MAXTV2

Ok... I know what you're going to say. It's about time. I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Remind me not to promise things. Especially right as I'm starting a series of really good books that will give me a really fun reason to procrastinate. Once I entered the world of Percy Jackson it was hard to come back out until I was done. Then I'd forgotten about wanting to update more often. Sorry.

Things are going pretty good here. Max is getting so big. It's crazy to think that just a little while ago he was so tiny. Now his birthday is on Sunday. I decided to post a few old videos that were taken when Max was 1 week old. Then there are a couple of us at the park last month. Then one from today. I hope you all enjoy. And no promises this time, but I will try to post something soon.

New app

I'm trying out a new app on my phone that should make it easier for me to post stuff on here. So here are a few pictures to try it out.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As the title says, there are some changes going on here at Max & Me. I've changed the look and layout of the page to something I like a little better. Plus I think I'm finally to the point where I might actually start updating more often. I think I can actually hear some of you readers breathing a sigh of relief. I know you've been wanting more MaxTV or other updates for awhile now. So, I'll be working a little harder to give you more of that. Plus I'm going to be trying to write a little every once in a while about what it's like staying home with such a wonderful and demanding new boss. I'm sure most of you are more interested in pictures and videos, but you might also get a piece of my mind while you're at it. So watch out for changes ahead. I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite little guy.

MAXTV!!!

Just a few videos of Max crawling and playing around.

Max on the Max

Here is a video that I thought you all might like to see. It was taken on the Max train on the way home from the airport. Isn't he just the cutest thing?

Once again, I'm sorry about the lack of posts. I really do plan on doing more. Just don't seems to have much time to get them done. Max is now two months old. Seems like it can't be that long, but it is. He just keeps growing and growing. He's now over 10 pounds and around 22 inches tall. We found out that he a pretty good traveler. At least as long as I'm not the one sitting in the backseat with him. For some reason every time I do, he gets really fussy and we run out of milk to calm him down. But oh well. He has now been in 6 states, with 3 or 4 more to go through on this trip. We are currently in South Dakota with my parents, who are enjoying parading around showing off their beautiful grandson. But who can blame them for that. It's still a little strange to me that I have a little kid. But I suppose that's normal. I'm just happy and lucky to have Jennifer with me. She takes really good care of both of us. Well, I'll end this with some pictures of our little guy. As I said he is growing and changing it seems like everyday. So, I will try and update more often to let you see how we are doing.

Here is Max happy and talking with me on the road to SD.

Here he is a few minutes later. Not happy and screaming at me.

Max on his first trip to Moe's. mmmm clam chowder.

Here's Mr. Cool at my cousin Leah's wedding.

A family portrait on the Oregon Coast. You can't really tell it's there, but I'm telling you it is. You can trust me right?

Well, as most of you know, Maximilian Stephen Shafer was born on April 25th. It has been the most amazing and tiring two weeks of my life. Sorry about the lack of updates. I'll be trying to get more going here soon, now that things should be settling in to some sort of a routine. Max is a beautiful boy. I'll be trying to show him off as much as possible. Here are a few pictures to let you get a glimpse of him at least.

Ok. Here are the 7 files for the pictures of Max. I hope this works. Let me know if it doesn't.

Max 1

Max 2

Max 3

Max 4

Max 5

Max 6

Max 7

Well, I know I haven't updated here in a while, and as most of you know, things are going on in my life. So, I thought I'd change this blog up a little. It's now called Max & Me. And as you can probably tell from the title, it will be about my adventures with Max. So, to start off with, here are a few pictures of the nursery and of course Max's beautiful mom. Oh, and mark your calenders for next Wed. 4-29-09 looks to be the day that Max will come into this world. Already he is being stubborn. I think he gets that from his mom, cause I'm not stubborn at all.

Well, I'll try and keep you all updated on our adventures. I hope you all enjoy them as much as we will.

New blog

I know. It's been a while since I've updated. Well, that might be changing. But for now I probably won't be putting much on here. I have started up a new blog though. I've started writing a little piece on the bus ride home everyday, and thought I'd put it up for others to read and respond to. But I wanted to give it it's own place. So, for now check out my new blog: The 62 Rambles On...

Indiscriminate Act of Kindness

Just a quick note to let you all in on an artist that I'm amazed by right now. I hope you like the video. I'll post the lyrics below so you read them if you want. His name is Foy Vance. He's from Ireland. He's amazing. Need I say more? The video is him with the Ulster Orchestra from Belfast.

