Eric and Lisa

It's interesting the transformation one goes through as a parent. You try to protect your kid and keep his life happy and safe, but when it comes down to it, he has to experience the world at some point. It starts early. Much earlier than my liking, in fact. And when it happens, you have to decide how you're going to react as a parent. Because, ultimately, how you react to the world is how your child will someday react to it. Scary.

Today at the babysitter's house, Ian experienced his first brush with violence. Not by the babysitter, thank goodness, but by another little girl, about a year older than him, who decided it would be interesting to claw at his face in the middle of naptime. Poor Ian has scratches all over his nose and cheeks and looks like he was in a gang fight. Our babysitter dealt with the issue adequately, but it still pains me to think that Ian had to suffer unreasonable anger from another person at such a young age. The mommy in me wants to get that girl's mother's phone number and give her a piece of my mind, but the rational side of me knows that Ian's really fine and that he has to experience unpleasant behavior from his peers at some point. Sure, at eleven months, he's not old enough or mature enough to recognize that the incident wasn't his fault and that the little girl must have some issues that need to be dealt with, but at the very least, he may be able to be aware of the fact that he might want to stay away from her. The key is that I need to start now in helping him deal with the world he's going to encounter for the rest of his life. His life won't always be the happy, stress-free time that it is for him right now. He's going to experience unpleasant things day in and day out as he gets older. And I truly believe that how I react to what happens to me, as well as what happens to him, will make a lasting impact on how he in turn reacts to the world he comes in contact with. I hope that the end result for him is treating people with grace and dignity, and tackling problems with serenity and wisdom.

That's my prayer, anyway. May God help me to show him how.

--Lisa

Welcome to our new home! We hope to more frequently (and more interestingly) update this page than our old one, but we'll see!

--Lisa


You may notice that while the dates are correct for all of the posts prior to this one, the time stamps are a little goofy (all in the 3 p.m. range). This is due to the way I had to import our blog entries from the MSN Spaces website. Just thought I'd mention this.

--Eric

We just had a crazy weekend of basketball! We put on our annual March Madness Extravaganza party, which started on Thursday at noon and ended yesterday (Sunday) at 8pm. We had a free online account with March Madness On-Demand, which allowed us to hook up one TV to a computer (patching the video through), use our regular TV with cable, and be able to watch two games at once! We could have hooked up more computers to be able to watch four games at once on Thursday and Friday during the first round of the tournament, but there wasn't really a need. At any rate, Eric was able to see large portions of all 48 games that were shown from Thursday to Sunday, which he enjoyed, but he's actually pretty ready to get back to work now! We had fun with all of the guests that came to watch with us, and a LOT of food was consumed over the course of the four days.

Highlights from the past four days:
-- Indiana beating Gonzaga on the very last game of the first day -- Yeah Hoosiers!
-- Purdue beating Arizona in the first round, and very handily at that -- Good job, Boilermakers!
-- The Big Ten going 5-1 in the first round (stinkin' Illinois was the one who lost)
-- Duke being kicked out in the first round (we don't like them Blue Devils)
-- Both Indiana and Purdue playing hard in their close losses to UCLA and Florida, respectively

All in all, it was a fun four days of basketball, friends, and food, and while we're sad that it's over, it will be nice to get back to "real life." It's nice to know we've still got two weekends of good college basketball before the summer sports drought begins.

--Lisa

PS: I'll let Eric update you all on the results of his pre-season predictions (see the blog for November 13th, 2006)

Good news! For those of you who don't know, last Friday, I was offered a job as a part-time teacher in the Intensive English Program at IU...and they wanted me to start on this Tuesday! What a crazy weekend we had, trying to decide if this new job would work for our family, what to do with Ian every day in the afternoon, and how to rearrange my schedule with my current tutorees so as not to lose any business. Well, God worked (almost) all of it out, and I went in on Tuesday to fill out papers, and started teaching on Wednesday!

I really love this new job for several reasons: 1) it's giving me experience with lower-level students, which I haven't really had in the past, 2) it looks great on my resume'/curriculum vitae, and 3) it's a nice bonus of money that we didn't expect for this year. Praise God! My students are fun and interesting. They're all from either UAE or Saudi Arabia, and the women are all covered. They're very shy, and most of them are younger than me, so that is fun, as well. It's fun learning about their culture and how to relate to them. I teach two classes, reading and writing, and the textbooks are very self-explanatory, so it's actually one of my easiest teaching jobs so far!

The only problem yet to be completely solved is that of a babysitter for Ian while I'm teaching. We have a friend who lives nearby and who has two young daughters, and she offered to have Ian at her house while I'm gone, which was very generous of her. However, we were really hoping to find someone to come to our house for a couple hours (like a college student, for instance), since that time is Ian's naptime. Perhaps if we decided to take our friend up on her offer, Ian would eventually adjust and actually take a nap at her house, but we're not sure about that. At any rate, we have a week and a half to really settle this issue since next week is Spring Break. Please pray that we make a wise decision in regard to this, and that whatever works out is best for Ian.

So that's what's new for us! I hope this finds everyone well! Drop us a line and let us know how you're doing!

--Lisa

3-19-07 Update: We found a wonderful lady in our neighborhood named Debbie who runs a daycare. She agreed to take Ian for a couple hours in the afternoon, while Eric and I are crossing paths on our way to and from school...and the best thing is, she's charging us next to nothing! Praise God!