Staycations and Fireworks

With the current recession, it seems like taking a "staycation" is one of the hip things to do. Ideally, I think that it is a fiscally frugal way for families to save their money by spending their vacation time at home enjoying local attractions. Since staycations are in vogue, Sharon and I decided to have a mini-staycation of our own over the 4th of July. For us, it gave us the excuse to buy annual passes to Stone Mountain Park, which is only about ten minutes from our house. Since we've bought the passes a little over a week ago, we've already been three times - and are excited about trying some of the other things there. Sharon is especially excited about the unlimited use of the mini-golf course, and I'm looking forward to taking Caleb out on the pedal boats.

One of the things that Stone Mountain Park is most famous for is their laser-show, which we watched our first evening there. We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that Caleb doesn't have the aversion to fireworks that we feared he would have. The 4th of July fireworks show at Stone Mountain was pretty spectacular, and we really appreciated the fact that Caleb seemed to enjoy it as well. Although we had so many fun experiences that we could have photographed at Stone Mountain, Sharon and I have been pretty negligent in taking Caleb pictures. However - we did take a picture of Caleb during his first visit to CiCi's pizza - and his dad was really proud that he was able to get his money's worth at the all-you-can-eat buffet (which was pretty easy since he was free). Hopefully, there will be more pictures next time, as it is has been exciting to see him grow and learn new things every day.

Caleb cleaning his plate at CiCi's Pizza

Though this video doesn't quite show it - Caleb actually is pretty fascinated by our cuckoo clock

TeachBeyond Orientation

The past three weeks have been really busy for me as I prepared for our misson's orientation that I facilitated. The orientation for our new missionaries was from June 13-20 in Minneapolis, and it was the first orientation that Sharon had not attended since 2005. This time, I was on my own as Sharon and Caleb stayed at home - though I am glad to say that the week went really well and that it was an encouraging and informative time for our the 20 new missionaries that attended. Our mission has been in a major time of transition the past year, and one of the biggest pieces of that is the name change from Janz Team Ministries to TeachBeyond. If you're interested in hearing more about the direction that our organization is moving, I encourage you to check out our new website at http://www.teachbeyond.org/. Though it is definitely exciting to be a part of the organization during this time, it is also a bit overwhelming thinking of all the changes that need to come alongside the changing of the name and sharpening of our focus.

While I was off in Minneapolis, Sharon and Caleb had a great time with our friend Cari who visited for a few days from Boston. I was especially excited to notice the projects around the house they had accomplished while I was away. Though I was a bit scared that Caleb would forget who I was after being away so long - I was pleasantly surprised to see that he actually did recognize me when I returned. Also while I was away, Sharon got to celebrate the engagement of her brother, who flew in from LA to propose to his fiance Emily, who lives in the Atlanta area. They've set a wedding date of January 2, and Sharon, Caleb, and I are all honored to be a part of the wedding party. Caleb was secretly hoping to be asked to be a groomsmen, but I think that he won't be too disappointed to be serving as the ring bearer instead. Anyways, following are a few pictures of Caleb as well as our recent orientation group.

Caleb's antidote to the Georgian heat

Always willing to help lick the spoon

Caleb's newest favorite perch on top of the hope chest

TeachBeyond New Staff Orientation 2009

Visit from Nama and Pap-pap

This post is definitely long overdue, since my parents visited over memorial day weekend. However, things have been so busy since that I'm just now posting some pictures from their visit. The visit was definitely an exciting surprise as we just found out they would be coming the week before memorial day. Though we were very excited they were able to rent a minivan to bring a bunch of stuff for us down from Clearfield - the 12 hour drive convinced them that they will be looking into flying down for their next visit.

We really enjoyed the opportunity to show our new home off - and the pending arrival of my dad (AKA Mr. Project) really spurred us on to get moving once again. During their visit, they helped us tame our front yard as well as paint the ceiling in our formal dining/living room. Within a week of their departure, Sharon and I finished up the job - and you can see the final results below. We're super excited now that our family room and formal dining/living room are completely done. All that is remaining to finish in the kitchen is the refinishing of the cabinet doors (which may end up being a bigger project than we had hoped).

In addition to the weekend filled with projects, we also had time to have a memorial day cook-out with Sharon's parents, which was also the first that Caleb got to spend time with both sets of grandparents at the same time. Caleb was really excited to spend time with his Nama and Pap-pap, and it was really helpful that he had seen them less than a month before up in PA as well. Seeing Caleb interact with them gets us super excited about our family beach trip to Ocean City, NJ in August - as I know that Caleb will have so much fun there. We actually already bought our plane tickets to fly up for the beach, as my parents' trip down here was a good reminder of how long that drive would be. It is hard to believe that the Summer is in full swing already, as April and May just seemed to fly by. Before we know it, I imagine that August will be upon us and we'll be making final plans for Ocean City.

