Dad, Dad, I'll miss you so bad...

Ok, let the count-down begin. 47 days to go until Trev gets back. Man oh man, I'll miss that man!

We've spent a lot of time bonding as a family over the last 2 weeks. Here are some shots of Trev and Rye. He sure loves his Daddy...

My boys...starting off so sweet...


And then naturally taking a turn for the silly...

But always ending up oh-so-sweet!

Please pray for Trev as he's adjusting to life in Japan. Pray for safety and that he'll have a productive and fun time.

If you want you can pray for me and Rye too. Pray we don't get sick of each other (ha!) that we stay safe and don't get overwhelmed by miss-fulness.

Here we go...

p.s. Becky, that doesn't count so don't hate me!!!

Save the Drama for your Mama

Aaahhh...salaam and good evening to you worthy friend. Please, come closer...ah, oh too close, a little to close...there, welcome to....(fill in the blank)

The last post was, admittedly a bit dramatic, so here is some lightheartedness to even the playing field. (not sure if that analogy works here or not).

enjoy!

Make a new plan, Stan

Per Wikipedia:

The five stages of grief are:
1-Denial
2-Anger
3-Bargaining
4-Depression
5-Acceptance


I would say I'm finally at stage 5 although I do take the occasional trip back to 2 and 4 every now and then. That said I'm moving on to the planning stage. Planning what needs to be done before he leaves, planning what I'm going to do while he's gone, planning ways to make things...ok. Here's what I've got so far....


Projects to do:
painting
practice french
listen to the new Amy Grant CD non-stop (better do it while Trevs gone! ;)
photography
miscellaneous house projects


People to visit:

Becky and Ellen are a coming round the mountain when they come
Hopefully--any word yet?--Jenn and Ella are coming for a visit near our birthdays
Perhaps a trip to VA for Easter--yes Mom I'll call you about that soon...
And LOTS of play dates, and "party at my house" get togethers...oh I'll be needing my girls...
I'll also be spending lots of time with my sweet, sweet boy

Doesn't sound that bad, does it?*



*yes, i'm working on convincing myself too.

Bird's the Word

Sometimes you do whatever it takes to cheer you up. And today, my friends, that is a dancing bird.

Florida

Last week we headed down to Florida for Rye's first visit. Thankfully we found a really cheap flight on Allegiant so the trip was 4 hours instead of 10. Not bad. I was a bit nervous about flying with Rye because I always had issues with my ears popping when i was little but he did great! Only a little bit of crying on the descent on the way there and he slept through the entire flight on the way back. Thank you Lord! We did have a bout of crying on the way back, but it was before we took off...at 6:50 in the morning after having been up since 4:30am so i really coulnd't blame him for that...though I doubt our fellow passengers were as forgiving. oh well.

Although our trip didn't go as planned... we still managed to have some fun and accomplish our main goal, which was to spend time with family. Here are some pics from the trip.

Trev's brother Jon and his wife Adrian


Trev's sister's husband Rich and our neice Autumn



Trev's mom and Rye



Our nephew Caleb



Our neice Sammy






Trev's Dad...reading, i mean sleeping, i mean reading....

We did actually make it to the beach for about 15 minutes (not including the hour car ride). Rye hated it! Of course it was so much bright and sunnier than Chattanooga....i think it's been overcast since he was born so he's never seen so much sun! He refused to open his eyes the whole time we were in the sun, and we did have him under an umbrella too. Oh well. This is what he thought of the beach....

Oh well. We finally gave up (after 3 minutes at the beach) and headed back to the car. We saw a pier under a bridge and stopped to take a few more pictures since it was shaded. That went over much better....

The rest of the week (when not sick) was spent hanging out with the fam. Here are a couple more shots...

This is Trevor's Aunt Joyce and his cousin's son Chase....no idea what that relation is to Rye.

LOTS of snuggle time with Grandmommy!

Overall it was a great time, just wish we could have avoided the funk and had more 'quality' time. Oh well, guess we'll have to go back soon!

12 days til 48 days

Well. It happened. We were praying and hoping it wouldn't but it did.*

*this first line actually applies to 3 things in my life right now so please, allow me to explain.

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# 1. The stomach flu. In the middle of our vacation. Enough said.

# 2. A bad head cold. Piggy-backing the stomach flu. In the middle of our vacation. And that's not even the worst of it.

#3. First day back at work we find out that Trevor has to go to Japan for 2 months. And he's leaving in 12 days. 2 months. In Japan. In 12 days.

I've been trying to decide if I was going to allow this post to head down the steep slope of self-pity and gruesome complaining. Honestly I'm not ready yet to make it positive and upbeat. I'd like to surprise you all with my optimism and trust that God will work this for the best but honestly, I'm just not feeling it yet. I know it in my head but my heart is just really, really sad. So, I'll just leave it at that for now.

That and a sweet picture of Trevor and Rye at the beach. More on that subject to come.

Rye: Take 4

Why 4 months is the best age so far:
1. Rye is only getting up (usually) 1 time a night. So we still get our special sleepy snuggle time but we also get some good sleep.
2. More mobility! Not only can he control his head like a champ, Rye can also sit up with assistance, roll to his side and back, maneuver his way all around his bed and stand for up to 12 seconds between breaks.
3. As Aunt Katie called it... his personality is really coming out. He usually wakes me up with a song in the morning...no words yet but definite volume and inflection. He gets super excited to see Mom and Dad, and he's developing his skills as an entertainer. He giggles, laughs, yells, sighs, oohs and ahhs and makes, hands down, the silliest faces. Ever. Case in point:

In short, We LOVE this age. Thank you Lord for blessing us with such a silly, sweet tempered and happy baby.