NWB just turned 5 months. What a big boy. Here are some recent photos:
Playing with Grandpa Dennis:
Helping Rake Leaves:
Having Fun with Brandi:
Focusing Intently:
There’s more photos of the last few months at http://bensons.smugmug.com/.
On Sunday, Niles will be 9 weeks old! It’s been so great to get to know him, and discover what it means to be a dad. Here’s a couple of photos from the first 9 weeks:
There’s more where this came from at Smugmug.
Sydney posed for me over the weekend. I call it “the beehive”:
As of this week, my brother Brian is able to walk for the first time in 2 years without the aid of a wheelchair, walker, or crutches. What a great week!
On June 21st, 2005, Brian was in a motorcycle accident, suffering broken bones, severed ligaments, nerves, and arteries in both legs. Thanks to a number of surgeries, a lot of rehab, and a lot of prayer, Brian was miraculously able to keep both legs.
Here is a link to all of the articles posted to Jayber about Brian’s recovery.
Since the accident, Brian has gone through a roller coaster of physical therapy and recovery — too many ups and downs to list here. However, due to one more surgery a few weeks ago, he’s now able to put all of his weight on both legs, and walk without aids.
Although this is by no means the end of the healing process, it is a major testament to God’s healing hand, and a significant milestone in Brian’s recovery. Congratulations bro!
Here’s a picture of Brian and I from Brian and Jill’s wedding in 2004:
Niles Wallace Benson was born on December 28th at 2:17 am and we couldn’t be more glad. He was 7 lbs 10 oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. Mandy has some pictures on her blog — here’s one of my favorites:
This year, we had a family Christmas at the Schumann’s. Unfortunately, Mom, Dad, and Karen couldn’t make it due to illness. Here’s a quick video that Mandy put together of the festivities:
I recently started a PhD blog: Vanilla Draft. Feel free to follow along if you’re interested. Also, a special note to my non-RSS-feed-using family members: there is an option to subscribe via email on the Feeds for Syndication page.
Thanks to everyone who helped me recently to make the decision on whether or not to continue in the PhD program. I deeply appreciate your input, advice, and willingness to be a sounding board.
From the most recent post:
This last week, I had a mid-academic-life crisis where I found myself thinking and praying as to whether I would continue with the PhD program or not.
Why? Postponing progress would let me focus on other areas of my life that are important to me: family, friends, reading, playing sports, being outside, and sleeping.
Not to mention the fact that we’re having a baby in a couple of weeks (God-willing). It’s admittedly tempting to quit a program that is hard to do and doesn’t promise much in terms of career payoff to spend more of it with the people I care about. When I think of it this way, it seems obvious that I should quit.
However, I really want to do the PhD, and I enjoy research, and learning, and reading, and writing, and working on hard problems. I feel that God has given me a desire and an interest in working towards this, and so, why not? Also, I have 90% of my coursework requirements already completed. Why would I stop when I’m this close?
After seeking counsel from family and friends, I decided, in fact, to continue with the program, but to reduce my load for the next semester while we get used to having a new baby at home.
Building management just posted a note disallowing the “extended use” of bathrooms on floors other than the one we work on. Discrimination! Exhibit A:
Sydney loves to chew rawhide on her back, and it cracks me up every time.
Well, in light of the fact that I got zero (zilch) responses to my desperate plea for landscaping help, I just ended up going with a Washington Hawthorn, and one very “bad-ass deciduous” (Sugar Maple):
Mandy was laughing the entire time at how small the tree was. I might have to tie an orange flag around it so I don’t run it over with the lawn mower next summer.
It’s only about 18 inches feet high right now (don’t confuse the bamboo shoot with the actual tree in the photo above — it only goes as high as the highest green twist-tie), but should grow to 60 feet just in time for me to retire in 2044.