Nama and Pap-pap with Caleb outside of our house (with Sharon waving in the background)

Caleb with both sets of grandparents

Caleb enjoying the new dresser that Nama and Pap-pap brought down

Caleb modeling the overalls that Sharon used to wear when she was his age

The final product: our formal living/dining room

The paint color we put on the walls is actually called "brown sugar" - though there is a mysterious amount of green tint that comes out depending on the lighting

Caleb rocking out to Phil Collins

Caleb's Mother's Day Present

So for this past Mother's Day, Caleb decided to give his mom a super special present. It wasn't flowers, it wasn't candy, it wasn't a nice dinner out. Rather Caleb decided to give his mommy break for Mother's Day and allow her to go to Destin, Florida for a weekend while he stayed with his grandma. Well...I guess I can't give Caleb all the credit for the idea, since the main reason we were going that weekend was to meet up with my college friend. Nevertheless, it was very considerate of Caleb to agree to be away from his mommy for that time, especially since we had yet to spend a night apart from him. The weekend ending up going fabulous, as we had a great time in Florida and Caleb barely even realized we were gone. When we came home, he was excited to see Sharon - though he looked at me with a puzzled expression as he tried to remember just who that strange guy was. All in all, I'm glad that we were able to take advantage of this opportunity and am especially thankful that my mother-in-law was so willing to Caleb-sit.

Apart from learning to be a bit more independent from his mom for a weekend, Caleb has also been developing some other neat skills. He has developed quite an attachment to the plastic golf clubs we found for him at a yard sale - and he is even learning to hit a ball with them rather than just using them to whack his mom or dad (or himself). Also, he has become quite the mimicker of his mom, as he is already quite meticulous about recycling and cleaning. Though we've been slackers in taking pictures, we do have the one video below showing Caleb's new-found housekeeping skills.

The Big 3-0

I probably should have written this post last week, but I've found it difficult in my old age to even remember that I have a blog that I should be updating. The numerous aches and pains that I'm now encountering on a daily basis make it difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning - let alone type on a keyboard. Also, my vision has gotten so bad that it is hard to read the words that I'm typing - and I've encountered some difficulty in remembering my password for the blog as well. I'm actually just getting to make this post now, as my failing hearing made it impossible to respond to Sharon's numerous requests to write a post about my 30th birthday. But now, here I am to let you all know that I still don't feel a day older than 29 (apart from the minor issues alluded to above).

For my birthday weekend, my good friend Lucas honored me by throwing a impressive party - complete with fabulous hors d'oeuvres, a gourmet meal, an extravagant cake, and lots of music and dancing for the roughly 200 guests. Although the party was technically a "wedding reception" for Lucas and his new bride Katie - it still was a fun way to spend my 30th birthday weekend. Another fun part of Lucas and Katie getting married on my birthday weekend was that the wedding was in the Philadelphia area - and we got to see many family and friends while there. It was a real privilege to serve as a groomsman in Lucas' wedding - as we have had many, many great adventures together over the years. I'm especially excited for him as he begins this new adventure of marriage with his lovely wife Katie. Following are two videos from the weekend, as I'll blame the lack of pictures on that ever-declining memory :)

Caleb really enjoyed his time with Jen, our good friend and co-RA from Black Forest Academy, who quickly developed a bond with Caleb by sharing her pizza.

Caleb's empathy over his dad now being officially over the hill was quickly eclipsed by his obvious enjoyment of the birthday lunch.

Easter Highlights

Hey everyone...it is me...Sharon. I know I never get on, but I just wanted to pass on some fun Easter pics and say hi. (Well, Mike added the pictures for me!) We had a great time with my family yesterday and ate way more than we should have:) I hope that you all had a super Resurrection Sunday and a great time celebrating with family and friends.

This is my super cute son dressed like a little man. Thanks Nama for his sweet outfit:) To all who know our dear friend Seth; we think Caleb looks like a baby version in this outfit!

Caleb having a happy Easter with Grandma...she kept sneaking him whip cream!

Awh...the two precious men in my life.



Caleb having loads of fun with his Easter basket. He thoroughly enjoyed throwing the plastic eggs as if they were balls. This video reminds me of the little plastic aliens in the movie Toy Story:)

This video is dedicated to Nama. While on the phone with Mike's mom today Caleb kept running and jumping on the pillow pile and then laughing out loud so I tried to capture the experience for her and anyone else out there who loves jumping in pillow piles!

