Monday, September 10, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
faintest traces
Man is so great that his greatness appears even in knowing himself to be miserable. A tree has no sense of its misery. It is true that to know we are miserable is to be miserable; but to know we are miserable is also to be great. Thus all the miseries of man prove his grandeur; they are the miseries of a dignified personage, the miseries of a dethroned monarch…What can this incessant craving, and this impotence of attainment mean, unless there was once a happiness belonging to man, of which only the faintest traces remain, in that void which he attempts to fill with everything within his reach?
-Pascal
-Pascal
Saturday, September 01, 2007
At noon one week ago today, Caryn was having contractions and Hudson hadn't seen a "Field-n-Stream" magazine yet. We were still 6 hours away from leaving for The Birth Center. Can't believe that it has already been a week. Here are some pictures from the last few days.
Starting early on the important stuff...
Just chillin' on the couch...
Momee and Pappy enjoying their first grandchild...the grandmother at the birthing center assured Caryn and I that this was not OUR baby...this one belongs to the grandparents and maybe the second one will be ours.
Pappy claiming his right and wearing the shirt to prove it!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Hudson Michael Bazemore
Well, it is official. At 1:32 am August 26th, 2007 Hudson Michael Bazemore entered the world... the same day as my grandpa Bazemore. He made mom work for it...20 hours of labor. Caryn is amazing and worked really hard to produce our miracle. He was 7lbs 10oz and 20.5 inches long. He seems pretty chill so far which we assume is God's gift to parents for the first few weeks. There will be more to come after we sleep! Thank you for all who prayed!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
almost baby
my mom came into town a week ago last wednesday for a little visit....
since she was going to be around, mike & i decided it would be a great time for him to get away for a few days for one last pre-fatherhood camping trip... being the responsible fellow he is, he set up camp at Moss Park, a campground just about 20 minutes away from home... i still had a month to go, after all, but who knows what can happen?
thursday morning, my mom came with me to my baby appointment & after a routine exam, i felt a little "trickle"... the midwife turned around & asked matter-of-factly, "did you feel that?"
"yes," i replied.
after doing some sort of litmus test on the fluid, she looked a little flustered & said she was going to talk with jennie, the head midwife.
after a few long minutes, jennie returned & explained that my water very probably broke... & that she would need to admit me to the hospital. immediately. to induce labor.
i was going to have a baby last thursday.
you see, current medical policy requires that once your water breaks, they want you to deliver within 24 hours... and because i was only 36 1/2 weeks pregnant (37 weeks is "officially" full-term), i had to do it at the hospital, instead of at my beloved birthing center, bc at that moment i was considered "high risk".
meanwhile at the campground, mike was peaking out at a family of turkeys outside his tent when he got a phone call from me. i can't remember all the details, but i remember being accused several times of joking, & mike reminds me i was a bit too calm about the whole situation for him to take me seriously.
about 45 minutes later, we all met at home (he actually beat us there, despite having to disassemble his tent & pack up camp -- wish i could have been one of those turkeys to watch it all) to get the "baby bag" together & go meet our firstborn...
so to make a long story a bit shorter, after about 6 hours in the hospital, lots of pokes & prods, tests, an ultrasound, & my very first IV, the doctor concluded that if my water had broken, it had somehow "sealed back up" & that i could just go home & wait for things to happen normally.
so far so good. whew.
come back later for more excitement about our recent move into our new apartment & the unwanted guests we met there.
since she was going to be around, mike & i decided it would be a great time for him to get away for a few days for one last pre-fatherhood camping trip... being the responsible fellow he is, he set up camp at Moss Park, a campground just about 20 minutes away from home... i still had a month to go, after all, but who knows what can happen?
thursday morning, my mom came with me to my baby appointment & after a routine exam, i felt a little "trickle"... the midwife turned around & asked matter-of-factly, "did you feel that?"
