Starting off a new week

Well, the past few days have been pretty eventful. I am recovering well from surgery. I've had very little pain, but am still taking it easy. I over-did it a bit yesterday, tried to pick up my 25 pounder, had to rest the remainder of the day. Jo is a super substitute mom for Maddy and doing a great job helping around the house. And we're also getting in some good laughs like we always do when we're together. Keith has not been feeling well for the past several days and I'm hoping he will return to normal soon! Maddy apparently has been sick for many days, we just didn't know it. Somewhere in our travels during the past week she has picked up hand, foot & mouth disease. (I can hear the collective sypmathetic gasp from mom's everywhere). She seems to be feeling okay, but the sores just look so painful to me. She should be getting over that in the next couple of days. Unfortunatley that meant we couldn't go to church today.....sad. Not a fun way to spend Father's Day. I think we'll go out for Snoballs later, that should make everyone happy!

Brokenhearted

At our ultrasound yesterday, we found out there was no heartbeat. Please pray for us as we are mourning for the child we never got to meet and for my surgery (d and c) tomorrow at noon. Keith & I covet your prayers.

On the way home from the doctor yesterday I saw a billboard which read:
"Jesus-the healer of broken hearts" and I was quickly reminded that even in this I can praise Him. No matter the circumstance, He is still the Lord and worthy of praise.

I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Pics

Put up some pics on Facebook from our trip. If you aren't connected to me there, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075763&id=41801150&l=a1cb7f5401

Home from Alaska!

We had a great time on our cruise w/ my fam, but I am glad to be home and back to a semi-regular schedule for my baby, who is not so babyish anymore.  BUT we have another little one on the way, so I'm sure I'll be getting a baby fix soon enough.  This one is due January 10th. I have my first ultrasound next week, so there will be pics soon! We are really excited.  I will post some pics from Alaska soon, between all of the cameras that went, I'm sure we have thousands of photos, so I need to collect them from other people. We told my parents via Maddy's shirt, but eventually I had to help matters along b/c no one was noticing what it said.  Everyone is excited though.  Except the part where we can't go anywhere for Christmas :( I'm really sad about that. Oh well, no dwelling on that now. Hope everyone has a great day! 

Our afternoon trip to the beach

Keith worked a half day on Friday because he was already over his hours and we decided to head to Gulfport, Mississippi, for a mini afternoon vacation!  We went to the beach for about an hour, then went to the outlet mall to pick up a few things for our cruise. It was a great time away from the city.  It was Maddy's first time to the ocean and I think she (like her parents) prefers the pool :)

Playing with the menu at dinner, the kids loves menus, I think b/c they resemble books? 

She absolutely loved this water ball, I'm sure we'll make good use out of those this summer

Eww, Mom I have something on my hand, get it off! 

Right before we went to the beach and one of the few pics we got with the hat on! 

Playing peek a boo with the laundry room door

Maddy loves straws, among other things (cups, bottles, napkins, menus, the list goes on).  She chews on them, but this was a new way to manipulate it, too cute! 

Can't believe it's been so long....

Sorry to those I've disappointed, including myself, for not blogging at least a little more frequently! We've been pretty busy lately.  Keith's semester is finally over and we are home free for summer.  Woohoo! In April we traveled home to Andy & Caitlin's wedding which was wonderful! I attended my first crawfish boil at the seminary and was pleasantly surprised. It is a lot of work to get a little tiny bit of meat out, but at least it was good!  Kevin, Amy & Ashton (Keith's twin brother & fam) came to visit a couple of weekends ago and we had a great time!  We hit up all the fun places: the French Quarter, good eatin', the aquarium, etc. I'm so thankful they took time to come spend with us, it was much fun getting caught up! We seem to be on the go a lot, I feel like I live from one trip to the next, this time we made it 4 weeks at home.... We're leaving tomorrow (Tues.) for Valdosta to Keith's parents house and are really looking forward to seeing his family! 

Maddy at the Aquarium 

Kevin, Amy & Ashton at Cafe Du Monde

Maddy with Dad at the Aquarium 

Ashton & Madison playing on the sofa

With Mom at the Aquarium 

So funny. I don't think he could have opened his mouth any wider! 

My first little crawfish....he was yummy.

The fam at Caitlin & Andy's rehearsal dinner! 

Truevalue Spring Market & some other stuff!

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday night in the rain and we painstakingly searched for a place to eat that didn't have a 2 hour wait, luckily we found one! Dad left early Saturday morning to head to the hardware show downtown and Keith went to work for a few hours.  We joined Dad at the show around 11am. For those (probably most) who haven't been to a hardware show, they are pretty huge.  There are hundreds of vendors selling anything you might ever want to find in a hardware store.  So you walk around and buy stuff for your store, or in our case, walk around and see what's there, get the free stuff and eat the plentiful peanuts. While looking around, we came across the Radio Flyer booth and were looking at their stuff.  (Dad had already commented that he was thinking about getting a wagon for Maddy and I wanted to see what all they had)  So, we walk up and there is this Radio Flyer Sport Coupe that I put Maddy in cause it looked fun.  It had a handle so the parent could push the child if necessary.  I asked the salesman if I could take her picture in it and he said, "sure, in fact if you want, you can push her around in that." I was like, 'sold' and we took off.  So here are various pics of Maddy in the awesome coupe that I think we talked Pop into.  Oh, she had her monkey has her passenger, thanks to the Jernigan's for her birthday :) 

The Yummy peanuts I took a picture of for Jo Jo (who desperately wanted to come, but couldn't due to school).  Everyone had to have a badge to get in, even Maddy. And a random alligator we got from a vendor. 

