Marriage on the Rocks

The small group Carrie and I are in is going through the study Marriage on the Rock.

Note, that's "rock," not "rocks." I wanted to meet more people at our church and get plugged in to the community. Plus, I like things that facilitate healthy discussion. I feel those kind of discussions bring you closer together and there's always room to improve.

Carrie decided to humor me and go with it, because she loves me.

Which is another reason I love her!

Sick Start to Small Group

Carrie and I signed up for a small group. It had free childcare! I've been wanting to get involved in another group for a while. I hope to find people in our church for Carrie and I to be friends with AND to find some other kids for Shane to play with.

It didn't go as planned. Carrie got sick for the first day introductions.

Shane and I still went. He was the oldest kid there and had to help babysit a handful of babies and toddlers. I heard he was a big help, so I'm more eager for him to go back than he is! We'll see how it goes next week for Carrie.

Last Small Group of the School Year

Samuel's family is going to the Dominican Republic for the first month of summer, so we won't seem them for a little. 

They gave each other a "bro hug" before we left.

Samuel's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Party, Samuel! He didn't turn three yet, but we sure celebrated it. Samuel's mom arranged for everyone to tour the Fontaine Street Fire Station: The first new station in Charlottesville in the last 50 years.

Shane was too excited to let me take a picture.

When we stepped through the front door, we walked into a small memorial.

There was a girder from New York, concrete from the Pentagon, and a rock from Stonycreek Township.

The little ones were too young to understand the significance, but they enjoyed looking at the memorabilia.

I found some fliers shaped like fire trucks. Instant toys.

There were real toy fire trucks when we went inside, but we couldn't touch those!

When the rest of the party arrived, the captain started the tour.

We walked through the kitchen, dining room,...

...and into the lounge.

Once there, the firefighters talked to us about fire safety plans. The captain asked, "Who has talked to their kids about a safe fire evacuation route?"

No one raised a hand. 

I remedied that later! I'm sure many others did, too!

When continued on the tour by going up to the third floor. We got to look down into the entry hall,..

...and see the training room. The station acted as the region's fire college. It could also be used as a command center to coordinate during extreme weather or taken over by the secret service if the president visited.

Behind the training room, were the dorms. Firefighters work 24 hour shifts, so they have rooms where they can sleep. Four firefighters lived in the station full time.

Each fighter gets a small room with a twin bed. There are red lights and a speaker on the wall to wake them up if needed.

If they are called, the fighters need a way to get downstairs in a hurry.

We got a demonstration later. I wish I could have slid down, too.

I'm glad Shane didn't get a chance, though.

The stairs between levels were long and straight to run down in case of a backlog at the polls.

Next, we peeked at the offices on the second floor, but the engine bay was the real exciting part.

The captain let everyone take turns in his seat.

The kids explored the office of the haz-mat engine, too. Shane tried to crawl on the desk.

Another firefighter geared up for the kids to see.

Firefighting has always held an allure to me. I briefly thought about as a career, but never was serious. I ended up where I'm supposed to be, but it's fun to think about in retrospect. My sisters started training to be volunteer fighters once upon a time, as well.

Shane and I are none to wander (like my thoughts). We found a map of all the fire stations and their service areas while everyone else was still checking out the engines.

After the tour, everyone rendezvoused back at Samuel's house for cake and pizza.

The kids were hungry.

Then they got to take out their energy on Darth Vader.

A pinata seems like the perfect way to get rid of excess Halloween candy (If Shane's candy lasts until his birthday....hmmm)

I took a video of everyone singing Happy Birthday.

Last but not least: Presents.

We wanted Shane's gift to be heartfelt, so he picked out one of his garbage trucks to give to Samuel (he only had one). Now Shane and Samuel can both play with garbage trucks on community group nights! Carrie stuck an amazon gift card in the truck to make it heartfelt from us, as well.

My wrapping....was a little rushed. 

Carrie's the artistic one. She's limited. We didn't know the details about the party until Tuesday night, either. Wrestling is in full swing, SOCA hit in the morning.....I'm lucky I found a grocery bag.

Samuel liked the truck. I'm glad we're down one (until the next time Nana visits, at least).

I was wiped by the end of the party. Shane didn't want to go! Happy Birthday, Samuel!

Small Group

My butt is bruised from small group.

I tried to jump over a fence. 

Replace "over" with "landed on" and you'll know why.

I swear it was partly the shoes, but my wife says I'm making excuses! 

Thursday, my wife and I went to a small group meeting a wee ways west of us. The goal was to meet some more people from our church. Preferably married ones around our age with kids Shane's age. Carrie emailed the leader on Wednesday, heard back Thursday, and after I got home from work we hit up Harris Teeter for chips and dip.

An hour later, I was standing in someone's back yard. Shane was mesmerized by the sand table. He never left it's side willingly once he discovered it. Another dad was throwing a football around with a young boy, and a cast of others were standing around talking and playing. 

Toward the end, everyone went inside except Shane, a couple kids, and yours truly. The football sailed over the fence and Carrie came out just in time to watch my failed acrobatics! I'm not as young (or as in shape) as I used to be.

Plus, the shoes were slick and the Dr. Scholl's gel inserts robbed me of some verticality (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).

It was an interesting night and Carrie and I are planning on going again this week. What I really want is Shane to have more opportunities interacting with kids his age. He doesn't tend to show much interest in them. He will play with (and be kind to) younger kids like Baby Cole. Shane will also shadow larger kids (if he's not afraid of them), but kids his age are either annoying or to be ignored. I'd like him to get more exposure to them.

If Carrie and I make some friends out of this, it'll be a bonus. Most of our friends aren't within an easy Shane-commute, and only one other couple has a child. 

It'll be interesting to see how this develops. We jumped right in, because you can't get wet without getting in the pool!