Welcome, Calen Christopher Brandon!

Apparently, I have a knack for breaking my water at 2:00 am on a Sunday. Of course, this one didn’t create the same sense of urgency as the first one did.

As I told you last time, we were scheduled for induction on Monday (10/12). Well, true to form, our baby got impatient. There were signs all week that we were getting close. I think our children just like to give everyone a chance to gather. My mom flew in on Thursday, and my dad arrived on Friday. My preference was to go into labor on my own and avoid pitocin. My plan was to go natural, and it is my understanding that labor is more painful with pitocin (me and my big ideas). Once I knew dad was at least halfway, I started trying to coax the baby out. Mom and I ran some errands and went shopping. I had contractions but nothing consistent. On Saturday, I got out and walked the neighborhood a couple of times. Again, I had contractions, but they didn’t turn into anything productive. Over the course of those two days, I had moments that seemed promising, but they didn’t last.

We went to bed on Saturday night with a firm belief that we would be going all the way to Monday. With all of the anticipation that week, I was having trouble sleeping. I was awake every couple of hours or so. Saturday night was no exception. But at 2:00 am, my trip to the bathroom was a little different. I had a trickle that I was fairly certain was my water breaking. I wasn’t positive. It was a little different than with Mallory. I ate some applesauce, walked around for a little while and decided to go back to bed. I was up again around 3:30. This time, I decided to tell Johnathan. I was pulling my books out and reading, trying to determine if this was really it. We decided that we would wait a while to call the doctor since it wasn’t really an emergency…and she would probably appreciate the extra sleep. At 5:00, I was confident that my water was broken. Knowing that food would not be a possibility once I got to the hospital, I decided to eat. As long as I was vertical, there wasn’t much of a problem (apparently, the baby’s head acts like a cork). But when I laid down, my “output” got progressively worse. We finally called the doctor at about 6:45 (my doctor was not on call), and she told us to head in. We still didn’t get into a hurry. We both showered. Johnathan packed his bag, and I threw the last minute things into mine. We made the calls we needed to make and headed to the hospital around 8:00, where they finally confirmed that, indeed, my water had broken. This was it. Continue reading

The Home Stretch

First, I should catch up before going on the exciting news. I have been having horrible pains underneath my ribs. It hasn’t just been in the front (kind of stretching the muscles) like it was with Mallory. It has been in my side and back, and it has been excruciating. No idea what it is. Maybe Tater 2 is pushing on organs…I don’t know. What I know is that I don’t wake up with it. It usually comes on around lunch time. And the longer I am vertical the worse it gets. I have to lie on my left side to get rid of it. And the worse it is, the longer it takes to go away. Kylie was in town two weekends ago. On Sunday, we didn’t get home from church and stuff until around 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to do Mallory’s laundry. I was leaned over our mud sink, treating and scrubbing stains, while I was moaning and writhing in pain. I laid down for about an hour and then made dinner. By 9:00 that night, all I could do was lie on the couch and talk to Johnathan and Kylie while they played pool. Not fun.

The next day was my 36 week check up. I told my doctor about it (Johnathan had accused me of not being completely honest with her about my pain). She said she could take me out of work, but I had way too much going on. I said I would work with my boss to start cutting my office hours back. She said if that didn’t work and the pain became too much, we could look at inducing early…but she really wanted me to make it to 39 weeks. The risk of the lungs not being developed goes from 5% at 37 weeks to 1% at 39 weeks. She recently had an example of a baby born at 37 weeks that had to be on a ventilator. That was enough to convince me. She checked my cervix. I was 1 cm dilated and about 40% effaced. My body was working but not in overdrive. Continue reading

Dear God, Let it be this week

I hit 38 weeks on Tuesday. I’m tired. I hurt. I’m grumpy. I’m ready to be done.
On a brighter note, I uploaded pictures. Pregnancy 2 and just a couple in Mallory – 2 Years. Check them out. Maybe after the doctor visit tomorrow I’ll be chipper enough to blog…that totally depends on her telling me that it’s not going to be 2 more weeks. Wish us luck!

The Babymoon . . . and Stuff

I think sometimes things just work out right. We have a new CIO at work, who’s coming to Nashville next week for his first visit, which has things a little busy there getting ready. The Franklin Classic is this coming Monday (Labor Day) and planning for that has been exhausting. So even though it’s been planned for a while, without any knowledge of just how badly it would be needed, our “Babymoon” couldn’t have come at a better time.

