Our Christmas Decorations are Complete!

11.14.2009 Cows and Wows

I'm not making this title up..."Cows and Wows" was definitely the name of the Jacksonville Agricultural Fair located in Downtown Jacksonville amidst the skyscrapers and convention halls. We had a fabulous time showing the boys the real live cows, chickens, bunnies and sheep, walking through all the rides and food pavilions (we bought our tickets online, so we printed our tickets off the computer and I walked out of the house without any cash, meaning that we couldn't play any games or eat any fair food. What a bummer!) and watching a few shows. The shows were the highlight. We watched a man basically wrestle a real live alligator - wow! Then we went and saw a pig race. Grant was chosen to be the cheer leader for our section, so when our pig won, he was called up on stage. They asked him his name and he said, "I three." They said, "Oh, but what's your name?" to which he eloquently replied, "Ummm...." The crowd got a kick out of him. He received a blue ribbon (even without knowing his name) for winning and he was so proud of that ribbon, holding onto it for the rest of the evening! We also saw a dog show that was absolutely incredible. It was fun to watch the boys take it all in. They were dancing, singing, laughing and playing all night long. What a fun family night!

Dancing before the pig races started

Boys and their toys...

11.08.2009 Decorating the Christmas Tree

The day had finally come...Chris was home and the boys were so excited to decorate. Most especially, however, they were greatly anticipating the setting up of the Christmas train, who's box had been tantalizing them for days. They couldn't wait to put that thing up! They were so cute as Chris pulled it out of the box. They both tried to help put the track together and they were so excited once it was finally up and running...they stood there, both of them jumping up and down in sheer excitement as they watched it go round and round. It really was precious. Patiently waiting for the okay to take the train out of the box...

11.07.2009 Christmas in a Child's Eyes

We were going to decorate for Christmas on November 8 after Chris came home from work, so while he was on call on the 7th, Grant, Mason and I pulled out the Christmas tree to set it up so when Chris got home, we could decorate. Grant was so cute. As soon as he saw the box for the tree, he started jumping up and down, and all he could say was, "I'm so excited!" over and over again. I had the tree put together before their nap, but no lights were on it. So when the lights were on after he woke up from his nap, he came out rubbing his eyes, and they just kept getting bigger and bigger. After a few minutes of standing there silently rubbing his eyes, he turned around just as quickly as he could, tore off back to his bedroom where he shouted, "Mason, Mason, you gotta wake up! CHRISTMAS is here!" It was so cute.

As we had started decorating, I sat them both down and talked to them about Christmas being Jesus' birthday, and how he was born in a stable and the shepherds and wisemen came to see him and worship him. Then I told them that it was their job to put the Nativity set under the tree. They worked on it for at least an hour. After a while, Grant came to get me to see their handiwork. They did a great job - everything was perfect...except I noticed one thing that was strange. There was a race-car driver from one of his toys in the middle of the nativity scene.

I said, "Grant, who's this?" as I pointed to the race-car driver.

He matter-of-factly said, "That's a man like today, mommy."

I said, "Oh, it is, huh? A man like today?"

"Yep," he answered, "because we need to worship Jesus, too, Mommy!"

I thought that was great theology! Needless to say, the race-car driver is part of our Nativity set this year (and maybe every year after this, too). I'm not moving him for anything!

New favorite pasttime

The boys have a new favorite past-time. They beg to do it at least 100 times a day. And I must say, it's getting me some great exercise as I run along beside them now that Grant's figured out the Turbo Speed button. :) They both hop on the toy motorcycle together and we go up and down the street for hours. They LOVE it. Aren't they cute?

Biketoberfest

Here we are half way through November and I'm just now blogging about something that happened half way through October. Sorry. Life has been so busy lately...

Chris was so excited to get to go to Biketoberfest here in Daytona back in October. His cousin, Chey, and his friend, Marty, came down here to stay with us and the three guys drove their motorcycles to Daytona Saturday morning, home Saturday night, then back again Sunday morning, home Sunday night. And then Chey and Marty drove all the way back through the frigid weather to KY. They put over 500 miles on their bikes in just two days. I can't imagine how many miles Chey and Marty put on their bikes on their trip to FL (they drove all the way down to the Keys before coming back up to Jacksonville). That's more driving that Chris had ever done. He LOVED it!

Our two little guys were bummed that Daddy was gone so much - and on the bike, nonetheless. But we did go to Destination Daytona with them one day and had fun looking at the motorcycles. Grant picked out a patch to put on Daddy's new leather vest (yes, a leather vest...he's big time now, people). As hard as we tried to find something other than a skull and cross bones, that's what Grant thought his daddy needed, so since we told him he could pick it out, we went with it. Actually, his vest does look pretty neat with the reflective skull on the back at night time. And yes, I do roll my eyes every time I see it. :)

As a side note, it's official...I'm a true biker's wife now. I went on my first ever motorcycle ride just yesterday while hanging on for dear life to the back of Chris as he drove me through our neighborhood that has a speed limit of 25 mph. :) Whoa! And I must say, I had fun! I was a little nervous, but it definitely was fun. Chris laughed at me and said I had a death grip on him. At least he finally got me on the thing - a year and 1/2 after we got it! ;)

Correction - Mukeu (Not Mukuyu)

So today I received an e-mail from someone with the correct spelling of the village to which we are going. It is the Mukeu (Muh-kae-you) village in the heart of Kikuyuland with a native tongue of Gikuyu. From what I can tell, it seems that while the people we will be staying with will speak Swahili and English, the majority of the people in the village will not speak either. Translators will definitely be necessary! The clinic's location will be up in the mountains. I hear it's beautiful. Due to the high elevation, even though it is close to the equator, we will find it to be rather chilly in the mornings and evenings. The average daily income here is about $2.50. And yet I'm told that the people here are more content and fulfilled than most Americans.

The population of the area is about 20,000. Compassion Works International has built a medical clinic and dental clinic there already; they are working on a maternity ward for the clinic which is desperately needed (women will hike to the clinic more than 5 miles in labor, have the baby, and hike back home within a couple of hours of giving birth) as well as a library for the community.

When I described the village before in my previous post, I spoke of an orphanage there...I don't believe that is the case afterall. So as you're praying for these people, use the limited information in this post, as opposed to what was given you before. Sorry. :(

I did find a picture of the medical clinic, but I can't save it to my computer to attach here. If you'd like to see it, as well as the family that I think we're staying with, go HERE. Otherwise, here are a couple of pictures I found of Mukeu. The first is of Dr. Sams (who is leading our trip this year) when he was there several years ago inside the medical clinic. The second is of the people waiting outside of the clinic to be seen.

Our mission trip needs

After our meeting last week with World Hope, I learned that there are several items that we are in need of for our trip:

* Vitamins (especially children's and pre-natal)

* Hand Sanitizer (we are taking gloves to examine the patients, however, we will not be able to change our gloves after each patient, relying on hand sanitizer to do a good enough job of sterilization.

* Over the counter drugs such as tylenol and motrin - adults and children's




* Any basic hygeine items such as Toothbrushes and Toothpaste

* Ziplock Bags - we will be prepackaging the prescribed amounts of medication in ziplock bags to speed up the dispensing process in the pharmacy.

* As always, LOTS of PRAYER is needed, too! :) You can find our prayer requests HERE

In addition, any and all medical donations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all so much for your incredible support as we prepare for this mission trip. It means so much to us, and I know that many lives will be changed (including, and perhaps most profoundly, our own) as a result of this trip.

Our first meeting with World Hope!

Chris and I had our meeting last night with World Hope and are really excited! I took a bunch of notes, and thought you might be interested in seeing where we'll be, what we'll be doing, etc. I have included a tentative schedule below, along with website references so you can see what we're doing! Love you all! Thanks for praying.

We will be staying at Karen Holiday Homes http://www.karenholidayhomes.com/ which is off the beaten path and about 20 minutes from the Hope Center. It is very safe, clean and does have a pool, if interested. A washing machine is available in the house. Wireless internet capabilities are available at the house as well as at various restaurants so for at least the first week, we can update you here.

Tentatively, the schedule while we are with World Hope is as follows:

Sunday we will go to church (1-½ -2 hours) and sort medications to prepare for our upcoming clinics.

Monday we will go into the slums and make “house calls.” We will call on these people later in the week to check in on them, as well.

Tuesday - Thursday we will be having clinic with occasional breaks for such things as watching the children perform music at their schools, watching the national “football“ team sponsored by World Hope, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Hope, the giraffe park http://www.africanmeccasafaris.com/kenya/nairobi/excursions/giraffecenter.asp, etc. If you have not seen the movie “Out of Africa” watch it. Evidentally it was filmed here. Chris will be doing "doctor" stuff here, and I will be working alongside him, as well as volunteering in the local orphanage (which if you know me, you know my dream has always been to serve in an orphanage in Africa - I couldn't be more excited!).

Friday morning we will go to the Safari National Park http://www.africanmeccasafaris.com/kenya/safaris/parks/nairobipark.asp, Our mini-safari is just a few hours and should be over by noon.

We will then leave for a small village where we'll be spending the remaining two weeks. Chris and the other two doctors will be doing clinics. While I'll be helping out in the clinics some, I will also be helping out with daily life - milking cows, hauling water, washing clothes by hand, cooking, entertaining the local children, etc. We're really excited to be staying in someone's personal home and living traditional village life first hand! Many of the homes there are traditional mud huts with dirt floors, etc. The family that we are staying with does live in such a home. They have, however, built a cinderblock home on their property where they host any mission families that come. This is where we will be staying. There is no running water from what I understand, and may or may not be electricity. They cook all of their food in a "smoke house" next to their house and I hear we'll be eating a lot of goat...hmm...

We will be walking 1-2 miles each day through the mud (we have to get special "gum boots" that go up to our knees to do this) to get to the clinic on top of a plateau where this village is located with all dirt/mud roads. Between the hiking and goat-eating, I think I'll be losing some weight! Ha! It will be so interesting and I can't wait to share our stories with you. I'm sure our lives will never be the same.

Thanks for continuing to pray with us! We'll keep you updated!

10.31.2009 Halloween Trick or Treating

We had a blast trick or treating this year! We had 9 kids all together and they really were down to business! It was seriously something like 90 degrees here that day, so it was REALLY hot - I had on a skirt and T-Shirt and I was miserable. I'm so impressed with these kids for having these costumes on! I tried to convince Grant to leave the part from around his face off, but he would have nothing of that. He wanted the WHOLE costume. Half way through the night, he looked up at my, crossed his arms, and sighed really big. I asked him what was wrong, and he just said, "Mommy, my legs are just really sweaty!" Ha! Go figure!

Mason didn't get into trick or treating too well. I thought if perhaps I would go up with him to the first 5 or so houses, he might figure it out, but he didn't, so I figured if it wasn't important to him, there was no way I was walking up to every house for candy. :-) He sat in the stroller most of the night contentedly holding his pumpkin. We realized later that he had figured out how to take the paper off of the suckers and I'm pretty sure he ate around 3 suckers...Hmmm...we finally took the pumpkin away. He definitely had a sugar high!

We came back to the house after trick-or-treating and had chips and salsa, apples and caramel dip and some drinks (definitely no hot chocolate down here this year!). All in all it was a great night. We enjoyed the fellowship and of course nothing's better than trick-or-treating for a kid! ;-)

10/31/2009 Halloween Carving Pumpkins

We had a great day! Chris had (most) of the day off, so we spent the morning running errands and just enjoying being together since he's been working so very much. After naps, we went to the computer to have the boys help pick out a design for our pumpkin. After deciding upon our design, we gingerly embarked on our pumpkin carving adventure. Mason we less than amused and really just wanted to be held. Grant, however, found great joy in smelling the pumpkin, touching the insides and even using a pumpkin carving knife all by himself! He was quite the little helper and we ended up with a great jack-o-lantern! We spent lots of time in the bathroom with the lights off admiring our work together as a family.

10.30.2009 WBC Fall Festival

We had a great time going to the Fall Festival at our church this year. I was so impressed! They had opened it up to the community, had live music from members of our church, I would guess around 20 different games that the kids could play, a professional photographer taking pictures of the kids in their costumes, huge bouncy slides, etc, free hotdogs, chips and drinks! A great time was had by all, and by the end of the night, there was hardly any room to move because there were so many people. I'd say it was a great success! We invited our friends Lenox (the mailman) and Lincoln and their mommy and daddy and enjoyed hanging out with them. So glad they came!

10.27.2009 Halloween Costumes

We had such a lovely day playing in our Halloween Costumes today! The boys love their costumes; so much so that I can hardly get them to take them off! I was a bit worried because Grant wore the Tin Man costume last year and remembered it. He was insistent that it was his and threw a fit any time he'd hear Mason was going to be the Tin Man this year. That is, until he got his Scarecrow costume in the mail today from Grandma Beutler. She made him the cutest little Scarecrow costume and he no longer cares that Mason's the Tin Man because HE's the SCARECROW! How cool! And Mason just loves his hat. Silly boys.

