Corban holds Jadon/first family pics

I hope this makes you chuckle

sharing birthdays

It just so happens that Jadon shares a birthday with her grandpa Bob his auntie Glory. Here's a picture of Bob with pretty awesome birthday gift. Jadon and Glory haven't met yet, but I'm sure they're both looking forward to it.

new family member arrives

On Friday, February 19th at 7:50 the LORD brought into the world Jadon Anaiah Carlson (Jay-den Ah-nigh-ah). Her name is Hebrew for "God hears" and "Yahweh answers". She is a petite 7.2 lbs and is cute as can be!

Thank you all so much for your prayers. We have definitely felt God's hand upon us as we went through labor and now this first day with our daughter. Jadon is doing great, doing all that little ones are supposed to, and Emily is already on the mend. We plan to go home tonight after 8:00 if everything stays good.

Please continue to pray for us as we "meld" as a family. Ask God that Corban would welcome his sister with a happy, helpful heart.

Thank you all so much!

thoughts

There really is nothing like a good shave.

BTW, Emily is having consistent contractions, so...here we go boys!

I will keep you posted!

some Corban pics

He's going to be a big brother soon, and let's face it, he's going to be out of the limelight for a month or so once baby comes. Therefore I thought I should give him some blog time.

These are some of Corban's best friends, Elijah and Graydon.
Corban is always special!
Looks like he still has some remnant of grazing on his face.

my wife is hilarious, and very pregnant

So today I had the privilege of insulating a house. Needless to say I was very uncomfortable toward the end of the day. I thought I would send my wife a text message to sort of complain about it and attempt to be funny.

Me: I'm itchy. I need to deitchify.

Emily: I'm large. I need to delargeify.

The official due date for the birth of our 2nd child is this Sunday. Please keep us in your prayers, we'll keep you posted!

manliness

Manliness you say? What is he going to write about? Vacuums! That's right vacuums.

I don't know, there's just something manly about vacuuming. It is a power-tool after all. Weather I'm tenderly cleaning our nursery floor or violently blasting through 100 year old dust on the job site, I love to vacuum. The gentle hum of the motor, and the satisfaction of hearing debris bouncing off the sides of the vacuum tube, there's no down side. It's always satisfying to change the filter and see all that stuff that abides where you do!

Seriously, if our family was at your house for dinner and you said, "Hey Phil, wanna go downstairs and checkout the vacuum?" I'd say, "heck yes!"

I've gotten to know my vacuums. I have two. One is a Ridgid job site vacuum, wet or dry. The other is a household Kenmore, dark blue, with a powerful 12 amp motor and a light!

What do you wield? Men, are you with me?

a quick physics lesson

Alright people, static friction will give you greater traction than sliding friction. Translation, when you're stuck, try to keep your tires from spinning. Spinning your tires in the snow will only increase your likelihood of staying stuck.

I was at the computer a lot today and my window looks out to an intersection with a stop sign on a slight hill. Every so often I will hear and engine rev and tires pealing out only to look out my window to see a car at the stop sign, not moving. I just witnessed a school bus doing this for at least five minutes. He was smokin' those tires! No, literally, there was black smoke everywhere!

This goes for braking as well. Anti-lock brakes were created for this very purpose. When you're breaking on slippery surfaces, you want to apply brake pressure just to the point before your tires start sliding.

There, I hope this helps.

beautiful snowfall

The last time our street was plowed was the night of that soggy, rainy snow that fell on Christmas. Prior to that our street had only been plowed once. You may be asking, "Where does he live? In northern, rural MN?" No, we live in St. Paul. I wonder if this snowfall will be enough to break out the plows?!

It sure is beautiful though, and I'm glad we drive Jeeps. I was talking in jest with Emily how instead of requiring taxes for snow plowing, they should just give everybody a "vehicle credit" to buy a winter Jeep and never plow the roads.

support for Mahare

You remember back in August when I did that 24 hour bike race? Well, what I didn't tell you is that I sent out a letter to my family asking for support. My goal was to get monetary pledges per lap I completed. We ended up raising $150 which we divided two ways and gave to each of our sponsored children from World Vision. Katrina in SE Asia and Mahare from Africa.

Here is a portion from the letter we received from Mahare:

Thank you so much for your money aid. We are so happy to get your special gift. May the LORD bless you with many blessings. The project worker have bought a heifer according to our need and plan. Really you are playing a great role in our food security. I enclosed a picture of me, my father and the new heifer. I hope you will get it soon and enjoy it much.

Here is picture of Mahare and his dad with their new cow!



Thanks for helping me be used of the LORD to put those smiles on their faces!