The Beginning of an Ending

So my first semister at OC came to an end yesterday. I've done fairly well in school (considering my history) and enjoy the education I recieve from OC. What a stress relief to be done for now. What was the cherry on top though was the fact that last night was my last night with Chick-fil-a. In celebration of the stress relief I decided to give myself a new hair-do. I've never buzzed my head before, but I thought I should a least try it once. Now I can say that I've rocked the hawk. What a freeing haircut.

Facebook

If you use my link to my Facebook, you can check out more pictures on the lower left hand side. I have three albums. (Unfortunately you have to have an account to view them all.) One which has most of Serena's cakes. Here is her latest creation for our nephew Braden's birthday over the weekend.

Discovery Fun

Here are a few shots of Tyson getting into things as usual. What a helper he is when it comes to making cookies.

Going "Home"

I'm excited for this Tuesday. Not only do I celebrate 26 years of life, but I'm also heading home to P-town. We fly in late afternoon and stay through Sunday. I'm hoping to see as many folks as possible while we're there. Come join us at the Gresham Buster's for diner Tuesday night. Love to see any of my NW friends faces. Here is a lovely pic from my parents back yard. I miss this view along with many others. I don't miss the rain however.

Warren Barfield

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Y6Vp3q3t0&eurl=
On Friday night we had the previledge of hangin with Warren Barfield. He did a concert in Edmond, OK and as usual it was stinkin' awesome. This concert was a little different because there were only about 40 of us. It was awkward at first and I thought to myself, wow to bad the promoter didn't do some more work. After some time into it all though, I was glad to be in such intimate setting. The concert started out with the Mark Ryan band. They had a similar feel to Chris Tomlin. Very worship oriented, but maybe more upbeat. (lacked variety) The next was another local guy who was quite talented. His name is Cody Dunbar http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=47402324and to me he had a similar sound to Jason Maraz. He was a phenomenal guitar player and he used a loop pedal in a few songs. Quite impressive and left me wanting more. Then "the Man" Barfield brought his typical passion and humor to us. He shared more about how his songs came about and shared more of his heart. He now has his friend Walt Smith playing Bass with him which was quite tasteful. If you get a chance, you need to go see Warren perform. Check him out here. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=27799022
or here
http://www.warrenbarfield.com/

Prayer of Praise

Serena started a new job today. She is a Nanny for a family here with a 8 month old boy. His name is Jack and the parents are Mike and Jamie. They seems like a wonderful family and they just recently moved from the Seattle area. Praise God for the extra income and for the continued connections. Happy Halloween Y'all!

Pumpkin Cake

Just thought I should share another one of Serena's grand creations. She made this cake for our church small group meeting tonight. Chocolate cake with Bavarian cream filling. Yum, Yum!

Sleep?

This last week has been so rough for sleep. Tyson discovered how to get out of his crib and all of a sudden his sleeping habits changed. He went from sleeping close to 12 hours a night to 8ish. My sister was visiting us this week with her two kids so Serena and I were sleeping on the floor in Tyson's room. This played a factor in Tyson's sleep I'm sure, but I didn't expect it to be so bad. After getting off work between 10:30 to 11pm I'll get home and try to do homework. Then I might go for a run followed by a shower and go to bed. This is the time that Tyson thinks he needs to get up from his "nap." Then in the morning he seems to get up earlier and earlier. At his nap time today he decided to get out of his crib and cry at the door. We let him cry hoping he would go back to bed. After a little bit of time passed the crying stopped and we saw his little body leaning against the bottom crack of the door. (Poor little Bugger)

THANK YOU

Just wanted to tell everyone thank you for your prayers. Tyson's fever finally broke last night and he had a much better day today. God Bless Y'all!

Rough Night

I wanted to let everyone know that last night was extremely difficult. Tyson had 2 seizures about 4 hours apart. (about Midnight and 4am) We called 911 both times and the second time he took an ambulance ride to emergency. This makes a total of 4 seizures. The first I wrote about back in Feb., but I failed to mention the second in May. Please pray for Tyson that his fever would disappear and that he would be healed from the seizures. Pray for us all as it seems life is more than tough right now. Thank You Y'all and God Bless You.