"yes," i replied.
after doing some sort of litmus test on the fluid, she looked a little flustered & said she was going to talk with jennie, the head midwife.
after a few long minutes, jennie returned & explained that my water very probably broke... & that she would need to admit me to the hospital. immediately. to induce labor.
i was going to have a baby last thursday.
you see, current medical policy requires that once your water breaks, they want you to deliver within 24 hours... and because i was only 36 1/2 weeks pregnant (37 weeks is "officially" full-term), i had to do it at the hospital, instead of at my beloved birthing center, bc at that moment i was considered "high risk".
meanwhile at the campground, mike was peaking out at a family of turkeys outside his tent when he got a phone call from me. i can't remember all the details, but i remember being accused several times of joking, & mike reminds me i was a bit too calm about the whole situation for him to take me seriously.
about 45 minutes later, we all met at home (he actually beat us there, despite having to disassemble his tent & pack up camp -- wish i could have been one of those turkeys to watch it all) to get the "baby bag" together & go meet our firstborn...
so to make a long story a bit shorter, after about 6 hours in the hospital, lots of pokes & prods, tests, an ultrasound, & my very first IV, the doctor concluded that if my water had broken, it had somehow "sealed back up" & that i could just go home & wait for things to happen normally.
so far so good. whew.
come back later for more excitement about our recent move into our new apartment & the unwanted guests we met there.
How we got the truck...
So we moved back from Thailand after selling our Nissan and some other odds and ends to friends of ours that live and work in Chiang Rai. I deposited the check they had sent to us that was waiting for us when we flew in to the U.S.
We had purchased a '92 Honda Civic and were planning on driving that little thing around for the next year. I(mike) quickly began to realize that it was going to be very hard to live without a truck because we have furniture to move and I like to drive places that a Civic won't go. So I "happened" to do a quick search on eBay for Toyota pickup trucks and I was very excited to see a '93 xtra cab 4x4 available...no rust and only about 2hrs away. It was pretty much my dream truck for a great price. The ad said that it was also available to be sold locally which means that I could avoid the eBay hassle and drive up there and give the owner cash and be done with it.
So I contacted the owner and Caryn and I decided to drive up one weekday and look at the truck. We stopped in the bank and I asked for enough cash to buy the truck...the teller told me that due to the amount of cash I was asking for that she would have to clear the deposit I had made about a week earlier before she could give me that amount...she had to confirm that the check cleared from the other bank. After about an hour of waiting I was told that the check I received was a fake check and that the people who had written the check, our friends, didn't even have an account at that bank...a Christian bank! I was confused to say the least and feeling like the Gospel was losing face in the eyes of the bank tellers.
I called the owner of the truck and told him that I could not get the cash...until this whole check thing got cleared up we were out a chunk of money that we thought we had...what a surprise.
After a lot of phone calls, emails, and prayers it turned out that there was miscommunication on a global scale that caused the confusion with the money. Our friends do in fact have an account at that bank...I wont explain it all. So it was decided to wire the money directly to our checking account and avoid the whole check problem. So I thought it was all taken care of.
Meanwhile the auction on eBay was ticking away and I was running out of time to get this truck. I was told the wire transfer had come through and that the money was in our account. The auction was now within 24hrs of ending and the truck could no longer be sold locally...I decided to place a bid on the truck...someone bid higher so I went a little higher...someone else went even higher and I decided to stop bidding. I lost the auction for the truck and it was a sad day. I decided to just be happy with the Civic and move on... :(
One week later I received an email from the owner saying that the winning bidder never contacted him to finalize the auction! He told me that if I was still interested and brought him $300 less than the winning bid I could have the truck! So we decided to go up on a saturday and look at the truck. I went to the bank on a friday at 4:30, the bank closes at 6, to take the cash out. I went up to the teller and asked for the "amount" again and was shocked to find out that the money was NOT there! I almost exploaded on the inside! So they sent me over to the branch manager and it turns out that my banks fraud department had an extended hold my account for the amount of the check that was rejected one week earlier and it was the same amount as the wire transfer. The branch manager called the fraud department and the person that placed the hold on my account had already gone home for the weekend and no-one else could release the money. So the branch manager spent 45 minutes on the phone getting more frustrated than me until it was finally taken care of at about 5:50. So I was able to get the cash and we went to Gainesville the next day and bought the truck....
