http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate recent pleonast.com entries by user nate en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=547247 Before tooth-brushing tonight, Lydia asked if I could help pull her tooth. I barely touched it, and it popped right out! So Lydia lost her first baby tooth here in Camp Wood! In triumphant celebration, I took a jittery phone-cam picture. Good luck discerning the gap in that grin. (I'm sure better pictures will follow, but the kids are in bed now.) 2008-07-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=547227 This weekend Sarah's parents joined us in Round Rock and we caravan'd out to Camp Wood, TX. We've had fun fishing and swimming in the river, and staying in the famous (in our family, anyway) "Round House" that was built by Sarah's great-grandfather. It's so fun to see Lydia running around on the rocks and playing in the river. She did the normal leaping and splashing and slipping on rocks, but the most "Lydia" moment was when she named a splashy spot "Roaring Falls". ("It needs a name, so let's call it Roaring Falls"). This is for a "fall" of approximately oh, 3 inches. Her personality also shone today when she and I went for a little walk, holding hands along the river and the rocky bank. She found a particularly nice spot and asked if I would bring her book over so she could sit down and read. Joe was really timid of the water yesterday -- he didn't want to get too wet, and he didn't want to walk across water even knee deep t... 2008-07-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=544082 I have a few minutes tonight, so I'll tell you a little more about my "dates" with the kids on Saturday. First I took Judah, then Joseph, and last Lydia. Judah is such a "little man" when we go out without the rest of the kids. I wasn't sure where to take him, so we drove across Round Rock until we saw something that looked good. We decided on Starbucks. "Can you say Starbucks?" "Bucks!" "Say 'Star-bucks.'" "Bucks!" I gave him a little shoulder ride into the store, where I got a bottled juice smoothie and he got a chocolate milk. We went out into the Texas heat and sat on the patio, and made conversation about birds, and passing vehicles, and how he needed to be a good boy. I love talking to him like a grownup instead of the normal kid-talk. He's such a sweet boy, and I think more than the other kids he has a tendency to get lost in the shuffle because he can't talk as clearly yet. He really does think about things... 2008-06-27 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=542284 It's been a month or so since my last post, and I am ... only barely on the "to post" side of the "to post or not to post" internal soliloquy. It's not that I don't have anything new to report -- in fact, new things to report have come and gone to return again -- no, it's that I have to choose between creating my own new post (of quality) and just dancing around reading everybody else's. The latter option is easier, less selfish and often more enjoyable. Well, maybe not less selfish -- I mean, if nobody wrote any new blogs we'd have nothing new to read, and the conversation would stagnate. Wait! Hold it! This is the blogging equivalent of writing song lyrics about writing song lyrics (which I despise ... I'm looking at you, Elton John.) Enough. ------------------ About my new job: My new job is something different than what I'd been doing before. I like it, but the particular situation I'm in is a bit frustrating. My first project was supposed to be "eas... 2008-06-22 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=531765 I pop my head up this morning in Austin. I pop my head up today in Birmingham. Tomorrow? Waxahatchie! The first week at the new job was crazy. It is a lot of new stuff, and then, some more new stuff. Ahh, but now I'm back with my family and I have a nice long weekend. And I have a house with a white picket fence, and I have a nifty new phone thing, and things can get back to normal, only even better! It was great to see the kids again. Judah ran to hug me, and Phoebe gave me some sweet baby giggles. Joe gave me a big hug and I told him I was proud of him for being a good helper. (I had given him a talk before I left about helping out, and Sarah said he had really been looking for how to help.) Lydia was just sweet and happy and cuddly. Even though she was probably the least affected by all the crazy stuff this week, I think she felt a lot better for things to be back to more normal. Mmm, but it's time to work with the kids now, very bedtimey. See you later! 2008-05-24 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=530635 Well, things are coming together nicely for the transition to Texas-way. Sarah is getting a lot of help in Tennessee, getting everything ready for the great journey. And over here I've been very blessed with good folks and good help and good news all around. My new job looks to be just as fun and exciting as I thought it would be, and I put down a deposit on a rental house today, too. It was in Round Rock, TX, which is a little northwest of Austin but it's near somewhere I'll be working pretty often, and a nice pretty house with a white picket fence. I think the family will love it. On Monday I woke up late and I tried to head down the toll road, but the last stretch of toll road said TxTag only, so I took the exit before. That took me off in a direction I really didn't want to go, and I wound up going around the world and stuck in traffic and late on my very first day. I told them the short version "stuck in traffic" and everyone smiled and nodded. "Welcome to Au... 2008-05-21 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=529625 Well, what can I say? Yesterday I got up at 7:30, drove through Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas, and today I'm in Austin. I worshipped this morning at Cedar Park, and I am hoping to look at houses this afternoon but I haven't been able to talk to my person who is helping me with that. Just thought I'd give you, the world, the heads up. I'm livin' large Texas style. The rest of the family is to follow soon. 2008-05-18 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=526015 Hey, this is awesome news. Well, not so great for us when we think about leaving all our great friends in Knoxville, but it's something good for our family and it sounds like there are great folks to meet and be friends with out in Austin too. In short, we're moving to Texas. Things at where I've been working haven't been going great for the past few months / years, and lately have gotten in a very uncomfortable type of pinch that makes me worry about the long-term survival of the company. Sooo ... I've been talking to recruiters and to companies for the past few months, and this past week I had a few interviews with people out in Texas way. I got a great offer from someone in Houston, enough to end my job search flat, but then I got another great offer from a company in Austin! So the first hard decision was which to go with. The jobs were a lot different -- they both looked like fun, healthy companies, but the one in Houston was a lot like what I'd been doing and the one in Aus... 2008-05-08 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=506209 I'm posting this to scoop Sarah because I know she is planning on posting some baby pics soon... she's coming! quickly! 2008-03-18 http://www.pleonast.com/user/nate?l=5&entryID=499103 Well, guess who is relaxing with the baby now? Only for me, she is sleeping. I'm up with her because she is a little restless, and with her out here Sarah can get some rest, and I can work Passy Patrol while the wind chimes soothe our littlest sleeper in her Boppy. And every now and then, a car outside splashes a restful sound on the rain-damp road... shhhhhhhh, up the hill in front of our house. Shushhhh, down the hill outside. Shhhhhhhhhh, little baby, rest well. And there are the gentle wind chimes. My life, it has background music. And my camera, it has a "night shot" mode, that captures softer evening colors while also not risking a baby-shocking flash pop. (unfortunately it requires superhuman steadiness of hand to take a shot that isn't blurry. mrah.) Oh and some cute memories of the other kids before I forget them ... I am downstairs a few minutes after supper trying to get our internet back to working. I come up and find all 3 non-infant kids playing in th... 2008-03-01