Taking One For The Team

Money has been a little more than tight since we arrived here in OKC, so I've been trying to work. I started off working maintenance at school, but they could only give me 8 hours a week. After some time I realized that I would have to bite the bullet and do something I vowed to never do. There is a fine eating establishment that goes by the name of Chick-fil-a. I've always loved there food (especially there ice cream) and enjoyed the environment of restaurant. So now I find myself breaking my rule to work in fast food. Not exactly what I had in mind, but they provide more hours and I'm guaranteed Sundays off. Please pray for me as I struggle with being there. I need some strength to make it in the long run. Pray for my co-workers as they seem to be struggling with many things as well.

Reunion of Friends

Over the last weekend I was blessed with a reunion of friends from Portland. Of all places, it was in Abilene, TX. Saturday was a songwriters workshop followed by the lecturships starting Sunday evening. Sunday morning we found ourselves having a hard time intering the auditorium from the lobby because there was a small version of East County CofC chatting away in the lobby. That morning I was approached by Mark Love to see if a few friends and I could fill in for a music act that canceled on him for lecturships. I had planned on getting back to school, but any opportuninty to jam with my friends will usually pull me away from what I should do. So Ike, Steve, Zach, Peter, and I got together for a couple of hours to "toss" together some music. Things were a little rough, but God was glorified and I had tons of fun. Thanks to all you guys for jammin' with me.

What Every Restroom Needs!

I thought I should share this wonderful peice of information. My first visit to the Mens restroom in the gym here at school had me laughing. What a useful chart for life.

Sandy Time

Along our trip we spent a little time on the California Coast. Tyson loved the sand but for some reason he had trouble with the roar of the ocean.

New Home

We are now Okies. It's hard to believe we made it and our stuff as well. The trip was great. Day one was Portland to Campbell, CA (south of San Jose) There we spent 3 night with our friends the McAlpins. The next venture was to Porterville, CA to hang with our friends the Lusk's. We had just planned on hanging out and maybe eating dinner together, but they wanted us to stay and offered up their bed. What hearts the Lusk's have. they have 6 kids and an additional 30+ that night (not including us) from the staff and interns that work at the church camp they run. It was a full house to say the least. The next day after church and lunch was our shot out to Kingman, AZ. No friends there just a Motel to stay in. The following day we were able to go see the Grand Canyon. (It's pretty big. Almost fake looking.) Then we finished our day trip to stay in a Motel again at Albuquerque, NM. The next day we headed toward Lubbock, TX to stay with our friends the Wheelers, but on the way we were able to stop and chat with the Schaffer's in Clovis, NM. It was so nice to hook up with some of my Acappella family again. The next 3 nights were great to be with Josh and Mandy. Then there was one last push to our new home. Once we arrived in Edmond, OK we went right away to see our apartment. (Which we reserved without viewing in person.) Oh My! It was scary looking. We tried to find a different place to live before our moving truck arrived, but no luck. The trailor was dropped off at that complex and we decied to tough it out untill we found out what it would take to get out of a lease. (Luckily we had not signed anything.) So plan B came about and we ended up being able to stay a few nights with Serena's old dorm parents from Cascade/ friends, Ryan and Karen Wagner. The next day we frantically search for a safer residence and God provided. Under the circumstances we shouldn't have been able to get in, but God did his thing and pulled all the right strings. It's taken awhile to get unpacked and all set up since we went down to Frisco, TX to visit my sister and her family. My new niece is so beautiful. Little Kenzie Ann let Serena and I get in lots of baby cuddle time. After 4 nights there, we are finally back and getting all the little things set up and hung. This post is provided by my "new" labtop from school. It may not be new and unused, but it's getting the job done. (Hopefully we'll get our desktop fixed soon.)

Moving?

I can't believe it's here. Moving day is tomorrow. We will pack the trailer up today and head down to Edmond, OK tomorrow. Please pray for Serena, Tyson and I as we venture out to take in some of our country and travel to the great state of Oklahoma. Also pray for my folks as they will no longer have a grandchild close by to love on. This pic above is something you can find Tyson doing quite often. He would usually chase our dog Sam around to try and scoop him up.

Already 1 Year!