Indiscriminate Act of Kindness

She came in from the cold, wet

Dropped her luggage bags; looked the concierge in the eye
said I need a room for the night but I don't got no money…
Will you take payment in kind?

He said ‚ it’s alright; I've got a room here you can share mine.
Make the bed in the morning and that'll do fine.
You can change in the bathroom, hang your clothes on the line…
A tear came to here eye as she thought‚ How could he be so kind

She sat down on the bed with a needle
He said I'd hate to see you bleed
I'll just fetch a warm towel and sit with you till your dry
She started to cry saying ‚Why‚ why, why

Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness!

She was cold turkey. He was holding her hand
She said I was ruined by a man‚ and this was never in my plan
I dreamed of men who loved me together we'd see the world
But somehow I lost myself among the insults they hurled

I'm sure you're a wonderful woman, and someday there'll surely be someone
So just relax now. It's important that you're calm
She said‚ how is it you can see past me as I am

Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness!

When you took your chances it was like you placed a bet
And sometimes this is the reward you can get
I was always taught, when you see someone defiled
You should look them in the eye and smile
Take their hand or better still, take them home Home Home…

She awoke early in the morning made the bed gathered up her clothes to leave
Saw the concierge curled on the settee
And said what you did for me is hard for me to believe

I was just doing what was right
No one that knows love could leave you out there on such a night
If you can help someone bear this in mind
and consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness

Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness!

Heavy

It's come to that point again where I can't believe I've gotten to that point again. You wouldn't believe how many times I've been here looking around and wondering what's going on. I feel so lost and so alone. Even as people start to surround me again. Nothing seems to ever change. I just keep messing things up again and again. Times like these I feel like I want to run away. Nothing matters. Nothing changes. Nothing stays the same. I know that makes no sense. It's not supposed to. I don't know what sense to make out of the jumble of things going on in my head. Nothing seems worth it right now. I'm at a point in my life where it seems that things should be set up. Things should be the way they will be for a while. Yet nothing is set up. I don't even know what to set up let alone how to set it up. As these words pour from me, I know that no one will probably read them or if for some reason I do put this out there somewhere. No one will understand it.
Every one around me seems to like me. Them seem to think that I'm good for something. At home my wife loves me and treats me good. My dog jumps in my lap and should help me be happy, but I find my self clinging to them both hoping that they will cure this pain inside. Knowing that they can't. Knowing that they don't even know this pain. Knowing that I would do anything within my power to never let them feel this kind of pain. Knowing that if I let them go, they may never come back. Sometimes thinking that might be for their best.
At church people seem happy to see me, but no one has really taken the time to get to know me. Maybe that's my fault. They all say hi and introduce themselves. I smile and introduce myself. Meeting adjourned. See you again next week. Same bat time. Same bat place. Why is it that I can no longer let anyone in? Why is it that when people do reach out to me I push them away? Why is that I feel so alone and yet can't bring myself to reach out to people?
At work they can't believe the things that I can get done. Yet they cut my hours to the point that I can't even put food on the table. All the job is for me now is an excuse to get out of the house and a chance to try and add a few dollars to the bills. But I end up spending more than I make and can't seem to reign it in. My bank probably loves me. Anyone I give that much money to probably should. I can't seem to even stay afloat.
I feel God leading me in all these directions. But no real directions on how to get there. These thoughts that pop into my head that I wish were out there are not and I feel called to do them. But have no way to do them. Or knowledge on how to do them. I've tried to come closer to God only to find my demons in the way.
I know that none of this makes sense. But these are the thoughts that keep me up at night. This is a glimpse at the pain that is within me. I don't expect anyone to understand. I don't even expect anyone to comment. I don't think I would. If you do read these words, I'm sorry to put you through it. You shouldn't have to wade through this river of confusion that I happen to put myself into more and more these days. I'm sorry to drop all this on you like this. What can I say. I went to write something and the floodgates have opened up and so forth came the flood. I don't even know why I'm typing this to begin with. I just know that I'm lost and alone and scared. Please look on me kindly for these words. My heart is heavy. My mind is heavy. My hands are heavy. I want you all to know that I write this not to make anyone else feel bad or to be a burden to anyone. That is the last thing that I want. I write this because I needed to get it out there. More of this may be coming your way soon. I have several topics I'd like to talk about. Hopefully not everything will be so crazy and frantic. Or make me sound like such a manic depressive freak. I'm sorry if this scared you. I didn't know it was coming either. But now that it's out it only feels right to hit the publish button and put it out there for good.

