My Life as a Play: The Christmas Prayer

Setting: Daddy and Jacob are lying in bed on Christmas Eve. Jacob is very excited about Santa but still has some questions and concerns about the whole process.

Jacob: Daddy, I want to pray to God for a chimney for our house.
Daddy:  Sure. Go ahead buddy.
Jacob: Dear God, please give us a chimney. Amen.

Christmas morning. Santa had brought a new Spike the Ultra Dinosaur. Prayer answered.

Merry Christmas

Happy 63rd Birthday Daddy Luke

My dad celebrated his 63rd birthday last Saturday. Pictures from the occasion.

Scripture of the Day

"You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord".    Leviticus 19:14

"...[T]here is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known."     Matthew 10:26

The verse from Leviticus is part of the instructions the Lord gives to His people Israel as they prepare for their new life in the wilderness away from Egypt with the promise of inheriting Canaan. The verse from Matthew is part of the the instructions the Lord gives to His followers as they prepare to for their new life as his disciples in the world and spreading the message of the Kingdom. They both beautifully capture the holiness of God that the righteousness he desires goes far beyond what we commonly see but what the omniscient God the Universe sees. We all play to an audience of One.

My Wife is on Facebook

My wife has succumbed to peer pressure and popular culture at-large and is now on the social networking site Facebook. Not surprisingly given her personality, she already has 41 "friends" (people in her network) in just over 24 hours even though she has only sent out invitations to 3 people. To her surprise, she is enjoying it. If you use Facebook, send her an invitation. I have no interest in opening a Facebook account and personally prefer to stay here on my only website. Better to be the king of your own tiny island than a faceless peasant on a large continent. At least, that is what I tell myself.

Healthy Improvements

Since the start of this year, I have made several lifestyle changes to live healthier. I have started drinking water more and cut out virtually all soft drinks. I have extended my jogging program to run long, now doing 3 miles three times a week. Last month Shannon and I started using Nutrisystem and my caloric intake has diminished.

I had my yearly physical a few weeks ago, and the changes in weight loss and cholesterol were significant. The results are...

Life without Kentucky Basketball

I started watching University of Kentucky basketball at age 8. I cut my teeth on and cried my first tears for the 83-84 team which reached the Final Four. Since then, I have followed UK as closely as I rationally can. I do not remember missing a game that was on TV and that did not conflict with an important activity, like a family get together. Even then, I made every effort to watch a game, arranging my schedule to do so. In past years, my TiVo wish list had Kentucky games at the very top so that nothing would clip it or cancel its recording. I have always watch Kentucky. In the Internet age, I followed all the websites and blogs with UK information. To say it was a big part of my entire life would not be an overstatement.

Many highs and great memories come my following of the greatest basketball program in the land. The 96 and 98 championship teams obviously standout but lots of lesser moments burn bright. The 31 point second half comeback at LSU in 94 watching from my freshman dorm room. The double digit comeback against Duke in the 98 regional finals - I still remember yelling out with Cameron Mills hit the 3 to go ahead. But with the great expectations there are also many lows. I remember the lows of the last second loss to Duke in the 92 regional finals. When one of my favorite team, the 2003-04 team, lost in the 2nd round as the number 1 overall see, I went straight to my home office and just sat and felt completely despondant. I can tell you where I was and vividly recall the memory of watching the TV when every UK season ended. No matter the pain of losing, the joy from following the Cats and investing the emotional energy required to be a true fan was worth it.

Until this seaon. I decided before the year began to go without Kentucky basketball. Lots of reasons go into it, but it boils down to right now in my life it is something I am better off without. I may come back one day. For now, I need to detox myself if you will from my attachment to the Big Blue.

Last night UK played North Carolina, my least favorite team in college basketball. Previously, I would have been nervous through out the day and and watched them on TV that evening. To avoid getting sharp or angry with the kids, I would have probably had to watch it on TiVo after they went to bed. Shannon would have to make sure she was not in the same room with me watching it as my nervous energy can make it challenging to enjoy a game with me. Instead, I had a nice workout at the YMCA and then a good evening at home with the family. I went to bed and feel asleep quicly and slept great all night.

I was aware of the game, and I admit to doing a quick check on our computer to see the results right before bed and then again in the morning. Looking at the box score and the accompanying story shows it was not a bad game to miss if you are a Kentucky fan. There were terrible. Their offensive ball handling was atrocious. In basketball, each team has essentially the same number of possessions (opportunities to score or not). Last night game was 74 possessions which indicates it was rather fast paced. UK turned the ball over 28 times of those possessions. Over a 1/3 of their possessions ended without a shot at the basket. If you are unfamiliar with basketball, that is absolutely horrible. Anything above 20% is not good and above 25% is terrible and last year the very worst team at taking care of the ball did so at nearly 29%.

As you can see, my interest is still there, but my detachment is growing. It was not that hard to skip the game. I had made this decision at the end of last year's season and have not followed any media on UK since then. Maybe some day I will come back and enjoy UK without all the negative energy I expend as a fan. For now, I am OK just checking the box scores now and then.

I finished my race

I ran my 4-miler in the cool, drizzly morning without stopping once. I finished right at 38 minutes. If I had one of those electronic race chips to make my time official, I would have finished in the top 10 of my men's 30-34 age division, at least among the men who also used those chips. The results are here.

I was very proud of myself. I felt good through out the race, and I could have pushed for a faster pace, but I am such a new runner that I really just wanted to finish a race without stopping before I work on improving my time.

I am also very proud of my cousin Derek who finished 12th in his state cross country final. The top 15 medal, and he deserves his medal for his outstanding effort. He ran a slightly faster pace than my 9:30 mile. In fact, if he ran in my 4-miler, he would have probably finished 2nd. The guy who won it, Jef Scott who ran collegiately at Western Kentucky, finished in just over 20 minutes, a 5:05 pace which is just smoking.

My Glory Years

This Saturday I will be running in a local 4-mile run race sponsored by the local YMCA. My goal is just to run the race without stopping once to walk. Also on Saturday my cousin Derek is running in a slightly more competitive race with higher aspirations than myself. Derek is running in the Kentucky Class A State Cross Country meet up in Lexington. He is a great runner who has come on strong this year. I don't know if he can place top 5, but I think top 10 is a very realistic goal. I am very proud of him.

The top site for covering Kentucky high school running is ky.milesplit.us. In searching through it the other night, I found a reference to myself and my glory years. I finished 4th in 1993 Class A State 200 meter dash, and they have a record of it. You can see my greatness in all its misspelled glory here: http://ky.milesplit.us/athletes/101947

Jacob - Soccer Star

I just finished coaching Jacob's Under-5 soccer team at the local YMCA. It was a lot of fun, and the kids actually improved during the season. At first, I felt it was a hopeless cause - you should have seen the first game and the level of "play". But they came along way and became better soccer players, including Jacob. He was able to score a few goals during the year, play a little defense (which is rare in this league) and generally keep his attention on the game.

I was always afraid I would was too hard on him for his lack of concentration or effort because he was my son. As your own child, you are allowed to express your disapproval more than toward the other children. You also have the pride component. I learned about myself in coaching him. I generally did OK despite some mistakes on my part. I was very glad to do it, and I think he feels the same. He said he wants to play next year, and for me to be his coach.

However, the best part of soccer for Jacob is getting to climb the pine trees right behind the field after the game or practice is over. In fact, I used it as an incentive as in "If you play hard today, I will let you climb the tree after the game." He is an OK-soccer player, but he is a fantastic tree climber. Here are some pictures from the season including some tree climbing adventures.

Halloween Pictures

Here is the slide show of all our Halloween outings. You have seen the first batch of pictures already, but now I have pictures from our Fall Festival, Jacob's preschool class' Halloween party, trick-or-treating Halloween night and our annual Halloween night dinner at Roberto's Mexican restaurant. As part of this annual tradition, we put on different faces of silly, sad, angry, thoughtful which you can see in the pictures. Even Ava gets in the act with her Yucky face as she tastes Mommy's water.

