Our little Artist...

Bennett brought this to Adam and said, "It me, Bennett!"

I'm pretty sure this is the best self portrait he's ever done!

Boys will be boys...

Where do boys get training in being boys?

And who taught my son to tell his friend, "I'll push and you see if you can get this thing started"?!

Even though the key fit, they still couldn't get it started {maybe because there was no battery in it!} so they recruited a driver when he got home from school ...

I'm not gonna lie, having a house full of boys would be fine by me.
I am constantly being entertained!

5 weeks left!

35 weeks of pregnancy has all of a sudden snuck up on me!
I have only 35 days left!

This time around it is sooo different! With Bennett at 35 weeks I had a transverse {laying across me like in a hammock} baby in my belly and this time I have a baby that is head down and ready to go. There are so many new sensations {aka: pains} that I've never felt before and so many more reasons to stay on the couch and do nothing! ha ha! But life presses on with an ever busy 2 1/2 year old so who knows, maybe staying busy and keeping active will help this little head down baby I'm carrying come earlier than Dec. 14th {but hopefully before December 28th - that would be week 42, which would make me have 7 weeks left ... we shall see}


So just for fun I thought I would do a little comparison since I still have the clothes I wore in my 35 week picture with Bennett boy!

{Okay, so maybe I have to admit I am a bit bigger this time ... but still look how much lower I am than last time! Hopefully that means this baby is going to make his/her way out without any pitocin!}

If you've seen us recently...

... you've also met my "new" son, Buzz Lightyear!

He doesn't want to wear anything else, EVER!

Thoughtful Spot

My son has become rather addicted to "The Many Adventure's of Winnie the Pooh" and to be honest, I'm totally okay with it! The movie is adorable and the characters are actually all nice to each other, what more could a mom ask for these day?!

The other day, while at our friends house, he noticed their fire pit and told me he needed to go think.
At first I didn't get it but as soon as he started saying "think, think, think" I of course got it right away!

I love that he even got a stick to tend the fire with just like Pooh
{not that where was fire ... but there was a pile of wood that he poked at.}
He is just too much for me some times!

Joel Jason Perry

My friend Joel died last month.
Very unexpectedly.
He was living/teaching in Iraq.
I hadn't see him in person for a few years but we kept up on the facebook always sharing our common loves for God, Theology and of course, the Office!

Last month when I posted this picture of Pam and I on Facebook...

... he was the first one to comment!
Made me laugh and I thought to myself how much I missed laughing with him.
It was only 3 days later that he died.
It's fitting that our last "communication" was about the Office.
We had one last laugh.

Let me tell you about Joel.
He was my boss (along with Deb) while I worked for TeachOverseas and lived in St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida). I didn't actually meet him in person until November of that year because during summer training he was home helping his mom take care of his sick father. {Yep, he was that great of a son!}
Upon meeting, Joel and I became fast friends during our "thanksgiving retreat" with the teachers in Moscow. Joel had never married and had taken a vow of celibacy and had whole heartedly devoted himself to following the Lord. He had even looked into become an Orthodox monk (He had converted to the Orthodox church while living in Uzbekistan years before ... yet another rad and random fact about his life)

Really when I think of Joel there is only one word to sum him up: love.
Joel loved God and Joel loved people.
It was inspiring! I can honestly say that I never left a conversation with him EVER where I didn't feel more loved. Even when we were talking about "trivial" things and laughing about something ridiculous. I honestly don't know how he did it. And that's probably the point, he didn't do it. I'm sure it was the Holy Spirit in him that did it.

All that to say, last week, we here in California who knew and loved him got together to share a meal, share stories and watch the memorial service they had for him in Iraq (two friends were there and sent the video so we could watch it)

Upon sharing stories, I realized that I was not the only person who would sum Joel up with "love". So many people felt just the way I did. One person told a story of emailing Joel and asking for prayer and instead of just a quick email reply, Joel send back paragraph after paragraph of encouragement and blessing. Joel was rad! His life really was a reflection of the Father's love for us.

It was soooooo good to get together and remember our friend and brother and mentor in Christ.
So many people all over the earth miss you Joel, but we are all so happy for you and know that you are home with your Lord, right where you always wanted to be!

The Elbow Journey

AKA. Adam's Wenis Removal (as his students like to say)

I think it's safe to say that Adam's elbow journey has come to an end!
But here's where it started...

Adam has gout {sad but true} and sometimes when you have gout you get tophus {or tophi when it's plural}. Unfortunately, Adam has tophi in both elbows, his hand and left big toe. Well, actually, now he just has one little one in his right elbow because this is the story of the left elbow tophus' eviction!

