John's dedication (Apr 27)

The weekend after we all convened in Galveston, everyone came to our house for John's dedication. Mom & Dad arrived on Thursday evening from a week in San Angelo visiting my grandparents. They were just in time for Bible Study. Friday was filled with catching up on little projects around the house. T & Sarah & Bella arrived late Friday night as we were watching the Spurs game. We stayed up much too late (especially if you have a little one that gets up-or wants to nurse- before the crack of dawn!) visiting. Saturday after much laying around and talking, we decided to go on a picnic lunch. It only took a short time to prepare the lunch, compared to the time it took to find an open park that would take animals (both Kebap & Bella joined us). I think we were driving around Stillhouse Hollow Lake for nearly an hour before we ended up just pulling over and parking (in an area that appeared closed), then hiking to a picnic bench.
It was a glorious, relaxing time sitting back enjoying my family, Tim talking theology and relationships with my dad, mom playing with John, Chris joining in the conversation with T & dad, and also engaging with John, and Sarah & I talking about nursing and life. I miss these family times. They are so few and far between now!
After lunch the boys took the dogs walking around the park, and we followed them. I wish I had brought my camera, b/c they were doing manly show off for our women things, like showing off how many pullups each could do, or who could make it all the way across the monkey bars. Even dad got involved. That's what I wish I had a pic of more than anything! Sarah got some, but I forgot to ask her for a copy before they left.
Dave & Sarah showed up with Penny shortly after we returned from our picnic. Penny & Kebap hadn't really been together since they were wee pups because they were kind of aggressive with each other. Penny came in all ready to attack and went after Kebap, but since he was about 6 times bigger than her, it was like an itty bitty play toy! Bella even joined in too. We were actually thankful all the dogs were there to keep Kebap out of our hair!
That evening we grilled hamburgers, and Chris ended up missing out on them, b/c he got a stomach bug. He pretty much was in (and out of-I'll let you imagine since I'm sure he'd kill me if I posted anything!!!!!! ) bed the rest of the evening. We still enjoyed a good family time and we taught my folks how to play Bible Scattergories. It was hilarious watching my dad get flustered when he played according to the black and white rules, and we stretched things!! He caught on, and began to enjoy the game a bit more.
Sunday morning, Chris still wasn't feeling the greatest, but he managed to get dressed for church. Both Chris's parents showed up for the dedication in addition to my family. What a blessing!! Neither one of us knew what to expect as we hadn't seen a dedication done at this church yet. We wish that we had actually said something, primarily about why we chose his name , John Isaiah. Partly, so the pastor would have said John & not Jonathon ;o) ;o) but also to indicate to people a little of what we had been through. After studying John the Baptist, Chris wanted his son's name to be John. He wanted him to be one who wasn't afraid to humbly stand up against the wrongs in the world & in the church. Isaiah was chosen for a similar reason. He was a prophet who shook things up. However, even more than that, both names have special meanings for us. John means: "Jehovah has been gracious" & Isaiah means "Jehovah is Helper." John was conceived shortly after we miscarried our first child, and through & because of God's grace we made it through a very hard time. God was gracious in providing another child, our son John. How I wish that we had been able to convey this to the congregation. But, maybe for this next one, we will throw in a little something about John!! Our pastor read some verses about children being a blessing from the Lord, including one of my favorite passages Psalm 127:3-5. Then the congregation stood in agreeing to help us raise John in a Christlike manner and we prayed.
Chris was able to stand and hold John, and then had to leave to go home to rest as he still wasn't feeling good. We were planning on eating Mexican, but changed our minds to McAlister's so Chris could join us. Chris's mom & Kevin & Laura joined us. It was a really sweet time. Sadly the aunts & uncles had to leave shortly after lunch. My parents stayed an extra day, so we got some more good conversations in, and they spent most of Monday trying to teach John how to crawl! It was really cute to watch my dad, b/c he was so patient, and would continually put John up on his hands and knees. By the way, they were actually happy when they heard the news about us being pregnant again. My mom was trying to find a way to move down here. I was told I forgot to put that in the last blog!! :o)
Aside from Chris getting sick, the weekend was perfect! Here are some pictures:

John showing off his new trick of standing while holding on to something

Enjoying helping grandma do laundry



He found he loved to play catch & soccer (with a little help!!)
Penny arrives and greets her cousin!

The dedication:




How Penny & Kebap interacted the majority of the time:






I also posted some other pictures including daddy styling John's hair & some bathtime fun on our Picasa Web Albums site: http://picasaweb.google.com/armyforchrist/MarchAprilPics Here's something else John learned how to do! He is getting to be such a big boy.

Aunt Sarah's Graduation

Just a forewarning, this is a long one!!

