Old Man Stuart's New High-Chair

It was a big day for Stuart today. Janna put together his high-chair and for the first time he got to eat his dinner sitting up.
Tonight's dinner included apples with cherries. I apparently missed the main course, which was grass clippings, I mean, some sort of green vegetable. Stuart likes eating both the green vegetable and his desert but if you try to slip in a second vegetable not only does he know but he isn't pleased. The exception though is sweet potatoes, which apparently works as a desert as far as Stuart is concerned.
This is yet another step in Stuart's slow progression towards civilization. Pretty soon he'll be weened, then he'll be crawling around, then walking and so on. All of these little steps are great blessings and big accomplishments for Stuart. Our goal is to create an independent adult who is faithful to Christ, little things such as crawling or eating dinner in a high-chair are small put ever so important in reaching that goal.
As you can see, Stuart likes his new high-chair. While he's really enjoying his apples and cherries, he's more interested in watching what I'm doing. I guess his old man taking pictures is more interesting than dinner. I should be flattered really but I know that if one of the dogs waltzed into the room I would be cast aside in favor of the furry critters. Such is life I suppose. In any event, the glory of Stuart's baby steps is God's alone. We thank the Lord for putting the stewardship of Stuart on our shoulders. It is our hope and prayer that we will be faithful to God's word and God's word alone in raising him to be an obedient believer.

A Very Birn Weekend

Friday night we took Stuart out to East Lansing for his first MSU hockey game. It was a big night for the Spartans as they raised their 2007 national championship banner to the rafters. Stuart got to visit with a lot of my old friends for the first time. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the event because someone (Janna) forgot to bring the camera.
Saturday we did a little bit of gardening and Stuart got to join us. He is well pleased with all of the work we did, including the planting of well over a hundred bulbs.
Deirbile was also present for our gardening and she was very interested in what we were doing. We can only hope that she and Mr. Seamus don't try digging up our spring flowers.
But what Stuart and Deirbhile were really interested in is visiting with each other. These two have become very good friends, although we suspect that Deirbhile may think that Stuart is her puppy.
Stuart has always liked dogs, we let him visit with Seamus within minutes of arriving home for the first time last May. He especially likes Deirbhile, perhaps because she's a touch calmer than Seamus.
As you can see, Deirbhile was more than happy to lie down next to Stuart and go to sleep. Unlike Seamus who wouldn't dream of lying down when Stuart is there to be licked.
For whatever reason, Deirbhile is more than happy to like down on her back and take a nap. Here we see her doing this with Stuart.
Stuart is quite interested in seeing what his silly puppy is up to. He's always very happy to play with his dogs.
In other news, we bought a cord of firewood last week. This is apparently how much wood is in a cord, we really had no idea what a cord was when we bought it. It looks like we have enough wood to last us this winter and then some. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't cooperated and we haven't been able to build a fire yet. Hopefully we will soon.
Tell me that isn't a happy puppy.

Stuart, What Is Your Profession? Harroh! Harroh! Harroh!

Last Saturday we packed up the family and headed out to East Lansing for the Michigan State-Indiana football game. It was a rare night game in East Lansing and we did some late afternoon tailgating. As you can see Stuart came along.
This was Stuart's second tailgate, his first with his grandparents. As you know, Stuart went to his first tailgate and football game last month. In any event, for this game we made Chili. It wasn't bad but I think it could have been a whole lot spicier than it was. I say nothing.
Stuart was very excited to tailgate on the banks of the Red Cedar but was very disappointed that he couldn't go to the game. State beat down Indiana 52-27, needless to say I was well pleased.
On Sunday Stuart got all dressed up to go to Pribble's OPC Church in Lansing. I enjoyed seeing Pastor Pribble again, it's been a long time since I've seen he and his wife and worshiped at his church. Needless to say, it's no GR ARP. Speaking of the ARP, I understand our church picked a new name. We were exceedingly disappointed that Erskine RP was not a name option to be voted upon. It's sad that our heritage is now lost forever at the hands of the RP takeover.

An Evening At The Compound

Stuart has had an eventful day. This evening he got to play with his dogs. And what little boy wouldn't be excited to play with two lovable Irish Terriers?
As you can see, Janna has gotten down off of her perch to let Stuart play with Seamus and Deirbhile. Seamus seems very interested in licking Stuart's hand and Deirbhile is very interested in what I'm doing.
Sometimes Seamus gets a little to excited around Stuart. Despite the look on his face, he isn't upset at all. He loves Seamus and has been known to get upset if he leaves the room. Seamus unfortunately doesn't understand that he has to be careful with the baby. Thankfully, Deirbhile seems to understand that she can't jump all over him, she's a very motherly little dog.
Aren't they cute when they all behave? As you can see, Stuart is fascinated with what they're doing. And what exactly are they doing? You would think that they're interested in Janna's hand but in reality Seamus is plotting his next move against Janna and Deirbhile is no doubt planning world domination.
And finally we see that Seamus has been successful in his plot against Janna, giving her a big kiss and listening to her scream is great fun for a Seamus. Stuart of course is taking it all in while quiet little Deirbhile continues her plotting. Such is life here at the compound.

Alan Keyes for President

For those of you who haven't noticed, I've eliminated my political blog. I've done this for a number of reasons, not the least of which it was getting boring debating the same morons day after day. With that blog gone, I won't be moving politics over here, at least not much. Janna and I do campaign for certain candidates though and I suppose we will begin our campaign for President here. We are endorsing Alan Keyes for the Republican nomination for President. The election is going to be held on January 15th, so we don't have much time to campaign.

For those of you who don't know, Alan Keyes is a conservative Christian. He's pro-life, pro-family (read: opposes homosexual marriage), favors lower taxes, I would call him a strict constructionist on the Constitution, and he favors fighting and winning the War on Terror. All of these things ought to be in full favor of conservative Christians, reformed or otherwise. Keyes calls him self a declarationist, meaning he looks back to the Declaration of Independence on certain issues, often noting that we are a Christian nation based on the fact that the Declaration of Independence declares that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

I know some conservatives are looking to Ron Paul as a Presidential candidate. While he is an interesting character, he isn't a conservative and he is unacceptable to conservatives and Christians. Paul is a libertarian and while I'm sympathetic to libertarian viewpoints, the libertarian position on abortion and homosexual marriage is unacceptable to me and it ought to be unacceptable to Christians. Paul is incredibly weak on both of those issues, not to mention his opposition to the War on Terror is absolutely unacceptable. As Christians, we ought to move away from people like this if only because their views on abortion are questionable if not outright unacceptable.

In any event, let campaign season begin. The Birn's will be out in full force for Alan Keyes, a man we hope and pray will be the next President of our once great and in fact still great Christian nation.