The Inconsistent Bloggers Dilemma

I don't do blog entries with any regularity or consistency. Sometimes, I just don't get around to or prioritize blogging, sometimes I can't think of stuff to blog about, etc.

Sometimes, I wait so long to blog("so long" isn't always the same length of time, but anyway...) that by the time I actually sit down and START an entry, there are so many topics and subjects on my mind that I have trouble deciding which ones to write about(first), what title to give that entry/ies, etc. This is one of those times.

I could write about the just-completed baseball season. About how anxious I already am for next season to start, about how much less I enjoy any other sport, about how I want to USE the time I'm now not spending watching baseball games(or going to them) for something WORTHWHILE and not just fritter it away playing poker online or watching hockey on TV or any of a plethora of other incidental time-wasters. Etc.

Or I could write about Halloween and ask the Christians who read this(especially the Christian parents) how they handle Halloween with their family and kids. Katrina and I do NOT want our family observing/celebrating one of the two biggest and most important "holidays" on the WICCA calendar(!), but we're just not yet entirely sure how to handle this with our kids, our unbelieving families(of origin), our wishy-washy Christian friends(remember: The definition of "legalist" is "anyone with more convictions than you"!), etc.

There's an excellent article on the cbn.com site about Halloween. If I knew how to do links here, I'd link it HERE, but I don't. Wish I did, but I don't. So, please go to their site, look it up, and read it. I won't say I agree with all of it, but I do agree with most of it, and even the parts I disagree with or question are thought-provoking and worthwhile reading.

I could also write about Christmas and ask the Christians who read this(especially the Christian parents) how they handle Santa and all the other non/un-Christian trappings that Christmas in 21st Century America unavoidably - at least seemingly, anyway - comes with. Again, we're not willing participants, but handling the kids questions and objections, the parental and familial interfearence, etc. isn't the easiest thing to handle well.

I could also write about the changes and developments in our girls of late. Sarah's really blossoming and thriving. She's becoming so much more animated, responsive, expressive, etc. It's really neat!

Rebekah constantly amazes us. I told Katrina over a year ago that I honestly think Rebekah's the smartest one of the three of us, and I'm more convinced of that now than I was then.

Among other evidences of this - we _think_ she's already READING. Yes, that's right READING and she's NOT YET THREE! We also think she's started being able to spell things - AND to tell what we're talking about when WE spell something rather than say it.

Sometimes, early in the morning, when she's awake but still in bed, we hear her counting or going thru the alphabet out-loud. Tell me, what "normal" kid entertains/amuses herself THIS way?! :)

We're still hoping and wanting and planning to move closer to Greencastle/Chambersburg asap. It's now looking like it won't be till Fall '07, but it's still what we want and for MANY reasons too. We honestly can't think of one "downside" to doing it or one reason not to. My dad could(and has) suggested some "counterpoints" to what seems to us as a win/win situation(moving out there), but - consider the source.

My parents are moving to an assisted living facility in Chambersburg, Pa. on November 14th. Chip and I are going up there this Saturday to pick up some of my brother's furniture that he's giving us(rather than ship it to California). It'll be my last time in that house - and we moved there when I was 6.5, JUST before I started 1st grade. My parents have lived there for 36 YEARS - and 3 area codes. WOW!

We're going out to Linda's place @Greencastle, Pa. for Thanksgiving(TG) weekend. We're taking Amtrak from Philly to Harrisburg and Dennis is picking us up there. It's ~$135 round trip for the 4 of us; Sarah's free and Becky's 1/2 price. That's really not a bad price, but it's a LOT more than we used to pay to go up to New/East Brunswick!

Recent Good Sarah Pix

Here's a picture of my mother-in-law, Wanda, holding Sarah. My father-in-law, Gary, took it this weekend, while they were visiting for her Dedication.

Here's a picture of my mom, Jeri(ne), holding Sarah during the service at our church this past Sunday. Maybe it's not the best pic of Sarah, but at least this way you get to see the dress she was Dedicated in.

Here's a picture of Gary holding Sarah at John Harvard's. I'm not sure who took it tho.

Update With Pix!

In the week since my last post, both the Bosox & Yanks have been eliminated from the AL playoffs, there's been a controversial call in an ALCS game, and even the Braves got eliminated(from the NL playoffs) yet again! But NONE of that's what most of this post is about.

This past Sunday was Sarah's Dedication at church! All 4 of her grandparents, an uncle(Dennis), an aunt(Linda), and a cousin(Jennifer) were there, along with various other assorted friends, churchfolks, etc.

Here are some pix:
Here's the Dedication part of the service. The guy near the center is our pastor, Randy. The couple to the right of Katrina are Chip & Chrissie(Christina) Schiavone, the "God-parents" of both Rebekah & Sarah.

Here's a quasi-family portrait, taken at the luncheon after the service. My mom's to the left, holding Rebekah. I'm in the middle. My oldest sister, Linda, is to the right, holding Sarah.

Here's a picture of Rebekah & Sarah @Nifty Fiftys. It was taken earlier in the weekend than Sunday morning's Dedication.


Unfortunately, I don't think we have any close-ups of Sarah from the service. She's really developing into quite a cutie tho(all partiality aside, of course)!

More Pix!

This is the picture I tried to add to the last post as it's 4th picture. I guess there must be a picture or total-picture-size limit tho, cuz it wouldn't let me add it to _that_ entry.

But it's such a good, close-up pic of Sarah that I HAD to post it. Hence, this next entry - which I think is the 1st time I've done 2 entries in one day.

