Bye Bye Bloodie

A moment of silence please, for our pet blood shrimp. Though he lived happily in our marine tank for several fortnights, his days were inevitably numbered. We are still in the investigation stages, however it appears that he struggled so much with his most recent molting that he just plumb kicked the bucket. Rachel (she will resume the story) found him around 2 in the afternoon when she went to feed the fish, and I wondered why the shrimp wasn't out doing his normal scavenging for the food. Then I looked under the archway under the rock and there he was, laying on his side, with the top half of his exoskeleton stuck over most of his legs and part of his head. There was a small snail crawling over the partially shed exoskeleton. I called our fish store and talked to the owner. He told me that molting is such a delicate process and that sometimes it doesn't end well. He has shed multiple times since the first of November with no problems. I did some reading online, and found that many shrimp and crab owners have experience similar tragedies. I am sad. He was so cute and so fun to watch as he cleaned our rabbit fish and scavenged around with all his little legs scurrying him from here to there.

So this is the first time that, I, Rachel, have written on our "blog". It still seems strange to me that we have a blog. I sort of doubt that I have anything to say that people would want to read about. I did, however, run into a girl I went to college with. I was her RA. She was so sweet back then, as she seems now, and it was neat to run in to her at our new church! I've been praying I could get re-aquainted with some friends from my past. She wasn't really a close friend, and it took me a minute to place her, but I'm still praying I can get reunited with several other friends from my past who were truly integral to my life for a time. That's all for me tonight! I pray the Lord to bless and keep you!

Birmingham Zoo

The Birmingham Zoo has a lot to offer the average family of 2.67 children. Bring a good stroller and comfortable walking shoes, as it is fairly spread out for a city zoo. No, it's not Disney, but it does have an impressive menagerie of animals grouped by their geographical locale more than anything else. I'm not sure it has more animals that the Montgomery zoo, but it does have more eateries, more walking paths, more interpretive displays, and more notoriety (sp?). We had a nice time today - my favorite was the gorilla. This ape was closer to the glass and more interesting to watch than any other of its type I had ever seen. The gorilla systematically chewed away its lunch, then regurgitated it, spat it onto his hand, and began eating it again. This happened several times over. Not sure why, but I guess that's just how it goes for these wild animal. It was about 1.5 hours away, but the kids, already being excellent travellers, had no problem with the distance. Afterwards, we visited Smith's Variety shop in the community right outside the zoo entrance. That was kind of like a Ben Franklin, in a smaller space, with four times as much stuff. Most of it was nicer than the typical dime-store merchandise, so it is needless to say that we spent all of our time "just looking". I should have guessed before going in, noticing that the storefront was flanked by Mercedes, Infiniti, and Lexus SUVs - one toting a 2-star DoD sticker. It was fun nevertheless and we went home, exhausted after another exciting President's Day. God Bless!

Life never slows down

The family is definitely busy! It was nice to stay in this weekend, although we had a great time last Sunday making the trek to Atlanta for a housewarming/superbowl party at my brother and sister-in-law's home. It was nice to have my whole family together for the first time in a couple years - we're talking 20 of us, all in the same home at the same time! Amazing! Anyway, this weekend was all about getting back to the grindstone. I spent most of Saturday recouping from my first week with this class of students and catching up to my studies for my Masters degree program. I also chilled for the first time in a while with Rachel and watched a movie. This week brought another activity into our life - choir and music are once again in full swing in the Sulhoff household! Somehow we are finding ourselves singing with the church choir and occasionally, I'm picking up the guitar for a few songs on Sunday. The kids are starting up gymnastics and our house is getting littered with music and notes for my classes. Overall though, God is good - all the time! This week we will celebrate Valentine's Day and I'm at a loss! Hopefully, I'll think of something . . .

Third Day Grammy

Hot off the press! Third Day wins Grammy for album "Wherever You Are" !!! No surprise from this home, of course - as it really is an amazing production that captures the essence of Christ meeting us when we need Him most. Congratulations to the guys and family of Third Day! This is their third Grammy, a pretty awesome feat for a bunch of guys who met in high school and decided to share their love of God and music with others, no matter how big or small the audience. May His wonders never cease!

Hypocrisy!

I had a dillema this week. I advised a student that it was important for them to learn how to keep themselves accountable for their own actions. It made a lot of sense, until the student asked for an example. At that time, I had a complete mental block. It became a humbling moment of understanding where and how I lack self-discipline. It was not fun to tell the student that I didn't have an example. It wasn't fun being a hypocrite for that moment in time. Well, I spent the week suffering over a good response and on Friday, it came to me. Just after I had counseled this student for not following my directions, Irealized that I had given up the opportunity to go home a little earlier and spend time with my family, in order to explain my disappointment in this students performance. I failed to convey what I wanted such that the student delivered accordingly. In response to my own failure at meeting my own standard, I forced myself to stay later at work and counsel this student. That was a momentary glimpse of what personal accountability is about. It is not about resolutions and keeping them or getting the best grades in school. It is about removing personal privilege in order to right the wrong. It is about serving the standard and others before serving my own wants and desires. I felt bad about not having an example, but I was able to convey this to the student, and I believe it sunk in - in a much more frank, modest manner.