Did you know?

John (while looking at the calander): HEY MOM! Did you know that Christmas falls on December 25th this year?

Mom: Ummmm, yeah....it's always on December 25th.

John: Oh, I always thought it was on the 23rd.


Mark your calanders ladies & gentlemen....we don't want you to miss Christmas in a few months.

9 months

Carmen is 9 months old today. She weighs a whoppin 15 lbs. 14 oz. and is 26 1/2 inches long. Yep, she's a little peanut. The dr. says she's proportionate so there is no worries. Here is a picture of her. She gets around amazing well. We think she'll be our earliest walker.

She got her first tooth in last week. She's managed to eat just fine without it. Despite her size she really does eat a lot. I'm still nursing her, as well, but not nearly as often. I'm ready to be done, but she's hanging on. Either way, she's still an enjoyable baby.

Red Ribbon Classic

Jim & I ran a race last saturday. The Red Ribbon Classic is a small local race that raises money for HIV/AIDS awareness. This is the 7th year for the race. I have run 5 of those years & sat out the other 2 when I was pregnant. I have won it every year (that I ran). But you never know who is gonna show up. I always say it just takes one young *kid* to knock my out of my spot.

This is Jim & I before the race. Look at how dry we are. I knew it wouldn't last long, it was pouring outside. Pouring when we left the house, pouring the whole way there. When we lined up for the race it was just sprinkling, but it grew to a complete downpour (again) before they even clicked the gun. That didn't deter us. We couldn't help but laugh about the whole situation.
This is us after the race. It's me & a group of people from the Y. Mostly co-workers. We were being goofy & showing off our dreched running bodies. Again, we just tried to laugh & have fun with the circumstances.
Here we are with our rewards. I was the only one who thought to bring dry clothes to change into. I did uphold my winning streak & was the first female finisher. My time isn't too much to boast about, although is some respects that is not what matters. But a combination of my lack of training over recent months and the race conditions didn't help at all. I just take my running for what I can now. No one is expecting me to put out Olympic efforts or results. I just enjoy doing it. Jim also won first in his age group, but I didn't get a picture of him. In fact, that is his award that I am holding. There was a problem with the overall winner's awards so they didn't have mine there to give me at the moment. For the sake of the picture though I used Jim's as a stand in. I don't think he was happy about his "performance" either or it could be the fact that his wife has beat him AGAIN! (love you honey). Either way, I will say I love the fact that he goes out racing with me. Racing is really a passion of my & in years past I always did it alone. Now Jim goes along with me and joins the fun.

Then & Now

Here's two pictures I have of Cindy, Mandy & I.

This was taken on the first day of 6th grade, 1987. From left, it's Mandy, me & then Cindy. (I won't identify the other people since this isn't about them)

This was taken the other day at lunch. From left it's Cindy, Mandy & me.

Back in time

I went *home* to Muscatine last friday to visit an old friend. My friend Cindy was visiting from Boston. Cindy grew up across the street from me. My family moved to Oak St. when I was in second grade. So we went through the rest of elementry school together and then onto middle school and high school. We weren't necessarily the closest of friends, but friends non the less, sharing a lot of life experiences together as we grew up.


I had not seen Cindy since the day we graduated high school 14 years ago. Originally I had not planned to go over to Muscatine to visit her. But eventually the idea drove me crazy so I drove over for the afternoon. Mandy was able to join us as well. Uh, *big* Mandy that is. Not my daughter, but my best friend. She still lives in Muscatine and shared a similar friendship with Cindy. We all went to school together.


So we met for lunch and had a great time of catching up & chatting. Yeah, we talked about people from school growing up. Sharing funny stories of things we remembered. Funny how we all grew up thinking we each other was way cool, yet silently battling all the insecurities of childhood.


After lunch we went to our old elementry school, Jefferson. We wandered the halls again retelling stories and kept saying things like "remember when..." We stood in the gym and marveled at how it still smelled the same and peeked into classrooms & wondered how they looked so small now when they seemed so big years ago. Things were different, yet the same. We stumbled across one class that was labeled for Mr. Adkins. We all looked at each other & said "nooooooooo waaaaaaaaaaay!" We peeked in & was greeted by a familiar face who instantly remembered who we were. There he was, 23 years after we were in 4th grade, Mr. Adkins. He invited us into his class and told his class about us. He even welled up in tears to see us as adults come back and honor him & our school.



After finishing up at Jefferson we went over to Central Middle School which is attached to Jefferson. A hallway connects them, yet they are two completely different schools. We had more great time of just wandering & talking.

If you know me well, you know how extreamly sentimental I am. I also remember A LOT. So this little trip back in time really meant a lot to me. It was wonderful!

Aaron Shust concert

Most people don't know Aaron Shust by name. Every time I told someone about the concert they said "who's that?". Then I'd sing his quite popular song "My Savior My God" and they'd say "ohhhh, yeah, I know who you're talking about." He put on a free outdoor concert in Peoria. That's about the only time we ever get to a concert....when it's free.

It was great! Not only was the weather perfect, but we enjoyed the night with friends as well. We enjoyed listening to him sing and joined him ourselves in some praise & worship songs. So here is he on stage:

Afterwards we waited around to meet him. He was very nice & fun. He signed the back of Angel's shirt, talked with the kids & got his picture with them too. Then me & my friend Sherri were like teenage girls and got our picture with him as well. It was awsome! Such a nice guy!!

All in all it was a great concert. It's amazing to sing along with 1000's of other people to his great songs. You can see the spirit of God working through his music...and we were there & a part of it.

Like father like son

Jim & John like to work out. John, of course, idolizes his dad and wants to grow up & be just like him. So I snapped these pictures of them working out. Cute, huh?

Bat

This little guy looks cute enough right? Heh, heh, no so much when I found it in my kitchen stuck behind my refrigerator. It never made any attempts to fly around, so we wondered if maybe it was hurt. At first I was quite freaked out, but once I knew that it wasn't coming after me I was able to get a much closer look. The kids found it very fascinating. However I made it very clear that we were not keeping it as a pet. There was some whining & begging to "pleeeeeeeeease keep it". I was firm, not even pursuaded for a moment bit. I've got enough craziness in my life to drive me batty (ha!) I didn't need this. I won't disclose what happened to the bat because (did you know that) it's illegal to kill them?!?!? I'm just gonna say I don't think the bat will ever be back, at least not this one.

Happy 13th Birthday Angel aka ACK! How did this happen?!?!?

It can't be possible that we are offically parents to a teenager! It doesn't make me feel old, but it doesn't seem possible that I can have a child that old. Although many would say that I was just a baby myself (just turned 19) when we had Angel. We had only been married for 10 months & 1 day (you do the math on that one) when Angel Lynn was born to us.

It was my longest labor & delivery at 14 hours. Although the first 6-7 hours I was watching t.v. and playing cards with my mom & Jim. She was also the longest I had to push to deliver a baby at 1 hour. She wins the title of my smallest baby (by one ounce) at 7 lbs. 4 oz.

When she was finally born we kept saying "we got our Angel". Finally the nurse said "is that what you are naming her?" Of course, we said YES! And appropiately so as she has fully lived up to her name. Not that that had made her a perfect child, but her name fits her well.

We have blessed with 13 years with her and look forward to many more! Enjoy her slideshow below.