Angie scheduled it as an opportunity for us to get away for a weekend, without the kids, and to relax before the new addition comes along. We haven’t actually gotten away for more than a quick overnight stay since Mallory came. The chosen location? Evins Mill in Smithville, TN. It’s about an hour east of here and is a bed and breakfast on steroids. Different from other B&B’s that I’ve either heard about or stayed at, this was really more of an “Inn”. It was made up of 40 acres of land, with a winding stream, an old mill, and a 50foot waterfall… There was a main house where we ate, which was very well thought out. They had a computer room (which we did not enter), there were always drinks and snacks out, and a dining room. Separate from the mainhouse were 3 “quadplexes” each with room for 4 couples… the first night we were there… well, I’m getting ahead of myself… let’s back up.

Angie’s stepmom, Kat, came into town on Thursday to watch Mallory for us. Part of the thought was that it would allow Mallory to get comfortable before we left, though it was quickly apparent that “separation anxiety” would not be a problem here. We both went to work on Friday, and left around lunch to head out on our journey. It was a nice drive… uneventful. We found the place after only missing one turn. Pulling up, it was obvious this would be a relaxing stay “close to nature.” Jason greeted us at the door… he’s the chef and was already working in the kitchen preparing dinner. Jason showed us around the main house and then to our room. He was very pleasant and we later found he was also a very good chef. ALL of the food was fantastic.

Angie thought ahead and order sandwiches from Honey Baked Ham. She packed them in a picnic basket and our first journey after unloading the car was to find a place to eat lunch. There was a bridge down from the house that was across the dam where the mill used to run. We crossed it and found a little spot down by the water next to the water wheel. It was a great start to the weekend… relaxing… just us… perfect weather. We had a bottle of wine opened, and just enjoyed each others company and the peaceful surroundings. Afterwards we headed up to the room and took a nap… naps are good.

Jason had indicated that there were only a few couples that night, so it was indeed very quiet. We headed up to the main lodge at 6:00 for dinner and were greeted by Chris… our server. Chris was a fun guy who was one of those “closet extrorverts” as Angie puts it. He couldn’t be serious if he had to be, but it made all of our main meals fun. Our first night we had 2 other couples there, but I have to admit we didn’t spend much effort to speak with them… we were just fine by ourselves. After dinner we were off to our room, where our cell phones didn’t worrk and the TV didn’t pick up a signal.

The next day we wanted to see the falls, so after breakfast, we cut out ont he “North Trail”. This was supposed to give us a view of the falls from the top. It was actually a pretty tough hike, so I have to give Angie a lot of credit . . . she didn’t complain once. The falls were beautiful, but I don’t think we truly realized what we were standing on. We didn’t stay long, but instead headed back and got ready to take the “South Trail”. Jason made us us some bag lunches and we took them with us down toward the falls. The “South Trail’ was pretty flat except for the last bit which drops down to the bottom of the falls. We stopped just before that and had out lunch… though both of us were still full from breakfast. We ate some of the food and then hung up our bags on a tree so that we could pick them up on the way back.

Angie again impressed with her descent and the view from down at the bottom of the falls was fantastic. It was there that we noticed that where we were up top, was actaully a ledge. We saw what I believe to have been a cottonmouth snake swimming through the water… which pretty much finalized our plan to NOT swim. Instead we just relaxed, took some pictures and ate a pack of cookies. Before we left, some kids came down the trail… which seemed odd since it was private property and no kids were supposed to be there that weekend.

We treked back up the hill, but when we got to our bags we found one of them on the ground. Our first thought was that the kids had gotten into our food, but at first glance we didn’t see anything missing. Then as we continued walking Angie realized, “Those kids ate our other pack of cookies!” Sure enough, the cookies were gone… not the banana and apple mind you. The water bottle was gone too, which thinking back we remember seeing one of the kids with a bottle of water. No wonder they didn’t want to look us in the eye when we passed…

No big loss, and not worth the trip back down the hill, so we headed back for a much needed nap.