They DO look very cute, if I do say so myself. We took them to the pumpkin patch tonight and they definitely stole the show. I'm amazed more people don't dress up to go pick out a pumpkin down here. I mean, it's not like you're going to a field to pick your pumpkin like up north. It's not a dirty endeavor, and the costumes make it so much more fun! It's a good trade-off for not having a real pumpkin patch.

Our African Adventure!

Dear Friends,

When we began our life together nearly six years ago, we created a vision for our life. As part of that vision, we dreamed of serving the Lord together in the capacity of medical missions. We have had several opportunities to fulfill this calling in our life, however, it seems that with each opportunity that has presented itself, Sara has ended up pregnant, and we have not been able to go. In fact, we've joked that perhaps we misunderstood our calling and we're just supposed to be fruitful and multiply.

Earlier this year, Chris was presented with an incredible opportunity by to accompany his Family Medicine Program Director, Dr. Richard Sams, to Nairobi, Kenya on a medical mission trip through the month of January 2010. It was not even a possibility in the beginning that Sara would be able to go with him, so you can imagine her surprise when he came home one day and announced he had purchased her ticket to go with him for the entire 3-1/2 week mission! With great emotion, he said that "We can finally begin our ministry together." What a blessing! We have prayed for this opportunity for years.

We will be going through the organization, World Hope (http://www.weareworldhope.com/). While we are there, we will be working in an outpatient setting at small medical clinics in remote areas of Nairobi. Chris will be seeing hundreds of patients, many of whom have not seen a doctor in years, if ever. Sara will be taking vitals, working the pharmacy, and helping wherever else she may be needed.

It is with this purpose in mind that we write to you - our dear family and friends - and ask that you partner with us by keeping us in your prayers through the upcoming months. Please pray...
* That we would be prepared mentally & Spiritually for the things that we will encounter medically.
* That Chris would be given the gift of healing. To God be the GLORY!
* That the medical team (3 physicians, 2 family members) would be protected physically from the
diseases in the area, including HIV, malaria, and various tropical fevers that he can't spell.
* That we would have many opportunities to present the Gospel of Christ boldly to those with
whom we come into contact.
* That Grant and Mason will be safe, healthy and secure, and not miss their parents too much.
* That we (especially Sara) won't be distracted by missing our children.
* That God would show us His heart for His people and we would not return home unchanged.
* That we are able to come up with the $6000.00 it will cost for us both to serve our Lord in this way.

We cannot do this without you, the Body of Christ. We are so thankful for you - for your prayers, and for partnering with us on our first medical mission trip. I cannot wait to see how the Lord will work in our lives, and the lives of the many patients we come in contact with during the month of January.

Serving Him together,

Chris and Sara

"...Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest." John 4:35

If you would like to partner with us financially, please send it to to Kentucky Christian Retreat, PO Box 591 Shelbyville, KY 40066 with "Chris and Sara African Mission" in the Memo Line (it is tax deductible). And if you would like to stay abreast of what we are doing while we are there, we will try to update our blog (http://www.grantworley.com/) depending on our internet capabilities.

10.07.2009 Flowers and Silliness

One of the favorite past-times of the boys is helping me water my flowers. I think this can be attributed to the fact that most of the time they just spray each other until they're soaked from head to toe. I have enjoyed having flowers so much this year (especially since the ones in the pots I got for free!! Yeah)! My Mandevilla is my prized possession that I bought when we moved to our new house. For a long time I didn't have a trellis for it but I put one up a couple weeks ago and it is really taking off and climbing up the trellis already! Love it!
Oh - and I was doing laundry. One of Grant's jobs is helping me mate socks. He mated Daddy's dress socks and then put them on with his underwear. I thought it was pretty funny and he was quite happy to pose to showcase his silliness.

Tent Togetherness

Chris has been working crazy hours now that he's back on inpatient service at the hospital. Most nights he hasn't even been home before the kids go to bed. Tonight he was home by 7:00 so we had dinner as a family, and then we let the kids stay up until about 9:30 to play with daddy for a while. What a fun night we had! The boys built a blanket fort in our room and played in it for a while. When they had finished with that, a pillow fight ensued! They're such boys, for sure! ;-)

10.03.2009 Happy Fall!

We have some dear friends down here from New Jersey, so they're used to lovely fall weather like we are. This week we had some lovely "fall-like" weather, with some of the evenings even reaching into the 50's and the days only getting into the mid-80s. It was perfect. So we decided to have a fall party; unfortunately, however, by the time Saturday rolled around for our party, it was in the 90s again. So we made Mexican Chicken Chowder and ate it outside anyway! Ha! We also made an incredible taco dip and yummy apple enchiladas. Thanks, Julie, for making fun fall deliciousness with me! We had a great day!

09.27.2009 Grant's doing his hair!

We were getting ready for church this morning and Grant's hair was sticking out everywhere. It definitely needed fixed before we could go to church, but he would have nothing with that. So finally he decided that he wanted to do his hair all by himself. So we let him. Half of it was spiked, the other half was combed forward; he even pulled out the gel to make the spikey part stay up. But he sure was proud of it, so we didn't have the heart to change it. Sure enough, he went to church like that. I'm sure everyone thought he looked like an unkempt child, but I figured it was worth it for him to be proud of himself. And it certainly made me chuckle.
Of course I had to throw in a picture of sweet Mason, too. Aren't they handsome boys?

09.26.2009 Typhoon Lagoon

It has been quite the week. Grant has been testing me every second of the day, and I am at my wits end! Chris is working like crazy and has had several frustrating days, only to come home to a wife who is ready to pull her hair out. Grant took diaper rash cream and spread it all over the walls, furniture, bedding, his brother this week - TWICE! He got in so much trouble the first time I never dreamed he'd do it again. He's also purposefully gone potty on the carpet in his room and climbed into Mason's crib and went potty on Mason, too. I don't know where this behavior is coming from, but it has taken every ounce of determination and purpose to make it stop. This definitely cannot go on! So thanks to my mom, I've been working on some creative disciplining and I must say, I never knew I could enjoy disciplining my children so much! Some of it is quite fun and even therapeutic! ha!

So after a very frustrating week, we needed a break. All of us did. Chris' niece was down here in FL at his parents house with her hubby and 2 kiddos, so we arranged to meet them at Disney's waterpark, Typhoon Lagoon for the day on Saturday. What a blast we had! The kids were perfect, well behaved children, and we enjoyed catching up with Tiffany and Mark, playing with Jade and meeting Bryce. What a fun time! Thanks, guys, for giving us a much needed break! Whew!

09.22.2009 My Little Helper

Grant has found a new love - vacuuming! And I must say, I love having him help out, too! Ahhh - the kids can finally help. Is this the reason people have children afterall?? Surely it must rank high on the list! Ha! (Oh, and I chose this pic, mom, so you could see our patio furniture - you haven't seen it yet, have you? Isn't it pretty? It has cushions that go on it, but they're put away right now)

09.19.2009 Car Show at the Landing

There was a car show downtown today, so we took Chris as a fun thing for him to do. There were all sorts of cars - he needs to be writing this post evidentally because all I care to tell you about was the fountain! I'm sure he'd be greatly disappointed in me! ha! It was sweltering hot, and we found a fountain for the kids to play in. For a while, Grant was not there, so it was just Mason. It was very cute because all these old people would stop and watch him and enjoy this little guy playing in the water. They were even pulling out their cameras to take picture of this stranger baby. It was amusing. Soon, Grant and Daddy returned and they joined in the fun, as well. They were soaked, but a good time was had by all - even while we had to look at the cars! Ha!

09.18.2009 Fun Night Out!

I realized that Chris and I had not been out on a date in a very long time. So, as if we had to have a reason to celebrate, I racked my brain for a fun idea for a date! It occurred to me that the 19th is the 6 year anniversary of when Chris proposed to me, and the 22nd was the 7th year that we had been together. So I lined up a babysitter and took Chris on a progressive dinner. We went to a Mexican Restaurant for chips and queso (we always went to a little restaurant in Wilmore for this when we were dating) then we went to Waffle House for a patty melt plate (yet another of our frequent dating haunts). We were going to go to Wendy's for a frosty afterwards, but we were so stuffed, we just couldn't fit it in! So we took a trip down memory lane in an entirely new city and enjoyed ourselves immensely! It was fun!

09.16.2009 Sleeping soundly...

I realized it was pretty quiet around here, so I went in search of my little one. Grant was in the playroom playing by himself and I couldn't find Mason anywhere. Anywhere, that is, until I went into my bedroom to find him having pulled the pillows off of my bed, his blanket and "duckie" off of his crib all snuggled up on the floor. It was too precious not to take a few pictures! :-) It's moments like these that make me realize just how few moments we have with our children. Boy, it's going fast!

09.08.09 That's my boy...

Grant is still the Water King! He loves anything to do with water...including spraying his unsuspecting brother with the frigid water hose!

Labor Day

We had a nice labor day this year - nothing too eventful, but we did have a few friends over for a cookout. All the kids were wild, and I think all the parents were ready to get them to bed, but overall we had a great time! And this was the view I had outside our sliding glass doors right after I put my kids to bed. Isn't it beautiful!!!

09.04.09 Studio 77 Disco Party!

At our church here in Jacksonville, the choir sings all year round. Obviously during the summer, lots of people go on vacation, etc, so attendance in the choir is lower than normal. As part of the attendance campaign over the summer, if you maintained 80% attendance or above, you were invited to Studio 77 in our Family Life Center. You were encouraged to dress the part, and the best dressed male and female would each win a prize! If you know me, you know I really get in to this kind of stuff! My family would have had a ball doing this...perhaps we'll have to keep that in mind for a family gathering in the future! :-)

Chris actually surprised me and really got into it, as well, even insisting that I buy him the platform shoes with the goldfish in the heel. He was quite the ham, and people in choir now know me by my husband. I've been in choir for over a year and people know me as Chris' wife. Go figure!

Chris actually won the best dressed male, and I was surprisingly in the top 4 of the women! Yeah! We fared pretty well, considering that we'd not even been born in the 70's! Ha!

We went with Scott and Amanda Hult, good friends of ours from church, and we had a ball! They're definitely the kind of people to go to something like this with. They're hilarious! Amanda giggled pretty much all night, and Scott was cracking jokes right and left.

Chris' wig wasn't laying right, so I put my hot rollers in it to see what we could do with it. Chris was thrilled! Ha!

Dan Mullis, Chris and Scott Hult, two of our great friends down here.

Me, Amanda Hult and Carrie Mullis, dear friends of mine down here.

Chris and Violet, the two "Best Dressed"

Afterwards, we went to Chili's for dinner. Of course we were still in our costumes. As we were walking in, there was a lady standing outside smoking a cigarette. Scott, Amanda and I all got through the door, and as Chris was coming in, she said in a husky voice, "Where ya'll been tonight?" Chris just smiled sweetly at her and said quite matter-of-factly, "Church!" She was silent for a moment and then sarcastically mumbled, "Whatever!" I don't think she believed us. We all got quite the giggle out of it, though. In fact, I laughed about it for days! What a fun night!

09.03.09 Backyard Fun!

Chris was home early this night, so we had an early dinner, resulting in some fun family time in the back yard! We tossed balls around, blew bubbles, and just sat down by the water watching for fish! Chris even taught the boys how to spit sunflower seeds. Nice, huh! ;-) We had a lovely evening enjoying each other, and I think I got a few good pictures out of it, too!

09.03.09 Disco Fever

So Chris and I had a 70's Disco party approaching. I had been working on costumes for us and Grant thought that daddy's was pretty cool. He wanted to put it on, too, so he tried it on one night. Didn't he look cool! Don't you just love the chest hair on a 3 year old!!

08.29.09 Helfrich Family Gathering

We have some dear friends down here that have adopted us into their family. I can't tell you how much it means to me that we are even invited to their family gatherings! While we try not to go to EVERYTHING and allow them their own family time, we always enjoy getting together with them and being a part of a family while we are so far away from our own. They have definitely been a blessing to us over and over again! This time we went to a local lake and played in the water. Mr. Hult brought his sea-doo and we all took turns riding it! So fun!

It was naptime, so I layed down in the van with Mason. He finally fell asleep, and took a good 2 hour nap in the trunk of the van with the trunk up and windows down. He was out!

Grant and his little friend, Victoria...they're like two peas in a pod!