I honestly can't remember when it started, but probably 6 months ago Adam's "Gout Ball" {as it was affectionately known around our house} on his left elbow started getting bigger and yucky-er. So after a number of doctor visits and a whole lot of bandages and blood and just plain oozing {seriously, it was so gross!} surgery was scheduled for the morning of  September 28th.

In the car on the way to the surgery center
(we took "head on" pictures too, but the thing was kind of open and the pictures are WAY too gross to put on here!)

In the waiting room.
See how big it was just sticking off his elbow!
As we were waiting Bennett accidentally knocked and it totally started bleeding - YUCK! 

The surgery was actually really quick, but they did knock him out because they said, "In case we open it up and we have to dig in the muscle, we want you to be asleep."  {SO GROSS!!!} Anyways, Adam was home by 10 am and he was just a "happy, hungry little stoner" with all the drugs still in him but around noon'ish {after eating like a teenage boy} he pretty much passed out and slept for like 5 or 6 hours.

Here he is that night putting on a nice smile for his crazy wife :) 

That first "nap" {drug induced coma} after surgery was Adam's last time sleeping in bed for about a week and a half... he didn't want to accidentally bump his elbow by rolling over so he just slept on the couch where he literally wasn't able to roll over.

Here he is sleeping on the couch and "spooning" the iPad his school lent him for his recovery since he was one handed
... pretty sweet "get well" present if you ask me! 

Due to the pain meds Adam was on, he wasn't supposed to drive so for the the next week and a half Bennett and I drove him and picked him up from work everyday.
Bennett LOVED going to "Dad work" and has actually been very sad since we've stopped.

Adam's hand ended up getting really swollen from lack of circulation with his elbow in the sling for 8 days ... poor guy.

8 days after surgery it was time for the "unveiling" {we were told to not touch the bandages and we were good and followed directions} so we went into the surgeons office to take a look.

Fresh out of the gauze

Bennett enjoying the doctor's visit and his Daddy's new toy! 

 After the doc looked at it and said no heavy lifting for 3 weeks, the nurse came in and took the stitches out and for a couple days he had these little strips on his elbow, but they fell off pretty quickly (a day or two)

He had his last follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon this past thursday and all is well!

His hand is still having a bit of a "being able to make a fist" issue, {as in he can't do it completely} but the doctor said that's normal for up to 8 - 10 weeks post surgery and he was happy with how the elbow looked. So other than keeping stuff on it to help the scar heal up nice clean we are pretty much done with this journey which is nice considering we are just 6 weeks aways from baby time! {yikes! we really need to pick a name!}

Life ...

this is life right now...

... and and I don't mind it a bit!

Date Weekend!

Without really planning to Adam and I had an awesome weekend of dates last weekend!

On Friday I got a call from my old boss offering us matinee tickets to Hair the next day in San Diego and since we were free we gladly accepted! After a quick phone call to my mom for a babysitter we had it all worked out and Saturday at noon we took off to one of our favorite cities on the planet!

Our seats were pretty great {honestly, I think they were the best we have ever had!} and we had some very nice ladies behind us {who snuck in our first picture} take our picture just as the lights were dimming for the show to start! 

See how close we were! And right in the middle too! 

{Also, side note, right next to me was the WORST case of "Denim on Denim" I have EVER SEEN! However, he was sitting in the chair next to me, so I never got a picture to document, but just know, it was soooooo photo worthy!}

Back to the story....

Not having ever seen Hair before we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into... {awkward!} but it was a really good performance that had lots of audience involvement so that always mixes things up and makes it fun!

Then on our way home we stopped at In-n-Out and got a shake and fries, to have in the car, it was cute! :)

THEN... on Sunday, Adam and I went to see the matinee performance of the school play at the High School he works at. It was called Quilters, and seriously, it was fantastic!

I was really impressed by the fantastic performance and it made me so grateful for the things we have now {like cars and heaters and fire extinguishers}!  But at the same time the play made me think crazy things like "Maybe I should find a group of friends to do a "Dear Jane" quilt with me!" And who knows, maybe I will... {Shayne, what do you think?!}

Thank you Lori for a surprise, impromptu date on Saturday and to both our mom's for babysitting Mr. B!
{It's so nice to spend time just as "us" and come home to our happy, rested sweet little man!} 

33 weeks!

Look who has their own dresser and shelf in the closet ...

Yes, it's true, I guess the "Nesting" has started in, or it's just my need to be organized and have everything all ready to go ahead of schedule, which is a constant plague on my day to day life ... but either way it feels good to have freshly washed and hung up little things!

Those clothes really are so small and precious!

It makes me so excited to meet this new little one!

Here we are ...

.... with mommy in her pj's and apron {that is starting to not be so good at covering my sides!  hmmm....}