Marginally back in business

I last blogged a year and a half ago. A lot has happened since then, to say the least. Since there is no possible way to catch up, I'm just going to start from here.

We just got back from a whirlwind of travels to Florida and Virginia over three very long, fun-filled weeks. We enjoyed a trip to Disney with the girls and Glenn's parents, a couple of days in Lehigh, a brief day trip to West Palm to visit Abbie, Marc and the new baby, a visit with the Tuckers in Tampa, followed by a seemingly never-ending trip home. We got in at 8pm on Friday, I worked Sat, and Mom and Dad picked the girls up for the weekend. I worked Sunday night, slept Monday (while Glenn worked), and then we headed up to Virginia for a visit and celebration of Audrey's 6th birthday. We got back Thursday afternoon, small group on Thursday night, long day Friday and back to work again today. I'm exhausted! I'm going to try to post some pictures now, but I'm not going to try too hard, so they might be a couple of days in coming. :)

Signing off for now!

Whew, that was a lot of work for this technically deficient brain. Will try to post more next time I'm on... hopefully not another year and a half!

More fun pictures from December

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello Everyone! Long time, no posts!

We had a wonderful holiday season. It was so fun to have Christmas with Grace now that she is getting old enough to be really into her toys. We started the festivities with a visit from Glenn's parents and brother Drew the weekend before Christmas. We all went over to Glenn's sister's house in Greensboro on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas morning with Glenn's parents, Shane, Laurie, Logan, and Isaac. There were so many gifts and fun toys to play with... the kids had a blast.

After a great day with Glenn's family, we made the trip up to my parent's house for a big Christmas dinner (16 people included) and way too many Christmas presents. The whole thing was pretty chaotic, but it was just the way we like it. :)

We stayed up at my parents' house until Friday, but had to end the festivities early because I had to work Saturday. Glenn's parents came for another visit on Saturday and his dad stayed with us until today (Wednesday). Unfortunately, our New Year's celebration was a little less than festive due to the fact that I had to work that night and we are all sick (Glenn's dad included). Glenn and his dad celebrated the New Year by watching a motorcycle jump a football field (I haven't figured that one out yet, but hey, to each his own).

In sadder news, Grace has been very sick and we found out today she has two raging ear infections (the doctor seemed pretty amazed by how bad they looked). The poor kid's eyes have been watering, her nose is running like crazy, she's coughing, and is having a lot of trouble sleeping. She has needed a lot of mommy's TLC and has needed to be rocked in the rocking chair in order to fall asleep. We started an antibiotic today so I'm hoping she's start feeling better soon. If you think of us, please pray that our heads would clear and our sinuses would dry up.

Since I didn't do any kind of Christmas letter or card, I feel obligated to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are so blessed by the people in our lives. God has been so good to us and we are so thankful for another season to celebrate the incredible gift of His Son. Thanks for reading!


Here are some Christmas photos:

On our way to search for the perfect tree!
Grace enjoyed stomping on the needles and branches on the ground. Eventually we found a tree that was just right.


















Visit to Santa... big, bad, scary Santa Claus (at least Grace would have you believe that he is).
















Grace enjoyed looking at his picture much more than sitting on his lap. At least we got a pair of reindeer antlers to commemorate the 1hr wait and the traumatizing visit to the man in red.

















Playing music with uncle Drew and Dani.
















More pictures to come.

Lima beans... Grace's favorite!

Busy November

I can't believe it is the 12th of November! Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the energy of the holidays seem to be revving up. Here's what we've been up to since Halloween (last post):

Friday, November 2nd: Trip to Hill Ridge Farm.
We were the only people there and it was quite chilly out, but we did get to take a hay ride (we had our own private ride) and Grace was able to feed the animals. We will definitely go again when it warms up next spring.

Wednesday, November 7th: Glenn's Birthday!
We celebrated Glenn's 29th birthday. Grace and I shopped all day looking for the perfect present (of course it didn't appear, so we just bought him a shirt and a coffee mug warmer). That evening, we went to dinner with Glenn and then walked around the mall together (time spent together is more of a treat than anything else these days).




















