Special K

The Church is learning about Adam's special talents, including his rapper counter ego, Special K.

Max

Birthday Review

Here is a slideshow of my birthday.
Included are:
My Birthday Apple Pie that I baked for myself
Nick and Kara
Nick
Nick and Adam
Nick and Max
Nick and Me
(Nick wanted to be featured on the blog)
Me wearing Max in the sling
Me and Max on my actual birthday



Coming up tomorrow (hopefully providing upload speeds are good):
More Max than you would ever want to see in one post
Adam as "Special K" for VBS this week

Birthday Review

Birthday Surprises!
I had a wonderful birthday :)

Adam and I went on a date and saw Mama Mia! I "heart" ABBA and Colin Firth, so it was a great match.

I also got a pair of diamond earrings that Max can't pull on (he's already started yanking on my necklaces!)

Max's gift to me is 6 months of Netflix. I've not seen many movies over the past 5 years (except for Adam's Oscar winners) so I've got a lot of Romantic Comedies to catch up on.

Then yesterday Nick and Kara showed up at the door! I was so surprised. They stayed until today and then headed back to Ohio. We had a great time with them and Max just loved them. We had lunch at Taco John's (hurray for Potato Oles - Kerry and Tina, thank you) and we walked through the shops on the town square, played the Wii, and had dinner on Peoria's riverfront at Old Chicago Pizza (best pizza I've had in a long time).
(I'll post pictures once they email them to me.)

Church Goings
Adam preached another sermon today (his third one). It's starting to feel like home here, instead of just vacation.

Speaking of vacation, Vacation Bible School started this evening. It's so fun to watch all the adults interact with the kids. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces tonight amongst the kids, so pray that they would learn the Truth.

Faces are becoming familiar and friendly, I've got my pew spot all marked out, I'm feeling pretty good. It's just really fun to watch my husband up there after so much waiting.

A lot of blog catching up to do...

This time last year I was getting ready for my Harry Potter themed birthday party. Can you believe it?

In the past week I've done a lot of things I never thought I would see myself do.... Here's my top three.

Walk next door to church.... Living in the parsonage has it's perks and that is one of them. I get to leave 5 minutes before Sunday school starts and still have time to chat it up in the entryway.

Clean freshly dug up carrots while watching squirrels play in the tree. Yup I can't say I thought I would ever do that.... But look how good they look! They smelled so great, the carrots and the dirt, then when the carrots were clean they still smelled so fresh I had to eat one (and also wake up Adam with a carrot in my mouth saying, "What's up doc?") Tonight we are having a roast (compliments of one of the church members that split a cow with some family member and brought us quite a bit of beef for our freezer) with potatoes and FRESH carrots. I can't wait.


Go to a Civil War festival. Being Lincoln's birthday and all, the town of Washington had a celebration on the Town Square where they had Civil War actors put on a little day show. There was an amputation demonstration (which we sadly missed) and Civil War dancing (which we gladly saw) and Lemonade with Lincoln (Adam was really sad we didn't go to that one).


More importantly

Heidi and Mary Beth headed up throwing a shower for Max at the church yesteday and it was so much fun. I love when people are good with themes and they certainly were! There were stars and rocketships everywhere. I was a little overwhelmed by the end at all the generosity and people there, but I loved it.


Most importantly

Adam has now preached two Sundays and I think it's been great so far (I am partial though). One of the teenagers in the audience yesterday must of thought differently because he was asleep during the sermon. Hilarious! I remember being a teenager and it being so hard to sit and listen to anyone for a certain length of time. But come on! Adam's funny and smart! Listen up kid!

Two Months of Max (I know a little late)

I can't believe Max has been around for two months, it seems like he's been in our family forever.

He's learning so much everyday. He loves to just watch people and observe what's going on. We are learning a lot together.

He loves to smile and make noises already. He also waits for you to pay attention to him. He also loves the older ladies at church, and they love to give him attention too.

