Laura & Lil\

Sleepin

On Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 3:39 Laura bravely gave birth to our son, David Philip Neal.  He weighed in at 8lbs 10oz.  He was 21 inches long.  He has blond hair and blues eyes, just what mommy wanted! When I can I will get photos of him posted here…he is perfect.  Seriously, he is SO cute, and I’m not just saying that because he’s a baby, or because he is our baby.

I’m saying it because everyone says he looks like me.

Wendnesday night Laura’s cousin, Nadine, came up and we gabbed till 3am, all the while Nadine was talking to lil’ David about how he needs to be born on Thursday because this was her only time to be here, etc.  Well, he listened!  While we talked Laura’s contractions got stronger, and stronger through the night.  We left in a scurry Thursday morning, ariving at Mercy Hospital in Grayling around 10ish.  Laura was diolated to 5.

Soon, Laura’s mom, Patty, arrived, along with Laura’s best friends Misty and Mary (who happens to be my mom’s best friend as well…weird).  We had a room full!  It’s always a party with us!  We all made wagers on when the baby would be born (Patty won she guessed 3:30.  I was second, I guessed 4:10.)

Laura did SO well during labor.  I was so proud of her.  She continues to amaze me.  She didn’t scream, cry out, you know all that stuff you see on the tv shows.  She was relaxed, calm, focused, quiet, and brave. 

She is my hero.

David ended up being stuck on the pelvic born, partly because of his size, but mainly because he was face up (Dr. Lagattuta said when they are face up you add a pound!).  Laura knew something wasn’t right, asked for a c-section, and later told me she could feel that he wasn’t going anywhere.  They got the staff together immediately, and 30 minutes later out came David.

Yes, I watched the surgery.  Well, I looked twice.  I wanted to see what they were doing to Laura.

After they got David out the nurse took me and David to the nursery where she cleaned him up while they tended to Laura.  I was met there by all the others and we laughed and cried and took pictures of lil’ David as he began the hard process of adjusting to this new world he was in.

Laura and baby are doing fine at home now.  We left the hospital around 4pm on Sunday, 72 hours after he was born.  Pray for her recovery to go well.  She lost over 2 pints of blood during the surgery, so she is still weak in some ways, but stronger than anyone I have known in others.  David sleeps, eats, and poops well.  He is already smiling a lot and seems to be a very alert baby.

Did I mention he looks like me?

While wiping down the desert bar the other day at Pondo, a very obese man came up to me and said, “it’s a shame all this food goes to waste seeings how there are hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in China.”

…

I said, “There are also hundreds of people starving in America.”

“You’re right, as soon as you said it I realized I had mispoke.”

“No, you’re right, but that doesn’t seem to stop Americans from wasting now does it?”

Rob Bell has been doing “tours” over the last couple years.

These tours are prophetic, teaching tours in which he is bringing his great speaking, deep thoughts, and emerging Christian philosophies to a broader listening audience.

He is the best Bible teacher I have ever heard, hands down.

I own his Everything Is Spiritual tour on DVD.

Evidently he is just finishing up one called “The Gods Aren’t Angry”.  DVD due out in July.

While speaking at Mars Hill (see Communities) he did a series of messages entitled “Calling All Peacemakers” which in classic Bell-style he uses prophetic distance to call Americans to peacemaking in the world through poverty relief.

One thought that he shared has gripped me lately as I re-listened to his messages on the subject.  He touts that financially the money it would cost to install proper sanitation and irrigation systems to the people without such would cost as much as Americans will spend on Christmas presents the day after Thanksgiving this year!

This customer came in with this sticker on her shirt today which said, “I’m Chosen”.

I asked, “You we’re chosen, huh - what were you chosen for?  Did you win something?”  Now, I knew what her sticker meant - that she was one of the Chosen of God, the Elect, one of those who Jesus died for (did you know he died for some and not for others - sorry, you just might be out of luck in the hereafter…).

She smiled, and said she didn’t win anything, and looked at her husband, and they smiled, and I said, “Well, have a nice day,” and I heard her saying, in laughter, “He doesn’t get it.”

And, she’s right.

I haven’t “gotten” the doctrine of election as touted by Calvinists for several years now.  I am a reformed Reformer!  I began to question the validity of this system of belief while pastoring Pigeon River Baptist Church some years ago.  Once I began to research it,  I found Calvinism severly lacking, and a system (like many others) that was built upon certain presupposed ideas that if one of them was removed the whole crumbled.

Comparing this to Rob Bell’s trampolene theory I found I would rather be jumping than building a brick house.

(please note I’m not linking all this, do your Googling, or type in some key words on the search option to the left on this blog to see what I have said about all this through the last couple years).

…I graduated from Grayling High School with a 2.5 GPA.  I flashed the crowd after I received my diploma.  I was a logn haired rocker who was about to meet Jesus through a Independent, Fundamental, KJV Bible Believing Baptist Church, and rebel girl who went there.  I would start a job at Wendy’s, working with my buddies. 

Has it really been 17 years!?

My how the time has flown by!

The rumors are flying since Joe D (trust Joe!) said everyone but Stucky was trade ready!  Wow.

