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Sunday, 04 January 2009

Farewell Xanga

So long Xanga. It's been a long journey, but I've fell in love with another - blogspot.
Visit me at www.dshelton.blogspot.com.
The End.

Monday, 29 December 2008

A New Year

With the New Year I'd like to get back to blogging about a little bit of everything, but I'm considering switching to Blogger. Emily did a while ago and seems to like it alot. Any suggestions? Does anyone even use Xanga anymore?
Look for another post soon - either a post to direct you to a new site or a fresh launch of new posts for 2009...

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

A Real Dilemma

I grew up in Indiana and we did not have Daylight Savings Time. Yes that's right the clock just kept ticking throughout the year. No falling or leaping was ever needed. This morning I awoke very thankful for all the sleep that I had last night. I also thought about the extra hour I'll get this weekend on Sunday morning. Then it hit me.
What if we have our baby Sunday morning DURING the extra hour?
I remember asking my mom (who works in labor and delivery) how they would know the exact time a baby was born if there were two sets of times that could pass by the clock. She really didn't know and neither do.
It is very possible that our daughter could be born Sunday morning in that weird ambiguous time known as Daylight Savings Time. Let's hope not. While we're at it I'd also like to stay away from Halloween. It just doesn't seem like a good day to have a birthday. While we're thinking about it...today would be good! Come baby, come!

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Sam's & George

Last week my mom told me that she checks my blog nearly every day and is always disappointed when it is empty. To my favorite and perhaps only reader - here is a blog entry.
Tonight our small group had our first service project of the season. It is always something we know we should do. It is even something we always think of doing. Honestly though, we rarely have any success in actually carrying the service projects out. Normally the ideas get really complicated, forgotten, given to just a few people, or pushed aside, but not today!
Earlier this year we were reading through one of the gospels and noticed how Jesus always cared for those who were marginalized by culture. We wanted to serve some people like that and immediately nursing home patients came to mind. We all agreed that a nursing home would be a good idea so a few weeks later, I made a few phone calls.
Our plan was to go to the nursing home, play bingo, and then go back to the Millers for Pizza. Well the timings didn't quite work out, and we showed up as they were all eating dinner. So we decided to eat dinner ourselves and then go back to play bingo. We wanted to find a place that was close, quick, and cheap. Sam's Club came to mind...yes, we all ate dinner at Sam's.
After a $2.50 dinner of pizza and pepsi we headed back to Lewis Christian Memorial Village and played bingo. I sat next to George, one of my favorites. He is a South Sider that is really alot of fun. In the past George and I have often gone to Arby's for lunch as well. We all played bingo and gave away gifts to those who won. I think in the end almost every resident that played with us got a gift. The best thing was seeing how excited some of the ladies were at the opportunity to see and hear some of the young toddlers that were with us. In a way, it was as though some of the young life around us gave them a little bit of youth back themselves.
All in all it was a very fun night. I'm proud and happy to be part of our small group. They are a great group of people just trying to do life together.
Until next time...

Monday, 30 June 2008

Currently Reading
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
By Francis Chan, Danae Yankoski
see related
Big News!

So if you haven't heard by now we are having a girl. Emily and I went to the doctor on Friday and they confirmed what everyone (including Emily) thought. Even my financial planner had put a life insurance policy together for...our daughter. He figured he had a 50/50 chance, but he was sure it was a girl back in April. With that decided we can start painting, buying clothes (Emily's especially excited about that), and think of names. That may be the most stressful part of the whole process. A name is very important.
Here are two of the sonogram pictures:
1) This is a picture of her face and her left arm I believe...
2) This is a picture of her her profile. This is my favorite.
Overall I am probably most surprised about how the sonographers can actually tell what they're looking at. To me it just looks like a bunch of black and white shadows. Every now and then I'd see the spine, face, or something that made our alien daughter look a little more normal. Other than that it was just a crazy blob of stuff.
One other baby milestone - I felt the baby kick last night. I'm not sure if that's on schedule or not, but it sure seems early. Emily had me feel because she said that she was kicking a lot, and sure enough. You could see my fingers raise. Pretty cool!