Adoption-moon

So you know how people go on a honeymoon after they get married?  And then a few years later, they go on another trip before they start trying for a family?  They call that trip a baby-moon.

Well, we're adopting so we're calling it our "adoption-moon"!  We leave today (Saturday) for 2 weeks to Europe.  We've wanted to go for so long and have found pretty inexpensive ways to go.  (Hostels, friends letting us stay with them, free activities, etc.)

"But you're adopting?  Shouldn't you be saving all of your pennies?!" you ask?  Yes, we are adopting, and while that is a big financial step, we wanted to take one last big trip just the two of us.  We both work hard for our money.  Like I said, we've wanted to do this a long time, and not to be redundant about it go  check out paragraph 2 above.  :)  We're still saving for our adoption and being VERY responsible. 

We're going to make our "holiday" a game for our family and friends!  We're going to post pictures and clues on our Facebook pages of where we are.  The first person to correctly guess our location will win a souvenir from that spot!  You can only win once though so other people get a chance for a gift.  If there aren't  a lot of players, then we'll consider letting people win a 2nd time....or just quit altogether and buy souvenirs for ourselves!

We'll be back in 2 weeks, so be sure to catch up with us then!

Surprise!

There were a series of events that led up to a surprise that Butch had planned for me.  You see, he was very sneaky and I had no clue!  I'm usually on top of things!

First of all, I came across a picture on his phone of my wedding ring set.  I don't remember looking at it, but Butch said that I asked him why he had a picture of my rings on his phone to which he lied about practicing taking pics with the flash on his camera or something to that effect.  Blah, blah, blah, it's a minute detail.

Second, Butch gets money from his employer annually to help him pay for his fire gear when he needs to replace it.  He told me that he had ordered new fire boots & gloves and that they were coming in the mail.  He said that he would have to sign for them once they came, but that he could be the ONLY one to do so.  I thought it was a little weird but didn't question it. 

Third, my mom and dad are going on vacation and asked for all of their daughters' ring sizes.  They usually buy us something when they travel, so I gave my ring size to my mom not thinking anything of it.

At this point, Sherlock Holmes should have been beating me over the head telling me to pay attention to the details!  However, I've been consumed with planning our "holiday" vacation that I had no clue that Butch was up to something on his own!

We were leaving to go run errands when Butch asked me a weird question: "Are you going to brush your teeth before we go?"  I replied no because I had already done so.  I just thought he was trying to tell me something nicely like my breath needed refreshing or something!  He went back to the bedroom to brush his teeth and a minute later I followed him to put my shoes on.  I turned around to see him staring at me through the crack in the open door to which I laughed and told him not to be creepy.

That's when I looked at my dresser and saw this box:

I, in a state of shock, yelled at him "what's that?"  He started laughing jumped out from behind the door.  I actually grabbed the box and ran into the bathroom because of the better lighting and tore it open.

He got me an anniversary band to go with my wedding set!  What a thoughtful husband!

I didn't think I would ever get one, but I guess he wanted to show me that I'm the perfect wife and that he's never had a better 8 years in his whole life!  Or, he's just being a sweet guy.  Butch isn't a jewelry buying kind of guy, so it was a shock to me that he put the effort & money in to buying me this gift.

Here it is on the bottom of my ring set.  He had my mom in on the surprise because he wanted to make sure that he got the right size.  I called her up laughing telling her that she was a very sneaky woman!

Butch was supposed to give me the ring on our vacation, but he pulled a Chris Pfeifer and had to give it to me as soon as he got it.  (If you don't know Chris & Julie Pfeifer's engagement story, then sorry, you won't understand that reference.)

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy right now.  What woman doesn't love to be surprised with some special jewelry?!

Lake Champion YoungLife Camp July 2011

Last week, I had the pleasure of being a leader at the YoungLife camp in Lake Champion, NY.  