After we left the show about 3ish, we went to lunch/dinner at Landry's.  It was so good, except having to look at the 'snot rockets' as I like to call them.  Dad & Keith enjoyed them though.

Dad likes to entertain Maddy with some dog-like activities! Fun for everyone. 

Outside of Landry's (the one located on the Lake, not the French Quarter). Mom pointing out the sail boats to a very tired one year old. 

Playing at home after her nap on Sunday! 

It was a fun weekend, I took Mom and Dad to the airport this morning.  Beth Moore is coming to NOLA this weekend and I got a free ticket from one of my neighbors!!! I can't wait to go! A big thank you in advance to my amazing husband for keeping Maddy while I'm gone.

Maddy turned One!

We left on Thursday March 12th for the long trip to Cleveland.  We arrived at 11:30pm, it was late, Madison was past ready to get out of the car seat.  Picked up a few hours of sleep before Friday hit.  We had the priviledge of going to eat lunch with my great grandmother in Norcross. This is a picture of Grandma Minnie with Jo and Maddy at lunch.  

We also we preparing for my cousin's bridal shower, which was Saturday morning AND making the cake for Maddy's party.  I started before dinner and finished at 1am. (When I say "I" I really mean me, Mom, Keith, Jo & I think Verona helped too, my memory gets fuzzy past 10pm).   The ONE cake was mom's idea, I can't take the credit, but it did turn out cute.  Jeff told me he wanted a TWENTY ONE in May, I laughed. 

Saturday came and Mom & me headed south at the crack of dawn (or so it seemed after my few hours of sleep) for the shower.  It was so great.  I got to see tons of family and my almost new relative Caitlin.  Another cousin Shana is about 5 months pregnant and it was so great to see her! She and Josh just found out they are having a boy and I am so excited! After the shower was over, I drove me and Nana back to Cleveland for Maddy's party.  People were already arriving and it just seems like a blur in my mind.  My cousin Tiff got engaged on Friday morning and we doubled the birthday as an engagement party too.  It was such fun to see everyone and open gifts (Cause Mad was not interested) and eat cake.  She liked that okay, but it was like eating with the paparazzi, I think like 15 cameras went off and she was like "whoa, everyone's staring at me." 

The rest of the week flew by.  We got Madison a passport, Keith took a trip to middle GA for work, got hair cuts, went to church, shopped, & hung out with the fam.  Jeff and Courtney got to come home on Friday evening and we had lots of fun with them! All good things come to an end and we took a leisurely trip home on Sunday.  By leisurely I mean it took a total of 11 hours!  We stopped in Montgomery to eat at Red Robin (can I say Yum) and decided to go to Kohls and let Maddy stretch some more, from there we went to Target and back to Kohls to purchase some luggage that was 50% off. Yay for that.  Also stopped in Gulfport to get gas and groceries.  It was a long day and our house looked like a hurricane ripped through it once we (mainly Keith, actually I think totally Keith) unloaded the car. We're getting unpacked though and settling to to a semi-normal routine before Mom and Dad arrive on Friday for the Hardware Show.  So excited about that, I'll definitely post about it. 

Mardi Gras

Okay I must admit that Mardi Gras is nothing like my preconceived notions thought it was.  It's way more family oriented to start with.  The crazy stuff happens in the French Quarter mostly. Over the course of February there are over 60 parades in the city of New Orleans, most of which are completely family friendly. There are millions of beads everywhere: on trees, in streets, etc. It is like a kids dream. It is really like a local national holiday(s). The schools are closed for a few days, most businesses shut down, I'm not even sure if the mail ran or not....It's big, I'm telling you. 

Mom, Dad & Jo came into town this past weekend for a couple of days and we had a blast. (pictures to come as soon as they email me some :)  They arrived Fri. morning and we braved the French Quarter about 11am for some poboys. There were a lot of people already in the area and also some people witnessing.  I've seen some very interesting witnessing techniques over the past few days and have even wondered what Gospel they are spreading.  On Friday we saw some guys on a corner handing out stuff, I took one to see what they were sharing, it was completely evangelical, I agreed with everything on the tract.  However, on the news, they showed all these people on the infamous Bourbon Street with huge signs. Some of them read: "Why do you love the devil?" including a laundry list of sins. Another sign said Roman Catholicism is of the devil and the like. My favorite was this guy, supposedly witnessing, who had "repent you swine" on his hat.  Effective witnessing? I think not. 

Update.....finally!

Actually the reason I haven't updated in a while is cause not too much has been going on! The only highlight I can think of is Keith's mom (Mema) coming to visit for a week.  We had lots of fun with her.  We got to hang out and eat, what more could we ask for? 

Around the time that Mema started her visit, Madison decided she was going to start waking up at 6:15 every morning and she hasn't quit :( Therefore, around 8:30 or so she goes down for a nap, it's kinda crazy.  

Other 2 items of note.  1) I decided to join the local MOPS at church and I am loving it. It's twice a month and I love the fellowship and learning time.  Most recently we had a woman talk to us about praying with and for your child.  It was awesome! 2) I got to go to our church's women's retreat.  It was totally worth it! We had so much fun and learned a lot from our speaker who was a very spunky elderly professor. 

The kid loves cups. I don't know why. I actually had to go ask for another cup at this restaurant because she started screaming when I took it out of her hands....

More to come soon...