Dinner was again fantastic, as was the quiet room again and the opportunity to sleep late. Sunday morning they prepare brunch, so you can come up whenever you want. We made it up around 10 and ate outside on the deck. Brunch was rediculous… the amount of food was amazing, and much of the vegetables were grown by Jason personally. We said our goodbyes and headed out, much refreshed and well rested. We agreed that we need to make it a point to get away, even if it’s just for a weekend, at least once a year. We’ll add that to our MIP… our Marriage Investment Plan.

Angie has uploaded some pictures of the trip for those interested. She’s also added some more to Mallory 2 Years, and maybe other albums as well. Hopefully the new SmugMug albums are working out for everyone.

New Pictures

Yes, I know. I owe quite an update. And trust me, there is much to share. But I have hit the third trimester. . . and budget season at work. Apparently, that is not a good combination. Anyway, we have uploaded some new pictures, including our 4D ultrasound we did today. The pictures didn’t come out as clear as we would have liked, but they are clear enough to see that the darn thing looks just like Daddy. . . again. I give up. Tater 2 was not very cooperative. He/she (nope, we still didn’t find out) had his/her face shoved right up into the placenta. (I will finish this using male pronouns. . . don’t read too much into it.) So for most of the shots his nose is flattened. That was just the beginning of our woes. Then, he got a foot up by his face and an arm over his head. Seriously, I’m pretty sure he was just trying to hide from us. We have the entire session on video. Pretty cool. You can see him sucking and practice breathing and swallowing with the most adorable little mouth. At the end of our time, you can actually see that he pokes himself in the eye with a big toe. . . and grimaces. He gets that from his dad.
We have moved our album from Google to Smug Mug so it will be different. We did not move everything over so we left the link to the old one. . . at least for now. The new stuff is in Mallory – 2 Years Old, 4th of July 2009, The Playset, Our 4th Anniversary, Swimming Lessons, Hanging with Uncle Matt and Aunt Lauren, and Pregnancy 2. I will try to blog soon. Promise.
****When I wrote this I was still in the process of uploading everything. Because we are new to Smug Mug and not quite efficient yet, I don’t think that they will all get uploaded tonight. Just check back later. Sorry.****