We had purchased a '92 Honda Civic and were planning on driving that little thing around for the next year. I(mike) quickly began to realize that it was going to be very hard to live without a truck because we have furniture to move and I like to drive places that a Civic won't go. So I "happened" to do a quick search on eBay for Toyota pickup trucks and I was very excited to see a '93 xtra cab 4x4 available...no rust and only about 2hrs away. It was pretty much my dream truck for a great price. The ad said that it was also available to be sold locally which means that I could avoid the eBay hassle and drive up there and give the owner cash and be done with it.
So I contacted the owner and Caryn and I decided to drive up one weekday and look at the truck. We stopped in the bank and I asked for enough cash to buy the truck...the teller told me that due to the amount of cash I was asking for that she would have to clear the deposit I had made about a week earlier before she could give me that amount...she had to confirm that the check cleared from the other bank. After about an hour of waiting I was told that the check I received was a fake check and that the people who had written the check, our friends, didn't even have an account at that bank...a Christian bank! I was confused to say the least and feeling like the Gospel was losing face in the eyes of the bank tellers.
I called the owner of the truck and told him that I could not get the cash...until this whole check thing got cleared up we were out a chunk of money that we thought we had...what a surprise.
After a lot of phone calls, emails, and prayers it turned out that there was miscommunication on a global scale that caused the confusion with the money. Our friends do in fact have an account at that bank...I wont explain it all. So it was decided to wire the money directly to our checking account and avoid the whole check problem. So I thought it was all taken care of.
Meanwhile the auction on eBay was ticking away and I was running out of time to get this truck. I was told the wire transfer had come through and that the money was in our account. The auction was now within 24hrs of ending and the truck could no longer be sold locally...I decided to place a bid on the truck...someone bid higher so I went a little higher...someone else went even higher and I decided to stop bidding. I lost the auction for the truck and it was a sad day. I decided to just be happy with the Civic and move on... :(
One week later I received an email from the owner saying that the winning bidder never contacted him to finalize the auction! He told me that if I was still interested and brought him $300 less than the winning bid I could have the truck! So we decided to go up on a saturday and look at the truck. I went to the bank on a friday at 4:30, the bank closes at 6, to take the cash out. I went up to the teller and asked for the "amount" again and was shocked to find out that the money was NOT there! I almost exploaded on the inside! So they sent me over to the branch manager and it turns out that my banks fraud department had an extended hold my account for the amount of the check that was rejected one week earlier and it was the same amount as the wire transfer. The branch manager called the fraud department and the person that placed the hold on my account had already gone home for the weekend and no-one else could release the money. So the branch manager spent 45 minutes on the phone getting more frustrated than me until it was finally taken care of at about 5:50. So I was able to get the cash and we went to Gainesville the next day and bought the truck....
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
up to...
we are slowly adjusting back to life in the States.... the sheer pace of it all is shocking at times, but i'd say we are enjoying it... above you can see how we get around -- a great find mike came across & worked really hard for (long, cool story).
part of this is "reentry"stuff -- we're meeting with a great couple with overseas life experience, who is helping us with our personal and ministry transition back to the states. there's also plenty of financial organization & decision-making mike has been working hard to reserach & get into place.
baby stuff keeps us busy, too, of course... visiting the midwife, choosing doctors, birthing classes, registering**, etc. has kept us both on our toes, of course. it's all such a huge new experience!
OH! and just this last weekend, we finally joined our church here in Orlando. Summit Church has been a fantastic place for us -- we actually attended for about 2 years before moving to Thailand, but were never in town to join, so it was great to finally do that.
**we're registered at www.babiesrus.com & www.target.com .... please me know if you're going to be in Orlando on Sunday, August 12 & can come to my shower... i'll send you an invite if you haven't received one!