So, many sports writer’s heads are spinning with possible trades to improve (?) upon the Piston’s roster to get them to the finals in 09.  Among the most logical trades are:

Billups & Prince for: Carmelo Anthony

Or

Billups & Prince for: Tracy McGrady

I pray that we do NOT get McGrady, especially if we have to give up Billups AND Prince.

Here’s the link.

Laura’s ultrasound due date is June 28th.

At her last appointment she was dialalated to 2.

Baby’s heart beat was 139.

They said to count the kicks/hour.  Less then 10 and we call.

I counted for three hours this morning while Laura slept next to me.

He got to 10 in the first 20 minutes or so.

He kicks alot.

Any day now we’ll be able to see, hold, feel, be with what our love made!

Big Ticket Music Festival is in town this weekend.

This festival is growing like wild fire, drawing over ten thousand to the Gaylord area.

It is also drawing many to our Ponderosa.

It’s a huge Christian Music festival.

One girl who works here got her wallet stollen at the concert.

She said, “I don’t even f’in believe in Jesus and I go to this Christian concert and someone steals from me!”

Nice.

For some reason every time I try to write something on here it wont go through.  I don’t know if it is the work computer…?

Anyway, from the library I am able to go to wordpress.com, login, write, and do all the dashboard stuff I want, but view my site?  Nooo…

So, I just wanted everyone to know that I’m still around, somewhere.

Laura is due in 13 days…*cue Eye of the Tiger theme music*

We are spending our time getting everything ready.  Our kids are gone this week, which will give us more time to get our collective house in order. 

I just turned 34 last week.  Fun.  Laura and the kids got me this sweet AC/DC DVD collection, to go with our new surround sound!  My mom got me a gift card to Home Depot to buy a chain saw and whatever else I needed.  Greatness!

Had a fun Father’s Day last night.  Got out of work at 3 instead of 4 (sweet).  Laura was off (she usually works) and I picked up the kids and we went out for ice cream and China One buffet.  Scary enough, I saw about 10 people that I had served at Ponderosa earlier that day eating Chinesse buffet!  Pack it on, boyie!  Josh and I battled it out on PlayStation and we watched some Lakers/Celtics game 5 (but seriously, who cares about this series…I just want to see it end), and then Laura and I watched The Bucket List (she got it for me for Father’s Day along a book called “The Last Lecture”).  The Bucket List was HILARIOUS and well worth watching.

So anyway, hopefully whatever is messing with me being able to take care of business here will clear up and I’ll be able to post more often.

My son, whom still remains nameless (only God and your mother know what you will be named - yes, I have imput, but she has to do all the work and go through all the hurt so I leave it with her to finalize your name) I wanted to take a quick second to tell you that I love you.

In your life you are going to find those words are easy to say and often easy to hear.  I hope you know what they mean and mean it when you say it.  I do.

At least I think I do.

I have been wondering for some time now if I really do know what love it.  Or, rather, I have been wondering if I know how to love.  I think I do, but I also think I am screwed up, and I wonder if my screwedupness causes me to think I am loving when in fact I am not.

I am sorting through a lot of things right now.  Things that I am not sure I am capable of sorting through.  None of these things are about you, but they certainly can, will, may affect you.  I hope to have them sorted or well on their way by the time you are old enough to know who I am.

Maybe by then so will I.

Laura has four weeks until the due date of our son!  We are both so excited, nervous and scared.  She will be having one more baby shower, so hopefully we will have everything we will need to handle this critter. 

Last week we took some pictures of the kid’s with their heads between my belly and Laura’s (sadly, for me, my belly is bigger than Laura’s!).  They turned out well. 

We both are hoping that the baby comes early.  I told her to try and hold off so I could have the fourth of July weekend off from work, but she just kinda looked at me like…

It has been seven months now since I have had my initial pilonidal cyst surgery.  Because of the way the wound was healing I had to have a second surgery to adjust it.  Now, seven months later that area that I had surgery on hurts often, usually when I am sitting for long periods of time.  The other day there were spots of blood.  I think this is normal from what I have read.  I just hope that a new cyst is not forming…

A past employee (who will remain nameless) and I were closing together, and I was asking this employee how he was doing, etc.

“Dude, I’m livin the life of a porn star.”

“Wha..? Really?”

“Yeah, dude, my old lady stays at her friends house, so I go over there after work and do her, then she leaves in the morning and I go and do her friend. It’s awesome.”

I laughed out loud. Then went and mopped. Later I returned after doing some paperwork and asked him, “So, have you heard about the cyclone that wipped out like 20,000 people and now this earthquake in China killin thousands? Crazy stuff, eh?”

“Yeah, it’s the sign of the times. It’s the end of the world.”

“You think so, huh?” I was wondering what was going to come out of his mouth next!

“Yeah, everything the Bible says has come to pass. The world is coming to an end. That’s why, Toby, I’m getting my life together. You know, doing the right things. Living holy. You know?”

Holy? Porn star holy?

This Friday Laura will be 35 weeks.

5 to go.

We still haven’t picked a name yet. I still don’t think Thor is even a consideration. Oh well.

The kids are so excited. Laura and I were worried about how they would take this, but when we told them, Joshua’s response was that he always wanted a brother! The girls are girly about it and can’t wait to hold him, watch him, etc. We believed that our son could be part of binding our new family together, although we will never put that weight on him. We’ll rest that on our love for each other.