Friday, November 9th: Birthday dinner for Glenn with my parents, Mary and Ron, and Laurie, Shane and the boys. It was pretty crazy with three rambunctious kids and three rowdy Irish ladies (Mom, Mary and me), but it was so great to all be together. Grace also got to spend Friday and Saturday with her Mimi and Pop-pop... always fun!

Here are some other pictures:
First time in pigtails, walking confidently around the kitchen (she's really starting to move), eating a lollipop from her Halloween candy.

Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures of our Halloween outing with our little Ladybug. We met up at the Smiths, had some pizza, and then walked to Main Street for Trick or Treating. They really do a great job on Main Street... a lot of the houses participated and quite a few of them were all decked out in their scary costumes. Grace seemed to have a blast (although that could have been because she got to spend the whole night in her red car... one of her favorite things in life). She liked holding onto her candy and the princess bucket we bought her to carry the candy. She understood that the candy went into the bucket and had a good time making a game of putting it in and taking it out.

Another update: We went to the doctor today and found out Grace has an ear infection in each ear. We picked up her amoxicillin at Walmart (after a 1.5hr wait... thanks Walmart!) and gave her the first dose tonight. Hopefully she'll be feeling better by tomorrow night or Friday morning. Glenn is feeling worse. Please keep praying that they will both get better quickly.Regan went as a butterfly and Sebastian went as a Zebra. So
cute!

Hello to the world of blogging!

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging... wish me luck!

I guess I'll just start with a weekly update. We went to St. Pete over the weekend for my 10yr high school reunion. In some ways it is hard to believe that much time has gone by, but in other ways, when I think about all that has happened since then, it does feel like I'm old enough to be going to my 10yr reunion... I guess I'm just starting to settle into (and accept) my old-lady status. It was fun to see people and hear what they've done with their lives. We were a small class (just 48 of us) and we all knew each other pretty well (sometimes that was good, sometimes that was bad). It was fun to see each other's kids and reminisce about our high school memories. We also got to stay with our good friends Matt and Loretta for part of the time we were there. We got to hang out with their kids (Jacob-3, Aubrey-7mo) and they got to spend some time with Grace. I think getting an extended period of time with them was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. Over the past 6yrs since we graduated from college, our time with them has been limited to a couple of hours here or there and most of it has been shared with the rest of our group of friends, so it was nice to have time just with them. We were also able to see Glenn's parents and they got to watch Grace while we went to the reunion dinner on Saturday night. It is always nice to see them and I love watching Grace interact with them. She's always cautious with family she hasn't seen in a while (especially the guys), but she warmed up after not too long and they seemed to have a good time together... it didn't hurt that her Dani took her shopping (one of Grace's favorite activities). All-in-all I'm glad I went to the reunion, but I don't know if I'll go again. I guess I have a while to decide, but I think I realized that I've kept up with (or can get a hold of) all of the people that I want in my life for the long haul.

Special thanks to Glenn for sacrificing a weekend of studying to go hang out with my high school friends. Glenn made up a list last night of all of the things he has left to do between now and December 12th. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, but I know he can do it. Pray that he is diligent and motivated. Though we have been thankful for all of the things the Lord has taught us and done for us while here at the seminary, we are looking forward to finishing. One of us has been in school the whole time we've been married, so we're anxious to see what a marriage looks like with free time in the evenings and two full incomes.

Grace started with a cold on Sunday and now we are all sick. Her nose is runny, her eyes are watering, and she's been having trouble falling asleep. It is hard to tell if that is because she's adjusting to being back at home or if it's because she's sick. Either way, it stinks! She's such a happy, easy baby and I always feel so bad for her when she's miserable. I was really enjoying her not being sick for so long (she hasn't been sick since the end of August). Glenn and I are both feeling achey (sp?) and have sore throats. Pray that we are all able to recover quickly and that Grace doesn't get too sick.

Tomorrow is Halloween and Grace is going as a ladybug. We're planning on hanging out with the Smiths and the Kavanaughs. We're ordering pizza and then leaving from their house. I'll post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Other than that, there is not much going on this week. I'm hoping to get all of the bags unpacked, the laundry done (including put away), the house cleaned a little bit, and all the rest of my usual weekly duties (grocery shopping, bill paying, etc). Thanks for reading! Bye for now!