Oh, and as promised in the last post, here are a few pictures of our trip to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
15 months!
Happy 15 month birthday Ethan. We're so proud of you that you have been doing so well with your heart as well as being on track developmentally. Thank You Lord for another blessed month with our sweet son.
Oh, and as promised in the last post, here are a few pictures of our trip to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia!
Oh, and as promised in the last post, here are a few pictures of our trip to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Long Overdue Update
Sorry for not posting sooner about our fun weekend getaway in Columbia. We've been busy and sick since we got back and so time just got away from us. We certainly did have a good time while we were away though! This blog entry will get way too long (trust me - this is my 3rd revision!) if I go into all the details of the trip so I will just summarize as best as I can!
Ok, my first two attempts at describing our weekend ended up being pages long so I'm going for the bullet format this time to make it as short as I can (which is difficult for a detail-oriented person like me)!
- We left at 8am Friday with our minivan loaded down with toys, Pack & Play, snacks, luggage, 2 laptops (Dan's work and personal ones) and more
- Arrived in Columbia around 11 (took an hour longer than planned because Ethan and Dan needed stretch breaks)
- Had lunch in the school cafeteria with Jenny and got to meet a lot of her friends and see the campus
- Checked into the hotel (great deal we got on priceline.com - 2 nights for price of one at Courtyard Marriott
- Dan spent a few hours working on his resume (in case you forgot - he's got terrible benefits at his current employer and doesn't enjoy the job anyway so he's been looking for something better for over a year now) because he received a call from a recruiter, saying they liked his resume and there's a company that wanted to interview him on Monday, 10/27!
- We had dinner Friday night with another heart family - Scott, Rebecca & Wyatt Butcher (Angel Annabelle's family! - see link to the right if you're not familiar with them). It was so great to meet them and spend some one-on-one time with them. God has really used them these last 7 months since losing their daughter to be a blessing to other heart families through their ministry of creating and giving Annabelle Baskets to other heart families in SC and beyond. Thank you Scott, Rebecca and Wyatt for taking the time to hang out with us while we were down your way!
- Went out with Jenny Friday night for dessert at this really cool little cafe downtown - Nonnah's. Poor little Ethan didn't get a nap all day but he also doesn't like to miss a minute of the action so he was a little trooper and stayed up until we got back to the hotel around 11. To our surprise, the sweets didn't affect his sleeping and he slept great that night!
- Saturday morning we made it to the zoo and had a lot of fun. I think Ethan's favorite part was getting to pet the goats and let them lick his hands! He also did surprisingly well with the Lorakeet feeding (these are very loud little birds about the size of cockatiels). But after 3 hours at the zoo, he was DONE! We bought him a rubber snake in the gift shop (his top pick - we found him chewing on it!) as his souvenir and it's now his all-time favorite toy at this time (move over Elmo!).
- After the zoo, Jenny called us to come pick her up from Wal-Mart. Her car key broke in half and she need a ride to the dealership for a replacement. Then we had a really late lunch (about 3pm) at McD's before she had to go back to school to help her hall decorate their dorm for Formal Dorm (more about that later).
- So then we headed over to see some dear friends of ours that were in our wedding 6 years ago. We got to spend about 4 hours talking and catching up with them and letting their kids play with Ethan. Thanks McConnells for letting us hang out with you - it was good to have some "down time" between all the rest of our running around that day!
- Saturday night we went back to Jenny's school (Columbia International University - CIU) to see the big presentation of Formal Dorms (an annual tradition where the female dorms team up with the male dorms to decorate all the female halls in the year's theme - this year was Children's Storybooks). It was hard to believe that all the work that was put in to transforming the halls (and some dorm rooms) was all accomplished in one day!
- Sunday morning we went to church with Jenny at her church - a very small, Brethren church of about 30 people (much different from what we're used to - a non-denominational church of about 3,000!)
- After church, Jenny followed us down the road a few miles to go find our old house - that's right! Jenny was actually born in Columbia and we lived there until she was 3. We were amazed and excited to see that our old house is for sale! We snagged one of the realtor fliers as a "souvenir" and even got to go look up a virtual tour of the inside on the realtor's website!