While I'm at it, I might as well put in(at least) 2
more pix, right? ;)


Here's a picture of Becky holding Sarah in my in-laws(8MPG!) camper. Katrina's to the left.


I don't remember if this was taken before or after the ones of Becky holding Sarah on our couch, but Becky looks much more comfortable with Sarah in her arms here than she does in those pix, so I'll guess this was after those?






Here's a picture of Becky & me visiting Sarah @CHOP's NICU.

Most of our pix of Sarah(so far) are hospital pix, most of which have various tubes, tapes, patches, and etc. on her. Not exactly the most pleasant or "best' pix of her, so I won't post too many. But they're also an important part of her life and her "story", so I don't want to ignore them either.

That's 3 pix, so I'm gonna assume that's the limit per blog entry and stop here.

My First Request!

Someone who reads my blog(and who I "met" when I saw their comments in a friend's blog, started reading theirs, contacted them, etc., so we "met" via blogging!) asked me to update my blog. Specifically, they asked for pix of our new baby, Sarah.

Unfortunately, for reasons having mostly to do with having just gotten a new puter about a month ago, we don't have any recent pix of Sarah(or anything else) on our puter yet. About the most recent pix(of Sarah or anything else) that we DO have on our computer are from Labor Day weekend. That's a long time ago(and even longer when you're only 2 mos old, today!), but at least all of Sarah's various wires and tubes and tapes and etc.(from the NICU) were out and off her then.

So, I'll put some pix of Sarah(etc.) in a blog entry very soon. But prolly not this one. Partially cuz I'm feeling very "mentally tired" right now, so I don't have the strength or energy for something that "complex". And partly cuz it's 3:48 and today's MLB NLDS games start @4!

I have a "station" on Yahoo Launchcast that I program(med). It's got a rather eclectic playlist; everything from CCM to Praise & Worship to Secular Soft Rock to Crooners to Comedy. Sometimes they play something I don't like, but not often.

Anyway, 3 people(so far) who are complete strangers to me have "subscribed" to my station. In other words, what I rate and how high/low I rate it affects what's played on their stations. Somehow, even tho they're complete strangers who I know nothing about, that's still somewhat flattering, in a way.

Sarah's dedication's this Sunday. So, Kat's parents and my parents and the Dahlmanns - among others - will be here. I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun!

Having 2 kids really is a LOT different than "just" having one. Some baseball player's wife just gave birth to their 2nd kid and the commentator on TV who mentioned this said that he'd told the player in question "Now you're a REAL dad!". I think I know what he means(at least somewhat)!

OK, there's about 5-10 minutes left till the games start, and I can't think of anything else to write about. So, since I have the time, I guess I'll put some pix of Sarah(and/or Becky, etc.) in this entry after all!


Sarah holding Becky on our couch. Neither one looks very stable - and it's not the camera either, lol









Another pic of Becky holding Sarah. I don't know if it's holding her or having a sister that Becky's unsure of, but something's making her think!

Mother(Katrina) & daughter(Sarah) relaxing on a(Labor Day Weekend) camping trip.

I can't get it to upload any more pix to this entry. I tried the same pic twice, but no dice. So, I'll stop here(like I have a choice?).

I also can't figure out how to have my pix show up RIGHT where my cursor is when I go to get/upload them. Invariably, I end up having to go move them from the top of the entry to where I want them. There's prolly a way to avoid that step, but I haven't found it yet if there is.

More Insomnia

Did you ever have insomnia, try to figure out why(what caused it, this time), and end up with too many potential factors to figure it out? That's pretty much the case as I try to figure out why I can't sleep AGAIN tonight/this morning.

It could be too much caffeine. It could be not enough food. It could be the fact that I didn't take my meds today and I'm not sure I took them yesterday either. Etc.

The CD of pix from Labor Day weekend's camping trip, Sarah's hospital pix, and other misc. photos came in Thursday's mail. Some EXCELLENT pix in there! I'm uploading them to our puter, then to our yahoo photos page right now. Then I'll add some here. But that'll prolly have to wait till I GET SOME SLEEP!

We called my folks tonight. Their move to Chambersburg's officially scheduled for November 14th. Mom's got a lot of stuff she's offering to us, among others. Kat said we'd take the punch bowl tonight. I'll try and think of other stuff we might want that Mom might want to unload as well.

They're also giving us some furniture. It's all better quality stuff than what's it's replacing of what we've already got(some of it's Ethan Allen), so we're glad to get it.

Believe it or not, the Phils are still in contention for the Wild Card! They're hanging on by a thread, but they're still in it. They're 1 game back, with 2 to play. If they finish the season tied, the one-game tie-breaking playoff's Monday @CBP. I'm still not sure what time the game's on, or what channel it'll be on, but I'll watch it if it happens.

The Red Sox are also still in contention, for both the ALE and ALWC. Of course, they could also end up with neither! So, I could end up with both of my teams in the playoffs this year(for the first time in my lifetime), or I could end up with NEITHER of them in it. Pretty strange, lol.

I really need to go to bed soon. It's almost 4AM, and I've got men's Bible study/prayer group at 10. I didn't go 2 weeks ago and they didn't meet during August, so I really need to go this time, get caught up, get back into things, and start going regularly.

I really need to clean up around the house a lot. I've gotten so lazy and complacent with a messy home that there's even laundry to put away from when I washed it about a week ago. That's really sad.

It's been awhile since I got any comments to my blog entries. But, just about the time I think nobody's still reading it, I'll get one. Or someone will comment to me that they haven't seen an entry in awhile. So, who knows if anyone's still reading or not, let alone who might be.