On our way home after a lovely day at the lake, we were just driving along, minding our business when we saw a cop pulled off along side the road. Chris slowed down a little bit and asked me if I knew what the speed limit was because he didn't have a clue. Nope, I didn't know, either. Sure enough, the blue flashing lights came on, and we pulled off the side of the road. The Officer came up to the car and said, "I pulled you over today because you were going 20 over!" Whoa! We had no idea that the speed limit had dropped down to 35 mph! Oops! So he asked for our license, insurance and registration. I had just put our new registration on that morning. Whew! He asked if Chris' license was correct - nope. We hadn't changed the address on it since we moved. Oops. Then he asked for our insurance. We had just gotten new insurance cards and they were sitting on the kitchen counter. Same policy, but expired cards. Oops! We could really get in trouble for multiple different reasons! This could be one hefty bill! So the officer walked back to his car, and Chris is sitting there sweating bullets while I'm trying to explain to Grant that we have police officers who keep us safe and part of their job is correcting us when we do something wrong. So if we speed, sometimes we get in trouble, but it's good because they're doing their job and keeping us safe. I really wanted Grant to have a positive image of police officers. Well, it seemed that all he got out of the conversation was that "Daddy was in trouble!" So even when the officer came back up to our car, that's all Grant could talk about. How embarrassing! It turned out that he merely gave us a warning. I don't know how we got so lucky! But we definitely drove slower the rest of the way home while we listened to Grant saying, "Daddy's in trouble." And to this day, if Grant sees a police car, he says, "Uh-Oh...Someone's in trouble, Mommy!!" So much for a positive police image!

08.24.09 Temporary Tatoos

Who needs to buy them when you have crayola washable markers? Grant was coloring today while I was doing the dishes. Obviously I wasn't paying good enough attention because this is what we ended up with:

Mason now says "Cheese!" It's really not a good picture, but I think Grant sneaking around in the background is pretty funny. They definitely keep me on my toes these days!

08.23.09 Myrtle Beach Ripley's Aquarium

We had to get on the road fairly early today since we had such a long drive ahead of us. But we did manage to get to go to Ripley's Aquarium! Ripley's has a great military discount - 75% off! So our entire family went through the aquarium for about $10!! Wow! If you've never been to a Ripley's Aquarium, you definitely need to go. My favorite one so far is the one in Gatlinburg, but this one was quite nice, as well. Definitely worth a trip!

We were loading up the car this morning before heading over to the aquarium. Our second story window faced the parking lot and did not have a screen in it, so Chris went and stood below while I tossed all the "soft" items out of the window to him below! It was fun! Afterwards, I closed the window and the kids watched their daddy load up the car below. There were giggles galore! I love it when the boys get along!

Grant is in this shark phase right now - he pretends to be a shark all the time! So he was very impressed to see this actual shark jaw. It was huge!

Mason was so intrigued by this huge fish tank! They were having a feeding show, but I couldn't keep Mason away from the glass. He wanted to be right up there with those fishies! He even started saying the word "fish" today. He's quite the explorer!

08.22.09 Happy Birthday to Chris....SURPRISE!!

I was so excited about Chris' birthday this year. I had called the wife of one of his best friends from Medical School and asked if we could get together in Myrtle Beach to surprise him! Chase, Lindsey, Parker and Samantha live in Fayetteville, NC, and I had been told Myrtle Beach was only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so we figured it was a good meeting place. I didn't have a working computer at the time, so I couldn't research anything, so I depended on Lindsey to secure our hotel, etc. I appreciated her help immensely, and was so glad they could come! So Friday I picked Chris up from work and plugged the address of our hotel into the GPS which Chris had had in his car because he'd been working at a different hospital all month. Uh-oh! Boy, was I surprised! The GPS said instead of 3 1/2 hours, it was going to be about 6 hours! Yikes! So we didn't get to our hotel until 11:30 PM. When we went up to our room, I told Chris I couldn't remember our room number and wasn't sure which one it was, so I knocked on a door. This really irritated Chris because it was so late and he was sure whoever answered the door was going to be really mad that we woke them up. He couldn't understand why I wouldn't just try our key! Boy, was he surprised when his friend Chase came to the door! The poor guy just looked so confused! Happy birthday, Chris! Glad we were able to surprise you!

We spent about 4 hours at the beach the next morning, then came back for naps. That evening we went to Broadway at the Beach which was a fun little boardwalk that had all sorts of little shops, restaurants, etc. We had a great time just hanging out with the Grames family and celebrating Chris' birthday!

We got ice cream to celebrate since we didn't have any cake. While we were singing Happy Birthday to Chris, Mason just couldn't take his eyes off of that nice big ice cream cone! Before the song was finished, Mason had already dug in!

08.19.09 My Boys...

The boys sure are getting big! It is really amazing me every time I turn around right now. I just took a couple silly pictures so you could see just how big they're getting, too!
Grant like to do push-ups these days. Such a big boy!

08.14.09 Funeral Procession for Capt. Scott Speicher

As most of you know, Capt. Scott Speicher was shot down on the first day of the Gulf War. He was lost for something like 18 years and his remains were just discovered back in August. Since he was from Jacksonville, FL, he was flown back here, and they had the funeral ceremonies here on base. Had I thought it through, I would have taken the boys to the base to watch the ceremonies because of course they were much more decorative on base than off, however, when I realized that today was the day of the funeral, we didn't have time to get over to the base, but the funeral procession was driving right by our neighborhood, so I loaded the boys up and drove a couple of miles to wait for them to pass. It was a great opportunity to talk to them about what it means to be a hero, what it means to defend our country and let them know that their Daddy is serving in the military - what a great heritage! They probably didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but at least it was a little exposure.

The people really came out in droves. I was amazed at how many people came out to line the procession route and pay their respects to this fallen hero and to thank him for serving our country. It really is fascinating to live in a "military town." I've never seen things like this before. I felt really funny taking pictures of the whole thing - it being a funeral procession and all - so there's not many pictures, and the ones I have are pretty terrible, but I wanted to be able to show Chris a few since he was working.

08.09.09 Wes Heeter Visits!

We have been blessed since we've lived in Jacksonville to have so many friends and family passing through! I heard that my cousin, Wes, his wife Amy, and their two kids Haley and Camden, were on their way through to go to Disney World! We were able to meet them right off of the highway at Moes for a yummy lunch before they headed on their way again. I sure enjoyed catching up. It had been at least 2 years since I'd seen them last. What a treat. Unfortunately, Chris had to work, so he missed out on the fun. Maybe next time...

08.06.09 Rainbows

Grant is fascinated by rainbows right now. And the fun thing about our house is, for some reason, we see lots of them behind our house. I've seen more rainbows in the last few months than I have in years! This rainbow was aboslutely incredible a few minutes before I took the picture. It stretched clear across the sky, was so vibrant in color, and actually was a double rainbow. By the time I got my camera, however, it had subdued quite a bit, but still had a lovely streak of color through the sky. And if you ask Grant what a rainbow means, he'll beam from ear to ear and proudly state, "God will never flood the earth again!" Way to go, kid! I'm proud of you.

08.04.09 Playing at our Neighborhood Park

I took the boys for a walk this morning and ended up at the neighborhood park. We really should use it more often. It's quite lovely and rarely used. So the boys had a ball playing today. Aren't they getting so big!

07.30.09 Uncle Jim Visits!

We had such a special treat tonight! My Uncle Jim and Aunt Cathy have a place down towards Vero Beach, FL. They were on their way back to IN and decided that they had about an hour where they could stop and see our new home! Now I haven't seen them in several years, so I was very excited! Grant and Mason helped me make some chocolate chip cookies, but they hardly let Aunt Cathy eat any. She had brought some glow sticks for them so they wanted to hang out in the dark bathroom with her so they could play with their fun new glow sticks! I really enjoyed seeing them and appreciated them stopping so much. It really meant a lot!

07.27.09 The Peuking Chicken

Growing up, my mother had this little chicken pitcher that we kids found hilarious. Any time she would pull it out to use, as we poured the dressing/syrup/liquid or whatever was in there onto our plates, we would make sound effects to make it sound like the little chicken was throwing up. It became affectionately known as the "Peuking Chicken." We couldn't wait to use that little thing! So when we went to Italy, you'll never guess what we got as gifts! We each got our own Peuking Chicken, but I have had few occasions to use it since then. I was so excited as I pulled my sweet little chicken out of the cupboard on this particular night. We were having pancakes so I giddily filled the silly thing with syrup. I took great joy in teaching Grant about this little family tradition, and boy did he have fun in participating! Chris just looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I could tell he was quite amused to see his usually prim and proper wife peuking at the dinner table and snapping pictures of her son acting anything but proper at the table! Poor kid must have been so confused; I usually correct that kind of behavior! I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time! And then I wonder, as parents, just what are we doing to our children???

Can you tell who's Grandson he is??

My father (okay, and my sister, too) is notoriously known for drinking out of the milk carton/juice container at his house. In fact, I'm not so sure that I haven't caught him doing it when he's come to visit us a few times, as well... It's something that drives my husband crazy, and a portion of my Beutler upbringing that I did not carry with me into marriage. :-) I was quite amused, therefore, when I walked into the kitchen one day to find that Grant had found the near empty 2-Liter of Pepsi from our pizza night the evening before and was gingerly finishing it off...It must be hereditary, afterall! He's definitely never seen his mother do it! Ha!

07.13.09 Feeding the Geese

We surprisingly don't usually have any birds in the pond behind our house so today was a nice surprise! A flock of geese came and hung out for a while, so we grabbed the bread and headed outside to feed them! All the boys got a little freaked out when the geese excitedly came to greet us...thank goodness mom was there to chase them all away! Ha!

07.11.09 Fishing in the Backyard

Chris' parents were in for a visit and while they were here, we pulled out the fishing poles that the boys got Chris for Father's Day this year. We went out back to our little pond, placed pieces of hot-dog on the hooks and had a hey-day! Those little boogers really bite! I think we caught 9 or 10 fish in just a little while. Grant has a fit when we throw them back when we catch them, so we put them all in a bucket, he and Mason torment them for a while (ha! - Grant's favorite thing is to pull them out by their tails and watch them wiggle. We're working on how we care for all of God's creatures, but he hasn't quite gotten that yet) and then we throw them back in all at once. We had a great time! The boys just love this fishing thing (Chris included!)

Typical of the boys - Mason's right in there getting in to whatever he can while Grant stands back timidly for a few minutes, checking things out. Don't worry, though - Grant's in on the action in no time at all!

Great Anticipation...

Yes, my two little guys couldn't wait for the chocolate chip cookies to come out of the oven!

Fourth of July Celebration

We were so glad to be invited over to our good friend, the Henry's, house for the Fourth of July. They had a lovely cookout with lots of friends, fellowship and most importantly FIREWORKS! When we got there, the kids were playing on the slip-n-slide and pool, having the time of their lives. Soon, however, the fireworks began and Grant was anything but happy. We ended up having to leave before they really even got started and take Grant home to his bed. The poor kid was terrified and just cried the whole time. To spare our friends the misery of listening to a screaming child, we decided it was best to just take them home and watch them in our back yard while the kids slept snugly in their beds. Hopefully he won't be so scared next year!

It took great coaxing to get Grant to even hold the sparklers. Finally he did and appeared to even enjoy it! Moments after this picture was taken, a loud firework was sent off, Grant screamed and threw the flaming sparkler! I rushed over to stomp the fire out of the grass, and held poor, shaking Grant in my lap with my hands over his ears for the rest of the evening...Luckily, the sparkler didn't hit anyone!

Chris' Intership Graduation

Well, we are finally back into the technological world. I apologize for the hiatus in my blog posts, but our computer broke around 3 months ago and we just bought a new one this week, so I am back into the world of blogging! Oh, how I have missed it!

Chris graduated from his internship program back in June. It was a really neat occasion - the Surgeon General came and spoke (I didn't really get to hear it because Mason started throwing an all out fit right when he started, so we had to get up and leave. Grumble) but from what I did hear, I was very impressed. He was a strong Christian man and charged the graduates to put God first in their lives...only then would they be the kind of doctors they should be. Wow! Not too often we hear speaches like that in the secular world...perhaps especially in the military!

Speaking of the military, I really enjoyed this opportunity to witness a bit of the "pomp and circumstance" of the military's ceremonies. We hadn't had much of a chance to see any of that yet, and we did at this occasion. They were blowing sea whistles, there was a wonderful brass band that played for the ceremony, lots of saluting, orders, etc. It was very neat. Such a wonderful opportunity to explain to the boys a bit of the "military culture." Grant was intrigued...Mason just wiggled! Ha!

So Chris is now a second year resident. 1/3 of the way done. And I couldn't be more proud of him. I hear that second year is by far much easier that the first year, so perhaps we have the worst behind us! Hooray!

By the way, don't all three of my boys look awfully cute? Chris had to wear his "dress whites" so I figured it was a dressy occasion, so I dressed the boys and I up, too. Unfortunately, when we got there, most people were in blue jeans. Oh, well, I was proud of them!