Ava Lauren Meadors - 8 months old

My baby girl is 8 months old today. We went for a doctor's checkup this week. She weighted 21 lbs (95% percentile), 27 inches long (50% percentile) and 18 1/2 cm head diameter (a whopping 150% percentile). She is crawling everywhere. Jacob's was active, but I don't remember him being the crawler Ava is. Her Shangri-La is our refrigerator. When she sees its open, she crawls toward it at a furious pace just to be disappointed as Daddy or Mommy or Brother shut the door before she can make it in.

My President

I became eligible to vote 4 months into Clinton's first term. My first presidential election was anticlimactic as it was clear Bob Dole had no chance to defeat Clinton. That made the 2000 election as my first meaningful presidential election where I could really connect with a candidate that could be president of the United States. George Bush was this man, and he was this man largely through his Christian faith. He spoke of a compassionate conservatism, school vouchers, faith-based initiatives and his love of Jesus Christ. While we had had two Southern Baptist in the highest office, and Reagan was deeply but very personally religious, GWB was the first truly evangelical Christian in the office, and that was exciting.

There were two other significant events that deepened my affection for him. The first was the Florida recount and the second was 9/11. As often happens in politics, you get caught up in winning an argument/vote/election and forget what is so important that you are fighting for in the first place. The recount became an easy fight against the other side rather than a pursuit of applying our laws and their intent to find a president. Both sides were going against each other, and I got caught up cheering for my man. Finally, we came out on top even though conservatives have long argued against activist courts, but the whole process brought me closer to my president. We did not know the seeds of such anger against my president were sown then or how they would come to choke his administration and legacy later.

9/11 was much easier to appreciate in its deepening of my affection of the President. Heck, virtually everyone was wanting to support him during that time, and his response to the Taliban in Afghanistan was right and good. We had entered a new world with new dangers, and my president was up to the challenge of facing them. I remember those months after 9/11 and the patriotism that was almost palpable in the community and the country as a whole. The anger of the Florida recount seemed to be forgotten and forgiven. We had a chance to really pull together and do some great things as a country. My president had the political capital to resolve some of the tough problems we were facing internally like Social Security or healthcare. Instead, my president choose to use his political capital to expand the war on terrorism and invade Iraq.

As will all significant events, it will take the time and perspective of history to fully judge the Iraq war and its consequences, both good and bad. However, it seems hard now to see how it can be considered a net positive. The debt our country incurred to finance it, the handling of the war itself, the international community's response all put together are tough negatives to overcome. Add the fact that the outcome of the new Iraq is somewhat in doubt and the value in preventing terrorism from the invasion is questioned make it much harder to find the good in this war.

The war became the defining aspect of the Bush administration. It became my president's white whale that dwarfed all other issues. A war is the top priority for a commander-in-chief and takes precedence over other issues, but if the war is going bad in the eyes of his constituency, they won't be happy with his handling of the other aspects of his government. Even issues that were beyond the direct control of my president, like the recent financial crisis which is much more in the lap of the Legislative Branch than the Executive Branch, assign him blame. Thrown in Katrina, the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture and abuse and some other problems, you suddenly have a very unpopular president.

As I look back at my president, the one whom I voted for twice, it is hard to see much beyond the Iraq war. It colors everything, and at this point, I consider it a great mistake. We would have been much better served to finish the war and rebuilding in Afghanistan first, which is showing signs of unraveling now. We would have been better served to reduce our spending, especially with Social Security and Medicare outlays. As recent months have shown, our federal government is the financial backstop for our economy and one its very top highest priorities is to keep it solvency and manage financial crisis, but you can't do that if you don't money which is our future if we don't change our course.

As his presidency approaches its end, it has become the fashionable thing to bash Bush, and not just criticize his policy but  hyperbolize his faults and use language like "hate" or "tyrant". Sadly, it takes us full-circle back to the view of the Florida recount. The seeds of anger have brought forth their fruit, and the view of politics as this fight against an opponent rather than a set of ideas is crystallized in the harsh rhetoric and demagoguery toward my president.

One of the personal lessons I have learned in these last 8 years and take away from them is that a vote for your candidate does not make their future decisions infallible or require unwavering support from you. Changing your support or criticizing a candidate who got your vote does not diminish you or your past actions. We vote at a set moment in time with the information we currently have at our disposal to select an individual whom we feel will best serve our country. However, the world around us does not stop then but continues to place new obstacles and choices and factors in front our elected officials. Sometimes they don't act as you believe is best, and this new information can lead you to reevaluate  your position. Looking back at my own attitudes and those of other evangelicals, we have been too willing to support my president when his decisions did not deserve that support.

But I will also take away the lesson of political fickleness. While a changing world, a voter may wish to take back his or her vote, but the politician may likely wish to take back the changes he or she now faces to the time when he or she was actually elected. However, they don't have the luxury and must make the best choices he or she sees fit. With that in mind, while you can criticize your candidate, you must also keep yourself from getting caught up in the political tide of unpopularity. Just because others are piling on does not mean you have to join in. Just because you don't like one issue does not mean you have to not like the elected official. The phase "tempered loyalty" may be thought of as an oxymoron but in the political realm I believe it not but a good attitude. Blind support is dangerous, but turning on someone just because it is popular or from a knee-jerk reaction is harmful as well.

My president has done things I disagree with, but he has done many good things. As I mentioned, the response to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 was excellent. In turn, the efforts led by then Secretary Rumsfeld with the so called Rumsfeld Doctrine to make our military more streamline and capable of fighting in multiple hotspots of guerrilla warfare is the direction we need to take in our world. I generally find education initiatives largely shallow and self-promotional, but No Child Left Behind was a positive step to make our education system more accountable. Both Justices Roberts and Alito are excellent choices to our highest court and a large reason I backed my president was to select solid conservative judges.

I think my president's finest hour was his decision on not allowing further funding for new lines of embryonic stem cell research. The decision to continue support of the existing 60 or so embroyonic lines currently in use but to deny futher funding was a complicated decision, but my president gave a thoughtful and measured response to a challenging issue. What I found so proud about his decision was its reflection of a Christian worldview verse the humanism belief system of much of the secular culture. A belief system which makes science its religion that trumps any moral concerns. A Christian recognizes science is possible in our universe because of the order our Creator gave it and thus it is good. However, we also see that it is wrong to make science as carte blanche over moral decision or as some blind driver of our actions. Opponents criticized that he was turning back on those with illnesses, yet there has been several recent examples of medical breakthroughs using adult stem cells to achieve the same goals critics believed were only possible with embryonic stem cells. The ruling showed wisdom and decisiveness in the midst of an angry storm from both sides of the argument.

As his presidency ends, the first evangelical president leaves a legacy of some good and moral decisions overshadowed by several wrongs ones. In that, he reflects the type of man that evangelicals see in mankind: made in the image of God capable of wonderful things but also tainted with sin and fallenness. For those who have supported him and those who have vilified him, and there seems to be little middle ground, his depature from the Oval Office will be meet with relief. It feels like time to move on and cut down the angry weeds that grew back in Florida's recount to start anew. As we move to elect a new leader, we look forward to a new administration and a new phase in American life. Before we do, I just wanted to say I support my president, and I thank him for his leadership. Just as I choose to criticize him on the bad courses of action he has taken our country on, I also choose to not let those color all his leadership as bad. I salute him for his best, and I appreciate him for what he gave our country. He is my president.

* * * UPDATE - 11/04/08 * * *
I forgot to add a very significant accomplishment of the Bush administration: funding to fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Even critics of his administration have greatly praised it. It will be a huge part of his legacy.

Jacob and the Snake

We went to the Nashville Zoo last night for their children's Halloween event. We had a great time, but the hightly was the creepy, crawly, slimy animal show. At the end, they ask for some volunteers and Jacob was chosen. He and the other kids then got to hold a yellow burmese python. Jacob loved it. He even kissed the snake, which in one of the pictures you can see him bending down to kiss it.

There are also a few other pictures from last week's YMCA Fall Festival thrown into this album. I will later update
this album to include all of the year's Halloween pictures once we are through with the season.

I voted yesterday

I did early voting and without a wait in line, I voted. My presidential choice is...[his website]

Go on, check it out and see who I voted for. I will wait for you.