April 18-20 we were out of town again. This time to Galveston to see Aunt Sarah (Tim's wife) graduate from nursing school. The whole family was going to be there, so we couldn't miss it. Plus, we were super excited about taking John to the beach!! He loves water, and we wanted to see what he would do with lots and lots of it!!
We started out early (well 8:30 after we finally got everything and everyone packed into the car!) and headed to Chris's mom's house to drop off Kebap. Poor guy when we got there whined and whined and whined. He didn't want us to leave. (By the way, he had a good time!). Of course, since John had been up since 7:30, he promptly fell asleep as we left Nana's house, a little bit earlier than we wanted, beings as though we still had a 3-4 hour ride in front of us.
He did fine, slept and played until about Hearne, then decided he was done, and started pitching a fit. I got in the back with him, and tried to play with him, and console him with some food! We finally pulled over outside of Houston to use the restroom, get John out of his carseat, change him, and stretch legs.
We were technically only about 20 minutes away from Houston and were on target to meet my folks and Dave & Sarah for lunch, until we get onto I-610. We saw signs saying that I-10 E was closed, but the traffic seemed to be moving fine towards it. Well, it truly was closed, and we were detoured via I-10 W. Now that wouldn't be so bad, we could get on, get off, and do a turnaround to get onto I-10 E. Yeah, well apparently that was everyone's plan who happened to be rerouted. We waited in line to exit nearly 15 minutes. Once we exited, the access road to the light was a bazillion miles long, so we waited again (no fancy little turnaround). This time about 20 minutes, then another 10 minutes at the next light where we could turn onto the access road to I-10 E. Then, you couldn't immediately get on the highway due to construction. You had to stay on the access road past 3 on ramps and through 3 lights. Ugh. 45 minutes later, we finally were on our way the few miles to meet my folks. Of course, John decided to wait until we were almost to our meeting destination to fall asleep! Being this late, put us late in getting to T & Sarah's where we were going to change prior to the graduation. We got there with barely enough time to change everyone and hop back in the car again.
We got there just before the graduates entered. They did something really cool, that I had never seen before. All of the graduates filed in along the center aisle, and stood there on both sides, and waited for their teachers to come through, so that they could honor them. Then the teachers did the same thing after the ceremony. Unfortunately because we were late we didn't get the greatest of seats, and the sound wasn't working, so we could only hear bits and pieces of what was being said. I do remember really enjoying the guest speaker. She talked a lot about how nurses need to speak up in politics and in their hospitals to accomplish change. I missed a good portion of it b/c John got fussy, and I had to go change and nurse him, but I came back for the best part. She gave a huge plug to nurse midwifery, and talked about how they are vital for society, and help decrease the C-section rate. Even when working with high-risk pregnancies in inner cities, their C-section rate was much lower than the national average. I was super excited about the plug for nurse midwifery. I'm all about challenging/encouraging people to use midwives!!! :o)

The graduates filing in. I should have done something to highlight Sarah, but she is in there!
John trying to find his aunt! :o)
Sarah receiving her diploma

After the graduation we went to eat at this really yummy deli-like restaurant with Sarah and her fam. The best part about it were their desserts. Their cheesecake was heavenly, and a slice (which was a pretty decent serving) was only $1.75. I totally would eat there everyday!!
John decided it was a good place to take a nap!


That night we played a game about how well you know people (can't remember the name of it for the life of me). Basically a question is read, and you have to write down your answer and the guesser has to guess who wrote what. I was really hoping to have a question about a secret so that I could share about being pregnant with the fam, but no such luck.
We ended up staying up far too late dealing with some drama, but it was good. Sarah and Chris got to talk about how similar their lives were, and it brought the four of us closer together as couples, especially as T & I are very similar in things.
Thankfully, even though John got up for a feeding around 5, he let us sleep til 8:30. That's sleeping in when you have a little one!! :o) Once everyone dragged themselves to T & Sarah's, we went out to Denny's for breakfast. I was really hoping the conversation would flow so that we could tell people about our coming little one, but no such luck. Finally Chris just busted out, "Excuse me, we wanted to tell you guys something, since we were all here together as a family. You know I will be leaving in December, well your next grandson(that's what he said!) will be coming in November." Not really sure why, but I busted into tears. I'm not sure if it was a mixture of relief that it was finally out, uncertainty about acknowledging that we are having another, fear of what my folks would think about them being so close. Who knows?! Definitely not the reaction that Chris nor my family was expecting! Oops!



Johnbug showing off his mad eating skills, and his newly discovered facial expression: squinting!!

