My car doors were frozen shut this morning along with pretty much everything else in town. It rained hard yesterday which only turned into sleet once the weather dropped several points. Now it is supposed to get even colder and several inches of snow will be falling. Icicles were coming off out icicle lights, which was pretty neat actually. All this to say I hope we maintain power as it keeps the heat going.

I managed to make it to work of course an hour early but only because i left early to keep the slow speed on the way in. Soon enough more people will be arriving and I will get on the phone and return to my job as call center billing rep. Today i expect to get a lot of outage calls. We will soon see soon enough.

I miss my wife and daugther. We were able to get her into the same daycare her older cousin has been going to since she was born, so that was a blessing. They are back at home wondering why I went into work today. I wonder that myself, but mainly I feel if you can make it into work you should go to work. There is plenty that needs to be done and its our job to do our job. Of course i am anxious to get home to resume the job i enjoy more, being a father and husband.

I can remember when the terms winter and cold were used regulary in a world where it only got into the 50's at the worst. Of course i was living in a very different climate back then. You had to drive to the mountians to get snow. Now it is delievered to our front door. Of course that just means you get to drive through it too. Hard to believe how cold it really can get outside.
I work in a temp controlled enviorment so stepping outside after the work day is a bit of a slap in the face with chill. I dont look to much forward to it but at least i have a beautiful wife and daugther to go home too. That is always a good thing to look forward to. Also in my drive time i listen to sermons and bible cd's. Right now I am listening to the Bible being read all the way through and am in the book of Hosea i believe. I really enjoy the Word as it is good to feed the soul and ponder on. I best get going now.

The search for a daycare is something we began a while ago of course. But now the place we want is giving us the run around saying they really are not ready till they can move a child up from where Avery would need to be and that could be the first of the year. I dont know how many times i have called them to confirm we needed a spot come Monday, but apparently that did not get through. So now we are on the search again for another place for our little one. I hate that we have to take her to a day care at all but we can trust the Lord will take care of her like He awlays does.

We prepare for the weather to get nasty cold this week starting today. It is supposed to get to the point of ice, and snow possibly. Mostly i just worry about getting around with the roads slippery as they get. We also have a wedding to drive out for this weekend too which is a good three hour drive. Hopefully the roads stay in good shape.

Our house cat Shadow will be returning home after being sent away to Holly's sisters house when Avery got here. Her sis is getting married and will be gone for a week so the little cat will have to come home. Of course we will have to keep on eye on her as she can easily get in the way of our newborn. If it werent winter i would just put her in the garage but that wont work at the moment. Ill figure something out i suppose soon.

Another great weekend with the little one. We got our lights up around the house and are busy getting the inside ready. This is our first house to decorate so we are excited. There are not to many things we can do outside though since there are no outdoor outlets. I need to get some put in before next year. We are going out for a tree tuesday and i will post a picture when the time comes. Avery is doing great and is excited as she can be about the upcoming holiday cheer. She has enjoyed family time so far and her aunt Diane will be coming out in a few weeks to make her smile even more. We need to go get our dinner from the oven and enjoy the rest of the night.

Little Avery's first moments in the leaves of fall. She did great today and it was overall a wonderful day for thanksgiving.

Avery's first thanksgiving has begun! Actually it started last night when i returned home and my wife had cooked a lovely meal for us to enjoy together. We have since we got married cooked a dinner the night before thanksgiving, and left the actual day itself to the bigger family gathering. Today we will head on out to her mema's and enjoy the afternoon meal there while perhaps watching the parade here and there.

Avery's pictures arrived we had taken a few weeks ago. She is so precious. Now we need to go get frames so we can display them on the wall. I love pictures and have already taken several hundred it would seem of just her. There will be more to come of course.

I hope that whatever you are doing for thanksgiving you have a great one. We will since we are spending it with the little one whom we are most thankful for. The Lord has blessed us greatly with her!

Seven years ago something started via one single email and I wanted to share it today. It changed both of our lives forever

Sent: Saturday, November 20, 1999 2:17 PM
Subject: HI LB Friend

Well, You don't me but I was looking on yahoo chat under interests and you had the same interest as me and I thought I should e-mail you and maybe make a newfriend. I am 18/f trying to finish mysenior year and to get ready to go to college. I will be attending next fall. TheLeft Behind Series is awsome and I how do you feelabout it?Well Hopefully you get this!God Bless, Holly

Happy One Month Birthday baby Avery!! We will get a cupcake with a candle for her later today to celebrate :) She is so adorable.

Avery had her first long day out today going from a stamp club meeting onto the malls for some christmas shopping. It is quite an experince strolling through the mall with our little one. We are in a completly new group of people now and it seems like we notice all the strollers and little children in a different way now. Avery did good and she slept most of the day. Finally we got some ice cream and our little one got some milk of course. It has been a great day for our little one with mommy and daddy.

Three weeks and five days ago the Lord brought little Avery into this world. She is getting so much bigger each day and i am pretty sure there is some growth spurting going on here. We place her on her tummy for a nap when we are watching her so she can get a little chance to lift her head a little. We will probably go down to the store and get some more stuff for her to lay on and sit in.