05.17.09 My Cowboy Boy

Grant has recently discovered Chris' cowboy boots. He LOVES them and several times a day, I will hear the clonk, clonk, clonk of the boots as he scuttles across the tile to come find me and show me that he's a cowboy. He's quite the ham, isn't he! Most of the time he has on the cowboy hat, as well. Silly kid.

These pictures were taken back in May. I've been intending to put them up for a while, but somehow, time is just escaping me! Whew!

Good Morning!

One of my favorite things about our new house is waking up in the morning and watching the sun rise over the perfectly still water of the pond behind us as I snuggle with my warm, freshly awakened babies in the rocking chair. The water is like a mirror it is so still. Isn't it refreshing and invigorating? It makes me ready to start my day, and reminds me that God's creativity in his Creation is awesome! What a way to start your morning - in fellowship and awe of my Creator!

Reward Chart

We have recently begun a reward chart for Grant in an effort to motivate him to contribute to normal family life. It has various chores listed for him - making his bed, cleaning the toy room, brushing his teeth, setting the table, clearing the table, and going poo-poo in the potty! Each chore has 12 spaces that are longing to be filled with stickers! I took Grant with me to find the perfect stickers to mark these milestones and he insisted on finding the perfect Mickey Mouse heads to use. After each column is filled completely, he gets a small treat - like an ice cream cone, etc. But once the whole chart is filled, he gets to go to Chuck E. Cheese! How's that for motivation!?

He's so excited and is working hard at filling up his squares! A few weeks ago (yes, I know I'm running way behind on updating this thing!), he figured out the whole potty training thing once and for all! He had been doing great, but he still woke up in the mornings wet and he would never go poo-poo for me in the toilet. But once he saw these Mickey Mouse stickers, how that did change! Grant did great and in less than one weeks time, filled up all twelve squares, resulting in him getting to pick a special treat in addition to the great pride and newfound freedom that he found! He decided he wanted ice cream, so we called daddy at work, who brought home all the fixings to make his famous cookie shakes. After dinner, Grant and daddy were going to make these special shakes to commemorate Grant's great achievement. Grant even got to dip the ice cream! Mason wanted right in on the action, too, and climbed the step ladder all by himself so he could push the buttons on the blender right along with his big brother. It was definitely a moment of whole family pride!! Very cute! We all enjoyed the spoils for Grant's hard work. And we're well on our way to Chuck E. Cheese (I know - Oh, boy!)!

Recipe Hiatus

After a several month long hiatus, I'm ready to begin my recipe blog again. I've intended to, I really have, but between our computer crashing, house hunting, packing, moving, vacation and unpacking, life has been hectic! I made Foccacia bread this week, and if you want to check out the recipe, click HERE.

Happy Birthday, Grant!

It is so hard to believe, but our little Grant turned THREE years old yesterday! How time does fly! Isn't it amazing how much he's changed through the years?

Grant at Two Weeks:Grant at One Year:

Grant at Two Years

Grant at Three Years

He had a busy day - filled with VBS both in the morning and evening, grilling out his requested hamburgers and macaroni and cheese (yes, he is his mother's son!) along with fresh fruit and chocolate cake, opening gifts and swimming at our pool and topping it off with a special ice cream treat at Dairy Queen way past his bedtime. What fun we had!

Grant was absolutely adorable Thursday night - the night before his birthday. I was rocking him in the chair, telling him that his birthday was the next day and asking what he thought we should to to celebrate. I told him we would open presents to which he responded, "It's Christmas!" I explained it was LIKE Christmas, but Christmas was celebrating Jesus' birthday and June 19th was celebrating Grant's birthday. That seemed to satisfy him, but he wanted his presents now! So I told him first he had to go to sleep, then when he woke up in the morning, it would be his birthday. He said, "Grant's birthday is when we open presents and eat cake?" (Amazing what sticks with a kid, huh?) I laughed and agreed, upon which he jumped out of my lap, ran to his bedroom and shouted to me, "I love you! I'm going to bed!" I laughed and went about my business. It was only 6:30, so I knew he wouldn't go to sleep. A few minutes later, he came running out with a huge smile on his face shouting, "Mommy, it's my BIRTHday!" I wish you could have seen the joy and innocence on that precious child's face. It was precious indeed.

After going to bed for real, he got up at 3:00 AM, came to my room and told me it was his birthday. I agreed, told him it was still time to sleep and took him back to his bed where he told me he was just "too excited." Then at 6:30 he came back in, smiling big and telling me it was his birthday. Chris and I stuck him between us, sang Happy Birthday to him and gave him a big hug. But he'd have nothing to do with snuggling. The kid wanted cake! Of course we waited for that until after lunch, but boy, was he excited! Everyone he saw, he'd tell them, "It's my birthday!" whether he knew them or not. What a special day he had. What a special boy he is. He's growing up to be such a gentleman, and mommy and daddy couldn't be more proud!

05.30.09 Walt Disney World - Mickey's Backyard BBQ

What fun we had! After a restful day playing at our resort, we all got dressed in our white shirts, red bandanas and bag of "gold" (actually, it was golden nuggets of chewing gum), boarded a bus and headed over to Fort Wilderness Lodge for Mickey's Backyard BBQ. Chris wasn't sure how he should wear his bandana, so it changed periodically through the night in the most ridiculous fashion, but my family's favorite way was by far the bib. I was embarrassed, but everyone else thought he was hilarious, so I was sadly outvoted. :-)

We got to meet Goofy and Chip and Dale before the show started. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, bbqed chicken, corn on the cob, wonderful watermelon, beans, salad, and unlimited Mickey Ice Cream Bars! Though I must say, the popsicles seemed to be the popular choice because it was so very hot and they were so refreshing! Grant was pretty afraid at first (he practically choked poor Grandma) but he wanted to see what was going on. And as soon as Mickey Mouse came out, Grant jumped out of our laps, and ran to the dance floor, pushed himself through all the other children clear up next to Mickey and danced the night away. He had a ball. And I don't think I got a single picture of Mickey that Grant wasn't right beside him! The music was great (country, but great just the same), there was a man who did some fabulous lasso-ing tricks, and Mickey Mouse even came to our table to meet us! Grant was in my mom's lap when he arrived, saw Mickey, climbed over Uncle Jason and snuggled right into Mickey's lap for our pictures. He was so funny! I tried to take him to see Goofy, Chip and Dale and Minnie Mouse, but he'd just say, "No, Mommy go. Grant stay with my Mickey." He didn't even care if I was there or not! So we've found a new love for little Grant: Mickey Mouse!

05.30.09 - Walt Disney World - Caribbean Beach Resort

This morning we were up and ready, the kids went and got their treasure for the morning - cool stickers since we were going to Hollywood Studios...Grant got Buzz Stickers! We ate breakfast and went down to get our tickets for the Backyard BBQ for tonight. While we were standing there, we all got to talking and decided that instead of trying to go to Hollywood Studios today, we were going to take it easy at the hotel and enjoy the pool, playing together, take pictures of the kids in their pirate costumes that we made, etc. We all just needed a day to rest. I think it was a great decision. Everybody was so relaxed and happy! I ended up spending a lot of my day in the room with sleeping kids, but even I got a nap in, along with getting us all packed up so we could leave the next day and looking at the pictures from our trip, so it was worth it!

Once all the kids were finally awake at the same time, we dressed them up in their pirate costumes and walked over to an island on our resort to let them have sword fights and plunder the island! We had so much fun taking pictures. Grant sure is a fan of his sword and pirate hat that was his treasure for today. He and Jaybin came running into our room from Grandma and Grandpa's room shouting, "Arrr, Matey!" and swinging their swords at us. It was hilarious!

Our Fun Pirate Themed Swimming Pool

Grant decided he wanted to go down the big slide...but when he came out, he was upside down and not very happy about it!

Our Cool Pirate Themed Rooms!

The Four kids in their Pirate Outfits. Aren't they cute?

And of course, the biggest Pirate of all!

05.29.09 Walt Disney World - Animal Kingdom

Another bright and early morning! We had planned to go to Hollywood Studios on this day, but we found out last night that the winner of American Idol was supposed to be there today, and it was going to be so extremely busy, so we switched our schedule up a bit since none of us really cared to fight the crowds. I think everyone was extremely tired today. Up until now, we'd done really well - we never really had much time just sitting around trying to decide what to do, etc, but today, no one really wanted to take the lead, the kids were all REALLY tired, and grumpy, too. Okay, admittedly some of the adults were, too! :-)

It started out great! We headed up to "Africa" for the Kilimanjaro Safari because we heard the animals are most active in the morning. It was incredible! Grant was afraid at first, but after he figured out that we were seeing animals, he came alive! It's so neat how you drive right up with the animals. I've heard sometimes they're so close you could touch them! It's one of my favorite rides at Disney, for sure. Grant just kept talking about the "Crapadiles" (crocadiles) that we got to see. The fun treasure for today was animal print sunglasses and visors to wear at the Animal Kingdom. We all looked pretty silly, but we had fun!

We ran back to see the Lion King, but it had started 5 minutes before we got there, so we couldn't get in. So we went to see "It's Tough Being a Bug" which is inside the famous Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom. I loved it. Grant hated it!

After that, we had signed up for a picnic lunch, so we went back up to Africa to pick it up and eat. It was a lovely lunch. We had planned to go back to see the Lion King, but Grant and Mason were both really grumpy, and Jason and Kendra were taking their kids back to the hotel, so we went with them. So we didn't really get to see much of the Animal Kingdom unfortunately. On our way out, we did get to see Brer Rabbit, one of my dad's favorite characters. So I was glad to get his autograph and picture.

We did go back and all four of us took a good 2 hour nap. When we woke up, we took the kids swimming, which was a big hit! I think if all we did was swim all week, Grant would have been happy, as long as a few characters were thrown in there, too! After our afternoon of rest, we got dressed and went to Ohana's for dinner. It's at the Polynesian resort, so we waited for our bus (which took absolutely forever) then boarded the tram to go to the Polynesian. This, too, took a while. It resulted in us being about 5 minutes late. No worries. They were running behind anyway. So we waited a long time. Mason was screaming because he wanted to eat/drink. Grant was antsy, and I was already going nuts. We hadn't even sat down yet. Finally dad went to check how long it would be and it seemed they skipped over us and had taken our name off the list. Ugh. We finally got to sit down and eat. But Mason was still screaming, so I finally had to take him out. Mom came out and suggested letting her try with Mason. Sometimes kids behave better when they're not with their parents, and it helped immensely. Unfortunately, Grant and Chris weren't having a very good time, either. Grant wouldn't eat anything except bread, and it wasn't going well. It was a stressful dinner for me, which disappointed me because the food was delicious, and I had a beautiful view overlooking Cinderella's castle. Eating at fancy restaurants with small children is so difficult! But the food was great! They served all sorts of different meats that they brought out on huge skewers and placed right on your plate. The veggies were incredible, and the pineapple-coconut bread was out of this world. And we had bread pudding with icecream and caramel sauce for dessert. Unfortunately, we had to rush it a little bit because we wanted to make it to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks. We made it with merely minutes to spare. The park was open until 1:00, so we stayed until about 11:30, shopped for some souvenirs, enjoyed the cooler weather, and had fun "hooking" Grandpa! (Grant got a "hook" to wear on his hand).

05.28.09 Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom

I forgot to mention the major mishap of the trip that occurred last evening: Dan came back from Epcot and prepared to go swimming. He was hungry so he reached for his wallet, only to find that it was not anywhere to be found. We searched the room for a good long while, he retraced his steps, thinking that he remembered it getting off the bus, they called the hotel and reported it missing, but it was nowhere to be found. It included their Disney world tickets, their room keys, their meal plan cards, their ID's (which they needed to board the plane back home) and their credit cards, along with a $300 gift card. Ugh! Disney reissued them their tickets/meals/keys so that was a relief, but the other stuff was nowhere to be found. The next several days were spent looking all over the parks and room and calling various lost and founds trying to locate the missing wallet. We were all sick about it. Poor Dan and Stef. Luckily, they were able to have the gift card cancelled and reissued, their credit cards put on hold and the airline worked with them to avoid needing a picture ID. Whew! They were lucky despite the unlucky circumstances.

What a wonderful day today was!! We got up bright and early this morning to hit the Extra Morning Magic Hours. We had a great surprise when we woke up. "Mickey Mouse" had visited our room while we were sleeping and left a present for Grant and Mason! They opened it up and found Buzz Lightyear. Now I'm not talking about any Buzz Lightyear. I mean the REAL Buzz Lightyear toy that talks, etc. Chris and I had talked before we went and had decided that we didn't want to buy a bunch of stuff in the parks, so we were so excited when Mickey was so thoughtful to bring the souvenirs directly to our rooms - wrapped an everything! :-) It was just like Christmas! The boys were thrilled. Grant's face lit up so preciously when he saw Buzz. He plays with him non-stop! The only problem is, he was for both the boys, but Grant has claimed him as "MINE!" and poor Mason doesn't get to see him too often.