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. We strolled around downtown Galveston looking at the shops. T took us to see his friend Daniel spray paint paintings. He was really good. Chris & I had to turn back early, b/c I wasn't feeling good. Plus the Spurs game was on!! Wow, that was intense. Probably one of the best games I've seen. And to see Timmy D make a 3 pointer to push the game into double overtime where they won, nothing could be better!!
John enjoying the sites with Grandma



Before and during the spray paint art! Amazing they can do such detail with spray paint.


A really funny sign we saw on the walk

That evening Chris & John & I drove out to Kemah, TX (about 20 miles away) to meet my good friend from college, Carol and her hubby (whom I had never met!!) My family decided to drive out there as well to enjoy the boardwalk, and to say hi to Carol. They ate somewhere different though!!! :o) We actually ate at Joe's Crabshack, and even though the pickings were slim, I found a yummy grilled chicken meal. John entertained us by picking up the silverware and dropping them behind him, unintentionally into the bucket in the middle of the table. It was really cute.
Carol & her hubby Matt



Sunday morning we went to T's church. I was so excited b/c a guy from Nigeria (I think) led most of the service. I was hoping he would also do the preaching, so that I would feel like I was truly back in Africa, but no such luck. John behaved rather well considering. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant by the ocean, so while we waited for a table, we took John to the beach. His first time ever!! He would stand in the sand until the water came up, and then he'd lift his legs as if trying to sit down. Not sure if he was really trying to sit, or if he just wanted to get out of the way of the water. It was too chilly to get more than our feet wet, so I guess that'll have to wait until next time!







After lunch we said our goodbyes, and headed out. John did amazing and slept for 2/3 of the trip. Unfortunately he decided he needed me on the windy backroads, so I got a wee bit sick.
All in all it was a really good time, but we were thankful to be back home!

April 11-13 the rest of the weekend

That evening after the fun at Ft Hood, we headed out to Temple, to see one of my best friends and her hubby, who was down in Texas visiting family. One of our mutual friends hosted a barbeque so that Steph & Justin could see everybody in Temple. It was a lot of fun catching up with everyone. Too bad it couldn't have been longer. John enjoyed playing with Tammy's little girls toys, particularly her walker. He was getting under everyone's feet! Also, it so happened, that Tammy's dad randomly asked me if I was pregnant. I couldn't say no, so everyone there found out that I was. I was hoping not to tell anyone until we told our folks, but I wasn't going to lie. Oh well! The night went by all too fast and then it was over. Unfortunately, even though I brought the camera, I forgot to take pics. :o(
The next morning we left bright and early for Fredericksburg for one of Chris's ROTC buddy's wedding. We made it with plenty of time, but had a hard time finding a fast food restaurant, and ended up barely making it to the wedding, after getting everyone changed (in an itty bitty Subway, mind you-apparently Fredericksburg only has 2 fast food restaurants). I'm sure we were quite the attraction as we took up a table right at the entrance, where Chris was getting his dress blues ready, while John & I were eating. From what I saw the wedding was beautiful. John got a wee bit fussy, so I had to step out into the foyer and play with him. He was thankful when the wedding was over, especially cuz he got to be held by his daddy and play with his shiny buttons & tabs!
We weren't able to stay at the reception for very long as we had set up dinner with some of our soldier friends from San Antonio. Mac was to be in town (he has been in and out of country for the last 2 years, so we were excited to be able to catch him while he swung through). It was another great time of catching up, that once again ended far too soon. John wasn't too excited about staying there, and was starting to get cranky, even though he had lots of fun toys to play with.

Helping Daddy drive




Somehow we figured out that John was exactly half of Mac's height, so we had to get a pic of Mac & 1/2 Mac! :o)

We left shortly after church Sunday, and after a brief stop at our house in San Antonio to check on things. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time with my sis and her hubby. :o( It was a whirlwind weekend, but we were glad we made the trip.

Hood Heroes Welcome

So, one of the benefits of being in the military is getting numerous 3 day weekends to celebrate this or that holiday, or just cuz. On the weekend of Apr 11-13, we had a 3 day weekend to celebrate the return of the 1st Cav. Fort Hood shut down basically and had a huge party! There was a mini amusement park, free food, and booths where you could see and do pretty much anything. They also had live music. We decided to take John to see what he would think. He loved looking at everything. We met some friends from Bible Study and wandered around with them and their 4 kids. It was a lot of fun. I love this part of the military!!! :o)

John watching BMX bikers and skateboarders do tricks on a ramp

Our friends Chris & Lisa getting their youngest ready to go!





Some of the fun animals to look at. The Budweiser Clydesdales came up from San Antonio for the occasion. The two top pictures were from John's favorite booth. They had animals out on display that you could look at, and then every 20 minutes they brought out a random animal. We saw an armadillo, a vulture, a monkey, a crocodile, and some snakes and lizards. John was fascinated.


Us at the end of the day waiting for the bus to take us back to our car.