Family Night Out at Noodles

Enjoying their Doodle at Noodles books.

Evan ordered Thai Curry Soup, 'cause that's how he rolls.

But not so much Andrew, who went with mac-n-cheese. And yes, he's wearing his Lion costume. Just because he wanted to. When I told him to get ready to go, that's what he put on. Maybe he thought "going out to dinner" meant that we would have to stalk our prey. In which case, he was prepared.

That's my man.

Evan gets hold of the camera and photographs me.

I Feel Like a Proud Father

Dave's dissertation is written! Here he is, bringing home the first fully printed copy:

I told him that I feel like a proud father--he did the labor for this baby, but I had a little something to do with it coming into existence.

Awww, isn't that such a nice fat baby?

Evan was pretty happy to see the dissertation. When it was turned in, his first question was, "Now can you play Wii with me, Daddy?"

Andrew just thought it was really heavy.

Why Blogging Has Been Light

It's been dissertations coming out my ears the past few months. From left to right, a dissertation on history of American Christianity (prosperity gospel); dissertation on empowerment of IT professionals on college campuses; dissertation on Christology in Hebrews; and creation of a biblical studies bibliography. And the assortment of style guides--so fun to keep straight who uses series commas and how doesn't, who uses Author-Date citation and who uses footnotes and bibliography citation, etc. It's nerdy editor land, where we make everything All Right.

Ash Wednesday

This year our family went to Duke Chapel for the Imposition of Ashes service. It was wonderful to share it with the boys, and given some of the health concerns we had been dealing with, it was particularly profound to reflect that we are dust. Now we look forward to Easter, and the celebration of Jesus' triumph over our destiny as dust.

Staff Meeting

I came downstairs the other morning to see this:

I was informed that all the stuff animals were congregated on the living room floor instead of upstairs in the bedroom where they belong because they were having a staff meeting. And I have to say, I've been in that staff meeting. 

International Sunday

Our church celebrated our fourth annual International Sunday last week. People are encouraged to wear "heritage clothing," so we decked ourselves out in Clan Moffat tartan. 

Dave drew the line on "heritage clothing" at the kilt. We also represented the pale contingent of Mount Level by reading Scripture in German during the service. 

Our friend Deborah took this picture of us entering church. I love that you can see Vivian in the background, because her dress was stunning. I wish I had taken a closer picture of it. 

This year International Sunday was one of the most joyous celebrations of worship that I can remember. The early service had a Scripture reading in German and a sermon on Acts 2 that was fantastic by a Mexican member of our church, Angel Gallardo. The later service had a prayer in Creole from our Haitian member Russell, Scripture reading in Spanish, and music in Pele from a visiting choir from Liberia. Then Hispanic preacher and professor Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric preached on Revelation 7, and I really thought we might all just praise our way into heaven right there. What a great God, who can take people of every tribe and language and fashion them into His children!

GTHCGTH!

Duke v. Carolina. At Cameron. On Senior Night. What could make this classic rivalry better? Watching it with friends. And eating Korean food.

We watched the game with our good friends Chul and Lauri Yoo and their kids Sophie and Theo (with Chloe on the way!) Here's everybody decked out in Duke clothes!

Chul's mom made all the amazing food in the picture above. We ate piles of Korean noodles and dumplings until I thought I would explode. And then I ate some more. Evan was ready to bring her home with us to live. 

Chul helping Evan and Sophie master chopsticks. Evan is way better than I am, which isn't saying much since I can't even hold chopsticks much less pick up anything with them. 

The kids with their face paint (or in the case of Theo, body paint) and their Cameron Crazies cheers.

Chul and Dave helping coach the kids on their Crazies taunts.

Ah, yes, we're raising these kids right. That's a beautiful sight. 

And Duke destroyed Carolina, winning by over 30 points. It was a great night of friends, food, and basketball victory!