We were instructed to bring the kids to mom and dad's room as soon as they woke up. We weren't supposed to dress them, brush their teeth, or anything - just send them over with their clothes and any thing else that was necessary and they'd be taken care of. When we came to get them to eat breakfast, we found all four kids up on mom and dad's bed with laniards around their necks, sorting out pins for trading, putting little disney characters on their crocs, and very excited for the treasures that they had found in the pirate treasure chest that morning. Pirate Grandma and Pirate Aunt Stefi had may treasures up their sleeves for each day! The kids could hardly wait to see what the treasure was each day, and in fact, they checked the treasure chest multiple times daily to see if something else had appeared!

After waiting a few minutes for the bus, we were on our way. As soon as we reached Disney World, the music started playing, and as we approached, we saw Mickey Mouse and his friends standing at the top of a building, singing a song and welcoming us to Walt Disney World. I stood there with tears in my eyes, as I always do, filled with the excitement and emotion of being at the most magical place on earth. These emotions were merely compounded when Grant, who was so excited to be seeing Mickey Mouse, couldn't control the joy that he felt; his whole body went stiff and his arms and legs were moving about a mile a minute while he shrieked in a high pitched, very excited voice, "There's my Mickey mouse, mommy! MY Mickey MOUSE!!" He just couldn't wait to get inside. Once we did make it inside, we got to see Pinocchio and Pluto right away. We also got to see Mary Poppins. Interestingly, Grant has no fear of these huge, grossly proportioned characters such as Pinocchio or Pluto. They can't talk, they look funny, and they're huge. But he loves them. And strangely, he found ways to communicate. For example, Daisy Duck was flirting with him, and touched her finger to her lip and somehow, Grant understood that she wanted him to kiss her, and he planted a big one right there on her beak! But Mary Poppins, who is a beautiful, normal looking person who can talk, interact, etc, he didn't want anything to do with. You'd think he'd be just fine with Mary Poppins - afterall, she's just like his mother, for goodness sake! ;-)

Incidentally, I was amazed to watch the characters - both human and cartoon in how they portrayed their character. They put themselves into the characters incredibly. The female characters acted so very female, prancing around, swinging their hips as they walked, holding their hands and arms like a princess, etc. Pluto acted like a fun loving dog, Goofy acted just like Goofy and Buzz Lightyear was just as macho as could be! I was really amazed! I found them very believable, and I was thrilled to see them...and I knew that there was a person in there just like you and me. But even I wanted the autograph of Buzz Lightyear and Mary Poppins. Strange to think I could have signed it myself and it be just the same. But somehow, the character becomes real when you see them in costume, and it's thrilling to meet them - ordinary as they are!

We explored Main Street for a while, learned about trading pins and how you should look for the hidden Mickey pins. Evidentally those are the most valuable. Since Grant didn't really care WHICH pins he got, just that he was able to trade, Chris and I had a ball searching for the hidden Mickey pins and helping Grant trade for them. Then we went up to the Dumbo ride and took a spin. Amazingly, we waited longer for the Dumbo ride than we did any other ride that we took the whole trip.

Grant was afraid of most everything that we did today. He loved walking around, seeing the buildings, playing with Jaybin and Kinsen, trading pins and seeing the characters, but the shows and rides really scared him. He clung to my neck most of the day saying, "Scary, Mommy! Grant's so scary!" Even It's a Small World was frightening to the poor child. A common phrase that I heard today in a pathetic little voice was, "I just wanna go home, mommy!" I was disappointed in that, because I was so excited for him to see everything and I so badly wanted him to have fun. I told my dad that I had always laughed at those parents who I'd hear pull their kids aside and sternly tell them, "I paid good money for this, now straighten up, be happy and enjoy it!" Seemed kind of like an oxymoron to me as I watched the poor child sulk as he pouted and tried to behave. And yet I found myself doing the very same thing with little Grant. Look, kid, I paid good money for this. You'd better have fun!

Grandpa took all the kids today and bought them charms for the end of their laniards. Grant chose a "Pirate Mickey" charm. Jaybin got the classic disney characters, and Kinsen, of course, picked the disney princess charm. Kinsen had fun trying to find all the disney princess pins for her laniard. She did great!

After lunch, we went to the Buzz Lightyear ride. Grant, of course, was terrified, but as soon as we got done with the ride and went outside, the "real" Buzz was outside greeting visitors. We waited in a short line. When it was Grant's turn, Buzz held out his hand for Grant to give him a high five. Grant ignored the hand, however, and just went in for a great big bear hug. Good thing Buzz has good balance! It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip - watching Grant meet his hero. Mason was enthralled with Buzz, too, and wouldn't even look at Daddy for a picture. He just kept smiling and waving at Buzz Lightyear!

We decided we were going to take the kids back for a nap, because we wanted to stay in the park for the fireworks that evening. So we started to take them back, when mom and dad decided they wanted to go back and rest for a while, so they took them and allowed Chris and I to stay, which was nice. They did get caught at the front gates and got to see the parade, which I was so glad about. The whole time I was watching it, I was wishing Grant could have seen it. Evidentally, mom said as soon as he saw Mickey Mouse, he took off running towards him. Mom had trouble catching him! I wish I could have seen his reaction to it all. They came back around 5:30, and we just enjoyed the Magic Kingdom. We took the kids up to a little playground, showed them Mickey Mouse's house, etc. Grant was crushed that Mickey wasn't there, but found it fascinating that he had Mickey shaped pumpkins. That's all he talked about. It started to downpour shortly thereafter, so we ran to Pinocchio's Pizza place for dinner. It was surprisingly good, and we found a quiet corner where we escaped the deluge. It cleared up rather quickly and we went outside to prepare for the fireworks. The freshly fallen rain made for a beautiful reflection of the lights from the rides and the castle. We got some great pictures! Unfortunately, there was still lightning, so they couldn't do the fireworks afterall. Bummer. And we had the perfect viewing spot, too! So we went home exhausted, planning on returning the following evening for the fireworks. I think we all slept well that night for sure! (I'm including the fireworks pictures on this day - just to keep all the Magic Kingdom Pics together!)

05.27.2009 Walt Disney World - Epcot

Well the trip we have been talking about and planning for nearly two years has finally arrived! We left Tuesday afternoon to head down to Orlando for 5 days to meet my entire family for a fun-filled vacation at Walt Disney World. We were not sure Chris would have Tuesday off, so we had to get a hotel off campus for Tuesday night. We had a great time at Downtown Disney. We took the kids to T-Rex for dinner. It's like a Rainforest Cafe, only with dinosaurs. About every 20 minutes, there was a simulated thunderstorm. The lights were flashing, the dinosaurs were moving and making all sorts of strange noises, and both of our kids were going crazy. We had to take them both out numerous times because they were screaming. But beyond our rather frustrating dinner, we had a blast. Grant was caught up in the magic of Downtown Disney. He was enthralled with all the "Pirate" themed merchandise (we had gotten the pirate-themed rooms at the Caribbean Beach Resort and had been talking about it for months so he was very excited about this) and we even saw a life-sized Buzz Lightyear outside the toy store. Life just can't get better than this! :-) Until we had to tear him away from Buzz because other kids wanted to take pictures with him, too. Grant just wanted to stand there and hold his hand. Ha!

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early, packed up our things and headed over to the Caribbean Beach resort to meet the rest of my family. They hadn't gotten in until about 8:30 the night before, so we were very excited to see them. After a quick breakfast, we headed over to Epcot, our first park for our vacation. Grant was so excited to go to "Disney World" and he and Jaybin stood at the bus stop with great anticipation. Every bus that would come they would squeal with delight and jump up and down with excitement. But 5 busses passed us by before the Epcot bus arrived. We were all excited to begin our journey!

As soon as we got into Epcot, Stef and Dan ran to get fast-passes for the ride, "Soarin." (which was a fabulous ride, by the way! So much fun!) In the meantime, we saw Daisy Duck off to the side, greeting people. So we went and stood in line waiting to meet Miss Daisy. While we were waiting, Stitch came out and greeted us, too. I had made little Mickey Mouse heads for the characters all to sign, so our Autograph book was well underway! Grant was thrilled to meet the characters. I think the characters were his favorite part of the entire trip. He really bought into the fantasy aspect of Disney World. The rides, however, were a different story. He was terrified! He'd bury his head into whoever was holding him and not look up until the ride was over. Poor guy. Mason, on the other hand, was intrigued by everything and wanted to see it all! He, too, was intrigued by the characters and wanted to touch, wave to, and kiss them all.

We had a beautiful day in Epcot. It was sunny, and hot, for sure. The humidity was high, but it didn't seem to bother us too much. It did rain a couple of times for short periods, but it seemed to really cool things down, so it was quite welcome! We purchased the meal plan, so we had lunch at the Coral Reef. It was my favorite meal of the trip. There was a beautiful aquarium that made up the main wall of the restaurant so we watched the fish, shark, dolphin and sea turtle swimming while we ate. I had a delicious New York Strip for lunch, and Chris had mahi-mahi. And our waiter convinced us all to order a "Jack Daniel's Chocolate Mousse" for dessert. There were other options, but he insisted it was the best. My favorite quote from the day was mom asking him, "None of us are alcoholics...are you sure we'll like this?" He said he didn't drink either and it was a must! So we all ordered it and I must say, after he showed us the proper technique in eating all three layers at the same time, it was quite delicious.

We had a small mishap today...Grant and Mason both had gotten sick over the weekend right before we came. We got Mason on an antibiotic and it seemed to be helping a lot. Grant was doing great...as long as he didn't have milk. If he had milk, he had severe diarrhea just once and then he was fine again. Well, it had been like 3 days, so I assumed he was fine. He shared some ice cream with Jaybin and Kinsen, however, and while Chris and I were on a ride the boys weren't big enough to ride, they stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Kendra and Uncle Jason. Suddenly, he started telling them 'No!' backing away and yelling for his mommy. That's when they noticed that, as they put it, he had "pooped in his shoe." His sick tummy had struck again and Aunt Kendra and Grandma had their job cut out for them. It was pretty much cleaned up by the time I got there to help. But he sure was a mess. And as I walked into the bathroom, I noticed several ladies walking out with quite disgusted faces. Thank goodness for loving family members who helped take care of this poor little guy. Luckily, this was the last of the sickness for the trip.

We took the kids back to the hotel around 4-ish. They hadn't had naps and were getting cranky. Plus, the next day was the Magic Kingdom and I didn't want to wear them out for that. Mason had slept through lunch for a little while, but all of the kids were tired. So Jason and Kendra took Jaybin and Kinsen back, and we took our kids back. After naps, we took them swimming down at the cool pirate-themed pool. After we put the kids to bed for the night, Jason, Kendra, Chris and I sat outside our rooms at a picnic table and talked for a while. The plan was to go to Mom and Dad's room and play games, but they were still in Epcot with Stef and Dan, so we didn't have a key to get in their room. We called the front desk and said we were locked out, but after 2 hours they still hadn't come. When we finally got them to come let us in the room, it wasn't 5 minutes later and mom and dad arrived, ready to crash. Oh well. It was nice being outside for a few hours just relaxing! :-)

Waiting for our Epcot Bus to Arrive!

Our New Home!

Several of you have been wanting to see pictures of our new home. Sorry I haven't gotten around to it sooner. This month has been quite busy, as I'm sure you can surmise. Plus, my computer has really been acting up - just checking my e-mail was taking over an hour! It was far worse than the days of dial-up, I assure you! :-)

So today I took a few pictures and am trying to upload them now so that you can see a glimpse of where we're living. My boys were sleeping, so you won't see their room, nor will you see the office which is our disaster room at the moment. We'll get it all together eventually, so you can see everything, I promise.

Our new home is 2300 Square Feet with beautiful white crown molding throughout. The entry way, kitchen, bathrooms (2-1/2) and living room are all tiled; the bedrooms (3), dining room (our play room for now) and office (lovely french doors keep the office quiet for poor Chris) are carpeted. It has a beautiful view of a man-made pond behind us with a natural preserve behind that, so the view will always stay, so that's a plus. I love the light fixtures that they had chosen - they feel warm and welcoming to me. There's a lovely breeze that comes through the house if you open up the large glass sliding doors in the back as well as all the windows...hopefully it'll cut down on our electricity bill this summer if we don't have to use as much A/C! Yeah! Anyway, we've been here about 3 weeks now and we're absolutely loving it! We've already trimmed all the shrubs waaaaay back, mowed the lawn, and have even harvested a few tomatoes and peppers from the plants I planted back in March. We're loving home-ownership...until June 1 when we make our first payment! Ha!

Welcome to our Home!

We celebrated our 5th anniversary this year. The traditional gift for year #5 is a gift of wood, so I had this wooden plaque made for my Chris in honor of our 5th anniversary. Isn't it neat?Dining Room/Play Room...to the immediate left upon entrance

We definitely need to raise the chandelier...I keep hitting my head on it. Ouch!

