A Rather Large Announcement

Before I get to the substance of this post, I have a major announcement to make: the Carroll family is moving! We're going to be heading off to the lovely town of Three Hills, Alberta at the beginning of September for the upcoming school year at Prairie Bible College where I can finally finish my degree. We'll be leaving on September 1, returning in mid-December for the Christmas break, and heading back again in January for the winter semester, returning for good (hopefully, but you never know, do you?) in April. We'll be back on other occasions as well (Thanksgiving, for one), but we're not exactly sure when.

The reasons for our move are many, all of which can be summed up in one: distance education just wasn't cutting it. I've come to realize how important getting this degree is to me and my future plans, and this is the best way to finish it right now. I'll explain more of that some other time.

Now, you may be wondering when we hatched this crazy plan and why it's taken us so long to reveal it. Well, the reason is that we only came up with it two weeks ago. That's right, the entire thing from conception to birth took a grand total of two weeks to put together. It's been a whirlwind, and it'll continue until the day we leave. I got approval for my academic plans last week, and we just got confirmation today that we'll have a place to live. It's been exhausting.

I can also say that this whole thing could only be possible if it was God's ordaining for it to happen. There are so many "coincidences" that have had to fall into place in order for this thing to work (I'll explain more of them some other time as well) that there's no other explaination than God's providence. For the first time in a long time, we feel like we're back on track with where God is leading us, after fighting against it for some time. Now that we're on board, it's feeling pretty good. We have no fears about going, because we know that God is with us.

*Jarring transition* What does this mean for the blog? Well, I'm not sure yet. We may choose to forego internet access in the house and use the school computers instead, which means that uploading phots will probably be a no-go. But don't quote me on that--I'll do my best to keep you, the blog-consuming public, in the loop. What I can say is that I'm going to be starting another blog dedicated to our exploits in Three Hills, while still maintaining this blog for strictly Theo-related purposes. As soon as I think of a catchy name, I'm going to register it and I'll let you know where it is. If you care. It won't personally offend me if you don't. Okay, maybe it will just a little. But not much.

Now that I've consumed so much space talking about us, let's have a little Theo update, shall we? Everything here is going smoothly, to whatever extent raising an infant can be described as "smooth." Theo's a really character now; he's sitting up on his own (and falling over when he decides to reach for his toes, which are still his favourite plaything) and babbling a whole lot. He's eating a wide variety of solid foods (grains, veggies, and fruits), his favourite of which by far is the banana. He's also going through a massive teething process which seems to have reached its zenith (oh man, any time I can use that word, I'm happy) in the past week or so. Oh, how we love the Tylenol at this house. And don't get me started on the drool. Oy vey. But hey, when he's happy, he's one funny guy. He likes to play and interact with us, which is really cool; he has his favourite games (one of which involves being chased by the "Daddy-monster") and he laughs when we play them. Fun times are being had by all. Except when he won't sleep. That seems to be his biggest challenge right now, but we'll get over it. All-in-all, we're happy as clams.

How about some photographic evidence? You betcha. I've got some good ones here, most of which fit in the "comedy" section. For example:

"Onward!" Love it. The other day, we caught him trying to steal our car...

Aha, busted!

But after a hard day, there's nothing like a good snooze...

Yes, we know we're irresponsible for letting him sleep that way. Tough.

This expression was particularly difficult to capture, even though he uses it qute a bit. We call it "turtle face"...

And here's one that I've been told I have to put on the blog, as much as I don't want to (I can't stand pictures of myself, in case you haven't guessed). I only put it up here under duress and threat of punishment from my wife...

Of all the foods he does like, orange-coloured veggies are definitely not a hit...

Here are a couple of good ones from a recent photo shoot:

"Hey there, come here often?"

After all that photography, a snooze is definitely in order...

A couple more great shots from another photo shoot...

But there are consequences to taking too many photos. "I'm getting unhappy..."

"Definitely not liking this anymore..."

"Okay, that's it, I'm done with this!"

Just so we don't end off on a sad note, here's a great photo of the two good-looking members of the household...

That's it for now (and it's a lot). I'll update at least once more before we take off. I hope to hear from some of you in the comments section (we got three for the last post!). Chat with you again soon.