catch up (again)

This is from the blur of a week when I was sick and working from home. Joel loves his toothbrush.
Joel's sign for a toothbrush is a twisting motion near his mouth (a motion you might make when you are brushing your teeth, like you would expect to see). His words are coming in, but they are mainly ones that start with "b," mamama and dadada. Nana (as in "ba-nana") is also popular.

I am going back and forth with my advisor a lot, so the dissertation will not be defended in time for graduation this semester, but it will be done in time for defense this semester. This is a bummer, but the refinement of terms and concepts seems to have no end. You think you have a good system--but there is a better one.

Work is ok. It is nothing crazy good or bad. I feel like I am getting really good at my job (as silly as some of the tasks seem sometimes), but this does not seem to matter to anyone a whole lot, other than the fact that they can throw more responsibilities at me, which also seem to not matter a whole lot to anyone. Beyond that, a few people move in and out of positions. It is nothing notable, so I will stop writing about it.

We have had some exciting developments in our lives in terms of church meetings. We have been attending a "house church" in Maumee and we like the group. It is totally different from a service in a building. It is a lightly-structured time of group interaction and sharing about our lives and what God is doing in it. It resembles a "small group" that would meet in a spiritual content more than anything else.

Speaking of small groups, I have been going to the Mens group at Grace for months now, and I really like it. Those guys are wonderful. There is another one at Ryan and Holly's (across the street). These are all guys affiliated with LC of the Master in Perrysburg--we go through the Renovere curriculum, which is as fun as the people in the group--and it is a lot of fun.

Beyond that, I am enjoying Anne's material from classes. Anatomy and Physiology is really neat stuff. Maybe I should have been a doctor or nurse. The material is really really interesting.

Stupid other stuff: We dug out of the snow storm, but work actually closed for it--the first time ever. I did a bunch of research on oil classifications, materials, and characteristics and then switched my car over to the cheapest junk that I could because I determined that it was not worth putting in good oil when I will just burn through it before it has a chance to be different from the stuff that costs a quarter of the price. We are getting into eating good food. We have lots more vegetables and such than we used to. I like it. Of course, the chicken wings I ate with Randy last night are still in my gut, so I guess eating healthy food only occurs most of the time.