My Very Own Standing Ovation

Well, Kylie made it back from Rhode Island in one piece (whew). But now I know why the house seemed so quiet…because it WAS. :) She came in Tuesday night at 12:45 and plopped down on our bed with a big sigh as if to say, “I’m exhausted!” All I could muster was, “No, no, no. . . I love you, I’m glad your home, but it’s almost 1:00 am. . . I am not having a conversation right now. Talk to you tomorrow.” (Of course, I spouted this off on my way to the bathroom for my now routine middle-of-the-night pee.) Now, for those of you that are thinking I’m cold or unloving, let me explain. I got a text from her at 9:15 saying that her friend Trevor that she was riding with had just gotten a speeding ticket. She included that it was a good thing they were already in town so it would be easy for him to take care of it. 9:15. . . 12:45. . . Let me continue the timeline. That put them about 30 minutes from Trevor’s house. At 10:45, I got another text stating that she was leaving Trevor’s to get her car from Michael’s house. That leg of the journey should have taken an hour, tops. She rolled in at 12:45. The sympathy meter topped out somewhere around 11:45. Here’s another bit of info. On the morning that they set out for Rhode Island, she left the house at 4:30 or 5:00. . . IN THE MORNING. However, on the way home, they slept in. Last night, I said, “I’m glad to have you home.” She said, “I’m glad to be home.” No, you’re not. . . but I understand. :) She’s growing up.
We’re at 25 weeks now. I looked at blogs from Mallory to see when I started swelling. I found it. If you go to March 2007 and read the one called “25 Weeks”. Did I mention that I’m at 25 weeks? :) Nothing huge yet, but they are swelling a little. I’m keeping an eye on them. I forget if I have explained this already, but my placenta is on the front. It’s not rare, just differernt. The only drawback is that it cushions the kicks and movements, more for Johnathan than me. He has tried several times to feel Tater Two move, but s/he just goes still when Daddy places his hand on Mommy’s belly. I noticed yesterday that I could see my belly move. So last night, we were sitting in bed, and T2 started moving. Johnathan finally got to feel it. That’s always a special moment. I think there is always a little disappointment until he gets to share in the experience.
Recently, my boss had a departmental get-together at his home. There was an understanding that he had a pool and that it was open for us to use if we wished. Well, I have long held to be the belief that co-workers and bathing suits don’t mix. I determined that way back when I was a size 2. . . and I am not about to change my mind now that I’m maternity sized (whatever size that is). That being said, I did not pack a bathing suit, etc. for Mallory. Johnathan and I weren’t getting in the water; therefore, neither was she. . . or so I thought. It was all we could do to keep the child out of the pool. There were times when we were standing on the stairs in the pool clutching one arm while she “wallered” as much as possible, imploring us to let go. The good news was that I had a change of clothes for her. The bad news was that she was in for such a long time that her regular diaper started deteriorating (never let someone tell you that a swimming diaper isn’t necessary). We had to drag her out and wrap her in a borrowed towel kicking and screaming. . . until she realized she was cold. (She is so cute coming out of the shower or tub or pool saying “Cold, cold, cold”. Of course, that also offers a perfect snuggle opportunity.)
Our neighborhood pool is going to open fairly soon (either that or hell is going to freeze over. . . we’re taking bets on which will happen first). Our developer, while a nice man with great ideas, lacks a little in execution. The kiddie pool is mere feet from the deep end of the pool rather than the shallow end. Brilliant! So in the interest of keeping our child alive, based on the story above, I decided that swimming lessons were necessary for Mallory’s survival. We go Monday – Thursday for 2 weeks. That’s eight 30-minute lessons. We finished week one today. It’s just Mallory and a 10-month –old in the class. The first day, the teacher said, “Just hold her and bounce up and down to get her use to the water.” Whatever. Within 10 minutes I was getting, “Let go, mommy.” Ummmm. . . no. The teacher said, “If she let’s go, what are you going to hold on to?” Okay. . . she’s 2. She got about 4 or 5 words of that sentence and still doesn’t care what you said. We’ve tried singing a mock-Barney song (“the kids in the pool go splash, splash, splash. . . ). Yeah, not into that. . . me or Mallory. We’ve tried kicking while holding on to a noodle. “No noodle.” Tried a kick board. “No kick board.” Blow bubbles? “No bubbles.” All she likes to do is jump from the side of the pool. No kicks, no moving arms, no nothing. Just “More jump, mommy.” On the second day, I had to get out of the pool 3 times to chase her down. Yesterday, the teacher said to the other mother that “No” is the favorite word of 2-year-olds. The mother said to her baby, “We’re not going to learn that word, are we?” Ah (sigh), we’re all so naïve so early on. All I could do was chuckle to myself. Good luck with that! lol Finally, I think we have found a game we can both live with though. Yesterday, Mallory grabbed a rubber duck and threw it in the pool. I said, “Do you want to go get the duck?!” “Yes!” with a big smile. So she jumped in, and I got her to kick all the way to the duck, reach out for it and kick all the way back to the side. Victory is mine! Bwahahahahah! My next goal is to get Daddy to show up to take video and/or participate. (This is when you guys comment and give him crap about it. . . got it?)
Part of the “fun” (yes, it’s in quotes to denote sarcasm) of going to swim lessons, is changing into and out of the bathing suits. Surprisingly, Mallory has actually been really good during this process. I change her first, then I put on my oh-so-flattering maternity suit. Other women in the locker room probably think I’m nuts because I talk to her the entire time. All I know is that I must keep my child engaged or she’ll find something else to do. . . that I probably won’t like. To be quite honest, I have a terrible fear of having to chase her out of the locker room (the doors stay propped open) with only half of my bathing suit on. Hopefully, that is a blog you’ll never have to read. Anyway, there are things that happen every time. Like she just has to throw away her diaper once it’s off. “Yucky diaper, mommy. Trash.” Okay. Let’s take care of that and get it off of your agenda so we can move on. After lessons, she digs through her diaper bag until she finds a fruit snack. That occupies her while I change out of my wet bathing suit. Another routine part of this process is me going to the bathroom. . . of course. Well, daycare has been working with Mallory going to the potty. She finally did the other day. Yay! Apparently, they make a really big deal out of that. So yesterday, we went into a stall for mommy to potty. As usual, she was watching my every move, very interested in what was going on. While I was in progress, she said, “Mommy pee! Yay, mommy! Yay!” and started clapping like crazy. All I can picture is other women in the bathroom snickering. Thank you. . . thank you very much.

Yes, I know….

