Farewell to a Friend!

This past weekend I was able to spend the evening with a great group of girls from pur church. The evening was celebrating a dear friend's last week as Children's Minister at our church. Jessica is following God's call and moving to St. Joseph, MO to accept a ministry position there. Fortunately, before leaving, we were able to spend some much needed girl time out on the town. Jessica, we will deeply miss you!

Wonderful Blessings!!!

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." Leonardo da Vinci




This is one of my favorite quotes, simply because, to the passionate aviator (and you know who you are) it speaks so much truth. If you have ever been bitten by the flying bug, it doesn't matter where you are or what is going on, but if you hear an airplane above, there is something inside that makes you look up to see if you can spot it before it moves on. Many of you know that my flight career has been put on hold to be able to stay at home as a full-time mom. This was a choice that both J and I were eager to make, having both known the enjoyment of stay-at-home moms growing up. This decision, though wonderful, has left me personally longing at times for the thrill of flight that was once part of my daily life. This week, I was wonderfully blessed to be able to accompany my husband and his colleague to IL to have some routine maintenance performed on the aircraft that they fly. Being the generous people that they are, I was able to sit up front and man the controls for both legs of the flight. From the rush of the takeoff, to the entrancing cloud formations, to the seemingly walk-on-the-clouds feeling as we descended, and finally to the touchdown, I literally had my head in the clouds. During our trip, I was able to perform one takeoff, two landings, part of an ILS approach and numerous cockpit tasks. My husband was willing to tend to little J during the flights (who actually slept the entire trips). I'm sure some of you are thinking, what's the big deal, but for me, not having been in the cockpit for 10 months, it was 2 days of bliss!!!

G.I.M.P.

Well, a friend of mine has introduced me to a new design and photo editing tool called G.I.M.P (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is a free download from http://www.gimp.org/. I have been learning this new tool and really like all of the things that it allows with photo editing. I have never really played with Photoshop, so please forgive my ignorance if I am wrong, but this program allows me to do many things that I know that you can do with Photoshop. I'm sure that it is limited in many respects (thus the much smaller price tag!) Anyway, as I play around with this new tool, I hope to share some renderings of my newly learned skills in the future. At least that is my hope, that I can get back to blogging more. Thanks for being patient!

We Have a Rocker in Our Midst!

Baby J grows hair out to disguise as a rocker!

Ok, so J and I were having some fun going through and listening to some old blues and rock CD's that we have. I guess the music gave us some inspiration for a picture of little J. I am actually holding him on my lap and my hair is thrown over his head. We couldn't help ourselves and after we saw the pic, we couldn't stop giggling. It truely is a piece of work!

Yay! New Floors!

Many of you know that over the past year we have been slowly renovating our 70's era house. Well, today we finished a new floor in the laundry/bathroom and kitchen. Surprisingly the floor went down easily and until you get a really close look, it appears to be the more costly ceramic tile. It is actually the peel and stick vinyl tile. At first, I was a skeptic about it, but after seeing it used in my brother-in-law's home, I thought that it didn't look that bad. (Actual it looked down right good!) So after bring home multiple samples from Lowes and Home Depot, we finally settled on this brownish/gray tile. It looks spectacular in person and I can't wait to have the trim up. (It is off-white.) After this we will decide on new laminate counter-tops. We were kinda thinking a dark, almost black look, but if anyone has any better suggestions I am definitely open to them. The cabinets are the off-white trim color and the walls are a neutral brown.

We have finished most of the home, so I'll periodically add some pics of the remods as they continue. Needless to say, I am grateful for the experiences that I had growing up, helping my parents (mainly Dad) with renovation to our homes. It has certainly helped me to be more than eager to start and finish big construction projects such as these. I am grateful to be able to navigate my way around tools!

4 Months and Growing!

Well, so much for keeping up with this blog this month. Time seems to fly by these days. Our little guy just turned 4 months old. He is rolling over from his tummy to his back already and has begun to giggle. You can really set him off by a tickle! It is one of the most sweetest sounds in the world! I have video of the rolling over and the giggling, however I have failed to convert and edit them to post, but I they should be on here soon. Little J is over 17 pounds and growing fast. Last night he slept for 8 hours straight and the another 3 1/2 hours! Thank goodness for the extra sleep for me! I actually woke up and was surprised to see that he was still sleeping. I had to check on him to make sure nothing was wrong. Hopefully this is the beginning of a more regimented sleep schedule.

In the past 2 weeks, we as a couple have been able to spend an evening away as grandpa babysat. For me, it was a much needed experience and I hope to have more in the near future. Babysitter anyone? Here are a few pics of his growth this past month. Enjoy!

With Grandpa - Thanks for babysitting!

3 Months

Well, time has flown by, as it seems to do so often now that we have a little one. Our little man is now 3 months old and growing day the day it seems! When he is awake, which is most of the day now, he loves to see people's reactions to his coos and smiles. He is also interested in the other baby that he gets to play with in the mirror, although at times he seems a little bashful! He is about 16lbs and last time I measured about 26in. in length. Yes, he is still totally breastfed!!! Last week we had a little scare with a cold that little J had and we ended up with a visit to the ER over the weekend. Fortunately, we got it under control and he is now back to his old healthy self. Thankfully, the stress of having a sick infant is over for the time being. I'm sure there will be more wonderful moments of caring for sicknesses in the future - though I do hope they hold off awhile. Nothing pains you more that to not be able to fix a sick child. You wish that you could bear their pains instead.