He's also started to imitate things. I always play with him after changing his diaper while he's still laying on the changing table. I make noises at him and faces, most the time he just thinks I'm funny and smiles and talks at me. The other day I kept sticking my tongue out at him and then he would do the same back to me. I thought it was a fluke, but he has done it for several days now. Then last night I was making kissy noises at him and he kept smacking his lips together and then he did it again this morning when I tried it again. He's so smart!

He's starting to enjoy playing with toys (or at least watching them and talking to them). He doesn't have the motor skills yet to grab at things but if you put his little rings in his hands he will try to put them in his mouth (or hit himself in the face at the very least and act surprised).

Last night he slept 6.5 hours, ate, slept 3.5 hours, ate, and then slept 4 more hours. Adam got up the first feeding and fed him a bottle so I got 9 hours of sleep in a row! I was excited and then this morning I woke up on my own and got lots of things done before he finally woke up at 11.

A video of Max taken a little over a week ago while he was chatting it up to his friends hanging over his pack n play.

Here are just a few pictures...

We are getting settled and into a routine around here. Not that we always need to have a routine, but I like to have the impression of one to try and live up to.

Today Heidi and her daughter Elin took Max and I into Peoria to prove to me that I don't live in the middle of nowhere. But I'm a tough sell because I am currently living next to cornfields.

Thanks Heidi! I feel much better about getting in and around Peoria now. It's good to know there is a Starbucks and also a Hobby Lobby within a short drive.

Yesterday Max and I walked from the parsonage to the Town Square (I wondered how long it would take) and I think tomorrow we will walk back in because now I know where the post office is.

We're getting used to small town life- We've made the local paper two weeks in a row with our arrival. Yeah, it's that small.

Here are a few pics taken recently.


The view from the church. A far cry from Dallas, that's for sure.


We have been warmly (very warmly) welcomed.


Max loves his new home.


But still misses Texas and still feels a little upside down with all the moving and traveling we've done recently.

Illini

Apology: There are no pictures because I keep forgetting to bring my camera over to the church. Promised picture post to come later.

We found out on Thursday that our stuff would arrive in Illinois on Friday (even though it was a holiday) so we packed up the car and Adam's parent's minivan and trucked it over here early on Friday (for those of you who are trying to plan travel here sometime, it was 6.5 hours from Columbus and there was no traffic, even on the holiday). We were somewhere in Indiana when we got the call that our stuff would be later that afternoon (6-8pm instead of 4pm) and then were here in Washington (Adam and his dad were getting our washer and drier to be exact) when we found out we wouldn't be receiving our stuff until Saturday morning. So we trucked it to the Sleep Inn which Adam has now become a frequenter of and settled in for the night with Monacle's Pizza (YUM!)

Our stuff was here right on time Saturday morning and the movers (and Adam and Dad) got it in off the truck in two hours. A few families showed up to help get as much in order as possible (I still can't believe how much kitchen stuff I own and how I hid it all in that tiny apartment is beyond me) and by the end of Saturday we at least had beds up and a livable amount of stuff unpacked.

Sunday we went to the younger of the two Sunday School Classes and then to service. We enjoyed having a Sunday to take it all in and enjoy a service without the pressure of doing it (well Adam at least. It was really telling on how things run and just how logistically things go around here.

We were invited out to lunch with a couple of the other families and then recouped before Sunday night Bible study which was also nice to observe.

Things are great here. The parsonage (where we are temporarily living) is so convenient and we appreciate all the work the church did to it before we arrived. Our arrival and welcome has exceeded our expectations and prayers for smoothness, so far anyway.

Adam's first official day in the office is tomorrow, but we've been spending all afternoon unpacking the boxes of books in his office and getting those arranged for him.

Max has been doing so well with all the constant change. He sleeps so well but is becoming more and more interested in what's going on around him, that day naps are getting a little harder. But last night even he (and Adam too) slept through major storms that whipped through the area. It was fun for me to get up and watch the lightening, thunder, and rain all on my own though. He also smiles so much now when he's just waken up or just eaten (the happiest times for him). He especially has lots of smiles for his momma. :)