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Yep, I voted 3rd party this election. During the Republican Primary, I voted for Ron Paul. Earlier this year, Paul gave his endorsement to Baldwin and his Constitutional Party. I felt this was a good year to go outside the 2-party system.Let me say I don't agree with everything Baldwin stands for. As you can see from his Issues section, he is far more of an isolationist than I believe the US should be or for that matter can be at this point in our history. I am not keen on the UN, but we can't just get out of it without making matters far worse for the world and the US, if for no other reason than to keep our Security Council veto position and not give it up, as Russia learned in the Korean War. But, I am aligned with him on his pro-life stance, removing our troops from Iraq (it is time now and it costs too much!) and the Constitutional Party and Baldwin share a commitment to reduce our deficit and bring our spending under control. I would like for them to verbally state the way to reduce our debt and deficit, and I believe the only way to do this, of making cuts in Social Security, Medicare and defense spending. Everyone dances around this, but we are going to have to do it sometime because they make up the majority of our US government spending.

But just as important as Baldwin's positions, I believe the US desperately needs a 3rd party (or more parties) to break up the duopoly of the two major parties in government. Their yin-yang take on any political issue generates so much hate and animosity. I am so frustrated that I have to choose a candidate just because of his party affiliation even as the party becomes more diluted as it takes on more issues to support, many of which are taken just to be on the other side of what the other major party is taking.

Since I have started voting, I don't recall ever not voting for a Republican candidate, but McCain was a weak Republican candidate whom I don't feel confident in the sincerity of his views. I think Senator, and soon to be President, Obama is a poor choice so I was left with an opportunity to vote 3rd party.

For the other Tennessee-based elections, I applied my incumbent principal: unless there is a strong overriding reason, I vote against the incumbent. I support term-limits, and until they are made law, I will do my own term-limiting voting. For US Senate, Lamar Alexander (R) was running for re-election, and I voted for an independent candidate. Alexander is facing a Democratic candidate, but his is strongly favored to win. I also voted against US Rep. Bart Gordon, who was running against only one independent candidate.

For Tennessee Senate, it was a race between incumbent Diane Black (R) and just a Democratic challenger. I did not know anything about the challenger, so I wrote-in a candidate, my wife Shannon. She would be better than either one of them.

I did vote for an incumbent in the Tennessee House. And, he was a Democrat. Bob Bibb is a first term representative from my district. He has not been there long enough to have much of a record, but he claims to be conservative Democrat (pro-life, pro-marriage). But my overriding reason for voting for him was that his mother Marian Bibb goes to my church, and Shannon and I think much of her. You can learn something about a candidate by his momma. So for this year, he gets my vote. But if he wins and runs for re-election, I am voting against him. As an adendum to my incumbent principal, the overriding reason can only over ride once. Good luck Rep. Bibb. If it is up to me, you only have two more years to serve your state.

The Carnival is in Town

The carnival came to town last weekend, and my son just had to go. We good some good pictures of him, really capturing his joy and excitement at being there. I also got to eat my yearly funnel cake and fresh squeezed lemonade which was marvelous. A little late in posting these pictures, but I was too worn out last week because of all the Columbus Day celebration.

Happy Columbus Day!

I doubt many people will read this post today as most of the US are not in front of their computers but out celebrating with friends and family on this most joyous and festive of American holidays: Columbus Day. Government employees, you deserve today off from work!

However, I am working this day as I find it personally offensive that Columbus Day is a federal holiday. Instead, I took off work on Thursday, October 9th, Leif Erikson Day.

My Life as a Play: Why it is worth it

Setting: Daddy is reading Jacob bedtime stories. One book is a children's Bible, ,  with various stories in it. Daddy is reading the story of the Cruxifiction.

Daddy: "They nailed Jesus to the cross. 'Father, forgive them,' Jesus gasped. 'They don't understand what they are doing.' "

Daddy keeps reading the story. He notices Jacob sniffling. He looks down and sees tears in Jacob's eyes.

Daddy: What is the matter Jacob?
Jacob: Tears are coming out of my eyes. I am sad for Jesus. He is dying on the cross.
Daddy: If this was the end, it would be very sad because he is dying. But it is not the end. Look at the rest of the story.

Daddy reads the story on the Resurrection and how Jesus is now alive. Jacob stops crying and smiles.

Daddy: You see Jacob. Jesus died, but he did not stay dead. He is now alive.
Jacob: We should tell people.
Daddy: Tell people what?
Jacob: That Jesus is alive.

New Poll: When will Ava walk?

I put up a new poll to the right. Since Ava is now crawling (barely), walking is soon to follow. When will that be? We will find out, but your best guess is welcomed.

Actually, I am not really that anxious for her to walk. As she is my second, I have learned from Jacob the blessing of an immobile child. As cute as it is to see them walk, it opens up a whole new set of worries and concerns. Right now it is great that we can put her in her room, surround her with some little toys and walk away knowing she will still be in the room when we get back. Once she starts to walk and crawl better, then that option is gone.

Also, I was tried of seeing the old poll up for her name. In case you were wondering, most people call her Ava, Jacob and I tend to call her Ava Lauren and Shannon still has some regret we did not make her forename Lauren.

Ava is crawling

Ava truly crawled today for the first time, at her 7 month birthday. She has been close for a while, but she could not get her arms and legs working at the same time. Tonight, Jacob and I were playing on the floor with some new toys he got. Ava was sitting in front of Shannon with her new teether toy. She saw one of Jacob's toys, and she took off after it. She made it about 2 feet and picked it up. Mommy and Daddy were happy for Ava. Ava was happy to get the toy, but big brother was not pleased that Ava had his toy. He got it from her and pushed all of his toys about 5 feet away. I told him he better get use to it because from this point forward she is going to be in a lot of his stuff.

Panama City Beach 2008

Last week Jacob, Shannon and I went to Panama City Beach. We had a GREAT time. Weather, beach, food, evening outings were nearly perfect. We even got a memorable, but painful, story of Jacob getting stung by a jellyfish. You can see some pictures of his stung arm even though the pictures are not real clear. Ava stayed with my parents and they had a wonderful time with her, really the first extended period of time they have spent with her.

The Little Things

Last night Shannon and I had our first neighbor co-op date night. Our neighbors, Joe and Megan Tucker, and us have entered a babysitting co-op. They watch our kids one night and they we watch their son Jackson, who is 2 1/2 in return. We don't pay each other so we save in babysitting costs. The Tuckers started it off and watched Ava and Jacob last night.

Shannon and I had nothing special planned for the evening. We talked about a few ideas but settled on the very practical purpose of going to a few stores and exchanging some recently purchased outfits of the kids. Yet, it turned out to be a great outing. Through out the night, from the moment we pulled out of the driveway until we got home, we had great conversation. A very good flow to it, with everything moving very naturally from topic to topic. We discussed some very meaningful issues without forcing them. And we laughed. In fact, Shannon laughed more than I have heard from her in a while.

It was just a delightful surprise of an evening. My love for my wife was strengthen, and we were both refreshed. There is much truth to the sentiment of joy being found in the small things, and we found joy in many small things last night.

Jacob's 4th Birthday

Last month, our boy turned 4. Coincidentally, we had 4 separate parties: Meadors Family, Varden Family, Friends, Preschool. Here are pictures from the Meadors Family party at our home and the Friends party at Chuck E Cheese. Jacob's big gift was a Thomas the Train table from us. While 4 parties wore us out, especially Shannon in preparing them, it was a special time and Jacob really enjoyed it.

Get Together with the Perrys

Things are slowing down a little bit in my life, but still quite busy. I have several things I want to write on, but not enough time to give it the attention it needs. For now, I will just post some pictures from a family get together on Labor Day weekend with my mom's family. It was a very fun outing.

Jacob's 4year Old Preschool

No posting in the last two weeks. Not much has gone on. Jacob has started preschool, 4 different birthday parties for our 4-year old boy, started coaching Jacob's soccer team at the YMCA, I have started teaching AWANA, Shannon has resigned as Children's Minister at our church and my work is at its busiest point of the year. Not much.

OK, I guess I can give more details than that. Let's start with Jacob's first day of 4-year old preschool. Slide show at the bottom of the first day. His teacher is Ms. Jodi. Jacob thinks it is ok, but last week when he told Shannon he was tired of school and she asked why, he said, "Crafts. Too many crafts. I'm done." Amen brother. I am tried of just looking at the crafts he brings home day after day.