…it’s been a while. Things have been busy around here. And I’m just tired. So there.
First, I’ll let you know that I have uploaded some new stuff. New stuff in Mallory – 2 Years Old. And an album for Johnathan’s Garage Project. He put down an epoxy floor, painted the cement blocks black and installed an edging called “cove base”. It really looks good…for a garage. But it’s definite proof that Johnathan cares a heck of a lot more about the garage than I do. And he’s not done.
There is also a Trip to the Vineyard album with pictures of when we went to a local vineyard. All of our neighbors were going last year, but we just never got around to it. Leigh called me in April wanting to know if we were interested in going. It only took us until June to finally get there. It was wonderful, and we plan to do it again as often as possible (when the weather cools off). They have live entertainment. There are a lot of picnic tables, but we chose to lay out blankets and have a picnic. You can do a tasting tour or just relax. Oddly enough, it’s really family-oriented. Kids running around everywhere. Brady and Mallory wore themselves out.
Now, for some updates. Kylie and I made a trip to her college orientation. It was nice for her to get to see a lot of other freshmen, meet some people and stay in the dorm that she will actually live in. We were there for two days. The first day was just a lot of “hey, here’s a lot of information about the school.” She is very pumped about the outdoor “adventures”. There is a whole program where they offer whitewater rafting trips, scuba diving certification, sky diving, etc. It will be hard for her to balance that with school work. The second day was all about registration. She found the whole process to be frustrating. They didn’t have her latest ACT score, so she couldn’t get the math class she wanted. (That’s something that she’s still trying to get straightened out.) When we met for lunch, she was complaining that they wouldn’t just lay it out and tell her what classes to take. I said, “That’s part of growing up. They give you options and you make the decisions.” She asked if I could go with her to register. I said, “No. It’s part of growing up. You have to figure this out.” Honestly, we had already been told that we couldn’t help. But she needed to deal with that. It was so interesting to see the tug of war. She’s so ready to be on her own, but so not ready to be independent. She is in Rhode Island right now. Michael’s dad lives there (beach house…nice, huh?) so four of them drove up there. It just hit me today that, in total, we only have about 4 weeks left with her before she goes off to college. When she comes back from RI, she’ll be here for 3 weeks before going to a week long church camp. Then, she’s only here for one week before moving into the dorm (provided she can get the math thing worked out…long story). It’s just going so fast. And I’m full of so many conflicting emotions about it. It’s really hard to know how I feel.
Sometimes I guess it’s good that I don’t blog like I did with Mallory. If so, I would have had people in a panic about 3 weeks ago. I had some stomach issues for about 4 days. I was starting to feel better, but I noticed I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. They aren’t uncommon and weren’t bothering me (I had been having them for a few days), but I thought I was having too many so I called my doctor. They sent me home to put my feet up and drink lots of fluids. They suspected mild dehydration. And they were right. But the panicking thought of potential bed rest just stressed me out and started the stomach issues again so I was sick for another 3 or 4 days. Johnathan was wonderful. Since my doctor told me to rest, keep my feet up as much as possible over the weekend and drink lots of water, my wonderful husband did everything that weekend. It was really hard on me. I can relax but not while others around me are busy…especially when they are busy doing MY job. I behaved myself as much as possible on my husband-enforced bed rest. I’m doing much better now. Still having the Braxton Hicks but not nearly like I was. I went to the doctor last week. She checked to make sure that my cervix was fine, verifying that the contractions are non-productive. I can tell a difference if I don’t drink enough so I stay conscious of that. I’m watching the ankles and trying to take it easy (hard to do with a 2-year-old). Everything else checked out fine…oh, and the heart rate was 130. :)
I’m having some major conflicting feelings. I have always wanted 2 children. No more. No less. But now I have come to this point. What if this is another girl? Will we try for a boy? Don’t get me wrong. I would be thrilled with another girl. But it would also be nice to have a boy. So if this one is a boy, we’re done, right? But if it’s a girl, we’ll talk about it, right? I saw myself in the mirror last night…my growing belly stretching my t-shirt really tight…and all I could think was how sad I was that this may be my last pregnancy.
Last weekend, Johnathan and I took facilitator training for the marrriage class we took back in the fall. Now, we are certifiable…I mean, certified. It was all day Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 until 7:00. Mallory went to stay at Mimi’s. We figured it would be a good test to see if she was ready for trips without us. We were close enough that we could go if there was a meltdown. Well, she did absolutely fine. She even talked to us on the phone. I thought that might upset her, but nope. “Hi, mommy…I yu you…nigh nigh….bye bye, mommy.” And that was that. Did I get my feelings hurt? Nah. Besides, the reception we got when we finally saw her on Sunday would have overcome that. She was so excited she actually squealed. And if she was any bigger, she would have knocked me over when she tackled me.
I’ll leave you with this adorable story. A couple of weeks ago, Johnathan was out working in the yard while I was making dinner. Mallory was in the kitchen with her stick horse. The horse bumped me with his nose. The next thing I heard was, “No bite…time out.” I finished what I was doing and walked into the dining room (where we usually do time out). The horse was in a chair in the corner, and the beach ball was in another chair. Mallory “the mom” said, “Time out, guys”, turned her back on them, walked off and crossed her arms. Just like mommy.

