Garden Update

Its been 4 days & we have 5 little seedlings coming up! How fun! I think they are squash & cantaloupe. I really was doubtful that anything would grow, so I am so excited to see green coming up in the box of dirt!

A New Project

I decided to start a new project...not that I have tons of free time to work on it!! We decided to do a little gardening this year. John built a raised bed in our backyard, and I planted a few fruits & vegetables. I have no idea if any thing will actually grow because I am not a "gardener" & didn't do as much research as I could have. But, maybe I will have some little green sprouts in a couple of weeks!


These are two blueberry bushes purchased from Petals from the Past. I read in Southern Living that this was a great place to buy blueberry bushes.

Here is our raised bed....just a box of dirt now, but maybe we will have some plants soon. My grandparents will be so proud! They always have a garden.

Thanks Again!!

Thanks again for all of your prayers over the past few days. Joshua is feeling great again, after running a fever again Friday night. We are just waiting to reschedule his ankle surgery for sometime in May.

I saw a surgeon today who decided to hold off on removing my gallbladder at this point, since I have been feeling better for the last couple of weeks. I am really hoping to continue feeling well! I was not looking forward to having to juggle our crazy schedule with me being out of commission for several days due to a surgery. Thanks again!!

I finally gave in...

And registered with Facebook. I might actually be the last person to get on board! I have no idea how it all works, and am clueless about all of the lingo, but I guess I will just learn as I go! I haven't even added a picture yet...I'll have to spend some time on it later when everyone is completely well in our house.

Thanks!!

Thanks for all of the prayers! Joshua is back to normal today. He hasn't been running a fever since during the night & he is back to eating & drinking. We are now over 24 hours into the illness with no seizures, so that is very good news. If the fever doesn't spike again this evening we will be doing very well!

Change of Plans

It turns out I will not be spending my birthday waiting for Joshua to have surgery. Instead, I will be at home with a sick toddler tomorrow. He started running a high fever today & his throat is all red & nasty. The doctor thinks it is a virus...strep test was negative. We will be rescheduling the ankle surgery for sometime in May. Please pray for no seizures with this illness & that the fever will break quickly!

Back to the Farm

John really missed being able to go to the petting farm with us earlier in the week, so we decided to go back out there today after Joshua went to a little sports group. The animals were all very friendly. We got to pet goats, sheep, ponies, and donkeys. I think this donkey in the picture was Joshua's favorite today! John liked the little baby goats the best...he may have been more excited about being there than Joshua. And, of course, what farm isn't complete without a few peacocks running around!

Will We Be 3 for 3 in 2009??

So, we have 3 members in our little family....John had surgery in January, Joshua has surgery scheduled next Friday....will I get to have surgery this year as well?? We will be finding out soon. I just got the results from some recent gallbladder testing I had done, and it appears my gallbladder is only functioning at 17%. This is likely the cause of the on-and-off chest pain I have been having for 2.5 months. Anyway, my doctor is referring me to a general surgeon to discuss whether or not to have surgery. Our insurance company is not liking us this year! But, then again, we aren't exactly loving this many tests/surgeries either! I told John I was going to start a little chart like kids have (potty training, behavior, etc) with stickers for each procedure we have & see who wins at the end of the year. Maybe the second half of the year will be less medically eventful!

Petting Farm

Quite possibly Joshua's favorite place in the world!

Happy Easter!!

As usual, I forgot to take any pictures today. These are some pictures John's mom took tonight at dinner. Joshua has grown up so much!! Please note that he is trying to sneak a sweet potato biscuit off of John's plate during the picture!

Thai Vacation

Ten months after John & I started dating, we got engaged....in Thailand! I was on my winter break while teaching in China, and my organization had a conference in Thailand. John flew over & spent a week in Thailand with me. It was such a beautiful place! Maybe one day we will get the chance to go back. Below are pictures from our time in Phuket & Chiang Mai.

How It All Began...

It was about this time 6 years ago that John & I started dating. We had met about 6-7 months prior to that at a dinner with the singles ministry at our church. We ended up hanging out with the same group of people from church, so we spent a lot of time together before we started dating. The picture below is the first digital picture I have of the two of us. It was taken a few weeks before I left to go to China for a year. We had gone to Atlanta with John's parents for his dad's birthday and went to a Braves game.

The Blue Angels

Due to the location of the park, a lot of the low altitude maneuvers were not visible but I was able to get a few shots of various formations as they flew overhead.

Tuscaloosa Airshow

We took Joshua to see the Blue Angels at the Tuscaloosa Airshow today. We didn't make it to the airport, but we found a nice park that was close by. The show was running a little behind so the park turned out to be a good place to be.

The Blue Angels' Support Plane "Fat Albert"


Chris and Joshua playing at the park.

The plane, the plane!

Looking Back

In honor of my birthday month...and starting my 30s, I thought it would be fun to look back over my 20s & share some stories/pictures. Its amazing how much can change in 10 years!!

I tried to think of something really memorable that happened in my very early 20s...either my memory is really bad, or life was rather boring at that point (maybe life is just too crazy now!). I think most people who read this didn't know me until around the time I got married. Almost no one knows that I have a degree in math with a minor in chemistry. I would definitely have chosen differently if I had that to do over again! Anyway, my sophomore year of college I did an undergraduate research project in math (yes, there is actually math research!), and my paper, which I co-authored with a professor, was published in the Alabama Journal of Mathematics!! I tried to see if the article was online, but the online archives don't go back that far! I don't remember much about the research...something about prime factors. Hilarious to think that ten years ago, I had an article published in a math journal & now I have trouble cooking meatloaf!