- Then we met one last friend for lunch before heading home. My (Julie) college roommate and her husband and 3 month old daughter live in Greenville, SC - about 1 1/2 hours away and they agreed to come meet us for lunch to catch up a bit! It was good to see them and meet their little daughter and let them meet Ethan too.
- Very uneventful drive home - Ethan and Dan slept about half the way - exhausted from the business of the weekend!
Well it still is a long blog entry but trust me, it's a lot more condensed than how it started out! Dan made it to the interview and thought it went really well. In fact, the recruiter called him the very next day and told him the hiring guy gave him the thumbs up and really liked him but had to interview a couple other folks. Yesterday, 8 days after the interview, Dan finally heard back from the company and it turns out he did not get the job. Sooo... the search continues for a new job.
As for the mention in the beginning about being sick - we're slowly recovering. I think Ethan's just got a cold - he's had a runny nose for a week now. Dan had some kind of fever/stomach bug thing over the weekend, and I've got an occassional cough but we're surviving. We took tons of pictures at the zoo and will try to post a few soon - this entry is long enough!
Ok, my first two attempts at describing our weekend ended up being pages long so I'm going for the bullet format this time to make it as short as I can (which is difficult for a detail-oriented person like me)!
- We left at 8am Friday with our minivan loaded down with toys, Pack & Play, snacks, luggage, 2 laptops (Dan's work and personal ones) and more
- Arrived in Columbia around 11 (took an hour longer than planned because Ethan and Dan needed stretch breaks)
- Had lunch in the school cafeteria with Jenny and got to meet a lot of her friends and see the campus
- Checked into the hotel (great deal we got on priceline.com - 2 nights for price of one at Courtyard Marriott
- Dan spent a few hours working on his resume (in case you forgot - he's got terrible benefits at his current employer and doesn't enjoy the job anyway so he's been looking for something better for over a year now) because he received a call from a recruiter, saying they liked his resume and there's a company that wanted to interview him on Monday, 10/27!
- We had dinner Friday night with another heart family - Scott, Rebecca & Wyatt Butcher (Angel Annabelle's family! - see link to the right if you're not familiar with them). It was so great to meet them and spend some one-on-one time with them. God has really used them these last 7 months since losing their daughter to be a blessing to other heart families through their ministry of creating and giving Annabelle Baskets to other heart families in SC and beyond. Thank you Scott, Rebecca and Wyatt for taking the time to hang out with us while we were down your way!
- Went out with Jenny Friday night for dessert at this really cool little cafe downtown - Nonnah's. Poor little Ethan didn't get a nap all day but he also doesn't like to miss a minute of the action so he was a little trooper and stayed up until we got back to the hotel around 11. To our surprise, the sweets didn't affect his sleeping and he slept great that night!
- Saturday morning we made it to the zoo and had a lot of fun. I think Ethan's favorite part was getting to pet the goats and let them lick his hands! He also did surprisingly well with the Lorakeet feeding (these are very loud little birds about the size of cockatiels). But after 3 hours at the zoo, he was DONE! We bought him a rubber snake in the gift shop (his top pick - we found him chewing on it!) as his souvenir and it's now his all-time favorite toy at this time (move over Elmo!).
- After the zoo, Jenny called us to come pick her up from Wal-Mart. Her car key broke in half and she need a ride to the dealership for a replacement. Then we had a really late lunch (about 3pm) at McD's before she had to go back to school to help her hall decorate their dorm for Formal Dorm (more about that later).
- So then we headed over to see some dear friends of ours that were in our wedding 6 years ago. We got to spend about 4 hours talking and catching up with them and letting their kids play with Ethan. Thanks McConnells for letting us hang out with you - it was good to have some "down time" between all the rest of our running around that day!
- Saturday night we went back to Jenny's school (Columbia International University - CIU) to see the big presentation of Formal Dorms (an annual tradition where the female dorms team up with the male dorms to decorate all the female halls in the year's theme - this year was Children's Storybooks). It was hard to believe that all the work that was put in to transforming the halls (and some dorm rooms) was all accomplished in one day!
- Sunday morning we went to church with Jenny at her church - a very small, Brethren church of about 30 people (much different from what we're used to - a non-denominational church of about 3,000!)