Also in the slide show, I have included pictures of Jacob when he started his 2-year old preschool and the last day of that year, right when he turned 3. So you see him at 2, 3 and 4.

Jacob's First Cereal

Last week I posted video of Ava's first taste of cereal. Here is the video of Jacob's first foray into solid food. They are about the same age.

Food, Glorious Food

I have been using Quicken to record my purchases since I got out of college 10 years ago. I am fairly meticulous about recording the category that goes with the purchase, for example Dining, Auto:Fuel, Shannon:Clothes, etc. When you have that much history and information at your disposal, you can find some interesting trends.

I was recently looking at our yearly expenditures for food, groceries and dining combined. Back in 2003, our first full year of marriage, we spent $8853 on food. Last year, we spent a whopping $19,634. Almost $20,000 on food!

Over half of that expenditure comes from dining out. Dining out is a luxury and more expensive than eating in, but it is often easier to do for us, for several reasons. One, Shannon works part-time, and as the primary cook, that situation makes it harder for her to be home to make dinner, both because of diminished time and energy. Another point to consider is that with the added money from the part-time job as children's minister we have more money to choose to dine out if we want.

Also, we do have Jacob now. Besides being another person to feed, he affects the food budget in ways you don't expect. It is easier to eat out with Jacob since cooking for 3, especially one who is a little picky, can be hard. Also, you are out and about more because of various activities with him so stopping and eating out gets done more.

Another reason is the high gas prices. I work from home so we are not heavily affected by gas prices as most, but I still see the hidden cost of rising fuel prices. Food production requires lots of tractors and combines and transport trucks. The added expenses of gasoline gets put into the prices we pay for groceries and dining out.

(As an aside, even though I work at home and Shannon is 3 miles from our church, high gas prices do affect us. Back in 2003, we spent $1263 on auto fuel. In 2007, we spent $3396. $2000 more, but far less significant than the increase in food expenditures. Back in 2003, Shannon worked full-time and Dallas has many more great dining spots than Springfield/North Nashville. I bet we ate out as much then as we do now, but it just costs so much more.)

With this realization of the high amount of food expenditures, I felt we have to find a way to cut back. To do so, we needed to make a solid commitment to eating in instead of dining out. That sounds all well and good, but you also have to commit to planning your meals and grocery shopping. I decided to take the lead in doing that . Grocery shopping is not something Shannon loves to do, mostly because she usually has Jacob with her. Since I have never done it before on any consistent basis, I am a little jazzed about it, like a new challenge. Of course, I still work with Shannon on planning the meals and making the grocery list as she will be the one cooking the food.

We are now 1 month into this and we are seeing substantiation improvements. It is early to state the savings with great confidence, but it looks like making an effort to eat in is saving us $750-$500 per month.

As my sister mentioned, I have turn her on to the wonderful and mysterious world of coupons. I will say more about that later as it truly a strange world, but one that I do see benefits from.

By the way, lunch today is taco soup which we made last night. Yum, yum.

Visiting Noah

A few weeks back we went and visited my sister and her family. Her son Noah is 2 weeks older than Ava so it is neat to see them together and watch them grow.

The Sad State of Politics in America

I just got a telemarketer call which the caller ID listed as simply “Political Call”. The girl, she sounded quite young, said she was representing the Republican Majority Campaign which is some type of Republican PAC group. I decided to humor her and actually have a conversation. It went like this…

Call-Girl: “Who do you plan on voting for in the November election, Barak Obama or John McCain?”
Me: “Are those my only two choices?”
Call-Girl: “Uh, yea.”
Me: “Well, if those are the only two whom I have to decided between, I will vote for John McCain, but for the actual election, I am considering other parties.”
Call-Girl: “Uh…Hillary Clinton has dropped out. And uh…Ron Paul has dropped out. So, uh…those are the only two candidates left.”
Me: “…Sure.”
Call-Girl: “Uh…bye.”

That PAC is getting there money's worth.

Ava's First Cereal

I suspect there is an disproportional relationship to the busyness of my life and the quantity of posting on my website. I have not added anything here in 3 weeks and just a few things in the last couple of months. Yet, it has not been because nothing has been happening, but the opposite that too much is happening.

The biggest change is from my work as this is my busiest time of the year. I am in the middle of my SAML interoperability test event which is my major focus of the year. We are almost half way through this test, and it has gone very well. Things have eased off slightly this week, but that can change in a moment.

Too much has occured in the last month to catch you up all at once. But I will try to do a little back tracking this week as we have done some fun things. Below is Ava's first attempt to eat rice cereal, a  solid (barely) for the first time.

News of late

I have not written much here in a while so I felt I need to publish something. So, here is just news of note in the Meadors household.

We visited Shannon's Aunt Jan and her husband Dan in Blacksberg, VA. It was a nice visit and we survied the 7 hour distance with 2 young kids.

Ava turned 4 months on Sunday. Then on Monday, the rolled over for the first time, from belly to back. She holds her head up very well. I need to get some video of that.

Jacob is still his fun loving self. Today at the YMCA pool, he swam for the first time. No swimmies or floatation devices. He did a doggy paddle to Shannon who was about 6 feet away. Shannon was very impressed. I can't wait to see him do it.

We are staying home this weekend. I plan on doing some outside jobs around the house on Saturday. Next Friday, Shannon and I are going to see the new Batman movie at the IMAX theater. I am so excited.

Visiting the Frist Center

Last Friday, Shannon and I had a date night, and I took her to the Frist Center in downtown Nashville. Frist Center is the major art museum in Nashville. I think I went to an art museum once in high school, but I barely recall it.

We toured two exhibits: Tiffany leaded glass lamps and the Color Field exhibits. I appreciated the Tiffany lamps, but I was very impressed by the Color Field works. The Color Field artists came around in the 50s and 60s and involved artists whose vision used power color displays on large canvas to exploit the various emotions we have from color. Seeing it up close you really are moved.

My favorite of the artists was Morris Louis. You can see some of his paintings here, but you can't really appreciate the brilliance of it from a small image file like this. He works were on huge 20x20 foot canvas, and the colors were so vivid and striking.

You can see the traces of their work in modern design shows where the designers routinely use small paintings, some they do themselves, of contrasting colors. But back in the 50s, this was ground breaking work.

Shannon and I both really enjoyed it, more than I thought we would. We got year memberships so we will go back again when some new exhibits come in.

My Life as a Play: Saying Your Sorry

Setting: Mommy has taken Jacob to Chuck E Cheese to play and eat pizza. While riding the Chuck E car that takes your picture, Jacob had to go pee very badly. He stands up but is unsure what to do since the ride is not over and no 3-year old boy leaves a ride early. Mommy, holding and feeding Ava Lauren her bottle, implores him to go the potty quickly. Instead, Jacob looks down as pee runs down his pants into the seat of the Chuck E car. 

Mommy [with slight anger]: Oh, Jacob. Why did you not go when I asked you earlier? I asked you three times if you had to go to the potty, and you said no.

Mommy [talking more to herself but aloud]: It is my fault. I knew you needed to go. I sorry I did not make you go to the bathroom.

Jacob [with complete sincerity and lack of personal responsibility]: Thank you Mommy for saying your sorry.

Our Church's Website

Go check out our church's new website: www.springfieldbaptistchurch.org. It got significantly revamped a few months back and the content is mostly filled in. We still need to work on some more pages, but I am very happy with what we have. Shannon worked hard on the children's section and it looks the best of any ministry. We have photos from our recent VBS on it now.

The site we had before was too tough to maintain and had too old of an architecture to be useful. This site made by SiteOrganic is very powerful and gives us the best looking website in Robertson County and one that I would put up against any church our size.

I was the point person in selecting and working with the design company so I am quite proud of this new site. It will help us in ministry.

Baby Dedication ceremony script

As I mentioned last week, we had Ava's baby dedication on Father's day. As children's minster, Shannon has had to come up with our baby dedication ceremony. We looked online for some resources for what to say, but she never found a script that she felt captured the spirit of baby dedication without being too lengthy. There are resources that speak of the layout of the service, but few that address what to say in detail but also in a concise manner. So, we made it up ourselves. All the declarations come directly from Scripture. You can never go wrong using the Bible. Here is our script we made, placed on the web to help any other struggling children's ministers for their baby dedication.