1-800-222-1222

I'm sure most of you parents can guess what this blog entry is going to be about from seeing that phone number. Sharon and I had the "exciting" experience of calling it (the poison control hotline) for the first time this past week. As new homeowners, we've been spending lots of time painting various rooms in our house, and Caleb decided he wanted in on the action as well. As you can see from the video we've posted below, he was initially just content to "play" paint. However, the novelty of that soon wore off and he decided to move on to the real stuff. We've always been really careful at putting the lids back on the paint when Caleb is around - but we failed to take into account his ability to pry the lid off of the paint can with a big nylon cooking spoon that we let him play with. In the few moments that my back was turned to him - he was able to open the lid, dip his spoon in the can, and immediately smear the white paint all over his face and chest. Fortunately, we were able to catch him before he ingested too much of it, as we all know that he eats just about anything. Just to be safe we went ahead and called a guy at poison control. After a 30 second conversation where he made eating latex paint sound as safe as slurping down a cup of milk - we were both reassured that he was going to be alright. It is now four days later and he's seems to have had no ill effects, so we're considering we might as well let him paint with us from now on.

Other than that minor mishap with the paint, things have been moving steadily ahead with the house. We're just about done with the family room, and the kitchen is all completed except for the cabinet doors (which is a pretty big project). We're starting to get settled into the community as well and Sharon has already gotten to put her cleaning and organizing skills to good use by helping a local Burundi family. With March Madness winding down -I figure I should now admit that Sharon once again blew me out of the water in our bracket predictions for the third year in a row. At least I still have her number in Settlers of Catan. Also, we have been meaning to send a picture of Caleb into Grove City for the Alumni magazine - but keep forgetting to do it. When we finally got around to taking it, Caleb of course refused to sit still or give us a normal smile. We ended up with these three pictures, and would appreciate any opinions on which would be the best to share.


Caleb painting

Grove City Picture #1 (my favorite)

Picture #2 (Sharon's favorite)

Picture #3 (Caleb's favorite)

Ode to The Sippy Cup

The sippy cup - what an amazing invention. So simple, yet so useful in preventing gallons of spilled milk and juice. So creative, yet so practical for little kiddos. Though the internet, the automobile, and electricity are pretty cool inventions - I think that the creation of a cup that could be turned upside down without spilling is right on up there. Caleb's preferred sippy cup is even more amazing in that it is a Nuby Sippy Cup with the straw, which means that he doesn't even have to exert the energy to lift the cup up at all in order to drink. I mean really - how did toddlers survive before the sippy cup?

Before I was a parent, I always thought how strange it was that parents can get so excited about the coolest and most convenient baby items. You will hear me get a bit excited when I talk about our cool, lime green stroller - but I must admit that in terms or my own personal benefit, nothing compares to the sippy cup. Some other baby items provide me the indirect benefit of Caleb's happiness or satisfaction leading to my own. Yet the sippy cup is one of the few things that really benefits me directly. At first, I was a little skeptical of drinking from one - until the day came when I was dying of thirst and all we had was Caleb's sippy cup with us. Since that moment when I first sucked that delicious watered-down apple juice thorough that plastic straw, there has been no going back. Juice just tastes better when it comes from a sippy cup. Even if the same perfect blend of 66.7% water and 33.3% juice is produced in a glass mug or regular standard cup, it just doesn't taste as good then if it came from a sippy cup. Although my new-found fondness for the sippy cup has been exciting for me, Caleb doesn't seem to see the benefit of having to share his drink with another. Maybe the time has come for me to just get my own, and with my birthday coming up next month - maybe I'll get lucky.

Not only are they so useful - they're also so stylish as well

Caleb learning valuable lessons about sharing

Caleb's First Shoes

One day after I flew up to Philadelphia for work, Caleb had another landmark experience in his life: buying his first shoes (well actually I guess he wasn't technically the one doing the buying). I always thought that buying shoes for a baby would be a fairly simple process because it's not like he cares if they're stylish or anything and they only fit for a few months. However, after our first Target shoe-shopping trip for Caleb in mid-February, I realized that finding shoes for him would be a little trickier. You see, Caleb is "blessed" with what we refer to as very "meaty" feet. That is to say - they're not so much long and slender as they are just super fat and wide. We found that out the hard way as we tried to cram his feet into standard sized shoes at Target that we just assumed would fit based on the length of his feet. After 15 minutes of screaming and fussing every time we tried to find a good fit at Target - we gave up on the shoe idea for a few weeks.