- After church, Jenny followed us down the road a few miles to go find our old house - that's right! Jenny was actually born in Columbia and we lived there until she was 3. We were amazed and excited to see that our old house is for sale! We snagged one of the realtor fliers as a "souvenir" and even got to go look up a virtual tour of the inside on the realtor's website!
- Then we met one last friend for lunch before heading home. My (Julie) college roommate and her husband and 3 month old daughter live in Greenville, SC - about 1 1/2 hours away and they agreed to come meet us for lunch to catch up a bit! It was good to see them and meet their little daughter and let them meet Ethan too.
- Very uneventful drive home - Ethan and Dan slept about half the way - exhausted from the business of the weekend!
Well it still is a long blog entry but trust me, it's a lot more condensed than how it started out! Dan made it to the interview and thought it went really well. In fact, the recruiter called him the very next day and told him the hiring guy gave him the thumbs up and really liked him but had to interview a couple other folks. Yesterday, 8 days after the interview, Dan finally heard back from the company and it turns out he did not get the job. Sooo... the search continues for a new job.
As for the mention in the beginning about being sick - we're slowly recovering. I think Ethan's just got a cold - he's had a runny nose for a week now. Dan had some kind of fever/stomach bug thing over the weekend, and I've got an occassional cough but we're surviving. We took tons of pictures at the zoo and will try to post a few soon - this entry is long enough!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Fun Weekend Planned and Ethan Update
This coming weekend, Dan, Ethan and I are planning a trip down to Columbia, SC to visit my sister (Ethan's Aunt Jenny), as well as a few other friends - including one of our heart friends that we only know through their blog. If you have been following us and our heart friends then you may have guessed it already! That's right, we're planning to meet Angel Annabelle's family - Scott, Rebecca and Wyatt! We know it will be a busy weekend but it will be a great time to get away. We haven't traveled anywhere as a family since May when we went to Myrtle Beach with my family, so we're really looking forward to getting away! Please pray for safe travel for us as we leave early Friday and return Sunday night.
And I guess since this blog was originally created to update you on Ethan's health and life, I guess I should mention that he continues to do extremely well. We don't see the cardiologist again until the end of January so life has just been pretty normal for us lately. Ethan's got 4 more teeth that he's cutting so that's been our biggest challenge lately. He is still not walking independently yet but is very close. He has given up his bottle, just using sippy cups, and has almost given up his paci too - we just use it at night now. It's hard to believe our little guy is growing up so fast - he'll be 15 months old in a few weeks (Nov. 11).
Ethan also loves electronics - remotes, phones, laptops, etc. He drives us crazy "typing" on the laptop and teaches us short cuts we never knew about. He has recently learned that my cell phone does not have a number lock so he's started using the speed dial to call various family members. So for all family reading this - now you know why you may have received calls lately from me with nobody talking on our end or hanging up quickly after the call's been made. He even managed to text a message to his Aunt Amanda, saying "Please call." I don't know how that happened - I don't do the texting thing. She called us back to make sure we were OK and we both laughed about the incident! What a smart kid - just like his Daddy!
Ok, well speaking of this kid and electronics - I better run because he keeps trying to take over the laptop as I type - pulling the screen back so I can't see what I'm typing!
And I guess since this blog was originally created to update you on Ethan's health and life, I guess I should mention that he continues to do extremely well. We don't see the cardiologist again until the end of January so life has just been pretty normal for us lately. Ethan's got 4 more teeth that he's cutting so that's been our biggest challenge lately. He is still not walking independently yet but is very close. He has given up his bottle, just using sippy cups, and has almost given up his paci too - we just use it at night now. It's hard to believe our little guy is growing up so fast - he'll be 15 months old in a few weeks (Nov. 11).
Ethan also loves electronics - remotes, phones, laptops, etc. He drives us crazy "typing" on the laptop and teaches us short cuts we never knew about. He has recently learned that my cell phone does not have a number lock so he's started using the speed dial to call various family members. So for all family reading this - now you know why you may have received calls lately from me with nobody talking on our end or hanging up quickly after the call's been made. He even managed to text a message to his Aunt Amanda, saying "Please call." I don't know how that happened - I don't do the texting thing. She called us back to make sure we were OK and we both laughed about the incident! What a smart kid - just like his Daddy!