1. Shannon introduces the babies and their families. Pictures are shown on the screen as the pastor greets each family and presents them with a Bible and certificate.

2. Pastor explains the significance of Baby Dedication. He leads into the importance of God’s Word being a lamp to our feet and a light to our path as we seek to raise our children in accordance to God’s will.

3. Pastor directs the parents to read the following portions of scripture as a pledge to God as they dedicate their child and themselves to Him.

Parents Read Responsively, saying the pronoun (like “her” or “his”) according to the gender of their child :

O Lord Almighty, we give our child to You for all the days of her/his life. (I Samuel 1:11)

We will show her/him how to love God with all of her/his heart, soul and strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

We will teach her/him about the Lord, both at home and as we go, in the morning and in the evening. (Deuteronomy 6:7)

We will train her/him up in the way of the Lord so that she/he will not depart as she/he grows older. (Proverbs 22:6)

We thank God for our child. She/He is a blessing from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3)

4. Pastor addresses the church and charges them with the duty of helping these families in growing their children up in Christ. Then, the pastor asks the church to stand as they read the following portions of scripture as a pledge to help nurture these little ones.

Church Reads Responsively:

We will love you as God has loved us. (1 John 4:11)

We will encourage you to love others and do good deeds in the name of Christ. (Hebrews 10:24)

We will rejoice with you in times of rejoicing. (Romans 12:15)

We will help you through difficult times and carry your burdens. (Galatians 6:1-2)

We will pray for you throughout your life. (I Thessalonians 5:17)

You are a blessing from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3)

5. Pastor closes in a prayer of dedication looking forward to the day these children receive Jesus as Lord.

Father's Day

Last Sunday was of course Father's Day. Shannon had kept telling Jacob it was my "special day" which he parroted back in the from a question, "Daddy, is today your special day" about 20 times on Sunday. All this week he asks, "Daddy, is today your special day?"

At church that morning, we had Ava's baby dedication. A sweet couple in our church, Jerry and Betty Boyte, gave us a christening gown for Ava. Mom and Dad came down and saw the ceremony.

After my parents head back to their home, we went to the playground and took some pictures. You can see photos from the day, including the Boytes, below.

For me, these are some of the most precious photos we have ever taken. They seem to so capture the spirit of a family and the joy a father has with his family. As I was looking through them again yesterday, I wept at the joy they bring me. Being a Dad is the hardest thing I have ever done. I mess up more as a father in than any other position I have held. It is days like Sunday that fuel your resolve and commitment to keep going and giving it your best. It is one thing to just "be there" for the kids and another, much greater responsibility, to love them as Christ loves. I fail often at that goal, but I keep on pressing toward the goal because of day's like Father's Day.

Remembering Mom and Dad Varden

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of Shannon's parents. A friend of Shannon's, who herself lost her young child in a car accident, said you never get over it. Loss of a child is far worse than losing your middle aged parents, but the truth is deaths of close family members are ones we never get over. That is such a fallacy of grieving. That it is a period of your life for you to "get over" a death whatever that means. How do you get over losing 2 of the people that mean the absolute most to you. No, grieving is about integrating a terrible loss into your life the best you can so that you can keep on living. For some, it does not take long. For others, it takes much longer. For all of us, there is still pain, no matter the years in between, at the thought of their loss. We don't get over it, but we do go through it. This is a hard week for Shannon, but it is part of grieving. I can tell she is doing "better" than last year as God continues to minister to her, and she continues to put this loss into her life and keep living. Here are some things I wrote about Mom and Dad, their death and us living with that. We love them and remember them, always.

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/06/20/gary-and-joyce-varden-may-126-1950-june-11-2006/

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/12/11/verdict-in-trial-for-person-who-killed-shannons-parents/

http://kylemeadors.com/2007/12/12/reflections-on-the-verdict/

Beaches, Lauas and Life In-between

Our last 2 weeks have been quite hectic but very fun. For Memorial Day, we took a trip down to Gulf Shores with the kids. It is an eight hour trip with a newborn and a 3 year old. Just past the half way point on the way down, I thought to myself, "What are we thinking! Two kids in a car for this long." And the trip was definitely frustrating at times. Yet looking back, it was totally worth it. We had some great times on the beach with Jacob, and we got a pop-up cabana for Ava to stay in on the beach with us. Some real moments of Americana with your family at the beach and playing with your kids in the surf. Good times.

Then came VBS which is the highpoint of any children's ministry at a church. It was a great event with decisions for Christ and positive teaching and reinforcement of God's truth for our young people. Many visitors and unchurched families. The theme was tropical, Hawaiian. To conclude VBS, we have a Sunday night "Family Night" with a musical the children do and a dinner afterwards along with inflatable games for the kids to play on. We did a luau style dinner and it went over great. Lots of good energy in the crowd with people talking and laughing and being part of a community. So positive and encouraging and a great way to end the VBS.

Today, Shannon is crashing in bed all day to recover. Thursday we go to get her carcinoma spot fully removed. Wednesday is the 2-year anniversary of her parents' death. Like family vacations, life gives you some great moments coupled up next to tough moments. You have to celebrate the good to keep the bad from bringing you down. Life keeps on keeping on and we have to too until the Lord comes again and we get to dance in the sky with him.

{ gallery [GulfShores2008] }

Soda Can Disparity Injustice!

The Onion is a satirical online magazine which can often be quite hilarious. I found one of today's articles to be especially clever and funny considering the election year headlines you hear about a small minority holding the majority of the wealth. The headline speaks for itself. Read it and have a good laugh. My favorite line: "Members of this exclusive group come from exceedingly poor backgrounds and have access to outrageously low levels of education, which makes them much better prepared to reap the benefits of digging around in garbage."

Nation's Poorest 1% Now Controls Two-Thirds Of U.S. Soda Can Wealth

Don't forget Jacob

I naturally have written more about Ava in these last 2 months than my boy, but Jacob has had some noteworthy accomplishments. The most exciting is he is now potty trained. He was definitely on the late end of the spectrum, accomplishing it 3 months shy of his 4th birthday. But he has done it. We had lots of starts and stops for the last 18 months, but on this past Mother's Day weekend, everything clicked. He physiologically was able for some time, but there was not a willingness to follow through consistently. Now, we hear several times a day "I have to go potty" and off he goes. We are very proud and relived.  It also helps financially. I track everything in Quicken and have a category for Jacob's diapers and wipes. In the last 12 months, we have averaged $68 month on poop clean up. For his life, we have spent about $2500 on diapers related purchases.

Jacob continues to be "all boy" This past week I have had to remove 3 different splinters from him, and 5 ticks have been plucked this month. His little legs are a rainbow of colors from bruises and scrapes. He has remarkable energy, which does wear on you at times, but he is a very cool kid.

In the fall, he will be going to a 4-day/week preschool. Shannon has been talking about his elementary schooling which is approaching soon and what course do we take. Frankly, it took me off guard in considering how soon we have to make these decisions as they are not far off.

He just completed his first year of AWANA. He did very well with his Scripture memory and overall participation. I am proud of his love for the Church. Here are some pictures from the AWANA graduation. These are the Cubbies. Most of the kids are 4 or 5, but there are a couple still 3 like Jacob.

Ava Lauren is growing up

Ava had a check-up on Friday. She measured 12 lbs 4 oz (75% percentile), 22 inches (25-50th percentile) and head circumference of 16 inches (75th percentile) at 10 weeks. Fortunately, 10 weeks old newborn is one of those times in your life when you can be short, squat and big-headed but still considered adorable. I mean, look at these pictures. She is beautiful.

Charles F. Spees 12/12/28-05/08/08

My Uncle Charles died on Friday and was buried on Monday. I had been around my Uncle Charles my whole life, and he has always been the jovial, funny uncle. Making jokes and quick laughs. But as I read his obituary, heard some more stories and saw the Marine color guard present the flag and play "Taps" and observed the local VFW group there to give a 21 gun salute, I realized how much more there was to Uncle Charles. He served 4 campaigns in Korea. He as part of the Inchon landing and did street combat in Seoul. Bluntly, Uncle Charles had buddies killed next to him and he killed some Northern Koreans. Tough stuff. He never spoke much of it to his children or wife, and you can understand why. Watching the Marines present a flag to Aunt Mary and hearing "Taps" was very touching. It was the first funeral I have been to for a war veteran who actually saw combat. Thinking of what he and the others went through for our country was powerful.