Entryway to Kitchen

Looking into the kitchen from the entryway...you see the kitchen directly in front, the family room off to the right, and the Master Bedroom straight back.

Kitchen - you can see the office if you look straight back

The door to the left of the refrigerator is the pantry; the door to the right of the refrigerator leads to the garage, and the door the right of that is the 1/2 bath.

Family Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Guest Room -

Some friends from our church found out we were looking for guest room furniture and GAVE us this beautiful furniture. It's actually really funny, because my furniture at my parent's house is this EXACT furniture, only different pieces. I have the night stand, lingerie chest, and dresser with mirror at home. Here we have the bed, and chest of drawers! Now the set is complete!

Crunch!

I don't know if you can see in these pictures or not, but this is the damage that was done to our van when the man rear-ended me back at the beginning of May. They had to replace the entire bumper, the whole lift-gate (trunk), and there was a lot of damage to the underbody, as well, so they did quite a bit of repairing. But it's as good as new now...so now I'm just waiting to see if we ever get our deductible back from the man since he didn't have insurance. Keeping our fingers crossed...

05.06.2009 Jacksonville Beach

Chris was off work on Wednesday, so we took Matt and Josh to the beach! You can't come to FL without visiting the beach!! We've lived here for a full year now and this was only the second time Chris has been to the beach - I went one other time without him, so it was my third time. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, we had a great time. Matt, Josh, and Chris threw a frisbee around for a while, and I played with Mason and Grant, when he wasn't preoccupied with his daddy. The kids both were fabulous...until it was time to leave. Grant hadn't had a nap, Mason was sound asleep and like dead weight in my arms. Grant didn't want to leave and was dragging his feet and throwing one major fit. He finally decided he wanted to be carried, too. Chris had gone on ahead to get the van, so I was trailing behind Josh and Matt, carrying my sleeping Mason and dealing with my screaming Grant. Finally, I leaned down and picked him up. So here I was, trudging through the sand carrying both babies by myself. Any of you who have been on the beach before know that trudging through sand by yourself is hard enough...try adding 60 extra pounds to the mix and see how you fare! Josh turned around and saw me, so he came and took one of the kids after a little while which helped immensely. Thank goodness for extra help!

We topped the day off with a stop at Dairy Queen for an ice cream treat, which made us all a bit happier! Yum!

05.05.09 Saint Augustine with College Friends

We had a special treat this week in that Josh Ramsay, one of Chris' best friends from college and Matt Seel, Chris' college roommate (both were good friends of mine, as well) came to Jacksonville to visit with us. Unfortunately, Chris did have to work, so it was up to me to entertain them for a day or so. Monday evening we played cards and talked Theology (Matt's an associate pastor in KY and Josh is a young adults pastor in TN).

The guys went and played basketball on Wednesday morning, then after Chris went to work, we all went to Saint Augustine. We enjoyed the fort there. I hadn't been in the fort since my parents took me years ago, so it was nice to be back. Grant was fascinated with everything. He was really into learning, and it thrilled me. He learned the name of the shellstone the fort was built out of - coquina. He wanted to know what the cannons were for, he looked at just about every picture there was and asked questions about them, and he was fascinated by the prison door. It was fun to see his little mind working.

We also walked around the old town, ate gelato of course and just enjoyed the wonderful breeze. The kids were great, and I think we all really enjoyed ourselves.

Josh (left) and Matt (right)

Grant was intrigued by this door. It had a window in it that he could stick his head through and see the prison in the fort. We could hardly pull him away from it!

Grant was convinced the weapon he's pointing to in the upper left was an airplane...I kept telling him it was a knife of some sort...at least he's not really into weapons, right?? :-)

Well, okay, maybe I take that back. Sticking one's hand into the mouth of a cannon must show some fascination with them, huh?

Poor Mr. Josh and Mason were stuck in "jail." Let me out!!

Loading poor Mason as our ammunition. We were surprised to learn that some of these cannons could fire up to 3 miles away! Wow!

Grant was not too happy to be used as ammunition himself -

he was too afraid of it being "dirty."

He much preferred to be behind the controls!

We let the kids crawl all over this mortar for quite a long while. They had a blast!

05.04.2009 Fender Bender

It's been quite the month! Not only have we been moving, but our whole family has been trading illnesses back and forth for quite a while. Last Sunday, Mason was in the ER for 8 hours. He had this terrible open sore behind both of his ears, and a cough/cold, and then his fever spiked up to 104.8. Chris was on call that night, so I called him and said I was bringing him in. We got his fever to go down and they ran a bunch of tests - a catheter, an IV (taking several tries both times they had to do it), some fluids, an antibiotic, throat and wound swabs and x-rays later, we were sent home and told to come back the next morning. So I took him back, and the family doctor said he had infantigo. His heart rate was elevated from his high fevers and they debated whether or not they should admit him to the hospital. I just didn't know what I would do had they done that. This mom couldn't have handled that, i don't think. It turns out his strep test came back positive later that day, as well, so it was determined that he had strep throat as well. Upon further testing, it was found that our WHOLE family had strep throat. You can imagine we were a joy to be around. We're all on antibiotics now, though, and Mason's infantigo has cleared up and we're all feeling much better.

Chris' parents were here last week, thankfully, and were a wonderful help. They kept Grant while I took Mason to the doctor. They kept the kids while we closed on our house. They cleaned, packed, painted and helped us get ready to move. Unfortunately, they caught our strep throat in the midst of it all, so they were sent home with antibiotics and hopefully were able to catch up on some rest. We worked them pretty hard.

To top it all off, Sunday afternoon, I was on my way to get a twin mattress so that our company that was coming Monday afternoon would have a place to sleep. I was stopped at a stop light, preparing to turn when all the sudden, I was slammed into from behind. It was rather scary - I checked on my kids (who didn't even cry, by the way), checked my car, called 911 and the gentleman who hit me still did not get out of his car. I had 911 stay on the phone with me while I went to check on him. He seemed really strange - had me get his baby out of the car, call his wife, and kept telling me he couldn't see. So I had them send paramedics. It turned out that he was in diabetic shock and his insulin was supposed to be around 100; instead it was almost 500. Wow! They took him to the hospital and gave me all the information I needed.

We were all fine. The kids weren't hurt at all. It really wasn't a bad accident, although the trunk on my van won't close now. It's dented in really badly. It definitely needs fixed. So I called his insurance company and they said that he dropped his coverage over a year ago. So now we're in the midst of dealing with the police and trying to figure out what to do. Ugh. So frustrating. To top it all off, his insurance company said that I was not alone...he was in another accident the very next day! Yikes! The man needs to be off the road!

04.18.2009 Sponteneity in Savannah, GA

Stephanie and Dan called us on like Thursday of this week and asked if we would meet them in Savannah, GA on Saturday. It's a 5 hour drive for them, and just over 2 hours for us. So they definitely got the raw end of the deal, but we had so much fun getting together one last time before they move back to IN from NC. We had so much fun with them living on the East Coast with us for 3 years and will miss them greatly when they move even further away from us.

Savannah was beautiful! We all loved the huge live oak trees, the old buildings, the street performers and the bit of culture that we experienced while we were there. We stopped at the visitor's center and asked if they had plantation houses that we could drive around and see...the lady kind of sneered at us, said we'd have to go to Charleston for that because "The Yankees burned them all down." Oh. We decided not to tell her where we were from, because it seemed that there might be a bit of bad blood between us. It's amazing to me that even after all these years, there's still a bit of animosity between the north and the south (at least as far as the south is concerned...for some reason I never hear those kind of comments in the north). Anyway, if you've never been to Savannah, go! It was beautiful, and we enjoyed walking around the city. We'll go back, for sure!

04.13.09 Grant's Dressing Up

Grant has decided he loves to get himself dressed these days. He comes out of his room several times a day with some wacky outfit on. It cracked me up on this day. Notice his pants are on backwards. It's one of my favorite parts of the whole ensemble! :-)

Just a bit of randomness

Chris took this picture of the boys while we were having our home inspection at the new house last week. I just thought they were very cute. Grant is pretending to be a lion. I love the natural light in our new house. Hopefully it'll make for LOTS of great pictures! :-) You know me and pictures...

04.07.2009 Packing For Our First REAL House!

For some reason, packing up our house this time seems monumental - we are packing up our things to move into our first REAL house - the first place that we are actually going to OWN! And we're very excited about that!!

So to commemorate this momentous occasion, I have been taking a few pictures along the way. Most of these were taken last week, and I must say that now the boxes have moved from the hallway to the garage and I have probably tripled the amount of boxes that I have stacked up now. The kids don't seem to mind that most of their toys are packed away. They've found new toys in the boxes scattered throughout the house. They're great for hide-and-seek!

I must also admit, that I type this as I sit at our desk with my foot propped up because I just tried to carry the bookcase (it's not big or heavy; just awkward) in the playroom out to the garage and ended up dropping the corner of it on the top of my foot and taking a big chunk out of my foot. It's swollen and throbbing, and so I sit, making the most of my time - blogging. :-) Hopefully this won't be a major set-back and the ibuprofin will set in soon! Having Chris on Inpatient medicine this month has proven to be difficult...it's leaving me to do all the packing and take care of all the business associated with this whole moving process. Not that I'm complaining; we're both very excited about this; it's just difficult, that's all. So pray for stamina, strength and for few (and minor) injuries sustained by me! :-)

04.10.2009 Dying Easter Eggs

So I know it's not quite in chronological order, but I never did get the pictures up of Grant dying Easter Eggs this year. It was a gorgeous day, so we took a box outside and set up shop! We threw an apron on Grant and he went to town! They were all such pretty colors at first, but after we were all out of eggs, he decided he wanted to do more and so he started mixing colors, and they all ended up an ugly green color. :-) But he had a ball, and that was what was important. We had fun, too. And after it was all over, we filled up the pool and Grant rinsed the dishes for us! How efficient!

04.12.09 Easter Egg Hunt

After Mason woke up from his nap today, we had a wonderful surprise! The Easter Bunny came to visit our house and had left all sorts of eggs in the backyard! Both boys had a blast searching for eggs. Mason was content to find 3 or 4, but little Grant was on a mad-dash to find as many as he could! He was surprisingly good at it, too! He obviously has the Beutler blood in him. I had to laugh that when Mason turned his back at one point, Grant ran over to Mason's basket to pillage the treasures he found inside and transfer them to his own basket! It reminded me of the first year Chris and I were married. We had an Easter Egg hunt with my family, Chris walked away from his basket, and my siblings brazenly stole his eggs with smiles on their faces. I even warned him before hand that egg hunts are ruthless in my family! Well, the same is true for our children. Grant certainly takes after his momma in some instances, that's for sure!

Grant was so cute. After he thought he had found all of the eggs, he went over by Mason, sat down, and immediately started opening up the eggs to see what was inside. I said, "Let's go inside. Mason's too little!" Whereupon Grant took a blue Robin's Egg (my favorite malt balls covered with a candy coating), plucked Mason's paci out of his mouth and stuffed the Robin's Egg right into Mason's mouth. My first instinct was to get it out of Mason's mouth, but then I decided I'd see how he'd handle it. Of course, Mason absolutely loved it, as evidenced by the very blue drool in his pictures. :-)

After our egg hunt, Granny and Grandpa Worley had sent some Easter treats, so the boys opened those. They had fun finding the treats inside, and Mason loved the plastic eggs that looked like baseballs. Immediately after that, you ask?? Grant hit Mason by accident in the forehead really hard with a walking stick that I had out so that I could pack it. By the time I made it to the playroom only seconds later after prompted by the blood-curdling screams by our youngest son, he already had a large goose-egg on his forehead that was immediately black and blue. My first comment after the screams had subsided? "Well, at least the pictures are over!" You can tell he's the second, huh? :-)

04.12.09 Easter

Well, Happy Easter! I don't know about you, but we had wonderful Easter Services here at our church in Jacksonville, FL today! The Lord is risen - he is risen indeed and we have much to celebrate!

Chris was on call yesterday and so he didn't get home until after our services had already started (plus he only got 40 minutes sleep last night, so he just came home and slept) so the boys and I had to go to church by ourselves today. I ironed their clothes last night, and so when we got up this morning, we donned on our Easter best and went to church early so that we could take some pictures. They boys looked absolutely adorable - I had so much fun finding their Easter Outfits and was amazed that both of them loved their hats and wanted to wear them all day long. Neither one of them tried to take it off. Wow! They were certainly a hit at church, and I must say, I was very proud of them. All the old men kept coming up and making over the two boys, asking if they could borrow their hats, etc. It certainly made me beam with pride. It's always been a tradition in my family to get a special new Easter outfit (usually my dad took us shopping for that "perfect" dress) so we had fun finding the "perfect" little outfits for our little men this year. Aren't they absolutely adorable?

