+ baby - internet

Now, of these two things one would think the baby would have adjusted our life more... but that is not true. At this point baby just keeps me up at night some (but no more than I was up the 3rd trimester anyway), poops (but really takes no time to change), and cries (but is no noisier than Jude).
However, our internet has been down the last week and until this point we had not consciously admitted that the internet is our lifeline: source of information, entertainment, and connection to other people (especially with Jarod off work, me not able to move faster than a decrepit old woman and temperatures and humidity hovering around 100 degrees that requires us to keep baby mostly indoors).
Our week off line has probably helped us to bond better with each other and baby -spending hours talking, playing games, and goofing off with the kids. But in the last 8 hours of reconnectedness to our lifeline we have found out these pertinent pieces of information and now have the ability to pass them on to you:

Lanolin is indeed made from the grease pressed from sheep's wool.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" does not have anything to do with LSD... so let it go
There are many false TB tests each year... so don't worry if you get a big bump from your skin test
"Body Worlds" is a museum exhibit put together in Germany using the remains of only willing donors - while "Our Body: the Universe within" - a similar exhibit - may have obtained their specimens in a more questionable manner.
ETC...ETC... aren't you glad we got the internet back???

Well, Jarod is waiting for his turn again so I must go, but lucky for you we have no photos of us kissing our computer... just some shots of baby I had time to take while off line.





P.S. - Jude quickly abandoned my idea of 3 pirates who don't do anything and has been busier than ever with lake trips, train trips, and parties with the other people in his life... thanks son...

I have some photos...

LUCY JOAN TIPPY 7/18/08




You have no idea how long winded I could be about this week but I think I'll just let the photos speak for themselves... mostly... Here are some of my favorites... (you can click to enlarge and comment at the end)



My mom even brought my 92 year old grandma in to meet her... and it went really well. It just amazes me how much the simple existence of a newborn makes everyone else's life better.


Some people say they look just alike - others don't think they do at all - I don't know... you decide


Hey - look what I grew over the weekend!


Last but not least, I have decided that the new theme song for my life is the Veggie Tales, "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" - Now I haven't seen the movie and I am not a fan of the VT in general but that song cracks me up. Considering Jude's obsession with pirates, and the fact the Lucy usual only has one eye open (like a pirate Jude says) and the fact that I was barely presentable to the world by 3 this afternoon... and I CAN'T DO ANYTHING with this incision .... I have decided the three of us will do nothing for a very long time to come. So feel free to come on by and join us....

never inevitable

(HOW I WRITE MY BLOG – Whatever has been on my mind all week and finds it’s way to the keyboard in 15 minutes – SO HANG ON.)

SHORT VERSION: THERE IS STILL NO BABY.
Nice trip down memory lane though – photo of Jude with Jarod days after he was born and photo of the two on Hugo’s due date.


LONG VERSION:
This week has brought nothing that was originally expected… namely a baby that is now 4 days overdue and showing no signs of hurry. And in contrast to being surrounded by new life and it’s joys, we found ourselves in the midst of a funeral – a funeral of 1,100 people come to pay tribute to the life of our amazing friend. We saw friends that we hadn’t seen in almost a decade (am I old enough to say that?) and “caught up” on life stories that to this point we had only been imagining. And may I just say that I am far too hormonal for any of this.

And it hit me this week that I have become too comfortable with the idea of the “inevitability” of my “good life.” Some of our friends have come upon bad times. Friends much smarter than us are in great debt. Friends far more humorous than us have found themselves lonely. Friends far more talented than us are at dead-end jobs. And as they laughed and smiled about how, “Good we looked” and “how good life was treating us,” and how they all just knew, “we’d be happy together forever,” I couldn’t help but be humbled anew that it is only by God’s grace that we indeed are truly and deeply happy. And the hard times may come – maybe this baby will be deformed and maybe we will make some financial decisions that destroy us forever and maybe, even maybe one of us will be murdered. But thus far God’s grace has been sufficient and may it ever be. My good life was not inevitable - it is a miracle. Now if I can just spread the miracle….

So here are some moments of joy from even the last two weeks…



Few things in life make me happier than seeing Jarod with his friend Pete from "back in the day," our friend Casper or with his sister... his skin and smile just seems to fit better when he is with them.



And I have some pretty cool friends myself...


Not only does this picture remind me that Kansas contains true beauty but it is hilarious to know that some not very bright people have been convinced that Ks is doing it's part to stop global warming by putting up very large fans to cool things down

My friends don’t get murdered

There is a certain part of me that lives in denial of the evil that exists in this world. This part of me disbelieves that people not only drive drunk but they actually drink while driving. It is the part of me that doesn’t believe that parents can also be thieves – thus I have now had 2 strollers stolen - because I refuse to put locks on them. And it is the part of me that is still saying, “My friends don’t get murdered,” four days after we learned that one of the most passionate, motivated, intelligent, and inspiring (not to mention entertaining) of our friends from high school was killed by an ex-boyfriend. Three days after they found the on-the-run murderer who killed himself in jail – and only two days before her funeral, part of me really truly doesn’t believe any of this happened.

I guess it is the part of me that is still semi-ok with bringing another little helpless baby into this fallen and evil world sometime this week. It is the part of me that protects myself from my own lack of faith in a truly Sovereign God who in the midst of the reality of deep evil is working all things together for His glory and our good. It’s a naive part of me that died long ago in the majority of people who have been faced head-on with this kind of evil much earlier in life. I don’t know whether I should attempt the 4-hour journey to the funeral and finally face reality straight on or if I should sit in expectation of this little one to come – painting more onesies and pretending for a few more years that my children can be protected from a reality of evil that I am not strong enough to face.

Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.