A new baby and a naked chef.

I will start this blog entry by saluting our friends DeDe and Jamil for creating such a beautiful baby boy! His name is Gabriel and he will be two weeks old on Tuesday. We have visited the little guy several times; he is just perfect and will be a wonderful addition to our circle of friends. Congratulations!

Our family adventures haven't been quite as exciting as their's over the last few weeks, but there are a few events worth mentioning.

First of all, I have been accused of playing 'Naked Chef ' over and over this past week due to a second degree burn about 1 1/2 inches below my belly button. I had an encounter with boiling water splashing out of a pan on the stove, not something I would EVER recommend, and ended up melting my skin off in a nasty burn about the size of a silver dollar. The wound care nurse takes good care of me at work (a definate perk to being in the healthcare field) and I am well on my way to recovery. However, I do feel obligated to clarify that I was, in fact, fully clothed!! Boiling water can apparently soak right through a tank top and burn you as badly as it wants! Everyone has had fun teasing me about it though, and since that particular joke is really the only way to find any humor in the situation, I have allowed them! I would post a picture, but I doubt y'all want to see it.

We enjoyed 'Military Night' at the Charleston Battery soccer game last weekend, as well. I don't know anything about the sport, but I am always up for a night out, especially when it involves free admission! There was a military display at the game and I climbed inside the miniature C-17 for a fun photo. Andy declined to join in on the "fun"......I chalked that up to his loss =)

Thanks for checking in on us and have a GREAT week!

Life isn't always easy

In deciding whether or not to write this blog, I had many thoughts go through my mind. They ranged from "not everyone wants to hear about your heartaches" and "do you really want to be that personal?" to "sharing is often very therapeutic" and "you know you want to get this off your chest, so just go ahead". Finally, I settled on the latter of the thoughts, knowing somewhere deep in my soul that I needed to go ahead and type the blog that was already written on my heart. So here goes nothing...

The last few weeks have been a little tough for us. Our emotions have ranged from elation for the birth of our friend's son (http://www.babyblogs.com/babymusa/our-baby-announcement) to complete heartache and self-pity as we reflected on our own loss.

This week marks the date that we would have been welcoming our own angel, had it not been for our miscarriage in March. That moment is one that I will never be able to erase from my mind. I left work and smiled at my co-workers casually adding, "wish me luck!" Had I known how the next few hours would go, I would have asked for much more than luck. We were very excited to have our ultrasound (we were 12 weeks pregnant and felt like we had been waiting fooorever), but the day didn't bring the joy that we had expected. It felt more like being punched in the stomach or having your heart ripped out, actually. The heartbeat was gone and the baby that we had already began loving and planning for was suddenly no longer a reality.

We grieved our loss on our own schedules and our hearts have felt whole and healed for quite some time now. However, looking at the calendar and seeing September 24th come closer and closer re-opened the floodgates of hurt. Suddenly, the peace that had filled my heart was gone. I again felt lonely. I again felt sad. I again felt the urge to question "why?". However, Andy and I leaned on one another, like we had done so many times through the early stages of this, and peace slowly filled that void in my heart again.

We know that God has a plan for us. In fact, He tells us that loud and clear in Jeremiah 29:11 'For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope'. How can you argue with that?!

Fall in the south

Fall is upon us, which means FOOTBALL!! Saturday we were guests at a casual get together to celebrate "all things Americana" to welcome home our friend Lance, who has been deployed for the last four months. We enjoyed football, burgers on the grill, and a wide variety of beer to help Lance adjust to life back in the states. As you can see, the guests could not agree on one (or even two games) to watch, so 2 reserve TV's were brought in to settle any brewing fist fights. I decided that this is what happens when you are in a military social group because everyone is from different parts of the country. If we had been at the same sort of party back home there would have been no discussion....the mighty Boilermakers would have been on the BIG screen, no questions asked! However, to keep everyone happy, we resorted to 3 television screens and one game on picture-in-picture. The Purdue game was even on! It was a little slice of heaven, actually.

When I think of the fall seasons of my past, I definately think of football, tailgating, and the resurrection of my jeans and sweaters. By mid-September back in the mid west, you would never put a day at the beach in the same weekend as a football party, but this is not the case in the south! My Sunday afternoon was spent resting in my beach chair while looking outward at this (and getting a slight sunburn due to my sub-par sunscreen application).

With yet another weekend of play behind us, we are back to work. Andy began his last SOLL II upgrage (to left seat) today and has already begun to study hard. Even though he will have to study and fly regularly, it will keep him home for two and half months straight, which is a real treat in our life.

The traveling couple...

All posts won't be this long, but we have a lot to share!!

We have been on a whirlwind the last week and a half. We have slept in 4 different cities, been on 5 different airplanes, and made two 5 hour dives. We began by traveling to Denver for the wedding for our friends, George and Stephanie. What a great time we had! Andy was a groomsman and we got to spend time with his parents, as well as with some of his high school friends.

Andy cut loose and enertained us all (and himself, I am sure) by spending the majority of the night on the dance floor. Staying true to my dancing roots, I joined in on the fun! What fun is a wedding reception when it is not spent on the dance floor?!

Being the southern gentelman that he is, Andy was sure to rub my aching feet at the end of the night. I am not sure a man can ever understand the pain that is caused from a night of walking and dancing on those "I just had to get them" high heels! Awww, how sweet he is to me!

Our Denver trip was cut a day short for the sad news that my Grandpa Jordan had passed away back in Indiana. We were able to change our flights (thanks to my mother-in-law) and get back to Indiana for some much needed time with my family. Despite the sad occasion, we got to spend some quality time with my family. Andy was even introduced to farm work by helping my dad "cut" (you farm friends will know what that means!) a pen full of pigs. The confusion started with Dad's first instruction of "Okay, sort the boars from the gilts". That makes perfect sense to me, but to my city-bred husband, he knew he was in trouble! However, he was a good sport and made it through without any lasting scars! haha. Maybe now he can understand how I spent so many of my weekends growing up. Below is a picture of the sons-in-law after their bonding experience with Dad and the pigs =) It makes me smile just to think about it!

Our travels were interrupted by a night in our own bed and a day of work, and then we were back on the road to Atlanta for a continuing education conference I had signed up for long before I knew that we would have to re-route through Indiana on our way home from the wedding. I sat in class for 2 1/2 days and Andy watched TV in the hotel room, claiming the entire time that he was a "Hurricane Hannah refugee"! I didn't have the heart to tell him she was only considered a tropical storm!

However, we did squeeze in a Braves game and enjoyed some baseball and beer, which was a nice ending to our whirlwind travels of the past 2 weeks. It feels good to be home and we don't plan on traveling anywhere anytime soon.....well, until next month, that is!