participating in NaNoWriMo this year, but with the new baby, there’s just no way that’s going to happen, but I’ll do my best to pick back up on the blogging.

It’s a bit early, but I’m hopeful that “Fringe” will be successful and interesting. I’ve only watched the pilot so far, but it’s definitely enough to have me reminiscing about “The X-Files.” If you missed it, you should definitely check out the link above as they have all three episodes online. I know I’ll be watching the others ASAP.

Flying to Pittsburgh for a short work trip and there’s a lot of time for reflection once I run out of “The Office” and “Scrubs”. I’m wondering how on the earth you balance 40+ hours a week at a job, cooking, exercising, time with the spouse, time with the little man, and the 100 other things that come up in the course of a week.

You know, I’ve been doing this for five years now and it actually seems like it’s getting harder, when my brain tells me it should be the other way around. Sure things are always changing, but it just feels a bit like I’m headed for a dead end eventually. Not that it’s any too soon, but only a crazy person would continue to drive the boat straight onto the rocks once they’ve seen the lighthouse.

The problem eight now is I don’t seem to know the direction to turn. I know and I trust that God is in control, but I haven’t been actively seeking his will lately and it has left me aimless and drifting, just as I knew it would. The trouble is that the only thing I can find that I can cut from my day is sleep and working out. Two things I really need to sustain my body.

But I think I may have found a way to balance by life a little better. I’ll blog about that soon.

This post is more introspective than usual. Feel free to skim or skip.

Ever since we moved here 5 years ago Kassy and I have been looking for a small group of friends we could connect with on a regular basis. A group that would hold us accountable to living this Christian life, encourage us in times of doubt or struggle, and celebrate with us as we pass over the mountains. We’ve been a part of 3 groups properly, and each one has had it’s ups and downs.

We’re in between groups again now and trying to decide what God has in store for us in these next few months or years. The difficult decision right now is whether God wants us in a group together with Kaden or apart and each taking their turn watching him for an evening. I don’t have a good answer for this question, but it does bring up another question that I’d live to hear your thoughts on.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of being in a group together?

One of the biggest benefits I see of being in a group together is that we are growing to know more about God and eachother’s spirituality at the same time.

On the contrary it means we are keeping an eye on Kaden and so it makes it harder to get the most out of each study.

The other thing is that I feel we are both more open when the group is divided into only males or females.

I would love to have the one-on-one time with Kaden, but would hate to not see much of Kassy an additional might of the week.

As you can see this isn’t an east decision but we’ve decided to spend some more time in prayer seeking God’s voice and looking for opportunities where He is at work around us. I know the answer will come soon.

Let me know the things that have weighed on you when making similar decisions.

This is the first post from my new iphone. With a new wordpress app for it I should be able to write posts from anywhere, meaning more posts.

Here’s a recent photo of Kaden so I can test the photo upload functionality. The picture is from a recent trip to the Oasis while Mom and Amy were here a few days back. We had a nice visit and now Kassy and Kaden are up in MO for a cousin’s wedding.

Well, the past few weeks since mid-June have just flown by.  With the symbolic passing of another year, I marked the evening with several close friends playing a new board game that I enjoy very much, and wholeheartedly recommend, “Shadows Over Camelot.” More on that another time. Today I want to explain, for those who haven’t heard, just where my last 2 weeks have gone.

In essence they have gone to Dr’s visits.  After my birthay rolled around, I got to thinking it was time for an annual checkup, seeing as how it had been closer to two. So, I made an appointment, and dropped in, know full well that I’d gained my “new baby 10″, and should be eating out less, exercising more, and to have a mole behind my ear measured. Well, all went well, I get a recommendation for a podiatrist to fix up my ingrown toenails a week or so later, and then she measured the mole and it had grown. So, off I go to the dermatologist (getting a doctor’s recommendation skips you ahead of the two month wait), and sure enough we have that nasty little bugger biopsy’d. So there’s the first week.

Not too worried about ye ole mole, as I have several, and one mole looks about the same as the next, until I get a call on Saturday morning from my dermatologist, letting me know that I have an “in situ melanoma“, and that I’ll need to make an appointment on the following Monday with a surgeon for a consulation. In this consultation I learn that in situ melanoma is an early stage skin cancer, and if not caught early can be very deadly.  Thankfully, we had caught this as early as is possible, however, they needed to remove 1/2 cm margins around the mole to be sure to remove any sattelite cancerous cells that might still be lingering. So, we schedule that for last Friday (the 27th), a short two days after having my toenails operated on. In retrospect this might have been a bit much to handle, however, we are switching health plans as of today, and it made some financial sense.

Finally, the day after the surgery (Saturday) for those keeping score. Kassy, Kaden, and I attended a 1st birthday party for a friend’s daughter, and I was enjoying a delicious popcorn ball made with jello for flavoring & extra stickiness. However, during one of these bites of popcorn ball, I accidentally chipped a large chunk of enamel off of one of my two front teeth.  Thankfully, my two front teeth have very large fillings from an accident as a child, and they were likely going to have to be replaced sometime soon, but still, “when it rains it pours.”

After a long weekend, a few Vicodin, and a bit of limping things are looking up. Kaden is sleeping through the night again (hooray!), I’m not limping nearly as much, and my bandages on my neck are almost ready to come off.  All in all it looks like July should be a much better month than June was.