Florida Pre-Vacation

This past weekend, Sharon, Caleb, and I had a fun opportunity to head down to Florida and attend a wedding of one of our HBR "boys." Since we're leaving this Saturday for our family vacation in New Jersey, we were initially worried that it would be a little much since we'd be traveling a lot in a two week span. Though we did spend about 20 hours of the extended weekend in the car, it turned out to be a good warm-up for our family vacation that starts this Saturday.

After driving down to Orlando on Friday night, we got up on Saturday morning to head to Sarasota where the wedding was held. It still is pretty crazy thinking that one of the guys who was a high school sophomore the year Sharon and I met at HBR is now getting married himself. It was also a pretty unique wedding in that it was their third one. They had gotten married in her hometown in Korea and then they got married again by a justice of peace when they came back to the States. The wedding was a ton of fun - as it was the first opportunity for most of our HBR boys to meet and hang out with Caleb. They were super excited to see him, and it was really cool to see them bond by the end of our time together. After the wedding, all the BFA alumni headed to the nearby beach. It was also one of the few weddings where there wasn't any farewell to the bride and groom, since they ended up hanging out with their friends all night long.

Caleb was super excited to have some quality beach time both Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. He really had no fear of the water, and we are excited how he does with his cousins next week. He may be a little shocked to find out that the Jersey shore ocean water is a bit different than the Gulf Coast. As long as he doesn't expect to be able to see his feet or have the water feel like a hot tub, he shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting. Anyways, I hope to have some super fun pictures from our family vacation - but we also managed to get some good ones from this recent trip.

Our HBR "boy" and his bride

The HBR guys (and RAs) after the wedding

Caleb's first steps into the water

Learning that salt water isn't so tasty


Snuggling with mommy after a long, hard day of playing

Hanging out with Sharon's brother Tom on the way home

I Traded in My Mustang for a Minivan

One of my favorite Andrew Peterson songs, "Family Man," starts out with these lyrics ("I Traded in My Mustang for a Minivan") to show how his life has changed since becoming a father. Well, I've never had a Mustang - and we still don't have a minivan, but I had a somewhat similar experience this past weekend. Though I'm definitely not a world-class mountain biker like my cousins, I still really enjoy getting out for a ride every once in a while. However, I also want to be able to take Caleb along with me on more leisurely rides - which meant attaching a child bike seat to the back of my bike. Since the seat we got at Goodwill isn't super easy to take off, this has effectively changed my "Mustang" bike into a minivan. Though I am excited to be able to take Caleb with me on bike rides now, it is undeniable that I am now the owner of a "daddy" bike.

As the "Family Man" song continues, he talks about the various ways his life has changed since becoming a father and some of the things that he has had to give up (including his Mustang). In the same way, I can see the numerous ways that having Caleb has changed our lives and made it a little more difficult to do some of the things we've enjoyed doing. With our five year anniversary coming up, it is definitely a lot more difficult to get away just the two of us. Last weekend, we did have the opportunity to take Caleb with us and return for the first time to the area where we spent our honeymoon nearly five years ago. Needless to say, it was a much different experience but it was also a lot of fun to hike a bit with Caleb while revisiting the memories we had of our time in the North Georgie Mountains. Though it is sometime easy to idealize the freedom and spontaneity of out lives before Caleb, I definitely feel that I can echo the conclusion of the song that though "this is not what I was headed for when I began, this was not my plan, It's so much better than." Anyways, I've included some recent pictures/videos below and you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIOczph6nQE if you want to listen to the song.

Caleb's first ride on daddy's bike

Hiking with Caleb is always an adventure - as he's not the most "linear" walker

On top of Fort Mountain in the North Georgia Mountains

Caleb expressing how much he loves hiking with his parents (especially when he gets a free ride on daddy's back)

Caleb having some bonding time with Grandma

Caleb showing off his pitching skills

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