Grant and Mason

Mason Alexander

Grant Christopher

This was the promised treat at the end of our picture taking. Since it was just me taking pictures, it worked well to entice Grant to smile!

On a side note, Friday night I tucked Grant into bed and was talking to him about Good Friday, what it meant, etc. Now Grant is 2...I know he doesn't really understand, and wasn't even sure if he was paying attention because he was rolling around in the bed, completely distracted. Anyway, I explained that Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the cross lots of years ago for our sins - Mommy's sins, Daddy's sins, Mason's sins, and Grant's sins. But, I explained, it was so exciting because he didn't stay in the grave! He conquered our sin and rose from the dead! As I was saying this, Grant clapped his hands and squealed, "Mommy, I want to die for your sins too!" So I guess he was listening afterall...but obviously he didn't really understand what it meant! :-) At least the seeds are being planted...

We got a house!

Well, we received a call last Tuesday, April 2, that the bank had accepted our offer, and that we were getting our house! So now we're in the process of working towards closing and hope to move in by the end of this month! So, here's our first home - all brick, 2280 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2-1/2 bathrooms, a nice open floor plan, dining room and office. It has a screened-in lanai on the back with double sliding doors that open into the family room with a beautiful view of the lake with a natural preserve behind it. So we'll be busy putting up a fence before we even move in to keep my babies safe! But we're very excited and are looking forward to painting, decorating, etc. Yay for new home-ownership!

A New Past-time

The boys have found a new favorite thing to do while I'm cooking dinner. Inevitably, the metal bowls and wooden spoons come out, as does the drumset, and the music begins! They're so cute to watch together. Grant loves teaching Mason new things, and if Mason's in the right mood, he plays right along with his big brother. Between the banging and the giggles, it's truly music to my ears!

Water Works!

I have found that whenever these boys get a bit antsy from being inside, a nice day does wonders because we can go outside and allow them to play in the water! They LOVE it! And it's fun to watch them splash around (and even join them!). Thank goodness for water and warm weather!!!

Grant's new "bed"

We have been having trouble with Grant staying in his bed after we put him down for his nap or for the night. So for the time being, we have moved Grant from the boys' shared room to the guest room so as not to wake Mason from sleeping until we can get this under control. So Grant knows well the rule that he is not to get out of his bed. If he does, there are unpleasant consequences. We're trying all sorts of things (any suggestions are welcome). One day I had put him down for his nap. I had gone in a couple times to check on him and he was awake, but in his bed, so I was feeling like perhaps we had made some headway. I was working around the house doing all sorts of things. I went in the guest room to check on him again and he was nowhere to be found! He wasn't in his bed. I looked on both sides of the bed and he wasn't there. I opened the closet and he wasn't there. I looked in their shared bedroom and he wasn't in that bed, either. By this time I was nearly in a panic, searching the house over, wondering how he could have disappeared when I was here the whole time. And then I decided to look behind the bed. And sure enough, that's where I found him - between the bed and the wall, snuggled up on all the pillows that he had piled like a mattress. I took a video. Unfortunately, I can't upload it to this computer. Once we get our regular computer fixed, I'll have to share it. :-) For now, you can see Grant's new favorite place to sleep almost every time he goes to bed. At least it doesn't send me into panic any more.

March 25, 2009 The Beach

My dad got to come in on Monday evening, we showed him the house we think we're going to get approved for, showed them Chris' naval base, around town a little bit, he treated us to a delicious Italian Meal down at the Landing and our time was basically gone. Unfortnately, they had to leave on Wednesday early afternoon to go spend some time with Stephanie and Dan (I'm glad they got to see them, but was sad for them to leave so quickly) so we didn't have a lot of time to do anything fun. I wanted him to see where we were living before we played! :-)

Because they were driving up to North Carolina, I thought it would be nice to go to the beach up near Amelia Island since it would be relatively on their way. So Grandpa and Grandma followed me up to Amelia Island where we found a nice little beach and enjoyed our one day of nice weather while they were here. We spent a couple of hours here before they had to be on their way, and we had a blast. At least I did! Mason had been to the beach one other time, but he was only 2-3 months old, so he just slept the whole time, so this was his first real experience at the beach. He LOVED it! He clapped his hands when the water would lap at his feet, and he even would say, "Whee!" as the cold water gathered around his ankles. He loved the sand, too. Both boys had a ball, and I enjoyed watching them experience the ocean. They make life so much more fun! I chased Grant into the waves multiple times, Grant buried my feet in the sand, and we just couldn't keep Mason out of the water. Any time we'd steer him back towards the beach, he'd turn right around and start walking towards the water again. They loved it!

Saint Augustine - March 21, 2009

There was a lighthouse festival in Saint Augustine while my family was here, so we travelled down there for the day on the 21st. It was listed as a free event...it was free to get into, but if you wanted to do anything while you were there, they charged you...grumble. But we had a nice time walking around, looking at the lighthouse, nature, etc. Grandma and Grandpa bought the boys a neat little lighthouse book that is now one of their favorites...it sings "This Little Light of Mine." Cute, huh? We ate lunch in downtown Saint Augustine, Mason got to taste Grandma's chocolate covered Marshmallow, perused some of the shops and ate gelato...the closest we've found to real Italian Gelato. Yum!

March 23, 2009 Planting Tomato Plants with Grandpa Beutler

While Grandpa was here, I asked him to help me plant some tomato and green pepper plants. My goal is to make homemade spaghetti sauce, sho he helped me pick out the best plants and then plant them in pots since we were hoping to be purchasing a home and moving shortly. While we were planting, Grandpa was telling me about his days growing up on a farm. Surprisingly, I had never really heard about that part of his life. So I enjoyed hearing about my family history a little bit, and really enjoyed getting my hands dirty and planting...for the first time in my life! The boys had fun, too!

While Grandpa and I were finishing up with our planting, Grandma entertained the boys by reading them books. They were so cute!

03.20.09 Boone Park - Jacksonville, FL

Chris was on call last night, so he came home to sleep, and my family and I drove down to Boone Park to play for a while. It's one of my favorite parks here because of all the beautiful trees and shady spots to play. Grant really likes it, too. We had so much fun playing on the playground, walking through the tree-lined path, climbing trees (mom couldn't do it...but I could!!) :-) and walking through the cute little shops in Riverside.

Grant was swinging - well, sort of. You know the kind where you lay on the swing on your tummy and swing back and forth? Well, that's what he was doing for a short while before he completely flipped over the swing and landed face first on the ground beneath him. He wasn't happy, and by the time he made it over to me, his nose was bleeding and all we heard for the rest of the day (and several days after) was that his nose was "broke." He needed his daddy to fix it! Grandpa thought this was hilarious as he was the one who originally planted that idea in his mind. What a character.

03.20.09 Mason's First Birthday!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Our computer hard drive has been fried, and so I haven't been able to upload any pictures. :-( We have been busy, and hopefully I'll be posting here more soon, however, our computer is still down. The special treat this week is that my mom and grandparents are here for a visit. And Dad is coming on Monday! Mom brought her laptop, so I jumped at the chance to upload some pictures and share our life with you again!

Yesterday, Mason turned one! I can't believe a whole year has passed already. Chris and I were talking last night, and we still think of Mason as such a baby. We don't picture him this old just yet. And yet, here he is...ONE YEAR OLD! Here are a few pics of his party and of him digging into his cake. You should have seen him. Unlike Grant who went head first, he just dug in with both hands and downed almost the entire two layer cake before we knew it. When I took it away, he was groping for more!! He sure loved his chocolate cake. :-) We had a basketball themed party, and had about 34 friends and family come and celebrate this great milestone in our little one's life. Thank you all for coming, and to those of you too far away, we missed you so much and wished you were here!

Our Basketball themed party decorations - of course I had to do them in UK BLUE!! Go CATS!

We had "Concession Food" to go along with our Basketball theme. We had Nachos, Hotdogs, Pretzels, fruit and cake, of course! We even made a concession food sign advertising prices...too bad no one actually paid! Ha!

Mason eating his first Birthday Cake

Doctor Visit

Throughout this whole ordeal, Chris has been telling me that there's nothing more that the doctors at the hospital can do than what we're doing here at home. Chris had checked his ears, listened to his breathing, felt for lymph nodes in unusual places, etc. He was confident that whatever Mason had it was not life threatening. If we took him to the hospital, they would do all sorts of really invasive, terrible tests, and he really wanted to avoid that at all costs.

Saturday and Sunday when the fever was so high, I was really freaking out and he finally in exasperation told me to take Mason in to the ER and he would stay home with Grant. Well, I wasn't about to do that. First, I really didn't want to go to the ER by myself and second, I wanted to show Chris that I have faith in him as a doctor.

Well, he was right. He scheduled an appointment for Mason today, so I took him up to the hospital at 2:00. Dr. Sams, the program director, came in, listened to the story, checked his ears, listened to his breathing, checked for lymph nodes in unusual places and told me that because all of those things were normal, that the next step would be these horribly invasive tests. He said if it were his kid, he'd ride it out a few more days because Mason does not look terribly sick, and while we were there Mason was smiling, laughing, clapping, etc. He suspects that Mason has Roseola. Basically, it is a fever for 5-7 days, then after the fever breaks, you break out in a rash. Though there are no signs of a rash at this point, we're on the lookout.

If Mason has a fever greater than 102 tomorrow, we'll take him back in for the tests. But I'm hoping to avoid that at all costs! Hopefully he merely has this common childhood infection, roseola.

And to Chris I'm happy to say, "You were right, Honey." He really does know what he's talking about, and he continues to impress me with his medical expertise!

Mason Update

Well, poor Mason is still one sick little boy. It's funny - one minute he just wants to lay on my lap, and the next, he's sitting up laughing at Grant, clapping his hands, and trying to walk. It has baffled us greatly. We can't figure out how a baby that's so sick can act so normal. This is very encouraging to Chris, signalling that Mason's doing very well, despite the high fevers.

Yesterday he awoke with a fever of 103. It went up to 104.7, and it never went below 103 until about 7:00 last night when it finally broke. He was very hyper for about an hour and we really enjoyed playing with him. I was concerned yesterday because he stopped eating and I couldn't really get him to drink much, either. So I resorted to trying something to drink about every 45 minutes or so. He would take about an ounce at a time, so at least he was staying somewhat hydrated. Chris spoke with a senior resident, explained his symptoms, etc, and they agreed the best line of treatment at this point was to start him on a round of antibiotics. If they haven't helped within 48 hours, we'll have to take him in for some more extensive testing (including a lumbar puncture, lots of blood work, a catheter, etc. Ugh!!) I'm really hoping and praying that it won't come to that...I just don't know if this mom could handle it! After his first round of antibiotics, he threw up. I'm hoping that he can keep them down. If not, we'll be making a trip to the hospital for sure.

When we went to bed last night, Mason didn't have a fever at all. I was feeling so encouraged. But I was awoken at 2:00 by screams. When I went in to check on him, he was burning up and his fever had spiked to 104.5 again. Grrr. I was up with him for a couple of hours, felt the fever break, put him back to bed and was encouraged when I got up that it is only about 100.5 this morning. Hopefully it will stay down. The poor kid is just getting medicine all day long between tylenol, motrin and augmenten. Yuck. I feel so sorry for him.

So, keep praying for him (and for me - Chris said I'm a typical mom...the kind that drive doctor's crazy! Ha!). Hopefully next time I post, I'll have some encouraging news!!

Thanks for all your prayers.

Oh - something sort of cute...Chris had pulled out his stethescope while I was holding Mason yesterday morning. Grant stood there and watched him listen to Mason's breathing, then ran to the play room. A few minutes later, he returned with his toy stethescope, placed it on Mason's back right next to Daddy's and they listened together. It was so cute. He said that he had fixed Mason. He's been very concerned about his little brother and is constantly reminding me, "Mommy, Mason's a sick boy!"

Poor Mason

Just a quick post asking for a few prayers for little Mason. He's had a low-grade fever since Wednesday, and today it shot up to 105.2. We have the fever down again, but I'm concerned as the evening approaches, that it will spike again. So say a little prayer for my sweet Mason...and for me, too! Thanks!

New Recipe Blog!

I have recently begun a new recipe blog, and I encourage you to check it out! I'm trying to keep up with it fairly regularly. I am attempting to make at least one new recipe a week, and if it's any good, I'll share it with you! There is a link to it on the right column of this blog, or you can also reference it by the following link: http://www.recipesandtablescapes.blogspot.com/

02.19.09 Another Nighttime Ritual

In addition to calming the boys down by reading books, we Chris also riles them up by wrestling on our bed (it cushions the falls)! By the way, the wrestling comes first, the book comes later. :-) They both all three love it, and I enjoy watching from the sidelines...sometimes it gets a little rough for me! :-)

2/18/09 Riding the "Harley"

Grant and Chris often go out to ride Grant's "Harley" but this was the first time Mason got to join in on the fun. He LOVED it! Grant and Mason both just giggled the whole time (and I think I might have heard a few giggles from Daddy, too). It was so much fun to watch them.