Holly and i have noticed so much has changed in just the last few weeks. We are changing in so many ways and that is good. It makes us realize the importance of keeping our own relationship strong and the need to go out on a occassional date. So far we have had two nights out leaving Avery with grandma. Of course that is very hard to do and all we do is talk about her while we are off.

I also realized the other day that i need to discuss things with my wife before anything else in the way of asking people if they want to watch Avery. Also this will be important in the years ahead as we need to be on the same page when it comes to teaching our daugther right from wrong and disciplining her accordingly. Of course for the moment she is a new born so there is not much for us to teach her other then show her how much we love her every moment of the day.

Now i admit sometimes it seems like you just want to turn the baby moniter off and hide under the covers, but somehow it is always worth getting up for those precious eyes staring back at you wanting food or at least attention. She has not ceased to amaze us yet. We lay in bed with the moniter close at hand, listening to her every breath. We have grown acustom to the sound of her stiring and know when she is about to make the cry for someone to come and help her. I love her little voice.
[note: makes me wonder how attentive we are to the sound of our Lord's voice. Are we keeping a close ear on His call and message to us? Interesting since we know He is the one who is watching over us, listening for every sound and every breath.]

Bath time is getting more exciting for Avery. She actually is tolerating the whole experince these days as if she knows its coming and it will be over sooner if she just stays calm. Her little legs are getting noticably stronger as she uses her feet to push against the edge of the tub and move up. She almost was standing with very little help from me while washing her down the other day. Her little head is also getting stronger too with moments where she holds it up on her own. How amazing. We have a great shot of her smiling i will have to load on here in a little bit.

Today is finally Saturday which means we get to enjoy the day together as a family and go do some errands. I am looking forward to what is ahead and will keep you posted.

Avery had her first vote on tuesday and we got a little picture of her at the poll. She is so cute! After that we went for a walk through the park but it didnt last long since a bee starting chasing us; it must have been after her milk or something. In other news we are still on the nigthly and daily schedual of trying our best to help her sleep through as long as possible. I have do notice bathing her before bedtime does seem to help. She is an adorable 3 week old.
Now it is finally friday and I cant wait for the end of the day so i can get to the weekend and spend more time with my little one. One other thing this week has taught me is how strong my wife is and gives me a deeper love for her as i watch her take care of our little one. I could not have a better wife and mother for my daugther.

Yesterday i returned to work after being away for a good two weeks. It was a really good time to be away and spend quality time bonding with my wife and daugther. Being apart was hard but i know we have to work in order to make it through this life. My work is pretty simple really, not to much trouble, just spend much of the time talking people through their bills. It has its moments and every customer is different so can't say much else than that. It is not a long term job goal, but at least for now its giving me plenty of experince with people. Kind of odd with that first phone call after so long not having a head set on your head. You really get a jump from it.

My parents leave out today and it happens to also be my day off which works out well. It was good having them here. My dad will be having his gallbladder removed in the near future as it may be the cause of the problems he was having. While they were here they brought us a old laptop that will be soon replacing the one i am using since this one keeps crashing for no apparent reason other then the cpu is dying out. SO i had some fun trying to get the internet connections going for all the comptuers that were here over the weekend. We just about had one for every person here. Even Avery had a computer.

Avery is doing great this morning as i finally got her to get to sleep and she has had her 4.00 feeding so all is calm at the moment. She has moments where all she wants is to be held or played with. Sometimes if she looks too content we have to check on her diaper but she does good most of the time. I love my little girl and I know she is teaching me patience and endurance. If i can make it through the nightly feedings, shouldn't i be able to make it through nightly prayers with my Lord. That is something to consider since He demands attention as my God and King of my life. The difference is when I go to pray I am the one being fed from the Spirit of truth and life. I will ponder on this today.

Been a busy weekend here. We had my parents in from out of state to meet their new grandaugther! Of course they love her like crazy and will be here for two more days. Though my dad had a run in with his pancrease and is in the hospital in town to have it checked out. He has been there since last night and will be home in the morning once they run some tests to see if it might be a gallbladder caused problem. Crazy weekend.

Little Avery is here doing a little crying now that i have sat down to the computer. My little girl thinks that daddy needs to put the computer down so she can be taken care of. Its part of her personal time she loves. She is so adorable. More on this later...

Having trouble getting pictures to load today but that is alright. I wanted to just stop in and say hello. Things are going well here with baby and all. We kept her up more today and at the moment she is doing well sleeping, the only problem is daddy is having trouble getting to sleep. I think its more mental thinking she will wake up at any time and need feed. For now i just wait on her. She is so darling and still teaching mommy about life and the love of God. Avery is seeing everything through the eyes of innocence and her love is unconditional. Of course she is born into sinful humanity and all that but the love she has for people goes beyond anything. Quite the wonder. We have the grandparents from out of town over this weekend to visit with their new grandaugther so that is fun. Looks like it will be an enjoyable time before i head back into work next week.