So my wife and I enjoyed some down time in Vermont.

Monday we celebrated our six year anniversary with dinner at Table 24 and we saw the movie Inception (which was awesome by the way).  Tuesday we went to Burlington, Vermont and had lunch at Al’s French Frys and took a walk up and down Church Street.  Wednesday we took a tour of the Ben and Jerry’s Factory, and Cabot Cheese Farm.  Thursday we hung around the house and started to prepare ourselves for our trip home, we took a tour of the Wilson Castle and awaited our kids arrival home.  Friday (today) we are headed back to our home.

It is great when you can go out with your wife and see sites like this:

It has been wonderful to reconnect with my wife — kidless.  We have talked about a lot of things that we usually don’t get to talk about because usually we are dealing with one thing or another with our kids.  Another reason we don’t have “adult” conversations is because we are so consumed with day to day life that we don’t have time to talk with one another, or we forget what we have to say to one another because something comes up.

These conversations have been great.  They also are going to lead to some major changes in our lives over the next six to eight months.  I won’t go into detail about them now but I will blog about them soon.

Even though we have enjoyed our time together we missed our kids.  We missed cuddling with them, we missed talking with them we missed how we experience what they are experiencing.  We missed so much about them and we are glad that they are home with us again.

But it warms my heart to have parents who care about their grandchildren so much that they take them out into the woods to camp for a week.  I was never really lucky enough to get to know my grandparents or my cousins that well because of I lived in Vermont and they lived in Pennsylvania.  I am glad that my kids get to know their grandparents and cousins on trips like this.  Thank you mom and dad.

Even though being a parent of two active kids can be tough at times–  how could you not love faces like these:

If you would like to read about other dads out there, and the experiences they have with their kids check out www.dad-blogs.com

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The really sad thing about being a parent is to watch your child suffer with some sort of sickness (or in anyway) and there is very little that you can do in order to help them.  You wish they they can understand what is going on but she is so little and so sick that she has no idea.  I am thankful that everything was gone by her birthday (February 14th) and she was healthy and happy for her birthday party on Saturday.

I have been struggling lately as well….I lost my voice around Christmas and I had to have tests done and I have been diagnosed with Reflux Laryngitis – it is manageable but I still get hoarse after talking a lot or singing, but in about 4-5 weeks I should be 100%.

That’s all the major stuff on the home front.  “The boy” (my son) is doing well and he is going to be four years old later this month.  I can’t believe he is already four years old.  I know it sounds sappy but I still remember when he was born, and holding him for the first time.  Now he is his own little man and he is doing his own thing.  Tonight we prayed our bed time prayer with his Godmother.  Even though he was being shy (he only prayed the “now I lay me…” prayer and not the Lord’s Prayer with her) I thought it was great. He was really excited to do it and to watch him interact with her over the phone was great.  He was excited but shy– I could tell he was being shy because he had his hands in his mouth, dead give away.  I hope it can be a regular thing and we can do it with his Godfather as well.

I am taking a Chataism class this semester and we are talking about the Ten Commandments, the Creeds and Lord’s Prayer.  I have been thinking  about them and how to connect them with my children.  I think at this age he is just being familiar with what they are is good enough, but it is something I hope to explore in this class and in the years to come with my children.

I just finished watching “My Dad is Better Than Your Dad.”  The premise of the show is for dad’s and their children compete in challenges both physical and mental to see which combo can outlast the rest.  Like any reality show there is an element of “you stink” at the end.  I don’t know if I like that aspect when it comes to children.  It is one thing for adults to get in the mix and try and win money and make a fool of themselves, but when you drag children into it you can really harm them, by them thinking that it was their fault that they lost or that their dad is not good enough.  What do you think?

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On Wednesday we will have the regional assignments for our first call.  A Bishop representative from each of the nine regions, and a seminary are currently in Chicago talking about 200 and something candidates going into the first call process.  They read about each candidate and pray for them and then decide which area they are going to send the candidates.

This Wednesday a phone call will come into the seminary from Chicago from our Seminary Representative.  The community will have a worship service and then all the seniors will gather at the presidents house to find our regional assignment.

As someone awaiting their decision it is really nerve-racking.  My wife and I hope that we are assigned to Region seven.  On the one hand it would be flattering that another region would really want me to come to their synod, however I know what would be best for us and our family.

For Region Seven the bishops from each synod (Upstate New York, Metro-New York, New Jersey, Northeast Penn, Southeast Penn, and New England) personally interview each individual assigned to the region and then assign the go behind closed doors and fight for us to come to their synod.  (Well I hope they would at least want me)  I have let most people know that we would like to come to the New England Synod.  That’s where our family is and most of our friends, so we would like to be close.  We would like that support which we dearly miss.   We especially miss it now because we are separated from our second home (the seminary)  this year living in Souderton.  But we have and continue to manage.

So that is what is going on with us recently, that’s only part of what our lives have been recently.  It never ends….but we are in a very exciting time in our life, there are many possibilities that lay ahead of us and we are going to need lots of prayers and support the next few months as our future is played out in the hands of people who only know me by a piece of paper.

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We had a great vacation.  The first part was tricky with where we were going to stay and who we were going to see when, I guess that’s the trouble when you are dealing with divorced parents.  I did get some time to have fun and some time to relax.

Now we are home and the reality of my class coming up hasn’t fully hit me yet. I have a class starting on the 21st. Now I was thinking that these next few weeks are going to be great. I am not going to have to do anything school wise and I can work some and play some and start actually cleaning out some rooms for our move (God only knows where) in May/June. However, I look up the class yesterday and I see that I need to read four books and write 2/ 600-word essays about two of the books that I read.

This class is a VERY intensive course.  We meet for four days — three blocks a day for three hours each block.  I don’t think it will be very exciting.  Then by the middle of February we need to have a 15-page paper written.  I do not want that paper to carry over into the next semester.

Today is Logan and Daddy day– this tradition started while I was on internship.  To make sure I had quality time with my son I would keep him home from Day Care on my Days off.  We would go swimming at the YMCA and then have pizza for lunch and then just hang out.  Today we are playing video games, going to the library at the seminary and perhaps getting some pizza somewhere.

There is so much I want to talk about – Roger Clemens, the voting in Iowa, and maybe even a little NFL playoffs but Logan wants a new race car to play with on Need for Speed.

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