Now, I need to preface this statement that I originally had a hard time deciding to go.  Asher was getting surgery and needed someone to care for him 24 hours per day.  Butch REALLY wanted to go to camp because summer camp is where he can truly be a kid!  However, our YoungLife area directors really needed another female leader to go more than they needed another male leader.  So, Butch got to stay home with Asher and I went to camp!

I'm so happy I got to go!  The camp offered so many fun things for the kids to go.  It's literally a resort for kids.  They had the blob.

A ropes course that I was too scared to try.  Why do people think those things are fun?!

A zip line that's 800 feet long and ends in the water.  I did this one!  Soooo fun!

Other activities include a gym with basketball, volleyball, frisbee golf, rock wall, pool hall, mountain bike course, 70 foot 3 person giant swing, water sports like canoeing/kayaking, tubing & wakeboarding, paddle boating, an in-ground pool & hot tub.  It was funny watching the kids run full-steam in the beginning of the week to do all of the activities multiple times throughout the day.  However, by the end of the week, they were more tired and seemed to lay out in the sun more or hang out with friends in the shade.

Besides the awesome activities, I really loved the girls I was with!  Here's a picture of the entire Easton group of girls.  I had only 11 of them, but they were awesome! 

I had the privilege of counseling girls on their decision for Christ, encouraging girls who already have a relationship with Him, and just spending time with all of them was a blast!  Two girls from my cabin decided to start a relationship with God!  Praise the Lord!   

I also got to spend lots of time with our niece Kaitlyn.  She flew all the way from Georgia to Maryland in order to go to camp with us!  She's such a brave girl because she didn't know anyone, and by the end of camp she had made some friends.  It was so much fun getting to hang out with her because we don't get to see her on a regular basis.  

All I  can say is, I'm so glad I went.  I recognize a pattern in my life that when God wants me to do something, and I'm not exactly excited to do it, that I'm going to end up loving the experience and being grateful for it.  Will I go again?  Sure!  I'm up for it, but we'll have to see if we'll have a child next year to take into consideration.  :) 

Wolfgang Raburn

For the past 3 months, I've been married to a man named Wolfgang Raburn....at least in my head that's what Butch's name has been!

Here he is cheesing it for the camera while on his way to a wedding.  I have no idea where he got that bow tie!  

You see, he's been growing out a mustache to my utter dismay.  I absolutely HATE facial hair....it grosses me out and scratches my face.

I kept waiting for him to bust out in song from Fiddler on the Roof: 

"If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man."

I must say, I was disappointed that Butch never sang it!  

He grew a mustache for a reason though.  My man has purpose!  Butch, along with a group of his friends, are competing in the August Warrior Dash in North Carolina.  As a display of their manhood and testosterone (their words not mine), they all decided to grow out facial hair without trimming and shaping it and without any consultation whatsoever with their wives.  It's an understatement to say that we've all been unhappy about their hair bonding experience!  I mean, he knows my absolute rejection and disgust of facial hair, but he soldiered through my nagging complaints to be one of the "guys".

He was so pleased that he could twirl the ends....ewww!  

Well, I finally got Butch to shave his mustache off!  Praise the Lord!  I've tried everything under the sun to convince him from "I hate it",  to "it scratches my face", to "there's food stuck in there"!    

These are the words that got through to him: 

"We're leaving on a 2 week vacation to somewhere spectacular, and I don't want your mustache ruining our pictures!"

He knows that we'll be looking at those pictures for a very long time!  So, he let our niece Kaitlyn and me shave it off!  He looks so happy here doesn't he?!

Now, Butch looks younger and as if he's lost weight.  It's funny what facial hair can do to a guy's appearance!

Here's a link to the World Beard and Moustache Championship.  I am impressed with what some men are able to do with their facial hair but also have to question their motivation......WHY?  Why walk around with a carriage drawn by horses designed in your beard?

I don't get it....but at least I don't have to deal with Butch's curled mustache tips or a man by the name of Wolfgang anymore!

Boys Make Things Go BOOM!

Boys like blowing things up....they make things go boom!  And the 4th of July is just another reason to encourage them to make "bombs".  As my nephew Seth kept saying, "they blowed it up!"