2009 Franklin Classic – Benefitting Mercy Childrens Clinic

As many of you know, I have the privilege of serving on the board of directors for a local non-profit called Mercy Children’s Clinic. Mercy truly is a fantastic organization centered on providing “Healthcare for all children” regardless of insurance or their ability to pay. What sets Mercy apart is that beyond just fantastic pediatric care and amazing doctors, we also provide family services in the form of counseling and psychiatric care and have recently added Mercy Chronic Care Home, which provides a home and a “quarterback” for children with multiple illnesses and multiple doctors/specialists. We now serve close to 10,000 children from 31 counties in middle Tennessee and surrounding states. You can read more about Mercy specifically here: http://www.mercytn.org/case-for-mercy/

The reason I tell you this is because on September 7th, we will be putting on the 31st annual Franklin Classic, which includes a 5K/10K run, a 4K walk, and a kids run, in downtown Franklin. All of the proceeds for this race go to Mercy and it is by far our largest event and a large part of our funding each year.

I’d like to ask you to join me in helping to raise money for Mercy through this event. You can do so in a few ways:

1. You can sponsor me in my run, by visiting http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/jb (my personal site)
2. You can send this to others and ask them to sponsor me by visiting http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/jb
3. You can “Join My Team” either as a participant in the race, or just as a fundraiser and ask your friends and family to sponsor you. To join the “Mercy Miracle Makers” team, please go to http://franklinclassic.kintera.org/mmm/ (my team’s site)
4. You can start your own team, set a fund raising goal, and ask others to join your team or sponsor you. You can start a team by going to register at http://franklinclassic.kintera.org.
5. Pray for Mercy Children’s Clinic and the children that we serve.

Again, all proceeds benefit Mercy Children’s Clinic, and every little bit truly does count. You can donate as little as $10 online, or you can send me a check made out to Mercy Children’s Clinic for whatever you feel led to give and I can make sure your donation is recorded. Please also feel free to forward this message or webpage to others.

Thank you in advance for your help.

New Pics

Johnathan just blogged so I’m just going to tell you about the pictures and videos that have been uploaded. There are some new ones in Mallory – 23 Months. Then, I added folders for Kylie’s Grad Party, Kylie’s Baccalaureate, Kylie’s Grad Banquet at the church, Mallory’s 2nd Birthday, Kylie’s Graduation, Michael’s Grad Party, Miranda’s Wedding and Tater Two’s Ultrasound. Told ya it was a busy month. Now, there are only two things in Kylie’s graduation folder. We took two cameras to that – the one we normally use and one that we thought would work better from far away. The battery ran out on the one we normally use, and I don’t know how to take pictures off of the other one, so I will have to enlist Johnathan’s help…and he has been quite busy with the garage this weekend. I’ll let you know when that happens.

Love to all! Enjoy!

Hell Month Is Officially Over. . .