Ok, well speaking of this kid and electronics - I better run because he keeps trying to take over the laptop as I type - pulling the screen back so I can't see what I'm typing!
Another update on Mimi
So much has happened since my last update. Ethan, Dan and I went over Friday night to spend time with my grandma and take her some dinner. Mimi (my mom) didn't get discharged until lunch time on Sunday. She's doing a little better now that she's back home, but still has a drainage tube that she should be having removed tomorrow (Thursday). My grandma left yesterday (Tuesday) and is now back home in Chattanooga, TN. Thank you to everyone who has been lifting my mom up in prayers. With her mono and then this appendectomy - her recovery is slower than normal but we're praying that this surgery will help her body to be able to allow her body to heal faster from the mono now.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Update on Mimi
Thank you to anyone out there that read my last post about my mom (Mimi). She's still hospitalized and having to work on getting up and walking around before her doc will let her leave. We were hoping and praying for a Friday discharge (today) but now they're saying it will probably be tomorrow. So please, everyone, be praying that the docs will either change their mind and let her go today or else let her go home tomorrow at the latest. Anyone who's ever stayed in a hospital knows that it's hard to get any decent amount of sleep and also the longer you're there, the more chance you have of catching some kind of illness going around the hospital.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Urgent Prayer Request for Mimi
Ethan's doing well right now, but his Mimi (Julie's mom) is not. Mimi (real name Rhonda) had sharp stomach pains all day yesterday so last night around 5pm Pop-Pop (real name Mike/Julie's dad) took her to one of the nearby satellite hospitals. They did a cat scan and determined her appendix was about to rupture. So they rushed her in an ambulance, across town to the main hospital campus (WakeMed - same campus we take Ethan for his cardiology appointments for those of you out of town folks). Around 3am they did an appendectomy surgery and during the surgery her appendix did rupture but everything was successfully removed.
Please pray for Mimi to get lots of rest today and to be able to come home by the weekend since she's got her mom (Julie's grandma/Ethan's great-grandma) in town until Tuesday from Chattanooga, TN. Also pray for Pop-Pop as he is sleep deprived today from the overnight surgery. He went home to get a short nap and change of clothes and get some work done and now he's headed back to the hospital for the day.
Oh, and in other news - Ethan's going to have another little cousin! Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brandon found out on Monday that they're having a girl! So we're super excited for them!
Please pray for Mimi to get lots of rest today and to be able to come home by the weekend since she's got her mom (Julie's grandma/Ethan's great-grandma) in town until Tuesday from Chattanooga, TN. Also pray for Pop-Pop as he is sleep deprived today from the overnight surgery. He went home to get a short nap and change of clothes and get some work done and now he's headed back to the hospital for the day.
Oh, and in other news - Ethan's going to have another little cousin! Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brandon found out on Monday that they're having a girl! So we're super excited for them!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
More Pictures and Prayer Request
Here are some more pictures that I wasn't able to put in my last post. Most of these are just random pictures I found on our camera's memory card. You'll find that this kid loves his food and makes a mess of it (what kid his age doesn't?)! Also, please be in prayer for this little guy as he's still teething - I can actually start to see where 2 of his 4 next teeth have broke through the gums but he's still feeling miserable. He was inconsolable all day yesterday - crying pretty much any time he wasn't eating or asleep. He also can't seem to get rid of this runny nose and he was also running a slight fever last night and this morning. If his fever doesn't end by tomorrow morning then I think I'll take him in to the pediatrician to make sure he doesn't have any kind of infection. Thanks for checkin in on us and keeping us in your prayers as Ethan tries to get over his fever this week.
Guilty as charged! Ethan loves to play around on the laptop, just like his Daddy! 
Ethan's other hobby (again, just like his Daddy!)
One of Ethan's favorite places to play - under his Exersaucer!
Did I mention he enjoys piano? :-)
Pop-Pop and Mimi getting some Ethan sugar!
Just chillin' after a meal
Another meal time - we're not feeding him fast enough!
Ok, finally to the peanut butter pictures!
Yum, peanut butter!
Makin' a mess!
Here you go - want some?
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