Uncle Charles was also a star athlete back in high school and a Golden Gloves boxer. But I never thought of all this when Uncle Charles would visit and joke around with us. It is a good reminder that there is always more to our lives than what people see on the surface. People have depth to them, powerful memories and emotions buried deeper than the casual chit chat brings to surface. I believe this why the Bible strongly encourages hospitality and community. Only by talking to be people for some time do we begin to grasp the wholeness of their life and experiences. This knowledge brings forth appreciation and sympathy and understanding and love which ultimately brings us closer together.

I loved Uncle Charles and will miss him. I am saddened for his bride of 50 years, my Aunt Mary, and his three kids, one of whom, Kathy, is getting married next week. But I know he is at peace in Heaven with our Lord.

In a bittersweet way, funerals provide good opportunities to see extended family that we normally don't see much of. 5 of the 6 Meadors' siblings of my father's generation were there with several cousins and now 2nd cousins as we are having children of our own. Some pictures are below.

My Birthday and stuff

My birthday was yesterday and it was nice. Shannon got me ANOTHER gift, an electronic vocal trainer for your computer that helps you sing better. For those who have heard me sing, you know I need it. I love my wife so much. She rocks!

Yesterday was also Mom Varden's birthday which makes it a bittersweet day for our home, but she gets to celebrate her 58th birthday in Heaven.

At the end of March, Joshua Shepard was sentence for killing of Mom and Dad Varden and Claudia Huffman. The press release with details on his sentencing is below.

Joshua Shepard sentenced to state prison for killing three vacationers

 

Grafton County Attorney Rick St. Hilaire announced today that Joshua Shepard of Thornton, NH was sentenced by Judge James D. O'Neill III of Grafton County Superior Court to state for a period of three to twelve years.  The court also ordered Shepard to pay restitution in the amount of approximately $126,000 and revoked his driver’s license for a period of 21 years.

A jury convicted Shepard in November 2007 of three counts of negligent homicide.  Shepard killed three motorcyclists in Thornton, NH during the 2006 Motorcycle Week when he crossed the solid double yellow line on Route 49 and crashed into two men and two women, killing three of the four.  An eyewitness saw Shepard driving in the wrong lane when he struck the motorcycle riders.  The jury also found Shepard guilty of misdemeanor vehicular assault for causing injury to the motorcyclist who survived the crash.

“We remain especially saddened by the deaths of three visitors to our state because a driver failed to stay in his own lane, “ St. Hilaire remarked.  The sentence handed down by the court shows that there are significant consequences when a motorist commits negligent homicide.  The law makes sure that all of us can drive to pick up our kids, get to work, or take a Sunday drive without the threat of being injured or killed by an oncoming driver.”

Assistant County Attorney James Vara explained that Shepard’s prior history should be considered by the court when sentencing.  Vara told the court that Shepard had been declared an habitual motor vehicle offender in March 2004 by the NH Division of Motor Vehicles.  Approximately six months after Shepard got his license back in December 2005, Shepard crashed into the four motorcyclists on June 11, 2006.  Vara informed the sentencing judge that Shepard’s motor vehicle record included prior accidents and convictions for reckless operation and leaving the scene of an accident.

NH State Police Troop F investigated the case, and Victims Inc. provided additional support.

My 33rd Birthday Party

We celebrated my 33rd birthday this weekend. It was also special as it was the first time the 3 Meadors grandkids were together. Mom and Dad got a big kick out of seeing all of their babies together.

My wife gave me the coolest and most unexpected gift in a Nintendo Wii. Totally caught offguard as they are tough to find. We got some great pictures of Shannon playing Wii Tennis. My parents got me a couple of baseball stat books and a very nice flashlight which I sorely needed. My sister and brother-in-law got me a Wal-mart gift card to download music from my MP3 player which I use when I am jogging.

At church that night, Jacob sang in his little church choir and did a great job. As Aunt Jenn and Uncle Wes had to leave before the performance, Jacob gave them a solo of the songs he would be singing which you can also see below.

Just a great day all round. My actual birthday is Tuesday, but this was a great way to celebrate.

Ava Lauren at 1 Month (sort of)

We got "1 month" pictures of Ava this month (she was actually 5 1/2 weeks at the time, but who is counting). Here are a few of my favorites. We are getting some photos to give to close family, but if you want a digital picture of any of these, email me and I can send it to you in the original, higher pixel size. The first one with me holding Ava Lauren in my hands is my favorite. We have one of Jacob at 1 month in the same pose, and a 8x11 black and white of it is in our bedroom. Of course, this one of Ava will join it.

We are still alive!

It is a good illustration of life with a newborn and 3 year old that I have only made 2 posts in the last month here on the site when I typically do 2-3 a week. Things are well with the caveat of "well" as in what you expect with a newborn, even a very calm one, and a 3 year old, especially a very active one. Last night I was up from 1:30-5:00 with Ava. She was not crying or fussy, but she got her main waking period of about 4 hours aligned with our night time. It is just how it is sometimes.

Jacob also got up last night around 2:00 AM which is reflective of his hyper metabolism and activity level. I was feeding Ava, and as he came into the living room rubbing his eyes I just motioned to our bedroom and said "Go get Mommy". Shannon laid down with him for about a minute or two and he was back a sleep.

A funny story. We got Jacob down around 8:30 PM last night. Later, we are in the living room around 10:00 PM and we hear a loud thump come from Jacob's room. After a moment, Shannon said "it sounded like he fell out of bed but that can't be it because I don't hear any crying." I went in his room and sure enough he was on the floor still sleeping. When he sleeps, he sleeps. When he doesn't, which is most of the time, he really doesn't.

We got professional pictures made of Ava a few weeks back, and I will put some of them out on the site this week. Heck, I might even do it at 3:00 AM tonight if I am up, but I hope not.

Basal Cell Carcinoma

Last week Shannon had a biopsy done on a festering spot on her back. The results came back that it was basal cell carcinoma. It is a skin cancer, but one that is very treatable and typically does not spread. It is much better than finding melanoma, but it is something we need to go to the dermatologist in order to get the fully removed. Our family doctor is setting up the appointment, but it should be sometime this month.

Ava Lauren - 1 Month

Been a busy last few weeks. You may not know this but raisin' these kids takes a fair amount of your time.

My little princess is one month old. Her lifestyle (sleep 15 hours/day, eat 7 times/day, etc.) has not changed too much since she was born, but she is more regular with her schedule and I think we have helped that process by staying regimented. Our plan has been to feed her every 3 hours during the day, even if she is not showing signs of hunger. This keep her feed so she needs less at night and thus encourages her to sleep through the night as long as possible. One tool that has helped us in this is charting her behavior so we don't fall behind in the feeding or failing to recognize she may be a little low on sleep. We have a Word document that we printout for recording her times for sleep, eating and diaper change. I even put the values for this last week into a spreadsheet to look at her patterns. If you know me, this regiment makes sense, and you may think it is just for overly analytical people like myself, but Shannon, who is of a different mental bent than I, really likes it as well. When wondering when she last fed or slept, we go to the schedule chart. You can see the template we use here along with my little pattern analysis.

Ava is physically doing well and seems quite content for a new born. She is 50% percentile in all categories. She is definitely calmer than Jacob was, but Jacob's motor has always run high. Now, she typically sleeps 4+ hours at night, usually from 11:00ish to 3:00ish and even then will go back to sleep quickly after being fed.

Shannon is tired of course, but she is doing great. I am so proud of her. Jacob loves Ava Lauren, but he has been noticeably jealous of the time we no longer can give to him because of Ava's demands or the fact we are just tired. So he acts out more to get negative attention which to him is better than no attention. However on the plus size, he has become much better at playing by himself. He is very cute when gets his big imagination going.

