more Applebee's fun...

I've been thinking lately about making a top 5 list named "You might eat at Applebee's if...". The list would go something like this:

You might eat at Applebee's if...

1. You require extra alfredo sauce with your pasta.
2. Your four year old child enjoys opening sugar packets and pouring them on the floor and/or table.
3. You order your steak "well done, but tender."
4. Your party of twenty arrives two people at a time at ten minute intervals, then adds 4 or 5 more people when you are all finally done eating.
5. You consider 3-4 dollars a good tip regardless of check size.

Sleeping At Last

I have been enjoying a newer CD from Sleeping at Last, and on this CD is a song called "Naive." Not only is it beautiful, but I feel like it expresses so well things that I have felt here and there the past few years with all the changes Kristi and I have gone through together as well as things I have seen happen around me. Buy the CD "Storyboards", it's great!

Naive

Religion is a breeding ground,
where the devil's work is deeply found
with teeth as sharp as cathedral spires
slowly sinking in.

God knows that I've been naive,
but I think it makes Him proud of me.
Now it's so hard to separate
my disappointments from His name.

Because shadows stretch behind the truth
where stained glass offers broken clues,
and fear ties knots and pulls them tight
and it leaves us paralyzed.

But in the end such tired words will rest.
The truth will reroute the narrow things they've said,
and the marionette strings will lower and untie,
and out of the ashes love will be realized.

God knows that we've been naive,
and a bit nearsighted to say the least.
It's broken glass at children's feet,
that gets swept away unexpectedly.

It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds...

If I could take a moment
and put it in a jar,
I'd hold it tight with knuckles white,
so closely to my heart.

If I could catch a memory
and hide it in the sea,
I'd place it beneath the waves so deep,
where only I could be.

If I could take a picture
of time as it passed by,
I'd hang those photos from the clouds,
so they'd stretch across the sky.

If I could take a lifetime
and spend it in this day,
I'd cherish every single second
before it slipped away.

So I'm a dad...

...it's been a long time I know. Things have been a little crazy around the Stoeber household. I haven't flunked out of nursing school yet, and my two jobs are going strong. I started running again in December as I was packing on some pounds again, and I'm trying to run at least 2 times a week even during school.

The most important thing that's happened though is the birth of Kristi's and my new daughter, Adelaide Grace Stoeber. I needed her to come on a weekend for me to stay in school and not repeat 5 weeks, and God was very kind to allow that to happen. Kristi woke me up at 4:45 on Saturday, Jan 23rd to let me know she was in labor. After some grumpy dialogue I cannot recall (I had only had like 11 hours of sleep the past 3 nights due to school and work), we headed for the hospital. Labor went very smoothly, and our daughter was born at 8:13 pm weighing 7 lbs 7 oz. The transition home been great too. It actually has been a little easier than I thought it would be, although Kristi thinks it's been a little harder...which goes to show that it's better for the person not feeding the baby every 3 hours. I've been a little tired, but fatherhood has been great. Watching the whole birthing process was pretty amazing, and looking at my daughter for the first time was also amazing. People ask me alot if I had some type of epiphany when holding/seeing her for the first time, but as great as it was, I think it was pretty much like I expected...my personality is just weird like that.

Our daughter's first name doesn't have a whole lot of significance. It is a city in Australia, and it is a song by Anberlin. Don't worry though, because our daughter's middle name was chosen because it was the name of my grandmother who passed away several months ago. I had the privelege of being in the room with my family and my grandmother as she took her last breath. For me, both birth and death seem like the most sacred of events in the human life, and I appreciate being able to experience both firsthand within a couple of months of each other. My grandmother was a great Christians lady, and as my wife said to Addy tonight, "if she were still here on earth she would be praying for you every day."

In case you were worried, the pets are adapting well. Lucy is mostly upset about all the visitors, and Oliver gets a little grumpy that he can't be in the bedroom when Addy is asleep in her infant napper. Other than that Oliver is just curious, and Lucy is a little scared of her...she'll get used to her though, especially when she starts dropping food off of the high chair.

In closing, I'll give you my 3 biggest earthly fears as a new dad...ready?

1. Being a lame dad - I feel like fatherhood automatically lamifies me a little, so I'll have to work extra hard to be non-lame, although I think I'm fighting a losing battle
2. Parenting in a way that screws up my kid forever - I'm in a Psych nursing class right now, and apparently I have no hope of avoiding this one
3. The next poopy diaper - some of them are worse than others

Until next time...