Angie last wrote about our May… There were a lot of great things that happened in May (Kylie graduated, Mallory turned 2, Miranda got married) but the combination of it all was almost too much… almost. We found ourselves counting down the events or “checking them off our lists.” We survived though, and I’m probably being naive to be looking forward to the summer, where I THINK we will have less to do. During the summer we only meet for small group once a month for fellowship and the Sunday school class that we teach is on break. There are no Wednesday nights either, though we both took a break from that this year with Mallory. Just this weekend, we had “nothing” to do. . . so I filled it with a garage project which has left me moaning from all the bending over I did scrubbing and re-scrubbing the floor so I could put down an epoxy coating (www.epoxy-coat.com). It’s drying now… then I have to move everything back into the garage… oh what fun. Sometime during the summer we also want to finish the screened in porch (I think I almost have Angie talked into a TV out there), put in a patio (possibly with a Koi pond), close in the underside of the deck, put up a play set for Mallory, re-stain the deck, re-caulk the windows, seal the driveway and get someone to look at our foundation… those are just my projects. We also are going to help Matt and Lauren put up a fence and possibly build a shed in the back of their house… how many weekends are in a summer?

Kylie’s graduation went great, oh, except for the part where her chair was gone. :) We watched her walk in and then saw her look confused. Kylie usually handles situations like this very well and doesn’t get embarrassed easily. We saw her walk to the far side of the floor, then back again, then to the far side once more and then back again. Seems her card was missing and the teachers on either side kept telling her to go to the other side. She finally told the teacher on the first side to move over and get another chair. He almost refused until she said (I imagine through gritted teeth) “This is MY graduation”… he complied. We took her a piece of paper with her name on it as this is how they keep up with the order, but just as I got there, her card showed up… interesting. Some other kids were missing their name cards, so they used the paper.

After graduation we went to Buca Di Beppo for lunch, which was great. Then we dropped Dad, his friend Darlene, and Faye at the house before hitting a couple of the grad parties for Kylie’s friends. The first one was for Trevor and the second was for Michael… ah yes Michael… Kylie’s boyfriend. I was so happy that she almost went the entire year without a boyfriend. One less thing to shoot, I mean worry about. But she had liked Michael for a while, and he really does seem like a good guy and a nice kid. We’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with him and we like him a lot. He treats Kylie well and he actually even came over today to help me paint. I’m glad she has found a guy that she likes who respects her and makes her happy. We’ll see how it goes over the long hall… she’s headed to Chattanooga and he’s going to Univ. of Kentucky… at least for a semester he says.

Angie is uploading some pictures/videos from his grad party. They have a big hill in their front yard, and they set up about 80 feet of plastic and created a “red neck slip and slide” complete with a sprinkler and a bottle of Dawn at the top. The kids loved it, and we loved watching them roll off the end of it and into the grass. Unfortunately for you, we forgot our bathing suits.

Mallory’s birthday was great. We had most of the family over and a few friends. It worked out well that graduation and Mal’s birthday were close so that family could travel and hit both in the same trip. She’s two now and acting every bit of it. I give her a hard time, but she really is a good kid. But she definitely has a little bit of attitude when she doesn’t get her way. . . she must get that from her mom. She got a lot of gifts for her birthday… all of which we’ll eventually have to find somewhere to put. Mom and Barry gave her a water table which she just loves. Angie is uploading some video I believe which shows her playing with it. She has figured out how to be sly or sneaky… which is funny. I was sitting next to her while she played in the water table, and then she filled up a cup, cut her eyes at me in a devilish way, and then threw the water at me… It was hilarious. Mallory also danced with Brady… her future husband. Angie is uploading that video as well. Priceless.

Angie is halfway through her pregnancy, and we went to the doctor for the ultrasound. We are still choosing not to know whether it’s a boy or a girl. We’re not really sorry if that disappoints anyone, but we’ll pretend we are if that helps. Because we didn’t find out with Mallory, we should be pretty prepared for whatever God sends our way. We do know that it’s only one, so there won’t be any TV series started about us, fortunately or unfortunately. The ultrasound was neat, and we got some really good pictures of our little one’s hands. We saw 2 arms and 2 legs, and 10 fingers and 10 toes. That was all good. We did see a heart, brain, brain stem, nose bone, kidneys, stomach, bladder, leg bones, and arm bones… it’s amazing what they look for and what they can see.

I think that about catches us up. Ah… one more thing… Mallory got new tubes in her ears… which is a good thing. One of her tubes fell out and she had 3 ear infections in a month. The surgery went without a hitch and she’s been clear since. The wonders of medicine…

Ok… that’s enough for now… I imagine the next installment will be from Angie, which probably means that it will be more entertaining. I’m really just the clean-up guy stepping in to help out when we get behind. It’s all good though… the pay’s ok but the benefits can’t be beat. We wish everyone well and hope to see you all soon.