Lots of questions from people on her name. What are we going to call her? The poll favors "Ava" so we know what our friends and family think. I lean toward Ava but often say Ava Lauren as I think is it fitting of a princess, my term of endearment for my little girl. Shannon is still undecided for a long term name but generally calls her Ava. We are so funny. We don't worry about it. We love our little girl, will provide for her needs and will teach her the truth of God's wonderful Gospel. She will be fine. No one winds up in therapy because their parents struggled with calling her by her first name or middle name.

Below are some pictures from the first month. I love my little princess with all my heart. She is so, so precious.

{ gallery [Ava1stMonthCollage] }

Resemblance of Jacob and Ava

Shannon and I definitely see the resemblance between Jacob and Ava and others have said so as well. Here are some pictures of both of them from their first week of life in similar poses.

Slideshow of Ava Lauren's Homecoming

Here are the pictures of the day we brought Ava Lauren home. We threw her a birthday party and let Jacob give her presents. He has been a very good brother.

{ gallery [AvaComingHome] }

Slideshow of Ava Lauren's Hospital Stay

Here are the pictures from the hospital, post delivery. My parents, Shannon's brother Erik and his family, the Leavell children, intern Jenni and ones with the proud parents are included.

{ gallery [AvaHospitalStay] }

Slideshow of Ava Lauren's Birth

Below is a picture slideshow of Ava Lauren's birth. These are ALL the pictures we snapped while we were in delivery so be aware there is more than a few bloody photos.

{ gallery [AvaLaurenBirth] }

Ava Lauren Meadors - First 24 hours

I have come home for a quick breakfast and shower. Ava Lauren is a day old. She is the best looking 1 day old around! It may have been hard to see in the pictures yesterday, but she is very pretty for a newborn baby. She a very nice skin tone without any blotches or discoloration. She opens her eyes very often for some one who has just recently departure from the womb. She is just so precious and beautiful.

We had pretty good night. Ava Lauren is latching and nursing well. Not much milk comes in the first 24 hours or so, but you do get colostrum which is great for the baby. She is getting milk as she had a spit up last night and several wet diapers/bowel moements. Jacob did not have a good suckling reflex so those first days in the hospital were quite tramatic. So far, this has been a easier hospital stay even if my pull out bed is not fit for prison use. Shannon has not slept much but really has not be tired. Given that she got up at 4:30 AM yesterday, had a baby but just about 6 hours sleep since then, I expect she will crash hard today.

We plan on coming home on Sunday. Mom and Dad are taking Jacob back to their house through Monday. I am off next week to help with the family so I should get several more photos up on the site.

I have also added a new poll. Ava Lauren Meadors is her name, but we are still not sure on what to call her. Do we call her by her first name, her middle name or both? Do we pronounce Lauren like "Lor-en" or "Lau-ren"? Shannon and I are still deciding, but I would love for you to weigh in.

Thank you all for your prayers. We are so blessed.

Ava Lauren Meadors

Born at 8:20 AM on Thursday, March 6th in Northcrest Medical Center in Springfield, Tennessee. She weighed 7lbs 2ozs and was 20 1/4 inches long. She is beautiful like her mother, and both her and Mommy are doing well. Jacob was very intrigued with his new sister and very sweet with her. Grandparents are tickled. It was a blessed day.

Below are some pictures of Ava Lauren and us. The last picture is hyperlinked to and not shown as it is the very first picture of her as she was pulled from her Mother's stomach (Shannon has a Caesarean section) so it is quite bloody. Some may find it squeamish so this allows them not to see it. But if you are inclined, please do. I am still amazed when I look at that photo.





First Picture (kind of bloody)

What a last few weeks and what a week to come!

In the last 3 weeks, I have traveled to DC for a day meeting but been stranded in Detroit because of a delayed flight due to inclement weather, I have taken some vacation and upgraded (i.e. spent money and moved furniture) Jacob's room to a "big boy's room", got rid of naps (most days) for Jacob and gone to an earlier bedtime, I got a stomach bug and was out sick for 2 days, passed that same bug on to Shannon, Jacob got a different virus and actually got sick (Jacob is a very healthy boy), got Ava Lauren's room "mostly" finished, worked feverishly to get some work for DGI done before I take off for a 7 days after my daughter is born and had Jacob go through a major rebellious/defiant period to test our patience/discipline/wisdom to the limit.

I am worn out typing it.

But it is a good life and I am blessed. I believe my rededication to daily Bible readings had helped my spiritual life and helped me through this time. I am eagerly awaiting Ava Lauren's birth. She should be here around 8:30 AM this Thursday, March 6. I can't wait to hold my daughter. Wow. A daughter. It truly won't be real until I hold her in my arms and call her my little girl.

As noted above, Jacob is in some transition. We moved our day bed downstairs and he now has it in his room with his old crib in Ava's room. It has worked well and I believe he is sleeping better with the more room and better mattress. We decided this was a good time to go away from naps which he had begun to tremendously fight us on, much more than he use to. Now we have an earlier bed time and he generally sleeps 11 hours at night. We still do a nap every 3 or 4 days to help him catch up on any missed sleep.

In lieu of naps, we do make him do a "quiet time" where he is to stay quietly in his room and play or read books or even sleep if he wants for about an hour. We believe this is a good idea but it is a work in progress. He often comes out of his room and wants to play with us. At the end of the hour, his room is typically a mess. Yesterday, he was having a rough time and kept coming out and I had to get on to him. After about the 4th time, I scolded him pretty hard about leaving his room and sent him back. The hour was up about 10 minutes later and I went down to tell him. Below are the pictures I snapped when I came into his room. It was such a sweet picture. I love him so much.

Look at my handsome nephew - Noah Wesley Hagerman

My little sister Jennifer, my little sister, has a baby. I know when you are are 28 and married that is what you do but it is hard to believe. She is my little sister and it is a little shocking. I still have the image burned into my mind of when I walked into their room and saw her holding little Noah, born on the night of the lunar eclipse, Wednesday February 20th. But it is also very wonderful. It was so sweet to see them both as we walked in and also see the joyous father Wes. I do remember those first days after Jacob was born and the pride that beemed forth from me and I see it in Wes also. Jacob was very sweet and gentle with Noah. Encourages me that he will be a good brother to our daughter due March 6th - as of now it is Ava Lauren Meadors. Her and Noah will be a few weeks apart.

Personal Challenges #3: Daily Bible Reading in Common Book of Prayer

In the last few years, I have been lax in my daily Bible reading. Partly due to me making a point to read deeper for longer periods of time rather than shorter daily readings. Basically, when I went to read, I wanted to read longer and deemphasize the shorter readings. I realize short daily readings are not exclusive to less frequent but longer readings, and I am not trying to justify not doing a daily reading. It is a little more complex than that.

Starting about 6 years ago, a little before I met Shannon, I became very cognizant of the idea of being a disciple of Christ and really obeying Him in my actions. I sense the church, or at least my church experience, was focusing too little on the growth of a Christian with too much emphasis on programs and not tools for personal spiritual growth. I decided to focus my life through that prism of discipleship. I reexamined all that I was doing and considered if it was making me more of a disciple or just a busier Christian.

I had the habit of daily Bible reading, and it had shown much fruit in my walk. However, I got to a point where I saw my life hitting stumbling blocks in spiritual areas and not growing as I once had been. I considered my daily reading a discipline and asked myself "Is this the best way to have God's Word change me?" I decided I needed to focus on some new disciplines for a while. One of those was exchanging the daily reading, which had begun to be part chore and part prideful, pat-on-the-back routine, for deeper, less frequent readings.

It was also a time in my life of where I was struggling to manage my time anyway. With Jacob in the mix, my time seemed to dry up and so did my energy. Along with the added responsibilities, I got a bit lazy. Put all of this together - new spiritual focus, new lifestyle and a greater eagerness to veg out my stressed mind - my daily readings stopped.

I decided last year I was ready to change my disciplines again. Like before, I felt my growth as a disciple had stagnated and needed a new dose of spiritual disciplines to get out of the rut. In looking at my life, I believed now was the time to recommit to daily readings. Since Advent, I have been doing daily readings in the Common Book of Prayer. I spoken before of how much I love of the Episcopal church and its worship, and the CBP is at the top. It is a wonderful collection of daily office readings. Each daily reading has assigned passages of text from through out the Bible. One passage each from Old Testament, Gospels and New Testament (minus Gospels) and a two passages (one for morning reading/one for night reading) from Psalms. The daily passages typically take you through one book at a time, but sometimes they break off and select passages from the different sections which corroborate a common idea like Christ's atonement foreshadowed in the Old Testament, shown in the Gospel and explained in the New Testament.