So Tyson turned 1 year old on the 16th and my how time flys. I'll post more pics of him later but for now I figure I should show the important cake eating portion of his party. I'll also try to post the video of the Cake Pulverizer.
BEFORE



AFTER

I said, I had a bad experience.

So yesterday was a day I DO NOT want to experience again. My family and I have been battling an array of sickness this month. Different colds and flu, to ear infections. Tyson has had a double ear infection and yesterday was his last dosage of antibiotics. For some reason Tyson also yesterday got a fever that started to get bad. We took off his clothes to cool him off plus gave him some Advil to reduce the fever. Well he vomited and lost all that medicine and made a mess on his diaper. When Serena went to go change him Tyson went into a seizure. Serena yelled for me and he was shaking and then I took him and he then went into a state of looking dead. His lips were turning purple and he lied there lifeless. Luckily he was still breathing and by this time Serena was on the phone with 911. They sent out the paramedic and they helped out and explained what happened. And by this time Tyson was returning to normal. Often when a baby's fever can get high and spike out, they will go into a seizure to cool the body off and that seizure is basically disconnecting all the wires from the brain and it takes awhile for the wires to connect again. That's why he was in a state where he looked like he was lifeless. We ended up taking Tyson to the hospital ourselves and spent the rest of our day there. (Playing the have patience game.) I'm so glad that we were there and that God took care of Tyson. Since I've been fighting some sort of stomach virus I happened to be home from work and the timing was a God thing. Serena kept telling me that she was so glad I was home.

Thank you Lord for loving and blessing me. Thank you for my awesome family and for the way you always provide. Please protect my family and guide our future in you.

Bumps and Bruises

It's been exciting to watch Tyson discover new things. As his motor skills are developing I can't help but get a smile on my face. This last week he's had his 5 1/2 month older cousin to show him some new tricks. Tyson has become a shadow at times around Braden trying to crawl as fast as him or walk around the coffee table.

I'm sure some of you may know or can figure out that when when you're a skateboarder or BMX rider you have to fall a few times to learn how to get full balance and control of what you're doing. My cousins were heavily into BMX riding for years. One of them even ended up going pro for a couple years. Many times I saw them with some of the nastiest scrapes and bruises for some falls they had been taking. As time went by I saw less and less. Sure it's a hard game to play without getting hurt, but practice and knowledge sure does help.

I think today was one of those days with the scrapes and bruises for Tyson. It started out this morning as we were getting ready for church. He was standing in the doorway of the sliding closet door when his uneasy legs led him to fall into the edge of the metal on the door. BOOM I heard then a nice loud cry. Right away we saw upon his forehead Tyson's first knot. The fun didn't stop there though. In the afternoon and evening he spent lots of time playing with Braden. They would stand up with the help of the coffee table and and take small steps around. Braden decided to get extra close and push Tyson over knocking him down on the edge of the table. Then later, all on Tyson's own, he fell once again into the table and against the leg of the couch. Needless to say Tyson's head will do some healing tonight.

As a Father it hurts to see my baby hurt, but I know he will do better. He will get stronger and will gain his balance. He will grow up and learn from mistakes plus learn better ways of doing things. I have a feeling my perfect Father up above has many of these same feelings with me. He sees me fall up against my head but knows I'll learn from the bumps and bruises. The awesome thing is, when we fall that Love is there to reach down and help us up.

In Him

It's weird that I created this blog, but I really don't make the effort to blog. I love the fact that I get to share with others what's happening with my family and more importantly, some beautiful pictures of them. This time around I want to say something important to me. Something I need to tell many people personally. I'M SORRY! I'm sorry for things I've said. I'm sorry for putting you down. I'm sorry for questioning you and most of all I'm sorry for being a bad listener. Sometimes God gives us friendly reminders to do as He would do. I feel as if I've hurt so many people whom I would love to call friends with the things I've done or just the way I've been. I need to grow and to be a good listener. Not someone who thinks he can fix your problem or give some "great advice." I really don't have a clue what I'm doing in this thing called life, but maybe if I stop and take a listen. God will provide. I can do all things in Him.

6 Month Pics

These pictures are already a couple months old, but the whole photo shoot is so stinkin' cute. He's now starting to do the military crawl quite well. God is so awesome. The treasure of children in so rewarding.