2.14.09 Valentines Day

Today was a big day! The morning started off by Grant picking out what he was going to wear. He was very insistent to wear his favorite soccer shirt since it matches his cousin, Jaybin. So, of course, he wore it! When Chris noticed he was wearing a soccer shirt, he pulled out his soccer shirt from Honduras so that they could "match." Isn't he cute? So they matched, and Grant was thrilled. He got the soccer ball, took Chris' hand and told mommy, "Picture!" So of course we commemmorated the occasion of their matching Soccer Shirts. Ha! I made Chris a yummy Chocolate Cake for Valentines Day. Doesn't it look so pretty? If you want the recipe, click HERE.

We spent the afternoon driving around looking at houses and peeking in windows! The boys were great in the car. Both of them slept almost the whole time. When we got home, Chris' parents showed up not long after. I fixed them Spaghetti for dinner and as we were preparing to walk out the door (Chris had planned to take me out that night for Valentine's Day), I gave the boys each a hug and kiss. As I stood up from hugging Mason, he reached for me and took 3 whole steps! I was so excited. I think I scared him! I didn't think he'd be trying to walk for a while. So he has proven me wrong yet again. The most we've gotten is 5 steps, but he's on his way towards being a big boy!

Chris and I tried to go to a sit-down restaurant, but everything was so busy, so we went to the food court at the mall instead and shared Sbarro's. Ha! We laughed about it. Then we went to see the movie, "Taken." It was really good, though probably not the best choice for Valentine's Day. It definitely wasn't romantic, but it did keep us on the edge of our seats for the entire movie. We recommend it!

So we had a great day. It was so nice to be together.

February 11, 2009 - Just Hanging Out!

Do I even need to explain? My boys are just cute. Plain and simple.

February 10, 2009 Popsicles

Today was rather hot, so I took the boys outside for a special treat. Mason had never had a popsicle before, so I was excited to see how he would handle it. He was all business. He held it in his little hands and went right to town. There wasn't a drop left...except on his hands and legs. Immediately after the popsicles, you ask? A Bath!

February 7, 2009 Trip to the Zoo

We went to the zoo today. It was a gorgeous day, and we had been wanting to take the boys again for a while. While it was a lot of fun, there were A LOT of people. Because it was such a beautiful day, everyone had the same idea that we did. Nonetheless, Grant fed a giraffe, and we tried to feed some birds, but they were so full from everyone else feeding them that they wouldn't even come near us. Bummer. It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy our little family for a while.

Typical Grant, of Course!

February 5, 2009

While I was fixing dinner tonight, I looked out and Grant had turned on the wii that we got for Christmas. He was playing baseball all by himself! I was so impressed! Such a big boy now!

Before bed, Chris sat down with both of the boys and read them a story. They love that night time tradition. I do to. They're always so cute.

On another note, we took dinner to Chris last night since he was on call. We had talked all the way there about how we were going to get to go see daddy and have dinner with him. As I rounded the corner and the hospital came into view, Grant got all excited, pointed at the hospital and said, "Look, mommy! It's Daddy's house!" I laughed it off, but found it kind of sad that he thinks of the hospital as "Daddy's House." I told Chris about it and he, with a sad face and a sigh, said, "Awwww. How sad!" The nurses all thought it was funny, though.

February 4, 2009

We had so much fun today! I tried to be more creative with the ways I entertained the boys, and they LOVED it! While Mason was napping, Grant and I played Candy Land for the first time. He doesn't quite get it yet, but he's on his way. And he loved counting the spaces to move and identifying the various colors. I finally just gave up on the rules and played with the people with him.

After Mason woke up, we made a giant fort out of our family room and left it up for nearly the rest of the day. They had a blast! Both of them huddled underneath the fort for most of the day with various toys, etc, giggling and pulling me in by the hand to join them. Aren't they cute!

House Hunt

Well, so many of you have been asking...sorry I haven't been better at responding! And sorry about the blog. Because of all the house hunting, the rest of my life has taken a back seat. You see, we have to be out of here by the end of April, so I have focused much of my attention on expediting this whole process. Unfortunately, we have hit a couple bumps in the road. We have placed an offer on two homes so far. The first one they just rejected the offer. The second one is my absolute favorite, however, someone else put an offer on it, as well, so they are giving us until today at 5:00 to give our "latest and greatest" offer to make it fair, since the other couple already knew we had put an offer on they had an advantage. Sooo, we're trying to decide what to offer there. It feels like such a game! On top of that, it's a short sale, meaning that it will take up to 60 days for our offer even to be approved by the bank after submitting it. So it will be a long road, I'm afraid. We're still looking at other homes, and I'm sure we'll end up placing multiple offers. I guess I assumed with this market that we'd have a big advantage - no one would be buying. But it just doesn't seem to be the case. Every house that we've liked is gone already. And we've only been looking for 2-3 weeks. So, wish us luck! And wish us patience...

On another note, check back soon. My plan is to update the blog very soon (like today!!)

A Few Bits of Randomness

This week, Grant has...

1) ...Figured out how to make a "Vacuum Seal" inside of a cup so it hangs from his mouth. He thinks this is very cool and kept asking me to take more pictures, so we have about 25 pictures of this same face. Scary!

2) ...Mimicked his daddy every time I turned around. Chris came home from work, plopped in the chair and fell asleep for a few minutes. Next thing I knew, I turned around and Grant had crawled up in his daddy's lap, striking the exact same pose. Aren't they cute!

3) ...Continued getting into things he knows he's not supposed to. While I was getting all the food ready for my candle party and was taking pictures of my table, I glanced over, only to see Grant sneaking chips while I wasn't looking. And he thought he was so sly!

01.31.08 PartyLite Candle Party

I had a PartyLite Candle Party here at my house tonight. It was so much fun getting ready for my guests, and I thought my table looked pretty and the food was all delicious! I tried several new recipes. If you want the recipes, and my reviews on them, go here.

Table Decor:

Bread Bowl Cheesy Bacon Dip

Garlic and Herb Chip Dip

Strawberry Fruit Dip

Scotcheroos

Cherry Limeade

01.28.09 Oh, the Horrors!

Tuesday night, my washing machine broke. I was not too thrilled about this, but Wednesday, Chris came home and went and bought me a brand new one! Hooray! He went out, picked it up, and while I was getting dinner ready and the kids around to go to choir practice, he was even starting to install it for me. It was rather stressful...both kids were screaming, Chris needed help, I was trying to get dinner on the table, off the table, cleaned up, the kids dressed, and leave for choir practice all at the same time. So I strapped the boys in the car and since they were both contained, I helped Chris scoot the old washer out and the new one in!

I hopped in the car and sped off, as we were already leaving late, and I knew I wasn't going to make it on time. I hate being late!! We were less than a mile down the road, both boys were screaming at the top of their lungs, and I had had it! It was already almost 7:00. I knew I only had to make it one more hour and the kids could go to bed...so I very frustratedly turned the car around, turning myself around in the process to scold the boys for screaming and sending me over my limit. In doing this, I looked at Grant and to my dismay, found him completely covered in blood! From head to toe! That did it! I hurried home as fast as I could, all the while hearing Grant tell me about an owie he had while he pointed to his mouth. Chris met me at the door and helped me clean Grant up. We finally figured out that it was merely a bloody nose, but it certainly freaked me out! It is never a fun thing to see your child covered in blood (amazingly, with as messy as he was, not a drop of it got on our beige colored interior of the car!!)! After a nice bath, both boys were winding down and we did get them to bed on time. It was nice to have a few minutes of quiet after my quite harried evening. But thankfully both boys are in bed, and I have a working washing machine!

Child Dedication -- FINALLY!

Today was "Sanctity of Human Life" Day at our church. It was a very moving service for many, and as part of it, they had a "Baby Dedication." Neither of our children had ever been dedicated before. Not for lack of desire on our part, but because we had never found a church that we really considered "home." We had, of course, dedicated them to the Lord when we found out we were pregnant with both of them but had never stood up in front of the body of Christ asking them to partner with us in our endeavor to lead our children in the ways of the Lord. So now that we have found a church family, we were definitely ready to have them both dedicated in the church setting. Before going to church, we took them to the gazebo in the parking lot and took a few pictures. Grant was surprisingly the picture taker today. Mason was a bit grumpy, but they both did great in the service. We were so proud of them. Aren't they quite the lookers? If I would have to pick, I'd say my two little men definitely stole the show today...I just think they're so cute!

Grant was wearing a sport coat that was navy with white pinstriping. He begged to wear it, even though it was a bit too big for him. He calls it, for some reason, his pirate ship. The first thing he said this morning was, "Mommy, can I wear my pirate ship??" And just how can you resist that, I ask??

Isn't he just quite the cool little dude??

Yes, he put his hands in his pockets...how he learned that, I don't know, but I thought it was awfully cute!

And sweet Baby Mason. Isn't he just the best?

How can you resist that face - runny nose and all??

Why is it that's it's always when he's on call???

Some say I'm a baby, maybe a scaredy-cat...but I hate it when Chris is on call! I have to force myself not to watch any TV whenever these days come, because late at night all they play are CSI-type shows, and I really freak myself out before bedtime. As it is, I sleep with my cell phone in the bed with me so I can grab it quickly - just in case.

Tonight, as I was driving home, there were two police cars that had pulled one vehicle over on my road. I don't live on a main road. I'm back in a neighborhood. Police cars really don't frequent our road for any reason...so why would they be pulling one car over with multiple vehicles. Okay, Okay, I know - it's really not that big of deal...they're just police cars...at least they're keeping us safe, right?

It's 4:30 in the morning right now. Never before have I had anything like this happen, and of course, they only visit when Chris is away. I was just awoken by my doorbell ringing twice and someone pounding on the door. I laid in bed for a little while, thinking there was no way I was answering the door, but by the pounding, I thought perhaps there was an emergency and a neighbor needed assistance or something, so I threw on my robe and ran to the door. I looked out the peep hole and saw a single bright light shining in my eyes, so I hollered through the door, "Who is it??" I felt like my neighbors who at Christmas time would not open the door for our family who was merely delivering Christmas cookies before knowing who it was, which often necessitated a conversation through a closed door. How unneighborly and unfriendly!

Well, I was greeted with "The Sherriff's Office, ma'am." He was shining a flashlight towards the door, so I couldn't see anything. I turned the outside light on and saw that it was indeed a police officer and I could see his car behind him. So I had Emma Lou with me, opened the door a crack to verify, and sure enough, a gruff looking man was standing there. I must admit, I was shaking. Why did the Sherriff's office need to knock on my door at 4:30 in the morning? Was something wrong?? Was Chris okay?

He began barraging me with questions about my neighbors - who are they, how well do you know them, what is the make and model of their vehicles, how many children do they have and what are their ages, do I know if they're out of town, and do I have any way of getting ahold of them? Well, I do know my neighbors by name. I have talked with them on several occassions and really find myself enjoying their company. But we're not great friends, nor have we ever exchanged information. I'd never even thought about it. Perhaps it's a good idea for us all to exchange such pertinent information in case of an emergency.

So after all the questions, he left. I came to the computer, still shaking, thinking that I needed to kill some time before going back to bed, because I was too key-ed up. Minutes later, there's another knock at the door. Another round of questions by another police man. And they told me they might be back again. I can't help but wonder what is going on outside. There are lots of police cars, lots of flashing lights, and while I was talking with both officers, I could hear their radios going off like crazy! But you'd better believe, there's no way I'm going outside to see. Evidentally, my neighbors are not home, so it makes me wonder - robbery??? fire??? what in the world??? Why do they need to know if their son who goes to college lives at home, or away? Is everything okay? But I think I'll wait for Chris to come home, and I guess I'll ask my neighbors myself. I certainly didn't feel like it was my place to ask the police officers to explain the situation to little-old-me.

So here I am - 4:30 in the morning, wide awake, praying for my neighbors and wishing that my Chris were here in situations like these!!!

***01/25/09 Update*** I called the non-emergency number for the sheriff's office this evening after talking with my "neighbors in question" who were home the whole time and were unaware of any strange events...the police never even knocked on their door! It seemed to me that the police would not knock on my door so persistently at 4:30 in the morning unless it were an emergency, so I found it all very bizarre. After talking with the dispatcher on the phone this evening, she informed me that there was a window open at their house, and someone had called about a suspicious vehicle in their driveway. It happened to be my neighbor's personal truck. Not sure why the concern, or why they bothered me at 4:30 in the morning, but the mystery is solved...no emergency afterall. Hopefully next time they'll wait until a decent hour to wake the neighbors up. Or at least ring the doorbell of the house in question first!