New working hours

Well, I just wanted to write a little note to let you all know about my new hours at work. As most of you know, for the last 3 months I've been working overnights and it's been a pretty hard time for me. Before this I would have told you that working nights is the best thing for me. Well, I don't know if it's that I'm a little older or that I now have things that I like to do during the day, but it was the hardest thing for me to do these overnights. I would leave the house usually around 8 PM and not get back until between 7 and 8 the next morning. I found that the hardest thing about it was wanting to spend more time with Jennifer and not wanting to leave just a few hours after she got home.

But anyway those nights are over now and I'm back onto days now. Or should I say early mornings. Now, I'm not really a morning person at all, but if it means I get to stay home and sleep in my bed at night, I'm all for it right now. I do have to leave pretty early in the morning, but it's not really too bad. I have to leave at 5 AM now. With the switch back to mornings they put me back down to only working about 20-25 hours again. With me working 4 or 5 hours a day. This made no sense to me because I felt my bus commuting time shouldn't be equal to or greater than the time I spend at work. So, I've worked it out with them that I now work 3 eight hour days a week. So, I'm working the same hours but I don't have to be there 5 days a week. They weren't too sure about this, but have gone along with it for now. They said they'd have to keep track of the store needing the shelving time before we open on the other 2 days. But I think it should work out fine. So, I start my new schedule today and I'm really looking forward to it. Not really the getting up and 3:30 or 4 but the being able to spend more time at home doing things I care more about.

Oh and the other reason I wanted to work fewer days is to spend more time on my writing. So, you may see some additions to the site. Who knows. I may even start updating you on the comings and goings of our lives out here in Oregon. I'll keep you all updated.

Speak Lord

Well, as I promised a while ago when I decided to change my blog, I'm finally going to post some of my work up here. This is something I wrote recently. I really would like to know what people think about this. You can either post it in the comments or email me. Thanks.

Speak Lord

Geoffrey D. Shafer
10-28-07

So many times I get so caught up in
The hustle and bustle of life.
Things move to fast for me to comprehend
Just what's going on around me.
I find myself lost in a world I don't know
Wondering how I ended up here.
But I can't hear a thing for all the noise
Drowns out the silence I long for.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

I find it hard to block out everything
To hear my Savior's call.
He's not in the noise that closes me in.
He's no in the action that I see.
I long for that quiet and faraway place
Where I can focus and listen.
Lord show me how to get to that cave
So I can hear you whispering.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

Is there a place left in this world
Where I can find peace?
Is there a place where I can stop
And talk with my Lord?
Lord lead me to that quiet place
So I can be with you.
Show me a way to block out the noise
That overwhelms me.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

It's been over a month since I've last posted anything. I'm sorry about the delay. Things have been a little crazy around here. For the most part things are OK, or getting there, but it still feels like a lot of this is up in the air. Oh, well. Through all of this I have found a new closeness to God and new levels of trust in Him. Through some of the darkest times in these past few months, I've felt the reassuring hand of God working in my life. And through it all, I've known that things were going to turn out fine. But that's not really what I wanted to talk about here. So, I'll move on...

As most of you probably know, tomorrow is my 27th birthday. Most of you are probably saying that this shouldn't bother me. I'm still young. But it does bother me. It's been eating at me most of this week. I'm not sure why, but I feel a whole lot older the 27, but at the same time can't believe that I'm 27. I know it's not a milestone year like 30 or 20 or 25, but for some reason it has really affected me. I find myself dreading tomorrow. I know that it won't change anything, but it feels like it will. I've already gone through my quarter life crisis at 25. I've already thrown my life in the air to see where it lands by quitting jobs and ended up right back where I started. As I said at the beginning of this blog, I feel closer to God than I have in a long time. But for some reason. This one day really bothers me.

I think part of it has to do with being closer to the age where I need to know what's happening in my life. At least this is how I feel. It seems that most people my age seem to have most things figured out. You've settled into a career. You're starting your family. For the most part you know where you're life is going. I don't have anything figured out. I don't have a career. Kids seem so distant to me right now. Life seems so up in the air for me. Jennifer has a career. Our friends are having kids like crazy. It feels like time has slipped away from me and I don't know what happened. My whole life I've had these huge dreams of what I was going to do with my life. Very rarely have they involved a steady and normal career. And until I met Jennifer they didn't usually involve kids and a family. 

I think part of it is the conflicting voices in my head. One says I should give up my dreams and just settle for what I have now. One says not to give up the dreams. Not to forget the things I have now, but to look instead to the dreams that God has given me. The talents that I have. The ideas being planted in my head.

