Happy Birthday Logan!

Last week was Logan's 30th birthday! I am a little late posting and overall lacking in my posts all together! But I wanted to shout out to the best husband in the world and tell him Happy Birthday!

The two of us spent a couple nights in Branson sans Liam. It was my first night ever away from our little guy, but we had a great time!

Then on Logan's birthday, Liam and my mom and I surprised him at the clinic with a chess cake. Liam stole the show and everyone was impressed with his animal naming skills!

On his birthday night, Logan and I went to Ocean Zen, one of the best restaurants in Springfield. I am afraid it was nowhere near the surprise Logan cooked up for me on my birthday, but it was great to spend time together!

Love you, Baby!

House Shopping

We've been back over two months, and have yet to put an offer on a house. It isn't that there are so few choices, in fact, there are so many choices, it has been difficult getting around to see them all and make a decision.

We didn't really narrow our search down to one specific location, either. Basically, I just want to be within 10-15 minutes of the hospital in case I have to rush in there late some night. We're staying with Julie's parents for the time being, and they live less than 10 minutes from the hospital, so that hasn't been a problem.

However, as gracious as they are, we can't count on living with them forever!! So the search continues. Hopefully we'll be ready to make an offer soon. It will be nice to finally feel "planted" again, after over a year of living nomadically...

We stayed in a small cottage in Morgantown, WV, along with 2 other couples and their children (when they say "cozy" they mean small) while we took the Tropical Medicine course offered there.

We stayed in an apartment above the daycare at St. Francis hospital in Wichita. It really took us back to our college days and reminded us of dorm living. Except our neighbors were cool International Fellows. Oh yeah, and a wonderful nun.

Then we stayed in an apartment a short hike from the hospital in rural Kenya. Plenty of room, a bit industrial. But you couldn't drink the water, and there were plenty of exotic bugs that may spread things like malaria, sleeping sickness, river blindness, kala azar, etc. Thankfully, many of these diseases were rare there, but the bugs were not. The Kenyan version of Raid is called "Doom". And I know Julie was the harbinger of Doom to many of the pests that visited our apartment.

Buying a house now, after living like we did for over a year, and realizing how little we really need, has been a lesson for us. A lesson in humility, and priority, and responsibility. It isn't the size of the house, or the number of bedrooms or bathrooms or garages, it is the people inside of it. No matter the size, we want the house we buy to be God's house, because it all ultimately belongs to Him! He is the owner of everything, and he just lets us borrow the keys. We want to be the best stewards of our house that we can be, and to be a blessing to all who cross our threshold. Maybe you've moved recently, too, or maybe you've lived in your house a long time; either way, hopefully you can say the same thing.

Southern Accents

A couple of weeks ago, Liam had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time getting to know family on my mom's (Mimi) side of the family. She is from a small town in Mississippi, and one of her sisters still lives there, Aunt Bobbie, who is the eldest sibling.

She, and most of the family, had not seen Liam since last summer, when he was about 3 1/2 months old! This is baby Liam last summer with Gordon (Aunt Bobbie's son) and his two boys, Justin and Zach.

This year Liam had a blast with the boys taking their hats, playing games on their iphones, and mastering the art of a manly high five.

He also was able to meet Gabby, Gordon's niece.

Liam took to her immediately and followed her everywhere she went saying "Dabby!" and constantly tried to kiss her!

Now, it should go without saying, but I will say it anyways. My Southern relatives, of course, have thick Southern accents. Usually we communicate very clearly and easily overlook small differences like for them, you eat dinner at noon and then supper in the evening. No big deal. But certain words come out sounding quite a bit different when you add that Mississippi drawl to them.

A funny thing happened last summer when we were visiting Aunt Bobbie. We were eating "supper" and Gary, her other son, called from Baton Rouge. The conversation went a little like this:

Gary: Hey, whatcha'll doin'?
Aunt Bobbie: Aww, just sittin' here havin' supper with Kathy and Julie and Liam.
Gary: LIAM? You mean like on a tree?

Liam does sound like LIMB when said in a Southern accent, so from then on he was known as "Branch." Even though last summer he was no bigger than a twig! Gary taught Liam to say "branch" so much that Liam thinks Gary's name is Branch!

In fact, Liam has pretty much equated Branch with any "good ole boy" looking guy wearing a hat. He points and says "Branch!" in the stores and even to the washing machine repairman that came last week!

I have a feeling this nickname will last for many years between Liam and Gary!

Stay tuned for more adventures with Liam down South...

Pudding Paint

The weather has just been SOOOOOOOOO HOT lately! Kids can stand heat like this much better than adults. But unfortunately Liam is not old enough to just send outside by himself! So, we have to get creative with indoor activities!

Today was pudding painting!

Mimi set Liam up in her kitchen with a spatula and some chocolate pudding and let him "paint."

He worked very hard to spread the pudding as far as he could reach! He wasn't too sure about how it felt all over his hands and arms. He kept saying "lotion!"

The clean-up probably took longer than the playtime, but to Liam everything is playtime - even cleaning up! Hopefully the weather will cool off soon so he can get some long hours of outside time. But for now, we settle for outside in the early morning and late evening, and creative indoor time in between!