Jacob Walton is here!

OK, OK. I did promise I would be back in a couple of days with at least one cool, exciting, refreshing, engaging new blog. And, yeah, I slacked a bit. But I at least started a couple--one on some specific goals I'm setting for this year; another one on my first book review. I had great intentions on using some spare time to finish those off and get them uploaded.

But a funny thing happened the last couple of weeks.

My son arrived.

Now, of course, this wasn't a big surprise. I've been kind of guessing that something was up with Becki for some time now, and I was secretly hoping she was pregnant. Turns out she was. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) Anyway, James Robert Walton IV...or "Jacob", as the little guy is called around our house and shall be henceforth...arrived a few days early, at 4:13am on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 via emergency c-section. Becki's fine; her labor came on VERY quickly and he was turned the wrong way, so the hospital had to spring into action pretty quick. They did a great job and, for the most part, the whole staff treated us very well during our extended visit. But, let me tell you, it felt GREAT to walk through our front door on Saturday afternoon!!

Wanna see some pictures? Yeah...I've got 'em...they're here.

We've all been enjoying getting adjusted to one another during the past week. Actually, I think Becki and I are getting adjusted to Jacob, rather than the other way around. He's kind of setting the pace for us right now. Good thing I took some time off work...

So, needless to say, the last 10 days or so have not afforded me a lot of time to keep my blog in order as I had intended. Sorry 'bout that. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that, with a newborn in the house, my spare time quotient just plummeted several notches. But I guess that just means I'm going to have to be that much more organized. So, I won't promise a brand-new post within a few days...but I can tell you I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Uh, don't hold your breath, though...please.

On to 2008!

So a good friend reminded me recently—not intentionally, but through normal conversation—of two things: 1. I have a blog. 2. I should probably update it before my unborn son heads off to college. Thanks, Tyler!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking of a good way to wrap up 2007. I covered a bunch of different subjects last year—the primary one being college football—and, while I do make a point of writing about things that interest me, I want to be more intentional in 2008 about what I write and how often I do it. So I guess I should just make a clean break of it and dive right in to the new year.

One of the things I really want to spend more time doing this year is reading. And not just reading anything, either. I want to expand my horizons to understand more about the world around me and how I fit into it. I want to read books that will broaden my horizons and challenge my thinking. Basically, I want to read with intent. That’s why you’ll probably see me writing more about religion (Christian apologetics in particular), politics, business, etc.

Quick side note here—I still plan on writing about some of the things you saw last year. For instance, my interest in college football is such that I’m even looking at starting a separate blog just for that. So, please don’t think I’m not planning on keeping you all updated with what’s going in my (our) life, because I will. It’s just that those updates will be shorter and less infrequent. What I hope to accomplish this year is more of an academic pursuit of sorts.

Back to wrapping up 2007. I could spend time talking about the end of football season (Tebow winning the Heisman, LSU winning it all—even though I think there are at least 3 teams who could challenge them…can you say “playoff”?, my top 5 for next year—in no particular order, Georgia, Florida, USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc.), but I won’t. I will tell you in quick update that it’s a matter of days until Jacob is born, so obviously that’s dominating our thoughts at this point. I’m probably much more anxious than Becki is (she’s content to wait until the due date), but we’re both really looking forward to meeting our son! His official due date is Jan. 27; we’ll most certainly be updating all of you when the big day comes, and will, of course, be posting pictures.

Here’s my plan to ease my blog into 2008. I would really like to do a few book reviews and share with you what I’m reading and how it’s impacted my life. I’m currently reading “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, and it’s reminding me what an incredible genius he was. So I’ll definitely be sharing my thoughts on that one real soon. In the meantime, I’d like to cover some of the books I read in 2007, so look for the first one in the next 2-3 days. I’ll cover one every couple of days or so. Then I’d like to take some time to talk (and probably rant) about Walt Disney World—one of my favorite places in the world but, in an ironic twist, probably also a place I am hating more and more, too. We just spent a weekend there and I had a whole list of things to talk about by the time it was over. So you’ll get to hear my thoughts on that, too.

So, there you have it. My plan for 2008. Hope you enjoy it. I’m really looking forward to it, myself. See you in a couple of days!