I think the thing that's getting me the most about this birthday is that it's bringing both voices out louder. And with all this screaming in my head it seems hard to concentrate on anything else.

Well, anyway... If you read all of that, I thank you. I don't know if any of it made sense. It's really early or late or however you want to look at it, and sleep has been hard with the voices and all.

As I end this post, I don't want anyone to worry about me. I didn't write these things up here to cause you to worry. I just needed a place to get these things out. Hopefully tomorrow will come and go soon. Maybe my mind will calm down a little after that.

Thanks...

~gs/the walking zombie/the 27 year old who knows nothing but that God is good

Changes to blog

Well. You've probably already noticed one of the changes. I don't know why, but I just like this one better. There will also be other changes to my blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I don't feel that it will be the same no matter what. I'll probably still post on here from time to time. But it will not be a day by day account of my life. I can only post that I got up, went to work, came home, eat and slept so many times before it gets a little boring. I will still post things on here from time to time. But probably not everyday and probably not about the comings and goings of my life.

I have several things I'm thinking about doing with this space. One of the is an outlet for creative writing. I don't know how that one will pan out, but we'll have to wait and see. I just wanted to let anyone who does read this not to expect too much out of me on here. I just don't seem to have it in me to do this kind of day to day life reporting. Or, at least, don't have interesting things to write about from day to day.

Well, now that I've said my peace I'll be off and out for a while.

~gs

Weekend With The Coles

Jennifer's parents flew in this weekend to see us in our new home. We picked them up at PDX on Saturday and took them back to our apartment to show them our new place. Then we headed out to a car show in the area.

Then after some fun with the bus system and some broken down buses, we made it back to our place. By then it was getting late. Especially for the Coles who were still on CST. We took them back to there hotel and grab some dinner at the Black Bear Diner. It's a great place to eat, and also right next to the closest hotel.

Sunday morning I could not seem to get up. So, Jennifer went with her parents to Portland First Church Of The Nazarene. One of Jennifer's mom friends is the pastor's wife here. We thought it would nice to go there because of the connection. But the pastor is in the middle of a three mont sabbatical that ends in a few weeks. Jennifer said that the service was nice and that even with the pastor and his wife gone the Nazarene web still holds strong. They met a few people that they knew anyway.

Then they came home and changed and picked me up and we headed down the the Oregon Zoo. We had a great time and some some great animals. We actually saw some that we didn't see the last time we went because it was a lot cooler and cloudy so more of them were out in the open.

After that we came back to Beaverton with the hopes of going out to Borders. But the bus that goes out there doesn't run after 7 or so. So, we just walked down to Burgerville for some dinner. I have to say I was impressed by the quality of food. I don't think I've ever actually ate at one before, but I really liked it. I even ate a Walla Walla Sweet Onion Ring for my dad. It was really good.

Well, that's all the adventures for so far. I'll update again in the next few days as things happen.

Some Pictures from a Weekend with the Coles

Steve at the car show

Cheryl at the car show

Can I have me treat from Sampson yet?

Are bald eagles really bald?

The Cole Exhibit at the zoo

Here grizzly, grizzly...

Here's to Walla Walla

So, Long Time, No Update

Well, it's been awhile since I last updated you all. So, I thought I'd say a few words. Work is going good. My schedule is now Monday to Friday 6:30-1 or 2. I like this because it gives me the weekends off. The main reason I have this schedule now is that I can't get to work until at least 7 on Saturdays and they didn't like that very much. So, we switched it up. Also this will give me the weekends to spend with Jennifer, seeing as those are her days off too. She is supposed to start work sometime this next week, but has to wait for the paper work to be done, so probably not till Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jennifer and I tried to make it in to get our Oregon Driver's License on Friday, but we didn't have the right papers to show our residency here so we will try to make it back in tomorrow after I get off work, if Jennifer doesn't work. We'll have to wait and see.

Then the big news that everyone is talking about is that Harry Potter 7 came out. I wanted to go out to the midnight release, but there was no way we would have made it back home, so we made the trip out to Border's Saturday morning to pick it up. I haven't read that much yet. Unfortunately I have to sleep sometimes. If I had been able to get it Friday night I would have stayed up reading it, but I can't do that now. Maybe tonight, but we'll have to see about that.

This morning Jennifer and I got up and went to church for the first time while here in Portland. We took a short bus ride over to St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church here in Beaverton. We neither one really felt at home in this church though and are not too sure if we will go back. But oh well. We knew it wouldn't be easy to find a new church. We have several more that we'll try though. We'll keep you updated on the church search.

I think that's it for now.