Shawn Abigail, DDS

Well, not quite Doctor of Dental Surgery. Joel had a loose baby tooth that had been pushed out of place by an adult tooth. It was so loose that it would turn in the socket. And it was bugging Joel. And I couldn't pull it out with my fingers. So...

I got out the needle nosed pliers. I told Joel to tell me if it hurt at all, but it didn't. The tooth popped out with the slightest tug (remember, it could turn completely in the socket!). And Joel was so delighted to tell Bethany how I had pulled out his tooth.

I guess it's not all that significant an event, but I think Joel will have a happy/amused memory for years. As for me, I don't think I'll ever do it again. It grossed me out too much.

Updates

Our Internet connection is still flaky. It is down most of the time, but comes up every once in a while. This is one of those times.

Hannah has taken to scratching. Tonight she scratched my belly hard enough to draw blood.

On Saturday night we had Ed Bloedow from our church over for supper. Ed is a Professor Emeritus of Classical Studies at the University of Ottawa, and is always interesting to talk to. On Sunday we were the host and hostess for our speaker, which happened to be Ray Barham and his wife Terri. They are missionaries in Zambia. This was also a very interesting conversation.

I spent some time tonight working on a new sermon, and also preparing for my Sunday school class. I teach the 12-16 year olds, and there are 14 of them in my class. This is going to be a real challenge, but I trust there will be much blessing as well. These kids are great and if I can help them see their blessings in Christ (we are studying Ephesians) and that Christ is all, they will have an amazing role to play in the church of the next 50 years.

Tire

There was a nail through the side wall of the tire, so I ended up replacing it and it's matching side.

Gymnastics and Tires

I took Joel to gymnastics tonight for the first time. It is being run at the community center just a couple of streets over. The facility itself is great. Joel did really well, and they had them doing a lot of stuff even on the first night. This will certainly help him build strength and flexibility, but I think the greatest benefit will be in the area of confidence. Joel is a very cautious little guy, but walking backwards on a balance beam 4 feet in the air will help him.

On the down side, I noticed our van has a flat tire. I'll need to get it fixed tomorrow.

It's 3:25am - Do you know where your children are?

OK, it's 3:25am and I haven't heard anything for 10 minutes. Could she be asleep, or is she waiting to hear the creak of the floor as I walk by her room. Let's fine out!

By the way, I don't enjoy the late nights, but they are a wonderful chance to pray for her. I love Hannah so much and want the best for her.

Oops. I guess I shouldn't have typed that last paragraph. She's crying again. Or maybe the last paragraph is the most important!

Go to Sleep Sleepy-Head

I'll be the first to admit I stayed up too late tonight. It was 11:30 when I turned out the light. It took me a few minutes to go to sleep, and I slept for about 15-30 minutes when Hannah woke up. She has been awake since then. It is now 2:25 am.

The last week has been a lot better than the previous couple of months. We've let her cry it out, mostly stopped rocking her and when she wakes in the night we tell her to put her head down and rub her back for a minute, and that seems to do it.

Not so tonight. I have rubbed her back and sang to her. I've let her cry. I have her water in case she was thirsty. And I even caved in and rocked her a couple of times. She's happy enough when I'm rocking her, but other than that it's cry, cry, cry.

She fell asleep in the nursery at church today, and had a 20 minute nap instead of a 2 hour nap. You would think she'd be extra tired and really sleep well, but it seems just the opposite happens.

Anyway, I'm doing well. I'm not too tired now, but we'll see what I'm like tomorrow at work. I told Karen to sleep with ear plugs in. No, I'm no hero or martyr. Karen got up the last couple of nights and so it's my turn. But admittedly the last couple of nights weren't like this.

DSL Access

After being down for 6 days, my DSL modem finally came back on.

After the Long Weekend

I've been spending most of my blogging time on "Brethren Helping" and haven't had much time for personal blogging.

Anyway, we went to the new War Museum on Tuesday with the children. It was quite good and quite quiet (which is what you would expect on the first day of school - no kids field trips).

Hannah is using a couple of words like "duh" which means she wants to go downstairs, "doo" which is her word for yes, "pillow" and "egg". Don't ask...

One of the guys at work retired today. He is the same age as me, and this is the second time he has retired (the previous time lasted 4 years). Good for him! (but I kind of wish it was me who was retiring!).

Sunday School starts in a couple of weeks and it looks like I'll have about 14 kids in the 12 to 16 year old range. I'm looking forward to it. The key is to plan some material but not get too stressed if the kids want to talk about different issues and we don't make it through the planned material.

Salsa

Today I made a quadruple batch of salsa (14 liters). It was a lot of work, even with the food processor, but the salsa is great! It tastes better than store bought salsa, and usually costs about half the cost. However, this time my friends the Shepherds had an excess of tomatos from their garden so they provided all the tomatos I needed. The net result was a superior salsa at about one quarter the price of the inferior stuff, and hopefully enough to last the winter.

New Blog

Yesterday I set up a new blog attempting to get out information about churches affected by the hurricane. You can see it at http://brethrenhelping.blogspot.com.

New Orleans

Of course the big story at the moment is the devestation in New Orleans. The hurricane broke a couple of levies and 80% of the city is flooded. The death toll is expected to be heavy, and will get heavier if idiots don't stop firing guns at rescue helicopters and hospitals.

Of churches similar to the one I attend, there are 3 congregations in New Orleans and 1 across the lake in Slidell. There is no word about the loss of life and destruction there. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is evacuated and has set up temporarily in their extension center in Atlanta.

We sometimes talk about the brevity of life, but in North America we assume destruction can only happen in other countries. Death, when it occurs, is a personal thing with car accidents and terminal illness. All of a sudden many people are confronted with the fact that dead is possible on a massive scale even within the boundaries of our well fed and well satisfied North American society.

The Governor of Louisiana called for yesterday to be a day of prayer. I suppose this is a good thing, depending on what people pray about. I note with some satisfaction that the ACLU decided to pass on their usual sprint to the courts to argue for separation of church and State.

Dishwasher

The dishwasher failed the other day, and it turns out it isn't something simple or cheap to fix. It is leaking and has blown the console. Estimate to fix is about $600, so it's probably better to replace it (even though it is only 4 years old). We're going to put aside some money for the next couple months and hopefully can get a replacement before Christmas.