New Look

Snip, snip, snip went the scissors and 4 years of fuzz fell to the floor. Briggs had his first big-boy haircut in 2006 with Miss Elsie in Richmond. But he had not had anything done to his hair since then and dad had grown weary of the moppy look. Miss Kim took a couple of snips last month, but yesterday was a major whack job. Briggs did great in the chair, having watched dad and Eli get haircuts for years. He's pretty pleased with the results!

Baby Update 1

Calvin and Libby are doing fine. They have been laying low for a few days just resting. Calvin actually seems to know how to sleep: neither Eli nor Briggs ever slept much. It's fascinating to meet a baby of ours who really does pretty much just eat, sleep and poop! We're not at all used to it! Here are some other photos from today.

Calvin Carter Barker

Calvin was born Wednesday morning 2/20/08 at 1:09 AM in Asheville at Mission Hospital. Laura Lallande, CNM caught him after Libby had labored about 9 hours. He weighs 8 pounds 10 ounces and is 20.25 inches long. Calvin is named after his g-g-grandfather Calvin Luther Saunders on Libby's side and after Mike's paternal grandmother, Nell Carter Barker. Libby did the whole thing without drugs, and even got to spend some time in the big tub in the room. When the time came though, she was on a birthing stool. Eli took his sweet time arriving (16 hours labor); Briggs was not much better (12 hours). Cousin Martha voiced the hope, as we walked out the door, that Calvin would take the hint and arrive after about 8 hours. He did: once he got off mom's pubic bone, he sailed right out. Let's hope his cooperative nature continues through his teen years.

Ice

Another day off from school, and a few hours without electricity. The ice fell harder and longer than the weather geeks predicted overnight. There was a pretty hefty layer on everything. We lost a couple of branches in the front, but nothing too severe. Crews were all over the place; even other parts of the county didn't get as much, or only rain. This is the arbor over the rear deck, and a tree crew working on our block. Very exciting!

Sue is AWESOME!

Today we went to the Natural History Museum at East Tennessee State in Johnson City. Libby read over the weekend of a new exhibit there of "the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. rex fossil ever discovered." The place was awesome; the T. rex was awesome; the whole trip was awesome, all according to Briggs (we even had pizza for supper after we got home). The assembled T. rex skeleton was pretty incredible. There were plenty of hands-on exhibits for all ages. We also watched a short film about the site, and then got to do some pretend digging for bones. Finally, though it was cold, we got to go outside and see the actual site where the ETSU folks do their digging.

To be clear: Sue, the T. rex, was found in South Dakota, by a paleontologist named Sue Hendrickson. The fossil was ultimately purchased by The Field Museum in Chicago. ETSU has the exhibit on loan through April. There is however a Miocene era dig in progress in Gray. They have found lots of bones near what was once a watering hole. It was nearly paved over by Suncrest Drive, but work was halted, re-routed, and the site secured by ETSU. The university then established an entire department to begin unearthing the site. The T. rex exhibit is no doubt a coup for this smallish department and school, but it was really drawing a crowd today. It was well worth the travel for us; I think everyone learned a little something. Briggs for sure had a blast and was turned on even more (if that's possible) to the world of dinosaurs!

(The museum had a really nice white, yellow and red logo/design (lower left of the graphic above) for the exhibit (signage, promo items, etc.) but I couldn't find it anywhere on their site; I had to make do with this rather bland B&W rendering above.)

So proud

Black Mountain PC(USA) did two services for Christmas Eve (much as they have in the past). The early service is for families and in the past was pretty standard fair with lots of adult involvement. I suggested this year letting children do the bulk of the service. An adult (clergy-person) would only need to do the welcome and concluding blessing. I was able to utilize all of the children participating and present in the Aerie Singers (grades 3-4-5 in our Logos program) as readers and pray-ers. Eli was one of those, though he usually does not sing with the group. He allowed himself to be convinced by myself and our educator Ginny Soll to be a lector. He did a great job. This is a posed shot after the service of Eli at the lectern. He did actually sing the anthem the group sang, though he had not practiced it before! He even got to ring a chime as part of the accompaniment.

Snow!

It ain't much, but it's actually snow. Other parts of the county (of course) got more; we managed only a dusting. But it was enough to close daycare for Briggs (school for Eli was still on holiday). Not so much snow, but plenty of cold: 17 degrees right now at mid-morning! I am reminded just how leaky this old house is!