Here they're prepping the rocket inside of the plastic coffee container.

Run!

The kiddos loved the sight and the noise!  As soon as it was safe, we let them run out there!  They just had to see the destruction for themselves!

Here's a video of it:

Besides the boys showing off their pryo skills (they literally were asking each other what can we blow up next?  What can we put in the bomb?!), the family had a wonderful time together.  My Uncle Larry, Aunt Karen (mom's sister), and Gooddaddy were in town for the holiday.  

We had a cook-out, but not the hamburger & hotdog kind.  We had a low-country boil.  Yum!  I'm salivating again.

For those of you who have never eaten this, you're missing out!  It's a deep Southern recipe also known as Frogmore Stew.  You boil potatoes, sweet corn, shrimp, carrots, and old bay together in those large, propane pots outdoors.  It's divine!  I can get the recipe if you'd like.

There is a family tradition that whenever we all get together, we have to make and eat homemade banana ice cream!  Well, Gooddaddy didn't bring ice cream freezer, so I dug up the family recipe and made it in our ice cream maker. 

Well, the ice cream was a success!  I guess you could say I "blew it up" too!  Maybe I'll change Emeril Lagasse's saying from "bam" to "BOOM"!

I hope your 4th was just as fun!

Our Poor Guy

Our poor guy had to have surgery this week because he tore his ACL in his back left leg.  We don't know how he did this, but we think it happened while we took him dock jumping.  Asher loves the water!  Especially when he can jump in it! 

About a month ago we took him dock jumping at our local state park.  At one point, he got really excited and was trying to run and jump from the loading ramp up on to the dock where I was.  The distance was too high, and he kind of knocked into the wood.  He yelped and started to limp a little bit. 

From then on, we monitored him as he would never put weight on that leg.  We finally decided to take him to the vet last week because poor guy wasn't getting any better.

Our awesome vet, Dr. C, took an x-ray: 

Yup.  I can't tell you what we're looking at exactly, but he said that the bright white color where the bones meet isn't good.  It's bad, real bad.  It meant that the muscles around the bones were swollen and torn.  :(

So, we had to schedule a surgery date as soon as possible.  The longer we waited the higher chance he had of developing arthritis in his joint.  What made the situation even more depressing was that we found this out 2 days after we booked our non-refundable vacation tickets.  I'm not saying where we're going yet because it's a fun surprise that we're going to make into a game, but it's awesome!

Back to poor Asher.  This is the vet's picture of what was going to be done to fix his ACL:

The pictures to the left show the injury, while the picture on the right shows how the vet fixed his injury.  I can't explain any of it to you because it makes me cringe just thinking about it!

Here's poor guy after the surgery:

Pitiful!  

I didn't want to add the close-up of his incision in case anyone out there is squeamish, but it's a nice clean line with staples.  No worries, he's on plenty of pain meds to see him through his recovery time.  The thing that scared me the most when I first saw him was his shaved side!  We have him laying on an old twin mattress that we have.  Friends, don't worry!  If you come to stay at our house you won't be sleeping on this mattress!

The trouble that we're coming up against now is tricking him in to taking his medicine.  He's on like 6 different meds, and he's suspicious now of everything we give him to eat.  He has to sniff it out.  I think it's funny that people beg for pain pills, but dogs hate them!  Right now, we're hollowing out banana pieces, stuffing the pill in the piece, and covering it up with peanut butter.  That way he swallows the whole thing and can't smell it. 

Asher is on bed rest for the next 2 weeks.  He can get up to use the bathroom but that's it!  We have to help him walk by placing a towel under his belly and using it like a sling.  We pick up the towel to take pressure off of his leg.  We're old pros now! 

After the 2 weeks, he gets his staples removed and can start walking around more.  He will then have to have some physical therapy at home which the vet will teach us how to do.  The total recovery time is about 2 months.

Thank goodness he got the surgery during the summer while I was off to help take care of him!  He looks so pitiful with his half-shaved bottom though!

I hope it doesn't lower his self-esteem!  :)