Growing up I hated taking family pictures, but continued maturity (and progressive sanctification), have mostly beat that out of me. But it seems that I passed that bad attitude on to Rachael, who was a pain the entire shoot. But alas, we did manage to get some good shots of her, and we all ended up having a good time. 

View the gallery.

View the gallery: San Antonio Zoo

Rachael is being very helpful, and having to learn to be patient with a crying baby around, but she is doing good.

Alina is still in pain, but getting better. She has been able to actually climb the stairs to sleep in our bed the past couple of nights, which has been good. Oh, and she is now eating whatever she wants to, so that’s progress too. I would give it another couple of weeks before she is able to do back flips. OK, well that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but she is getting better.

There were a number of names that I liked but were already taken up by friends or family members. For instance I really like the names Stephen and Timothy but I didn’t want to use those names because they are the names of two of my brothers (and oh, that timothy is one shady character, jk). There were other names that I liked but have lately had some negative connotations to me with people I have known, like David.

I’m sure that I had more rules that also drove Alina crazy through out this process, but hey, it’s all over now. So what’s in the name “Isaiah Daniel”? Well, Isaiah means “YAHWEH (or, God) is salvation”. And Daniel means “God is my judge”. I like the the idea that the names together show that God is our judge and because of His Son we have salvation. I love how they together tell a great story.

Oh, and just as a reference…
Alina means “noble or kind”
Rachael means “innocent lamb”
Dustin means “valiant fighter” (don’t believe me, check it)

So, I am a valiant fighter that defends my noble wife and innocent daughter through the strength of Yahweh my salvation.

Hmmm, sounds dramatic.

Anyway, Alina is just opposite of me when it comes to what we are capable of ignoring as we sleep. And last night, as during most of the thunderstorms that we experience here, her thunderstorm hysteria began to kick in.  I think she is afraid that any run of the mill thunderstorm will turn into an F5 tornado like in Twister and begin to destroy everything and send cows and semi trucks flying through the sky.

Last night though was a little different in that there where a few lighting bolts that hit pretty close to our house, and managed to wake me up to my wife’s panic (I usually sleep right through it as her worries thunder through the room).  But not last night.  I was awake.  And, as I lay on the bed wondering if I needed to get up to check the weather a bolt of lighting lit up our room and shook the house with it’s immediate thunder.  It felt as though the house had been hit.

Our bathroom door was partly open and the lights were off, and it was dark.  Well, that is until the lighting hit and the bathroom began to rapidly pulse with red light that looked to be fire.  Alina jumped out of bed and was through the bathroom door in milliseconds.  Only to discover that Rachael’s toothbrush with red lights in it that responds to being shaken had also not liked the thunder.  Stupid toothbrush.  We thought the house was on fire and it was just a blinking instrument of oral hygiene. 

You know what the worst part about the whole thing is though?  It was kind of like crying wolf.  I thought a blinking red toothbrush was fire.  I just hope that if our house ever did get hit by lightning I would not assume it was a toothbrush and fall back to sleep, turning on the fan because of the uncomfortable heat in the room.  That would be bad.

Well, I guess the last one isn’t their fault really, but those others are. I used to be healthy all of the time, never getting colds or really anything throughout the year, but not anymore. Since Rachael has been attending daycare it seems that my body has become a place for diseases to come and hang out for a while, and it seems that every couple of months Rachael and I come down with some illness that makes life miserable for a couple of weeks. Somehow though, Alina manages to avoid most of these sick times, which is good, because we would all be a hungry pathetic mess for those couple of weeks. But, she caught this one. For some reason Alina always gets and then passes on (thanks for sharing) here pink eye, or eyes. And thanks to her generosity, I have it again. So for the second time in the last 3 months (and the second time in my life) I have pink eyes.

I feel like all day long as people see me they are thinking that I am just another stoner who is looking for another hit. It’s not true. Unless of course you catch me going back again and again for eye drops. I know it’s pathetic, but at the moment I have three different kinds of eye drops in my pocket for an immediate fix. But I’m not like those other guys with blood shot eyes, because I promise, I can quit at any time. So anyway, if you see me, feel free to point and laugh, but please don’t give me that “that poor guy needs freedom from his habit, he needs Jesus” look, it’s starting to drive me crazy. So, no, I’m not high, it’s just pink eye. (Wow, look at that: a bit of poetic mastery.)

Oh yeah, and be grateful that I didn’t put a picture of my pink eyes up here for you.

The other thing that she does that drives me nuts when it comes to eating happens when she eats salad. First off, she orders the dressing on the side (which, by the way, defeats it’s purpose, if something is called dressing, that means it’s purpose is to be put on to something), but that in and of itself is not that crazy, but it gets worse. To eat the salad, she gets her fork and dips it into the dressing (maybe that’s where the dressing comes into play; it is dressing the fork after all), and then picks up some salad with her fork. She doesn’t pour the dressing onto the salad, she dips her fork into the dressing and then picks up salad. I think that’s just crazy, and I know where she gets it: her mother (I’ve seen her do it too).

I’m glad that I’m perfectly normal and don’t have any quirky things about me, I mean at least one of us is normal.

The movie finally started, but was the slowest movie I think that I have ever seen. I ended up falling asleep after about 15 minutes because it was so boring. I slept for about 15 mins or so, and the decided to get some coke and popcorn to try to keep me awake, but that didn’t work either. The movie had gone on for an hour and 15 minutes without anything happening and so being as tired as we were we left and went to bed.

Not much too exciting, but at least it was together.