However, as the weather started to improve, we realized that we would just have to bite the bullet and go the local Stride Rite store to find his custom-fit shoes. Sharon's parents were excited to buy Caleb's first shoes, so they had a fun trip to the mall the day after I left for Philadelphia. As you can see from the pictures' below, he really enjoyed wearing shoes once we were able to find his correct size, which is 5 EXTRA WIDE. It is fun to be able to have him walk around in stores now rather than always having to lug him around, yet now we also have to keep a closer eye on him since he has no qualms about running away from his parents.

The same day that Caleb got his first shoes, we also had a rare winter event: a snowstorm in Atlanta. Since I was in Philadelphia, I missed out on all the fun of watching southerners try to get around in the snow. To add insult to injury, as I was trying to figure out how much snow we were going to get in the Philly area - the weatherman would make a point of saying (with extreme excitement and amusement): "And it looks like they're going have some serious snow in Atlanta!" The one good thing about the storm was that we really did get a good six inches of snow up in Philly and I was able to go sled-riding with my nieces Ella and Catherine while there. Another highlight of the trip was the introduction by Ella (and my sister Megan) to the wonderful world of Webkinz. I also got my fill of Guitar Hero while there and enjoyed catching up with the Demos. As you can see - we still haven't changed the blog name. We've appreciated the suggestions so far, and we promise we'll have a new name by the time I turn 30 (which is coming all too soon!).


Caleb with his mom and grandpa while trying on shoes.


The best way to know that Caleb really likes his shoes: he tries to eat them.

Isn't this what you picture when you think of Atlanta?

"Let me out mom! I want to play in the snow!"

The family on top of nearby Arabia "Mountain" (which is more like a glorified speed bump). This is just days after our snow storm:)

Caleb and Daddy

On The Road Again

The past month or so has been really crazy with travelling - as I have been on the road for work more than I have been home. I had just about gotten fully caught up and settled in following the trip to Colorado when I had to once again prepare to leave for the Philadelphia area where I will be until next Thursday. The Colorado trip went well for me, except for the fact that I received my very first speeding ticket while driving my friend's car :( Needless to say - that ended up making the trip a whole lot more expensive than I had planned on it being. While I was away in Colorado - Sharon had the opportunity to visit with many friends and family in Texas. Since I still haven't gotten all the details on that trip, I'm going to let Sharon make one of our rare writing appearances on our blog. Before I hand over the keyboard - I did have one last question for those of you who may read our blog from time to time. As you probably noticed - our blog name is still "The Nomadic Koerbers", even though we closed on our house in December. The reason for not changing the name yet is primarily the lack of idea for a new name (and the lack of time to think of one). So...if anybody has any good suggestions for our new blog name - please fire them our way. If not - we'll probably just keep this name until we end up moving again in a few years. Now that your anticipation and excitement has been piqued, here's Sharon:

Well, I just thought we are still "The Nomadic Koerbers" since we have still been living out of our suitcases?!? Anyway, I too would love to hear name suggestions! Our first adventure to Texas went great. Caleb traveled well and other than waking at 4:30 am on Sunday morning (I guess he was just really excited to hear Tom Pennington preach) he slept pretty well too. It was a bit of a whirl-wind so if we missed you while we were there I am really sorry. Honestly I think the best way to describe the trip is with pictures and captions; please see below. Thank you to everyone who allowed us to stay with them and who made time to meet with us and our crazy schedule. Love you all!!!


Caleb really excited to borrow the Ramos Family car...thanks Rick for the keys! We had a great breakfast with the Ramos' and Caleb loved Kim's quiche.


Caleb also very excited to meet Aunt Donna...we drove to College Station to meet for dinner with my Aunt Donna, cousin Deb and her boys Sam and Luke. Caleb loved Luke and his Oreo Madness!


Caleb with his mommy at Chisholm Park. This is the park that my mommy and daddy would take me to as a little girl. Caleb was more excited by the slide then feeding the ducks...he wanted to eat the bread himself:)


Caleb getting a big squeeze from his new buddy Caed. Caed is the son of Courtney (and Jesse), one of my dear roommates from Master's College. We had a great play date in Ft. Worth.


Caleb cuddling with Miss Alyssa Bennett. Caleb and I stayed most of the time with Julia and Andrew and had a great time there. In case you don't know Julia and I our best of buds from childhood and roommates in college. We tried (unsuccessfully) at setting up our siblings so that we could be related...we are now on to our kids:) Andrew has already talked to Caleb about his intentions!


Caleb and his mommy with her Aunt Marge and Uncle Lou at our Waco lunch date. During our stay with Erin and Shane we met up for lunch...Caleb loved Aunt Marge...I think it is because she sends him so many Hallmark cards:)


Caleb laughing with his daddy (not a Texas video). Mike was just trying to give him low fives instead of high fives:)