Homeward Bound

After spending almost two weeks in Christiansburg VA. working on our Subaru, Judah and I drove home yesterday. Judah was a trooper. He is such a well weathered traveler. Of course having a portable DVD player doesn’t hurt either. =) I have spent the last two weeks bent over the engine. I had to swap our old engine for a used one. In this process I faced a few obstacles that delayed our journey home a few days. After I only had the intake left to put back on the new engine I discovered that the water pump on the new engine didn’t match the old one. So I had to take everything back off. then I also had to take off the timing belt to get to the pump (the engine came with the timing belt so this was just extra work). When I tried putting the other pump on I found that it didn’t fit. As a result to that I had to swap out even more of the old block to make sure the new pump would work. then I had to put it all back together with new belts of course in the mean time I also switched out the timing belt cover. Once I had everything else back on the engine (which is quite a lot of work by the way, especially the timing belt since it can not be off at all). I decided that now would be a good time to replace the clutch as well. After all this hard work, of which nothing just went smoothly, I put the engine back in the car. I thought I was finally done, only to find out that I had a leaky radiator on my hands. So After a long engine saga I finally was able to drive the car home. (only 4.5 months after it all began with a never delivered engine)

Harvest Fest

O what a great exercise to be a little odd. Halloween, the day that you can be or do whatever you want to (to a certain extent anyway). Judah and I haven’t made it home yet. Yes I am still not finished with the Subaru I keep running into little obstacles. Anyway I left his costume in Chicago. So Oma Shanks went out and bought him one. When I asked him what they had gotten he said that he was going to be a nightmare. Confused I left the engine for a while and went inside to see what a nightmare would look like. I could not believe that she would have bought him something scary. Once I was inside she said that she thought it would be kind of biblical. Now I was really confused. But when I saw what it was I understood exactly what hat happened. My son had bought Knight ware. He was going to be a knight, dressed according to Ephesians 6. =) How funny can miscommunication be. He was dressed as a black night with a lion as his code of arms.

I dressed up in JD’s clowns outfit. Which after unrolling the sleeves and pants fit me just right. With out make up or a wig but with a red cowboy hat I walked out into the farmers market where New Horizons was having their annual Harvest Festival. People asked me if I was uncle Sam. And I got to admit that I probably looked a whole lot like him without my sleeves rolled up and a whole lot taller that JD (for whom the suit was tailored). Sadly I forgot to take pictures so I cant show you. Once I get one I will I looked pretty funny.

Photo Fancy

“The apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree”

-?-

Judah loves our Iphones. First he loved the bubble game. (you create bubbles and then pop them before they fall of the screen.) But when he found out that you can take pictures with the phone he wanted to take pictures of everything. Out of nowhere he will say: “I want to take a picture of that” as he points at something. It is nice to see what he is looking at. Even though most of his pictures have either a partial finger in the photo or are completely moved and blurry as a result of it. I have taught him that he is not allowed to touch my camera. I can leave it laying within his reach and he won’t touch it. But now that he can play with our Iphones he seems to have gotten the ‘photo-bug.’ Seems like he fell from my tree =). We will just have to see how long this will continue. Perhaps I will need to invest in another camera. (Judah took this picture)

Residency

“People without a vision perish”

-Bible-

I (Joshua) will attempt for now to give you an insight into Amy’s life. I haven’t seen my wife as much as I would like in the last few weeks. That’s when I was home. It has been nice to receive a real paycheck. But I think that she has been working more than an average of 80 hours a week. Her first day she came home in tears questioning herself and her capabilities. She has a lot of pressure on her to make the right decisions and to know exactly the right information. I for one know that couldn’t do it. But then she got to do OB/GYN her second day. She worked the afternoon in a clinic for underprivileged women. And as we all know that is where here heart and vision lay. So when she came home she was excited to say the least. Now that we re in her third month of residency I can tell you that even though there are hard days, and sometimes even months, she really loves what she does. Especially this month, which is probably the hardest month of this year. She gets up at 3:30AM and leaves by 4:15AM and comes home anywhere between 7PM (on an easy day) to 10:30PM (on a harder day) only to do it all again the next day. But she is doing what she loves to do. She is doing OB/GYN this month.

Riding his Radio

“People without a vision perish”
-Bible-


“but why?”
-Judah-

Judah has entered the ‘but why’ phase. This can be very annoying but most of the time it is fun to see what he is wondering. We went biking and he wouldn’t steer his wheel. As a result he crashed into the planter, Kate’s car, and fell (as seen above). When i told him to steer his natural response was... you guessed it. But why? As I explained to him that his steering wheel points in the direction that the bike will go and that by changing that you decide where you will go. followed by one of his, “but why?” I go on and tell him that the bicycle follows the first wheel. He asks “but why?” As you can see i try to give him one chance to understand what I tell him. I try to explain it to the best of my capabilities. Yet sometimes I simply answer with “because I said so”, followed by “because I am your dad” and then by “and that makes me the boss”. You see sometimes playing the ‘chain of command’ card works but most of the time is is followed by a “but why”. He always seems to have the last word. In this case (the bicycle case) I gave up and told him to just try it. And thats how I ended up with this picture of him picking up his bike one more time. And believe it or not but he got it. He rode down the block after this very picture. And then he told me to come get him because he was tired. And because I was so proud of my little cyclist I went and carried him and the trike home =)

Home Sweet Home

“That work, and not idleness,
is the indispensable condition of
happiness for every human being.”

-Leo Tolstroy-

So we’ve moved to Chicago. It has been fun getting to know our new town. Amy has started her residency and worked 96 hours her first week=). Judah and I are enjoying biking, the park and the library among other things. At home we are painting, drawing, reading and doing al kinds of other fun things for Judah’s development. I have come to realize that even though I have been struggling with not knowing what I want to do in life. I meed to make sure that I don’t neglect other areas in my life. Coming to this realization has made a big difference in my days, especially with Judah. I am taking time to get in physical shape. I started running in addition to biking every where. At this point this my be only some days instead of most days but it’s a major step in the right direction. I am also working on my photography. Getting it organized and building portfolio and that kind of time consuming stuff. Reading is another big one. Right now I am reading up on the Cubs, man what a great history. I am also reading about wine, I am taking my wine-knowledge a step further. I am loving it. We also have been visiting Willowcreek church and it has been a blessing to my walk with God. He is good and faithful, to Him be all the praise, Shalom.