The CBP has readings for a Year 1 and Year 2. You choose the year based on the calendar. For example, I am in Year 2 because this year's Advent started in an even number year. Of course, next year I will be in Year 1. Year 1 and Year 2 readings will take you through the entire Bible.

So far, I have only missed one daily reading which was due to being stranded in Detroit overnight on the scheduled day trip for the GSA meeting without my Bible (or change of clothes).  While I am not getting deep readings into the Scripture, I am see themes exposed in Scripture and get a chance to read books I typically would not read by choosing on my own volition.

Happy 6th Engagement Anniversary to Shannon and I

6  years ago on the day after Valentine's Day 2002 I proposed to Shannon Varden. Leading up to the day, I had left little clues here and there about the announcement. For example, I put a note under her desk and had her friend call her and say she had a feeling there was something important under her desk. The note said something about seeing you at the Macaroni Grill on Friday, the 15th. I chose Macaroni Grill because this is where we had our first date. The note was a little cryptic but had a hint that something was coming. We "knew" we were going to get engaged, and I wanted her friends and family to be a part of it as well.

While my romantic skills were good, I still had much to learn about women and marriage. Since I knew I would propose on the 15th, I thought I would down play Valentine's Day to somehow make it more of a surprise so no flowers or anything on her first Valentine's Day with her future husband. Needless to say, it did not go over as I planned. I have since learned all "big" days need to be celebrated.

I love you Shannon Varden, now and forever.

More College Basketball

My trip to GSA was successful and quite productive. However, the weather in DC caused my flight to be delayed and thus I missed my connecting flight in Detroit. I spent Tuesday night in a Super 8 in Detroit and caught a morning flight to Nashville on Wednesday morning. Glad to be home.

My favorite college basketball writer is Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated. Every Wednesday he does a college basketball mail bag and answers reader's questions. Last week he made a little comment at the end of "The Bag" about sending in good questions which I could tell he was saying "the last few weeks I have had slim pickin's and need some better material." So I thought of a good question and sent it to him.

As you can see here, he answered it. His response is probably the same answer I would have given, but I didn't ask it so much to seek insight as much as to support my favorite college basketball writer and gain a little notoriety out of it. This is the second question I have sent Wahl and got answered in his mailbag, the other question was back in 2006.

2 good basketball observations-Part 1

My favorite spectator sport is college basketball. I recently read two articles which I thought made good observations about the sport I closely follow.

The first was about Bob Knight's retiring. Ken Pomeroy has made a name for himself in the last few years through astute and insightful analysis of college basketball statistics. His ratings site has all the numbers you can imagine presented in a "pace-free" way. (Basically, most stats you see on ESPN and CBS are "pace" influenced". For example, Team A plays very fast, generally shooting early in the shot clock. As a result, they and their opponent have more possessions per game and generally score lots of points. ESPN/CBS show how "good" offensively they are by using points per game. But because they are taking many more shots, Team A may not necessarily be a good offensive team. It is a better means to evaluate a team's offensive and defensive skill by factoring all stats by possessions used to achieve them, as Pomeroy does, rather than per game, as ESPN/CBS/MSM does.)

Pomeroy made a good point about Knight that I have not heard before. He spoke of how Knight's teams in 70s and first part of the 80s, the ones that gained him influence and praise for his basketball acumen as well as his 3 national championships, were about getting the ball to the basket for close shots or getting fouled and shooting at the line. This was sound strategy but the game changed with the introduction of the 3-pointer. Now, you could step out just a few feet from a typical mid-range jumper and make a shot which gave you 50% more points (3 vs 2).

As quickly became apparent, teams had to incorporate 3-point shooting into their offense. The average team 3-point shooting percentages, typically 35%-38%, were too good to only settle for 2-point shots which teams rarely exceeded 50% per team. You do the math and see how effective 3-point shooting is for modern teams.

However, Knight never adjusted. He stayed with the same system and ignored the 3-pointer. Pomeroy uses one game as an illustration. In 2005, Knight's Texas Tech team advanced to the Sweet 16. It would be his last real shot at making the Final Four, but they ran into a team, West Virginia, who heavily used the 3-pointer. Look at this chart from 2005. It shows the percentage of 3-pointers a team takes compared to their overall shots. West Virginia was 9th in the nation with nearly half their shots 3-pointers, and Texas Tech next to last in the nation. Texas Tech lost.

More than any article I have seen, this shows from strictly a basketball coaching point of view that Knight was a little overvalued as a coach. He was obviously great in one era, but it diminishes his coaching legacy that he never adjusted to the new rules. The temptation is to tie this stubbornness in basketball strategy in with his off the court actions , but ultimately we can't say that with 100% certainly what goes on inside him or any of us. However, he  deserves some criticism of his basketball coaching for not adjusting to a new world (3-pointer was introduced in 1987) that he spent almost half of his coaching career in.

My comments on Knight when far longer than I thought so I will talk about the other article I found interesting in a second part later this week. Tomorrow, I am off to Washington DC to talk about SAML with GSA. Maybe we can find some more acronyms to use as well.

Personal Challenges #2: Focus on Quality Time with Jacob

Another one of my personal challenges this year is to be deliberate and consistent in spending quality time with Jacob. Through these first couple of years, you spend so much time on the care part of rearing your child. You do interact and play with him but the "play" is very light. It is all important, from the day he his born, but it is not what I consider quality time.

I consider quality time to be what shapes his character and spirit. Time that begins to mold him in the man I hope him to be. In early times, his attention span and memory is so small that you mostly entertain and provide mental stimulation through games and interaction. But he is not, I believe, learning and observing deeper truths about your deep love for him and character traits like selflessness and patience.

As we are into the 3s, I notice much change in my son. I see his mimicing of Shannon and me in what he says and what he does, both good and bad things. I see his character and the innate sinfulness he inherited from his spiritual father Adam. I know this is a time to be conscious that Jacob is forming his values and beliefs, and thus, I want to make sure he learns the right values and beliefs from Shannon and me.

He is too young to give too many talks concerning these truths so instead they need to be modeled. I believe the best way to do that is with quality time where he gets the best of Dad as Dr. Robert Lewis spoke of his best memories of his father. Time where he can see my love him and then associated the values I am demonstrating as those which he should embody as well.

For the last month on Thursday nights, I have been taking Jacob to the YMCA to swim in their indoor pool and then go to McDonald's later to play. He loves the pool and the games we will play. It is both funny and a little scary to be with him in the men's room changing. Jacob is at the age where is 1.) very observant, 2.) very loud and 3.) completely tactless. He will see the other men changing and blurt out "Daddy, that man is naked. Look, he does not have any clothes on" or "I see that man's butt" or "He has a big belly." I don't know what he is going to say next.

This is a challenge because it is easy for me to go into provider mode with Jacob and just focus my energies on providing his needs such as getting him to bed and fixing breakfast. Those are very important of course, but he also needs time just with me where I give him my complete attention. It is a challenge because I get tired from my other responsibilities, especially work, and want to zone out. I need this personal time, but I also have to have the discipline to push everything else aside and get Jacob the best of me.

New Poll - Most miles put on a car

Sometime on Monday, my car will pass the 100,000 mile mark. This 2000 Corolla is only the 4th car I have ever own. I started driving with a 86 Mecury Capri that I drove through my freshman year of college. Then I had a 94 Corolla through college and when I moved to Dallas. In November 2000, I bought my current Corolla. After Jacob was born, we bought a 2005 Highlander which already has nearly 70,000 miles on it.

My 2000 Corolla was a program car with about 10,000 miles on it when I bought it. Technically, I personally have not put 100,000 miles on this car, but still passing the 100,000 mark is significant. The 94 Corolla was also a program car but I only got to 80,000 with it. In celebration of my little Corolla's special mileage birthday, I have a new poll to the right. How many miles have you ever put on a single car?