Monday, July 02, 2007
Dirk
meet "Dirk" (giver of the football jersey mentioned in the previous entry)... we had the delight of forming an acquaintance with him when he came to Orlando to work on a recording project with us a few years ago. he acted as our brilliant director and general entertainment during his time here. the gracious fellow he is, Dirk also hosted Carly & me at his home in Winchester during our last-minute-can't-believe-we're-actually-doing-this-trip-to-UK last New Year's. He was our tour guide (as you can see) for the day introducing us to Stonehenge in all its glory, as well as to random Jane Austen historical sites we HAD to visit. But that's not all... he & his lovely wife had us into their home, feeding us a delightful vegetarian meal and giving us a much-needed place to rest for the night. if you'd like to join the Dirk fan club, of which we are unofficially a part, you'll also need to know that he's a rock star drummer. check out his band at http://www.riotousbrothers.co.uk/index.htm.
Dirk's quote of the day:
"Weight on? Caryn looks EXACTLY THE SAME as at New Year's but with a soccer ball up her smock!"
gotta love him.
which reminds me, i am tardy in sharing any photos of my trip with Carly... i'll start with the other famous people we met during our travels...
Jane Austen:
"A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can."
Ann Taylor
(yes that's actually her name, though we don't honestly know if she is any relation to the brilliant retailer):
"Where are you going? ...I can take you there myself!"
(her response to our request for directions to the bus that would bring us to our B&B in the Cotswolds... gotta love the English)
Unknown Scotsman
(though we are quite sure he is famous -- doesn't he look important?):
"[unintelligible conversation in a thick accent]"
Sunday, July 01, 2007
7 months
here we are...
caryn is quickly growing out of her maternity clothes* & mike is sporting a sweet soccer -- er, sorry -- football jersey courtesy of our good friend Dirk in UK.
*so much for "buy your pre-pregnancy size"... this only works if you haven't already gained 30 pounds with 2 months left to go.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
forgot to mention...
we stopped at 5 different Bass Pro Shop locations between Fort Lauderdale & Branson this month... some of them multiple times.if you have not yet "experienced" a Bass Pro Outdoor World store, it's worth a trip to the nearest one... if it's just too far, click here for a video on the Bass Pro Store Experience*.
gotta love the USA!
*disclaimer: not recommended for vegetarians
Monday, June 25, 2007
pics from the road
mike & my Dad getting ready to pull up a tree stump at my parents' in Fort Lauderdale
Mike at his first
crawfish boil at my Grandmother's in Louisiana
me "showing" a bit more somewhere near MemphisAfter a scenic railway tour just south of Branson
Celebrating Mike's Grandma's 90th with family in Missouri. 
Saturday, June 16, 2007
in O-town
Mike joined me in the States after a week.... here's a short update of our whereabouts since then:
we spent a few days with my parents in Fort Lauderdale, then headed up to Orlando for some meetings... after that we took one last pre-baby road trip which brought us to Caryn's Grandmother's in Louisiana for a real crawfish boil, a short stop south of Memphis, then to Branson MO to meet Mike's family & surprise his Grandma on her 90th, stopping-off in Nashville for some real BBQ & a stay in a historic home on the way to Athens GA to visit with dear friends - the Curtis family...
i didn't drive a mile... Mike is a bit tired.
got back to Orlando a couple days ago just in time for a baby appt -- Caryn & baby are doing fine... gaining plenty of weight (as predicted) on all this great American food. we're getting settled in the home where we'll be housesitting this summer right now... Mike's having a blast mowing the lawn, & we had the very American experience today of club warehouse shopping.
pictures of our journeys to come!
we spent a few days with my parents in Fort Lauderdale, then headed up to Orlando for some meetings... after that we took one last pre-baby road trip which brought us to Caryn's Grandmother's in Louisiana for a real crawfish boil, a short stop south of Memphis, then to Branson MO to meet Mike's family & surprise his Grandma on her 90th, stopping-off in Nashville for some real BBQ & a stay in a historic home on the way to Athens GA to visit with dear friends - the Curtis family...
i didn't drive a mile... Mike is a bit tired.
got back to Orlando a couple days ago just in time for a baby appt -- Caryn & baby are doing fine... gaining plenty of weight (as predicted) on all this great American food. we're getting settled in the home where we'll be housesitting this summer right now... Mike's having a blast mowing the lawn, & we had the very American experience today of club warehouse shopping.
pictures of our journeys to come!
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